drawn up in the form of springs or fountains to water the garden; these rills, after flowing through Paradise, fall down the southern slope of the table-land, to join again the river, which here emerges from its subterranean passage. Page 141, line 239. Mazy error.

Latin errare, to wander. The present literal meaning of the word was originally metaphoric. Page 141, line 255. Irriguous. Well-watered, full of rivulets.

Page 141, line 268. Not that fair field, etc. This heaping up of rich allusion is very characteristic of Milton. The field of Enna was in Sicily. The spring of Castaly here spoken of is not the famous one upon Mt. Parnassus, but one in the vicinity of Antioch in Syria, near the sacred grove of Daphne, where the river Orontes flows into the Mediterranean. The Nyseian isle was in the Lake Tritonis, in northern Africa (Milton's version of the legend of Bacchus's parentage differs from the classic one). Mount Amara, according to old tradition, was a mountain in central Abyssinia, a day's journey high, on the summit of which were thirty-four palaces, where the princes of Abyssinia were educated in seclusion. Ethiop line = tropic of Cancer.

Page 142, lines 309-10.

Supply the words "when so between received and yielded.

Page 142, line 323. Adam the goodliest man,

This is one of the passages where Milton hesitates between the old Ptolemaic and the new Copernican astronomy; Prime Orb is the Primum Mobile, the outermost of the ten circumterrestrial spheres. See Introduction, on the cosmology of the poem.

Page 147, line 660. Milton's lack of humor may be detected in the extreme formality of these modes of address.

Page 148, line 716. Unwiser son.

Epimetheus, who married Pandora, sent by Jupiter to avenge the theft of fire from Heaven by Prometheus. Prometheus was ** wiser"

Page 150, line 911. However.
That is, however he may.
Page 151, line 931.

Supply "as to or "concerning" after "inexperience.'

Page 151, line 971. Limitary.

A word of Milton's coining; it means 66 set to guard certain limits," in allusion to Gabriel's phrase above, line 964.

Page 151, line 980. Ported spears.

Held, as Professor Masson explains, in both hands, and slanted to the left, ready to be brought down to the charge at the word of command.

Page 151, line 987. Unremoved.

Uninoved or unremovable; it is difficult to say which is meant.

Page 151, line 997. Golden scales.

The constellation Libra; a reminiscence of the golden scales in which Jupiter weighed the issue of events.

Page 152. Book V.

Page 152, line 5. The only sound.

An inverted construction; only the sound.
Page 154, line 142. Discovering.
That is, disclosing.

Page 154, line 150. Numerous.

Rhythmic, having the quality of number. Page 154, line 177. Five other wandering Fires.

Really four, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which, with Venus, the Sun, and the Moon, already addressed, made up the seven so-called "planets" of the Ptolemaic scheme. Uranus and Neptune were discovered later. Wandering, because of their irregular motions. Page 154, line 178. Not without song.

The spheres revolving upon one another were thought to give forth harmonious sounds, which together made up the "music of the spheres," so often referred to by the poets.

Page 154, line 180. Elements . . . that in quaternion run.

Earth, air, fire, and water, continually changing in fourfold combination.

Page 155, line 214. Pampered boughs.

It is hard to say whether or not Milton had in mind the derivation of this word, French pampre, Latin pampinus, a vine-leaf. Perhaps it is to be taken much in the modern sense, i. e. richly nurtured by the soil.

Page 155, line 223. Seven-times-wedded maid. Sara. See note above, Book IV., line 163. Page 155, line 249. Ardours.

A synonym for Seraphim, which is from a Hebrew verb meaning to burn. Dante uses ardori in the same sense.

Page 156, line 261. The glass of Galileo. The telescope was still of sufficiently recent invention to be an object of wonder. Page 156, line 272. Gazed.

Gazed at.

Page 156, line 272. Phoenix . . that sole bird.

