Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 30

XXIV.

Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove or green Trampling the unshowr'd gra.s.s{60} with lowings loud, Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest; Naught but profoundest h.e.l.l can be his shroud; In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his wors.h.i.+pt ark.

XXV.

He feels from Judas land The dredded Infants hand; The rayes of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;{61} Nor all the G.o.ds beside Longer dare abide, Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: Our Babe, to show his G.o.dhead true, Can in his swaddling bands controul the d.a.m.ned crew.

XXVI.

So, when the Sun in bed,{62} Curtain'd with cloudy red Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, The flocking shadows pale Troop to th' infernal jail; Each fetter'd ghost slips to his severall grave; And the yellow-skirted Fayes Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-lov'd maze.

XXVII.

But see the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest; Time is our tedious song should here have ending; Heav'ns youngest teemed{63} star Hath fixt her polish'd car, Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; And all about the courtly stable Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable.{64}

NOTES.

This poem was begun by Milton on Christmas day, 1629. He had then just completed his twenty-first year, and was still an undergraduate at Christ's College, Cambridge. From certain fragments and other evidence, it is believed that he contemplated writing a series of poems on great Christian events in a similar way. This is the first poem of importance which he wrote. Hallam speaks of it as perhaps the finest lyric of its kind in the English language. "A grandeur, a simplicity, a breadth of manner, an imagination at once elevated and restrained by the subject, reign throughout it. If Pindar is a model of lyric poetry, it would be hard to name any other ode so truly Pindaric; but more has naturally been derived from the Scriptures."

1. =our deadly forfeit should release.= Should remit the penalty of death p.r.o.nounced against us. Shakespeare has a similar use of the word "forfeit."

"Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits."

--_Measure for Measure_, Act v, sc. 1.

2. =wont.= The past tense of the A.-S. verb _wunian_, to persist, to continue, to be accustomed. Now used only in connection with some form of the auxiliary verb _be_.

3. Explain the meaning of each word in this line, and of the whole line.

The next two stanzas comprise an invocation to the Muse of Poetry. See note 1, page 153.

4. =Wisards.= Wizards. Wise men. The word was originally used in this sense, and not with the depreciatory meaning of "magician," as at present. Spenser says:

"Therefore the antique wizards well invented That Venus of the fomy sea was bred,"

meaning by "antique wizards" ancient philosophers.

5. =prevent.= Go before; the original meaning of the word, from Lat.

_prae_, before, and _venio_, to go or come.

"I prevented the dawning of the morning."--_Psalm_ cxix. 147.

"I will have nothing to hinder me in the morning, for I will prevent the sun rising."--_Izaak Walton_, _Compleat Angler_.

6. =angel quire.= "And suddenly there was with the angel a mult.i.tude of the heavenly host praising G.o.d."--_Luke_ ii, 13.

7. =paramour.= See note 9, page 80.

8. =maiden.= Pure, innocent, unpolluted. Compare

"When I am dead, strew me o'er With maiden flowers."

--_Shakespeare_, _Henry VIII_, Act iv, sc. 2.

9. =turning sphear.= The Ptolemaic system of astronomy taught that the earth was the centre of the universe, and that all the heavenly bodies revolved about it, being fixed in a complicated framework, or series of hollow crystalline spheres moving one within the other. The "turning sphear" is here this entire system of revolving spheres. See note 34, below.

10. =harbinger.= One who provides a resting-place for a superior person.

It was the duty of the king's harbinger, when the court removed from one place to another, to provide lodgings for the king's retinue. Derived from _harbor_, _harborage_. The word "harbor" is from A.-S. _here_, army, and _beorg_, a refuge. Others derive the word from _har_, a message, and _bringer_--hence, one who brings a message, a herald.

Parkes's _Topography of Hampstead_, 1818, contains the following:

"The office of harbinger still exists in the Royal Household, the nominal duty of the officer being to ride one stage onward before the king on his progress, to provide lodging and provision for the court."

The last knight-harbinger was Sir Henry Rycroft (appointed in 1816, died October, 1846, aged eighty). The office became extinct at his death.

11. =turtle.= Commonly _turtle-dove_. For history of the word as now applied to the tortoise, see Worcester's Dictionary.

12. =universall peace.= About the time of the birth of Christ there was peace throughout the Roman Empire, and the temple of Ja.n.u.s was shut.

13. =hooked chariot.= The war-chariot armed with scythes, a Celtic invention adopted by the Romans.

14. =awfull eye.= We would say, "awe-filled eyes."

=sovran.= Old French _souverain_. Some derive it from Lat. _supra_, above, and _regno_, to reign.

15. =whist.= Hushed. This word, now used as a sort of interjection commanding silence, seems to have had in earlier English more of a verbal meaning, as Spenser in "The Faerie Queene," VII, vii, 59:

"So was the t.i.taness put downe and whist."

It also meant _to keep silent_, as in Surrey's "Virgil":

"They whisted all, with fixed face intent."

A game of cards in which the players are supposed to keep silent is called whist.

=birds of calm.= Halcyons. See note 1, page 78.

16. =influence.= From Lat. _in_, into, and _fluo_, to flow. This word, until a comparatively modern date, was always used with respect to the supposed mysterious rays or aspects flowing from the stars to the earth, and thus having a strange power over the fortunes of men. "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades?"--_Job_ xxviii. 31.

"Happy constellations on that hour Shed their selectest influences."

--_Paradise Lost_, VIII, 512.

17. =For.= Notwithstanding.

18. =Lucifer.= The morning star. The idea of Lucifer appearing to warn the stars of the approach of the sun is a happy figure. See note 7, page 80.

19. =axle-tree.= Axis. _Tree_ in O. E. is used to signify beam. We still have _single-tree_, _double-tree_, _whiffle-tree_, etc. Compare "Comus,"

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