Samson Agonistes

'They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy topsUplifting, bore them in their hands.'—P. L., vi. 645.'grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.'—Comus, 429.55.Deva: the river Dee; called a 'wizard stream' from its associations with Druidical divinations and traditions, or Milton, in his use of the epithet, may have had more particularly in his mind the belief in regard to the river as the boundary between England and Wales, that it was itself prophetic. Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' 10th Song, says of the Dee:'A brook, that was supposed much business to have seen,Which had an ancient bound twixt Wales and England been,And noted was by both to be an ominous flood,That changing of his fords, the future ill, or good,Of either country told; of either's war, or peace,The sickness, or the health, the dearth, or the increase:And that of all the floods of Britain, he might boastHis stream in former times to have been honoured most,When as at Chester once King Edgar held his court,To whom eight lesser kings with homage did resort:That mighty Mercian lord, him in his barge bestowed,And was by all those kings about the river rowed.'Aubrey, in his 'Miscellanies,' 1696,Chap.XVII., says, as quoted by Todd, 'F. Q.,' IV. xi. 39, 'when any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear over the water, where the corpse is, a light, by which means they do find the body; and it is therefore called the holy Dee.'58.The Muse herself: Calliope.59.enchanting: refers to the power he exercised, with the lyre given him by Apollo, over wild beasts, trees, rocks, etc.64-69.Alas! what boots it: in these verses Milton, with his high ideal of the function of poetry, laments its low state, and momentarily gives way to the thought that it would be better to conform to theprevailing flimsy taste than to 'strictly meditate the thankless Muse,'i.e.seriously devote one's self to song such as meets with no favor in these days. Amaryllis and Neæra are names of shepherdesses in Virgil's first and third Eclogues, and in other pastorals; 'meditate the thankless Muse' is after Virgil's 'Silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avenâ.'—Ecl., i. 2.75.Fury: used in a general, and not in its special, mythological sense; the allusion is, of course, to Atropos, one of the Fates; called a blind fury by reason of the rashness with which she sometimes slits the thin-spun thread of life, as in the case of his friend King; 'slit' now always means to cut lengthwise; here, to cut across, sever.76.But not the praise: 'slits' is understood, but it doesn't yoke well with 'praise'; the nearest substitute would be 'cuts off': but cuts not off the praise.79.Nor in:i.e.nor (lies) in, not set off in; 'set off' refers, not to 'Fame,' but to 'glistering foil,'i.e.the bright outside exhibited to the world.81.by: as Keightley explains, by means of, under the influence of; he quotes Habakkuk i. 13: 'Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.'85.fountain Arethuse: in the island Ortygia, near Syracuse; by metonymy for the 'Sicilian Muse' (v.133), or the fountain-nymph, Arethusa, presiding over pastoral poetry, which originated in Sicily, and was consummated by Theocritus, a native of Syracuse. Virgil, in the opening of his fourth Eclogue, Pollio, invokes the Sicilian Muses (Sicelides Musæ, paullo majora canamus), and in his tenth Eclogue, Gallus, he invokes the fountain nymph, Arethusa, to aid him in his last pastoral song (Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem);and thou honoured flood, smooth-sliding Mincius: Mantua, Virgil's birth town, or what he regarded as such (he was born in the neighboring village of Andes), is on an island in the river Mincius, a tributary of the Po;honoured flood . . . crowned with vocal reeds:i.e.by reason of its association with Virgil, and his fame as a pastoral poet. Lord Tennyson, in his ode 'To Virgil, written at the request of the Mantuans for the nineteenth centenary of Virgil's death,' speaks of him as a pastoral poet, in the fourth and fifth stanzas:'Poet of the happy Tityruspiping underneath his beechen bowers;Poet of the poet-satyrwhom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;Chanter of the Pollio, gloryingin the blissful years again to be,Summers of the snakeless meadow,unlaborious earth and oarless sea.'88.my oat proceeds: the suspended pastoral strain is resumed.89.Herald of the Sea: Triton, with 'wreathed horn.'90.in Neptune's plea: Neptune's is an objective genitive: in defence, or exculpation of Neptune. This explanation of 'plea' is supported by its use in all other places in Milton's poetry:'So spake the fiend, and with necessity,The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.'—P. L., iv. 394.'to make appear,With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance.'—P. L., x. 30.'Yet of another plea bethought him soon.'—P. R., iii. 149.'Weakness is thy excuse, . . .All wickedness is weakness; that plea thereforeWith God or man will gain thee no remission.'—S. A., 834.Keightley explains that Triton 'came, deputed by Neptune, to hold a judicial inquiry into the affair. We have the Pleas of the Crown and the Court of Common Pleas.'96.Hippotades: a patronymic of Æolus, god of the winds.98.the level brine: in v. 167, 'the watery floor.'99.Sleek Panope: one of the sea-nymphs, daughter of Nereus; the name (in Gk.