Chapter XI: Part 11

708. _from the Cynic tub_: _i.e._ from the tub whence Diogenes, the Cynic, delivered them.

714. _curious_: careful, nice, delicate, fastidious.

719. _hutched_: hoarded, laid up, as in a hutch or chest.

724. _yet_: in addition; or, it may have the force of 'even.'

744. _it_: _i.e._ beauty.

750. _grain_: 'a term derived from the Latin _granum_, a seed or kernel, or grain in the sense of "grain of corn,"—which word _granum_ had come, in later Latin times, to be applied specifically to the _coccum_, a peculiar dye-stuff consisting of the dried, granular, or seed-like bodies of insects of the genus _Coccus_, collected in large quantities from trees in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. But that dye was distinctly red. Another name for it, and for the insect producing it, was _kermes_ . . . whence our "carmine" and "crimson." "Grain," therefore, meant a dye of such red as might be produced by the use of kermes or coccum.'—From Masson's note on 'Sky-tinctured grain,' 'P. L.,' v. 285, based on George P. Marsh's dissertation on the etymology of the word, in his 'Lectures on the English Language' (1st S., 4th Am. ed., 1861, pp. 65-75). Masson's note on 'cheeks of sorry grain' is '_i.e._ of poor colour,' as if 'grain' were used in the general sense of colour merely. It is better, I think, to understand 'grain' here in its special sense of red, but used by Comus ironically, as indicated by 'sorry.' Beautiful cheeks are presumed to have a delicate reddish hue; but where the features are homely and the complexion coarse, the cheeks may be said, ironically, to be of a sorry grain, _i.e._ not red at all.

759. _pranked_: set off, adorned, decked.

760. _bolt_: sift, refine; a metaphor from the process of separating flour from the bran. But the word may mean, as Dr. Newton explains, 'to shoot,' or, as Dr. Johnson explains, 'to blurt out, or throw out precipitantly.'

782. _sun-clad_: spiritually refulgent.

785. _the sublime notion_: see in extract from 'Apology for Smectymnuus,' in this volume.

788. _worthy_: deserving, in a bad sense.

790. _your dear wit_: the change from 'thy' to 'your' is not explainable here.

791. _her dazzling fence_: dear wit's and gay rhetoric's dazzling art of fencing. Todd quotes from Prose Works, 'Hired Masters of Tongue-fence': 'dear wit' and 'gay rhetoric,' not constituting a compound idea in Milton's mind, the relative 'that,' of which they are the antecedents, takes a singular verb, and the two nouns are represented by the singular personal pronoun 'her.' In the following passage from Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' B. II. C. ii. St. 31, two subjects take a singular verb, and are represented by a singular personal pronoun:

'But lovely concord, and most sacred peace,
Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds;
Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increace.'

The italicized portion of the following passage from 'The Passions and Faculties of the Soul,' by Reynolds, C. xxxix, given in Trench's 'Select Glossary,' _s.v._ Wit, defines well 'dear wit': 'I take not _wit_ in that common acceptation, whereby men understand _some sudden flashes of conceit whether in style or conference, which, like rotten wood in the dark, have more shine than substance, whose use and ornament are, like themselves, swift and vanishing, at once both admired and forgotten_. But I understand a settled, constant and habitual sufficiency of the understanding, whereby it is enabled in any kind of learning, theory, or practice, both to sharpness in search, subtilty in expression, and despatch in execution.'

797. _brute_: senseless; _lend her nerves_: _i.e._ to this sacred vehemence.

800-806. spoken aside.

804. _speaks thunder_: threatens thunder and the chains of Erebus to some of the Titans who are disposed to be rebellious in their imprisonment in Tartarus. It seems to be meant that Erebus is a more painful region than that into which they were cast after their defeat by Jove (Zeus).

815. _snatched his wand_: see v. 653.

816. _without his rod reversed_: the process, as related in Ovid, 'Met.,' xiv. 299-305, by which the companions of Ulysses are, through his intervention, retransformed by Circe.

822. _Melibœus_: Spenser is probably referred to.

823. _soothest_: truest, most faithful.

826. _Sabrina_: the legend of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his 'Latin History of the Britons'; by Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' 6th Song; by Warner, in his 'Albion's England'; by Spenser, in his 'Faerie Queene,' II. x. 14-19, and by Milton, in the first book of his 'History of Britain.'

835. _Nereus_: 'the good spirit of the Ægean Sea,' father of the nereids or sea-nymphs.

852. _old swain_: Melibœus.

867-889. _Listen, and appear to us_: _Oceanus_ was the most ancient sea-god, . . . _Neptune_, with his trident, was a later being. _Tethys_ was the wife of Oceanus, and mother of the river-gods. _Hoary Nereus_ is the 'aged Nereus' of line 835. The _Carpathian wizard_ is the subtle _Proteus_, ever shifting his shape: . . . _Triton_, son of Neptune and Aphrodite, . . . he was 'scaly,' because the lower part of him was fish. _Glaucus_ was a Bœotian fisherman who had been changed into a marine god: . . . was an oracle for sailors and fishermen. _Leucothea_ ('the white goddess') was originally Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, and had received her new name after she had drowned herself and been converted into a sea-deity. _Her son that rules the strands_ was Melicertes, drowned and deified with her, and thenceforward known as _Palæmon_, or _Portumnus_, the god of bays and harbours. _Thetis_, one of the daughters of Nereus, and therefore a sea-deity by birth, married Peleus, and was the mother of Achilles: . . . Of the _Sirens_, or singing sea-nymphs . . . _Parthenope_ and _Ligea_ were two. The 'dear tomb' of the first was at Naples . . . the 'golden comb' of the second is from stories of our own mermaids.—_Masson's note, condensed._

900. _gentle swain_: the attendant spirit is still in the person and habit of the shepherd Thyrsis.

913. _cure_: curative power.

919. _his_: old neuter genitive, its.

921. _to wait_: to attend in the bower (court) of Amphitrite (wife of Neptune).

922. _daughter of Locrine_: see vv. 827, 828. The order of the legendary 'line' is, Anchises, Æneas, Ascanius, Silvius, Brutus, Locrine.

924. _brimmed_: full to the brim or edge of the bank; _cf._ 'full-fed river.'—_Tennyson's Palace of Art._

929. _scorch_: optative subj.

934-937. The true construction of these lines is pointed out by Mr. Calton, quoted in Todd's _variorum_ ed.: 'May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with many a tower and terrace, and here and there [may] thy banks [be crowned] upon with groves of myrrh and cinnamon.'

960. _duck or nod_: _i.e._ of the awkward country dancers.

