Chapter XXIII: On His Deceased Wife (2)

118. the dapper elves. _Dapper_ is akin to the German _tapfer_, but with a very different connotation.

124. Love: the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid.

129. Dark-veiled Cotytto was a Thracian goddess, whose worship was connected with licentious frivolity.

133. makes one blot of all the air. Compare line 204 of this poem.

135. thou ridest with Hecat'. _Hecate_ was a goddess of the lower world, mistress of witchcraft and the black arts.

139. The nice Morn. _Nice_ is used in a disparaging sense, meaning over particular, minutely critical.

140. From her cabined loop-hole peep. As if morn dwelt in a cabin and clandestinely peeped from a small window.

141. descry must here mean reveal.

144. In a light fantastic round. Recall L'Allegro 34. Comus and his crew are now dancing.

147. shrouds: hiding-places. See the verb, line 316.

151. my wily trains. _Trains_ are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 118.

154. The air is spongy because it absorbs his magic dust.

155. blear, usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing objects with blear eyes.

174. the loose unlettered hinds. The hinds are farm-servants, usually with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are loose because unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of propriety.

177. amiss: in wrong or unseemly ways.

178. swilled is a very contemptuous word.

179. wassailers. See Macbeth I 7 64. The word has an interesting etymology.

188. the grey-hooded Even. Milton is fond of applying the epithet _gray_ to the evening and the dawn. See Par. Lost IV 598, Lycidas 187.

189. Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. The votarist is one who has made a vow. In this case he goes on a pilgrimage, carrying a palm branch, and wearing the pilgrim garb.

203. the tumult of loud mirth was rife. As to the meaning of _rife_ compare Sam. Ag. 866 and Par. Lost I 650.

204. Yet nought but single darkness do I find. The darkness is unbroken by any ray of light.

210. may startle well, but not astound. _Astound_ is a strong word. See Par. Lost I 281.

212. a strong siding champion: a champion who sides with the virtuous mind.

222. her silver lining. Note Milton's avoidance of the possessive _its_. In all his verse he uses _its_ but three times.

231. Within thy airy shell. The _airy shell_ in which Echo lives must be the "hollow round" of the atmosphere. Compare Hymn on the Nativity 100-103.

232. The Meander is the river of Asia Minor, famous for its windings.

233-237. The mention of the nightingale and Narcissus in this passage suggests that it may be a reminiscence of the chorus in the Oedipus Coloneus,--"Of this land of goodly steeds, O stranger."

237. Echo's passion for the beautiful Narcissus was not requited, and she pined away till she became a mere voice, which she could not utter till she was spoken to.

241. Daughter of the Sphere: daughter of the air, which forms a hollow sphere about the earth.

243. And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies: by echoing back the music of the spheres.

249-252. Even darkness smiled, as if acknowledging itself agreeably caressed by the strains of the lady's song.

251. At every fall. _Fall_, as a musical term, is "a sinking down or lowering of the note or voice; cadence" (New Eng. Dict.).

253. the Sirens dwelt on an island near Sicily, and by their sweet song allured mariners to destruction. See Odyssey XII.

254. the Naiades were nymphs attendant on Circe and the Sirens.

257. And lap it in Elysium. Compare L'Allegro 136.

257-259. Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous rocks and whirlpools on opposite sides of the strait of Messina. They were personified as cruel sea-monsters.

260. Yet they: Circe and the Sirens.

267. Unless the goddess. Supply _thou art_.

273. extreme shift: a pressing necessity of devising some expedient.

289. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom? Were they in the prime of adult manhood, or in the bloom of youth?

277-290. These fourteen lines are an instance of "stichomythia, or conversation in alternate lines, which was always popular on the Attic stage. This scheme of versification is used chiefly in excited discussions, where the speakers are hurried along by the eagerness of their feelings."--Haigh, _The Tragic Drama of the Greeks_.

292. An ox in traces would now be a rare sight.

294. a green mantling vine. See Par. Lost IV 258.

299. gay creatures of the element: creatures of the air,--supernatural beings.

301. And play i' the plighted clouds. Probably the poet means the _plaited_, or _pleated_, clouds, conceiving the clouds as appearing folded together. I was awe-strook. See Hymn on the Nativity 95.

316. Or shroud within these limits. _Shroud_ as a noun we saw above, line 147.

318. From her thatched pallet rouse. The lark builds on the ground, seeking a spot protected by overarching stems of grass or grain, which may be called a natural thatch; and if this protection is destroyed by mowers or reapers, the bird will at once take pains to build a roof or thatch over the nest, completely covering it, and for a door will make an opening on the side.

