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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19819-0.txt b/19819-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff1bcfc --- /dev/null +++ b/19819-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6850 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Milton's Comus, by John Milton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milton's Comus + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: William Bell + +Release Date: November 15, 2006 [EBook #19819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + +{Transcriber's note: + ~Bold~ text is surrounded by tildes ~, _italic_ text by underscores _. + The use of é and è to indicate stresses is inconsistent in this + text, as is the use of œ and æ ligatures. No changes have + been made to the original. +} + + + + MILTON'S COMUS + + WITH + INTRODUCTION AND NOTES + + BY + WILLIAM BELL, M.A. + PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, LAHORE + + + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO + AND NEW YORK + 1891 + + [_All rights reserved_] + + + + + First Edition, 1890. + Reprinted, 1891. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION, vii + COMUS, 7 + NOTES, 38 + INDEX TO THE NOTES, 113 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Few poems have been more variously designated than _Comus_. Milton +himself describes it simply as "A Mask"; by others it has been +criticised and estimated as a lyrical drama, a drama in the epic style, +a lyric poem in the _form_ of a play, a phantasy, an allegory, a +philosophical poem, a suite of speeches or majestic soliloquies, and +even a didactic poem. Such variety in the description of the poem is +explained partly by its complex charm and many-sided interest, and +partly by the desire to describe it from that point of view which should +best reconcile its literary form with what we know of the genius and +powers of its author. Those who, like Dr. Johnson, have blamed it as a +drama, have admired it "as a series of lines," or as a lyric; one +writer, who has found that its characters are nothing, its sentiments +tedious, its story uninteresting, has nevertheless "doubted whether +there will ever be any similar poem which gives so true a conception of +the capacity and the dignity of the mind by which it was produced" +(Bagehot's _Literary Studies_). Some who have praised it as an allegory +see in it a satire on the evils both of the Church and of the State, +while others regard it as alluding to the vices of the Court alone. Some +have found its lyrical parts the best, while others, charmed with its +"divine philosophy," have commended those deep conceits which place it +alongside of the _Faerie Queen_, as shadowing forth an episode in the +education of a noble soul and as a poet's lesson against intemperance +and impurity. But no one can refuse to admit that, more than any other +of Milton's shorter poems, it gives us an insight into the peculiar +genius and character of its author: it was, in the opinion of Hallam, +"sufficient to convince any one of taste and feeling that a great poet +had arisen in England, and one partly formed in a different school from +his contemporaries." It is true that in the early poems we do not find +the whole of Milton, for he had yet to pass through many years of +trouble and controversy; but _Comus_, in a special degree, reveals or +foreshadows much of the Milton of _Paradise Lost_. Whether we regard its +place in Milton's life, in the series of his works, or in English +literature as a whole, the poem is full of significance: it is worth +while, therefore, to consider how its form was determined by the +external circumstances and previous training of the poet; by his +favourite studies in poetry, philosophy, history, and music; and by his +noble theory of life in general, and of a poet's life in particular. + +The mask was represented at Ludlow Castle on September 29th, 1634; it +was probably composed early in that year. It belongs, therefore, to that +group of poems (_L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _Arcades_, _Comus_, and +_Lycidas_) written by Milton while living in his father's house at +Horton, near Windsor, after having left the University of Cambridge in +July, 1632. As he was born in 1608, he would be twenty-five years of age +when this poem was composed. During his stay at Horton (1632-39), which +was broken only by a journey to Italy in 1638-9, he was chiefly occupied +with the study of the Greek, Roman, Italian, and English literatures, +each of which has left its impress on _Comus_. He read widely and +carefully, and it has been said that his great and original imagination +was almost entirely nourished, or at least stimulated, by books: his +residence at Horton was, accordingly, pre-eminently what he intended it +to be, and what his father wisely and gladly permitted it to be--a time +of preparation and ripening for the work to which he had dedicated +himself. We are reminded of his own words in _Comus_: + + And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. + +We find in _Comus_ abundant reminiscences of Milton's study of the +literature of antiquity. "It would not be too much to say that the +literature of antiquity was to Milton's genius what soil and light are +to a plant. It nourished, it coloured, it developed it. It determined +not merely his character as an artist, but it exercised an influence on +his intellect and temper scarcely less powerful than hereditary +instincts and contemporary history. It at once animated and chastened +his imagination; it modified his fancy; it furnished him with his +models. On it his taste was formed; on it his style was moulded. From it +his diction and his method derived their peculiarities. It transformed +what would in all probability have been the mere counterpart of +Caedmon's Paraphrase or Langland's Vision into Paradise Lost; and what +would have been the mere counterpart of Corydon's Doleful Knell and the +satire of the Three Estates, into Lycidas and Comus." (_Quarterly +Review_, No. 326.) + +But Milton has also told us that Spenser was his master, and the full +charm of _Comus_ cannot be realised without reference to the artistic +and philosophical spirit of the author of the _Faerie Queene_. Both +poems deal with the war between the body and the soul--between the lower +and the higher nature. In an essay on 'Spenser as a philosophic poet,' +De Vere says: "The perils and degradations of an animalised life are +shown under the allegory of Sir Guyon's sea voyage with its successive +storms and whirlpools, its 'rock of Reproach' strewn with wrecks and +dead men's bones, its 'wandering islands,' its 'quicksands of +Unthriftihead,' its 'whirlepoole of Decay,' its 'sea-monsters,' and +lastly, its 'bower of Bliss,' and the doom which overtakes it, together +with the deliverance of Acrasia's victims, transformed by that witch's +spells into beasts. Still more powerful is the allegory of worldly +ambition, illustrated under the name of 'the cave of Mammon.' The Legend +of Holiness delineates with not less insight those enemies which wage +war upon the spiritual life." All this Milton had studied in the _Faerie +Queene_, and had understood it; and, like Sir Guyon, he felt himself to +be a knight enrolled under the banner of Parity and Self-Control. So +that, in _Comus_, we find the sovereign value of Temperance or +Self-Regulation--what the Greeks called σωφροσύνη--set forth +no less clearly than in Spenser's poem: in Milton's mask it becomes +almost identical with Virtue itself. The enchantments of Acrasia in her +Bower of Bliss become the spells of Comus; the armour of Belphoebe +becomes the "complete steel" of Chastity; while the supremacy of +Conscience, the bounty of Nature and man's ingratitude, the unloveliness +of Mammon and of Excess, the blossom of Courtesy oft found on lowly +stalk, and the final triumph of Virtue through striving and temptation, +all are dwelt upon. + + It is the mind that maketh good or ill, + That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore: + +so speaks Spenser; and Milton similarly-- + + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + +In endeavouring still further to trace, by means of verbal or structural +resemblances, the sources from which Milton drew his materials for +_Comus_, critics have referred to Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ (1595); to +Fletcher's pastoral, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, of which Charles Lamb +has said that if all its parts 'had been in unison with its many +innocent scenes and sweet lyric intermixtures, it had been a poem fit to +vie with _Comus_ or the _Arcadia_, to have been put into the hands of +boys and virgins, to have made matter for young dreams, like the loves +of Hermia and Lysander'; to Ben Jonson's mask of _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_ (1619), in which Comus is "the god of cheer, or the Belly"; and +to the _Comus_ of Erycius Puteanus (Henri du Puy), Professor of +Eloquence at Louvain. It is true that Fletcher's pastoral was being +acted in London about the time Milton was writing his _Comus_, that the +poem by the Dutch Professor was republished at Oxford in 1634, and that +resemblances are evident between Milton's poem and those named. But +Professor Masson does well in warning us that "infinitely too much has +been made of such coincidences. After all of them, even the most ideal +and poetical, the feeling in reading _Comus_ is that all here is +different, all peculiar." Whatever Milton borrowed, he borrowed, as he +says himself, in order to better it. + +It is interesting to consider the mutual relations of the poems written +by Milton at Horton. Everything that Milton wrote is Miltonic; he had +what has been called the power of transforming everything into himself, +and these poems are, accordingly, evidences of the development of +Milton's opinions and of his secret purpose. It has been said that +_L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are to be regarded as "the pleadings, the +decision on which is in Comus"--_L'Allegro_ representing the Cavalier, +and _Il Penseroso_ the Puritan element. This is true only in a limited +sense. It is true that the Puritan element in the Horton series of poems +becomes more patent as we pass from the two lyrics to the mask of +_Comus_, and from _Comus_ to the elegy of _Lycidas_, just as, in the +corresponding periods of time, the evils connected with the reign of +Charles I. and with Laud's crusade against Puritanism were becoming more +pronounced. But we can hardly regard Milton as having expressed any new +decision in _Comus_: the decision is already made when "vain deluding +Joys" are banished in _Il Penseroso_, and "loathed Melancholy" in +_L'Allegro_. The mask is an expansion and exaltation of the delights of +the contemplative man, but there is still a place for the "unreproved +pleasures" of the cheerful man. Unless it were so, _Comus_ could not +have been written; there would have been no "sunshine holiday" for the +rustics and no "victorious dance" for the gentle lady and her brothers. +But in _Comus_ we realise the mutual relation of _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_; we see their application to the joys and sorrows of the +actual life of individuals; we observe human nature in contact with the +"hard assays" of life. And, subsequently, in _Lycidas_ we are made to +realise that this human nature is Milton's own, and to understand how it +was that his Puritanism which, three years before, had permitted him to +write a cavalier mask, should, three years after, lead him from the +fresh fields of poetry into the barren plains of controversial prose. + +The Mask was a favourite form of entertainment in England in Milton's +youth, and had been so from the time of Henry VIII., in whose reign +elaborate masked shows, introduced from Italy, first became popular. But +they seem to have found their way into England, in a crude form, even +earlier; and we read of court disguisings in the reign of Edward III. It +is usually said that the Mask derives its name from the fact that the +actors wore masks, and in Hall's Chronicle we read that, in 1512, "on +the day of Epiphany at night, the king, with eleven others, was +disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen +before in England; they were appareled in garments long and broad, +wrought all with gold, with _visors_ and caps of gold." The truth, +however, seems to be that the use of a visor was not essential in such +entertainments, which, from the first, were called 'masks,' the word +'masker' being used sometimes of the players, and sometimes of their +disguises. The word has come to us, through the French form _masque_, +cognate with Spanish _mascarada_, a masquerade or assembly of maskers, +otherwise called a mummery. Up to the time of Henry VIII. these +entertainments were of the nature of dumb-show or _tableaux vivants_, +and delighted the spectators chiefly by the splendour of the costumes +and machinery employed in their representation; but, afterwards, the +chief actors spoke their parts, singing and dancing were introduced, and +the composition of masks for royal and other courtly patrons became an +occupation worthy of a poet. They were frequently combined with other +forms of amusement, all of which were, in the case of the Court, placed +under the management of a Master of Revels, whose official title was +Magister Jocorum, Revellorum et _Mascorum_; in the first printed English +tragedy, _Gorboduc_ (1565), each act opens with what is called a +dumb-show or mask. But the more elaborate form of the Mask soon grew to +be an entertainment complete in itself, and the demand for such became +so great in the time of James I. and Charles I. that the history of +these reigns might almost be traced in the succession of masks then +written. Ben Jonson, who thoroughly established the Mask in English +literature, wrote many Court Masks, and made them a vehicle less for the +display of 'painting and carpentry' than for the expression of the +intellectual and social life of his time. His masks are excelled only +by _Comus_, and possess in a high degree that 'Doric delicacy' in their +songs and odes which Sir Henry Wotton found so ravishing in Milton's +mask. Jonson, in his lifetime, declared that, next himself, only +Fletcher and Chapman could write a mask; and apart from the compositions +of these writers and of William Browne (_Inner Temple Masque_), there +are few specimens worthy to be named along with Jonson's until we come +to Milton's _Arcades_. Other mask-writers were Middleton, Dekker, +Shirley, Carew, and Davenant; and it is interesting to note that in +Carew's _Coelum Brittanicum_ (1633-4), for which Lawes composed the +music, the two boys who afterwards acted in _Comus_ had juvenile parts. +It has been pointed out that the popularity of the Mask in Milton's +youth received a stimulus from the Puritan hatred of the theatre which +found expression at that time, and drove non-Puritans to welcome the +Mask as a protest against that spirit which saw nothing but evil in +every form of dramatic entertainment. Milton, who enjoyed the +theatre--both "Jonson's learned sock" and what "ennobled hath the +buskined stage"--was led, through his friendship with the musician +Lawes, to compose a mask to celebrate the entry of the Earl of +Bridgewater upon his office of "Lord President of the Council in the +Principality of Wales and the Marches of the same." He had already +written, also at the request of Lawes, a mask, or portion of a mask, +called _Arcades_, and the success of this may have stimulated him to +higher effort. The result was _Comus_, in which the Mask reached its +highest level, and after which it practically faded out of our +literature. + +Milton's two masks, _Arcades_ and _Comus_, were written for members of +the same noble family, the former in honour of the Countess Dowager of +Derby, and the latter in honour of John, first Earl of Bridgewater, who +was both her stepson and son-in-law. This two-fold relation arose from +the fact that the Earl was the son of Viscount Brackley, the Countess's +second husband, and had himself married Lady Frances Stanley, a daughter +of the Countess by her first husband, the fifth Earl of Derby. Amongst +the children of the Earl of Bridgewater were three who took important +parts in the representation of _Comus_--Alice, the youngest daughter, +then about fourteen years of age, who appeared as _The Lady_; John, +Viscount Brackley, who took the part of the _Elder Brother_, and Thomas +Egerton, who appeared as the _Second Brother_. We do not know who acted +the parts of _Comus_ and _Sabrina_, but the part of the _Attendant +Spirit_ was taken by Henry Lawes, "gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and +one of His Majesty's private musicians." The Earl's children were his +pupils, and the mask was naturally produced under his direction. +Milton's friendship with Lawes is shown by the sonnet which the poet +addressed to the musician: + + Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd song + First taught our English music how to span + Words with just note and accent, not to scan + With Midas' ears, committing short and long; + Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, + With praise enough for Envy to look wan; + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth air could'st humour best our tongue. + Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing + To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, + That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story. + Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher + Than his Casella, who he woo'd to sing, + Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. + +We must remember also that it was to Lawes that Milton's _Comus_ owed +its first publication, and, as we see from the dedication prefixed to +the text, that he was justly proud of his share in its first +representation. + +Such were the persons who appeared in Milton's mask; they are few in +number, and the plan of the piece is correspondingly simple. There are +three scenes which may be briefly characterised thus: + + I. The Tempter and the Tempted: lines 1-658. + _Scene_: A wild wood. + + II. The Temptation and the Rescue: lines 659-958. + _Scene_: The Palace of Comus. + + III. The Triumph: lines 959-1023. + _Scene_: The President's Castle. + +In the first scene, after a kind of prologue (lines 1-92), the interest +rises as we are introduced first to Comus and his rout, then to the Lady +alone and "night-foundered," and finally to Comus and the Lady in +company. At the same time the nature of the Lady's trial and her +subsequent victory are foreshadowed in a conversation between the +brothers and the attendant Spirit. This is one of the more Miltonic +parts of the mask: in the philosophical reasoning of the elder brother, +as opposed to the matter-of-fact arguments of the younger, we trace the +young poet fresh from the study of the divine volume of Plato, and +filled with a noble trust in God. In the second scene we breathe the +unhallowed air of the abode of the wily tempter, who endeavours, "under +fair pretence of friendly ends," to wind himself into the pure heart of +the Lady. But his "gay rhetoric" is futile against the "sun-clad power +of chastity"; and he is driven off the scene by the two brothers, who +are led and instructed by the Spirit disguised as the shepherd Thyrsis. +But the Lady, having been lured into the haunt of impurity, is left +spell-bound, and appeal is made to the pure nymph Sabrina, who is "swift +to aid a virgin, such as was herself, in hard-besetting need." It is in +the contention between Comus and the Lady in this scene that the +interest of the mask may be said to culminate, for here its purpose +stands revealed: "it is a song to Temperance as the ground of Freedom, +to temperance as the guard of all the virtues, to beauty as secured by +temperance, and its central point and climax is in the pleading of these +motives by the Lady against their opposites in the mouth of the Lord of +sensual Revel." _Milton: Classical Writers_. In the third scene the Lady +Alice and her brothers are presented by the Spirit to their noble father +and mother as triumphing "in victorious dance o'er sensual folly and +intemperance." The Spirit then speaks the epilogue, calling upon mortals +who love true freedom to strive after virtue: + + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + +The last couplet Milton afterwards, on his Italian journey, entered in +an album belonging to an Italian named Cerdogni, and underneath it the +words, _Coelum non animum muto dum trans mare curro_, and his +signature, Joannes Miltonius, Anglus. The juxtaposition of these verses +is significant: though he had left his own land Milton had not become +what, fifty or sixty years before, Roger Ascham had condemned as an +"Italianated Englishman." He was one of those "worthy Gentlemen of +England, whom all the Siren tongues of Italy could never untwine from +the mast of God's word; nor no enchantment of vanity overturn them from +the fear of God and love of honesty" (Ascham's _Scholemaster_). And one +might almost infer that Milton, in his account of the sovereign plant +Haemony which was to foil the wiles of _Comus_, had remembered not only +Homer's description of the root Moly "that Hermes once to wise Ulysses +gave,"{16:A} but also Ascham's remarks thereupon: "The true medicine +against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure, +the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the black +root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; which Hesiod +termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the beginning, but in +the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to be marvelled at, +the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this medicine against sin and +vanity is not found out by man, but given and taught by God." Milton's +_Comus_, like his last great poems, is a poetical expression of the same +belief. "His poetical works, the outcome of his inner life, his life of +artistic contemplation, are," in the words of Prof. Dowden, "various +renderings of one dominant idea--that the struggle for mastery between +good and evil is the prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the +righteous cause is assured by the existence of a divine order of the +universe, which Milton knew by the name of 'Providence.'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{16:A} It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable, +employs in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of +Milton's description of Haemony; compare the following extract from _The +Adventures of Ulysses_ with lines 629-640 of _Comus_: "The flower of the +herb Moly, which is sovereign against enchantments: the moly is a small +unsightly root, its virtues but little known, and in low estimation; the +dull shepherd treads on it every day with his clouted shoes, but it +bears a small white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights, +mildews, and damps." + + + + + COMUS. + + + A MASK + + PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. + + BEFORE + + JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, + + THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES. + + + + +_The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the +following Poem._ + + +From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. + +SIR, + +It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if +I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to have +been familiar. + +Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for a +dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should +much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa +mollities_.{19:A} But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only owe +you thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true +artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, with +singular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in +the very close of the late R.'s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto it +is added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the +principal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader +_con la bocca dolce_.{20:A} + +Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch{20:B} +Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few +lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord +S. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directions +for shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside by +my choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice. + +I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passage +into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety. + +At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca di +Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man, +that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat +of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his +native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the +centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice, +how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or +of mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I pensieri +stretti, ed il viso sciolto_,{21:A} will go safely over the whole world. +Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth +need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the +best of all securities, God's dear love, remaining + + Your friend as much to command + as any of longer date, + + HENRY WOTTON. + +_Postscript._ + +Sir,--I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter, having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle.{21:B} + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{19:A} It is delicacy itself. + +{20:A} With a sweet taste in his mouth (so that he may desire more). + +{20:B} Avoid. + +{21:A} "Thoughts close, countenance open." + +{21:B} This letter was printed in the edition of 1645, but omitted in +that of 1673. It was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton +College, just in time to overtake Milton before he set out on his +journey to Italy. As a parting act of courtesy Milton had sent Sir Henry +a letter with a copy of Lawes's edition of his _Comus_, and the above +letter is an acknowledgment of the favour. + + + + +TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE{22:A} + +JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY, + +_Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, etc._ + + +MY LORD, + +This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and +others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the +performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to +you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a +legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often +copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, +and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and +now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and +rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full +assurance to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet +Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from +the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most +honoured Parents, and as in this representation your attendant +_Thyrsis_,{22:B} so now in all real expression, + + Your faithful and most humble Servant, + + H. LAWES. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{22:A} Dedication of the anonymous edition of 1637: reprinted in the +edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673. + +{22:B} See Notes, line 494. + + + + +THE PERSONS. + + The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of THYRSIS. + COMUS, with his Crew. + The LADY. + FIRST BROTHER. + SECOND BROTHER. + SABRINA, the Nymph. + + The Chief Persons which presented were:-- + The Lord Brackley; + Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother; + The Lady Alice Egerton. + + + + + +COMUS. + + +_The first Scene discovers a wild wood._ + +_The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters._ + + Before the starry threshold of Jove's court + My mansion is, where those immortal shapes + Of bright aërial spirits live insphered + In regions mild of calm and serene air, + Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot + Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, + Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, + Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, + Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, + After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 + Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. + Yet some there be that by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity. + To such my errand is; and, but for such, + I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds + With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould. + But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway + Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream, + Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20 + Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles + That, like to rich and various gems, inlay + The unadornéd bosom of the deep; + Which he, to grace his tributary gods, + By course commits to several government, + And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns + And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, + The greatest and the best of all the main, + He quarters to his blue-haired deities; + And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 + A noble Peer of mickle trust and power + Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide + An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: + Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, + Are coming to attend their father's state, + And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way + Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, + The nodding horror of whose shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; + And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 + But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, + I was despatched for their defence and guard: + And listen why; for I will tell you now + What never yet was heard in tale or song, + From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. + Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape + Crushed the sweet poison of misuséd wine, + After the Tuscan mariners transformed, + Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, + On Circe's island fell: (who knows not Circe, 50 + The daughter of the Sun, whose charmèd cup + Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, + And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) + This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, + With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, + Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son + Much like his father, but his mother more, + Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: + Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, + Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 + At last betakes him to this ominous wood, + And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, + Excels his mother at her mighty art; + Offering to every weary traveller + His orient liquor in a crystal glass, + To quench the drouth of Phœbus; which as they taste + (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), + Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, + The express resemblance of the gods, is changed + Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 + Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, + All other parts remaining as they were. + And they, so perfect is their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before, + And all their friends and native home forget, + To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. + Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove + Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, + Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 + I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, + As now I do. But first I must put off + These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, + And take the weeds and likeness of a swain + That to the service of this house belongs, + Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, + Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, + And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, + And in this office of his mountain watch + Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 + Of this occasion. But I hear the tread + Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. + +_COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, +but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands._ + + _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold + Now the top of heaven doth hold; + And the gilded car of day + His glowing axle doth allay + In the steep Atlantic stream; + And the slope sun his upward beam + Shoots against the dusky pole, + Pacing toward the other goal 100 + Of his chamber in the east. + Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, + Midnight shout and revelry, + Tipsy dance and jollity. + Braid your locks with rosy twine, + Dropping odours, dropping wine. + Rigour now is gone to bed; + And Advice with scrupulous head, + Strict Age, and sour Severity, + With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 + We, that are of purer fire, + Imitate the starry quire, + Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, + Lead in swift round the months and years. + The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, + Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; + And on the tawny sands and shelves + Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. + By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, + The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 + Their merry wakes and pastimes keep: + What hath night to do with sleep? + Night hath better sweets to prove; + Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. + Come, let us our rights begin; + 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, + Which these dun shades will ne'er report. + Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, + Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame + Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 + That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb + Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, + And makes one blot of all the air! + Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, + Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend + Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end + Of all thy dues be done, and none left out, + Ere the blabbing eastern scout, + The nice Morn on the Indian steep, + From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 + And to the tell-tale Sun descry + Our concealed solemnity. + Come, knit hands, and beat the ground + In a light fantastic round. [_The Measure._ + Break off, break off! I feel the different pace + Of some chaste footing near about this ground. + Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; + Our number may affright. Some virgin sure + (For so I can distinguish by mine art) + Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 + And to my wily trains: I shall ere long + Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed + About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl + My dazzling spells into the spongy air, + Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, + And give it false presentments, lest the place + And my quaint habits breed astonishment, + And put the damsel to suspicious flight; + Which must not be, for that's against my course. + I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 + And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, + Baited with reasons not unplausible, + Wind me into the easy-hearted man, + And hug him into snares. When once her eye + Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, + I shall appear some harmless villager + Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. + But here she comes; I fairly step aside, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + +_The LADY enters._ + + _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, + My best guide now. Methought it was the sound + Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 172 + Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe + Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, + When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, + In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, + And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth + To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence + Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else + Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 + In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? + My brothers, when they saw me wearied out + With this long way, resolving here to lodge + Under the spreading favour of these pines, + Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side + To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit + As the kind hospitable woods provide. + They left me then when the grey-hooded Even, + Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, + Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus' wain. 190 + But where they are, and why they came not back, + Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest + They had engaged their wandering steps too far; + And envious darkness, ere they could return, + Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, + Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, + In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars + That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps + With everlasting oil to give due light + To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 + This is the place, as well as I may guess, + Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth + Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; + Yet nought but single darkness do I find. + What might this be? A thousand fantasies + Begin to throng into my memory, + Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And airy tongues that syllable men's names + On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion, Conscience. + O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, + Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, + And thou unblemished form of Chastity! + I see ye visibly, and now believe + That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill + Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, + Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, + To keep my life and honour unassailed.... 220 + Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night? + I did not err: there does a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night, + And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. + I cannot hallo to my brothers, but + Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest + I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits + Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. + +_Song._ + + Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 + Within thy airy shell + By slow Meander's margent green, + And in the violet-embroidered vale + Where the love-lorn nightingale + Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: + Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair + That likest thy Narcissus are? + O, if thou have + Hid them in some flowery cave, + Tell me but where, 240 + Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere! + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies! + + _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould + Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? + Sure something holy lodges in that breast, + And with these raptures moves the vocal air + To testify his hidden residence. + How sweetly did they float upon the wings + Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 + At every fall smoothing the raven down + Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard + My mother Circe with the Sirens three, + Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, + Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, + Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, + And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, + And chid her barking waves into attention, + And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. + Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 + And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; + But such a sacred and home-felt delight, + Such sober certainty of waking bliss, + I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, + And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder! + Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, + Unless the goddess that in rural shrine + Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan by blest song + Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog + To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 + + _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise + That is addressed to unattending ears. + Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift + How to regain my severed company, + Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo + To give me answer from her mossy couch. + + _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? + + _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. + + _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? + + _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 + + _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? + + _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. + + _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, lady? + + _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return. + + _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. + + _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit! + + _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need? + + _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose. + + _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? + + _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 + + _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox + In his loose traces from the furrow came, + And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. + I saw them under a green mantling vine, + That crawls along the side of yon small hill, + Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; + Their port was more than human, as they stood + I took it for a faery vision + Of some gay creatures of the element, + That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 + And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, + And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, + It were a journey like the path to Heaven + To help you find them. + + _Lady._ Gentle villager, + What readiest way would bring me to that place? + + _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point. + + _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, + In such a scant allowance of star-light, + Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, + Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 + + _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green, + Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side, + My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; + And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged, + Or shroud within these limits, I shall know + Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark + From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, + I can conduct you, lady, to a low + But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 + Till further quest. + + _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word, + And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, + Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, + With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls + And courts of princes, where it first was named, + And yet is most pretended. In a place + Less warranted than this, or less secure, + I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. + Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial + To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on. + +[_Exeunt._ + +_Enter the TWO BROTHERS._ + + _Elder Brother._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, 331 + That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, + Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, + And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here + In double night of darkness and of shades; + Or, if your influence be quite dammed up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 + And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, + Or Tyrian Cynosure. + + _Second Brother._ Or, if our eyes + Be barred that happiness, might we but hear + The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, + Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, + Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock + Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, + 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, + In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. + But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 + Where may she wander now, whither betake her + From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? + Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, + Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm + Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. + What if in wild amazement and affright, + Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp + Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! + + _Elder Brother._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite + To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360 + For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, + What need a man forestall his date of grief, + And run to meet what he would most avoid? + Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, + How bitter is such self-delusion! + I do not think my sister so to seek, + Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, + And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, + As that the single want of light and noise + (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 + Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, + And put them into misbecoming plight. + Virtue could see to do what Virtue would + By her own radiant light, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + + _Second Brother._ 'Tis most true + That musing meditation most affects + The pensive secrecy of desert cell, + Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, + And sits as safe as in a senate-house; + For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 + His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, + Or do his grey hairs any violence? + But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree + Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard + Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye + To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, + From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. + You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps + Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, + And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 + Danger will wink on Opportunity, + And let a single helpless maiden pass + Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. + Of night or loneliness it recks me not; + I fear the dread events that dog them both, + Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person + Of our unownéd sister. + + _Elder Brother._ I do not, brother, + Infer as if I thought my sister's state + Secure without all doubt or controversy; + Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 + Does arbitrate the event, my nature is + That I incline to hope rather than fear, + And gladly banish squint suspicion. + My sister is not so defenceless left + As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, + Which you remember not. + + _Second Brother._ What hidden strength, + Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? + + _Elder Brother._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, + Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. + 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 + She that has that is clad in cómplete steel, + And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, + May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths, + Infámous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; + Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, + No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, + Will dare to soil her virgin purity. + Yea, there where very desolation dwells, + By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, + She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 + Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. + Some say no evil thing that walks by night, + In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, + Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, + That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, + No goblin or swart faery of the mine, + Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. + Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call + Antiquity from the old schools of Greece + To testify the arms of chastity? 440 + Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow + Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste, + Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness + And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought + The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men + Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. + What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield + That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, + Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, + But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 + And noble grace that dashed brute violence + With sudden adoration and blank awe? + So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity + That, when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her, + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; + Till oft converse with heavenly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, + By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, + But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, + Lets in defilement to the inward parts, + The soul grows clotted by contagion, + Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose + The divine property of her first being. + Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 + Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres, + Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, + As loth to leave the body that it loved, + And linked itself by carnal sensualty + To a degenerate and degraded state. + + _Second Brother._ How charming is divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, + Where no crude surfeit reigns. + + _Elder Brother._ List! list! I hear 480 + Some far-off hallo break the silent air. + + _Second Brother._ Methought so too; what should it be? + + _Elder Brother._ For certain, + Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, + Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, + Some roving robber calling to his fellows. + + _Second Brother._ Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near! + Best draw, and stand upon our guard. + + _Elder Brother._ I'll hallo. + If he be friendly, he comes well: if not, + Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! + +_Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd._ + + That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490 + Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. + + _Spirit._ What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again. + + _Second Brother._ O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed + The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, + And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. + How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram + Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, + Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? + How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 + + _Spirit._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, + I came not here on such a trivial toy + As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth + Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth + That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought + To this my errand, and the care it brought, + But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? + How chance she is not in your company? + + _Elder Brother._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame + Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 + + _Spirit._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. + + _Elder Brother._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew. + + _Spirit._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous + (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) + What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, + Storied of old in high immortal verse + Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, + And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; + For such there be, but unbelief is blind. + Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 + Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, + Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, + Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, + And here to every thirsty wanderer + By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, + With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison + The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, + And the inglorious likeness of a beast + Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage + Charáctered in the face. This have I learnt 530 + Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts + That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night + He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl + Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, + Doing abhorred rites to Hecate + In their obscuréd haunts of inmost bowers. + Yet have they many baits and guileful spells + To inveigle and invite the unwary sense + Of them that pass unweeting by the way. + This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 + Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb + Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, + I sat me down to watch upon a bank + With ivy canopied, and interwove + With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, + Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, + To meditate my rural minstrelsy, + Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close + The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, + And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 + At which I ceased, and listened them awhile, + Till an unusual stop of sudden silence + Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds + That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. + At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound + Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, + And stole upon the air, that even Silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 + And took in strains that might create a soul + Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long + Too well I did perceive it was the voice + Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. + Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; + And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, + "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!" + Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, + Through paths and turnings often trod by day, + Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 + Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise + (For so by certain signs I knew), had met + Already, ere my best speed could prevent, + The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey; + Who gently asked if he had seen such two, + Supposing him some neighbour villager. + Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed + Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung + Into swift flight, till I had found you here; + But further know I not. + + _Second Brother._ O night and shades, 580 + How are ye joined with hell in triple knot + Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, + Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence + You gave me, brother? + + _Elder Brother._ Yes, and keep it still; + Lean on it safely; not a period + Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats + Of malice or of sorcery, or that power + Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: + Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, + Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 + Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm + Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. + But evil on itself shall back recoil, + And mix no more with goodness, when at last, + Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, + It shall be in eternal restless change + Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, + The pillared firmament is rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! + Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 + May never this just sword be lifted up; + But, for that damned magician, let him be girt + With all the grisly legions that troop + Under the sooty flag of Acheron, + Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms + 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to return his purchase back, + Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life. + + _Spirit._ Alas! good venturous youth, + I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 + But here thy sword can do thee little stead. + Far other arms and other weapons must + Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. + He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, + And crumble all thy sinews. + + _Elder Brother._ Why, prithee, Shepherd, + How durst thou then thyself approach so near + As to make this relation? + + _Spirit._ Care and utmost shifts + How to secure the Lady from surprisal + Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, + Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 + In every virtuous plant and healing herb + That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. + He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; + Which when I did, he on the tender grass + Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, + And in requital ope his leathern scrip, + And show me simples of a thousand names, + Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. + Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, + But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 + The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, + But in another country, as he said, + Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: + Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain + Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; + And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly + That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. + He called it Hæmony, and gave it me, + And bade me keep it as of sovran use + 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 + Or ghastly Furies' apparition. + I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, + Till now that this extremity compelled. + But now I find it true; for by this means + I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, + Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, + And yet came off. If you have this about you + (As I will give you when we go) you may + Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; + Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 + And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, + And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; + But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew + Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, + Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, + Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; + And some good angel bear a shield before us! + +_The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. COMUS +appears with his rabble, and the LADY set in an enchanted chair: to whom +he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise._ + + _Comus._ Nay, lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, + Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 + And you a statue, or as Daphne was, + Root-bound, that fled Apollo. + + _Lady._ Fool, do not boast. + Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind + With all thy charms, although this corporal rind + Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. + + _Comus._ Why are you vexed, lady? why do you frown? + Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates + Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures + That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, + When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 + Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. + And first behold this cordial julep here, + That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, + With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. + Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone + In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena + Is of such power to stir up joy as this, + To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. + Why should you be so cruel to yourself, + And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 + For gentle usage and soft delicacy? + But you invert the covenants of her trust, + And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, + With that which you received on other terms, + Scorning the unexempt condition + By which all mortal frailty must subsist, + Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, + That have been tired all day without repast, + And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, + This will restore all soon. + + _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 + 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty + That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. + Was this the cottage and the safe abode + Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, + These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! + Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! + Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence + With vizored falsehood and base forgery? + And would'st thou seek again to trap me here + With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 + Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, + I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None + But such as are good men can give good things; + And that which is not good is not delicious + To a well-governed and wise appetite. + + _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears + To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, + And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, + Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! + Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 + With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, + Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, + Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, + But all to please and sate the curious taste? + And set to work millions of spinning worms, + That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, + To deck her sons; and, that no corner might + Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins + She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems, + To store her children with. If all the world 720 + Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, + Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, + The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, + Not half his riches known, and yet despised; + And we should serve him as a grudging master, + As a penurious niggard of his wealth, + And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, + Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, + And strangled with her waste fertility: + The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730 + The herds would over-multitude their lords; + The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds + Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, + And so bestud with stars, that they below + Would grow inured to light, and come at last + To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. + List, lady; be not coy, and be not cozened + With that same vaunted name, Virginity. + Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded, + But must be current; and the good thereof 740 + Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, + Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself. + If you let slip time, like a neglected rose + It withers on the stalk with languished head. + Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown + In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, + Where most may wonder at the workmanship. + It is for homely features to keep home; + They had their name thence: coarse complexions + And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 + The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. + What need of vermeil-tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? + There was another meaning in these gifts; + Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. + + _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips + In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler + Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, + Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. + I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760 + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, + As if she would her children should be riotous + With her abundance. She, good cateress, + Means her provision only to the good, + That live according to her sober laws, + And holy dictate of spare Temperance. + If every just man that now pines with want + Had but a moderate and beseeming share + Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 + Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, + Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed + In unsuperfluous even proportions, + And she no whit encumbered with her store; + And then the Giver would be better thanked, + His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony + Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, + But with besotted base ingratitude + Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? + Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780 + Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words + Against the sun-clad power of chastity + Fain would I something say;--yet to what end? + Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend + The sublime notion and high mystery + That must be uttered to unfold the sage + And serious doctrine of Virginity; + And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know + More happiness than this thy present lot. + Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 + That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; + Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. + Yet, should I try, the uncontrollèd worth + Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits + To such a flame of sacred vehemence + That dumb things would be moved to sympathise, + And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, + Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, + Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. + + _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 + Her words set off by some superior power; + And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew + Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove + Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus + To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, + And try her yet more strongly.--Come, no more! + This is mere moral babble, and direct + Against the canon laws of our foundation. + I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees + And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 + + But this will cure all straight; one sip of this + Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight + Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. + +_The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his +hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, +but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in._ + + _Spirit._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape? + O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, + And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the Lady that sits here + In stony fetters fixed and motionless. + Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 + Some other means I have which may be used, + Which once of Melibœus old I learnt, + The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. + There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, + That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream: + Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; + Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, + That had the sceptre from his father Brute. + She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit + Of her enragéd stepdame, Guendolen, 830 + Commended her fair innocence to the flood + That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. + The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, + Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, + Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; + Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, + And gave her to his daughters to imbathe + In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, + And through the porch and inlet of each sense + Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 + And underwent a quick immortal change, + Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains + Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve + Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, + Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs + That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, + Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: + For which the shepherds, at their festivals, + Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, + And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 + Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. + And, as the old swain said, she can unlock + The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, + If she be right invoked in warbled song; + For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift + To aid a virgin, such as was herself, + In hard-besetting need. This will I try, + And add the power of some adjuring verse. + +_Song._ + + Sabrina fair, + Listen where thou art sitting 860 + Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + In twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; + Listen for dear honour's sake, + Goddess of the silver lake, + Listen and save! + + Listen, and appear to us, + In name of great Oceanus. + By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, + And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 + By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, + And the Carpathian wizard's hook; + By scaly Triton's winding shell, + And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; + By Leucothea's lovely hands, + And her son that rules the strands; + By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, + And the songs of Sirens sweet; + By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, + And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 + Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks + Sleeking her soft alluring locks; + By all the Nymphs that nightly dance + Upon thy streams with wily glance; + Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head + From thy coral-paven bed, + And bridle in thy headlong wave, + Till thou our summons answered have. + Listen and save! + +_SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings._ + + By the rushy-fringéd bank, 890 + Where grows the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen + Of turkis blue, and emerald green, + That in the channel strays; + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head, + That bends not as I tread. + Gentle swain, at thy request 900 + I am here! + + _Spirit._ Goddess dear, + We implore thy powerful hand + To undo the charméd band + Of true virgin here distressed + Through the force and through the wile + Of unblessed enchanter vile. + + _Sabrina._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best + To help ensnared chastity. + Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 + Thus I sprinkle on thy breast + Drops that from my fountain pure + I have kept of precious cure; + Thrice upon thy finger's tip, + Thrice upon thy rubied lip: + Next this marble venomed seat, + Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, + I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. + Now the spell hath lost his hold; + And I must haste ere morning hour 920 + To wait in Amphitrite's bower. + +_SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat._ + + _Spirit._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine, + Sprung of old Anchises' line, + May thy brimméd waves for this + Their full tribute never miss + From a thousand petty rills, + That tumble down the snowy hills: + Summer drouth or singéd air + Never scorch thy tresses fair, + Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 + Thy molten crystal fill with mud; + May thy billows roll ashore + The beryl and the golden ore; + May thy lofty head be crowned + With many a tower and terrace round, + And here and there thy banks upon + With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. + Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, + Let us fly this curséd place, + Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 + With some other new device. + Not a waste or needless sound + Till we come to holier ground. + I shall be your faithful guide + Through this gloomy covert wide; + And not many furlongs thence + Is your Father's residence, + Where this night are met in state + Many a friend to gratulate + His wished presence, and beside 950 + All the swains that there abide + With jigs and rural dance resort. + We shall catch them at their sport, + And our sudden coming there + Will double all their mirth and cheer. + Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, + But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. + +_The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle; +then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with the +Two BROTHERS and the LADY._ + +_Song._ + + _Spirit._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play + Till next sunshine holiday. + Here be, without duck or nod, 960 + Other trippings to be trod + Of lighter toes, and such court guise + As Mercury did first devise + With the mincing Dryades + On the lawns and on the leas. + +_This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother._ + + Noble Lord and Lady bright, + I have brought ye new delight. + Here behold so goodly grown + Three fair branches of your own. + Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 + Their faith, their patience, and their truth, + And sent them here through hard assays + With a crown of deathless praise, + To triumph in victorious dance + O'er sensual folly and intemperance. + +_The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes._ + + _Spirit._ To the ocean now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad fields of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air, 980 + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + Along the crispéd shades and bowers + Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; + The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours + Thither all their bounties bring. + There eternal Summer dwells, + And west winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling 990 + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can shew, + And drenches with Elysian dew + (List, mortals, if your ears be true) + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where young Adonis oft reposes, + Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 + In slumber soft, and on the ground + Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. + But far above, in spangled sheen, + Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced + Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced + After her wandering labours long, + Till free consent the gods among + Make her his eternal bride, + And from her fair unspotted side + Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 + Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. + But now my task is smoothly done, + I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth's end, + Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, + And from thence can soar as soon + To the corners of the moon. + Mortals, that would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb 1020 + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + + + + +NOTES. + + +~discovers~, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of 'discover' is to find +out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix _dis-_ has +often the more purely negative force of _un-_: hence discover = uncover, +reveal. Comp.-- + + "Some high-climbing hill + Which to his eye _discovers_ unaware + The goodly prospect of some foreign land." + + _Par. Lost_, iii. 546. + +~Attendant Spirit descends~. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by +Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, +explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the +plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in +whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient +classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, +sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the +plot. The opening of _Comus_ prepares the audience and also directly +addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual +performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6. + +1. ~starry threshold~, etc. Comp. Virgil: "The sire of gods and monarch of +men summons a council to the starry chamber" (_sideream in sedem_), +_Aen._ x. 2. + +2. ~mansion~, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly "a +place of tarrying," which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence +'a resting-place.' Comp. _John_, xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are many +_mansions_"; and _Il Pens._ 93, "Her _mansion_ in this fleshly nook." +The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large +and important dwelling-house. ~where~, in which: the antecedent is +separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp. +lines 66, 821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection +would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection. ~shapes ... +spirits~. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual +beings with personality without making them too distinct. "Of all the +poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural +beings Milton has succeeded best" (Macaulay). We see this in _Par. Lost_ +(_e.g._ ii. 666). Compare the use of the word 'shape' (Lat. _umbra_) in +l. 207: also _L'Alleg._ 4, "horrid _shapes_ and shrieks"; and _Il Pens._ +6, "fancies fond with gaudy _shapes_ possess." Milton's use of the +demonstrative ~those~ in this line is noteworthy; comp. "_that_ last +infirmity of noble mind," _Lyc._ 71: it implies that the reference is to +something well known, and that further particularisation is needless. + +3. ~insphered~. 'Sphere,' with its derivatives 'sphery,' 'insphere,' and +'unsphere' (_Il Pens._ 88), is used by Milton with a literal reference +to the cosmical framework as a whole (see _Hymn Nat._ 48) or to some +portion of it. In Shakespeare 'sphere' occurs in the wider sense of 'the +path in which anything moves,' and it is to this metaphorical use of the +word that we owe such phrases as 'a person's sphere of life,' 'sphere of +action,' etc. See also _Comus_, 112-4, 241-3, 1021; _Arc._ 62-7; _Par. +Lost_, v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres. + +4. ~mild~: an attributive of the whole clause, 'regions of calm and serene +air.' ~calm and serene~. These are not mere synonyms: the Lat. _serenus_ = +bright or unclouded, so that the two epithets are to be respectively +contrasted with 'smoke' and 'stir' (line 5); 'calm' being opposed to +'stir' and 'serene' to 'smoke.' Compare Homer's description of the seat +of the gods: "Not by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth +the snow come nigh thereto, but _most clear_ air is spread about it +_cloudless_, and the white light floats over it," _Odyssey_, vi.: comp. +note, l. 977. + +5. ~this dim spot~. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those +immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted. + +6. There are here two attributive clauses: "which men call Earth" and +"(in which) men strive," etc. ~low-thoughted care~; narrow-minded anxiety, +care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective 'low-browed,' +_L'Alleg._ 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his _Eloisa_. + +7. This line is attributive to 'men.' ~pestered ... pinfold~, crowded +together in this cramped space, the Earth. _Pester_, which has no +connection with _pest_, is a shortened form of _impester_, Fr. +_empêtrer_, to shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The +radical sense is that of clogging (comp. _Son._ xii. 1); hence of +crowding; and finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. 'Pinfold' +is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle are _pounded_ or shut up: +etymologically, the word = _pind-fold_, a corruption of _pound-fold_. +Comp. _impound_, sheep-_fold_, etc. + +8. ~frail and feverish~. Comp. "life's fitful fever" (_Macbeth_, iii. 2. +23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative. + +9. ~crown that Virtue gives~. This is Scriptural language: comp. _Rev._ +iv. 4; 2 _Tim._ iv. 8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of +righteousness." + +10. ~this mortal change~. In Milton's MS. line 7 was followed by the +words, 'beyond the written date of mortal change,' _i.e._ beyond, or +after, man's appointed time to die. These words were struck out, but we +may suppose that the words 'mortal change' in line 10 have a similar +meaning. Milton frequently uses 'mortal' in the sense of 'liable to +death,' and hence 'human' as opposed to 'divine': the mortal change is +therefore 'the change which occurs to all human beings.' Comp. _Job_, +xiv. 14: "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my +_change_ come": see also line 841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean 'this +mortal state of life,' as distinguished from a future state of +immortality. The Spirit uses 'this' as in line 8, in contrast with +'those,' line 2. + +11. ~enthroned gods~, etc. In allusion to _Rev._ iv. 4, "And upon the +thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; +and on their heads crowns of gold." Milton frequently speaks of the +inhabitants of heaven as _enthroned_. The accent here falls on the first +syllable of the word. + +12. ~Yet some there be~, etc.: 'Although men are generally so exclusively +occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who +aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in +Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp. +_Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, +"there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to +a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~, +_i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il +Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed. + +13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their +just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._ +xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven"; +also _Lyc._ 111: + + "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain + (The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)." + +15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's +presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his +eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his +swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for +such. + +16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the +noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also +used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840; +_Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit." +'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the +Sanskrit _amríta_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the +gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_, +lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._ +hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now +used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment. +Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or +covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to +the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide +enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390. + +18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012. + +19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ... +each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp. +l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory." +_Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with +reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more. + +20. ~by lot~, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the +universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter ('high' Jove), +Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto ('nether' or Stygian Jove). In +_Iliad_ xv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: "For three brethren are we, and +sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things +divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary +sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots." ~nether~, +lower: comp. the phrase 'the upper and the nether lip,' and the name +Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton 'the nether +empire' (_Par. Lost_, ii. 295). The form _nethermost_ (_Par. Lost_, ii. +955) is, like _aftermost_ and _foremost_, a double superlative. + +21. ~sea-girt isles~. Ben Jonson calls Britain a 'sea-girt isle': comp. l. +27. _Isle_ is the M.E. _ile_, in which form the _s_ has been dropped: it +is from O.F. _isle_, Lat. _insula_. It is therefore distinct from +_island_, where an _s_ has, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E. +_iland_, A.S. _igland_ (_ig_ = island: _land_ = land). In line 50 Milton +wrote 'iland.' + +22. ~like to rich and various gems~, etc. Shakespeare describes England as +a 'precious stone set in the silver sea,' _Richard II._ ii. 1. 46: he +also speaks of Heaven as being _inlayed_ with stars, _Cym._ v. 5. 352; +_M. of V._ v. 1. 59, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick _inlaid_ +with patines of bright gold." Compare also _Par. Lost_, iv. 700, where +Milton refers to the ground as having a rich _inlay_ of flowers. But for +its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned. ~like~: here +followed by the preposition _to_, and having its proper force as an +adjective: comp. _Il Pens._ 9. Whether _like_ is used as an adjective +or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. 57. + +24. ~to grace~, _i.e._ to show favour to: a clause of purpose. + +25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits +to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct. +Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with +plural nouns. + +26. ~sapphire~. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29: +see note there. + +27. ~little tridents~, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, "with his +trident touched the stars" (_Neptune's Triumph, Proteus' Song_, Ben +Jonson). + +28. ~greatest and the best~. Comp. Shakespeare's eulogy in _Rich. II._ ii. +1: also Ben Jonson's "Albion, Prince of all his Isles," _Neptune's +Triumph, Apollo's Song_. + +29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._ +208: + + "Sailors _quarter'd_ Heaven, and found a name + For every fixt and ev'ry wandering star." + +Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into _four_ +parts: "at that time the island was actually divided into four separate +governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords +President of the North and of Wales." (Keightley). ~blue-haired deities~. +These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little +tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the +complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet 'blue-haired' +Masson asks: "Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, +inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with +Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his +subordinates": in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green +hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities _caerulei dii_, and +Neptune _caeruleus deus_, thus associating blue with the sea. + +30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is +entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer +referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was +entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the +four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and +Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the +fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's +Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and +private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a +profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a +dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as +well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in +those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. +As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of +patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and +occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the +East and the West. + +31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle' +and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom. +and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In +herbs," etc. + +33. ~An old and haughty nation~. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who +probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore +rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson's piece _For the +Honour of Wales_: + + "I is not come here to taulk of Brut, + From whence the Welse does take his root," etc. + +That they were haughty and 'proud in arms' the Romans found, and after +them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of +Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by +that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the +Barons was: "We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince +to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we +know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and +rights." By a statute of Henry VIII. this 'haughty' people were put in +possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. ~proud in +arms~: this is Virgil's _belloque superbum_, _Aen._ i. 21 (Warton). + +34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high +position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth +distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to +their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_. + +35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies +connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old +sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's +_Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and +chair_." + +36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple +adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the +form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is +formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890. +Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it +was newly assumed. See Introduction. + +37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or +twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to +inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable. + +38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also +to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_, +to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as +_horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563, +"a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~: +this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the +brow overhangs the eyes. + +39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an +adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose +utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but +in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the +prefix. See note, l. 234. + +40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the +two brothers were younger than she. + +41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a +subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was +despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may +regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick +command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being +commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is +Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is +due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate +with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639. + +43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43, +44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina +non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask +is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern +song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (= +banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and +'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his +lady. + +46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is +designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and +Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring +from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the +misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These +parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, +mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated +with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay +exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and +magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as +represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which +mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the +_Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in +Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the +clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure"; +and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the +genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is +a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically +to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow +Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the +classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who +taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on +one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: +these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the +mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins. +The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the +_Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the +isle Ææan, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of +mortal speech, own sister to the wizard Æetes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~, +etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the +more common 'out from.' + +47. ~misusèd~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by +Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all +obsolete). + +48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are +called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or +Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical +construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a +substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected +with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in +the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the +creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery +of this loss. + +49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_, +iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb +_list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer +we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word +survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was +_lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which +it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.' + +50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of +Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph +Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb +_fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the +interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech +called anadiplosis. + +51. ~charmèd cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered +magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_): +comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.' + +52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this +construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently +uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12, +"_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, § 251. ~lost +his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them +(followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and +made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with +Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them +utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup +and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in +the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, +the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of +old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns +and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do +always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._) + +54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban +Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath +of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. +_L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams. +Agon._ 569. + +55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure. + +57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may +indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as +a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Much of the father's face, + More of the mother's grace." + +58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word κῶμος denoted a +revel or merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of +riotous mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In +classical mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this +enabled Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new +characteristics. + +59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; +comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic +welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new +adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes +the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with +German _fröhlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such +words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be +compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _æger animi_ = sick +of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.' + +60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and +Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the +waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles." + +61. ~betakes him~. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan +English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple +pronouns is common (see Abbott, § 223). Compare l. 163. ~ominous~; +literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of +monsters (_Lyc._ 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense +of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,' +etc. + +65. ~orient~, bright. The Lat. _oriens_ = rising; hence (from being +applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or +'shining': comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 546, "With _orient_ colours waving." + +66. ~drouth of Phoebus~, _i.e._ thirst caused by the heat of the sun. +Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of +rain; the more usual spelling is _drought_. ~which~: see note, l. 2. +'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.' + +67. ~fond~, foolish (its primary sense). _Fonned_ was the participle of an +old verb _fonnen_, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great +liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost. +Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_"; +_Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal +men." + +68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its +effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a +drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous +draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French. + +69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of +work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a +god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine." + +71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the +cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yúz_, panther. + +72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the +bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only +the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the +performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage +direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the +absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither +the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some +attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the +purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is +usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of +pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In +Old English the dative was used. + +73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly). + +74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of +Ulysses: see note, l. 52. + +76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect +ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat +the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor +to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, +ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In +Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: +"Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave." +Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._ +viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in +sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and +the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, _F. +Q._ ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been +late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to +natural." + +77. ~sensual sty~: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted +care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes +little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to _forget_. + +78. ~favoured~: compare Lat. _gratus_ = favoured (adj.). + +79. ~adventurous~, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,' +applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. ~glade~: +strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the +wood itself. It is cognate with _glow_ and _glitter_, and its +fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat). + +80. ~glancing star~, a shooting star. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 556: + + "Swift as a shooting star + In autumn thwarts the night." + +The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense. + +81. ~convoy~: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 752, "_convoyed_ By four cherubic +shapes." It is another form of _convey_ (Lat. _con_ = together, _via_ = +a way). + +83. ~sky-robes~: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. ~Iris' woof~, material +dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the +rainbow: comp. l. 992 and _Par. Lost_, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the +woof." Etymologically, _woof_ is connected with _web_ and _weave_: it is +short for _on-wef_ = on-web, _i.e._ the cross threads laid on the warp +of a loom. + +84. ~weeds~: see note, l. 16. + +86. ~That to the service~, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, +first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of +_Comus_ by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he +alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater +family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to +compliment the Earl (see Introduction). + +86. ~smooth-dittied~: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. _dictatum_) strictly +denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; +it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. _Lyc._ +32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare _Son._ +xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted. + +87. ~knows to still~, etc.: comp. _Lyc._ 10, "he knew Himself to sing." + +88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is +skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most +likely to be at hand should any emergency arise. + +92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing"; +_Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian +word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless +winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the +formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_, +'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also +l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of +'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from +Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a +crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a +beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by +the _rout_ that made the hideous roar." + +93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the +planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by +Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer, +the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion: + + "Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... + Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."-- + + _In Memoriam_, cxxi. + +Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of +eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic. + +94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._ +31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink +towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky, +and on comes Night from the ocean." + +95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. +Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and +"Phoebus' wain," line 190. + +96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton +alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482, +"Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion +of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was +accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would +thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_ +occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_, +i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes' +dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until +the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter +pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to +confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_ +gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, +it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its +place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and +other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc. + +97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great +_stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing +Okeanos (βαθύρροος)." With this use of 'steep' compare the +phrase 'the high seas.' + +98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays +visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as +an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31). + +99. ~dusky~. Milton first wrote 'northern.' + +100. ~Pacing toward the other goal~, etc. Comp. _Psalm_ xix. 5: "The sun +as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man +to run a race." + +102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of +_L'Allegro_, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and +both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and +with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of _L'Allegro_ +begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of _Comus_ and +his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun +shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is +not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that +betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the +"midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, +Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and +cranks" of _L'Allegro_ have given way to the magic rites of _Comus_, and +the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth are +ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry. + +104. ~jollity~: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton +occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. _joli_, pretty) has its primary +sense of pleasing or festive. + +105. ~Braid your locks with rosy twine~; 'entwine your hair with wreaths +of roses.' + +106. ~dropping odours~: comp. l. 862-3. + +108. ~Advice ... scrupulous head~. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify +counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or +deliberation. See Chaucer, _Prologue_, 786, "granted him without more +_advice_"; and comp. Shakespeare, _M. of V._ iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon +more _advice_, Hath sent you here this ring"; also _Par. Lost_, ii. 376, +"_Advise_, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See +also l. 755, note. _Scrupulous_ = full of scruples, conscientious. + +110. ~saws~, sayings, maxims. _Saw_, _say_, and _saga_ (a Norwegian +legend) are cognate. + +111. ~of purer fire~, _i.e._ having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as +there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = +divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living +creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the +Stoics held that whatever consisted of _pure fire_ was divine, _e.g._ +the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112. + +112. ~the starry quire~: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see +lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds +proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial +concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurgèd ear" of mankind: +comp. l. 458 and _Arc._ 63-73. Shakespeare (_M. of V._ v. 1. 61) alludes +to the music of the spheres: + + "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st + But in his motion like an angel sings, + Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc. + +_Quire_ is a form of _choir_ (Lat. _chorus_, a band of singers); in +Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the +audience. _Quire_ (of paper) is a totally different word, probably +derived from Lat. _quatuor_, four. + +113. ~nightly watchful spheres~. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars +keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright," +_Hymn Nat._ 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of +'nocturnal': comp. _Il Pens._ 84, "To bless the doors from _nightly_ +harm"; _Arc._ 48, "_nightly_ ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The _nightly_ +hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night." + +114. ~Lead in swift round~. Comp. _Arc._ 71: "And the low world in +measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune." + +115. ~sounds~, straits: A.S. _sund_, a strait of the sea, so called +because it could be _swum_ across. See Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ _s.v._ + +116. ~to the moon~, _i.e._ as affected by the moon. For similar uses of +'to,' comp. _Lyc._ 33, "tempered _to_ the oaten flute"; _Lyc._ 44, +"fanning their joyous leaves _to_ thy soft lays." ~morrice~. The waters +quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish +dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into +England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"--a weapon used +by the Moors in Spain. + +117. ~shelves~, flat ledges of rock. + +118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of +_perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat +points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._ +"_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a +child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and +Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_ +into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du. +_dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of +'neat.' + +119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with +_dingle_ and _dapple_. + +120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies +pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens." + +121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The +adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin +_vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a +church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening +merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense +in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception +_proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the +rule. + +124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is +Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object +being 'Love.' + +125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage +requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535. + +126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the +sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When +night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial." + +127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The +horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark. + +129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' +because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian +divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because +the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water. + +131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the +abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of +darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night +being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_, +i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict +sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore," +it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. +_uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the +dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you +_dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing +of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks +her dragon yoke." + +132. ~spets~, a form of _spits_ (as _spettle_ for _spittle_). + +133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63. +Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature." + +134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is +'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~, +black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb. +_eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has +become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness. + +135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecatè (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian +divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these +reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson +calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at +night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the +souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs. + +136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn +That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.' + +137. ~dues~: see note, l. 12. + +138. ~blabbing eastern scout~, _i.e._ the tale-telling spy that comes from +the East, viz. Morning. + +139. ~nice~; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet, +expressing at once _curious_ and _squeamish_" (Hurd). It is used by +Comus in contempt: comp. ii. _Henry IV._ iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou +_nice_ crutch"; and see the index to the Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian +steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the +"light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._ +in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and +Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over +_Indian_ seas." + +140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._ +the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps," +said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of +the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally +'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small. + +141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, + + "The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun, + For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light." + +Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In +_Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed +Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our +hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_: +both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and +Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.' + +142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_, +complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_. +Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed +year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated +intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._ +serious or important. + +143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Now, now begin to set + Your spirits in active heat; + And, since your hands are met, + Instruct your nimble feet, + In motions swift and meet, + The happy ground to beat." + +144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as +you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in +which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained. +So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has +not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a +form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_). + +At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after +which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked +by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in +octosyllabic couplets. + +145. ~different~, _i.e._ different from the voluptuous footing of Comus +and his crew. + +146. ~footing~: comp. _Lyc._ 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went _footing_ +slow." + +147. ~shrouds~, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes +'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and +finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of +Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The +Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of +the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. ~brakes~, bushes. Shakespeare has +"hawthorn-_brake_," _M. N. D._ iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be +connected with _bracken_. + +148. ~Some virgin sure~, _sc._ 'it is.' + +150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements. +_Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic +verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile). +_Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains' +(_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note" +(_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some +would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles. + +151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was +an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a +preposition. + +153. ~Thus I hurl~, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance +the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture +as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is +kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft +among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is _powdered spells_; but Milton, by +a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, +substituted _dazzling_" (Masson). + +154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A +_spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying): +here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called +because it holds in suspension the magic powder. + +155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are +attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a +characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear +illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision. +Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam. +Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial +argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W. +Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_. + +156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from +_presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_): +while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being +before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense +of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. +_cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In +French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_, +neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or +delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.' + +158. ~suspicious flight~: flight due to suspicion of danger. + +160. ~I, under fair pretence~, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly +intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I +insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.' + +161. ~glozing~, flattering, wheedling. Compare _Par. Lost_, ix. 549, + + "So _glozed_ the temper, and his proem tuned: + Into the heart of Eve his words made way." + +_Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr. +_glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in +his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names +are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely +denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an +endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with _gloss_ = +brightness. + +162. ~Baited~, rendered attractive. Radically _bait_ is the causative of +_bite_; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. _Sams. Ag._ 1066, "The +_bait_ of honied words." + +163. ~wind me~, etc. The verbs _wind_ (_i.e._ coil) and _hug_ suggest the +cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart +or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in +_Anat. of Mel._, says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible +spirit, can easily insinuate and _wind_ himself into human bodies." +_Me_ is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic +dative. + +165. ~virtue~, _i.e._ power or influence (Lat. _virtus_). This radical +sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The +adjective _virtuous_ is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 +it has its older meaning. + +166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. +In the edition of 1673 the reading was: + + "I shall appear some harmless villager, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + But here she comes, I fairly step aside." + +But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after _may_, +and to change _here_ into _hear_. In Masson's text, accordingly, he +reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear." + +167. ~keeps up~, etc., _i.e._ keeps occupied with his country affairs even +up to a late hour. _Gear_: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S. +_gearu_, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ +vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was _easy gear_," _i.e._ an easy matter, +fairly, softly. _Fair_ and _softly_ were two words which went together, +signifying _gently_ (Warton). + +170. ~mine ear ... My best guide~. Observe the juxtaposition of _mine_ and +_my_ in these lines. _Mine_ is frequent before a vowel, especially when +the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is +almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is +intended (Abbott, § 237). + +171. ~Methought~, _i.e._ it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' _me_ is +the dative, and _thinks_ is an impersonal verb (A.S. _thincan_, to +appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from +A.S. _thencan_, to make to appear. + +173. ~jocund~, merry. Comp. _L'Allegro_, 94, "the _jocund_ rebecks sound." +~gamesome~, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in _-some_, is +now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives +are obsolete, _e.g._ laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's +_English, Past and Present_, v.). + +174. ~unlettered hinds~, ignorant rustics (A.S. _hina_, a domestic). + +175. ~granges~, granaries, barns (Lat. _granum_, grain). The word is now +applied to a farm-house with its outhouses. + +176. ~Pan~, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see _Arc._ +106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." + +177. ~thank the gods amiss~. _Amiss_ stands for M.E. _on misse_ = in +error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods +should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making" +(Keightley). See Introduction. + +178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those +carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily, +hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_; +from _wes_, be thou, and _hál_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form +of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the +sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to +is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_, +the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir +Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk." + +180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_ +your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well +illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when +they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright." + +184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect. + +187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which +attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. +_As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun. + +188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited," +_Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning. + +189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. +_votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to +one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present +case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a +palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would +naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a +palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is +a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16. + +190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically +realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a +venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some +rich man's chariot" (Masson). + +192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts. + +193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that +in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To +_engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge. + +195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is +frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious +darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide +the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is +therefore to some extent tautological. + +197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be +concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern +is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_, +which turns its bright side only to him that bears it." + +198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57: + + "By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove + Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:" + +also _Macbeth_, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles +are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung +in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate _in sense_ with the next +clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps" +is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. +l. 6. + +203. ~rife~, prevalent. ~perfect~, distinct; see note, l. 73. + +204. ~single darkness~, darkness only. _Single_ is from the same base as +_simple_; comp. l. 369. + +205. ~What might this be?~ This is a direct question about a past event, +and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note +there. ~A thousand fantasies~, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That +wonderful passage in _Comus_ of the airy tongues, perhaps the most +imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry +sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to +understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the _Anat. of Mel._: +"Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth +over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the +dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie +presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or +phantasy, Shakespeare says: + + "As imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to _shapes_, and gives to _airy nothing_ + A local habitation and a name."-- + + _M. N. D._ v. 1. 14. + +Compare also Ben Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, + And spread thy purple wings; + Now all thy figures are allow'd, + And various shapes of things: + Create of _airy forms_ a stream ... + And though it be a waking dream," etc. + +207. ~Of calling shapes~, etc. In Heywood's _Hierarchy of Angels_ there is +a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such +words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's +power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. _Aen._ iv. +460. ~beckoning shadows dire~. A characteristic arrangement of words in +Milton: comp. lines 470, 945. + +208. ~syllable~, pronounce distinctly. + +210. ~may startle well~, may well startle. + +212. ~siding champion, Conscience~. To side is to take a side, and hence +to assist: comp. _Cor._ iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have _sided_ in his +behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: +in _Son._ xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2. +379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet +Conscience." + +213. ~pure-eyed Faith~. Comp. _Lyc._ 81, "those pure eyes And perfect +witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of +purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her +purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by +an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,' +'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of +Charity in the trio is significant: see i. _Cor._ xiii. + +214. ~hovering angel~. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The +word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt, +surrounded. ~golden wings~. In _Il Pens._ 52, Contemplation "soars on +golden wing." + +216. ~see ye visibly~, _i.e._ you are not mere shapes, but living +presences. _Ye_: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between +_ye_ and _you_ did not exist in old English; _ye_ was always used as a +nominative, and _you_ as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible +the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the +Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris). +It is so in Milton, who has _ye_ as nominative, accusative, and dative; +comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also _Arc._ 40, 81, 101. It may be noted +that _ye_ can be pronounced more rapidly than _you_, and is therefore +frequent when an unaccented syllable is required. + +217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it +must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' +or punishment. + +219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' +of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate +words. + +221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of +line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a +glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the +same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of +an unaccusing conscience. + +222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine. + +223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and +'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the +auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due +probably to change of thought. + +225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_ +trees." + +226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_, +and _holloa_. + +227. ~make to be heard~. Make = cause. + +228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly +enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36. + +229. ~they~, _i.e._ the brothers. + +230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by +preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after +others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until +nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in +Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1. + +The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very +Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to +rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, +and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth +Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers. + +231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of +Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is +_cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_, +because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the +form of a shell. + +232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, +remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' +and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a +haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses +Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost +Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with +music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and +the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash +contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being +thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._ +58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a +reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down +the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is +associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost +brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above +was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of +Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous +haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and +Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" +(_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are +forms of the same word. + +233. ~the violet-embroidered vale~. The notion that flowers _broider_ or +ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 700: +"Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay +_Broidered_ the ground." In _Lyc._ 148, the flowers themselves wear +'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale +because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's _Masque of +Hymen_) and with innocence (see _Hamlet_, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you +some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales, +however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and +argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close +by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and +where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus +as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet +'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek ἰοστέφανος +(= crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, +of which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the +violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might +here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in _Par. Reg._ +iv. 245: see the following note. + +234. ~love-lorn nightingale~, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost: +comp. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the +poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night +through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and +fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." _Lorn_ and +_lost_ are cognate words, the former being common in the compound +_forlorn_: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the +nightingale: in _Il Penseroso_ it is 'Philomel'; in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245, +it is 'the Attic bird'; and in _Par. Lost_ viii. 518, it is 'the amorous +bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of +Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was +Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales +(Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale +that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The +epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of Aēdon +(Greek ἀηδών, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by mistake, +was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was represented by +the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her child. + +235. ~her sad song mourneth~, _i.e._ sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad +song' forms a kind of cognate accusative. + +237. ~likest thy Narcissus~. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of +Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image +reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he +accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his +name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in _Cynthia's Revels_, +i. 1. Grammatically, _likest_ is an adjective qualified adverbially by +"(to) thy Narcissus": comp. _Il Pens._ 9, "likest hovering dreams." + +238. ~have hid~. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), +but the subjunctive mood. + +240. ~Tell me but where~, _i.e._ 'Only tell me where.' + +241. ~Sweet Queen of Parley~, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. _parler_, +to speak): _parlour_, _parole_, _palaver_, _parliament_, _parlance_. +etc., are cognate. ~Daughter of the Sphere~, _i.e._ of the sphere which is +her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice +and Verse" (_At a Solemn Music_, 2). + +243. ~give resounding grace~, etc., _i.e._ add the charm of echo to the +music of the spheres. + +The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in +length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more +striking owing to the consonance of _shell_, _well_ with _vale_, +_nightingale_; also of _pair_, _where_ with _are_ and _sphere_; and of +_have_ with _cave_. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration +of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical +passages. + +244. ~mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment~. The words _mortal_ +and _divine_ are in antithesis: comp. _Il Pens._ 91, 92, "The immortal +mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines +embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555 +and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. _Il +Pens._ 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794. + +246. ~Sure~, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266. + +247. ~vocal~, used proleptically. + +248. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.' + +251. ~smoothing the raven down~. As the nightingale's song smooths the +rugged brow of Night (_Il Pens._ 58), so here the song of the lady +smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a +winged goddess. + +252. ~it~, _i.e._ darkness. + +253. ~Circe ... Sirens three~. In the _Odyssey_ the Sirens are two in +number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island +off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured +sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a +sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined +allusion: see also Horace's _Epist._ i. 2, 23, _Sirenum voces, et Circes +pocula nôsti_. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god +Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids. + +254. ~flowery-kirtled Naiades~: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or +having their skirts decorated with flowers. A _kirtle_ is a gown; Skeat +suggests that it is a diminutive of _skirt_. + +255. ~baleful~, injurious (A.S. _balu_, evil). + +256. ~sung~. "The verbs _swim_, _begin_, _run_, _drink_, _shrink_, _sink_, +_ring_, _sing_, _spring_, have for their proper past tenses _swam_, +_began_, _ran_, etc., preserving the original _a_; but in older writers +(sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find +forms with _u_, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris). +~take the prisoned soul~, _i.e._ would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned' +being used proleptically. + +257. ~lap it in Elysium~. _Lap_ is a form of wrap: comp. _L'Alleg._ 136, +"_Lap_ me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the +blessed; comp. _L'Alleg._ 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." ~Scylla ... +Charybdis~. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god +Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She +threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the +surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," _Aen._ vii. 588) +resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, +and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool. + +260. ~slumber~: comp. _Pericles_, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon +mine eyes." + +261. ~madness~, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in _Il Pens._ 164: "As +may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into _ecstasies_, And +bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in +the sense of madness; see _Hamlet_, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form +and feature of blown youth, Blasted with _ecstasy_"; _Temp._ iii. 3. +108, "hinder them from what this _ecstasy_ May now provoke them to": +comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," _Wint. Tale_, v. 3. 73. See +also l. 625. + +262. ~home-felt~, deeply felt. Compare "The _home_ thrust of a friendly +sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes _home_ to +our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +263. ~waking bliss~, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the +song of Circe. + +265. ~Hail, foreign wonder!~ Warton notes that _Comus_ is universally +allowed to have taken some of its tints from the _Tempest_, and quotes, +"O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426. + +266. ~certain~: see note, l. 246. + +267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in +rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless' +(Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, +also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the +antecedent. + +268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that +Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." +Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is +corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood). + +269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in +which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and +"mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a +reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the +Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95. + +271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male +perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to +"there is little loss in losing." + +273. ~extreme shift~; last resource. Comp. l. 617. + +274. ~my severed company~: a condensed expression = the companions +separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called +Synecdoche. + +277. ~What chance~, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that +form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer +occupy alternate lines: it is called _stichomythia_, and is admirable +when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the +_Supplices_ of Euripides). In _Samson Agonistes_, which is modelled on +the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it. + +278. An alliterative line. + +279. ~near ushering~, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. +_ostium_, a door). + +284. ~twain~: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after +its substantive as in _Lyc._ 110, "of metals _twain_," and as a +substantive. + +285. ~forestalling~, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing +term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a _stall_ in +the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to +anticipate.' ~prevented~. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' +seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to +anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l. +362; _Par. Lost_, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this +_prevention_ more Incensed." + +286. ~to hit~. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. +"good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc. + +287. ~Imports their loss~, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the +loss of them important?' + +289. ~manly prime~, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they +merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth' +ends: comp. _Par. Lost_, xi. 245, "_prime_ in manhood where youth +ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet +such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' = +Spring. + +290. ~Hebe~, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared +on the lips of the brothers. + +291. ~what time~: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. _quo tempore_). +Compare Horace, _Od._ iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." ~laboured~: +wearied with labour. + +292. ~loose traces~. Because no longer taut from the draught of the +plough. + +293. ~swinked~, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. _swincan_, to toil). +Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense +of toil is due to that of constant movement from the _swinging_ of the +labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman. + +294. ~mantling~, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. +_Temp._ v. 1. 67, "fumes that _mantle_ Their clearer reason." + +297. ~port~, bearing, mien. + +298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than +the current form. + +299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher +Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the +four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means +'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it +doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er +the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc. + +301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more +properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her +sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l. +372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. +'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.' + +302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before +_-ed_. + +303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it +would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the +Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._ +vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth." + +304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used +without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the +preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the +sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the +infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The +infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, +which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became +confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general. +Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day." + +305. ~readiest way~. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate. + +311. ~each ... every~: see note, l. 19. ~alley~, a walk or avenue. + +312. ~Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn~. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben +Jonson's _Sad Shepherd_) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a +narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so +deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or +thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word +etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus, +might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred +to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or _bush_ (M.E. _busch_, +_bush_, _bush_). 'See Tennyson's _Dream of F. W._ 243, "the sombre +_boscage_ of the wood." + +315. ~stray attendance~ = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in +line 274. Comp. _Par. Lost_, x. 80, "_Attendance_ none shall need, nor +train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous _servitude_" (= +servants). + +316. ~shroud~, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see +note, l. 147. + +317. ~low-roosted lark~, _i.e._ the lark that has roosted on the ground. +This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising +from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground. +'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with _rest_, but denotes a +perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of +supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may +therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson +takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the +corn-stalks or rushes over it. + +318. ~rouse~. Here used intransitively = awake. + +322. ~honest-offered~: see notes, ll. 36, 228. + +323. ~sooner~, more readily. + +324. ~tapestry halls~. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of +carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating +walls." The word is said to be from the Persian. + +325. ~first was named~. The meaning is: '_Courtesy_ which is derived from +_court_, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is +nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This +sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a +humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes, +_courtship_) has, like _civility_, lost much of its deeper significance. +Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 1. 1: + + "Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, + For that it there most useth to abound." + +327. ~less warranted~, _i.e._ when I have less _guarantee_ of safety. +_Guarantee_ and _warrant_, like _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, +are radically the same. + +329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies +watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj. +'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the +action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt +said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly." +~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage. + +331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._ +'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is +a diminutive of _muff_. + +332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd +person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed; +hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_ +state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and +its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle +being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle +formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun +_wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in +his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a +participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was +wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat. +_benedictio_). + +333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72, +"_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used +with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il +Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the +stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and +_amber_ light," and Tennyson: + + "What time the _amber_ morn + Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud." + +334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87, +"This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of) +her." + +336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is +employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it +was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the +planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on, +inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain +_influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various +_influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language, +_e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. +360. + +337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)." + +338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a +rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil. + +340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par. +Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The +instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or +ruler. + +341. ~star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure~; here put by synecdoche for +'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the +stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors +steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part +of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was +called _Cynosura_, the dog's tail (Greek κυνὸς οὐρά), and by +which Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See _L'Alleg._ 80, "The +_cynosure_ of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common +noun = point of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek +mythology with the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into +the Great Bear while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton +follows the Roman poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this +account. + +343. ~barred~, debarred or barred _from_. + +344. ~wattled cotes~: enclosures made of hurdles, _i.e._ frames of +plaited twigs. _Cote_, _cot_, and _coat_ are varieties of the same word += a covering or enclosure. + +345. ~oaten stops~: see _Lyc._ 33, "the _oaten_ flute"; 88, "But now my +_oat_ proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various _quills_." The +shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe," +"oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to +signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the +player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages" +(_Ham._ iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893. + +346. ~whistle ... lodge~, _i.e._ the sound of the shepherd calling his dog +by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in _L'Alleg._ 63, +"the ploughman _whistles_ o'er the furrowed land." + +347. ~Count ... dames~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts +his _dames_ before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings." +Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object +of 'might hear.' + +349. ~innumerous~, innumerable (Lat. _innumerus_). Comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. +455, "_Innumerous_ living creatures"; ix. 1089. + +350. ~hapless~, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, +etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or +bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an +unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary. + +With reference to the word _fortune_, Max Müller says: "We speak of good +and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself +_fortuna_ was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally +meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans +defined _fortuna_ by such adjectives as _bona_, _secunda_, _prospera_, +for good; _mala_ or _adversa_ for bad fortune ... _Fortuna_ came to mean +something like chance." + +351. ~her~, herself. On the reflexive use of _her_, see note, l. 163. + +352. ~burs~; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, _e.g._ the +burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc. + +355. ~leans~. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply +_she_: otherwise _leans_ would be intransitive and its nominative +'head': see note, l. 715. ~fraught~, freighted, filled. _Freight_ is +itself a later form of _fraught_: in _Sams. Agon._, 1075, _fraught_ is a +noun (Ger. _fracht_, a load). See line 732. + +356. ~What~, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) +if (she be) in wild amazement?" + +358. ~savage hunger~. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals. + +359. ~over-exquisite~, _i.e._ too curious, over-inquisitive. _Exquisite_ +is here used in the sense of _inquisitive_; in modern English +'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active +sense (Lat. _quaero_, to seek): see note, l. 714. + +"The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between +fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common +apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds +on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here +the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast +of character" (Warton). + +360. ~To cast the fashion~, _i.e._ to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was +common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii. +_Henry IV._ i. 1. 166, "You _cast_ the event of war." Some think, +however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used +in astrology, _e.g._ "to _cast_ a nativity"; others see in it a +reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis. + +361. ~Grant they be so~: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn +out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364. + +362. ~What need~, etc., _i.e._ why should a man anticipate his hour of +sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. _quid_): comp. l. 752; also _On +Shakespeare_, 6, "_What need'st_ thou such weak witness of thy name?" On +the verb _need_ Abbott, § 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,' +where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need' +a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge +much broader than the flood?' _M. Ado_, i. 1. 318; either '_why need_ +the bridge (be) broader?' or '_what need_ is there (that) the bridge +(be) broader?'" + +363. Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we +have," etc.; and Pope's _Essay on Man_, "Heaven from all creatures hides +the book of fate," etc. + +366. ~to seek~, at a loss. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 197: "Unpractised, +unprepared, and still _to seek_." Bacon, in _Adv. of Learning_, has: +"Men bred in learning are perhaps _to seek_ in points of convenience." + +367. ~unprincipled in virtue's book~, _i.e._ ignorant of the elements of +virtue. A principle (Lat. _principium_, beginning) is a fundamental +truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man +who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into +evil. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness +_principled_." + +368. ~bosoms~, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is +governed by 'in,' l. 367. + +369. ~As that~, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to +'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by +'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we +have both connectives together. ~single~: see note, l. 204. noise, sound. + +370. ~Not being in danger~, _i.e._ she not being in danger: absolute +construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional +clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need +not disquiet her.' + +371. ~constant~, steadfast. + +372. ~misbecoming~: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. ~plight~, condition. +Skeat derives this word from A.S. _pliht_, danger; others connect it with +_pledge_. It is distinct from _plight_, l. 301. + +373. ~Virtue could see~, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines +381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for +to wade," _F. Q._ i. 1. 12. + +375. ~flat sea~: comp. _Lyc._ 98, "level brine": Lat. _aequor_, a flat +surface, used of the sea. + +376. ~seeks to~, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the +English Bible: see _Deut._ xii. 5, "_unto_ his habitation shall ye +_seek_"; _Isaiah_, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. _Kings_, x. 24. + +377. ~her best nurse, Contemplation~. The wise man loves contemplation and +solitude: comp. _Il Penseroso_, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is +the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's +_Arcadia_, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations." + +378. ~plumes~. Some would read _prunes_, both words being used of a bird's +smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out +damaged feathers. See Skeat's _Dictionary_, and compare Pope's line, +"Where Contemplation _prunes_ her ruffled wings." + +379. ~various~, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in +_L'Allegro_ the 'busy hum of men.' + +380. ~all to-ruffled~. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be +interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled, +(3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is +etymologically correct: _to_ is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' = +to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while _all_ (= +quite) is simply an adverb modifying _to-ruffled_. But about 1500 A.D. +this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix _to_ was detached from the +verb and either read along with _all_ (thus all-to = altogether), or +confused with _too_ (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is +doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may +have disregarded its origin. See Morris, § 324; Abbott, §§ 28, 436. + +381. ~He that has light~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 254: 'The mind is +its own place,' etc. + +382. ~centre~, _i.e._ centre of the earth: comp. _Par. Lost_ i. 686, "Men +also ... Ransacked the _centre_"; and _Hymn Nat._ 162, "The aged Earth +... Shall from the surface to the _centre_ shake." Sometimes the word +'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the _fixed_ centre of the whole +universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed, +however, is not that of immovability (as in _Par. Reg._ iv. 534, "as a +_centre_ firm") but of utter darkness. + +385. ~his own dungeon~: comp. _Sams. Agon._ 156, "Thou art become (O worst +imprisonment!) The _dungeon_ of thyself." + +386. ~most affects~: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes +rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. _pretend_. Lines 386-392 may +be compared with _Il Pens._ 167-174. + +393. ~Hesperian tree~. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden +apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless +dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp. +Tennyson's _Dream of Fair Women_, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd +Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983. + +395. ~unenchanted~, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be +enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,' +'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for +'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott (§ 375) says: The +passive participle is often used to signify, not that which _was_ and +_is_, but that which _was_ and therefore _can be hereafter_; in other +words _-ed_ is used for _-able_. + +396. Compare Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, 44, "She flowered in virginity, +With all humility and abstinence." + +398. ~unsunned~, hidden. Comp. _Cym._ ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as _unsunned_ +snow"; _F. Q._ ii. 7, "Mammon ... _Sunning_ his treasure hoar." + +400. ~as bid me hope~, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to) +hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a +single helpless maiden pass uninjured.' + +401. ~Danger will wink on~, etc., _i.e._ danger will shut its eyes to an +opportunity. To _wink on_ or _wink at_ is to connive, to refuse to see +something: comp. _Macbeth_, i. 4. 52, "The eye _wink_ at the hand"; +_Acts_, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in _As You +Like It_, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold." + +403. ~surrounding~. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who +uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has +acquired through a supposed connection with _round_. Shakespeare does +not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. _superundare_). + +404. ~it recks me not~, _i.e._ I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old +verb _reck_ (A.S. _récan_, to care). Comp. _Lyc._ 122, "What _recks_ it +them." + +405. ~dog them both~, _i.e._ follow closely upon night and loneliness. +Comp. _All's Well_, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger _dogs_ the heels of +worth." + +407. ~unownèd~, _i.e._ 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' +Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a +participle. + +408. ~infer~, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See +Shakespeare, iii. _Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 44, "_Inferring_ arguments of mighty +force"; _K. John_, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs _infer_ this +principle": also _Par. Lost_, viii. 91, "great or bright _infers_ not +excellence." + +409. ~without all doubt~, _i.e._ beyond all doubt: a Latinism = _sine omni +dubitatione_. + +411. ~arbitrate the event~, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the +result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded +I incline to hope.' + +413. ~squint suspicion~. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and +squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates +suspicion. + +419. ~if Heaven gave it~, _i.e._ even _although_ Heaven gave it. + +420. ~'Tis chastity~. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 +is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an +exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson). + +421. ~clad in complete steel~, _i.e._ completely armed; comp. _Hamlet_, i. +4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable. + +422. ~quivered nymph~. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow +and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in +Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a +bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin _pharetrata_. + +423. ~trace~, traverse, track. ~unharboured~, affording no shelter. +Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter. + +424. ~Infámous~, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now +implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult. + +425. ~sacred rays~: comp. l. 782. + +426. ~bandite or mountaineer~. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare _bandetto_, and +now _bandit_) is borrowed from the Italian _bandito_, outlawed or +_banned_. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it +has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers +in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the +changes of meaning. See _Temp._ iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that +there were _mountaineers_ Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also _Cym._ iv. 2. +120, "Who called me traitor, _mountaineer_." + +428. ~very desolation~. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced +to Lat. _verus_ = true: comp. l. 646. + +429. ~shagged ... shades~. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is +probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38. + +430. ~unblenched~, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded +with 'unblanched,' is from _blench_, a causal of _blink_. + +431. ~Be it not~: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not. + +432. ~Some say~, etc. Compare _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158: + + "Some say that, ever against that season comes + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, + The bird of dawning singeth all night long: + And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad." + +433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are +found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different +orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in +his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds +of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and +subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc." + +434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a +prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2. +188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or +wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of +spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._ +v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend +Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his +matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover), +the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a +signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished. + +436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read, +"Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. +Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are +commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old +writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines +there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the +labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_) +here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits +were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the +_swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making. + +438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like +_you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § +236. + +439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from +the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of +Greece. + +440. ~to testify~, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421. + +441. ~Dian~. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was +insensible to the bolts of Cupid, _i.e._ to the power of love. She was +the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the +same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and +animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 1, +"Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc. + +442. ~silver-shafted queen~. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as +huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which +were frequently called _shafts_, and as the latter she bore shafts or +rays of light. _Shaft_ is etymologically 'a _shaven_ rod.' In Chaucer, +_C. T._ 1364, 'shaft' = arrow. + +443. ~brinded lioness~. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "_brinded_ +cat," _Macb._ iv. 1. 1: _brind_ is etymologically connected with +_brand_. + +444. ~mountain-pard~, _i.e._ panther or other spotted wild beast. _Pard_, +originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-_pard_ and +camelo-_pard_. + +445. ~frivolous ... Cupid~. See the speech of Oberon, _M. N. D._ ii. 1. +65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as +the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros +who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l. +1004. + +447. ~snaky-headed Gorgon shield~. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, +frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and +who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa +was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. +Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield, +which confounded Cupid: see _Par. Lost_, ii. 610. + +449. ~freezed~, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, +the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.' + +450. ~But~, except: a preposition. + +451. ~dashed~, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete. + +452. ~blank awe~: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank +astonishment,' and see _Par. Lost_, ix. 890. + +454. ~so~, _i.e._ chaste. + +455. ~liveried angels lackey her~, _i.e._ ministering angels attend her. +So, in _L'Alleg._ 62, "the clouds in thousand _liveries_ dight"; a +servant's livery being the distinctive dress _delivered_ to him by his +master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy, +who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good +sense, without implying servility (as in _Ant. and Cleop._ i. 4. 46, +"_lackeying_ the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the +feminine personification: see line 396. + +457. ~vision~: a trisyllable. + +458. ~no gross ear~. See notes, l. 112 and 997. + +459. ~oft converse~, frequent communion. _Oft_ is here used adjectively: +this use is common in the English Bible, _e.g._ i. _Tim._ v. 23, "thine +_often_ infirmities." + +460. ~Begin to cast ... turns~. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is +indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and +vividness. + +461. ~temple of the mind~, _i.e._ the body. This metaphor is common: see +Shakespeare, _Temp._ i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a +_temple_"; and the Bible, _John_, ii. 21, "He spake of the _temple_ of +his body." + +462. ~the soul's essence~. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually +became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality. + +465. ~most~, above all. + +467. ~soul grows clotted~. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's _Phaedo_, +in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes: + + _Socrates_ (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself + invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and + immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, + and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and + wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as + they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this + true, Cebes? + + _Cebes._ Yes; beyond a doubt. + + _Soc._ But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the + time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body + always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the + desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that + the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and + see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I + mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual + principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be + attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will + depart pure and unalloyed? + + _Ceb._ That is impossible. + + _Soc._ She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual + association and constant care of the body have wrought into her + nature. + + _Ceb._ Very true. + + _Soc._ And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty + and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed + and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is + afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about + tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell + us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not + departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible. + + _Ceb._ That is very likely, Socrates. + + _Soc._ Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the + souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to + wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former + evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the + craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are + imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to + find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their + former lives. + +Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says: + + Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the + soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes + that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from + agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is + obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever + to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the + body.--_Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues._ + +468. ~imbodies and imbrutes~, _i.e._ becomes materialised and brutish. +_Imbody_, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. +_Imbrute_ (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in +_Par. Lost_, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have +been suggested by the _Phaedo_, where the souls of the wicked are said +to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their +former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and +animals of that sort. + +469. ~divine property~. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that +divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, _Sat._ ii. 2. 79, +"affigit humo _divinae particulam aurae_"; and Plato's _Phaedo_, "The +soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal." + +470. ~gloomy shadows damp~: see note, l. 207. + +471. ~charnel-vaults~, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. _charnel_, Lat. +_carnalis_; _caro_, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474. + +473. ~As loth~, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the +body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and +degraded state.' ~it~: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in +thought) '_such_ shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with +'soul,' line 467. + +474. ~sensualty~. The modern form of the word is _sensuality_. + +475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter +because 'imbruted.' + +476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the +divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it). + +477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish) +and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the +idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat). + +478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par. +Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright +_Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair." + +479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. νέκταρ, the drink of the +gods) is repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: +see l. 838; _Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426. + +482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct +question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It +seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about +the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more +perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, § 325). ~For certain~, +_i.e._ for certain truth, certainly. + +483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to +founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the +bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in +a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is +sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very +expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and +have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of +'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.' + +484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in +Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near. + +487. ~Best draw~: we had best draw our swords. + +489. ~Defence is a good cause~, etc., _i.e._ 'in defending ourselves we +are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.' + +490. ~That hallo~. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has +halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given +in the edition of _Comus_ printed by Lawes in 1637: _He hallos; the +Guardian Dæmon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd._ + +491. ~you fall~, etc., _i.e._ otherwise you will fall on our swords. + +493. ~sure~: see note, l. 246. + +494. ~Thyrsis~, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In +Milton's _Epitaphium Damonis_ it stands for Milton himself; in _Comus_ +it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical +genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative +verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the +poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced +this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by +calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems. + +495. ~sweetened ... dale~; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying +that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music. + +496. ~huddling~. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: +comp. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 19, "Et _properantis_ aquae per amoenos +ambitus agros." ~madrigal~: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. _mandra_, +a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and +by Milton's father. + +497. ~swain~: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly +a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds +boat-_swain_, cox-_swain_. See _Arc._ 26, "Stay, gentle _swains_," etc. + +499. ~pent~, penned, participle of _pen_, to shut up (A.S. _pennan_, which +is connected with _pin_, seen in _pin_-fold, l. 7). ~forsook~: a form of +the past tense used for the participle. + +501. ~and his next joy~, _i.e._ 'and (thou), his next joy'--words +addressed to the second brother. + +502. ~trivial toy~, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but +'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known. +Compare _Il Pens._ 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your _toys_"; and +Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a +cause." + +503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by. + +506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of +mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom +common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this +correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187. + +508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive +clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in +Shakespeare (Abbott, § 37), where it sometimes has the force of an +adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the +radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc. + +509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_); +hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being +common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of +known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in +_sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his +face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_ +(1886), page 170. + +510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part. + +511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This +exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas, +for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line +_true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his +having arrived at the age of twenty-three_. + +512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written +'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets. + +513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216. + +514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12; +_Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame." + +515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the +chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as +"taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, +"great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung." + +516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past +participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il +Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; +Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_. + +517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. +618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a +lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by +Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a +terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such +fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. +_chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe +and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_. + +518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, +entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in +the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_); +here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus. + +519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_. + +520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123) +speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was +'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel +of the earth.' + +521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up +within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall). + +523. ~witcheries~, enchantments. + +526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or +murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) +over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 +and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless." + +529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those +signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure +is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp +them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. χαρακτήρ, an +engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The +word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the +first. + +531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, +generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8, +"low-browed rocks." + +532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is +frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' +might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.' + +533. ~monstrous rout~; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. +'the bottom of the monstrous world,' _Lyc._ 158. In _Aen._ vii. 15, we +read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling +noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling." + +534. ~stabled wolves~, wolves in their dens. _Stable_ (= a standing-place) +is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, _e.g._ in _Par. Lost_, +xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and _stabled_." Comp. "Stable for +camels," _Ezek._ xxv. 5, and the Latin _stabulum_, _Aen._ vi. 179, +_stabula alta ferarum_. + +535. ~Hecate~: see l. 135. + +536. ~bowers~: see note, l. 45. + +539. ~unweeting~; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, both in the compounds and in the simple verb +_weet_, a corruption of _wit_ (A.S. _witan_, to know). Compare _Par. +Reg._ i. 126, "_unweeting_, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." _Sams. +Agon._ 1680; Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, "Virginius came _to weet_ the +judge's will." + +540. ~by then~, _i.e._ by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus +implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is +generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone +is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical. + +542. ~knot-grass~. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however, +suppose marjoram to be intended here. ~dew-besprent~, _i.e._ besprinkled +with dew: comp. _Lyc._ 29. _Be_ is an intensive prefix; _sprent_ is +connected with M.E. _sprengen_, to scatter, of which _sprinkle_ is the +frequentative form. + +543. ~sat me down~: see note, l. 61. + +544. ~canopied, and interwove~. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 2. 49, 'I know a +bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to +'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of _weave_, viz. +_wove_ and _woven_: see _Arc._ 47. + +545. ~flaunting~, showy, garish. In _Lyc._ 146, the poet first wrote +'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.' + +547. ~meditate ... minstrelsy~, _i.e._ to sing a pastoral song: comp. +_Lyc._ 32. 66. _To meditate the muse_ is a Virgilian phrase: see _Ecl._ +i. and vi. The Lat. _meditor_ has the meaning of 'to apply one's self +to,' and does not mean merely to ponder. + +548. ~had~, should have: comp. l. 394. ~ere a close~, _i.e._ before he had +finished his song (Masson). _Close_ occurs in the technical sense of +'the final cadence of a piece of music.' + +549. ~wonted~: see note, l. 332. + +550. ~barbarous~: comp. _Son._ xii. 3, "a _barbarous_ noise environs me Of +owls and cuckoos, etc." + +551. ~listened them~. The omission of _to_ after verbs of hearing is +frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List +a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, § 199). 'Them': this +refers to the _sounds_ implied in 'dissonance.' + +552. ~unusual stop~. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft +and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230. + +553. ~drowsy frighted~, _i.e._ drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's +rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a +state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their +uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where +the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as +expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a +hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' _Il Pens._ 146, and others of Milton's +remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the +printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73. + +554. ~Sleep~ (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot +with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. _Macbeth_, ii. l. 51, "curtained +sleep." + +555. 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly +that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly +have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could +always be filled by such music.' Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 604, "She all +night long her amorous descant sung; _Silence was pleased_"; also +Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Yet let it like an odour rise + To all the senses here, + And fall like sleep upon their eyes, + Or music in their ear." + +558. ~took~, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of _take_, and compare +'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word. + +560. ~Still~, always. This use of _still_ is frequent in Elizabethan +writers (Abbott, § 69). ~I was all ear~. Warton notes this expressive +idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in +_Tempest_, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." _All_ is an attribute of _I_. + +561. ~create a soul~, etc., _i.e._ breathe life even into the dead: comp. +_L'Alleg._ 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in +an old edition of Quarles' _Emblems_, in which "a soul in the figure of +an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its +prison." _Rom._ vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this +death?" + +565. ~harrowed~, distracted, torn as by a _harrow_. This is probably the +meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue; +hence some read "harried with grief and fear." + +567. ~How sweet ... how near~. This sentence contains two exclamations: +this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ... +_and_ how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How +sweet..., how near the deadly snare _is_!" + +568. ~lawns~. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of +grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a +smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the +word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it +is said to be cognate with _llan_ used as a prefix in the names of +certain Welsh towns, _e.g._ Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes +the form launde. + +569. ~often trod by day~, which I have often trod by day, and therefore +know well. + +570. ~mine ear~: see note, l. 171. + +571. ~wizard~. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the +suffix _-ard_, or _-art_, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton +occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or +magical, without implying contempt: see _Lyc._ 55, "Deva spreads her +_wizard_ stream." + +572. ~certain signs~: see l. 644. + +574. ~aidless~: an obsolete word. See Trench's _English Past and Present_ +for a list of about 150 words in _-less_, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92, +note. ~wished~: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of +the verb. + +575. ~such two~: two persons of such and such description. + +577. ~durst not stay~. _Durst_ is the old past tense of _dare_, and is +used as an auxiliary: the form _dared_ is much more modern, and may be +used as an independent verb. + +578. ~sprung~: see note, l. 256. + +579. ~till I had found~. The language is extremely condensed here, the +meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I _had +found_ you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking +back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long +narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had +found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight, +and determined to continue it until I had found (_i.e._ should have +found) you.' Comp. Abbott § 361. + +581. ~triple knot~, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell. + +584. "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final +efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, +delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd +adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains." + +585. ~safely~, confidently. ~period~, sentence. + +586. ~for me~, _i.e._ for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l. +602. + +588. ~Which erring men call Chance~. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate; +"which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, _Essay on Man_: + + "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; + All chance, direction, which thou canst not see." + +588. ~this I hold firm~. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this +belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly." + +590. ~enthralled~, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022. + +591. ~which ... harm~, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful. + +595-7. ~Gathered like scum~, etc. According to one editor, this image is +"taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots +which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun's body and +after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that +fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes +it." + +598. ~pillared firmament~. The firmament (Lat. _firmus_, firm or solid) is +here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The +ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp. +_Par. Reg._ iv. 55; also _Wint. Tale_, ii. l. 100, "If I mistake In +those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to +bear A schoolboy's top." + +602. ~for~, as regards. ~let ... girt~, though he be surrounded. + +603. ~grisly legions~. 'Grisly,' radically the same as _grue-some_ = +horrible, causing terror. In _Par. Lost_, iv. 821, Satan is called "the +grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable. + +604. ~sooty flag of Acheron~. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the +lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world +generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher's _Locusts_ (1627): "All hell +run out and sooty flags display." + +605. ~Harpies and Hydras~. The Harpies (lit. 'spoilers') were unclean +monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and +gaunt faces. _Hydras_, here used as a general name for monstrous +water-serpents (Gk. _hydōr_, water); the name was first given to the +nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See _Son._ xv. 7, "new rebellions +raise Their _Hydra_ heads"; the epithet 'hydra-headed' being applied to +a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from +every endeavour to repress it. + +607. ~return his purchase back~, _i.e._ 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the +MS.) 'release his new-got prey.' To purchase (Fr. _pour-chasser_) +originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or +foul: it thus came to mean 'to steal' (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, +and Shakespeare), and 'to buy' (its current sense). See Trench, _Study +of Words_; _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 45, "They will steal anything, and call it +_purchase_"; i. _Hen. IV._ ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our +_purchase_." + +609. ~venturous~, ready to venture. See note, l. 79. + +610. ~yet~, nevertheless. The meaning is: '_Though_ thy courage is +useless, _yet_ I love it.' ~emprise~: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) +of _enterprise_. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence +'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.' + +611. ~can do thee little stead~, _i.e._ can help thee little. _Stead_, +both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases, _e.g._ 'to +stand in good stead,' and in composition, _e.g._ _stead_fast, +home_stead_, in_stead_, Hamp_stead_, etc. Its strict sense is place or +position: comp. _Il Pens._ 3, "How little you _bested_." + +612. ~Far other arms~, _i.e._ very different arms. 'Other' has here its +radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an +adverb. + +615. ~unthread~, loosen. Comp. _Temp._ iv. l. 259, "Go charge my goblins +that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their +sinews With aged cramps." + +617. ~As to make this relation~, _i.e._ as to be able to tell this. + +619. ~a certain shepherd lad~. This is supposed to refer to Charles +Diodati, Milton's dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th +elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem _Epitaphium +Damonis_, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical +skill: + + "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach + Thy friend the name and healing powers of each." + + (_Cowper's translation._) + +620. ~Of small regard to see to~: in colloquial English, 'not much to look +at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek καλὸς ἰδεῖν: see English +Bible, "goodly to look to," i. _Sam._ xvi. 12; _Ezek._ xxiii. 15; _Jer._ +xlvii. 3. + +621. ~virtuous~, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. _Il Pens._ 113, +"the virtuous ring and glass." + +623. ~beg me sing~: see note, l. 304. + +625. ~ecstasy~: see note, l. 261. The Greek _ekstasis_ = standing out of +one's self. + +626. ~scrip~, wallet. + +627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,' +'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its +popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.' + +630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative. + +633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the +plant or the root. + +634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent, +_i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix +_un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, +reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_. + +635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in +Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in +_clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off +my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in +Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of +_clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe. +In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse. +_Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes), +_dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc. + +636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: +And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When +Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who +said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring +deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of +Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee +all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast +drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; +so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the +slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, +and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the +flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for +mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible" +(_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his +first Elegy Milton alludes to Mōly as the counter-charm to the spells +of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and +_moly_." + +638. ~He called it Hæmony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619. +_Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the +adjective _Haemonian_ is used, in Latin poetry as = _Thessalian_, +Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as +a land of magic, 'Haemonian' acquired the sense of 'magical' (see Ovid, +_Met._ vii 264, "_Haemonia_ radices valle resectas," etc.), and Milton's +Haemony is simply "the magical plant." Coleridge supposes that by the +prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and +triumph of the Christian life. + +639. ~sovran use~: see note, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms, +medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came +to imply 'all-healing,' 'supremely efficacious'; see _Cor._ ii. 1. 125, +"The most _sovereign_ prescription in Galen." + +640. ~mildew blast~: comp. _Arc._ 48-53, _Ham._ iii. 4. 64, "Here is your +husband; Like a _mildew'd_ ear _Blasting_ his wholesome brother." A +mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew +(A.S. meledeáw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry +east winds was favourable to its formation. + +642. ~pursed it up~, etc., _i.e._ put it in my wallet, though I did not +attach much importance to it. ~little reckoning~: comp. _Lyc._ 116, where +the very same phrase occurs. + +643. ~Till now that~. Here _that_ = when, the clause introduced by it +being explanatory of _now_ (see Abbott, § 284). + +646-7. ~Entered ... came off~. 'I entered into the very midst of his +treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.' _Lime-twigs_ = snares; in +allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared +with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime'). +Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: see _Macbeth_, iv. +2. 34; _Two Gent._ ii. 2. 68; ii. _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 91; etc. + +649. ~necromancer's hall~. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a +magician's castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian +knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry. _Necromancer_, lit. +one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk. νεκρός, a +corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with +that of the Lat. _niger_, black, the art of necromancy came to be called +"the black art." + +650. ~Where if he be~, Lat. _ubi si sit_: in English the relative adverb +in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative +adverb; thus, '_and_ if he be _there_.' + +651. ~brandished blade~. Comp. Hermes' advice to Ulysses: "When it shall +be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp +sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her," +_Odyssey_, x. ~break his glass~. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir +Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, _F. Q._ i. 12, +stanza 56. + +652. ~luscious~, delicious. The word is a corruption of _lustious_ from +O.E. _lust_ = pleasure: see note, l. 49. + +653. ~But seize his wand~. The force of this injunction is shown by lines +815-819. + +654. ~menace high~, violent threat. _High_ is thus used in a number of +figurative senses, _e.g._ a high wind, a high hand, high passions (_Par. +Lost_, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc. + +655. ~Sons of Vulcan~. In the _Aeneid_ (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that +Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), "vomited from his throat +huge volumes of smoke" when pursued by Hercules, "_Faucibus ingentem +fumum_," etc. + +657. ~apace~; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its +meaning: in Chaucer it means 'at a foot pace,' _i.e._ slowly. The first +syllable is the indefinite article '_a_' = one (Skeat). + +658. ~bear~: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, § 365). (_Stage +Direction_) ~puts by~: puts on one side, refuses. ~goes about to rise~, +_i.e._ endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of _go about_ still +lingers in the phrase 'to _go about_ one's business'; comp. 'to _set +about_' anything. + +659. ~but~, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have +here a verb in the present tense ('are chained'), a construction which +well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer's +spell (see Abbott, § 371). + +660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton +has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled +_alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once +correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster +is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too +much conceiving." + +661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave this +wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as +Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in +the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, +which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, +an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, +she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. δάφνη): comp, the story of +Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106. + +662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._ +xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The +sight of this so horrid spectacle." + +663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the +freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733). + +665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly +nook." + +668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12. + +669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6. + +672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat. +_cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gulāb_, rose-water. + +673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +674. ~syrups~: Arab, _sharāb_, a drink, wine. + +675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following +lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new +thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a +drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every +sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the +bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though +his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so +helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had +given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in +greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful" +(_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek +adj. = sorrow-dispelling (νη, privative; πένθος, grief). It is here used +by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used as a +general name for drugs that relieve pain. + +677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, +'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, +nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.' + +679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy +foe, to thy sweet self too cruel." + +680. 'Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on +certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should +have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition +you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred +glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.' Comp. +Shakespeare, _Son._ iv. "Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon +thyself thy beauty's legacy," etc. + +685. ~unexempt condition~, _i.e._ a condition binding on all and at all +times, a law of human nature. + +687. ~mortal frailty~, _i.e._ weak mortals: abstract for concrete. + +688. ~That~. The antecedent of this relative is _you_, l. 682. See note, +l. 2. + +689. ~timely~, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's +_Marmion_, iii. 223, "gambol rude and _timeless_ joke"): comp. _Son._ +ii. 8, "_timely_-happy spirits"; and l. 970. + +693. ~Was this ... abode~? The verb is singular, because 'cottage' and +'safe abode' convey one idea: see Comus's words, l. 320. Notice also +that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling. + +694. ~aspects~: accent on final syllable. + +695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is +radically connected with _awe_. + +698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt +_visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is +to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672 +and 700, denotes _by means of_. + +700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by +catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to +_lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three +words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless) +and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet +root. + +702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has +usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_ +in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line +'offer' = the thing offered. + +703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has borrowed +from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, Κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δῶρ᾽ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει, "the +gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton). + +704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a +rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former +controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv. +439). + +707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool +dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, +etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is +tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a +doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of +_sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole +phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.' +It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses +of 'budge.' + +708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt +for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of +the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and +was fond of calling himself ὁ κύων (the dog). + +709. ~the~: here used generically. + +711. ~unwithdrawing~. In this participle the termination _-ing_ seems +almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "_all-obeying_ +breath" (= obeyed by all), _A. and C._ iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are +not only full but continuous. + +714. ~all to please ... curious taste~. _All_ = entirely, here modifies +the infinitives please and sate. _Curious_ = fastidious: its original +sense is 'careful' or 'anxious.' Compare the two senses of _exquisite_, +note l. 359. + +715. ~set~, _i.e._ she set. The pronominal subject is omitted. + +717. ~To deck~: infinitive of purpose. + +718. ~in her own loins~, _i.e._ in the bowels of the earth. + +719. ~hutched~ = stored up, enclosed. _Hutch_ is an old word for chest or +coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.' + +720. ~To store her children with~, _i.e._ _wherewith_ to store her +children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).' +'Store' = provide. + +721. ~pet of temperance~, _i.e._ a sudden and transitory fit of +temperance. ~pulse~. So Daniel and his three companions refused the +dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; _Dan._ i. + +722. ~frieze~, coarse woollen cloth. + +723. ~All-giver~. Comp. Gk. πανδώρα, an epithet applied to the earth as +the giver of all. + +725. 'And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a +penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature's +bastards': see _Hebrews_ xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof +all have been made partakers, then are ye _bastards, and not sons_." + +728. ~Who~. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding +it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun _her_, +_i.e._ the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have +their full force as genitives: comp. _L'Alleg._ 124, "her grace whom" = +the grace of her whom. ~surcharged~: overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732). +~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of +'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles +as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur +in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.). + +729. ~strangled~, suffocated. + +730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the +flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both +clauses in this line are absolute. + +731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one +illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of +speech was used for another. + +732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355. + +733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference +to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze +abroad, to proclaim. + +734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with +their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.' + +735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is +from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _œuvre_, work). + +737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of +this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims +kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat. + +739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these +seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and +Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and +Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8): + + "Earthlier happy is the rose distilled + Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, + Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness." + +See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea +in all its subtleties" (Masson). + +743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. +_Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion." + +744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par. +Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._ 33. +The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now have +_-ing_ (Abbott, § 374). + +747. ~most~, as many as possible. + +748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._ +i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_ is +derived from _home_. + +749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for +household occupations. + +750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat. +_granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or +cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came +to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so +used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par. +Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of +purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these +were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,' +'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect. +on Eng. Lang._ p. 55). + +751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet +of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card: +comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into +_hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word. + +752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what +need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from +Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used +to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it +follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate. + +753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed +Dawn," εὐπλόκαμος Ἠώς . + +755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108. + +756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus. + +757. ~but that~: were it not that. + +758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. +170. + +759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments. +_Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. +1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the +weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most +goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words +clothed in _reason's garb_." + +760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue +allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the +_boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word +(also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24), +Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned +snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The +spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start +out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children +should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503. + +764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is +feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent +is unnecessarily repeated. + +765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good. + +767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable, +both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of +Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth +diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the +Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his +college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning +temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly +dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own +spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being +heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv. +1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough." + +769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be +fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_. + +770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds = +wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of +meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or +unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious. + +774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least +surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially += not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a +whit, _naught_ = no whit. + +776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note, +l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete. + +779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that +may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed, +_e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc. + +780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: +it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of +_enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines +780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic +fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been +propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)." + +782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred +rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6, +Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with +fair beams did her adorn." + +783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no +purpose. + +784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for +_neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), +and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and +the first may as well be contracted as the second. + +785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_ +Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he +learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of +his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high +mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, +and the Lord for the body." + +790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is +'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety +of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad +occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik +suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first +become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had +thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love," +as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as +being the instrument of sophistry. + +791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_: +comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much +Ado_, v. 1. 75. + +794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been +_carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40, +"Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of +the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him +from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40. + +797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become +sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp. +Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_." + +800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative. + +801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world." + +802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet is, +by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat which +'dips' or moistens his body. + +804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the +_Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been +provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into +Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the +Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma +in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as +in both cases equivalent to _denounces_. + +806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady. + +808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our +society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and +other foundations" (Keightley). + +809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous = +dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four +primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy +(see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, § ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry, +thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of +nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. μελαγχολία , black bile. +See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy"; +and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to +the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the +cause of lunacy." + +811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of +direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more +usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new +pleasures." + +814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a +verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_ +the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on +names adored." + +816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism: +see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of +this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the +ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because +'without' also governs 'mutters.' + +817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by +reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs +in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the +followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the +neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of +Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the +neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526. + +820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The +deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural +interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's +court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher +than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the +mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is +accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated +from the antecedent: see note, l. 2. + +822. ~Melibœus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i. +Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given +in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of +Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a +'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the +truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this +poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser. + +823. ~soothest~, truest. The A.S. _sóth_ meant _true_; hence also 'a true +thing' = truth. It survives in _soothe_ (lit. to affirm to be true), +_soothsay_ (see l. 874), and _forsooth_ (= for a truth). + +824. ~from hence~. _Hence_ represents an A.S. word _heonan_, _-an_ being +a suffix = from: so that in the phrase 'from hence' the force of the +preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from +forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp. _Arc._ 3: "which _we from +hence_ descry." + +825. ~with moist curb sways~: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a _numen fluminis_ +or river-deity. + +826. ~Sabrina~: The following is Milton's version of the legend:--"After +this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to +Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High +Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years, +died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact, +and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, +Loëgria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now +Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a +fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back +into Loëgria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now +marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to +this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were +found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair, +the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting +the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before +contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being +forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, +Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other; +and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages +made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a +daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was +off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, +divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in +rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, +was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an +army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by +the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But +not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra +she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims +that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by +length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of +Britain_ (1670). + +827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwílum_, +instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time. + +830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The +prefix _step_ (A.S. _steóp-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to +a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words +'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of +mother in the form _dam_. + +832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, +as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn. + +835. ~aged Nereus' hall~, the abode of old Nereus, _i.e._ the bottom of +the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described +as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil, _grandaevus +Nereus_. See also, l. 871, and compare Jonson's _Neptune's Triumph_, +last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home +with pearls." + +836. ~piteous of~, _i.e._ full of pity for; comp. Lat. _miseret te +aliorum_ (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive +sense; its active sense is 'causing pity,' _i.e._ pitiful. Comp. Abbott, +§ 3. ~reared her lank head~, _i.e._ raised up her drooping head: comp. +_Par. Lost_, viii.: "In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he +_reared_ me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective _lanky_ is +in common use = tall and thin. + +837. ~imbathe~, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being +reduplicated, as in Lat. _incidere in_. + +838. ~nectared lavers~, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented with +asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. ~asphodel~; the same, +both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see _Lyc._ 150, where it takes the +form 'daffadillies'): Gk. ἀσφόδελος, M.E. _affodille_. The initial _d_ in +daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l. 851. + +839. ~the porch~. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: +comp. _Haml._ i. 5. 63: "the porches of mine ear"; also the phrase, "the +five gateways of knowledge." + +840. ~ambrosial oils~, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and +compare Virgil's use of _ambrosia_ in _Georg._ iv. 415, _liquidum +ambrosiae diffundit odorem_. + +841. ~quick immortal change~: comp. l. 10. + +842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in +Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause. + +844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133; +"twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188. + +845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting +influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used +generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and +blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin' +(_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which +for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence +mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare, +_Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus +And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_ +whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_. +~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it +cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc. + +846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious, +like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite +called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the +current verb is _beshrew_. + +847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_. + +850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase +to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862. + +852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of +Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson). + +853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660. + +854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._ +xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes." + +857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song. + +858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The +adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are +directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or +not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as +a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers. + +863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea +is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound +epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.' +_Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see +_Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume." + +865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense +of 'a river.' + +868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. Ὠκέανόν τε μέγαν. The early Greeks regarded +the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river +called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and +afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and +Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact, +throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent +epithets" of the various divinities. + +869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon +(Neptune). Homer calls him ἐννοσίγαιος = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_, +xii. 27, "And the Shaker of the Earth with his trident in his hands," +etc. In _Par. Lost_, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace +petrifick." + +870. ~Tethys' ... pace~. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being the +Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (πότνια Τηθύς), +and in Ovid 'the hoary.' + +871. ~hoary Nereus~: see note, l. 835. + +872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the +sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own +hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have +been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future." +_Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note +there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the +monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463. + +873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of +the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the +command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He +was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish. + +874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been +changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors +as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823. + +875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. λευκή , θεά), the name +by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had +thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas. + +876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his +mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans +with their god of harbours, Portumnus. + +877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter of +Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. ἀργυρόπεζα). Comp. +_Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson): + + "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest + To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast." + +'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth +worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. +Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On +the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally, +see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296. + +878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenopè's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see +note, l. 253) were Parthenopè, Ligēa, and Lucosia. The tomb of the +first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid +liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana +Achelöiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a +sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of +smoothing her hair with a golden comb. + +881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ... +locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is +"she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks. + +882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is +greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panopè with all her +sisters played." + +885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145, +"Orpheus' self may heave his head." + +887. ~bridle in~, _i.e._ restrain. + +888. ~have~: subjunctive after _till_, as frequently in Milton. + +890. ~rushy-fringèd~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be +rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from +the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29; +"false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14. + +891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb +is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent +to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or +their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit +the _dank_" (= the water). + +893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified +with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_. +~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note +there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as +an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the +suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still +survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden +hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_, +_glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, +_English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._ +45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold +that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_. + +894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the +Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey +(Pers. _turk_, a Turk). + +895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were +found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon +grows on its banks. + +897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with +_printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no +print of step hath been." + +902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's +song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina +continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best'). + +913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,' +l. 155. + +914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in +the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid +(_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416. + +916. ~Next~: an adverb modifying 'touch.' + +917. ~glutinous~, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the +effect to the cause. + +921. ~Amphitrite~: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea. + +923. ~Anchises line~: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who +was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who +was the son of old Anchises. + +924. ~may ... miss~. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) +fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.' + +925. ~brimmèd~. The passive participle is so often used where we now use +the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the +other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of _bank_ (comp. l. 119), so +that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks. + +928. ~singèd~, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good +wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of +this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the +wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to +the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow." + +933. ~beryl~: in the Bible (_Rev._ xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one +of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin: +comp. Arab, _billaur_, crystal. ~golden ore~. As a matter of fact gold has +been found in the Welsh mountains. + +934. ~May thy lofty head~, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May thy +lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here and +there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and cinnamon +(growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and 'upon' a +preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the notion of +crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty vanishes +when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses with one +subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is 'thou,' +implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found in +_L'Alleg._ 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and _judge_ the +prize'; also in _Il Pens._ 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to _walk +... and love_, etc.': also in _Lyc._ 88, 89. The explanation adopted by +Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek verbs--περιστεφανόω, +'to put a crown round,' and ἐπιστεφανόω, "to put a crown upon": thus, +"May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with many a tower and terrace, +and thy banks here and there be _crowned upon_ with groves of myrrh and +cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and 'upon' an adverb. + +In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, _Song ends_. + +942. ~Not a waste~, etc., _i.e._ 'Let there not be a superfluous or +unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note, +l. 728. + +945. ~gloomy covert wide~: see note, l. 207. + +946. ~not many furlongs~. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up +the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the +mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when +Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. +This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change +of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the +length of a field, and is now a measure of length. + +949. ~many a friend~. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been +explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of +the French _mesnie_, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the +preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the +plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more +correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. _manig_, which was in +old English used with a singular noun and without the article, _e.g._ +_manig mann_ = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite +article began to be inserted; thus _mony enne thing_ = many a thing, +just as we say 'what _a_ thing,' 'such _a_ thing.' This would seem to +show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no +connection with the French word _mesnie_. Milton, in this passage, uses +'many a friend' with a plural verb. ~gratulate~. The simple verb is now +replaced by the compound _congratulate_ (Lat. _gratulari_, to wish joy +to a person). + +950. ~wished~, _i.e._ wished for; see note, l. 574. ~and beside~, _i.e._ +'and where, besides,' etc. + +952. ~jigs~, lively dances. + +958. ~Back, shepherds, back!~ On the rising of the curtain, the stage is +occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant +Spirit enters with the above words. ~Enough your play~, _i.e._ we have had +enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.' + +959. ~sunshine holiday~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 98, where the same expression is +used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and +lines 91-99 of _L'Allegro_. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is +'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such +compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it +is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms +(_e.g._ hóliday) or the separate words (_e.g._ hóly dáy) are being used. + +960. ~Here be~: see note, l. 12. ~without duck or nod~: words used to +describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country +people. + +961. ~trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise~: words used to describe +the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. _L'Alleg._ +33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." _Trod_ (or +trodden), past participle of _tread_: 'to tread a measure' is a common +expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' _i.e._ courtly mien; +_guise_ is a doublet of _wise_ = way, _e.g._ 'in this wise,' +'like_wise_,' 'other_wise_.' In such pairs of words as _guise_ and +_wise_, _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, the forms in _gu_ have +come into English through the French. + +963. ~Mercury~ (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as such +was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. πτηνοπέδιλος): his name is +here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement. + +964. ~mincing Dryades~. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. δρῦς, a +tree), here represented as mincing, _i.e._ tripping with short steps, +unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. _Merch. of V._ +iii. 4. 67: "turn two _mincing_ steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a +person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation. + +965. ~lawns ... leas~. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow. + +966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons +to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater. + +967. ~ye~: see note, l. 216. + +968. ~so goodly grown~, _i.e._ grown so goodly. _Goodly_ = handsome (A.S. +_gódlic_ = goodlike). + +970. ~timely~. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two +phrases in _Macbeth_: "To gain the _timely_ inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To +call _timely_ on him," ii. 3. 51. + +972. ~assays~, trials, temptations. _Assay_ is used by Milton in the +sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see _Arc._ 80, "I will +_assay_, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to +the form _essay_ (radically the same word); and the use of _assay_ has +been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing +of metals. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 932, "hard _assays_ and ill +successes"; _Par. Reg._ i. 264, iv. 478. + +974, 5. ~To triumph~. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly +expressed in these lines. _Stage Direction_: ~Spirit epiloguizes~, _i.e._ +sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts +of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered +1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by +Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into +a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst +descending upon the stage:-- + + _From the heavens_ now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad _field_ of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + There eternal summer dwells, + And west winds, with musky wing, + About the cedarn alleys fling + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can show, + _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_, + And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes. + +Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the +mask. + +976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and +rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been +frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. +Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson): +"Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. +1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now +my charms are all o'erthrown," etc. + +977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will +convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is +easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; +but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow +cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_, +is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while +'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. +_Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms." + +978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26: +"the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn." + +979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aëris in campis latis_," +_Aen._ vi. 888. + +980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) +is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. +_Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes." + +981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the +following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe +of darkest grain." + +982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had +three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their +sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser +makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_. + +984. ~crispéd shades~. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove," +_Arc._ 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the +same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. _crispus_ += curled), from which comes the verb _to crisp_ and the participle +_crisped_. Compare "the _crisped_ brooks ... ran nectar," _Par. Lost_, +iv. 237, where the word is best rendered 'rippled'; also Tennyson's +_Claribel_, 19, "the babbling runnel _crispeth_." In the present case +the reference is to the foliage of the trees. + +985. ~spruce~, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of +levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of gay +or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word _jolly_, on +which Pattison says:--"This is an instance of the disadvantage under +which poetry in a living language labours. No knowledge of the meaning +which a word bore in 1631 can wholly banish the later and vulgar +associations which may have gathered round it since. Apart from direct +parody and burlesque, the tendency of living speech is gradually to +degrade the noble; so that as time goes on the range of poetical +expression grows from generation to generation more and more +restricted." The origin of the word _spruce_ is disputed: Skeat holds +that it is a corruption of Pruce (old Fr. _Pruce_, mod. Fr. _Prusse_) = +Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the +fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some +English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also +Trench, _Select Glossary_. + +986. ~The Graces~. The three Graces of classical mythology were Euphrosyne +(the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and Thalia (the +blooming one). See _L'Alleg._ 12: "Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely Venus, at +a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crownèd Bacchus bore." They +were sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the goddesses +who purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life. +~rosy-bosomed Hours~. The Hours (Horæ) of classical mythology were the +goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was described as the dance of the +Horæ. The Hora of Spring accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent +from the lower world, and the expression "The chamber of the Horæ opens" +is equivalent to "The Spring is coming." 'Rosy-bosomed'; the Gk. +ῥοδόκολπος: compare the epithets 'rosy-fingered' (applied by Homer to +the dawn), 'rosy-armed,' etc. + +989. ~musky ... fling~. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 515: "Fresh gales and +gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, +flung odours from the spicy shrub." In this passage the verb _fling_ is +similarly used. 'Musky' = fragrant: comp. 'musk-rose,' l. 496. + +990. ~cedarn alleys~, _i.e._ alleys of cedar trees. For 'alley,' comp. l. +311. For the form of 'cedarn,' see note on 'azurn,' l. 893. Tennyson +uses the word 'cedarn' in _Recoll. of Arab. Nights_, 115. + +991. ~Nard and cassia~; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes +applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called _spike-nard_; see +allusion in the Bible, _Mark_, xiv. 3; _Exod._ xxx. 24, etc. + +992. ~Iris ... humid bow~: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to +the rainbow. + +993. ~blow~, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, _Mask at +Highgate_, "For thee, Favonius, here shall _blow_ New flowers." + +995. ~purfled~ = having an embroidered edge (O.F. _pourfiler_): the verb +_to purfle_ survives in the contracted form _to purl_, and is cognate +with profile = a front line or edge. ~shew~: here rhymes with _dew_; comp. +l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present +pronunciation of _shew_, though familiar, was not the only one +recognised. + +996. ~drenches with Elysian dew~, _i.e._ soaks with heavenly dew. The +Homeric Elysium is described in _Odyssey_, iv.: see note, l. 977; it +was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257. +_Drench_ is the causative of _drink_: here the nominative of the verb is +'Iris' and the object 'beds.' + +997. ~if your ears be true~, _i.e._ if your ears be pure: the poet is +about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross +unpurgèd ear" (_Arc._ 73, and _Com._ l. 458). He alludes to that pure +Love which "leads up to Heaven," _Par. Lost_, viii. 612. + +998. ~hyacinth~. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of +_Lycidas_, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved +by Apollo. + +999. ~Adonis~, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received +from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the +gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on +earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of +the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. _Par. +Lost_, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc. + +1000. ~waxing well of~, _i.e._ recovering from. The A.S. _weaxan_ = to +grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, _Rom. and Jul._ +i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +1002. ~Assyrian queen~, _i.e._ Venus, whose worship came from the East, +probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called +by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see _Par. Lost_, i. 438-452, where Adonis +appears as Thammuz. + +1003, 4. ~far above ... advanced~. These words are to be read together: +'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.' + +1003. ~spangled sheen~, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': _spangle_ is a +diminutive of _spang_ = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.' +In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the +heavens as 'spangled': comp. Addison's well-known lines: + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And _spangled_ heavens, a shining frame, + Their great Original proclaim." + +Comp. also _Lyc._ 170, "with _new-spangled_ ore." 'Sheen' is here used +as a noun, as in line 893; also in _Hymn Nat._ 145, "throned in +celestial _sheen_": _Epitaph on M. of W._ 73, "clad in radiant _sheen_." +The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse +so fair and _sheen_," _F. Q._ ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear +or spangled starlight _sheen_" (_M. N. D._ ii. l. 29) it is doubtful +whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective +_sheeny_ (_Death of Fair Infant_, 48). + +1004. ~Celestial Cupid~. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the note +to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to whom he +is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and misfortune. +The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in love with +Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he was. +Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp while +he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and fled +from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by Venus; but +after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported by Cupid, +she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this story Psyche +represents the human soul (Gk. ψυχή), which is disciplined and purified +by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the enjoyment of true happiness +in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it is only the soul so purified +that is capable of knowing true love: in his _Apology for Smectymnuus_ +he calls it that Love "whose charming cup is only virtue," and whose +"first and chiefest office ... begins and ends in the soul, producing +those happy twins of her divine generation, Knowledge and Virtue." To +this high and mystical love Milton again alludes in _Epitaphium Damonis_: + + "In other part, the expansive vault above, + And there too, even there the god of love; + With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays + A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, + Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, + Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, + Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high + Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; + Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn + The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn." + + _Cowper's translation._ + +1007. ~among~: preposition governing 'gods.' + +1008. ~make~: subjunctive after 'till.' Its nominative is 'consent.' + +1010. ~blissful~, blest. _Bliss_ is cognate with _bless_ and _blithe_. +Comp. "the _blest_ kingdoms meek of joy and love," _Lyc._ 177. ~are to be +born~. There seems to be here a confusion of constructions between the +subjunctive co-ordinate with _make_ and the indicative dependent in +meaning on "Jove hath sworn" in the following line. + +1011. ~Youth and Joy~. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the +trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of +Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," _i.e._ she is possible +only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004. + +1012. ~my task~, _i.e._ the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an +adverbial clause = Now that (or _because_) my task is smoothly done. + +1013. The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he +pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by +virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom. + +1014. ~green earth's end~. The world as known to the ancients did not +extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, +which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. _Par. +Lost_, viii. 630: + + "But I can now no more; the parting sun + Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles + Hesperean sets, my signal to depart." + +1015. ~bowed welkin~: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky +curves slowly towards the horizon." _Welkin_ is, radically, "the region +of clouds," A.S. _wolcnu_, clouds. + +1017. ~corners of the moon~, _i.e._ its horns. The crescent moon is said +to be 'horned' (Lat. _cornu_, a horn). Comp. the lines in _Macbeth_, +iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous +drop profound." + +1020. ~She can teach ye how to climb~, etc. Compare Jonson's song to +Virtue: + + "Though a stranger here on earth + In heaven she hath her right of birth. + There, there is Virtue's seat: + Strive to keep her your own; + 'Tis only she can make you great, + Though place here make you known." + +1021. ~sphery chime~, _i.e._ the music of the spheres. "To climb higher +than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the +empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton +therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence. +See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,' +as in "silver _chime_," _Hymn Nat._ 128: the word is cognate with +_cymbal_. + +1022, 3. ~if Virtue feeble were~, etc. A triumphant expression of that +confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine +Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. +Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed +in the last two lines of his _Comus_. + + + + +INDEX TO THE NOTES. + + +A. + +Acheron, 604. + +Adonis, 999. + +Adventurous, 79. + +Advice, 108; + advised, 755. + +Affects, 386. + +Alabaster, 660. + +All, 714, 981. + +All ear, 560. + +Alley, 311, 990. + +All-giver, 723. + +All to-ruffled, 380. + +Amber-dropping, 863. + +Ambrosial, 16. + +Amiss, 177. + +Apace, 657. + +Arbitrate, 411. + +Asphodel, 838. + +Assays, 972. + +Assyrian Queen, 1002. + +Ay me, 511. + +Azurn, 893. + + +B. + +Backward, 817. + +Baited, 162. + +Bandite, 426. + +Be, 12, 519. + +Benison, 332. + +Beryl, 933. + +Beseeming, 769. + +Blank, 452. + +Blissful, 1010. + +Blue-haired, 29. + +Blow, 993. + +Bolt, 760. + +Bosky, 313. + +Bourn, 313. + +Brakes, 147. + +Brimmed, 925. + +Brinded, 443. + +Brute, 797. + +Budge, 707. + +Burs, 352. + + +C. + +Cassia, 991. + +Cast, 360. + +Cateress, 764. + +Cedarn, 990. + +Centre, 382. + +Certain, 266. + +Chance, 508. + +Charactered, 530. + +Charmèd, 51. + +Charnel, carnal, 471. + +Charybdis, 257. + +Chime, 1021. + +Chimeras, 517. + +Circe, 50. + +Clime, 977. + +Close, 548. + +Clouted, 635. + +Company, 274. + +Comus, 46, 58. + +Convoy, 81. + +Cordial, 672. + +Corners, 1017. + +Cotes, 344. + +Cotytto, 129. + +Courtesy, 325. + +Cozened, 737. + +Crabbed, 477. + +Crisped, 984. + +Crofts, 531. + +Crowned, 934. + +Curfew, 435. + +Curious, 714. + +Cynic, 708. + +Cynosure, 342. + + +D. + +Dapper, 118. + +Darked, 730. + +Dear, 790. + +Dell, 312. + +Descry, 141. + +Dew-besprent, 542. + +Dimple, 119. + +Dingle, 312. + +Disinherit, 334. + +Ditty, 86. + +Drench, 996. + +Drouth, 66. + +Drowsy frighted, 553. + +Due, 12. + +Dun, 127. + +Durst, 577. + + +E. + +Each ... every, 19, 311. + +Earth-shaking, 869. + +Ebon, 134. + +Ecstasy, 261, 625. + +Element, 299. + +Elysium, 257. + +Emblaze, 732. + +Emprise, 610. + +Engaged, 193. + +Enow, 780. + +Erebus, 804. + +Every ... each, 19, 311. + +Eye, 329. + + +F. + +Faery, 298. + +Fairly, 168. + +Fantastic, 144, 205. + +Fence, 791. + +Firmament, 598. + +Fond, 67. + +For, 586, 602. + +Forestalling, 285. + +Forlorn, 39. + +Fraught, 355, 732. + +Freezed, 449. + +Frighted, 553. + +Frolic, 59. + + +G. + +Gear, 167. + +Glistering, 219. + +Glozing, 161. + +Goodly, 968. + +Graces, 986. + +Grain, 750. + +Granges, 175. + +Gratulate, 949. + +Grisly, 603. + +Guise, 961. + + +H. + +Haemony, 638. + +Hag, 434. + +Hallo, 226. + +Hapless, 350. + +Harpies, 605. + +Harrowed, 565. + +Heave, 885. + +Hecate, 135. + +Help, 304, 845. + +Hence, 824. + +Her, 351, 455. + +Hesperian, 393. + +High, 654. + +Hinds, 174. + +Holiday, 959. + +Home-felt, 262. + +Homely, 748. + +Horror, 38. + +Hours, 986. + +How chance, 508. + +Huswife, 751. + +Hutched, 719. + +Hyacinth, 998. + +Hydras. 605. + + +I. + +Imbathe, 837. + +Imbodies, 468. + +Imbrutes, 468. + +Immured, 521. + +Infamous, 424. + +Infer, 408. + +Influence, 336. + +Inlay, 22. + +Innumerous, 349. + +Insphered, 3. + +Interwove, 544. + +Inured, 735. + +Iris, 83. + +Isle, 21. + + +J. + +Jocund, 172. + +Jollity, 104. + +Julep, 672. + + +K. + +Knot-grass, 542. + + +L. + +Lackey, 455. + +Lake, 865. + +Languished, 744. + +Lank, 836. + +Lap, 257. + +Lawn, 568. + +Lees, 809. + +Leucothea, 875. + +Lewdly-pampered, 770. + +Like, 22, 634. + +Lime-twigs, 646. + +Liquid, 980. + +Liquorish, 700. + +Listed, 49. + +Listened, 551. + +Liveried, 455. + +Lore, 34. + +Love-lorn, 234. + +Luscious, 652. + + +M. + +Madness, 261. + +Madrigal, 495. + +Mansion, 2. + +Mantling, 294. + +Many a, 949. + +Margent, 232. + +Me, 163, 630. + +Meander, 232. + +Meditate, 547. + +Melancholy, 810. + +Methought, 171. + +Meliboeus, 822. + +Mickle, 31. + +Mildew, 640. + +Mincing, 964. + +Mintage, 529. + +Misusèd, 47. + +Moly, 636. + +Monstrous, 533. + +Mountaineer, 426. + +Morrice, 116. + +Mortal, 10. + +Murmurs, 526. + +Mutters, 817. + +My, mine, 170. + + +N. + +Naiades, 254. + +Nard, 991. + +Navel, 520. + +Necromancer, 649. + +Nectar, 479. + +Neighbour, 484. + +Nepenthes, 675. + +Nereus, 835. + +Nether, 20. + +New-intrusted, 36. + +Nice, 139. + +Night-foundered, 483. + +Nightingale, 234. + +Nightly, 113. + +Nor ... nor, 784. + + +O. + +Oaten, 345, 893. + +Oceanus, 97, 868. + +Of, 59, 155, 836, 1000. + +Ominous, 61. + +Orient, 65. + +Other, 612. + +Oughly-headed, 695. + +Ounce, 71. + +Over-exquisite, 359. + +Over-multitude, 731. + + +P. + +Palmer, 189. + +Pan, 176. + +Pard, 444. + +Parley, 241. + +Pent, 499. + +Perfect, 73, 203. + +Perplexed, 37. + +Pert, 118. + +Pestered, 7. + +Pinfold, 7. + +Plight, 372. + +Plighted, 301 + +Plumes, 378. + +Potion, 68. + +Pranked, 759. + +Presentments, 156. + +Prime, 289. + +Prithee, 615. + +Prove, 123. + +Purchase, 607. + +Purfled, 995. + +Psyche, 1004. + + +Q. + +Quaint, 157. + +Quarters, 29. + +Quire, 112. + +Quivered, 422. + + +R. + +Rapt, 794. + +Ravishment, 244. + +Reared, 836. + +Recks, 404. + +Regard, 620. + +Rifted, 518. + +Rite, 125. + +Roost, 317. + +Rosy-bosomed, 986. + +Rout, 92-93. + +Rule, 340. + +Rushy-fringed, 890. + + +S. + +Sabrina, 826. + +Sadly, 509. + +Sampler, 751. + +Saws, 110. + +Scape, 814. + +Scylla, 257. + +Serene, 4. + +Several, 25. + +Shagged, 429. + +Shapes, 2. + +Sheen, 893, 1003. + +Shell, 231, 837. + +Shew, 995. + +Shoon, 635. + +Should, 482. + +Shrewd, 846. + +Shrouds, 147. + +Shuddering, 802. + +Siding, 212. + +Simples, 627. + +Single, 204. + +Sirens, 253, 878. + +Sleeking, 882. + +Slope, 98. + +Solemnity, 142. + +Soothest, 823. + +Sooth-saying, 874. + +Sounds, 115. + +Sovran, 41, 639. + +Spangled, 1003. + +Spell, 154. + +Spets, 132. + +Sphery, 1021. + +Spruce, 985. + +Square, 329. + +Squint, 413. + +Stabled, 534. + +Star of Arcady, 341. + +State, 35. + +Stead, 611. + +Step-dame, 830. + +Still, 560. + +Stoic, 707. + +Stops, 345. + +Storied, 516. + +Straight, 811. + +Strook, 301. + +Stygian, 132. + +Sun-clad, 782. + +Sung, 256. + +Sure, 148. + +Surrounding, 403. + +Swain, 497. + +Swart, 436. + +Swinked, 293. + +Sylvan, 268. + +Syrups, 674. + + +T. + +Tapestry, 324. + +Temple, 461. + +Thyrsis, 494. + +Timely, 689, 970. + +Tinsel-slippered, 877. + +To-ruffled, 380. + +To seek, 366. + +Toy, 502. + +Trains, 151. + +Treasonous, 702. + +Trippings, 961. + +Turkis, 894. + +Tuscan, 48. + +Twain, 284. + +Tyrrhene, 49. + + +U. + +Unblenched, 430. + +Unenchanted, 395. + +Unmuffle, 331. + +Unprincipled, 367. + +Unweeting, 539. + +Unwithdrawing, 711. + +Urchin, 845. + + +V. + +Various, 379. + +Venturous, 609. + +Vermeil-tinctured, 752. + +Very, 427. + +Vialed, 847. + +Viewless, 92. + +Violet-embroidered, 233. + +Virtue, 165, 621. + +Visage, 333. + +Vizored, 698. + +Votarist, 189. + + +W. + +Wakes, 121. + +Warranted, 327. + +Wassailers, 179. + +Waste, 728, 942. + +Weeds, 16. + +Welkin, 1015. + +What need, 362. + +Whilom, 827. + +Whit, 774. + +Who, 728. + +Wily, 151. + +Wink, 401. + +Wished, 574, 950. + +Wizard, 571, 872. + +Wont, 332, 549. + +Woof, 83. + + +Y. + +Ye, 216. + + + + +GLASGOW: PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milton's Comus, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + +***** This file should be named 19819-0.txt or 19819-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/1/19819/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milton's Comus + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: William Bell + +Release Date: November 15, 2006 [EBook #19819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + +{Transcriber's notes: + ~Bold~ text is surrounded by tildes ~, _italic_ text by underscores _. + +Greek+ text is transliterated and surrounded by plus signs +. + oe ligatures have been unpacked. + Letters with overscores are represented as {=a}, {=e}, {=o}. + The use of and to indicate stresses is inconsistent, as is + the use of ligatures. No changes have been made to the original. +} + + + + MILTON'S COMUS + + WITH + INTRODUCTION AND NOTES + + BY + WILLIAM BELL, M.A. + PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, LAHORE + + + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO + AND NEW YORK + 1891 + + [_All rights reserved_] + + + + + First Edition, 1890. + Reprinted, 1891. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION, vii + COMUS, 7 + NOTES, 38 + INDEX TO THE NOTES, 113 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Few poems have been more variously designated than _Comus_. Milton +himself describes it simply as "A Mask"; by others it has been +criticised and estimated as a lyrical drama, a drama in the epic style, +a lyric poem in the _form_ of a play, a phantasy, an allegory, a +philosophical poem, a suite of speeches or majestic soliloquies, and +even a didactic poem. Such variety in the description of the poem is +explained partly by its complex charm and many-sided interest, and +partly by the desire to describe it from that point of view which should +best reconcile its literary form with what we know of the genius and +powers of its author. Those who, like Dr. Johnson, have blamed it as a +drama, have admired it "as a series of lines," or as a lyric; one +writer, who has found that its characters are nothing, its sentiments +tedious, its story uninteresting, has nevertheless "doubted whether +there will ever be any similar poem which gives so true a conception of +the capacity and the dignity of the mind by which it was produced" +(Bagehot's _Literary Studies_). Some who have praised it as an allegory +see in it a satire on the evils both of the Church and of the State, +while others regard it as alluding to the vices of the Court alone. Some +have found its lyrical parts the best, while others, charmed with its +"divine philosophy," have commended those deep conceits which place it +alongside of the _Faerie Queen_, as shadowing forth an episode in the +education of a noble soul and as a poet's lesson against intemperance +and impurity. But no one can refuse to admit that, more than any other +of Milton's shorter poems, it gives us an insight into the peculiar +genius and character of its author: it was, in the opinion of Hallam, +"sufficient to convince any one of taste and feeling that a great poet +had arisen in England, and one partly formed in a different school from +his contemporaries." It is true that in the early poems we do not find +the whole of Milton, for he had yet to pass through many years of +trouble and controversy; but _Comus_, in a special degree, reveals or +foreshadows much of the Milton of _Paradise Lost_. Whether we regard its +place in Milton's life, in the series of his works, or in English +literature as a whole, the poem is full of significance: it is worth +while, therefore, to consider how its form was determined by the +external circumstances and previous training of the poet; by his +favourite studies in poetry, philosophy, history, and music; and by his +noble theory of life in general, and of a poet's life in particular. + +The mask was represented at Ludlow Castle on September 29th, 1634; it +was probably composed early in that year. It belongs, therefore, to that +group of poems (_L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _Arcades_, _Comus_, and +_Lycidas_) written by Milton while living in his father's house at +Horton, near Windsor, after having left the University of Cambridge in +July, 1632. As he was born in 1608, he would be twenty-five years of age +when this poem was composed. During his stay at Horton (1632-39), which +was broken only by a journey to Italy in 1638-9, he was chiefly occupied +with the study of the Greek, Roman, Italian, and English literatures, +each of which has left its impress on _Comus_. He read widely and +carefully, and it has been said that his great and original imagination +was almost entirely nourished, or at least stimulated, by books: his +residence at Horton was, accordingly, pre-eminently what he intended it +to be, and what his father wisely and gladly permitted it to be--a time +of preparation and ripening for the work to which he had dedicated +himself. We are reminded of his own words in _Comus_: + + And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. + +We find in _Comus_ abundant reminiscences of Milton's study of the +literature of antiquity. "It would not be too much to say that the +literature of antiquity was to Milton's genius what soil and light are +to a plant. It nourished, it coloured, it developed it. It determined +not merely his character as an artist, but it exercised an influence on +his intellect and temper scarcely less powerful than hereditary +instincts and contemporary history. It at once animated and chastened +his imagination; it modified his fancy; it furnished him with his +models. On it his taste was formed; on it his style was moulded. From it +his diction and his method derived their peculiarities. It transformed +what would in all probability have been the mere counterpart of +Caedmon's Paraphrase or Langland's Vision into Paradise Lost; and what +would have been the mere counterpart of Corydon's Doleful Knell and the +satire of the Three Estates, into Lycidas and Comus." (_Quarterly +Review_, No. 326.) + +But Milton has also told us that Spenser was his master, and the full +charm of _Comus_ cannot be realised without reference to the artistic +and philosophical spirit of the author of the _Faerie Queene_. Both +poems deal with the war between the body and the soul--between the lower +and the higher nature. In an essay on 'Spenser as a philosophic poet,' +De Vere says: "The perils and degradations of an animalised life are +shown under the allegory of Sir Guyon's sea voyage with its successive +storms and whirlpools, its 'rock of Reproach' strewn with wrecks and +dead men's bones, its 'wandering islands,' its 'quicksands of +Unthriftihead,' its 'whirlepoole of Decay,' its 'sea-monsters,' and +lastly, its 'bower of Bliss,' and the doom which overtakes it, together +with the deliverance of Acrasia's victims, transformed by that witch's +spells into beasts. Still more powerful is the allegory of worldly +ambition, illustrated under the name of 'the cave of Mammon.' The Legend +of Holiness delineates with not less insight those enemies which wage +war upon the spiritual life." All this Milton had studied in the _Faerie +Queene_, and had understood it; and, like Sir Guyon, he felt himself to +be a knight enrolled under the banner of Parity and Self-Control. So +that, in _Comus_, we find the sovereign value of Temperance or +Self-Regulation--what the Greeks called +sphrosyn+--set forth +no less clearly than in Spenser's poem: in Milton's mask it becomes +almost identical with Virtue itself. The enchantments of Acrasia in her +Bower of Bliss become the spells of Comus; the armour of Belphoebe +becomes the "complete steel" of Chastity; while the supremacy of +Conscience, the bounty of Nature and man's ingratitude, the unloveliness +of Mammon and of Excess, the blossom of Courtesy oft found on lowly +stalk, and the final triumph of Virtue through striving and temptation, +all are dwelt upon. + + It is the mind that maketh good or ill, + That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore: + +so speaks Spenser; and Milton similarly-- + + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + +In endeavouring still further to trace, by means of verbal or structural +resemblances, the sources from which Milton drew his materials for +_Comus_, critics have referred to Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ (1595); to +Fletcher's pastoral, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, of which Charles Lamb +has said that if all its parts 'had been in unison with its many +innocent scenes and sweet lyric intermixtures, it had been a poem fit to +vie with _Comus_ or the _Arcadia_, to have been put into the hands of +boys and virgins, to have made matter for young dreams, like the loves +of Hermia and Lysander'; to Ben Jonson's mask of _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_ (1619), in which Comus is "the god of cheer, or the Belly"; and +to the _Comus_ of Erycius Puteanus (Henri du Puy), Professor of +Eloquence at Louvain. It is true that Fletcher's pastoral was being +acted in London about the time Milton was writing his _Comus_, that the +poem by the Dutch Professor was republished at Oxford in 1634, and that +resemblances are evident between Milton's poem and those named. But +Professor Masson does well in warning us that "infinitely too much has +been made of such coincidences. After all of them, even the most ideal +and poetical, the feeling in reading _Comus_ is that all here is +different, all peculiar." Whatever Milton borrowed, he borrowed, as he +says himself, in order to better it. + +It is interesting to consider the mutual relations of the poems written +by Milton at Horton. Everything that Milton wrote is Miltonic; he had +what has been called the power of transforming everything into himself, +and these poems are, accordingly, evidences of the development of +Milton's opinions and of his secret purpose. It has been said that +_L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are to be regarded as "the pleadings, the +decision on which is in Comus"--_L'Allegro_ representing the Cavalier, +and _Il Penseroso_ the Puritan element. This is true only in a limited +sense. It is true that the Puritan element in the Horton series of poems +becomes more patent as we pass from the two lyrics to the mask of +_Comus_, and from _Comus_ to the elegy of _Lycidas_, just as, in the +corresponding periods of time, the evils connected with the reign of +Charles I. and with Laud's crusade against Puritanism were becoming more +pronounced. But we can hardly regard Milton as having expressed any new +decision in _Comus_: the decision is already made when "vain deluding +Joys" are banished in _Il Penseroso_, and "loathed Melancholy" in +_L'Allegro_. The mask is an expansion and exaltation of the delights of +the contemplative man, but there is still a place for the "unreproved +pleasures" of the cheerful man. Unless it were so, _Comus_ could not +have been written; there would have been no "sunshine holiday" for the +rustics and no "victorious dance" for the gentle lady and her brothers. +But in _Comus_ we realise the mutual relation of _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_; we see their application to the joys and sorrows of the +actual life of individuals; we observe human nature in contact with the +"hard assays" of life. And, subsequently, in _Lycidas_ we are made to +realise that this human nature is Milton's own, and to understand how it +was that his Puritanism which, three years before, had permitted him to +write a cavalier mask, should, three years after, lead him from the +fresh fields of poetry into the barren plains of controversial prose. + +The Mask was a favourite form of entertainment in England in Milton's +youth, and had been so from the time of Henry VIII., in whose reign +elaborate masked shows, introduced from Italy, first became popular. But +they seem to have found their way into England, in a crude form, even +earlier; and we read of court disguisings in the reign of Edward III. It +is usually said that the Mask derives its name from the fact that the +actors wore masks, and in Hall's Chronicle we read that, in 1512, "on +the day of Epiphany at night, the king, with eleven others, was +disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen +before in England; they were appareled in garments long and broad, +wrought all with gold, with _visors_ and caps of gold." The truth, +however, seems to be that the use of a visor was not essential in such +entertainments, which, from the first, were called 'masks,' the word +'masker' being used sometimes of the players, and sometimes of their +disguises. The word has come to us, through the French form _masque_, +cognate with Spanish _mascarada_, a masquerade or assembly of maskers, +otherwise called a mummery. Up to the time of Henry VIII. these +entertainments were of the nature of dumb-show or _tableaux vivants_, +and delighted the spectators chiefly by the splendour of the costumes +and machinery employed in their representation; but, afterwards, the +chief actors spoke their parts, singing and dancing were introduced, and +the composition of masks for royal and other courtly patrons became an +occupation worthy of a poet. They were frequently combined with other +forms of amusement, all of which were, in the case of the Court, placed +under the management of a Master of Revels, whose official title was +Magister Jocorum, Revellorum et _Mascorum_; in the first printed English +tragedy, _Gorboduc_ (1565), each act opens with what is called a +dumb-show or mask. But the more elaborate form of the Mask soon grew to +be an entertainment complete in itself, and the demand for such became +so great in the time of James I. and Charles I. that the history of +these reigns might almost be traced in the succession of masks then +written. Ben Jonson, who thoroughly established the Mask in English +literature, wrote many Court Masks, and made them a vehicle less for the +display of 'painting and carpentry' than for the expression of the +intellectual and social life of his time. His masks are excelled only +by _Comus_, and possess in a high degree that 'Doric delicacy' in their +songs and odes which Sir Henry Wotton found so ravishing in Milton's +mask. Jonson, in his lifetime, declared that, next himself, only +Fletcher and Chapman could write a mask; and apart from the compositions +of these writers and of William Browne (_Inner Temple Masque_), there +are few specimens worthy to be named along with Jonson's until we come +to Milton's _Arcades_. Other mask-writers were Middleton, Dekker, +Shirley, Carew, and Davenant; and it is interesting to note that in +Carew's _Coelum Brittanicum_ (1633-4), for which Lawes composed the +music, the two boys who afterwards acted in _Comus_ had juvenile parts. +It has been pointed out that the popularity of the Mask in Milton's +youth received a stimulus from the Puritan hatred of the theatre which +found expression at that time, and drove non-Puritans to welcome the +Mask as a protest against that spirit which saw nothing but evil in +every form of dramatic entertainment. Milton, who enjoyed the +theatre--both "Jonson's learned sock" and what "ennobled hath the +buskined stage"--was led, through his friendship with the musician +Lawes, to compose a mask to celebrate the entry of the Earl of +Bridgewater upon his office of "Lord President of the Council in the +Principality of Wales and the Marches of the same." He had already +written, also at the request of Lawes, a mask, or portion of a mask, +called _Arcades_, and the success of this may have stimulated him to +higher effort. The result was _Comus_, in which the Mask reached its +highest level, and after which it practically faded out of our +literature. + +Milton's two masks, _Arcades_ and _Comus_, were written for members of +the same noble family, the former in honour of the Countess Dowager of +Derby, and the latter in honour of John, first Earl of Bridgewater, who +was both her stepson and son-in-law. This two-fold relation arose from +the fact that the Earl was the son of Viscount Brackley, the Countess's +second husband, and had himself married Lady Frances Stanley, a daughter +of the Countess by her first husband, the fifth Earl of Derby. Amongst +the children of the Earl of Bridgewater were three who took important +parts in the representation of _Comus_--Alice, the youngest daughter, +then about fourteen years of age, who appeared as _The Lady_; John, +Viscount Brackley, who took the part of the _Elder Brother_, and Thomas +Egerton, who appeared as the _Second Brother_. We do not know who acted +the parts of _Comus_ and _Sabrina_, but the part of the _Attendant +Spirit_ was taken by Henry Lawes, "gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and +one of His Majesty's private musicians." The Earl's children were his +pupils, and the mask was naturally produced under his direction. +Milton's friendship with Lawes is shown by the sonnet which the poet +addressed to the musician: + + Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd song + First taught our English music how to span + Words with just note and accent, not to scan + With Midas' ears, committing short and long; + Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, + With praise enough for Envy to look wan; + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth air could'st humour best our tongue. + Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing + To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, + That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story. + Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher + Than his Casella, who he woo'd to sing, + Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. + +We must remember also that it was to Lawes that Milton's _Comus_ owed +its first publication, and, as we see from the dedication prefixed to +the text, that he was justly proud of his share in its first +representation. + +Such were the persons who appeared in Milton's mask; they are few in +number, and the plan of the piece is correspondingly simple. There are +three scenes which may be briefly characterised thus: + + I. The Tempter and the Tempted: lines 1-658. + _Scene_: A wild wood. + + II. The Temptation and the Rescue: lines 659-958. + _Scene_: The Palace of Comus. + + III. The Triumph: lines 959-1023. + _Scene_: The President's Castle. + +In the first scene, after a kind of prologue (lines 1-92), the interest +rises as we are introduced first to Comus and his rout, then to the Lady +alone and "night-foundered," and finally to Comus and the Lady in +company. At the same time the nature of the Lady's trial and her +subsequent victory are foreshadowed in a conversation between the +brothers and the attendant Spirit. This is one of the more Miltonic +parts of the mask: in the philosophical reasoning of the elder brother, +as opposed to the matter-of-fact arguments of the younger, we trace the +young poet fresh from the study of the divine volume of Plato, and +filled with a noble trust in God. In the second scene we breathe the +unhallowed air of the abode of the wily tempter, who endeavours, "under +fair pretence of friendly ends," to wind himself into the pure heart of +the Lady. But his "gay rhetoric" is futile against the "sun-clad power +of chastity"; and he is driven off the scene by the two brothers, who +are led and instructed by the Spirit disguised as the shepherd Thyrsis. +But the Lady, having been lured into the haunt of impurity, is left +spell-bound, and appeal is made to the pure nymph Sabrina, who is "swift +to aid a virgin, such as was herself, in hard-besetting need." It is in +the contention between Comus and the Lady in this scene that the +interest of the mask may be said to culminate, for here its purpose +stands revealed: "it is a song to Temperance as the ground of Freedom, +to temperance as the guard of all the virtues, to beauty as secured by +temperance, and its central point and climax is in the pleading of these +motives by the Lady against their opposites in the mouth of the Lord of +sensual Revel." _Milton: Classical Writers_. In the third scene the Lady +Alice and her brothers are presented by the Spirit to their noble father +and mother as triumphing "in victorious dance o'er sensual folly and +intemperance." The Spirit then speaks the epilogue, calling upon mortals +who love true freedom to strive after virtue: + + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + +The last couplet Milton afterwards, on his Italian journey, entered in +an album belonging to an Italian named Cerdogni, and underneath it the +words, _Coelum non animum muto dum trans mare curro_, and his +signature, Joannes Miltonius, Anglus. The juxtaposition of these verses +is significant: though he had left his own land Milton had not become +what, fifty or sixty years before, Roger Ascham had condemned as an +"Italianated Englishman." He was one of those "worthy Gentlemen of +England, whom all the Siren tongues of Italy could never untwine from +the mast of God's word; nor no enchantment of vanity overturn them from +the fear of God and love of honesty" (Ascham's _Scholemaster_). And one +might almost infer that Milton, in his account of the sovereign plant +Haemony which was to foil the wiles of _Comus_, had remembered not only +Homer's description of the root Moly "that Hermes once to wise Ulysses +gave,"{16:A} but also Ascham's remarks thereupon: "The true medicine +against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure, +the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the black +root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; which Hesiod +termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the beginning, but in +the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to be marvelled at, +the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this medicine against sin and +vanity is not found out by man, but given and taught by God." Milton's +_Comus_, like his last great poems, is a poetical expression of the same +belief. "His poetical works, the outcome of his inner life, his life of +artistic contemplation, are," in the words of Prof. Dowden, "various +renderings of one dominant idea--that the struggle for mastery between +good and evil is the prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the +righteous cause is assured by the existence of a divine order of the +universe, which Milton knew by the name of 'Providence.'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{16:A} It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable, +employs in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of +Milton's description of Haemony; compare the following extract from _The +Adventures of Ulysses_ with lines 629-640 of _Comus_: "The flower of the +herb Moly, which is sovereign against enchantments: the moly is a small +unsightly root, its virtues but little known, and in low estimation; the +dull shepherd treads on it every day with his clouted shoes, but it bears +a small white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights, +mildews, and damps." + + + + + COMUS. + + + A MASK + + PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. + + BEFORE + + JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, + + THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES. + + + + +_The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the +following Poem._ + + +From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. + +SIR, + +It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if +I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to have +been familiar. + +Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for a +dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should +much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa +mollities_.{19:A} But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only owe +you thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true +artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, with +singular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in +the very close of the late R.'s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto it +is added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the +principal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader +_con la bocca dolce_.{20:A} + +Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch{20:B} +Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few +lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord +S. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directions +for shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside by +my choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice. + +I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passage +into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety. + +At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca di +Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man, +that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat +of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his +native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the +centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice, +how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or +of mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I pensieri +stretti, ed il viso sciolto_,{21:A} will go safely over the whole world. +Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth +need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the +best of all securities, God's dear love, remaining + + Your friend as much to command + as any of longer date, + + HENRY WOTTON. + +_Postscript._ + +Sir,--I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter, having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle.{21:B} + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{19:A} It is delicacy itself. + +{20:A} With a sweet taste in his mouth (so that he may desire more). + +{20:B} Avoid. + +{21:A} "Thoughts close, countenance open." + +{21:B} This letter was printed in the edition of 1645, but omitted in +that of 1673. It was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton +College, just in time to overtake Milton before he set out on his journey +to Italy. As a parting act of courtesy Milton had sent Sir Henry a letter +with a copy of Lawes's edition of his _Comus_, and the above letter is an +acknowledgment of the favour. + + + + +TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE{22:A} + +JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY, + +_Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, etc._ + + +MY LORD, + +This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and +others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the +performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to +you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a +legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often +copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, +and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and +now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and +rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full +assurance to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet +Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from +the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most +honoured Parents, and as in this representation your attendant +_Thyrsis_,{22:B} so now in all real expression, + + Your faithful and most humble Servant, + + H. LAWES. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{22:A} Dedication of the anonymous edition of 1637: reprinted in the +edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673. + +{22:B} See Notes, line 494. + + + + +THE PERSONS. + + The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of THYRSIS. + COMUS, with his Crew. + The LADY. + FIRST BROTHER. + SECOND BROTHER. + SABRINA, the Nymph. + + The Chief Persons which presented were:-- + The Lord Brackley; + Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother; + The Lady Alice Egerton. + + + + + +COMUS. + + +_The first Scene discovers a wild wood._ + +_The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters._ + + Before the starry threshold of Jove's court + My mansion is, where those immortal shapes + Of bright arial spirits live insphered + In regions mild of calm and serene air, + Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot + Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, + Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, + Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, + Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, + After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 + Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. + Yet some there be that by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity. + To such my errand is; and, but for such, + I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds + With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould. + But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway + Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream, + Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20 + Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles + That, like to rich and various gems, inlay + The unadornd bosom of the deep; + Which he, to grace his tributary gods, + By course commits to several government, + And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns + And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, + The greatest and the best of all the main, + He quarters to his blue-haired deities; + And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 + A noble Peer of mickle trust and power + Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide + An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: + Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, + Are coming to attend their father's state, + And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way + Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, + The nodding horror of whose shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; + And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 + But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, + I was despatched for their defence and guard: + And listen why; for I will tell you now + What never yet was heard in tale or song, + From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. + Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape + Crushed the sweet poison of misusd wine, + After the Tuscan mariners transformed, + Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, + On Circe's island fell: (who knows not Circe, 50 + The daughter of the Sun, whose charmd cup + Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, + And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) + This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, + With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, + Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son + Much like his father, but his mother more, + Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: + Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, + Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 + At last betakes him to this ominous wood, + And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, + Excels his mother at her mighty art; + Offering to every weary traveller + His orient liquor in a crystal glass, + To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste + (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), + Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, + The express resemblance of the gods, is changed + Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 + Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, + All other parts remaining as they were. + And they, so perfect is their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before, + And all their friends and native home forget, + To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. + Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove + Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, + Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 + I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, + As now I do. But first I must put off + These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, + And take the weeds and likeness of a swain + That to the service of this house belongs, + Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, + Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, + And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, + And in this office of his mountain watch + Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 + Of this occasion. But I hear the tread + Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. + +_COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, +but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands._ + + _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold + Now the top of heaven doth hold; + And the gilded car of day + His glowing axle doth allay + In the steep Atlantic stream; + And the slope sun his upward beam + Shoots against the dusky pole, + Pacing toward the other goal 100 + Of his chamber in the east. + Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, + Midnight shout and revelry, + Tipsy dance and jollity. + Braid your locks with rosy twine, + Dropping odours, dropping wine. + Rigour now is gone to bed; + And Advice with scrupulous head, + Strict Age, and sour Severity, + With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 + We, that are of purer fire, + Imitate the starry quire, + Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, + Lead in swift round the months and years. + The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, + Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; + And on the tawny sands and shelves + Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. + By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, + The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 + Their merry wakes and pastimes keep: + What hath night to do with sleep? + Night hath better sweets to prove; + Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. + Come, let us our rights begin; + 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, + Which these dun shades will ne'er report. + Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, + Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame + Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 + That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb + Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, + And makes one blot of all the air! + Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, + Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend + Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end + Of all thy dues be done, and none left out, + Ere the blabbing eastern scout, + The nice Morn on the Indian steep, + From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 + And to the tell-tale Sun descry + Our concealed solemnity. + Come, knit hands, and beat the ground + In a light fantastic round. [_The Measure._ + Break off, break off! I feel the different pace + Of some chaste footing near about this ground. + Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; + Our number may affright. Some virgin sure + (For so I can distinguish by mine art) + Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 + And to my wily trains: I shall ere long + Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed + About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl + My dazzling spells into the spongy air, + Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, + And give it false presentments, lest the place + And my quaint habits breed astonishment, + And put the damsel to suspicious flight; + Which must not be, for that's against my course. + I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 + And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, + Baited with reasons not unplausible, + Wind me into the easy-hearted man, + And hug him into snares. When once her eye + Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, + I shall appear some harmless villager + Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. + But here she comes; I fairly step aside, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + +_The LADY enters._ + + _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, + My best guide now. Methought it was the sound + Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 172 + Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe + Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, + When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, + In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, + And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth + To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence + Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else + Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 + In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? + My brothers, when they saw me wearied out + With this long way, resolving here to lodge + Under the spreading favour of these pines, + Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side + To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit + As the kind hospitable woods provide. + They left me then when the grey-hooded Even, + Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, + Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 + But where they are, and why they came not back, + Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest + They had engaged their wandering steps too far; + And envious darkness, ere they could return, + Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, + Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, + In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars + That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps + With everlasting oil to give due light + To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 + This is the place, as well as I may guess, + Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth + Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; + Yet nought but single darkness do I find. + What might this be? A thousand fantasies + Begin to throng into my memory, + Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And airy tongues that syllable men's names + On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion, Conscience. + O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, + Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, + And thou unblemished form of Chastity! + I see ye visibly, and now believe + That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill + Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, + Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, + To keep my life and honour unassailed.... 220 + Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night? + I did not err: there does a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night, + And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. + I cannot hallo to my brothers, but + Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest + I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits + Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. + +_Song._ + + Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 + Within thy airy shell + By slow Meander's margent green, + And in the violet-embroidered vale + Where the love-lorn nightingale + Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: + Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair + That likest thy Narcissus are? + O, if thou have + Hid them in some flowery cave, + Tell me but where, 240 + Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere! + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies! + + _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould + Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? + Sure something holy lodges in that breast, + And with these raptures moves the vocal air + To testify his hidden residence. + How sweetly did they float upon the wings + Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 + At every fall smoothing the raven down + Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard + My mother Circe with the Sirens three, + Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, + Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, + Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, + And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, + And chid her barking waves into attention, + And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. + Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 + And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; + But such a sacred and home-felt delight, + Such sober certainty of waking bliss, + I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, + And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder! + Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, + Unless the goddess that in rural shrine + Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan by blest song + Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog + To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 + + _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise + That is addressed to unattending ears. + Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift + How to regain my severed company, + Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo + To give me answer from her mossy couch. + + _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? + + _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. + + _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? + + _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 + + _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? + + _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. + + _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, lady? + + _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return. + + _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. + + _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit! + + _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need? + + _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose. + + _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? + + _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 + + _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox + In his loose traces from the furrow came, + And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. + I saw them under a green mantling vine, + That crawls along the side of yon small hill, + Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; + Their port was more than human, as they stood + I took it for a faery vision + Of some gay creatures of the element, + That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 + And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, + And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, + It were a journey like the path to Heaven + To help you find them. + + _Lady._ Gentle villager, + What readiest way would bring me to that place? + + _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point. + + _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, + In such a scant allowance of star-light, + Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, + Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 + + _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green, + Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side, + My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; + And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged, + Or shroud within these limits, I shall know + Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark + From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, + I can conduct you, lady, to a low + But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 + Till further quest. + + _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word, + And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, + Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, + With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls + And courts of princes, where it first was named, + And yet is most pretended. In a place + Less warranted than this, or less secure, + I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. + Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial + To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on. + +[_Exeunt._ + +_Enter the TWO BROTHERS._ + + _Elder Brother._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, 331 + That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, + Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, + And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here + In double night of darkness and of shades; + Or, if your influence be quite dammed up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 + And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, + Or Tyrian Cynosure. + + _Second Brother._ Or, if our eyes + Be barred that happiness, might we but hear + The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, + Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, + Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock + Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, + 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, + In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. + But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 + Where may she wander now, whither betake her + From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? + Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, + Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm + Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. + What if in wild amazement and affright, + Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp + Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! + + _Elder Brother._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite + To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360 + For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, + What need a man forestall his date of grief, + And run to meet what he would most avoid? + Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, + How bitter is such self-delusion! + I do not think my sister so to seek, + Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, + And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, + As that the single want of light and noise + (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 + Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, + And put them into misbecoming plight. + Virtue could see to do what Virtue would + By her own radiant light, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + + _Second Brother._ 'Tis most true + That musing meditation most affects + The pensive secrecy of desert cell, + Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, + And sits as safe as in a senate-house; + For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 + His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, + Or do his grey hairs any violence? + But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree + Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard + Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye + To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, + From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. + You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps + Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, + And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 + Danger will wink on Opportunity, + And let a single helpless maiden pass + Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. + Of night or loneliness it recks me not; + I fear the dread events that dog them both, + Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person + Of our unownd sister. + + _Elder Brother._ I do not, brother, + Infer as if I thought my sister's state + Secure without all doubt or controversy; + Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 + Does arbitrate the event, my nature is + That I incline to hope rather than fear, + And gladly banish squint suspicion. + My sister is not so defenceless left + As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, + Which you remember not. + + _Second Brother._ What hidden strength, + Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? + + _Elder Brother._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, + Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. + 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 + She that has that is clad in cmplete steel, + And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, + May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths, + Infmous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; + Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, + No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, + Will dare to soil her virgin purity. + Yea, there where very desolation dwells, + By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, + She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 + Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. + Some say no evil thing that walks by night, + In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, + Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, + That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, + No goblin or swart faery of the mine, + Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. + Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call + Antiquity from the old schools of Greece + To testify the arms of chastity? 440 + Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow + Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste, + Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness + And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought + The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men + Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. + What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield + That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, + Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, + But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 + And noble grace that dashed brute violence + With sudden adoration and blank awe? + So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity + That, when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her, + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; + Till oft converse with heavenly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, + By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, + But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, + Lets in defilement to the inward parts, + The soul grows clotted by contagion, + Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose + The divine property of her first being. + Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 + Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres, + Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, + As loth to leave the body that it loved, + And linked itself by carnal sensualty + To a degenerate and degraded state. + + _Second Brother._ How charming is divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, + Where no crude surfeit reigns. + + _Elder Brother._ List! list! I hear 480 + Some far-off hallo break the silent air. + + _Second Brother._ Methought so too; what should it be? + + _Elder Brother._ For certain, + Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, + Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, + Some roving robber calling to his fellows. + + _Second Brother._ Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near! + Best draw, and stand upon our guard. + + _Elder Brother._ I'll hallo. + If he be friendly, he comes well: if not, + Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! + +_Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd._ + + That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490 + Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. + + _Spirit._ What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again. + + _Second Brother._ O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed + The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, + And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. + How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram + Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, + Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? + How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 + + _Spirit._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, + I came not here on such a trivial toy + As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth + Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth + That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought + To this my errand, and the care it brought, + But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? + How chance she is not in your company? + + _Elder Brother._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame + Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 + + _Spirit._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. + + _Elder Brother._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew. + + _Spirit._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous + (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) + What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, + Storied of old in high immortal verse + Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, + And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; + For such there be, but unbelief is blind. + Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 + Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, + Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, + Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, + And here to every thirsty wanderer + By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, + With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison + The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, + And the inglorious likeness of a beast + Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage + Charctered in the face. This have I learnt 530 + Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts + That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night + He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl + Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, + Doing abhorred rites to Hecate + In their obscurd haunts of inmost bowers. + Yet have they many baits and guileful spells + To inveigle and invite the unwary sense + Of them that pass unweeting by the way. + This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 + Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb + Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, + I sat me down to watch upon a bank + With ivy canopied, and interwove + With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, + Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, + To meditate my rural minstrelsy, + Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close + The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, + And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 + At which I ceased, and listened them awhile, + Till an unusual stop of sudden silence + Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds + That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. + At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound + Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, + And stole upon the air, that even Silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 + And took in strains that might create a soul + Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long + Too well I did perceive it was the voice + Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. + Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; + And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, + "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!" + Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, + Through paths and turnings often trod by day, + Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 + Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise + (For so by certain signs I knew), had met + Already, ere my best speed could prevent, + The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey; + Who gently asked if he had seen such two, + Supposing him some neighbour villager. + Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed + Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung + Into swift flight, till I had found you here; + But further know I not. + + _Second Brother._ O night and shades, 580 + How are ye joined with hell in triple knot + Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, + Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence + You gave me, brother? + + _Elder Brother._ Yes, and keep it still; + Lean on it safely; not a period + Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats + Of malice or of sorcery, or that power + Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: + Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, + Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 + Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm + Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. + But evil on itself shall back recoil, + And mix no more with goodness, when at last, + Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, + It shall be in eternal restless change + Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, + The pillared firmament is rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! + Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 + May never this just sword be lifted up; + But, for that damned magician, let him be girt + With all the grisly legions that troop + Under the sooty flag of Acheron, + Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms + 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to return his purchase back, + Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life. + + _Spirit._ Alas! good venturous youth, + I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 + But here thy sword can do thee little stead. + Far other arms and other weapons must + Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. + He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, + And crumble all thy sinews. + + _Elder Brother._ Why, prithee, Shepherd, + How durst thou then thyself approach so near + As to make this relation? + + _Spirit._ Care and utmost shifts + How to secure the Lady from surprisal + Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, + Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 + In every virtuous plant and healing herb + That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. + He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; + Which when I did, he on the tender grass + Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, + And in requital ope his leathern scrip, + And show me simples of a thousand names, + Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. + Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, + But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 + The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, + But in another country, as he said, + Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: + Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain + Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; + And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly + That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. + He called it Hmony, and gave it me, + And bade me keep it as of sovran use + 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 + Or ghastly Furies' apparition. + I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, + Till now that this extremity compelled. + But now I find it true; for by this means + I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, + Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, + And yet came off. If you have this about you + (As I will give you when we go) you may + Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; + Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 + And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, + And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; + But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew + Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, + Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, + Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; + And some good angel bear a shield before us! + +_The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. COMUS +appears with his rabble, and the LADY set in an enchanted chair: to whom +he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise._ + + _Comus._ Nay, lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, + Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 + And you a statue, or as Daphne was, + Root-bound, that fled Apollo. + + _Lady._ Fool, do not boast. + Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind + With all thy charms, although this corporal rind + Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. + + _Comus._ Why are you vexed, lady? why do you frown? + Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates + Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures + That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, + When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 + Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. + And first behold this cordial julep here, + That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, + With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. + Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone + In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena + Is of such power to stir up joy as this, + To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. + Why should you be so cruel to yourself, + And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 + For gentle usage and soft delicacy? + But you invert the covenants of her trust, + And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, + With that which you received on other terms, + Scorning the unexempt condition + By which all mortal frailty must subsist, + Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, + That have been tired all day without repast, + And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, + This will restore all soon. + + _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 + 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty + That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. + Was this the cottage and the safe abode + Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, + These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! + Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! + Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence + With vizored falsehood and base forgery? + And would'st thou seek again to trap me here + With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 + Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, + I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None + But such as are good men can give good things; + And that which is not good is not delicious + To a well-governed and wise appetite. + + _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears + To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, + And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, + Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! + Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 + With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, + Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, + Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, + But all to please and sate the curious taste? + And set to work millions of spinning worms, + That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, + To deck her sons; and, that no corner might + Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins + She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems, + To store her children with. If all the world 720 + Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, + Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, + The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, + Not half his riches known, and yet despised; + And we should serve him as a grudging master, + As a penurious niggard of his wealth, + And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, + Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, + And strangled with her waste fertility: + The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730 + The herds would over-multitude their lords; + The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds + Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, + And so bestud with stars, that they below + Would grow inured to light, and come at last + To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. + List, lady; be not coy, and be not cozened + With that same vaunted name, Virginity. + Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded, + But must be current; and the good thereof 740 + Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, + Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself. + If you let slip time, like a neglected rose + It withers on the stalk with languished head. + Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown + In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, + Where most may wonder at the workmanship. + It is for homely features to keep home; + They had their name thence: coarse complexions + And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 + The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. + What need of vermeil-tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? + There was another meaning in these gifts; + Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. + + _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips + In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler + Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, + Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. + I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760 + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, + As if she would her children should be riotous + With her abundance. She, good cateress, + Means her provision only to the good, + That live according to her sober laws, + And holy dictate of spare Temperance. + If every just man that now pines with want + Had but a moderate and beseeming share + Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 + Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, + Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed + In unsuperfluous even proportions, + And she no whit encumbered with her store; + And then the Giver would be better thanked, + His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony + Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, + But with besotted base ingratitude + Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? + Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780 + Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words + Against the sun-clad power of chastity + Fain would I something say;--yet to what end? + Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend + The sublime notion and high mystery + That must be uttered to unfold the sage + And serious doctrine of Virginity; + And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know + More happiness than this thy present lot. + Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 + That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; + Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. + Yet, should I try, the uncontrolld worth + Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits + To such a flame of sacred vehemence + That dumb things would be moved to sympathise, + And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, + Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, + Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. + + _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 + Her words set off by some superior power; + And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew + Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove + Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus + To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, + And try her yet more strongly.--Come, no more! + This is mere moral babble, and direct + Against the canon laws of our foundation. + I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees + And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 + + But this will cure all straight; one sip of this + Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight + Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. + +_The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his +hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, +but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in._ + + _Spirit._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape? + O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, + And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the Lady that sits here + In stony fetters fixed and motionless. + Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 + Some other means I have which may be used, + Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, + The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. + There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, + That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream: + Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; + Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, + That had the sceptre from his father Brute. + She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit + Of her enragd stepdame, Guendolen, 830 + Commended her fair innocence to the flood + That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. + The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, + Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, + Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; + Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, + And gave her to his daughters to imbathe + In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, + And through the porch and inlet of each sense + Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 + And underwent a quick immortal change, + Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains + Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve + Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, + Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs + That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, + Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: + For which the shepherds, at their festivals, + Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, + And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 + Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. + And, as the old swain said, she can unlock + The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, + If she be right invoked in warbled song; + For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift + To aid a virgin, such as was herself, + In hard-besetting need. This will I try, + And add the power of some adjuring verse. + +_Song._ + + Sabrina fair, + Listen where thou art sitting 860 + Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + In twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; + Listen for dear honour's sake, + Goddess of the silver lake, + Listen and save! + + Listen, and appear to us, + In name of great Oceanus. + By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, + And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 + By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, + And the Carpathian wizard's hook; + By scaly Triton's winding shell, + And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; + By Leucothea's lovely hands, + And her son that rules the strands; + By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, + And the songs of Sirens sweet; + By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, + And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 + Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks + Sleeking her soft alluring locks; + By all the Nymphs that nightly dance + Upon thy streams with wily glance; + Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head + From thy coral-paven bed, + And bridle in thy headlong wave, + Till thou our summons answered have. + Listen and save! + +_SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings._ + + By the rushy-fringd bank, 890 + Where grows the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen + Of turkis blue, and emerald green, + That in the channel strays; + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head, + That bends not as I tread. + Gentle swain, at thy request 900 + I am here! + + _Spirit._ Goddess dear, + We implore thy powerful hand + To undo the charmd band + Of true virgin here distressed + Through the force and through the wile + Of unblessed enchanter vile. + + _Sabrina._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best + To help ensnared chastity. + Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 + Thus I sprinkle on thy breast + Drops that from my fountain pure + I have kept of precious cure; + Thrice upon thy finger's tip, + Thrice upon thy rubied lip: + Next this marble venomed seat, + Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, + I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. + Now the spell hath lost his hold; + And I must haste ere morning hour 920 + To wait in Amphitrite's bower. + +_SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat._ + + _Spirit._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine, + Sprung of old Anchises' line, + May thy brimmd waves for this + Their full tribute never miss + From a thousand petty rills, + That tumble down the snowy hills: + Summer drouth or singd air + Never scorch thy tresses fair, + Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 + Thy molten crystal fill with mud; + May thy billows roll ashore + The beryl and the golden ore; + May thy lofty head be crowned + With many a tower and terrace round, + And here and there thy banks upon + With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. + Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, + Let us fly this cursd place, + Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 + With some other new device. + Not a waste or needless sound + Till we come to holier ground. + I shall be your faithful guide + Through this gloomy covert wide; + And not many furlongs thence + Is your Father's residence, + Where this night are met in state + Many a friend to gratulate + His wished presence, and beside 950 + All the swains that there abide + With jigs and rural dance resort. + We shall catch them at their sport, + And our sudden coming there + Will double all their mirth and cheer. + Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, + But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. + +_The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle; +then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with the +Two BROTHERS and the LADY._ + +_Song._ + + _Spirit._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play + Till next sunshine holiday. + Here be, without duck or nod, 960 + Other trippings to be trod + Of lighter toes, and such court guise + As Mercury did first devise + With the mincing Dryades + On the lawns and on the leas. + +_This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother._ + + Noble Lord and Lady bright, + I have brought ye new delight. + Here behold so goodly grown + Three fair branches of your own. + Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 + Their faith, their patience, and their truth, + And sent them here through hard assays + With a crown of deathless praise, + To triumph in victorious dance + O'er sensual folly and intemperance. + +_The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes._ + + _Spirit._ To the ocean now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad fields of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air, 980 + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + Along the crispd shades and bowers + Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; + The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours + Thither all their bounties bring. + There eternal Summer dwells, + And west winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling 990 + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can shew, + And drenches with Elysian dew + (List, mortals, if your ears be true) + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where young Adonis oft reposes, + Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 + In slumber soft, and on the ground + Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. + But far above, in spangled sheen, + Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced + Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced + After her wandering labours long, + Till free consent the gods among + Make her his eternal bride, + And from her fair unspotted side + Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 + Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. + But now my task is smoothly done, + I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth's end, + Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, + And from thence can soar as soon + To the corners of the moon. + Mortals, that would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb 1020 + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + + + + +NOTES. + + +~discovers~, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of 'discover' is to find +out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix _dis-_ has +often the more purely negative force of _un-_: hence discover = uncover, +reveal. Comp.