Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/442

 400

��APPENDIX

��drawn up in the form of springs or fountains to water the garden ; these riDs, after flowing through Paradise, fall down the southern slope of the table-land, to join again the river, which here emerges from its subterranean passage.

Page 141, line 239. Mazy error.

Latin errare, to wander. The present literal meaning of the word was originally metaphoric.

Page 141, line 255. Irriguous.

Well-watered, full of rivulets.

Page 141, line 268. Not that fair field, etc.

This heaping up of rich allusion is very char- acteristic of Milton. The field of Enna was in Sicily. The spring of Castaly here spoken of is not the famous one upon Mt. Parnassus, but one in the vicinity of Antioch in Syria, near the sacred grove of Daphne, where the river Orpn- tes flows into the Mediterranean. The Nyseian isle was in the Lake Tritonis, in northern Africa (Milton's version of the legend of Bacchus's parentage differs from the classic one). Mount Amara, according to old tradition, was a moun- tain in central Abyssinia, a day's journey high, on the summit of which were thirty-four palaces, where the princes of Abyssinia were educated in seclusion. Ethiop line= tropic of Cancer.

Page 142, lines 309-10.

Supply the words "when so" between re- ceived and yielded.

Page 142, line 323. Adam the goodliest man, etc.

Observe the inconsistency of statement ; Mil- ton had classical precedent for the idiom.

Page 142, line 332. Compliant boughs.

There is a union of the literal and derived meaning in the use of the adjective.

Page 142, line 348. Insinuating.

See last note.

Page 142, line 352. Ruminating.

Entirely literal, i. e. chewing the cud.

Page 144, line 486. Individual.

Latin individuus = inseparable.

Page 144, line 492. General mother.

" Common " is the expected word.

Page 145, line 537. Sly circumspection.

Literal meaning is probably here uppermost ; perhaps the meaning is that Satan looked back over his shoulder as he walked away.

Page 145, line 541. With right aspect.

That is, directly in front.

Page 145, line 557. Thwarts.

Shoots athwart.

Page 146, line 592. Whether the Prime Orb, etc.

This is one of the passages where Milton hesi- tates between the old Ptolemaic and the new Copernican astronomy ; Prime Orb is the Pri- iiiuiii Mobile, the outermost of the ten circum- terrestrial spheres. See Introduction, on the cosmology 01 the poem.

Page 147, line 660. Milton's lack of humor may be detected in the extreme formality of these modes of address.

Page 148, line 716. Unwiser son.

Epimetheus, who married Pandora, sent by Jupiter to avenge the theft of fire from Heaven by Prometheus. Prometheus was "wiser"

��than his brother Epimetheus, because he re- fused her.

Page 148, line 776. Shadowy cone.

The shadow of the earth thrown out into space is, of course, cone-shaped. The time indi- cated is half way between sunset and midnight.

Page 148, line 785. Half wheeling, etc.

Left, to shield-hand ; right, to spear-hand.

Page 149, line 804. Inspiring.

Breathing in.

Page 150, line 911. However.

That is, however he may.

Page 151, line 931.

Supply " as to " or u concerning " after " in- experience."

Page 151, line 971. Limitary.

A word of Milton's coining ; it means " set to guard certain limits," in allusion to Gabriel's phrase above, line 964.

Page 151, line 980. Ported spears.

Held, as Professor Masson explains, in both hands, and slanted to the left, ready to be brought down to the charge at the word of command.

Page 151, line 987. Unremoved.

Unmoved or unremovable ; it is difficult to say which is meant.

Page 151, line 997. Golden scales.

The constellation Libra ; a reminiscence of the golden scales in which Jupiter weighed the issue of events.

Page 152. BOOK V.

Page 152, line 5. The only sound.

An inverted construction ; only the sound.

Page 154, line 142. Discovering.

That is, disclosing.

Page 154, line 150. Numerous.

Rhythmic, having the quality of number.

Page 154, line 177. Five other wandering Fires.

Really four, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which, with Venus, the Sun, and the Moon, already addressed, made up the seven so-called "planets" of the Ptolemaic scheme. Uranus and Neptune were discovered later. Wandering, because of their irregular motions.

Page 154, line 178. Not without song.

The spheres revolving upon one another were thought to give forth harmonious sounds, which together made up the " music of the spheres," so often referred to by the poets.

Page 154, line 180. Elements. . . that in qua- ternion run.

Earth, air, fire, and water, continually chan- ging in fourfold combination.

Page 155, line 214. Pampered boughs.

It is hard to say whether or not ^lilton had in mind the derivation of this word, French pam- pre, Latin pampinus, a vine-leaf. Perhaps it is to be taken much in the modern sense, i. e. richly nurtured by the soil.

Page o5, line 223. Seven-times-wedded maid.

Sara. See note above, Book IV., line 168.

Page 155, line 249. Ardours.

A synonym for Seraphim, which is from a Hebrew verb meaning to burn. Dante uses ar- dori in the same sense.

�� �