IL PENSEROSO. Line 2. Brood....bred.-A brood [A.-S. bród] is simply what is bred [A.-S. brédan, to nourish, keep warm]; hence "bird" [A.-S. brid]. Comp. Ger. brut, the spawn of fish, or progeny of birds, insects, &c. 66 3. Bestead.-Lit., stand by (=be). Avail, stand in good stead (A.-S. stede, place or position]. The dry fish was so new and good, as it did very greatly bestead us in the whole course of our voyage" (Drake). But the usual meaning of the word is "situated,” placed." Comp. Chaucer (The Man of Lawes Tale, l. 551): 66 And swiche a colour in his face hath had Then mighten know him that was so bestad." Drayton (Eclogue, III.): 66 Why ly'st thou here, whilst we are ill bested, 5. The imagery in this and the next five lines has a close resemblance to that in the description of the Cave of Sleep (Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 316, ed. 1621). We find there "Morpheus," with his "fantastic swarms of hovering dreams," which are compared to the "unnumbered moats which in the sun do play." But Chaucer, if any one, is surely entitled to the ownership of the simile: comp., As thick as motes in the sonne-beem' (Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 868). 66 10. Fickle pensioners.—The word pensioners was used in the poetry of the Elizabethan period to denote attendants, or retinue. This arose from the circumstance that the queen had established under that name a band of military courtiers, comprising some of the handsomest and tallest young men of the best families. They set the fashion in dress and amusements. Hence the point of Dame Quickly's remark: And yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners" (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. ii., sc. 2). Few will fail to remember Shakspeare's line (Mids. Night's Dr., Act. ii., sc. 1): "The cowslips tall her pensioners be." 12. Divinest Melancholy.--There is a remarkable resemblance between the picture which Milton gives of the "Goddess, sage and holy," and Albert Durer's Melancholia. It is possible that the poet may have seen the design of the German artist. 14. To hit.--We now say to strike;" i.e., to affect or influence. Comp. Shakspeare (Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii., sc. 2): A strange invisible perfume hits the sense." 16. O'erlaid with black.-Darkened in visage-not veiled in black. 18. Prince Memnon's sister. This lady was not known to the ancients, but is mentioned by Dictys Cretensis. The beauty of Prince Memnon is celebrated by Homer (Od., XI., 1. 522): “ Κεῖνον δὴ κάλλιστον ἴδον μετὰ Μέμνονα διον : ” and his sister's may therefore be presumed. Memnon was (according to one tradition or myth) prince of the Ethiopians, and led a host of 10,000 men to the support of the Trojans against the Greeks. He was slain in single combat by Achilles.the same line, means seem fit for," or become." -Beseem, in 19-21. That starr'd Ethiop queen, &c.-The allusion is to Cassiopeia, wife of Cepheus, king of Aethiopia, and mother of Andromeda. It was not her own beauty of which she boasted, however, but her daughter's. Both were "starred, "--i.e., placed among the constellations after death. ―Their powers, -i.e., their divinity. The sea nymphs considered it an insult to their divine nature for a mortal to boast herself above them in beauty. 23, 24. Milton is happy in his invention of a parentage for Melancholy. She is the child of Solitude and Purity. This is in harmony with 7. 31: Come, pensive nun, devout and pure." Comp. Collins, Ode to the Passions: "Pale Melancholy sits retired." Warton, however, fancies that "bright-hair'd Vesta," goddess of the eternal fire, is meant to typify Genius.-Although the epithet solitary applied to Saturn is only meant to indicate his disposition (from his name we have the word "saturnine"), and has no reference to his forlorn condition after his overthrow (as yet "there was no fear of Jove"), readers of Keats will be reminded of the superb opening of Hyperion: 'Deep in the shady sadness of a vale, Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Sat gray-hair'd Saturn, quiet as a stone." 29. Woody Ida.—A range of hills in Asia Minor overlooking the plain of Troy. The word seems to denote a wooded hill," but the epithet is Homeric (Il., XXI., 449): “Ιδης ἐν κνημοῖσι πολυπτύχου ὑληέσσης.” 31. Nun is here used to denote a pious recluse; one who is "devout and pure," and who loves retirement. The etymology of the name is doubtful, but it is thought to be from a Coptic word signifying virgin." It occurs [Lat. nonna] as far back as the time of Jerome. The It. nonna means a 'grandmother," nuns being originally elderly females. 32. Demure.-Probably the Fr. des moeurs (of good manners, modest). Other derivations are suggested, but they are far-fetched. Comp. Chaucer (La Belle Dame sans Merci): Also Udal: After that Gabriel had al thys sayed, the maiden made answer in fewe wordes, but wordes of suche sorte as mighte be a witnesse of exceeding great demureness in hir, coupled with passing great affiaunce and zele towardes God." The word has scarcely retained the pure sense which it originally had; it is now rather applied to one who makes a show of gravity than to one who is really modest. 33. Grain.