964. _mincing Dryades_: daintily stepping wood-nymphs.

968. _goodly_: interesting and attractive in appearance.

972. _assays_: trials.

982. _Hesperus and his daughters three_: brother of Atlas, and father of the Hesperides.

1012. _But now, etc._: may be an independent or a subordinate sentence; if the latter, understand 'that' after 'now.' It is, perhaps, preferable to take it as an independent sentence.

1015. _bowed welkin_: arched sky; the idea is that the bend is the less noticeable at 'the green earth's end.'

1017. _corners_: horns.

1021. _higher than the sphery chime_: '_i.e._ to the Empyrean, beyond the spheres which give forth their music.'—_Keightley._

_Lycidas_

P. 167. _haud procul a littore Britannico_: 'the ship having struck on a rock not far from the British shore and been ruptured by the shock, he, while the other passengers were fruitlessly busy about their mortal lives, having fallen forward upon his knees, and breathing a life which was immortal, in the act of prayer going down with the vessel, rendered up his soul to God, August 10, 1637, aged 25.'—_Masson's translation._

1-5. _Yet once more_: these verses express the poet's sense of his unripeness for the exercise of the poetic gift. See his 'English Letter to a Friend,' p. 40; laurel, myrtle, and ivy are poetical emblems.

5. _before the mellowing year_: _i.e._ before the mellowing year or period of his own life; 'mellowing' is intransitive, growing or becoming mellow; 'year' is not a nominative, the subject of 'does' or 'shatters,' understood, as several editors make it, but is the object of the preposition 'before.'

6. _dear_: of intimate concernment; the word was formerly applied to what is precious, or painful, to the heart; it has here, of course, the latter application.

7. _Compels me to disturb your season due_: _i.e._ compels me to write a poem before I have attained to the requisite 'inward ripeness.' The compound subject, 'bitter constraint and sad occasion dear,' is logically singular, and takes a singular verb. The placing of a noun between two epithets is usual with Milton, especially when the epithet following the noun qualifies the noun as qualified by the preceding epithet; _e.g._ 'hazel copses green,' v. 42; 'flower-inwoven tresses torn.'—_Hymn on the Nativity_, 187; 'beckoning shadows dire.'—_Comus_, 207.

14. _melodious tear_: 'tear' is used, by metonymy, for an elegiac poem.

15. _sacred well_: the Pierian spring.

16. _the seat of Jove_: Mount Olympus.

17. _loudly_: _i.e._ as Hunter explains, in lamentation; or, perhaps, in praises.

18. _Hence with denial vain and coy excuse_: away with, etc., _i.e._ on _my_ part; _denial_: refusal; _coy_: shrinking, hesitating, reluctant, by reason of what is expressed in the opening verses.

19-22. _So may . . . sable shroud_: these verses are parenthetical, and v. 23 must be connected with v. 18, 'Hence with denial vain,' etc. I have followed Keightley's pointing; _gentle Muse_: high-born (nobly endowed) poet; _lucky words_: words that will favorably perpetuate my memory; _bid fair peace_: pray that fair peace be, etc.

23-36. _For we were nursed_: these verses express in pastoral language the devotion to their joint studies, early and late, of Milton and King, at Christ's College, Cambridge.

25. _ere the high lawns appeared_: _i.e._ before daybreak.

28. _What time the grey-fly_: _i.e._ the sultry noontide.

30. _Oft till the star . . . had sloped his westering wheel_: _i.e._ they continued their studies till after midnight, while in the meantime many of their fellow-students were giving themselves to music and dancing.

33. _Tempered_: attuned, modulated.

36. _old Damœtas_: 'may be,' says Masson, 'some fellow or tutor of Christ's College, if not Dr. Bainbrigge, the master.'

37. _Now thou art gone_: emotionally repeated; _heavy_: sad.

40. _With wild thyme . . . o'ergrown_: to be connected only with 'desert caves,' not 'woods.'

44. _to_: responsively to.

45. _canker_: cankerworm.

49. _Such_: used in its etymological sense, so-like; so-like killing is thy loss; _thy_: of thee; the personal pronoun here, used objectively, and not the possessive adjective pronoun.

52. _the steep_: some one of the Welsh mountains.

53. _lie_: lie buried.

54. _Mona_: the isle of Anglesey; Mona is represented by Tacitus as the chief seat of the Druids; _shaggy_: densely wooded; 'shaggy hill.'—_P. L._, iv. 224.

'They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands.'

—_P. L._, vi. 645.

'grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.'—_Comus_, 429.

55. _Deva_: the river Dee; called a 'wizard stream' from its associations with Druidical divinations and traditions, or Milton, in his use of the epithet, may have had more particularly in his mind the belief in regard to the river as the boundary between England and Wales, that it was itself prophetic. Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' 10th Song, says of the Dee:

'A brook, that was supposed much business to have seen,
Which had an ancient bound twixt Wales and England been,
And noted was by both to be an ominous flood,
That changing of his fords, the future ill, or good,
Of either country told; of either's war, or peace,
The sickness, or the health, the dearth, or the increase:
And that of all the floods of Britain, he might boast
His stream in former times to have been honoured most,
When as at Chester once King Edgar held his court,
To whom eight lesser kings with homage did resort:
That mighty Mercian lord, him in his barge bestowed,
And was by all those kings about the river rowed.'

Aubrey, in his 'Miscellanies,' 1696, Chap. XVII., says, as quoted by Todd, 'F. Q.,' IV. xi. 39, 'when any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear over the water, where the corpse is, a light, by which means they do find the body; and it is therefore called the holy Dee.'

58. _The Muse herself_: Calliope.

59. _enchanting_: refers to the power he exercised, with the lyre given him by Apollo, over wild beasts, trees, rocks, etc.

64-69. _Alas! what boots it_: in these verses Milton, with his high ideal of the function of poetry, laments its low state, and momentarily gives way to the thought that it would be better to conform to the prevailing flimsy taste than to 'strictly meditate the thankless Muse,' _i.e._ seriously devote one's self to song such as meets with no favor in these days. Amaryllis and Neæra are names of shepherdesses in Virgil's first and third Eclogues, and in other pastorals; 'meditate the thankless Muse' is after Virgil's 'Silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avenâ.'—_Ecl._, i. 2.

75. _Fury_: used in a general, and not in its special, mythological sense; the allusion is, of course, to Atropos, one of the Fates; called a blind fury by reason of the rashness with which she sometimes slits the thin-spun thread of life, as in the case of his friend King; 'slit' now always means to cut lengthwise; here, to cut across, sever.

