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1158 River Cam, which flows through Cambridge (and from which, of course, the town takes its name)
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1159 cap
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1160 made of reedlike plants
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1161 worked
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1162 the hyacinth
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1163 robbed
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1164 child
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1165 St. Peter, wearing a bishop’s miter (headdress) and carrying the keys to Heaven’s gates
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1166 violently
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1167 enough
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1168 invited
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1169 the prosody is helped if “they are” is contracted: did Milton perhaps intend it to be sounded as spoken?
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1170 successful, prosperous
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1171 like
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1172 trifling, showy
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1173 feeble
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1174 corrupt, foul, festering, virulent
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1175 vapor
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1176 breathe
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1177 plague, pestilence, moral corruption
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1178 savage, cruel
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1179 secret
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1180 at a rapid pace, swiftly, right away
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1181 as Roy Flannagan has said, “perhaps the most famous crux in English literature”
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1182 see note 33 to line 85, above
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1183 revered, authoritative
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1184 uncertain: perhaps Theocritus, pastoral poet, who may have been born in Sicily
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1185 valleys
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1186 as in “bluebells,”“harebells,” etc.
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1187 small flowers
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1188 are customary
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1189 playful, sportive
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1190 new, green
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1191 a hollow among hills
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1192 the Dog Star, Sirius
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1193 frugally, abstemiously
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1194 clever, lovely, dainty
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1195 the colored center of flowers
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1196 spring, springlike
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1197 early
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1198 flecked
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1199 sober, steadfast, constant, mournful
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1200 crowned with laurel
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1201 wood frame to hold flowers; funeral carriage
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1202 introduce, put forward
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1203 islands off the Scottish coast
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1204 engulfing, submerging
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1205 the sea was thought to be full of monsters
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1206 tear-strewn
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1207 i.e., we pray for you to be returned, but our prayers (“vows”) are denied
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1208 the Roman name for Land’s End, in Cornwall; perhaps a reference to some Cornish giant—or perhaps (since Milton first wrote and then crossed out “Corineus”) inserted strictly for prosodic reasons
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1209 Mount St. Michael’s, near Land’s End in Cornwall, and across the English Channel from Mont-St.-Michel, in France
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1210 in Spain
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1211 a fortress (“hold”) near Cape Finisterre, in Spain
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1212 pity, compassion
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1213 carry, transport
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1214 i.e., the sun
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1215 soon, in a little while
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1216 to restore, renew, mend
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1217 dresses
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1218 precious metal, here clearly “gold”
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1219 muddy, damp
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1220 bathes, washes
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1221 inexpressible
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1222 grand, sacred, formal
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1223 companies, groups, bands
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1224 fellowships
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1225 go
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1226 guardian spirit
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1227 ample
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1228 reparation, compensation
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1229 unpolished, rough
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1230 streams
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1231 reeds, pipes, flutes
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1232 pastoral
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1233 extended across
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1234 pulled around him
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1235 prosody
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1236 the Latin urget, which Horace uses here, means “presses down on”
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1237 simple
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1238 elegance, style
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1239 unaccustomed
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1240 to be surprised, astonished, to marvel at
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1241 too readily believed
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1242 at leisure, unoccupied
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1243 luckless
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1244 untested
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1245 votive offering
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1246 [noun: the Latin is tabula sacer votiva]: David Ferry’s 1997 translation renders these lines “The votive tablet on the temple wall / Is witness that in tribute to the god / I have hung up my sea-soaked garment there.”
