Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

29 Ida, the name of a mountain range in Crete, an island supposed to be haunted by Saturn.

31. pensive Nun, Melancholy.

32. demure, of good manners and morals.

33. grain, dye or hue. The color referred to by Milton was deep purple. 35. stole. The word sometimes means a long, flowing garment, but it can also mean a hood or veil, and probably does so here. - cypress, a word commonly used in Milton's time to denote black crape. The word comes from the island of Cyprus, whence this material was first introduced into England. - lawn, thin, fine cambric. Milton imagines Melancholy as clad in a flowing robe of dark purple, with a veil of black crape thrown around her head and shoulders.

36. decent. The word is here used in its Latin sense, meaning 'graceful' or 'becoming.'

37. state, stately manner, dignity. Contrast the approach of Melancholy "in her wonted state" with that of Mirth, dancing along with her gay companions.

39. commercing, holding intercourse, communing. word is accented on the second syllable.

41. passion, emotion.

Note that the

42. Forget thyself to marble, lose thyself in meditation till thou seemest as motionless as a statue.

43. sad, serious.cast, turn of the eyes.

44. as fast, as steadfastly. Melancholy does not let her eyes wander; she either fixes them on heaven in rapt contemplation, or on the earth in solemn thought.

46. Fast, fasting personified. abstemious habits. — diet, dine.

Milton is probably thinking of his own

The idea is that the pensive man, while

fasting in body, may be in mind feasting with the gods.

47. the Muses, the Greek goddesses of art and poetry.

53. the fiery-wheeled throne, the chariot of God as seen in a vision by Ezekiel (Ezekiel x), each wheel of which was a cherub. Milton names one of the cherubs Contemplation, that is, the habit of meditation on the highest and holiest themes.

55. hist along. "Hist" is here a verb meaning 'to call quietly, in a whisper.' Contrast the followers of Melancholy, Peace, Quiet, Fasting, Leisure, Holy Meditation, and Silence, with the companions of Mirth (L'Allegro, Il 25-36).

56. Philomel, a lady in Greek mythology who was changed into a nightingale. The word is often used in poetry for this bird. — deign a song, condescend to sing.

57. plight, mood, strain.

59. Cynthia, one of the many names of Diana, the goddess of the Milton imagines her chariot as drawn by dragons.

moon.

60. the accustomed oak, the tree in which the nightingale was accustomed to sing. Milton was probably thinking of some particular tree near his home which was haunted by nightingales.

65. unseen. Milton, in his character of Il Penseroso, imagines himself as walking apart from the sight of men. Compare the habit of the gay L'Allegro, "sometime walking not unseen."

68. highest noon, highest place in the sky, the place the sun occupies

at noon.

73. plat, plot, a small piece of ground.

74. curfew, the bell rung at eight or nine o'clock at night as a signal to put out all lights. It is derived from the French couvrir, to cover, and feu, the fire.

77. the air, the weather.

78. will fit, will suit the mood of pensive thought.

80. to counterfeit a gloom. The light of the embers is only sufficient to show the darkness of the room.

83. the bellman, the night watchman who went through the streets ringing a bell and calling out the hours of the night. He used to sing a little verse for each hour, and this is the "drowsy charm" of the poem. In it he invoked God's blessing on the houses against the perils of the night.

87. outwatch the Bear. The constellation of the Bear (also called Charles's Wain, or, in this country, the Dipper) never sets below the horizon. To outwatch it a man must sit up till it fades at dawn. We know that Milton often spent whole nights in study.

88. thrice great Hermes. A number of philosophical works treating of God and the nature of the soul, were supposed to have been written, or inspired, by an Egyptian god whom the Greeks identified with Hermes, which is the Greek name for Mercury. "Thrice great" is Milton's translation of "Trismegistus," a title applied by old writers to this god. Milton fancies himself spending the night in the study of these books.

88-89. unsphere the spirit of Plato, call back, by reading and com muning with his works, the soul of Plato, the great Greek philosopher, from the sphere, or heaven, in which it was dwelling.

93. of those demons. The construction is somewhat obscure, but the phrase probably depends upon some verb like 'tell,' to be supplied from "unfold," in line 89. "Demons" here means not 'devils,' but 'spirits."

Old writers believed that a peculiar sort of spirit dwelt in each element: sylphs in the air, nymphs in the water, gnomes in the earth, and salamanders in the fire. The powers of these spirits were supposed to be in harmony, "a true consent," with those of the planets and the four elements. The old science of astrology, still held true by many men in Milton's day, taught that the characters of men and the events of their lives were determined by the position of the planets at the hour when they were born.

98. sceptred pall, royal robe.

99-100. In these two lines Milton is thinking of the great plays of the old Greek dramatists, Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These were very often about Œdipus, king of Thebes, an old Greek city, and his children; or about the descendants of Pelops, an old Greek hero, the ancestor of Agamemnon and Menelaus; or about the men and women who were concerned with the famous siege of Troy. Milton preferred these classical tragedies to the plays of later dramatists, as may be seen from the phrase "though rare" in 1. 101. When he speaks of works of "the later age," he may be thinking of Shakespeare and Jonson.