325. where it first was named. The derivation of the words _courteous_ and _courtesy_ from _court_ is obvious.

327. Less warranted than this, or less secure. The lady says that she cannot be in any place less guaranteed than this against evil, and that she cannot anywhere be less free from anxiety. Her situation she conceives to be as bad as it can be.

329. square my trial To my proportioned strength: make my trial proportionate to my strength.

332. That wont'st to love. _Wont'st_, in the present tense, means, as we say, art wont.

333. Stoop thy pale visage. Stoop is thus used, transitively, Richard II. III 1 19, "myself ... have stooped my neck."

334. And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here. _Chaos_, "the formless void of primordial matter," is personified by Milton here and, much more conspicuously, in Par. Lost III.

338. a rush-candle: a candle made with a rush for a wick,--the cheapest kind of light. from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation. Imagine a hut whose walls are made of wattled twigs plastered with clay. This clay when dry is apt to fall off in spots, leaving holes through which the light within can be seen from without. A wicker hole is a hole in the wicker-work, perhaps made intentionally, to serve as a window.

341-342. The star of Arcady is the constellation of the Greater Bear, and the Tyrian Cynosure that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in these constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners.

345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Compare Collins's Ode to Evening,--_If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song_. The shepherds of the Greek idylls made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the oat has therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages.

349. innumerous boughs. Compare Par. Lost VII 455.

358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat: of hungry savages, or of lustful savages.

361. grant they be so: grant that they are real evils.

365. Make four syllables of delusion.

366. I do not think my sister so to seek: I do not think she has her seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced.

373-375. Is this practical doctrine?

377. Make five syllables of Contemplation.

380. Were all to-ruffled. The particle _to_--Anglo Saxon _to_, Modern German _zer_--has disappeared from Modern English. In Old English it was often used with the force of the Latin _dis_. So still in Chaucer, _to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende_, and many others.

386. affects: likes, has an affection for.

390. weeds, as in line 84.

393. the fair Hesperian tree. See line 983.

394. had need the guard. An elliptical expression. _Need_ is a noun, but is treated as if it were a verb.

395. The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides against Hercules.

401. will wink on Opportunity: will fail to see its chance.

404. it recks me not. The verb is thus used, impersonally, also in Lycidas 122.

407. The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third foot, and one at the end.

413. squint suspicion. An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity is applied to a mental act.

422. quivered: bearing a quiver.

423. unharbored: furnishing no shelter.

424. Infamous hills. Accent _infamous_ as we do now and as Milton does elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common.

429. Look up the origin of the word grots.

430. unblenched: unstartled.

434. Blue meagre hag. The _hag_ has the livid hue of hunger.

436. swart faery of the mine. A malignant demon dwelling under ground,--a gnome.

441. the huntress Dian. The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, twin sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows.

448. wise Minerva. Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually represented as wearing on her breast the aegis with a border of snakes and the Gorgon's head in the centre.

460-462. Note the different modes in begin and turns, where we should look for similar constructions.

487. The ellipsis of _we had_ is readily supplied. Draw and stand are infinitives.

494. Thyrsis, a stock shepherd-name. The spirit henceforth appears to his fellow-actors in the mask as the shepherd with whom they are familiar.

495-512. These lines express sudden emotion, and approximate lyric in character. Hence the rhyme.

508. How chance she is not. Supply the ellipsis.

517. Chimeras is here used vaguely in the plural to mean dangerous monsters.

526. With many murmurs mixed. The enchanter spoke or sang forms of incantation over his mixing and brewing. Recall Macbeth.

529. The word mintage has an interesting history. The human countenance is conceived as an imprint, like the characters on a coin.

530. Charactered in the face. The _noun character_ Milton pronounces with accent on the first syllable, as does Shakespeare. Probably he also agrees with Shakespeare in pronouncing the _verb_ with the accent on the second syllable, as this verse suggests.

531. crofts. The word is still in use in England, meaning a small farm.

540. by then the chewing flocks: by the time when, etc.

547. To meditate my rural minstrelsy: to play on my shepherd-pipe and to sing. To meditate the muse is a standard expression of the pastoral poets. See Lycidas 66.

552. What do we know was the cause of this unusual stop of sudden silence?

553-554. The cessation of the din gave to the steeds of sleep, and to people who were trying to sleep, relief from annoyance.