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1247 i.e., dedicated/given them to the god
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1248 clothing
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1249 (1) episcopacy had been formally abolished in 1643 (bishops having been members of the House of Lords); (2) in addition, the chief prelate had been the much-hated Archbishop William Laud—whose name, in British English, is virtually a homonym of “lord”
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1250 resolute, inflexible
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1251 in 1645 the House of Commons banned either public or private use of the Book of Common Prayer
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1252 i.e., holding more than one clerical post at a time, as Anglicans had, was a practice being indulged in by Presbyterian clergymen as well
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1253 swear an oath (to)
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1254 presbyterian synod (unit of administration)
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1255 Adam Ste
wart, member of Parliament and propagandist for orthodox Pres byterianism; he affixed only his initials to the pamphlets he published
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1256 Samuel Rutherford, a Scot, author of Plea for Presbytery (1642)
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1257 Thomas Edwards, author of Gangraena: a catalogue and discovery of many of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and pernicious practices of the sectaries of this time (1646)
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1258 Robert Baillie, a Scot who attacked the Independents
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1259 the Council of Trent, 1545–63, attempted but failed to effect Church reforms
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1260 leather accouterments worn, at prayer, by Jews: here, a symbol of open hypocrisy
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1261 already cropped: William Prynne (a barrister), the onetime Puritan pamphleteer and then member of the House of Commons, had been thus punished in 1634 (and punished again, for the same offense, in 1637, at which time his cheeks were branded) for criticizing the bishops
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1262 Psalms 80–88, rather dully translated in 1648—that is, five years earlier than Psalms 1–8—are here omitted; they make no significant contribution either to Milton’s English poetry or to the study thereof
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1263 grain husks, separated out by threshing or winnowing
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1264 winnowed, threshed
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1265 endure, withstand
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1266 put up with, endure
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1267 [noun]
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1268 heathen, pagans
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1269 [verb]
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1270 ponder
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1271 stand erect
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1272 meetings, assemblies
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1273 deride, mock
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1274 rigorous, unsparing
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1275 fierce, terrible, dire
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1276 merciless
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1277 anger, wrath
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1278 afflict
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1279 ruled, governed
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1280 crushed
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1281 (1) fully, (2) finally, at last
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1282 disinclined
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1283 be conversant with
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1284 in the way = thereby
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1285 dry
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1286 support, reliance
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1287 King David
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1288 his rebellious son
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1289 life
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1290 quickly
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1291 mob, rabble, herd
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1292 set, arrange
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1293 tents
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1294 struck
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1295 righteous deeds, conformity to the requirements of divine law
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1296 sore need, difficulties
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1297 liberate, deliver from bondage
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1298 free
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1299 tolerated, endured
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1300 what time = when
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1301 terrified, filled with reverential fear
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1302 faithful, rightful, correct, appropriate [adjective]
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1303 kind, crowd
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1304 excessive quantity
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1305 supplies, stocks
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1306 clog
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1307 lands
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1308 grains
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1309 devotional/contemplative exercise
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1310 i.e., “give weight to my meditations”
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1311 deliberate judgment
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1312 arrange
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1313 tarrying, expectation
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1314 endure
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1315 wickedness
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1316 deceitful, treacherous
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1317 in Thy fear = in fear of You
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1318 humbly
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1319 watch, notice, inspect
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1320 sin
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1321 in front of (the place)
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1322 i.e., he who has a….
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1323 unreliable, vacillating
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1324 true
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1325 destroyed, crushed
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1326 continually, always
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1327 rebuke, find fault with
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1328 set right, repair
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1329 bed
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1330 wastes, burns away
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1331 grown
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1332 watch, notice
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1333 wickedness
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1334 petition, entreaty
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1335 acknowledge
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1336 nonplussed, prostrated
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1337 struck, destroyed, confounded, frustrated
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1338 disconcerted
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1339 belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel
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1340 King David, the Psalmist
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1341 worked, done
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1342 given in return
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1343 nothing—i.e., without any fee or ransom
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1344 crush
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1345 deposit, place
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1346 anger, wrath
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1347 press forward, drive, pursue
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1348 keep watch
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1349 fury
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1350 appease, soften, mitigate
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1351 i.e., on earth
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1352 pledge, promise
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1353 creation
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1354 wrongly (“do” = “act”)
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1355 set up, place
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1356 securely
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1357 separates, distinguishes
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1358 kidneys
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1359 ultimately, in the end
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1360 strict, rigorous, unsparing
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1361 desist, abstain
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1362 sharpens
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1363 remains
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1364 pursue (maliciously), hunt, harass, oppress
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1365 he who ( not God)
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1366 pompous
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1367 dug
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1368 appropriate, fitting
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1369 path
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1370 track, way of life
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1371 head
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1372 precipitous, headlong
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1373 stir up, incite, stimulate
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1374 molded
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1375 cut short, check
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1376 weaken
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1377 called into being
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1378 by
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1379 (1) high rank, power, (2) pomp, dignity
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1380 i.e., are met
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1381 scarcity
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1382 metric
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1383 iambic pentameter
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1384 substance, content
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1385 differently
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1386 prosody
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1387 proper, appropriate
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1388 common, ordinary, uneducated
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1389 considered
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1390 most appropriately
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1391 time
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1392 about
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1393 ancient Israel
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1394 deadly, fatal
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1395 Christ
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1396 Horeb = Sinai, in Exodus and Deuteronomy
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1397 Moses, who was thought to have been the author of Genesis
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1398 the Jews
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1399 site of the Temple, in Jerusalem
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1400 Siloam, near Jerusalem
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1401 fast by = close, very near
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1402 the temple
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1403 (1) perilous, rash, risky, (2) enterprising
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1404 Mount Parnassus, sacred to Apollo and to the Muses
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1405 not specified: the basic nature of the Godhead?
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1406 in preference to, rather than
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1407 (1) hatching eggs by sitting on them, (2) meditating
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1408 ignorant, obscure, blind
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1409 great, original
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1410 move away
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 81