| 21.

"The Sigean boy," Ganymede, the god's cupbearer.

724. Hylas went to draw water from a fountain, when the Nymphs fell in love with him and drew him in, and he was never seen again. Daphne was chased by Phoebus Apollo, and when on the point of being caught was turned into a laurel, which thenceforward became Apollo's favourite tree. Cydonia, one of the chief cities of Crete. Its inhabitants were famous for their skill in archery.

38. "Latent," i.e. unknown. Cephalus was the husband of Procris. He had been presented with a javelin which was never to miss its mark, and one day, when out hunting, he killed her, not knowing her.

Z 39. There are many legends concerning the giant hunter, Orion, but all agree that he was deprived of sight, in consequence of the violence of his love.

7 40. Alcides was Hercules; his friend, Telamon the hunter.

7 46. "Phœbus' serpent," i.e. Esculapius, the god of healing, who came to Rome disguised in the form of a snake.

183. Eclides, Amphiaraus, one of the Argonauts. He fought in the war against Thebes, but was defeated, and whilst he was fleeing the earth swallowed him up before he could be overtaken.

Page 445, 103. been added at a later date, after he got over his love-attack.

These lines seem to have

1st Epigram. The first line alludes to the legend that Zeus, in displeasure, withheld fire from men, but Prometheus stole it in a hollow tube.

2nd Epigram. Leonora Baroni was the Jenny Lind of her age. Milton heard her for the first time at a magnificent concert at the Cardinal Barberini's, which he describes in one of his Epistles. A French writer, quoted by Warton, who had heard Leonora sing, accompanied by her mother, Adriana, on the lute, says that it threw him into such raptures that he "forgot his mortality."

Pentheus, King of Thebes, was driven mad by Dionysus, for resisting the introduction of his worship into the kingdom.

Page 446. Naples, &c. Parthenope was one of the Sirens, said to be buried at Naples. Chalcidic, a name sometimes given to the Greek colonies in South Italy, from Chalcis, whence the colonists came.

The hoarse Pausilipo," alluding to the murmur of the waves at the foot of the Mount of that name.

Christina, Queen of Sweden, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, was only six years old at the time of her father's death. She was elected queen then, and assumed the government in 1644. For an account of her life and character, see Dyer's Mod. Europe, vol. iii. p. 36. She abdicated in 1654, and soon after joined the Roman Catholic Church. There is some reason for thinking that the lines here translated were written, not by Milton, but by Marvell.

Page 447. The Vice-Chancellor was Dr. John Goslyn, Master of Caius, and Professor of Medicine. Died 1626.

Nessus was a Centaur, whom Hercules shot with a poisoned arrow. Hercules was afterwards induced to put on a robe which had been dipped in Nessus' blood, and the poison penetrated all his limbs. At the moment of his death he was caught up to the gods.

"Ne'er had Hector," &c. Iliad xxii. 226. (Pope, 7401.)

"Nor the chief"-namely, Sarpedon. xvi. 452. (Pope, 7 580.)

terrible power of turning all who looked upon it into stone.

Page 449, 25. "Hurled," i.e. by Zeus.

29. "Thy own son," Phaeton.

133. Hamus, now Balkan.

734-5. The Ceraunian hills were said to have been used as missiles in the war of the Titans.

143. "The prime mover," Primum mobile, the external sphere, which, according to the Ptolemaic system, set all the others in motion.

1 46. Saturn, god of the seasons, which, says the poet, keep on their round as of old.

The burning casque of Mars," the abode of the lightning.

149. Phoebus, the sun, which needs not, through weakness, to draw nearer to the earth, in order to give it warmth.

7 53. "The star," Venus, sometimes a morning, sometimes an evening star.

158. Cynthia, the moon.

760. The moon is supposed to hold out her arms to catch the first beams of the sun.

168. Pelorus, N.E. promontory of Sicily. 769. The shell blown by the Tritons was supposed to have the effect of soothing the restless waves of the ocean.

