B. C.

4. Adrian (76-138 A. D.), Emperor of Rome. 8. Thersites, the foul-mouthed rogue of Homer's Iliad, in which Agamemnon is one of the heroes. 23. the first story. See Genesis, v.

24. one living century, a hundred people still remembered.

31. Lucina, the goddess of childbirth.

211. a. 23. Cambyses, king of Persia and conqueror of Egypt, d. 521 B. C.

25. Mizraim, the brother of Cush, is the Hebrew name of Egypt.

26. Pharaoh, the name of many kings of ancient Egypt. In Browne's time Egyptian mummies were used for medical prescriptions.

36. Nimrod, the founder of the Babylonian EmIn Hebrew astronomy pire. See Genesis x, 8-12.

he corresponds to the Greek constellation Orion.

37. Osiris, an Egyptian deity.

42. perspectives, telescopes.

b. 12. scape, a momentary chance.

23. Sardanapalus,

the

of

last Assyrian king Nineveh, unable to withstand a siege there, burnt himself and his household on a huge funeral pile 876 B. C.

30. Gordianus. Emperor of Rome, third century. The Man of God. Moses. See Deuteronomy xxxiv, 1-6.

34. Enoch. See Genesis v, 24.

35. Elias, Elijah. See 2 Kings ii, 1-11.

48. Lazarus. See John xi.

50. die but once. See Revelations xxi, 8. 53. coverings of mountains.

15-17.

See Revelations vi,

WALTON: THE COMPLETE ANGLER

This chapter is in the form of an open-air dialogue between the Angler (Piscator), who represents the author, and the Hunter, who is his pupil. The Angler continues the discourse he had begun in Chapter III, on the chub.

212. a. 12. generous, originally high born, and hence full of spirit, rich and full of strength, invigorating.

16. Gesner, a Swiss physician and naturalist who wrote a book On Animals (1551-8).

17. offspring, origin; there is little doubt, however, that the word trout comes through the Latin trutta from the Greek τρώκτης.

41. three cubits, 4% feet. The trout of the Great American Lakes is sometimes even larger.

b. 2. Mercator, a Flemish scientist who died in 1594.

25. Fordidge trout are salmon trout and live in the ordinary way: so do grasshoppers. Walton's aspersions on the mother raven are groundless. 213. a. 44. Michaelmas, September 29.

51. Albertus, Magnus (1193-1280), a

German

3. Stygian, belonging to the Styx, i.e., infernal. 5. uncouth, unknown, hence strange, monstrous. 8. ebon, black.

10. Cimmerian desert, according to Homer, a land of perpetual darkness beyond the ocean-stream.' 12. yclept, called. Euphrosyne, Mirth, one of the three Graces of classical mythology.

19. Zephyr, the West Wind. Aurora, the Dawn. 29. Hebe, goddess of Youth, Jove's cupbearer. 62. dight, decked.

67. tells his tale, counts his sheep.

80. cynosure, center of attraction; in Greek the name of the constellation containing the pole-star. 83. Corydon, Thyrsis, Thestylis, Phillis, conventional names in pastoral poetry.

19. starred Ethiop Queen, Cassiope, changed in the constellation Cassiopeia.

23. Vesta, goddess of the fireside.

24. Saturn, father of Jupiter.

29. Ida, a mountain near Troy.

39. commércing, having commerce or intercoure with.

56. Philomel, the nightingale.

59. Cynthia, the moon.

239. 74. curfew, the evening bell.

87. Bear, the Great Bear which never sets in the latitude of Great Britain. To outwatch the Bears therefore to stay awake till all the stars have fade: in the light of day.

88. Hermes, an ancient Egyptian philosopher. 95. consent, sympathy.

99. Thebes Troy, subjects of classical tragedy. 102. buskined, tragic. See 238. 132, note. 109. him that left half told, Chaucer in the Squire's Tale.

The purpose of the poem is best explained in Milton's own words: In this monody the asthor bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas, 1637, and by occasion foretells the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their height.' Milton's friend was Edward King, of Christ's College, Cambridge. Lycidas was written in 1637 and published along with other elegies in a memorial volume for King in 1638.

240. 8. Lycidas, a name used in the Seventh Idyll of Theocritus, the founder of pastoral poetry. етс his prime. King was 25.

15. sacred well, the fountain of the Muses on Mount Helicon.

27. drove (our flocks).

29. battening, fattening.

36. Damætas, a conventional name in pastoral poetry. Possibly Milton's college tutor is meant Both Milton and King wrote Latin verse of merit 46. weanling, weaned.

