Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

232-3. Pelorus, N. E. promontory of Sicily near Mt. Etna.

244. change for, take in exchange for. 257. all but, only.

266. astonished, astounded, thunderstruck. Oblivious, making forgetful.

268. mansion, abiding place.

248. 281. amazed, confounded.

282. pernicious, destructive, dreadful.

288. optic glass, the telescope, developed by the Florentine astronomer Galileo, whom Milton saw during his Italian tour (1638–9).

289-290. Fesolé, Valdarno, near Florence. 296. marl, soil.

299. Nathles, nevertheless.

303. Vallombrosa, eighteen miles from Florence in Tuscany, anciently named Etruria.

305. Orion armed. The rising and setting of the constellation Orion the Hunter were traditionally attended with storms.

306. Red Sea, called by the Hebrews the Sea of Sedge, on account of the quantity of seaweed in it. 307. Busiris, Pharaoh. See Exodus xiv, 5-29. Memphian, Egyptian.

309. Goshen. See Genesis xlvii, 27.

313. Under amazement of, utterly confounded by. 317. If, dependent on lost.

320. virtue, valor. Latin virtus.

335. not perceive, failed to perceive. 338-343. See Exodus x, 12-15.

339. Amram's son, Aaron. See Exodus vi, 20. 341. warping, advancing with an undulating motion.

351-5. The northern tribes which invaded the Koman empire from the third century onwards crossed from Spain into Africa and captured Carthage 439 A. D.

355. beneath, south of. 249. 360. erst, formerly.

363. books. Milton probably dictated Book' and was misunderstood by his amanuensis. See Revelations iii, 5.

372. religions, religious ceremonies.

'And

392. Moloch. See Kings xi, 7; 2 Kings xxiii. 10; Psalm cvi, 37, 38. Sandys, whose book of travels in Palestine was known to Milton, describes the idol as hollow within, filled with fire,' the children offered for sacrifice being placed in his arms. lest their lamentable shrieks should sadden the hearts of their parents, the priests of Moloch did deafen their ears with the continual clang of trumpets and timbrels.'

397. Rabba, capital of Ammon, the city of waters.'

398-9. Argob, Basan, Arnon, east of the river Jordan.

401. Solomon. See Kings xi, 5-7; 2 Kings xxiii, 13.

403. opprobrious hill. The Mount of Olives, where Solomon established the worship of Moloch, was later called the Mount of Corruption' and 'Mount of Offence.'

404. Hinnom, south of Olivet.

405. Gehenna, the Greek form of the Hebrew Ge Hinnom, valley of Hinnom.

406. Chemos, the god of Moab, the neighbors of Ammon.

409. Seon, king of the Amorites. See Numbers xxi, 26.

410. Sibma. See Isaiah xvi, 8.

411. the asphaltic pool, the Dead Sea.

413. Sittim. See Numbers xxv.

416. scandal, offence.

418. good Josiah. See Kings xxiii, 10.

[ocr errors]

420. the brook, Besor, the river of Egypt.' 422. Baälim and Ashtaroth, the collective names of the various manifestations of the deities of the sun and moon respectively.

438. Astoreth, the same as the Assyrian Istar, the Greek Aphrodite, and the Latin Venus.

441. Sidon was the oldest city of Phenicia. 250. 444. uxorious king, Solomon.

446. Thammus, 'Sun of Life,' the Greek Adonis, god of the solar year.

450. Adonis, the name of a river flowing from the heights of Lebanon, and colored in spring by the red mud gathered there.

455. Ezekiel. See Ezekiel viii, 14.

457. came one. Dagon, god of the Philistines. See Samuel v, 4.

460. grunsel, threshold. 464-6. Azotus

cities of the Philistines.

Gazar, the five chief

[blocks in formation]

503-4. Sodom, Gibeah. Genesis xix, Judges xix. 506. prime, leaders.

