Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (53 page)

255.
Exhaling
: rising as a vapor. The earth was thought to emit vaporous clouds (exhalations) that rose toward the heavens and often combusted. Milton implicitly compares the separation of light from darkness to this phenomenon.

261–74.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.6–8. The waters above the firmament are identified with the space between the earth and the crystalline sphere at the rim of the universe; the lower waters are the earth’s oceans.

264.
expanse
: a correct translation of the Hebrew word rendered “firmament” in
the AV
.

267.
this great round
: the universe.

269.
the world
: the universe.

273.
distemper the whole frame
: disturb the order of the elements, making the universe too hot or too cold.

277.
embryon immature involved
: wrapped (by waters) in an immature embryonic state.

281.
great mother
: Earth, who is both the mother and her child.

282.
genial
: fertilizing.

288.
tumid
: swollen.

291.
precipitance
: flowing, falling.

292.
conglobing
: assembling into spheres.

293.
crystal wall
: See the description of the parting of the Red Sea at 12.196–97.
ridge direct:
move forward like waves.

299.
with torrent rapture
: with torrential force, with rapturous obedience.

302.
serpent error wand’ring
: a crucial text for critics who argue for the presence of unfallen and fallen languages in the poem, since all three words have a sinful signification, but also an “innocent” one:
serpent
could mean “serpentine”;
error
mean “winding course”; and
wand’ring
mean “moving now this way, now that way.” See Ricks 1963, 110; Fish 1967, 130–41.

308.
congregated waters
: For Gen. 1.10 the Vulgate reads
congregationesque aquarum
.

309–33.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.11–13.

313–19.
the bare earth … sweet:
Here, as throughout the account of Creation, Milton describes the shaping activity of
logoi spermatikoi
(seminal seeds) embedded in matter. Augustine had adapted from Stoic cosmology the notion of these seeds or
rationes seminales
informed with the Creator’s ideas of all things (
De Trinitate
3.8
.3
). The Son speaks, the
logoi spermatikoi
obediently unfold. For more on this tradition, see Curry 1937, 29–49.

321.
swelling
: Both 1667 and 1674 read “smelling.”

322.
Embattled
: See the cornlike spears of 4.980–82;
add:
moreover.

323.
hair
: leaves and branches;
implicit:
entangled.

325.
gemmed
: budded (from Lat.
gemmare
).

332.
man to till the ground
: See Gen. 2.5.

338.
recorded
: bore witness to.

339–86.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.14–19.

348.
altern
: by turns.

351.
vicissitude
: alternation.

356.
of ethereal mold
: made from quintessential matter (see 244n).

357.
every magnitude of stars
: stars of every degree of brightness.

366.
morning planet
: Venus or Lucifer;
her:
So 1667; 1674 has “his.” Venus would fit
her
, Lucifier
his
, but
morning planet
could be either, and there is no strong reason for preferring one reading to the other.

367.
tincture or reflection
: absorbing or reflecting the sun’s light.

368.
Their small peculiar
: their own small light.

372.
Invested
: clothed, arrayed;
jocund to run:
See Ps. 19.4–5.

373.
longitude
: course from east to west.

374–75.
Pleiades … influence:
Job 38.31: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences to the Pleiades?”

376.
leveled west
: due west (directly opposite).

377.
His mirror
: in the sense that the moon reflects the sun’s light.

379.
In that aspect
: in that position (when the moon is full).

381.
axle
: axis.

382.
dividual
: divided.

387–448.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.20–23.

388.
Reptile
: creeping things, including fish.

390.
Displayed
: spread out.

393.
by their kinds
: according to their species.

403.
Bank the mid sea
: form living banks or shelves.

409.
smooth
: smooth or calm water.

410.
bended
: arching themselves.

412.
leviathan
: the whale; an animal as opposed to the satanic emblem of 1.200–208.

415–16.
gills … trunk:
perhaps a residue of the medieval correspondence between whales and elephants, though words like
gills
and
trunk
had a considerable range of reference (see Edwards 110–13).

419.
kindly
: natural.

420.
callow
: unfeathered;
fledge:
fledged.

421.
summed their pens
: gained their full complement of feathers.

422.
clang
: harsh cry;
despised:
looked down upon.

422–23.
under a cloud/In prospect:
There was such a mass of birds that the ground seemed to be under a cloud.

425.
loosely
: singly.

427.
Intelligent
: cognizant. There are no seasons until the celestial adjustments of 10.651–707. No adjustments will have to be made in the birds themselves. They are hardwired from day one with the inclination to migrate.

429–30.
Flying … flight:
Some migrating birds were supposed to take turns resting on one another (Svendsen 1969, 158).

432.
Floats
: undulates.

434.
Solaced
: cheered;
painted:
imitated from Vergil,
Aen
. 4.525.

439.
mantling
: forming a mantle (by raising their wings).