Πανόπη) seems to indicate that the nymph is a personification of a smooth sea ('level brine') which affords afull viewall around to the horizon. The voyager on such a sea is 'ringed with the azure world.' The epithet 'sleek' is in accord with the personification.100-102.It was that fatal: these verses are not part of the answer which Hippotades brings; the poet speaks in his own person.101.Built in the eclipse: eclipses were believed to shed malign influences (see 'P. L.,' i. 594-599); one of the ingredients of the witches' hell-broth, in 'Macbeth,' is 'slips of yew, slivered in the moon's eclipse';rigged with curses dark: 'with,' of course, though this has been questioned, expresses accompaniment; to understand it as instrumental, makes a crazy hyperbole of the phrase.102.sacred head: King was dedicated to the holy office of the ministry. He is made to represent, in the poem, a pure priesthood.103-107.Next Camus: Dr. Masson's note, and the included quoted one, are the most acceptable of the numerous notes on this passage: 'Camus, the tutelary genius of the Cam, and of Cambridge University, appeared as one of the mourning figures; for had not King been one of the young hopes of the University? The garb given to Camus must doubtless be characteristic, and is perhaps most succinctly explained by a Latin note which appeared in a Greek translation of "Lycidas" by Mr. John Plumptre in 1797. "The mantle," said Mr. Plumptre in this note, "is as if made of the plant 'river-sponge,' which floats copiously in the Cam; thebonnetof the river-sedge, distinguished by vague marks traced somehow over the middle of the leaves, and serrated at the edge of the leaves after the fashion of theἀὶ, ἀὶof the hyacinth." It is said that the flags of the Cam still exhibit, when dried, these dusky streaks in the middle, and apparent scrawlings on the edge; and Milton (in whoseMs."scrawled o'er" was first written for "inwrought") is supposed to have carried away from the "arundifer Camus" ('Eleg.,' i. 11) this exact recollection. He identifies the edge-markings with theἀὶ, ἀὶ(Alas! Alas!) which the Greeks fancied they saw on the leaves of the hyacinth, commemorating the sad fate of the Spartan youth from whose blood that flower had sprung.'107.pledge: child;Lat.pignus amoris.109.The Pilot: St. Peter, whom, it must be understood, Milton presents as 'the type and head oftrueepiscopal power,' to which he was in no wise opposed. He wished the bishop to be a truly spiritualoverseer, as the word signifies.114.Enow: an archaic plural form of 'enough'; 'hellish foes enow.'—P. L., ii. 504; 'evils enow to darken all his goodness.'—Antony and Cleopatra, I. iv. 11.117.to scramble at the shearer's feast: to scramble for and gobble up fat benefices.118.the worthy bidden guest: one who has been truly called to serve the Church.119.Blind mouths: 'mouths' is used, by synecdoche, for gluttons, as the five preceding verses show. Ruskin's explanation of the phrase, in his 'Sesame and Lilies,' is very ingenious, but it is not likely that Milton meant it to have such significance. 'Those two monosyllables,' he says, 'express the precisely accurate contraries of right character in the two great offices of the Church,—those of Bishop and Pastor. A Bishop meansa person who sees. A Pastor means one who feeds. The most unbishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be Blind. The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed,—to be a Mouth. Take the two reverses together, and you have "blind mouths."'Milton makes here his first onset upon the ecclesiastical abuses of the time. He was destined to make, not long after, fiercer onsets in his polemic prose writings.120.the least: connect with 'aught else' rather than 'belongs.'122.What recks it them: what does it concern them;They are sped: they've been successful in obtaining rich livings.123.list: please; in earlier English generally used impersonally with a dative;when they list:i.e.when it suits them, not otherwise. They don't act from any sense of duty.123, 124.their lean and flashy songs grate: their wretched sermons are wretchedly delivered with the emphasis of insincerity. Masson explains 'scrannel,' 'screeching, ear-torturing.'126.wind and the rank mist they draw:i.e.the mere wind of some sermons and the poisonous doctrines of others, which their flocks inhale and drink in, and then impart the resulting spiritual disease to others.128, 129.the grim wolf: generally understood to mean the Church of Rome. Bishop Newton, who first understood the passage to have reference to Archbishop Laud's 'privily introducing popery' afterward gave the alternative explanation, 'besides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion,' which Masson conclusively supports in his 'Life of Milton,' and adopts in his note on the passage in his edition of the 'Poetical Works'; the 'privy paw' doesn't suit Archbishop Laud, who did everything above-board.130, 131.But that two-handed engine: see my explanation of these verses in theIntroductory Remarks.132.Return, Alpheus: he invokes the return of the pastoral Muse when the dread denouncing voice of St. Peter has ceased. Alpheus, the chief river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Arcadia and Elis. The river-god loved the nymph Arethusa, of Elis, whom, in her flight from him, Diana changed into a fountain which was directed by the goddess under the sea to the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. The river followed under sea and united with the fountain. See note onv.85.136.use: frequent.138.whose: refers to 'valleys';the swart star: understood by editorsto mean the dog-star Sirius. But it may mean, and I think it does, the day-star, the sun. Seev.168; 'diurnal star.'