JC-NRLF 
 
 SB 272 I4fl2 
 
 flHil 
 
 ;{;:! ImiM JiKHftlifiwH 
 Bfi $lf!w!$M 
 
 H^^Bfll H^^^^IBBvHxSa BrHnfia] 
 
Pitt Press Series 
 
 MILTON'S 
 ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S 
 
 NATIVITY, L'ALLEGRO, 
 IL PENSEROSO AND LYCIDAS. 
 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 C. F. CLAY, MANAGER 
 
 LONDON 
 
 FETTER LANE, E.G. 4 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 100 PRINCES STREET 
 
 NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS : MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. 
 
 TORONTO : J. M. DENT AND SONS, LTD. 
 TOKYO : THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
MILTON'S 
 
 ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S 
 
 NATIVITY, L'ALLEGRO, 
 IL PENSEROSO AND LYCIDAS 
 
 BY 
 
 A. W. VERITY, M.A. 
 
 SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
 1918 
 
First Edition 1891. 
 
 Reprinted 1898, 1904, '95, '9^, 19", '9'4. '9'5, 
 1918 
 
NOTE. 
 
 THE text of the poems in this volume has been pre- 
 pared from that of the first edition (1645), compared 
 with the second edition (1673). I have to thank the 
 Council of Trinity College for permission to inspect the 
 MS. of Lycidas ; it has enabled me to give what is, I hope, 
 an accurate account of the variant readings in the poem. 
 
 The edition of Milton's Prose Works to which reference 
 is made throughout (under the abbreviation 'P. W.') is 
 that published in Bohn's ' Standard Library/ 
 
 \ 
 
 A. W. V. 
 
 V<M> =t*l 1 fill 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ... k ... ix li 
 
 (LIFE OF MILTON : 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF THE POEMS.) 
 
 ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY . . i 13 
 L'ALLEGRO ........ 1419 
 
 IL PENSEROSO 20 15 
 
 LYCIDAS 26 32 
 
 NOTES 33164 
 
 APPENDIX 165167 
 
 INDEXES . 168172 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the poems 1 . Realising, too, that in his son lay the promise 
 and possibility of future greatness, John Milton took the utmost 
 pains to have the boy adequately educated ; and the lines Ad 
 Patrem show that the ties of affection between father and child 
 were of more than ordinary closeness. 
 
 Milton was sent to St Paul's School about the year 1620. 
 Here two influences, apart from those of ordinary school-life, may 
 have affected him particularly. The headmaster was a good 
 English scholar ; he published a grammar containing many 
 extracts from English poets, notably Spenser ; it is reasonable 
 to assume that he had not a little to do with the encouragement 
 and guidance of Milton's early taste for English poetry 3 . Also, 
 the founder of St Paul's School, Colet, had prescribed as part 
 of the school-course the study of certain early Christian writers, 
 whose influence is said to be directly traceable in Milton's poems 
 and may in some cases have suggested his choice of sacred 
 ^themes 2 . While at St Paul's, Milton also had a tutor at home, 
 Thomas Young, a Scotchman, afterwards an eminent Puritan 
 divine the inspirer, doubtless, of much of his pupil'* Puritan 
 sympathies. And Milton enjoyed the signal advantage of 
 growing up in the stimulating atmosphere of cultured home-life. 
 Most men do not realise that the word ' culture' signifies 
 anything very definite or desirable before they pass to the 
 University; for Milton, however, home-life meant, from the 
 first, not only broad interests and refinement, but active 
 encouragement towards literature and study. In 1625 he left 
 St Paul's. Of his extant English poems 3 only one, On the 
 
 1 Milton was very fond of the organ; see // Penseroso, 161, note. 
 During his residence at Horton Milton made occasional journeys to 
 London to hear, and obtain instruction (probably from Henry Lawes) 
 in, music. It was an age of great musical development. See "Milton's 
 Knowledge of Music" by Mr W. H. Hadow, in Milton Memorial 
 Lectures (1908). 
 
 2 See the paper "Milton as Schoolboy and Schoolmaster" by 
 Mr A. F. Leach, read before the British Academy, Dec. 10, 1908. 
 
 3 His paraphrases of Psalms cxiv. cxxxvi. scarcely come under this 
 heading. Aubrey says in his quaint Life of Milton: "Anno Domini 
 1619 he was ten yeares old, as by his picture [the portrait by Corne.lius 
 Jansen] : and was then a poet.' 1 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. XI 
 
 Death of a Fair Infant, dates from his school-days ; but we are 
 told that he had written much verse, English and Latin. And 
 his early training had done that which was all-important : it had 
 laid the foundation of the far-ranging knowledge which makes 
 Paradise Lost unique for diversity of suggestion- and interest. 
 
 Milton went to Christ's College, Cambridge, in the Easter 
 term of 1625, took his B.A. degree in 1629, proceeded M.A. in 
 1632, and in the latter year left Cambridge. The popular view 
 of Milton's connection with the University will be coloured for 
 all time by Johnson's unfortunate story that for some unknown 
 offence he " suffered the public indignity of corporal correction." 
 For various reasons this story is now discredited by the best 
 judges. It is certain, however, that early in 1626 Milton did have 
 some serious difficulty with his tutor, which led to his removal 
 from Cambridge fora few weeks and his transference to another 
 tutor on his return later in the term. He spoke of the incident 
 bitterly at the time in one of his Latin poems, and he spoke of 
 Cambridge bitterly in after years. On the other hand he 
 voluntarily passed seven years at the University, and resented 
 strongly the imputations brought against him in the " Smectym- 
 nuus" controversy that he had been in ill-favour with the 
 authorities of his college. Writing in 1642, he takes the 
 opportunity "to acknowledge publicly with all grateful mind, 
 that more than ordinary favour and respect, which I found above 
 any of my equals at the hands of those courteous and learned 
 men, the fellows of that college wherein I spent some years : who 
 at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, 
 signified many ways how much better it would content them 
 that I would stay ; as by many letters full of kindness and loving 
 respect, both before that time, and long after, I was assured of 
 their singular good affection towards me 1 ." And if we look into 
 those uncomplimentary allusions to Cambridge which date from 
 the controversial period of his life we see that the feeling they 
 
 1 An Apology for Sntectymnuus^ P. W.ill. in. Perhaps Cambridge 
 would have been more congenial to Milton had he been sent to Emmanuel 
 College, long a centre of Puritanism. Dr John Preston, then Master 
 of the college, was a noted leader of the Puritan party. 
 
XU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 represent is hardly more than a phasje of his theological bias. 
 He detested ecclesiasticism, and for him the two Universities 
 (there is a fine impartiality in his diatribes) are the strongholds 
 of what he detested : u nurseries of superstition " " not yet well 
 recovered from the scholastic grossness of barbarous ages"- 
 given up to -"monkish and miserable sophistry," and unpro- 
 gressive in their educational methods. But it may fairly be 
 assumed that Milton the scholar and poet, who chose to spend 
 seven years at Cambridge, owed to her more than Milton the 
 fierce controversialist admitted or knew. A poet he had proved 
 himself before leaving the University in 1632. The short but 
 exquisite ode At a Solemn Music, and the Nativity Hymn 
 (1629), were already written. 
 
 Milton's father had settled at Hprton in Buckinghamshire. 
 Thither the son retired in July, 1632. He had gone to Cambridge 
 with the intention of qualifying for some profession, perhaps the 
 Church 1 . This purpose was soon given up, and when Milton 
 returned to his father's house he seems to have made up his 
 mind that there was no profession which he cared to enter. He 
 would choose the better part of studying and preparing himself, 
 by rigorous self-discipline and application, for the far-off divine 
 event to which his whole life moved. 
 
 It was Milton's constant resolve to achieve something that 
 should vindicate the ways of God to men, something great that 
 should justify his own possession of unique powers powers of 
 which, with no trace of egotism, he proclaims himself proudly 
 conscious. The feeling finds repeated expression in his prose ; 
 it is the guiding-star that shines clear and steadfast even through 
 the mists of politics. He has a mission to fulfil, a purpose 
 to accomplish, no less than the most fanatic of religious en- 
 thusiasts ; and the means whereby this end is to be attained are 
 
 1 Cf. Milton's own words : "the church, to whose service, by the 
 intentions of my parents and friends, I was destined of a child, and 
 in my own resolutions" (The Reason of Church Government, P. W. 
 II. 482). What kept him from taking orders was primarily his 
 objection to Church discipline and government: he spoke of himself 
 as " Church-outed by the prelates." 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. Xlll 
 
 devotion to religion, devotion to learning, and ascetic purity 
 of life. 
 
 This period of self-centred isolation lasted from 163210 1638. 
 Gibbon tells us among the many wise things contained in that 
 most wise book the Autobiography r , that every man has two 
 educations : that which he receives from his teachers and that 
 which he owes to himself; the latter being infinitely the more 
 important. During these five years Milton completed his 
 second education; ranging the whole world of classical 1 anti- 
 quity and absorbing the classical genius so thoroughly that 
 the ancients were to him what they afterwards became to 
 Landor, what they have never become to any other English 
 poet in the same degree, even as the very breath of his being ; 
 pursuing, too, other interests, such as music, astronomy 2 and 
 the study of Italian literature ; and combining these vast 
 and diverse influences into a splendid equipment of hard-won, 
 well-ordered culture. The world has knowp many greater 
 scholars in the technical, limited sense than Milton, but few 
 men, if any, who have mastered more things worth mastering 
 in art, letters and scholarship 3 . It says much for the poet that 
 
 1 He was closely familiar too with post classical writers like Philo 
 and the neo-Platonists ; nor must we forget the mediaeval element in 
 his learning, due often to Rabbinical teaching. 
 
 * Science " natural philosophy," as he terms it is one of the 
 branches of study advocated in his treatise On Education. Of his 
 early interest in astronomy there is a reminiscence in Paradise Lost, 
 II. 708 11; where " Milton is not referring to an imaginary comet, 
 but to one which actually did appear when he was a boy of 10 (1618), 
 in the constellation called Ophiuchus. It was of enormous size, the 
 tail being recorded as longer even than that of 1858. It was held 
 responsible by educated and learned men of the day for disasters. 
 Evelyn says in his diary, 'The effects of that comet, 1618, still working 
 in the prodigious revolutions now beginning in Europe, especially in 
 Germany'" (Professor Ray Lankester). 
 
 8 Milton's poems with their undercurrent of perpetual allusion are 
 tne best proof of the width of his reading ; but interesting supplementary 
 evidence is afforded by the Common-place Book discovered in 1874, and 
 printed by the Camden Society, 1876. It contains extracts from about 
 80 different authors whose works Milton had studied. The entries seem 
 to have been made in the period 163746. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he was sustained through this period of study, pursued ohne 
 Hast, ohne Rast, by the full consciousness that all would be 
 crowned by a masterpiece which should add one more testi- 
 mony to the belief in that God who ordains the fates of men. 
 It says also a very great deal for the father who suffered his 
 son to follow in this manner the path of learning. 
 
 True, Milton gave more than one earnest of his future fame. 
 The dates of the early pieces L Allegro, II Penseroso, Arcades, 
 Comus and Lycidas are not all certain ; but probably each was 
 composed at Horton before 1638. Four of them have great 
 autobiographic value as an indirect commentary, written from 
 Milton's coign of seclusion, upon the moral crisis through which 
 English life and thought were passing, the clash between the 
 careless hedonism of the Cavalier world and the deepening 
 austerity of Puritanism. In L? Allegro the poet holds the 
 balance almost equal between the two opposing tendencies. In 
 // Penseroso it becomes clear to which side his sympathies are 
 leaning. Connis is a covert prophecy of the downfall of the 
 Court-party, while Lycidas openly "foretells the mine" of the 
 Established Church. The latter poem is the final utterance of 
 Milton's lyric genius. Here he reaches, in Mr Mark Pattison's 
 words, the high-water mark of English verse ; and then the 
 pity of it he resigns that place among the lyrici vales of which 
 the Roman singer was ambitious, and for nearly twenty years 
 suffers his lyre to hang mute and rusty in the temple of the 
 Muses. 
 
 The composition of Lycidas may be assigned to the year 
 1637. In the spring of the next year Milton started for Italy. 
 It was natural that he should seek inspiration in" the land where 
 many English poets, from Chaucer to Shelley, have found it. 
 Milton remained abroad some fifteen months. Originally he 
 had intended to include Sicily and Greece in his travels, but 
 news of the troubles in England hastened his return. He was 
 brought face to face with the question whether or not he should 
 bear his part in the coming struggle ; whether without self- 
 reproarh he could lead any longer this life of learning and 
 imlitVerence to the public weal. He decided as we might have 
 expected that he would decide, though some good critics see 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. XV 
 
 cause to regret the decision. Milton puts his position very 
 clearly in his Defensio Secunda : " I thought it base to be 
 travelling for amusement abroad, while my fellow-citizens were 
 fighting for liberty at home." And later : " I determined to 
 relinquish the other pursuits in which I was engaged, and to 
 transfer the whole force of my talents and my industry to this 
 one important object" (i.e. the vindication of liberty). 
 
 The summer of 1639 (July) found Milton back- in England. 
 Immediately after his return he wrote the Epitaphium Damonis, 
 the beautiful elegy in which he lamented the death of his school 
 friend, Diodati. Lycidas was the last of the English lyrics : the 
 Epitaphium^ which should be studied in close connection with 
 Lycidas, the last of the long Latin poems. Thenceforth, for a 
 long spell, the rest was silence, so far as concerned poetry. The 
 period which for all men represents the strength and maturity 
 of manhood, which in the cases of other poets produces the best 
 and most characteristic work, is with Milton a blank. In twenty 
 years he composed no more than a bare handful of Sonnets, 
 and even some of these are infected by the taint of political 
 animus. Other interests claimed him the question of Church- 
 reform, education, marriage, and, above all, politics. 
 
 Milton's first treatise upon the government of the Church 
 (Of Reformation in England] appeared in 1641.- Others 
 followed in quick succession. The abolition of Episcopacy 
 was the watchword of the enemies of the Anglican Church 
 the delenda est Carthago cry of Puritanism, and no one 
 enforced the point with greater eloquence than Milton. During 
 1641 and 1642 he wrote five pamphlets on the subject. Mean- 
 while he was studying the principles of education. On his 
 return from Italy he had undertaken the training of his 
 nephews. . This led to consideration of the best educational 
 methods ; and in the Tractate of Education, 1644, Milton 
 assumed the part of educational theorist. In the previous year, 
 May, 1643, ne married 1 . The marriage proved unfortunate. 
 
 1 His wife (who was only seventeen) was Mary Powell, eldest 
 daughter of Richard Powell, of Forest Hill, a village some little 
 distance from Oxford. She went to stay with her father in July, 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Its immediate outcome was the pamphlets on divorce. Clearly 
 he had little leisure for literature proper. 
 
 The finest of Milton's prose works, the Areopagitica, a plea 
 for the free expression of opinion, was published in 1644, In 
 1645 J appeared the first collection of his poems. In 1649 his 
 advocacy of the anti-royalist cause was recognised by the offer 
 of a post under the newly appointed Council of State. His bold 
 vindication of the trial of Charles I., The Tenure of Kings, had 
 appeared earlier in the same year. Milton accepted the offer, 
 becoming Latin 2 Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 1643, an d refused to return to Milton ; why, it is not certain. She 
 was reconciled to her husband in 1645, bore him four children, and 
 died in 1652, in her twenty-seventh year. No doubt, the scene in P. L. 
 X. 90936, in which Eve begs forgiveness of Adam, reproduced the 
 poet's personal experience, while many passages in Samson Agonistes 
 must have been inspired by the same cause. 
 
 1 i.e. old style. The volume was entered on the registers of the 
 Stationers' Company under the date of October 6th, 1645. It was 
 published on Jan. 2, 1645 46, with the folio wing > title-page : 
 
 "Poems of Mr. John Milton , both English and Latin, Compos 1 d at 
 several times. Printed by his true Copies. The Songs were set in Musick 
 by Mr. Henry Lawes Gentleman of the Kings Chappel, and one of His 
 Majesties Private Musick. 
 
 Pace are front em 
 
 Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futu ro. ' VIRGIL, Eclog. 7. 
 Printed and published according to Order. London, Printed by Ruth 
 Raivorth for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at the signe of the 
 Princes Arms in Pauls Churchyard. 1645." 
 
 From the prefatory Address to the Reader it is clear that the collec*-. 
 tion was due to the initiative of the publisher. Milton's own feeling is' 
 expressed by the motto, where the words "vatifuturo" show that, as 
 he judged, his great achievement was yet to come. The volume was 
 divided into two parts, the first containing the English, the second the 
 Latin poems. Comus was printed at the close of the former, with a 
 separate title-page to mark its importance. The prominence given to 
 the name of Henry Lawes reflects Milton's friendship. 
 
 2 A Latin Secretary was required because the Council scorned, as 
 Edward Phillips says, "to carry on their affairs in the wheedling, 
 lisping jargon of the cringing French." Milton's salary was 288, in 
 modern money about ^900. 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. XVll 
 
 There was nothing distasteful about his duties. He drew up 
 the despatches to foreign governments, translated state-papers, 
 and served as interpreter to foreign envoys. Had his duties 
 stopped here his acceptance of the post would, I think, have 
 proved an unqualified gain. It brought him into contact with the 
 first men in the state, gave him a practical insight into the 
 working of national affairs and the motives of human action ; in 
 a word, furnished him with that experience of life which is 
 essential to all poets who aspire to be something more than 
 "the idle singers of an empty day." But unfortunately the 
 secretaryship entailed the necessity of defending at every turn 
 the past course of the revolution and the present policy of the 
 Council. Milton, in fact, held a perpetual brief as advocate for 
 his party. Hence the endless and unedifying controversies into 
 which he drifted ; controversies which wasted the most precious 
 years of his life, warped, as some critics think, his nature, and 
 eventually cost him his eyesight. 
 
 Between 1649 an d 1660 Milton produced no less than eleven 
 pamphlets. Several of these arose out of the publication of the 
 famous Eikon Basilike. The book was printed in 1649 and 
 created so extraordinary a sensation that Milton was asked to 
 reply to it ; and did so with Eikonoklastes. Controversy of this 
 barren type has the inherent disadvantage that once started it may 
 never end. The Royalists commissioned the Leyden professor, 
 Salmasius, to prepare a counterblast, the Defensio Regia, and 
 this in turn was met by Milton's Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio^ 
 1651, over the preparation of which he lost what little power of 
 eyesight remained 1 . Salmasius retorted, and died before his 
 
 1 Perhaps this was the saddest part of the episode. Milton tells us 
 in the Defensio Secunda that his eyesight was injured by excessive study 
 in boyhood : " from twelve years of age I hardly ever left my studies or 
 went to bed before midnight." Continual reading and writ ing increased 
 the infirmity, and by 1650 the sight of the left eye had gone. He was 
 warned that he must not use the other for book-work. Unfortunately 
 this was just the time when the Commonwealth stood most in need of 
 his services. If Milton had not written the first Defence he might have 
 retained his partial vision, at least for a time. The choice lay between 
 
Xvill INTRODUCTION. 
 
 second farrago of scurrilities was issued : Milton was bound to 
 answer, and the Defensio Secunda appeared in 1654. Neither 
 of the combatants gained anything by the dispute ; while the 
 subsequent development of the controversy in which Milton 
 crushed the Amsterdam pastor and professor, Morus, goes far to 
 prove the contention of Mr Mark Pattison, that it was an evil 
 day when the poet left his study at Horton to do battle for the 
 Commonwealth amid the vulgar brawls of the market-place . 
 
 41 Not here, O Apollo, 
 Were haunts meet for thee." 
 
 Fortunately this poetic interregnum in Milton's life was not 
 destined to last much longer. The Restoration came, a blessing 
 in disguise, and in I66O 1 the ruin of Milton's political party 
 and of his personal hopes, the absolute overthrow of the cause 
 for which he had fought for twenty years, left him free. The 
 author of Lycidas could once more become a poet. 
 
 Much has been written upon this second period, 1639 60. 
 We saw what parting of the ways confronted Milton on his 
 return from Italy. Did he choose aright ? Should he have 
 continued upon the path of learned leisure ? There are writers 
 who argue that Milton made a mistake. A poet, they say, 
 should keep clear of political strife : fierce controversy can 
 benefit no man : who touches pitch must expect to be, certainly 
 will be, defiled : Milton sacrificed twenty of the best years of , 
 his life, doing work which an underling could have done and 
 which was not worth doing : another Comits might have been 
 written, a loftier Lycidas : that literature should be the poorer 
 by the absence of these possible masterpieces, that the second 
 
 private good and public duty. He repeated in 1650 the sacrifice of 1639. 
 All this is brought out in his Second Defence. By the spring of 1652 
 Milton was quite blind He was then in his forty-fourth year. Probably 
 the disease from which he suffered was amaurosis. See the Appendix 
 on P. L. in. 22 26. Throughout P. L- and Samson Agonistes there 
 are frequent references to his affliction. 
 
 1 Milton probably began Paradise Lost in 1658 ; but it was not till 
 the Restoration in 1660 that he definitely resigned all his political 
 hopes, and became quite free to realise his poetical ambition. 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. XIX 
 
 greatest genius which England has produced should in a way 
 be the " inheritor of unfulfilled renown," is and must be a thing 
 entirely and terribly deplorable. This is the view of the purely 
 literary critic. 
 
 There remains the other side of the question. It may fairly 
 be contended that had Milton elected in 1639 to * ive the scholar's 
 life apart from " the action of men," Paradise Lost, as we have 
 it, or Samson Agonistes could never have been written. Know- 
 ledge of life and human nature, insight into the problems of 
 men's motives and emotions, grasp of the broader issues of the 
 human tragedy, all these were essential to the author of an epic 
 poem ; they could only be obtained through commerce with the 
 world ; they would have remained beyond the reach of a recluse. 
 Dryden complained that Milton saw nature through the spec- 
 tacles of books : we might have had to complain that he saw 
 men through the same medium. Fortunately it is not so : and 
 it is not so because at the age of thirty-two he threw in his 
 fortunes with those of his country ; like the diver in Schiller's 
 ballad he took the plunge which was to cost him so dear. The 
 mere man of letters will never move the world. vEschylus fought 
 at Marathon: Shakespeare was practical to the tips of his 
 fingers ; a better business man than Goethe there was not 
 within a radius of a hundred miles of Weimar. 
 
 This aspect of the question is emphasised by Milton himself. 
 The man, he says, "who would not be frustrate of his "hope to 
 write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a 
 true poem , that is, a composition and pattern of the best and 
 honourablest things; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic 
 men, or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience 
 and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy 1 ." Again, in 
 estimating the qualifications which the writer of an epic such as 
 he contemplated should possess, he is careful to include 
 "insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs 2 ." 
 
 Truth usually lies half-way between extremes : perhaps it 
 does so here. No doubt, Milton did gain very greatly by 
 
 1 An Apology for Smectymmius, P. IV. ill. 118. 
 1 The Reason of Church Government, P. IV. II. 481. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 breathing awhile the larger air of public life, even though 
 that air was often tainted by much impurity. No doubt, too, 
 twenty years of contention must have left their mark even on 
 Milton. In one of the very few places where he "abides our 
 question," Shakespeare writes (Sonnet CXI.) : 
 
 "OI for my sake do you with Fortune chide, 
 The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, 
 That did not better for my life provide, 
 Than public means, which public manners breeds I 
 Thence comes it that my name receives a brand ; 
 And almost thence my nature is subdued 
 To what it works in, like the dyer's hand." 
 
 Milton's genius was subdued in this way. If we compare 
 him, the Milton of the great epics and of Samson Agonistes, 
 with Homer or Shakespeare and none but the greatest can 
 be his parallel we find in him a certain want of humanity, 
 a touch of narrowness. He lacks the large-heartedness, the 
 genial, generous breadth of Shakespeare ; the sympathy and 
 sense of the lacrima rerum that even in Troilus and Cressida or 
 Timon of Athens are there for those who have eyes wherewith 
 ,t to see them. Milton reflects in some degree the less gracious 
 ; aspects of Puritanism, its intolerance, want of humour, one-sided 
 /, intensity; and it seems natural to assume that this narrowness 
 was to a great extent the price he paid for twenty years of cease- 
 less special pleading and dispute. The real misfortune of his 
 life lay in the fact that he fell on evil, angry days when there 
 was no place for moderate men. He had to be one of two 
 things : either a controversialist or a student : there was no via 
 media. Probably he chose aright ; but we could wish that the 
 conditions under which he chose had been different. And he 
 is so great, so majestic in the nobleness of his life, in the purity 
 of his motives, in the self-sacrifice of his indomitable devotion 
 to his ideals, that we could wish not even to seem to pronounce 
 judgment at all. 
 
 The last part of Milton's life, 166074, passed quietly. At 
 the age of fifty-two he was thrown back upon poetry, and could 
 at length discharge his self-imposed obligation. The early 
 
LIFE OF MILTON. XXI 
 
 poems he had never regarded as a fulfilment of the debt due to 
 his Creator. Even when the fire of political strife burned at its 
 hottest, Milton did not forget the purpose which he had conceived 
 in his boyhood. Of that purpose Paradise Lost was the attain- 
 ment. Begun about 1658, it was finished in 1663, the year of 
 Milton's third 1 marriage; revised from 1663 to 1665; and 
 eventually issued in 1667. Before its publication Milton had 
 commenced (in the autumn of 1665) its sequel Paradise Re- 
 gained, which in turn was closely followed by Samson Agonistes. 
 The completion of Paradise Regained may be assigned to the 
 year 1666 that of Samson Agonistes to 1667. Some time was 
 spent in their revision ; and in January, 1671, they were pub- 
 lished together, in a single volume. 
 
 In 1673 Milton brought out a reprint of the 1645 edition of 
 his PoemSj adding most of the sonnets 2 written in the interval 3 
 
 1 Milton's second marriage took place in the autumn of 1656, i.e. 
 after he had become blind. His wife died in February, 1658. Cf. the 
 Sonnet, " Methought I saw my late espoused saint," the pathos of which 
 is heightened by the fact that he had never seen her. 
 
 2 The number of Milton's sonnets is twenty-three (if we exclude the 
 piece "On the New Forcers of Conscience"), five of which were 
 written in Italian, probably during the time of his travels in Italy, 
 1638, 1639. Ten sonnets were printed in the edition of 1645, the last of 
 them being that entitled (from the Cambridge MS.) " To the Lady 
 Margaret Ley." The remaining thirteen were composed between 1645 
 and 1658. The concluding sonnet, therefore (to the memory of Milton's 
 second wife), immediately preceded his commencement of Paradise Lost. 
 Four of these poems (XV. xvi. xvn. xxn.) could not, on account of 
 their political tone, be included in the edition of 1673. They were 
 published by Edward Phillips together with his memoir of Milton, 1694 
 (Sonnet xvn. having previously appeared in a Life of Vane). The 
 sonnet on the " Massacre- in Piedmont " is usually considered the finest 
 of the collection, of which Mr Mark Pattison edited a well-known 
 edition, 1883. The sonnet inscribed with a diamond on a window pane 
 in the cottage at Chalfont where the poet stayed in 1665 is (in the 
 judgment of a good critic) Miltonic, if not Milton's (Garnett, Life of 
 Milton, p. 175). 
 
 3 The 1673 edition also gave the juvenile piece On the Death of a 
 Fair Infant and At a Vacation Exercise, which for some reason had 
 been omitted from the 1645 edition. 
 
 V. M. C 
 
XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The last four years of his life were devoted to prose works of no 
 particular interest 1 . He continued to live in London. His third 
 marriage had proved happy, and he enjoyed something of the 
 renown which was rightly his. Various well-known men used 
 to visit him notably Dryden 2 , who on one of his visits asked 
 and received permission to dramatise 3 Paradise Lost. It does 
 not often happen that a university can point to two such poets 
 among her living sons, each without rival in his generation. 
 
 Milton died in 1674, November 8th. He was buried in St 
 Giles' Church, Cripplegate. When we think of him we have to 
 think of a man who lived a life of very singular purity and 
 devotion to duty ; who for what he conceived to be his country's 
 good sacrificed and no one can well estimate the sacrifice 
 during twenty years the aim that was nearest to his heart and 
 best suited to his genius ; who, however, eventually realised his 
 desire of writing a great work in gloriam Dei. 
 
 1 The treatise on Christian Doctrine (unpublished during Milton's 
 lifetime and dating, it is thought, mainly from the period of his theo- 
 logical treatises) is valuable as throwing much light on the theological 
 views expressed in the two epic poems and Samson Agonistes. See 
 Milton Memorial Lectures (1908), pp. 109 42. The discovery of the 
 MS. of this treatise in 1823 gave Macaulay an opportunity of writing 
 his famous essay on Milton, which has been happily described as a 
 Whig counterblast to Johnson's Tory depreciation of the poet. 
 
 Milton's History of Britain, though not published till 1670, had 
 been written many years earlier ; four of the six books, we know, were 
 composed between 1646 and 1649. 
 
 2 The lines by Dryden which were printed beneath the portrait of 
 Milton in Tonson's folio edition of Paradise Lost published in 1688 are 
 too familiar to need quotation ; but it is worth noting that the younger 
 poet had in Milton's lifetime described the great epic as " one of the 
 most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation 
 has produced" (prefatory essay to y*he State of Innocence, 1674). 
 Further, tradition assigned to Dryden (a Roman Catholic and a Royal- 
 ist) the remark, "this fellow (Milton) cuts us all out and the ancients 
 
 s too." 
 
 8 See Marvell's "Commendatory Verses," 17 30, prefixed to the 
 second edition of Paradise Lost. 
 
INTRODUCTIONS TO 
 THE POEMS 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 
 
 THIS poem is not among the Milton MSS. at Cambridge. 
 
 It was first printed in the 1645 edition of his 
 
 Ode! ftke poems, with the heading 1 , Compos'd 1629." From 
 
 an allusion in the sixth Elegy (quoted below) we 
 
 learn that the exact day on which Milton commenced it was 
 
 Christmas-day, 1629. He was then in his twenty-second year 
 
 and had not yet left Cambridge. 
 
 In the 1645 edition the Hymn is given the place of honour; 
 the publisher evidently thought that it would make a good 
 prelude to the volume, and we can but admire his taste. 
 Between the first edition and the second published in 1673 
 there is only one difference of reading, viz. in lines 143 144 : 
 the change is manifestly for the better 2 . 
 
 Milton refers to the Nativity Hymn in two passages of his 
 other works. The more interesting of these is the 
 
 ^ U poem! close of the sixth of his Latin Elegies, addressed 
 to Diodati. Diodati had written on Dec. 13, 1629, 
 to excuse himself for having, amid the festivities of the season, 
 neglected the Muses; Milton in his reply showed that unlike 
 his friend he had not been distracted from poetry : 
 
 8 At tu si quid again scitabere (si modo saltern 
 
 Esse putas tanti noscere siquid agam). 
 Paciferum canimus cselesti semine regem, 
 
 Faustaque sacratis ssecula pacta libris; 
 4 Vagitumque Dei, et stabulantem paupere tecto 
 
 Qui suprema suo cum patre regna colit; 
 8 Stelliparumque polum, modulantesque aethere turmas, 
 
 6 Et subito elisos ad sua fana Deos. 
 Dona quidem dedimus Christi natalibus ilia; 
 
 Ilia sub auroram lux mihi prima tulit. 
 7 Te quoque pressa manent patriis meditata cicutis; 
 
 Tu mihi, cui recitem, judicis instar eris. 
 
 1 Omitted in the 1673 ec ^- 2 See note on tne lines. 
 
 8 Elegia Stxta, 7990. 4 Cf. Nat. Ode, 30, 31. 
 
 6 Ibid. 6976, and 93 100. 8 Ibid. 197 et seq. 
 
 7 Diodati appears to have acted the part of friendly adviser and 
 critic to Milton; cf. the Epitaphium Damonis, 180, 181. 
 
NATIVITY ODE. XXV 
 
 Valuable in itself the reference is doubly so from its context. 
 It follows a long statement of Milton's view of the poet's 
 calling that only those who live a life of self-discipline should 
 attempt to handle great themes in a great style ; and then 
 he passes on to mention the magnificent subject which was 
 occupying his own thoughts. Diodati might draw the obvious 
 inference. 
 
 The other allusion is a passing glance in the Ode on The 
 Passion : 
 
 "Erewhile of Music, and ethereal mirth, 
 Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring, 
 And joyous news of heavenly Infant's birth, 
 My Muse with Angels did divide to sing." 
 
 The Passion is left unfinished, the poet (as his postscript tells 
 us) being unsatisfied with what he had written. Probably his 
 original intention had been to make the piece a pendant to the 
 Nativity Hymn. Very likely, it was composed the following 
 Easter. Between these poems may have come the brief Ode 
 Upon the Circumcision. At any rate the three are in a measure 
 linked together by the fact that an event in the life of our Lord** 
 is the subject of each. 
 
 The metre of the four introductory stanzas of the Nativity 
 Ode differs from that of the Hymfi, itself. In them 
 Milton has used, with one significant variation, the Mefreofthe 
 stanza of seven lines, each line having five accents, 
 in which 1 Chaucer wrote Troilus and Cressiae and several of 
 the Canterbury Tales. Spenser had cast his Fowre Hymnes 
 in the same stanza. The variation introduced by Milton is an 
 Alexandrine in the seventh line instead of the heroic verse. 
 Here he was probably influenced by the Faerie Queene^ In 
 fact, if we take a stanza of that poem (in which the stave is 
 of nine lines), and cancel verses six and seven, we find that 
 what remains is practically identical with the seven-line stanza 
 employed by Milton. 
 
 In the Hymn the metrical arrangement, so far as we know, 
 
 1 " His favourite seven-line stanza, called Rhyme Royal from its 
 
 subsequent use by James I. of Scotland " (Pollard, Chaucer Primer^ 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is entirely Milton's invention. It is an eight-line stanza com- 
 posed of verses of four different lengths. Lines i and 2, 
 4 and 5, are rhymed couplets of three feet : lines 3 and 6 have 
 five accents and are rhymed : lines 7 and 8 rhyme, 7 being 
 a verse of four feet, and 8 an Alexandrine. 
 
 Two points in the verse seem worthy of note. First, Milton 
 uses freely the licence authorised by Chaucer's example, of 
 a foot consisting of a single syllable at the commencement of a 
 line ; cf. the following instances : 
 
 "That | the mighty Pan," 1. 103. *J<\ 
 'While | the Creator great," 1. 120. 
 "Must | redeem our loss," 1. 153. 
 
 On this point see the introductory notice to LI Allegro. 
 
 Again, the Alexandrine is handled with extraordinary power. 
 Even Spenser (and the Faerie Queene must have 
 
 A lexandrtnes. . , 
 
 given him excellent practice) failed to get the same 
 uniform sonority out of the six carefully-balanced beats. No 
 doubt, the effect of the long verse, which forms a kind of rolling 
 crescendo to the whole stanza, is increased by the comparative 
 brevity of the previous line. 
 
 To the style of the Ode two objections may be taken : it is 
 a little artificial, and a little fanciful. The arti- 
 ficiality is seen in the excessive alliteration : we are 
 reminded of Holofernes and his trick of "affecting 
 the letter." The regularity with which these alliterative effects 
 occur musf be the result of conscious effort rather than of pure 
 inspiration. And then at times Milton falls into the strained 
 manner of the ' metaphysical' school, the later generation of 
 Euphuists whose quest was fantastic imagery, far-fetched meta- 
 phor, 'preciousness' of phrase. Of this tendency verses 141 
 143, as they stand in the first edition of the Ode, seem to us a 
 striking example : 
 
 "Yea, Truth, and Justice then 
 Will down return to men 
 Th' enamel'd Arras of the Rainbow wearing." 
 
 "Enamel'd Arras" is a conceit worthy of Crashaw or Donne* 
 
NATIVITY ODE. xxvii 
 
 Or take the imagery of the sunset in stanza xxvi : it is so boid 
 and emphatic as only just to escape the grotesque. The 
 Nativity Ode is the one considerable poem in which Milton 
 shows a leaning towards the group of writers who had natu- 
 ralised in English verse this strain of affectation which had 
 done so much harm to other European 1 literatures. The 
 leaning is unmistakeable, and in the case of a young writer 
 quite intelligible. 
 
 These, however, are venial flaws, and the Ode as a whole 
 well deserves Hallam's praise that it is "perhaps the finest in 
 the English language." For Milton reveals here many of those 
 qualities which have won for Paradise Lost a place 
 apart in our literature. The Hymn is a foretaste ode" aprdnde 
 of the epic. We have the same learning, full for t ^ s ^ radise 
 the classical scholar of far-reaching suggestion : the 
 same elevation and inspired enthusiasm of tone: even (to note 
 a small but not valueless detail) the same happy device of 
 weaving in the narrative names that raise "in us a vague thrill 
 of awe, a sense of things remote and great and mysterious : 
 above all, the same absolute grandeur of style. No other 
 English poet rivals Milton in a certain majesty of music, 
 dignity of sound so irresistible that the only thing to which we 
 can compare it (and the comparison has been made a hundred 
 times), is the strains of an organ. This command over great 
 effects of harmony places Paradise Lost beyond competition. 
 It informs the best passages of Milton's prose-works 2 . And of 
 all the early poems none displays it so conspicuously as the 
 Nativity Ode. 
 
 1 In the Latin poem Mansus, written some years later, Milton 
 mentions in terms of compliment the Italian poet Marini whose verse 
 was of the most artificial type. 
 
 '-' Cf. the introduction to the second book of The Reason of Churth 
 Government, P. W. n. 472 482 ; qr The Remonstrant's, Defence^ 
 section iv, the passage beginning "O thou the ever-begotten Light," 
 P. W. III. 71, 72. 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 U Allegro and // Penseroso were not printed till 1645. The 
 MSS. of the poems are not among the Milton 
 papers at Trinity College, and we have no direct 
 means of determining when they were composed. By common 
 consent, however, of critics they are assigned to the year 1632, 
 or thereabout. Comus dates from 1634, and the evidence (such 
 as it is) of style inclines editors to think that L! Allegro and 
 // Penseroso preceded the Masque. We can scarcely be wrong 
 in assuming that Milton was in the country at the time when 
 he wrote them; and as it is certain that he returned to his 
 father's house in Buckinghamshire in 1632, we may with 
 tolerable safety accept that year (or 1633) as the date, and 
 Horton as the scene, of the composition of these companion 
 pieces. 
 
 It is natural to think of // Penseroso as the later: yet, 
 
 probably, it was conceived, if not actually com- 
 
 "HPetutrvscr posed, first: for this reason. With Milton the 
 
 precedes . ' . 
 
 "L* Allegro" impulse to write is often external. Some special 
 event stimulates his imagination, and the outcome 
 is a Lycidas, an Epitaphium Damonis; or he takes up his pen 
 at the petition of a friend, as in the case of Comusj or he 
 happens to read in the work of another poet the inadequate 
 handling of an attractive theme, sees how much more forcibly 
 it might be treated, and treats it. A tiny spark is enough to 
 kindle his fancy. It was so with // Penseroso. There were two 
 / poems in praise of Melancholy which Milton must have known. 
 From them came the notion of depicting the life and idio- 
 syncrasy 'of the contemplative man; and afterwards it was a 
 natural sequence of ideas to conceive and sketch in sharp 
 contrast the opposite type, the man of social intercourse and 
 activity. It matters little on which of the canvases he first 
 began to work: to some extent they may have been filled in 
 
L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. xxix 
 
 side by side. There is so much studied antithesis throughout 
 the poems,*so many verbal touches in the one that throw into 
 strong relief the corresponding scene in the other, that we are 
 tempted to believe that Milton must often have altered or 
 inserted details in, say, L2 Allegro solely for the purpose of 
 pointing its difference from // Penseroso. Be this as it may, 
 it is well to remember that, in all probability, Melancholy was 
 the forerunner of Mirth : she was the first to cast her spell over 
 Milton's fancy. 
 
 One of the poems already alluded to in which may be 
 traced the germ of // Penseroso is the famous song 
 ' in the play 1 of The Nice Valour, beginning "Hence, The Song in 
 all you vain delights!", and having as its burden Valour 
 the sentiment, "Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely 
 melancholy." 
 
 The other piece is a set of verses prefixed to Burton's 
 Anatomy of Melancholy. It bears the title, "The 
 Author's Abstract of Melancholy." The stanzas t 
 are written in the same four-foot measure as // %wfom " 
 Penseroso, and recall the latter not merely in their 
 general purport, but even in occasional resemblances of lan- 
 guage 2 . They give the scholar's view of the isolated, studious 
 
 1 By Fletcher. The play was not printed till 1647, but the song 
 had been written many years before and inserted in it. According to 
 tradition, Beaumont (who died in 1616) was the author of the lines. 
 Sir Walter Scott praised them very highly. See his Journal, 
 under the date May 10, 1826: "Baron Weber, the great composer, 
 wanted me (through Lockhart) to compose something to be set to music 
 by him... I have recommended instead Beaumont and Fletcher's un- 
 rivalled Song in the Nice Valour , ' Hence, all ye vain desires,'" vol. I. 
 190; cf. also i. 54. The suggestion did not come to anything. 
 
 2 This is an example : 
 
 "When to myself I act and smile, 
 With pleasing thoughts the time beguile, 
 By a brookside or wood so green, 
 Unheard, unsought for, or unseen." 
 Cf. L'AL 58 and // Pen. 65. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 life. He balances the pleasures and pains, and finally arrives 
 at the conclusion anticipated by the song- writer: . 
 
 "All my joys to this are folly, 
 Naught so sweet as melancholy." 
 
 There is no denying that these poems were read by Milton 
 and furnished the seed out of which sprang // Penseroso; and 
 that in turn led to L? Allegro 1 . It should be added 2 also that 
 the concluding couplets "These delights if thou canst give," 
 and "These pleasures, Melancholy, give" are intentional 
 echoes of the Elizabethan lyric 3 " Come live with me," the last 
 stanza of which runs : 
 
 "The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing 
 For thy delight each May morning: 
 If these delights thy mind may move, 
 Then live with me, and be my love." 
 
 There is some difference of opinion as to the construction or 
 scheme of L? Allegro and its counterpart. "Each," 
 oUAUegro" sa y s Dr Masson, " describes an ideal day a day of 
 "wso" 1 PeH ' twelv - e hours." This theory that the events of each 
 piece are limited to a single day is not very satis- 
 factory. It involves us in considerable difficulties towards the 
 
 1 Cf. Sir Egerton Brydges, a very reliable critic: "it is clear that 
 they (i.e. L?Al. and // Pen.) were suggested by the poem prefixed to 
 'Burton's Anatomic of Melancholy,' and a song in the * Nice Valour' 
 of Beaumont and Fletcher. " 
 
 a Perhaps Sylvester ought not to be passed over. He deserves the 
 credit of having supplied verbal hints for several passages; see the 
 notes on VAl. 26, // Pen. i, 8, 43, 147. His influence is traceable 
 throughout Milton's early poems, and in some parts of Paradise Lost. 
 
 8 By Christopher Marlowe ; it is printed in full in England's 
 Helicon, 1600, and subscribed with his name ; four stanzas had appeared 
 anonymously in . the Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, with certain variations 
 of reading. Isaac Walton, who thought it "old-fashioned poetry but 
 choicely good," attributes it to Marlowe (Complete Angler, 1653). Cf. 
 also The Nymph's Reply (or Lovers Answer), ascribed to Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. See Dyce's Marlowe, or Bullen's ed., where the text of the 
 song is collated. 
 
L'ALLEGRO AND TL PENSEROSO. xxxi 
 
 end of 1} Allegro, while in // Penseroso the awkwardness is even 
 greater. Indeed I cannot reconcile it with the t,ext of the latter. 
 It leaves out of count the first sixty lines and makes the student 
 begin his ideal day at moonlight. But we will quote Dr 
 Masson's own summary of the poem from line 61 onwards: 
 "It is the song of the nightingale that is first heard; lured 
 by which the youth walks forth in moonlight, seeing all objects 
 in their silver aspect, and listening to the sounds of nightfall. 
 Such evening or nocturnal sights and sounds it is that befit the 
 mood of melancholy. And then, indoors again we follow the 
 thoughtful youth, to see him, in his chamber, where the embers 
 glow on the hearth, sitting meditatively, disturbed by no sound, 
 save (for it may be a town that he is now in) the drowsy voice 
 of the passing bellman. Later still, or after midnight, we may 
 fancy him in some high watch-tower, communing, over his 
 books, with old philosophers, or with poets, of grave and tragic 
 themes. In such solemn and weirdly phantasies let the whole 
 night pass, and let the morning come, not gay, but sombre and 
 cloudy, the winds rocking the trees, and the rain-drops falling 
 heavily from the eaves. At last, when the sun is ap, the 
 watcher, who has not slept, may sally forth; but it is to lose 
 himself in some forest of monumental oaks or pines, where 
 sleep may overtake him recumbent by some waterfall. And 
 always, ere he rejoins the mixed society of men, let him pay his 
 due visit of worship to the Gothic catliedral near, and have 
 his mind raised to its highest by the music of the pealing 
 organ V 
 
 Would anyone regard this as an ideal day? and does the 
 text admit of the interpretation? The enjoyments and occu- 
 pations described in 11. 73 85 are not successive: they are 
 alternative. It is surely more natural to suppose that Milton 
 is describing the main tenour of the respective lives of L' Allegro 
 and II Penseroso ; the pleasurable experiences and pursuits not 
 of any particular twelve hours, but of each man's career as a 
 whole. L' Allegro may wander over the countryside on a spring- 
 morning, but it is not necessarily on the self-same day that he 
 
 1 Globe edition of Milton, p. 410. 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 joins in the "pomp and feast and revelry;" nor need we hurry 
 him away from the Masque because " the well-trod stage " must 
 be visited that very evening 1 . They are different episodes, 
 to be referred to different occasions : to-day it is one pleasure, a 
 village-festival to-morrow another, a tournament * at barriers ;' 
 and through each poem runs no more than a slender thread of 
 connection whereon the poet strings together the several phases 
 and relaxations of the two contrasted lives. 
 
 A word may be said as to the metre of the poems. The 
 
 first ten lines of each form a passage of invocation 2 . 
 
 The verses, though uniformly composed of iambic 
 feet, are irregular in length. Afterwards Milton adopts and 
 adheres to the simple, four-foot, rhymed couplet in which the 
 iambic predominates. Chaucer had used the measure in the 
 House of Fame, the Romaunt of the Rose^ and elsewhere ; it is 
 not uncommon in Jonson's Masques 3 , perhaps because the 
 rhythm was well adapted to musical setting; and Milton had 
 recourse to it later in several of the passages for recitative in 
 Comus. 
 
 1 Dr Masson's view as to the "ideal day" (which Mr Stopford 
 Brooke also adopts) does not readily suit L?Al. 119 134. It supposes 
 the cheerful man to have returned from the rustic holiday-making to 
 the town at nightfall ; then follow tournaments and combats of wit, a 
 procession, feasting, revelry, a masque, a pageant, and a visit to the 
 playhouse. But this could not be crowded into a single evening. 
 Accordingly Dr Masson explains that the lines do not refer to actual 
 participation in these diversions : they are merely a resume of L' Allegro's 
 studies a sketch of his " fit reading indoors." This interpretation 
 seems to me to lose a most important point in the characterisation of 
 the two types of men. See note on ISA I. \ 19. 
 
 2 Cf. the Song on May Morning, where Milton first describes the 
 morning (in iambics), and then apostrophises her (in trochaics) ; an 
 example of his carefulness even in trifles, the whole poem being of but 
 ten lines. 
 
 8 Cf. the beautiful passage in The Penates, 
 
 "If all the pleasures were distilled 
 Of every flower in every field" etc. 
 
L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. xxxiii 
 
 Some of the lines have been pronounced 1 trochaic rather 
 than iambic, and the following are quoted as examples : 
 "Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 Jest and youthful Jollity." 
 
 But the probable explanation of these verses is, that the first 
 foot is formed of a single syllable, the scansion being thus : 
 
 " Haste | thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 Jest | and youthful Jollity." 
 
 Milton may have borrowed the device (which occurs fre- 
 quently in L Allegro, less often in // Penseroso] from Chaucer 2 , 
 who has plenty of similar instances. It is an extremely effective 
 trick, lending to the rhythm a peculiarly dainty, tripping lilt, 
 besides varying the flow of the lines which would be monotonous 
 were the iambic norm rigidly observed 3 . 
 
 What are the types of character that Milton intended to 
 depict, and wherein lies the difference between 
 them? 
 
 The questions, often asked, are not very easy 
 to answer. To us it seems that LVUlegro stands for the careless 
 man who goes through life taking its pleasures as tfrey rnme, 
 avoiding its dark places, andnever stopping to ask what itjill 
 means? llFenseroso, on the other hand, is the contemplative O-.. 
 man in whom the tendency to reflect has paralysed_thejjawer, 
 or_desire, to^act. Jbof L' Allegro life means pleasure. ~ " 
 His philosophy is summed up in Wordsworth's 
 notion of "the joy in widest commonalty spread:" joy in nature 
 when she smiles and reflects his mood of content; joy in the 
 sights and sounds of the fields ; in witnessing the happiness of 
 
 1 E.g. by Todd. See ante, p. xxviii. 
 
 1 See Professor Skeat's supplement to Tyrwhitt's "Essay on the 
 Language and Versification of Chaucer," Aldine ed. I. 193 195. 
 The nine-syllable lines in the Canterbury Tales may be explained on 
 the same principle. Chaucer argued that if "the omission of the initial 
 syllable did not spoil the harmony of the verse of four accents... it would 
 not do so in a verse vifivc accents" (Skeat). 
 
 3 Gray in his Observations on English metre has some remarks on 
 the versification of these poems (Works, Gosse's ed. I. 333). 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 others; in fellowship with the world; in all amusements that 
 gratify the eye with radiance of light and colour; in harmonies 
 that, like the enchanted cup of Comus, bathe the soul in bliss. 
 Whatever path he treads, wherever his footsteps turn, the goal 
 that he reaches is pleasure : pleasure free from sensuality, but 
 still mere pleasure. It is life from the sunny side, from the 
 standpoint of a child. There is no hint of reflection, no con- 
 sciousness of aught being amiss in the world. Everything 
 disagreeable is kept out of sight: he moves through a garden 
 of delight "from whose gates sorrow flies far." YQU cannot well 
 be contemplative amid the turmoil of a village-fete ; or at the 
 theatre when the 'humours* of Ben Jonson hold the scene; 
 or on the night of a Court- Masque at Whitehall when the 
 imagination is intoxicated with the lights and splendid dresses 
 and perfumes, and a thousand things of grace and brilliance. 
 But this is the best that life, as understood by L' Allegro, can 
 offer : and amidst it all there is no room or season for reflection. 
 With_Il Penseroso reflection is the first word and the last: 
 every road leads thither. It is for this that he 
 
 // Petiseroso. = * : . ^, 
 
 draws apart from other men ; the commonplaces of 
 social intercourse would disturb him. The powers he invokes 
 to his aid are Peace, and Quiet, and Leisure. He is abstinent 
 in order that the material element may not cloud his clearness 
 of vision. His "ideal day" knows no kind of action. He finds 
 solace in nature, but only when nature will minister to his 
 love of meditation 1 : she must wear her most sombre robe to 
 harmonise with his sombre thought, and take from him "the 
 likeness of his look." Like L'Allegro he turns to music not 
 however that music may lull, rather that it may stimulate, the 
 mind, and vouchsafe a revelation of what is beyond the world. 
 Unlike L'Allegro he seeks no distracting recreation : his keenest 
 pleasure lies in books that provide for him lofty matter of 
 reflection, illuminate hard problems of philosophy, and bring 
 him into communion with great thinkers. Under whatsoever 
 
 1 Though the prevailing mood of II Penseroso is called Melancholy 
 it is really what Gray speaks of as " white Melancholy, or rather Leuco* 
 choiy" (Works> Gosse's ed. II. 114). 
 
L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. xxxv 
 
 aspect we view II Penseroso he is the man of reflection, to 
 whom the fever and fret of the outside world are vanity. This, 
 therefore, differentiates the types that the one rrTan is always 
 reftective ; the other, never. 
 
 \_Nor_can anyone fail to see on which side Milton's sympathies 
 lie. II Penseroso is Milton himself: the poem 1 is 
 a picture, scarcely idealised, of the life which he 
 was leading at Horton, and but for the troubles of 
 the time might have continued to lead. Such self- 
 portraiture would have been interesting in any case ; but its 
 value is increased tenfold when we remember the external 
 circumstances of the period. They must have affected Milton. 
 He must have felt that the character of L' Allegro might, with 
 slight changes or additions, be made to typify the careless, 
 pleasure-seeking spirit of the Cavaliers and Court; the spirit 
 which he afterwards figured in Comus and his followers, and 
 condemned to destruction. On the other hand, II Penseroso 
 was no embodiment of Puritanism. He represented an ideal 
 of culture and reflective enjoyment of life far removed from the 
 gloomy Puritan ideal. Milton, in truth, steered a middle course 
 between the two parties into which the nation was rapidly being 
 split up. The crisis which should force him to choose one side 
 or the other had not yet come, though // Penseroso is an 
 indication of the camp into which he would be driven when the 
 necessity for action did arrive. 
 
 It is a remark of the French critic, Scherer, that the language 
 of Milton is not merely beautiful, but full of the 
 charm which springs from words toujours justes Popularity 
 
 , , , . . , /-,/-, andinftuence 
 
 dans leur beautij that his verse, in fact, fulfils the of the Poems. 
 requirements of Coleridge's definition of poetry 
 the right words in the right places. This is conspicuously 
 true of L Allegro and // 'Penseroso: they possess the quality 
 of verbal felicity which imprints fine poetry irresistibly on 
 the memory. The words have flowed together into a har- 
 
 1 Several autobiographical passages of the prose-works, e.g. the 
 whole of the introduction to the second book of The Reason of Church 
 Government, P. IV. \\. 473 482, illustrate the poem very directly, 
 
XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 monious unity that nothing can dissever. And this is shown by 
 the fact that so much of the language of the poems has passed 
 into the currency of every-day speech. Many phrases have 
 become quotations, heard on the lips of people who have no 
 knowledge of the source whence they come. In the same way, 
 echoes of U Allegro and // Penseroso strike on our ear in the 
 works of poets the most widely different in style. No pieces of 
 lyric verse have been so often imitated 1 : but for them much 
 verse would never have been written. Not only the dei minores 
 of xvinth century verse the Wartons 2 and Masons are taken 
 captive by the spell of Milton : the great masters Dryden and 
 Pope, Collins and Gray come to this storehouse of perfect 
 diction and bear away prize on prize. Writers who can agree 
 
 1 Sir Egerton Brydges writes, "When Milton's poems were revived 
 into notice about the middle of the last century, these two short lyrics 
 became, I think, the most popular." Joseph Warton spoke of them as 
 "universally known," attributing this popularity to the fact that they 
 had been "set to admirable music by Mr Handel" (music that is now 
 rarely performed). Till then (he said) L? Allegro and // Penseroso \ in 
 common with Milton's other lyric pieces, had had only "a few curious 
 readers. " (Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. ) It is not by any 
 means certain that Milton was so neglected as Warton thought ; among 
 men of letters at any rate his early works always found admirers. 
 
 They were imitated as early as 1650 (only five years after the publi- 
 cation of the first edition) in the Pocula Castalia of Robert Baron (the 
 writer who purloined long passages from Shakespeare). A little later 
 came Dryden. Addison quotes from V Allegro (see note on 1. u). 
 Pope's Pastorals in which Milton is often only paraphrased, appeared 
 in 1709. Dyer's Grongar Hill dates from 1726, and Dyer evidently 
 knew and studied L? Allegro and // Penseroso. Other proofs of Milton's 
 popularity from the middle of the xvnth century onwards might be 
 given. It is only with the later writers of this century that his iniluence 
 has declined. 
 
 2 T. Warton laboured at and edited Milton's early pieces until he 
 knew them by heart, so that when he tried to compose on his own 
 account (being Poet-Laureate) memory got the better of imagination. 
 His Ode on the Summer and Pleasures of Melancholy are full of phrases 
 from V Allegro and // PenserosQ, 
 
L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. xxxvn 
 
 in nothing else agree in admiring and borrowing from Milton. 
 Thus, we can scarcely doubt that L Allegro inspired Keats' 
 Ode to Fancy, and that // Penseroso was the "onlie begetter" 
 of Tennyson's address To Memory. 
 
 One other point must be noted. U Allegro and // Penseroso 
 are among the earliest examples in our literature 
 of the poetry of natural description. 1} Allegro in Milton's atti- 
 
 . tude towards 
 
 particular reveals Milton's love of nature, a very nature. 
 true and deep feeling, though it lacks the exaltation 
 of Wordsworth's nature-worship and the fidelity of Tennyson. 
 But these are qualities which we ought not to expect to find in 
 a xvnth century poet. The enthusiasm for nature which was 
 the very life and anima of Wordsworth's poetry is modern. 
 To Milton its vague pantheism would have been most dis- 
 tasteful. He would have regarded it as simply irreligious, 
 a phase of emotion which instead of looking through nature 
 to nature's God displaced the Creator in favour of the created. 
 
 Nor again did poets of that age study the phenomena of the 
 world around them with the close accuracy to which Tennyson 
 has accustomed us. They were content to convey general 
 impressions, true in essentials though incorrect in details. 
 
 Milton must be judged by their standard, and we cannot 
 deny him an appreciation of nature merely because an oc- 
 casional error may be detected in his descriptions, or because 
 the style strikes us now and then as fanciful and stilted. It is 
 natural to him to think in the language of classical writers. 
 He is too deeply imbued with the spirit of the ancients to be 
 quite free, and reminiscences of Homer or Vergil unconsciously 
 determine his manner. But sentiment is not less genuine 
 because the expression of it has a literary tinge. 
 
 v. M. 
 
XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Lycidas was composed in the autumn of 1637, and published 
 some time in 1638. It is an in memoriam poem, 
 and the circumstances which evoked it were as 
 follows. 
 
 On August the loth, 1637, a Fellow of Christ's College, 
 
 Cambridge, Edward King, was lost at sea. He 
 
 circumstances had been slightly junior to Milton at the Uni- 
 
 of^tts compost- ^ ers j t ^ b ut tnere mav have b een SO me intimacy, 
 
 possibly some friendship, between them. He seems 
 to have been a scholar of great promise and much beloved; 
 and when the news of his death was known at Cambridge in 
 the ensuing Michaelmas term his friends 1 decided to publish a 
 collection of elegiac verses as a quasi- official expression of the 
 University's regret at his early death. 
 
 Such collections were customary in the xvilth century. 
 
 When any event 2 of significance occurred especi- 
 Simiiar a iiy a royal birth, or wedding, or death the 
 
 collections of ' 
 
 verse. scholars and wits of Oxford and Cambridge in- 
 
 voked the Muses in rival strains. Many of these 
 anthologies may be seen on the shelves of College Libraries, 
 full (when the ear of royalty might be reached) of a robust 
 adulation that must often have smoothed the path to prefer- 
 ment. That Edward King should have been honoured by the 
 
 1 Amongst those who contributed poems were Henry King, after- 
 wards Bishop of Chichester, and Henry More, 'the Cambridge Platonist,' 
 both members of Christ's College; Joseph Beaumont, of Peterhouse, 
 author of the curious poem Psyche (reprinted by Dr Grosart) ; and 
 Cleveland of St John's, whose eulogy of King was perhaps the most 
 extravagant of all. 
 
 2 The death of Ben Jonson (in 1637) was marked by the issue 
 in this very year, 1638, of a volume of elegies entitled Jonsonus 
 Virbius. 
 
LYCIDAS. xxxix 
 
 issue of one of these tributes of academic elegy, usually reserved 
 for greater names, is a proof of the esteem in which he was held 
 at Cambridge. 
 
 The memorial oems were published in 1638, in a volume 
 divided into two sections. The first, filling thirty- 
 six pages, contains twenty-three pieces of Greek J^ c e am ' 
 and Latin verse; the title-page describes them as volume. 
 JUSTA EDOVARDO KING naufrago, ab Amicis 
 mcerentibus amoris & pvcias x^P lVt Their motto is chosen 
 from Petronius Arbiter si recte calculum ponas, ubique nau- 
 fragium est. They were printed Cantabrigice: apud celeberrimce 
 Academics typographos. 1638. 
 
