by John Milton
20. lucky well-omened.
22. sable black.
23. self-same hill M. and King were students at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
25. lawns forest glades (OED 1).
26. opening eye-lids of the morn Cp. Job 41. 18: ‘the eye-lids of the morning’, and Middleton, A Game at Chess (1624) I i 79: ‘the opening eyelids of the morn’. TMS 1st reading and 1638 have ‘glimmering eyelids’.
28. What time when (OED 10a), not a Latinism. winds blows.
sultry *characterized by sweltering heat (OED 2a), and so suggesting the insect hum of midday.
29. Battening fattening. Sheep fed on dews (wet grass) would not grow fat, and would even suffer from ‘rank mist’ (126). E. F. Daniels therefore takes battening to mean ‘enclosing in pens’ (Explicator 21, 1962–3, item 43). But sheep eat dew in Virgil (Ecl. viii 15) and Phineas Fletcher (The Purple Island vi 77). John Creaser (Essays and Studies, 1981, 123–47) takes dews to be an allegory of the manna of the Gospel (135).
30. star Venus as Hesperus, the evening star. 1638 retains TMS 1st reading: ‘Oft till the ev’n star bright’.
31. * westering] TMS, 1645, 1673; burnished TMS 1st reading, 1638.
33. flute,] 1645, 1673; flute: 1638. The 1638 pointing is clearer, but it removes an attractive syntactical ambiguity and a pun. The lighter pointing of the later editions allows Tempered to modify satyrs as well as ditties, and so mean ‘restrained within bounds’ (OED 8) as well as ‘attuned’ (OED 16). oaten made from oat straw.
34. satyrs horse-tailed (or goat-legged) attendants of Dionysus. Notoriously boisterous and lecherous, they might be Cambridge undergraduates. Virgil depicts fauns dancing ‘in measured time’ to a pastoral song (Ecl. vi 27).
36. Damoetas a conventional pastoral name (see Theocritus vi, Virgil, Ecl. ii, iii, v). M. might be referring to a specific Cambridge tutor, perhaps the quasi-anagrammatic Joseph Mead.
39 –41. Thee… mourn Cp. Ovid, Met. xi 44–6: ‘Thee, Orpheus, thee the sorrowful birds, the throng of beasts, the flinty rocks, and trees which oft had followed thy songs, did mourn’. Cp. also Moschus, Lament for Bion 1–7, 27–35.
40. gadding straggling.
45. canker the cankerworm (caterpillar).
46. taint-worm an intestinal parasite fatal to newly-weaned calves. weanling *recently weaned (OED B).
48. whitethorn hawthorn.
50. Where were ye nymphs Cp. Theocritus i 66–9 (‘where were ye, nymphs, when Daphnis died in pain?’); also Virgil, Ecl. x 9–12.
51. loved] TMS, 1645, 1673; lord 1638.
52. steep variously identified as Holyhead, Penmaenmawr, or Bardsey. Bardsey was associated with Bards, and holy men were buried there, but it lies fifty miles south of King’s route. Philemon Holland’s translation of Camden’s Britannia may have misled M. about Bardsey’s location (see A. L. Owen, The Famous Druids, 1962, 53).
53. Bards are connected with Druids by Diodorus Siculus (V xxxi 2–5), Strabo (iv 4 4), and Julius Caesar (Gallic War vi 14). M. typically identifies the poetic and priestly vocations. Cp. Mansus 42–3.
54. Mona Anglesey. It was not shaggy (wooded) in M.’s day, but Drayton in Polyolbion (1598–1622) tells how it had once been dark with sacred oaks (ix 425–9).
55. Deva the Dee (a wizard stream because it was credited with powers of divination). See Drayton, Polyolbion x 186–210. Drayton makes the same claim for the Weaver, which he calls a ‘Wizard River’ (xi 71).
56. Ay me] TMS, 1645, 1673; Ah me 1638.
fondly foolishly.