557-560. Be sure you understand the figure.

560. Still, in its very frequent sense, _always_.

562. Under the ribs of Death: in a skeleton.

575. such two; describing them.

586. Shall be unsaid for me: it is not necessary for me to make any change in my opinion to make it harmonize with this new aspect of affairs.

595. Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. The two metaphors thus combined make a rather strange mixture.

598. The pillared firmament. By the _firmament_ is usually understood the sphere of the fixed stars. How to introduce the conception of _pillars_ is not clear.

604. Acheron. See Par. Lost II 578.

605. The Harpies were monstrous birds with women's heads. Their doings are described AEneid III. The Hydra was a monster serpent with a hundred heads.

607. his purchase: his acquisition.

610. I love thy courage yet, though thou hast spoken most unwisely.

611. can do thee little stead: can avail thee but little.

617. utmost shifts: most carefully devised precautions.

620. Of small regard to see to: of very insignificant appearance.

621. A virtuous plant is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or qualities.

624. Which when I did. The modern English has lost the power of beginning a sentence thus, with two relatives.

626. scrip, a word in no way connected with _script_.

627. And show me simples of a thousand names. Compare Hamlet IV 7 145, "no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon."

634. Unknown and like esteemed: neither known nor esteemed.

635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. See 2 Henry VI. IV 2 195,--"Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon," and Hamlet IV 5 26,--"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon."

636. The story of Hermes' giving Ulysses the Moly read in Odyssey X. "Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible."

638. He called it Haemony. _Haemony_ is a nonce-word of Milton's own coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning _skilful_ or from another meaning _blood_.

640. mildew blast, or damp. _Blast_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "A sudden infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly attributed to the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, etc.)"; and _damp_: "An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious kind."

641. Or ghastly Furies' apparition: or the appearance of terrifying ghosts.

646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. _Lime_ was a viscous substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle the feet of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet III 3 68, "O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged."

657. apace: quickly.

In the stage directions, goes about means, makes a movement.

661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo. The great god, Apollo, pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her by transforming her into a laurel tree.

672. this cordial julep. _Julep_ is a word of Persian origin, meaning rose-water. Note the poet's skill in culling words of delicious sound.

675. Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena. See Odyssey IV: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow.... Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt."

685. the unexempt condition: the condition from which no one is exempt.

695. These oughly-headed monsters. Perhaps by this peculiar spelling, _oughly_, Milton meant to add to the word _ugly_ a higher degree of ugliness.

698. With vizored falsehood: falsehood with its vizor, or face-piece, down, to conceal its identity.

700. With liquorish baits. _Liquorish_, now usually spelled _lickerish_, is allied to _lecherous_, and has no connection with _liquor_ or with _liquorice_.

703. The goodness of the gift lies in the intention of the giver.

707. those budge doctors of the stoic fur. _Budge_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "Solemn in demeanor, important-looking, pompous, stiff, formal." Cowper, in his poem Conversation, has the couplet: "The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge." _A doctor of the Stoic fur_ is a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, who wears a gown of the fur to which his degree of doctor entitles him.

708. fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub: teach doctrines learned from the Cynic Diogenes, who is reputed to have lived in a tub.

719. hutched: stowed or laid away, as in a chest or hutch.

721. pulse; conceived as the simplest kind of food.

722. frieze; to be pronounced _freeze_.

724. and yet: and what is yet more.

728. Who refers back to Nature.

734. they below: the people of the lower world.

737. coy. See Lycidas 18. cozened. See Merchant of Venice II 9 38.

744. It refers back to beauty.

748. homely; in the modern disparaging sense.

750. grain: color.

751. To ply, or make, a sampler, as a proof of her skill with the needle, was, until very modern times, the duty of every young girl. The old samplers are now precious heirlooms in families. to tease the huswife's wool. To _tease wool_, or to card it, was to use the teasle, or a card, to prepare it for spinning. Carding and spinning were common duties of the huswife and her daughters.

753. In what respect can tresses be said to be like the morn?

760. when vice can bolt her arguments. There are two verbs, spelled alike, _bolt_. One means to sift, and is used often of arguments and reasonings. To bolt arguments is to construct them with logical care and precision. The other _bolt_ means to shoot forth or blurt out. We may take our choice of the two words.

