Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/436

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��tut ion in the parishes. The proposals of certain ministers were fifteen proposals offered to the committee by John Owen, and other well-known ministers, in which they asked that the preach- ers should receive a public maintenance." PATTISON.

7. Darwen stream; referring to the battle of Preston, August 17, 1648. The Darwen flows near Preston.

8. Dunbar field; here, Sept. 3, 1650, Crom- well routed the Scottish army under Leslie.

9. Worcester ; here Cromwell won a crowning victory, Sept. 3, 1651.

Page 77. To SIK HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.

First printed, ten years after its composition, in the Life and Death of Sir H. Vane, by George Sikes. Vane was forty years old when the sonnet was written. He had been Governor of Massachusetts and afterwards a leading member of the Long Parliament. At the Re- storation he was excluded from the Act of In- demnity, and put to death June 14, 1662.

3, 4. The wisdom of the Senate, rather than the force of the Roman armies, defeated Pyr- rhus, king of Epirus, when he invaded Italy ; afterwards Hannibal the Carthaginian was re- pulsed, Milton affirms, by the same agency.

12. The bounds of either sword ; the limits of the civil and military power.

Page 77. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIE- MONT.

4. When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones ; i. e. before the Reformation, when Eng- land was a Catholic country.

12. Triple Tyrant ; the Pope, so called from his tiara surrounded by three crowns.

14. Babylonian Woe ; the woe which will be visited upon Babylon (interpreted as the Church of Rome) at the day of Judgment. Cf. Rev. xviii.

Page 77. ON HIS BLINDNESS.

2. Ere half my days ; Milton was forty-four when his blindness became total. He either speaks loosely or else expected to live to a ripe old age.

3. For the parable of the talents, see Matthew xxv. 14-30.

8. Fondly; foolishly.

12. Thousands; i. e. of heavenly messengers. Page 77. To MR. LAWRENCE.

4. 5. The construction is, " Gaining what we may (what may be won) from the hard sea- son."

6. Favonius ; the spring wind from the south- west.

10-12. To the_ close of his life Milton kept up daily practice in music, especially playing on the organ. "Tuscan" is used in a general sense = Italian.

13, 14. Spare to interpose ; abstain from inter- posing.

Page 78. To CYRIACK SKINNER.

1-3. Skinner's grandsire was Sir Edward Coke, author of the Reports and Institutes of the Laws of England.

2. Themis ; goddess of Justice.

��7. Let Euclid rest, etc. ; Skinner was a mathe- matician and also an amateur of politics.

8. What the Swede intend and what the French ; Charles X. of Sweden was then at war with Poland and Russia, and Louis XIV. was overcoming the Spanish in the Netherlands.

Page 78. To THE SAME.

1, 2. The little touch of vanity on Milton's part concerning his personal appearance is char- acteristic. Salmasius had twitted him upon his "eyes guttering prevalent rheum," and he replied with proud asperity that "so little do they betray any external appearance of injury that they are as unclouded and bright as the eyes of those who see most distinctly."

8. Sear up: nautical term, used metaphori- cally. Cf. Othello, "A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus." This is clearly, from what follows, the sense here, rather than the common modern one of enduring steadfastly.

Page 78. ON HIS DECEASED WIFE.

2^-4. Alcestis ; wife of Admetus, king of Phe- rse in Thessaly, who accepted death in her hus- band's stead, but was brought back to life by Herakles, "Jove's great son." The story is beautifully told in the Alcestis of Euripides.

5, 6. The reference is to the ceremonies of purification after child-birth, enjoined by the Mosaic law. See Leviticus xii.

10. Her face was veiled ; so also was the face of Alcestis when she appeared to Admetus.

Page 89. PARADISE LOST.

Page 102, line 6. Heavenly Muse.

Not one of the nine Muses of the classic poets, but the heavenly power which inspired Moses on Sinai and David on Zion. Milton elsewhere names this Muse of sacred song Urania, i. e. " the Heavenly."

Page 102, line 7. Oreb.

Oreb, or more properly Horeb, was the name given to the whole range of which Sinai formed a part.

Page 102, line 9. In the beginning.

This modifies " rose," not " taught."

Page 102, line 11. Siloa's brook.

The pool or brook of Siloa (Shiloah) was at the foot of Mt. Moriah, on which stood the temple of Jerusalem. The whole passage is colored by classical reminiscence, the definite parallel being probably with the " dark-colored spring " which, according to Hesiod, flowed from beneath the seat of Jove. It will be in- teresting to compare Lycidas t 15, 16.

Page 102, line 15. The Aoman Mount.

Helicon in Boaotia, sacred to the Muses ; Milton means therefore that he will surpass the classic poets, who drew their inspiration thence.

Page 102, lines 20, 21. To the conception of the spirit of God moving upon the face of the deep Milton joins that of the descent of the Holy Ghost "in bodily shape like a dove" at the baptism of our Lord.

Page 102, line 24. Argument.

Here, as very frequently, Milton clings to the literal etymologic signification ; Latin argumen- tum = theme, subject.

Page 102, line 25. Assert.

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