'A violent cross wind from either coastBlows them transverse ten thousand leagues awayInto the devious air.'212.pretend they ne'er so wise: claim they to be never so wise; the idea of falseness is not in the word 'pretend' as in its present use.219.The first I saw at Timna: Judges xiv.221.The daughter of an infidel: Milton probably had his first wife, Mary Powell, in his mind, whose family was infidel to his own political creed.222.motioned: proposed.223.intimate: inward, inmost.228.fond: foolish.229.vale of Sorec: a valley (and stream) between Askelon and Gaza, not far from Zorah.—Judges xvi. 4.230.specious: good appearing.235, 236.vanquished with a peal of words: a metaphor drawn from the storming of a fortress. A similar metaphor is found in '1 Henry VI.,' III. iii. 79, 80:'I am vanquished; these haughty words of hersHave battered me like roaring cannon-shot.'237.provoke: to call forth, to challenge.Lat.provocare.241.That fault I take not on me: 'with an occult reference, perhaps, to the conduct of those in power in England after Cromwell's death, when Milton still argued vehemently against the restoration of the Stuarts.'—Masson.247.ambition: used literally, going about in the service of some object, canvassing.Lat.ambitio.248.spoke loud: proclaimed.253.Etham: Judges xv. 8, 9.257.harass: ravaging.258.on some conditions: Judges xv. 11-13.263.a trivial weapon: the jawbone of an ass. Judges xv. 15.268-276.But what more oft: a plain reference to the state of England, and to Milton's own position there, after the Restoration.—Masson.271.strenuous: ardently maintained. Newton quotes a similar sentiment from the oration ofÆmilius Lepidus, the consul, to the Roman people, against Sulla: 'Annuite legibus impositis; accipite otium cum servitio;'—but for myself—'potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.'278.How Succoth: Judges viii. 4-9.282.how ingrateful Ephraim: Judges xi. 15-27.287-289.sore battle: the battle fought by Jephthah with Ephraim. Judges xii. 4-6.291.mine: my people.297, 298.For of such doctrine: 'Observe the peculiar effect of contempt given to the passage by the rapid rhythm and the sudden introduction of a rhyme in these two lines.'—Masson.305.They ravel more, still less resolved: they become more confused, and ever less disentangled.327.careful step: 'careful' is used subjectively; a step indicating that Manoa was full of care, deeply concerned. Chaucer so uses 'dredeful':'With dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamoun.'—Knight's Tale, 1479.333.uncouth: literally, unknown; strange, with the idea of the disagreeable.334.gloried: a participial form derived from the noun.335.informed: directed.343.Angels': I have followed Keightley in making 'Angels' a genitive.345.Duelled: it was an individual fight on the part of Samson.354.as: that; this use of 'as' after 'so' and 'such' is not uncommon in Shakespeare and Bacon, and the later literature.'I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,As I am sick with working of my thoughts.'—1 Henry VI., V. v. 86.364.miracle: wonder, admiration.373.Appoint: 'Do not you arrange or direct the disposition of heavenly things.'—Keightley.383.Of Timna: Judges xiv.394.my capital secret: a play on the word 'capital' is, no doubt, designed; chief secret and the secret of his strength depending upon his hair.433.That rigid score: rigorous account or reckoning.434.This day: Judges xvi. 23.453.idolists: idolaters.455.propense: disposed.466.provoked: called forth, challenged.499, 500.a sin that Gentiles: supposed to be an allusion to Tantalus, who divulged the secrets of the gods.503.but act not: take not a part in thy own affliction; 'thy' is objective: in afflicting thyself.505.self-preservation bids:i.e.that thou do so.509.his debt: debt to him.516.what offered means: those offered means which.528.blazed: trumpeted abroad.531.affront: a front to front encounter. The word occurs as a noun but once in Shakespeare:'There was a fourth man in a silly habit,That gave the affront with them.'—Cymb., V. iii. 87.i.e.faced or confronted the enemy (Rolfe).533.venereal trains: snares of Venus, or love.537.me: an ethical dative? or it may be the usual dative.539.Then turned me out ridiculous: an object of ridicule, a laughing-stock.549.rod: ray of light.552.turbulent: used causatively.563-572.Now blind, disheartened: almost literally autobiographic.569.robustious: Masson explains 'full of force'; but 'vain monument of strength' in the following verse, does not seem to support this explanation.581.caused a fountain: Judges xv. 18, 19.590-598.All otherwise: this pathetic passage is quite literally autobiographic, if 'race of shame' be excepted; but even this might be understood, in Milton's case, to be used objectively.599.suggestions: the word has a stronger meaning than at present: inward promptings.'why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hairAnd make my seated heart knock at my ribsAgainst the use of nature?'