 The English portion is shorter. It occupies twenty-five 
 pages, with thirteen poems, and the title runs, " Obsequies to 
 the Memorie of Mr EDWARD KING, Anno Dom. 1638. Printed 
 by Th. Buck, and R. Daniel, printers to the Universitie of 
 Cambridge, 1638." 
 
 Milton's poem is the last in the English section; it is intro- 
 duced with the title "Lycidas 1 ," and signed with the 
 initials * J. M." This, therefore, is the first edition 
 of Lycidas: we refer to it in the Notes and Ap- 
 pendix variously as the c Cambridge ed.' and the ' 1638 ed.' 
 
 Besides the poems the volume includes a brief preface 2 in 
 Latin, setting forth the manner of King's death. 
 He had sailed from Chester for Ireland where most ?%? of 
 of his relations were settled ; he himself had been 
 born at Boyle, county Roscommon, and his father had held 
 office as Secretary for Ireland under Elizabeth and the two 
 succeeding monarchs. Not far from the British coast the vessel 
 
 1 Prof. Masson says, "The last piece... is Milton's Lycidas. It... 
 has no title, or other formal separation from the pieces that precede 
 it." So Dr Bradshaw ("Milton's Lycidas is the last... without title or 
 other heading"), I. 330. That is to say, there is no descriptive title 
 such as ** Monody," the poem being merely introduced in this Cambridge 
 volume with the name " Lycidas" 
 
 2 Possibly by Joseph Beaumont. Some words in it read like a 
 translation of a verse in his poem. 
 
xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 struck on a rock 1 , sprang a leak, and sank. The narrative 
 says 2 that while other passengers were trying to save their lives 
 Edward King knelt on the deck, and was praying as the ship 
 went down. Some of those on board must have escaped, else 
 this fact would not have been known 3 . It is curious, I think, 
 that Milton should have made no allusion to an episode so 
 affecting, and for the purposes of the poet so effective. Other 
 contributors 4 to the volume mention it. Probably, however, 
 Milton had not heard full details of the accident. He was 
 living away from Cambridge at Horton and may have re- 
 ceived no more than a notice in general terms of King's death, 
 and an invitation to join his friends in lamenting the loss to the 
 College and University*. 
 
 1 Cf. the allusion in Beaumont's poem : 
 
 "O why was justice made so blind? 
 And rocks so fierce?" 
 
 2 Dum alii vec tores vita mortalis frustra satagerent \ immortakm 
 anhelans in genu provolutus oransque una cum navigio ab aquis ab- 
 sorptus animam deo reddidil. 
 
 3 Mr Jerram quotes a statement in the preface to William Hogg's 
 translation of Lycidas into Latin hexameters to the effect that some 
 of those on board the ship escaped in a boat which King refused to 
 enter. Hogg writing in 1694 may have handed on a tradition that had 
 survived from the previous generation. He was the author of the 
 
 ' version (also in hexameters) of Paradise Lost which William Lauder 
 used with such unhappy ingenuity. 
 .* E.g. W. More, who says : 
 
 "I heard 
 
 Who 'twas that on his knees the vessel steer'd 
 With hands bolt up to heaven;" 
 and Beaumont: 
 
 "his pure and loyall heart 
 Did in its panting bear no part 
 Of trembling fear; but having wrought 
 Eternall peace with every thought " etc. 
 
 5 It is possible that the volume in which Lycidas appeared was not 
 the only one of the kind to which Milton contributed. Warion had 
 been told that the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester was first 
 
LYCIDAS. xli 
 
 That an imperfect account had reached Milton appears to 
 me to be shown by a detail in his description of 
 the shipwreck which conflicts with the narrative ^^ seems 
 of one who must have been far better informed, incorrect. 
 viz. Henry King, the brother. Milton says (the 
 statement has become a tradition) that the vessel was wrecked in 
 perfectly calm weather. But it is not stated so in the Latin 
 preface : all we read there is, hand procul a littore Britannico, 
 navi in scopulum allisa et rimis ex ictu fatiscente... Now if 
 we turn to the Cambridge volume and look at the poem by 
 Henry King, we find it very clearly implied that the ship 
 foundered during stormy weather. The writer compares his 
 family to a spreading tree of which his brother, 
 
 "the fairest arm, 
 Is torn away by an unluckie storm 1 . 
 
 This agrees with the preface : the ship was driven on the rock 
 during a gale. Further, the lines in Lycidas that refer to the 
 
 printed in a Cambridge collection of elegiac poems on her death; and 
 some lines (55 60) point that way. How Milton ever came to com- 
 pose that Ode has always been a subject of speculation with his editors. 
 I would suggest that it was written under circumstances somewhat 
 similar to those which inspired Lycidas; that is, through Milton's 
 connection with Christ's College. The Marchioness of Winchester was 
 a daughter of Viscount Savage, of Cheshire: her mother being the 
 eldest daughter of the Earl of Rivers. There were among Milton's 
 fellow students at Christ's College two brothers named Rivers, sons of 
 Sir John Rivers, a Kentish Baronet. Milton alludes quibblingly to their 
 name in the Vacation Exercise^ 91 ("Rivers, arise"), a point first 
 noted by Mr W. G. Clark, of Trinity. Possibly they were connected 
 with the family of Rivers from which the mother of the Marchioness 
 was descended : they may have been cousins of the Marchioness who 
 was about their age : if so, we may hazard the guess that Milton wrote 
 the Elegy at their request. 
 1 So the same poem : 
 
 " But oh ! his fatall love did prove too kind, 
 To trust the treacherous waves and careless wind, 
 Which did conspire to intercept this prize." 
 
xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 shipwreck merely suggest that the "fatal bark" was unsea- 
 worthy. There is no hint of the true cause of the disaster ; 
 there is indeed no definiteness whatever in the description. 
 We are only told that the vessel sank, and the fact is accounted 
 for by a poetic theory of its having rested under a primal curse 
 since the day when it was "built in the eclipse." As to the 
 fair weather, it was, very likely, a mere fiction, happy enough 
 artistically since it heightens the pathos of the scene, but 
 assumed by Milton because the episode fell at the beginning 
 of August when in theory the sea ought to have been calm, 
 whatever it was in fact. 
 
 For students of Milton the text of Lyridas possesses unusual 
 T ^ f interest We have the original MS. preserved at 
 
 Trinity; the Cambridge edition of 1638; a copy 1 
 of this edition in the University Library, with corrections in 
 Milton's hand-writing; and the 1645 edition of Milton's early 
 poems. This last version, identical 2 with the issue of 1673, 
 represents the final revision of Lycidas. It offers a good 
 many differences of reading from the MS. and the first (1638) 
 edition. 
 
 The MS., no doubt, is the original draft. It is full of careful 
 
 corrections 3 which enable us to trace the successive 
 Th^Onstnai sta g es m ^ composition of certain passages. 
 
 These corrections are two-fold : those that preceded 
 the issue of the poem in 1638, those that followed. That some 
 of the changes were made at a later date is proved by the fact 
 
 1 The history of this volume is not known. The corrections, how- 
 ever, are certainly in Milton's hand-writing, as comparison of them 
 with the undoubted MS. at Trinity shows. They are not numerous; 
 Milton may have made them at the time when he inserted the later 
 changes in the MS. 
 
 2 Identical save for one or two errata in the 1673 ed.; e.g. in line 
 65, where "to tend" is misprinted " to end," 
 
 8 The earliest complete collation of the MS. is (I believe) Todd's. 
 Many, however, of the variations were recorded by Newton, who, in 
 securing accuracy of text, did for Milton, on a smaller scale, what 
 Theobald did for Shakespeare. Part of the MS. is reproduced in 
 facsimile in Mr Leigh Sotheby's book on Milton's autograph. 
 
LYCIDAS. xliii 
 
 that in several instances where the MS. has been altered, the 
 1638 ed. gives the original, erased reading, and not that which 
 Milton substituted in the margin. As a clear example we may 
 take line 26. Milton first wrote "glimmering eyelids of the 
 Morn;" glimmering was corrected to opening: yet in the 1638 
 ed. we find glimmering. There is a similar case in 1. 30; 
 another in 1. 31. 
 
 The Title of the poem is part of this subsequent revision. 
 In the first instance the MS. was headed "Lycidas : 
 Novemb. 1637." The month and date are crossed 
 out. To the 1645 ed. Milton prefixed the long sub-title, "In 
 this monodie" etc. It may be conjectured that the addition 
 was made for two reasons: first, because to the general public, 
 who had never heard of Edward King, the point of the poem 
 would not be very clear without some explanation of the peculiar 
 circumstances which led to its composition ; secondly, because 
 in 1645 Milton would not fear to announce openly that the 
 elegy contained an attack on the Church and a prophecy of 
 its downfall, a prediction which might then have been con- 
 sidered partially fulfilled. Now in the MS. this sub-title is 
 written in a cramped hand at the top of the sheet where there 
 is barely room for it ; and we may assume that it was when this 
 insertion was made that the words "Novemb. 1637" were 
 struck out. 
 
 It is perhaps worth while to suggest that this new title and 
 the later readings in the body of the MS. date from 
 16441645. Milton had kept the MS. by him, and 
 when the publisher Moseley proposed the issue of 
 all his early poems, he went through Lycidas again, recorrecting 
 parts, and (not impossibly) transferring some of the new readings 
 to his own copy of the 1638 edition. So, at least, we are inclined 
 to think. 
 
 There is but one noticeable feature in the metrical structure 
 of Lycidtts: that is Milton's use of lines of irregular 
 length grouped in what Prof. Masson happily terms 
 ^ free musical paragraphs^ where the rhvjhm and 
 cadence r>f th** vprg^g wpjt iip<">" and echo thje_feelings of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 speaker. The source whence Milton borrowed this device was 
 pointed outby Johnson. "Milton's acquaintance," he says, 
 speaking of Lycidas^ "with the Italian writers may be discovered 
 by a mixture of longer and shorter verses, according to the rules 
 of Tuscan poetry." Compare also Lander's words : " No poetry 
 so harmonious (i.e. as Lycidas) had ever been written in our 
 language, but in the same free metre both Tasso 1 and Guarini 2 
 had captivated the- ear of Italy 3 ." Many years later Milton 
 employed the same artifice ("but oh! the heavy change!") in 
 the choruses of Samson Agonistes, the preface to which dis- 
 cusses this irregular type of versification, and describes it as 
 'unfettered' (Apolelymenon). It has one great merit (at least 
 in the hands of Milton) that the variations in the length of the 
 metre may be made to refjfnt thf> shifting passions which the 
 ^subject inspires. Emotion seems to find \\* pyarfr ^gwvalfrtt in 
 verbal expression. 
 
 If the metre of Lycidas was not original neither was the . 
 
 manner. The monody is a study in that pastoral 
 Pastoral style which originated, apparently, with Theocritus, 
 
 widened its scope and range in the hands of Vergil, 
 and then for centuries fell out of currency. The general re- 
 vival of letters and culture which we term the Renaissance had 
 recalled it to life, or at least to artificial activity. 
 
 The Renewed interest in bucolic verse came from Italy. 
 
 During the xvth and xvith centuries much Latin 
 1 m verse was composed in imitation of Theocritus and 
 
 Vergil by Italian savants and poetasters; while 
 the later of these centuries produced three famous works, 
 written in Italian, which represented, by different methods, 
 
 1 E.g. in the choruses of his pastoral drama, Aminta. 
 \ 2 E.g. in the Pastor Fido. 
 
 3 Works, IV. 499 (ed. 1876). Cf. also his verses On Swift Joining 
 Avon : 
 
 "I watch thy placid smile, nor need to say 
 That Tasso wove one looser lay, 
 And Milton took it up to dry the tear 
 Dropping on Lycidas' bier." 
 
LYCIDAS. xlv 
 
 different aspects of pastoralism. These were the Arcadia of ' 
 Sannazaro, 1504; Tasso's dramatic pastoral Aminta, performed 
 at Ferrara in 1573; and the Pastor Fido, 1585, of Guarini, 
 Tasso's contemporary and to some extent rival. These works 
 gave in their several ways great vogue to a type of poetry which 
 appealed strongly to cultured, academic tastes from the very 
 fact that it had always been intensely artificial a literary, 
 idealised presentment of scenes which could never, under any 
 conditions of primitive society, have had any veritable counter- 
 part in real life. 
 
 Italy being at that time the guide whose example in literature 
 the rest of Europe followed, the Italian cultivators 
 of the pastoral soon found imitators in Spain and 'i^Engiattd" 1 
 Portugal, in France and England. The first 
 tentative essays of English writers 1 had no great significance. 
 It was with the Shepheards Calender that this classical re- 
 vival first became firmly established on English soil, and the 
 Shepheards Calender is remarkable for its genuinely bucolic *- 
 simplicity. Herein it differed from the Italian pastoral. Italian 
 writers, for the most part scholars composing for scholarly 
 audiences, had affected an artificial method, developing the 
 literary element in the Greek Idyll, the element which reminds 1^ 
 us that Theocritus had breathed the atmosphere of Alexandrian 
 culture and criticism. Spenser endeavoured to 
 make his rural scenes natural and true to the life 
 he professed to paint. He introduced actual rustics talking *- 
 their own dialect. To increase the vraisemblanpe he was at 
 the pains to use archaic words and tricks of style not always 
 with the happiest results. He aimed, in fact, at realism of effect. 
 
 Among a certain class of writers 2 (mostly University men) 
 
 1 E.g. Barnabe Googe whose volume of miscellaneous poems, 
 EglogSi Epytaphes, and Sonettes (see Arber's Reprint] appeared in 
 J 563' It contains eight pastoral poems mostly in dialogue form: the 
 speakers, shepherds and shepherdesses; the themes discussed, love, 
 the evils of towns, the country-life etc. ; the verse full of old-fashioned 
 alliteration. 
 
 2 E.g. Phineas Fletcher, of King's College, Cambridge, whose 
 
xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Spenser was long a dominant influence, so that the Shepheards 
 Calender gave a great impetus to the pastoral, and that impetus 
 had not died away when Milton wrote Lycidas. Many years 
 later he told Dryden 1 that he regarded himself as the poetical 
 son of Spenser : and thus it may have -been the example of the 
 author of A strophe I 2 that led Milton to determine on pastoral 
 elegy as the most fitting vehicle of expressing regret at the 
 death of Edward King. 
 
 Regret, however, is the sentiment which some readers fail 
 
 to find in Lycidas: true grief, they say, would never 
 is "Lycidas" see k self- expression in the most artificial of poetic 
 "f /erwiai ^^ Lycidas, writes Johnson 3 , "is not to be con- 
 grief 1 sidered as the effusion of real passion ; for passion 
 
 runs not after remote allusions and obscure 
 opinions. Passion plucks no berries from the myrtle and ivy, 
 nor calls upon Arethuse and Mincius, nor tells of rough 'satyrs' 
 and * fawns with cloven heel/ Where there is leisure for fiction, 
 there is little grief." But this criticism seems to us to rest on 
 a wrong principle, identifying truth of art with truth of fact. 
 Many things are possible and expedient in art which in actual 
 life are wholly impossible. Art, since it works under restric- 
 tions, claims certain privileges, and a right to deviate from 
 the literal presentment of the world. So when grief elects to 
 express itself by the art of pastoral verse we must permit it to 
 do things of which it would never dream in real life: the two 
 spheres of actual and pastoral sorrow are different, and when 
 
 Piscatorie Eclogues are conspicuous examples of the pastoral marine*; 
 or Browne, of Exeter College, Oxford, author of Britannia's Pastorals. 
 
 1 See the preface to Dryden's Fables. 
 
 2 Spenser's Pastorall Elegie on Sir Philip Sidney. 
 
 3 Johnson's criticism of Lycidas has become too hackneyed to be 
 quoted at any length. We may note, however, that he only wrote in 
 the Life what he said in private. When Hannah More (as she relates 
 in her Diary] praised Lycidas^ Johnson "absolutely abused" it. But 
 he decried pastoral poetry as a whole, apparently from a personal 
 distaste for sheep: "an intelligent reader,^' he said, "sickens at the 
 mention" of them (Life of Shenstone). 
 
LYCIDAS. xlvii 
 
 the poet passes from the former he leaves behind him its 
 conditions and fetters. Milton, therefore, provided that he 
 abided by the laws^of the art^selected, was perfectly free to 
 clothe his regret if he felt regret in symbolism and allegory, 
 and to send it forth to the world decked in the imagery 
 which custom has consecrated to the aims of the pastoral 
 writer. 
 
 But it is quite possible that his sorrow only enjoyed a 
 courtesy-title : that Lycidas was never intended to 
 be the expression of deep, heart-felt sentiment. Milton and 
 
 Edward 
 
 Apart from the poem, we have no evidence which King. 
 should lead us to believe that Edward King was 
 his friend; but for Lycidas we should never have heard of King. 
 Diodati whom Milton mourned for in his other elegiac poem, 
 where genuine passion 1 rings unmistakeable, even in the accents 
 of a dead language ' dead ' only in theory, for Milton wields 
 it with a mastery which informs the Epitaphium with almost 
 Vergilian life and vigour Diodati we should always have 
 known to be the friend of Milton's boyhood and early man- 
 hood : in letters and other records there is abundant testimony 
 to their intimacy. With Edward King the case was otherwise. 
 He was junior to Milton : and if Lycidas speaks of their com- 
 munity of tastes and pursuits it does so merely because such 
 allusions are part of the machinery of these academic monodies, 
 dramatic * properties ' of the bucolic stage. 
 
 To us, therefore, Lycidas appears what we have already 
 called it " a study in the pastoral style." Milton 
 knew the Greek pastoral writers and their Latin 
 imitator, Vergil, by heart. He knew, in particular, 
 those poems the first Idyll ^i Theocritus and the Epitaphium 
 Bionis by Moschus which are models for all time of pasto- 
 ralism dedicated to the purposes of elegy and lament 8 . And 
 
 1 Johnson recognised little "vigour of sentiment" in Milton's Latin 
 
 poems: Mr Mark Pattison shows that this is [ jjl Mfii fta^lji in 
 
 which they excel (Life of Milton, 41). 
 
 2 The most elaborate poem in English prior to Lycidas in which the 
 effectiveness of such verse on its elegiac side had been shown was 
 
xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he had doubtless studied modern works, especially Italian, cast 
 in the same vein. Here was an opportunity of weaving this 
 knowledge into an exquisite fabric of learning and literary 
 suggestion and artistic pathos. Nothing could have been more 
 appropriate to the occasion : but we have no means of pene- 
 trating behind the scenes and deciding whether the emotion is 
 personal or * dramatic.' 
 
 There iS, however, one subject on which Milton lets the 
 reader know what he thought in entirely unam- 
 . biguous language :_namely, the_ corruption of the 
 JEstablished Church. No one carTmistaKe the drift 
 of lines 118131, or the spirit that animates them. The 
 passage has been much censured, and from the standpoint of 
 art seems indefensible. First, it is a digression, distracting 
 attention from the main theme of th poem mtcPa"" wholly 
 different channel: the fact that Edward King had^mtended to 
 take orders in the Church scarcely justifies the insertion of a 
 long invective against the abuses of that institution 1 . Under 
 any circumstances, whatever the style of the poem, an episode 
 of this kind would be objectionable. But here amid bucolic 
 imagery and pagan dramatis personae Christianity can have no 
 place : it would be hard to conceive greater incongruity of effect, 
 
 Watson's poem on the death of Walsingham. He first composed it 
 in Latin, striving to copy Vergil much as Vergil had copied Theocritus; 
 and afterwards he translated it into rnymed English verse, and published 
 it with the Latin in 1590. From one or two passages in Lycidas it 
 might be inferred that Milton^ad read Watson's work (which Prof. 
 Arber has reprinted). 
 
 1 We may conjecture that Milton's remarks must have been dis- 
 "tasteftrMe at least one of his fellow-contributors, viz. J. Hayward, Canon 
 of Lichfield, whose poem was a long address to Edward King's sister, 
 Lady Margaret Loder, celebrating her zeal on behalf of the Church, 
 and declaring, amongst other things to the same effect, that 
 "Our Cathedralls to a beamlesse eye 
 Are quires of Angels in epitomie, 
 Maugre the blatant beast, who cries them down 
 As favouring of superstition." 
 
 ' 
 
LYCIDAS. xlix 
 
 and the only defence that can be offered is, that this blending 
 of Christian sentiment and association with paganism had long 
 been a tradition with pastoral writers. 
 
 We find it in the Eclogues of Mantuan 1 ; in the Latin elegiac 
 poetry of Italian 2 scholars with whom references 
 to the contemporary Church and State are freely Christianity 
 interspersed among pictures of the Theocritean ^ v 
 world; and in the Shepheards Calender^ the fifth verse. 
 (Eglogue* of which shadows forth, under the 
 slightest of disguises, the orthodox contrast between Romanism 
 and its rival. Milton could at least plead the privilege of 
 custom 4 , and he took full advantage of it 6 . 
 
 We cannot assume that what he writes was meant to apply 
 to the whole Church. He limits it to the corrupt 
 elements, though a few years later he regarded the "The pilot of 
 
 . . ..... the Galiltean 
 
 corruption as universal. Nor is it a fair inference lake" 
 from his description of St Peter that his sympathies 
 lay with episcopacy. Dramatic propriety required that the 
 Apostle should be invested with all the circumstance and pomp 
 of his office the mitre and the fatal keys since by heightening 
 
 1 The Carmelite Baptista Spagnolus, commonly called Mantuan 
 in old writers from the fact that he lived at Mantua. His Eclogues 
 were translated into English by George Turberville, about 1567; see 
 Arber's Reprint. His influence on this type of verse was very great; 
 the Glosst to the Shepheards Cal. quotes his authority more than once 
 (see the "Globe" Spenser, 451, 476, 478). 
 
 2 Cf. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy ("Revival of Learning"), n. 
 486498; especially p. 491. Mr Symonds raises the question whether 
 Milton was familiar with these writers. 
 
 3 Milton refers to it approvingly in the Animadversions ; quoting 
 the passage "The time was once," down to "baile nor borrowe," 
 twenty-nine lines in all P. W. in. 84 85. 
 
 4 As another example we might mention Fletcher's Piscatorie 
 Eclogues where the Clergy are denounced in the character of fishermen 
 neglectful of their duty; see Eclogue IV. 14 19, Grosart's ed. II. 274 
 276. 
 
 6 Mr Mark Pattison observes (30, 31) that the lines referred to are 
 a foretaste the first we get of Milton's stern, political mood. 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the dignity of those who mourned for Lycidas the poet paid 
 honour to him : religion and learning alike bent over his tomb, 
 the one symbolised by the head of the Catholic Church, the 
 other by the spokesman of Edward King's University. Truly, 
 he was fortunate in his elegist. 
 
 Once elsewhere in Lycidas the personal note interrupts the 
 
 even monotone of the Elegy. It is surely not fan- 
 
 Tke allusion ciful to detect in lines 64 69 a complaint that 
 
 to contempo- + *^?n- T-. -r .,, , , 
 
 rary poets. poetry had fallen on trifling times when all the 
 "qualities which in Milton's view were essential to 
 the poet sobriety of life, learning, earnestness of thought 
 counted for nothing in popular esteem. As we read this passage 
 we remember the introduction to the second book 1 of The Reason 
 of Church Government (than which? Milton's proseworks contain 
 nothing more valuable), where he contrasts two types of poets : 
 showing us on the one hand "the vulgar amourist" whose 
 inspiration is "the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine;" 
 and on the other the scholar and seer who gives himself over 
 to study and the mastery of all arts and sciences that illuminate 
 the mind, and " devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can 
 enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his 
 seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify 
 the lips of whom he pleases." It is under this type that he 
 directly classes himself : and to the former that he indirectly 
 assigns in Lycidas^ 64 69, the Sucklings and Herricks and 
 Cavalier song-writers. Unhappily, the public voice, the voice at 
 any rate of fashion, was on their side : for his poetry there was 
 no audience 2 . 
 
 1 />. W. ii. 4 8r. 
 
 2 Was this why Milton was so slow to publish his poems? Up till 
 1645 only three had been printed, each under peculiar circumstances. 
 The lines On Shakespeare, unsigned and hidden away among the com- 
 mendatory verses prefixed to the second folio, 1632, scarcely count. 
 Comus was only printed because Henry Lawes grew tired of copying 
 the MS. for his friends. He, not Milton, was responsible for the edition. 
 It bore no name, so that Sir Henry Wotton had read the Masque 
 before he knew who its author was (see the Pitt Press ed. 10, 69) : the 
 
LYCIDAS. li 
 
 An Introduction to Lycidas cannot well omit mention, how- 
 ever brief, of those modern works which owe something to 
 Milton's elegy, and still more to the sources that inspired it. 
 The authors of Adonais and Thyrsis " fed on the self-same hill " 
 as the author of Lycidas: they too revive echoes of the Sicilian 
 shepherd-music; and apart from such general similarities as 
 we should expect where writers have chosen the same vehicle 
 of expression (in this case the most stereotyped and conventional 
 of methods), each has at least one point of contact with Milton. 
 Thyrsis, like Lycidas, presents an idealised picture of University- 
 life, and perhaps for sincerity and true feeling begotten of love 
 for the scenes described the advantage rests with the hand 
 which wrote the famous panegyric and apostrophe in the preface 
 to the Essays In Criticism. In the Adonais Shelley's invective 
 against the enemies of Keats recalls Milton's onslaught on the 
 Church: a subsidiary theme has kindled the fire of personal 
 feeling in each poem, and neither can be regarded as the conse- 
 cration of perfect friendship. The In Memoriam which is some- 
 times compared with these three elegies stands apart It is not 
 a pastoral, and it has a scope far beyond that of any poem of 
 lament : being, in fact, the writer's contribution to our " criticism 
 of life." 
 
 motto shows that Milton thought the publication premature. We have 
 seen that Lycidas appeared in a volume never likely to circulate much 
 outside Cambridge, and that it was only signed with initials. All Milton's 
 other early pieces (Nat. Ode, Arc., LAI., II Pen. etc.) were in MS. : 
 literature might have lost them had anything happened to him on his 
 Italian tour, or later amid the troubles of the Rebellion. Again, the 
 1645 edition was clearly due (cf. p. xvi) to the publisher Moseley, 
 not to Milton : once more the motto expressed his diffidence. Perhaps 
 there is no similar case of a poet composing such fine work, and with- 
 holding it so persistently from the public. The main reason, I take 
 it, was that Milton thought the public unworthy of the work. 
 
POEMS. 
 
 V. M. 
 
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 
 
 Composed 1629. 
 
 I. 
 
 * / 
 
 THIS is the month, and this the happy morn, 
 
 Wherein the Son of Heaven's eternal King, 
 Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born, 
 Our great redemption from above did bring; 
 For so the holy Sages once did sjng, / 
 
 That he our deadly forfeit should release, , 
 And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. 
 
 II. 
 
 That glorious form, that light unsufferable, 
 And that far-beamjng blaze of majesty, 
 Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table 10 
 To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, 
 He laid aside; and, here with us to be, 
 Forsook the courts of everlasting day, 
 And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. 
 
ON THE MORNING 
 
 III. 
 
 Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein 
 
 Afford a present to the Infant God? 
 
 Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, 
 
 To welcome him to this his new abode, 
 
 Now while the Heaven, by the sun's team untrod, 
 
 Hath took no print of the approaching light, ?o 
 
 And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 See how from far upon the eastern road 
 The star-led Wisards haste with odours sweet! 
 O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, 
 And lay it lowly at ' his blessed feet ; 
 Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet, 
 
 And join thy voice unto the angel quire, 
 From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire. 
 
 THE HYMN. 
 1. 
 
 s 
 
 It was the winter wild, , ^ 
 
 While the Heaven-born child I, x 30 
 
 _! meanly wrapt, in the, rude manger lies ; 
 \ Nature, in awe to him, 
 J Had doffed her gaudy trim, 
 {V^ith her great Master so to sympathize : 
 t was no season then for her t 
 
 wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.; 
 
OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 
 
 n. 
 
 Only with speeches fair 
 She woos the gentle air 
 To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, 
 
 And on her naked shame, 40 
 
 Pollute with sinful blame, 
 The saintly veil of maiden white to throw : 
 Confounded, that her Maker's eyes 
 Should look so near upon her foul deformities. 
 
 III. 
 
 But he, her fears to cease, 
 Sent down the meek-eyed Peace ; 
 She, crowned with olive green, came softly sliding 
 Down through the turning sphere, 
 His ready harbinger, 
 
 With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing; 50 
 
 And, waving wide her myrtle wand, 
 She strikes a universal peace through sea and land. 
 
 IV. 
 
 No war, or battle's sound, 
 Was heard the world around; 
 The idle spear and shield were high uphung; 
 The hooked chariot stood 
 Unstained with hostile blood ; 
 The trumpet spake not to the armed throng; 
 And kings sat still with awful eye, 
 As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60 
 
ON THE MORNING 
 
 V. 
 
 But peaceful was the night 
 Wherein the Prince of Light 
 His reign of peace upon the earth began : 
 The winds, with wonder whist, 
 Smoothly the waters kissed, 
 Whispering new joys to the mild ocean, 
 Who now hath quite forgot to rave, 
 While birds of calm, sit brooding on the charmed wave. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The stars, with deep amaze, 
 
 Stand fixed in steadfast gaze, 70 
 
 Bending one way their precious influence; 
 And will not take their flight, 
 For all the morning light, 
 Or Lucifer that often warned them thence; 
 But in their glimmering orbs did glow, 
 Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go. 
 
 VII. 
 
 And, though the shady gloom 
 Had given day her room, 
 The sun himself withheld his wonted speed; 
 
 And hid his head for shame, 80 
 
 As his inferior flame 
 
 The new-enlightened world no more should need : 
 He saw a greater sun appear 
 Than his bright throne or burning axletree could bear. 
 
OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The shepherds on the lawn, 
 Or ere the point of dawn, 
 Sat simply chatting in a rustic row ; 
 Full little thought they than 
 That the mighty Pan 
 
 Was kindly come to live with them below : 90 
 
 Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep. 
 Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep. 
 
 IX. 
 
 When such music sweet 
 Their hearts and ears did greet 
 As never was by mortal finger strook. 
 Divinely-warbled voice 
 Answering the stringed noise, 
 As all their souls in blissful rapture took : 
 The air, such pleasure loth to lose, 99 
 
 With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close. 
 
 X. 
 
 Nature, that heard such sound 
 Beneath the hollow round 
 Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrilling, 
 Now was almost won 
 To think her part was done, 
 And that her reign had here its last fulfilling: 
 She knew such harmony alone 
 Could hold all Heaven and Earth in happier union. 
 
ON THE MORNING 
 
 XL 
 
 At last surrounds their sight 
 
 A globe of circular light, no 
 
 That with long beams the shamefaced Night arrayed ; 
 The helmed Cherubim 
 And sworded Seraphim 
 
 Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displayed, 
 Harping in loud and solemn quire 
 With unexpressive notes to Heaven's new-born Heir. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Such music (as 'tis said) 
 Before was never made, 
 But when of old the Sons of Morning sung, 
 
 While the Creator great 120 
 
 His constellations- set, 
 
 And the well-balanced world on hinges hung; 
 And cast the dark foundations deep, 
 And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Ring out, ye crystal spheres, 
 Once bless our human ears, 
 (If ye have power to touch our senses so) ; 
 And let your silver chime 
 Move in melodious time, 
 
 And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow ; 130 
 And* with your ninefold harmony 
 Make up full consort to the angelic symphony. 
 
OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 For, if such holy song 
 Enwrap our fancy long, 
 
 Time will run back, and fetch the Age of Gold ; 
 And speckled Vanity 
 Will sicken soon and die, 
 
 And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; 
 And Hell itself will pass away, 
 And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. 140 
 
 XV. 
 
 Yea, Truth and Justice then 
 Will down return to men, 
 Orbed in a rainbow ; and, like glories wearing, 
 Mercy will sit between, 
 Throned in celestial sheen, 
 
 With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering; 
 And Heaven/ as at some festival, 
 Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But wisest Fate says no, 
 
 This must not yet be so ; 150 
 
 The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy, 
 That on the bitter cros 4 s 
 Must redeem our loss, 
 So both himself and us to glorify : 
 Yet first to those ^chained in 'sleep 
 The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep, 
 
10 ON' THE MORNING 
 
 XVII. 
 
 With such a horrid clang 
 As on Mount Sinai rang, 
 
 While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake: 
 The aged Earth, agast 160 
 
 With terror of that blast, 
 Shall from the surface to the centre shake ; 
 When at the world's last session 
 The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread -his throne. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 And then at last our bliss 
 Full and perfect is, 
 
 But now begins ; for, from this happy day, 
 The old Dragon under ground, 
 In straiter limits bound, 
 
 Not half so far casts his usurped sway ; 170 
 
 And, wrath to see his kingdom fail, 
 Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The oracles are dumb ; 
 '"No voice or hideous hum 
 
 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 
 Apollo from his shrine 
 Can no more divine, 
 
 With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
 No nightly trance, or breathed spell, 
 Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 180 
 
OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. n 
 
 xx. 
 
 The lonely mountains o'er, 
 And the resounding shore, 
 A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; 
 From haunted spring, and dale 
 Edged with poplar pale, 
 The parting Genius is with sighing sent: 
 With flower-inwoven tresses torn 
 The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 In consecrated earth, 
 
 And on the holy hearth, 190 
 
 The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; 
 In urns and altars round, 
 A drear and dying sound 
 Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint; 
 And the chill marble seems to sweat, 
 While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Peor and Baalim 
 Forsake their temples dim, 
 With that twice-battered god of Palestine; 
 
 And mooned Ashtaroth, 200 
 
 Heaven's queen and mother both, 
 Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine: 
 The Liby Hammon shrinks his horn ; 
 .In vain the Tyjrian maids their* wounded Thammuz mourn. 
 
12 ON THE MORNING 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 And sullen Moloch, fled, 
 Hath left in shadows dread 
 His burning idol all of blackest hue : 
 In vain with cymbals' ring 
 They call the grisly king, 
 
 In dismal dance about the furnace blue : 210 
 
 The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 
 Isis, and Orus^and the dog Anubis^ haste. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 <*/w - &wu^ ?V< 
 Nor is Qsirjs seen 
 
 In Memphian grove or green, 
 
 Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud ; 
 Nor can he be at rest 
 Within his sacred chest ; 
 
 Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud : 
 In vain with timbreled anthems dark 
 The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshiped ark. 220 
 
 XXV. 
 
 He feels from Juda's land 
 The dreaded Infant's hand; 
 The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn ; 
 Nor all the gods beside 
 Longer dare abide, 
 
 Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine : 
 Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, 
 Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew. 
 
OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. 13 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 So, when the sun in bed, \ 
 
 Curtained with cloudy rej^j 230 
 
 Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, 
 The flocking shadows pale 
 Troop to the infernal jail ; 
 Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave, 
 And the yellow-skirted fays 
 Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 But see ! the Virgin blest 
 
 Hath laid her Babe to rest : 
 Time is our tedious song should here have ending: 
 
 Heaven's youngest-teemed star 240 
 
 Hath fixed her polished car, 
 
 Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; 
 And all about the courtly stable 
 
 Bright-harnessed angels^ sit in order serviceable. 
 
 ^^^~ 
 
 
L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 \ 
 HENCE, loathed Melancholy, 
 
 Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born 
 In Stygian cave forlorn, 
 
 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy ! 
 Find out some uncouth cell, 
 
 Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, 
 And the night-raven sings ; 
 
 There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, 
 As ragged as thy locks, 
 
 In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 10 
 
 But come, thou Goddess fair and free, 
 In Heaven ycleped Euphrosyne, 
 And by men heart-easing Mirth; 
 Whom lovely Venus at a birth, 
 With two sister Graces more, 
 To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore : 
 Or whether (as some sager sing) 
 The frolic wind that breathes the spring, 
 Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 
 As he met her orrce a-Maying, 20 
 
L' ALLEGRO. 1$ 
 
 There on beds of violets blue, 
 
 And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, 
 
 Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 
 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonair. 
 
 Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 
 Jest and youthful Jollity, 
 
 Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, 
 
 Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, 
 
 Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
 
 And love to live in dimple sleek ; 30 
 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
 
 And Laughter holding both his sides. 
 
 Come, and trip it as ye go, 
 
 On the light fantastic toe ; 
 
 And in thy right hand lead 'with thee 
 
 The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; 
 
 And, if I give thee honour due, 
 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew, 
 
 To live with her, and live with thee, 
 
 In un reproved pleasures free; 40 
 
 .To hear the lark begin his flight, 
 
 And singing startle the dull night, 
 
 From his watch-tower in the skies, 
 
 Till the dappled dawn doth rise ; 
 
 Then to come, in spite of sorrow, 
 
 And at my window bid good-morrow, 
 
 Through the sweet-briar or the vine, 
 
 Or the twisted eglantine ; 
 .While the cock with lively din 
 
 Scatters the rear of Darkness thin; , 50 
 
 And to the stack, or the barn-door, 
 
 Stoutly struts his dames before: 
 
1 6 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Oft -listening how the hounds and horn 
 
 Cheerly rouse the slumbering Morn, 
 
 From the side of some hoar hill, 
 
 Through the high wood echoing shrill : 
 
 Sometime walking, not unseen, 
 
 By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, 
 
 Right against the eastern gate, 
 
 Where the great sun begins his state, 60 
 
 Robed in flames and amber light, 
 
 The clouds in thousand litferies dight ; 
 
 While the ploughman, near at 'hand, 
 
 Whistles o'er the furrowed land, 
 
 And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 
 
 And the mower whets his sithe, 
 
 And every shepherd, tells his tale 
 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
 
 Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
 Whilst the landskip round it measures : 70 
 
 Russet lawns, and fallows gray, 
 Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; 
 Mountains on whose barren breast 
 The labouring clouds do often rest ; 
 Meadows trim with daisies pied; 
 Shallow brooks, and rivers wide. 
 Towers and battlements it sees / 
 
 Bosomed high in tufted trees, 
 Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. 80 
 
 Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes 
 From betwixt two aged oaks, 
 Where Corydon and Thyrsis met 
 Are at their savoury dinner set 
 
L'ALLEGRO. i? 
 
 Of herbs and other country messes, 
 
 Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; 
 
 And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
 
 With Thestylis to bind the sheaves ; 
 
 Or, if the earlier season lead, 
 
 To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 
 
 Sometimes with secure delight 
 
 The upland hamlets will invite, 
 
 When the merry bells ring round, 
 
 And the jocund rebecks sound 
 
 To many a youth and many a maid 
 
 Dancing in the chequered shade ; 
 ^ And young and old come forth to play 
 . On a sunshine holiday, 
 
 Till the livelojig daylight fail : 
 
 Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, .00 
 
 With stories told of many a feat, 
 
 How fairy Mab the junkets eat : 
 
 She was pinched and pulled, she said ; 
 
 And he, by friar's lantern led, 
 
 Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 
 
 To earn his cream-bowl duly set, 
 
 When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, 
 
 His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 
 . That ten day-labourers could not end ; 
 
 Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, no 
 
 And, stretched out all the chimney's length, 
 
 Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
 
 And crop-full out of doors he flings, 
 
 Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
 
 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 
 
 By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. 
 
 V. M. 2 
 
1 8 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Towered cities please us then, 
 And the busy hum of men, 
 Where throngs of knights and barons bold, 
 In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, 
 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
 Rain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit, or arms, while both contend 
 To win her grace whom all commend. 
 .There let Hymen oft appear 
 In saffron robe, with taper clear, 
 And pomp, and feast, and revelry, 
 With masque and antique pageantry; 
 Such sights as youthful poets dream 
 On summer eves by haunted stream. 
 Then to the well-trod stage anon, 
 If Jonson's learned sock be on, 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
 Warble his native wood-notes wild, 
 
 And ever, against eating cares, 
 Lap me in soft Lydian airs 
 Married to immortal verse, 
 Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 
 In notes with many a winding bout 
 Of linked sweetness long drawn out 
 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 
 The melting voice through mazes running, 
 Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 The hidden soul of harmony ; 
 That Orpheus' self may heave his head 
 From golden slumber on a bed 
 Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear 
 Such strains as would have won the ear 
 
L'ALLEGRO. 19 
 
 Of Pluto to have quite set free 
 
 His half-regained Eurydicc. 150 
 
 These delights if thou canst give, 
 Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 
 
 22 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 HENCE, vain deluding Joys, 
 
 The brood of Folly without father bred ! 
 .How little you bested, 
 
 Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys ! 
 Dwell in some idle brain, 
 
 And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, 
 As thick and numberless 
 
 As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, 
 Or likest hovering dreams, 
 
 The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. jo 
 
 But hail ! thou Goddess sage and holy 1 
 Hail ! divinest Melancholy ! 
 Whose saintly visage is too bright 
 To hit the sense of human sight, 
 And therefore to our weaker view 
 O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; 
 Black, but such as in esteem 
 Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, 
 Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove 
 To set her beauty's praise above 20 
 
IL PENSEROSO 21 
 
 The sea nymphs, and their powers offended. 
 
 Yet thou art higher far descended : 
 
 Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore 
 
 To solitary Saturn bore ; 
 
 His daughter she (in Saturn's reign 
 
 Such mixture was not held a stain). 
 
 Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 
 
 He met her, and in secret shades 
 
 Of woody Ida's inmost grove, 
 
 Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 
 
 . Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, 
 
 Sober, stedfast, and demure, 
 
 All in a robe of darkest grain, 
 
 Flowing with majestic train, 
 ^And sable stole of cypress lawn 
 
 Over; thy decent shoulders drawn. 
 ; Come, but keep thy wonted state, 
 
 With even step,- and musing gait, 
 
 And looks commercing with the skies, 
 
 Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes : 40 
 
 There held in holy passion still, 
 
 Forget thyself to marble, till 
 
 With a sad leaden downward cast 
 
 Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 
 
 And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 
 
 Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet, 
 
 ^.nd hears the Muses in a ring 
 
 Aye round about Jove's altar sing. 
 
 And add to these retired Leisure, 
 
 That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; 50 
 
 But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
 
 Him that yon soars on golden wing, 
 
22 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 Guiding the fiery -wheeled throne, 
 
 The Cherub Contemplation; 
 
 And the mute Silence hist along, 
 
 'Less Philomel will deign a song, 
 
 In her sweetest saddest plight, 
 
 Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, 
 
 .While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke 
 
 Gently o'er the accustomed oak, 60 
 
 Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 
 Most musical, most melancholy ! 
 Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among 
 I woo, to hear thy even-song ; n 
 
 And, missing thee, I walk unseen 
 On the dry smooth-shaven green, 
 To behold the wandering moon, 
 Riding near her highest noon, 
 Like one that had been led .astray 
 Through the Heaven's wide pathless way, ;p 
 
 And oft, as if her head she bowed, 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 
 Oft, on a plat of rising ground, 
 I hear the far-off curfew sound, 
 Over some wide-watered shore 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar; 
 Or, if the air will not permit, 
 Some still removed place will fit, 
 Where glowing embers through the room 
 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 
 
 Far from all resort of mirth, 
 Save the cricket on the hearth, 
 Or the bellfnan's drowsy charm 
 To bless the doors from nightly harm. 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 23 
 
 Or let my lamp at midnight hour 
 
 Be seen in some high lonely tower, 
 
 Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, 
 
 With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere 
 
 The spirit of Plato to unfold 
 
 What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 
 
 The immortal mind that hath forsook 
 
 Her mansion in this fleshly nook ; 
 
 And of those daemons that are found 
 
 In fire, air, flood, or under ground, 
 
 Whose power hath a true consent 
 
 With planet, or with element. 
 
 Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
 
 In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 
 
 Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, 
 
 Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 
 
 Or what (though rare) of later age 
 
 Ennobled hath the buskined stage. 
 
 But, O sad Virgin, that thy power 
 Might raise Musaeus from his bower, 
 Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 
 Such notes as warbled to the string 
 Drew*"iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 
 And made Hell grant what Love did seek. 
 Or call up him that left half told 
 The story of Cambuscan bold, no 
 
 Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 
 And who had Canace to wife, 
 That owned the virtuous ring and glass, 
 And of the wondrous horse of brass 
 On which the Tartar king did ride ; 
 And if aught else great bards beside 
 
24 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 
 
 Of turneys, and of trophies hung, 
 
 Of forests, and enchantments drear, 
 
 Where^ more is meant than meets the ear. 120 
 
 Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 
 Till civil-suited Morn appear, 
 Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont 
 With the Attic boy to hunt, 
 But kerchieft in a comely cloud, 
 While rocking winds are piping loud, 
 Or ushered with a shower still, 
 When the gust hath blown his fill, 
 Ending on the rustling leaves 
 
 With minute-drops from off the eaves. 130 
 
 And when the sun begins to fling 
 His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring 
 To arched walks of twilight groves, 
 And shadows brown that Sylvan loves, 
 Of pine, or monumental oak, 
 Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 
 Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 
 Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 
 There in close covert -by some brook, 
 Where no profaner eye may look, 140 
 
 Hide me from Day's garish eye, 
 While the bee with honied thigh, 
 That at her flowery work doth sing, 
 And the waters murmuring, 
 With such consort as they keep, 
 Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
 And let some strange mysterious dream 
 Wave at his wings in airy stream 
 
1L PENSEROSO. m 2$ 
 
 Of lively portraiture displayed, 
 
 Softly on my eyelids laid ; 150 
 
 And, as I wake, sweet music breathe 
 
 Above, about, or underneath, 
 
 Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, 
 
 Or the unseen Genius of the wood. 
 
 But let my due feet never fail 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale, 
 And love the high embowed roof, 
 With antic pillars massy proof, 
 And storied windows richly dight, 
 Caslmg a dim religious light. 160 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow 
 To the full-voiced quire below, 
 In service high and anthems clear, 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 
 
 And may at last my weary age 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage, 
 The hairy gown and mossy cell, 
 Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 
 
 Of every star that Heaven doth shew, 
 And every herb that sips the dew ; 
 Till old experience do attain 
 To something like prophetic strain. 
 
 These pleasures, Melancholy, give, 
 And 1 with thee will choose to live. 
 
LYCIDAS. 
 
 " LYCIDAS : In this Monody the. author bewails a learned 
 Friend, unfortunately drowrfd in his passage from Chester 
 on the Irish Seas, 1637. And by occasion foretells the mine 
 of our corrupted Clergie then in their height ". 
 
 YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more, 
 Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, . 
 I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 
 And with forced fingers rude 
 Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 
 Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, 
 Compels me to disturb your season due ; 
 For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, 
 Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 
 Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 
 Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
 He must not float upon his watery bier 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 Without the meed of some melodious tear. 
 
 Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well, 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring; 
 , Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
 
LYC1DAS. 27 
 
 Hence with denial vain and coy excuse ; \ 
 
 So may some gentle Muse 
 
 With lucky words favour my destined urn, 20 
 
 And as he passes turn, 
 
 And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. 
 
 For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, 
 Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade and rill : 
 Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 
 Under the opening eyelids of the Morn, 
 We drove a-field, and both together heard 
 What time the gray-fly winds her sultry hom, 
 Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
 Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 
 
 Toward Heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, 
 
 Tempered to the oaten flute; 
 Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long, 
 And>old Damcetas loved to hear our song. 
 
 But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
 Now thou art gone, and never must return ! 
 Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 
 With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 
 And all their echoes mourn. 
 The willows, and the hazel copses green, 
 Shall now no more be seen * v 
 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 When first the white-thorn blows : 
 Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. v 
 
28 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? 
 For neither were ye playing on the steep 
 Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
 Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, 
 Nor yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream. 
 Ay me! I fondly dream, 
 
 Had ye been there for what could that have done ? 
 What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, . 
 The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, 
 Whom universal Nature did lament, 60 
 
 When by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
 Down the SAsdft Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 
 
 Alas ! what boots it with uncessant care \ 
 To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, 
 And strictly meditate the thankless Muse ? 
 Were it not better done, as others use, 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, 
 Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair? L. 
 
 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 70 
 
 (That last infirmity of noble mind) 
 To scorn delights, and live laborious days ; 
 But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
 And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
 Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears. 
 And slits the thin-spun life. " But not the praise," 
 Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears : 
 " Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, 80 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, 
 
LYCIDAS. 29 
 
 And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 
 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 
 
 Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed."_jU 
 
 O fountain Arethuse, and thou honoured flood, 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood : 
 But now my oat proceeds, 
 And listens to the herald of the sea, 
 That came in Neptune's plea. ~^~ 90 
 
 He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 
 What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain ? 
 And questioned every gust of rugged wings 
 That blows from off each beaked promontory. 
 They knew not of his story ; 
 And sage Hippotades their answer brings : 
 That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed, 
 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
 Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 
 It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 
 
 Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 
 That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 
 
 Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
 His mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
 " Ah ! who hath reft " (quoth he) " my dearest pledge ?" 
 Last came, and last did go, 
 The Pilot of the Galilean Lake ; 
 
 Two massy keys he bore of metals twain no 
 
 (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain) ; 
 Me shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake : 
 " How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
 
3O LYCIDAS. 
 
 Enow of such as,, for their bellies' sake, 
 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold 1 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make 
 
 Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, 
 
 And shove away the worthy bidden guest, y 
 
 Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how~~to hold 
 
 A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 
 
 That to the faithful herdman's art belongs ! 
 
 What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped ; 
 
 And when they list, their 'lean and flashy songs 
 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw ; 
 
 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 
 
 But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, 
 
 Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ; 
 
 Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said; 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 130 
 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.'j. 
 
 Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past 
 That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, 
 And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
 Their bells, and flowrets of a thousand hues. 
 Ye valleys low, where the 'mild whispers use 
 Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, 
 On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, 
 Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, 
 That on the green turf suck the honied showers, 140 
 
 And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 
 Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
 The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, 
 The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
 The glowing violet, 
 
LYCIDAS. 31 
 
 The musk rose, and the well-attired woodbine, 
 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
 
 And every flower that sad embroidery wears ; 
 
 Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
 
 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 150 
 
 To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 
 
 For, so to interpose a little ease, 
 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise ; 
 
 Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
 
 Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled ; 
 
 Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 
 
 Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide, 
 
 Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world ; 
 
 Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, 
 
 Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 
 
 Where the great Vision of the guarded mount 
 
 Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold : 
 
 Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth ; 
 
 And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 
 
 Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 
 For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor; 
 So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 
 So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
 Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves, 
 Where, other groves and other streams along, 
 With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 
 And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 
32 LYCIDAS. 
 
 There entertain him all the saints above, 
 
 In solemn troops and sweet societies, 
 
 That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 
 
 And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. 
 
 Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more ; 
 
 Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 
 
 In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 
 
 To all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
 Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 
 While the still Morn went out with sandals gray ; 
 He touched the tender stops of various quills, 
 With eager thought warbling his Doric lay : 
 And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 
 And now was dropt into the western bay ; 
 At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue : 
 Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 5. i.e. the Hebrew prophets. There is a suggestion of the verse in 
 L'Al. 17, "Or whether (as some sager sing)." 
 
 6. i.e. that he might cancel the penalty of death under which sin 
 had laid us. Cf. P. L. in. 218 221, "upon his own head draw Tne 
 deadly forfeiture, and ransom set." Forfeit is from O. F. forfet or 
 forfait=\^QVt\^\..forisfactum,forefactum. Cf. the Fromptorium, "For- 
 fetynge, or forfeture. Forefaccio, forefactura" The original notion 
 was 'acting criminally.' Cf. Palsgrave, Lesclaircissement (1530), "what 
 
 have I forfayted against you? 1 ' and Minsheu (1617), "forfet delic- 
 
 tum, culpam dcnotat" The verb forfeten = 'to do wrong* (May hew 
 and Skeat s. v.) occurs in Piers the Plowman. Later from the sense 
 'crime* came the meaning 'penalty incurred by crime.' Cf. Merchant 
 of Venice, I. 3. 149, "let the forfeit Be nominated for an equal pound 
 Of your fair flesh;" and "penal forfeit" in S. A. 508. 
 
 7. Work, i.e. produce; cf. 7^hf Tempest, i. i. 24, "if you can 
 
 work the peace of the present." 
 
 8. 9. Cf. the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester t 69, 70 : 
 
 "Far within the bosom bright 
 
 Of blazing Majesty and Light;" 
 
 with Arc. 2. Milton's poetry, especially the early lyric work, is 
 curiously full of repetition. Lighting on some beautiful phrase he 
 seems loth not to employ it again, perhaps in a slightly varied form. 
 Gray may have had this stanza in his mind's eye when he wrote the 
 fine lines on Milton in The Progress of Poesy, in. 2. 
 
 10. Wont, i.e. was wont ; a past tense. For wont as a present cf. 
 Com. 331 332, "and thou, fair moon, That wont'st to love the 
 traveller's benison." So S. A. 1487. They are the tenses of the verb 
 won (i) ' dwell,' (ii) ' be used to.' Won in the former sense comes in 
 
 V. M. * 
 
34 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 P. L. VII. 457, "where he wons In forest wild." It is common in 
 Chaucer and Spenser; cf. The Sompnoures Tale 463, "there wonyd a 
 man of great honour," and the F. Q. in. 5. 27. The verb survives in 
 the past parts, wont and wonted. 
 
 13. Courts. A favourite word with Milton in this connection (cf. 
 P. L. VI. 889) ; due, no doubt, to Scripture, where it is so often used 
 of the Temple of the Jews. Cf. Psalms , xcvi. 8, c. 4, cxvi. 19. 
 
 14. Cf. The Passion, 1517. 
 
 15. Cf. P. L. 1.68: 
 
 "Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top 
 Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
 That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed." 
 The manner of the invocation is borrowed from the classical poets ; and 
 in Lycidas where the style is mainly classical Milton rightly appeals 
 (11. 15 et seq.) to the Muses of Greek mythology. But here, as in his 
 sacred epic, he addresses the Muse of Hebrew poetry, the power whom 
 he supposes to have inspired Moses and the prophets and psalmists. 
 
 Vein = humour, disposition; "I am not in the giving vein," Richard 
 III. iv. 2. 119. L. vena = conveyer, viz. of the blood; connected 
 with veho. Hence the metaphor of being carried in the direction of a 
 thing= inclination. 
 
 19. In Shakespeare untread retrace, e.g. in Merchant of V. II. 
 6. 10; un being in that case the verbal prefix expressing reversal of an 
 action (cognate with Gk. dvrl), and not the negative prefix (cognate 
 with Gk. dv- t d-, Lat. in-). Cf. the difference between unsaid and 
 unsay. 
 
 20. Print, i.e. footprint, the metaphor suggested by untrod. Cf. 
 Arc., 85 ('* no print of step hath been "), and printless (borrowed from 
 the Tempest, v.- 34) in Com. 897. 
 
 21. Spangled, i.e. bright as though with spangles, or spangs ; 
 cf. Spenser, F. Q. iv. 2. 45, and Bacon's directions for the costumes 
 in Masque-entertainments, " Spangs, as the^are of no great Cost, 
 so they are of most Glory," Essays, p/ 157, Golden 7reas. ed. 
 Cotgrave has, " Papilloler. To glisten.... -..also, to bespangle, or set 
 with spangles." A favourite word with writers of this period ; applied 
 especially to dewdrops (cf. the Hesperides, Grosart, I. 116, if. 67), and 
 the stars, as in P. L. vn. 384, and Com. 1003, where "spangled 
 sheen" is from Midsummer N. D. II. i. 29. See Lye. I^Q. A. S. 
 spang = *. metal clasp ; spangle was used of any fashing ornament, e.g. 
 of the material now called tinsel. 
 
NOTES. 35 
 
 Keep watch. Cf. "the spheres of watchful fire," Vacation Exercise, 
 40, Com. 1 13, and the fifth Elegy, 38. 
 
 Squadrons bright* Cf. Sylvester (Grosart's ed. I. 24), 
 
 "Heav'n's glorious hoast in nimble squadrons flyes." 
 Repeated in P. L. VI. 16. Squadron Q. F. esquadron, Ital. squadrone, 
 one of the military terms introduced into France from Italy during the 
 early years of the xvith cent. From Late Lat. exquadrare. 
 
 23. Star-led. See St Matthew ii. 2. Cf. P. L. XII. 360363. 
 Wizards i i.e. the "wise men" of St Afatthew ii. 2. Wizard in a 
 
 good sense is very uncommon. In Shakespeare the. word always bears, 
 as now, a bad meaning ; similarly in the Bible, e.g. in Leviticus xix. 
 31 , xx. 27. Spenser, however, uses it as a term of compliment ; cf. the 
 F. Q. in. i. 16, "But the sage wisard telles, as he has redd, That it 
 importunes death." Cf. also Lye. 55, and perhaps Com. 872. The 
 first half of wisard (which came into E. through O. F. wischard 
 guischard; for gw see 1. 124, note on oozy) is the Icelandic viskr, 
 wise, sagacious, from the base wid seen in wit, wise. Germ, wissen, and 
 on the side of the classical languages in ideTv, lidere and cognates. The 
 suffix -ard has an emphasizing force; cf. French -ard, Germ. -hart. 
 Almost 'all the words with this termination are depreciatory in sense, 
 such as dotard, dullard, coward etc. See Earle, Philology, p. 331. 
 Odours sweet, i.e. the frankincense and myrrh, St Matthew ii. ii. 
 
 24. Prevent, i.e. anticipate. Cf. Com. 285, " forestall ing night 
 prevented them." Now limited to the sense 'hinder,' but in early E. it 
 bore several meanings which pointed to its etymology, L. prwenio. Cf. 
 i Thessalonians iv. 15, "we which are alive... shall not prevent them 
 which are asleep," i.e. precede. Cf. also the Collect, "We pray thee 
 that thy grace may always prevent and follow us," i.e. help, from the 
 notion of * coming to meet.' 
 
 27. See stanzas IX. xi. xin. Referring to St Luke ii. 13, 14. 
 
 28. Cf. Isaiah vi. 6, 7, *' Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, 
 having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from 
 off the altar : and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath 
 touched thy lips." Milton has the same reference twice in The Reason 
 of Church Government. Speaking of himself, he says that his inspira- 
 tion comes through "devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can 
 enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, 
 with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom 
 he pleases," P. W. II. p. 481 ; see also p. 494, Pope wrote in The 
 Messiah, $, 6: 
 
 32 
 
36 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 "O thou my voice inspire 
 Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire." 
 
 28. Secret =secretus, i.e. set apart, retired ; cf. P. L. I. 6, 7, "the 
 secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai." 
 
 31. St Luke ii. 8, 12. Cf. The Likeliest Means, "For notwith- 
 standing the gaudy superstition of some devoted still ignorantly to 
 temples, we may be well assured, that he who disdained not to be 
 laid in a rnanger, disdains not to be preached in a barn," P. IV. 
 ill. 26. 
 
 33. Doff=do off. Cf. Sherwood's Appendix to Cotgrave (1650): 
 " To doff, c'est & dire, to Doe off, to put off. Osier." So don=-do on. 
 Da/ in Shakespeare is perhaps a provincial form of doff ; cf. Othello, 
 IV. 2. 176, where the second Folio substitutes the more usual word. 
 
 Gaudy. Always an uncomplimentary word ; cf. Cotgrave, "Gorgias, 
 Gorgeous, gaudie, flaunting, brave." So Milton in his prose- works ; cf. 
 the note on 1. 31, and the tract Of Reformation, "in a flaring tire 
 bespeckled with all gaudy allurements," P. W. II. 382. Bacon uses 
 the substantive gander ie = display, in his essay Of Greatnesse of King- 
 domes, "That of the Triumph, amongst the Romans, was not Pageants 
 or Gauderie," p. 129, Golden Treas. ed. ; and gauded ornamented in 
 Chaucer's Prologue, 159. From Middle E. gaude, a piece of finery, 
 = Lat. gaudium, which in Late Lat. meant a large bead ornament. 
 
 36. Wanton. See Lye. 137. 
 
 Paramour, i.e. lover; not necessarily a contemptuous word then. 
 Cf. Spenser's Prothal. 16, 17, "And crowne their Paramours Against 
 the Brydale day." Properly paramour was an adverbial phrase, from 
 Fr. par amour, i.e. per amorem. 
 
