of the comparative is a Latinism; see Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar, § 93. a. sing. In what sense is the bee said to 'sing'? sleep; Cl. Myths, § 51. (4), and § 113 (The Cave of Sleep). In ancient works of art the god Somnus is represented with wings. dewy-feathered. Vergil tells us that the god Sleep, unable to lure from the helm the trusty pilot Palinurus, shook above his head ‘a branch dripping with Lethæan dew.' 854).

6

(Æneid V.

147-150. Could we read with for at, we should get a tolerable meaning out of these lines; could we omit at, we should get a better meaning; as they stand, his wings must refer to the wings of Sleep, and at must be taken in the sense of 'near.'

151-166. good = kind, as in 'Give me a good word.' Genius of the wood. In Milton's Arcades, the principal character is 'The Genius of the Wood.' pale; the adjective is from the Latin pallidus, pallid; pale, the noun, is from the Latin palus, a stake. Which is this? Massy-proof massively proof (against the thrust of the roof); compare water-proof,' ' fire-proof.' stacies; from the Greek (iğiσrávai) ek, ‘out,' and histanai, place, set;' a state in which the spirit is placed outside of or exalted from the body.

167-176. spell of =

=

to discover by careful study.

ec

Read again the Introduction (p. 4) to L'Allegro and Il Penseroso and try to follow out the advice there given you. In the whole range of English Literature you will hardly find a diction more felicitous or a harmony more exquisite than Milton displays in these poems. You will appreciate the full force of this only when you have accustomed yourself to reading the poems aloud and when you have committed to memory such passages as your teacher may select for you.

INTRODUCTION.

LYCIDAS.

Edward King, the fellow-collegian whom Milton bewails in this Elegy, is perhaps the most obscure mortal ever immortalized by a great poet. None of his English poems are extant; the quality of his Latin verses easily reconciles us to the loss. Though of slender abilities, he must have been of pure and kindly nature to have inspired with affection such a man as Milton. The back-ground of this poem is evidently intended to be classic-pastoral; but it must be confessed that the figure of St. Peter (109) appears somewhat out of place in such scenery, nor can the mixture of Keltic, Christian and Hellenic imagery (160-164) be extolled as an example of poetic taste. It must be remembered, though, that what would be critically condemned in this nineteenth century of accurate scholarship and nice discrimination would pass almost unnoticed in a simpler and less fastidious age,—an age when Shakespeare's Romans wore doublets and when part of the audience sat upon the stage.

Moreover, what is lost in poetic effect by the introduction of lines 108-131 is partly compensated for by the interesting light they throw upon Milton's attitude toward the burning political and theological questions of the day.

1-14. The laurel of Apollo, the myrtle of Venus and the ivy of Bacchus appear to symbolize poetry. The meaning of these lines, then, must be that the writer feels himself not yet prepared to undertake another poem and gives us these verses only under the sad compulsion of his friend's death. If this interpretation be correct, the mellowing year' is the time of poetic ripeness. dear = grievous. Compare Hamlet's 'Would I had met my dearest foe in Heaven.' Restive' is another word that has two exactly opposite meanings. Shatter is another form of 'scatter.' rime; commonly misspelled rhyme' through a mistaken identification with rhythm' (Gk. þvíμós). 'Rime' is from the Old English rim,

' number.'

15-22. Sisters of the Sacred Well; imitated from the opening of Hesiod's Theogony: "With the Muses of Helicon let us begin to sing, who haunt the divine and spacious mount of Helicon, who with delicate feet dance around the violet-colored fountain and altar of the mighty son of Cronus." Aganippe and Hippocrene, the fountains of the Muses, are on Mount Helicon in Boeotia. Muse must

mean 'poet;' hardly an elegant use of the word, though found in Shakespeare (Sonnet XXI. 1.) and in Spenser (Prothalamion, 159). lucky words; i.e. with words of good omen, such as the Sit Tiki Terra Levis (May the Earth Lie Lightly O'er Thee!) of the mourner as he thrice casts earth on the body of his friend. urn; cremation was customary among the Romans of the later Republic and of the Empire; the ashes were preserved in an urn. In earlier days, interment was the regular means of disposing of the body. See Rich, articles 'Humatio,' 'Sepulchrum,' Urna' (2). 23-31. lawns; see note on L'Allegro, 68-80. note on L'Allegro, 17-24. gray-fly; the trumpet-fly which buzzes around busily in the hot part of the day. battening; here transitive; more commonly intransitive, as in Hamlet iii. 4,

