1. 1090, watering the ground;-cf. Aeneid, xi. 191.

1. 1091. frequenting;-making the air frequent (i. e. full) with sighs. Cf. i. 797, note.

Book XI.

1. 1. lowliest;-very lowly, a similar use of the superlative to that in x. 859.

stood;-implying the continuance of the act of prayer. Cf. ii. 55. The expression is referred to Mark xi. 25; Luke xviii. 13.

1. 3. Prevenient;-forestalling. Cf. Nativity Ode 24, note.

1. 4. Ezek. xi. 19.

1. 5. Rom. viii. 26.

1. 14. Tasso (Gierusalemme Liberata, xiii. 72) relates that the prayer of Godfrey flew to heaven, prompt and light as winged angels.'

1. 15. Requests not granted by the gods were said to be dispersed by the winds. Cf. Aeneid, xi. 795, and Ovid, Metamorphoses, x. 642.

1.18. Psalm cxli. 2; Rev. viii. 3, 4.

1. 31. This line

an echo of the prayer in the Liturgy to Him who

despiseth not the sighing of a contrite heart.'

1. 33. I John ii. I, 2.

1. 38. Gen. viii. 21.

1. 44. John xvii. 21, 22.

1. 52. Levit. xviii. 25.

1. 56. Cf. iv. 153.

1. 72. So Zeus summons his council of gods, Iliad, xx. 4.

1. 74. perhaps ;-not referring to the events, but to the identity of the trumpet.

1. 79. Rev. xxii. I.

1. 80. fellowships;—the 'sweet societies' of Lycidas 179.

1. 82. Bentley's objection to the angels being seated round the throne of God has been answered by the commentators with a reference to Rom. iv. 4. xi. 16, and Matt. xix. 28.

1. 86. defended;-forbidden (défendu), so used by Chaucer and Spenser, but never by Shakespeare.

1. 128. Ezek. x. 12, 14. Dante compares the eyes in the wings of cherubim to those of Argus, whose story is narrated by Óvid (Metamorphoses, i. 625).

1. 135. Leucothea ;-Ino, daughter of Cadmus. The Romans identified her with Mater Matuta, goddess of Dawn, as Cicero remarks (Tusc. Quaest. i. 12, De Nat. Deor. iii. 19). Milton gives the office of Matuta to Leucothea. 1. 157. I Sam. xv. 32.

1. 159. Adam had called his wife Ishah (woman) because she was taken out of Ish (man). Cf. viii. 496. He now calls her Eve, or Havah (from the Hebrew word meaning to live'). Milton had called her Eve before by way of anticipation. (Newton.)

1. 182. subscrib'd;-assented. Shakespeare has thus used the word in I Henry VI, ii. 4 (Somerset's third speech), 2 Henry VI, iii. 1 (Margaret's first speech). In Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3, Agamemnon uses 'underwrite,' and Ajax subscribe,' in this sense.

1. 185. stoopt;-participle. 'Stooping is when a hawk, being upon her wings at the height of her pitch, bendeth violently down to strike the fowl, or any other prey.' tour may be either the French tour, the wheel of a bird in flight, or the tour of the lark in L'Allegro 43.

1. 186. The number two is an omen to the human pair, as the twelve swans denoted the twelve Trojan ships that had escaped the tempest (Aeneid, i. 393).

1. 205. The descent of Michael as a deus ex machinâ, is referred by Todd to the similar effects in the masks of Milton's earlier days, and a stage direction from Carew's Masque (1633) is quoted to support this view.

Il. 213-220. Gen. xxxii. 1, 2; 2 Kings vi. 13.

1. 215. pavilion'd;—the meaning of Mahanaim is 'hosts' or 'camps.' Shakespeare uses 'pavilion'd' for tented in Henry V, i. 2.

6

1. 230. In Ecclus. xix. 20, it is said that a man's gait shews what he is.' Much stress is laid upon this point by Milton; cf. iv. 870, ix. 389. So also Virgil (Aeneid, i. 405) and Shakespeare (King Lear, v. 3):

6

Methought thy very gait did prophesy

A royal nobleness.'

1. 233. invests;--cf. Psalm xciii. I.

1. 242. Melibaea was a city of Thessaly, famous for a fish there caught, and used in dyeing the finest purple.

1. 243. Sarra;-a name of Tyre, from Sar, a fish caught there. Cf. Georgics, ii. 506, and note on Il Penseroso 33.

1. 244. Cf. Comus 83. woof=what is woven.

1. 246. Iliad, xxiv. 347, 348.

1. 250. Inclin'd;-bowed. So in Spenser the Red Cross Knight himself inclining,' speaks to Guyon (Faery Queene, II. i. 28).

1. 261. The exact delivery by the angel of the words of the divine decree (line 97) has Homeric precedent. The words of Jupiter are repeated by the Dream to Agamemnon, and by Agamemnon to the council. (Iliad, ii. 11, 28, 60.)