 37. Fair, i.e. flattering; cf. the idiom 'speak fair,' as in Hamlet ', 
 IV. I. 36: 
 
 "Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body." 
 
 38. Woos. A less emphatic word then than now ; in Shakespeare 
 it often means no more than 'ask,' e.g. in Ahich Ado, II. 3. 50, 
 "sing, and let me woo no more." 
 
 41. Pollute. In the English of this time we find many quasi- 
 participles, the form of which has been influenced by that of the Latin 
 word whence they are derived. Thus pollute =pollutus ; cf. addict 
 addictus, " beyng more earnestly addict to hear." Utopia, p. 168. Cf. 
 the same book (Pitt Press ed.), p. 148, "reject from all common ad- 
 ministration," and More's Richard If L p. 10, "whose mynd, in tender 
 youth 'infect, shal redily fal to mischief." Especially common are 
 
NOTES. 37 
 
 adjectival participles in /<<? = Lat. -a/us, where modern E. requires 
 -ated. Numbers occur in Shakespeare, e.g.. consecrate ("the imperial 
 seat, to virtue consecrate," Titus, I. i. 14), situate, frustrate. 
 
 41. Blame, i.e. sin, not reproof; cf. Richard III. v. i. 29, 
 "wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame/' i.e. crime gets 
 what it deserves. So Milton in the Epitaph on the Marchioness of 
 Winchester, 27, "whether by mischance or blame." 
 
 42. Maiden. Adjectival; cf. Com. 843, "still she retains Her 
 maiden gentleness;" and The Two Kinsmen, i. i. 4, "maiden pink, of 
 odour faint." Seel. 188, note. 
 
 44. Near, i.e. closely. 
 
 45 52- The stanza is exactly descriptive of episodes such as 
 frequently took place in the Masques of the period, and Milton may 
 have witnessed the descent of Peace on the stage as a dea ex 
 machina. Cf. the opening of Comus, and the following stage-direction 
 in Jonson's Golden rtge Restored, "Loud Music: Pallas in her chariot 
 descending, to a softer music." Pope paraphrased Milton's lines in his 
 Messiah, 19, 20: 
 
 "Peace o'er the earth her olive wand extend, 
 
 And white- robed Innocence from heaven descend;" 
 * white-robed ' being borrowed from the Death of a Fair Infant, 54. 
 
 45. Cease, i.e. make to cease. Cf. Bacon (Advancement of Learn- 
 ing* * 56) "not only ceasing persecution, but giving way to the 
 advancement of Christians;" or More's Richard III. " thereby shall 
 be ceased the slanderous rumoure," Pitt Press ed. p. 25. 
 
 46. Cf. "pure-eyed Faith," Com. 213. The use of these personified 
 abstractions is characteristic of Milton's early style; cf. // Pen. and 
 VAl. passim. In xvinlh century poetry this rather tricky artifice 
 became a mannerism. Gray was a conspicuous offender. It was an 
 aspect of the "poetical diction" which Wordsworth denounced in the 
 famous preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815. Usually the substantive 
 is accompanied, as here, by an adjective. 
 
 47. Olive. Cf. the description of an allegorical representative of 
 Peace in Ben Jonson's Entertainments at the Coronation of James /. : 
 "The first and principal person in the Temple was Irene or Peace. 
 She was placed aloft..., her attire white, semined with stars: a wreath 
 of olive on her head, on her shoulder a silver dove. In her left hand 
 she held forth an olive branch." The Glosse to the Shepheards Cal. 
 April, explains why "the Olive was wont to tie the ensigne of Peace 
 and quietnesse." 
 
38 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 48. The turning sphere, i.e. spheres revolving round the earth ; see 
 note on 1. 125, and cf. the fragment from the Hist, of Britain . 
 
 "Goddess of Shades, and Huntress, who at will 
 
 Walk'st on the rolling sphere," P. IV. v. 171. 
 
 The phrase of our text is found in Sylvester's Du Barf as (Grosart, I. 
 53). Cf. "wheeling poles" in Milton's Vacation Exercise, 34. 
 
 49. Harbinger, i.e. precursor. Milton has the word some half- 
 a-dozen times; cf. the Song on May Morning, where in imitation of 
 Midsummer N. D. in. 2. 380, he calls the morning-star "Day's 
 harbinger," i.e. forerunner. In P. R. I. 71, and I. 277, John the 
 Baptist is the 'harbinger' of Christ. Explained in Bullokar's Expositor 
 (1616), "Harbinger, one that taketh vp lodging for others;" i.e. the 
 officer who bore this title went on in advance to procure the night's 
 shelter (harbourage] for his royal master. Cf. Florio, (1598), "Foriere, 
 a harbinger for a camp or a prince;" so Palsgrave and Cotgrave s. v. 
 fourrier. Chaucer uses the form herbergeour ; cf.^he Canterbury Tales, 
 
 5417, "by herbergeours that wenten him before." Middle E. herberwe 
 = modern E. harbour, is from the Icelandic herbergi, an army-shelter; 
 cf. Germ, heer =* an army,' and Germ. bergen = '\.o conceal.' See note 
 on Com. 423, where unharboured=y\e\(\ : mg no harbourage. For the 
 intrusive n in harbinger cf. messenger >=O. E. messager ; passenger =-Q. 
 E. passager. See Morris, Outlines, p. 72. 
 
 50. Turtle, i.e. the wings of the turtle-dove, the emblem of faithful 
 love as in Shakespeare's Phoenix and the Turtle. Turtle was commonly 
 used so ; cf. the Song of Solojnon ii. 12. 
 
 51. Waving iv id e. Cf. the compound wide-waving applied to the 
 fiery sword that guarded the access to the Tree of Life, P. L. xi. 121. 
 For Milton's favourite form of alliteration see Lye. 13, and Arc. 47, 
 note. Cf. wide-watered, II Pen. 75, wide-wasting, P. L. vi. 253. 
 
 My rile wand. The symbol of peace ; one of Collins' many borrow- 
 ings from Milton, cf. the Ode to Liberty: 
 
 "Concord, whose myrtle wand can steep 
 Even anger's bloodshot eyes in sleep." 
 
 52. Strikes, i.e. causes by striking; cf. Jonson, Masque of Queens, 
 "And strike a blindness through these blazing tapers." 
 
 So in the common phrase "strike terro* into." See Shakespeare, 
 Troilus, II. 2. 210. Mrs Browning has 
 
 "God strikes a silence through you all, 
 
 He giveth His beloved sleep." 
 53 54. Historically true of the Roman Empire. 
 
NOTES. - 39 
 
 56. Hooked chariot, i.e. the covinus " variously described or referred 
 to as falcifer, falcatus, restrains" (Hales). Compare Spenser, F. Q. v. 
 8. 28, " A charret hye, With yron wheels and hookes arm'd dreadfully." 
 
 59 60. These lines are a good example of the effect which poetry 
 may produce by perfect simplicity of style such as Wordsworth ad- 
 vocated and, except perhaps in his Odes, adopted. Noticeable too is 
 the contrast between the naturalness of this stanza and the ornate 
 description in the preceding one. 
 
 59. Awful, i.e. rilled with awe; cf. Richard II. in. 3. 76, " to 
 pay their awful duty." Used actively in Pericles, second prologue, 4, 
 "awful both in deed and word," i.e. showing awe. 
 
 60. Sovran. Tr^is form (cf. Ital. sovrano) is invariable in P. L. ; so 
 sovranty, P. L. II. 446, Xll. 35. In P. R. I. 84 the early editions have 
 sov'raign, which is closer to the modern form sovereign = Q. F. soverain, 
 Lat. superanus. Trench pointed out that in English "all the words of 
 dignity, state, honour, and preeminence, with one remarkable exception 
 (i.e. King) descend to us" from the Normans. 
 
 62 63. Cf. Wesley's lines 
 
 "Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace! 
 
 Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!" 
 
 where he is quoting partly from Isaiah ix. 6, partly from Malachi iv. 2. 
 The whole of the Christmas Hymn may be compared with the Nativity 
 Ode: the two poets drew on the same source of inspiration, the Scrip- 
 tures : hence the coincidences in their language. As an instance of 
 this compare Wesley's third stanza with the following passage from 
 Milton's Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence, "arising to 
 what climate soever he turn him, like that Sun of Righteousness that 
 sent him, with healing in his wings, and new light to break in upon 
 the chill and gloomy hearts of his hearers," P. W. in. p. 83. The 
 allusion there is to the verse in Malachi^ which Wesley scarcely altered. 
 63 4. Imitated from the 7^empest, I. 2. 376379: 
 "Come unto these yellow sands, 
 
 And then take hands : 
 Court 'sied when you have, and kiss'd 
 
 The wild waves whist." 
 
 In each passage whist is probably a participle = 'hushed;' cf. Lyly, 
 Maid's Metamorphosis, "but everything is quiet, whist and still;" or 
 Thomas Watson's Eglogve upon the death of Walsingham, 
 "But smaller birds that sweetly sing and play, 
 be whist and still." 
 
4O NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 Some editors take hist in // Pen. 55, to be a past part. ; see note 
 on that line. In any case whist and hist are identical, being originally 
 onomatopoeic interjections used to enforce silence. Cf. Chut> one of 
 the few imitative words in French. Cotgrave, s. v. houische, writes, 
 "an interjection whereby silence is imposed, husht, whist, ist, not a 
 word for your life." Similarly Boyer, "Whist, (an interjection of 
 silence) St t Paix, Silence, Chut" 
 
 66. Ocean. Probably a trisyllable; cf. Titus Andronicus, IV. 2. 
 101, "for all the water in the ocean." 
 
 64 67. We may note the striking effect of the s sounds in these 
 verses; the recurrent sibilants suggest the action described. 
 
 68. Cf. Love's L. L. v. 2. 933. The."tyrd of calm" is the 
 halcyon, and Milton alludes to the classical belief "that during the 
 seven days before, and as many after, the shortest day of the year, 
 while the bird Alcyon was breeding, there always prevailed calms at 
 sea," Classical Diet. To this superstition must be traced the ex- 
 pression d\Kvovlds ri/jL^pai, used by Aristophanes, Birds, 1594, and 
 Englished in the proverbial saying 'halcyon days ' = fair weather; cf. 
 i Hen. VI. I. 2. 131. Hence also comes the metaphorical sense of 
 alcedonia tranquillity, alcedo in Latin being one name of this bird. 
 Cf. Plautus, Casina, prologue, 26 tranquillum est ; alcedonia sunt 
 circum Forum, i.e. things are quiet about the Forum. Other references 
 in the classics are Theocritus, vil. 57; Plautus, Panuli, I. i. 141 2, 
 and Pliny, x. 32. 47; see Holland's translation (1601) of the latter: 
 "They (i.e. the halcyons) lay and sit about midwinter when daies be 
 shortest: and the time whiles they are broodie is called the Halcyon 
 daies, for during that season the sea is calme and navigable especially 
 on the coast of Sicilies." Sir Thomas Browne ( Vulgar Errors, book 
 III. chap, x.) discusses how the fable arose. 
 
 Charmed, i.e. laid under a spell. Charm in the English of this 
 period nearly always implies * working with a charm.' So in Othello, 
 III. 4. 57, charmer means * enchantress.' Charming = delightful, 
 pleasing, is a later use ; the word weakened as the belief in magic 
 declined. See note on enchanting in Lye. 59. 
 
 71. One way, i.e. to the birthplace of the "heaven-born child." 
 
 Influence, Late Lat. influentia, was applied to the power exerted 
 by celestial bodies upon the earth, and upon men's lives, fortunes, 
 characters; it was in fact a term borrowed from the terminology 
 of astrologers, and occurs very frequently in xvuth century writers. 
 Cf. Job xxxviii. 31 (which Milton adapts in P. L. vn. 374, 375), 
 
NOTES. 41 
 
 "canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades." Bacon in the 
 essay Of Vicissitude alludes to the belief that " the Celestiall Bodies, 
 have more accurate Influences, upon these Things below," Golden 
 Treasury, ed. p. 233. Cowley complained 
 
 "The star, that did my being frame, 
 Was but a lambent flame, 
 And some small light it did dispence, 
 But neither heat nor influence." 
 
 Essays (Pitt Press ed.), p. 174. 
 
 For Shakespeare see Hamlet, I. i. 119, and Lear, I. 2. 136, where 
 Edmund ridicules the whole theory of "planetary influence;" for 
 Milton, cf. LAI. 122, Com. 336, P. L. IV. 669, especially this last 
 passage. The once prevalent belief in astrology has bequeathed to our 
 language a number of words, such as saturnine (see // Pen. 24, note), 
 jovial, martial, disastrous. 
 
 73. For, i.e. in spite of; when so used for is followed by all. 
 Among numerous instances in Shakespeare cf. 3 Hen. VI. v. 6. 20, 
 "for all his wings, the fool was drown 'd." Probably the all was 
 intended to give emphasis; see Abbott, Shaksp. Gram. p. 103. 
 
 74. Lucifer, i.e. "Venus starre, otherwise called Hesperus, and 
 Vesper, and Lucifer, both because he seemeth to be one of the brightest 
 of starres, and also first ryseth, and setteth last," Sheph. Cal. December 
 (Glosse). Cf. P. L. vir. 131133, and x. 425, 426. Cf. the Greek 
 names of the planet, <f>w(r$6/>o$ and 'Ew<r06/>os. 
 
 76. Bespake. Originally bespeak was used "with some notion of 
 objection or remonstrance," New E. Diet.; later it came to be 
 equivalent to speak, and is often so used by Milton, e.'g. in P. It. I. 43, 
 "With looks aghast and sad, he thus bespake." 
 
 So Lye. 112. In Shakespeare the verb usually retains the transitive 
 force of the prefix be; cf. Twelfth Night, v. 192, "I bespeak you fair." 
 
 78. Her. Milton avoids using /'r. See note on 1. 106. 
 
 80. Cf. P. L. 34, 35, "at ariose sight all the stars Hide their 
 diminished heads." 
 
 81. As, i.e. as if; cf. The Winter's Tale, I. 2. 369: 
 
 "The king hath on him such a countenance 
 
 As he had lost some province." 
 
 Dr Abbott compares the use of and or an with a subjunctive in Eliza- 
 bethan E. (cf. Much Ado, I. i. 192, "An she were not possessed with 
 ' a fury"), and explains that the hypothesis, the if, is contained not in 
 the conjunction, but in the mood of the verb; when the subjunctive fell 
 
42 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 into disuse it was felt to be too weak to express the condition, and if 
 was added to the conjunction. Shaksp. Gram. pp. 73, 76. 
 
 82. New-enlightened. Milton has a number of similar compounds, 
 e.g. new-entrusted (Com. 36), new-enlivened (Com. 228), new-spangled 
 (Lye. *7<>). 
 
 84. Cf. "glowing axle" (of the sun's chariot) in Com. 96. Tree, 
 from the Aryan base seen in Gk. Spvs, means wood, timber in O. E. 
 Cf. The Milleres Tale, 579, where'it is used of the cross of Christ. 
 
 85. It is curious that Milton should take the narrative of the 
 Scriptures (cf. St Luke ii. 8, "and there were in the same country 
 shepherds abiding in the field "), and treat it in the style of 
 pastoral poetry. In respect of manner and literary association this 
 stanza would not have been out of place had it occurred in the Shep- 
 heards Cal. Perhaps Milton was imitating Spenser. Cf. 1. 89. 
 
 Lawn, i.e. pasture. Strictly lawn=^ cleared place in a wood;' 
 cf. the Promptorium, "lawnde of a wode. Saltus;" later came the 
 notion of any open ground, free from trees. Thus Palsgrave gives 
 "Launde, a playne, launde" and Way in his edition of the Promptorium 
 quotes (p. 291) from the Ortus Vocabulorum (compiled about 1440), 
 " Indago, a parke, or a lawnde." Milton has the word very often; see 
 Lye. 25, UAl. 71, // Pen. 35. The earlier form was laund; the d 
 dropped out. Probably from French lande, 'waste land,' German land. 
 Cognates are lane, and Dutch laan, an alley. 
 
 86. Or ere, i.e. before. Or= before was quite common; cf, 
 Chaucer's Dream, 585, "long while was or he might braide," i.e. rise; 
 and Ascham's Scholemaster, "in this place, or I precede farder, I will 
 now declare," p. 149, Bohn's ed. But the idiom or ere, especially as used 
 by Milton, is noticeable. We find in O. E. three combinations : or ere 
 (several times in Shakespeare), or ever (several times in the A. V.), and 
 ere ever (see Mr Aldis Wright's Bible Word-Book]. The following 
 examples illustrate each: 
 
 "1 was set up from everlasting... or ever the earth was made," 
 Proverbs viii. 23 ; 
 
 "Or ere these shoes were old," Hamlet, I. 2. 147; and 
 
 "Ere I had ever seen that day," Hamlet, I. 2. 183. 
 In each of these cases we have a clause constructed with the conjunc- 
 tion; but Milton treats or ere as a preposition. 
 
 Again, or and ere are identical, being but variant forms of O. E. 
 lr, before; consequently the phrase or ere is tautological. It may 
 have arisen through a mistaken belief that ere=ever. 
 
NOTES/ 43 
 
 Point of dawn. Cf. Fr. point du four, and poindre= 'to dawn.' 
 
 87. Chat is an imitative word, formed to express the twittering noise 
 of a bird; it is the same as Chaucer's chiteren. Cf. The Millcres 
 Tale, 72, "As eny swalwe chiteryng on a berne" (i.e. swallow on a 
 barn). Perhaps less contemptuous then than now; cf. Greene's 
 History of Alphonsus, "and bear in mind what Amurack doth chat," 
 Le. speak. 
 
 88. Than, i.e. then, but the rhyme requires that we should keep 
 the obsolete form. Than and then, originally identical, from A. S. 
 thanne, were not distinguished till late in the xvnth century (Earle, 
 p. 508). Then = than is particularly common in Shakespeare; the 
 use was current as late as Cowley ; cf. his Experimental Philosophy, 
 "Other are mixt, and are man's creatures no otherwise then by the 
 result which he effects," Essays, p. i. 
 
 89. Pan, i.e. Christ. Milton may have remembered the Shepheards 
 
 Cal. Maye, "I muse, what account both these will make, When 
 
 great Pan account of Shepeherdes shall aske ;" where the Glosse explains, 
 "Great Pan, is Christ, the very God of all shepheards, which calleth 
 himselfe the greate, and good shepherd. The name is most rightly 
 (methinkes) applyed to him ; for Pan signifieth all, or omnipotent, which 
 is onely the Lord Jesus." See also the same poem, Julye, pp. 466, 469 
 of the Globe ed. This manner of blending Christian and Pagan associa- 
 tions and story was then common. 
 
 91. See ISA I. 67. 
 
 92. Silly, i.e. harmless, a favourite word with the writers of 
 pastoral verse. Silly = A. S. sdlig, happy; cf. Germ, selig. In 
 Middle E. it was commonly spelt sefy, sometimes seely or seli, and 
 meant 'simple,' 'humble,' 'innocent,' as often in Chaucer; e.g. in The 
 Milleres Tale, 415, "this seely carpenter goth forth his way." Cf. 
 More's account of the murder of the princes in the Tower, "thys Miles 
 Forest and John Dighton, about midnight (the sely children lying in 
 their beddes) came into the chamber," Life of Richard III. Pitt Press 
 ed. p. 83. .In Spenser, who writes both seely (Shepheards Cal. Julye} 
 and silly (F. Q. in. 45. i), the word never bears its modern sense, 
 stupid, witless; and in Shakespeare this meaning is very rare. 
 
 93 100. See 1. -27, note. 
 
 95. Strook. Professor Masson notes (P. L. II. 165) that Milton 
 usually writes strook rather than struck both for preterite and past part. 
 So often in the Quartos of Shakespeare. Here the rhyme requires it ; 
 but in Com. 301 awe-struck would have been equally convenient. 
 
44 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 97. Stringed noise, i.e. the music of the string-instruments. This 
 couplet (11. 96. 97) reads like a variation on Spenser's lines: 
 
 "Whilst all the way most heavenly noyse was heard 
 Of the strings, stirred with the warbling wind," 
 
 Ruines of Time, 613, 614. 
 
 For noise applied in a complimentary sense to musical sounds, cf. The 
 Tempest, in. 2. 144, "the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, 
 that give delight." Cf. also the ode At a Solemn Music, where "melo- 
 dious noise" (1. 18) is said of the songs of the Cherubim. A secondary 
 meaning of noise was 'a company of musicians;' cf. 2 Henry IV. II. 
 4. 13. It might, as Prof. Hales thinks, be the sense in the present line. 
 Noise comes from either nausea or noxia = noxa. 
 
 98. Took, i.e. charmed, captivated. Take was used of the malig- 
 nant influence of supernatural powers; cf. Palsgrave, "Taken, as 
 chyldernes lymmes be by the fayries, faee ;" and Cotgrave, "fee, 
 taken, bewitched." Gervase Markham in his Treatise on Horses (1595) 
 says, "A horse that is bereft of his feeling, mooving, or styrring, is 
 said to be &ziH...some farriers conster the word taken to be striken by 
 some planet or evil spirit," chap. vin. This explains Hamlet, I. i. 163 
 ("no fairy takes"), and Lear, II. 4. 166 ("you taking airs"). It is the 
 metaphor in Burns' Cotter's Saturday Night, 65 "he takes the mother's 
 eye," and Tennyson's Dying Swan, in., "The wild swan's death-hymn 
 took the soul Of that waste place." Cf. Com. 256, 558, and P. L. n. 
 
 554- 
 
 100. Close = cadence ; cf. Richard II. n. i. 12, "music at the 
 close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last." 
 So in an old play, Lingua, I. i.: 
 - "For though (perchance) the first strains pleasing are, 
 
 I dare engage the close mine ears will jar." 
 
 Collins has the word in his ode The Passions, 1. 37 ; see Com. 548 
 (note). Musicians also use the technical expression half -close. 
 
 102. Round, i.e. sphere. In Venus and Adonis, 368, "mortal 
 round"=the sphere of the world; so in P. L: vn. 267. 
 
 103. Region signifies 'the upper air;' Shakespeare has it in this 
 sense both as noun and adjective; cf. Hamlet, n. 2. 509 (with 
 Clarendon Press -note thereon), "the dreadful thunder Doth rend the 
 region;" and Sonnet, 33. 12, "the region cloud." Cf. P. R. II. 117. 
 
 Won, i.e. persuaded ; 'scan as a dissyllable. 
 
 106. Its only occurs here and P. L. i. 254, IV. 813. The posses- 
 sive pronouns in English were formed from the genitive case of the 
 
NOTES. 45 
 
 personal pronouns. The pronoun of the 3rd person in A. S. was 
 declined as follows : 
 
 Masc. "Fern. Neut. 
 Nom. he hso hit. 
 
 Gen. his hire his. 
 
 His for the masc. possessive has obviously survived : hire for the fern, 
 has become her: the neut. his was becoming obsolete even when 
 Milton wrote. During an intermediate stage we find it used (the h 
 disappearing) as the neut. possessive; cf. Leviticus xxv. 5, "of it owne 
 accorde " (Genevan Bible, 1562). Later, to pi event confusion between 
 the personal nominative it and the possessive it, the latter was changed 
 to its. About the end of the xvith century the new idiom came into 
 currency; but very slowly. Spenser, for example, never writes its; 
 Shakespeare in only a few passages nine, according to Schmidt 
 (Lexicon), and seven of these occur in late plays, the Tempest and 
 Winter's Tale. For the rest he keeps to the old idiom; cf. Julius 
 Casar, i. 2. 124, "that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, 
 Did lose his lustre." So the Bible of 1611. Cf. Genesis \. 12: "and 
 the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind;" 
 again iii. 15 : "// shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 
 Milton's practice varies. Sometimes he retains the ancient idiom 
 his, as in Com. 248, 919; in the three places mentioned above he 
 has its ; and very often if the noun be feminine he personifies it and 
 uses her. 
 
 106. Last, i.e. final; cf. the emphatic use of lastly in Lye. 83: 
 
 "As he pronounces lastly on each deed," 
 i.e. with the final verdict. 
 
 107 108. Alluding perhaps to the idea that "the music of the 
 spheres" (see note on 1. 125) directs aright the revolutions of the 
 Universe. Cf. Arc. 68 72: 
 
 "Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, 
 To lull the daughters of Necessity, 
 And keep unsteady nature to her law, 
 And the low world in measured motion draw 
 After the heavenly tune." 
 
 See also the last lines, 20 28, of the ode At a Solemn Music. The 
 same notion, due originally to Pythagoras, seems to have been in 
 Diyden's mind when he commenced the Song for St Cecilia's Day: 
 "From harmony, from heavenly harmony 
 This universal frame began;" 
 
46 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 and Ben Jonson in the Masque of Beatify speaks of "the world's soul, 
 true harmony." 
 
 no. Globe, i.e. a compact mass. Cf. the Apology for Smectymmis, 
 *'no sooner did the force of so much united excellence meet in one 
 globe of brightness and efficacy," P. W. in. p. 147. So in P. L. II. 
 511 51?, "him round A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed." 
 
 in. Shamefaced=fam in shame or modesty, shame being the A. S. 
 sceamu, modesty, while faced 'is a corruption of the A. S. /?j/ = firm or 
 fast. Chaucer writes schamefast ; cf. also Wyclif, i Tim. ii. 9, 
 "Wymmen in covenable abite (i.e. suitable habit or dress) with schame- 
 fastnesse." Later the spellings shamefast and shamcfastness prevailed. 
 The only other extant word that has this suffix -fast is steadfast=h\vci 
 in place (stead=K. S. stede]. Earle (p. 386) mentions soothfast, which 
 Wyclif uses, and rootfast, each obsolete. 
 
 112 113. In the Bible we find the words Cherub and Chertibim 
 applied to, (i) the guardians of the Tree of Life, Genesis iii. 24; 
 cf. P. L. xn. 626 628: (ii) the images overlaid with gold which were 
 placed, with wings expanded, over the mercy-seat in the Jewish Taber- 
 nacle; cf. P. L. I. 386 387, XII. 253254: (iii) the throne-chariot of 
 the Deity conceived as formed of living beings, 2 Samuel xxii. n, 
 Psalm xviii. 10. They are never treated as Angels, the conception so 
 familiar to us from works of art. That, however, is the conception 
 which Milton, like the theologians of the Middle Ages, followed. 
 Apparently it is first found in a work of the 4th (or 5th) century long 
 attributed, though erroneously, to Dionysius, the Areopagite (Acts xvii. 
 34). In this treatise the heavenly t>eings are divided into three hier- 
 archies, each hierarchy containing three orders or choirs, and the first 
 hierarchy consisting of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. The Sera- 
 phim, therefore, come first of the nine orders, the Cherubim second; 
 and they are angelic beings. Milton refers pointedly to this belief in 
 // Pen. 54, and P. L. I. 734 737. See also The Reason of Church 
 Government, chap. I., P. IV. II. p. 442. 
 
 112. Cherubim. The correct form of the plural, used invariably in 
 P. L. Cherub= Hebrew Kherubh, the plural of the latter being Kherub- 
 htm. Cherubin, used in the Vulgate as the singular, passed into 
 English, and the oldest forms in our language (as still in French) are 
 Cherubin, sing., and Cherubins, plural. Cf. Cover dale, "Thou God of 
 Israel, which dwellest upon Cherubin," Isaiah xxxvii. 16; and Wyclif, 
 "Two Goldun Cherubyns," Exodus xxv. 18. Later translators of the 
 Bible, substituted Cherub, sing., and Cherubims, plural, as being closer 
 
NOTES. 47 
 
 to the Hebrew. So throughout the Bible of 1611. Scholars like Milton 
 went a step further and, retaining Cherub for sing. (cf. P. L. I. 157, 
 324), wrote the true Hebrew plural Cherubim, adopted in the Revised 
 Version. See New English Dictionary ', s.v. 
 
 113. See last note. Seraphim was thought to mean 'the burning 
 ones;' cf. Milton's epithet 'flaming' in the poem Upon tko Circum- 
 cision; cf. also the ode At a Solemn Music, "bright Seraphim in 
 burning row," 10. An interesting passage in Thomas Watson's Eglogve 
 alludes to the Middle Age conception of the hierarchies, and he clearly 
 refers to the supposed sense of the title Seraphim in the lines : 
 
 " Our Melibceus Hues where Seraphins 
 
 doe Praise the Highest in their glorious flames ;" 
 this being a rendering of his own Latin verses, 
 
 lam noster Meliboeus agit ; qua flammea late 
 Col lucent Seraphin. 
 
 See Arber's Reprint, pp. 168, 169. 
 
 The special attribute of the Seraphim was ardent love; cf. Bacon, 
 "the Angels of loue, which are tearmed Seraphim," Advancement of 
 Learning, I. 28. The word really means ' the exalted ones.' 
 
 114. Displayed, i.e. spread out; cf. II Pen. 149. Literally display 
 = un-fold, Lat. dis-plicare> O. F. des-pleier, mod. dt-plier. For the 
 wings of the Cherubim, cf. Exodus xxv. 20; of the Seraphim, Isaiah 
 vi. 2. In the pamphlet Of Reformation, Milton writes, "but he, when 
 we least deserved, sent out a gentle gale and message of peace from the 
 wings of those his Cherubim that fan his mercy-seat," P. W. II. 406. 
 Cf. P. L. in. 38182, xn. 25354. 
 
 115. Quire. Spelt quire (from chorus) till towards the close of 
 the xvnth century. Cf. Cotgrave, " Chceur ; the quire of a Church-, a 
 troop of singers;" and the Prayer- Book, " In quires and places where 
 
 -they sing." Charles Lamb uses the form quirister, i.e. chorister. 
 
 1 1 6. Unexpressive, i.e. inexpressible; cf. Lye. 176, "unexpressive 
 song"-~inenarrabile carmen in Milton's poem Ad Patrem, 37. So As 
 
 You Like It, in. 2. 10, "the chaste and unexpressive she." In the 
 English of Shakespeare and Milton the force of participial and adjectival 
 terminations is not rigidly fixed: thus we get innumtrous = ' innumer- 
 able,' Com. 349 and P. L. VII. 455; uncontrolled^ uncontrollable, Com. 
 793; insuppressive in Julius Ccesar, II. i. 134, and uncomprehensive, 
 Troilus and Cressida, in. 3. 198, each in a passive sense, with many 
 other parallel cases. 
 
 119. "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of 
 
48 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 God shouted for joy," Job xxxviii. 7. Cf. the close of P. L. vn. 557 
 634, where the suggestion given in the above-quoted verse is expanded 
 by Milton. Sons of Morning is from haiah xiv. 12, "How art thou 
 fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning;" the margin giving 
 "O day star" (cf. Lye. 168). See also P. L. v. 716. 
 
 ,120, 121. Great. ..set. Even when Milton wrote, this must have 
 b^en an imperfect rhyme; but see L'Al. 101, 102. 
 
 122. Hinges, i.e. supports, hinge being cognate with hang, and 
 signifying something whereon to suspend; cf. the verb in Chaucer's 
 Prologue, 677. Prof. Hales aptly compares the Faerie Q. I. 21. 8, 
 "To move the world from off his stedfast henge." In P. ft. IV. 415, 
 "from the four hinges of the world," the sense is 'quarters.' 
 
 123. Cast = firmly laid; the line is repeated in P. L. vi. 869 70: 
 
 " Strict Fate had cast too deep 
 Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound." 
 Cast=^L. jacere. Cf. 2 Kings jdx. 32, "he shall not come into this 
 city... nor cast a bank against it." See P. L. I. 675. Cf. positi late 
 fundamina Mundi in the lines Ad Pair em, 47. 
 
 124. Weltering. See Lye. 13, and cf. the epitaph on Timon of 
 Athens in Painter's Palace of Pleasure^ novel 28, 
 
 "In waltring waues of swelling sea, by surges cast." 
 For the form waltring see note on the Lycidas passage. As applied to 
 a wave welter retains something of its literal sense, viz. to roll or toss : 
 by a metaphor weltered= trouble-tossed : 
 
 "Conuey great comfort to the weltred minde," 
 
 Thomas Watson, An Eglogve, p. 175 (Arber). 
 
 00z<?=soft mud, slime, whether at the bottom of water, or on the 
 surface of land whence the water has been drained. Cf. P. L. vn. 302 
 03, where the rivers, "wandering found their way, And on the washy 
 ooze deep channels wore;" i.e. on the land just created. See Lye. 
 175. Pope applies the word to the river-bed of the Thames in 
 Windsor Forest, 329, a reminiscence of Shakespeare (Tempest^ v. 151). 
 A favourite word with Keats. 
 
 Ooze A.. S. wbs, moisture, Middle E. wose ; for the disappearance 
 of the w cf. A. S. feower=fonr. A cognate word is Old High Germ. 
 waso, turf, which passed into Old French as wason or gason, whence 
 modern F. vase, mud, and gazon, turf, respectively. Initial g=w is 
 seen in not a few French words, e.g. in garder=Q. H. G. warten, and 
 garant from the Teutonic root, whence E. warrant. See 1. 23, note. 
 
 125. Sphere is a word of very frequent occurrence in Milton. Many 
 
NOTES. 49 
 
 passages are unintelligible unless we know what he meant by it. In 
 Milton's time the Copernican system of astronomy was not generally 
 approved. Milton himself did not seemingly accept it, although two 
 passages in P. L. (iv. 592 597, and vin. 15 178) show that he was 
 quite familiar with the arguments in its favour (Masson). Certainly for 
 the purposes of his great poem he adopts the old Ptolemaic or Alphon- 
 sine System. The astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria held that the 
 Earth was the fixed centre of the Mundane Universe; and that the 
 central Earth was enclosed at different distances by eight successive 
 Spheres of space. Seven of these Spheres were the Spheres or Orbs of 
 the Seven Planets in this order, if we start from the central Earth : the 
 Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Outside 
 the last of these Spheres (i.e. Saturn) was an eighth Sphere, namely the 
 Firmament in which were set the fixed Stars. This eighth Sphere moved 
 from East to West, completing a revolution in twenty-four hours; it 
 carried with it the Seven inside Spheres, though -the latter were supposed 
 to have separate motions of their own. This system was considered 
 satisfactory up till the Middle Ages. Afterwards a ninth Sphere was 
 added, viz. the Crystalline Sphere, outside the Firmament or Sphere of 
 the fixed Stars. Finally the number was brought up to ten by a 
 supplementary tenth Sphere, the Primum Mobile, enclosing all the 
 others. 
 
 The development of the Ptolemaic system from eight to ten spheres 
 was associated with the name of the astronomer, Alphonsus X. of 
 Castille, 1252 1284. Hence it is sometimes called the Alphonsine 
 System. Now, 'whenever writers who lived prior to the middle of the 
 xvnth century Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and others use 
 the word sphere^ they are referring not to the modern Copernican theory 
 of the Universe, but to this obsolete Ptolemaic or Alphonsine System. It 
 does not make much difference how many spheres they recognise : 
 Marlowe allows nine in Faustus, II. 2 ; Ben Jonson only eight in the Sad 
 Shepherd, in. 2. Sphere^ in any case, had for these writers associations 
 which are now lost. (Abridged from Masson.) 
 
 Ring out. Throughout the stanza runs a classical idea often alluded 
 to in English poetry, namely, the Pythagorean notion of "the great 
 sphere-music of stars and constellations" (Tennyson's Parnassus]. See 
 Plato's account of it in the Myth of Er in the tenth book of the Republic, 
 616 617, a passage which Milton adapted in Arc. 62 71; cf. the note 
 on line 64 of that poem, where Plato's words are quoted at length. 
 Plato says that on each of the spheres and he recognises only eight 
 
 " V. M. A 
 
5O NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 "stands a siren, who travels round with the circle (i.e. the revolution of 
 the Universe), uttering one note in one tone; and from all the eight notes 
 there results a single harmony." Other classical writers, e.g. Cicero in 
 his Republic , VI. 18, have adopted the belief, and illustrations without 
 number might be given from English writers. Cf. As You Like It, n. 
 7. 6, Twelfth Night t ill. i. 121, and Antony and Cleopatra, v. n. 
 83 84. It is the thought developed in Milton's Ode At a Solemn 
 Music. There, as here, he has done what he so often did taken an 
 old-world, pagan conception, and infused into it a new, Christian 
 import. 
 
 Crystal. We may remember that (as explained supra] the ninth 
 Sphere was called the Crystalline; cf. i Hen. VI. I. i. 2 3: 
 4 * Comets, importing change of times and states, 
 Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky." 
 
 126. Once, i.e. for once, the harmony of the spheres being im- 
 perceptible by men. Cf. Arc. 72, 73, "the heavenly tune, which none 
 can hear Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. " So the Merchant 
 of Venice, V. 60 65. In his treatise De Spherarum Concentu Milton 
 says, solus inter mortales concentuni audissc fertitr Pythagoras. Here 
 he wishes that the spheres would 'ring out,' so that all the world might 
 hear. According to Plato, the music is inaudible because continuous. 
 
 127. 7'ouch. Used in Shakespeare of 'affecting the senses;' cf. 
 Coriolanus, V. 2. u, "my name hath touch'd your ears;" so the same 
 play, II. i. 61, "if the drink... touch my palate adversely." 
 
 128. Silver. Almost a perpetual epithet of music, common in 
 Spenser; cf. the Shefheards Cal. April, "Of fayre Elisa be your silver 
 song," with the explanation in the Glosse, " Seemeth to imitate the like 
 in Hesiodus dpyvpiov juAos." \nRomeoandJuliet, iv. 5. 130 ("then 
 music with her silver sound") the serving-man asks "Why 'silver'?" to 
 which one of the musicians replies that it brings them in silver. 
 
 Chime, i.e. harmony of sounds; cf. Com. 1021, "higher than the 
 sphery chime." From L. cymbalum, through O. F. chimbale or cimbale. 
 The Promptorium has "Chymme Belle. Cimbalum." 
 
 130. See // Pen. 161; cf. Cowley's line (Essays, p. 125): 
 "And a grave base the murmuring fountains play.'* 
 
 131. Ninefold. Milton allows nine spheres, as in Arc. 64, "the 
 nine infolded spheres." Cf. Sylvester (Grosart's ed. u. 3), 
 
 "Her Nine-fold Voice did choicely imitate 
 Th' Harmonious Musick of Heav'n's nimble dance." 
 
 132. Consort^ 'union,' 'harmonious agreement with.' Cf. At a 
 
NOTES. 5 1 
 
 Solemn Music, 27. So Earle's Micro- Cosmographie, " They (i.e. * singing- 
 men in Cathedral! Churches') are... distinguish'! by their noyses much 
 like -Bells, for they make not a Consort but a Peale " (Arber's Reprint, 
 p. 52). Milton uses consorted = ' joined with' in his Hist, of Britain, 
 "and then eloquence as it were consorted in the same destiny, with the 
 decrease and fall of virtue, corrupts also and fades," P. W, V. 186. 
 
 The angelic symphony, i.e. the * unexpressive notes ' of the Che- 
 rubim and Seraphim (11. 114, 115). In modern E. symphony (Gk. 
 ffvfjL<j>wvia) is applied by musicians to a special form of musical com- 
 position; in 'Milton's time it was merely equivalent to 'harmony.' Cf. 
 Cotgrave, "Symphonic. Harmony, tunable singing, a consent in tune. " 
 
 135. Age of Gold. i.e. the fabled age of Saturnus, a time of 
 'golden' prosperity. Cf. Ben Jonson, Prince Henry's Barriers, "the 
 golden vein Of Saturn's age is here broke out again." 
 
 136. Speckled. Cf. Sylvester, "loathsome swarms of speckled 
 poysons," Grosart's ed. I. 116. Probably the sense is 'garish,' 'flaunt- 
 ing;' or the word may mean 'tainted,' 'plague-spotted.' In the latter 
 case cf. spotted^** wicked' in A/uf summer N. D. I. i. 1 10, " this spotted 
 and inconstant man," and Richard II. ill. 2. 134, "their spotted 
 souls." In The Two Noble Kinsmen, V. i. 134, maculate (imitated, 
 possibly, from Horace's maculosum nefas, Odes IV. 4. 23) has the same 
 force. 
 
 138. Leprous = F. lepreux, Lat. hprosus. In early writers a person 
 afflicted with leprosy was called ' a leprous man,' the word leper, Gk. 
 X&r/>a, being confined to the disease itself. The traveller Hentzner, who 
 visited England in Elizabeth's reign, noted that the English suffered 
 greatly from leprosy, and the number of hospitals or ' lazar houses ' to 
 which sufferers were sent was large. For Milton's readers therefore 
 the epithet would be vivid. 
 
 Mauld (from Lat. modulus, through O. F. modle = modern F. motile) 
 seems in Milton to signify 'material.' Cf. Arc. 73, "none. ..of human 
 mould;" and "ethereal mould" in P. L. II. 139, and vn. 356. The 
 metaphor is that of casting metals. 
 
 140. Professor Hales compares Iliad, v. 61, Aeneid, vm. 245. See 
 also the poem Naturani Nun l\iti, 29 32. 
 
 Peering. The verb is used by Shakespeare of the day breaking; cf. 
 Romeo, I. i. 126, "before the worshipped sun peer'd forth." Cotgrave 
 has, " Poindre..\Q peepe, or peer out (as a morning Sunne over the top 
 of a hill)." 
 
 141 3. Referring to the story of Astnea, who left the world (ad 
 
52 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 superos Astraa recessit, Juvenal, vi. 19) when the golden age ceased. Cf. 
 Milton's fourth Elegy, 81, 82, and the Death of a Fair Infant, 50, 51. 
 The Golden Age Restored was the title of one of Jonson's Masques 
 (1615), and in answer to the poet's invocation Astrcea descends to the 
 earth and announces her intention of remaining : 
 
 "What change is here? I had not more 
 Desire to leave the earth before 
 Than I have now to stay." 
 
 There is a fine passage in Eikonoklastes, chap, xxvm., in which Milton 
 argues that "either truth and justice are all one (for truth is but justice 
 in our knowledge, and justice is but truth in our practice), or else, if there 
 be any odds, that justice though not stronger than truth, yet by her 
 office, is to put forth and exhibit more strength in the affairs of mankind. 
 For truth is properly no more than contemplation; and her utmost 
 efficiency is but teaching: but justice in her very essence is all strength 
 and activity," P. W.\. 484. 
 
 143 144. The ed. of 1645 reads: 
 
 "Th' enameld Arras of the Rainbow wearing^ 
 And Mercy set between." 
 
 143. Orbed, i.e. surrounded by; not literally true because the 
 rainbow would be a semicircle. Cf. for a similar free use of the word 
 his Reason of Church Government^ " our happiness may orb itself into a 
 thousand vagancies of glory and delight, and... be, as it were, an 
 invariable planet of joy and felicity," P. W. II. p. 442. In P. L. 
 VI. 543 ("orbed shield") the description is more accurate; cf. Shake- 
 speare's "orbed continent " = the round ball of the sun, Tempest, v. 278. 
 Probably Milton was thinking of Ezek. i. 28, or Rev. x. i, "and a 
 rainbow was upon his head." 
 
 146. Tissued. i.e. massed together; cf. "plighted clouds," 
 Com. 301. Collins (imitating P. L. iv. 348) has a somewhat similar 
 picture : 
 
 "Beyond yon braided clouds that lie, 
 Paving the light-embroidered sky," 
 
 Ode to Liberty. 
 
 Milton's contemporaries would think of the material called tissu. 
 Minsheu (1617) describes it as "cloth of silke and siluer, or of siluer 
 and gold woven together." From Fr. tisser, Lat. texere. 
 
 148. Gates, i.e. the 'everlasting' gates of Psalm xxiv. Cf. P. R. 
 I. 281. The alliteration of the h expresses gradual effort; cf. P. L. 
 vn. 288. 
 
NOTES. 53 
 
 152. Cf. i Hen. IV. I. i. 27, "nailed for our advantage on the 
 bitter cross.' 5 
 
 Must. i.e. is destined to. f. 1. 156 and Lye. 38, "gone, and 
 never must return." So in Macbeth, v. 8. \i, "a charmed life, which 
 must not yield To one of woman born. " 
 
 155. Ychaincd. Cf. ycleped in L*Al. 12. The prefix^/- represents 
 the A. S. prefix ge-\ cf. the German ge- in past participles and words 
 like gewiss (E. ywis)^ genug. Originally this prefix, a form of emphasis, 
 was used with any part of a verb, as also with substantives ; we find it 
 in Middle E. variously written a- (cf. aware], e- (cf. enough), hi-, i- and 
 y-. In the form i- or y- it came to be regarded as the prefix peculiar 
 to past participles ; cf. a single line in Chaucer for both forms, "nother 
 to ben y-buried nor i-brent r> (burnt), Knightes Tale, 88. But long 
 before Milton wrote people regarded the use of the prefix as an 
 affectation. No example occurs in the Bible of 1611, and only three 
 in Shakespeare. One of these, yclad, is in i Hen. VI. i. i. 33 (a 
 play in which Shakespeare can have had little share), while ycleped 
 (some editors ycliped) is found in Love's L. L.I. i. 242, and v. 2. 602. 
 Arrriado being the speaker in the first case, and Holofernes in the 
 second, we may safely conclude that Shakespeare meant to ridicule 
 the idiom. Cf. the Glosse to the Shepheanis Cat. April, "Yblent, 
 Y is a poetical addition." In the Epitaph on Shakespeare, 4, y is 
 prefixed to a present participle, star-ypointing. 
 
 Sleep, viz. of death : "even so them also which sleep in Jesus, God 
 will bring with him," i Thessalon. iv. 14. 
 156158- Cf. P. L. XI. 7376, 
 
 " His trumpet, heard in Oreb since perhaps 
 When God descended, and perhaps once more 
 To sound at general doom." 
 See also /*. L. xn. 227 230; Exodus xix. 16 20. 
 
 1 56. Wakefid awakening. 
 
 160. Agast ; short for agasted, the p. p. of Middle E. agasten, 
 where the a is an intensive prefix. Cf. gastness terror, Othello, v. 
 i. 106, gasted frightened, Lear, II. i. 57. Ghastly, aghast, ghost, 
 are from the Gothic us-gaisjan, to terrify. According to Skeat (Prin- 
 ciples, p. 322) the spelling aghast, though found in Scottish as early 
 as 1425, did not become general till after 1700. 
 
 162. Centre. Cf. Com. 382, and The Two Noble Kinsmen, I. i. 
 H4> n5 "He that will all the treasure know o' the earth, Must 
 know the centre too." Sometimes, e.g. in P. L. I. 686, centre = t\\s 
 
54 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 earth itself as being the middle point of the universe, according to 
 the Ptolemaic system of astronomy. See line 125, note. In Shake- 
 speare the word bears both meanings. With the present line cf. 
 Hamlet, n. 2. 159. 
 
 163. Session, i.e. judgment; properly 'the sitting of a court of 
 justice.' Assess, assize, session all come, through different channels, 
 from sedeo. For the scansion of session as a trisyllable accented on the 
 last syllable, cf. 1. 108. 
 
 164. Cf. the close of the treatise Of Reformation, in which Milton 
 looks forward to "that day, when thou, the eternal and shortly- 
 expected King, shalt open the clouds to judge the several kingdoms 
 ofjhe world," P. W. n. 419. See also the treatise on Christian 
 Doctrine, P. W. IV. 476 479, and P. L. III. 323 et seq. 
 
 Spread. Cf. P. L. ij. 960, "his dark pavilion spread;" the idea 
 is 'expand,* 'display.' 
 
 r68 172. Cf. Revelation xii., where the Dragon = Satan ; see in 
 particular verses 4, "and his tail drew the third part of the stars of 
 heaven ; " 9, " and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent ; " 
 and 17, "the dragon was wroth with the woman." The allusion is 
 clearer in P. L. IV. i 5. Dragon ( draco in the Vulgate, and dpfaw 
 in the Septuagint) is the translation in several places, e.g. Ezek. xxix. 
 3, and Psalm Ixxiv. 13, of the Hebrew word tannin, applied to any 
 monster; cf. for instance Job vii. 12 and Psalm xci. 13, where the 
 Revised Version substitutes serpent. 
 
 '170. Casts, the metaphor of casting a net. 
 
 171. Wrath. So the ed. of 1645 > most editors change to the 
 more usual wroth. But that wrath could be used adjectivally is clear 
 from Midsummer N. D. n. i. 20, " Oberon is passing fell and wrath." 
 Conversely wroth is a substantive in the Merchant of V. II. 9. 78. 
 
 172. Swindges. i.e. dashes about violently. Swindge or swinge is 
 the causal verb of swing, from A. S. swingan, to shake, toss. Sylvester 
 uses the word (both verb and noun) frequently; cf. the Du Bartas; 
 
 " Then often swindging, with his sinewy train, 
 
 Sometimes his sides, sometimes the dusty plain," 
 the subject of fhe sentence being a lion (Grosart's ed. I. 75). Cf. too 
 the same poem, p. 87 (vol. I.), where it is said that the air 
 
 " corrupteth soon, except 
 
 With sundry winds it oft be swing'd and swept." 
 For the noun cf. again Sylvester, "the swinge of custom, whirl-wind- 
 like" (II. 262), where by an obvious metaphor it signifies 'prevailing 
 
NOTES. 55 
 
 force.' Several instances occur in Joseph Beaumont's Psyche; see 
 Grosart's ed. I. 91 and 202. In Shakespeare s^vinge always mean 'to 
 whip j'.e.g. in Merry Wives, v. 5. 197, " I would have swinged him." 
 
 Horror. The abstract turn of phrase so common in Milton ; cf. 
 "fable of Bel lerus " = fabled Bellerus, Lye. 160. Horror and horrid, 
 as used by Milton, often keep the notion of bristliness or roughness 
 implied by homo. Cf. Com. 429, whefe "horrid shades "-is a transla- 
 tion of Vergil's datisi...horrentibus umbris, AZneid, ni. 230. Cf. also 
 Com. 37. 
 
 173 227. The poet shows how the coming of Christ brought 
 destruction on the pagan divinities of Greece and Rome (stanzas xix 
 xxi); as also on the idolatrous religions of the East (xxii xxv). With 
 the enumeration of these deities cf. the parallel but more elaborate 
 passage in P. L. I. 392 521, where he says (374, 375) that they were 
 originally the rebellious angels who shared Satan's fall. 
 
 173. Alluding to a widespread belief that the oracles of paganism 
 ceased to prophesy after the birth of Christ. Cf. Giles Fletcher, one of 
 Milton's favourite authors, 
 
 *' The angells carolled lowd their song of peace ; 
 The cursed oracles were strucken dumb," 
 
 Christ's Victorie in Heaven, 82; 
 
 and the Glosse to the Shepheards Cat. Maye, "at that time (viz. after 
 the crucifixion of Christ)... all Oracles surceased, and enchaunted spirits, 
 that were wont to delude the people, thenceforth held theyr peace." 
 Cf. also Reginald Scot's Discover ie of Witchcraft, bk. VIII. chap. 3. 
 Sir Thomas Browne discusses the belief in his Vulgar Errors, bk. VII. 
 Chap xii., and in the Rcligio Medici (xxix) accepts it ("that great and 
 indisputable miracle, the cessation of oracles"). See his Works (ed. of 
 I 8 35) II- 4*> "I- 329332. Cf. P. R. I. 4568, and the Apology for 
 Smectymnus, "their great oracle... will soon be dumb" (last paragraph), 
 P. W. in. 168. 
 
 175. Deceiving. Compare the famous answer given by the Pythia 
 at Delphi to Croesus. It was a mediaeval belief that all oracular 
 responses came from the Devil. Sir Thomas Browne held this view ; 
 so apparently did Milton. See P. R. I. 430 31. 
 
 1 77. No more. Really the Delphic Oracle was not finally suppressed 
 till the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, who died A.D. 395. 
 
 178. Hollow, i.e. ghostlike, 'as if reverberated from a cavity,* 
 (Schmidt's Lexicon} : cf. Twelfth. Night, ill. 4. 101, "how hollow the 
 fiend speaks." Imitated by Pope, Elb'isa, 308. 
 
56 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 Delphos. Not an uncommon form ; cf. P. R. I. 458. It occurs 
 several times in The Winters Tale, but Shakespeare in Act in., 
 scene I. of that play makes Delphi an island, so that he may (as 
 Warburton suggested) have confused it with Delos. Cf. Scot's Dis- 
 coverie of Witchcraft, " If you had gone to Delphos, Apollo would have 
 made you beleeve," p. 141 (Nicholson's ed.); and Sir Thomas Browne's 
 Religio Medici, Sect. XLVI, " It had been an excellent quoere to have 
 posed the Devil of Delphos." 
 
 179. Nightly. Here, as in Arc. 48 ("nightly ill") the sense is 'by 
 night,' * nocturnal.' In modern E. nightly usually =* every night;* 
 both meanings occur in Shakespeare. 
 
 Spell. Cf. the Glosse to the Shepheards Cal. March : " a kinde of 
 verse or charme, that in elder tymes they used to say over every thing 
 that they would have preserved, as the Nightspel for theeves." 
 
 1 80. Pale-eyed priest. Certainly the origin of Pope's "shrines 
 where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep," Eloisa, 21 ; and possibly of 
 Keats' "pale- mouthed prophet dreaming," Ode to Psyche. 
 
 183. The editors remind us of St Matthew ii. 18, "In Rama was 
 there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning." 
 Cf. The Passion, 50, 51, "Or, should I thence... Take up a weeping 
 on the mountains wild." 
 
 184. Compare L'Al. 130, and Tennyson's Eleanore, "From old 
 well-heads of haunted rills." 
 
 185. Pale. Cf. Horace, Odes, n. 3. 9, "qua pinus ingens albaque 
 populus." Spenser's epithet for the poplar is * pallid,' Virgil's Gnat, 
 
 222. 
 
 1 86. Genius, i.e. the genius loci. Cf. Lye. 183. The 'Genius of 
 the Wood' is the chief character in Arcades. According to the classical 
 belief every place, or individual, had a presiding spirit. Plato tells us 
 something about the 5aifj,wv of Socrates. 
 
 187. Tress is a favourite word with Milton; cf. P. L. IV. 305 
 307, v. 10, Com. 753. Derived through the French tresse and tressei 
 from Low Lat. trica, 'a plait,' itself the Gr. rplxa., 'in three parts,'' 
 there being a method of plaiting the hair thus. For the order of the 
 words (an imitation of the Greek idiom) cf. Lye. 6, "sad occasion 
 dear," where the editors quote many other examples, e.g. P. L. V. 
 5, "temperate vapours bland." 
 
 1 88. i.e. the nymphs of the forests and groves, called 'A\<rrji5es ; cf. 
 7/7*11.137,138. 
 
 Twilight. An adjective, as in II Pen. 13^, ; cf. Collins, "as oft he 
 
NOTES. 57 
 
 rises 'midst the twilight path," Ode to Evening. In Elizabethan English, 
 says Dr Abbott, "almost any part of speech can be used as any other 
 part of speech " (Shakespearian Gram. p. 5) ; cf. maiden 1. 42. 
 
 The prefix twi in twilight is the A. S. twi- 'double,' and then 
 'doubtful;' so that twilight double or doubtful' light. Cognate are 
 E. two and Germ. zwei. 
 
 191. Roughly speaking, the Lares (also called Larva) and Lemures 
 = Manes, i.e. the spirits of the dead worshipped in Roman families as 
 divinities, after the manner of the Greek hero-worship. The Lares (the 
 spirits of good men) presided over the whole house ; their images stood 
 in a separate apartment called the Lararia ' ' the holy hearth" of 
 .Milton's verse. The Lemures, the souls of bad men uneasy in their 
 
 "consecrated earth," i.e. graves, were supposed to wander at night and 
 trouble the living ; cf. Julius Ccesar, n. 2. 24. There seems to be a 
 reminiscence of line 191 in Keats' Ode to Psyche, 
 
 " So let me be thy Choir, and make a moan 
 
 Upon the midnight hours." 
 Cf. 1. 1 80, note. 
 
 192. Urns. Perhaps in the sense 'tombs.' See Lye. 20. 
 
 194. Flamens. Spelt Flaniins in the eds. of 1645 and 1673; cf. 
 the folio reading in Coriolanus, II. i. 229. 
 
 When Milton would be very bitter against the ceremonies of the 
 English Church he sneers at episcopal " palls and mitres, gold, and 
 gewgaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamins vestry," 
 Of Reformation in England, P. W. II. 365. Cf. also The Reason of 
 Church Government, "how have they (i.e. the prelates) disfigured... the 
 unclouded serenity of Christian religion, with the dark overcasting of 
 superstitious copes and flaminical vestures," P. W. II. p. 485. 
 
 Quaint. Perhaps 'precise,' 'ceremonious.' Derived from cognitus 
 (cf. acquaint from adcognitare), through O. F. cointt, it first meant 
 'skilful,' 'knowing;' cf. Hampole's Psalter, Psalm cxix. 98, "Abouen 
 rayn enmys quaynt Mou me made,' where the A. V. has wiser ; simi- 
 larly in the same work quayntisprudentia i.e. cunning, "quayntis of 
 the deuel" (Bramley's ed. p. 425 and p. 9). Later came the notion 
 'neat,' 'done with care;" whence the general idea 'fine,' 'pretty.' 
 Cf. Taming of the Shrew, ill. 2. 149: "A gown more quaint, more 
 pleasing," and Much Ado, in. 4. 22. So "impresses quaint" in P. L. 
 IX. 35. Finally, quaint narrowed down to the meaning 'eccentric,' 
 'odd,' which is not found in Shakespeare. French writers supposed 
 cointe to be derived from L. comptus, the p. p. of comere, to adorn; cf. 
 
58 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 Du Cange s.v. Cointises: l< Galli Coints dicebant cullos, ornatos, elegantes 
 Comptos, unde vocis origo. hinc contoier pro ornare." Doubtless the 
 incorrect use of the French word affected its English derivative. 
 
 195. The editors refer to Vergil, G. I. 480. 
 
 196. Forgoes, i.'e. abandons. The for is an intensive prefix = 
 German ver ; cf. forlorn, forget ', forsake. Forego precede is, of course, 
 a separate word, fore being the A. S. preposition fore before, Germ. 
 vor. 
 
 197. Baal=Baal-Peor (cf. Numbers xxv. 18, xxxi. 16), one of the 
 titles under which Baal, God of the Sun, the chief male deity of the 
 Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, was worshipped. In his treatise 
 Of Reformation Milton uses the full name, "to draw them (i.e. the. 
 Israelites) from the sanctuary of God to the luxurious and ribald feasts 
 of Baal-Peor," P. W. n. p. 402. Other titles were Baal-Berith and 
 Baal-zebub; cf. S. A. 1231, P. L. I. 421. 
 
 199. i.e. Dagon, the god of the Philistines. Cf. P. L. 457 466, 
 where (as here, cf. * twice-battered ') Milton is referring to 2 Samuel 
 v. 3, 4. See S. A. passim. 
 
 200. Ashtaroth, i.e. the supreme female divinity of the Phoenicians 
 to whom Solomon built a temple, 2 Kings xxxiii.- 13. See P. L. I. 443, 
 and P. R. in. 417. She was identical with the Syrian Astarte and the 
 Greek Aphrodite, the worship of the latter having been introduced by 
 Phoenician traders to the islands of the /Egean, whence it spread all over 
 Greece (Classical Diet.). Milton calls her the "Assyrian Queen" in 
 Com. 1002 ; correctly, since she was the same deity as the Assyrian 
 Istar who married the sun-god Thammuz (see 1. 204) and each year 
 descended to the nether world to bring him back to earth. In the 
 religion of the Phoenicians the goddess was symbolised by either the 
 planet Venus or the Moon; in the latter case she was represented in 
 works of art as "horned like the crescent moon;" hence Milton's 
 epithet moontd. See P. L. I. 438 443. The name shows that she 
 was an astral deity, since Ashtaroth is cognate with Sanskrit tara er 
 stara, L. stella, E. star. Ashtoreth is the singular, Ashtaroth being 
 the plural, collective title for the different manifestations of the goddess. 
 See Chambers' Encyclopedia. 
 
 Mooned, i.e. represented as the Moon. In P. L. IV. 978 mooned '= 
 crescent-shaped; cf. Sylvester, Sonnet xxxvui., "the Mahomite His 
 mooned Standards hath already pight;" see Grosart's ed. I. 31, 
 II. 42. 
 
