Know this, O King! that if thou shalt destroy
Me, no man's enemy and who have liv'd
Obedient to the Laws, thou may'st with ease
Strike off a wise man's head, but, taught the truth
Hereafter, shalt with vain regret deplore
Thy city's loss of One, her chief support.


On the Engraver of his Portrait.1

Survey my Features--you will own it clear
That little skill has been exerted here.
My Friends, who know me not here smile to see
How ill the model and the work agree.

1 Greek lines placed by Milton beneath the engraved portrait of
himself by William Marshall in the I645 edition of his poems. The
handsome Milton disliked Marshall's picture and took revenge with
this epigram, which Marshall, ignorant of Greek, engraved beneath
the portrait.

Another Translation of the Same.2

Look on myself--you will own at once
This Copy of me, taken by a Dunce.
My Friends, who gaze and guess not whom ye see,
Laugh! Would ye think it? He intended me!