Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 309 



Fletcher (b. 1582) was a Cambridge man from 1600 till 1616, and 

 gained the reputation of a poet while at the University. The Purple 

 Island, though not printed till 1633, was probably written before the 

 death of Elizabeth, as the references to her in the poem, and 

 Fletcher's characterization of the poems published in 1633 as 'these 

 raw essays of my very unripe yeares, and almost childehood,' 

 sufficiently show. Milton may therefore have read them in manu- 

 script b}^ 1629. Fletcher's master, Spenser, has the word trinal, 

 Hymn of Heavenly Love 57—8 : 



There they in their trinall triplicities 

 About him wait. 



Cf. Dante, Par. 24. 140: 



Credo una essenza si una e si trina. 



12. laid aside. George Herbert has a kind of parallel [Christmas 

 9-10): 



O Thou, whose glorious yet contracted light 

 Wrapt in night's mantle, stole into a manger. 



See note on 17. 



13. courts. Cf. P.L. 5. 889. 



everlasting day. See Rev. 21. 23, 25; 22. 5. 



14. darksome. Hales compares unlightsome, P.L. 7. 355. 

 house of mortal clay. The same expression occurs, according 



to Todd, in The Scourge of Villanie (1598), Bk. 3, Sat. 8. For the 

 currency of the idea in English literature, see my note on 1. 73 of 

 The Dream of the Rood (Oxford, 1905). Verity compares Passion 

 15-17. KM P.P. 4. 599. 



15. Heavenly Muse. Cf. P.L. 1. 6 ; 3. 10 ; 7. 1 ff. 



16. afford. Give, offer (L.). 



present. Cf. dona, El. 6. 87, quoted in note on 19. 



17. Hast thou no verse, no hymn. This may be an indication 

 of an influence exerted upon Milton by George Herbert, in whose 

 Christmas the following lines occur (15—16) : 



The shepherds sing, and shall I silent be? 

 My God, no hymne for thee ? 



Professor Palmer, the editor of Herbert's English works, would date 

 Christmas at least as early as 1628. In a private letter to me (Oct. 

 13, 1908), he says: 'As Christmas appears in this [the Williams] 

 MS., it must have been written in or before 1628. The style, the 

 mention of hunting, and the fact that it celebrates a Church festival, 