 201. Milton has transferred to her the title mater defim which 
 
> 
 
 NOTES. 59 
 
 belonged to Cybcle (see Arc. 22), and that of regina cali^ assigned to 
 Juno. 
 
 202. Shine. Once not uncommon as noun ; cf. Sylvester, "Illustrec 
 with Light's radiant shine," Grosart's ed. i. 23. So Spenser, F. Q. I. 
 ro. 57, and Keats, Endymion, III., "never was a day of summer shine." 
 
 203. Libyc Hammon, or Ammon; worshipped especially at Thebes 
 in Upper Egypt. He was " represented as a ram with downward branch- 
 ing horns, the symbols of power" (Chambers' Encyclopedia] \ flocks, 
 were supposed. to be under his protection. The name Ammon signifies 
 "the hidden, unrevealed deity," and in later times he became the god 
 of oracles, and was worshipped as such in Ethiopia and the Libyan 
 desert (hence Milton's epithet Libyc]. The chief shrine of the oracle was 
 twelve days' journey west of Memphis, whither came pilgrims, e.g. 
 Alexander the Great and Cato of Utica. The Greeks identified him 
 with Zeus, the Romans with Jupiter. Cf. P. L. iv. 277, " Whom 
 Gentiles Ammon call and Libyan Jove," and P. L. ix. 508. 
 
 Shrinks. Transitive as in Lye. 133, "the dread voice is past, that 
 shrunk thy streams." So llie 7 wo Kinsmen, I. i. 83, "this thy lord 
 ...shrunk thee into the bound thou wast o'erflowing." 
 
 204. Cf. Ezek* viii. 14, "behold, there sat women weeping for 
 Tammuz;" and the long passage in P. Z. I. 446, where Masson 
 remarks : "The legend was that he (i.e. Thammuz = the Adonis of Greek 
 mythology) was killed by a wild boar in Lebanon ; and the phenomenon 
 of the reddening at a particular season every year of the waters of the 
 Adonis, a stream which flows from Lebanon to the sea near Byblos, 
 was mythologically accounted for by supposing that the blood of Tham- 
 muz was then flowing afresh. There were annual festivals at Byblos 
 in Phoenicia in honour of Thammuz, held every year at the season 
 referred to. Women were the chief performers at these festivals the 
 first part of which consisted in lamentations for the death of Thammuz, 
 and the rest in rejoicings over his revival." Other allusions in Milton 
 to the same legend (which symbolises the annual return of spring) are 
 P. L. IX. 440, where he mentions the fabulous gardens of "revived 
 Adonis" (see note on Com. 998, 999), Eikonoklastes "let them who 
 now mourn for him (i.e. Charles I.) as for Thammuz... remember" (P. 
 W. I. p. 330), and the Latin poem Mansus, 10 n. 
 
 Tjprta* SB Phoenician j cf. Com. 341, "Tyrian Cynosure." 
 Wounded. Cf. Venus and Adonis, 1052. 53, "the wide wound that 
 the boar had trench 'd. " 
 
 205. Moloch. "The abomination of the children of Ammon," 
 
60 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 1 Kings xi. 7; worshipped at their capital Kabbah, "the city of 
 waters," 2 Sam. xii. 27, with human sacrifices, Psalm cvi. 37, 38, 
 
 2 Kings xxiii. 10. The name (better written Molech) means 'king;' 
 cf. Amos v. 26, where the margin rightly renders "your king." With 
 the description of his rites, 206 210, cf. P. L. I. 392 396. Cowley 
 in his attack on Cromwell says, "To usurp three kingdoms without any 
 shadow of the least pretensions, and to govern them as unjustly as he 
 got them ! To set himself up as an idol (which we know, as St Paul 
 says, in itself is nothing), and make the very streets of London like 
 the valley of Hinnom,'by burning the bowels of men as a sacrifice to 
 his Molochship ! " Essays, Pitt Press ed. p. 29. 
 
 207. Burning idol. Warton first pointed out that in this stanza, as 
 in P. L. I. 392 et seq., Milton very probably used Sandys' Travels. 
 Sandys gives, no doubt, the picture handed down by Jewish tradition 
 of the " Idoll of brasse, hauing the head of a Calfe, the rest of a kingly 
 figure, with armes, exteded to receive the miserable sacrifice, seared to 
 death with his burning embracements. For the Idol was hollow within, 
 filled with fire. And least their lamentable shreeks should sad the 
 hearts of their parents, the Priests of Molech did deafe their eares with 
 the continual clang of trumpets and timbrels," p, 186, ed. 1632. Milton 
 refers to Sandys in the tract Of Reformation, P. W. II. 380. 
 
 208. Cymbal. See note on chime, 1. 128. 
 
 209. They i.e. his priests and worshippers. 
 
 Grisly. Middle E. grislich, horrible; cognate withjGerm. grdslich, 
 grausig. Sometimes confused with grizzly = greyish, from F. gris. Cf. 
 Hamlet, I. 2. 240, where the folios have grisly, while most modern 
 editors print grizzled after the quartos. The adjectival suffixes like and 
 ly, e.g. in saint-like and saintly, are identical, like being the earlier in 
 use, from A. S. lie. 
 
 211. Brutish. Cf. the reference in P. L. I. 480 482, to " fanatick 
 Egypt" and her "wandering gods disguised in brutish forms." The 
 epithet is accurate because the religion of the Egyptians consisted in 
 a pantheistic worship of nature that mainly took for its symbols living 
 animals. Cf. the next line ("dog Anubis"), and the description of 
 Osiris, stanza xxiv. At Rome the rites of some of these monstra de&m 
 (/Eneid, viil. 698) became so popular that Juvenal could safely ask 
 
 quis nescit qualia demens \ j&gyptus portenta coiat ? Sat. xv. i, 2. 
 See Mayor's notes on this and other passages of Juvenal referred to 
 on p. 61. 
 
 212. his t ' the goddess of the earth.' Herodotus says, " the statue 
 
NOTES. 6 1 
 
 of this goddess has the form of a woman but with horns like a cow, 
 resembling thus the Greek representations of lo," Rawlinson, n. 73. 
 lo and Isis were identified. Cf. P. L. I. 476, and the Latin poem In 
 Quint um Novembris, 185, 186. Evidently Milton was well versed in 
 Egyptian mythology; see the Areopagitica, P. IV. ll. 89, Animad- 
 versions, P. W. in. 89. 
 
 Orus ; or Horus, the Egyptian Sun-god; the name means "path 
 of the sun;" cf. Milton's first Defence, P. W. I. 119. 
 
 Anubis was the son of Osiris. Like Hermes (with whom he was 
 identified by the Greeks; cf. Milton's poem De Idea Platonica, 31 34) 
 he acted as psychopompus, conducting souls to the lower-world and 
 weighing their actions before Osiris. On monuments he was represented 
 with a jackal's head, which the Greeks changed to that of a dog. 
 Hence Vergil's latrator Anubis, ALneid, vin. 698, and Juvenal's 
 oppida tota canem venerantur, Sat. xv. 8; cf. also Sat. vi. 534. Prof. 
 Hales reminds us of Socrates' oath, /id TOI> KVVO. rbv Atyvirriuv 0bv, 
 Plat. Gorg. p. 482, B. Sir Thomas Browne speaks of the Egyptians 
 "As the great admirers of dogs in earth and heaven; wherein they 
 worshipped Anubis... the scribe of Saturn, and counsellor of Osyris, the 
 great inventor of their religious rites, and promoter of good into Egypt," 
 Vulgar Errors, book IV. chap. xill. 
 
 213220. Osiris = Apis; Osiris was the chief Egyptian god, Apis, 
 the Sacred Bull, being the symbol under which they worshipped him. 
 Obviously it is to Apis that these lines apply. The Apis was not 
 allowed to live more than 25 years ; then he was put to death by the 
 priests, and buried in a sacred well, the people believing that he had cast 
 himself into the water. If he died naturally he was buried in the temple 
 of Serapis at Memphis. For a description of this burial-place (dis- 
 covered not long since) see Rawlinson's Herodotus, n. 431. When a 
 successor to the Apis (which had to be of a certain colour and marked 
 in a certain way) was found, great popular rejoicings were held; cf. 
 Juvenal's, 
 
 populus quod clamat Osiri 
 
 Invent 'o, VI n. 29. 
 
 See Herodotus, in. 27 29, where there is an account how Cambyses 
 killed the Apis, and Pliny, H. N. viu. 46. The worship by the 
 Israelites in the wilderness of the golden calf was due to this Egyptian 
 cult. In Eikonoklastes Milton ridicules his opponents for being annoyed 
 that he "should dare to tell abroad the secrets of their Egyptian Apis" 
 (i.e. Charles I.) P. W. I. 328. See also P. L. \. 478. 
 
62 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 i \ 5. Unskcwertd, because of the lack of rain in Egypt. Cf. Edward 
 Webbe his trauailes (1590) "In Egipt there is small store of water, 
 because it neuer raineth in that Country, so that their water is very 
 dangerous to drinke. They have no springs at all in that country," p. 
 33, Arber's Reprint ; see also p 22. 
 
 217. Sacred chest, i.e. the "worshipped ark;" cf. 220. 
 
 218. Shroud, i.e. shelter; cf. Com. 147. A. S. scncd 1 garment,' 
 and in this sense shroud soon became limited to 'funeral garment,' i.e. 
 winding-sheet. But it also developed a secondary meaning * shelter;' 
 cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III. 3. 71 "put yourself under his shroud." 
 Another very common meaning was ' the shelter of the branches of a 
 tree;' cf. Ezek. xxxi. 8, "a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and 
 with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature." 
 
 219. Anthems. See // Pen. 163, note. 
 
 220. Sable-stolid, i.e. robed in black; cf. // Pen. 35, and Tenny- 
 son's Morte D" 1 Arthur, "the decks were dense with stately forms black - 
 stoled." So "sable-vested" in P. L. n. 962. Stole, L. stola (worn by 
 Roman ladies), Gk. crroXr], signified a long, flowing robe. Cf. Florio 
 ( I 598) "Stola, a stole, a roabe, garment or religious habit, such as 
 religious men and doctors weare...a roabe of honour and dignity;" 
 also Cotgrave, "Stole. A stole; a long robe, gown, or garment, reach- 
 ing to the ankles or heeles." In modern E. the word is limited to mean 
 the long band of silk, fringed at the end, which is worn round the neck 
 by many clergymen. Formerly, however, as Florio's definition shows, 
 stole denoted any religious vestment; cf. Giles Fletcher, "prophets 
 brightly-stoled in shining laune," Christ's Victor ie on Earth, 7. Stole 
 could also be applied to the dress of women. Cf. for example, Her- 
 rick's To the King, "In her white Stole, now Victory does rest." So 
 in A Lover's Complaint, 297. 
 
 221. Cf. St Matthew ii. 6. 
 
 223. Eyn. The old form of the plural, where = the O. E. termi- 
 nation an, cf. oxen; cf. As You Like It, iv. 3. 50 51 : 
 
 " If the scorn of your bright eyne 
 
 Have power to raise such love in mine;" 
 
 and Midsummer N. D. in. 2. 137 138. When Shakespeare uses eyn 
 or eyne it is almost always for the sake of the rhyme. So Spenser, 
 F. Q. I. 4. 21 where the rhyme fyne...pyne runs through the stave. 
 
 224. i.e. nor all the other gods; beside is an adverb, as in II Pen. 
 116, "And if aught else great bards beside." 
 
 226. Typhon. Cf. P. Z. i. 199, and II. 539 ("vast Typhcean 
 
NOTES. 63 
 
 rage"). Typhon, or Typhceus, is commonly represented as a hundred- 
 headed monster, who, trying to seize supreme sovereignty, was killed by 
 Zeus with a thunderbolt. Later writers connect him with Egypt, 
 and Milton perhaps followed this view, since he has just been men- 
 tioning the chief Egyptian deities. He may have borrowed something 
 (as in stanza xxiii.) from Sandys' Travels, p. 103 (1632 ed.). Cf. 
 Spenser, F. Q. vn. 6. 29; Bacon in his Wisdom of the A ncients rational- 
 ises the fable, making Typhon the Genius of Rebellion in States. 
 
 Ty/>/wn = Gk. rvfyuv or ru^ws, a whirlwind. Typhoon, better spelt 
 tyfoon, is an entirely separate word, of Chinese origin, the spelling of 
 which has been influenced by the other. 
 
 Snaky twine. Cf. '* Gordian twine" (of the serpent) P. L. IV. 348. 
 
 228. Swaddling bands. To swaddle is to swathe ; swaddling-band 
 = swatheling-bonde in Middle E. From A. S. swe^ian, to enwrap; 
 Coverdale ^535) has "nether rubbed with salt ner swedled in cloutes," 
 Ezek. xvi. 4. See the A. V. St Luke, ii. 7, and cf. Joseph Beaumont's 
 Psyche (Grosart's ed., 134) : 
 
 "You shall at Bethlehem find this most divine 
 Infant inwrap'd in simple swadling clouts." 
 
 229 231. The metaphor here (curtained, pillows'] belongs to Ihe 
 type of somewhat fantastic, far-fetched imagery in which the poets of 
 the * Metaphysical ' school delighted. With the addition of a few 
 strokes the picture would have become ridiculous : Crashaw or Donne 
 might have added them. 
 
 231. Orient. In a note on Midsummer N. D. IV. 59, Mr Aldis 
 Wright pointed out that orient was first applied to gems, especially 
 pearls that came from the Orient or East. The phrase "orient pearl" 
 occurred so frequently in Elizabethan poetry (cf. Antony and Cleopatra, 
 I. 5. 41, The Passionate Pilgrim, 132), that Bullokar explained it in his 
 Expositor, "Orient Pearles, Glistering Pearles of great price." After- 
 wards orient was used of anything brilliant. Cf. P. L. I. 545 6, "Ten 
 thousand banners rise into the air, With orient colours waving." Cf. 
 Com. 65, where, as here, it is used of a liquid. 
 
 232 234. Referring to the superstition that evil spirits may not 
 'walk* after sunrise ; cf. Hamlet, I. 5. 89 91, and Midsummer N. D. 
 in. 2. 381 384, a passage from which Milton borrowed in his Death of 
 a Fair Infant, 3 1 . 
 
 234. Fettered. Cf. Com. 434 35, " unlaid ghost, That breaks his 
 magic chains at curfew time." 
 
 Several, i.e. separate or respective ; cf. Cum. 25, *' commits to 
 
64 NATIVITY ODE. 
 
 several government.'* In modern E. several is usually an indefinite 
 pronoun ( = 'a few') joined with a plural noun; in Elizabethan E. it 
 was commonly an adjective, as here. Cf. Bacon's Hist, of Hen. VII. 
 'as if the king's soul and his money were in several offices," p. 209. 
 So-the A. V. in many places, e.g. 2 Kings xv. 5. From O. F. several, 
 Low Lat. separabile'"*. thing apart ; ' several and separate are 'doublets.' 
 
 235. Strictly fay = an elf; fairy enchantment ; but fairy has 
 displaced fay and taken its meaning. Fay is from O. F. fae = modern 
 
 f& ; cf. Portuguese fada, Ital. fata. Each comes from Late Lat./ate 
 =.Parca, "goddess of destiny." 
 
 236. i.e. "the drowsy-flighted steeds" (Com. 553) who draw the 
 chariot of the night. Cf. the lines In Quintum Novembris, 69, 73, 
 where (constructing his own mythology) Milton tells us the names of 
 the horses. See // Pen. 59, note. 
 
 Mazes, i.e. labyrinths, a reminiscence' probably of Shakespeare's 
 "quaint mazes in the wanton green," Midsummer N. D. II. i. 99. 
 Evidently Milton knew that scene by heart; cf. 11. 6, 7 with Com. 
 1013 1017; 1. 25 with Com. 423; 1. 29 partly with P. L. \. 783, 
 partly with Com. 1003; 11. 34 37 with L'Al. 105 108; 1. 39 with 
 P. L. IX. 640; 1. 69 with Com. 139 ; 1. 126 with Com. 117 (Cambridge 
 MS. reading) ; and 1. 129 with Lye. 137. Moon-loved; cf. Midsummer 
 N. D. II. i. 141. 
 
 240. Youngest-teemed, i.e. latest-born. Teem is used causally, = 
 to bring forth, in P. L. vn. 454; cf. Macbeth, IV. 3. 176, "Mai. What 
 is the newest grief? Rosse. Each minute teems a new one." 
 
 242. Cf. St Matthew xxv. i 13 (the parable of the Ten Virgins); 
 and see the ninth sonnet, To A Virtuous Young Lady. 
 
 244. Bright -harnessed, i.e. clad in bright armour. For harness 
 armour cf. Cotgrave " Harnois. Armour, harnesse." Ascham mentions 
 "the harnesse of Achilles, with the harnesse of ALneas, and the maner 
 of making of them," Scholemaster, p. 190. So Shakespeare in Troilus, 
 V. 3. 31, Macbeth, v. 5. 52, and King John, v. 2. 132 (harnessed). The 
 word has been revived by Tennyson, "Dry clashed his harness in the 
 icy caves," Morte D* Arthur ; "Far liefer had I gird his harness on 
 him," Geraint and Enid. O. F. harneis is Celtic. Cf. Breton harnez 
 = iron, iron- implements. 
 
NOTES. 65 
 
 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 The Title. Florio's Diet. (1598) has: "Allegro, ioyfull, merie, 
 iocond, sportfull, pleasant, frolike." Ital. allegro = Lat. alacrem^ accus. 
 of alacer\ cf. O. F. alegre, mod. allegre. The word is perhaps best 
 known to us from its use in music. 
 
 i 2. Milton's mythology, like his landscapes, is eclectic. He 
 picks out from classical mythology just what suits his purpose and treats 
 it in his own way. The ancients knew no goddess of Melancholy, so 
 he invents one : she must have some parentage, and he makes her the 
 offspring of Cerberus and Night. Similarly Spenser makes the 'Blattant 
 Beast' the issue of Cerberus and "fell Chimaera," F. Q. vi. i. 8. 
 Strictly the husband of Night was not Cerberus but Erebus; cf. the 
 F. Q. III. 4. 54 : 
 
 ** Night 1 thou foule Mother of annoyance sad, 
 
 Black Herebus, thy husband, is the foe 
 
 Of all the Gods." 
 
 'So F. Q. II. 4. 41, and the Glosse to the Shepheards Cal. November. 
 Dyce in his note on Peele's Battle of Alcazar, IV. 2 ("you bastards of 
 the Night and Erebus") suggested Erebus in the present verse. 
 
 3. "In some such cave as Cerberus' own, which, according to 
 Vergil, faced the landing-place of spirits on the further bank of the 
 Styx" (Hales). See JEmid vi. 418. Cf. the description of the Cave 
 of Murder and Treason in Milton's poem In Quintum Noveuibris, 139 
 154; or Longfellow's address to Sleep in the Masque of Pandora: 
 
 "Come from thy caverns dark and deep, 
 
 O Son of Erebus and Night." 
 
 Stygian. Cf. "Stygian darkness " = darkness as of the nether world, 
 Com. 132. Styx, one of the four rivers of Hades, "the flood of deadly 
 hate" (P. L. II. 577), is a synonym of hell. From <rrirye?j>, to hate. 
 
 5. Uncouth, gloomy, 'filling the soul with dismal apprehensions' 
 (Schmidt, Lexicon}; cf. "if this uncouth forest yield anything," As You 
 Like //, II. 6. 6; see Lye. 186. 
 
 cell; not one such as in // Pen. 169. 
 
 6. Cf. P. L. I. 20 21 : 
 
 "With mighty wings outspread 
 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss;" 
 and vil. 235. 
 
 V. M. 5 
 
66 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 We have the same imagery of night, or darkness, represented as a dusky 
 bird whose outstretched wings cover the earth, more than once in 
 Milton; cf. P. R. I. 501, 502, Com. 251, 252. 
 
 Brooding overshadowing, with something of its metaphorical sense 
 sullen\ cf. "jealous wings," as though by its attitude darkness forbade 
 the approach of light. The original notion of brood was 'heat'; the 
 New E. D. compares Middle High G. bruot warmth, and then, some- 
 thing hatched by warmth; cf. G. briihen. 
 
 7. Cf. Much Ado, II. 3. 84, "I had as lief have heard the night- 
 raven." Coles' Diet, has " lich fowles (lick - dead body) scritch-owls, 
 
 night-ravens;" and Sherwood, "the night-raven, Corbeau du miict." 
 Probably it was the same as the night-crow mentioned in 3 Hen. VI. v. 
 6. 45. There has been much discussion amongst Shakespearian editors 
 as to what bird is intended. Neither the raven nor any species of crow 
 is a night-bird. Accordingly the owl, the bittern (cf. Goldsmith's 
 "hollow sounding bittern," Deserted Village, 44), once common in 
 England, though now nearly extinct, the night-jar and the night-heron 
 have all been suggested. Probably, however, the raven was meant ; 
 its croak has always been regarded as an evil omen (cf. the Glosse to 
 the Shepheards Cal. June}. Thus it was supposed to fly round houses' 
 infected, or about to be, with the plague; cf. Othello, IV. i. 20 22. 
 The poets may have thought that the bird ought, from the fitness of 
 things, to fly abroad at night, and Milton did not stay to enquire whether 
 they were correct. Cf. the sonnet To the Nightingale, 9, 10. 
 
 8. Ebon, i.e. black; "death's ebon dart," Venus and Adonis, 948. 
 The form used by Spenser is closer to the etymology ebenus, tpt>os ; cf. 
 F. Q. II. 7. 52, "Trees of bitter Gall, and Heben sad." Cf. Com. 134. 
 Low-browed, = close overhanging. 
 
 9. Ragged, i.e. rugged; cf. Richard II. V. 5. 21, "my ragged 
 prison walls;" where Mr Aldis Wright quotes Isaiah ii. 21: "To go 
 into the clefts of the rocks, and into ^the tops of the ragged rocks." 
 Metaphorically ragged= rough, uneven; cf. As You Like It, II. 5. 15, 
 "my voice is ragged." Swedish rugg rough hair. 
 
 10. Cimmerian. "The mythical Cimmerii, mentioned by Homer, 
 (see Odyssey, xi. 14) dwelt in the furthest W. on the ocean, enveloped 
 in constant mists and darkness," Classical Diet. Cimmerian therefore 
 meant 'gloomy.' Cf. Sylvester, I. p. 22, "black horror of Cimmerian 
 Mists;" and Spenser, Virgil 'j Gnat. Cotgrave has " Cimmerique. 
 Tenebres Cimmeriques. Cimmerian (viz. perpetuall, or continuall) dark- 
 nesse." So perhaps in Titus Andronicus, n. 3. 72. 
 
NOTES. 67 
 
 ii 40. The whole of this passage (except verses 17 24) is 
 quoted by Addison in his essay on "Laughter and Ridicule; Difference 
 between Comedy and Burlesque," Spectator 249. "Milton," he says, 
 "in a joyous assembly of imaginary persons, has given us a very 
 poetrcal figure of laughter. His whole band of mirth is so finely 
 described that I shall set down the passage at length ; '' and then follow 
 the lines. It is to Addison that we owe one of the earliest detailed 
 criticisms of Paradise Lost. 
 
 Again, when Comus was adapted for the stage in the last century, 
 the re-arrangement into scenes and acts being made by the Rev. John 
 Dalton of New College, Oxford, while Dr Arne supplied the musical 
 setting, the first twenty-six lines of, V Allegro were transferred to the 
 operatic version of the Masque. They served as the opening of the third 
 act, and at 1. 1 1 the invocation to Mirth was followed by the actual 
 appearance on the scene of the goddess who from that point onward 
 took part in the performance. (See the Pitt Press ed. of Comus pp. 
 xliii. xliv.) 
 
 ii. Fair and free; i.e. graceful. A favourite combination with the 
 xvi ith cent, poets. Cf. Dray ton's Heroical Epistles: 
 
 "Find me out one so young, so fair, so free." 
 
 11. Ycleped. 'Called;' cf. Love's L. L. I. x. 242, and V. i. 602. 
 Clepen, or clepe, is very common in Chaucer and early writers. Cf. the 
 Prowptorium, "Clepyn' be name, Nuncupor, nuncupo. Clepyn' yn to 
 a place, Invoco" Way quotes (p. 81) from Palsgrave, "I clepe or call, 
 je huysche. This term is farre Northern'." Shakespeare uses it only 
 three or four times; cf. Hamlet, I. 4. 19, "they clepe us drunkards." 
 Sometimes spelt clip: hence the quibble in Love's Z. L. V. 2. 603 
 (ycliped and dipt shortened); cf. also the folio reading in Macbeth in. 
 i. 94, where the Clarendon Press editors say that "the word is still used 
 by children at play in the Eastern counties: they speak of 'cleping 
 sides,' i.e. calling sides, at prisoners' base." Derived from A. S. cleo- 
 pian. For the prefix y see Nat. Ode, 155. 
 
 12 16. According to the editors, the only authority for this 
 parentage of the Graces is a note by Servius on ALneid I. 720. Usually 
 they are represented as the offspring of Zeus, though which of the god- 
 desses was their mother was not quite certain. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 10. 
 22, says Eurynome, daughter of Oceanus : 
 
 "They are the daughters of sky-ruling Jove, 
 By him begot of faire Eurynome." 
 
 The Graces were familiar characters on the Jacobean Masque-stage, 
 
 52 
 
68 LALLEGRO. 
 
 acting (as in the classics) as attendants on Venus, whence possibly the 
 notion that she was their mother. Cf. Ben Jonson's Hue and Cry after 
 Cupid, and the description of Euphrosyne in King James? Entertainment. 
 
 14. At a birth) i.e. at one birth. "A is a shortened form of an, 
 first used about A.D. 1200" (Skeat); an is identical with one. Cf. for 
 this very phrase Othello, n. 3. 212, "Though he had twinn'd with me, 
 both at a birth." So Hamlet, v. 2. 276, "these foils have all a length?" 
 i.e. the same. 
 
 1 6. This makes Euphrosyne the half-sister of Comus who was the 
 son of Bacchus and Circe ; Euphrosyne = Pleasure on its innocent side: 
 Comus = Pleasure in its sensual aspect. See Com. p. 84. 
 
 Ivy-croivned. Cf. the description in Com. 54, 55, of Bacchus and 
 
 "his clustering locks, 
 With ivy berries wreathed." 
 
 It was probably the traditional association of ivy with the wine-god that 
 led to the custom of affixing an ivy-bush at the doors of taverns : whence 
 again the proverb "good wine needs no bush," which is traceable at 
 least as far back as Shakespeare (As You Like it, Epilogue, 4. 6). 
 
 17 24. Euphrosyne may.be the offspring of the West Wind and 
 the Dawn : in simpler language, "it is the early freshness of the summer 
 morning that best produces cheerfulness" (Masson). Perhaps Milton 
 followed Ben Jonson who in The Penates makes Aurora the companion 
 of Favonius or Zephyr. Cf. Herrick's poem " The Apron of Flowers,'* 
 Grosart's ed. 1 1. 249. Or the parentage may be Milton's own invention, 
 though he attributes it to "some sager." In either case we may re- 
 member that mythology relates the loves of the winds and nymphs, e.g. 
 of Boreas and Orithyia (Ovid. Met. vi. 677). 
 
 1 8. Breathes = spiral ; cf. the poem Naturam Non Pali Senium, 
 55, trux Aquilo spiratque hietnem nimbosque volutat. Imitated in 
 Gray's ode on Eton College. 
 
 20. Alluding to the May-day observances, so often mentioned by 
 English writers. A stage- direction in The 7 wo Kinsmen, act in. runs: 
 "Noise and hallooing, as of People a-Maying;" and Herrick in the 
 Hesperides has a piece entitled " Corinntfs going a- Maying" (Grosart I. 
 116). Compare Milton's own Song on May Morning, in which he 
 refers to the practice of saluting the day with an 'early song,' the custom 
 that still obtains at Magdalen College, Oxford. Moralists like Stubbes 
 condemned the May-games; see the Anatomy of Abuses, p. 149 (Fur- 
 nivall's ed.) or Brand's Popular Antiquities, I. 212 (Bonn's ed.). 
 
 A-Maying. Ben Jonson in his Grammar says, "a hath also the 
 
. NOTES. 69 
 
 force of governing before a noun." In fact, a = an, and an was a 
 dialectical form of the preposition on. Maying is a verbal noun, the 
 termination -ing being the same as the O. E. noun ending -ung. The 
 use of the verbal noun in -ing after the prepositions, on, an, a or in, 
 was especially common after verbs of motion; e.g. "he went on hunt- 
 ing," "he fell on sleeping." When the preposition was omitted the 
 verbal noun in -ing came to be regarded as a present participle. 
 Morris, Outlines, 177 179; also Abbott, Shakesp. Gram. 94. 
 
 22. Cf. The Taming of the Shrew, II. I. 174, "As morning roses 
 newly wash'd with dew; " where the old play The Taming of A Shrfiv 
 has, 1. 1023, "As glorious as the morning wasn't with dew." Cf. the 
 obvious imitation in Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women, 14: 
 
 " fresh -wash'd in coolest dew 
 The maiden splendours of the morning star 
 Shook in the stedfast blue." 
 
 24. Thomas Randolph had already written in Aristippus : 
 "A bowl of wine is wondrous good cheer, 
 
 To make one blithe, buxom and debonair." 
 
 Cf. the prologue in Pericles, I. i. 23, "so buxome, blithe and full of 
 face." Randolph is almost certainly the "late R" mentioned in Sir 
 Henry Wotton's letter to Milton; see Comus, p. 10 and pp. 70, 71. 
 Randolph was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and must have 
 been contemporary with Milton at the University. It is quite possible 
 that they had met, though there could not have been much in common 
 between the brilliant 'son' of Ben Jonson and the student of Christ's 
 College. 
 
 Buxom, lively, brisk. Derived from A. S. biigan, to bend, (cf. 
 Germ, beugsani) ; it originally meant 'pliable,' 'yielding,' i.e. submis- 
 sive/ obedient. Cf. Hampole's Psalter, "be boxsuw, suffrand and 
 dyand," p. 10; and p. 436, "bifor all other thyng* to be buxsum til 
 Me" (Bramley's ed.). It is used literally of that which gives way in 
 P. L. II. 842, "wing silently the buxum air," i.e. the air that yields 
 before them; a translation of Horace's ccdentem aera, Sat. II. 2, 13, 
 previously imitated by Milton in the poem In Quintum Novembris, 208, 
 "cedcntes remigat auras" Cf. also P. L. v. 270. Afterwards the 
 meaning entirely changed, so that buxom became a vague term of 
 compliment. Thus Cotgrave gives it (with blithe] among the synonyms 
 foijoyeux, and Sherwood translates it by gai, gaillard. 
 
 Debonair, i.e. de bon air= good-looking; but debonaire was used 
 rather of character than appearance. Cf. Cotgrave, "Debonnaire, 
 
70 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 courteous, affable, gentle, mild ; of a sweet, a friendly, conversation.*' 
 See Hampole's Psalter, p. 118, "deboner* men that has tempirauftce 
 in all thyng<?;" also p. 276, "als a shepe, that is innocentis meke and 
 debon^r." So Sylvester, n. p. 349: 
 
 "Thou of thy goodnesse debonaire 
 
 Didst freely it againe repaire." 
 Sometimes variously shortened to bonaire, bonere and bonayre. 
 
 25. As an example of the extraordinary influence exercised by 
 Milton's style upon the poets of the latter half of the xvinth century 
 Warton's eleventh Ode (on the 'Approach of Summer') is worth con- 
 sulting. He does little rhore than re-write this apostrophe to Mirth. 
 
 26 28. Cf. the picture Sylvester draws of Venus, i. p. 55 : 
 "Whom wanton dalliance, dancing, and delight, 
 Smiles, witty wiles, youth, love and beauty bright, 
 With soft blind Cupids evermore consort," (i.e. attend). 
 
 26. Jollity and Laughter (1. 32) sometimes figure as allegorical 
 dramatis persona in the Masque-literature of the period. Cf. the 
 account of the procession of Shirley's Triumph of Peace through 
 London when the spectators saw amongst other characters "Jollity and 
 Laughter : Jollity in a flame-coloured suit, but tricked like a morice- 
 dancer, with scarfs and napkins (i.e. handkerchiefs), his hat fashioned 
 like a cone, with a little fall. Laughter in a long side coat of several 
 colours, laughing, Vizards on his breast and back." Shirley's Works 
 (Dyce's ed.), vi. 259. See Com. 104. 
 
 27. @j/jr= smart sayings ; cf. Bullokar's Expositor (1616), " Qitippe, 
 A quicke checke, a pretty taunt." Almost always in a bad sens2; 
 cf. Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale, 707, "with sharp quips joy'd others 
 to deface," or Much Ado, II. 3. 249. So Milton in the Apology for 
 Smeclymnus, '"when I saw his weak arguments headed with sharp 
 taunts, and that his design was, if he could not refute them, yet at least 
 with quips and snapping adages to vapour them out...." P. W. ill. 99. 
 
 ' Cranks = odd turns of speech, i.e. words distorted out of their sense. 
 The underlying notion in crank is * something twisted or bent.' Skeat 
 compares the cognate Dutch words kronkel, a little bend, and kronkelen, 
 to wrinkle, turn, wind. Crank a winding passage, or curve, is not 
 uncommon; cf. Coriolanus } i. i. 141, "through the cranks and offices 
 of man," i.e. the veins and arteries of the body, where Mr Aldis Wright 
 quotes from Holland's translation of Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvi. 10, 
 p. 297 : "with departing speedily by the lake Sunonensis, and the wind- 
 ing cranks of the river Callus, he deluded the enemie." Cf. also The 
 
NOTES. 71 
 
 Two Kinsmen, I. i. 28, "the cranks and turns of Thebes," i.e. its 
 winding passages. Shakespeare has the verb twice; cf. i Hen. IV. 
 III. 1.98, "this river comes me cranking in," and Veims and Adonis, 
 682, where he describes how a hare "cranks and crosses with a thousand 
 doubles." Shelley gave Milton's words a new meaning ; cf. the Witch 
 of Atlas, 51, "many quips and cranks She played upon the water;" i.e. 
 sported like a seabird on the waves. 
 
 28. Beck = obeisance, bow. The New E. D. quotes from one of 
 Surrey's poems in TottelFs Miscellany, " and with a becke full low he 
 bowed at her feet" (Arber's Reprint, p. 128). See the Promptorium, 
 "Bek, or lowte. Inclinacio" (where lowte = bow) ; and Florio, "Cenno, 
 
 - a nod, a becke, a signe." As a rule, however, it meant a gesture made 
 
 with the hand; cf. Cotgrave: "Signe. A signe, marke, becke with 
 
 the hand;" and Hamlet, in. i. 27. 
 
 Wreathed, i.e. that wreathe the features ; a transferred epithet. 
 
 29. Hebe, the cup-bearer of the gods (Iliad IV. 2), stands for the 
 personification of youth. In the lines Ad Salsillum, 23, 24, Milton 
 salutes good health (sains) as the * sister -of Hebe ' (Hebes Germana). 
 Cf. Com. 290. 
 
 31. Cf. the Purple Island I v . 13: 
 
 "Here sportful Laughter dwells, here ever-sitting 
 Defies all lumpish griefs, and wrinkled care;" 
 and vi. 35, "dainty Joys laugh at white-headed caring." 
 
 32. Contrast // Pen. 37 et seq. 
 
 33. Trip it. A common idiom in the language of that time ; now 
 confined to slang phrases such as 'to fight it out.' The it seems to be a 
 cognate accus. referring to the action which the speaker has in his mind's 
 eye but does not verbally express : what that action is, the sense of the 
 verb implies. Cf. Midsummer N. D. V. 403, "dance it trippingly," 
 where it m\ist = dance; or 3 Hen. VI. in. 3. 225, "to revel it with 
 him," where it ' = revelry. Dr Abbott (Gram. p. 150) notes that it is 
 often added in this way to "nouns or words that are not generally used x 
 as verbs, in order to give them the force of verbs," as in "foot it" 
 (Tempest, I. i. 380), "queen it" (Hen. VIII. n. 3. 37). 
 
 34. Cf. Com. 144, and Collins' ode, The Passions, "Love framed 
 with Mirth a'gay fantastic round." 
 
 Fantastic whimsical, as in Aleasure for M. n. 2. 121. Usually 
 Shakespeare writes fantastical; cf. As You Like It, in. 2. 431, in. 
 3. 107. 
 
 35 36. One of the passages in which we seem to catch an echo of 
 
72 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Milton's own voice. Love of liberty ("the nurse of all great wits, 55 as 
 he says in the Areopagiticd) was with him an intensely strong feeling. 
 It kept him from entering the Church, "because he who would take 
 orders must subscribe slave." It led him a few years later (1639) to 
 surrender his life of study and enter on one of political struggle ; and 
 throughout his prose- works (cf. in particular the Areopagitica} we find 
 the same "noble rage of freedom" (Mark Pattison). Also, it is well to 
 remember that LAI. was written at a time when the absolutism of 
 Charles I. was each month growing more decided. 
 
 36. "Is he thinking of Wales, Switzerland, Greece; and other 
 mountainous countries, in which the heights have proved the great 
 strong -holds of freedom?" (Hales). Probably. Collins makes Switzer- 
 land the home of freedom ; cf. the Ode to Liberty : 
 "More pleased thy haunts I seek, 
 
 On wild Helvetia's mountains bleak." 
 For the same obvious sentiment cf. Wordsworth's lines : 
 "Two voices are there one is of the sea, 
 One of the mountains each a mighty voice: 
 In both from age to age thou didst rejoice, 
 They were thy chosen music, Liberty;" 
 and Landor, Fiesolan Musings : 
 
 "A pure libation pour'd to thee, 
 
 Unsoil'd, unciticd Liberty." 
 
 This interpretation is more probable than another mentioned by 
 Hales, viz. that M. refers to "the absence of conventional restraints 
 and general sense of unconfinement that belong to mountains." 
 
 Nymph. Cf. Collins in the Ode to Liberty, "Hail, nymph, adored 
 by Britain, hail." Classical writers mention no Nymph of Liberty; 
 but with Milton the tendency to personify is habitual. 
 
 38. Admit me of, i.e. to be a member of. The New E. D. quotes 
 no other instance earlier than The Guardian, 1713, "Jack. ..was sent up 
 to London, to be admitted of the Temple." Cf. however, the old 
 phrase 'entered of a College = matriculated at. 
 
 Crew, i.e. company; cf. 'ship's crew.' Elsewhere in Milton, as 
 always in Shakespeare, , a depreciatory word. Cf. Nat. Ode, 228. 
 
 39. See the extract from Marlowe's poem given in the Introduction. 
 
 40. Unreproved, i.e. unreprovable. Cf. unenchanted in Com. 395, 
 and uncontrolled', the same poem, 1. 793. See Nat. Ode, 116, note. 
 
 41. Cf. Milton's account of his own mode of life in the Apology for 
 Smectymnuus: " He (i.e. Milton's opponent) follows me to the city...* and 
 
NOTES. 73 
 
 where my morning haunts are, he vvisses not.' Those morning haunts 
 are where they should be, at home; not sleeping... but up and stirring, 
 in winter often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour, or to 
 devotion ; in summer as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much 
 tardier, to read good authors," P. W. in. 112. Among the Milton 
 MSS found at Netherby Hall in Cumberland and printed by the Camden 
 Society were two scraps of Latin verse, one of which is in praise of 
 early rising. Cf. the description of morning in P. L. IX. 445 451. 
 
 42. Dull, inert, slow to pass away; cf. Richard III. I. 3. 196, 
 "give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses." 
 
 43. Cf. (with Prof. Hales) the tract Of Reformation in England; 
 "But ever blessed be He, and ever glorified, that from his high watch- 
 tower in the heavens, discerning the crooking ways" P. W. II. 406. 
 See also P. L. V. 197 198, with its reminiscence of Cymbeline, 1 1. 3. 
 21, or Lyly's Campaspe. 
 
 44. Dappled. True as it is picturesque; the epithet exactly 
 describes the streaks of light that flake the sky when the morning begins 
 to break in on the night. Cf. Much Ado, v. 3. 25 27 : 
 
 "and look, the gentle day, 
 Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about 
 Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey;" 
 or Phineas Fletcher's lines on the death of Queen Elizabeth : 
 "By this the old night's head 'gan to be gray, 
 
 And dappled round with many a whited spot." 
 Florio has, "Leardo, dapple... with red tawnie spots;" and Cotgrave, 
 " Pommele*. Daple, or dapled." Skeat says: "dapple, a spot on an 
 .animal (Scand.) Icel. depill, a spot, dot.... The orig. sense is 'a little 
 pool,' from Norweg. dapi, a pool." 
 
 45 48. Who is it that comes and salutes whom ? Is it (i) the lark 
 that greets the poet ? if so, we must make to come and bid depend on 
 hear in 1. 41, though 'hear to come' is awkward; cf. however, Comedy 
 of Errors, v. 25, "who heard me to deny it?" and Twelfth Nighty III. 
 i. 120: 
 
 "I had rather hear you to solicit that 
 
 Than music from the spheres." 
 
 Or (ii) is it the poet who goes to the window and bids the world in 
 general good morning? (iii) Or are we to suppose with Masson that 
 at line 41 L' Allegro is already taking his walk? He hears the lark 
 sing, sees the dawn rise, and then returns, "coming to the cottage 
 window, looking in, and bidding a cheerful good-morrow through the 
 
74 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 sweet briar, vine or eglantine, to those of the family who are also already 
 astir" (Masson). In this case to come and bid depend on admit in 1. 38, 
 the construction being admit me. ..to live (39). ..A? hear (41). ../0 come (45). 
 The grammar is satisfactory, but the sense seems to me very forced; 
 "my window" surely implies the window of L'Allegro's own room. I 
 am afraid that the lark must be meant : it is to fly close by the poet's 
 window as it descends to the ground perhaps even perch on the 
 window-sill and bid him good morning. Of course, this is entirely 
 untrue to nature, but it is just the kind of inaccuracy that we note often 
 in Milton, and we may conjecture how the mistake arose. Sylvester, 
 from whom Milton borrowed repeatedly, has the following couplet in 
 his translation of Du Bartas (Grosart's ed. I. 49) : 
 
 " But cheerfull Birds, chirping him sweet good-morrows, 
 
 With Nature's Musick do beguile his sorrows." 
 
 This must have been the original of Milton's lines. He took Sylvester's 
 idea and applied it to the lark of which he was speaking; and un- 
 fortunately the description did not suit its new context. 
 
 Some think that it is Mirth who is to come to the poet's window. 
 
 45. In spite of, i.e. by way of spiting sorrow. Cf. A Midsummer 
 Night's Dream ill. 2. 194: 
 
 "They have conjoined all three 
 To fashion this false sport, in spite of me," 
 i.e. to vex me. 
 
 48. Eglantine. Really the same as the sweet-briar. Cf. Cotgrave, 
 "Aiglantier. An eglentine, or Sweet-brier tree;" and Minsheu, "Eg- 
 lentine, dogge-briar, or sweet-briar." So too Gerarde, "The Eglan- 
 tine Rose... a kinde of Dogs Rose... is a shrub growing like a tree, 
 full of prickles... in English Eglantine, or sweet Brier," Herball, 1597, 
 p. 1088. See Midsummer N. D. II. i. 252, Cymbetine, IV. 2. 223. 
 Tennyson, A Dirge, IV., uses a curious form, "The woodbine and 
 eglatere Drip sweeter dews." 
 
 O. F. aiglantine, mod. F. (Zguille, a needle, aiguillon, a goad, are 
 all from Lat. acicula^ a diminutive of acus. 
 
 Twisted. Why Milton should call the eglantine 'twisted* is not 
 clear. Perhaps he thought that it was a species of honey-suckle or 
 woodbine; see Lye. 146, note. Writers of that period were rather 
 confused as to the identity of these plants. 
 . 50. Possibly the original of a couplet in Cowley's Davideis: 
 "No pale-fac'd moon does in stol'n beams appear, 
 Or with dim taper scatters darkness there." 
 
NOTES. 75 
 
 The line is a vivid metaphor : the lingering remnants of darkness fly 
 before the light like a beaten army pursued by its conquerors. 
 
 52. Sylvester has a picture of a peacock " stroutting (i.e. strutting) 
 stately," Grosart, I. p. 54. Cf. Com. 347. 
 
 53. Introducing a fresh pleasure. Cf. Arc. 56 58, 
 
 ."And early, ere the odorous breath of morn 
 Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn 
 Shakes the high thicket." 
 
 The fifth stanza of Gray's Elegy is an ingenious combination of these 
 
 verses in Arc. and the present passage in L'Al. 
 
 54. Some editors change to cheerily ; but cheerly is the invariable 
 form in Shakespeare. Cf. Tennyson's " hear a song that echoes 
 cheerly," Lady of Shalott. 
 
 55. Hoar, i.e. with hoar frost. 
 
 56. Cf. the Tractate of Education: "Besides these constant exer- 
 cises at home, there is another opportunity of gaining experience to be 
 won from pleasure itself abroad ; in those vernal seasons of the year 
 when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness 
 against nature, not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her 
 rejoicing with heaven and earth," P. IV. III. 477. 
 
 57. Not unseen. Contrast // Pen. 65, "and missing thee, I walk 
 unseen." The distinction characterizes the two types of men. L' Allegro 
 requires witnesses of his pleasure, knowing with Bacon that fellowship 
 " re-doubleth joys," just as it "cutteth grief in halves." II Penseroso is 
 self-centred, "by reason of sufficing for himself;" hence he seeks isola- 
 tion. 
 
 59. See Midsummer N. D. III. 2. 391 ; Milton took many phrases 
 from the scene, especially from lines 378 393. Cf. Browne, Britan- 
 nia's Pastorals, I. 5, "the Morne doth looke Out of the Easterne 
 Gates;" and II. 5 : 
 
 "The ruddy horses, of the Rosie Morne 
 Out of the Easterne Gates had newly borne 
 Their blushing Mistresse" 
 Keats in Endymion n. speaks of the "morning gates of heaven." 
 
 60. Stale, i.e. stately progress; cf. Hen. VIII. IV. I. 93, "so she 
 parted, And w\th the same full state paced back again;" and Romeo 
 and Juliet, i. 4. 70. Keep state= maintain dignity was a common 
 phrase; cf. Bacon's Hist, of Hen. VII, "chose rather to keep state, and 
 strike a reverence into the people," Pitt Press ed. p. u. So Shake- 
 speare in Hen. V. I. -2. 273. 
 
76 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 61. Amber. Amber is a fossil resin, found chiefly along the 
 southern shore of* the Baltic ; in hue yellowish and translucent. 
 Tennyson often uses the word adjectivally; cf. the Ode to Memory, IV. : 
 
 "What time the amber morn 
 Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud ;" 
 and Margaret, I. : 
 
 "Like the tender amber round 
 Which the moon about her spreadeth, 
 Moving thro' a fleecy night." 
 
 In each of these passages Tennyson seems to have remembered Com. 
 331 333, and possibly // Pen. 71 72. Amber is the tint of the 
 atmosphere in the Lotos-Eaters, Choric Song, v. 
 
 6a. Livery (French livrte) could be used in Milton's time of any 
 kind of dress; cf. /*. L. IV. 598 99, "twilight gray Had in her sober 
 livery all things clad." But usually the word bore the meaning to 
 which it is almost limited in modern E. ; cf. Spenser's State of Ireland, 
 " Li very e is also called the upper garment which serving men weareth, 
 soe called (as I suppose) for that it is delivered and taken from him 
 at pleasure," Globe ed. p. 623. Cf. the phrase habits de #w= clothes 
 delivered yearly by the king to the officers of his household. Middle 
 E. lyverl signified 'something handed over,' being a collective term 
 for whatever was dispensed by a lord to his officials and domestics, 
 whether food, money, or garments. From Low Lat. liberare, to 
 abandon. 
 
 Dight> i.e. being arrayed. Cf. Palsgrave, "to dyght, or dresse a 
 thynge, habiller. A foule (i.e. ugly) woman rychly dyght, semeth fayre 
 by candell lyght." Dight is short for dighted, and probably even when 
 Milton wrote it was only used as a past part. ; cf. Bullokar's Expositor, 
 "Dight. Made ready: apparrelled, dressed." The proper meaning 
 of the word was 'to put in order,' 'set right.' Thus Way, in his ed. of 
 the Promptorium, p. 123, quotes from an old account -book (1467), 
 "My Lady paid a surgeone for dytenge of hym, when he was hurte, 
 i2*/." A. S. dihtcfri = dictare, to prescribe, one of the Latin words of 
 the * Second Period' (i.e. roughly speaking, from A.D. 596 1000) 
 established in Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 66. If the poem describes the experiences of a single day we must 
 conclude that Milton did not know, or remember, that hunting (11. 
 53 56) does not belong to the time of year when there is hay-making. 
 
 Sithe. So Milton wrote, and it seems preferable to retain the 
 correct form. 
 
NOTES. 77 
 
 67. tells his tale, relates his story. I think that the New English 
 Dictionary may claim now (1911) to have settled the meaning of these 
 much-disputed words, (i) It shews that to tell onJs tale was a common 
 expression = ' to relate one's story.' (ii) It quotes a passage in an old 
 Scotch work (1549) which suggests that "the telling of tales by each 
 shepherd in turn" was one of the recreations of pastoral life as pictured 
 by pastoral writers Some shepherds are met together and one says that 
 they had better each of them " tel ane gude tayl or fabil, to pas the tyme 
 ...then the eldest began," and all the others followed in turn, (iii) It 
 refers to a well-known pastoral work of the iyth century, The Shepherd's 
 Pipe (1613) by William Browne, " where 'underneath a hawthorn' 
 appears as the place of the shepherds' recreation." Indeed, the ordinary 
 scene that you get in these "idyls" of pastoral life is two or three 
 shepherds sitting in the shade while their flocks graze in the open, and 
 either piping to each other or telling stories, e.g. of their love-troubles, 
 the prowess of their dogs, etc. And that, I take it, is the scene 
 pictured by Milton. 
 
 Quite a different explanation (given hitherto in my note on this line) 
 is that tells his tale means 'numbers his flock,' to see that none have 
 strayed in the night. Now ///=' to count' and /#/<?=' number' wtre 
 of course very common uses; cf. the Bible often, e.g. Psalm xlviii. 12 
 ("tells the towers thereof") and Exodus v. 18 ("the tale of bricks.") 
 But the objection to interpreting the two words in a numerical sense 
 here is that, when combined, they form a common phrase which always 
 meant the same thing, viz. * to relate a story.' To take some familiar 
 expression and apply it in a totally different sense is a piece of literary 
 clumsiness with which we ought not to credit Milton. 
 
 70. Landskip. Milton has the word in four places, P. L. II. 4915 
 Iv - 1 53> v i4 2 > and the present line. In each it is printed lantskip. 
 We have followed the reading adopted by Masson and some other 
 editors, because landskip, which preserves the earlier termination, was 
 a recognized form. Cf. the Spectator^ 94, "the other beholds a 
 beautiful and spacious landskip, divided into delightful gardens, green 
 meadows, fruitful herbs;" and Dyer's Grongar Hill, "draw the landskip 
 bright and strong." Tennyson has revived the form, almost; cf. Rom- 
 ney's Remorse, " blurr'd like a landscip in a ruffled pool," with "the 
 landscip darkened," Aferlin and the Gleam. The substantival suffix -skip, 
 or -scape, =A. S. -stipe, originally 'shape,' 'mode,' from sceppan, to 
 shape, make: hence land- skip = land- shape. In modern E. the termina- 
 
78 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 tion has been softened down to ship, as in .friend-ship, wor-ship, etc. 
 Cf. German -schaft, as in Gesell-schaft, Dutch -schap. Landskip, or 
 landscape, was originally a term borrowed from Dutch artists (Earle, p. 
 319). Accordingly Ben Jonson, who as a soldier in the Netherlands 
 picked up a number of Dutch words (see Every Man in his Humotir}, 
 writes in the Masque of Blackness, ''First, for the scene, was drawn a 
 lantschap" Goldsmith has landschape in the Deserted Village, 358. 
 
 71. According to some editors russet = brown. Myself I think 
 that the sense required is 'grey.' Derived from O. F. rousset, a dimi- 
 nutive of roux (cf. Low Lat. roussetum in Du Cange), russet ought to 
 mean 'reddish/ or 'reddish-brown;' and usually it does. Cf. Cotgrave, 
 "Rousset. Russet, brown, inclining to a dark red;" and Minshfcu, 
 "Russet, vide Browne." Cotgrave, however, also has "Gris. Gray, 
 light-russet, grizle, ash-coloured ; " and grey seems to be the colour 
 intended in several passages where XV nth cent, writers have used russet. 
 Cf., for instance, Jonson's Masque of Beauty: "I induced (i.e. brought 
 on the stage) Boreas, one of the winds, as my fittest messenger ; pre- 
 senting him thus: In a robe of russet and white... his hair and beard 
 rough and horrid ; his wings grey, and full of snow and icicles." Here 
 're*d' or 'brown' would be manifestly inappropriate: no one would 
 symbolize the north wind by those tints: 'grey' on the other hand, or 
 'ash-coloured,' exactly fits the rest of the description. Again, Shake- 
 speare in Midsummer N. D. ill. 2. 21 speaks of " russet-pated 
 choughs." Probably chough jackdaw, and the latter has no tinge of 
 red ; accordingly some editors read russet-patted, i.e. red-legged, a pattes 
 rousses. If, however, Shakespeare used russet-pated to mean 'greyish- 
 headed, 'the epithet was quite accurate, since jackdaws do have grey 
 plumage round the ears and neck. In the same way 'grey 'suits the 
 context in Hamlet, I. i. 166, "the morn in russet mantle clad," as 
 ' grey ' is almost a perpetual epithet in Shakespeare for the dawn ; see 
 Romeo, ill. 5. 19, Much Ado, v. 3. 26 27. It would appear therefore 
 that in the English of this period russet was a picturesque word, signi- 
 fying either ' red,' or ' brown,' or 'grey,' or half-shades of these colours. 
 I believe that in this line "russet lawns" and "fallows gray" mean 
 much the same thing, and that Milton is thinking of the 'ash-coloured' 
 appearance presented by a hill-side where the grass is short and poor 
 of quality. Cf. the picture of a mountain in Marmion, canto I. Intro- 
 (faction : 
 
 *' Sallow his brow, and russet bare 
 Are now the sister-heights of Yair." 
 
NOTES. 79 
 
 For lawn =ii_atretch of land, see the Nat. Ode, 85, note. 
 
 Strictly/0//0w = pale or yellowish, being cognate with pallidiis and 
 Germ, fahl.^tt. " 'fallow deer," and "fallow greyhound" in Merry 
 Wives, I. i. 91. Ploughed land which is not tilled is of this colour: 
 hence the derived sense of/rt//<?w= unfilled. Here perhaps =' fields.' 
 
 73, 84. "This passage alone would confirm the view that the 
 scenery of L* Allegro and // Penseroso, though they may have been 
 written at Horton, is not to be regarded as all actual or local, but 
 as mainly ideal and eclectic. A mountain near Horton was never 
 seen but in dreams" (Masson). 
 
 75. The 1645 e d- has "with daisies;" xthe 1673 ed. "and daisies." 
 /Vft/=yariega.ted ; cf. Love's L. L. v. 2. 904, "when daisies pied and 
 violets blue." In The Tempest, in. 2. 71 ("a pied ninny"), it is 
 applied to a jester's motley coat ; so in Jonson's Masque of Christmas, 
 "Mumming, in a masquing pied suit, with a vizard." Derived from 
 pie, a magpie (short for Lat. pica), because of the appearance presented 
 by the bird's plumage. 
 
 76. The Thames was not far from Horton ; its banks may be the 
 "wide- watered shore" of// Pen. 75. 
 
 77. Alluding surely to Windsor Castle. So Masson suggests ; cf. 
 the reference in the Vacation Exercise to ** royal-towered Thame." 
 Gray paints the same scene in his ode on Eton College. 
 
 78. Bosomed, i.e. deep-hidden in. Cf. Wordsworth's description 
 of " Como, bosomed deep in chestnut groves." In Com. 361 bosom 
 'keep in the bosom,' 'guard;' cf. Hen. VIII. I. i. 112, and Day's lie 
 of Guls, i. 3, "Tie bosome what I thinke," Bullen's ed. p. 25. 
 
 Tufted. Cf. "tufted grove" in Com. 225, and Tennyson's line 
 "when rosy plumelets tuft the larch" (In Alemoriam, xci.). In P. 
 L. vn. 326, tuft (the noun) seems to mean a clump of trees ; cf. 
 Bacon's recommendation that gardens should be set out '* with some 
 pretty tufts of fruit trees," essay Of Gardens. 
 
 79. Lies, i.e. dwells, resides ; cf. Coriolanus, I. 9, 82, 
 
 "I sometime lay here in Corioli 
 
 At a poor man's house." 
 
 When the king on one of his royal progresses stayed at a place he was 
 said to 'lie' there. Cf. Merry Wives, n. 2, 63, "the court lay at 
 Windsor." See also Com. p. 69. 
 
 80. i.e. the object to which neighbouring eyes are directed ; the 
 metaphor of no. (ii) infra. Strictly Cynosure = \\\Q constellation of the 
 Lesser Bear, which contains the pole-star ; so called from its supposed 
 
80 L' ALLEGRO. 
 
 resemblance to the shape of a dog's tail KVVOS otipa. Greek sailors 
 steered by the Greater Bear (also called Helice, from \i<r<rw, to whirl), 
 the Phoenicians by the Lesser. Cf. Ovid, Fasti t ill. 107, 108: 
 
 duas Arctos quarum Cynosura petatur 
 Sidoniis, Helicen Grata carina notet ; 
 
 with Com. 341, 342, "our star of Arcady, or Tyrian Cynosure.'* As 
 Cynosura meant literally the star to which sailors looked, Cynosure 
 came to signify metaphorically (i) *a guiding star,' (ii) 'an object on 
 which attention is specially fixed.' For (i) cf. Sylvester's Du Bartas 
 (Grosart i. 68) : 
 
 "To the bright Lamp which serves for Cynosure 
 
 To all that sail^ upon the sea obscure;" 
 and Mason's Heroical Epistle^ 
 
 "Knight of the polar star ! by fortune plac'd, 
 
 To shine the Cynosure of British taste." 
 
 This use of the word is obsolete ; but Cynosure'' something to which 
 attention is bent,' survives: "we went to tea, and I found him the Cyno- 
 sure of seven oTeight pairs of eyes that make up the English Colony in 
 Genoa," Life of Lord Houghton, n. 125. Cf. too Spenser's exactly 
 similar use of the name Helice, Sonnet, 34 : 
 
 "Yet hope I well that, when this storme is past, 
 My Helice, the lode-star of my lyfe, 
 Will shine again." 
 
 82. From betwixt. An awkward arrangement of words ; cf. Com. 
 46, 47, "that first from out the purple grape Crushed the sweet poison;" 
 and S. A. 877. 
 
 83. Milton uses names which suggest the Idyls of Theocritus or the 
 Eclogues of Vergil, and which have been treated by the imitators of 
 those poets as peculiar to the pastoral style. Here, in a poem descrip- 
 tive of English scenery and country-life, they are to some extent 
 incongruous. Thyrsis (from Theocritus I.) is the name of the Attendant 
 Spirit in Qomus and of Millori himself in the Epitaphium Damonis 1. 4 : 
 
 quas miser effudit voces, qua murmura Thyrsis. 
 
 Remembering the latter poem Mason appropriately introduced Milton 
 as Thyrsis in his Musteus : 
 
 "Last came a bard of more majestic tread, 
 
 And Thyrsis hight." 
 
 Matthew Arnold renewed and increased the associations of the title 
 when he wrote his monody on Clough. 
 
