England's Antiphon Part 44

[102] To correspond to that of Christ.

[103] Again a touch of holy humour: to match his Master's predestination, he will contrive something three years beforehand, with an _if_.

[104] The _here_ in the preceding line means _his book_; hence the _thy book_ is ant.i.thetical.

[105] _Concent_ is a singing together, or harmoniously.

[106] Music depends all on proportions.

[107] The diapason is the octave. Therefore "all notes true." See note 2, p. 205.

[108] An intransitive verb: _he was wont_.

[109] The birds called _halcyons_ were said to build their nests on the water, and, while they were brooding, to keep it calm.

[110] The morning star.

[111] The G.o.d of shepherds especially, but the G.o.d of all nature--the All in all, for _Pan_ means the _All_.

[112] Milton here uses the old Ptolemaic theory of a succession of solid crystal concentric spheres, in which the heavenly bodies were fixed, and which revolving carried these with them. The lowest or innermost of these spheres was that of the moon. "The hollow round of Cynthia's seat" is, therefore, this sphere in which the moon sits.

[113] That cannot be expressed or described.

[114] By _hinges_ he means the axis of the earth, on which it turns as on a hinge. The origin of _hinge_ is _hang_. It is what anything hangs on.

[115] This is an apostrophe to the nine spheres (_see former note_), which were believed by the ancients to send forth in their revolutions a grand harmony, too loud for mortals to hear. But no music of the lower region can make up full harmony without the ba.s.s of heaven's organ. The _music of the spheres_ was to Milton the embodiment of the theory of the universe. He uses the symbol often.

[116] _Consort_ is the right word scientifically. It means the _fitting together_ of sounds according to their nature. _Concert_, however, is not wrong. It is even more poetic than _consort_, for it means a _striving together_, which is the idea of all peace: the strife is _together_, and not of one against the other. All harmony is an ordered, a divine strife.

In the contest of music, every tone restrains its foot and bows its head to the rest in holy dance.

[117] _Symphony_ is here used for _chorus_, and quite correctly; for _symphony_ is a _voicing together_. To this symphony of the angels the spheres and the heavenly organ are the accompaniment.

[118] Die of the music.

[119] Not merely _swings_, but _lashes about_.

[120] Full of folds or coils.

[121] The legend concerning this cessation of the oracles a.s.sociates it with the Crucifixion. Milton in _The Nativity_ represents it as the consequence of the very presence of the infant Saviour. War and lying are banished together.

[122] The _genius_ is the local G.o.d, the G.o.d of the place as a place.

[123] The _Lars_ were the protecting spirits of the ancestors of the family; the _Lemures_ were evil spirits, spectres, or bad ghosts. But the notions were somewhat indefinite.

[124] _Flamen_ was the word used for _priest_ when the Romans spoke of the priest of any particular divinity. Hence the _peculiar power_ in the last line of the stanza.

[125] Jupiter Ammon, worshipped in Libya, in the north of Africa, under the form of a goat. "He draws in his horn."

[126] The Syrian Adonis.

[127] Frightful, horrible, as, _a grisly bear_.

[128] Isis, Orus, Anubis, and Osiris, all Egyptian divinities--the last worshipped in the form of a bull.

[129] No rain falls in Egypt.

[130] Last-born: the star in the east.

[131] Bright-armoured.

[132] Ready for what service may arise.

[133] The _with_ we should now omit, for when we use it we mean the opposite of what is meant here.

[134] It is the light of the soul going out from the eyes, as certainly as the light of the world coming in at the eyes that makes things seen.

[135] The action by which a body attacked collects force by opposition.

[136] Cut roughly through.

[137] Intransitively used. They touch each other.

[138] Self-desire, which is death's pit, &c.

[139] _Which_ understood.

[140] How unpleasant conceit can become. The joy of seeing the Saviour was _stolen_ because they gained it in the absence of the sun!

[141] A trisyllable.

[142] His garland.

[143] The "sunny seed" in their hearts.

[144] From _tine_ or _tind_, to set on fire. Hence _tinder_.

[145] The body of Jesus.

[146] Mark i. 35; Luke xxi. 37. The word _time_ must be a.s.sociated both with _progress_ and _prayer_--his walking-time and prayer-time.

[147] This is an allusion to the sphere-music: the great heavens is a clock whose hours are those when Jesus retires to his Father; and to these hours the sphere-music gives the chime.

[148] He continues his poetic synonyms for the night.

[149] "Behold I stand at the door and knock."

[150] A monosyllable.