1529 Dealing dole. An expression meaning 'dealing a portion' (“deal” and “dole" being really the same word). Probably, however, Milton has the Latin word dolor, ‘pain,' 6 sorrow' in his mind.

1531 Cf. lines 584-6, and 1535. It is scarcely necessary to point out that such changes in a man's mood are usual.

1535 Subscribe.

name to,' 'agree.'

Lit. 'write underneath.'

1537 Put "howsoever " for "so."

So, 'sign one's

1538 Rides post; i.e. with the speed of the post.' Baits; i.e. stops to bait his horses.'

to bite.' (Sk.)

1540 Ebrew. See note on line 1308.

Bait, Scand., 'make

1541 O, whither, &c. Such exclamations naturally attend circumstances of horror, and are common in dramatic compositions. So Polymestor, when his children are killed before his eyes, and he himself is blinded, rushes on the stage crying, ὤμοι ἐγώ, πᾶ βῶ, πᾶ στῶ, πᾶ κέλσω ; (Eur. Hec. 1056.)

The Messenger is closely copied from the ayyeλos of Euripides. 1543 "Erst, used in the sense of 'lately,' 'just now; properly soonest, -er, -st=soon-est, and is the superlative of A. S. ær, 'soon.'

1553 Rueful cry. ("Ruthful," Troilus, v. 3; "ruthless," Measure for Measure, iii. 2.) Ruth (Scand.), pity.' Rueful cry, 'cry that rouses pity.' (Sk., &c.) The line in Troilus well illustrates the meaning of the word. Troilus says to Hector

Let

The venomed vengeance ride upon our swords,

Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth." 1555-70 The scene is unfolded with skill, and in accordance with dramatic custom.

1556 Distract. "M.E. destract, 'distracted.'

We find

also distract as a p.p. 'Distracte were þei stithly ''they were greatly distracted.'"

1562 "Oh, I have fed upon this woe already,

And now excess of it will make me surfeit." -Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 1574-7 These lines may appear artificial, to modern ears at least. Yet 1577 is in itself a very beautiful line. We may observe, perhaps, several common sayings hereabouts-" Suspense is torture," ""Take the worst in brief," "Death, who sets all free, has paid his ransom," ""Give the reins to grief."

"Death is the crown of life."

1585-6 'He had foes to fight with, why fight against himself?' 1587, et seq. Cf. note on "and by accident," in the notes on the Argument.

1590 Lastly; i.e. 'at the last.'

1596, et seq. The whole speech is natural, graphic, condensed. From its easy commencement the interest gradually increases till we see the mighty Samson before us at his patient tasks, then leaning as for rest and prayer, till with head erect he addresses the lords. There follows the description of the catastrophe, which has much of the breadth, force, and concentration of similar passages in Paradise Lost.

1596 Occasions. Lat. occasionem, 'a happening.' So "Occasions drew me means, perhaps, no more than I happened to go.' 1599 Each high street. Cf. note on "high street," line 1458. 1605-6 Imagine half of an English theatre, with the gallery for its roof resting on two main pillars, and people on the gallery, with seats for those of rank underneath the gallery, but not in front of it; beyond the theatre stands the throng; between the throng and the theatre is Samson. Milton does not mention the people on the roof. Professor Masson has no comma after "round," or hyphen between "half" and round;" and we have, apparently, a theatre vaulted high half the way round it, instead of a theatre which is a semicircle, &c.

1608 Sort; i.e. 'rank.' Lat. sors, sortis, 'lot,' 'chance,' 'fortune,' 'condition.'

1610 Banks; i.e. 'benches ;' 'a scaffold,' original sense, ‘a stage for seeing.'

1611 Aloof. A nautical expression. The a='on,' as 'abed,' 'aground,' &c.; 'aloof,' or on loof' Dutch te loef, i.e. 'to windward,' 'to hold aloof;' Dutch loef houden, "to keep to windward.' In the description of the battle of Actium, in North's Plutarch, we have "he was driven also to loof off (modern 'luff'), to have more room.' (Sk.)

1612-14 Cf. lines 1421-2, and note.

