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dialects.

It is associated by Cotgrave with "beat, lamme, bethwacke." See Havelok (re-ed. Skeat), and the Mariage of Witt and Wisdome, 1579 (apud Halliwell):

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For the word in our text comp. Waller's "Her tail's impetuous swinge."

11. 172. horrour. So "sorrow" in Lycid. 166; and "vires" and "potentia," Virg. Æn. i. 664.

foulded

consisting of folds, spiral. So mirrored in Adonais.

173. Comp. Paradise Regained, i. 454-64. That the oracles ceased at and from the birth of Christ was a very general belief; but it was baseless. "Tacitus, Philostratus, Lucian, Strabo, Juvenal, Suetonius, Martial, Statius, Pliny the Younger, &c. &c., have incidentally mentioned oracular responses as existing in their own days." "Macrobius, in the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, speaks of the Sortes Antiana' in words which distinctly prove that they were consulted as oracles in his time." (See Occult Sciences, a volume of the Encycl. Metrop.)

174. See the scene described in the beginning of the sixth book of the Æneid.
176. from his shrine. Comp. Æsch. Choeph. 497 (ed. Paley):

φελλοὶ δ ̓ ὡς ἄγουσι δίκτυον,

τὸν ἐκ βυθοῦ κλωστῆρα σώζοντες λίνου.

Theoc. vi. 18 : καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ γραμμᾶς κινεῖ λίθον. So, as Paley notes, the Greeks said, "The men out of the city fled," meaning, "The men who were in the city fled out of it." See Jelf's Greek Gr. § 647.

178. hollow shreik, i.e. unsubstantial, unreal, ghost-like, evanescent shriek; the shriek of one who is so. Comp. "hollow fiend," Twelfth Night, III. iv. 101; "He will look as hollow as a ghost," King John, III. iv. 84; and the phrase" hollow laugh." Or the word may refer to "the dull sound of hollow things" (Wedgwood). Kilian, in his Etymol. Teut. Ling. glosses holle stemme as "vox fusca, non clara,"-a husky (as we should say), not clear voice. Comp. "his hollow whistling in the leaves" of "the southern wind," 1 Henry IV. V. i. 5. The former sense seems preferable.

Delphos. Milton prefers this form to the more usual Delphi. See Paradise Regained, i. 458. Shakspere, too, uses Delphos. (See Winter's Tale.) It was the medieval

form.

steep of Delphos. Comp. "Delphian cliff," Paradise Lost, i. 517. Gray has adopted this phrase, as so many others of Milton's. See his Progress of Poesy, 1. 66. Delphi lay at the foot of the southern uplands of Parnassus, which end "in a precipitous cliff, 2,000 feet high, rising to a double peak, named the Phædriades, from their 'glittering' appearance as they faced the rays of the sun.' (See Smith's Ancient Geography.)

"

"The oracle was consulted by Julian, but was finally suppressed by Theodosius." (Dr. Smith's Dict. Geog.)

179. nightly nocturnal. Comp. Il Penseroso, 84; Arcad. 48, &c. So generally in Shakspere. In modern English the word generally means "night by night," as in Cowper's Lines on the Receipt of my Mother's Picture, &c.

180. pale-ey'd. Comp. Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 19, 20:

"I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,

'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow."

Shakspere uses "pale-faced," "pale-visaged." Or, better, eye may be used in its precise sense. Comp. Henry V. IV. ii. 47, where Grandpré, in his description of the English "jades," speaks of

"The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes.”

11. 180. [How would you explain the from?]

12. 181. [To what part of speech does o're here belong?]

See Spenser's Shep. Cal. for May, note, where a quotation is made from Lavaterus' treatise, de Lemuribus, then newly translated into English (Warton). Lavaterus derived the story there quoted from him from Plutarch's "booke of the ceasing of Oracles." 183. For the language comp. Matt. ii. 18.

185. poplar pale. Comp. Horace's "pinus ingens albaque populus."

186. parting. Comp. "parting day" and ", parting soul" in Gray's Elegy. In Old English, part occurs very commonly in the sense of our depart.