773. How is the line to be scanned?

780. Or have I said enow? In the edition of Comus published in 1645 this passage reads, _Or have I said enough?_ In the edition of 1673, the latest that he revised, Milton changed _enough_ to _enow_. Grammatically, _enough_ is the better form, as the Elizabethan usage favored _enough_ for the form of the adjective with singular nouns and for the adverb, and _enow_ as the adjective with plurals. It would seem that the poet must have had some motive of euphony for the change he made.

788. thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know. A Latinism: _dignus es qui non cognoscas_.

793. the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause: the invincible power inherent in the cause by virtue of its nature.

804. Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus To some of Saturn's crew: pronounces sentence upon his foes, condemning them to the punishments named. _Erebus_--Darkness--is one of the numerous names of the lower world, the kingdom of Pluto.

808. the canon laws: the fundamental laws, or the Constitution. Canon law, generally speaking, is ecclesiastical law, or the law governing the church.

817. And backward mutters of dissevering power. The "many murmurs" with which his incantations have been mixed must be spoken backward in order to undo their effect. This backward repetition of the charm has the power to break the spell which the charm has wrought.

822. Meliboeus is yet another of the stock names of pastoral poetry.

823. The soothest shepherd. The ancient adjective _sooth_ means essentially nothing more than _true_.

826. Sabrina is her name. The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn's Antiquarian Library, entitled _Six Old English Chronicles_. The book is easily accessible.

827. Whilom is derived from the dative plural _hwilum_ of the Old English noun _hwil_, and originally meant _at times_.

831. What does Sabrina do in this line?

835. aged Nereus was one of the numerous Greek deities of the water. He and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who are called Nereids.

838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. The _nectar_ of the gods, which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to other purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, to prevent decay. _Asphodel_ is a flower in our actual flora; but in the poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the meadows of Elysium.

840. ambrosial here means, _conferring immortality_.

845. Helping all urchin blasts; _i.e._ helping the victims of the blasts against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See Merry Wives of Windsor IV 4 49.

851. The word daffodil is directly derived from asphodel, with a _d_ unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus.

858. adjuring: charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as if under oath.

868. Oceanus is the personified Ocean, a broad, flowing stream encircling the earth.

869. Earth-shaking is a Homeric epithet of Neptune. The mace of Neptune must be his trident.

870. Tethys is wife of Oceanus and mother of the Oceanids. She reared the great goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Her pace is suitable to her dignity.

871. hoary Nereus. See note on line 835.

872. the Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, herded the sea-calves of Neptune on the island of Carpathus. As a herdsman he bore a crook, or _hook_. He had the gift of prophecy, and so is called a _wizard_.

873. Scaly Triton's winding shell. _Triton_ was herald of Neptune and so carried a shell, which he was wont to _wind_ as a horn. His body was in part covered with scales like those of a fish.

874. The soothsaying Glaucus was a prophet, and gave oracles at Delos. He is represented as a man whose hair and beard are dripping with water, with bristly eyebrows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, and the lower part of his body ending in the tail of a fish.

875. By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands.

Ino, after she had slain herself and her son Melicertes, by leaping with him into the sea, became a protecting deity of mariners under the name Leucothea, or the white goddess. So she came to the aid of Ulysses when he was passing on his raft from Calypso's isle to Phaeacia. She there appears "with fair ankles," and when she receives back from him her veil, which she had lent him, she does it with "_lovely hands_."

Melicertes becomes a protecting deity of shores, under the name Palaemon. The Romans identified him with their god Portunus.

877. By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet. Thetis was the wife of Peleus, and the mother of Achilles. In Homer she has the epithet _silver-footed_.

878. the songs of Sirens. See note on line 253.

879. By dead Parthenope's dear tomb. Parthenope was one of the Sirens. At Naples her tomb was shown.

880. And fair Ligea's golden comb. Ligea was probably also a siren. In Virgil, Georgics IV 336, we find a nymph of this name, spinning wool with other nymphs, "their bright locks floating over their snowy necks." The name Ligea means shrill-voiced.

887. In the reading make in an adverb.

892. My sliding chariot stays. Compare this use of _stay_ with that found in lines 134, 577, 820.

893. the azurn sheen. With _azurn_ compare _cedarn_, line 990.

908-909. Be careful what inflection you give these lines in the reading.

913. of precious cure: of precious power to cure.

921. To wait in Amphitrite's bower. _Amphitrite_ was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was goddess of the sea, had the care of its creatures, and could stir up the waves in storm.

923. Sprung of old Anchises' line. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Brutus the Trojan was the grandson of AEneas and founder of London. Anchises, in the Homeric story, is the father of AEneas. This fable plays an important part in the ancient British myth.

