king who sacrificed all strangers that visited Egypt. Hercules, on his arrival, was bound and led to the altar, but he burst his bonds and slew Busiris. Memphis was on the west bank of the Nile. It contained the palace of the Pharaohs, and the temples of Apis and Serapis. The pyramids are ten miles below the site of Memphis.

chivalry for cavalry.' Cf. Paradise Regained, iii. 344. Cavalleria in Italian has this double sense. Keightley says that Milton took this use of 'chivalry' from the Mort D'Arthur.

1. 320. virtue ;—valour, manhood (virtus).

1. 341. warping;-proceeding in an undulatory manner, but improperly used here. When there is no wind, or a contrary one, the anchor is taken out to some distance, and the ship worked up to it; the operation being repeated till the ship is got out sufficiently. This does not apply to the locusts, which rather 'hull' (Paradise Lost, xi. 840) or undulate with the wind. (Keightley.) To 'warp' is to move, or cause to move, in a curved direction, as when boards warp. With warped keels' is Surrey's translation of 'curvis carinis;' 'warp,' as a noun, is used by our old dramatists for twist.'

1. 345. cope;-cap or dome, the concave' of line 542.

1. 348. the spear... waving;-ablative absolute.

1. 351. The fallen angels when lying on the pool are compared to fallen leaves; when on the wing, to locusts; when alighted on the plain, to the northern barbarian hordes.

1. 353. Rhene is the Latin name (Rhenus) of the Rhine, Donau the German name of the Danube. Spenser uses Rhene (Faery Queene, IV. xi. 21).

1. 355. Beneath;-to the south of, 'infra.' The Vandals passed over from Spain to conquer Africa.

1. 361. Psalm ix. 5.

1. 372. religions;-religious rites, 'religiones et caerimonias.' (Cicero de Leg. i. 15.)

1. 376. Iliad, v. 703.

1. 378. Milton now uses 'Emperor' as 'Soldan' before, for 'supreme commander,' they being the names of the greatest potentates West and East. 1. 382. I Peter v. 8.

1. 387. Keightley says that Milton was led into error by our translation (Psalm 1xxx. 1). The throne is borne by the cherubim (Ezekiel i. 26). Cf Ezekiel xliii. 8; Jeremiah vii. 30; 2 Kings xxi. 5.

1. 390. affront;-confront, face. Cf. Samson Agonistes 531. Shakespeare has the same use in Hamlet, iii. I, and twice in Cymbeline (iv. 3, v. 3). The ordinary sense of the word is at least as old as Piers Plowman.

1. 392. 1 Kings xi. 7; 2 Kings xxii. 13. 'Moloch' has nearly the same meaning as 'Baal,' implying dominion and kingly power. Cf. Nativity Ode 205.

1. 397. Rabbah on the Jabbok, 2 Samuel xii. 27. Milton, relying probably on Judges xi. 13, supposes the whole region between the Arnon, the north boundary of Moab, and the Jabbok by Mount Gilead, which included

the region of Argob and Mount Bashan, to have originally belonged to the Ammonites, and to have been conquered from them by the Amorites from the west of the Jordan. But this is disproved by Jephthah's reply, and everywhere else that region is said to have belonged to the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, while the territory of the children of Ammon lay to the east of it. The poet seems to intimate that even in the time of Solomon the Ammonites dwelt to the Arnon, but this was evidently a slip of his memory. (Keightley.) 1. 403. The hill south of the Mount of Olives, which lay due East of Mount Moriah, on which the Temple stood (1 Kings xi. 7). Milton may have meant the Mount of Olives itself. Cf. lines 416, 443. It is only said (Jeremiah vii. 31) that they built a high place: but as a grove was the usual appendage to the high place, Milton supplies it here. The word rendered grove' is properly 'wooden pillar,' and is connected with the worship of Baalim rather than of Moloch. (Keightley.)

1. 404. In the valley of Hinnom, to the south-east of Jerusalem, was the King's garden. 'Tophet' is derived from a word meaning 'timbrel;' see line 394. Josiah defiled it by burning there the refuse of the city. It is said that the bodies of malefactors were burnt in it also, and that from this use of it the Jews formed from its name the word Gehenna, the place of future punishment.

1. 406. Chemos seems to be confounded with Baal-peor, which latter is identical with Thammuz or Adonis. (Keightley.) But see note on Nativity Ode.

1. 407. Every place here enumerated is to the north of the Arnon, and therefore beyond the borders of Moab, and in the actual territory before assigned to the Ammonites. But Milton follows Isaiah and Jeremiah, who (Isaiah xv. Jeremiah xlviii.) give all these places to the Moabites, who may have seized part of the territory of Reuben and Gad at the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel. Abarim was the mountain range opposite Jericho (Deuteronomy xxxii. 49), now generally called the mountains of Moab, and visible from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Nebo appears to have been a part of it. Heshbon, Eleale, and Sibma all lie somewhat to the east of Mount Abarim. The site of Horonaim is not known. Milton, in these lines, seems to place the Asphaltic Pool, or Dead Sea, to the north of the cities enumerated, though it is actually west or south-west of them. But, like the ancient poets, he consulted the harmony of his numbers more than the accuracy of his description (Keightley.)

