Note 96 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
On this occasion Milton fixed this sonnet on his door, claiming the reverence Lysander showed to the city of Euripides, and Alexander to the poet of Thebes:
Captain or colonel, or knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, If deed of honour did thee ever please, Guard them, and him within protect from harms. He can requite thee, for he knows the charms That call fame on such gentle acts as these, And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas, Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms. Lift not thy spear against the muses’ bower: The great Emathian conqueror bid spare The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower Went to the ground: and the repeated air Of sad Electra’s poet had the power To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.