—Macbeth, I. iii. 34.604.how else: elsewise, otherwise.612.all his(torment's)fierce accidents: all the fierce things whichfall to, or happen to, body or mind.613.her: the mind's.615.answerable: corresponding.624.apprehensive: taking hold of, mentally; having the power of conception or perception.627.medicinal: accented on the penult.628.snowy Alp: used generically for any snowy mountain.633.his: Heaven's.635.message: messenger, angel.637.amain: vigorously.643.provoked: called forth, challenged.645.to be repeated: to be again and again made the subject of their cruelty or scorn.—Masson.650.speedy death: an appositive of 'prayer.'658.much persuasion: to be construed with 'many are the sayings,' etc., and 'much persuasion (is) sought.'662.dissonant mood from: mood dissonant from his complaint.677.Heads: appositive to 'the common rout of men.'683.their highth of noon: the meridian of their glory.684.Changest thy countenance: a similar expression, but with a different meaning, to that in Job xiv. 20: 'Thou changest his (man's) countenance, and sendest him away.'686.or them to thee of service: or of service (from) them to thee.690.Unseemly: unbecoming in human eye; 'falls' is a noun in apposition to the preceding thought, 'thou throwest them lower than thou didst exalt them high.'695-702.Or to the unjust tribunals: there has been an occult reference all through this chorus to the wreck of the Puritan cause by the Restoration; but in these lines the reference becomes distinct. Milton has the trials of Vane and the Regicides in his mind. He himself had been in danger of the law; and, though he had escaped, it was to a 'crude (premature) old age,' afflicted by painful diseases from which his temperate life might have been expected to exempt him.—Masson.699.deformed: attended with deformity.700.crude: premature.701.disordinate: inordinate, irregular; yet suffering without cause.707.What: the word here, perhaps, means 'why.' The following question seems to support this.715.Tarsus:i.e.Tarshish, which Milton avoided from his dislike to the soundsh. He seems to have agreed with those who thought that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia, instead of Tartessus in Spain. In the Bible, 'ships of Tarshish' signify large sea-going vessels in general;the iles,etc.:i.e.the isles and coasts of Greece and Lesser Asia;Javan(pr.Yawan) isἸάονες, Ἴωνες, the Ionians. As these were the best known of the Greeks in the south, their name was given to the whole people, just as the Greeks themselves called all the subjects of the king of Persia, Medes;Gadire:Γαδείρα, Gades, Cadiz.—Keightley.717.bravery: finery, ornament;trim: shipshape, in good order.719.hold them play: keep them in play.720.An amber scent: an ambergris scent.731.makes address: prepares.732et seq.'The student will notice how thoroughly Euripidean the whole of the following scene is, not merely in the fact that two of thedramatis personæare pitted dialectically against one another, but in the cast of the language and in the quality of the sentiment.'—John Churton Collins.748.hyæna: 'a creature somewhat like a wolf, and is said to imitate a human voice so artfully as to draw people to it, and then devour them."'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,To draw the pitying traveller to her den;Your sex are so, such false dissemblers all."—Thomas Otway's Orphan, A. ii.Milton applies it to a woman, but Otway to the men.'—Newton.760, 761.not to reject the penitent: an obvious allusion to Milton's forgiveness of his first wife, after her two years' abandonment of him.803.That made for me: helped my purpose (i.e.to keep you from leaving me as you did her at Timna).842.Or: Keightley suspects that 'or' should be 'and' here, as 'or' does not connect well with what precedes.868.respects: considerations; 'there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.'