A Dictionary of Puns in Milton’S English Poetry 9780231880800

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DICTIONARY OF PUNS MILTON'S ENGLISH POETRY

By the same author MILTON AND SEX A MILTON DICTIONARY MILTON'S UNCHANGING MIND: Three Essays YET ONCE MORE: Verbal and Psychological Pattern in Milton POETS' RIDDLES: Essays in Seventeenth-Century Explication GRACE TO A WITTY SINNER: A Life of Donne THE NOTORIOUS LADY ESSEX ENDYMION IN ENGLAND: The Literary History of a Greek Myth DICTIONARY OF LAST WORDS THE LONG ROAD BACK HE AND SHE THE MAN WHO WAS AFRAID THE PROFESSOR AND THE COED PARADISE LOST AND OTHER POEMS (editor) .JUSTA EDOVARDO KING: A Facsimile Edition of the Memorial Volume in which Milton's Lycidas First Appeared (editor and translator)

A DICTIONARY OF PUNS IN MILTON'S ENGLISH POETRY Edward Le Comte

Columbia University Press New York 1981

© Edward Le Comte 1981 All rights reserved Printed in Hong Kong Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Le Comte, Edward Semple, 1916A dictionary of puns in Milton's English poetry. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Milton, John, 1608-1674 — Language — Glossaries, etc. 2. Milton, John, 1608-1674 — Style. 3. Milton, John, 1608-1674 — Humor, satire, etc. 4. Puns and punning. I. Title. PR3595.I/4 1980 821'.4 80-15500 ISBN 0-231-05102-6

Contents INTRODUCTION

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xix

NOTE ON SOURCES

xxi

THE DICTIONARY

1

REFERENCES

211

INDEX OF POEMS THAT HAVE PUNS

221

Introduction There are more puns in Milton than have been thought. There are also, probably, fewer than have been thought. The reader may make his own, sometimes delicate, decisions. He has here uniquely much to ponder, some 1630 puns, of which over 400 I found myself invented in the Latin sense, if not the modern. A dictionary should, I take it, be comprehensive. It should, like a variorum, include whatever conjectures have found their way into print, regardless of how far-fetched a few of them may seem. I went through editors and annotators from Hume to Broadbent. In addition, an independent survey from this one angle - such as has rarely if ever been made will predictably yield new conjectures. Some of them I feel very tentative about, but to print them is to take responsibility for them. I am not unaware of the danger of finding what one is looking for, but it is time, I would argue, in this age of Joyce and depth psychology, to take a fresh look. "Puns" as used here is a catch-all term for ambiguity of vocabulary or syntax. The leading kinds are as follows: I. Contrary to the modern popular expectation, a pun need not be comic. The most influential pun ever made was not comic, when Jesus said, "Thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (petra) I will build my church" (Matt. 16.18). Paradise Lost has this pun at xi 336* (as Alastair Fowler noted in 1968), Milton saying "rock" where "mount" would be expected - in order to get in a thrust at the Roman Catholic Church. But our first thought with puns, the comic, is a kind by no means lacking, in Milton as in Shakespeare (where, to be sure, it is much more abundant, Milton being short on clowns). The fact is, Milton's humor has often been underrated and the detail of his jocular wordplay gone unnoticed. Addison remarked: * Abbreviations are listed on pp. xix-xx.

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Introduction

The only Piece of Pleasantry in Paradise Lost, is where the evil Spirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the Success of their new invented Artillery. This Passage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a String of Puns, and those too very indifferent ones.1 Are the puns "indifferent," or was this arbiter elegantiarum unwilling to admit the possibility of a good pun, since he regarded all such ventures as a species of "false wit" (Spectator, 61), despite the classical precedent, which he duly noted? He subsequently pointed out puns elsewhere in Paradise Lost, such as "the small infantry" one. Paradoxically, the early neo-classic critics, including Addison, repeatedly singled out Book vi for praise.2 Only Voltaire, in his Upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations from Homer to Milton (1727), was consistent, deploring the war in heaven (which was to give Dr Johnson so much difficulty for its "confusion of spirit and matter" 3 ) and "his preposterous and aukward Jests, his Puns".4 For those with eighteenth-century tastes the devils' jesting is sometimes given the apology that it is part of their "fallen" characterization. 5 Users of Newton's edition were provided with Thyer's view "that Milton is the less to be blam'd for this punning scene, when one considers the characters of the speakers, such kind of insulting wit being most peculiar to proud contemptuous Spirits". 6 But (as Richardson noted7) Raphael puns too: "portending hollow truce" as he faces the cannon ("Unworthy of Raphael", said Keightley). 8 Just before pulling down the temple, Samson indulges in grim pleasantry: "I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater, / As with amaze shall strike all who behold" (SA, 1644-5). There is little to choose between the Hebrew champion's "amaze" and Belial's "amused" (vi 623) (which have gone unannotated). Good characters have wordplay - there is Jesus' "gracious" in Paradise Lost and His "me hungering more" in Paradise Regained because Milton liked it and displayed a "gamesome mood" (vi 620) from youth on. Dr Johnson realized, while disapproving, this: "his play on words, in which he delights too often". 9 The second poem on the University Carrier packs more than a score of puns into thirtytour lines. Addison (who went to Oxford) said of Cambridge in his "false w i t " essay: "I must not here omit, that a famous University of this Land was formerly very much infested with Punns."10 He could have been thinking of Milton, the Milton of the Carrier poems and

Introduction

ix

"At a Vacation Exercise" and Prolusio vi. Later the same Cambridge wit sliced with a double edge his opponents in English and Latin prose. 11 Typically, Thomas Warton refused to provide notes for the Carrier pieces: "I wonder Milton should suffer these two things on Hobson to appear in his edition of 1645". Even in its own century some of the points of "Another on the Same" were lost by misquotation or omission.12 Landor, who belonged in spirit to the eighteenth century, said: "It appears then on record that the first overt crime of the refractory angels was punning: they fell rapidly after that." 13 A 1975 editor says of "understand" (vi 625): "an excruciating pun: Belial deserved hell for it".14 No editor has pinned down all the thrusts in vi. As B. A. Wright observed: "they do not stoop to explication". 15 This is unfair to anyone who wishes to understand before he condemns. II. By far the most frequent kind of pun is the etymological. Most common are the usages that recall Latin derivation while maintaining the modern meaning as well, as in "With hideous ruin and combustion down", where "ruin" has its modern meaning and "combustion" is a synonym for fire, but there is very much the Latin force of "ruin" as "fall" and "combustion" as "burning together": the exact situation of a third of the erstwhile inhabitants of heaven. This scholar-poet is an inveterate etymologist and lexicographer, which is the apologia for "ravens . . . though ravenous", which happens to be based on a wrong derivation. An interesting case is the oxymoronic description of Eve's speech in the midst of her fatal difference with her husband that precedes the fall: "With sweet austere composure" she "thus replied" (ix 272). Milton knows very well - and expects us to know - that in Greek austeros is sour, the opposite oiglukus, sweet: Eve has turned sweet-sour. The Hebrew comes in with names. Moloch is "king". Mammon is "riches", Dagon, "fish". Satan, repeatedly, is "the Adversary", or a synonym. Abdiel is "servant of God", Ithuriel "search" (of God). Eve, q.v., receives some subtle innuendoes. Eden is "pleasant", Tophet "drums". Harapha has three appropriate Hebrew meanings. Manoa lives up to his name, rest, in what he urges on his son. A 1975 article by John T. Shawcross fills surprising gaps for, inter alia, Jesus, Mary, Genezaret, Ramoth. Other Hebrew names are latent in "declined", "exaltation", "flies", "nation", "rebellion", "sedge", "separate", just as "fiery" goes with seraphim.

x

Introduction

For Paradise Lost Patrick Hume, 1695, gave many Latin, Greek and Hebrew derivations or meanings, and James Paterson limped after in 1744 with A Complete Commentary, with Etymological, Explanatory, Critical and Classical Notes on Milton's "Paradise Lost", But only with the availability of the Oxford English Dictionary did it become possible to explode an old canard, namely, that Milton's diction was not English, that he foisted an artificial Latinity upon his native language. Tillyard had said that he would not be surprised "if a good deal of it turns out to be English after all". 16 Such scholars as Boone and Wright and Emma began documenting this. 17 Carey and Fowler in 1968 systematically cited the OED to prove that Milton's root meanings were, once, legitimate English. Raleigh's statement needs correcting: "He was not content to revive the exact classical meaning in place of the vague or weak English acceptation; he often kept both senses, and loaded the word with two meanings at once".18 In "With hideous ruin", ruin has two senses, but they are both English senses: OED I, lb: "The act of [a person] falling to the ground or from a height" (with an illustrative quotation from Caxton, 1483); and II, 6: "The downfall or decay of a person or society; utter loss of means, position, or rank". Within Milton's own works, usage I is not poetic diction only. Of Education asserts: "The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright." 19 Here meaning II is dominant over I, but the pun is there. Nor is it gone from the same phrase I have encountered in a rare recusant spiritual directory of c. 1602 (not listed in the Short Title Catalogue): "how we may repayre againe the ruine & wofull state of our soules, by sinn".20 III. There are secondary meanings that Milton presumably did not intend, but that are felt to be there. This kind of pun will present no difficulty to those who subscribe to "the intentional fallacy". We pass, like Tillyard in his 1930 book,21 from "the Conscious Meaning" to "the Unconscious Meaning". Naturally, these conjectures are among the most provocative and doubtful. At risk, attention is called to "asperses", "disarmed", "end" (in a sexual sense), "fallacious", "Gaza", "gazed", "hoarse", "lies", "recess" (cf. "plat"), "secrets of the hoary deep". Some are the accidents or jokes of language, not Milton's jokes: "dismounted", "ewe", "hornets", "joint pace", "season" (the last worthy of Thomas Hood). "Sprung" perhaps belongs here ("Spring is sprung"). The poet had second thoughts

Introduction

xi

about "gear". Mulder's observation of "pit-tie" is almost too good to be true. (The best old spelling pun I myself found is "rains"-"reins".) Ingenious conjecture has its siren song, its "sweet compulsion", but at some point one must stop and ask, "Thoughts, whither have ye led me?" (ix 473). I speak as one who published in 1975 "Hamlet's Second Utterance: Forty-Three Interpretations". 22 Apropos, I had a student who insisted that "L'Allegro", 92, "The upland hamlets will invite", referred to country productions of Hamlet. "Stand" in the last line of Sonnet 19, "They also serve who only stand and wait", was taken sexually by John Sparrow in a letter to the Times Literary Supplement. He saw Milton as longing for a mate upon whom to discharge "his philoprogenitive propensities". After the uproar this interpretation caused, Sparrow said he had been joking. No joke, but allowed only into the side door here, is Professor Tobin's suggestion (in a letter to me) that when Samson declares he acted "From intimate impulse" (223) to take his bride of Timna, the word intimate combines hint plus Timna plus mate. The same contributor also wondered whether Eve's urging (ix 881), "therefore also taste, that equal lot / May join us" does not allude to a fate "equal" to Lot's wife (the "taste" hinting at salt?). Peck's Comus-Chemos confusion is an error, but interesting and plausible. Borderline is "rigor" (mortis) (cf. "sentence rigorously urged"), a fact, perhaps not a seventeenth-century expression. The OED sometimes fails to record a usage that must have been current. The Woodhouse-Bush Variorum notes some of these. 23 (Indeed, that august work does not give the first appearance of Miltonist - meaning divorcer. 24 ) The OED's interest in puns is almost zero, and it let me down (as did its new Supplement, which has no entry for the word) when I sought to determine when "inmate" began to be used to mean a prisoner in a penitentiary. In short, or at length, it is indispensable, but it should not be taken, as it often is, as infallible. IV. I have included cruxes, which are pseudo-puns in that Milton intended one meaning only, but there is uncertainty as to which it is. Often it is a choice between incompatible or contradictory meanings. Some of the problems are of long standing, such sis "twohanded engine" and "like ours" and the location of "steep" or "well". Other questions have been raised recently, such as "late espoused" and "pilot of the Galilean lake" and "that fallacious bride". New thinking may result from a new tabulation. I have presented an

xii

Introduction

alternative to "beauty's" that gets away from mythological variant. "Haemony" probably has more than one meaning, but which meaning is to be chosen for "angel", "Cloysters pale", "day-star", "days", "on the edge", "ever", "minute", "ocean", "savage hunger", "spare", "tale"? What color, if any, did the poet have in mind when he assigned Adam "hyacinthine locks"? There is disagreement over eglantine, crow-toe, gray-fly, "ministers of vengeance", "Friars Lanthorn". V. Listed, usually without comment, are what the old rhetoricians called traductio, the eighteenth-century "jingles", of the "beseeching or besieging", "a chance but chance" type. Perhaps the most daring of these is "Their armour helped their harm" (vi 656). VI. Some textual questions come in as puns. Is a "which"-"with" confusion a pun? I decided not. But it is well attested at iii 594, where 1667 read "which" and 1674 "with". Either makes sense, with a change of punctuation. I did have more than one reason to include "eoncent"-"content" in "At a Solemn Music". With Comus we have "father shepherd"-"father's shepherd", "hear"-"here", "to-ruffled""too-ruffled", and, if we go to manuscript, "drowsy flighted"-"drowsy frighted". When it came to a blind poet dictating, he did not always get what he wanted, as witness the variants "founded"-"found out". "grate"-"great", "hast"-"hath", "his"-"this", "original"-"originals", "the"-"thy", "where"-"were", all in Paradise Lost, and "here"-"heard" in Samson Agonistes. Whatever his motives, which have been suspected, Richard Bentley was, I believe, by no means absurd in contending that Milton may have been misheard by his amanuenses. Did he say "vassals" - or "vessels", "smelling" - or "swelling", "described" - or "descried"? As a modern editor has remarked, The problems of a blind man apparently dictating his work to a number of people of varying abilities in a time when printing house practices and proofing were often careless and haphazard cannot lead to assurance that the received texts are even near perfect." Bentley was not alone in proposing emendations. Landor wanted to change "plumes" in Comus to "prunes". Todd, accidentally or not, altered "to prompt" to "too prompt". There is much "last"-'least"-

