Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 339 



93. such. Used three times more in this stanza and the next. 



94. greet. So Edward Bolton, Sliephcard's Song {England's 

 Helicon, 1600, p. 147): 



Sucli music, heavenly rare, 

 Mine ears (O peers) doth greet. 



95. strook. The past part, in Milton is strook (6), struck (3), 

 struckcn (1). 



96. warbled. Nearly = ' modulated.' There seems to remain in 

 the word something of the notion of trilling like a bird. Cf. IIP. 106 : 



Such notes as warbled to the string. 



voice. This rimes again with noise in Sol. Music 17-18, four or 

 five years later : 



That we on earth, with undiscording voice. 

 May rightly answer that melodious noise. 



Verity quotes Spenser, Rmns of Time 613—4: 



Whilst all the way most heavenly noyse was heard 

 Of the strings, stirred with the warbling wind. 



97. Answering. Singing to the harp or other instrument of music 

 was known from antiquity. CI. Ps. 33. 2; Isa. 23. 16; Amos 6. 5 

 Rev. 5. 8, 9 ; Homer, //. 9. 186, 189 ; 18. 569-572 ; Od. 1. 155 ; 4. 17-18 

 8. 266; 17. 261 3 : Hoin. Hymn to Apollo; Horn. Hymn to Hermes 

 Pans. 10. 7. See P.L. 2. 546 ft. ; 3. 365 ff. ; 4. 680-688 ; 7. 258 ff. ; 

 11. 583; Sol. Music 5-16; Vac. Ex. 37-8. 



stringed. Produced by strings. This is a somewhat bold ex- 

 tension of the meaning implicit in -ed. 



noise. Used for melodious sound from Chaucer to Coleridge. 



98. As. We must either supply Such before Divinely, or else 

 interpret As as nearly a relative pronoun [New. Eng. Diet. s. v., 24). 



all their souls. The whole of each one's soul, rather than the 

 souls of all of them. 



blissful rapture. Somewhat pleonastic. 



took. Cf. Com. 256, 558 ; P.L. 2. 554. See also, for this sense 

 of 'charm or captivate,' Shakespeare, Temp. 6. 1, 313; W.T. 4. 4. 119. 

 100. thousand. For an indefinitel}' large number. So Lye. 135; 

 Sol. Music 12, etc. (see L.). 



102. hollow round. Keightley already explains as ' lunar sphere.' 

 Cf. 125, and P.Z.. 7. 257. 



103. Cynthia's. Cynthia is again used for the moon in // P. 59. 

 seat. Cf. P.L. 1. 785: 'the Moon sits arbitress.' 