58–63. What could… shore After his second loss of Eurydice (see L’Allegro 145–50n), Orpheus shunned the love of other women. Enraged by his rejection, the Maenads (female followers of Bacchus) tore him to pieces, their hideous roar drowning out his lyre. All nature mourned as Orpheus’ severed head floated down the Hebrus (Ovid, Met. xi 1–66, Virgil, Georg. iv 485–527). These lines are much revised in TMS. Cp. PL vii 32–9.
58. the Muse Calliope. Carey cites Greek Anthology vii 8: ‘Thy mother Calliope… bewailed thee. Why sigh we for our dead sons, when not even the gods have power to protect their children from death?’
64. boots avails.
65. homely unsophisticated (OED 4). Cp. Animadversions (1641): ‘is Christian piety so homely… that none will study and teach her, but for lucre and preferment!’ (YP 1. 719). The shepherd’s trade is both poetry and the ministry.
66. meditate… Muse *compose poetry (OED 1c). The usage imitates Virgil (Ecl. i 2, vi 8).
67. use] TMS, 1645, 1673; do 1638.
68–9. To sport… hair Amaryllis and Neaera are stock names for shepherdesses or nymphs, employed by Theocritus, Virgil, Horace, Ariosto, George Buchanan, and John Fletcher, among others.
69. Or with] TMS, 1645, 1673; Hid in TMS 1st reading, 1638. 1638 invites the fantasy of sporting with both women at once (cp. Spenser, FQ II xii 66–8).
70. Fame is the spur Cp. Spenser, Teares of the Muses 454: ‘Due praise, that is the spur of doing well’.
clear noble (Latin clarus) and pure (OED 14).
73. guerdon reward.
74. blaze brilliant display (OED 5b).
75. blind FuryAtropos, the Fate who severs the thread of life (here a Fury to emphasize her fierceness, and blind to show that she acts indiscriminately). Cp. ‘Blind mouths’ (119).
77. trembling ears Cp. Virgil, Ecl. vi 3–4, where Apollo (Phoebus) plucks the poet’s ear as a warning. The rhyme of shears and ears might also make a topical allusion to the infamous mutilation of Bastwick, Burton, and Prynne (see headnote). Cp. M.’s use of the same rhyme in reference to ear-cropping in On the New Forcers 16–17. Cp. also Of Reformation (YP 1. 606), where M. complains that bishops have ‘made our eares tender, and startling’.
76. slits severs (OED 1b) – a rare usage. Elsewhere M. uses ‘slit’ of mutilation. In An Apology for Smectymnuus (1642) he blames bishops for ‘slitting noses’ (YP 1. 894) and in The History of Britain (1670) he speaks of ‘slit Noses’ and ‘Ears cropt’ (YP 5. 349).
* thin-spun drawn out in spinning to a slender thread.
79. glistering foil a thin leaf of metal placed under a gem to enhance (set off) its brilliancy.
81. those pure eyes Cp. Hab. 1. 13: ‘Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil’.
85. Arethuse a famous Sicilian spring, here representing Greek pastoral poetry. Theocritus (i 117) and Virgil (Ecl. x 1) invoke Arethuse. See also below, 132n.
86. Mincius a river in Mantua (Virgil’s birthplace), here representing Latin pastoral poetry. Virgil celebrates Mincius’s reeds and slow windings in Georg. iii 14–15.
87. mood musical mode.
88. oat the oaten flute of pastoral song.
89–131. The procession of mourners is a topos in pastoral elegy. See Theocritus i 77f., Spenser, S hep. Cal. November 142–51 and cp. Virgil, Ecl. x 19f. and M.’s Ep. Dam. 69–90.
89. herald Triton, Neptune’s son.
90. in Neptune’s plea Triton comes either to gather evidence for Neptune’s court (OED ‘plea’ 1), or to plead Neptune’s innocence.
91. felon savage, wild (OED 1b), criminal.
93. rugged stormy, tempestuous (OED 4a).