1. 264. gripe of sorrow;—so in the song quoted in Romeo and Juliet (iv. 5), from the Paradise of Dainty Devices:

'When griping grief the heart doth wound.'

1. 267. retire;-used as a substantive by Spenser (Faery Queene, VI. ix. 27), and Shakespeare (King John, ii. 2; Cymbeline, v. 3), in both senses of retreat.' It is found in Comus 376 (Various Readings).

1. 269. This farewell has been compared with that of Philoctetes to his cave. (Sophocles, Philoctetes 1453, &c.)

1. 270. native soil;-of Eve: though not of Adam, who was brought thither. Cf. vii. 537.

1. 280. A hint taken from the lament of Alcestis (Euripides, Alcestis 249). 1. 310. To weary him;—an Horatian phrase (Odes, i. 2. 26), but with an allusion to Luke xviii. 5-7.

1. 316. Gen. iv. 14.

1. 323. Referring to the altars erected by the patriarchs in memory of God's appearing to them. (Gen. xii. 7, xiii. 4, xxxv. 3.)

1. 332. Exod. xxxiii. 22, 23.

1. 336. Jer. xxiii. 24. Cf. Bk. vii, 168.

1. 352. Psalm v. 12 (Bible Version).

1. 357. Dan. x. 14.

1. 359. Gen. vi. 3.

1. 374. Aeneid, v. 710.

1. 377. Ezek. viii. 3, xl. 2. As Milton represents the earth as globular, what follows is physically impossible. It might have been more judicious to have represented the whole as in vision. (Keightley.)

1. 389. Temir;-Tymûr Lung, commonly called Tamerlane. His first seat of dominion was Samarcand, which is in the region between the Oxus and Jaxartes, but not near either river. (Keightley.)

1. 390. Paquin ;-Pekin. The Sina (mentioned by Ptolemy) are the Chinese.

1. 392. The golden Chersonese ;—Malacca and the Birman empire.

1. 395. Bizance;-Byzantium. The Turks came from Turkistan, a province of Tartary.

1. 396. Cf. i. 335 for a similar use of a double negative for affirmation. 1. 397. Negus;-the King of Abyssinia, who was called by Europeans Prester John. Negus' in Ethiopic signifies 'king,' and is therefore a title, like Pharaoh, Sultan, Shah, &c. (Keightley.)

1. 398. Ercoco;-Erquico or Harkiko on the Red Sea, the north-east boundary of the Abyssinian empire.

the less maritime kings;-i.e. the lesser kingdoms on the sea-coast. 1. 399. These places, on the east side of Africa, first became known to Europe by the voyage of Vasco di Gama, and the poetry of Camoens has given them lasting celebrity. Mombaza and Melinda lie not far from each other, on the coast of Zanguebar. Quiloa is a good way to the south of them, and Sofala still further south, in Monamatapa. Milton accentuates the last two names wrongly. Quiloa (Kilwa) is a dissyllable, and Sofála is the accentuation of Camoens. Purchas and others thought Sofala to be Ophir, from the resemblance of the names, and because gold was obtained at Sofala. But the real Ophir seems to be Ofir, on the coast of Oman, in Arabia. (Keightley.)

1. 401. From this one might suppose Congo and Angola to be south of Sofala; but they are really on the west coast, and parallel with Zanguebar. (Keightley.)

1. 403. Almansor was one of the Almobade sovereigns, whose dominions extended over the north-west and a great part of the north coast of Africa. Morocco and Fez are on the Atlantic; Algiers, Susa, and Tremisen on the Mediterranean coast. Here again the language of Milton would lead us to suppose that all these places lay between the Niger and Mount Atlas, whereas they are north of this range. Tremisen is named from its capital, which lay inland to the south of Algiers. (Keightley.)

1. 410. Sir Walter Raleigh's last voyage was to Guiana, for the discovery of a gold-mine which he asserted to be there. Wonderful traditions had been current of a golden city, El Dorado, in the interior.

Geryon's sons;-Spaniards; the fabled monster Geryon was king of Spain. 1. 411. Iliad, v. 127; Aeneid, ii. 604. Tasso follows these precedents, making Michael remove the film from the eyes of Godfrey (Gierusalemme Liberata, xviii. 93), that he may see the angelic hosts that have come to his aid.

1. 414. eupbrasy;-the eye-bright, so named from its supposed effect upon the sight. Rue is 'herb of grace' (Richard II, iii. 4; Hamlet, iv. 5). Both plants are affirmed by the old herbalists to have the virtue of purging the eyes. 1. 416. Psalm xxxvi. 9.

1. 420. Cf. viii. 453; Dan. x. 8.

1. 430. tilth;-tillage.

1. 433. sord;-sward; an older form, which occurs also in the folio Shakespeare (1623), in Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

1. 447. Aeneid, x. 908.

1. 457. Gen. iv. 7.

1. 458. Heb. xi. 4.

1. 467. Cf. Seneca, Phoenissae, i. 131:

'Ubique mors est

mille ad hanc aditus patent.'

