Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/444

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��APPENDIX

��Page 177. BOOK VII.

Page 177, line 19. The Aleianjield.

According to the myth, Bellerophon, having fallen from his horse Pegasus, wandered for the rest of his life in these fields. The name signifies " field of wandering." Iliad vi. 201.

Page 177, line 33. Bacchus and his revellers.

The allusion is to the dissipation of the cava- liers of Charles II. 's court.

Page 177, lines 34-38. Thracian bard, etc.

Orpheus, grieving over the loss of his wife Eurydice, was torn to pieces by the Maenads for refusing to sing.

Page 178, line 94. Absolved.

Completed.

Page 179, lines 153, 154. To lose self-lost.

To lose those who by their own deeds are already lost.

Page 179, line 162. Meanwhile inhabit lax.

Until the space left vacant by the rebel angels is filled by man, enjoy the roominess of depopu- lated Heaven.

Page 180, line 231. Thy just circumference, O World.

Christ circumscribes not the limits of the earth, but of the Mundus or Created Universe, of which the earth was the centre, and the outer circumference the Primum Mobile. See introduction on Cosmology of Paradise Lost.

Page 180, lines 261-274.

Milton attempts here, as throughout his ac- count of the creation, to reconcile so far as may be the Biblical narrative with the Ptolemaic astronomy. The " firmament " is the whole ex- panse of circum-terrestrial space stretching out- ward to the eight sphere, that of the Fixed Stars. The " waters underneath " are those on the earth's surface, "the waters above," or "crystalline ocean," is the crystalline sphere, the ninth in order from the earth, between the sphere of fixed stars and Primum Mobile. The Mundus or World is said, by a rather bold and difficult figure, to be built on the waters of the crystalline ocean, as the earth, more intelligibly, is said to be built on the terrestrial waters. Some confusion arises from the fact that the word "firmament" was applied by the Ptole- maists, not to the whole expanse of space, but, to the sphere of the fixed stars, here regarded as merely the outer limit of the firmament.

Page 180, line 299. Torrent rapture.

Rapture keeps its literal signification of a snatching or hurrying along. The reader must be constantly on the lookout for such uses of common words.

Page 181, line 366. The morning planet gilds her horns.

Interesting as showing Milton's acquaintance with the discovery, then recent, that Venus has phases like the moon. When between oppo- sition and quadrature she is crescent-shaped.

Page 182, line 421. Summed their pens.

Grew their wings complete ; Latin penna, wing.

Page 182, line 425. Region.

Upper air.

Page 183, line 457. Wons.

��Dwells.

Page 183, line 467. Libbard.

Leopard.

Page 185, lines 618, 619. Founded in view on the clear hyalin.

See note to lines 261-274, end.

Page 185, line 620. Almost immense.

Immense keeps its original strong sense, im- measurable.

Page 185, line 640.

In the first edition this book and the next formed one.

Page 185. BOOK VIII.

Page 185, line 15. When I behold, etc.

The discussion which follows shows that Mil- ton, although accepting the Ptolemaic cosmol- ogy for formal purposes, was still in doubt as to its ultimate truth. He may have introduced the passage to guard himself, in case the theo- ries of Copernicus should be established.

Page 186, line 23. Punctual.

Tiny, as a mere point ; Lat. punctum.

Page 186, lines 81-84. How contrive to save appearances, etc.

Milton here refers to the complicated devices resorted to by the Ptolemaic astronomers, to "save appearance," as successive objections to their theory arose in observed phenomena. To account for the varying rapidity of the sun's motion, they had assumed that the sun's sphere, instead of revolving around the earth as a centre (centric), was slightly displaced (ec- centric) so as to revolve about a point outside the earth. Again, to account for the retrograde motion of the planets they had postulated that instead of being fixed immovably in their spheres, and performing exactly regular revolu- tions about the earth (cycles), they were in some cases free to move about within those spheres in smaller cycles of revolution (epicycles). The phrase " gird the sphere " refers to the Primum Mobile, which served as a kind of girdle for the universe.

Page 187, line 108. Numberless.

I. e. immeasurable.

Page 187, line 130. Three different motions.

I. e. revolution on its axis, revolution around the sun, and the oscillation from the line of the axis, which causes the precession of the equinoxes (cf. note on phrase "the trepidation talked," Book III. line 483). In line 131 the word "else" must be interpreted as " either." Ra- phael says there that movements of the heavenly bodies must be explained either by the old method of referring them to a series of spheres moving obliquely upon each other (thwart obli- quities), or by the new method, in which the sun is saved the labor of journey about the earth, and even the "swift nocturnal and diur- nal rhomb " of the Primum mobile, invisible except by the eye of imagination, is dispensed with.

Page 187, line 149. With their attendant moons.

Galileo had lately discovered the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.

Page 187, line 158. Obvious to dispute.

Open to, inviting, dispute.

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