Page 450, 74. Hyacinth was the favourite of Apollo; Adonis of Cytherea (Venus). The poet, of course, means that the flowers bearing these names are still as sweet and beautiful as ever. The anemone was said to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.

Z 80. 2 S. Peter iii. 7. 13. On the Platonic Idea. mother of the Muses.

Mnemosyne,

17. Alludes to the Platonic doctrine that there is in the divine regions an archetype of man, an original perfect model of what man was intended to be.

734. Sanchoniathon. There are only fragments of an ancient history said to have been written by him. But modern examination has led to the opinion that they are forgeries.

737. Hermes Trismegistus, the author of works much valued by the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria.

Page 451, 40. Plato. Academus was the grove, near Athens, in which Plato taught. Z I. To his Father. 66 Pieria's stream," sacred to the Muses.

18. Clio, the muse of history. Page 452, 140. Alluding to the belief in the

Page 455, 28. Evander is said to have built a town under the Aventine hill, and to have taught his neighbours meekness and justice. It was here that Salsillus was now living.

The venerable Manso, the generous patron of the stricken Tasso and of Marini, was now in his 78th year, having been born in 1561. His whole character seems to have been a most beautiful one. See Masson, pp. 756-761. He died at the age of 84.

3. That is, since Virgil celebrated Gallus and Mæcenas, there has been no patron who so deserved praise.

7 10. Tasso (1544-1595). Marini (15691625). He wrote the long poem Adone, which is referred to in the next line.

Page 456, 19. Manso had built monuments to them, and had also written the Life of Tasso. 721. Herodotus, to whom a Life of Homer, still extant, has been ascribed.

Z 35. Tityrus is a poet in the opening Eclogue of Virgil, and therefore often put for any writer of song. The allusion here is to Chaucer.

750. Herodotus describes the Hyperboreans, who lived beyond the north wind, as coming to make their offerings at Delos; and Milton identifies these with the British Druids. Loxo was the maiden who brought the offeringe, and Milton makes her the daughter of Co giant who, according to Geoffry of lived in Cornwall. The other mentioned accompanied Loxo. Z 63. Apollo, banished fr slaying the Cyclops, kept the h

king of Thessaly, for a year, and, during that time, the god used to repair to the cavern of Chiron, the wise and good Centaur, for relaxation.

Page 457, 169. Peneus, a river of Elis.

75. Eta, a pile of mountains south of Thessaly.

180. Maia's son, Hermes.

2 94. The Round Table. The poet here and in the following poem intimates a longcherished intention of writing a poem on King Arthur. How he changed his purpose we know, but he left this work to not unworthy hands.

Page 458. Deodati died in Aug. or Sept. 1638, whilst Milton was in Italy. The latter, whilst in ignorance of his loss, wrote the Sonnet at p. 466. He heard of it on his way home.

11. Himera was in Sicily. Theocritus and Moschus, Sicilian poets, sang, one the fates of Daphnis and Hylas, the other that of Bion. 16. Thyrsis, Milton.

737. "Unless, by chance," &c.; alluding to the superstition of the ancients that, if any one was seen by a wolf before the wolf was seen by him, he lost the use of his voice.

Page 459, 43. Pales, Roman god of flocks and sheep.

moured of his wife Iogerne. See Tennyson's

66

Coming of Arthur."

Page 462, 1248.

Usa, the Ouse. It is probably the Yorkshire river which the poet means

Page 463, 249. The Alne, by Alnwick. 1250. Abra, the Humber.

7256. He means that, whilst he was abroad, he used to please himself by thinking how he would recite these heroic verses to his friend on their reunion. But the exact meaning of the original is not very clear :

"Hæc tibi servabam lenta sub cortice lauri;
Hæc, et plura simul."

Does it not mean, "in my laurel-crowned head"?-he having been admitted as a poet. 7 258. Manso had given these two cups after the reception of Milton's Poem to him.

Page 464. Dr. John Rouse, Librarian of the Bodleian, 1620-5.

1. "Twofold." He published his poems in 1645, half English, half Latin, with separate title-pages.

