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 VERTICAL SECTION, 
 
 Showing (conjecturally) Milton's cosmography, — the Empyreal Heavens, our Starry 
 
 Universe, Hell, and Chaos. See Preface. 
 
MILTON'S 
 
 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 BOOKS I. AND II, 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND DIAGRAMS, 
 BY 
 
 HOMER B. SPRAGUE, M.A., Ph.D., 
 
 HEAD-MASTER OF THE GIRLS* HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON; AND FORMERLY PRINCIPAL 
 
 OF THE ADELPHI ACADEMY, BROOKLYN, AND PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC 
 
 AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1 *7 
 
 BOSTON: 
 GINN AND HEATH, 
 
 13 Tkemont Place. 
 
 1879. 
 
 Djo. ../.U/J.-.A 
 

 Tf^^Vl 
 
 Copyright, 1879, 
 By Ginn and Heath. 
 
 University Press: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 
 
TO 
 
 THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF OUR ENGLISH 
 LITERATURE, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR FRIEND AND FELLOW-WORKER, 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little book, the outgrowth of teaching, is designed to 
 meet the wants of students. Among the points of difference 
 between it and similar editions, it includes some of the best 
 results of recent investigation, and it omits certain passages 
 that jar on the ^ reverence due to youth.' With very slight 
 exceptions the text is Masson's.* 
 
 The notes may seem at first sight too numerous ; but many 
 of them are intended for teachers, and examination will show 
 that they are calculated to stimulate rather than supersede 
 thought. 
 
 The introductory matter should be read carefully before 
 beginning the critical study. 
 
 The diagrams will assist in understanding Milton's cos- 
 mography. Probably no one of them will be found entirely 
 satisfactory ; but if they awaken the student's interest, if they 
 aid his imagination, and if they lead him to a closer study 
 of the poem, the object of introducing them will have been 
 gained. Some explanation of the two which stand respec- 
 
 * In regard to the use of capital letters, the authority of Wilson on Punctu- 
 ation has generally been followed. 
 
vi PREFACE, 
 
 tively at the beginning and at the end may here be appro- 
 priate. 
 
 Milton recognizes the sphere as the normal shape of worlds. 
 And so, in the * void profound ' of infinite space, during the 
 cycles of past eternity, lay that vast aggregation of matter which 
 constituted the luminous Empyreal Heavens above and the 
 black abysses of Chaos beneath. He tells us that heaven is 
 
 like earth. 
 
 " What if earth 
 
 Be hut the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thoughts" 
 
 To use Brooke's eloquent description in his incomparable 
 Milton Primer J " Heaven is on high, indefinitely extended, 
 and walled towards Chaos with a crystal wall having opal 
 towers and sapphire battlements. In the wall a vast gate 
 opens on Chaos, and from it runs a broad and ample road, 
 * powdered with stars,' whose dust is gold, to the throne of 
 God. The throne is in the midst of Heaven, high on the 
 sacred hill, lost in ineffable light. . . . Around the hill is 
 the vast plain clothed with flowers, watered by living streams 
 among the trees of life, where on great days the angelic assem- 
 bly meets ; and nearer to the hill is the pavement like a sea of 
 jasper. Beyond are vast regions, where are the blissful bowers 
 of 'amarantine shade, fountain, or spring,' . . . and among 
 them the archangels have their royal seats built as Satan's 
 was, far blazing on a hill, of diamond quarries and of golden 
 rocks." * 
 
 Like those of earth, ' this continent of spacious heaven ' has 
 its ocean. That ocean is Chaos. It lies beside and beneath 
 
 * Milton Primer, pp. 84, 85, by Stopfovd A. Brooke (D. Appleton & Go's 
 Series of Classical Writers). 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 heaven, whose shining cliffs and walls rise sheer out of the 
 dark unfathomable depths. It is not homogeneous. It appar- 
 ently has strata. In it there is at least one 'vast vacuity.' 
 Through it Satan, ' with difficulty and labor hard,' 
 
 ' O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.' 
 
 Yet it is an ocean — 
 
 * Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. 
 Up from the bottom turned by furious winds, 
 And surging waves as mountains, to assault 
 Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.* 
 
 Clearly, if heaven has sharp, rigid outlines like the moon, 
 chaos has a shifting, tumultuous surface like the sun. 
 
 Deep in this tremendous abyss lies Hell, perhaps near the 
 centre, possibly at the nadir ; distant, at any rate, from the 
 light of God by three times the radius of our starry universe."^ 
 In the centre of hell is the lake of fire, a 'boiling ocean.' 
 Three vast regions of horror lie in concentric zones around 
 it. First, a belt of fiery volcanic soil ; then, a moist region, 
 through which, like an ocean stream, 
 
 " Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
 Her watery labyrinth ; " 
 
 next, a frozen continent with 
 
 ' A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog ; ' 
 
 * We need not suppose a mathematical exactness. "The moment you 
 furnish Imagination with a yardstick, she abdicates in favor of her statis- 
 tical poor-relation Commonplace." — Lowell on Milton {Among My Books, 
 2d series). 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 and beyond all, 
 
 " At last appear 
 Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof," 
 
 and in them the ninefold gates. 
 
 " Our World, as Milton calls it, the whole solar system and 
 the stars, is linked to Heaven and to Hell [to the latter by the 
 bridge. Par. Lost, II. 1028], and in Chaos. It is a vast hollow- 
 sphere, hung at its zenith by a golden chain from the Empy- 
 rean. ... It is beaten by the winds of Chaos, and has only 
 [sic] light on that side of it which is turned to Heaven. At 
 its very zenith a bright sea flows as of liquid pearl, from which 
 a mighty structure of stairs leads up to Heaven's gate. Over 
 against the stairs a passage down to the earth opens into the 
 hollow sphere." * 
 
 From the gifted critic just quoted, we may cite a paragraph 
 upon Milton's diction and rhythm. " The Style is always 
 great. On the whole it is the greatest in the whole range 
 of English poetry ; so great that when once we have come 
 to know and honor and love it, it so subdues the judgment 
 tliat the judgment can with difficulty do its work with tem- 
 perance. . . . No style, when one has lived in it, is so 
 spacious and so majestic a place to walk in. . . . Fulness 
 of sound, weight of march, compactness of finish, fitness of 
 words to things, fitness of pauses to thought, a strong grasp 
 of tlie main idea while other ideas play round it, power of 
 digression without loss of the power to return, equality of 
 power over vast spaces of imagination, sustained splendor when 
 he soars 
 
 * With plume so strong, so equal and so soft,* 
 * Bi-onke's Milton Priimr, p. 86. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 a majesty in the conduct of thought, and a music in the 
 majesty which fills it with solemn beauty, — belong one and 
 all to the style ; and it gains its highest influence on us, and 
 fulfils the ultimate need of a grand style in being the easy and 
 necessary expression of the very character and nature of the 
 man." * 
 
 The preparation of this little volume has been a continual 
 joy, and the labor bestowed has daily brought its own exceed- 
 ing great reward. Step by step, as the view was nearer, the 
 poem has grown grander, and Milton's genius has seemed more 
 angelic. May this slight contribution lead at least a few others 
 to love more warmly this kingliest of English souls, and to 
 study more intelligently and more reverently this loftiest work 
 of the human imagination. 
 
 Girls' High School, Boston, 
 October 1, 1879. 
 
 * Brooke's Milton Primer^ pp. 83, 84. Compare this with the fine passage 
 on Milton's style and method in Lowell's Among My Books, 2d series, 
 pp. 284-299. As to Milton's character, see the essays in J. R. Seeley's Roman 
 rtn2)ericdism, etc. For many interesting and suggestive remarks on the poem, 
 see Himes's Study of Paradise Lost (Lippincott, 1878). 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Dedication iii 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Contents xi 
 
 Introduction . . xiii-xxxii 
 
 Masson's Critical Comments xiii-xxi 
 
 Himes's " " xxi-xxx 
 
 Quarterly Keview's Critical Comments . . . xxx, xxxi 
 De Quincey's " "... xxxi, xxxii 
 
 Lowell's " " .... xxxii 
 
 Suggestions to Teachers xxxiii 
 
 Milton's Preface on the Verse 1-3 
 
 Paradise Lost. Book 1 5-57 
 
 " " Book II 59-108 
 
 INDEX 109 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 [From the Introduction to Masson's Milton's Poetical WorJcs.'] 
 
 Paradise Lost is an epic. But it is not, like the Iliad or the 
 JEneid, a national epic ; nor is it an epic after any other of the 
 known types. It is an epic of the whole human species — an epic 
 of our entire planet, or indeed of the entire astronomical universe. 
 The title of the poem, though perhaps the best that could have been 
 chosen, hardly indicates beforehand the full extent of the theme. 
 Nor are the opening lines sufficiently descriptive of what is to fol- 
 low. According to them, the song is to be 
 
 " Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
 Brought Death into the world and all our woe, 
 With loss of Eden." 
 
 This is a true description, for the whole story bears on this point. 
 But it is the vast comprehension of the story, both in space and 
 time, as leading to this point, that makes it unique among epics, 
 and entitles Milton to speak of it as involving 
 
 " Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." 
 
 It is, in short, a poetical representation, on the authority of hints 
 from the Book of Genesis and other parts of the Bible, of the his- 
 torical connection between Human Time and Aboriginal or Eternal 
 Infinity, or between our created World and the immeasurable and 
 inconceivable Universe of Pre-human Existence. So far as our 
 World is concerned, the poem starts from that moment when our 
 newly-created Earth, with all the newly-created starry depths about 
 it, had as yet but two human beings upon it. These consequently 
 are, on this side of the pre-supposed Infinite Eternity, the main per- 
 sons of the epic. But we are carried hack into this pre-supposed 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Infinite Eternity ; and tbe grand purpose of the poem is to connect, 
 by a stupendous imagination, certain events or courses of the incon- 
 ceivable history that had been unfolding itself there with the first 
 fortunes of that new azure World which is familiar to us, and more 
 particularly with the first fortunes of that favored ball at the centre 
 whereon those two human creatures walked. Now the person of 
 the epic, through the narration of whose acts this connection is 
 established, is Satan. He, as all critics have perceived, and in a 
 wider sense than most of them have perceived, is the real hero 
 of the poem. He and his actions are the link between that new 
 World of Man, the infancy of which we behold in the poem, and 
 that boundless antecedent Universe of Pre-human existence which 
 the poem assumes. For he was a native of that pre-human uni- 
 verse — one of its greatest and most conspicuous natives ; and what 
 we follow in the poem, when its story is taken chronologically, is 
 the life of this great being, from the time of his yet unimpaired 
 primacy or archangelship among the Celestials, on to that time 
 when, in pursuit of a scheme of revenge, he flings himself into 
 the new experimental World, tries the strength of the new race at 
 its fountain-head, and, by success in his attempt, vitiates Man's 
 portion of space to his own nature and wins possession of it for 
 a season. The attention of the reader is particularly requested to 
 the following remarks and diagrams.* The diagrams are not mere 
 illustrations of what Milton may have conceived in his scheme of 
 the poem. They are actually what he did conceive, and most 
 tenaciously keep before his mind from first to last ; and, unless 
 they are thoroughly grasped, the poem will not be understood as 
 a whole, and many particular portions of it will be misinterpreted. 
 Aboriginally, or in primeval Eternity, before the creation of our 
 Earth or the Starry Universe to which it belongs, universal space is 
 to be considered, according to the requisites of the poem, not as con- 
 taining stars or starry systems at all, but as a sphere of infinite 
 radius — the phrase is, of course, self-contradictory, but it is neces- 
 sary — divided into two hemispheres. The upper of these two 
 hemispheres of primeval Infinity is Heaven, or the Empyrean — a 
 boundless unimaginable region of Light, Freedom, Happiness, and 
 
 * We give but one of Masson's diagrams, the last of his three. His first 
 is simply a circle, with a diameter dra\vn horizontally through it. The second 
 is the same circle, with its diameter, and with an antarctic region like the so- 
 called * south frigirl zone ' of the geogi-aphies. — Ed. 
 
 1 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 Glory, ia the midst whereof God, though omnipresent, has His im- 
 mediate and visible dwelling. He is here surrounded by a vast 
 population of beings, called " the Angels," or " Sons of God," who 
 draw near to His throne in worship, derive thence their nurture and 
 their delight, and yet live dispersed through all the ranges and 
 recesses of the region, leading severally their mighty lives and per- 
 forming the behests of Deity, but organized into companies, orders, 
 and hierarchies. Milton is careful to explain that all that he says 
 of Heaven is said symbolically, and in order to make conceivable 
 by the human imagination what in its own nature is inconceivable ; 
 but, this being explained, he is bold enough in his use of terrestrial 
 analogies. Round the immediate throne of Deity, indeed, there is 
 kept a blazing mist of vagueness, which words are hardly permitted 
 to pierce, though the angels are represented as from time to time 
 assembling within it, beholding the Divine Presence and hearing the 
 Divine Voice. But Heaven at large, or portions of it, are figured 
 as tracts of a celestial Earth, with plain, hill, and valley, whereon 
 the myriads of the Sons of God expatiate, in their two orders of 
 Seraphim and Cherubim, and in their descending ranks as Arch- 
 angels or Chiefs, Princes of various degrees, and individual Powers 
 and Intelligences. Certain differences, however, are implied as dis- 
 tinguishing these Celestials from the subsequent race of Mankind. 
 As they are of infinitely greater prowess, immortal, and of more 
 purely spiritual nature, so their ways even of physical existence and 
 action transcend all that is within human experience. Their forms 
 are dilatable or contractible at pleasure ; they move with incredible 
 swiftness ; and, as they are not subject to any law of gravitation, 
 their motions, though ordinarily represented as horizontal over the 
 Heavenly ground, may as well be vertical or in any other direction, 
 and their aggregations need not, like those of men, be in squares, 
 oblongs, or other plane figures, but may be in cubes, or other rec- 
 tangular or oblique solids, or in spherical masses. These and vari- 
 ous other particulars are to be kept in mind concerning Heaven and 
 its pristine inhabitants*. As respects the other half or hemisphere of 
 the primeval Infinity, though it too is inconceivable in its nature, 
 and has to be described by words which are at best symbolical, less 
 needs be said. For it is Chaos or the Uninhabited — a huge limit- 
 less ocean, abyss, or quagmire, of universal darkness and lifelessness, 
 wherein are jumbled in blustering confusion the elements of all 
 matter, or rather the crude embryons of all the elements, ere as yet 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they are distinguishable. There is no light there, nor propen;t, 
 Earth, Water, Air, or Fire, but only a vast pulp or welter of un- 
 formed matter, in which all these lie tempestuously intermixed. 
 Though the presence of Deity is there potentially too, it is still, as 
 it were, actually retracted thence, as from a realm unorganized and 
 left to Night and Anarchy ; nor do any of the angels wing down into 
 its repulsive obscurities. The crystal floor or wall of Heaven divides 
 them from it ; underneath which, and unvisited of light, save what 
 may glimmer through upon its nearer strata, it howls and rages and 
 stagnates eternally. 
 
 Such is, and has been, the constitution of the Universal Infin- 
 itude, from ages immemorial in the angelic reckoning. But lo ! at 
 last a day in the annals of Heaven when the grand monotony of 
 existence hitherto is disturbed and broken. On a day — " such a 
 day as Heaven's great year brings forth " (V. 582, 583) — all the 
 Empyreal host of Angels, called by imperial summons from all 
 the ends of Heaven, assemble innumerably before the throne of the 
 Almighty ; beside whom, imbosomed in bliss, sat the Divine Son. 
 They had come to hear this divine decree : — 
 
 " Hear, all ye Angels, Progeny of Light, 
 Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, 
 Hear my decree which unrevoked shaU stand ! 
 This day I have begot whom I declare 
 My only Son, and on this holy hill 
 Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 
 At my right hand. Your Head I him appoint,- 
 And by myself have sworn to him shall bow 
 All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord." 
 
 With joy and obedience is this decree received throughout the 
 hierarchies, save in one quarter. One of the first of the Archangels 
 in Heaven, if not the very first, — the coequal of Michael, Gabriel, 
 and Raphael, if not their superior, — is the Archangel known after- 
 wards (for his first name in Heaven is lost) as Satan or Lucifer. In 
 him the effect of the decree is rage, envy, pride, the resolution to 
 rebel. He conspires with his next subordinate, known afterwards 
 as Beelzebub ; and there is formed by them that fiiction in Heaven 
 which includes at length one third of the entire Heavenly host. 
 Then ensue the wars in Heaven — Michael and the loyal Angels 
 warring against Satan and the rebel Angels, so that for two days 
 
 1 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 /l; EmpjTean is in uproar. But on the third day the Messiah 
 himself rides forth in his chariot of power, and armed with ten 
 thousand thunders. Right on he drives, in his sole might, through 
 the rebel ranks, till they are trampled and huddled, in one indis- 
 criminate flock, incapable of resistance, before him and his fires. 
 But his purpose is not utterly to destroy tbem, — only to expel them 
 from Heaven. Underneath their feet, accordingly, the crystal wall 
 or floor of Heaven opens wide, rolling inwards, and disclosing a 
 spacious gap into the dark Abyss or Chaos, Horror-struck they 
 start back ; but worse urges them behind. Headlong they fling 
 themselves down, eternal wrath burning after them, and driving 
 them stiU down, down, through Chaos, to the place prepared for 
 them. 
 
 The place prepared for them ! Yes, for now there is a modifica- 
 tion in the map of Universal Space to suit the changed condition of, 
 the Universe. At the bottom of what has hitherto been Chaos 
 there is now marked out a kind of Antarctic region, distinct from 
 the body of Chaos proper. This is Hell — a vast region of fire, 
 sulphurous lake, plain, and mountain, and of all forms of fiery and 
 icy torment. It is into this nethermost and dungeon-like portion 
 of space that the Fallen Angels are thrust. For nine days and 
 nights they have been falling through Chaos, or rather being 
 driven through Chaos by the Messiah's pursuing thunders, before 
 they reach this new home destined for them (VI. 871). When 
 they do reach if, the roof closes over them and shuts them in. 
 Meanwhile the Messiah has returned into highest Heaven, and there 
 is rejoicing over the expulsion of the damned. 
 
 For the moment, therefore, there are three divisions of Universal 
 Space, — Heaven, Chaos, and Hell. Almost immediately, how- 
 ever, there is a fourth. Not only have the expelled Angels been nine 
 days and nights in falling through Chaos to reach Hell ; but after 
 they have reached Hell and it has closed over them, they lie for 
 another period of nine days and nights (I. 50-53) stupefied and 
 bewildered in the fiery gulf. It is during this second nine days that 
 there takes place a great event, which farther modifies the map of 
 Infinitude. Long had there been talk in Heaven of a new race of 
 beings to be created at some time by the Almighty, inferior in some 
 respects to the Angels, but in the history of whom and of God's 
 dealings with them there was to be a display of the divine power 
 and love which even the Angels might contemplate with wonder. 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The time for the creation of this new race of beings has now arrived. 
 Scarcely have the rebel Angels been enclosed in Hell, and Chaos 
 has recovered from the turmoil of the descent of such a rout through 
 its depths, when the Paternal Deity, addressing the Son, tells hiiu 
 that in order to repair the loss caused to Heaven, the predetermined 
 creation of Man and of the World of Man shall now take effect. It 
 is for the Son to execute the will of the Father. Straightway he 
 goes forth on his creating errand. The everlasting gates of Heaven 
 open wide to let him pass forth ; and, clothed with majesty, and 
 accompanied with thousands of Seraphim and Cherubim, anxious 
 to behold the great work to be done, he does pass forth — far into 
 that very Chaos through which the Rebel Angels have so recently 
 I'allen, and which now intervenes between Heaven and Hell. At 
 length he stays his fervid wheels, and, taking the golden compasses 
 in his hands, centres one point of them where he stands and turns 
 the other through the obscure profundity around (VII. 224-231). 
 Thus are marked out, or cut out, through the body of Chaos, the 
 limits of the new Universe of Man — that Starry Universe which 
 to us seems measureless and the same as Infinity itself, but which is 
 really only a beautiful azure spheje or drop, insulated in Chaos, and 
 hung at its topmost point or zenith from the Empyrean. But though 
 the limits of the new experimental Creation are thus at once marked 
 out, the completion of the Creation is a work of Six Days (VII. 
 242-550). On the last of these, to crown the work, the happy Earth 
 receives its first human pair — the appointed lords of the entire 
 new Creation, surveying it with newly-awakened gaze from the 
 Paradise where they are placed, and where they have received the 
 one sole command that is to try their allegiance. And so, resting 
 from his labors, and beholding all that he had made, that it was 
 good, the Messiah returned to his Father, reascending through the 
 golden gates which were now just over the zenith of the new World, 
 and were its point of suspension from the Empyrean Heaven ; and 
 tlie Seventh Day or Sabbath was spent in songs of praise by all the 
 Heavenly hosts over the finished work, and in contemplation of it 
 as it hung beneath them, 
 
 " another Heaven 
 
 From Heaven -gate not far, founded in view 
 
 On the clear hyaline." 
 
 And now, accordingly, this was the diagram of the Universal In- 
 finitude: — 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 XIX 
 
 mii^:vi:m 
 
 OR 
 
 THE EMFYHEAM 
 
 jmZZ ^ I7>OOJl OFJlKAVEy, 
 
 CHAOS. 
 
 ci-i/\as. 
 
 CHAQS- 
 
 HHI^X.. 
 
 There are the three regions of Heaven, Chaos, and Hell, as before ; 
 but there is also now a fourth region, hung drop-like into Chaos by 
 an attachment to Heaven at the north pole or zenith. This is the 
 New World, or the Starry Universe — all that Universe of orbs 
 and galaxies which man's vision can reach by utmost power of tele- 
 scope, and which even to his imagination is illimitable. And yet 
 as to the proportions of this world to some part of tbe total map 
 Milton dares to be exact. The distance from its nadir or lowest 
 l>oint to the upper boss of Hell is exactly equal to its own radius ; 
 or, in other words, the distance of Hell-gate from Heaven-gate is 
 exactly three semidiameters of the Human or Starry Universe 
 (1. 73, 74). 
 
 Meanwhile, just as this final and stupendous modification of the 
 map of Infinitude has been accomplished, Satan and his rebel ad- 
 herents in Hell begin to recover from their stupor — Satan the first, 
 and the others at his call. There ensue Satan's first speech to them, 
 their first surveys of their new domain, their building of their 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 palace of Pandemonium, and their deliberations there in full coun- 
 cil as to their future policy. Between Moloch's advice for a renewal 
 of open war with Heaven, and Belial's and Mammon's counsels, 
 which recommend acquiescence in their new circumstances and a 
 patient effort to make the best of them, Beelzebub insinuates the 
 proposal, which is really Satan's and which is ultimately carried. 
 It is that there should be an excursion from Hell back through 
 Chaos, to ascertain whether that new Universe, with a new race of 
 beings in it, of which there had been so much talk in Heaven, and 
 which there was reason to think might come into existence about 
 this time, had come into existence. If it had, might not means be 
 found to vitiate this new Universe and the favored race that was to 
 possess it, and to drag them down to the level of Hell itself ? . . . 
 
 Satan's counsel having been adopted, it is Satan himself that ad- 
 ventures the perilous expedition up through Chaos in quest of the 
 new Universe. . . . He emerges into the hideous Chaos overhead. 
 His journey up through it is arduous. Climbing, swimming, wad- 
 ing, flying, through the boggy consistency — now falling plumb- 
 down thousands of fathoms, again carried upwards by a gust or 
 explosion — he reaches at length, about midway in his journey, the 
 central throne and pavilion where Chaos personified and Night 
 have their government. . . . After much farther flying, tacking, and 
 steering, he at last reaches the upper confines of Chaos, where its 
 substance seems thinner, so that he can wing about more easily, and 
 where a glimmering of the light from above begins also to appear. 
 For a while in this calmer space he weighs his wings to behold at 
 leisure (II. 1046) the sight that is breaking upon him. And what 
 a sight ! 
 
 " Far off the Empyreal Heaven extended wide 
 In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
 With opal towers and battlements adorned 
 Of living sapphire — once his native seat ; 
 And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
 This pendent World, in bigness as a star 
 Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon." 
 
 Care must be taken not to misinterpret this passage. . . . The 
 " pendent World " which Satan here sees is not the Earth at all, but 
 the entire Starry Universe, or Mundane System, hung dro]>-like by 
 a golden touch from the Ejupyroan above it. In proportion to this 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 Empyrean, at the distance whence Satan gazes, even the Starry- 
 Universe pendent from it is but as a star of smallest magnitude on 
 the edge of the fuU or crescent moon.* 
 
 I 
 
 [From Professor Himes's Study of Paradise Lost.'] 
 
 Hell is said to be 
 
 " As far removed from God and light of Heaven 
 As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole." 
 
 The direction of this extent is, of course, in accordance with popu- 
 lar fancy and language, downward. The measuring-line is from the 
 centre to the utmost limit of the Starry Universe. To one who has 
 received, as had Milton, some idea through the telescope of the im- 
 mense distance of the nearest stars, this unit of length will seem 
 grand enough for the sublimity of the subject. Dante, Virgil, and 
 Homer had supposed the place of punishment to be within the earth. 
 Dante's Inferno consists of nine circles extending beyond the centre 
 of the earth and increasing in horror towards the lowest, to which 
 are consigned such arch-traitors as Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Brutus, 
 and Cassius. Homer and Virgil, to whom Milton took pains to 
 conform as nearly as possible, recognized below the Empyrean three 
 regions, one above the other and of equal height. The first was 
 the Ethereal, extending from Heaven to Earth ; the second was 
 Hades, of like depth ; the third and lowest was Tartarus, or the 
 place of punishment, an equal distance below Hades. Homer, 
 speaking of the location of 1 artarus, teaches that it extends " as far 
 below Hades as the distance from Heaven to Earth." 
 
 ToacTov evepd* 'AiSeco, o(rop ovpavos ecrr anb yairjs. 
 
 (Iliad, VIII. 16.) 
 
 Virgil, measuring from the surface of the Earth, and of course 
 including Hades, says, " Then Tartarus itself sinks deep down and 
 extends towards the shades twice as far as is the prospect upward to 
 the ethereal throne of Heaven " — 
 
 * In a foot-note on this passage Masson adds, "Heaven or the Empyrean 
 being necessarily represented in onr diagram as of definite dimensions, instead 
 of infinite or indefinite, the minuteness of this Mundane System in comparison 
 has to be imagined.'* 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Turn Tartanis ipse 
 Bis patet in prseceps tan turn, tenditque sub umbras, 
 Quantus ad setherium coeli suspectus Olympum." 
 
 (^neid, VT. 577-9.) |l 
 
 Milton's phraseology is equivalent to saying that the whole dis- f , 
 tance from Heaven to Hell is three times as far as from Heaven to 
 Earth ; for, because the centre of the Universe was anciently sup- 
 posed to be occupied by the Earth, " from the centre to the pole " 
 is the same unit of measure, from Heaven to Earth, used in the old 
 poetic tradition. It is well to observe this agreement of the great 
 epic poets, since, on account of their difference in manner of express- 
 ing the same thing, a learned commentator, Bishop Newton, and 
 others through him, have been led grievously astray. He says, " It 
 is observable that Homer makes the seat of Hell as far beneath the 
 deepest pit of Earth as the Heaven is above the Earth. Virgil 
 makes it twice as far, and Milton thrice as far ; as if these three 
 great poets had stretched their utmost genius and vied with each 
 other in extending his idea of Hell farthest." A little reflection 
 will convince any one that such petty artifices by his successors to 
 outrival Homer would be worthy only of contempt, and that Virgil 
 and Milton would have been the last in the world to suffer, or be 
 guilty of, this irreverence to their great Master. But while observ- 
 ing this beautiful deference to the Father of Epic Poetry, Milton, 
 with his superior knowledge of the Earth as a mere point compared 
 with the amplitude of the Starry Universe, was able to use this same 
 measuring-line (from Heaven to Earth) in order to locate Hell, as he 
 says in his Argument, " not in the centre (for Heaven and Earth 
 may be supposed as not yet made, certainly not yet accursed), but 
 in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos." 
 
 The partial description of this place given in the first book may 
 be regarded as the development of a few Scriptural phrases, such as 
 "outer darkness " and " the lake that burns with fire and brim- 
 stone." The darkness is called " utter " by Milton to distinguish it 
 both in quality and place from " middle " or chaotic darkness, as 
 further from heavenly light and more fearful. It is also called 
 " darkness visible," which to those denizens of Hell 
 " Serves only to discover sights of woe, 
 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes." 
 
 The Lake of Fire is a region of vast extent, and elsewhere called a 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 "boiling ocean" (II. 183). Words of the most terrible energy are 
 employed to describe the fierceness and power of that furnace fire. 
 It is " a fiery deluge fed with ever-burning sulphur ; " there are 
 " floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fiLre," " fiery waves," 
 " liquid fire," and '^ upper, nether, and surrounding fires." But as 
 this is a lake, it must have a shore. The shore is described as dry 
 land burning with " solid fire," — a broad belt of the fiercest vol- 
 canic nature surrounding the "inflamed sea," as similar belts, though 
 less in extent and power, gird our earthly oceans. There is a gradual 
 shifting of the scene from the " burning marie " of this belt to the 
 " burnt ground " at a distance from the lake, — a region parched and 
 dry, but more tolerable to the fallen spirits. . . . 
 
 In the first book there is a description of the central Lake of Fire, 
 which, from its designation as a pool, or pit, and from various other 
 expressions, may be regarded as sunken precipitously and far below 
 the surrounding shore. It is literally and not extravagantly speak- 
 ing, of oceanic extent. Into this pool the four rivers, Phlegethon, 
 Acheron, Styx, and Cocytus, disgorge their baleful streams. Towards 
 the sources of these rivers, which the imagination at once fixes in the 
 direction of the four cardinal points, the angelic bands take up their 
 " flying march." Their flight, swifter than the lightning-flash, bears 
 them quickly over the vast spaces drained by the rivers and far into 
 the wild territory beyond, over the second grand circle of Hell, to 
 the slow and silent waters of Lethe. This stream ought, in order to 
 preserve suitable proportions, to be like the " ocean stream " in ex- 
 tent ; and the terms "flood," "ford," "sound," used to designate it, 
 allow the supposition. The name " labyrinth " need not refer to 
 any intricate windings of the stream, but may, as later (IX. 183), be 
 descriptive of a simple circular shape. It can, therefore, be regarded 
 as the third circle of Milton's Inferno. The words " frozen conti- 
 nent," applied to what lies beyond, define the nature of that desolate, 
 stormy, chilling border-land, which constitutes the fourth and last 
 main division of the vast region. If these conclusions are just, the 
 realm of evil is divided by concentric circles into four parts, con- 
 signed respectively to the four elemental properties of ancient 
 physics that in Chaos appear as four warring champions. Hot, Dry, 
 Moist, and Cold. (See Professor Himes's diagram on next page.) 
 
 The first, or central region, is distinguished for destructive heat ; 
 the second, for desolating dryness ; the third, for a barren waste of 
 water that will not relieve thirst ; the fourth, for stiffening cold. 
 
XXIV 
 
 introduction: 
 
 EAST. 
 
 WEST. 
 
 The four ctampions, here no longer struggling with one another, 
 can bring in turn all their malignant force to bear upon the denizens 
 of Hell. 
 
 It must be kept in mind that Dante's Hell was entirely included 
 within the Earth, while Milton's was not only larger than the Earth, 
 but in horizontal extent wider than the diameter of the Starry Uni- 
 verse, and in its depth, designated by the adjective " bottomless," 
 absolutely infinite. It would seem like trifling if Milton, instead 
 of producing only the most general features of this universe of 
 death, had occupied himself with giving particular descriptions of 
 small spaces and recording measurements in feet and inches. He 
 has, however, made a map of the four grand divisions which is 
 more vague and indefinite than Dante's of his nine circles only in 
 the sense in which a map of a hemisphere is more vague and in- 
 definite than one of a county. (See Professor Himes's diagram above.) 
 
 Besides, Milton's division is upon a natural, while Dante's is upon 
 an artificial basis. If it is asked why there should be nine circles 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 and no more nor less, no better answer can be given than that nine 
 is a favorite poetical number. There is no room for such a question 
 with reference to Milton's arrangement. The four elemental prop- 
 erties appear wherever matter appears ; and if in the World they 
 combine harmoniously to produce comfort and life, while in Chaos 
 they neutralize one another, why may they not in Hell serve sepa- 
 rately and in turn the purpose of punishment ? Milton's adjust- 
 ment, in giving Heat and Cold, out of respect to popular language, 
 the position of extremes, is also natural and proper. 
 
 The explorations of the four bands tended to dissipate any hope 
 which the fallen spirits may have conceived of becoming inured to 
 the fierce flames of their habitation so as not to feel this kind of 
 torment. There is a region of ice to which those spirits are periodi- 
 cally transported from their bed of fire, so that no length of endur- 
 ance can accustom their essence to the tortures and remove the 
 sensibility to pain. Caednion, the Anglo-Saxon monk-poet, who 
 drew his inspiration from the same sacred source as Milton, and 
 whom the latter is charged with imitating, also speaks of the 
 fierce extremes of heat and cold which the devils in Hell are 
 doomed to suffer : — 
 
 " Then cometh ere dawn 
 The eastern wind, 
 Frost bitter-cold, 
 Ever fire or dart; 
 Some hard torment 
 They must have." 
 
 The means of torture in these regions of woe are many and varied. 
 The tantalizing presence of the stream of Oblivion, the monstrous 
 prodigies, the unnumbered forms of terror hiding in every cave and 
 thicker shade, threatening from every mountain-top, intensify the 
 despair of the bold discoverers : — 
 
 " Thus roving on 
 In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands 
 With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 
 Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
 No rest." 
 
 Homer and Virgil both acquaint us with many forms of punish- 
 ment in Tartarus, ^neas on his visit to the world of shades was 
 not admitted within its gates, on the ground that no holy person is 
 
X XVI IN TROD UCTIOX. 
 
 allowed to tread the accursed threshold. The Sibyl described to 
 him some of the punishments within, but added at last, " Had I a 
 hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, a voice of iron, 1 could 
 not comprehend all the species of their crimes nor enumerate the 
 names of all their punishments." Dante in his construction of the 
 Inferno appears to strain his ingenuity in originating modes of tor- 
 ture fur the wicked, beginnmg with the stinging of gadflies and 
 ending in the lowest circle with the crunching of sinners between 
 the teeth of the Emperor himself of the kingdom dolorous. Milton 
 surpasses all his predecessors in judgment and taste in avoiding 
 whatever is belittling, grotesque, or atrocious, and in being consist- 
 ently great and sublime and awful. . . . 
 
 Many features in the delineation of Hell-gates are evidently 
 adapted from Virgil's description of the gates of Tartarus. Milton's 
 gates are thrice threefold, — the inner folds being of brass, the middle 
 of iron, and the outer of rock. Masson imagines the gates to be at 
 the highest point of the concave roof of Hell ; but here he is plainly 
 in error. They are in the wall forming the circumference, and not 
 in the roof at all. It is true that Satan soared towards the concave 
 roof, but after the broad circle of Lethe had been crossed he de- 
 scended again before coming to the gates. How could the stride of 
 Death have shaken Hell had he been in the air and not on the 
 ground ? All the language implies that the gates stood in a perpen- 
 dicular and did not lie in a horizontal wall. . . . 
 
 Through the gates thrown open by sin, Satan passes out into 
 Chaos. In this grand division of the Universe there is an absence 
 of that creative power which made Hell a place of punishment 
 and Heaven a place of bliss. In Chaos matter is in its primitive 
 condition, without the impress of Divine law and order. The ele- 
 mental properties, instead of entering into their combinations and 
 forming land, or sea, or air, or fire, are in a state of isolation and 
 force and war. It is a region presided over by Chaos, Chance, 
 and Night, and contains that confusion, uncertainty, and darkness 
 appropriate to them. . . . Professor Masson makes a very natural 
 oversight in the location of the throne and court of the Anarch 
 of the Aln'ss, saying of Satan on his voyage, *' He reaches at 
 length, about viiduxiy in his journey, the central throne and pa- 
 vilion where Chaos personiHed and Niglit have their government. ' 
 This court, the most noisy and tumultuous portion of Chaos, is 
 not, as we would anticii)ate, estaljlished in the interior, but on the 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 XXVll 
 
XX vin INTROD UCTION. 
 
 frontier, in order more easily to defend his possessions against fur- 
 ther encroachments. The reason here given for such a h:)cation of 
 the throne would seem sufficient, if the fact were established upon 
 an independent basis, but scarcely of importance enough in itself to 
 warrant a departure from so pronounced a rule as that requiring the 
 seat of government in an ideal realm to be in the interior. Why, 
 then, does the poet so expressly put the dark Pavilion of Chaos and 
 old Night so near the light of Heaven ? Is it not in obscure allu- 
 sion to the very popular notion that the darkest hour is just before 
 the dawn '? The properties of Night as well as of Confusion must 
 appear in a realm of Chaos and Night. 
 
 The gates of Hell, from which Satan began his flight over the 
 vast Abrupt, are below the Empyrean three semi-diameters of the 
 Mundane Universe. " God and light of Heaven " are both sup- 
 posed to be withdrawn from Chaos, but they are coextensive with 
 the Empyrean. Three plains, one above the other and separated by 
 the constant unit of measure, the distance " from the centre to the 
 utmost pole," are recognizable in this infinite region of Chaos. The 
 lowest plane we will call that of Tartarus, the middle one that of 
 Hades, and the third that of Elysium. ... As Satan issued from Hell- 
 gates, his course was at first upward, until he reached the plain of 
 Hades ; then to the right an indefinite distance, until he arrived 
 at the Pavilion of Chaos ; then obliquely upward again, as along 
 the slant height of a Pyramid, to the plane of Elysium, where he 
 first discovered a glimmer of Heavenly light ; and then directly 
 to the right a second time, until he stood upon the nearest boss 
 of the wall of our Universe. (See Professor Himes's diagram on 
 page xix.) 
 
 [Resemblance of Pandemonium to the Pantheon. From Himes's 
 
 Study of Paradise Lost.'] 
 
 With reference to the word Pandemonium, Masson remarks that 
 " some thmk Milton the inventor of it, formed on the analogy 
 of the Pantheon." Much more than that : the infernal Capitol 
 itself is almost the exact transcript of the Roman Pantheon, or 
 rather, perhaps, we ought to say that according to Milton's con- 
 ception the former is the archetype after which the latter was 
 made. Standing at a little distance, the fallen spirits could see it 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 "Built like a temple, where pilasters round 
 Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 
 With golden architrave ; nor did there want 
 Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 
 The roof was fretted gold." 
 Almost every word is suggestive of the Pantheon, which was a 
 tcmjAe, of a round shape, and encircled with two rows of 'pilasters. 
 Doric pillars are by Milton substituted for Corinthian as being 
 more chaste and better suited for a hall of council The archi- 
 trave, the cornice, the frieze, the statuary, here called bossy sculp- 
 tures, are all prominent objects in the earthly temple of the gods 
 as in their Plutonian Capitol. As the roof of Pandemonium is of 
 fretted gold, so that of the Pantheon was formerly covered with 
 plates of gilded bronze, until the latter were carried away by spoilers 
 to Constantinople. 
 
 Upon a nearer approach and entrance to this infernal structure, 
 the likeness to its earthly copy is discovered in a still greater 
 number of particulars. 
 
 " The ascending pile 
 Stood fixed her stately highth ; and straight the doors, 
 Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
 Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 
 And level pavement : from the arched roof, 
 Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
 Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
 With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 
 As from a sky." 
 
 The extraordinary air of majesty of the exterior impresses all 
 who behold the Pantheon. The doors in both archetype and copy 
 were of bronze. The earthly structure, being by far the largest of 
 ancient times, has its ample sptaces within ; though these are narrow 
 in comparison with that spacious hall, " like a covered field," con- 
 structed by Mulciber. The wonderful pavement and the vaulted 
 roof lined with silver likewise used to engage the attention of 
 visitors to the Pantheon, but the circular opening of twenty-six 
 feet in diameter in the centre of the roof, lighting the interior 
 with magical eflect directly from the shy, is the most astonishing 
 of all. There was no bright sky in that world of nether dark- 
 ness, and the want of light from this source was supplied by the 
 circular rows of burning cressets. 
 
XXX IN TROD UCTION. 
 
 Since every one of the dozen or more features mentioned in 
 describing Pandemonium coincides with a similar prominent 
 feature in the Pantheon, it seems surprising that none of Mil- 
 ton's admirers who have seen the Pantheon appear to have recog- 
 nized the likeness of the two structures. Besides, it was to be 
 anticipated that a structure erected by the devils in Hell, and one 
 erected by men under their influence on Earth, would resemble 
 each other. The propriety of the poet's course is manifest, and 
 well supported by analogy. As the temple on Mount Moriah, 
 dedicated to the only true God, was built under Divine instruc- 
 tion according to the pattern of things in Heaven, would not the 
 temple devoted to all the demons be built by men under their 
 inspiration after the pattern of things in Hell V It is the more 
 essential to observe such a fact because it helps to establish a very 
 important principle in the interpretation of the poem, viz., that 
 Milton usually, if not always, has a substantial basis for his im- 
 agination to act upon. He describes so confidently because he 
 describes wliat he has seen. (See the picture of the Pantheon on 
 another page.) 
 
 [From a Critique in the Quarterly Review, reprinted in Littell's 
 Living Age, March 10, 1877, entitled A French Critic (Edmond 
 Scherer) on Milton.] 
 
 Milton has always the strong, sure touch of the master. His 
 power both of diction and of rhythm is unsurpassable, and it is char- 
 acterized by being always present, not depending on an access of 
 emotion, not intermittent, but, like the grace of Raphael, working 
 in its possessor like a constant gift of nature. Milton's style has 
 the same propriety and soundness in presenting plain matters as in 
 the comparatively smooth task for a poet of presenting grand ones. 
 His rhythm is as admirable where, as in the line, 
 
 ' And Tiresias and Phineus prophets old,' 
 it is unusual, as in such lines as, 
 
 ' With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms,' 
 where it is simplest. And what high praise this is, we may best 
 appreciate by considering the ever-recurring failure, both in rhythm 
 and in diction, which we find in the so-called Miltonic verse of 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxi 
 
 Thomson, Cowper, Wordsworth. What leagues of lumbering 
 movement ! What desperate endeavors, as in Wordsworth's 
 
 ' And at the Hoop alighted, famous inn,' 
 to render a platitude endurable by making it pompous ! Shake- 
 speare himself, divine as are his gifts, has not, of the marks of 
 the master, this one — perfect sureness of style. Alone of English 
 poets, alone in English art, Milton has it ; he is our great artist in 
 style, our one first-rate master in the grand style. He is as truly a 
 master in this style as the great Greeks are, or Virgil, or Dante. 
 The number of such masters is so limited that a man acquires a 
 world-rank in poetry and art, instead of a mere local rank, by being 
 counted to them. But Milton's importance to us Englishmen, by 
 virtue of this distinction of his, is incalculable. The charm of a 
 master's unfailing touch in diction and in rhythm, no one, after all, 
 can feel so profoundly as his own countrymen. Invention, Y)lan, 
 wit, pathos, thought, — all of them are in great measure capable of 
 being detached from the original work itself, and of being exported 
 for admiration abroad. Diction and rhythm are not. . . . 
 
 For the English artist in any branch, if he is a true artist, the 
 study of Milton may well have an indescribable attraction. It gives 
 him lessons which nowhere else from an Englishman's work can he 
 obtain, and feeds a sense which English literature, in general, seems 
 too much, bent on disappointing and baffling. And this sense is yet 
 so deep-seated in human nature — this sense of style — that prob- 
 ably not for artists alone, but for all intelligent Englishmen who 
 read him, its gratification by Milton's poetry is a large, though often 
 not fully recognized part of his charm, and a very wholesome and 
 fruitful one. 
 
 [From De Quincey's Milton vs. Southeij and Landor.'] 
 
 Angelic was the ear of Milton. Many are his frima facie anom- 
 alous lines. Many are the suspicious lines which I have seen many 
 a critic poring into with eyes made up for mischief, yet with a mis- 
 giving that all was not quite safe, very much like an old raven look- 
 ing down on a marrow-bone. In fact, such is the metrical skill of 
 the man, and such the perfection of his metrical sensibility, that, on 
 any attempt to take liberties with a passage of his, you feel as when 
 coming in a forest upon what seems a dead lion ; perhaps he may 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 not be dead, but only sleeping ! nay, perhaps he may not be sleep- 
 ing, but only shamming ! You have a jealousy, as to Milton, even 
 in the most flagrant case of almost palpable error, that, after all, 
 there may be a plot in it ! 
 
 [From Lowell's Among My Books, Vol. II.] 
 
 The strain heard in the " Nativity Ode," in " The Solemn Music," 
 and in " Lycidas," is of a higher mood, as regards metrical construc- 
 tion, than anything that had thrilled the English ear before ; giving 
 no uncertain augury of him who was to show what sonorous metal 
 lay silent till he touched the keys in the epical organ-pipes of our 
 various language that have never since felt the strain of such pre- 
 vailing breath. 
 
PAEADISE LOST. 
 
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHEES. 
 
 To insure systematic and thorough treatment, something like the 
 following may be required of pupils in class exercises : — 
 
 1. Read aloud, as well as you can, or repeat from memory, the passage 
 assigned. 
 
 2. Translate into your own words all parts of the passage. 
 
 3. Explain any peculiarities, obscurities, or uncommon use of language. 
 
 4. What is the object of the author in the passage as a whole ? Is 
 this object relevant to his general purpose in the composition ? Is the 
 passage needful ? or superfluous ? 
 
 5. What particular thoughts or topics make up the passage ? Are the 
 particulars well selected ? well arranged ? sufficient ? consistent with 
 what he states elsewhere ? 
 
 (6. Is the language characterized by grammatical purity or coiTect- 
 ness ? by clearness or perspicuity ? by force or energy ? by elegance or 
 beauty ?) 
 
 (7. What "figures of speech" are found? Is the author happy in 
 his use of figurative language ?) 
 
 (8. What of the poetical feet ? verse ? csesura ? stanza ? harmony ?) 
 
 9. Point out any other merits or defects (anything else that is "note- 
 worthy as regards originality, insight, vividness, sublimity, grace, beauty, 
 wit, wisdom, humor, pathos, logical force, principles illustrated, etc.). 
 
MILTON'S PREFACE, 
 
 THE VERSE. 
 
 The measure is English heroic verse without rime, as that 
 of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; rime being no 
 necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in 
 longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age to 
 set off wretched matter and lame metre ; graced indeed since by 
 the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but 
 much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express 
 many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else 
 they would have expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, 
 some, both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note, have re- 
 jected rime, both in longer and shorter works, as have also long 
 since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all ju- 
 
 The Verse. Most of the copies of the first edition (published in 1667) 
 did not contain this preface from the hand of the author. But in 1668 
 it was inserted in those which remained to be bound. There was added 
 a statement by the printer as follows: — ''Courteous Reader: There 
 was no Argument at first intended to the book ; but for the satis- 
 faction of many that have desired it, I have procured it, and withal 
 that which stumbled many others, why the poem rhymes not." — 
 Our best English tragedies. Those of Shakespeare ? In Phillips's The- 
 atrum Poetarum, we are supposed to have Milton's judgment of Shake- 
 speare's tragedies ; for Phillips was Milton's nephew and pupil, and 
 his book bears seeming traces of Milton's hand. The language is, *' In 
 tragedy never any expressed a more lofty and tragic height ; never 
 any represented Nature more purely to the life." — The invention of a 
 barbarous age to set off wretched matter and lame metre, etc. In 
 Roger Ascham's Schole-Master (1571), there is a passage which re- 
 
 1 
 
2 THE VERSE. 
 
 dicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight ; which con- 
 sists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense 
 variously drawn out from one verse into another ; not in the 
 jinghng sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned 
 ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect, 
 
 niarkably coincides with this preface of Milton's. He stigmatizes * our 
 rude beggarly rhyming, brought first into Italy by Goths and Huns, 
 wlien all good verses, and all good learning too, were destroyed by them.' 
 " Milton's invective against Rhyme, I suspect, is to be received aun 
 grano. He was probably provoked to strength of statement by having 
 heard of the ' stumbling ' of many of the first readers of Paradise Lost, 
 and perhaps of the outcry of some critics at the novelty of the verse. 
 Meaning mainly to defend his choice of Blank verse for a poem of such 
 an order, he may have let his expression sweep beyond the exact bounds 
 of his intention. For, though he had used Blank verse in his own earlier 
 poetry, as in Comus, had not the bulk of that poetry been in rhyme ? 
 Nay, though he was to persist in Blank Verse, with fresh liberties and 
 variations, in the two remaining poems of his life — Paradise Regained 
 and Samson Agonistes — was he not in the choruses of Samson Jgonistes, 
 to revert occasionally to Rhyme, and to use it in a most conscious and 
 most cunningly artistic manner ? " — Masson. — Apt numbers. By 
 this expression is probably meant what Pope lays down as a rule, — 
 
 *' The sound should seem an echo to the sense," — 
 the subtle sympathy which Cowper points out between souls and sounds. 
 Dr. Edwin Guest remarks as follows : "Perhaps no man ever paid the 
 same attention to the quality of his rhythm as Milton. In the flow of 
 his rhythm, in the quality of his letter sounds, in the disposition of his 
 pauses, his verse almost ever f-ts the subject." — Fit quantity of syl- 
 lables. By this is probably meant that he * wished to discourage any 
 strain upon the natural rhythm of the language ; he would have it 
 adapted and not wrested to the purpose of metre,' — The sense variously 
 drawn out from one verse into another. No blank verse ever sur- 
 passed Milton's in the variety of the pauses. The ccesura of the verse 
 (by which is here meant not the so-called classical csesura, but the rhe- 
 torical pause required by the sense at the end of a period or of some 
 portion of a period, though not at the end of a line) may occur any- 
 where. It occurs oftenest at the end of the third foot (i. e. after the 
 sixth syllable), as in Par. Lost, I, 1. 2. In the same book, 1. 509, it 
 occurs after the 1st syllable ; in 573, after the 2d syl. ; in 5 and 56, 
 after the 3d ; in 6, 41, 797, after the 4th ; in 71 and 533, after the 
 
I 
 
 THE VERSE. 3 
 
 then, of rime, so little is to be taken for a defect, though it 
 may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be 
 esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty 
 recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern 
 bondage of riming. 
 
 5th ; in 54 and 615, after the 6th ; in 53 and 309, after the 7th ; in 12 
 and 742, after the 8th ; in 386 and 443, Book I., and 547 and 573, Book 
 II., after the 9th. Point out other instances of this ccesura in each posi- 
 tion. — An example set, the first in English, etc. Here we have a 
 casual glimpse of Milton's boldness, amounting at times almost to au- 
 dacity. It is a hint, too, of that passion for liberty which in one form or 
 another appears in almost everything he wrote : yet the reader will ob- 
 serve with what reverent caution Milton shrinks from prying into the 
 forbidden mysteries of God (see VII. 94, 95, 111, 120, 121 ; VIII. 167-8, 
 172-3, etc.) ; and how the poem emphasizes, most of all, obedience (see V. 
 611-12, 822, 900 ; VI. 36, 909 to 912 ; VIII. 633 to 643). —Bondage of 
 riming. It will be interesting and profitable to study the advantages 
 and disadvantages of rhyme, to collect choice passages illustrative of its 
 beauty, and to balance against them the finest unrhymed lines. (See in 
 Masson's Introduction to Paradise Lost, pp. 14, 15, an account of Dry- 
 den's interview with Milton, and Dryden's attempt 'to putt Paradise Lost 
 into a drama in rhyme ' ! See the verses of Andrew Marvell prefixed 
 to the 2d edition of Paradise Lost.) Says Keightley, " The verse of Mil- 
 ton and the great dramatists is not decasyllabic, but five-foot ; . . . 
 besides the two dissyllabic feet it admits two trisyllabic, namely, the 
 anapest {kj kj — ) and the amphibrach (v^ — kj), which feet may occupy 
 any place and extend to any number. Thus in Shakespeare and Fletcher 
 there are lines of fourteen syllables, four of the feet being trisyllabic. 
 Of these Milton never admits more than two, so that his lines never 
 go beyond twelve syllables ; like the dramatists he also uses the six-foot 
 line." The student should verify or disprove these statements by actual 
 inspection. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 The First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, man's dis- 
 obedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed ; 
 then touches the prime cause of his fall, the serpent, or rather Satan in 
 the serpent, who, revolting from God, and drawing to his side many- 
 legions of angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of heaven, 
 with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, the 
 poem hastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels 
 now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the centre, (for Heaven and 
 Earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet acciu'sed,) but 
 in a place of utter darkness, titliest called Chaos : here Satan, with his 
 angels, lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a 
 certain space recovers, as from confusion ; calls up him who next in order 
 and dignity lay by him ; they confer of their miserable fall ; Satan awakens 
 all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded ; they 
 rise ; their numbers ; array of battle ; their chief leaders named according 
 to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. 
 To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regain 
 ing heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and a new kind of creature 
 to be created according to an ancient prophecy or report in heaven ; for 
 that angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many 
 ancient fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to deter- 
 mine thereon, he refers to a full coimcil. What his associates thence 
 attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of 
 the deep ; the infernal peers there sit in council. 
 
 Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
 
 Line 1. Of man's first disobedience, etc. The origin of evil, a 
 problem of universal and never-failing interest, is here suggested. Like 
 Homer, but unlike Virgil and Tasso, Milton combines the announcement of 
 
6 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
 With loss of Eden till one greater Man 
 Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, S 
 
 Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
 
 the subject with the invocation of the Muse. Like Homer in the Iliad, but 
 unlike the others, Milton keeps himself ont of sight at the first. Observe, too, 
 that Milton's opening, like that of Virgil's first Georgic, keeps the mind in 
 suspense, the interest deepening, and the tone swelling through several lines. 
 The accumulated emphasis falls on sing. For dignity, modesty, compact- 
 ness, and comprehensiveness, compare these exordiums. Fruit. Is this 
 word to be taken literally ? or as equivalent to result f — 2. Tree. What trees 
 are named in Genesis as having been in Eden? Mortal (Lat. mors, death, 
 mortalis, subject to death ; mortalis in ecclesiastical Lat. means deadly, 
 which is said to be the sense of mortal in this line. But is it likely that 
 Milton repeats the notion of death-bringing? May 'mortal taste '.mean 
 taste by a mortal?) — 3. Death. See Rom. v. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22; Gen. 
 ii. 17. Woe. Note the order. Death precedes, it being the threatened 
 penalty (moral death). — 4. Eden (a Hebrew word signifying pleasantness), 
 paradise. Gen. ii. 8, " And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in 
 Eden." See Gen. iii. 23, 24, Where was Eden supposed to be ? Par. Lost, 
 IV. 210-215. Till one greater man. Rom. v. 15, 19, 20; 1 Cor. xv. 
 45, 47.-5. Restore us. Shall, or may, restore? Seat. In Shakespeare 
 {Richard II., Act II. Sc. 1) old Gaunt calls England, 
 
 * This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This other Eden, demi-paradise.' 
 The student should notice how the place of the csesura varies, the sense being 
 'variously drawn out from one verse into another.' Of lines four and five, 
 Landor remarks that they are * incumbrances and deadeners of the harmony.' 
 
 * Incumbrances ' ? — to let the dark shadow give way to a moment's flash of 
 restoration, a moment's glimpse of the great triumph of the Messiah portrayed 
 in the twelfth book ? — ' Deadeners of the harmony ' ? De Quincey says, '* Be 
 assured it is yourself that do not read with understanding; not Milton that by 
 possibility can be found deaf to the demands of perfect harmony." Blissful 
 seat = Sedes beatas, blest seats, in Virgil's ^neid, VI. 639. — 6. Sing, 
 heavenly Muse. The proper muse of epic poetry among the ancients was 
 Calliope. Lucretius, however, begins his De Rerum Natura with, "0 
 bountiful Venus." Dante in his Paradisq invokes Apollo ; in his P^irgatorio, 
 the * holy Muses ' ; in his Inferno, the ' Muses,' the ' high Genius,' and 
 
 * Memory.' Milton's muse is none of these, but the one that inspired Moses, 
 David, and Isaiah. In this, Milton resembles Tasso. From Horeb or Sinai, 
 from Sion hill and Siloa's brook, Milton calls upon a far loftier muse than 
 *' Dame Memory and her siren daughters." In the beginning of the seventh 
 book he names her Urania (i. e. the heavenly one), but he is careful to prevent 
 her from being identified with the Urania of classic mythology ; thus : -— 
 
PARADISE LOST. 7 
 
 Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire 7 
 
 That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed 
 
 " Descend from heaven, Urania, by that name 
 If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine 
 Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, 
 Above the flight of Pegasean wing. 
 The meaning, not the name, I call." 
 "By this Muse," says Keightley, " he probably means the genius and charac- 
 ter, the divinely animated power, of the Hebrew poetry, as displayed in the 
 Pentateuch by Moses, in the Psalms, etc., by David and others." Professor 
 Himes {Study of Par, Lost) remarks: **The Genius of sacred song is the 
 sister and companion of eternal Wisdom, and gives to the language of the 
 blessed that prompt eloquence and musical sweetness by which it is character- 
 ized. She appears as the inspirer of the poetical language in versified portions 
 of the Sacred Scripture, while the Holy Spirit is the Revealer of the truth," 
 Secret top. We may, with Cowper, Storr, and others, interpret secret in 
 its ordinary sense, referring to the 'thick cloud' and 'smoke' (Exod. xix. 12, 
 13, 16, 18, etc., xxiv. 15, etc.; Heb. xii. 18-21); or with Landor, R. C. 
 Browne, and the majority of critics, we may take secret in its original Latin 
 sense of apart, retired, separate; as secreta in jEneid, II. 299, secretos, jEneid, 
 VIII. 670 ; and as Milton perhaps uses the word in his verses Upon the Cir- 
 cumcision, 1. 19, * he that dwelt above, high-throned in secret bliss.' See Par. 
 Lost, V. 597 - 599. The two meanings are closely connected. Is it a plausible 
 conjecture, that by the word ' secret ' Milton may have alluded to the impos- 
 sibility of identifying the mountain ? — 7. Oreb. So the mountain is called 
 in 2 Esdras ii. 33. Milton takes a poet's liberty in softening ' Horeb ' into 
 * Oreb.' It is the mountain upon, which God spake to Moses from the burn- 
 ing bush, and must not be confounded with the ' rock Oreb ' in Judges vii. 
 25; Isaiah X. 26. The word Horeb means dry. Sinai (usually a dissyl.) is 
 interpreted to mean 'jagged,' * full of clefts.' See Dr. William Smith's ylnc. 
 A tlas, Map 39 ; and his Diet, of the Bible, under the word Sinai. The Sinaitic 
 peninsula is triangular, about one hundred and forty miles from north to 
 south, and nearly as broad. Here Moses had been a shepherd for forty years. 
 The mountain -peaks are very numerous, and the whole group is sometimes 
 called Sinai. Horeb was one of the most northerly of the cluster ; Sinai, in a 
 restricted sense, one of the most southerly. In Deuteronomy, the * mount of 
 promulgation ' is called Horeb ; elsewhere, Sinai. The Greek form is Siyia. 
 That shepherd. So Moses is metaphorically called in Isaiah Ixiii. 11. In 
 Exod. iii. 1, he * kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law.' See Hesiod's 
 Theog. 1. 21, etc. Inspire. What poetry did Moses write ? See Exod. xv. ; 
 Ps. xc; Deut. xxxii. 1-43, xxxiii. 
 
 " Tliis was the bravest warrior 
 
 That ever buckled sword ; 
 
 This the most gifted poet 
 
 That ever breathed a word." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander's Bmial of Moses. 
 
8 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 In the beginning how the heavens and earth 
 
 Eose out of chaos : or, if Sion hill ic 
 
 Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
 
 Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 
 
 Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song. 
 
 That with no middle flight intends to soar 
 
 Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues if 
 
 Chosen seed. Deut iv. 37, " He chose their seed." So Deut. x. 15, and 
 
 1 Chron. xvi. 13. — 9. In the beginning. "In the beginning God created 
 the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1. The phrase modifies what ? — 10. Rose 
 out of chaos (Gr. x^os, fr. xao-««' x"*""^ to open wide, to yawn ; x^os, a 
 vast, yawning abyss, gulf, or chasm). So in Far. Lost, HI. 12, 'The rising 
 workl of waters ' is represented as ' won from the void and formless infinite. ' 
 Sion (the Greek form of the Hebi-ew name Zion), one of the liills on 
 which Jerusalem was built. See Smith's Dictmiary of the Bible, Vol. IV. 
 pp. 3632-4, under the word ' Zion.' — 11. Siloa's brook. (Siloa seems to be 
 here accented on the first syllable; biit see note on 'spirit' line 17.) 
 The Clar. Press ed. has this note : "Sion was the hill opposite to Moriah, 
 on which latter the Temple was built. In the valley beside them was 
 the Pool (not brook) of Siloam, — an intermittent well, ebbing and 
 flowing at irregular intervals." But in Isaiah viii. 6, we are told of 'the 
 waters of Shiloah that go softly.' " The word ' softly' does not seem to refer 
 to the secret transmission of the waters, but to the quiet gentleness with 
 which the rivulet steals on its mission of beneficence. Thus ' Siloa's brook ' 
 of Milton, and 'cool Siloam's shady rill,' are not mere poetical fancies. The 
 * fountain ' and the ' pool ' and the ' rill ' of Siloam are all visible to this day, 
 each doing its old work beneath the high rock of Moriah, and almost beneath 
 the shadow of the Temple wall." Smith's Diet, of the Bible, p. 3040, sitbvoce 
 'Siloam.' See, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam,* John ix. 7. — 12. Fast by 
 (A. Q.fast; Ger. fest ; firm, closely adhering), close by. So Par, Lost, II. 
 725 ; X. 333. Oracle. The Temple, or the Holy of Holies in the Temple ? 
 
 2 Sam. xvi. 23, 'as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God ' ; so 1 Kings 
 vi. 16; viii. 6 ; 2 Chron. iv. 20 ; Ps. xxviii. 2. (Lat. oraculum, oracle, fr. o.s, 07'is, 
 mouth.) — 14-16. That with, etc. These three lines are condemned by 
 Landor as useless and inharmonious. Is the criticism just ? "Was the loftiness 
 of the theme a sufficient reason for specially invoking aid ? Middle. Middling, 
 mediocre ? Horace, Odes, II. 20, says, " I shall be conveyed through the 
 liquid air with no vulgar or humble wing." But see 'middle' in 1. 516. 
 Intends. Spoken elegantly as well as modestly of his song rather than him- 
 self? 15. Aonian. Aon, son of Poseidon (Neptune), was the reputed ancestor 
 of some of the most ancient inhabitants of Boiolia, who were called from him 
 A«3iies. Hence Aonia, the name of a part, and often of the whole of Ba^otia. 
 The Muses, who frequented Mount Helicon in Boeotia, were often called 
 
PARADISE LOST. 9 
 
 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime. 
 
 And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost prefer 17 
 
 Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 
 
 ' Aonian Sisters.' " The Ao7iian mount is here used for the productious of the 
 Greek poets, which Milton intends to surpass in boldness of conception." H. 
 C. Browne. "In Milton only, first and last, is the power of the sublime 
 revealed. In Milton only does this great agency blaze and glow as a furnace 
 kept up to a white heat — without suspicion of collapse." De Quincey. 
 Pursues, traces in song. Lat. prosequi ; e. g. in Virgil, Georgics, III. 340, 
 " Why should I pursue (in song) the shepherds and pastures?" etc. Sequi is 
 thus used in Horace, Art of Poetry, 1. 240. Milton, like Shakespeare, is fond 
 of using words in their Latin sense. — 16. A similar line is pointed out 
 ill Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Canto I. st. 2. So in Comus, 1. 44. Unat- 
 tempted. Says Masson, *' A great deal has been written concerning the 
 ' origin ' of Paradise Lost. Some thirty authors have been cited as entitled 
 to the credit of having probably or possibly contributed something to the 
 
 conception, the plan, or the execution of Milton's great poem What 
 
 is to be said of all this ? For the most part, it is laborious nonsense. That 
 in any of the books, or in all of them, together, there is to be found * the 
 origin of Paradise Lost,' in any intelligible sense of the phrase, is utterly pre- 
 posterous." Ehime is I\Iilton's spelling here, and as he uses rime in his 
 prefatory remarks on the verse, it is supposed that the two spellings indicate 
 different meanings; rime ('rhyme' in modern orthography) meaning 'the 
 jingling sound of like endings' ; and rhivie (rhythm) meaning verse in gen- 
 eral as distinguished from prose. (A. S. riman, to number, seems to be the 
 original of rime; whereas rhythm is the Greek pvO/nos). — 17. Spirit. In 
 his Reason of Church Government Urged against Prelaty (1641), Milton gives 
 intimation of his intention to write a great poem, and for the afflatus he relies 
 upon no ordinary means, but upon 'devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit that 
 can enrich with all utterance and all knowledge.' Observe that he invokes 
 the Holy Spirit to instruct ; the Muse to sing. Keightley suggests that in 
 this double invocation Milton had in view something similar in Fletcher's 
 Purple Island (VI. 25). In Job xxxii. 8, we read, " But there is -a spirit in 
 man ; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Did 
 Milton regard himself as inspired ? Isaiah Ivii. 15 ; Luke xvii. 21. Scan 
 this line as follows : 
 
 And chief | ly Thou | Spir | it that dost | prefer. 
 There is no need of reducing ' spirit ' to a monosyllable. Regular pen- 
 tameters, composed exclusively of iambics, would soon become monot- 
 onous. Milton introduces occasionally pyrrhics [>^w], trochees [— vy], 
 
 spondees [ ], anapests [ww— ], amphibrachs [\j — \j\ and perhaps tri- 
 
 brachs [www] and dactyls [— ww]. He always, or nearly always, gives 
 us five accented syllables ; but he disposes the accent according to his own 
 sense of fitness. 18. — Before all temples. "Know ye not that ye are the 
 
10 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Instruct me, for Thou knowest. Thou from the first 
 Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread, 20 
 
 Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss. 
 And madest it pregnant. What in me is dark 
 Ilkimine ; what is low, raise and support ; 
 That to the highth of this great argument 
 I may assert eternal providence, 25 
 
 And justify the ways of God to men. 
 
 temple of God ? " 1 Cor, iii. 16. —19. Instruct me, etc. See note on 1. 17. 
 For thou knowest. So in Theocritus, Idyl, xxii. 116, etVe dfd, trb yap olirda. 
 Wast present. So in Homer's Iliad, II. 484, 485, " Tell me now, ye Musea 
 having Olympian homes ; for ye are goddesses, and ye are present [with all 
 things] and know all." Similar is also Virgil's yEneid, VII. 641, 645 ; so 
 Hesiod's Theogony, 1. 116. — 21. Dovelike. Why ' dovelike ' ? Massoa 
 remarks, " The comparison 'dovelike,' to illustrate the meaning of 'brood- 
 ing ' in the passage, occurs in the Talmudists or Jewish commentators on th« 
 Bible. There may be a recollection also of Luke iii. 22." Brooding. The 
 language of the Bible (Gen. i. 2) is, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the 
 face of the waters " ; but ' brooded ' or ' hovered ' is said to be the strict trans- 
 lation of the Hebrew word rendered 'moved.' In Hesiod's Theog., 1, 176, we 
 have, "Then came vast Heaven and brooded around Earth." Abyss. This 
 word usually means in Par, Lost the gulf of Chaos, in wliich, and from a part 
 of which, our universe was formed. See II. 910, and the remainder of that 
 book. — 24. Highth. So Milton spelled the word, and as the sound is a 
 little different from height, we retain the old. Argument, subject. In Par. 
 Lost, IX. 13-19, Milton compares his ' argument ' with those of Homer and 
 Virgil. So Spenser in his prefatory lines speaks of the ' argument ' of his 
 'afflicted stile.' See Hamlet, HI. ii. 149, " Have you heard the argument of 
 the play?" 1 Henry IV., II. iv. 310, "The argument shall be thy running 
 away." — 25, 26. Milton, then, had a great moral purpose in this poem. In 
 all that he wrote in verse, he never forgot, to use his own language, 'what 
 religious, what glorious, what magnificent tise may be made of poetry.' " As 
 to the Paradise Lost" says De Quincey, "it happens that there is —whether 
 there ought to be or not — a pure golden moral, distinctly announced, separately 
 contemplated, and the very weightiest ever uttered by man or realized by 
 fable. It is a moral rather for the drama of a world than for a human 
 poem. And this moral is made the more prominent and memorable by the 
 grandeur of its annunciation. The jewel is not more splendid in itself than in 
 its setting. Excepting the well-known passage on Athenian oratory in the 
 Paradise Regained, there is none even in Milton where the metrical pomp is 
 made so effectually to aid the pomp of the sentiment. Hearken to the way in 
 which a roll of dactyls is made to settle, like the swell of the advancing tide, 
 into the long thunder of billows breaking for leagues against the shore ! 
 
 n 
 
PARADISE LOST, 11 
 
 Say first — for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 
 Nor the deep tract of hell — say first, what cause 
 Moved our grand parents in that happy state, 
 Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off 30 
 
 From their Creator, and transgress his will 
 For one restraint, lords of the world besides ] 
 Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 
 The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile, 
 Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 35 
 
 ' That to the height of this great argument 
 I may assert eternal providence.' 
 Hear what a motion, what a tumult, is given by the dactylic close to each of 
 the introductory lines ! And how massily is the whole locked up into the 
 peace of heaven, as the aerial arch of a viaduct is locked up into tranquil 
 stability by its key-stone, through the deep spondaic close, 
 ' And justify the ways of God to men.' 
 That is the moral of the Miltonic epos ; and as much grander than any other 
 moral formally illustrated by poets as heaven is higher than earth." (De 
 Quiucey in Note-hook of an English Opium-Eater. ) — 27. Say first. See 
 quotation from the Iliad in note to line 19, and the other passages there 
 referred to. Heaven hides, etc. Ps. cxxxix. 8, " If I ascend up into 
 heaven, thou art tliere ; if I make my bed in hell, beliold, thou art there ! " 
 See in Prov.xv. 11, " Hell and destruction are before the Lord." —28. What 
 cause. So in Virgil {^neid, I. 8), Musa, mihi causas viemora^ Muse, 
 relate to me the causes. — 29. Grand (Lat. grandis, large), great. So we 
 have 'grand thief,' Par. Lost, IV. 192; 'grand foe, Satan,' X. 1033. 
 Compare 'grandfather,' 'great uncle,' etc. — 30. Note the alliteration and 
 repetition of the sound of /. — 32. For one restraint. Keightley puts an 
 interrogation mark after will, and makes ' for ' = hut for, as if modifying 
 'lords.' Others interpret 'for' as equivalent to on account of, modifying 
 'transgress.' Which is preferable? What is the 'restraint'? Force of 
 'besides ' ? — 33, 34. Who first seduced them, etc. So Iliad, I. 8, 
 
 Tts t' ap (r(p(a^ Oewu eptSi ^vyerjKC ^tio^f c^of ; 
 
 Atjtovs /coi Aihs vlos, 
 and which, then, of the gods committed the twain to contend in angry strife ? 
 The son of Latona and of Jove. Serpent. Gen. iii. ; Rev. xii. 9 ; xx. 2. 
 Pi'ofessor Himes {Sttcdy of Paradise Lost) points out the striking resem- 
 blance between the son of Latona, Apollo, when malignant, and Milton's 
 Satan. — 35. Envy. Satan at his first view of Adam and Eve (Par. Lost, IV. 
 358) exclaims, *' hell ! what do mine eyes with grief behold ! " In IV. 502, 
 .503, " Aside the devil turned for envy " of the happy pair. Revenge. In 
 
12 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 The mother of mankind, what time his pride 
 
 Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host 
 
 Of rebel angels ; by whose aid, aspiring 
 
 To set himself in glory above his peers, 
 
 He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 40 
 
 If he opposed ; and, with ambitious aim, 
 
 Par. Lost, IV. 389, 390, Satau assigns his grouuds for destroying our 
 first parents, 
 
 * public reason just, 
 Honor and empire, with revenge enlarged.' 
 
 * Revenge' for what? — 36. Mother of mankind. Hve means life, or 
 living; as is implied in Gen. iii. 20, "And Adam called his wife's name 
 Eve, because she was the mother of all living." What time. Lat, quo tem- 
 pore, at the time in which. So in Lycidas, * "What time the gray-fly winds 
 her sultry horn.' — 37. Cast out. Rev. xii, 9, "And the great dragon was 
 cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan .... and his angels 
 were cast out with him." — 38. Aspiring. Landor makes this line the first 
 ' hendecasyllabic ' line in the poem. It is indeed the first line with a re- 
 dundant syllable at the end ; but lines 1, 11, 13, 17, and 34 ai-e intended to 
 have eleven syllables ? Lines with one extra syllable at the end are very 
 frequent in Shakespeare. Masson reckons ' nine lines with a supernumerary 
 final syllable ' in the first book of Par. Lost. Which are they ? The 
 Clar. Press ed. remarks upon such lines that they are very 'efficient in 
 dramatic poetry, but hardly ever in Milton.' — 39. To set himself in 
 glory above his peers. In Par. Lost, V. 812, we read the language of Abdiel 
 to Satan, 'In place thyself so high above thy peers.' Bentley therefore 
 objects to this verse, because Satan's crime arose from ambition to be above 
 the Messiah. But Bishop Pearce well insists that the words ' in glory ' are 
 all-important. The next line shows the A;mfc? of glory. "Peers {Lat. jfares, 
 equals ; fit companions for a sovereign ?). — 40. He trusted to have equalled 
 the Most High. In Isa. xiv. 14, the wicked King of Babylon, styled Lucifer, 
 says, " I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like the Most 
 High." See its context. To have equalled. Abbott, Shakespearian Gram.^ 
 sec. 3G0, citing this line, explains this use of tlie perfect instead of the present 
 infinitive thus : "The same idiom is found in Latin poetry (Madrig, 407, Obs. 
 2) after verbs of wishing and intending. The reason of the idiom seems to be 
 a desire to express that the object wished or intended is a completed fact that 
 has happened contrary to the wish, and cannot now be altered." Storr says, 
 " Tiie past infinitive " is so used " to express that the thing wished is now 
 passed and impossible." — 41. If he opposed. If zr'/to opposed ? It appears 
 that tlie fallen angels were ignorant and doubtful in regard to the strength of 
 the Almighty and the likelihood of his actively exerting that strength ? In 
 lines 93, 94, of this book, Satan asks, " And, till then, who knew the force of 
 
PARADISE LOST. 13 
 
 Against the throne and monarchy of God 
 Eaised impious war in heaven and battle proud, 
 With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
 Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 45 
 
 With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
 To bottomless perdition : there to dwell 
 In adamantine chains and penal fire. 
 Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 
 
 those dire arms?" Beelzebub, too, lines 143, 144, says he now believes the 
 conqueror to be almighty. In line 641, Satan expressly says the Almighty 
 ' concealed ' his strength till the war in heaven arose. For similar allusions, 
 and for the origin of the war in heaven, see Book V. — 43. Battle. May this 
 mean army, or ' imbodied fbrce,' as in Shakespeare? Proud, presumptuous, 
 audacious. — 45. Hurled, etc. Note the tremendous energy of the line, and 
 how much force the appropriate reading of the first three words demands. 
 The critics cite the fall of Satan in Luke x. 18, the hurling of Vulcan in Jliad, 
 I. 591. See the Prometheus of ^schylus, 366-369. Ethereal (Gr. arew, to 
 burn, to light up ; Lat. cether, upper air), consisting of the subtle tiery 
 essence or fluid imagined to fill the planetary spaces. — 40. Buin (Lat. •niere, 
 to rush down ; riiina, precipitate fall), violent fall. Combustion (Lat. com, 
 completely ; burere = urere, to burn), fierce burning In Par. Lost, \l. 
 864-866, this scene is described with like energy, — 
 
 " Headlong themselves they threw 
 Down from the verge of heaven ; eternal wrath 
 Burnt after them to the bottomless pit." 
 
 See n. 80, 165, 166. As to 'ruin and combustion,' Masson says, "Mr. Dyce 
 found this phrase in a document of the Long Parliament in 1642. Mr. 
 Keightley, accordingly, suggests that the phrase may have been a popular 
 one about that time." Mr. Keightley has a rather slender foundation for 
 his conjecture ; a single instance, and that twenty or twenty-five years before ! 
 especially as Milton is in the habit of avoiding conmion phrases. Down. 
 Notice the caesura in this verse ; as if the tumultuous scene were passing before 
 the poet's eye, and the pause indicated the momentary brandishing of a tliun- 
 derbolt which comes smiting at the word ' down ' ? — 47. Bottomless per- 
 dition. " As bottomless is the translation of &fivcr<ros [abyssus], the meaning 
 of tliese words is probably perdition, i. e. loss (sc. of former state of glory) in 
 the abyss." Keightley. But is it necessary to look so far for the meaning ? 
 See Rev. ix. 1, 2 ; xx. 1, 3 for the phrase ' bottomless pit.' — 48. Adaman- 
 tine (a negative or pi'ivative ; 5o/idw, to conquer ; aSafias, the unconquered 
 or unconquerable. It is used of the hardest metal. Hesiod speaks of 
 * hearts of adamant.' So Zechariah vii. 12, '' They made their hearts as 
 
14 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 / 
 / Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 
 To mortal men, he with his liorrid crew- 
 Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
 Confounded, though immortal : but his doom 
 Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
 Both of lost hapi^iness and lasting pajn 55 
 
 Torments him. Round he throws his baleful eyes, 
 That witnessed huge affliction and dismay 
 
 an adamant stone." See Jude 6 ; Ezekiel iii. 9. See Trench's comments 
 on the word adamant in English, Past and Present. Our word diamond 
 [Ger. demanf] is a form of the Greek), not to be broken. Spenser has 'ada- 
 mantine chains'; ^schylus, 'ASafiayrlvuv Sea-ficou, adamantinon desmon, of 
 bonds never to be broken. — 49. Durst. Any difference between this and 
 dared? Antecedent of who? — 50. Nine times. The Clar. Press ed. re- 
 marks on this line, " Hesiod's description of the fall of the giants is liere imi- 
 tated." To this statement it may be objected, (1) that this line of Milton's does 
 not describe any fall ; (2) that Hesioddoes not describe the fall of the giants ; 
 (3) that there is no trace of imitation in the line. Says Dr. L. Schmitz, 
 "Neither Homer nor Hesiod knows anything about the contest of the gods 
 with the Gigantes." Hesiod merely says it would take an anvil nine days 
 and nights to fall from heaven to earth, and nine days and nights to fall 
 from earth to Tartarus. The space that measures day and night. In this 
 region the sun never shone, and there was nothing to mark the divisions of 
 time. A portion of the period during which Milton imagines these fallen angels 
 to have lain here, is the precise time of the creation of our visible universe. 
 See Par. Lost, VII. The nine days are subsequent to the nine days (Book 
 VI. 871) of the fall of the rebel angels from heaven to hell. "■ Nine, as 
 Mr. Hume" (Patrick Hujue, a Scotch schoolmaster, who published in 1695 
 the first annotated edition of Par. Lost) "pointed out, was a mystical 
 number, often used by the ancient poets, by way of a certain for an uncer- 
 tain time." — 51. Crew (Lat. crescere, to increase; Fr. croUre, to grow, crU, 
 grown), company; gang. Spenser has 'a crew of lords and ladies.' — 
 53. Confounded (Lat. con, together, completely ; fundSre, to pour ; con- 
 fundere, to blend in confusion), utterly bewildered. The student should no- 
 tice in all these lines the great variety of places in which the caesuras fall, and 
 the effect on the harmony. —56. Torments. Milton alwaj^s accents this 
 word on the last syllable when a verb (as in Book X. 781 ; XI. 769), but the 
 noun would appear to be usually accented on the first syllable as now. Baleful 
 (A. S. bealo, Old Eng. bale, torment, calamity, wickedness, trouble ; Welsh, 
 ball, a plague ; Tcel. bola, a blister, a boil, or bdl, a misery), boding ein'l (or 
 causing distress). Ordinarily it means sorrowful ? What of the old supersti- 
 tion about the injurious magic or fascination of an 'evil eye'? — 57. Wit- 
 nessed, testified to, bore witness of. The Clar. Press ed. says, "The woixl is 
 
PARADISE LOST. 15 
 
 Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
 
 At once, as far as angel's ken, he views 
 
 The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 
 
 A dungeon horrible on all sides round 
 
 As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 
 
 No light ; but rather darkne'ss visible 
 
 always used in this sense in Shakespeare and iu Milton, and not (as now) as 
 merely equivalent to ' saw.' " Milton, however, appears to use * witness ' 
 once in the sense of 'see' in Par. Lost, III. 700; and he uses 'witnessed' 
 nowhere in his poems except in this passage. — 58. Obdurate. Note the 
 proper original accent of the word, from Lat. dunes, hard. The preference, 
 or at least the tendency, now seems to be in favor of placing it on the first 
 syllable. — 59. As far as angel's ken. In Milton's time it was not common 
 to mark the possessive case by an apostrophe. We are therefore uncertain 
 whether angels is nom. plu., possess, plu., or possess, sing., and whether ken 
 is a verb or a noun. Hunter, Major, Storr, and others make angels plu. and 
 ken a verb. Keightley and Masson print Angel's, and, with Ross, they make 
 ken a noun. Which is best ? Ken (A. S. cunnan, can, to know, to be able; 
 Old Eng, kennen, to know, know by sight ; ken, the view, the gaze ; Scot. 
 ken, know; akin to Gr. root yvo, gno, Lat. {g)nosco), knowledge gained by 
 sight, range of vision. — 60. Situation. " This word is used only here in 
 Milton's poems, and but twice by Shakespeare." R. C. Browne. But 
 Shakespeare also used the plu. situations, and both he and Milton use situate 
 as a participle meaning placed. Waste and wild. Keightley thinks that 
 here is a recollection of Gen. i. 2, 'without form and void.' Note the 
 alliteration. — 61. Dungeon (Lat. dominio, mastership, rule ; whence dongeo, 
 as Fr. songer fr. somniare ; donjon, the large tower or redoubt of a fortress. 
 The word originally meant the principal building of a district, or the fortress 
 which commanded the rest), ' an underground prison, such as once used to be 
 placed in the strongest part of the fortress.' Wedgwood. Marsh, in his Lec- 
 tures on the English Language, prefers to derive it from de homagio ; 
 * because, in the principal tower of a feudal fortress, styled in Portuguese 
 torre de homenagen, tower of homage, the ceremony of pledging fealty, or 
 homage, took place.' On all sides round. Modifies what? — 62. Great 
 furnace. The language used in Rev. ix. 2. — 63. No light. Supply came, or 
 shone, or there ^oas ? Zeugma ? Darkness visible. This powerful line 
 arrests the attention of many critics. Hunter quotes from Chaucer''s Parson's 
 Tale, " In hell . . . the dark light that shall come out of the fire . . . showeth 
 him the horrible devils," etc. Todd cites from The Wisdom of Solomon, 
 xvii. 5, "No power of the fire might give them light." Keightley suggests, 
 in Walker's History of Independency (1648), I. 14, " Their burning zeal with- 
 out knowledge is like hell-fire without light"; also, Hey wood's description of 
 hell, " Burns, but wastes not, and adds to darkness, night.'' Ne^vton recalls 
 
16 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Served only to discover sights of woe, 
 
 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 65 
 
 And rest can never dwell ; hope never conies 
 
 That comes to all ; but torture without end 
 
 Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 
 
 With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 
 
 Such place eternal justice had prepared 70 
 
 For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 
 
 In utter darkness, and their portion set 
 
 As far removed from God and light of heaven 
 
 Seneca's description of the grotto of Pausilippo, "We see not through the dark- 
 ness, but see the darkness itself." De Quincey explains the passage as meaning 
 ' a sullen light intermingled with darkness.' Bentley thought to improve 
 upon it by substituting for Milton's line the following : * No light, but rather 
 a transpicuous gloom ' ! Voltaire refers to a History of Mexico by Antonio 
 de Solis, published in 1684, speaking of the place where Montezuma used to 
 consult his deities, " It was a large dark subterranean vault, where dismal 
 tapers afforded just light enough to see the obscurity." So in the Bacchce of 
 Euripides, 1. 510, "that he may behold dim darkness." In Spenser's Faerie 
 Queene, I. 1. 14, we have — 
 
 " His glistering armor made 
 A little glooming light, much like a shade." 
 
 We might add Shakespeare's " Hell is murky," and Milton's " Burning embers 
 through the room teach light to counterfeit a gloom." —66. Hope never comes. 
 So Dante's Inferno, III. 9, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here" (the 
 inscription over the gate of hell). Urges (Lat. urgere, to press, push, drive), 
 harasses, presses. —69. Sulphur. The brimstone of Rev. xx. 10. — 70. Had 
 prepared. ' Everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,' Matt. xxv. 
 41. —72. Darkness, as in Jude, 6, 13. Utter (A. S. ut, out, uter, outer), the 
 same as outer in Matt. xxii. 13, is found in Par. Lost, III. 16, V. 614. 
 Spenser {Faerie Queene, IV. x. 11) has utter for outer in the line, "Till to 
 tlie bridge's utter gate I came," and similarly Ben Jonson speaks of ' the utter 
 shell of knowledge.' Portion, part assigned, as in Matt. xxiv. 51. — 73. As 
 far removed. " Not very far," says Landor, " for creatures who could have 
 measured all that, and a much greater distance, by a single act of the will." 
 But could they ? It took them nine days to fall thither, pursued all the way 
 by lightnings. Par. Lost, Book VI. 865-875. The archangel Raphael 
 (Par. Lost, VIII. 110-114) seems to have been some hours in coming from 
 Heaven to Eden, though his path was unobstructed (Book V. 256-270): — 
 
 " Me thou thinkest not slow. 
 Who, since the morning hour, set out from heaven 
 Where God resides, and ere midday arrived 
 
 f 
 
PARADISE LOST. 17 
 
 As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. 
 
 Oil, how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 75 
 
 There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 
 
 With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 
 
 He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side. 
 
 One next himself in power, and next in crime, 
 
 In Ederf, distance inexpressible 
 By numbers that have name." 
 
 Evidently it was far enough. 
 
 See in the Introduction the diagrams illustrating Milton's conception of the 
 successive stages of creation in that portion of infinite space with which this 
 poem deals. Our starry universe, which Milton calls ' the world,' is attached 
 to the Empyrean at a single glittering point. Far. Lost, Book II. 1051, 1052. 
 Keightley cites, after Todd, on line 72, a few words from Milton's Doctrine of 
 Divorce, ' a local hell ... in that uttermost and bottomless gulf of Chaos, 
 deeper from holy bliss than the world's diameter multiplied.' (See the dia- 
 grams in the Introduction.) — 74. As from the centre thrice, etc. Nearly 
 all the commentators appear to have mistaken Milton's meaning. Professor 
 Himes {Study of Milton's Paradise Lost, pp. 21, 22) well says : " Homer and 
 Virgil, to whom Milton took pains to conform as nearly as possible, recognized 
 below the Empyrean three regions, one above the other, and of equal height. 
 The first was the Ethereal, extending from Heaven to Earth ; the second was 
 Hades, of like depth; the third and lowest was Tartarus, or the place of pun- 
 ishment, an equal distance below Hades. Homer, speaking of the location 
 of Tartarus, teaches that it extends * as far below Hades as the distance from 
 Heav^ to Earth.' [Iliad, VIII. 16.) 
 
 T6aaov evepS' 'AiSew, '6(Tov ovpavos ear airh 70177?. 
 Virgil, measuring from the surface of the earth, and of course including Hades, 
 says, ' Then Tartarus itself sinks deep down and extends towards the shades 
 twice as far as is the prospect upward to the ethereal throne of Heaven' 
 U'Eneid, VI. 577-9) : — 
 
 ' Tmn Tartarus ipse 
 Bis patet in prceceps tantuvi, tenditque suh umbras, 
 Quantus ad cetherium cceli suspectus Olympum.^ 
 
 Milton's phraseology is equivalent to saying that the whole distance from 
 Heaven to Hell is three times as far as from Heaven to Earth. — Utmost pole, 
 the pole of this universe of ours, the end of the axis of our heavens. — 75. Oh, 
 how unlike the place, etc. This momentary glimpse of heaven adds to the 
 horror? — 77. Note the energy and the alliteration. Dunster quotes Psalm 
 xi. 6, ''Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, anil an 
 horrible tempest." — 78. Weltering (Lat. volvere, vohUare; Ger. tvdlzen; 
 A. S. waeltan ; English, walloiv), rolling. So in Lycidas, 1. 13, the corpse 
 
18 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Long after known in Palestine and named 80 
 
 Beelzebub. To whom the arch-enemy, 
 And thence in heaven called Satan, with bold words 
 Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 
 
 " If thou beest he — but oh, how fallen ! how changed 
 From him, who, in the happy realms of light, 85 
 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
 Myriads though bright ! — if he whom mutual league, 
 United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
 
 * welters ' as it floats in the sea. — 80. Palestine (Hebrew, Pelesheth). Here, 
 as in Exodus xv. 14, Philistia, the narrow sea-coast southwest from the Holy 
 Land seems to be included. — 81. Beelzebub. He is styled 'the prince of 
 the devils ' in Matt. xii. 24. The word is said to mean ' god of flies ' ! (though 
 others interpret it 'lord of the dunghill,') and to be more correctly spelled 
 Beelzebul. Professor Himes is inclined to identify, to some extent, 'Beel- 
 zebub with Artemis, the lunar divinity, as Satan has been identified with 
 Apollo, the solar divinity,' and we are reminded of 'the crescent-crowned 
 cestriis-driven lo, one of the many forms under which the moon-goddess ap- 
 pears.' Says anotlier critic: "Some authors suppose that he [Beelzebub] was 
 so called [god of flies], because the inhabitants of Ekron worshipped the beetle ; 
 which worship they perhaps borrowed from their superstitions neighbors, 
 the Egyptians." See 2 Kings i. 2, where he is called 'the god of Ekron.' 
 See Isaiah vii. 18, for a possible allusion to this worship. Flies in some of 
 the eastern countries are an inexpressible torment, and ' god of flies ' seems 
 to a European there no inappropriate appellation for him Avhom our Saviour 
 called ' prince of devils ' ! — 82. Thence, from that fact, i. e. because he is an 
 enemy, the chief enemy. Satan in Hebrew signifies adversary. — 84. Beest. 
 Keightley pronounces ' beest ' here ' a grammatical error ' ; l)ut Shakes, uses 
 the word similarly in Julius Ccesar, IV. 3, " If that thou beest a Roman." 
 Beest is lineally descended from A. S. hyst, like Ger. hist. Oh, how fallen ! 
 how changed! In Isaiah xiv. 12, we have, "How art thou fallen from 
 heaven, Lucifer, Son of the Morning"! and in Virgil, ^neid, II. 274, 
 we read " Hei mihi, qualis erat! quantum mutatits, etc.. Ah me, how he 
 looked! how changed," etc. Note the abrupt transitions in this speech, 
 indicating the tumultuous agitation of Satan's soul ! Any art in this? — 
 86. Brightness. In Par. Lost, V. 708, his countenance is compared to 
 the morning star. In line 599, Book I., he still shines, though 'darkened.' 
 Everywhere, Milton seems to proceed on the theory that the bodies of 
 spirits are luminous like fire. — 87. Myriads. A myriad, fj.vpids in Greek, 
 was originally ten thousand. Here it is put for vast multitude ? Mutual 
 (Lat. inuto, mutare, to change), exchangeable, or exchanged, or the result of 
 excliange or stipulation. Macaulay stigmatizes "the low barbarism of 'mu- 
 tual friend V' ! — 88. United. Epithet describing 'thoughts' and 'counsels ' ? 
 
PARADISE LOST. 19 
 
 And hazard in the glorious enterprise, 
 
 Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 
 
 In equal ruin — into what pit thou seest. 
 
 From what height fall'n, so much the stronger proved 
 
 He with his thunder : and till then who knew 
 
 The force of those dire arms 1 Yet not for those, 
 
 Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 95 
 
 Can else inflict, do I repent, or change. 
 
 Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 
 
 And high disdain from sense of injured merit. 
 
 That with the mightiest raised me to contend, 
 
 And to the fierce contention brought along 100 
 
 Innumerable force of spirits armed 
 
 That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 
 
 His utmost power with adverse power opposed 
 
 In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 
 
 And shook his throne. What though the field be lost 1 105 
 
 All is not lost ; the unconquerable will, 
 
 And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
 
 And courage never to submit or yield, 
 
 I And what is else not to be overcome — 
 
 ! That glory never shall his wrath or might no 
 
 I Thoughts, one of the subjects of 'joined' ? — 89. Glorious. This word viv- 
 
 :, idly suggests the aspiring ambition of Satan. — 90. Now misery hath joined. 
 
 I Supply rohom ? or thee 1 What is the conclusion of the sentence beginning 
 
 with if, lines 84 and 87 ? Bentley points out the similarity of the passage to 
 
 • Ovid, Met. i. 351. — 91-93. This passage is wonderfully condensed, "Thou, 
 
 I being fallen from such height into such depth, art shown how much stronger 
 
 I he was." Thunder. The thunder made a deep impression on Satan and his 
 
 followers. How often they allude to it ! Is there any trace here of the notion 
 
 I in Shakespeare (in Julius Ccesar, for instance) of the thunder as a weapon 
 
 \ spjmrate from the lightning ? — 94. Force. Meaning of this word in line 101 ? 
 
 1 The language of Prometheus in defying Jove and in asserting unconquerable 
 
 will (^sch. Prom. Vinct. 992-7, 1002-6) is quite similar. What evidence that 
 
 Milton had Prometheus in mind in other passages of Par. Lost? — 107. 
 
 Study. The critics will have it that Milton here uses this word (like 
 
 studies iji Shakes., 1 Henri/ IV., I, 3 to signify endeavor or desire. But is 
 
 this necessary ? — 109. Some few interpret this line as if it read. Not to be 
 
 ^ overcome — what is it but this? But the majority explain it as meaning, 
 
 If anything else is incapable of being overcome, that is not lost. — 110. That 
 
20 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 
 
 With suppliant knee, and deify his power 
 
 Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 
 
 Doubted his empire — that were low indeed ; 
 
 That were an ignominy and shame beneath 115 
 
 This downfall : since, by fate, the strength of gods 
 
 And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; 
 
 Since, through experience of this great event, 
 
 In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 
 
 We may with more successful hope resolve 120 
 
 To wage, by force or guile, eternal war. 
 
 Irreconcilable to our grand foe. 
 
 Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 
 
 Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven." 
 
 So spake the apostate angel, though in pain,^ 125 
 
 Taunting aloud, but racked with deep despair : 
 
 \ 
 glory. This may refer to what precedes, and mean * that ground for glory- 
 ing '; or it may refer to what follows, the glory of making one 'bow and sue 
 for grace,' etc. Which is preferable ? Why ? — 112. Suppliant. Root- 
 meaning of this word? — 114. Empire. The Lat. impermm means often 
 ' supreme authority, governing power.' The meaning here ? — 115. Ignominy. 
 To scan this line, which offends the ears of some critics, they direct that here 
 and in Shakespeare this word shouhl be pronounced as a trisyllable ; but 
 may Milton make this tliird foot an amphibrach? or the fourth an anapest ? 
 — 116. Downfall. "Here," says Keightley, "we are to understand, 'We 
 therefore will not do it.'" Fate. What was the classical conception of 
 fate ? — 117. Empyreal substance. Satan assumes that the angels are inde- 
 structible. In the lines 17^071 the Circumcision, Milton, addressing the flam- 
 ing Powers, speaks of their ' fiery essence.' In the highest heaven the p\ire 
 element of fire, the most sublime of substances, was supposed to exist. The 
 Greek ovaia, ousia, essence, is Lat. substantia. Besides Ps. civ. 4, "He 
 maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of flre," what can you quote 
 favoring this notion ? So the empyrean = the fiery ; Gr. f/x-trvpos, empyros. of 
 fire. — 122. Grand. Meaning ? How used in a preceding line ? — 123. Tri- 
 umphs. Accent 2d syl. So Shakes, accents the word triumphing in Antony 
 and Cleopatra. Excess. Milton does not forget to make Satan * the father of 
 lies.' — 121. Tyranny (Gr. ry^aj/j/ia, tyrannia, sovei'eignty usurped). What 
 was a ' tyrant ' in Greece ? "Satan probably uses 'tyranny ' in an invidious 
 sense." Keightley. — 125. Apostate (Gr. diro, apo, from, and (rrrivai, stenai, to 
 stand ; airoarcur,!, apostasia, a standing aloof, defection, apostasy.) An apos- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 21 
 
 And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — 
 
 " prince, chief of many throned powers 
 That led the embattled seraphim to war 
 Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 
 
 Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, 
 And put to proof his high supremacy. 
 Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 
 Too well I see and rue the dire event, 
 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 135 
 
 Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 
 In horrible destruction laid thus low. 
 As far as gods and heavenly essences 
 Can perish : for the mind and spirit remains 
 
 tate is properly what ? Is the word correctly used in this passage ? The passage 
 slightly resembles ^neid, I. 208. —127. Compeer (Lat. comimr; com, togetlier, 
 and par, equal: an associated equal), colleague. See 'peers,' line 39. — 128. 
 Throned powers. Thrones are mentioned as one of the nine angelic orders. 
 St. Paul, in Rom. viii. 38, speaks of 'angels, principalities, powers' ; and in 
 Eph. i. 21, he says, ' above all principality, and power, and might, and domin- 
 ion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that 
 which is to come.' So in Colossians i. 16, he mentions 'thrones, dominions, 
 principalities,' and 'powers,' — apparently mighty beings, who possess in 
 themselves, as it were, the power of a principality or a kingdom, and are 
 called by these suggestive names for want of any others. See 1. 360. — 
 
 129. Embattled, drawn up in battle array. What is the antecedent of 
 
 * that ' ? Seraphim, plural of seraph. The only similar word in Hebrew is 
 saraph, to burn ; but Gesenius connects it with an Arabic word signifying 
 high, or eminent, exalted. The name occurs nowhere in the Bible, except in 
 Isaiah vi. 2 and 6. " Foreign words," says Storr, " when first introduced 
 into English, commonly retain the foreign plural ; but gradually adopt English 
 plurals ; as seraphim, seraphs, banditti, bandits." Give other illustrations. — 
 
 130. Conduct. Meaning here ? — 131. Perpetual. Probably used, say the 
 critics, to avoid the word ' eternal,' which Beelzebub would be unwilling to em- 
 ploy. Is there anything in the remainder of this speech to militate against tliis 
 construction ? Perpetual (LaX. perpetuus) means holding on uninterruptedly, 
 or continuing without intermission. In Milton's Hymn on the Nativity, line 7, 
 
 * perpetual ' appears to be used for everlasting. Discriminate among the syn- 
 onymes everlasting, eternal, perpetual, iviviortal. — 132. Put to proof, tested. 
 Does it mean, ' tested his high supremacy ' ? or ' tested Avhether his high 
 supremacy was upheld by strength,' etc.? — 134. Event (Lat. eventus, 
 issue, result, upshot). — 136. Hath lost us, hath lost heaven for us, 
 made us lose heaven. — 138. Essences, natures, spirits. — 139. Remains. 
 
22 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 
 
 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 
 
 Here swallowed up in endless misery. 
 
 But what if he our conqueror (whom I now 
 
 Of force believe almighty, since no less 
 
 Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 145 
 
 Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 
 
 Strongly to suffer and support our pains. 
 
 That we may so suffice his vengeful ire. 
 
 Or do him mightier service as his thralls 
 
 Ey right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 
 
 Here in the heart of hell to work in fire, 
 
 Or do his errands in the gloomy deep 1 
 
 What can it then avail, though yet we feel 
 
 Strength undiminished, or eternal being. 
 
 To undergo eternal punishment V 15S 
 
 Whereto with speedy words the arch-fiend replied : — 
 
 Why the singular ? See in Matt. xvi. 17, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
 unto thee." — 140. Returns, and tlierefore will return to us. Keightley. — 
 141. Extinct. Supply 'be.' Glory is briglitness, and it is extinguished as 
 a flame is put out. (Lat. ex, out, and sti[ii\guh'e, to prick, scratch; quench.) 
 — 144. Of force (like Gr. ^la, of necessity), perforce, necessarily. A few 
 explain it as depending upon ' almighty,' i. e. ' almighty in respect to force,' and 
 the next line somewhat favors this interpretation. (Shakes, uses 'of force' 
 as equivalent to perforce, 1 Eenrij IV., II. 3, last line.) — 148. Suffice, be 
 sufficient for, satiate, satisfy, glut. Ire. Difference between the language 
 of prose and that of poetry ? So ' thralls ' in the next line. — 149. Thralls 
 (A. S. thrall, slave). Trench {Study of Words, p. 93) derives it from A, S. 
 ihrilian, thyrlian, to bore, pierce; whence comes drill; and he cites the 
 custom of piercing the slave's ear, Deut. xv. 17, " Then thou shalt take an 
 awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant 
 forever"), slaves, bondmen. — 150. Business, the work he wishes to have 
 performed. Shakespeare's line ( Tonjjest, I. 2), 
 
 *To do me business in the veins o' th' earth,' 
 may have been in Milton's mind. — 152. The gloomy deep, the same as 
 described in Book II. 890 to 910, the abyss of Chaos, 'a dark illimitable 
 ocean.' Is it that state of things referred to in Gen. i. 2, "And the earth 
 was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep " ? — 
 155. To undergo. On what does this grammatically depend ? on ' avail ' ? or 
 ' strength ' 'i — 156. Speedy words. Not the ' winged words,' cTrea irrepoevTa, 
 
PARADISE LOST. 23 
 
 " Fallen cherub ! to be weak is miserable, 
 Doing or suffering ; but of this be sure, 
 To do aught good never will be our task, 
 But ever to do ill our sole delight, i6o 
 
 As being the contrary to his high will 
 Whom we resist. If then his providence 
 Out of our evil seek to bring forth good. 
 Our labor must be to pervert that end. 
 And out of good still to find means of evil ; 165 
 
 Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps 
 Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 
 His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 
 But see ! the angry victor hath recalled 
 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 
 
 epea pteroenta, of Homer; but speedy in the sense of immediate. Beelzebub 
 seemed sinking into despair, and Satan hastened to change the current of 
 his thoughts ? — 157. Cherub. Properly a being of composite form ? com- 
 bining what qualities of man, lion, ox, and eagle ? The student will do well 
 to examine what is said of Cherubim in Gen. iii. 24 ; Exod. xxv. 18-22 ; 
 1 Kings vi. 23-35 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 11; Ps. xviii. 10; Ezekiel i. and x. The 
 seraphs, according to the schoolmen, were pre-eminent in the ardor of their 
 love ; the cherubs, in knoioleclge. — 157, To be weak is miserable, doing or 
 suffering. This reminds of Milton's sentiment in his letter to a Greek physi- 
 cian, "It is not so sad to be blind as not to be able to endure blindness." 
 *' Satan in Milton's poem," says Hazlitt, " is not the principle of malignity or 
 of the abstract love of evil, but of the abstract love of power, of pride, of self- 
 will personified." — 158. Doing or suffering. In II. 199, 200, Belial remarks, 
 *'To suffer, as to do, our strength is equal."— 161. Being the contrary. 
 Scan the line. — 167. If I fail not. The critics make this equivalent to the 
 Lat. nifallor^ if I am not mistaken, if I deceive not myself. Keightley quotes 
 from Spenser {Faerie Queene, III. 11. 46) the line, 
 
 ' So lively and so like that living sense it failed,' 
 
 where the word has an active sense. "Milton uses the word ten times in Para- 
 dise Lost, and always in its ordinary sense, unless this be an exception. See 
 117, 633, etc. — 169. But see, etc. " This he probably infers from the calm and 
 stillness that now reigned around." Keightley. — 170. His ministers. (See 
 Ps. civ. 4, ' his ministers a flaming fire.') Here Bentley points out a contradic- 
 tion between Satan's apparent assumption on the one hand, that the good angels 
 pursued the bad to the verge of hell (confirmed by Moloch, Book II. 78, 79), and 
 the statement of Raphael on the other hand, that all the holy angels stood 
 
24 PAliADISE LOST. 
 
 Back to the gates of heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 
 
 Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid 
 
 The fiery surge that from the precii)ice 
 
 Of heaven received us falling ; and the thunder, 
 
 AVinged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 175 
 
 Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 
 
 To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. 
 
 Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 
 
 Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 
 
 silent witnesses of the almighty acts of the Messiah in vanquishing, single- 
 handed, his foes (Book VI. 882-3). Bentley cites the testimony of Chaos, that 
 heaven 'poured forth by millions her victorious bands pursuing ' (Book II. 
 997-8). But Milton is consistent with himself ; for, 1st, Satan may have thouglit 
 the pursuing terrors and furies, mentioned in Book VI. 859, tohave beenrecalled, 
 when, on the contrary, they were inside hell, as appears in Book II. 11. 596, 611, 
 628, etc. ; or, 2dly, dazed and thunder-stricken, falling ' headlong, flaming 
 from the ethereal sky,' he might have believed his army to have been actually 
 pursued by the angels of light ; or, 3dly, as Newton says, Satan may have 
 been * too proud and obstinate ever to acknowledge the Messiah for con- 
 queror.' The testimony of Chaos is worthless ; for he, in his utter confusion 
 (Book VI. 871-2), might well imagine the terrible din to be that of 'a numer- 
 ous host' (Book VI. 830). ''The seeming contradiction," says Newton, 
 ''upon examination, proves rather a beauty than a blemish to the poem." — 
 172. O'erblown, blown over, having ceased to be blown. Hath laid, hath 
 stilled. So the Greek a-Topew, storeo, and Lat. sterno, are used. What is 
 the efl'ect of heavy rain or thick hail on waves ? In Par. Regained, TV. 
 428-9, Morning ' with her radiant finger . . . laid the winds.' So in Horace, 
 Odes, I. IX. 10, the gods ' lay ' the winds. — 174. The thunder. Thunder is 
 here a monster, with lightning wings impelled by rage, a monster that hurls 
 fiery shafts, and bellows through the infernal world. " In the extra syllable of 
 this line," says Storr, " we seem to hear the rolling thunder." — 176. His. The 
 form ' its ' does not occur in the authorized Bible, ' his ' or ' her ' or ' whereof ' 
 being used instead. ' It ' was also used as a possessive, where we now use its. 
 Craik asserts that Milton never uses his in a neuter sense. Milton uses its in 
 1. 254 ; also IV. 813, ' returns, of force, to its own likeness.' — 177. Note the 
 ]\Iiltonic sonorousness of this remarkable line. Vast is perhaps here waste, 
 desolate. — 178. Slip. "The usual and more correct expression," says 
 Keightley, "is ' let slip.'" But we still say ' slip a cable.' Dryden uses the 
 expression 'slip hounds,' and Ben Jonson says, 'slip no advantage.' Shake- 
 speare puts into Macbeth's mouth the words, " I have almost slipped the hour." 
 These authorities, with that of Milton, settle the matter. —179. Satiate, 
 glutted. This omission of final d is common in Shakes, and in Early English. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 25 
 
 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, i8o 
 
 The seat of desolation, void of light 
 
 Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 
 
 Casts pale and dreadful 1 Thither let us tend 
 
 From ofl" the tossing of these fiery waves ; 
 
 There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 1 85 
 
 And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, 
 
 Consult how we may henceforth most offend 
 
 Our enemy ; our own loss how repair ; 
 
 How overcome this dire calamity ; 
 
 What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; 190 
 
 If not, what resolution from despair." 
 
 Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate. 
 With head uplift, above the wavQ, and eyes 
 That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides 
 Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 195 
 
 Lay floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge 
 
 Abbott's Shakes. Gram. Si2. — 180. Forlorn and wild. The 'waste and 
 wild' of 1. 60. Forlorn (Ger. verloren) is totally lost, abandoned, and hence 
 desert, empty. Keightley. — 183. Pale. Probably such a ghastly hue as 
 livid ('black and blue ') flame casts on the face. "In Statius, Thebais, I. 57, 
 the Styx is livida." Tend, extend our course (Lat. tendere, or tendere cur- 
 sum). — Rest, etc. 
 
 '' Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth 
 Have any resting." — Richard II., V. I. 5, 6, 
 Harbor. To take shelter ? or give shelter ? See Shakes. " Let's harbor here 
 in York," and 'any place that harbors men.' A. S. here, army, and heorgan, 
 to shelter, lodge; 0. E. herbergage, lodging. — 186. Afflicted (Lat. ajffligere, 
 to dash down), beaten down. Powers (as in Macbeth, V. 11. 1, "The Eng- 
 lish power is near," and often in Shakes. ), forces, troops. — 187. Offend. In 
 what sense ? — 190. Reinforcement. What kind, moral or physical ? — 191. 
 If not. Supply 'any.' Bentley would read 'if none.' —192. Thus. Adver- 
 bial modifier of what ? Classic usage ? — 193. Uplift. See note on 179. The 
 omission is for euphony. See Ps. xxiv. 7. — 195. Sparkling blazed. Of the 
 Old Dragon, Spenser says {.Faerie Queene, III. xi. st, 46), "His blazing eyes 
 . . . sparkled living fire." See ^7ieid, 11. 206-210. — 194. Other parts 
 besides. 'Besides' seems to be superfluous after ' other ' ; but probably it 
 would not have been so regarded in Milton's day. In Matt. xxv. 22, we read, 
 "Thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other 
 talents besides them." We still use 'moreover' in a similar way. — 196. 
 
26 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
 
 Titanian or earth-born, that warred on Jove, 
 
 Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 
 
 By ancient Tarsus held ; or that sea-beast 200 
 
 Leviathan, which God of all his works 
 
 Cheated hugest that swim the ocean-stream : 
 
 Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 
 
 The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 
 
 Rood (Dutch roede, a measure of ten feet in land-surveying. Wedgivood). 
 Often used in Old Eng. for rod. But square measure seems better here than 
 long ; as in jEneid, VI. 596, the earth-born giant, Tityos, extends over nine 
 jugera {ajugeriun being about five eighths of an acre). — 197. Fables, Greek 
 myths? — 198. Titanian (' genus antiquum Terrce, Titania pubes,' the ancient 
 race of earth, Titanian offspring, jEneid, VI. 580). The Titans were sons of 
 Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth). They deposed Uranus, but were cast out 
 of Olympus by Zeus (Jove). — 199. Briareos (the strong one, the mighty), 
 quadrisyl. as the long requires, though the old poets, for the sake of the 
 metre, shortened reos to one syl. Says Keightley, " Milton makes a mistake 
 as to Briareos, who was one of the hundred-handed (not of the Titans) and 
 helped the gods." But Milton follows tlie account in Virgil {^neid, X. 567, 
 568), pretty good authority, who says expressly that ^Egseon, the hundred- 
 handed, fifty-mouthed (identified by Homer with Briareos), fought against 
 Jove. His brothers were Gyges and Cottus, each hundred-handed and fifty- 
 headed. Hesiod makes them all sons of Uranus and Gaia, like the twelve 
 Titans, Typhon (smoking), same as Typhoeus, youngest son of Gaia, located 
 by Pindar and^scliylus in Cilicia. Briareos and Typhon we may regard as 
 personifications of volcanic forces. Virgil calls the sun Titan, and the stars 
 Titanian. — 201. Leviathan. This beast in Ps. civ. 26, seems to be some 
 sea monster of the whale kind. In Job xli. it is mucli like the crocodile, 
 though the description does not wholly suit. Perhai)s Milton conceived of a 
 monster like some whose gigantic remains are the wonder of geologists. — 
 202. Hugest. The movement in the rhythm of this line is happily analogous 
 to that of the monster described? Ocean-stream (the Homeric 'nKeoj'<Js 
 •K0Ta/x6s, okeanos potamos, which was supposed to encircle all the lands of 
 the earth. Hazlitt thinks that in Milton's imagination the monster seemed 
 so vast that the ocean dwindled to a stream ! ) — 203. Him. etc. Olaus 
 Magnus (1490-1568), a Swede who wrote a Latin 'History of the Northern 
 Nations,' has much to say of anchoring on whales, kindling fires on them, etc. 
 So in the first voyage of Sindbad in The Arabian Nights ! See Ariosto's Orl. 
 Fu. VI. 37. —204. Pilot (Low Ger. peilen, to sound, n»/isur8'|:" Du. loot, 
 plummet; hence the thrower of the lead). Keightley sa&|ats that it may 
 be from irejpoTTjs, a pirate! Night-foundere^( Fr. fon^, to sink; to 
 founder is to be filled with water and sink as a shflP^unk into darknoss. This 
 
I 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 27 
 
 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 205 
 
 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 
 
 Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
 
 Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 
 
 So stretched out huge in length the arch-fiend lay, 
 
 Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 
 
 Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 
 
 And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 
 
 Left him at large to his own dark designs, 
 
 That with reiterated crimes he might 
 
 Heap on himself" damnation, while he sought 215 
 
 Evil to others ; and, enraged, might see 
 
 How all his malice served but to bring forth 
 
 Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown 
 
 On man by him seduced, but on himself 
 
 Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 
 
 Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
 His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames, 
 Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, rolled 
 
 beautifully poetic epithet (used also in Comus, 483) is censured as improper by- 
 some of the prosy critics. They talk of 'foundered horses,' and ships * springing 
 a leak ' ! Skiff. Kind of craft ? — 266. Scaly, incrusted. " Bentley justly ob- 
 serves that whales have no scales " ! Keightley. Poets fare hard at the hands of 
 ichthyologists and learned Dundrearies, Olaus (see 1. 203) says the whale ' has 
 on his hide a surface like the gravel on the sea-shore.' — 207. Under the lee 
 (A. S. hUo, shelter), under the shelter of the shore, on the side sheltered from the 
 wind. Yet half the critics make it the other side, and censure Milton for 'affec- 
 tation' or 'impropriety' in the use of nautical terms ! — 208. Invests (Lat. 
 vestis ; Sans, 'vas; Gr. Feadrjs, garment), robes. In Par. Lost, III. 10, 11, lir/ht 
 invests, *as Avith a mantle,' the world of waters. So IV. 609. Wished. With 
 transitive verbs we use the preposition more than the Elizabethan writers 
 did. Abbott's Shakes. Gram. 200. — 209. This line analogous to what it 
 describes ? — 210. Chained. " Servile adherence to the letter of Scripture." 
 Keightley. See 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; Jude 6 ; Rev. xx. 1 ; Par. Lost, I. 48, II. 169, 
 IV. 965. Is the conception incongruous ? What are symbolized by chains ? 
 Remorse? fear? shame? — 211-213. Satan must be free, for the reasons 
 so concisely and sublimely stated. — 219. On man. Why on rather than to ? 
 — 220. Rom. ii. 5, 'Treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of 
 wrath.' — 221. Fool. Etymology of the word? Milton several times calls 
 the Sea of Azof a pool ; also the Dead Sea. — 223. Spires (Gr. (nre7pa, Lat. 
 
28 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. 
 
 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 225 
 
 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air 
 
 That felt unusual weight, till on dry land 
 
 He lights ; if it were land that ever burned 
 
 With solid, as the lake with liquid fire. 
 
 And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 
 
 Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
 
 Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
 
 Of thundering ^tna, whose combustible 
 
 And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire. 
 
 Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, 235 
 
 And leave a singed bottom all involved 
 
 With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole 
 
 Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, 
 
 spira, a coil, or spire, any body that shoots out taperingly to a point). — 227. 
 Felt unusual weight. Thyer quotes Faerie Queene, I, xi. 18, where the air 
 is almost ' too feeble ' to ' bear so great a weight ' as the Old Dragon flying. — 
 230. Hue. What hue? — 231. Wind in this line, vnnds in I. 235 ; because 
 in the latter verse the winds rush in from every side and are * aided ' 
 [increased] ; in the former the wind is single. — Pelorus. The N. E. cape 
 of Sicily, now Cape Faro, not far from ^tna, and the place where, accord- 
 ing to Ovid, the right hand of Typhon (or Typhoeus) is buried. The 
 Clar. Press ed. cites approvingly Keightley's assertion that there is no 
 'account of Pelorus being affected by earthquakes or by the eruptions 
 of iEtna'! They forget their Virgil. "These places, once convulsed with 
 violence and with vast ruin, leaped apart, the sea came violently between them, 
 and severed the Italian from the Sicilian shore." See JEneid, III. 411, 414, 
 416, etc. The strait is now about a mile and a half wide, — 233. Thundering 
 JEtna. Tonat JEtna, Mino, thunders, says Virgil. See the passage, ^'Eneid, 
 III. 571 to 578. — 234. Fuelled (Gr. irvp ; A. S. fyr; Ger. feuer; Fr. feu, 
 fire; Lat./oc^w, fireplace ; Low Lat. /oc«7e ; Nor. Fr. fiiayl, fuel), supplied 
 with fuel. Thence. Whence ? Conceiving fire, 'catching fire' (as in Lat. 
 cnncipirc ignem). —235. Sublimed ( Lat. sublimis, lifted, high ; to sublime is to 
 bring by heat into a state of vapor and condense again by cold), forced aloft 
 (or, perhaps, reduced by sublimation to a powder, as flowers of sulphur). — 
 236. Involved with. Shakes, uses with for in (Sonnet XXIII.). The mean- 
 ing of the two expressions is slightly diff'erent : with implies a more confused 
 mixture of solids with gases ; in, an enveloping of solids by gases. Which 
 better suits Milton's idea? — 238. Unblest feet. Ignoring Milton's purpose 
 to assemble the reljel army on this burning soil, Ruskui says (and the Clar. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 29 
 
 Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 
 
 As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 
 
 Not by the sufferance of supernal power. 
 
 " Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," 
 Said then the lost archangel, " this the seat 
 That we must change for heaven 1 — this mournful gloom 
 For that celestial light 1 Be it so ! since he 245 
 
 Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
 What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 
 
 Press eel. quotes it without comment) as follows : *' All this [lines 228 to 238] 
 is far too detailed, and deals too much with externals ; we feel rather the form 
 of the fire- waves than their fury ; we walk upon them too securely, and the 
 fuel, sublimation, smoke, and singeing, seem to me images of only partial 
 combustion ; they vary and extend the conception, but they lower the ther- 
 mometer . . . fail of making us thoroughly unendurably hot. The essence 
 of fire is not there. Now hear Dante " (the italics are Ruskin's) — 
 " Feriami '1 Sole in su I'omero destro 
 
 Che gia, raggiando, tutto I'Occidente 
 
 Mutava in bianco aspetto di cilestro : 
 
 Ed io facea con Vombra piu rovente 
 
 Barer la Jiamma" — Purg. XXVI. 4-8. 
 
 [On the right shoulder smote me now the sun, that, raying out, changed all 
 the West from azure aspect into white, and with my shadow I made the flame 
 appear more red.] Ruskin continues : " This is a slight touch ; he has not 
 gone to iEtna nor Pelorus for fuel ; but we shall not soon recover from it, — 
 he has taken our breath away and leaves us gasping. No smoke or cinders 
 there. Pure, white, hurtling, formless flame; very fire-crystal, we cannot 
 make spires nor waves of it, nor divide it, nor walk on it ; there is no ques- 
 tion about singeing soles of feet. It is lambent annihilation." (Ruskin's 
 Mod. Painters, Part III. 2, 3.) Whatever may be thought of Ruskin's 
 extraordinary interpretation of Dante, it is not clear that he understands 
 Milton ! As if degree of hotness were the thing that Milton should have 
 aimed to depict ! (Milton seems to have had the passage from Dante in 
 mind in Par. Lost, XI. 205-6.) — 239. Stygian. The Styx (hate) being 
 a river of hell, Stygian is i7ifer7iaL—2iO. Sufferance. So Ajax (in Odj/s- 
 seij, IV. 503) declared that he would escape the great gulf of the sea in 
 spite of the gods ! — 244. Change for heaven, a Latinism for ' change 
 heaven for,' 'change' being equivalent to 'receive in exchange' (like Lat. 
 viutare). See Hor. Odes, I. xvii. 1 ; III. I. 47. — 246. Sovran (Lat. superyms, 
 superus, above ; super, over ; Fr. souverain ; Sp. soherano ; It. sovrano, 
 sovereign). — 247. Farthest. The Greeks had a proverb, " Far from Jupiter, 
 
30 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
 
 Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields. 
 
 Where joy forever dwells ! Hail, horrors ! hail, 250 
 
 Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
 
 Eeceive thy new possessor ! one who brings 
 
 A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
 
 The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 
 Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 255 
 
 What matter where, if I be still the same, 
 
 And what I should be, all but less than he 
 
 Whom thunder hath made greater 1 Here at least 
 
 We shall be free : the Almighty hath not built 
 
 Here for his envy ; will not drive us hence : 260 
 
 Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice 
 
 To reign is worth ambition, though in hell : 
 
 Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven ! 
 
 But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
 
 The associates and copartners of our loss, 265 
 
 Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, 
 
 and from his thunder, too." — 248. Reason. Intellect ? or the reason of 
 things, the constitution or fitness of things ? Force hath. Keightley suggests 
 that Milton perhaps dictated had. Which is preferable ? — 249, 250. What 
 considerations or ingredients intensify the pathos here? — 253, 254, etc. So 
 Horace's " Coelum non animuni mutant, qui trans mare currunt," They change 
 sky, not mind, who run across the sea ; and Shakes, says, " There's notliing, 
 either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Faustus, in Marlowe's power- 
 ful tragedy, on being asked how he escaped from liell, exclaim'^; " Why, this 
 is hell, nor am I out of it" ; and still more terribly Satan exclainis (Par. Lost, 
 IV. 75), " Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell ! " See IV. 20-23. Its 
 own place. Milton uses its but three times ; the word was just coming into 
 use, but was wliolly avoided in King James's Bible, and occurs verj' rarely in 
 Sliakespeare. — 257. All but less. Supreme, except that I am less ? New- 
 ton proposed to read albeit. — 258. Whom thunder, etc. "There is a fine 
 scorn in this phrase." Ross. — 260. For his envy. A grim mirth ! — 262, 263. 
 The energy of these lines is superhuman. Tliey voice the inmost soul of Satan, 
 and strikingly contrast it with the spirit of Achilles (in Odijs. XI. 489, etc.), 
 who would rather be a slave to the poorest hind on earth than reign monarch 
 of the dead ! Similar is the sentiment of Prometheus in iEschy. Prom. V. 
 1002. — 265. So ' co-mates and brothers in exile ' in Shakes. As Yoic 
 Like It. — 266. Astonished (Lat. attonare, to thuuderstrike ; tonitru, thun- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 31 
 
 And call them not to share with us their part 
 
 In this unhappy mansion, or once more 
 
 With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
 
 Eegained in heaven, or what more lost in hell 1 " . 270 
 
 So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub 
 Thus answered : " Leader of those armies bright 
 Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled, 
 If once they hear that voice — their liveliest pledge 
 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 275 
 
 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
 Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 
 Their surest signal — they will soon resume 
 New courage and revive, though now they lie 
 Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 
 
 As we erewhile, astounded and amazed ; 
 No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth ! " 
 
 He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend 
 Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield 
 Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 285 
 
 Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
 Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
 At evening from the top of Fesole 
 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 
 
 der ; Fr. etonner, akin to A. S. dyne, Icel. dyn, thunder, and to stunian, to 
 stun?), thunderstruck, bewildered, confounded. Oblivious, causing oblivion, 
 stupefying. — 267. Share. As colonists shared lands ? — 268. Mansion 
 (manere, to remain), abiding-place. — 276. And on = and especially on. A 
 classic usage. Edge (A. S. ecge; Gr. o/cr?; Lat. acies, edge, line of battle), the 
 fore-front. Others define it crisis. Your preference ? — 281. Erewhile {ere, 
 afore ; rohile, time), aforetime. Astounded, same force as astonished, 1. 266. — 
 282. Fallen, i. e. fallen from. Pernicious {ha.i. per, thoroughly; necare, to 
 kill; nex, violent death), destructive. — 285. Temper. Syntax ? — 286. Cir- 
 cumference. Metonymy? or synecdoche ?— 287. Moon, i. e. as it appears 
 magnified?— 288. Artist, one skilled in an art in Avhich science and taste are 
 preeminent ? Tuscan. Story of Galileo and his telescope ? Milton's visit to 
 him? — 289. Fesole (Lat. Faesulae; Ft. Fiesole, the hill above Florence).— 
 290. Valdarno (It. val, valley ; d'Aryio, of the river Arno). Location ? 
 
32 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
 
 Ilis spear — to equal which the tallest pine, 
 
 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
 
 On some great ammiral, were but a wand — 
 
 He walked with, to support uneasy steps 295 
 
 Over the burning marie, not like those steps 
 
 On heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime 
 
 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 
 
 Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
 
 Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 
 
 His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced 
 
 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
 
 In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
 
 High over-arched imbower ; or scattered sedge 
 
 Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 305 
 
 Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves overthrew 
 
 Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 
 
 292. To equal which = in comparison with which. Write out the proportion : 
 As a wand to the tallest pine, so — ? Pine. ' The dark Norway pine ' is famous 
 ill poetry. — 294. Ammiral ( Ar. amir, or e?n?>, lord ; al, the ; Ital. ammiraglio, 
 flag-ship), principal vessel, any large ship. See Odys. IX. 322 ; so uEneid^ III. 
 659, where the trunk of a pine steadies the steps of the Cyclops. — 296. Marie, 
 soft clayey soil. Conceive this gigantic being sinking at every step in the fiery 
 mire! — 297. Azure. "Having the visible heaven in his mind, he forgets 
 that he had quite a different idea of the ground of heaven." *Keightlei/. Not 
 so ; there is such a thing as poetry. Besides, the angelic step was light : 
 " High above the ground their march was, and the passive air upbore their 
 nimble tread" ! VI. 71-73. —299. Nathless (A. S. natheles^ net, not), none 
 the less. Frequent in early English. — 302. Strow ( Lat. sierno, stravi), 
 strew. — 303. Vallombrosa ( Lat. vcdlis ; Ital. valle, vale ; Lat. nvibra, shade ; 
 Ital. ombroso, shady), the shady valley. Vallombrosa, in sight of Florence, 
 thougli eighteen miles distant, visited by Milton in September, 1838. "The 
 natural woods," says Wordsworth, " are deciduous, and spread to a great ex- 
 tent." See jEneid, VI. 309 — souls ' as numerous as the leaves that fall in the 
 first chill of autumn.' — 304. Sedge, sea-weed. The Hebrew name of the 
 lied Sea means ' sea of sedge.' — 305, Orion, a mighty Boeotian hunter, wlio at 
 death became a constellation. Storms attended its rising and setting. Armed, 
 with sword and club. Euripides calls him 0<t>VpVS, xipheres, armed with 
 sword ; Virgil speaks of liini as armaliim auro, armed with gold, and nim- 
 bustis, stormy. —307. Busiris. Pharaoh being a mere title like Czar, Mil- 
 
 1 
 
PARADISE LOST. 33 
 
 While with perfidious hatred they pursued 
 
 The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 
 
 From the safe shore their floating carcasses 310 
 
 And broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, 
 
 Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, 
 
 Under amazement of their hideous change. 
 
 He called so loud that all the hollow deep • 
 
 Of hell resounded : — " Princes, Potentates, 315 
 
 AVarriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, 
 
 If such astonishment as this can seize 
 
 Eternal spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place 
 
 After the toil of battle to repose 
 
 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 
 
 To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven 1 
 
 Or in this abject jDOsture have ye sworn 
 
 To adore the conqueror, who now beholds 
 
 Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood 
 
 With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 325 
 
 His swift pursuers from heaven-gates discern 
 
 The advantage, and, descending, tread us down 
 
 Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 
 
 Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? — 
 
 Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! " 330 
 
 ton follows Raleigh in singling ont Busiris as the oppressor of the Israelites, 
 a cruel Egyptian king slain by Hercules. See Exod. xiv. Memphian. Mem- 
 phis, out of whose ruins Cairo was built, was one of the oldest and largest 
 cities. Chivalry, cavalry. Ital. cavalleria ; Fr. chevalerie ; fr. Fr. cheval, 
 horse; Jjat. caballus, wag. — S08. Perfidious. How so? — 309. Sojourners. 
 Why so called ? Goshen. Which part of Egypt;? Gen. xlvii, 1. Beheld. 
 Exod. xiv. 30, 31. — 312. Abject (Lat. ahjecti, cast down, prostrated). — 313. 
 Amazement, utter bewilderment, stupor. Of. Meaning ? — 315, Princes, 
 etc. In this Avonderfully sublime speech, three degrees of rank are recognized, 
 princes, potentates, and warriors. — 317. Astonishment, the utter con- 
 fusion or insensibility of one thunderstruck. — 320. Virtue ( Lat. virtus, 
 manliness), valor, strength. For, on account of. — 325. Anon (A. S. on, in; 
 an, one), in one moment, soon. — 328. Linked. 'Like chain shot'? Linked 
 thunderbolts ^= ' chain lightning ' ? — 330. Tlie intensity and sublimity of 
 this appeal are hardly equalled in literature. Point out its constituent quali- 
 
34 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 They heard, and were abashed, and np they sprung 
 Uj)on the wing ; as when men, wont to watch, 
 On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 
 Itouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 335 
 
 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
 Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed, 
 Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
 Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
 Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 
 
 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
 Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile ; 
 So numberless were those bad angels seen 
 Hovering on wing under the cope of hell, 345 
 
 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires ; 
 Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 
 Of their great sultan waving to direct 
 Their course, in even balance down they light 
 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain ; 350 
 
 A multitude like which the pojDulous North 
 
 ties. — 335. Nor . . . not. As often in Latin two negatives make an em- 
 phatic positive. — 337. To . . . obeyed. To is thus used with oie^ in Rom. 
 vi. 16. —338. Potent rod. Exod. iv. 2, 17; viii. 5; x. 12-15, etc. —339. 
 Amram's son. Exod. vi. 20. — 340. Pitchy. Sense? Dark as pitch or tar ? 
 — 341, Warping (A, S. weaiyian, to cast, turn, twist, wind). Working 
 tliemselves forward like successive waves? Webster, quoting this passage, 
 defines the word loarj), 'To fly with a bending or waving motion ; to turn and 
 wave like a Hock of birds or insects.' Tlie word usually means to turn or be 
 turned out of a straight line. Says Keightley, " Milton here uses this term 
 of art improperly." Keightley's mistake is in supposing that Milton uses 
 'warping' in the rare technical sense which the word bears in navigation, a 
 sense never found in Shakes, nor Milton. — 343. Darkened. " The land was 
 darkened." Exod. x. 15. — 345. Cope. Same root as cap 1 — 347. Till, as a 
 signal, etc. "A falconer recalling his hawk by waving the lure seems to 
 have been in the poet's mind," remarks Keightley. More likely he tliought 
 of Joshua's outstretched spear near Ai ? Josh. viii. 18, 19, 26. —350. Brim- 
 stone. Color and nature of this soil?— 351. Note the threefold imagery 
 used to picture these angels on the lake, in the air, and on the plain ! Popu- 
 
PARADISE LOST, 35 
 
 Poured never from her frozen loins to pass 
 
 Khene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 
 
 Came like a deluge on the south, and spread 
 
 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 355 
 
 Forthwith from every squadron and each band 
 
 The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 
 
 Their great commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 
 
 Excelling human ; princely dignities ; 
 
 And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones, 360 
 
 Though of their names in heavenly records now 
 
 Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 
 
 By their rebellion from the books of life. 
 
 Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 
 
 Got them new names ; till, wandering o'er the earth, 365 
 
 Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 
 
 By falsities and lies the greatest part 
 
 Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 
 
 God their Creator, and the invisible 
 
 Glory of him that made them to transform 370 
 
 Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
 
 With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 
 
 lous North, Avhat Sir William Temple calls 'the northern hive,' whence Goths, 
 Franks, and Vandals came swarming. — 353. Rbeue (Lat. Rhenus, Rhine). So 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 21. Danaw (Ger. Donau, Danube). —355. Be- 
 neath (like Lat. infra), south of. In 429 a. d. the Vandals pushed their con- 
 quests into Africa ? Libyan. African. — 356. Squadron (Lat. quatuor, 
 four ; quadra, square ; Fr. escadron. Note that our military terms are almost 
 all from the French). Same as 'squared regiment,' I. 758? — 360. Erst. 
 Etymology ? — 361. Though of their names, etc. In Ps. ix. 5, 6, Ave read, 
 "Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. . . . Their memorial is 
 perished with them." In Rev. xx. 12, " And the books were opened. And 
 another book was opened, which is the book of life." See Rev. iii. 5. There 
 is a peculiar solemnity in the Miltonic idea that these names shall nevermore 
 be pronounced in heaven ! See Par. Lost, V. 559, 560. —365. New names. 
 The Christian Fathers believed that the heathen gods were devils in disguise. 
 Milton gives this belief ' an ingenious poetic turn,' says Masson. " In the 
 course of ages . . . they got them new names." " It is by these names that 
 they must, though by anticipation, be called in tlie poem." — 369, 370. In- 
 visible glory. See the eloquent statement in Rom. i. 23 ; also Ps. cvi. 20 ; 
 
36 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 And devils to adore for deities : 
 
 Then were they known to men by various names 
 
 And various idols through the heathen world. 375 
 
 \ Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, 
 
 Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, 
 
 At their great emperor's call, as next in worth 
 
 Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 
 
 While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 
 
 The chief were those, who, from the pit of hell 
 Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix 
 Their seats, long after, next the seat of God, 
 Their altars by his altar, gods adored 
 
 Among the nations round ; and durst abide 385 
 
 Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
 Between the cherubim ; yea, often placed 
 Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
 Abominations ; and with cursed things 
 His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 
 
 And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
 
 First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
 
 Exod. xxxii. — 372. Religions (Lat. religiones), religious rites. —373. Devils. 
 See Levit. xvii. 7 ; Dent. xxx. 17 ; Ps. cvi. 37 ; also, especially, 1 Cor. x. 20. 
 See Hijmn on the Nativity, st. 19-25. — 375. Idols (Gr. efSwAa, idola, images). 
 - 376. Then. When ? Who first, who last. So in the Iliad, V. ^703, 
 " Whom first, whom last did Hector lay low ? " So .^neid, XI. 664. — 378. 
 Emperor. Other names and titles of Satan in this book ? — 382. Roaming, etc. 
 ' As a roaring lion, walketh about,' etc., 1 Peter v. 8. — 384. Their altars. So 
 Manasseli built them, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 4-7. See, too, Ezekiel xliii. 8. — 387. 
 Between the cherubim. " This is incorrect. The throne is . . . borne/;?/ 
 the cherubim." So says Keightley, who adds that Milton was led into error by 
 tlie Eiig. translation of Ps. Ixxx. 1, etc., "■ where between is inserted." Keight- 
 ley confounds that throne, which is called the ' mercy-seat,' with the Hying 
 throne seen by Ezekiel ' in the land of the Clialdeans by the river Chebar' ? See 
 Ezekiel i. 26 ; Exod. xxv. 22, xxxvii. 7 ; 1 Kings vi. 27, viii. 6 ; Par. Lost, XII. 
 253, 254 ; also XT. 2, where ' mercy-seat above' is God's throne in heaven. — 
 389. Abominations, ' abominations in the house called by my name,' Jer. vii. 
 30 ; E/.ek. vii. 20. — 391. Aifront, confront, face, insult (Lat. frons, foi-ehead ; 
 Fi-. ajfronter ; It. aji'rovtarr). So rei)eatedly in Shakes. • as, 'that he may . . . 
 affront Ophelia,' Hamlet, HI. I. 30, 31. - 392. Moloch (Hob. 3folcch, king). 
 
PARADISE LOST. 37 
 
 Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears 
 
 Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
 
 Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 395 
 
 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
 
 Worshipped in Eabba and her watery plain, 
 
 In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
 
 Of utmost Arnon. Nor contenf with such 
 
 Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 
 
 Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
 
 His temple right against the temple of God 
 
 On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
 
 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
 
 And black Gehenna called, the type of hell. 405 
 
 He personifies destructive fire ? See the allusions to the horrible sacrifices to 
 him in Lev. xviii. 21 ; Jer. xxxii. 35 ; Ps. cvi. 37, 38. —395. Passed through 
 fire. "They kindled it [the hollow brass image of Moloch] with fire, and the 
 priest took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and the babe gave 
 up the ghost. And why was it called Tophet and Hinnom ? Because they 
 used to make a noise with drums {tojjhim), that the father might not hear the 
 cry of his child and have pity on him. ITojihet is otherwise rendered, ' place 
 to be spit on,' or 'place of burning.'] Hinnom, because the babe wailed 
 {menahem)." Kimchi. Gehenna, valley of Hinnom, the deep narrow glen 
 south of Jerusalem. — 397. Rabba, on the river Jabbok, was the capital city of 
 the Ammonites, called ' city of waters ' in 2 Sam. xii. 27. Moab was the 
 settled and civilized half of the nation of Lot, and Ammon formed its preda- 
 tory and Bedouin section. Smith's Bib. Diet. Down to about the middle 
 of the second century B. C, the Ammonites are in close alliance with the 
 Moabites. This alliance, and their nomadic character, abundantly acquit the 
 poet of any 'slip of memory ' in confusing the territory of the Ammonites 
 with that of^the Moabites or Amorites. (Ben-Ammi was son of Lot by Ins 
 younger daughter, as Moab was by tlie elder. ) — 398. Argob and Basan, dis- 
 tricts lying easterly from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan. — 399. Arnon, 
 a small stream running west into the Dead Sea. See map of Palestine. — 400. 
 Neighborhood. Nearness to what ? Wisest heart. Hvpallage ? — 401. Led 
 by fraud. Explained, 1 Kings xi. 3, 4, 7, etc. —403. Opprobrious hill. 
 In 2 Kings xxiii. 13 it is called Mount of Corruption, or Mount of Destruc- 
 tion, or of a Snare. Keightley says, " We know not what led Milton to use 
 the term 'opprobrious.' " Dr. Smith [Bih. Diet.) says, " The most southern 
 portion of the Mt. of Olives is that usually known as the Mount of Offence. 
 . . . The title was bestowed on the supposition that it is the Mt. of Corrup- 
 tion on which Solomon erected the high places for the gods of his foreign 
 
38 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
 
 From Aroer to Nebo and the wild 
 
 Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
 
 And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 
 
 The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 
 
 And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool ; 
 
 Peor his other name, when he" enticed 
 
 Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 
 
 To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 
 
 Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 415 
 
 Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 
 
 Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate, 
 
 Till good Josiah drove them thence to helL 
 
 With these came they, who, from the bordering flood 
 
 Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 
 
 wives." Grove. In the old heathen religions, groves play a prominent 
 part. Pliny tells us that the first temples were trees. But the word 
 rendered 'grove' may have designated the emblematic carved 'pillar' in 
 the worship of some of these gods. —406. Chemos, deity of the Moabites, 
 often identified with the obscene Greek god Priapus, but sometimes with 
 Adonis, Pluto, Mars, Saturn, Bacchus, etc. See Num. xxi. 29; Jer. 
 xlviii. 13 ; 1 Kings xi. 7 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. He is called god of the Am- 
 monites in Judges xi. 24. — 407-11. Aroer, on the river Arnon. Nebo (or 
 Pisfjah ?), part of the mountain range called Abarim (opposite Jericho). 
 Hesebon (Heshbon), Sibma, Eleal6, easterly from Abarim. Horonaim, site 
 unknown, but near by. Seon {Sihon), king of the Amorites, had driven the 
 Moabites south of the Arnon before the Israelites reached the promised land. 
 See a map showing Abarim, Nebo, Heshbon, etc., mentioned in Num. xxi. 
 Isa. XV., Jer. xlviii., etc. Asphaltic pool (Laciis As2)haltites\ the Dead Sea, 
 abounding with asj^haltus or bitumen. — 413. Sittim (Heb. Abd-Hasshittim, 
 meadowofacacias), inthelandof Moab. — 414. Do. . . rites (Gr. /epo^eXf"', 
 hiera rezein ; Lat. facere sacra). Woe. Twenty-four thousand deaths. 
 Num. XXV. 9. — 415. Orgies (Gr. ^pyov, ergon, work; or, better, opy-i], orge, 
 violent passion), bacchanalian rites, licentious or drunken transports. — 416-17. 
 Hill, the ' opprobrious hill/ 1. 403. Lust hard by hate. Never was weightier 
 moral condensed into four words. — 418. Josiah drove, etc. How he did it, 
 is shown in 2 Kings xxiii. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. Reigned B. c. 641-672 ? — 
 419-20. Bordering flood, the eastern boundary of the Promised Land. "To 
 thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, 
 the river Euphrates." Gen. xv. 18. Old. Mentioned as early as Gen. ii. 14. 
 Brook. Besor, perhaps, 1 Sam, xxx. 9 ; or the Wady-El-Arish, the ancient 
 
PARADISE LOST. 39 
 
 Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 
 
 Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male, 
 
 These feminine : for spirits, when they please, 
 
 Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 
 
 And uncompounded is their essence pure, 425 
 
 Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 
 
 Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones. 
 
 Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, 
 
 Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 
 
 Can execute their aery purposes, 430 
 
 And works of love or enmity fulfil. 
 
 For those the race of Israel oft forsook 
 
 Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 
 
 His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 
 
 To bestial gods ; for which their heads, as low 435 
 
 Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 
 
 Of despicable foes. With these in troop 
 
 Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 
 
 Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns ; 
 
 To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 
 
 Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 
 
 In Sion also not unsung, where stood 
 
 Rhinocolura ? — 422. Baalim (Heb- jBaa^, master, the supreme male deity 
 of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, often supposed to be the sun-god. 
 Plu. Baalim). Judges ii. 11, 13. Ashtaroth. The chief female divinity 
 of the same nations, was often regarded as the moon-goddess. (Smith's 
 Bib. Diet.; Max Mtiller's Science of Religion; Keightley's Pneumatol- 
 ogy.) — 4:23. Spirits, etc. See Psellus, On the 0]}erations of Spirits (1615); 
 Burton's Anat. of Melancholy (1621); Wier's De Pracstigiis Daemonum 
 (1563). Pope follows Milton, Bape of the Lock, 70. " There is a natural 
 proper shape for each spirit, but at its own will, or at the will of the Almighty 
 who conti'ols its substance, this may be entirely changed." Himes. This 
 power of transformation becomes important in the poem, and, as Addison re- 
 marks, is introduced with great judgment and forethought. — 431. Living 
 Strength. " Tlie strength of Israel will not lie." 1 Sam. xv. 29. — 435. 
 Bestial, brutish in form or spirit. — 436. Bowed down, etc. As stated in 
 Judges ii. 12, 14 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 7 ; Ps, cvi. 19-42. — 437. In troop, in 
 company. The moon-goddess, Ashtoreth, Astarte of the Phoenicians, came 
 with Ashtaroth, the starry host of heaven. — 438. Astoreth. "Solomon 
 
40 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Her temple -on the offensive mountain, built 
 
 By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 
 
 Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 445 
 
 To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 
 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 
 In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 
 
 While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 
 
 Ean purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale 
 
 Infected Sion's daughters with like heat. 
 
 Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 
 
 Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 455 
 
 His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 
 
 Of alienated Judah. Next came one 
 
 Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 
 
 Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off, 
 
 In his own temple, on the grunsel edge, 460 
 
 Where he fell flat and shamed his worshipers : 
 
 Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 
 
 And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 
 
 Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 
 
 Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 465 
 
 And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 
 
 went after Ashtoreth." 1 Kings xi. 5.— 443. Offensive mountain. See 11.403, 
 416. — 444. Large. " God gave Solomon largeness of heart." 1 Kings 
 iv. 29. Meaning of ' largeness ' here ? — 446. Idols. '' His Avives turned his 
 heart after other gods." 1 Kings xi. 4. Thammuz. 'Women weeping for 
 Tanimuz.' Ezek. viii. 14. Identified by St. Jerome with Adonis, slain by a 
 boar in Lebanon. Lucian tells of the red soil yearly tingeing the river water. 
 See Ov.,Met.X. 726, etc.— 455. Ezekiel saw. Ezek. viii. 14. — 458. In 
 earnest. By contrast to what ^rg^cwr^ccZ sorrow? Ark. '' Dagon was fallen 
 upon his face before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the 
 ])alms of his hands were cut off." 1 Sam. v. 4. Other particulars of this ? — 
 460. Grunsel (ground; sill, Lat. soZi«>i / Fr. seuil), groxmdsill, threshold. — 
 462. Dagon, god of the Philistines. The fish-like form, emblem of frnitful- 
 iicss, was appropriately adopted by a maritime people. { Dcu/im = \ii\\e 
 fish ?) — 461-6. Azotus, Ashdod, Esdud. Ascalon, Ashkelon. Accaron, 
 
PARADISE LOST. 41 
 
 Him followed Eimmoii, whose delightful seat 
 
 Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 
 
 Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 
 
 He also against the house of God was bold : 470 
 
 A leper once he lost, and gained a king, 
 
 Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 
 
 God's altar to disparage and displace 
 
 For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 
 
 His odious offerings, and adore the gods 475 
 
 Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 
 
 A crew who, under names of old renown, 
 
 Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train. 
 
 With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 
 
 Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek 480 
 
 Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 
 
 Eather than human. Nor did Israel scape 
 
 The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 
 
 The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 
 
 Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 485 
 
 Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 
 
 Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed 
 
 From Egypt marching,^ equalled with one stroke 
 
 Ekron, Akir. See the map for these five chief cities. 1 Sam. vi. 17. — 467. 
 Rimmon, a sun-god worshipped by the Syrians of Damascus. Only once 
 mentioned in the Bible ? 2 Kings v. 18. ( From Hebrew rimmon, pomegranate, 
 sacred to Venus, and emblem of fruitfulness ? or fr. 7'um, high, ' the high one ' ?) 
 468. Damascus. Situation? beauty? importance ? — 469. Abana and Phar- 
 phar. In 2 Kings V. 12, we see the pride these rivers inspired. Lucid. ''The 
 word here gives all the sparkling effect of the most perfect landscape." Haz- 
 Utt. — i71. Leper, Naaman. King, Ahaz. See 2 Kings v., xvi. ; 2 Chron. 
 xxviii. 23. — 477. Crew. Disparagement intended ? — 478. Osiris, a ' Mani- 
 festorof Goodness and Truth,' — often identified with Apis, who was the living 
 emblem of Osiris, — was worshipped under the form of a bull ; Isis, his sister 
 and wife, the female form of Osiris, porti-ayed as a woman with a cow's horns ; 
 Orus, or Horus, god of silence, son of the two former, has a human form with 
 a hawk's head. — 479. Sorceries. Allusion to Pharaoh's magicians? — 481. 
 Wandering The Greek tradition told how the gods in the war with the 
 giants fled to Egypt and hid under the form of beasts. — 483. Borrowed, as 
 stated in Exod. xii. 35. — 484-5. Calf. *'They made a calf in Horeb," etc. 
 
42 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 Both her first-horn and all her hleating gods. 
 
 Belial came last ; than whom a spirit more lewd 490 
 
 Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 
 
 Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 
 
 Or altar smoked : yet who more oft than he 
 
 In temples and at altars, when the priest 
 
 Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 495 
 
 With lust and violence the house of God ? 
 
 In courts and palaces he also reigns, 
 
 And in luxurious cities, where the noise 
 
 Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, 
 
 And injury and outrage; and, when night 500 
 
 Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 
 
 Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 
 
 Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 
 
 In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 
 
 Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 505 
 
 These were the prime in order and in might : 
 The rest were long to tell ; though far renowned 
 The Ionian Gods — of Javan's issue held 
 
 Ps. cvi. 19, 20 ; Exod. xii. 35 ; xxxii. 4. Rebel, Jeroboam. Bethel, Dan. 
 Seemap. — 488. Marching. Stated in Exod, xii. 31, 42; Ps. Ixviii. 7. — 
 489. Bleating, like Amnion, a ram, or Meudes, a goat. The word includes 
 lowing, as in II. 494. Exod. xii. 29; Num. xxxiii. 4. — 490. Belial (worth- 
 lessness, recklessness, lawlessness. Milton makes it a proper noun, as in 2 
 Cor. vi. 15). Than, a preposition here as in Shakespeare, Swift, the Conmiou 
 Version of the Bible, Prov. xxvii. 3, etc. — 495. Eli's sons. 1 Sam. ii. 12. 
 — 501-2. Sons of Belial, a Scriptural expression, as in Judges xix. 22 ; 
 1 Sam. ii. 12. Flown, flowed, overflowed, flooded, flushed. Shakes, used 
 ' flown ' for flowed, and Si)enser * overflown ' for overflowed. Note that of 
 these 'prime 'gods of the Semitic nations, Moloch comes first, Belial last. 
 An 3^ special fitness in this? Observe their speeches in Book II. — 503-4. 
 Sodom. Gen. xix. 8, 9; Judges xix. 25. Macaulay suspects that Milton was 
 thinking of the fast young men of London when lie wrote of the * sons of 
 Belial.' Hist, of Enrj. I. p. 360. —507. Long to tell. The Greek writers, 
 as also Lucretius, Ovid, Cicero, Dante, Boccaccio, Spenser, Drayton, Byron, 
 etc., use this expression or its exact equivalent. — 508-9. Ionian (the lones 
 were one of the chief original races of Greece), Grecian. Of (i, e. hj/) Javan's 
 issue held (i. e. held to be) gods. Javan, grandson of Noah and fourth son 
 of Japhet. Later. Because our ' heaven and earth ' were created after the 
 
r 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 43 
 
 Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
 
 Their boasted parents ; — Titan, Heaven's first-born, 510 
 
 With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
 
 By younger Saturn ; he from mightier Jove, 
 
 His own and Ehea's son, hke measure found ; 
 
 So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
 
 And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 515 
 
 Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 
 
 Their highest heaven ; or on the Delphian cHff, 
 
 Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 
 
 Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 
 
 ried over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 520 
 
 expulsion of the Semitic gods. Deut. xxxii, 17. — 510. Titan. This was 
 Oceanus, eldest of the twelve Titans, and by his birth entitled to succeed his 
 father, Uranus, on the throne ? He is called ' Titan ' par excellence by Lac- 
 tantius and by Milton, just as ' the mightiest Julius ' is especially styled 
 'Cgesar.' Homer calls him 'parent of gods'; Virgil, 'father of Nature' 
 (rerum). Besides all the river-gods and water-nymphs, other progeny, an 
 * enormous brood,' are his children. It was natural that with Heaven and 
 Earth the all-producing Ocean should be mentioned. — 512, Saturn, Cronos 
 Time. (Lat. satur, satisfied; Saturnus, the self-sufficient ? Better, perhaps, 
 fr. serh-e, satum, to sow ?) Youngest of the Titans, Saturn Avas dethroned by 
 his son Jupiter (or Jove ). Lat . Jupiter = Jovis, i. e. Diovis, and pater, father ; 
 Gr. Zeis, Zeus, irarvp, pater, father; Zeus-father, or Father-Zeus. — 513. 
 Rhea, one of the Titans. See Class. Diet. — 514. Crete, Candia. Ida, a 
 mountain near the centre of Crete. " Here Jupiter was born and brought up 
 in a cave. — 515. Snowy top. Homer calls Olympus 'snowy,' and 'very 
 snowy.' — 516. Olympus (the fabled residence of the gods), a many-peaked 
 colossal mountain, 9,700 feet high, on the left bank of the river Peneios in 
 Thessaly. Middle air. Above this middle air are clouds, and above the clouds 
 the aether. Other clouds below this ' middle air ' shut out the summit from the 
 view of mortals. See ' middle flight,' 1. 14. — 517. Delphian. Delphi, the 
 seat of the famous oracle of Apollo, was on a steep declivity of Parnassus. 
 See Class. Diet. — 518. Dodona, the oldest oracle in Greece and sacred to 
 Jupiter. — 519. Doric land. Greece, land of the Dorians, one of the great 
 Hellenic races. — 520. Fled. " The Roman poets, who alone speak of this 
 event, represent the flight of Saturn as solitary." Keightley. But is it so ? 
 The language of Virgil in regard to Saturn is very similar to that which he 
 uses in regard to ^neas, and we know that the latter did not come to Italy 
 alone. See the passages cited, JEneid, VIII. 319, etc. ; Ov. Fast. I. 235, etc. 
 Adria, the Adriatic. Hesperian (eVirepos, hesperus. vesper, evening, west- 
 
44 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. 
 
 All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
 Downcast and damp ; yet sucli wherein appeared 
 Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their chief 
 ^N'ot in despair, to have found themselves not lost 525 
 
 In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
 Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
 Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
 Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
 Their fainting courage and dispelled their fears ; 530 
 
 Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
 Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
 His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
 Azazel as his right, a cherub tall ; 
 
 Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 535 
 
 The imperial ensign ; which, full high advanced, 
 Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
 With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, 
 Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
 Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 
 
 era), Italian, so called because west of Greece. — 521. Celtic fields or region, 
 France (and perhaps Spain). Isles, British. Utmost, as in 1. 74, farthest. 
 522. More. Scandinavian deities ? Turanian ? Indian ? — 526. Loss itself, 
 the extremity of loss, the loss of heaven ? Which. Looks of mingled joy and 
 despondency ? — 528. Recollecting, re-collecting, collecting anew, recalling ? 
 
 — 529. Gently. Always found in Milton and Shakespeare in its usual sense. 
 So is courage in the next line. — 532. Clarion. Differs how from trumpet ? 
 
 — 534. Azazel, ' brave in retreat,' or ' powerful against God.' Others define 
 it 'a scape-goat,' as the word is rendered in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26. Which is 
 most ai^propriate ? Himes identifies Azazel as 'a sort of ^Eolus.' Cherub, 
 because cherubs were .s;!/-ow/7. Keightley.—5S6. Advanced. Carried or planted 
 in the van (Fr. avancer ; Lat. ab, ante). See shreds and traces of this passage 
 iu the peroration of Webster's great speech in reply to Hayne, which well 
 ilhistrates how much the finest oratory may owe to the finest poetry. —537. 
 Meteor. Gray in liis Bard uses this magnificent simile. — 538-9. Emblazed, 
 blazoned, in flaming colors. (A. S. hiaese, a torch.) A term of heraldry. As 
 acts of zeal and love are 'emblazed' on the standards of good angels (Par. 
 Lost, V. 592-4), so the brave thougli wicked deeds of the rebel angels (VI. 377, 
 etc.) were inscribed on their banners, and these inscriptions are perhaps the 
 * trophies.' Arms are armorial beaiings, colored devices indicating distinc- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 45 
 
 At which the imiversal host up sent 
 
 A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond 
 
 Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Mght. 
 
 All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
 
 Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 545 
 
 With orient colors waving : with them rose 
 
 A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 
 
 Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
 
 Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 
 
 In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 550 
 
 Of flutes and soft recorders ; such as raised 
 
 To highth of noblest temper heroes old 
 
 Arming to battle, and instead of rage 
 
 Deliberate valor breathed, firm, and unmoved 
 
 With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 555 
 
 Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage 
 
 With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 
 
 Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 
 
 From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 
 
 Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 
 
 tion ? — 542. Shout. Cowper thinks this far surpasses Homer's description 
 of the shouts of Greeks and Trojans, 11. XIII., last lines. — 543. Reign 
 (Lat. regnuvi, Fr. regne, realm, kingdom. So Chaucer and Spenser). Par. 
 Lost, II. 890-916. — 546. Orient (Lat. oriens, rising ; oriri, to rise). Hence 
 'rising,' as 'orient sun,' Par. Lost, V. 175; 'eastern,' as 'orient wave,' 
 Hymn on the Nativity, 231 ; 'bright,' as in this line. Bronme. Orient 
 colors, the colors of the eastern sky at da^^^l ? ' streakings of the morn- 
 ing light ' ? — 547. They rally to their respective ' colors.' Other poets 
 talk of a ' crop ' or ' field ' of bristling swords or spears ; Milton and Ta?.so 
 of a ' forest ' of spears. Now follows a description of a grand muster and 
 review. — 548. Serried ( Fr. serre, close-locked), compact, or, perhaps, locked 
 together. They form in ' close column.' — 550. Phalanx. The famous Spar- 
 tan array as at Mantinea ? Thucyd. V. 70. — Dorian, grave ; as the Lydian 
 was soft, and the Phrygian sprightly. The Spartans were of Dorian descent. 
 The whole army is consolidated into a corps. — 551. Recorders. "The 
 figures of recordei's are straight ; the recorder hath a less bore and a greater, 
 above and below." Bacon. — 554. Breathed, ins]>ired. "Music feedeth 
 that disposition which it findeth." Bacon. Wliy 'trumpets and clarions' 
 in 1. 532, but ' flutes and recorders ' in 1. 551 ? — 558. Effect of this repetition 
 
46 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 
 
 Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now 
 
 Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 
 
 Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 
 
 Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 565 
 
 Awaiting what command their mighty chief 
 
 Had to impose. He through the armed files 
 
 Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 
 
 The whole battaHon views, their order due. 
 
 Their visages and stature as of gods: 570 
 
 Their number last he sums. And now his heart 
 
 Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, 
 
 Glories : for never, since created man. 
 
 Met such embodied force as, named with these. 
 
 Could merit more than that small infantry 575 
 
 Warr'd on by cranes ; though all the giant brood 
 
 of ' and ' ? — 560, Breathing united force. So in Homer, 'the Abantes 
 breathing strength,' 11. II. 536; and "Tlie Achpeans breathing might, ad- 
 vanced in silence," 11. III. 8, 9, — 561. Moved on. Technically ' passed in 
 review' before the commander-in-chief, Avho had taken his stand by the head- 
 quarters colors ? — 563. Horrid (Lat. /io?Tit?u5, bristling. Horace speaks of 
 agmina pilis horrentia, columns bristling with javelins), bristling. Front. 
 They are in ' line of battle,' in two ranks ? See 1. 616. — 565. Ordered. A 
 phrase of drill in Milton's time as in ours, ' order pikes ' being then the equiva- 
 lent of our 'order arms'; on which word of command soldiers stand with 
 their weapons resting perpendicularly by their sides, the butts on the ground. 
 Masson. What evidence exists of Milton's having studied tactics ? — 567. 
 Files. As general-in-chief, he passes along the front to see if they ' cover 
 files'? — 568. Traverse. He now moves along the flank to see if they are 
 * dressed ' into straight lines ? — 571. Sums. Staff officers report ' all present 
 or accounted for,' and the aggregate is known! — 572. His for its, note on 
 1.254. Hardening-. Like Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. v. 20. —573. Since created 
 man = since man was created (Lat. ^^as^ homineni creatum). So Sliakes. 
 'after well-entered soldiers,' ^U/'s Well That Ends Well, 11.1.^.-575-6. 
 Small infantry, etc. The Pygmies (Gr. irvyixri, pygme, a fist-fight ; wl, 
 pyx, fist ; irvyfiaToi, pygmaeoi, ' fistlings.' Uvyfi-f} is also a measure of length, 
 from the elbow to the knuckles, or 13^ inches), a fabulous race of dwarfs, Indian 
 or Ethiopian, or in the far north, who every spring fight with tlie cranes. 
 The latter at last destroy them. See Class. Diet. "What dwarfish races exist 
 in the extreme North ? What in Africa ? Addison censures Milton for pun- 
 
. PARADISE LOST. 47 
 
 Of Phlegra -with the heroic race were joined 
 
 That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 
 
 Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 
 
 In fable or romance of Uther's son 580 
 
 Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 
 
 And all who since, baptized or infidel, 
 
 Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 
 
 Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond, 
 
 Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 585 
 
 When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 
 
 By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 
 
 Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 
 
 Their dread commander. He, above the rest 
 
 ning on the word infantry. But is there a pun here ? — 577. Phlegra (Gr. 
 (pAeycay to burn ; hence implying a volcanic district), Pallene, a peninsula of 
 Macedonia where the giants fought against the gods ? Phlegra in Sicily ? in 
 Italy ? — 578. Thebes in Boeotia, famous for the war of " The Seven against 
 Thebes," and of the " Epigoni " ; Ilium, seat of the ten years' war, in which the 
 gods took sides and fought. See Class. Diet. — 579. Resounds, is loudly cele- 
 brated ? — 580. "Cither's. Prince Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, lived in 
 South Wales in the fifth or sixth century ? — 581. Armoric (Celtic ar, on, at; 
 Lat. ad ; Celtic 7nor, Lat. mare, the sea), spoken of Brittany or Bretagne in 
 the N. W. of France. Knights, * of the Bound Table.' The cycle of Arthurian 
 romances is well treated by Tennyson in Idyls of the King. — 582. Baptized, 
 Christians ; Infidel, Mohammedans ? — 583-4. Jousted (pronounced and often 
 spelled justed. Lat. jiixta, near ; Fr. jouter., to tilt), grappled, pushed with 
 lance or sword in mock fight. Aspramont, in Limburg, Netherlands. Mon- 
 talban, in Languedoc, France ? Morocco, in N. W, of Africa. Trebisond, 
 in Pontus, on the Black Sea. —585. Biserta, ancient Utica (near Carthage), 
 whence the Saracens invaded Spain. — 586. Fell. Milton here either follows 
 the Spanish romances or uses 'fell' figuratively. At Roncesvalles, in the 
 Pyrenees, near Fontarabbia, the rear of Charlemagne's army was annihilated 
 by the Basques in 778. He lived till 814. Milton has grouped the wars of 
 the Giants, of Thebes, of Troy, of Arthur, and of Charlemagne. What else ? 
 — 587-8. Thus far, i. e. though thus far. Beyond compare. An old Eng- 
 lish phrase. In the ballad of Helen of Kirconnel we read, ' Helen fair 
 beyond compare ! ' Observed, obeyed. So we say, ' observe the rules.' Lat. 
 observare. — 589. Above. Tallness in leaders was more admired in ancient 
 times than now? Instances? The following description is universally re- 
 garded as among the finest in Milton. Point out its excellences. — 591. Yet. 
 In this one word we have a hint of what Milton never forgets, that the process 
 
48 
 
 PARADIS1L LOST. 
 