1. 479. lazar-house-hospital. Persons with boils or ulcers were called lazars (from Lazarus). (Keightley.) The word was usually synonymous with leper.

1. 482. all feverish kinds; -the febrium cohors' of Horace (Odes i. 3. 30).

11. 485-487. Not in the first edition.

1. 485. Two kinds of madness, possession and melancholy, are here discriminated from lunacy, so called from the supposed effect of the moon's changes on those afflicted with it. (Keightley.)

1. 486. atrophy;-a disease preventing the body from deriving due nourishment from food.

1. 487. Marasmus ;-a wasting fever and consumption.

1. 489. In the draught of a tragedy on the subject of this poem, we read that Adam is shewn a mask of all the evils of this life and world.'

1. 496. In this and the next line are two phrases, 'not of woman born,' and best of man,' which sound like echoes from the last scene of Macbeth. 1. 502. A Sophoclean sentiment. (Oedipus Coloneus 1225, &c.) 1. 517. Titus iii. 3. Appetite is personified also at ix. 1129.

1. 535. Cf. Made ripe for death by eld' (Faery Queene, II. x. 32), and Antonio's observation (Merchant of Venice, iv. 1),

'The weakest kind of fruit

Falls earliest to the ground.'

1. 537. Cf. Cicero, De Senectute xix: Et quasi poma ex arboribus, cruda si sint, vi avelluntur; si matura et cocta, decidunt; sic vitam adolescentibus vis aufert, senibus maturitas.'

1. 544. damp of cold and dry. Burton gives as the first cause of melancholy, which is natural to all, and which no man living can avoid, old age, which being cold and dry, and of the same quality as melancholy is, must needs cause it by diminution of spirits and substance, and increasing of adust humours.'

1. 550. Job xiv. 14.

1. 551. attend ;-wait for (Fr. attendre). In the first edition the passage stood:

'Of rendering up. Michael to him replied.'

1. 553. Cf. Martial, x:

'Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes.'

1. 554. Cf. 'Permitte Divis' of Horace (Odes, i. 9. 9, &c).

1. 563. resonant;-sounding over again. Professor Taylor's opinion of this passage was that its pregnant meaning can be fully appreciated only by a musician. 'All other poets but Milton and Shakespeare make blunders about music; they never.' Cf. note on i. 708.

1. 573. This account of the descendants of Seth is taken from the oriental writers, and particularly from the Annals of Eutychius. (Newton.) Keightley observes that Milton has, at different times, adopted each of the three hypotheses as to the sons of God' in Gen. vi. 2. (Cf. v. 447, xi. 622, and Paradise Regained, ii. 179.)

1. 579. Deut. xxix. 29.

1. 582. bevy;-company (from the Ital. beva, a covey of partridges). The word, according to the old commentator on Spenser, was used properly of larks. Of quails' (Keightley).

1. 607. tents of wickedness;-expression from Psalm lxxxiv. 10.

1. 620. troll;-used here improperly. The tongue is not trolled, but the words are trolled (rolled) over or off it.

1. 624. trains; cf. Comus 151 (note).

1.625. swim in joy;-a phrase frequently occurring in our old poets. Cf. ix. 1009, and Faery Queene, I. xii. 41; II. iii. 39.

1.627. Cf. ix. 11 for a similar repetition.

1. 632. Man's woe. Todd points out this 'ungallant jingle,' and quotes contemporary writers to shew that this derivation of woman is not Milton's invention.

1. 642. emprise ;-enterprise.

I. xii. 18.

Cf. Comus 610, and Faery Queene,

1. 660. Newton compares the various parts of this vision with the scenes

on the shield of Achilles. (Iliad, xviii. 478, &c.)

1. 661. Gen. xxxiv. 20; Deut. xvi. 18, xxi. 19; Zech. viii. 16.

1. 665. middle age;-365 years old, a middle age then.

1. 669. Cf. x. 546.

1. 672. Cf. Richard III. v. 3:

'Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law!'

1. 694. Keightley understands the passage thus: These things being done for glory, it shall be held the highest pitch of triumph to be styled, &c. So also Mitford.

1. 696. Cf. Paradise Regained, iii. 81-87.

1. 700. Jude 14.

1. 701. Gen. v. 24; Heb. xi. 5.

1. 723. I Pet. iii. 19, 20. The following particulars are from Josephus. (Antiq. Jud. i. iv.)

1. 732. large;-for largely, the common Latinism of adjective for adverb. (Georgics, iii. 28.)

1. 738. Iliad, xvi. 384; Georgics, i. 322; Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 264. 1. 743. cieling or ceiling (Lat. caelum, Ital. cielo, Fr. ciel). It is variously spelt: syll,' sile,' and 'siel,' are found in our old translations of the Bible. Cotgrave denies that 'ciel' is the same word in its two significations of 'heaven' and 'a roof,' because the plural in the former case is cieux' and in the latter' ciels.'