52-55. The Welsh hills, Mona (Anglesea), and the River Dee bound the Irish sea on the east. 59. the Muse, Calliope, mother of Orpheus; he was torn to pieces by Thracian women, and his head floated down the river Hebrus to Lesbos. 64. boots, profits.

68. Amaryllis, Neæra, maidens of classical pastoral.

75. blind Fury. More properly the Fate Atropos who cuts the thread of human life.

77. Phabus. Apollo, the god of poetry.

79. glistering foil, glittering tinsel.

241. 82. Jove, God.

85. Arethuse, Mincius, rivers of Greek and Latin pastoral poetry.

88. oat, oaten pipe.

91. felon, criminal, cruel.

95. his, of Lycidas. Hippotades, Eolus, who controlled the winds.

99. Panope, a nymph, one of the fifty daughters of Nereus.

100. fatal, fated to destruction. perfidious, treacherous, unworthy of trust.

101. the eclipse, a time of evil omen.

103. Camus, the river at Cambridge personified as a god. footing slow. The Cam flows gently.

106. sanguine flower, the hyacinth which the ancients held to be marked 'Ai, Ai,' in lamentation for Hyacinthus.

107. reft, bereaved me of.

109. pilot of the Galilean lake, St. Peter.

110. keys. See Matthew xvi, 19.

112. mitered. St. Peter was the first bishop of The miter is the official headdress of a Roman bishop.

Rome.

114. Enow, enough.

120. sheep-hook. Milton has now turned from the shepherd as poet to the shepherd as pastor. 122. recks, concerns. sped, provided for. 123. flashy. See 199. b. 25, note.

124. scrannel, screeching.

130. two-handed engine, the axe.

132. Alpheus, a classical river, lover of Arethusa. 133. Sicilian Muse, Theocritus. Milton is returning to the more conventional tone of pastoral poetry. 138. swart star, the dog-star, which was supposed to blast vegetation.

142. rathe, early. forsaken, unsought for, or perhaps there is an allusion to an old myth of the wooing of certain flowers by the sun. See Shakspere's Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 122-5.

144. freaked, freckled, sprinkled.

149. amaranthus, emblem of immortality. 151. laureate, adorned with the poet's laurel. hearse, a platform adorned with black hangings and containing an effigy of the deceased.

152. so, by imagining that the body of Lycidas has been recovered.

242. 156. Hebrides, islands to the far north of Scotland.

160. Bellerus. Land's End, the most western point of England, was anciently called Bellerium. Near it is St. Michael's Mount, a rocky island with a fortress on top and a craggy seat from which visions of St. Michael were seen.

162. Namancos, in Spain, near Cape Finisterre and the Castle of Bayona.

6. Latona's twin-born progeny, Apollo and Diana. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY 1652

The Puritan Parliament had a committee for propagation of the gospel, to which proposals were submitted by certain ministers that the Puritan preachers should be maintained at the public expense. Milton was a strong believer in the voluntary system, and objected to any interference of the government with religious matters.

7. Darwen stream, in Lancashire, the scene of Cromwell's victory over the Scots, Aug. 17-19, 1648. 8. Dunbar field, another victory, Sept. 30, 1650. 9. Worcester's laureate wreath. Cromwell was accustomed to speak of his success at Worcester (Sept. 3, 1651) as the crowning mercy' of God.

11. new foes, a section of the Independents who proposed to accept state aid, as Milton's old foes, the Anglicans and Presbyterians, wished to do. 12. secular chains, government control. 14. maw, stomach. Compare Lycidas, ll. 114-125,

p. 241.

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT The Protestants of Piedmont were in 1655 subjected to a cruel persecution by the Court of Turin,

whose soldiery evicted them from their homes with extraordinary ferocity. The English government, through Milton, who was then Latin secretary, sent a solemn protest against the massacre to the Duke of Savoy. The sonnet expresses Milton's personal feeling.

7-8. The English agent in Piedmont narrated the following incident: A mother was hurled down a mighty rock with a little infant in her arms; and three days after was found dead with the child alive, but fast clasped between the arms of the mother, which were cold and stiff, insomuch that those that found them had much ado to get the child out.'

12. The triple Tyrant, the Pope, from his wearing a triple tiara.

14. Babylonian woc. The Puritans identified Rome with the Babylon of Revelation and of 1 Peter V, 13.

At the center of this is the earth, and around it the planets revolve in their several spheres, en closed by the primum mobile. The distance from heaven to hell is three times the radius of the stellar universe.