76. _But not the praise_: 'slits' is understood, but it doesn't yoke well with 'praise'; the nearest substitute would be 'cuts off': but cuts not off the praise.

79. _Nor in_: _i.e._ nor (lies) in, not set off in; 'set off' refers, not to 'Fame,' but to 'glistering foil,' _i.e._ the bright outside exhibited to the world.

81. _by_: as Keightley explains, by means of, under the influence of; he quotes Habakkuk i. 13: 'Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.'

85. _fountain Arethuse_: in the island Ortygia, near Syracuse; by metonymy for the 'Sicilian Muse' (v. 133), or the fountain-nymph, Arethusa, presiding over pastoral poetry, which originated in Sicily, and was consummated by Theocritus, a native of Syracuse. Virgil, in the opening of his fourth Eclogue, Pollio, invokes the Sicilian Muses (Sicelides Musæ, paullo majora canamus), and in his tenth Eclogue, Gallus, he invokes the fountain nymph, Arethusa, to aid him in his last pastoral song (Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem); _and thou honoured flood, smooth-sliding Mincius_: Mantua, Virgil's birth town, or what he regarded as such (he was born in the neighboring village of Andes), is on an island in the river Mincius, a tributary of the Po; _honoured flood . . . crowned with vocal reeds_: _i.e._ by reason of its association with Virgil, and his fame as a pastoral poet. Lord Tennyson, in his ode 'To Virgil, written at the request of the Mantuans for the nineteenth centenary of Virgil's death,' speaks of him as a pastoral poet, in the fourth and fifth stanzas:

'Poet of the happy Tityrus
piping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;
Chanter of the Pollio, glorying
in the blissful years again to be,
Summers of the snakeless meadow,
unlaborious earth and oarless sea.'

88. _my oat proceeds_: the suspended pastoral strain is resumed.

89. _Herald of the Sea_: Triton, with 'wreathed horn.'

90. _in Neptune's plea_: Neptune's is an objective genitive: in defence, or exculpation of Neptune. This explanation of 'plea' is supported by its use in all other places in Milton's poetry:

'So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.'

—_P. L._, iv. 394.

'to make appear,
With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance.'—_P. L._, x. 30.

'Yet of another plea bethought him soon.'—_P. R._, iii. 149.

'Weakness is thy excuse, . . .
All wickedness is weakness; that plea therefore
With God or man will gain thee no remission.'

—_S. A._, 834.

Keightley explains that Triton 'came, deputed by Neptune, to hold a judicial inquiry into the affair. We have the Pleas of the Crown and the Court of Common Pleas.'

96. _Hippotades_: a patronymic of Æolus, god of the winds.

98. _the level brine_: in v. 167, 'the watery floor.'

99. _Sleek Panope_: one of the sea-nymphs, daughter of Nereus; the name (in Gk. Πανόπη) seems to indicate that the nymph is a personification of a smooth sea ('level brine') which affords a _full view_ all around to the horizon. The voyager on such a sea is 'ringed with the azure world.' The epithet 'sleek' is in accord with the personification.

100-102. _It was that fatal_: these verses are not part of the answer which Hippotades brings; the poet speaks in his own person.

101. _Built in the eclipse_: eclipses were believed to shed malign influences (see 'P. L.,' i. 594-599); one of the ingredients of the witches' hell-broth, in 'Macbeth,' is 'slips of yew, slivered in the moon's eclipse'; _rigged with curses dark_: 'with,' of course, though this has been questioned, expresses accompaniment; to understand it as instrumental, makes a crazy hyperbole of the phrase.

102. _sacred head_: King was dedicated to the holy office of the ministry. He is made to represent, in the poem, a pure priesthood.

103-107. _Next Camus_: Dr. Masson's note, and the included quoted one, are the most acceptable of the numerous notes on this passage: 'Camus, the tutelary genius of the Cam, and of Cambridge University, appeared as one of the mourning figures; for had not King been one of the young hopes of the University? The garb given to Camus must doubtless be characteristic, and is perhaps most succinctly explained by a Latin note which appeared in a Greek translation of "Lycidas" by Mr. John Plumptre in 1797. "The mantle," said Mr. Plumptre in this note, "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 traced somehow over the middle of the leaves, and serrated at the edge of the leaves after the fashion of the ἀὶ, ἀὶ of the hyacinth." It is said that the flags of the Cam still exhibit, when dried, these dusky streaks in the middle, and apparent scrawlings on the edge; and Milton (in whose MS. "_scrawled o'er_" was first written for "_inwrought_") is supposed to have carried away from the "_arundifer Camus_" ('Eleg.,' i. 11) this exact recollection. He identifies the edge-markings with the ἀὶ, ἀὶ (Alas! Alas!) which the Greeks fancied they saw on the leaves of the hyacinth, commemorating the sad fate of the Spartan youth from whose blood that flower had sprung.'

107. _pledge_: child; Lat. _pignus amoris_.

109. _The Pilot_: St. Peter, whom, it must be understood, Milton presents as 'the type and head of _true_ episcopal power,' to which he was in no wise opposed. He wished the bishop to be a truly spiritual _overseer_, as the word signifies.

114. _Enow_: an archaic plural form of 'enough'; 'hellish foes enow.'—_P. L._, ii. 504; 'evils enow to darken all his goodness.'—_Antony and Cleopatra_, I. iv. 11.

117. _to scramble at the shearer's feast_: to scramble for and gobble up fat benefices.

118. _the worthy bidden guest_: one who has been truly called to serve the Church.

119. _Blind mouths_: 'mouths' is used, by synecdoche, for gluttons, as the five preceding verses show. Ruskin's explanation of the phrase, in his 'Sesame and Lilies,' is very ingenious, but it is not likely that Milton meant it to have such significance. 'Those two monosyllables,' he says, 'express the precisely accurate contraries of right character in the two great offices of the Church,—those of Bishop and Pastor. A Bishop means a person who sees. A Pastor means one who feeds. The most unbishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be Blind. The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed,—to be a Mouth. Take the two reverses together, and you have "blind mouths."'

Milton makes here his first onset upon the ecclesiastical abuses of the time. He was destined to make, not long after, fiercer onsets in his polemic prose writings.

120. _the least_: connect with 'aught else' rather than 'belongs.'

122. _What recks it them_: what does it concern them; _They are sped_: they've been successful in obtaining rich livings.

123. _list_: please; in earlier English generally used impersonally with a dative; _when they list_: _i.e._ when it suits them, not otherwise. They don't act from any sense of duty.