924. thy brimmed waves. A river is happiest when full to its brim.

930. Of what parts of speech are torrent and flood?

933. It is very curious that our word beryl and the German _Brille_ come directly from the same source.

937. And yet this river is the English Severn!

957. Note the impressive effect of the five-foot line ending the scene.

The shepherds have their dance in rustic fashion. The words describing this dance are the familiar peasant words, jig, duck, nod. The playful tone in which the spirit calls upon the swains to give place to their betters is charming.

964. With the mincing Dryades. "The _Dryades_ were nymphs of woods and trees, dwelling in groves, ravines, and wooded valleys, and were fond of making merry with Apollo, Mercury, and Pan."

980. I suck the liquid air: I inhale the upper air,--the _aether_ _liquidus_ of the poets. So Ariel, Tempest V 1 102, "I drink the air before me."

981. the gardens fair Of Hesperus and his daughters three. The number of the Hesperides and their parentage are differently given in various legends. The story of their garden in some mysterious place in the far west, where they guarded the tree that bore the golden apples, assisted by the dragon Ladon, is one of the best known in the classic mythology.

984. Along the crisped shades and bowers. Milton applies _crisped_ to brooks, Par. Lost IV 237. Herrick has,--"the crisped yew," and the American Thoreau,--"A million crisped waves."

985. spruce. A very interesting account of the origin of this word is given by Skeat in his Etymological Dictionary.

986. The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours. See note on L'Allegro 15. "The _Graces_ were guardians of the vernal sweetness and beauty of nature, friends and protectors of everything graceful and beautiful." The _Hours_ were goddesses of the seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis. They were the door-keepers of Olympus, whose cloud-gate they open and shut: thus they preside over the weather.

990. About the cedarn alleys: about the pathways through cedar groves. Coleridge, in Kubla Khan, has the line, "Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover"; and Tennyson, Geraint and Enid, the line,--"And moving toward a cedarn cabinet." So also William Barnes, in his Rural Poems, uses the expression, "stonen jugs."

992. Iris is the messenger of the gods: her path is the rainbow.

993. Dr. Murray gives other instances of blow as a transitive verb.

999. Adonis was a young shepherd, the special favorite of Venus. His death was caused by a wild boar. The story is told in various forms. Observe that Milton makes him wax well of his deep wound.

1002. the Assyrian queen. The worship of Aphrodite (Venus) was brought into Greece from Assyria.

1005. Holds his dear Psyche. Psyche--the personification of the human soul--was a mortal maiden, beloved of Cupid. Venus, in her jealousy of Psyche, compelled her to pass through a long series of hardships and toils. Cupid at last succeeded in reconciling his mother and his beloved, and in having _Psyche_ advanced to the dignity of an immortal.

1015. Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend: where the curvature of the vault of the sky seems less than higher up toward the zenith.

1021. the sphery chime. See notes, Hymn on the Nativity 48 and 125.

LYCIDAS.

Lycidas is Milton's contribution to a volume of elegiac verses, in Greek, Latin, and English, composed by many college friends of Edward King, who was drowned in the wreck of the vessel in which he was crossing the Irish Channel.

In its main intention, Lycidas is an elegy, because it professes to mourn one who is dead and extols his virtues. In its form it is almost wholly pastoral, because it feigns an environment of shepherds, allegorizing college life as the life of men tending flocks, and the occupations of earnest students as the careless diversions of rustic swains.

Four times the pastoral note is rudely interrupted by the intervention of majestic beings who speak in awful tones from another world, and whose voices instantly check all familiar rustic speech, compelling it to wait till they have announced their messages from above. The supernal powers who thus descend to take their parts in the office of mourning are Phoebus, Apollo, Hippotades, god of the winds, Camus, god of the river Cam, and St. Peter. This mingling of classic, Hebrew, and Christian conceptions is a marked characteristic of all Milton's poetry.

Thus Lycidas is neither wholly elegiac nor wholly pastoral. From the lips of St. Peter, typifying the church, comes a speech of violent denunciation, in the true later Miltonic manner. In strange contrast to this grim invective is the famous flower-passage, the sweetest and loveliest thing of its kind in our literature.

1-5. To pluck once more the berries of the evergreens, or to gather laurels,--is to make a new venture as a poet,--to compose a poem. The berries are harsh and crude,--he shatters their leaves before the mellowing year, either because he is to mourn the death of a young man, or because he feels in himself a lack of "inward ripeness" to treat his theme worthily,--perhaps for both reasons. He shatters the leaves with forced fingers rude, in the sense that his subject is not of his own choosing.

