by John Milton
37. Cydonius [Cydonian] Cretan. Cretans were famous archers.
38. Cephalus, while hunting, mistook his wife Procris for a beast rustling in the bushes, and unwittingly killed her with his javelin. See Ovid, Met. vii 835–62.
39. Orion a giant hunter who pursued the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas. He and they were turned into constellations.
40. Herculeaeque manus [the hands of Hercules] Hercules had many sexual adventures, and his strong hands were subjected to love when Queen Omphale dressed him in women’s clothes and made him spin for her.
comes [companion] Hercules had many companions. Cupid probably means Jason or Theseus.
46. anguis [serpent] Aesculapius, god of healing, took the form of a snake when he came to Rome to end a plague. See Ovid, Met. xv 626–744 and cp. PL ix 506–7.
47. Cupid used gold-tipped arrows to excite love, lead-tipped ones to excite hate. See Ovid, Met. i 468–71.
64. regina deum [queen of the gods] Juno. M. is referring to the judgement of Paris.
81. proles Iunonia [Juno’s son] Vulcan (Hephaestus, Mulciber) was thrown from heaven by Jove and fell for a whole day before landing in Lemnos (Homer, Il. i 590–94). Cp. PL i 739–47.
84. Amphiaraus an Argive seer and one of the seven against Thebes. In the midst of battle, the earth opened to swallow him and his chariot. Statius, Thebaid vii 820–22, describes his last longing look at the vanishing sky.
‘Haec ego mente…’ [Epilogue to the Elegies]
Appended to Elegia VII in 1645 and 1673, these verses act as an epilogue to the whole series. They were clearly written after the other elegies (see line 1) but before M.’s marriage in 1642 (see lines 7–10).
5. Academia [Academy] Platonic philosophy. See PR iv 244–6.
10. Diomedes wounded Aphrodite (Venus) when she went to the aid of her son, Aeneas. See Homer, Il. v 334–51.
In Proditionem Bombardicam [On the Gunpowder Plot]
Date: unknown. M.’s four epigrams on the Gunpowder Plot, and his epigram on the inventor of gunpowder, may have been written at various times or at the same time. The second epigram on the Gunpowder Plot alludes to King James’s death and so must have been written after it (see 6n).
7. ille Elijah, who was swept up to Heaven while still alive. See II Kings 2.
7. The Parcae are the Fates.
In eandem [On the same]
2. Belua [Beast] Protestants often identified the seven-headed Beast of Rev. 13. 1 with the Roman Church.
6. James I died on 27 March 1625.
7. Cp. the Paradise of Fools in PL iii 473–94.
In eandem [On the same]
1. James had ridiculed the idea of Purgatory in the preface to the second edition of his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance (1609).
3. Latiale Roman (from Latium, home of the Latins). The triple–crowned monster is the Pope.
4. cornua dena The Beast of Rev. 13. 1 has ten horns.
In eandem [On the same]
1. James had been baptized a Roman Catholic but raised as a Protestant. In the eyes of Rome he was therefore excommunicate.
2. Taenarioque sinu [Taenarian abyss] See Elegia V 66n.
In Inventorem Bombardae [On the Inventor of Gunpowder]
Parker (732) thinks that M.’s praise for the inventor of gunpowder ‘may be intended literally instead of ironically’, but the fact that M. published this epigram alongside the Fifth of November verses strongly suggests that his praise is ironic. Gunpowder was traditionally seen as a devilish invention. See PL vi 484n.
1. Iapetionidem [son of Iapetus] Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven. Cp. the devils’ scorn for God’s thunder in PL vi 632, after Satan has invented gunpowder.
Ad Leonoram Romae canentem [To Leonora singing at Rome]
Leonora Baroni was a famous Neapolitan singer. M. heard her sing on one of his two visits to Rome: either October–November 1638 or January–February 1639.
5. mens tertia [third mind] perhaps the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost (I John 5. 7). Carey thinks that M. is referring to the neo-Platonic World-Soul.
Ad eandem [To the same]
See headnote to previous poem.
1. Torquatum Torquato Tasso (1544–95) suffered from insanity which caused him to be confined (1579–86). He was said to have loved Leonora d’Este, the sister of his patron, the Duke of Ferrara, and this alleged love was fancifully supposed to be the cause of his illness.
5. Pieria the birthplace of the Muses, in Macedonia.
6. Leonora’s mother was a musician.
7. Dircaeo Theban.
Pentheo Pentheus, King of Thebes, opposed the Dionysian rites. Dionysus then deprived him of his sanity and caused him to be torn to pieces by the Bacchantes.