123, 124. _their lean and flashy songs grate_: their wretched sermons are wretchedly delivered with the emphasis of insincerity. Masson explains 'scrannel,' 'screeching, ear-torturing.'

126. _wind and the rank mist they draw_: _i.e._ the mere wind of some sermons and the poisonous doctrines of others, which their flocks inhale and drink in, and then impart the resulting spiritual disease to others.

128, 129. _the grim wolf_: generally understood to mean the Church of Rome. Bishop Newton, who first understood the passage to have reference to Archbishop Laud's 'privily introducing popery' afterward gave the alternative explanation, 'besides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion,' which Masson conclusively supports in his 'Life of Milton,' and adopts in his note on the passage in his edition of the 'Poetical Works'; the 'privy paw' doesn't suit Archbishop Laud, who did everything above-board.

130, 131. _But that two-handed engine_: see my explanation of these verses in the Introductory Remarks.

132. _Return, Alpheus_: he invokes the return of the pastoral Muse when the dread denouncing voice of St. Peter has ceased. Alpheus, the chief river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Arcadia and Elis. The river-god loved the nymph Arethusa, of Elis, whom, in her flight from him, Diana changed into a fountain which was directed by the goddess under the sea to the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. The river followed under sea and united with the fountain. See note on v. 85.

136. _use_: frequent.

138. _whose_: refers to 'valleys'; _the swart star_: understood by editors to mean the dog-star Sirius. But it may mean, and I think it does, the day-star, the sun. See v. 168; 'diurnal star.'—_P. L._, x. 1069; _swart_: used causatively; _sparely looks_: _i.e._ by reason of the shades.

139. _quaint enamelled eyes_: flowers of curious structure and of variegated glossy colors (?); the words are more enjoyable than distinctly intelligible; in the 'P. L.,' ix. 529, it is said of the serpent:

'oft he bowed
His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, fawning.'

Here 'enamelled' appears to mean variegated and glossy; so in Arcades:

'O'er the smooth enamelled green.'

141. _purple_: an imperative, to be construed with 'throw.'

142. _rathe_: early, soon; the old positive form of 'rather,' sooner. Tennyson uses the word in his 'In Memoriam,' c. ix. 2, 'The men of rathe and riper years'; and in 'Lancelot and Elaine,' 339, 'Till rathe she rose,' etc.; _that forsaken dies_: forsaken by the sun.

153. _with false surmise_: _i.e._ that we have the body of Lycidas with us.

158. _monstrous world_: the world of sea-monsters.

159. _moist_: tearful.

160. _the fable of Bellerus old_: _i.e._ the scene of the fable.

161-163. _Where the great Vision_: see Introductory Remarks.

164. _O ye dolphins_: an allusion to the story of Arion.

166. _your sorrow_: used objectively, he who is the object of your sorrow. 'Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead.'—_Shelley's Adonais._

167. _watery floor_: what is called the level brine, v. 98; 'the shining levels of the lake.'—_Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur_, suggested, no doubt, by the classical _æquora_.

169-171. _repairs his drooping head_: Milton, in these lines, compares great things with small (_parvis componit magna_); if they are 'considered curiously,' the sun makes his toilet on rising from his ocean bed!

172. _sunk . . . mounted_: any one reading this verse for the first time would be likely to get the impression that these words are participles; this would not be the case if 'sunk' were 'sank,' originally the distinctive singular form of the preterite, 'sunk' being plural; AS. _sanc_, _suncon_.

173. _Him that walked the waves_: a beautiful designation of the Saviour, in accord with the occasion of the poem; and so St. Peter is designated as 'the Pilot of the Galilean Lake.'

174. _along_: beside.

176. _unexpressive_: inexpressible.

184. _thy large recompense_: 'thy' is the personal, not the possessive adjective pronoun, being used objectively,—the large recompense thou hast received, in which is included thy becoming the genius of the shore; good: kind, propitious; 'sent by some spirit to mortals good.'—_Il Pens._, 154.

185. _in that perilous flood_: 'in' is more poetic than 'on' or 'o'er' would be; 'that perilous flood' is spoken of as a domain in which is included the atmosphere with its winds and storms; so, to wander in the desert.

186. _uncouth_: used, it is most likely, in its original sense of 'unknown,' Milton so regarding himself, as a poet; there may be involved the idea (supported by the opening lines of the Elegy) of wanting in poetic skill and grace.

188. _tender stops_: poetic transference of epithet, 'tender' being logically applicable to the music; _various quills_: used, by metonymy, for the varied moods, strains, metres, and other features of the Elegy; _eager thought_: perhaps meant to signify as much as sharp grief; _Doric_: equivalent to pastoral, the great Greek bucolic poets having written in the Doric dialect.

190, 191. _had . . . was_: note the distinctive use of these auxiliaries, the former being used with a participle of a transitive verb, and the latter, with that of an intransitive; _all the hills_: _i.e._ their shadows.

192. _twitched_: Keightley explains, 'pulled, drew tightly about him on account of the chilliness of the evening.' Jerram explains, 'snatched up from where it lay beside him.'

_Samson Agonistes_

P. 187. _Aristotle_: Greek philosopher, B.C. 384-322; the reference is to 'The Poetics,' (Περὶ ποιητικῆς), the greater part of which is devoted to the theory of tragedy.

P. 187. _a verse of Euripides_: φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρήσθ' ὁμιλίαι κακαί, 'evil communications corrupt good manners'; found in the fragments of both Euripides and Menander.

P. 187. _Pareus_: David Pareus, a German Calvinist theologian and biblical commentator, 1548-1622.

P. 187. _Dionysius the elder_: known as 'the tyrant of Syracuse,' B.C. 431-367; repeatedly contended for the prize of tragedy at Athens.

P. 187. _Seneca_ (_Lucius Annæus_): Roman Stoic philosopher, B.C. 3?-65 A.D.

P. 187. _Gregory Nazianzen_: saint; a Greek father of the Church, Bishop of Constantinople, about 328-389.

P. 188. _Martial_: M. Valerius Martialis, Latin epigrammatic poet, 43-104 A.D. or later.

P. 188. _apolelymenon_: 'a Greek word, ἀπολελυμένον, "loosed from," _i.e._ from the fetters of strophe, antistrophe, or epode; monostrophic (μονόστροφος) meaning literally "single stanzaed," _i.e._ a strophe without answering antistrophe. So allœostrophic (ἀλλοιόστροφος) signifies stanzas of irregular strophes, strophes not consisting of alternate strophe and antistrophe.'—_John Churton Collins._

P. 188. _beyond the fifth act_: 'Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Fabula.'—_Horace_, _Ars Poetica_, 189.