Introduction

xiii

"lost" confusion. An absence of apostrophe for the possessive does not help: e.g. "angels ken". Masson wanted to replace "of" with "off" in Paradise Regained, "all but" with "albeit" in Paradise Lost. There is a string of "the"-"thee" possibilities. One does not want to go "wild"-"wide" (q.v.), but where to stop? If Bentley's emendation "gross"-"dross" is not a pun, his "secret"-"sacred" certainly is. A reckless editor has turned, willy-nilly, into a useful annotator (as Empson considered him to be). VII. Finally, there are the syntactical ambiguities. To return to the famous passage, "Him the almighty power / Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, / With hideous ruin and combustion down", is it true that "the 'meaning1 is so unmistakable that you cannot go wrong about it"?26 I can "go wrong about it". It has been assumed without question that the ruin refers to Satan's ruin and that of his followers. But we can read: With his hideous ruin: ruin and combustion (= explosion) are what the enemy of God wrought in heaven, causing truly hideous damage. "And now all heaven / Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread, / Had not the Almighty F a t h e r . . . " (vi 669 ff.) Satan is burning as the recipient of God's lightning, but Lucifer had hurled missiles and burned gunpowder. Lucifer was a firebrand, and if one does not extinguish a firebrand, one throws it out. There is some parallel, including verbal parallel, between Satan and that arch conspirator Catiline. The latter, on being cornered in the Senate on the day Cicero delivered his First Oration against him, exclaimed, according to Sallust (Bellum Catilinae, XXXI), "praeceps agor, incendium meum ruina restinguam" ("Driven headlong, I will extinguish my fire by a general ruin") - a reference to checking great fires by the demolition of buildings, as was resorted to in the fire of London in 1666.27 Syntactical punning is an outstanding trait of Milton's loose and floating style. He got off to an early start with "come" in "L'Allegro": who or what comes or is to come to the window to bid good-morrow? Only Milton knew, and now nobody knows. But it is, of course, Paradise Lost that is a marvel in this regard. The author in his note on The Verse spoke of "the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another". He might have said "the senses". Looking at a line I do not find ambiguous enough to include, B. Rajan makes particular and then general comment:

xiv

Introduction

in "Love without end and without measure, grace" [iii 142] the word order first invites us to read "without end" and "without measure" as if both phrases were attached to love, then to read the first phrase as describing love and the second as describing grace, and then again to read both phrases as defining the kind of love which is the content of grace. The reader is not called on to choose between these alternatives but rather to superimpose each upon the others; it is the simultaneous presence of all three which gives the line its subtlety and force. Other examples of such felicities could be given. . . . A fluid syntax is necessary if the movement of the paragraph is to play with any variety against the containment of the line; once again the effect is to give complexity and vigor to the interaction of forces. More strikingly, the delayed resolution which is the typical result of Milton's syntax reproduces the drama of the poem in the drama of the language. 28 A beautiful amphibology is, "A fairer person lost not heaven" (ii 110), which can also read, "Heaven lost not a fairer person". In Latin we would know whether "person" (e.g. angelus) was in tha nominative or the accusative case. (The poet does not say "angel" because he wants a pun that should have been pointed out long ago, persona, mask: Belial was a hypocrite.) Milton has what in Freshman Composition would be condemned as dangling participles: in Latin they would be attached, showing number, case, perhaps gender. An article on "Milton's Participial Style"29 fails to note this difference between languages. I believe that it is in his grammar, more than in his vocabulary, that we have Milton the Latinist. Adjectives serve as adverbs happily in Latin poetry: do we have to decide which is which in Milton? In other cases, the ambiguities can be fascinating and significant. "God . . . Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind / Of man, with strength entire, and free will armed . . ." (x 6 fT.). The first reading will be that it is the mind of man that is armed with free will. But Satan was armed with free will, too, and the poet half admits as much here. Often the meaning depends on how we punctuate: it is restrictive to do so at all. Hanford commented on Samson Agonistes, 74-9, "The grammar is fluid and Milton's punctuation makes it more so." 30 The lightest pointing perhaps serves best, as has been said of Shakespeare. "The style of punctuation in Paradise Lost is in the tradition of the livelier and more dramatic, the more rhythmical

Introduction

xv

and flexible, altogether more poetical punctuation of the Elizabethans." 31 Ricks, who analyses two passages too slight for me to include (viii 265-6; ix 1088-90), contends "the overflowing is itself a tribute to the Creator"32 (just as, one might add, Dante's terza rima is a tribute to the Trinity). Ricks's 1963 Milton's Grand Style did much to call attention to and defend Milton's puns (a subject on which there has been, astonishingly, but one article or essay in the history of scholarship).33 Ricks also harked back to those early editors that as a graduate student I learned to consult and collect - Hume, Richardson, Newton, Warton, Todd, and, yes, Bentley. The edition that added the most puns in modern times was Carey and Fowler, 1968. Shawcross went on to contribute several score in 1971. Burden's Shorter Poems, 1970, adds twenty more. Outstanding also are the paperbacks under the general editorship of J. B. Broadbent, and the Paradise Lost of Ricks and of Elledge. The most underrated editor of the nineteenth century is Keightley. The Woodhouse-Bush Variorum Commentary on the Minor Poems made my task much easier. Lockwood, for primary definition, has often been copied by me. She alone of annotators - her predecessors could be silent when they felt like it - defined every word, dodging nothing. My correspondents Professors John R. Mulder of Drew University and J. J. M. Tobin of Boston State College gave generously and ingeniously, forgoing prior publication. Over and above the needed further annotation to Book vi, where Milton issued a long-standing invitation to look for puns, I am confident of a number of puns that I am the first to record - such as the aforementioned "person", and "gorge" and "stall-reader" and "conceived" and "in the beginning" and "cleaving" and "fill the earth" - and I can only conjecture that we have there a case of what oft was thought but ne'er expressed. It may be supererogatory for me to put an asterisk - as I have done by request of advisers - before the most doubtful entries. (Cruxes I have not judged, despite, or on account of, my having published previously on a number of them.) The only new pun involving a title, "On the Mo(u)rning of Christ's Nativity", I submitted to three Miltonists well known for their critical sensitivity. Two accepted it; the third strongly opposed. The latter said I was spoiling a good barrel with a bad apple! Quite apart from the contradictory definitions, no one will accept everything here: I do

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not myself. But incredulity, even swelling indignation, over some proposed double meanings ought not to vitiate willingness to see a thousand others. For me ambivalence emerges as a major characteristic of Milton's mind and style.34 State U niversity of New York at Albany

Edward Le Comte

N O T E S TO I N T R O D U C T I O N

1. Joseph Addison in The Spectator, No. 279, Everyman's Library edition, p. 108. 2. Having given a very favorable review of Book vi in Spectator. No. 333, Addison later exclaimed, "What can be conceived greater than the Battel of Angels"? (No. 417, p. 80). Addison versified this commendation as early as 1694 in "An Account of the Great English Poets", extracted in John T. Shawcross, ed., Milton: The Critical Heritage (London, 1970), p. 105, which furnishes other praise of vi on pp. 98 (Anonymous), 99 (Dennis), 108 (Gildon), 122 (Yalden), 238 (Dennis again). This persisted as in Thomas Warton's verses, quoted by J. B. Broadbent, Some Graver Subject (London, 1960), p. 218. 3. "Life of Milton" in Works of Samuel Johnson (Oxford, 1825), VII, 136. Johnson had been anticipated by John Dennis in 1722: "the Poet seems to confound Body and Mind, Spirit and Matter", in Shawcross, p. 240. 4. In Shawcross, p. 253. 5. So E. E. Kellett, "The Puns in Milton", London Quarterly and Holborn Review, 159, 6th ser., iii (1934), 469-72. 6. Thomas Newton, ed., Paradise Lost (Dublin, 1773), I, 469. 7. J. Richardson, Father and Son, Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's "Paradise Lost' (London, 1734), p. 275. 8. Thomas Keightley, ed., Poems of John Milton, 2 vols. (London, 1859), ad loc. (vi, 578). 9. Works, X, 138. 10. The identification comes with the continuation of the sentence: "but whether or no this might not arise from the Fens and Marshes in which it was situated, and which are now drained, I must leave to the Determination of more skilful Naturalists". Spectator, No. 61, p. 229. 11. See, for examples, my "The Satirist and Wit", in Milton's Unchanging Mind (Port Washington, N.Y., 1973), pp. 100-19, and

Notes to Introduction

12.

13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

18. 19. 20.

21. 22. 23. 24.

xvii

"Satiric Sex", ch. 4 of Milton and Sex (New York and London, 1978), pp. 52-67. See Douglas Bush and A. S. P. Woodhouse, A Variorum Commentary on The Minor English Poems (New York, 1972), I, 218, 220. For rehabilitation see Joan O. Holmer, "Milton's Hobson Poems: Rhetorical Manifestation of Wit", Milton Quarterly, 11 (1977), 16-21, which employs the Renaissance terminology that Spectator 61 mocked: "Mr. Swan . . . shined most in the Antanaclasis" (p. 229). Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, "Southey and Landor", Works, II (London, 1846), 6 6 . Robert Hodge, ad loc., "Paradise Lost": Books V-VI, gen. ed. J. B. Broadbent (Cambridge, 1975). " A Note on Milton's Diction", in Th'Upright Heart and Pure, ed. Amadeus Fiore (Pittsburgh, 1967), p. 146. E. M. W. Tillyard, "A Note on Milton's Style", The Miltonic Setting (London, 1938), p. 131. Lalia Phipps Boone, "The Language of Book VI, Paradise Lost", in SAMLA Studies in Milton, ed. J. Max Patrick (Gainesville, Fla., 1953), pp. 114-27; Wright, Milton's "Paradise Losf (New York, 1962), pp. 65 ff.; Ronald David Emma, Milton's Grammar (The Hague, 1964). Walter Raleigh, Milton (London, 1900), p. 209. Works of John Milton, ed. Frank A. Patterson et al. (New York, 1931-8), IV, 277. A Breefe Methode or Way Teachinge all sortes of Christian people, how to serve God in a moste perfect manner. Written first in Spani3he, by a Religious man, named Alphonso [Alonso de Madrid], in John R. Roberts, ed., A Critical Anthology of English Recusant Prose, 1558-1603 (Pittsburgh, 1966), p. 141; cf. 146: "that he may repaire the ruine and corruption which sinne haithe brought into his soule". Milton (London and New York, 1930), Part m, chs. Ill and IV. Le Comte, Poets' Riddles: Essays in Seventeenth-Century Explication (Port Washington, N.Y., 1975), pp. 3-9. Pp. 83,475,709,902. "While, like the froward Miltonist, / We our old nuptiall knot untwist". Christopher Wasse, 1649, quoted by Henry John Todd, ed., The Poetical Works of John Milton, 4 vols. (London, 1852), I, 41.

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Notes to Introduction

25. John T. Shawcross, "Orthography and the Text of Paradise Losf\ in R. D. Emma and J. T. Shawcross, eds., Language and Style in Milton (New York, 1967), p. 120. 26. B. Rajan, "Paradise Lost" and the Seventeenth-Century Reader (London, 1947), p. 113. 27. See, further, Le Comte, "Sly Milton: The Meaning Lurking in the Contexts of His Quotations" (revised version), Greyfriar, 19 (1978), 25-6. 28. Rajan, "Paradise Lost: The Providence of Style", Milton Studies, 1(1969), 6. 29. Seymour Chatman in PMLA, 83 (1968), 1386-99. 30. James H. Hanford, ed., Poems, 2nd edn. (New York, 1953), ad loc. 31. Mindele Treip, Milton's Punctuation and Changing English Usage, 1582-1676 (London, 1970), p. xi. 32. Christopher Ricks, Milton's Grand Style (Oxford, 1963), p. 83. 33. Kellett's, cited above, note 5 (pp. 469-76). The latest praise (not illustrated) is: "the Miltonic pun remains the highest form of wit", Edward W. Tayler, Milton's Poetry (Pittsburgh, 1979), p. 3. This is counterbalanced by reference to "the lousy puns of the War in Heaven" (ibid., p. 97). 34. It happens that the latest issue of Milton Studies, 13 (1979) has two essays on Milton's divided consciousness: David Aers and Bob Hodge, '"Rational Burning': Milton on Sex and Marriage", 3-33; John R. Mulder, '"Ambiguous Words and Jealousies': A Secular Reading of Paradise Lost", 145-79.

List of Abbreviations Paradise Lost is referred to (without title) by a small Roman numeral for the book number, followed by the line number (Arabic).

adjective adverb Arcades Comus (lines numbered according to the 1645 text, different by one from the 1673 text after line 167, which was dropped in 1673: see "gear".) compare cf. Circ Upon the Circumcision ety. etymology On the Death of a Fair FI Infant figurative(ly) figForcers On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament Fr. French G. German Gk. Greek Heb. Hebrew intrans. intransitive IP 11 Penseroso L. Latin adj. adv. Arc C

L'A lit. Lyc May Mus n. Nat

L'Allegro literal(ly) Lycidas Song on May Morning At a Solemn Music noun On the Morning of Christ's Nativity OE. Old English OED Oxford English Dictionary orig. sp. original spelling Pas The Passion PR Paradise Regained punct. punctuated ref. reference, referring SA Samson Agonistes Sh On Shakespeare Son Sonnet Time On Time trans. transitive UC On the University Carrier Another on the Same UC 2 v. verb At a Vacation Exercise Vac

xx

List of Abbreviations

VC Wine

Variorum Commentary (Woodhouse-Bush or MacKellar) An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester

Works

Columbia University Press edition of The Works ofJohn Milton, ed. Frank A. Patterson et al., 18 vols, in 21 (New York, 1931-8)

The modernized text usually followed is the Complete Poetical Works, ed. Douglas Bush (Boston, 1965). An asterisk (*) has been placed before the most doubtful entries. Addenda have been included at the end of some sections of the dictionary. These reflect the latest scholarship at the time of going to press.

Note on Sources For historical and other reasons I have endeavored to give credit to my predecessors but must not be understood as necessarily quoting them in analysis or synonymy. For instance, Warburton's note on "accomplished" reads: "There seems to be a quibble in the use of this epithet", where the Dictionary requires an a - b distinction. Hume defines "amarant" as "Gk. for unfading, that decayeth not", omitting Milton's word that makes the pun, "immortal". Di Cesare says of ix 323, "The line is portentous enough, even apart from the enforced pronunciation of strait"n'd. Adam and Eve, however, still have their 'integrity' (or union), and are not truly straitened." Professor Di Cesare, who may be concerned solely with pointing to an irony - losing freedom because of a false impression of lost freedom - may not even accept the pun on straightened for which I am giving him credit on the basis of his "portentous". Sometimes the Dictionary is clearer than its authorities; sometimes, as often with the Woodhouse-Bush Variorum, the reader who wishes further detail, or argument, or attribution would be well advised to consult the work named.

A Abdiel: see servant of God. The name also means, "I will secede". Cf. "From amidst them forth he passed" (v 903), etc. Goldman, p. 252. abhorred

Forcers, 4

To seize the widowed whore, Plurality, From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,

(a) loathed. (b) departed from (ab) whores. Compare Shakespeare, Othello 4.2.161-2: "I cannot say 'whore*. / It doth abhor me now I speak the word." Honigmann. VC. abhorred

ii 659

Far less abhorred than these Vexed Scylla bathing in the sea that parts Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore; (a) abominated. (b) connected with a whore, "hoarse" = whore's. Cf. Donne, "rude hoarse minstrelsy", "Love's Alchemy", 22 (citation contributed by Tobin).

abject i 312 Abject and lost lay these, (a) cast out (L). (b) low in position, humiliated. Cf. 322: "in this abject posture". (c) down in spirits. Holmes. abject

ix 572

I was at first as other beasts ... of abject thoughts and low, SA, 169 To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n. (a) low, in a state of humiliation. (b) cast down, "fallen" "To lowest pitch". Proleptic for the serpent. Fowler.

2

abortive

abortive

ii 441

with utter loss of being Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf (a) annihilative. (b) L. aborior, set, disappear; used of heavenly bodies such as, e.g., Lucifer. Fowler. (c) shapeless, formless, monstrous. Tillyard.

above mortality

FI, 35 something in thy face did shine Above mortality that showed thou wast divine. (a) above what is seen in mortals. (b) above the reach of death. VC.

