world, from whence he had come down. It was evening when Messiah passed the sentence-92; after that Sin and Death made the bridge; so that the sun might be rising in Aries, when they met Satan steering his zenith.--(P., N.) 344. Which being understood not to be immediate, but remote, he returned. In Milton's editions there was a full stop after "time." The present punctuation which is now adopted was proposed by Tickell.-(N.) 345. "With joy and tidings," i.e. with joyful tidings. So Virgil, Æn. i. 636, "Munera lætitiamque Dei," for "munera læta."-(R.) 368. "Our liberty confined," i. e. the liberty of us confined; this is a classical mode of expression, in which the personal pronoun adjective is to be taken as the genitive pronoun substantive often used by Milton; see iv. 129; viii. 423; ix. 909.-(P.) 381. "His quadrature." He here follows Gassendus, and others, who say the empyreum was square, because (Rev. xxi. 16) the holy city is "four-square," while he represents the world as "round." In ii. 1048 he says it was undetermined whether the world was square or round. But that applies to Satan, who viewed it at a great distance.-(N.) 412. Ovid's description of the journey of Envy to Athens, and Milton's of Sin and Death to Paradise, have a great resemblance. But whatever Milton imitates, he adds a greatness to it; as in this place he alters Ovid's flowers, herbs, people, and cities, to stars, planets, and worlds, Ov. Met. ii. 793: "Quacumque ingreditur, florentia proterit arva, Exuritque herbas, et summa cacumina car pit; Afflatuque suo populos, urbesque, domosque Polluit. "Planet-struck" is an epithet used to express a thing as blasted and withered; and what a sublime idea doth it give us of the devastations of Sin and Death !-(N., Essay on Milton.) 415. "Causey." Causeway, an elevated road, as the bridge was. 417. See note on 306. 426. "Paragoned." Equalled, from the French paragonner.—(H.) 432. "Astracan," a considerable part of the Russian emperor's dominion, formerly a Tartarian kingdom, with a capital of the same name near the mouth of the Volga, at its fall into the Caspian sea. "Or Bactrian Sophi," the Persian cm peror, so named from Bactria, one of the richest provinces in Persia. "From the horns of Turkish crescent," i. e. his Turkish enemies who bear the crescent, or figure of the half-moon, in their ensigns. "Aladule," the greater Armenia, called from Aladules, its last king, slain by Selymus the First, in his retreat to Tauris, or Ecbatana, a chief city of Persia. "Casbeen," one of the greatest cities of Persia towards the Caspian sea.-(H.) "From the horns," i. e. retreating from the horns." From" is often used by Milton without expressing the participle which is yet to be supplied in the sense. See ii. 542; viii. 213; ix. 396.—(P.) For "Taurus," 436, read “Tauris." 441, &c. This entire description very much resembles in its outline that adventure of Æneas (Æneid, i. 439) :— "Infert se septus nebula, mirabile dictu! Per medios miscetque viris; neque cernitur ulli Dissimulant; et nube cava speculantur Vix ea fatus erat, quum circumfusa repente 451. "Divan," is properly the secret council of the Turkish emperors. Whether this is to be considered a reflection on the Turks, or a poetic use of foreign words, is of little consequence. See i. 348, 795. 458. So Lucan says of Cæsar before addressing his soldiers. Pharsal. i. 297:"turba coeunte, tumultum Composuit vultu; dextrâque silentia jussit, (T.) 460. Milton in imitation of Homer, who is wont to use the same verse several times, especially in the beginning of his speeches, here repeats this line which he has used before, (v. 600, 772, 839), and with great effect, as it was first used by God-v. 600.-(See N.) 471. "Unreal." Because things, which are always changing, have no real existence; the doctrine of Plato, who called God To ov, and describes material things as scarcely in reality existing.-(St.) 475. "Uncouth," from the Saxon uncud, unknown. "To ride the untractable abyss." See ii. 540; ix. 63; Hor. iv. Od. iv. 44: "Per Siculas equitavit undas." But the toil was in riding an untractable abyss.-(N.) 480. See the account, ii. 1008, which does not agree with this. But Satan is here extolling his own virtues, and the 499. "When is not set." But the time when is not specified. A 503. "But up." But to rise up. Græcism, ava, is often thus used alone. 