P. 191. _Agonistes_: one who contends as an athlete. 'The term is peculiarly appropriate to Samson, for he is the hero of the drama . . . and the catastrophe results from the exhibition of his strength in the public games of the Philistines.'—_J. Churton Collins._

2. _dark_: blind.

6. _else_: otherwhile, at other times.

9. _draught_: appositive to 'air.'

11. _day-spring_: the dawn.

12. With this line Samson's soliloquy begins, the attendant having withdrawn.

13. _Dagon_: god of the Philistines; represented in the 'Paradise Lost' (i. 462, 463) as a 'sea-monster, upward man, and downward fish.' See 1 Sam. v. 1-9.

16. _popular_: of the people.

19-21. Restless thoughts, that rush thronging upon me found alone.

24. _Twice by an Angel_: see Judges xiii.

27. _charioting_, etc.: withdrawing as in a chariot his godlike presence.

28. _and from_: and (as) from.

31. _separate_: separated, set apart: 'the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.'—Acts xiii. 2.

35. _under task_: under a prescribed task.

41. _Eyeless, in Gaza_, etc.: Thomas De Quincey, in his paper entitled 'Milton _vs._ Southey and Landor,' remarks: 'Mr. Landor makes one correction by a simple improvement in the punctuation, which has a very fine effect. . . . Samson says, . . .

Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
_Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves_.

Thus it is usually printed, that is, without a comma in the latter line; but, says Landor, 'there ought to be commas after _eyeless_, after _Gaza_, after _mill_.' And why? because thus, 'the grief of Samson is aggravated at every member of the sentence.' He (like Milton) was 1, blind; 2, in a city of triumphant enemies; 3, working for daily bread; 4, herding with slaves—Samson literally, and Milton with those whom politically he regarded as such.'

45. _but through_: except for, had it not been for.

55. _Proudly secure_: 'secure' is subjective, free from care or fear; 'Security is mortals' chiefest enemy.'—_Macbeth_, III. v. 32.

56. _By weakest subtleties_: by those most weak but crafty creatures (women), who are not made to rule, but to serve as subordinates to the rule of wisdom, the prerogative of man. This was, unfortunately, too much Milton's own opinion of women.

58. _withal_: at the same time.

62. _above my reach_: above the reach of my capacity to know.

63. _Suffices_: it is sufficient (to know).

67. _O loss of sight_: Milton here speaks virtually _in propria persona_.

70. _Light the prime work of God._—Gen. i. 3; 'offspring of Heaven first born.'—_P. L._, iii. 1.

75, 76. _exposed to daily fraud_: Milton here, no doubt, drew from his own experiences as a father.

77. _still_: ever, always.

82. _all_: any; 'without all doubt.'—_Henry VIII._, IV. i. 113; without all remedy.'—_Macbeth_, III. ii. 11.

87. _silent_: invisible; the epithet which pertains to one sense, that of hearing, is transferred to another, that of sight. Lat. _luna silens_.

89. _Hid in her vacant interlunar cave_: the moon is poetically represented as hid in a cave, and giving no light (vacant), between her disappearance and return, in the sky.

91, 92. _if it be true that light is in the soul_: the soul proceeding from God, and partaking of the 'Bright effluence of bright essence increate.'—_P. L._, iii. 6.

93. _She_ (the soul) _all in every part_ (of the body).

95. _obvious_: literally, in the way of (Lat. _obvius_), and so, exposed; 'Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired.'—_P. L._, viii. 504.

106. _obnoxious_: subject, liable.

111. _steering_: directing their course; 'With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering.'—_Ode on Nativity_, 146.

118. _at random_: anyway or anyhow; _carelessly diffused_: passively stretched upon the ground, sprawling.

'His limbs did rest
Diffused and motionless.'

—_Shelley's Alastor._

Spenser uses two phrases of similar import; '_Pour'd out in loosnesse_ on the grassy ground.'—_F. Q._, I. vii. 7; 'carelessly displaid.'—_F. Q._, II. v. 32. This use of 'diffused' is a Latinism.

'Publica me requies curarum somnus habebat,
_Fusa_que erant toto languida membra toro.'

—_Ovid_, _Ex Ponto_, III. iii. 7, 8.

122. _weeds_: garments, clothes.

128. _Who tore the lion_: see Judges xiv. 5, 6.

132. _hammered cuirass_: the cuirass was originally of leather; here of metal, formed with the hammer.

133. _Chalybean-tempered steel_: having the temper of steel wrought by the Chalybes, an ancient Asiatic people dwelling south of the Black Sea, and famous as workers in iron; hence, Lat. _chalybs_, steel, Gr. [Greek: chalyps]. Dr. Masson accents 'Chalybean' on the third syllable; it seems rather to have the accent here on the second.

134. _Adamantean proof_: having the strength of adamant.

136. _insupportably_: irresistibly.

139. _his lion ramp_: his leap or spring as of a lion. In the description of the sixth day of the creation (_P. L._, vii. 463-466) it is said of the lion,

'now half appeared
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded mane.'

144. _foreskins_: uncircumcised Philistines.

145. _Ramath-lechi_: see Judges xv. 17.

147. _Azza_: Gaza. See Judges xvi. 3. The form Azzah is used Deut. ii. 23.

148. _Hebron, seat of giants old_: for Hebron was the city of Arba, the father of Anak, and the seat of the Anakims.—Josh. xv. 13, 14. 'And the Anakims were giants, which come of the giants.'—Num. xiii. 33. _Newton._

149. _No journey of a sabbath-day_: Hebron was about thirty miles distant from Gaza; a sabbath-day's journey was but three-quarters of a mile.

150. _Like whom_: Atlas.

157. _complain_: directly transitive, in the sense of lament, bewail.

163. _visual beam_: ray of light, the condition of seeing.

'the air,
No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray.'

—_P. L._, iii. 620.

'then [Michael] purged with euphrasy and rue
The visual nerve, for he [Adam] had much to see.'

—_P. L._, xi. 415.

165. _Since man on earth_: a Latinism like _Post urbem conditam_, of frequent occurrence in Milton's poetry; 'Never since created man.—_P. L._, i. 573; 'After the Tuscan mariners transformed.'—_Comus_, 48.

169. _pitch_: usually pertains to height; here to depth.

172. _the sphere of fortune_: a constantly revolving globe.

173. _But thee_: construe with 'him,' third line above: 'For him I reckon not in high estate . . . But thee.'

181. _Eshtaol and Zora_: see Josh. xix. 41.