6-7. A sad duty is imposed upon him, forbidding further delay on any personal grounds.

8. Lycidas is one of the stock names of pastoral poetry. The poem, though most serious in its main motive and intention, is to have a pastoral coloring throughout. Note the impressive repetitions, dead, dead, and the recurrences of the name Lycidas in the next two lines.

11. he knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme. Edward King had, in accordance with the college custom of his time, written verses, apparently all in Latin. Of these verses Masson, in his life of Milton, gives specimens. They seem to be commonplace.

13. and welter to the parching wind. See Par. Lost II 594, I 78.

15. Sisters of the sacred well. Ancient tradition connects the origin of the Muses with Pieria, a district of Macedonia at the foot of Olympus. But the springs with which we associate the Muses are Aganippe and Hippocrene on Mount Helicon.

19. So may some gentle muse. A peculiar use of the word _muse_ as masculine, and meaning _poet_.

23-31. We pursued the same studies, at the same college, and we studied from early morning sometimes till after midnight. The metaphors are all pastoral.

32-36. We wrote merry verse, bringing in the college jollities, in wanton student-fashion, and the good-natured old don who was our tutor affected to be pleased with our work.

34. Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel. The _Satyrs_, represented as having human forms, with small goat's horns and a small tail, had for their occupation to play on the flute for their master, Bacchus, or to pour his wine. The _Fauns_ were sylvan deities, attendants of Pan, and are represented, like their master, with the ears, horns, and legs of a goat.

37-49. Nature herself sympathizes with men, and mourns thy loss.

50. Nymphs: deities of the forests and streams.

52. on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie. The shipwreck in which King was lost took place off the coast of Wales. Any one of the Welsh mountains will serve to make good this allusion.

54. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. _Mona_ is the ancient and poetical name of the island of Anglesea.

55. Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. The Dee (Deva) below Chester expands into a broad estuary. In his lines spoken At a Vacation Exercise, Milton, characterizing many rivers, mentions the "ancient hallowed Dee." The country about the Dee had been specially famous as the seat of the old Druidical religion. In the eleventh Song of his Polyolbion, Drayton eulogizes the medicinal virtues of the salt springs in the valley of the river Weever, which attract Thetis and the Nereids:--

And Amphitrite oft this Wizard River led
Into her secret walks (the depths profound and dread)
Of him (supposed so wise) the hid events to know
Of things that were to come, as things done long ago.
In which he had been proved most exquisite to be;
And bare his fame so far, that oft twixt him and Dee,
Much strife there hath arose in their prophetic skill.

56-63. Even the Muse Calliope could do nothing for her son Orpheus, whom the Thracian women tore to pieces under the excitement of their Bacchanalian orgies. The gory visage floated down the Hebrus and through the AEgean Sea to the island of Lesbos.

64. what boots it: of what use is it?

64-66. What good are we going to derive from this unremitting devotion to study?

67-69. Would it not be better to abandon ourselves to social enjoyment, and to lives of frivolous trifling? Amaryllis and Neaera are stock names of shepherdesses.

70-72. Understand clear, as applied to spirit, to mean "pure, guileless, unsophisticated." Sir Henry Wotton, in his Panegyric to King Charles, says of King James I.,--"I will not deny his appetite of glory, which generous minds do ever latest part from." Love of fame, according to the poet, is the motive that prompts the scholar to live as an ascetic and to persevere in toilsome labor. This love of fame is an infirmity, but not a debasing one: it leaves the mind noble. Remember, however, that the author of the Imitation of Christ prayed, _Da mihi nesciri_.

75. the blind Fury with the abhorred shears. Milton here seems to ascribe to the Furies (Erinyes) the function belonging to the Fates (Parcae, Moirae). The three Fates were Klotho, the Spinner; Lachesis, the Assigner of lots; and Atropos, the Unchanging. It was the duty of Atropos to cut the thread of life at the appointed time.

A querulous thought comes to the poet's mind. Our lives are obscure and laborious, sustained only by the hope of future fame; but before we attain our reward, comes death, and our ambition is brought to naught.

76-77. But not the praise, Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears. The Fury cannot destroy the praise, which necessarily belongs to doing well. Praise here means the essential praise, which naturally inheres in excellence, and not the being talked about by men.

The speaker is now Phoebus, the august god Apollo, the pure one, who protects law and order, and promotes whatever is good and beautiful; who reveals the will of Zeus, and presides over prophecy.

Phoebus has now an admonition to give and he touches the poet's ears; as in Virgil, Eclogue IV 3,--_Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit_, "The Cynthian twitched my ear and warned me."

79. in the glistering foil Set off. See Shakespeare, Richard III. V 3 250,--"A base foul stone, made precious by the foil of England's chair."

85-86. O fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius. Arethusa was a fresh-water fountain at Syracuse in Sicily, and the Mincius is a river in north Italy, on which is situated Mantua, the birthplace of the poet Virgil. The great pastoral poet Theocritus is said to have been born at Syracuse. Thus Arethusa and the Mincius typify the pastoral tone in which Milton conceives and constructs his poem. But the intervention of the great god Apollo has frighted the bucolic muses, to whom therefore the poet explains it, line 87.

88. Now I am on good terms again with the deities of lower rank. Oat is a common designation of the shepherd's pipe, or syrinx.

89-90. Neptune, through his herald, Triton, pleads his freedom from all complicity in the drowning of Lycidas. Triton sends to AEolus, god of the winds, requesting him to cross-question all his subjects as to what they were doing on the day of the wreck.

95-99. The winds prove their innocence, and AEolus himself comes to report to Triton that at the time of the disaster they were all at home and the air was perfectly calm. Even Panope and all her sisters were out playing on the tranquil water.

96. sage Hippotades. AEolus was the son of Hippotes. See all about him in Odyssey, book X. Read also Ruskin, Queen of the Air, section 19.

99. Panope was a Nereid, one of the numerous daughters of Nereus.

103. Now comes another grand personage to make inquiry about the death of Lycidas. Camus, the deity of the river Cam, stands for the University of Cambridge.

104. His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge. The river god is represented as wearing a mantle made of water-grasses and reeds.

105-106. These lines refer to certain markings on the water-plants of the Cam, said to be correctly described here by the poet. The dimness of the figures may suggest the great age of the university, and the tokens of woe belong to the present occasion.

106. that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. This is the hyacinth, the flower that sprang up on the spot where the youth Hyacinthus had been accidentally slain by Apollo. The petals of the hyacinth are said to be marked with the Greek letters AI AI, which form an interjection expressing grief.

107. Lycidas was one of those collegians whose scholarship, character, and piety promise to make them the pride of their Alma Mater.

109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake. See Matthew XIV.

110. Two massy keys he bore of metals twain. See Matthew XVI 19. See also Comus 13 and Par. Lost III 485. The idea of _two_ keys, one of gold and one of iron, is not in the Bible.

112. He shook his mitred locks. St. Peter wears the mitre as bishop.

113-131. St. Peter makes but little reference to Lycidas, and his words add almost nothing to the elegiac character of the poem. His speech is one of stern and bitter satire. The second period of Milton's life, which is to be given up to intense and uncompromising partisanship in religion and politics, foreshadows itself in these lines.

114. Enow is here used in its proper plural sense. See note on Comus 780.

115. climb into the fold. See John X 1. The metaphor of sheep and herdsmen is continued throughout the speech.

119. Blind mouths! As the relative pronoun beginning the next clause refers to this exclamation, mouths must be taken as a bold metaphor meaning men who are all mouth, or are supremely greedy and selfish. Moreover, they are blind.

122. What recks it them? See note on Comus 404. They are sped: they have succeeded in their purpose. See Antony and Cleopatra II 3 35. Note also the phrase of greeting, _bid God speed_, as in 2 John I 10, 11, King James version.

123. their lean and flashy songs: their sermons.

Evidently Milton can cull words of extreme disparagement and vilification as well as words of unapproachable poetic beauty.

125-127. The congregations are not edified. The miserable preaching they listen to fails to keep them sound in doctrine. They grow lax in their faith, and heretical opinions become fashionable.

128. the grim wolf with privy paw is undoubtedly the Roman church.

130-131. These lines evidently denounce some terrible retribution that is sure ere long to overtake the corrupt clergy described in the preceding passage. The two-handed engine at the door, that stands ready to smite once and smite no more, has never been definitely explained. We naturally think of the headsman's axe, which, however, does not become applicable till the execution of Archbishop Laud, an event not to take place till eight years after the composition of the poem. It has been suggested that Milton had in mind the two houses of Parliament, or the Parliament and the Army, as the agency through which reform was to be effected. We must remember that Milton in 1637 could not foresee the Civil War. He may have meant to combine certain scriptural expressions into a mysteriously suggestive and oracular prediction, without having in view any single and definite possibility.