513-515. " Supplanted reluctant." We have here an instance of a singular beauty and elegance in Milton's language, of which there are numerous examples in other parts of this work, that is, his using words in their strict and literal sense, which are commonly applied in a metaphorical meaning; whereby he gives peculiar force to his expressions, and the literal meaning appears more new and striking than the metaphor itself. "Supplanted" and "reluctant" are both terms of the gymnasium-supplantare, a planta pedis subtus emota, is properly to trip up, or upset one, and reluctans is struggling against, in wrestling. Milton, in this description, had, no doubt, in view the transformation of Cadmus into a serpent, to which he alluded, ix. 505; though he far exceeds Ovid, as he here represents the transformation of myriads of angels into serpents. The whole passage in Ov. Met. iv. 575 is this: "Dixit; et ut serpens in longam tenditur al vum, In pectusque cadit pronus; commissaque in unum Paulatim tereti sinuantur acumine crura. Ille quidem vult plura loqui; sed linqua repente In partes est fissa duas; nec verba volenti Sufficiunt; quotiesque aliquos parat edere questus, Sibilat: hanc illi vocem natura relinquit." Compare also Dante, Inferno, c. xxv. st. 105, &c.-(N., D.) Read a comma after "reluctant." 518. "Forked tongue." "Linguis trisulcis." Virg. Æn. ii. 524, 525. Hydrus," from dwp, water, is the water-snake. "Dipsas,' from dia, thirst, so called because its sting tormented its victims with unquenchable thirst. "Cerastes," from Keрas, horn, the horned serpent.-" Amphisbæna," from aupis and Baivw, because it went forward either way, having a head at both ends.-"Elops," exλwy, from Xew and oy, the dumb serpent that gives no notice, by hissing, to avoid him.(H., R.) 527. The drops of blood that fell from the amputated head of the Gorgon Medusa, when borne by Perseus through the air over Africa, were said to have produced serpents. See Ovid, Met. iv. 616, &c.; Lucan, Pharsal. ix. 698; Apol. Rhod. Arg. iv. 1515; and Dante, Inferno, c. xxiv. st. 85.-(N., St., T.) 528. " Ophinsa." A small island in the Mediterranean, so called by the Greeks, from opis, a serpent; and by the Latins Colubraria, from Coluber, a snake. The inhabitants quitted it for fear of being devoured by serpents.-(R.) It is one of the Balearic islands, and is now called Fromentera, from its fertility in corn. 529. "Now dragon grown." Lucan, (Pharsal. ix. 698,) in his description of the Lybian or African serpents, mentions the "dragon" as the greatest of them all. In Rev. xii. 9, Satan is called "the great dragon;" and he is well said to be larger than the great "Python," of which monster, see Ov. Met. i. 438.—(N.) 546. "Exploding." Explodens; the word, in its original, signifying to hiss or shout an actor off the stage (see 508); it being the opposite of applaud. 560. The curls in the hair of Megæra, one of the Furies, was said to consist of twisted snakes. Ov. Met. iv. 771. 561. He here alludes to the celebrated apples of Sodom, that grow near the lake Asphaltites, (or Dead Sea,) over the ancient Sodom; so called from the quantity of asphaltos found floating on it. These apples, which have been celebrated from the time of Josephus downwards, as being most alluring to the eye, but containing only dust and ashes when tasted, are now found, according to the modern discoveries of those great travellers, Seetzen and Burkhardt, to be a fruit of a reddish yellow colour, about three inches in diameter, which contains a white substance, resembling the finest silk; and, when the fruit is fresh, it yields, when squeezed, a milky juice of a very acrid taste; but when dry, it resembles a fungus in its contents, which are injurious to the eyes, and very ignitable, and commonly used by the Arabians for matches for their firelocks. See Calmet's Dictionary. 569. So Virgil, Georg. ii. 246 :— "Et ora Tristia tentantum torquebit amaro." This passage of Virgil has been represented as expressing the sense by the sound; but it will be conceded by every judicious scholar, that Milton's line does so more effectively.-" Drugged," a metaphor from the general nauseousness of drugs.