 83. Messes, i.e. dishes. Cf. Milton's Hist* of Moscovia^ chap, v., 
 
NOTES. $ I 
 
 " They were at length called in to dinner ; where the Emperor was set 
 
 at table The messes came in without order, but all in chargers of 
 
 gold, both to the Emperor, and to the rest that dined there;" and 
 
 again, "The English were set at a small table by themselves the 
 
 messes were but mean, but the change of wines and several meaths were 
 wonderful," P. W. v. pp. 422, 423. Often mess =' dishful ;' e.g. in 
 More's Richard III., " My Lord you haue very good strawberries 
 at your gardayne in Holberne, I require you let vs haue a messe of 
 them," p. 46. Cf. Genesis xliii. 34. Derived through O. F. mes 
 mod. F. mets, from L. missus; mittitur enim (as Minsheu says) 
 et conuiuis in mensas apponitur. Mass, the service, has the same 
 origin. 
 
 86. Phillis. "The name is usuall in Theocritus, Vergile, and 
 Mantuane," Glosseto S hep hear Js Cal., Februarie. Neat-fingered occurs 
 in the Animadversions, P. W. ill. 55. 
 
 87. Bower, i.e. chamber; specially used in ballad-poetry of the 
 ladies' room in a house, and contrasted with Hall (ho. room of state. 
 Cf. Com. 45, and Chaucer's House of Fame, 94 96: 
 
 "All was of stone of beryle, 
 Bothe castel and the toure, 
 And eke the halle, and every boure." 
 Bower = A. S. bdr, a chamber; cf. the north-country word byre. 
 
 90. Understand goes, or some such word, from line 87 : she leaves 
 her bower either to join Thestylis in binding the corn, or (if it be earlier 
 in the year) to take part with the haymakers. 
 
 91. Secure, i.e. free from care, Lat. securzis. Cf. Bullokar's Ex- 
 positor, 1616, "Secure, Carelesse, voyde of feare." So Milton in 
 Eikonoklastes, chap, xvin., "he follows at the heels of these mes- 
 sengers of peace with a train of covert war; and with a bloody surprise 
 falls on our secure forces, which lay quartering at Brentford, in the 
 thoughts and expectation of a treaty" /*. W. I. pp. 441, 442. The 
 meaning is common in Shakespeare; cf. Hen. V* IV. prol. 17: 
 
 "Proud of their numbers and secureMn soul;" 
 cf. also Macbeth's "Security is mortal's chiefest enemy," ill. 5. 32. 
 
 92. Upland hamlets, i.e. "little villages among the slopes, away 
 from the river-meadows and the haymaking" (Masson). For upland^ 
 'up country/ i.e. in the hilly districts, cf. Milton's History of Britain, 
 book II., "in peace the upland inhabitants, besides hunting, tended 
 their flocks," P. W. V. 197. Cf. also Gray's Elegy, 100, or Matthew 
 Arnold s Thyrsis; 
 
 V. M. 6 
 
82 L'ALLEGRO 
 
 "Some loss of habit's power 
 Befalls me wandering through this upland dim;" 
 and again : 
 
 "But hush! the upland hath a sudden loss 
 
 Of quiet." 
 
 Uplandish (like mountaineer -, cf. Com. 426) was often a term of con- 
 tempt, signifying 'boorish,' 'countryfied.' Cf. Puttenham's Art of Poesy \ 
 "Any uplandish village or corner of a realme, where there is no resort 
 but of poor rustical people," p. 157, Arber's Reprint. 
 
 94. TheJ^ebecl^ the forerunner of the viol and violin, was an instru- 
 ment with catgut strings (at first two, and later three or four), played 
 with a bow; cf. Sylvester, (Grosart I. 127), "Wiery Cymbals, Rebecks 
 sinnews twin'd." It was in fact a kind of fiddle; cf. Cotgrave, "Rebec. 
 The fiddle tearmed a Rebeck ;" and Minsheu, "A Rebeck, or fiddle." 
 That its tone was shrill may be gathered from a xinth cent, poem: 
 Quidam rebecam arcuabant, 
 Muliebrem vocem confingentes. 
 
 For this reason it was a prominent instrument in mediaeval orchestras. 
 After the invention of violins the rebeck fell into disuse, and was 
 "banished to the streets of towns and to rustic festivities" (Grove's 
 Diet.), so "jocund rebecks" in this verse is a very accurate piece of 
 description ; Milton was painting faithfully a village-/^ such as he had 
 often seen in Buckinghamshire. Cf. the Areopagitica t "The villages 
 also must have their visitors to inquire what lectures the bagpipe and 
 the rebeck reads, even to the ballatry and gamut of every municipal 
 fiddler; for these are the countryman's Arcadias," P. W. II. p. 73. 
 The rebeck survived in France till the last century. Curiously enough, 
 though it was so popular in England, no known specimen exists. It is, 
 however, frequently found in illustrations of MSS., and an example 
 (from an Italian painting of the xiuth cent.) in Grove's Diet, of Music 
 shows that the outline of the instrument was not unlike that of a 
 mandolin. Hugh Rubeck is the name of one of the musicians in 
 Romeo and Jtdiet, IV. 5. It may be inferred that Byron's line in Child f 
 Harold, I. 46, "Nor here War's clarion, but Love's rebeck sounds," 
 was not very appropriate. Rebeck is derived from Arabic rabdba, which 
 passed into Italian as ribcbba or ribecca, and thence into O, F. as rebebe 
 or rebec. In early E. we find both rybybe (as in Chaucer, Freres Tale, 
 79) and rebeke. 
 
 96. Chequered, i.e. with the light streaming through the foliage. 
 Cf. Pope, Dunciad, IV. 125, "you my critics! in the chequered 
 
NOTES. 83 
 
 shade;" and Titus Andronicus, II. 3. 15. Chequer, like exchequer, 
 comes from Late Lat. scaccarium. Liidus scaccorum = gzu\Q of kings, 
 and scaccus is a corruption of the Persian word shah, a king, the shah 
 being the chief piece in the game. E. chess (better written checks), F. 
 echecks, Ital. scacco, Germ, schach, are all derived from shah. 
 97, 98. Cf. Com. 958, 959; Richard II. iv. i. 221. 
 
 100. Professor Hales thinks with Wartorrthat spicy nutbrown ale= 
 the * gossip's bowl' of Shakespeare, a beverage made of ale, nutmeg, 
 sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples. See Romeo and Juliet, ill. 
 5. 175, and Midsummer N. D. II. i. 47 50, where Mr Aldis Wright 
 quotes Breton's Fantastickes, January, "An Apple and a nutmeg make 
 a Gossips cup." The ' wassail-bowl* described in Peacock's Crotchet 
 Castle evidently belongs to the same genus. Milton alludes more than 
 once to the custom of putting spices in wine ; cf. Eikonoklastes, chap, 
 xxvil., " intoxicated... with the cup of deception, spiced and tempered 
 to their bane," P. W. I. 483; and the Areopagitica, " rises, is 
 
 saluted, and after the malmsey, or some well-spiced bruage walks 
 
 abroad," P. W. II. 86. To bespice ' a draught was a euphemism for 
 putting poison in it; cf. the Winter's Tale, I. 2. 316, " bespice a 
 cup, To give mine enemy a lasting wink." 
 
 101. 1 02. Professor Earle says, "How did Milton sound the 
 rhymes?... Must we suppose that eat being in the preterite, and equiva- 
 lent to ate, had a sound unlike our present pronunciation of feat. This, 
 with the derivation of feat from the French fait, suggests the sounds 
 'fayt' and 'ayt,'" Philology, p. 174. But cf. Much Ado t V. i. 50, where 
 bleat rhymes with _//. Featfactum. 
 
 1 02. Mab._ The locus classicus on Queen Mab is Romeo and 
 Juliet, I. 4. 54 95. Her name is Celtic, Mabh- being the title of the 
 chief of th Irish fairies ; see Furness's ' Variorum ' Romeo and Juliet t 
 pp. 61, 62. Herrick has a poem called TJie Beggar fa Mab t the Fairie 
 Queen, Grosart's ed. n. p. 262. Mab in Welsh = child, and doubtless 
 the Queen was diminutive as Titania herself; indeed Merqptio says 
 that she was "in shape no bigger than an agate-stone." Of course 
 Queen Mab eat the junkets to punish the inmates of the house for 
 untidiness. Herrick (n. p. 165) says: 
 
 "If ye will with Mab find grace, 
 Set each platter in his place : 
 Wash your pailes, and dense your Dairies." 
 
 She is a character in Ben Jonson's Entertainment, The Satyr, and a 
 list of her evil ways is given as a warning to country-folk. 
 
84 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Junkets, i.e. dainties. Junket =l\.&\. guincata, a cream cheese, so- 
 called because served on rushes: Ital. guinea, a rush = Lat. juncus. 
 Cf. Cotgrave's explanation of French jonchSe, "greene cheese or fresh 
 cheese made of milke that's curdled without any runnel, and served in 
 a paile of green rushes." The Promptorium }\&$>junctata = brede-chesc 
 i.e. cream cheese. Afierwards junket came to signify any kind of 
 dainty or sweetmeat; as in Minsheu, "junckets, or fine banqueting 
 dishes;'* and Sherwood (1650), "Jonkets. Friandise, Comtitures." 
 Cf. the Taming of the Shrew ', ill. 3. 250, Spenser's 77th Sonnet. Only 
 once elsewhere in Milton, "Apology for Smectymnuus, P. W. III. 132. 
 103. She, i.e. one of the company ; answered by he, 1. 104. 
 Pinched. Fairies always showed their displeasure in this \\ay, as 
 Falstaff had good cause to know, Merry Wives, v. 5. 96, 106. Cf. a 
 song in Campion's Book of Airs, where ladies are warned : 
 "But if you let your lovers moan, 
 
 The fairy-queen Proserpina 
 Will send abroad her fairies every one, 
 That shall pinch black and blue 
 Your white hands," Bullen's ed. 22; 
 or Britannic? s Pastorals, 1.2: 
 
 "A Hillock-rise, where oft the Fairy-Queene 
 At twy light sat, and did command her elves 
 To pinch those maids," Hazlitt, I. 66. 
 
 104 114. Here a new speaker strikes in with his tale. The hero 
 of this story, "the drudging goblin" (1. 105), is the "shrewd and 
 knavish sprite, called Robin Goodfellow, Midsummer N. D. n. i. 33, 
 34," and it is probable that the description of Puck, II. i. 32 58, 
 was in Milton's recollection when he wrote these verses, 104 114. 
 Robin Goodfellow appears among the dramatis persona oj Jonson's 
 Masque, Love Restored, and describes himself as " the honest plain 
 country spirit, and harmless; Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the 
 hearth and the house clean, riddles for the country-maids, and does all 
 their other drudgery." That, however, he was not always so honest 
 and harmless may be seen from the Ballad in Percy's Reliques (in. 2) 
 which recounts "The Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow." 
 
 And he. I have retained what is, apart from punctuation, the 
 reading of the 1645 ed. It brings in a fresh narrator. His main story 
 tells "how the goblin sweat" (i.e. laboured): he has a minor story, 
 how he was misled by the goblin's lantern (see next note): and this 
 minor story seems to be thrown in parenthetically, the grammar being 
 
NOTES. 85 
 
 *'he, led by the lantern, tells." Another explanation connects 1. 104, 
 not with 1. 105, but with 1. 103 : "she said she was pinched, he said he 
 was led : " led them becomes the predicate after he said understood from 
 1. 103. The objection to this is, that it leaves the verb tells without a 
 subject, though we can easily supply he. Either way, the text is very 
 awkward, and this Milton must have felt as in the 1673 ed. he altered 
 the line to and by the Friar's Lanthorn led. With this reading the 
 passage becomes simple : the speaker is the same throughout, viz. she, 
 and led in 1. 104 is parallel to pinched and pulled in 1. 103. All the 
 editors keep the 1645 reading and I have not ventured to introduce the 
 later version. I believe it, however, to be right, and if in the Nativity 
 Ode, 143, 144, we follow the 1673 ec ^- we might do so here. 
 
 Friar's lantern. Keightley thought that in these words Milton had 
 confounded two separate characters of folklore, viz. the house-spirit, 
 Friar Rush, and the out-of-door spirit, Will -o'-the- Wisp or Jack-o'-the- 
 Lanthorn, who misled travellers by night with an ignis fatuus (cf. P. 
 L. ix. 634 642). It is possible however that Milton is not referring 
 to either spirit, but that the friar of 1. 104 is identical with the goblin 
 (i.e. Robin Goodfellow) of 1. 105. For two reasons: (i) friar was a 
 title of Robin Goodfellow; this I take to be proved by a passage 
 from Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures, which Mr Aldis 
 Wright quotes in his Introduction to Midsummer N. D. p. xix. : "and 
 if that the bowle of curds, and creame were not duly set out for Robin 
 good-fellow the Frier why then the pottage was burnt." (ii) The 
 trick of misleading with a false light was not confined to Jack-o'-the- 
 Lanthorn. Burton (Anatomy} mentions a whole class of spirits "called 
 Ambulones," who did this, and Puck ( = Robin Goodfellow) expressly 
 says of himself "sometime a horse I'll be. ..sometime a fire,' Mid- 
 summer N. D. in. i. ii i 1 12. 
 
 105. Drudging. Florio has "strappazare, to oppresse, to misuse, 
 to put to all drudgerie;" and Sherwood gives balayeuse, souillon, souil- 
 lonne, vilain s. v. drudge. The verb, spelt druggen in Middle E., is 
 probably Celtic, and seems originally to have meant 'to pull by force.' 
 Cf. Chaucer, Knightes Tale, 557558, "at the gate he profred his 
 servyse, To drugge and drawe, what-so men wolde devyse." Drugger- 
 beste="l\\e animal that has to pull forcibly." In Timon of Athens, IV. 
 3. 254 drugs = drudges. 
 
 Goblin is from O. F. gobelin, Low Lat. gobelinum; gobelinus being 
 the diminutive of Low Lat. cobalus, * mountain-sprite;' cf. Gk. /c<5/3a\os, 
 *a rogue.' Formerly 0/'//;* was supposed to be a corruption of Ghibe- 
 
86 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 "line ; cf. the G/osseto the Shepheards CaL, June. This belief probably 
 influenced the spelling of the word; cf. the F. Q. n. 10. 73, "who over- 
 came The wicked Gobbelines in bloody field." 
 
 1 06. Cream-bowl. His regular reward for service done : he would 
 accept nothing besides. Cf. the passage from Scots' Discovery of Witch- 
 craft quoted by Ritson in illustration of Midsummer N. D. ill. 2. 25: 
 "Your grandams maides were wont to set a boll of milke before him 
 (i.e. Incubus) and his cousin Robin Goodfellow, for grinding of malt or 
 mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight : and you have also heard 
 that he would chafe exceedingly, if the maid or goodwife of the house, 
 hauing compassion of his nakednes, laid anie clothes for him, beesides 
 his messe of white bread and milke, which was his standing fee." 
 There is the same allusion in Collins' Ode on the Popular Superstitions 
 of the Highlands: 
 
 "There, each trim lass that skims the milky store, 
 To the swart tribes their creamy bowl allots." 
 
 108. Shadowy ', i.e. without substance, unreal. 
 
 109. Some say that here and in Coriolanus, v. 6. 37, endis not the 
 ordinary verb 'to bring to an end,' but a rustic word meaning 'to 
 harvest, to get grain or hay into a barn, stack' etc. Country-people 
 speak of a * rick of vft\\~ended hay or straw/ i.e. well-harvested, got in 
 in good condition. There was a verb in or inn (literary as well as 
 popular) which had exactly the sense 'to get in corn etc., to harvest'; 
 and end, as similarly used, is supposed to be a corruption of it. But 
 to import a rustic word into a classical writer like Milton is a 
 doubtful proceeding ; moreover, no other instances of end in this sense 
 are given than this line and the Coriolanus passage, and in each the 
 ordinary verb end= l \.Q finish' makes good sense; as also indeed in 
 1 vrt\\-ended.' I cannot help thinking that end = ' to harvest' is not really 
 an independent word at all, but simply end^o finish,' though in the 
 sense of harvesting it may, from the slight similarity of sound, have 
 been influenced a little by the undoubted verb in (or inn) 'to harvest.' 
 
 no. Lubbar. Cf. the title for Puck, "thou lob of spirits," Mid- 
 summer N. D. II. i. 1 6. Etymologically lob lubbar, or lubber. 
 
 Fiend. Sometimes applied, as here, to evil spirits ; cf. the Faithful 
 Shepherdess ', i, "wood -god, fairy, elf or fiend." Spelt fend in the 
 editions of 1645 and 1673, which makes the rhyme clearer. 
 
 in. Cf. the Vacation Exercise, 60. Chimney fireplace. 
 
 113. *Cropfull t i.e. with the cream-bowl. 
 
 Flings, i.Cc dashes; cf. the Animadversions, "This is but to fling 
 
NOTES. 87 
 
 and struggle under the inevitable net of God, that now begins to 
 environ you round," P. W. in. 86. 
 
 114. The ghost in Hamlet " faded on the crowing of the cock ;" it 
 was the orthodox signal for the departure of spirits. See Horatio's 
 speech, I. i. 149 156^ and cf. the illustration of that passage quoted by 
 Douce from St Ambrose's Hymn in the Salisbury Service : 
 " Omnis Err or urn chorus 
 Viam nocendi descrit^ 
 Gallo canente." 
 
 Matin, i.e. his morning note; in Hamlet i. 5. 89 matin morning : 
 "The glowworm shows the matin to be near." 
 
 1 1 6. Lulled. Zz///='sing to rest.' Old Dutch lullen= t sing in a 
 humming voice.' No doubt an onomatopoeic word, formed from the 
 sound lu lu which nurses repeated in sending children to sleep. Cf. 
 the Promptorium, " Lullynge of young chylder. Neniado;" and 
 Cotgrave, " Assopir: to lay, bring, or lull, asleep." 
 
 117. Here, and in 1. 131, M*;* = 'on another occasion.' He is 
 enumerating a series of pleasant experiences: at one time the country 
 will attract L'Allegro, at another the town. It seems absurd to take 
 then quite literally, as though Milton meant to say that after the 
 country-folk have gone to bed L'Allegro returns to the town. For 
 then as we explain it, cf. As You Like //, III. 2. 436, " would. ..then 
 entertain him, then forswear him," i.e. now one, now the other. 
 
 Toivertd cities. Milton may be thinking of his own visits to London. 
 Perhaps he had also been to Oxford, where he was incorporated M.A. 
 in 1635. 'Towered' would describe the city of the "dreaming spires." 
 
 119 134. Does L'Allegro actually see the sights enumerated? or 
 does he merely read about them? The latter, according to Professor 
 Masson, is Milton's meaning: L'Allegro is in his study, busy with a 
 volume of some old chronicler wherein deeds of chivalry are described, 
 or intent on a play by one of the great dramatists : no more than reading 
 is intended. To me this explanation appears improbable. We are, 
 surely, to suppose that L'Allegro actually takes part in these gay 
 meetings and festivities ; that he goes to the theatre to look with his 
 own eyes on the 'humours' of, it may be, the Poetaster, and enjoy the 
 music of the spoken verse of Midsummer N. D. This view, I cannot 
 help thinking, is more natural, and if we remember // Pen. 85 102, 
 more pointed. There, without question, Milton is speaking of study 
 and the pleasure which a recluse derives from poring over the works of 
 philosophers and tragedians. For II Penseroso, the man of reserve and 
 
88 L'ALLEURO. 
 
 inaction, such pleasure is the highest ; he would sooner read Hamlet 
 in his own "lonely tower" than see it performed in the playhouse. 
 But L' Allegro is the man ' of activity and social taste : a Masque at 
 Whitehall or Greenwich, a ' Revel ' at the Middle Temple, a comedy at 
 the theatre these are the delights that Mirth should offer to him. 
 All through the two poems we have these details of characterisation 
 which emphasise the distinction between the types depicted. 
 
 119 124. The lines paint in miniature a typical scene of mediaeval 
 chivalry. An episode in Malory or some other of the Middle Age 
 chroniclers had quickened Milton's imaginative sense of the picturesque- 
 ness of knight-errantry and romance, and he writes here as Scott might 
 have written. But thirty years later his feeling was very different ; cf. 
 the scornful passage in P. L. IX. 25 43. For allusions in Milton to 
 some of the great cycles of mediaeval prose and poetic romance, see P. 
 I" i 579 587, P' R- ii. 358 361 (each of these passages refers to the 
 story of King Arthur and the Round Table), and P. A. in. 338 343; 
 and cf. the following passage in the Apology for Smectymnuus, where he 
 is speaking of his early education and pursuits:, "Next (for hear me 
 out now, readers), that I may icil ye whither my younger feet wandered; 
 I betook me among those lofty fables and romances, which recount in 
 solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood founded by our victorious kings, 
 and from thence had in renown over all Christendom," P. IV. in. 118. 
 See // Pen. 1 16 1 20. 
 
 120. Weeds. i.e. dress; A. S. wad = 'garment.' Now the 
 plural, weeds, is always used, signifying only one kind of dress. But 
 in Elizabethan E. we often find the singular, weed, applied to any 
 sort of clothing. Cf. Midsummer A T . D. II. i. 256: "Weed wide 
 enough to wrap a fairy in." "Dank and dropping weeds" is Milton's 
 translation of uvida vestimenta in Horace, Odes, I. 5. 15. Cf. also 
 Troilus and Cressida, in. 3. 239, "great Hector in his weeds of peace" 
 Tennyson has the same use (In Memoriam, v.) : 
 
 "In words like weeds I'll wrap me o'er." 
 
 Triumph = "%. public festivity or exhibition of any kind, particularly 
 a tournament," Schmidt, Lexicon. Cf. Midsummer N. D. I. I. 19: 
 
 "With pornp, with triumph and with revelling;" 
 and Bacon's Hen. VII. p. 98 (*' he kept great triumphs of jousting and 
 tourney"), p. 187 and p. 219, Pitt Press ed. 
 
 It has been objected, too critically, that tilts and such like sports 
 were not in use when M. wrote. 
 
 121. Store of, i.e. plenty of, many. Cf. Bacon's Hist, of Hen. VI L 
 
NOTES. v 89 
 
 "conducted to Paul's church, in solemn procession, where great store 
 of people were assembled," p. 30. In the Tract of Education Milton 
 recommends the study of "some easy and delightful book of education 
 ...whereof the Greeks have store," P. W. ill. 468. One of Heywood's 
 Proverbs says "store is no sore." From O. F. estoire, Low Lat. instau- 
 rum ; instaurarem Late Lat. = to provide necessaries. 
 
 125 121. Cf. Tennyson's picture in the Morte D } Arthur of 
 
 "that Arthur, who, with lance in rest 
 Shot thro' the lists at Camelot, and charged 
 Before the eyes of ladies and of kings." 
 
 111. Cf. Eikonoklastes, "while God every morning rains <Jown 
 new expressions into our hearts," P. W. I. 431. See Nat. Ode, 71. 
 
 133. Cf. the 'sets of wit' in Lovers Labour's Lost. 
 
 125 6. The couplet reads like a description of some episode in 
 one of the great Masques of the reign of James I. Often had the 
 marriage-god appeared on the stage at Whitehall, arrayed as Milton 
 has here painted him, in saffron robes, with the wedding-torch in his 
 hand. Cf. Ben Jonson's Masque of Hymen, where a stage direction 
 says: "On the other hand, entered Hymen (the god of marriage) in 
 a saffron -coloured robe, his under vestures white, his socks yellow, a 
 yellow veil of silk on his left arm, his head^crowned with roses and 
 marjoram, in his right hand a torch of pine-tree." Fletcher writes in 
 the Purple Island, xn. 87 : 
 
 "Come Hymen, Hymen come, drest in thy golden pall;" 
 and his Epithalamium describes the god "Clad with a saffron-coat, in's 
 hand a light," Grosart's ed. in. 204. Cf. Britannia^ s Pastorals, II. 5, 
 "a robe unfit Till Hymen's saffron'd weed had usher'd it;" and Milton's 
 fifth Elegy, 105 108. 
 
 1 26. Taper dear. Cf. Campion's Description of a Masque Presented 
 at the Wedding of the Earl of Somerset (1614) : 
 
 " Vanish, vanish ! hence confusion I 
 Dim not Hymen's golden light;" 
 or I lerrick's Hesperides : 
 
 " Behold ! how Hymen's taper light 
 
 Shews you how much is spent of night." 
 Cf. the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester , 18 22. 
 
 127. Pomp. Compare vS*. A. 1312, "sacrifices, triumph, pomp, 
 and games."*' Strictly pomp meant 'a festival procession,' like the Greek 
 7ro/A7nJ ; cf. Bullokar's Expositor, " Pompe. A great shew, a solemne 
 traine." So Shakespeare in King John, ill. i. 304, "shall braying 
 
90 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 trumpets be measure to our pomp?" Later 'a pageant,' as here, 
 
 cf. Midsummer N. D.I. i. 15, King John , 1 1. 5. 60. 
 
 Revelry. Milton is thinking of the Revels or theatrical entertain- 
 ments held at the Court, at the lawyers' Inns of Court, and the houses 
 of great nobles. In Charles I.'s reign plays written for private repre- 
 sentation were Entertainments or Masques. 
 
 128. Masque'. Such as Milton himself wrote in Comus. Arcudes, 
 too, was a kind of Masque for outdoor performance. The Masque was 
 borrowed from Italy in the reign of Henry VIII., grew into popularity 
 during the xvith century, and reached its zenith under James I. It 
 was a costly spectacular entertainment much in vogue with the Court 
 and the nobles. Under Charles I. it declined a little, and at the out- 
 break of the Civil War practically ceased. Almost all the Jacobean 
 playwrights composed Masques, but no one was so eminently a master 
 of the art as Ben Jonson. See the Pitt Press ed. of Comus, LI. 
 LXXVI. Contrast P. L. IV. 768, "mixed dance or wanton masque." 
 
 The word Masque is derived from the Arabic maskharat ft a. 
 buffoon, jester, man in masquerade, a pleasantry, anything ridiculous" 
 (Skeat). The spelling mas& = Iia\. maschera appears to be earlier than 
 masque = French masque. 
 
 Contrast with 11. 125 128 the preface to Eikonoklastes> where Milton 
 ridicules the frontispiece to the Eikon Basilike^ viz. "the conceited 
 portraiture (i.e. of Charles I.), drawn out of the full measure of a 
 masking scene, and set there to catch fools and silly gazers.... But 
 quaint emblems and devices, begged from the old pageantry of some 
 twelfth night's entertainment at Whitehall, will do but ill to make a 
 saint or martyr, P. W. I. 312. Eikonoklastes was written in 1649, when 
 Milton was a politician. Throughout L 1 Allegro he speaks as a poet. 
 
 130. Haunted i.e. by the water-nymphs. Cf. the Nat. Ode, 184. 
 
 131. Well-trod, which implies skill rather of the actor than of the 
 playwright, hardly fits in with Masson's idea that no more than reading 
 dramatic literature is meant. 
 
 132. i.e. when one of Ben Jonson's comedies is being played. 
 Ben Jonson was then Poet Laureate. Educated at Westminster School 
 and St John's College, Cambridge, he first attracted notice by his 
 comedy Every Man in His Humour , 1596; wrote eighteen plays 
 (tragedies as well as comedies), a number of Masques, some minor 
 poetry, and some excellent prose (Discoveries] ; and die'd in 1637. 
 Perhaps the best, and best known, of his plays are The Alchemist 
 according to Coleridge, one of the three most perfectly constructed 
 
NOTES. 91 
 
 works in all literature), Volpone and The Silent Woman. His influence 
 on English letters was very great ; and it was cast entirely on the side 
 of learning and correctness of style. Sometimes, as in Sejanus and 
 Catiline, he chose classical subjects ; but whatever the theme Jonson 
 showed himself above all things a scholar. His Masques, for instance, 
 with their foot-notes, reveal minute knowledge of classical writers. It 
 is this quality of scholarship that Milton recognises in the epithet 
 * learned,' and the distinction he draws between the culture of Jonson 
 and the natural genius of Shakespeare was long a commonplace of 
 criticism. Cf. the Prologue written by Dr Johnson for the opening of 
 Drury Lane Theatre in 1747. We can understand that Milton's sym- 
 pathy would lie with the scholar-poet. Critics (e.g. Mr Symonds) trace 
 the influence of Jonson in Arcades. Mr Saintsbury notes that Milton 
 was almost the only young poet of that period who* did not belong to 
 the immediate circle of Jonson's friends, the 'tribe' of ambitious writers 
 who gathered round the Poet Laureate, and were proud to sign them- 
 selves his 'sons' (Elizabethan Literature, p. 175). See // Pen. 101 
 1 02 (note) for a possible allusion to Jonson's tragedies ; they were 
 inferior to his comic pieces, and it is as a master of comedy that 
 Dryden, like Milton, mentions him in Mac Flecknoe, 72, 73: 
 "Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, 
 Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear.*' 
 
 The sock, Lat. soccus, was the low-heeled slipper worn by actors in 
 comic pieces, the buskin being the boot, with high heels, that tragic 
 actors used. Often sock = comedy, and buskin = tragedy. The words 
 are frequently contrasted; cf. Apology for Smectymnuus, "likening those 
 grave controversies to a piece of stagery, or scene-work, where his own 
 Remonstrant, whether in buskin or sock, must of all right be counted 
 the chief player," P. W. ill. 105 6. The editors have remarked that 
 the phrase "or when thy socks were on" occurs, with the same sense, 
 in the lines on Shakespeare that Jonson wrote for the First Folio, 1623. 
 
 133 134. Probably Milton was thinking of Midsummer N. D. 
 and The Tempest. There are, I believe, more allusions in his poems 
 to these two plays than to all the rest of Shakespeare's dramas put 
 together. Midsummer N. D. was an especial favourite, and the descrip- 
 tion here would be applicable to it, and to those lyric portions of The 
 Tempest which seem to have furnished hints for Comus. But "wood- 
 notes wild" is true neither of Shakespeare's tragedies, nor of his 
 historical plays, nor of the greater body of his comedies. The couplet 
 in fact is faint praise, and it has been doubted whether Milton had a very 
 
92 L ALLEGRO. 
 
 keen sense of Shakespeare's greatness. True, there is the Epitaph, 
 but in it, as here, the quality on which he appears to lay most stress 
 b Shakespeare's facility of composition : 
 
 "to the shame of slow-endeavouring art 
 Thy easy numbers flow-;" 
 
 and the " slow-endeavouring art " is doubtless Milton's own. Again, 
 the Epitaph was written in 1630, in Milton's twenty-third year : various 
 indications suggest that he thought differently later on. We have the 
 reference in Eikonoklastes which Warton and Sir Walter Scott inter- 
 preted as a direct sneer at Charles I. for reading Shakespeare: " I shall 
 not instance an abstruse author, wherein the king might be less 
 conversant, but one whom we well know was the closest companion 
 of these his solitudes, William Shakespeare," P. W. I. 326. If not 
 intended to be a taunt this was probably regarded as such by Milton's 
 Puritan readers, and an admirer of Shakespeare would scarcely have 
 cared to write it. Further S. A. is plain proof that Milton's theory of 
 tragedy was not Shakespeare's, the Preface being a distinct condemnation 
 of plays like Hamlet and Lear. The passages in which Milton can be 
 held to have borrowed from Shakespeare's tragedies are very rare. He 
 tells the story of King Lear at considerable length in his History of 
 Britain, P. W. V. 175 178; but there is no mention of the play. It 
 is therefore a tenable view that Milton's appreciation of Shakespeare 
 was limited ; probably it did not grow with his Puritanism. 
 Fancy = imagination in a wider sense than it now bears. 
 
 134. Woodnotes wild, as of some songbird. Cf. Shakespeare, 
 Sonnet 102, "wild music burthens every bough." Crashaw speaks of 
 a nightingale's " quick volumes of wild notes," Musicks Duett. 
 
 135 150. A vivid contrast to // Pen. 161 166, where the de- 
 scription suggests music of a precisely opposite type. 
 
 135. Eating cares = Horace's mordaces sollicitudines, Odes, I. 18. 4. 
 Cf. the Epitaphium Damonis, 45, 46!, quis me lenire docebit Mordaces 
 curas. Cf. Lucan, Phars. II. 68 1. 
 
 136. Lydian airs = music of a soft, effeminate type. Spenser in 
 his Present State of Ireland sxys : "Therefore it is written by Aristotle, 
 that when Cyrus had overcome the Lydians that were a warlicke nation, 
 and devised to bring them to a more peaceable life, he chaunged theyi 
 apparell and musick, ...and insteede of theyr warlick musick, appoynted 
 to them certayne lascivious layes, and loose gigges, by which in shorte 
 space theyr myndes were so mollyfyed and abated that they forgate 
 theyr former fierceness, and became most tender and effeminate." Cf. 
 
NOTES. 93 
 
 ' also the Glosse to the Shepheards Cal. October. Dryden has the same 
 allusion in Alexanders Feast, 79, 80 : 
 
 "Softly sweet, in Lydian measures, 
 
 Soon he sooth'd his soul to pleasures ; " 
 
 and Collins in the Ode to Liberty. Cf. too one of Keats' early 
 Sonnets, * ' fireside joys and Lydian airs. " In addition to the Phrygian 
 and Lydian styles of music the Greeks practised the solemn * Dorian 
 mode.' See P. L. I. 550 559, and cf. the Areopagitica^ " no music 
 must be heard, no song be set or sung, bu* what is grave and doric," P. 
 W. ii. 73- 
 
 137. Married ', i.e. closely united to. Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 8: 
 "If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, 
 By unions married, do offend thine ear;" 
 and Crashaw (Grosart, I. 201) : 
 
 "Apollo's breath... which marryed to his lyre 
 
 Doth tune the spheares." 
 
 The Cambridge poet and musician, Thomas Campion, writes in the 
 preface to his Two Bookes of Ay res (Bullen's ed. p. 45), "in these 
 English airs^ I have chiefly aimed to couple my words and notes 
 lovingly together." Compare Milton's sonnet in praise of his friend 
 Henry Lawes who * married ' the verse of Comus to nhusic. 
 
 139. j&>w/ = bend, involution; used here metaphorically of a 'pas- 
 sage' in music. Akin to the verb bow=A. S. bugan, to bend (see 
 note on buxom, 1. 24), and Germ, bucht, a bay. Formerly spelt 
 bought; afterwards (16 i?th cent.), bout, through weakening of the 
 guttural. It was generally used of the bend or loop of a rope, or 
 string, or chain. The New E. D. quotes from Banistef's Chyrurg. 
 1575, "let it be tyed first with ij inuolutions or bowtes;" also Cotgrave, 
 " Pli : A plait, fold, lay ; bought, wrinkle." Spenser has it of the coils 
 of a serpent's tail, "in knots and many boughtes upwound," F. Q. I. i. 
 15. Identicafwith the fencing-term &?/ = apass; Hamlet, iv. 7. 159. 
 
 140. Cf. Milton's note on The Verse of P. L., "true musical de- 
 light... consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the 
 verse variously drawn out (i.e. extended) from one verse into another." 
 
 141. The figure of speech called oxymoron, in which exactly 
 antithetic words are brought into close combination. A good instance 
 occurs in the Vacation Exercise, 51 52 : 
 
 "Held, with his melodious harmony, 
 
 In willing chains and sweet captivity." 
 Cf- Cowley, "it remains to be considered by what means we are most 
 
94 L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 likely to attain the ends of this vertuous covetousness," Essays, p. 3. 
 The oft-quoted line in The Idylls of the King "and faith unfaithful 
 kept him falsely true " is an extreme instance. 
 
 Cunning, i.e. skill, art, in a good sense. 
 
 143 144. Warton explains: "Milton's meaning is, that as the 
 voice of the singer runs through the manifold mazes or intricacies of 
 sound, all the chains are untwisted which imprison and entangle the 
 hidden soul, the essence or perfection of harmony. In common sense, 
 let music be made to show all, even her most hidden powers." Milton, 
 in fact, has personified harmony : she is a divine power whose essential 
 being (soul) is held in bondage until the singer's voice has penetrated to 
 her prison and released her. For the same treatment of music as an 
 abstract personification cf. P. L. v. 625 627: 
 - "And in their motions harmony divine 
 
 So smooths her charming tones that God's own ear 
 Listens delighted." 
 
 Crashaw (Music ks Duett) speaks of the " precious mysteries that dwell 
 In Music's ravished soul." 
 
 145. Orphetis* self. Cf. "Wisdom's self" in Com. 375. 
 Self, Germ, selbe, began by being an adjective = ' same.' In Shakespeare 
 it sometimes = ' self-same ;' cf. Twelfth Night, I. i. 39, where the 
 later folios change "one self king" to "one selfsame king." Then 
 self was used to strengthen the reflexive pronoun ; finally it became 
 a noun. The idiom of our text was not uncommon; cf. Coriolanus, II. 
 i. 98, "Tarquin's self he met, And struck him." 
 
 Heave, i.e. lift. Cf. Com. 885, "rise, rise, and heave thy rosy 
 head." The phrase is repeated in P. L. I. 211, and S. A. 197; 
 and borrowed by Dryden in the Song for St Cecilia's Day: 
 "When Nature underneath a heap 
 
 Of jarring atoms lay, 
 And could not heave her head." 
 
 147. Cf. P. L. III. 359, and Shelley's Prometheus, II. 4: 
 
 "folded Elysian flowers, 
 Nepenthe, Moly, Amaranth, fadeless blooms." 
 
 1 50. Half -regained, because Orpheus broke the terms on which she 
 was released. The story of how he descended to Hades and recovered 
 his wife on condition that he did not see her till they were in the upper 
 world, is the subject of a beautiful episode in the fourth Georgic. C 
 II Pen. 1 05- -i 08. 
 
 151 1 5 2. See Introduction, 
 
NOTES. 95 
 
 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 77te Title. Mr Mark Pattison in his Life of Milton says, " There is 
 no such word as 'Penseroso,' the adjective formed from 'Pensiero' being 
 'pensieroso.' Even had the word been written. correctly, its signification 
 is not that which Milton intended, viz. thoughtful or contemplative, but 
 anxious, full of cares, carking," p. 23, 24. Dr Garnett repeats the 
 criticism, Life, p. 22. As a matter of fact the critics are wrong on both 
 points, through forgetting the difference between modern and earlier 
 Italian. Penseroso was a current form when Milton wrote, and it meant 
 what he intended it to mean, viz. musing, meditative. The point was 
 settled decisively by a correspondent of Notes and Queries, who quoted 
 (Seventh Series, vol. viii. p. 326) from a French-Italian Diet, published 
 at Geneva in 1644: "Pensif, penseroso, che pensa. Pourquoy estes-vous 
 si pensif, perche state voi cosi penseroso? // est tout pens if , Egli e tutto 
 penseroso." Dr Skeat referred in the same volume, p. 394, to Florio's 
 Diet. (1598), where ftnseso is rendered "pensive, carefull, musing, full 
 of care or thoughts." Florio gives as alternative forms of the adjective 
 pensieroso and pensoroso. It would have been curious if a careful 
 scholar like Milton had blundered over such a simple matter as the 
 choice of a title for his own poem. Whether his knowledge of Italian was 
 so thorough as to enable him to compose correctly in that language we 
 cannot say. His Italian sonnets were subjected to severe criticism by 
 Sir Antonio Panizzi and Mr G. Rossetti (the father of the poet); see 
 Keightley's edition vol. I. pp. 149154, but it is quite possible that they, 
 like Mr Mark Pattison, did not allow for the changes in Italian idiom 
 and forms. In one of hi*- Epistolcz Familiares Milton (writing to an 
 Italian) speaks modestly of his knowledge: "On this occasion I have 
 employed the Latin rather than your own language, that I might in 
 Latin confess my imperfect acquaintance with that language which I 
 wish you by your precepts to embellish and adorn," P. W. in. 498. 
 This was in 1638; after his return from Italy he seemed to think it a 
 simple matter to acquire Italian : "And either now, or before this, they 
 may have easily learned, at any odd hour, the Italian tongue," Tractate 
 on Education, P. W. in. 472. 
 
 i 4. The opening was clearly modelled on some lines in Sylvester's 
 Tragedie of Henry the Great, which begins thus: % 
 
96 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 V 
 
 "Hence, hence, false Pleasures, momentary Joyes: 
 Mock us no more with your illuding Toyes, 
 all World's-hopes as dreams do flye." 
 
 2. Brood of Folly. Cf. Jonson's Masque of Love Freed from Folly: 
 
 "Gentle Love, be not dismayed. 
 See the Muses pure and holy, 
 By their priests 4iave sent thee aid 
 Against this brood of Folly;" 
 
 or Shelley's Ode to Liberty, " Destruction's sceptred slaves, and Folly s 
 mitred brood." Brood is almost always depreciatory: "where could 
 there be found... a baser brood of flattering and time-serving priests?" 
 Animadversions, P. W. in. 80. See Nat. Ode, 68. 
 
 3. Bested, i.e. help. Cf. Sylvester (Grosart, I. 205) : " Who flies or 
 follows, he alike besteads." Shakespeare uses the simple verb stead in 
 this sense, e.g. in Merchant of Venice, I. 3. 7, "may you stead me?" 
 Usually, bested occurs as a participle, meaning 'situate,' 'placed,' 
 whether in a good or bad position. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. n. 3. 56, "I never 
 saw a fellow worse bested," i.e. in a worse plight. The Promptorium 
 has " Bestad, or wythholden yn wele or vfQ...Detentiis." 
 
 4. Toys. 'Trifles.' A very common meaning in Shakespeare; 
 cf. Lucrece 214, "Or sells eternity to get a toy." For derivation cf. 
 German zeug * stuff,' ' trash ; ' e.g. spieheug= ' playthings.' 
 
 6. Fond, i.e. foolish, its original, and in Shakespeare commonest, 
 meaning; "a very foolish, fond old man," Lear> iv. 7. 60. Middle E. 
 y0='a fool,' and fond^ 1 - made like a fool;' i.e. it is the p. p. of 
 fonnen and the d represents the participial termination. 
 
 89. A vivid description of Sleep personified in Sylvester's Du 
 Bartas must have been present to Milton both here and later in the 
 poem, 146 150. With 1. 8 cf. '* The unnumbered Moats which in the 
 sun do play:" with 1. 9 cf. " fantastick~swarms of Dreams there 
 hovered" Grosart' s Sylvester, I. 169. 
 
 8. Mote = * particle of dust ; cf. Ball's Life of Preston, p. 61, "The 
 howse of Comons was the only mote in King James his eye." Cf. St 
 Matt. vii. 5, Lukevi. 41, 42. Often in Shakespeare spelt moth, e.g. in 
 quartos 2, 3, 4, Hamlet, I. i. 112; so (in the reading of the first folio) 
 Midsummer N. D. v. 306, and Love's L. L. IV. 3. 161. Cf. Florio, 
 " Festucco, a little sticke...a moth, a little beame." 
 
 10. Pensioners, i.e. attendants, as in Midsummer N.D. II. i. 10. 
 Henry VIII. and Elizabeth had a body-guard of ' Pensioners ' like our 
 'Quean's Gentlemen-at-anns.' Cf. Merry Wives, ll. 2. 79, where Mrs 
 
NOTES. 97 
 
 Quickly says that among the suitors of Mrs Ford have been "earls, nay, 
 which is more, pensioners." Tyrwhitt in his note there quoted from 
 Gervase Holles's Life of the First Earl of Clare : " I have heard -the 
 Earl of Clare say, that when he was pensioner to the Queen, he did not 
 know a worse man of the whole band than himself : and that all the 
 world knew he had then an inheritance of ^4000 a year." Milton uses 
 pensionary with the same sense in The Reason of Church Government : 
 "here were his spearmen and his lances, here were his firelocks ready, he 
 should need no other pretorian band nor pensionary than these," P. W. 
 
 II. 502. From F. pension, Lat. pensio, a payment. 
 
 14. Hit, i.e. suit, agree with. Cf. perhaps Macbeth, ill. 6. i, 2 : 
 "My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, 
 Which can interpret further." 
 
 16. Cf. Love's L. L. I. i. 233, "besieged with sable-coloured 
 melancholy,'* a description which Milton may have recollected when he 
 wrote 1. 35. Cf. Gray's Hymn to Adversity : 
 
 "Wisdom in sable garb arrayed, 
 
 Immersed in rapturous thought profound." 
 Milton is fond of this symbolism by colour; cf. Com. 213. 
 
 17. i.e. such as in men's opinion might befit. 
 
 1 8. Memnon, a prince of the Ethiopians, was famous for his beauty. 
 Odysseus (Od. XI. 552) describes Eurypylus as the handsomest man he 
 had ever seen, Memnon excepted: KCIVOV or) Ka\\iffrov tdov /xerd M^jj.vova 
 Stov. Milton argues that if Memnon was beautiful, his sister (but we are 
 not told that he had any) must have been equally, or even more, so. 
 
 19. The " Ethiop Queen" is Cassiopea (or Cassiepea), wife of 
 Cepheus, the ./Ethiopian king, and mother of Andromeda. According 
 to the commoner version of the legend "she boasted that the beauty 
 of her daughter surpassed that of the Nereids, who prevailed on 
 Poseidon to visit the country by an inundation, and a sea-monster" 
 (Class. Diet.) ; Andromeda was given up to the monster but rescued by 
 Perseus, Cassiopea being placed among the stars. Milton makes 
 Cassiopea boast about herself. It is said that Apollonius the Gram- 
 marian told the story in this way. She is taken as a type of beauty in 
 the Eclogues of Mantuan, the Carmelite ; see Turberville's translation, 
 reprinted by Professor Arber, p. 76. (Jin Shakespeare's time Ethiop as 
 applied to a woman was a term of depreciation jdark complexions being 
 in disfavour because queen Elizabeth was fair. See Midsummer N. D. 
 
 III. 2. 257 ("Away, you Ethiop!") and Mitch Ado, v, 4. 38. 
 Starred, i.e. changed into a star; a more natural sense would be 'set 
 
 V. M. 7 
 
98 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 with stars,' as Ben Jonson uses it in Pan's Anniversary, "starred with 
 yellow-golds." So Tennyson in the lines on Milton, " Starr' d from 
 Jehovah's gorgeous armouries." 
 
 23 30. Milton constructs a genealogy for Melancholy as previously 
 for Mirth, ISA I. 14 24. Perhaps he wishes to imply that she is the 
 offspring of Purity and Solitude, the goddess Vesta being regarded as 
 chaste like her symbol, the fire kept up by the Vestal Virgins. 
 
 24. Saturn was regarded as a type of melancholy and ill-humour. 
 Chaucer calls him "Saturnus the colde," and makes him claim the 
 power to inflict fatal accidents; see the Knightes l^ale, 1585, and 11. 
 1598 1611. According to the old astrology men " born under Saturn" 
 (Much Ado, I. 3. 12) were likely to be morose; cf. our word saturnine. 
 
 25. The Greek Hestia ( = Vesta in Roman mythology) was the 
 daughter of Cronus with whom Saturn was identified. 
 
 28. Secret. See Nat. Ode, 28. 
 
 29 30. Not the ' many-fountained ' mountain range of Mysia in 
 Asia Minor, but the Cretan Mt Ida where Jove was brought up. Cf. 
 the very similar lines in P. L. x. 584, " thence by Saturn driven And 
 Ops, ere yet Dictaean Jove was born." Dictaan = Cretan, Dicte being 
 another mountain in Crete; evidently Milton connected Saturn with 
 that island, both here and in P. L. 
 
 31 36. Cf. the invocation in Tennyson's Ode to Memory, one of the 
 early poems in which Milton's influence is very apparent. 
 
 32. Imitated by Keats in Endymion I, "And come instead de- 
 murest meditation.'] Cf. S. A. 1036. Demure = O.Y. de murs, i.e. of 
 (good) manners; murs (mod. V maurs) = L,a.t. mores. Cf. debonair e 
 in L?Al. 24. For stedfast see Nat. Ode, in, note. 
 
 33. Grain, i.e. hue, and probably the colour intended was dark 
 purple. Grain is derived from O. F. graine, Lat. granum, the Low 
 Latin equivalent for the classical word coccum. Properly coccum meant 
 a * berry;' but it was specially used of the cochineal insect found upon 
 the scarlet oak in Spain and other Mediterranean countries ; this insect 
 being, from its shape, supposed to be a berry. From the cochineal insect 
 a certain dye was made, called coccum; whence coccimts 'red.' In 
 Low Latin granum took the place of cocctini ; cf. Forcellini, Fructus 
 quoque cocci, quo panni tinguntur, granum dicitur. Strictly, therefore, 
 grain signified a scarlet &yt such as could be extracted from this cochineal 
 insect. Cf. Cotgrave : "Graine : the seed of herbs, also grain wherewith 
 cloth is dyed in grain, scarlet die." But Cotgrave also has *' Migraine. 
 Scarlet, or purple in grain," and it seems as though the word had lost 
 
NOTES. 99 
 
 something of its original sense, and could be applied to deep shades of 
 blue or purple. This suits two out of the three other passages where 
 Milton uses it. Thus in P. L. v. 285, the wings of Raphael are "sky- 
 tinctured grain," i.e. "a cerulean or violet purple, as if dipped in the 
 colours of the sky" (Masson). Again in P. L. XI. 242 3, the arch- 
 angel bore : 
 
 " A military vest s of purple. . . 
 Livelier than Melibcean, t>r the grain 
 Of Sarra.'" 
 
 Sarra was the old name for Tyre, so that "grain of Sarra" = 'Tyrian 
 purple;' cf. Sarrano dormiat oslro, Georgic n. 506. In Coin. 750, grain 
 appears to bear its earlier notion * scarlet.' 
 
 35. As pointed out in the note on sable-stoled, Nat. Ode, 220, stole 
 usually signified a long, flowing robe ; but it could also mean a hood or 
 veil (cf. Spenser, F.Q. I. i. 4), and probably does so here. For Milton 
 has already mentioned the robe "with majestic train," while we can 
 infer from several passages that veils were often made of Cyprus. Cf. 
 Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victoria in Heaven, 59 : 
 
 " About her head a Cyprus heav'n she wore, 
 
 Spread like a veil ; " 
 
 and Vaughan's Silex Scintillans (Grosart's ed. I. 271) : 
 "They are but veils and cypres drawn, 
 
 Like clouds, before the glorious dawn." 
 
 Cyprus lawn - black crape or gauze ; generally Cyprus and lawn are 
 distinguished; cf. Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 120 221: 
 
 "Lawn as white as driven snow; 
 Cyprus black as e'er was crow." 
 
 Ben Jonson draws the same distinction in Every Man in His Humour, 
 I. 3, and in his Epigrams (73). Cotgrave, however, like Milton, seems 
 to identify the materials: " Crespe. Cipress; also Cobweb Lawne;" 
 and probably they were much the same. In his note on Twelfth Night, 
 in. i. 132, Mr Aldis Wright shewed that Cyprus derived its name from 
 the island Cyprus whence it was first introduced into England; cf. 
 Cambric from Cambray, calico from Calicut, cashmere, etc. The spelling 
 was irregular; Milton's editions, 1645 and 1673, read Cipres ; editors of 
 Shakespeare vary between cypress and cyprus. 
 
 Milton uses the word lawn in his prose writings of the lawn-sleeves 
 worn by bishops: cf. the tract Of Reformation in England, "laugh to 
 see them (i.e. the prelates) under sail in tf! their lawn and sarcenet, their 
 shrouds and tackle," P. W. a. 416; and The Reason of Church 
 
100 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 GovernJnent: " That undeflowered and unblemishable simplicity of the 
 Gospel, not she herself... but a lawny resemblance of her, made by the 
 sorcery of prelates.*' II. 500. 
 
 36. Decent, i.e. "comely, handsome," Minsheu (1617); the Latin 
 deceits , as in Horaces decentes malas, Odes in. 27. 53. Cf. P. L. in. 
 044, and Cowper's rendering of the Epitaphium Damonis, 122 : 
 
 "Else had I grasped thy feeble hand, composed 
 
 Thy decent limbs;*' 
 
 a reminiscence of Pope's Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady : 
 "By foreign hands thy dying eyes were clos'd, 
 By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd." 
 
 37. State , i.e. dignity. 
 
 39. Imitated by Collins in The Passions: 
 
 "With eyes upraised, as one inspired, 
 
 Pale Melancholy sat retired; 1 ' 
 
 the second verse being an echo of Midsummer N. D. I. i. 14 15. Of 
 course, the attitude is symbolical, expressive of the idea that inspiration 
 comes from above. Cf. the picture of " Theosophia or Divine Wisdom " 
 in one of Jonson's Entertainments: "her garments figured truth, 
 innocence, and clearness: she was always looking up." 
 
 Commercing, i.e. holding intercourse; cf. Tennyson, Walking to the 
 Mail, " Commercing with himself, He lost the sense that handles daily 
 -life." Often commerce, the no\m,commercium t i.e. intercourse; cf. 
 Twelfth Nighty ill. 4. 191, or Cowley's essay Of Obscurity ^^ lives in 
 the conversation of two or three agreeable friends, with little commerce 
 in the world besides," Essay '.<, p. 94. For the accent cf. Troilus and 
 Cressitta, in. 3. 205, "all the commerce that you have had with Troy." 
 
 40. Rapt. More correctly written rapped, since it is the past part, 
 of the Teutonic word rap \.o> seize hastily, snatch; cf. Cymbdine, I. 6. 
 5051, "what... thus raps you?" i.e. what transports you? In O. E. 
 there is the phrase rape and renne, "to seize and plunder." The 
 spelling rapt is due to confusion with Latin raptus\ cf. P. L. in. 522. 
 Another incorrect form is -wrapt = enraptured. Cf. the Hesperides, 
 "then think how wrapt J was to see," (Grosart, I. 23); and Shelley's 
 Prometheus, in. 3, "Painting, Sculpture and wrapt Poesy." This arose 
 from a custom that grew up in the xvith cent, of putting w before 
 words beginning with r or h. Ralegh's contemporaries now and then 
 wrote the name Wrawly (Earle, Philology, p. 159). 
 
 42. To marble, i.e. till thou seemest like a marble statue. Milton 
 had used the idea previously in the Epitaph on Shakespeare: 
 
NOTES. 101 
 
 " Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving, 
 
 Dost make us marbk with too much conceiving." 
 Cf. Pope's Elb'isa, 24, "I have not yet forgot myself to stone." 
 43 44. Cf. Sylvester's Du Barf as (Grosart, I. 155) : 
 
 "That sallow-fac't, sad, stooping Nymph, whose eye 
 
 Still on the ground is fixed stedfastly." 
 Gray (Hymn to Adversity] again followed Milton very closely. 
 
 43. Sad, i.e. serious, without exactly the notion of sorrow; cf. "sad 
 votarist" in Com. 189. The original sense was * sated,' A.S. j^being 
 akin to Lat. satis. Then the idea 'satisfied' passed to that of "serious, 
 firm, sober, discreet, grave " (Mayhew and Skeat, s. v.). Cf. the 
 Apology for Smectymnuus, " What was all in him (i.e. Christ), was 
 divided among many others, the teachers of his church; some io be 
 severe and ever of a sad gravity," P. W. in. 129; and the Hist, of 
 Brit., "this story, though seeming otherwise too light in the midst 
 of a sad narration."/*. W. v. 387. Leaden = gloomy, cf. Othello, ill. 
 
 4- 177- 
 
 45. Ben Jonson has a picture of " Esychia, or Quiet, the first hand- 
 maid of Peace," in King Jameses Entertainment. 
 
 46 48. The lines are an allegorical way of stating that only the poet 
 whose life is abstinent can attain to the highest type of poetry. He puts 
 the same idea (Masson calls it "perhaps pre-eminently the Miltonic 
 idea ") more fully and clearly in the sixth Elegy, where he says that the 
 writer who deals with trivial, erotic themes may lead a life of ease and 
 pleasure; but he who handles grave matters, and would rival Homer, 
 let him be self-denying and ascetic v// quidsni parce vivat. 
 
 48. Cf. Lye. 15,16, note. The 'altar of Jove' is that of which Hesiod 
 speaks at the beginning of his Theogony: "the Muses haunt the hill of 
 Helicon, mighty and divine, and dance with tender feet around the 
 fountain (i.e. Aganippe) and the altar of the great son of Kronion." In 
 most legends the Muses are the daughters of Zeus. 
 
 50. Milton's conception of the ideal garden was probably less 
 magnificent than that of Bacon who writes: "For Gardens... the 
 Contents, ought not well to be under Thirty Acres of Ground," Essays, 
 p. 189 (Golden Treas. ed.). Gowley confessed that his chief desire had 
 always been to "be master at last of a small house and large garden... 
 and there dedicate the remainder of life only to the culture of them, and 
 study of nature," Essays, p. 120. 
 
 52 55. The imagery of the passage was suggested by Ezekiel's 
 vision of the throne -chariot composed of Cherubic forms; see 
 
T02 IL PEN'SEROSO. 
 
 , also chap. i. The original had evidently impressed Milton 
 very deeply ; he refers to it in the Death of a Fair Infant, 36 40, in 
 P. L. VI. 749 759 and in on e of the finest pieces of the Apology for 
 Smectymnus the description of the chariot of Zeal P. IV. in. 129. 
 There is, perhaps, no portion of Scripture to which Milton alludes more 
 frequently in his prose-works than the book of Ezekiel. 
 
 52. Golden wing. Milton is fond of this idea. Cf. Com. 214, and 
 the compound golden-winged in the Death -of a Fair Infant, 57, pre- 
 viously applied by Sylvester to Sleep (Grosart, I. 143). It afterwards 
 became a conventional description, used by Milton's imitators merely 
 because he had used it; cf. Pope's Temple of Fame , 7, 8. 
 
 54. It is well to remember two things: (i) Cherub, used by Milton 
 and scholars of that time as the singular of Cherttbim, means a single 
 member of the Cherubim, i.e. it has nothing to do with the sense which 
 cherub bears in modern E. (ii) When Milton applies to the Cherub the 
 title Contemplation (Newton contrasts the picture in the Faerie Q. i. x. 46), 
 he is referring to the mediaeval conception of the Hierarchies already 
 mentioned in the note on Nat. Ode, in. According to it each of the 
 Orders or Choirs into which the heavenly beings were divided had a 
 special power, and the faculty peculiar to the Cherubim was that of 
 " Knowledge and Contemplation of divine things." In the words of the 
 treatise attributed to Dionysius, they were celebrated dta rb OeoirriKbv 
 atiruH' Kal GewpvjriKov. We now see the significance of the name 
 Contemplation in this verse : Milton took the mediaeval belief and grafted 
 it on to the narrative of Ezekiel. See Noles and Q. vilth series, u. 323, 
 where this explanation was, I think, first given ; and for a similar 
 allusion cf. Thomas Watson's Melib&us: "where flowes the knowledge 
 of wise Cherubim," the original Latin being plus sapiunt Cherubin. 
 See Arber's ed. pp. 168, 169. The writer in N. and Q. suggests that 
 Shakespeare may be hinting at the same belief when he invests the 
 Cherubim in Macbeth, I. 7. 22, 24, with the power of sight ; so in 
 Hamlet, IV. 3. 50, Troilus, ill. i. 74. 
 
 55. Hist. Probably an imperative (cf. Romeo and Juliet, 11. i. 
 159), answering to bring in 1. 51. It seems to mean 'bring the mute 
 Silence with you,' Silence (personified as in Com. 557, 558 and P. L. IV. 
 604) being the accus. after hist. Or we might interpret it, ' move 
 stealthily through (along} the silence.' For hist, see Nat. Ode, 64. 
 
 56. Shakespeare uses Philomelas, nightingale, instead of Philomela; 
 cf. Midsummer N. D. II. 2. 13* So The Two Kinsmen, V. 3. 123 24 
 U I have heard Two emulous Philomels beat the ear o' the night." 
 
NOTES. 103 
 
 Deign, i.e. grant. " Daigner. To deigne, vouchsafe, thinke worthy 
 of," Cotgrave. So disdain^ refuse in P. R. i. 492, "disdain not such 
 access to me." O. F. deigner\^. dignari. 
 
 58. Cf. Shakespeare's " black-brow'd night" in Romeo and Juliet, 
 ill. 2. 20, and Midsummer N.D. ill. 2. 387; or King John, v. 6. 17 
 (" in the black brow of night "). " Smooth the rugged'st brow " occurs 
 \\\P.R. ii. 164. Rugged^ wrinkled. 
 