Genius. See Il Penseroso, 154.

sent dismissed.

187. flowre-inwov'n tresses torn. Milton. See "beckoning shadows dire," damp," &c. &c.

This is a favourite arrangement of words with

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every alley green,” “thick and gloomy shadows

188. twilight. Comp. "twilight groves" (Il Penseroso, 133).

the nimphs. See Il Penseroso, 137-8.

189. The words in consecrated earth refer to the Lemures; on the holy hearth, to the Lars.

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consecrated= made "sacer.' See Horace's Sat. I. viii. 13; Orelli quotes in his note the inscription “Dis Manibus locus consecratus," &c.

191. Lemures frequently denotes spectres, goblins; but in Ovid-who, as has been already said, was a favourite writer with Milton-it is used convertibly with Manes. Class. Dict.

192. [How would you parse round here?] 194. quaint

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See

nice, exact, &c. Much Ado about Nothing, III. iv. 22: But for a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't.'

195. See Virg. Georg. i. 480.

196. forgoes. The "for" here = the "for" of forbear, forbid, forget, forgive, forsake, forswear. Comp. German ver.

Comp. Virg. Eneid, ii. 351.

197. With the catalogue of deities which here follows comp. Paradise Lost, i. 376-521. Peor. See Numb. xxv. 18, xxxi. 16; Josh. xxii. 17. It was one of the titles of Baal, "the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, as Ashtoreth was their supreme female divinity" (see Smith's Smaller Bibl. Dict.)—that is, it expressed one of the modifications of Baal's deity. Comp. Baal-berith (Judges viii. 33), Baal-zebub (2 Kings i. 2). But in Paradise Lost, i. 412, Peor is said to be the "other name" of Chemos. Baälim. That is, Baal in all his various modifications. See preceding note. Comp, the various titles that were given to Jupiter by the Latins, to Zeus by the Greeks. 198. temples dim. He uses "dim" here in a less favourable sense than in Il Penseroso, 160. See Paradise Lost, i. 457-66, and Samson Agonistes, passim.

199. Dagon was the national god of the Philistines. See Dictionary of the Bible; also 1 Sam. v.

200. Mooned Ashtaroth. See Dictionary of the Bible. It would seem more correct to identify this goddess with the planet Venus rather than the Moon. She was the Assyrian Ishtar, Greek and Roman Astarte. Certainly her worship was eventually identified with

that of Venus.

201. both. Comp. the position of this word in Twelfth Night, V. i. 256:

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Selden says she was called "regina coli," and "mater deum" (De Diis Syriis). 203. Hammon. See Class. Dict. s. v. Ammon. He was "originally an Ethiopian of

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Lybian, afterwards an Egyptian, deity." His primitive function seems to have been to protect the flocks. He was variously represented as a ram, as a man with a ram's head, as a man with a ram's horns. The great seats of his worship were Meroë, Thebes, Ammonium. 12. 203. shrinks. See Lycid. 133. 204. Thamuz Tammuz; properly "the Tammuz." See Ezek. viii. 14; Paradise Lost, i. 446-57. Tammuz has been identified with Adonis: "The worship of Adonis, which in later times was spread over nearly all the countries round the Mediterranean, was, as the story itself sufficiently indicates, of Asiatic or, more especially, of Phoenician origin. Thence it was transferred to Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and even to Italy, though of course with various modifications." See Class. Dict. The death of Adonis, and Aphrodite's grief over it, are frequently mentioned by the poets, both ancient and modern. Bion wrote a dirge on the subject. Ovid tells the story in the tenth book of his Metam, &c. &c. Shelley, weeping over the untimely fate of a young poet, killed, as he believed, by the stroke of a ruffian writer, thought of Adonis, and called his in memoriam poem Adonais. See Introd. to Adonais.

Tyrian maids. In Paradise Lost, 1.c. "Syrian damsels."

