As presumptuous as that desire is, to come before Homer or to come before Virgil, it's by no means the final sense, I think, of Milton's ambitious drive to be first. Milton invokes the same heavenly muse here who inspired Moses, that shepherd.

尽管想要先于荷马或维吉尔的雄心,很冒失，这却绝不是弥尔顿想要做第一，的壮志的终点，他在这里所写的,缪斯正是那个启示了牧羊人摩西的缪斯。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

He did not ever imagine the abandonment of the table of ranks, which set everybody in a hierarchy, not for a minute-- we're talking about the end of the end of the 17th and 18th century.

他绝不会想要抛弃一个,把每个人都划分阶层的等级社会,从来没有动过这个念头,我们说的是在十七世纪末到十八世纪初

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选