—Hamlet, III. i. 68, 69.906.peals: peals of words. Seel.235.932, 933.trains,gins,toils: these words all express modes of entrapping any one or anything.934.thy fair enchanted cup: an allusion to Circe and the Sirens.948.gloss: comment, construe.950.To thine: compared to thine.988, 989.in mount Ephraim Jael: Judges iv. 5.990.Smote Sisera: Judges v. 26.1016.thy riddle: Judges xiv. 12-19;in one day or seven: connect with 'harder to hit.'1018.If any of these, or all: if it be any or all of these qualities, virtue, wisdom, valor, etc., that can win or long inherit (possess) woman's love, the Timnian bride had not so soon preferred thy paranymph (bridesman). Judges xiv., xv.1022.Nor both: nor both wives;disallied: severed.1025.for that: because.1025-1060.Is it for that such outward ornament: the ideas expressed in these verses, it must be admitted, were too much Milton's own, in regard to woman, as his Divorce pamphlets show.1030.affect: like.1037.Once joined:i.e.in marriage.1038.far within: a thorn in the flesh, a cleaving mischief, deep beneath defensive armor; these may be an allusion to the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by his wife Deianira.1048.combines:i.e.with her husband.1057.lour: frown, or look sullen.1062.contracted: drawn together, gathered.1068.Harapha of Gath: see under1079.1069.pile: the giant's body is spoken of as a pile, or large, proudly towering building.1073.habit: dress.1075.His fraught: the freight of commands or whatever else he is charged with. The word seems to be used contemptuously.1076.chance: fate.1079.Men call me Harapha: 'No such giant is mentioned by name in Scripture; but see 2Sam.xxi. 16-22. The four Philistine giants mentioned there are said to be sons of a certain giant in Gath called "the giant"; and the Hebrew word for "the giant" there is Rapha or Harapha. Milton has appropriated the name to his fictitious giant, whom he makes out in the sequel (1248, 1249) to be the actual father of that brood of giants.'—Masson.1080.Og, or Anak: seeDeut.iii. 11, ii. 10, andGen.xiv. 5.1081.Thou know'st me now: so in 'P. L.,' iv. 830:'Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.'1090.taste: to make trial of;Fr.tâter,OF.taster;'he now beganTo taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard,' etc.—Chapman's Homer's Od., xxi. 211.1092.single me: challenge me to single combat.—Keightley.1093.Gyves: handcuffs.1105.In thy hand: in thy power.1109.assassinated: cruelly abused or maltreated. The word is so used in Milton's 'Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' Book I.c.xii.1113.close-banded: secretly leagued.—Dr. Johnson.1116.without feigned shifts: without any pretended considerations for my blindness.1118.Or rather flight: a cutting phrase, implying that otherwise the giant may seek safety in flight, if they were not in 'some narrow place enclosed.'1120, 1121.brigandine: coat of armor for the body;habergeon: armor for neck and shoulders;Vant-brace: (avant bras) armor for the arms;greaves: leg armor;gauntlet: (gant) glove of mail.1122.A weaver's beam: 1Sam.xvii. 5-7 was in Milton's mind in lines 1119-1122. 'And he [Goliath] had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; . . . And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam;' . . .1132.had not spells: 'taken from the ritual of the combat in chivalry. When two champions entered the lists, each took an oath that he had no charm, herb, or any enchantment about him.'—T.Warton.1164.boisterous: strong, powerful?1169.thine: thy people?1181.Tongue-doughty: tongue-valiant.1186.thirty men: Judges xiv. 19.1195.politician lords: lords of your state.1197.spies: Judges xiv. 10-18. 'Milton follows Jewish tradition in supposing the thirty bridal friends there mentioned to have been spies appointed by the Philistines.'—Masson.1202.wherever chanced:i.e.wherever by chance met with.1219.not all your force: the ellipsis is, would have disabled me.1220.These shifts: the charges made by Harapha of his being 'a murderer, a revolter, and a robber';appellant: challenger.1223.enforce: demand of strength.1224.With thee: (fight) with thee?1231.Baal-zebub: the god of Ekron. 2 Kings i. 16.1238.bulk without spirit vast: vast bulk without spirit.1242.Astaroth: the Phœnician goddess.1243.braveries: bravadoes.1266.mine: my end.1274.Hardy: bold.1292.Either of these: 'might' or 'patience.'1309.remark him: plainly mark him.1317.heartened: encouraged, emboldened.1334.Myself: regard myself, do you say? No, my conscience and internal peace I regard. Keightley and Masson both place an (!) instead of an (?). But 'myself' requires to be uttered with aninquiringsurprise, and should be followed by an (?).1346.stoutness: firm refusal.1369.the sentence holds: the sentence, 'outward acts defile not,' holds good, where outward force constrains.1375.which: represents what precedes, 'If I obey . . . set God behind.'1377.dispense with: pardon. 'Milton here probably had in view the story of Naaman the Syrian, begging adispensationof this sort from Elisha, which he seemingly grants him.' See 2 Kings v. 18, 19.