117. "yea gods," i.e. not only possessors and rulers of regions of the Earth and Air, but actually gods to men, in consequence of that process by which the Fallen Angels had in course of time been transmuted into the false gods of the various Polytheistic systems. See Par. Lost, I. 364 et seq.,

and note there.

175. "But to," etc. A line very peculiar metrically, unless, with Jortin, we suppose "vanquish" accented on the last syllable, vanquish.

66

184. "Lodged in Bethabara, where John baptized." This is from John i. 28—“These things were done in Bethabara, where John was baptizing." In that passage, however, the best Greek MSS. of the New Testament read Bethany for Bethabara; which reading is adopted by the editors of the Revised New Testament, though they note, Many ancient authorities read Bethabarah, some Betharabah." Mr. Jerram, who had remarked the various reading, says that, if Bethany is adopted, then conjectures as to the site of Bethabara "are of course futile." He adds, however:-"Some take it to be the Bethbárah mentioned in Judges vii. 24, the principal ford of the Jordan; others Bethnimrah (Joshua xiii. 27), east of the Jordan and nearly opposite Jericho. Lieut. Conder, of the Palestine Exploration, identifies Bethabara with a ford much farther north, about 25 miles S. E. of Cana, now called Makhádet Abára. Since Bethabara means 'House of Crossing,' there may have been many places on the Jordan bearing that name.'

193. "the bordering Desert wild." The Desert or Wilderness which was the scene of the Temptation was, according to Matthew and Luke, the same as that in which John had been preaching and from which he had gone to Bethabara baptizing. It was called the Wilderness of Judea, and extended from the Jordan along the whole western coast of the Dead Sea. The middle part was called specially the Wilderness of Ziph, from a mountain in it, and the northern part, due east from Jerusalem, the Wilderness of Engedi or Engaddi, from one of the cities of the desert (Josh. xv. 62). The "bordering Desert wild" of the present passage was either this Wilderness of Engedi, or some desert part of the valley of Jordan itself higher up. In the sequel of the poem, however, Milton supposes that Christ, in his forty days of wandering, may have penetrated farther into the Wilder

ness of Judea and even reached the great Arabian Desert itself.

292, 293. "I learn not yet," etc. In the spirit of such texts as Luke ii. 52, and Mark xiii. 32, and in accordance with the view of some theologians, Milton makes Christ as Man not omniscient, but acquiring knowledge gradually. 294. "our Morning Star." Rev. xxii. 16.

314-320. "But now an aged man," etc. Note the manner of Satan's first appearance here, and how stealthy and mean-looking he is. It is as if the great Satan of Paradise Lost had been shrinking since then into the Mephistopheles of the modern world. See Introd. p. 10.

333, 334. "aught . . . what," for "aught that" or 'aught which": an obsolete use now of "what," except as a vulgarism, though etymologically proper.

347-351. "Is it not written?" etc. Deut. viii. 3. 353, 354. "Elijah," etc. This name occurs four times in the poem. Twice it is spelt Eliah in the original edition -viz. here and at 11. 19; and twice Elijah-viz. at II. 268, and II. 277."Wandered this barren waste." Elijah's wanderings were from Beersheba into the Great Desert as far as Horeb (1 Kings xix. 1-8), and therefore not strictly in that Desert of Judea which is usually supposed to have been the scene of Christ's temptation.

368, 369. "I came," etc. Job. i. 6.

371-376. And, when... King Ahab," etc. I Kings xxii. 19-23.

383, 384. "What can be then less in me than desire,” etc. The meaning is "The least I can do is to desire"; and the wording, if strictly construed, gives almost the opposite sense. "A word like less," as Mr. Jerram notes, "is liable to cause confusion when joined to a word or phrase implying a negative"; and he quotes sentences from Shakespeare where less stands instead of more.

428. "four hundred mouths." I Kings xxii. 6.

435. "Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding." A reference to some of the famous instances of ambiguous answers by the Delphic Oracle.

66

456. henceforth Oracles are ceased." See Od. Nat. 173 et seq. and note there.

498. "His grey dissimulation." The phrase is found in Ford's Broken Heart. Keightley, who noted the fact,

thought it a mere accidental coincidence; but Mr. Jerram observes that the Broken Heart came out about 1620, and was probably known to Milton.

BOOK II.

7. "Andrew and Simon. John i. 40, 42.

15. "Moses

.

missing long." Exod. xxxii. 1.

16. "the great Thisbite." Elijah, the Tishbite (1 Kings xvii. 1). Milton avoids the sh sound when he can.

17. "yet once again to come." This was a belief of the Early Church, founded on Malachi iv. 5, and Matt. xvii.

II.