 59 60. i.e. the Moon (C^iithis) stops in her course to listen. 
 
 59. Strictly, it was only to Demeter, i.e. Ceres, that mythology 
 assigned a chariot yoked with dragons. Milton probably remembered 
 Midsummer N.D. in. 2. 379, "night's swift dragons cut the clouds 
 full fast," and transferred the description to the Moon. He has the 
 same picture in the Latin poem In Obitum Prasulis Eliensis, 56 58: 
 
 dcam 
 Vidi triformem, dnm coercebat suos 
 
 Frcenis dracones aureis. 
 
 Newton notes that dragons (i.e. serpents) are chosen in allusion to their 
 proverbial watchfulness and sharpness of sight. See Cymbeline, II. a. 
 48, or Com. 131 (note). 
 
 60. Accustomed. As though Milton were thinking of some special 
 tree in the garden at Horton. Cf. the Epitaphitim Damonis where he 
 says (15) that he only felt the loss of Diodati when he had returned 
 from Italy, assueta seditque sub ulmo. 
 
 6264. So Vergil, G. iv. 51315' 
 
 Ilia 
 
 riet noctem, ramoque sedens miser abile carmen 
 Integrat. 
 
 Milton studied the habits of the nightingale. Cf. Com. 234 235, P. L. 
 III. 3840. 
 
 65. Contrast L'Al. 57. 
 
 66. Bacon, being of opinion that "nothing is more pleasing to the 
 eye" than grass "kept finely shorne," recommended that every garden 
 should contain a lawn of four acres (Essays, no. XLVI ). 
 
 67. Cf. Midsummer N. D. iv. i. 103, "swifter than the wandering 
 moon." Vergil uses errans of the moon (AZneid, I. 742). 
 
 68. i.e. at her highest point of ascension (Hales). 
 
 71 72. See the note on L? Al. 61, and cf. Com. 331, 333: "fair 
 moon,... Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud." Cf. "fleecy 
 star" in P. L. ill. 558. 
 
 73. Plat, i.e. plot, 'a small piece of ground.' Not a very common 
 
104 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 form, but cf. Crashaw, Musicks Duell, "hard by the streams Of Tiber, 
 on the sceane of a green plat;" and Tennyson, The Blackbird, " I keep 
 smooth plats of fruitful ground." See />. L. ix. 456. 
 
 74 76. If we are to identify the description with any special scene, 
 we may suppose that Milton was thinking of the Thames (see L?Al. 76) 
 which flows not far from Horton. The curfew would be that of some 
 village church, and shore was often applied to the banks of a river; cf. 
 King John, n. 443, " two such shores to two such streams made one;" 
 or Julius Ccesar, I. i. 52, 65. Water \^o. or river is common in old 
 writers. Professor Hales notes that Tennyson revived the use of the 
 word in the Morte L? Arthur; cf. also The Passing of Arthur : 
 "He saw the speck that bare the king 
 
 Down that long water opening on the deep." 
 
 Wide-watered shore, therefore, might easily be said of a broad expanse of 
 river, with its fringe of bank. Some editors have thought that Oxford 
 was meant. Cambridge can scarcely put in a claim : difficulty might arise 
 over wide as an epithet of the Cam. Masson says, why should not the 
 sea be intended ? 
 
 74. Cf. "at curfew time," Com. 435. The usual hour for the 
 ringing of the curfew was eight o'clock; but Way in his ed. of the 
 Promptorium (p. 1 10) shows that the practice varied. Nine o'clock (still 
 the time at which the bell of Great St Mary's Church, Cambridge, 
 sounds) was not an uncommon hour in England during the summer, and 
 in Scotland it was the regular hour for a long period. The custom was 
 not confined to England: it "prevailed, at the time of the Conquest, in 
 France, and probably in all the countries of Europe, and was intended 
 merely as a precaution against fires, at a time when cities were con- 
 structed chiefly of wood " (Way). Shakespeare in one passage, Romeo 
 and Juliet, iv. 4. 4, applies curfew to the bell rung in the morning when 
 the angelus was recited, the explanation being that at some churches 
 and religious houses the same bell was used at daybreak and evening. 
 
 Etymologically curfew = couvre few, O. F. covre-feu, i.e. time for 
 putting out the fire, couvrir from co-operire and feu from focus. Ren- 
 dered by ignitegium in the Promptorium and the Catholicon Anglicum 
 (1483); elsewhere by pyritegium. Curfew is a good instance of two 
 syllables, couvre, blending into one, air, by syncope. This is due to 
 stress of accent ; it occurs often in compound words ; cf. kerchief. 
 
 78. Fit, i.e. suit. 
 
 80. i.e. the light of the fire is so soft as to be a kind of darkness. 
 
 81. Resort, i.e. visits; used actively, as in Hamlet, II. 2. 143, "thai 
 
NOTES. IO5 
 
 she should lock herself from his resort," i.e. from Hamlet's visits. In 
 modern E. resort is usually passive, = a place to which people go. ID 
 Com. 379 it seems to mean * society,' "the various bustle of resort." 
 
 83 84. The bellman corresponded to the linkman of the last 
 century. Cotgrave defines his main duty : " Resveilleur. An awaker; 
 and particularly, a common Bellman, which in the dead of night goes 
 round about a City, tinkling, and telling of the houres." What the 
 'drowsy charms' would be we may gather from Herrick's poem in the 
 Hesperides (Grosart, II. 28), where the speaker is a bellman: 
 " From noise of Scare- fires rest ye free, 
 
 From Murders Benedicitie. 
 
 From all mischances, that may fright 
 
 Your pleasing slumbers in the night: 
 
 Mercie secure ye all, and keep 
 
 The Goblin from ye, while ye sleep. 
 
 Past one aclock, and almost two, 
 
 My Masters all, Good day to you" 
 
 Cf. too Herrick's Noble Numbers (n. 174), and his Golden Apples (n. 102). 
 Another duty of the bellman was to report on the weather; cf. Pepys, 
 Jan. 16, 1659 *66o: "I staid up till the bellman came by with his 
 bell just under my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried, 
 ' Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning ' " (one of the 
 many vivid strokes which make the Diary so graphic). The Bellman of 
 London was the title of one of Dekker's pamphlets of ' low life.' 
 
 84. Cf. Chaucer, The Milleres Tale, 29798: 
 
 " Lord Jhesu Crist, and seynte Benedight, 
 
 Blesse this hous from every wikkede wight." 
 Nightly daring the night ; see Nat. Od(, 1 79. 
 
 85. Here he passes to what we may conceive to be the main 
 pleasure in the life of // Penseroso, viz. study of literature. The 
 literature is of four types : i. philosophy, 8896 : ii. the tragic drama, 
 97 102; iii. lyric poetry, 103 108; iv. romance, 109 120. This 
 section of the poem is considerably longer than the parallel one in L'Al. 
 117 134. Also it is probable that L'Allegro was to see tournaments 
 and plays rather than read about them. Cf. the note on L'Al. 118. 
 
 85 88. The sense is * May I study through the night the works of 
 Hermes Trismegistus. ' Cf. Milton's De Idea Platonica, 32 33: 
 Non ille trino gloriosus nomine 
 Ter magnus Hermes > ut sit arcani sciens. 
 The Greeks identified Hermes with the Egyptian deity Thoth, or Theut. 
 
106 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 This Egyptian god was supposed to be the introducer of culture into 
 Egypt, the patron of writing and arts and sciences, including magic and 
 alchemy. Cf. Sir Thomas Browne: " wherein they (the people of Egypt) 
 worshipped...Mercurius (i.e. Hermes), the scribe of Saturn, and coun- 
 sellor of Osyris, the great inventor of their religious rites, and promoter 
 of good into Egypt," Vulgar Errors, bk. IV. chap. XIII. To the 
 Egyptian Hermes were attributed forty-two so-called Hermetic books, 
 really composed by the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria in the fourth cent. 
 A.D. Fragments of the Greek and Latin texts of these books (of which 
 the Pcemander was the most celebrated) are scattered through the works 
 of Lactantius, Stobseus and Suidas. In mediaeval times Hermes Trisme- 
 gistus became the patron-deity of students of magic and the 'black arts.' 
 Ben Jonson in the Fortunate Isles makes the scholar ask the wizard to 
 call up the shades of divers philosophers : 
 
 " y. Think but any other in meantime, 
 
 Any hard name. 
 
 M. (the scholar] Then Hermes Trismegistus. 
 y. O, 6 TpHr/JLtyiffTosl why, you shall see him, 
 
 A fine hard' name ! " 
 Cf. also Jonson's Masque, Neptune?* Triumph. 
 
 87. Keightley remarked that this involves sitting up all night, 
 as the Bear never sets; cf. Vergil, Arctos oceani metuentes aquore tingi. 
 88 96. i.e. call down the soul of Plato from the sphere it inhabits 
 to tell whither the souls of men go after death, or (93 96) what is the 
 nature of the spirits "that are found in fire etc." In other words, II 
 Penseroso will study the Timaus and Phado and other writings of Plato. 
 The imagery is drawn from Milton's belief in the "Spheres" of 
 the Universe; see Nat. Ode, 125. The souls of the* great dead, he 
 implies, must dwell in some one of these spheres ; cf. Com. 2 4 : 
 
 "where those immortal shapes 
 Of bright aerial spirits live insphered 
 In regions mild of calm and serene air;" 
 
 and Drayton, " I will insphere her in regions high and starry." So 
 Shelley in the Adonais (XLVI.) represents the soul of Keats ascending 
 upward and being welcomed by his brother- poets : 
 
 '"Thou art become as one of us,' they cry; 
 * It was for thee yon kingless sphere has long 
 Swung blind in unascended majesty, 
 Silent alone amid a Heaven of song.'" 
 Milton's lines may have been in Wordsworth's memory when he wrote 
 
NOTES. lO/ 
 
 "Nor less the homage that was seen to wait 
 On Dion's virtues when the lunar beam 
 Of Plato's genius, from its lofty sphere, 
 Fell round him in the grove of Academe." 
 
 88. Unsphere. Cf. Hartley Coleridge's Stanzas ("She was a 
 queen"): "like a spectre of an age departed, Or unsphered Angel 
 woefully astray." So tinthrone, P. L. 1 1. 231. 
 
 89. Milton reveals his own admiration of Plato in many passages of 
 the prose- works ; see the frequent references in the Tractate on Educa- 
 tidn. In the Apology for Smectymnuus Plato is mentioned with Sir 
 Thomas More and Bacon as among " the greatest and sublimest wits in 
 sundry ages,"/ 1 . IV. ill. p. 108, although Xenophon is his equal, p. 119. 
 
 93. We must understand to tell of, or some such expression, from to 
 unfold m 1. 89. 
 
 Those demons, i.e. Salamanders (spirits of fire), Sylphs (of air), 
 Nymphs (of water), and Gnomes (of underground). Cf. P. R. II. 124, 
 " Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath ;" so P. R. IV. 201, and 
 Com. 208 209, 436. If Milton accepted popular beliefs in this matter 
 he found himself in the excellent company of Sir Thomas. Browne; cf. 
 the Religio Medici, Sect. xxx. : "It is a riddle to me, how... so many 
 learned heads should so far forget their metaphysicks, and destroy the 
 ladder and scale of creatures, as to question the existence of spirits ; for 
 my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are witches. 
 They that doubt of these do not only deny them, but spirits; and are 
 obliquely, and upon consequence, a sort, not of infidels, but atheists." 
 
 95. Consent^ i.e. agreement, or sympathy with; cf. the verb in the 
 Animadversions, "the just and adequate measure of truth,... whose 
 every part consenting, and making up the harmonious symmetry... is able 
 to set out to us a perfect man," P. W. ill. 67. The word may have 
 been influenced by concent harmony, Lat. concentus, used in the Ode 
 At a Solemn Music, 6; cf. the doubtful line in Hen. V. I. 2. 181. 
 
 96. With planet. Astrology was still believed in. 
 
 Element. Alluding to the belief (mediaeval rather than Platonic) 
 that all existing things consist of four elements or constituent parts, viz. 
 fire, air, water, and earth. Cf. among several references in Shakespeare, 
 Julius Casar, v. 5. 73, and Antony, v. 2. 292. Milton will investigate 
 with Plato's aid the connection (i.e. consent, 1. 95) between these elements 
 and the spirits which dwell in them. Perhaps the best commentary, 
 certainly an amusing one, on the lines is a passage in the Rape of the 
 Lock, I. 5766: 
 
108 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 "For when the Fair in all their pride expire, 
 To their first elements their souls retire. % 
 
 The sprites of fiery termagants in flame 
 Mount up, and take a salamander's name. 
 Soft yielding minds to water glide away, 
 And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea. 
 The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome, 
 In search of mischief still on earth to roam. 
 The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, 
 And sport and flutter in the fields of air." 
 
 97 102. This may be illustrated from the first Elegy > written in 
 1626. Milton describes his visits to the "well-trod stage" in London, 
 and after sketching types of character drawn from comedy (the comedy 
 of Terence rather than Shakespeare), passes to Tragedy: 
 Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragcedia sceptrum 
 
 Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rot at ; 
 Et do let, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo; 
 Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest: 
 Sftt puer infelix indelibata reliquit 
 
 G audio., et abrupto flendus amore cadit ; 
 Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor, 
 
 Cojrscici funereo pectora torre movcns; 
 Sen mceret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Hi, 
 
 Ant luit incestos aula Creonlis avos. 
 
 The puer infelix might be Romeo, and the next couplet (ferus ultor) 
 would apply to Hamlet or Richard III. v. 3. 118 176; in fact, there, 
 as here in II Pen. 102 3, Milton probably alludes to Shakespeare. The 
 last lines (Pelopeia domus) anticipate 11. 99 100 of the present passage. 
 Contrast UAl. 131 134, where the reference is to comedy alone. 
 
 98. Pall=. Latin palla, the mantle worn by tragic actors. In 
 Elizabethan E. pall seems to have been generally applied to church- 
 vestments; cf. Cotgrave, "Faille. A Bishop's pall." Milton in the 
 tract Of Reformation complained that the prelates arrayed themselves 
 "not in robes of pure innocency, but of pure linen, with other deformed 
 and fantastic dresses, in palls and mitres," P. W. n. 365. See the 
 Shepheards Cal. Julye. Sceptred royal ; cf. Merchant of V. iv. i. 193. 
 99 100. An epitome of the main themes of Greek tragedy. Thebes 
 is " presented " in the Seven Against Thebes of /Eschylus, and the 
 CEdipns Rex and Antigone of Sophocles. Of the line of Pelops were 
 Thyestes and Atreus, and Agamemnon, with his children Orestes, 
 
NOTES. ICQ 
 
 Iphigenia and Electra. The chief plays in which II Penseroso could 
 read their several stories would be the trilogy of the Oresteia by 
 ^schylus, i.e. the Agamemnon, Choephoroi &&& Eumenides ; the Electra 
 of Sophocles and the Electra of Euripides (to which Milton refers in the 
 sonnet When the Assault] and the two dramas of the Iphigenia by 
 Euripides (Milton's favourite poet). The tale of Troy (the most popular 
 with mediaeval writers) might be followed in the Hecuba and Troades. 
 divine; "because built by the gods" (Newton). 
 
 101. We may hope that this alludes to Shakespeare. See -the note 
 on 1. 97 supra. Ben Jonson too could claim to have ennobled the stage 
 as a writer of tragedy. Clearly, however, Milton was out of sympathy 
 with the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama : an admirer of it would not 
 have called its masterpieces "rare" in the sense of few. Milton's 
 classical taste prevented his liking its free, romantic style. 
 
 102. Buskined, i.e. tragic, see UAL 132. Fletcher writes in the 
 Purple Island, I. 12: 
 
 11 Who has not seen ugon the mourning stage 
 Dire Atreus' feast and wrong'd Medea's rage; 
 Marching in tragick state, and buskin'd equipage?" 
 So Browne in Britannia's Pastorals, II. i : 
 
 " Marot and Ronsard, Garnier's buskin'd Muse, 
 
 Should spirit of life in very stones infuse;" 
 
 see Hazlitt's Browne, I. 192, 221, and cf. Gray, speaking of Shake- 
 speare's tragedies, The Bard, in. 3. 
 
 103 108. i.e. 'would that we might recover the lost poems of 
 Musseus and Orpheus.' In some legends Musxus is the son of 
 Orpheus. Many compositions were ascribed to him, especially sacred 
 hymns and oracles. Here he seems to represent lyric verse, as in 
 Chapman's lines on Marlowe. Cf. Herrick, " There thou shalt hear 
 Divine Musaeus sing," Grosart, n. 174; and Wordsworth's Sonnet on a 
 Blank Leaf of Macpherson ' s Ossian : 
 
 " Musaeus, stationed with his lyre, 
 Supreme among the Elysian quire, 
 Is, for the dwellers upon earth, 
 Mute as a lark at morning's birth." 
 
 The name supplied Mason with the title of that Monody (i74 
 Pope in which Lycidas is closely followed. 
 
 105 108. Imitated in West's Monody on Queen Caroline: 
 
 "artful unimaginable strains, 
 According sweetly to the lyre, 
 
110 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 Such as might half inspire 
 
 The iron breast of Hades to resign 
 
 Our lost, lov'd Caroline." 
 
 109 115. Referring to Chaucer, whose Squyeres Tale is incomplete. 
 This tale was of Eastern origin, a mixture, as Warton said, of Arabic 
 learning and Gothic chivalry : hence the oriental names and the peculiar 
 character of the incidents, most of which may be illustrated from Arabic 
 literature. Probably the story was known to Chaucer through some 
 Latin medium ; but the details relative to the manifestation of magic 
 were the common property of writers of popular tales throughout 
 Europe. See Skeat's Introduction to The Prioresses Tale. 
 
 109. Half told. The story is continued in the Faerie Queene, bk. 
 IV. cantos i (from stanza 31 onward) and 3. Spenser excused himself 
 at the outset (st. 34) for his presumption in venturing to follow where 
 Chaucer had gone before. He evidently thought (st. 33) that Chaucer 
 had completed the Tale, and that the concluding portions had been 
 lost. Tyrwhitt, however, was inclined to agree with Milton that the 
 work was left unfinished by its author ;*see the Introductory Discourse to 
 the Canterbury Tales in Morns' ed. I. 234. Masson pointed out that 
 there was also a version of the Squyeres Tale by a certain John Lane, a 
 friend of Milton's father, a MS. copy of which is now in the British 
 Museum. Very likely Milton had seen it. 
 
 no. Warton in his nineteenth Ode (1787) says of Chaucer: 
 "In tones majestic hence he told 
 
 The banquet of Cambuscan bold;" 
 
 imitating Milton even in the accentuation of the name, Cambuscan 
 instead of Cambuscdn. The proper form of the name, at least as 
 it is given in all seven MSS. of the Squyeres Tale, is Cambynskan. 
 It is a corruption of Chingis or Gengis Khan, and means "Great 
 Khan." 
 
 in. The sons of Cambynskan. Cambalis derived from Cambaluc, 
 "city of the Khan," the capital built by Kublai Khan. A copy, says 
 Dr Skeat, in the Bodleian of Marco Polo's Travels has the colophon : 
 "Explicit le Livre nomme du Grant Caan de la Graunt Cite de 
 Cambaluc." Cf. the reference in P. L. xi. 387 388. The Squyeres 
 T"ale has a second Cambalo, who is the lover of Canace ; this may have 
 been due to an error on the part of Chaucer or his copyist. 
 
 112. Canace t the daughter of Cambynskan. As a matter of fact, 
 Chaucer makes it fairly clear that she was married to Cambalo, (the 
 lover) ; cf. the close of the Squyeres Tale: 
 
NOTES. 1 1 1 
 
 "And after wol I speken of Cambalo, 
 That faught in listes with the bretheren two, 
 For Canacee, er that he might hir wynne." 
 
 Spenser invents three brothers, Priamond, Dyamond, and Triamond; 
 and weds Canace to the last. 
 
 To wife, i.e. as wife, cf. S. A. 227. A common idiom; cf. Judges 
 xvii. 13, "the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." 
 Minsheu has " to take to wife vide to Marrie." 
 
 113. The ring enabled its owner to understand the language of 
 birds and the medicinal properties of all herbs ; see The Squyeres Tale, 
 138 157. Clouston says, " many Asiatic tales turn upon a knowledge 
 of the language of birds and beasts," Popular Tales (1887), vol. I. 
 p. 376. Cf. the story in the Arabian Nights of" The Page who feigned 
 to know the Speech of Birds." In Spenser the ring has the power of 
 staunching wounds, F. Q. IV. 2. 39. 
 
 The mirror revealed coming disasters, told "who is your friend or fo," 
 and warned ladies if their lovers were unfaithful; Squyeres Tale, 124 
 137, where Chaucer's editors refer to the magic glass in Gower's 
 Confessio A mantis, bk. v. Clouston compares (I. 376) the Ivory Tube 
 in the Arabian Nights tale of "Prince Ahmed and the Pen Banu," 
 and Warton suggested that the legend arose out of the Arabic know- 
 ledge of optics. Cf. the myth of the beryl-stone and the "pro- 
 spective-glasses" used by Dr Dee and mentioned in the Vacation 
 Exercise, 71. 
 
 Virtuous, i.e. possessed of peculiar powers. Cf. Com. 621, "every 
 virtuous plant," and 1. 165, " the virtue of this magic dust." 
 
 114. See The Squyeres Tale, 107 123, and cf. the Shepheards 
 Cal. Julye, "stoute as steede of brasse" The horse was "wondrous" 
 in that it could bear its rider any distance he liked within the twenty- 
 four hours; and could, if need were, fly through the air high as an eagle. 
 This again, is an Arabic legend, due (says Warton) to Arabic study of 
 chemistry and experiments with metals. It spread all over Europe, and 
 there are many versions of it. One of the earliest is a French Romaunt 
 in verse, entitled Cleomades, by a poet of the xinth cent., Adans or 
 Adenis. The animal is identical with the " Cheval de Fust," with the 
 "Magic Horse" of Don Quixote, and the "Cheval Enchante" in 
 Galland's translation of the Arabian Nights. The description in the 
 latter corresponds very closely with that given by Chaucer ; see Lady 
 Burton's ed. in. 138. Burton believed that the Greek myth of Pegasus 
 (borrowed from Kgypt) was part of the same story. The horse is 
 
112 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 sometimes made of brass (as in Chaucer, Spenser, and here), sometimes 
 of wood in the Arabian Nights, of ebony- wood. 
 
 Milton has omitted one detail in the equipment of the knight, viz. 
 the magic sword, which cut through armour however thick, inflicting 
 wounds that would hot heal until stroked with the flat blade. See 
 the Squyeres Tale, 148 159, and the F. Q. II. 8. 20. 
 
 115. 7^ ar tar king, i.e. Cambynskan. 
 
 116 120. No doubt, an allusion primarily to the Faerie Queene. 
 Spenser influenced Milton more than did any previous poet; cf. the 
 publisher's preface to the 1645 ed. of Milton's poems: "I shall" (says 
 "the Stationer to the Reader") "deserve of the age by bringing into 
 the light as true a birth as the Muses have brought forth since our 
 famous Spenser wrote; whose poems in these. ..are as rarely imitated 
 as sweetly excelled." Cf. the reference to "our admired Spenser" in 
 the Animadversions (P. W. ill. 84, 85) where Milton quotes at some 
 length from the Shepheards Cat. Maye. Spenser is the "sage and 
 serious poet" of the Areopagitica, P. W. II. 68, where the F. Q. n. 7 is 
 in Milton's thoughts. Cf. also the glance at the F. Q. v. 2, in Eikono- 
 klastes, P. W. I. 346. Cowley in the essay Of Myself says that his first 
 impulse to write verses came from reading Spenser. Milton's experience 
 may have been similar. The "great bards" would also include Tasso 
 and Ariosto. 
 
 1 18. Turney. "A martiall exercise of knights or souldiors, fighting 
 one with another in disport " (Minsheu). Florio (1598) has "Torneare, 
 to tilt, to torney, to just (i.e. joust), to fight at barriers." Cf. S. A. 1736. 
 
 119 120. Cf. P. R. II. 359 360, and the "adventurous glade" 
 of Com. 79. Warton says: "Both Tasso and Ariosto pretend to an 
 allegorical and mysterious meaning; and Tasso's Enchanted Forest, 
 the most conspicuous fiction of the kind, may have been here intended." 
 Cf. the reference in Com. 517 to Tasso's account of the Island of 
 Armida. 
 
 121. Cf. P.L. I. 768. Career was specially applied to the course 
 of the sun, or moon, or planets. Sylvester has it in this sense very often. 
 O. F. charriere, is from Late Lat. carraria, i.e. carraria via. 
 
 122. Civil-suited, i.e. in sober dress; cf. "sobered morning came," 
 Endymion in. (early). Civil was often used of apparel, in the sense 
 ' not gay or showy.' The New E. D. quotes Fletcher, Woman's Prize, 
 in. 3, "That fourteen yards of satin give my woman.. .1 do not like the 
 colour 'tis too civil;" and Dekker's Seven Sinnes, I. 13, "In words, is 
 he circumspect,... in attire, ciuill." The verse is an imitation ot Romeo 
 
NOTES. TI3 
 
 and Juliet^ in. i. 10 u, "Come, civil night, thou sober-suited 
 matron." Milton seems to have borrowed from -the same speech 
 elsewhere; see Com. 373 375 and 554, and cf. 11. 58, 141 of this poem. 
 Cf. Tennyson's You Ask Me Why: 
 
 "The land that freemen till, 
 That sober-suited Freedom chose." 
 Contrast L?Al. 60 63. 
 
 123. Tricked, i.e. decked, adorned. See Lye. 170. Trick and 
 trim often go together: cf. Cotgrave, "Parer: To deck, tricke, trimme, 
 garnish, adorn," and Sylvester, "so brave a GaHant, trickt and trimmed 
 so," Grosart, II. 191. Derived from Dutch trek=o. trick = a neat con- 
 trivance: whence the idea 'neatness of appearance.' 
 
 Frounced, i.e. with hair curled and frizzled. Ascham describes an 
 affected courtier as having " an ouerstaring frounced hed, as though out 
 of euerie heeres toppe, should suddenlie start out a good big othe," 
 Scholemaster, p. 105. Properly frounce means a wrinkle, from O.F. 
 /roncer=*LatQ \^\.. frontiare ; in Du C&i\gefronciatus = rugatus. From 
 the notion 'wrinkle ' came that of crumple or plait, i.e. of a dress, or curl, 
 i.e. of the hair. ILtjmologic&llyJreuncezaJteunti by interchange of fr 
 and^, as mfrocus andyfafftj. 
 
 124. The "Attic boy" is Cephalus, or as Bottom pronounced the 
 name, Shafalus, Midsummer N. D. v. 200. Mythology represents him 
 as a hunter beloved by Eos (or Aurora), the goddess of the dawn; cf. 
 Oberon's words, " I with the morning's love have oft made sport," 
 Midsummer N. D. ill. 2. 389. Milton has the same allusion in the 
 fifth Elegy, 51 (where bolides Cephalus): 
 
 Desere, Phoebus ait, thalamos, Aurora, seniles; 
 Te manet bolides viridi venator in herba. 
 
 125. i.e. with a cloud floating like a veil over her head. Cf. Giles 
 Fletcher, Chris fs Victorie in Heaven, 12, "sickness with his kercher'd 
 head vp wound." Way says: "The kerchief, derived from French 
 couvre chief...*, covering for the head, was until the xvith cent, almost 
 an indispensable portion of female attire. Illuminated MSS and monu- 
 mental effigies present an endless variety of the fashions of its 
 arrangement," (Promptorium, p. 272). Fr. chef=caput. 
 
 127. i.e. introduced. In P. L. x. 94 he speaks of winds that 
 
 "usher in 
 The evening cool ; " 
 a reminiscence, perhaps, of Shakespeare, Sonnet 132. 
 
 Usher (O. F. ussier, mod. F. huissier, from Lat. ostiarius] properly 
 
 V. M. 8 
 
1 14 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 meant a doorkeeper; but it was also applied to the attendants who went 
 in front of any great person in a procession. Ambition, says Cowley, 
 likes "a train behind, aye, and ushers too before it,'* Essays, 
 p. 85. 
 
 128. His, i.e. its; see Nat. Ode, 106. 
 
 1 30. i.e. drops that fall at intervals of a minute. 
 
 131, 132. So Fletcher of the sun (Purple Island, vi. 29), "Soon 
 back he flings the too bold vent'ring gleam." 
 
 134. Brown was applied by earlier writers to very dark tints; cf. 
 the definition in Johnson's Diet.) "the name of a colour, compounded of 
 black and any other colour." Milton often uses it in this sense; cf. 
 P. L. IX. 1087 88, "umbrage broad, and brown as evening;" which 
 Pope imitated, Odyssey xvn. 215, and Gray, Ode on the Spring: 
 
 " Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch 
 
 A broader browner shade." 
 
 Sylvan. Sylvanus was the god of fields and forests; afterwards 
 identified with Pan, the god of nature in general. Milton prefers the 
 short form Sylvan ; cf. Com. 268, P. L. iv. 140. Sylvanus occurs in 
 P. L. IV. 707. Classical names are rarely abbreviated in Milton; Lycid 
 is one instance (Lye. 151), Erymanth another (Arc. 100). 
 
 135. Monumental. "I would ask, if any single word can be 
 found equal to * monumental ' in its power of suggesting to the imagina- 
 tion the historic oak of park or chase, up to the knees in fern, which 
 has outlasted ten generations of men ; has been the mute witness of the 
 scenes of love, treachery or violence enacted in the baronial hall which 
 it shadows and protects ; and has been so associated with man, that it is 
 now rather a column and memorial obelisk than a tree of the forest." 
 (Mark Pattison, Life of Milton, p. 25). This criticism seems more 
 effective than the illustrations quoted by the editors. We may note, 
 however, Warton's happy perversion of Milton's line in the Panegyric 
 on Oxford Ale wherein he celebrates (among other pleasant things) his 
 chair " of monumental oak, and antique mould." 
 
 141. Cf. the sonnet To the Nightingale, 5, "liquid notes that close 
 the eye of day." Elizabethan writers use eye of heaven = the sun; cf. 
 Marlowe, 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 3. 88, " A greater lamp than that bright 
 eye of heaven." So Shakespeare, Sonnets 18 and 33. 
 
 Garish. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, in. 2. 25, "pay no worship to the 
 garish sun." Used generally in a bad sense = ' gaudy, ' i.e. something 
 that makes you stare or gaze, with which garish is cognate. 
 
 142 146. i.e. the hum of bees and the whisper of waters (sounds 
 
NOTES. IIS 
 
 suggested by the rhythm and alliteration of the lines) are to induce 
 sleep. Cf. P. R. iv. 247250, P. L. iv. 453, 454. 
 
 142. Honied. Strictly it is the pollen, not the honey, that the bee 
 carries. Bottom in Midsummer N. D. IV. i. n 14 makes the same 
 slip. Perhaps, however, honied may mean no more than sweet or 
 fragrant as with honey; cf. "honied showers " in Lye. 140. 
 
 145. Consort, i.e. harmony; see Nat. Ode, 132. 
 
 146. When Shakespeare speaks of "the golden dew of sleep," 
 Richard III. iv. i. 84, he uses dew in the metaphorical sense of 
 'refreshment ' which it often bears in Scripture; cf. "the timely dew of 
 sleep " in P. L. iv. 614. But here the description is in part literal; we 
 see the dewdrops glistening on the wings of Morpheus. Cf. Collins, 
 The Passions, "Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings." 
 
 147 1 50. The meaning of this much-discussed passage seems to be : 
 ' let some dream float with undulating motion (i.e. wave) at the wings 
 of Sleep, amid a stream of vivid pictures which rest lightly on the 
 eyelids.* The wings are those of Sleep, i.e. the word echoes dewy- 
 feathered. The dream attends on Sleep because it is the part of 
 Morpheus to bring visions and dreams; cf. 11. 9, 10. The dream is 
 personified, as in P. L. vin. 292, " When suddenly stood at my head a 
 dream." Wave is intransitive. By "stream of portraiture" is meant 
 the imagery which comes with the dream, and through the eyelids 
 penetrates to the imagination of the sleeper. The difficulty of the 
 passage arises, I think, from the strain of personification (first of Sleep, 
 then of the dream) which is strange to modern taste. There is a very 
 similar description in Sylvester's Du Bartas, Grosart, I. p. 169. Pro- 
 fessor Hales compares the Faerie Queene, I. i. 39 44. Probably, 
 however, the source which lent Milton most inspiration was the following 
 song in Jonson's Vision of Delight, (1617) : 
 
 Night. " Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, 
 
 And spread thy purple wings; 
 Now all thy figures are allowed, 
 
 And various shapes of things; 
 Create of airy forms a stream, 
 It must have blood, and nought of phlegm; 
 And though it be a waking dream, 
 Cho. Yet let it like an odour rise 
 
 To all the senses here, 
 And fall like sleep upon their eyes, 
 Or music in their ear." 
 
 83 
 
Tt6 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 That these lines lived in Milton's memory appears probable from 
 another passage in his poems, viz. P.L. iv. 764. 
 
 149. Lively, i.e. vivid: "so exquisite and lively the descrip- 
 tion is in rjortraying the new state of the Church," Reason of Church 
 Government, P. W. II. 446. Cf. Ascham, "a perfite imitation, or faire 
 liuelie picture of the life of euerie degree of man," Scholemaster, 
 p. 182. 
 
 153. To men "with gross unpurged ear" (Arc. 73) this spiritual 
 music is inaudible ; see Nat. Ode, 126. 
 
 154. The Genius of the Wood in Arcades is a musician. 
 
 155 166. Following his usual practice Milton has combined into 
 a single picture suggestions drawn from several sources. "Cloister's 
 pale " points to the cloistered court of an Oxford or Cambridge College, 
 "embowed roof" to one of the great Gothic Cathedrals; while lines 
 161 163 describe services such as the poet may often have heard at 
 King's College Chapel or Ely Thus by selection he paints an aspect 
 of the ideal life of the student, whether it be passed at the University or 
 in the close of a cathedral. The lines show that in 1633 (or 1634) Milton 
 was still in sympathy with th* ritual of the Church, though he did 
 not care to enter its ranks as a clergyman. But from the prose works 
 written later on might be quoted passages that condemn, directly or 
 indirectly, almost everything which he here approves. For example, 
 " cloistered " is twice used as a term of contempt : " this cloistered 
 lubber," Apology for Sniectymnuits ( r 641 ), and " I cannot praise a fugitive 
 and cloistered virtue," Areopagitica (1644); see P- W. ill. 144, II. 68. 
 Again, with 11. 159, 163, contrast the sneer in Eikonoklastes , 1649, al 
 "gaudy and painted windows, and the chanted service-book" chap. XXV. 
 Cf. also the previous section of the same tract, where he condemns 
 "the singing men and the organs" of Charles' private chapel, P. W. 
 I. 461, 462. In the Areopagitica he writes, "These are the pretty 
 responsories, these are the dear antiphonies (i.e. anthems) that so 
 bewitched of late our prelates and their chaplains, with the goodly .echo 
 they made," P. W. n. 61. 
 
 156. Cotgrave has " Cloistre. A cloister; a round walke or in- 
 closure (covered over head) and environed with pillars; also, an Abbey, 
 Priory, religious House." The first of these senses ("a round walke'' 
 etc.) is required here. From Lat. claustrum or clostrtim. 
 
 157. i.e. let me love; strictly the subject of the verb v&fcet. 
 Embowed, i.e. arched. "Milton was one of the latest true lovers of 
 
NOTES. 117 
 
 Gothic architecture when the taste for it was declining, as Gray was one 
 of the earliest when the taste was reviving " (Hales). 
 
 158. Some editors print antique, and assume the sense to be 
 'ancient.' But Milton wrote antick pillars, which would be (in i7th 
 cent. English) a perfectly natural expression for ornamented pillars. Cf. 
 Hamlet, II. 2. 491, "his antic sword," i.e. sword decorated with 
 designs on the hilt and blade. A special kind of decoration for walls 
 was called antic-work. A ntic=*' quaintly figured' and antique are 
 etymologically identical, coming from antiqnus, and in the early eds. of 
 Shakespeare are given interchangeably, so that it is sometimes hard to 
 say which sense a passage requires. Milton's editions, however, in L'Al. 
 128, read antique, from which perhaps we may infer that he recognised 
 the distinction expressed in modern E. by the spelling antic, 'fanciful/ 
 opposed to antique, 'old.' As he uses neither adjective more than once 
 it is not possible to speak with certainty. The accentuation on the 
 first syllable is invariable in Shakespeare, both of antic and antique. 
 
 Massy proof . So printed in Milton's eds.; some editors hyphen the 
 words, on the analogy of compounds like star -proof (Arc. 89), and most 
 appear to treat proof as an adjective, as though Milton had written 
 massively proof. But proof may be a noun (in apposition to pillars], 
 with the general sense 'solidity.' Cf. S. A. 133 134: "frock of mail, 
 Adamantean proof." Derived from Lat. probare. 
 
 159. Storied windows, i.e. windows of stained glass figured or 
 painted with scenes from Scripture or the history of the Church. 
 Milton may claim credit for this beautiful epithet which later poets have 
 borrowed; e.g. Gray in his Elegy: u storied urn or animated bust;" 
 Landor in Count Julian, II. i : " storied tapestry swells its rich arch ;" 
 and Tennyson in the Ode to Memory, v. Cf. Pictured in Gray's Pro- 
 gress of Spring. For dight see L'Al. 62. 
 
 1 60. Sir Thomas More says that the Churches of the people of 
 Utopia "be al sum what darke. Howbeit that was not donne through 
 ignoraunce in buildinge, but, as they say, by the counsel of the priestes. 
 Bicause they thought that over much light doth disperse mens cogita- 
 tions, whereas in dinime and doubtful lighte they be gathered together, 
 and more earnestly fixed upon religion and devotion," p. 155 (Pitt 
 Press). 
 
 161. Aubrey tells us that Milton was taught to play the organ by 
 his father. It was his favourite instrument; cf. I\ L. I. 708 709, xi. 
 560 564, and Nat. Ode, 130. Music has its place in the system of 
 education outlined in Milton's Tractate (1644), anc * tne students are to 
 
Il8 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 be present every day " whilst the skilful organist plies his grave and 
 fancied descant in lofty fuges." Contrast L'Al. 135 150. 
 
 163. Anthem is a corruption of the Church Lat. antifona (cf. Ital. 
 antifona], written antiphona in older Lat., and derived from Greek 
 avrtyuva = things sounding in response. Strictly therefore anthem 
 signifies a composition sung responsively by two (or more) choirs or 
 voices; cf. Bacon's essay Of Masques, "Severall Quires, placed one over 
 against another, and taking the voice by Catches, Antheme wise, give 
 great Pleasure." Afterwards anthem came to be applied to any com- 
 position of a sacred character set to music. In Middle E. the word was 
 commonly written antem; for the insertion of the h cf. Anthony for 
 Antony, amaranth for amarant. We also find the form antym, due to 
 a mistaken notion that it was derived from ante and hymnus. 
 
 164. As, i.e. such as; cf. Nat. Ode, 98. 
 
 1 66. Cf. the Vacation Exercise, 33 35 : 
 
 " Where the deep transported mind may soar 
 Above the wheeling poles, and at Heaven's door 
 Look in, and see each blissful deity." 
 
 167 174. Milton has a similar, though fuller, picture of the life of 
 learned asceticism in Com. 386 392. He took no thought for the old 
 age of L' Allegro; and the contrast "makes us know that Milton pre- 
 ferred the pensive to the mirthful temper" (Stopford Brooke). The 
 last years of his own life were "weary." 
 
 170. Spell, i.e. study, ponder over. So Keats uses the noun {< a 
 patient wing, a constant spell," Endymion ill. (early). 
 
 172. Milton tells us in the Epitaphium Damonis, 150 151, how, 
 under the guidance of his friend Diodati, he had studied, 
 
 Helleborumque, humilesque crocos, foliumque hyacinthi. 
 Cf. also Com. 619 628. "And ev'ry plant that drinks the morning 
 dew " is a line in Pope's Pastorals, Summer, 32. For the rhyme in the 
 couplet (which proves that the pronunciation of shew must have changed 
 greatly) cf. Com. 994 96: 
 
 ' ' Flowers of more mingled hue 
 
 Than her purfled scarf can shew." 
 
 See also Com. 512, and the sonnet How soon hath 7 tine, i 4. 
 1 7 5 > * 7 6 See Introduction. 
 
NOTES. 119 
 
 LYCIDAS. 
 
 The Title. See Introduction. 
 
 Monody. Among Sylvester's Remains is an elegy On Dame Hellen 
 Branch which he entitles a Monodia ; see Grosart's ed. II. 329. 
 West's poem on the death of Queen Caroline 1737, and Mason's 
 Musaus, each an imitation of Lycidas^ were described in the same way. 
 i 14. The laurel, myrtlp pnrl ivy a aognrigted with poetry: of 
 them is the poet's crown or garland woven : by plucking them Milton 
 symbolises his return to verse- writing. Another explanation may be 
 mentioned that Milton_gathers the laurels, etc, (as in the Epitaph 
 on the Marchioness_of Winchester \ 57, 58) to lay them on the tomb 
 of Lycidas, in fact to strew "the laureate hearse;" and that the pre- 
 mature plucking of them figures the premature death of his friend. But 
 the drift of the passage shows that Milton is thinking less of Edward 
 King than of himself. He had not published any poetry for some 
 years ; he had intended to keep silence : the period of preparation for 
 the poet's office of which he often speaks was not completed : but the 
 death of his fellow-student forces him to break through this reserve, 
 and here is his apology for doing so. Most editors explain thus. 
 
 i. Yet once more. Some critics would limit the reference to elegiac 
 compositions such as Milton had written in the Death of a fair Infant 
 and the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester. But, as already 
 stated, he probably means that he is here taking up again his poet's 
 pen which had not been at work on any kind of poetry since 1634 
 when Comus was written. 
 
 O ye laurels. The publisher's preface to the 1645 ec ^ f Milton's 
 poems speaks of them as "evergreen and not to be blasted laurels." 
 Cf. also Milton's lines Ad Patrem 101 102, where alluding to his OWD 
 desire to win fame as a poet he says : 
 
 Ergo ego, jam docta pars quamlibet ima catervce, 
 
 Victrices hederas inter laurosque sedebo ; 
 and his address to the Italian savant, Giovanni Manso ; 
 
 Forsitan et nostros ducat de marmore vultus, 
 
 Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Parnasside lauri 
 
 Fronde comas 
 
 Manso had had a bust of the poet Marini sculptured, and Milton hoped 
 that some friend would do the same service by him after his death, and 
 
120 LYCIDAS. 
 
 crown it in the way described. The ivy symbolises poetry on the side 
 of learning; cf. Horace, Odes, I. i. 29, Spenser, Shepheards Cal. 
 October ; no. Note that the plants mentioned are all evergreens^ 
 'never-sere,' and therefore typical of the immortal fame which this 
 poem confers on Edward King. 
 
 i. Brown =dark; see // Pen. 134. Cf. the pulla myrtus of 
 Horace, Odes, I. 25. 18. Ovid has nigra myrtus, Art. Amat. ill. 690. 
 Bullokar speaks of the plant as "hairing small darke leaues, and 
 bearing berries," Expositor , 1616. 
 
 Sere, or sear, =dry ; commonly said of flowers or leaves, in the sense 
 'faded,' 'withered;' cf. the Shepheards Cal. Jan. (with the explanation 
 in the Glosse], and November; also Macbeth, v. 3. 23. Occasionally 
 metaphorical, as in Ben Jonson's Entertainment at Theobalds, 1607, 
 "now in the twilight of sere age." From A. S. star; cognate with 
 O. F. sor, Mod. F. saure, Old E. soyr= brown, as of withered plants. 
 Tennyson appears to have imitated this verse; cf. the Ode to Memory : 
 " Those peerless flowers which in the rudest wind 
 Never grow sere." 
 
 3. Crude in Mihon = crudus, i.e. 'unripe,' as here and in S. A. 
 700, "crude old age " = premature because not ripe; or 'undigested,' 
 as in Com. 480 and the Reason of Church Government, "in state many 
 things at first are crude and hard to digest," P. W. II. 470; or 'raw,' 
 as in P. L. vi. 511. 
 
 4 5. See Introduction. 
 
 ^S^afferj= disturb ; cf. P. L. x. 1066, 67. Mellowing is truer of the 
 berries than the leaves. What Milton really means is the want of 
 "inward ripeness" (cf. his second sonnet) in himself and his poetry. 
 
 6. Cf. K cat's Ode to Psyche: 
 
 "O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung 
 
 By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear." 
 
 Spenser was moved by " hard constraint" to compose his Pastorall 
 CEglogue on Sir Philip Sidney. Cf. P. L. X. 131 132. 
 
 Sad occasion dear. For the peculiar (but with Milton favourite) 
 order of the words see note on Nat. Ode, 187. In the English of this 
 period dear "is used of whatever touches us nearly either in love or 
 hate, joy or sorrow," Clarendon Press note on Hamlet, i. 2. 182 ("my 
 dearest foe in heaven"). Shakespeare often applies it to that which is 
 strongly disagreeable; e.g. in Hen. V. II. 2. 181, "all your dear 
 offences," i.e. grievous i and Love's L. L. v. 2. 80 1. 
 
 7. Compels. The singular sounds natural since constraint and 
 
NOTES. 121 
 
 occasion form one idea; cf. Troilus and Cressida, IV. 5. 170, "faith 
 and troth bids them." A verb in the singular (or what seems the 
 singular), with a plural antecedent, is very common in Elizabethan E. 
 Cf. Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, 1127, 28: 
 
 "She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes, 
 
 Where lo 1 two lamps burnt out in darkness lies" 
 There the rhyme has prevented change in the text; but many of the 
 instances that occur in the First Folio have been altered by modern 
 editors. The idiom is perhaps accountable for thus: in O. E. the 
 plural was formed by three inflections, eth in Southern dialects, en in 
 Midland, and es in Northern. The two first, eth and en, are found in 
 Shakespeare; and the Northern es may survive in a case such as we 
 have just given. See Abbott's Shaksp. Gram. pp. 234239. 
 
 8. Lyc^aSjJ}ie^Tiame_o^ jhejshepherd in Theocritus, Idyl vn., and 
 of one of the speakers in Vergil's ninth Eclogue. _C_ the Epitaphium 
 Damonis, 132. There is "An JSclogtU, or Pastorall between Endimion 
 Porter and Lycidas Herrick " in the Hesperides (Grosart's ed. II. 136). 
 
 Ere his prime. Cf. the account of Edward King given in the 
 Cambridge volume in which Lycidas is printed: an imam deo reddidit... 
 anno atatis xxv. "Complete in all things, but in yeares," says 
 another contributor (Beaumont) to the same collection. 
 
 9- JTk e repetition of a name was_a_ recognise^Ltrick^wliereby to 
 heighten the pathetic effect; cf. Spenser's Astrophel: 
 
 " Young Astrophel, the pride of shepheards praise, 
 
 Young Astrophel, the rusticke lasses love." 
 
 Often the name was repeated in the form of a rhetorical question ; e.g. 
 \n Com. 50, "On Circe's island fell. Who knows not Circe?" 
 
 Peer, i.e. equal, Lat. par, O. F. per, mod. F. pair. In Shakespeare 
 the word has its modern sense, 'nobleman,' except in Hen. VIII. II. i. 
 26, "His peers, upon this evidence, have found him guilty." See 
 Spenser, F. Q. VI. 2. 29, and cf. peer-less. "Peers are properly the 
 chief vassals of a lord, having equal rights one with another" (Brachet). 
 
 10. Imitated from Vergil, Eel. x. 2, 3 : 
 
 Carmina sunt dicenda; neget quis carmina Gallo? 
 Cf. Pope, Windsor Forest, 55, 56: 
 
 " Gran ville commands; your aid, O Muses, bring! 
 What Muse for Granville can refuse to sing?" 
 
 10, n. He knew himself to sing. Perhaps a poetic exaggeration, 
 to increase the pathos of his friend's death. Masson has been able to 
 trace only a few pieces of Latin Verse by Edward King contributed to 
 
122 . LYCIDAS. 
 
 different collections of Cambridge poetry ; see Life of Milton, I. pp. 
 602604. It was an age, however, when poets circulated their 
 writings in MS among their friends, and Milton may have seen verses by 
 King which did not find their way into print. Another writer in the 
 volume says that he "drest the Muses in the brav'st attire that ere they 
 wore;" so that, very likely, Milton had some ground for his praise. 
 
 Knew to. Cf. the infinitive after verbs like eTr^ra/xat, calleo, scio, 
 etc. ; e.g. in Horace, Ars Poet. 158, reddere qui voces jam scit. It was a 
 common idiom in Elizabethan E.; cf. Jonson's Masque of Hymen, " O 
 know to end, as to begin;" see Com. 87. We should insert how. 
 
 11. Build. For the metaphor the editors compare Euripides, 
 Supplices, aoidas eTrvpywe, and Aristoph. Ranee, 1004, Tri'/ryuxras prj/jLara 
 ffe/j-vd. Similar is the use of condo; seu condis amabile carmen, Horace, 
 Epist. I. 3. 24. So Coleridge (in the Nightingale] imitating Milton: 
 
 "And many a poet echoes the conceit, 
 
 Poet who hath been building up the rhyme." 
 The metaphor is put even more boldly in Tennyson's (Enonel 
 "Hear me, for I will speak, and build up all 
 
 My sorrow with my song." 
 
 Rhyme, i.e. verse. So printed in the eds. of 1638 and 1645, 
 though the Cambridge. MS has rime. It has been suggested that 
 Milton wrote rhyme where he meant poetry opposed to prose, as in 
 P. L. I. 16, "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme;" and rime 
 where he intended rhymed metre in contrast to blank verse, as in the 
 Preface to P. L. The distinction is rather fanciful. Being the A. S. 
 word rim, a number, it should be written rime, and often was until the 
 end of the lyth cent.; cf. the preface to Waller's poems, 1690, "he 
 continu'd an obstinate lover of rime "..." before his time, men rim'd 
 indeed." The misspelling rhyme is due to confusion with rhythm, Gk. 
 pvdfjubs. Many scholars now use the correct form, rime. 
 
 12. Bier, being "a frame, whereon they use to lay the dead corse" 
 (Glosse to Shepheards Cal. Nov.) is used correctly, since the body is 
 borne upon the waves. By an extension of meaning it could be applied 
 to the dead body itself (as in Spenser's Astrophel, 149), or the tomb hi 
 which it was laid; cf. F. Q. in. 3. n. Shelley, borrowing Milton's 
 phrase, seems to use it in the latter sense ; cf. the Lines Written among 
 the Euganean Hills : 
 
 "If the power that raised thee here, 
 
 Hallow so thy watery bier." 
 A. S. beer, beran, to carry, are akin to feretmm and (ptperpov. 
 
NOTES. 123 
 
 13. Welter to, i.e. be tossed to and fro by the wind. As a rule the 
 word is used metaphorically in the sense of wallow \ with which it is 
 cognate. Cf. The Reason of Church Government, "such hopes and such 
 principles of earth as these wherein she welters," P. W. n. 506. Cot- 
 grave has " Tantouiller : To tumble, to wallow, to welter, in." Also 
 written waiter , as by Ascham, Scholemaster^ p. 130; cf. Germ, walzen, 
 mod. E. waltz. 
 
 14. An oft-imitated verse; cf. Cowper's translation of the Epi- 
 taphium Damonis, i i : 
 
 "Ye nymphs of Himera (for ye have shed 
 Erewhile for Daphnis, and for Hylas dead, 
 And over Bion's long lamented bier 
 The fruitless meed of many a sacred tear);" 
 
 or Coleridge's lines To A Friend: 
 
 "Is thy Burns dead? 
 
 And shall he die unwept and sink to earth 
 Without the meed of one melodious tear?" 
 
 Tear (cf. the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, 55) was often 
 
 used of elegiac compositions : hence the. appropriateness of the epithet 
 
 melodious. Cf. Sylvester's monody (Grosart II. 339) : 
 
 "You springs of Arts, eyes of this noble Realme, 
 Cambridge and Oxford, lend your learned teares." 
 
 The same writer's poem Lacryma is called on the title-page "The 
 
 Spirit of Teares." Many of the collections of elegiac verse issued by 
 
 the Universities bore the title Lacrymce. 
 
 15. Begin. The invocation (see Nat. Ode, 15, note) is cast in the 
 pastoral style. Cf. Theocritus, Id. I. 64, cfy>x ere w/coXt/cas, Mcucrcu 
 0f\cu, &pxtT doiSay, "begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song," a 
 line repeated as a refrain. So Verg. Eel. x. 6. West employs the 
 same device in his Monody (Gray and his Friends, p. no) : 
 
 "Begin: nor more delay 
 The sacred meed of gratitude to pay : 
 Begin : whate'er immortal song can do. " 
 Cf. also Watson's Melibceus: 
 
 "I now beginne: Apollo guide my sounde, 
 
 and weepe yee sisters of the learned hill." 
 
 15 1 6. The 'Sisters' are the Nine Muses: the 'sacred well' is 
 the fountain Aganippe on Mt Helicon: the 'seat of Jove' is the altar on 
 the hill dedicated to Jove. It has been shown that Milton modelled 
 these lines upon the commencement of the Theogony of Hesiod who 
 
124 LYCIDAS. 
 
 mentions the Kp^vrjv loida...Kal jSw/AOp epurdevtos Kpovluvos. Milton 
 invented the detail that the waters of Aganippe had their source 
 beneath the altar, perhaps to emphasise the sanctity of the poet's 
 inspiration. See note on // fen. 4S. 
 
 Well= spring, as often in Spenser, e.g. Shep. Cal. April: 
 "And eke you Virgins, that on Parnasse dwell, 
 
 Whence floweth Helicon, the learned well." 
 Cf. the same poem Jidye or Chaucer's House of Fame , n. 13 14. 
 
 17. Sweep, one of the favourite words of last century writers; cf. 
 Pope, Cecilia's Day, or Collins' Ode The Passions. Mrs Browning has 
 the fine line, "The poet's star- tuned harp to sweep." 
 
 i8.__jC(py was a stronger word then than now, equivalent often to 
 'contemptuous,' ' disdainfulT" Ascham complained IhaFcourtiersVere 
 "solume, coye, big, and dangerous of looke," Scholemaster, 104. 
 Cotgrave gives it as a 'rendering of mespriseresse. Cf. the verb coined 
 by Shakespeare, in Coriolanus, v. i^. 16, "if he coyed to hear Cominius 
 speak." Coming from O. F. cot, Lat. quietus, it is a doublet of quiet, 
 and in old E. meant 'still,' 'sober;' in the Romaunt of the Rose, 3564, 
 0o?)/<r = make quiet. 
 
 19. So = on condition that I mourn for Lycidas ; cf. Com. 242. 
 
 Af use = poet. Cf. Browne, "our second Quid, the most pleasing 
 Muse " (said of Chapman). Prof. Hales (in illustration of Spenser, 
 Prothal. 159) quotes Dryden's Absalom and Ach. \ : 
 " Sharp-judging Ariel, the muses' friend, 
 Himself a muse." 
 
 20. i.e. the grave that is destined for me. 
 /> = tomb; cf. Herrick (Grosart, u. 219) : 
 
 " We hence must go, 
 Both to be blended in the urn, 
 From whence there's never a return.*' 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne says: "That great antiquity America lay buried 
 for thousands of years, and a large part of the earth is still irr the urn 
 unto us," Works, III. 455. 
 
 Lucky, i.e. that wish me good fortune (such as vale, vale]. 
 
 21. Cf. Gray's "passing tribute of a sigh," Elegy, st XX.; and 
 Macaulay's beautiful poem, A Jacobite's Epitaph. 
 
 11. Shroud, probably in its usual sense 'winding-sheet;' but some 
 editors interpret it 'grave.' For shroud ' shelter ' see Nat. Ode, 218. 
 
 23 36. The passage describes, under pastoral imagery, Milton's 
 life at the University in company with Edward King ; he is thinking of 
 
NOTES. 125 
 
 Christ's College, Cambridge ("the selfsame hill"), of the studies and 
 pursuits they had in common ("we drove afield" etc.). jut part of the 
 picturejs conventional : we must not read between all~the lines for~a 
 hidden n\eaningI~~~OtirerTrise the Satyrs and Fauns will be the under- 
 graduates of Christ's; the "rural ditties," the college exercises; and 
 "old Damcetas," Milton's tutor, Mr Chappell, delighting to correct 
 those exercises ("hear our song") : much of which seems to us ridiculous. 
 A writer of pastoral verse is bound by usage to say certain things, and 
 Milton says them. He introduces "Fauns" because Vergil had sup- 
 plied a precedent, Ed, VI. 27. There are "ditties" because a shepherd 
 without his "oaten flute" would be an anomaly. Damcetas looks on 
 because Meliboeus does so in Vergil's seventh Eclogue. Poetry of this 
 type is too artificial to bear literal interpretation. 
 
 25, 26. See UAL 41, note. 
 
 25. Lawns. See Nat. Ode, 85. Of course the landscape is ideal. 
 When Milton refers directly to Cambridge and the country round he 
 uses no complimentary language; cf. the first Elegy, n 14: 
 lam ncc aritndiferum mihi cura reviser* Camum. 
 
 Nuda nee arva placent, umbrasque negantia mo lies ; 
 Quam male Phabicolis convenit ille locus ! 
 
 26. Cf. Job iii. 9 (where the marginal reading is the correct 
 rendering of the Hebrew translated in the Authorised V. " the dawning 
 of the day"), and xli. 18, "his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning." 
 This beautiful phrase has been borrowed by many poets; e.g. by 
 Marlowe, "Now, Phcebus r ope the eyelids of the day" (Jeiv of Malta, 
 II.); and Sylvester, " May it no more see th' Eyelids of the Morning," 
 yob Triumphant (Grosart, II. 149). Cf. also one of the Juvenilia of 
 Tennyson (in whose early poems there are many Miltonic echoes), 
 "ray-fringed eyelids of the morn." The' editors quote Sophocles, 
 Antigone 104, x/>u(7<taj a^pas p\{<f>apov ; but that is only a periphrasis 
 for 'the sun,' and may better be compared with "eye of day" in 
 Milton's Sonnet To the Nightingale; see note on 21 Pen. 141. For 
 the textual variation in the line see Appendix. 
 
 27. Drove, i.e. their flocks. Cf. Gray's Elegy, st. vn. 
 
 Sultry serves to fix the time of the day, three periods being 
 indicated morning, 11. 25 27 ; noon, 1. 28; and evening, 11. 29 31. 
 
 Gray-fly. Some kind of gnat may be meant, but it is hard to say 
 what. Sir Thomas Browne discusses in his Vulgar Errors (bk. III. 
 chap, xxvii. sect. 10) the means by which flies make "that noise or 
 
126 LYCIDAS. 
 
 humming sound," and his remarks are equally vague. Collins in his 
 imitation of this line is at least definite ; cf. the Ode to Evening, 
 reminiscent of Milton in every stanza : 
 
 "Or where the beetle winds 
 His small but sullen horn." 
 
 What time~2ii the time when, quo tempore. Once a common idiom ; 
 cf. Psalm Ivi. 3, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." So 
 Com. 291, Titus Andronicus, IV. 3. 19. 
 
 29. Batten (a Scandinavian word) is more correct as an intransitive 
 verb, * to grow fat ; ' cf. Herrick, Content in the Country : 
 " We eate our own, and batten more, 
 Because we feed on no mans score." 
 
 So Hamlet, in. 4. 67, and Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, II. 3, "It 
 makes her fat, you see; she battens with it." For the active use cf. 
 Greene's Friar Bacon, x. 58, 59: 
 
 "The meads environed with the silver streams 
 Whose battling pastures fatten all my flock." 
 
 Cqtgrave has "Engraisser un champ. To battle it, or make it fertile." 
 Cognate is the University term battels. From the same root (signifying 
 'excellence,* 'prosperity') come better, best, G. besser; see 1. 64. 
 