Abraham: see nation. abstracted

ix 463

That space the Evil One abstracted stood From his own evil,

(a) absent in mind. (b) separated, removed from matter. Fowler. accessories

serpents all, as accessories To his bold riot. (a) helpers, adherents. (b) legally, accessories before the fact.

accident

x 520

Vac, 74

"Your son" . . . Shall subject be to many an Accident. (a) misfortune, mishap. (b) In Aristotelian logic, one of the nine Categories after Substance. Warton.

accomplished

iv660

Daughter of God and man, accomplished Eve, (a) perfect in personal graces. Lockwood. (b) ironical emphasis, not in need of further accouterments such as those to which she later succumbs. Shawcross.

accomplished

SA, 230

Dalila, That specious monster, my accomplished snare. (a) clever, full of accomplishments. (b) complete, having fulfilled its or her function, successful. Warburton-Newton; Empson, Seven Types, p. 102.

admiration

3

account

x 501 Ye have th'account Of my performance. (a) report. (b) commercial totting up. Evans (Broadbent).

accountable

x 29 They towards the throne supreme Accountable made haste

(a) liable. (b) explicable. Fowler. See, further, Hanford. accuser

ixll82

I rue That error now, which is become my crime, And thou th'accuser. (a) one who advances a criminal charge. (b) the meaning of devil, Gk. diabolos, is false accuser; the only other occurrence of the word is for Satan, iv 10.

accustomed

IP, 60

Less Philomel will deign a song, In her sweetest, saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke Gently o'er th'accustomed oak. (a) by the poet, II Penseroso. Masson. (b) by "Cynthia" the moon. (c) by "Philomel" the nightingale. Trent.

act (a) (b) (c)

ix 674 each act won audience action. theatrical performing. the accomplished deed itself, as distinct from the mere motion (•OED 2). Fowler.

Adam v321;vii524 (a) Name of first man. (b) Derived from Hebrew for red, after the red earth from which he was made: "earth's hollowed mould" (321); "Dust of the ground" (vii 525). Paterson at iii 285, who also gives homo as coming from humus. admiration

iii 271 Admiration seized All heav'n, what this might mean, iii 672 open admiration him behold

4

admire(d)

ix 872 Reasoning to admiration, (a) wonder. (b) approval, approbation. Verity. admire(d)

i 690

Let none admire That riches grow in hell; vi 498 Th' invention all admired, ix 542 celestial beauty adore, . . . universally admired; ix 746 worthy to be admired PR 1,214 was admired by all; (a) wonder (at). (b) be beguiled by dazzle; have due or undue admiration for. Some editors in some places; see Lockwood for different evaluations.

advantage

viii 122

earthly sight . . . might err in things too high, And no advantage gain.

(a) resulting benefit. (b) point of vantage. Ricks. adversary: see Satan. adverse vi 206 The adverse legions (a) opposing. (b) Satan's (q.v.). Hodge (Broadbent). advise

ii 376

Advise if this be worth Attempting, (a) give advice. (b) consider. Elledge.

advised

vi 674

Had not th' Almighty Father. . . foreseen This tumult, and permitted all, advised; (a) advisedly, purposely. (b) after having thought it out. Shawcross. (c) looking towards (L. play on "foreseen"). Elledge.

aerial C, 3 bright aerial Spirits live insphered (a) airy, light. Cf. iii 445: "Up hither like aerial vapors flew." (b) second in the threefold division of spirits (the other classes being terrestrial and ethereal). Nicolson, "The Spirit World of Milton and More '. VC.

Agonistes affect

vi 421

5

but what we more affect, Honor, dominion, glory, and renown;

(a) aspire to. (b) pretend. Hodge (Broadbent). affect SA, 1030 but oftest to affect the wrong? (a) aim at. (b) earnestly desire. Verity. affecting iii 206 (a) aspiring to. (b) angering.

Affecting

Godhead,

affecting v 763 Affecting all equality with God, (a) aspiring to. (b) assuming a false appearance of. afflicted

iv 939 my afflicted powers vi 852 Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, (a) lit. cast down. (b) distressed, tormented. Holmes.

afflicted powers i 186 (a) lit. conquered armies. (b) fig. oppressed capacities. afflicting

ii 166 strook With Heav'n's afflicting (a) hitting hard. (b) rendering desolate. Holmes.

thunder,

affront(s)

i 391 And with their darkness durst affront his light. ix 328 Tempting affronts us with his foul esteem (a) confronts (cf. "front", ix 330). (b) insults. Verity; Ricks, p. 62.

against

i 42

and with ambitious aim Against the throne and monarchy of God Raised impious war in heav'n (a) goes with "aim". (b) goes with "war". Ricks.

Agonistes (in the title SA) (a) wrestler, athlete. Dunster-Masson.

6

air (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

actor. Newton. advocate. Parker, Milton's Debt, p. 13. champion. Ibid. agonizer. Ibid. fighter for the faith, champion of God. Krouse, pp. 108-18.

air

viii476

airs

iv 264

And into all things from her air inspired The spirit of love and amorous delight. (a) appearance. (b) breath. Fowler.

The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs, Breathing the smell offield and grove, attune The trembling leaves, viii 515 Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, x 93 gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now waked, (a) breezes. (b) songs. Hume. Empson, Pastoral, p. 157 (on iv 264); Fowler.

airy (aerie) i 430 Can execute their airy purposes, (a) achieved by journeys through the air. Macnnllan. (b) spiritual. Lockwood. airy flight SA, 974 (repeated from ii 407) Fame... is double-mouthed, And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds; ... in his wild airy flight. (a) through the air. (b) orig. sp. "aerie": brazen (trumpet of Fame). L. aes, aeris, bronze. Tobin, "A Macaronic Pun". alarm

ii 103 with perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, his fatal throne; (a) to strike with fear or apprehension of danger. Lockwood. (b) to cause the enemy to sound to arms {ad arma). Hume.

Aleian

vii 19 on th'Aleian field I fall, Erroneous there to wander (a) Near Ale, in Lycia, Asia Minor. (b) Gk. for wandering. Paterson.

amazed 7 all but less than

i 257

And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? (a) nearly equal to, a combination of only less than and all but equal to. Beeching as quoted by Verity. (b) Masson suggested that Milton dictated albeit. (c) "an excited incoherent way of saying 'more than all but he' or 'all but more than he'" ("less" replacing "more" by antithesis with "greater"). Prince.

allurement, alluring

PR 2,134 C, 882 ix 588

Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell, Sleeking her soft alluring locks; that alluring fruit,

(a) attractive(ness). (b) strong consciousness of ety. lure: "apparatus used by falconers to attract their hawks back to them". Wilding, p. 97. amarant iii 353 Immortal amarant, a flow'r (a) a flower. (b) Gk. immortal. Hume. amaze (n.), amazement SA, 1645

As with amaze shall strike all who behold. i 313 A bject and lost lay these, covering the flood, U nder amazement of their hideous change. vi 646 Amaze, Be sure, and terror seized the rebel host, PR 4,562 Satan smitten with amazement fell,

(a) a stunned state. (b) surprise. Holmes (for all except the first). amazed

ix 640

Misleads th' amazed night-wanderer from his way (a) perplexed, bewildered. (b) lit. put into a maze. Cf. King John 4.3. 140-1: "I am amazed, methinks, and lose my way / Among the thorns and dangers of this world." Holmes.

8

amber-dropping

amber-dropping

C, 863

The loose train of thy amberdropping hair; (a) shedding perfume of ambergris. (b) of the yellowish color of the fossil resin with water dropping from it. Lockwood. (c) liquid amber, the resinous gum exuded from the bark of the tree. VC.

ambition

i 262 To reign is worth ambition, though in hell; SA, 247 I on th' other side Used no ambition to commend my deeds; (a) L. ambitio, going round to seek votes (Verity on SA), great exertion. (b) aspiration for power and honor.

ambrosial iv 219 ambrosial fruit (a) heavenly. (b) giving immortality. Fowler. amends

SA, 9

But here 1 feel amends, The breath ofheav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet, With day-spring born; here leave me to respire. (a) compensation. (b) amendment, changes for the better in oneself.

amused vi 623 Such as we might perceive amused them all, (a) engrossed. (b) stunned physically. angel

Lyc, 163

Look homeward. Angel, now, and melt with ruth;

(a) St Michael. (b) Lycidas. VC. (c) guardian angel. Cf. Grose, pp. 97 ff. anointed

iii 317

Both God and man, Son both of God and man, Anointed universal King. (a) consecrated with oil to office. (b) lit. meaning of "Messiah", q. v. Frye.

answerable style

ix 20

If answerable style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, (a) suitable, fit way of writing.

appointment 9 (b) a pen (L. stilus) that gets responses from the "celestial patroness". antick (orig. sp.) IP, 158 With antick Pillars massy proof, (a) antique, old and venerable. (b) antic, grotesque, fantastically ornamented. VC. Apostate

vi 172

Apostate, still thou err'st, nor end will find Of erring, from the path of truth remote.

(a) rebel. (b) lit. stand apart, play on "erring" (q.v.). apparent

iv 608 the moon . . . Apparent queen (a) showing herself, plainly visible. (b) undoubted. Holmes.

apparent PR 2,397 (a) obvious. (b) seeming. Holmes.

Chose to impart to thy apparent need,

appear Son 7, 7 And inward ripeness doth much less appear, (a) be seen. (b) start to bloom. Le Comte, Milton's Unchanging Mind, pp. 21-2.

appearing ix 354 Lest by some fair appearing good surprised (a) fair-appearing. (b) appearing-good. Evans (Broadbent). apply iv 264 The birds their quire apply; (a) join. (b) bring to bear to create an effect. Ricks. appoint SA, 373 Appoint not heavenly disposition, (a) arraign. (b) prescribe or determine the cause of. Masson. appointed vi 565 Ye who appointed stand, (a) agreed. (b) assigned. Ricks. appointment

SA, 643

(a) assignment. (b) command.

Whom I by his appointment had provoked,

10

arbitrate

arbitrate

C, 411

Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate th' event,

(a) judge of. (b) decide the issue. VC. arbors iv 626 Yon flow'ry arbors, (a) bowers or shady retreats. (b) obs. flower gardens. Wright, "A Note on Milton's Diction", p. 147. arch-enemy: see Satan. ardors v249 Thousand celestial Ardors, (a) concretely, bright (L. burning) angels or flames. (b) specifically implies seraphs (Heb. to burn); cf. 277. Keightley. (c) fig. zeals, fervors. Fowler. argument i24 That to the highth of this great argument (a) theme. (b) demonstration. Ricks. argument

vi 84

shields Various, with boastful argument portrayed,

(a) motif. (b) subject for debate. Fowler. armed

God . . . Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind Of man, with strength entire, and free will armed, (a) refers to "mind / Of man". (b) refers to "Satan".

arms

x9

i 94

so much the stronger proved He with his thunder, and till then who knew The force of those dire arms? (a) weapons. (b) anatomical ref. to what hurled the "thunder". Cf. 113.

arms SA, 1038 she . . . far within defensive arms (a) armor. (b) arms-length. aslope

x 1053

on me the curse aslope Glance on the ground: (a) adj. deflected from the perpendicular. (b) adv. obliquely. Lockwood. See ground, below.

astonished ^asperses

ix 296

11

For he who tempts, though in vain, at least asperses The tempted with dishonor foul,

(a) falsely charges. (b) lit. spatters (premature ejaculation). assay

iii 90 he wings his way. .. Directly towards the new-created world, And man there placed, with purpose to assay If him by force he can destroy, (a) Satan assays (goes with "wings"). (b) God assays (goes with "placed"). Fowler.

assaying iv 801 Assaying by his devilish art (a) essaying, trying. (b) alchemy, black magic practice of determining the degree of purity of a precious metal (OED 4). Broadbent. assays C, 972 And send them here through hard assays (a) testings. (b) tribulations. assert i 25 I may assert Eternal Providence, (a) insist on. (b) L. asserere, to free a slave. Elledge. assessor

vi 679 whence to his Son, Th' assessor of his throne, (a) associate. (b) lit. one who sits beside. Hume. Apostles' Creed: "sitteth on the right hand of God the Father". (c) with implications in Milton's theology, assistant but inferior judge. Holmes.

astonied ix 890 (a) paralysed. (b) astonished. *(c) as stone he'd.

Adam . . . Astonied stood

astonished i 266 Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool, (a) stunned physically. (b) bewildered. Holmes.

12

astonished

astonished

vi 838 ten thousand thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in their souls infixed Plagues; they astonished all resistance lost, (a) struck with thunder or lightning (thunderbolt). Old Fr. estonner, from L. extonare. Verity. (b) surprised.

at least

PR 2,136

If he be man by mother's side at least, With more than human gifts from Heaven adorned, (a) Original comma after "least", implying that both of Jesus' parents were human (Gnostic or Ebionite heresy). (b) with comma placed after "side" instead, there is the Docetist heresy of denying any human parentage to Christ. Le Comte, "Satan's Heresies", p. 259.

attempt: see tempted. attempted

ii 357 where their weakness, how attempted best, By force or subtlety. (a) made an effort to entice or tempt. (b) attacked, assaulted. Fowler.

attendance C, 315 your stray attendance (a) attendants, accompaniers. (b) hearers (who did not hear her, Fr. attendre, as Comus did). attention i 618 attention held them mute. (a) desire to hear or consider. (b) soldiers, they stood at attention. Prince. attired (well-attired) Lyc, 146 the well-attired woodbine, (a) dressed, (b) head-dressed (tire). Verity. VC. attribute viii 107 The swiftness of those circles attribute, (a) indicative: pay tribute, (b) imperative: assign, ascribe. audience vii 105 Haste to thy audience, (a) assembly of listeners. (b) ambassadorial interview. Fowler. audience ix 674 each act won audience (a) attention, (b) assembly of hearers.

awful/Addenda austere

ix 272

13

Eve . . . With sweet austere composure thus replied:

(a) stern, grave. (b) Gk. sour (contrasting "sweet"). Elledge. Eve has turned sweet-sour. author unsuspect

ix 771

that one beast. . . brings with joy The good befall'n him, author unsuspect, (a) informant not subject to suspicion. (b) ironically, unsuspected instigator or cause of "good befallen" (i.e. fallen away). Evans (Broadbent).

averse

viii 138 If earth . . . her part averse From the sun's beam meet night, (a) turned away from, (b) not welcoming.

aware vi 547 So warned he them, aware themselves, (a) wary, vigilant. (b) play on "warned", both from Old English waer, wary. Elledge. awful Nat, 59 And kings sat still with awful eye, (a) awe-inspiring, (b) stricken with awe. MacCaffrey. ADDENDA

absolute

viii 547

yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems And in herself complete,

(a) perfect. (b) L. absoluta, freed from, independent of, Adam. David Aers and Bob Hodge, '"Rational Burning': Milton on Sex and Marriage", Milton Studies, 13 (1979), 25. adhere viii 498 and to his wife adhere; (a) "cleave" (Anglican Version Gen. 2.24). (b) "a sticky recollection of the glutinous or adhesive origin of Eve from Adam's rib", Le Comte, Milton and Sex, p. 36. (c) to be consistent with, in accord or agreement with, appropriate to. OED 4. Cf. Macbeth 2.2. 51-2: "Nor time nor place / Did then adhere." Sims, p. 101. arrive

ii 409

ere he arrive The happy isle; (a) come to, reach. (b) L. ety. ad+ripa (to the bank): cf "isle". Paterson.

1 babble

C, 807

This is mere moral babble, and direct Against the canon laws of our foundation; (a) nonsense, prating. (b) ref. to Tower of Babel - confusion: cf. "foundation".