--Shade or colour. It is from the Lat. granum (lit., a seed), the name given to a variety of dyes prepared from an insect of the genus Coccus, that is found in the oaks on the Mediterranean coasts. 35. Sable stole of Cipres lawn.-The stole is here a veil or hood. Comp. Spenser (Faery Queene, B. I., c. i., st. 4): "But the same did hide Under a vele that wimpled was full low, And over all a blacke stole she did throw." Cipres lawn was a thin transparent texture of fine linen. Comp. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act. iii., sc. 1, where Olivia says: "A Cyprus, not a bosom, Hides my poor heart." The same play furnishes another illustration, Act ii. sc. 4: 37. Keep thy wonted state. This certainly reminds us of Jonson's line in his exquisite Hymn to Diana (Cynthia's Revels, Act v., sc. 6): 38. Gait.-Lit., manner of going. It is merely a different spelling and application of gate, a place for going through. The O. Eng. algate means "all ways." Comp. Chaucer's description of the Maunciple, Prologue, Canterbury Tales: The use of gate in the sense of way is preserved in the Scotch dialect of English. Comp. Burns: 66 "I gaed a waefu gate yestreen, A gate I fear I'll dearly rue." 39. Commercing.-Holding intercourse. This is a classical usage. Cicero speaks of commerce with the Muses" (Tusc., V., 23, 66), and "with Virtue" (De Senect., XII., 42); and Livy of a commercium sermonis (V. 15), an intercourse between two nations who understand each other's language. The word was in vogue in Milton's time, but is now almost obsolete. 40. Rapt.-Snatched, or carried off into ecstasy. [Lat. raptus.] So in Comus, l. 794: 'Kindle my rapt spirits • To such a flame of sacred vehemence." Never was still, devout enthusiasm, more beautifully portrayed than in lines 39 and 40. 41. Passion still.—The silent rapture of the soul. 44. As fast--i.e., as firmly. See Hymn on the Nativity, note on l. 111. 46-48. In these verses Milton gives expression to a cardinal doctrine of his poetic creed. None can hold communion with the gods, or hear the Muses sing around the throne of Deity, save those who are purged from the grossness of a sensual life. This, at least, is a Puritanism that needs no censure. 55. Hist along-i.e., come stealing along, crying Hist." For the etymology, see note on l. 64 of the Hymn on the Nativity. 56. Philomel.-The nightingale. The Greek myth of the metamorphosis of Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of Attica, into the nightingale is well known. See Ovid (Met. VI., 413), and Virgil (Ec. VI., 78–81). 58. Smoothing the rugged brow of night. This bold and beautiful image reäppears in Comus, l. 251: -Dragon yoke. -This 59. Cynthia. -See note to l. 103 of the Hymn on the Nativity. - "Vidi triformem (deam) dum coercebat suos 62. Most musical, most melancholy. -It is natural that Il Penseroso should so describe the music of the nightingale (the "night-singer"); but Coleridge has made an eloquent (if fanciful) protest against the idea of its song being melancholy : 66 'Most musical, most melancholy' bird!— A melancholy bird! Oh, idle thought! In nature there is nothing melancholy. But some night-wandering man, whose heart was pierced Or slow distemper, or neglected love, (And so, poor wretch! filled all things with himself, And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale Of his own sorrow), he, and such as he, First named these notes a melancholy strain." 66 66 67, 68. The application of wandring is Horation (Sat., I., viii, 21): Vaga luna;" and Virgilian (Aen., I., 742): "Errantem lunam;" but there is perhaps some incongruity in the epithet wandring" and the act of "riding" here predicated of the moon. Noon [Lat. nona, the ninth hour of the day, or three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Romans took their principal meal] is generally used by us to denote the middle of the day. Metaphorically it is also applied to the highest point of reputation, prosperity, &c. Sandys' Paraphrase on Job, ed. 1648, p. 34: When men are from their noon of glory thrown." 73. Plat, modern plot, is still preserved in ". platform." It denotes a piece of level ground, and is the same word as flat. Comp. Ger. platt; Gr. TλάTUя. The word is perhaps onomatopoeic, and intended to represent the fall of something on the ground. Comp. Chaucer, Roman de la Rose, where L'Amant is shot by the god of Love: Whenne I was hurte thus in stounde, I felle down platte unto the grounde;" also Piers the Plowman, Passus V., l. 63: 74. Curfew. "Peronelle proude-herte, platte hir to the erthe." [Fr. couvre-feu, cover up the fire; so kerchief, from couvre-chef, cover the head.] It is said that the Norman conquerors caused the church-bells to be rung at eight o'clock, as a warning to their English serfs to put out their fires, either to diminish the risk of conflagration, or to prevent the hatching of conspiracies by night. 75. Over some wide-water'd shore.-The scene here is not a sea-coast; it is an inland picture of level meads, such as Tennyson describes in The Gardener's Daughter: A league of grass washed by a slow, broad stream." 76. Sullen roar. or strong sound. cler," l. 68, says: The word roar [A.