place in L'Allegro or Il Penseroso, is privileged here, and has even a kind of scholarly appropriateness. When once the drift of the allegoric phantasy is seen, and we remember that he wrote to gratify a learned audience, a beautiful tenderness shines through the antique pastoral device; the love and grief of the poet grow vital, and the metaphors borrowed from mythology lose their pedantic air. The poem is thickstrewn with lines that are admirable for their picturesqueness and sonorous music, and more than once the author strikes that tone of lofty solemnity which exalts him above all other bards.

Line 1. Yet once more. --Milton had just finished Comus, and had apparently resolved to pause for a time in his poetic labours, until he felt himself able for some grander effort of the Muse. Paradise Lost was perhaps already looming before his imagination in some dim and shapeless form. He would fain have waited for the "mellowing year," but the sad fate of his young friend "compelled him to disturb the season due." 2. Myrtles brown.-Brown is probably meant as a translation of the Latin pulla, dark, which Horace applies to the myrtle (Odes, I., xxv., 18), in opposition to the green ivy.Sere.-Dry. [From A.-S. searian, to sear, to dry up. Comp. Gr. έnpós.] 5. Shatter your leaves.-Comp. Par. Lost, B. X., l. 1066:

"Shattering the graceful locks

Of these fair-spreading trees."

Shatter is onomatopoeic, and is merely another form of scatter. -Mellowing. Ripening, and so softening. Mellow is the modern form of the A.-S. melewe, mealy. [Comp. Dut. mollig, Ger. molsch, and Lat. mollis.]

6. Occasion dear.-The phrase also occurs in Sidney (Arcadia, III.); and Spenser (Faery Queene, B. I., c. i., st. 53) has "Deare constraint."

10. The construction is similar to the Virgilian "Neget quis carmina Gallo" (Ec. X. 3).

11. See introductory note to the poem. To "build the lofty rhyme" is a Latinism. Comp. "Seu condis amabile carmen" (Horace, Epistle to Florus, I., iii. 24). Euripides' phrase, "Aoidàs èτúpуwσe” (Supp., l. 998), is still more vivid.

13. Welter. See Hymn on the Nativity, note, l. 124.

14. Melodious tear.-A pretty conceit to denote an elegy. So Spenser's lines on the death of Sir Philip Sidney are called The Tears of the Muses.

15. Sisters of the sacred well.-The context shows that Milton is thinking of the "Pierian spring" at the foot of Mount Olympus; but the sisterhood of the Muses are generally associated with the "sacred wells" of Aganippe and Hippocrene, on Mount Helicon in Boeotia.

18. Coy. See Comus, note to l. 737.

20-22. The idea is: May the same good fortune in turn befall me, to have my memory embalmed in song. -Lucky words-words of good omen. Comp. Lat. bona verba. -My destin'd urn.-The urn which is destined to hold my ashes.

23. Mr. Masson is undoubtedly right in his interpretation of this pastoral phantasy :"" 'The hill here is, of course, Cambridge; the joint-feeding of the flocks is companionship in study; the rural ditties on the oaten flute are academic iambics and elegiacs; and old Damoetas is either Chappell, whom Milton has long forgiven, or some more kindly Fellow of Christ's."

26. In a forgotten play of Middleton's, entitled Game at Chesse (1625), the same fine phrase occurs:

"Like a pearl

Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn

Upon the bashful rose."

But the image seems to have been held in common by the old poets, and in Todd's edition examples of its use are culled from half-a-dozen different sources.

28. The gray-fly is also called, from its sharp hum heard in the sultry noon, the "trumpet-fly" (whence Milton's metaphor).

29. Batt'ning.-Feeding; lit. bettering [A.-S., bet; Dut. bat], and so thriving, or fattening. Hamlet says (Act. iii., sc. 4):

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,

And batten on this moor?"

The word has not ceased to be used.

30. Keightley has pointed out that the "evening star" is always on heaven's descent. And it is, besides, inappropriate (poetically) to represent so small an object as "sloping its wheel."

33. Temper'd.-Attuned. So Fletcher (Purple Island, c. IX. st. 3):

'Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay."

The oaten flute is the avena of Virgil (Ec., I., 2), on which the classic shepherds were wont to pipe.

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34. Does Milton mean to gently satirize his fellow-students in this line-i.e., are the rough satyrs" the undergraduates of the university, or is he only carrying out the pastoral imagery of the classic poets without any definite application?

40. Gadding.-Straggling, straying. Cicero (De Senect., XV. 52) speaks of the vine as spreading itself abroad,—"Multiplici lapsu et erratico." The primary meaning of the verb 'to gad," is to move about restlessly, like one who is stung by the gad-fly; then to wander or stray generally. It is the same word as goad."

