Q.
Is there a bright light amidst the darkness? Is there treasure to be unearthed as we slog through trouble?

Such is the hope as we invoke the common idiom: ‘every cloud has a silver lining.’

What is the origin of this comforting quip?

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A.

It’s a phrase that grew out of the mind of English poet John Milton (1608-74.) Hard for him to imagine that 390 years later people would be casually throwing about one phrase from his book-length masque: ‘Comus.’

The sterling nebula in question …

… ‘O welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings,
And thou unblemished form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe
That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were,
To keep my life and honour unassailed….
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err: there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.
I cannot hallo to my brothers, but
Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest
I’ll venter; for my new-enlivened spirits
Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.’ …

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