Free The Complete Poetry of John Milton by John Milton Page B

scepter-bearing James?” / No more said, she discerned at once the Thunderer’s commands, / and swift enough before, she puts on strident wings, [205] / and clothes her slender body with variegated feathers; / in her right hand she carries a loud trumpet of Temesan 22 brass. / With no delay, she now oars on her wings through the yielding air, / and seems not content to outrun the swift clouds by her flight; / now the winds, now the horses of the sun she leaves behind her back. [210] / But first, in her usual way, through the English cities / she spreads ambiguous rumors and uncertain whispers; / directly, in clear voice, she divulges the deceits and the detestable / work of treason, and likewise deeds frightful when spoken, / and she adds the authors of the crime, nor, being garrulous, is she silent [215] / about the places prepared for secret ambush; men are stunned by the reports, / and youths as well as maidens and weak old men / tremble, and the significance of such great ruin / has penetrated quickly to every age. / But meanwhile the heavenly Father from on high has compassion [220] / on his people, and thwarts the cruel and daring attempts / of the Papists; the captives are dragged to fierce punishments; / but pious incense and grateful honors are paid to God; / all the happy streets smoke with genial bonfires; / the youthful throng moves in dancing groups: and throughout the whole year [225] / no day occurs that is more celebrated than the fifth of November.
    (
Nov. 1626
)
----
    1 See
El.
1, n. 12. Albion (ll. 27–28), son of Neptune, gave his name to the island and its inhabitants.
    2 Pluto, king of hell and father of the avenging spirits. Acheron and Phlegethon (l. 74) were rivers of hell. Pluto’s likeness to Satan in these lines has been noted by most editors since Warton.
    3 an ancient god of nightly storms, identified with Pluto.
    4 Albion was Killed aiding his brother Lestrygon, who was fighting in Gaul against Hercules, son of Amphitryon’s wife.
    5 a giant, whom Jove struck with a thunderbolt and buried under Sicily; his head lay beneath Mt. Etna, whose eruptions he spewed forth.
    6 a sea-nymph. The Tiber empties into the Tyrrhene Sea through a delta.
    7 That is, Satan arrives in Rome. The Pope, whose tiara consists of three crowns, in procession with other church dignitaries, carried the Host through the streets to St. Peter’s Cathedral on the eve of St. Peter’s Day, June 28.
    8 a mountain in Boeotia. Asopus is a river, and Cithaeron, a range of hills lying nearby.
    9 Night and her brother Erebus (primeval darkness) were the parents of Day. The names of her team were created by Milton.
    10 St. Francis of Assisi.
    11 Elizabeth.
    12 one of Rome’s seven hills.
    13 meaning both a Catholic age (from Mary) and an age of civil war (from Marius, who fought Sulla in 83–82 B.C.).
    14 Memnon, son of the goddess of dawn and Tithonus, was slain by Achilles.
    15 the Pope.
    16 See n. 1. to the poem on the Gunpowder Plot, beginning “Thus did you strive.…”
    17 Psalm ii. 4: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”
    18 Ovid’s description of Fame (
Meta.
, XII, 39–63) furnished most of the details here. She is called a Titaness by Virgil (
Aen.
, IV, 173–87) because she is the daughter of Earth, who is often abused by men (see l. 181). The Tower of Fame seems to stand in Egypt, for Lake Mareotis was in Lower Egypt near Alexandria. However, this may be an error for “Maeotidas undas” (the waters near Lake Maeotis), which lay between Europe and Asia, at the mouth of the Tanais River (Lucan, III, 272–78).
    19 The giants Otus and Ephialtes piled Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa (in Thessaly) in their attempt to overthrow the gods. Mt. Athos was in Macedonia, opposite Lemnos.
    20 Sirius; see
Lycidas
, n. 31.
    21 Jealous Juno had hundred-eyed Argus guard Io after she had been changed into a heifer by Jove.
    22 Temesa, a town in Italy, was famous for copper mines.
Elegia