1. 413. Sittim, on the plains of Moab (Numbers xxv).

1. 414. to do him rites is a literal translation of the Greek and Latin phrase. 1. 415. orgies;-mysteries. The word was applied to the Eleusinian mysteries, and subsequently to the rites of Bacchus.

1. 419. The whole of the Promised Land is here intended (Genesis xv. 18). 1. 425. Cf. Paradise Lost, viii. 626-629.

1. 438. Jeremiah vii. 18, 1 Kings xi. 5.

1. 444. I Kings iv. 29.

1. 445. I Kings xi. 4.
1. 456. Ezekiel viii. 12.

1. 458. 1 Samuel v. 4.

1. 460. grunsel;-ground sill, threshold.

1. 464. Azotus (or Ashdod) and the rest are the five principal cities of the Philistines. Acccron is Ekron.

1. 466. Genesis x. 19.

1. 467. 2 Kings v. 18.

1. 469. lucid;-used for 'glistening,' as in Paradise Lost, xi. 240. 1. 471. 2 Kings v. 17.

1. 472. 2 Kings xvi. 10-12.

1. 483. Psalm cvi. 19, 20; 1 Kings xii. 28.

1. 488. Exodus xii. 51.

1. 501. 1 Samuel ii. 12.

1. 502. flown; -flowed, overflowed. Spenser frequently uses 'overflown ;' and in Much Ado about Nothing, ii. I, we have great floods have flown from simple sources.' (Keightley.) Other commentators regard the word as equivalent to 'flushed.'

1. 507. were long to tell;—a classic formula, adopted by Ariosto, Spenser, Drayton, &c.

1. 508. Javan's issue were the Ionians. (Genesis x. 2.)

1. 509. Keightley remarks that there is no such person as Titan in Grecian mythology. The twelve Titans were Heaven's first-born, and it was Heaven who was deprived of his power by his son Cronos or Saturn.

1. 516. cold Olympus. Cf. Iliad i. 420: xv. 192. The middle air lay beneath the aether which Homer describes as extending over the abode of the gods. Cf. Iliad, ii. 412; Odyssey, vi. 41-46.

517. Delphian cliff. So called by Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus 463. Cf. Nativity Ode 178. Dodona in Epirus was the seat of an oracle of Zeus. 1. 519. Doric land;-Greece. The Dorians were one of the great Hellenic races, and the ruling class throughout Peloponnesus.

1. 520. Cf. Comus 60. Hesperian fields = Italy; the western land, as the Greek poets called it, because it lay west of Greece. Virgil and Ovid represent Saturn's flight thither as solitary. (Keightley.) Aeneid, i. 530, 569.

1. 521. utmost; farthest. So used in Paradise Lost, ii. 361, xi. 397; King John, ii. I (Austria's first speech).

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1. 528. re-collecting, as in Paradise Lost, ix. 471, and in Pericles, ii. 1. 1. 529. gently;-Keightley believes that gently' is here equivalent to 'gallantly, nobly;' but it is nowhere so used in Milton or Shakespeare. 1. 534. Azazel signifies brave in retreat.'

1. 536. To advance' a standard seems to have been the term for planting it, or carrying it in the van. (Richard III. v. 3; Richard's last speech. Romeo and Juliet, v. 3; Romeo's speech on opening the tomb.) The body of Salisbury is thus 'advanced' in the market-place of Orleans (1 Henry VI. ii. 2).

1. 538. imblaz'd;—blazoned. The trophies probably refer to the armorial bearings displayed upon banners.

1. 546. Orient in Milton's poems has three meanings: (F) rising,' Paradise Lost, iv. 644; (2) ‘eastern,' Paradise Lost, vi. 15, Nativity Ode; (3) 'bright,' as here, and at Comus 65; Paradise Lost, iii. 507, iv. 238.

1. 548. serried;-from French serré, 'pressed close,' locked within one another (Paradise Lost, vi. 599).

1. 550. Milton was here thinking of the advance of the Spartans at Man

tinea (Thucydides, v. 70). The general type of Greek military organization was the close array of the phalanx. The Spartans, of Dorian descent, used the solemn Dorian mode. (Keightley.)

1. 551. recorder;-a kind of flute. The figures of recorders and flutes are straight, but the recorder hath a less bore and a greater, above and below.' (Bacon, Natural History 221.)

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1. 554. unmoved;-immoveable. Cf. L'Allegro 40. Though this variety of tunes doth dispose the spirits to variety of passions conform unto them, yet generally music feedeth that disposition of the spirits which it findeth.' (Bacon, Natural History 114.)

1. 560. Cf. Il Penseroso 3; Iliad, iii. 8.

1. 563. borrid;-bristling (horridus), as in Paradise Lost, ii. 710.

1. 573. since created man ;-Latinism, 'post hominem creatum.' (Keightley.) Cf. Horace, Odes, i. 3. 29.