—P. L., x. 1069;swart: used causatively;sparely looks:i.e.by reason of the shades.139.quaint enamelled eyes: flowers of curious structure and of variegated glossy colors (?); the words are more enjoyable than distinctly intelligible; in the 'P. L.,' ix. 529, it is said of the serpent:'oft he bowedHis turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, fawning.'Here 'enamelled' appears to mean variegated and glossy; so in Arcades:'O'er the smooth enamelled green.'141.purple: an imperative, to be construed with 'throw.'142.rathe: early, soon; the old positive form of 'rather,' sooner. Tennyson uses the word in his 'In Memoriam,' c. ix. 2, 'The men of rathe and riper years'; and in 'Lancelot and Elaine,' 339, 'Till rathe she rose,' etc.;that forsaken dies: forsaken by the sun.153.with false surmise:i.e.that we have the body of Lycidas with us.158.monstrous world: the world of sea-monsters.159.moist: tearful.160.the fable of Bellerus old:i.e.the scene of the fable.161-163.Where the great Vision: seeIntroductory Remarks.164.O ye dolphins: an allusion to the story of Arion.166.your sorrow: used objectively, he who is the object of your sorrow. 'Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead.'—Shelley's Adonais.167.watery floor: what is called the level brine,v.98; 'the shining levels of the lake.'—Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur, suggested, no doubt, by the classicalæquora.169-171.repairs his drooping head: Milton, in these lines, compares great things with small (parvis componit magna); if they are 'considered curiously,' the sun makes his toilet on rising from his ocean bed!172.sunk . . . mounted: any one reading this verse for the first time would be likely to get the impression that these words are participles; this would not be the case if 'sunk' were 'sank,' originally the distinctive singular form of the preterite, 'sunk' being plural; AS.sanc,suncon.173.Him that walked the waves: a beautiful designation of the Saviour, in accord with the occasion of the poem; and so St. Peter is designated as 'the Pilot of the Galilean Lake.'174.along: beside.176.unexpressive: inexpressible.184.thy large recompense: 'thy' is the personal, not the possessive adjective pronoun, being used objectively,—the large recompense thou hast received, in which is included thy becoming the genius of the shore; good: kind, propitious; 'sent by some spirit to mortals good.'—Il Pens., 154.185.in that perilous flood: 'in' is more poetic than 'on' or 'o'er' would be; 'that perilous flood' is spoken of as a domain in which is included the atmosphere with its winds and storms; so, to wander in the desert.186.uncouth: used, it is most likely, in its original sense of 'unknown,' Milton so regarding himself, as a poet; there may be involved the idea (supported by the opening lines of the Elegy) of wanting in poetic skill and grace.188.tender stops: poetic transference of epithet, 'tender' being logically applicable to the music;various quills: used, by metonymy, for the varied moods, strains, metres, and other features of the Elegy;eager thought: perhaps meant to signify as much as sharp grief;Doric: equivalent to pastoral, the great Greek bucolic poets having written in the Doric dialect.190, 191.had . . . was: note the distinctive use of these auxiliaries, the former being used with a participle of a transitive verb, and the latter, with that of an intransitive;all the hills:i.e.their shadows.192.twitched: Keightley explains, 'pulled, drew tightly about him on account of the chilliness of the evening.' Jerram explains, 'snatched up from where it lay beside him.'Samson AgonistesP.187.Aristotle: Greek philosopher,B.C.384-322; the reference is to 'The Poetics,' (Περὶ ποιητικῆς), the greater part of which is devoted to the theory of tragedy.P.187.a verse of Euripides:φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρήσθ' ὁμιλίαι κακαί, 'evil communications corrupt good manners'; found in the fragments of both Euripides and Menander.P.187.Pareus: David Pareus, a German Calvinist theologian and biblical commentator, 1548-1622.P.187.Dionysius the elder: known as 'the tyrant of Syracuse,'B.C.431-367; repeatedly contended for the prize of tragedy at Athens.P.187.Seneca(Lucius Annæus): Roman Stoic philosopher,B.C.3?-65A.D.P.187.Gregory Nazianzen: saint; a Greek father of the Church, Bishop of Constantinople, about 328-389.P.188.Martial: M. Valerius Martialis, Latin epigrammatic poet, 43-104A.D.or later.P.188.apolelymenon: 'a Greek word,ἀπολελυμένον, "loosed from,"i.e.from the fetters of strophe, antistrophe, or epode; monostrophic (μονόστροφος) meaning literally "single stanzaed,"i.e.a strophe without answering antistrophe. So allœostrophic (ἀλλοιόστροφος) signifies stanzas of irregular strophes, strophes not consisting of alternate strophe and antistrophe.'—John Churton Collins.P.188.beyond the fifth act: 'Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Fabula.'—Horace,Ars Poetica, 189.P.191.Agonistes: one who contends as an athlete. 'The term is peculiarly appropriate to Samson, for he is the hero of the drama . . . and the catastrophe results from the exhibition of his strength in the public games of the Philistines.'—J.Churton Collins.2.dark: blind.6.else: otherwhile, at other times.9.draught: appositive to 'air.'11.day-spring: the dawn.12. With this line Samson's soliloquy begins, the attendant having withdrawn.13.Dagon: god of the Philistines; represented in the 'Paradise Lost' (i. 462, 463) as a 'sea-monster, upward man, and downward fish.' See 1Sam.v. 1-9.16.popular: of the people.19-21. Restless thoughts, that rush thronging upon me found alone.24.Twice by an Angel: see Judges xiii.27.charioting, etc.: withdrawing as in a chariot his godlike presence.28.and from: and (as) from.31.separate: separated, set apart: 'the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.'