-(N., P.) 571, 572. "Not as man, whom they triumphed, once lapsed." Whom they triumphed over, when once lapsed, lapsus, fallen.-"Triumphed " here, and 186, is used in the rare sense of triumpho taken actively. Aurel. Vict. de Ver. illust. 61. -"Achæos bis prælio fudit; triumphandos Mummio tradidit." Lactant. vi. 23, "Hic terram triumphabit." 580-584. "Ophion," according to the Greek etymology, signifies serpent; and "Eurynome," wide ruling; and to show the similitude, Eve is called "wide encroaching," as expressive of her extravagant notions of ambition, after she tasted the forbidden fruit. Jove is called "Dictæan," from Mount Dicte, in Crete, where he was fabled to have been educated. This story is in Apollonius Rhodius, Argonaut. i. 503. See Newton. 586. i. e. Sin was potentially in Paradise before Eve fell." Once," i. e. at the Fall, actually there; and now bodily there. See Ep. Rom. vi. 6.—(P.) 589. This alludes to that passage in Scripture (Rev. vi. 8) so wonderfully poetical and terrifying to the imagination, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse! and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him; and power was given unto them," &c. He has given a fine turn to this poetical thought, by saying that Death had not yet commenced his all-conquering career. -(Ad., Gr.) 601. "This vast unhidebound corpse." i. e. The skin not tight-braced, but hanging loose about him, as a lean famished monster, and capable of containing a great deal more without being distended.(N.) 606. It is certain that Milton had his eye on the passage of Sophocles, Electra, 1499: Ιδεθ' όπου προνέμεται Το δυσέριστον αιμα φυσων Άρης, The dogs of hell is an expression of θελγε δε κηρας Θυμοβόρους, αίδαο θρας κύνας, αι περι πασαν Μέρα δινευουσαι επι ζωοισιν αγονται. Dogs are thus metaphorically used in several parts of Scripture.-(N., St.) 640. Till then the curse on both precedes." i. e. The curse pronounced on heaven and earth, implied in the word "renewed" (638), precedes, or goes before sin and death, to direct them.-(R.) Some commentators, following Bentley, would read proceeds, will go on, or continue. 641-645, &c. See Rev. xix. 6 ; xv. 3; xvi. 7. They first sung to God the Father, which is the meaning of Jah, in Hallelujah, praise God the Father.-(P., T.) 647, &c." New heaven and earth." The Jewish phrase to express our world. -"To the ages." To the aurea sæcula, the millennium, or " ages of endless date," as xii. 549. See iii. 334; xii. 547."Descend," Rev. xxi. 2, the new Jerusalem is mentioned as coming down from heaven.-(N.) 656. "The blanc moon," From the French blanc, white; the candida luna of Virgil. See Virg. Georg. i. 335.—(N.) 659. If a planet, in one part of the zodiac, be distant from another by a sixth part of twelve, i.e. by two signs, their aspect is called sextile; if by a fourth, square; if by a third, trine; and if by one-half, opposite; which last is said to be of noxious efficacy, because the planets so opposed are thought to strive, debilitate, and overcome one another; deemed of evil consequence to those born under or subject to the influence of the distressed star.- (H.) 665, &c. It was eternal spring before the fall (iv. 268); and Milton now accounts for the change of seasons after the fall, and mentions the two famous hypotheses. Some say it was occasioned by altering the position of the earth, by turning the poles of the earth above twenty degrees aside from the sun's orb; and the poles of the earth are twenty-three degrees and a half from those of the ecliptic." Pushed oblique the centric globe." It was erect before, but is oblique now; the obliquity of a sphere is the proper astronomical term, when the pole is raised any number of degrees less than ninety. As the globe rested on its centre, centric, it required great labour to push it aside; or centric, as being the centre of the world, according to the Ptolemaic system. -"Some say," again this change was occasioned by altering the course of the sun. The constellation Taurus, with the seven stars in his neck, the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas; and the Spartan twins, or Gemini, Castor and Pollux; up to the tropic of Cancer, or Crab; then down, by the signs Leo, Virgo, and Libra, to the tropic of Capricorn, which was as far to the south of the equator as Cancer was to the north of it. This motion of the sun in the ecliptic occasions the variety of seasons. - (N.) 679. For "verdant" read vernant, from vernans. 