Except in certain phrases, stead, both as a substantive and a verb, has fallen out of use. It survives in compos. in steadfast, homestead, steady, instead, Hampstead, bedstead. 17. 4. fixed. See Faerie Queene, IV. vii. 16. = 6. fond foolish, as usually in Old English, and still in the North. "Thou fond mad woman.' (Richard II. V. ii. 95.) So Coriol. IV. i. 26. "Fondling" is used both as a term of endearment, and for a fool. In Wickcliffe and in Chaucer occurs the form fonned, which is the participle of fonnen, to be foolish (found in Chaucer, the Townley Mysteries, &c. Scotch fon). Then fond foolishly affectionate, "loving not wisely." In our present usage the word has acquired a better meaning, the idea of folly originally so predominant in it being diminished. The first meaning of dote is to be silly. "Most loving mere folly," sings Amiens, in As You Like It, II. vii. 181. As to the passive participle being used (i.e. fonned, not fonnend, = or fonning), comp. "doted ignorance," "in Faerie Queene, I. viii. 34. On the other hand, from "mad," to be mad, we have "madding," as in Paradise Lost, vi. 210; Gray's Elegy, &c. shapes. See L'Allegro, 4. 18. 7. Warton refers to Sylvester's Cave of Sleep in Du Bartas. thick. Comp. Knolles apud Johnson: "They charged the defendants with their small shot and Turkey arrows as thick as hail." [What other meanings has thick?] 9. likest. Like, though a monosyllable, does not in our present English form its degrees of comparison by inflection. 10. Morpheus. See Class. Dict. xi. 634). Morpheus train = what Ovid calls "populus natorum mille suorum (Metam. pensioners. See Midsummer Night's Dream, II. i. 10. 12. Bowle thought that Milton took the idea of his Melancholy from Albert Dürer's design of Melancholia. 15. Comp. Exod. xxxiv. 29-35. 18. Prince Memnons sister: i.e. some beautiful Ethiopian princess. Another son of Tithonus and Eos, viz. Emathion, is mentioned, but, it would seem, no daughter. Memnon was famous for his beauty. 19. = Cassiepea, Cassiopea, or Cassiope, as the name is variously written. The usual story is that it was her daughter Andromeda's beauty that she declared to surpass that of the Nereides, for which presumption her country was visited with a deluge and a sea monster, and these curses withdrawn only on the condition that Andromeda should be given up to the monster. See Ovid Met. iv. 670: "The unpitying Ammon had bidden that innocent Andromeda should there pay the penalty for her mother's tongue." The story, as told by Milton, is given by Apollodorus. For so boasting of herself "she was represented, when placed among the stars, as turning backwards." Manilius, in his Astronomics (i. 352), speaks of her punishment, not of her crime : "Cassiepia In pœnas signata suas.' starr'd, not star-crowned, but made or transformed into stars. constellation. See Cicero's translation, 187 et seq. Aratus describes this 22. higher far. [What part of speech is higher here? Comp. "high-born."] 23 Milton here mythologizes for himself. See L'Allegro, 1. 2. 25 Solitary Saturn. According to the old story he made himself so, as a father, by devouring his offspring. Hesiod, in his Theogony, 454, mentions Histia as one of his children by Reia. 29. Ida. See Class. Dict. There were several mountains of this name. [Which one is meant here?] 30. yet. In our present English. when yet, in the sense it has here, [what is that? and what other senses has yet?] is placed before the verb of its sentence, we qualify it by prefixing as. We could say either "while there was not yet any fear of Jove," or "while as yet there was no fear of Jove." This as serves to distinguish the sense of yet. (In the other case the position of the word distinguishes its sense.) For the older English usage, comp. with this passage, Taming of the Shrew, Induct. i. 96: "For yet his honour never heard a play," &c. So A. Phillips to Charlotte Pulteney (apud Golden Treas.): 18. 