and ib. 156: "The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep." 23. 39. Comp. Ov. Met. xi. 43. 40. gadding. "Envy," says Bacon, “is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home." 41. echoes. See Song to Echo in Comus. Epitaph. Bionis, 30: “ ἀχὼ δ' ἐν πέτρῃσιν ὀδύρεται ὅττι σιωπῇ Shelley's Adonais, stanza 15: "Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains, And feeds her grief with his remembered lay," &c. Comp. Milton's Ode on the Passion, stanza 8. In Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, &c. these echoes are not "imagines" of the poetic voice, but, it would seem, of the various voices of nature: "I hear the echoes through the mountain throng." 42. hazle copses green. On this arrangement of words, see note to Hymn Nut. 187. 44. to. See above, 1. 33. 45. canker. Originally the same word with cancer. It is sometimes made more precise by the addition of "worm," as in Joel i. 4; just as taint in the following line. = 46. weanling yeanling, or eanling, as is variously read: Merchant of Venice, I. iii. 80; Paradise Lost, iii. 434. For the first letter, comp. the pronunciations of once, who, whole, whoop, with their spelling; whole and hale, whirl and hurl, worm and Orme's Head; old = wold, in King Lear, III. iv. 125. Sir Hugh Evans calls woman oman" (Merry Wives of Windsor, passim). For the ling, comp. firstling, yearling, kitling, nestling, nurseling, foundling. [Add others to this list.] 47. wardrop. Chaucer uses the form "ward-rope." That form is still in use in Yorkshire. (See Halliwell.) The order of the ingredient words in this compound is noticeable. Comp. flour-bin, fire-guard, reading-desk, &c. &c. [What is the law observable in these and such words?] The varying from the usual order in wardrobe is accounted for by the fact that the word comes to us in an already compounded state from the French garde robe (the Low Latin garda roba). 49. such so killing. 50. Comp. Theocr. i. 65-9; Virg. Ecl. x. 9-12. 52. the steep probably Penmaenmawr. Gray's bard stood "On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood." this steep, probably; but the topography of The Bard will not bear investigation. "For the Druid sepulchres, at Kerig y Druidion, in the mountains of Denbighshire, he consulted Camden's Britannia." (Warton.) 54. Mona certainly Anglesey here, not the Isle of Man. "It was not unfrequently described as Môn mam-Gymru: i.e. Mona, the nursing mother of Wales, in allusion either to its former fertility, or to its being the residence of the Druids." (Black's Guide to North Wales.) See the picture Tacitus gives of the Druids there urging their countrymen to oppose the Romans: "Preces diras sublatis ad cælum manibus fundentes." (Annal. xiv. 30.) Cromlechs abound in the island. For shaggy top, "it was called by the bards 'the shady island,' because it formerly abounded with groves and trees; but there is now little wood, except along the bank of the Menai." Tacitus speaks of "luci sævis superstitionibus sacri" being cut down for purposes of defence. For the high, Parys Mountain is the highest eminence of the island. "In Drayton's Polyolbion, Mona is introduced reciting her own history, when she mentions her thick and dark groves as the favourite residence of the Druids." Warton takes Mona to be the Isle of Man. 23. 55. See A Vacation Exercise, 98: "ancient hallow'd Dee." Spenser's Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 39: "Dee, which Britons long ygone Did call divine, that doth by Chester tend." See also Faerie Queene, I. ix. 4. Drayton speaks of "Dee's holiness;" he calls it "hallowed," the ominous flood." Higden's Polychronicon mentions certain wizard-like features in this river: "Under the cite of Chestre," says John de Trevisa's translation, "eorneth [runs] the river Dee, that now to-deleth [parts] Engelond and Wales; that ryves everych monthe chaungeth his fordes, as men of the contray teleth, and leveth ofte the chanel. Bote whether the water drawe more toward Engelond other toward Wales, to what syde that hyt be that yer, men schal habbe the wors ende and be overset, and the men of the other syde schal habbe the betre ende and be at here above. Whanne the water chaungeth so hys cours, hyt bodeth such happes." (Apud Morris' E. E. Specimens.) The Tiber was thought sacred by the Latins. (See En. viii. 72.) See Tenth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion. river." wisard. See note on Hymn Nat. 23. Drayton calls the Weever "the wizard 56. fondly. See note, Il Pens. 6. 58. [Who was this Muse?] See Paradise Lost, vii. 34-8. 