102. buskined stage. The buskin was a high-heeled boot worn by the actors in the old Greek tragedies. The phrase here stands for tragedy in general.

103. sad Virgin, Melancholy.

104. Musæus, a mythical Greek poet to whom many sacred hymns were ascribed.

105. Orpheus, see note on L'Allegro, l. 145.

109. him, Chaucer. In the Squire's Tale Chaucer began and "left half-told" a story about Cambuscan, or, as he calls him, Cambinskan. The name is a corruption of Genghis Khan, the great Tartar conqueror. According to Chaucer, Cambinskan had two sons, Camball and Algarsife, and a daughter Canacë. He received as presents from the king of Arabia and India a magic horse which could fly through the air, a ring which gave its wearer the power of understanding the speech of birds, and a mirror which revealed coming danger, or the treachery of friends or lovers.

113. virtuous, endowed with magic powers.

116. great bards. Milton is thinking of the romantic Italian poets, Ariosto and Tasso, and also of his favorite poet, Spenser, whose Faerie Queene tells of "turneys, trophies, and enchantments," but in its allegory contains far more than meets the ear of a careless reader.

122. civil-suited, dressed like a sober citizen. In L'Allegro the day dawns with a splendid sunrise "robed in flames and amber light." This is too bright for the mood of Il Penseroso. - Morn, here personified as the goddess of morning, Aurora.

123. tricked, decked, adorned. frounced, with curled and frizzled hair.

124. the Attic boy, Cephalus, a young hunter loved by the goddess of the dawn.

125. kerchieft, veiled. — comely, becoming.

130. minute-drops, drops falling every minute. Thus we speak of minute guns.

132. Goddess, Melancholy.

134. Sylvan, the god of forests.

135. monumental, either in the sense of 'memorial,' telling of past years, because oaks, live to a great age, or because it was used for buildings and carvings.

136. heavéd, uplifted.

137. nymphs, the wood spirits.

140. profane, unsympathetic. Il Penseroso desires to be hidden from the profane, that is, the common throng.

141. garish, glaring.

145. consort, harmony.

146. dewy-feathered. The god of sleep was supposed to have wings dripping with the dews of slumber.

147-150. The meaning of this passage seems to be: Let some dream flutter at the wings of Sleep, in a stream of lifelike images laid softly on my eyelids.' The dream is personified as hovering at the wings of Morpheus and pouring down a stream of visions upon the sleeping Penseroso.

151. breathe, a verb in the infinitive mood, depending on "let," line 147.

154. Genius, guardian spirit.

155. due feet, feet which are due at, bound to visit, the studious cloister.

156. pale, the inclosure.

157. embowéd, arched.

158. massy-proof, massively strong.

159. storied windows, stained-glass windows with stories from the Bible or from the lives of the saints. dight, decked, referring to the rich color of the windows.

170. spell, study.

SONNETS

ON HIS BEING ARRIVED AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE

Milton's twenty-third birthday occurred during the last year that he spent at Cambridge. He had by this time given up all idea of entering the ministry, and a friend ventured to remonstrate with him on letting his youth go by without settling definitely upon some profession, or producing some fruit of his studies. Milton's answer was accompanied by this sonnet, one of the noblest pieces of self-defense in the English language.

LINE 4. shew'th, old form for 'showeth.'

5-6. Perhaps I look younger than I really am.' Milton was always a little vain, not unnaturally, of his beauty and youthful appearance. 8. timely-happy spirits, men who had reached an earlier intellectual development, "inward ripeness."―endu'th, old form for 'endoweth.' 9. it, my "inward ripeness."

10-11. even to that same lot, strictly proportioned to the destiny assigned me by heaven.

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT

This sonnet was written in 1655. In April of that year the Waldenses, a poor and pious people inhabiting certain valleys in Piedmont, in the north of Italy, were ordered by their ruler, the Duke of Savoy, to renounce their simple form of worship and to become Roman Catholics. Their refusal was followed by a frightful massacre. When the news reached England, at that time the champion of the Protestant cause, the nation was stirred to fierce anger. Cromwell threatened the duke with war, and finally succeeded in obtaining permission for the remaining Waldenses to live in peace and to worship God in their own way. Milton, as Latin secretary, wrote the official letters for Cromwell to the Duke of Savoy, and this sonnet is the expression of his personal feeling.

LINE 4. our fathers. At a time when all the English were Roman Catholics, and so, according to Milton, little better than idolaters, the Waldenses preserved the pure form of early Christianity.

8. Mother with infant. This refers to an actual incident in the massacre. A woman was thrown over a precipice with her baby in her arms. Three days afterwards she was found dead, with the child still alive, but so closely clasped in her arms that it could hardly be separated from her dead body.

« AnteriorContinuar »