Bear, The constellation of the Bear. "To outwatch the Bear" would be to stay up all night.

bested, assist, avail.

buskin'd stage, The buskins were high-heeled shoes worn by tragic actors. Lines 102-103 mean the best examples of tragedy.

Camball, See note on Cambuscan.

Cambuscan, Cambus Khan. In lines 109-115, Milton refers to the unfinished story that Chaucer puts into the mouth of the Squire in the "Canterbury Tales."

Canace, See note on Cambuscan.

Cynthia, another name for Artemis or Diana; hence the moon personified. Cypress lawn, black crêpe.

decent, comely.

Ethiop queen, Cassiopeia, afterwards made a constellation.

grain, Milton here means Tyrian purple.

Hermes, The Greek god identified with the Roman Mercury was also identified with the Egyptian Thoth. He may be "thrice great" on this account; or it may refer to Thoth, who was great as philosopher, priest, and king.

hist, bring along silently.

Ida, Mount Ida.

Jove, identified with Zeus, or Jupiter, the king of gods and men.
Memnon, an Ethiopian prince celebrated for his beauty.

Morpheus, god of Sleep.

Muscus, a half mythological Greek poet.

Orpheus, See note on Eurydice in Glossary for "L'Allegro."

Pelops, Thebes, Pelops' line, and Troy were the great subjects of the tragedies of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the tragic trio of Greece. The unhappy descendants of Pelops ruled the Peloponnesus. Philomel, nightingale.

Plato, Greek philosopher.

Pluto, god of Hades, or the under-world. See note under Eurydice in Glossary for "L'Allegro."

Saturn, father of Jove. His son usurped his power and became king of the gods.

Starr'd Ethiop queen, Cassiopeia.

Sylvan, Silvanus, a rural deity, guardian of woods, fields, flocks, and herdsmen's homes.

Thebes, a city-state of ancient Greece.

Vesta, goddess of the hearth.

Of these companion poems which one seems to be Milton's favorite? Which is yours?

THE CELESTIAL SURGEON 1
Robert Louis Stevenson

If I have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness;
If I have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy human eyes

Have moved me not; if morning skies,
Books, and my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain;—
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take
And stab my spirit broad awake;
Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,

Choose Thou, before that spirit die,

A piercing pain, a killing sin,

And to my dead heart run them in!

VICTORY IN DEFEAT 2

Edwin Markham

Defeat may serve as well as victory

To shake the soul and let the glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward side
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come

To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.

1 Used by special arrangement with Charles Scribner's Sons.

2 Used by special permission of the author.

10

10

5

A MILE WITH ME

Henry Van Dyke

O who will walk a mile with me

Along life's merry way?

A comrade blithe and full of glee,

Who dares to laugh out loud and free,

And let his frolic fancy play,

Like a happy child, through the flowers gay
That fill the field and fringe the way

Where he walks a mile with me.

And who will walk a mile with me
Along life's weary way?

A friend whose heart has eyes to see

The stars shine out o'er the darkening lea,
And the quiet rest at the end o' the day,-
A friend who knows, and dares to say,
The brave, sweet words that cheer the way
Where he walks a mile with me.

With such a comrade, such a friend,
I fain would walk till journeys end,
Through summer sunshine, winter rain,
And then?-Farewell, we shall meet again!

A BELL 2

Clinton Scollard

Had I the power

To cast a bell that should, from some grand tower,
At the first Christmas hour,

1 From Music and Other Poems by Henry Van Dyke, Copyright 1904, Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by special arrangement with the publishers.

2 Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co.