Return to text.
399 i.e., six men will be required/used to carry him to his grave
Return to text.
400 boredom, sorrow
Return to text.
401 involving unconcern with time
Return to text.
402 load = burden
Return to text.
403 so that
Return to text.
404 as if
Return to text.
405 a form of torture
Return to text.
406 transformed, like so many classical figures, into a star/constellation?
Return to text.
407 the “date” of a document is the “time” assigned to it (by the calendar)
Return to text.
408 i.e., as regular as the moon
Return to text.
409 “wain” = wagon; “wane” = decrease
Return to text.
410 written on his tomb, or as his funereal inscription generally, just as letters too have their “superscriptions,” or inside addresses
Return to text.
411 hold/enclose the corpse of
Return to text.
412 dead in childbirth, together with her child, in 1631, at age twenty-three
Return to text.
413 Thomas, Viscount of Rock-Savage
Return to text.
414 on her mother’s side, heir of Lord Darcy, Earl of Rivers
Return to text.
415 counted, reckoned up
Return to text.
416 dwell
Return to text.
417 proper, fit
Return to text.
418 Hymen
Return to text.
419 she had been married at sixteen; at twenty-three she died
Return to text.
420 cypress = a funereal wood, its branches and twigs a symbol of mourning
Return to text.
421 born in 1629
Return to text.
422 goddess of childbirth
Return to text.
423 childbirth labor
Return to text.
424 one of the three Fates, who cut the thread of life
Return to text.
425 the child was dead before delivery
Return to text.
426 a cutting from a plant/flower
Return to text.
427 retinue?
Return to text.
428 careless
Return to text.
429 youth, rustic, lover
Return to text.
430 pluck, cut
Return to text.
431 springtime, like springtime
Return to text.
432 predictive, warning
Return to text.
433 the mountain where the Muses dwelled
Return to text.
434 twigs/sprays used as wreaths
Return to text.
435 roads
Return to text.
436 the River Cam, for which Cambridge is named
Return to text.
437 Rachel
Return to text.
438 the child she bore was Benjamin
Return to text.
439 happiness (in heaven)
Return to text.
440 (in Italian) lively, cheerful, gay, merry
Return to text.
441 monstrous dog, guardian of the entrance to Hades
Return to text.
442 Styx = underground river across which Charon ferried the souls of the dead into Hades
Return to text.
443 unknown
Return to text.
444 small, solitary chamber
Return to text.
445 projecting cliff edges
Return to text.
446 according to Homer, a people who live at the outer edge of the world and thus are in perpetual darkness
Return to text.
447 named, called
Return to text.
448 the three Graces are Agalia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne [four syllables, the second and fourth accented]
Return to text.
449 exhales
Return to text.
450 jolly, lively, unresisting
Return to text.
451 merry, gay
Return to text.
452 affable, graceful
Return to text.
453 fanciful turns of speech, conceits
Return to text.
454 sportive/cunning/amorous tricks
Return to text.
455 nod of the head, signaling either assent or command
Return to text.
456 goddess of youth [bisyllabic]
Return to text.
457 frolic, diversion
Return to text.
458 uncensured
Return to text.
459 slow, listless
Return to text.
460 speckled
Return to text.
461 “rear” as in “rear guard”: the image is military
Return to text.
462 as in “haystack”
Return to text.
463 brave, fierce, vigorous
Return to text.
464 “struts his dames before” = struts in front of his lady folk
Return to text.
465 light gray
Return to text.
466 in plain view, openly
Return to text.
467 elevated, distinguished, of high rank
Return to text.
468 display of high dignity/rank/wealth
Return to text.
469 elaborate costumes/uniforms
Return to text.
470 equipped, ordered
Return to text.
471 sharpens
Return to text.
472 appraises
Return to text.
473 reddish brown
Return to text.
474 farmland ploughed and harrowed but left uncultivated for a period (usually a year)
Return to text.
475 spotted, variegated
Return to text.
476 indented parapets at the tops of walls
Return to text.
477 i.e., some beautiful woman
Return to text.
478 dwells
Return to text.
479 center of attraction
Return to text.
480 Corydon and Thyrsis = prototypical names for characters in Greek pastorals
Return to text.
481 leafy edible plants
Return to text.
482 food
Return to text.
