Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/423

 APPENDIX

��I. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Page 7. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NA- TIVITY.

15. Heavenly Muse; the Muse of sacred song addressed at the beginning of Par. Lost.

19. Now while the Heaven, etc. Cf. Elegy VI, near the end, where Milton speaks of begin- ning the Hymn at the first light of dawn on Christmas day.

23. Wizards; wise men : the present sense of ; "enchanter" existed in Milton's day, but he follows Spenser in using the word as a term of i compliment.

28. From out his secret altar, etc. ; cf. the [ Reason of Church Government : " that eternal Spirit, that . . . sends out his seraphim, with ; the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and pu- | rify the lips of whom he pleases." The refer- | ence is to Isaiah vi. 6-7.

41. Blame; wrong, not reproof.

4*. Turning sphere ; the whole universe of concentric spheres, according to the Ptolemaic astronomy.

50. Turtle-wing ; the turtle-dove, like the olive and myrtle, is a traditional emblem of peace.

56. Hooked chariot ; currus falcatus, chariot with scythes projecting outward from the axles.

64. Whist ; hushed. The word is another form of "hist," both originally onomatopoeic exclamations to enforce silence.

68. Birds of calm; while the halcyon was breeding, according to the classical tradition, the sea was calm. Charmed ; laid under a spell.

71. Bending one way their precious influence; bending toward the new-born babe all the good influence which the stars were supposed to exert upon the lives of mortals. Cf. Job xxxviii. 31, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades."

74. Lucifer; the morning star.

85. Lawn ; field, or any open space of ground.

86. Point of dawn ; break of dawn. Cf. mod- ern French point du jour, and the old verb poin- dre, to dawn.

89. Mighty Pan; Christ, as the "good shep- herd," is frequently introduced into the pastoral poetry of the Renaissance as Pan.

92. Silly; simple, innocent.

95. Strook; the favorite form with Milton, though he has also struck and strucken.

101-103. Construe : Nature, that heard such sounds thrilling the airy region (i. e. the upper air) beneath the hollow round of Cynthia's seat (i. e. the sphere of the moon).

106. Its occurs only three times in Milton. The form was not commonly adopted until the close of the century.

��111. Shamefaced ; shamefast, modest. " Faced " is the Anglo-Saxon suffix faest.

114. Displayed ; spread out. Latin displica- tus.

116. Unexpressive ; inexpressible. Cf. Lyci- das, "the unexpressive nuptial song," and Ad Patrem, " inenarrabile carmen."

125-132. Ring out, ye crystal spheres, etc. ; for once, let the music of the nine spheres moving upon each other become audible to mortal ears.

146. Tissued clouds probably refers to the cloth called tissue, woven of silk and silver threads.

156. Wakeful trump ; awakening trump.

157-159. " And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. . . . And when the voice of the trum- pet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice." Exod. xix. 18-19.

168. The Old Dragon ; Satan is so spoken of in Revelations.

186. Genius, i. e. the genius loci, or guardian spirit of a place.

189-191. The Lares, beneficent spirits of the dead, were worshiped by the Romans, and a particular room in private houses (here referred to as " holy hearth ") was set apart for them. The Lemures were inimical spirits of the dead, of a lower grade than the Lares, and approxi- mating to our ghosts or goblins.

194. Flamens, priests of ancient Rome. " Quaint " is probably to be taken in the sense, not of "odd," but of "elaborate," "ceremoni- ous."

197. Peor and Baalim ; different names of the same sun-god, called also Baal-Peor, wor- shiped by the Phoanicians.

199. Twice-battered god of Palestine ; Dagon, a sea-god of the Philistines. See 2 Samuel v. 3-4.

200. Ashtaroth, the moon-goddess of the Phoe- nicians, identical with the Syrian Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite.

203. Libyc Hammon ; an Egyptian deity whose chief seat of worship was at Thebes. He was represented in the form of a ram, with curled horns.

204. Thammuz ; see note to Par. Lost. I. 446. 205-210. Milton had in mind, Warton thought,

the description of Moloch in Sandys's Travels, where the god is described as an " Idoll of brasse, having the head of a Calfe, the rest of a kingly figure, with arms extended to receive the misera- ble sacrifice, seared to death with his burning embracements. For the Idol was hollowe with- in, filled with fire. And least their lamentable shreeks should sad the hearts of their parents,

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