_Emathian Conqueror_: When Thebes was
destroyed
(B.
Golden Treasury
_Alpheus_: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to
meet the Arethuse.
_Swart star_: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in
ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer.
_moist vows_: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea.
_Bellerus_: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify
Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End.
_The great Vision_:--The story was that the Archangel Michael had
appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name.
Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to
pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the
Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places
in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less
unfamiliar to English ears), are named,--_Namancos_ now Mujio in
Galicia, _Bayona_ north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one
of the _Cies_ Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance
of Vigo Bay.
_ore_: rays of golden light. _Doric lay_: Sicilian, pastoral.
Poem 70.
_The assault_: was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops
of Charles I. reached Brentford. "Written on his door" was in the
original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate
Street.
_Emathian Conqueror_: When Thebes was destroyed (B. C. 335) and the
citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar
to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV.
of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of
Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to
Poetry.
_the repeated air \Of sad Electra's poet_: Amongst Plutarch's vague
stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B. C. took
Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect
produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra
of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity
between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to
them.
Poem 73.
This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy
of, the "pure Simonides. "
Poem 75.
Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with
Wordsworth's great Ode, No. 287.
Poem 76.