483 deft, dexterous
Return to text.
484 prepares
Return to text.
485 abode, cottage
Return to text.
486 tie up
Return to text.
487 bundles made after reaping (usually of grains)
Return to text.
488 i.e., before harvest time (autumn)
Return to text.
489 conduct, guide, show the way
Return to text.
490 browned by exposure
Return to text.
491 conical heaps of hay, in the fields/pastures
Return to text.
492 meadow
Return to text.
493 free from care/doubt/worry
Return to text.
494 highland
Return to text.
495 small villages or groups of houses, having no church
Return to text.
496 merry, joyful, light-hearted
Return to text.
497 primitive three-stringed fiddle
Return to text.
498 a principal fairy
Return to text.
499 cakes, sweetmeats, dainties
Return
to text.
500 threshing tool: a wooden handle to which is tied a free-swinging clublike swingle (or “swipple”)
Return to text.
501 grain
Return to text.
502 beneficent goblin
Return to text.
503 stuffed with food
Return to text.
504 morning call
Return to text.
505 garments
Return to text.
506 public spectacle/festivity
Return to text.
507 sufficient/abundant supply
Return to text.
508 god of marriage
Return to text.
509 orange-red/yellow
Return to text.
510 wax candle
Return to text.
511 splendor, magnificence
Return to text.
512 Ben Jonson, 1572–1637, poet, dramatist, critic; friend/colleague of Shakespeare
Return to text.
513 comedy (in which the actors wore low-heeled slippers, or “socks”)
Return to text.
514 imagination
Return to text.
515 corrosive
Return to text.
516 the Lydian (ancient Greek) mode (musical scale) was soft, often melancholy; air = melodies
Return to text.
517 gentle
Return to text.
518 round
Return to text.
519 see footnote 36 to line 27, above
Return to text.
520 attention, care
Return to text.
521 whirling, intoxicated
Return to text.
522 skill, craft
Return to text.
523 legendary poet/musician
Return to text.
524 raise, lift
Return to text.
525 Elysian Fields/Elysium = legendary island of the blessed
Return to text.
526 melodies
Return to text.
527 lord of the underworld
Return to text.
528 Orpheus had won her right to live again, provided he not look back at her as she followed him up into the world of the living. He finally did look back, at her urgent request, and she disappeared forever [four syllables, second and fourth accented]
Return to text.
529 The reference is to Marlowe’s “Passionate Shepherd” see also lines 37–40, above
Return to text.
530 (in Italian) thoughtful, serious, grave
Return to text.
531 help, assist
Return to text.
532 resolved, determined
Return to text.
533 whims
Return to text.
534 foolish, credulous, idiotic
Return to text.
535 showy
Return to text.
536 minute particle (of dust)
Return to text.
537 hirelings, mercenaries, tools, creatures
Return to text.
538 son of Hypnos (Sleep), and god of dreams
Return to text.
539 reach, light upon
Return to text.
540 a handsome Ethiopian prince; his sister’s name is Himera—but the allusion remains obscure
Return to text.
541 suit
Return to text.
542 Cassiopeia, queen of Ethiopia, boasted that Andromeda, her daughter, was more beautiful than the Nereids, who responded by turning Andromeda into a constellation [“Ethiope” = bisyllable—i.e., first syllable stressed, second syllable elided]
Return to text.
543 virgin daughter of Saturn (Chronos) and goddess of the hearth
Return to text.
544 in Crete? where Jove (Zeus) lived—and plotted against Saturn (Chronos)
Return to text.
545 priestess of a pagan deity
Return to text.
546 sober, grave, serious, reserved
Return to text.
547 color
Return to text.
548 sable-colored: black
Return to text.
549 mantlelike vestment, worn over the shoulders
Return to text.
550 fine linen fabric; unlike most linens, cypress lawn is black
Return to text.
551 comely
Return to text.
552 usual, habitual, customary
Return to text.
553 to communicate/hold intercourse with
Return to text.
554 transported, carried away, enraptured
Return to text.
555 steadfast, firm, grave, serious
Return to text.
556 heavy
Return to text.
557 glance, look
Return to text.
558 i.e., her eyes
Return to text.
559 with equal firmness
Return to text.
560 lean
Return to text.
