On Mar. 27, 1628, he became vicar of St. Peter and St. Mary in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Familiar Letter 1 was written Mar. 26, 1627, to accompany this elegy, which it mentions; a further letter (No. 4), dated July 21, 1628, also survives. Young was the “TY” of “SMECTYMNUUS,” the composite name of the five divines who in 1641 attacked episcopacy with An Answer to a Book entituled “An Humble Remonstrance,” to which was added A Postscript, probably written by Milton (see Wolfe, Yale Prose, I, 961–65). Barker (MLR, XXXII, 1937, 517-26) suggests that Young was the friend to whom Of Reformation was written, and Parker (TLS, May 16, 1936, p. 420) believes him the unknown friend of the letter in TM.

2 god of the winds; the land of the Sicanians was Sicily.

3 Wife of the river-god Nereus, Doris was the mother of fifty sea-nymphs.

4 Medea fled from Jason in a chariot drawn by dragons, after murdering their children.

5 a son of Celeus, king of Eleusis, whom Ceres sent in her dragon-drawn chariot to sow wheat throughout the earth (including far Scythia). Ovid likewise wished for the chariots of Medea and Triptolemus to return him from exile (Tristia, III, viii, 1–4).

6 D. T. Starnes (A Tribute to G. C. Taylor, 1952, p. 39) shows that Milton could have learned this legend from entries in Charles Stephanus’ Dictionarium. Hama was a Saxon champion reputedly killed by Starchatar, a Danish (Cimbrian) giant.

7 Alcibiades; one of Plato’s dialogues bears his name.

8 Aristotle, born in Stagira in Macedonia. His famous pupil was Alexander the Great, son of Olympias (of Chaonia in Epirus) and, in legend, of Ammon, as Jove was known in Libya.

9 Achilles, pupil of Phoenix (son of Amyntor) and Chiron (son of Philyra).

10 Mt. Parnassus, the haunt of the Muses, in Aonia. The waters that flowed in Castalia, a spring on Mt. Parnassus, afforded poetic inspiration by the bestowal of the Muses, who were born in Pieria. The Muse Clio, as Simonides tells us (Frag. 56), was the “overseer of the pure lustration-water, receiver of the prayers of many a pitcher-carrier.” What Milton says is that Young introduced him to the glories of the arts, and that, while under Young’s guidance and as a result of the talents given him by Clio, he had thrice been poetically inspired. These early poems are apparently not extant.

11 Because Aethon, one of the sun’s horses, has entered the zodiacal sign of the Ram (Mar. 21–Apr. 19) three times and because Chloris, goddess of flowers here signifying spring, and Auster, the south wind here signifying autumn, have visited the earth twice, Milton must not have seen Young since early 1625.

12 the east wind, named because Milton was writing to Germany at the time of year that it blows.

13 The conflicts of the Thirty Years’ War threatened Hamburg particularly after Christian IV of Denmark (a Protestant leader) was defeated by Tilly, general of the Catholic Holy League, in Western Germany on Aug. 27, 1626. See also ll. 71-76, where reference is made to Bernard, William, and Frederick, Dukes of Saxe-Weimar, who were preparing attacks against Tilly and Wallenstein. Hamburg tried to remain neutral.