In heaven by many a towered structure high, Fell long before; nor aught availed him now To have built in heaven high towers; nor did he scape By all his engines, but was headlong sent With his industrious crew to build in hell. Meanwhile the winged haralds by command Of sovran power, with awful ceremony And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim say yes. 735 740 745 750 736. Gave, permitted. Perhaps 'gave to rule' is a Latinism.— 737. Hierarchy (Gr. ¡epós, sacred; άpxń, rule), sacred rank? sacred principality?-739. Ausonian, poetic for Italian.—740. Mulciber (Lat. mulcère, to soften. Because fire softens metals? or softens human hardships ?), Vulcan, god of fire, worker in metals for the gods. See Class. Dict. Fell. Having tried to loosen the iron anvils fastened to his mother Juno's feet by Jupiter, he was seized by the foot and flung from heaven! Iliad, I. 591, etc.742. Sheer (A. S. sceoran, to separate; scir, clear, clean-cut. Wedgewood says, "The fundamental signification seems to be shining, then clear, bright, pure, clean"), completely. From morn, etc. Note how beautifully the time is lengthened out.-746. Lemnos, etc. The metre, with the stress on 2d syl. of gaan, represents the concussion? Egæan, in the Archipelago. Lemnos is volcanic? They, the old poets?-747. Rout, rabble, gang; originally the noise of such mob.-750. Engines (Lat. ingenia, inventiveness), contrivances, instrumentalities. — 752. Haralds. Milton's spelling. Sovran (It. sovrano), sovereign. See note, 1. 246. A solemn council forthwith to be held At Pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called By place or choice the worthiest they anon Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given, 755 760 765 770 775 -756. Pandemonium (Gr. râv, pan, all; daíμwv, daimōn, demon), hall of all the demons, as Pantheon is hall of all the gods? Milton either coined the word or gave it currency. -758. Squared regiment (Lat. quatuor, four; ec, out; quadra, square; Fr. escadron, squadron of cavalry), squadron, regiment in orderly array. 763. Covered field. The hall, vast as it was, was covered like a tilt-yard. Storr. Milton does not quite compare the hall to an enclosed field' (champ clos). It is too vast for that! Yet it is covered. Let us rise to Milton's conception; not imagine for a moment that he blundered on the meaning of champ clos. —764. Wont, were accustomed to. Soldan's (It. Soldano), Sultan's. —765. Panim (Lat. pagus, country district; Fr. pais, pays), pagan. —766. Mortal, etc.; i. e. either a combat à l'outrance, to the leath; or career (carrière) etc., merely breaking a lance.'-767. Swarmed, i. e. gates, porches, hall. — 768. As bees, etc. Beautifully expanded from Homer and Virgil, II. II. 87, etc., En. I. 430, etc.. Georg. IV. 21.769. With Taurus rides. For a month his chariot is passing through that constellation?-774. Expatiate, walk about engaged in conversation. Confer, discuss. 776. Straitened. Origin Behold a wonder! they but now who seemed Whose midnight revels, by a forest side 780 Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 785 Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 795 Sees, etc. Aut videt aut Æneid, VI. 453. — 785. belief was that incanta and meaning? - 780. Pygmean. See 1. 575.-781. Indian mount, the Himalayas Faery elves, elves of fairy land.'-783-4. vidisse putat, either sees or thinks he has seen. Àrbitress, witness and umpire. Nearer. The old tions could draw the moon down from the sky. So stated in Virg. Ecl. VIII. 69; Horace Epod. V., etc. - 790. Reduced. Those who accept the Scriptures (as Mark v., Luke xi. 26, etc.) need no argument to make them admit the possibility of this. 795. Conclave (Lat. con, together; clavis, key), alluding, possibly, to the Roman conclave of cardinals sitting in privacy to elect a pope? Recess, retreat.796. Frequent and full. Close-packed and all occupied or, numerous seats all filled?-798. Consult. Usually supposed to be accented here on the last syllable. Dryden so uses and accents 'consults' as a noun. BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. THE consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of heaven some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honored and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell and heaven. With what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the power of that place, to this sight of this new world which he sought. HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far To that bad eminence; and, from despair Vain war with heaven; and, by success untaught, 5 ΙΟ 1. High, etc. A magnificent opening, somewhat similar to the description in Faerie Queene, I. IV. 8; also the beginning of Ovid's Met. II. - 2. Ormus, Hormuz, a little island, once a rich diamond mart, now miserably poor, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Ind; i. e. of the Moguls or of the Golconda mines?-3. Gorgeous East is a Shakes. phrase. Love's Lab. Lost, IV. 3; so is 'rich East' in Macbeth, IV. 3. —-4. Showers, etc. "I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail rich pearls upon thee." Shakes. Ant. and Cleop. II. 5. A ceremony at coronations in Tartary and Persia. Barbaric (Asiatic), an epithet of 'gold' in Virg. Æn. II. 504. 5. Satan. Rhetorical effect of reserving the name till this 5th line? Merit. What kind? -6. Despair, as stated in Book I. 126.-9. Success, result, event, experience. |