-- + + "Some high-climbing hill + Which to his eye _discovers_ unaware + The goodly prospect of some foreign land." + + _Par. Lost_, iii. 546. + +~Attendant Spirit descends~. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by +Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, +explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the +plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in +whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient +classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, +sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the +plot. The opening of _Comus_ prepares the audience and also directly +addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual +performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6. + +1. ~starry threshold~, etc. Comp. Virgil: "The sire of gods and monarch of +men summons a council to the starry chamber" (_sideream in sedem_), +_Aen._ x. 2. + +2. ~mansion~, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly "a +place of tarrying," which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence +'a resting-place.' Comp. _John_, xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are many +_mansions_"; and _Il Pens._ 93, "Her _mansion_ in this fleshly nook." +The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large +and important dwelling-house. ~where~, in which: the antecedent is +separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp. +lines 66, 821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection +would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection. ~shapes ... +spirits~. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual +beings with personality without making them too distinct. "Of all the +poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural +beings Milton has succeeded best" (Macaulay). We see this in _Par. Lost_ +(_e.g._ ii. 666). Compare the use of the word 'shape' (Lat. _umbra_) in +l. 207: also _L'Alleg._ 4, "horrid _shapes_ and shrieks"; and _Il Pens._ +6, "fancies fond with gaudy _shapes_ possess." Milton's use of the +demonstrative ~those~ in this line is noteworthy; comp. "_that_ last +infirmity of noble mind," _Lyc._ 71: it implies that the reference is to +something well known, and that further particularisation is needless. + +3. ~insphered~. 'Sphere,' with its derivatives 'sphery,' 'insphere,' and +'unsphere' (_Il Pens._ 88), is used by Milton with a literal reference +to the cosmical framework as a whole (see _Hymn Nat._ 48) or to some +portion of it. In Shakespeare 'sphere' occurs in the wider sense of 'the +path in which anything moves,' and it is to this metaphorical use of the +word that we owe such phrases as 'a person's sphere of life,' 'sphere of +action,' etc. See also _Comus_, 112-4, 241-3, 1021; _Arc._ 62-7; _Par. +Lost_, v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres. + +4. ~mild~: an attributive of the whole clause, 'regions of calm and serene +air.' ~calm and serene~. These are not mere synonyms: the Lat. _serenus_ = +bright or unclouded, so that the two epithets are to be respectively +contrasted with 'smoke' and 'stir' (line 5); 'calm' being opposed to +'stir' and 'serene' to 'smoke.' Compare Homer's description of the seat +of the gods: "Not by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth +the snow come nigh thereto, but _most clear_ air is spread about it +_cloudless_, and the white light floats over it," _Odyssey_, vi.: comp. +note, l. 977. + +5. ~this dim spot~. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those +immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted. + +6. There are here two attributive clauses: "which men call Earth" and +"(in which) men strive," etc. ~low-thoughted care~; narrow-minded anxiety, +care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective 'low-browed,' +_L'Alleg._ 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his _Eloisa_. + +7. This line is attributive to 'men.' ~pestered ... pinfold~, crowded +together in this cramped space, the Earth. _Pester_, which has no +connection with _pest_, is a shortened form of _impester_, Fr. +_emptrer_, to shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The +radical sense is that of clogging (comp. _Son._ xii. 1); hence of +crowding; and finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. 'Pinfold' +is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle are _pounded_ or shut up: +etymologically, the word = _pind-fold_, a corruption of _pound-fold_. +Comp. _impound_, sheep-_fold_, etc. + +8. ~frail and feverish~. Comp. "life's fitful fever" (_Macbeth_, iii. 2. +23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative. + +9. ~crown that Virtue gives~. This is Scriptural language: comp. _Rev._ +iv. 4; 2 _Tim._ iv. 8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of +righteousness." + +10. ~this mortal change~. In Milton's MS. line 7 was followed by the +words, 'beyond the written date of mortal change,' _i.e._ beyond, or +after, man's appointed time to die. These words were struck out, but we +may suppose that the words 'mortal change' in line 10 have a similar +meaning. Milton frequently uses 'mortal' in the sense of 'liable to +death,' and hence 'human' as opposed to 'divine': the mortal change is +therefore 'the change which occurs to all human beings.' Comp. _Job_, +xiv. 14: "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my +_change_ come": see also line 841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean 'this +mortal state of life,' as distinguished from a future state of +immortality. The Spirit uses 'this' as in line 8, in contrast with +'those,' line 2. + +11. ~enthroned gods~, etc. In allusion to _Rev._ iv. 4, "And upon the +thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; +and on their heads crowns of gold." Milton frequently speaks of the +inhabitants of heaven as _enthroned_. The accent here falls on the first +syllable of the word. + +12. ~Yet some there be~, etc.: 'Although men are generally so exclusively +occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who +aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in +Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp. +_Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, +"there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to +a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~, +_i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il +Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed. + +13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their +just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._ +xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven"; +also _Lyc._ 111: + + "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain + (The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)." + +15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's +presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his +eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his +swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for +such. + +16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the +noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also +used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840; +_Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit." +'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the +Sanskrit _amrta_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the +gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_, +lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._ +hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now +used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment. +Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or +covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to +the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide +enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390. + +18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012. + +19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ... +each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp. +l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory." +_Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with +reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more. + +20. ~by lot~, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the +universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter ('high' Jove), +Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto ('nether' or Stygian Jove). In +_Iliad_ xv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: "For three brethren are we, and +sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things +divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary +sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots." ~nether~, +lower: comp. the phrase 'the upper and the nether lip,' and the name +Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton 'the nether +empire' (_Par. Lost_, ii. 295). The form _nethermost_ (_Par. Lost_, ii. +955) is, like _aftermost_ and _foremost_, a double superlative. + +21. ~sea-girt isles~. Ben Jonson calls Britain a 'sea-girt isle': comp. l. +27. _Isle_ is the M.E. _ile_, in which form the _s_ has been dropped: it +is from O.F. _isle_, Lat. _insula_. It is therefore distinct from +_island_, where an _s_ has, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E. +_iland_, A.S. _igland_ (_ig_ = island: _land_ = land). In line 50 Milton +wrote 'iland.' + +22. ~like to rich and various gems~, etc. Shakespeare describes England as +a 'precious stone set in the silver sea,' _Richard II._ ii. 1. 46: he +also speaks of Heaven as being _inlayed_ with stars, _Cym._ v. 5. 352; +_M. of V._ v. 1. 59, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick _inlaid_ +with patines of bright gold." Compare also _Par. Lost_, iv. 700, where +Milton refers to the ground as having a rich _inlay_ of flowers. But for +its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned. ~like~: here +followed by the preposition _to_, and having its proper force as an +adjective: comp. _Il Pens._ 9. Whether _like_ is used as an adjective +or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. 57. + +24. ~to grace~, _i.e._ to show favour to: a clause of purpose. + +25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits +to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct. +Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with +plural nouns. + +26. ~sapphire~. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29: +see note there. + +27. ~little tridents~, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, "with his +trident touched the stars" (_Neptune's Triumph, Proteus' Song_, Ben +Jonson). + +28. ~greatest and the best~. Comp. Shakespeare's eulogy in _Rich. II._ ii. +1: also Ben Jonson's "Albion, Prince of all his Isles," _Neptune's +Triumph, Apollo's Song_. + +29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._ +208: + + "Sailors _quarter'd_ Heaven, and found a name + For every fixt and ev'ry wandering star." + +Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into _four_ +parts: "at that time the island was actually divided into four separate +governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords +President of the North and of Wales." (Keightley). ~blue-haired deities~. +These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little +tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the +complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet 'blue-haired' +Masson asks: "Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, +inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with +Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his +subordinates": in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green +hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities _caerulei dii_, and +Neptune _caeruleus deus_, thus associating blue with the sea. + +30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is +entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer +referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was +entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the +four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and +Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the +fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's +Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and +private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a +profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a +dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as +well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in +those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. +As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of +patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and +occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the +East and the West. + +31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle' +and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom. +and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In +herbs," etc. + +33. ~An old and haughty nation~. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who +probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore +rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson's piece _For the +Honour of Wales_: + + "I is not come here to taulk of Brut, + From whence the Welse does take his root," etc. + +That they were haughty and 'proud in arms' the Romans found, and after +them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of +Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by +that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the +Barons was: "We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince +to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we +know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and +rights." By a statute of Henry VIII. this 'haughty' people were put in +possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. ~proud in +arms~: this is Virgil's _belloque superbum_, _Aen._ i. 21 (Warton). + +34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high +position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth +distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to +their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_. + +35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies +connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old +sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's +_Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and +chair_." + +36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple +adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the +form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is +formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890. +Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it +was newly assumed. See Introduction. + +37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or +twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to +inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable. + +38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also +to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_, +to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as +_horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563, +"a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~: +this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the +brow overhangs the eyes. + +39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an +adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose +utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but +in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the +prefix. See note, l. 234. + +40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the +two brothers were younger than she. + +41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a +subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was +despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may +regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick +command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being +commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is +Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is +due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate +with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639. + +43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43, +44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina +non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask +is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern +song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (= +banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and +'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his +lady. + +46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is +designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and +Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring +from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the +misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These +parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, +mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated +with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay +exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and +magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as +represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which +mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the +_Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in +Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the +clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure"; +and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the +genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is +a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically +to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow +Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the +classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who +taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on +one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: +these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the +mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins. +The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the +_Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the +isle an, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of +mortal speech, own sister to the wizard etes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~, +etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the +more common 'out from.' + +47. ~misusd~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by +Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all +obsolete). + +48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are +called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or +Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical +construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a +substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected +with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in +the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the +creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery +of this loss. + +49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_, +iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb +_list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer +we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word +survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was +_lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which +it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.' + +50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of +Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph +Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb +_fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the +interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech +called anadiplosis. + +51. ~charmd cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered +magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_): +comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.' + +52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this +construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently +uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12, +"_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, 251. ~lost +his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them +(followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and +made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with +Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them +utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup +and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in +the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, +the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of +old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns +and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do +always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._) + +54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban +Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath +of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. +_L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams. +Agon._ 569. + +55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure. + +57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may +indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as +a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Much of the father's face, + More of the mother's grace." + +58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word +kmos+ denoted a revel or +merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous +mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In classical +mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled +Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics. + +59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; +comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic +welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new +adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes +the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with +German _frhlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such +words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be +compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _ger animi_ = sick +of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.' + +60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and +Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the +waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles." + +61. ~betakes him~. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan +English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple +pronouns is common (see Abbott, 223). Compare l. 163. ~ominous~; +literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of +monsters (_Lyc._ 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense +of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,' +etc. + +65. ~orient~, bright. The Lat. _oriens_ = rising; hence (from being +applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or +'shining': comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 546, "With _orient_ colours waving." + +66. ~drouth of Phoebus~, _i.e._ thirst caused by the heat of the sun. +Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of +rain; the more usual spelling is _drought_. ~which~: see note, l. 2. +'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.' + +67. ~fond~, foolish (its primary sense). _Fonned_ was the participle of an +old verb _fonnen_, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great +liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost. +Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_"; +_Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal +men." + +68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its +effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a +drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous +draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French. + +69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of +work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a +god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine." + +71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the +cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yz_, panther. + +72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the +bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only +the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the +performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage +direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the +absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither +the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some +attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the +purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is +usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of +pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In +Old English the dative was used. + +73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly). + +74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of +Ulysses: see note, l. 52. + +76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect +ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat +the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor +to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, +ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In +Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: +"Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave." +Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._ +viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in +sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and +the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, _F. +Q._ ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been +late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to +natural." + +77. ~sensual sty~: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted +care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes +little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to _forget_. + +78. ~favoured~: compare Lat. _gratus_ = favoured (adj.). + +79. ~adventurous~, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,' +applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. ~glade~: +strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the +wood itself. It is cognate with _glow_ and _glitter_, and its +fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat). + +80. ~glancing star~, a shooting star. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 556: + + "Swift as a shooting star + In autumn thwarts the night." + +The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense. + +81. ~convoy~: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 752, "_convoyed_ By four cherubic +shapes." It is another form of _convey_ (Lat. _con_ = together, _via_ = +a way). + +83. ~sky-robes~: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. ~Iris' woof~, material +dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the +rainbow: comp. l. 992 and _Par. Lost_, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the +woof." Etymologically, _woof_ is connected with _web_ and _weave_: it is +short for _on-wef_ = on-web, _i.e._ the cross threads laid on the warp +of a loom. + +84. ~weeds~: see note, l. 16. + +86. ~That to the service~, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, +first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of +_Comus_ by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he +alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater +family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to +compliment the Earl (see Introduction). + +86. ~smooth-dittied~: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. _dictatum_) strictly +denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; +it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. _Lyc._ +32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare _Son._ +xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted. + +87. ~knows to still~, etc.: comp. _Lyc._ 10, "he knew Himself to sing." + +88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is +skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most +likely to be at hand should any emergency arise. + +92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing"; +_Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian +word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless +winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the +formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_, +'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also +l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of +'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from +Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a +crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a +beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by +the _rout_ that made the hideous roar." + +93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the +planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by +Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer, +the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion: + + "Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... + Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."-- + + _In Memoriam_, cxxi. + +Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of +eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic. + +94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._ +31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink +towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky, +and on comes Night from the ocean." + +95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. +Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and +"Phoebus' wain," line 190. + +96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton +alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482, +"Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion +of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was +accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would +thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_ +occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_, +i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes' +dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until +the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter +pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to +confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_ +gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, +it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its +place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and +other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc. + +97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great +_stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing +Okeanos (+bathyrroos+)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase +'the high seas.' + +98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays +visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as +an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31). + +99. ~dusky~. Milton first wrote 'northern.' + +100. ~Pacing toward the other goal~, etc. Comp. _Psalm_ xix. 5: "The sun +as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man +to run a race." + +102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of +_L'Allegro_, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and +both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and +with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of _L'Allegro_ +begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of _Comus_ and +his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun +shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is +not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that +betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the +"midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, +Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and +cranks" of _L'Allegro_ have given way to the magic rites of _Comus_, and +the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth +are ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry. + +104. ~jollity~: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton +occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. _joli_, pretty) has its primary +sense of pleasing or festive. + +105. ~Braid your locks with rosy twine~; 'entwine your hair with wreaths +of roses.' + +106. ~dropping odours~: comp. l. 862-3. + +108. ~Advice ... scrupulous head~. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify +counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or +deliberation. See Chaucer, _Prologue_, 786, "granted him without more +_advice_"; and comp. Shakespeare, _M. of V._ iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon +more _advice_, Hath sent you here this ring"; also _Par. Lost_, ii. 376, +"_Advise_, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See +also l. 755, note. _Scrupulous_ = full of scruples, conscientious. + +110. ~saws~, sayings, maxims. _Saw_, _say_, and _saga_ (a Norwegian +legend) are cognate. + +111. ~of purer fire~, _i.e._ having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as +there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = +divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living +creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the +Stoics held that whatever consisted of _pure fire_ was divine, _e.g._ +the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112. + +112. ~the starry quire~: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see +lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds +proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial +concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurgd ear" of mankind: +comp. l. 458 and _Arc._ 63-73. Shakespeare (_M. of V._ v. 1. 61) alludes +to the music of the spheres: + + "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st + But in his motion like an angel sings, + Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc. + +_Quire_ is a form of _choir_ (Lat. _chorus_, a band of singers); in +Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the +audience. _Quire_ (of paper) is a totally different word, probably +derived from Lat. _quatuor_, four. + +113. ~nightly watchful spheres~. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars +keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright," +_Hymn Nat._ 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of +'nocturnal': comp. _Il Pens._ 84, "To bless the doors from _nightly_ +harm"; _Arc._ 48, "_nightly_ ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The _nightly_ +hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night." + +114. ~Lead in swift round~. Comp. _Arc._ 71: "And the low world in +measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune." + +115. ~sounds~, straits: A.S. _sund_, a strait of the sea, so called +because it could be _swum_ across. See Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ _s.v._ + +116. ~to the moon~, _i.e._ as affected by the moon. For similar uses of +'to,' comp. _Lyc._ 33, "tempered _to_ the oaten flute"; _Lyc._ 44, +"fanning their joyous leaves _to_ thy soft lays." ~morrice~. The waters +quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish +dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into +England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"--a weapon used +by the Moors in Spain. + +117. ~shelves~, flat ledges of rock. + +118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of +_perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat +points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._ +"_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a +child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and +Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_ +into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du. +_dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of +'neat.' + +119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with +_dingle_ and _dapple_. + +120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies +pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens." + +121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The +adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin +_vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a +church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening +merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense +in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception +_proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the +rule. + +124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is +Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object +being 'Love.' + +125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage +requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535. + +126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the +sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When +night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial." + +127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The +horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark. + +129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' +because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian +divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because +the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water. + +131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the +abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of +darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night +being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_, +i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict +sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore," +it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. +_uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the +dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you +_dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing +of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks +her dragon yoke." + +132. ~spets~, a form of _spits_ (as _spettle_ for _spittle_). + +133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63. +Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature." + +134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is +'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~, +black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb. +_eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has +become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness. + +135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecat (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian +divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these +reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson +calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at +night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the +souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs. + +136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn +That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.' + +137. ~dues~: see note, l. 12. + +138. ~blabbing eastern scout~, _i.e._ the tale-telling spy that comes from +the East, viz. Morning. + +139. ~nice~; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet, +expressing at once _curious_ and _squeamish_" (Hurd). It is used by +Comus in contempt: comp. ii. _Henry IV._ iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou +_nice_ crutch"; and see the index to the Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian +steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the +"light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._ +in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and +Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over +_Indian_ seas." + +140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._ +the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps," +said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of +the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally +'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small. + +141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, + + "The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun, + For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light." + +Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In +_Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed +Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our +hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_: +both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and +Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.' + +142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_, +complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_. +Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed +year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated +intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._ +serious or important. + +143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Now, now begin to set + Your spirits in active heat; + And, since your hands are met, + Instruct your nimble feet, + In motions swift and meet, + The happy ground to beat." + +144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as +you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in +which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained. +So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has +not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a +form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_). + +At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after +which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked +by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in +octosyllabic couplets. + +145. ~different~, _i.e._ different from the voluptuous footing of Comus +and his crew. + +146. ~footing~: comp. _Lyc._ 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went _footing_ +slow." + +147. ~shrouds~, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes +'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and +finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of +Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The +Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of +the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. ~brakes~, bushes. Shakespeare has +"hawthorn-_brake_," _M. N. D._ iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be +connected with _bracken_. + +148. ~Some virgin sure~, _sc._ 'it is.' + +150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements. +_Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic +verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile). +_Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains' +(_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note" +(_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some +would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles. + +151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was +an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a +preposition. + +153. ~Thus I hurl~, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance +the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture +as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is +kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft +among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is _powdered spells_; but Milton, by +a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, +substituted _dazzling_" (Masson). + +154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A +_spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying): +here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called +because it holds in suspension the magic powder. + +155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are +attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a +characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear +illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision. +Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam. +Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial +argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W. +Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_. + +156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from +_presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_): +while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being +before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense +of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. +_cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In +French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_, +neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or +delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.' + +158. ~suspicious flight~: flight due to suspicion of danger. + +160. ~I, under fair pretence~, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly +intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I +insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.' + +161. ~glozing~, flattering, wheedling. Compare _Par. Lost_, ix. 549, + + "So _glozed_ the temper, and his proem tuned: + Into the heart of Eve his words made way." + +_Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr. +_glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in +his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names +are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely +denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an +endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with _gloss_ = +brightness. + +162. ~Baited~, rendered attractive. Radically _bait_ is the causative of +_bite_; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. _Sams. Ag._ 1066, "The +_bait_ of honied words." + +163. ~wind me~, etc. The verbs _wind_ (_i.e._ coil) and _hug_ suggest the +cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart +or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in +_Anat. of Mel._, says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible +spirit, can easily insinuate and _wind_ himself into human bodies." +_Me_ is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic +dative. + +165. ~virtue~, _i.e._ power or influence (Lat. _virtus_). This radical +sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The +adjective _virtuous_ is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 +it has its older meaning. + +166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. +In the edition of 1673 the reading was: + + "I shall appear some harmless villager, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + But here she comes, I fairly step aside." + +But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after _may_, +and to change _here_ into _hear_. In Masson's text, accordingly, he +reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear." + +167. ~keeps up~, etc., _i.e._ keeps occupied with his country affairs even +up to a late hour. _Gear_: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S. +_gearu_, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ +vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was _easy gear_," _i.e._ an easy matter, +fairly, softly. _Fair_ and _softly_ were two words which went together, +signifying _gently_ (Warton). + +170. ~mine ear ... My best guide~. Observe the juxtaposition of _mine_ and +_my_ in these lines. _Mine_ is frequent before a vowel, especially when +the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is +almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is +intended (Abbott, 237). + +171. ~Methought~, _i.e._ it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' _me_ is +the dative, and _thinks_ is an impersonal verb (A.S. _thincan_, to +appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from +A.S. _thencan_, to make to appear. + +173. ~jocund~, merry. Comp. _L'Allegro_, 94, "the _jocund_ rebecks sound." +~gamesome~, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in _-some_, is +now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives +are obsolete, _e.g._ laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's +_English, Past and Present_, v.). + +174. ~unlettered hinds~, ignorant rustics (A.S. _hina_, a domestic). + +175. ~granges~, granaries, barns (Lat. _granum_, grain). The word is now +applied to a farm-house with its outhouses. + +176. ~Pan~, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see _Arc._ +106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." + +177. ~thank the gods amiss~. _Amiss_ stands for M.E. _on misse_ = in +error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods +should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making" +(Keightley). See Introduction. + +178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those +carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily, +hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_; +from _wes_, be thou, and _hl_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form +of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the +sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to +is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_, +the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir +Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk." + +180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_ +your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well +illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when +they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright." + +184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect. + +187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which +attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. +_As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun. + +188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited," +_Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning. + +189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. +_votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to +one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present +case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a +palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would +naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a +palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is +a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16. + +190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically +realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a +venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some +rich man's chariot" (Masson). + +192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts. + +193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that +in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To +_engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge. + +195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is +frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious +darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide +the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is +therefore to some extent tautological. + +197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be +concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern +is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_, +which turns its bright side only to him that bears it." + +198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57: + + "By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove + Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:" + +also _Macbeth_, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles +are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung +in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate _in sense_ with the next +clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps" +is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. +l. 6. + +203. ~rife~, prevalent. ~perfect~, distinct; see note, l. 73. + +204. ~single darkness~, darkness only. _Single_ is from the same base as +_simple_; comp. l. 369. + +205. ~What might this be?~ This is a direct question about a past event, +and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note +there. ~A thousand fantasies~, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That +wonderful passage in _Comus_ of the airy tongues, perhaps the most +imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry +sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to +understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the _Anat. of Mel._: +"Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth +over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the +dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie +presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or +phantasy, Shakespeare says: + + "As imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to _shapes_, and gives to _airy nothing_ + A local habitation and a name."-- + + _M. N. D._ v. 1. 14. + +Compare also Ben Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, + And spread thy purple wings; + Now all thy figures are allow'd, + And various shapes of things: + Create of _airy forms_ a stream ... + And though it be a waking dream," etc. + +207. ~Of calling shapes~, etc. In Heywood's _Hierarchy of Angels_ there is +a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such +words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's +power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. _Aen._ iv. +460. ~beckoning shadows dire~. A characteristic arrangement of words in +Milton: comp. lines 470, 945. + +208. ~syllable~, pronounce distinctly. + +210. ~may startle well~, may well startle. + +212. ~siding champion, Conscience~. To side is to take a side, and hence +to assist: comp. _Cor._ iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have _sided_ in his +behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: +in _Son._ xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2. +379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet +Conscience." + +213. ~pure-eyed Faith~. Comp. _Lyc._ 81, "those pure eyes And perfect +witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of +purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her +purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by +an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,' +'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of +Charity in the trio is significant: see i. _Cor._ xiii. + +214. ~hovering angel~. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The +word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt, +surrounded. ~golden wings~. In _Il Pens._ 52, Contemplation "soars on +golden wing." + +216. ~see ye visibly~, _i.e._ you are not mere shapes, but living +presences. _Ye_: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between +_ye_ and _you_ did not exist in old English; _ye_ was always used as a +nominative, and _you_ as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible +the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the +Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris). +It is so in Milton, who has _ye_ as nominative, accusative, and dative; +comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also _Arc._ 40, 81, 101. It may be noted +that _ye_ can be pronounced more rapidly than _you_, and is therefore +frequent when an unaccented syllable is required. + +217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it +must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' +or punishment. + +219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' +of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate +words. + +221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of +line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a +glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the +same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of +an unaccusing conscience. + +222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine. + +223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and +'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the +auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due +probably to change of thought. + +225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_ +trees." + +226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_, +and _holloa_. + +227. ~make to be heard~. Make = cause. + +228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly +enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36. + +229. ~they~, _i.e._ the brothers. + +230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by +preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after +others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until +nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in +Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1. + +The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very +Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to +rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, +and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth +Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers. + +231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of +Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is +_cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_, +because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the +form of a shell. + +232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, +remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' +and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a +haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses +Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost +Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with +music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and +the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash +contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being +thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._ +58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a +reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down +the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is +associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost +brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above +was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of +Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous +haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and +Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" +(_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are +forms of the same word. + +233. ~the violet-embroidered vale~. The notion that flowers _broider_ or +ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 700: +"Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay +_Broidered_ the ground." In _Lyc._ 148, the flowers themselves wear +'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale +because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's _Masque of +Hymen_) and with innocence (see _Hamlet_, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you +some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales, +however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and +argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close +by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and +where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus +as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet +'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek +iostephanos+ (= +crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, of +which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the +violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might +here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in _Par. Reg._ +iv. 245: see the following note. + +234. ~love-lorn nightingale~, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost: +comp. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the +poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night +through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and +fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." _Lorn_ and +_lost_ are cognate words, the former being common in the compound +_forlorn_: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the +nightingale: in _Il Penseroso_ it is 'Philomel'; in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245, +it is 'the Attic bird'; and in _Par. Lost_ viii. 518, it is 'the amorous +bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of +Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was +Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales +(Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale +that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The +epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of A{=e}don +(Greek +adn+, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by +mistake, was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was +represented by the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her +child. + +235. ~her sad song mourneth~, _i.e._ sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad +song' forms a kind of cognate accusative. + +237. ~likest thy Narcissus~. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of +Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image +reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he +accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his +name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in _Cynthia's Revels_, +i. 1. Grammatically, _likest_ is an adjective qualified adverbially by +"(to) thy Narcissus": comp. _Il Pens._ 9, "likest hovering dreams." + +238. ~have hid~. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), +but the subjunctive mood. + +240. ~Tell me but where~, _i.e._ 'Only tell me where.' + +241. ~Sweet Queen of Parley~, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. _parler_, +to speak): _parlour_, _parole_, _palaver_, _parliament_, _parlance_. +etc., are cognate. ~Daughter of the Sphere~, _i.e._ of the sphere which is +her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice +and Verse" (_At a Solemn Music_, 2). + +243. ~give resounding grace~, etc., _i.e._ add the charm of echo to the +music of the spheres. + +The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in +length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more +striking owing to the consonance of _shell_, _well_ with _vale_, +_nightingale_; also of _pair_, _where_ with _are_ and _sphere_; and of +_have_ with _cave_. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration +of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical +passages. + +244. ~mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment~. The words _mortal_ +and _divine_ are in antithesis: comp. _Il Pens._ 91, 92, "The immortal +mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines +embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555 +and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. _Il +Pens._ 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794. + +246. ~Sure~, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266. + +247. ~vocal~, used proleptically. + +248. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.' + +251. ~smoothing the raven down~. As the nightingale's song smooths the +rugged brow of Night (_Il Pens._ 58), so here the song of the lady +smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a +winged goddess. + +252. ~it~, _i.e._ darkness. + +253. ~Circe ... Sirens three~. In the _Odyssey_ the Sirens are two in +number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island +off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured +sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a +sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined +allusion: see also Horace's _Epist._ i. 2, 23, _Sirenum voces, et Circes +pocula nsti_. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god +Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids. + +254. ~flowery-kirtled Naiades~: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or +having their skirts decorated with flowers. A _kirtle_ is a gown; Skeat +suggests that it is a diminutive of _skirt_. + +255. ~baleful~, injurious (A.S. _balu_, evil). + +256. ~sung~. "The verbs _swim_, _begin_, _run_, _drink_, _shrink_, _sink_, +_ring_, _sing_, _spring_, have for their proper past tenses _swam_, +_began_, _ran_, etc., preserving the original _a_; but in older writers +(sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find +forms with _u_, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris). +~take the prisoned soul~, _i.e._ would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned' +being used proleptically. + +257. ~lap it in Elysium~. _Lap_ is a form of wrap: comp. _L'Alleg._ 136, +"_Lap_ me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the +blessed; comp. _L'Alleg._ 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." ~Scylla ... +Charybdis~. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god +Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She +threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the +surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," _Aen._ vii. 588) +resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, +and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool. + +260. ~slumber~: comp. _Pericles_, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon +mine eyes." + +261. ~madness~, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in _Il Pens._ 164: "As +may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into _ecstasies_, And +bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in +the sense of madness; see _Hamlet_, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form +and feature of blown youth, Blasted with _ecstasy_"; _Temp._ iii. 3. +108, "hinder them from what this _ecstasy_ May now provoke them to": +comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," _Wint. Tale_, v. 3. 73. See +also l. 625. + +262. ~home-felt~, deeply felt. Compare "The _home_ thrust of a friendly +sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes _home_ to +our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +263. ~waking bliss~, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the +song of Circe. + +265. ~Hail, foreign wonder!~ Warton notes that _Comus_ is universally +allowed to have taken some of its tints from the _Tempest_, and quotes, +"O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426. + +266. ~certain~: see note, l. 246. + +267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in +rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless' +(Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, +also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the +antecedent. + +268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that +Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." +Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is +corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood). + +269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in +which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and +"mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a +reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the +Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95. + +271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male +perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to +"there is little loss in losing." + +273. ~extreme shift~; last resource. Comp. l. 617. + +274. ~my severed company~: a condensed expression = the companions +separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called +Synecdoche. + +277. ~What chance~, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that +form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer +occupy alternate lines: it is called _stichomythia_, and is admirable +when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the +_Supplices_ of Euripides). In _Samson Agonistes_, which is modelled on +the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it. + +278. An alliterative line. + +279. ~near ushering~, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. +_ostium_, a door). + +284. ~twain~: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after +its substantive as in _Lyc._ 110, "of metals _twain_," and as a +substantive. + +285. ~forestalling~, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing +term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a _stall_ in +the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to +anticipate.' ~prevented~. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' +seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to +anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l. +362; _Par. Lost_, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this +_prevention_ more Incensed." + +286. ~to hit~. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. +"good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc. + +287. ~Imports their loss~, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the +loss of them important?' + +289. ~manly prime~, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they +merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth' +ends: comp. _Par. Lost_, xi. 245, "_prime_ in manhood where youth +ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet +such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' = +Spring. + +290. ~Hebe~, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared +on the lips of the brothers. + +291. ~what time~: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. _quo tempore_). +Compare Horace, _Od._ iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." ~laboured~: +wearied with labour. + +292. ~loose traces~. Because no longer taut from the draught of the +plough. + +293. ~swinked~, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. _swincan_, to toil). +Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense +of toil is due to that of constant movement from the _swinging_ of the +labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman. + +294. ~mantling~, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. +_Temp._ v. 1. 67, "fumes that _mantle_ Their clearer reason." + +297. ~port~, bearing, mien. + +298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than +the current form. + +299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher +Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the +four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means +'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it +doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er +the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc. + +301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more +properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her +sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l. +372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. +'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.' + +302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before +_-ed_. + +303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it +would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the +Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._ +vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth." + +304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used +without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the +preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the +sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the +infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The +infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, +which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became +confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general. +Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day." + +305. ~readiest way~. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate. + +311. ~each ... every~: see note, l. 19. ~alley~, a walk or avenue. + +312. ~Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn~. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben +Jonson's _Sad Shepherd_) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a +narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so +deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or +thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word +etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus, +might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred +to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or _bush_ (M.E. _busch_, +_bush_, _bush_). 'See Tennyson's _Dream of F. W._ 243, "the sombre +_boscage_ of the wood." + +315. ~stray attendance~ = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in +line 274. Comp. _Par. Lost_, x. 80, "_Attendance_ none shall need, nor +train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous _servitude_" (= +servants). + +316. ~shroud~, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see +note, l. 147. + +317. ~low-roosted lark~, _i.e._ the lark that has roosted on the ground. +This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising +from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground. +'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with _rest_, but denotes a +perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of +supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may +therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson +takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the +corn-stalks or rushes over it. + +318. ~rouse~. Here used intransitively = awake. + +322. ~honest-offered~: see notes, ll. 36, 228. + +323. ~sooner~, more readily. + +324. ~tapestry halls~. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of +carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating +walls." The word is said to be from the Persian. + +325. ~first was named~. The meaning is: '_Courtesy_ which is derived from +_court_, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is +nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This +sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a +humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes, +_courtship_) has, like _civility_, lost much of its deeper significance. +Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 1. 1: + + "Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, + For that it there most useth to abound." + +327. ~less warranted~, _i.e._ when I have less _guarantee_ of safety. +_Guarantee_ and _warrant_, like _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, +are radically the same. + +329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies +watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj. +'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the +action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt +said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly." +~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage. + +331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._ +'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is +a diminutive of _muff_. + +332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd +person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed; +hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_ +state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and +its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle +being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle +formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun +_wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in +his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a +participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was +wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat. +_benedictio_). + +333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72, +"_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used +with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il +Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the +stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and +_amber_ light," and Tennyson: + + "What time the _amber_ morn + Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud." + +334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87, +"This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of) +her." + +336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is +employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it +was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the +planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on, +inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain +_influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various +_influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language, +_e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. +360. + +337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)." + +338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a +rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil. + +340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par. +Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The +instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or +ruler. + +341. ~star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure~; here put by synecdoche for +'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the +stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors +steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part +of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was +called _Cynosura_, the dog's tail (Greek +kynos oura+), and by which +Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See _L'Alleg._ 80, "The _cynosure_ +of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common noun = point +of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek mythology with +the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into the Great Bear +while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton follows the Roman +poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this account. + +343. ~barred~, debarred or barred _from_. + +344. ~wattled cotes~: enclosures made of hurdles, _i.e._ frames of +plaited twigs. _Cote_, _cot_, and _coat_ are varieties of the same word += a covering or enclosure. + +345. ~oaten stops~: see _Lyc._ 33, "the _oaten_ flute"; 88, "But now my +_oat_ proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various _quills_." The +shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe," +"oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to +signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the +player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages" +(_Ham._ iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893. + +346. ~whistle ... lodge~, _i.e._ the sound of the shepherd calling his dog +by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in _L'Alleg._ 63, +"the ploughman _whistles_ o'er the furrowed land." + +347. ~Count ... dames~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts +his _dames_ before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings." +Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object +of 'might hear.' + +349. ~innumerous~, innumerable (Lat. _innumerus_). Comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. +455, "_Innumerous_ living creatures"; ix. 1089. + +350. ~hapless~, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, +etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or +bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an +unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary. + +With reference to the word _fortune_, Max Mller says: "We speak of good +and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself +_fortuna_ was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally +meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans +defined _fortuna_ by such adjectives as _bona_, _secunda_, _prospera_, +for good; _mala_ or _adversa_ for bad fortune ... _Fortuna_ came to mean +something like chance." + +351. ~her~, herself. On the reflexive use of _her_, see note, l. 163. + +352. ~burs~; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, _e.g._ the +burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc. + +355. ~leans~. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply +_she_: otherwise _leans_ would be intransitive and its nominative +'head': see note, l. 715. ~fraught~, freighted, filled. _Freight_ is +itself a later form of _fraught_: in _Sams. Agon._, 1075, _fraught_ is a +noun (Ger. _fracht_, a load). See line 732. + +356. ~What~, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) +if (she be) in wild amazement?" + +358. ~savage hunger~. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals. + +359. ~over-exquisite~, _i.e._ too curious, over-inquisitive. _Exquisite_ +is here used in the sense of _inquisitive_; in modern English +'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active +sense (Lat. _quaero_, to seek): see note, l. 714. + +"The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between +fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common +apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds +on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here +the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast +of character" (Warton). + +360. ~To cast the fashion~, _i.e._ to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was +common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii. +_Henry IV._ i. 1. 166, "You _cast_ the event of war." Some think, +however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used +in astrology, _e.g._ "to _cast_ a nativity"; others see in it a +reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis. + +361. ~Grant they be so~: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn +out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364. + +362. ~What need~, etc., _i.e._ why should a man anticipate his hour of +sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. _quid_): comp. l. 752; also _On +Shakespeare_, 6, "_What need'st_ thou such weak witness of thy name?" On +the verb _need_ Abbott, 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,' +where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need' +a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge +much broader than the flood?' _M. Ado_, i. 1. 318; either '_why need_ +the bridge (be) broader?' or '_what need_ is there (that) the bridge +(be) broader?'" + +363. Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we +have," etc.; and Pope's _Essay on Man_, "Heaven from all creatures hides +the book of fate," etc. + +366. ~to seek~, at a loss. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 197: "Unpractised, +unprepared, and still _to seek_." Bacon, in _Adv. of Learning_, has: +"Men bred in learning are perhaps _to seek_ in points of convenience." + +367. ~unprincipled in virtue's book~, _i.e._ ignorant of the elements of +virtue. A principle (Lat. _principium_, beginning) is a fundamental +truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man +who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into +evil. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness +_principled_." + +368. ~bosoms~, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is +governed by 'in,' l. 367. + +369. ~As that~, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to +'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by +'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we +have both connectives together. ~single~: see note, l. 204. noise, sound. + +370. ~Not being in danger~, _i.e._ she not being in danger: absolute +construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional +clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need +not disquiet her.' + +371. ~constant~, steadfast. + +372. ~misbecoming~: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. ~plight~, condition. +Skeat derives this word from A.S. _pliht_, danger; others connect it +with _pledge_. It is distinct from _plight_, l. 301. + +373. ~Virtue could see~, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines +381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for +to wade," _F. Q._ i. 1. 12. + +375. ~flat sea~: comp. _Lyc._ 98, "level brine": Lat. _aequor_, a flat +surface, used of the sea. + +376. ~seeks to~, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the +English Bible: see _Deut._ xii. 5, "_unto_ his habitation shall ye +_seek_"; _Isaiah_, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. _Kings_, x. 24. + +377. ~her best nurse, Contemplation~. The wise man loves contemplation and +solitude: comp. _Il Penseroso_, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is +the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's +_Arcadia_, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations." + +378. ~plumes~. Some would read _prunes_, both words being used of a bird's +smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out +damaged feathers. See Skeat's _Dictionary_, and compare Pope's line, +"Where Contemplation _prunes_ her ruffled wings." + +379. ~various~, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in +_L'Allegro_ the 'busy hum of men.' + +380. ~all to-ruffled~. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be +interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled, +(3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is +etymologically correct: _to_ is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' = +to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while _all_ (= +quite) is simply an adverb modifying _to-ruffled_. But about 1500 A.D. +this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix _to_ was detached from the +verb and either read along with _all_ (thus all-to = altogether), or +confused with _too_ (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is +doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may +have disregarded its origin. See Morris, 324; Abbott, 28, 436. + +381. ~He that has light~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 254: 'The mind is +its own place,' etc. + +382. ~centre~, _i.e._ centre of the earth: comp. _Par. Lost_ i. 686, "Men +also ... Ransacked the _centre_"; and _Hymn Nat._ 162, "The aged Earth +... Shall from the surface to the _centre_ shake." Sometimes the word +'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the _fixed_ centre of the whole +universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed, +however, is not that of immovability (as in _Par. Reg._ iv. 534, "as a +_centre_ firm") but of utter darkness. + +385. ~his own dungeon~: comp. _Sams. Agon._ 156, "Thou art become (O worst +imprisonment!) The _dungeon_ of thyself." + +386. ~most affects~: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes +rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. _pretend_. Lines 386-392 may +be compared with _Il Pens._ 167-174. + +393. ~Hesperian tree~. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden +apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless +dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp. +Tennyson's _Dream of Fair Women_, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd +Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983. + +395. ~unenchanted~, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be +enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,' +'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for +'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott ( 375) says: The +passive participle is often used to signify, not that which _was_ and +_is_, but that which _was_ and therefore _can be hereafter_; in other +words _-ed_ is used for _-able_. + +396. Compare Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, 44, "She flowered in virginity, +With all humility and abstinence." + +398. ~unsunned~, hidden. Comp. _Cym._ ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as _unsunned_ +snow"; _F. Q._ ii. 7, "Mammon ... _Sunning_ his treasure hoar." + +400. ~as bid me hope~, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to) +hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a +single helpless maiden pass uninjured.' + +401. ~Danger will wink on~, etc., _i.e._ danger will shut its eyes to an +opportunity. To _wink on_ or _wink at_ is to connive, to refuse to see +something: comp. _Macbeth_, i. 4. 52, "The eye _wink_ at the hand"; +_Acts_, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in _As You +Like It_, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold." + +403. ~surrounding~. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who +uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has +acquired through a supposed connection with _round_. Shakespeare does +not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. _superundare_). + +404. ~it recks me not~, _i.e._ I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old +verb _reck_ (A.S. _rcan_, to care). Comp. _Lyc._ 122, "What _recks_ it +them." + +405. ~dog them both~, _i.e._ follow closely upon night and loneliness. +Comp. _All's Well_, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger _dogs_ the heels of +worth." + +407. ~unownd~, _i.e._ 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' +Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a +participle. + +408. ~infer~, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See +Shakespeare, iii. _Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 44, "_Inferring_ arguments of mighty +force"; _K. John_, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs _infer_ this +principle": also _Par. Lost_, viii. 91, "great or bright _infers_ not +excellence." + +409. ~without all doubt~, _i.e._ beyond all doubt: a Latinism = _sine omni +dubitatione_. + +411. ~arbitrate the event~, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the +result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded +I incline to hope.' + +413. ~squint suspicion~. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and +squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates +suspicion. + +419. ~if Heaven gave it~, _i.e._ even _although_ Heaven gave it. + +420. ~'Tis chastity~. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 +is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an +exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson). + +421. ~clad in complete steel~, _i.e._ completely armed; comp. _Hamlet_, i. +4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable. + +422. ~quivered nymph~. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow +and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in +Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a +bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin _pharetrata_. + +423. ~trace~, traverse, track. ~unharboured~, affording no shelter. +Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter. + +424. ~Infmous~, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now +implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult. + +425. ~sacred rays~: comp. l. 782. + +426. ~bandite or mountaineer~. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare _bandetto_, and +now _bandit_) is borrowed from the Italian _bandito_, outlawed or +_banned_. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it +has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers +in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the +changes of meaning. See _Temp._ iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that +there were _mountaineers_ Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also _Cym._ iv. 2. +120, "Who called me traitor, _mountaineer_." + +428. ~very desolation~. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced +to Lat. _verus_ = true: comp. l. 646. + +429. ~shagged ... shades~. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is +probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38. + +430. ~unblenched~, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded +with 'unblanched,' is from _blench_, a causal of _blink_. + +431. ~Be it not~: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not. + +432. ~Some say~, etc. Compare _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158: + + "Some say that, ever against that season comes + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, + The bird of dawning singeth all night long: + And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad." + +433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are +found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different +orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in +his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds +of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and +subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc." + +434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a +prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2. +188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or +wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of +spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._ +v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend +Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his +matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover), +the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a +signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished. + +436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read, +"Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. +Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are +commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old +writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines +there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the +labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_) +here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits +were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the +_swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making. + +438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like +_you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, +236. + +439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from +the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of +Greece. + +440. ~to testify~, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421. + +441. ~Dian~. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was +insensible to the bolts of Cupid, _i.e._ to the power of love. She was +the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the +same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and +animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 1, +"Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc. + +442. ~silver-shafted queen~. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as +huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which +were frequently called _shafts_, and as the latter she bore shafts or +rays of light. _Shaft_ is etymologically 'a _shaven_ rod.' In Chaucer, +_C. T._ 1364, 'shaft' = arrow. + +443. ~brinded lioness~. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "_brinded_ +cat," _Macb._ iv. 1. 1: _brind_ is etymologically connected with +_brand_. + +444. ~mountain-pard~, _i.e._ panther or other spotted wild beast. _Pard_, +originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-_pard_ and +camelo-_pard_. + +445. ~frivolous ... Cupid~. See the speech of Oberon, _M. N. D._ ii. 1. +65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as +the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros +who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l. +1004. + +447. ~snaky-headed Gorgon shield~. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, +frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and +who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa +was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. +Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield, +which confounded Cupid: see _Par. Lost_, ii. 610. + +449. ~freezed~, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, +the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.' + +450. ~But~, except: a preposition. + +451. ~dashed~, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete. + +452. ~blank awe~: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank +astonishment,' and see _Par. Lost_, ix. 890. + +454. ~so~, _i.e._ chaste. + +455. ~liveried angels lackey her~, _i.e._ ministering angels attend her. +So, in _L'Alleg._ 62, "the clouds in thousand _liveries_ dight"; a +servant's livery being the distinctive dress _delivered_ to him by his +master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy, +who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good +sense, without implying servility (as in _Ant. and Cleop._ i. 4. 46, +"_lackeying_ the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the +feminine personification: see line 396. + +457. ~vision~: a trisyllable. + +458. ~no gross ear~. See notes, l. 112 and 997. + +459. ~oft converse~, frequent communion. _Oft_ is here used adjectively: +this use is common in the English Bible, _e.g._ i. _Tim._ v. 23, "thine +_often_ infirmities." + +460. ~Begin to cast ... turns~. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is +indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and +vividness. + +461. ~temple of the mind~, _i.e._ the body. This metaphor is common: see +Shakespeare, _Temp._ i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a +_temple_"; and the Bible, _John_, ii. 21, "He spake of the _temple_ of +his body." + +462. ~the soul's essence~. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually +became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality. + +465. ~most~, above all. + +467. ~soul grows clotted~. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's _Phaedo_, +in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes: + + _Socrates_ (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself + invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and + immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, + and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and + wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as + they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this + true, Cebes? + + _Cebes._ Yes; beyond a doubt. + + _Soc._ But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the + time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body + always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the + desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that + the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and + see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I + mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual + principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be + attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will + depart pure and unalloyed? + + _Ceb._ That is impossible. + + _Soc._ She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual + association and constant care of the body have wrought into her + nature. + + _Ceb._ Very true. + + _Soc._ And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty + and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed + and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is + afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about + tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell + us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not + departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible. + + _Ceb._ That is very likely, Socrates. + + _Soc._ Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the + souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to + wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former + evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the + craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are + imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to + find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their + former lives. + +Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says: + + Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the + soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes + that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from + agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is + obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever + to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the + body.--_Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues._ + +468. ~imbodies and imbrutes~, _i.e._ becomes materialised and brutish. +_Imbody_, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. +_Imbrute_ (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in +_Par. Lost_, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have +been suggested by the _Phaedo_, where the souls of the wicked are said +to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their +former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and +animals of that sort. + +469. ~divine property~. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that +divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, _Sat._ ii. 2. 79, +"affigit humo _divinae particulam aurae_"; and Plato's _Phaedo_, "The +soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal." + +470. ~gloomy shadows damp~: see note, l. 207. + +471. ~charnel-vaults~, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. _charnel_, Lat. +_carnalis_; _caro_, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474. + +473. ~As loth~, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the +body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and +degraded state.' ~it~: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in +thought) '_such_ shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with +'soul,' line 467. + +474. ~sensualty~. The modern form of the word is _sensuality_. + +475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter +because 'imbruted.' + +476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the +divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it). + +477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish) +and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the +idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat). + +478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par. +Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright +_Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair." + +479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is +repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838; +_Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426. + +482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct +question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It +seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about +the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more +perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, 325). ~For certain~, +_i.e._ for certain truth, certainly. + +483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to +founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the +bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in +a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is +sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very +expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and +have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of +'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.' + +484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in +Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near. + +487. ~Best draw~: we had best draw our swords. + +489. ~Defence is a good cause~, etc., _i.e._ 'in defending ourselves we +are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.' + +490. ~That hallo~. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has +halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given +in the edition of _Comus_ printed by Lawes in 1637: _He hallos; the +Guardian Dmon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd._ + +491. ~you fall~, etc., _i.e._ otherwise you will fall on our swords. + +493. ~sure~: see note, l. 246. + +494. ~Thyrsis~, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In +Milton's _Epitaphium Damonis_ it stands for Milton himself; in _Comus_ +it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical +genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative +verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the +poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced +this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by +calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems. + +495. ~sweetened ... dale~; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying +that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music. + +496. ~huddling~. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: +comp. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 19, "Et _properantis_ aquae per amoenos +ambitus agros." ~madrigal~: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. _mandra_, +a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and +by Milton's father. + +497. ~swain~: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly +a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds +boat-_swain_, cox-_swain_. See _Arc._ 26, "Stay, gentle _swains_," etc. + +499. ~pent~, penned, participle of _pen_, to shut up (A.S. _pennan_, which +is connected with _pin_, seen in _pin_-fold, l. 7). ~forsook~: a form of +the past tense used for the participle. + +501. ~and his next joy~, _i.e._ 'and (thou), his next joy'--words +addressed to the second brother. + +502. ~trivial toy~, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but +'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known. +Compare _Il Pens._ 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your _toys_"; and +Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a +cause." + +503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by. + +506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of +mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom +common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this +correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, 187. + +508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive +clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in +Shakespeare (Abbott, 37), where it sometimes has the force of an +adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the +radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc. + +509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_); +hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being +common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of +known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in +_sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his +face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_ +(1886), page 170. + +510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part. + +511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This +exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas, +for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line +_true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his +having arrived at the age of twenty-three_. + +512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written +'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets. + +513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216. + +514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12; +_Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame." + +515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the +chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as +"taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, +"great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung." + +516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past +participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il +Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; +Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_. + +517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. +618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a +lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by +Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a +terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such +fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. +_chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe +and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_. + +518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, +entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in +the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_); +here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus. + +519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_. + +520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123) +speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was +'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel +of the earth.' + +521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up +within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall). + +523. ~witcheries~, enchantments. + +526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or +murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) +over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 +and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless." + +529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those +signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure +is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp +them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. +charaktr+, an +engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The +word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the +first. + +531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, +generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8, +"low-browed rocks." + +532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is +frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' +might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.' + +533. ~monstrous rout~; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. +'the bottom of the monstrous world,' _Lyc._ 158. In _Aen._ vii. 15, we +read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling +noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling." + +534. ~stabled wolves~, wolves in their dens. _Stable_ (= a standing-place) +is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, _e.g._ in _Par. Lost_, +xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and _stabled_." Comp. "Stable for +camels," _Ezek._ xxv. 5, and the Latin _stabulum_, _Aen._ vi. 179, +_stabula alta ferarum_. + +535. ~Hecate~: see l. 135. + +536. ~bowers~: see note, l. 45. + +539. ~unweeting~; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, both in the compounds and in the simple verb +_weet_, a corruption of _wit_ (A.S. _witan_, to know). Compare _Par. +Reg._ i. 126, "_unweeting_, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." _Sams. +Agon._ 1680; Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, "Virginius came _to weet_ the +judge's will." + +540. ~by then~, _i.e._ by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus +implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is +generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone +is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical. + +542. ~knot-grass~. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however, +suppose marjoram to be intended here. ~dew-besprent~, _i.e._ besprinkled +with dew: comp. _Lyc._ 29. _Be_ is an intensive prefix; _sprent_ is +connected with M.E. _sprengen_, to scatter, of which _sprinkle_ is the +frequentative form. + +543. ~sat me down~: see note, l. 61. + +544. ~canopied, and interwove~. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 2. 49, 'I know a +bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to +'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of _weave_, viz. +_wove_ and _woven_: see _Arc._ 47. + +545. ~flaunting~, showy, garish. In _Lyc._ 146, the poet first wrote +'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.' + +547. ~meditate ... minstrelsy~, _i.e._ to sing a pastoral song: comp. +_Lyc._ 32. 66. _To meditate the muse_ is a Virgilian phrase: see _Ecl._ +i. and vi. The Lat. _meditor_ has the meaning of 'to apply one's self +to,' and does not mean merely to ponder. + +548. ~had~, should have: comp. l. 394. ~ere a close~, _i.e._ before he had +finished his song (Masson). _Close_ occurs in the technical sense of +'the final cadence of a piece of music.' + +549. ~wonted~: see note, l. 332. + +550. ~barbarous~: comp. _Son._ xii. 3, "a _barbarous_ noise environs me Of +owls and cuckoos, etc." + +551. ~listened them~. The omission of _to_ after verbs of hearing is +frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List +a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, 199). 'Them': this +refers to the _sounds_ implied in 'dissonance.' + +552. ~unusual stop~. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft +and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230. + +553. ~drowsy frighted~, _i.e._ drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's +rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a +state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their +uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where +the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as +expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a +hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' _Il Pens._ 146, and others of Milton's +remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the +printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73. + +554. ~Sleep~ (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot +with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. _Macbeth_, ii. l. 51, "curtained +sleep." + +555. 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly +that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly +have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could +always be filled by such music.' Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 604, "She all +night long her amorous descant sung; _Silence was pleased_"; also +Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Yet let it like an odour rise + To all the senses here, + And fall like sleep upon their eyes, + Or music in their ear." + +558. ~took~, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of _take_, and compare +'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word. + +560. ~Still~, always. This use of _still_ is frequent in Elizabethan +writers (Abbott, 69). ~I was all ear~. Warton notes this expressive +idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in +_Tempest_, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." _All_ is an attribute of _I_. + +561. ~create a soul~, etc., _i.e._ breathe life even into the dead: comp. +_L'Alleg._ 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in +an old edition of Quarles' _Emblems_, in which "a soul in the figure of +an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its +prison." _Rom._ vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this +death?" + +565. ~harrowed~, distracted, torn as by a _harrow_. This is probably the +meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue; +hence some read "harried with grief and fear." + +567. ~How sweet ... how near~. This sentence contains two exclamations: +this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ... +_and_ how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How +sweet..., how near the deadly snare _is_!" + +568. ~lawns~. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of +grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a +smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the +word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it +is said to be cognate with _llan_ used as a prefix in the names of +certain Welsh towns, _e.g._ Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes +the form launde. + +569. ~often trod by day~, which I have often trod by day, and therefore +know well. + +570. ~mine ear~: see note, l. 171. + +571. ~wizard~. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the +suffix _-ard_, or _-art_, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton +occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or +magical, without implying contempt: see _Lyc._ 55, "Deva spreads her +_wizard_ stream." + +572. ~certain signs~: see l. 644. + +574. ~aidless~: an obsolete word. See Trench's _English Past and Present_ +for a list of about 150 words in _-less_, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92, +note. ~wished~: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of +the verb. + +575. ~such two~: two persons of such and such description. + +577. ~durst not stay~. _Durst_ is the old past tense of _dare_, and is +used as an auxiliary: the form _dared_ is much more modern, and may be +used as an independent verb. + +578. ~sprung~: see note, l. 256. + +579. ~till I had found~. The language is extremely condensed here, the +meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I _had +found_ you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking +back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long +narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had +found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight, +and determined to continue it until I had found (_i.e._ should have +found) you.' Comp. Abbott 361. + +581. ~triple knot~, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell. + +584. "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final +efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, +delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd +adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains." + +585. ~safely~, confidently. ~period~, sentence. + +586. ~for me~, _i.e._ for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l. +602. + +588. ~Which erring men call Chance~. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate; +"which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, _Essay on Man_: + + "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; + All chance, direction, which thou canst not see." + +588. ~this I hold firm~. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this +belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly." + +590. ~enthralled~, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022. + +591. ~which ... harm~, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful. + +595-7. ~Gathered like scum~, etc. According to one editor, this image is +"taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots +which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun's body and +after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that +fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes +it." + +598. ~pillared firmament~. The firmament (Lat. _firmus_, firm or solid) is +here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The +ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp. +_Par. Reg._ iv. 55; also _Wint. Tale_, ii. l. 100, "If I mistake In +those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to +bear A schoolboy's top." + +602. ~for~, as regards. ~let ... girt~, though he be surrounded. + +603. ~grisly legions~. 'Grisly,' radically the same as _grue-some_ = +horrible, causing terror. In _Par. Lost_, iv. 821, Satan is called "the +grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable. + +604. ~sooty flag of Acheron~. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the +lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world +generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher's _Locusts_ (1627): "All hell +run out and sooty flags display." + +605. ~Harpies and Hydras~. The Harpies (lit. 'spoilers') were unclean +monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and +gaunt faces. _Hydras_, here used as a general name for monstrous +water-serpents (Gk. _hyd{=o}r_, water); the name was first given to the +nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See _Son._ xv. 7, "new rebellions +raise Their _Hydra_ heads"; the epithet 'hydra-headed' being applied to +a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from +every endeavour to repress it. + +607. ~return his purchase back~, _i.e._ 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the +MS.) 'release his new-got prey.' To purchase (Fr. _pour-chasser_) +originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or +foul: it thus came to mean 'to steal' (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, +and Shakespeare), and 'to buy' (its current sense). See Trench, _Study +of Words_; _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 45, "They will steal anything, and call it +_purchase_"; i. _Hen. IV._ ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our +_purchase_." + +609. ~venturous~, ready to venture. See note, l. 79. + +610. ~yet~, nevertheless. The meaning is: '_Though_ thy courage is +useless, _yet_ I love it.' ~emprise~: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) +of _enterprise_. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence +'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.' + +611. ~can do thee little stead~, _i.e._ can help thee little. _Stead_, +both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases, _e.g._ 'to +stand in good stead,' and in composition, _e.g._ _stead_fast, +home_stead_, in_stead_, Hamp_stead_, etc. Its strict sense is place or +position: comp. _Il Pens._ 3, "How little you _bested_." + +612. ~Far other arms~, _i.e._ very different arms. 'Other' has here its +radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an +adverb. + +615. ~unthread~, loosen. Comp. _Temp._ iv. l. 259, "Go charge my goblins +that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their +sinews With aged cramps." + +617. ~As to make this relation~, _i.e._ as to be able to tell this. + +619. ~a certain shepherd lad~. This is supposed to refer to Charles +Diodati, Milton's dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th +elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem _Epitaphium +Damonis_, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical +skill: + + "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach + Thy friend the name and healing powers of each." + + (_Cowper's translation._) + +620. ~Of small regard to see to~: in colloquial English, 'not much to +look at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek +kalos idein+: see English +Bible, "goodly to look to," i. _Sam._ xvi. 12; _Ezek._ xxiii. 15; _Jer._ +xlvii. 3. + +621. ~virtuous~, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. _Il Pens._ 113, +"the virtuous ring and glass." + +623. ~beg me sing~: see note, l. 304. + +625. ~ecstasy~: see note, l. 261. The Greek _ekstasis_ = standing out of +one's self. + +626. ~scrip~, wallet. + +627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,' +'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its +popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.' + +630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative. + +633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the +plant or the root. + +634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent, +_i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix +_un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, +reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_. + +635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in +Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in +_clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off +my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in +Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of +_clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe. +In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse. +_Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes), +_dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc. + +636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: +And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When +Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who +said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring +deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of +Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee +all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast +drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; +so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the +slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, +and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the +flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for +mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible" +(_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his +first Elegy Milton alludes to M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells +of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and +_moly_." + +638. ~He called it Hmony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619. +_Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the +adjective _Haemonian_ is used, in Latin poetry as = _Thessalian_, +Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as +a land of magic, 'Haemonian' acquired the sense of 'magical' (see Ovid, +_Met._ vii 264, "_Haemonia_ radices valle resectas," etc.), and Milton's +Haemony is simply "the magical plant." Coleridge supposes that by the +prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and +triumph of the Christian life. + +639. ~sovran use~: see note, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms, +medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came +to imply 'all-healing,' 'supremely efficacious'; see _Cor._ ii. 1. 125, +"The most _sovereign_ prescription in Galen." + +640. ~mildew blast~: comp. _Arc._ 48-53, _Ham._ iii. 4. 64, "Here is your +husband; Like a _mildew'd_ ear _Blasting_ his wholesome brother." A +mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew +(A.S. meledew, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry +east winds was favourable to its formation. + +642. ~pursed it up~, etc., _i.e._ put it in my wallet, though I did not +attach much importance to it. ~little reckoning~: comp. _Lyc._ 116, where +the very same phrase occurs. + +643. ~Till now that~. Here _that_ = when, the clause introduced by it +being explanatory of _now_ (see Abbott, 284). + +646-7. ~Entered ... came off~. 'I entered into the very midst of his +treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.' _Lime-twigs_ = snares; in +allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared +with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime'). +Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: see _Macbeth_, iv. +2. 34; _Two Gent._ ii. 2. 68; ii. _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 91; etc. + +649. ~necromancer's hall~. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a +magician's castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian +knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry. _Necromancer_, lit. +one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk. +nekros+, a +corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with +that of the Lat. _niger_, black, the art of necromancy came to be called +"the black art." + +650. ~Where if he be~, Lat. _ubi si sit_: in English the relative adverb +in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative +adverb; thus, '_and_ if he be _there_.' + +651. ~brandished blade~. Comp. Hermes' advice to Ulysses: "When it shall +be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp +sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her," +_Odyssey_, x. ~break his glass~. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir +Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, _F. Q._ i. 12, +stanza 56. + +652. ~luscious~, delicious. The word is a corruption of _lustious_ from +O.E. _lust_ = pleasure: see note, l. 49. + +653. ~But seize his wand~. The force of this injunction is shown by lines +815-819. + +654. ~menace high~, violent threat. _High_ is thus used in a number of +figurative senses, _e.g._ a high wind, a high hand, high passions (_Par. +Lost_, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc. + +655. ~Sons of Vulcan~. In the _Aeneid_ (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that +Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), "vomited from his throat +huge volumes of smoke" when pursued by Hercules, "_Faucibus ingentem +fumum_," etc. + +657. ~apace~; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its +meaning: in Chaucer it means 'at a foot pace,' _i.e._ slowly. The first +syllable is the indefinite article '_a_' = one (Skeat). + +658. ~bear~: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, 365). (_Stage +Direction_) ~puts by~: puts on one side, refuses. ~goes about to rise~, +_i.e._ endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of _go about_ still +lingers in the phrase 'to _go about_ one's business'; comp. 'to _set +about_' anything. + +659. ~but~, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have +here a verb in the present tense ('are chained'), a construction which +well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer's +spell (see Abbott, 371). + +660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton +has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled +_alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once +correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster +is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too +much conceiving." + +661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave +this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as +Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in +the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, +which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, +an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, +she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. +daphn+): comp, the story of +Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106. + +662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._ +xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The +sight of this so horrid spectacle." + +663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the +freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733). + +665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly +nook." + +668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12. + +669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6. + +672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat. +_cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gul{=a}b_, +rose-water. + +673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +674. ~syrups~: Arab, _shar{=a}b_, a drink, wine. + +675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following +lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new +thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a +drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every +sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the +bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though +his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so +helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had +given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in +greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful" +(_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek +adj. = sorrow-dispelling (+n+, privative; +penthos+, grief). It is here +used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used +as a general name for drugs that relieve pain. + +677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, +'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, +nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.' + +679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy +foe, to thy sweet self too cruel." + +680. 'Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on +certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should +have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition +you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred +glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.' Comp. +Shakespeare, _Son._ iv. "Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon +thyself thy beauty's legacy," etc. + +685. ~unexempt condition~, _i.e._ a condition binding on all and at all +times, a law of human nature. + +687. ~mortal frailty~, _i.e._ weak mortals: abstract for concrete. + +688. ~That~. The antecedent of this relative is _you_, l. 682. See note, +l. 2. + +689. ~timely~, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's +_Marmion_, iii. 223, "gambol rude and _timeless_ joke"): comp. _Son._ +ii. 8, "_timely_-happy spirits"; and l. 970. + +693. ~Was this ... abode~? The verb is singular, because 'cottage' and +'safe abode' convey one idea: see Comus's words, l. 320. Notice also +that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling. + +694. ~aspects~: accent on final syllable. + +695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is +radically connected with _awe_. + +698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt +_visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is +to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672 +and 700, denotes _by means of_. + +700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by +catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to +_lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three +words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless) +and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet +root. + +702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has +usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_ +in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line +'offer' = the thing offered. + +703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has +borrowed from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, +Kakou gar andros dr' onsin ouk +echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton). + +704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a +rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former +controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv. +439). + +707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool +dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, +etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is +tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a +doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of +_sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole +phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.' +It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses +of 'budge.' + +708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt +for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of +the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and +was fond of calling himself +ho kyn+ (the dog). + +709. ~the~: here used generically. + +711. ~unwithdrawing~. In this participle the termination _-ing_ seems +almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "_all-obeying_ +breath" (= obeyed by all), _A. and C._ iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are +not only full but continuous. + +714. ~all to please ... curious taste~. _All_ = entirely, here modifies +the infinitives please and sate. _Curious_ = fastidious: its original +sense is 'careful' or 'anxious.' Compare the two senses of _exquisite_, +note l. 359. + +715. ~set~, _i.e._ she set. The pronominal subject is omitted. + +717. ~To deck~: infinitive of purpose. + +718. ~in her own loins~, _i.e._ in the bowels of the earth. + +719. ~hutched~ = stored up, enclosed. _Hutch_ is an old word for chest or +coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.' + +720. ~To store her children with~, _i.e._ _wherewith_ to store her +children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).' +'Store' = provide. + +721. ~pet of temperance~, _i.e._ a sudden and transitory fit of +temperance. ~pulse~. So Daniel and his three companions refused the +dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; _Dan._ i. + +722. ~frieze~, coarse woollen cloth. + +723. ~All-giver~. Comp. Gk. +pandra+, an epithet applied to the earth +as the giver of all. + +725. 'And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a +penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature's +bastards': see _Hebrews_ xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof +all have been made partakers, then are ye _bastards, and not sons_." + +728. ~Who~. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding +it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun _her_, +_i.e._ the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have +their full force as genitives: comp. _L'Alleg._ 124, "her grace whom" = +the grace of her whom. ~surcharged~: overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732). +~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of +'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles +as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur +in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.). + +729. ~strangled~, suffocated. + +730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the +flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both +clauses in this line are absolute. + +731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one +illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of +speech was used for another. + +732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355. + +733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference +to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze +abroad, to proclaim. + +734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with +their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.' + +735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is +from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _oeuvre_, work). + +737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of +this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims +kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat. + +739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these +seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and +Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and +Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8): + + "Earthlier happy is the rose distilled + Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, + Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness." + +See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea +in all its subtleties" (Masson). + +743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. +_Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion." + +744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par. +Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._ +33. The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now +have _-ing_ (Abbott, 374). + +747. ~most~, as many as possible. + +748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._ +i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_ is +derived from _home_. + +749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for +household occupations. + +750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat. +_granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or +cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came +to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so +used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par. +Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of +purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these +were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,' +'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect. +on Eng. Lang._ p. 55). + +751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet +of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card: +comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into +_hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word. + +752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what +need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from +Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used +to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it +follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate. + +753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed +Dawn," +euplokamos s+. + +755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108. + +756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus. + +757. ~but that~: were it not that. + +758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. +170. + +759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments. +_Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. +1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the +weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most +goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words +clothed in _reason's garb_." + +760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue +allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the +_boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word +(also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24), +Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned +snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The +spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start +out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children +should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503. + +764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is +feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent +is unnecessarily repeated. + +765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good. + +767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable, +both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of +Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth +diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the +Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his +college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning +temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly +dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own +spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being +heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv. +1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough." + +769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be +fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_. + +770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds = +wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of +meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or +unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious. + +774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least +surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially += not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a +whit, _naught_ = no whit. + +776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note, +l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete. + +779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that +may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed, +_e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc. + +780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: +it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of +_enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines +780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic +fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been +propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)." + +782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred +rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6, +Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with +fair beams did her adorn." + +783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no +purpose. + +784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for +_neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), +and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and +the first may as well be contracted as the second. + +785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_ +Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he +learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of +his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high +mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, +and the Lord for the body." + +790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is +'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety +of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad +occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik +suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first +become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had +thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love," +as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as +being the instrument of sophistry. + +791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_: +comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much +Ado_, v. 1. 75. + +794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been +_carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40, +"Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of +the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him +from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40. + +797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become +sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp. +Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_." + +800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative. + +801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world." + +802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet +is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat +which 'dips' or moistens his body. + +804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the +_Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been +provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into +Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the +Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma +in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as +in both cases equivalent to _denounces_. + +806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady. + +808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our +society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and +other foundations" (Keightley). + +809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous = +dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four +primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy +(see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry, +thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of +nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. +melancholia+, black bile. +See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy"; +and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to +the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the +cause of lunacy." + +811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of +direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more +usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new +pleasures." + +814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a +verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_ +the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on +names adored." + +816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism: +see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of +this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the +ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because +'without' also governs 'mutters.' + +817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by +reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs +in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the +followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the +neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of +Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the +neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526. + +820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The +deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural +interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's +court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher +than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the +mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is +accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated +from the antecedent: see note, l. 2. + +822. ~Meliboeus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i. +Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given +in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of +Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a +'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the +truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this +poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser. + +823. ~soothest~, truest. The A.S. _sth_ meant _true_; hence also 'a true +thing' = truth. It survives in _soothe_ (lit. to affirm to be true), +_soothsay_ (see l. 874), and _forsooth_ (= for a truth). + +824. ~from hence~. _Hence_ represents an A.S. word _heonan_, _-an_ being +a suffix = from: so that in the phrase 'from hence' the force of the +preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from +forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp. _Arc._ 3: "which _we from +hence_ descry." + +825. ~with moist curb sways~: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a _numen fluminis_ +or river-deity. + +826. ~Sabrina~: The following is Milton's version of the legend:--"After +this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to +Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High +Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years, +died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact, +and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, +Logria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now +Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a +fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back +into Logria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now +marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to +this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were +found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair, +the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting +the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before +contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being +forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, +Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other; +and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages +made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a +daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was +off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, +divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in +rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, +was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an +army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by +the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But +not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra +she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims +that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by +length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of +Britain_ (1670). + +827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwlum_, +instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time. + +830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The +prefix _step_ (A.S. _step-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to +a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words +'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of +mother in the form _dam_. + +832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, +as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn. + +835. ~aged Nereus' hall~, the abode of old Nereus, _i.e._ the bottom of +the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described +as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil, _grandaevus +Nereus_. See also, l. 871, and compare Jonson's _Neptune's Triumph_, +last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home +with pearls." + +836. ~piteous of~, _i.e._ full of pity for; comp. Lat. _miseret te +aliorum_ (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive +sense; its active sense is 'causing pity,' _i.e._ pitiful. Comp. Abbott, + 3. ~reared her lank head~, _i.e._ raised up her drooping head: comp. +_Par. Lost_, viii.: "In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he +_reared_ me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective _lanky_ is +in common use = tall and thin. + +837. ~imbathe~, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being +reduplicated, as in Lat. _incidere in_. + +838. ~nectared lavers~, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented +with asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. ~asphodel~; the +same, both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see _Lyc._ 150, where it takes +the form 'daffadillies'): Gk. +asphodelos+, M.E. _affodille_. The +initial _d_ in daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l. +851. + +839. ~the porch~. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: +comp. _Haml._ i. 5. 63: "the porches of mine ear"; also the phrase, "the +five gateways of knowledge." + +840. ~ambrosial oils~, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and +compare Virgil's use of _ambrosia_ in _Georg._ iv. 415, _liquidum +ambrosiae diffundit odorem_. + +841. ~quick immortal change~: comp. l. 10. + +842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in +Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause. + +844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133; +"twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188. + +845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting +influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used +generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and +blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin' +(_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which +for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence +mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare, +_Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus +And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_ +whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_. +~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it +cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc. + +846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious, +like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite +called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the +current verb is _beshrew_. + +847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_. + +850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase +to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862. + +852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of +Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson). + +853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660. + +854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._ +xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes." + +857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song. + +858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The +adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are +directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or +not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as +a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers. + +863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea +is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound +epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.' +_Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see +_Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume." + +865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense +of 'a river.' + +868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. +keanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded +the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river +called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and +afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and +Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact, +throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent +epithets" of the various divinities. + +869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon +(Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_, +xii. 27, "And the Shaker of the Earth with his trident in his hands," +etc. In _Par. Lost_, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace +petrifick." + +870. ~Tethys' ... pace~. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being +the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (+potnia +Tthys+), and in Ovid 'the hoary.' + +871. ~hoary Nereus~: see note, l. 835. + +872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the +sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own +hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have +been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future." +_Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note +there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the +monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463. + +873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of +the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the +command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He +was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish. + +874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been +changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors +as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823. + +875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leuk+, +thea+), the +name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had +thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas. + +876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his +mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans +with their god of harbours, Portumnus. + +877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter +of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+). +Comp. _Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson): + + "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest + To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast." + +'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth +worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. +Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On +the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally, +see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296. + +878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenop's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see +note, l. 253) were Parthenop, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the +first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid +liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana +Acheliados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a +sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of +smoothing her hair with a golden comb. + +881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ... +locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is +"she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks. + +882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is +greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panop with all her +sisters played." + +885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145, +"Orpheus' self may heave his head." + +887. ~bridle in~, _i.e._ restrain. + +888. ~have~: subjunctive after _till_, as frequently in Milton. + +890. ~rushy-fringd~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be +rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from +the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29; +"false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14. + +891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb +is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent +to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or +their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit +the _dank_" (= the water). + +893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified +with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_. +~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note +there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as +an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the +suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still +survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden +hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_, +_glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, +_English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._ +45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold +that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_. + +894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the +Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey +(Pers. _turk_, a Turk). + +895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were +found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon +grows on its banks. + +897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with +_printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no +print of step hath been." + +902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's +song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina +continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best'). + +913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,' +l. 155. + +914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in +the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid +(_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416. + +916. ~Next~: an adverb modifying 'touch.' + +917. ~glutinous~, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the +effect to the cause. + +921. ~Amphitrite~: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea. + +923. ~Anchises line~: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who +was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who +was the son of old Anchises. + +924. ~may ... miss~. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) +fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.' + +925. ~brimmd~. The passive participle is so often used where we now use +the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the +other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of _bank_ (comp. l. 119), so +that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks. + +928. ~singd~, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good +wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of +this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the +wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to +the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow." + +933. ~beryl~: in the Bible (_Rev._ xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one +of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin: +comp. Arab, _billaur_, crystal. ~golden ore~. As a matter of fact gold has +been found in the Welsh mountains. + +934. ~May thy lofty head~, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May +thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here +and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and +cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and +'upon' a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the +notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty +vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses +with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is +'thou,' implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found +in _L'Alleg._ 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and _judge_ +the prize'; also in _Il Pens._ 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to +_walk ... and love_, etc.': also in _Lyc._ 88, 89. The explanation +adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek +verbs--+peristephano+, 'to put a crown round,' and +epistephano+, "to +put a crown upon": thus, "May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with +many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be _crowned upon_ +with groves of myrrh and cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and +'upon' an adverb. + +In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, _Song ends_. + +942. ~Not a waste~, etc., _i.e._ 'Let there not be a superfluous or +unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note, +l. 728. + +945. ~gloomy covert wide~: see note, l. 207. + +946. ~not many furlongs~. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up +the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the +mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when +Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. +This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change +of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the +length of a field, and is now a measure of length. + +949. ~many a friend~. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been +explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of +the French _mesnie_, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the +preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the +plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more +correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. _manig_, which was in +old English used with a singular noun and without the article, _e.g._ +_manig mann_ = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite +article began to be inserted; thus _mony enne thing_ = many a thing, +just as we say 'what _a_ thing,' 'such _a_ thing.' This would seem to +show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no +connection with the French word _mesnie_. Milton, in this passage, uses +'many a friend' with a plural verb. ~gratulate~. The simple verb is now +replaced by the compound _congratulate_ (Lat. _gratulari_, to wish joy +to a person). + +950. ~wished~, _i.e._ wished for; see note, l. 574. ~and beside~, _i.e._ +'and where, besides,' etc. + +952. ~jigs~, lively dances. + +958. ~Back, shepherds, back!~ On the rising of the curtain, the stage is +occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant +Spirit enters with the above words. ~Enough your play~, _i.e._ we have had +enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.' + +959. ~sunshine holiday~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 98, where the same expression is +used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and +lines 91-99 of _L'Allegro_. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is +'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such +compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it +is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms +(_e.g._ hliday) or the separate words (_e.g._ hly dy) are being used. + +960. ~Here be~: see note, l. 12. ~without duck or nod~: words used to +describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country +people. + +961. ~trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise~: words used to describe +the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. _L'Alleg._ +33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." _Trod_ (or +trodden), past participle of _tread_: 'to tread a measure' is a common +expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' _i.e._ courtly mien; +_guise_ is a doublet of _wise_ = way, _e.g._ 'in this wise,' +'like_wise_,' 'other_wise_.' In such pairs of words as _guise_ and +_wise_, _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, the forms in _gu_ have +come into English through the French. + +963. ~Mercury~ (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as +such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. +ptnopedilos+): his +name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement. + +964. ~mincing Dryades~. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. +drys+, a +tree), here represented as mincing, _i.e._ tripping with short steps, +unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. _Merch. of V._ +iii. 4. 67: "turn two _mincing_ steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a +person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation. + +965. ~lawns ... leas~. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow. + +966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons +to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater. + +967. ~ye~: see note, l. 216. + +968. ~so goodly grown~, _i.e._ grown so goodly. _Goodly_ = handsome (A.S. +_gdlic_ = goodlike). + +970. ~timely~. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two +phrases in _Macbeth_: "To gain the _timely_ inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To +call _timely_ on him," ii. 3. 51. + +972. ~assays~, trials, temptations. _Assay_ is used by Milton in the +sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see _Arc._ 80, "I will +_assay_, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to +the form _essay_ (radically the same word); and the use of _assay_ has +been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing +of metals. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 932, "hard _assays_ and ill +successes"; _Par. Reg._ i. 264, iv. 478. + +974, 5. ~To triumph~. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly +expressed in these lines. _Stage Direction_: ~Spirit epiloguizes~, _i.e._ +sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts +of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered +1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by +Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into +a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst +descending upon the stage:-- + + _From the heavens_ now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad _field_ of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + There eternal summer dwells, + And west winds, with musky wing, + About the cedarn alleys fling + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can show, + _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_, + And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes. + +Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the +mask. + +976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and +rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been +frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. +Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson): +"Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. +1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now +my charms are all o'erthrown," etc. + +977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will +convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is +easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; +but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow +cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_, +is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while +'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. +_Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms." + +978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26: +"the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn." + +979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aris in campis latis_," +_Aen._ vi. 888. + +980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) +is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. +_Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes." + +981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the +following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe +of darkest grain." + +982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had +three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their +sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser +makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_. + +984. ~crispd shades~. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove," +_Arc._ 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the +same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. _crispus_ += curled), from which comes the verb _to crisp_ and the participle +_crisped_. Compare "the _crisped_ brooks ... ran nectar," _Par. Lost_, +iv. 237, where the word is best rendered 'rippled'; also Tennyson's +_Claribel_, 19, "the babbling runnel _crispeth_." In the present case +the reference is to the foliage of the trees. + +985. ~spruce~, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of +levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of gay +or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word _jolly_, on +which Pattison says:--"This is an instance of the disadvantage under +which poetry in a living language labours. No knowledge of the meaning +which a word bore in 1631 can wholly banish the later and vulgar +associations which may have gathered round it since. Apart from direct +parody and burlesque, the tendency of living speech is gradually to +degrade the noble; so that as time goes on the range of poetical +expression grows from generation to generation more and more +restricted." The origin of the word _spruce_ is disputed: Skeat holds +that it is a corruption of Pruce (old Fr. _Pruce_, mod. Fr. _Prusse_) = +Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the +fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some +English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also +Trench, _Select Glossary_. + +986. ~The Graces~. The three Graces of classical mythology were +Euphrosyne (the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and Thalia +(the blooming one). See _L'Alleg._ 12: "Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely +Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crownd Bacchus +bore." They were sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the +goddesses who purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life. +~rosy-bosomed Hours~. The Hours (Hor) of classical mythology were the +goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was described as the dance of the +Hor. The Hora of Spring accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent +from the lower world, and the expression "The chamber of the Hor opens" +is equivalent to "The Spring is coming." 'Rosy-bosomed'; the Gk. ++rhodokolpos+: compare the epithets 'rosy-fingered' (applied by Homer to +the dawn), 'rosy-armed,' etc. + +989. ~musky ... fling~. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 515: "Fresh gales and +gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, +flung odours from the spicy shrub." In this passage the verb _fling_ is +similarly used. 'Musky' = fragrant: comp. 'musk-rose,' l. 496. + +990. ~cedarn alleys~, _i.e._ alleys of cedar trees. For 'alley,' comp. l. +311. For the form of 'cedarn,' see note on 'azurn,' l. 893. Tennyson +uses the word 'cedarn' in _Recoll. of Arab. Nights_, 115. + +991. ~Nard and cassia~; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes +applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called _spike-nard_; see +allusion in the Bible, _Mark_, xiv. 3; _Exod._ xxx. 24, etc. + +992. ~Iris ... humid bow~: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to +the rainbow. + +993. ~blow~, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, _Mask at +Highgate_, "For thee, Favonius, here shall _blow_ New flowers." + +995. ~purfled~ = having an embroidered edge (O.F. _pourfiler_): the verb +_to purfle_ survives in the contracted form _to purl_, and is cognate +with profile = a front line or edge. ~shew~: here rhymes with _dew_; comp. +l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present +pronunciation of _shew_, though familiar, was not the only one +recognised. + +996. ~drenches with Elysian dew~, _i.e._ soaks with heavenly dew. The +Homeric Elysium is described in _Odyssey_, iv.: see note, l. 977; it +was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257. +_Drench_ is the causative of _drink_: here the nominative of the verb is +'Iris' and the object 'beds.' + +997. ~if your ears be true~, _i.e._ if your ears be pure: the poet is +about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross +unpurgd ear" (_Arc._ 73, and _Com._ l. 458). He alludes to that pure +Love which "leads up to Heaven," _Par. Lost_, viii. 612. + +998. ~hyacinth~. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of +_Lycidas_, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved +by Apollo. + +999. ~Adonis~, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received +from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the +gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on +earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of +the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. _Par. +Lost_, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc. + +1000. ~waxing well of~, _i.e._ recovering from. The A.S. _weaxan_ = to +grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, _Rom. and Jul._ +i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +1002. ~Assyrian queen~, _i.e._ Venus, whose worship came from the East, +probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called +by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see _Par. Lost_, i. 438-452, where Adonis +appears as Thammuz. + +1003, 4. ~far above ... advanced~. These words are to be read together: +'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.' + +1003. ~spangled sheen~, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': _spangle_ is a +diminutive of _spang_ = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.' +In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the +heavens as 'spangled': comp. Addison's well-known lines: + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And _spangled_ heavens, a shining frame, + Their great Original proclaim." + +Comp. also _Lyc._ 170, "with _new-spangled_ ore." 'Sheen' is here used +as a noun, as in line 893; also in _Hymn Nat._ 145, "throned in +celestial _sheen_": _Epitaph on M. of W._ 73, "clad in radiant _sheen_." +The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse +so fair and _sheen_," _F. Q._ ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear +or spangled starlight _sheen_" (_M. N. D._ ii. l. 29) it is doubtful +whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective +_sheeny_ (_Death of Fair Infant_, 48). + +1004. ~Celestial Cupid~. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the +note to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to +whom he is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and +misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in +love with Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he +was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp +while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and +fled from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by +Venus; but after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported +by Cupid, she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this +story Psyche represents the human soul (Gk. +psych+), which is +disciplined and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the +enjoyment of true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it +is only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in +his _Apology for Smectymnuus_ he calls it that Love "whose charming cup +is only virtue," and whose "first and chiefest office ... begins and +ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her divine generation, +Knowledge and Virtue." To this high and mystical love Milton again +alludes in _Epitaphium Damonis_: + + "In other part, the expansive vault above, + And there too, even there the god of love; + With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays + A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, + Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, + Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, + Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high + Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; + Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn + The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn." + + _Cowper's translation._ + +1007. ~among~: preposition governing 'gods.' + +1008. ~make~: subjunctive after 'till.' Its nominative is 'consent.' + +1010. ~blissful~, blest. _Bliss_ is cognate with _bless_ and _blithe_. +Comp. "the _blest_ kingdoms meek of joy and love," _Lyc._ 177. ~are to be +born~. There seems to be here a confusion of constructions between the +subjunctive co-ordinate with _make_ and the indicative dependent in +meaning on "Jove hath sworn" in the following line. + +1011. ~Youth and Joy~. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the +trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of +Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," _i.e._ she is possible +only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004. + +1012. ~my task~, _i.e._ the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an +adverbial clause = Now that (or _because_) my task is smoothly done. + +1013. The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he +pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by +virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom. + +1014. ~green earth's end~. The world as known to the ancients did not +extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, +which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. _Par. +Lost_, viii. 630: + + "But I can now no more; the parting sun + Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles + Hesperean sets, my signal to depart." + +1015. ~bowed welkin~: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky +curves slowly towards the horizon." _Welkin_ is, radically, "the region +of clouds," A.S. _wolcnu_, clouds. + +1017. ~corners of the moon~, _i.e._ its horns. The crescent moon is said +to be 'horned' (Lat. _cornu_, a horn). Comp. the lines in _Macbeth_, +iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous +drop profound." + +1020. ~She can teach ye how to climb~, etc. Compare Jonson's song to +Virtue: + + "Though a stranger here on earth + In heaven she hath her right of birth. + There, there is Virtue's seat: + Strive to keep her your own; + 'Tis only she can make you great, + Though place here make you known." + +1021. ~sphery chime~, _i.e._ the music of the spheres. "To climb higher +than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the +empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton +therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence. +See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,' +as in "silver _chime_," _Hymn Nat._ 128: the word is cognate with +_cymbal_. + +1022, 3. ~if Virtue feeble were~, etc. A triumphant expression of that +confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine +Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. +Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed +in the last two lines of his _Comus_. + + + + +INDEX TO THE NOTES. + + +A. + +Acheron, 604. + +Adonis, 999. + +Adventurous, 79. + +Advice, 108; + advised, 755. + +Affects, 386. + +Alabaster, 660. + +All, 714, 981. + +All ear, 560. + +Alley, 311, 990. + +All-giver, 723. + +All to-ruffled, 380. + +Amber-dropping, 863. + +Ambrosial, 16. + +Amiss, 177. + +Apace, 657. + +Arbitrate, 411. + +Asphodel, 838. + +Assays, 972. + +Assyrian Queen, 1002. + +Ay me, 511. + +Azurn, 893. + + +B. + +Backward, 817. + +Baited, 162. + +Bandite, 426. + +Be, 12, 519. + +Benison, 332. + +Beryl, 933. + +Beseeming, 769. + +Blank, 452. + +Blissful, 1010. + +Blue-haired, 29. + +Blow, 993. + +Bolt, 760. + +Bosky, 313. + +Bourn, 313. + +Brakes, 147. + +Brimmed, 925. + +Brinded, 443. + +Brute, 797. + +Budge, 707. + +Burs, 352. + + +C. + +Cassia, 991. + +Cast, 360. + +Cateress, 764. + +Cedarn, 990. + +Centre, 382. + +Certain, 266. + +Chance, 508. + +Charactered, 530. + +Charmd, 51. + +Charnel, carnal, 471. + +Charybdis, 257. + +Chime, 1021. + +Chimeras, 517. + +Circe, 50. + +Clime, 977. + +Close, 548. + +Clouted, 635. + +Company, 274. + +Comus, 46, 58. + +Convoy, 81. + +Cordial, 672. + +Corners, 1017. + +Cotes, 344. + +Cotytto, 129. + +Courtesy, 325. + +Cozened, 737. + +Crabbed, 477. + +Crisped, 984. + +Crofts, 531. + +Crowned, 934. + +Curfew, 435. + +Curious, 714. + +Cynic, 708. + +Cynosure, 342. + + +D. + +Dapper, 118. + +Darked, 730. + +Dear, 790. + +Dell, 312. + +Descry, 141. + +Dew-besprent, 542. + +Dimple, 119. + +Dingle, 312. + +Disinherit, 334. + +Ditty, 86. + +Drench, 996. + +Drouth, 66. + +Drowsy frighted, 553. + +Due, 12. + +Dun, 127. + +Durst, 577. + + +E. + +Each ... every, 19, 311. + +Earth-shaking, 869. + +Ebon, 134. + +Ecstasy, 261, 625. + +Element, 299. + +Elysium, 257. + +Emblaze, 732. + +Emprise, 610. + +Engaged, 193. + +Enow, 780. + +Erebus, 804. + +Every ... each, 19, 311. + +Eye, 329. + + +F. + +Faery, 298. + +Fairly, 168. + +Fantastic, 144, 205. + +Fence, 791. + +Firmament, 598. + +Fond, 67. + +For, 586, 602. + +Forestalling, 285. + +Forlorn, 39. + +Fraught, 355, 732. + +Freezed, 449. + +Frighted, 553. + +Frolic, 59. + + +G. + +Gear, 167. + +Glistering, 219. + +Glozing, 161. + +Goodly, 968. + +Graces, 986. + +Grain, 750. + +Granges, 175. + +Gratulate, 949. + +Grisly, 603. + +Guise, 961. + + +H. + +Haemony, 638. + +Hag, 434. + +Hallo, 226. + +Hapless, 350. + +Harpies, 605. + +Harrowed, 565. + +Heave, 885. + +Hecate, 135. + +Help, 304, 845. + +Hence, 824. + +Her, 351, 455. + +Hesperian, 393. + +High, 654. + +Hinds, 174. + +Holiday, 959. + +Home-felt, 262. + +Homely, 748. + +Horror, 38. + +Hours, 986. + +How chance, 508. + +Huswife, 751. + +Hutched, 719. + +Hyacinth, 998. + +Hydras. 605. + + +I. + +Imbathe, 837. + +Imbodies, 468. + +Imbrutes, 468. + +Immured, 521. + +Infamous, 424. + +Infer, 408. + +Influence, 336. + +Inlay, 22. + +Innumerous, 349. + +Insphered, 3. + +Interwove, 544. + +Inured, 735. + +Iris, 83. + +Isle, 21. + + +J. + +Jocund, 172. + +Jollity, 104. + +Julep, 672. + + +K. + +Knot-grass, 542. + + +L. + +Lackey, 455. + +Lake, 865. + +Languished, 744. + +Lank, 836. + +Lap, 257. + +Lawn, 568. + +Lees, 809. + +Leucothea, 875. + +Lewdly-pampered, 770. + +Like, 22, 634. + +Lime-twigs, 646. + +Liquid, 980. + +Liquorish, 700. + +Listed, 49. + +Listened, 551. + +Liveried, 455. + +Lore, 34. + +Love-lorn, 234. + +Luscious, 652. + + +M. + +Madness, 261. + +Madrigal, 495. + +Mansion, 2. + +Mantling, 294. + +Many a, 949. + +Margent, 232. + +Me, 163, 630. + +Meander, 232. + +Meditate, 547. + +Melancholy, 810. + +Methought, 171. + +Meliboeus, 822. + +Mickle, 31. + +Mildew, 640. + +Mincing, 964. + +Mintage, 529. + +Misusd, 47. + +Moly, 636. + +Monstrous, 533. + +Mountaineer, 426. + +Morrice, 116. + +Mortal, 10. + +Murmurs, 526. + +Mutters, 817. + +My, mine, 170. + + +N. + +Naiades, 254. + +Nard, 991. + +Navel, 520. + +Necromancer, 649. + +Nectar, 479. + +Neighbour, 484. + +Nepenthes, 675. + +Nereus, 835. + +Nether, 20. + +New-intrusted, 36. + +Nice, 139. + +Night-foundered, 483. + +Nightingale, 234. + +Nightly, 113. + +Nor ... nor, 784. + + +O. + +Oaten, 345, 893. + +Oceanus, 97, 868. + +Of, 59, 155, 836, 1000. + +Ominous, 61. + +Orient, 65. + +Other, 612. + +Oughly-headed, 695. + +Ounce, 71. + +Over-exquisite, 359. + +Over-multitude, 731. + + +P. + +Palmer, 189. + +Pan, 176. + +Pard, 444. + +Parley, 241. + +Pent, 499. + +Perfect, 73, 203. + +Perplexed, 37. + +Pert, 118. + +Pestered, 7. + +Pinfold, 7. + +Plight, 372. + +Plighted, 301 + +Plumes, 378. + +Potion, 68. + +Pranked, 759. + +Presentments, 156. + +Prime, 289. + +Prithee, 615. + +Prove, 123. + +Purchase, 607. + +Purfled, 995. + +Psyche, 1004. + + +Q. + +Quaint, 157. + +Quarters, 29. + +Quire, 112. + +Quivered, 422. + + +R. + +Rapt, 794. + +Ravishment, 244. + +Reared, 836. + +Recks, 404. + +Regard, 620. + +Rifted, 518. + +Rite, 125. + +Roost, 317. + +Rosy-bosomed, 986. + +Rout, 92-93. + +Rule, 340. + +Rushy-fringed, 890. + + +S. + +Sabrina, 826. + +Sadly, 509. + +Sampler, 751. + +Saws, 110. + +Scape, 814. + +Scylla, 257. + +Serene, 4. + +Several, 25. + +Shagged, 429. + +Shapes, 2. + +Sheen, 893, 1003. + +Shell, 231, 837. + +Shew, 995. + +Shoon, 635. + +Should, 482. + +Shrewd, 846. + +Shrouds, 147. + +Shuddering, 802. + +Siding, 212. + +Simples, 627. + +Single, 204. + +Sirens, 253, 878. + +Sleeking, 882. + +Slope, 98. + +Solemnity, 142. + +Soothest, 823. + +Sooth-saying, 874. + +Sounds, 115. + +Sovran, 41, 639. + +Spangled, 1003. + +Spell, 154. + +Spets, 132. + +Sphery, 1021. + +Spruce, 985. + +Square, 329. + +Squint, 413. + +Stabled, 534. + +Star of Arcady, 341. + +State, 35. + +Stead, 611. + +Step-dame, 830. + +Still, 560. + +Stoic, 707. + +Stops, 345. + +Storied, 516. + +Straight, 811. + +Strook, 301. + +Stygian, 132. + +Sun-clad, 782. + +Sung, 256. + +Sure, 148. + +Surrounding, 403. + +Swain, 497. + +Swart, 436. + +Swinked, 293. + +Sylvan, 268. + +Syrups, 674. + + +T. + +Tapestry, 324. + +Temple, 461. + +Thyrsis, 494. + +Timely, 689, 970. + +Tinsel-slippered, 877. + +To-ruffled, 380. + +To seek, 366. + +Toy, 502. + +Trains, 151. + +Treasonous, 702. + +Trippings, 961. + +Turkis, 894. + +Tuscan, 48. + +Twain, 284. + +Tyrrhene, 49. + + +U. + +Unblenched, 430. + +Unenchanted, 395. + +Unmuffle, 331. + +Unprincipled, 367. + +Unweeting, 539. + +Unwithdrawing, 711. + +Urchin, 845. + + +V. + +Various, 379. + +Venturous, 609. + +Vermeil-tinctured, 752. + +Very, 427. + +Vialed, 847. + +Viewless, 92. + +Violet-embroidered, 233. + +Virtue, 165, 621. + +Visage, 333. + +Vizored, 698. + +Votarist, 189. + + +W. + +Wakes, 121. + +Warranted, 327. + +Wassailers, 179. + +Waste, 728, 942. + +Weeds, 16. + +Welkin, 1015. + +What need, 362. + +Whilom, 827. + +Whit, 774. + +Who, 728. + +Wily, 151. + +Wink, 401. + +Wished, 574, 950. + +Wizard, 571, 872. + +Wont, 332, 549. + +Woof, 83. + + +Y. + +Ye, 216. + + + + +GLASGOW: PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milton's Comus, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + +***** This file should be named 19819-8.txt or 19819-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/1/19819/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milton's Comus + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: William Bell + +Release Date: November 15, 2006 [EBook #19819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="transnote"> +<h4>Transcriber’s note</h4> +<p>The use of and to indicate stresses is inconsistent in this +text, as is the use of œ and æ ligatures. No changes have +been made to the original. A transliteration of words and phrases in +Greek is visible when the pointer is +<span class="translit" title="like this">hovered over them</span>. + </p> +</div> + + + + + +<h1>MILTON’S COMUS</h1> + +<p class="center gap"><span class="little">WITH</span><br /> +<span class="big">INTRODUCTION AND NOTES</span></p> + +<p class="center gap"><span class="little">BY</span><br /> +<span class="big">WILLIAM BELL, M.A.</span><br /> +<span class="little">PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, +LAHORE</span></p> + +<p class="center biggap">London<br /> +<span class="big">MACMILLAN AND CO</span><br /> +AND NEW YORK<br /> +1891<br /> +<br /> +<span class="little">[<i>All rights reserved</i>]</span> +</p> + + +<hr /> + +<p class="center little"> +First Edition, 1890.<br /> +Reprinted, 1891. +</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Table of contents"> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="toright little">PAGE</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Introduction</span>,</td> + <td class="toright"> <a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Comus</span>,</td> + <td class="toright"> <a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Notes</span>,</td> + <td class="toright"> <a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Index to the Notes</span>,</td> + <td class="toright"> <a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> + </tr> + +</table> +</div> + + + + + +<h2 class="biggap"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii" title="vii"></a> +<a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION. +</h2> + + +<p>Few poems have been more variously designated than <i>Comus</i>. +Milton himself describes it simply as “A Mask”; by others +it has been criticised and estimated as a lyrical drama, a drama in +the epic style, a lyric poem in the <i>form</i> of a play, a phantasy, +an allegory, a philosophical poem, a suite of speeches or majestic +soliloquies, and even a didactic poem. Such variety in the description +of the poem is explained partly by its complex charm and many-sided +interest, and partly by the desire to describe it from that point of +view which should best reconcile its literary form with what we know +of the genius and powers of its author. Those who, like Dr. Johnson, +have blamed it as a drama, have admired it “as a series of +lines,” or as a lyric; one writer, who has found that its +characters are nothing, its sentiments tedious, its story +uninteresting, has nevertheless “doubted whether there will ever +be any similar poem which gives so true a conception of the capacity +and the dignity of the mind by which it was produced” +(Bagehot’s <i>Literary Studies</i>). Some who have praised it as +an allegory see in it a satire on the evils both of the Church and of +the State, while others regard it as alluding to the vices of the +Court alone. Some have found its lyrical parts the <a +class="pagebreak" name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii" title="viii"></a>best, +while others, charmed with its “divine philosophy,” have +commended those deep conceits which place it alongside of the +<i>Faerie Queen</i>, as shadowing forth an episode in the education of +a noble soul and as a poet’s lesson against intemperance and +impurity. But no one can refuse to admit that, more than any other of +Milton’s shorter poems, it gives us an insight into the peculiar +genius and character of its author: it was, in the opinion of Hallam, +“sufficient to convince any one of taste and feeling that a +great poet had arisen in England, and one partly formed in a different +school from his contemporaries.” It is true that in the early +poems we do not find the whole of Milton, for he had yet to pass +through many years of trouble and controversy; but <i>Comus</i>, in a +special degree, reveals or foreshadows much of the Milton of +<i>Paradise Lost</i>. Whether we regard its place in Milton’s +life, in the series of his works, or in English literature as a whole, +the poem is full of significance: it is worth while, therefore, to +consider how its form was determined by the external circumstances and +previous training of the poet; by his favourite studies in poetry, +philosophy, history, and music; and by his noble theory of life in +general, and of a poet’s life in particular.</p> + +<p>The mask was represented at Ludlow Castle on September 29th, 1634; +it was probably composed early in that year. It belongs, therefore, to +that group of poems (<i>L’Allegro</i>, <i>Il Penseroso</i>, +<i>Arcades</i>, <i>Comus</i>, and <i>Lycidas</i>) written by Milton +while living in his father’s house at Horton, near Windsor, +after having left the University of Cambridge in July, 1632. As he was +born in 1608, he would be twenty-five years of age when this poem was +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix" +title="ix"></a>composed. +During his stay at Horton (1632-39), which was broken only by a +journey to Italy in 1638-9, he was chiefly occupied with the study of +the Greek, Roman, Italian, and English literatures, each of which has +left its impress on <i>Comus</i>. He read widely and carefully, and it +has been said that his great and original imagination was almost +entirely nourished, or at least stimulated, by books: his residence at +Horton was, accordingly, pre-eminently what he intended it to be, and +what his father wisely and gladly permitted it to be—a time of +preparation and ripening for the work to which he had dedicated +himself. We are reminded of his own words in <i>Comus</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">And Wisdom’s self<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, in the various bustle of resort,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We find in <i>Comus</i> abundant reminiscences of Milton’s +study of the literature of antiquity. “It would not be too much +to say that the literature of antiquity was to Milton’s genius +what soil and light are to a plant. It nourished, it coloured, it +developed it. It determined not merely his character as an artist, but +it exercised an influence on his intellect and temper scarcely less +powerful than hereditary instincts and contemporary history. It at +once animated and chastened his imagination; it modified his fancy; it +furnished him with his models. On it his taste was formed; on it his +style was moulded. From it his diction and his method derived +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_x" id="Page_x" title="x"></a>their +peculiarities. It transformed what would in all probability have been +the mere counterpart of Caedmon’s Paraphrase or Langland’s +Vision into Paradise Lost; and what would have been the mere +counterpart of Corydon’s Doleful Knell and the satire of the +Three Estates, into Lycidas and Comus.” (<i>Quarterly +Review</i>, No. 326.)</p> + +<p>But Milton has also told us that Spenser was his master, and the +full charm of <i>Comus</i> cannot be realised without reference to the +artistic and philosophical spirit of the author of the <i>Faerie +Queene</i>. Both poems deal with the war between the body and the +soul—between the lower and the higher nature. In an essay on +‘Spenser as a philosophic poet,’ De Vere says: “The +perils and degradations of an animalised life are shown under the +allegory of Sir Guyon’s sea voyage with its successive storms +and whirlpools, its ‘rock of Reproach’ strewn with wrecks +and dead men’s bones, its ‘wandering islands,’ its +‘quicksands of Unthriftihead,’ its ‘whirlepoole of +Decay,’ its ‘sea-monsters,’ and lastly, its +‘bower of Bliss,’ and the doom which overtakes it, +together with the deliverance of Acrasia’s victims, transformed +by that witch’s spells into beasts. Still more powerful is the +allegory of worldly ambition, illustrated under the name of ‘the +cave of Mammon.’ The Legend of Holiness delineates with not less +insight those enemies which wage war upon the spiritual life.” +All this Milton had studied in the <i>Faerie Queene</i>, and had +understood it; and, like Sir Guyon, he felt himself to be a knight +enrolled under the banner of Parity and Self-Control. So that, in +<i>Comus</i>, we find the sovereign value of Temperance or +Self-Regulation—what the Greeks called +<span class="translit" title="sphrosyn">σωφροσύνη</span>—set +forth no less <a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi" +title="xi"></a>clearly than in Spenser’s poem: in Milton’s +mask it becomes almost identical with Virtue itself. The enchantments +of Acrasia in her Bower of Bliss become the spells of Comus; the +armour of Belphoebe becomes the “complete steel” of +Chastity; while the supremacy of Conscience, the bounty of Nature and +man’s ingratitude, the unloveliness of Mammon and of Excess, the +blossom of Courtesy oft found on lowly stalk, and the final triumph of +Virtue through striving and temptation, all are dwelt upon.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It is the mind that maketh good or ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore:<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>so speaks Spenser; and Milton similarly—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He that has light within his own clear breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Himself is his own dungeon.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In endeavouring still further to trace, by means of verbal or +structural resemblances, the sources from which Milton drew his +materials for <i>Comus</i>, critics have referred to Peele’s +<i>Old Wives’ Tale</i> (1595); to Fletcher’s pastoral, +<i>The Faithful Shepherdess</i>, of which Charles Lamb has said that +if all its parts ‘had been in unison with its many innocent +scenes and sweet lyric intermixtures, it had been a poem fit to vie +with <i>Comus</i> or the <i>Arcadia</i>, to have been put into the +hands of boys and virgins, to have made matter for young dreams, like +the loves of Hermia and Lysander’; to Ben Jonson’s mask of +<i>Pleasure reconciled to Virtue</i> (1619), in which Comus is +“the god of cheer, or the Belly”; and to the <i>Comus</i> +of <a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii" title="xii"></a> +Erycius Puteanus (Henri du Puy), Professor of Eloquence at Louvain. It +is true that Fletcher’s pastoral was being acted in London about +the time Milton was writing his <i>Comus</i>, that the poem by the +Dutch Professor was republished at Oxford in 1634, and that +resemblances are evident between Milton’s poem and those named. +But Professor Masson does well in warning us that “infinitely +too much has been made of such coincidences. After all of them, even +the most ideal and poetical, the feeling in reading <i>Comus</i> is +that all here is different, all peculiar.” Whatever Milton +borrowed, he borrowed, as he says himself, in order to better it.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to consider the mutual relations of the poems +written by Milton at Horton. Everything that Milton wrote is Miltonic; +he had what has been called the power of transforming everything into +himself, and these poems are, accordingly, evidences of the +development of Milton’s opinions and of his secret purpose. It +has been said that <i>L’Allegro</i> and <i>Il Penseroso</i> are +to be regarded as “the pleadings, the decision on which is in +Comus”—<i>L’Allegro</i> representing the Cavalier, +and <i>Il Penseroso</i> the Puritan element. This is true only in a +limited sense. It is true that the Puritan element in the Horton +series of poems becomes more patent as we pass from the two lyrics to +the mask of <i>Comus</i>, and from <i>Comus</i> to the elegy of +<i>Lycidas</i>, just as, in the corresponding periods of time, the +evils connected with the reign of Charles I. and with Laud’s +crusade against Puritanism were becoming more pronounced. But we can +hardly regard Milton as having expressed any new decision in +<i>Comus</i>: the decision is already made +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii" title="xiii"></a> +when “vain deluding Joys” are banished in <i>Il +Penseroso</i>, and “loathed Melancholy” in +<i>L’Allegro</i>. The mask is an expansion and exaltation of the +delights of the contemplative man, but there is still a place for the +“unreproved pleasures” of the cheerful man. Unless it were +so, <i>Comus</i> could not have been written; there would have been no +“sunshine holiday” for the rustics and no +“victorious dance” for the gentle lady and her brothers. +But in <i>Comus</i> we realise the mutual relation of +<i>L’Allegro</i> and <i>Il Penseroso</i>; we see their +application to the joys and sorrows of the actual life of individuals; +we observe human nature in contact with the “hard assays” +of life. And, subsequently, in <i>Lycidas</i> we are made to realise +that this human nature is Milton’s own, and to understand how it +was that his Puritanism which, three years before, had permitted him +to write a cavalier mask, should, three years after, lead him from the +fresh fields of poetry into the barren plains of controversial +prose.</p> + +<p>The Mask was a favourite form of entertainment in England in +Milton’s youth, and had been so from the time of Henry VIII., in +whose reign elaborate masked shows, introduced from Italy, first +became popular. But they seem to have found their way into England, in +a crude form, even earlier; and we read of court disguisings in the +reign of Edward III. It is usually said that the Mask derives its name +from the fact that the actors wore masks, and in Hall’s +Chronicle we read that, in 1512, “on the day of Epiphany at +night, the king, with eleven others, was disguised after the manner of +Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen before in England; they were +appareled in garments long and broad, wrought +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv" title="xiv"></a> +all with gold, with <i>visors</i> and caps of gold.” The truth, +however, seems to be that the use of a visor was not essential in such +entertainments, which, from the first, were called +‘masks,’ the word ‘masker’ being used +sometimes of the players, and sometimes of their disguises. The word +has come to us, through the French form <i>masque</i>, cognate with +Spanish <i>mascarada</i>, a masquerade or assembly of maskers, +otherwise called a mummery. Up to the time of Henry VIII. these +entertainments were of the nature of dumb-show or <i>tableaux +vivants</i>, and delighted the spectators chiefly by the splendour of +the costumes and machinery employed in their representation; but, +afterwards, the chief actors spoke their parts, singing and dancing +were introduced, and the composition of masks for royal and other +courtly patrons became an occupation worthy of a poet. They were +frequently combined with other forms of amusement, all of which were, +in the case of the Court, placed under the management of a Master of +Revels, whose official title was Magister Jocorum, Revellorum et +<i>Mascorum</i>; in the first printed English tragedy, <i>Gorboduc</i> +(1565), each act opens with what is called a dumb-show or mask. But +the more elaborate form of the Mask soon grew to be an entertainment +complete in itself, and the demand for such became so great in the +time of James I. and Charles I. that the history of these reigns might +almost be traced in the succession of masks then written. Ben Jonson, +who thoroughly established the Mask in English literature, wrote many +Court Masks, and made them a vehicle less for the display of +‘painting and carpentry’ than for the expression of the +intellectual and social life of his time. His masks are +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv" title="xv"></a> +excelled only by <i>Comus</i>, and possess in a high degree that +‘Doric delicacy’ in their songs and odes which Sir Henry +Wotton found so ravishing in Milton’s mask. Jonson, in his +lifetime, declared that, next himself, only Fletcher and Chapman could +write a mask; and apart from the compositions of these writers and of +William Browne (<i>Inner Temple Masque</i>), there are few specimens +worthy to be named along with Jonson’s until we come to +Milton’s <i>Arcades</i>. Other mask-writers were Middleton, +Dekker, Shirley, Carew, and Davenant; and it is interesting to note +that in Carew’s <i>Coelum Brittanicum</i> (1633-4), for which +Lawes composed the music, the two boys who afterwards acted in +<i>Comus</i> had juvenile parts. It has been pointed out that the +popularity of the Mask in Milton’s youth received a stimulus +from the Puritan hatred of the theatre which found expression at that +time, and drove non-Puritans to welcome the Mask as a protest against +that spirit which saw nothing but evil in every form of dramatic +entertainment. Milton, who enjoyed the theatre—both +“Jonson’s learned sock” and what “ennobled +hath the buskined stage”—was led, through his friendship +with the musician Lawes, to compose a mask to celebrate the entry of +the Earl of Bridgewater upon his office of “Lord President of +the Council in the Principality of Wales and the Marches of the +same.” He had already written, also at the request of Lawes, a +mask, or portion of a mask, called <i>Arcades</i>, and the success of +this may have stimulated him to higher effort. The result was +<i>Comus</i>, in which the Mask reached its highest level, and after +which it practically faded out of our literature.</p> + +<p>Milton’s two masks, <i>Arcades</i> and <i>Comus</i>, were written +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi" title="xvi"></a> +for members of the same noble family, the former in honour of the +Countess Dowager of Derby, and the latter in honour of John, first +Earl of Bridgewater, who was both her stepson and son-in-law. This +two-fold relation arose from the fact that the Earl was the son of +Viscount Brackley, the Countess’s second husband, and had +himself married Lady Frances Stanley, a daughter of the Countess by +her first husband, the fifth Earl of Derby. Amongst the children of +the Earl of Bridgewater were three who took important parts in the +representation of <i>Comus</i>—Alice, the youngest daughter, +then about fourteen years of age, who appeared as <i>The Lady</i>; +John, Viscount Brackley, who took the part of the <i>Elder +Brother</i>, and Thomas Egerton, who appeared as the <i>Second +Brother</i>. We do not know who acted the parts of <i>Comus</i> and +<i>Sabrina</i>, but the part of the <i>Attendant Spirit</i> was taken +by Henry Lawes, “gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and one of His +Majesty’s private musicians.” The Earl’s children +were his pupils, and the mask was naturally produced under his +direction. Milton’s friendship with Lawes is shown by the sonnet +which the poet addressed to the musician:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Harry, whose tuneful and well measur’d song<br /></span> +<span class="i1">First taught our English music how to span<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Words with just note and accent, not to scan<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With Midas’ ears, committing short and long;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With praise enough for Envy to look wan;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To after age thou shalt be writ the man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with smooth air could’st humour best our tongue.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou honour’st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus’ quire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That tun’st their happiest lines in hymn, or story.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii" title="xvii"></a>Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than his Casella, who he woo’d to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We must remember also that it was to Lawes that Milton’s +<i>Comus</i> owed its first publication, and, as we see from the +dedication prefixed to the text, that he was justly proud of his share +in its first representation.</p> + +<p>Such were the persons who appeared in Milton’s mask; they are +few in number, and the plan of the piece is correspondingly simple. +There are three scenes which may be briefly characterised thus:</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary="Outline of scenes"> + <tr> + <td class="toright">I.</td> + <td>The Tempter and the Tempted: lines + <a href="#line_0">1</a>-<a href="#line_650">658</a>. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="indent3"><i>Scene</i>: A wild wood.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="toright">II.</td> + <td>The Temptation and the Rescue: lines + <a href="#line_650">659</a>-<a href="#line_950">958</a>. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="indent3"><i>Scene</i>: The Palace of Comus.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="toright">III.</td> + <td>The Triumph: lines + <a href="#line_950">959</a>-<a href="#line_1020">1023</a>. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="indent3"><i>Scene</i>: The President’s + Castle. + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>In the first scene, after a kind of prologue (lines 1-92), the +interest rises as we are introduced first to Comus and his rout, then +to the Lady alone and “night-foundered,” and finally to +Comus and the Lady in company. At the same time the nature of the +Lady’s trial and her subsequent victory are foreshadowed in a +conversation between the brothers and the attendant Spirit. This is +one of the more Miltonic parts of the mask: in the philosophical +reasoning of the elder brother, as opposed to the matter-of-fact +arguments of the younger, we trace the young poet fresh from the study +of the divine volume of Plato, and filled with a noble trust in God. +In the second scene we breathe the unhallowed air of the abode of the +wily +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii" +title="xviii"></a> +tempter, who endeavours, “under fair pretence of friendly +ends,” to wind himself into the pure heart of the Lady. But his +“gay rhetoric” is futile against the “sun-clad power +of chastity”; and he is driven off the scene by the two +brothers, who are led and instructed by the Spirit disguised as the +shepherd Thyrsis. But the Lady, having been lured into the haunt of +impurity, is left spell-bound, and appeal is made to the pure nymph +Sabrina, who is “swift to aid a virgin, such as was herself, in +hard-besetting need.” It is in the contention between Comus and +the Lady in this scene that the interest of the mask may be said to +culminate, for here its purpose stands revealed: “it is a song +to Temperance as the ground of Freedom, to temperance as the guard of +all the virtues, to beauty as secured by temperance, and its central +point and climax is in the pleading of these motives by the Lady +against their opposites in the mouth of the Lord of sensual +Revel.” <i>Milton: Classical Writers</i>. In the third scene the +Lady Alice and her brothers are presented by the Spirit to their noble +father and mother as triumphing “in victorious dance o’er +sensual folly and intemperance.” The Spirit then speaks the +epilogue, calling upon mortals who love true freedom to strive after +virtue:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love Virtue; she alone is free.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She can teach ye how to climb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Higher than the sphery chime;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, if Virtue feeble were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven itself would stoop to her.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The last couplet Milton afterwards, on his Italian journey, entered in +an album belonging to an Italian named Cerdogni, and underneath it the +words, <i>Coelum +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix" title="xix"></a> +non animum muto dum trans mare curro</i>, and his signature, Joannes +Miltonius, Anglus. The juxtaposition of these verses is significant: +though he had left his own land Milton had not become what, fifty or +sixty years before, Roger Ascham had condemned as an +“Italianated Englishman.” He was one of those +“worthy Gentlemen of England, whom all the Siren tongues of +Italy could never untwine from the mast of God’s word; nor no +enchantment of vanity overturn them from the fear of God and love of +honesty” (Ascham’s <i>Scholemaster</i>). And one might +almost infer that Milton, in his account of the sovereign plant +Haemony which was to foil the wiles of <i>Comus</i>, had remembered +not only Homer’s description of the root Moly “that Hermes +once to wise Ulysses +gave,”<a name="FNanchor_16-A_1" id="FNanchor_16-A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-A_1" class="fnnum">16:A</a> +but also Ascham’s remarks thereupon: “The true medicine +against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure, +the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the +black root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; +which Hesiod termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the +beginning, but in the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to +be marvelled at, the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this +medicine against sin and vanity is +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx" title="xx"></a> +not found out by man, but given and taught by God.” +Milton’s <i>Comus</i>, like his last great poems, is a poetical +expression of the same belief. “His poetical works, the outcome +of his inner life, his life of artistic contemplation, are,” in +the words of Prof. Dowden, “various renderings of one dominant +idea—that the struggle for mastery between good and evil is the +prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the righteous cause is +assured by the existence of a divine order of the universe, which +Milton knew by the name of ‘Providence.’”</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16-A_1" id="Footnote_16-A_1"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_16-A_1">16:A</a></span> +It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable, employs +in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of +Milton’s description of Haemony; compare the following extract +from <i>The Adventures of Ulysses</i> with lines 629-640 of +<i>Comus</i>: “The flower of the herb Moly, which is sovereign +against enchantments: the moly is a small unsightly root, its virtues +but little known, and in low estimation; the dull shepherd treads on +it every day with his clouted shoes, but it bears a small white +flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights, mildews, and +damps.”</p> +</div> + +</div> + + + +<h2> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_1" id="Page_1" title="1"></a>COMUS.</h2> + + +<p class='center big'>A MASK</p> + +<p class='center'>PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634.</p> + +<p class='center little'>BEFORE</p> + +<p class='center big'>JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,</p> + +<p class='center little'>THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.</p> + + + + + +<p class='center biggap'> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_2" id="Page_2" title="2"></a> +<i>The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the +following Poem.</i></p> + + +<p class='toright'> +From the College, this 13 of April, 1638.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>, +</p> + +<p>It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if +I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to have +been familiar.</p> + +<p>Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for a +dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should +much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: <i>Ipsa +mollities</i>.<a name="FNanchor_19-A_2" id="FNanchor_19-A_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-A_2" class="fnnum">19:A</a> +But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only owe you thanks for +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_3" id="Page_3" title="3"></a> +intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true +artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, with +singular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in +the very close of the late R.’s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto it +is added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the +principal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader +<i>con la bocca dolce</i>.<a name="FNanchor_20-A_3" id="FNanchor_20-A_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-A_3" class="fnnum">20:A</a></p> + +<p>Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch<a name="FNanchor_20-B_4" id="FNanchor_20-B_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-B_4" class="fnnum">20:B</a> +Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few +lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord +S. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directions +for shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside by +my choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice.</p> + +<p>I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passage +into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety.</p> + +<p>At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca di +Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man, +that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat +of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his +native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the +centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice, +how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_4" id="Page_4" title="4"></a> +of mine own conscience. <i>Signor Arrigo mio</i> (says he), <i>I pensieri +stretti, ed il viso +sciolto</i>,<a name="FNanchor_21-A_5" id="FNanchor_21-A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-A_5" class="fnnum">21:A</a> +will go safely over the whole world. +Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth +need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the +best of all securities, God’s dear love, remaining</p> + +<p class='center'> +Your friend as much to command<br /> +as any of longer date,</p> + +<p class='toright'>HENRY WOTTON. +</p> + +<p class='center gaplet'><i>Postscript.</i></p> + +<p>Sir,—I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter, having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle.<a name="FNanchor_21-B_6" id="FNanchor_21-B_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-B_6" class="fnnum">21:B</a></p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_19-A_2" id="Footnote_19-A_2"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_19-A_2">19:A</a></span> +It is delicacy itself. +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_20-A_3" id="Footnote_20-A_3"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_20-A_3">20:A</a></span> +With a sweet taste in his mouth (so that he may desire more). +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_20-B_4" id="Footnote_20-B_4"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_20-B_4">20:B</a></span> +Avoid. +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_21-A_5" id="Footnote_21-A_5"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_21-A_5">21:A</a></span> +“Thoughts close, countenance open.” +</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_21-B_6" id="Footnote_21-B_6"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_21-B_6">21:B</a></span> +This letter was printed in the edition of 1645, but +omitted in that of 1673. It was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of +Eton College, just in time to overtake Milton before he set out on his +journey to Italy. As a parting act of courtesy Milton had sent Sir Henry +a letter with a copy of Lawes’s edition of his <i>Comus</i>, +and the above letter is an acknowledgment of the favour. +</p></div> +</div> + + + +<p class='center biggap'> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_5" id="Page_5" title="5"></a> +<span class="little">TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE</span><a name="FNanchor_22-A_7" id="FNanchor_22-A_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-A_7" class="fnnum">22:A</a></p> + +<p class='center'>JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY,</p> + +<p class='center'> +<i>Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, etc.