1. 578. bollow truce. Raphael continues the pun in his narrative. 1. 581. amus'd, thrown into a muse, or reverie.

1. 586. Cp. Othello's farewell (iii. 3):

1. 598.

i. 2).

"O you mortal engines, whose rude throats

The immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit.' dissipation, scattering. Cp. 'dissipation of cohorts' (Lear,

1. 599. serried. Cp. i. 548 (note).

1. 613. composition, referring to 11. 513-515.

1. 619. result, rebound (Lat. resultare), i. e. we shall make them dance again.

1. 625. understand. This is Launce's quibble (Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 5).

1. 635. Rage... found them, arms, Æneid, i. 150.

1. 642. Ezek. i. 14.

1. 654. Main promontories. Main is a well-known Saxon substantive, which appears in its original character in 'might and main,' but becomes an adjective in main force' and in this passage of Milton. (Earle, English Philology, p. 184.)

6

1. 656. Their armour, &c. There is a similar jingle in Faery Queene, i. 11. 27. Thucydides (vi. 70) says of a storm that it helped the fear' of those who were fighting for the first time.

1. 666. in dismal shade, a reminiscence of the saying of the Spartan Dieneces at Thermopylæ, 'we shall fight in the shade' (Herod. vii. 226).

1. 669. all Heav'n. In the first day's battle a less effect was produced. Cp. line 218, and Iliad, viii. 130.

1.673. sum of things; the main of line 698. Summa rerum is used by Cæsar for 'the general interest' (De Bello Gallico, vi. 10).

1. 674. advis'd is used adverbially, and='consulto.' Cp. Horace's use of 'prudens' (Satires, i. 10. 87).

1. 679. assessor; so the Son is called by some of the Fathers, thus expressing in one word the doctrine of the Creed, 'sitteth at the right hand of the Father.'

1. 681. Coloss. i. 15.

1. 709. Ps. xlv. 7, and (at 713) 3, 4.

1. 725. John xvii. 4, 5, and afterwards 21, 23.

1. 732. I Cor. xv. 24, 28; Ps. cxxxix. 21.

1. 739. 2 Pet. ii. 4; Mark ix. 44.

1. 748. sacred morn is Homeric (Iliad, xi. 84).

1. 749. Ezek. i. The description of the chariot follows closely that

given in the first chapter.

1. 755. Cp. line 848.

1. 756. beryl is of a sea-green colour (Exod. xxviii. 20).

careering, a metaphor from the tilt-yard. To pass or run the career (Fr. carrière) was to advance to the charge in a tourney. Benedick says, 'I shall meet your wit in the career if you charge it against me' (Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1).

1. 760. An allusion to the 'panoply,' 'whole armour of God' (Ephes. vi. 11), and to the breastplate of Aaron (Exod. xxviii.). Urim=lights, brilliancy, i.e. of precious stones.

1. 762. The Roman general, at his triumph, bore in his chariot an image of Victory. Cp. last line of Richard III, v. 3.

1. 764. In Milton's Latin epigram, the inventor of gunpowder is said Et trifidum fulmen surripuisse Jovi.'

1.766. bickering, skirmishing. So used by Milton, in his Eikonoclastes, of the attempted arrest of the five members. Charles, he says, 'departed only to turn his slashing at the court-gate to slaughtering in the field; his disorderly bickering into a disorderly invading.' Perhaps the word is here nearly='flickering' (coruscans). Cp. Ps. xviii. 8, and 1. 3.

1. 767. Jude 14; Ps. lxviii. 17.

1. 771. Ps. xviii. 10.

1. 775. great ensign, Matt. xxiv. 30. Probably the cross is meant. 1. 779. Rom. xii. 5; Col. i. 18.

1. 782. Habak. iii. 6.

1. 787. Æneid, ii. 354. Cp. also 'Saepe desperatio spei causa est' (Quintus Curtius, v. 4).

1. 788. Æneid, i. II.

1. 791. bard'ned more, like Pharaoh. Exod. xiv. 8.

1. 797. last. Tickell and Bentley read 'lost.'

1. 801. Exod. xiv. 13, 14.

1. 808. Deut. xxxii. 35; Rom. xii. 19.

1. 832. Gloomy as night. Cp. Iliad, xii. 462. burning wheels. Cp. Dan. vii. 9.

1. 833. Job xxvi. II.

1. 838. Iliad, xv. 323.

1. 840. In the Apology for Smectymnuus, Zeal, 'armed in diamond,' his fiery chariot' over scarlet prelates. (Keightley.)

drives in

1. 841.

Spenser accents prostráte, e. g. (Faery Queene, iii. 12. 39)

'Before fair Britomart she fell prostrate.'

