account of this cape having been affected by the eruptions of Etna.'-KEIGHTLEY. A suggested reason for the mention of Pelorus here will be found in the preceding note. It is possible too that Milton recollected passages in which Pelorus is described as torn off from Italy, such as Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 414 'Vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina,' or Dante, Purg. xiv:-' Ond' è tronco Peloro.' The passage Milton is imitating seems to be the description of Aetna in Aeneid, iii. 571:— 'Horrificis juxta tonat Aetna ruinis. Interdum scopulos avulsaque viscera montis Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exaestuat imo.' (Nigh it Aetna thunders awfully in wrack, and ever and again vomits out on high crags from the torn entrails of the mountains, tosses up masses of molten rock with a groan, and boils forth from the bottom.'-Mackail's translation.) And Pelorus is mentioned twice in the same book (1. 411, 687). 1. 234. thence. The fuel catches fire from the subterranean wind, which in turn is increased by the fire. 1. 235. sublim'd with mineral fury may mean 'cast up,' 'raised,' by the force generated in the earth, as Satan flying is spoken of as 'in the dun air sublime' (iii. 72); or more probably 'raised to a higher state, that of a liquid or vapour,' a sense nearer that of the chemical word 'sublimate.' Cf. v. 483: 'Flow'rs and their fruit by gradual scale sublim'd To vital spirits aspire, to animal, To intellectual.' If the word be taken in this sense, it answers to 'liquefacta' in the passage quoted on 1. 232. Possibly winds should be wind; this is better than Pearce's suggestion that wind in 1. 231 should be winds. 1. 242. clime, a doublet of climate, which at present means 'the temperature of a region, but once the region itself; the region, however, contemplated in its slope or inclination (kλíμa from kλívw) from the equator toward the pole, and therefore by involved consequence, in respect of the temperature.'-Trench, Select Glossary. Clime has retained more of the older sense than climate. In Milton, clime means sometimes simply 'region,' sometimes, as here and in l. 297, 'a region in respect of its temperature.' 1. 243. seat. See 1. 5. 1. 246. now is sovran. Cf. l. 124. "The spelling sovereign does not seem to be older than about 1570. It occurs in the first folio of Hamlet. The g is intrusive.'-Skeat. 1. 247. farthest from him is best. 'This is expressed from the Greek proverb, Πόρρω Διός τε καὶ κεραυνού. Far from Jupiter, but far too from thunder.'-BENTLEY. 1. 248. reason. The reason of things. Cf. v. 794 :- Monarchy over such as live by right 1. 251. profoundest Hell, Hell deepest down in Chaos. Ἰὼ σκύτος, ἐμὸν φάος, ἔρεβος ὦ φαεννότατον, ὡς ἐμοὶ, ἕλεσθ ̓ ἕλεσθέ μ' οικήτορα ἕλεσθέ με. (Darkness, my light! death-gloom that shinest brightest to me! take, take me to dwell with you, take me.) 1. 253. by place or time. 'Milton is excellent in placing his words; invert them only and say by time or place, and if the reader has any ear, he will perceive how much the alteration is for the worse.'-NEWTON. 1. 254. Cf. Horace, Epist. i. 11. 27 :— 'Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.' Milton wrote an adaptation of this first line in the album of a Neapolitan refugee at Geneva. its. See note on 1. 176. 1. 255. But in iv. 75 Satan confesses, 'which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell.' Cf. Marlowe's Faustus, scene 3, 1. 77 (ed. Bullen). Faust. How comes it then that thou art out of Hell? Think'st thou that I who saw the face of God, and scene v. l. 119 :— 'Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed All places shall be Hell that is not Heaven.' 1. 257. all but less. Professor Masson doubtfully suggests that Milton dictated 'albeit'; but confusions in the use of this comparative are far from uncommon. confusion of 'only less' with 'all but equal.' The phrase is a 'What can be then less in me than desire To see thee.' Cf. P. R. i. 383, which is a confusion of 'What can I do less' and 'What can be more in me.' 1. 