1. 683. bighth of noon;-cf. Wolsey's full meridian of my glory' (Henry VIII. iii. 2).

1. 693. Cf. Iliad, i. 4.

1. 695. Alluding probably to the proceedings against Sir Harry Vane. 1. 700. crude;-premature, not in its proper season. But Virgil uses 'cruda senectus,' in the opposite sense of hale, vigorous age.

1. 701. In this and the next line the commentators suppose there is an allusion to Milton's gout.

1. 714. Milton, in scorn of the clergy (Of Reformation, ii), pictures them 'under sail, in all their lawn and sarcenet, their shrouds and tackle.'

1. 715. Tarsus;-Tarshish, which word Milton avoided from his dislike to the sound of sh. He seems to have agreed with those who thought that Tarshish was Tarsus in Cilicia, not Tartessus in Spain. (Keightley.) 1. 716. Javan ;-the 'isles of Javan,' Greece. Lost, i. 508.

Gadire ;-i. e. Gades, Cadiz.

=

Cf. note on Paradise

1. 719. Cf. Gratiano's speech in Merchant of Venice, iv. 6.

1. 720. amber;-i.e. ambergris; amber is scentless. (Keightley.)

1. 728. Like a fair flower;-transplanted hither from Iliad, viii. 306.

1. 748. Many strange matters are related of this beast [the hyæna], and above all other, that he will feign man's speech, and coming to the shepherds' cottages, will call one of them forth whose name he hath learned, and when he hath him without, all to worry and tear him to pieces.' (Holland's translation of Pliny.)

1. 762. Cf. Milton's reflection (Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce) on 'two persons ill embarkt in wedlock.' 'What folly is it to stand combating and 'battering against invincible causes and effects, with evil upon evil, till either the best of our days be lingered out, or ended with some speeding sorrow!' 1. 785. parle;—parley. Cf. the angry parle' in Hamlet, i. 1. It has here the sense of agreement,' 'reconciliation,' as in Paradise Regained, iv. 529. 1. 808. Mine and love's prisoner ;—cf. Juliet's speech (Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2). 'Tis almost morning, I would have thee gone,' &c.

1. 840. The same construction occurs in Paradise Lost, ix. 792.

1. 842. Or. Keightley suspects that Milton dictated 'And." Cf. Paradise Lost, ix. 1059.

1. 897. acquit themselves. Acquit' is derived by Menage from the barbarous Latin adquietare, to give quiet to one accused or in debt So 'to acquit' oneself would mean to clear oneself of accusation, or perform any bounden duty, or needful task. Cf. 1. 1709.

1. 901. Contrast Othello's 'round unvarnished tale' (i. 3).

1. 910. Cf. Heb. xii. 17.

1. 936. Cf. Psalm lviii. 4, 5.

1. 953. Cf. Sir Giles Overreach's exclamation,

'O that I had thee in my gripe! I'd tear thee

Joint after joint!' (New Way to pay Old Debts, v. 1.) Polymestor expresses a similar wish with regard to Hecuba. (Euripides, Hecuba, 1125.)

1. 973. Milton stands alone in making Fame masculine. His Fame is probably Shakespeare's Rumour. (Keightley.)

1. 982. A similar perpetuity of fame is promised by Iolaus to Macaria, in the Heraclidae of Euripides (598).

995. So Teucer (Sophocles, Ajax 1038) bids his opponents love their opinions, as he will his own.

1. 1003. Exemplified in Paradise Lost, x. 940, &c.

1. 1008. Cf. Amantium irae, amoris integratio est' (Terence, Andria, iii. 3. 23).

1. 1020, paranymph;—the friend of the bridegroom, who went with him on the wedding-day to fetch the bride home. Jeremy Taylor uses the word of one that solicits the suit, and makes the contract, and joins the hands.' 1. 1037. Intestine. Keightley refers to 2 Cor. xii. 7.

1. 1039. A cleaving mischief;-like the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by Deianira. Dryden applies the same phrase with the same allusion in his Aurengzebe.

1. 1075. fraught;-freight, as fraught (Titus Andronicus, i. 2). 1. 1079. In 2 Sam. xxi. we read Harapha be a proper name, or mean uncertain. (Keightley.)

the bark that hath discharged her Cf. Comus 355.

of the

sons of Harapha,' but whether giant' (as translated in our version) is

1. 1080. Anak, and the Emims;-cf. Deut. iii. 11, ii. 10, II; Gen. xiv. 5. 1. 1081. Cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 830.