—Acts xiii. 2.35.under task: under a prescribed task.41.Eyeless, in Gaza, etc.: Thomas De Quincey, in his paper entitled 'Miltonvs.Southey and Landor,' remarks: 'Mr. Landor makes one correction by a simple improvement in the punctuation, which has a very fine effect. . . . Samson says, . . .Ask for this great deliverer now, and find himEyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.Thus it is usually printed, that is, without a comma in the latter line; but, says Landor, 'there ought to be commas aftereyeless, afterGaza, aftermill.' And why? because thus, 'the grief of Samson is aggravated at every member of the sentence.' He (like Milton) was 1, blind; 2, in a city of triumphant enemies; 3, working for daily bread; 4, herding with slaves—Samson literally, and Milton with those whom politically he regarded as such.'45.but through: except for, had it not been for.55.Proudly secure: 'secure' is subjective, free from care or fear; 'Security is mortals' chiefest enemy.'—Macbeth, III. v. 32.56.By weakest subtleties: by those most weak but crafty creatures (women), who are not made to rule, but to serve as subordinates to the rule of wisdom, the prerogative of man. This was, unfortunately, too much Milton's own opinion of women.58.withal: at the same time.62.above my reach: above the reach of my capacity to know.63.Suffices: it is sufficient (to know).67.O loss of sight: Milton here speaks virtuallyin propria persona.70.Light the prime work of God.—Gen.i. 3; 'offspring of Heaven first born.'—P. L., iii. 1.75, 76.exposed to daily fraud: Milton here, no doubt, drew from his own experiences as a father.77.still: ever, always.82.all: any; 'without all doubt.'—Henry VIII., IV. i. 113; without all remedy.'—Macbeth, III. ii. 11.87.silent: invisible; the epithet which pertains to one sense, that of hearing, is transferred to another, that of sight.Lat.luna silens.89.Hid in her vacant interlunar cave: the moon is poetically represented as hid in a cave, and giving no light (vacant), between her disappearance and return, in the sky.91, 92.if it be true that light is in the soul: the soul proceeding from God, and partaking of the 'Bright effluence of bright essence increate.'—P. L., iii. 6.93.She(the soul)all in every part(of the body).95.obvious: literally, in the way of (Lat.obvius), and so, exposed; 'Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired.'—P. L., viii. 504.106.obnoxious: subject, liable.111.steering: directing their course; 'With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering.'—Ode on Nativity, 146.118.at random: anyway or anyhow;carelessly diffused: passively stretched upon the ground, sprawling.'His limbs did restDiffused and motionless.'—Shelley's Alastor.Spenser uses two phrases of similar import; 'Pour'd out in loosnesseon the grassy ground.'—F. Q., I. vii. 7; 'carelessly displaid.'—F. Q., II. v. 32. This use of 'diffused' is a Latinism.'Publica me requies curarum somnus habebat,Fusaque erant toto languida membra toro.'—Ovid,Ex Ponto, III. iii. 7, 8.122.weeds: garments, clothes.128.Who tore the lion: see Judges xiv. 5, 6.132.hammered cuirass: the cuirass was originally of leather; here of metal, formed with the hammer.133.Chalybean-tempered steel: having the temper of steel wrought by the Chalybes, an ancient Asiatic people dwelling south of the Black Sea, and famous as workers in iron; hence,Lat.chalybs, steel, Gr.χάλυψ. Dr. Masson accents 'Chalybean' on the third syllable; it seems rather to have the accent here on the second.134.Adamantean proof: having the strength of adamant.136.insupportably: irresistibly.139.his lion ramp: his leap or spring as of a lion. In the description of the sixth day of the creation (P. L., vii. 463-466) it is said of the lion,'now half appearedThe tawny lion, pawing to get freeHis hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds,And rampant shakes his brinded mane.'144.foreskins: uncircumcised Philistines.145.Ramath-lechi: see Judges xv. 17.147.Azza: Gaza. See Judges xvi. 3. The form Azzah is usedDeut.ii. 23.148.Hebron, seat of giants old: for Hebron was the city of Arba,the father of Anak, and the seat of the Anakims.—Josh.xv. 13, 14. 'And the Anakims were giants, which come of the giants.'—Num.xiii. 33.Newton.149.No journey of a sabbath-day: Hebron was about thirty miles distant from Gaza; a sabbath-day's journey was but three-quarters of a mile.150.Like whom: Atlas.157.complain: directly transitive, in the sense of lament, bewail.163.visual beam: ray of light, the condition of seeing.'the air,No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray.'—P. L., iii. 620.'then [Michael] purged with euphrasy and rueThe visual nerve, for he [Adam] had much to see.'—P. L., xi. 415.165.Since man on earth: a Latinism likePost urbem conditam, of frequent occurrence in Milton's poetry; 'Never since created man.—P. L., i. 573; 'After the Tuscan mariners transformed.'—Comus, 48.169.pitch: usually pertains to height; here to depth.172.the sphere of fortune: a constantly revolving globe.173.But thee: construe with 'him,' third line above: 'For him I reckon not in high estate . . . But thee.'181.Eshtaol and Zora: seeJosh.xix. 41.185.tumours: perturbations, agitations; sotumoris used in Latin: 'Cum tumor animi resedisset;' 'Erat in tumore animus.'190.superscription: a continuation of the metaphor in preceding line.191-193.In prosperous days they swarm: perhaps from Milton's own experience after the Restoration.—Masson.207.mean: moderate, as compared with his physical strength.208.This:i.e.wisdom.209.drove me transverse: a continuation of the metaphor in 198-200. So in 'P. L.,' iii. 488:

'They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy topsUplifting, bore them in their hands.'

'They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,

Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops

Uplifting, bore them in their hands.'

—P. L., vi. 645.

'grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades.'—Comus, 429.

55.Deva: the river Dee; called a 'wizard stream' from its associations with Druidical divinations and traditions, or Milton, in his use of the epithet, may have had more particularly in his mind the belief in regard to the river as the boundary between England and Wales, that it was itself prophetic. Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' 10th Song, says of the Dee:

'A brook, that was supposed much business to have seen,Which had an ancient bound twixt Wales and England been,And noted was by both to be an ominous flood,That changing of his fords, the future ill, or good,Of either country told; of either's war, or peace,The sickness, or the health, the dearth, or the increase:And that of all the floods of Britain, he might boastHis stream in former times to have been honoured most,When as at Chester once King Edgar held his court,To whom eight lesser kings with homage did resort:That mighty Mercian lord, him in his barge bestowed,And was by all those kings about the river rowed.'

'A brook, that was supposed much business to have seen,

Which had an ancient bound twixt Wales and England been,

And noted was by both to be an ominous flood,

That changing of his fords, the future ill, or good,

Of either country told; of either's war, or peace,

The sickness, or the health, the dearth, or the increase:

And that of all the floods of Britain, he might boast

His stream in former times to have been honoured most,

When as at Chester once King Edgar held his court,

To whom eight lesser kings with homage did resort:

That mighty Mercian lord, him in his barge bestowed,

And was by all those kings about the river rowed.'

Aubrey, in his 'Miscellanies,' 1696,Chap.XVII., says, as quoted by Todd, 'F. Q.,' IV. xi. 39, 'when any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear over the water, where the corpse is, a light, by which means they do find the body; and it is therefore called the holy Dee.'

58.The Muse herself: Calliope.

59.enchanting: refers to the power he exercised, with the lyre given him by Apollo, over wild beasts, trees, rocks, etc.

64-69.Alas! what boots it: in these verses Milton, with his high ideal of the function of poetry, laments its low state, and momentarily gives way to the thought that it would be better to conform to theprevailing flimsy taste than to 'strictly meditate the thankless Muse,'i.e.seriously devote one's self to song such as meets with no favor in these days. Amaryllis and Neæra are names of shepherdesses in Virgil's first and third Eclogues, and in other pastorals; 'meditate the thankless Muse' is after Virgil's 'Silvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avenâ.'—Ecl., i. 2.

75.Fury: used in a general, and not in its special, mythological sense; the allusion is, of course, to Atropos, one of the Fates; called a blind fury by reason of the rashness with which she sometimes slits the thin-spun thread of life, as in the case of his friend King; 'slit' now always means to cut lengthwise; here, to cut across, sever.

76.But not the praise: 'slits' is understood, but it doesn't yoke well with 'praise'; the nearest substitute would be 'cuts off': but cuts not off the praise.

79.Nor in:i.e.nor (lies) in, not set off in; 'set off' refers, not to 'Fame,' but to 'glistering foil,'i.e.the bright outside exhibited to the world.

81.by: as Keightley explains, by means of, under the influence of; he quotes Habakkuk i. 13: 'Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.'

85.fountain Arethuse: in the island Ortygia, near Syracuse; by metonymy for the 'Sicilian Muse' (v.133), or the fountain-nymph, Arethusa, presiding over pastoral poetry, which originated in Sicily, and was consummated by Theocritus, a native of Syracuse. Virgil, in the opening of his fourth Eclogue, Pollio, invokes the Sicilian Muses (Sicelides Musæ, paullo majora canamus), and in his tenth Eclogue, Gallus, he invokes the fountain nymph, Arethusa, to aid him in his last pastoral song (Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem);and thou honoured flood, smooth-sliding Mincius: Mantua, Virgil's birth town, or what he regarded as such (he was born in the neighboring village of Andes), is on an island in the river Mincius, a tributary of the Po;honoured flood . . . crowned with vocal reeds:i.e.by reason of its association with Virgil, and his fame as a pastoral poet. Lord Tennyson, in his ode 'To Virgil, written at the request of the Mantuans for the nineteenth centenary of Virgil's death,' speaks of him as a pastoral poet, in the fourth and fifth stanzas:

'Poet of the happy Tityruspiping underneath his beechen bowers;Poet of the poet-satyrwhom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;Chanter of the Pollio, gloryingin the blissful years again to be,Summers of the snakeless meadow,unlaborious earth and oarless sea.'

'Poet of the happy Tityrus

piping underneath his beechen bowers;

Poet of the poet-satyr

whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;

Chanter of the Pollio, glorying

in the blissful years again to be,

Summers of the snakeless meadow,

unlaborious earth and oarless sea.'

88.my oat proceeds: the suspended pastoral strain is resumed.

89.Herald of the Sea: Triton, with 'wreathed horn.'

90.in Neptune's plea: Neptune's is an objective genitive: in defence, or exculpation of Neptune. This explanation of 'plea' is supported by its use in all other places in Milton's poetry:

'So spake the fiend, and with necessity,The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.'

'So spake the fiend, and with necessity,

The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.'

—P. L., iv. 394.

'to make appear,With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance.'—P. L., x. 30.

'to make appear,

With righteous plea, their utmost vigilance.'—P. L., x. 30.

'Yet of another plea bethought him soon.'—P. R., iii. 149.

'Weakness is thy excuse, . . .All wickedness is weakness; that plea thereforeWith God or man will gain thee no remission.'

'Weakness is thy excuse, . . .

All wickedness is weakness; that plea therefore

With God or man will gain thee no remission.'

—S. A., 834.

Keightley explains that Triton 'came, deputed by Neptune, to hold a judicial inquiry into the affair. We have the Pleas of the Crown and the Court of Common Pleas.'

96.Hippotades: a patronymic of Æolus, god of the winds.

98.the level brine: in v. 167, 'the watery floor.'

99.Sleek Panope: one of the sea-nymphs, daughter of Nereus; the name (in Gk.Πανόπη) seems to indicate that the nymph is a personification of a smooth sea ('level brine') which affords afull viewall around to the horizon. The voyager on such a sea is 'ringed with the azure world.' The epithet 'sleek' is in accord with the personification.

100-102.It was that fatal: these verses are not part of the answer which Hippotades brings; the poet speaks in his own person.

101.Built in the eclipse: eclipses were believed to shed malign influences (see 'P. L.,' i. 594-599); one of the ingredients of the witches' hell-broth, in 'Macbeth,' is 'slips of yew, slivered in the moon's eclipse';rigged with curses dark: 'with,' of course, though this has been questioned, expresses accompaniment; to understand it as instrumental, makes a crazy hyperbole of the phrase.