Babylon PR 3,280 There Babylon, the wonder of all tongues, (a) Identification with Babel (cf. xii 342-3). Parish, "An Unrecognized Pun". (b) babble on. Le Comte, Milton's Unchanging Mind, p. 110. back vi 562 if they . . . turn not back perverse; (a) inflight. (b) in rejection. b a c k from pursuit iii 397 Back from pursuit, thy Powers with loud acclaim Thee only extolled, Son of thy Father's might, (a) modifies "powers"? (b) modifies "Son'? Fowler, p. 434. backside iii 494 Fly o'er the backside of the world (a) outside. Lockwood. (b) contemptuous rump ref. Cf. Colasterion: "to endorse him on the backside of posterity, not a golden, but a brazen ass". Works, iv, 272. b a f f l e d SA, 1237 Go, baffled coward, (a) thwarted. (b) specific chivalric term for subject to disgrace, such as hanging by the heels, visited on a recreant knight. Verity.

bear up

15

baleful i 56 round he throws his baleful eyes, (a) full of evil. (b) full of sorrow, unhappy. Verity. balm xi 546 The balm of life. (a) balsam, that which soothes. (b) blessing. bane

iv 167

the Fiend Who came their bane, (a) harm, destruction. (b) Old English for murderer. Hughes.

bane

ix 123 all good to me becomes Bane, (a) woe. (b) specifically, poison. Evans (Broadbent).

bards: see steep (b). bases ix 36 Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights (a) long skirts of the horses' trappings or housing. Richardson. (b) knights' short skirts reaching from waist to knee. Todd. battening Lyc, 29

Batf ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night,

(a) fattening up. (b) barring, enclosing ("with" = at the same time as). Daniels-VC. battle vi386 the battle swerved, (a) fortunes of war. (b) a m y (cf. battalion), as at 216. Hodge (Broadbent). beams vi 82 and nearer view Bristled with upright beams innumerable Of rigid spears, (a) the shafts of the spears. (b) gleam of the metal. Cf.i 663 ff. bear up Son 22,8

but still bear up and steer Right onward. (a) put the helm "up" to bring the vessel into the direction of the wind. (b ) keep up courage, not to succumb. VC.

16

bearers

bearers UC2,20 (a) porters. (b) pall-bearers.

For one carrier put down to make six bearers.

bearth(orig. sp.) ix624 Help to disburden Nature of her bearth. (a) produce. Masson. (b) birth (as spelled in modern editions). beauty's IP, 20 To set her beauty's praise above (a) her own (Cassiopea's) comeliness. (b) her daughter's (Andromeda's). Cf. L'A, 79, for this use to mean a beautiful woman; also PR 2,186,197. bed UC, 18 Hobson has supped, and's newly gone to bed. (a) of an inn. (b) final restingplace. Cf. "Here lies old Hobson" (1). Holmer. befallen ix 771 The good befall'n him, (a) that happened to. (b) irony, that dropped away from. Evans (Broadbent). before the Lord xii 34 (Gen. 10.9, a problem for the Biblical commentators) A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled Before the Lord, as in despite ofHeav'n, (a) in defiance of God. (b) under God - usurping all authority to himself next under God and claiming it jure divino (35). Newton. beginning, in the

i9

That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth Rose out of Chaos; (a) at the start (of creation) - goes with "Rose". (b) in the book of Genesis ( = beginning in Gk.)-goes with "taught" (by the author - "shepherd" Moses).

below: see underling. bends iii 573 Thither his course he bends (a) directs. (b) swerves. Potter (Broadbent).

bliss

17

bent v 829 bent rather to exalt (a) determined, with purpose. (b) same ambiguity of L. synonyms inclined, intending-, bent down, condescending. MacCaflrey (Broadbent). beseeching or besieging

v 869

bestial i435 bestial gods (a) lit. in the shape of animals. (b) morally depraved. Ricks. •better vi 30 The better fight (a) comparative of "good" of Matt. 25.21 and 1 Tim. 6.12. (b) bitter? Cf. 34 ff. bickering vi 766 bickering flame (a) flashing, coruscating. (b) aggressive, fighting. "Bickering is when two People begin to Quarrel; Fretfull, Peevish, Provoking, or as Cats Spitting. So Bickering Flame we understand to be, Not what Blazes out in Utmost rage, but with Sudden Flashes, and as Kindling into Fury." Richardson. blank (orig. sp. blanc) iii 48 for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of Nature's works (a) blotted out page. (Hume thought "blanc" a "mistake of the Printer" for "blot".) (b) void. Fowler. blank ix 890 Astonied stood and blank (a) pale. (b) confounded, deprived of speech. Fowler. blind C, 181 In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? (a) impenetrable by sight or light. (b) enveloped in darkness. (c) having no egress, as in blind alley. VC. bliss

v 297

A wilderness of sweets; for Nature here Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss,

18

blow

(a) with semicolon after "art", "bliss" is in apposition to the previous sentence, and "pouring" is intransitive. (b) with comma after "art", "bliss" is the object of "pouring". Verity. blow

C, 993

Waters the odorous banks that blow Flowers of more mingled hue (a) transitive: the banks engender or cause the "flowers" to bloom. (b) intransitive: bloom ("banks" in apposition to "flowers"). VC. (c) transitive: waft. See "blowing", below.

blow ii 717 till winds the signal blow (a) the "winds" blow. (b) as on a trumpet. Tillyard. blowing ix 629 Of blowing myrrh and balm; (a) blooming. (b) wafting odors. blown FI, 1 O fairest flower, no sootier blown but blasted, (a) in bloom. (b) blown upon. blustering winds

ii 286

such murmur filled Th' assembly as . . . The sound of blusf ring winds,

(a) noisy blasts. (b) boastful speeches. bolt C, 760 I hate when vice can bolt her arguments, (a) to sift through a bolting cloth; fig. to refine, make subtle. Lockwood. (b) to discharge like a bolt (as at SA, 1696). Verity. (c) utter hastily. Burden. bond

ix 956

I feel The bond of nature draw me to my own, (a) uniting force, affinity. (b) constraint, chain (cf. "the link of nature", 914), the "bondage" of 1 Cor. 7.15 - marriage with an unbeliever. Burden, pp. 172 ff. "Adam is hinting that he is not responsible for his action": Evans (Broadbent).

braided *born

19

x 980

If care of our descent perplex us most, Which must be born to certain woe, devoured (a) brought forth as offspring. (b) borne, carried (cf. "at last", 981).

born (orig. sp.) ii 953 Borne through the hollow dark, (a) borne, carried. (b) brought forth as offspring ("through the hollow dark" is obstetric). bound

iv 181 (end of line)

At one slight bound high overleaped all bound

(a) border, fence. (b) record-setting leap (pun of first "bound"). Shakespeare abounds in puns on this word, inaugurated with Mercutio's "Borrow Cupid's wings, / And soar with them above a common bound." Romeo and Juliet, 1.4.17-18. bound

PR 4, 632

Lest he command them down into the deep Bound,

(a) n. boundary. (b) adj. chained. bounty

ix 1033 so inflame my sense With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now Than ever, bounty of this virtuous tree. (a) gift. (b) specifically, gift of "this virtuous tree" as new deity, the last ref. to "bounty" having been: "God hath here / Varied his bounty so with new delights" (v 430-1).

bounty scorned, as

x 54

Justice shall not return as bounty scorned. (a) since god's bounty has been scorned. Verity. (b) in the way an unwanted ("scorned" as a participle) gift can be refused and returned. Tillyard.

brag C, 745 Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown (a) boast. (b) thing to boast of, or source of pride. Tillyard. braided

iv 349

Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train,

20

brake

(a) entwined, interwoven. (b) orig. sp. "breaded" (same seventeenth-century pronunciation): baited, ref. to the use of the forbidden fruit. Shawcross. brake

iv 175 so thick entwined, As one continued brake, the undergrowth (a) thicket. (b) obstacle, stop.

brand

xii 643

(a) sword. (b) stigma. *breach vi 879

They, looking back, all th' eastern gate beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand,

Disburdened heav'n rejoiced, and soon repaired Her mural breach, (a) broken place, gap (in the wall). (b) tear resulting from "Disburdened heaven" having had a breech delivery of the devils into Hell: they at first recoiled "with horror backward" (863).

breach

ix 6 foul distrust, and breach Disloyal (a) break-up of friendly relations. (b) violating of a command. Fowler.

breaking

Son 10, 5

Till the sad breaking of that parliament Broke him, (a) forced adjournment, collapse. Cf. "Broke". (b) specifically, a technical term for the dissolution of Parliament (cf. OED, break 2f).

breast, open

with open breast Stand ready to receive them, vi 610-11 To entertain them fair with open front And breast (a) exposed ranks (cf. breastwork). (b) open-hearted, with cordiality.

breath, out of (a) panting. (b) dead.

vi 560

UC 2,12

too much breathing put him out of breath;

built

21

breathed

vi 65 instrumental harmony that breathed Heroic ardor to advenfrous deeds (a) fig. inspired, stirred up. (b) lit. blew (the wind instruments, "instrumental harmony").

breathing UC 2,12 too much breathing put him out of breath (a) respiration (for eighty-six years). (b) respite, breathing-space, as in a race. Nellist. *bred IP, 2 The brood ofFolly without father bred, (a) brought up. (b) n. bread, nourishment. bride, that fallacious SA, 320 To seek in marriage that fallacious bride, (a) Dalila. Keightley. (b) the woman of Timnath. Bullough. broad: see Genezaret. *brood IP, 2 The brood ofFolly without father bred, Besides the "brood"-"bred" jingle of related words: (a) offspring. (b) what happens when Folly broods. Cf. L'A, 6: "Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings". Sage (Broadbent). (c) brewed? brooding

L'A, 6

Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings,

(a) incubating. (b) indulging in melancholy. Sage (Broadbent). brooding

i 21

Dove-like safst brooding on the vast abyss And mad'st it pregnant:

(a) incubating. (b) implication of regret for the production. Shawcross. budge C, 707 those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, (a) solemn in demeanor, pompous. (b) a kind of fur used in academic gowns (lamb's skin with wool dressed outwards). VC. (c) sheep-like and muzzy in following the flock. built

i 259 th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,

22

burdensome

(a) past participle, constructed. (b) obsolete n., construction, material. Notes and Queries, ser. v. 11 (1874), 7,132,217,356. burdensome

UC 2, 24

And lack of load made his life burdensome,

(a) miserable. (b) ref. to Hobson's occupation of carrying. by Lyc, 81 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes (a) by the operation of. VC. (b) in sight of. Prince. by sinews weak

Vac, 1

Hail, native language, that by sinews weak Didst move my first endeavoring tongue to speak, (a) goes with "move": language was as weak as the infant Milton. (b) goes with "speak": only Milton was weak. Hodge (Broadbent).

01 cadence

ii 287

The sound ofblusf ring winds, which all night long Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull (a) measure or beat of music. (b) fall of voice (at the end of a period). Holmes.

cadence

x 92

Now was the sun in western cadence low From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour (a) sinking down, declination (L. cadere). (b) musical rhythm (cf. "airs") of a dying fall. Ricks, p. 107.

calculate viii 80 And calculate the stars, (a) compute the number of. (b) predict the motions of. (c) arrange, frame. Fowler. can xi 309 him who all things can, (a) has power to do. (b) has knowledge of. Fowler. capital (in MS Capitoll)

At Pandemonium, the high capital (a) chief city, seat of government. (b) hidden ref. to temple (L. capitolium) of chief pagan deity Jupiter on Capitoline Hill.

capital

xii 383

i 756

Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain: My capital secret,

SA, 394 (a) fatal, deadly. (b) pertaining to the head (L. caput). (c) in the case of SA, chief. Masson.

24

captive thrall

captive thrall PR 1,411 Asa poor miserable captive thrall (a) captured person in bondage. (b) recollection of caitiff (same ety.), base, cowardly, as in Spenser's "And valiant knight become a caytive thrall" (.Faerie Queene, 1.7.19.3, quoted by VC). care ix 799 henceforth my early care (a) watchful regard and attention. (b) proleptic, worry (L. euro.) and bane. Evans (Broadbent). career

Son 7,3 My hasting days fly on with full career, iv 353 the sun Declined was hasting now with prone career (a) course. (b) related to car, the chariot of the Sun. Cf. v 139-40. Ricks. (c) speed. Shawcross.

carnage

x 268

such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable, (a) heap of dead bodies (OED 2). (b) slaughter. (c) flesh for a carnivorous person to eat.

carriage UC, 10 Had not his weekly course of carriage failed; (a) the action of carrying. (b) Hobson's wagon. (c) bodily deportment or health. Holmer. carry . . . fetched

If I may not carry, sure I'll ne'er be fetched, (a) "fetch and carry" was Hobson's occupation. (b) fetched = (1) made to go by constraining force. Lockwood. (2) restored to consciousness. Carey.

casts (a) (b) (c) *(d) (e) (f)

UC2,18

iii 634 But first he casts to change his proper shape, considers how. contrives, schemes. I/)ckwood. determines. Elledge. selects actor for a play. Potter (Broadbent). molds liquid metal. Potter (Broadbent). throws off (clothes, appearance). Ricks. (The word was so used in Apology, Works, III, 334.)

charge

25

ceiling

xi 743 and now the thickened sky Like a dark ceiling stood; (a) overhead covering of a room. (b) ref. to ety. caelum, "sky".

celebrate

ii 241

to celebrate his throne With warbled hymns,

(a) glorify. (b) L. celebro, crowd round. Macmillan. cell

v 109 reason . . . retires Into her private cell (a) chamber, room (L. cella). (b) one of the compartments of the brain, cellula logistica. Cf. viii 460-1. Fowler.

*center PR 4, 534 and as a center firm (a) pivot, the unmoving point around which a body turns. Carey. (b) the unmoved Mover of Aristotle. certain ix 953 Certain to undergo like doom: (a) self-determined, resolved. (b) sure. Fowler. chance

ii 396 we may chance Re-enter heav'n; (a) v. happen to. (b) adv. by chance, perchance (OED 13c). Monboddo in Todd.

chance but chance

iv 530 (L. forte fortuna: Fowler).

change . . . chance

x 107-8 what change Absents thee, or what chance detains? Fowler quotes the First Collect after the Offertory: "the changes and chances of this mortal life".

charactered

C, 530 reason's mintage Charactered in the face; (a) engraved. (b) having given character to.

charge vi 566 Do as you have in charge, (a) duty. (b) gunpowder load.

26

charming

charming v 626 So smooths her charming tones (a) delightful. Lockwood. (b) musical (L. carmen). (c) enchanting. (d) association with birds' warbling, heavenly equivalent of "charm of earliest birds," (iv, 642), from Middle English chirm, cry. MacCaffrey (Broadbent). charms

Son 8,5

he knows the charms That call fame on such gentle acts as these, SA, 934 Thy fair enchanted cup and warbling charms (a) songs. (b) spells. Honigmann. Verity (for SA).

c h e c k s iii 732 And in her pale dominion checks the night. (a) holds in check, curbs. (b) chequers, variegates with its rays. Ricks. cheer

vi 496

his words their drooping cheer Enlightened,

(a) spirits. (b) face (Old Fr. chiere = Late L. cara, face). Verity. cheerful Son 21,14 when God sends a cheerful hour, (a) promoting gladness. (b) marked by the good cheer of drink. Honigmann. Chemos: see Comus. chest

Nat, 217

Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest. Naught but profoundest hell can be his shroud; (a) Herodotus ii.63: "The image of the god, in a little wooden gilt casket, is carried . . . from the temple by the priest." Quoted by Carey, s.v. "ark", 220. (b) coffin of burial. Cf. "shroud". (c) heart as center of emotions.

chief mastery ix 29 chief mas fry to dissect (a) principal skill. (b) conquests of heroes.

civil chiefly

27

i 17

And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples th'upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; (a) qualifies "thou." (b) qualifies "prefer". (c) qualifies "instruct" (19). See Steadman, A Milton Encyclopedia, 8, 111.

choice regard iii 534 his eye with choice regard (a) careful scrutiny. (b) ref. to Chosen (esteemed) People. Ricks. choir / Of creatures wanting voice ix 198-9 (a) birds lacking (desiring?) speech. (b) company (of animals) that are silent completely. cincture

ixlll7

so girt With feathered cincture,

(a) belt. (b) in architecture, fillet at the top and bottom of a column, which divides the shaft from the capital and base (OED 3b). "Thus the comparison of Eve's savage posterity to pillars is carried on from 11. 1105 f." Fowler. circling iii 556 So high above the circling canopy (a) surrounding, encircling. (b) revolving in a circular orbit. Fowler. circling

I thought where all thy circling wiles would end, (a) devious, slow to come to the point, circumlocutory. Verity. (b) Circean (cf. 934), with an ety. from Gk. kirkos, a ring, circle. (c) encircling, surrounding. Lockwood. circumspection ii 414 Here he had need All circumspection, (a) caution. (b) lit. looking all around. civil

SA, 871

vi 667

war seemed a civil game To his uproar; (a) non-military. (b) civilized. Shawcross.