508. Ionian, Greek. Javan, son of Japhet. Genesis x, 2.

509. Heaven and Earth, Uranus and Ge, whose 12 giant children were Titans. One of them, Cronos (Saturn in Roman mythology), deposed Uranus, and was in turn deposed by his own son Zeus (Jove), whose mother was Rhea.

515-6. Ida in Crete was the birthplace of Zeus, Olympus, north of Thessaly, his abode, according to Greek mythology.

517. Delphian cliff, Apollo's oracle on Mt. Par

nassus.

518. Dodona, an oracle of Zeus, in Epirus. 519. Doric, Greek.

520. Adria, the Adriatic. Hesperian, western, i.e., Italy.

521. Celtic, France and Spain. utmost isles, of Britain.

523. damp, depressed.

528. recollecting, recovering..

[blocks in formation]

573. since created man, after the creation of man. 574. embodied, assembled in a body. named, compared.

575. small infantry, the Pygmies. Homer's Iliad iii, 5.

577. Phlegra, in Macedonia where the Gods defeated the Giants. See 1. 509.

578. Thebes and Ilium, the chief battle grounds of Greek tradition.

580. fable, Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Britons. romance, Malory's Morte D'Arthur. 581. Armoric, Breton.

583-6. The references are to scenes famous in medieval romances.

586. peerage, the twelve peers of the Chanson de Roland.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

720. Belus, the Assyrian god Bel or Baa! Serapis, an Egyptian deity.

728. cresset, an iron lantern.

738. his name, Hephaistos or Vulcan. 739. Ausonian land, Italy.

740. Mulciber, the welder of metals.

746. Lemnos, sacred to Hephaistos. The story of his fall is told in Homer's Iliad i, 591.

750. engines, machines, contrivances.

756. Pandemonium, the place of all the demons, 764. wont, were wont to. soldan, sultan. 765. paynim, pagan.

769. The sun is in Taurus (one of the signs f the zodiac) April 19-May 20.

254. 774. expatiate, walk abroad. Latin use. CUR fer, discuss.

780-1. Pliny placed the Pygmies beyond the source of the Ganges.

781-5. Reminiscent of A Midsummer Night Dream and the Encid.

785. arbitress, witness. The moon was supposed to be influenced by fairy incantations.

795. recess, retirement. conclave, the nar given to a meeting of Cardinals in the Romas Church.

797. frequent, crowded. Latin use. 798. consult, consultation.

2. Ormus, Persia.

BOOK II

9. success, result, experience.

16. from no fall, if they had not fallen. 27. whom, him whom.

29. Your bulwark, as your defense. 50. recked, cared.

255. 52. unexpert, inexperienced. 59. of, imposed by.

60. By, in consequence of.

63. our tortures, what tortures us. 69. Tartarean, infernal.

73. such, those who think so.

74. forgetful, making forgetful.

75. proper, natural.

77. who but felt, who did not feel?

82. event, outcome.

83. stronger, superior in strength.

89. exercise, harass, torment. Latin usage.

97. essential, substance.

100. at worst, as badly off as we can be short of annihilation.

101. proof, experience.

104. fatal, established by fate.

106. denounced, betokened, threatened.

113. manna. See Exodus xvi, 31.

124. fact, deed.

127. scope, mark, aim, its original meaning in the Greek.

130. watch, watchmen; hence the plural verb. 132. obscure. Accent on first syllable.

133. Scout, act as scouts, reconnoiter. 256. 139. mold, substance. Milton imagines the angels as made of fire (see Psalm civ, 4) and the argument is that the fiery substance of the angeis would expel the baser fire of hell,

[blocks in formation]

231-2. then — when, i.e., never.

234. former, to disenthrone.' 235. latter, to regain.'

argues, proves.

245. Ambrosial, divinely excellent.

249. pursue, seek to regain.

251. unacceptable. Accent on second syllable.
263-5. See Psalms xvii, 11, 13; xcvii, 2.
277. needs, of necessity.

278. sensible, sense; adj. for noun.

281. Compose, arrange, adjust.

288. o'er watched, worn out with watching. 294. Michael, the leading archangel, whose discomfiture of Satan and his followers is described later: vi, 320-327.

