Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/447

 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

��405

��Oriental term for council.

Page 216, line 475. Uncouth.

Unknown.

Page 216, lines 524-528. Amphisbcena dire, etc.

The Amphisbtena is a snake vyhich, as the name implies, was believed to go either tail-first i>r head-first, at will ; hydrus = water-snake ; dipsas, a snake whose bite produced raging thirst. The drops of blood falling from the severed head of Gorgon npon the soil of Lybia engendered multitudes of serpents ; Ophiusa, meaning isle of snakes, of doubtful situation.

Page 217, line 560. Megcera.

One of the Furies.

Page 217, line 572. Whom they triumphed once lapsed.

Whom they triumphed over for a single trans- gression.

Page 217, line 579. Purchase.

Gain, profit.

Page 217, lines 581-584. Ophion and Eury- nome.

Ophion and Eurynome (the latter word means wide - encroaching), according to an obscure myth, held the sovereignty of Olympus until driven out by Saturn. Milton supposes that the myth refers to Satan and Eve, and was pro- pagated by the fallen angels, in their characters as heathen gods. Dictean Jove ; so called from the mountain of Dicte in Crete.

Page 218, line 656. Blanc moon.

Pale ; Italian bianca, white.

Page 218, lines 659, 661. Sextile, square, and trine.

Milton here uses the language of astrology, mentioning the five " aspects " or relations of the planets to each other which determined their good or evil influence. The first aspect, called here Synod (more commonly called "conjunc- tion"), was presented by two planets in a line and in proximity on the same side of the sun ; the second, third, and fourth aspects, sextile, square, and trine, by two planets separated re- spectively by one sixth, one fourth, and one third of the Zodiac ; the fifth aspect, "opposi- tion," was presented by two planets on opposite sides of the sun, and separated from each other by half the zodiacal signs. Of these aspects, those of square and opposition were commonly held malign, that of synod indifferent, and those of sextile and trine, benignant. Milton seems to consider them all capable of " noxious efficacy." It would be interesting to know how far he shared the popular belief of his day in astrology.

Page 218, lines 6H9-67S.

Milton supposes that before the fall of Adam the plane of the ecliptic coincided with the plane of the equator, but that after that event, God, in order to bring in change of season, either tipped the earth to its present angle of 23$ de- grees with the ecliptic, or caused the sphere, the fourth sphere, to revolve in such a way as to make the sun journey now north of the equa- torial plane, from Aries up through Taurus (of which the Pleiades, called Atlantic, because daughters of Atlas, formed a part), thence through Gemini (the Spartan twins Castor and

��Pollux), till he reached his farthest point north in Cancer (the Tropic Crab), then again south- ward till he reached his lowest point in Capri- corn, 23i degrees south of the equatorial plane.

Page 219, lines 681-687. To them day, etc.

The meaning is : If the axis of the earth had not been inclined, the days and nights would have been equal over the whole globe, except in the polar circle, where day would have been per- petual ; there the sun to make up for his greater distance (greater by half the diameter of the earth) would have rolled perpetually just above the horizon. Also Greenland (Estotiland) and the corresponding southern portion of earth be- low the Straits of Magellan would not be af- flicted with the severe winter which they now experience.

Page 219, line 688. The sun, as from T/iyestean banquet.

The sun is represented as turning from the sight of man's sin as, according to fable, it turned from its course on beholding the flesh of Thyestes's sons served np to their father by Atreus.

Page 219, lines 695-706. Norumbega.

An old name for a portion of North America, corresponding roughly to New England ; Sa- moed shore, the northeast shore of Russia. The four north winds named, rushing south, encoun- ter the two south winds from the Sierra Leone mountains of Africa; at the "storm-centre" meet also the two west winds Zephyr and Tibec- chio, and the east winds, Eurus and Sirocco. The names are introduced for their sonorous effect.

Page 219, line 720. Miserable of happy.

From being happy. O such misery after such happiness! would come near expressing the idea.

Page 221, line 834. So might the wrath >

I. e. would that the wrath might light on me, as does the blame.

Page 221, lines 898-908.

This seems a kind of cynical rewording of the well-known passage in the Midsummer Night's Dream, beginning,

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Perhaps the words "his happiest choice too late shall meet " refer to his own meeting with Miss Davis, as Keightley suggests. In the lines below beginning with 909, Milton is believed to have had in mind his own reconciliation with Mary Powell.

Page 224, line 1075. Tine.

Kindle.

Page 224. BOOK XI.

Page 224, line 12. Deucalion and Pyrrha ; the classical counterparts of Noah and his wife.

Page 225, line 74. Heard in Oreb.

When the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush on Mt. Horeb (Oreb) and com- manded him to deliver his brethren from bond-

��age

��Page 226, line 135. Leucothea. The Greek goddess of morning. Page 226, line 159. Eve rightly called. Because Eve or Havah is from a Hebrex?

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