96. Hippotades Aeolus, guardian of the winds, which he kept in a large dungeon (Homer, Od. x 1–79, Virgil Aen. i 50f., Ovid, Met. iv 663).
99. Panope one of the fifty Nereids (sea-nymphs). They calmed the seas (hence sleek).
100. perfidious bark In Protestant iconography a ship symbolized the Church of Antichrist. See David Berkeley, Inwrought with Figures Dim (1974), 132.
101. eclipse a portent of disaster (cp. PL i 596–9) and (for Puritans) a symbol of spiritual darkness in the Church.
102. sacred inviolable (OED 5b); perhaps also ‘accursed’ (OED 6). Notice curses (101).
103. Camus the river Cam, representing Cambridge University. footing slow The Cam is slow-moving, but there may be a pun on ‘pedant’ as J. M. Morse suggests (N&Q 5, 1958, 211).
104. mantle hairy the Cam’s reeds
and the fur of the academic gown. sedge formed of reeds.
105. *Inwrought having (a pattern) worked in.
106. sanguine flower the hyacinth, inscribed AI AI (‘alas, alas’) by Apollo in grief for the youth Hyacinthus, whom he had accidentally killed (Ovid, Met. x 215). See Fair Infant 23–7n. The hyacinth appears in many pastoral elegies.
107. pledge child, viewed as a hostage to fortune (OED 2d).
109. pilot St Peter, who was a Galilean fisherman when Christ called him (Luke 5. 3–11). Peter denounces false teachers in II Pet. 2, in Dante, Par. xxvii 19–66, and Petrarch, Ecl. vi.
110. Two massy keys Cp. Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633) vii 61: ‘two keyes he bore, / Heav’ns doores and hells to shut, and open wide: / But late his keyes are marr’d, or broken quite’. Fletcher is describing the Pope as impostor. Cp. Fletcher’s The Apollyonists (1627) iii 16. M.’s St Peter retains authority over the keys Christ gave him at Matt. 16. 19.
111. amain with full force, once and for all.
112. mitred wearing the mitre (a bishop’s head-dress). Critics infer that M. was not opposed to all bishops in 1637 (as he was to be in 1642, when he described the mitre as ‘that Turbant of pride’, YP 1. 953). But St Peter might be a ‘bishop’ and still condemn prelacy (see below, 119n, 120n).
bespake spoke out, remonstrated (OED 2).
113. for instead of. swain shepherd, rustic (OED 4).
114 Enow] 1645, 1673; enough TMS, 1638. ‘Enow’ is the plural.
114–29. Numerous biblical passages describe the shepherd’s true office and its abuses. See esp. John 10. 1–28 and Ezek. 34. See also Dante, Par. xxvii 55–7, xxix 103f, Petrarch, Ecl. vi, vii, and Spenser, Shep. Cal. May, September.
115. Creep… intrude… climb Cp. John 10. 1: ‘He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber’. Cp. PL iv 183–93 and Spenser, FQ I iii 17.
116. reck’ning both ‘rendering an account of oneself to God’ (OED 4c) and ‘computation of the sum due to one’ (OED 3a).
117. shearers’ feast festive supper for the sheep-shearers (hence, material rewards of the ministerial office).
118. worthy bidden guest Cp. Matt. 22. 8 (the parable of the marriage supper): ‘The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy’.
119. Blind mouths Ruskin comments: ‘A “Bishop” means ”a person who sees”. A ”Pastor” means “person who feeds”. The most unbishoply character a man can have is therefore to be blind. The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed – to be a Mouth’ (Sesame and Lilies i 22). M. often distinguishes true ‘bishops’ from prelates. Cp. Of Reformation (YP 1. 606): ‘were it not that the Tyranny of Prelates under the name of Bishops hath made our eares tender, and startling, we might call every good Minister a Bishop’. Cp. also the title of William Prynne’s Lord Bishops, None of the Lord’s Bishops (1640).
