Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, And call them not to share with us their part 270 275 280 No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth." He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend Was moving toward the shore, his ponderous shield, 285 Behind him cast. The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb At evening, from the top of Fesolè, 266. Oblivious pool. It was not, of course, the pool which forgot, but those lying upon it. Milton is thinking of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness in Hades, as afterward ii. 583-586. 268. Mansion, abiding place, as in John xiv. 2: "In my Father's house are many mansions." 274. Pledge, that which has assured them of hope. 281. Astounded, stunned. Amazed, stupefied as by a blow. 282. Pernicious, harmful. 283. Superior. Satan was and had always been the chief. 288. Optic glass, the telescope. The Tuscan artist, Galileo, the astronomer, whom Milton had seen on his Italian journey. 289. Fesole, a village on a hill near Florence. Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 295 300 305 Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they pursued The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 290. Valdarno, the valley of the Arno, in which Florence is situated. 294. Ammiral. An obsolete form of "admiral"; an obsolete use also, meaning the ship and not the commander. 301. Entranced, a little different in meaning from our present use; in a stupor. 302-4. These lines are well known. Vallombrosa, vale," is not far from Florence. a great part of northern Italy. "the shady Etruria was the ancient name for 305. Orion. The constellation was held to bring stormy weather. 307. Busiris, the Pharaoh of the Bible. Memphian, for Egyptian, Memphis having been a great city of Egypt. 308. Perfidious, because he had given the Israelities leave to go. Exod. xii. 31; cf. xiv. 5. 309. Sojourners of Goshen. The children of Israel had sojourned in the land of Goshen four hundred and thirty years according to Gen. xlvii. 27 and Exod. xii. 40. And broken chariot wheels so thick bestrewn, Of Hell resounded: "Princes, Potentates, 315 Warriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, Eternal spirits! Or have ye chosen this place 320 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here as in the vales of Heaven? 325 His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern The advantage, and, descending, tread us down Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!" 330 They heard and were abashed, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch, On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 335 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 312. Abject, hurled down. 317. Lost, if such astonishment 340 can seize Eternal spirits; i. e., all chance of regaining heaven is gone if you are as you seem. 337. To. We say obedience to anything, to the law of God, for instance, as in xii. 397, but obey usually takes an object without a preposition. 339. Amram's son. Moses. 340. The plague of locusts is described in Ex. x. Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 345 350 355 Their great Commander; godlike shapes, and forms And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones; 360 By their rebellion from the Books of Life. 364 345. Cope. The word originally meant hood, mantle, and so covering, as of Heaven, whence transferred to Hell. 348. Sultan. Strictly speaking, an Oriental monarch, but Milton uses the word in a general sense. In 1. 378 we have Emperor. 351–355. Refers to the invasions of the Roman Empire by the Teutonic tribes beyond the Rhine and the Danube, which rivers formed the Roman boundary. 355. The Vandals passed through Spain into Africa. 359. Excelling, surpassing. 360. Powers thrones. See note on 1. 128. 364-373. It was a legend that the fallen angels had, in process of time, become deities of the heathen nations. Milton in ll. 380-521 makes excellent use of it. Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, Glory of Him that made them to transform 370 With gay religions full of pomp and gold, And devils to adore for deities; Then were they known to men by various names And various idols through the heathen world. 375 Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, The chief were those, who, from the pit of Hell 380 385 376. Say, Muse. Cf. "Musa mihi causas memora," En. i. 6, and other such passages, also P. L., i. 27, and vii. 40, in Appendix A. 380. Promiscuous, mixed, and so common; ordinary. 381. The most constant temptation before the children of Israel was to imitate the idolatry of the neighbouring nations. Over and over again did they offend, taking sometimes the gods of one tribe, sometimes of another: the Old Testament from Exodus to Malachi is the record of constant stumbling. Milton follows a sort of traditional idea that the gods of the heathen were none other than the fallen angels, who had been cast out of heaven, and, as will appear in Book ii., he was able to work the idea into the structure of his poem. To illustrate the passages following, the student should read in Appendix C, p. 108, the extracts from Kings and Chronicles, and from Isaiah and Jeremiah. But no one can really enjoy Paradise Lost without constant reference to the Bible, and one should really read much See also the extract from The Hymn to the Nativity, p. 89. more. |