7. above A mile, more than a mile. In Wordsworth's ode Life is a daily journey "farther from the East," from the original celestial life; here the child is said to have made but a short journey, and is still able to catch glimpses of the glories he has left behind.

14. shadows, etc.: comp. Wordsworth's "shadowy recollections," and Tennyson's In Mem. xliv.

17. black art, knowledge of evil. line 6.

Contrast with 'white' in

18. several, separate, distinct. Radically several is connected with separate. It is now used only with plural nouns. Comp. Par. Lost, ii. 524, "each his several way." The idea of the poet is that every human power involves a capacity for its misuse, for some form of evil. Comp. Comus, 839, "through the porch and inlet of each sense." See note, Hymn Nat. 234.

19. fleshly dress: comp. Il Pens. 92, "her mansion in this fleshly nook," and note there given; also No. XLIV., 1. 24.

24. train, course.

26. City of palm trees: comp. "palms of Paradise" (In Memoriam).

27. too much stay. It is impossible, after the experiences of life, to return to the pure innocence and the insight of infancy. Years bring, as Wordsworth says, "the inevitable yoke.”

"Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life."

Comp. Sams. Agon. 1670, "drunk with idolatry"; and Wordsworth's Nature of the Poet (G. T. cccxxiii.):

"So once it would have been,-'tis so no more;
I have submitted to a new control:

A power is gone, which nothing can restore;
A deep distress hath humanized my soul.

Not for a moment could I now behold

A smiling sea, and be what I have been :

The feeling of my loss will ne'er be old;

This, which I know, I speak with mind serene.

31. urn: comp. Lyc. 20.

32. that state, i.e. angel-infancy: when I die I would fain return to my former innocence. Shairp notes that "there is one thought about childhood in Vaughan which Wordsworth has not. It is this that hereafter in the perfected Christian manhood the child's heart will reappear. His poem of The Retreat

closes with the wish that

"When this dust falls to the urn,

In that state I came return."

Again, in another poem, he calls childhood
"An age of mysteries which he

Must live twice who would God's face see,
Which angels guard, and with it play,
Angels! whom foul men drive away.'

No. XV.

TO MR. LAWRENCE.

THIS Sonnet, written in 1655 or 1656, proves that even in his blindness Milton could be L'Allegro as well as 11 Penseroso. It is addressed to a son of that Henry Lawrence who was President of Cromwell's Council (1654) and a member of his House of Lords (1657). We do not know which of his sons is meant, but it was probably Henry, then about twenty-two years of age. He was one of a number of young men who, admiring Milton's genius, delighted to visit him, to talk with him, read to him, walk with him, or write for him.

1. of virtuous father virtuous son: comp. Horace

"O matre pulchra, filia pulchrior."

2. Now that the fields, etc. : now, when the fields, etc. The use of 'that' for 'when' was once extremely common, but its use is now rare except after the adverb 'now.' (Abbott, § 284.)

ways are mire. The use of the noun 'mire' instead of the adjective 'miry' is significant of the state of the London streets in rainy weather.

3. Where shall we sometimes meet? a question which implies that, as they can neither walk into the country nor in the streets, they must meet indoors.

4. Help waste, i.e. help each other to spend: see note, Arc. 13. Compare Horace, "morantem saepe diem mero fregi," Odes, ii. 7; also Milton's Epitaphium Damonis, 45.

what may be won, etc.: 'thus gaining from the inclement season whatever good may be got by meeting together'; the pleasures indoors will compensate for the loss of our walks outof-doors.

6. Favonius: a frequent name in Latin poetry for Zephyr, the West Wind (see L'Alleg. 19); it was this wind that introduced the spring, melting stern winter,' as Horace says. In one of his masques Jonson calls Favonius "father of the spring."

reinspire: here used literally, 'to breathe new life into.'

8. neither sowed nor spun: an allusion to Matt. vi. 28, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 'Spun' is here a past tense; see note, Lyc. 102.

9. neat. This is from Lat. nitidus, bright, attractive.

light and choice, temperate and well-chosen.

10. Of Attic taste, 'such as would please the simple and refined Athenian taste.' There may also be a kind of allusion to the fact that their food would be seasoned with 'Attic salt,' a common term for sparkling wit-for what are called in L'Allegro "quips and cranks."

11. artful, showing art or skill. This is its radical sense; it is now used in a less dignified sense, viz., wily or cunning. A similar change of meaning is seen in artless, cunning, etc. See note, L'Alleg. 141.

12. Warble: infinitive after 'hear.'

immortal notes: comp. L'Alleg. 137.

Tuscan, Italian; Tuscany being a compartment of Italy. 13. spare To interpose, etc., i.e. use them sparingly.' The Lat. parcere with an infinitive = 'to refrain from '; and the Latin verb temperare may mean either to refrain from' or to spare.' There is therefore no doubt of Milton's meaning.

6

14. not unwise, very wise. By a figure of speech the two negatives strengthen the affirmative sense : comp. 'no mean applause' in the next sonnet, and note, No. xix., 1. 2.

No. XVI.

TO CYRIACK SKINNER.