42. Copses.-Coppices; i.e., wood of small growth fit for cutting. wood newly cut.

O. Fr. copeiz,

45. Canker. The cankerworm; so called because it eats or destroys like cancer. Warton quotes several passages from Shakspeare to prove that he was fond of this image; but he omits the very finest instance of all, where Viola says (Twelfth Night, Act ii., sc. 4):

"6 She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek."

46. Taint-worm.-The name given by the country people to a small red spider, believed to infect cows and horses with a deadly poison.- Weanling herds, are young cattle that have just ceased to be nourished by their mothers. They are weaned; i.e., accustomed to do without the use of the teat. The A.-S. verb is wenian. Comp. Ger. gewöhnen. The Sc. wean, a child, is from the same verb, and not, as Jamieson grotesquely suggests, a contraction for wee ane."

47. Wardrobe.-Strictly a place for keeping apparel, but sometimes (as here) used for the apparel itself.

50. The nymphs are here the Muses who loved Lycidas.

53. The Druids are well called famous, for more has been said and sung regarding them than any other priesthood of which so little is known. According to Caesar (De Bello Gallico, VI. 13, 14) who describes Druidism as he found it in Gaul, they were not only the priests, but the judges and teachers of the nation. His account is probably correct in the main, but he over-estimates their importance and the extent of their knowledge. The name Druid is not derived from the Greek Spûs, an oak, but from the Welsh derw, which has the same meaning. Comp. Sansc. drus, a tree. See also Lucan (Pharsal, I., 447-462). In calling the Druids bards, Milton is perhaps not entirely wrong. Caesar at least speaks of them committing verses to memory in their schools; but in most if not all Celtic countries the bards formed a distinct order, and it is just possible that our author has here mixed up the Pagan priesthood of Britain with the semi-mythical poets of Christianized Wales-Taliessin, Aneurin, Merdhuin, Llywarch-Hen, and others, the earliest Welsh bards of whom any tradition survives. Keightley conjectures that the steep on which the Druids lie is Penmaenmawr, overhanging the sea, opposite Anglesea.

54. Mona.-Anglesea. The phrase shaggy top is explained by a passage in Selden, where we are told that when the British Druids took this isle it was called Innis Dowil (the Dark Isle), on account of its dense woods.

55. Deva.-The Dee. Spenser (Faery Queene, B. I., c. ix., st. 4) makes this stream a haunt of magicians; and Drayton, in his Polyolbion, frequently celebrates its sacred

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character. The phrase, wisard river," even occurs in the latter of these writers. It would appear that a good deal of superstition was popularly associated with the Dee, from its forming part of the ancient boundary between England and Wales.

58-63. Orpheus, son of Calliope, was torn in pieces by Thracian Bacchantes, because his grief for his lost Eurydice made him contemptuous of their charms. The fragments of his corpse were gathered by the Muses and buried at the foot of Olympus; but his gory visage" was thrown by his murderers into the Hebrus and washed across the Aegean to the shores of Lesbos. Milton has told this mythic incident a second time, and in still finer verse (Par. Lost, B. VII., l. 32–38).

64. Boots.-Profits. [A.-S. bêtan, to amend; whence our better and best (A.-S. betest).]

66. Meditate.-A reminiscence of Virgil.

See Comus, note to l. 547.

67. As others use. As others are wont to do.

68, 69. In these two melodious lines, Milton (according to Warton) obliquely censures the Latin poet Buchanan, who has celebrated imaginary mistresses under the names of Amaryllis and Neaera. But the names are Virgilian, and though the golden tangles of Neaera's hair are prominent in the verse of the modern poet, we cannot feel sure that there is any reference to the illustrious Scot. Warton rests much on the phrase, "As others use."

70. Clear.-Noble. [Lat. clarus.] This meaning is rare in English. The idea is also in Spenser (Tears of the Muses, l. 454):

"Due prayse, that is the spur of doing well."

71. Comp. Tacitus (Historia, IV. 6), "Etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur."

73. Fair guerdon. --Fame. Guerdon is a prize or reward. The spelling is Fr. guerredon, but the A.-S. widherlean is the same word.

75. Atropos, whose function was to cut the thread of human life which Clotho spun, was not one of the Furies, but one of the Fates [Lat. Parcae; Gr. Moîpac]. Milton's expression is either a slip, or an evidence of impassioned grief.