205. Moloch Molech. See Bible Dict. Moloch is represented as flying from his worshippers in the very midst of one of the services in his honour. "In Sandys' Travels, p. 186, ed. 1615, fol. a popular book in Milton's time, is a description of the sacrifices and image of Moloch, exactly corresponding with this passage and Paradise Lost, i. 392-6." (Warton.) 206. In shadows dred. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 403-5:

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207. 'According to Jewish tradition, the image of Molech was of brass, hollow within, and was situated without Jerusalem."

burning is here what would be in Greek a present participle passive--so in such phrases as "the house is burning," "I saw it burning." Etymologically, the word is not a participle at all, though it looks like an imperfect participle. It is, in fact, an old verbal substantive, the preposition which once governed it having dropped out. In our older English writers, as still in the various dialects of the country, this preposition is frequently found. See 1 Pet. iii. 20, 'while the ark was a preparing," &c. &c. This a is a corruption of on. See Chaucer :

"On hontyng be they riden."

(Comp. alive on live, &c.) For the -ing, a very common A. S. substantival termination was -ung or-ing, as huntung, wonung, halgung, leorning, bærning, &c. &c. The -ung was subsequently corrupted into -ing. The -ing is often added to words that are themselves of NormanFrench or Latin origin; e.g. preparing, &c. The identity of termination with that of our imperfect participle (itself a corruption from -ande or -ende), added to the loss of the preposition, and consequent danger of confusion, has led to the introduction of a cumbrous phrase, consisting of "being" followed by the perfect participle, as "the house was being buik." But in many writers, and in many particular usages, the old form of expression still lingers.

all may be parsed as an adverb qualifying the adjectival phrase of blackest hue. See Prothal. 613.

208. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 394.

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209. grisly is cognate with the German grässlich frightful. The word is used by Chaucer, often by Spenser, &c. See Paradise Lost, i. 670; ii. 704: "the grisly terrour," where either the original force of the word is unknown or forgotten, or the phrase is tautological. In iv. 821, occurs again "the grisly King."

211. brutish here of form and shape rather than, or as well as, of kind and nature.

12. 211. On the gods of Egypt, see Juvenal's fifteenth Satire, beg., on which passage Mayor quotes Cic. Tusc. v. 78; Herod. ii. 69; Lucian de Sacr. 14. "The basis of the religion was Nigritian Fetishism, the lowest kind of nature worship." (Dict. Bib.)

as fast. The correlative phrase is omitted, as in Il Penseroso, 44. 212. Isis. See Class. Dict. She was originally the Egyptian Earth goddess, the wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus; subsequently she was worshipped as the goddess of the moon, and identified with Io (Juv. vi. 526); also, she was identified with Demeter, as Osiris with Dionysus. Those initiated in her mysteries wore in the public processions masks representing the heads of dogs.

Orus, or Horus, the Egyptian god of the sun.

the dog Anubis. Comp. Virg. Æneid, viii. 698:

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'Omnigenûmque deûm monstra, et latrator Anubis,
Contra Neptunum et Venerem contraque Minervam
Tela tenent."

Minucius Felix (21) calls him "Cynocephalus." Juv. xv. 8: "Whole towns worship the dog." "Hence the oath of Socrates: μà tỏν kúva Tòv Alyvπtíwv deóv, Plat. Gorg. p. 482, B." (Mayor.)

13. 213. Osiris here, as in Juv. viii. 29, stands for Apis, inasmuch as their godheads were in course of time identified. Apis was represented by a bull, which was kept with the utmost care at Memphis. When one bull died, or having been worshipped for a certain period was put to death, another was searched for which should fulfil the necessary conditions of colour and marks. When he was found, there was great joy. See Juv. 1.c., and Mayor's quotations from Athenagoras and Minucius Felix. In iii. 27-29, Herodotus relates how Cambyses mocked and slew this deity, and in the following chapters what came of that ferocious act of impiety.

217. his sacred chest = worshipt ark. There is a sketch of an Egyptian ark in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians. Chaucer uses chest for coffin.