102.sacred head: King was dedicated to the holy office of the ministry. He is made to represent, in the poem, a pure priesthood.

103-107.Next Camus: Dr. Masson's note, and the included quoted one, are the most acceptable of the numerous notes on this passage: 'Camus, the tutelary genius of the Cam, and of Cambridge University, appeared as one of the mourning figures; for had not King been one of the young hopes of the University? The garb given to Camus must doubtless be characteristic, and is perhaps most succinctly explained by a Latin note which appeared in a Greek translation of "Lycidas" by Mr. John Plumptre in 1797. "The mantle," said Mr. Plumptre in this note, "is as if made of the plant 'river-sponge,' which floats copiously in the Cam; thebonnetof the river-sedge, distinguished by vague marks traced somehow over the middle of the leaves, and serrated at the edge of the leaves after the fashion of theἀὶ, ἀὶof the hyacinth." It is said that the flags of the Cam still exhibit, when dried, these dusky streaks in the middle, and apparent scrawlings on the edge; and Milton (in whoseMs."scrawled o'er" was first written for "inwrought") is supposed to have carried away from the "arundifer Camus" ('Eleg.,' i. 11) this exact recollection. He identifies the edge-markings with theἀὶ, ἀὶ(Alas! Alas!) which the Greeks fancied they saw on the leaves of the hyacinth, commemorating the sad fate of the Spartan youth from whose blood that flower had sprung.'

107.pledge: child;Lat.pignus amoris.

109.The Pilot: St. Peter, whom, it must be understood, Milton presents as 'the type and head oftrueepiscopal power,' to which he was in no wise opposed. He wished the bishop to be a truly spiritualoverseer, as the word signifies.

114.Enow: an archaic plural form of 'enough'; 'hellish foes enow.'—P. L., ii. 504; 'evils enow to darken all his goodness.'—Antony and Cleopatra, I. iv. 11.

117.to scramble at the shearer's feast: to scramble for and gobble up fat benefices.

118.the worthy bidden guest: one who has been truly called to serve the Church.

119.Blind mouths: 'mouths' is used, by synecdoche, for gluttons, as the five preceding verses show. Ruskin's explanation of the phrase, in his 'Sesame and Lilies,' is very ingenious, but it is not likely that Milton meant it to have such significance. 'Those two monosyllables,' he says, 'express the precisely accurate contraries of right character in the two great offices of the Church,—those of Bishop and Pastor. A Bishop meansa person who sees. A Pastor means one who feeds. The most unbishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be Blind. The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed,—to be a Mouth. Take the two reverses together, and you have "blind mouths."'

Milton makes here his first onset upon the ecclesiastical abuses of the time. He was destined to make, not long after, fiercer onsets in his polemic prose writings.

120.the least: connect with 'aught else' rather than 'belongs.'

122.What recks it them: what does it concern them;They are sped: they've been successful in obtaining rich livings.

123.list: please; in earlier English generally used impersonally with a dative;when they list:i.e.when it suits them, not otherwise. They don't act from any sense of duty.

123, 124.their lean and flashy songs grate: their wretched sermons are wretchedly delivered with the emphasis of insincerity. Masson explains 'scrannel,' 'screeching, ear-torturing.'

126.wind and the rank mist they draw:i.e.the mere wind of some sermons and the poisonous doctrines of others, which their flocks inhale and drink in, and then impart the resulting spiritual disease to others.

128, 129.the grim wolf: generally understood to mean the Church of Rome. Bishop Newton, who first understood the passage to have reference to Archbishop Laud's 'privily introducing popery' afterward gave the alternative explanation, 'besides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion,' which Masson conclusively supports in his 'Life of Milton,' and adopts in his note on the passage in his edition of the 'Poetical Works'; the 'privy paw' doesn't suit Archbishop Laud, who did everything above-board.

130, 131.But that two-handed engine: see my explanation of these verses in theIntroductory Remarks.

132.Return, Alpheus: he invokes the return of the pastoral Muse when the dread denouncing voice of St. Peter has ceased. Alpheus, the chief river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Arcadia and Elis. The river-god loved the nymph Arethusa, of Elis, whom, in her flight from him, Diana changed into a fountain which was directed by the goddess under the sea to the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. The river followed under sea and united with the fountain. See note onv.85.

136.use: frequent.

138.whose: refers to 'valleys';the swart star: understood by editorsto mean the dog-star Sirius. But it may mean, and I think it does, the day-star, the sun. Seev.168; 'diurnal star.'—P. L., x. 1069;swart: used causatively;sparely looks:i.e.by reason of the shades.

139.quaint enamelled eyes: flowers of curious structure and of variegated glossy colors (?); the words are more enjoyable than distinctly intelligible; in the 'P. L.,' ix. 529, it is said of the serpent:

'oft he bowedHis turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, fawning.'

'oft he bowed

His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, fawning.'

Here 'enamelled' appears to mean variegated and glossy; so in Arcades:

'O'er the smooth enamelled green.'

141.purple: an imperative, to be construed with 'throw.'

142.rathe: early, soon; the old positive form of 'rather,' sooner. Tennyson uses the word in his 'In Memoriam,' c. ix. 2, 'The men of rathe and riper years'; and in 'Lancelot and Elaine,' 339, 'Till rathe she rose,' etc.;that forsaken dies: forsaken by the sun.

153.with false surmise:i.e.that we have the body of Lycidas with us.