1. 1093. Gyves;-handcuffs, not chains. Gyves and cuffs are different forms of the same word. (Keightley.) But Falstaff's description of his recruits seems to shew that gyves' were used to fetter the legs (1 Henry IV. iv. 2). Richardson derives the word from A. S. gefeterian, to fetter. Latham notices the Welsh gefyn, a fetter.

1. 1109. assassinated. The word was formerly used, as in French and Italian, to denote an assault with murderous intent, even if the intent were not accomplished, and its meaning is here extended to maltreatment in general. (Trench.)

1. 1120. brigandine;-a coat of mail (Jer. xlvi. 4). babergeon;-mail for the neck and shoulders.

from hals,' the neck, and bergen' to cover.

Nares derives the word

1. 1121. vant brace;-(avant bras) armour for the arms.

greves; for the legs (1 Sam. xvii. 6). Richardson derives the word from A. S. grafan, to hollow out, i. e. grooves for the legs; Latham from Norm. Fr. grève, shin.

1. 1122. Ajax in Ovid (Metamorphoses, xiii. 2) is clypei dominus septemplicis.' Cf. Iliad, vii. 220.

1. 1134. Alluding to the oath in which the adverse champions swore that they had no aid from charms or enchantments.

1. 1138. ruffl'd porcupines;—recalling the 'fretful porcupine' of Shakespeare (Hamlet, i. 8).

1. 1162. comrade is thus accented in Shakespeare (Hamlet i. 3; 1 Henry IV. iv. 1).

=

1. 1164. boisť'rous robustious, 1. 569. Richardson gives the derivation from Dutch büster, furious. In one of his examples from old English writers the word is applied to a tree, and bears the meaning of 'strong' required here.

1. 1181. doughly;-valiant (A. S. dobtig).

1. 1188. their robes;-following the margin of our translation of Judges xiv. 19, which has apparel' for the spoil' of the text.

1. 1195. Josephus says that under the pretence of honour, the Philistines sent these thirty companions to watch over Samson. (Judges xiv. 11.)

1. 1220. appellant ;-challenger, as 'defendant' was the person challenged. Both words are thus used in 2 Henry VI. ii. 3.

1. 1222. thrice. Challenges were thrice repeated. In the last scene of Lear, Edgar appears at the third sounding of the trumpet,'

1. 1226. Alluding to the regulations of the duello, which forbade the acceptance of a challenge given by a traitor, thief, heretic, or other dishonourable person.

1. 1248. Keightley remarks that our version of 2 Sam. xxi. 19 inserts, without any authority," the brother of Goliath," since Goliath had already been slain by David; and in this Milton acquiesces.'

1. 1278. The same sort of jingle as in Paradise Lost, i. 642,

1. 1283. Cf. Then fiery expedition be my wing' (Richard III. iv. 3). 1. 1309. remark;—make remarkable, point out, Perhaps Milton here imitates the intensive form of the Latin re in composition.' (Keightley.) 1. 1312. triumph;-see note on L'Allegro 120.

1. 1323. The artists here named are those of Milton's own day.

1. 1325. jugglers;-originally minstrels (Lat. joculator, N. Fr. jongleur). mummers (so called from their silent pantomine) were attendants on Christmas festivities.

1. 1362. execrably. Keightley conjectures that Milton dictated 'execrable,' and so the line would correspond with ll. 1361, 1364.

1. 1377. Cf. 2 Kings v. 18, 19.

1. 1387. Shakespeare has brought out this 'presage in the mind' in Romeo and Juliet, where the woman's ill-divining soul' has the truer instinct (iii. 5 and v. I), and in Bassanio's anticipations of good fortune (Merchant of Venice, i. I) which indeed may have had surer ground than presentiment.

1. 1410, doff-put off ('do off,' as don' is 'do on').

1. 1421. Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica 224.

1. 1448. come;-for 'go.' 'It is thus that the Latin and Italian confound 'eo' and venio.' Our ancestors in like manner used learn' for 'teach,' and 'take' for 'give.' (Keightley.)

1. 1472. tore the sky;-cf. Paradise Lost, i. 542.

1. 1494. a nation arm'd;—an expression resembling Ovid's concerning the hair of Nisus (Metamorphoses, viii. 10).

1. 1512. inhabitation;— — world (οἰκουμένη).

1. 1515. ruin;-in the sense of falling. Cf. Paradise Lost, i. 46.

1. 1519. This and the following line rhyme, as do also ll. 1525, 1526. (Keightley.)

