Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/440

 APPENDIX

��Utter darkness, outer darkness. Hell ; mid- dle darkness, Chaos.

Page 128, line 21. Rare.

Seldom accomplished.

Page 128, line 25. Drop serene.

A technical term, Latin gutta serena, for the affection of the optic nerve which caused Mil- ton's blindness.

Page 128, line 32. Nor sometimes forget.

That is, " And often recall."

Page 128, lines 35, 36.

Thamyris, an obscure Thracian bard, men- tioned by Homer (Iliad, ii. 595-600) ; Mceom- des, Homer, so called from Mseonia, the ancient name of Lydia ; Tiresias, the blind Theban seer who figures in the GEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles ; Phineus, a blind king and prophet of Thrace.

Page 128, line 75. Without. firmament.

Without sky, because the sky is inside the Primum Mobile, or opaque outer shell on which Satan is about to alight.

Page 129, line 93. Glazing.

Deceitfully flattering.

Page 129, line 107. What pleasure.

The meaning seems to be, " What pleasure could I receive from Man's obedience, if both his reason, by which he is enabled to discern the right, and his will, by which he is enabled actively to follow it, were deprived of free play and made the passive instruments of neces- sity ? "

Page 129, line 143. Which uttering.

Expressing in his countenance compassion, love, and grace.

Page 130, line 216. Charity so dear.

So costly, involving so much sacrifice.

Page 130, line 219. Patron.

The use of this word in its Latin sense of " defender at law " is in keeping with the legal wording of the passage.

Page 130, line 231. Unprevented.

Used in the difficult sense of " unanticipated by prayer or effort ; " from Latin proevenire, to come in advance, to anticipate.

Page 131, line 299. Giving to.

Submitting to.

Page 132, line 371. Part.

Part-song, made up of treble, bass, and mean.

Page 133, line 389. Transfused.

Diffused, poured out.

Page 133, line 416. Above the Starry Sphere.

Heaven is not only above the starry sphere (the eighth sphere, or sphere of the fixed stars), but also above the crystalline sphere and the Frimum Mobile. From the point of view of the earthly singer, however, it is natural to think of the sphere of the stars as the limit of the universe.

Page 133, lines 418-421.

The opaque "convex "of the Primum Mo- bile shuts in the nine luminous orbs or spheres that encircle the earth, protecting them from the violent tempests, and extremes of heat and ecld, of Chaos.

Page 133, lines 431-439.

The geography of this passage has caused

��much dispute among commentators. Imaus has been usually taken to mean the Himalayas, and in this case the bird in flying toward the sources of the Ganges would not pass over Seri- cana, which was supposed to occupy the north- west corner of the Chinese Empire. The diffi- culty has been recently solved by Mr. Verity, who finds in the English edition of Mercator's Atlas, published in the first half of the seven- teenth century, and doubtless well known to Milton, a range of mountains marked Imaus Mons, running north and south from the north- east corner of the modern Afghanistan to the Frozen Ocean. "The northern part of Imaus Mons," says Mr. Verity, "does 'bound' the Tartar, separating his country from Russia ; and a vulture starting from this northern part and flying southward to the Ganges would pass over the northwest plains of the Chinese Em- pire. Judged, therefore, from the seventeenth- century standpoint the passage is quite cor- rect."

Page 133, line 439. Their cany waggons.

Todd quotes from Stannton's Embassy to China, published in 1797, " Those cany wagons are small carts, or double barrows, of bamboo, with one large wheel between them. When there is no wind ... it is drawn by a man, who is regularly harnessed to it, while another keeps it steady from behind. . . . The sail, when the wind is favorable, saves the labor of the former of these two men."

Page 134, line 463. Hither.

To the outer surface of the Primum Mobile.

Page 134, line 467. Sennaar.

Usually written Shinar. Milton always avoids the sound sh in proper names ; cf. Siloa for Shi- loah, Beersaba for Beersheba.

Page 134, line 473. Cleombrotus.

A philosopher of Ambracia in Epirus, who was induced by reading Plato's description of Elysium to drown himself, in order to achieve a happier existence.

Page 134, line 475. White, black, and grey.

Milton mentions three of the four great mo- nastic orders, the Carmelites, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans, named in England respect- ively White, Gray, and Black Friars, from the colors of their dress. The Augustinian or Aus- tin Friars he does not mention.

Page 134, line 481. The planets seven.

In ascending from the earth, the spirits would pass in order through the spheres of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon, all which Milton groups together as "the planets seven," then through the sphere of the Fixed Stars (understand ' stars" after " fixed "), then through the crystalline sphere, the swaying back and forth or uncertain motion (balance) of which was supposed to cause the precession of the equinoxes, technically known as "trepidation," and lastly through the Pri- mum Mobile (first moved) to the Fool's Para- dise on the outside of the universe.

Page 134, line 502. Degrees.

Steps.

Page 134, line 516. Mysteriously was meant.

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