158.monstrous world: the world of sea-monsters.

159.moist: tearful.

160.the fable of Bellerus old:i.e.the scene of the fable.

161-163.Where the great Vision: seeIntroductory Remarks.

164.O ye dolphins: an allusion to the story of Arion.

166.your sorrow: used objectively, he who is the object of your sorrow. 'Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead.'—Shelley's Adonais.

167.watery floor: what is called the level brine,v.98; 'the shining levels of the lake.'—Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur, suggested, no doubt, by the classicalæquora.

169-171.repairs his drooping head: Milton, in these lines, compares great things with small (parvis componit magna); if they are 'considered curiously,' the sun makes his toilet on rising from his ocean bed!

172.sunk . . . mounted: any one reading this verse for the first time would be likely to get the impression that these words are participles; this would not be the case if 'sunk' were 'sank,' originally the distinctive singular form of the preterite, 'sunk' being plural; AS.sanc,suncon.

173.Him that walked the waves: a beautiful designation of the Saviour, in accord with the occasion of the poem; and so St. Peter is designated as 'the Pilot of the Galilean Lake.'

174.along: beside.

176.unexpressive: inexpressible.

184.thy large recompense: 'thy' is the personal, not the possessive adjective pronoun, being used objectively,—the large recompense thou hast received, in which is included thy becoming the genius of the shore; good: kind, propitious; 'sent by some spirit to mortals good.'—Il Pens., 154.

185.in that perilous flood: 'in' is more poetic than 'on' or 'o'er' would be; 'that perilous flood' is spoken of as a domain in which is included the atmosphere with its winds and storms; so, to wander in the desert.

186.uncouth: used, it is most likely, in its original sense of 'unknown,' Milton so regarding himself, as a poet; there may be involved the idea (supported by the opening lines of the Elegy) of wanting in poetic skill and grace.

188.tender stops: poetic transference of epithet, 'tender' being logically applicable to the music;various quills: used, by metonymy, for the varied moods, strains, metres, and other features of the Elegy;eager thought: perhaps meant to signify as much as sharp grief;Doric: equivalent to pastoral, the great Greek bucolic poets having written in the Doric dialect.

190, 191.had . . . was: note the distinctive use of these auxiliaries, the former being used with a participle of a transitive verb, and the latter, with that of an intransitive;all the hills:i.e.their shadows.

192.twitched: Keightley explains, 'pulled, drew tightly about him on account of the chilliness of the evening.' Jerram explains, 'snatched up from where it lay beside him.'

P.187.Aristotle: Greek philosopher,B.C.384-322; the reference is to 'The Poetics,' (Περὶ ποιητικῆς), the greater part of which is devoted to the theory of tragedy.

P.187.a verse of Euripides:φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρήσθ' ὁμιλίαι κακαί, 'evil communications corrupt good manners'; found in the fragments of both Euripides and Menander.

P.187.Pareus: David Pareus, a German Calvinist theologian and biblical commentator, 1548-1622.

P.187.Dionysius the elder: known as 'the tyrant of Syracuse,'B.C.431-367; repeatedly contended for the prize of tragedy at Athens.

P.187.Seneca(Lucius Annæus): Roman Stoic philosopher,B.C.3?-65A.D.

P.187.Gregory Nazianzen: saint; a Greek father of the Church, Bishop of Constantinople, about 328-389.

P.188.Martial: M. Valerius Martialis, Latin epigrammatic poet, 43-104A.D.or later.

P.188.apolelymenon: 'a Greek word,ἀπολελυμένον, "loosed from,"i.e.from the fetters of strophe, antistrophe, or epode; monostrophic (μονόστροφος) meaning literally "single stanzaed,"i.e.a strophe without answering antistrophe. So allœostrophic (ἀλλοιόστροφος) signifies stanzas of irregular strophes, strophes not consisting of alternate strophe and antistrophe.'—John Churton Collins.

P.188.beyond the fifth act: 'Neve minor, neu sit quinto productior actu Fabula.'—Horace,Ars Poetica, 189.

P.191.Agonistes: one who contends as an athlete. 'The term is peculiarly appropriate to Samson, for he is the hero of the drama . . . and the catastrophe results from the exhibition of his strength in the public games of the Philistines.'—J.Churton Collins.

2.dark: blind.

6.else: otherwhile, at other times.

9.draught: appositive to 'air.'

11.day-spring: the dawn.

12. With this line Samson's soliloquy begins, the attendant having withdrawn.

13.Dagon: god of the Philistines; represented in the 'Paradise Lost' (i. 462, 463) as a 'sea-monster, upward man, and downward fish.' See 1Sam.v. 1-9.

16.popular: of the people.

19-21. Restless thoughts, that rush thronging upon me found alone.

24.Twice by an Angel: see Judges xiii.

27.charioting, etc.: withdrawing as in a chariot his godlike presence.

28.and from: and (as) from.

31.separate: separated, set apart: 'the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.'—Acts xiii. 2.

35.under task: under a prescribed task.

41.Eyeless, in Gaza, etc.: Thomas De Quincey, in his paper entitled 'Miltonvs.Southey and Landor,' remarks: 'Mr. Landor makes one correction by a simple improvement in the punctuation, which has a very fine effect. . . . Samson says, . . .

Ask for this great deliverer now, and find himEyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.

Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him

Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.

Thus it is usually printed, that is, without a comma in the latter line; but, says Landor, 'there ought to be commas aftereyeless, afterGaza, aftermill.' And why? because thus, 'the grief of Samson is aggravated at every member of the sentence.' He (like Milton) was 1, blind; 2, in a city of triumphant enemies; 3, working for daily bread; 4, herding with slaves—Samson literally, and Milton with those whom politically he regarded as such.'

