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This Ode, beyond doubt one of the finest in our language, and more in Milton's style than has been reached by any other poet, is occasionally obscure from imitation of the condensed Latin syntax. The meaning of st. 5 is 'rivalry or hostility are the same to a lofty spirit, and limitation more hateful than opposition.' The allusion in st. 11 is to the old physical doctrines of the nonexistence of a vacuum and the impenetrability of matter:-in st. 17, to the omen traditionally connected with the foundation of the Capitol at Rome. The ancient belief that certain years in life complete natural periods and are hence peculiarly exposed to death, is introduced in st. 26 by the word climacteric.

65 LXVI Lycidas. The person lamented is Milton's college friend Edward King, drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland.

66

67

68

Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exbibited more magnificently in Lycidas than in any other pastoral, is apparently of Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has here united ancient mythology with what may be called the modern mythology of Camus and Saint Peter, to direct Christian images. The metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian models.

1. 6 Sisters of the sacred well: the Muses said to frequent the fountain Helicon on Mount Parnassus. 1. 14 Mona: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island, from its dense forests. Deva (1. 15) the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and Saxon. - These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the shipwreck. Orpheus (1. 18) was torn to pieces by Thracian women. Amaryllis and Neaera (1. 28, 29) names used here for the love-idols of poets: as Damoetas previously for a shepherd.

1.

3 the blind Fury: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life. Arethuse (1. 13) and Mincius: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as synonymous with

the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil. L. 16 oat: pipe, used here like Collins' oaten stop l. 1, No. CXLVI, for Song. L. 24 Hippotades: Aeolus, god of the Winds. Panope (1. 27) a Nereid. The names of local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analyzed with their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared with the limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or Asia Minor. Camus (1. 31) the Cam; put for King's University.

1. 2 The sanguine flower: the Hyacinth of the an-
cients; probably our Iris. The pilot (1. 5) Saint
Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the
Church on earth, to foretell 'the ruin of our corrupted
clergy, then in their heighth' under Laud's primacy.
L. 24 the wolf: Popery. Alpheus (1. 28) a stream in
Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to join
the Arethuse.

1. 1 Swart star: the Dogstar, called swarthy because
its heliacal rising in ancient times occurred soon after
midsummer. L. 22 moist vows: either tearful pray-
ers, or prayers for one at sea. Bellerus (1. 23) a giant,
apparently created here by Milton to personify Belle-
rium, the ancient title of the Land's End.
The great
Vision:- the story was that the Archangel Michael
had appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's
Bay which bears his name. Milton calls on him to
turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to pity
Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled wa-
ters off the Land's End. Finisterre being the land
due south of Marazion, two places in that district
(then by our trade with Corunna probably less un-
familiar to English ears) are named, Namancos
now Mujio in Galicia, Bayona north of the Minho, or
perhaps a fortified rock (one of the Cies Islands not
unlike Saint Michael's Mount, at the entrance of Vigo
Bay. L. 33 ore: rays of golden light.

1. 19 Doric lay: Sicilian, pastoral.

The assault was an attack on London expected in

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1642, when the troops of Charles I reached Brentford. 'Written on his door' was in the original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street.

LXX 1. 10 The Emathian conqueror: When Thebes was destroyed (B.c. 335) and the citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV. of appreciating Racine but even the narrow and barbarian mind of Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to Poetry.

1. 12 the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst - Plutarch's vague stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B.C. took Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity between the lines quoted (167, 168 Ed. Dindorf) and the result asIcribed to them.

76 LXXIII This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy of, the 'pure Simonides.'

77

LXXV Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with Wordsworth's great Ode, No.

CCLXXXVII.

73 LXXVI Favonius: the spring wind.

79 LXXVII Themis: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grandson by his mother to Sir E. Coke :- hence, as pointed out by Mr. Keightley, Milton's allusion to the bench. L. 8: Sweden was then at war with Poland, and France with the Spanish Netherlands.

81 LXXIX 1. 13 Sydneian showers: either in allusion to the conversations in the 'Arcadia,' or to Sidney himself as a model of 'gentleness' in spirit and demeanour. 86 LXXXIV Elizabeth of Bohemia: Daughter to James I, and ancestor to Sophia of Hanover. These lines are a fine specimen of gallant and courtly compliment. 87 LXXXV Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough, who died March, 1628-9, coincidently with the dissolution of the third Parliament of Charles's reign. Hence Milton poetically compares

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his death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory in 328 B.C.

92 XCII, XCIII These are quite a Painter's poems.

96 XCIX From Prison: to which his active support of Charles I. twice brought the high-spirited writer.

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103

105

CV

Inserted in Book II as written in the character of a
Soldier of Fortune in the Seventeenth Century.

CVI Waly waly: an exclamation of sorrow, the root and
the pronunciation of which are preserved in the word
caterwaul. Brae, hillside: burn, brook: busk, adorn.
Saint Anton's well: at the foot of Arthur's Seat by
Edinburgh. Cramasie, crimson.

CVII burd, maiden.

106 CVIII Corbies, crows: fail, turf: hause, neck: theek, thatch. - If not in their origin, in their present form this and the two preceding poems appear due to the Seventeenth Century, and have therefore been placed in Book II.

109

CXI

The remark quoted in the note to No. XLVII applies
equally to these truly wonderful verses, which, like
'Lycidas,' may be regarded as a test of any reader's
insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The
general differences between them are vast: but in
imaginative intensity Marvell and Shelley are closely
related. This poem is printed as a translation in
Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously
his own.
The most striking verses in it, here quoted
as the book is rare, answer more or less to stanzas 2
and 6:-

Alma Quies, teneo te ! et te, germana Quietis,
Simplicitas! vos ergo diu per templa, per urbes
Quaesivi, regum perque alta palatia, frustra :
Sed vos hortorum per opaca silentia, longe
Celarunt plantae virides, et concolor umbra.

L'Allégro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of
Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest
pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still
remain the best in a style which so many great poets
have since attempted. The Bright and the Thought-
ful aspects of Nature are their subjects: but each is
preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed

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III

112

113

114

115

Classical and Italian manner.

The meaning of the

first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.

CXII 1. 2: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for Cerberus we should read Erebus, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of Night. But the issue of that union is not Sadness, but Day and Aether-completing the circle of primary Creation, as the parents are both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.)

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1. 22 the mountain nymph; compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. ccx.

1. 14 is in apposition to the preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton. L. 19 tells his tale: counts his flock. Cynosure (1. 32) the Pole Star.

1. 1 Corydon, Thyrsis &c.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls.

1. 16 Jonson's learned sock:-the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate comedies. L. 20 Lydian airs: a light and festive style of ancient music.

3

116 CxIII 1. bestead: avail. L. 19 starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations.

117

118

119

1. 33 Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations.

1. 28 Hermes, called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school.

1. 5 Thebes &c. subjects of Athenian Tragedy. Buskin'd (1. 8) tragic. L. 10 Musaeus: a poet in Mythology. L. 15 him that left half-told: Chaucer, in his incomplete 'Squire's Tale.' L. 22 great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser are here intended. L. 29 frounced: curled. The Attic Boy (1. 30) Cephalus.

121 CXIV Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I.

122

123 CXV

1. 9, 10 But apples, &c. A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.

1. 2 concent: harmony.