1. 575. The Pygmies (men of the height of a wʊyun, 13 inches) were a fabulous people, first mentioned by Homer as dwelling on the shores of Ocean, and attacked by the cranes in spring-time. They are variously placed by different writers in India, Ethiopia, or in the extreme north. Aristotle mentions the descent of the cranes from Scythia to the marshes at the sources of the Nile, where they are said to fight with the Pygmies. Cf. line 780, and Ovid, Metamorphoses, vi. 90, for the legendary origin of their enmity.

1. 577. Phlegra was a name given to volcanic plains in Thrace and in Campania, the former mentioned by Pindar as the scene of the contest of the giants with the gods. It was subsequently known as Pallene.

1. 579. Cf. Il Penseroso 99. Gods fought on both sides at Thebes and at Troy.

1. 580. Uther's son ;-Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon.

1 581. Begirt. Cf. Tennyson's Arthur, 'girt with knights.'

Armoric;-of Brittany (Armorica).

1. 582. The allusion is to the romances of Charlemagne. Aspramont is a town of Limburg; Montalban, or Montauban, on the borders of Languedoc ; Trebisond, a city of Cappadocia, all famous in romance for jousting. 'Joust' is from justa, funeral rites, because gladiators were exhibited at those rites: justa munera,' due to the departed.

1. 585. Biserta, a town of Tunis, the ancient Utica. In the Orlando Innamorato, Agramonte conveys his troops from Biserta to Provence for the invasion of France. but they have no share in the battle of Roncesvalles, where fell the peerage of Charlemagne but not himself.' (Keightley.) Cf. Marmion, vi. 33.

1. 588. observ'd;-watched and obeyed. (Georgics, iv. 212.)

1. 591. stood like a tower;-an expression found in Statius, Dante, and Berni.

1. 597. disastrous;-See note on L'Allegro 122. 1. 601. intrencht;—cut into (trancher), furrowed.

Cf. Georgics, i. 464.

1. 603. considerate;-considering; only occurring this once in Milton. So in Richard III. iv. 2, the King says,

None are for me,

That look into me with considerate eyes.'

1. 605. passion;-in the sense of suffering.'

1. 609. amerc't;-punished by fine. This word (bearing a curious resemblance to the Greek ἄμερσε) derived from à merci. Mercy' (either contracted from misericordia, or from Lat. merx) was the sum exacted in commutation for life forfeited by law or in battle. To cry mercy' was to beg for life, to grant mercy' was to spare it. As the forbearance was attributed to courtesy and not to covetousness, the word 'mercy' took the general sense of kindness.

1. 613. scath'd;-harmed, hurt. The Greek dokηons is perhaps from the same root. (Liddell.) Morris (Specimens of Early English) derives it from sceaðan, to steal, spoil, hurt.

1. 619. Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi. 419.

1. 624. Ovid, Metamorphoses, ix. 6.

1. 630. Horace, Odes, iii. 2. 17.

1. 633. Cf. Paradise Lost, ii. 692; v. 710; vi. 156. Revelation xii. 4. 1. 642. Keightley claims to have been the first to point out that these plays upon words are imitations of the Paronomasia of the Scriptural writers. Cf. v. 869, ix. II, xii. 79.

1. 659. Cf. Iliad, i. 140.

1. 660. peace is despair'd;-a Latinism. So despair thy charm' (Macbeth, v. 7).

1. 662. understood here = secret. It is so used in Macbeth, iii. 4. Cf. ii. 187. 1. 664. Cf. Iliad, i. 193. So in Silius Italicus, i. 500:

'Mille simul dextrae densusque micare videtur
Ensis.'

1. 669. In this way the Roman soldiers applauded the harangues of their generals. Cf. Faery Queene, I. iv. 40.

1. 671. Belch'd;—Cf. Aeneid, iii. 576.

entire ;—' omne,' 'totum,' all the rest, Latinism. (Keightley.)

1. 673. womb;-used for interior, as 'fatal cannon's womb' (Romeo and Juliet, v. 1). Virgil says of the wooden horse, inclusos utero Danaos' (Aeneid, ii. 258).

1. 674. Metals were supposed to consist of two essential principles-mercury as the basis or metallic matter, and sulphur as the cement that fixed the fluid mercury into the coherent mass. 'Mercury and sulphur are the principal materials of metals.' (Bacon, Natural History, iv. 354.)

1. 675. Landor remarks that angels are not promoted by comparison with sappers and miners.'

1. 677. The camp' is here put for army,' like σtpatówedov.

1. 679. Cf. Faery Queene, ii. 7. Mammon is Syriac for 'riches.' erected, upright, highminded, as 'erectus' is used by Cicero (Tusc. v. 14).

1. 684. Cf. On Time 18, Paradise Lost, iii. 62.

1. 686. centre ;-i. e. of the earth. So Polonius (Hamlet, ii. 2.) engages to find truth though it were hid within the centre.' So in Leontes' speech (Winter's Tale, ii. 1).

1. 687. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 138.

1. 688. Cf. Horace, Odes, iii. 3. 3, 49.

1. 690. admire ;-wonder (Lat. admiror). Cf. Paradise Lost, ii. 678.

1. 694. Babel here means the temple of Belus in Babylon. It was ascribed to Semiramis, who reigned about 2200 B.C.