Ad eandem [To the same]
2. Parthenopes one of the Sirens, drowned near Naples. See A Masque 879n. The river-god Achelous was the Sirens’ father.
4. Chalcidico [Chalcidian] Neapolitan. See Ep. Dam. 182n.
6. Pausilipi Mount Posillipo, near Naples, was pierced by a tunnel through which passed much noisy traffic. The hoarse roar (rauci murmura) might be caused by this traffic or by the waves crashing at the foot of the mountain.
SILVARUM LIBER [A BOOK OF
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS]
Latin silvae was used, by Statius for example, as a title for collections of occasional poems. Jonson had used the English equivalent as the title of his The Forest (1616).
In Obitum Procancellarii Medici [On the death of the
Vice-Chancellor, a Physician]
Date: autumn 1626. Dr John Gostlin, Master of Caius College, Professor of Medicine, and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, died on 21 October 1626, when M. was seventeen. The heading Anno aetatis 16 is therefore an error.
2. Parcae [goddess of destiny] Atropos, the Fate who cut the thread of life.
3. pendulum telluris orbem [pendulous globe of the earth] Cp. PL iv 1000: ‘The pendulous round earth’.
4. Iapeti Iapetus was the father of Prometheus, the creator of man.
5. Taenaro Taenarus, in Laconia, was fabled to be an entrance to Hades.
12. Hercules died after putting on the robe of Nessus, which had been poisoned by the Hydra’s blood. See PL ii 542–6n.
14. Disguised as Hector’s brother Deiphobus, Pallas Athene caused Hector’s death by shaming him into fighting Achilles (Homer, Il. xxii 226–404). When Achilles failed to hit Hector with his first cast, Athene invisibly retrieved his spear, and so ensured his victory (Il. xxii 276–7).
16. Zeus wept tears of blood when his son Sarpedon was killed by the Locrian Patroclus, who was wearing Achilles’ armour (Homer, Il. xvi 419–507)
18. Telegoni parens [Telegonus’s mother] Circe. She had Telegonus by Odysseus. Hecate was goddess of witchcraft.
20. Aegiali soror [Aegialeus’s sister] Medea. She murdered her brother and scattered his dismembered body on the sea to delay her father’s pursuit of the Argonauts.
24. Machaon, son of Aesculapius, was a surgeon in the Greek army at Troy. Quintus Smyrnaeus reports his death at the hands of another Greek, Eurypylus (Posthomerica vi 390–429).
25. Philyreie [son of Philyra] Chiron the centaur, son of Cronos and the nymph Philyra. He was skilled in medicine, and tutored Aesculapius, but was unable to heal himself when one of Hercules’ arrows scratched him.
28. puer Aesculapius, whom his father Apollo cut from the womb of his mother Coronis. His medical skill was so great that he revived even the dead, so Jupiter killed him with a thunderbolt.
31. Cirrha a very ancient town near Delphi, sacred to Apollo.
33. Palladio gregi [Pallas’s flock] the students and Fellows of Cambridge University. Pallas Athene was goddess of wisdom.
35. Charontis Charon ferried the dead over the river Styx.
37. Persephone queen of hell. In line 46 M. calls her by her Latin name Proserpina.
45. Aeaci Aeacus. After his death he became, with Minos and Rhadamanthys, a judge of the dead in
Hades.
46. Aetnaea Sicilian (from Mount Etna). Proserpine had been abducted by Pluto from the Sicilian meadow of Enna. Cp. PL iv 268f.
In Quintum Novembris [On the Fifth of November]
The heading Anno aetatis 17 almost certainly means ‘at seventeen years of age’ (see headnote to Elegia II). M.’s miniature epic may have been written for Cambridge festivities celebrating Guy Fawkes Day (5 November) in 1626. The Gunpowder Plot (to assassinate King James in Parliament) had been exposed on 5 November 1605. Many critics have detected in M.’s poem the influence of Phineas Fletcher’s Locustae (1627), which M. might have seen in manuscript. M.’s early English poems contain many probable echoes of poems by Fletcher that M. could have seen only in manuscript. See Nativity 239n.
2. Teucrigenas populos [Troy-descended people] The Britons were thought to be descendants of Trojan exiles led by Brutus, Aeneas’s grandson. The myth is found in Nennius’s eighth-century Historia Brittonum as well as in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae.
7. ignifluo… Acheronte [Acheron’s fiery waves] Phlegethon, not Acheron, was the infernal river of fire. Acheron was the river of sorrow. But ‘Acheron’ could also denote Hell in general, so the fiery waves might be the ‘lake of fire’ of Rev. 19. 20 and 20. 14. The tyrant is Satan.
10. vernas [slaves by birth] implying Calvinist predestination. M. was not yet an Arminian in 1626.
12. medio… aere [middle air] Satan’s abode as ‘prince of the power of the air’ (Eph. 2. 2). Cp. PR i 39, ii 117.