76-84. Apollo himself could scarce have uttered nobler verse than is here assigned

to him. The poetry of Milton's ethics is always sublime. ·

79. Glist ring foil.-Foil is literally a thin leaf (Fr. feuille; Lat. folium; Gr. púλλov] of metal put under precious stones to increase their lustre or change their colour: hence anything used to 'set off" something else.

"

85, 86. The poet now reverts from "a strain of higher mood" to the graceful imagery of the pastoral Muse. Arethusa, nymph of the fountain named after her in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse, was one of the Nereides. -The smooth-sliding Mincius is a tributary of the Po from the north. Milton, of course, alludes to the idyllic poetry both of Theocritus, who was a native of Syracuse, and of Virgil, who was born near the banks of the Mincius. -Crown'd with vocal reeds.-Comp. Virgil (Buc. VII., 12): Hic viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas Mincius."

90. Neptune's plea. -The phrase is legal-e.g., the Court of Common Pleas. The herald is sent by Neptune, either to make inquiry regarding the death of Lycidas, or to show that the ruler of the sea was not concerned in it. "Plea," O. Eng. plead; O. Fr. plait; Lat. placitum, lit. what pleases, then an opinion or sentiment.

91. Felon winds.-- A fine phrase. Felon is "cruel" (the shorter form is fell). Though now used chiefly as a substantive, it is an adjective in the older poets. Blind Harry's Englishmen are all "felloun knichts."

93. Rugged.-See L'Allegro, note l. 9.

96. Hippotades.-Eolus, the keeper of the winds; so called because son of Hippotes. Virgil (Aen., B. I., l. 52, et seq.) describes the cave (here called by Milton dungeon) in which they were imprisoned.

98. Level brine.—[A.-S. bryne, salt water; in poetry, brym; but as the Icel. brimsior means a stormy sea," it is probable that the term is derived from the roaring of the sea upon the shores. Comp. Gr. ẞpéua, to roar.]

99. Panope.-One of the Nereides.

101. Built in th' eclipse. -Superstition naturally associated evil omens with a mysterious phenomenon like the eclipse. Among the ingredients of the witches' caldron in Macbeth (Act iv., sc. 1) are,

"Slips of yew

Slivered in the moon's eclipse."

The "curses dark" with which the bark was rigged, are the spells of evil spirits-the ministers of Fate.

103. Camus.-The river Cam stands here allegorically for the University of Cambridge, of which King was so distinguished an ornament. Probably the "hairy mantle" and the 'sedge bonnet" are allusions to the "reedy banks of Cam." The phrase footing slow is also Spenserian (Faery Queene, B. I. c. iii. st. 10):

"A damzell spyde slow footing her before."

105. Figures dim may refer to the traditions of the high antiquity of the university. 106. Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe."-The hyacinth, which sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, or Ajax, and which bore ai ai on its petals.

107-131. This is the first outburst of Puritan feeling in Milton's poetry, and is a foreshadowing of his political career. We can understand how one in whose breast the fires of ecclesiastical strife are beginning to burn should turn aside from the quiet paths in which the Muse is most happily wooed. New thoughts and passions are stirring the soul of the earnest scholar. Some day, perhaps, these will be chastened and sublimed by an adequate inspiration; but, for the present, Milton is merely inflamed with the fierce ardour of a controversialist, and there lies between him and the divine splendours of Paradise Lost a long interval of angry and impassioned prose. Lycidas, from an artistic point of view, could have well spared this stern passage; but it has a biographical interest that makes it precious.

107. Pledge. Child-i.e., a pledge of love. (Lat. pignus so used.)

109. The pilot of the Galilean lake.-St. Peter, who, in the metaphorical language of the Church, keeps the keys of Heaven. It is rather curious that in this anti-prelatic diatribe Milton should represent the apostle as a bishop ("He shook his mitr'd locks") As yet his antipathy extended only to the men who were misgoverning the English Church by-and-by it embraced the ecclesiastical system which they misrepresented. 111. Amain.-Forcibly. [A.-S. magan, to be able; our 112. Bespake.- Addressed.

may."]

113. Young swain.-The scriptural image of the Church as God's fold and the members as his flock enables the poet to continue the pastoral allegory with which he

set out.

115. Comp. Par. Lost, B. IV., l. 193:

"So clomb the first grand thief into God's fold;

So since into his Church lewd hirelings climb."

The verb is the past

121. Herdsman.-Used as the equivalent of 66 pastor." 122. They are sped.-They have prospered, i.e., have got on. tense of "speed" [A.-S. spedan, to hasten; and so "to prosper"]. To wish a person good speed" is to wish him success.

