The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (177 page)
Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
1663
river near Damascus
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1664
clear, pellucid, translucent, shining
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1666
Naaman, cured by Elisha, ninth century
B.C
. prophet of Israel, disciple of and successor to Elijah
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1667
Ahaz, king of Judah, eighth century
B.C
.
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1668
i.e., Rimmon’s
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1669
stupid, foolish
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1672
Osiris was husband to Isis; Horus (Orus) was their son
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1673
tricked, deceived, imposed upon
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1674
produced, made up
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1675
linked to Apis, the sacred bull of Egypt
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1676
Horeb: the mountain where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments; the Israelites waiting below demanded an idol to worship and Aaron, taking their gold jewelry, melted it and made them a golden calf
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1677
Jeroboam, king of Judah, 930–910
B.C
., made not one but two golden calves for his people to worship
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1678
holy site, north of Jerusalem
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1679
holy site in far northern Palestine
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1680
“They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molten [golden] image,/Thus they changed their glory [i.e., God] into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.” Psalm 106:19–20
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1681
by extension, the Israelites
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1683
“For I [the Lord] will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.” Exodus 12:12
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1684
“wickedness”
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1685
monstrous, flagrant
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1686
see I Samuel 2:12–17
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1687
(1) lecherous, unchaste, outrageous, (2) given to luxury
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1688
debauchery, dissipation, extravagance, loose living, etc.
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1689
wrongful treatment, violation of another’s rights
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1690
intemperance, excess, violent/disorderly behavior
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1691
a common Puritan insult, borrowed from the Hebrew
bene Belial,
“sons of Belial”
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1693
a city in the Jordan plain, destroyed by God because of its wickedness
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1694
see Judges 19:22–30
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1696
married woman (though in fact the woman was a concubine)
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1697
i.e., homosexual rape of a man
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1700
celebrated, famous
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1701
Javan = Ion: his issue were the Ionian (western Asia Minor) Greeks
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1702
admitted, acknowledged
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1703
Uranus’ oldest son, Saturn’s older brother
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1704
Saturn, overthrown by Jove
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1705
Uranus’ daughter, Cronus’ wife
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1706
like measure = equal treatment
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1707
Mount Ida (in Crete)
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1708
mountain in Thessaly: the gods’ home
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1709
true heaven is the highest; the middle air is for demons—and for the Greek gods, according to Milton; in the lower air is the earth (and Hades underneath it)
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1710
or = whether
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1711
the oracle of Apollo at Delphi
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1712
the oracle of Zeus at Dodona
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1713
boundaries, limits
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1714
Doric land = southern Greece
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1715
the Adriatic Sea
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1716
western, Italian
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1717
i.e., Britain and Ireland
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1722
uncertain, unsettled
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1726
immediately
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1727
a form of trumpet, shrill-sounding
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1729
banner, flag
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1730
in Judaism, the very personification of impurity, an archdemon
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1732
presented, put forward
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1733
vault, hollow
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1735
brilliant, sparkling, radiant, lustrous
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1737
pressed close together
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1739
close-packed battle array, sixteen-man-deep square, perfected by the Romans
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1740
mode, scale
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1741
wooden flutes, not held transversely, as is the flute properly so called
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1742
composure, state of mind
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1744
mollify, appease
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1745
assuage: soften, pacify
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1746
bristling, frightful
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1747
battle line
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1748
fearfully/exceedingly long
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1750
semblance, external appearance
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1752
lay on, give
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1754
passing across, side to side (in ranks) rather than front to back (in files)
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1757
swells, expands
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1758
(1) actual, concrete, (2) joined in one group/body
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1759
mentioned (for purposes of comparison)
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1760
be entitled to, be deserving of
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1761
i.e., any more than
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1762
pygmies: the battle is in Homer’s
Iliad,
III:1–5; Milton returns to it in lines 780–81, below
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1763
in Chalcidice, where the giants warred with the gods
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1764
part of the Oedipus story: see Aeschylus,
The Seven Against Thebes
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1767
echoes, rings
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1768
King Arthur
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1769
surrounded by
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1770
of Brittany
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1771
knightly combat (pronounced “justed”)
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1772
castle near Nice, where Charlemagne fought
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1773
Rinaldo’s castle: see Ariosto,
Orlando Furioso
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1774
Damascus, where Moslem and Christian knights jousted, in
Orlando Furioso
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1775
Morocco (city): see footnote 396, below
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1776
on the southern coast of the Black Sea
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1777
Bizerta, in Tunisia, like Morocco a famous site of knightly tournaments
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1778
in
La Chanson de Roland,
it is Roland rather than Charlemagne who dies at Roncevaux, not far from Fontarabbia
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1779
with (merely)
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1780
revered, feared
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1781
ominous, ill-boding
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1782
sprinkles, lets fall on, pours out, drops
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1783
confuses, makes uncertain
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1785
deliberate, prudent
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1787
partners, colleagues
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1788
fate, destiny
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1790
blast/scorch/sear with fire/heat
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1791
noble, majestic, imposing
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1792
blighted, withered
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1793
tried, attempted
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