28

clay

clay: see man of clay. clear IP, 163 In service high and anthems clear, (a) audible, loud and clear. (b) pure. Burden. clear Lyc, 70 (a) noble. (b) pure. VC.

the clear spirit

clear hyaline vii619 On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea (a) The Crystalline Sphere. (b) translates "the glassy sea" of Rev. 4.6. Hume. cleaving SA, 1039 (a) clinging. (b) cutting.

A cleaving mischief,

climate

ix 45 cold Climate, (a) atmospheric conditions. (b) region, clime. Fowler.

clime

Arc, 24

Who had thought this clime had held A deity so unparalleled? i 242 Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, i 297 the torrid clime Smote on him sore (a) locality, region. (b) climate. VC. Prince.

clime vii 18 though from a lower clime (a) region, realm. (b) climb. Fowler. cloisters: see Cloysters. close

ii 638 a fleet descried ... by equinoctial winds Close sailing (a) near together, in a compact group. Keightley. (b) close to the wind. Macmillan.

close ix 191 waiting close th'approach of morn. (a) hidden. (b) enclosed. Di Cesare, p. 17.

colors

29

cloud

PR 4, 321 her false resemblance only meets An empty cloud. (a) nothing. (b) "false resemblance", such as myth of Ixion raping a cloud made to look like Hera.

clouted C, 635 Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; (a) hobnailed. (b) patched up. Keightley. Cloysters pale (original printing) IP, 156 To walk the studious Cloysters pale, (a) cloister's pale: enclosure formed by the covered walk of a college. (b) cloisters pale: pale as an adj. meaning shadowy. Cf. 121; vii 331. Visiak. coast x 89 Eden and all the coast in prospect lay. (a) region. (b) side (L. costa) of the world. Cf. iii 739; vi 529. Fowler. collateral

x 86

from his radiant seat he rose Of high collateral glory; (a) side by side. Cf. viii 426. (b) subordinate (OED, 3a) (Milton being a subordinationist in his view of the Trinity). Fowler.

colleague x 59 Mercy colleague with justice, (a) n. associate, coadjutor. Lockwood. (b) v. to join in alliance with. Tillyard. collect

PR 4, 524

Where by all best conjectures I collect Thou art to be my fatal enemy.

(a) infer (that). (b) gather (with "conjectures" as object). collected vi581 Collected stood within our thoughts (a) together, in a group. (b) with composure of mind. Hanford. colors

SA, 901

These false pretexts and varnished colors failing, (a) "pretexts", excuses.

30

combustion

(b) cosmetics. The combination is quoted by Verity in Animadversions: "painting his lewd and deceitful principles with a smooth and glossy varnish". Works, HI, 163. combustion i 46 With hideous ruin and combustion down (a) conflagration. (b) "burning together" (L.) (c) collective fate. See also ruin and combustion. (d) combination of thunder and lightning. Keightley. come L'A 45 Then to come in spite of sorrow Who comes or is to come? (a) "the lark" (41). (b) L'Allegro. (c) "Mirth" (37). (d) "dawn" (44). (e) "night" (42). VC, with Fish adding e. comer ix 1097 that this new comer, Shame, (a) one who comes. (b) horticulturally, springer (up). Fowler. commune

ix201

Then commune how that day they best may ply Their growing work;

(a) confer, converse. (b) take communion (q.v.). Fowler. communicated

v 72 since good, the more Communicated, more abundant grows,

(a) imparted. (b) administered Holy Communion. Ricks. communion

v 637

viii 431

They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy, Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt Of union or communion,

(a) fellowship. (b) Holy Communion, Communion of Saints. Verity. Fowler.

composure *compas8ing

31

ix 59

By night he fled, and at midnight returned From compassing the earth, (a) encircling ("seven . . . nights", 63, for destruction). (b) ref. to God's "golden compasses" (vii 225) (six days for creation). Di Cesare, p. 14.

complain

ii 550

sing... to many a harp . . . and complain that fate Free virtue should enthrall (a) murmur, lament. (b) ref. to complaint, a plaintive poem or song. (c) ref. to compline, the last service of the day.

completed

xi618

Bred only and completed to the taste Of lustful appetence, to sing, to dance,

(a) equipped. (b) having finished the course, graduated. Fowler. compliant

iv 332

Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs Yielded them, (a) lit. bending (false ety. L. plicare). Verity. (b) fig. aiming to please.

complicated

x 523

the hall, thick swarming now With complicated monsters, (a) compound, composite. (b) tangled. Fowler.

compose our present evils ii 281 (a) come to terms with our misfortunes. (b) proleptic and ironic, compound our present evils. (c) line up or order our evil forces (or troops). composition

vi 613 propounded terms Of composition, (a) reconciliation, agreements for cessation of hostilities. (b) physical mixture (for gunpowder).

composure

vi 560 how we seek Peace and composure, (a) agreement, settlement. (b) putting together of ingredients for explosion. Paterson.

32

composure

composure ix 272 With sweet austere composure thus replied: (a) equanimity, calmness. (b) carefully ordered speech composition. compulsion

ix 474 with what sweet Compulsion thus transported (a) obligation, persuasion. (b) drive. Cf. "transported". Ricks, p. 60.

*Comus (a) the tempter of Milton's masque, whose name in Gk. means "revelry" (103). (b) Mistakenly identified by Peck, p. 12 with "Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons" (i 406). concave i 542 A shout that tore hell's concave, (a) hollow, vaulted roof of Hell. (b) term for "the vault of heaven" (669). OED 2b. Fowler. conceits iv 809 Blown up with high conceits engend'ring pride. (a) fanciful ideas, notions. (b) inflated opinions of oneself. conceived ix 945 (a) considered. (b) created.

Not well conceived of God,

concent (1645 has content) Mus, 6. That undisturbed song of pure concent, (a) harmony, concord. (b) consent, "undisturbed" agreement. conclave i 795 In close recess and secret conclave sat, (a) L. a room that can be locked, or that can be opened only with a key (L. clavis). (b) assembly of cardinals to elect a pope. Hume. concord iii 371 Melodious part, such concord is in heav'n. (a) unison. (b) agreement (vs. "discord", ii 967). condescension viii 9 This friendly condescension to relate (a) favor. (b) descent (from Heaven).

conjunction conduct

ix 630

33

if thou accept My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.

(a) guidance. (b) management. Fowler. (c) behavior. Brooke-Rose, p. 255. confidence ix 1056 Just confidence, and native righteousness, (a) faith (fides). (b) self-assurance. (c) mutual trust or intimacy. confirmed

xi 71

And in their state, though firm, stood more confirmed. Besides the play on "firm": (a) stronger. (b) comparing angels to the church: confirmation is the formal ratification of the election of a bishop. (OED 2c). conformed ii 217 to the place conformed (a) fitted. (b) yielded. confounded

i 53 Confounded though immortal. xii 455 and there confounded leave; (a) routed, defeated utterly. (b) poured together (L. confundere) - into the abyss. (c) spoiled, corrupted. Elledge.

confusion i 220 Treble confusion, (a) overthrow. Cf. "confounded", above. (b) mental obscuration, darkening of faculties. Cf. Psalm vi translation, 22: "Mine enemies shall all be blank and dashed / With much confusion." Confusion

xii 62; cf. 343

thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.

(a) "hubbub," 60. (b) Marginal gloss on Babel (actually false ety.), Anglican Version of Gen. 11.9. (Hume quotes Hebrew.) conjunction

x 898

Disturbances on earth through female snares, And strait conjunction with this sex.

34

conjured (a) connection, relation, marriage bond. (b) specifically, with "snares" (897) and "strait", (q.u.) sexual union. Evans (Broadbent).

conjured ii 693 Conjured against the Highest, (a) swore together in a conspiracy. (b) bewitched. Elledge. connive

SA, 466

He, be sure, Will not connive, (a) remain dormant or inactive. (b) ety. Fr. conniver, from L. connivere, eonivere, close the eyes (as Samson's eyes were closed). (c) conspire.

conscious vi 521 under conscious night (a) witnessing. (b) sharing a guilty secret. Ricks. conscious

ix 1050 with conscious dreams Encumbered, (a) sensible of wrong-doing, guilty. Lockwood. (b) remembered on awakening.

consequence x 364 Such fatal consequence unites us three. (a) mutual dependence. Shawcross. (b) dependence of cause and effect. Lockwood. (c) con-sequence, ety. following together. Masson. consort (a) (b) (c) (d)

Mus, 27

till God ere long To his celestial consort us unite, company of musicians, choir ("concert"). angel associates. fellowship. marital association ("consortium") with Christ the Bridegroom. Shawcross. For wedding of meanings cf. 3: "Wed your divine sounds".

consort(ed)

vii 50 ix 954

He with his consorted Eve if death Consort with thee, death is to me as life;

(a) wed(ded). (b) sharing the same fate (sors). Cf. "equal lot", ix 881.

converse conspicuous

35

iii 385

Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, In whose conspicuous counf nance, without cloud (a) striking, most noticeable, pre-eminent. (b) clear.

constrained

ix 164 I.. . am now constrained Into a beast, and mixed with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute, (a) compressed, contracted. (b) forced. (c) produced in opposition to nature. Fowler.

contagious ix 1036 Eve, whose eye darted contagious fire. (a) exciting like feelings. (b) spreading a disease by contact. Cf. x 544: "Catched by contagion". Evans (Broadbent). contemplation

v 511

In contemplation of created things By steps we may ascend to God. (a) attentive consideration. (b) L. con + templum, consecrated space (temple). Cf. "steps", "God". Ricks.

contend i 99 That with the mightiest raised me to contend, (a) fight. (b) argue, dispute. continent vi 474 This continent of spacious heav'n, (a) continuous tract of land. (b) L. containing. Hodge (Broadbent). converse ii 184 There to converse with everlasting groans, (a) dwell with. Keightley. (b) talk by means of. Fowler. (c) talk with interruptions of. Macmillan. converse vii 9 Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse, (a) consort, associate. Verity. (b) talk. Milton Quarterly, x (1976), 22. *(c) make verses together. Mulder. *(d) trade places (L. conversus, turned around into an opposite or contrary direction). Mulder.

36

conviction

conviction

x 84

Convict by flight, and rebel to all law; Conviction to the Serpent none belongs. Besides echo of "convict", 83: (a) proof of guilt. (b) feeling of sinfulness. Fowler.

cool

x 95 (end of line)

usher in The evening cool, when he from wrath more cool Came (a) ref. to "The evening cool" (cf. Gen. 3.8: "the cool of the day) and its physical effect. (b) calm, deliberate. (Landor, p. 70, disliked this wordplay.)

cordial v 12 with looks of cordial love (a) heartfelt (L. cor, cordis). Lockwood. (b) reviving. Elledge. (c) warm. cordial viii 466 From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm, (a) on the side of the heart (cor). (b) "cordial spirits" a synonym for vital spirits in the old physiology. Fowler. corny vii 321 up stood the corny reed (a) of wheat. (b) horny (L. corneus). Hume. correspond vii 511 Magnanimous to correspond with heav'n, (a) be in harmony, relate. (b) able to hold intercourse, commune. Verity. couched iv 123 Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge: (a) lying hid (Fr. couche), like a beast. Verity. (b) united. Verity. *(c) quelled, suppressed (cf. 120). Fowler. *(d) inlaid, set (OED 4). Fowler. council (orig. sp. Counsel) ii 20 (a) deliberative assembly. (b) with advice. Bush.

in council or in fight,

crow-toe course reciprocal

UC 2,30

37

Obedient to the moon he spent his date In course reciprocal, and had his fate Linked to the mutual flowing of the seas, (a) ref. to Hobson's occupation as carrier (reciprocal = things or persons sent by one party to another). (b) the alternate motion of the tides. Holmer.

courtly: see stable. covertures

saw their shame that sought Vain covertures; (a) lit. garments, coverings. (b) fig. dissimulations, excuses. Fowler.

coy (a) (b) (c)

x 337

Lyc, 18 Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse; shyly reserved or retiring. reluctant, disdainful. suggestion of feminine denial on the part of the Muse. VC.

created to destroy

vii 607 but to create Is greater than created to destroy. (a) to destroy what is created. Masson. (b) having been created, as Satan was, to go about destroying.

crofts C, 531 Tending my flocks hard by i' th' hilly crofts (a) fields (Trin. MS. lawns). (b) Dutch knoft, high and dry land. OED-Carey. cross UC 2,19 though the cross doctors all stood bearers, (a) thwarting, opposed. Carey. (b) mean, morose, churlish. Lock wood. crossed ix 65 He . . . four times crossed the car of Night (a) passed from side to side of. (b) opposite of making sign of benediction. Evans (Broadbent). crow-toe Lyc, 143 The tufted crow-toe (a) the wild hyacinth. (b) a species of buttercup. (c) Orchis mascula. (d) Lotus corniculatus. OED.

38

crude

crude Lyc, 3 I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, (a) unripe (L. crudus). (b) poem not polished. Cf. "uncouth", 186. crude PR 2, 349 that crude apple that diverted Eve! (a) uncooked, raw (OED 2). (b) simple, common. crude

C, 480

a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. SA, 700 In crude old age; (a) premature. (b) causing or suffering from a crudity, indigestion. Burden (forC).

cry ii 654 A cry of hell-hounds (a) pack. (b) howl (cf. 658). Richardson (who does not notice meaning (a)). cubic vi 399 In cubic phalanx (a) four-square. Todd. (b) cubical. Masson. cumbersome / Luggage PR 3,400-1 (a) unwieldy baggage and equipment, for which the L. is (b) impedimenta. cure ix 776 Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine, (a) remedy. (b) charge, duty (ironic). (c) care, trouble (L. cura). Fowler. See care, above.

s Dagon

i 462

Dagon his name, sea monster, upward man And downward fish; SA, 13 Dagon their sea-idol, (a) deity of the Philistines. (b) ety. Heb. dag = "fish"; "sea-idol". Hume.