23. Summanus an obscure god of midnight storms. He was identified with Pluto as prince of the dead (summus manium), and Jove’s thunderbolts were said to be in his power at night. See Ovid, Fasti vi 731.
27. Neptunia proles [Neptune’s son] Albion, the legendary king of Britain, who gave the island his own name. He was killed fighting Hercules in Gaul.
28. Amphitryoniaden [Amphitryon’s son] Hercules, son of Jove and Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon. Classical poets often call Hercules ‘Amphitryoniades’.
37. See PL i 198–9n on the monster Typhoeus, his war against the gods, and imprisonment under Etna.
52. Thetidi Thetis, the sea-nymph, here stands for the sea, which Tiber flows into.
53. Quirini Romulus was called Quirinus after his deification.
55. Tricoronifer the Pope, with his triple crown.
56. Panificosque deos [gods made of bread] the Eucharist, which Roman Catholics see as the body of Christ.
60. Cimmeriis Cimmeria was a land of perpetual darkness visited by Odysseus (Homer, Od. xi 13–22).
62. St Peter’s feast is on 28 June.
64. Bromius ‘the noisy one’, a surname of Bacchus.
65. Echionio Aracyntho the Boeotian mountain Aracynthus. Echion was a Theban hero who sprang from the dragons’ teeth sown by Cadmus.
66. Asopus a Boeotian river.
67. Cithaeron a mountain near Thebes, sacred to Dionysus, whose orgies take place there in Euripides’ The Bacchae.
69. Erebus the husband and brother of Night.
71–3. The Greek names of Night’s horses are M.’s invention. Typhon means ‘blind’, Melanchaetes means ‘long, black hair’, Siope means ‘silence’, and Phrix means ‘shuddering’.
74. regum domitor [tamer of kings] the Pope.
79–85. Satan appears disguised as a Franciscan friar.
88. Silvestri… genti [forest folk] birds.
92. Dormis… [Are you sleeping…] echoing many previous epics, where heroes or villains are roused from peaceful sleep by a voice which lures them into performing rash deeds. Cp. Homer, Il. ii 23, Virgil, Aen. iv 560, vii 421, Tasso, Gerus. Lib. x 8, and M.’s PL v 38 and 673.
95. Hyperboreo Diodorus Siculus II xlvii 1 locates the blessed island of the Hyperboreans in the northern sea, beyond the land of the Celts.
101. Apostolicae… clavis [Apostolic key] the keys of Heaven given to Peter by Christ (Matt. 16. 19).
102. Hesperiae… classem [Hesperian fleet] the Spanish Armada, defeated in 1588.
105. Thermodoontea… puella [Amazonian virgin] Elizabeth I had persecuted Catholics in England. The Amazons lived near the river Thermodon, in Pontus.
108. Tyrrhenum… Pontum [Tyrrhenian Sea] the Mediterranean west of Italy.
109. Aventino… colle The Aventine is the southernmost of Rome’s seven hills.
117. Patricios [patricians] members of the Commons. procerum de stirpe creatos [the men of high descent] the Lords.
118. patres bishops, as members of the House of Lords.
127. Saecula… Mariana [the Marian age] Mary Tudor had burned many Protestant martyrs during her reign (1553–8). In ancient Latin usage Mariana referred to the brutal age of Marius and Sulla. M.’s friend Alexander Gill had used the pun in his anti-Catholic poem In ruinam Camerae Papisticae (1625).
132. Lethen [Lethe] the river of oblivion in Hades.
133. Tithonia [wife of Tithonus] Aurora, goddess of dawn.
135. nigri… nati [black son] Memnon, an Ethiopian hero slain by Achilles at Troy. Aurora’s tears are the dew.
137. ianitor the Pope, as keeper of Heaven’s keys.
139–54. Cp. the personified inhabitants of hell’s vestibule in Virgil, Aen. vi 273–81 and Spenser, FQ II vii 21–5.
143. praeruptaque] 1673; semifractaque 1645. M. changed the word after Salmasius (Responsio (1660) 5) pointed out the false quantity in 1645.
150. Exululat] 1673; Exululant 1645.
conscia Latin conscius could imply guilty knowledge, as could English ‘conscious’ (OED 4b). Cp. ‘conscious Night’ in PL vi 521.
156. Babylonius English Protestants identified Rome with the Babylon of Rev. 14. 8 and 17. 5.
168. ridet Cp. God’s laughing at his enemies in Ps. 2. 4 and in PL ii 731 and v 736–7.
170–93. M.’s description of the tower of Fama (Rumour) draws upon Ovid, Met. xii 39–63, Virgil, Aen. iv 173–88, and Chaucer, The House of Fame iii.