1615-16 Cf. lines 1317-18.

1619 Cataphracts. Cataphracti equites, 'men in mail on horses also mailed.' Greek kaтáþракTOS, 'covered in,' 'fenced in.' Cf. Paradise Regained, iii. 310-13. Todd quotes Lisle's Farie Ethiopian, 4 to 1631, p. 150-

"His strong phalanges march on either side;

And troopes of cataphracts before him ride."

1621 Rifted the air. Prospero says

"To the dread rattling thunder

Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt."-Tempest, v. I.

The more common verb is "rive." "Brutus hath rived my

soul."

1621 Clamouring their god. Lines 1620-21 recall to mind Acts xii. 21-22.

1623-4 Came to the place where they led him.'

1625 Assayed. Assay, "chiefly used of the trial of metals

in

or weights. When used in the sense of 'attempt' it is generally spelt essay in Mod. E." But Chaucer and Gower use assay that sense. O. Fr. asaier, another spelling of esaier, derived from sub. essai, 'a trial.' Lat. exagium, 'a weighing." "A trial of exact weight." (Sk.)

1627 Stupendious. So Paradise Lost, x. 351, the only other place in the poems where the word occurs. Mr. R. C. Browne, in a note on the above, says, "Stupendious occurs in the Pagan Prince (1690) quoted in Nares The Stupendious Valour and Prowess of the Palatine,' and in Evelyn's Diary."

1628 Antagonist. Probably used here adjectivally.

1629 For intermission_sake. Lat. intermissionem. Cf. Paradise Lost, iv. 102. "Intermittere labores," &c., 'to break off work,' &c., is a common Latin expression.

1630-4 Judges xvi. 26.

1634 Arched. Rather a favourite word with Milton. Always pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable. Used with much effect of "roof" in the Nativity hymn, line 175, and in Paradise Lost, i. 726; of "groves," Il Penseroso, 133; of "the swan," Paradise Lost, vii. 438.

1645 Strike. Dunster, Keightley, and others consider that there is an "ironical play on the word." Moreover, Samson was given to grim practical jokes suitable to his character.

1646-50 It were long to tell the several meanings which may be given to certain phrases in these lines, according as they are punctuated. Perhaps it is hypercriticism which has prevented commentators making "bowed" govern "pillars. I have ventured to read it so, chiefly because the passage sounds more musical to me as so read, and in so doing have followed the punctuation of the first edition, save in putting a semicolon after fro"-though, recollecting that Milton was blind, and also careless about punctuation, the punctuation of the first edition is of little or no importance.

1647 As with the force of winds and waters pent. Paradise Lost, vi. 195, et seq.

1649 Convello, convulsum, 'to tear away,' 'pluck up.'

Cf.

1659 Scaped. "To scape,' more properly 'to escape,' is to 'slip out of one's cape.' Lat. ex cappa, out of one's cloak or cape. (Sk.)

1660 Warton points out that it is judicious to make the Chorus here speak.

speech at present.

Manoa may be supposed incapable of

1665 Not willingly. Cf. lines 1587-8, and note.

1667-8 In numbers more. Judges xvi. 30.

1669 Music is quite requisite to give this and the succeeding

Semichorus due effect.

Each Semichorus should chant to the

other the lines assigned to it.

Focund. Chaucer has joconde. Everyone will remember, "How jocund did they drive their team afield!" in Gray's Elegy. Sublime. Lat. sublimis, 'raised on high.' 'They were in good spirits.'

1674 By the Oxford Bible, the ark was at Shiloh from about B.C. 1444 (Joshua xviii.) to about B.C. 1141 (1 Samuel iv.). "Silo his," probably put for "Silo's." Cf. "For Jesus Christ His sake," in the prayer "For all sorts and conditions of men.' "Ilis" is required for the rhythm, and "Silo his" trips better off the tongue than the usual spelling, "Shiloh his," would do; also cf. note on line 981. "He probably terms it 'bright' on account of the Shekinah which was supposed to rest on the ark." (Keightley.) Shiloh appears to have been near Bethel. (Judges xxi. 19.)

