P. 10. Europa floating through th' Argolic floods. Zeus, assuming the form of a bull, carried Europa over the sea to Crete. The twins of Leda. Castor and Pollux. P. 11. As bargemen wont to fare, i.e., in rowing. Which feigns demurest grace; bowing and retiring obsequiously. The beast that whilom did forray the Nemean forest. The lion slain by Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, Amphitryonide is a patronymic. P. 12. Assoil, to weigh or determine: also to absolve or set free. Orion. The hunter of Boeotia, slain by Diana for an offence against chastity, or by Earth for the slaughter of her animals. P. 14. Centaur, in ancient mythology, was a creature half man, half horse. Mochel. Compare the Scotch muckle. With painted words, as we say, "in highly coloured language." Primrose. Notice the use of this word in its strict sense, "the rose of spring." P. 17. Enuunter, like "peradventure," from the French. And often crossed with the priestes crew. Referring to the HOOKER. Priestes is the P. 19. Lively. Here as an adverb; but later used only as an adjective. Which one in Sophocles. The chorus in the Edipus Tyrannus. The passage is thus rendered by Mr. Arnold: "Laws that in the highest empyrean had their birth, of which Heaven is the father alone, neither did the race of mortal men beget them, nor shall oblivion ever put them to sleep." SHAKESPEARE. P. 29. The most unkindest cut of all. A double superlative. Compare in this play, "With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome." So with the comparative, a more larger list of sceptres." P. 30. This many summers. Many is here a noun substantive, and "of" has to be supplied before summers. Compare "A many merry men," As You Like It; "A many thousand warlike French," King John. P. 31. And their ruin, i.e., the ruin which the loss of their favour brings. P. 32. P. 33. The voice goes, i.e., the rumour runs thus. Give me leave to speak him. Shakespeare sometimes omits the preposition after "speak :" as here, where it means "speak of him ;" and in Romeo and Juliet, "speak him fair," where it means "to him." Stomach = pride. Pitiful here "feeling pity," but in modern usage generally "worthy of pity or contempt." P. 34. Ipswich and Oxford. Besides the school at Ipswich, the foundation of Cardinal College (now Christ Church) attests Wolsey's interest in education. P. 35. All which it inherit = All those who inherit it (the globe). Rack wreck. Show likest God's. For this use of show, comparo "Which shows like grief itself," Richard II. P. 36. She determines herself the glory of a creditor, i.e., makes the glory of a creditor centre in herself. * * *than it could recover. TAYLOR. MILTON. P. 45. Mewing, from the Latin muto, referring to the casting or changing of the feathers. Compare "moulting." P. 46. Engrossers. The persons appointed to license all publications. Or hear'st thou rather. A classical idiom, "Dost thou chose rather to be called ?" The Stygian pool hell. From Styx, the river of the infernal regions in classical mythology. Middle darkness = the gulf between hell and heaven. With other notes than to the Orphean lyre. A hymn to Night was attributed to Orpheus, in a strain different from the sacred one of Milton. P. 47. So thick a drop serene *** or dim suffusion, alluding to the blindness produced, according to medical language, by the jutta serena (drop serene) or by suffusio (suffusion). Y: ut he more cease I to wander = yet I still wander as bere Vor sometimes forget "V,mail" à touch ins in jate. amyrts. A bard of and at times recall. Upon whom blindness fell, as on me. Muses, and by them was blinded for his presumption. Fresias and Phineus. Blind soothsayers of Thebes, and of Carace men aed on thoughts, &c., i.e., then (I) feed on thoughts that voluntary (= of themselves, without effort) flow into Sinus tarkling sings in the gloom. Darkling is not a participle, but an adverbial form. Compare in Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes. "Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate" and Keats,' “Darkling I listen: and for many a time I have been half in love with easeful leath." Cheerful ways of men. Compare Tennyson's Tithonus: “Why should a man desire in any way To vary from the kindly ways of men?” where kindly may bear its original meaning of “ natural.” For the book of knowledge. For = instead of. The following descriptive title was added in 1645, when the retribution threatened by Milton had actually come, and the nation was plunged in civil war. In this monody the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester, on the Irish seas, 1637. And by occasion foretells the ruin of our errrupted clergy, then in their height." The learned friend was Milton's fellow-collegian, Edward P. 48. Bitter constraint=sad necessity. Sad occasion dear. Dear passes from its meaning of "loved," to that which excites any strong emotion. Compare in Julius Cæsar, "Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death ?" P.48. To disturb your season due = to disturb you before the duo season. Build the lofty rhyme. Build is here a translation from the Sisters of the sacred well (the Pierian fountain) Muses. = the Favour my destined urn=do the same kindly office for me when I am in my grave. Sable shroud my dark tomb or grave. For we were nursed, &c. Referring to college companionship. P. 49. Gray-fly is the same as the trumpet-fly, whose noontide hum is here called her 'sultry-horn." P. 50. Westering going westwards. Meanwhile the rural ditties, &c. This is an elaborate way of expressing their companionship in studies and in youthful poetical efforts. Old Damatas. A name taken from the pastoral poetry of the ancients, and here referring to their college tutor. Desert caves the caves that miss thy presence. Gadding vine. Wandering about or straying in luxuriant On the steep. Perhaps Penmaenmawr, which overhangs the coast between the mouth of the Dee and Anglesea. Anglesea. Mona = Deva = the Dee, whose wizard stream seems to have been traditionally held as specially weird and strange. What could the Muse herself, i.e., "What could she do or avail." The Muse that Orpheus bore = Calliope. When, by the rout, &c. Orpheus, lamenting for his wife, was torn to pieces by the Thracian women in their Bacchanalian orgies. To tend the ** shepherd's trade. Here, the poet's calling. Meditate. Suggested by the Latin word used by Virgil for playing on the oaten pipe. As others use, i.e., are wont to do. This verb is now only used in the past tense. That last infirmity of noble mind. So Tacitus says, "Even by the wise, desire of glory is the last to be stript off,” which explains the sense in which last is used by Milton. P. 50. The blind Fury with the abhorred shears. In Greek mythology the goddess that cut the thread of life was a Fate, not a Fury, but the latter name is used to express greater abhorrence. Phoebus replied, &c. Phoebus or Apollo, god of poetry. P. 51. Fountain Arethuse. A fountain in Syracuse. It is here invoked as recalling Theocritus, the bucolic poet of Syracuse. Mincius. A river near Mantua: hence recalling Virgil, who was born at Mantua. That came in Neptune's plea = that came, sent by Neptune to hold a trial. Hippotades. A patronymic for Eolus. The ruler of the winds. Not a blast was strayed." strayed. We should now say “had Sleek Panope with all her sisters the Nereids. In the eclipse = at a time of ill-luck. Rigged with curses dark. The curses are as sails to the ship. Camus = the river Cam. Footing stepping. To foot is to move with any peculiar motion; here a slow and halting one, but usually, as in the phrase "footing it," with a light and dancing step. That sanguine flower, &c. = the hyacinth. My dearest pledge. Pledge is used (like the Latin word pignus, which has a similar meaning) of a loved object. The pilot of the Galilean lake = St. Peter. Of metals twain = of gold and iron. Amain with force. P. 52. Blind mouths = mouths of men who are blind. The grim wolf = the Church of Rome. But that two-handed engine at the door, &c. Probably only a general denunciation of coming retribution: "The strong hand of heaven's vengeance stands ready to smite once for all." |