686, 687. "Estotiland." A tract of country towards Hudson's Bay in the extreme north of America." Magellan," the name of a strait that separates the southern point of America from the island of Terra del Fuego. 688." Thyestean banquet." The phrase was proverbial for a horrid scene, which was the subject of many tragic representations among the Greeks. King Atreus having ascertained that his brother Thyestes had clandestine connexion with his wife, invited him, hypocritically, to dinner; and, having seized his sons, had them slain and served up to their father. It is related, that the sun stopped its course in horror at the event. Compare the Electra of Euripides, 737 : Λέγεται (scil. Ζευς,) Θνατας ένεκεν δικας.-(R., Τ.) 696. " Norumbega," a province of North America.-"Samoieda," a province in the north-east of Muscovy, upon the frozen ocean.-(H.) 697, 698. So Claudian, De Rapt. Proserp. i. 69: "Ceu turbine rauco Cum gravis armatur Boreas, glacieque nivali." (R.) "Stormy gust and flaw." "Flaw" is a stronger word here than "gust," from the Greek pλaw, to break. So Shakspeare, Ven. and Adon.: "Like a red morn that ever yet betokened Gust and foul flaws to herdsmen and to herds." "Boreas," the north wind; "Cæcias," the north-west; "Argestes," the northeast; "Thracias," blowing from Thrace, north of Greece; "Notus," the south; "Afer," the south-west, from Africa."Levant" and "Ponent," the eastern and western, the one blowing from the rising, the other from the setting sun; "Sirocco," blowing from Syria; "Libecchio," from Lybia; all four being Italian terms. "Seira liona," mountains to the southwest of Africa, so called from the storms roaring there like lions.-(H., R.) Though in this account of the winds there is some ostentation of learning, yet the learned reader must admit that there is nothing in the classics at all comparable to it. Among many other passages, the classical reader cannot fail to recollect the following, Virg. Æn. i. 85: "Una eurusque notusque ruunt creberque procellis Africus, et vastos volvunt ad litora fluctus." 711. "To graze the herb all leaving." This passage has been cavilled at. But Newton very properly replies that it is stated in Genesis i. 30, "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, I have given every green herb for meat ;" and in regard to fish, Milton expressly says (vii. 404) that they " graze the sea-weed, their pasture." All" here does not mean all and every one in particular, but only all in general. All the three kinds, though not all of the three kinds devour each other. 736-741. The commentators censure these lines as not in keeping with the excellencies of this speech. Milton (ver. 740, 741) makes Adam speak according to the notions of the peripatetics, which were in vogue in his day, though now exploded, that elementary bodies do not gravitate in their natural places: not air in air, not water in water. Water really does weigh in water as much as it does out of it.-(N., St.) Expunge the stop after "light," 740. 758. "Thou didst," &c. The change of persons, sometimes speaking of himself in the first person, and sometimes to himself in the second, is very remarkable in this speech; as well as the change of passions. So he sometimes speaks of God, and sometimes to God.-(N.) This change has been used by the best classic writers. 761. This and ver. 743 are taken from Isaiah xlv. 9, 10.—(T.) 773. "Fixed on this day." But it may be questioned whether it was now this day; for the night of this day is mentioned before in ver. 342, and the sun's rising is taken notice of in ver. 329.(N.) He uses a poetic license. 778. There are some resemblances in this pathetic speech to the words of Job, ch. iii.-(T.) 783. "Lest all I cannot die." A classical phrase " Non omnis moriar," Hor. iii. Od. xxx. 6. "Non toti morimur," Senec. Troad. die altogether.-(T.) 797. Expunge the comma after "end." 805. "Beyond dust." In reference to that part of the sentence, 208, "For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." So that Bentley's proposed substitution of just for dust is quite idle.