1. 842. Rev. vi. 16. Again, alluding to 1. 655.

1. 848. So Prometheus (Æschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, 356) describes the baleful lightning flashed from the eyes of Typhon.

1.853. half his strength. Hesiod (Theog. 688) makes Zeus put forth

all his strength in his struggle with the Titans. Milton took a hint from Ps. lxxviii. 38.

1. 859. Job vi. 4; Isa. li. 20. Virgil uses 'furiae' for such perturbations as drive people mad (Georgics, iii. 511; Æneid, i. 41, iv. 376, 474).

1. 863. Cp. Iliad, xii. 52.

1. 868. ruining, rushing down in ruins. Cp. ii. 995.

1. 871. Nine days. So Hesiod (Theog. 722) of the fall of the Titans. Cp. i. 50.

1.875. Yawning. Isa. v. 14. Shakespeare has ‘though Hell itself should gape' (Hamlet, i. 2).

1. 878. So Tasso makes the world rejoice and lay aside its mournful look, when the evil spirits are driven to hell. (Gierusalemme Liberata, ix. 66.)

1. 879. returning. This participle refers to 'wall,' implied in the 'mural breach' or 'the breach of the wall;' the wall (not the breach) returning whence it rolled.

1. 884. Rev. xii. 10.

1. 885. Rev. vii. 9.

1.888. Rev. iv. II. Celebrated, i. e. in triumph. The progress of a Roman general to the Capitol was evidently in Milton's thoughts. 1. 891. 1 Tim. iii. 16; Heb. i. 3.

1. 909. weaker, alluding to 1 Pet. iii. 7.

ERRATA.

P. 173, 1. 140: for sylvan read silvan.
P. 195, 1. 962: for aread read areed.
P. 359, 1. 171: for (i. 6) read (ii. 4).
P. 361, 1. 415: for (ii. 9) read (ii. 6).

(Selected from the list in the editions of Keightley and Todd.)

1. 143.

1. 3.

1. 5.

Nativity Ode.

Th' enamell'd arras of the rainbow wearing,
And Mercy set between. (ed. 1645.)

[The reading in the text is from ed. 1673.]

11. 10, 11.

1. 12.

1. 14.

1. 18.

1. 19.

1. 28.

At a Solemn Music.

Mix your choice words, and happiest sense employ.
And as [whilst] your equal rapture, temper'd sweet,
In high, mysterious [holy, happy] spousal meet;
Snatch us from earth awhile,

Us of ourselves, and native [home-bred] woes beguile,
And to our high-rais'd, &c.

Where the bright Seraphim in tripled [princely] row
Their loud immortal trumpets blow.

Loud symphony of silver trumpets blow.

And cherubim, sweet-winged squires.

With those just spirits that wear the blooming palms,
Hymns devout and sacred psalms

Singing everlastingly;

While all the rounds and arches blue

Resound and echo Hallelu:

That we on earth, &c.

May rightly answer that melodious noise,

By leaving out those harsh, ill-sounding, [chromatic] jars
Of clamourous sin that all our music mars;

And in our lives and in our song

May keep in tune, &c.

As once we could, &c.

To live and sing with Him

in ever endless [ever glorious, uneclipsed] light.

where day dwells without night.

in cloudless birth of light.

in never parting light.

1. I.

Comus.

A Guardian Angel or Dæmon.

Amidst th' Hesperian gardens, on whose banks,
Bedew'd with nectar and celestial songs,

Eternal roses grow [yield, bloom] and hyacinth,
And fruits of golden rind, on whose fair tree
The scaly-harnest Dragon ever keeps
His uninchanted eye; around the verge
And sacred limits of this blissful isle,
The jealous ocean, that old river, winds
His far-extended arms, till with steep fall
Half his waste flood the wild Atlantic fills,
And half the slow unfathom'd Stygian pool.
[I doubt me, gentle mortals, these may seem
Strange distances to hear, and unknown climes 1]
But soft, I was not sent to court your wonder
With distant worlds and strange removed climes,
Yet thence I come; and oft from thence behold
The smoke and stir of this dim narrow spot, &c.
After line 7:-

:

Beyond the written date of mortal change.

11. 62, 63. And in thick covert of black shade imbowr'd Excels his mother at her potent art,

Of virgin steps

Goes out.

COMUS enters, with a charming rod and a glass of liquor, with his rout all beaded like some wild beasts, their garments some like men's and some like women's. They come on in a wild and antic fashion. Intrant кwμáČovтES.

And quick Law, with her scrupulous head.

And on the yellow sands.

And makes a blot of nature. [And throws a blot o'er

all the air.]

Stay thy polisht ebon chair

Wherein thou rid'st with Hecate,

And favour our close jocondrie.

1 These two lines are struck out.