-S. rarian; Sc. rair] formerly denoted any shrill Thus Chaucer, in the Nonne Prest his Tale, speaking of chaunte "6 And whan that Pertelot thus herd him rore." 66 78. Still, removed place--i.e., a quiet, sequestered spot. Removed, in the sense of remote, is common in Elizabethan English. Comp. Shakspeare (Measure for Measure, Act. i., sc. 4): 66 How I have ever loved the life removed." Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act i., sc. 4: Prologue to Comus: "Look with what a courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground." "With distant worlds and strange removed climes." 83. The bellman's drowsy charm.-The epithet drowsy would perhaps not have been used by Milton if the pious superstition had not been beginning to lose its power. There are many allusions in our literature to the old practice of the bellman blessing the houses as he cried the night-hours; e. g., Chaucer, (Melleres Tale): "I crouche thee from elves and from wightes; On the foure halves of the hous aboute, And on the threswold of the dore withoute: Lord Jesu Crist and Seynte Benedight Blesse this hous from everie wikkede wight." Also Herrick in his poem on the Bellman: 66 From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From all mischances that may fright The goblin from ye while ye sleep!" 88, 89. Thrice-great Hermes.--Thrice-great is a translation of the surname (TpioμéYLOTOS) of the Egyptian god Thoth, whom the Greeks identified with Hermes or Mercury. To him was attributed the composition, or rather the inspiration, of all the religious and philosophical literature of Egypt. That certain writings embodying native Egyptian lore did once exist is undoubted, but the so-called Hermetic Books " are manifestly fabrications of the Neo-Platonists, who wished to establish for their mystical speculations an antiquity more venerable than Christianity could boast. The name was appropriated by the alchemists and astrologers of the Middle Ages, who delighted to speak of their works as "Hermetic writings."- -To unsphere the spirit of Plato, is to draw it from the sphere assigned to it after the dissolution of the body. But the language is here metaphorical, and simply signifies communion with the spirit of the philosopher through the study of his writings. In the Phaedo, Socrates discusses in his last hours "What vast regions hold The immortal mind that hath forsook but the 'daemons that are found in fire, air, flood, or under-ground," are a product of mediaeval speculation, which was a curious jumble of Platonism, School divinity, and Christian superstition. In the Spanish Mandeuile of Myracles (Lond.: 1618. Disc. III. p. 126) we have the following: "There are sixe kinds of spirits between heaven and hell. The first, who are those that remained in the highest region of the ayre, he calleth the angels of fire, because they are neere vnto that region, and perchance within it. The second is from the middle region of the ayre douneward towards the earth. The third, on the earth itselfe. The fourth, in the waters. The fifth, in the caues or hollow vautes of the earth," &c. 95. Consent.-Here used in a technical astrological sense. 66 97. "L'Allegro" delights himself with the "heart-easing" comedies of Jonson and Shakspeare, but "Il Penseroso" desires the nobler joys of gorgeous Tragedy in scepter'd pall." The lines that follow explain why Ovid gives Tragedy a sceptre (Amores, III., i., 13). In ancient Greece the misfortunes of heroic or kingly personages were held to be her true province; and so Milton, in his Tractate on Education, speaks of "Attic Tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument." The epithet "gorgeous" probably refers to the rich robes worn by the actors in their impersonations of royalty. The dismal horrors of the Oedipean legend, handled by Euripides and Sophocles, are alluded to under "Thebes." "Pelops' line " contains an allusion to the trilogy of Aeschylus on the murder of Agamemnon, a descendant of the mythic hero who conquered the peninsula of Southern Greece, and gave it his name. "The tale of Troy" is not the Homeric story, but the particular episodes which have been made the subject of dramatic treatment, as in the Ajax and Philoctetes of Sophocles and the Hecuba and Andromache of Euripides. 102. Buskin'd stage. The tragic actor wore a buskin, or high-heeled shoe. [Fr. brossequin; Low Lat. byrsa, leather; Gr. Búpoa.] The classic Latin term is cothurnus, but Milton's word was that used by the Elizabethans. So in the Return from Parnassus (1606): Marlowe was happy in his buskin'd Muse." 104. Musaeus.-A Greek poet of the mythic period, said to have been a son and pupil of Orpheus. He was believed to be the author of a large quantity of the religious verse that, at an early age, made its appearance in Greece in connection with the ceremonies of the national worship—as hymns, oracles, purificatory verses, a theogony, &c. 105-108. Milton is fond of the Orphic myth, which is, in truth, one of the most pathetic stories ever conceived by the tender fancy of a poet. He alludes to it in L'Allegro, but the passage in the text is in a higher strain. What could be finer than the lines: Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what Love did seek." 109, 110. Or call up him that left half told The story of Cambuscan bold. Chaucer. The Squyer's Tale, which promised to be one of the most dazzling and roman |