Damaetas Lyc, 36 And old Damaetas loved to hear our song. (a) pastoral name (in Theocritus, Virgil). (b) Joseph Mead, fellow of Christ's College, d. 1638. Nicolson, "Milton's 'Old Damoetas'"; VC. dame ix612 Sovran of creatures, universal dame. (a) female ruler. (b) mistress (L. domina), with chivalric implications. Hughes. damp

xi 544 in thy blood will reign A melancholy damp of cold and dry (a) noxious vapor. "Old age, which, being cold and dry, and of the same quality as melancholy is, must needs cause it, by diminution of spirits and substance, and increasing of adust humours." Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Everyman's edn., i, 210. Quoted by Todd. (b) loss of vitality, weakness. Cf. above quotation. Lockwood. (c) depression. Cf. 293; cf. adj. i 523. Fowler.

danger ii 1008 So much the nearer danger; (a) peril, risk. Lockwood. (b) damage, mischief, harm. Wright, "Note on Milton's Use of the Word 'Danger"'; Hughes. dark Son 19, 2 in this dark world and wide (a) unseen by the blind man.

40

Daughter of God

(b) cliché in religious writing for sinful. Honigmann. (c) ignorant. Daughter of God iv 660 (a) Eve. (b) ironical anticipation of another daughter of God, Mary the second Eve, Theotokos, Mother of God. Fowler. daughter of his voice

ix 653

God so commanded, and left that command Sole daughter of his voice;

(a) God's "sole" commandment. (b) Heb. Bath Kol: a voice from heaven. Hume. day-star Lyc, 168 So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, (a) the sun. (b) Lucifer, the morning star. VC. days Son 19, 2 Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (a) all the days of one's life. (b) restrictedly, the working days of maturity. Dorian. dear (a) (b) (c) *(d)

Lyc, 6; cf. 173 Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, iii 216 Dwells in all heaven charity so dear? severe, hard, grievous, dire. costly. beloved, of intimate concern. VC; for PL Potter (Broadbent ). Lyc the poem will be treasured by posterity. Lawry, p. 104. (For comparable Shakespearean ambivalences, see Mahood, p. 53.)

dearest iii 226 His dearest mediation (a) hardest. (b) most glorious. (c) most loving. Shawcross. Death his death's wound iii 252 Death his death's wound shall then receive, and stoop Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed. (a) Death will receive his wound. (b) Death will receive a mortal wound. Todd noted Donne's "Death, thou shalt die", of Holy Sonnets x.

defended 41 decent

iii 644 and held Before his decent steps a silver wand. (a) graceful, comely. (b) in accordance with propriety. Fowler.

decked

vii 478 those waved their limber fans For wings, and smallest lineaments exact In all the liveries decked of summer's pride (a) seemingly taken by Hume as a participle. (b) taken as a preterite verb (object "lineaments") by Richardson, Newton, Keightley, Browne, Masson.

declined

SA, 727

Yet on she moves, now stands and eyes thee fixed. About f have spoke; but now, with head declined

(a) bent down. (b) "Dalila is from a root signifying to droop, hang down like a palm: the name may refer either to her grace of form or to her weakness." Verity. Pun noticed by Broadbent. deep

Vac, 33

Such where the deep transported mind may soar Above the wheeling poles, (a) penetrating, profound. (b) high.

deep C, 733 Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, (a) interior of the earth. (b) the sea. VC. deepest Vac, 22 Which deepest spirits and choicest wits desire. (a) most profound. (b) highest, loftiest. Same ambiguity as L. altus, altissimus. Hodge (Broadbent). defaced

ix 901

How art thou lost, how on a sudden lost, Defaced, deflow'red, and now to death devote! (a) disfigured, sin resulting in "a diminution of the majesty of the human countenance". DeDoctrina Christiana, i, 12. Fowler. (b) proleptic, discountenanced, out of countenance, ashamed.

defended xi 86 that defended fruit; (a) forbidden (Fr. defendre). (b) guarded (by some of those being addressed).

42

defensive

defensive SA, 1038 far within defensive arms (a) serving, or meant, to protect. (b) denying, forbidding. Cf. "defended", above; "arms". defiance i 669 Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n. (a) declaration of war. (b) ety. breaking of faith. Ricks. defilement to the inward parts C, 466 lust. . . Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion, (a) soiling of the soul. (b) "contagion" by a venereal disease. deflowered

Defaced, deflow'red, and now to death devote! (a) robbed of moral beauty. Lockwood. (b) deprived of flowers (ousted from the garden). Evans (Broadbent). (c) in effect, violated, raped. See Le Comte, Milton and Sex, pp. 78-81.

degree

ix901

ix 599

Strange alteration in me, to degree Of reason in my inward powers, and speech (a) a certain amount, extent. (b) step or stage in an ascent. Fowler.

deject PR 2, 219 her female pride deject, (a) discouraged. (b) cast down. deliverance, deliverer xii 235,600; PR 2,35; 3,374; xii 149, 479 "Jesus" means "deliverer", as Shawcross notes: "Etymological Significance", pp. 46-7. depressed SA, 1698 So virtue . . . Depressed, (a) lit. held down. (b) overcome, vanquished. Lockwood. (c) melancholy. derived

x 77

that I may mitigate their doom On me derived; (a) L. derivare, channelled. (b) diverted. (c) imparted, passed on by descent. Cf. 965. Fowler.

destined

43

descend vii 1 Descend from heav'n, Urania, (a) Urania is to come down. (b) from this point the course of the poem is downwards. Fowler. descended IP, 22 Yet thou art higher far descended: (a) derived (family tree). (b) come down (from heaven). Sage (Broadbent). described

iv 567 I described his way Bent all on speed, and marked his airy gait (a) made a mental map of, traced. (b) observed, perceived. Bentley thought a printer's error for descried, a word with which confusion was common in the seventeenth century. See OED.

design iii 467 still with vain design (a) intention. (b) architectural plan. Ricks. desperate ii 107 Desperate revenge, (a) prompted by the recklessness of despair. Lockwood. (b) disparate, beyond comparison, out of all bounds. despised

vi 602 would render them yet more despised, vii 422 With clang despised the ground, (a) lit. looked down upon (L. despicere). (b) scorned, contemned. Ricks (for vi). See Browne on vii.

despite, son of

ix 176 son of despite, Whom us the more to spite his Maker raised From dust: spite then with spite is best repaid. (a) one created because of malice or hatred (God's towards Satan). Son of this "spite" of 177,178. (b) despicable. Evans (Broadbent). Hebrew model like "sons of valor", 2 Sam. 2.7 (margin); "sons of Belial", 1 Sam. 2.12. Verity.

destined

i 168 disturb His inmost counsels from their destined aim. (a) intended. (b) irony against Satan, who cannot "disturb" (167) destiny. Ricks.

44

determine

determine

vi318

one stroke they aimed That might determine, and not need repeat,

(a) be decisive. (b) terminate all signs of life. determined ii 330 War hath determined us, (a) finished, doomed, crushed. (b) made us determined, given us a settled aim. Fowler. Cf. "untamed reluctance", 337. (c) conditioned, made us what we are. devolved

x 135

Lest on my head both sin and punishment However insupportable, be all Devolved; (a) caused to fall upon. (b) caused to pass to another, by legal succession, especially through the deficiency of one previously responsible. OED 3. Fowler.

devote iii 208 to destruction sacred and devote, (a) doomed. (b) specifically, devotus, doomed by a vow. Ricks. devote ix 901 Defaced, deflow'red, and now to death devote! (a) doomed. (b) devotee, follower of. devoted

v 890

I fly These wicked tents devoted, (a) doomed, cursed. (b) dedicated (to new worship). MacCaffrey (Broadbent).

dextrous v 741 Know whether I be dextrous to subdue (a) adroit, skillful. (b) "at the right hand of bliss" (vi 892). Cf. v 606. Fowler. (c) right-handed in wielding a sword. Cf. ii 174. different i 636 If counsels different, (a) differing, disagreeing, divided counsels. (b) different from what they should have been. Patterson. (c) different from those held by others. Patterson. (d) de-ferent, deferring, procrastinating. Stewart.

dislodge dint

ii 813

45

that mortal dint, Save he who reigns above, none can resist.

(a) blow. (b) stroke of thunder. direct ii 980 Direct my course; (a) v. point out. (b) adj. (modifying "course"), straight. Fowler. dirt UC,2 hath laid him in the dirt; (a) dirty ground. (b) the earth of the grave. Nellist. ^disarmed SA, 540 disarmed among my enemies. (a) without defences, helpless. (b) no longer in Dalila's arms. disastrous i 597 In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds (a) of evil omen. (b) lit. ill-starred (dis-astrum). discharge

vi 564

while we discharge Freely our part.

(a) carry out. (b) explode. *(c) defecate. Cf. Empson, Seven Types, p. 223, on "discharge" in connection with "bowels" in Crashaw's translation of Dies Irae, stanza xn. disease UC 2, 21 Ease was his chief disease, (ai deadly malady. (b) dis-ease (cf. "Ease"), lack of comfort. disfigured iv 127 Saw him disfigured, (a) saw him lose his former appearance. (b) saw him in his ugliness. Shawcross. dishonest iv313 (a) unchaste. (b) hypocritical. dislodge

v 669

dishonest shame

With all his legions to dislodge, and leave Unworshipped, unobeyed, the throne supreme, (a) shift quarters, leave camp. (b) trans, with "throne" (670) as object: displace. Fowler.

46

dislodged

dislodged vi 415 Far in the dark dislodged, (a) shifted quarters, left camp. (b) participle, displaced, driven (by the local angels). Hodge (Broadbent). dismal i 60 The dismal situation waste and wild (a) causing dismay. (b) dark, gloomy. dismal

xi 469 many are the ways that lead To his [Death's] grim cave, all dismal; (a) dreadful. (b) ety. dies mali, bad days.

dismayed ii 792 Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, (a) filled with consternation. 'c) average or familiar style (vs. high style of epic). Prince. mighty leading ii 991 That mighty leading angel, (a) 2 adjs. (b) mighty-leading, leading "a numerous host" (993). milky stream

v 306

nectarous draughts between, from milky stream,

(a) fresh water. (b) sweet as milk. Keightley. (c) implying the milk and honey of the Promised Land. Cf. SA, 550: "I drank, from the clear milky juice." Shawcross. (d) fast-moving, churning, and therefore foaming. Frye, p. 16. mind (1) - mind (2) ix 358 (a) (b) (c) *(d)

I should mind thee oft, and mind thou me. (1) admonish, (2), pay heed to. Fowler. watch over. Lockwood. remind. Verity. mention as important mind, n. Evans (Broadbent).

mind ii 212 Not mind us not offending, (a) call to mind, pay attention to. ib) object to.

mold minded

115

ix519

she busied heard the sound Of rustling leaves, but minded not, (a) paid attention. (b) used her mind. (c) proleptic, obeyed.

mindless

ix 431 mindless the while, Herself, (a) unmindful, not regardful. (b) not thinking enough, mentally careless or light, irrational. Cf. "mind", above. Evans (Broadbent).

ministering - minstrelsy an official. Ricks).

vi 167-8 (common ety. L. ministerialis,

ministers of vengeance i 170 But see the angry Victor hath recalled His ministers of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of heav'n; the sulphurous hail (a) the good angels. Richardson. (b) personification of the hail and thunder and lightning of 171 ff. "Semicolon" (1732). See Le Comte, Yet Once More, pp. 144-5. minute IP, 130 With minute drops from off the eaves. (a) falling at intervals of a minute. Warton. (b) small. VC. miscreated ii 683 Thy miscreated front (a) deformed, hideous. (b) miscreant (a word of different ety., as Macmillan noted), evildoer. misthought

ix 289

Thoughts, which how found they harbor in thy breast, Adam, misthought of her to thee so dear? (a) past participle with ref. to "thoughts" (288), erroneously thought. *(b) orig. sp. "missthought": Miss Thought is arguing. (c) n. misjudgment. Hughes.

mold: see mould.

116

Mole

Mole Vac, 95 sullen Mole that runneth underneath, (a) a subterranean river in Surrey. (b) like the animal "that runneth underneath". Gilbert quotes Camden. Moloch i 392 First Moloch, horrid king (a) a god of the Ammonites (396) whose name meant (b) "king". Hume. moment

vi 239

only in his arm the moment lay Of victory; (a) L. momentum, the impulse that should turn the "scale" (245) on the side of victory. OED 3a. Browne. (b) less technically, determining influence. OED 5. Fowler. (c) instant.

monster

SA, 230

That specious monster, my accomplished snare, (a) a person morally deformed. (b) something unnatural. (c) something striking shown as a sign of disaster. Empson, Seven Types, p. 102.

mood

Lyc, 87 SA, 662

That strain I heard was of a higher mood. Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint, (a) the scale or set of sounds in which a piece of music was composed. (b) state of mind as regards passion or feeling. VC; Bush. (Johnson - Mahood, p. 10-deplored such a pun in Antony and Cleopatra, 2.5.1.)

morning star

May, 1

Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,

(a) Lucifer or Venus. (b) the sun. (b) Aurora, the dawn. VC. *Morning of Christ's Nativity, On the (title) (a) first part of the day. (b) mourning, by the pagan spirits over their displacement. Cf. "The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn"

mould (mold)

117

(188). (Empson finds the same pun in Sidney and Keats, Seven Types, pp. 37-8,216.) mortal change C, 10 After this mortal change, (a) the passing from life, death, mortal adj. = deadly. (b) the change that comes to mortals, (n.). Trent. (c) human life filled with change. Rolfe. (d) change from mortality to immortality. Verity. (e) birth, change to mortality that befalls the soul when in the Cycle of Birth it is committed to this mortal body. Wright. (f) the dance of life, a round in dancing (OED s.v. change lc). Browne. mortal i 2 whose mortal taste (a) deadly. (b) human (taste by humans). m o r t a l iii 179 against his mortal foe, (a) implacable. (b) death-dealing. Fowler. motion(s)

ii 75 That in our proper motion we ascend ii 191 All these our motions vain, (a) movement(s). (b) parliamentary proposal(s), scheme(s).

motion ii 780 Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes, (a) labor contractions. (b) bowel movement. Broadbent. motion

ix 674

while each part, Motion, each act won audience

(a) gesture. (b) mime or puppet-show. (c) instigation, persuasive force, inclination. Fowler. mould (mold)

Nat 138 earthly mould C, 244 mixture of earth's mould vii 356 ethereal mould; Arc, 73 Of human mould; v321 earth's hallowed mould, (a) material, substance (b) shape, imparted form (figure from casting of metal). VC.