440.
Her state
: her stature or rank.

441.
dank
: pool;
pennons:
pinions;
tower:
rise into.

442.
mid-aerial sky
: the midair, a cold region where clouds are found.

444.
th’ other
: the other cock (i.e., the peacock).

446.
eyes
: the eye-shaped configurations on the plumage of peacocks.

450–98.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.24–25.

451.
soul
: Both early editions read “foul” (fowl), which have already been created.

454.
teemed
: brought forth.

457.
wons
: dwells.

461.
rare
: here and there.

464.
lion
: the first land animal to be named, which seems to defer to the old bestiaries that accounted him “king of beasts.” Milton’s lion is
rampant
(rearing up), as in heraldry, but
calved
and
brinded
associate the lion with humbler beasts (Edwards 126).

471.
Behemoth
: the elephant.

474.
river horse
: translates “hippopotamus”;
scaly crocodile:
In the tradition of European natural history, the crocodile was the epitome of strangeness; see Shakespeare,
ANT
2.7.41–51. It was famous for its false tears, its cruelty, its odd relationship to a bird that supposedly gnawed its entrails. In this respect, Milton’s
scaly crocodile
, “stripped of lore and lessons,” provides another example of his interest in “freeing animals from their symbolic places” (Edwards 120, 127).

476.
worm
: a designation for serpents as well as insects (which
creep the ground
).

482.
Minims
: smallest creatures.

483.
involved
: coiled.

485.
parsimonious emmet
: thrifty ant.

486.
large heart
: capacious intellect.

487–89.
Pattern … commonalty:
Ants were often praised for their prudence and democratic commonality; Aristotle had remarked that they knew no king (Svendsen 1969, 150–52).

465–67.
left side … fresh:
The Bible does not specify from which side the rib came, but tradition overwhelmingly chose the left, in part because of nearness to the heart (see l. 484; A. Williams 90–91).

490.
The female bee
: In Milton’s day it was believed that worker bees were sterile females and drones male. Bees were traditionally monarchical (Shakespeare,
H5
1.2.183–204), but Milton disputed that belief in
1Def
. (Yale 4:348–50).

493.
gav’st them names
: See 8.342–54.

497.
hairy main
: Vergil described the serpents that strangled Laocoön as having bloodred manes (
Aen
. 2.203–7);
terrific:
terrifying.

498.
Not noxious
: not evil or harmful.

504.
Frequent
: in throngs.

505.
the end
: the completion of Creation and the being for whom all the rest had been done.

508–10.
might … self-knowing:
Man’s uprightness was noted by Ovid,
Met
. 1.76–86, and was commonly treated by Christian writers as a sign of moral and spiritual dignity.

509.
front
: forehead.

510.
self-knowing
: knowing himself as created in the image and likeness of God; Shakespeare’s Isabella memorably declares that this knowledge is sadly curtailed among fallen men (
MM
2.2.120–24).
from thence:
as a result of these qualities.

511.
Magnanimous
: great-souled, high-minded;
to correspond with:
to be an image of, to be in contact with.

519–34.
Milton’s version of Gen. 1.26–31.

528.
Express
: exactly depicted.

530–34.
blessed … Earth:
See Gen. 1.28.

537.
delicious
: delightful.

552.
unwearied
: The Son did not “rest” on the seventh day because his strength was in any sense depleted.

557.
idea
: the only occurrence of the word
idea
in Milton’s English poetry. It bears the Platonic-Augustinian sense of “ideal form, pattern.” Thus Simon Goulart: “The idea, the form and pattern of them [all things] was in the science and intelligence of God … as Saint Augustine and others have expounded” (1621, 8–9).

559.
Symphonius
: harmonious;
tuned:
played.

564.
pomp
: procession;
jubilant:
shouting with joy.

565–67.
Based on Ps. 23.7.

569–73.
for … grace:
CD
1.9 discusses the earthly missions of angels.

579.
Milky Way
: The road to Heaven is like the Milky Way but not the Milky Way itself, as it is in Ovid,
Met
. 1.168–71.

588–90.
The editions of 1667 and 1674 punctuate confusingly: “With his great Father (for he also went/Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege/Hath omnipresence).”

594.
not in silence holy kept
: The prominence of music at the first Sabbath indicates Milton’s disagreement with the stricter versions of Puritan Sabbatarianism (Berry 61–101).

596.
dulcimer
: a stringed instrument played with small hammers;
stop:
the register of an organ.

597.
fret
: a ridge on the fingerboard of a stringed instrument.

599.
Choral or unison
: in parts or in unison.

605.
giant angels
: referring to the defeat of the rebel angels but alluding to Jove’s defeat of the giants. Cp. 1.50–52, 199–200, 230–37; 6.643–66.

606–7.
but … destroy:
Satan seeks glory from the lesser course of destroying the work of Creation (9.129–38).

619.
hyaline
: the transliterated Greek word for the “sea of glass” before God’s throne in Rev. 4.6.