30. i.e. during the Golden Age. Comp. Paradise Lost, x. 584. For a picture of Saturn after the fear of Jove had been realized, see Keats' Hyperion. 32. stedfast. See notes on bested, Il Pens. 3; shamefac't, H. Nat. III. demure. Comp. Spenser's "With countenance demure and modest grace.' In See note, L'All. 24. The root of the latter part of the word appears in "moral," &c. It is quite distinct from that of "demur." See Trench's Select Gloss. form and derivation, comp. debonair. 33. all may be an adjective here: comp. Horace's "totus in illis" (1 Sat. ix. 2): or it may be an adverb (see note, p. 65), qualifying the adjectival phrase in a robe of. darkest grain =" not, as Webster supposes, a mourning black, or a dull neutral tint, but the violet shade of purple." See especially Marsh's Lect. on the Eng. Lang. 1st Ser. Grain originally = a seed, or kernel, then a small seed-like object, then any minute thing, then an insect of the genus coccus, "the dried body or rather ovarium of which furnishes a variety of red dyes," then one of the dyes so procured. Hence grain is used by Milton and other English poets for Tyrian purple. See Paradise Lost, xi. 240–4: "Over his lucid arms A military vest of purple flow'd, In time of truce: Iris had dipt the woof." Ib. v. 285, Com. 750; Chaucer's "scarlet en grayn ; Shakspere's "purple in grain" (Midsummer Night's Dream, I. ii. 95). As "the colour obtained from kermes, or grain, was peculiarly durable, or, as it is technically called, a fast or fixed dye," in grain was used for deep-dyed, "fast," fixed. 35. stole. The stola was the characteristic robe of the Roman lady. Exactly, it was a "tunic,” short-sleeved, flounced, made so long that it reached the ground, and also fell in a broad fold over the girdle. (Under it was worn the tunica interior, over it, out of doors, the palla.) But Spenser, as Mr. Keightley remarks, uses stole for hood or veil (see Faerie Queene, I. i. 4; Colin Clout's come Home again, 495; and in that sense, probably, Milton uses it here. He has already mentioned a robe "flowing with majestic train.' The ecclesiastical stole was, and is, something very different—" a long narrow scarf, with fringed ends." (See Morte D'Arthur, Globe Edition, p. 373: "And then the good man and Sir Launcelot went into the chapel, and the good man took a stole about his neck," &c.) The robe which the priests of Isis wore was the Roman stola. Comp. Hymn Nat. 220. Cipres lawn = = crape. Crape may not be derived from "Cipres" ( Cyprus), as some say (but rather from Fr. crêpe, Lat. crispus), but the two words seem to have denoted the same thing. See Twelfth Night, III. i. 132. "Both black and white were made, as at present, but the black was more common, and was used for mourning, as it is still" (Nares). See Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, I. iii. &c. See Webster's Malcontent, III. i.: "Why, dost think I cannot mourn, unless I wear my hat in cipres, like an alderman's heir?" Shirley's Love Tricks : "6 'Gong Goddess of Cyprus Bub. Stay, I do not like that word Cyprus, for she'll think I mean to make hatbands of her." Lawn is here used generally, not in its technical sense. It is often distinguished from cyprus, as in Autolycus' song, Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 220: "Lawn as white as driven snow, Cyprus black as e'er was crow." "Cobweb lawn, or the very finest lawn," says Nares, "is often mentioned with Cyprus, and, what is singular, Cotgrave has made crespe signify both." See Jonson's Epig. 73. Comp. at a later time Pope's Mor. Ess. i. 135-6: ""Tis from high life high characters are drawn, A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;" lawn being used for bishops, crape for the other clergy. 18. 36. [What is meant by decent?] Comp. Horace's ". gratiæ decentes" (Od. I. iv. 6), "decentes malas" (Od. III. xxvii. 53). 39. Comp. Cicero's Tusc. Disp. V. xxiii. 