185. _tumours_: perturbations, agitations; so _tumor_ is used in Latin: 'Cum tumor animi resedisset;' 'Erat in tumore animus.'

190. _superscription_: a continuation of the metaphor in preceding line.

191-193. _In prosperous days they swarm_: perhaps from Milton's own experience after the Restoration.—_Masson._

207. _mean_: moderate, as compared with his physical strength.

208. _This_: _i.e._ wisdom.

209. _drove me transverse_: a continuation of the metaphor in 198-200. So in 'P. L.,' iii. 488:

'A violent cross wind from either coast
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues away
Into the devious air.'

212. _pretend they ne'er so wise_: claim they to be never so wise; the idea of falseness is not in the word 'pretend' as in its present use.

219. _The first I saw at Timna_: Judges xiv.

221. _The daughter of an infidel_: Milton probably had his first wife, Mary Powell, in his mind, whose family was infidel to his own political creed.

222. _motioned_: proposed.

223. _intimate_: inward, inmost.

228. _fond_: foolish.

229. _vale of Sorec_: a valley (and stream) between Askelon and Gaza, not far from Zorah.—Judges xvi. 4.

230. _specious_: good appearing.

235, 236. _vanquished with a peal of words_: a metaphor drawn from the storming of a fortress. A similar metaphor is found in '1 Henry VI.,' III. iii. 79, 80:

'I am vanquished; these haughty words of hers
Have battered me like roaring cannon-shot.'

237. _provoke_: to call forth, to challenge. Lat. _provocare_.

241. _That fault I take not on me_: 'with an occult reference, perhaps, to the conduct of those in power in England after Cromwell's death, when Milton still argued vehemently against the restoration of the Stuarts.'—_Masson._

247. _ambition_: used literally, going about in the service of some object, canvassing. Lat. _ambitio_.

248. _spoke loud_: proclaimed.

253. _Etham_: Judges xv. 8, 9.

257. _harass_: ravaging.

258. _on some conditions_: Judges xv. 11-13.

263. _a trivial weapon_: the jawbone of an ass. Judges xv. 15.

268-276. _But what more oft_: a plain reference to the state of England, and to Milton's own position there, after the Restoration.—_Masson._

271. _strenuous_: ardently maintained. Newton quotes a similar sentiment from the oration of Æmilius Lepidus, the consul, to the Roman people, against Sulla: 'Annuite legibus impositis; accipite otium cum servitio;'—but for myself—'potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.'

278. _How Succoth_: Judges viii. 4-9.

282. _how ingrateful Ephraim_: Judges xi. 15-27.

287-289. _sore battle_: the battle fought by Jephthah with Ephraim. Judges xii. 4-6.

291. _mine_: my people.

297, 298. _For of such doctrine_: 'Observe the peculiar effect of contempt given to the passage by the rapid rhythm and the sudden introduction of a rhyme in these two lines.'—_Masson._

305. _They ravel more, still less resolved_: they become more confused, and ever less disentangled.

327. _careful step_: 'careful' is used subjectively; a step indicating that Manoa was full of care, deeply concerned. Chaucer so uses 'dredeful':

'With dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamoun.'

—_Knight's Tale_, 1479.

333. _uncouth_: literally, unknown; strange, with the idea of the disagreeable.

334. _gloried_: a participial form derived from the noun.

335. _informed_: directed.

343. _Angels'_: I have followed Keightley in making 'Angels' a genitive.

345. _Duelled_: it was an individual fight on the part of Samson.

354. _as_: that; this use of 'as' after 'so' and 'such' is not uncommon in Shakespeare and Bacon, and the later literature.

'I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,
Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,
As I am sick with working of my thoughts.'

—_1 Henry VI._, V. v. 86.

364. _miracle_: wonder, admiration.

373. _Appoint_: 'Do not you arrange or direct the disposition of heavenly things.'—_Keightley._

383. _Of Timna_: Judges xiv.

394. _my capital secret_: a play on the word 'capital' is, no doubt, designed; chief secret and the secret of his strength depending upon his hair.

433. _That rigid score_: rigorous account or reckoning.

434. _This day_: Judges xvi. 23.

453. _idolists_: idolaters.

455. _propense_: disposed.

466. _provoked_: called forth, challenged.

499, 500. _a sin that Gentiles_: supposed to be an allusion to Tantalus, who divulged the secrets of the gods.

503. _but act not_: take not a part in thy own affliction; 'thy' is objective: in afflicting thyself.

505. _self-preservation bids_: _i.e._ that thou do so.

509. _his debt_: debt to him.

516. _what offered means_: those offered means which.

528. _blazed_: trumpeted abroad.

531. _affront_: a front to front encounter. The word occurs as a noun but once in Shakespeare:

'There was a fourth man in a silly habit,
That gave the affront with them.'—_Cymb._, V. iii. 87.

_i.e._ faced or confronted the enemy (Rolfe).

533. _venereal trains_: snares of Venus, or love.

537. _me_: an ethical dative? or it may be the usual dative.

539. _Then turned me out ridiculous_: an object of ridicule, a laughing-stock.

549. _rod_: ray of light.

552. _turbulent_: used causatively.

563-572. _Now blind, disheartened_: almost literally autobiographic.

569. _robustious_: Masson explains 'full of force'; but 'vain monument of strength' in the following verse, does not seem to support this explanation.

581. _caused a fountain_: Judges xv. 18, 19.

590-598. _All otherwise_: this pathetic passage is quite literally autobiographic, if 'race of shame' be excepted; but even this might be understood, in Milton's case, to be used objectively.

599. _suggestions_: the word has a stronger meaning than at present: inward promptings.

'why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature?'—_Macbeth_, I. iii. 34.

604. _how else_: elsewise, otherwise.

612. _all his_ (torment's) _fierce accidents_: all the fierce things which _fall to_, or happen to, body or mind.

613. _her_: the mind's.

615. _answerable_: corresponding.

624. _apprehensive_: taking hold of, mentally; having the power of conception or perception.

627. _medicinal_: accented on the penult.

628. _snowy Alp_: used generically for any snowy mountain.

633. _his_: Heaven's.

635. _message_: messenger, angel.

637. _amain_: vigorously.

643. _provoked_: called forth, challenged.

645. _to be repeated_: to be again and again made the subject of their cruelty or scorn.—_Masson._

650. _speedy death_: an appositive of 'prayer.'

658. _much persuasion_: to be construed with 'many are the sayings,' etc., and 'much persuasion (is) sought.'

662. _dissonant mood from_: mood dissonant from his complaint.

677. _Heads_: appositive to 'the common rout of men.'

