Milton makes here his first onset upon the ecclesiastical abuses of the time. He was destined to make, not long after, fiercer onsets in his polemic prose writings.
[120]. the least: connect with 'aught else' rather than 'belongs.'
[122]. What recks it them: what does it concern them; They are sped: they've been successful in obtaining rich livings.
[123]. list: please; in earlier English generally used impersonally with a dative; when they list: i.e. when it suits them, not otherwise. They don't act from any sense of duty.
[123, 124]. their lean and flashy songs grate: their wretched sermons are wretchedly delivered with the emphasis of insincerity. Masson explains 'scrannel,' 'screeching, ear-torturing.'
[126]. wind and the rank mist they draw: i.e. the mere wind of some sermons and the poisonous doctrines of others, which their flocks inhale and drink in, and then impart the resulting spiritual disease to others.
[128, 129]. the grim wolf: generally understood to mean the Church of Rome. Bishop Newton, who first understood the passage to have reference to Archbishop Laud's 'privily introducing popery' afterward gave the alternative explanation, 'besides what the popish priests privately pervert to their religion,' which Masson conclusively supports in his 'Life of Milton,' and adopts in his note on the passage in his edition of the 'Poetical Works'; the 'privy paw' doesn't suit Archbishop Laud, who did everything above-board.
[130, 131]. But that two-handed engine: see my explanation of these verses in the [Introductory Remarks].
[132]. Return, Alpheus: he invokes the return of the pastoral Muse when the dread denouncing voice of St. Peter has ceased. Alpheus, the chief river of Peloponnesus, flowing through Arcadia and Elis. The river-god loved the nymph Arethusa, of Elis, whom, in her flight from him, Diana changed into a fountain which was directed by the goddess under the sea to the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. The river followed under sea and united with the fountain. See note on [v. 85].
[136]. use: frequent.