Page 472. on p. 172.

Page 473,

On Vincent Bourne, see note

13. "Inherent," sticking in. Used, therefore, in the sense of the Latin word from which it is derived.

715. "Sanious blood," the thin serous blood which runs from a wound.

There is probably no need to give the answers to the enigmas.

Page 478. Denner's Old Woman. The picture was exhibited for a long time in Westminster Hall.

Page 481, 21. "Heaven-born," being the son of Venus and Anchises.

137. Pallas, king of Arcadia, great grandsire of Evander. The latter, son of the nymph Carmentis ( 383), migrated to Italy sixty years before the Trojan war.

Page 482, 57. 'Dipped his palms," i.e. offered a libation.

Page 483, 199. Alcides, Hercules, grandson of Alcæus.

133. Atrida, Agamemnon and Menelaus.

Page 484, 154. Daunia, part of Apulia; so called from Daunus, the ancestor of Turnus, now rival of Æneas for the hand of Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king, Latinus.

/ 168. Hesione and Priam were the only children of Laomedon who survived the capture of Troy. Hesione married Telamon, king of Salamis.

Page 486, 297. Sooty jaws," because Hercules, by squeezing his throat, had put the flames out.

Page 488, 396. "Egis," Jupiter's shield. In the middle of it was the Gorgon head, and it was bordered with golden tassels.

Page 493, 11. "This remote," &c.; viz. Tomi, on the Euxine Sea, whither he was banished by Augustus.

Z 48. Perillus was the inventor of the brazen bull in which Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, burnt his victims alive. Perillus is said to have been the first to perish by his own invention.

Page 497: "John Owen, Latin poet and epigrammatist, 1560-1622." (Hole's Biographical Dictionary.) "Nothing good, and hardly tolerable, in a poetical sense, had appeared in Latin verse among ourselves till this period. Owen's Epigrams (Audoeni Epigrammata), a well-known collection, were published in 1607. Unequal enough, they are sometimes neat, and more often witty; but they scarcely aspire to the name of poetry." (Hallam's Literary History, iii. 277.)

Page 498. There are several stories which illustrate the first two pieces. One will suffice. At the battle of Thermopyla, two Spartans were absent, sick. But when one of them heard that the struggle was begun, he hastened thither, sick as he was, and fell fighting. The

other returned to Sparta, where he was treated as a coward; and though he afterwards fell in the thickest of the fight at Platæa, covered with wounds, he was not buried with the same honours, as the rest.

Palladas was an Alexandrian epigrammatist in the fifth century.

Page 499. Callimachus, Alexandrian poet, lived in the third century B.C., favoured by Ptolemy Philadelphus. Very few of his writings

are extant.

Page 502. Cytherea, Venus. She is said to have risen out of the foam of the sea.

Niobe, by glorifying herself over her numerous offspring, provoked Apollo and Diana, the children of Latona, to kill them all.

Page 504. Menander flor. B.C. 342.

Page 505. The story of Hermes stealing Apollo's oxen within a few hours of his birth is told by Horace.

Page 506. Simois was the river of Troas beside which Paris assigned the prize of beauty to Venus in preference to Iuno and Minerva.

Page 507.

Epicharmus, the first Greek comic writer, B.C. 480.

The Theban bard, Pindar.

For the original of the "Epigram of Homer," see Herodotus, Vita Homeri: Oxford Pocket Classics.

Page 508. The names Syntrips, Smaragus, Sabactes, signify, "Smasher, Crasher, Dasher." They were lubber-fiends, who broke all the pots in the kitchen.

Philemon, an Athenian comic poet B.C. 330. Page 509. Moschus, of Cyracuse, a pastoral poet.

Page 510. "The Hare and many Friends," Gay, i. 50. (Anderson's Poets, viii. 364.) "The Miser and Plutus," Book i. 6 (Anderson 347). Page 511. The two first lines only of "The Butterfly and Snail" (i. 24):—

"All upstarts, insolent in place,
Remind us of their vulgar race."