561 fasting (abstinence from food)
Return to text.
562 always
Return to text.
563 withdrawn
Return to text.
564 well-ordered
Return to text.
565 “the Cherub Contemplation” (line 54, below)
Return to text.
566 Ezekiel’s vision of a heavenly chariot: see Ezekiel 10:1–2 and 9–22
Return to text.
567 [five syllables, first, third, and fifth accented]
Return to text.
568 summon (with a whisper)
Return to text.
569 unless
Return to text.
570 the nightingale
Return to text.
571 mood, manner
Return to text.
572 moon goddess
Return to text.
573 curbs, restrains
Return to text.
574 yoke = wooden device for coupling more than one horse or other dray animal to one vehicle
Return to text.
575 singer (the nightingale)
Return to text.
576 solicit, entreat
Return to text.
577 not by lawn cutting but by sheep nibbling
Return to text.
578 a piece/patch of ground, usually small
Return to text.
579 deep mournful tone
Return to text.
580 quiet
Return to text.
581 remote, secluded
Return to text.
582 darkness
Return to text.
583 the night watchman/town crier
Return to text.
584 incantation
Return to text.
585 the constellation Ursa Major (“Great Bear”), which never sets
Return to text.
586 Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice great Hermes”), third-century Neoplatonist
Return to text.
587 Plato’s spirit is assumed, here, to now reside in a planetary sphere: Plato argued that great men’s souls do in fact so ascend after their bodies die
Return to text.
588 explain
Return to text.
589 dwelling
Return to text.
590 corner, outlying/remote region
Return to text.
591 a being intermediate between god and man: an inferior deity
Return to text.
592 accord, agreement
Return to text.
593 brilliant, showy
Return to text.
594 scepter = ornamental rod/wand
Return to text.
595 rich purple cloth
Return to text.
596 of which Oedipus was king
Return to te
xt.
597 i.e., Agamemnon, Orestes, Electra, Iphigenia
Return to text.
598 high thick-soled boots worn in tragedies, as opposed to the “sock” (low slipper) worn in comedies
Return to text.
599 mythical Greek poet, said to have been taught by Orpheus
Return to text.
600 Geoffrey Chaucer, “Squire’s Tale” (in Canterbury Tales): the first two parts were finished, but we have only the first two lines of part three
Return to text.
601 [three syllables, first and third accented]
Return to text.
602 tournaments
Return to text.
603 not ironic, but a reference to Spenser, one of Milton’s favorite poets, who (in Book IV, canto 2, of The Fairie Queene) added allegory to the tale Chaucer left unfinished
Return to text.
604 path
Return to text.
605 sober
Return to text.
606 decked, adorned
Return to text.
607 pleated, curled
Return to text.
608 Cephalus, husband of Procris, trapped in an ultimately fatal human-deity triangle when Eos (“dawn”) fell in love with him
Return to text.
609 god of forests
Return to text.
610 harsh, violent, rugged
Return to text.
611 lifted, raised
Return to text.
612 frequently visited place
Return to text.
613 shelter, covering
Return to text.
614 unhallowed, polluted, alien
Return to text.
615 glaringly bright
Return to text.
616 company? harmony?
Return to text.
617 tutelary god/spirit
Return to text.
618 proper
Return to text.
619 bounds [noun]
Return to text.
620 arched, vaulted
Return to text.
621 “massily” [adverb]
Return to text.
622 ornamented with scenes (“stories”) from history, legend, etc.
Return to text.
623 made, ordered, arrayed
Return to text.
624 resounding, sounding forth
Return to text.
625 ponder
Return to text.
626 show
Return to text.
627 catch sight of
Return to text.
628 Leto, a Titan, mother of twins, Apollo and Artemis, whose father is Zeus
Return to text.
629 the Great Mother [trisyllabic, first and third syllables accented]
Return to text.
630 i.e., give her any further competitive advantage
Return to text.
631 gentlemanly, noble, high-born, aristocratic
Return to text.
632 shepherds, rustics
Return to text.
633 Arcadia: region of Greece which Virgil’s Eclogues made the traditional locale of the pastoral ideal
Return to text.
634 river, stream
Return to text.
635 river that fell in love with the nymph Arethusa and, after Diana transformed her into a fountain, flowed under the sea to reach her
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 78