 30 31. Referring to the evening star Hesperus^ whose appearance 
 is a signal to the shepherd to fold his flocks, as in Com. 93. Strictly it 
 does not rise. For the original form of the lines see Append, and cf. 
 Tennyson's " Great Orion sloping slowly to the .west," Locksley Hall. 
 
 32 36. See 1. 23, note. We may remember that at that time 
 Cambridge was remarkable for the number of its poets. Cf. Crashaw's 
 lines to the Master of Pembroke College. Many collections of verse, 
 such as the Lycidas volume, were issued from the University Press. 
 
 32. Borrowed by West in his monody : 
 
 "Meantime thy rural ditty was not mute, 
 
 Sweet bard of Merlin's cave," 
 
 the reference being to the absurd writer, Stephen Duck (Gray and his 
 Friends, p. 89). In modern E. ditty, from Lat. dictatum (not, as 
 sometimes stated, from dictum) is depreciatory, but formerly it was 
 applicable to any kind of song. In the Utopia it is used of Church- 
 music: "a dytty of gladness, of patience, of trouble," p.* 158 (Pitt Press 
 ed.). Cf. too the Tractate on Education, "sometimes the lute or soft 
 organ-stop waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or 
 civil ditties," P. W. in. 476. Properly it means the words as opposed 
 to the music of a ballad ; cf. Hooker, Polity, v. 38. i. 
 
NOTES. 127 
 
 33. Tempered to, i.e. attuned to. Cf. P. L. VII. 597, 598 : 
 
 "All sounds on fret by string or golden wire 
 
 Tempered soft tunings." 
 
 It is a favourite word with Milton and Shakespeare, the underlying 
 metaphor usually being to mix either metals or liquids until they have 
 become fused and harmonious : hence the general idea * agreement, ' 
 ' harmony.' Baret's Alvearie has, '* To temper his talke to the fantasie 
 and pleasure vi...0rationem auribus multittidinis accomodare" i.e. 
 attune it to the taste of the crowd ; and Milton in the Tractate on 
 Edtication speaks of tempering "lectures and explanations" to the 
 capacity of students, P. W. ill. 468. 
 
 Oaten. In English poetiy tradition requires that the shepherd's 
 pipe should be an ' oat.' Cf. Lye. 88, Com. 345, Love's L. L. v. 2. 91$. 
 Many illustrations might be quoted from Spenser, Herrick (see the 
 Hesperides in Grosart's cd. II. 136, 172), and Collins. Landor says 
 to Joseph Ablett: "We remote May open-breasted blow the pastoral 
 oat." Probably the use is traceable to the tenuis avena of Vergil, Ed* 
 I. 2, as the Glosse to the Shep. Cal. October implies, "Oaten reedes, 
 Avena." But avena could be applied to other stalks. In his Latin 
 poems Milton commonly uses cicuta, the hemlock pipe; see the Epi- 
 taphium 135, 157. 
 
 34. Taken from Vergil, Ed. vi. 27, and borrowed by Pope, 
 Pastorals, Summer, 49, 50. The Satyri belonged to Greek, the Fauni 
 to Latin mythology : practically they were identified by Roman writers, 
 and regarded as divinities of the fields and country life. With cloven 
 heel, because they were supposed to be half men, half goats. Cf. 
 Milton's fifth Elegy, 122, Semicaperqut Deus, semideiisque caper, where 
 the Deus=Faunus. Semicaper is from Ovid, Fasti, v. 101. 
 
 36. Damcftas, a common name in pastoral writers ; cf. Verg. Ed. 
 III. i. Masson notes that old is a favourite word with Milton, implying 
 compliment; cf. 1. 160. 
 
 37 49. The most direct expression of personal grief which Lycidas 
 contains. The paucity of rhyme in 11. 37 4iisnoticeaBfe " 
 
 37. Partially quoted in Wordsworth's Simon Lee: 
 
 "But, oh the heavy change! bereft 
 Of health, strength, friends and kindred." 
 
 38. Never must, i.e. art destined never to; cf. Nat. Ode, 150. 
 
 39. Thee...thee. For the repetition (which emphasises the pathos) 
 cf. Vergil's Te veniente die, te decedente canebat, G. IV. 466. In 
 Shakespeare a repeated pronoun often expresses contempt, or reproach; 
 
128 ' LYCIDAS. 
 
 cf. Midsummer N. D. I. i. 28: "Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast 
 given her rhymes." See Appendix. 
 
 40. Imitated by Milton's friend Marvell : 
 
 "Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines, 
 
 Curl me about, ye gadding vines." 
 
 Gadding points to the straggling growth of the vine ; cf. the similar 
 epithets applied to it elsewhere 'mantling,' P. L. iv. 258, and Com. 
 294, ' clustering,' P. L. VII. 320. Gad (Scandinavian and cognate with 
 goad) meant to wander, roam. Cotgrave gives it s.v. vagabond, and 
 Florio s.v. vagabondo. Rarely used, as here, in a literal sense: com- 
 monly metaphorical, with the idea 'going astray.' So frequently in 
 Milton's prose works; e.g. in The Likeliest Means, "they should not 
 gad for preferment out of their own country" P. W. in. 27 ; and The 
 Areopagitica, "an untaught and irreligious gadding rout," P. W. n. 88. 
 
 41. Remembering the classical story of Echo (one of the Oreads or 
 mountain nymphs), Milton here personifies the echoes (cf. Com. 230 
 243) and represents them as dwelling in woods and caves ; cf. Romeo 
 and Juliet, n. 2. 162, and Milton's Ode on The Passion, 52, 53: 
 
 "The gentle neighbourhood of grove and spring 
 
 Would soon unbosom all their echoes mild." 
 
 The device of making them lament for Lycidas was borrowed from his 
 Greek models. Cf. the Epitaphium Bionis, "the Panes sorrow for thy 
 sorrow, and the fountain fairies in the wood make moan... and Echo in 
 the rocks laments that thou art silent, and no more she mimics thy 
 voice," Lang's translation of Moschus (Golden Treas. ed.) 198. Cf. 
 too Shelley's Adonais st XV. In the earlier portions of that poem 
 Shelley followed closely the classical writers of pastoral elegy ; as the 
 Adonais advanced the treatment became much freer and the Greek 
 influence declined. There is a similar passage in the Mourning Muse 
 of Thestylis, 143144. 
 
 " 44. i.e. moving their leaves like fans; cf. the tract Of Reformation, 
 " but he sent out a gentle gale and message of peace from the wings of 
 those his cherubim that fan his mercy-seat," P. [V. II. 406. 
 
 45. Canker* i.e. the worm that preys on blossoms, especially roses. 
 Cf. Arc. 53: "Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites.'' Often 
 mentioned by Shakespeare, e.g. in Sonnet 95, Midsummer N. D. n. 2. 
 3, and elsewhere. J3y a metaphor it signified some_corroding evil ; cf. 
 Milton's Reason of Church Government, "And must tradition then ever 
 thus to the world's end be the perpetual canker-worm to eat out God's 
 commandments?" P. W. n. 459. The wild or 'dog' rose is especially 
 
NOTES. 1 29 
 
 subject to this disease : hence in Shakespeare canker (or canker-bloom^ 
 as in Sonnet 54) sometimes means a wild-rose ; cf. Much Ado, I. 3. 28. 
 From Lat. cancer, 'a crab' also an 'eating tumour.' 
 
 46. Taint-worm, i.e. some worm that causes disease in sheep and 
 cattle. It has been thought that Milton may be referring to the insect 
 mentioned in the Vulgar Errors (bk. in. chap. xvii. sect, n) of Sir 
 Thomas Browne, who says, "There is found in the summer a kind of 
 spider, called a tainct, of a red colour, and so little of body that ten of 
 the largest will hardly outweigh a grain ; this by country people is 
 accounted a deadly poison unto cows and horses ; who, if they suddenlie 
 die, and swell thereon, ascribe their death hereto, and will commonly 
 say, they have licked a tainct. Now to satisfy the doubts of men, we 
 have called this tradition unto experiment... yet never could find the 
 least disturbance to ensue." He then proceeds to describe other insects 
 and parasites " which from elder times have been observed pernicious 
 unto cattle ;" and probably it was some one of these that Milton meant. 
 The subject is not one on which he would care to be so precise as Sir 
 Thomas Browne ; see the Works of the latter, II. 5-27 28. 
 
 Weanling, i.e. young; a diminutive formed from the verb wean, 
 like yeanling from yean. Wean is cognate with wont, Germ, gewohnen, 
 and properly it meant ' to accustom ; ' but l accustoming to ' one thing 
 implies * disaccustoming from ' another : hence wean incorrectly got the 
 meaning ' disaccustom/ 
 
 47. Wardrobe. Properly used of the chest or place in which 
 dresses are kept : then applied to the dresses themselves. Cf. the 
 Tempest, iv. 222, '* look what a wardrobe here is for thee." Perhaps we 
 have the same metaphor (of the flowers putting on their spring garb) in 
 "well-attired woodbine," 1. 146. Spelt wardrobe in the 1638 ed., 
 wardrop in those of 1645 and 1673. From O. F. warde-robe afterwards 
 written garde-robe; see Nat. Ode, 124. 
 
 48. The white thorn the hawthorn of L'Al. 68. Shakespeare 
 uses the same obvious way of pointing to the spring-time, Midsummer 
 N. D. i. i. 183. 
 
 Blows, i.e. flowers. Minsheu has, " To blow as a flower, or to 
 open as a bud...Mu/ien, fleurir." Cf. Midsummer N. D. II. i. 249. 
 Used transitively (i.e. * cause to bloom') in Com. 994. 
 
 50. This appeal to the Nymphs, the powers of mountain (11. 52 
 54) and river (55), asking why they had not been present in their usual 
 haunts to help their favourite, is modelled partly on Theocritus, Id. I. 
 66 69, partly on Vergil, Eel. x. 9 12. The places chosen by Milton, 
 
 V. M. Q 
 
130 LYCIDAS. 
 
 viz. the mountains of Denbighshire, the isle of Anglesey, and the banks 
 of the Dee, were associated directly with Lycidas, each being near to 
 the scene of *his shipwreck. In this respect Milton has followed 
 Theocritus, who addressed the Nymphs of those special localities with 
 which the subject of his poem the shepherd Daphnis was familiar. 
 Vergil is less definite, mentioning only the usual resorts of the Muses, 
 Parnassus and Mt Helicon. See Warton's note on this passage. Mr 
 Jerram thinks that Milton identifies the Nymphs with the Muses. 
 Spenser reflects the same classical influence in Astrophel, 127 132; 
 and Shelley, borrowing from Paradise Lost, VII. 11. i et seq., Milton's 
 conception of Urania as the Muse of divine poetry, makes her the 
 mother of Adonais (just as Calliope was the mother of Orpheus), and 
 blames her (st. II.) for not preventing the death of her "enchanting 
 son:'* 
 
 "Where wert thou, mighty Mother, when he lay, 
 
 When thy son lay, pierced by the shaft which flies 
 
 In darkness? Where was lorn Urania 
 
 When Adonais died?" 
 
 52. The steep may be Penmoenmawr, or (as Warton thought) the 
 Druid sepulchres at Kerig y Druidion in Denbighshire, mentioned by 
 Camden as a burial-place of the Druids. 
 
 53. Here he naturally introduces the Druids as poets; cf. the poem 
 Mansus, 42, 43 : 
 
 Gens Druides antiqua, sacris operata deorum, 
 Heroum laudes imitandaque gesta canebant. 
 
 In the prose works he emphasises another aspect of their office : cf. the 
 Doctrine of Divorce, "our ancient Druids by whom this island was the 
 cathedral of philosophy to France/ 5 P. W. in. 1 78 ; or the Hist, of 
 Britain, where they are "a sort of priests or magicians," P. W. V. 198. 
 Druid is Celtic; Irish druidh = an augur, cf. Welsh derwydd. 
 
 Bard was specially applied to Celtic poets ; cf. Sidney's Apologie 
 for Pot-trie, "In Wales... there are good authorities to shewe the long 
 time they had Poets, which they called Bardes" Arber's Reprint, p. 22. 
 So Spenser, State of Ireland, and Shakespeare, Richard III. iv. 
 2. 109. 
 
 54. Cf. Cowley's Vision concerning the Government of Oliver 
 Cromwell: "But sure it was no dream; for I was suddainly transported 
 afar off... and found myself on the top of that famous hill in the island 
 Mona, which has the prospect of three great kingdoms.* 
 
 fl = the isle of Anglesey. Cf. the Hist, of Britain: "At last 
 
NOTES. 131 
 
 over confident of his present actions... he marches up, as far as Mona, 
 the isle of Anglesey, a populous place," P. W. v. -207. Cf. also Spenser, 
 F. Q. in. 3. 48, and Collins' Ode to Liberty, last lines. That the island 
 was formerly well-wooded (cf. "shaggy top"), though now bare, we 
 know from Tacitus ; cf. also the description in Browne's Pastorals, bk. 
 II. i: 
 
 " It was an Hand 
 
 And Mona height : so amiably faire, 
 So deckt with Floods, so pleasant in her Groues." 
 Very likely Milton had read the account in Drayton's Polyolbion, the 
 9th Song. Warton identified Mona with the Isle of Man, on the 
 authority of Caesar, Bell. Gall. v. 13. 
 
 54. See P. L. vn. 57. Shaggy ; cf. P. L. IV. 724, or Gray, 
 " the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side," The Bard, II. The epithet 
 suggests a wood-covered hillside seen in profile ; Keats (Ode to Psyche) 
 has the same picture in the lines much praised by Ruskin : 
 
 " Far, far around shall those dark- clustered trees 
 
 Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep." 
 Cf. Lat. horrens, horridus, applied to woodland scenery. 
 
 55. The Deva is the river Dee. Cf. the first Elegy, 3 4. 
 
 It was supposed to foretell, by changing its course, good or ill events for 
 England and Wales, of which it forms the boundary : hence the 
 reverence with which poets mention it. Cf. wisard here and the 
 Vacation Exercise, 98, " ancient hallowed Dee." So Spenser, F. Q. 
 IV. a. 39. Browne writes, Britannia's Pastorals, bk. n. Song 5 : 
 " Neuer more let holy Dee 
 
 Ore other Riuers braue." 
 
 Tennyson alludes to the superstition in the Idylls of the King. lVisard= 
 sacred, in a good sense ; see Nat. Ode, 13. 
 
 56. Fondly, foolishly ; see // Pen. 6. 
 
 57. For explains/0;/rt7y : " it is foolish of me to dream (i.e. say to 
 myself) * if only the Nymphs had been there, 'for after all what could 
 they have done?" 
 
 58. The Muse herself, i.e. Calliope, whose name Milton introduced 
 in the original draft of these lines. See Appendix. Shelley substitutes 
 Urania ; see 1. 50. 
 
 59 63. A passage much revised ; see Appendix. 
 
 59. Enchanting, i.e. who worked by enchantment, viz. of music. 
 Enchant in Shakespeare has the two meanings, to bewitch, and to 
 delight (as in mod. E.). Enchant and charm are very similar in deriva- 
 
132 LYCIDAS. 
 
 tion one from cantus, the other from carmen and in the weakening 
 of their respective meanings ; see Nat. Ode, 68, note. 
 
 6 1 63. Referring to the death of Orpheus as told by Vergil, G. 
 iv. 517 527, and more fully by Ovid, Met. xi. i 55 rtftat "Orpheus 
 in his grief for Eurydice treated with disdain the Thracian women and 
 was torn to pieces by them ; his head (also his lyre, according to Ovid) 
 being thrown into the Hebrus and carried across to Lesbos, where its 
 supposed place of burial was pointed out at Antissa. Milton rewrote 
 these lines in P. L. vn. 32 38. It was a favourite allusion with poets 
 of the xvith and xvnth centuries. Cf. Mantuan's Eglogs translated 
 by Turberville (Arber's ed. p. 36) : 
 
 "The Thracian Wiues w' cruell clubes 
 
 The poet Orpheus rent;" 
 or Browne's Inner Temple Masque ; 
 
 "W th human gore 
 
 Cleare Hebrus Channell was all stayn'd ore." 
 
 So Shakespeare, Midsummer N. D. v. I. 48, Drayton, English Odes 
 ('To himself), and Lady Winchelsea in her Answer to Mr Pope. 
 Waller humorously rationalised the legend in the preface to his poems 
 (1645), bidding the Queen to whom they were dedicated "tear them in 
 pieces, wherein you shall honour me with the fate of Orpheus, for so 
 his poems... not his limbs as the story will have it, I suppose, were 
 scattered by the Thracian dames." 
 
 61. Rout= 'band' is common in Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. 
 Usually it bears a depreciatory sense, as here ; cf. the quaint definition 
 in Bullokar's Expositor, " Route, A disorderly assembly of three or 
 moe persons moouing forward to commit by force an vnlawfull act." 
 French route comes from Lat. rupta = (\) "a defeat, flying mass of 
 broken troops, (ii) a fragment of an army, a troop" Skeat. Route= 
 ' way ' is the same word. Rupta often means a ' road ' in mediaeval 
 Lat. texts, via having been originally understood. 
 
 62. The stream, i.e. the Hebrus, the principal river of Thrace, 
 which rising in the mountain range of Rhodope runs into the ^gean 
 near CEnos. It is generally mentioned in connection with Orpheus; 
 cf. Spenser, Virgil's Gnat, 137, 138; Pope, Cecilia's Day, vi. The 
 epithet swift repeats Vergil's volucrem Hebrum in sEneid I. 317, 
 where however some editors (e.g. Heyne and Ribbeck) read Eurum, 
 on the ground that the Hebrus is not a swift- flow ing river ; so at 
 least Servius says, but the point has not been settled and in any 
 case is immaterial. Cowper was evidently of Milton's opinion; cf. 
 
NOTES. 133 
 
 the Marriage of a Friend, ''And bade wild Hebrus hush his listening 
 wave." 
 
 64 84. This passage interrupts^ the narrative. It is one of two 
 long digressions in Lycidas, the other being 11. 113 131. The interest 
 centreria-Milten-hinTself. The opinions are those which find frequent 
 vent in his prose writings, concerning the high office of the poet (which 
 his contemporaries regarded so lightly), the dignity of learning and 
 study, and the worth of true fame. 
 
 64. What boots, i.e. of what advantage is it? Cf. 5". A. 560. Boot 
 (the noun) is the A. S. b6t, Middle E. bote remedy, succour, from the 
 base seen in Middle E. beten, to amend, better; cf. note on batten, 
 1. 29. Minsheu (1617) writes, " Boote is an old word, and signifieth 
 help, aid. ..we say, what bootes, or auaileth it?"; and Sherwood, 1650, 
 " It booteth not, c'est en vain, cela ne profite Hen, rfavantage r/'cn." 
 
 65 66. i.e. apply oneself to poetry. He means more than the 
 mere composition of verse : incessant care and strictly imply rigorous 
 self-devotion to learning and preparation for the poet's calling; cf. the 
 Reason of Church Government, "labour and intense study... I take to 
 be my portion in this life," P. W. II. 478. 
 
 66. Meditate the Muse is a translation of Vergil's Silvestreni tenui 
 musam meditaris avena (Eel. I. 2); so Eel. VI. 8. The sense of meditate, 
 as a rendering of meditari, must be determined from the context. In 
 Com. 547 ("meditate my rural minstrelsy") the meaning is 'play on 
 
 -~~ -ty shepherd's pipe.' 
 
 -^ '^Thankless = profitless, because the Muse can do nothing to ward off 
 --lleath__from the poet. Also Milton may have been moved by the 
 feeling that poetry had done little for him materially. Newton explains 
 "that earns no thanks, is not thanked by the ungrateful world." 
 
 67 69. Others con temporary poets, e.g. Herrick and Suckling 
 (whom Milton may have known at Cambridge). There were too the 
 followers of Ben Jonson such as Randolph, whose Muse was often 
 erotic; and Lovelace, instanced by Mr Jerram, 
 
 67. Use, i.e. are wont. Use, now limited to the Djrgieiite, was 
 common as a present tense = to be accustomed; generally, however, it 
 was followed by an infinitive; cf. Psalm cxix. 132, "be merciful unto 
 me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name." 
 
 69 70. As usual, Milton chooses names associated with pastoral 
 verse. See Verg. Eel. I. 4, in. 5, and elsewhere. These particular 
 names are mentioned together in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, 
 524 540; also in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso XI. 12 (see Notes and Q. 
 
134 LYCIDAS. 
 
 I. i. 387). Nesera occurs more than once in the bucolic poems of 
 Mantuan; see nos. iv. and vi. (pp. 39, 53 of Arber's Reprint}. Warton 
 found here an allusion to two Latin poems by the Scotch writer George 
 Buchanan, addressed respectively to Neaera and Amaryllis. 
 
 69. Closely imitated by Collins in his Ode The Passions, last 
 verses. Professor Hales compares Lovelace's To Althea, " When I lie 
 tangled in her hair." See Appendix. 
 
 70. The editors quote Cicero, Pro Archia, 10: trahin.ur omnes 
 laudis studio, et optimus quisque maxime gloria ducittir. Cf. Spenser, 
 Teares of the Muses, 404 : " Due praise, that is the spur of dooing well; " 
 or Ben Jonson, Prince Henry's Barriers: "But all these spurs to virtue, 
 seeds of praise." 
 
 70. Clear, i.e. pure, here perhaps with the idea 'free from the 
 taint of worldliness. ' Cf. the Remonstrants Dejence, where Milton asks 
 whether learning is to be sought in "the den of Plutus, or the cave of 
 Mammon. Certainly never any clear spirit nursed up from bright 
 influences, with a soul enlarged to the dimensions of spacious art and 
 high knowledge, ever entered there but with scorn," P. W. in. 81. 
 Cf. again The Two Kinsmen, v. 4. 10 13: they are dying, says 
 Palamon, "not halting under crimes," but "clear spirits," i.e. unsoiled 
 by long life in the world. So clear-spirited in the same play I. 2. 74. 
 In the Adonais, st. iv. Shelley, with felicitous plagiarism, took Milton's 
 words and applied them to Milton himself : 
 
 "his clear Sprite 
 
 Yet reigns o'er earth, the third among the sons of light." 
 C/<M:;'=pure, innocent, is common in Elizabethan E. ; cf. 7^empfst, III. 
 3. 82, Troilus, II. 3. 163. 
 
 71. The sentiment vividly expressed by Tacitus, Hist. iv. 6, ' etiam 
 sapientibus cupido gloria novissima exuitur? Cf. P. R. ill. 25 28, 
 and P. R. 11. 227228: 
 
 " honour, glory and popular praise, 
 Rocks, whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked." 
 The parenthetic form of the sentence reminds us of The Two Kins- 
 men, n. i. 104 106: 
 
 "All valiant uses, 
 
 (The food and nourishment of noble minds] 
 In us two here shall perish." 
 
 7-2. Descriptive of Milton's life at this period. It was his instinct 
 and habit ' * to study and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any 
 other end, but the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that lasting 
 
NOTES. 135 
 
 fame and perpetuity of praise, which God and good men have consented 
 shall be the reward of those whose published labours advance the good 
 of mankind," Areopagitica, P. IV. II. 78. 
 
 73. Guerdon^, recompense, whether good or bad. For the latter 
 cf. the Shepheards Cal. November ; Embleme: "the trespasse of the 
 first man brought death into the world, as the guerdon of shine." 
 Shakespeare (?) has reguerdon as noun, i Hen. VI. in. i. 170, and as 
 verb, i Hen. VI. ni. 4. 23. O. F. guerdon is a corruption of Low 
 Lat. widerdonum, " a singular compound of O. H. G. widar, back, 
 again, and L. donum, a gift" (Skeat). Widar =mdd. G. wiedtr. 
 
 74. Blaze, i.e. flash of glory. Cf. P. R. III. 47, and for a similar 
 figurative use the Apology for Smectymnuus , "let the Remonstrant 
 thank the folly of this confuter, who could not let a private word pass 
 but he must make all this blaze of it," P. W. III. 140. In Shakespeare 
 it is always metaphorical: "blaze of youth," All's Well, v. 3. 6, "blaze 
 of riot," Richard II. II. i. 33. Perhaps the word was influenced by 
 the verb blaze =.\.Q make public {Romeo and Juliet, ill. 3. 151, and the 
 A. V. Mark i. 45). See Arc. 74, and cf. Tennyson, In Memoriam, 98. 
 
 75. i.e. Atropos (cf. the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, 
 28), who strictly was one of the three Fates or Mot/oat, not one of the 
 Furies. Milton exercises his right to make classical mythology subserve 
 the purposes of his verse; see VAl. i 2, // Pen. 23. We may 
 compare Arc. 65 where he represents the three Fates holding " the 
 vital shears," which in reality -*were wielded by Atropos alone, ac- 
 cording to the division of labour given in the old line Clotho colum 
 retinet, Lachesis net, et Atropos occat; or the Latin piece In Obltum 
 Procancellarii Medici, 37 where Persephone is made to break off the 
 vital threads (atjila rupit Persephone tua). 
 
 Blind, implying that if she had seen, she would have paused. 
 Possibly Milton was thinking of the representation in art of Fortune as 
 a woman whose eyes are covered. Cf. Henry V. in. 6. 30 40. 
 
 76. 67zV = cut, not necessarily (as now) lengthwise. Cf. the Doc- 
 trine of Divorce; "Now he comes to the position, which I set down 
 whole; and, like an able textman, slits it into four," P. W. ill. 445. 
 
 Thin-spun. Cf. Spenser, Daphnaida, 16 18, and the MS. poem 
 attributed to Milton over which there was so much controversy: 
 " The thread of life untwisted is 
 
 Into its first consistencies." 
 
 But not. Supply some verb from slits in the previous clause : fate 
 may cut asunder the threads of life, but she cannot touch or prevent the 
 
136 LYCIDAS. 
 
 praise that is a man's due. The omission of the verb marks the 
 swiftness with which Phoebus meets the poet's complaint. 
 
 77. Touched my trembling ears, as a warning to stop and a re- 
 minder of something which the poet had forgotten. Taken from Vergil, 
 Eel. VI. 3. 4 : 
 
 Cum canerem reges et pralia, Cynthius aurem 
 Vellit et admonuit; 
 
 verses which, with a slight reminiscence of Milton, Pope (see Elwin's 
 ed. II. 41) translated almost verbatim: 
 
 "When first young Maro sung of kings and wars, 
 
 Ere warning Phoebus touched his trembling ears." 
 The action, says Conington, was a symbolical -way of recalling a 
 matter to a person's memory, the ear being regarded as the seat of 
 memory. It was the established mode of antestatio or summoning a 
 witness (Horace, Sat. I. 9. 77). 
 
 78. i.e. fame is not of this world : it belongs to the life after death. 
 The thought is put more fully in 11. 81 84. 
 
 79. Understand is: nor is fame set in, etc. True fame, he means, 
 does not lie in the dazzling appearance of success which a man presents 
 to society; nor has it aught to do with popular applause and report. 
 Rather it is a thing spiritual and unworldly in its essence. Some 
 editors connect the clause with lies in the next verse. 
 
 Glistering. Milton seems to use glister instead of glitter where the 
 sense is depreciatory. Cf. the tract Of Reformation, ."if our under- 
 standing have a film of ignorance over it, or be blear with gazing on 
 other false glisterings," P. W. II. 387; and Eikonoklastes, "they think 
 all is gold of piety, that doth but glister with a show of zeal" (P. W. 
 
 1. 376), an allusion to the proverb "all that glisters is not gold" 
 (Merchant of V. II. 7. 65). See however, Com. 219. The word is 
 applied to the raiment of our Lord at His transfiguration, Luke ix. 29. 
 
 Foil. Properly &f0i/, Yr.feuille, Lat. folium, was the gold or silver 
 leaf placed behind a transparent gem so as to throw it into relief. Cf. 
 Florio, "Foglia, a leafe, a sheete, a foile to set vnder precious stones;" 
 and Bullokar's Expositor, "Goldfoile, a thin leafe of gold." So Cot- 
 grave s. v. feuille. Shakespeare has it in this sense ; cf. i Hen. IV. I. 
 
 2. 236 239, Richard II. I. 3. 266. Then t>y a natural extension of 
 meaning it was applied as here to anything bright and showy. 
 
 80. Nor in broad rumour lies. Cf. Pope, Essay on Man, "What's 
 fame, a fancied life in other's breath ? " 
 
 81. Spreads continues the metaphor of plant, 1. 78. 
 
NOTES. 137 
 
 By ^\yj means of;' or possibly 'hard by,' 'near,' cf. Nat. Ode, 60. 
 But this does not fit in with witness, 1. 82. 
 
 83. Lastly, i.e. with a final decision ; cf. Nat. Ode, 106. 
 
 84. Meed, i.e. reward/ Cf. Cotgrave, " Guerdon : Guerdon, recom- 
 pence, meed, remuneration." Cognate with Gk (Ju<rd6s y Gothic mizdo. 
 
 85. Here he returns to the main theme, taking up the pastoral 
 style which had been in abeyance from 1. 70; and as at 1. 132 
 apologising to the pastoral Muse for his digression. " We find Milton 
 twice [84, 132] checking himself in the conduct of the poem for having 
 gone beyond the limits of the pastoral" (Stopford Brooke). 
 
 The fountain Arethusa, in the island of Ortygia near Syracuse, was 
 "conventionally the pastoral fountain" (Conington). It is to her that 
 Daphnis in the first Idyl of Tneocritus (117) addresses part of his farewell. 
 Being in Sicily the spring was taken to symbolise the stream of inspira- 
 tion that flowed in the poetry of the Sicilian writers, Theocritus, Bion 
 and Moschus. Thus Moschus speaking of Homer and Bion says, 
 "Both were beloved of the fountains, and one ever drank of the 
 Pegassean fount, but the other (Bion) would drain a draft of Arethuse " 
 (Lang), Idyl. in. 77 78. Cf. Vergil's appeal : Extremum hunc, Are- 
 thusa, mihi concede laborem (Eel. x. i). Milton alludes to the story of 
 Arethusa and Alpheus (retold by Shelley) in Arc. 29 31. 
 
 85 86. As the spring Arethusa typified Greek pastoral verse, the 
 Mincius is made to represent the Eclogues of Vergil. Cf. the Latin 
 epigram in which the Italian poet Salzilli wrote that Vergil must give 
 place to Milton cedat depressa Mincius urna, or Crabbe's Village, 
 canto i ; he is condemning false pictures of rural life drawn in imitation 
 of Vergil : 
 
 " On Mincio's banks, in Caesar's bounteous reign, 
 ' If Tityrus found the Golden Age again, 
 Must sleepy bards the flattering dream prolong, 
 Mechanic echoes of the Mantuan song?" 
 
 Honoured, i.e. by the poetry of Vergil. Cf. Arc. 29, 30 : " that 
 renowned flood, so often sung, Divine Alpheus." The Mincius falls 
 into the Po not far from Mantua. Milton's description of the river (cf. 
 in particular "crowned with vocal reeds") echoes the lines in the third 
 Georgic, 14 15: 
 
 tardis ingens ubi flcxibus errat 
 Mincius et tenera pratexit arundine ripas. 
 
 Sylvester has the epithet smooth-sliding in a passage (Grosart's ed. 
 I. 100) from which Milton almost certainly borrowed in Com. 930^931 ; 
 
138 LYCIDAS. 
 
 see note in Pitt Press ed., and cf. P. L. vin. 302. For the earlier 
 readings in these lines see Appendix. 
 
 87. That strain, i.e. the voice of Apollo. 
 
 Mood= character, style, the Latin modus. Milton glances at its 
 technical sense in music, cf. S. A. 661 2: "a tune, Harsh, and of 
 dissonant mood from his complaint." Cf. "voice of solemn mood," 
 Endymion, ill. Mood disposition is Teutonic; cf. Germ. muth. 
 
 88. i.e. now I resume my pastoral story (see 1. 33); the instru- 
 ment stands for the poet. 
 
 89. Referring to Triton ; he acted as the trumpeter or herald of 
 the marine deities, summoning (as in Keats' Endymion, n.) or dis- 
 missing their assemblies with his "winding shell" (concha], Com. 873. 
 Hence the title Oceani Tubicen which Dftilton applies to him in the 
 Latin poem Naturam non pati senium, 58. In P. L. (cf. I. 752, II. 
 518) Milton always uses the form harald. In early E. it was com- 
 monly written heraud ; as late as 1658 we find herauld (Evelyn's 
 Diary, Nov. 22nd, 1658). Derived through the O. F. forms heraud 
 and herault t from O. H. Germ. hariwald= army-strength, a name for 
 an officer. 
 
 90. i.e. Jhat came to clear Neptune from the charge of having 
 caused Jhe death of LyclcIasT MinSheu (1617) says s. v. Plea, "it 
 signifieth in our Common Law, that which either partie alleageth for 
 himself in Court;" here therefore it means the defence which Neptune 
 makes through the mouth of Triton. Cf. *S". A. 843. Shakespeare 
 commonly uses//*<z of the petition or claim made by a plaintiff. From 
 O. F. plaid (or plait, plat] = Late \^-a\. placitum, a decision, pleading. 
 
 91. Felon, because the winds are presumed to be guilty of the 
 death of Lycidas. It is curious that there is no rhyme to winds. 
 
 93, 94. Every... each. A favourite variation with Milton; cf. Com. 
 19, "Every salt flood and each ebbing stream;" so the same poem, 
 311. Cf. Shakespeare, "Each passion labours so, That every presept 
 sorrow seemeth chief" (Venus and Adonis, 969 970). The words are. 
 treated as interchangeable in Shakespeare. Etymologically ever-y 
 (Middle E. euerich}=. ever-each; from A. S. &fre t ever, and ale, each. 
 
 93. i.e. every rugged-winged gust. Cf. the picture in P. L. XI. 
 738 of the south wind "with black wings Wide-hovering." For 
 rugged= rough, like ragged, see L?Al. 9. 
 
 96. i.e. ^Eolus, god of the winds, son of Hippotes. The name 
 appears to be rarely used; cf. Ovid, Met. xiv. 224, ^Eolon Hippo faden 
 cohibentem carcere ventos, and Homer, Od. x. 2. For the prison of 
 
NOTES. 1 39 
 
 the winds see Vergil, ALn. I. 52 59; also P. R. iv. 413 et seq. Sage 
 is one of Milton's perpetual epithets (like old^ 1. 36), conveying a vague 
 notion of compliment. See //. Pen. 117. 
 
 97 102. Curiously enough, the poem in the Cambridge collection 
 by Edward King's brother implies that the vessel struck on a rock 
 during a gale. Cf. the lines 
 
 " He, the fairest arm, 
 Is torn away by an unluckie storm." 
 
 Probably He.pry King was better .informed as to the details of the 
 shipwreck than Milton could be. Nowhere el >e is there a hint that the 
 shipjwas simply unsea worthy. 
 
 97 99- Cf. the fourth Elegy I 8, addressed to Milton's tutor, 
 Thomas Young, then a resident at Hamburg: 
 
 Curre per immcnsum subito, mea littera, pontiim; 
 /, pete Teutonicos Icve per cequor agros ; 
 
 Jpse ego Sicanio franantem car cere ventos 
 
 &olon> et virides sollicitabo Deos, 
 Cartdeamque suis comitatam Dorida Nymphis^ 
 Ut tibi dent placidam per sua re^na viam. 
 
 The second couplet suggests Lye. 96. Doris was one of the Nereids ; 
 and having used the name in the Elegy Milton might have done so here 
 in 1. 99, had it been better suited to the metre. 
 
 Level, implying that the water was smooth. But the epithet also 
 conveys an impression of the broad expanse of sea; cf. Tennyson's 
 Morte d' } Arthur: "And on a sudden lo 1 the level lake;" so later in 
 the same poem: "He stepping down Came on the shining levels of 
 the lake." Cf. "flat sea" in Com. 375. 
 
 99. Panopt. One of the fifty daughters (cf. "all her sisters") of 
 Nereus ; cf. Alneid t v. 240, Nereidum Phorcique chorus Panopeaque virgo. 
 
 100. So another contributor to the Cambridge volume : 
 " The fatall barks dark Cabbin must inshrine 
 
 That precious dust, which fate would not confine 
 
 To vulgar coffins;" 
 
 meaning that the body of King was too sacred to lie in an ordinary 
 grave. "Fatal bark" may be a coincidence; but the verses are by the 
 writer who has a passage (see 1. 167) that strongly recalls Lycidas. 
 
 101. An eclipse was proverbially r>f *vi'l r>rnfri. the precursor of 
 ^troubles; f. P. L. I. 596599, and the Hist, of Britain, "Tlie_sarne_ 
 
 year_was an eclipse of the sun in May, followed by a sore pestilence," 
 
140 LYCIDAS. 
 
 P. W. v. 287. Being an unlucky moment for beginning any lawful 
 design it was proportionately favourable to wicked schemes. The 
 witches' caldron in Macbeth iv. i. 28 contains "Slips of yew Sliver 'd 
 in the moon's eclipse.'* Derived from eclipsis, Gk. ^cXei^is, but often in 
 O. E. abbreviated; cf. the Promptorium, "Clyppyce of the sonne or 
 money. Eclipsis" So clipsi=. eclipsed in the Romaunt of the Rose, 5352. 
 
 103. The river-deity Camus representing, of course, Edward 
 King's University is a familiar character in the academic verse of the 
 period, especially pastoral verse, like Phineas Fletcher's Piscatorie 
 Eclogues. Fletcher makes him speak the prologue of the Sicelides, a 
 pastoral drama acted at King's College. There is a very similar picture 
 of the river-god Jordan, personified, in Sylvester's Du Bartas, Grosart's 
 ed. I. 199. In the ed. of 1638 the name is printed Chamus ; cf. Giles 
 Fletcher (in a description not unlike this) "vnder old Chamus flaggy 
 banks," Christ's Triumph after Death, 50. Milton uses the quasi-Latin 
 form Came in the Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, 1. 59. 
 Mr Jerram notes that sire (cf. P. L. XI. 719) is the common title of a river 
 treated as a protecting power. He cites Livy II. 10, Tiberine pater ; so 
 Gray, Ode on Eton College, ill. 
 
 Went footing. Gil^s Fletcher (a writer whom Milton studied closely) 
 had previously written (Christ's Victorie on Earth, 15): 
 
 "At length an aged syre farre off He sawe 
 
 Come slowely footing." 
 The Cam is not a rapid -flowing river. 
 
 104. For bonnet = a covering for the head worn by men, cf. 
 Merchant of V., I. 2. 81, or Bacon, " Usurers should have Orange- 
 tawney- Bonnets," Essay XLI. Florio, 1598, explains Ital. bonetto by 
 "a cap;" so Bullokar, 1616. Sedge is the usual adornment of river- 
 deities, a piece of symbolism similar to the olive-branch borne by 
 Peace. In the Entertainments at the Coronation of James f. Ben 
 Jonson introduces the river-god Tamesis, with "bracelets about his 
 wrists of willow and sedge, a crown of sedge and reed upon his head." 
 Similar descriptions are common in the stage-directions of Masques. 
 
 105. Cf. the description of Glaucus in Endymion, ill. Probably 
 by "figures dim" are meant symbolical devices and representations 
 worked in embroidery ; they may have had reference to the history of 
 Cambridge University. For figure used of embroidery, cf. Shake- 
 speare, A Lover's Complaint, 17. This agrees well with inwrought. 
 Dim, because faded with age. The line heightens the dignity of the 
 representative of the University, and to increase the power of those 
 
NOTES. 141 
 
 who mourn for Lycidas is to pay him a compliment. So the next 
 comer, St Peter, is invested as spokesman of the Church with all the 
 ceremony of his high office. Some interpret the " figures" of the dusky 
 streaks which appear on withered sedge-leaves. This adds little to the 
 suggestiveness of the picture. Most prefer the other view. 
 
 1 06. The sanguine flower is the hyacinth. According to the story 
 told by Ovid, Met. x. 210 et seq., Hyacinthus, son of the Spartan king 
 Amyclas, was killed by Zephyrus, and from his blood sprang the flower 
 named after him, on the petals of which could be traced the word a.1 at. 
 Cf. the Epilaphium Bionis, 6, 7, vvv 'YaKivOe XaXet ra <rd ypdfjLfjLara Kal 
 n-Xtov alai \ Xajjipave (rots TrerdXoto-i ; see lines 142 et seq. in Appendix. 
 
 108 131. "When Milton felt strongly, he wrote fiercely. The 
 passage is a splendid and a fierce cry of wrath, and the rough trumpet 
 note, warlike and unsparing, which it sounds against the unfaithful 
 herdsmen and the 'grim wolf,' was to ring louder and louder through 
 the prose works, and finally to clash in the ears of those very Presby- 
 terians whom he now supported" (Stopford Brooke). 
 
 107. Pledge, i.e. child, cf. pignus. So in P.L. II. 818. 
 
 108. The solemnity with which the entrance of St Peter is heralded 
 has something of the dramatic vividness of the stage, raising in the 
 reader "a thrill of awestruck expectation" (Mark Pattison). 
 
 109. i.e. St Peter, regarded as the founder of the Catholic Church. 
 He is introduced because Edward King had intended to take orders. 
 In calling the apostle the "pilot of the Galilean lake" (i.e. inland 
 sea, cf. St Luke, viii. 22 23) Milton may have used some mediaeval 
 belief. The title is not in the Gospels. 
 
 no. Cf. St Matthew, xvi. 19, "and I will give unto thee the keys 
 of the Kingdom of heaven." That there were two keys was a tradition 
 of the Church ; and Milton has varied it very effectively, distinguishing 
 between the metals, and attributing to one the power of exclusion. Mr 
 Ruskin, who frequently compares Milton with Dante (to the disadvan- 
 tage of the former), notes that Dante in the Purgatorio ix makes both 
 keys (one of gold, the other of silver) admit to heaven ; he allows that 
 for once the superiority lies with Milton, since the right to exclude adds 
 to the authority of St Peter (Sesame and Lilies^ p. 45). The doctrines 
 based by the Roman Catholic Church upon St Matthew, xvi. 18, 19, are 
 discussed in Milton's Christian Doctrine, chap. XXIX; his views upon 
 the special point of ' ' the power of the keys, as it is called, or the right 
 of binding and loosing," are such as might be expected from a strong 
 Puritan (P. W. iv. 427, 428). C also the allusion in P. L. in. 484 
 
142 LYCIDAS. 
 
 485, and the Areopagitica, P. W. II. 60. Less definite is the glance at 
 the Apostolica custodia clavis in the poem In Quintum Novembris t 101. 
 
 in. The golden. Cf. Com. 13, 14: 
 
 "that golden key ' 
 That opes the palace of eternity." 
 
 There is the same allusion in Ben Jonson's Masque, The Barriers. He 
 is describing the figure of Truth : 
 
 "Her right hand holds a sun with burning rays, 
 Her left a curious bunch of golden keys, 
 With which heaven's gate she locketh and displays. " 
 Gray in the Progress of Poesy, ill. i. invests Shakespeare with the golden 
 keys that unlock the secrets of Tragedy and Comedy. For another 
 reading of the phrase see Tennyson's In Memoriam, LXIV. 
 
 Amain, 'with force.* Cf. Sherwood's Diet. "Amaine. Fort et 
 ferme" In Shakespeare it almost always signifies ' with speed,' e.g. in 
 Comedy of Errors, I. i. 93, " two ships from far making amain to us." 
 A = preposition on (see L'Al. 20, note): main = A.. S. mcegen, strength. 
 
 112. Mitred. Cf. Pope's Epistle to Arbuthnot, "Even mitred 
 Rochester would nod the head." 
 
 Bespake; see Nat. Ode, 76. 
 
 113131. We are not justified in assuming that this passage is 
 directed against the established Church as a whole. A few years later 
 Milton would have said that the charges were true of all the Clergy : 
 here he limits them to a certain section ("enow of such"), though possibly 
 a large section, whom he condemns because : (i) They enter the Church by 
 unworthy means, for unworthy ends, to gain preferment, to enjoy well- 
 being: it is no love of religion that brings them there, 11. 114 118. 
 (ii) They are ignorant, blind leaders of the blind, 11. 119 124. (iii) 
 They are indifferent about their duties, and incompetent to fulfil them, 
 and leave the people without due Teaching, 11. 122 125. (iv) They 
 allow false doctrines to spread, 11. 126 127. (v) They do not check 
 perversions to the Roman Catholic Church, 128 129. All these 
 charges are put far more strongly in his prose- tracts; and the imagery of 
 the lines, even the language, might be illustrated by endless quotations. 
 
 114 115. This censure of those who are induced to take orders by 
 desire of money comes with special significance from the lips of St 
 Peter; cf. i Peter v. 2. Milton's objection to a ministry paid by the 
 State forms the subject of one of the last of nis tracts, The Likeliest 
 Means. There the gist of his opinions is, that ministers should be 
 recompensed "not by civil law and freehold, as they claim, but*by the 
 
NOTES. 143 
 
 benevolence and free gratitude of such as receive them ; " in other words, 
 that they should depend on voluntary gifts, P. W. in. 31. In the 
 treatise Of Christian Doctrine, chap. XXXI., he thinks that they might also 
 follow some trade, and support themselves "by the exercise of some 
 calling, by some industry, after the example of the prophets," P. W. iv. 
 461. Here, in Lycidas, his views are less extreme: the clergyman who 
 does his duty ("the faithful herdsman") is entitled to receive his 
 reward: the censure falls on those who care for nothing but their 
 stipends, and neglect their work. For other references to the subject 
 cf. the sonnet on Cromwell, 1314, P. L. iv. 192, 193, xu. 508511. 
 
 115. Milton chooses words that distinguish the three types of men 
 he has in view those who enter the Church in a stealthy, underhand 
 way ("creep"), those who thrust themselves ; n with self-assertion 
 (" intrude "), and those who are full of ambition to climb into high 
 places. Cf. the Remonstrant's Defence, "They (i.e. the prelates) used 
 to climb into their livings and bishoprics," /*. W. in. 73; the Apology 
 for Smectymnuus, " If they (the clergy), for lucre, use to creep into the 
 Church undiscernibly, the more wisdom will it be so to provide that no 
 revenue there may exceed the golden mean, "in. 164; and the Likeliest 
 Means, "If they .. .intrude into the ministry without any livelihood of 
 their own, they cast themselves into miserable hazard or temptation," 
 III. 25. See an interesting criticism of the whole passage in Sesame 
 and Lilies, pp. 38, 39. 
 
 116. i.e. make little account of any other duty. Anticipated in 
 Com. 642, "but little reckoning made." In the English of this period 
 reck=io care, from A. S. rtcan, is a very common word. 
 
 117. When Milton wrote, the shearing feast was an institution 
 regularly observed. Cf. Spenser's Astrophel, 32. There are similar 
 allusions in Herrick, whose Hesperides paints the rural life of England 
 at that time. Cf. his poem Tke Country Life, Grosart's ed. II. 214. 
 
 1 1 8. Referring to the parable of the marriage of the king's son, 
 Matt. xxii. i 9 (cf. v. 8, "they which were bidden were not worthy"). 
 
 119 i a i. In the prose- writings the ignorance of the clergy is often 
 insisted on. Cf. Eikonoklastes : "For our religion, when was there a 
 more ignorant, profane, and vicious clergy, learned in nothing but the 
 antiquity of their pride, their covetousness and superstition ?" P. IV. i. 
 382. Again, in the Likeliest Means he describes them as "furnished 
 with little else but ignorance, boldness, and ambition," P. W. m. 35; 
 and elsewhere (Apology for Smectymnuus] complains that they know 
 scarce anv Latin, less Greek, and (with few exceptions) no Hebrew 
 
144 LYCIDAS. 
 
 (P. W. in. 155). Of course, these lines imply that Edward King was a 
 true scholar. Several of the other contributors to the Cambridge 
 volume celebrate his learning in varying degrees of extravagant praise. 
 Hitherto, says Cleveland, the sea had lacked 
 
 "Books, arts and tongues... but in thee 
 
 Neptune hath got an Universitie ; " 
 a ' conceit ' echoed by another writer : 
 
 "Nor did it seem one private man to die, 
 But a well-ordered Universitie/' 
 
 119. Blind mouths. The seeming incongruity disappears if we 
 interpret mouths gluttons. The editors compare gula, e.g. in Horace, 
 Sat. II. 2. 40, Harpyiis gula digna rapacibus. Cf. yacrTtpes apyal in the 
 epistle to Titus, l. 12 (illustrated in Cowley's essay Of Liberty, Pitt 
 Press ed. 75). The * blindness' is spiritual; cf. Milton's expression of 
 his view of the bishops: "for near twelve hundred years, to speak of 
 them in general, they have been in England to our souls a sad and doleful 
 succession of illiterate and blind guides," Of Reformation, P. W. 1 1. 411. 
 
 120. The sheep-hook (cf. The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 430, 431), in 
 accordance with the imagery that runs throughout, represents the 
 pastoral staff of the Church in' its character of the Good Shepherd. 
 Cf. Sylvester, St ewis the King: 
 
 " In the flock of Christ's Redeemed dear 
 Bear th' holy Sheep-hook 's sacred burthen." 
 
 So Milton again in the tract Of Reformation, " let him advise how 
 he can reject the pastorly rod and sheep-hook of Christ," P. W. 
 II. 412. 
 
 Herdman = shepherd, as perhaps in The Winters Tale, IV. 4. 446. 
 For the form cf. Venus and Adonis 456, retained in the Globe ed., which 
 in other places, e.g. Coriolanus, n. i. 105, prints herdsman. 
 
 122. Shakespeare always uses reck personally; e.g. in Hamlet, I. 3. 
 51, "he recks not his own rede." So Milton in /*. L. IX. 1 73. For the 
 impersonal use, as here, cf. Com. 404. 
 
 Sped accounted for, done with, whether in a good or bad sense. 
 Here the former is required; in Shakespeare the latter is invariable. 
 Cf. the Merchant of V., n. 9. 72, "so be gone: you are sped," i.e. 
 dispatched. Elsewhere in Milton to speed '= * to fare : ' " these that have 
 already sped according to their fortune," Reason of Church Government, 
 P. W. II. 482; or 'to succeed', as vt\Eikonoklastes, "In this war against 
 the Church, if he had sped so as other haughty monarchs," P. IV. I. 
 
NOTES. 145 
 
 436. What Milton means is that the clergy are so well provided for as 
 never to need or lack anything. 
 
 123. When they list, implying that they only preached when they 
 chose. Newton notes how the sound suits the sense in 123, 124. 
 
 List. Cf. P. L. II. 798, 799, "for, when they list, into the womb 
 That bred them they return." List= please; cf. St John iii. 8. The 
 cognate word lust (in earlier E. not offensive in meaning as now) was 
 used in the same way; cf. Psalm xxxiv. 12, "What man is he that 
 lusteth to live ? " (Prayer Book}. In the tract Of Reformation Milton 
 has list as a noun = desire: "I have done it neither out of malice, nor 
 list to speak evil," P. W. n. 372. Cf. Germ, lust, lilsten. 
 
 Lean i.e. yielding no nourishment, discourses devoid of spiritual 
 sustenance. Cf. the Apology for Smectymmius, where he speaks of the 
 liturgy of the Church as being "in conception lean and dry, of affections 
 empty and unmoving; of passion destitute and barren," P. W. in. 158. 
 Ascham has the same metaphor in the Scholemaster: "Some, I say, ...do 
 frame them selues a style cold, leane, and weake, though the matter be 
 neuer so warme and earnest," p. 160 (Bonn's ed.). 
 
 Flashy, tasteless. Cf. the Doctrine of Divorce, " we are come to his 
 farewell, which is to be a study of his jabberment in law, the flashiest 
 and the fustiest that ever corrupted," P. W. in. 459. Bacon has flashy 
 in the same sense, Essay On Studies, and flashiness= insipidity, Nat. 
 Hist. Strictly flashy watery, being connected with O. E. flasshe, a 
 pool; cf. O. F. flache m flasque. Quite distinct from the modern word 
 flashy = showy, from the verbyftz.r/$. 
 
 No doubt, the lines reflect on the lack not only of moral worth in 
 the sermons preached, but also of literary grace and polish. 
 
 124. Vergil's stridenti stipula disperdere carmen, .Eclogtie in. 27. 
 Scrannel 'thin, meagre,' and so 'harsh, unmelodious' as here is 
 cognate with Norwegian skran, 'lean, shrivelled.' As a literary word, it 
 occurs (says the New English Dictionary] "chiefly as a reminiscence of 
 Milton's use" in this passage. As a dialect- word, it is still used, 
 according to the Dialect Dictionary, in the northern counties, of a * weak, 
 piping, thin' voice. Kindred. dialect-words given in the New E. Diet. 
 are scranny, ' lean, thin,' or 'poor, meagre' (of diet), and scranky, 'lean, 
 scraggy.' All these words belong to the north of England, i.e. to the 
 parts where the Scandinavian influence was strongest. It is rather 
 curious, I think, that Milton, a southerner by birth and residence, 
 should have known scrannel at all. No doubt, he wanted to give a 
 V. M. 10 
 
146 LYCIDAS. 
 
 bucolic flavour to the passage by using a rustic word ; in this respect 
 he was influenced, probably, by Spenser's example in the Shepheards 
 Calender. 
 
 125. Cf. the Epitaphium Damonis, 66, 67 : 
 
 ovium quoque tadet, at ilia 
 Marent, inque suutn convertunt ora magistrum. 
 
 The sheep neglected by their shepherd are a traditional feature in the 
 landscape of pastoral poetry; cf. Matthew Arnold's The Scholar-Gipsy, 
 "No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed." In the Remonstrant's 
 Defence Milton says that the prelates '* have fed themselves and not 
 their flocks," P. W. III. 87. 
 
 126. The "rank mist" is the false doctrine, or what Milton as a 
 Puritan considered false. Cf. Eikonoklastes, " whose unsincere and 
 lea venous doctrine" he is speaking of the Clergy "corrupting the 
 people, first taught them looseness, then bondage; loosening them from 
 all sound knowledge and strictness of life, the more to fit them for the 
 bondage of tyranny and superstition," P. W. I. 382. So P. L. XII. 
 511 514. Rank = noisome, pestilential. 
 
 Draw, i.e. breathe. Mr Jerram compares Lncretius y VI. 1129: 
 
 Et cum spirantes mixtas hihc ducimus auras. 
 Cf. S. A. 7, "scarce freely draw the air." 
 
 128, 129. It seems to be generally agreed that Milton refers to the 
 system of proselytism then carried on by the Roman Catholic party in 
 England. Perversions were numerous, especially in this very year 1637, 
 and the " grim wolf" would be readily identified with the Church of 
 Rome. By "privy paw" is intended the measure of secrecy with which 
 the proselytisers acted. It may be added that the last work Milton 
 published, the tract Of True Religion, 1673, was directed "against the 
 growth of Popery." Some editors, notably Newton and Warton, believe 
 that the "wolf" is Laud, who had been archbishop since 1632, and who 
 through the Court of High Commission was then enforcing severe pains 
 and penalties against the Puritans. "Our author," says Warton, 
 "anticipates the execution of Archbishop Laud, by a two-handed engine, 
 that is, the axe ; insinuating that his death would remove all grievances 
 in religion, and complete the reformation of the Church." But this is 
 to explain by the light of after-events. Milton could scarcely have 
 foreseen in 1637 the death of the primate (in 1645) ; and even if this had 
 been his meaning it would not have been clear to others, or if clear, 
 would not have been permitted to appear in a volume published by the 
 University Press. Further, the operations of Laud and the High Church 
 
NOTES. 147 
 
 party were not "privy:*' there was only too much openness about them. 
 See Masson's Life of Milton, I. 638. 
 
 With privy paw. Cf. the sonnet to Cromwell, 13, 14: 
 " Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
 
 Of hireling wolves, whose Gospel is their maw." 
 Milton does not use privy (privates) elsewhere. Cotgrave has "Secret: 
 Secret, inward, privie, close." 
 
 129. And nothing said.- i.e. without opposition from the prelates. 
 Masson shows that the charge is not true of Laud, who much objected 
 to the perversions, and endeavoured to stop them. There may also, 
 as Mr Jerram argues, be an imputation on the Court; for the Queen, a 
 Roman Catholic, was known to favour very strongly the cause of her 
 own Church, and the King was suspected of having at the least con- 
 siderable sympathy with it. See Heylyn's Life of Laud, 1668, pp. 
 358-361. 
 
 1 3* 131* There have been many explanations of the " two-handed 
 engine," and if I might add to them, I would suggest that the sword of 
 Justice is meant. Cf. the Tenure of Kings, " be he king, or tyrant, or 
 emperor, the sword of Justice is above him;" and the same work, "they 
 plead for him, pity him.. .protest against those that talk of bringing him 
 to the trial of justice, which is the sword of God, superior to all mortal 
 things," P. W. II. pp. 4, 8. Cf. Othello, v. 2. 17. True, Milton does 
 not here introduce the word Justice, but the drift of the passage is, that 
 the power of just retribution will execute vengeance, and the instrument 
 used might well be the sword that hangs over wrong- doers. The 
 *' engine" has also been identified with (i) the axe that is "laid unto the 
 root of the trees," St Matthew Hi. 10, St Luke iii. 9, a metaphor 
 denoting " thorough and sweeping reformation" (Jerram), and therefore, 
 it must be allowed, quite appropriate to the present context : (ii) the 
 "two-edged sword" of the Revelation, i. 16 : (iii) the axe with which 
 Laud was beheaded; see 11. 128, 129, supra: (iv) the sword of St 
 Michael; see P. L. n. 294, 295, and vi. 250 253, where Milton again 
 uses the epithet two handed, a reminiscence of these lines. 
 
 Two-handed, i.e. wielded with both hands. Milton remembered 
 i Hen. VI. n. i. 46, "come with thy two-hand sword." Masson 
 finds here a hint at the two Houses of Parliament. The Long Parlia- 
 ment met two years later. 
 
 For engine .in the general sense of instrument cf. The Reason of 
 Church Government, "such engines of terror God hath given into the 
 hand of his minister, as to search the tenderest angle of the heart,*" 
 
 10 2 
 
148 LYCIDAS. 
 
 P. W. ii. 498. In the early translations of the Bible it is used of 
 implements of war. Mayhew (Select Gloss.) quotes 2 Chron. xxvi. 15, 
 in the Douay (1609) version, "He made in Jerusalem engines of 
 diverse kind." So the Authorised V. in Jeremiah vi. 6, Ezek. xxvi. 9; 
 so Shakespeare, Tempest, u. i. 161, and Milton several times in P. L., 
 e.g. ii. 923, vi. 484. From O. F. engin, Ital. ingegno, Lat. in- 
 genium. 
 
 At the rtfor= ready at hand; from St Matt. xxiv. 33, "know that it 
 is near, even at the doors." Cf. the Remonstrants Defence, "thy 
 kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing at the door." 
 
 e. the blow when it does fall will be final. 
 
 132. As after a previous digression (see 1. 85), he recalls the rural 
 Muse. Alpheus was the lover of Arethusa, and like her symbolises 
 pastoral verse, so that " shrunk thy streams " is a figurative way of saying 
 "checked the course of my pastoral strain." 
 
 133- Shrunk i.e. like a summer drought, making the waters of the 
 river fall. For the causal use see Nat. Ode t 203, and cf. 3 Hen. VI. 
 Hi. 2. 156: 
 
 " She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe, 
 
 To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub." 
 Sicilian Muse. Cf. Vergil's Sicelides Muses, Eel. IV. i. So Pope 
 (addressing the Thames), "While on thy banks Sicilian Muses sing," 
 Spring, 4. At 1. 85 the invocation was twofold to Vergil (cf. "smooth- 
 sliding Mincius"), no less than to Theocritus (" O fountain Arethuse"). 
 If we are here to press Sicilian we must suppose that Milton considered 
 the long ' flower passage ' which follows to be more in the style of the 
 Idyls than the Eclogues. Perhaps, however, as Mr Jerram thinks, the 
 epithet is a general title of pastoral poetry. Cf. the Epitaphium 
 Damonis i 3, for Cowper's rendering of which see 1. 14, note. 
 
