descends with him again, by Leo and Virgo, till he retouches the equator at Libra or the Scales, merely suggesting the equal vagary southwards beyond the equator as far as the Tropic of Capricorn.

685-687. "which had forbid the snow from cold Estotiland": i.e. would have prevented the snow from coming so far from the north pole as to Estotiland (an old name for the part of North America east of Hudson's Bay); “and south as far beneath Magellan": i.e. and kept the snow from as great an extent of the Earth towards the south pole.

688. "Thyestean banquet." Atreus, king of Argos, served up to his brother Thyestes at a banquet the flesh of Thyestes's own sons; at which horror the Sun turned out of his

course.

695-706. 'Norumbega," in old maps, is the part of the coast of the present United States nearest to Canada. "The Samoed shore" is the Siberian shore north-east of Russia. From these northern regions blow the cold north winds, viz. Boreas (N.), Cacias (N.E.), Argestes (N.W.), and Thrascias (N.N.W.). The south winds that encounter them are Notus (S.) and Afer (S.W.), rushing from Sierra Leone and other parts of Africa; and the hubbub is increased by the crossing of the Levant ("rising" or eastern) and Ponent ("setting" or western) winds: viz. Eurus (E.) and Zephyr (W.), Sirocco (S.E.) and Libecchio (S.W.). The names, the studied music of which delighted Milton, are partly classical, partly Italian.

741. Heavy, though in their place": i.e. though at their proper centre or resting-place, where they ought to have no weight.

806-808. "By which all causes," &c. This was a famous aphorism of the scholastic philosophy, and is the same as the so-called doctrine of "The Relativity of Knowledge,' which declares that things or causes are not known absolutely as they themselves are, but only according to the nature and powers of the minds or sentiencies receiving impressions from them.

872, 873. "pretended to hellish falsehood": i.e. stretched in front of hellish falsehood, so as to mask it.

66

1073. attrite," by rubbing or attrition.

1075. "Tine": i.e. light or kindle; an old word, conserved in tinder.

BOOK XI.

In the classic legend

10-14. "the ancient pair," &c. Deucalion and Pyrrha, the survivors from the primeval Deluge, consult the oracle of Themis as to the means of restoring the human race.

66

15. nor missed the way," &c.

A reference to III. 444 et seq., where the Limbo of Fools is described. See particularly line 487 in that passage.

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Argus,'

" &c.

128, 129. "Four faces each," &c. Ezek. x. 12—14. 131-133. The "Arcadian pipe" is the shepherd's pipe with which Hermes or Mercury charmed to sleep the hundred-eyed Argus, employed by Juno to watch Io; the " opiate rod" is the caduceus or wand of the same Mercury, which had the power of sending to sleep.

135. "Leucothea": the "Bright Goddess" of the Greeks, identified by the Romans with their Matura or Morning Goddess.

185. "the bird of fove": the eagle.

205. yon western cloud." This implies that Michael approached Paradise on its western side; which is the more fit, as Mr. Keightley noted, because he was to expel Adam and Eve at the opposite side.

213-220. "Not that .. Mahanaim. . Dothan," &c. Gen. xxxii. 1, 2, and 2 Kings vi. 13-17.

66

66

In this

242, 243. Melibaan," from Meliboea in Thessaly, or the grain of Sarra," i.e. the purple of Tyre, called Sar after the name of the shell-fish that yielded it. See note, V. 285. 377. "In the visions of God." Ezek. xl. 2. 385-411. "His eye might there command," &c. splendid geographical survey there is a certain order :- In lines 387-395 the eye sweeps over ASIA. It begins with the region there which was called Tartary in Milton's time (now divided between the Russian and Chinese empires), singling out the site of Genghis Khan's future capital of Cambalu in Cathay, and that of Tamerlane's future camp of Samarcand north of the Oxus; thence it stretches to China, represented by Paquin or Pekin; thence it returns by the Indian south, selecting Agra and Lahore, celebrated cities of the Mogul monarchs, and glancing at the East Indies as far as the Golden Chersonese or peninsula of Malacca : and it VOL. I.