-(P.) 806. An allusion to an axiom of the schoolmen, "omne efficiens agit secundum vires recipientis, non suas." All causes or agents act in proportion to the reception, or capacity of the subject matter, and not to the extent of their own power. (N.) 813, 814. The thought is as fine as it is natural. Let the sinner invent ever so many arguments for the annihilation of the soul, yet the fear of everlasting punishment will come thundering back upon him.-(N.) 828. "All disputes." All disputations and arguments with himself. 840. Adam here in his agony of mind aggravates his misery, and concludes it to be worse than that even of the fallen angels, or all future men, who had only their own misery to bear." Futúre." The emphasis is here laid as in the Latin futúrum. He also compares himself to Satan, as being the first and chief transgressor.-(N.) 850, 851. Compare Homer Il. xviii. 26. 854. Sophocles, Philoct. 793 : Ω θανατε, θανατε, πως αει καλούμενος Ούτω κατ' ημαρ ου δυνῃ μολείν ποτε.-(Ν.) 859. The slowness of retributive justice is not only a common poetic idea, but is become proverbial. 861. Alluding to part of Adam's hymn, v. 202, &c. So Virg. Ecl. i. 5 :— "Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas." -(D.) 872. "That too heavenly form pretended to hellish falsehood." "Pretended" is used in the original sense of the Latin prætentus, held or placed before, like a fence. So Virg. Georg. i. 270, "Segeti prætendere sepem." Æn. vi. 60, "Prætentaque syrtibus arva."—(P.) 886. "More to the part sinister," or the left part, or side, from which the rib Hence is supposed to have been taken. it is stated the woman is placed, during the marriage-service, on the left of the man.-(Bo.) 887. Dr. Newton observes, that some writers were of opinion, that Adam had thirteen ribs on one side, one more than his just number; and that from this supernumerary rib God formed Eve, to which opinion Milton here alludes. 888. So Hippolytus expostulates with Jupiter for not creating man without women, Eurip. Hippol. 616: Ω Ζευ, τι δη, κιβδηλον ανθρωποις κακόν, Γυναίκας εις φως ήλιου κατῳκισας ; Ει γαρ βροτείον ήθελες σπείραι γένος, Ουκ εκ γυναικών χρην παρασχέσθαι τόδε. Jason talks in the same strain in the Medea, 573, &c.: and such sentiments, perhaps, procured for Euripides the name of "woman hater." So Ariosto, Orl. Furios. c. 27, st. 120.—(N.) 910, &c. It is stated in Milton's Life that this is a picture of his wife, begging forgiveness for deserting and offending him. See 937. 914. See the Philoctetes of Sophocles where Philoctetes earnestly implores Neoptolemus not to leave him in the island: Μη λιπης ούτω μόνον Έρημον εν κακοισι τοισδ ̓ οἷοις όρας Πεισθητι προσπίτνω σε γόνασι, και περ ων Ακρατωρ ο τλημων χωλος αλλά μη μ' αφής Ερημον ούτω χωρις ανθρωπων στίβου.-(51.) 921. Such is the pathetic language of Tecmessa to Ajax, Sophocl. Ajax, 520:— Τις δητ' εμοι γενοιτ' αν αντι σου πατρις, Τις πλουτος; εν σοι πας εγωγε σώζομαι Αλλ' ισχε καμου μνηστιν.-(Τ.) 936. See note on iii. 236. 972. In some good editions there is only a comma after "acceptance." 978. "As in our evils." Considering the extent of our evils; an elegant Latin use of the word as. Cic. Ep. Fam. iv. 9, "Ut in tali re, etiam fortuna laudatur;" xii. 2: "Nonnihil ut in tantis malis, est profectum."-(R.) 1008, 1009. Virgil, Æn. iv. 644 :— "Maculisque trementes Interfusa genas, et pallida morte futura." (H.) 1024. "Forestalled." This word was formerly used, as here, in the sense of hindered, prevented. So Comus, 285.— (Wart.) 1066. "Locks of trees," Newton says, is a Latinism; "arboribusque comæ,' Hor. iv. Od. vii. 2; but Callender says it is a Homeric figure, δρυς υψικόμους, Il. xxiii. 118. 1069. "This diurnal star leave cold the night." The star of day, as in Lycidas: "So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed." So that this was spoken as if it was now day, whereas it was night before, 844.-(N.) There is here an allusion, perhaps, to Homer, Il. viii. 485 :— Εν δ' επεσ' ωκεανῳ λαμπρον φαος ηελίοιο Ελκον νύκτα μέλαιναν επι ζείδωρον αρουραν. (Stil.) 1071, 1072. "Sere." Dry, or withered, as in Lycidas, "with ivy never sere.' This description is according to Virgil's Æn. i. 175: |