—Thyer.1397.as: used after 'such' to introduce a result, instead of 'that,' as in present English; not uncommon in Shakespeare, Bacon, and other writers of the time and later.1399.to try: to test.1408.Yet this be sure: looks back to 'I am content to go.'1418-1422.Lords are lordliest: 'in this passage may be detected a reference to England in Milton's time.'—Masson.1435.that Spirit that first rushed on thee: 'a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.'—Judgesxiv. 5, 6.1450.I had no will:i.e.to go thither.1455.That hope: to partake that hope with thee would much rejoice us.1461-1471.Some much averse I found: the different shades of feeling among the men in power in England after the Restoration may be supposed to be glanced at in this passage: obstinate and revengeful Royalism, strongest among the High Church party; and so on.—Masson.1470.The rest: to remit the rest was magnanimity.1471.convenient: fitting.Lat.conveniens, coming together.1474.Their once great dread: former object of their great dread.1512.whole inhabitation: all the inhabitants of the world, as is indicated by 'universal groan.'1514.ruin: down crashing.1529.dole: grief, sorrow; 'dealing dole' is not a case of the cognate accusative, as it is understood by some critics.1538.baits: literally, stops for refreshment; in a general sense, tarries.1551.concerned in: connected with.1554.needs: is necessary.1557.tell us the sum: the main fact, defer what accompanied it.1581.glorious: used proleptically.1594.eye-witness: ocular testimony.1599.high street: main or principal street; so, highway, high seas.1608.sort: rank.1610.banks: benches.1619.cataphracts: heavy-armed cavalry soldiers, whose horses as well as themselves were covered with a complete suit of mail armor.Gr.κατάφρακτος, covered;spears: spearmen.1621.rifted: split.1625.assayed: tried.1626.still: ever.1671.And fat regorged: Keightley explains, 'and the fat of bulls and goats was regorged by them who had eaten too much.' This, along with the preceding and the following verse, gives a Miltonic sublimity of the disgusting to the passage. But the prefix 're-' is, perhaps, simply intensive, and 'regorged' may mean gorged, or swallowed, voraciously. The construction is, 'And (while they, 'they' being implied in 'their,' above) fat regorged of bulls and goats, . . . Among them he (our living Dread) a spirit of phrenzy sent.'1674.Silo: Shiloh. Joshua xviii. 1, Judges xxi. 19. 'He probably terms itbright, on account of the Shekinah which was supposed to rest on the ark.'—Keightley.1688.and thought extinguished quite: this phrase is understood by some as a nominative absolute (the Latin ablative absolute), thought having been quite extinguished; but 'thought' is rather a past participle referring to 'he': thought to be entirely extinguished.1692.as an evening dragon came: 'he' (Samson) is the subject of'came'; he came among the Philistines as an evening dragon comes on tame farmhouse fowl, but afterward bolted his cloudless thunder on their heads, as an eagle.1699.that self-begotten bird: the phœnix.1700.embost: enclosed in a wood.1702.erewhile: for some time before;holocaust: a whole burnt offering.1703.teemed: brought forth.1704.revives: the subject is 'Virtue,' 1697.1707.A secular bird: a bird living for generations.Lat.sæcula.1713.sons of Caphtor: the Philistines, 'originally of the island Caphtor or Crete. A colony of them settled in Palestine and there went by the name of Philistim.'—Meadowcourt, in Todd'sVar. Ed.of Milton.1733.Home to his father's house: see Judges xvi. 31.1753.band them: unite themselves.1755.acquist: acquisition.
'A violent cross wind from either coastBlows them transverse ten thousand leagues awayInto the devious air.'
'A violent cross wind from either coastBlows them transverse ten thousand leagues awayInto the devious air.'
'A violent cross wind from either coast
Blows them transverse ten thousand leagues away
Into the devious air.'
212.pretend they ne'er so wise: claim they to be never so wise; the idea of falseness is not in the word 'pretend' as in its present use.
219.The first I saw at Timna: Judges xiv.
221.The daughter of an infidel: Milton probably had his first wife, Mary Powell, in his mind, whose family was infidel to his own political creed.
222.motioned: proposed.
223.intimate: inward, inmost.
228.fond: foolish.
229.vale of Sorec: a valley (and stream) between Askelon and Gaza, not far from Zorah.—Judges xvi. 4.
230.specious: good appearing.
235, 236.vanquished with a peal of words: a metaphor drawn from the storming of a fortress. A similar metaphor is found in '1 Henry VI.,' III. iii. 79, 80:
'I am vanquished; these haughty words of hersHave battered me like roaring cannon-shot.'