171. Mareotidas Lake Mareotis, near Alexandria. M. might be referring by synecdoche to Africa in general, which forms a third continent alongside Asia (170) and Europe (171). D. T. Starnes, in N&Q 196 (1951) 515–18, plausibly argues that Mareotidas is a misprint for Maeotidas (lake Maeotis, the Sea of Azov), the traditional centre of the world (see e.g. Lucan, Pharsalia iii 271–8).
172. Titanidos [daughter of the Titaness] Virgil’s Fama was the daughter of Terra (Earth), and the younger sister of the Giants (Aen. iv 178–80).
174. Athos, Pelion and Ossa are Greek mountains. The Giants piled Pelion on Ossa when they attacked the gods. See Homer, Od. xi 313–16 and Ovid, Met. i 151–5.
178–9. Homer uses the simile of flies buzzing around milk-pails to describe the mustering Greeks (Il. ii 469–73) and the Greeks and Trojans fighting over Sarpedon’s corpse (Il. xvi 641–3). Cp. also PR iv 15–17.
181. ultrix matris [her mother’s avenger] Terra gave birth to Rumour to avenge the defeat of the Giants, her sons (Virgil, Aen. iv 178–80).
185. Aristoride [Arestor’s son] Argus, the hundred-eyed herdsman whom Juno set to guard lo, daughter of Inachus. Jove had changed lo into a heifer in a vain attempt to hide their love. Ancient tradition identified lo (who was restored to human form in Egypt) with the Egyptian goddess Isis.
194–8. The Gunpowder Plot was thwarted because one of the plotters warned Lord Monteagle not to attend the opening of Parliament.
207. Temesaeo Temesa, in southern Italy, was famous for its copper mines.
In Obitum Praesulis Eliensis [On the death of the Bishop of Ely]
Date: October 1626. Dr Nicholas Felton (1556 – 5 October 1626) followed Lancelot Andrewes as Bishop of Ely (1619–26) and died ten days after Andrewes. He and Andrewes were friends, and both were translators of the A.V.
1–6. M. is referring to Elegia III, his tribute to Andrewes.
10. Neptune was the father of Albion, founder of Britain.
11. ferrets sororibus [cruel sisters] the Parcae (Fates).
14.
Anguillae [Eel] Ely means ‘eel-isle’.
17. deam [goddess] Libitina (Roman goddess of funerals), or Mors (Death), or Proserpina.
18. Ibida Ovid’s Ibis (The Crane) is an invective against an enemy.
20. Graiusque vates [Greek poet] Archilochus of Paros, a Greek poet of around the mid-seventh century BC. Ancient tradition says that he loved Neobule, daughter of Lycambes. When Lycambes forbade the marriage, Archilochus wrote such biting satires that father and daughter hanged themselves.
27–8. vitream / Bilemque [gleaming bile] Greek medical theory held that black bile, the source of melancholy, would gleam in mad persons.
32. Hesiod calls Death daughter of Night (Theog. 758–9).
39. Horae [the Hours] goddesses of the seasons. They were the daughters of Zeus and Themis, goddess of justice.
49. Vates [prophet] Elijah. See II Kings 2. 11 for his ascent to Heaven in a chariot of fire.
56. deam [goddess] Luna, goddess of the moon. She is triformis because she was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate or Proserpina in hell. Hecate is associated with a dragon-drawn chariot in Ovid, Met. vii
218–19. Cp. Il Penseroso 59 and A Masque 131.
Naturam non pati senium [That Nature does not suffer from old age]
Date: unknown. These verses are usually taken to be an academic exercise from M.’s Cambridge days. M. wrote a letter to Alexander Gill, dated 2 July 1628, in which he mentions a poem that he had recently written for a Fellow of the College to use in a Commencement disputation. Many editors think that this poem was Naturam non pati senium, and that the date of composition was therefore June 1628. But M. in his letter describes the poem as leviculas… nugas (‘trivial nonsense’). The phrase may simply be false modesty, but Carey plausibly conjectures that M. in his letter is referring to the lighthearted De Idea Platonica. Naturam non pati senium has a serious subject, which might have been inspired by George Hakewill’s Apology of the Power and Providence of God (1627). Hakewill’s Apology was a rebuttal of the theory – recently expressed by Godfrey Goodman in The Fall of Man (1616)Naturam non pati senium [That Nature does not suffer from old age] –that Nature is in a process of continual decay. Goodman did not invent the idea. It was familiar to Spenser (see proem to book V of FQ) and to Donne (see his Anniversaries). M. himself was later to describe the postlapsarian world as groaning under its own weight (PL xii 539). In the present poem, however, he expresses optimism about the unchanging goodness of Nature.