THIS Sonnet was written about the same time as the preceding one, and in a similar mood of cheerfulness. Milton wishes, in

Cyriack Skinner's company, to throw off for a time the cares and worries of his Secretaryship, and calls upon his friend to lay aside his study of politics and of mathematical and physical science. Cyriack Skinner was grandson of Sir Edward Coke, the famous lawyer and judge (1549-1634), and author of numerous legal works of great value.

1. bench Of British Themis. Coke was Solicitor-General in 1592, and afterwards Attorney-General. 'Bench,' a long seat, hence a judge's seat, and so used metaphorically for Law and Justice. Themis, "the personification of the order of things established by law, custom, and equity.”

2. no mean applause: see note, No. xv., l. 14, above.

3. Pronounced. Pronuntiatio is a Latin term for the decision of a judge, and we speak of a judge pronouncing sentence. Comp. Lyc. 83.

in his volumes, e.g. the Institutes of the Laws of England, Reports, in 13 vols., and Commentaries on Lyttleton.

4. at their bar, i.e. in administering the law: 'bar' is used metaphorically for 'a legal tribunal.'

wrench, pervert, twist. Wrench and wrong are both allied to wring; so that wrong means strictly 'twisted,' just as right means straight.'

5. To-day resolve with me to drench deep thoughts in such mirth as will not afterwards bring regret. 'To drench deep thoughts' may be compared with such phrases as 'to drown

care.

6. after, afterwards.

7. Let Euclid rest, etc. lay aside the study of mathematics physical science, and political questions. Skinner was a diligent student of all these subjects. Euclid, the celebrated mathematician, is here by metonymy put for his works: the name has almost become synonymous with Geometry.

Archimedes (B. c. 287-212), a mathematician and physicist of the highest order, lived at Syracuse: when that city was taken, he was killed while intent upon a mathematical problem. He wrote on conic sections, hydrostatics, etc

8. what the Swede intend, sc. let rest. The verb being plural 'Swede' must here be plural, just as we say 'the Swiss,' the French,' the Dutch,' etc., to denote a whole nation. Swede,' however, is not now so used,' the adjective being 'Swedish' and the noun (singular only) 'Swede'; hence some editions read resounds. When this sonnet was written, Charles X. of Sweden was at war with Poland and Russia, and Louis XIV. of France with Spain.

9. To measure life, etc., i.e. learn in good time how short life is, so that you may make the most of it. As Milton says in Par. Lost, "What thou liv'st Live well; how long or short permit to Heaven." 'Betimes' (by-time) = in good time: the final s is the adverbial suffix.

11. For other things, etc., i.e. Heaven has tenderly ordained that there shall be a time for mirth as well as anxious thought, and disapproves of the conduct of those who make a display of their anxiety and refuse to rejoice even when they may well do so. Comp. "Learn to jest in good time: there's a time for all things' (Com. of Errors, ii. 2); also "Be not therefore anxious for the

morrow for the morrow will be anxious for itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. xi. 34).

6.

No. XVII.

A HYMN IN PRAISE OF NEPTUNE.

THIS hymn is printed in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody with the heading, This hymn was sung by Amphitrite, Thamesis, and other Sea-Nymphs, in Gray's Inn Masque, at the Court, 1594."

On Campion's lines Basia (No. xxv. G. T., Bk. 1.) Mr. Palgrave's note is: "From one of the three Song-books of T. Campion, who appears to have been author of the words which he set to music. His merit as a lyrical poet (recognized by his own time, but since then forgotten) has been again brought to light by Mr. Bullen's taste and research." See also Rhys's edition of Campion (Lyric Poets Series). Campion was a physician by profession, and was famous in his own day as a poet and a musician. He appealed first to the public as a poet in 1595 in Poemata, a collection of Latin elegiacs and epigrams. In 1602 he published Observations on the Art of English Poesie, in which he disparaged "riming"; in 1602 he was the 'inventor' of a masque presented before King James I. at Whitehall, and from time to time he brought out other masques, in which he found scope for the display of his musical and poetical genius. Amongst English masque-writers the praise of Neptune is a favourite subject, affording abundant opportunity for delicate flattery of the rulers of our islandkingdom: comp. especially Milton's Comus, 11. 18-29. On Campion see further in the notes on Nos. XXXIII. and LIX,

1 Neptune's empire. Com. Ham. i. 1. 118, "the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands." The student should refer also to Milton's Comus, 11. 867-889, with the allusion to "earth-shaking Neptune's mace,' "scaly Triton's winding shell,' ," "the songs of Siren's sweet,' ""the Nymphs that nightly dance," etc.; also to Jonson's masque, Neptune's Triumph,

"The mighty Neptune, mighty in his styles,

And large command of waters and of isles."

2. whose, of whom. The antecedent is the genitive 'Neptune's' =of Neptune: see Abbott, § 218. Comp. Par. Lost, ii. 59, "the prison of His tyranny who," etc.

5. scaly nation, the fishes and other inhabitants of the sea. The sea-gods, e.g. the Tritons, were represented in mythology as half-man, half-fish. Comp. Comus, 18-27. Milton applies the epithet scaly to Triton, to Sin, and to the crocodile: comp. Pope's Windsor Forest, 139.