Only one specimen of this fabulous bird was supposed to exist at any given time. After 500 years of life it flew to the temple of the sun at Heliopolis (not Thebes, as Milton states) to die. From its ashes sprang its successor.

Page 156, line 274. Sky-tinctured grain.

Grain has two meanings, of which only one has survived in common use. One refers to texture, as the grain of wood, one to color, as in the phrase "dyed in grain," which originally meant dyed in the durable dark-red of the coccus insect (Latin granum, grain or seed, in application to the seed-like bodies of this insect). For further discussion, see Lectures on the English Language, by George P. Marsh. It is impossible to say which use Milton intends.

Page 157, line 341. Alcinöus.

King of Phæacia (perhaps modern Corcyra), to which Odysseus came in his wanderings. Page 157, line 345. Meaths.

Greek peov, drink; English, mead.
Page 157, line 349. Unfumed.
Unexhaled.

Page 157, line 396. No fear lest dinner cool.
The prosaic suggestion jars curiously.
Page 158, lines 415-426.

Milton is here rehearsing certain theories of the scholastic philosophy, derived from Cicero's De Natura Deorum and other sources.

Page 158, line 438. What redounds.
What is superfluous.

Page 159, lines 488-89. Discursive or intuitive.

Discursive reason is that which arrives at its conclusion by comparison and reflection, intuitive reason is immediate insight; the first proper to man, the second to angelic beings. Page 160, line 577.

Here, as Professor Masson observes, we have the true chronological beginning of the poem. This method of causing previous events to be narrated during a lull in the action, is a convention of the epic form.

Page 160, line 578. These heavens.

The ten circum-terrestrial spheres, not the Empyrean, or Heaven of Heavens, where the angels abode.

Page 150, line 583. Heaven's great year.

Some immense cycle, corresponding to the earthly year; perhaps Milton had in mind Plato's "great year of the Heavens," measured by a complete revolution of all the spheres from a given relation to each other until they again assumed the same relation.

Page 161, line 671. His next subordinate.
After his fall known as Beelzebub.

Page 161, lines 688-89. Where we possess the quarters of the North.

In Isaiah xiv. 12, 13, Lucifer is represented as saying, "I will sit upon the mount of the con

Page 177. BOOK VII.

Page 177, line 19. The Aleian field.

According to the myth, Bellerophon, having fallen from his horse Pegasus, wandered for the rest of his life in these fields. The name signifies "field of wandering.' Iliad vi. 201.

Page 177, line 33. Bacchus and his revellers. The allusion is to the dissipation of the cavaliers of Charles II.'s court.

Page 177, lines 34-38. Thracian bard, etc. Orpheus, grieving over the loss of his wife Eurydice, was torn to pieces by the Mænads for refusing to sing.

Page 178, line 94. Absolved.
Completed.

Page 179, lines 153, 154. To lose self-lost. To lose those who by their own deeds are already lost.

Page 179, line 162. Meanwhile inhabit lax. Until the space left vacant by the rebel angels is filled by man, enjoy the roominess of depopulated Heaven.

Page 180, line 231. Thy just circumference, O World.

Christ circumscribes not the limits of the earth, but of the Mundus or Created Universe, of which the earth was the centre, and the outer circumference the Primum Mobile. See introduction on Cosmology of Paradise Lost. Page 180, lines 261-274.

Milton attempts here, as throughout his account of the creation, to reconcile so far as may be the Biblical narrative with the Ptolemaic astronomy. The "firmament" is the whole expanse of circum-terrestrial space stretching outward to the eight sphere, that of the Fixed Stars. The waters underneath' are those on the earth's surface, the waters above,' or crystalline ocean, " is the crystalline sphere, the ninth in order from the earth, between the sphere of fixed stars and Primum Mobile. The Mundus or World is said, by a rather bold and difficult figure, to be built on the waters of the crystalline ocean, as the earth, more intelligibly, is said to be built on the terrestrial waters. Some confusion arises from the fact that the word firmament was applied by the Ptolemaists, not to the whole expanse of space, but to the sphere of the fixed stars, here regarded as merely the outer limit of the firmament.

