king of Thessaly, for a year, and, during that time, the god used to repair to the cavern of Chiron, the wise and good Centaur, for relaxation.

Page 457, 169. Peneus, a river of Elis.

75. Eta, a pile of mountains south of Thessaly.

7 80. Maia's son, Hermes.

1 94. The Round Table. The poet here and in the following poem intimates a longcherished intention of writing a poem on King Arthur. How he changed his purpose we know, but he left this work to not unworthy hands.

Page 458. Deodati died in Aug. or Sept. 1638, whilst Milton was in Italy. The latter, whilst in ignorance of his loss, wrote the Sonnet at p. 466. He heard of it on his way home.

11. Himera was in Sicily. Theocritus and Moschus, Sicilian poets, sang, one the fates of Daphnis and Hylas, the other that of Bion. 16. Thyrsis, Milton.

737. "Unless, by chance," &c.; alluding to the superstition of the ancients that, if any one was seen by a wolf before the wolf was seen by him, he lost the use of his voice.

Page 459, 43. Pales, Roman god of flocks and sheep.

Page 460, 105. Mopsus, a prophet during the Trojan war. No doubt the poet means some friend here. And so in lines 123-6, he doubtless means some ladies of his acquaintance the last, Chloris, must have lived in Essex; for "the Idumanian current was the river Chelmer.

Page 462, 7 248.

Usa, the Ouse. It is probably the Yorkshire river which the poet means

Page 463, 249. The Alne, by Alnwick. 1250. Abra, the Humber.

7 256. He means that, whilst he was abroad, he used to please himself by thinking how he would recite these heroic verses to his friend on their reunion. But the exact meaning of the original is not very clear :

"Hæc tibi servabam lenta sub cortice lauri;
Hæc, et plura simul."

Does it not mean, "in my laurel-crowned head"?-he having been admitted as a poet. 7 258. Manso had given these two cups after the reception of Milton's Poem to him.

Page 464. Dr. John Rouse, Librarian of the Bodleian, 1620-5.

71. "Twofold." He published his poems in 1645, half English, half Latin, with separate title-pages.

75. Milton himself.

10. Daunian, Italian.

Z 17.

From London to Oxford, near which the Thames and Isis join.

Page 465, 160. Ion, son of Creüsa, daughter of Erectheus, king of Attica. Ion was reared at the Temple of Delphi, and on being grown up was made treasurer thereof.

Pages 466-67, 1st Sonnet. "The Rhine." This is a mistake of the translator. The river spoken of is the Reno, which flows past Bologna. Nothing is known concerning the lady, or ladies, who inspired the tender feelings described in these Sonnets.

Milton found, not long after this, that at the time when he wrote his Sonnet to Deodati, his friend was dead. See note on p. 458, 1. On Vincent Bourne, see note

Page 472.

on p. 172.

Page 473, 13. "Inherent," sticking in. Used, therefore, in the sense of the Latin word from which it is derived.

/ 15. "Sanious blood," the thin serous blood which runs from a wound.

There is probably no need to give the answers to the enigmas.

Page 478. Denner's Old Woman. The picture was exhibited for a long time in Westminster Hall.

Page 481, 21. "Heaven-born," being the son of Venus and Anchises.

137. Pallas, king of Arcadia, great grandsire of Evander. The latter, son of the nymph Carmentis ( 383), migrated to Italy sixty years before the Trojan war.

Page 482, 57. "Dipped his palms," i.e. offered a libation.

Page 483, 99. Alcides, Hercules, grandson of Alcæus.

133. Atrida, Agamemnon and Menelaus.

Page 484,154. Daunia, part of Apulia; so called from Daunus, the ancestor of Turnus, now rival of Aneas for the hand of Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king, Latinus.

/ 168. Hesione and Priam were the only children of Laomedon who survived the capture of Troy. Hesione married Telamon, king of Salamis.

Page 486, 297. Sooty jaws," because Hercules, by squeezing his throat, had put the flames out.

Page 488, 396. "Egis." Jupiter's shield. In the middle of it was the Gorgon head, and it was bordered with golden tassels.

Z II. Page 493, "This remote," &c.; viz. Tomi, on the Euxine Sea, whither he was banished by Augustus.

/ 48. Perillus was the inventor of the brazen bull in which Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, burnt his victims alive. Perillus is said to have been the first to perish by his own invention.

Page 497: "John Owen, Latin poet and epigrammatist, 1560-1622." (Hole's Biographical Dictionary.) Nothing good, and hardly tolerable, in a poetical sense, had appeared in Latin verse among ourselves till this period. Owen's Epigrams (Audoeni Epigrammata), a well-known collection, were published in 1607. Unequal enough, they are sometimes neat, and more often witty; but they scarcely aspire to the name of poetry." (Hallam's Literary History, iii. 277.)

Page 498. There are several stories which illustrate the first two pieces. One will suffice. At the battle of Thermopyla, two Spartans were absent, sick. But when one of them heard that the struggle was begun, he hastened thither, sick as he was, and fell fighting. The

Page 507.

Epicharmus, the first Greek comic writer, B. C. 480.

The Theban bard, Pindar.

For the original of the "Epigram of Homer," see Herodotus, Vita Homeri: Oxford Pocket Classics.

Page 508. The names Syntrips, Smaragus, Sabactes, signify, "Smasher, Crasher, Dasher." They were lubber-fiends, who broke all the pots in the kitchen.

Philemon, an Athenian comic poet B.C. 330. Page 509. Moschus, of Cyracuse, a pastoral poet.

Page 510. "The Hare and many Friends," Gay, i. 50. (Anderson's Poets, viii. 364.) "The Miser and Plutus," Book i. 6 (Anderson 347). Page 511. The two first lines only of "The Butterfly and Snail" (i. 24):—

"All upstarts, insolent in place,
Remind us of their vulgar race."