65: “Quis est omnium qui modo cum Musis, id est cum humanitate et cum doctrina, habeat aliquod commercium, qui se non hunc mathematicum [Archimedem] malit quam illum tyrannum [Dionysium]." Ovid's Tristia, V. x. 35 : "Exercent illi sociæ commercia linguæ; Per gestum res est significanda mihi." Hamlet, III. i. 110: "Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?" 41. [What part of speech is still here ?] 42. See Epitaph on William Shakspere. Spenser's Epithal. 234. "With leaden eye that loves the ground." 19. 50. See Bacon's Essay on Gardens: "God Almighty first planted a garden; and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man." In Marvell's Thoughts in a Garden (given in the Golden Treasury), one seems to see Retired Leisure recreating in its garden. Comp. Com. 375-80. his. See note, Hymn Nat. 106. 52. yon. Here an adverb. The A.-S. form is geond. Shakspere uses the form yond in Tempest, I. ii. 409, Fol. 1623: The usual form, both adverb and adjective, is now "yonder." In Shakspere and Milton yon as an adjective is about as common as yonder. Spenser has "that yond same," in Faerie Queene, VI. xii. 18. For the dropping off of the d, comp. "fon," a form for "fond." The vision is described at greater fulness in Paradise Lost, vi. 750-9. For the original, see Ezek. x. 54 Spenser's Contemplation is an old man. See Faerie Queene, I. x. 46. 55. hist along = bring silently along. See note on Hymn Nat. 64. 58. Comp. Horace's "Explicuit vino contractæ seria frontis (Sat. II. ii. 125). Com. 251-2. 59. Cynthia. See Class. Dict. Spenser's Faerie Queene, VII vii. 50. 19. 59. dragon yoke. Night's, not the Moon's, dragons are often spoken of, as in Shakspere, Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 379: "Night's swift dragons." Troilus and Cressida, V. viii. 17: "The dragon wing of night." Cymbeline, II. ii. 48: "Yon dragons of the night." By the Latin poets Ceres is described as dragon-drawn: see Ovid, Fast. iv. 497 : 'frenatos curribus angues jungit ;" and 561: "inque dracones transit.” Not only here does Milton give the moon dragons; see in his Silvarum Liber the lines, In obitum præsulis Eliensis, 1. 56: "Vidi triformem dum coercebat suos Frenis dracones aureis." Ovid speaks of the moon's snow-white horses (Fast. i. 374). 60. th' accustom'd oke. The article seems to show that the poet has in his mind some particular landscape. 61. noise. See note, Hymn Nat. 97. 63. chauntress. Wotton calls birds "yon curious chanters of the wood." Comp. Chanticleer. 64 eeven-song. Comp. the cock's matin, L'Allegro, 114. 65. unseen. Contrast L'Allegro, 57. 66. smooth-shaven green. Comp. "short-grass'd green," Shakspere's Tempest, IV. i. 83. Shakspere uses both participial forms: shaved in 1 Henry IV. III. iii. 68 ; shaven in Much Ado about Nothing, III. iii. 145. 67. the wandring moon. Comp. Shelley's "Art thou pale for weariness," &c. 68. neer her highest noon = nearly full. Or perhaps rather in the middle of the night— that is, of the moonlit hours of the night; near her highest point of ascension. 73. plat is a various form of plot. form, plate. = 66 We still speak of a grass plat." Comp. flat, plat 74. curfeu strictly, fire-cover. See Bacon apud Johnson: "But now for pans, pots, curfews, counters, and the like, the beauty will not be so much respected so as the compound stuff is like to pass. It was commonly used for the fire-cover bell-i.e. the bell at whose ringing all household fires were to be put out for the night, as in Tempest, V. i. 40; Lear, III. iv. 120. In Romeo and Juliet, IV. iv. 4, curfew bell is used generally for a bell. [What part of speech is sound here?] river. 75. over some shore and the wide piece of water it edges. wide-water'd. Our older writers often speak of "a water," meaning a lake or a See Morte D'Arthur. Tennyson has revived the phrase in his Morte D'Arthur: "On one side lay the ocean, and on one Milton here may be thinking of the Thames. 80. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 62-4. 