P. 100. [21]. my celestial Patroness: Urania, the Heavenly Muse.
P. 100. [23]. inspires: Milton regarded himself as inspired by the Holy Spirit in the composition of 'Paradise Lost.'
P. 100. [25]. Since first this subject: Milton, as has been seen, had meditated, as early as 1638, an epic poem to be based on legendary British history, with King Arthur for its hero, a subject which it appears he abandoned in the course of two or three years. While still undecided, he jotted down ninety-nine different subjects, sixty-one Scriptural, thirty-eight from British history. Among the former, 'Paradise Lost' appears first of all. These jottings occupy seven pages of the Cambridge Mss. It is evident that by 1640, Milton was quite decided as to the subject of 'Paradise Lost,' but not as to the form of his work. It was first as a tragedy that he conceived it, on the model of the Grecian drama with choruses. His nephew, Edward Phillips, informs us that several years before the poem was begun (about 1642, according to Aubrey), Satan's address to the sun (Book iv. 32-41) was shown him as designed for the beginning of the tragedy. The composition of the poem was begun, according to Phillips, about 1658, the poet being then fifty years of age. The student should read, in connection with this subject, the thirteenth chapter of Mark Pattison's 'Life of Milton.'
P. 100. [35]. Impresses: 'devices or emblems used on shields or otherwise.' Keightley alludes to the enumeration of the devices of the nobles of England, in the tenth Canto of the 'Orlando Furioso.'
P. 100. [36]. bases: 'the base was a skirt or kilt which hung down from the waist to the knees of the knight when on horseback.'
P. 100. [37]. marshalled feast: 'from Minshew's "Guide into Tongues," it appears that the marshal placed the guests according to their rank, and saw that they were properly served; the sewer marched in before the meats and arranged them on the table, and was originally called Asseour from the French asseoir, to set down, or place; and the Seneshal was the household-steward.'—Todd.
P. 100. [41]. Me . . . higher argument remains: i.e. for me.
P. 101. [44]. an age too late: Milton might well feel, in the reign of the 'merry monarch,' that he was treating his high argument in an age too late.
P. 101. [45, 46]. my intended wing depressed: 'wing' is used, by metonymy, for 'flight.' Keightley incorrectly puts a comma after 'wing,' 'intended wing depressed' being a case of the placing of a noun between two epithets, usual with Milton, the epithet following the noun qualifying the noun as qualified by the preceding epithet. Rev. James Robert Boyd, in his edition of the 'P. L.,' explains 'intended,' 'stretched out'; but the word is undoubtedly used in its present sense of 'purposed.'