88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is
skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most
likely to be at hand should any emergency arise.
92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing";
_Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian
word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless
winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the
formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_,
'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also
l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of
'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from
Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a
crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a
beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by
the _rout_ that made the hideous roar."
93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the
planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by
Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer,
the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion:
"Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,...
Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."--
_In Memoriam_, cxxi.
Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of
eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic.
94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._
31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink
towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky,
and on comes Night from the ocean."
95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot.
Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and
"Phoebus' wain," line 190.
96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton
alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482,
"Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion
of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was
accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would
thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_
occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_,
i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes'
dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until
the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter
pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to
confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_
gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century,
it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its
place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and
other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc.
97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great
_stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing
Okeanos (+bathyrroos+)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase
'the high seas.'
98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays
visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as
an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31).