19-24. "so in each place these nigh to Bethabara," etc., i.e. so the first disciples sought Christ in all places along the Jordan from Bethabara. (See note, 1. 184.) The places named are: Jericho, which was called "the City of Palms (Deut. xxxiv. 3), and which was to the west of the Jordan, a little north of the Dead Sea; Ænon, a town on the Jordan, considerably higher up and nearer the Lake Gennesareth, and mentioned in John iii. 23 as one of the places where John baptized; Salem, mentioned in the same text as near to Ænon, and mentioned also in 1 Sam. ix. 4 as Shalim, in the country round which Saul sought his father's asses, and under the same name in Gen. xxxiii. 18 as a dwellingplace of Jacob (hence probably called "Salem old" by Milton, and not because, as some suppose, he identified it with the Salem of Melchizedek, Gen. xiv. 18); and finally Macharus, on the east of the northern angle of the Dead Sea. But they searched not these places only, but also every other town or city between the Lake Genezaret and the Dead Sea,-whether on the west of the Jordan, or in the country called Peræa on the eastern side of that river. 27. "Plain fishermen (no greater men them call).' After Spenser (Shep. Cal., i. 1): "A shepherd's boy (no better do him call)."

61-62. Mr. Jerram notes the rhyme in these two lines as an unfortunate accident in a blank verse poem.

119. "without sign of boast," etc. In contrast to his triumphant return from tempting Adam. See Par. Lost, X. 460 et seq.

131. "tasted him." Taste for "test

in old English.

134-137. "Though Adam,” etc.

what obscure.

or "try" is found

The passage is someI interpret it thus: "Though it required his wife's allurement to make even Adam fall, however inferior he to this man; who, if he be man by the mother's side, is at least adorned from heaven with more," etc.

150-151. "Belial.

Asmodai." See Par. Lost, II.

108 et seq.; also IV. 168, VI. 365, with notes.

Com

168. "the magnetic": the magnet, or loadstone. pare "the Celtic," Par. Lost, I. 521; "the stony," Par. Lost,

XI. 4.

178-181. ". Before the Flood," etc. Compare Par. Lost, XI. 573 et seq. The "sons of God" who there intermarried with the "daughters of men" (Gen. vi. 2) are represented as Seth's posterity; here they are the Fallen Angels.

66

186-191. "Calisto," one of Diana's nymphs, seduced by Jupiter; Clymene," one of the Oceanids, mother of Phaethon by Apollo; "Daphne," wooed by Apollo; "Semele," mother of Bacchus by Jupiter; "Antiope," wooed by Jupiter as a Satyr; "Amymone," beloved by Neptune; "Syrinx," chased by Pan.

196. "that Pellean conqueror," i.e. Alexander the Great, born at Pella, in Macedonia. After the battle of Issus, when he was twenty-three years of age, he dismissed the wife and daughters of Darius, and other captive Persian ladies.

199. "he surnamed of Africa," i.e. Scipio Africanus, who generously, when in his twenty-fifth year, restored a young Spanish lady to her family.

210. "vouchsafe." So spelt here, though usually voutsafe in Milton.

266-278. "by the brook of Cherith...Elijah... Daniel." See I Kings xvii. 5, 6, and xix. 4, and Daniel i. 11, 12. 269. " Though ravenous,” etc. A line hypermetrical by two syllables.

309. "Outcast Nebaioth." Ishmael, Hagar's son; but in of Ishmael's eldest son.

313. "Native of Thebez." thinks. Elijah was a native of was in Ephraim.

344.

The name is here used for Gen. xxv. 13 it is the name

A mistake, Mr. Keightley
Tishbe in Gilead; Thebez

"Grisamber-steamed." Perfumes were used in old

English cookery, and especially grisamber or grey amber. Though so called, it was not any kind of amber, but a peculiar grey substance, of animal origin, found floating in the sea, or thrown on the coasts, in warm climates. When heated it gave off a rich fragrance. It was very expensive, and was used only on great occasions.

347. "Pontus," the Euxine; "Lucrine bay," the Lucrine lake in Italy; “Afric coast”: all celebrated for their fish.

353-361. "Ganymed," Jupiter's cup-bearer; "Hylas," the attendant of Hercules; "Amalthea's horn," the horn of Jupiter's Cretan nurse which he invested with the power of pouring out fruits and flowers; "ladies of the Hesperides" (properly "the Hesperides" themselves), daughters of Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, and keepers of the gardens containing the golden fruit. "Logres" or Loegria is the name in old British legends for what is now the main part of England; "Lyones," a name for Cornwall; "Lancelot, Pelleas, and Pellenore" are well-known knights of Arthurian romance.

374, 375. "All these are Spirits of air," etc. There is an echo here of a famous passage in the Tempest, Act. iv. Sc. 1. 401. "far-fet," i.e. "far-fetched." The form "fet" for "fetched" occurs in Chaucer, Spenser, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and other poets.

423, 424. "Antipater the Edomite, and his son Herod." See note, Par. Lost, XII. 353-358.

66

439. "Gideon and Jephtha." Judges vi. II et seq., and xi. 446. Quintius" is Quintius Cincinnatus, who returned to his plough from the Roman Dictatorship; "Fabricius" was a patriotic Roman who resisted all the bribes of King Pyrrhus, and died poor; "Curius" is the victorious Curius Dentatus, who refused all public rewards, and was found by the Samnite ambassadors roasting turnips; "Regulus" is the celebrated Roman who dissuaded his countrymen from peace with the Carthaginians, and then went back to Carthage to suffer the consequences.

457-486. "What if with like aversion I reject riches and realms," etc. This passage, and, indeed, the whole speech of which it is a part, is very characteristic of Milton, and repeats a strain of sentiment frequent in his works.