Note 30 — MILTON ABBEY
Reading edition
In connection with the glass in the windows of Milton Abbey, it may be of interest to add the tradition that John Milton “planned” his Il Penseroso at Milton, and that the following lines in the poem are supposed to have been suggested to him by the Abbey Church:
But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister’s pale, And love the high embowèd roof With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim religious light; There let the pealing organ blow, To the full voicèd quire below, In service high and anthems clear As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heav’n before mine eyes.