259. i. e. the Almighty has not made this a place that he can ever grudge us. 1. 261. in my choice. Contrast what Achilles says to Odysseus when he sees him in Hades (Odyss. xi. 488) : βουλοίμην κ' ἐπάρουρος ἐὼν θητευέμεν ἄλλῳ F ('Rather would I live on ground as the hireling of another, with a landless man who had no great livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead that be departed.'-Butcher and Lang's transl.) 1. 266. oblivious, causing forgetfulness, as in Macbeth v. 3. 43, 'Some sweet oblivious antidote.' They had been lying nine days in stupor, 'confounded' (1. 53), 'intranced' (1. 301). Cf. ii. 74:— 'If the sleepy drench Of that forgetful lake benumm not still.' There is no reference to Lethe, which is described in ii. 583 as a river of water. 1. 266. astonisht, stunned (entranct, 1. 301). 'An alteration not found earlier than 1500 of earlier astony, as if this represented a F. estonnir, estonissant. Astony is a variant of astone of difficult explanation; perhaps the ending is due to O. F. pass. part. estoné. Astone is through O. F. estoner (étonner) from Latin ex-tonare, to thunder. The verb astound is from the adjective, which is a form of astoned.'-Murray. The original meaning of astonish therefore, as of astony and astone, was to strike senseless; cf. Holland's Livy, 'The one (stone) smote the king upon the head, the other astonished his shoulder'; and this is the meaning here. Cf. Argument to this book, 1. 13, 'thunderstruck and astonished, and Milton, Hist. of England, ii, 'blind, astonished, and struck with superstition as with a planet, in one word monks.' 1. 268. mansion, abode, from Latin mansionem (manēre, to remain). Cf. S. John xiv. 2, 'In iny Father's house are many mansions' (R.V. marg. ‘or abiding-places'). 1. 273. foil'd, defeated. So 1 Henry VI, v. 3. 23 :— 'Before that England give the French the foil. 'Corrupted from O.F. fouler (to trample on) as defile is from defouler-Skeat. 1. 274. pledge, surety. Satan's voice made hope secure. So, v. 168, the dawn is called 'sure pledge of day.' 1. 275. It is not clear to what Beelzebub can refer, unless to the various chances of the one war in heaven. 1. 276. edge of battle, like Latin acies, the front line of the battle. Cf. vi. 108: 'Before the cloudy van, On the rough edge of battel ere it joined, Satan with vast and haughty strides advanc'd.' 1. 282. pernicious. Probably a humorous conversational epithet, as several times in Shakespeare; e.g. Comedy of Errors, v. 2. 241; Henry VIII, ii. 1. 50. 1. 284. was (already) moving. Cf. 227. Satan goes back to the shore of the lake. 1. 285. (of) ethereal temper. Prof. Masson collects four other instances of this 'peculiar Miltonic ellipsis, by which a phrase compounded of an adjective and a substantive is made to do duty as an adjective': v. 284, 'feather'd mail Sky-tinctur'd grain'; vi. 576, 'brass, iron, stony mould'; vii. 14, ‘ethereal air, thy tempering'; vii. 471, 'a creature new, man-like, but different sex.' temper, tempered metal. Cf. iv. 812 :— 'For no falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper (Ithuriel's spear), but returns 1. 287. i. e. like the moon seen through a telescope, the magnified image of the moon; an extension of the comparison in Spenser, F. Q. v. 5. 3, of Radigund's shield to the faire Moone in her most full aspect.' 'Homer compares the splendour of Achilles' shield to the moon, Il. xix. 373 :αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα σάκος μέγα τε, στιβαρόν τε, εἵλετο, τοῦ δ ̓ ἀπάνευθε σέλας γένετ', ηύτε μήνης.NEWTON. ('Then lastly he took the great and strong shield, and its brightness shone afar off as the moon's.'-Lang and Leaf's transl.) 1. 288. optic glass. Telescopes, though the principle of them was understood earlier, were not constructed till about |