'I am vanquished; these haughty words of hersHave battered me like roaring cannon-shot.'
'I am vanquished; these haughty words of hers
Have battered me like roaring cannon-shot.'
237.provoke: to call forth, to challenge.Lat.provocare.
241.That fault I take not on me: 'with an occult reference, perhaps, to the conduct of those in power in England after Cromwell's death, when Milton still argued vehemently against the restoration of the Stuarts.'—Masson.
247.ambition: used literally, going about in the service of some object, canvassing.Lat.ambitio.
248.spoke loud: proclaimed.
253.Etham: Judges xv. 8, 9.
257.harass: ravaging.
258.on some conditions: Judges xv. 11-13.
263.a trivial weapon: the jawbone of an ass. Judges xv. 15.
268-276.But what more oft: a plain reference to the state of England, and to Milton's own position there, after the Restoration.—Masson.
271.strenuous: ardently maintained. Newton quotes a similar sentiment from the oration ofÆmilius Lepidus, the consul, to the Roman people, against Sulla: 'Annuite legibus impositis; accipite otium cum servitio;'—but for myself—'potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio.'
278.How Succoth: Judges viii. 4-9.
282.how ingrateful Ephraim: Judges xi. 15-27.
287-289.sore battle: the battle fought by Jephthah with Ephraim. Judges xii. 4-6.
291.mine: my people.
297, 298.For of such doctrine: 'Observe the peculiar effect of contempt given to the passage by the rapid rhythm and the sudden introduction of a rhyme in these two lines.'—Masson.
305.They ravel more, still less resolved: they become more confused, and ever less disentangled.
327.careful step: 'careful' is used subjectively; a step indicating that Manoa was full of care, deeply concerned. Chaucer so uses 'dredeful':
'With dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamoun.'
'With dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamoun.'
'With dredeful foot thanne stalketh Palamoun.'
—Knight's Tale, 1479.
333.uncouth: literally, unknown; strange, with the idea of the disagreeable.
334.gloried: a participial form derived from the noun.
335.informed: directed.
343.Angels': I have followed Keightley in making 'Angels' a genitive.
345.Duelled: it was an individual fight on the part of Samson.
354.as: that; this use of 'as' after 'so' and 'such' is not uncommon in Shakespeare and Bacon, and the later literature.
'I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,As I am sick with working of my thoughts.'
'I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,As I am sick with working of my thoughts.'
'I feel such sharp dissension in my breast,
Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,
As I am sick with working of my thoughts.'
—1 Henry VI., V. v. 86.
364.miracle: wonder, admiration.
373.Appoint: 'Do not you arrange or direct the disposition of heavenly things.'—Keightley.
383.Of Timna: Judges xiv.
394.my capital secret: a play on the word 'capital' is, no doubt, designed; chief secret and the secret of his strength depending upon his hair.
433.That rigid score: rigorous account or reckoning.
434.This day: Judges xvi. 23.
453.idolists: idolaters.
455.propense: disposed.
466.provoked: called forth, challenged.
499, 500.a sin that Gentiles: supposed to be an allusion to Tantalus, who divulged the secrets of the gods.
503.but act not: take not a part in thy own affliction; 'thy' is objective: in afflicting thyself.
505.self-preservation bids:i.e.that thou do so.
509.his debt: debt to him.
516.what offered means: those offered means which.
528.blazed: trumpeted abroad.
531.affront: a front to front encounter. The word occurs as a noun but once in Shakespeare:
'There was a fourth man in a silly habit,That gave the affront with them.'—Cymb., V. iii. 87.
'There was a fourth man in a silly habit,That gave the affront with them.'—Cymb., V. iii. 87.
'There was a fourth man in a silly habit,
That gave the affront with them.'—Cymb., V. iii. 87.
i.e.faced or confronted the enemy (Rolfe).
533.venereal trains: snares of Venus, or love.
537.me: an ethical dative? or it may be the usual dative.
539.Then turned me out ridiculous: an object of ridicule, a laughing-stock.
549.rod: ray of light.
552.turbulent: used causatively.
563-572.Now blind, disheartened: almost literally autobiographic.
569.robustious: Masson explains 'full of force'; but 'vain monument of strength' in the following verse, does not seem to support this explanation.
581.caused a fountain: Judges xv. 18, 19.