CC

concludes with a glance at the west of the continent, noting Persia with its successive capitals of Ecbatana and Ispahan, Russia or Moscovia (reputed to belong to Asia) with its capital Moscow, and Turkey with its capital Byzantium or Constantinople. AFRICA comes next, in lines 396-404. Here first we have Abyssinia, the Emperor of which is called 'Negus" in the native Ethiopic, and the northernmost part of which on the Red Sea is Ercoco (Arkecko); then are seen the smaller maritime kingdoms of the east coast-Mombaza, Quiloa, Melinda, and Sofala; then the Cape is rounded, and we come to Congo and Angola, kingdoms on the west coast; and thence, by the Niger, we reach Mount Atlas, with the Barbary States of northern Africa, once included in the dominions of Al-Mansur (the second of the Abbaside Khalifs)-towns or divisions of which are Fez, Sus, Morocco, Algiers, and Tremisen. EUROPE is dismissed rapidly in lines 405, 406, with but a look at Rome. Lines 406-411 range to AMERICA, foreseeing Mexico (the capital of Montezuma, who was conquered by Cortes), Cusco in Peru (the last native ruler of which was Atabalipa, conquered by Pizarro), and that great city in Guiana which the Spaniards (called Geryon's sons," after Geryon, a legendary Spanish king) longed to reach and named El Dorado.—The whole passage, besides illustrating the strength of Milton's geographical memory, is another illustration also of his art in the music of proper names.

486. "moon-struck.” So here, and not moon-strook, though strook is Milton's favourite form (note, II. 165), and we had "planet-strook" a little while ago (X. 413). The reason is obvious. The sound strook would not do in conjunction with the sound moon.

487. "Marasmus": consumption.

632-633. "Man's woe. from Woman." intended play upon the words?

Is this an

665. Of middle age one rising." Enoch, represented as 365 years old at the time of his translation, not half the age attributed to the oldest patriarchs. See Gen. v. 24 and Jude 14, referred to also in line 700.

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729-753. Began to build a vessel," &c. Gen. vi. and vii.; but Milton has inserted recollections of descriptions of the Flood in Ovid (Met. i.) and other poets.

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829-835. Then shall this Mount," &c. Adopting the

opinion that Paradise was obliterated by the Flood, Milton here disposes of it very poetically. It was swept down "the great river," i.e. the Euphrates, to the Persian Gulf, where it took root as a miserable Island. See IX. 69-73, and note, IV. 223–246. 866. "

"listed," striped.

BOOK XII.

24-37. "till one shall rise," &c.: i.e. Nimrod. See Gen. x. 8-10.

38-62. "He, with a crew," &c. Gen. xi. I-9. Commentators find no authority in the Bible for connecting Nimrod with the building of the Tower of Babel.

85. "dividual": separate or separable. See notes, IV. 486 and VII. 382.

117-120. "While yet the patriarch lived who," &c. In the Biblical chronology Noah survives the Flood 350 years, and Terah, Abraham's father, was born 222 years after it.

131-146. Texts used in this passage are Gen. xi. 31, 32, Acts vii. 4, Gen. xii. 4-7, Numb. xxxiv. 3-12, Deut. iii. 8, 9.

152. "faithful Abraham," &c. Gen. xvii. 5, and Gal. iii. 9.

283-306. "So many laws argue," &c. Bishop Newton writes thus :-"Compare the following texts with the poet— Gal. iii. 19, Rom. vii. 7, 8, Heb. ix. 13, 14, Heb. x. 4, 5, Rom. iv. 22-24, Rom. v. i, Heb. vii. 18, 19, Heb. x. I, Gal. iii. II, 12, 23, Gal. iv. 7, Rom. viii. 15. Milton has here, in a few verses, admirably summed up the sense and argument of these and more texts of Scripture." Most of the texts had been traced by the first commentator, Patrick Hume; to the results of whose assiduity in this kind of comment on the poem throughout subsequent critics have added little. In all parts of the poem the reference to texts of Scripture is frequent; but in the rest of this last Book it is incessant.

348-350. "Returned from Babylon by leave of kings," &c. B.C. 536. The kings meant are Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. See Book of Ezra.

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353-358. But first among the priests," &c. The events of later Jewish history so hurriedly skimmed in this passage

are as follows:-In consequence of a struggle for the highpriesthood between two rivals, Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, was able to come to Jerusalem, where he plundered and polluted the Temple, and put the Maccabees to death (B.C. 173); the kingly power and the high-priesthood were united in Aristobulus, eldest son of the high-priest John Hyrcanus (B.C. 107); and the native dynasty was abolished by Pompey (B.C. 61), who appointed Antipater, the Idumæan, to the government. Antipater's son Herod, in whose reign Christ was born, became King of Judæa B.C. 38.

635. "adust," scorched, burnt (Lat. adustus).

636-639. "whereat in either hand the Angel," &c. Milton recollected here, as Addison pointed out, the behaviour of the Angels to Lot and his family (Gen. xix. 16).

648, 649. Addison thought that the poem would have ended better without these two lines: viz. with the words "and Providence their guide," line 647. Milton thought otherwise, and has left us this last sight of Adam and Eve after they came down from Paradise :

"They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.'

END OF VOI I.

LONDON R, CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.