Cromwell/Fairfax Handout

ENGL 622

Dr. Fike

CROMWELL

He had either extinguished, or I by habit had learned to subdue, the whole host of vain hopes, fears, and passions, which infest the soul. He first acquired the government of himself, and over himself acquired the most signal victories; so that on the first day he took the field against the external enemy, he was a veteran in arms, consummately practised in the toils and exigencies of war.

• Cf. PL 12.83: "true Libertie . . . alwayes with right Reason dwels"; and 12.587: "A paradise within thee." 

Do you then, Sir, continue your course with the same unrivalled magnanimity; it sits well upon you; — to you our country owes its liberties, nor can you sustain a character at once more momentous and more august than that of the author, the guardian, and the preserver of our liberties; and hence you have not only eclipsed the achievements of all our kings, but even those which have been fabled of our heroes.

OED:

• Etymology:  < Middle French magnanimite high-mindedness (mid 13th cent. in Old French) < post-classical Latin magnanimitas liberality (mid 3rd cent. onwards; used as an honorific title in the 16th cent.) < classical Latin magnanimus (see magnanimous adj.) + -tās (see -ty suffix¹; compare -ity suffix). Compare the post-classical Latin plural magnanimitates heroic deeds (mid 12th cent., in a British source). In developed sense 3b paralleled in French (1689)....

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   1.  [Primarily in the Aristotelian sense of μεγαλοψυχία, variously translated as ‘greatness of soul’, ‘proper pride’, etc.] Well-founded high regard for oneself manifesting as generosity of spirit and equanimity in the face of trouble, etc. Also: greatness of thought or purpose; grandeur or nobility of designs, ambition, or spirit. Now rare.The meaning was sometimes less precise in medieval ethics, as the notion of μεγαλοψυχία was modified in accordance with Christian ideals, and blended with elements suggested by the etymology of the Latin word (animus being capable of the sense ‘courage’); hence ‘magnanimity’ is often classed as a subdivision of ‘fortitude’ (so Aquinas, following Macrobius In Somn. Scip. i. viii. §7).

  2. Great courage; fortitude. Obs.

FAIRFAX 

Nor would it be right to pass over the name of Fairfax, who united the utmost fortitude with the utmost courage; and the spotless innocence of whose life seemed to point him out as the peculiar favourite of heaven. Justly indeed may you be excited to receive this wreath of praise; though you have retired as much as possible from the world, and seek those shades of privacy which were the delight of Scipio. Nor was it only the enemy whom you subdued; but you have triumphed over that flame of ambition and that lust of glory, which are wont to make the best and the greatest of men their slaves. The purity of your virtues and the splendour of your actions consecrate those sweets of ease which you enjoy; and which constitute the wished for haven of the toils of man. Such was the ease which, when the heroes of antiquity possessed, after a life of exertion and glory, not greater than yours, the poets, in despair of finding ideas or expressions better suited to the subject, feigned that they were received into heaven, and invited to recline at the tables of the gods. but whether it were your health, which I principally believe, or any other motive which caused you to retire, of this I am convinced, that nothing could have induced you to relinquish the service of your country, if you had not known that in your successor liberty would meet with a protector, and England with a stay to its safety, and a pillar to its glory.