590-598.All otherwise: this pathetic passage is quite literally autobiographic, if 'race of shame' be excepted; but even this might be understood, in Milton's case, to be used objectively.
599.suggestions: the word has a stronger meaning than at present: inward promptings.
'why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hairAnd make my seated heart knock at my ribsAgainst the use of nature?'—Macbeth, I. iii. 34.
'why do I yield to that suggestionWhose horrid image doth unfix my hairAnd make my seated heart knock at my ribsAgainst the use of nature?'—Macbeth, I. iii. 34.
'why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature?'—Macbeth, I. iii. 34.
604.how else: elsewise, otherwise.
612.all his(torment's)fierce accidents: all the fierce things whichfall to, or happen to, body or mind.
613.her: the mind's.
615.answerable: corresponding.
624.apprehensive: taking hold of, mentally; having the power of conception or perception.
627.medicinal: accented on the penult.
628.snowy Alp: used generically for any snowy mountain.
633.his: Heaven's.
635.message: messenger, angel.
637.amain: vigorously.
643.provoked: called forth, challenged.
645.to be repeated: to be again and again made the subject of their cruelty or scorn.—Masson.
650.speedy death: an appositive of 'prayer.'
658.much persuasion: to be construed with 'many are the sayings,' etc., and 'much persuasion (is) sought.'
662.dissonant mood from: mood dissonant from his complaint.
677.Heads: appositive to 'the common rout of men.'
683.their highth of noon: the meridian of their glory.
684.Changest thy countenance: a similar expression, but with a different meaning, to that in Job xiv. 20: 'Thou changest his (man's) countenance, and sendest him away.'
686.or them to thee of service: or of service (from) them to thee.
690.Unseemly: unbecoming in human eye; 'falls' is a noun in apposition to the preceding thought, 'thou throwest them lower than thou didst exalt them high.'
695-702.Or to the unjust tribunals: there has been an occult reference all through this chorus to the wreck of the Puritan cause by the Restoration; but in these lines the reference becomes distinct. Milton has the trials of Vane and the Regicides in his mind. He himself had been in danger of the law; and, though he had escaped, it was to a 'crude (premature) old age,' afflicted by painful diseases from which his temperate life might have been expected to exempt him.—Masson.
699.deformed: attended with deformity.
700.crude: premature.
701.disordinate: inordinate, irregular; yet suffering without cause.
707.What: the word here, perhaps, means 'why.' The following question seems to support this.
715.Tarsus:i.e.Tarshish, which Milton avoided from his dislike to the soundsh. He seems to have agreed with those who thought that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia, instead of Tartessus in Spain. In the Bible, 'ships of Tarshish' signify large sea-going vessels in general;the iles,etc.:i.e.the isles and coasts of Greece and Lesser Asia;Javan(pr.Yawan) isἸάονες, Ἴωνες, the Ionians. As these were the best known of the Greeks in the south, their name was given to the whole people, just as the Greeks themselves called all the subjects of the king of Persia, Medes;Gadire:Γαδείρα, Gades, Cadiz.—Keightley.
717.bravery: finery, ornament;trim: shipshape, in good order.
719.hold them play: keep them in play.
720.An amber scent: an ambergris scent.
731.makes address: prepares.
732et seq.'The student will notice how thoroughly Euripidean the whole of the following scene is, not merely in the fact that two of thedramatis personæare pitted dialectically against one another, but in the cast of the language and in the quality of the sentiment.'—John Churton Collins.
748.hyæna: 'a creature somewhat like a wolf, and is said to imitate a human voice so artfully as to draw people to it, and then devour them.
"'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,To draw the pitying traveller to her den;Your sex are so, such false dissemblers all."
"'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,To draw the pitying traveller to her den;Your sex are so, such false dissemblers all."
"'Tis thus the false hyæna makes her moan,
To draw the pitying traveller to her den;
Your sex are so, such false dissemblers all."
—Thomas Otway's Orphan, A. ii.
Milton applies it to a woman, but Otway to the men.'—Newton.
760, 761.not to reject the penitent: an obvious allusion to Milton's forgiveness of his first wife, after her two years' abandonment of him.
803.That made for me: helped my purpose (i.e.to keep you from leaving me as you did her at Timna).
842.Or: Keightley suspects that 'or' should be 'and' here, as 'or' does not connect well with what precedes.
868.respects: considerations; 'there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.'—Hamlet, III. i. 68, 69.
906.peals: peals of words. Seel.235.
