An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton / Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty.

by John Milton

The veil off: and there stood, with such fixed eyes

And such slow smile, Alkestis' silent self!'

To Emeric Bigot. (Familiar Letters, No. XXI.)

P. [92]. Emeric Bigot: a French scholar, native of Rouen; b. 1626, d. 1689.

P. [92]. King Telephus of the Mysians: wounded by Achilles and by him healed with the rust of his spear; and in return Telephus directed the Greeks on their way to Troy.

Autobiographic passages in the Paradise Lost

P. 96. [2]. Or of the Eternal: or may I, unblamed, express thee as the coeternal beam of the Eternal.

P. 96. [6]. increate: qualifies 'bright effluence.'

P. 96. [7]. Or hearest thou rather: or approvest thou rather the appellation of pure ethereal stream; 'hearest' is a classicism: 'Matutine pater, seu Jane libentius audis' (father of the morning, or if Janus thou hearest more willingly).—Horace, Sat. II., vi. 20, cited by Bentley.