59. inchanting son. See the song, "Orpheus with his lute made trees," in Shakspere s Henry VIII. III. i. 3. Hor. Od. I. xii. 7-12, &c. &c. 61. See Virg. Georg. iv. 517-27; Ovid, Met. xi. 1-89, esp. 50-5: Excipis "" Caput, Hebre, lyramque. Jamque mare invectæ flumen populare relinquunt, Et Methymnææ potiuntur littore Lesbi." the hideous roar. 66 The was more emphatic in older English than it is now. 63. swift Hebrus. See Virg. Æn. i. 321. Servius blames the epithet: "Nam quietissimus est etiam cum per hyemem crescit." 64. Shakspere, Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, and other bright lights of the Elizabethan age, had for some years passed away. The last representative of that great race-Ben Jonson-had just been gathered to his fellows. The race of poets which had succeeded were of a different breed. The dramatic period was over. There arose a tribe of light lyric poets -Herrick, Suckling, Donne, Lovelace, Wither. It is easy to understand how, to one of Milton's high poetic theory and purpose, the popularity of these triflers must have suggested despair for himself and for his time. uncessant. See Hymn Nat. 8. 65. shepherd. The metaphor is used in a different sense below, ll. 113-31. 66. Part of this phrase is Virgil's. See Ecl. i. 2. thankless. Comp. Virg. Æn. vii. 425. Here Milton shows what his theory was of a poet's duty in the way of preparation for his work. See note on the opening lines of this poem. 67. use. in Prothal. 135. This present is now almost obsolete. The pret. survives. See note on wont 68. As Tityrus with her name, in Virgil's Ecl. i. 4: "Tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvam." 23. 69. Comp. Lovelace's "When I lie tangled in her hair, And fetter'd to her eye, The birds that wanton in the air Warton thinks Milton refers to certain poems of Buchanan addressed to Amaryllis and Neæra, which were well known at this time. 70. "Reward is the spur of virtue in all good acts, all laudable attempts; and emulation, which is the other spur, will never be wanting when particular rewards are proposed." (Dryden.) 71. Comp. Tac. Hist. iv. 6: “Erant quibus adpetentior famæ videretur quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur." iii. 47.) 74. See the discussion on glory" in Paradise Regained, iii. 21-150; esp. 11. 47-70. For what is glory but the blaze of fame?" (Paradise Regained, blaze. 75. Fury. It was one of the Fates or Moipal or Parcæ, viz. Atropos, not one of the Furies, who was fabled to cut one's thread of life. Shakspere speaks of "the shears of Destiny." (King John, IV. ii. 91.) Perhaps Milton uses the word Fury here not in its special, but a general sense. 76. thin-spun life. See Tibull. Eleg. I. vii. 1, 2: 79. foil. French feuille, Latin folium. See Spenser's Faerie Queene, I. iv. 4: "Whose [a stately palace's] wals were high, but nothing strong or thick, Warton quotes Shakspere, 1 Henry IV. I. ii. 239; but the sense there is different. 24. 81. [What is the force of by here?] 82. perfet. This is from the French form parfait. So feat and fact. 85. Arethuse. See Class. Dict. In Arcades he speaks of "Divine Alpheus, who by secret sluice Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse." Shelley's "Arethuse arose," &c. Virg. Ecl. x. 1: "Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem." En. iii. 694, &c. Mosch. Fr. v. 1-8, Ed. Ahrens. [Why honour'd? See Class. Dict. See also Virg. Georg. iii. 13-15.] 86. reeds. See 1. 33. 88. My oat proceeds, And listens, &c. There is a carelessness of style here. Comp. L'Allegro, 121-2; Il Penseroso, 155-7. 90. [What is meant by in Neptune's plea ?] 24. 93. Every-each. Milton often uses both these words in the same sentence, merely, it would seem, for the sake of variety. Com. 19: Etymologically, every ever each. [What difference is there between the usages of each and every?] 96. Hippotades. See Homer's Odyss. x. 2; Ov. Met. xiv. 86. 97. his dungeon. See Virg. Æn. i. 50-63. So ". The 'was dropt," 1. 191; "is run," Julius Cæsar, V. iii. 25, &c. See Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. § 158. This older usage is more strictly correct than our present one, which admits the transitive auxiliary "have" with these participles of intransitive verbs. French still say "Je suis arrivé." On German usage see Wittich's G. Gr. § 120. 99. Panope. Virgil calls her Panopea, Æn. v. 240. [Who were her sisters? Georg. i. 437. Hesiod gives their names in his Theogony, 240 et seq. See also Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 49.] 