695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is
radically connected with _awe_.
698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt
_visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is
to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672
and 700, denotes _by means of_.
700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by
catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to
_lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three
words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless)
and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet
root.
702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has
usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_
in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line
'offer' = the thing offered.
703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has
borrowed from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, +Kakou gar andros dôr' onêsin ouk
echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton).
704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a
rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former
controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv.
439).
707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool
dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts,
etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is
tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a
doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of
_sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole
phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.'
It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses
of 'budge.'
708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt
for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of
the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and
was fond of calling himself +ho kyôn+ (the dog).