932, 933.trains,gins,toils: these words all express modes of entrapping any one or anything.
934.thy fair enchanted cup: an allusion to Circe and the Sirens.
948.gloss: comment, construe.
950.To thine: compared to thine.
988, 989.in mount Ephraim Jael: Judges iv. 5.
990.Smote Sisera: Judges v. 26.
1016.thy riddle: Judges xiv. 12-19;in one day or seven: connect with 'harder to hit.'
1018.If any of these, or all: if it be any or all of these qualities, virtue, wisdom, valor, etc., that can win or long inherit (possess) woman's love, the Timnian bride had not so soon preferred thy paranymph (bridesman). Judges xiv., xv.
1022.Nor both: nor both wives;disallied: severed.
1025.for that: because.
1025-1060.Is it for that such outward ornament: the ideas expressed in these verses, it must be admitted, were too much Milton's own, in regard to woman, as his Divorce pamphlets show.
1030.affect: like.
1037.Once joined:i.e.in marriage.
1038.far within: a thorn in the flesh, a cleaving mischief, deep beneath defensive armor; these may be an allusion to the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by his wife Deianira.
1048.combines:i.e.with her husband.
1057.lour: frown, or look sullen.
1062.contracted: drawn together, gathered.
1068.Harapha of Gath: see under1079.
1069.pile: the giant's body is spoken of as a pile, or large, proudly towering building.
1073.habit: dress.
1075.His fraught: the freight of commands or whatever else he is charged with. The word seems to be used contemptuously.
1076.chance: fate.
1079.Men call me Harapha: 'No such giant is mentioned by name in Scripture; but see 2Sam.xxi. 16-22. The four Philistine giants mentioned there are said to be sons of a certain giant in Gath called "the giant"; and the Hebrew word for "the giant" there is Rapha or Harapha. Milton has appropriated the name to his fictitious giant, whom he makes out in the sequel (1248, 1249) to be the actual father of that brood of giants.'—Masson.
1080.Og, or Anak: seeDeut.iii. 11, ii. 10, andGen.xiv. 5.
1081.Thou know'st me now: so in 'P. L.,' iv. 830:
'Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.'
'Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.'
'Not to know me argues yourselves unknown.'
1090.taste: to make trial of;Fr.tâter,OF.taster;
'he now beganTo taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard,' etc.
'he now beganTo taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard,' etc.
'he now began
To taste the bow, the sharp shaft took, tugg'd hard,' etc.
—Chapman's Homer's Od., xxi. 211.
1092.single me: challenge me to single combat.—Keightley.
1093.Gyves: handcuffs.
1105.In thy hand: in thy power.
1109.assassinated: cruelly abused or maltreated. The word is so used in Milton's 'Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' Book I.c.xii.
1113.close-banded: secretly leagued.—Dr. Johnson.
1116.without feigned shifts: without any pretended considerations for my blindness.
1118.Or rather flight: a cutting phrase, implying that otherwise the giant may seek safety in flight, if they were not in 'some narrow place enclosed.'
1120, 1121.brigandine: coat of armor for the body;habergeon: armor for neck and shoulders;Vant-brace: (avant bras) armor for the arms;greaves: leg armor;gauntlet: (gant) glove of mail.
1122.A weaver's beam: 1Sam.xvii. 5-7 was in Milton's mind in lines 1119-1122. 'And he [Goliath] had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; . . . And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam;' . . .
1132.had not spells: 'taken from the ritual of the combat in chivalry. When two champions entered the lists, each took an oath that he had no charm, herb, or any enchantment about him.'—T.Warton.
1164.boisterous: strong, powerful?
1169.thine: thy people?
1181.Tongue-doughty: tongue-valiant.
1186.thirty men: Judges xiv. 19.
1195.politician lords: lords of your state.
1197.spies: Judges xiv. 10-18. 'Milton follows Jewish tradition in supposing the thirty bridal friends there mentioned to have been spies appointed by the Philistines.'—Masson.
1202.wherever chanced:i.e.wherever by chance met with.
1219.not all your force: the ellipsis is, would have disabled me.
1220.These shifts: the charges made by Harapha of his being 'a murderer, a revolter, and a robber';appellant: challenger.
1223.enforce: demand of strength.
1224.With thee: (fight) with thee?
1231.Baal-zebub: the god of Ekron. 2 Kings i. 16.
1238.bulk without spirit vast: vast bulk without spirit.
1242.Astaroth: the Phœnician goddess.
1243.braveries: bravadoes.
