Notes on Milton's Nativity Ode. 353 



Long-grassed, and poplars in a ring, 

 To rest me by the brink ! 



poplar pale. Probably the abele, white poplar, or silver poplar. 

 In the passages cited from the Greek, it is the black poplar 

 (yiysiQos) that is named, the silver poplar being axsQwig, or (post- 

 Homeric) '^6vxr,. For the white poplar, cf. Virgil, Eel. 9. 41 ; ^n. 8. 

 276; Horace, Od. 2. 3. 9; Ovid, Her. 9. 64. On the fondness of 

 the poplar for water, see Ovid, Met. 5. 590; Rem. Am. 141. 



186. genius. Tutelary divinity; cf. Arcades 44 ff. Jebb renders 

 by ' Faunas.' 



187. flower-inwoven tresses. Cf. TibuUus 3. 6. 63—4 ; Ovid, F. 

 5. 217-220. 



Hales sa3's : ' This is a favorite arrangement of words with Milton.' 

 See " beckoning shadows dire," " eivery alley green," " thick and 

 gloomy shadows damp," &c. &c.' 



torn. Lucian testifies to the tearing of the hair in sign of 

 gx'iei (Of Mourning 12): 'Men and women alike weep and rend 

 their hair and lacerate their cheeks ' ; cf. Ezra 9. 3. 



188. mourn. Nymphs are represented as howling in ^n. 4. 

 168. 



189. consecrated earth. Keightley says the Lars and Lemures 

 , had nothing to do with consecrated earth, by which he [Milton] 

 would seem to mean a churchyard, a thing unknown to the ancients.' 

 Cicero testifies to the recognition of consecrated earth among the 

 Romans, the classic passage being De Legibus 2. 21, 22. The 

 consecration included a sacrifice to the Lar, and the throwing of 

 earth upon the remains. On such consecrated earth {solum reli- 

 giosunt), see also Gains, Inst. 2. 6 ff. Sometimes the tomb bore the 

 inscription: ' Dis Manibus Locus Consecratus ' [C.I.L. 4351). 



Hales says : ' The words in consecrated earth refer to the Lemures ; 

 on the holy hearth, to the Lars.' 



190. holy hearth. Cf. Plautus, Aul. 2. 8. 16: 



Hsec imponentur in foco nostro Lari. 



Pliny, H.N. 28. 20. 81 : 'Focus Larium, quo familia convenit.' Ovid, 

 Pont. 2. 1. 32: 



Jura prius Sanctis imposuisse focis. 



Cf. Ovid, F. 3. 30, 734; 4. 296. 



191. Lars and Lemures. Augustine, Civ. Dei 9. 11, quotes 

 Plotinus as saying that men's souls are deemons, and become Lars 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XV. 23 July, 1909. 