120. sheep-hook The crosier is a sign of episcopal office, but its presence here need not be a concession to prelacy. In Of Reformation M. associates ‘the Pastorly Rod, and Sheep-hooke of CHRIST’ with Presbyterianism (YP 1. 605).
122. What recks it them ‘What do they care?’ (OED ‘reck’ v 8). The echo of reck’ning (116) hints at their true cares sped provided for (OED 6d).
123. list choose (to play pipes) and listen (to the noise).
lean and flashy meagre and trifling. In An Apology for Smectymnuus M. describes the Anglican liturgy as ‘in conception leane and dry, of affections empty and unmoving’ (YP 1. 939).
124. Grate… straw Cp. Virgil, Ecl. iii 27: ‘to murder a rotten tune on a grating straw’ *scrannel thin, unmelodious.
126. swoll’n with wind Petrarch makes sheep-rot an allegory of Church corruption in Ecl. vi 21–31 and vii 19–27. Cp. also Dante on Florentine preaching: ‘the sheep, who know nothing, return from pasture fed with wind’ (Par. xxix 106–7).
draw inhale.
128. grim Wolf the Church of Rome, particularly the Jesuits, who were notorious for privy conversions. Two wolves appeared in the heraldic arms of their founder. Cp. Spenser, Shep. Cal. September 148–60.
129. nothing said] TMS 1st reading, 1645, 1673; little said TMS, 1638. Editors conjecture that M. changed ‘nothing’ to ‘little’ in recognition of Laud’s protest against the Queen’s papal agent in October 1637. More likely, he feared Laud’s censors. He restored ‘nothing’ as soon as he could.
130. two-handed engine a famous crux. At the door means ‘at hand’. In Matt. 24. 33 the Last Judgment is ‘even at the doors’. Cp. Animadversions: ‘thy Kingdome is now at hand, and thou standing at the dore’ (YP 1. 707). Christ the Judge will ‘set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left’ (Matt. 25. 33), so two-handed may mean ‘leading in two directions (right hand and left hand)’ (OED ‘two-hand’ 3). Christ would then be the ‘agent’ (OED ‘engine’ 10a) of Judgment (H. F. Rollins, RES 5, 1954, 25–36). Others take the ‘engine’ to be a weapon ‘wielded with both hands’ (OED ‘two-handed’ 1). Cp. ‘the Axe of Gods reformation’ in Of Reformation (W 1.582).
131. smite… no more I Sam. 26. 8.
132. Alpheus a river in Arcadia, fabled to pass unmixed through the sea before mingling its waters with the ‘fountain Arethuse’ in Sicily (85). See Arcades 30–31.
135. bells bell-shaped flowers.
136. use haunt, frequent (OED 17a).
137. wanton sportive, unrestrained.
138. swart star Sirius, the dog-star, associated with the heat of summer. Smart (blackened by heat) is a transferred epithet.
139. quaint curiously patterned.
enamelled adorned with various colours (OED 3).
140. suck the honied showers Cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet III i 157: ‘sucked the honey of his music vows’.
141. purple make purple (i.e. any dazzling colour). ‘Purple’ was a colour of ecclesiastical mourning (OED 2c).
142–51. Bring… lies Floral catalogues are a pastoral topos. Cp. Theocritus i 132–3, Moschus, Lament for Bion 5–7 and Spenser, Shep. Cal. April 60–63, 136–44. M.’s catalogue is much revised in TMS. One cancelled version includes the lines: ‘Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies / Colouring the pale cheek of unenjoyed love’. Evans (84) cites this as evidence of M.’s commitment to lifelong celibacy, but the pathos of ‘unwedded’ is that Lycidas died young, before he could wed. Cp. Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale IV iv 122–5: ‘pale primroses, / That die unmarried, ere they can behold / Bright Phoebus in his strength (a malady / Most incident to maids)’.
142. rathe early in the year (OED 3b).