83. The belman = the watchman of a later time, down to the establishment of the present police system. Herrick in one of his poems blesses his friends in the character of a bellman: "From noise of scare fires rest ye free, From murders benedicite ; From all mischances that may fright Mercie secure ye all and keep The goblin from ye, while ye sleep. Past one o'clock, and almost two, r other "bellman's verses," see Chambers' Book of Days, i. 496. = 19. 83. nightly during the night, not night by night See note on Hymn Nat. 179. 88. thrice great Hermes Hermes Trismegistus = the Egyptian Thot or Theut, with whom the Greek Hermes was identified. This Egyptian Hermes was held in great reverence by the Neo-Platonists; he was the Word (ó Móyos) incarnate; he was the source of Plato's knowledge, and of that of Pythagoras. Certain works ascribed to him (really written probably in the fourth century of our æra) were much pored over. The Hermetical Philosophy was so called after him. Probably Milton here is thinking of his Pamander, a work discussing the creation of the world, the deity, the human soul, &c. unsphear: so unthrone, Paradise Lost, ii. 231, &c. 90. See Plato's Phæd. passim. 91. forsook. See note, Hymn Nat. 98. 20. 93. Salamanders, sylphs, nymphs, and gnomes. See Rape of the Lock, i. 60-4. 95. consent. Compare Shakspere, 1 Henry VI. I. i. 2-4: Hor. Od. II. xvii. 22. "Ye comets, scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented unto Henry's death." 96. with planet. There was a very general belief in astrology throughout the seventeenth century. Then lived Dee, Forman, Napier, Lilly, and others of like pretensions. See Shakspere, passim; Butler's Hudibras, &c. Dryden was a believer in the art. See Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature. 98. scepter'd pall = royal robe; scepter'd may answer to Horace's "honesta" (Ars Poet. 278). Or perhaps the phrase = with sceptre and with pall-i.e. two things are expressed as one, just as often one thing is expressed as two, which latter figure is called Hendiadys. The former figure is δύο δι ̓ ἑνός. Comp. above, 1. 75. pall is = the Latin palla. See Hor. Ars Poet. 8. The great tragedy robe was called ξυστίς. 99. Edipus and Pelops and their respective houses, and the various heroes who fought before Troy, formed the three most popular subject-matters of Attic Tragedy. 100. [What is meant by the epithet of divine applied to Troy ?] ΙΟΙ. It may be supposed that Milton has in his mind's eye Othello, King Lear, Hamlet. 102. buskind Latin cothurnatus. The Greek Kółopvos, Latin cothurnus, was a boot with high heels designed to add to the stature, and so to the dignity, of the Tragic Actor. The comic soccus was a sort of slipper. Horace uses these words to represent the dramas to which they respectively belonged; as in Ars Poetica, 80: "Hunc socci cepere pedem grandesque cothurni.” i.e. both comedy and tragedy adopted the iamb. See Ib. 280, 1 Sat. I. v. 64. or buskin was also worn by hunters, and so by Diana and her nymphs. buskin'd nymphs" in Arcades, 33. 104. from his bower. Comp. "the Muses' bower' in Sonnet III. 105. Orpheus. See L'Allegro, 145. 109. Chaucer's Squire's Tale breaks off in the middle. The cothurnus Hence "silver Spenser continues and finishes the story in his own style in Faerie Queene, IV. ii. and iii. It was also finished by one John Lane, a friend of Milton's father; of which version there are MS. copies in the British and in the Ashmolean Museums. (See Masson's Life of Milton, p. 42.) This tale, then, must have been particularly well known to Milton. Amongst the Canterbury Tales it is conspicuous for a certain Oriental richness of invention and of ornament. 110. Cambuscan. The accentuation of this word here is strange. Of course the word Cambus Khan. Chaucer, though he writes the two words as one, gives no accen* to the middle syllable, e.g.;, This noble King was cleped Cambuscan." |