And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 80 Set off to th' world, nor in broad rumour lies ; Of so much fame in Heav'n expect thy meed. 85 O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds, That strain I heard was of a higher mood; But now my oat proceeds, And listens to the Herald of the Sea co That came in Neptune's plea ; He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds, What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain? And question'd every gust of rugged wings 74. Blaze. "For what is glory but the blaze of fame ?" Paradise Regained, iii. 47. 75. Fury. In ancient mythology, as Milton knew well, it was the office of one of the three fates to suip the thread of life. The use of fury may have been accidental, or, wanting a dyssyllable, the poet may have used his authority in handling classic traditions more than once he invents his classic myths - to put the shears into the hands of a blind fury as a more dramatic personage for his purpose. 79. Foil. Fame, the poet says, is of immortal growth; nor does it lie either in some shining contrast or in broad rumor. - under the light of. 81. By 86. Mincius. A remembrance of Virgil, Georgics iii. 13–15. The poet there offers to build a votive offering by the Mincio. That blows from off each beaked promontory: 95 They knew not of his story, And sage Hippotades their answer brings, Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, 105 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge The Pilot of the Galilean lake; 110 Two massy keys he bore of metals twain (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake: 96. Hippotades: Æolus, son of Hippotas. 97. Was stray'd. This form still lingers with us, but it sounds to most a little stiff. It holds, however, in academic use, as when we say a man was graduated from college. 103. Camus. It will be remembered that King was from the college on the Cam. Wentwended his way. 104. Bonnet. The Scotch still use this word for male as well as female head covering. 106. Like, i. e. a figure like. Sanguine flower the hya cinth. 111. To know the uses of the keys one needs but to recall the charge to St. Peter. 112. Mitred locks. Milton was writing in a time when Episcopacy was a question of the hour. He himself was opposed to Episcopacy as he saw it, but the true overseeing of souls was another matter; and thus he makes St. Peter a bishop. "How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain, Enow of such as for their bellies' sake ns Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold 120 A sheep-hook, or have learn'd ought else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! What recks it them? What need they? They are sped; And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; 125 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; 114-131. In this terrible indictment by St. Peter of the priestly shepherds of the flock of English souls, Milton pours out with impassioned words his own stern judgment. For the satisfaction of carnal desires such shepherds enter the fold by various doors other than the one door; for Milton could not forget the parable of shepherd and fold from the lips of the Great Shepherd. They creep, that is, they enter by intrigue and cunning; they intrude, thrust themselves in with insolence; they elimb, seek ambitiously for their own ends to mount step by step to high dignities. As the bishop is one who by his name oversees, so these are blind; as the pastor is one who feeds another, so the most unnatural attributes would be blindness and eating, and blind mouths becomes a bold condemnation of iniqui*ous practice in false shepherds. For a striking study of the whole passage from which these points are taken, see Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 20-22. 123. When they list when it is their pleasure. See Johr iii. 8. Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said: 130 But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past, That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 135 Their bells, and flourets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use, Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, 140 That on the green turf suck the honied showres, And purple all the ground with vernal flowres. Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 128. The grim wolf with privy paw. The reference here is to the accessions which the Romish church was quickly making to itself, through the influence of the court. It is barely possible that Milton was girding at the Privy Council, which with the king was practically the government of the realm, in oppositior to the parliament. ахе. 130. Two-handed engine. Engine was used of implements both large and small; it took two hands to swing the executioner's The reference here may be to the English Parliament. 132. The poet, remembering how far he has been led away from the theme he entered on, makes this sudden transition. The river Alpheus was fabled to have passed under the sea and reissued in Sicily. 135. Bells, i. e. bell-like flowers. 136. Use. See line 67. 138. Swart-star, i. e. the dog-star. 142. Rathe. This positive has died out of familiar use, but the comparative remains in rather = earlier, sooner. It appears from the manuscript of the poem, preserved at Cambridge, that this passage enumerating the flowers was an afterthought, and elaborated by Milton with great care. The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, The musk-rose, and the well-attir'd woodbine, 150 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 155 Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd, 165 Where the great vision of the guarded mount Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold; Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth, And, O ye dolphins, waft the haples youth. Weep no more, woful Shepherds, weep no more, 143. Crow-toe hardly sounds as natural to us as crow-foot. 151. Hearse tomb. 158. Monstrous world world of monsters. 160. Bellerus was an old Cornish giant. 161. The guarded mount is St. Michael's mount on the coast of Cornwall. 162. Namancos and Bayona stand for a tower and castle in Spain. 163. Angel, i. e. St. Michael. 165. The poet rises above the thought of the dead body, washed hither and thither by the waves, to the imperishable spirit. |