143. tufted *growing in clusters. Crow-toe hyacinth, wild hyacinth, or buttercup. pale jessamine white jasmine.
144. pink dianthus. *freaked streaked (OED 1).
146. woodbine honeysuckle.
147. wan pale (OED 4e), as in ‘the wan and yellow colour of Golde’ (1567). The cowslip was also known as ‘St Peter’s keys’.
148. sad including ‘dark-coloured’ (OED 8b).
149. amaranthus Greek ‘unfading’. The name was used both of the English ‘love-lies-bleeding’ and an immortal flower of Heaven (see PL iii 353n). The latter did not shed its flowers – but it might do so for Lycidas.
150. daffadillies a poetic (and dialect) form of ‘daffodil’ used by Spenser (Shep. Cal. April 60) and Drayton (Ecl. iii 81).
151. laureate decked with laurel, emblem of poetry.
hearse bier (OED 5) or an elaborate structure on which friends of the deceased would pin poetic epitaphs (OED 2c).
157. whelming] 1645, 1673; humming TMS, 1638. Cp. Shakespeare, Pericles III i 63–4: ‘humming water must o’erwhelm thy corpse’.
158. monstrous *abounding in monsters (OED 3b) or immense.
159. moist vows tearful prayers (Latin votum).
160. fable of fabled abode of.
Bellerus an eponymous giant or hero invented by M. to explain ‘Bellerium’ (the Latin name for Land’s End). In TMS M. first wrote ‘Corin
eus’ – the name of the legendary hero for whom Cornwall was named.
161. vision… mount St Michael was said to have appeared to fishermen on St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall in 495.
162. Namaneos Nemancos, a region in north-west Spain.
Bayona a Spanish fortress about fifty miles south of Cape Finisterre. The two names represent the threat of Catholicism against which St Michael guards England.
163. angel St Michael. He is asked to turn his gaze away from Spain and melt with pity at the sight of Lycidas’s body.
164. waft convey safely to land (OED v1 2). Dolphins (who are friendly to man) were thought to waft living or dead humans. They rescued the poets Arion and Icadius, and wafted the dead bodies of Hesiod and the drowned child Melicertes. The latter was resurrected as Palaemon, a ‘Genius of the shore’ (185). Dolphins were a symbol of Christian resurrection. See John Creaser, RES n.s. 36, no. 142 (May 1985), 235–43.
168. day-star either the sun or Lucifer, the morning star. Both were symbols of resurrection. W. Hall (another contributor to 1638) likens the drowned Edward King to the sun that sinks in Ocean ‘Till with new beams from seas he seems to rise’. Cp. Fletcher, CF(1610)iv 12, on Christ’s Resurrection: ‘So fairest Phosphor the bright Morning starre, / But neewely washt in the green element, / Before the drouzie Night is halfe aware, / Shooting his flaming locks with deaw besprent, / Springs lively up into the orient’. Cp. also Virgil, Aen. viii 589–91.
169. repairs including ‘adorns’ (OED 1).
170. tricks adorns, trims (OED 5, 6).
ore *gold. OED cites the sense ‘precious metal’ from 1639.
171. forehead of the morning sky Cp. Shakespeare, Coriolanus II i 57: ‘forehead of the morning’.
173. him Christ (see Matt. 14. 25–31).
174. groves… streams Cp. Rev. 22. 1–2 on the ‘pure river of water of life’ and the ‘tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits’.
175. nectar the drink of the gods, sometimes used to protect corpses from decay. See A Masque 838n.
oozy locks hair moist from the sea. Cp. Shakespeare, Pericles III i 61: ‘scarcely coffined, in the ooze’.
176. unexpressive inexpressible. The nuptial song is the Lamb’s marriage-song, sung by all his servants, ‘both small and great’ (Rev. 19. 5). Critics often say that Lycidas joins an exclusive choir of 144, 000 male virgins who were ‘not defiled with women’ (Rev. 14. 1–4). But notice all the saints (178).