683. _their highth of noon_: the meridian of their glory.

684. _Changest thy countenance_: a similar expression, but with a different meaning, to that in Job xiv. 20: 'Thou changest his (man's) countenance, and sendest him away.'

686. _or them to thee of service_: or of service (from) them to thee.

690. _Unseemly_: unbecoming in human eye; 'falls' is a noun in apposition to the preceding thought, 'thou throwest them lower than thou didst exalt them high.'

695-702. _Or to the unjust tribunals_: there has been an occult reference all through this chorus to the wreck of the Puritan cause by the Restoration; but in these lines the reference becomes distinct. Milton has the trials of Vane and the Regicides in his mind. He himself had been in danger of the law; and, though he had escaped, it was to a 'crude (premature) old age,' afflicted by painful diseases from which his temperate life might have been expected to exempt him.—_Masson._

699. _deformed_: attended with deformity.

700. _crude_: premature.

701. _disordinate_: inordinate, irregular; yet suffering without cause.

707. _What_: the word here, perhaps, means 'why.' The following question seems to support this.

715. _Tarsus_: _i.e._ Tarshish, which Milton avoided from his dislike to the sound _sh_. He seems to have agreed with those who thought that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia, instead of Tartessus in Spain. In the Bible, 'ships of Tarshish' signify large sea-going vessels in general; _the iles_, etc.: _i.e._ the isles and coasts of Greece and Lesser Asia; _Javan_ (pr. _Yawan_) is Ἰάονες, Ἴωνες, the Ionians. As these were the best known of the Greeks in the south, their name was given to the whole people, just as the Greeks themselves called all the subjects of the king of Persia, Medes; _Gadire_: Γαδείρα, Gades, Cadiz.—_Keightley._

717. _bravery_: finery, ornament; _trim_: shipshape, in good order.

719. _hold them play_: keep them in play.

720. _An amber scent_: an ambergris scent.

731. _makes address_: prepares.

732 _et seq._ 'The student will notice how thoroughly Euripidean the whole of the following scene is, not merely in the fact that two of the _dramatis personæ_ are pitted dialectically against one another, but in the cast of the language and in the quality of the sentiment.'—_John Churton Collins._

748. _hyæna_: 'a creature somewhat like a wolf, and is said to imitate a human voice so artfully as to draw people to it, and then devour them.

"'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,
To draw the pitying traveller to her den;
Your sex are so, such false dissemblers all."

—_Thomas Otway's Orphan_, A. ii.

Milton applies it to a woman, but Otway to the men.'—_Newton._

760, 761. _not to reject the penitent_: an obvious allusion to Milton's forgiveness of his first wife, after her two years' abandonment of him.

803. _That made for me_: helped my purpose (_i.e._ to keep you from leaving me as you did her at Timna).

842. _Or_: Keightley suspects that 'or' should be 'and' here, as 'or' does not connect well with what precedes.

868. _respects_: considerations; 'there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.'—_Hamlet_, III. i. 68, 69.

906. _peals_: peals of words. See l. 235.

932, 933. _trains_, _gins_, _toils_: these words all express modes of entrapping any one or anything.

934. _thy fair enchanted cup_: an allusion to Circe and the Sirens.

948. _gloss_: comment, construe.

950. _To thine_: compared to thine.

988, 989. _in mount Ephraim Jael_: Judges iv. 5.

990. _Smote Sisera_: Judges v. 26.

1016. _thy riddle_: Judges xiv. 12-19; _in one day or seven_: connect with 'harder to hit.'

1018. _If any of these, or all_: if it be any or all of these qualities, virtue, wisdom, valor, etc., that can win or long inherit (possess) woman's love, the Timnian bride had not so soon preferred thy paranymph (bridesman). Judges xiv., xv.

1022. _Nor both_: nor both wives; _disallied_: severed.

1025. _for that_: because.

1025-1060. _Is it for that such outward ornament_: the ideas expressed in these verses, it must be admitted, were too much Milton's own, in regard to woman, as his Divorce pamphlets show.

1030. _affect_: like.

1037. _Once joined_: _i.e._ in marriage.

1038. _far within_: a thorn in the flesh, a cleaving mischief, deep beneath defensive armor; these may be an allusion to the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by his wife Deianira.

1048. _combines_: _i.e._ with her husband.

1057. _lour_: frown, or look sullen.

1062. _contracted_: drawn together, gathered.

1068. _Harapha of Gath_: see under 1079.

1069. _pile_: the giant's body is spoken of as a pile, or large, proudly towering building.

1073. _habit_: dress.

1075. _His fraught_: the freight of commands or whatever else he is charged with. The word seems to be used contemptuously.

1076. _chance_: fate.

1079. _Men call me Harapha_: 'No such giant is mentioned by name in Scripture; but see 2 Sam. xxi. 16-22. The four Philistine giants mentioned there are said to be sons of a certain giant in Gath called "the giant"; and the Hebrew word for "the giant" there is Rapha or Harapha. Milton has appropriated the name to his fictitious giant, whom he makes out in the sequel (1248, 1249) to be the actual father of that brood of giants.'—_Masson._

1080. _Og, or Anak_: see Deut. iii. 11, ii. 10, and Gen. xiv. 5.

1081. _Thou know'st me now_: so in 'P. L.,' iv. 830:

'Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.'

1091. _taste_: to make trial of; Fr. _tâter_, OF. _taster_;

'he now began
To taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard,' etc.

—_Chapman's Homer's Od._, xxi. 211.

1092. _single me_: challenge me to single combat.—_Keightley._

1093. _Gyves_: handcuffs.

1105. _In thy hand_: in thy power.

1109. _assassinated_: cruelly abused or maltreated. The word is so used in Milton's 'Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' Book I. c. xii.

1113. _close-banded_: secretly leagued.—_Dr. Johnson._

1116. _without feigned shifts_: without any pretended considerations for my blindness.

1118. _Or rather flight_: a cutting phrase, implying that otherwise the giant may seek safety in flight, if they were not in 'some narrow place enclosed.'

1120, 1121. _brigandine_: coat of armor for the body; _habergeon_: armor for neck and shoulders; _Vant-brace_: (_avant bras_) armor for the arms; _greaves_: leg armor; _gauntlet_: (_gant_) glove of mail.

1122. _A weaver's beam_: 1 Sam. xvii. 5-7 was in Milton's mind in lines 1119-1122. 'And he [Goliath] had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; . . . And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam;' . . .

1132. _had not spells_: 'taken from the ritual of the combat in chivalry. When two champions entered the lists, each took an oath that he had no charm, herb, or any enchantment about him.'—_T. Warton._

1164. _boisterous_: strong, powerful?

