475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter
because 'imbruted.'
476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the
divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it).
477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish)
and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the
idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat).
478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par.
Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright
_Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair."
479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is
repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838;
_Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426.
482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct
question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It
seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about
the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more
perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, § 325). ~For certain~,
_i.e._ for certain truth, certainly.
483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to
founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the
bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in
a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is
sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very
expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and
have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of
'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.'
484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in
Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near.