 In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 
 
 Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost 
 
 All her original brightness, nor appeared 
 
 Less than archangel ruined, and the excess 
 
 Of glory obscured : as when the sun, new-risen, 
 
 Looks through the horizontal misty air, 595 
 
 Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, 
 
 In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 
 On half the nations, and with fear of change 
 
 Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 
 
 Above them all the archangel : but his face 600 
 
 Deep scars of thunder had intrenched , and care 
 
 Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 
 
 Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 
 
 Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 
 
 Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 
 
 The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 
 
 (Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 
 
 Forever now to have their lot in pain ; 
 
 Millions of spirits for his fault amerced 
 
 of deterioration is gradual. This fact, too often overlooked, sufficiently an- 
 swers the theologians who insist that as God ought to be represented as wholly 
 good, so the devil ought to be painted as wholly bad ! Give the latter his 
 due! — 592. Her, to avoid 'its,' and (so the critics say) because Lat. /orwa, 
 foi-m, is fem. See 'right hand forget her cunning,' Ps. cxxxvii. .5. — 593. 
 Archangel. Par. Lost, V. 659, 660, 'he, of the first, if not the first arch- 
 angel,' etc. " Lucifer . . . after his fall, was vailed with a grosser sub- 
 stance." Nash's /*ierce Penniless (1592). — 597. Disastrous (Lat. (Zw, ill> 
 unfavorable ; astrum, star. This word, like 'ill-starred,' 'mercurial,' 'satur- 
 nine,' 'jovial,' 'influence,' is a relic of the old belief in astrology), inauspicious. 
 598. Half. Why '/ia^/"'? — 601. Intrenched (Fr. trancher, to cut), cut 
 into, furrowed, gashed deep. So in Sliakes. ' twenty trenched gashes on 
 his head.' Mac/;^;!^, Ill . 4. — 603. Considerate, considering, thoughtful. So 
 in Shakes. Pride. Subject of 'sat,' or object of 'of'? — 604. Cruel. A 
 trochee may take the i)lace of an iambus. See quotation from Keightley 
 in note on Bondage of Rhyming in the preface. Eye. Note the steps 
 of this description ; Satan's stature, solidity, dimmed splendor, furrowed 
 face, resolute brows, cruel eye ! — 605. Remorse ( Lat. re-, again, mordere, 
 to gnaw). Meaning? Repeatedly in Shakes, it means pity. Passion 
 (Lat. ^>c<^/, to sull'er ; 2)((^ssio), suflering. Keightley defines it here 'com- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 49 
 
 Of heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 6io 
 
 For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood, 
 
 Their glory withered : as, when heaven's fire 
 
 Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 
 
 With singed top, their stately growth, though bare, 
 
 Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 615 
 
 To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 
 
 From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 
 
 With all his peers : attention held them mute. 
 
 Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 
 
 Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth : at last 620 
 
 Words interwove Avith sighs found out their way. 
 
 " myriads of immortal spirits ! powers 
 Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife 
 Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
 As this place testifies, and this dire change 625 
 
 Hateful to utter ! But what power of mind. 
 Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
 Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
 How such united force of gods, how such 
 As stood like these, could ever know repulse ] 630 
 
 passion, feeling.' — 609. Amerced {ha.t. misericordia, pity, from misereri, 
 to pity ; and cor, heart ; or, better, from merx, price ; Fr. d merci, Lat. m 
 misericordia, at the mercy of a court. Mercy is said to have been origi- 
 nally the commntation-money paid for forfeited life. The singular resem- 
 blance of our ' am.erce,' in form and meaning, to the Gr. &fiep(r€, amerso, 
 is accidental), deprived. — 611. How follows 'behold,' 1. 605.-61:3. 
 Scathed (Gr. acr/cTj^rjy? uninjured ; A.S. sceadhian ; Ger. schaden, to hurt), 
 blighted, blasted.— 615. Blasted heath. Shakespeare's phrase, Mac. I. 3. 
 Note minutely the parts of this magnificent simile. — 616. They bend. Half 
 of each wing wheels inward, the whole army making exactly half of a hollow 
 square ? Had the square been completed, he would have been in its centre ? — 
 618. Attention. The command, Attention! brings a body of troops to per- 
 fect stillness. — 619. Thrice, etc. Three is a sacred and favorite number. 
 Bentley quotes, " Ter conata loqui, terfietibus ora rigavit" thrice endeavore.l 
 to speak, thrice watered the face with weeping. We must vividly conceive of 
 this scene, the dismal region, these millions of eyes fixed upon his luminous 
 face (and what besides ?) to realize the pathos of this passage. — 621. Inter- 
 wove. " All past participles of strong verbs once ended iu en." Storr. — 630. 
 
50 - PARADISE LOST. 
 
 For who can yet believe, though after loss, 
 
 That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
 
 Hath emptied heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, 
 
 Self-raised, and repossess their native seat ] 
 
 For me, be witness all the host of heaven, 635 
 
 If counsels different, or danger shunned 
 
 By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
 
 Monarch in heaven, till then as one secure 
 
 Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute. 
 
 Consent, or custom, and his regal state 640 
 
 Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed ; 
 
 "Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 
 
 Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 
 
 So as not either to provoke, or dread 
 
 New war, provoked : our better part remains 645 
 
 To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
 
 What force effected not ; that he no less 
 
 At length from us may find, who overcomes 
 
 By force hath overcome but half his foe. 
 
 Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 
 
 There went a fame in heaven that he ere long 
 
 Intended to create, and therein plant 
 
 A generation whom his choice regard 
 
 Should favor equal to the sons of heaven. 
 
 Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 655 
 
 Know repulse. Horace, Od. III. 17, has vMus repulsce nescia, valor that 
 knows no repulse. — 633. Emptied. The exaggeration of a braggart and a liar. 
 In Rev.xii. 4, we read of a ' great red dragon ' that ' his tail drew the third part 
 of the stars of heaven,' Hence the belief that a third of the angels fell, as 
 stated in Par. Lost, II. 692 ; V. 710 ; VI. 156. —635. Of heaven. Meaning 
 those to Avhom he speaks? or the good angels? or both ? — 636. Different. 
 From what ? — 640. State, pomp. — 642. Tempted our attempt. Keightley 
 claims to have been the first to recognize in Milton's plays upon words imita- 
 tions of Scripture. Par. Lost, I. 606 ; V. 869 ; IX. 11 ; XTI. 78. — 647-8. No 
 less (than we have found out his power ?). Ee and us emphatic ? — 650. Space. 
 Why * space ' and not ' God ' ? Rife (Ger. reif, ripe), prevalent, frequent. — 
 651. Fame. As Addison remarks, this previous fame beautifully exalts the 
 human race. — 654. Equal. Syntax? — 655. Thither. The first dednite 
 
II 
 
 PARADISE LOST, 51 
 
 Our first eruption ; thither, or elsewhere ; 
 
 For this infernal pit shall never hold 
 
 Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss 
 
 Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 
 
 Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired ; 660 
 
 For who can think submission 1 War, then, war, 
 
 Open or understood, must be resolved." 
 
 He spake ; and to confirm his words, out-flew 
 ]\Iillions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
 Of mighty cherubim : the sudden blaze 665 
 
 Far round illumined hell. Highly they raged 
 Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
 Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
 Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven. 
 
 There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 
 
 Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire 
 Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign 
 That in his womb was hid metallic ore. 
 The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
 A numerous brigade hastened ; as when bands 675 
 
 suggestion of the diabolic plot on which the poem hinges ! — 656. Eruption. 
 Etymology and meaning ? — 658. Abyss, here, and usually in Pa?-. Lost, Chaos. 
 — 660. Despaired (of). So Shakes, says, "Despair thy charm." Macbeth, V. 
 vri. So .'think (of) submission,' next line. — 662. Understood. Secret. So 
 'understood relations.' Macbeth, III. iv. The kind of war is discussed, Book 
 II . 41, 187, etc. The speech closes very grandly. Point out its order of thoughts 
 and its rhetorical merits. — &QQ. Illumined. " Another true Miltonic pic- 
 ture." Brydges. — 668. Clashed, etc. So Roman soldiers applaud with 
 sword smiting shield? — 669. Heaven. "Milton forgets that the scene 
 is in Hell." Keightley. No : the defiance is consciously against heaven, 
 whose general direction they know, and whose zenith is the very throne of 
 God. See III. 57, 58. — 670. To the burning lake and the hot mainland he 
 adds a volcano. — 672. Entire translates Lat. totnm, or omne ? — 673. Womb, 
 interior. So in Shakes, and Virgil. His. See note, 1. 254. —674. Work, 
 etc. Metals were generally supposed to be composed of mercury as a metal- 
 lic basis and sulphur as a cement. The plentifulness of ores in the form of 
 sulphurets favored this belief? Winged with speed. Make prose of this. — 
 675. Brigade (Fr. brigade, troop ; Ital. brigata ; Fr. briguee ; brigue, conten- 
 tion ). Our military terms mostly come from the Fr. ; as platoons, companies, 
 battalions, brigades, divisions, corps ; two or more of each of these bodies form- 
 
52 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, 
 
 Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 
 
 Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, 
 
 Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 679 
 
 From heaven ; for even in heaven his looks and thoughts 
 
 "Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 
 The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
 
 Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 
 
 In vision beatific. By him first 
 
 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 6S5 
 
 Eansacked the centre, and with impious hands 
 
 Eifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
 
 For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 
 
 Opened into the hill a spacious wound. 
 
 And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 
 
 That riches grow in hell : that soil may best 
 
 Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 
 
 Who boast in mortal things, and, wondering, tell 
 
 Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings, 
 
 ing one of the next higher. —676, Pioneers (Lat. 2^cs, foot ; Yx.x>ionnier), foot- 
 soldiers preceding an army as laborers. " Angels are not promoted by conqjari- 
 son with sappers and mhiers." Landor. True ; but Milton's object at this 
 instant is perhaps to satirize rather than promote ! — 677. Camp, army. — 
 678. Mammon (Syriac, meaning riches). Plutus, Greek god of riches, blindand 
 lame, alone of the gods was despised in heaven by Hei-cules as being a friend 
 of the bad and a corrupter of the good. He dwelt under Spain in regions full 
 of mineral wealth. See Faerie Queene, II. vii ; Matt. vi. 24 ; Luke xvi. 9, 11. 
 — 679. Erected. Upright in two senses ? — 682. Gold. Rev. xxi. 21, "The 
 street of the city was pure gold." — 683. Aught . . . else ^ anything be- 
 sides. — 684. Vision beatific, 'the scholastic phrase for the joys of heaven.' 
 In verses On Time, 1, 18, Milton literally translates visio beaiijica, 'happy- 
 making sight.' — 686. Centre, the earth itself, not the centre of the earth. 
 So repeatedly in Shakes. Impious (Lat. impius, imdutiful to a parent), uu- 
 filial. — 688. Better hid. A urum irrepertum et sic melius situm cum terra 
 celat, gold undiscovered and so better situated, while the earth hides it. 
 Horace, Od. III. iii, 49, Crew. Used disparagingly? — 690. Admire (Lat. 
 admiror, to wonder). In hell. So in Spenser, " 'Twas but a little stride that 
 did tlie house of riches from hell-mouth divide." — 692. Bane (A. S. bana, mur- 
 derer ; destruction). — 694, Babel. Babylon, or the Temi>le of Belus ? See 
 Class. Diet. "Works, etc., tlie pyramids ! Memphian. See Class. Diet. — 
 
PARADISE LOST. 53 
 
 Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 695 
 
 And strength, and art, are easily outdone 
 
 By spirits reprobate, and in an hour 
 
 What in an age they, with incessant toil 
 
 And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 
 
 Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 
 
 That underneath had veins of liquid fire 
 
 Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 
 
 With wondrous art founded the massy ore, 
 
 Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross. 
 
 A third as soon had formed within the ground 705 
 
 A various mould, and from the boiling cells 
 
 By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook j 
 
 As in an organ, from one blast of wind. 
 
 To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 
 
 Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 
 
 Bose like an exhalation, with the sound 
 
 Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, 
 
 Built like a temple, where pilasters round 
 
 696. Strength = of strength ? or hoiv their strength ?— 698-9. Age . . . 
 innumerable. It took 360,000 men nigh 20 years to build one pyramid. — 
 700. Cells that were prepared by them for tliis piirpose. — 702. Sluiced, 
 conducted in flumes? — 703. Founded, melted (Lat. fxmdere, to pour; Fr. 
 /owc?re, to melt). — 704. Bullion (Fr. 5o?u7Zfr, to boil), boiling. Keightley 
 makes bullion ^ metallic. Others make it fr. Lat. bulla, a knob, seal, or 
 stamp, and ' bullion dross, the uncoined ball or mass of gold.' - 706. Various, 
 variously wrought ? Note the difl'erent bands of workmen simultaneously en- 
 gaged.— 709, Sound-board, a long box above the wind-chest, divided by 
 thin partitions into grooves that rim from the front to the back, conveying 
 the wind to the different rows of pipes. The great temple is now finished, 
 but is wholly underground! — 710. Anon, etc. These gigantic beings lift the 
 shining structure to its place! In 1637 Milton may have witnessed, in a 
 coiirt-masque in London, the following scene : " The earth opened, and there 
 rose up a richly-adorned palace, seeming all of goldsmith's work, with porticos 
 vaulted on pilasters . . . above these ran an architrave, frieze, and cornice 
 ... a peristylium of two orders, Doric and Ionic." The Stage Condemned, 
 1698, quoted by Todd. —711. Exhalation. Points of resemblance ? — 713. 
 Temple. Prof. Himes well points out the wonderful similarity to the 
 Pantheon. See in our Introduction the extract from Ilimes's Study of 
 
54 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 
 
 With golden architrave ; nor did there want 715 
 
 Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 
 
 The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon 
 
 Nor great Alcairo such magnificencCj 
 
 Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 
 
 Lelus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 
 
 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 
 
 In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 
 
 Stood fixed her stately highth ; and straight the doors^ 
 
 Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
 
 Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 725 
 
 And level pavement. From the arched roof, 
 
 Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
 
 Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
 
 With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 
 
 As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 
 
 Admiring entered ; and the work some praise, 
 
 And some the architect. His hand was known 
 
 Paradise Lost ; see also our representation of the Pantheon. Pilasters, 
 square columns usually set in a wall with a fourth or fifth of the diame- 
 ter projecting. — 714. Doric. The Pantheonhas Corinthian pillars ? Doric 
 are more suitable for a council hall? — 715. Architrave, the great beam 
 resting on the pillars. — 716. Cornice, the moulded projection above the 
 frieze, Avhich last is just above the architrave. See illustrations of archi- 
 tecture in the books. Bossy, in relief. — 717. Fretted (A. S. fraetvnan, 
 to adorn ; or Ital, fratto, broken, or ferrata, window-grating). — 718. Great 
 Alcairo, Memphis. — 720. Serapis, a god typifying the Nile and fertility, 
 by some identified with Osiris. See note on 1. 478. — 723. Her stately 
 highth being fixed ? Some explain by saying fixed as to her stately 
 hi'ight. See 1. 92. — 724. Folds (= Lat. valvce, leaves or folds of a door). 
 Discover, etc. Disclose ample spaces within 'I — 725. Within, adverb 
 modified by wide J — 121. Pendent row of lamps. —728. Cressets, open 
 vessels, jars, or cages, in which tarred ropes, etc., are burnt for beacon lights ; 
 hence such lights tliemselves ; any great lights. Fr. croisctte ?— 729. Naph- 
 tha, a limpid, bituminous, highly inflammable liquid. Asphaltus, native 
 bitumen, compact, brittle, combustible. —730. As from a sky. Tlie Pan- 
 theon is lighted from the sky by a round opening 26 feet in diameter in the 
 centre of the roof. — 732. Architect. Does Milton identify Manmion Avith 
 Mulciber ? Masson and nearly or quite all the critics but Professor Himes 
 
 I 
 
PARADISE LOST. 55 
 
 In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 
 
 Where sceptred angels held their residence, 
 
 And sat as princes, whom the supreme King 735 
 
 Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 
 
 Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. 
 
 Nor was his name unheard or unadored 
 
 In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land 
 
 Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 740 
 
 From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 
 
 Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from mom 
 
 To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
 
 A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 
 
 Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, 745 
 
 On Lemnos the ^Egaean isle. Thus they relate, 
 
 Erring ; for he with his rebellious rout 
 
 Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 
 
 To have built in heaven high towers ; nor did he scape 
 
 By all his engines, but was headlong sent 75° 
 
 With his industrious crew to build in hell. 
 
 Meanwhile the winged haralds by command 
 Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
 And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim 
 
 say yes. — 736. Gave, permitted. Perhaps ' gave to rule ' is a Latinism. — 
 737. Hierarchy (Gr. Up6s, sacred ; apxv, rule), sacred rank ? sacred prin- 
 cipality ?— 739. Ausonian, poetic for Italian. — 7 iO. Mulciber (Lat. mul- 
 cere, to soften. Because fire softens metals ? or softens human hardships '(), 
 Vulcan, god of fire, worker in metals for the gods. See Class. Did. Fell. 
 .Having tried to loosen the iron anvils fastened to his mother Juno's feet 
 T)y Jupiter, he was seized by the foot and flung from heaven ! Iliad, I. 
 591, etc.— 742. Sheer (A. S. sceoran, to separate; scir, clear, clean-cut. 
 Wedgewood says, "The fundamental signification seems to be shining, then 
 clear, bright, pure, clean"), completely. From morn, etc. Note how 
 beautifully the time is lengthened out. —746. Lemnos, etc. The metre, 
 with the stress on 2d syl. of JSgcean, represents the concussioni .Egaean, 
 in the Archipelago. Lemnos is volcanic? They, the old poets? — 747. 
 Hout, rabble, gang ; originally the noise of such mob. — 750. Engines 
 (Lat. ingenia, inventiveness), contrivances, instrumentalities. — 752. Har- 
 alds. Milton's spelling. Sovran (It. sovrano), sovereign. See note, 1. 246. 
 
56 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 A solemn council forthwith to be held 755 
 
 At Pandemonium, the high capital 
 
 Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
 
 From every band and squared regiment 
 
 By place or choice the worthiest : they anon 
 
 AVith hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 
 
 Attended. All access was thronged ; the gates 
 
 And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 
 
 (Though like a covered field, where champions bold 
 
 Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 
 
 Defied the best of Panim chivalry 765 
 
 To mortal combat or career with lance) 
 
 Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air. 
 
 Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 
 
 In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, 
 
 Pour forth their populous youth about the liive 770 
 
 In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers 
 
 Ply to and fro, or on the smoothed plank. 
 
 The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 
 
 New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer 
 
 Their state affairs : so thick the aery crowd 775 
 
 Swarmed and were straitened ; till, the signal given, 
 
 — 756. Pandemonium (Gr. irav, pan, all; Saifiuv, claimon, demon), hall 
 of all the demons, as Pantheon is hall of all the gods ? Milton either 
 coined the word or gave it currency. — 758. Squared regiment (Lat. 
 qiiaiuor, four; ex, out; quadra, square; Fr. escadron, squadron of cav- 
 alry), squadron, regiment in orderly array. — 763. Covered field. The hall, 
 vast as it was, was covered like a tilt-yard. Storr. Milton does not quite 
 compare the hall to an '■enclosed field' {champ clos). It is too vast for 
 that! Yet it is covered. Let us rise to Milton's coufetion ; not im- 
 agine for a moment that he blundered on the meaning of cha^.p clos. —764. 
 Wont, were accustomed to. Soldan's (It. Soldano), Sidtan's, — 765. Panim 
 (Lat. liarjus, country district ; Fr. ^ms, pays), pag a^ — 766. Mortal, etc. ; 
 i. e. either a combat d Voulrancc, to the death ; |3^BLreer (carriere) etc., 
 merely ' breaking a lance.' — 767. Swarmed, i. e. ^Bp, porches, hall. — 768. 
 As bees, etc. Beautifully expanded from Homer aiffM'^irgil, Jl. II. 87, etc., 
 JEri. I. 430, etc.. Georr/. IV. 21. — 769. With Taurtts rides. For a m^ith 
 his chariot is passing through that constellation? — 774. Expatiate, walk 
 about engaged in conversation. Confer, discuss. — 776. Straitened. Origin 
 
PARADIiiE LUST, bl 
 
 Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 
 
 in bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 
 
 Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 
 
 Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 780 
 
 Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves. 
 
 Whose midnight revels, by a forest side 
 
 Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 
 
 Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 
 
 Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 785 
 
 Wheels her pale course : they, on their mirth and dance 
 
 Intent, with jocund music charm his ear ; 
 
 At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 
 
 Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms 
 
 Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 
 
 Though without number still, amidst the hall 
 
 Of that infernal court. But far within, 
 
 And in their own dimensions like themselves. 
 
 The great seraphic lords and cherubim 
 
 In close recess and secret conclaA^e sat, 795 
 
 A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 
 
 Frequent and full. After short silence then. 
 
 And summons read, the great consult began. 
 
 and meaning? -780. Pygmean. Seel. .575.— 781. Indian mount, the Hima- 
 layas { Faery elves, * elves of fairy land.' — 783-4. Sees, etc. Aut mdet aut 
 vidisse pidat, either sees or thinks he has seen. JSneid, VI. 453.-785. 
 Arbitress, witness and ampire. Nearer. The old belief was that incanta- 
 tions could draw the moon down from the sky. So stated in Virg. Ed. viii. 
 69 ; Horace Eijod. V., etc. — 790. Reduced. Those who accept the Scrip 
 tnres (as Mark v., Luke xi. 26, etc.) need no argument to make them admit 
 the possibility of this. — 795. Conclave (Lat. con, together; clavis, key), 
 alluding, possibly, to the Roman conclave of cardinals sitting in privacy to 
 elect a pope ? Recess, retreat. — 796. Frequent and full. Close-packed 
 and all occupied? or, numerous seats all filled?— 798. Consult. Usually 
 supposed to be accented here on the last syllable. Dryden so uses and accents 
 ' consults ' as a noun. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 59 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 THE AEGUMENT. 
 
 The consultation begim, Satan debates whether another battle be to be 
 hazarded for the recovery of heaven : some advise it, others dissuade. A 
 third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth 
 of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and 
 another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about 
 this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult 
 search : Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honored 
 and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several 
 ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to 
 entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to hell 
 gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at 
 length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell 
 and heaven. With what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, 
 the power of that place, to this sight of this new woiid which he sought. 
 
 High on a throne of royal state, which far 
 
 Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
 
 Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
 
 Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
 
 Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 5 
 
 To that bad eminence ; and, from despair 
 
 Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 
 
 Eeyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 
 
 Vain war with heaven ; and, by success untaught, 
 
 His proud imaginations thus displayed : — 10 
 
 1. High, etc. A magnificent opening, somewhat similar to the description 
 in Faene Queene, I. iv. 8; also the beginning of Ovid's Met. II. —2. 
 Ormus, Hormuz, a little island, once a rich diamond mart, now miserably 
 poor, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Ind ; i. e. of the Moguls or of the 
 Golcondamines? — 3. Gorgeous East is a Shakes, phrase. Love's Lab, 
 Lost, IV. 3 ; so is * rich East ' in Macbeth, IV. 3. — 4. Showers, etc. " I '11 
 set thee in a shower of gold, and hail rich pearls upon thee," Sliakes. Ant. 
 and Cleop. II. 5. A ceremony at coronations in Tartary and Persia. Barbaric 
 (Asiatic), an epithet of ' gold ' in Virg. ^n. II. 504. — 5. Satan. Rhetorical 
 eflect of reserving the name till this 5th line? Merit. What kind? — 6. 
 Despair, as stated in Book I. 126. —9. Success, result, event, experience. 
 
60 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 " Powers and dominions, deities of heaven ! 
 For, since no deep within her gulf can hold 
 Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
 I give not heaven for lost : from this descent 
 Celestial virtues rising will appear 15 
 
 More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
 And trust themselves to fear no second fate ! 
 Me, though just right, and the fixed laws of heaven, 
 Did first create your leader ; next, free choice, 
 With what besides in council or in fight 20 
 
 Hath been achieved of merit ; yet this loss. 
 Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
 Established in a safe unenvied throne. 
 Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
 In heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 25 
 
 Envy from each inferior ; but who here 
 Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
 Foremost to stand against the thunderer's aim 
 Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
 Of endless pain 1 Where there is, then, no good 30 
 
 For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
 From faction ; for none sure will claim in hell 
 Precedence ; none, whose portion is so small 
 Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
 Will covet more ! With this advantage, then, 35 
 
 To union and firm faith and firm accord, 
 More than can be in heaven, we now return 
 
 So iised repeatedly in Shakes. — 11. Powers. See note, Book I. 128, —12. 
 For; i. e,, I say 'deities of heaven,' because, etc. Lines 12-17 inclusive are 
 parenthetic? — 15. Virtues (Lat. vlr, man; virtus, manhood). Powers? 
 powerful beings? Or heroic qualities ? See I. 820. — 18. Me. A classical 
 order of words, adopted for emphasis ? Syntax ? Note the grounds of his leader- 
 ship ; 'just right,' 'fixed law.s,' ' free choice,' and meritorious achievements. 
 Any others? — 24. Happier, etc. The argument is ingenious. Express it 
 in your own words. Meaning of * state '? —28. Thunderer. Repeatedly 
 (as in Book I. 92, 93, 258) he ascribes the victory to the thunder, as of a 
 JujHter Tonans. — 33. Precedence. Observe the accceut. None ; i. e. there 
 
PARADISE LOST. 61 
 
 To claim our just inheritance of old, 
 
 Surer to prosper than prosperity 
 
 Could have assured us j and by what best way, 40 
 
 Whether of open war or covert guile, 
 
 We now debate. Who can advise, may speak." 
 
 He ceased ; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, 
 Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit 
 That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair : 45 
 
 His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
 Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
 Cared not to be at all : with that care lost 
 Went all his fear : of God, or hell, or worse, 
 He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 
 
 " My sentence is for open war. Of wiles. 
 More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
 Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now. 
 Eor, while they sit contriving, shall the rest, 
 Millions that stand in arms and longing wait 55 
 
 The signal to ascend, sit lingering here. 
 Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
 Accept tbis dark opprobrious den of shame, 
 The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
 By our delay "? No ! let us rather choose, 60 
 
 Armed with hell-flames and fury — all — at once — 
 
 is -none. — 41. Open .... covert. See note, Book I. 662. Spenser (F. Q. 
 IT. XI. 7) lias ' T' assail with open force or hidden guile.' What of the rhe- 
 torical fitness of Satan's utterances ? — 42. " There is a decided manly tone 
 in the argument and sentiments, an eloquent dogmatism, as if each person 
 spoke from thorough conviction." Hazlitt. — 43. Next. Beside ? or next 
 after ? Moloch. See note, I. 392. Why should he speak next ? Sceptred. 
 ' Sceptre-bearing,' Gr. (TKriirrovxos, is the Homeric epithet with king. — 46. 
 Trust. Stronger than 'hoj)e'i Was. When? — 48. Cared. Subject nom. ? 
 50. Recked, cared. So found repeatedly in Shakes. Thereafter, therefore, 
 accordingly ? " Moloch's speech is a masterpiece of furious eloquence." Moss. 
 Analyze it to ascertain its rhetorical and poetic merit. — 51. Sentence (Lat. 
 sen(enfia), opinion, decision, vote. — 52. Unexpert than in ojien war ? or than 
 oti/ers ? Irony here ? — 55. Stand. They were not disbanded yet. See II. 522, 
 523. — 61. All, instead of dividing forces, or leaving any inactive. At once, 
 
62 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
 
 Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
 
 Against the torturer ; when, to meet the noise 
 
 Of his ahuighty engine, he shall hear 65 
 
 Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see 
 
 Black fire and horror shot with equal rage 
 
 Among his angels, and his throne itself 
 
 Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, 
 
 His own invented torments. But perhaps 70 
 
 The way seems difficult, and steep to scale 
 
 With upright wing against a higher foe ! 
 
 Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 
 
 Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, 
 
 That in our proper motion we ascend 75 
 
 Up to our native seat : descent and fall 
 
 To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, 
 
 When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 
 
 now, instead of hxrther delay. Burke suggested that ' all at once' ought to be 
 omitted. — 62. Force. He represents brute force, most like the war-god Mars ? 
 — 63. Tortures, the flames and fire of 11. 61, 67, 69 — 64, 65. Quite similar to 
 Prometheus' threat against Jove. ^sch. Prom. Vinct. 920, 921. Engine. The 
 commentators generally seem to have misunderstood this word. It means the 
 Messiah's war-chariot, the most tremendous engine that the imagination ever 
 conceived ; the chariot which rushed with whirlwind sound (VI. 749), ' with 
 the sound of torrent floods or of a numerous host ' {VI. 829, 830) ; the chariot 
 tinder whose crushing weight 'the steadfast empyrean shook throughoiit ' (VL 
 832, 833), and whose living wheels were studded with eyes, everyone of which 
 'glared lightnings and shot forth pernicious fire' (VI. 849). See III. 394, 395, 
 396. — 67. Black fire and horror. Hendiadys ? Black, as emitting little or 
 no light? I. 62, 63, 181-183. - 69. Tartarean. From Tartarus, the name 
 l)y wliich the ancients called the place of punishment in the lower world. 
 Strange fire. See this phrase in Lcvit. x. 1. ; also, *we that are of purer 
 fire,' Comus, 111.— 72. Upright wing, wing flying towards the zenith ? — 
 73. Such as suggest this objection to my plan ? Drench, copious draught ? 
 or soaking ? (A. S. rhincnn, to drink, drencan, to give to drink, ply with drink, 
 drench; Old Norse, dreckia, to sink in water). — 74. Forgetful, like 
 'oblivious,' I. 266.-77. Adverse, unnatural. Because our bodies are 
 celestial and buoyant? — 78. Hung-on, etc. So it seemed ; but in fact no 
 angel pursiied. 'Sulphurous hail,' 'lightnings,' ' thunders ' (I. 171, 174, 
 17.')) pursued them; })erliai)s 'terrors and furies' (VI. 859); and "eternal 
 
PARADISE LOST. 63 
 
 Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 
 
 With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 
 
 We sunk thus low 1 The ascent is easy, then. 
 
 The event is feared ! Should we again provoke 
 
 Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 
 
 To our destruction ; if there be in hell 
 
 Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can be worse 85 
 
 Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 
 
 In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 
 
 Where pain of unextinguishable fire 
 
 Must exercise us without hope of end, 
 
 The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 
 
 Inexorably, and the torturing hour 
 
 Calls us to penance 1 More destroyed than thus, 
 
 We should be quite abolished, and expire. 
 
 What fear we then 1 what doubt we to incense 
 
 His utmost ire 1 which, to the highth enraged, 95 
 
 Will either quite consume us, and reduce 
 
 To nothing this essential — happier far 
 
 Than, miserable, to have eternal being — 
 
 Or, if our substance be indeed divine, 
 
 And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 
 
 wrath burnt after them to the bottomless pit." VT. 864,865,866.-82-84. 
 Should we . . . destruction. Moloch puts this into the mouth of a 
 second objector, and then answers it ? Supply the implied words. — 85. 
 Worse destroyed than now? — 87. Utter. Extreme? or outer, i. e. out- 
 side of heaven ? I, 72. — 89. Exercise (Lat. exercere, drive, plague), harass. 
 -- 90. Vassals. Bentley would read vessels, quoting Rom. ix. 22 ; but 'vas- 
 sals' is better. See 252. (Welsh gwas, a youth, a page, a servant.) Milton 
 uses the words, ^va,ssa.\s of pe7'dition,' in one of his earliest prose works. — 
 91. Torturing hour is Shakespearian. Hamlet, I. 5 ; Mid. N. Dream, V. 1, 
 Milton believed the punishment of the devils, like the remorse of bad men, to 
 be more intense at some times than at others. We should look beneath the 
 surface for these analogies. — 92. More ] i. e. if more. Thus. As we now 
 are? — 93. Abolished, annihilated. —94. What doubt we. On account 
 of what? why? (Lat. quid dubitamus, what, i. e., w/??/, hesitate we ?) So 
 repeatedly in Shakes., as Jul. Cces. II. I. 123, "What need we any spur?" 
 — 97. Essential, essence. Adjective for subst., as often in Shakes. ; e. g. 
 ' caviare to the (jeneral.'' Ham. II, ii. 458. — 98. Miserable, etc. In misery 
 
64 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 
 
 Our power sufficient to disturb his heaven, 
 
 And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
 
 Though inaccessible, his fatal throne : 
 
 Which, if not victory, is yet revenge ! " 105 
 
 He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
 Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
 To less than gods. On the other side up rose 
 Belial, in act more graceful and humane. 
 A fairer person lost not heaven ; he seemed 110 
 
 For dignity composed and high exploit. 
 But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
 Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
 The better reason, to perplex and dash 
 Maturest counsels ; for his thoughts were low, 115 
 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear, 
 And with persuasive accent thus began : — 
 
 " I should be much for open war, peers, 
 As not behind in hate, if what was urged, 120 
 
 to have eternal being ? — 100. At worst, in the worst possible condition ? —104. 
 Fatal, sustained by fate ? Does Milton seemingly attribute to the devils the 
 origin of the idea of fate as a power separate from Deity ? Fate {hat. fatum, 
 spoken, fr. fari, to speak) is that which is spoken or decreed by Deity ? Clas- 
 sical idea of fate ? 105. Revenge. How much is compressed into this one 
 
 ringing word ! What passions and sentiments are uppermost in him? See the 
 description of him in Book I. —106. Denounced (Lat. denwitiare, to annoimce 
 threateningly), threatened. —109. Belial, etc. The stormy Moloch is followed 
 by Belial, as the wrathful Achilles {Iliad, I. 247, etc.) was followed by the 
 ' mild-voiced Nestor,' from whose lips ' flowed words sweeter than honey.' 
 Act. Behavior? or deeds? or gesture? Humane (Lat. /iwmanws), polished, 
 cultured. — 113. Dropt manna. ' Drop manna in the way of starved people.' 
 Shakes. Mer. Venice, V. 1. (Heb. mannn, a gift. The taste was 'like wafers 
 made with honey.' (Exod. xvi. 31.) Make the worse, etc. This was the 
 business of the sophists, according to Plato, who uses the exact original of these 
 ■vvrords. — 114. Reason. Meaning ? To, so as to ? Dash, confound, strike down. 
 -- 117. Pleased, etc. Contrast his speech with Molocli's. See description of 
 Belial in Book I. Does he comply with the rhetoricians' rule that the ex- 
 ordium should conciliate the audience ?— 120. Hate. The key-note? Which 
 
PARADISE LOST. 65 
 
 Main reason to persuade immediate war, 
 Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
 Ominous conjecture on the whole success ; 
 When he who most excels in fact of arms, 
 In what he counsels and in what excels 125 
 
 Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
 And utter dissolution, as the scope 
 Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
 First, what revenge 1 The towers of heaven are filled 
 With armed watch, that render all access 130* 
 
 Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 
 Encamp their legions, or, with obscure wing, 
 Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 
 ' Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way 
 
 By force, and at our heels all hell should rise 135 
 
 With blackest insurrection to confound 
 
 Heaven's purest light, yet our great enemy. 
 
 All incorruptible, would on his throne 
 
 Sit unpolluted ; and the ethereal mould, 
 
 Incapable of stain, would soon expel 140 
 
 Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 
 
 Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 
 
 Is flat despair : we must exasperate 
 
 The almighty victor to spend all his rage; 
 
 of * the seven deadly sins, ' if any, does this speaker typify ? — 123. Conjecture, 
 uncertainty, doubt Success, result, issue, as in 1. 9 ? — 124. In fact of arms, 
 Fr. en fait d'armes. See 1. 537. — 127. Scope, etc. This is an ingenious 
 misstatement of the position of Moloch, whose great aim was not annihilation, 
 but revenge. ' Scope,' fr. Gr. aKeirrofj.ai, skeptomai, to look; (tkotSs, skopos, 
 mark, target.— ISO. All access, every way of approach. Accent 2d syl. of 
 ' access' as in I. 761. — 131. Deep. Chaos ? On the deep. Chaos is an ocean, 
 892. — 132. Obscure, accented repeatedly on first syl. in Shakes. — 133. Scout 
 (Lat. auris, ear ; auscultare, to give ear to, listen ; Fr. ecouter, to listen), go out 
 swiftly to reconnoitre. — 135. By force. Observe how Belial grapples step by 
 step with Moloch's arguments. To what is this passage, 134-137, responsive ? 
 — 138. All, wholly. Incorruptible. Kom. i. 23. — 139. Mould, substance, 
 fiery essence (of the throne? or of the bodies of angels ?). —141. Her. 
 As in Book I. 592, to avoid its.—U2. Hope is, etc.; i. e. according to 
 
66 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 And that must end us ; that must be our cure, 145 
 
 To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 
 
 Though full of pain, this intellectual being. 
 
 Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 
 
 To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 
 
 In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 
 
 Devoid of sense and motion 1 And who knows, 
 
 Let this be good, whether our angry Foe 
 
 Can give it, or will ever ? How he can, 
 
 Is doubtful : that he never will, is sure. 
 
 Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 155 
 
 Belike through impotence, or unaware. 
 
 To give his enemies their wish, and end 
 
 Them in his anger whom his anger saves 
 
 To punish endless % ' Wherefore cease we, then ] ' 
 
 Say they who counsel war ; ' we are decreed, 160 
 
 Eeserved, and destined to eternal woe ; 
 
 Whatever doing, what can we suffer more ? 
 
 What can we suffer worse ? ' Is this, then, worst, 
 
 Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? 
 
 What when we fled amain, pursued and strook 165 
 
 With heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 
 
 The deep to shelter us % This hell then seemed 
 
 A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 
 
 Chained on the burning lake ? That sure was worse. 
 
 Moloch, 1, 94-97. — 146. Who would lose. The reader will not fail to note the 
 touching pathos of the next four lines. — 1 17. Thoughts that wander. Like 
 TToWhs 65ovs i\d6vra (ppovTiSos irXdvois, travelling many paths in wander- 
 ings of thought (Sophocles OecHj). Rex, 67). See Claudio's, "Aye, but to die 
 and go we know not where," etc. Sliakes. Meas. for Meas. III. 1 ; also 
 Gray's Elegy, st. 22, "For who, to dunih forgetfulness a prey," etc. —156. 
 Belike, for, it may he like ; i. e. perhaps, forsooth. Irony ? Impotence, in- 
 ability to control himself. Unaware of the consequences. — 159. Endless. 
 Modi^es punish ? or ivJiom ? Wherefore, etc. What does this part of Belial's 
 speech answer in Moloch's? — 164. Note the climax. — 165. What (say you 
 of our condition) when, etc. Or is * what ' a mere interjection ? Amain (A. S. 
 magn, force), with all our might (or, jiossibly with all speed). Strook, old 
 form of struck. —IQG. Afflicting. Sec note, T. 186. —170. Breath, etc. 
 
PARADISE LOST. ' 67 
 
 What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170 
 
 Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 
 
 And plunge us in the flames 1 or, from above, 
 
 Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
 
 His red right hand to plague us 1 What if all 
 
 Her stores were opened, and this firmament 175 
 
 Of hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
 
 Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 
 
 One day upon our heads ; while we perhaps, 
 
 Designing or exhorting glorious war. 
 
 Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 180 
 
 Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
 
 Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 
 
 Under yon boiling ocean, WTapped in chains, 
 
 There to converse with everlasting groans, 
 
 TJnrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 185 
 
 Ages of hopeless end 1 This would be worse. 
 
 War, therefore, open or concealed, alike 
 
 My voice dissuades ; for what can force or guile 
 
 In Isaiah xxx. 33, "The breath of the Lord kindles" the fire of Tophet. — 
 174, His. Whose? Red right hand. Like Horace's rubente dextera. 
 Odes, I. n. Why 'ret?'? — 175. Her; i. e. of hell? — 176. The commen- 
 tators have not mentioned the traces in this passage of Learns tremendous 
 ravings, ''You cataracts and hurricanes, spout," etc. King Lear, Act III. 
 sc. II. 180, 181, 182. Very similar is the death of Ajax Oileus, ' caught up 
 in tempest,' 'impaled on a sharp rock,' etc. JEn. I. 44, 45. — 182. Rack- 
 ing (Dutch rncJce, a frame to torture by stretching ; akin to Lat. stringere ? 
 Eng. stretch f) tormenting; as 'blown with restless violence,' etc. Shakes. 
 Meas. forMeas. III. 1 ; so Virg. jEn.Nl. 740,741, "Some souls, suspended, 
 are spread out to the empty winds." — 184. Converse (Lat. conversaiH, abide), 
 live, dwell, commune ? — 185. Note the fine effect of repeating the prefix un. 
 So, — 
 
 'Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified.' V. 899. 
 
 * Unkind, unmanly, and unprincely Ammon.' Peele. 
 ' Unbodied, unheard, unsouled, unseen.' Spenser. 
 
 ' Unseen, unmarked, unpitied, unrewarded.' Fairfaxes Tasso. 
 'Unwept, unhonored, and imsung.' Scott. 
 
 * Unknelled, uncofiined, and imknown.' Byron. 
 
 TJnrespited differs how from unreprieved ? — 186. Of hopeless end. Ages 
 
68 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
 
 Views all things at one view 1 He from heaven's highth 190 
 
 All these our motions vain sees and derides, 
 
 Not more almighty to resist our might, 
 
 Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
 
 Shall we, then, live thus vile, the race of heaven 
 
 Thus trampled, thus expelled, to suffer here 195 
 
 Chains and these torments 1 Better these than worse, 
 
 By my advice ; since fate inevitable 
 
 Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, 
 
 The victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 
 
 Our strength is equal ; nor the law unjust 200 
 
 That so ordains. This was at first resolved. 
 
 If we were wise, against so great a foe 
 
 Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 
 
 I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 
 
 And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 205 
 
 What yet they know must follow, to endure 
 
 Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain, 
 
 The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 
 
 Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 
 
 Our supreme foe in time may much remit 210 
 
 His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed, 
 
 Not mind us not offending, satisfied 
 
 With what is punished ; whence these raging fires 
 
 Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 
 
 Our purer essence then will overcome 215 
 
 whose end is not to be hoped for?— 188. Can . . . with, can avail against. 
 — 191. Derides. " He that sitteth in the heavens sliall laugh ; the Lord 
 sliall have them in derision." Ps. ii. 4.— 199. To suffer, etc. See note T. 
 158. Scajvola boasted that he, like a true Roman, knew liow et fncere el pati, 
 both to do and to suffer. Zm IT. 12. —201. This. Fortitude? Resolved. 
 Paraphrase this sentence. — 203. Doubtful. Who or what was doubtful ? 
 Fall, happen. — 207. Ignominy. Make four syllables, or three ? Scan.— 
 209. Sustain . . . bear. Difference? Which is physical ? — 210. Supreme. 
 Accent ? I. 735. — 211. Thus far. How far ? See note I. 73. Removed be- 
 longs to he 1 or as ? - 213. What is punished = what punishment is inflicted ? 
 
PARADISE LOST. 69 
 
 Their noxious vapor ; or, inured, not feel ; 
 
 Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 
 
 In temper and in nature, will receive 
 
 Familiar the fierce heat ; and, void of pain, 
 
 This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 
 
 Besides what hope the never-ending flight 
 
 Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 
 
 Worth waiting ; since our present lot appears 
 
 For happy though but ill, for ill not worst. 
 
 If we procure not to ourselves more woe." 225 
 
 Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
 Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth, 
 Is'ot peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — 
 
 " Either to disenthrone the king of heaven 
 We war, if war be best, or to regain 230 
 
 Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
 May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
 To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
 The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
 
 The latter ; for what place can be for us 235 
 
 Within heaven's bound, unless heaven's lord supreme 
 We overpower ] Suppose Be should relent, 
 And publish grace to all, on promise made 
 Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 
 Stand in his presence humble, and receive 240 
 
 Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 
 
 — 216. Vapor (Lat. vapor, hot exhalation, heat ; Lithuanian kwapas, breath, 
 exhalation ; Gv. KairvSs, kapnos, smoke), heat. — 220. Light. Substantive or 
 adj. ? Masson and Keightley prefer the former. — 221-2. Besides . . . bring. 
 Note the rhyme ; also the slow monotony of the rhythm-. Appropriateness ? — 
 223. Waiting for.. — 224. For happy = as regards happiness. For ill = as 
 regards illness or badness. So Theognis (of Megara, 583-495 b, c), 510, 
 us ed fiev, xaAfTrws • ws xo^^tcDs 5e, /taA' e5, as for well, badly ; but as for 
 bad]y,quite well ! — 227- Ignoble ease ^Virgil's ignohilis oti, Geor. IV. 564. 
 What fundamental fallacy underlies Belial's plan ? Is it consistent with 
 his character? See 108-119; I. 490-502. What seems to be his ruling 
 passion or leading vice ? — 233. Strife between Chaos and Fate ? or between 
 God and us? See 907, 910, 960, 965.-234. Former. 'Disenthrone'? or 
 
70 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 With warbled hymns, and to his godhead sing 
 
 Forced hallehijahs, while he lordly sits 
 
 Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 
 
 Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers, 245 
 
 Our servile ofi'erings 1 This must be our task 
 
 In heaven, this our delight. How wearisome 
 
 Eternity so spent in worship paid 
 
 To whom we hate ! Let us not, then, pursue 
 
 Ly force impossible, by leave obtained 250 
 
 Unacceptable, though in heaven, our state 
 
 Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 
 
 Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 
 
 Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 
 
 Free, and to none accountable, preferring 255 
 
 Hard liberty before the easy yoke 
 
 Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 
 
 Then most conspicuous when great things of small, 
 
 Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse. 
 
 We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 
 
 Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 
 
 Through labor and endurance. This deep world 
 
 Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 
 
 Thick clouds and dark doth heaven's all-ruling sire 
 
 Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 265 
 
 And with the majesty of darkness round 
 
 Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar 
 
 Mustering their rage, and heaven resembles hell ! 
 
 'Fate shall yield'? Latter. 'Regain'? or 'Chaos judge* ? Argues, 
 proves. — 241. Celebrate. It is not necessary to take this word in its orig. 
 Lat. sense of frequent, throng arovnd ; but may it not be the meaning? — 
 243. Literal meaning of the Hebrew word Mllelujah ? 244. Breathes. Ex- 
 hales the breath of ? — 249. Pursue. Seek (to regain) ? — 250. Impossible. 
 What is impossible? what unacceptable? — 252. Vassalage. See 1. 90.— 
 253. From our own resources. Lat. e nostra. — 254. Live to ourselves. 
 So lit mihi vivam, that I may live to myself. Hor, Ep. I. 18, 1. 107. 
 — 255. As Prometheus would not exchange his hard lot for the servitude of 
 Hermes. J'roDi. Vinct. 974. — 263. How oft, etc. See the sublime passages 
 to this effect in Ps. xviii, ll-lS ; xcvii. 2 ; 1 Kings viii. 12 ; Rev. iv. 5. — 268. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 71 
 
 As he our darkness, cannot we his light 
 
 Imitate when we please 1 This desert soil 270 
 
 Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; 
 
 Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 
 
 Magnificence ; and what can heaven show more ? 
 
 Our torments also may in length of time 
 
 Become our elements, these piercing fires 275 
 
 As soft as now severe, our temper changed 
 
 Into their temper ; which must needs remove 
 
 The sensible of pain. All things invite 
 
 To peaceful counsels and the settled state 
 
 Of order, how in safety best we may 280 
 
 Compose our present evils, with regard 
 
 Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 
 
 All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise." 
 
 He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
 The assembly as when hollow rocks retain 285 
 
 The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
 Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
 Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance, 
 Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 
 
 After the tempest. Such applause "v^jas heard 290 
 
 As Mammon ended ; and his sentence pleased, 
 Advising peace : for such another field 
 They dreaded worse than hell : so much the fear 
 Of thunder and the sword of Michael 
 
 Mustering (Lat. monstrdre, to point out ; Fr. montrer, to show ; It. mos- 
 trando, mustering), collecting for display. — 275. " Milton may have dictated 
 * element.'" No : heat and cold were both among the 'elements' of their tor- 
 ments. II. 600. — 278. Sensible of, sense of ? or sensibility to ? or sensible 
 property of? See 1. 97. —280. How, i. e. as to how (or, to (Consider how). — 
 281. Compose, arrange, make the best of. Mammon wanders from the question 
 put by Satan? — 284. Such murmur. The critics cite II. II. 144; Jin. 
 X. 98 ; Claud, in Rufin. I. 70. — 287. Cadence, sounds dying away. — 
 288. O'erwatched, weary with being too long awake. — 289. Pinnace. 
 Kind of vessel ? — 291. Sentence = ? See 51 and note. What is Mam- 
 mon's niling passion ? What three kinds of statesmanship are represented 
 by Moloch, Belial, and Mammon ? Illustrate. — 294. Sword. VI. 250. 
 
72 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 "Wrought still within them ; and no less desire 295 
 
 To found this nether empire, which might rise 
 
 By policy, and long process of time, 
 
 In emulation opposite to heaven. 
 
 Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
 
 Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 
 
 Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
 
 A piUar of state. Deep on his front engraven 
 
 Deliberation sat, and public care ; 
 
 And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
 
 Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood, 305 
 
 With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
 
 The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
 
 Drew audience and attention still as night 
 
 Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : — 
 
 "Thrones and imperial powers, offspring of heaven, 310 
 Ethereal virtues ! or these titles now 
 Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
 Princes of hell 1 for so the popular vote 
 Inclines, here to continue, and build up here 
 A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 315 
 
 And know not that the king of heaven hath doomed 
 
 Michael, trisyl. ? He personates justice ? — 296. Nether. Etymology ? — 
 297. Process. Note the accent of words ending in cess, in Milton ; as access, 
 recess, process, success. — 299. Beelzebub. The Ulysses of the infernal peers, 
 deep in the confidence and counsels of Satan ? In what respect is his plan a 
 compromise ? Than whom. ' Than ' is here a preposition. Thus, * No 
 mightier than thyself or me.' Shakes. Jul. Ccesar. So in Proverbs xxvii. 4, 
 " A fool's wrath is heavier than them both." — 301. Aspect. Ace. last syl. 
 So always in Shakes. —302, Pillar of state. Shakespearian, 2 Henry V., 
 I. 1 ; and Scriptural, Gal. ii. 9 ; Rev. iii, 12. — 305. Majestic. Face ? or 
 counsel? — 306. Atlantean. Like those of Atlas who bore up the heavens. 
 Odys. I. 52 ; J^n. TV. 482. See Class. Diet. —SOS-8. We search literature 
 in vain for so grand a picture of an orator. What are its main features ? 
 Noontide (A. S. nontld. Tide is time ; Ger. zeit). Is the noontide air noted 
 for stillness? — 310. Heaven is emphatic by antithesis to hell, 313? Ob- 
 serve how promptly and vigorously he grapples with Mammon's argument ! 
 Most resembles Demosthenes ? Chatham? Cicero? Burke ? Webster ? Mira- 
 beau ? — 315. Doubtless. Ironical ? — 318. Retreat in which to live (we 
 
PARADISE LOST, 73 
 
 This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat 
 
 Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 
 
 From heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 
 
 Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 
 
 In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 
 
 Under the inevitable curb, reserved 
 
 His captive multitude. For he, be sure, 
 
 In height or depth, still first and last will reign 
 
 Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 325 
 
 By our revolt ; but over hell extend 
 
 His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 
 
 Us here, as with his golden those in heaven. 
 
 What sit we then projecting peace and war I 
 
 "War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 
 
 Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 
 
 Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 
 
 To us enslaved, but custody severe. 
 
 And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 
 
 Inflicted 1 and what peace can we return, 335 
 
 But, to our power, hostility and hate, 
 
 Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow, 
 
 Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least 
 
 May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 
 
 In doing what we most in suffering feel ] 340 
 
 Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 
 
 With dangerous expedition to invade 
 
 may live). E. C. Browne says of this passage, '' Milton appears to have been 
 thinking of Alsatia and its sanctuary privileges." Probable ? — 321. Thus 
 far answers 1. 211. See I. 74.-324. Be sure. Like Gr. (rd<f>' Xffdi, know 
 well. Eur. Hipp. 1327 ; more like Ps. c 3, " Be ye sure that the Lord, he is 
 God." — 324. Highth or depth == heaven or hell '{ First and last = for- 
 ever ? — 327. Iron. " Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron." Ps. ii. 9. 
 — 329. What = why, as in 1. 94. — 330. Determined us = limited us ? set- 
 tled our case ? fixed our determination ? or ended our hopes ? Wliich ? Ground 
 of your opinion? — 333-36. Custody . . . hostility, etc. The lines seem 
 half sarcastic, like, " This, forsooth, is the sort of peace ! " To our power = 
 to the extent of our power. — 337. Reluctance (Lat. reluctari, struggle 
 against), resistance, active opposition. — 341. Want, be wanting. " Nor 
 
74 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 
 
 Or ambush from the deep. What if we find 
 
 Some easier enterprise 1 There is a place, 345 
 
 If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven 
 
 Err not, another world, the happy seat 
 
 Of some new race called Man, about this time 
 
 To be created like to us, though less 
 
 In power and excellence, but favored more 350 
 
 Of him who rules above : so was his will 
 
 Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath, 
 
 That shook heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 
 
 Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 
 
 What creatures there inhabit, of what mould 355 
 
 Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 
 
 And where their weakness, how attempted best, 
 
 By force or subtlety. Though heaven be shut, 
 
 And heaven's high arbitrator sit secure 
 
 In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 
 
 The utmost border of his kingdom, left 
 
 To their defence who hold it : here perhaps 
 
 Some advantageous act may be achieved 
 
 By sudden onset, either with hell fire 
 
 To waste his whole creation, or possess 365 
 
 All as our own, and drive, as we were driven, 
 
 The puny habitants ; or, if not drive. 
 
 Seduce them to our party, that their God 
 
 did there want cornice," etc., I. 715, 716. — 345. A place See I. 650-55. 
 Again attention is concentrated upon our earth as a post to be captured, and 
 made possibly a base of operations against heaven. —349. Less. "Thou 
 hast made him a little lower than the angels." Ps. viii. 5. —351-53. " God 
 . . . confirmed it by an oath." Heb. vi. 17. Zeus (R I. 530 ; JUn. IX. 106), 
 by his nod makes vast Olympus tremble. — 355. Mould. Shape, pattern ? 
 or matter, as almost always in Milton ? I. 706 ; IT. 139. — 357. Attempted 
 (Lat. attentare, strive after, attack), tried, assailed. Whether by force, etc. 
 — 359. Arbitrator (late Latin), ruler, — 365. Creation, our own universe 
 (earth, sun, moon, and stars), then just created from Chaos. It is called 'this 
 pendent world,' 1. 1052.— 367. Puny {Fr. puisne, later-born). Little? or later- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 75 
 
 May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 
 
 AboUsh his own works. This would surpass 370 
 
 Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 
 
 In our confusion, and our joy upraise 
 
 In his disturbance ; when his darling sons, 
 
 Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 
 
 Their frail original and faded bliss, 375 
 
 Faded so soon. Advise if this be worth 
 
 Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 
 
 Hatching vain empires ! " Thus Beelzebub 
 
 Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 
 
 By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 
 
 But from the author of all ill could spring 
 
 So deep a malice, to confound the race 
 
 Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell 
 
 To mingle and involve ; done all to spite 
 
 The great Creator 1 But their spite still serves 385 
 
 His glory to augment. The bold design 
 
 Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 
 
 Sparkled in all their eyes. With full assent 
 
 They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : — 
 
 " "Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 
 Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are. 
 Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 
 
 born ? — 369, 370. " It repented the Lord that he had made man." Gen. vi. 6. 
 — 375. Original. Originator, author? or origin? or original state? — 
 376, 377. Advise (Fr. aviser), consider? or offer counsel? Or to sif. 
 What word to be siipplied after or ? — %11, 378. Sit . . . hatching. The 
 critics seem to miss the force of this startling metaphor ! Vain (Lat. vanis, 
 void), empty. Incapable of being hatched ? — 379. First devised. Seel. 
 650-55. As to the intimacy between Satan and Beelzebub, see I. 87, etc ; V. 
 673, etc. — 383. Root (like Lat. stirpe, stem, stock, root). — 387. States, 
 chiefs. So the phrases, 'estates of the realm,' * estates of parliament,' ' third 
 estate,' 'states-general,' les etats g^neraux. Joy sparkled, etc. "Disdain 
 and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes." Shakes. — 389. "We must suppose 
 here some brief act of voting." Masson. — 391. Synod. Like ' conclave ' 
 (I. 795); and 'consistory' {Par. Regained, T. 42). Is this ecclesiastical 
 word a little sarcastic here? Gr. <ryyo5os, synodos, meeting. Like. To 
 
76 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 "Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 
 
 Nearer our ancient seat ; perhaps in view 
 
 Of those bright confines, whence with neighboring arms 
 
 And opportune excursion, we may chance 396 
 
 Ke-enter heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
 
 Dwell, not un visited of heaven's fair light. 
 
 Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
 
 Purge off this gloom : the soft delicious air, 400 
 
 To heal the scar of these corrosive fires. 
 
 Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send 
 
 In search of this new world ? Whom shall we find 
 
 Sufficient 1 Who shall tempt with wandering feet 
 
 The dark unbottomed infinite abyss, 405 
 
 And through the palpable obscure find out 
 
 His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, 
 
 Upborne with indefatigable wings 
 
 Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 
 
 The happy isle? What strength, what art, can then 410 
 
 Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 
 
 Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
 
 what does this word belong ? — 395. Neighboring. To what ? — 396. Chance 
 = perchance ? or chance to 1 — 399. Brightening. Groroing bright ? or mak- 
 ing bright ? Orient. Rising ? or bright ? or eastern ? See note on I. 546. 
 — 401. Scar. Fr. escarre, or escharre, crust of a burn, dead flesh to be sloughed 
 off ; fr. Gr. icrxo-po- '■ — 402. Shall. This word was still largely interchangeable 
 with 7oill. — 405. Abyss. Of Chaos ? or of Lethe ? If Chaos, the question is, 
 " Who shall attempt to go on foot through it, or on wings over it ? " See 
 11. 828, 829. — 406. Palpable obscure. The darkness that might be felt, of 
 Exod. X. 21. 'Obscure 'is a noun here, like 'essential,' 1. 97; 'sensible,' 
 1.278; 'abrupt,' 1. 409. — 407. Uncouth (A. S. cunnan,- to know; cuthe, 
 knew, ge-cuth, known ), unknown. — 409. Arrive (Lat. ad, to, ripa, river-bank ; 
 strictly 'arrive' means to reach the shore), arrive at. So 'at' is omitted 
 after 'arrive' in Shakes. Jul. Ccns. I. II. 110 ; 3 Hen. VT. V. 3, 8. —410. Isle. 
 N.ewton, Keightley, Browne, Ross, Ston-, Major, Brydges, and others, make 
 it 'the earth hanging in the sea of air.' But Masson says, "This inter- 
 pretation must be wrong. The angels know nothing as yet of the earth, or 
 the nature of its environment. . . . The 'Isle' is "this world, which . . . 
 they can fancy as an azure sphere or round, insulated between heaven and 
 Chaos." But the * flight ' was 'aery,' 1. 407, and air seems to be expected as 
 a matter of course, 1. 400. —412. Senteries (Lat. sentirc, to perceive ; or, 
 
PARADISE LOST, 77 
 
 Of angels watching round 1 Here he had need 
 
 All circumspection, and we now no less 
 
 Choice in our suffrage ; for, on whom we send, 415 
 
 The weight of all, and our last hope, relies." 
 
 This said, he sat ; and expectation held 
 His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
 To second, or oppose, or undertake 
 
 The perilous attempt : but all sat mute, 420 
 
 Pondering the danger with deep thoughts j and each 
 In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
 Astonished : none among the choice and prime 
 Of those heaven-warring champions could be found 
 So hardy as to proffer or accept, 425 
 
 Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
 Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
 Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
 Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : — 
 
 " progeny of heaven ! empyreal thrones ! 430 
 
 With reason hath deep silence and demur 
 Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
 And hard, that out of hell leads up to light. 
 
 better, fr. Fr. seedier, path, as " the sentinel walks in a little path "), senti- 
 nels. Stations, stationed guards. — 413. Had need all. Would have need 
 of all ? or woidd have in need all ? — 41-i. We. Marked by Milton to be 
 spelled wee for emphasis by contrast with he. — 416. All. All what ? 
 Kelies. Subject nominative ? — 418. Look in suspense. 'His look ranging 
 or suspended over the assembly as if imcertaiu from what quarter there might 
 be a response.' Masson. Why did not Moloch volunteer ? — 420. Mute. As 
 the Senate, after the defeat and death of the Scipios, sat mute before the 
 choice of a commander for the army in Spain, no one daring to accept the 
 position. Liv. XXVT. 18. — 429. Unmoved. Without rising from his seat ? 
 or undisturbed by the danger ? or unsolicited, i. e. of his ovra motion ? — 430. 
 Of heaven. All of Satan's speeches to the assembled angels show the art or 
 artifice of an orator, first conciliating his audience. How with Moloch's ? 
 Mammon's? Belial's? Beelzebub's? Any reason for the difference? — 431. 
 Demur (Lat. demordri, to loiter, to retard ; Fr. demeurer, to stay ; deineurer 
 tmtet, to be struck 'dumb), hesitation. — 432. Long, etc. So says Dante, 
 "The way is long, and difficnlt the road." Infer. XXXIV. 95, Similarly 
 the famous lines in Virgil, JEn. VI. 128, 129, " The descent to hell is easy 
 
PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, 
 
 Outrageous to devour, immures us round 435 
 
 Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 
 
 Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
 
 These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
 
 Of unessential night receives him next. 
 
 Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 
 
 Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
 
 If thence he scape into whatever world 
 
 Or unknown region, what remains him less 
 
 Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape 1 
 
 But I should ill become this throne, peers, 445 
 
 And this imperial sovranty, adorned 
 
 With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed 
 
 And judged of public moment, in the shape 
 
 Of difficulty or danger, could deter 
 
 Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 
 
 These royalties, and not refuse to reign. 
 
 Refusing to accept as great a share 
 
 Of hazard as of honor, due alike 
 
 To him Avho reigns, and so much to him due 
 
 Of hazard more as he above the rest 455 
 
 High honored sits 1 Go, therefore, mighty powers. 
 
 . . . but to retrace one's steps, to come up and out to the upper air, this is 
 the task, this the toil." — 434, Convex. Contemplated from the outside ? Or 
 was * convex ' used by the old poets for ' concave,' like Lat. convexus 1 See 
 1. 635. — 436. Ninefold, etc. How had Satan learned these particulars ? 
 Had they consciousness, power of observation, when they entered hell ? 
 or is it mere assumption of knowledge on the part of Satan ? See 11. 165 
 to 169 ; also 11. 645, 646. Adamant. What is it? etymology. — 438. Void 
 profound, Lucretins's inane profundrtm, Shakespeare's 'empty vast an<l 
 wandering air,' or ' kingdom of perp'etual night,' in Richard III., I. iv. — 439. 
 Unessential, without real substance. A dark infinite vacuum ?— 441. Abor- 
 tive. Non-producing ? or never bringing to completion ? or rendering incom- 
 plete, destroying life ? Remains, awaits, Lat. inanet. — 445-55. This hand- 
 some recognition of the obligation imposed by sovereignty is slightly like 
 Prince Sarpedon's, II. XII. 310, etc. So Par. Reg. II. 463, etc. — 452. Re- 
 fusing = if refusing ? — 453. Alike. Hazard and honor alike ? or due to 
 
PARADISE LOST. 79 
 
 Terror of heaven, though fallen ! intend at home, 
 
 While here shall be our home, what best may ease 
 
 The present misery, and render hell 
 
 More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 460 
 
 To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 
 
 Of this ill mansion : intermit no watch 
 
 Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 
 
 Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 
 
 Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 465 
 
 None shall partake with me." Thus saying, rose 
 
 The monarch, and prevented all reply ; 
 
 Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, 
 
 Others among the chief might offer now, 
 
 Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 470 
 
 And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
 
 His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
 
 Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
 
 Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 
 
 Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose. 475 
 
 Their rising all at once was as the sound 
 
 Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
 
 With awful reverence prone, and as a god 
 
 Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven. 
 
 Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 
 
 That for the general safety he despised 
 
 His own : for neither do the spirits damned 
 
 Mm and the rest alike ?- 457. Intend, attend to. So Shakes. Tim. of Ath. 
 II IT • also Bacon's ffenrij VII. " The king intended his pleasures." Lat. 
 intendere {animum), to stretch (the mind) to. -462. Mansion (Lat. manere, 
 to remain), abiding-place. - 464. Coasts, etc., where? -467. Prevented 
 (pre, before, venire, to come), forestalled. The peremptoriness of this conclu- 
 sion is re^al? But what has become of their republican equality '^ — 468. 
 From. By? Raised in courage ? — 470. What. What? Certain. Dif- 
 ference between this and ' sure ' ? — 471. Opinion, pitblic opinion, or reputa- 
 tion. So repeatedly in Shakes. (Mer. of Ven. 1. 1., 'this fool-gudgeon, this 
 opinion ?— 478. Prone, bowing down. As a god, etc. Slave to the ' last in- 
 firmity of noble mind.' — 482. Neither. 'Not any more than bad men.' 
 Keightley. Storr cites very appositely, James ii. 19, "The devils also believe 
 
80 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 
 
 Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 
 
 Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 485 
 
 Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
 Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief : 
 As, when from mountain tops the dusky clouds 
 Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread 
 Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 
 
 Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower ; 
 If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet, 
 Extend his evening beam, the fields revive. 
 The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 495 
 
 shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 
 Eirm concord holds ; men only disagree 
 Of creatures rational, though under hope 
 Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, 
 Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 500 
 
 Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 
 Wasting the earth, each other to destroy : 
 
 and tremble." — 483. Virtue. Satan's public spirit ? or their generous recog- 
 nition of his seeming merit? Lest. Meaning, '/ say this, lest'? — 485. 
 Close, concealed. — 486. Consultations. Note the position of the noun be- 
 tween two adjectives, an arrangement. of which Milton is fond. See I. 1. 69 ; 
 and ' sad occasion dear.' Lycidas, 6. — 488. As when, etc. " This simile 
 brightens and refreshes for a moment the sombre atmosphere of hell." Ross. 
 It is preceded by the mention of distant thunder, and followed by a gor- 
 geous display of royalty. Name all its parts. — 489. North wind sleeps, etc. 
 " While the might of Boreas sleeps." II. V. 524. The north wind would 
 drive the clouds away. They quote here II. XVI. 297 ; also Spenser's 40th 
 Sonnet. — 490. Heaven's cheerful face. This phrase is in Spenser, Faerie 
 Queene, II. xn. 34. Louring. * Lour ' is akin to 'leer,' to look in a covert 
 or suspicious way ; Loav Ger. Mren, to look sullen. Element. Here, as 
 often in Shakes, and the old writers, 'element' is air or sky. — 491. Snow, 
 apposition to ' element ' ? or object of * scowls ' ? — 492. Chance, as in 
 1. 396. — 495. Rings. Why not ring ? — 496. 0, shame. " He evidently 
 had his own times in view." Keightle/i/. —i97. Concord, etc. Todd quotes 
 Bishop Hall (1615), "Even evil spirits keep touch within themselves." 
 — 501. Levy (Fr. lever, lift, raise). "This sense seems improper." Jo/in- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 81 
 
 As if (which might induce us to accord) 
 
 Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 
 
 That day and night for his destruction wait. 505 
 
 The Stygian council thus dissolved, and forth 
 In order came the grand infernal peers : 
 Midst came their mighty paramount, and seemed 
 Alone the antagonist of heaven, nor less 
 Than hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme, 510 
 
 And god-like imitated state : him round 
 A globe of fiery seraphim enclosed 
 With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
 Then of their session ended they bid cry 
 With trumpets' regal sound the great residt : 515 
 
 Toward the four winds four speedy cherubim 
 Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy. 
 By harald's voice explained ; the hollow abyss 
 Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell 
 With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 
 Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 
 By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 
 
 Subsequent usage has fully justified Miltou.— 504. Enow (A. S. 
 
 ; Ger. genug, enough ; Nofweg. nogr, abundant), old form of enough. 
 ^his pronunciation is still heard in some parts of England.— 508. Para- 
 mount (Lat.^er, through ; acl,io ; montem, mountain ; Yt. paramont, at the 
 top), lord-paramount. — 509. Alone = the only ? or able single-handed to be ? 
 Difference between ' only ' and ' alone ' ? — 512. Globe. Circle or ring (as glo- 
 bus, uEn. X. 373) ? or sphere ?- Masson prefers the latter, and refers to Par. 
 Reg. IV. 581-82, ' a fiery globe of angels.' Fiery. " This is the meaning of 
 seraph." Keightley. See note on I. 129. — 513. Emblazonry. Seel. 1.538. 
 Horrent, bristling, erect. See 'horrid,* I. 563. — 514. Cry, as a crier pro- 
 claims. — 515. Regal. What fitness in this word ? — 517. Alchemy. 
 *' White alchemy is made of pan-brass one pound, and arsenicum three ounces; 
 or of copper and auripigmentiam " (ore of arsenic). Bacon. Alchemy proper 
 was the pretended art of transmuting metals ; hence the word is used for any 
 metals mixed with chemical skill ? — 518. Harald's. This spelling is Milton's. 
 Explained. The trumpet blast is instantly followed by the crier's voice ex- 
 plaining its full meaning ? The sound of this line is thought to echo the sense. 
 Abyss, ffell ? or Chaos ? In I. 543, the shout is distinctly heard outside the 
 walls of hell ! — 521. Thence. In consequence of this ? or from that S20ot ? 
 or after that timet — ^2\-2% Ranged . . . disband. Had they remained 
 
82 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way 
 
 Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 
 
 Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 525 
 
 Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 
 
 The irksome hours, till his great chief return. 
 
 Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 
 
 Upon the wing, or in swift race contend. 
 
 As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; 530 
 
 Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 
 
 With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form : 
 
 As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
 
 Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
 
 To battle in the clouds ; before each van 535 
 
 Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears 
 
 Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 
 
 Prom either end of heaven the welkin burns. 
 
 Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, 
 
 in order under arms till then ? What does this show as to their absence from 
 the great hall ? — 626. Entertain (Lat. inter, between ; tenere, to hold ; Fr. 
 entretenir ; Ital. intrattenere), while away, beguile. — 528, etc. Similar the 
 games in Elysium, JEn. VI. 642, etc. ; also in the Greek army before Troy 
 while Achilles abstained from battle. II. II. 112>-15. See, too, the mention of 
 •heroic games' among the good angels, IV. 551, 552. (Does not this last cita- 
 tion suggest a joyousness in heaven quite the reverse of the tedious solemni- 
 ties and perpetual psalm-singing which Taine pretends to find to be the sole 
 business of Milton's angels ?) On the plain, where the great muster anji review 
 were held. Or, either ? Sublime ( Lat . sublevdre, to lift ; sublimis, high ), aloft. 
 — 530. Olympian games, foot-races, horse-races, wrestling, boxing, leaping, 
 armor-races, throwing the discus, etc? They were celebrated every fifth year 
 at Olympia in Elis. See Class. Diet. Pythian fields, in the Crissaean plain 
 near Delphi, where, every fifth year, were athletic sports, horse-races, con- 
 tests in singing, art, etc. See Class. Diet. — 5S1, 532. Fiery steeds. Horses 
 of fire and chariots of fire are mentioned in the Scriptures, 2 Kings ii. 11 ; 
 vi. 17. See Ps. Ixviii. 17; Hab. iii. 8. Shun the goal with rapid wheels. 
 This of course suggests Horace's inetaque fervidis evUaia roils, and the goal 
 shunned with burning wheels. Odes, I. i. 4. The goal was a cone-shaped 
 cypress column, around which the chariot flew in the race. Fronted, con- 
 fronting. — 533-38. As when, etc. The aurora borealis ? Virgil ( Geoi\ I. 
 474) says, " Germany heard the sound of arms in tlie whole sky " ; and Shakes. 
 {Jul. C(£S. II. II. 19, 20), " Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds in 
 
PARADISE LOST. 83 
 
 Eend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 
 
 In whirlwind ; hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 
 
 As when Alcides, from QEchalia crowned 
 
 "With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 
 
 Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 
 
 And Lichas. from the top of (Eta threw 545 
 
 Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild, 
 
 Eetreated in a silent valley, sing 
 
 With notes angelical to many a harp 
 
 Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall 
 
 By doom of battle, and complain that Fate 550 
 
 Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 
 
 Their song was partial ; but the harmony 
 
 (What could it less when spirits immortal sing 1) 
 
 Suspended hell, and took with ravishment 
 
 ranks and squadrons and right form of war." Troubled sky. Shakes, has 
 * troubled heaven,' Henry IV., 1. 1. 10. — Prick their horses with the spur '{ So, 
 " A gentle knight was pricking on the plain," beginning of Faerie Queene. 
 Couch (Fr. coucher, to place in rest), place in rest against a portion of the 
 breast armor ? Close, grapple. "Welkin (A. S. wolcen, Ger. Wolke, cloud. 
 Perhaps from the woolly (Ger. Wolle, wool) aspect of the clouds. Wedgewood. 
 Morris derives it fr. wealcan, to roll, turn, — 539. Others. These are not 
 *on the plain' (1. 528), but in a rocky, hilly region, probably not far away. 
 See I. 670, Typhcean. Typhoeus (pronounced Ty-pho'-eus, trisyl.) was the 
 same as Typhon, who, according to the Athenian writer ApoUodorus, hurled 
 great rocks against heaven. See 1. 199, — 540, Ride the air. " Infected be the 
 air whereon they ride." Macbeth, IV. i. See note 1. 663. — 542. Alcides, 
 Hercules, grandson of Alcaeus, (Echalia, a city near the middle of Eubcea, or, 
 as some say, in Thessaly. — 543, Conquest, of Eurytus, King of (Echalia. 
 Bobe, which Deianira, wife of Hercules, unwittingly steeped in poisoi^ think- 
 ing the substance had a magic power to win back her husband's affection. 
 See Class. Diet. Ovid. Met. IX. 136, etc. — 545. Lichas, the luckless bearer 
 of the poisoned robe to Hercules. CEta, a rugged pile of mountains in the 
 S. E, of Thessaly. See Ov, Met. IX. 136 to 229 ; and the masterly dramatic 
 treatment of the whole in Sophocles' Trachinice. — 546. Euboic Sea, be- 
 tween the mainland of Greece and the island Euboea, — 547. Retreated, 
 retired, withdrawn. —551. Virtue should enthrall, etc. Bentley pointed 
 out the origin of this line in the whining utterance which Dion Cassius alleges 
 to have been quoted from Euripides by Brutus just before his suicide, " Im- 
 pudent virtue, thou wast, then, mere talk, I practised thee as a reality ; but 
 thou wast, it would seem, enthralled to force" (or 'enthralled to chance,'' ac- 
 cording to another reading) — 554. So at the music of Orpheus in hell, the 
 
84 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 
 
 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 
 
 Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
 
 In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
 
 Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
 
 Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 560 
 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 
 
 Of good and evil much they argued then, 
 
 Of happiness and final misery, 
 
 Passion and apathy, and glory and shame ; 
 
 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! 565 
 
 Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm 
 
 Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite 
 
 Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 
 
 With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 
 
 Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 
 
 On bold adventure to discover wide 
 
 That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 
 
 snaky-tressed Eumenides were spell-bound, Cerberus held his triple mouth 
 agape, and the wheel of Ixion stood still. Virg. Georg. IV., 481-4. Took, 
 captivated. Milton shows here, as often elsewhere, his fondness for music. — 
 556. Eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. How far is tliis distinc- 
 tion true? — 558. Elevate. Others ? or thoughts ? As in 1. 193, the omission 
 of d is for euphony. The principle, as shown in ' Early English,' is thus stated 
 by Morris : " If the root of a verb end indoTt doubled or preceded by another 
 consonant, the d or t of the past participle is omitted. Sjjcciviens, XXXV. 
 Reasoned high. The endless and fruitless discussions of insoluble questions 
 by the schoolmen, half theologians, half metaphysicians, here have their pro- 
 totype ! See Himes's Study of Par. Lost, p. 47. — 560. The repetition with 
 epithets suggests the mazes of puzzling and barren 'philosophy.' What Mil- 
 ton himself thought on these themes is hinted in III. 110-30. Absolute = 
 apart from predestination? — 561. Wandering. Causing to wander? or 
 coming and going "^ — 562. Of good, etc. ; i. e. ' suvimum honuvi, of the origin 
 of evil, and other philosophic topics, on wliich also certainty is not to be at- 
 tained.' Keightley. — 564. Apathy. The Stoics argued that the wise man 
 feels neither pain nor pleasure. — 566. Charm. As music did the torments of 
 Prometheus and Tantalus. Hor. Odes, II. xiii. 33-38. — 568. Obdured (Lat. 
 obduro, I harden), hardened. — 569. Triple. Horace says, "That man had 
 oak and triple brass around his breast, who first entrusted a frail vessel to the 
 merciless ocean." — 570. Squadrons, battalions. See note on I. 758. Gross 
 
PARADISE LOST. 85 
 
 Might yield them easier habitation, bend 
 
 Four ways their flying march, along the banks 
 
 Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge 575 
 
 Into the burning lake their baleful streams — 
 
 Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 
 
 Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep j 
 
 Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 
 
 Heard on the rueful stream ; tierce Phlegeton, 580 
 
 Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 
 
 Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
 
 Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
 
 Her watery labyrinth ; whereof who drinks, 
 
 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585 
 
 Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 
 
 Beyond this flood a frozen continent 
 
 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
 
 Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
 
 Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 
 
 Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice, 
 
 A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 
 
 (Lat. crassus, thick ; Fr. gros, "big, great), large. — 574. Flying. Whyjlying ? 
 
 — 575. Four infernal rivers. The topography of hell must be somewhat as 
 shown by the diagrams of Prof. Himes in the Introduction, p. xvi. — 577-80. 
 Styx (Gr. StuI, styx, hateful ; arvycw, I hate), the river of hate. Acheron 
 (Gr. &XOS, ache ; p^(o, I flow), the river of pain. Cocytus (Gr. kcokvu, I wail), 
 the river of tvailing. Phlegeton (Gr. (pXeyw, I burn), the river of Jire. Tor- 
 rent (Lat. torrens), scorching or rushing. Milton perhaps combines both 
 meanings here. Virg. ^n. VI. 550, called it 'a river rapid with torrent 
 flames'; Silius Italicus, XIV. 62, Horrent of flames.' These four rivers 
 are named in the tenth book of the Odyssey. — 581. Inflame. Neuter? or 
 active? to he on fire? or to set on fire? — 583. Lethe (Gr. ^t^^tj, lethe, 
 forgetfulness), oblivion. Why 'slow and silent '? — 584. Labyrinth. As 
 the Egyptian labyrinth was half undergroimd, are we to understand the same 
 of this river ? that it ran with intricate windings ■' through caverns measure- 
 less to man, down to a sunless sea'? In Virg. JEn. VI. 705, and Dante, 
 Inferno, XIV. 136, Lethe is, as here, somewhat remote from the other streams. 
 
 — 587. Frozen continent, etc. This terrible picture is all Milton's own, 
 though Dante {Infer, III. 87) names Hhe eternal shades in heat and frost' 
 (so Purg. III. 11), and Shakes. {Meas. for Meas. III. i.) 'thrilling regions 
 
86 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, 
 
 Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 
 
 Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 595 
 
 Tliither, by harpy-footed furies haled, 
 
 At certain revolutions all the damned 
 
 Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 
 
 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 
 
 From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 
 
 Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine. 
 
 Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 
 
 Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 
 
 They ferry over this Lethean sound 
 
 Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 
 
 of thick-ribbed ice.' —589. Dire hail is Horatian, Odes, I, n. 1, 2.-592. 
 Serbonian bog. Mentioned with Mount Casius in Herod. II. 6 ; also in III. 5. 
 About 1,000 stadia (somewhat less than 125 miles) in circuit, surrounded 
 l»y knolls of shitting sand, which in high winds was swept into the lake till 
 the water was hardly distinguishable from land. — 593. Damiata. Daniietta, 
 a city of about 25,000 inhabitants, on the right bank of the principal 
 eastern branch of the Nile, eight miles (five more than formerly) from the 
 Mediterranean. Casius, now Cape El-Cas, about 70 miles east of Damietta ? 
 Here reposed the remains of the murdered Pompey. "Many of those 
 ignorant of the peculiarity of the region have disappeared (here) with 
 whole armies." Diodurus the Sicilian, I. 35. Lucan, Pharsal. VIII. 539, 
 calls it a 'perfidious land.' — 595. Frore, (A. S. froren, participle o{ frc6s%)i, 
 to freeze), frozen, with frost. Virgil, Oeor. I. 93, Xenojihon, Anah. IV. 5, 3, 
 and Ecclesiasticus, XLIII. 20, 21, speak of the cold north wind's burning. 
 The effect, etc. This is shown by touching the flesh with carbonic acid gas 
 solidified by intense cold — 596. Harpy-footed furies. The Furies, incar- 
 nations of the torments of a guilty conscience, were properly three in num- 
 ber. Milton gives them the talons of harpies ('snatchers,' personified storm- 
 winds). Persons who have mysteriously disappeared are represented as 
 carried away by harpies. {Odys. 1. 241.) — 600. Starve (A. S. steorfan, to die ; 
 Ger. sterhen ; A. S. deorfan, to labor painfully, to perish), to suffer; to waste, 
 " The pain of intense cold seems to have entered most powerfully into the 
 northern conceptions of hell." Masson. —601. Ethereal (Gr. aXdo), aitho, 
 I kindle, light up; aldrjp, aither, space filled with light, sky filled with pure 
 fire). The ethereal warmth is that warmth proper to bodies composed of 
 fiery essence or dwelling in the empyrean. — 604. Sound (A. S. sund^ swim- 
 ming), an arm of the sea that can be swum over. This etymology, harmonizing 
 with the ordinary use of the word (as also the term 'ford,' 1. 612), tends to 
 show that 'infinite abyss,' in 1. 405, is not Lethe, as some have supposed. — 
 
PARADISE LOST. 87 
 
 And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 
 
 The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 
 
 In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 
 
 All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 
 
 But fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt, 6io 
 
 Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 
 
 The ford, and of itself the water flies 
 
 All taste of living wight, as once it fled 
 
 The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 
 
 In confused march forlorn, the adventrous hands, 615 
 
 With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 
 
 Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
 
 No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 
 
 They passed, and many a region dolorous, 
 
 O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 
 
 Eocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, 
 
 A universe of death ! which God by curse 
 
 Created evil, for evil only good ; 
 
 610. Fate withstands (Lat./ato obstanf, JEn. IV. 440). — 611. Medusa, chief 
 of the three Gorgons, who were frightful maidens with wings, scales, brazen 
 claws, enormous teeth, and snaky hair. Whoever looked upon her face was 
 changed to stone. See Class. Diet. — 612. Water flies. All of this passage 
 is ' a fine allegory to show that there is no forgetfulness in hell.' Newton. — 
 614. Tantalus, tormented with thirst, up to his chin in water which fled as 
 he stooped to drink. —615. Forlorn. What was? — 617. First = for the 
 first time? — 618. No rest. The critics cite the case of the unclean spirit 
 walking through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, Matt. xii. 43 ; 
 Luke xi. 24. —619. Dolorous. At the beginning of the 3d Canto of the In- 
 ferno, Dante rings the changes on dole, dolent, dolorous, etc. — 620. Frozen 
 . . . fiery Alp. He may have thought of Iceland, where the most terrible 
 volcanoes are in close proximity to ice-covered mountains ? Alp (Gaelic, 
 meaning height, mountain ). — 621. " The poet here rises into a very powerful 
 climax. The monosyllabic words are strongly expressive both of the rugged 
 horror of the infernal world, and of the toiling enterprise of its explorers." 
 Hunter. Burke cites the line as an example of " a very great degree of the 
 sublime, which is raised yet higher by what follows, A universe OF death " ! 
 Eocks (of death ?), caves (of death ?). — 623. Created evil. Milton is justi- 
 fied by the Scripture, " I make peace, and create evil ; I the Lord do all 
 these things." Isaiah xlv. 7. In IV. 110, Satan deliberately says, "Evil, be 
 thou my good." In scanning, do not slur nor drop the syllables of ' evil.' — 
 
88 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, 
 Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 
 
 Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
 Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, 
 Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire. 
 
 Meanwhile the adversary of God and man, 
 Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 
 
 Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell 
 Explores his solitary flight : sometimes 
 He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
 Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
 Up to the fiery concave towering high. 635 
 
 As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
 Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
 
 625, Prodigious (Lat-^rof^ig-iMm, prodigy, portent), portentous. So Shakes, 
 uses the word. Jul. Cces. I. 3 ; Rich. III., I. 11. 22. — 626. Do not drop the 
 unemphatic syllables, nor attempt to reduce the metre to tame uniformity. — 
 628. Virgil locates these monsters in hell. ^n. VI. 286-9. Hydras (Gr. 
 "TSpo, Lat. hydra, water-serpent). The Lernsean was nine-headed. Vii'gil 
 (yfe'/i. VI. 576) mentions a fifty-mouthed hydra in hell. Chimeras, fire- 
 breathing monsters, with the heads of lions, the bodies of goats, and the tails 
 of serpents. See Class. Diet. — 631. Puts on. "It is a question whether 
 this is to be understood literally." Storr. Aeronauts and learned critics are 
 easily puzzled by poets ! A little imagination, and a glance at I. 175, 674, 
 II, 700, V. 276-7 ('proper shape a seraph winged') would have shown that 
 Hermes' fastening winged sandals under his feet ([Had, XXIV, 340; ^n. 
 IV. 239) is no parallel ? Gates. Had he previous knowledge of their locality ? 
 See note on 1. 436, — 632. Explores his solitary flight. ' Being alone flies ex- 
 ploring the region. ' Keightley. Is this explanation satisfactory ? — 633. Scours 
 (Dan. skure, to rub ; Fr, escurer, ecurer), goes swiftly past within touching 
 distance. —634. Shaves (Lat. scab^re ; Ger. schahen, to scrape), skims along 
 (with wings that might cut the foam !). More poetical than Virgil's radii iter 
 liquidum? JEn. V. 217. Deep. What?— 635. Towering. Belongs to 
 concave? or to Satan ? — 636-48. "The general effect of this elaborated 
 simile is very grand." Ross. What are its salient parts ? — 637. Hangs, etc. 
 " No commentator, as far as I know, has observed that this is an expansion of 
 Herecopos, literally high in air ; then, of ships, out at sea." Storr (edition of 
 1874, Rivingtons). But 'hangs in the clouds' is hardly an expansion of 'is 
 high in air' ; and Major in his edition of 1853, says, "So the Greeks term 
 ships out at sea fierfcopoi," and in confirmation he quotes Arnold on Thuc. I. 
 112. The word fxerewpos, meteijros, spoken of a ship, perhaps more properly 
 
PARADISE LOST. 89 
 
 Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
 
 Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
 
 Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 
 
 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
 
 Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 
 
 Far off the flying fiend. At last appear 
 
 Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 
 
 And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass, 
 
 Three iron, three of adamantine rock, 646 
 
 Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. 
 
 means ' hisfli at sea/ or ' on the high seas.' (See Milton's use of ' meteorous,* 
 XII. 629, 630, spoken of angels gliding on the ground like mist.) Accounts 
 are given of sliips mirrored in the clouds, and so visible at a great distance 
 while yet below the horizon. Equinoctial, on or near the equator? The 
 commentators fail to notice the reason why Milton says equinoctial. Perhaps 
 because Satan is flying in the equatorial or middle region of hell ? Like the 
 fleet, he is indistinctly seen in 'the dusky air,' high, vast, and moving south ? 
 — 638. Close sailing. Sailing in a compact group ? or sailing close to the 
 wind ? In what direction blow the monsoons ? Bengala, Bengal. — 639. 
 Ternate and Tidore, two of the famous Spice Islands or Moluccas. They 
 are less than one degree from the equator. — 6i0. They, the large merchant- 
 ships ? Trading flood. So named by Milton with as good right as the steady 
 winds are named 'trade winds.' —641. Wide Ethiopian, the vast Indian 
 Ocean, Is the word 'Ethiopian,' used delicately to suggest darkness ? or is it 
 merely 'because it washes the eastern shores of Ethiopia, as Africa S. of 
 Egypt used to be called ' ? Cape, of Good Hope. — 642. Ply. As a nautical 
 term, ply means either 'make regular trips,' or 'endeavor to make way 
 against the wind.' To 'ply' is sometimes to work one's way biisily, or pur- 
 sue one's com'se with diligence or pertinacity. Which meaning is best here ? 
 Stemming, cutting through the water with the ship's stem ? or sailing ' close 
 to the wind,' the monsoon blowing six months from the S. W. ? or 'working 
 the stem of the ship in the night-time to avoid land, bearing off towards the 
 south ' ? Nightly. ' Because the constellation of the Cross by which they 
 may be supposed to steer, is visible only by night ' ? or ' night by night ' ? or 
 is 'nightly' used rather than 'daily,' to convey a notion of the darkness of 
 Satan's journey ? Pole. Meaning? — 643. At last appear, etc. Taine, 
 who dislikes Milton and misrepresents him, cannot suppress his ad- 
 miration of the next thirty lines. Quoting them, he says, "No poetic 
 creation equals in horror and grandeur the spectacle that greeted Satan on 
 leaving his dungeon." — 646. Adamantine. 1.436. — 647. Impaled (Lat. 
 palus, a stake), inclosed, paled in, surrounded. So in Shakes, ; also in Mil- 
 
90 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
 
 On either side a formidable shape. 
 
 The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair ; 650 
 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
 
 Voluminous and vast — a serpent armed 
 
 AVith mortal sting. About her middle round 
 
 A cry of hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
 
 With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655 
 
 A hideous peal . . . Far less abhorred than these 
 
 Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 
 
 Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 
 
 Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 
 
 In secret, riding through the air she comes, 
 
 ton's prose. — 648. XTnconsumed, Prof. Himes finds in the phenomena of 
 the aurora borealis a physical basis for this picture ; especially as the gates 
 were probably at the outer boundary of the ' frozen continent.' — 648. Before, 
 etc. The famous allegory which follows is founded on James i. 15, "Then 
 when Lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth Sin, and Sin, Avhen it is finished, 
 bringeth forth Death." — 650. Woman, etc. The commentators cite, as par- 
 tial sources of Milton's description of Sin, FaeHe Queene, 1. 1. 14; II. vii. 40; 
 Fletcher's Purple Island, XII. 27 ; Hesiod's Theogony, 298; Horace's DeArte 
 Poet. 4 ; Ovid's Met. XIV, 59-67. Note the alliteration in several of these lines. 
 —653. Sting. " The sting of death is sin." 1 Cor. xv. 56. — 654. Cry, pack. 
 *' You common cry of curs." Shakes. Coriolanus, III. 3. The liell-hounds are 
 the horrors of a guilty conscience.? — 655-56. Cerberean, like those of Cer- 
 berus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of hell. See Class. Diet. 
 Bung, etc. * Hath rung night's yawning peal.' Macbeth, TIL n. 43. — 659. 
 Less abhorred hounds than these. — 660, Scylla. The story is that Scylla 
 was once a beautiful maiden, but that the enchantress Circe changed her body 
 below her waist into barking monsters by infecting with baleful juices the water 
 in which Scylla was wont to bathe. Says Homer, " She lias twelve feet, and six 
 long necks, with a terrific head and three rows of close-set teeth on each . . . 
 Out of every ship that passes, each mouth takes a man ." Odys. XII. 89, etc. See 
 Class. Diet. — 661. Trinacrian (Gr. rp€7s, treis, three; &Kpat, akrai, pro- 
 montories ; Trinacria, land of 'the three promontories,' on the N. E., S. E., 
 and W.), Sicilian. Calabria = Southern Italy, including in the middle ages 
 the land of the Bruttii. — 662. Nor uglier hell-hounds follow. Night-hag. 
 ' From the Scandinavian mythology, in which niglit-hags, riding through the 
 air, and requiring infant blood for their incantations, are common, and Lapland 
 is their favorite region,' Masson. — QGS. Riding, etc. " Infected be the air 
 whereon they [witches] ride." Macbeth, IV. i. 138. "Grimm tells us that he 
 
PARADISE LOST. 91 
 
 Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 
 
 With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 665 
 
 Eclipses at their charms. The other shape — 
 
 If shape it might be called that shape had none 
 
 Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb j 
 
 Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 
 
 For each seemed either — black it stood as night, 670 
 
 Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell. 
 
 And shook a dreadful dart : what seemed his head 
 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 
 
 Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 
 
 The monster moving onward came as fast 675 
 
 With horrid strides ; hell trembled as he strode. 
 
 The undaunted fiend what this might be admired — 
 
 Admired, not feared, God and his Son except : 
 
 does not Imow when broom-sticks, spits, and similar -utensils were first 
 assumed to be the canonical instruments of this nocturnal equitation. He 
 thinks it comparatively modern ; but I suspect it is as old as the first child 
 that ever bestrode his father's staff, and fancied it into a courser shod with 
 wind, like those of Pindar. Alas for the poverty of human invention ! It 
 cannot afford a hippogriff for an every-day occasion. The poor old crones, 
 badgered by inquisitors into confessing they had been where they never were, 
 
 were involved in the further necessity of explaining how the they got there. 
 
 The only steed their parents had ever been rich enough to keep had been of this 
 domestic sort. ... If youth and good spirits could put such life into a dead 
 stick once, why not age and evil spirits now?" Lowell's essay on Witch- 
 craft in Among my Books. Falstaff mounts their master on a different nag, 
 a fiddlestick. 1 Henry IV., II. iv. — 665. Laboring. VirgU calls hmar 
 eclipses lunce lahores, labors of the moon. Juvenal has the precise equivalent. 
 Sat. VI. 443. —666. Charms. Meaning? — The other shape, etc. "The 
 grandest efforts of poetiy," remarks Coleridge on this passage, "are where the 
 imagination is called forth to produce, not a distinct form, but a strong work-^ 
 ing of the mind, still offering what is still repelled, and again creating what is 
 again rejected ; the result being what the poet wishes to impress ; viz. the 
 substitution of a sublime feeling of the imaginable for mere images." Test 
 this celebrated description of Death by Coleridge's principle. See Job iv. 13 
 to 17. — 673. Kingly crown. Because Death is ' the king of terrors ' ? Job 
 xviii. 14 ; Rev. vi. 2, 8. — 676. Trembled as he strode. Hence Prof. Himes 
 infers, contrary to Masson's opinion, that the gates were not at the highest 
 point of the concave roof overhead, but 'in a perpendicular wall ' at the 
 ' boundary of hell's outmost circle of extreme cold.' See Introduction. — 677. 
 
92 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Created thing nought valued he, nor shunned ; 
 
 And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 
 
 " Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape, 
 That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
 Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
 To yonder gates 1 Througli them I mean to pass, 
 That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 685 
 
 Eetire ! or taste thy folly, and learn by proof. 
 Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heaven ! " 
 
 To whom the goblin full of wrath replied : — 
 " Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he, 
 "Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 690 
 Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
 Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons 
 Conjured against the Highest ; for which both thou 
 And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
 To waste eternal days in woe and pain 1 695 
 
 And reckonest thou thyself with spirits of heaven. 
 Hell-doomed, and breathest defiance here and scorn. 
 
 Admired, wondered. I. 690. — 678. Except. This sentence, beginning with 
 'God' and ending with ' shunned,' is \isually conceded to be in strictness un- 
 grammatical, or at least un-English ; as if God and his Son were included by Mil- 
 ton among created things. The commentators seek to justify Milton by quoting 
 similar examples from Dante and other great poets, Sir Thomas Browne and 
 other eminent prose writers. But suppose we interpret thus : '' The undaunted 
 Fiend wondered what this might be ; wondered, not feared [what this might 
 be], except [it were] God and his Son." Prof. Himes remarks : ''To the Son 
 are ascribed [by Milton] omnipotence, omniscience, and, through the continual 
 presence of the Father, infinity in every respect. He is never represented as 
 accomplishing any of his great works without the Father ; but whatever he 
 does, and wherever he goes, the Father is always with him (VH. 588-90). 
 ... He had existed with God as his Word (sensible to hearing as now to 
 sight from eteniity. He is not God alone without the Father ; neither is 
 the Father God alone without the Son, inasmucli as he calls the Son 'my word, 
 my wisdom, my effectual might.' " HI. 170. —688. Goblin (Fr. gobelin, an 
 ugly spirit ; Welsh, cohlyn ; Ger, kohold, an underground spirit that creeps in 
 mines; Gr. K<J)8aAos, kobalos ; Armoric, gnhilin, 'lubbar-fiend'), a frightful 
 phantom. — 692. Rev. xii. 4, 7, 9.-693. Conjured (Lat. con, together, 
 jurare, to swear), sworn together, in sworn conspiracy. Conjured. — 696. 
 Spirits of heaven, the rotoit to 1. 687 ; as hell-doomed is to hell-horn. — 
 
PARADISE LOST. 93 
 
 Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 
 
 Thy king and lord 1 Back to thy punishment, 
 
 False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings, 700 
 
 Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
 
 Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 
 
 Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before ! " 
 
 So spake the grisly terror, and in shape. 
 So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 705 
 
 More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
 Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
 Unterrified, and like a comet burned. 
 That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
 In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 
 
 Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
 Levelled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
 No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
 Each cast at the other as when two black clouds, 
 
 700. False. Why false? — 701. King Rehoboam threatened, *'My father 
 hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." 
 1 Kings xii. 11. Whip of scorpions is a name, like ' cat-o-nine-tails.' — 706. 
 Deform (Lat. de, from, away from ; forma, beauty). — 707. Incensed (Lat. 
 incendere, to set on fire ; candere^ to be glowing hot), aflame, on fire. — 709. 
 Ophiuchus (Gr. ocpis, ophis, serpent ; exeti^, echein, to hold; ocpiovxos), the 
 serpent-holder, a northern constellation forty degrees long, formerly pictured 
 as a man with his foot on the scorpion, his head near that of Hercules, 
 and holding a serpent in his hand. See map of these constellations. Is 
 there any significance in this collocation (which does not seem to have 
 attracted the attention of the commentators) ? Satan, Sin, Death, in the 
 poem ; the comet, Hercules, the Scorpion, the Serpent, and the gigantic 
 Serpent-holder, in the sky ! —710, 711. Hair. Comet is from Gr. /co/ai/jttjs, 
 hairy, fr. K<^/i77, flowing hair. Shakes pestilence, etc. The old belief that 
 comets portend disasters, is uttered in the first three lines of 1 Henry VI. 
 (see Proctor's essay on Comets as Portents in his Myths and Marvels of 
 Astronomy) : — 
 
 "Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night. 
 
 Comets, importing change of time and states, 
 
 Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky." — 
 714. As when, etc. " Not quite correct, for bodies in the air cannot move 
 in opposite directions, as the wind blows only one way at a time." Keightley. 
 The meteorologists do not agree with Mr. Keightley. " When opposite winds 
 
94 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 715 
 
 Over the Caspian, then stand front to front 
 
 Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
 
 To join their dark encounter in mid air: 
 
 So frowned the mighty combatants that hell 
 
 Grew darker at their frown ; so matched they stood ; 720 
 
 For never but once more was either like 
 
 To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 
 
 Had been achieved, whereof all hell had rung, 
 
 Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat 
 
 Fast by hell gate and kept the fatal key, 725 
 
 Eisen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 
 
 " father ! what intends thy hand," she cried, 
 " Against thy only son 1 What fury, son, 
 Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
 Against thy father's head ? and knowest for whom ! 730 
 For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
 At thee ordained his drudge to execute 
 Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — 
 His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both ! " 
 
 She spake, and at her words the hellish pest 735 
 
 Forbore : then these to her Satan returned : — 
 
 " So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
 
 of different temperature meet," says Guyot, explaining the cause of tornadoes, 
 ** a vast amount of vapor is condensed into a thick black cloud, and a whirl- 
 ing motion is given to the air," etc. — 715. Fraught, etc. {Ger.fracht; Ft. 
 •fret, freight, the loading of a wagon or a ship ; Gev. ferchen, to despatch; 
 Swiss/e?'A-ew, to forward goods. Wedgwood.) Rattling. So artillery wagons 
 always rnttJe. Heaven's artillery is a phrase in Shakes. — 716. The Caspian 
 was noted for storms. " Nor do hurricanes forever harass the Caspian," Hor. 
 Odes, II. 9. *' Clouds, together crushed and bruised, pour down a tempest 
 by the Caspian shore." Fairfax's Tosso. So Purchas' Pilgrims, III. 
 241 (A.D. 162.5).— 720. Grew darker, etc. "Where he looked, a gloom 
 pervaded space." Byron. —T2\. Once more, etc. Christ is to destroy 
 death (1 Cor. xv. 26), and the devil (Heb. ii. 14). See Isaiah xxv. 8.-724. 
 Snaky. Why this ei)ithet ? — 7no. Knowest (the termination st, a relic of 
 si for (TV, sn, thou, tu, thou, sufficiently indicates the subject thou), though 
 thou knowest for whom thou doest it. —731. Laughs, etc. "He that 
 sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." Ps. ii. 4. —735. So Ariosto calls the Fury 
 
PARADISE LOST. 95 
 
 Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, 
 
 Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
 
 What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 
 
 "What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why, 
 
 In this infernal vale first met, thou callest 
 
 Me father, and that phantasm callest my son. 
 
 I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
 
 Sight more detestable than him and thee." 745 
 
 To whom thus the portress of hell-gate replied : — 
 " Hast thou forgot me, then, and do I seem 
 Now in thine eye so foul 1 once deemed so fair 
 In heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
 Of all the seraphim with thee combined 750 
 
 In bold conspiracy against heaven's king. 
 All on a sudden miserable pain 
 Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
 In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
 Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 755 
 
 Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
 Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
 Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
 All the host of heaven ; back they recoiled, afraid 
 At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 
 
 Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 
 I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
 The most averse, tliee chiefly ; who, full oft 
 Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing, 
 Becamest enamored . . . Meanwhile war arose, 764 
 
 And fields were fought in heaven ; wherein remained 
 (For what could else "?) to our almighty foe 
 Clear victory ; to our part, loss and rout 770 
 
 Megseva. apest; also Virgil, the harpies, ^w., Til. 215.— 739. Spares, forbears. 
 — 741. Double-formed. How? — 745. Than. Seel. 299.— 748. The universal 
 experience ; fair at the time, foul afterwards. — 752. On a sudden, etc. As 
 Minerva (wisdom) sprang into life from the brain of Jove, so Sin from the head 
 of Satan. See Class. Diet, — 755. Leftside. \Yhy left? — 7Q8. Fields, battles. 
 
96 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Through all the empyrean. Down they fell, 
 
 Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down 
 
 Into this deep ; and in the general fall 
 
 I also : at which time this powerful key 
 
 Into my hand was given, with charge to keep 775 
 
 These gates forever shut, which none can pass 
 
 Without my opening. Pensive here I sat. . . . 
 
 Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 
 
 Transformed ; but he my inbred enemy 785 
 
 Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart. 
 
 Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death I 
 
 Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 
 
 From all her caves, and back resounded Death ! , . . 
 
 These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 795 
 
 Surround me, as thou sawest, hourly conceived 
 
 And hourly born with sorrow infinite 
 
 To me, . . . with conscious terrors vex me round, 801 
 
 That rest or intermission none I find. 
 
 Before mine eyes in opposition sits 
 
 Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, 
 
 And me, his parent, would full soon devour 805 
 
 For want of other prey, but that he knows 
 
 His end with mine involved, and knows that I 
 
 Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. 
 
 Whenever that shall be : so Fate pronounced. 
 
 But thou, O father 1 I forewarn thee, shun 810 
 
 His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 
 
 To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 
 
 Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint, 
 
 Save he who reigns above, none can resist." 
 
 So in Shakes. —771. Empyrean (Gr. eV, in, trvp, fire ; e/jLirvpos, in fire), the 
 highest portion of space supposed to be pervaded by the pure element or 
 essence of fire. See note on 1. 117.— 772. Pitch (Old Fr.jnc, high place ; akin to 
 peak; or fr. oMpike), height. — 7 S7. Made. He? ordart?— SOI. Conscious. 
 Meaning?— 80e3. Opposition, front? — 808. Bane. Because my death must end 
 him?-- 813. Dint (' Bint, dent, dunt, all imitative of the sound of a blow.' 
 Wedgwood), stroke, blow. — 814. Save he. So Shakes., " All the conspira- 
 
PARADISE LOST,, 97 
 
 She finished, and the suhtle fiend his lore 815 
 
 . Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : — 
 "Dear daughter ! — since thou claimst me for thy sire, . . . 
 I come no enemy, but to set free 
 From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
 Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
 Of spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 825 
 
 Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
 This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
 Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
 The unfounded deep, and through the void immense 
 To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 
 
 Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now 
 Created vast and round ; a place of bliss 
 In the purlieus of heaven ; and, therein placed 
 A race of upstart creatures, to supply 
 
 Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 835 
 
 Lest heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
 Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 
 Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 
 To know j and, this once known, shall soon return, 
 And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 
 
 Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 
 Wing silently the buxom air, imbalmed 
 With odors. There ye shall be fed and filled 
 Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey." 
 
 tors, save only he," Jul. Cces. V. 5 ; * Save tliou,' sounet 109 ; * save 1/ 
 Tioelfth Night, III. I. 172. Save (except that) he can, who, etc. — 815. Lore 
 (A. S. leer, learning ; Iceran, to teach), lesson. — 825. Pretences, claims. So 
 used in Shakes. — 827. Uncoutli, as in 1. 407.-829. Unfounded (Lat. sine 
 /undo, without bottom ; Fr. sans fond). Bottomless ? or without foundation, 
 treacherous? Deep. Hell? or Chaos? See note on 1. 405. — 8-33. Purlieus. 
 Fr, pur, free ; lieu, place ; purlieu, a place free from trees (purus ah arboiibus), 
 the outskirts of a forest ; or Fr. pour aller, for to walk ; purlieu, land once 
 part of a royal forest but separated from it by perambulation (pour-aUee) 
 granted by the crown. Placed, etc. A race that has heen placed therein ? — 
 842. Buxom (A. S. beogan, bugan, to bow, to yield), yielding. Horace lias ce- 
 dentem aera, yielding air. Sat. XL 2, 13.-843. Fed. "Death shall feed ou 
 
98 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 He ceased ; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 
 Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 846 
 
 His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
 Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
 His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire : — 
 
 " The key of this infernal pit, by due, 850 
 
 And by command of heaven's all-powerful king, 
 I keep, by him forbidden to unlock 
 These adamantine gates : against all force 
 Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
 Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 855 
 
 But what owe I to his commands above. 
 Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
 Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
 To sit in hateful office here confined, 
 
 Inhabitant of heaven and heavenly born, 860 
 
 Here in perpetual agony and pain, 
 With terrors and with clamors compassed round 1 . . , 
 Thou art my father, thou my author ; thou 
 My being gavest me : whom should I obey 865 
 
 But thee 1 whom follow ? Thou wilt bring me soon 
 To that new world of light and bliss, among 
 The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 
 
 them." Ps. xlix. 14. —846. Grinned. Ajax (11. VII. 212), smiles 'with 
 horrible countenance'; Minos (Dante's Inferno, Y. i) ' Standeth horribly 
 and snarls ' ; Grantorto {Faerie Queene, V. xii. 16) is ' grinning griesly ' ; Syl- 
 vester's dead are 'grinning ghastly'; Statius's Tydeus (Thebais, viii, 582) is 
 ' smiling dreadfully,' fonnidabile ridens ; Cowley's devils (Davideis), ' with a 
 dreadful smile deformedly grin ' ; and in Horace {Odes, HI. xi. 21) Ixion and 
 Tityos ' smiled with unwilling look.' Shakespeare has tried his pencil at the 
 picture, and with what startling power ! 
 
 " Within the hollow crown 
 That rounds the mortal temples of a king, 
 Keeps Death his court ; and there the antic sits, 
 Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp ! " 
 
 Richard II., lU. n. 160-163. 
 
 847. Maw (Dutch maag, Ger. magen, stomach). Blessed, meaning he blessed 
 his maw? or his maw should be blessed ?— 868. Gods who live at ease. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 99 
 
 At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 
 
 Thy daughter and thy darHng, without end." 870 
 
 Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
 Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
 And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
 Forthwith the huge portcuUis high up-drew, 
 Which, but herself, not all the Stygian powers 875 
 
 Could once have moved ; then in the keyhole turns 
 The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
 Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
 Unfastens. On a sudden open fly. 
 
 With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 
 
 The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
 Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
 Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut 
 Excelled her power : the gates wide open stood, 
 That with extended wings a bannered host, 885 
 
 Homer has deol pi7a ^coSvres, theoi reia zoontes, gods living at ease, II. VI. 
 138 ; Odys. V. 122, rv. 805. Tennyson in Lotos-eaters makes Ulysses' crew 
 propose to live thus ' like gods.' — 869-70. Right hand . . . daughter and 
 darling. Just as the Messiah reigns at the Father's right hand, sou and well- 
 beloved! —874. Portcullis (Fr. parte, Lat. porta, gate; coulisse, groove, 
 grooved timher, or something that slides down ; couler, to slide, slip), a harrow- 
 like gate of timbers framed and ii'on-pointed, hung over the entrance to a castle, 
 and capable of being let slide down instantlj^ — 875. Which, but herself, etc. 
 Allegory ? Meaning ? — 876-7. Turns. Unless we interpret ' wards ' to 
 mean sliding bolts (a sense which Shakes, gives to 'ward,' Lucrece, 305), we 
 may interpret 'turns,' 'passes round or by with the key '; just as we speak 
 of 'turning a corner,' * turning the enemy's flank,' etc. There is no need of 
 supposing, with Keightley and the locksmiths, that Milton made a mistake 
 here. — 879-883. This is a famous passage. Observe closely the analogy which 
 voice and movement bear to the things described. Contrast, VII. 205-7, 
 
 " Heaven opened wide 
 Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, 
 On golden hinges moving." 
 
 Erebus, the realm of darkness, hell. — 883-4. Opened; but to shut 
 excelled, etc. " Because none but God can put an end to the evils 
 caused by sin." Keightley. Is this explanation valid ? Wide, etc. "For 
 wide is the gate." Matt. vii. 13. — 885. Wings. What ? — 889. Redound- 
 
100 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 
 
 With horse and chariots ranked in loose array : 
 
 So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 
 
 Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
 
 Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 
 
 The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark 
 
 Illimitable ocean, without bound, 
 
 Without dimensions ; where length, breadth, and highth, 
 
 And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 
 
 And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 895 
 
 Eternal anarchy amidst the noise 
 
 Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
 
 For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, 
 
 Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
 
 Their embryon atoms : they, around the flag 900 
 
 Of each, his faction, in their several clans, 
 
 ing (Lat. I'c, back ; uncla, wave), curling over and over like waves. Are we 
 to suppose that a kind of volcanic force burst open the doors, and that the 
 pent-up gases were belched out with explosions ? — 892. Illimitable, like 
 infinite space. Is the word to be taken literally ? See 1. 976, 1038 ; 
 III. 538. Why does he add 'without bound'? See next note. — 895. 
 Nature, our visible universe (and perhaps we should add hell ?) formed from 
 chaos and darkness. Masson points out how carefully Milton has accumu- 
 lated perplexing thoughts in this description of chaos (891-916) for the purpose 
 of producing the ' conception of sheer inconceivability.' The astounding 
 denial of bound, dimension, length, breadth, height, time, and place! the 
 eternal anarchy of ancestral Night and Chaos, darkness, noise, war, and con- 
 fusion! the atomic theory of Democritus! the struggle of the four champions, 
 the strife-doctrine of Heraclitus! the umpireship of indecisive Chaos and 
 lawless Chance! the hopeless mixture of the seeds or pregnant causes 
 of sea, shore, air, and fire ! the possibility, on the one hand, of more worlds 
 to be framed out of this mixture, and on the other, of all nature sinking 
 into cliaos again! The mind flounders, balked, baffled, puzzled, stunned, 
 till introspection of itself gives a better idea of chaos than it ever 
 had before ! The art of the poet is here wonderful. See the quotation from 
 Coleridge, in note, 1. 66Q. — 898. In Ovid, Met. I. 19, we read, "Cold con- 
 tended with warm, moist with dry, soft witli hard, heavy with light." — 900. 
 Embryon atoms, atoms that make up tlie rudiments of an unborn organism 
 or embryo (eV, en, witliin, fipveiv, bruein, to swell).. Around the flag of 
 each, they, his faction, swarm ; or they, around the Jimj of each, who consti- 
 
PARADISE LOST. 101 
 
 Light-armed or heavy, sliarp, smooth, swift, or slow, 
 
 Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 
 
 Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil. 
 
 Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 905 
 
 Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 
 
 He rules a moment. Chaos umpire sits, 
 
 And by decision more embroils the fray 
 
 By which he reigns. Next him, high arbiter, 
 
 Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, 910 
 
 The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave, 
 
 Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 
 
 But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 
 
 Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 
 
 Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 915 
 
 His dark materials to create more worlds — 
 
 Into this wild abyss the wary fiend 
 
 Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while, 
 
 Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 
 
 He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 
 
 With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 
 
 Great things with small) than when Bellona storms 
 
 With all her battering engines, bent to rase 
 
 Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 
 
 Of heaven were falling, and these elements 925 
 
 In mutiny had from her axle torn 
 
 tute his faction. The commentators raise difficulties needlessly here. — 904. 
 Barca or Gyrene. ' The African deserts to the west of Egypt.' — 905. Levied. 
 In its military sense ? or simply raised ? or both ? Poise, to balance, or hold 
 in equilibrium? or to give weight to, to ballast? Shakes, nses poise = weigh ; 
 also = counterbalance. — 906. These most. Most of these ? or these in 
 greatest numbers f or most adhere f — 912. Sea, nor shore, water nor land. — 
 917-8. Into . . . stood and looked = standing, looked into. — 919. Frith 
 {Gaelic frith, little; Lat. fretum, narrow sea), arm of the sea, strait. — 920. 
 Pealed ( Norweg. bylia, to resound, bellow), dinned, assailed. — 921. Ruinous, 
 crashing. See I. 46. — 922. Bellona, Roman goddess of war, sister or wife of 
 Mars. The tremendous din of the bombardment and storming of a great city 
 is a small matter to this. — 924-5. If this frame, etc. Like Horace's 'si 
 fractus illabatur orbis,' if a crushed world should fall upon (him). Odes, 111. 
 
102 * PARADISE LOST. 
 
 The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans 
 
 He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 
 
 Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence many a league, 
 
 As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 
 
 Audacious ; hut, that seat soon faiHng, meets 
 
 A vast vacuity ; all unawares. 
 
 Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops 
 
 Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 
 
 Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, 935 
 
 The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 
 
 Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 
 
 As many miles aloft. That fury stayed, 
 
 Quenched in a boggy syrtis, neither sea 
 
 Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 
 
 Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 
 
 Half flying : behoves him now both oar and sail. 
 
 As when a gryphon, through the wilderness 
 
 With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale 
 
 Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 945 
 
 Had from his wakeful custody purloined 
 
 III. 7- Elements. Which? — 927. Vans (Lat. vannus, a wmnowing fan). — 
 929. Spurns (A. S. sjmra, a spur, heel ; spurnan, to kick, thrust with the foot). 
 — 931. Audacious = boldly. So in Shakes. —933. Pennons (Lat. jsemia, 
 wing). Notice the alliteration, and the correspondence of sound with sense, 
 in this and the next line. — 934. To this hour. Because there is no end to 
 infinite space ? and nothing to lessen his momentum ? his gravitation would 
 be away from God and heaven ? — 936. Rebuff (6?#, ' a blow, from imitation of 
 the sound of a blow,' says Wedgwood), backward stroke, beating back. — 937. 
 Instinct, inflamed, animated. — 938. As many. Ten thousand ? or as many 
 miles as he fell ? Fury stayed, the fury of the rebuff" being stopped ? — 939- 
 940. Quenched . . . land, explaining stayed; Foundered. See I. 204. Fares 
 (A. ^./arcm, to go), travels, goes. See IV. 131. Hence farewell = go well (on the 
 journey of life). — 941. Consistence, substance. —942. Behoves (Wedgwood 
 makes it from ' heave,' ' heaving, ' or throwing ' at a mark ' ), befits (are meet for, 
 are fit for,are needful to). " The Saxon behofian has both meanings, to be neces- 
 sary, and to stand in need of." Sto7'r. Oar and sail, a proverbial phrase? — 
 943-5. Gryphon . . . Arimaspian. Gryjdions, or grilRns, in the upper part like 
 an eagle, in the lower resembling a lion, are said to guard gold mines. The Ari- 
 maspians were a one-eyed people of Scythia, who adorned their hair with gold, 
 * for which they had continual battle with the guardian gryphons.' Herodotus, 
 
PARADISE LOST. 103 
 
 The guarded gold ; so eagerly the fiend 
 
 O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 
 
 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 
 
 At length a universal hubbub wild 
 
 Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. 
 
 Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 
 
 With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 
 
 Undaunted, to meet there whatever power 955 
 
 Or spirit of the nethermost abyss 
 
 Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 
 
 Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 
 
 Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 
 
 Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 
 
 Wide on the wasteful deep ! With him enthroned 
 
 Sat sable- vested Night, eldest of things, 
 
 The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 
 
 Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 
 Of Demogorgon ; Eumor next, and Chance, 965 
 
 Pliny, and ^schylus are referred to as authorities on this point. — 948-9, 950. 
 Note the richness of our language in monosyllables. Which of them are A. S. in 
 origin? Does the soimd bear analogy to the sense? — 951. Hubbub. 'A 
 repetition of hoop ! representing a cry.' Wedgwood. Keightley derives it 
 from the Irish aboo, a war-cry. " The word is onomatopsetic, the reduplica- 
 tion of the syllable producing the sense of confusion or number. Compare 
 mur-mur, har-har-oV Ross. —954. Plies. See 1. 642. —956. Nethermost, 
 ' as being without bottom or termination ; ' Abyss, ' merely the Abyss or 
 Chaos in general.' Keightley. Nethermost abyss, ' the lowest portion of the 
 Abyss.' Masson. Choose! — 961. Wasteful ( A. S. r^es^ew, desert; Lat.-yas^ws, 
 waste, desolate), vast, desolate. "The proper meaning of waste is empty." 
 Wedgwood. — 962. Sable-vested Night, like the yueAo/u-ireTrAos Nu|, black- 
 robed Night, of Euripides, Ion, 1150 ; so sable-vested Death, Ale. 844. — 964. 
 Orcus and Ades. " Milton seems to mean the Death and Hell of the Apocalypse, 
 XX. 13." Keightley. " Orcus is properly the God of death." A lien and Green- 
 ough on Vir. ^n. II. 398. " From etpyw, eirgo, ^pyw, ergo (to shut in or out), 
 and so, properly, that which restrains men from doing ; lience Lat. Orcus, ' the 
 bourne from which no traveller returns.' " Liddell and Scott. Original of our 
 ogre! Ades (Gr. a privative ; iZf7v, to see ; hence Aides, or Ades, or later, 
 Hades), the god of the unseen nether world, Pluto. — 964-5. Dreaded name 
 of Demogorgon. *' The expression cannot be justilied by rules of reason, but 
 
104 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled, 
 And Discord Avith a thousand various mouths. 
 
 To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : " Ye powers 
 And spirits of this nethermost abyss, 
 Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy 970 
 
 With purpose to explore or to disturb 
 The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
 Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
 Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
 Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek 975 
 
 What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
 Confine with heaven : or, if some other place, 
 From your dominion won, the ethereal king 
 Possesses lately, thither to arrive 
 
 I travel this profound. Direct my course. 980 
 
 Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
 To your behoof, if I that region lost. 
 All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
 To her original darkness and your sway, 
 (Which is my present journey,) and once more 985 
 
 Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 
 Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! " 
 
 it is nevertheless as magnificent as words can make it." Moir. This mysterious 
 and terrible being, whose name no one dared to pronounce till Lactantius 
 littered it in the fourth century, is supposed to be the one whom Lucan's witch 
 Erictho threatened to call against the infernal powers, • a being at whose name 
 the earth always trembled.' Lucan, Pharsalia VI. 744. See Shelley's Prome- 
 theus Unbound^ Act II. sc. iv. So Spenser F. Q.,\.i. 37. This use of the 
 word name is classic, and Shakes, makes Caesar say, ' If my name were liable 
 to fear.' Jul. Cms. I, 2. Rumor. Virgil's Famal JEii. IV. 173-189. 
 Shakes, quaintly personifies Rumor. Induction, 2 Henry IV. — 967. Discord 
 {JEn. VI. 280). — 972. Secrets. Used like Lat. secreta = secret places ? 
 .Mn. VI. 10 ; Geor. IV. 403. — 977. Confine = have a common boundary? 
 Con, together ; finis, boundary. Or, if, etc. Note the adroitness of Satan in 
 the next ten lines. " As this new universe is a space seized and subtracted 
 from the ancient dominion of Chaos .... Satan naturally api^eals to the 
 resentment of the powers of Chaos, and promises, etc. Masson. — 984-5. Her. 
 Why not 1^5? I. 254. Which is my present journey. Syntax?— 988. Anarch. 
 
PARADISE LOST. 105 
 
 Thus Satan ; and him thus the anarch old, 
 With faltering speech and visage inconiposed, 
 Answered : " I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 
 That mighty leading angel, who of late 
 IMade head against heaven's king, though overthrown. 
 I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 
 Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 
 With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 995 
 
 Confusion worse confounded ; and heaven gates 
 Poured out by millions her victorious bands 
 Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
 Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 
 That little which is left so to defend, 1000 
 
 Encroached on still through our intestine broils, 
 Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first, hell, 
 Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; 
 Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world. 
 
 Word coined- by Milton? —989. Faltering .... incomposed. Why so 
 represented ? — 990. I know thee, etc. A Greek idiom. See Luke iv. 34. 
 Why does not Chaos call him by name ? — 997. Poured out by millions. 
 So old Chaos thought ; but his intellect was naturally or unnaturally muddled, 
 and he liad been too much frightened (he was easily frightened, as in I. 
 543 ?) to know the facts. Perhaps Satan (I. 170) and Moloch (II. 78, 79) 
 thought so too. But they all mistook thunderbolts, etc., for victorious 
 angels ? The Messiah vanquished single-handed the rebel host. VI. 880-2. — 
 998. Frontiers. Prof. Himes remarks that as ' the darkest time of night 
 is just before day,' so the pavilion of Chaos is on the frontiers. See his 
 diagram, Introduction, p. xix. — 999. Can do, will serve. " Satan has 
 judged rightly. The old Anarch is in a state of resentment." Masson. — 
 1001. Our. Keightley and nearly all the commentators follow Dr. Pearce, 
 who in 1732 substituted your for our. Masson restores our, ' a form of 
 speech,' he says, ' which implicated all existing beings.' ' Your ' might have 
 seemed impolite ? It is just possible that the timid monarch means that his 
 dominion would not be so encroached upon if its intestine broils did not 
 exist? — 1004. Heaven and Earth constituting another world. — 1005. 
 Golden chain. Allegorical ? Love ? Providence ? ' the great cJiain of eternal 
 order,' of which Burke makes mention? 'the chain of being'? What did 
 Milton know of the law of gravitation ? Compare, " Thy chains the \\\\- 
 measured universe surround," in Bowring's translation of Derzhavin's Ode to 
 the Deity ; also in Thomson's Seasons {Sumnier), — 
 
106 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 1005 
 
 To that side heaven from whence your legions fell ! 
 If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 
 So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! 
 Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain." 
 
 He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, loio 
 
 But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
 With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
 Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
 Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
 Of fighting elements, on all sides round 1015 
 
 Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
 And more endangered than when Argo passed 
 Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, 
 Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
 Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered. 1020 
 
 So he with difficulty and labor hard 
 Moved on ; with difficulty and labor he ; 
 But, he once passed, soon after, when man fell, 
 Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain, 
 
 " 'Tis by thy secret strong attractive force, 
 As with a chain indissoluble bound, 
 Thy system rolls entire," 
 
 The commentators cite Iliad, VIII. 19, where Jupiter boasts that he could 
 draw up earth, ocean, etc., with a golden chain, etc. ; but there is no resem- 
 blance between the two passages. — 1013. Like a pyramid of fire. *A 
 magnificent simile, suggesting the dwindling radiance of the angel's bulk as it 
 shoots rapidly upward from the sight.' Masson. — 1017-18. Argo passed 
 . . . betwixt. "A slight slip of memory, for it was after emerging that the 
 Argo had to pass througli the Symplegades. " Kcightley. But the rocks 
 were only four or five miles from the Bosporus, and they were wandering 
 rocks. Furthermore, Herodotus, Polybius, and Appian make the Bosporus 
 extend from these rocks 120 stadia to Byzantium, a fact that seems to have 
 slipped from the commentator's memory ! Argo. The famous ship in wliich 
 Jason and his associates went after the golden fleece. See Class. Did. — 
 1019. Ulysses being on the larboard. — 1020. Other whirlpool. Scylla. 
 See Class. Diet. Ovid {Met. XIV. 51) calls this water parvus (/urges, small 
 whirlpool ; and Virgil {^^n. III. 425) represents it as ' drawing sliips upon the 
 rocks.' — 1021-22. These lines illustrate that echoing of sense by sound which 
 
PARADISE LOST. 107 
 
 Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, 1025 
 Paved after him a broad and beaten way- 
 Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf 
 Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 
 From hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
 Of this frail world ; by which the spirits perverse 1030 
 With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
 To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
 God and good angels guard by special grace. 
 
 But now at last the sacred influence 
 Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven 1035 
 
 Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
 A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
 Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire. 
 As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
 With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 
 
 That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 
 
 Pope praises, "The line, too, labors, and the words move slow." — 1024. 
 Amain. See 1.165.— 1028. Bridge. This is described X. 293 to 320. "Mil- 
 ton tells in magnificent verse the making of the causeway. Nothing can be 
 greater than the image of these two ghastly forms (Sin and Death) ranging 
 Chaos, and beating into a shoal the solid and the dry, bound with Death's 
 petrific mace into fastness, wrought into a mole immense." Stopford A. 
 Brooke. — 1029. Orb. This is not the earth, but the outer hollow sphere 
 inclosing our Universe. See diagram at the end of this book.* The Arabic 
 Al Sirat (i. e. the path) stretches over hell and is narrower than the edge of 
 a sword ; yet on this bridge is the road to the Mohammedan paradise ! — 1033- 
 34. God and good angels. Same phrase in Herrick's Noble Numbers, p. 74, 
 *'God and good angels guide thee"; and in Shakes. Richard IIT., V. iii., 
 "God and good angels fight on Richmond's side." Sacred. Why? See the 
 beginning of Book III. Influence. Etymological meaning ? astrological ? — 
 1036. Shoots far. This reminds us of the titles applied to the sun-god Apollo, 
 whom, in some respects, Satan much resembles, ' the far-darter,' ' the shooter,' 
 
 * The * orbs ' or * spheres ' were conceived to be concentric, and ten in number ; the 
 outer one opaque ; the ninth, a crystalline ocean lining the tenth, like the inside of a 
 pearly shell ; the other eight transparent. The heayenly bodies were supposed to be fixed 
 in their respective spheres and to revolve with them. The earth being in the centre, the 
 nearest sphere was that in which the moon was fastened ; the next was that of the planet 
 Mercury ; the third, that of Venus ; fourth, the Sun ; fifth Mars ; sixth, .Jupiter ; seventh, 
 Saturn; eighth, the fixed stars; ninth, the crystalline sphere; tenth, the primum 
 mobile., the outer shell, or ' utmost orb of this frail world." 
 
108 PARADISE LOST, 
 
 Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 
 
 And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 
 
 Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 
 
 Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 1045 
 
 Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 
 
 Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide 
 
 In circuit, undetermined square or round. 
 
 With opal towers and battlements adorned 
 
 Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 
 
 And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
 
 This pendent world, in bigness as a star 
 
 Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 
 
 Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge. 
 
 Accursed, and in a cursed hour he hies. 1055 
 
 etc. See III. 586. — 1037. Nature, creation, our world, cosmos as opposed to 
 chaos ? — 1042-43. Wafts himself ? Holds the port. Lat. tenet portinn, as 
 in Virgil, J^n. 1.400. — 1046-47. Weighs, poises ? See 1. 905. Empyreal. 
 I. 117. — 1048. Undetermined etc. " From the portion tliat was seen, the 
 eye could not determine whether its margin was straight or curved." Keight- 
 ley. Explanation suflScient ?— 1049. Opal towers and battlements. Prof. 
 Himes suggests that the * crystal Avail ' of heaven is simply the horizon wall. 
 The idea is strikingly beautiful. If it is correct, then perhaps, like the Latin 
 arces, the * opal towers and battlements ' may be mountain-peaks in that hori- 
 zon, dipped in the colors of heaven. Angelic art and skill may have added to 
 their beauty and grandeur. See I. 733, 749 ; IV. 542-8 ; V. 758-9. Coinciding 
 with the horizon line may be precipices like the chalk cliffs of Albion, and at 
 their base the ocean surges of Chaos may beat. See VII. 210 to 215 ; also the 
 Preface. — 1051. Golden chain. See 1005. —1052. This pendent world. 
 Shakespeare's phrase in Measure for Measure, III. i. 126. World. Not our 
 earth, as so many commentators have thought, but our universe of stars, all 
 seeming like a single shining point ! — 1053. Smallest. Is it the true relative 
 size, or only the apparent, the optical effect, that is here sought to be indi- 
 cated ? Reason for your opinion ? 
 
 END OF BOOK II. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abarim, 38. 
 
 abject, 33. 
 
 abolished, 63. 
 
 abomination, 36. 
 
 above (in stature), 47. 
 
 abyss, 10, 51, 76, 81, 103. 
 
 Accaron, 40. 
 
 access, 65. 
 
 Acheron, 85. 
 
 adamant, 78. 
 
 adamantine, 13, 89. 
 
 Addison, 39. 
 
 Ades, 103. 
 
 admired, 92. 
 
 Adonis, 40. 
 
 Adria, 43. 
 
 advanced, 44. 
 
 advise, 75. 
 
 yEgsean, 55. 
 
 vEtna, 28. 
 
 afflicted, 25. 
 
 afflicting, 66. 
 
 affront, 36. 
 
 Alcairo, 54. 
 
 alchemy, 81. 
 
 Alcides. 83. 
 
 all but, 30. 
 
 alp, 87. 
 
 Alsatia, 73. 
 
 Al Sirat, 107. 
 
 altars, of devils, 36. 
 
 amain, 66, 107. 
 
 amazement, 33. 
 
 amerced, 49. 
 
 ammiral, 32. 
 
 Ammonite, 37, 38. 
 
 Araram's son, 34. 
 
 and (= especially), 31. 
 
 angel's ken, 15. 
 
 anon, 33, 53. 
 
 Aonian, 8. 
 
 apathy, 84. 
 
 apostate, 20. 
 
 arbitrator, 74. 
 
 arbitress, 57. 
 
 archangel, 48. 
 
 architect, 54. 
 
 architrave, 54. 
 
 Aroer, 38. 
 
 Argo, 106. 
 
 Argob. 37. 
 
 argues, 69. 
 
 argument, 5, 10. 
 
 Arimaspian, 102. 
 
 ark, 40. 
 
 Armoric, 47. 
 
 armed, Orion, 32. 
 
 arms, 44. 
 
 Arnon, 37. 
 
 arrive, 76. 
 
 artillery, 94. 
 
 artist, 31. 
 
 Ascalon, 40. 
 
 Aschara, 1. 
 
 as from a sky, 54. 
 
 Ashtaroth,39. 
 
 aspect, 72. 
 
 Asphaltic pool, 38. 
 
 asphaltus, 54. 
 
 aspiring (end of line), 12. 
 
 Aspramont, 47. 
 
 astonished, 30. 
 
 astoni.shment, 33. 
 
 Astoreth, 39. 
 
 astounded, 31. 
 
 astrology, 93. 
 
 Atlantean, 72. 
 
 attempted, 74. 
 
 attention, 49. 
 
 audacious, 102. 
 
 aught else, 52. 
 
 aurora borealis, 82. 
 
 Ausonian, 55. 
 
 awakening (of the devils), 
 
 33, 34. 
 Azazel, 44. 
 Azotus, 40. 
 Azure, 32. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baalim, 39. 
 Babel, 52. 
 baleful, 14. 
 bane, 52, 96. 
 baptized, 47. 
 barbaric, 59. 
 Barca, 101. 
 Basan, 37. 
 battle, 13. 
 beatific, 52. 
 Beelzebub, 18, 72. 
 bees, .56. 
 beest, 18. 
 
 behoves, 102. 
 
 Belial, 42, 64. 
 
 belike, 66. 
 
 Bellona, 101. 
 
 bend (ranks), 49. 
 
 Bengala, 89. 
 
 beneath (= in lower lati- 
 tude), 35. 
 
 Bentley, 83. 
 
 besides, 25. 
 
 Besor, 38. 
 
 bestial, 39. 
 
 better hid, treasures, 52, 
 
 beyond compare, 47. 
 
 Biserta, 47. 
 
 black fire, 62. 
 
 blasted heath, 49. 
 
 blissful seat, 6. 
 
 bogs, 86, 87. 
 
 bordering flood, 38. 
 
 bossy, 54. 
 
 bottomless, 13. 
 
 bowed down, 39. 
 
 breath (of the Lord), 66. 
 
 breathed, 45. 
 
 breathes (exhales), 70. 
 
 breathing united force, 46. 
 
 Briareos, 26. 
 
 bridge, 107. 
 
 brigade, 51. 
 
 brightening, 76. 
 
 brightness, 18. 
 
 brimstone, 34. 
 
 brooding, 10. 
 
 broolv that parts Egypt, 
 etc., 38. 
 
 Brooke, Stopford A. {see 
 Preface), 107. 
 
 broomsticks, 91. 
 
 Brutus, 83. 
 
 bullion, 53. 
 
 Burke, 87. 
 
 Busiris, 32. 
 
 buxom, 97. 
 
 C. 
 
 cadence, 71. 
 
 Caedmon, quoted in Intro- 
 duction. 
 CEPSura, 2, 6. 
 Calabria, 90. 
 camp (=army), 52. 
 
110 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Candia, 43. 
 
 career, 56. 
 
 Casius, 86. 
 
 Caspian, 94. 
 
 celebrate, 69, 70. 
 
 cells, 53. 
 
 Celtic, 44. 
 
 centre, 17,(— the earth), 52. 
 
 Cerberean, 90. 
 
 chain, 105, 108. 
 
 chained, 27. 
 
 chaos (sec Preface), 100, 105. 
 
 chance, 69, 80, 103. 
 
 change for, 29. 
 
 Charlemagne, 47. 
 
 Chenios, 38. 
 
 cherub, 23, 44. 
 
 cherubim, 36. 
 
 cliimeras, 88. 
 
 chivalry, 33. 
 
 chosen seed, 8. 
 
 circumference, 31. 
 
 clarions, 44. 
 
 clashed, 51. 
 
 close ( = grapple), 83. 
 
 close sailing, 89. 
 
 Cocytus, 85. 
 
 Coleridge, 91. 
 
 combustion, 13. 
 
 comet, 9.3. 
 
 compare (noun), 47. 
 
 compeer, 21. 
 
 compose, 71. 
 
 conceiving fire, 28. 
 
 conclave, 57. 
 
 conduct, 21. 
 
 confer, 56. 
 
 confine, 104. 
 
 confounded, 14. 
 
 conjecture, 65. 
 
 conjured, 92. 
 
 conscious, 96. 
 
 considerate, 48. 
 
 consistence, 102. 
 
 consult (noun), 57. 
 
 contrary, 23. 
 
 converse, 67. 
 
 convex, 78. 
 
 cope, 34. 
 
 cornice, 54. 
 
 cosmography (see Preface 
 
 and Introduction), 107. 
 couch (verb), 83. 
 covered field, 56. 
 Cowper, 7. 
 creation, 74. 
 cressets, 54. 
 Crete, 43. 
 crew, 14, 52. 
 Cronos, 43. 
 cruel, 48. 
 Cyrene, 101. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dagon, 40. 
 D.iniiata, 8( 
 Dnnaw, 35. 
 Dante, 6. 
 
 Dante's Inferno. See In- 
 troduction, Prof. Himes 
 quoted. 
 
 darkened all the land, 34. 
 
 darkness (in heaven), 70. 
 
 darkness, visible, 15. 
 
 deep, 22, 65. 
 
 deform, 93. 
 
 Delphian, 43. 
 
 Demogorgon, 103, 104. 
 
 demur, 77. 
 
 denounced, 64. 
 
 De Quincey, 6, 9, 10. 
 
 derides, 68. 
 
 despaired, 51. 
 
 determined, 73, 
 
 devils, adored as deities, 36. 
 
 diction. See Preface. 
 
 dint, 96. 
 
 dire hail, 86. 
 
 disastrous, 48. 
 
 discord, 104. 
 
 discover, 54. 
 
 Dodona, 43. 
 
 doing or suffering, 23. 
 
 dolorous, 87. 
 
 Dorian mood, 45. 
 
 Doric, 43, 54. 
 
 Doric land, 43. 
 
 double-formed, 95. 
 
 doubt (= hesitation), 63. 
 
 dovelike, 10. 
 
 drench, 62. 
 
 Dryden, 3. 
 
 dungeon, 15, 73. 
 
 durst, 14. 
 
 dwarfs, 46. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eden, 6. 
 
 edge, 31. 
 
 Eleale, 38. 
 
 element, 80. 
 
 eloquence, 84. 
 
 elves, 57. 
 
 embattled, 21. 
 
 emblazed, 44. 
 
 emblazonry, 81. 
 
 embryon, 100. 
 
 emperor, .36. 
 
 empire, 20. 
 
 emptied, 50. 
 
 empyreal, 20, 108. 
 
 empyrean {sck Preface and 
 
 Introduction), 90. 
 endless (^ endlessly), 66. 
 engine, 55, 62. 
 enow, 81. 
 entertain, 82. 
 entire, 51. 
 envy, 11, 30. 
 equal, 32. 
 Erebus, 99. 
 erewhile, 31. 
 erst, 35. 
 erui)tion, 51. 
 essences, 21. 
 essential, 63. 
 
 ethereal, 86. 
 Ethiopian, 89. 
 Etna, 28. 
 Euboic, 83. 
 Euphrates, 38. 
 event, 21. 
 exercise, 63. 
 exhalation, 53. 
 expatiate, 56. 
 explained, 81. 
 extinct, 22. 
 Ezekiel, 40. 
 
 fables, 26. 
 fact of arms, 65. 
 faery, 57. 
 fail, 23. 
 falconry, 34. 
 
 fallen (^ fallen from), 31. 
 fame, 50. 
 fares, 102. 
 farthest, 29. 
 fast by, 8, 108. 
 fatal, 64. 
 fate, 20, 84, 87. 
 fell (Cliailemagne)i 47. 
 fell from heaven, 55. 
 Fesole, 31. 
 field, covered, 56. 
 fiery steeds, 82. 
 files, 46. 
 fire, 37. 
 
 fled (Saturn fled), 43. 
 folds, 54. 
 
 for (= on account of), 33. 
 force, 19, 30. 
 force, of force, 22. 
 forgetful lake, 62. 
 forlorn, 25. 
 founded, 53. 
 foundered (night-foun- 
 dered). 26, 102. 
 frame of heaven, 101. 
 fraught, 94. 
 frequent and full, 57. 
 fretted, 54. 
 frith, 101. 
 front, 46. 
 fronted, 82. 
 frontiers, 105. 
 frore, 86. 
 
 frozen continent, 85. 
 fuelled, 28. 
 furies, 86. 
 furnace, 15. 
 
 gave to rule, 55. 
 Gehenna, 37. 
 globe, 81. 
 gloomy deep, 22. 
 glorious, 19. 
 glory, 12, 20, 22. 
 goblin, 92. 
 gold (streets), 52. 
 golden chain, 106, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ill 
 
 gorgeous East, 59. 
 
 Goshen , 33. 
 
 Goths, 2. 
 
 gradual (deterioration), 47, 
 
 48. 
 grand, 11, 20, 
 gi-inned, 98. 
 gross, 84, 85. 
 grove, 38. 
 grunsel, 38. 
 gryphon, 102. 
 
 H. 
 
 hangs in the clouds, 88. 
 
 haralds, 55, 81. 
 
 harbor, 25. 
 
 hatching, 75. 
 , heath, 49. 
 
 I heaven. See Preface, Intro- 
 I duction, 51, 72. 
 
 heaven and earth, 105. 
 , heU, Preface, Introduction, 
 5, 16. 
 
 hell gates. Introduction, 89. 
 
 hendecasyllcibic, line 12. 
 
 Herodotus, 102, 103. 
 , Hesebon, 38. 
 
 Hesperian, 43, 44. 
 ' highth, 10. 
 I hill, opprobrious, 37, 38. 
 
 Himes, Introduction, 7, 54, 
 85, 91, 92. 
 , his (= its), 24, 46, 51. 
 ' Horeb, 7. 
 ! Horonaitn, 38. 
 j horrid, 46. 
 
 host of heaven, 50. 
 
 hotness, 29. 
 
 hubbub, 103. 
 
 hugest, 26. 
 
 humane, 64. 
 
 Huns, 2. 
 
 hurled, 13. 
 
 hydras, 88. 
 
 Ida, 43. 
 idols, 36, 40. 
 ignoble ease, 69. 
 ignominy, 20. 
 Ilium, 47. 
 illimitable, 100. 
 illumined, 51. 
 imi)aled, 89. 
 impious, 52. 
 impotence, 66. 
 incensed, 93. 
 Ind, 59. 
 
 Indian mount, 57. 
 infinitive perfect, 12. 
 inflame, 85. 
 influence, 107. 
 innumerable, hands, 53. 
 instinct, 102. 
 intend, 79. 
 interwove, 49. 
 intrenched, 48. 
 
 in troop, 39. 
 invests, 27. 
 invisible glory, 35. 
 invocation, 5, 6. 
 involved, with, 28. 
 ire, 22. 
 isle, 76. 
 its, 30, 104. 
 
 J. 
 
 Josiah, 38. 
 jousted, 47. 
 
 Keightley, 3, 7, 32, 
 43, 51, 93, 99, 108. 
 ken, 15. 
 
 kingly crown, 91. 
 knights, 47. 
 know repulse, 50. 
 
 laboring, 91. 
 
 labyrinth, 85. 
 
 lake of fire, Introduction 
 
 Landor, 6, 7. 
 
 large, large heart, 40. 
 
 laughs, 94. 
 
 Lear, 67. 
 
 led by fraud, 37. 
 
 lee, 27. 
 
 Lemnos, 55. 
 
 Lethe, Introduction, 85. 
 
 leviathan, 26. 
 
 levy, 80, 101. 
 
 Libyan, 35. 
 
 Lichas, 83. 
 
 linked, 33. 
 
 Living Strength, 39. 
 
 lore, 97. 
 
 lost, hath lost us heaven, 
 
 21. 
 Lowell, Introduction. 
 Lowell (on witches), 90, 91. 
 louring, 80. 
 Lucretius, 6. 
 lust hard by hate, 38. 
 
 M. 
 
 Mammon, 52. 
 
 manna, 64. 
 
 mansion, 31, 79. 
 
 marie, 32. 
 
 Marvell, Andrew, 3. 
 
 Masson, 54. See Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 maw, 98. 
 
 measure, 1. 
 
 medusa, 87. 
 
 Memphian, 33. 
 
 Memphian kings, 52. 
 
 Messiah. See Introduction, 
 62, 92. 
 
 meteor, 44. 
 
 Michael, 71, 72. 
 
 middle air, 43. 
 
 middle flight, 8. 
 military terms, 51. 
 ministers, 23 
 Moab, 37. 
 Moabites, 37. 38. 
 Moloch. 36, 37, 61. 
 monosyllables in English 
 
 language, 103. 
 Montalban, 47. 
 moon, drawn nearer earth, 
 
 57. 
 moral of the poem, 10. 
 Morocco, 47. 
 mortal, 6, 56. 
 mother of mankind, 12. 
 mould, 65, 74. 
 mountain, offensive, 40. 
 moveil (in review), 46. 
 Mt. of Olives, 37, 40. 
 Mulciber, Introduction, 54, 
 
 55. 
 muse, 6. 
 muster, 46. 
 mustering, 70, 71. 
 mutual, IS. 
 
 N. 
 
 names blotted out, 35. 
 
 naphtha, 54. 
 
 nathless, 32. 
 
 nature, 100, 108. 
 
 Nebo, 38. 
 
 negatives, two; equivalent, 
 
 34. 
 neighborhood, 37. 
 neither, 79. 
 nether, 72. 
 nethermost, 103. 
 new names of devils, 35. 
 night, 103. 
 nigbt-foundered, 26. 
 night-hag, 90. 
 nightly, 89. 
 ninefold, 78. 
 nine times, 14. 
 noontide, 72. 
 nor . . . not, 34. 
 northern hive, 35. 
 north wind sleeps, 80. 
 
 obdurate, 15. 
 obdured, 84. 
 oblivious, 31. 
 obscure, 65. 
 obscure (noun), 76. 
 observed, 47- 
 ocean-stream, 26. 
 Ocean u.s, 43. 
 CEchalia, 83. 
 o'erblown, 24. 
 (Eta, 83. 
 offend, 25. 
 
 offensive mountain, 40. 
 of force, 22. 
 Olympus, 43. 
 onomatopoeia, 99. 
 
112 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 opal, 108. 
 
 opinion, 79. 
 
 Opliiuchus, 92. 
 
 opprobrious hill, 37. 
 
 oracle, 8. 
 
 orb, 107. 
 
 Orcus, 103. 
 
 ordered, spears, 46. 
 
 Orel), 7 
 
 orgies, 38. 
 
 orient, 45, 76. 
 
 original, 75. 
 
 origin of evil, 5. 
 
 Orion, 32. 
 
 Ormus, 59. 
 
 other parts besides, 25. 
 
 pale, 25. 
 
 Palestine, 18. 
 
 palpable obscure, 76. 
 
 Pandemonium, Introduc- 
 tion, 53, 56. 
 
 Panini, 56. 
 
 Pantheon, Introduction, 56. 
 
 paramount, 81. 
 
 l)assed through fire, 37. 
 
 passion, 48. 
 
 pealed, 101. 
 
 peers, 12. 
 
 Pelorus, 28. 
 
 pendent, 54, 108. 
 
 pennons, 102. 
 
 Peor, 38. 
 
 pernicious, 31. 
 
 perpetual, 21. 
 
 phalanx, 45. 
 
 Pharaoh, 32. 
 
 Phlegeton, Introduction, 
 85. 
 
 Phoenicians, 39. 
 
 jiilasters, 54. 
 
 pilate, 26. 
 
 ])illar, 72. 
 
 pine, 32. 
 
 pinnace, 71. 
 
 pioneers, 52. 
 
 pitchy, 34, 96. 
 
 Plntus, 52. 
 
 ply, 89. 
 
 pole, 17. 
 
 pool, 27. 
 
 populous north, 34. 
 
 portcullis, 99. 
 
 portion, 16. 
 
 position of noun between 
 ac^jeetives, 80. 
 
 potentates, 33. 
 
 potent rod, 34. 
 
 powers, 25. 
 
 powers enthroned, 21, 60. 
 
 precedence, 60. 
 
 pretences, 97. 
 
 prevented, 79. 
 
 prick forth, 83. 
 
 princes, 33. 
 
 process, 72. 
 
 prodigious, 88. 
 
 Prometheus, 70. 
 prone, 79. 
 proud, 13. 
 
 punished (impersonal), 
 puny, 74. 
 purlieus, 97. 
 pursuers, 23, 24. 
 pursues, 9. 
 put to proof, 21. 
 pygmean, 57. 
 pygmies, 46. 
 pyramid of fire, 106. 
 Pythian helds, 82. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabba, 37. 
 racking, 67. 
 ranged, 81. 
 reason, 30. 
 rebuff, 102. 
 recess, 57. 
 recked, 61. 
 recollecting, 44. 
 recorders, 45. 
 redounding, 100. 
 red right hand, 67. 
 reduced, 57. 
 regiment, 56. 
 reinforcement, 25. 
 religions, 36. 
 remains, 21. 
 remoi'se, 48. 
 repulse, 50. 
 resounds, 47. 
 rest, 25. 
 revenge, 11. 
 Rhea,, 43. 
 Rhene, 35. 
 rhime, 9. 
 
 ride the air, 83, 90. 
 rife, 50. 
 
 rime (rhyme), 3. 
 rites, 36. 
 
 roaming for prey, 36. 
 robe, envenomed, 83. 
 rod, 34. 
 rood, 26. 
 root, 75. 
 
 rose out of chaos, 8. 
 rout, 55. 
 ruin, 13. 
 ruinous, 101. 
 Rumor, 104. 
 Ruskin, 28, 29. 
 
 sable-vested, 103. 
 
 Satan, Introduction, 5, etc. 
 
 satiate, 24. 
 
 Saturn, 43. 
 
 save, 96, 97. 
 
 scaly, 27. 
 
 scar, 76. 
 
 scathed, 49. 
 
 sceptred, 61. 
 
 scours, 88. 
 
 scout, 05. 
 
 Scylla, 90, 106. 
 
 seat, 6. 
 
 secret, 7. 
 
 secrets, 104. 
 
 secret top, 7. 
 
 sedge, 32. 
 
 sees, or thinks he sees, 57. 
 
 sensible ( = sensibility), 71. 
 
 sentence, 61, 71. 
 
 senteries, 76. 
 
 Seon's lealm, 38. 
 
 seraphim, 21. 
 
 Serapis, 54. 
 
 Serbonian bog, 86. 
 
 serpent, 5, 11. 
 
 serried, 45. 
 
 sex of spirits, 39. 
 
 Shakespeare, 1, etc. 
 
 shall (= will), 76. 
 
 share, 31. 
 
 shaves, 88. 
 
 sheer, 55. 
 
 shepherd, Moses, 7. 
 
 showers pearl, 59. 
 
 Sibyl, Introduction. 
 
 signal of outstretched 
 
 spear, 34. 
 Siloa's brook, 8. 
 since created man, 46. 
 Sinai, 7. 
 Sion, 8. 
 Sittim, 38. 
 situation, 15. 
 skiff, 27. 
 slip, 24. 
 sluiced, 53. 
 small infantry, 46. 
 snowy top, 43. 
 sojourners, 33. 
 Soldan's, 56. 
 sophists, 64» 
 sound, 86. 
 sound-board, 53. 
 Sovran, 29, 55. 
 space, 14, 50. 
 spares ( = forbears), 95. 
 sparkling, 25. 
 speeches of Satan, 33, 49, 
 
 77, etc. 
 speedy words, 22. 
 spires, 27. 
 Spirit, 9. 
 
 spirits of heaven, 92. 
 spurns, 102. 
 squadron, 35, 84. 
 squared, 56. 
 -st (termination), 94. 
 starve, 86. 
 state, 50. 
 
 stately highth, 54. 
 States, 75. 
 stations, 77. 
 stemming, 89. 
 sting, 90. 
 Storr, 7. 
 straitened, 56. 
 strange fire, 62. 
 Strength, Living, 39. 
 strew, 32. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 113 
 
 study, 19. 
 
 Stygian, 29, 99. 
 
 style, Preface, also Intro- 
 
 diictioQ 
 Styx, Introduction, 85. 
 sublime, 82. 
 sublimed, 28. 
 substance, empyreal, 20. 
 success, 59, 65. 
 suffer, 68. 
 sufferance, 29. 
 suffice, 22. 
 sulphur, 16, 51. 
 supi)liant, 20. 
 supreme, 68. 
 swarmed, gates, etc., 56. 
 sword of Michael, 71. 
 synod, 75. 
 
 Tantalus, 87. 
 
 Tartarean, 62. 
 
 Tartarus, Introduction, 17. 
 
 Tasso, 6. 
 
 Taurus, 56. 
 
 temper, 31. 
 
 temple on Mount Moriah, 
 Introduction, 8. 
 
 tempted our attempt, 50. 
 
 tend, 25. 
 
 Ternate, 89. 
 
 Thammuz, or Tammuz, 40. 
 
 than (as preposition), 72. 
 
 Thebes, 47. 
 
 thence, 18. 
 
 Theognis, 69. 
 
 thralls, 22. 
 
 thrice (three a sacred num- 
 ber), 49. 
 
 throne, 36. 
 1 throned powers, 21. 
 
 thunder, 19, 24, 30, 60, 62. 
 ' thunderer, 60. 
 I thundering, 28. 
 
 Tidore, 89. 
 
 Titan, 43. 
 I Titanian, 26. 
 
 to (after obey), 34. 
 
 to have equalled, 12. 
 
 took (= captivated), 84. 
 
 torments (verb, accent), 14. 
 
 ton'ent, 85. 
 
 tortures, 62. 
 
 torturing hour, 63. 
 
 traverse (adverb), 46. 
 
 Trebisond, 47. 
 
 Trinacria, 90. 
 
 triple, 84. 
 
 triumphs, 20. 
 
 troop, 39. 
 
 troubled sky, 83. 
 
 turns, the wards, 99. 
 
 Tuscan, 31. 
 
 Typhoean, 83. 
 
 Typhon, 26. 
 
 tyranny, 20. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ulysses, 106. 
 
 un- (as prefix repeated), 67. 
 unattempted things, 9. 
 unblest feet, 28. 
 unconsumed, 90. 
 uncouth, 76. 
 
 understood (= secret), 51. 
 undetermined, 108. 
 unessential, 78. 
 unfounded, 97. 
 unmoved, 77. 
 unrespited, 67. 
 uplift, 25. 
 upright wing, 62. 
 Urania, 6. 
 urges, 16. 
 Uther's son, 47. 
 utmost isles, 44. 
 utmost pole, 17. 
 utter, 16, 63. 
 utter darkness, 16. 
 
 vans, 102. 
 
 vain empires, 75. 
 
 Valdarno, 31. 
 Vallombrosa, 32. 
 vapor, 69. 
 various (= variously 
 
 wrought), 53. 
 vassalage, 70. 
 vassals, 63. 
 vast, 24. 
 
 verse. Introduction, 1. 
 Virgil, Introduction, 106, 
 
 virtue, 33, 60, 80. 
 vision beatific, 52. 
 void profound, 78. 
 
 W. 
 
 wafts, 108. 
 
 wandering, 84. 
 
 want, 73. 
 
 warping, 34. 
 
 wast present, 10. 
 
 waste and wild, 15. 
 
 wasteful, 103. 
 
 weak, is miserable, 23. 
 
 weighs, 108. 
 
 weight, felt unusual weight, 
 
 28 
 welkin, 83. 
 weltering, 17. 
 what (= why), 63. 
 what time (— when), 12. 
 whirlpool, 106. 
 wild, 25. 
 wind, 28. 
 
 winged with speed, 51. 
 wisest heart, 37. 
 wished ( = wished for), 27. 
 within, 54. 
 witnessed, 14. 
 woe, 38. 
 womb, 51. 
 woman, 90. 
 wont, 56. 
 world (universe), Preface, 
 
 Introduction, 108. 
 Wordsworth, Introduction, 
 worst, at worst, 64. 
 
MILTON'S 
 
 L Y C I D A S. 
 
 EDITED, WITH NOTES, 
 
 HOMEK B. SPEAGUE, Ph.D., 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF THE GIRLS* HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS., AND FORMEKLT 
 
 PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN 
 
 THE CORNELL XTNIVERSITT. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 GINN AND HEATH, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 1879. 
 
 t 
 
Copyright, 1878. 
 By GINN and HEATH. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This edition of Lycidas is designed especially for school 
 I use. The Editor has endeavored to avoid the extremes of 
 
 too copious notes on the one hand, which relieve the stu- 
 ; , dent from all necessity of original thought and investiga- 
 I tionj and too meagre notes on the other, which leave the 
 
 student unaware of the rich treasures that are hid from 
 ( him who does not go below the surface. The text is 
 I Masson'sj but the spelling has been more consistently mod- 
 I ^ ernized, wherever neither the sound nor the meaniusj of the 
 
 V 
 
 I word would be affected by such change. The Editor will 
 be thankful for corrections and suggestions. 
 
 Girls' High School, 
 
 Boston, Sept. 1, 1878. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Comments by Morley on the Poem ... v 
 
 II. Comments by R. C. Browne vii 
 
 III. Chronology of Incidents, etc ix 
 
 IV. Various Readings xii 
 
 V. Text of Lycidas, with Notes 5 
 
 VI. Index of Words explained 37 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 [From Morley's A First Sketch of English Literature.'] 
 
 .... "Milton was preparing to add to his course of education two 
 years or more of travel in Italy and Greece. As a poet he did not count 
 himself to have attained, but still pressed forward. In a letter to his 
 friend, Charles Diodati, he had written, on the 23d of September : 'As 
 to other points, what God may have determined for me, I know not ; but 
 this I know, that if he ever instilled an intense love of moral beauty 
 into the breast of any man, he has instilled it into mine. Ceres, in the 
 fable, pursued not her daughter with a greater keenness of inquiry than 
 I, day and night, the idea of perfection. Hence, whenever I find a man 
 despising the false estimates of the vulgar, and daring to aspire, in sen- 
 timent, language, and conduct, to what the highest wisdom through 
 every age has taught us as most excellent, to him I unite myself by a 
 kind of necessary attachment ; and if I am so influenced by nature or des- 
 tiny, that by no exertion or labors of my own I may exalt myself to this 
 summit of worth and honor, yet no powers of heaven or earth will hinder 
 me from looking with reverence and affection upon those who have thor- 
 oughly attained this glory, or appear engaged in the successful pursuit 
 of it. You inquire with a kind of solicitude even into my thoughts. 
 Hear, then, Diodati, — but let me whisper in your ear, that I may not 
 blush at my reply, — I think (so help me Heaven !) of immortality. You 
 inquire also what I am about ? I nurse my wings, and meditate a flight ; 
 but my Pegasus rises as yet on very tender pinions. Let us be humbly 
 wise. ' 
 
 " The opening lines of Milton's ii/ac^s repeat this modest estimate of 
 his achievement. In Camus Milton had produced one of the master- 
 pieces of our literature, but he felt only that the laurels he was born to 
 gather were not yet ripe for his hand, and that when the death of Edward 
 King called from him verse again, and love forced him to write, his 
 hand could grasp but roughly at the bough not ready for his plucking. 
 
 {Here Morley quotes the first ten lines of Lycidas. ] 
 '* The pastoral name of Lycidas was chosen to signify purity of charac- 
 ter. In Theocritus a goat was so called (XevKiras) for its whiteness. Like 
 
vi inthojDuction. 
 
 Spenser, Milton looked upon the pastoral form as the most fit for a muse 
 in its training time. Under the veil of pastoral allegory, therefore, he 
 told the tale of the shipwreck ; but in two places his verse rose as into 
 bold hills above the level of the plain, when thoughts of a higher strain 
 were to be uttered. The first rise (lines 64 to 84) was to meet the 
 doubt that would come when a young man with a pure soul and higli 
 aspiration labored with self-denial throughout youth and early manhood 
 to prepare himself for a true life in the world, and then at the close of 
 the long preparation died. If this the end, why should the youth 
 aspire ? 
 
 * "Were it not better done, as others use, 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade. 
 Or with the tangles of Keaera's hair ? ' 
 
 (As in Virgil, Eel. VIII. 11. 77, 78; and Horace, Od. III. xiv. 11. 
 21-24.) 
 
 " But, Milton replied, our aspiration is not bounded by this life : — 
 
 * Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies ; 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
 ■And perfect witness of all-judging Jove : 
 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 
 
 Of so much fame, in heaven expect thy meed.' 
 
 "From that height of thought Milton skilfully descended again : — 
 
 ' fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds ! 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood ; 
 But now my oat proceeds,' etc. 
 
 And we are again upon the flowery plain of the true pastoral, till, pres- 
 ently, there is another sudden rise of thought (11. 108-131). The dead 
 youth was destined for the Church, of which he would have been a pure, 
 devoted servant. He is gone, and the voice of St. Peter, typical head of 
 the Church, speaks sternly of the many who remain, — false pastors who 
 care only to shear their flocks, to scramble for church livings, and shove 
 away those whom God has called to be his ministers. Ignorant of the 
 duties of their sacred office, what care they ? They have secured their 
 incomes ; and preach, when they please, their unsubstantial showy ser- 
 mons, in which they are as shepherds piping not from sound reeds, but 
 
 from little shrunken straws The congregations, hungry for the 
 
 word of God, look up to the pulpits of these men with blind mouths, and 
 
I 
 
 LYGIDAS. 
 
 are not fed. Swollen with windy doctrine, and the rank mist of words 
 without instruction, they rot in their souls and spread contagion, besides 
 what the Devil, great enemy of the Christian sheepfold, daily devours 
 apace, ' and nothing said. ' Against that wolf no use is made of the sacred 
 Word that can subdue him, * of the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
 word of God' (Eph. vi. 17). 'But that two-handed engine,' — two-handed, 
 because we lay hold of it by the Old Testament and the New, — 
 
 * But that two-handed engine at the door 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.' 
 
 Milton wrote 'engine' (contrivance of wisdom) and not 'weapon,' because 
 * the word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
 sword ' (Heb. iv. 12), when it has once smitten evil, smites no more, 
 but heals and comforts. 
 
 ** Here again, by a skilful transition, Milton descends to the level of his 
 pastoral or Sicilian verse. The river of Arcady has shrunk within its 
 "banks at the dread voice of St. Peter, but now it flows again : — 
 
 * Return, Alpheus : the dread voice is past 
 
 That shrunk thy streams ; return, Sicilian Muse, 
 And call the vales,' etc. 
 
 *' The first lines of Lycidas connected Milton's strain of love with his 
 immediate past. Its last line glances on to his immediate future. 
 Milton was preparing for his travel to Italy and Greece : * To-morrow to 
 fresh woods and pastures new.' " 
 
 {From R. C. Browne's Introdiiction to the, Clarendon Press Edition of 
 Milton's English Poems.'] 
 " Milton did not think to sing again for a while. On the conclusion 
 of Comus he was prepared to rest, until his life's 'mellowing year' should 
 bring to him the inward ripeness he had so long watched for. ' Long 
 choosing and beginning late ' his lofty theme, he was anxious not to fore- 
 stall the ' season due ' of his laurels by strains which to his purged 
 ears would be ' harsh and crude,' though to others they might seem the 
 resounding grace of Heaven's harmony. But though thus self-contained, 
 -- he shrank from no obligation that human kindness and the custom of 
 the time might lay upon him. His friend's meniory claimed and received 
 from his gentle muse the meed of a melodious tear. In Lycidas the 
 event which gave occasion for the poem has the first place, and to it the 
 various changes of theme are subordinate. As he recalls his life at Cam- 
 bridge with his friend, and all the rich promise that Death had blighted, 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the thought presses on him that even for one dearer to the muse than 
 Edward King, for one whom universal nature might lament, the same 
 dark fate may be at hand. And then of what avail in his strict medita- 
 tion and constant straining after lofty ideals, * that he may leave some- 
 thing so written to after-times as they should not willingly let it die ' ? 
 For throughout his life Milton did not feel the exertion of his energies to 
 be its own reward. He desired to know himself and to be known by 
 the fruits of that exertion. * His works,' as Hazlitt says, ' are a perpet- 
 ual Hjrmn to Fame.' And here he meets and conquers that suggestion of 
 the uselessness of high endeavor which has paralyzed so many strong 
 arms and subtle brains. It is not we, after all, that are the arbiters of 
 true Fame against the injustice of Time : the appeal lies to a higher 
 than an earthly judge. As a later poet has sung, what is here left un- 
 finished may be wrought out to perfection * somewhere out of human 
 view.' After the outburst on Fame, that strain is expressly said to be 
 *of a higher mood,' and the pastoral pipe proceeds. Then the stern 
 denunciation of * the pilot of the Galilean lake ' scares away the lighter 
 mythologic fancies, till they are wooed back by the melodious invocation 
 to the Sicilian Muse, with its echoes of Perdita's catalogue of flowers. 
 The hand that wrote Comus has not lost its cunning ; but we do not find 
 in Lycidas that unity of subject which charms us in the Ludlow Mask. 
 The train of thought is divided, as the later title intimates, between the 
 private grief and the prophecy of the woe coming upon England. The 
 interval of three years had increased the confidence of the court and of 
 the clergy. To silence every voice that their own lightest whisper might 
 be heard, to keep in abeyance the settlement or to prohibit the discussion 
 of questions felt to be vital by men more earnest and not less able than 
 themselves, was the constantly sustained intention with which those in 
 authority strained every existing statute, and were prepared to assume 
 a power above the law. 
 
 "While the bishops in the court of High Commission were judging 
 not merely the acts, but the supposed tendencies of others with unrelent- 
 ing severity, — their chief, Laud, ever the harshest and hardest, — the 
 effects of their own system, palpable to others, were to them invisible. 
 The increasing number of proselytes to the old Church, his own inability 
 to check the Romeward progress of his disciples, the Pope's offer of a red 
 hat to himself, might surely have warned the archbishop that he was 
 steering direct * for Latium.' Men who saw these things, and therefore 
 distrusted their spiritual pastors and masters, were not without excuse, 
 even though some counter-bigotry was evinced in the stand made agafost 
 the less important innovations. 
 
 *• In Lycidas we hear the first note of the trumpet which was to be to 
 the En";lish throne and Church as were those blown before the walls of 
 
LYCIDAS. ix 
 
 Jericho. In Lycidas we see the first indications of the vigor and the 
 coarseness that strengthen and disfigure the Prose Works. And in 
 Lycidas we have the intimation of two facts regarding Milton. He con- 
 sidered the day of his youth to be closed by the death of the friend of his 
 youth, — that on the morrow he was to seek ' fresh woods and pastures 
 new.' But his choice has been made. His mantle is already of the 
 Presbyterian color. Henceforth there will be no more quiet communing 
 with English oaks and rills. A brief holiday interposes between him 
 and a * time of chiding,' which with small respite will vex his spirit till, 
 wearied and worn, he rests at last ; 
 
 * Though fallen on evil days, 
 On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.' " 
 
 CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 [The Student should consult biographies, histories, encyclopaedias, etc., and write out 
 a connected sketch of Milton's life.] 
 
 - 1608. John Milton born Dec. 9 ; baptized Dec. 20 at Allhallows, 
 ^Bread Street, near Cheapside. 
 
 1618. His picture is painted by Cornelius Jansen. About this time, 
 and for some years, he has a private tutor, Thomas Young, a Puritan. 
 
 1619. Enters St. Paul's School, though still under Young's tuition. 
 
 1624. Still in St. Paul's School. Writes paraphrases of Psalms cxiv. 
 and cxxxvi. Is a diligent student. Intimate friend of Charles Diodati. 
 
 1625. Feb. 12. Admitted as a pensioner (i. e. a paying student) of 
 Christ's College, Cambridge University. Writes letter, March 26, to 
 Young. 
 
 1626. Writes a poem On the Death of a Fair Infant. Has a disagree- 
 ment with his tutor, and is absent awhile from college. 
 
 1627. Writes a metrical epistle to Young. 
 
 1628. First smitten with love, as shown in his "Seventh Elegy." 
 Letters to Alexander Gill and to Young. Writes Latin verses. Writes 
 the noble lines entitled At a Vacation Exercise in the College. 
 
 1629. Writes Latin Elegy to his friend Diodati. Is admitted to the 
 degree of B. A., March 26. Writes his famous Ode on the Morning of 
 Christ's Nativity, beginning it on Christmas Day. 
 
 1630. Writes ode Upon the Circumcision; also, perhaps, the verses 
 On Time, and the lines At a Solemn Music. Here belong the unfinished 
 verses On the Passian. Wrote also the important Epitaph on Shakespeare, 
 the first verses of Milton to appear in print. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1631. "Writes two Epitaphs on Hobson, and one on the Marchioness 
 of Winchester. Writes a letter to a friend containing the noble Sonnet 
 On his being arrived at the Age of Twenty- Three. 
 
 1632. Is graduated M. A. at Cambridge in July. Retires to his fathers 
 house at Horton. 
 
 1633. Writes Sonnet To the Nightingale; Song on May Morning ; 
 perhaps in this year L' Allegro and II Penseroso. 
 
 1634. Writes Arcades and Comus, acted at Harefield and Ludlow 
 respectively ; the latter, Sept. 29, 1634. Latin letter to Alexander Gill, 
 enclosing a translation of the 114th Psalm into Greek hexameters. 
 
 1635. Was 'incorporated' as Master of Arts at Oxford, with Jeremy 
 Taylor and others. 
 
 1637. His mother dies, April 3. His friend, Edward King, was 
 drowned, August 10. Letters to Diodati, Sept. 2 and Sept. 23. Writes 
 Lycidas in November. 
 
 1638. Milton leaves England about the middle of April for the Con- 
 tinent, receiving, just before his departure, a handsome letter of advice 
 and thanks from Sir Henry Wotton. Reaches Florence in September. 
 Visits Galileo. Goes to Rome about October 1st. Writes epigrams to 
 Leonora Baroni. Goes to Naples. 
 
 1639. In Rome in January and February. Goes again to Florence. 
 Receives and writes, about this time, letters, odes, sonnets, etc., in Latin 
 and in Italian. Visits Venice. Stops briefly in Geneva. Returns home 
 to England about Aug. 1, that he may serve the cause of Liberty. Learns 
 of the death of his friend Diodati. Writes his beautiful Epitaphium 
 DaTYionis in Latin. 
 
 1640. Resides for a short time in St. Bride's Churchyard, where he 
 undertakes the education of a few boys. Takes a garden house in 
 Aldersgate Street and continues teaching. Plans sacred dramas, and 
 poems on subjects from British history. 
 
 1641. Writes his first pamphlet, entitled Of Reformation in England, 
 in May or June ; writes Of Prelatical Episcopacy ; also Animadversums 
 on the Remonstrant's Defence. 
 
 1642. Writes The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, 
 in which his name first appears upon a title-page. Writes his Apology 
 for Smectymnuus ; also, in November, his third Sonnet, entitled Wlicn 
 the Assault was intended to the City. 
 
 1643. Marries Mary Powell about June 1. His wife leaves him about 
 July 1, to return about Michaelmas ; but fails to come back. 
 
 1644. Writes Areopagitica, Of Education in a Letter to Mr. Samuel 
 Hartlih, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Judgment of Martin 
 Bucer concerning Divorce ; and perhaps, this year, his Sonnet To a Vir- 
 tuous Young Lady, and the Sonnet to Tlie Lady Margaret Ely. His 
 sight is a little impaired. 
 
LYCIDAS. xi 
 
 11645. Writes Tetrachordon, Colasterion, two Sonnets On the Detrac- 
 ion which followed upon my writing Certain Treatises. Publishes first 
 sdition of his early poems. His wife rejoins him. 
 1646. Writes Sonnets To Mr. H. Lawes, in Memory of Mrs. Thomson, 
 To Mr. Lawrence, To CyriacTc Skinner, and perhaps, at this time, On the 
 New Forcers of Conscience. His first daughter, Anne, is born. 
 
 1647. Removes to Barbican, and then to Holborn. His father dies in 
 March. His second daughter, Mary, is born. 
 
 1648. Versifies Psalms Ixxx. to Ixxxvii. in ApriL Begins, this year or 
 the next, his History of England. Writes Sonnet To the Lord General 
 Fairfax. 
 
 1649. Is appointed Secretary of State. Removes to lodgings at Char- 
 , ing Cross, and afterwards in Scotland Yard. Writes Tenure of Kings 
 ' and Magistrates, Observations on Ormond's Peace, Eikonoklastes. 
 
 1650. Son born and died. 
 
 1651. Writes Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, at the risk of losing his 
 eyesight. Takes lodgings in *a pretty garden house/ York Street, 
 
 [ Westminster. Loses the sight of his left eye. 
 
 1 1652. His third daughter, Deborah, born, and his wife dies May 2d. 
 
 , Sonnets to Cromwell, and to Sir Harry Vane. Becomes nearly blind. 
 
 I 1653. Verifies Psalms i. to viii., August. Sonnet On His Blindness. 
 
 I 1654. Totally blind. Writes Defensio Secunda. 
 
 I 1655. Writes Defence of Himself against Alexander More, in Latin. 
 
 i Writes Sonnet On the late Massacre in Piedmont ; Sonnet To Cyriack 
 
 I Skinner Upon his Blindness. 
 
 1656. Marries his second wife, Catherine Woodcock, Nov. 12. 
 
 , 1658. His second wife dies in February. Sonnet On His Deceased 
 
 j - Wife. Edits Raleigh's Cabinet Council. 
 
 ; 1659. Writes -4 Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, Con- 
 
 siderations touching the Likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, Letter to a 
 Friend on the Ruptures of tJie Commonwealth, The Present Means ana 
 brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth. 
 
 1660, Writes The Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Common- 
 wealth ; Notes on a Sermon by Dr. Griffiths. Is concealed at a friend's 
 house in Bartholomew Close ; his prosecution is voted by the Commons ; 
 his Ikoiioklastes and Defence of the People of England are publicly burnt 
 by the common hangman in August. Life saved by the intercession of 
 Davenant ? Arrested. Released December 15th. 
 
 1662. Makes the acquaintance of Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker. 
 
 1663. Marries his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, in February. 
 1665. Milton shows Ellwood the MS. of Paradise Lost. Retires to 
 
 Chalfont St. Giles, to escape the plague. Paradise Regained is sug- 
 gested by Ellwood. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1667. Paradise Lost is sold to Samuel Simmons, April 27. Published 
 in ten books. 
 
 1669. Published Accidence Commenced Ghrammar (Latin) ; also His- 
 tory of England. 
 
 1671. Paradise Regained is published ; also Samison Agonistes. 
 
 1672. Published Artis Logicce. 
 
 1673. Tnhlished Of True Religion, HeresT/y Schism, and Toleration; 
 republished Uarly Poems, with additions. 
 
 1674. Second Edition of Paradise Lost, in twelve books. Published 
 Familiar Epistles, and Academic Exercises. Died Kov. 8 ; was buried 
 Nov. 12, in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing works, should be named his Brief History 
 of Muscovy, his Letters of State, his System of Christian Doctrine, and his 
 unfinished Latin Lexicon. 
 
 VARIOUS READINGS IN LYCIDAS. 
 
 Line 26. ... glimmering eyelids of the mom. 
 Lines 30, 31 evenstar bright 
 
 Towards heaven's descent had sloped his burnished wheel. 
 
 Line 47. gay buttons wear [bear]. 
 
 Line 58 etc. What could the golden-haired Calliope 
 
 For her enchanting son. 
 
 When site beheld {the gods far-sighted be) 
 
 His gory scalp roll down the Thracian lea. 
 
 [Whom universal Nature might lament, 
 
 And Heaven and Hell deplore, 
 
 When his divine head down the stream was sent.] 
 
 Line 69. Hid in the tangles 
 
 Lines 85, 86 and thou smooth [famed'] flood. 
 
 Soft sliding Mincius 
 
 Line 105. Scrawled o'er with figures dim .... 
 
 Line 129. little said. 
 
 Line 138. stintly looks. 
 
 Line 142 etc. Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies, 
 
 Coloring the j^ale cheek of unenjoyed love, 
 
 And that sad flower that strove 
 
 To write his own woes on the vermeil grain ; 
 
 Next add Narcissus, that still weeps in vain, 
 
 The v)oodbine, and the pansy freaked with jet. 
 
 The glowing violet ; 
 
LYCIDAS. xiii 
 
 The cowslip wan that hangs his pensive head, 
 And every bud that sorrow's livery wears, 
 Let daflfodillies 
 
 Line 153. Let our sad thoughts 
 
 Line 154. the /oocfo and sounding seas. 
 
 Line 157. the humming tide. 
 
 Line 160. Corineus old. 
 
 Line 176. Listening the unexpressive nuptial song. 
 
LYCIDAS 
 
 In this Monody tJie Author bewails a learned friend, un- 
 fortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the 
 Irish seas, 1637. And hy occasion foretells the ruin 
 of our corru'pted clergy, then in their height. 
 
 Yet once more, ye laurels, and once more, 
 
 The title was added in the edition of 1645. See note on line 8. 
 
 Learned friend. Edward King was a native of Ireland, and the son of Sir 
 John King who filled the office of Secretary for Ireland under Elizabeth, 
 James I., and Charles I. For eleven years he had been connected with Cam- 
 bridge. He was admitted to Christ's College, June 9, 1626, when Milton had 
 been there a little over a year. He was made Fellow by mandate of King 
 Charles, June 10, 1630. After graduation he filled the academic offices of 
 tutor and prselector, and was qualifying himself for the active work of the 
 ministry. He composed Latin verses on the birth of the Princess Mary, 1631 ; 
 on the king's recovery from the small-pox, 1632-3 ; on the king's return from 
 Scotland, 1633 ; on Hausted's play of Senile Odium, 1633 ; on the birth of 
 Prince James, 1633 ; on the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, 1635 ; on the birth 
 of the Princess Anne, 1636-7. The 10th of August, 1637, he was drowned on 
 his passage from Chester to Ireland. It is said that the ship struck on a rock 
 off the Welsh coast, and that when the vessel was sinking he knelt in prayer 
 on the deck, and so met his fate. He was twenty-five years old, and was noted 
 for his piety, scholarship, brilliant talents, and amiable character. 
 
 A book of commemorative verses in honor of him was published in 1638, 
 containing three poems in Greek, nineteen in Latin, and thirteen in English. 
 Milton's Lycidas was the last of these English elegies. It was signed with 
 his initials, and dated November, 1637, Milton being then about 29 years old. 
 Monody, a kind of sorrowful poem or song, in which a single mourner ex- 
 presses grief. 
 
 1. Yet once more, ye laurels. "Some such fqrmula was frequent with 
 poets in beginning a new exercise of their art," says Masson. Warton cites. 
 
6 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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. 
 
 by way of illustration, * Yet once again, my Muse,* from an elegy on the 
 death of the Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir Philip Sidney. See Spen- 
 ser's formula at the beginning of the Faerie Queene ; also Virgil's * Jlle ego, 
 qui quondam,' etc. Once more. For three years Milton had written no 
 poetry ; although his Ilynm on the Nativity, Arcades, Comus, L' Allegro, II 
 Penseroso, and other shorter poems, had given abundant promise. Laurels. 
 Laurels, myrtles, and ivies are symbolical of poetry. They are evergreens, 
 too, and emblematic of immortality. Laurel leaves crowned the victor in the 
 games of Apollo, and the fruit in later ages indicated academic honors. Per- 
 haps we may say generally that the laurel, sacred to Apollo, typifies the lof- 
 tier strains ; the myrtle, sacred to Venus, represents poetry of an amatory or 
 affectionate character ; and the ivy, sometimes wreathing the head of Bacchus, 
 and sometimes, according to Horace, 'the reward of learned brows,' may sym- 
 bolize corresponding kinds of verse. Pliny refers to ivy as forming the coro- 
 nals of poets. — Note that the word ' more ' at the end of the first line does not 
 rhyme. What other lines in the poem end without rhyme ? Can you assign 
 an artistic or {esthetic reason for the omission ? See Masson's Milton's Poet- 
 ical Works, Vol. II. p. 276. 
 
 2. Sere. Sere is dry. Shakes, in Macbeth speaks of the * sere, the yellow 
 leaf.' Possibly the season of the year when this poem was written, October or 
 November, suggested the thought. Ivy leaves in autiimn do to some extent 
 become sere ; but the ivy that adorns the brows of true poets is 'never sere.' 
 Milton would gather and twine unfading garlands of poesy for Lycidas. Can 
 you think of a different explanation ? 
 
 3. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Some critics see in 
 these lines an allusion to the unripe age of young King. They think his 
 poetic talent, his beauty and ripeness for love, and his learning, are some- 
 how typified by laurels, myrtles, and ivy respectively. But is it not more 
 likely that Milton means to represent himself as writing poetry prematurely 
 and under constraint? He feels that his work must be poor; the 'leaves' 
 and 'berries,' the flowers and fruit, must be all unripe ; yet his fingers are 
 forced by his friend's death to seize the pen. In his treatise on Reformation 
 in England, published in 1(541, and in his Second Defence of the People of 
 England, 1G54, as well as in his lines to his native laugiiage, ''At a Vaca- 
 tion Exercise in the College" (11. 29-53), he intimates his intention and pref- 
 erence in regard to writing a great poem after reaching the full maturity of 
 his powers. Crude (Lat. cruor, blood, gore ; crudus, bloody), raw, unripe. 
 
 5. Shatter, 'a modern softening of scatter.* Jerram. See Par. Lost, X. 
 1066, Mellowing year, mellowing time of the year. Does this mean, before 
 the mellowing year shatters, or before the mellowing year cojnes ? T. Warton 
 
I 
 
 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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 lo 
 
 and many other critics think that Milton's language is not strictly accurate 
 here. To all such the caution of Prof. Himes may be suggested, that " care 
 needs to be exercised not to condemn before understanding the x>oet." 
 
 6. Constraint. So in Shakespeare's All 's Well that ends Well, we have 
 'Love's own sweet constraint.' Dear (A.-S. deore, dyre ; Ice. dyrr ; Dan. 
 and Swed. dyr ; Dutch duur ; Ger. theuer, high-priced, costly, expensive. 
 Home Tooke erroneously derives it from A.-S. derian, to hurt, dam, harm), 
 important ; heart-touching, heart-grieving. This sense of dear is not infre- 
 quent in Shakes. ; as, ' dear groans ' in Love's Labor 's Lost, V, 2, 1. 874 ; 
 'dearest foe,' in Hamlet, I. ii. 182 ; * dearest spite,' in Sonnet 37. Sad oc- 
 casion dear. Note the position of the noun between the two adjectives. 
 This is very common in Milton ; as in Par. Lost, V. 5 ; IX. 1003, 1004. It 
 is in imitation of the Greek. See note on line QQ. 
 
 7. Compels. This use of the singular may be explained on the theory that 
 the real nominative is the whole of the preceding line. For similar instances 
 in Shakespeare, see Abbott's Shakes. Gram. § 337. In the north of England 
 the third plural of the verb once ended in s. Often, too, in the Elizabethan 
 writers, as in the Latin, the verb agrees with the nearest nominative. Season 
 due. What is meant ? 
 
 8. Lycidas. (Perhaps fr. Gr. \evK6s, XevKLTrjs in Theocritus, V. 147, light, 
 white, pure, akin to lux, light.) Virgil, and before him Theocritus (a Sicilian 
 pastoral poet who wrote in Greek about 270 b. c. ) had used this name in pas- 
 toral poetry. (See the song in the Seventh Idyl of Theocritus, where Lycidas 
 is a goatherd of high poetic talent.) There was an Athenian Lycidas stoned 
 to death B. c. 479. Ere his prime. He was but twenty-five. 
 
 9. Young Lycidas. So Spenser, Milton's favorite poet, repeats the word 
 Astrophel in his elegy on Sir Philip Sidney, — 
 
 "Young Astrophel, the pride of shepherds' praise, 
 Young Astrophel, the rustic lasses' love." 
 
 So the word ' Dido ' in Spenser's eleventh Eclogue, and the word ' Hyacinth ' 
 in Milton's Death of a Fair Infant, 25, 26. Peer, equal, from Lat. par, 
 Ft. pair, equal. BiO peers in Par. Lost, I. 39, V. 812; but elsewhere the word 
 is in Milton, and nsually in Shakespeare, a title of nobility. 
 
 10. Who would not sing for Lycidas ? Here, and often elsewhere in this 
 poem, the poet beautifully im.itates Virgil's sweetest pastoral song, the tenth 
 Eclogv£: Carmina sunt dicenda : neget quis carmina Gallo 1 songs must iDe 
 sung : who can refuse songs to Gallus ? He knew himself to sing, and 
 
8 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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 15 
 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
 Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string : 
 
 build the lofty rhyme. Rime or rhime was written by Milton, but that 
 spelling is obsolete. The expression ' build the lofty rhyme ' is like Horace's 
 Condis amabile carmen, **Thou buildest a lovely song" {Epist. I. iii. 24) ; Si 
 carmina condes, "If thou shalt build songs" {De Arte Poetica) ; and it sug- 
 gests also'AoiSas iirijpyuiae (Euripides' Supplices, 1. 998), "Built songs to a 
 towering height" ; also 'E7ri;/o7awras prj/xara (refivd, Aufthurmtest erhabcne 
 Phrasen, "Didst build the stately rhyme " {Frogs of Aristophanes, 1. 1004). 
 What poetry had King * built ' ? Knew to sing is an imitation of a frequent 
 idiom in Latin and Greek. It is pronounced by some critics * unnecessary 
 and inaccurate ' in English, but it is perfectly well authorized ; as in Jaincs 
 iv. 17. So in Comus, 87. Lat. cariere callehat ; Gr. &beLv rjiriaraTO. 
 
 12. Bier (Old Eng. baer, Lat. feretrmn, that which bears, Gr. (p^perpov). 
 
 13. Welter (A.-S. waeltan, to roll ; akin to wallow, Ger. loaltzen, Lat. 
 volvo, volutare, Fr. vautrer, to roll). Parching, blistering, shrivelling ; spok- 
 en of cold as well as heat. See Par. Lost, II. 594 ; Xenophon's Anabasis, 
 IV. V. 3. Note the alliteration. What of the rhyme ? 
 
 14. Melodious tear. So in Milton's Epitaph on the Marchioness of Win- 
 chester, 1. 55, we have, "Here be tears of perfect moan." Translate Milton's 
 line into prose. What is metonymy ? Give other examples. 
 
 15. Begin then, Sisters. Who were the nine Muses ? Of what was each 
 the patron goddess ? What can you say of the custom of invoking the Muses ? 
 The sacred well. The Pierian spring near Mount Olympus, says Masson. 
 So the Clarendon Press edition. But no such spring is mentioned in the clas- 
 sics. Where was Castalia ? Aganippe? Hippocrene ? for what noted ? "The 
 * sacred well,'" says Jerram, "is Aganippe on Mount Helicon, and the 'seat 
 of Jove ' is the altar upon the same hill." Stevens and Morris suggest that 
 the snow-covered top of Helicon is here called the seat of Jove, the lord of 
 light. The original home of the Muses is said to have been in Pieria in 
 Macedonia, near the foot of Mount Olympus. Afterwards Mount Helicon in 
 Boeotia was their favorite abode. So Mount Parnassus. Consult a classical 
 atlas. (See the first lines of Hesiod's Theogony, where we find him singing 
 * ' with the Heliconian Muses, who keep the divine and spacious mount of 
 Helicon, and wh» also with delicate feet dance about the violet-hued fount 
 and altars of the mighty son of Cronos.") Rhyme to ' well ' ? 
 
 17. String. Meaning of ' string ' ? What is synecdoche ? 
 
tLYCIDAS. 9 
 
 ence with denial vain, and coy excuse, 
 tto may some gentle Muse 
 
 With lucky words favor my destined urn; 20 
 
 And as he passes turn, 
 And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. 
 
 For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill; 
 Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; 
 Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 
 
 18. Hence. Verb or adverb ? Coy (Lat. quietus ; Fr. coi), shy, shrinking. 
 In Shakespeare this word repeatedly means disdainful, which perhaps is the 
 true signification in this passage. 
 
 19. So may. See Virgil, Eclogue, X. 4 ; Horace, Odes, I. iii. 1. 
 
 20. TJrn. How did the Greeks dispose of their dead ? the Eomans ? What 
 does the 'urn' in this verse represent ? See Shakes. Coriolanus, V. vi. 146 ; 
 Henry V. , I. ii. 228. Favor is used technically like Latin favere (Gr. eiKprjfxe'ip). 
 
 . See Horace, Odes, III. i. 2. The word my is emphatic. 
 
 21. He passes. Muse here must mean poet ; hence the masculine. It is 
 a pretty bold use of language, and therefore Miltonic ! Metonymy ? 
 
 22. Can you think of a good reason for omitting the rhyme here ? What 
 is the general effect of such omissions in this poem ? Why is the ' shroud ' 
 called 'sable'? Origin of the word 'sable'? 'Shroud' is A.-S. scrud, or 
 garment. In Comus, 1. 147, 'shroud' means hiding-place, shelter, recess. 
 Does it here mean 'grave,' or is it used literally ? In Sylvester we find 'sable 
 shroud,' 'sable tomb,' and 'sable chest' (i. e. coffin). In Horace's twenty- 
 eighth Ode, Book I., the passer-by is called upon to sprinkle a little sand upon 
 the dead body of a drowned man, — " give him a little earth for charity." 
 
 23. For, referring back to lines 15, 19, etc. Here the allegory begins. 
 Nursed upon the selfsame hill. Here we have the metaphorical language 
 of pastoral poetry. A ' shepherd ' is a poet. " The hill is Cambridge." The 
 university is their nursing mother. Milton and King had been fellow- 
 students there, "visiting each other's rooms, taking walks together, perform- 
 ing academic exercises in common, exchanging literary confidences ; all which, 
 translated into the language of the pastoral, makes them fellow-shepherds, 
 who had driven their flock afield together in the morning, and fed it all day 
 by the same shades and rills, not without mutual ditties on their oaten flutes, 
 when sometimes other sliepherds or even fauns and satyrs would be listen- 
 ing." Masson, 
 
 25. Lawns (Old Fr., lande; Welsh, llan ; Dutch, laen ; Eng., lane; Old 
 Celtic, Ian, a place, an area or open space). "A lawn is a plain among trees," 
 says old Camden. " The restriction of the meaning to grass kept smooth in 
 a garden is comparatively modem." Jerram. "It is remarkable," says 
 Wedgwood, " that lawn, an open space between woods, seems to be so called 
 
10 LYCIDAS, 
 
 Under the opening eyelids of the mom, 
 We drove afield, and both together heard 
 What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, 
 Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
 Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 
 
 from the opportunity of seeing through." Akin to the Norse glana, rjleine, 
 to stare, look steadily, to open (as clouds) and leave a clear space ; glan, an 
 opening among clouds ; glenna, a clear open space among woods, or between 
 cliffs. Appeared, etc. In L" Allegro, 41 to 44, Milton would 
 
 " 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." 
 
 26. The opening eyelids of the morn. The phrase * eyelids of the morn- 
 ing ' is found in the marginal reading for ' dawning of the day ' in Job iii. 9 ; 
 also in the Antigone of Sopliocles, 1. 103 ; also in Henry More, Sylvester, and 
 Middleton. Covins, 1. 978 ; Milton's second Sonnet, 1. 5, and II Penseroso, 1. 
 141, are referred to by the critics. 
 
 27. Drove afield. See in Gray's Elegy, — 
 
 " How jocund did they drive their team afield." 
 
 "The a in 'afield' is a dialectic form of an of the preposition on." Jerram. 
 So ' aboard,' ' afoot,' etc. Heard. What was the sound of ea in the time of 
 Shakes, and Milt,? See Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, First 
 Series, pp. 477, 478, 479, etc.; also White's Shakespeare, Vol. XII., Appen- 
 dix, pp. 417, 418, 419 ; and Earle's PhUol. of the English Tongue, pp. 170 - 
 178, Clarendon Press edition. 
 
 28. What time. Latin quo tempore, at the time when. Tliis use of the 
 Latin idiom is very common in Milton and other poets. We still use it in 
 direct and indirect questions. The gray-fly. The trumpet-fly ? Its 'sultry 
 horn ' is the loud buzzing of its wings in the heat of noon. " A writer in the 
 Edinburgh Review (July, 1868) suggests that the gray-fly may be the grig or 
 criclcet, 01<1. Eng. graeg-hama, gray-coat." 
 
 29. Battening, making fat by feeding. The word may be akin to letter. 
 See Wedgwood's Diet, of Eng, Etymology. Batten in Shakes. {Coriolanus, 
 IV. V. 35, and Hamlet, III. iv. 67) means to grow fat. See note on boots, 
 line 64, Flocks. Poetical fancies ? or studies ? or what ? 
 
 30. In the first draft Milton wrote 'Oft till the even-star bright.' 'The 
 star' is any star that so rose. See, hoAvever, Faerie Queene, III. iv. 51 ; 
 Comus, 1. 168 ; the Argonautica of Apollonius, IV. 163 ; which passages tend 
 to show that the poets erred in their avStronomy. Milton's change of the lan- 
 guage looks as if he sought to avoid the error. To what does ' bright ' belong? 
 
LYCIDAS. 11 
 
 Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
 Meanwhile, the rural ditties were not mute, 
 Tempered to the oaten flute; 
 
 Eough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long, 35 
 
 And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. 
 
 31. Sloped. So Shakespeare uses the word ' slope ' in the sense of hend domi, 
 in Macbeth, IV. i. 57. Note how beautifully Milton draws out the time of 
 these . poetical and studious occupations ; they 'begin before dayliglit, they 
 continue at noon and at evening ; they are prolonged till the star that twin- 
 kled on the eastern horizon at nightfall has passed the meridian ! Westering'. 
 Some of the dictionaries mark this beautiful word as obsolescent- B;it it is 
 used by Hillhouse, as also by Whittier, and other recent poets. It would be 
 discreditable to let it drop out of the language- Chaucer uses toestrin ; Burns, 
 westling ; Cook's Voyages, westing. Milton's first draft has 'burnisht.' 
 
 33. Tempered, modulated to a certain key, attuned, adjusted- So in Par. 
 Lost., VII. 1. 598. In Shakespeare we have 'ink tempered with love's sighs' 
 {Love's Labor 's Lost, IV. iii. 347). The Italian temprar, aud Lat- temper are 
 are so used (Gr. r^ixvd), to cut, divide, distribute). Oaten flute, a rude 
 musical instrument fashioned from oaten straw? Virgil's Silvestrem tenai 
 micsam meditaris avena, " You practise rural minstrelsy upon a slender oaten 
 pipe," will be recalled by all lovers of Latin. More familiar is Shakespeare's, 
 *'When shepherds pipe on oaten straws " {Zone's Labor's Lost, V. ii. 913). 
 So repeatedly we have ' oaten pipe ' in Spenser. But was the pipe or flute 
 made of oaten straw ? See on this poiat a valuable note in Jerram's edition 
 of Lycidas, 1. 33. He thinks that our older poets took the expression * oaten 
 pipe ' or ' oaten straw ' from an over-literal rendering of avena. 
 
 34. Satyrs (Lat. satyri). How pronounced ? Satyrs were a kind of semi- 
 deity, in form half man aud half goat, inhabiting forests. They had the feet 
 and legs of goats, short budding horns behind their ears, snub nose, a goat's 
 tail, and the body covered with thick hair. They had a lascivious, half-bj-utal 
 natxu-e. They were companions of Bacchus, aud formed the chorus of a 
 species of drama named from them. Perhaps they were originally the rustics 
 who danced in goatskin dresses at the festivals of that jolly deity. FaUns 
 {hzi. fauni). These, too, were country deities, very like the satyrs, but devel- 
 oped to a nearer resemblance to human beings. They are usually ' young and 
 frolic of mien, with round faces expressive of merriment, and not without 
 an occasional mixture of mischief.' See Hawthorne's Marble Faun. " The 
 Satyrs and Fauns may be the miscellaneous Cambridge undergraduates ; and 
 old Damoetas may be some fellow or tutor of Christ's College, if not Dr. 
 Bainbridge, the master." Af assort. But see Spenser's Pastoral Eclogue on 
 the Death of Sir Philip Sid-)zey, lines 116, 117. 
 
 36. DamcBtas. Milton found this name in several Uclogioes of Virgil, who 
 
12 LYCIDAS. 
 
 But oh ! 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 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, • 45 
 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 
 took it from the sixth Idi/l of Theocritus. Masson thinks the word *'has in 
 it a sound of 3Ieade" who was a noted fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. 
 Damcetas in Sidney's Arcadia is a 'suspicious, uncouth, arrant, doltish 
 clown ' ; and it has hence been suggested that Milton meant his old tutor 
 Chappell, with whom he had had trouble at college in 1626 ! 
 
 37. Now, includes the reason ; because. Scott calls attention to the pecul- 
 iar and very ai)propriate ' languid melody ' of the next twelve lines. 
 
 39. Shepherd, Lycidas. Caves rhymes to nothing here. Why the omis- 
 sion ? 
 
 40. Gadding, straggling, erratic. Warburton says that the vine married to 
 the elm is like too many other wives, fond of gadding abroad ! * Gadding 
 vines ' is found in Marvell. Gad, from go (yede and yode in Spenser) was a 
 common word. Chaucer has gadlyng = vsLgrant. Stevens and Morris derive 
 it from Old Eng. gad, the point of a weapon, the same as goad; hence 
 gad-fly, and the verb to gad, to go restlessly about. So Wedgwood, Diet. 
 Etym. 
 
 41. Echoes. In Spenser's Epithalamium we have * all their echoes ring ' ; 
 also in Moschus' Elegy on Bion, 30, and Shelley's Adonais, XV., Echo 
 mourns. The lines 39 to 44 are very similar to lines 23 to 28 in Spenser's 
 Colin Clouts Co'ine, Home Again. In Ovid's Met, Book XI. Fable I. 43, 
 woods, rocks, animals, mourn for Orpheus. 
 
 45. Canker, canker-worm, a caterpillar ; so often in Shakespeare, as, 
 
 " Hath not thy rose a canker ? " 
 
 Henry F/., III. iv. 68. 
 
 So Two Gentlemen of Verona, I. i. 43, and elsewhere. 
 
 46. Graze, from grass. Note the change of the sound of s when the noim 
 is changed to a verb. Similar changes in use, excuse, rise, etc. ? Taint-worm. 
 Some of the critics think tliis loorm, was " a small red spider " ! They quote 
 from Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book III. c. 27. Weanling, a di- 
 minutive of weanel, from loean (Old Eng. wenian, A.-S. wunian, Ger. gewoli- 
 nen, to accustom) ; not the same word as eanling in Shakespeare. 
 
LYGIDAS. 13 
 
 Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear 
 When first the white-thorn blows ; 
 Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. 
 
 Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 51 
 
 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 wizard stream. 55 
 
 47. "Wardrobe, apparel. Its etymology? The first draft had 'buttons.' 
 
 48. When first. The white-thorn (hawthorn) blooms in May, the 'may- 
 tree.' Lines 48, 49 are an echo of Midsummer Night's Dream, I. i. 185, 186. 
 
 50. Nymphs, Muses. In lines 50 to 55 Milton closely imitates, as Virgil 
 in his tenth Eclogue had done, a passage in the first Idyl of Theocritus. The 
 passage is greatly admired. MOton, as usual, outdoes his predecessors. Simi- 
 lar passages are pointed out in Spenser's Astrojohel, Lord Lyttelton on the 
 Death of his Wife, Shelley's A donais, and Ossian's Dar-thula. 
 
 52. The steep. This, says Masson, may be any of the Welsh mountains 
 where the Druids lie buried. "Mr. Keightley suggests Penmaenmawr. " This 
 overhangs the sea, between Conway and Bangor in Carnarvonshire, opposite 
 Anglesey. It is 1400 feet high, and is crowned with ruins of ancient fortifica- 
 tions. Warton suggests the sepultures of the Druids at Kerig-y-Druidion 
 mentioned by old Camden, among the mountains of South Denbighshire. The 
 legends favor the latter supposition. 
 
 53. Druids {GslqMc druidh, magician ; ivomderu, oaks, and 5'?/jyc?cZ, knowl- 
 edge ?) Of this order, at once priests, bards, and philosophers, see the ac- 
 counts in the classical dictionaries, the encyclopedias, and the works there 
 cited. 
 
 54. Mona. Not here, as it sometimes is, the Isle of Man, but Anglesey. 
 " The shaggy top is the high interior of Anglesey, the island fastness of the 
 Druids, once thick with woods." Masson. "The sacred groves, stained with 
 the blood of human sacrifices," were destroyed by the Roman general Pauli- 
 nus (see Tacitus, Annals, 14, 29, etc.). The old poet Drayton (1563 - 1631) in 
 his Poly-Olbion (1613), twelfth Song, speaks of the ' shaggy heaths ' of An- 
 glesey. 
 
 65. Deva. The river Dee, elsewhere called by Milton the 'ancient hallowed 
 Dee,' and by Drayton the ' ominous flood,' forms the old boundary between 
 England and Wales. It was once believed that by some changes in its bed 
 or current the river gave the inhabitants intimations of coming good or ill- 
 It is about seventy miles long, and in the lower part of its course it ' spreads' 
 into an estuary about 14 miles long and from 2 to 6 miles wide. " Many Ar- 
 thurian legends 9,nd other superstitions belonged to it, and hence it was often 
 
14 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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 
 
 AVhen, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 
 His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
 
 Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ! 
 
 called ' the holy Dee.' " See Faerie Queene, I, ix. 4, 5. Chester, from which 
 King set sail, is on the Dee. Dee was latinized to JJeva, perhaps from a no- 
 tion (connected with the old superstition) that the word meant God's water 
 {Dei aqita). Better from Gaelic da-abh {ddv), double water, or confluence. 
 
 56. Ay. Equivalent to ahl Ay me, ah me! (Span. Ay de mi; Ital. 
 AhiviL) Not the affirmative ay. Fondly, foolishly. "I fondly dream," 
 token I say, " Had ye been there," etc. Jerram. Old Eng. fonne, to make 
 foolish. Fond occurs repeatedly in Shakespeare in the sense of foolish ; as, 
 
 " I do wonder, 
 Thou naughty jailer, that thou art so fond 
 To come abroad with him at his request." 
 
 Merchant of Venice, III. iii. 8, 9, 10. * 
 
 58. Muse. Calliope, mother of Orpheus. See Par. Lost, VII. 32-38. 
 Orpheus. ' ' The unparalleled singer and musician, the power of whose harp or 
 lyre drew wild beasts, and even rocks and trees, to follow him. He was the 
 son of the Muse Calliope ; and yet, according to the legends, his was a tragic 
 death. His continued grief for his wife Eurydice, after he had failed to re- 
 cover her from the underworld, so off'ended the Thracian women that they 
 fell upon him in one of their Bacchanalian orgies, and tore him to pieces. 
 The fragments of his body were collected by the Muses and buried with all 
 honor at the foot of Mount Olympus ; but his head, having been tlirown into 
 the river Hebrus, was rolled down to the sea, and so carried to the island of 
 Lesbos." See Ovid, Met., Book XI. Fable I. 1-61, This passage in Lyci- 
 das, from line 58 to 68, was carefully revised, as the various readings shoAv in 
 the original draft. Line 58 read in MS., "What could the golden-haired Cal- 
 liope?" 
 
 61. Rout. Wedgwood [Diet, of Eng. Etymology) says that from the noise 
 made by a crowd of people (0. Fr. route, Ger. rotte, Eng. rout) tlie word came 
 to signify a noisy crowd, troop, or gang of people. Possibly from Lat. ruptn ? 
 
 63. Hebrus, now the river Maritza. Milton perhaps took the phrase ' swift 
 Hebrus ' from volucrevi Hehnun in Virgil's jEneid, I. 317, a reading which 
 many critics change to vnlucrcm Eurum. But "swiftness v/as a general at- 
 tribute of riYers." Lesbian. Lesbos {now 31 itylen, i. e. Mitylene) was an im- 
 portant island of the .^gean Sea, 75 or 80 miles from the moutli of tlie Hebrus. 
 
LYCIDAS. 15 
 
 Alas ! what boots it with uncessant care 
 To tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade, 65 
 
 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 Nesera's hair? 
 r.3jne^J^^he sj^ur that_the_jjlear_spirit doth raise 70 
 
 The Lesbians piously buried the head, and were rewarded with pre-eminence 
 in song ! The fate of OriDheus is briefly told in Far. Lost, VII. 34-37. 
 
 64. Boots, profits. A.-S. betan, to improve ; bdt, compensation. In the 
 prologue to the Canterbury Tales Chaucer says of his Doctor of Physic, " Anon 
 he gave to the sick man his boot," i. e. remedy. TJncessant. This is Milton's 
 word, which has been changed to incessant. The forms were interchangeable. 
 See 'unperfect,' Ps. cxxxix. 16. 
 
 65. Tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade, to practise poetry. 
 Spenser, in his pastoral allegory. The Shepherd's Calendar, June, has the 
 phrase 'scorn of homely shepherd's quill.' The quiet and seclusion of a 
 shepherd's life aflford ample opportunity for the composition of poetry. 
 
 ^^. Strictly meditate the thankless Muse, diligently practise minstrelsy 
 that gives no recompense. Thankless, as in the phrase 'thankless task.' 
 See note on 1. 33. See also Comus, 1. 547. The student will note Milton's 
 adoption of classical phrases ; as, 
 
 * So thick a drop serene.' 
 
 Paradise Lost, III. 25. 
 
 67. Use, are wont to do. This alludes to the fashionable love-poetiy of 
 the day. 
 
 68. Amaryllis and Neaera are girls loved by shepherds in Virgil's Eclogues, 
 and in other pastorals. Ariosto mentions them both {Orlando Fwioso, XI. 
 12). They figure also in the amatory verses of George Buchanan (1506- 
 1582). In Buchanan's last Elegy Cupid cuts a lock from Nesera's head while 
 she sleeps, and with it binds the old poet, who, ' thus entangled, is delivered a 
 prisoner' to the fair Nesera. Lovelace (1618-1658) recollects Buchanan or 
 Milton in one of his verses To Althea, ' Wlien I lie tangled in her hair.' Ama- 
 ryllis CAfxdpvWis, from afxapva-aoj) is the 'sjparUing one.' She is the subject 
 of one of the Idyls of Theocritus. 
 
 70. Clear = Latin claries, illustrious, noble. So, repeatedly, in Shakespeare, 
 as in Merchant of Venice, II, ix. 42, we have 'clear honor,' i. e. 'honor 
 bright.' But Jerram thinks the 'clear spirit ' is the spirit ' purified by eleva- 
 tion into a clearer atmosphere.' Spur. Spenser, in Tears of the Muses, has 
 the line ' Due praise, that is the spur of doing well. ' * Spirit ' is said by most 
 critics to be a monosyllable here, like ' sprite ' ; but is it necessary so to re- 
 gard it ? May not an anapest take the place of an iambus ? 
 
 V 
 
16 LYCIDAS. 
 
 (That last infirmity of noble mind) 
 ^^scom_d^^Lts^^j;P,^^U^ 
 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, 75 
 And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise," 
 Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears ; 
 
 71. That last infirmity of noble mind. So Tacitus has, Etiam sapienti- 
 bus cu2ndo glorice novissima exuitur, which Sir Henry Wotton liad in mind in 
 his Panegyric on James I., addressed to King Charles, " I will not deny his 
 appetite for glory, which generous minds do ever latest part from." " Pride," 
 says Bishop Hall (1574-1656), '4s the inmost coat, which we put on first and 
 put off last." In the Deipnosophists of Athenajus (B. XI. sec. 116) we find 
 the passage, '' Plato said, ' The last tunic, the desire of glory, we lay aside 
 in death itself,' "Eaxo-rov rbv r^s do^rjs x'-t^^^- ^^ ''''$ Bavartii avrl^ airobvh- 
 fieda." 
 
 72. The Clarendon Press edition quotes on this line the following from 
 Milton's Academical Exercise, VII., ''Not to wait for glory when one has 
 done well, — that is above all glory." 
 
 73. Guerdon (Low Latin widerdonum, from Old High German widar, 
 again, and Lat. donum, gift ; Old French guerdon), reward, requital. It was 
 in use in Chaucer's time ; then seems to have become obsolete, but was re- 
 vived and in common use in the Elizabethan period ; but nearly obsolete again 
 in the 18th century. ( A.-S. wither, against, in return for ; lean, reward. ) 
 
 74. Think to burst out. ' Think we shall burst out ' ? or, ' think it will 
 burst out ' ? Blaze. So Pindar, Nemean Odes, X. 4, " Argos is enkindled 
 (i. 6. burns, glows, shines) by countless glorious deeds." So Nem. Odes, VI. 
 66. See Par. Regained, III. 47. 
 
 75. Fury. Milton here takes the liberty of calling Atropos (destiny) a 
 fury. In Mythology the FaricB (Erinnyes) were very dift'erent from the Fates 
 {Parcce, or Greek Motpat)- Atropos, one of the three Fates, was represented 
 as standing with shears ready to cut the thread of life which her sister Clo- 
 tho was spinning on the distaff ; while the third sister, Lachesis, was point- 
 ing to the horoscope, which determined the length of tlie thread. See ' Horo- 
 scope,' in Webs. Unabridged Diet. Tennyson calls time, ' a maniac scattering 
 dust,' and life, 'a Fury, slinging flame.' {In Memoriam, xlix. 2.) Why 
 * blind'? Abhorred shears, called by Spenser the 'cursed knife,' Faerie 
 Queene, IV. ii. 48. 
 
 76. Slits. Is this word properly applicable to 'praise ' ? What is ze^cgma t 
 
 77. Phoebus, Apollo, the god of prophecy and song. In Virgil's sixth Ec- 
 logue, of which we see other traces in Lycidas, we find, 
 
 " Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cyn thins aurem 
 Vellit, et admonuit," 
 
LYCIDAS. 17 
 
 "Fame is no plant tliat grows on mortal soil, 
 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies; 80 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, 
 
 And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 
 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 
 
 Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed." 
 
 fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 85 
 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 
 
 * When I would sing of kings and "battles, the Cynthian Apollo [i. e. Phoebus] 
 twitched my ear and admonished me.' Masson thinks that here is an allu- 
 sion to the popular notion of a tingling sensation in one's ears, indicating that 
 people are talking of him ; as if Milton felt at the moment that absent peo- 
 ple were weighing his words, and calculating his chances of immortal fame. 
 " Conington (on Virgil's lines above-quoted) remarks that touching the ear 
 was a symbolical act, the ear being the seat of memory." 
 
 78 - 84, ' The answer Milton would give to the critics imagined in the pre- 
 ceding note.' Masson. 
 
 79. Foil. Milton's words, says JeiTam, admit of a twofold construction. 
 By the first construction, 'foil' ''must be understood of a dark substance 
 (originally a thin leaf[folium\ of metal), in which jewels were placed to ' set 
 off ' their lustre." By the second construction, which is preferred by him, 
 
 * foil ' is tinsel, ' some baser metal which glitters like gold, and makes a fair 
 show to the eye.' " Perhaps the idea of ' foil ' {folium) was suggested by the 
 word ' plant,' " the metaphor reappearing in line 81. ' Foil set off ' is, then, ' a 
 fair show ostentatiously displayed ' to the world. Is this explanation correct ? 
 
 81. Pure eyes. See Comus, 1. 213, Habak. i. 13. For this whole passage, 
 see Paradise Regained, III. 60 to 65. 
 
 82. Jove. How about the rhyme ? Meaning of * witness ' in this line ? 
 
 83. Lastly, finally, like the Lat. xdtimum. 
 
 84. Meed. In Faerie Queene, III. x. 31, we find the line, " Fame is my 
 meed, and glory virtue's pay." 
 
 85. Arethuse, a famous fountain in Ortygia, an island at the mouth of the 
 ' Great Harbor ' of Syracuse in Sicily. It used to be said that a cup, thrown 
 into the river Alpheus, would reappear in the fountain ArethuSa, hundreds 
 of miles away. See the legend of Alpheus and Arethusa in the classical dic- 
 tionaries. The nymph of the fotmtain was regarded as the muse that inspired 
 the Sicilian poet Theocritus, whom Virgil and Milton imitate. She was a 
 companion of Diana. Is the word made a dissyllable by modernizing it ? 
 
 86. Mincius, a stream in northern Italy, one of the tributaries of the Po, 
 in Venetia, near Mantua, the birthplace and home of Virgil, who often men- 
 tions the streara. The river god of the Mincius might be supposed to inspire 
 Virgil's pastorals. Smooth-Bliding. An epithet used by Milton's favorite 
 
18 LYCIBAS. 
 
 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 ; 95 
 
 And sage Hippotades their answer brings, 
 
 Sylvester in Du Bartas, 1. 171, * the crystal of smooth-sliding floods.' Tlie 
 ' reed ' is from Virgil. See Jerram's note on Lycidas, 1. 33. In Virgil's seventh 
 Eclogue we have Hie virides tenera prcetexit arundine ripas Mincius, ' Here 
 Mincius has fringed the green banks Avith the pliant reed.' In uEneid, X. 205, 
 206, we have ' Mincius decked with sea-green reeds,' Mincius being the name 
 of a ship bearing the figure of the river god. 
 
 87. Higher mood. The noble words of Phoebus were loftier than the lan- 
 guage of simple pastoral song. Mood is here musical or poetical style (Lat. 
 modus, 'a certain arrangement of intervals in the musical scale'). See Par- 
 adise Lost, I. 550. 
 
 88. Oat. See note on 1. 33. Do not imagine a child's corn-pipe of straw ! 
 
 89. Herald. " Triton, the trumpeter of the waves, who now came, in the 
 name of Neptune, to conduct a judicial inquiry into the cause of the death of 
 Lycidas." Masson. For Triton's 'wreathed horn,' see Holmes's Chambered 
 Nautilus, and Wordsworth's twenty-third Sonnet (Little and Brown's ed., 
 Vol. II. p. 341). 
 
 90. Plea {La,t. 2ilaciium, that which is pleasing to the court; from ^;Zacerg, 
 to please ; 0. Yreuch plait) behalf ; 'name.' He came to hold an inquest ? 
 
 91. Felon {F\\ felon ; Ital. fello; perhaps akin to A.-S. fell, cruel; or 
 from Welsh gtvall, defect ; fall, bad ; falloni, perfidy ; Gaelic feall, betray. 
 Brachet makes it from the Low Lat. fellonem, a thief, a word which occurs 
 but once), cruel, with the added sense of 'criminal.' Wliat of the rhyme of 
 lines 91, 92 ? 
 
 92. Doomed (Old Eng. dom, Gothic doms, judgment, jurisdiction ; A.-S. 
 deman, to judge). Swain, a laborer, a young man. Old Eng. swdn, a herds- 
 man ; Old Norse svein, a boy, a servant ; Dan, svend, a bachelor. 
 
 93. Wings. Explain this metaplior, also that in the word 'beaked' in 
 the next line. Are the gusts winged, or do the " wings of the wind " fan 
 with gusts ? Is the meaning, rough-winged gusts ? Marvell calls great ships 
 'beaked promontories, sailed from far.' In Drayton's Poly-Olbion, 1st Song, 
 we have ' the utmost end of Cornwall's furrowing heak.^ 
 
 96. Hippotades, ^olus, the god of the winds, son of Hippotes. See 
 Ovid's Met., XIV. '229, etc. 
 
LYCIDAS. 19 
 
 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 
 
 97. His may be for its, referring to "blast ; or it may refer to Hippotaues 
 (Mollis), in whose cave the winds were imprisoned. See JEneicl, I. 52-63. 
 
 98. Level brine, the Latin cequora or cequor, the ' flat sea,' as he calls it 
 in Conius, 1. 375. 
 
 99. Panope (G-r. irav, all, d3^, the eye ; root ott, to see, whence Lat. oc-ulns, 
 Goth, augo ; A.-S. eage ; Ger. OAige ; Eug. eye ; the one all-eye, or far-seeing), 
 mentioned by Homer and Hesiod as one of the fifty sea-nymphs, daughters of 
 Nerens, who lives in a palace at the bottom of the sea. Panope is named 
 among them by Virgil {^Eneid, V, 240) and Spenser {Faerie Queene, IV. xi, 
 49). She is especially named here by Milton, because of her wide lookout 
 over the deep. Sleek, glossy, shining. So the mermaids, like the seal, ap- 
 pear, when emerging from the water. 
 
 100. Bark, ship. 
 
 101. In the eclipse. Milton neatly alludes to the superstition which made 
 an eclipse a time of evil omen. Among the ingredients in the famous caldi'on 
 of the witches in Macbeth are 
 
 * Slips of yew, 
 Slivered in the moon's eclipse.' 
 
 **Than eclipses of the sun and moon nothing is more natural ; yet with what 
 superstition they have been beheld since the tragedy of Nicias and his army 
 (b. c. 414) many examples declare." (Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, 
 I. 11.) Eigged, etc. Tlie rigging is full of curses which cling there. 
 
 103. Camus, god of the river Cam, on which Cambridge (bridge over the 
 Cam) was built ; and so the tutelary genius of Cambridge University. Of 
 course he would feel a mournful interest in the sad fate of his most hopeiul 
 child Lycidas. Footing slow. Spenser uses the epithet 'slow-footing.* 
 The river is very sluggish ; and hence the highway-surveyors and civil en- 
 gineers, when they turn critics, infer that Milton meant to characterize the 
 movement of the water only ! The first line of Goldsmith's Traveller is, 
 
 'Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.' 
 
 Sloto for slowly ; the adjective for the adverb, as often is the case in Shake- 
 speare. Sometimes this coincidence of form arises from dropping the adverbial 
 ending e ; sometimes, from the word describing the actor rather tliaji the act, 
 
 104. Mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge, etc. " The mantle," said Mr. 
 
20 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 
 
 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 
 
 Plumptre in a Latin note, which appeared in a Greek translation of Lycidas 
 in 1797, *'is as if made of the plant 'river-sponge,' which floats copiously in 
 the Cam ; the bonnet of the river-sedge, distinguished by vague marks trace<l 
 somehow- over the middle of the leaves, with the edge of the leaves serrated, 
 after the fashion of the at al of the hyacinth." " It is said that the flags of 
 the Cam still exhibit, when dried, these dusky streaks in the middle," and 
 apparently 'scrawled o'er' (as Milton's MS. first had it instead of 'inwrought ') 
 with dotted marks ' on the edge.' 
 
 105. Inwrought. What was inwrought ? The 'mantle ' ? or the ' bonnet ' ? 
 or both ? 
 
 106. That sanguine flower, the hyacinth, sprung from the blood of the 
 youth of that name, accidentally slain by Apollo. See Milton's Death of a 
 Fair Infant, st. 4 : also Ovid, Met, X. 162, et seq., where we have the lines 
 
 " Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit ; et, ai, ai, 
 Flos habet inscriptum." 
 
 Apollo himself inscribes his own lamentations on the leaves, and the flower 
 has ai, ai (alas, alas !) written thereon. Another tradition makes the hya- 
 cinth to have sprung from the blood of Telemonian Ajax. (Pausanias, Itin- 
 erary, I. 35, sec. 3 ; Ovid, Met., XIII. 397, etc.) 
 
 107. Pledge, offspring, like Latin pignus. So in Bacon's Essays (Mar- 
 riage), children are called the ' dearest pledges.' See first line of the verses, 
 At a Solemn Music. Keft (A.-S. reajian, to rob; Old Eng. reave, whence 
 bereave), snatched away. Quoth (A.-S. cwethan, to say, past tense, civaeth). 
 Used in first and third persons, and the past tense. Stevens and Morris are 
 mistaken in saying, "This verb (civethan) still survives in our 'quote.' " The 
 latter is from Latin quotus, what in number ; or quot, how many. 
 
 109. Pilot. St. Peter, originally a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 
 iv. 18-22 ; Luke v. 1-11) ; and here may be, as Masson thinks, 'occult ref- 
 erence to the fact that Lycidas had perished at sea.' As the earthly head of 
 the church, and the chief shepherd of the flock {John xxi. 15-17), St. Peter 
 regrets the loss of King's services to the cause of pure religion, and is filled 
 with a holy anger at the selfish hirelings that crowd into the ministry. 
 
 110. Two massy keys. See Matt. xvi. 19. St. Peter has from very early 
 times been represented as bearing ttoo keys ; but the idea of one being of gold 
 and the other of iron is Milton's own. Dante in his Paradiso, V. 57, speaks 
 of the two keys of Holy Church, — ' by either key, the yellow and the white ' ; 
 
LYGIDAS. 21 
 
 The golden opes, the iron shuts amain — 
 
 He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake : 
 
 "How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
 
 Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake. 
 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold ! 115 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make 
 
 Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, 
 
 And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 
 
 Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold 
 
 A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least 120 
 
 That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! 
 
 i. e. the silver key of Knowledge, and the golden key of Authority. So in 
 Dante's Picrgatorio, IX. 118, the golden key is the confessor's authority ; the 
 silver, his knowledge. See Fletcher's Purple Island (pub. in 1633), VII. 
 61, 62. 
 
 111. Amain (A.-S. inaegen, might), forcibly. For the prefix a, see note on 
 
 * afield,' line 27. See also a, as a prefix, in Wedgwood's Diet, of Etymology. 
 
 112. Mitred. Here Milton, with poetic reverence, assigns to St. Peter the 
 mitre, which he afterwards scorned when worn by popes, bishops, and car- 
 dinals. Bespake. Here used intransitively. Note that three complaints 
 against some of the clergy follow : (1) selfishness and conniption, (2) igno- 
 rance of doctrine and duty, (3) their Romanizing tendency. King seems to 
 have been expected to enter the ministry. 
 
 114. Enow, the old form, usually plural, of enough. Gothic ganohs, 
 enough. Milton's MS. has anough. 
 
 115. Climb. See the close of Milton's sonnet on Cromwell ; also Par. 
 Lost, IV. 193 ; John x. 1, etc. The lines 113 to 131 are remarkable as an 
 
 * outburst of that feeling about the state of the English Church tmder Laud's 
 rule, which, four years afterwards (1641-42), found more direct and as vehe- 
 ment expression in Milton's prose pamphlets.' " Note," says Masson, ''the 
 stu.died contemptuousness of the phraseology throughout, — ' their bellies' 
 sake,' 'shove away,' 'bKnd mouths' ! (a singularly violent figure, as if the 
 men were mouths and nothing else) — and the raspy roughness of the sound in 
 line 124, where 'scrannel' (for 'screeching,' 'ear-torturing') seems to be a 
 word of Milton's own making. The ' rank mist ' and ' foul contagion ' are un- 
 sound and imAvholesome doctrines." 
 
 118. Worthy bidden guest. Matt. xxii. 3, 8, 9. 
 
 120. Sheep-hook. This hook is fastened to a pole. With it the shepherd 
 lays hold of the sheep which he may wish to catch. The * rod ' of Psalm 
 xxiii. 4. 
 
 121. Herdsman's. Herdman is the usual spelling in the Bible. Gen. 
 xiii. 7. 
 
22 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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, 125 
 
 But, sw^oUen with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
 liot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; 
 Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
 
 122. Are sped, are despatched, or quickly provided for. So in Shakes. 
 Taming of Shreio, V. ii. 185, "We three are married, but you two are sped." 
 The word when so used passively is usually in an unfavorable sense ; as in 
 the Merchant of Venice, II. ix. 72, "So begone, sir ; you are sped." (A.-S. 
 spedmi, to speed ; Old Eng. spedan., to prosper. ) Recks. This word is not 
 often found impersonal. In Comus, 1. 404, we have, " Of night or loneliness, 
 it recks me not." 
 
 123. Flashy, insipid, vapid ; or, possibly, tinsel-like, showy. In Bacon's 
 Essay on Studies we have, " Distilled books are like common distilled waters, 
 flashy things." "When they list. The 'songs' — unsound instruction, poor 
 stuff' at best — are doled out to suit the convenience of the pseudo-shepherds. 
 
 124. Grate. They grate their songs ? or their songs grate ? So the infer- 
 nal doors "grate harsh thunder." {Par. Lost, II. 881.) This line is like 
 Virgil's ' Stridenti miserum stipida disperdere carmen,' to murder a sorry 
 song on a squeaking straw pipe (Eclogue, III. 27). Scrannel is supposed to 
 be related to scraiony. It seems to have been coined by Milton,, and to mean 
 thin, meagre. But see Masson's views quoted in note to line 115. Possibly 
 it is connected with cranny (Lat. crena ; Fr. cran ; provincial Ger. krinne, 
 notch, fissure, cleft, crevice), and so may mean squeaking. (Morley derives 
 it from A.-S. " scrincan, to shrink, past scranc, with diminutive suffix. In 
 Lancashire a 'scrannel' is a lean, skinny person.") 
 
 125. Are not fed. Similarly Spenser (Shepherd's Calendar, May Eclogue) 
 complains of the ministers that spend their time in 'wanton merriment,' while 
 "their flocks be unfed." See Milton's quotation of the passage in Animad- 
 versions on the Remonstrant's Defence (1641) ; also see near the end of Mil- 
 ton's Reason of Church Government (1641). 
 
 126. Swollen with wind. Dante (Paradiso, XXIX.) says, 'Si che le pecn- 
 relle, che 7ion sanno, toman dal pasco, pasciute di vento,' so that the lambs, 
 which know not, come back from pasture fed upon the wind. Hamlet's " I 
 eat the air" will be recalled (Ilam. III. ii, 99). Rank, strong, off"ensive. 
 
 128. Grim wolf. Who is the 'grim wolf? 'Archbishop Laud,' some 
 say. Others make it the wolf in sheep's clotliing, of Matt. vii. 15 ; others, 
 the rapacious shepherd, of Acts xx. 29. Morley thinks it is ' the devil, great 
 enemy of tlie Christian sheepfold.' Others, and among them Masson, " in- 
 terpret the grim wolf to mean that system of perversion to Romanism, which 
 seems to ha\e reached its height in or about the year 1637." Possibly here 
 
LYCIDAS. 23 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 130 
 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. 
 
 Eeturn, 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 flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 
 
 Ye valleys low^, where the mild whispers use 
 
 is a remote allusion to the she-wolf that suckled Eomulus and Eemus. 
 Privy paw, secret or stealthy paw. The alleged intriguing of the Jesuits ? 
 
 129. Apace, speedily, fast. Nothing said. Does this mean that the un- 
 faithful ministers did not preach ? or that they went over to Eome without 
 evoking comment, the court and the clergy ignoring the fact ? 
 
 130. But that two-handed engine. Either the axe of the Gospel (Matt. 
 iii. 10; Luke iii. 9) ; or the axe of the executioner about to behead Laud ; or 
 the executioner Death with his scjrthe; or the sword of the archaugel Micliacl 
 alluded to in line 161, etc. (Par. Lost, VI. 251) ; or the two-edged sword of 
 the Son of Man (Rev. i. 16 ; ii. 12, 16) ; or the two houses of Parliament ; 
 or, according to Morley, " ' the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God ' 
 (Ejphes. vi. 17) ; * two-handed,' because we lay hold of it by the Old Testament 
 and the New." The usual explanation makes it the headsman's axe. This 
 would seem, however, to be an afterthought. See a long and learned note on 
 the line in Masson's Milton's Poet. Works, Vol. III. pp. 454-456. Jerraisi 
 has no doiibt that it is ' the axe laid at the root of the tree.' At the door. 
 Matt. xxiv. 33. 
 
 131. Smite no more. Newton cites 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. 
 
 132. Alpheus, the god of the river Alpheus in Arcadia. Enamored of Are- 
 thusa, he pursued her underground (the river runs underground for a long 
 distance) to Sicily, where he overtook her in the fountain called by her name 
 in the island of Ortygia at the entrance of the harbor of Syracuse. See note 
 on line 85. He and she are here supposed to inspire pastoral poets. The 
 pastoral style, having been interrupted, is now resumed. 
 
 133. Shrunk. As if the volume of the river were perceptibly diminished 
 through sympathy with the shrinking fear felt by the river god ; "a recogni- 
 tion," says Jerram, " of the superior power of Christianity over Paganism." 
 A full stream indicated prosperity and joy. See Comus, 1. 924 to 929. Meta- 
 phorical meaning of ' shrunk thy streams ' ? Sicilian Muse, Arethusa, or 
 the muse that inspired Moschus and Theocritus, Sicilian poets. 
 
 135. Bells, the cups or corollas of flowers. Ariel sings in Shakes. Temjjest, 
 V. 89, " In a cowslip's bell I lie." 
 
 136. Use, frequent, haunt, dwell. So in Faerie Queene, VI. Introd. st. 
 2, line 17. 
 
24 LYCIDAS. 
 
 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 honeyed showers, 140 
 And purple all the ground with vernal flowe:^. 
 
 137. Of shades. Grammatical construction ? "Wanton. " Tlie epithet may- 
 remind us of the mj'thological amours of the winds. " The word is from the 
 negative wan, without (whence comes our wan, without color), and A.-S. teon 
 (Ger. Ziehen) to lead ; hence it means without leadership or restraint. 
 
 138. Swart star. ''The dog-star, Sirius, whose appearance above the hori- 
 zon was supposed to be physically connected with the oppressive heats of 
 summer, — whence our phrase ' the dog-days.' It is called 'swart' or 'swar- 
 thy' from the effects of heat on the complexion." In Horace, Odes, III. xiii. 
 9, we find flagrantis atrox hora Caniculce, the fierce season of the blazing 
 dog-star. Possibly Milton means the sun, as Horace {Satires, I. 9, 73) has 
 *sol niger,^ 'the sun that turns things black,' or 'the injurious svm.' "The 
 flowers that the poet wants to be brought to him ai'e such as have grown in 
 shady vales." Masson. Sparely, sparingly, seldom. Looks. Warton con- 
 jectures 'that the astrological aspect of a star is here intended.' So 'dire- 
 looking' in Arcddes, 1. 52. See Par. Lost, vi. 313. 
 
 139. Quaint, here used, as often in Shakespeare, for fine, nice, neat, pretty; 
 or in its usual Miltonic sense of curious, fantastic, as Jerram thinks. (Lat. 
 comptus, adorned ; Old Fr. coint. But Wedgwood says, " Notwithstanding 
 the singular agreement with Lat. comptus, trimmed, adorned, the word must 
 be derived either from Lat. cognitus, known, or from Ger. kund, kundig, 
 knovni, acquainted with.") Eyes. In Midsummer NighVs Dream, IV. i. 60, 
 we have 'pretty flowerets' eyes.' So the daisy is the day's eye. Enam- 
 elled, as if painted on enamel. What is enamel ? 
 
 140. Honeyed. Milton very often makes adjectives of past participles. 
 
 141. Purple. What is the subject nominative ? Purple, which usually is 
 red tinged with blue, sometimes ' denotes any bright color, from a dazzling 
 white to a deep red.' Horace, Odes, IV. i. 10 ; Virg. ^neid, IX. 349 ; Par. 
 Lost, III. 364. Vernal flowers. It will be well in reading the next nine 
 lines to observe what is commonly called 'the language of flowers.' In one 
 of the elegies of Sir John Beaumont (1582 - 1628) is the following : — 
 
 " Here fresh roses lie 
 Whose ruddy blushes modest thoughts descry. 
 The spotless lilies show his pure intent ; 
 The flaming marigolds his zeal present ; 
 The purple violets, his noble mind. 
 Degenerate never from his princely kind ; 
 And, last of all, the hyacinths we throw, 
 On which are writ the letters of our woe." 
 
» 
 
 LYCIDAS. 25 
 
 Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
 
 The tufted crow- toe, and pale jessamine, 
 
 The white pink, and tlie pansy freaked with jet, 
 
 142. Eathe (Ice. hradr^ quick ; Norse rad, hasty ; Dutch rad, nimble), 
 early. Rather is the comparative of this old word, and means sooner, ear- 
 lier. Here begins the famous flower passage, which the original manuscript 
 shows to have been carefully and repeatedly revised. " Scott in his Critical 
 Essays" complains that "too many flowers are specified, and spring flowers 
 are injudiciously blended with summer ones." This last point resembles the 
 old censure of Shakespeare for not observing the ' unities ' of time and place ! 
 Primrose. Why primrose 'i Because, like Lycidas, it is prematurely cut 
 off ; as Shakespeare says, * pale primroses, that die unmarried, ere they can 
 behold bright Phoebus in his strength ' ? or better, perhaps, because of ' the 
 modest nature of the flower, blooming in retired spots, and often fading un- 
 noticed ' ? 
 
 143. Tufted. " The crowfoot grows singly ; but as it divides into several 
 parts, Milton was justified in his epithet." Keightley. Crow-toe, so called 
 * from its claw -like spreading legumes,' says Prior. Popular Names of Brit- 
 ish Plants. Why is this flower mentioned ? We perhaps gain light on 
 this point from the original draft in Milton's handwriting among the Cam- 
 bridge MSS. It reads, 
 
 " Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies. 
 Coloring the pale cheek of unenjoyed love ; 
 And that sad flower that strove 
 To write his own woes on the vermeil grain : 
 Next add Narcissus that still weeps in vain." 
 
 Is the crow-toe, then, 'that sad flower,' the 'sanguine flower inscribed with 
 woe,' the purple hyacinth? There would be a peculiar appropriateness in 
 this ; for Hyacinth, like Lycidas, met with an early and sudden death. Of 
 the water crowfoot, however, it is remarked that, " when growing in swift- 
 running water, the lower leaves may be compared to a tuft of bi'ight green 
 hair waving to and fro in the current. " Maunder' s Treasury of Botany. Was 
 Milton, then, thinking of the ' oozy locks ' of Lycidas, laved by ' the cruel, 
 crawling foam ' beyond the 'sands o' Dee,' and asking himself, in the spirit 
 of Charles Kingsley, " 0, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair" ? Pale. As if 
 with sorrow and shadow ? The white-flowered jessannne is common in the 
 South of Europe. Jessamine (Persian jasmin, fragrant). Why this flower? 
 Because of its fragrance, like the memory of Lycidas ? Quarles (1592-1644) 
 says in his Emblems, V. 2, " Above the rest, let Jesse's sovereign flower per- 
 fume my qualming breast" ; playing upon the word jessamine. 
 
 144. White pink. Wliy white ? Is it representative of the spotless purity 
 of Lycidas ? Pink (Fr. pince, a tip or thin point). ' Probably from the 
 sharp-pointed leaves set in pairs upon the stalk like pincers.' Wedgtoood. 
 Before Milton's day, the pink was the emblem of perfection. Thus in Shakes. 
 
26 LYCIDAS. 
 
 The glowing violet, 145 
 
 The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine; 
 
 Romeo and Jul., "1 am the very pink of courtesy " ; and colloquially it is 
 still so used to denote the acme of excellence. Pansy (Fr. x><^nsee, thought ; 
 Lat. pensao-e, to weigh, ponder). The pansy, as its name indicates, has ' from 
 time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,' typified 
 thought. Freaked (0. Eng. freken, frecken, to spot, freckle ? or Ital. fre- 
 gare, to streak ; frego, a dash, stroke?), variegated, flecked. There are many 
 varieties of pansy, or heart's-ease. Why does Milton select that Avliich is 
 * freaked with jet' ? Evidently because of its 'sad embroidery,' which adds 
 a mournful tinge to the sweet thoughtfulness of the flower. The savor of 
 grief is in those freaks of jet; as the fairy in Midsummer NighVs Dream 
 says of the spots in the gold coats of the cowslip. 
 
 In those freckles live their 
 
 savors. 
 
 Spenser {Faerie Queene, III. xi. 37) represents Hyacinth as changed into a 
 pansy. 
 
 145. Violet. Modest, yet glowing as with the warmth of immortal life. 
 
 146. Musk-rose. Of course the rose, queen of flowers, highest emblem of 
 beauty, must not be wanting. But wliy single out the musk-rose ? Because 
 of its odor, outlasting all others, and fitly symbolizing the enduring fragrance 
 of the memory of Lycidas ? Woodbine. This is the honeysuckle, which Keats 
 characterizes as 'of velvet leaves and bugle bloom divine,' and which Milton 
 elsewhere calls 'the twisted eglantine' {V Allegro, 48). The Treasury of Bot- 
 any {Lindley and Moore, Maunder's ed.) says : "No British shrub claims our 
 favorable notice so early in the season as the honeysuckle {caprifolium j^ericly- 
 menum) ; for even before the frosts of January have attained their greatest 
 intensity, we may discover in the sheltered wood or hedge-bank its wiry stem 
 throwing out tufts of tender green leaves from the extremity of every twig. 
 Later in the season it ... . displays its numerous clusters of trumpet-shaped 
 cream-colored flowers [the ' bugle bloom ' of Keats] tinged with crimson, and 
 shedding a perfume which, in sweetness, is surpassed by no other British plant. 
 .... In October, the woodbine endeavors to impart a grace to the fading 
 year by producing a new crop of flowers, which, though not so luxuriant nor 
 so numerous as the first, are quite as fragrant. Clusters of flowers and of ripe 
 berries may then be found on the same twig, uniting autumn with sunmier as 
 the early foliage united winter with spring." Well-attired. {Attire is from 
 the Old French atour, attour, a French hood, or head-dress for a woman. 
 Wedgwood. This original meaning is seen in 'attired,' Levit. xvi. 4, and in 
 'tired,' 2 Kings ix. 30 ; also in Shakespeare's fifty-third Sonnet, Much Ado 
 About Nothing, III. iv. 13, and repeatedly elsewhere.) In the early promise 
 of the woodbine, its seeming lofty aspiration, its wondrous fragrance, its 
 aff'ectionate twining, or in its rich and strange ' attire ' of beautiful blossoms 
 mingled sometimes with bright crimson berries, — 'the virgin crimson of mod- 
 esty,' as Shakespeare has it, —can we see why Milton chose this flower? 
 
I 
 
 LYCIDAS. 27 
 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
 
 And eveiy flower that sad embroidery wears : 
 
 Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
 
 And daffadillies fill their cup with tears, 150 
 
 147. Cowslips. Marsh-marigolds? These are among the early spring 
 flowers in the watery meadows. The flowers are said to be narcotic. See 
 the characterization of the marigold in the long quotation from Shakespeare, 
 infra (on line 150). But is not Milton's cowslip the primula veris, a species 
 of primrose, a drooping flower ? It bears iimbels of small yellow blossoms, 
 tinged with orange, and rising from a cluster of downy leaves. It has little 
 or no resemblance to the caltha palustris, marsh-marigold, or cowslip of New 
 England. See Henry V., V. ii. 49, where Shakespeare speaks of the 'freckled 
 cowslip ' ; and Midsummer NighVs Dream, II. i, 13, wliere, in speaking of 
 the cowslip, he says, ' In those freckles live their savors.' Note on line 144. 
 {Cowslip is "divided cow-slip, not cows-lip ; as shown by the Old Eng. oxan- 
 slippa^ oxlip, where the an is the sign of the genitive case. The meaning of 
 slip is uncertain." Stevens and Morris.) 
 
 148. Sad embroidery. The first draft had 'sorrow's livery' ; the second, 
 ' sad escutcheon.' Which is the best expression of the three ? Why ? Em- 
 broidery. This suggests Chaucer's description of the young Squire, — 
 
 " Emhrouded was he as it were a mead 
 All full of freshe floures white and red." 
 
 149. Amaranthus (Gr. dfidpavros, unfading ; fr. d, witliout, and /xapatveip, 
 to wither, decay ; ' so called because its flowers, when cropped, do not soon 
 wither ' ) . It has ' green, purplish, or crimson flowers, in large spiked clus- 
 ters. ' ' Love-lies-bleeding ' is a species of it. Amaranth is the emblem of 
 immortality. See the exquisite lines in Par. Lost, III. 353 - 359. 
 
 150. DaiFadillies (Gr. dacpodeXos ; Fr. Jleur d'as2Jhodele). This floAver is 
 the narcissus ? In the original draft Milton has the line, " Next add Nar- 
 cissus that still weeps in vain." The story of Narcissus, dying of love and 
 changed into the beautiful flower, is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Narcis- 
 sus was a paragon of beauty, and is so spoken of in Shakes. Antony and Cleo- 
 patra, II. V. 96 ; PMpe of Lucrece, 265 ; Milton's Comics, 237. Narcissus is 
 said to be from vapKaoo, to become n\imb, as the odor of the flower produced 
 torpidity. Plutarch says that ''those who are numbed with death should 
 very fittingly be crowned with a benumbing flower." 
 
 In the light of the foregoing explanations, the student will be able to 
 judge of the accuracy and fairness of Ruskin's criticism of this passage (lines 
 142-150). After distinguishing between 'fancy ' and ' imagination,' by say- 
 ing that "fancy sees the outside, and is able to give a portrait of the outside, 
 clear, brilliant, and full of detail" ; that "the imagination sees the heart 
 and inner nature, and makes them felt, but is often obscure, mysterious, and 
 interrupted, in its giving of outer detail," Huskin proceeds to illustrate. 
 
28 LYCIDAS. 
 
 To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 151 
 
 For so, to interpose a little ease, 
 
 " Compare," he says, ** Milton's flowers in Lycidas with Perdita's. In Mil- 
 ton it happens, I think, generally, and in the case before us most certainly, 
 that the imagination is mixed and broken with fancy, and so the strength of 
 the imagery is part of iron and part of clay : — 
 
 'Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, (Imagination.) 
 The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, (Nugatory.) 
 The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, (Fancy.) 
 The glowing violet, (Imagination.) 
 
 The miisk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, (Fancy, vulgar.) 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, (Imagination.) 
 And every flower that sad embroidery wears.' (Mixed.) 
 
 "Then hear Perdita : ' Proserpina,' etc. [See the quotation below from 
 Winter's Tale.] 
 
 "Observe how the imagination in these last lines [Perdita's] goes into tlie 
 very inmost soul of every flower, after having touched them all at first with 
 that heavenly timidness, the shadow of Proserpine's, and gilded them with 
 celestial gathering ; and never stops on their spots, or their bodily shape, 
 while Milton sticks in the stains upon them, and puts us off with that unhappy 
 freak of jet in the very flower that without this bit of paper-staining would 
 have been the most precious to us of all. * There is pansies, that 's for 
 thoughts.' " Kuskin's Modern Painters, Part III. Vol. II. chap. iii. pp. 164, 
 165 (New York, Wiley & Son, 1871). Is the great art-critic just in his com- 
 parison of the consciously immature pastoral poet of twenty-eight or twenty- 
 nine with the veteran dramatist of forty-seven ? It may aid in the decision of 
 this question, if we examine the whole flower passage, of which Ruskin gives 
 the ten lines referred to above, beginning ' Proserpina.* The scene is at a 
 sheep-shearing, and Perdita is ' mistress o' the feast.' 
 
 " Reverend sir, 
 For you there 's rosemary and rue ; these keep 
 Seeming and savor all the winter long. 
 .... Sir, the year growing ancient, — 
 Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth 
 Of trembling winter, — the fairest flowers o' the season 
 Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors, 
 Which some call Nature's bastards, .... and I care not 
 
 To get slips of them 
 
 .... Here 's flowers for you, 
 Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram ; 
 The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun 
 And with him rises weejiing : these are flowers 
 Of middle summer, and I think they are given 
 
LYCIDAS. 29 
 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 153 
 
 Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
 
 To men of middle age 
 
 .... Now, my fairest friend, 
 
 I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might 
 
 Become your time of day ; — and yours, and yours, 
 
 That wear upon your virgin branches yet 
 
 Your maidenhoods growing. O Proserpina, 
 
 For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall 
 
 From Dis's wagon ! dafi'odils, 
 
 Tliat come before the swallow dares, and take 
 
 The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, 
 
 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
 
 Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses. 
 
 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
 
 Bright Phoebus in his strength, — a malady 
 
 Most incident to maids ; bold oxlips and 
 
 The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds. 
 
 The flower-de-luce being one ! 0, these I lack, 
 
 To make you garlands of ; and my sweet friend, 
 
 To strew him o'er and o'er." 
 
 Winter's Tale, IV, iii. 
 
 Milton evidently had this passage in his mind ; but perhaps the nearest par- 
 allel passage is in Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, April : — 
 
 *' Bring hither the pink and purple columbine, with gilliflowers ; 
 Bring coronations, and sops-iu-wine [carnations and pinks], 
 
 Worn of paramours [lovers] : 
 Strow me the ground with daffadowndillies. 
 
 And cowslips and kingcups and loved lilies [kingcups = crow-toes] : 
 The pretty paunce [pansy] 
 
 And the chevisaunce [achievement, perhaps here a flower] 
 Shall match with the fair flower-delice " [flower-de-luce ; Fr. fleur-de-lis, 
 flower of lily, the white lily]. 
 
 151. Laureate, laurelled, 'having the poet's laurel on it.* What is a poet- 
 laureate ? Hearse. Coffin ? So it seems to be in Milton's Epitaph on the 
 Marchioness of Winchester, 1. 58. Dean Stanley, in his Historical Memo- 
 rials of Westminster Abbey, says, "The hearse was a platform, decorated 
 with black hangings, and containing an effigy of the deceased. Laudatory 
 verses were attached to it with pins, wax. or paste. " (The history of ' hearse ' 
 illustrates the curious changes of meaning whicli words sometimes undergo : 
 Gr. apTT, to seize hastily, snatch and carry away ; whence dpira^, robbing, 
 rapacious ; also a grapple, or grajjpling-iron, used in sea-fights ; Lat. hirpex, 
 or irpex, a large rake with iron teeth used for the same purposes as our har- 
 
30 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Wasli far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; 155 
 
 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 
 
 row, erpice being still the Italian for harrow ; Low Lat. hcrcia ; Old. Fr. 
 herce, or herche, a triangular framework of iron in the foi-ni of a harrow, 
 used for holding candles at funerals and church ceremonies, and placed at the 
 head of graves and cenotaphs. Afterwards the word herce, or hers, came to 
 signify the whole funeral obsequies ; also the cenotaph, the grave, the coffin, 
 the dead body ; or any framework, platform, or canopy erected beside or over 
 the tomb ; lastly, hearse, the carriage in which the coffin is conve} ed. ) Ly- 
 cid. " The older poets were fond of shortening classical names thus." 
 
 153. False surmise, the false supposition in which, for the sake of the 
 momentary comfort it aflFords, we vainly indulge, that thy loved form is here 
 where we can honor it ? Frail. This word is used apologetically. Dally, 
 play, trifle. 
 
 154. See note line m. The student will not fail to notice the beauty of 
 this outbreaking of regret that the 'surmise 'is but a transient drejfm. The 
 shores — wash, etc. ''This expression, though strange, is not the result of 
 oversight, since Milton deliberately substituted ' shoars ' for ' floods ' in his 
 MS. The obvious meaning is that the corpse visited different parts of the 
 coast in its wanderings, and was not out at sea all the time. The word shore 
 does, however, literally mean 'that which divides the water from the land,' 
 and therefore includes the portion sometimes covered by the tide." Jerram. 
 
 155. Far away, at a great distance ? or to it ? 
 
 156. Hebrides. Western Islands. These islands, about 200 in number, are 
 on the west coast of Scotland. Why are they ' stormy' ? Examine, for the 
 localities in this passage, a good map showing the British islands and the west 
 coast of Europe. 
 
 157. ■Whelming. The first draft has ' humming,' evidently from Shakes. 
 Pericles, III. i. 64, " And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse." 
 
 158. Monstrous, abounding in monsters. So Horace, Odes, I. 3. 18, and 
 Virgil, yEneid, VI. 729. Homer's Odyssey, III. 158, has fieyaKifrea Trdvrov, 
 the deep abounding in sea-monsters. 
 
 159. Moist vows. Tearful prayers ? protestations of affection ? 
 
 160. Bellerus. Milton first wrote the word Corineus, but substituted Bel- 
 lerus, coining it from Belerium or (as in Ptolemy) Bolerium, Land's End. 
 " It has been supposed that Milton, desiring a legendary namefather for the 
 special bit of Cornwall called Bellerium by the Romans, took the liberty of 
 adding such an imaginary personage to the retinue of tlie great giant-killing 
 Corineus." Masson. See Milton's History of ErKjland for the story of the 
 
LYCIBAS. 31 
 
 Where the great vision of the guarded mount 
 Looks toward iSTamancos, and Bayona's hold : 
 Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth; 
 And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 
 
 Trojan Corineus, Brutus, etc. Fable. The place fabled to have been the 
 liaunt of Bellerus. Drayton's Poly-Olhion (1st song) says that Cornwall was 
 named after Corineus to commemorate his victory over Gogmagog, a Cornish 
 giant. See a good map of the west coast of Europe. 
 
 161. Vision, the apparition of the Archangel Michael, which is said to 
 have been seen by some hermits centuries ago. A craggy seat, known as 'St. 
 Michael's chair,' on the steep rock called St. Michael's Mount, and about 200 
 feet liigh, overhangs the sea in Mount's Bay, near Penzance, and is much vis- 
 ited by tourists. The rock is pyi'amidal in form, encompassed by the sea at 
 liigh tide, and surmounted by several old buildings. One of these is a castle, 
 s'lill inhabited at times ; and about this castle are traced the remains of a yet 
 more ancient stronghold, ftnce occupied by the Normans, There was a mon- 
 astery here of Benedictine monks, founded by Edward the Confessor; also a 
 Ciiapel said to have been built in the fifth century. The spot has long been 
 an object of superstitious reverence. ''The so-called chair is a fragment of 
 the lantern of the monastery," says E. C. Browne, and he adds that, "to 
 scramble around the pinnacle on which it is placed is a dangerous exploit, 
 and is traditionally rewarded with marital supremacy." Clarendon Press edi- 
 tion. See note in Masson, pp. 460, 461. Guarded mount. How guarded t 
 "What of the rhyme here ? 
 
 162. Namancos. In Mercator's Atlas of 1623 and 1636, Namancos is set 
 down as a town in the province of Galicia, near Cape Finisterre and a little 
 to the east, and Bayona is a city on the west coast of that province, some 
 distance to the south. Masson characterizes as nonsensical the notion once 
 entertained that by Bayona Milton meant Bayonne in southwestern France, 
 and by Namancos the ancient Numantia. He shows that there was an old 
 traditionary belief that Cape Finisterre and its vicinity could be seen from 
 Cornwall, and vice versa. Hold, stronghold, fastness ; as repeatedly in 
 Shakespeare ; e. g. in Cyvibeline, III. vi. IS, '"Tis some savage hold." 
 
 163. Angel. The critics generally, Warton, Masson, R C. Browne, Ste- 
 vens, Morris, and the rest, make this an apostrophe to the 'great vision,' the 
 Archangel Michael ; " Look no longer seaward to Namancos and Bayona's 
 hold : . . . . look homeward to your own coast now, and view with pity the 
 shipwrecked Lycidas." But Jerram, on the contrary, argues that St. Michael's 
 apparition is merely introduced parenthetically, as part of a local description, 
 and never directly addressed. It is, according to him, the spirit of Lycidas, 
 now an angel, that is invoked. Rutll (Old Eng. lireoxoan ; Ger. reuen, to sor- 
 row), sorrow, pity. 
 
 164. Dolphins. This fish, remarkable for its SAviftness and its beautiful 
 brilliant colors, has been a favorite Avith poets ever since it saA'ed the life of 
 
32 LYCIDAS. 
 
 Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more; 165 
 Tor 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, 
 
 the sweet singer Arion. When the rude sailors coveted his treasures and 
 threw him overboard on his way from Sicily to Corinth, the song-loving dol- 
 phins assembled around the vessel, and one of them 
 
 ' him bore 
 Through the -^gean seas from pirates' view.' 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 23. Somewhat similar is the story of Palae- 
 mon and the dolphin in Pausanias ; and of the boy and dolphin in Gellius 
 quoted from Apion. Pliny describes the dolphin as an animal ' most friendly 
 to man.' Liddell and Scott in their Greek Lexicon describe the dolphin (Gr. 
 deXcpis) as ' a small species of whale, which played or tumbled before storms 
 as if to warn seamen, and so was counted the friend of men ' ; hence the story 
 of Ariou. The 'curving back,' as Ovid calls it [Fasti, II. line 113), is sup- 
 posed by the sailors to have suggested the idea of carrying burdens. See 
 Shakes. Midsummer NighVs Dream, II. i, 150, and elsewhere. See Class. 
 Diet. 
 
 165. "Weep no more. This transition is somewhat like that near the close 
 of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar for N'ovember, but it is by no means an imi- 
 tation. The Clarendon Press edition says approvingly, " Keightley thus ac- 
 centuates, — 
 
 ' Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no m6re,* 
 as also the 
 
 ' Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more ' 
 
 of Shakespeare, and supports his view by quoting from classic and from Eng- 
 lish, German, and Italian writers, instances of repeated phrase with varied 
 accent " ! Mr. Keightley has put himself to needless trouble. As if it were 
 necessary to accent every second syllable ! Have critics no ears ! 
 
 166. Sorrow, the object of your sorrow. 
 
 167. Watery floor. So Dante, Purgatorio, Canto II. 1. 15, ' sovra 'I suol, 
 marino,' upon the ocean floor. 
 
 168. Day-star, the sun, called the 'diurnal star' in Par. Lost,X. 1069. 
 So Pindar in his first Olympian Ode has, " Seek no bright star during the 
 day, in the desert air, more genial than the sun." Shakespeare calls the moon 
 Hhe watery star.' Winter's Tale. I. ii. 1. Jerram thinks the evening star is 
 referred to. See his note. Dwell a moment on the exquisite beauty of the 
 simile and the music of these lines. 
 
 169. Repairs (Lat. re-parare, to prepare again ; Fr. rSparer), refreshes, re- 
 stores to a good state. In Lydgate's Troy we find, " Long ere Titan [i. e. 
 the sun] gau make his repaire." Horace, Odes, IV. vii. 13, has " damna 
 
LYCIDAS. 33 
 
 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, 175 
 
 And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 
 
 tamen reparant coelestia lunge," the swift moons repair their wanings in the 
 skies. Drooping. Why drooping ? 
 
 170. Tricks (Welsh treciavj, to furnish ; or, better, from Dutch trek, a 
 draught ; pull ; deceit ; feature ; whence, perhaps, though Wedgwood doubts 
 it, comes Fr. tricher^ to cheat ; Ital. treccare), dresses, sets off. In II Pen- 
 seroso, lines 123, 124, we have, — 
 
 ' Not tricked and frounced as she was wont 
 With the Attic boy to hunt.' 
 
 "Tricked," says Dyce, "is properly an heraldic term = blazoned." Span- 
 gled (Gaelic spang, a shining metal plate), Milton often uses this word ; but, 
 like tinsel, it 'has lost somewhat of dignity.' See Trench {Stuchj of Words, 
 and English Past and Present). Ore. In Shakespeare (as in Hamlet, IV. 
 i. 24, 25, 'like some ore among a mineral of metals base') we have 'ore' 
 meaning gold, or golden splendor. ' Ore ' would seem to be more appropriate 
 to the sun than to a star. 
 
 171. Forehead. In the Puritan Sylvester's translation of the Divine Weeks 
 and Works of the Protestant Du Bartas, a favorite book of Milton's, we find 
 the line, — 
 
 * Oft seen in forehead of the frowning skies.' 
 
 173. That walked the waves. Matt. xiv. 25, 26 ; Mark vi. 48, 49. The 
 student will not fail to observe the beautiful appropriateness of this allusion 
 to Christ's power over the waters. 
 
 174. Other groves and streams than those which he used to frequent on 
 earth. Along = beside, 'without the usual idea of motion.' Jerram. 
 
 175. Nectar, the drmk of the gods. " It was also used by way of ablution 
 to preserve immortality." Laves. So the ' aged Nereus ' 'reared the lank 
 head ' of the drowned Sabrina, 
 
 " And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 
 In nectared lavers." 
 
 Comus, 836, 837. 
 
 Oozy (A.-S. wos, juice ; wosig, juicy ; Provincial Eng. ouse, the liquor in a 
 tanner's vat). 
 
 176. Unexpressive, inexpressible, ineffably sweet. So ShaJtespeare has 
 nhe fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.' As You Like It, III. ii. 10. So 
 
34 LYCIDAS. 
 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 
 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 forever 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. 185 
 
 ,' Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 
 
 Milton's Ode on the Nativity, 1. 116. Nuptial song, the song at ' tlie mar- 
 riage Slipper of tlie Lamb.' Rev. xiv. 3 ; xix. 7, 9 ; xxi. 9. 
 
 177. This line, omitted in the edition of 1638, is inserted in Milton's hand- 
 writing in his own copy, which is preserved at Cambridge. Meek, peaccfid. 
 The epithet suggests the deeply significant words, ' kingdom and patience of 
 Jesus Christ.' Rev. i. 9. 
 
 180. Sing. Rev. v. 9 ; xv. 3 ; Par. Lost, III. 344 to 417. 
 
 181. "Wipe the tears forever from Ms eyes. Isa. xxv. 8, "The Lord 
 God will wipe away tears from off all faces." Rev. vii. 17 ; xxi. 4. 
 
 183. Genius of the shore. The sainted Lycidas becomes a numeji, or 
 genius loci, like the dead Daphnis in Virgil {Eclogue, V. 64, 65). Very simi- 
 lar is a passage in the Italian pastoral poet Sannazaro, who represents a 
 drowned man as thus addressed by his moxiruing friends : — 
 
 " A spice nos, raitisque veni, tu numen aquarum 
 Semper eris, semper Isetum piscantibus omen," 
 
 look favoringly upon us and gently come; thou shalt be the guardian deity 
 of the waters, omen ever gladdening to fishermen. The introduction of tliis 
 conception of the genius loci marks 'a return to the pastoral form' of the 
 poem. Is it a poetic variation of the idea in Hebrews i. 14 ? 
 
 184. In thy large recompense, tlie ample requital for all thy sufferings. 
 Shalt be good. The passage referred to in Virgil in the preceding line has, 
 " Sis bonus felixque tuis," mayst thou be good and propitious to thy 
 own. 
 
 185. Perilous. The critics will have it that this Avord is everjovhere a dis- 
 syllable in Milton, except Par. Lost, II. 420. But is it necessary so to regard 
 it ? May not an anapest be allowed ? 
 
 186. Thus sang, etc. "The shepherd elegiast," says Scott (Critical Es- 
 says), " who has not yet been formally introduced, is now set before us 
 among his oaks and rills." It has been remarked that the last eight lines of 
 tlie ]:)oeni foini a perfect stanza in ottuva rima. Uncouth (A.-S, un, not, 
 
LYCIDAS. 35 
 
 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 
 
 cudh, known, from cunnan, to know), unknown. So most of tlie critics inter- 
 pret the word in this line, as being a natural expression of a young man look- 
 ing forward to future fame. But perhaps it should have its modern sense, 
 and be interpreted as a modest acknowledgment of inxdeness or awkwardness. 
 The swain, of course, is Milton, who now speaks in his own character. 
 
 187. While the still morn went out with sandals gray. 'Alluding,' 
 say Stevens and Morris, 'to the gray appearance of the sky just before sun- 
 rise.' See Par. Regained, IV. 426, 427. May it mean the gray of the clouds 
 and sky when morning is just vanishing later in the day ? I am not aware 
 that the exquisite beauty of this line lias been commented upon. It is equal 
 to the famous verses of Shakespeare, which Richard Grant White quotes to 
 prove the superiority of Shakespeare's imagination over Milton's, — 
 
 "But look, the morn in russet mantle clad 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill " ; 
 
 for this line of Milton's, more musical than these of Shakespeare, is also more 
 condensed ; and then it adds the charm of stillness. 
 
 188. Stops, vent-holes of a flute or pipe. So in Shakes. 2 Henry IV., In- 
 duction, 17 ; Hamlet, III. ii. 76, 376, 381. Quills (Lat. calamus, reed, or 
 caulis, a stalk ; Ger. Mel), originally reed-pipes, the tubes of wmd instru- 
 ments. Spenser speaks of the ' homely shepherd's quill.' Johnson thought 
 it the plectrum, and quoted Dryden's Virgil, ^neid, VI. 646, "His quill 
 strikes seven notes " : but this meaning does not so well suit this passage. 
 The various quills are changes of mood and metre — ' the varied strains of 
 the elegy' or themes of the poem (at lines 76, 88, 113, 132, 165). "This 
 almost amounts to a recognition on the part of the poet of the irregularity of 
 style, the mixture of different and even opposing themes." Jerram. 
 
 189. Eager, earnest, intent, keen. Doric lay (the Acjpls doidd of the Greek 
 pastoral poet Moschus, Avho flonrished in Syracuse about 270 B. c, and who 
 composed a beautiful elegy on his fellow-poet Bion), pastoral song. Theo- 
 critus, too, was a native of the Dorian colony at Syracuse. Doric, pertaining 
 to the Dorians, a people of ancient Greece. In music, the Doric was severe, 
 austere, or grave ; the Lydian was soft, sweet, or pathetic ; the Phrygian, 
 sprightly, animated ; the Ionic, airy, fanciful. 
 
 190. Stretched out. Stretched them out into shadow ? In the last line 
 of Virgil's first Eclogue we find, " Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus um- 
 brce,'' and larger shadows fall from the lofty mountains. Do these lines 
 mean that the poet was engaged from dawn till sunset in composing this 
 lay? 
 
3G LYCIDAS. 
 
 And now was dropped into tlie western bay. 
 At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue 
 To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new. 
 
 1 
 
 191. At the end of Spenser's Pastoral jEglogue upon the Death of Sir 
 Philip Sidney, we have the line, — 
 
 " The sun, lo ! hastened hath his face to steep 
 In western waves," 
 
 as a reason for ceasing to sing. 
 
 192. He. The ' swain.' Twitched, caught up or snatched. Keightley 
 says, ' drew tightly about him. on account of the chilliness of the evening,' 
 This picturesque ending expresses haste, as if conscious that in his absorption 
 in ' eager thought ' he had tarried too long. Mantle blue. R. C. Browne 
 in his notes hints that the mantle was, like that of Hudibras, ' Presbyterian 
 true blue ! ' 
 
 193. In Fletcher's Purple Island (1633) occurs the line, — 
 
 *' To-morrow shall ye feast in pastures new." 
 
 Says Masson, " This is a parting intimation that the imaginary shepherd is 
 Milton himself, and that the poem is a tribute to his dead friend rendered 
 passingly in the midst of other occupations." "It is better," says Jerrani, 
 "to refer these words to the projected Italian tour, with which his mind 
 must now have been occupied, than to any political intentions at this time." 
 
 For an interesting critical examination and exposition of lines l08 - 129, 
 see Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, pp. 26-34. (Wiley and Son, N. Y., 1S6G.) 
 
INDEX OF WORDS EXPLAINED. 
 
 a- (prefix), 10. 
 abhorred shears, 16. 
 afield, 10. 
 Aganippe, 8. 
 along, 3-3. 
 Alpheus, 23. 
 amain, 21. 
 amaranthus, 27. 
 Amaryllis, 15. 
 angel, 31. 
 apace, 23. 
 are not fed, 22. 
 Arethuse, 17. 
 at the door, 23. 
 ay me ! 14. 
 
 Bark, 19. 
 
 battening, Iv^. 
 
 Bayona, 31. 
 
 BeUerus, 30. 
 
 bells, 23. 
 
 berries, 6. 
 
 bespake, 21. 
 
 bidden guest, 21. 
 
 bier, 8. 
 
 blaze, 16. 
 
 bonnet sedge, 19. 
 
 boots, 15. 
 
 built in the eclipse, 19. 
 
 Camus, 19. 
 
 canker, 12. 
 
 clear, 15. 
 
 climb into the fold, 21. 
 
 compels, /or compel, 7. 
 
 constraint, 7. 
 
 cowslips, 27. 
 
 coy, 9. 
 
 crow-toe, 25. 
 
 crude, 6. 
 
 DafiFadillies, 27. 
 daUy, 30. 
 
 Damoetas, 11. 
 day-star, 32. 
 dear, 7. 
 Deva, 13 
 dolphins, 31. 
 doomed, 18. 
 Doric, 35. 
 drooping, 32. 
 Druids, 13. 
 
 Eager, 35. 
 
 echoes, 12. 
 
 embroidery, 27. 
 
 enamelled, 24. 
 
 engine, 23. 
 
 enow, 21. 
 
 eyelids of the morning, 10. 
 
 eyes, 24. 
 
 Fable(ofEelleru.^), 31. 
 
 false surmise, 30. 
 
 fauns, 11. 
 
 felon, 18. 
 
 flashy, 22. 
 
 foil, 17. 
 
 fondly, 14. 
 
 footing slow, 19. 
 
 forehead, 33. 
 
 Fury, 16. 
 
 Gadding, 12. 
 
 Genius of the shore, 34. 
 
 grate, 22. 
 
 gray -fly, 10. 
 
 graze, 12. 
 
 grim wolf, 22. 
 
 guarded mount, 31. 
 
 guerdon, 16. 
 
 Harsh and crude, 6. 
 hearse, 29. 
 
 Hebrides, .30. 
 Hebrus, 14. 
 herald, 18. 
 herdsman's, 21. 
 higher mood , 18. 
 Hippotades, 18. 
 his, 19. 
 hold, 31. 
 honeyed, 24- 
 Hyacinth, 20. 
 
 Inwrought, 20. 
 
 Jessamine, 25. 
 
 Keys, 20. 
 King, Edward, 5 
 knew to sing, 8. 
 
 Last infirmity, 16. 
 lastly, 17. 
 laureate, 29. 
 laurels, 5. 
 laTes, 33. 
 lawns, 9. 
 learned friend, 5. 
 Lesbian, 14 
 level brine, 19. 
 looks, 24. 
 Lycid, 30. 
 Lycidas, 7. 
 
 Mantle blue, 36. 
 mantle hairy, 19. 
 meed, 17. 
 meek, 34. 
 mellowing year, 6 
 melodious tear, 8. 
 Mincius, 17. 
 mitred, 21. 
 moist vows, 30. 
 Mona, 13. ' 
 
38 
 
 INDEX OF WORDS EXPLAINED. 
 
 monody, 5. 
 
 recks, 22. 
 
 swart star, 24. 
 
 monstrous, 30. 
 
 recompense, 34. 
 
 swollen with wind, 22. 
 
 Muses, 8, 14. 
 
 reft, 20. 
 
 
 musk-rose, 26. 
 
 repairs, 32. 
 
 Taint-worm, 12. 
 
 Namancos, 31. 
 Neaera, 15. 
 nectar, 33. 
 nothing said, 23. 
 nuptial song, 34. 
 
 rhime, 8. 
 rigged, 19. 
 
 tempered, 11. 
 
 tend the homely, etc., 15 
 
 rime, 8. 
 
 thankless Muse, 15. 
 
 rout, 14. 
 
 rugged wings, 18. 
 
 ruth, 31. 
 
 think to burst out, 16. 
 tricks, 33. 
 tufted, 25. 
 
 nymphs, 13. 
 
 
 twitched, 36. 
 
 Oat, 18. 
 
 Sad embroidery, 27. 
 
 two-handed engine, 23. 
 
 oaten flute, 11. 
 
 sandals gray, 36. 
 
 
 once more, 6. 
 
 sanguine flower, 20. 
 
 Uncessant, 15. 
 
 oozy, 33. 
 
 satyrs, 11. 
 
 uncouth, 34. 
 
 Orpheus, 14. 
 
 scrannel, 22. 
 
 unexpressive, 33. 
 
 
 sere, 6. 
 
 use, 15. 
 
 Pale jessamine, 25. 
 
 Shalt be good, 34. 
 
 
 Panope, 19. 
 
 shatter, 6. 
 
 Vernal flowers, 24. 
 
 pansy, 26 
 
 sheep-hook, 21. 
 
 violet, 26. 
 
 f)arching, 8. 
 
 shroud, 9. 
 
 vision, 31. 
 
 perilous, 34. 
 
 shrunk, 23. 
 
 
 Phoebus, 16. 
 
 Sicilian Muse, 23. 
 
 Walked the waves, 33. 
 
 pilot of the Galilean lake, 20. 
 
 sleek, 19. 
 
 wanton, 24. 
 
 pink, 25. 
 
 slighted shepherd's trade, 15. 
 
 wardrobe, 13. 
 
 plea, 18. 
 
 slits, 16. 
 
 watery floor, 32. 
 
 pledge, 20. 
 
 sloped, 11. 
 
 weanling, 12. 
 
 position of noun, 7. 
 primrose, 25- 
 
 smite no more, 23. 
 smooth sliding, 17. 
 sorrow, 32 
 
 weep no more, 32. 
 well-attired, 26. 
 welter, 8. 
 
 privy paw, 23. 
 pure eyes, 17. 
 purple, 24. 
 
 sparely, 24. 
 sped, 22. 
 spirit, 15. 
 
 westering, 11. 
 what time, 10. 
 whelming, 30. 
 
 Quaint, 24. 
 
 spur, 15. 
 
 white pink, 26- 
 
 quills, 35. 
 
 steep, 13. 
 
 wings, 18. 
 
 quoth, 20. 
 
 stops, 35. 
 
 wipe the tears, 34. 
 
 
 strictly meditate, 15. 
 
 witness, 17. 
 
 Rank, 22. 
 
 string, 8. 
 
 wolf, 22. 
 
 rathe, 25. 
 
 swain, 18. 
 
 woodbine, 26. 
 
 Electrotyped 
 
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