 133 141. Wordsworth in the poem Margaret defends the poetic 
 practice of calling on inanimate nature to join in lament for the dead : 
 "The Poets, in their elegies and songs 
 Lamenting the departed, call the groves, 
 They call upon the hills and streams to mourn, 
 And senseless rocks; nor idly; for they speak, 
 In these their invocations, with a voice 
 Obedient to the strong creative power 
 Of human passion;" 
 
 Le. the passion (or * pathetic fallacy,' as Ruskin calls it) which enables 
 us to read our emotions into dead things. Cf. Ovid, Met. ix. 43* 
 
NOTES. 149 
 
 134. Hither ', as though he pointed to the " laureate hearse." 
 
 135. Of the flowers afterwards enumerated the cowslip at least 
 could claim to have * bells.' Cf. Ariel's "In a cowslip's bell I lie," 
 Tempest, v. 89. Cup in 1. 150 has the same sense. The Glosse to the 
 Shepheards Cal. y November, explains: " Flour <?/, a diminutive for a little 
 floure." Cf. Midsummer N.D. IV. i. 60, "orient pearls Stood now 
 within the pretty flowerets' eyes" 
 
 136. Use=. haunt; cf. Sylvester: 
 
 "Climb day and night the double-topped mount, 
 Where the Pierian learned maidens use." 
 
 137. The radical meaning of wanton is 'unrestrained.' It is a 
 favourite word with Milton, implying non-restraint of various kinds: 
 of conduct, i.e. 'loose,' 'light,' and then 'lascivious;' of growth, i.e. 
 ' luxuriant, ' cf. "wanton growth," in P. L. IV. 629, IX. an; of move- 
 ment, i.e. 'tossing about,' cf. P. L. iv. 306, or 'roving at will.' The 
 last seems the sense here: it is the idea of the wind blowing where it 
 lists. Cf. "wanton air" in Lovers Z. L. iv. 3. 104. Shakespeare uses 
 "wanton wind" in Midsummer N. D. II. I. 129, but there -wanton = 
 'lustful.' The full form is wantowen; ci.wantoive in the Promptorium; 
 -wan (cf. Dutch prefix, wan-) being a negative prefix, expressing lack, 
 deficiency; and towen togen, the past part, of A. S. tton, to draw, 
 or educate (akin to Lat. ducere}. Wanton therefore naturally got the 
 meaning 'untrained' or 'ill-restrained.' Similar compounds quoted by 
 Mayhew and Skeat are wan-beleueperfidia, in the Promptorium; 
 wan-hope despair; /0-/rtf,tf=dis-trust, Chaucer, Maunciples 7^ale, 
 177. 
 
 138. Cf. Midsummer N.D.ll.i. 107, 108: 
 
 "hoary-headed frosts 
 
 Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose." 
 Cf. the Song on May Morning, 3. 
 
 Swart star=the Dog-star, Sinus, cants astifer, Verg. G. II. 533. 
 Cf. the "singed air" of Com. 928, and the poem In Quinlum Novembris, 
 1 80. Sir Thomas Browne treats of "the Canicular or Dog days" in the 
 fourth book, chap, xili, of his Vulgar Errors. Swart, or swarthy, 
 from A. S. sweart, meant 'very dark.' Cf. Cotgrave, "Fusque: 
 Duskie, brown, swart, tawny ; " and Minsheu, " Swart, somewhat 
 Blacke." In Shakespeare it is always said of dark complexions, e.g. 
 in Comedy of Errors, ill. 2. 104, Titus, n. 3. 72. The use here is 
 appropriate, because strictly the word signifies ' darkened by heat,' and 
 that, Milton implies, is what the flowers would be after the dog-star had 
 
ISO LYCIDAS. 
 
 'looked' on them. Keats may have remembered the verse when he 
 wrote " Swart planet in the universe of deeds." 
 
 Looks. Warton is probably right in thinking that looks refers to the 
 astrological theory of the influence exercised by the aspects of the stars ; 
 cf. The Winter's Tale, 1 1. I. 105107: 
 
 "There's some ill planet reigns: 
 I must be patient till the heavens look 
 With an aspect more favourable." 
 See Nat. Ode, 71 ; cf. Arc. 51. 
 
 139. For quaint (* fanciful') see Nat. Ode, 194. Enamelled, i.e. 
 variegated and glossy as enamel-work. A favourite epithet with 
 Milton, as with other writers of this period, especially Herrick. Cf. 
 P. L. iv. 149 (used of fruits and flowers); P. L. IX. 525 (of a serpent's 
 neck, cf. Midsummer N. D. II. i. 255); Arc. 84 (of a lawn); and Nat. 
 Ode, 143, as the line stands in the 1645 e( i. In a note on the Promp- 
 torium, p. 260, Way says that "the application of enamel to every 
 description of ornamental work in metal was much used in England:" 
 this may explain why enamelled became a kind of poetic tradition. Mr 
 Ruskin remarks on its frequent misuse, Modern Painters, ill. 229. 
 Derived from * = on, Lat. in, and O. E. amellen ; cf. O. F. esmailler, 
 mod. tmailler, Ital. smaltare, Germ, schmelzen. The underlying notion 
 in enamel is ' something fused, smelted.' 
 
 141. Purple ^impurple ; cf. P. L. III. 364, "impurpled with 
 celestial roses." The sense is 'to make brilliant,' purple with Milton, 
 as with Gray, being equivalent to purpureus i.e. dazzling or rich of hue. 
 In Shakespeare it is often applied to blood; cf. Lucrece, 1734. 
 
 142 150. This device of enumerating a number of flowers belongs 
 as much to the pastoral style as did the invocation to the Muses, or the 
 rural imagery of lines 25 36. There is no need to suppose that Milton 
 directly imitated the Shepheards Cal., April. Of the many similar 
 passages which might be quoted here is one from Ben Jonson's pastoral 
 Masque, Pan's Anniversary; it has the merit of having escaped the 
 editors. Several nymphs are dressing the altar of Pan while a shepherd 
 looks on with approval : 
 
 "Well done, my pretty ones, rain roses still, 
 Until the last be dropped: then hence, and fill 
 Your fragrant prickles for a second shower. 
 Bring corn-flag, tulips, and Adonis flower, 
 Fair ox-eye, goldy-locks, and columbine, 
 Finks, goulands, king-cups and sweet sops-in-\vine, 
 
NOTES. ISI 
 
 Blue harebells, pagles, pansies, calaminth, 
 Flower-gentle, and the fair-haired hyacinth; 
 Bring rich carnations, flower-de-luces, lilies, 
 The chequed and purple-ringed daffodillies;" 
 
 and so on through six more verses, mentioning eleven other flowers. In 
 a well-known passage of Modern Painters Mr Ruskin contrasts Milton's 
 lines with those in the Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 118 127. The gist of 
 the criticism is, that in Shakespeare the description is imaginative, 
 giving us the essential characteristic of each flower, but in Milton 
 fanciful, or even fantastic. Roughly speaking the difference is that 
 between the poet who goes straight to nature, and the poet who knows 
 nature mainly through the medium of books. 
 
 142 150. A much corrected passage; see Appendix. 
 142. Cf. Wordsworth's poem To May. 
 
 "Such greeting heard, away with sighs 
 
 For lilies that must fade, 
 Or 'the rathe primrose' as it 'dies 
 
 Forsaken' in the shade." 
 
 Rathe i.e. early, as the name, prima rosa, implies. Bacon includes 
 it among flowers that bloom in "the latter part of January, and 
 February." Rathe is not uncommon in old writers ; cf. Shepheards Cal. 
 Julye y and December (" my harvest hastened all to rathe "). According 
 to a correspondent of N. and Q. vth s. 4. 18, rathe and late early and 
 late "is in common use in Gloucestershire and the borders thereof." 
 Rathe survives in Dorsetshire also; cf. Barnes' Poems in the Dorset 
 Dialect: 
 
 "When light or dark, 
 So brisk's a lark, 
 I'm up so rathe in morn en." 
 
 Properly it meant 'quick,' 'soon,' from A. S. /irafi or' hrad ': hence 
 figuratively rather sooner, and rathest = soonest; for the latter, now 
 obsolete, cf. Bacon's Colours of Good and Evill. Newton observes 
 that most of the flowers mentioned, being early flowers, are " suited to 
 the age of Lycidas." 
 
 Forsaken, i.e. a type of the flowers that "blush unseen." Cf. 
 Wordsworth's lines To the Celandine; 
 
 "While the patient Primrose sits 
 
 Like a beggar in the cold." 
 
 Matthew Arnold somewhere calls primroses "orphans of the flowery 
 prime." In the Cambridge MS the passage reads thus: 
 
152 LYCIDAS. 
 
 " Bring the rathe primrose that un wedded dies 
 Colouring the pale cheeke of uninjoyd love;" 
 lines inspired by the Winter's Tale, IV. 4. 122 124: 
 
 "pale primroses, 
 
 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
 Bright Phoebus in his strength." 
 
 Probably Milton made the correction because his debt to Shakespeare 
 was too conspicuous: even the epithet pale was not original, cf. 2 Hen. 
 VI. ill. 2. 63, Cymbeline, IV. 2. 221. In the Song on May Morning\\t 
 had been less scrupulous. The notion of the Sun being in love with 
 certain flowers is often alluded to; cf. the description in the Winter's 
 Tale, IV. 4. 105, 196, of the marigold. 
 
 143. The crow-toe is identified by most editors with the crowflower, 
 but Gerarde and Lyte treat it as a kind of hyacinth. Lyte (Herball, 
 1578) mentions two sorts of hyacinth, "the common" and "the 
 Oriental," and says: "These are called in Greeke vatdvOot.: in Latine 
 Hyacinth!... in Englishe also Hyacinthe or Crowtoes," p. 206. The 
 index to Gerarde has "Crowtoes, that is Hyacinthes." 
 
 Pale; he was probably thinking of the white jessamine, the com- 
 monest kind, according to Gerarde who says that the word may be 
 written "Jasmine, Gessemine and Jesse," Herbal, p. 745. From 
 Arabic iasmin. Cowley (essay on The Garden) wrote /Aft***, the form 
 used in Spanish and French. 
 
 144. Cf. Com. 85 1. Gerarde mentions several varieties of the white 
 pink, e.g. "white wilde jagged pinkes," p. 475, the " white Mountaine 
 Pinke," p. 476, and (p. 473) a garden pink of the same colour, which 
 may have been the one Milton meant, if indeed he meant any in 
 particular. The flower was typical of purity; cf. the Two Kinsmen, 
 II. 4. Perhaps Milton remembered this. 
 
 Gerarde speaks of the pansy as "in English Harts Ease...Liue in 
 Idlenes" (cf. " love-in-idleness," Midsummer N. D. n. i. 168), " cull me 
 to you, and three faces in one hood " (p. 705). From Fr. pensee; the 
 flower therefore of thought or remembrance, Hamlet, iv. 5. 178. 
 
 Freaked i.e. variegated or spotted ; etymologically freckled, which 
 Shakespeare uses in a similar way, "the freckled cowslip," Hen. V. v. 
 2. 49. From Icelandic frekna, Middle E./ra&ne = 3i freckle. 
 
 145. Contrast " violets dim," Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 120. 
 
 146. Cf. Gerarde: "the Muske Rose... called Rosa Moschala, of the 
 smell of Muske: in Italian Rosa Moschelta: in French Roses Musques, 
 gr Muscadelle* " (p. 1086). He classes it among varieties as to which 
 
NOTES. 153 
 
 he is " indifferent whether to make them of the wilde Roses, or of the 
 tame." Lyte (Herball, p. 760) mentions another name for it in French 
 viz. Rose de Damas, as well as its Latin titles Rosa Sera and Rosa 
 Autumnalis. 
 
 Well-attired. The metaphor may be that of attire ', the noun, in its 
 ordinary sense, cf. Milton's sonnet " To Mr Laurence," 6 7 ; or of attire 
 tire, i.e. head dress, also a common meaning, cf. Leviticus xvi. 4, 
 " with the linen mitre shall he be attired." It is impossible to say what 
 plant Milton intended by woodbine. Gerarde and Lyte identify honey- 
 suckle and woodbine: so apparently does Shakespeare, Much Ado, III. 
 f . 8, 30; yet in Midsummer N. D. IV. i. 47 they are distinguished, 
 the woodbine being treated as the same as bind-weed, a kind of convol- 
 vulus. Cf. too Minsheu, " Woodbinde, so called of binding the wood... 
 and therefore also called Binde-weede or Withie-winde" Honeysuckle 
 appears to suit the context best; so in P. L. ix. 216. 
 
 147. Giles Fletcher has the 'line, "The Jew hung down his 
 pensiue head," Christ's Triumph, 39. Wan, 'pale,' does not seem 
 very applicable to the cowslip; contrast the Song on May Morning, 
 where Milton may have recalled Midsummer N. D. v. 339. 
 
 148. For sad= sober, see // Pen. 43. Cf. Tennyson, " rare broidery 
 of the purple clover," A Dirge. Elsewhere Milton speaks of the ground 
 being embroidered (Com. 233), or^broidered (P. L. IV. 702) with flowers. 
 Broider=.Q. F. broder> which Brachet treats as a doublet of border, 
 because embroidery was done on the edge i.e. F. bord. Skeat, however, 
 thinks that broder may be Celtic, comparing the Breton word bronda to 
 pierce with a brond, or goad. 
 
 149. Amaranthus, "the fadeless bloom " (Shelley, Prometheus, u. 
 4); a type of immortality, because ct/xdpa^roj. Unluckily "there are 
 no fields of amaranth on this side of the grave " (Lander's Dialogue on 
 "Death and Immortality"); as Milton tells us in P. L. ill. 352 359, 
 the plant only "lives and spreads aloft" in heaven. Cf. Tennyson, 
 Romney's Remorse. 
 
 150. Daffadillies. For the form cf. the Shepheards Cal. April, 
 which also has daffadowndillies. Daffodil is a corruption of asphodel, 
 dor065e\os. The Middle E. form was affodille from Low Lat. affodillus. 
 The d may have been inserted through the French fieur cCaffrodille. 
 Gerarde, after enumerating many varieties, says, "generally all the 
 kindcs are comprehended vnder this name Narcissus," p. 114. He 
 describes " the cup or crowne" of the "rush daffodil," p. 112. 
 
 151. Bullokar's Expositor has, "Laureate, crowned with laurcll," 
 
154 LYC1DAS. 
 
 Milton uses it in one other place, the sonnet to Cromwell, where the 
 sense is 'made of laurel.' Of course the laurels are the poems (cf. 1. i, 
 note) of Milton and his fellow-contributors, and the force of the line was 
 more apparent then than it is now, since it was customary to attach 
 memorial stanzas to a hearse. Sometimes they were fastened with 
 wax: hence "waxen epitaph" in Hen. V. i. 2. 233, where Mr Aldis 
 Wright notes that the practice did not die out till late in the last century. 
 Perhaps the most celebrated piece of poetic eulogy of this type ever 
 composed was Ben Jonson's epitaph en the Countess of Pembroke, 
 "Underneath this marble hearse;" see Giffbrd's Ben Jonson, ix. 58, 
 where the custom is explained at length. Cf. also Much Ado, v. i. 
 
 293- 
 
 Hearse here means the framework of wood on which the coffin 
 
 rested ; for this not unusual sense of the word cf. the account in 
 Sandford's Genealogical Hut., p. 392, of the funeral of Edward IV: 
 "from thence they passed to the new church where in the quire was 
 ordained a marvellous well-wrought Herse being that night watched 
 with a goodly company of Nobles." Derived from Lat. hirpe.x, a 
 harrow, hearse originally meant a triangular frame, shaped like a harrow, 
 for holding lights at a church service, especially the services in Holy 
 week: every parish was bound to provide the hercia ad tenebras (i.e. 
 the service called tcnebra). Later hearse was applied to the illumination 
 at a funeral, then to the funeral pageant, and afterwards to almost 
 everything connected with a funeral. Thus it could signify the dead 
 body, the coffin (cf. hearsed, Hamlet, i. 4. 47), the pall covering it, the 
 funeral car (as always in modern E.), the funeral service (cf. the 
 Shephcards Cal. November, with the Glosse}, and the grave; also any 
 solemn service (F. Q. ill. 2. 48). See Way's Piomptonum, p. 236. 
 
 Lycid. Spenser has this shortened form, Colin Clout, 907. 
 
 152 164. The construction of this passage is not very regular. 
 Practically there is only one main verb, viz. let in 1. 153 "let our 
 thoughts dally whilst " etc. ; then come a series of clauses dependent 
 on their respective conjunctions, whilst, whether, where; and at the end 
 two imperatives are introduced by a kind of parenthesis. The train of 
 thought, however, connected with that of the previous passage, 11. 142 
 151, is clear: 'let us strew the hearse with flowers: let us, to ease our 
 grief, play with the false notion (surmise] that the body of Lycidas is 
 covered by those flowers : though in reality alas ! it is being borne in its 
 " wandering grave," perhaps northwards to the Hebrides, perhaps south 
 to the Land's End.' See Warton's note. 
 
NOTES. 155 
 
 153. Dally ', i.e. trifle : "Let us not dally with God when he offers 
 us a full blessing,'* Of Reformation , P. W. II. 410. Originally it meant 
 'to talk:' cf. the Promptorium, "Dalyn' or talkyn'. Pabular, con- 
 
 fabulor, colloqtior." Later came the sense 'to play,' whence 'to trifle,' 
 whence again 'to delay;' as in The Reason of Church Government ', 
 "some stand dallying and deferring to reform," P. W. II. 470. For 
 surmise ' fancy, ' cf. Lttcrece, 1579. 
 
 1 54. Altered in the MS from floods to shoars. Strictly shores does 
 not fit well with wash ; but taken closely with sounding seas it gives us 
 a vivid picture of the body dashed from coast to coast, as though land 
 and sea were leagued against it. King John, I. i. 105 may have been 
 in Milton's memory. 
 
 157. For the "reading in the 1638 ed. (see Appendix] cf. Phineas 
 Fletcher, Piscatorie Eclogttes, n. 17, "humming rivers by his cabin" 
 creeping;" or, Pericles, ill. i. 64, "humming water must overwhelm thy 
 corpse." Perhaps overwhelm afterwards suggested whelming. 
 
 158. i.e. the world of monsters. Cf. "monstrous rout" in Com. 
 533. The adjective does the duty of the first part of a compound word. 
 
 159. Vows funeral rites; moist i.e. with tears. 
 
 160. Fable of B clients = fabled Bellerus; cf. P. L. II. 96366: 
 
 "And by them stood 
 Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 Of Demogorgon;" 
 
 i.e. Demogorgqr^ himself. By Bellerus is meant one of the Cornish 
 giants ; the name, however, was invented by Milton from Bellerium 
 the Land's End. The Cambridge MS has " Corineus old." In the 
 Hist, of Britain (where he accepts the tradition that Albion was 
 conquered by descendants of the Trojans) Milton speaks of Corineus as 
 a warrior who came from Italy with Brutus (the great-grandson of 
 ^Eneas), helped to subdue Albion, and received as his share Cornwall, 
 "as now we call it," P. W. v. 172 174. See note on Com. 826, and 
 cf. the poem Afansus, 46, carminibus Icetis memorant Corintida Loxo. 
 Cf. also The Morning Muse of Thestylis, 31, and F. Q. II. 10. \i : 
 " In meed of these great conquests by them gott, 
 Corineus had that Province utmost west 
 To him assigned for his worthy lott." 
 For old as a title of respect, see 1. 36, note. 
 
 The guarded mount is St Michael's Mount, off Penzance. Though 
 Milton does not mention the name the allusion would be easily under- 
 Stood, for, as Spenser says in the Shcpheards Cal. Julye : 
 
156 LYCIDAS. 
 
 "St Michel's Mount who does not know, 
 That wardes the Westerne coste?" 
 
 Cowley in his Essays calls it "the Mount ih Cornwall," p. 20, or "the 
 Cornish Mount," p. 82 (Pitt Press ed.). Upon it was a craggy seat 
 called St MichaePs Chair (other names for it being " the grey rock " or 
 "the hoare rock in the wood"), in which tradition said that apparitions 
 (i.e. Visions) of the archangel had been witnessed. Milton speaks as 
 though the Vision were always there, with gaze directed westward to the 
 Spanish coast. For other references to the same legend, see Polwhele's 
 History of Cornwall, I. 66 67, II. 125128. 
 
 Guarded^ protected by the presence of the angel ; or possibly 
 'fortified. 1 There was a fortress on the hill, ruins of which remain. 
 
 162. Namancos is a district (not place) of Galicia, just below 
 Cape Finisterre. Todd was the first to discover the name in editions of 
 Mercator's Atlas published in 1623 and 1636. I cannot find it in an 
 earlier issue dated 1606, nor is it given by Heylyn. It appears also 
 to have been omitted in most maps published after the middle of the 
 century. The 1636 ed. of Mercator was the first printed in England, 
 the letter-press being translated ; and it may have been from this recent 
 source that Milton, writing Lycidas in 1637, first became acquainted 
 with the existence of Namancos. Even there Namancos is not marked 
 in the general map of Spain, but only in the special one for the "De- 
 scription of Gallicia," n. 347. 
 
 In this map the part immediately west of Namancos is shaded to 
 represent mountains, which gives it prominence as a northern feature 
 of the coastline to which the Angel directs his gaze. Actually, however, 
 Namancos was not a headland (as Milton may have supposed), nor a 
 town, but a district or county, and the correct form of the name (so 
 attractive as regards scansion) was "N<?mancos." The incorrect form 
 "Nflmancos" appeared in an old map (Ojea's, about 1604) and was 
 copied into many later maps, including Hexham's Mercator. (See the 
 Modern Language Review, Jan. 1907.) 
 
 . In an earlier edition of his Milton Todd had suggested that the 
 reference was to Numantia, " Bayona's hold" being identified with the 
 French Bayonne. But geographically this was impossible. 
 
 Bayona, south of Namancos, on the sea, is marked in all the larger 
 maps of that time, e.g. in those that illustrate the Thesaurus Geographicus 
 (1596), and Thesaurus Orbis Terrarum (1600), of Ortelius ; and Heylyn 
 in his Cosmography, speaking of Galicia, says, " Places of principal 
 importance axe...aio/ia, not far from the mouth of the Kiver Minio," 
 
NOTES. 157 
 
 lib. I. p. 222 (1682 ed.). In the 1636 ed. of Mercatot its site is indicated 
 by the striking outline of a castle: hence '* Bayona's hold" 
 
 I think we can now make a good guess how it was that Milton came 
 to introduce these names, which occasioned much trouble to his earlier 
 editors. First, he made the great Vision look towards Spain because 
 this was a literary tradition. Drayton had already written : 
 
 "Then Cornwal creepeth out into the Westerne maine, 
 As lying in her eye she pointeth still at Spaine," 
 
 Polyolbioii) Song 23. 
 
 The great rock bade defiance to the Spaniard ; the idea may have dated 
 from the days of the Armada, and Milton used it as others had done. 
 But a reference to Spain in general terms would not be so effective as 
 the mention of special places ; the trick of using sonorous names is a 
 favourite one with poets. Milton therefore would require the names of 
 some places on the northern coast of Spain, at the point nearest to the 
 Land's End ; this was Galicia. He would turn to an atlas, and it is a 
 fair conjecture that the particular atlas consulted was the 1636 ed. of 
 Mercator, since there was no other (so far as we know) in which 
 Namancos was marked. In this atlas a special map is devoted to 
 Galicia; in it, of the places indicated along the sea-bord, Namancos and 
 Bayona (with its fortress) were the most conspicuous. Milton's eye 
 would light on them at once : the names have a noble ring and metri- 
 cally are convenient ; what more could he desire? 
 
 163. Angel, i.e. St Michael. Warton paraphrases the line thus: 
 "Oh angel, look no longer seaward to Namancos and Bayona's hold: 
 rather turn your eyes to another object: look homeward or landward; 
 look towards your own coast now, and view with pity the corpse of the 
 shipwrecked Lycidas, floating thither." Some editors think that Lycidas 
 is the Angel; but there is an obvious antithesis between looks toward 
 Namancos in 1. 162, and look homeward in 1. 163, and the point of this 
 would be entirely spoilt were the clauses made to refer to different 
 subjects. Beautiful, however, as are these verses, 161 164, they have 
 a certain awkwardness in two ways. First, the change of subject from 
 Lycidas to St Michael is abrupt : down to 1. 160 the poet addresses 
 Lycidas, then suddenly at 1. 163 in a quasi-paren thesis he addresses the 
 Archangel. Secondly, there has been no main verb since let in 1. 153, 
 and after so many dependent clauses, in most of which Lycidas is 
 referred to, we should naturally expect a main clause still referring to 
 him. Instead of this the poet abandons Lycidas after 1. 160 and ends 
 with two lines which sound like an after-thought. 
 
I5 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Ruth, pity, regret, A. S. hreow, grief; commonly written rcitf&c in 
 Middle E. Shakespeare has, "Spur them to ruthful work, rein them 
 from ruth," Troilus, v. 3. 48, where ruthful= piteous. Cf. ruthless. 
 
 164. Alluding to the story of Arion; cf. the fifth Elegy, 116. The 
 dolphin, says Cockeram, 1616, "is a friendly fish to mankind," and we 
 know from Burton's Anatomy that it is, " as common experience evinceth, 
 much affected by music : " hence it might be expected to do a friendly 
 deed for the singer Lycidas. Indeed, as another poem in the Cambridge 
 collection asks, why did it not save Lycidas from being drowned when 
 the vessel struck on the rock : 
 
 " Why did not some officious dolphine hie 
 To be his ship and pilot through the frie, 
 Of wondring Nymphs; and having passed o're 
 Would have given more then Tagus to his shore?" 
 
 Waft i.e. carry. The word was specially used of carrying, or 
 journeying, over the sea. Cf. i Hen. VI. IV. i. 114, "waft me safely 
 across the Channel." Waftage= passage by water, Comedy of Errors, IV. 
 i. 95. Cf. P. L. n. 1042. 
 
 165 185. This is the concluding passage of the monody, since the 
 last eight lines are a kind of epilogue. We may compare the end of the 
 Epitaphium Damonis. In each case sorrow dies away and gives place 
 to consolation that through death the lost friend has found life. The 
 Shepheards Cal. November, the Morning Muse of Thestylis, and the 
 Lay of Clorinda all close on the same note of resignation and comfort. 
 Cf. the last-mentioned, a poem written perhaps by the Countess of 
 Pembroke, Sidney's sister, but attributed to Spenser: 
 "But that immortall spirit 
 
 O \vhat is now of it become aread? 
 Ay me! can so divine a thing be dead? 
 Ah no! it is not dead, ne can it die, 
 But lives for aie, in blissful Paradise;" 
 and again : 
 
 "There liveth he in everlasting bliss, 
 Sweet spirit never fearing more to die." 
 
 165. Cf. "sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more," Much Ado, II. 3. 74. 
 
 166. "He is not dead" is the refrain of the Adonais ; cf. 1. 84, 
 " Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead." 
 
 167 171. Cf. the following lines from another poem in the same 
 volume; they are by the writer already referred to at 1. 100, note: 
 
NOTES. 1 59 
 
 "Thus doth the setting sunne his evening light 
 Hide in the Ocean, when he makes it night; 
 The world benighted knows not where he lies, 
 Till with new beams from seas he seems to rise: 
 So did thy light, fair soul, itself withdraw 
 To no dark tombe by nature's common law, 
 But set in waves, when yet he thought it noon, 
 And thence shall rise more glorious than the sunne." 
 Is the resemblance accidental, or had the author seen Lycidas ? 
 
 167. Floor =& flat surface; here of the sea, in Spenser of the earth, 
 F. Q. n. 2. 37. Cf. the Pro nipt orium, "Flore (or grownde). Area." 
 
 168. Mr Jerram says, "The 'daystar* may possibly, as Newton 
 thinks, be the sun, which is called the ' diurnal star ' in /*. L. x. 1069." 
 The context appears to me to require this interpretation; for daystar 
 = 'the sun' we may compare Sylvester's Du Bartas, "While the bright 
 day-star rides his glorious round" (Grosart, I. 143). More commonly, 
 however, the title was applied to the morning star, Lucifer (cf. Isaiah 
 xiv. i, margin, 2 Peter i. 19), and some think that Lucifer is meant 
 here, as in the passage of Vergil (sEneid, vni. 589) which Milton 
 seems to have had in mind. 
 
 169. So Gray, of the setting sun, "To morrow he repairs his 
 golden flood;" i.e. the flood of his light (The Bard, ill. 3). 
 
 170. Tricks i.e. dresses anew; see // Pen. 123. Fletcher (Purple 
 Island^ vii. i) speaking of the dawn says: 
 
 "And spangled heavens in golden robes invests." 
 By ore Milton probably meant gold, the sense it always bears in 
 Shakespeare; cf. Lucrece, 56, Hamlet, IV. i. 25. Cf. Bullokar, " Or, 
 Gold, or golden colour." No doubt, this was due to a mistaken belief 
 that ore aumm. Really it is Teutonic, from A. S. 6r, unrefined 
 metal. For spangled see Nat. Ode, 21. 
 
 171. A correspondent of N. and Q. I. i. 171, quotes Crashaw, 
 The Weeper, 2, "Whatever makes Heaven's forehead fine." Still 
 closer, however, is Coriola'nus II. i. 57, "one that con verses... with the 
 forehead of the morning;" doubtless Milton knew the passage. 
 
 172. Milton seems to have remembered a couplet in the Purple 
 Island, VI. 71: 
 
 "That he might mount to heav'n, He sunk to Hell; 
 That he might live, He di'd; that he might rise, He fell." 
 
 173. St Mattheiv xiv. 24 31. The appropriateness of this allusion 
 is obvious, seeing that Lycidas had perished at sea. Another contributor 
 
160 LYCIDAS. 
 
 to the Cambridge collection of verses expresses the wish that Lycidas 
 could have walked the waves like St Peter. 
 
 174. For the emphatic other... other, implying better, cf. Com. 612 : 
 "Far other arms and other weapons must 
 
 Be those that quell the might of hellish charms." 
 Cf. Landor's " Death of Artemidora" in Pericles and Aspasia, LXXXV. 
 Perhaps we are to trace here an allusion to the "living fountains of 
 waters," Rev. vii. 17, and "the tree of life," Rev. xxii. 2. 14. Richard- 
 son cites a very similar passage in Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, 34, 72. 
 
 175. Cf. Com. 838, where nectar is put to the same purpose: 
 
 "And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil." 
 
 In Milton nectar appears to be applicable to any fragrant liquid. Here 
 it might possibly refer to the liquid of the streams mentioned in the 
 previous line. Cf. the description of the Garden of Eden in P. L. IV. 
 240, where the brooks 
 
 "Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 
 
 Flowers worthy of Paradise." 
 Oozy, because still moist with sea-slime ; see Nat. Ode, 1 24. 
 
 176. Unexpressive. See Nat. Ode, ^16. Nuptial, referring, as 
 Mr Jerram says, to the "marriage of the Lamb," Rev. xix. 6 7. Cf. 
 perhaps the Epitaphium Damonis, 207, aternum perages immortales 
 hymenceos, though there the allusion is more definitely to the conception 
 of Divine Love of which Plato treats in the Phadrus and elsewhere, and 
 of which Milton makes use in the allegory of Psyche at the end of 
 Comus. See note on Com. 1003 ion. 
 
 177. See Appendix. 
 
 178 1 80. See the third Elegy, 59 64, and the lines Ad Patrem, 
 
 3033: 
 
 Nos etiam, patrium tune cum repetemus Olympum, 
 Ibimus auratis per call templa coronis, 
 - Dulcia suaviloquo sociantes carmina plectro. 
 
 So the Epitaphium Damonis, 218, 219. Cf. Burns, The Cotter's 
 Saturday Night, 136 144. 
 
 181. Cf. Isaiah xxv. 8, Rev. vii. 17, xxi. 4. In the original the act 
 is ascribed to God Himself, but Milton has transferred it to the saints. 
 Sylvester had anticipated Milton; cf. the Du Bartas (Grosart, I. 77), 
 where he is celebrating the power of speech : 
 
 " By thee, we wipe the tears off wofull Eyes. " 
 Pope employed the reference twice; cf. the Messiah, 46, the original 
 
NOTES. l6l 
 
 reading being almost a transcript of Milton's line (Elwin, I. 313), and 
 the Epilogue to the Satires, with its picture of the courtier's Paradise : 
 "There, where no father's, brother's, friend's disgrace 
 Once break their rest, or stir them from their place: 
 But past the sense of human miseries, 
 All tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; 
 No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb, 
 Save when they lose a question or a job." 
 
 183. See Nat. Ode, 186. This introduction of a pagan belief, 
 following so close upon the Scriptural sentiment and language of verses 
 178 181, is another example of confusion of effect. 
 
 184. Thy = made to thee. Good i.e. propitious: sis bonus, 0, felix- 
 que tuis, Verg. Eel. v. 65. Cf. the Epitaphium Damonis, 207, 208: 
 
 quin tu, ctzli post jura recepta, 
 Dexter ades placidusque fave. 
 
 186. "Here," says Professor Masson, "the Monody or Pastoral 
 ends. The last eight lines of the poem do not belong to the Monody. 
 They are not a part of the song sung by Milton in his imaginary 
 character as the shepherd who is bewailing Lycidas, but are distinctly a 
 stanza of Epilogue, in which Milton speaks directly, criticises what he 
 has just written in his imaginary character, and intimates that he has 
 stepped out of that character, and is about to turn to other occupations." 
 Still, to some extent the close is ideal, and studied from other pastoral 
 poems. 
 
 Properly uncouth, A. S. unciift, = unknown, from A. S. un, not, and 
 cti, the past part, of cunnan, to know; cf. can, could etc. Bullokar, 
 1616, explains it by strange, and Minsheu, 1617, by incognitus. These 
 are the meanings it almost always bears in Milton, and not impossibly 
 he may be referring to himself as an "uncouth swain " = an unknown 
 poet. But the word had also got something of the sense usual in 
 modern E., viz. 'rude,' * without culture,' and 'rude' would suit the 
 context, the speaker throughout being a shepherd. In either case, 
 this is the only passage in which Milton uses uncouth of persons. 
 
 187. Cf. P. R. iv. 426, 27, " Morning fair Came forth with pilgrim 
 steps, in amice gray." Cf. P. L. vn. 373. 
 
 1 88. The stops are the small holes in wind instruments by which 
 the sound is regulated. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. Induct. 15 17, "Rumour is 
 a pipe... of so easy and so plain a stop;" and Hamlet^ ill. 2. 366 76, 
 "Will you play upon this pipe...'Tis as easy as lying: govern these 
 ventages with your finger and thumb... these are the stops." Cf. Com* 
 
 v. M. T I 
 
1 62 LYCIDAS. 
 
 345. It could also be applied, in the case of string-instruments, to 
 the regulation of musical chords by the fingers; cf. Much Ado, in. 2. 62, 
 where the instrument on which Benedick is said to play is a lute. 
 Tender, because affected by the delicate touch of the fingers. 
 
 Various t "in allusion to the varied strains of the elegy (at 11. 76, 
 88, 113, 132, 165). This almost amounts to a recognition on the part 
 of the poet of the irregularities of style, the mixture of different and 
 even opposing themes, which some have censured as a defect." (Jerram.) 
 
 Qia7Zr=reeds or pipes; cf. Cotgrave s.v. fruyau, " a pipe, quill, cane, 
 reed." It was specially used, as here, of the shepherd's pipe; cf. 
 Spenser, Shepheards Col. June. To tune the quill was a common 
 phrase; cf. the MS. poem ascribed to Milton, "the sacred sisters tune 
 their quills," and Browne's Shepheards Pipe (Hazlitt, n. 177). Johnson, 
 quoting from Dryden's Vergil, &n. VI. 646, where quill is a rendering 
 Qipecten, explained it here to mean the plectrum with which the strings 
 of some instruments (e.g. the iute or mandolin) are struck. Cf. Minsheu : 
 "Quill to play withall upon an instrument of Musicke...//<?r/r^w, 
 ir'krjKTpov." Cf. also a MS. Commonplace book, dated 1656, extracts 
 from which are quoted in Furnivall's ed, of Robert Laneham's Letter 
 (New Shakspere Society's Reprints], pp. 65 68. Describing a kind 
 of cithern or guitar the writer s^ys that it has wire strings and "is played 
 vppon with a little peice of a Quill or Pen, wherewith the Stringes be 
 touched." So of a similar instrument, "havinge the same number and 
 the same Order of Wynd-strings, and playd vppon with a Quill, after 
 the same order." What really makes Johnson's theory untenable is, 
 that this plectrum could only be used in the case of stringed instruments, 
 whereas according to all tradition the shepherd's instrument is the pipe. 
 
 189. Doric, because Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus wrote in the 
 Doric dialect. Moschus calls Bion the Acfyuos '0/>0etfs and says that with 
 him perished the Awpis tloiSa Epitaphium Bionis, 11. 12, 18. What 
 Sir Henry Wotton praised most in Comus was a "certain Doric delicacy" 
 in the Songs; see the Pitt Press ed. 10, 69. There is the same allusion 
 in Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis: 
 
 "O easy access to the hearer's grace 
 When Dorian shepherds sang to Proserpine. 
 
 She loved the Dorian pipe, the Dorian strain." 
 
 With poets of the last century Doric quill (as in Collins' Ode on the 
 Popular Superstitions, n.) and Doric oat (cf. Mason's Muscezts, or 
 Warton's Elegy ', 1751) were synonyms for * pastoral poetry.' 
 
NOTES. 163 
 
 190. From Vergil, Ed. I. 84 : 
 
 Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbra. 
 
 Stretched out i.e. in their shadows; Pope's imitation of the line puts 
 the meaning more clearly, "And the low sun had lengthened ev'ry 
 shade," Autumn, 100. Spenser's Pastorall ^Eglogue has a similar close. 
 
 192. Mantle blue. "Blue," says Professor Hales, "was the colour 
 of a shepherd's dress, and the poet here personates a poetic shepherd. " 
 But the traditional colour seems to have been grey. Cf- the Shepheards 
 Col. Maye, with the Glosse. So Greene's Orlando Furioso: 
 
 "As Paris, when CEnone lov'd him well, 
 All clad in grey, sat piping on a reed;" 
 and his Friar Bacon, HI. 69 : 
 
 "Proportioned as was Paris, when in grey 
 
 He courted CEnon in the Vale." 
 
 Dr Ward in his edition of Doctor Faustus and Friar Bacon, p. 228, 
 gives other instances. However, blue is mentioned in the Shepheards 
 Cal. November, and Browne (Eglogue ll) speaks of an extravagant 
 shepherd who had two suits, one of either colour (Hazlitt's ed. II. 200). 
 Twitched, i.e. so as to gather it about him. 
 
 193. A reminiscence of Fletcher's Purple Island, vi. 77: 
 "Home then my lambes; the falling drops eschew: 
 
 To morrow shall ye feast in pastures new." 
 
 Perhaps no line in English poetry is more frequently misquoted : even 
 Shelley, who gives the verse correctly in his Letter to Maria Gisborne 
 (the end), writes to T. L. Peacock (Nov. 18, 1818), " To morrow to fresh 
 fields and pastures new." If Thomas Warton had been a greater poet 
 we might have laid the blame on his first Eclogue: 
 
 " Farewell, my Alphon dear, 
 To distant fields, and pastures will I go." 
 
 Possibly some xvnuh century edition of Lycidas may be responsible for 
 the wrong reading. 
 
 It is usual to find here an allusion to Milton's tour in Italy. He 
 tells us in the Second Defence that on the death of his mother he became 
 anxious to travel. She died in April, 1637: the Cambridge draft of 
 Lycidas is dated November, 1637. The Italian scheme, therefore, may 
 have occurred to him before he began this poem: if so, the present 
 verses might well be a hint at it. On the other hand, in the second of 
 the letters written to Diodati in the autumn of the same year Milton 
 says that he intends to take chambers in one of the Inns of Court and 
 spend the winter in London ; but he does not add a word about leaving 
 
 11 2 
 
1 64 LYCIDAS. 
 
 England. This leads one to think that so late as Sept. 23rd {the date of 
 the letter) he had not conceived the idea of going abroad; and perhaps 
 a few weeks later when Lycidas was finished the plan was still unborn. 
 We might then interpret the verse as a vague reference to the new mode 
 of life which as we see from the above-mentioned letter he contem- 
 plated adopting. 
 
 An accomplished scholar writes to me : " The reason for the 
 shepherd's going to new haunts is that the old ones are associated 
 with Lycidas, and so he cannot bear to feed his sheep there alone 
 a very just idea and an admirable exit." I have not the least 
 doubt that this explanation, which I have never seen in any edition of 
 Lycidas, gives correctly the primary purport of the line. Nor does it 
 seem to me inconsistent with the view that there is an underlying 
 allusion to Milton's tour in Italy: 
 
 Another theory with reference to the line is, that it is a covert way 
 of saying that Milton has finally separated himself from the Anglican 
 and Court party, and means to identify himself with the Puritans. 
 This appears to me very far-fetched. 
 
 "Lycidas appeals not only to the imagination, but to the educated 
 imagination. There is no ebb and flow of poetical power as in Comus\ 
 it is an advance on all his previous work, and it fitly closes the poetic 
 labour of his youth.... One of its strange charms is its solemn undertone 
 rising like a religious chaunt through the elegiac musick ; the sense of a 
 stern national crisis in the midst of its pastoral mourning; the sense of 
 Milton's grave force of character among the flowers and fancies of the 
 poem; the sense of the Christian religion pervading the classical 
 imagery. We might say that these things are ill-fitted to each other. 
 So they would be, were not the art so fine and the poetry so over- 
 mastering ; were they not fused together by genius into a whole so that 
 the unfitness itself becomes fascination " (Stopford Brooke). 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE TEXT OF LYCIDAS. 
 
 WE give here the textual variations between the original MS. of 
 Lycidas, the Cambridge edition of 1638, and that published in 1645. 
 By * margin ' are meant the marginal corrections in the MS. Some of 
 these, as we have said in the Introduction, are not found in the 1638 
 ed. : it is fair to assume that they were made after the volume had beea 
 printed. * Milton's copy ' is the copy of the first edition (now in the 
 University Library at Cambridge) which has a few corrections in the 
 poet's handwriting. Differences of reading are marked by italic type: 
 
 ii. 3-5- 
 
 'I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude 
 before the mellowing yeare and w th forc't fingers rude 
 and crop yor young shatter your leaves before the mellowing yeare.' 
 The words in italics are crossed out. Milton may have intended the 
 last line to run 'and crop yor young leaves w th forc't fingers rude.' 
 Having got as far as young he stopped, struck out 11. 4 5, and with 
 slight verbal changes transposed the verses so as to alter the sequence 
 of rhymes. 
 
 8. MS. * for young Lycidas ; ' 'young erased. 
 10. MS. * he well knew.' 
 22. MS. 'To bid;' changed to 'and bid.' 
 
 26. MS. 'glimmering eyelids ;' corrected to opening; yet the 1638 
 ed. has glimmering. 
 
 30. MS. 'Oft till the ev'n-starre bright* (erased); margin, 'starre 
 that rose in Evening bright; 1 1638 ed. again gives the earlier reading. 
 
 31. MS. ' burnisht weele;' corrected, ivestring; but burnisht in 
 1638 ed. 
 
 39. 1638 ed. has 'Thee shepherds, thee;' i.e. the shepherds are 
 made to mourn ; perhaps a misprint. 
 
 47. MS. 'gay buttons weare;' weare changed to beare; finally 
 wardrope weare substituted. For spelling of wardrobe see note on this 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 line. Buttons buds, as in Hamlet, i. 3. 40, or The Noble Kinsmen, in. 
 i. 6, "gold buttons on the boughs." Fr. bouton mean a button or a 
 bud. 
 
 51. MS. repeats your, by mistake; 1638 ed. 'lord Lycidas;' cor- 
 rected in Milton's copy to * lov'd Lycidas.' 
 
 53. 1638 ed. 'the old bards;' corrected in Milton's copy. 
 
 5863. MS. had: 
 
 a. ' What could the golden- hay rd Calliope 
 
 b. For her inchaunting son, 
 
 c. When shee beheld (the gods farre sighted bee) 
 
 d. His goarie scalpt rowle downe the Thracian lee:' 
 
 a, c, d are crossed out : b left. After b (i.e. 1. 59) the margin has: 
 
 e. ' Whome universal nature might lament 
 . f. And heaven and hel deplore, 
 
 g. When his divine head downe the streame was sent : ' 
 f is crossed out, also g as far as downe, and e left. Then on the op- 
 posite page Milton rewrote the whole passage from 1. 58 just as we 
 have it, except that, (i) after writing 'might lament' he substituted did; 
 (ii) he wrote 'divine visage' and changed it to 'goarie visage,' cf. goarie 
 in d supra; (iii) after 1. 59 (as it now stands) he repeated the words 
 'for her inchaunting son,' intending them to form a short line. No 
 doubt, he finally rejected them because he had already used the artifice 
 of repetition in 'The Muse herself,' 11. 58, 59. 
 
 66. 1638 ed. misprints stridly for strictly. 
 
 67. 1638 ed. 'others do ;' altered in Milton's copy to use. 
 
 69. MS. 'hid in the tangles;' margin 'or with the tangles;' but 
 1638 ed. 'hid in.' 
 
 82. 1638 ed. has the spelling perfect, the only place (I believe) 
 where it occurs in Milton : perfet in 1645 e( *- 
 
 85. MS. 'smooth flood,' smooth erased; marginyfcwV, erased; then 
 honoured. 
 
 86. MS. '.^-sliding;' soft crossed out, margin smooth; 1. 85 was 
 probably changed after 1. 86. 
 
 103. 1638 ed. Chamus. 
 
 105. MS. 'scraufd ore with figures;' not crossed out, though in- 
 wrought is written in margin. 
 
 no. MS. 'Tow massy;' cf. 1. 130. 
 
 114. M&.Anough; 1638 ed. enough; 1645 ed. anow. 
 
 129. MS.' 'nothing sed;' changed to little; 1638 ed. little; but 
 1645 ed. nothing. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 130. MS. tow-handed; cf. no. 
 
 131. 1638 ed. smites instead of smite. 
 
 138. MS. 'sparely looks;' sparely erased; margin stintly, or the 
 word may be faintly, the writing being indistinct ; this was erased and 
 sparely re-substituted. 
 
 139. MS. Bring, crossed out; margin throw. 
 
 143 150. Of this passage the MS. presents two versions; the first, 
 through which Milton ran his pen, reads thus : 
 
 ' Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies 
 Colouring the pale chccke of uninjoyd love^ 
 And that sad flowre that strove 
 To write his own woes on the vermeil graine; 
 Next adde Narcissus yt still weeps in vaine^ 
 The woodbine and ye pancie freakt w* jet, 
 The glowing violet, 
 
 The cowslip wan that hangs his pensive head 
 And every bud that sorrows liverie weares, 
 Let Daffodillies fill thire cups with teares, 
 Bid Amaranthus all his beautie shed 
 To strew the laureate herse' 
 
 Underneath this follows the second version. The first four lines are 
 identical with those in the printed editions : then the MS. continues: 
 ' The musk-rose and the garish columbine 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
 And every flower that sad escutcheon bears;' 
 the last couplet is as in the earlier passage. 
 
 Garish columbine is struck out, and well-attired woodHne (cf. the 
 first draft) substituted. 'Escutcheon bears* is changed to wears; then, 
 in the margin, to 'imbroidrie bears;' and finally to 'imbroidrie wears. 1 
 Against the concluding couplet 'Let Daffadillies' Milton wrote '2. i'; 
 showing that the order was to be reversed, while let was altered to and. 
 
 153. MS. ' sad thoughts;' sad crossed out and/n7<? written over it. 
 
 154. MS. floods, erased ; margin s/ioars. 
 
 157. MS. 'humming tide;' altered to whelming in margin of MS. 
 and in Milton's copy; but the 1638 ed. has humming. 
 1 60. MS. Corineus, erased; margin Bellerus. 
 
 176. MS. ' Listening the unexpressive ; ' and heares substituted. - 
 
 177. Omitted in 1638 ed. ; inserted in Milton's copy, as in 1645 ed. 
 191. There is some change in MS., but it is not legible. 
 
I. INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 admit of 72 
 
 agast 53 
 
 allegro 65 
 
 amain 142 
 
 amaranth 153 
 
 amaying 68, 69 
 
 amber 76 
 
 anthem 1 18 
 
 antic 117 
 
 antique 117 
 
 asphodil 153 
 
 assize 54 
 
 attired 153 
 
 bard 130 
 
 batten 126 
 
 beck 71 
 
 bespeak 41 
 
 bested 90 
 
 bier 122 
 
 blame 37 
 
 blaze 135 
 
 bonnet 140 
 
 boot 133 
 
 bosomed 79 
 
 bout 93 
 
 bower 81 
 
 broider 153 
 
 brooding 66 
 
 brown 114, 120 
 
 buskin 91, 109 
 
 buxom 69 
 
 canker 128 
 
 career 112 
 
 cast 48 
 
 cease 37 
 
 centre 53, 54 
 
 charm 40 
 
 chat 43 
 
 cheerly 75 
 
 chequer 82, 83 
 
 cherubim 46, 47, IO3 
 
 chime 50 
 
 chimney 86 
 
 civil-suited 112, 113 
 cloister 116 
 close 44 
 commerce 100 
 consort 107 
 coy 124 
 crank 70, 71 
 crew 72 
 crow-toe 152 
 crude 120 
 cunning 94 
 curfew 104 
 cynosure 80 
 Cyprus 99 
 daffadimes 153 
 dally 154, 155 
 dappled 73 
 day-star 159 
 debonaire 69, 70 
 decent 100 
 deign 103 
 demure 98 
 dight 76 
 display 47 
 ditty 126 
 doff 36 
 don 36 
 drudge 85 
 dull 73 
 ebon 66 
 eclipse 140 
 eglantine 74 
 embowed 116, 117 
 enchant 131 
 exchequer 83 
 eyn 62 
 fallow 79 
 fancy 92 
 fantastic 71 
 fay 64 
 feat 83 
 felon 138 
 fiend 80 
 
INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 169 
 
 flashy 145 
 floor 159 
 foil 136 
 fond 96, 131 
 for all 41 
 forfeit 33 
 forgo 58 
 freaked 152 
 frounced 1 1 3 
 garish 114 
 gaudy 36 
 glister 136 
 goblin 85, 86 
 grain 98, 99 
 gray-fly 125 
 grisly 60 
 guerdon 135 
 halcyon 40 
 harbinger 38 
 harness 64 
 hearse 154 
 heave 94 
 herdman 144 
 hinge 48 
 his 45 
 hist 40, 102 
 
 ^ VA 
 honied 115 
 
 horrid 55 
 influence 40, 41 
 its 44, 45 
 jessamine [52 
 junket 84 
 kerchief 1 1 3 
 knew to 122 
 landskip 77, 78 
 laureate 153, 154 
 lawn 42 
 leprous 51 
 list 145 
 lively 116 
 livery 76 
 lubbar 86 
 lull 87 
 masque 90 
 maze 64 
 meditate 133 
 meed 137 
 mess 8 1 
 mitred 142 
 
 monody 119 
 
 mood 138 
 
 mooned 58 
 
 mote 96 
 
 mould 51 
 
 muse 124 
 
 musk-rose 152, 153 
 
 nectar 160 
 
 night-raven 66 
 
 noise 44 
 
 oat 127 
 
 ooze 48 
 
 orbed 52 
 
 ore 159 
 
 or ere 41 
 
 orient 63 
 
 pale- eyed 56 
 
 pall 108 
 
 pansy 152 
 
 paramour 36 
 
 peering 51 
 
 penseroso 95 
 
 pensioner 96 
 
 pink 152 
 
 plat 103, 104 
 
 plea 138 
 
 pledge 141 
 
 pollute 36 
 
 pomp 89, 90 
 
 prevent 35 
 
 proof 117 
 
 purple 150 
 
 quaint 57 
 
 quill 162 
 
 quip 70 
 
 quire* 47 
 
 ragged 66 
 
 rank 146 
 
 rapt 100 
 
 rathe 151 
 
 rebeck 82 
 
 reck 143, r 44 
 
 region 44 
 
 resort 104, 105 
 
 revelry 90 
 
 rhyme 122 
 
 rime 122 
 
 rootfast 46 
 
 round 44 
 
 rout 132 
 
170 
 
 rugged 66 
 russet 78 
 ruth 158 
 sable-stoled 62 
 sad 101 
 saturnine 98 
 scrannel 145, 146 
 scythe 76, 77 
 secret 36 
 secure 81 
 seraphim 46, 47 
 sere 120 
 session 54 
 several 63 
 shaggy 131 
 shamefaced 46 
 shatter 120 
 shine 59 
 shrink 59, 146 
 shroud 62, 124 
 silly 43 
 slit 135 
 
 smooth-sliding 137 
 soccus 91 
 soothfast 46 
 sovran 39 
 spangle 34, 159 
 speak fair 36 
 speckled 51 
 sped 144 
 spell 56, 118 
 sphere 48, 49 
 squadron 35 
 starred 97, 98 
 state 75 
 stead 46 
 steadfast 46 
 stole 62, 99 
 stops 161 
 store 88, 89 
 storied 117 
 strook 43 
 swaddle 63 
 swart 149 
 swindge 54 
 
 INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 taintworm 129 
 take 44 
 tale 77 
 teem 64 
 tell 77 
 temper 127 
 tissued 52 
 toy 96 
 tree 42 
 tress 56 
 trick 113, 159 
 triumph 88 
 turney 112 
 twilight 57 
 two-handed 147 
 tyfoon 63 
 uncouth 65, 161 
 unexpressive 47, i6c 
 un re proved 72 
 unsphere 107 
 untread 34 
 upland 8 1, 82 
 urn 124 
 use 133, 149 
 usher 113 
 vein 34 
 virtuous in 
 waft 158 
 wakeful 53 
 wanton 149 
 wardrobe 129 
 . weanling 129 
 weed 88 
 well 124 
 welter 123 
 whist 39, 40 
 wisard 35 
 wont 33 
 woo 36 
 woodbine 153 
 wrapt 100 
 wrath 54 
 ychained 43 
 ycleped 67 
 
II. GENERAL INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 a=an = one, 68 
 
 a = on, preposition, 69 
 
 <z, intensive prefix, 53 
 
 Addison, quotes L'Al. t 67 
 
 adjectives as nouns, 37 
 
 ambition, 134 
 
 Ammon, Egyptian deity, 59 
 
 Anglesey, referred to as Mona, 
 
 130. *3i 
 Arethusa, name used to symbolise 
 
 Greek pastoral verse, 135, 137 
 Ashtaroth, 58 
 Atropos, described as one of the 
 
 Furies,, 1 35 
 Attic boy,' Cephalus, 113 
 
 Baal = Baal- Peor, 58 
 Bayona, 156, 157 
 Bellerium, the Land's End, 155 
 Bellman, his duty, 105 
 
 Camus, river-deity representing 
 
 Cambridge University, 140 
 Cassiopea, story of, 97 
 Chaucer, his Squyeres Tab, no 
 
 112 
 
 chivalry, Milton's attitude towards, 
 
 88 
 Church^ the Established, Milton's 
 
 feeling towards, 116, 142, 143 
 Cimmerian, 'gloomy, '66 
 Classical names, special use of, 80, 
 
 8 1, 121, 127; rarely shortened, 
 
 114, 154 
 Clergy, passages describing, 143 
 
 146 
 Curfew, custom of ringing, 104 
 
 Dngon, 58 
 
 Dee, river, legend concerning, 131 
 
 Delphos, peculiar form, 56; oracle 
 
 at, suppressed, 55 
 digressions in Lye., 137, 148 
 dog-star, 149 
 
 Doric dialect, Greek pastoral verse 
 
 in, 162 
 Druids, 130 
 
 Eclipse, an evil omen, 139, 140 
 Egyptian deities, Isis, Osiris, Orus, 
 
 60 6 1 
 Elements, theory of ' the four ele- 
 
 ments,' 107, 108 
 6r = Old E. plural termination in 
 
 verbs, 121 
 
 * eye of day,' the sun, 114 
 ' eyelids of the morn,' 125 
 
 for, intensive prefix, 58 
 
 Genius, familiar spirit, 56 
 
 * gossip's bowl,' 83 
 
 Gray, imitates Milton, 75,97, 124, 
 
 4 Halcyon days,' 40 
 
 Hebrus, river in Thrace, 132, 133 
 
 Hermes TrismegisLus, patron of 
 
 magic, 105, 106 
 Hesiod, imitated, 101, 123 
 hierarchies, the heavenly, medi- 
 
 aeval view of, 46, 47 
 Hippotades, i.e. <#Lolus, 138, 139 
 
 'influence ' of the planets, 40, 41, 
 
 150 . 
 
 invocation of the Muses, 34, 123 
 *Y, in expressions like * trip *Y,' 
 
 'foot //,' 71 
 its, 44, 45 
 
 Jonson, contrasted with Shake- 
 speare, 90 91 ; imitated, 115 
 
 Lares and Lemures, 57 
 liberty, Milton's love of, 72 
 Lucifer, the morning-star, 41 
 'Lydian airs,' explained, 92, 93 
 
172 
 
 GENERAL INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 Mab, the Fairy-Queen, 83 
 
 * mantle blue,' 163 . 
 
 May-games, 68 
 
 Melancholy, 98 
 
 Mincius, symbolising the Eclogues 
 
 of Vergil, 137 
 Mirth, 68 
 
 Moloch, worship of, 60 
 morn, chariot of, 103 
 Musaeus, 109 
 M use = poet, 124 
 music of the spheres, 45 46, 49 
 
 50 
 
 mythology, classical, how Milton 
 varies it, 65, 98, 135 
 
 = Old E. plural termination an, 
 
 as in oxen, eyn, 62 
 Namancos, 156, 157 
 nature, Milton's attitude towards, 
 
 75 
 
 oracles, cessation of, 55 
 Orpheus and Eurydice, 94, 109 
 oxymoron, figure of speech, 93, 
 94 
 
 participles, Latin in form, 36, 37 
 pastoral style, instances of, 124, 
 
 125, 129130, 150 
 Plato, Milton's admiration for, 
 
 106, 107 
 Pope, imitates Milton, 36, 114, 
 
 118, 127, 136, 148, 161, 163 
 
 repetition, pathetic effect of, 121 
 Robin Goodfellow, the 'lubbar 
 
 fiend,' 8486 
 Roman Catholics, allusion to, 146, 
 
 147 
 Ruskin, criticises Milton, 141, 143, 
 
 St Michael's Mt, 155, 156 
 
 St Peter, introduced in Lye., 141 
 
 Sandys, his Travels known to 
 
 Milton, 60, 63 
 
 Shakespeare, Milton's feeling to- 
 wards, 91/92; imitated, 39, 64, 
 69. 75 79 84* 103, 149. 152, 158 
 Shelley, Adonais referred to, 128, 
 
 130 
 
 * Sicilian Muse,' explained, 148 
 skip, termination = -ship, 77, 78 
 Spenser, influence on Milton, 112 
 Sylvan, god of fields, 114 
 Sylvester, imitated, 96, 97, 101, 
 "5 
 
 Tammuz, Gk Adonis, legend of, 59 
 ' tells his tale,' 77 
 Tennyson, imitates Milton, 98 
 terminations, adjectival and parti- 
 cipial, irregular use o 47, 72 
 than then, 43 
 
 tragedy, Greek, 108 ; English, 109 
 'two-handed engine,' 147 
 
 un, negative or verbal prefix, 34 
 
 Vergil, imitated, 121, 123, 125, 
 127, 136, 145, 148, 161, 163 
 
 w, alliteration of in Milton, 38; 
 
 w wrongly prefixed to words 
 
 beginning with h or r, 100 
 Wesley, Christmas Hymn and 
 
 Nat. Ode, 39 
 West, imitates Milton, 109, no, 
 
 126 
 Will-o'-the-Wisp, superstition as 
 
 to, 85 
 
 y, prefix, as in ychaintd> 53, y- 
 clcfcd, 67 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED \\\ J. r.. 1'KACK, M.A., AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 

 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediaterecall. 
 
 LD 
 
 APR 2 7 '65 -1PM 
 
 2lFeb'63DW 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 LD 21 A-nOm-8 .'fil 
 
 General Library 
 
/3c; 
 
 93Q 
 (918 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY