22. 30. Milton wrote originally (see the first edition of Lycidas): "Oft till the ev'n-starre bright Towards heaven's descent had slop'd his burnisht wheel." 31. westering. See Chaucer's Troil. and Cress. ii. 905. Comp. west in Faerie Queene, v. Introd. 8. 32. ditties. See Paradise Lost, "am'rous ditties." = 66 33. temper'd modulated, set. See Paradise Lost, vii. 598. Warton quotes from Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, IX. iii. : "Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay." See Hor. Od. IV. iii. 16, 17. to. See l. 13. th' oaten flute = Latin avena. See Virgil, Ecl. i. 2: Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avena," &c. Elsewhere "arundo" (Ecl. vi. 8), "calamus agrestis" (Ecl. i. 10), "stridens stipula,” in a disparaging sense (Ecl. iii. 27). Comp. Collins' Ode to Evening: "If aught of oaten stop or pastoral song," &c. Love's Labour Lost, V. ii. 913: "When shepherds pipe on oaten straws," &c. Hall, in his first Satire, says he cannot "Under everie bank and everie tree Speake rimes unto mine oaten minstrelsie." In that same Satire he uses "reeds" to denote Pastoral poetry. oaten. The adjectival termination en, denoting "made of," was more commonly used in older English than it is now, when we use the substantive itself in the sense of the adjective formed by that addition. Of those adjectives many are obsolete; those that survive have changed their meaning: e.g. silvern, leathern, golden, earthen, ashen, silken, milken, stonen, thornen, leaden, elinen, glazen. See Fiedler and Sachs (Wissensch. Grammat. der Eng. Sprache, i. 172). 34. The Fauni were rural Latin gods, corresponding in many respects to the Greek Satyrs, and in time regarded as identical with them. Faunus, the chief of them, was identified with Pan. with clov'n heel. Faunus was represented with horns (hence Ovid calls him bicornis), and goat's feet. Hence Ovid (Fast. v. 101): Semicaper, coleris cinctutis, Faune, Lupercis, Satyrs and Fauns. Comp. Virg. Ecl. vi. 27. This is a pastoral way of describing the University men of his time. 36. old Damætas = probably W. Chappell, the Tutor of Christ's College in Milton and King's time. 23. 38. must. Perhaps there is a certain fine courtesy in the use of this word here instead of "mayest." The poet, having to say that his friend will never return, says that "he is not compelled to return," rather than "he is not permitted to return." Or perhaps must = art appointed or ordained. Comp. Hymn Nat. 151: "This must not yet be so ;" and ib. 156: "The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep." 23. 39. Comp. Ov. Met. xi. 43. Envy," says Bacon, "is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and 41. echoes. See Song to Echo in Comus. Epitaph. Bionis, 30: 66 “ ἀχώ δ' ἐν πέτρῃσιν οδύρεται ὅττι σιωπῃ κοὐκέτι μιμεῖται τὰ σὰ χείλεα.” Shelley's Adonais, stanza 15: "Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains, And feeds her grief with his remembered lay," &c. Comp. Milton's Ode on the Passion, stanza 8. In Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, &c. these echoes are not "imagines" of the poetic voice, but, it would seem, of the various voices of nature: "I hear the echoes through the mountain throng." 42. hazle copses green. On this arrangement of words, see note to Hymn Nat. 187. 44. to. See above, 1. 33. 45. canker. Originally the same word with cancer. It is sometimes made more precise by the addition of "worm," as in Joel i. 4; just as taint in the following line. = 46. weanling yeanling, or eanling, as is variously read: Merchant of Venice, I. iii. 80; Paradise Lost, iii. 434. For the first letter, comp. the pronunciations of once, who, whole, whoop, with their spelling; whole and hale, whirl and hurl, worm and Orme's Head; old = wold, in King Lear, III. iv. 125. Sir Hugh Evans calls woman", oman" (Merry Wives of Windsor, passim). For the ling, comp. firstling, yearling, kitling, nestling, nurseling, foundling. [Add others to this list.] 47. wardrop. Chaucer uses the form "ward-rope." That form is still in use in Yorkshire. (See Halliwell.) The order of the ingredient words in this compound is noticeable. Comp. flour-bin, fire-guard, reading-desk, &c. &c. [What is the law observable in these and such words?] The varying from the usual order in wardrobe is accounted for by the fact that the word comes to us in an already compounded state from the French garde robe (the Low Latin garda roba). 49. such so killing. 50. Comp. Theocr. i. 65-9; Virg. Ecl. x. 9-12. 52. the steep probably Penmaenmawr. Gray's bard stood = "On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood." = this steep, probably; but the topography of The Bard will not bear investigation. "For the Druid sepulchres, at Kerig y Druidion, in the mountains of Denbighshire, he consulted Camden's Britannia." (Warton.) 54. Mona certainly Anglesey here, not the Isle of Man. "It was not unfrequently described as Môn mam-Gymru: i.e. Mona, the nursing mother of Wales, in allusion either to its former fertility, or to its being the residence of the Druids." (Black's Guide to North Wales.) See the picture Tacitus gives of the Druids there urging their countrymen to oppose the Romans: "Preces diras sublatis ad cælum manibus fundentes.” (Annal. xiv. 30.) Cromlechs abound in the island. For shaggy top, "it was called by the bards the shady island,' because it formerly abounded with groves and trees; but there is now little wood, except along the bank of the Menai." Tacitus speaks of "luci sævis superstitionibus sacri" being cut down for purposes of defence. For the high, Parys Mountain is the highest eminence of the island. "In Drayton's Polyolbion, Mona is introduced reciting her own history, when she mentions her thick and dark groves as the favourite residence of the Druids." Warton takes Mona to be the Isle of Man. 23. 55. See A Vacation Exercise, 98: "ancient hallow'd Dee." Spenser's Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 39: "Dee, which Britons long ygone Did call divine, that doth by Chester tend." See also Faerie Queene, I. ix. 4. Drayton speaks of "Dee's holiness;" he calls it "hallowed," "the ominous flood." Higden's Polychronicon mentions certain wizard-like features in this river: "Under the cite of Chestre," says John de Trevisa's translation, "eorneth [runs] the river Dee, that now to-deleth [parts] Engelond and Wales; that ryver everych monthe chaungeth his fordes, as men of the contray telleth, and leveth ofte the chanel. Bote whether the water drawe more toward Engelond other toward Wales, to what syde that hyt be that yer, men schal habbe the wors ende and be overset, and the men of the other syde schal habbe the betre ende and be at here above. Whanne the water chaungeth so hys cours, hyt bodeth such happes." (Apud Morris' E. E. Specimens.) The Tiber was thought sacred by the Latins. (See En. viii. 72.) See Tenth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion. river." wisard. See note on Hymn Nat. 23. Drayton calls the Weever "the wizard 56. fondly. See note, Il Pens. 6. 58. [Who was this Muse?] See Paradise Lost, vii. 34-8. 59. inchanting son. See the song, "Orpheus with his lute made trees," in Shakspere s Henry VIII. III. i. 3. Hor. Od. I. xii. 7-12, &c. &c. 61. See Virg. Georg. iv. 517–27; Ovid, Met. xi. 1-89, esp. 50-5: Excipis "C Caput, Hebre, lyramque. Jamque mare invectæ flumen populare relinquunt, Et Methymnææ potiuntur littore Lesbi." the hideous roar. "The" was more emphatic in older English than it is now. 63. swift Hebrus. See Virg. Æn. i. 321. Servius blames the epithet: "Nam quietissimus est etiam cum per hyemem crescit." 64. Shakspere, Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger, and other bright lights of the Elizabethan age, had for some years passed away. The last representative of that great race-Ben Jonson-had just been gathered to his fellows. The race of poets which had succeeded were of a different breed. The dramatic period was over. There arose a tribe of light lyric poets --Herrick, Suckling, Donne, Lovelace, Wither. It is easy to understand how, to one of Milton's high poetic theory and purpose, the popularity of these triflers must have suggested despair for himself and for his time. uncessant. See Hymn Nat. 8. 65. shepherd. The metaphor is used in a different sense below, ll. 113-31. 66. Part of this phrase is Virgil's. See Ecl. i. 2. thankless. Comp. Virg. Æn. vii. 425. Here Milton shows what his theory was of a poet's duty in the way of preparation for his work. See note on the opening lines of this poem. 67. use. in Prothal. 135. This present is now almost obsolete. The pret. survives. See note on wont 68. As Tityrus with her name, in Virgil's Ecl. i. 4: Tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvam." 23. 69. Comp. Lovelace's "When I lie tangled in her hair, And fetter'd to her eye, The birds that wanton in the air Warton thinks Milton refers to certain poems of Buchanan addressed to Amaryllis and Neæra, which were well known at this time. 70. "Reward is the spur of virtue in all good acts, all laudable attempts; and emulation, which is the other spur, will never be wanting when particular rewards are proposed." (Dryden.) 71. Comp. Tac. Hist. iv. 6: "Erant quibus adpetentior famæ videretur quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur.' iii. 47.) 74. See the discussion on glory" in Paradise Regained, iii. 21-150; esp. ll. 47-70. blaze. 75. Fury. It was one of the Fates or Moipai or Parcæ, viz. Atropos, not one of the Furies, who was fabled to cut one's thread of life. Shakspere speaks of "the shears of Destiny." (King John, IV. ii. 91.) Perhaps Milton uses the word Fury here not in its special, but a general sense. 76. thin-spun life. See Tibull. Eleg. I. vii. 1, 2: 79. foil. French feuille, Latin folium. See Spenser's Faerie Queene, I. iv. 4: "Whose [a stately palace's] wals were high, but nothing strong or thick, Warton quotes Shakspere, 1 Henry IV. I. ii. 239; but the sense there is different. 24. 81. [What is the force of by here ?] 82. perfet. This is from the French form parfait. So feat and fact. 85. Arethuse. See Class. Dict. In Arcades he speaks of "Divine Alpheus, who by secret sluice En. iii. 694, &c. Mosch. Fr. v. 1-8, Ed. Ahrens. [Why honour'd? See Class. Dict. See also Virg. Georg. iii. 13-15.] 86. reeds. See 1. 33. 88. My oat proceeds, And listens, &c. There is a carelessness of style here. Comp. L'Allegro, 121-2; Il Penseroso, 155–7. 90. [What is meant by in Neptune's plea ?] 24. 93. Every-each. Milton often uses both these words in the same sentence, merely, it would seem, for the sake of variety. Com. 19: Etymologically, every ever each. [What difference is there between the usages of each and every ?] 96. Hippotades. See Homer's Odyss. x. 2; Ov. Met. xiv. 85. was strayed. So "was dropt," 1. 191; "is run," Julius Cæsar, V. iii. 25, &c. See Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. § 158. This older usage is more strictly correct than our present one, which admits the transitive auxiliary "have" with these participles of intransitive verbs. The French still say "Je suis arrivé." On German usage see Wittich's G. Gr. § 120. 99. Panope. Virgil calls her Panopea, Æn. v. 240. Georg. i. 437. [Who were her sisters? See Hesiod gives their names in his Theogony, 240 et seq. See also Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 49.] 101. th' eclipse. [What is the force of the here?] along with, in the midst of; or, better, by a bold poetical figure, it Eclipses were believed, both by the ancients and in later ages, to be times of evil omen, and to bring a curse upon everything done during them. Thus Gloucester, in King Lear, I. ii. 112 et seq.: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us," &c. As to the distress with which these "swoonings" of the greater lights were regarded, see Ellis's Brand's Popular Antiquities. Comp. Paradise Lost, i. 596-9, of the sun when "from behind the moon In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations, and with fear of change See Macbeth, IV. i. 28. They were supposed to be caused by the spiteful power of witches. See Paradise Lost, ii. 665. Comp. Hor. Od. II. xiii. and Epod. x. 1. 103. went. In our present usage go is opposed to come, and went to came; but that opposition is not radical. The old verb wend is connected radically with wind, and means merely to wind or turn. The original sense, therefore, would be to move in a serpentine manner. Comp. the use of wind, as in Paradise Lost, iii. 563-4: Here went " and winds with ease Through the pure marble air his oblique way simply "passed along." Wend and yode having fallen out of use, go and went serve respectively as present and perfect to each other. Comp. am and was, Latin fero and tuli, tollo and sustuli, Greek gépw, eveyka, vývoxa, &c. footing. See Pilgrim's Progress: "I warrant you he footed it right merrily." To insert the "it" would not suit the gravity of the present passage. See note on "trip it," L'All. 33. 104. See description of Thamis in Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 27, 28: he was "All decked in a robe of watchet [pale blue] hew, |