258. 301. aspect. Accent on second syllable. 303. public care, care for the common weal.

305. Majestic qualifies face.

[blocks in formation]

336. to, to the extent of.

337. Untamed reluctance, invincible resistance. 341. want, be wanting.

346. fame, report. Latin fama.

367. puny, literally, later born; hence, weaker. 375. original, origin, or perhaps originator. 376. Advise, consider.

380. By Satan. See I, 650-654.

259. 382. confound, utterly destroy.

387. states, authorities, or bodies of representatives, as in the phrase, 'the three estates of the realm,' meaning the King, Lords, and Commons in Great Britain.

391. Synod, assembly, meeting.

[blocks in formation]

462. mansion, abode.

467. prevented, forestalled.

468. raised, encouraged. Refers to Others. 260. 470. erst, before.

471. opinion, reputation.

478. awful, full of awe.

485. close, concealed. varnished o'er, speciously covered with.

490. louring element, dark and threatening sky. 491. Scowls, covers the face of nature with a dark cloud of rain or snow.

492. If chance, if it chances that. 503. accord, agreement.

[ocr errors]

AREOPAGITICA

[ocr errors]

In November, 1644, when this pamphlet was pub lished, the parliamentary cause was triumphant in the field, and high hopes were entertained for its future success in the promotion of real and substantial liberty - whose existence depends not much on the terror of the sword as on sobriety of conduct and integrity of life.' But Parliament was already showing an inclination to adopt the intolerant and tyrannical measures which it had condemned in its adversaries, and it was against one of these an order that books should not be printed without license that Milton was here directing his efforts. His object was to secure the free publication of thought, that the power of determining what was true and what was false; what ought to be published and what to be suppressed, might no longer be entrusted to a few illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their sanction to any work which contained views or sentiments at all above the level of the vulgar superstition.' Beside Milton's general devotion to the cause of liberty, he had a special incentive in the attempt which was being made by the Stationers Company to suppress his divorce pamphlets, which had aroused a good deal of hostile feeling.

260. b. 15. Julius Agricola, governor of Britain 7885 A. D.

16. Cæsar, a general name for the Roman Emperor. preferred French. This statement is made on the authority of Tacitus.

-

22. Hercynian, a name given by the Romans to the mountainous and wooded region in the south and center of Germany; the country beyond it, Transylvania, which became part of the Austrian Empire in 1689, had during the Commonwealth friendly relations with England.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

44.

52. fabricked, fabricated, manufactured.

56. casements, windows. collusion, deception. 58. wise man, Solomon. See also Matthew xiii,

b. 6. equipage, equipment.

8. battle, army.

22. shifts, sleights, contrivance

31. Micaiah. See Kings xxii, 1-2

40. nailed to the cross. See Colossians ii, 14. purchase, boon, achievement.

42. His doctrine. Romans xiv, 5-9.

50. outward conformity, under royal and episcopal government.

52. linen decency, the outward conformity of a white surplice is abolished, but the spirit remains. 264. a. 1. care not, do not take care. truth separated from truth, i.e., essentials from non-essentials.

8. wood, and hay, and stubble. See 1 Corinthians iii, 12.

43.

11. subdichotomies, sub-divisions.

16. wheat from the tares. See Matthew xiii, 24

17. fry, small fish; properly, spawn.

27. extirpate, extirpated.

38. unity of Spirit. Ephesians iv, 3.

45. bejesuited, made into Jesuits.

53. unplausible, unappreciated.

56. see to, look upon.

b. 30. Convocation House, where the governing body of the Church of England met.

31. Chapel. The Puritan Assembly of Divines met in Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster in 1643, and drew up a Confession of Faith and two Catechisms.

33. canonized, embodied in canons or rules. 34. convincement, argument and conviction. 35. supple, cure.

36. edify, build up, establish.

41. liege tombs. Henry VII's Chapel contains several royal tombs beside his own.

47. that we do not give, from giving. Latin construction.

56. manage, handle.

