Notes oil Milton's Nativity Ode. 321 



Sidney Lee's article on Chapman's Amoi'ous Zodiackc, in Mod. Phil. 

 3. 143-58). 



lusty paramour. In his Classical Mythology of Milton's English 

 Poems, p. 13, Osgood says: 'This suggests the story of the new 

 creation after the flood by the cooperation of Earth and Sun (Ov. 

 Met. 1. 416 ff.; cf. Milt. Eleg. 5. oof.).' Milton may have obtained 

 a hint from Giles Fletcher, Chrisfs Victory and Tfiuniph : 



As when the cheerful sun, clamping wide. 

 Glads all the world with his uprising ray, 

 And ivoos the widoweed earth afresh to pride, 

 And paints her bosom with the flowery May. 



See also P. Fletcher, Purple Island 6. 403—4. At the beginning of 

 Sidney's Arcadia we have : ' It was in the time that the Earth begins 

 to put on her new apparel against the approach of her lover.' 

 Davies, Orchestra 39. 1—2, has : 



For that brave Sun, the Father of the Day, 

 Doth love the Earth, the Mother of the Night. 



Cf. also Dracontius, De Laud. Dei 326—7 : 



Tellus, 

 Solis amica nimis. 



Perhaps the earliest authority is Anaxagoras, as quoted by Aris- 

 totle, De Plantis 1. 2 (817 a. 27—8): xcd dw tovto erfr, nQo^ Aexi^f^op 

 on T] yfj f^T,Ti]Q (U£*' £oti Twf ifivTwi', o (fs r]hog ncarJQ. On the earth as 

 bride (of heaven or the ether) cf. Virgil, G. 2. 325—7, with Conington's 

 notes; Lucr. 1. 250; 2. 992; 5. 313, with Munro's notes; Euripides, 

 fr. 488 and 836 (Nauck). 



37. fair. Perhaps with a slight suggestion of mere plausibility. 

 Cf. Com. 160 ff.; PR. 2. 301. 



38. woos. Cf. Sonn. 13. 13. 



gentle. Jebb renders by ' obedientem.' 



39. guilty front. Cf. S.A. 496: 



The mark of fool set on his front ! 



innocent snow. Shakespeare associates the notion of jDurity or 

 chastity with snow: Temp. 4. 1. 55; Coriol. 5. 3. 66; Tim. 4. 3. 386; 

 Macb. 4. 3. 53 ; Cymb. 2. 5. 13 ; Haml. 3. 1. 140. The Bible employs 

 the figure in Ps. 51. 7 ; Isa. 1. 18 ; Matt. 28. 3 ; and possibly Rev. 1. 14. 



40. naked shame. Cf. Rev. 3. 18: 'I counsel thee to buy of me 

 . . . white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame 

 of thy nakedness do not appear.' See also Mic. 1. 11 ; Rev. 16. 15. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XV. 21 July, 1909. 