132. Return, Alpheus. The Alpheus was a river of the Peloponnesus, said to sink underground and to flow beneath the sea to Ortygia, near Syracuse, where it attempted to mingle its waters with those of the fountain Arethusa. See note on lines 85, 86. See also Shelley's poem, Arethusa.

The pastoral tone of lightness and simplicity could not be maintained while St. Peter spoke. But now the Sicilian Muse returns, all the more lovely for the contrast with the stern malediction that has gone before.

134-151. Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, and things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for their significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: it matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite beauty to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody.

136. where the mild whispers use. The verb _use_, in this intransitive sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning _dwell_, is now obsolete.

138. the swart star: the star that makes _swart_, or _swarthy; i.e._ the sun.

139. enamelled eyes are the flowers generally, which are to be specified. Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking upward, like eyes.

142. rathe is the adjective whose comparative is our _rather_.

149. amaranthus, by its etymology, means _unfading_.

150. Daffadil is derived from _asphodel_, with a curious, and altogether unusual, prefixed _d_.

153. dally with false surmise. King's body was not found. There was no actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers.

156. the stormy Hebrides: islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.

160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. The fable of Bellerus is the fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical giant of Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name given to Land's End, where he was supposed to live.

161. the great Vision of the guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount is a pyramidal rock in Mounts Bay on the coast of Cornwall. This was guarded by the angel, St. Michael, whose gaze was directed seaward, toward Namancos and Bayona, in northwestern Spain. In some unknown place between these widely sundered limits, the body of Lycidas is tossed.

170. with new-spangled ore. _Ore_, from its original meaning of metal in the natural state, comes to signify metallic lustre generally. See Comus 719, 933.

173. See Matthew XIV 25.

175. Compare Comus 838.

176. the unexpressive nuptial song. See Hymn on the Nativity 116. See also Revelation XIX 7-9.

181. And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. See Revelation XXI 4.

183. Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore. This is the same promotion that was accorded to Melicertes, son of Ino, who on his death became the genius of the shore under the name of Palaemon.

186. uncouth; a self-depreciating expression meaning _unknown_ or _obscure_.

187. Milton applies the epithet gray both to evening and to morning.

188. various quills are the tubes of the shepherd pipe.

189. Doric means simply _pastoral_, because the idylls of the first pastoral poets were written in the Doric dialect of Greek.

190. had stretched out all the hills: had caused the shadows of the hills to prolong themselves eastward on the plain.

The poet seems to feign that he spent a day in the composition of Lycidas.

SONNETS.

Of poems in strict sonnet form, that is, containing neither more nor less than fourteen decasyllable iambic lines, interlocked by some scheme of symmetrical rhyme, not in couplets, Milton left twenty-three, of which five are in Italian. Of the three sonnets in English omitted from this edition, two have reference to the violent controversy occasioned by Milton's publications in advocacy of greater freedom of divorce, and are rough and polemic in style; the third is omitted on account of its unimportance and lack of distinction.

In their dates the twenty-three sonnets range from the poet's twenty-third to his fiftieth year. They are the only form of verse in which he indulges during that middle period of his life which was abandoned to political partisanship on the side of the Parliament in the Civil War, and to the service of the government during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. If, as is now widely believed, Shakespeare's sonnets are artificial and tell us little or nothing about their author, those of Milton are purely natural and subjective and tell us nothing else but what their writer was thinking and feeling. Their themes are his veritable moods and passions. The mood is now friendly, amiable, and serene, now bitter, strenuous, indignant, vindictive.

Wordsworth, in his sonnet, _Scorn not the Sonnet_, thus refers to Milton's sparing use of this poetic form:--

and when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The Thing became a trumpet; whence he blew
Soul-animating strains,--alas too few.

The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet,--the usual English form up to the seventeenth century. Milton adopted the Italian, or Petrarchian model, which has continued to be the standard sonnet form in our modern poetry. In the Miltonic, or Italian, sonnet a group of eight lines, linked by two rhymes each occurring four times, is followed by a group of six lines linked by three rhymes each occurring twice. The octave and the sextet are severed from each other by the non-continuance of the rhymes of the former into the latter. At the end of the octave, or near it, is usually a pause, marking the culmination of the thought, and the sextet makes an inference or rounds out the sense to an artistic whole.

Read Wordsworth's sonnets, _Happy the feeling from the bosom thrown,_ and _Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room._