Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/431

 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

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��used in a general sense for precious stones ? "They below," i. e. the creatures of the deep, has been unaccountably misunderstood as " men on earth " (61 rdru).

750. Sorry grain; dull color.

760. Bolt her arguments; the metaphor is from the bolting of flour, i. e. the sifting out of the bran so as to leave the flour fine and white.

768-775. A rather striking statement of so- cialistic doctrine, considering the time and place.

805-805. In allusion to the war between Jove and the Titans.

808. Canon laws of our foundation; Comus sarcastically represents his palace as a religious institution, ruled by the Canon law, i. e. the se- ries of laws and statutes promulgated by the Pope and the Councils for the government of the church.

817. Backward mutters of dissevering power ; incantations muttered backward dissolved the enchantments which they had produced.

823. Soothest ; truest ; cf. forsooth, in good sooth.

826-842. The story of Sabrina was a favorite one with poets, having been told by Drayton in his Polyolbion, by Warner in Albion's England, and by Spenser in the Faerie Queene ; all of these poets drew upon the account in Geoffry of Monmouth's History of the Britons. Milton tells the story in his History of England, a book which he completed during the last years of his life. Locrine, son of Brut, defeated in battle Humber, king of the Huns, who had invaded Britain. Locrine was engaged to marry the daughter of Corineus, a follower of Brut who had been made king over Cornwall ; but among the spoils of war taken from Humber were cer- tain beautiful maidens, "Estrildis, above the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king in Ger- many ; whom Locrine, though before contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, Guen- dolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other: and . . . had by her a daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death of Corineus, divorcing Guendolen. he makes Es- trildis now his queen. Guendolen, all in rage, departs into Cornwall, where Madan, the son she had by Locrine, was hitherto brought up by Corinens his grandfather. And gathering an army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by the river Sture ; wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But not so ends the fury of Guendolen : for Estrildis, and her daughter Sabra, she throws into a river : and, to leave a monument of revenge, proclaims that the stream be thence- forth called after the damsel's name ; which, by length of time, is changed now to Sabrina. or Severn." It will be noticed that Milton uses " step-dame " loosely.

838. Nectared lavers: baths sweetened with nectar.

��845. Urchin blasts ; urchin meant originally " hedge-hog," being connected with French he- risson. Evil spirits were supposed sometimes to take this form, and the word "urchin" came gradually to have the more extended meaning of " evil sprite " (cf. Merry Wives, iv. 4, 49), from which its present meaning of " small boy " is a natural development. Urchin blasts means therefore " mildew or other blight sent by evil sprites upon grain or cattle."

846. Shrewd; the meaning "bad" or "ma- licious " is usual in Elizabethan literature, and survives in some modern uses of the word.

868-882. Oceanus; god of the great Ocean- , stream which Homer represents as encircling ! the earth. Tethys, wife of Oceanus. The " Carpathian wizard " is Proteus, whose home was the island of Carpathus, between Crete and Rhodes. Glaucus, a Bosotian fisherman, eating of a magic herb, was transformed into a sea- god and gifted with the power of prophecy. Lieucothea, a daughter of Cadmus, who, to es-> cape her husband's fury, plunged with her son into the sea, and was changed to a sea-goddess ; " lovely hands " is the Miltonic variant on the "fair ankles" traditionally ascribed to her. Her son, Melicertes, was identified by the Ro- mans with Portumnus, god of harbors. Thetis is called by Homer "the silver-footed," hence "tinsel-slippered." Parthenope, a sea-nymph, whose body was washed ashore at Naples, and to whom a shrine was erected there ; see Mil- ton's third Epigram on Leonora Baroni. Ligea was one of the Sirens.

897. Printless feet ; feet that leave no print. 934, 935. Interpreted literally this would mean the head, i. e. source, of the river. Some confu- sion arises because Milton is thinking of the head of the nymph also. The purely ideal na- ture of the image is shown by the mention of " groves of myrrh and cinnamon " which fol- ! lows.

964. Mincing ; delicately tripping. The word , had none of its modern derogatory connotation. i Cf. French mince, from which "mincing"
 * comes.

999-1008. The passage is saturated with Mil- j ton's peculiar conception of Paradisaic love. Assyrian qiieen = Aphrodite, connected with i the Phoenician Ashtaroth.

1015. Welkin ; sky. Cf. German Wolke. 1021. Spheary chime ; music of the spheres. Page 60. LYCIDAS.

1-7. These verses are autobiographical ; see Introduction to Lycidas.

10, 11. He knew himself to sing ; a few pieces of indifferent Latin verse have been traced to i Edward King.

13. Welter to the parching wind; the verb " welter " renders very descriptively the help-
 * less heaving and rolling motion of an object
 * tossed by the swell of the sea.

15, 16. The " Sisters of the sacred well " are the nine Muses of classical mythology, to whom the fountain of Aganippe, on Mt. Helicon, was sacred. On this mountain was an altar dedi- cated to Jove ; Milton alone is responsible for

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