101. th' eclipse. [What is the force of the here?] See with may = along with, in the midst of; or, better, by a bold poetical figure, it may be instrumental. Eclipses were believed, both by the ancients and in later ages, to be times of evil omen, and to bring a curse upon everything done during them. Thus Gloucester, in King Lear, I. ii. 112 et seq.: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us,' &c. As to the distress with which these "swoonings" of the greater lights were regarded, see Ellis's Brand's Popular Antiquities. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 596-9, of the sun when "from behind the moon In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change See Macbeth, IV. i. 28. They were supposed to be caused by the spiteful power of witches. See Paradise Lost, ii. 665. Comp. Hor. Od. II. xiii. and Epod. x. 1. 103. went. In our present usage go is opposed to come, and went to came; but that opposition is not radical. The old verb wend is connected radically with wind, and means merely to wind or turn. The original sense, therefore, would be to move in a serpentine Comp. the use of wind, as in Paradise Lost, iii. 563-4: manner. Here went = simply "passed along." Wend and yode having fallen out of use, go and went serve respectively as present and perfect to each other. Comp. am and was, Latin fero and tuli, tollo and sustuli, Greek φέρω, ἔνεγκα, ενήνοχα, &c. footing. See Pilgrim's Progress: "I warrant you he footed it right merrily." To insert the "it" would not suit the gravity of the present passage. See note on "trip it,” L'All. 33. 104. See description of Thamis in Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 27, 28: he was "All decked in a robe of watchet [pale blue] hew, On which the waves, glittering like christall glas, See Comp. French bonnet-à 24. 104. bonnet, in older English, as in Scotch still, denoted a man's head-covering. Richard II. I. iv. 31; Hamlet, V. ii. 95; Coriolanus, III. ii. 74. poil, bonnet-de-police. sedge. See Tempest, IV. i. 130: "You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring brooks, 105. What figures are here meant, has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Warburton says allusion is made "to the fabulous traditions of the high antiquity of Cambridge;' others think, to certain natural streaks on sedge-leaves or flags "when dried, or even beginning to wither." 106. that sanguine flower, &c. = the hyacinth. See Ovid, Met. x. 215. Phoebus, mourning for Hyacinthus dead, is not content that he should be metamorphosed into a flower: Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit, et ai ai = Flos habet inscriptum, funestaque littera ducta est." [Does like apply to bonnet or figures?] Comp. Titus Andronicus, III. i. 292. The position of the pronoun in these cases serves to illustrate the meaning discovered by philology of the various endings of verbs in the numbers of each tense. These endings are, in fact, but personal signs, which have become amalgamated with the verb. Quoth he," and such phrases, show the tendency there is to place the pronoun after the verb. 109. St. Peter. Archbishop Laud was at this time at the height of his power. The policy of "thorough" was being vigorously pursued in the state; a kindred policy was being carried out with no less vigour in the Church. A Ritualistic reform was in course of enforcement both in England and Scotland. Against this and against all Laud's proceedings the Puritanism of this country was vehemently opposed; and this Puritanism was the great growing, nearly fullgrown, power of the day. Milton here for the first time speaks out his sympathy with that party with which he was afterwards to be so conspicuously associated. IIO. twain. In the Elizabethan writers twain is used (1) predicatively; (2) when the substantive is placed first; (3) substantively. III. amain. See Paradise Lost, ii. 165, 1024, &c. Shakspere, Tempest, IV. i. 75, &c. Spenser has the form "mainly." [What is the force of the word ?] 112. bespake. See Hymn Nat. 1. 76. 114. anow = enow. Paradise Lost, ii. 504: "hellish foes enow.' This form is generally said to be the plural of enough. See quotations from Sidney, Hooker, and Dryden, Addison apud Johnson. One 115. Comp. Paradise Lost, iv. 192. Sonnet to Cromwell. St. John x. 12, 13. of Milton's pamphlets was entitled, The likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church. See also his Of Reformation. 116. Of other care. [What should we say in our present English?] 119. Blind mouthes, &c. Comp. 1. 88. Paradise Lost, v. 711, 718. Milton is indifferent to the verbal incongruity; there is none in sense. Mouths = gluttons. Comp. gula in Latin. See Hor. Sat. II. ii. 40. |