1675 Spirit of phrenzy. The Greek "Arŋ, vengeance.'

1676 Who hurt their minds. Todd quotes lines attributed to Euripides, ὅταν δὲ Δαίμων ἀνδρὶ προσύνῃ κακὰ, τὸν νοῦν ἔβλαψε πρῶτον. seems to mean 'rendered them (their minds) unfit to understand their interest.'

"Hurt'

"The form

1680 Unweetingly. Paradise Regained, i. 126. 'weet' (of the verb wit, 'to know') in Spenser's Faerie Queen, i. 3-6, is nothing but a corruption of 'wit."" (Sk.)

66

1682-5 Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat." The origin of the line is not known. Cf. the sentiment expressed in the Greek line above (note on 1676).

1682 Fond. Cf. line 228, and note.

1685 To sense reprobate. 'Rejected,' as regards sense; i.e. 'incapacitated for perceiving their true interest.' There is thought of the terrible doctrine of reprobation. According to Calvin, "All men are not created for the same end, but some are foreordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation. So... we say, he was elected, that is, predestinated to life, or reprobated, that is, predestinated to damnation." This also was the doctrine of the Assembly of English and Scotch Divines, and of the Reformed Churches in France and in the Low Countries. See Predestination calmly Considered, by the Rev. John Wesley. Mr. Wesley, with Christlike sarcasm, and indignant eloquence, denounces the diabolical nature of the doctrine, and explains and expounds the matter in accordance with his reading of the Bible. 1687-9 These lines well describe the condition of Milton. 1688 Thought extinguished; i.e. thought (to be) extinguished.'

1689 With inward eyes illuminated. There is probably some thought of himself too. Cf. Paradise Lost, iii. 51, et seq. Such expressions are fairly common among the poets, especially among the Elizabethan poets, notably Spenser; but Milton, at least, uses them in a peculiarly definite and solemn sense.

We

must always recollect that he laid claim to at least so much light from God's Holy Spirit as would be the portion of him who had devoted his life to the service of God and of God's people, and had been specially selected for the high purpose of writing a great epic poem. Cf. note on the words "persuaded inwardly" in the Argument.

1690 Virtue. Lat. virtutem, 'manliness,' 'strength,' 'vigour,' 'bravery.'

1691 The image, it will easily be seen, is taken from the custom, in places where the fuel is wood or peat, of keeping the fire in by covering a live coal up with the ashes. custom is frequently alluded to in the classics. Cf. Keightley.

This

1692-6 This difficult passage is variously explained. Keightley thinks, and gives his reasons for thinking, that Milton may have dictated "nor" where we have "and," which gets over the objection to "but" (line 1695), and which also shows how Samson did not come against his foes at night, but boldly in the day. Is it possible that the meaning may be something of this kind-'In so far as he attacked men at rest, secure on their benches, he was like a dragon, coming in the evening to attack tame fowls on nests and perches. In so far as he brought destruction unexpectedly on them from above, he was like an eagle, the bird of Jove-Jove who sometimes sends thunderbolts on our heads from a clear, cloudless, sky'? Perhaps there should, to suit such a meaning, be a semicolon after "fowl."

Professor Masson's note on the subject is interesting, but seems to miss a difficulty—a difficulty which I certainly have not got over-that a dragon is a winged serpent; hence there is not the contrast which we should expect between the dragon and the eagle. Read as written the metaphors are somewhat mixed, and the "but" has given and will give commentators many a headache.

"An evening dragon is a Latinism for a dragon in the evening." (C. C.)

1695 Tame villatic fowl. "Villaticas alites," Pliny, xxiii. 17. Villa (Lat.) is 'a country house,' 'farm.' Mr. R. C. Browne refers to the Rambler, No. 147, where the country youth visiting his uncle and aunt in Town exhibits "villatic (rustic) bashfulness."

1696 His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads; i.e. 'sent thunderbolts on their heads out of a clear sky.' The danger came on them unexpectedly, and from above. Thunder from a clear sky, as being something unexpected, and since thunder comes from Jove, is often referred to among the classics as something ominous. The notion of an eagle dashing from above like lightning on its prey is common in English and other literature.

H