1. 1529. dole is what is dealt,' as in the proverb, 'Happy man be his dole,' and the dole of blows' (2 Henry IV. i. 1). There is a play on the other meaning of dole,' sorrow. (Cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 894.)

1. 1536. It has been proposed to give this line and half of the next to the Chorus, assigning to Manoa the ensuing half line and line 1538.

1. 1541. O whither, &c. So the messengers in Greek tragedy enter with

loud exclamations, when they have to announce some dire calamity (Aeschylus, Persæ, 249).

1. 1554. needs;-neuter verb here, as in Paradise Lost, x. 80.

1. 1556. distract. This form is used also by Shakespeare (Julius Cæsar, iv. 3). 1. 1562. Cf. O, I have fed upon this woe already,

1. 1577. Cf.

And now excess of it will make me surfeit.'

(Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1.)

'An envious sneaping frost

That bites the first-born infants of the spring.'

(Love's Labour's Lost, i. I.) 1. 1593. Keightley thinks that this speech may properly belong to the Chorus.

1. 1608. Of sort;—of quality. (Keightley.) Cf. men of sort and suit' (Measure for Measure, iv. 4), 'prisoners of good sort' (Henry V. iv. 8.)

1. 1619. Cataphracts ;-heavy-armed cavalry, the horses being protected by mail as well as their riders. Cf. Aeneid, xi. 770, and Paradise Regained, iii. 313.

1. 1627. stupendious;-this form is used also in Paradise Lost, x. 351. It occurs also in Harrington's translation of the Orlando Furioso.

1. 1637. eyes fast fix'd;-cf. Iliad iii. 218. The exact parallel to the present passage is in Persius, Satires, iii. 79:

'Obstipo capite et figentes lumine terram.'

1. 1647. As with the force, &c. ;-cf. Paradise Lost, vi. 195, &c. 1. 1666. dire necessity;—the phrase of Horace (Odes, iii. 24. 6).

1. 1667. in number more;-Judges xvi. 30.

1. 1670. drunk with idolatry;-Isaiah xxix. 9.

1. 1674. In Silo. The ark remained in Shiloh from the time of Joshua to that of Eli, more than four hundred years.

1. 1689. inward eyes;-cf. the 'mind's eye' of Shakespeare (Hamlet, i. 2), and Wordsworth's

' inward eye

That is the bliss of solitude.'

1. 1691. from under ashes ;—cf. Gray's line :

'E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.'

1. 1692. And as, &c. Keightley thinks that Milton dictated Nor as.' Cf. Nor think,' &c., Paradise Lost, vi. 282. Chapman begins two sonnets prefixed to his Iliad with "Nor" for " And not."

1. 1695. villatic fowl;—the villaticas alites' of Pliny (xxiii. 17), equivalent to barndoor fowl.' 'Serpents were said to destroy birds and their young (Iliad, ii. 308, &c.), but not to attack hen-roosts.' (Keightley.) Villatic' was used as equivalent to 'rustic.' 'Villatic bashfulness' is a phrase in the Rambler (No. 147).

1. 1699. self-begotten-bird;-the phoenix. Cf. Paradise Lost, v. 272, note. 1. 1700. embost;-hidden in the woods (Ital. emboscare). In Butler's Elephant in the Moon:

'Look quickly, lest the sight of us

Should cause the startled beast t' emboss.'

Cf. They seek the dark, the bushy, the tangled forest; they would imbosk.' (Reformation in England, close of Bk. i.)

1. 1701. nor third. Landor notices the absurdity of these words, inserted apparently for rhyme's sake.

1. 1702. bolocaust;—a whole burnt offering.

6

1. 1706. secular bird;-because it was fabled to live for a thousand years. Lactantius (in a passage quoted by Newton) uses seculum' for a thousand years. In classical Latin it is nearly equivalent to our 'century.' Herodotus gives five hundred years as the age of the phoenix.

1. 1708. Hecuba, when informed of the heroic death of her daughter Polyxena, checks her grief in a similar manner. (Hecuba 592.)

1. 1714. Caphtor. The Philistines were a colony from the island Caphtor (Jer. xlvii. 4), i. e. Crete, or, according to some commentators, Cyprus.

1. 1732. obsequy;-following, train (Lat. obsequiae): used in the singular by the chronicler Fabian, and by Daniel (of the funeral of Richard II), but usually in plural, as in Latin.

1. 1755. acquist;-acquisition. Jeremy Taylor uses the word in his sermon On the Foolish Exchange, when speaking of the time expired in the acquist and purchase' of this world's riches.