by John Milton (1608 - 1674)
For what is glory but the blaze of fame
Language: English
For what is glory but the blaze of fame, The people's praise, if always praise unmixed? And what the people but a herd confused, A miscellaneous rabble, who extol Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise? They praise and they admire they know not what, And know not whom, but as one leads the other; And what delight to be by such extolled, To live upon their tongues, and be their talk? Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise— His lot who dares be singularly good. The intelligent among them and the wise Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by John Milton (1608 - 1674), no title, appears in Paradise Regained, excerpt from Book III [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Alistair Hinton (b. 1950), "For what is glory but the blaze of fame", op. 13 no. 5h (1969-1977) [ high voice and string quintet ], from String Quintet, no. 5h [ sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-07-27
Line count: 17
Word count: 106