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123. Lean and flashy songs.- Probably the shallow ceremonialism of the Laudian ritualists. Flashy, showy but empty.

124. Scrannel pipes of wretched straw. --Imitated from Virgil's "Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen" (Ec. III. 27).--Scrannel is the equivalent of the Lat. tenuis. It is onomatopoeic, and does not occur elsewhere in English literature. Comp. Sc. scrannie, thin, wrinkled.

126. Rank. -Strong, luxuriant. [A.-S. ranc, Dan. rank, upright. Comp. Lat. rancidus, strong-smelling.]

127, et seq. The sentiment is Spenserian (Shepheard's Calender, May). Comp. Animadversions on the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectymnuus.

130. That two-handed engine.. Most probably suggested by Matt. iii. 10: "And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees," &c. Milton's meaning is, that a crisis is approaching in the history of the Church, and if the needful reforms are not carried out,

God, in his providence, will sternly cut down every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit." All must share the surprise of Warton, that this passage should have escaped the cruel vigilance of Laud, whose power was then at its height.

132. The author here reverts to his pastoral vein. Alpheus, the chief river of the Peloponnesus, flows underground for part of its course. Hence arose the myth of the river-god Alpheus, who pursued the nymph Arethusa, till the latter, imploring the help of Artemis, was changed into the fountain that bears her name in the isle of Ortygia, near Syracuse. Alpheus followed her through the "Dorian deep," and sought to blend his waters with hers beneath the Ortygian shore." Shelley has given a lovely and musical version of the myth in his poem entitled Arethusa. Alpheus is here invoked by Milton as the Sicilian Muse-i.e., the Muse of pastoral poetry.

135. Bells.-Flower-bells.

136. Use. Are wont to dwell. It. usare, so used. Comp. Spenser, Faery Queene, B. VI., Introd. 2:

"Guide ye my footing and conduct me well

In these strange ways, where never foot did use."

138. Swart star.-The dog-star (Sirius) is so called because the ancient astronomers supposed it to be the cause of the extreme heat and the noxious epidemics that prevailed before and after its rising. But although its rising formerly coincided with the hottest season of the year, it is hardly so now in these latitudes; and by-and-by the star will rise in the dead of winter. Milton calls it swart because it was fancied to darken and destroy the colours of plants, like the Horatian sol niger (Sat. I., ix., 72, 73). See Comus, note, l. 436.- -Sparely.—Rarely; or, perhaps, slightly.

139. Quaint enamell'd eyes.-This can only mean the flowers; and yet we are told (l. 141) that these eyes, after sucking in the "honied showers," are to "purple all the ground with vernal flowers." The thought is confused, and so is the imagery. Further, it has been objected that in his catalogue of flowers (imitated, but with less delicate and original beauty, from that of Perdita, Winter's Tale, Act iv., sc. 4) Milton has introduced several that do not belong to spring, but to summer and autumn.

142. Rathe primrose that forsaken dies.-Comp. Perdita (as above): "Pale primroses, that die unmarried." Rathe means "early." It is the A.-S. hraeth, or rather hraedth, quick hence our rather (sooner). Our English forefathers in Anglo-Saxon times Another form of the adjective,

called the budding March the hraedth-monadth. hraed, is the modern English "ready."

143. Jessamine. — Also jasmine. [Arab. yasamyn; Per. jasmin.]

144. Pansy. The flower heart's-ease. [Fr. pensée.] So Ophelia, Hamlet, Act iv., sc. 5:

We now say

freckled."

A genus of

147. Wan.-Pale. [A.-S. wan: hence our wane. Comp. Lat. vanus.] 149. Amaranthus.—[Gr. àμápavτos; a priv., and μapávw to wither.] flowers whose leaves retain their freshness long after they are gathered. 158. Monstrous world. The world of monsters. So Horace, Odes, I., iii., 18: Siccis oculis monstra natantia."

159. Moist vows.--Tearful vows or prayers.

160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old.-The expression Sleep'st by the fable is quaint but fine. Instead of Bellerus, Milton originally wrote Corineus, the name of a giant who came into Britain with Brute the Trojan, and was made lord of Cornwall. Bellerus was also a Cornish giant, who gave name to the promontory of Bellerium, near Land's End.

161. The great vision here mentioned is that of the archangel Michael, who is traditionally reported to have appeared to certain hermits on the rock that bears his name. At a very early period (before the Norman Conquest), a monastery was erected here, the ruins of which still exist; and, later on, a fortress was added: hence the phrase guarded mount. Milton poetically supposes the great angel still seated in his craggy chair, and looking over the waves of the Atlantic to the coasts of Spain.