53-68. listening (53) and walking (57) are grammatically connected with lines 38-9. liveries; in Middle English 'lyverey' (from the Middle Latin (res) liberata, a thing delivered) signified a regular allowance of food or clothes, delivered to the servants of a household. dight; arrayed,' from the Middle English dighten,' to set in order, arrange. This is cognate with the modern German word Dichter meaning Poet: he who sets in order and arranges (verses). tells his tale, not 'makes love,' but (literally) 'counts his number,' that is, numbers his flock. The original meaning of 'tell' is 'count,' preserved in the expression 'She tells her beads;' tale in the sense of 'number' or 'sum' is very common in the 1611 version of the Bible and is so used by George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, VI. 13.

daisies

69-80. lawns; open spaces between woods. In Par. Lost, IV. 252, we have, 'Betwixt them lawns or level downs.' pied; this is evidently a reminiscence of Shakespeare's

ton.

When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver white,

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight

Love's Labor's Lost, v. 2. (near the end). Lines 77-8 were probably suggested by Windsor Castle, which is not far from Horlies. In Othello iii. 4. Desdemona uses this word and interprets it for the clown as lodges, which is the meaning here. Cynosure; a word whose figurative meaning is extraordinarily different from the literal one. With the aid of the dictionary trace the process by which the Greek kunosúra (kvvóσovpa), dog's-tail, has come to be a possible epithet for "some beauty."

81-90. Corydon and Thyrsis; Vergilian names for shepherds; Eclogue VII. 2. met; notice the condensation in this construcPhillis; Thestylis; common names in the inner room. In

tion expand it.

bower

=

Greek poets, for rustic maidens. Chaucer's Nonne Prestes Tale we find that the poor widow had only two rooms in her house, a 'halle' and a 'bour.'

91-103. rebecks; the rebeck was a musical instrument with a pear-shaped body and two or three strings. It is supposed to be of Moorish origin. Faery Mab; see Mercutio's famous lines in Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. Feat; eat. As late as Pope 'ea' was doubtless pronounced like a in 'fate.'

Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea.

-

Rape of the Lock, III. 7–8.

She was pinched and pulled; lazy servant girls, according to the story, were so punished by Robin Good Fellow (Puck). There are innumerable references to this in English Literature, the best known of course being in the Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. In Butler's Hudibras, III. 1. line 1407 et seq. we have another:

104-116.

Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite
Condemned to drudgery in the night;

You dare not be so troublesome

To pinch the slatterns black and blue
For leaving you their work to do.

Some commentators, who seem to regard mythology as an exact science, are greatly distressed over the confusion' which Milton has here introduced into the fairy world. Since mythology

in general is the creation of the poetic mind of primitive peoples, and since fairy mythology in particular is fantasy .. thin of substance as the air," let us not share the grief of Dryasdust at the poet's 'error.' Those who would be learned in these matters may consult Keightley's Fairy Mythology, where they will find given the exact difference between Friar Rush, the house-spirit, and Will o' the Wisp, the field-spirit. the drudging goblin; see the quotation from Hudibras, above. lubber awkward. This old

word is now seldom heard except in the conversation of sailors, where land-lubber' and 'lubber's-hole' have well understood meanings. Consult the Dict. chimney, in its original sense of

hearth. What is the syntax of length? crop-full with full stomach. Crop signifies originally ‘a rounded, projecting mass, a protuberance' (Cent. Dict.); from this are derived its numerous other meanings.

117-124. Weeds

=

garments. This, the original meaning of the Old English waed, survives in the expression "widow's weeds." In Chaucer's Knight's Tale (147-9) it is used (as here) of men's attire:

To ransack in the tas of bodyes dede
Hem for to strepe of harneys and of wede

The pilours diden bisynesse and cure.

store, literally 'that which is provided or furnished for use as needed,' hence, an abundance. rain influence; an allusion to the astrological belief that the radiation of power from the stars affects the fate of men; compare influenza.'

126-134. Hymen; the god of marriage. He is represented as carrying, in the bridal procession, the bridal veil (saffron robe) and a torch. The symbolic meanings of the saffron and of the torch

must have been lost in pre-historic times, for the explanations of the Latin writers themselves seem to be pure conjectures. Nations differ curiously in their choice of wedding colors; in China the bride wears red; in Japan and among ourselves, white, doubtless as an emblem of purity. Why orange-blossoms also? If there is any connection with the saffron of the Romans, it has not yet been traced. Masks were a popular form of entertainment at the time the Allegro was written. Ben Jonson (line 132) wrote many; Milton himself wrote two, Arcades and Comus; Shakespeare has introduced one with beautiful effect in the 4th Act of the Tempest. Jonson; the friend of Shakespeare and after him, with the possible exception of Fletcher, the greatest of Elizabethan dramatists. His extensive knowledge of the classics led him to form his plays upon classic models. His best acting comedy (Epicone or The Silent Woman) is not inferior to some of Shakespeare's. Sock; the actors in classic comedy wore a low shoe or slipper called by the Romans soccus; hence, by metonymy, sock stands for comedy. wood-notes wild; the romantic drama of Shakespeare, with his little Latin and less Greek, did not altogether suit the taste of such learned men as Ben Jonson and Milton. Yet they both loved and admired him. See Milton's lines On Shakespeare (p. 15) and Jonson's verses printed under the portrait of Shakespeare in the folio of 1623.

