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

narrower: more narrowly.

P. 99. [26]. on evil days though fallen: a pathetic emotional repetition; note the artistic change in the order of the words. Macaulay justly characterizes the thirty years which succeeded the protectorate as 'the darkest and most disgraceful in the English annals. . . . Then came those days never to be recalled without a blush—the days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of

the coward, the bigot, and the slave. The king cringed to his rival [Louis XIV.] that he might trample on his people, sunk into a viceroy of France, and pocketed, with complacent infamy, her degrading insults and her more degrading gold. The caresses of harlots, and the jests of buffoons regulated the measures of a government which had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier, and the Anathema Maranatha of every fawning dean. . . . Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the race, accursed of God and man, was a second time driven forth, to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of the head to the nations.'

P. 99. [33]. Bacchus and his revellers: Charles II. and his Court, from whom Milton had reason to fear a similar fate to that of the Thracian bard, Orpheus, who was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women of Rhodope.

P. 99. [38]. so fail not thou: i.e. to defend me as the Muse Calliope failed to defend her son, Orpheus.

P. 99. [1]. no more of talk: i.e. as in the foregoing episode.

P. 99. [5]. venial: allowable, fitting.

P. 100. [14-19]. the wrath of stern Achilles . . . Cytherea's son: these are not the arguments (subjects) proper of the three epics, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Æneid; as Newton pointed out, the poet mentions certain angers or enmities, the wrath of Achilles, the rage of Turnus, Neptune's and Juno's ire; 'the anger, etc. (v. 10) of Heaven which he is about to sing is an argument more heroic, not only than the anger of men, of Achilles and Turnus, but than that even of the gods, of Neptune and Juno;' his foe: Hector; Turnus: king of the Rutuli when Æneas arrived in Italy; Lavinia: daughter of King Latinus, betrothed to Turnus, but afterward given in marriage to Æneas; the Greek: Ulysses; Cytherea's son: Æneas; Cytherea, a surname of Venus, from the island Cythera, famous for her worship.

P. 100. [19]. Perplexed the Greek: a respective construction, 'perplexed the Greek' looks back to 'Neptune's ire,' 'Cytherea's son,' to Juno's ire. Bentley's note is remarkable: 'Juno's that long perplexed the Greek: when, contrary, the Greek was her favourite all along.'

P. 100. [20]. answerable: corresponding to the high argument.