Page 180, line 299. Torrent rapture.

Rapture keeps its literal signification of a snatching or hurrying along. The reader must be constantly on the lookout for such uses of common words.

Page 181, line 366. The morning planet gilds her horns.

Interesting as showing Milton's acquaintance with the discovery, then recent, that Venus has phases like the moon. When between opposition and quadrature she is crescent-shaped. Page 182, line 421. Summed their pens. Grew their wings complete; Latin penna, wing.

Page 182, line 425. Region.

Upper air.

Page 183, line 457. Wons.

In the first edition this book and the next formed one.

Page 185. BOOK VIII.

Page 185, line 15. When I behold, etc.

The discussion which follows shows that Milton, although accepting the Ptolemaic cosmology for formal purposes, was still in doubt as to its ultimate truth. He may have introduced the passage to guard himself, in case the theories of Copernicus should be established. Page 186, line 23. Punctual.

Tiny, as a mere point; Lat. punctum. Page 186, lines 81-84. How contrive to save appearances, etc.

66

Milton here refers to the complicated devices resorted to by the Ptolemaic astronomers, to save appearance," as successive objections to their theory arose in observed phenomena. To account for the varying rapidity of the sun's motion, they had assumed that the sun's sphere, instead of revolving around the earth as a centre (centric), was slightly displaced (eccentric) so as to revolve about a point outside the earth. Again, to account for the retrograde motion of the planets they had postulated that instead of being fixed immovably in their spheres, and performing exactly regular revolutions about the earth (cycles), they were in some cases free to move about within those spheres in smaller cycles of revolution (epicycles). The phrase "gird the sphere" refers to the Primum Mobile, which served as a kind of girdle for the universe.

Page 187, line 108. Numberless.
I. e. immeasurable.

Page 187, line 130. Three different motions.

Ra

I. e. revolution on its axis, revolution around the sun, and the oscillation from the line of the axis, which causes the precession of the equinoxes (cf. note on phrase "the trepidation talked," Book III. line 483). In line 131 the word "else" must be interpreted as “either.” phael says there that movements of the heavenly bodies must be explained either by the old method of referring them to a series of spheres moving obliquely upon each other (thwart obliquities), or by the new method, in which the sun is saved the labor of journey about the earth, and even the swift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb" of the Primum mobile, invisible except by the eye of imagination, is dispensed with.

Page 187, line 149. With their attendant moons. Galileo had lately discovered the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.

Page 187, line 158. Obvious to dispute.
Open to, inviting, dispute.

Page 194. BOOK IX.

Page 194, lines 14-19. Argument not less but more heroic than the wrath, etc.

Milton refers to the three great epics of antiquity: the wrath of Achilles, as sung in the Iliad; Neptune's ire against Odysseus, as sung in the Odyssey; Juno's ire against Æneas, son of Cytherea or Venus, and the rage of Turnus because Lavinia was promised to Æneas, as celebrated in the Æneid.

Page 194, lines 27, 28. Not sedulous... to indite wars.

Nevertheless, Milton had long pondered the wars of Arthur as an epic subject.

Page 194, line 35. Impreses.

Devices on a knight's shield or trappings.
Page 194, line 36. Bases.

Kilts or lower garments worn by a mediæval warrior.

Page 195, lines 64-66. Thrice the equinoctial line he circled.

The picture of Satan "riding with darkness," i. e. following the shadow of the earth through space, for seven nights, is one of the most simply majestic in the poem. To circle the equinoctial line he flew around the earth three times parallel with the equator. He then flew four times from pole to pole, along the great circles (colures) drawn from the poles through the solstices and the equinoxes.

Page 195, lines 71, 72.

The existence of this stream flowing beneath the garden of Paradise has already mentioned; see note, Book IV. line 223.

Page 195, lines 77-82.