218. shroud. Etymologically what is cut up" (Bosworth), and so a garment. So generally a covering, and then a shelter, a hiding-place. See Paradise Lost, X. 1068:

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So Tempest, II. ii. 243; 3 Henry VI. III. i. 1; Love's Labour Lost, IV. iii. 479. shroud," in Lyc. 22 =

my coffin.

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My sable

220. sable-stoled. KvavóσTOλOS. See note on stole in Il Penseroso, 35. 223. eyn. So Shakspere, Antony and Cleopatra, II. vii. 121: Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne." Then represents an old plural inflexion. In Chaucer we have eyen and eyghen; elsewhere been, fon, shoon, lambren, sustren (Piers Ploughman), &c. This inflexion still survives, or is traceable, in oxen, children, brethren, kine, swine; also in welkin, chicken (see Trench's English Past and Present), which, though now used as singulars, are really plural.

224. beside. In modern English we prefer the form besides. So we say "sometimes' for "occasionally," in which sense sometime was once frequently used.

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all the other gods. Beside here holds an adjectival relation

226. Typhon. See Class. Dict.

227. Comp. Hercules' feat while yet in his cradle, described by Theocritus in his Herakliskus.

231. Comp. Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 379-87; Paradise Regained, iv. 426-38. orient. Mr. Keightley refers to Paradise Lost, i. 546.

230

=

= his

13. 234. his severall grave. So Much Ado about Nothing, V. iii. 29. His several particular, his own, his respective. In modern English several generally various, divers, and hence is joined only with a plural noun. Etymologically several = separate.

his its. See above. 1. 106.

235. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 781-8.

Fayes Fées. The Italian form fate points to a derivation from fatum. On the various meanings of the word fairy or faery, see Keightley's Fairy Mythology.

236. the night-steeds. Statius speaks of "Night's horses" (Theb. ii. 60); Shakspere of "Night's swift dragons” (Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 379). In Il Penseroso, Milton speaks of Cynthia's "dragon yoke."

moon-lov'd. See Paradise Lost, i. 784.

maze= intricate dance; elsewhere, of the tangles of a forest, as in Paradise

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241. That is, had taken up her station; no longer moves.

242. Comp. Matt. xxv.; Sonnet to a Virtuous Yo ing Lady.

244. bright-harnessed. Harness, now used of the gear of horses, in older English signifies men's armour. See Paradise Lost, vii. 202; Macbeth, V. v. 52:

"At least we'll die with harness on our back."

"Harnessed masque," King John, V. ii. 132. Exod. xiii. 18. 244. Comp. Sonnet on his Blindness:

"They also serve who only stand and wait."

L'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO.

INTRODUCTION.

L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSo, to be properly understood, must be read together. The likings and tastes expressed are meant to be contrasted. The one poem is the counterpart of the other. The one celebrates the charms of "Mirth;" the other those of "Melancholy." The advocate of Mirth bids Melancholy begone to the realm of Darkness, bids "heart-easing Mirth come to him with a retinue of kindred spirits; he would fain hear the lark singing and enjoy all other cheery sights and sounds of the bright morning-time; he would be present at the merrymakings of the village and listen to its marvellous tales; he rejoices in the life of the town-in all its gay gatherings; he goes to see great comedies acted; above all things he would be surrounded by the sweet singing of exquisite verses. On the other hand, the melancholic man will not allow "vain deluding joys" to be near him; he bids Melancholy hail, and she is to bring with her a fitting company; his pleasure is in the song of the nightingale, in walks beneath the moon, in the sounds and in the quiet proper to the night, in calm studies through its watches-readings of philosophy, of poetry, of high romances; the night is the season he loves; when it must end, let the daybreak be cloudy and rain-dripping; when the sun at last will shine out, let some undisturbed grove screen him from its blaze; there let him slumber, to wake with sweet music in his ears; let him ofttimes pace some old Gothic cathedral, and listen to rich anthems; at the end, let him pass away his years in some peaceful hermitage, still gathering wisdom.

This meagre outline of the two poems should be carefully filled in. Observe who are to be ompanions of Mirth, who of Melancholy; what kind of music suits either speaker; in

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