1266.mine: my end.
1274.Hardy: bold.
1292.Either of these: 'might' or 'patience.'
1309.remark him: plainly mark him.
1317.heartened: encouraged, emboldened.
1334.Myself: regard myself, do you say? No, my conscience and internal peace I regard. Keightley and Masson both place an (!) instead of an (?). But 'myself' requires to be uttered with aninquiringsurprise, and should be followed by an (?).
1346.stoutness: firm refusal.
1369.the sentence holds: the sentence, 'outward acts defile not,' holds good, where outward force constrains.
1375.which: represents what precedes, 'If I obey . . . set God behind.'
1377.dispense with: pardon. 'Milton here probably had in view the story of Naaman the Syrian, begging adispensationof this sort from Elisha, which he seemingly grants him.' See 2 Kings v. 18, 19.—Thyer.
1397.as: used after 'such' to introduce a result, instead of 'that,' as in present English; not uncommon in Shakespeare, Bacon, and other writers of the time and later.
1399.to try: to test.
1408.Yet this be sure: looks back to 'I am content to go.'
1418-1422.Lords are lordliest: 'in this passage may be detected a reference to England in Milton's time.'—Masson.
1435.that Spirit that first rushed on thee: 'a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.'—Judgesxiv. 5, 6.
1450.I had no will:i.e.to go thither.
1455.That hope: to partake that hope with thee would much rejoice us.
1461-1471.Some much averse I found: the different shades of feeling among the men in power in England after the Restoration may be supposed to be glanced at in this passage: obstinate and revengeful Royalism, strongest among the High Church party; and so on.—Masson.
1470.The rest: to remit the rest was magnanimity.
1471.convenient: fitting.Lat.conveniens, coming together.
1474.Their once great dread: former object of their great dread.
1512.whole inhabitation: all the inhabitants of the world, as is indicated by 'universal groan.'
1514.ruin: down crashing.
1529.dole: grief, sorrow; 'dealing dole' is not a case of the cognate accusative, as it is understood by some critics.
1538.baits: literally, stops for refreshment; in a general sense, tarries.
1551.concerned in: connected with.
1554.needs: is necessary.
1557.tell us the sum: the main fact, defer what accompanied it.
1581.glorious: used proleptically.
1594.eye-witness: ocular testimony.
1599.high street: main or principal street; so, highway, high seas.
1608.sort: rank.
1610.banks: benches.
1619.cataphracts: heavy-armed cavalry soldiers, whose horses as well as themselves were covered with a complete suit of mail armor.Gr.κατάφρακτος, covered;spears: spearmen.
1621.rifted: split.
1625.assayed: tried.
1626.still: ever.
1671.And fat regorged: Keightley explains, 'and the fat of bulls and goats was regorged by them who had eaten too much.' This, along with the preceding and the following verse, gives a Miltonic sublimity of the disgusting to the passage. But the prefix 're-' is, perhaps, simply intensive, and 'regorged' may mean gorged, or swallowed, voraciously. The construction is, 'And (while they, 'they' being implied in 'their,' above) fat regorged of bulls and goats, . . . Among them he (our living Dread) a spirit of phrenzy sent.'
1674.Silo: Shiloh. Joshua xviii. 1, Judges xxi. 19. 'He probably terms itbright, on account of the Shekinah which was supposed to rest on the ark.'—Keightley.
1688.and thought extinguished quite: this phrase is understood by some as a nominative absolute (the Latin ablative absolute), thought having been quite extinguished; but 'thought' is rather a past participle referring to 'he': thought to be entirely extinguished.
1692.as an evening dragon came: 'he' (Samson) is the subject of'came'; he came among the Philistines as an evening dragon comes on tame farmhouse fowl, but afterward bolted his cloudless thunder on their heads, as an eagle.
1699.that self-begotten bird: the phœnix.
1700.embost: enclosed in a wood.
1702.erewhile: for some time before;holocaust: a whole burnt offering.
1703.teemed: brought forth.
1704.revives: the subject is 'Virtue,' 1697.
1707.A secular bird: a bird living for generations.Lat.sæcula.
1713.sons of Caphtor: the Philistines, 'originally of the island Caphtor or Crete. A colony of them settled in Palestine and there went by the name of Philistim.'—Meadowcourt, in Todd'sVar. Ed.of Milton.
1733.Home to his father's house: see Judges xvi. 31.
1753.band them: unite themselves.
1755.acquist: acquisition.