P. 53. _Thule_: some undetermined island or other land, regarded as the northernmost part of the earth; called in Latin _Ultima Thule_; often used metaphorically for an extreme limit.
P. 53. _that horrible and damned blast_: Keightley understands this as referring to the Gunpowder plot.
P. 53. _that sad intelligencing tyrant_: Philip IV., King of Spain from 1621 to 1665.
P. 53. _mines of Ophir_: used in a general sense for gold mines.
P. 53. _his naval ruins_: an allusion to the destruction of the Spanish armada, in 1588, in the reign of his grandfather, Philip II.
P. 54. _in this land_: when Milton wrote this, he must still have been meditating a poem to be based on British history.
_Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence, etc._
P. 56. _and thou standing at the door_: see introductory remarks on Lycidas.
_The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty_
P. 57. _Slothful, and ever to be set light by_: thou slothful one, and ever, etc.
P. 58. _preventive_: going before, forecasting, anticipative.
P. 58. _equal_: impartial, equitable; Lat. _æqualis_.
P. 58. _the elegant and learned reader_: him only Milton addressed, not the common reader. He was no demagogue.
P. 58. _anything elaborately composed_: he had his meditated great work in mind.
P. 59. _another task_: poetical composition.
P. 59. _empyreal conceit_: lofty conceit of himself.
P. 60. _Ariosto_ (_Lodovico_): Italian poet; b. 1474, d. 1533; author of the _Orlando Furioso_.
P. 60. _Bembo_ (_Pietro_): b. 1470, d. 1547; secretary to Pope Leo X.; Cardinal, 1539; famous as a Latin scholar.
P. 61. _Tasso_ (_Torquato_): Italian poet; b. 1544, d. 1595; author of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ (Jerusalem Delivered).
P. 61. _a prince of Italy_: Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara?
P. 61. _Godfrey's expedition against the Infidels_: the subject of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered; Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first crusade; b. about 1058, d. 1100.
P. 61. _Belisarius_: a celebrated general, in the reign of Justinian; b. about 505 A.D., d. 565.
P. 61. _Charlemagne_ (or Charles the Great): b. 742, d. 814; Emperor of the West and King of the Franks.
P. 61. _doctrinal and exemplary_: instructive and serving for example.
P. 61. _Origen_: Christian Father, of Alexandria (185-254).