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed

And batten on this moor?

afield; see

bright, is better connected (adverbially) with 'had sloped' than with 'evening.' Nothing more beautiful than these nine lines (23-31) is to be found in the Greek and Latin pastoral poets. Had Milton only given us more verses like these, we could cheerfully have spared some of the harsh Puritan invective, lineș 113-131.

32-36. oaten; in primitive times, simple musical instruments were made from reeds. Satyrs; (Greek) half-man, half-goat. They were the traditional attendants of Bacchus, at whose orgies they danced and played. Cl. Myths, § 47 (3), 102, 117. Fauns; (Latin), rustic divinities, of gentler nature than the Satyrs, but often confused with them. Cl. Myths, § 56 (7). psychical romance, The Marble Faun. Chappell, Tutor at Christ's College when Milton studied there. The name Damætas occurs in the Sixth Idyll of Theocritus. 37-49. wardrobe, by metonymy = apparel. When first, etc.;

See also Hawthorne's
Damætas; possibly

this seems to be a reminiscence of Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1, 183-5.

your tongue's sweet air

More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear

When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

50-63. the steep; this description would answer to many mountains in Wales. Druids; by a false etymology this word was long derived from the Greek (Spiç) drus, an oak, because the Druids worshipped in oak-groves. The word is really from the Old Keltic drui, meaning 'magician.' Mona Anglesey, once a famous stronghold of the Druids. Deva the Dee, once a part of the boundary line between England and Wales. There are many Keltic legends connected with it, hence the epithet 'wizard.'

ishly.

=

=

fondly foolthe muse = Calliope. For the death of Orpheus, see Cl. Myths, pages 187-8. Orpheus seems to be a favorite subject with Milton; this is the third reference we have had to him.

Where are

the other two? In Par. Lost, VII. 34-38, we have a fourth :

that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard

In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears,

To rapture, till the savage clamour drowned

Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend

Her son.

swift Hebrus; the Hebrus is not swift, but slow; Milton's phrase is a literal translation of Vergil's 'volucrem Hebrum' (Æneid I. 316). See note on that line in Allen & Greenough's Vergil.

64-84. A digression upon Fame: an answer to the Cui Bono that comes to every earnest man at some time in his career. You will notice that the classical imagery is admirably sustained throughout this passage, though there must have been a great temptation to break off into a Hebraistic strain such as characterizes lines 108-131. What boots it? What profits it? Boots is from the Old English bōt, 'advantage.' It has no etymological connection with boot in the sense of foot-wear, which is from the

=

French botte. meditate the thankless Muse; a transcript from Vergil, Eclogue I. 2: 'Silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena:' Thou dost practise rustic verse on the thin reed. use are accustomed. The preterite of use' retains this meaning. Amaryllis; Neæra; names of girls in Vergil's Eclogues. The names occur again in an elegy of George Buchanan's with which this passage shows Milton to have been familiar. Lovelace has closely followed the phraseology of line 69 in the first verse of his beautiful song, To Althea from Prison.' (Palgrave's Golden Treasury, Song 99).

clear 40-2.

blaze

6

When Love with unconfinéd wings

Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair

And fetter'd to her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty.

pure, irreproachable, as in The Merchant of Venice, ii. 9,

'O that estates, degrees and offices

Were not derived corruptly; and that clear honor

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer.'

