Nofes on Milton s Nativity Ode. 311 



21. spangled. Cf. P.L. 7. 383—4: 'thousand thousand stars, . . . 

 spangUng the hemisphere ' ; Com. 1003, ' far above in spangled sheen ' 

 (where L. interprets spangled as ' set with stars '), and Lye. 170—1, 

 of the day-star, ' with new-spangled ore Flames in the forehead of 

 the morning sk3^' Cf P. Fletcher, Purple Island 7. 1— 2 : 



The rising morn lifts up his orient head, 

 And spangled heav'ns in golden robes invests. 



Grosart remarks that ' spangled ' is a frequent word with Fletcher. 

 host. Milton imparts great beauty to his poem by stimulating 

 the reader's imagination to conceive of the stars as animate ; cf 69 ff., 

 125 ff., 240 ff. While he generally uses host for an army or multi- 

 tude of men or angels, yet he has ' starry host,' P.L. 4. 606 : 



Hesperus, that led 

 The starry host, rode brightest. 



Of Satan, in his character as Lucifer, it is said (5. 708—10) : 



His countenance, as the morning-star that guides 

 The starry flock, allured them, and with lies 

 Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host, 



where there is an evident allusion to Rev. 12. 4, ' drew the third 

 part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth,' while 

 Milton as evidently by ' Heaven's host ' means angels. 

 Again, the dance of the angels is {P.L. 5. 620 ff.) a 



Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere 



Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels 



Resembles nearest ; mazes intricate, 



Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular 



Then most when most irregular they seem ; 



And in their motions harmony divine 



So smooths her charming tones that God's own ear 



Listens delighted. 



It is by such approximations as these that Milton conveys the 

 sense of an interchangeability between the host of stars and the 

 host of angels — in either case the host of heaven. In P.L. 1. 635, 

 * be witness all the host of Heaven,' it is difficult to tell which is 

 meant. Satan can hardly be appealing to the legions of unfallen 

 spirits, nor is he likely to call his own associates the host of Heaven, 

 since he has just said that their exile had emptied Heaven, and a 

 moment after speaks of Him ' who reigns Monarch in Heaven ' — 