</i></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord</span>,</p> + +<p>This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and +others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the +performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to +you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a +legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often +copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, +and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and +now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and +rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full +assurance to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet +Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from +the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most +honoured Parents, and as in this representation your attendant +<i>Thyrsis</i>,<a name="FNanchor_22-B_8" id="FNanchor_22-B_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-B_8" class="fnnum">22:B</a> so now in all real expression,</p> + +<p class='center'> +Your faithful and most humble Servant,</p> + +<p class='toright'>H. LAWES. +</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22-A_7" id="Footnote_22-A_7"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_22-A_7">22:A</a></span> +Dedication of the anonymous edition of 1637: reprinted +in the edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22-B_8" id="Footnote_22-B_8"></a> +<span class="label"><a href="#FNanchor_22-B_8">22:B</a></span> +See Notes, line 494.</p></div> +</div> + + + +<p class='center big biggap'> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_6" id="Page_6" title="6"></a> +THE PERSONS.</p> + +<p> + The <span class="smcap">Attendant Spirit</span>, afterwards in the + habit of <span class="smcap">Thyrsis</span>.<br /> + <span class="smcap">Comus</span>, with his Crew.<br /> + The <span class="smcap">Lady</span>.<br /> + <span class="smcap">First Brother</span>.<br /> + <span class="smcap">Second Brother</span>.<br /> + <span class="smcap">Sabrina</span>, the Nymph.</p> + +<p>The Chief Persons which presented were:—</p> +<p class='indent3'> + The Lord Brackley;<br /> + Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother;<br /> + The Lady Alice Egerton. +</p> + +<h2> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_7" id="Page_7" title="7"></a> +<a name="COMUS" id="COMUS"></a>COMUS.</h2> + + +<p class='stagedir'><a name="line_0" id="line_0"></a> +The first Scene discovers a wild wood.</p> + +<p class='stagedir'> +The <span class="smcap">Attendant Spirit</span> descends or enters.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Before the starry threshold of Jove’s court<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My mansion is, where those immortal shapes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of bright aërial spirits live insphered<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In regions mild of calm and serene air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Confined and pestered in this pinfold here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After this mortal change, to her true servants +<a name="line_10" id="line_10"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_10">10</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet some there be that by due steps aspire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lay their just hands on that golden key<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That opes the palace of eternity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To such my errand is; and, but for such,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Took in by lot, ’twixt high and nether Jove, +<a name="line_20" id="line_20"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_20">20</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_8" id="Page_8" title="8"></a> +<span class="i0">That, like to rich and various gems, inlay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unadornéd bosom of the deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which he, to grace his tributary gods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By course commits to several government,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wield their little tridents. But this Isle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The greatest and the best of all the main,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He quarters to his blue-haired deities;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all this tract that fronts the falling sun +<a name="line_30" id="line_30"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_30">30</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">A noble Peer of mickle trust and power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are coming to attend their father’s state,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nodding horror of whose shady brows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here their tender age might suffer peril, +<a name="line_40" id="line_40"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_40">40</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that, by quick command from sovran Jove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I was despatched for their defence and guard:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And listen why; for I will tell you now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What never yet was heard in tale or song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crushed the sweet poison of misuséd wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After the Tuscan mariners transformed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Circe’s island fell: (who knows not Circe, +<a name="line_50" id="line_50"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_50">50</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The daughter of the Sun, whose charmèd cup<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And downward fell into a grovelling swine?)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much like his father, but his mother more,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_9" id="Page_9" title="9"></a> +<span class="i0">Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, +<a name="line_60" id="line_60"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_60">60</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last betakes him to this ominous wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Excels his mother at her mighty art;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Offering to every weary traveller<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His orient liquor in a crystal glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To quench the drouth of Phœbus; which as they taste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon as the potion works, their human count’nance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The express resemblance of the gods, is changed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, +<a name="line_70" id="line_70"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_69">70</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All other parts remaining as they were.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they, so perfect is their misery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But boast themselves more comely than before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all their friends and native home forget,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chances to pass through this adventurous glade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star +<a name="line_80" id="line_80"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_80">80</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As now I do. But first I must put off<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris’ woof,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And take the weeds and likeness of a swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That to the service of this house belongs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in this office of his mountain watch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid +<a name="line_90" id="line_90"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_88">90</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of this occasion. But I hear the tread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_10" id="Page_10" title="10"></a> +<span class="smcap">Comus</span> enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, +but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> The star that bids the shepherd fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now the top of heaven doth hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the gilded car of day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His glowing axle doth allay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the steep Atlantic stream;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the slope sun his upward beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoots against the dusky pole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pacing toward the other goal +<a name="line_100" id="line_100"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_100">100</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his chamber in the east.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midnight shout and revelry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tipsy dance and jollity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Braid your locks with rosy twine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropping odours, dropping wine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rigour now is gone to bed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Advice with scrupulous head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strict Age, and sour Severity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their grave saws, in slumber lie. +<a name="line_110" id="line_110"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_110">110</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">We, that are of purer fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imitate the starry quire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead in swift round the months and years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the tawny sands and shelves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, +<a name="line_120" id="line_120"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_120">120</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hath night to do with sleep?<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_11" id="Page_11" title="11"></a> +<span class="i0">Night hath better sweets to prove;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Venus now wakes, and wakens Love.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, let us our rights begin;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis only daylight that makes sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which these dun shades will ne’er report.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, +<a name="line_130" id="line_130"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_129">130</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That ne’er art called but when the dragon womb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And makes one blot of all the air!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein thou ridest with Hecat’, and befriend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere the blabbing eastern scout,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nice Morn on the Indian steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her cabined loop-hole peep, +<a name="line_140" id="line_140"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_140">140</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the tell-tale Sun descry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our concealed solemnity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, knit hands, and beat the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a light fantastic round. +<span class="linenum">[<i>The Measure.</i></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Break off, break off! I feel the different pace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of some chaste footing near about this ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our number may affright. Some virgin sure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For so I can distinguish by mine art)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, +<a name="line_150" id="line_150"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_150">150</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to my wily trains: I shall ere long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My dazzling spells into the spongy air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give it false presentments, lest the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my quaint habits breed astonishment,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And put the damsel to suspicious flight;<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_12" id="Page_12" title="12"></a> +<span class="i0">Which must not be, for that’s against my course.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, +<a name="line_160" id="line_160"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_160">160</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Baited with reasons not unplausible,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wind me into the easy-hearted man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hug him into snares. When once her eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I shall appear some harmless villager<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here she comes; I fairly step aside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hearken, if I may, her business here.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>The <span class="smcap">Lady</span> enters.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> This way the noise was, if mine ear be true +<a name="line_170" id="line_170"></a>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My best guide now. Methought it was the sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of riot and ill-managed merriment,<span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_170">172</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, for their teeming flocks and granges full,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I inform my unacquainted feet +<a name="line_180" id="line_180"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_180">180</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My brothers, when they saw me wearied out<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With this long way, resolving here to lodge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the spreading favour of these pines,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the kind hospitable woods provide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They left me then when the grey-hooded Even,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a sad votarist in palmer’s weed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus’ wain. +<a name="line_190" id="line_190"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_190">190</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But where they are, and why they came not back,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_13" id="Page_13" title="13"></a> +<span class="i0">Is now the labour of my thoughts. ’Tis likeliest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They had engaged their wandering steps too far;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And envious darkness, ere they could return,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With everlasting oil to give due light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the misled and lonely traveller? +<a name="line_200" id="line_200"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_198">200</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is the place, as well as I may guess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet nought but single darkness do I find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What might this be? A thousand fantasies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begin to throng into my memory,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And airy tongues that syllable men’s names<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These thoughts may startle well, but not astound +<a name="line_210" id="line_210"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_210">210</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By a strong siding champion, Conscience.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou unblemished form of Chastity!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see ye visibly, and now believe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would send a glistering guardian, if need were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To keep my life and honour unassailed.... +<a name="line_220" id="line_220"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_219">220</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn forth her silver lining on the night?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I did not err: there does a sable cloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn forth her silver lining on the night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cannot hallo to my brothers, but<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_14" id="Page_14" title="14"></a> +<span class="i0">I’ll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>Song.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv’st unseen +<a name="line_230" id="line_230"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_230">230</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i3">Within thy airy shell<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By slow Meander’s margent green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the violet-embroidered vale<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where the love-lorn nightingale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That likest thy Narcissus are?<br /></span> +<span class="i3">O, if thou have<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hid them in some flowery cave,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Tell me but where, +<a name="line_240" id="line_240"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_240">240</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">So may’st thou be translated to the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And give resounding grace to all Heaven’s harmonies!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Can any mortal mixture of earth’s mould<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sure something holy lodges in that breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with these raptures moves the vocal air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To testify his hidden residence.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweetly did they float upon the wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, +<a name="line_250" id="line_250"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_248">250</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">At every fall smoothing the raven down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My mother Circe with the Sirens three,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chid her barking waves into attention,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, +<a name="line_260" id="line_260"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_260">260</a></span><br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_15" id="Page_15" title="15"></a> +<span class="i0">And in sweet madness robbed it of itself;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But such a sacred and home-felt delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such sober certainty of waking bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never heard till now. I’ll speak to her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she shall be my queen.—Hail, foreign wonder!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless the goddess that in rural shrine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dwell’st here with Pan or Sylvan by blest song<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. +<a name="line_270" id="line_270"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_269">270</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is addressed to unattending ears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How to regain my severed company,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give me answer from her mossy couch.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Could that divide you from near-ushering guides?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> They left me weary on a grassy turf. +<a name="line_280" id="line_280"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_279">280</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> To seek i’ the valley some cool friendly spring.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> And left your fair side all unguarded, lady?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> They were but twain, and purposed quick return.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> How easy my misfortune is to hit!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Imports their loss, beside the present need?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> No less than if I should my brothers lose.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> As smooth as Hebe’s their unrazored lips. +<a name="line_290" id="line_290"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_290">290</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his loose traces from the furrow came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the swinked hedger at his supper sat.<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_16" id="Page_16" title="16"></a> +<span class="i0">I saw them under a green mantling vine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That crawls along the side of yon small hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their port was more than human, as they stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I took it for a faery vision<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of some gay creatures of the element,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in the colours of the rainbow live, +<a name="line_300" id="line_300"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_299">300</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And play i’ the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It were a journey like the path to Heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To help you find them.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> <span class='space7'>Gentle villager,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">What readiest way would bring me to that place?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Due west it rises from this shrubby point.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In such a scant allowance of star-light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would overtask the best land-pilot’s art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. +<a name="line_310" id="line_310"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_305">310</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> I know each lane, and every alley green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every bosky bourn from side to side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or shroud within these limits, I shall know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I can conduct you, lady, to a low<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But loyal cottage, where you may be safe +<a name="line_320" id="line_320"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_318">320</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till further quest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> <span class='space5'>Shepherd, I take thy word,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trust thy honest-offered courtesy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And courts of princes, where it first was named,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet is most pretended. In a place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Less warranted than this, or less secure,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_17" id="Page_17" title="17"></a> +<span class="i0">I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on. +<a name="line_330" id="line_330"></a><span class='linenum'>[<i>Exeunt.</i></span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>Enter the <span class="smcap">Two Brothers</span>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon,<span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_331">331</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wont’st to love the traveller’s benison,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In double night of darkness and of shades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, if your influence be quite dammed up<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of some clay habitation, visit us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, +<a name="line_340" id="line_340"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_340">340</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or Tyrian Cynosure.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> <span class='space2'>Or, if our eyes</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be barred that happiness, might we but hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Count the night-watches to his feathery dames,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! +<a name="line_350" id="line_350"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_350">350</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where may she wander now, whither betake her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ’gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What if in wild amazement and affright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of savage hunger, or of savage heat!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_18" id="Page_18" title="18"></a> +<span class="i0">To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; +<a name="line_360" id="line_360"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_360">360</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What need a man forestall his date of grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And run to meet what he would most avoid?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, if they be but false alarms of fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How bitter is such self-delusion!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I do not think my sister so to seek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or so unprincipled in virtue’s book,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As that the single want of light and noise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) +<a name="line_370" id="line_370"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_370">370</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And put them into misbecoming plight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virtue could see to do what Virtue would<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By her own radiant light, though sun and moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom’s self<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, in the various bustle of resort,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. +<a name="line_380" id="line_380"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_380">380</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">He that has light within his own clear breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Himself is his own dungeon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> <span class='space5'>’Tis most true</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That musing meditation most affects<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pensive secrecy of desert cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sits as safe as in a senate-house;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, +<a name="line_390" id="line_390"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_386">390</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or do his grey hairs any violence?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_19" id="Page_19" title="19"></a> +<span class="i0">Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of miser’s treasure by an outlaw’s den,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope +<a name="line_400" id="line_400"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_400">400</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Danger will wink on Opportunity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let a single helpless maiden pass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of night or loneliness it recks me not;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I fear the dread events that dog them both,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of our unownéd sister.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space4'>I do not, brother,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infer as if I thought my sister’s state<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Secure without all doubt or controversy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear +<a name="line_410" id="line_410"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_409">410</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does arbitrate the event, my nature is<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I incline to hope rather than fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gladly banish squint suspicion.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My sister is not so defenceless left<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which you remember not.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> <span class='space4'>What hidden strength,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: +<a name="line_420" id="line_420"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_420">420</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">She that has that is clad in cómplete steel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infámous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will dare to soil her virgin purity.<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_20" id="Page_20" title="20"></a> +<span class="i0">Yea, there where very desolation dwells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She may pass on with unblenched majesty, +<a name="line_430" id="line_430"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_430">430</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some say no evil thing that walks by night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No goblin or swart faery of the mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath hurtful power o’er true virginity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Antiquity from the old schools of Greece<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To testify the arms of chastity? +<a name="line_440" id="line_440"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_440">440</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o’ the woods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But rigid looks of chaste austerity, +<a name="line_450" id="line_450"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_450">450</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And noble grace that dashed brute violence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sudden adoration and blank awe?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, when a soul is found sincerely so,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand liveried angels lackey her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in clear dream and solemn vision<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till oft converse with heavenly habitants<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, +<a name="line_460" id="line_460"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_460">460</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unpolluted temple of the mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turns it by degrees to the soul’s essence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all be made immortal. But, when lust,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_21" id="Page_21" title="21"></a> +<span class="i0">By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lets in defilement to the inward parts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul grows clotted by contagion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The divine property of her first being.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp +<a name="line_470" id="line_470"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_470">470</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As loth to leave the body that it loved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And linked itself by carnal sensualty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a degenerate and degraded state.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> How charming is divine Philosophy!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But musical as is Apollo’s lute,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where no crude surfeit reigns.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space6'>List! list! I hear</span> +<a name="line_480" id="line_480"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_479">480</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some far-off hallo break the silent air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> Methought so too; what should it be?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space11'>For certain,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Either some one, like us, night-foundered here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some roving robber calling to his fellows.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Best draw, and stand upon our guard.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space9'>I’ll hallo.</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">If he be friendly, he comes well: if not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>Enter the <span class="smcap">Attendant Spirit</span>, habited like a shepherd.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. +<a name="line_490" id="line_490"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_490">490</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_22" id="Page_22" title="22"></a> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> O brother, ’tis my father’s shepherd, sure.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? +<a name="line_500" id="line_500"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_499">500</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> O my loved master’s heir, and his next joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I came not here on such a trivial toy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To this my errand, and the care it brought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How chance she is not in your company?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. +<a name="line_510" id="line_510"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_510">510</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> I’ll tell ye. ’Tis not vain or fabulous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Storied of old in high immortal verse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For such there be, but unbelief is blind.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Within the navel of this hideous wood, +<a name="line_520" id="line_520"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_520">520</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep skilled in all his mother’s witcheries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here to every thirsty wanderer<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_23" id="Page_23" title="23"></a> +<span class="i0">By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the inglorious likeness of a beast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fixes instead, unmoulding reason’s mintage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Charáctered in the face. This have I learnt +<a name="line_530" id="line_530"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_529">530</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tending my flocks hard by i’ the hilly crofts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doing abhorred rites to Hecate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In their obscuréd haunts of inmost bowers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet have they many baits and guileful spells<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To inveigle and invite the unwary sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of them that pass unweeting by the way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This evening late, by then the chewing flocks +<a name="line_540" id="line_540"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_540">540</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had ta’en their supper on the savoury herb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sat me down to watch upon a bank<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With ivy canopied, and interwove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With flaunting honeysuckle, and began,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To meditate my rural minstrelsy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; +<a name="line_550" id="line_550"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_550">550</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">At which I ceased, and listened them awhile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till an unusual stop of sudden silence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stole upon the air, that even Silence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deny her nature, and be never more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, +<a name="line_560" id="line_560"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_560">560</a></span><br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_24" id="Page_24" title="24"></a> +<span class="i0">And took in strains that might create a soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too well I did perceive it was the voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And “O poor hapless nightingale,” thought I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“How sweet thou sing’st, how near the deadly snare!”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through paths and turnings often trod by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place +<a name="line_570" id="line_570"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_570">570</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(For so by certain signs I knew), had met<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Already, ere my best speed could prevent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who gently asked if he had seen such two,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Supposing him some neighbour villager.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into swift flight, till I had found you here;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But further know I not.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Second Brother.</i> <span class='space3'>O night and shades,</span> +<a name="line_580" id="line_580"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_579">580</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">How are ye joined with hell in triple knot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You gave me, brother?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space4'>Yes, and keep it still;</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lean on it safely; not a period<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of malice or of sorcery, or that power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; +<a name="line_590" id="line_590"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_590">590</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But evil on itself shall back recoil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mix no more with goodness, when at last,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_25" id="Page_25" title="25"></a> +<span class="i0">Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall be in eternal restless change<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pillared firmament is rottenness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And earth’s base built on stubble. But come, let’s on!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven +<a name="line_600" id="line_600"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_598">600</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">May never this just sword be lifted up;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, for that damned magician, let him be girt<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all the grisly legions that troop<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Under the sooty flag of Acheron,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Twixt Africa and Ind, I’ll find him out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And force him to return his purchase back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cursed as his life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> <span class='space5'>Alas! good venturous youth,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; +<a name="line_610" id="line_610"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_610">610</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here thy sword can do thee little stead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far other arms and other weapons must<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be those that quell the might of hellish charms.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And crumble all thy sinews.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> <span class='space5'>Why, prithee, Shepherd,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">How durst thou then thyself approach so near<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As to make this relation?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> <span class='space7'>Care and utmost shifts</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">How to secure the Lady from surprisal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled +<a name="line_620" id="line_620"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_620">620</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every virtuous plant and healing herb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which when I did, he on the tender grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in requital ope his leathern scrip,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And show me simples of a thousand names,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_26" id="Page_26" title="26"></a> +<span class="i0">Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But of divine effect, he culled me out. +<a name="line_630" id="line_630"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_630">630</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in another country, as he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet more med’cinal is it than that Moly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He called it Hæmony, and gave it me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bade me keep it as of sovran use<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, +<a name="line_640" id="line_640"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_640">640</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or ghastly Furies’ apparition.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I pursed it up, but little reckoning made,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till now that this extremity compelled.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now I find it true; for by this means<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet came off. If you have this about you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(As I will give you when we go) you may<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boldly assault the necromancer’s hall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood +<a name="line_650" id="line_650"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_650">650</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shed the luscious liquor on the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Elder Brother.</i> Thyrsis, lead on apace; I’ll follow thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some good angel bear a shield before us!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. <span class="smcap">Comus</span> +appears with his rabble, and the <span class="smcap">Lady</span> set in an enchanted chair: to whom +he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_27" id="Page_27" title="27"></a> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Nay, lady, sit. If I but wave this wand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, +<a name="line_660" id="line_660"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_660">660</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you a statue, or as Daphne was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Root-bound, that fled Apollo.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> <span class='space10'>Fool, do not boast.</span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all thy charms, although this corporal rind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> Why are you vexed, lady? why do you frown?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns +<a name="line_670" id="line_670"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_669">670</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first behold this cordial julep here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is of such power to stir up joy as this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should you be so cruel to yourself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent +<a name="line_680" id="line_680"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_680">680</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">For gentle usage and soft delicacy?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But you invert the covenants of her trust,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With that which you received on other terms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scorning the unexempt condition<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By which all mortal frailty must subsist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That have been tired all day without repast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This will restore all soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> <span class='space8'>’Twill not, false traitor!</span> +<a name="line_690" id="line_690"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_689">690</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Twill not restore the truth and honesty<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_28" id="Page_28" title="28"></a> +<span class="i0">Was this the cottage and the safe abode<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou told’st me of? What grim aspects are these,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With vizored falsehood and base forgery?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And would’st thou seek again to trap me here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? +<a name="line_700" id="line_700"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_700">700</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But such as are good men can give good things;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that which is not good is not delicious<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a well-governed and wise appetite.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> O foolishness of men! that lend their ears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth +<a name="line_710" id="line_710"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_709">710</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all to please and sate the curious taste?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set to work millions of spinning worms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To deck her sons; and, that no corner might<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To store her children with. If all the world +<a name="line_720" id="line_720"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_720">720</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not half his riches known, and yet despised;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we should serve him as a grudging master,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a penurious niggard of his wealth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And live like Nature’s bastards, not her sons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_29" id="Page_29" title="29"></a> +<span class="i0">And strangled with her waste fertility:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, +<a name="line_730" id="line_730"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_730">730</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The herds would over-multitude their lords;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea o’erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so bestud with stars, that they below<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would grow inured to light, and come at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">List, lady; be not coy, and be not cozened<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With that same vaunted name, Virginity.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beauty is Nature’s coin; must not be hoarded,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But must be current; and the good thereof +<a name="line_740" id="line_740"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_739">740</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you let slip time, like a neglected rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It withers on the stalk with languished head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beauty is Nature’s brag, and must be shown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where most may wonder at the workmanship.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is for homely features to keep home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They had their name thence: coarse complexions<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply +<a name="line_750" id="line_750"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_750">750</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sampler, and to tease the huswife’s wool.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What need of vermeil-tinctured lip for that,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was another meaning in these gifts;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Lady.</i> I had not thought to have unlocked my lips<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Obtruding false rules pranked in reason’s garb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hate when vice can bolt her arguments +<a name="line_760" id="line_760"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_760">760</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_30" id="Page_30" title="30"></a> +<span class="i0">As if she would her children should be riotous<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her abundance. She, good cateress,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Means her provision only to the good,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That live according to her sober laws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And holy dictate of spare Temperance.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If every just man that now pines with want<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had but a moderate and beseeming share<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury +<a name="line_770" id="line_770"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_770">770</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nature’s full blessings would be well dispensed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In unsuperfluous even proportions,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she no whit encumbered with her store;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then the Giver would be better thanked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne’er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But with besotted base ingratitude<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or have I said enow? To him that dares +<a name="line_780" id="line_780"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_780">780</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the sun-clad power of chastity<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fain would I something say;—yet to what end?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sublime notion and high mystery<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That must be uttered to unfold the sage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And serious doctrine of Virginity;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More happiness than this thy present lot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, +<a name="line_790" id="line_790"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_790">790</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, should I try, the uncontrollèd worth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To such a flame of sacred vehemence<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That dumb things would be moved to sympathise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all thy magic structures, reared so high,<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_31" id="Page_31" title="31"></a> +<span class="i0">Were shattered into heaps o’er thy false head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Comus.</i> She fables not. I feel that I do fear +<a name="line_800" id="line_800"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_800">800</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her words set off by some superior power;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dips me all o’er, as when the wrath of Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To some of Saturn’s crew. I must dissemble,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And try her yet more strongly.—Come, no more!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is mere moral babble, and direct<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Against the canon laws of our foundation.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I must not suffer this; yet ’tis but the lees<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And settlings of a melancholy blood. +<a name="line_810" id="line_810"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_809">810</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But this will cure all straight; one sip of this<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>The <span class="smcap">Brothers</span> rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his +hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, +but are all driven in. The <span class="smcap">Attendant Spirit</span> comes in.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Spirit.</i> What! have you let the false enchanter scape?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And backward mutters of dissevering power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We cannot free the Lady that sits here<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In stony fetters fixed and motionless.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, +<a name="line_820" id="line_820"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_820">820</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some other means I have which may be used,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which once of Melibœus old I learnt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soothest shepherd that e’er piped on plains.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That had the sceptre from his father Brute.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_32" id="Page_32" title="32"></a> +<span class="i0">Of her enragéd stepdame, Guendolen, +<a name="line_830" id="line_830"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_830">830</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Commended her fair innocence to the flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing her straight to aged Nereus’ hall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gave her to his daughters to imbathe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the porch and inlet of each sense<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, +<a name="line_840" id="line_840"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_840">840</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And underwent a quick immortal change,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For which the shepherds, at their festivals,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream +<a name="line_850" id="line_850"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_850">850</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, as the old swain said, she can unlock<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If she be right invoked in warbled song;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To aid a virgin, such as was herself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In hard-besetting need. This will I try,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And add the power of some adjuring verse.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>Song.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Sabrina fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Listen where thou art sitting +<a name="line_860" id="line_860"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_858">860</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In twisted braids of lilies knitting<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_33" id="Page_33" title="33"></a> +<span class="i2">Listen for dear honour’s sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Goddess of the silver lake,<br /></span> +<span class="i3">Listen and save!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Listen, and appear to us,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In name of great Oceanus.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By the earth-shaking Neptune’s mace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Tethys’ grave majestic pace; +<a name="line_870" id="line_870"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_870">870</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the Carpathian wizard’s hook;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By scaly Triton’s winding shell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By Leucothea’s lovely hands,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And her son that rules the strands;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And the songs of Sirens sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And fair Ligea’s golden comb, +<a name="line_880" id="line_880"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_878">880</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sleeking her soft alluring locks;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By all the Nymphs that nightly dance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Upon thy streams with wily glance;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From thy coral-paven bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And bridle in thy headlong wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till thou our summons answered have.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Listen and save!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'><span class="smcap">Sabrina</span> rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">By the rushy-fringéd bank, +<a name="line_890" id="line_890"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_890">890</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where grows the willow and the osier dank,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My sliding chariot stays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of turkis blue, and emerald green,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That in the channel strays;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whilst from off the waters fleet<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_34" id="Page_34" title="34"></a> +<span class="i1">Thus I set my printless feet<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O’er the cowslip’s velvet head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That bends not as I tread.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gentle swain, at thy request +<a name="line_900" id="line_900"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_897">900</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i3">I am here!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Spirit.</i> Goddess dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We implore thy powerful hand<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To undo the charméd band<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of true virgin here distressed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through the force and through the wile<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of unblessed enchanter vile.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Sabrina.</i> Shepherd, ’tis my office best<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To help ensnared chastity.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Brightest Lady, look on me. +<a name="line_910" id="line_910"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_902">910</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thus I sprinkle on thy breast<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Drops that from my fountain pure<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have kept of precious cure;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thrice upon thy rubied lip:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Next this marble venomed seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now the spell hath lost his hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And I must haste ere morning hour +<a name="line_920" id="line_920"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_917">920</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">To wait in Amphitrite’s bower.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'><span class="smcap">Sabrina</span> descends, and the <span class="smcap">Lady</span> rises out of her seat.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Spirit.</i> Virgin, daughter of Locrine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sprung of old Anchises’ line,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">May thy brimméd waves for this<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their full tribute never miss<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From a thousand petty rills,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That tumble down the snowy hills:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Summer drouth or singéd air<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Never scorch thy tresses fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor wet October’s torrent flood +<a name="line_930" id="line_930"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_928">930</a></span><br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_35" id="Page_35" title="35"></a> +<span class="i1">Thy molten crystal fill with mud;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">May thy billows roll ashore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The beryl and the golden ore;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">May thy lofty head be crowned<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With many a tower and terrace round,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And here and there thy banks upon<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let us fly this curséd place,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lest the sorcerer us entice +<a name="line_940" id="line_940"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_934">940</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">With some other new device.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not a waste or needless sound<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till we come to holier ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I shall be your faithful guide<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through this gloomy covert wide;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And not many furlongs thence<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is your Father’s residence,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where this night are met in state<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Many a friend to gratulate<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His wished presence, and beside +<a name="line_950" id="line_950"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_950">950</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">All the swains that there abide<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With jigs and rural dance resort.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">We shall catch them at their sport,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And our sudden coming there<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Will double all their mirth and cheer.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Come, let us haste; the stars grow high,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President’s Castle; +then come in Country Dancers; after them the <span class="smcap">Attendant Spirit</span>, with the +Two <span class="smcap">Brothers</span> and the <span class="smcap">Lady</span>.</p> + +<p class='stagedir'>Song.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Spirit.</i> Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till next sunshine holiday.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here be, without duck or nod, +<a name="line_960" id="line_960"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_960">960</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Other trippings to be trod<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_36" id="Page_36" title="36"></a> +<span class="i1">Of lighter toes, and such court guise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As Mercury did first devise<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the mincing Dryades<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On the lawns and on the leas.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Noble Lord and Lady bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I have brought ye new delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here behold so goodly grown<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Three fair branches of your own.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heaven hath timely tried their youth, +<a name="line_970" id="line_970"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_970">970</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their faith, their patience, and their truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sent them here through hard assays<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With a crown of deathless praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To triumph in victorious dance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O’er sensual folly and intemperance.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class='stagedir'>The dances ended, the <span class="smcap">Spirit</span> epiloguizes.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><i>Spirit.</i> To the ocean now I fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And those happy climes that lie<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where day never shuts his eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Up in the broad fields of the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There I suck the liquid air, +<a name="line_980" id="line_980"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_980">980</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">All amidst the gardens fair<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of Hesperus, and his daughters three<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That sing about the golden tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Along the crispéd shades and bowers<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Revels the spruce and jocund Spring;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thither all their bounties bring.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There eternal Summer dwells,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And west winds with musky wing<br /></span> +<span class="i1">About the cedarn alleys fling +<a name="line_990" id="line_990"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_990">990</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nard and cassia’s balmy smells.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Iris there with humid bow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Waters the odorous banks, that blow<br /></span> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_37" id="Page_37" title="37"></a> +<span class="i1">Flowers of more mingled hue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Than her purfled scarf can shew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And drenches with Elysian dew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(List, mortals, if your ears be true)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Beds of hyacinth and roses,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where young Adonis oft reposes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Waxing well of his deep wound, +<a name="line_1000" id="line_1000"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_1000">1000</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">In slumber soft, and on the ground<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But far above, in spangled sheen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced<br /></span> +<span class="i1">After her wandering labours long,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till free consent the gods among<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Make her his eternal bride,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And from her fair unspotted side<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Two blissful twins are to be born, +<a name="line_1010" id="line_1010"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_1010">1010</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But now my task is smoothly done,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I can fly, or I can run<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Quickly to the green earth’s end,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And from thence can soar as soon<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the corners of the moon.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mortals, that would follow me,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Love Virtue; she alone is free.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She can teach ye how to climb +<a name="line_1020" id="line_1020"></a><span class="linenum"> +<a href="#note_1020">1020</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Higher than the sphery chime;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or, if Virtue feeble were,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heaven itself would stoop to her.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<h2 class="biggap"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_38" id="Page_38" title="38"></a> +<a name="NOTES" id="NOTES"></a>NOTES.</h2> + + +<p><a name="note_d" id="note_d"></a><a href="#line_0"><b>discovers</b></a>, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of ‘discover’ is to find +out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix <i>dis-</i> has +often the more purely negative force of <i>un-</i>: hence discover = uncover, +reveal. Comp.—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">“Some high-climbing hill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which to his eye <i>discovers</i> unaware<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The goodly prospect of some foreign land.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 toright"><i>Par. Lost</i>, iii. 546.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_ASd" id="note_ASd"></a><a href="#line_0"><b>Attendant +Spirit descends</b></a>. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by +Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, +explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the +plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in +whose honour the masque is being given (lines <a +href="#line_30">30-36</a>). In the ancient classical drama the +prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, sometimes an address to +the audience, and sometimes introductory to the plot. The opening of +<i>Comus</i> prepares the audience and also directly addresses it +(line <a href="#line_40">43</a>). For the form of the epilogue in the +actual performance of the masque see <a href="#note_974">note</a>, l. +975-6.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1" id="note_1"></a> +<a href="#line_0">1.</a> <b>starry threshold</b>, etc. Comp. Virgil: +“The sire of gods and monarch of +men summons a council to the starry chamber” (<i>sideream in sedem</i>), +<i>Aen.</i> x. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="note_2" id="note_2"></a> +<a href="#line_0">2.</a> <b>mansion</b>, abode. Trench points out that +this word denotes strictly “a place of tarrying,” which +might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence ‘a +resting-place.’ Comp. <i>John</i>, xiv. 2, “In my +Father’s house are many <i>mansions</i>”; and <i>Il +Pens.</i> 93, “Her <i>mansion</i> in this fleshly nook.” +The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a +large and important dwelling-house. <b>where</b>, in which: the +antecedent is separated from the relative, a frequent construction in +Milton (comp. lines <a href="#line_60">66</a>, <a +href="#line_820">821</a>, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical +connection would generally be sufficiently indicated by the +inflection. <b>shapes ... spirits</b>. An instance of the manner in +which Milton endows spiritual beings with personality without making +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_39" id="Page_39" title="39"></a>them +too distinct. “Of all the poets who have introduced into their +works the agency of supernatural beings Milton has succeeded +best” (Macaulay). We see this in <i>Par. Lost</i> (<i>e.g.</i> +ii. 666). Compare the use of the word ‘shape’ (Lat. +<i>umbra</i>) in l. <a href="#line_820">207</a>: also +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 4, “horrid <i>shapes</i> and +shrieks”; and <i>Il Pens.</i> 6, “fancies fond with gaudy +<i>shapes</i> possess.” Milton’s use of the demonstrative +<b>those</b> in this line is noteworthy; comp. “<i>that</i> last +infirmity of noble mind,” <i>Lyc.</i> 71: it implies that the +reference is to something well known, and that further +particularisation is needless.</p> + +<p><a name="note_3" id="note_3"></a> +<a href="#line_0">3.</a> +<b>insphered</b>. ‘Sphere,’ with its derivatives +‘sphery,’ ‘insphere,’ and +‘unsphere’ (<i>Il Pens.</i> 88), is used by Milton with a +literal reference to the cosmical framework as a whole (see <i>Hymn +Nat.</i> 48) or to some portion of it. In Shakespeare +‘sphere’ occurs in the wider sense of ‘the path in +which anything moves,’ and it is to this metaphorical use of the +word that we owe such phrases as ‘a person’s sphere of +life,’ ‘sphere of action,’ etc. See also +<i>Comus</i>, 112-4, 241-3, 1021; <i>Arc.</i> 62-7; <i>Par. Lost</i>, +v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres.</p> + +<p><a name="note_4" id="note_4"></a><a href="#line_0">4.</a> +<b>mild</b>: an attributive of the whole clause, ‘regions of +calm and serene air.’ <b>calm and serene</b>. These are not mere +synonyms: the Lat. <i>serenus</i> = bright or unclouded, so that the +two epithets are to be respectively contrasted with +‘smoke’ and ‘stir’ (line <a +href="#line_0">5</a>); ‘calm’ being opposed to +‘stir’ and ‘serene’ to ‘smoke.’ +Compare Homer’s description of the seat of the gods: “Not +by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth the snow come +nigh thereto, but <i>most clear</i> air is spread about it +<i>cloudless</i>, and the white light floats over it,” +<i>Odyssey</i>, vi.: comp. <a href="#note_977">note</a>, l. 977.</p> + +<p><a name="note_5" id="note_5"></a><a href="#line_0">5.</a> +<b>this dim spot</b>. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those +immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted.</p> + +<p><a name="note_6" id="note_6"></a><a href="#line_0">6.</a> +There are here two attributive clauses: “which men call +Earth” and “(in which) men strive,” etc. +<b>low-thoughted care</b>; narrow-minded anxiety, care about earthly +things. Comp. the form of the adjective ‘low-browed,’ +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his +<i>Eloisa</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_7" id="note_7"></a><a href="#line_0">7.</a> +This line is attributive to ‘men.’ <b>pestered ... +pinfold</b>, crowded together in this cramped space, the Earth. +<i>Pester</i>, which has no connection with <i>pest</i>, is a +shortened form of <i>impester</i>, Fr. <i>empêtrer</i>, to +shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The radical sense +is that of clogging (comp. <i>Son.</i> xii. 1); hence of crowding; and +finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. ‘Pinfold’ +is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle are <i>pounded</i> or +shut up: etymologically, the word = <i>pind-fold</i>, a corruption of +<i>pound-fold</i>. Comp. <i>impound</i>, sheep-<i>fold</i>, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_8" id="note_8"></a><a href="#line_0">8.</a> +<b>frail and feverish</b>. Comp. “life’s fitful +fever” (<i>Macbeth</i>, iii. 2. +23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_40" id="Page_40" title="40"></a> +<a name="note_9" id="note_9"></a><a href="#line_0">9.</a> +<b>crown that Virtue gives</b>. This is Scriptural language: comp. +<i>Rev.</i> iv. 4; 2 <i>Tim.</i> iv. 8, “Henceforth there is +laid up for me the crown of righteousness.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_10" id="note_10"></a><a href="#line_10">10.</a> +<b>this mortal change</b>. In Milton’s <span +class="smcap">MS.</span> line 7 was followed by the words, +‘beyond the written date of mortal change,’ <i>i.e.</i> +beyond, or after, man’s appointed time to die. These words were +struck out, but we may suppose that the words ‘mortal +change’ in line <a href="#line_10">10</a> have a similar +meaning. Milton frequently uses ‘mortal’ in the sense of +‘liable to death,’ and hence ‘human’ as +opposed to ‘divine’: the mortal change is therefore +‘the change which occurs to all human beings.’ Comp. +<i>Job</i>, xiv. 14: “all the days of my appointed time will I +wait, till my <i>change</i> come”: see also line <a +href="#line_840">841</a>. Prof. Masson takes it to mean ‘this +mortal state of life,’ as distinguished from a future state of +immortality. The Spirit uses ‘this’ as in line <a +href="#line_0">8</a>, in contrast with ‘those,’ line <a +href="#line_0">2</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_11" id="note_11"></a><a href="#line_10">11.</a> +<b>enthroned gods</b>, etc. In allusion to <i>Rev.</i> iv. 4, +“And upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, +arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold.” +Milton frequently speaks of the inhabitants of heaven as +<i>enthroned</i>. The accent here falls on the first syllable of the +word.</p> + +<p><a name="note_12" id="note_12"></a><a href="#line_10">12.</a> +<b>Yet some there be</b>, etc.: ‘Although men are generally so +exclusively occupied with the cares of this life, there are +nevertheless a few who aspire,’ etc. <i>Be</i> is here purely +indicative. This usage is frequent in Elizabethan English, and still +survives in parts of England. Comp. <i>Lines on Univ. Carrier</i>, ii. +25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, “there be that say +’t”: also lines <a href="#line_510">519</a>, <a +href="#line_660">668</a>. It is employed to refer to a number of +persons or things, regarded as a class. <b>by due steps</b>, +<i>i.e.</i> by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. +‘<i>due</i> feet,’ <i>Il Pens.</i> 155. <i>Due</i>, +<i>duty</i>, and <i>debt</i> are all from Lat. <i>debitus</i>, +owed.</p> + +<p><a name="note_13" id="note_13"></a><a href="#line_10">13.</a> +<b>their just hands</b>. ‘Just’ belongs to the predicate: +‘to lay their just hands’ = to lay their hands with +justice. <b>golden key</b>. Comp. <i>Matt.</i> xvi. 19, “I will +give unto thee the <i>keys</i> of the kingdom of heaven”; also +<i>Lyc.</i> 111:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Two massy keys he bore of metals twain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(The <i>golden</i> opes, the iron shuts amain).”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_15" id="note_15"></a><a href="#line_10">15.</a> +<b>errand</b>: comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, iii. 652, “One of the +seven Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready +at command, and are his eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down +to the Earth Bear his swift <i>errands</i>”: also vii. 579. +<b>but for such</b>, <i>i.e.</i> unless it were for such.</p> + +<p><a name="note_16" id="note_16"></a><a href="#line_10">16.</a> +‘I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the +noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.’ <b>ambrosial</b>, +heavenly; also used by Milton in the sense of ‘conferring +immortality’: comp. l. <a href="#line_840">840</a>; <i>Par. +Lost</i>, ii. 245; iv. 219, “blooming +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_41" id="Page_41" title="41"></a> +<i>ambrosial</i> fruit.” ‘Ambrosial,’ like +‘amaranthus’ (<i>Lyc.</i> 149), is cognate with the +Sanskrit <i>amríta</i>, undying; and is applied by Homer to the +hair of the gods: similarly in Tennyson’s <i>Oenone</i>, 174: +see also <i>In Memoriam</i>, lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (<i>Neptune’s +Triumph</i>) has ‘ambrosian hands,’ <i>i.e.</i> hands fit +for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. <b>weeds</b>: now used +chiefly in the phrase “widow’s weeds,” <i>i.e.</i> +mourning garment. Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense +of garment or covering: in the lines <i>On the Death of a Fair +Infant</i>, it is applied to the human body itself; comp. also <i>M. +N. D.</i> ii. 1. 255, “<i>Weed</i> wide enough to wrap a fairy +in.” See also <i>Comus</i>, <a href="#line_180">189</a>, <a +href="#line_390">390</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_18" id="note_18"></a><a href="#line_10">18.</a> +<b>But to my task</b>, <i>i.e.</i> but I must proceed to my task: see +l. <a href="#line_1010">1012</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_19" id="note_19"></a><a href="#line_10">19.</a> +<b>every ... each</b>. It is usual to write <i>every ... every</i>, or +<i>each ... each</i>, but Milton occasionally uses ‘every’ +and ‘each’ together: comp. l. <a href="#line_310">311</a> +and <i>Lyc.</i> 93, “<i>every</i> gust ... off <i>each</i> +beaked promontory.” <i>Every</i> denotes each without exception, +and can now only be used with reference to more than two objects; +<i>each</i> may refer to two or more.</p> + +<p><a name="note_20" id="note_20"></a><a href="#line_20">20.</a> +<b>by lot</b>, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of +the universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter +(‘high’ Jove), Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto +(‘nether’ or Stygian Jove). In <i>Iliad</i> xv. Neptune +(Poseidon) says: “For three brethren are we, and sons of Kronos, +whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things divided, and each +drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my +habitation for ever, when we shook the lots.” <b>nether</b>, +lower: comp. the phrase ‘the upper and the nether lip,’ +and the name Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by +Milton ‘the nether empire’ (<i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 295). +The form <i>nethermost</i> (<i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 955) is, like +<i>aftermost</i> and <i>foremost</i>, a double superlative.</p> + +<p><a name="note_21" id="note_21"></a><a href="#line_20">21.</a> + +<b>sea-girt isles</b>. Ben Jonson calls Britain a ‘sea-girt +isle’: comp. l. <a href="#line_20">27</a>. <i>Isle</i> is the +M.E. <i>ile</i>, in which form the <i>s</i> has been dropped: it is +from O.F. <i>isle</i>, Lat. <i>insula</i>. It is therefore distinct +from <i>island</i>, where an <i>s</i> has, by confusion, been +inserted. Island = M.E. <i>iland</i>, A.S. <i>igland</i> (<i>ig</i> = +island: <i>land</i> = land). In line <a href="#line_50">50</a> Milton +wrote ‘iland.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_22" id="note_22"></a><a href="#line_20">22.</a> +<b>like to rich and various gems</b>, etc. Shakespeare describes +England as a ‘precious stone set in the silver sea,’ +<i>Richard II.</i> ii. 1. 46: he also speaks of Heaven as being +<i>inlayed</i> with stars, <i>Cym.</i> v. 5. 352; <i>M. of V.</i> v. +1. 59, “Look how the floor of heaven Is thick <i>inlaid</i> with +patines of bright gold.” Compare also <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 700, +where Milton refers to the ground as having a rich <i>inlay</i> of +flowers. But for its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or +unadorned. <b>like</b>: here followed by the preposition <i>to</i>, +and having its proper force as an adjective: comp. +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_42" id="Page_42" title="42"></a> +<i>Il Pens.</i> 9. Whether <i>like</i> is used as an adjective or an +adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. <a +href="#line_50">57</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_24" id="note_24"></a><a href="#line_20">24.</a> +<b>to grace</b>, <i>i.e.</i> to show favour to: a clause of purpose.</p> + +<p><a name="note_25" id="note_25"></a><a href="#line_20">25.</a> +<b>By course commits</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> “In regular +distribution he commits to each his distinct government.” +<b>several</b>: separate or distinct. Radically <i>several</i> is from +the verb <i>sever</i>: it is now used only with plural nouns.</p> + +<p><a name="note_26" id="note_26"></a><a href="#line_20">26.</a> +<b>sapphire</b>. This colour is again associated with the sea in line +<a href="#line_20">29</a>: see <a href="#note_29">note</a> there.</p> + +<p><a name="note_27" id="note_27"></a><a href="#line_20">27.</a> +<b>little tridents</b>, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, +“with his trident touched the stars” (<i>Neptune’s +Triumph, Proteus’ Song</i>, Ben Jonson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_28" id="note_28"></a><a href="#line_20">28.</a> +<b>greatest and the best</b>. Comp. Shakespeare’s eulogy in +<i>Rich. II.</i> ii. 1: also Ben Jonson’s “Albion, Prince +of all his Isles,” <i>Neptune’s Triumph, Apollo’s +Song</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_29" id="note_29"></a><a href="#line_20">29.</a> +<b>quarters</b>, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, <i>Georg. I.</i> +208:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Sailors <i>quarter’d</i> Heaven, and found a name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For every fixt and ev’ry wandering star.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into +<i>four</i> parts: “at that time the island was actually divided +into four separate governments: for besides those at London and +Edinburgh, there were Lords President of the North and of +Wales.” (Keightley). <b>blue-haired deities</b>. These must be +distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little tridents (line +<a href="#line_20">27</a>), otherwise the thought would ill accord +with the complimentary nature of lines <a href="#line_30">30-36</a>. +Regarding the epithet ‘blue-haired’ Masson asks: +“Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, +inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with +Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his +subordinates”: in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long +green hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities <i>caerulei +dii</i>, and Neptune <i>caeruleus deus</i>, thus associating blue with +the sea.</p> + +<p><a name="note_30" id="note_30"></a><a href="#line_30">30.</a> +‘And all this region that looks towards the West (<i>i.e.</i> Wales) is +entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.’ The peer +referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was +entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the +four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and +Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the +fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of “his Majestie’s +Counsellors,” he had continued to serve in various important public and +private offices. On his monument there is the following: “He was a +profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a +dutiful Son +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_43" id="Page_43" title="43"></a> +to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as well as in +her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in those worst +of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. As he +lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of patience +and piety.” <b>falling sun</b>: Lat. <i>sol occidens</i>. Orient +and occident (lit. ‘rising’ and ‘falling’) are +frequently used to denote the East and the West.</p> + +<p><a name="note_31" id="note_31"></a><a href="#line_30">31.</a> +<b>mickle</b> (A.S. <i>micel</i>) great. From this word comes +<i>much</i>. ‘Mickle’ and ‘muckle’ are current +in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. <i>Rom. and Jul.</i> ii. 3. +15, “O, <i>mickle</i> is the powerful grace that lies In +herbs,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_33" id="note_33"></a><a href="#line_30">33.</a> +<b>An old and haughty nation</b>. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people +who probably first entered Britain about <span +class="smcap">B.C.</span> 500: they are therefore rightly spoken of as +an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson’s piece <i>For the Honour of +Wales</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I is not come here to taulk of Brut,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whence the Welse does take his root,” etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That they were haughty and ‘proud in arms’ the Romans +found, and after them the Saxons: the latter never really held more +than the counties of Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. +attempts were made by that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, +but the answer of the Barons was: “We dare not submit to Edward, +nor will we suffer our prince to do so, nor do homage to strangers, +whose tongue, ways and laws we know not of: we have only raised war in +defence of our lands, laws and rights.” By a statute of Henry +VIII. this ‘haughty’ people were put in possession of the +same rights and liberties as the English. <b>proud in arms</b>: this +is Virgil’s <i>belloque superbum</i>, <i>Aen.</i> i. 21 +(Warton).</p> + +<p><a name="note_34" id="note_34"></a><a href="#line_30">34.</a> +<b>nursed in princely lore</b>, brought up in a manner worthy of their high +position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth +distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to +their connection with the court. <i>Lore</i> is cognate with <i>learn</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_35" id="note_35"></a><a href="#line_30">35.</a> +<b>their father’s state</b>. This probably refers to the actual +ceremonies connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord +President. The old sense of ‘state’ is ‘chair of +state’: comp. <i>Arc.</i> 81, and Jonson’s +<i>Hymenaei</i>, “And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering +<i>state and chair</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_36" id="note_36"></a><a href="#line_30">36.</a> +<b>new-intrusted</b>, an adjective compounded of a participle and a +simple adverb, <i>new</i> being = newly; comp. +‘smooth-dittied,’ l. <a href="#line_80">86</a>. Contrast +the form of the epithet “blue-haired,” where the compound +adjective is formed as if from a noun, “blue-hair”: comp. +“rushy-fringed,” l. <a href="#line_890">890</a>. Strictly +speaking, the Earl’s power was not ‘new-intrusted,’ +though it was newly assumed. See Introduction.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_44" id="Page_44" title="44"></a> +<a name="note_37" id="note_37"></a><a href="#line_30">37.</a> +<b>perplexed</b>, interwoven, entangled (Lat. <i>plecto</i>, to plait or +twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to +inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable.</p> + +<p><a name="note_38" id="note_38"></a><a href="#line_30">38.</a> +<b>horror</b>. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but +also to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. +<i>horrere</i>, to bristle, and may be rendered +‘shagginess’ or ‘ruggedness,’ just as +<i>horrid</i>, l. <a href="#line_420">429</a>, means bristling or +rugged. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 563, “a <i>horrid</i> front +Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms.” <b>shady brows</b>: this +may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the brow +overhangs the eyes.</p> + +<p><a name="note_39" id="note_39"></a><a href="#line_30">39.</a> +<b>Threats</b>: not current as a verb. <b>forlorn</b>, now used only +as an adjective, is the past participle of the old verb +<i>forleosen</i>, to lose utterly: the prefix <i>for</i> has an +intensive force, as in <i>forswear</i>; but in the latter word the +sense of <i>from</i> is more fully preserved in the prefix. See <a +href="#note_234">note</a>, l. 234.</p> + +<p><a name="note_40" id="note_40"></a><a href="#line_40">40.</a> +<b>tender age</b>. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the +two brothers were younger than she.</p> + +<p><a name="note_41" id="note_41"></a><a href="#line_40">41.</a> +<b>But that</b>, etc. Grammatically, <i>but</i> may be regarded as a +subordinative conjunction = ‘unless (it had happened) that I was +despatched’: or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, +we may regard it as governing the substantive clause, ‘that ... +guard.’ <b>quick command</b>: the adjective has the force of an +adverb, quick commands being commands that are to be carried quickly. +<b>sovran</b>, supreme. This is Milton’s spelling of the modern +word <i>sovereign</i>, in which the <i>g</i> is due to the mistaken +notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate with +<i>reign</i>. The word is from Lat. <i>superanum</i> = chief: comp. l. +<a href="#line_630">639</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_43" id="note_43"></a><a href="#line_40">43.</a> +<b>And listen why</b>; <i>sc.</i> ‘I was despatched.’ The +language of lines <a href="#line_40">43, 44</a> is suggested by +Horace’s <i>Odes</i>, iii. 1, 2: “Favete linguis; carmina +non prius Audita ... canto.” The poet implies that the plot of +his mask is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient +or modern song or tale that was ever recited either in the +‘hall’ (= banqueting-hall) or in the ‘bower’ +(= private chamber). Or ‘hall’ and ‘bower’ may +denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his lady.</p> + +<p><a name="note_46" id="note_46"></a><a href="#line_40">46.</a> +Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. <i>L’Allegro</i> and <i>Il +Penseroso</i>), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is +designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and +Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring +from parents representing the pleasure of man’s lower nature and the +misuse of man’s higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These +parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, +mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see <i>L’Allegro</i>); +but, mated +with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_45" id="Page_45" title="45"></a> +whose gay exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously +seductive and magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to +Comus as represented in Ben Jonson’s <i>Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue</i>, in which mask “Comus” and “The +Belly” are throughout synonymous. In the <i>Agamemnon</i> of +Aeschylus, Comus is a “drinker of human blood”; in +Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is +“the clerk of gluttony’s kitchen”; in Massinger he +is “the god of pleasure”; and in the work of Erycius +Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the genius of love and +cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, “Milton’s <i>Comus</i> is +a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted +intrinsically to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his +masque at Ludlow Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no +less, to the classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain.” +<b>Bacchus</b>, the god who taught men the preparation of wine. He is +the Greek Dionysus, who, on one of his voyages, hired a vessel +belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: these men resolved to sell him +as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the mast and oars of the ship into +serpents and the sailors into dolphins. The meeting of Bacchus with +Circe is Milton’s own invention; in the <i>Odyssey</i> it is +Ulysses who lights upon her island: “And we came to the isle +Ææan, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful +goddess of mortal speech, own sister to the wizard Æetes,” +<i>Odys.</i> x. <b>from out</b>, etc. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, v. 345. +‘From out’ has the same force as the more common +‘out from.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_47" id="note_47"></a><a href="#line_40">47.</a> +<b>misusèd</b>, abused. The prefix <i>mis-</i> was very +generally used by Milton; <i>e.g.</i> <i>mislike</i>, <i>misdeem</i>, +<i>miscreated</i>, <i>misthought</i> (all obsolete).</p> + +<p><a name="note_48" id="note_48"></a><a href="#line_40">48.</a> +<b>After the Tuscan mariners transformed</b>, <i>i.e.</i> after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, <i>Met.</i> iii.). +They are called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named +Etruria or Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This +grammatical construction is common in Latin; a passive participle +combined with a substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract +noun connected with another noun by the preposition <i>of</i>, and +used to denote a fact in the past; <i>e.g.</i> “since created +man” (<i>P. L.</i> i. 573) = since the creation of man: +“this loss recovered” (<i>P. L.</i> ii. 21) = the recovery +of this loss.</p> + +<p><a name="note_49" id="note_49"></a><a href="#line_40">49.</a> +<b>as the winds listed</b>; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. +<i>John</i>, iii. 8, “the wind bloweth where it +<i>listeth</i>”; <i>Lyc.</i> 123. The verb <i>list</i> is, in +older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer we find +‘if thee lust’ or ‘if thee list’ = if it +please thee. The word survives in the adjective <i>listless</i> of +which the older form was <i>lustless</i>: the noun <i>lust</i> has +lost its original and wider sense (which it still has in German), and +now signifies ‘longing desire.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_50" id="note_50"></a><a href="#line_50">50.</a> +<b>On Circe’s island fell</b>. Circe’s island = Aeaea, off +the coast of Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_46" id="Page_46" title="46"></a> +ocean-nymph Perse. On ‘island,’ see <a +href="#note_21">note</a>, l. 21; and with this use of the verb +<i>fall</i> comp. the Latin <i>incidere in</i>. The sudden +introduction of the interrogative clause in this line is an example of +the figure of speech called anadiplosis.</p> + +<p><a name="note_51" id="note_51"></a><a href="#line_50">51.</a> +<b>charmèd cup</b>, <i>i.e.</i> liquor that has been +<i>charmed</i> or rendered magical. <i>Charms</i> are incantations or +magic verses (Lat. <i>carmina</i>): comp. lines <a +href="#line_520">526</a> and <a href="#line_810">817</a>. +Grammatically, ‘cup’ is the object of +‘tasted.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_52" id="note_52"></a><a href="#line_50">52.</a> +<b>Whoever tasted lost</b>, <i>i.e.</i> who tasted (he) lost. In this +construction <i>whoever</i> must precede both verbs; Shakespeare +frequently uses <i>who</i> in this sense, and Milton occasionally: +comp. <i>Son.</i> xii. 12, “<i>who</i> loves that must first be +wise and good.” See Abbott, § 251. <b>lost his upright +shape</b>. In <i>Odyssey</i> x. we read: “So Circe led them +(followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and +made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with +Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them +utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup +and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and +in the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and +voice, the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even +as of old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them +acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing +swine do always batten.” (<i>Butcher and Lang’s +translation.</i>)</p> + +<p><a name="note_54" id="note_54"></a><a href="#line_50">54.</a> +<b>clustering locks</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_600">608</a>. Milton +here pictures the Theban Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his +head crowned with a wreath of vine and ivy: both of these plants were +sacred to the god. Comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 16, “ivy-crowned +Bacchus”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 303; <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 569.</p> + +<p><a name="note_55" id="note_55"></a><a href="#line_50">55.</a> +<b>his blithe youth</b>, <i>i.e.</i> his fresh young figure.</p> + +<p><a name="note_57" id="note_57"></a><a href="#line_50">57.</a> +‘A son much like his father, but more like his mother.’ This may +indicate that it is upon Comus’s character as a sorcerer rather than as +a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. <i>Masque of Hymen</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Much of the father’s face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More of the mother’s grace.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_58" id="note_58"></a><a href="#line_50">58.</a> +<b>Comus</b>: see <a href="#note_46">note</a>, l. 46. The Greek word +<span class="translit" title="kmos">κῶμος</span> +denoted a +revel or merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of +riotous mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word <i>comedy</i>. In +classical mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this +enabled Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new +characteristics.</p> + +<p><a name="note_59" id="note_59"></a><a href="#line_50">59.</a> +<b>frolic</b>: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; +comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 18, “frolic wind”; +Tennyson’s <i>Ulysses</i>, +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_47" id="Page_47" title="47"></a> +“a frolic welcome.” It is now chiefly used as a noun or a +verb, and a new adjective, <i>frolicsome</i>, has taken its place; +from this, again, comes the noun <i>frolicsomeness</i>. <i>Frolic</i> +is from the Dutch, and cognate with German <i>fröhlich</i>, so +that <i>lic</i> in ‘frolic’ corresponds to <i>ly</i> in +such words as cleanly, godly, etc. <b>of</b>: this use of the +preposition may be compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as +<i>æger animi</i> = sick of soul; of = ‘because of’ +or ‘in respect of.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_60" id="note_60"></a><a href="#line_60">60.</a> +<b>Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields</b>, <i>i.e.</i> roving +through Gaul and Spain. ‘Rove’ here governs an accusative: +comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 173, “walked the waves”; <i>Par. +Lost</i>, i. 521, “roamed the utmost Isles.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_61" id="note_61"></a><a href="#line_60">61.</a> +<b>betakes him</b>. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in +Elizabethan English, and still more often in Early English, this use +of the simple pronouns is common (see Abbott, § 223). Compare l. +<a href="#line_160">163</a>. <b>ominous</b>; literally = full of omens +or portents: comp. ‘monstrous’ = full of monsters +(<i>Lyc.</i> 158); also l. <a href="#line_70">79</a>. +‘Ominous’ has now acquired the sense of +‘ill-omened’; compare the acquired sense of +‘hapless,’ ‘unfortunate,’ etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_65" id="note_65"></a><a href="#line_60">65.</a> +<b>orient</b>, bright. The Lat. <i>oriens</i> = rising; hence (from +being applied to the sun) = eastern (l. <a href="#line_30">30</a>); +and hence generally ‘bright’ or ‘shining’: +comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 546, “With <i>orient</i> colours +waving.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_66" id="note_66"></a><a href="#line_60">66.</a> +<b>drouth of Phoebus</b>, <i>i.e.</i> thirst caused by the heat of the +sun. Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. <a +href="#line_920">928</a>, where ‘drouth’ = want of rain; +the more usual spelling is <i>drought</i>. <b>which</b>: see <a +href="#note_2">note</a>, l. 2. ‘Which’ is here object of +‘taste,’ and refers to ‘liquor.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_67" id="note_67"></a><a href="#line_60">67.</a> +<b>fond</b>, foolish (its primary sense). <i>Fonned</i> was the +participle of an old verb <i>fonnen</i>, to be foolish. The word is +now used to express great liking or affection: the idea of folly being +almost entirely lost. Chaucer has <i>fonne</i>, a fool: comp. <i>Il +Pens.</i> 6, “fancies <i>fond</i>”; <i>Lyc.</i> 56, +“I <i>fondly</i> dream”; <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 1682, +“So <i>fond</i> are mortal men.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_68" id="note_68"></a><a href="#line_60">68.</a> +<b>Soon as</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> as soon as the magical draught +produces its effect. In line <a href="#line_60">66</a> <i>as</i> is +temporal. <b>potion</b>. Radically, potion = a drink, but it is +generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous draught. +<i>Poison</i> is the same word through the French.</p> + +<p><a name="note_69" id="note_69"></a><a href="#line_60">69.</a> +<b>Express resemblance of the gods</b>. Comp. Shakespeare: “What +a piece of work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in +apprehension, how like a god!” See also <i>Par. Lost</i>, iii. +44, “human face divine.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_71" id="note_71"></a><a href="#line_70">71.</a> +<b>ounce</b>. This is the <i>Felis uncia</i>, allied to the panther and the +cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian <i>yúz</i>, panther.</p> + +<p><a name="note_72" id="note_72"></a><a href="#line_70">72.</a> +<b>All other parts</b>, etc. In the <i>Odyssey</i> (see <a +href="#note_52">note</a> on l. 52) the <a class="pagebreak" +name="Page_48" id="Page_48" title="48"></a>bodies of those transformed +by Circe were entirely changed; here only the head. As one editor +observes, this suited the convenience of the performers who were to +appear on the stage in masks (see <i>Stage direction</i>, l. <a +href="#line_90">92-3</a>). Grammatically, line <a +href="#line_70">72</a> is an example of the absolute construction, +common in Latin. The noun (‘parts’) is neither the subject +nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some attributive +adjunct—generally a participle +(‘remaining’)—to serve the purpose of an adverb or +adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is usually said to be the +nominative absolute; but, in the case of pronouns, Milton uses the +nominative and the objective indifferently. In Old English the dative +was used.</p> + +<p><a name="note_73" id="note_73"></a><a href="#line_70">73.</a> +<b>perfect</b>, complete (Lat. <i>perfectus</i>, done thoroughly).</p> + +<p><a name="note_74" id="note_74"></a><a href="#line_70">74.</a> +<b>Not once perceive</b>, etc. This was not the case with the followers of +Ulysses: see <a href="#note_52">note</a>, l. 52.</p> + +<p><a name="note_76" id="note_76"></a><a href="#line_70">76.</a> +<b>friends and native home forgot</b>. Circe’s cup has here the +effect ascribed to the lotus in <i>Odyssey</i> ix. “Now +whosoever of them did eat the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no +more wish to bring tidings nor to come back, but there he chose to +abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on the lotus and +forgetful of his homeward way.” In Tennyson’s +<i>Lotos-Eaters</i> there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: +“Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and +slave.” Masson also refers to Plato’s ethical application +of the story (<i>Rep.</i> viii.); “Plato speaks of the moral +lotophagus, or youth steeped in sensuality, as accounting his very +viciousness a developed manhood, and the so-called virtues but signs +of rusticity.” Compare also Spenser, <i>F. Q.</i> ii. 12. 86, +“One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been late, ... +did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to +natural.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_77" id="note_77"></a><a href="#line_70">77.</a> +<b>sensual sty</b>: see <a href="#note_52">note</a> on l. 52. To those +who, “with low-thoughted care,” are “unmindful of +the crown that Virtue gives,” the world becomes little better +than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to <i>forget</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_78" id="note_78"></a><a href="#line_70">78.</a> +<b>favoured</b>: compare Lat. <i>gratus</i> = favoured (adj.).</p> + +<p><a name="note_79" id="note_79"></a><a href="#line_70">79.