French poetry, and if the last line be changed into an Alexandrine we get the introductory stanza of Milton's Ode. It is interesting to compare this with the stanza-usually known as "the Spenserian stanza"-of the Faerie Queene, which has nine lines, the last being an Alexandrine. This was evolved out of another eight-line stanza (used by Chaucer in his Monk's Tale), very different in structure from that referred to above, the rhyme formula being ababbcbc. Spenser added an Alexandrine, the rhymes being a babbcbcc. It will be seen, therefore, that, looking only to metrical structure, Milton's introductory stanzas correspond to the stanza of the Faerie Queene with the sixth and seventh lines omitted, or to that of the Four Hymns with the last line changed into an Alexandrine. The remainder of the poem, i.e. the Ode proper, is in eightlined stanzas, the structure of which may be thus indicated: (1). (2). (3). (4). (5). (6). (7). (8). No. of line "as Wherever in lines (3) and (6) the final syllable is -ing, that syllable is supernumerary; see the third stanza of the Ode proper for an example. And an Alexandrine itself is susceptible of internal trisyllabic variation as well as disyllabic, and as it may also have a supernumerary final syllable we may have Alexandrines of thirteen syllables": this remark of Professor Masson's is illustrated by lines 140 and 244. 1. the month. See above, on the date of the composition of the Ode. 2. Wherein, on which. Modern prose usage requires in with reference to space of time ('the month in which ') and on with reference to a point of time ('the morning on which '). In the latter case in was once common, but the change to the use of on took place as early as the sixteenth century: comp. Wickliffe, Acts, xiii. 14, "In the day of Sabbath," and see Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, § 161. Heaven's Eternal King. Comp. Par. Reg. i. 236: "Thy Father is the Eternal King who rules All Heaven and Earth." on the 3. virgin mother comp. Andrewes' 9th Sermon : Nativity, And where they (i.e. faith and reason) meet, they make no less a miracle than Mater and Virgo, or Deus and Homo.' Crashaw calls the Virgin Mary 'maiden wife and maiden mother too.' 4. redemption, ransom, buying back. Ransom is the same word through the French, disguised by the difference of vowelsound and of the final letter (Fr. rançon: in Ançren Riwle spelt raunsun). Comp. P. L. xii. 422: "Ere the third dawning light Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise, The ransom paid, which man from death redeems, His death for man": also Gal. iv. 4. 5. holy sages sing comp. L'Alleg. 17 and note. The sages referred to are the Old Testament writers. 6. deadly forfeit, the penalty of death. Forfeit,' that which is imposed as a punishment, and hence the punishment itself: comp. Sams. Agon. 508, "And let another hand, not thine, exact Thy penal forfeit from thyself." The word is radically a participle (comp. 'perfect,' etc.), and is from Low Latin forisfactum, a trespass, something done amiss or beyond limits (foris, out of doors, seen in the word foreign; and facere, to do). release, remit, secure the remission of. Compare M. for M. v. 1. 525, "Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits." Release' (and its doublet relax) were once frequent in this somewhat technical sense: comp. "The king made a great feast, ... and he made a release to the provinces,' Esther, ii. 18; "The statute of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legislature " (Swift); the word has still this legal sense: "Releases are a discharge or conveyance of a man's right in lands," etc. (Blackstone's Commentaries). 7. with. As the Father demands the penalty, the Son has to covenant with Him: see Par. Lost, iii. 144, 227. So that 'with' here denotes not along with,' but is used as in the phrase, “I will use my interest with him" comp. Lat. apud or inter. work us, i.e. bring about on our behalf. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 642, "wrought our fall"; ib. iv. 48, "Yet all his good proved ill in me, And wrought but malice." peace. Comp. Isaiah, ix. 6, "the Prince of Peace"; also Luke, ii. 14, and Andrewes' 13th Sermon, "Ipse est Pax nostra (Eph. ii. 14). 8. unsufferable. We now say 'insufferable': see notes on 'uncessant,' Lycidas, 64; and 'unexpressive,' Lyc. 176. 9. far-beaming blaze. Comp. Par. Lost, iii. 1-6: "Hail, holy Light! offspring of Heaven first-born! May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Beam is here intransitive, but in South's Sermons, i. 8, we find "God beams this light into man's understanding." The phrase 'blaze of majesty' occurs again in Arcades, 2. 10. wont, used, was accustomed. Pens. 37. See notes, Lyc. 67 and Il. 11. sit the midst: comp. Par. Lost, iii. 62. 'The midst' may here be used attributively = midmost (comp. Par. Lost, v. 165, "Him first, Him least, Him midst"); but more probably = in the midst, as the omission of the preposition in adverbial phrases was common in Eliz. English: see Abbott, § 202. 'Midst' occurs twelve times in Shakespeare as a substantive = the middle, in the midst' being a corruption of 'in middest,' found in Spenser (F. Q. vi. 3. 25), which again is from M. E. in middes, derived from A.S. a midde or on-midden. See further in note on L'Alleg. 4. On the origin of such peculiar phrases as 'in our midst,' 'in their midst,' see Marsh's Lect. on Eng. Lang. xviii. Trinal Unity. Comp. Andrewes' 13th Sermon: "Being Ode natalitia, if we consider it as a nativity, they that calculate or cast nativities in their calculations stand much upon triplicities and trigons and trine aspects"; also Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Love, 64, "trinal triplicities." 12. to be, in order to be. 14. darksome house. Comp. Il. Pens. 92 and note, "Her mansion in this fleshly nook ": also the Platonic doctrine that the body is the soul's prison (Phaedo, vi.), and Virgil's Æn. vi. 734, Clausae tenebris et carcere caeco, "(Souls) shut up in darkness and a blind prison." Many adjectives ending in -some are now obsolete; on this point see Trench's English Past and Present, v.; -some is the A.S. and early English sum, German sam: and reappears as an independent word in same. Trench gives a list: wansum, lovesum, healthsome, heedsome, etc. mortal clay. On Milton's uses of 'mortal' see Lyc. 78, note. Locke calls the body "the clay cottage," and Byron has "the clay-cold bonds which round our being cling," Childe H. P. iii. 73. 15. vein, strain, mood. The figurative uses of this word are remarkable. Comp. Rich. III. iv. 2, the giving vein'; satirical vein; vein of metal; improve my vein (i.e. natural disposition). 16. Afford a present, bestow or yield a gift. There is no reference here to the power or resources of his muse; 'to afford' in the 17th century was frequent in the sense of 'to give of what one has,' a sense surviving in such phrases as "the food which the country affords": comp. Sams. Agon. 910, " Afford me place"; Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 16; Hen. VIII. i. 4. 17; etc. 17. strain: see note, Пl. Pens. 174. In the edition of 1645 it is spelt strein (Fr. estreindre, to stretch or press). G 19. while the heaven, etc. For allusions to the horses of the Sun comp. Shakespeare, 1 Hen. iv. "heavenly-harnessed team," and Rich. III. v. 3.: in the Faithful Shepherdess Fletcher speaks of night's "lazy team." "The horses and chariot with which Helios traverses the heavens are not mentioned in the Iliad and Odyssey, but first occur in the Homeric hymn on Helios, and both are described minutely by later poets" (Smith's Classical Dict.). untrod: comp. L'Alleg. 131. 