45.but through: except for, had it not been for.

55.Proudly secure: 'secure' is subjective, free from care or fear; 'Security is mortals' chiefest enemy.'—Macbeth, III. v. 32.

56.By weakest subtleties: by those most weak but crafty creatures (women), who are not made to rule, but to serve as subordinates to the rule of wisdom, the prerogative of man. This was, unfortunately, too much Milton's own opinion of women.

58.withal: at the same time.

62.above my reach: above the reach of my capacity to know.

63.Suffices: it is sufficient (to know).

67.O loss of sight: Milton here speaks virtuallyin propria persona.

70.Light the prime work of God.—Gen.i. 3; 'offspring of Heaven first born.'—P. L., iii. 1.

75, 76.exposed to daily fraud: Milton here, no doubt, drew from his own experiences as a father.

77.still: ever, always.

82.all: any; 'without all doubt.'—Henry VIII., IV. i. 113; without all remedy.'—Macbeth, III. ii. 11.

87.silent: invisible; the epithet which pertains to one sense, that of hearing, is transferred to another, that of sight.Lat.luna silens.

89.Hid in her vacant interlunar cave: the moon is poetically represented as hid in a cave, and giving no light (vacant), between her disappearance and return, in the sky.

91, 92.if it be true that light is in the soul: the soul proceeding from God, and partaking of the 'Bright effluence of bright essence increate.'—P. L., iii. 6.

93.She(the soul)all in every part(of the body).

95.obvious: literally, in the way of (Lat.obvius), and so, exposed; 'Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired.'—P. L., viii. 504.

106.obnoxious: subject, liable.

111.steering: directing their course; 'With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering.'—Ode on Nativity, 146.

118.at random: anyway or anyhow;carelessly diffused: passively stretched upon the ground, sprawling.

'His limbs did restDiffused and motionless.'

'His limbs did rest

Diffused and motionless.'

—Shelley's Alastor.

Spenser uses two phrases of similar import; 'Pour'd out in loosnesseon the grassy ground.'—F. Q., I. vii. 7; 'carelessly displaid.'—F. Q., II. v. 32. This use of 'diffused' is a Latinism.

'Publica me requies curarum somnus habebat,Fusaque erant toto languida membra toro.'

'Publica me requies curarum somnus habebat,

Fusaque erant toto languida membra toro.'

—Ovid,Ex Ponto, III. iii. 7, 8.

122.weeds: garments, clothes.

128.Who tore the lion: see Judges xiv. 5, 6.

132.hammered cuirass: the cuirass was originally of leather; here of metal, formed with the hammer.

133.Chalybean-tempered steel: having the temper of steel wrought by the Chalybes, an ancient Asiatic people dwelling south of the Black Sea, and famous as workers in iron; hence,Lat.chalybs, steel, Gr.χάλυψ. Dr. Masson accents 'Chalybean' on the third syllable; it seems rather to have the accent here on the second.

134.Adamantean proof: having the strength of adamant.

136.insupportably: irresistibly.

139.his lion ramp: his leap or spring as of a lion. In the description of the sixth day of the creation (P. L., vii. 463-466) it is said of the lion,

'now half appearedThe tawny lion, pawing to get freeHis hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds,And rampant shakes his brinded mane.'

'now half appeared

The tawny lion, pawing to get free

His hinder parts, then springs, as broke from bonds,

And rampant shakes his brinded mane.'

144.foreskins: uncircumcised Philistines.

145.Ramath-lechi: see Judges xv. 17.

147.Azza: Gaza. See Judges xvi. 3. The form Azzah is usedDeut.ii. 23.

148.Hebron, seat of giants old: for Hebron was the city of Arba,the father of Anak, and the seat of the Anakims.—Josh.xv. 13, 14. 'And the Anakims were giants, which come of the giants.'—Num.xiii. 33.Newton.

149.No journey of a sabbath-day: Hebron was about thirty miles distant from Gaza; a sabbath-day's journey was but three-quarters of a mile.

150.Like whom: Atlas.

157.complain: directly transitive, in the sense of lament, bewail.

163.visual beam: ray of light, the condition of seeing.

'the air,No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray.'

'the air,

No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray.'

—P. L., iii. 620.

'then [Michael] purged with euphrasy and rueThe visual nerve, for he [Adam] had much to see.'

'then [Michael] purged with euphrasy and rue

The visual nerve, for he [Adam] had much to see.'

—P. L., xi. 415.

165.Since man on earth: a Latinism likePost urbem conditam, of frequent occurrence in Milton's poetry; 'Never since created man.—P. L., i. 573; 'After the Tuscan mariners transformed.'—Comus, 48.

169.pitch: usually pertains to height; here to depth.

172.the sphere of fortune: a constantly revolving globe.

173.But thee: construe with 'him,' third line above: 'For him I reckon not in high estate . . . But thee.'

181.Eshtaol and Zora: seeJosh.xix. 41.

185.tumours: perturbations, agitations; sotumoris used in Latin: 'Cum tumor animi resedisset;' 'Erat in tumore animus.'

190.superscription: a continuation of the metaphor in preceding line.

191-193.In prosperous days they swarm: perhaps from Milton's own experience after the Restoration.—Masson.

207.mean: moderate, as compared with his physical strength.

208.This:i.e.wisdom.

209.drove me transverse: a continuation of the metaphor in 198-200. So in 'P. L.,' iii. 488:

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