118

mould

mould C, 17 this sin-worn mould (mold). (a) earth, as the material of the human body. (b) the world, the earth. VC. (c) suggestion of decay of organic matter. mould, ethereal ii 139 (a) the soil of Heaven. Cf. vi 473. (b) the "empyreal substance" (i 117) of the angels. Tillyard. mouths

iv513

what I have gained From their own mouths. (a) in speaking. (b) in eating the forbidden fruit. Cf. 527. Ricks.

mouths, blind Lyc, 119 (a) fig. ignorant gluttons. (b) Gk. tuphlostomon, river mouth choked with silt: shallow of thought and utterance. VC. move UC 2, 2 That he could never die while he could move; (a) be animated. (b) be a carrier ("still jog on", 4). move

iii 37

thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers, (a) trans, inspire. (b) with comma after "move", are active. "This flicker of hesitation about whether the thoughts move only themselves, or something else, makes us see that the numbers aren't really 'something else' but are the very thoughts themselves, seen under a new aspect; the placing of 'move', which produces the momentary uncertainty about its grammar, ties together 'thoughts' and 'numbers' in a relation far closer than cause and effect." Davie, in Kermode, p. 73.

moving

vii 206 Heav'n opened wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound On golden hinges moving, (a) intrans., nominative absolute with "sound", in motion. (b) trans, with "sound" as the object, causing. (What does the moving: "heaven", or "gates"?) Lewis, p. 46. (c) intrans. modifies "hinges": on moving golden hinges. Chatman, p. 1389.

mystery

119

moving SA, 102 Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave, (a) living. (b) distressing, inspiring compassion. Davis. much revolving

iv 31

Then much revolving, thus in sighs began: (a) with "much" as adv., greatly twisting and turning (inwardly as outwardly). (b) with "much" as n., object of "revolving" (L. multa volvens), pondering many things. Le Comte.

mused ix 744 thus to herself she mused: (a) pondered. (b) acted as a muse (though without divine inspiration). Evans (Broadbent). muttering thunder

ix 1002

Sky loured and, muttering thunder, some sad drops (a) absolute construction, while the thunder muttered. (b) trans, the "sad drops", representing the clouds from which they fell, muttered the thunder. Tillyard.

mutual C, 741 mutual and partaken bliss, (a) shared. (b) sexually intimate. VC. See Le Comte, "Sly Milton", p. 9. my own PR 4,191 offer... Tome my own, (a) my own kingdoms. (b) the kingdoms you have offered me for my own. Carey (E. M. Pope). mysterious C, 130 mysterious dame, (a) of obscure origin. (b) worshipped with religious rites or mysteries. VC. mysterious

iv312

Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed;

(a) not well known. (b) pertaining to the mystery or ceremony of matrimony. mystery C, 785 The sublime notion and high mystery (a) beyond Comus' comprehension. (b) only for the initiated. Shawcross.

120

mystic/Addenda

mystic ix 442 not mystic, (a) mythical. Contrast "feigned" (439). Hume. (b) allegorical. OED1. Ricks.

ADDENDA

midriff

xi 445 Whereat he inly raged, and as they talked, Smote him into the midriff with a stone That beat out life; (a) the diaphragm. (b) anatomical area chosen by Milton because "Abel" has the ety. breath. Wilson, pp. 9-10.

motions

SA, 1382 I begin to feel Some rousing motions in me (a) impulses, incitement. (b) emotions. Tayler, p. 121. (c> the operation of divine grace. Ibid., cf. xi 91.

nation from one . . . man xii 113

A nation from one faithful man to spring.

(a) nation founded by. (b) ety. of Abraham, "father of many nations" (Gen. 17.5). neat Son 20, 9 What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, (a) elegant, tasteful. (b) simple, unsuperfluous. VC. neck of crowned Fortune Son 16,5 on the neck of crowned Fortune proud Hast reared God's trophies (a) ref. to goddess Fortuna. (b) ref. to Cromwell's role in the beheading of Charles I. VC. *need

ii 413 Here he had need All circumspection, (a) trans, v. with "circumspection" as object. Macmillan. (b) n. object of "had".

nether

ii 784

Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew Transformed;

(a) lower. (b) neither = without shape. Le Comte, Milton and Sex, p. 72. new-enlightened Nat, 82 The new-enlightened world (a) lit. newly made brighter. (b) fig. recipient of the new gospel or truth. Taylor. nice

C, 139

Ere the blabbing eastern scout, The nice Morn on th'Indian steep, (a) over-fastidious, squeamish. Moody. (b) precise or strict in matters of conduct. VC.

122

nice

nice viii 399 A nice and subtle happiness, I see, (a) fastidious. (b) over-refined, luxurious, wanton. Fowler. night

Son 23,14

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. (a) blindness (escaped in the vision). (b) desolation, emptiness. (c) specifically, bereavement. See G. Pontano as quoted by Spitzer (in Honigmann).

nightly iii 32 Nightly I visit; (a) in the night. (b) every night. (Lockwood lumps together these two meanings.) no less

i 647

our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not; that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe. ( a) no less than if we used force. (b) God shall learn from us, just as we learnt from him by experience. Tillyard.

nocent ix 186 Nor nocent yet, (a) harmful. (b) opposite of innocent: guilty. noise IP, 61 Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, (a) loud confused sound. (b) gay music. Keightley. notion vii 179 So told as earthly notion can receive. (a) intellect, understanding. (b) knowledge (L. nosco, know). Milton Quarterly 10 (1976), 22. numbered viii 19 all her numbered stars, (a) numerous. (b) enumerated, counted, kept count of. Cf. Psalm 147.4: "He telleth the number of the stars". Verity. (c) ref. to the music of the spheres. Wilding, p. 52. See numbers, below.

nursery

123

numbers

iii 580 they move Their starry dance in numbers (a) measures of a dance. Verity. (b) arithmetical computation which allows men to keep calendars. Potter (Broadbent). (c) music (of the spheres). Wilding, p. 52.

numbers

viii421

And through all numbers absolute, though One;

(a) parts. (b) plural, in antithesis to "one". Newton. (c) divine monod contains all other numbers. Fowler. numbers - numbered

UC 2, 7-8

Time numbers motion, yet (without a crime 'Gainst old truth) motion numbered out his time;

(a) (1) numbers: measures. (b) (2) numbered: gave the last measure to. numbers without number iii 346 The multitude of angels with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, (a) countless "multitude". (b) crowd that at the moment did not make music (see "numbers", above) because it was giving out "a shout / Loud". Potter (Broadbent). nun IP, 31 Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, (a) religious recluse. (b) pagan priestess or votaress. VC. nursery (a) (b) (c) (d)

viii 46 bud and bloom, Her nursery; the objects of her nursing. Lockwood. the place where plants are grown, nursery-garden. Ricks. nursing, the activity of fostering and tending plants. Ricks. the only nursery - which might be for children - which she has as yet.

obdurate

vi 790

Or wonders move th' obdurate to relent? They hardened more by what might most reclaim, (a) stubborn, unyielding. (b) "hardened", "stony hearts" (iii 189; xi 4).

object PR 2,163 Such object hath the power to soft'n and tame (a) love object. Lockwood. (b) something put in the way so as to interrupt or obstruct a person's course. Carey. oblige

ix 980 oblige thee with a fact Pernicious to thy peace, (a) tie, drag along, entangle. (b) make guilty. (c) make liable to punishment. Richardson.

oblique iii 564 his oblique way (a) inclined. (b) devious. Elledge. oblivious pool i 266 (a) water of forgetfulness. (b) like the river Lethe (Gk. for forgetfulness; L. oblivio). Hume. obnoxious

ix 170 obnoxious ... To basest things. ix 1094 To shame obnoxious, (a) exposed. (b) repugnant, objectionable. Fowler (for 1094).

obscure SA, 296 If any be, they walk obscure; (a) unknown. (b) in the darkness of ignorance. Shawcross.

offence

125

obsequious

vi 10 at the other door Obsequious darkness enters, (a) L. following. (b) obedient (not servile). Verity. (c) serviceable. Milton Quarterly 10 (1976), 22.

obsequy SA, 1732 With silent obsequy and funeral train (a) funeral service. (b) with L. obsequor meaning to follow, "silent obsequy" comes close to equalling "funeral train". obvious

viii 504 not unsought be won, Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired, (a) bold, forward. Verity. (b) open to influence.

obvious

x 106

Where obvious duty erewhile appeared unsought. (a) standing in the way (ety. obvius, in path "to meet", 103). Verity. (b) plain, palpable (cf. "appeared"). Fowler.

obvious

xi 374 to the evil turn My obvious breast, arming to overcome (a) deliberately exposed. Hughes. (b) opposing, going against. Keightley.

occasion PR 3,174 They themselves rather are occasion best (a) opportunity. (b) reason, cause. Carey. ocean C, 976 To the ocean now I fly, (a) the great sea, the main. (b) the celestial sphere: the islands, stars, and planets. Carey. (See, further, VC.) of

PR 4,32

of whose banks On each side an imperial city stood, (a) normal word order is inverted: "On each side" "Of whose banks". (b) off (emendation by Masson).

offence v34 But of offence and trouble, (a) transgression. (b) occasion of doubt. Fowler.

126 offend(ed) offend(ed)

i 187 Consult how we may henceforth most offend x 488 he thereat Offended, (a) L. offendere, hit, harm. (b) annoy, vex. Elledge. Tillyard.

officiate viii 22 merely to officiate light Round this opacous earth, (a) supply. (b) perform divine service. Ricks. officious PR 2,302 With granted leave officious I return, (a) L. officiosus, eager to please. (b) interfering. oil

Pas, 16

He, sov'ran Priest, stooping his regal head, That dropped with odorous oil down his fair eyes, (a) anointing of the High "Priest" (also some kings: cf. "regal") as the "type" of Christ. Ex. 29.7; Lev. 16.32. VC. ib) anointing of Christ himself just before the last Passover (Matt. 26.7). VC. Christ, as Milton pointed out in Christian Doctrine, I.v, is Gk. for anointed. Carey.

ominous C,61 this ominous wood, (a) of doubtful or menacing aspect. VC. (b) dangerous. Warton. (c) full of portents or magical appearances. Verity. opacous iii 418 the firm opacous globe (a) lying in shadow, darkened. (b) impermeable to light, solid. Holmes. operation

ix 1012 that false fruit Far other operation first displayed. (a) influence, action (of the fruit). (b) vital process (in Adam and Eve). Fowler.

Ophion x 581 (a) A Titan. (b) "serpent" (580). Hume. Ophiucus ii 709 (a) Gk. "serpent-holder" (Hume), which is (b) what Death is. and is acting as. Rajan, p. 120.

original

127

Ophiusa

x 528 the isle Ophiusa; (a) Mediterranean "isle". (b) Gk. "full of serpents". Hume.

opportune ii 396 opportune excursion (a) well-timed. (b) originally, of a wind driving to port, portus. Cf. "excursion" and "re-enter" (397). Ricks. opposite vi 128 Forth stepping opposite, (a) facing. (b) as an opponent. Ricks. or ere Nat, 86 Or ere the point of dawn, (a) before (a reduplication). (b) or e'er, or ever, before ever. Rolfe. organs iv802 The organs of her fancy, (a) functionally adapted parts of the body. (b) instruments. Fowler. orient

i 546

banners rise into the air With orient colors waving; with them rose iv 644 he spreads His orient beams, vi 524 fair morn orient in heav'n appeared, (a) bright. (b) L. orior, rising. Cf. "rise" (i 545) and "rose" (i 546): "rose" (vi 525).

orient

iii 507 sparkling orient gems vii 254 orient light xi 205 morning-light More orient v2 Morn . . . sowed the earth with orient pearl, (a) bright. (b) Eastern or from the East. Fowler, Broadbent.

original

i 592 his form had not yet lost All her original brightness (a) that belonged at the beginning. (b) pertaining to its origin, i.e. God. Ricks.

128 original original

xi 424 thy original crime xii 83 thy original lapse (a) initial, first. (b) causative. Cf. "spring from thee" (xi 425).

original (1667 reading, originals, restricted to meaning (c)) ii 375 shall curse Their frail original, (a) origin, derivation. (b) parentage. (c) author, progenitor. Fowler. orisons v 145 Their orisons, each morning duly paid (a) morning prayers. (b) association with orient (cf. 2, 175, and ii 399; vi 524), the east, morning's source. MacCaflrey (Broadbent). Orphean iii 17 th'Orphean lyre (a) of Orpheus, the mythical singer. (b) "Stygian" (14), because Orpheus visited Hades or Hell. (c) association with "obscure" (15), "darkness" (16), "dark" (20), and "night" (18), because to Orpheus was attributed a Hymn to Night. Ricks. oughly-headed (orig. sp.) C, 695 oughly-headed monsters? (a) ugly-headed. (b) oaf-headed or elf-headed. Skeat. our

ii 1001 (emended by Pearce, 1733, to "your"; see Adams, pp. 98-9)

outlandish PR 4,125 Outlandish flatteries? (a) foreign. (b) extravagant. Lockwood. over-exquisite C,359 be not over-exquisite (a) excessively exact. (b) unduly sensitive. VC. overthrown

UC, 4 He's here stuck in a slough, and overthrown. (a) lit. thrown down. (b) fig. "got. . . down" (6) by Death. Holmer.

owing overture

129

vi 562 if they like Our overture, (a) peace offer, opening of negotiations for a settlement. (b) aperture, hole - the "bore" (485) or "hideous orifice" (577) of the cannon. Fowler. (c) opening up of ranks to reveal cannon. Hume.

owe ix 1141 The faith they owe; (a) possess. (b) are under obligation to render. Fowler. owing

iv56

a grateful mind By owing owes not, (a) being under obligation to repay. (b) acknowledging, owning up to. Fowler.

V pain-pines

iv511

(combines "plained", 504; Wilding, p. 28).

pains i 147 Strongly to suffer and support our pains, (a) physical sufferings. (b) punishment (L. poena, penalty). (c) efforts. pale: see Cloysters. pampered

v 214

reached too far Their pampered boughs, (a) too luxuriant. Verity. (b) overindulged. Fowler. (c) Fr. pampre, vine-branch full of leaves. Newton.

Pan iv 266 universal Pan, (a) god of nature. (b) Gk. all ("universal"). Hume. Pandemonium

i 756 At Pandemonium, the high capitol Of Satan and his peers x 424

(a) "city and proud seat / Of Lucifer" (x 424-5). (b) Gk. "all the demons", take-off on Pantheon, "all the gods", Roman temple. Masson. Pandora

iv 714

More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods Endowed with all their gifts, (a) the first woman in Greek mythology (Hesiod), type of Eve. (b) Gk. ety. "all. . . gifts". Hume.

Panope Lyc, 99 Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. (a) one of the fifty Nereids (sea nymphs). (b) Gk. "all-seeing" (irony that she did not see Lycidas, was among those that "knew not of his story," 95). Patterson.

peace

131

Paradise iv 132 Paradise . . . with her enclosure green (a) abode of Adam and Eve. (b) Persian ety. "enclosure". OED. part

i 645

our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile, (a) plan of action. (b) acting role (cf. "fraud or guile"). Ricks.

part

vi 565 while we discharge Freely our part. (a) share, obligation. (b) conflict between two parties. Ricks.

part (a) (b) (c)

ix 673 Stood in himself collected, while each part, part of the body. dramatic role. moral act. Fowler.

partial ii 552 Their song was partial, (a) biased in their favor. (b) in parts, polyphonic. Fowler. (c) "confined to few and inferior topics - those relating to war." Boyd. parting Nat, 186 The parting Genius is with sighing sent; (a) going away, departing. (b) parted, separated from. VC. passing fair xi 717 where passing fair Allured them; (a) surpassing beauties. (b) women passing by. Fowler. path to heaven, like the C, 303 It were a journey like the path to heav'n To help you find them. (a) difficult. Browne. (b) blissful. Verity. (c) a pilgrim's progress (ironical). Brooks and Hardy. peace

vi 560 how we seek Peace and composure, (a) cessation of hostilities. (b) piece of artillery (OED 11).