Heaven

Chaos

Fig. 1 Before the fall of the Angels

197-200. fables, of classical mythology, according to which the Titans rebelled against their father Uranus, as the Giants did later against Zeus or Jove. Briareos was a Titan, Typhon a Giant. The latter is described by the Greek poets living in a 'Cilician den.' Tarsus is the capital of Cilicia.

201. Leviathan, a Hebrew word meaning any huge monster. The translators of the Bible identified it with the whale, as Milton does here.

204. night-foundered, overtaken and enveloped by night.

226. incumbent on, lying on, supported by.

232-3. Pelorus, N. E. promontory of Sicily near Mt. Etna.

244. change for, take in exchange for. 257. all but, only.

266. astonished, astounded, thunderstruck. Ob. livious, making forgetful.

268. mansion, abiding place.

248. 281. amazed, confounded.

282. pernicious, destructive, dreadful.

288. optic glass, the telescope, developed by the Florentine astronomer Galileo, whom Milton saw during his Italian tour (1638-9).

289-290. Fesolé, Valdarno, near Florence. 296. marl, soil.

299. Nathles, nevertheless.

303. Vallombrosa, eighteen miles from Florence in Tuscany, anciently named Etruria.

305. Orion armed. The rising and setting of the constellation Orion the Hunter were traditionally attended with storms.

306. Red Sea, called by the Hebrews the Sea of Sedge, on account of the quantity of seaweed in it. 307. Busiris, Pharaoh. See Exodus xiv, 5-29. Memphian, Egyptian.

309. Goshen. See Genesis xlvii, 27.

313. Under amazement of, utterly confounded by. 317. If, dependent on lost.

320. virtue, valor. Latin virtus.

335. not perceive, failed to perceive. 338-343. See Exodus x, 12-15.

339. Amram's son, Aaron. See Exodus vi, 20. 341. warping, advancing with an undulating motion.

351-5. The northern tribes which invaded the Roman empire from the third century onwards crossed from Spain into Africa and captured Carthage 439 A. D.

355. beneath, south of.

249. 360. erst, formerly.

363. books. Milton probably dictated Book

and

was misunderstood by his amanuensis. See Revelations iii, 5.

372. religions, religious ceremonies.

392. Moloch. See Kings xi, 7; 2 Kings xxiii, 10; Psalm cvi, 37, 38. Sandys, whose book of trav els in Palestine was known to Milton, describes the idol as hollow within, filled with fire,' the children offered for sacrifice being placed in his arms. 'And lest their lamentable shrieks should sadden the hearts of their parents, the priests of Moloch did deafen their ears with the continual clang of trumpets and timbrels.'

406. Chemos, the god of Moab, the neighbors of Ammon.

409. Seon, king of the Amorites. See Numbers xxi, 26.

410. Sibma. See Isaiah xvi, 8.

411. the asphaltic pool, the Dead Sea.

413. Sittim. See Numbers xxv.

416. scandal, offence.

418. good Josiah. See Kings xxiii, 10.

420. the brook, Besor, 'the river of Egypt.' 422. Baälim and Ashtaroth, the collective names of the various manifestations of the deities of the sun and moon respectively.

438. Astoreth, the same as the Assyrian Istar, the Greek Aphrodite, and the Latin Venus.

441. Sidon was the oldest city of Phenicia. 250. 444. uxorious king, Solomon.

446. Thammus, 'Sun of Life,' the Greek Adonis, god of the solar year.

450. Adonis, the name of a river flowing from the heights of Lebanon, and colored in spring by the red mud gathered there.

455. Ezekiel. See Ezekiel viii, 14.

457. came one. Dagon, god of the Philistines. See Samuel v, 4.

503-4. Sodom, Gibeah. Genesis xix, Judges xix. 506. prime, leaders.

508. Ionian, Greek. Javan, son of Japhet. Genesis x, 2.

509. Heaven and Earth, Uranus and Ge, whose 12 giant children were Titans. One of them, Cronos (Saturn in Roman mythology), deposed Uranus, and was in turn deposed by his own son Zeus (Jove), whose mother was Rhea.

515-6. Ida in Crete was the birthplace of Zeus, Olympus, north of Thessaly, his abode, according to Greek mythology.

517. Delphian cliff, Apollo's oracle on Mt. Par

nassus.

518. Dodona, an oracle of Zeus, in Epirus. 519. Doric, Greek.

520. Adria, the Adriatic. Hesperian, western, i.e.,

Italy.

521. Celtic, France and Spain. utmost isles, of Britain.

523. damp, depressed.

528. recollecting, recovering.