This Figure, that thou here seest put,

It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
Wherein the Grauer had a strife
With Nature to out-doo the life;

O, could he but have drawne his wit

As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was ever writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke

Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

135-152. Lydian; the Greeks divided their scale according to three recognized modes, which they called respectively the Dorian, the Phrygian and the Lydian. They believed that each mode had some peculiar æsthetic and ethical value; the province of Lydia in Asia Minor was famous for its wealth and luxury: hence this Lydian mode may have become associated with the idea of voluptuousness in music. Musicians will find an elaborate discussion of this topic in the Cent. Dic., article, Mode (7). soul (138); is this subject or object? The syntax of lines 138-142 needs careful study. Explain the paradoxical epithets in line 141.

Orpheus, Pluto,

Eurydice; this beautiful story, beautifully told, will be found in Cl. Myths, § 107; it is too long to be quoted here. Elysian; Elysium was the bright land to which the souls of the just departed after death in the case of favored heroes, without death. Here they lived happy, each following what had been his favorite occupation on earth. Cl. Myths, pages 81-82. The Parisians retain the word as a place-name in Champs-Elysées, the beautifully wooded avenue that stretches from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe.

A poet of the first rank seldom employs an adjective without a good reason; uneducated people employ adjectives constantly and with very little reason. You will find it interesting to look back over this poem and study Milton's use of adjectives, determining in each case the propriety of the use.

The opening of the Penseroso seems to have been suggested by Beaumont's (?) song beginning

Hence all you vain delights

As short as are the nights
Wherein you spent your folly!

This song was first printed in Fletcher's play of The Nice Valour (1647) but was quite possibly in circulation long before. The Allegro and the Penseroso themselves were not printed till some eight or ten years after they were written.

=

fond

I-10. bested assist, help. What is the force of the prefix here? What is the force in behead? foolish; the regular meaning in Old English and still retained in poetry; very common in Chaucer and in Shakespeare. "I do wonder, thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond, To come abroad with him at his request." Merch. of Ven. iii. 3. pensioners = dependents, attendants. In rude and early times money was weighed out (pendere); the person receiving the money was pensionarius. Morpheus, god of dreams and son of Sleep. His name signifies the Moulder or Fashioner (of dreams).

II-21. To hit to suit, to fit. Prince Memnon's Sister; another example of Milton's independent mythologizing. The meaning is perfectly clear: beautiful as must be the Sister of Memnon "the proud son of the bright Dawn" (Odys. IV. 188), an Ethiopian ally of the Trojans. queen; for the story of Cassiopea, Andromeda and Perseus see Cl. Myths, § 137; also Kingsley's Andromeda (one of the few good hexameter poems in English). 22-30. Vesta (Hestia), goddess of the Hearth. Cl. Myths, § 42. Saturn; Cl. Myths, § 56 (1). A divinity of the Romans. Confused

by them with the Greek Cronus. For the story of his dethronement by his son Jove, and for the explanation of the epithet solitary, see Cl. Myths, § 18. Melancholy is here made the daughter of Fireside Musings (Vesta) and of Solitude (Saturn). Compare note on L'Allegro, 17.

31-44. grain; the little insects of the genus Coccus when dried look like grains and yield a red-colored dye; hence grain = a red or purplish dye. stole; probably hood, here, as lines 33-4 seem to have already described a garment similar to the classic stola. cypress; derived not from Cyprus but probably from the Old French crespe, Latin crispus, curled. lawn; after many conjectures as to the origin of this word, etymologists seemed to have settled upon Skeats' explanation that it is from Laon, a town some So miles northeast of Paris. Compare Bayonet' from 'Bayonne.' decent = comely.

commercing; notice the accent as shown by the still. What two meanings are possible here?

rhythm. fix; a form of the Subjunctive, a Mood almost obsolete in English; found today only in a few expressions, as 'If I were you,'‘If he be not worthy.' We have the same construction in lines 122, 173.

45-60. Muses; nine in number: for their names and attributes see Cl. Myths, § 43 (4). the fiery-wheeléd throne; Milton himself supplied the illustration for this line in Par. Lost, VI. 749759.

Forth rushed with whirlwind sound

The chariot of Paternal Deity,

Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel; undrawn,

Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed

By four cherubic Shapes. Four faces each

Had wondrous; as with stars, their bodies all

And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels

Of beryl, and careering fires between;

Over their heads a crystal firmament,

Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure

Amber and colours of the showery arch.

In what consists the superiority of this description to that in Ezekiel X.? Philomela, daughter of King Pandion of Attica. For crime committed, the gods changed her into a nightingale. Cl. Myths, § 151. Cynthia; an epithet for Diana (Artemis) from her birthplace, Mt. Cynthus in the island of Delos. Cl. Myths, § 39. 61-73. The song of the nightingale ceases about the time the grass is mown.' Peacock, quoted in Garnett's Milton, Chapter II. wandering moon; there is poetry in the etymologies of the words moon and planet; look for it.

74-84. curfew, from couvrir and feu. In the year after King