</a> +<b>adventurous</b>, full of risks. The current sense of +‘adventurous,’ applied only to persons, is +“enterprising.” See l. <a href="#line_60">61</a>, <a +href="#line_600">609</a>. <b>glade</b>: strictly, an open space in a +wood, and hence applied (as here) to the wood itself. It is cognate +with <i>glow</i> and <i>glitter</i>, and its fundamental sense is +‘a passage for light’ (Skeat).</p> + +<p><a name="note_80" id="note_80"></a><a href="#line_80">80.</a> +<b>glancing star</b>, a shooting star. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 556:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">“Swift as a shooting star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In autumn thwarts the night.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_49" id="Page_49" title="49"></a> +<a name="note_81" id="note_81"></a><a href="#line_80">81.</a> +<b>convoy</b>: comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, vi. 752, “<i>convoyed</i> +By four cherubic shapes.” It is another form of <i>convey</i> +(Lat. <i>con</i> = together, <i>via</i> = a way).</p> + +<p><a name="note_83" id="note_83"></a><a href="#line_80">83.</a> +<b>sky-robes</b>: the “ambrosial weeds” of line <a +href="#line_10">16</a>. <b>Iris’ woof</b>, material dyed in +rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the +rainbow: comp. l. <a href="#line_990">992</a> and <i>Par. Lost</i>, +xi. 244, “Iris had dipped the woof.” Etymologically, +<i>woof</i> is connected with <i>web</i> and <i>weave</i>: it is short +for <i>on-wef</i> = on-web, <i>i.e.</i> the cross threads laid on the +warp of a loom.</p> + +<p><a name="note_84" id="note_84"></a><a href="#line_80">84.</a> +<b>weeds</b>: see <a href="#note_16">note</a>, l. 16.</p> + +<p><a name="note_86" id="note_86"></a><a href="#line_80">86.</a> +<b>That to the service</b>, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, +first in “sky-robes,” then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of +<i>Comus</i> by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he +alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater +family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to +compliment the Earl (see Introduction).</p> + +<p><a name="note_86a" id="note_86a"></a><a href="#line_80">86.</a> +<b>smooth-dittied</b>: sweetly-worded. ‘Ditty’ (Lat. +<i>dictatum</i>) strictly denotes the words of a song as distinct from +the musical accompaniment; it is now applied to any little piece +intended to be sung: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 32. For a similar panegyric on +Lawes’ musical genius compare <i>Son.</i> xiii. The musical +alliteration in lines <a href="#line_80">86-88</a> should be +noted.</p> + +<p><a name="note_87" id="note_87"></a><a href="#line_80">87.</a> +<b>knows to still</b>, etc.: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 10, “he knew +Himself to sing.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_88" id="note_88"></a><a href="#line_80">88.</a> +<b>nor of less faith</b>, etc.; <i>i.e.</i> he is not less faithful than he is +skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most +likely to be at hand should any emergency arise.</p> + +<p><a name="note_92" id="note_92"></a><a href="#line_90">92.</a> +<b>viewless</b>, invisible: comp. <i>The Passion</i>, 50, +“<i>viewless</i> wing”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, iii. 518. Masson +calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian word: see <i>M. for M.</i> iii. +1. 124, “To be imprisoned in the viewless winds.” The word +is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the formation of +adjectives in <i>-less</i>: comp. Shelley’s <i>Sensitive +Plant</i>, ‘windless clouds.’ See <a +href="#note_574">note</a>, l. 574. <b>charming-rod</b>: see <a +href="#note_52">note</a>, l. 52: also l. <a href="#line_650">653</a>. +<b>rout</b>, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of +‘defeat,’ and is cognate with <i>route</i>, <i>rote</i>, +and <i>rut</i>. All come from Lat. <i>ruptus</i>, broken: a +‘rout’ is the breaking up of a crowd, or a crowd broken +up; a ‘route’ is a way broken through a forest; +‘rote’ is a beaten track; and a ‘rut’ is a +track left by a wheel. See <i>Lyc.</i> 61, “by the <i>rout</i> +that made the hideous roar.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_93" id="note_93"></a><a href="#line_90">93.</a> +<b>star ... fold</b>, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of +the planet Venus: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 30. As the morning star (called by +Shakespeare the ‘unfolding star’), it is called Phosphorus +or Lucifer, the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson’s allusion:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_50" id="Page_50" title="50"></a> +<span class="i0">“Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet <i>Hesper-Phosphor</i>, double name.”—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 toright"><i>In Memoriam</i>, cxxi.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Lines <a name="note_93-144" id="note_93-144"></a> +<a href="#line_90">93-144</a> are in rhymed couplets, and consist for +the most part of eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is +iambic.</p> + +<p><a name="note_94" id="note_94"></a><a href="#line_90">94.</a> +<b>top of heaven</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> is far above the horizon. So +in <i>Lyc.</i> 31, it is said to slope “toward heaven’s +<i>descent</i>,” <i>i.e.</i> to sink towards the horizon. Comp. +Virgil, <i>Aen.</i> ii. 250, “Round rolls the sky, and on comes +Night from the ocean.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_95" id="note_95"></a><a href="#line_90">95.</a> +<b>gilded car</b>: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden +chariot. Comp. Chaucer, <i>Test. of Creseide</i>, 208, +“Phoebus’ golden cart”; and “Phoebus’ +wain,” line <a href="#line_190">190</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_96" id="note_96"></a><a href="#line_90">96.</a> +<b>his glowing axle doth allay</b>. In the <i>Hymn of the Nativity</i> +Milton alludes to the “burning axle-tree” of the sun: +comp. <i>Aen.</i> iv. 482, “Atlas <i>Axem</i> umero +torquet.” There is here an allusion to the opinion of the +ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was +accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). +‘Allay’ would thus denote ‘quench’ or +‘cool.’ <i>His</i>, in this line, = <i>its</i>. <i>Its</i> +occurs only three times in Milton’s poems, <i>Od. Nat.</i> 106; +<i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 254; <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 813: the word is found +also in Lawes’ dedication of <i>Comus</i>. The word does not +occur in English at all until the end of the sixteenth century, the +possessive case of the neuter pronoun <i>it</i> and of the masculine +<i>he</i> being <i>his</i>. This gave rise to confusion when the old +gender system decayed, and the form <i>its</i> gradually came into +use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, it was in general +use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its place in his +involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and other +connectives, or by <i>his</i>, <i>her</i>, <i>thereof</i>, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_97" id="note_97"></a><a href="#line_90">97.</a> +<b>steep Atlantic stream</b>. To the ancients the Ocean was the great +<i>stream</i> that encompassed the earth: <i>Iliad</i>, xiv., +“the deep-flowing Okeanos +(<span class="translit" +title="bathyrroos">βαθύρροος</span>).” +With this use of ‘steep’ compare the +phrase ‘the high seas.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_98" id="note_98"></a><a href="#line_90">98.</a> +<b>slope sun</b>, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays +visible shoot up into the sky. <i>Slope</i> = sloped; also used by +Milton as an adverb = aslope (<i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 591), and as a +verb (<i>Lyc.</i> 31).</p> + +<p><a name="note_99" id="note_99"></a><a href="#line_90">99.</a> +<b>dusky</b>. Milton first wrote ‘northern.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_100" id="note_100"></a><a href="#line_100">100.</a> +<b>Pacing toward the other goal</b>, etc. Comp. <i>Psalm</i> xix. 5: +“The sun as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and +rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_102" id="note_102"></a><a href="#line_100">102.</a> +The spirit of lines <a href="#line_100">102-144</a> may be contrasted +with that of <i>L’Allegro</i>, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon +Mirth and Pleasure, and both are therefore suitably expressed in the +same tripping +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_51" id="Page_51" title="51"></a> +measure and with many similarities of language. But the +pleasures of <i>L’Allegro</i> begin with the sun-rise and yet +are “unreproved”; those of <i>Comus</i> and his crew begin +with the darkness and are “unreproved” only if +“these dun shades will ne’er report” them. The +“light fantastic toe” of the one is not the “tipsy +dance” of the other; and the laughter and liberty that betoken +the absence of “wrinkled Care” have nothing in common with +the “midnight shout and revelry” that can be enjoyed only +when Rigour, Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have “gone to +bed.” The “quips and cranks” of +<i>L’Allegro</i> have given way to the magic rites of +<i>Comus</i>, and the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face +of innocent Mirth are ill replaced by the wine-dropping “rosy +twine” of revelry.</p> + +<p><a name="note_104" id="note_104"></a><a href="#line_100">104.</a> +<b>jollity</b>: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In +Milton occasionally the adjective ‘jolly’ (Fr. +<i>joli</i>, pretty) has its primary sense of pleasing or festive.</p> + +<p><a name="note_105" id="note_105"></a><a href="#line_100">105.</a> +<b>Braid your locks with rosy twine</b>; ‘entwine your hair with wreaths +of roses.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_106" id="note_106"></a><a href="#line_100">106.</a> +<b>dropping odours</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_860">862-3</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_108" id="note_108"></a><a href="#line_100">108.</a> +<b>Advice ... scrupulous head</b>. ‘Advice,’ now used +chiefly to signify counsel given by another, was formerly used also of +self-counsel or deliberation. See Chaucer, <i>Prologue</i>, 786, +“granted him without more <i>advice</i>”; and comp. +Shakespeare, <i>M. of V.</i> iv. 2. 6, “Bassanio upon more +<i>advice</i>, Hath sent you here this ring”; also <i>Par. +Lost</i>, ii. 376, “<i>Advise</i>, if this be worth +Attempting,” where ‘advise’ = consider. See also l. +755, <a href="#note_755">note</a>. <i>Scrupulous</i> = full of +scruples, conscientious.</p> + +<p><a name="note_110" id="note_110"></a><a href="#line_110">110.</a> +<b>saws</b>, sayings, maxims. <i>Saw</i>, <i>say</i>, and <i>saga</i> +(a Norwegian legend) are cognate.</p> + +<p><a name="note_111" id="note_111"></a><a href="#line_110">111.</a> +<b>of purer fire</b>, <i>i.e.</i> having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as +there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = +divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living +creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the +Stoics held that whatever consisted of <i>pure fire</i> was divine, <i>e.g.</i> +the stars: hence the additional significance of line <a +href="#line_110">112</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_112" id="note_112"></a><a href="#line_110">112.</a> +<b>the starry quire</b>: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see +lines <a href="#line_0">3</a>, <a href="#line_1020">1021</a>. +Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds proportional to +their distances from the earth and formed a celestial concert too +melodious to affect the “gross unpurgèd ear” of +mankind: comp. l. <a href="#line_450">458</a> and <i>Arc.</i> 63-73. +Shakespeare (<i>M. of V.</i> v. 1. 61) alludes to the music of the +spheres:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in his motion like an angel sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins,” etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_52" id="Page_52" title="52"></a><i>Quire</i> is a form of <i>choir</i> (Lat. <i>chorus</i>, a band of singers); in +Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the +audience. <i>Quire</i> (of paper) is a totally different word, probably +derived from Lat. <i>quatuor</i>, four.</p> + +<p><a name="note_113" id="note_113"></a><a href="#line_110">113.</a> +<b>nightly watchful spheres</b>. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars +keeping watch: “And all the spangled host keep watch in order +bright,” <i>Hymn Nat.</i> 21. ‘Nightly,’ used as an +adjective in the sense of ‘nocturnal’: comp. <i>Il +Pens.</i> 84, “To bless the doors from <i>nightly</i> +harm”; <i>Arc.</i> 48, “<i>nightly</i> ill”; and +Wordsworth’s line: “The <i>nightly</i> hunter lifting up +his eyes.” Its ordinary sense is “night by +night.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_114" id="note_114"></a><a href="#line_110">114.</a> +<b>Lead in swift round</b>. Comp. <i>Arc.</i> 71: “And the low world in +measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_115" id="note_115"></a><a href="#line_110">115.</a> +<b>sounds</b>, straits: A.S. <i>sund</i>, a strait of the sea, so +called because it could be <i>swum</i> across. See Skeat, <i>Etym. +Dict.</i> <i>s.v.</i></p> + +<p><a name="note_116" id="note_116"></a><a href="#line_110">116.</a> +<b>to the moon</b>, <i>i.e.</i> as affected by the moon. For similar +uses of ‘to,’ comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 33, “tempered +<i>to</i> the oaten flute”; <i>Lyc.</i> 44, “fanning their +joyous leaves <i>to</i> thy soft lays.” <b>morrice</b>. The +waters quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris +or Moorish dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence +introduced into England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a +“morris-pike”—a weapon used by the Moors in +Spain.</p> + +<p><a name="note_117" id="note_117"></a><a href="#line_110">117.</a> +<b>shelves</b>, flat ledges of rock.</p> + +<p><a name="note_118" id="note_118"></a><a href="#line_110">118.</a> +<b>pert</b>, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of +<i>perk</i>, smart): its modern sense is ‘forward’ or +‘impertinent.’ Skeat points out that <i>perk</i> and +<i>pert</i> were both used as verbs; <i>e.g.</i> “<i>perked</i> +up in a glistering grief,” <i>Henry VIII.</i> ii. 3. 21: +“how it (a child) speaks, and looks, and <i>perts</i> up the +head,” Beaumont and Fletcher’s <i>Knight of the Burning +Pestle</i>, i. 1. A similar change of <i>k</i> into <i>t</i> is seen +in E. <i>mate</i> from M.E. <i>make</i>. <b>dapper</b>, quick (Du. +<i>dapper</i>, Ger. <i>tapfer</i>, brave, quick). It is usual in the +sense of ‘neat.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_119" id="note_119"></a><a href="#line_110">119.</a> +<b>dimple</b>. <i>Dimple</i> is a diminutive of <i>dip</i>, and cognate with +<i>dingle</i> and <i>dapple</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_120" id="note_120"></a><a href="#line_120">120.</a> +<b>daisies trim</b>: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 75, “Meadows +<i>trim</i>, with daisies pied”; <i>Il Pens.</i> 50, +“<i>trim</i> gardens.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_121" id="note_121"></a><a href="#line_120">121.</a> +<b>wakes</b>, night-watches (A.S. <i>niht-wacu</i>, a night wake). The +adjective <i>wakeful</i> (A.S. <i>wacol</i>) is the exact cognate of +the Latin <i>vigil</i>. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the +dedication of a church, then to the feast connected therewith, and +finally to an evening merry-making. <b>prove</b>, test, judge of (Lat. +<i>probare</i>). This is its sense in older writers and in the +much-misunderstood phrase—“the exception <i>proves</i> the +rule,” which means that the exception is a test of the rule.</p> + +<p><a name="note_124" id="note_124"></a><a href="#line_120">124.</a> +<b>Venus now wakes</b>, etc. Spenser, <i>Brit. Ida</i>, ii. 3, has <a +class="pagebreak" name="Page_53" id="Page_53" +title="53"></a>“Night is Love’s holyday.” In this +line <b>wakens</b> is used transitively, its object being +‘Love.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_125" id="note_125"></a><a href="#line_120">125.</a> +<b>rights</b>. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage +requires <i>rites</i> (Lat. <i>ritus</i>, a custom): see l. <a +href="#line_530">535</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_126" id="note_126"></a><a href="#line_120">126.</a> +<b>daylight ... sin</b>. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the +sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 500, “When +night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_127" id="note_127"></a><a href="#line_120">127.</a> +<b>dun shades</b>: evidently suggested by Fairfax’s +<i>Tasso</i>, ix. 62, “The horrid darkness, and the shadows +<i>dun</i>.” ‘Dun’ is A.S. <i>dunn</i>, dark.</p> + +<p><a name="note_129" id="note_129"></a><a href="#line_120">129.</a> +<b>Cotytto</b>, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called +‘dark-veiled’ because her midnight orgies were veiled in +darkness. She was a Thracian divinity, and her worshippers were called +Baptae (‘sprinkled’), because the ceremony of initiation +involved the sprinkling of warm water.</p> + +<p><a name="note_131" id="note_131"></a><a href="#line_130">131.</a> +<b>called</b>, invoked. <b>dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness</b>. The +Styx (= ‘the abhorred’) was the chief river in the lower +world. Milton here speaks of darkness as something positive, ejected +from the womb of Night, Night being represented as a monster of the +lower regions: comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 63. The pronoun +‘her’ shows that ‘womb’ is here used in its +strict sense, but in <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 673, “in his +<i>womb</i> was hid metallic ore,” it has the more general sense +of “interior”: comp. the use of Lat. <i>uterus</i>, +<i>Aen.</i> ii. 258, vii. 499. <b>dragon</b>: Shakespeare refers to +the dragons or ‘dragon car’ of night, <i>Cym.</i> ii. 2. +48, “Swift, swift, you <i>dragons</i> of the night”; +<i>Tro. and Cress.</i> v. 8. 17, “The <i>dragon</i> wing of +night o’erspreads the earth”; see also <i>Il Pens.</i> 59, +“Cynthia checks her dragon yoke.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_132" id="note_132"></a><a href="#line_130">132.</a> +<b>spets</b>, a form of <i>spits</i> (as <i>spettle</i> for +<i>spittle</i>).</p> + +<p><a name="note_133" id="note_133"></a><a href="#line_130">133.</a> +<b>one blot</b>, <i>i.e.</i> a universal blot: comp. <i>Macbeth</i>, ii. 2. 63. +Milton first wrote, “And makes a blot of nature.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_134" id="note_134"></a><a href="#line_130">134.</a> +<b>Stay</b>, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word +is ‘to support,’ as in the substantive <i>stay</i> and its +plural <i>stays</i>. <b>ebon</b>, black as ebony. Ebony is so called +because it is hard as a stone (Heb. <i>eben</i>, a stone); and the +wood being of a dark colour, the name has become a synonym both for +hardness and for blackness.</p> + +<p><a name="note_135" id="note_135"></a><a href="#line_130">135.</a> +<b>Hecat’</b>, <i>i.e.</i> Hecatè (as in line <a +href="#line_530">535</a>): a mysterious Thracian divinity, afterwards +regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these reasons a fit +companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson calls her +“the mistress of witches.” She was supposed to send forth +at night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with +the souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_54" id="Page_54" title="54"></a> +<a name="note_136" id="note_136"></a><a href="#line_130">136.</a> +<b>utmost end</b>, full completion. Compare <i>L’Alleg.</i> 109, +“the corn That ten day-labourers could not <i>end</i>,” +where ‘end’ = ‘complete.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_137" id="note_137"></a><a href="#line_130">137.</a> +<b>dues</b>: see <a href="#note_12">note</a>, l. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="note_138" id="note_138"></a><a href="#line_130">138.</a> +<b>blabbing eastern scout</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the tale-telling spy that comes from +the East, viz. Morning.</p> + +<p><a name="note_139" id="note_139"></a><a href="#line_130">139.</a> +<b>nice</b>; hard to please, fastidious: “a finely chosen +epithet, expressing at once <i>curious</i> and <i>squeamish</i>” +(Hurd). It is used by Comus in contempt: comp. ii. <i>Henry IV.</i> +iv. 1, “Hence, therefore, thou <i>nice</i> crutch”; and +see the index to the Globe <i>Shakespeare</i>. <b>the Indian +steep</b>. In his <i>Elegia Tertia</i> Milton represents the sun as +the “light-bringing king” whose home is on the shores of +the Ganges (<i>i.e.</i> in the far East): comp. “the Indian +mount,” <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 781, and Tennyson’s <i>In +Memoriam</i>, xxvi., “ere yet the morn Breaks hither over +<i>Indian</i> seas.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_140" id="note_140"></a><a href="#line_140">140.</a> +<b>cabined loop-hole</b>: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, +<i>i.e.</i> the peep of day. Comp. “Out of her window close she +blushing peeps,” said of the morning (P. Fletcher’s +<i>Eclogues</i>), as if the first rays of the sun struggled through +some small aperture. ‘Cabined,’ literally ‘belonging +to a cabin,’ and therefore small.</p> + +<p><a name="note_141" id="note_141"></a><a href="#line_140">141.</a> +<b>tell-tale Sun</b>. Compare Spenser, <i>Brit. Ida</i>, ii. 3,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The thick-locked boughs shut out the <i>tell-tale</i> sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Venus hated his <i>all-blabbing</i> light.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Shakespeare refers to “the tell-tale day” (<i>R. of +L.</i> 806). In <i>Odyssey</i>, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) +kept watch and informed Vulcan of Venus’s love for Mars. +<b>descry</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> make known our hidden rites. +‘Descry’ is here used in its primary sense = +<i>describe</i>: both words are from Lat. <i>describere</i>, to write +fully. In Milton and Shakespeare ‘descry’ also occurs in +the sense of ‘to reconnoitre.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_142" id="note_142"></a><a href="#line_140">142.</a> +<b>solemnity</b>, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. <i>sollus</i>, +complete, and <i>annus</i>, a year; ‘solemn’ = +<i>solennis</i> = <i>sollennis</i>. +Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed +year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated +intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, <i>i.e.</i> +serious or important.</p> + +<p><a name="note_143" id="note_143"></a><a href="#line_140">143.</a> +<b>knit hands</b>, etc. Comp. <i>Masque of Hymen</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Now, now begin to set<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your spirits in active heat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, since your hands are met,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Instruct your nimble feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In motions swift and meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The happy ground to beat.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_55" id="Page_55" title="55"></a> +<a name="note_144" id="note_144"></a><a href="#line_140">144.</a> +<b>light fantastic round</b>: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 34, +“Come, and trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic +toe.” A round is a dance or ‘measure’ in which the +dancers join hands, ‘Fantastic’ = full of fancy, +unrestrained. So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been +imagined, and has not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of +grotesque. <i>Fancy</i> is a form of <i>fantasy</i> (Greek +<i>phantasia</i>).</p> + +<p>At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after +which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked +by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in +octosyllabic couplets.</p> + +<p><a name="note_145" id="note_145"></a><a href="#line_140">145.</a> +<b>different</b>, <i>i.e.</i> different from the voluptuous footing of Comus +and his crew.</p> + +<p><a name="note_146" id="note_146"></a><a href="#line_140">146.</a> +<b>footing</b>: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 103, “Camus, reverend sire, +went <i>footing</i> slow.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_147" id="note_147"></a><a href="#line_140">147.</a> +<b>shrouds</b>, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically +denotes ‘something cut off,’ being allied to +‘shred’; hence a garment; and finally (as in Milton) any +covering or means of covering. Many of Latimer’s sermons are +described as having been “preached in The Shrouds,” a +covered place near St. Paul’s Cathedral. The modern use of the +word is restricted: comp. l. <a href="#line_310">316</a>. +<b>brakes</b>, bushes. Shakespeare has +“hawthorn-<i>brake</i>,” <i>M. N. D.</i> iii. l. 3, and +the word seems to be connected with <i>bracken</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_148" id="note_148"></a><a href="#line_140">148.</a> +<b>Some virgin sure</b>, <i>sc.</i> ‘it is.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_150" id="note_150"></a><a href="#line_150">150.</a> +<b>charms ... wily trains</b>; <i>i.e.</i> spells ... cunning +allurements. <i>Charm</i> is the Lat. <i>carmen</i>, a song, also used +in the sense of ‘magic verses’; wily = full of <i>wile</i> +(etymologically the same as guile). <i>Train</i> here denotes an +artifice or snare as in ‘venereal trains’ (<i>Sams. +Agon.</i> 533): “Oh, <i>train</i> me not, sweet mermaid, with +thy note” (<i>Com. of Errors</i>, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe +<i>Shakespeare</i>. Some would take ‘wily trains’ as = +trains of wiles.</p> + +<p><a name="note_151" id="note_151"></a><a href="#line_150">151.</a> +<b>ere long</b>: <i>ere</i> has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was +an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a +preposition.</p> + +<p><a name="note_153" id="note_153"></a><a href="#line_150">153.</a> +<b>Thus I hurl</b>, etc. “Conceive that at this moment of the +performance the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or +makes a gesture as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a +stage-device, is kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In +the original draft among the Cambridge <span class="smcap">MSS.</span> +the phrase is <i>powdered spells</i>; but Milton, by a judicious +change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, substituted +<i>dazzling</i>” (Masson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_154" id="note_154"></a><a href="#line_150">154.</a> +<b>dazzling</b>. This implies both brightness and illusion. <b>spells</b>. A +<i>spell</i> is properly a magical form of words (A.S. <i>spel</i>, a +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_56" id="Page_56" title="56"></a> +saying): +here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. <b>spongy air</b>: +so called because it holds in suspension the magic powder.</p> + +<p><a name="note_155" id="note_155"></a><a href="#line_150">155.</a> +<b>Of power to cheat ... and (to) give</b>, etc. These lines are +attributive to ‘spells.’ The preposition ‘of’ +is thus used to denote a characteristic; thus ‘of power’ = +powerful; comp. l. <a href="#line_670">677</a>. <b>blear illusion</b>; +deception, that which deceives by <i>blurring</i> the vision. +Shakespeare has ‘bleared thine eye’ = dimmed thy vision, +deceived (<i>Tam. Shrew</i>, v. 1. 120). Comp. “This may stand +for a pretty superficial argument, to <i>blear</i> our eyes, and lull +us asleep in security” (Sir W. Raleigh). <i>Blur</i> is another +form of <i>blear</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_156" id="note_156"></a><a href="#line_150">156.</a> +<b>presentments</b>, appearances. This word is to be distinguished +from <i>presentiment</i>. A presentiment is a +“fore-feeling” (Lat. <i>praesentire</i>): while a +presentment is something presented (Lat. <i>praesens</i>, being +before). Shakespeare, <i>Ham.</i> iii. 4. 54, has +‘presentment’ in the sense of picture. <b>quaint +habits</b>, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. <i>cognitus</i>, so +that its primary sense is ‘known’ or +‘remarkable.’ In French it became <i>coint</i>, which was +treated as if from Lat. <i>comptus</i>, neat; hence the word is +frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or delicate. Its modern sense is +‘unusual’ or ‘odd.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_158" id="note_158"></a><a href="#line_150">158.</a> +<b>suspicious flight</b>: flight due to suspicion of danger.</p> + +<p><a name="note_160" id="note_160"></a><a href="#line_160">160.</a> +<b>I, under fair pretence</b>, etc.: ‘Under the mask of friendly +intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I +insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_161" id="note_161"></a><a href="#line_160">161.</a> +<b>glozing</b>, flattering, wheedling. Compare <i>Par. Lost</i>, ix. 549,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“So <i>glozed</i> the temper, and his proem tuned:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the heart of Eve his words made way.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Gloze</i> is from the old word <i>glose</i>, a gloss or explanation (Gr. +<i>glossa</i>, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in +his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names +are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely +denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an +endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with <i>gloss</i> = +brightness.</p> + +<p><a name="note_162" id="note_162"></a><a href="#line_160">162.</a> +<b>Baited</b>, rendered attractive. Radically <i>bait</i> is the causative of +<i>bite</i>; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. <i>Sams. Ag.</i> +1066, “The <i>bait</i> of honied words.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_163" id="note_163"></a><a href="#line_160">163.</a> +<b>wind me</b>, etc. The verbs <i>wind</i> (<i>i.e.</i> coil) and +<i>hug</i> suggest the cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is +the person whose heart or mind is easily overcome: ‘man’ +is here used generically. Burton, in <i>Anat. of Mel.</i>, says: +“The devil, being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily +insinuate and <i>wind</i> <a class="pagebreak" name="Page_57" +id="Page_57" title="57"></a>himself into human bodies.” +<i>Me</i> is here used reflexively: see <a href="#note_61">note</a>, +l. 61. This is not the ethic dative.</p> + +<p><a name="note_165" id="note_165"></a><a href="#line_160">165.</a> +<b>virtue</b>, <i>i.e.</i> power or influence (Lat. <i>virtus</i>). +This radical sense is still found in the phrase ‘by virtue +of’ = by the power of. The adjective <i>virtuous</i> is now used +only of moral excellence: in line <a href="#line_620">621</a> it has +its older meaning.</p> + +<p><a name="note_166" id="note_166"></a><a href="#line_160">166.</a> +The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. +In the edition of 1673 the reading was:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I shall appear some harmless villager,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hearken, if I may, her business here.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But here she comes, I fairly step aside.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after +<i>may</i>, and to change <i>here</i> into <i>hear</i>. In +Masson’s text, accordingly, he reads: “And hearken, if I +may her business hear.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_167" id="note_167"></a><a href="#line_160">167.</a> +<b>keeps up</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> keeps occupied with his country +affairs even up to a late hour. <i>Gear</i>: its original sense is +‘preparation’ (A.S. <i>gearu</i>, ready); hence +‘business’ or ‘property.’ Comp. Spenser, <i>F. +Q.</i> vi. 3. 6, “That to Sir Calidore was <i>easy +gear</i>,” <i>i.e.</i> an easy matter, fairly, softly. +<i>Fair</i> and <i>softly</i> were two words which went together, +signifying <i>gently</i> (Warton).</p> + +<p><a name="note_170" id="note_170"></a><a href="#line_170">170.</a> +<b>mine ear ... My best guide</b>. Observe the juxtaposition of +<i>mine</i> and <i>my</i> in these lines. <i>Mine</i> is frequent +before a vowel, especially when the possessive adjective is not +emphatic. In Shakespeare ‘mine’ is almost always found +before “eye,” “ear,” etc., where no emphasis +is intended (Abbott, § 237).</p> + +<p><a name="note_171" id="note_171"></a><a href="#line_170">171.</a> +<b>Methought</b>, <i>i.e.</i> it seemed to me. In the verb +‘methinks’ <i>me</i> is the dative, and <i>thinks</i> is +an impersonal verb (A.S. <i>thincan</i>, to appear), quite distinct +from the causal verb ‘I think,’ which is from A.S. +<i>thencan</i>, to make to appear.</p> + +<p><a name="note_173" id="note_173"></a><a href="#line_170">173.</a> +<b>jocund</b>, merry. Comp. <i>L’Allegro</i>, 94, “the +<i>jocund</i> rebecks sound.” <b>gamesome</b>, lively. This +word, like many other adjectives in <i>-some</i>, is now less common +than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives are obsolete, +<i>e.g.</i> laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench’s +<i>English, Past and Present</i>, v.).</p> + +<p><a name="note_174" id="note_174"></a><a href="#line_170">174.</a> +<b>unlettered hinds</b>, ignorant rustics (A.S. <i>hina</i>, a domestic).</p> + +<p><a name="note_175" id="note_175"></a><a href="#line_170">175.</a> +<b>granges</b>, granaries, barns (Lat. <i>granum</i>, grain). The word is now +applied to a farm-house with its outhouses.</p> + +<p><a name="note_176" id="note_176"></a><a href="#line_170">176.</a> +<b>Pan</b>, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see <i>Arc.</i> +106, “Though Syrinx your Pan’s mistress were.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_177" id="note_177"></a><a href="#line_170">177.</a> +<b>thank the gods amiss</b>. <i>Amiss</i> stands for M.E. <i>on misse</i> = in +error. “Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods +should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making” +(Keightley). See Introduction.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_58" id="Page_58" title="58"></a> +<a name="note_178" id="note_178"></a><a href="#line_170">178.</a> +<b>swilled insolence</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> the drunken rudeness of +those carousing at this late hour. <i>Swill</i>: to swill is to drink +greedily, hence to drink like a pig. <b>wassailers</b>; from +‘wassail’ [A.S. <i>waes hael</i>; from <i>wes</i>, be +thou, and <i>hál</i>, whole (modern English <i>hale</i>)], a +form of salutation, used in drinking one’s health; and hence +employed in the sense of ‘revelling’ or +‘carousing.’ The ‘wassail-bowl’ here referred +to is the “spicy nutbrown ale” of <i>L’Allegro</i>, +100. In Scott’s <i>Ivanhoe</i>, the Friar drinks to the Black +Knight with the words, “<i>Waes hale</i>, Sir Sluggish +Knight,” the Knight replying “Drink <i>hale</i>, Holy +Clerk.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_180" id="note_180"></a><a href="#line_180">180.</a> +<b>inform ... feet</b>. Comp. <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 335: “hither +hath <i>informed</i> your younger <i>feet</i>.” This use of +‘inform’ (= direct) is well illustrated in Spenser’s +<i>F. Q.</i> vi. 6: “Which with sage counsel, when they went +astray, He could <i>enforme</i>, and then reduce aright.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_184" id="note_184"></a><a href="#line_180">184.</a> +<b>spreading favour</b>. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.</p> + +<p><a name="note_187" id="note_187"></a><a href="#line_180">187.</a> +<b>kind hospitable woods</b>: an instance of the pathetic fallacy +which attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. +<a href="#line_190">194, 195</a>. <i>As</i> in this line (after +<i>such</i>) has the force of a relative pronoun.</p> + +<p><a name="note_188" id="note_188"></a><a href="#line_180">188.</a> +<b>grey-hooded Even</b>. Comp. “sandals grey,” <i>Lyc.</i> +187; “civil-suited,” <i>Il Pens.</i> 122; both applied to +morning.</p> + +<p><a name="note_189" id="note_189"></a><a href="#line_180">189.</a> +<b>a sad votarist</b>, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow +(Lat. <i>votum</i>): the current form is <i>votary</i>, applied in a +general sense to one <i>devoted</i> to an object, <i>e.g.</i> a votary +of science. In the present case, the votarist is a <i>palmer</i>, +<i>i.e.</i> a pilgrim who carried a palm-branch in token of his having +been to Palestine. Such would naturally wear sober-coloured or homely +garments: comp. Drayton, “a palmer poor in homely russet +clad.” In <i>Par. Reg.</i> xiv. 426, Morning is a pilgrim clad +in “amice grey.” On <b>weed</b>, see <a +href="#note_16">note</a>, l. 16.</p> + +<p><a name="note_190" id="note_190"></a><a href="#line_190">190.</a> +<b>hindmost wheels</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_90">95</a>: “If +this fine image is optically realised, what we see is Evening +succeeding Day as the figure of a venerable grey-hooded mendicant +might slowly follow the wheels of some rich man’s chariot” +(Masson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_192" id="note_192"></a><a href="#line_190">192.</a> +<b>labour ... thoughts</b>, the burden of my thoughts.</p> + +<p><a name="note_193" id="note_193"></a><a href="#line_190">193.</a> +<b>engaged</b>, committed: this use of the word may be compared with +that in <i>Hamlet</i>, iii. 3. 69, “Art more +<i>engaged</i>” (= bound or entangled). To <i>engage</i> is to +bind by a <i>gage</i> or pledge.</p> + +<p><a name="note_195" id="note_195"></a><a href="#line_190">195.</a> +<b>stole</b>, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is +frequent in Elizabethan English. <b>Else</b>, etc. The meaning is: +‘The envious darkness must have stolen my brothers, +<i>otherwise</i> why should night hide the light of the stars?’ +The clause ‘but for some felonious end’ is therefore to +some extent tautological.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_59" id="Page_59" title="59"></a> +<a name="note_197" id="note_197"></a><a href="#line_190">197.</a> +<b>dark lantern</b>. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be +concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern +is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; “Vice is like a <i>dark lanthorn</i>, +which turns its bright side only to him that bears it.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_198" id="note_198"></a><a href="#line_190">198.</a> +<b>everlasting oil</b>. Comp. <i>F. Q.</i> i. 1. 57:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>also <i>Macbeth</i>, ii. 1. 5, “There’s husbandry in +heaven; Their candles are all out.” There is here an +irregularity of syntax. “That Nature hung in heaven” is a +relative clause co-ordinate <i>in sense</i> with the next clause; but +by a change of thought the phrase “and filled their lamps” +is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: +comp. l. <a href="#line_0">6</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_203" id="note_203"></a><a href="#line_200">203.</a> +<b>rife</b>, prevalent. <b>perfect</b>, distinct; see <a +href="#note_73">note</a>, l. 73.</p> + +<p><a name="note_204" id="note_204"></a><a href="#line_200">204.</a> +<b>single darkness</b>, darkness only. <i>Single</i> is from the same base as +<i>simple</i>; comp. l. <a href="#line_360">369</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_205" id="note_205"></a><a href="#line_200">205.</a> +<b>What might this be?</b> This is a direct question about a past +event, and has the same meaning as “what should it be?” in +line <a href="#line_480">482</a>: see <a href="#note_482">note</a> +there. <b>A thousand fantasies</b>, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: +“That wonderful passage in <i>Comus</i> of the airy tongues, +perhaps the most imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured +out of a dry sentence in Purchas’s abstract of Marco Polo. Such +examples help us to understand the poet.” Reference may also be +made to the <i>Anat. of Mel.</i>: “Fear makes our imagination +conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth over our fantasy more than +all other affections, especially in the dark”; also to the song +prefixed to the same work, “My phantasie presents a thousand +ugly shapes,” etc. On the power of imagination or phantasy, +Shakespeare says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i7">“As imagination bodies forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turns them to <i>shapes</i>, and gives to <i>airy nothing</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">A local habitation and a name.“—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 toright"><i>M. N. D.</i> v. 1. 14.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Compare also Ben Jonson’s <i>Vision of Delight</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Break, Phant’sie, from thy cave of cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread thy purple wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all thy figures are allow’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And various shapes of things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Create of <i>airy forms</i> a stream ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And though it be a waking dream,” etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_207" id="note_207"></a><a href="#line_200">207.</a> +<b>Of calling shapes</b>, etc. In Heywood’s <i>Hierarchy of +Angels</i> there is a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes +beckoning to them. Such words as ‘shapes,’ +‘shadows,’ ‘airy tongues,’ etc., illustrate +Milton’s power to create an indefinite, yet +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_60" id="Page_60" title="60"></a> +expressive picture. Comp. <i>Aen.</i> iv. +460. <b>beckoning shadows dire</b>. A characteristic arrangement of words in +Milton: comp. lines <a href="#line_470">470</a>, <a +href="#line_940">945</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_208" id="note_208"></a><a href="#line_200">208.</a> +<b>syllable</b>, pronounce distinctly.</p> + +<p><a name="note_210" id="note_210"></a><a href="#line_210">210.</a> +<b>may startle well</b>, may well startle.</p> + +<p><a name="note_212" id="note_212"></a><a href="#line_210">212.</a> +<b>siding champion, Conscience</b>. To side is to take a side, and +hence to assist: comp. <i>Cor.</i> iv. 2. 2: “The nobles who +have <i>sided</i> in his behalf.” ‘Conscience’ (here +a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: in <i>Son.</i> xxii. 10 +it means consciousness. Comp. <i>Hen. VIII.</i> iii. 2. 379: “A +peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet +Conscience.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_213" id="note_213"></a><a href="#line_210">213.</a> +<b>pure-eyed Faith</b>. Comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 81, “those pure eyes +And perfect witness of all-judging Jove”; also the Scriptural +words, “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” The +maiden, whose safeguard is her purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and +Chastity, each being characterised by an epithet denoting purity of +thought and act, viz. ‘pure-eyed,’ +‘white-handed,’ and ‘unblemished.’ The placing +of Chastity instead of Charity in the trio is significant: see i. +<i>Cor.</i> xiii.</p> + +<p><a name="note_214" id="note_214"></a><a href="#line_210">214.</a> +<b>hovering angel</b>. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The +word ‘hover’ is found frequently in the sense of +‘shelter.’ girt, surrounded. <b>golden wings</b>. In <i>Il +Pens.</i> 52, Contemplation “soars on golden wing.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_216" id="note_216"></a><a href="#line_210">216.</a> +<b>see ye visibly</b>, <i>i.e.</i> you are not mere shapes, but living +presences. <i>Ye</i>: here the object of the verb. “This +confusion between <i>ye</i> and <i>you</i> did not exist in old +English; <i>ye</i> was always used as a nominative, and <i>you</i> as +a dative or accusative. In the English Bible the distinction is very +carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the Elizabethan period +there is a very loose use of the two forms” (Morris). It is so +in Milton, who has <i>ye</i> as nominative, accusative, and dative; +comp. lines <a href="#line_510">513</a>, <a href="#line_960">967</a>, +<a href="#line_1020">1020</a>; also <i>Arc.</i> 40, 81, 101. It may be +noted that <i>ye</i> can be pronounced more rapidly than <i>you</i>, +and is therefore frequent when an unaccented syllable is required.</p> + +<p><a name="note_217" id="note_217"></a><a href="#line_210">217.</a> +<b>the Supreme Good</b>. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, +it must exist for God’s purposes. Evil exists for the sake of +‘vengeance’ or punishment.</p> + +<p><a name="note_219" id="note_219"></a><a href="#line_210">219.</a> +<b>glistering guardian</b>, <i>i.e.</i> one clad in the ‘pure +ambrosial weeds’ of l. <a href="#line_10">16</a>. +<i>Glister</i>, <i>glisten</i>, <i>glitter</i>, and <i>glint</i> are +cognate words.</p> + +<p><a name="note_221" id="note_221"></a><a href="#line_220">221.</a> +<b>Was I deceived</b>? There is a break in the construction at the end +of line <a href="#line_220">220</a>. The girl’s trust in Heaven +is suddenly strengthened by a glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton +regards the repetition of the same words in lines <a +href="#line_220">223, 224</a> as beautifully expressing the confidence +of an unaccusing conscience.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_61" id="Page_61" title="61"></a> +<a name="note_222" id="note_222"></a><a href="#line_220">222.</a> +<b>her</b> = its. In Latin <i>nubes</i>, a cloud, is feminine.</p> + +<p><a name="note_223" id="note_223"></a><a href="#line_220">223.</a> +<b>does ... turn ... and casts</b>. Comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 46, +‘doth diet’ and ‘hears.’ When two co-ordinate +verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply +to both. The above construction is due probably to change of +thought.</p> + +<p><a name="note_225" id="note_225"></a><a href="#line_220">225.</a> +<b>tufted grove</b>. Comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 78: “bosomed +high in <i>tufted</i> trees.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_226" id="note_226"></a><a href="#line_220">226.</a> +<b>hallo</b>. Also <i>hallow</i> (as in Milton’s editions), +<i>halloo</i>, <i>halloa</i>, and <i>holloa</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_227" id="note_227"></a><a href="#line_220">227.</a> +<b>make to be heard</b>. Make = cause.</p> + +<p><a name="note_228" id="note_228"></a><a href="#line_220">228.</a> +<b>new-enlivened spirits</b>, <i>i.e.</i> my spirits that have been newly +enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. <a +href="#note_36">note</a>, l. 36.</p> + +<p><a name="note_229" id="note_229"></a><a href="#line_220">229.</a> +<b>they</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the brothers.</p> + +<p><a name="note_230" id="note_230"></a><a href="#line_230">230.</a> +<b>Echo</b>. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by +preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after +others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until +nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in +Ben Jonson’s <i>Cynthia’s Revels</i>, i. 1.</p> + +<p>The lady’s song, which has been described as “an +address to the very Genius of Sound,” is here very naturally +introduced. The lady wishes to rouse the echoes of the wood in order +to attract her brothers’ notice, and she does so by addressing +Echo, who grieves for the lost youth Narcissus as the lady grieves for +her lost brothers.</p> + +<p><a name="note_231" id="note_231"></a><a href="#line_230">231.</a> +<b>thy airy shell</b>; the atmosphere. Comp. “the hollow round +of Cynthia’s seat,” <i>Hymn Nat.</i> 103. The marginal +reading in the <span class="smcap">MS.</span> is <i>cell</i>. Some +suppose that ‘shell’ is here used, like Lat. +<i>concha</i>, because in classical times various musical instruments +were made in the form of a shell.</p> + +<p><a name="note_232" id="note_232"></a><a href="#line_230">232.</a> +<b>Meander’s margent green</b>. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, +remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb ‘to +meander,’ and hence also (in Keightley’s opinion) the +mention of the river as a haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, +that, as the lady addresses Echo as the “Sweet Queen of +Parley” and the unhappy lover of the lost Narcissus, the river +is here mentioned because of its associations with music and +misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and the +legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash +contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being +thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. +<i>Lyc.</i> 58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly +associated by a reference to Orpheus, whose ‘gory visage’ +and lyre were carried “down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian +shore.” +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_62" id="Page_62" title="62"></a> +Further, the Maeander is associated with the sorrows of the maiden +Byblis, who seeks her lost brother Caunus (called by Ovid +<i>Maeandrius juvenis</i>). [Since the above was written, Prof. J. W. +Hales has given the following explanation of Milton’s allusion: +“The real reason is that the Meander was a famous haunt of +swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and Latin +writers—one to whose sweet singing they perpetually +allude” (<i>Athenaeum</i>, April 20, 1889).] +‘Margent.’ <i>Marge</i> and <i>margin</i> are forms of the +same word.</p> + +<p><a name="note_233" id="note_233"></a><a href="#line_230">233.</a> +<b>the violet-embroidered vale</b>. The notion that flowers +<i>broider</i> or ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. +<i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 700: “Under foot the violet, Crocus, and +hyacinth, with rich inlay <i>Broidered</i> the ground.” In +<i>Lyc.</i> 148, the flowers themselves wear ‘embroidery.’ +The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale because +these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson’s <i>Masque +of Hymen</i>) and with innocence (see <i>Hamlet</i>, iv. 5. 158: +“I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my +father died”). Prof. Hales, however, thinks that some particular +vale is here alluded to, and argues, with much acumen, that the poet +referred to the woodlands close by Athens to the north-west, through +which the Cephissus flowed, and where stood the birthplace of +Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus as frequented by +nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet +‘violet-embroidered’ as a translation of the Greek <span +class="translit" +title="iostephanos">ἰοστέφανος</span> +(= crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to +Athens, of which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens +as “the violet-crowned city.” It is, at least, very +probable that Milton might here associate the nightingale with +Colonus, as he does in <i>Par. Reg.</i> iv. 245: see the following +note.</p> + +<p><a name="note_234" id="note_234"></a><a href="#line_230">234.</a> +<b>love-lorn nightingale</b>, the nightingale whose loved ones are +lost: comp. Virgil, <i>Georg.</i> iv. 511: “As the nightingale +wailing in the poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she +weeps the night through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her +piteous melody, and fills the country round with the plaints of her +sorrow.” <i>Lorn</i> and <i>lost</i> are cognate words, the +former being common in the compound <i>forlorn</i>: see <a +href="#note_39">note</a>, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the +nightingale: in <i>Il Penseroso</i> it is ‘Philomel’; in +<i>Par. Reg.</i> iv. 245, it is ‘the Attic bird’; and in +<i>Par. Lost</i> viii. 518, it is ‘the amorous bird of +night.’ He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of +Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy +was Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of +nightingales (Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into +a nightingale that she might escape the vengeance of her +brother-in-law Tereus. The epithet ‘love-lorn,’ however, +seems to point to the legend of Aēdon (Greek <span +class="translit" title="adn">ἀηδών</span>, +a nightingale), who, having <a class="pagebreak" name="Page_63" +id="Page_63" title="63"></a>killed her own son by mistake, was changed +into a nightingale, whose mournful song was represented by the Greek +poets as the lament of the mother for her child.</p> + +<p><a name="note_235" id="note_235"></a><a href="#line_230">235.</a> +<b>her sad song mourneth</b>, <i>i.e.</i> sings her plaintive melody. +‘Sad song’ forms a kind of cognate accusative.</p> + +<p><a name="note_237" id="note_237"></a><a href="#line_230">237.</a> +<b>likest thy Narcissus</b>. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of +Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image +reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he +accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his +name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in <i>Cynthia’s +Revels</i>, i. 1. Grammatically, <i>likest</i> is an adjective +qualified adverbially by “(to) thy Narcissus”: comp. <i>Il +Pens.</i> 9, “likest hovering dreams.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_238" id="note_238"></a><a href="#line_230">238.</a> +<b>have hid</b>. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), +but the subjunctive mood.</p> + +<p><a name="note_240" id="note_240"></a><a href="#line_240">240.</a> +<b>Tell me but where</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ‘Only tell me where.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_241" id="note_241"></a><a href="#line_240">241.</a> +<b>Sweet Queen of Parley</b>, etc. ‘Parley is conversation (Fr. +<i>parler</i>, to speak): <i>parlour</i>, <i>parole</i>, +<i>palaver</i>, <i>parliament</i>, <i>parlance</i>. etc., are cognate. +<b>Daughter of the Sphere</b>, <i>i.e.</i> of the sphere which is her +“airy shell” (l. <a href="#line_230">231</a>): comp. +“Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse” (<i>At a +Solemn Music</i>, 2).</p> + +<p><a name="note_243" id="note_243"></a><a href="#line_240">243.</a> +<b>give resounding grace</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> add the charm of echo to the +music of the spheres.</p> + +<p>The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary +in length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is +more striking owing to the consonance of <i>shell</i>, <i>well</i> +with <i>vale</i>, <i>nightingale</i>; also of <i>pair</i>, +<i>where</i> with <i>are</i> and <i>sphere</i>; and of <i>have</i> +with <i>cave</i>. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration +of Milton’s free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most +musical passages.</p> + +<p><a name="note_244" id="note_244"></a><a href="#line_240">244.</a> +<b>mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment</b>. The words +<i>mortal</i> and <i>divine</i> are in antithesis: comp. <i>Il +Pens.</i> 91, 92, “The immortal mind that hath forsook Her +mansion in this fleshly nook.” The lines embody a compliment to +the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines <a +href="#line_550">555</a> and <a href="#line_560">564</a>. +‘Ravishment,’ rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. +<i>Il Pens.</i> 40, “Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes”; +also l. <a href="#line_790">794</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_246" id="note_246"></a><a href="#line_240">246.</a> +<b>Sure</b>, used adverbially: comp. line <a href="#line_490">493</a>, +and ‘certain,’ l. <a href="#line_260">266</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_247" id="note_247"></a><a href="#line_240">247.</a> +<b>vocal</b>, used proleptically.</p> + +<p><a name="note_248" id="note_248"></a><a href="#line_240">248.</a> +<b>his</b> = its: see <a href="#note_96">note</a>, l. 96. The pronoun +refers to ‘something holy.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_251" id="note_251"></a><a href="#line_250">251.</a> +<b>smoothing the raven down</b>. As the nightingale’s song smooths the +rugged brow of Night (<i>Il Pens.</i> 58), so here the song <a class="pagebreak" name="Page_64" id="Page_64" title="64"></a>of the lady +smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a +winged goddess.</p> + +<p><a name="note_252" id="note_252"></a><a href="#line_250">252.</a> +<b>it</b>, <i>i.e.</i> darkness.</p> + +<p><a name="note_253" id="note_253"></a><a href="#line_250">253.</a> +<b>Circe ... Sirens three</b>. In the <i>Odyssey</i> the Sirens are +two in number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky +island off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. <a +href="#line_250">257</a>), and lured sailors to destruction by the +charm of their song. Circe was also a sweet singer and had the power +of enchanting men; hence the combined allusion: see also +Horace’s <i>Epist.</i> i. 2, 23, <i>Sirenum voces, et Circes +pocula nôsti</i>. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the +river-god Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her +maids.</p> + +<p><a name="note_254" id="note_254"></a><a href="#line_250">254.</a> +<b>flowery-kirtled Naiades</b>: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or +having their skirts decorated with flowers. A <i>kirtle</i> is a gown; Skeat +suggests that it is a diminutive of <i>skirt</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_255" id="note_255"></a><a href="#line_250">255.</a> +<b>baleful</b>, injurious (A.S. <i>balu</i>, evil).</p> + +<p><a name="note_256" id="note_256"></a><a href="#line_250">256.</a> +<b>sung</b>. “The verbs <i>swim</i>, <i>begin</i>, <i>run</i>, +<i>drink</i>, <i>shrink</i>, <i>sink</i>, <i>ring</i>, <i>sing</i>, +<i>spring</i>, have for their proper past tenses <i>swam</i>, +<i>began</i>, <i>ran</i>, etc., preserving the original <i>a</i>; but +in older writers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in +colloquial English we find forms with <i>u</i>, which have come from +the passive participles.” (Morris). <b>take the prisoned +soul</b>, <i>i.e.</i> would take the soul prisoner; +‘prisoned’ being used proleptically.</p> + +<p><a name="note_257" id="note_257"></a><a href="#line_250">257.</a> +<b>lap it in Elysium</b>. <i>Lap</i> is a form of wrap: comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 136, “<i>Lap</i> me in soft Lydian +airs.” Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the blessed; comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 147, “heaped Elysian flowers.” +<b>Scylla ... Charybdis</b>. The former, a rival of Circe in the +affections of the sea-god Glaucus, was changed into a monster, +surrounded by barking dogs. She threw herself into the sea and became +a rock, the noise of the surrounding waves (”multis circum +latrantibus undis,” <i>Aen.</i> vii. 588) resembling the barking +of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, and was hurled by Zeus +into the sea, where she became a whirlpool.</p> + +<p><a name="note_260" id="note_260"></a><a href="#line_260">260.</a> +<b>slumber</b>: comp. <i>Pericles</i>, v. 1. 335, “thick slumber +Hangs upon mine eyes.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_261" id="note_261"></a><a href="#line_260">261.</a> +<b>madness</b>, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in <i>Il Pens.</i> +164: “As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into +<i>ecstasies</i>, And bring all heaven before mine eyes.” In +Shakespeare ‘ecstasy’ occurs in the sense of madness; see +<i>Hamlet</i>, iii. 1. 167, “That unmatched form and feature of +blown youth, Blasted with <i>ecstasy</i>”; <i>Temp.</i> iii. 3. +108, “hinder them from what this <i>ecstasy</i> May now provoke +them to”: comp. also “the pleasure of that madness,” +<i>Wint. Tale</i>, v. 3. 73. See also l. <a +href="#line_620">625</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_262" id="note_262"></a><a href="#line_260">262.</a> +<b>home-felt</b>, deeply felt. Compare “The <i>home</i> thrust +of a +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_65" id="Page_65" title="65"></a> +friendly sword is sure” (Dryden); “This is a consideration +that comes <i>home</i> to our interest” (Addison): see also +Index to Globe <i>Shakespeare</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_263" id="note_263"></a><a href="#line_260">263.</a> +<b>waking bliss</b>, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the +song of Circe.</p> + +<p><a name="note_265" id="note_265"></a><a href="#line_260">265.</a> +<b>Hail, foreign wonder!</b> Warton notes that <i>Comus</i> is universally +allowed to have taken some of its tints from the <i>Tempest</i>, and quotes, +“O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?” i. 2. 426.</p> + +<p><a name="note_266" id="note_266"></a><a href="#line_260">266.</a> +<b>certain</b>: see <a href="#note_246">note</a>, l. 246.</p> + +<p><a name="note_267" id="note_267"></a><a href="#line_260">267.</a> +<b>Unless the goddess</b>, etc. = unless <i>thou be</i> the goddess +that in rural shrine <i>dwells</i> here. Here, as often in Latin, we +have ‘unless’ (Lat. <i>nisi</i>, etc.) used with a single +word instead of a clause: and, also as in Latin, the verb in the +relative clause has the person of the antecedent.</p> + +<p><a name="note_268" id="note_268"></a><a href="#line_260">268.</a> +<b>Pan or Sylvan</b>: see l. <a href="#line_170">176</a>: also <i>Il +Pens.</i> 134, “shadows brown that Sylvan loves,” and +<i>Arc.</i> 106, “Though Syrinx your Pan’s mistress +were.” Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by +his name which is corrupted from Silvan (Lat. <i>silva</i>, a +wood).</p> + +<p><a name="note_269" id="note_269"></a><a href="#line_260">269.</a> +<b>Forbidding</b>, etc. These lines recall the language of +<i>Arcades</i>, in which also a lady is complimented as “a +<i>deity</i>,” “a <i>rural</i> Queen,” and +“mistress of yon princely shrine” in the land of Pan. +There is a reference also to her protecting the woods through her +servant, the Genius: <i>Arc.</i> 36-53, 91-95.</p> + +<p><a name="note_271" id="note_271"></a><a href="#line_270">271.</a> +<b>ill is lost</b>. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = <i>male +perditur</i>: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to +“there is little loss in losing.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_273" id="note_273"></a><a href="#line_270">273.</a> +<b>extreme shift</b>; last resource. Comp. l. <a +href="#line_610">617</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_274" id="note_274"></a><a href="#line_270">274.</a> +<b>my severed company</b>: a condensed expression = the companions +separated from me. Comp. l. <a href="#line_310">315</a>: this figure +of speech is called Synecdoche.</p> + +<p><a name="note_277" id="note_277"></a><a href="#line_270">277.</a> +<b>What chance</b>, etc. In lines <a href="#line_270">277-290</a> we +have a reproduction of that form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy +in which question and answer occupy alternate lines: it is called +<i>stichomythia</i>, and is admirable when there is a gradual rise in +excitement towards the end (as in the <i>Supplices</i> of Euripides). +In <i>Samson Agonistes</i>, which is modelled on the Greek pattern, +Milton did not employ it.</p> + +<p><a name="note_278" id="note_278"></a><a href="#line_270">278.</a> +An alliterative line.</p> + +<p><a name="note_279" id="note_279"></a><a href="#line_270">279.</a> +<b>near ushering</b>, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. +<i>ostium</i>, a door).</p> + +<p><a name="note_284" id="note_284"></a><a href="#line_280">284.</a> +<b>twain</b>: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_66" id="Page_66" title="66"></a> +used after its substantive as in <i>Lyc.</i> 110, “of metals +<i>twain</i>,” and as a substantive.</p> + +<p><a name="note_285" id="note_285"></a><a href="#line_280">285.</a> +<b>forestalling</b>, anticipating. ‘Forestall,’ originally +a marketing term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed +at a <i>stall</i> in the market in order to sell them again at a +higher price: hence ‘to anticipate.’ <b>prevented</b>. +‘Prevent,’ now used in the sense of ‘hinder,’ +seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to +anticipate (in which case ‘forestalling’ would be +proleptic). Comp. l. <a href="#line_360">362</a>; <i>Par. Lost</i>, +vi. 129, “half-way he met His daring foe, at this +<i>prevention</i> more Incensed.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_286" id="note_286"></a><a href="#line_280">286.</a> +<b>to hit</b>. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. +“good to eat,” “deadly to hear,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_287" id="note_287"></a><a href="#line_280">287.</a> +<b>Imports their loss</b>, etc.: ‘Apart from the present +emergency, is the loss of them important?’</p> + +<p><a name="note_289" id="note_289"></a><a href="#line_280">289.</a> +<b>manly prime</b>, etc.: ‘Were they in the prime of manhood, or +were they merely youths?’ With Milton the ‘prime of +manhood’ is where ‘youth’ ends: comp. <i>Par. +Lost</i>, xi. 245, “<i>prime</i> in manhood where youth +ended”; iii. 636, “a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of +the prime, yet such as in his face Youth smiled celestial.” +Spenser has ‘prime’ = Spring.</p> + +<p><a name="note_290" id="note_290"></a><a href="#line_290">290.</a> +<b>Hebe</b>, the goddess of youth. “The down of manhood” +had not appeared on the lips of the brothers.</p> + +<p><a name="note_291" id="note_291"></a><a href="#line_290">291.</a> +<b>what time</b>: common in poetry for ‘when’ (Lat. <i>quo +tempore</i>). Compare Horace, <i>Od.</i> iii. 6: “what time the +sun shifted the shadows of the mountains, and took the yokes from the +wearied oxen.” <b>laboured</b>: wearied with labour.</p> + +<p><a name="note_292" id="note_292"></a><a href="#line_290">292.</a> +<b>loose traces</b>. Because no longer taut from the draught of the +plough.</p> + +<p><a name="note_293" id="note_293"></a><a href="#line_290">293.</a> +<b>swinked</b>, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. <i>swincan</i>, to toil). +Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense +of toil is due to that of constant movement from the <i>swinging</i> of the +labourer’s arms. In Chaucer ‘swinker’ = ploughman.</p> + +<p><a name="note_294" id="note_294"></a><a href="#line_290">294.</a> +<b>mantling</b>, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. +<i>Temp.</i> v. 1. 67, “fumes that <i>mantle</i> Their clearer reason.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_297" id="note_297"></a><a href="#line_290">297.</a> +<b>port</b>, bearing, mien.</p> + +<p><a name="note_298" id="note_298"></a><a href="#line_290">298.</a> +<b>faery</b>. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. <i>faerie</i> than +the current form.</p> + +<p><a name="note_299" id="note_299"></a><a href="#line_290">299.</a> +<b>the element</b>; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher +Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the +four elements; when used alone, however, ‘the element’ +commonly means ‘the air.’ Comp. <i>Hen. V.</i> iv. 1. 107, +“The <i>element</i> shows him as it doth to me”; <i>Par. +Lost</i>, ii. +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_67" id="Page_67" title="67"></a>490, +“the louring <i>element</i> Scowls o’er +the darkened landscape snow or shower,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_301" id="note_301"></a><a href="#line_300">301.</a> +<b>plighted</b>, interwoven or <i>plaited</i>. The verb +‘plight’ (or more properly <i>plite</i>) is a variant of +<i>plait</i>: see <i>Il Pens.</i> 57, “her sweetest saddest +<i>plight</i>.” The word has no connection with +‘plight,’ l. <a href="#line_370">372</a>. +<b>awe-strook</b>. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. +‘strook,’ ‘struck,’ and +‘strucken.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_302" id="note_302"></a><a href="#line_300">302.</a> +<b>worshiped</b>. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before +<i>-ed</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_303" id="note_303"></a><a href="#line_300">303.</a> +<b>were</b> = would be: subjunctive. <b>like the path to Heaven</b>; +<i>i.e.</i> it would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) +no allusion to the Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way +to Heaven (<i>Matt.</i> vii.) as in <i>Son.</i> ix., “labours up +the hill of heavenly Truth.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_304" id="note_304"></a><a href="#line_300">304.</a> +<b>help you find</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_620">623</a>. The simple +infinitive is here used without <i>to</i> where <i>to</i> would now be +inserted. This omission of the preposition now occurs with so few +verbs that ‘to’ is often called the sign of the +infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the infinitive was +the termination <i>en</i> (<i>e.g.</i> he can <i>speken</i>). The +infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, +which was preceded by the preposition <i>to</i>, and when this became +confused with the simple infinitive the use of <i>to</i> became +general. Comp. <i>Son.</i> xx. 4, “<i>Help</i> waste a sullen +day.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_305" id="note_305"></a><a href="#line_300">305.</a> +<b>readiest way</b>. Here ‘readiest’ logically belongs to +the predicate.</p> + +<p><a name="note_311" id="note_311"></a><a href="#line_310">311.</a> +<b>each ... every</b>: see <a href="#note_19">note</a>, l. 19. +<b>alley</b>, a walk or avenue.</p> + +<p><a name="note_312" id="note_312"></a><a href="#line_310">312.</a> +<b>Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn</b>. ‘Dingle’ = +dimble (see Ben Jonson’s <i>Sad Shepherd</i>) = dimple = a +little dip or depression; hence a narrow valley. ‘Dell’ = +dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so deep as a dingle. +‘Bosky bourn,’ a stream whose banks are bushy or thickly +grown with bushes. ‘Bourn,’ a boundary, is a distinct word +etymologically, but the phrase “from side to side,” as +used by Comus, might well imply that the valley as well as the stream +is here referred to. ‘Bosky,’ bushy. The noun +‘boscage’ = jungle or <i>bush</i> (M.E. <i>busch</i>, +<i>bush</i>, <i>bush</i>). ‘See Tennyson’s <i>Dream of F. +W.</i> 243, “the sombre <i>boscage</i> of the wood.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_315" id="note_315"></a><a href="#line_310">315.</a> +<b>stray attendance</b> = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, +as in line <a href="#line_270">274</a>. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, x. 80, +“<i>Attendance</i> none shall need, nor train”; xii. 132, +“Of herds, and flocks, and numerous <i>servitude</i>” (= +servants).</p> + +<p><a name="note_316" id="note_316"></a><a href="#line_310">316.</a> +<b>shroud</b>, etc. Milton first wrote “within these shroudie +limits”: see <a href="#note_147">note</a>, l. 147.</p> + +<p><a name="note_317" id="note_317"></a><a href="#line_310">317.</a> +<b>low-roosted lark</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the lark that has roosted on the ground. +This is certainly Milton’s meaning, as he refers to the +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_68" id="Page_68" title="68"></a> +bird as rising from its “thatched pallet” = its nest, +which is built on the ground. ‘Roost’ has, however, no +radical connection with <i>rest</i>, but denotes a perch for fowls, +and Keightley’s remark that Milton is guilty of supposing the +lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may therefore be +noticed. But the poets’ meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson takes +‘thatched’ as referring to the texture of the nest or to +the corn-stalks or rushes over it.</p> + +<p><a name="note_318" id="note_318"></a><a href="#line_310">318.</a> +<b>rouse</b>. Here used intransitively = awake.</p> + +<p><a name="note_322" id="note_322"></a><a href="#line_320">322.</a> +<b>honest-offered</b>: see notes, ll. <a href="#note_36">36</a>, +<a href="#note_228">228</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_323" id="note_323"></a><a href="#line_320">323.</a> +<b>sooner</b>, more readily.</p> + +<p><a name="note_324" id="note_324"></a><a href="#line_320">324.</a> +<b>tapestry halls</b>. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being +“a kind of carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used +for decorating walls.” The word is said to be from the Persian.</p> + +<p><a name="note_325" id="note_325"></a><a href="#line_320">325.</a> +<b>first was named</b>. The meaning is: ‘<i>Courtesy</i> which +is derived from <i>court</i>, and which is still nominally most common +in high life, is nevertheless most readily found amongst those of +humble station.’ This sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady +Alice when addressed to a humble shepherd. ‘Courtesy’ (or, +as Milton elsewhere writes, <i>courtship</i>) has, like +<i>civility</i>, lost much of its deeper significance. Comp. Spenser, +<i>F. Q.</i> vi. 1. 1:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that it there most useth to abound.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_327" id="note_327"></a><a href="#line_320">327.</a> +<b>less warranted</b>, <i>i.e.</i> when I have less <i>guarantee</i> of safety. +<i>Guarantee</i> and <i>warrant</i>, like <i>guard</i> and +<i>ward</i>, <i>guile</i> and <i>wile</i>, are radically the same.</p> + +<p><a name="note_329" id="note_329"></a><a href="#line_320">329.</a> +<b>Eye me</b>, <i>i.e.</i> look on me. To <i>eye</i> a person now +usually implies watching narrowly or suspiciously. <b>square</b>, +accommodate, adjust. The adj. ‘proportioned’ is here used +proleptically, denoting the result of the action indicated by the verb +‘square.’ Comp. <i>M. for M.</i> v. 1: “Thou +’rt said to have a stubborn soul, ... And <i>squar’st</i> +thy life accordingly.” <b>Exeunt</b>, <i>i.e.</i> they go out, +they leave the stage.</p> + +<p><a name="note_331" id="note_331"></a><a href="#line_330">331.</a> +<b>Unmuffle</b>, uncover yourselves. To <i>muffle</i> is to cover up, +<i>e.g.</i> ‘to <i>muffle</i> the throat,’ ‘a +<i>muffled</i> sound,’ etc. <i>Muffle</i> (subst.) is a +diminutive of <i>muff</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_332" id="note_332"></a><a href="#line_330">332.</a> + +<b>wont’st</b>, <i>i.e.</i> art wont. <i>Wont’st</i> is +here apparently the 2nd person singular, present tense, of a verb +<i>to wont</i> = to be accustomed; hence also the participle +<i>wonted</i> (<i>Il Pens.</i> 37, “keep thy <i>wonted</i> +state”). But the M.E. verb was <i>wonen</i>, to dwell or be +accustomed, and its participle <i>woned</i> or <i>wont</i>. The fact +that <i>wont</i> was a participle being forgotten, it was treated as a +distinct verb, and a new participle formed, viz., <i>wonted</i> (= +won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun <i>wontedness</i>. Milton, +however, uses <i>wont</i> as a present only twice in his poetry: as in +modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a participial +adj. +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_69" id="Page_69" title="69"></a> +with the verb <i>to be</i> (<i>Il Pens.</i> 123, +“As she was wont”). <b>benison</b>, blessing: radically +the same as ‘benediction’ (Lat. <i>benedictio</i>).</p> + +<p><a name="note_333" id="note_333"></a><a href="#line_330">333.</a> +<b>Stoop thy pale visage</b>, etc. Comp. l. <a +href="#line_1020">1023</a> and <i>Il Pens.</i> 72, +“<i>Stooping</i> through a fleecy cloud.” +‘Visage,’ a word now mostly used with a touch of contempt, +in Milton simply denotes ‘face’: see <i>Il Pens.</i> 13, +“saintly <i>visage</i>”; <i>Lyc.</i> 62, “His gory +<i>visage</i> down the stream was sent.” <b>amber</b>: comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 61, “Robed in flames and <i>amber</i> +light,” and Tennyson:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“What time the <i>amber</i> morn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_334" id="note_334"></a><a href="#line_330">334.</a> +<b>disinherit</b>, drive out, dispossess. Comp. <i>Two Gent.</i> iii. 2. 87, +“This or else nothing, will <i>inherit</i> (<i>i.e.</i> obtain +possession of) her.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_336" id="note_336"></a><a href="#line_330">336.</a> +<b>Influence ... dammed up</b>. The verb here shows that influence is +employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. <i>in</i> and +<i>fluo</i>): it was thus used in astrology to denote “an +<i>influent</i> course of the planets, their virtue being infused +into, or their course working on, inferior creatures”; comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 112, “whose bright eyes Rain +<i>influence</i>”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 669, “with kindly +heat Of various <i>influence</i>.” Astrology has left many +traces upon the English language, <i>e.g.</i> influence, disastrous, +ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. <a +href="#line_360">360</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_337" id="note_337"></a><a href="#line_330">337.</a> +<b>taper</b>; here a vocative, the verb being “visit +(thou).”</p> + +<p><a name="note_338" id="note_338"></a><a href="#line_330">338.</a> +<b>though a rush candle</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ‘though it be only a +rush-candle’; a rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush +dipped in oil.</p> + +<p><a name="note_340" id="note_340"></a><a href="#line_340">340.</a> +<b>long levelled rule</b>; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. <i>Par. +Lost</i>, iv. 543, “the setting sun ... <i>Levelled</i> his +evening rays.” The instrument with which straight lines are +drawn is called a <i>rule</i> or ruler.</p> + +<p><a name="note_341" id="note_341"></a><a href="#line_340">341.</a> +<b>star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure</b>; here put by synecdoche for +‘lode-star.’ More particularly, the star of Arcady +signifies any of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by +which Greek sailors steered; and ‘Tyrian Cynosure’ +signifies the stars comprising that part of the constellation of the +Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was called <i>Cynosura</i>, the +dog’s tail (Greek <span class="translit" title="kynos +oura">κυνὸς +οὐρά</span>), and by which Phoenician or Tyrian +sailors steered. See <i>L’Alleg.</i> 80, “The +<i>cynosure</i> of neighbouring eyes,” where the word is used as +a common noun = point of attraction. Both constellations are connected +in Greek mythology with the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by +Zeus into the Great Bear while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. +Milton follows the Roman poets in associating these stars with Arcadia +on this account.</p> + +<p><a name="note_343" id="note_343"></a><a href="#line_340">343.</a> +<b>barred</b>, debarred or barred <i>from</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_344" id="note_344"></a><a href="#line_340">344.</a> +<b>wattled cotes</b>: enclosures made of hurdles, <i>i.e.</i> frames of +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_70" id="Page_70" title="70"> +</a>plaited twigs. <i>Cote</i>, <i>cot</i>, and <i>coat</i> +are varieties of the same word = a covering or enclosure.</p> + +<p><a name="note_345" id="note_345"></a><a href="#line_340">345.</a> +<b>oaten stops</b>: see <i>Lyc.</i> 33, “the <i>oaten</i> +flute”; 88, “But now my <i>oat</i> proceeds”; 188, +“the tender stops of various <i>quills</i>.” The +shepherd’s pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, +“the oaten pipe,” “oat,” etc., came to denote +any instrument of this kind and even to signify “pastoral +poetry.” The ‘stops’ are the holes over which the +player’s fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or +“ventages” (<i>Ham.</i> iii. 2. 372). See also <a +href="#note_893">note</a> on ‘azurn,’ l. 893.</p> + +<p><a name="note_346" id="note_346"></a><a href="#line_340">346.</a> +<b>whistle ... lodge</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the sound of the shepherd +calling his dog by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as +in <i>L’Alleg.</i> 63, “the ploughman <i>whistles</i> +o’er the furrowed land.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_347" id="note_347"></a><a href="#line_340">347.</a> +<b>Count ... dames</b>: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 52, “the +cock ... Stoutly struts his <i>dames</i> before”; 114, +“Ere the first cock his matin rings.” Grammatically, +‘count’ (infinitive) forms with ‘cock’ the +complex object of ‘might hear.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_349" id="note_349"></a><a href="#line_340">349.</a> +<b>innumerous</b>, innumerable (Lat. <i>innumerus</i>). Comp. <i>Par. +Lost</i>, vii. 455, “<i>Innumerous</i> living creatures”; +ix. 1089.</p> + +<p><a name="note_350" id="note_350"></a><a href="#line_350">350.</a> +<b>hapless</b>, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, +etc., which strictly refer to a person’s hap or chance, whether good or +bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an +unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary.</p> + +<p>With reference to the word <i>fortune</i>, Max Müller says: +“We speak of good and evil fortune, so did the French, and so +did the Romans. By itself <i>fortuna</i> was taken either in a good or +a bad sense, though it generally meant good fortune. Whenever there +could be any doubt, the Romans defined <i>fortuna</i> by such +adjectives as <i>bona</i>, <i>secunda</i>, <i>prospera</i>, for good; +<i>mala</i> or <i>adversa</i> for bad fortune ... <i>Fortuna</i> came +to mean something like chance.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_351" id="note_351"></a><a href="#line_350">351.</a> +<b>her</b>, herself. On the reflexive use of <i>her</i>, see <a +href="#note_163">note</a>, l. 163.</p> + +<p><a name="note_352" id="note_352"></a><a href="#line_350">352.</a> +<b>burs</b>; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, <i>e.g.</i> the +burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_355" id="note_355"></a><a href="#line_350">355.</a> +<b>leans</b>. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply +<i>she</i>: otherwise <i>leans</i> would be intransitive and its +nominative ‘head’: see <a href="#note_715">note</a>, l. +715. <b>fraught</b>, freighted, filled. <i>Freight</i> is itself a +later form of <i>fraught</i>: in <i>Sams. Agon.</i>, 1075, +<i>fraught</i> is a noun (Ger. <i>fracht</i>, a load). See line <a +href="#line_730">732</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_356" id="note_356"></a><a href="#line_350">356.</a> +<b>What</b>, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: “What +(shall be done) if (she be) in wild amazement?”</p> + +<p><a name="note_358" id="note_358"></a><a href="#line_350">358.</a> +<b>savage hunger</b>. ‘Hunger’ is put by synecdoche for +hungry animals.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_71" id="Page_71" title="71"></a> +<a name="note_359" id="note_359"></a><a href="#line_350">359.</a> +<b>over-exquisite</b>, <i>i.e.</i> too curious, over-inquisitive. +<i>Exquisite</i> is here used in the sense of <i>inquisitive</i>; in +modern English ‘exquisite’ has a passive sense only, while +‘inquisitive’ has an active sense (Lat. <i>quaero</i>, to +seek): see <a href="#note_714">note</a>, l. 714.</p> + +<p>“The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between +fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common +apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds +on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here +the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast +of character” (Warton).</p> + +<p><a name="note_360" id="note_360"></a><a href="#line_360">360.</a> +<b>To cast the fashion</b>, <i>i.e.</i> to prejudge the form. +‘To cast’ was common in the sense of to calculate or +compute; see Shakespeare, ii. <i>Henry IV.</i> i. 1. 166, “You +<i>cast</i> the event of war.” Some think, however, that the +word has here its still more restricted sense as used in astrology, +<i>e.g.</i> “to <i>cast</i> a nativity”; others see in it +a reference to the founder’s art; and others to medical +diagnosis.</p> + +<p><a name="note_361" id="note_361"></a><a href="#line_360">361.</a> +<b>Grant they be so</b>: a concessive clause = granted that the evils +turn out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. <a +href="#line_360">364</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_362" id="note_362"></a><a href="#line_360">362.</a> +<b>What need</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> why should a man anticipate his +hour of sorrow. ‘What’ = for what (Lat. <i>quid</i>): +comp. l. <a href="#line_750">752</a>; also <i>On Shakespeare</i>, 6, +“<i>What need’st</i> thou such weak witness of thy +name?” On the verb <i>need</i> Abbott, § 297, says: +“It is often found with ‘what,’ where it is +sometimes hard to say whether ‘what’ is an adverb and +‘need’ a verb, or ‘what’ an adjective and +‘need’ a noun. ‘What need the bridge much broader +than the flood?’ <i>M. Ado</i>, i. 1. 318; either ‘<i>why +need</i> the bridge (be) broader?’ or ‘<i>what need</i> is +there (that) the bridge (be) broader?’”</p> + +<p><a name="note_363" id="note_363"></a><a href="#line_360">363.</a> +Compare Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “rather bear those ills we +have,” etc.; and Pope’s <i>Essay on Man</i>, “Heaven +from all creatures hides the book of fate,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_366" id="note_366"></a><a href="#line_360">366.</a> +<b>to seek</b>, at a loss. Compare <i>Par. Lost</i>, viii. 197: +“Unpractised, unprepared, and still <i>to seek</i>.” +Bacon, in <i>Adv. of Learning</i>, has: “Men bred in learning +are perhaps <i>to seek</i> in points of convenience.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_367" id="note_367"></a><a href="#line_360">367.</a> +<b>unprincipled in virtue’s book</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ignorant of +the elements of virtue. A principle (Lat. <i>principium</i>, +beginning) is a fundamental truth; hence the current sense of +‘unprincipled,’ implying that the man who has no fixed +rules of life is the one who will readily fall into evil. Comp. +<i>Sams. Agon.</i> 760, “wisest and best men ... with goodness +<i>principled</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_368" id="note_368"></a><a href="#line_360">368.</a> +<b>bosoms</b>, holds within itself. The nom. is +‘goodness.’ ‘Peace’ is +governed by ‘in,’ l. <a href="#line_360">367</a>.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_72" id="Page_72" title="72"></a> +<a name="note_369" id="note_369"></a><a href="#line_360">369.</a> +<b>As that</b>, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to +‘unprincipled’; in modern English such a clause would be +introduced by ‘that,’ and in Elizabethan English either by +‘as’ or ‘that.’ Here we have both connectives +together. <b>single</b>: see <a href="#note_204">note</a>, l. 204. +noise, sound.</p> + +<p><a name="note_370" id="note_370"></a><a href="#line_370">370.</a> +<b>Not being in danger</b>, <i>i.e.</i> she not being in danger: absolute +construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional +clause—‘if she be not in danger, the mere want of light +and noise need not disquiet her.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_371" id="note_371"></a><a href="#line_370">371.</a> +<b>constant</b>, steadfast.</p> + +<p><a name="note_372" id="note_372"></a><a href="#line_370">372.</a> +<b>misbecoming</b>: see <a href="#note_47">note</a> on +‘misused,’ l. 47. <b>plight</b>, condition. Skeat +derives this word from A.S. <i>pliht</i>, danger; others connect it with +<i>pledge</i>. It is distinct from <i>plight</i>, l. +<a href="#line_300">301</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_373" id="note_373"></a><a href="#line_370">373.</a> +<b>Virtue could see</b>, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines +<a href="#line_380">381-5</a>: comp. Spenser: “Virtue gives +herself light through darkness for to wade,” <i>F. Q.</i> i. 1. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="note_375" id="note_375"></a><a href="#line_370">375.</a> +<b>flat sea</b>: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 98, “level brine”: Lat. +<i>aequor</i>, a flat surface, used of the sea.</p> + +<p><a name="note_376" id="note_376"></a><a href="#line_370">376.</a> +<b>seeks to</b>, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the +English Bible: see <i>Deut.</i> xii. 5, “<i>unto</i> his +habitation shall ye <i>seek</i>”; <i>Isaiah</i>, viii. 19, xi. +10, xix. 3; i. <i>Kings</i>, x. 24.</p> + +<p><a name="note_377" id="note_377"></a><a href="#line_370">377.</a> +<b>her best nurse, Contemplation</b>. The wise man loves contemplation +and solitude: comp. <i>Il Penseroso</i>, 51, where “the Cherub +Contemplation” is the “first and chiefest” of +Melancholy’s companions. In Sidney’s <i>Arcadia</i>, +“Solitariness” is “the nurse of these +contemplations.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_378" id="note_378"></a><a href="#line_370">378.</a> +<b>plumes</b>. Some would read <i>prunes</i>, both words being used of +a bird’s smoothing or trimming its feathers—or (more +strictly) picking out damaged feathers. See Skeat’s +<i>Dictionary</i>, and compare Pope’s line, “Where +Contemplation <i>prunes</i> her ruffled wings.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_379" id="note_379"></a><a href="#line_370">379.</a> +<b>various</b>, varied: comp. l. <a href="#line_20">22</a>. The +‘bustle of resort’ is in <i>L’Allegro</i> the +‘busy hum of men.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_380" id="note_380"></a><a href="#line_380">380.</a> +<b>all to-ruffled</b>. Milton wrote “all to ruffled,” +which may be interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all +too ruffled, (3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the +text as it is etymologically correct: <i>to</i> is an intensive prefix +as in ‘to-break’ = to break in pieces; +‘to-tear’ = to tear asunder, etc.; while <i>all</i> (= +quite) is simply an adverb modifying <i>to-ruffled</i>. But about 1500 +<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> this idiom was misunderstood, and the +prefix <i>to</i> was detached from the verb and either read along with +<i>all</i> (thus all-to = altogether), or confused with <i>too</i> +(thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is doubtful in which sense +Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may have disregarded its +origin. See Morris, § 324; Abbott, §§ 28, 436.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_73" id="Page_73" title="73"></a> +<a name="note_381" id="note_381"></a><a href="#line_380">381.</a> +<b>He that has light</b>, etc. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 254: +‘The mind is its own place,’ etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_382" id="note_382"></a><a href="#line_380">382.</a> +<b>centre</b>, <i>i.e.</i> centre of the earth: comp. <i>Par. Lost</i> +i. 686, “Men also ... Ransacked the <i>centre</i>”; and +<i>Hymn Nat.</i> 162, “The aged Earth ... Shall from the surface +to the <i>centre</i> shake.” Sometimes the word +‘centre’ was used of the Earth itself, the <i>fixed</i> +centre of the whole universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The +idea here conveyed, however, is not that of immovability (as in +<i>Par. Reg.</i> iv. 534, “as a <i>centre</i> firm”) but +of utter darkness.</p> + +<p><a name="note_385" id="note_385"></a><a href="#line_380">385.</a> +<b>his own dungeon</b>: comp. <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 156, “Thou art +become (O worst imprisonment!) The <i>dungeon</i> of +thyself.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_386" id="note_386"></a><a href="#line_380">386.</a> +<b>most affects</b>: has the greatest liking for. It now generally +denotes rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. <i>pretend</i>. +Lines <a href="#line_380">386-392</a> may be compared with <i>Il +Pens.</i> 167-174.</p> + +<p><a name="note_393" id="note_393"></a><a href="#line_390">393.</a> +<b>Hesperian tree</b>. An allusion to the tree on which grew the +golden apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the +sleepless dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the ‘dragon +watch’: comp. Tennyson’s <i>Dream of Fair Women</i>, 255, +“Those dragon eyes of anger’d Eleanor Do hunt me, day and +night.” See also ll. <a href="#line_980">981-983</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_395" id="note_395"></a><a href="#line_390">395.</a> +<b>unenchanted</b>, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to +be enchanted. Similarly Milton has ‘unreproved’ for +‘not reprovable,’ ‘unvalued’ for +‘invaluable,’ etc.; and Shakespeare has +‘unavoided’ for ‘inevitable,’ +‘imagined’ for ‘imaginable,’ etc. Abbott +(§ 375) says: The passive participle is often used to signify, +not that which <i>was</i> and <i>is</i>, but that which <i>was</i> and +therefore <i>can be hereafter</i>; in other words <i>-ed</i> is used +for <i>-able</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_396" id="note_396"></a><a href="#line_390">396.</a> +Compare Chaucer, <i>Doctor’s Tale</i>, 44, “She flowered +in virginity, With all humility and abstinence.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_398" id="note_398"></a><a href="#line_390">398.</a> +<b>unsunned</b>, hidden. Comp. <i>Cym.</i> ii. 5. 13, “As chaste +as <i>unsunned</i> snow”; <i>F. Q.</i> ii. 7, “Mammon ... +<i>Sunning</i> his treasure hoar.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_400" id="note_400"></a><a href="#line_400">400.</a> +<b>as bid me hope</b>, etc. The construction is, ‘as (you may) +bid me (to) hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that +Danger will) let a single helpless maiden pass uninjured.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_401" id="note_401"></a><a href="#line_400">401.</a> +<b>Danger will wink on</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> danger will shut its +eyes to an opportunity. To <i>wink on</i> or <i>wink at</i> is to +connive, to refuse to see something: comp. <i>Macbeth</i>, i. 4. 52, +“The eye <i>wink</i> at the hand”; <i>Acts</i>, xvii. 30. +Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in <i>As You Like It</i>, +i. 3. 113: “Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than +gold.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_403" id="note_403"></a><a href="#line_400">403.</a> +<b>surrounding</b>. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who +uses this word in its current sense of ‘encompassing,’ +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_74" id="Page_74" title="74"></a> +which it has acquired through a supposed connection with <i>round</i>. +Shakespeare does not use it. Its original sense is ‘to +overflow’ (Lat. <i>superundare</i>).</p> + +<p><a name="note_404" id="note_404"></a><a href="#line_400">404.</a> +<b>it recks me not</b>, <i>i.e.</i> I do not heed: an impersonal use +of the old verb <i>reck</i> (A.S. <i>récan</i>, to care). Comp. +<i>Lyc.</i> 122, “What <i>recks</i> it them.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_405" id="note_405"></a><a href="#line_400">405.</a> +<b>dog them both</b>, <i>i.e.</i> follow closely upon night and +loneliness. Comp. <i>All’s Well</i>, iii. 4. 15, “death +and danger <i>dogs</i> the heels of worth.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_407" id="note_407"></a><a href="#line_400">407.</a> +<b>unownèd</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ‘thinking her to be +unowned,’ or ‘as if unowned.’ Milton thus, as in +Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a participle.</p> + +<p><a name="note_408" id="note_408"></a><a href="#line_400">408.</a> +<b>infer</b>, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See +Shakespeare, iii. <i>Hen. VI.</i> ii. 2. 44, “<i>Inferring</i> +arguments of mighty force”; <i>K. John</i>, iii. 1. 213, +“Need must needs <i>infer</i> this principle”: also +<i>Par. Lost</i>, viii. 91, “great or bright <i>infers</i> not +excellence.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_409" id="note_409"></a><a href="#line_400">409.</a> +<b>without all doubt</b>, <i>i.e.</i> beyond all doubt: a Latinism = +<i>sine omni dubitatione</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_411" id="note_411"></a><a href="#line_410">411.</a> +<b>arbitrate the event</b>, judge of the result. The meaning is +‘Where the result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped +and to be dreaded I incline to hope.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_413" id="note_413"></a><a href="#line_410">413.</a> +<b>squint suspicion</b>. Compare Quarles: “Heart-gnawing Hatred, and +squint-eyed Suspicion.” To look askance or sideways frequently indicates +suspicion.</p> + +<p><a name="note_419" id="note_419"></a><a href="#line_410">419.</a> +<b>if Heaven gave it</b>, <i>i.e.</i> even <i>although</i> Heaven gave it.</p> + +<p><a name="note_420" id="note_420"></a><a href="#line_420">420.</a> +<b>’Tis chastity</b>. “The passage which begins here and +ends at line <a href="#line_470">475</a> is a concentrated expression +of the moral of the whole Masque, and an exposition also of a cardinal +idea of Milton’s philosophy” (Masson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_421" id="note_421"></a><a href="#line_420">421.</a> +<b>clad in complete steel</b>, <i>i.e.</i> completely armed; comp. +<i>Hamlet</i>, i. 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the +first syllable.</p> + +<p><a name="note_422" id="note_422"></a><a href="#line_420">422.</a> +<b>quivered nymph</b>. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with +bow and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity “Diana’s +livery.” So in Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of +Chastity, has “at her back a bow and quiver gay.” +‘Quivered’ is the Latin <i>pharetrata</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_423" id="note_423"></a><a href="#line_420">423.</a> +<b>trace</b>, traverse, track. <b>unharboured</b>, affording no shelter. +Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.</p> + +<p><a name="note_424" id="note_424"></a><a href="#line_420">424.</a> +<b>Infámous</b>, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now +implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult.</p> + +<p><a name="note_425" id="note_425"></a><a href="#line_420">425.</a> +<b>sacred rays</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_780">782</a>.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_75" id="Page_75" title="75"></a> +<a name="note_426" id="note_426"></a><a href="#line_420">426.</a> +<b>bandite or mountaineer</b>. ‘Bandite’ (in Shakespeare +<i>bandetto</i>, and now <i>bandit</i>) is borrowed from the Italian +<i>bandito</i>, outlawed or <i>banned</i>. ‘Mountaineer,’ +here used in a bad sense. In modern English it has reverted to its +original sense—a dweller in mountains. The dwellers in mountains +are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the changes of +meaning. See <i>Temp.</i> iii. 3. 44, “Who would believe that +there were <i>mountaineers</i> Dew-lapp’d like bulls”; +also <i>Cym.</i> iv. 2. 120, “Who called me traitor, +<i>mountaineer</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_428" id="note_428"></a><a href="#line_420">428.</a> +<b>very desolation</b>. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced +to Lat. <i>verus</i> = true: comp. l. <a href="#line_640">646</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_429" id="note_429"></a><a href="#line_420">429.</a> +<b>shagged ... shades</b>. ‘Shagged’ is rugged or shaggy, +and ‘horrid’ is probably used in the Latin sense of +‘rough’: see <a href="#note_38">note</a>, l. 38.</p> + +<p><a name="note_430" id="note_430"></a><a href="#line_430">430.</a> +<b>unblenched</b>, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded +with ‘unblanched,’ is from <i>blench</i>, a causal of +<i>blink</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_431" id="note_431"></a><a href="#line_430">431.</a> +<b>Be it not</b>: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.</p> + +<p><a name="note_432" id="note_432"></a><a href="#line_430">432.</a> +<b>Some say</b>, etc. Compare <i>Hamlet</i>, i. 1. 158:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Some say that, ever against that season comes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bird of dawning singeth all night long:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_433" id="note_433"></a><a href="#line_430">433.</a> +<b>In fog or fire</b>, etc. Comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 93, “those +demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or underground”: an +allusion to the different orders and powers of demons as accepted in +the Middle Ages. Burton, in his <i>Anat. of Mel.</i>, quotes from a +writer who thus enumerates the kinds of sublunary +spirits—“fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and +subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_434" id="note_434"></a><a href="#line_430">434.</a> +<b>meagre hag</b>, lean witch. <i>Hag</i> is from A.S. +<i>haegtesse</i>, a prophetess or witch. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. +662; <i>M. W. of W.</i> iv. 2. 188, “Come down, you witch, you +<i>hag</i>.” <b>unlaid ghost</b>, unpacified or wandering +spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of spirits +and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see <i>Temp.</i> v. +1. 40; <i>King Lear</i>, iii. 4. 120, “This is the foul fiend +Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew,” etc.) until “the +first cock his matin rings” (<i>L’Alleg.</i> 14). +‘Curfew’ (Fr. <i>couvre-feu</i> = fire-cover), the bell +that was rung at eight or nine o’clock in the evening as a +signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.</p> + +<p><a name="note_436" id="note_436"></a><a href="#line_430">436.</a> +<b>swart faery of the mine</b>. In Burton’s <i>Anat. of Mel.</i> +we read, “Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do +as much harm. Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_76" id="Page_76" title="76"></a> +bigger, some less. These are commonly seen about mines of +metals,” etc. Warton quotes from an old writer: “Pioneers +or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines there appear strange +shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the labourers in the +pit.” ‘Swart’ (also <i>swarty</i>, <i>swarth</i>, +and <i>swarthy</i>) here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these +subterranean spirits were called the <i>Svartalfar</i>, or black +elves. Comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 138, “the <i>swart</i> star,” +where ‘swart’ = swart making.</p> + +<p><a name="note_438" id="note_438"></a><a href="#line_430">438.</a> +<b>Do ye believe</b>. <i>Ye</i> is properly a second person plural, but (like +<i>you</i>) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § +236.</p> + +<p><a name="note_439" id="note_439"></a><a href="#line_430">439.</a> +<b>old schools of Greece</b>. The brother now turns for his arguments from +the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of +Greece.</p> + +<p><a name="note_440" id="note_440"></a><a href="#line_440">440.</a> +<b>to testify</b>, to bear witness to: comp. l. <a +href="#line_240">248</a>, <a href="#line_420">421</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_441" id="note_441"></a><a href="#line_440">441.</a> +<b>Dian</b>. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was +insensible to the bolts of Cupid, <i>i.e.</i> to the power of love. She was +the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the +same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and +animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in <i>Cynthia’s +Revels</i>, v. 1, “Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_442" id="note_442"></a><a href="#line_440">442.</a> +<b>silver-shafted queen</b>. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as +huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which +were frequently called <i>shafts</i>, and as the latter she bore shafts or +rays of light. <i>Shaft</i> is etymologically ‘a <i>shaven</i> +rod.’ In Chaucer, <i>C. T.</i> 1364, ‘shaft’ = arrow.</p> + +<p><a name="note_443" id="note_443"></a><a href="#line_440">443.</a> +<b>brinded lioness</b>. ‘Brinded’ = brindled or streaked. +Comp. “<i>brinded</i> cat,” <i>Macb.</i> iv. 1. 1: +<i>brind</i> is etymologically connected with <i>brand</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_444" id="note_444"></a><a href="#line_440">444.</a> +<b>mountain-pard</b>, <i>i.e.</i> panther or other spotted wild beast. +<i>Pard</i>, originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds +leo-<i>pard</i> and camelo-<i>pard</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_445" id="note_445"></a><a href="#line_440">445.</a> +<b>frivolous ... Cupid</b>. See the speech of Oberon, <i>M. N. D.</i> +ii. 1. 65. The epithet ‘frivolous’ applies to Cupid in his +lower character as the wanton god of sensual love, not in his +character as the fair Eros who unites all the discordant elements of +the universe: see <a href="#note_1004">note</a>, l. 1004.</p> + +<p><a name="note_447" id="note_447"></a><a href="#line_440">447.</a> +<b>snaky-headed Gorgon shield</b>. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, +frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and +who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa +was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. +Minerva (Athene) placed the monster’s head in the centre of her shield, +which confounded Cupid: see <i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 610.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_77" id="Page_77" title="77"></a> +<a name="note_449" id="note_449"></a><a href="#line_440">449.</a> +<b>freezed</b>, froze. The adjective ‘congealed’ is used +proleptically, the meaning being ‘froze into a stone so that it +was congealed.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_450" id="note_450"></a><a href="#line_450">450.</a> +<b>But</b>, except: a preposition.</p> + +<p><a name="note_451" id="note_451"></a><a href="#line_450">451.</a> +<b>dashed</b>, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.</p> + +<p><a name="note_452" id="note_452"></a><a href="#line_450">452.</a> +<b>blank awe</b>: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, ‘blank +astonishment,’ and see <i>Par. Lost</i>, ix. 890.</p> + +<p><a name="note_454" id="note_454"></a><a href="#line_450">454.</a> +<b>so</b>, <i>i.e.</i> chaste.</p> + +<p><a name="note_455" id="note_455"></a><a href="#line_450">455.</a> +<b>liveried angels lackey her</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ministering angels +attend her. So, in <i>L’Alleg.</i> 62, “the clouds in +thousand <i>liveries</i> dight”; a servant’s livery being +the distinctive dress <i>delivered</i> to him by his master. +‘Lackey,’ to wait upon, from ‘lackey’ (or +lacquey), a footboy, who runs by the side of his master. The word is +here used in a good sense, without implying servility (as in <i>Ant. +and Cleop.</i> i. 4. 46, “<i>lackeying</i> the varying +tide”). ‘Her’: the soul. Milton is fond of the +feminine personification: see line <a href="#line_390">396</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_457" id="note_457"></a><a href="#line_450">457.</a> +<b>vision</b>: a trisyllable.</p> + +<p><a name="note_458" id="note_458"></a><a href="#line_450">458.</a> +<b>no gross ear</b>. See notes, l. <a href="#note_112">112</a> and <a +href="#note_997">997</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_459" id="note_459"></a><a href="#line_450">459.</a> +<b>oft converse</b>, frequent communion. <i>Oft</i> is here used adjectively: +this use is common in the English Bible, <i>e.g.</i> i. <i>Tim.</i> v. +23, “thine <i>often</i> infirmities.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_460" id="note_460"></a><a href="#line_460">460.</a> +<b>Begin to cast ... turns</b>. ‘Begin’ is subjunctive; +‘turns’ is indicative: the latter may be used to convey +greater certainty and vividness.</p> + +<p><a name="note_461" id="note_461"></a><a href="#line_460">461.</a> +<b>temple of the mind</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the body. This metaphor is +common: see Shakespeare, <i>Temp.</i> i. 2. 57, “There’s +nothing ill can dwell in such a <i>temple</i>”; and the Bible, +<i>John</i>, ii. 21, “He spake of the <i>temple</i> of his +body.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_462" id="note_462"></a><a href="#line_460">462.</a> +<b>the soul’s essence</b>. As if, by a life of purity, the body +gradually became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the +soul’s immortality.</p> + +<p><a name="note_465" id="note_465"></a><a href="#line_460">465.</a> +<b>most</b>, above all.</p> + +<p><a name="note_467" id="note_467"></a><a href="#line_460">467.</a> +<b>soul grows clotted</b>. This doctrine is expounded in Plato’s +<i>Phaedo</i>, in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>Socrates</i> (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself +invisible, departs to the invisible world—to the divine and +immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, +and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and +wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as +they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this +true, Cebes?</p> + +<p><i>Cebes.</i> Yes; beyond a doubt.</p> + +<p><i>Soc.</i> But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_78" id="Page_78" title="78"></a>the +time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body +always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the +desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that +the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and +see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts—the soul, I +mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual +principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be +attained only by philosophy;—do you suppose that such a soul will +depart pure and unalloyed?</p> + +<p><i>Ceb.</i> That is impossible.</p> + +<p><i>Soc.</i> She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual +association and constant care of the body have wrought into her +nature.</p> + +<p><i>Ceb.</i> Very true.</p> + +<p><i>Soc.</i> And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty +and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed +and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is +afraid of the invisible and of the world below—prowling about +tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell +us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not +departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible.</p> + +<p><i>Ceb.</i> That is very likely, Socrates.</p> + +<p><i>Soc.</i> Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the +souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to +wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former +evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the +craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are +imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to +find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their +former lives.</p></div> + +<p>Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the +soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes +that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from +agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is +obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever +to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the +body.—<i>Extracted from Jowett’s Translation of the +Dialogues.</i></p></div> + +<p><a name="note_468" id="note_468"></a><a href="#line_460">468.</a> +<b>imbodies and imbrutes</b>, <i>i.e.</i> becomes materialised and brutish. +<i>Imbody</i>, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. +<i>Imbrute</i> (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in +<i>Par. Lost</i>, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have +been suggested by the <i>Phaedo</i>, where the souls of the wicked are said +to “find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their +former lives,” those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and +animals of that sort.