20. took a form of the past tense used as a past participle. Shakespeare has took for 'taken,' shaked and shook for shaken,' arose for 'arisen,' etc. Comp. Il. Pens. 91, 'forsook'; Lines on Shak. 12, 'hath took'; Arcades, 4, 'to be mistook'; Comus, 558, 6 was took,' etc. print: comp. Arc. 85, 'print of step'; Comus, 897, 'printless feet.' 21. spangled host keep watch. On the watchfulness of the stars comp. Comus, 112, "the starry quire Who, in their nightly watchful spheres," etc.: comp. also Comus, 1003, "far above in spangled sheen," and Addison's well-known lines, "The spacious firmament on high, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, See note on Lycidas, 170, "new-spangled sheen." = 23. star-led wizards. Comp. St. Matt. ii. 2, and marginal reference also Par. Reg. i. 249, "A star... Guided the wise men thither from the East." "Wizards' wise men: there is no reference to magical powers. Comp. F. Q. iv. 12. 2, where the ancient philosophers are called "antique wizards ; also Lyc. 55, "Deva's wizard stream," and note; also Comus, 571, 872. 24. prevent, anticipate, forestall. See the Bible Concordance and Trench's Select Glossary, where this, the radical sense of the word (Lat. pre-venio, to come before) is illustrated. Comp. Comus, 285, "Perhaps forestalling night prevented them," where the word seems to have something of both earlier and later meanings; Par. Lost, vi. 129, "At this prevention more incensed ; ib. ii. 467, iii. 231. ode: see introductory note on the following poem. 25. lowly used adverbially. Comp. Par. Lost, viii. 173, "Be lowly wise"; All's Well, ii. 2, "I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught." 27. the angel quire. See note, Пl. Pens. 162, and comp. Par. Reg. i. 242, "At thy nativity a glorious choir of angels ... sung.' 28. secret altar, etc. An allusion, as Newton points out, to Isaiah, vi. 6. 7, "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal... from off the altar; and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, thine iniquity is taken away." Comp. also a passage in Milton's Reason of Church Government (1641), that eternal spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out His seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases." for this use of 'secret' in the sense of 'set apart' comp. Par. Lost, i. 6, "Secret top of Oreb"; Milton has separate in the same sense in Sams. Agon. 31. " Secret': 30. While. See Abbott, § 137. "While now means only during the time when,' but in Eliz. English both while and whiles meant 'up to the time when.'" In line 19 while denotes a space of time, and here a point of time. This line is metrically irregular: it may be scanned, 'While | the heav en born Child'; comp. line 104. 31. All. See note, Il. Pens. 33. 32. in awe to him, i.e. standing in awe of him. This use of to instead of of is explained by the grammatical development of the phrase. At first of usually preceded the object, and to the subject of the feeling: 'Awe of me stood to man. This was varied by 'Awe to (or with) me stood men,' men being a dative. When this dative was mistaken for a nominative, the phrase became 'Men stood awe of me,' and finally 'Men stood in awe of me. Comp. Layamon, 11,694, "Him ne stod aeie to nathing" (1205), which in the edition of 1250 becomes, "Him ne stod eye of no thing." 33. doff'd, put off. Doff is a contraction of 'do off,' as don of 'do on,' and dup (to undo a door) of 'do up': comp. Nares' Glossary on dout = do out. gaudy trim, holiday attire. This is not the 'gaudy' of Il Penseroso, 6 (= showy), but of 'gaudy-day' (= festival) in Tennyson's Enid: comp. Ant. and Cleop. iii. 13. 182, "Let's have another gaudy-night" (Lat. gaudium, gladness). 34. so, thereby. 35. no season, unseasonable, out of place. lusty paramour: see note, Lyc. 123. Paramour,' lover, is the French par amour, by love, an adverbial phrase. Comp. the origin of 'debonair,' L'Alleg. 24, and 'demure,' Il Pens. 32. 41. Pollute formed directly from Lat. participle pollutus = polluted. Such verbs as to pollute,'' to instruct,' 'to accept,' to exhaust,' 'to devote,' etc., are all formed from Latin participles, and this fact frequently led to the employment of these verbs as if they were participles: hence in Milton we find 'pollute' polluted, 'instruct' instructed, elevate' = elevated, etc. When the participial force of these words was entirely forgotten a second participial sign was added, and hence the current forms = |
