Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/439

 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

��397

��Page 115. lines 151-153.

The meaning is : Even granted that death is to be desired, who knows whether God has the power or the willingness to destroy angelic sub- stances ?

Page 115. lines 199-21 n*.

The meaning seems to be, " The strength we have will e_nable us to bear the punishment of our deeds, just as it enabled us to perform those deeds ; and the law which ordains that we should do so is not unjust ; it would have been well to make up our minds to this endurance when we entered upon so hazardous an enter- prise as rebellion.''

Page 117, line 278. Sensible.

Sense. Compare line 97.

Page 117, line 292. Field.

Battle.

Page 117, line 329. What.

To what end, why.

Page 117, line 330. Determined.

Made an end of, undone.

Page 118, line 387. Infernal States.

So in Troilus and Cressida, ^Eneas, address- ing the assembled warriors, says, " Hail all you states of Greece."

Page 118, line 407. Uncouth.

Used here with its original meaning of " un- known." "strange."

Page 118, line 409. Fast Abrupt.

That portion of Chaos separating the Earth from Hell, which space is apparently conceived of as a sort of chasm or gulf.

Page 118, line 410. Arrive the happy Isle.

Preposition omitted after verb of motion.

Page 119, Hue 439. Unessential^.

Having no real essence or being, mere vacu- ity and negation.

Page 119, line 457. Intend.

Consider.

Page 119, line 468. Lest, from his resolution raised.

Lest, encouraged by his firm bravery.

Page 119, line 483.

Understand before "lest" some phrase of transition, snch as " I say this."

Page 119. lines 488-495.

This characteristic simile shows how thor- oughly Milton had absorbed the spirit of classic imagery. The elaborate working out of the fig- ure into a detached and self-sufficient picture, common in Homer and Virgil, is foreign to the spirit of English poetry.

Page 120, line 508. Paramount.

Lord, chief. Old French, paramont, " at the top," "above."

Page 120, line 512. Globe.

To be taken literally ; angelic bodies, moving with ease through the air, would as naturally arrange themselves in the form of a globe as human bodies in the form of a compact circle.

Page 120, line 513. Horrent.

Bristling.

Page 120, line 518. Explained.

Filled.

Page 120, line 570. Gross.

Large.

��Page 121, lines 575-580.

Milton borrows details from the classical con- ception of Hades. The characterization of the four infernal rivers corresponds to the etymolo- gic signification of their names, which come from Greek verb stems, meaning respectively "to hate." "to sorrow," "to lament," and "to burn."

Page 121, line 641. The wide Ethiopian.

" Ethiopian Sea," Indian Ocean.

Page 122, line 665. Lapland.

Long held to be the especial home and ren- dezvous of witches.

Page 122, line 688. Goblin.

Used in the generic sense of demon or fiend.

Page 122, line 709. Ophiuchus.

A large constellation of the northern hemi- sphere.

Page 124, line 842. Buxom.

Here used properly, in the sense of " bend- ing," "yielding."

Page 125, line 889. Redounding.

Rolling in billows ; Latin, redvndare, to over- flow.

Page 125, line 904. Barca, Cyrene.

Cities of northern Africa.

Page 125, line 927. Fans.

Wings, from Italian vanni.

Page 126, line 939. Syrtis.

The name of some sandbanks and quicksands off the north coast of Africa ; it came to be used generally for any region of the sort.

Page 126. line 945. Pursues the Arimaspian.

The Arimaspians, according to the legend, were a one-eyed people of Scythia, who fought constantly with the griffins, half-eagle, and half-lion, for the gold of the mines which these monsters guarded.

Page 127, line 1017. When Argo passed.

The allusion is to the voyage of Jason to Col- chis in search of the Golden Fleece. His boat was named the Argo. The " justling rocks " are the Symplegades, which moved together to crush boats sailing between.

Page 127, line 1029. Utmost Orb.

The outermost of the ten concentric spheres surrounding the earth. See Introduction, on the Cosmology of Paradise Lost.

Page 127, line 1043. Holds.

Makes for.

Page 127. BOOK III.

Page 127, line 1. Hail, holy Light.

Hitherto the scene has been laid amid the darkness of Hell and the obscure confusion of Chaos; now it mounts into the cheerful sun- illumined spaces of our universe and into the clear radiance of Heaven. The reference which Milton makes in this " Hymn to Light " to his own blindness gains from the context both pa- thos and dignity.

Page 127, line 3. Express thee unblamed.

The meaning is, " May I without incurring blame call thee coeternal' with God? " In the lines that follow he seeks to justify the epithet.

Page 128, line 7. Hear'st thou rather.

Dost thou prefer to be called.

Page 128, line 16. Utter and middle Darkness.

�� �