265. a. 8. Priests, Pharisees. See Matthew v, 20. 9. precipitant, precipitate.

18. the beginning of this Parliament. Nov. 3. 1640.

20. Imprimatur. The Licenser's stamp ог inscription, Let it be printed.'

27. Moses. See Numbers xi, 28-29.
29. young John. See Luke ix, 50.
32. elders, the leaders of the Presbyterians.
36. let, hindrance.

40. Inquisition. One of the duties of the Inquisition was the prohibition of heretical books. The Dominican Order was especially active in the campaign against heresy. Both the Inquisition and the Dominicans were especially unpopular as Roman Catholic institutions to the Puritan readers to whom Milton was appealing.

52. next before this. The earlier order was passed on Jan. 29, 1642.

57. fire executioner. Seditious books were burnt in public by the hangman.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

24. monopolizers. The order of 1643 recognized the monopoly of the Stationers' Company, who applied the fees for licensing in part to the 'relief and maintenance of their poor.'

29. divers glossing colors, various specious misrepresentations.

32. exercise a superiority, exert authority, have an advantage.

33. neighbors, fellow booksellers.

34-5. therefore that, to the end that.

36. vassals, subjects.

40. malignant, seditious, royalist.

42. sophisms and elenchs of merchandise, trade sophistries and fallacies.

43. skill not, am not versed in or concerned about. 45. incident, inevitable.

49. what hath been erred, the mistakes that have been made. Latin construction.

50. in, for those in.

51. advertisement, warning.

DRYDEN: HEROIC STANZAS

Cromwell died on September 3, 1658, and was buried on November 23. When this poem was pub lished in 1659, there was every appearance that Richard Cromwell was firmly established as his father's successor. Dryden's family was Puritan, and his admiration of the great Protector was no doubt sincere, though his expression of it is conventional and exaggerated.

266. 1-4. And now 't is time. At the end of a Roman emperor's funeral ceremonials, they let fly the sacred eagle which was supposed to carry his soul to heaven.

8. authentic, authoritative, beyond dispute. 15. prevent, anticipate.

18. circular, perfectly rounded.

267. 25. bays, garlands.

32. Pompey, who acquired the title of 'Great' before he was thirty, and brought his career to a culminating point on his forty-fifth birthday B. C. 61 in a great trimphal procession, after that de clined before the growing influence of Julius Cæsar. Cromwell came into public notice at 45, became Protector at 54, and died at the height of his fame at 59- about the same age as Pompey when he was assassinated.

41. Our former chiefs, the parliamentary generals at the beginning of the war did not press the campaign against the king with vigor. sticklers, umpires, not combatants.

42. poise, balance.

45. consumption, destruction.

48. breathing, letting. When Dryden became a

royalist poet, his enemies interpreted this line as a condonation of the execution of Charles I. 49. went, became.

51. prevent, anticipate.

56. the vestal. Tarpeia was crushed to death by the shields of the Sabines to whom she betrayed the citadel of Rome on the promise of the shields as reward.

58. That giant-prince. Blake, the great Puritan admiral, died and was buried in Westminster Ab bey about a year before Cromwell.

64. halcyons, kingfishers. It was an ancient myth that the sea was calm during their breeding season. sca, correctly rimed with obey, according to the pronunciation of the time.

ASTREA REDUX

[blocks in formation]

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL

This satirical poem, written, it is said, at the suggestion of Charles II, was directed against Shaftesbury, the minister whom Charles had dismissed, and who had retaliated by arousing public alarm in connection with the Popish Plot and by furthering the claims of the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son, to the throne, in opposition to the lawful heir, Charles's brother, the Duke of York, who later succeeded as James II. In November, 1681, when the poem was published, Shaftesbury was a prisoner in the Tower on a charge of high treason, and Dryden's attack was no doubt meant to influence public feeling (and the jury) against him. In this respect it failed, for Shaftesbury was acquitted; but it made a great sensation and remains the most remarkable example of political satire in the English language. The

« AnkstesnisTęsti »