132 peace, in peace, in

Son 17,14 Religion leans In peace, (a) in peacetime. (b) adverbial, peacefully. Hodge (Broadbent).

peal, a SA, 235 vanquished with a peal of words (a) volley. (b) appeal. Bullough, p. 59. pearl v 2 sowed the earth with orient pearl, (a) drops of dew. (b) light (in the east). MacCafirey (Broadbent). peculiar v 15 Shot forth peculiar graces; (a) its own. (b) unique, special. peeling PR 4,136 Peeling their provinces, (a) pillaging. Cf. History ofBritain, Works, X, 27. (b) correct association with peeling bare. peering

Nat, 140 hell itself will pass away, And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. (a) prying. Warton. (b) appearing, making its first appearance. Dunster-Todd. *(c) equalizing (peer). Shawcross.

penal i 48 penal fire, (a) in punishment, as a penalty. (b) giving pain. Prince. pendent ii 1052 This pendent world, (a) hanging, suspended. (b) "golden chain" (1051) suggests that the universe is like a beautiful jewel or pendent liable to be stolen. Ricks. * pendent iv 239 With mazy error under pendent shades (a) overhanging. (b) the "shades" of death impend, because of "error" (q.v.). Fowler. penetration

iii 585 that gently warms The universe, and to each inward part With gentle penetration, though unseen, Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep:

perplexed

133

(a) the act of penetrating or piercing. (b) sexual act. Cf. Hume after "deep" (586): "by the Suns Prolifick Rays, its Briny Bosom is warm'd, and its vast Womb enlivened". Cf. v 300 ff. perdition i 47 To bottomless perdition, (a) destruction. (b) L. perdere, loss (unable to be found: cf. "bottomless"). perfectly Time, 15 perfectly divine, (a) totally. (b) having achieved the end for which it was made. Nellist. performance x 502 Ye have th' account Of my performance; (a) deed, achievement. (b) acting in the theatrical sense. Evans (Broadbent). period xii 467 So spake th' Archangel Michael, then paused, As at the world's great period; (a) the six thousand years that the world will endure. (b) mark of punctuation calling for a pause. (A semicolon in the original printing.) permission ix 378 Eve Persisted; yet submiss, though last, replied: With thy permission then, and thus forewarned, (a) liberty granted, leave, consent. (b) play on sounds and syllables: "resolves the tension between persisted and submiss in 377. We can also hear a foreboding hiss." Evans (Broadbent). pernicious vi 520 pernicious with one touch to fire. vi 849 shot forth pernicious fire (a) destructive (per+nex). (b) quick (pernix). Newton. perplexed C, 37 (a) entangled. (b) uncertain. perplexed

iv 176

the perplexed paths of this drear wood,

the undergrowth . . . had perplexed ... All path of man (a) tangled, interwoven. (b) bewildered, puzzled.

134

persevere

persevere vii 632 persevere upright. (a) remain steadfastly. (b) theol. persist in a state of grace until succeeded by a state of glory. Fowler. persisted - submiss - permission: see permission, above. person ii 110 A fairer person lost not heav'n; (a) individual, angel. (b) bodily form. Cf. Son 23,11. Lockwood. (c) L. persona, mask. On syntax, see heaven. personating

PR 4, 341

so personating Their gods ridiculous, (a) presenting, impersonating. (b) "loudest sing" (339) through a mask (persona).

perverse vi 562 turn not back perverse; (a) unreasonably rejecting. (b) lit. turned the wrong way (i.e. showing the "back"). perverted x 3 He in the Serpent had perverted Eve, (a) corrupted. (b) specifically, turned from a religious belief. Ricks. pestered C,7 Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, (a) crowded or huddled. (b) clogged, entangled, encumbered. VC. pilot of the Galilean lake Lyc, 109 Last came, and last did go, The Pilot of the Galilean lake; (a) St Peter. (b) Jesus Christ. Hone. pines vi 198 Half sunk with all his pines. (a) species of tree. (b) obs. physical sufferings (OED 2). pitch SA, 169 To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n. (a) depth. Cf. Divorce, Works, III, 492: "sinks him to a low and vulgar pitch of endeavor in all his actions". Verity. (b) degree, angle. Lockwood. (c) throw. (d) sticky dark resin.

pleasure, in *pity - unpitied

135

iv 374,375

To you whom I could pittie thus forlorn Though I unpittied: (a) commiserate, uncommiserated. (b) orig. sp. "pittie," "unpittied" = pit-tie, unpit-tied. Satan, free from the "infernal pit" (i 657; ii 850; iv 965; x 464), intends to tie Adam and Eve to it. Mulder (private communication).

plagues

vi 838 in their souls infixed Plagues; (a) L. plaga, blows, strokes, wounds. (b) afflicting visitation of divine anger, such as was visited on Egyptians. Fowler.

planets, planet-strook x 413 (a) planets stricken by the malign influence of an adverse planet. (b) planets struck by planets. Fowler. *plat ix 456 This flow'ry plat, the sweet recess of Eve (a) plot, small piece of ground. (b) anatomical, plait/pleat = fold, crease. See recess. Evans (Broadbent). * platan iv478 Under a platan; (a) the plane-tree. (b) Platonic. Cf. the ref. to same tree in Phaedrus in Prol. VII, Works, XII, 264. Arnold. playing L'A, 19 Zephyr, with Aurora playing, (a) gambolling, frolicking. (b) "amorous play" (ix 1045). Cf. 21ff.VC. pleased

x 105 I miss thee here, Not pleased, (a) goes with "I", Christ. (b) goes with "thee", Adam. Evans (Broadbent).

pleasure, in

viii 402 wilt taste No pleasure, though in pleasure (a) in the midst of natural delights. (b) in Eden (q.v.) (which means pleasure). Sims, pp. 75-6.

136

pledge

pledge

ii 818 the dear pledge Of dalliance (a) offspring, child. (b) confirmation.

plight IP, 57 in her sweetest, saddest plight, (a) state of mind, mood. (b) plait, something braided or intertwined - the involution of the notes of the nightingale. Keightley. (c) predicament of having been transformed into a nightingale. plight ix 1091 as in bad plight, (a) condition. (b) pleat (the same word), drapery, clothing. Ricks. plight (a) (b) (c) (d)

x 937 her lowly plight, Immovable state of mind. pledge. physical posture of being "at his feet" (911) and "embracing them" (912); modified by "immovable" (q.v.). Fowler. plait of hair ("tresses all disordered", 911) (OED, n, 2).

plumes C, 378 She plumes her feathers (a) preens. (b) prunes. "There is no sense in pluming a plume. Beyond a doubt Milton wrote prunes, and subsequently it was printed plumes to avoid what appeared a contrariety. And a contrariety it would be if the word prune were to be taken in no other sense than the gardener's. We suppose it must mean to cut shorter, but its real significance is to trim, which is usually done by that process. Milton here means to smoothen and put in order, prine [preen] is better." Landor, p. 166. polluted

x 167 him who made him instrument Of mischief, and polluted from the end Of his creation; (a) active v. with "who" as subject. (b) passive participle qualifying "him" the serpent. Tillyard.

Pomona

ix 393

Likest she seemed Pomona when she fled Vertumnus,

pour

137

(a) Roman goddess of fruits and fruit-trees, seduced by minor god Vertumnus, who entered her orchard in disguise. (b) specifically, pomum = apple. Hume. ponders

iv 1001

first he weighed The pendulous round earth with balanced air In counterpoise, now ponders all events,

(a) lit. weighs. (b) weighs up, evaluates. Empson, Milton's God, p. 113. (c) meditates upon. Holmes. pontifical x 313 by wondrous art Pontifical, (a) L. bridge-making. (b) pertaining to the pontiff or pope (pontifex maximus) as connection between earth and hell (cf. "Hellespont," 309, Hell's bridge). Hume. pontifice x 348 near the foot Of this new wondrous pontifice, (a) bridge. (b) priest. Similar ambiguity between thing and person in "foot" (347). Fowler. p o p u l a r SA, 16 Retiring from the popular noise, (a) of the people. (b) liked by the crowd or vulgar. Cf. "feast" (12). p o r t - important xi 8-9 yet their port Not of mean suitors, nor important less (a) the n. = bearing, the way they carry (L. portare) themselves. (b) the adj. = carrying weight (fig.). portentous x 371 (cf. ii 761) this portentous bridge (a) wonderful, prodigious. (b) presaging something horrible (for man). Richardson. possessed i x l l 3 7 I know not whence possessed thee; PR 1, 49 This universe we have possessed, (a) took over. (b) demonic possession (cf. ix 189). Evans (Broadbent); Ricks. • p o u r C, 710 Nature pour her bounties forth (a) produce in abundance. (b) orig. sp. "powr", power (as v.); cf. iii 674.

138

powers

powers

iv 939 my afflicted powers vi 786 to rebellious flight rallied their powers (a) army, troops. (b) physical strength. Hodge (Broadbent) (for vi). (c) one of the orders of angels.

powers

x 34 ye Powers returned x 395 To my associate powers, (a) forces. (b) order of angels. Evans (Broadbent).

practised distances

iv 945

And practised distances to cringe, not fight. (a) worked on developing deferential attitudes, with "cringe". (b) developed their footwork, with "fight". Fowler.

precincts iii 88 in the precincts of light, (a) bounded space. (b) ety. encompassed in early times. Shawcross. precious i 692 the precious bane. (a) highly prized. (b) for which a price (L. pretium) must be paid. Ricks. precipitance vii291 with glad precipitance. (a) headlong hurry. Lockwood. (b) chemical product (cf. 292). (c) precipitation, drops of rain. Shawcross. predicament Vac, 56 To keep in compass of thy Predicament: (a) embarrassing situation. (b) category of Aristotle of which Ens (Being) "is . . . Father" (following note). VC. (c) classification of subject. Shawcross. presbyter

Forcers, 20

New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large. (a) an elder in the Presbyterian Church. (b) same Gk. ety. as "priest". OED.

pressed to death UC 2, 26 As he were pressed to death, (a) punishment of the time. "Such fellons as stand mute, and speake not at their arraignment, are pressed to death by huge weights." Harrison's Description of England, quoted by Carey.

prevention

139

(b) prepared to die. Keightley. (c) hurried to death. presumed

ix 921

Bold deed thou hast presumed, (a) ventured upon. (b) L. praesumere, anticipated, done first. Tillyard.

pretence vi421 Too mean pretence, (a) ambition. (b) pretending. Hodge (Broadbent). pretended C, 326 yet is most pretended. (a) claimed or asserted (to exist). (b) unfounded, false. VC. pretended

x 872

lest that too heav'nly form, pretended To hellish falsehood, snare them. (a) with comma after "form": stretched (L. praetentus), i.e. serving as a screen to, masking. Pearce in Todd. Richardson quotes Of True Religion: "But ecclesiastical is ever pretended to political" (Works, vi, 172). (b) dropping comma after "form" and after "falsehood" (873): assumed (modifying "form").

prevent C, 573 ere my best speed could prevent, (a) hinder. (b) outrun (their meeting). Shawcross. prevented C, 285 Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. (a) forestalled, ("forestalling"). (b) stopped. VC. prevented

Thus saying rose The monarch, and prevented all reply; (a) moved in advance of (praevenio). Cf. "rose". (b) hindered. Macmillan.

prevention

ii 467

vi 129 at this prevention more Incensed, (a) obstacle, hindrance. (b) lit. coming before, advancing. Keightley. (c) anticipation.

140

prickles

*prickles C, 631 (a) thorns.

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,

(b) obs. spots. OED 3. Otten. priest: see Presbyter. prime v 21 we lose the prime, (a) the first hour of the day. (b) the best. (c) first Canonical Hour of the Divine Office. Cf. ix, 201. Fowler. prime v 170 While day arises, that sweet hour of prime, (a) the first hour or period of the day. (b) reminiscent of the Psalm for Monday at Prime, xix 4-6. Fowler. prime v 563 O prime of men, (a) first. (b) best. (c) of pristine freshness and perfection. Fowler. prime ix 395 Ceres in her prime, (a) best time (before the loss of Proserpina). (b) morning of life. Fowler. prime ix 940 Us his prime creatures, (a) first in time. (b) first in value. "Adam has forgotten the angels." Evans (Broadbent). prime, not of the

iii 637

now a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, (a) not very young. Verity. (b) not yet of the prime of life. Fowler. (For a discussion of this difficult word, see Le Comte, Milton's Unchanging Mind, pp. 26-7.) (c) not one of the great Cherubim. Verity.

primrose FI, 2 Soft silken primrose fading timelessly, (a) the flower Primula. (b) "perhaps the Latin prima rosa, first rose, since the primrose is yellow [not necessarily] but this flower has a pink cheek in 6." Hodge (Broadbent).

propound(ed) principles

141

UC 2,10

His principles being ceased, he ended straight. (a) in mechanics or physics, source of motion, moving force. (b) philosophically, motivating forces. (c) L. principium, beginning (contrasting "ended" ).

proclaimer

PR 1,18

Now had the great Proclaimer, with a voice (a) one who makes something known by public announcement. (b) specifically, one who speaks for, i.e. interprets the will of, a god. VC.

proclaiming - believe

xii 407

Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption, and that his obedience Imputed becomes theirs by faith, his merits

Which governs "his merits" (409)? (a) proclaiming: Boyd. (b) believe: Newton. profaned

SA, 377 profaned The mystery of God (a) published. Verity. (b) polluted. Lockwood.

proffer ii 425 So hardy as to proffer or accept (a) volunteer. (b) offer (the voyage) to (Satan). Fowler. prone

iv 353 for the sun Declined was hasting now with prone career (a) L. pronus, sinking. (b) flying swiftly, "hasting". Elledge.

propagated x 729 Is propagated curse. (a) extended. (b) handed down from one generation to another. propound(ed) (a) propose(d).

vi 567 vi 612

What we propound, propounded terms

142

prospective glass

(b) put forward. Ricks. (c) chemically compound(ed). prospective glass

Vac, 71

time's long and dark prospective glass (a) a magic glass for looking into the "future" (72). (b) perspective-glass, the' popular term for the telescope. Le Comte, A Milton Dictionary.

prove: see reproved. Providence C, 329 Eye me, blest Providence, (a) God as exercising care and guardianship. (b) L. providere, to foresee: ref. to "eye" (q.v.). Providence i 25 I may assert Eternal Providence, (a) God's beneficient plan. (b) foresight. Hume. Providence

xii 647

The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; (a) nominative, with "was" (646) supplied. (b) object of "choose" (646). Fowler.

prowess

i 588 beyond Compare of mortal prowess, (a) valor. (b) cognate with proud: the angels show a more than human pride. Ricks.

punctual viii 23 Round this opacous earth, this punctual spot, (a) tiny like a point. (b) exactly timed. Ricks. puny ii 367 The puny habitants; (a) weak, small. (b) Fr. puis ne, born since we were. Hume. purchase

x 579 some tradition they dispersed Among the heathen of their purchase got, (a) prey, i.e. mankind. As Verity pointed out, C, 607, "And force him to return his purchase back" has a first version in the Trinity MS. "And force him to release his new got prey."

pyramid/Addendum

143

(b) "annual" (576) return or rent (OED10). Fowler. (c) acquisition, gain. Lockwood; cf. Tillyard. pure Son 23,9 pure as her mind. (a) clear, unspotted, unsullied. (b) Ety. ref. to Katherine, Milton's second wife: Gk. Katharos, pure. Le Comte, "The Veiled Face of Milton's Wife". purfled C, 995 herpurfled scarf (a) variegated. (b) fringed or embroidered. Todd. purpose viii 337 gracious purpose thus renewed: (a) discourse. (b) proposal. Holmes. pursues

while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. (a) tries to accomplish. Elledge. (b) treats of. Verity. (c) lit. follows (in "flight," 14). Prince.

put down (a) (b) (c) (d)

i 15

UC 2, 20

For one carrier put down to make six bearers. removed from office. destroyed, killed. suppressed. snubbed. VC.

pyramid ii 1013 Springs upward like a pyramid of fire (a) spire. (b) ety. Gk. pur, flame-shape, "of fire". Fowler. (c) pyre. Shawcross.

ADDENDUM

prevent

Son 19, 8

But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies:

(a) stop. (b) L. come before. Tayler, p. 142.