Notes OH Milton's Nativity Ode. 331 



70. In steadfast gaze. See Kinsman, Lives of the Saints, pp. 557—9 

 (cf. note on 29) : ' The starres that strayed in the midst of heauen, 

 desired to stay, to see that g-reat, and new meruaile. Those starres 

 that were passed, desired to turne back againe : and those, that 

 were behind, desired to hasten their iourne}', to be present at this 

 happie and fortunate houre. All things created, yea nature it selfe 

 stood astonied and amased.' 



Cf. the Apocryphal Protevangel of James, chap. 18: 'And I Joseph 

 . . . looked up into the air, and saw the air violently agitated ; and 

 I looked up at the pole of heaven, and saw it stationary, and the 

 fowls of heaven still. . . . And I saw the sheep scattered, and the 

 sheep stood, and the shepherd lifted up his hand to strike them, 

 and his hand remained up ; and I looked at the stream of the river, 

 and I saw that the mouths of the kids were down, and not drink- 

 ing ; and everything which was being compelled forward was inter- 

 cepted in its course.' 



71. Bending. See, for example, P.L. 2. .354; Ps. 68. 8. 

 precious. See P.L. 9. 106—7 : 



In thee concentring all their precious beams 

 Of sacred influence. 



Cf. P.L. 2. 1034. 



influence. L. defines as ' the power or ■' virtue " exerted by 

 celestial bodies,' and cites P.L. 7. 375; 4. 669; 9. 107; 8. 513; 10. 

 662 ; Com. 336. Hales and Verit}- compare Job 38. 31, and give 

 references to other authors. 



72. will not take their flight. So Claudian represents Nature 

 as in labor at the birth of a new Phoenix, while (P/ia'ii. 60—61) 



Nitidos stupefacta juvencos 

 Luna premit, pigrosque polus non concitat axes ; 



a passage which Tasso has imitated in his Fenice 169—171. 



The ancients, beginning with Homer, refer to an actual or wished- 

 for dela}' or acceleration of the rising or setting of the lights of 

 heaven. Thus, Od. 23. 241, Dawn wovild have come, had not Athene 

 willed otherwise : ' The night she held long in the utmost West, 

 and on the other side she stayed the golden-throned Dawn by the 

 stream Oceanus, and suffered her not to harness the swift-footed 

 steeds that bear light to men.' When Jupiter lies in the arms of 

 Alcmena, he delays the sun : Lucian, Dial. Gods 10 ; H3'ginus, 

 Fab. 29; Seneca, Agam. 814 ff. Cf Ovid. Amor. 1. 13. 2 ff.; Met. 2. 

 149 ff. ; 4. 195 ff". ; Fp. 1. 8, 9 ; Virgil, Fd. 8. 18 ; Seneca, Hipp. 312-6. 