Satan had first flown north from Eden to the Pool Mæotis; i. e. the sea of Azof in Russia; then northeast to Of, a river of Siberia. His westward journey had been from Orontes, a river of Asia Minor, across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the Isthmus of Darien, and onward across the Pacific to India.

Page 196, line 170. Obnoxious to.
Open to harm or indignity from.
Page 197, line 245. Wilderness.
Wildness.

Page 197, line 249.

An Alexandrine, unless we count the last two

short syllables as extra-metrical. Cf. Book VIII. line 216.

Page 199, line 384. So bent.

I. e. but if he be bent on tempting the weaker of us.

Page 199, line 387. Delia.

Diana.

Page 199, lines 393-395.

Pales, goddess of pastures; Pomona, goddess of fruits; Ceres, goddess of husbandry. Page 199, line 396. Virgin of Proserpina. Not yet having borne Proserpina to Jove. Page 199, line 438. Hand of Eve.

I. e. the work of Eve's hand, in apposition with preceding nouns.

Page 199, lines 439-443. Those gardens feigned. The gardens of Adonis, though not mentioned by classic writers (with the exception of a dubious reference by Pliny), are spoken of by Spenser and Shakespeare. These, as well as the gardens of the Phæacian king Alcinous, the host of "Laertes's son" Odysseus, Milton speaks of as fabulous in contrast with the real garden of Solomon, where he entertained the daughter of Pharaoh.

Page 200, line 450. Tedded grass.

Mown and spread out to dry. The passage has a pathetic side, as a reminiscence of Milton's youth at Horton.

Page 200, line 506. Hermione and Cadmus.

Hermione, or Harmonia, and Cadmus, her husband, were at their own request changed into serpents, to escape the miseries of life. Changed" is used in the difficult sense of "took the place of."

Page 200, line 507. The god in Epidaurus.

The god in Epidaurus is Esculapius, who came to Rome in the form of one of the serpents sacred to his worship. Ammonian Jove or Jupiter Ammon was seen transformed to a serpent in company with Olympias, of whom he was enamored. Capitoline Jove was also seen in serpent shape with the woman who bore him Scipio Africanus, here called the "height of Rome."

Page 201, line 522. Than at Circean call the herd disguised.

Circe is fabled to have changed men into beasts by her enchantments, and kept the fantastic herd at her beck and call.

Page 201, line 549. Glozed.
Flattered.

Page 202, line 649. The credit of whose virtue rest with thee.

Rest is hortative. The meaning is, let it rest with thee. I will not put it to proof. Page 202, line 668. Fluctuates. Literal, bends or waves to and fro. Page 204, line 815. Safe.

As regards any danger from him (Browne). Page 205, line 845. Divine of.

Divining, being prescient of.

Page 25, line 846. Faltering measure.

I. e. the faltering beats of his heart in anxiety. Page 206, line 945. Not well conceived of God. I. e. it is not easy to conceive that God should lose his own labor.

Page 207, lines 1017-20. Of sapience no small part, since, etc.

Adam's witticism is a trifle abstruse and ponderous, depending on the double meaning of the Latin sapere, either to taste or to know. The word savour (taste), he says, we apply to intellectual things, and conversely apply to the discerning palate an intellectual epithet, judicious.

Page 208, lines 1102-10.

This description of the banyan tree is famous, especially line 1107, praised by Coleridge. Page 209. BOOK X.

Page 210, line 38. Foretold so lately, etc. An absolute construction. What would come to pass having been so lately foretold.

Page 210, line 49. Death denounced that day. In apposition with "sentence; "' denounced = pronounced.

Page 211, line 84. Conviction to the Serpent none belongs.

The Serpent's guilt is too apparent to need proof, seems to be the meaning.

Page 212, lines 169-174. More to know concerned not Man.

It was not necessary for man to understand the "mysterious terms" of God's judgment on the Serpent, which referred to the brute instrument only symbolically, really to Satan; man knew not that Satan was his tempter, nor would such knowledge have altered his offence.