1169. _thine_: thy people?

1181. _Tongue-doughty_: tongue-valiant.

1186. _thirty men_: Judges xiv. 19.

1195. _politician lords_: lords of your state.

1197. _spies_: Judges xiv. 10-18. 'Milton follows Jewish tradition in supposing the thirty bridal friends there mentioned to have been spies appointed by the Philistines.'—_Masson._

1202. _wherever chanced_: _i.e._ wherever by chance met with.

1219. _not all your force_: the ellipsis is, would have disabled me.

1220. _These shifts_: the charges made by Harapha of his being 'a murderer, a revolter, and a robber'; _appellant_: challenger.

1223. _enforce_: demand of strength.

1224. _With thee_: (fight) with thee?

1231. _Baal-zebub_: the god of Ekron. 2 Kings i. 16.

1238. _bulk without spirit vast_: vast bulk without spirit.

1242. _Astaroth_: the Phœnician goddess.

1243. _braveries_: bravadoes.

1266. _mine_: my end.

1274. _Hardy_: bold.

1292. _Either of these_: 'might' or 'patience.'

1309. _remark him_: plainly mark him.

1317. _heartened_: encouraged, emboldened.

1334. _Myself_: regard myself, do you say? No, my conscience and internal peace I regard. Keightley and Masson both place an (!) instead of an (?). But 'myself' requires to be uttered with an _inquiring_ surprise, and should be followed by an (?).

1346. _stoutness_: firm refusal.

1369. _the sentence holds_: the sentence, 'outward acts defile not,' holds good, where outward force constrains.

1375. _which_: represents what precedes, 'If I obey . . . set God behind.'

1377. _dispense with_: pardon. 'Milton here probably had in view the story of Naaman the Syrian, begging a _dispensation_ of this sort from Elisha, which he seemingly grants him.' See 2 Kings v. 18, 19.—_Thyer._

1397. _as_: used after 'such' to introduce a result, instead of 'that,' as in present English; not uncommon in Shakespeare, Bacon, and other writers of the time and later.

1399. _to try_: to test.

1408. _Yet this be sure_: looks back to 'I am content to go.'

1418-1422. _Lords are lordliest_: 'in this passage may be detected a reference to England in Milton's time.'—_Masson._

1435. _that Spirit that first rushed on thee_: 'a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.'—_Judges_ xiv. 5, 6.

1450. _I had no will_: _i.e._ to go thither.

1455. _That hope_: to partake that hope with thee would much rejoice us.

1461-1471. _Some much averse I found_: the different shades of feeling among the men in power in England after the Restoration may be supposed to be glanced at in this passage: obstinate and revengeful Royalism, strongest among the High Church party; and so on.—_Masson._

1470. _The rest_: to remit the rest was magnanimity.

1471. _convenient_: fitting. Lat. _conveniens_, coming together.

1474. _Their once great dread_: former object of their great dread.

1512. _whole inhabitation_: all the inhabitants of the world, as is indicated by 'universal groan.'

1514. _ruin_: down crashing.

1529. _dole_: grief, sorrow; 'dealing dole' is not a case of the cognate accusative, as it is understood by some critics.

1538. _baits_: literally, stops for refreshment; in a general sense, tarries.

1551. _concerned in_: connected with.

1554. _needs_: is necessary.

1557. _tell us the sum_: the main fact, defer what accompanied it.

1581. _glorious_: used proleptically.

1594. _eye-witness_: ocular testimony.

1599. _high street_: main or principal street; so, highway, high seas.

1608. _sort_: rank.

1610. _banks_: benches.

1619. _cataphracts_: heavy-armed cavalry soldiers, whose horses as well as themselves were covered with a complete suit of mail armor. Gr. κατάφρακτος, covered; _spears_: spearmen.

1621. _rifted_: split.

1625. _assayed_: tried.

1626. _still_: ever.

1671. _And fat regorged_: Keightley explains, 'and the fat of bulls and goats was regorged by them who had eaten too much.' This, along with the preceding and the following verse, gives a Miltonic sublimity of the disgusting to the passage. But the prefix 're-' is, perhaps, simply intensive, and 'regorged' may mean gorged, or swallowed, voraciously. The construction is, 'And (while they, 'they' being implied in 'their,' above) fat regorged of bulls and goats, . . . Among them he (our living Dread) a spirit of phrenzy sent.'

1674. _Silo_: Shiloh. Joshua xviii. 1, Judges xxi. 19. 'He probably terms it _bright_, on account of the Shekinah which was supposed to rest on the ark.'—_Keightley._

1688. _and thought extinguished quite_: this phrase is understood by some as a nominative absolute (the Latin ablative absolute), thought having been quite extinguished; but 'thought' is rather a past participle referring to 'he': thought to be entirely extinguished.

1692. _as an evening dragon came_: 'he' (Samson) is the subject of 'came'; he came among the Philistines as an evening dragon comes on tame farmhouse fowl, but afterward bolted his cloudless thunder on their heads, as an eagle.

1699. _that self-begotten bird_: the phœnix.

1700. _embost_: enclosed in a wood.

1702. _erewhile_: for some time before; _holocaust_: a whole burnt offering.

1703. _teemed_: brought forth.

1704. _revives_: the subject is 'Virtue,' 1697.

1707. _A secular bird_: a bird living for generations. Lat. _sæcula_.

1713. _sons of Caphtor_: the Philistines, 'originally of the island Caphtor or Crete. A colony of them settled in Palestine and there went by the name of Philistim.'—_Meadowcourt, in Todd's Var. Ed. of Milton._

1733. _Home to his father's house_: see Judges xvi. 31.

1753. _band them_: unite themselves.

1755. _acquist_: acquisition.

Aims of Literary Study

BY

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_Cornell University_

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The Voice and Spiritual Education

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He holds simply that one can't read well unless he appreciates well, and that a proper use of one's voice in reading aloud is an outward and audible sign of inward and spiritual grace. He writes earnestly and with the eloquent simplicity of a man who has something to say and has considered well how he shall say it.

THE BEACON

Educationalists who are progressive in their ideas should not fail to familiarize themselves with his suggestions; and in every family where culture is an aim this book ought to be a veritable source of inspiration.

THE BOOKMAN

We believe that if this little book were thoroughly studied the result would contribute to more good reading than we are accustomed to hear.

THE CRITIC

It is a little book with much sensible matter in it, which we most emphatically commend to the attention of all teachers of literature and elocution.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. Words with and without accents appear as in the original.

The following corrections have been made to the original text: