was made in the congress of the allies, that the Athenians
should all be sold as slaves; on which occasion Erianthus, the Theban,
gave his vote to pull down the city and turn the country into
sheep-pasture; yet afterwards, when there was a meeting of the captains
together, a man of Phocis singing the first chorus in Euripides' Electra,
which begins,--

"Electra, Agamemnon's child, I come
Unto thy desert home,

they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be a cruel deed to
destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, and produced such
men."

IX (1644).

Who the virtuous young lady was is not known.

2. See the gospel of Matthew VII 13.

5. See Luke X 40-42; Ruth I 14.

8. Note the "identical" rhyme. The effect of such a rhyme is unpleasant.
Modern poets avoid it.

9-14. See Matthew XXV 1-13.

X (1644 or 1645).

Lady Margaret's father was the Earl of Marlborough, who had been
President of the Council under Charles I. Milton attributes his death to
political anxiety caused by the dissolution of Charles's third Parliament
in 1629.

6-8. that dishonest victory at Chaeronea. The victory of Philip over the
Greeks at Chaeronea, B.C. 338, is called by the poet _dishonest_ because
obtained by means of intrigue and bribery. that old man eloquent is the
orator and rhetorician Isocrates, who, in his grief over the defeat of
his countrymen, committed suicide.

9. later born than to have known: too late to have known. _Serius nata
quam ut cognosceres_.

XIII (1646).

"In these lines, Milton, with a musical perception not common amongst
poets, exactly indicates the great merit of Lawes, which distinguishes
his compositions from those of many of his contemporaries and successors.
His careful attention to the words of the poet, the manner in which his
music seems to grow from those words, the perfect coincidence of the
musical with the metrical accent, all put Lawes's songs on a level with
those of Schumann or Liszt."--_Encyclopaedia Britannica_.

See introductory notes to Comus and Arcades.

3-4. not to scan With Midas' ears. The god Apollo, during the time of his
servitude to Laomedon, had a quarrel with Pan, who insisted that the
flute was a better instrument than the lyre. The decision was left to
Midas, king of Lydia, who decided in favor of Pan. To punish Midas,
Apollo chan