Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 335 



So axis /ervrns, Seneca, Here. CEt. 1523; axis incensns, ib. 1387; 

 axis Jlamniifcr, Statins, Silv. 4. 3. 136, etc. 



The commentators quote the 'glowing axle' of Com. 96. 



85. lawn. Grass-land, pasture, as probably in LAI. 71 ; not 

 ' open space between woods,' with L. and New Eng. Diet. The 

 latter does not quote our sense before 1674, but it must have oc- 

 curred earlier. Hales and Verity have 'pasture.' 



86. Or ere. This spelling, for or e'er, ' before ever,' occurs sev- 

 eral times in Shakespeare: Tetnp. 1. 2. 11; 5. 103; Lear 2. 4. 289, 

 etc. In Shakespeare it is always a conjunction, like or ever in the 

 Bible: Eccl. 12. 6; Song of Songs 6. 12, etc. Here Milton makes 

 it a preposition, apparently because of inattention to the Shake- 

 spearean usage. Or is a parallel form to ere, ' before ' ; instances of 

 the simple or in this sense are : (1553) J. Wilson, R/iet. 108 : ' Wil 

 you drink or you go, or wil you go or you drinke ? ' ; Shake- 

 speare, Cymb. 2. 4. 14. 



Milton seems to forget that the earth is covered with snow. 

 point. ' The point of day ' occurs in English as early as the 

 middle of the 15th century, being imitated from the French. We 

 still say ' at the point of death.' 



87. Sate. So in the first edition. 



simply. L. 'artlessly, guilelessly,' comparing P.L. 12. 569. 

 In P.L. 12. 365, we have 



simple shepherds, keeping watch by night. 



rustic. This seems otiose, except for purposes of metre and 

 alliteration. Jebb translates by ' ordine rustico.' 



88. than. The Old English Qcenne entered modern English as 

 both then and than in both senses ; hence the confusion in many of 

 our older writers. Shakespeare has than, for instance, in Liicr. 1440 : 



their ranks began 

 To break upon the galled shore, and than 

 Retire again. 



Milton seems to use the form nowhere else. 



89. Pan. The idea comes ultimately from Ps. 23. 1 ; 80. 1 ; Isa. 

 40. 11: John 10. 11; Heb. 13. 20; 1 Pet. 2. 25; 5. 4. The Good 

 Shepherd is a familiar figure in early Christian art. ' From the second 

 to the fourth century it was beyond comparison the most favorite 

 representation of Christ' (Lowrie, Monuments of the Early Church, 

 p. 2l7j. Abercius, a bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia toward the 

 close of the second century, composed an inscription for his tomb, in 