the light of fame. Par. Regained, III. 25-48, forms an interesting comment on this passage. Fury; the Furies (Erinyes or Eumenides) were Alecto (The Implacable), Tisiphone (The Avenger of Murder) and Megæra (The Envying One). They personified Remorse; Cl. Myths, § 51 (2). In the Hellenic Mythology, it is not one of the Furies but one of the Fates (Atropos, The Inflexible), that cuts the thread of life. The other Fates were Clotho (The Spinner) and Lachesis (The Allotter): Cl. Myths, § 43, (6); also pp. 279-80. Phœbus, or Phœbus Apollo, the god of Poetry and Music, Cl. Myths, § 38. Lines 76-7 are imitated from Vergil, Eclogue VI. 3-4; 'When I would sing of kings and wars, Cynthius plucked my ear and admonished me.' The seat of memory was supposed to be in the ear. foil (Latin folium, whence foliage'); in jewelry, a thin sheet of metal often put under a poor stone to add luster by reflection. So diamonds owe a luster to their foil.' (Pope.) With this meaning for 'foil' the interpretation will be: Fame is not like a cheap jewel displayed to the world with meretriciously heightened effect, but

85-102. fountain Arethuse; in the little island of Ortygia lying in the harbor of Syracuse. For the story of Arethusa and Alpheus see Cl. Myths, § 88, and Shelley's Arethusa, there quoted. Min

cius, a little river in Northern Italy, near Mantua, the birthplace of Vergil. It is often mentioned in his writings. In what consists the appropriateness of these Sicilian and Italian allusions?

=

Her

ald of the sea Triton, Cl. Myths, § 54 (1); also the sonnet from Wordsworth quoted on p. 87 of that book. in Neptune's plea = in defense of Neptune. of rugged wings, seems best taken as an adjective phrase with gust. beakéd promontory; this metaphor shows a reversal of the usual process. What is that? Hippotades. See the opening of Odyssey X.: " Soon we drew near the island of Æolia, where Æolus, the son of Hippotas, dear to immortal gods, dwelt on a floating island. All around it is a wall of bronze, not to be broken through, and smooth and steep rises the rocky shore." The suffixes — ades, — ides (Masculine) and — as, is, — eis (Feminine) when added to proper names form Patronymics, indicating descent or relationship; thus (as above) Hippot-ades, son of Hippotas; Tyndar-is, daughter of Tyndarus. See A. & G. Latin Grammar, § 164 (b). dungeon; there is a fine descrip

tion of the cave of the winds in the Eneid, I. 50-63. Panope (The All-Seeing One) and her forty-nine sisters were sea-nymphs, daughters of Nereus and Doris. eclipse; eclipses were long believed to be signs of divine displeasure. Compare the still-common superstition about the moon's phases affecting the weather. 103-7. Camus; the divinity of the sluggish Cam.

mantle

hairy, etc. River-sponge and sedge grow luxuriantly in the Cam today. The 'figures dim' may refer to curious streaks that show on the sedge when dried. Sanguine flower; the hyacinth. For pledge (like the Latin pig

the legend, see Cl. Myths, § 74. nus) = offspring.

108-131. Consult your English events of this exciting year, 1637. Keys; Matthew XVI. 19.

amain

is merely intensive (as in a-wake, a-rouse) and signified originally climb into the fold; compare the sonnet to

'out of,' 'up.'

Cromwell, p. 16.

mouths; a strong metonymy for 'gluttons.'

Ruskin has an elaborate comment on this passage in Sesame and Lilies, Lecture I. Milton's phraseology throughout is forcible, if not elegant. sped. Two interpretations are possible. 1o, Mercutio when wounded exclaims, ‘I am sped,' where the meaning is evidently despatched,' 'done for.' (Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1.). 2o, sped may have its original meaning of 'prospered.' list, originally like 'please' an impersonal verb used with a dative object; very common in Chaucer. flashy insipid: obsolete in

this sense.

scrannel

scrawny, thin.

This word is found in