Page 212, lines 183-190. When Jesus, son of Mary, etc.

This passage is a curious conglomerate of allusions to Biblical texts: Luke x. 18; Eph. ii. 22; Col. iii. 15; Ps. lxviii.; Rom. xvi. 20.

Page 212, lines 217, 218. Skins of beasts, or slain, etc.

Milton leaves us in doubt whether, to obtain the skins with which Adam and Eve were clothed, beasts were slain, or whether skins were used which had been shed by their wearers, as the snake sheds his, to be "repaid " with a youthful coat.

Page 213, line 231. In counterview.
Gazing at each other.

Page 213, line 246. Sympathy or some connatural force, etc.

Because the fall of Man had "brought death into the world, and all our woe."

Page 213, line 279. Feature.

The derivation is from Latin facere, to make; Italian fattura, thing made. Here used in sense of shape or image.

Page 213, line 281. Sagacious.
From Lat. sagar, keen of scent.

Page 213, lines 290-293. Cronian Sea, etc. The Cronian Sea is the Arctic Ocean; Petsora (modern Petchora) is a gulf of the Arctic in "northeastern Russia; " imagined way fers to the seventeenth-century hypothesis of a northeast passage to China (Cathay).

re

Page 213, lines 294-301. Death with his mace petrific smote.

Death forms the beginning of the bridge between Hell and the Earth by striking into Gorgonian rigor," i. e. stiffness like that

which seized upon those who beheld the Gorgon, the uncompounded matter of chaos. This he fastened at the mouth of Hellgate as firmly as Zeus fastened the floating isle of Delos to the bottom of the sea, that there Leto might bring forth Apollo and Artemis. By the same process of solidifying the crude floating substances of chaos he carries the bridge out toward the great ball of the Mundus or created universe, where it hung from Heaven.

Page 214, line 311.

When a storm destroyed the bridge begun over the Hellespont, Xerxes ordered the waves to be scourged.

Page 214, line 313. Pontifical.

The present meaning of the word comes from the fact that in ancient Rome the building of bridges was a sacred function, in the hands of priests, who were called pontifices, or bridgemakers.

Page 214, lines 320-329. And now their way to Earth they had descried.

We must imagine Sin and Death landing and mooring their bridge somewhere on the outer and upper surface of the opaque ball of the Primum Mobile, and proceeding thence to the opening into the interior of the universe at the foot of the heavenly stairway and directly underneath Heaven-gate. Here was the converg ing point of "three several ways," one leading upward to Heaven, a second downward to the Earth, the third across Chaos to Hell. Entering here they are about to fly inward through the successive spheres toward the earth ball, when they behold Satan steering upward toward them, keeping, perhaps, from fear of Uriel, as far as possible from the sun; between the constellations of Centaur and Scorpio, he would be separated by nearly the whole expanse of the Heavens from Aries, in which constellation the sun then was.

Page 214, line 348. Pontifice.
Bridge structure.

Page 214, line 381. His quadrature, from thy orbicular world.

Satan implies that Heaven is square or cubiform, in contrast with the spheric contour of the World. Milton probably had in mind the description of the New Jerusalem as square,' as Hume suggests.

four

Page 215, line 403. My substitutes. I. e. as my substitutes or deputies. Page 215, lines 431-436. As when the Tartar from his Russian foe, etc.

In writing these lines Milton had in mind recent conflicts between the Russians and Tartars on the one hand, and Persians and Turks on the other. Bactrian Sophi Shah of Persia, Bactria forming a part of the Persian dominion, and Sophi (Sooffee, Suffavee), being the name of the reigning dynasty. The "realm of Aladule is Greater Armenia, so called from its last king; this country the Persian would leave waste in retreating to his capital Tauris (Tebreez) or the fortified city of Casbeen (Kasveen). — KEIGHT LEY and MASSON.

Page 215, line 457. Divan.