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_79" id="Page_79" title="79"></a> +<a name="note_469" id="note_469"></a><a href="#line_460">469.</a> +<b>divine property</b>. In his prose works Milton calls the soul +‘that divine particle of God’s breathing’: comp. +Horace, <i>Sat.</i> ii. 2. 79, “affigit humo <i>divinae +particulam aurae</i>”; and Plato’s <i>Phaedo</i>, +“The soul resembles the divine, and the body the +mortal.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_470" id="note_470"></a><a href="#line_470">470.</a> +<b>gloomy shadows damp</b>: see <a href="#note_207">note</a>, l. 207.</p> + +<p><a name="note_471" id="note_471"></a><a href="#line_470">471.</a> +<b>charnel-vaults</b>, burial vaults. ‘Charnel’ (O.F. +<i>charnel</i>, Lat. <i>carnalis</i>; <i>caro</i>, flesh): comp. +‘carnal,’ l. <a href="#line_470">474</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_473" id="note_473"></a><a href="#line_470">473.</a> +<b>As loth</b>, etc. The construction is: ‘As (being) loth to +leave the body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a +degenerate and degraded state.’ <b>it</b>: by syntax this +pronoun refers to ‘shadows,’ or (in thought) +‘<i>such</i> shadow.’ It seems best, however, to connect +it with ‘soul,’ line <a href="#line_460">467</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_474" id="note_474"></a><a href="#line_470">474.</a> +<b>sensualty</b>. The modern form of the word is <i>sensuality</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_475" id="note_475"></a><a href="#line_470">475.</a> +<b>degenerate and degraded</b>: the former because +‘imbodied,’ the latter because ‘imbruted.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_476" id="note_476"></a><a href="#line_470">476.</a> +<b>divine Philosophy</b>, <i>i.e.</i> such philosophy as is to be +found in “the divine volume of Plato” (as Milton has +called it).</p> + +<p><a name="note_477" id="note_477"></a><a href="#line_470">477.</a> +<b>crabbed</b>, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. <i>Crab</i> (a shell-fish) +and <i>crab</i> (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the +idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat).</p> + +<p><a name="note_478" id="note_478"></a><a href="#line_470">478.</a> +<b>Apollo’s lute</b>: Apollo being the god of song and music. +Comp. <i>Par. Reg.</i> i. 478-480; <i>L. L. L.</i> iv. 3. 342, +“as sweet and musical As bright <i>Apollo’s lute</i>, +strung with his hair.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_479" id="note_479"></a><a href="#line_470">479.</a> +<b>nectared sweets</b>. Nectar (Gk. <span class="translit" +title="nektar">νέκταρ</span>, the drink +of the gods) is repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest +sweetness: see l. <a href="#line_830">838</a>; <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. +333, “Nectarine fruits”; v. 306, 426.</p> + +<p><a name="note_482" id="note_482"></a><a href="#line_480">482.</a> +<b>Methought</b>: see <a href="#note_171">note</a>, l. 171. <b>what +should it be?</b> This is a direct question about a past event, and +means ‘What was it likely to be?’ “It seems to +increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about the +past (time having been given for investigation) implies more +perplexity than a doubt about the future” (Abbott, § 325). +<b>For certain</b>, <i>i.e.</i> for certain truth, certainly.</p> + +<p><a name="note_483" id="note_483"></a><a href="#line_480">483.</a> +<b>night-foundered</b>; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, +‘to founder’ is to go to the bottom (Fr. <i>fondrer</i>; +Lat. <i>fundus</i>, the bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also +applied to horses sinking in a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see +<i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 204), and is sometimes stigmatised as +meaningless; on the contrary, it is very expressive, implying that the +brothers are swallowed up in night and have lost their way. +‘Founder’ is here used in the secondary sense of ‘to +be lost’ or ‘to be in distress.’</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_80" id="Page_80" title="80"></a> +<a name="note_484" id="note_484"></a><a href="#line_480">484.</a> +<b>neighbour</b>. An adjective, as in line <a +href="#line_570">576</a>, and frequently in Shakespeare. Neighbour = +nigh-boor, <i>i.e.</i> a peasant dwelling near.</p> + +<p><a name="note_487" id="note_487"></a><a href="#line_480">487.</a> +<b>Best draw</b>: we had best draw our swords.</p> + +<p><a name="note_489" id="note_489"></a><a href="#line_480">489.</a> +<b>Defence is a good cause</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> ‘in defending +ourselves we are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our +side.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_490" id="note_490"></a><a href="#line_490">490.</a> +<b>That hallo</b>. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has +halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given +in the edition of <i>Comus</i> printed by Lawes in 1637: <i>He hallos; the +Guardian Dæmon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd.</i></p> + +<p><a name="note_491" id="note_491"></a><a href="#line_490">491.</a> +<b>you fall</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> otherwise you will fall on our swords.</p> + +<p><a name="note_493" id="note_493"></a><a href="#line_490">493.</a> +<b>sure</b>: see <a href="#note_246">note</a>, l. 246.</p> + +<p><a name="note_494" id="note_494"></a><a href="#line_490">494.</a> +<b>Thyrsis</b>, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. +In Milton’s <i>Epitaphium Damonis</i> it stands for Milton +himself; in <i>Comus</i> it belongs to Lawes, who now receives +additional praise for his musical genius. In lines <a +href="#line_80">86-88</a> the compliment is enforced by alliterative +verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (<a +href="#line_490">495-512</a>). Masson thinks that the poet, having +spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced this rhymed +passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by calling up +the cadence of known English pastoral poems.</p> + +<p><a name="note_495" id="note_495"></a><a href="#line_490">495.</a> +<b>sweetened ... dale</b>; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying +that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis’ music.</p> + +<p><a name="note_496" id="note_496"></a><a href="#line_490">496.</a> +<b>huddling</b>. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: +comp. Horace, <i>Ars Poetica</i>, 19, “Et <i>properantis</i> +aquae per amoenos ambitus agros.” <b>madrigal</b>: a pastoral or +shepherd’s song (Ital. <i>mandra</i>, a flock): such +compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and by +Milton’s father.</p> + +<p><a name="note_497" id="note_497"></a><a href="#line_490">497.</a> +<b>swain</b>: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes +strictly a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the +compounds boat-<i>swain</i>, cox-<i>swain</i>. See <i>Arc.</i> 26, +“Stay, gentle <i>swains</i>,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_499" id="note_499"></a><a href="#line_490">499.</a> +<b>pent</b>, penned, participle of <i>pen</i>, to shut up (A.S. +<i>pennan</i>, which is connected with <i>pin</i>, seen in +<i>pin</i>-fold, l. <a href="#line_0">7</a>). <b>forsook</b>: a form +of the past tense used for the participle.</p> + +<p><a name="note_501" id="note_501"></a><a href="#line_500">501.</a> +<b>and his next joy</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ‘and (thou), his next +joy’—words addressed to the second brother.</p> + +<p><a name="note_502" id="note_502"></a><a href="#line_500">502.</a> +<b>trivial toy</b>, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but +‘trivial’ may here be used in the strict sense of common +or well-known. Compare <i>Il Pens.</i> 4, “fill the fixed mind +with all your <i>toys</i>”; and Burton’s <i>Anat. of +Mel.</i>, “complain of <i>toys</i>, and fear without a +cause.”</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_81" id="Page_81" title="81"></a> +<a name="note_503" id="note_503"></a><a href="#line_500">503.</a> +<b>stealth of</b>, things stolen by.</p> + +<p><a name="note_506" id="note_506"></a><a href="#line_500">506.</a> +<b>To this my errand</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> in comparison with this +errand of mine and the anxiety it involved. ‘To’ = in +comparison with; an idiom common in Elizabethan English, <i>e.g.</i> +“There is no woe <i>to</i> this correction,” <i>Two +Gent.</i> ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187.</p> + +<p><a name="note_508" id="note_508"></a><a href="#line_500">508.</a> +<b>How chance</b>. <i>Chance</i> is here a verb followed by a substantive +clause: ‘how does it chance that,’ etc. This idiom is common in +Shakespeare (Abbott, § 37), where it sometimes has the force of an +adverb (= perchance): compare <i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 492: “If chance the +radiant sun, with farewell sweet,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_509" id="note_509"></a><a href="#line_500">509.</a> +<b>sadly</b>, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. +<i>saed</i>); hence the two meanings, ‘serious’ and +‘sorrowful,’ the former being common in Spenser, Bacon, +and Shakespeare. Comp. ‘some <i>sad</i> person of known +judgment’ (Bacon); <i>Romeo and Jul.</i> i. 1. 205, “Tell +me in <i>sadness</i>, who is that you love”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, +vi. 541, “settled in his face I see <i>Sad</i> +resolution.” See also Swinburne’s <i>Miscellanies</i> +(1886), page 170.</p> + +<p><a name="note_510" id="note_510"></a><a href="#line_510">510.</a> +<b>our neglect</b>, <i>i.e.</i> neglect on our part.</p> + +<p><a name="note_511" id="note_511"></a><a href="#line_510">511.</a> +<b>Ay me</b>! Comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 56, “Ay me! I fondly +dream”; 154. This exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to +the French <i>aymi</i> = alas, for me! and has no connection with +<i>ay</i> or <i>aye</i> = yes. In this line <i>true</i> rhymes with +<i>shew</i>: comp. <i>youth</i> and <i>shew’th</i>, <i>Sonnet on +his having arrived at the age of twenty-three</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_512" id="note_512"></a><a href="#line_510">512.</a> +<b>Prithee</b>. A familiar fusion of <i>I pray thee</i>, sometimes written +‘pr’ythee.’ Lines <a href="#line_490">495-512</a> +form nine rhymed couplets.</p> + +<p><a name="note_513" id="note_513"></a><a href="#line_510">513.</a> +<b>ye</b>: a dative. See <a href="#note_216">note</a> on l. 216.</p> + +<p><a name="note_514" id="note_514"></a><a href="#line_510">514.</a> +<b>shallow</b>. Comp. <i>Son.</i> i. 6, “<i>shallow</i> +cuckoo’s bill,” xii<i>a</i>. 12; +<i>Arc.</i> 41, “<i>shallow</i>-searching Fame.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_515" id="note_515"></a><a href="#line_510">515.</a> +<b>sage poets</b>. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the +chimera. Milton (<i>Par. Lost</i>, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as +“taught by the heavenly Muse.” Comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> +17; <i>Il Pens.</i> 117, +“great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_516" id="note_516"></a><a href="#line_510">516.</a> +<b>storied</b>, related: ‘To story’ is here used actively: +the past participle is frequent in the sense of ‘bearing a story +or picture’; <i>Il Pens.</i> 159, “storied windows”; +Gray’s <i>Elegy</i>, 41, “storied urn”; +Tennyson’s “storied walls.” <i>Story</i> is an +abbreviation of <i>history</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_517" id="note_517"></a><a href="#line_510">517.</a> +<b>Chimeras</b>, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in <i>Par. +Lost</i>, ii. 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with +the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It +was slain by Bellerophon. As a common name ‘chimera’ is +used by Milton to denote a terrible monster, and is now current (in an +age which rejects such fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_82" id="Page_82" title="82"></a> +fancy; hence the adj. <i>chimerical</i> = wild or fanciful. +<b>enchanted isles</b>, <i>e.g.</i> those of Circe and Calypso, +mentioned in the <i>Odyssey</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_518" id="note_518"></a><a href="#line_510">518.</a> +<b>rifted rocks</b>: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, +entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in +the south of Greece (see Virgil <i>Georg.</i> iv. 467, <i>Taenarias +fauces</i>); here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive +Cerberus.</p> + +<p><a name="note_519" id="note_519"></a><a href="#line_510">519.</a> +<b>such there be</b>. See <a href="#note_12">note</a> on l. 12 for +this indicative use of <i>be</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_520" id="note_520"></a><a href="#line_520">520.</a> +<b>navel</b>, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (<i>Cor.</i> iii. l. +123) speaks of the ‘navel of the state’; and in Greek +Calypso’s island was ‘the navel of the sea,’ while +Apollo’s temple at Delphi was ‘the navel of the +earth.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_521" id="note_521"></a><a href="#line_520">521.</a> +<b>Immured</b>, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up +within walls (Lat. <i>murus</i>, a wall).</p> + +<p><a name="note_523" id="note_523"></a><a href="#line_520">523.</a> +<b>witcheries</b>, enchantments.</p> + +<p><a name="note_526" id="note_526"></a><a href="#line_520">526.</a> +<b>murmurs</b>. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or +murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as +here) over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. +l. <a href="#line_810">817</a> and <i>Arc.</i> 60, “With +puissant words and <i>murmurs</i> made to bless.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_529" id="note_529"></a><a href="#line_520">529.</a> +<b>unmoulding reason’s mintage charactered</b>, <i>i.e.</i> +defacing those signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human +face. The figure is taken from the process of melting down coins in +order to restamp them. ‘Charactered’: here used in its +primary sense (Gk. <span class="translit" +title="charaktr">χαρακτήρ</span>, +an engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase ‘printed +characters.’ The word is here accented on the second syllable; +in modern English on the first.</p> + +<p><a name="note_531" id="note_531"></a><a href="#line_530">531.</a> +<b>crofts that brow</b> = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, +generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 8, +“low-browed rocks.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_532" id="note_532"></a><a href="#line_530">532.</a> +<b>bottom glade</b>: the glade below. The word <i>bottom</i>, however, +is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of ‘valley’; hence +‘bottom glade’ might be interpreted ‘glade in the +valley.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_533" id="note_533"></a><a href="#line_530">533.</a> +<b>monstrous rout</b>; see <a href="#note_92">note</a> on the +stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. ‘the bottom of the monstrous +world,’ <i>Lyc.</i> 158. In <i>Aen.</i> vii. 15, we read that +when Aeneas sailed past Circe’s island he heard “the +growling noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves +fiercely howling.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_534" id="note_534"></a><a href="#line_530">534.</a> +<b>stabled wolves</b>, wolves in their dens. <i>Stable</i> (= a +standing-place) is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, +<i>e.g.</i> in <i>Par. Lost</i>, xi. 752, “sea-monsters whelped +and <i>stabled</i>.” Comp. “Stable for camels,” +<i>Ezek.</i> xxv. 5, and the Latin <i>stabulum</i>, <i>Aen.</i> vi. +179, <i>stabula alta ferarum</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_535" id="note_535"></a><a href="#line_530">535.</a> +<b>Hecate</b>: see l. <a href="#line_130">135</a>.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_83" id="Page_83" title="83"></a> +<a name="note_536" id="note_536"></a><a href="#line_530">536.</a> +<b>bowers</b>: see <a href="#note_43">note</a>, l. 45.</p> + +<p><a name="note_539" id="note_539"></a><a href="#line_530">539.</a> +<b>unweeting</b>; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in +Spenser’s <i>Faerie Queene</i>, both in the compounds and in the +simple verb <i>weet</i>, a corruption of <i>wit</i> (A.S. +<i>witan</i>, to know). Compare <i>Par. Reg.</i> i. 126, +“<i>unweeting</i>, he fulfilled The purposed counsel.” +<i>Sams. Agon.</i> 1680; Chaucer, <i>Doctor’s Tale</i>, +“Virginius came <i>to weet</i> the judge’s +will.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_540" id="note_540"></a><a href="#line_540">540.</a> +<b>by then</b>, <i>i.e.</i> by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus +implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is +generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone +is used. Another rendering is to make line <a href="#line_540">540</a> +parenthetical.</p> + +<p><a name="note_542" id="note_542"></a><a href="#line_540">542.</a> +<b>knot-grass</b>. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, +however, suppose marjoram to be intended here. <b>dew-besprent</b>, +<i>i.e.</i> besprinkled with dew: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 29. <i>Be</i> is +an intensive prefix; <i>sprent</i> is connected with M.E. +<i>sprengen</i>, to scatter, of which <i>sprinkle</i> is the +frequentative form.</p> + +<p><a name="note_543" id="note_543"></a><a href="#line_540">543.</a> +<b>sat me down</b>: see <a href="#note_61">note</a>, l. 61.</p> + +<p><a name="note_544" id="note_544"></a><a href="#line_540">544.</a> +<b>canopied, and interwove</b>. Comp. <i>M. N. D.</i> ii. 2. 49, +‘I know a bank,’ etc. In sense ‘canopied’ +refers to ‘bank,’ and ‘interwove’ to +‘ivy.’ There are two forms of the past participle of +<i>weave</i>, viz. <i>wove</i> and <i>woven</i>: see <i>Arc.</i> +47.</p> + +<p><a name="note_545" id="note_545"></a><a href="#line_540">545.</a> +<b>flaunting</b>, showy, garish. In <i>Lyc.</i> 146, the poet first wrote +‘garish columbine,’ then ‘well-attired woodbine.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_547" id="note_547"></a><a href="#line_540">547.</a> +<b>meditate ... minstrelsy</b>, <i>i.e.</i> to sing a pastoral song: +comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 32. 66. <i>To meditate the muse</i> is a Virgilian +phrase: see <i>Ecl.</i> i. and vi. The Lat. <i>meditor</i> has the +meaning of ‘to apply one’s self to,’ and does not +mean merely to ponder.</p> + +<p><a name="note_548" id="note_548"></a><a href="#line_540">548.</a> +<b>had</b>, should have: comp. l. <a href="#line_390">394</a>. <b>ere +a close</b>, <i>i.e.</i> before he had finished his song (Masson). +<i>Close</i> occurs in the technical sense of ‘the final cadence +of a piece of music.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_549" id="note_549"></a><a href="#line_540">549.</a> +<b>wonted</b>: see <a href="#note_332">note</a>, l. 332.</p> + +<p><a name="note_550" id="note_550"></a><a href="#line_550">550.</a> +<b>barbarous</b>: comp. <i>Son.</i> xii. 3, “a <i>barbarous</i> +noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, etc.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_551" id="note_551"></a><a href="#line_550">551.</a> +<b>listened them</b>. The omission of <i>to</i> after verbs of hearing +is frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. “To listen our +purpose”; “List a brief tale”; “hearken the +end”; etc. (see Abbott, § 199). ‘Them’: this +refers to the <i>sounds</i> implied in ‘dissonance.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_552" id="note_552"></a><a href="#line_550">552.</a> +<b>unusual stop</b>. This refers to what happened at l. <a +href="#line_140">145</a>, and the “soft and solemn-breathing +sound” to l. <a href="#line_230">230</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_553" id="note_553"></a><a href="#line_550">553.</a> +<b>drowsy frighted</b>, <i>i.e.</i> drowsy and frighted. The noise of +Comus’s rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night +awake and in a state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_84" id="Page_84" title="84"></a> +put an end to their uneasiness. In Milton’s corrected <span +class="smcap">MS.</span> we read ‘drowsy flighted,’ where +the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as +expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a +hyphen. Comp. ‘dewy-feathered,’ <i>Il Pens.</i> 146, and +others of Milton’s remarkable compound adjectives. The reading +in the text is that of the printed editions of 1637, ’45, and +’73.</p> + +<p><a name="note_554" id="note_554"></a><a href="#line_550">554.</a> +<b>Sleep</b> (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot +with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. <i>Macbeth</i>, ii. l. 51, +“curtained sleep.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_555" id="note_555"></a><a href="#line_550">555.</a> +‘The lady’s song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly +that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly +have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could +always be filled by such music.’ Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. +604, “She all night long her amorous descant sung; <i>Silence +was pleased</i>”; also Jonson’s <i>Vision of Delight</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Yet let it like an odour rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To all the senses here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fall like sleep upon their eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or music in their ear.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_558" id="note_558"></a><a href="#line_550">558.</a> +<b>took</b>, taken. Comp. l. <a href="#line_250">256</a> for a similar +use of <i>take</i>, and compare ‘forsook,’ line <a +href="#line_490">499</a>, for the form of the word.</p> + +<p><a name="note_560" id="note_560"></a><a href="#line_560">560.</a> +<b>Still</b>, always. This use of <i>still</i> is frequent in +Elizabethan writers (Abbott, § 69). <b>I was all ear</b>. Warton +notes this expressive idiom (still current) in Drummond’s +‘Sonnet to the Nightingale,’ and in <i>Tempest</i>, iv. l. +59, “all eyes.” <i>All</i> is an attribute of +<i>I</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_561" id="note_561"></a><a href="#line_560">561.</a> +<b>create a soul</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> breathe life even into the +dead: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 144. Warton supposes that Milton may +have seen a picture in an old edition of Quarles’ +<i>Emblems</i>, in which “a soul in the figure of an infant is +represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its prison.” +<i>Rom.</i> vii. 24, “Who shall deliver me out of the body of +this death?”</p> + +<p><a name="note_565" id="note_565"></a><a href="#line_560">565.</a> +<b>harrowed</b>, distracted, torn as by a <i>harrow</i>. This is +probably the meaning, but there is a verb ‘harrow’ +corrupted from ‘harry,’ to subdue; hence some read +“harried with grief and fear.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_567" id="note_567"></a><a href="#line_560">567.</a> +<b>How sweet ... how near</b>. This sentence contains two +exclamations: this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is +“How sweet ... <i>and</i> how near,” etc. We may, however, +render the line thus: “How sweet..., how near the deadly snare +<i>is</i>!”</p> + +<p><a name="note_568" id="note_568"></a><a href="#line_560">568.</a> +<b>lawns</b>. ‘Lawn’ is always used by Milton to denote an +open stretch of grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied +generally to a smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_85" id="Page_85" title="85"></a> +a house. The origin of the word is disputed, but it seems radically to +denote ‘a clear space’; it is said to be cognate with +<i>llan</i> used as a prefix in the names of certain Welsh towns, +<i>e.g.</i> Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes the form +launde.</p> + +<p><a name="note_569" id="note_569"></a><a href="#line_560">569.</a> +<b>often trod by day</b>, which I have often trod by day, and therefore +know well.</p> + +<p><a name="note_570" id="note_570"></a><a href="#line_570">570.</a> +<b>mine ear</b>: see <a href="#note_171">note</a>, l. 171.</p> + +<p><a name="note_571" id="note_571"></a><a href="#line_570">571.</a> +<b>wizard</b>. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the +suffix <i>-ard</i>, or <i>-art</i>, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton +occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or +magical, without implying contempt: see <i>Lyc.</i> 55, “Deva +spreads her <i>wizard</i> stream.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_572" id="note_572"></a><a href="#line_570">572.</a> +<b>certain signs</b>: see l. <a href="#line_640">644</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_574" id="note_574"></a><a href="#line_570">574.</a> +<b>aidless</b>: an obsolete word. See Trench’s <i>English Past +and Present</i> for a list of about 150 words in <i>-less</i>, all now +obsolete: comp. l. 92, <a href="#note_92">note</a>. <b>wished</b>: +wished for. Comp. l. <a href="#line_950">950</a> for a similar +transitive use of the verb.</p> + +<p><a name="note_575" id="note_575"></a><a href="#line_570">575.</a> +<b>such two</b>: two persons of such and such description.</p> + +<p><a name="note_577" id="note_577"></a><a href="#line_570">577.</a> +<b>durst not stay</b>. <i>Durst</i> is the old past tense of +<i>dare</i>, and is used as an auxiliary: the form <i>dared</i> is +much more modern, and may be used as an independent verb.</p> + +<p><a name="note_578" id="note_578"></a><a href="#line_570">578.</a> +<b>sprung</b>: see <a href="#note_256">note</a>, l. 256.</p> + +<p><a name="note_579" id="note_579"></a><a href="#line_570">579.</a> +<b>till I had found</b>. The language is extremely condensed here, the +meaning being, ‘I began my flight, and continued to run till I +<i>had found</i> you’; the pluperfect tense is used because the +speaker is looking back upon his meeting with the brothers after +completing a long narration of the circumstances that led up to it. +If, however, ‘had found’ be regarded as a subjunctive, the +meaning is, ‘I began my flight, and determined to continue it +until I had found (<i>i.e.</i> should have found) you.’ Comp. +Abbott § 361.</p> + +<p><a name="note_581" id="note_581"></a><a href="#line_580">581.</a> +<b>triple knot</b>, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell.</p> + +<p><a name="note_584" id="note_584"></a><a href="#line_580">584.</a> +“This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final +efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, +delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry” (Warton). +And Todd adds: “Religion here gave energy to the poet’s +strains.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_585" id="note_585"></a><a href="#line_580">585.</a> +<b>safely</b>, confidently. <b>period</b>, sentence.</p> + +<p><a name="note_586" id="note_586"></a><a href="#line_580">586.</a> +<b>for me</b>, <i>i.e.</i> for my part, so far as I am concerned: see +<a href="#note_602">note, l. 602</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_588" id="note_588"></a><a href="#line_580">588.</a> +<b>Which erring men call Chance</b>. ‘Erring’ belongs to +the predicate; “which men erroneously call Chance.” Comp. +Pope, <i>Essay on Man</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_86" id="Page_86" title="86"></a> +<span class="i0">“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All chance, direction, which thou canst not see.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_588a" id="note_588a"></a><a href="#line_580">588.</a> +<b>this I hold firm</b>. ‘This’ is explained by the next +line: “this belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I +hold firmly.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_590" id="note_590"></a><a href="#line_590">590.</a> +<b>enthralled</b>, enslaved. Comp. l. <a href="#line_1020">1022</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_591" id="note_591"></a><a href="#line_590">591.</a> +<b>which ... harm</b>, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.</p> + +<p><a name="note_595" id="note_595"></a><a href="#line_590">595-7.</a> +<b>Gathered like scum</b>, etc. According to one editor, this image is +“taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots +which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun’s body and +after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that +fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes +it.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_598" id="note_598"></a><a href="#line_590">598.</a> +<b>pillared firmament</b>. The firmament (Lat. <i>firmus</i>, firm or +solid) is here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on +pillars. The ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid +firmament: comp. <i>Par. Reg.</i> iv. 55; also <i>Wint. Tale</i>, ii. +l. 100, “If I mistake In those foundations which I build upon, +The centre is not big enough to bear A schoolboy’s +top.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_602" id="note_602"></a><a href="#line_600">602.</a> +<b>for</b>, as regards. <b>let ... girt</b>, though he be surrounded.</p> + +<p><a name="note_603" id="note_603"></a><a href="#line_600">603.</a> +<b>grisly legions</b>. ‘Grisly,’ radically the same as +<i>grue-some</i> = horrible, causing terror. In <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. +821, Satan is called “the grisly king.” +‘Legions’ is here a trisyllable.</p> + +<p><a name="note_604" id="note_604"></a><a href="#line_600">604.</a> +<b>sooty flag of Acheron</b>. Acheron, at first the name of a river of +the lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower +world generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher’s <i>Locusts</i> +(1627): “All hell run out and sooty flags display.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_605" id="note_605"></a><a href="#line_600">605.</a> +<b>Harpies and Hydras</b>. The Harpies (lit. ‘spoilers’) +were unclean monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with +long claws and gaunt faces. <i>Hydras</i>, here used as a general name +for monstrous water-serpents (Gk. <i>hydōr</i>, water); the name +was first given to the nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See +<i>Son.</i> xv. 7, “new rebellions raise Their <i>Hydra</i> +heads”; the epithet ‘hydra-headed’ being applied to +a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength +from every endeavour to repress it.</p> + +<p><a name="note_607" id="note_607"></a><a href="#line_600">607.</a> +<b>return his purchase back</b>, <i>i.e.</i> ‘give up his +spoil,’ or (as in the <span class="smcap">MS</span>.) +‘release his new-got prey.’ To purchase (Fr. +<i>pour-chasser</i>) originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to +acquire by fair means or foul: it thus came to mean ‘to +steal’ (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, and Shakespeare), and +‘to buy’ (its current sense). See Trench, <i>Study of +Words</i>; <i>Hen. V.</i> iii. 2. 45, “They +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_87" id="Page_87" title="87"></a> will +steal anything, and call it <i>purchase</i>”; i. <i>Hen. IV.</i> +ii. l. 101, “thou shalt have share in our +<i>purchase</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_609" id="note_609"></a><a href="#line_600">609.</a> +<b>venturous</b>, ready to venture. See <a href="#note_79">note</a>, +l. 79.</p> + +<p><a name="note_610" id="note_610"></a><a href="#line_610">610.</a> +<b>yet</b>, nevertheless. The meaning is: ‘<i>Though</i> thy +courage is useless, <i>yet</i> I love it.’ <b>emprise</b>: an +obsolete form (common in Spenser) of <i>enterprise</i>. It is +literally that which is undertaken; hence ‘readiness to +undertake’; hence ‘daring.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_611" id="note_611"></a><a href="#line_610">611.</a> +<b>can do thee little stead</b>, <i>i.e.</i> can help thee little. +<i>Stead</i>, both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain +phrases, <i>e.g.</i> ‘to stand in good stead,’ and in +composition, <i>e.g.</i> <i>stead</i>fast, home<i>stead</i>, +in<i>stead</i>, Hamp<i>stead</i>, etc. Its strict sense is place or +position: comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 3, “How little you +<i>bested</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_612" id="note_612"></a><a href="#line_610">612.</a> +<b>Far other arms</b>, <i>i.e.</i> very different arms. +‘Other’ has here its radical sense of +‘different,’ and can therefore be modified by an +adverb.</p> + +<p><a name="note_615" id="note_615"></a><a href="#line_610">615.</a> +<b>unthread</b>, loosen. Comp. <i>Temp.</i> iv. l. 259, “Go +charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, +shorten up their sinews With aged cramps.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_617" id="note_617"></a><a href="#line_610">617.</a> +<b>As to make this relation</b>, <i>i.e.</i> as to be able to tell this.</p> + +<p><a name="note_619" id="note_619"></a><a href="#line_610">619.</a> +<b>a certain shepherd lad</b>. This is supposed to refer to Charles +Diodati, Milton’s dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th +elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem <i>Epitaphium +Damonis</i>, in which he alludes to his friend’s medical and botanical +skill:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy friend the name and healing powers of each.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 toright">(<i>Cowper’s translation.</i>)<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_620" id="note_620"></a><a href="#line_620">620.</a> +<b>Of small regard to see to</b>: in colloquial English, ‘not +much to look at.’ This is an old idiom: comp. Greek <span +class="translit" title="kalos idein">καλὸς +ἰδεῖν</span>: see English Bible, +“goodly to look to,” i. <i>Sam.</i> xvi. 12; <i>Ezek.</i> +xxiii. 15; <i>Jer.</i> xlvii. 3.</p> + +<p><a name="note_621" id="note_621"></a><a href="#line_620">621.</a> +<b>virtuous</b>, of healing power: see <a href="#note_165">note</a>, +l. 165. Comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 113, “the virtuous ring and +glass.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_623" id="note_623"></a><a href="#line_620">623.</a> +<b>beg me sing</b>: see <a href="#note_304">note</a>, l. 304.</p> + +<p><a name="note_625" id="note_625"></a><a href="#line_620">625.</a> +<b>ecstasy</b>: see <a href="#note_261">note</a>, l. 261. The Greek +<i>ekstasis</i> = standing out of one’s self.</p> + +<p><a name="note_626" id="note_626"></a><a href="#line_620">626.</a> +<b>scrip</b>, wallet.</p> + +<p><a name="note_627" id="note_627"></a><a href="#line_620">627.</a> +<b>simples</b>, medicinal herbs. ‘Simple’ (Lat. +<i>simplicem</i>, ‘one-fold,’ ‘not compound’) +was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its popular use +in the sense of ‘herb’ or ‘drug.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_630" id="note_630"></a><a href="#line_630">630.</a> +<b>me</b>, <i>i.e.</i> for me: the ethic dative.</p> + +<p><a name="note_633" id="note_633"></a><a href="#line_630">633.</a> +<b>bore</b>. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the +plant or the root.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_88" id="Page_88" title="88"></a> <a +name="note_634" id="note_634"></a><a href="#line_630">634.</a> +<b>unknown and like esteemed</b>: known and esteemed to a like extent, +<i>i.e.</i> in both cases not at all. <i>Like</i> here corresponds to +the prefix <i>un</i> in <i>unknown</i>. On the description of the +plant, see Introduction, reference to Ascham’s +<i>Scholemaster</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_635" id="note_635"></a><a href="#line_630">635.</a> +<b>clouted shoon</b>, patched shoes. The expression is found in +Shakespeare, ii. <i>Hen. VI.</i> iv. 2. 195, “Spare none but +such as go in <i>clouted shoon</i>”; <i>Cym.</i> iv. 2. 214, +“put My <i>clouted brogues</i> from off my feet, whose rudeness +Answer’d my steps too loud”: see examples in Mayhew and +Skeat’s <i>M. E. Dictionary</i>. There are instances, however, +of <i>clout</i> in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole +of a shoe. In either sense of the word ‘clouted shoon’ +would be heavy and coarse. <i>Shoon</i> is an old plural (O.E. +<i>scon</i>); comp. <i>hosen</i>, <i>eyen</i> (= eyes), <i>dohtren</i> +(= daughters), <i>foen</i> (= foes), etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_636" id="note_636"></a><a href="#line_630">636.</a> +<b>more med’cinal</b>, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: +And yet | more med | ’cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. +<b>Moly</b>. When +Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who +said: “Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring +deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of +Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee +all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast +drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; +so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the +slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, +and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the +flower was like to milk. <i>Moly</i> the gods call it, but it is hard for +mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible” +(<i>Odyssey</i>, x. 280, etc., <i>Butcher and Lang’s +translation</i>). In his first Elegy Milton alludes to Mōly as +the counter-charm to the spells of Circe: see also Tennyson’s +<i>Lotos-Eaters</i>, “beds of amaranth and <i>moly</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_638" id="note_638"></a><a href="#line_630">638.</a> +<b>He called it Hæmony</b>. <i>He</i> is the shepherd lad of +line <a href="#line_610">619</a>. <i>Haemony</i>: Milton invents the +plant, both name and thing. But the adjective <i>Haemonian</i> is +used, in Latin poetry as = <i>Thessalian</i>, Haemonia being the old +name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as a land of magic, +‘Haemonian’ acquired the sense of ‘magical’ +(see Ovid, <i>Met.</i> vii 264, “<i>Haemonia</i> radices valle +resectas,” etc.), and Milton’s Haemony is simply +“the magical plant.” Coleridge supposes that by the +prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and +triumph of the Christian life.</p> + +<p><a name="note_639" id="note_639"></a><a href="#line_630">639.</a> +<b>sovran use</b>: see <a href="#note_41">note</a>, l. 41. The use of +this adjective with charms, medicines, or remedies of any kind was so +very common that the word came to imply ‘all-healing,’ +‘supremely efficacious’; see <i>Cor.</i> ii. 1. 125, +“The most <i>sovereign</i> prescription in Galen.”</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_89" id="Page_89" title="89"></a> <a +name="note_640" id="note_640"></a><a href="#line_640">640.</a> +<b>mildew blast</b>: comp. <i>Arc.</i> 48-53, <i>Ham.</i> iii. 4. 64, +“Here is your husband; Like a <i>mildew’d</i> ear +<i>Blasting</i> his wholesome brother.” A mildew blast is one +giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew (A.S. +meledeáw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of +dry east winds was favourable to its formation.</p> + +<p><a name="note_642" id="note_642"></a><a href="#line_640">642.</a> +<b>pursed it up</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> put it in my wallet, though I +did not attach much importance to it. <b>little reckoning</b>: comp. +<i>Lyc.</i> 116, where the very same phrase occurs.</p> + +<p><a name="note_643" id="note_643"></a><a href="#line_640">643.</a> +<b>Till now that</b>. Here <i>that</i> = when, the clause introduced by it +being explanatory of <i>now</i> (see Abbott, § 284).</p> + +<p><a name="note_646" id="note_646"></a><a href="#line_640">646-7.</a> +<b>Entered ... came off</b>. ‘I entered into the very midst of +his treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.’ +<i>Lime-twigs</i> = snares; in allusion to the practice of catching +birds by means of twigs smeared with a viscous substance (called on +that account ‘birdlime’). Shakespeare makes repeated +allusion to this practice: see <i>Macbeth</i>, iv. 2. 34; <i>Two +Gent.</i> ii. 2. 68; ii. <i>Hen. VI.</i> i. 3. 91; etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_649" id="note_649"></a><a href="#line_640">649.</a> +<b>necromancer’s hall</b>. Warton supposes that Milton here +thought of a magician’s castle which has an enchanted hall +invaded by Christian knights, as we read of in the romances of +chivalry. <i>Necromancer</i>, lit. one who by magical power can +commune with the dead (Gk. <span class="translit" +title="nekros">νεκρός</span>, a corpse); +hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with that of +the Lat. <i>niger</i>, black, the art of necromancy came to be called +“the black art.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_650" id="note_650"></a><a href="#line_650">650.</a> +<b>Where if he be</b>, Lat. <i>ubi si sit</i>: in English the relative +adverb in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a +demonstrative adverb; thus, ‘<i>and</i> if he be +<i>there</i>.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_651" id="note_651"></a><a href="#line_650">651.</a> +<b>brandished blade</b>. Comp. Hermes’ advice to Ulysses: +“When it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, +even then draw thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as +one eager to slay her,” <i>Odyssey</i>, x. <b>break his +glass</b>. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir Guyon break the +golden cup of the enchantress Excess, <i>F. Q.</i> i. 12, stanza +56.</p> + +<p><a name="note_652" id="note_652"></a><a href="#line_650">652.</a> +<b>luscious</b>, delicious. The word is a corruption of <i>lustious</i> from +O.E. <i>lust</i> = pleasure: see <a href="#note_49">note</a>, l. 49.</p> + +<p><a name="note_653" id="note_653"></a><a href="#line_650">653.</a> +<b>But seize his wand</b>. The force of this injunction is shown by lines +<a href="#line_810">815-819</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_654" id="note_654"></a><a href="#line_650">654.</a> +<b>menace high</b>, violent threat. <i>High</i> is thus used in a +number of figurative senses, <i>e.g.</i> a high wind, a high hand, +high passions (<i>Par. Lost</i>, ix. 123), high descent, high design, +etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_655" id="note_655"></a><a href="#line_650">655.</a> +<b>Sons of Vulcan</b>. In the <i>Aeneid</i> (Bk. viii. 252) we are +told that Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), “vomited +from his throat huge volumes of smoke” when pursued by Hercules, +“<i>Faucibus ingentem fumum</i>,” etc.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_90" id="Page_90" title="90"></a> <a +name="note_657" id="note_657"></a><a href="#line_650">657.</a> +<b>apace</b>; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its +meaning: in Chaucer it means ‘at a foot pace,’ <i>i.e.</i> +slowly. The first syllable is the indefinite article +‘<i>a</i>’ = one (Skeat).</p> + +<p><a name="note_658" id="note_658"></a><a href="#line_650">658.</a> +<b>bear</b>: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, § 365). +(<i>Stage Direction</i>) <b>puts by</b>: puts on one side, refuses. +<b>goes about to rise</b>, <i>i.e.</i> endeavours to rise. This +idiomatic use of <i>go about</i> still lingers in the phrase ‘to +<i>go about</i> one’s business’; comp. ‘to <i>set +about</i>’ anything.</p> + +<p><a name="note_659" id="note_659"></a><a href="#line_650">659.</a> +<b>but</b>, merely: comp. l. <a href="#line_650">656</a>. After the +conditional clause we have here a verb in the present tense +(‘are chained’), a construction which well expresses the +certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer’s spell (see +Abbott, § 371).</p> + +<p><a name="note_660" id="note_660"></a><a href="#line_660">660.</a> +<b>your nerves ... alabaster</b>. Comp. <i>Tempest</i>, i. 2. 471-484. +Milton has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled +<i>alablaster</i> (in this passage and <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 544) and +once correctly, as now entered in the text (<i>Par. Reg.</i> iv. 548). +Alabaster is a kind of marble: comp. <i>On Shak.</i> 14, “make +us <i>marble</i> with too much conceiving.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_661" id="note_661"></a><a href="#line_660">661.</a> +<b>or, as Daphne was</b>, etc. The construction is: ‘if I merely +wave this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) +root-bound, as Daphne was, that fled Apollo.’ Milton inserts the +adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds +an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in +Greek and Latin. Daphne, an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, +and having prayed for aid, she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. +<span class="translit" +title="daphn">δάφνη</span>): comp, the story +of Syrinx and Pan, referred to in <i>Arc.</i> 106.</p> + +<p><a name="note_662" id="note_662"></a><a href="#line_660">662.</a> +<b>fled</b>. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. <a +href="#line_820">829</a>, <a href="#line_930">939</a>, <i>Son.</i> +xviii. 14, “<i>fly</i> the Babylonian woe”; <i>Sams. +Agon.</i> 1541, “<i>fly</i> The sight of this so horrid +spectacle.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_663" id="note_663"></a><a href="#line_660">663.</a> +<b>freedom of my mind</b>, etc. Comp. Cowper’s noble passage, +“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,” etc. +(<i>Task</i>, v. 733).</p> + +<p><a name="note_665" id="note_665"></a><a href="#line_660">665.</a> +<b>corporal rind</b>: the body, called in <i>Il Pens.</i> 92, +“this fleshly nook.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_668" id="note_668"></a><a href="#line_660">668.</a> +<b>here be all</b>. See <a href="#note_12">note</a>, l. 12.</p> + +<p><a name="note_669" id="note_669"></a><a href="#line_660">669.</a> +<b>fancy can beget</b>: comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 6.</p> + +<p><a name="note_672" id="note_672"></a><a href="#line_670">672.</a> +<b>cordial julep</b>, heart-reviving drink. <i>Cordial</i>, lit. +hearty (Lat. <i>cordi</i>, stem of <i>cor</i>, the heart): +<i>julep</i>, Persian <i>gulāb</i>, rose-water.</p> + +<p><a name="note_673" id="note_673"></a><a href="#line_670">673.</a> +<b>his</b> = its: see <a href="#note_96">note</a>, l. 96.</p> + +<p><a name="note_674" id="note_674"></a><a href="#line_670">674.</a> +<b>syrups</b>: Arab, <i>sharāb</i>, a drink, wine.</p> + +<p><a name="note_675" id="note_675"></a><a href="#line_670">675.</a> +<b>that Nepenthes</b>, etc. The allusion is explained by the following +lines of the <i>Odyssey</i>: “Then Helen, daughter of +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_91" id="Page_91" title="91"></a> +Zeus, turned to new +thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a +drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every +sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the +bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though +his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so +helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had +given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in +greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful” +(<i>Butcher and Lang’s translation</i>, iv. 219-230). +‘Nepenthes,’ a Greek adj. = sorrow-dispelling (<span +class="translit" title="n">νη</span>, privative; <span +class="translit" +title="penthos">πένθος</span>, +grief). It is here used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now +occasionally used as a general name for drugs that relieve pain.</p> + +<p><a name="note_677" id="note_677"></a><a href="#line_670">677.</a> +<b>Is of such power</b>, etc.: see <a href="#note_155">note</a>, l. +155. The construction is, ‘That Nepenthes is not of such power +to stir up joy as this (julep is, nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) +so cool to thirst.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_679" id="note_679"></a><a href="#line_670">679.</a> +<b>Why ... to yourself</b>. Comp. Shakespeare, <i>Son.</i> i. 8, +“Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_680" id="note_680"></a><a href="#line_680">680.</a> +‘Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on +certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body +should have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very +condition you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my +proferred glass at a time when you are in need of food and +rest.’ Comp. Shakespeare, <i>Son.</i> iv. “Unthrifty +loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty’s +legacy,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_685" id="note_685"></a><a href="#line_680">685.</a> +<b>unexempt condition</b>, <i>i.e.</i> a condition binding on all and +at all times, a law of human nature.</p> + +<p><a name="note_687" id="note_687"></a><a href="#line_680">687.</a> +<b>mortal frailty</b>, <i>i.e.</i> weak mortals: abstract for +concrete.</p> + +<p><a name="note_688" id="note_688"></a><a href="#line_680">688.</a> +<b>That</b>. The antecedent of this relative is <i>you</i>, l. <a +href="#line_680">682</a>. See <a href="#note_2">note</a>, l. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="note_689" id="note_689"></a><a href="#line_680">689.</a> +<b>timely</b>, seasonable. So ‘timeless’ = unseasonable +(Scott’s <i>Marmion</i>, iii. 223, “gambol rude and +<i>timeless</i> joke”): comp. <i>Son.</i> ii. 8, +“<i>timely</i>-happy spirits”; and l. <a +href="#line_970">970</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_693" id="note_693"></a><a href="#line_690">693.</a> +<b>Was this ... abode</b>? The verb is singular, because +‘cottage’ and ‘safe abode’ convey one idea: +see Comus’s words, l. <a href="#line_320">320</a>. Notice also +that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of +telling.</p> + +<p><a name="note_694" id="note_694"></a><a href="#line_690">694.</a> +<b>aspects</b>: accent on final syllable.</p> + +<p><a name="note_695" id="note_695"></a><a href="#line_690">695.</a> +<b>oughly-headed</b>: so spelt in Milton’s <span +class="smcap">MS.</span> = ugly-headed. <i>Ugly</i> is radically +connected with <i>awe</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_698" id="note_698"></a><a href="#line_690">698.</a> +<b>with visored falsehood and base forgery</b>. A vizor (also spelt +<i>visor</i>, <i>visard</i>, <i>vizard</i>) is a mask, “a false +face.” The allusion +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_92" id="Page_92" title="92"></a> is to +Comus’s disguise: see l. <a href="#line_160">166</a>. +<i>With</i> in this line, as in lines <a href="#line_670">672</a> and +<a href="#line_700">700</a>, denotes <i>by means of</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_700" id="note_700"></a><a href="#line_700">700.</a> +<b>liquorish baits</b>: see <a href="#note_162">note</a> on +<i>baited</i>, l. 162. ‘Liquorish,’ by catachresis for +<i>lickerish</i> = tempting to the appetite, causing one to +<i>lick</i> one’s lips. The student should carefully distinguish +the three words <i>lickerish</i> (as above), <i>liquorish</i> (which +is really meaningless) and <i>liquorice</i> (= licorice = Lat. +<i>glycyrrhiza</i>), a plant with a sweet root.</p> + +<p><a name="note_702" id="note_702"></a><a href="#line_700">702.</a> +<b>treasonous</b>; an obsolete word. The current form +‘treasonable’ has usually a more restricted sense: Milton +and Shakespeare use <i>treasonous</i> in the more general sense of +<i>traitorous</i> (a cognate word). In this line ‘offer’ = +the thing offered.</p> + +<p><a name="note_703" id="note_703"></a><a href="#line_700">703.</a> +<b>good men ... good things</b>. This noble sentiment Milton has +borrowed from Euripides, <i>Medea</i>, 618, <span class="translit" +title="Kakou gar andros dr' onsin ouk +echei">Κακοῦ γὰρ +ἀνδρος δῶρ᾿ +ὄνησιν οὐκ +ἔχει</span> “the gifts of the bad man are +without profit.” (Newton).</p> + +<p><a name="note_704" id="note_704"></a><a href="#line_700">704.</a> +<b>that which is not good</b>, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a +rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former +controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (<i>Rep.</i> iv. +439).</p> + +<p><a name="note_707" id="note_707"></a><a href="#line_700">707.</a> +<b>budge doctors of the Stoic fur</b>. Budge is lambskin with the wool +dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, +etc. Therefore, if both <i>budge</i> and <i>fur</i> be taken literally +the line is tautological. But ‘budge’ has the secondary +sense of ‘solemn,’ like a doctor in his robes; and +‘fur’ may be used figuratively in the sense of +<i>sect</i>, just as “the cloth” is used to denote the +clergy. The whole phrase would thus be equivalent to ‘solemn +doctors of the Stoic sect.’ It is possible that Milton makes +equivocal reference to the two senses of ‘budge.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_708" id="note_708"></a><a href="#line_700">708.</a> +<b>the Cynic tub</b> = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in +contempt for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the +forerunner of the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, +lived in a tub, and was fond of calling himself <span class="translit" +title="ho kyn">ὁ κύων</span> (the dog).</p> + +<p><a name="note_709" id="note_709"></a><a href="#line_700">709.</a> +<b>the</b>: here used generically.</p> + +<p><a name="note_711" id="note_711"></a><a href="#line_710">711.</a> +<b>unwithdrawing</b>. In this participle the termination <i>-ing</i> +seems almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. +“<i>all-obeying</i> breath” (= obeyed by all), <i>A. and +C.</i> iii. 13, 77. Nature’s gifts are not only full but +continuous.</p> + +<p><a name="note_714" id="note_714"></a><a href="#line_710">714.</a> +<b>all to please ... curious taste</b>. <i>All</i> = entirely, here +modifies the infinitives please and sate. <i>Curious</i> = fastidious: +its original sense is ‘careful’ or ‘anxious.’ +Compare the two senses of <i>exquisite</i>, <a +href="#note_359">note</a> l. 359.</p> + +<p><a name="note_715" id="note_715"></a><a href="#line_710">715.</a> +<b>set</b>, <i>i.e.</i> she set. The pronominal subject is omitted.</p> + +<p><a name="note_717" id="note_717"></a><a href="#line_710">717.</a> +<b>To deck</b>: infinitive of purpose.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_93" id="Page_93" title="93"></a> +<a name="note_718" id="note_718"></a><a href="#line_710">718.</a> +<b>in her own loins</b>, <i>i.e.</i> in the bowels of the earth.</p> + +<p><a name="note_719" id="note_719"></a><a href="#line_710">719.</a> +<b>hutched</b> = stored up, enclosed. <i>Hutch</i> is an old word for chest or +coffer, chiefly used now in the compound ‘rabbit-hutch.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_720" id="note_720"></a><a href="#line_720">720.</a> +<b>To store her children with</b>, <i>i.e.</i> <i>wherewith</i> to +store her children. Or we may read, ‘in order to store her +children with (them).’ ‘Store’ = provide.</p> + +<p><a name="note_721" id="note_721"></a><a href="#line_720">721.</a> +<b>pet of temperance</b>, <i>i.e.</i> a sudden and transitory fit of +temperance. <b>pulse</b>. So Daniel and his three companions refused +the dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; +<i>Dan.</i> i.</p> + +<p><a name="note_722" id="note_722"></a><a href="#line_720">722.</a> +<b>frieze</b>, coarse woollen cloth.</p> + +<p><a name="note_723" id="note_723"></a><a href="#line_720">723.</a> +<b>All-giver</b>. Comp. Gk. <span class="translit" +title="pandra">πανδώρα</span>, an +epithet applied to the earth as the giver of all.</p> + +<p><a name="note_725" id="note_725"></a><a href="#line_720">725.</a> +‘And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a +penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like +Nature’s bastards’: see <i>Hebrews</i> xii. 8, “If +ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then +are ye <i>bastards, and not sons</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_728" id="note_728"></a><a href="#line_720">728.</a> +<b>Who</b>. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately +preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun +<i>her</i>, <i>i.e.</i> the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such +constructions have their full force as genitives: comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 124, “her grace whom” = the grace of +her whom. <b>surcharged</b>: overloaded, ‘overfraught’ (l. +<a href="#line_730">732</a>). <b>waste fertility</b>, wasted or unused +abundance. This participial use of ‘waste’ seems to be due +to the similarity in sound to such participles as +‘elevate’ (= elevated), ‘instruct’ (= +instructed), etc., which occur in Milton (comp. <i>English Past and +Present</i>, vi.).</p> + +<p><a name="note_729" id="note_729"></a><a href="#line_720">729.</a> +<b>strangled</b>, suffocated.</p> + +<p><a name="note_730" id="note_730"></a><a href="#line_730">730.</a> +<b>winged air darked with plumes</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the air being +darkened by the flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has +<i>dark</i> as a verb. Both clauses in this line are absolute.</p> + +<p><a name="note_731" id="note_731"></a><a href="#line_730">731.</a> +<b>over-multitude</b>, outnumber. This line and the preceding one +illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of +speech was used for another.</p> + +<p><a name="note_732" id="note_732"></a><a href="#line_730">732.</a> +<b>o’erfraught</b>: see <a href="#note_355">note</a>, l. 355.</p> + +<p><a name="note_733" id="note_733"></a><a href="#line_730">733.</a> +<b>emblaze</b>, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a +reference to the sense of <i>emblazon</i>, which is from M.E. +<i>blazen</i>, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.</p> + +<p><a name="note_734" id="note_734"></a><a href="#line_730">734.</a> +<b>bestud with stars</b>. In Milton’s <span +class="smcap">MS.</span> it is ‘bestud the centre with their +star-light,’ <i>centre</i> being the ‘centre of the +earth.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_735" id="note_735"></a><a href="#line_730">735.</a> +<b>inured</b>, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_94" id="Page_94" title="94"></a> +<i>Inure</i> is from the old phrase ‘in ure’ = in +operation (Fr. <i>œuvre</i>, work).</p> + +<p><a name="note_737" id="note_737"></a><a href="#line_730">737.</a> +<b>coy</b>: shy or reserved. <b>cozened</b>: cheated, beguiled. The +origin of this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish +ends, claims kindred or <i>cousinship</i> with another, and hence a +flatterer or cheat.</p> + +<p><a name="note_739" id="note_739"></a><a +href="#line_730">739-755.</a> <b>Beauty is Nature’s coin</b>, +etc. “The idea that runs through these seventeen lines is a +favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and Todd cite parallel +passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and Drayton. Thus, from +Shakespeare (<i>M. N. D.</i> i. 1. 76-8):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Earthlier happy is the rose distilled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>See also Shakespeare’s first six sonnets, which are pervaded +by the idea in all its subtleties” (Masson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_743" id="note_743"></a><a href="#line_740">743.</a> +<b>let slip time</b>, <i>i.e.</i> allow time <i>to</i> slip: see <a +href="#note_304">note</a>, l. 304. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 178. +“Let us not <i>slip</i> the occasion.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_744" id="note_744"></a><a href="#line_740">744.</a> +<b>It</b> = beauty. <b>languished</b>, languid or languishing: comp. +<i>Par. Lost</i>, vi. 496, “their languished hope +revived”; <i>Epitaph on M. of W.</i> 33. The suffix <i>-ed</i> +is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now have <i>-ing</i> +(Abbott, § 374).</p> + +<p><a name="note_747" id="note_747"></a><a href="#line_740">747.</a> +<b>most</b>, as many as possible.</p> + +<p><a name="note_748" id="note_748"></a><a href="#line_740">748.</a> +<b>homely ... home</b>. There is here a play upon words as in <i>Two +Gent.</i> i. 1. 2: “<i>Home-keeping</i> youth have ever +<i>homely</i> wits.” <i>Homely</i> is derived from +<i>home</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_749" id="note_749"></a><a href="#line_740">749.</a> Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for +household occupations.</p> + +<p><a name="note_750" id="note_750"></a><a href="#line_750">750.</a> +<b>of sorry grain</b>, not brilliant, of poor colour. +‘Grain’ is from Lat. <i>granum</i>, a seed, applied to +small objects, and hence to the coccus or cochineal insect which +yields a variety of red dyes. Hence <i>grain</i> came to denote +certain colours, <i>e.g.</i> Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so +used by Milton: see <i>Il Pens.</i> 33, “a robe of darkest +<i>grain</i>”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, v. 285, “sky-tinctured +<i>grain</i>”; xi. 242, “A military vest of purple ... +Livelier than ... the <i>grain</i> Of Sarra,” etc. And as these +were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as ‘to dye in +grain,’ ‘a rogue in grain,’ ‘an ingrained +habit.’ (See further in Marsh’s <i>Lect. on Eng. Lang.</i> +p. 55).</p> + +<p><a name="note_751" id="note_751"></a><a href="#line_750">751.</a> +<b>sampler</b>, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a +doublet of <i>exemplar</i>. <b>tease the huswife’s wool</b>. To +<i>tease</i> is to comb or card: comp. the Lat. <i>vexare</i>. +‘Huswife’ = house-wife, further corrupted into +<i>hussy</i>. <i>Hussif</i> (a case for needles, etc.) is a different +word.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_95" id="Page_95" title="95"></a> +<a name="note_752" id="note_752"></a><a href="#line_750">752.</a> +<b>What need a vermeil-tinctured lip</b>? See <a +href="#note_362">note</a>, l. 362, on ‘what need.’ +<i>Vermeil</i>: a French spelling of <i>vermilion</i>. The name is +from Lat. <i>vermis</i>, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the +colour used to be got); and as <i>vermis</i> is cognate with Sansk. +<i>krimi</i>, a worm, it follows that <i>vermilion</i>, +<i>crimson</i>, and <i>carmine</i> are cognate.</p> + +<p><a name="note_753" id="note_753"></a><a href="#line_750">753.</a> +<b>tresses</b>. Homer (<i>Odyssey</i>, v. 390) speaks of “the +fair-tressed Dawn,” <span class="translit" title="euplokamos +s">εὐπλόκαμος +Ἠώς</span>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_755" id="note_755"></a><a href="#line_750">755.</a> +<b>advised</b>. Contrast with ‘Advice,’ l. <a +href="#line_100">108</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_756" id="note_756"></a><a href="#line_750">756.</a> +Lines <a href="#line_750">756-761</a> are not addressed to Comus.</p> + +<p><a name="note_757" id="note_757"></a><a href="#line_750">757.</a> +<b>but that</b>: were it not that.</p> + +<p><a name="note_758" id="note_758"></a><a href="#line_750">758.</a> +<b>as mine eyes</b>: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see <a +href="#note_170">note, l. 170</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_759" id="note_759"></a><a href="#line_750">759.</a> +<b>rules pranked in reason’s garb</b>, <i>i.e.</i> specious +arguments. <i>Pranked</i> = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose +works, i. 147, ed. 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service +<i>pranking</i> herself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. +<i>Wint. Tale</i>, iv. 4. 10, “Most goddess-like +<i>prank’d</i> up”; <i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 226, +“Belial, with words clothed in <i>reason’s +garb</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_760" id="note_760"></a><a href="#line_760">760-1.</a> +I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows +them to pass unchallenged. <b>bolt</b> = to sift or separate, as the +<i>boulting-mill</i> separates the meal from the bran; in this sense +the word (also spelt <i>boult</i>) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (<i>F. +Q.</i> ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (<i>Cor.</i> iii. 1. 322, <i>Wint. +Tale</i>, iv. 4. 375, “the fanned snow that’s +<i>bolted</i> By the northern blasts twice o’er,” etc.). +The spelling <i>bolt</i> has confused the word with +‘bolt,’ to shoot or start out. See Index to Globe +<i>Shakespeare</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_763" id="note_763"></a><a href="#line_760">763.</a> +<b>she would her children</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> she wished (that) her +children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. <a +href="#line_170">172</a>; <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 497-503.</p> + +<p><a name="note_764" id="note_764"></a><a href="#line_760">764.</a> +<b>cateress</b>, stewardess, provider: lit. ‘a buyer.’ +<i>Cateress</i> is feminine: the masculine is <i>caterer</i>, where +the final <i>-er</i> of the agent is unnecessarily repeated.</p> + +<p><a name="note_765" id="note_765"></a><a href="#line_760">765.</a> +<b>Means ... to the good</b>: intends ... for the good.</p> + +<p><a name="note_767" id="note_767"></a><a href="#line_760">767.</a> +<b>dictate</b>. The accent in Milton’s time was on the first +syllable, both in noun and verb. <b>spare Temperance</b>. For +Milton’s praises of Temperance comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 46, +“Spare Fast that oft with gods doth diet”; also the 6th +Elegy, 56-66; <i>Son.</i> xx., etc. “There is much in the Lady +which resembles the youthful Milton himself—he, the Lady of his +college—and we may well believe that the great debate concerning +temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly +dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet’s +own spiritual history.” Dowden’s <i>Transcripts and +Studies</i>.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_96" id="Page_96" title="96"></a> <a +name="note_768" id="note_768"></a><a href="#line_760">768.</a> If +Nature’s blessings were equally distributed instead of being +heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, <i>King +Lear</i>, iv. 1. 73) “distribution should undo excess, And each +man have enough.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_769" id="note_769"></a><a href="#line_760">769.</a> +<b>beseeming</b>, suitable. The original sense of <i>seem</i> is +‘to be fitting,’ as in the words <i>beseem</i> and +<i>seemly</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_770" id="note_770"></a><a href="#line_770">770.</a> +<b>lewdly-pampered</b>; one of Milton’s most expressive +compounds = wickedly gluttonous. <i>Lewd</i> has passed through +several changes of meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the +clergy; (2) ignorant or unlearned; and finally (2) base or +licentious.</p> + +<p><a name="note_774" id="note_774"></a><a href="#line_770">774.</a> +<b>she no whit encumbered</b>, <i>i.e.</i> Nature would not be in the +least surcharged (as Comus represented in l. <a +href="#line_720">728</a>). <i>No whit</i>, used adverbially = not in +the least, lit. ‘not a particle.’ Etymologically +<i>aught</i> = a whit, <i>naught</i> = no whit.</p> + +<p><a name="note_776" id="note_776"></a><a href="#line_770">776.</a> +<b>His praise due paid</b>, <i>i.e.</i> would be duly paid. On +<i>due</i>, see <a href="#note_12">note</a>, l. 12. <b>gluttony</b>: +abstract for concrete.</p> + +<p><a name="note_779" id="note_779"></a><a href="#line_770">779.</a> +<b>Crams</b>, <i>i.e.</i> crams himself. There are many verbs in +English that may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun +expressed, <i>e.g.</i> <i>feed</i>, <i>prepare</i>, <i>change</i>, +<i>pour</i>, <i>press</i>, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_780" id="note_780"></a><a href="#line_780">780.</a> +<b>enow</b>. ‘Enow’ conveys the notion of a number, as in +early English: it is also spelt <i>anow</i>, and in Chaucer +<i>ynowe</i>, and is the plural of <i>enough</i>. It still occurs as a +provincialism in England. On lines <a href="#line_780">780-799</a> +Masson says: “A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic +fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been +propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines <a +href="#line_420">420-475</a>).”</p> + +<p><a name="note_782" id="note_782"></a><a href="#line_780">782.</a> +<b>sun-clad power of chastity</b>. With ‘sun-clad’ compare +‘the sacred rays of chastity,’ l. <a +href="#line_420">425</a>. Similarly in the <i>Faerie Queene</i>, iii. +6, Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, “And +Phoebus with fair beams did her adorn.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_783" id="note_783"></a><a href="#line_780">783.</a> +<b>yet to what end?</b> A rhetorical question, = it would be to no +purpose.</p> + +<p><a name="note_784" id="note_784"></a><a href="#line_780">784.</a> +<b>nor ... nor</b>. These correlatives are often used in poetry for +<i>neither ... nor</i> (Shakespeare often omitting the former +altogether), and are equally correct. <i>Nor</i> is only a contraction +of <i>neither</i>, and the first may as well be contracted as the +second.</p> + +<p><a name="note_785" id="note_785"></a><a href="#line_780">785.</a> +<b>sublime notion and high mystery</b>. In the <i>Apology for +Smectymnuus</i> Milton tells of his study of the “divine volume +of Plato,” wherein he learned of the “abstracted +sublimities” of Chastity and Love: also of his study of the Holy +Scripture “unfolding these chaste and high mysteries, with +timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for +the body.”</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_97" id="Page_97" title="97"></a> +<a name="note_790" id="note_790"></a><a href="#line_790">790.</a> +<b>dear wit</b>. ‘Dear’ is here used in contempt: its +original sense is ‘precious’ (A.S. <i>deore</i>), but in +Elizabethan English it has a variety of meanings, <i>e.g.</i> intense, +serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. “sad occasion +<i>dear</i>,” <i>Lyc.</i> 6; “<i>dear</i> groans,” +<i>L. L. L.</i> v. 2. 874. Craik suggests “that the notion +properly involved in it of love, having first become generalised into +that of a strong affection of any kind, had thence passed on to that +of such an emotion the very reverse of love,” as in my +<i>dearest</i> foe. <b>gay rhetoric</b>: here so named in contempt, as +being the instrument of sophistry.</p> + +<p><a name="note_791" id="note_791"></a><a href="#line_790">791.</a> +<b>fence</b>, argumentation, <i>Fence</i> is an abbreviation of +<i>defence</i>: comp. “tongue-fence” (Milton), +“fencer in wits’ school” (Fuller), <i>Much Ado</i>, +v. 1. 75.</p> + +<p><a name="note_794" id="note_794"></a><a href="#line_790">794.</a> +<b>rapt spirits</b>. ‘Rapt’ = enraptured, as if the mind +or soul had been <i>carried out of itself</i> (Lat. <i>raptus</i>, +seized): comp. <i>Il Pens.</i> 40, “Thy <i>rapt</i> soul sitting +in thine eyes.” Milton also uses the word of the actual +snatching away of a person: “What accident hath <i>rapt</i> him +from us,” <i>Par. Lost</i>, ii. 40.</p> + +<p><a name="note_797" id="note_797"></a><a href="#line_790">797.</a> +<b>the brute Earth</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> the senseless Earth would +become sensible and assist me. ‘Brute’ = Lat. +<i>brutus</i>, dull, insensible: comp. Horace, <i>Odes</i>, i. 34. 9, +“<i>bruta tellus</i>.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_800" id="note_800"></a><a href="#line_800">800.</a> +<b>She fables not</b>: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative.</p> + +<p><a name="note_801" id="note_801"></a><a href="#line_800">801.</a> +<b>set off</b>: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 80, “<i>set off</i> to the +world.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_802" id="note_802"></a><a href="#line_800">802.</a> +<b>though not mortal</b>: <i>sc.</i> ‘I am.’ <b>shuddering +dew</b>. The epithet is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to +the dew or cold sweat which ‘dips’ or moistens his +body.</p> + +<p><a name="note_804" id="note_804"></a><a href="#line_800">804.</a> +<b>Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus</b>, etc.; in allusion to +the <i>Titanomachia</i> or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, +having been provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast +the Titans into Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as +Heaven is above the Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos +(Saturn). There is a zeugma in <i>speaks</i> as applied to +‘thunder’ and ‘chains,’ unless it be taken as +in both cases equivalent to <i>denounces</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_806" id="note_806"></a><a href="#line_800">806.</a> +<b>Come, no more!</b> Comus now addresses the lady.</p> + +<p><a name="note_808" id="note_808"></a><a href="#line_800">808.</a> +<b>canon laws of our foundation</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the established rules +of our society. “A humorous application of the language of +universities and other foundations” (Keightley).</p> + +<p><a name="note_809" id="note_809"></a><a href="#line_800">809.</a> +<b>’tis but the lees</b>, etc. <i>Lees</i> and <i>settlings</i> +are synonymous = dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological +system of the four primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, +choler, and melancholy (see Burton’s <i>Anat. of Mel.</i> i. 1, +§ ii. 2): “Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and +sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged +from the spleen”; <span class="translit" +title="melancholia">μελαγχολία</span>, +black bile. See <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 600, “<i>humours black</i> <a +class="pagebreak" name="Page_98" id="Page_98" title="98"></a>That +mingle with thy fancy”; and Nash’s <i>Terrors of the +Night</i> (1594): “(Melancholy) sinketh down to the bottom like +the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the cause of +lunacy.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_811" id="note_811"></a><a href="#line_810">811.</a> +<b>straight</b>, immediately. The adverb <i>straight</i> is now +chiefly used of direction; to indicate time <i>straightway</i> (= in a +straight way) is more usual: comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 69: +“Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_814" id="note_814"></a><a href="#line_810">814.</a> +<b>scape</b>, a mutilated form of ‘escape,’ occurs both as +a noun and a verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see <i>Par. Lost</i>, x. +5, “what can <i>scape</i> the eye of God?”; <i>Par. +Reg.</i> ii. 189, “then lay’st thy <i>scapes</i> on names +adored.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_816" id="note_816"></a><a href="#line_810">816.</a> +<b>without his rod reversed</b>. This use of the participle is a +Latinism: see <a href="#note_48">note</a>, l. 48. At the same time it +is to be noted that a phrase of this kind introduced by +‘without’ is in Latin frequently rendered by the ablative +absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because +‘without’ also governs ‘mutters.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_817" id="note_817"></a><a href="#line_810">817.</a> +<b>backward mutters</b>. The notion of a counter-charm produced by +reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs +in Ovid (<i>Met.</i> xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring +the followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes +the neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the +legend of Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled +in the neighbourhood of the River Severn. On ‘mutters,’ +see <a href="#note_526">note</a>, l. 526.</p> + +<p><a name="note_820" id="note_820"></a><a href="#line_820">820.</a> +<b>bethink me</b>. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. +“The deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for +supernatural interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit +from Jove’s court. In other words, Divine Providence is +asserted. Not without higher than human aid is the Lady rescued, and +through the weakness of the mortal instruments of divine grace but +half the intended work is accomplished.” Dowden’s +<i>Transcripts and Studies</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_821" id="note_821"></a><a href="#line_820">821.</a> +In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from +the antecedent: see <a href="#note_2">note</a>, l. 2.</p> + +<p><a name="note_822" id="note_822"></a><a href="#line_820">822.</a> +<b>Melibœus</b>. The name of a shepherd in Virgil’s +<i>Eclogue</i> i. Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale +of Sabrina is given in the <i>Faerie Queene</i>, ii. 10, 14. The tale +is also told by Geoffrey of Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and +Warner. As Milton refers to a ‘shepherd,’ <i>i.e.</i> a +poet, and to ‘the soothest shepherd,’ <i>i.e.</i> the +truest poet, and as he follows Spenser’s version of the story in +this poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with +Spenser.</p> + +<p><a name="note_823" id="note_823"></a><a href="#line_820">823.</a> +<b>soothest</b>, truest. The A.S. <i>sóth</i> meant +<i>true</i>; hence also ‘a true thing’ = truth. It +survives in <i>soothe</i> (lit. to affirm to be true), <i>soothsay</i> +(see l. <a href="#line_870">874</a>), and <i>forsooth</i> (= for a +truth).</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_99" id="Page_99" title="99"></a> +<a name="note_824" id="note_824"></a><a href="#line_820">824.</a> +<b>from hence</b>. <i>Hence</i> represents an A.S. word <i>heonan</i>, +<i>-an</i> being a suffix = from: so that in the phrase ‘from +hence’ the force of the preposition is twice introduced. Yet the +idiom is common: it arises from forgetfulness of the origin of the +word. Comp. <i>Arc.</i> 3: “which <i>we from hence</i> +descry.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_825" id="note_825"></a><a href="#line_820">825.</a> +<b>with moist curb sways</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_10">18</a>. +Sabrina was a <i>numen fluminis</i> or river-deity.</p> + +<p><a name="note_826" id="note_826"></a><a href="#line_820">826.</a> +<b>Sabrina</b>: The following is Milton’s version of the +legend:—“After this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds +Troja Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London; and began to +enact laws (Heli being then High Priest in Judea); and, having +governed the whole isle twenty-four years, died, and was buried in his +new Troy. His three sons—Locrine, Albanact, and +Camber—divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, +Loëgria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, +now Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, +with a fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people +driven back into Loëgria. Locrine and his brother go out against +Humber; who now marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river +drowned, which to this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his +camp and navy were found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above +the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence +Humber, as he went wasting the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom +Locrine, though before contracted to the daughter of Corineus, +resolves to marry. But being forced and threatened by Corineus, whose +authority and power he feared, Gwendolen the daughter he yields to +marry, but in secret loves the other; and, ofttimes retiring as to +some sacrifice, through vaults and passages made underground, and +seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a daughter equally fair, +whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death of +Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, divorcing Gwendolen, he +makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in rage, departs into +Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, was hitherto +brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an army of her +father’s friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by +the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. +But not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter +Sabra she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, +proclaims that the stream be thenceforth called after the +damsel’s name, which by length of time is changed now to +<i>Sabrina</i> or Severn.”—<i>History of Britain</i> +(1670).</p> + +<p><a name="note_827" id="note_827"></a><a href="#line_820">827.</a> +<b>Whilom</b>, of old. An obsolete word, lit. ‘at time’; +A.S. <i>hwílum</i>, instr. or dat. plur. of <i>hwil</i>, +time.</p> + +<p><a name="note_830" id="note_830"></a><a href="#line_830">830.</a> +<b>step-dame</b>. For the actual relationship, see <a +href="#note_826">note</a>, l. 826. The prefix <i>step</i> (A.S. +<i>steóp-</i>) means ‘orphaned,’ and applies <a +class="pagebreak" name="Page_100" id="Page_100" +title="100"></a>properly to a child whose parent has re-married: it +was afterwards used in the words ‘step-father,’ etc. +<i>Dame</i> (Fr. <i>dame</i>, a lady) retains the sense of mother in +the form <i>dam</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_832" id="note_832"></a><a href="#line_830">832.</a> +<b>his</b> = its: see <a href="#note_96">note</a>, l. 96.</p> + +<p><a name="note_834" id="note_834"></a><a href="#line_830">834.</a> +<b>pearled wrists</b>, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, +as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.</p> + +<p><a name="note_835" id="note_835"></a><a href="#line_830">835.</a> +<b>aged Nereus’ hall</b>, the abode of old Nereus, <i>i.e.</i> +the bottom of the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea +nymphs, is described as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in +Virgil, <i>grandaevus Nereus</i>. See also, l. <a +href="#line_870">871</a>, and compare Jonson’s +<i>Neptune’s Triumph</i>, last song: “Old Nereus, with his +fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home with pearls.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_836" id="note_836"></a><a href="#line_830">836.</a> +<b>piteous of</b>, <i>i.e.</i> full of pity for; comp. Lat. <i>miseret +te aliorum</i> (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this +passive sense; its active sense is ‘causing pity,’ +<i>i.e.</i> pitiful. Comp. Abbott, § 3. <b>reared her lank +head</b>, <i>i.e.</i> raised up her drooping head: comp. <i>Par. +Lost</i>, viii.: “In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he +<i>reared</i> me.” ‘Lank,’ lit. slender; hence weak. +The adjective <i>lanky</i> is in common use = tall and thin.</p> + +<p><a name="note_837" id="note_837"></a><a href="#line_830">837.</a> +<b>imbathe</b>, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being +reduplicated, as in Lat. <i>incidere in</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_838" id="note_838"></a><a href="#line_830">838.</a> +<b>nectared lavers</b>, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented +with asphodel flowers. On ‘nectar,’ see <a +href="#note_479">note</a>, l. 479. <b>asphodel</b>; the same, both +name and thing, as ‘daffodil’ (see <i>Lyc.</i> 150, where +it takes the form ‘daffadillies’): Gk. <span +class="translit" +title="asphodelos">ἀσφόδελος</span>, +M.E. <i>affodille</i>. The initial <i>d</i> in daffodil has not been +satisfactorily explained: see l. <a href="#line_850">851</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_839" id="note_839"></a><a href="#line_830">839.</a> +<b>the porch</b>. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the +mind: comp. <i>Haml.</i> i. 5. 63: “the porches of mine +ear”; also the phrase, “the five gateways of +knowledge.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_840" id="note_840"></a><a href="#line_840">840.</a> +<b>ambrosial oils</b>, oils of heavenly fragrance: see <a +href="#note_16">note</a>, l. 16, and compare Virgil’s use of +<i>ambrosia</i> in <i>Georg.</i> iv. 415, <i>liquidum ambrosiae +diffundit odorem</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_841" id="note_841"></a><a href="#line_840">841.</a> +<b>quick immortal change</b>: comp. l. <a href="#line_10">10</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_842" id="note_842"></a><a href="#line_840">842.</a> +<b>Made Goddess</b>, etc. This participial construction is frequent in +Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.</p> + +<p><a name="note_844" id="note_844"></a><a href="#line_840">844.</a> +<b>twilight meadows</b>: comp. “twilight groves,” <i>Il Pens.</i> 133; +“twilight ranks,” <i>Arc.</i> 99; <i>Hymn Nat.</i> 188.</p> + +<p><a name="note_845" id="note_845"></a><a href="#line_840">845.</a> +<b>Helping all urchin blasts</b>, remedying or preventing the +blighting influence of evil spirits. ‘Urchin blasts’ is +probably here used generally for what in <i>Arcades</i>, 49-53, are +called “noisome winds and blasting vapours chill,” +‘urchin’ being +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_101" id="Page_101" title="101"></a> +common in the sense of ‘goblin’ (<i>M. W. of W.</i> iv. 4. +49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which for various reasons +was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence mischievous spirits +were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare, <i>Temp</i>, i. +2. 326, ii. 2. 5, “Fright me with <i>urchin</i>-shows”; +<i>Titus And.</i> ii. 3. 101; <i>Macbeth</i>, iv. 1. 2, “Thrice +and once the <i>hedge-pig</i> whined,” etc. Compare the +protecting duties of the Genius in <i>Arcades</i>. <b>Helping</b>: +comp. the phrases, “I cannot <i>help</i> it,” <i>i.e.</i> +prevent it; “it cannot be <i>helped</i>,” <i>i.e.</i> +remedied, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_846" id="note_846"></a><a href="#line_840">846.</a> +<b>shrewd</b>. Here used in its radical sense = <i>shrew-ed</i>, +malicious, like a shrew. Comp. <i>M. N. D.</i> ii. 1, “That +<i>shrewd</i> and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow.” +Chaucer has the verb <i>shrew</i> = to curse; the current verb is +<i>beshrew</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_847" id="note_847"></a><a href="#line_840">847.</a> +<b>vialed</b>, contained in <i>phials</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_850" id="note_850"></a><a href="#line_850">850.</a> +<b>garland wreaths</b>. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the +phrase to mean ‘wreathed garlands’: comp. “twisted +braids,” l. <a href="#line_860">862</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_852" id="note_852"></a><a href="#line_850">852.</a> +<b>old swain</b>, <i>i.e.</i> Meliboeus (l. <a +href="#line_860">862</a>). “But neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor +Spenser has the development of the legend” (Masson).</p> + +<p><a name="note_853" id="note_853"></a><a href="#line_850">853.</a> +<b>clasping charm</b>: see l. <a href="#line_610">613</a>, <a +href="#line_660">660</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_854" id="note_854"></a><a href="#line_850">854.</a> +<b>warbled song</b>: comp. <i>Arc.</i> 87, “touch the +<i>warbled</i> string”; <i>Son.</i> xx. 12, “<i>Warble</i> +immortal notes.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_857" id="note_857"></a><a href="#line_850">857.</a> +<b>This will I try</b>, <i>i.e.</i> to invoke her rightly in song.</p> + +<p><a name="note_858" id="note_858"></a><a href="#line_850">858.</a> +<b>adjuring</b>, charging by something sacred and venerable. The +adjuration is contained in lines <a href="#line_860">867-889</a>, +which, in Milton’s <span class="smcap">MS.</span>, are directed +“to be said,” not sung, and in the Bridgewater <span +class="smcap">MS.</span> “to sing or not.” From the latter +<span class="smcap">MS.</span> it would appear that these lines were +sung as a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.</p> + +<p><a name="note_863" id="note_863"></a><a href="#line_860">863.</a> +<b>amber-dropping</b>: see <a href="#note_333">note</a>, l. 333; and +comp. l. <a href="#line_100">106</a>, where the idea is similar, +warranting us in taking ‘amber-dropping’ as a compound +epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) ‘amber’ +and ‘dropping.’ <i>Amber</i> conveys the ideas of luminous +clearness and fragrance: see <i>Sams. Agon.</i> 720, +“<i>amber</i> scent of odorous perfume.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_865" id="note_865"></a><a href="#line_860">865.</a> +<b>silver lake</b>, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. <i>lacus</i> in +the sense of ‘a river.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_868" id="note_868"></a><a href="#line_860">868.</a> +<b>great Oceanus</b>, Gk. <span class="translit" title="keanon te +megan">Ὠκέανόν τε +μέγαν</span>. The early Greeks regarded the +earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river called +Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and afterwards +the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and Jonson have +all applied the epithet ‘great’ to the god Oceanus; in +fact, throughout these +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_102" id="Page_102" title="102"></a> +lines Milton uses what may be called the “permanent +epithets” of the various divinities.</p> + +<p><a name="note_869" id="note_869"></a><a href="#line_860">869.</a> +<b>earth-shaking Neptune’s mace</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the trident of +Poseidon (Neptune). Homer calls him <span class="translit" +title="ennosigaios">ἐννοσίγαιος</span> += earth-shaking: comp. <i>Iliad</i>, xii. 27, “And the Shaker of +the Earth with his trident in his hands,” etc. In <i>Par. +Lost</i>, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a “mace +petrifick.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_870" id="note_870"></a><a href="#line_870">870.</a> +<b>Tethys’ ... pace</b>. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children +being the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is ‘the +venerable’ (<span class="translit" title="potnia +Tthys">πότνια +Τηθύς</span>), and in Ovid ‘the +hoary.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_871" id="note_871"></a><a href="#line_870">871.</a> +<b>hoary Nereus</b>: see <a href="#note_835">note</a>, l. 835.</p> + +<p><a name="note_872" id="note_872"></a><a href="#line_870">872.</a> +<b>Carpathian wizard’s hook</b>. See Virgil’s +<i>Georg.</i> iv. 387, “In the sea-god’s Carpathian gulf +there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea’s own hue ... all things +are known to him, those which are, those which have been, and those +which drag their length through the advancing future.” +<i>Wizard</i> = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line <a +href="#line_570">571</a>; see <a href="#note_571">note</a> there. +<i>Hook</i>: Proteus had a shepherd’s hook, because he tended +“the monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves”: +<i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 385-463.</p> + +<p><a name="note_873" id="note_873"></a><a href="#line_870">873.</a> +<b>scaly Triton’s ... shell</b>. In <i>Lycidas</i>, 89, he is +“the Herald of the Sea.” He bore a ‘wreathed +horn’ or shell which he blew at the command of Neptune in order +to still the restless waves of the sea. He was ‘scaly,’ +the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.</p> + +<p><a name="note_874" id="note_874"></a><a href="#line_870">874.</a> +<b>soothsaying Glaucus</b>. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been +changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors +as a soothsayer or oracle: see <a href="#note_823">note</a>, l. +823.</p> + +<p><a name="note_875" id="note_875"></a><a href="#line_870">875.</a> +<b>Leucothea</b>: lit. “the white goddess” (Gk. <span +class="translit" title="leuk">λευκή</span>, +<span class="translit" title="thea">θεά</span>), the +name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she +had thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband +Athamas.</p> + +<p><a name="note_876" id="note_876"></a><a href="#line_870">876.</a> +<b>her son</b>, <i>i.e.</i> Melisertes, drowned and deified along with +his mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the +Romans with their god of harbours, Portumnus.</p> + +<p><a name="note_877" id="note_877"></a><a href="#line_870">877.</a> +<b>tinsel-slippered</b>. The ‘permanent epithet’ of +Thetis, a daughter of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is +“silver-footed” (Gk. + <span class="translit" title="argyropeza">ἀργυρόπεζα</span>). Comp. <i>Neptune’s Triumph</i> (Jonson):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To wait upon him, to the Ocean’s feast.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>‘Tinsel-slippered’ is a paraphrase of this, for +‘tinsel’ is a cloth worked with silver (or gold): the +notion of cheap finery is not radical. Etymologically, <i>tinsel</i> +is that which glitters or <i>scintillates</i>. On the beauty of this +epithet, and of Milton’s compound epithets generally, see +Trench, <i>English Past and Present</i>, p. 296.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_103" id="Page_103" title="103"></a> +<a name="note_878" id="note_878"></a><a href="#line_870">878-80.</a> +<b>Sirens ... Parthenopè’s ... Ligea’s</b>. The +three Sirens (see <a href="#note_253">note</a>, l. 253) were +Parthenopè, Ligēa, and Lucosia. The tomb of the first was +at Naples (see Milton’s <i>Ad Leonaram</i>, iii., “Credula +quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana +Achelöiados,” etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil +(<i>Georg.</i> iv. 336) as a sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, +like a mermaid, in the act of smoothing her hair with a golden +comb.</p> + +<p><a name="note_881" id="note_881"></a><a href="#line_880">881.</a> +<b>Wherewith</b> = with which. The true adjective clause is +“sleeking ... locks” = with which she sleeks, etc.; and +the true participial clause is “she sits ... rocks” = +seated on ... rocks.</p> + +<p><a name="note_882" id="note_882"></a><a href="#line_880">882.</a> +<b>Sleeking</b>, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of +‘sleek’ is greasy: comp. <i>Lyc.</i> 99, “On the +level brine <i>Sleek</i> Panopè with all her sisters +played.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_885" id="note_885"></a><a href="#line_880">885.</a> +<b>heave</b>, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 145, “Orpheus’ self may heave his +head.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_887" id="note_887"></a><a href="#line_880">887.</a> +<b>bridle in</b>, <i>i.e.</i> restrain.</p> + +<p><a name="note_888" id="note_888"></a><a href="#line_880">888.</a> +<b>have</b>: subjunctive after <i>till</i>, as frequently in Milton.</p> + +<p><a name="note_890" id="note_890"></a><a href="#line_890">890.</a> +<b>rushy-fringèd</b>, fringed with rushes. The more usual form +would be rush-fringed: we may regard Milton’s form as a +participle formed from the compound noun “rushy-fringe”: +comp. ‘blue-haired,’ l. <a href="#line_20">29</a>; +“false-played,” Shakespeare, <i>A. and C.</i> iv. 14.</p> + +<p><a name="note_891" id="note_891"></a><a href="#line_890">891.</a> +<b>grows</b>. A singular with two nominatives connected by <i>and</i>: +the verb is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really +equivalent to “the willow with its osiers dank,” osiers +being water-willows or their branches. <b>dank</b>, damp: comp. +<i>Par. Lost</i>, vii. 441, “oft they quit the +<i>dank</i>” (= the water).</p> + +<p><a name="note_893" id="note_893"></a><a href="#line_890">893.</a> +<b>Thick set</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> thickly inlaid with agate and +beautified with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma +in <i>set</i>. <b>azurn sheen</b>. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again +in l. <a href="#line_1000">1003</a>; see <a href="#note_1003">note</a> +there. ‘Azurn’: modern English has a tendency to use the +noun itself as an adjective in cases where older English used an +adjective with the suffix <i>-en</i> = made of. Most of the adjectives +in <i>-en</i> that still survive do not now denote “made +of,” but simply “like,” <i>e.g.</i> golden hair, +etc. <i>Azurn</i> and <i>cedarn</i> (l. <a href="#line_990">990</a>), +<i>hornen</i>, <i>treen</i>, <i>corden</i>, <i>glassen</i>, +<i>reeden</i>, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, <i>English +Past and Present</i>. Comp. ‘oaten’ (<i>Lyc.</i> 33), +‘oaken’ (<i>Arc.</i> 45). As the words ‘azurn’ +and ‘cedarn’ are peculiar to Milton some hold that he +adopted them from the Italian <i>azzurino</i> and <i>cedrino</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_894" id="note_894"></a><a href="#line_890">894.</a> +<b>turkis</b>; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. +‘the Turkish stone,’ a Persian gem so called because it +came through Turkey (Pers. <i>turk</i>, a Turk).</p> + +<p><a name="note_895" id="note_895"></a><a href="#line_890">895.</a> +<b>That ... strays</b>. Milton does not imply that these stones +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_104" id="Page_104" title="104"></a> +were found in the Severn, nor does he in lines <a +href="#line_930">932-937</a> imply that cinnamon grows on its +banks.</p> + +<p><a name="note_897" id="note_897"></a><a href="#line_890">897.</a> +<b>printless feet</b>. Comp. <i>Temp.</i> v. i. 34: “Ye that on +the sands with <i>printless foot</i> Do chase the ebbing +Neptune”; also <i>Arc.</i> 85: “Where no print of step +hath been.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_902" id="note_902"></a><a href="#line_900">902.</a> +It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of +Sabrina’s song (‘here,’ ‘dear’; +‘request,’ ‘distressed’), and again Sabrina +continues the rhymes of the Spirit’s song +(‘distressed,’ ‘best’).</p> + +<p><a name="note_913" id="note_913"></a><a href="#line_910">913.</a> +<b>of precious cure</b>, of curative power. See <a +href="#note_155">note</a> on this use of ‘of,’ l. 155.</p> + +<p><a name="note_914" id="note_914"></a><a href="#line_910">914.</a> +References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, <i>e.g.</i> in +the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (<i>Aen.</i> vi. 229), in +Ovid (<i>Met.</i> iv. 479), in <i>Par. Lost</i>, xi. 416.</p> + +<p><a name="note_916" id="note_916"></a><a href="#line_910">916.</a> +<b>Next</b>: an adverb modifying ‘touch.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_917" id="note_917"></a><a href="#line_910">917.</a> +<b>glutinous</b>, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the +effect to the cause.</p> + +<p><a name="note_921" id="note_921"></a><a href="#line_920">921.</a> +<b>Amphitrite</b>: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the +Sea.</p> + +<p><a name="note_923" id="note_923"></a><a href="#line_920">923.</a> +<b>Anchises line</b>: see <a href="#note_827">note</a>, l. 827. +Locrine was the son of Brutus, who was the son of Silvius, who was the +grandson of the great Aeneas, who was the son of old Anchises.</p> + +<p><a name="note_924" id="note_924"></a><a href="#line_920">924.</a> +<b>may ... miss</b>. This verb is optative: so are ‘(may) +scorch,’ ‘(may) fill,’ ‘may roll,’ and +‘may be crowned.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_925" id="note_925"></a><a href="#line_920">925.</a> +<b>brimmèd</b>. The passive participle is so often used where +we now use the active that ‘brimmed’ may mean +‘brimming’ = full to the brim. On the other hand, +‘brim’ is frequent in the sense of <i>bank</i> (comp. l. +<a href="#line_110">119</a>), so that some regard +‘brimmed’ as = enclosed within banks.</p> + +<p><a name="note_928" id="note_928"></a><a href="#line_920">928.</a> +<b>singèd</b>, scorched. We should rather say +‘scorching.’ On the good wishes expressed in lines <a +href="#line_920">924-937</a> Masson’s comment is: “The +whole of this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, +involving the wish of what we should call ‘solid commercial +prosperity,’ would go to the heart of the assemblage at +Ludlow.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_933" id="note_933"></a><a href="#line_930">933.</a> +<b>beryl</b>: in the Bible (<i>Rev.</i> xxi. 20) this precious stone +forms one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of +Eastern origin: comp. Arab, <i>billaur</i>, crystal. <b>golden +ore</b>. As a matter of fact gold has been found in the Welsh +mountains.</p> + +<p><a name="note_934" id="note_934"></a><a href="#line_930">934.</a> +<b>May thy lofty head</b>, etc. The grammatical construction is: +‘May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and +terrace, and here and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with +groves of myrrh and cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.’ This +makes ‘banks’ objective, and ‘upon’ a +preposition: the only +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_105" id="Page_105" title="105"></a> +objection to this reading is that the notion of crowning the head upon +the banks is peculiar. The difficulty vanishes when we recollect that +Milton frequently connects two clauses with one subject rather +loosely: the subject of the second clause is ‘thou,’ +implied in ‘thy lofty head.’ An exact parallel to this is +found in <i>L’Alleg.</i> 121, 122: ‘whose bright eyes rain +influence and <i>judge</i> the prize’; also in <i>Il Pens.</i> +155-7; ‘let my due feet never fail to <i>walk ... and love</i>, +etc.’: also in <i>Lyc.</i> 88, 89. The explanation adopted by +Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek verbs—<span +class="translit" +title="peristephano">περιστεφανόω</span>, +‘to put a crown round,’ and <span class="translit" +title="epistephano">ἐπιστεφανόω</span>, +“to put a crown upon”: thus, “May thy lofty head be +<i>crowned round</i> with many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here +and there be <i>crowned upon</i> with groves of myrrh and +cinnamon.” This makes ‘banks’ nominative, and +‘upon’ an adverb.</p> + +<p>In the Bridgewater <span class="smcap">MS.</span> the stage +direction here is, <i>Song ends</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_942" id="note_942"></a><a href="#line_940">942.</a> +<b>Not a waste</b>, etc., <i>i.e.</i> ‘Let there not be a +superfluous or unnecessary sound until we come.’ +‘waste’ is an attributive: see <a +href="#note_728">note</a>, l. 728.</p> + +<p><a name="note_945" id="note_945"></a><a href="#line_940">945.</a> +<b>gloomy covert wide</b>: see <a href="#note_207">note</a>, l. 207.</p> + +<p><a name="note_946" id="note_946"></a><a href="#line_940">946.</a> +<b>not many furlongs</b>. These words are deliberately inserted to +keep up the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual +representation of the mask, the scene representing the enchanted +palace was removed when Comus’s rout was driven off the stage, +and a woodland scene redisplayed. This would give additional +significance to these lines and to the change of scene after l. <a +href="#line_950">957</a>. ‘Furlong’ = furrow-long: it thus +came to mean the length of a field, and is now a measure of +length.</p> + +<p><a name="note_949" id="note_949"></a><a href="#line_940">949.</a> +<b>many a friend</b>. ‘Many a’ is a peculiar idiom, which +has been explained in different ways. One view is that +‘many’ is a corruption of the French <i>mesnie</i>, a +train or company, and ‘a’ a corruption of the preposition +‘of,’ the singular noun being then substituted for the +plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more +correct view seems to be that ‘many’ is the A.S. +<i>manig</i>, which was in old English used with a singular noun and +without the article, <i>e.g.</i> <i>manig mann</i> = many men. In the +thirteenth century the indefinite article began to be inserted; thus +<i>mony enne thing</i> = many a thing, just as we say ‘what +<i>a</i> thing,’ ‘such <i>a</i> thing.’ This would +seem to show that ‘a’ is not a corruption of +‘of,’ and that there is no connection with the French word +<i>mesnie</i>. Milton, in this passage, uses ‘many a +friend’ with a plural verb. <b>gratulate</b>. The simple verb is +now replaced by the compound <i>congratulate</i> (Lat. +<i>gratulari</i>, to wish joy to a person).</p> + +<p><a name="note_950" id="note_950"></a><a href="#line_950">950.</a> +<b>wished</b>, <i>i.e.</i> wished for; see <a +href="#note_574">note</a>, l. 574. <b>and beside</b>, <i>i.e.</i> +‘and where, besides,’ etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_952" id="note_952"></a><a href="#line_950">952.</a> +<b>jigs</b>, lively dances.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_106" id="Page_106" title="106"></a> +<a name="note_958" id="note_958"></a><a href="#line_950">958.</a> +<b>Back, shepherds, back!</b> On the rising of the curtain, the stage +is occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the +attendant Spirit enters with the above words. <b>Enough your play</b>, +<i>i.e.</i> we have had enough of your dancing, which must now give +way to ‘other trippings.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_959" id="note_959"></a><a href="#line_950">959.</a> +<b>sunshine holiday</b>. Comp. <i>L’Alleg.</i> 98, where the +same expression is used. There is a close resemblance between the +language of this song and lines 91-99 of <i>L’Allegro</i>. +Milton’s own spelling of ‘holiday’ is +‘holyday,’ which shows the origin of the word. The accent +in such compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the +adjective: it is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the +compound forms (<i>e.g.</i> hóliday) or the separate words +(<i>e.g.</i> hóly dáy) are being used.</p> + +<p><a name="note_960" id="note_960"></a><a href="#line_960">960.</a> +<b>Here be</b>: see <a href="#note_12">note</a>, l. 12. <b>without +duck or nod</b>: words used to describe the ungraceful dancing and +awkward courtesy of the country people.</p> + +<p><a name="note_961" id="note_961"></a><a href="#line_960">961.</a> +<b>trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise</b>: words used to +describe the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. +<i>L’Alleg.</i> 33: “trip it, as you go, On the light +fantastic toe.” <i>Trod</i> (or trodden), past participle of +<i>tread</i>: ‘to tread a measure’ is a common expression, +meaning ‘to dance.’ ‘Court guise,’ <i>i.e.</i> +courtly mien; <i>guise</i> is a doublet of <i>wise</i> = way, +<i>e.g.</i> ‘in this wise,’ ‘like<i>wise</i>,’ +‘other<i>wise</i>.’ In such pairs of words as <i>guise</i> +and <i>wise</i>, <i>guard</i> and <i>ward</i>, <i>guile</i> and +<i>wile</i>, the forms in <i>gu</i> have come into English through the +French.</p> + +<p><a name="note_963" id="note_963"></a><a href="#line_960">963.</a> +<b>Mercury</b> (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as +such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. <span +class="translit" +title="ptnopedilos">πτηνοπέδιλος</span>): +his name is here used as a synonym both for agility and +refinement.</p> + +<p><a name="note_964" id="note_964"></a><a href="#line_960">964.</a> +<b>mincing Dryades</b>. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. <span +class="translit" title="drys">δρῦς</span>, a +tree), here represented as mincing, <i>i.e.</i> tripping with short +steps, unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. +<i>Merch. of V.</i> iii. 4. 67: “turn two <i>mincing</i> steps +Into a manly stride.” Applied to a person’s gait (or +speech), the word now implies affectation.</p> + +<p><a name="note_965" id="note_965"></a><a href="#line_960">965.</a> +<b>lawns ... leas</b>. On ‘lawn,’ see <a +href="#note_568">note</a>, l. 568: a ‘lea’ is a +meadow.</p> + +<p><a name="note_966" id="note_966"></a><a href="#line_960">966.</a> +This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons to +the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater.</p> + +<p><a name="note_967" id="note_967"></a><a href="#line_960">967.</a> +<b>ye</b>: see <a href="#note_216">note</a>, l. 216.</p> + +<p><a name="note_968" id="note_968"></a><a href="#line_960">968.</a> +<b>so goodly grown</b>, <i>i.e.</i> grown so goodly. <i>Goodly</i> = +handsome (A.S. <i>gódlic</i> = goodlike).</p> + +<p><a name="note_970" id="note_970"></a><a href="#line_970">970.</a> +<b>timely</b>. Here an adverb: in l. <a href="#line_680">689</a> it is +an adjective. Comp. the two phrases in <i>Macbeth</i>: “To gain +the <i>timely</i> inn,” iii. 3. 7; and “To call +<i>timely</i> on him,” ii. 3. 51.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_107" id="Page_107" title="107"></a> +<a name="note_972" id="note_972"></a><a href="#line_970">972.</a> +<b>assays</b>, trials, temptations. <i>Assay</i> is used by Milton in +the sense of ‘attempt’ as well as of ‘trial’: +see <i>Arc.</i> 80, “I will <i>assay</i>, her worth to +celebrate.” The former meaning is now confined to the form +<i>essay</i> (radically the same word); and the use of <i>assay</i> +has been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the +testing of metals. Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 932, “hard +<i>assays</i> and ill successes”; <i>Par. Reg.</i> i. 264, iv. +478.</p> + +<p><a name="note_974" id="note_974"></a><a href="#line_970">974, +5.</a> <b>To triumph</b>. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly +expressed in these lines. <i>Stage Direction</i>: <b>Spirit +epiloguizes</b>, <i>i.e.</i> sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. +In one of Lawes’ manuscripts of the mask, the epilogue consists +of twelve lines only, those numbered <a +href="#line_1010">1012-1023</a>. From the same copy we find that line +<a href="#line_970">976</a> had been altered by Lawes in such a manner +as to convert the first part of the epilogue into a prologue which, in +his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst descending upon the +stage:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>From the heavens</i> now I fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And those happy climes that lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where day never shuts his eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up in the broad <i>field</i> of the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There I suck the liquid air<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All amidst the gardens fair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Hesperus, and his daughters three<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That sing about the golden tree.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There eternal summer dwells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And west winds, with musky wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the cedarn alleys fling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nard and cassia’s balmy smells.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Iris there with humid bow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waters the odorous banks, that blow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flowers of more mingled hue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than her purfled scarf can show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yellow, watchet, green, and blue</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And drenches oft with <i>Manna</i> dew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beds of hyacinth and roses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where <i>many a cherub soft</i> reposes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the +mask.</p> + +<p><a name="note_976" id="note_976"></a><a href="#line_970">976.</a> +<b>To the ocean</b>, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and +rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the <i>Tempest</i>, v. 1. 88-94, has +been frequently pointed out: “Where the bee sucks, there suck +I,” etc. Compare also the song of Johphiel in <i>The Fortunate +Isles</i> (Ben Jonson): “Like a lightning from the sky,” +etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. <a +href="#line_1010">1012-1023</a>) may also be compared with the +epilogue of the <i>Tempest</i>: “Now my charms are all +o’erthrown,” etc.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_108" id="Page_108" title="108"></a> +<a name="note_977" id="note_977"></a><a href="#line_970">977.</a> +<b>happy climes</b>. Comp. <i>Odyssey</i>, iv. 566: “The +deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain and the +world’s end ... where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, +nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the +breeze of the shrill west to blow cool on men”: see also l. <a +href="#line_10">14</a>. ‘Clime,’ radically the same as +<i>climate</i>, is still used in its literal sense = a region of the +earth; while ‘climate’ has the secondary meaning of +‘atmospheric conditions.’ Comp. <i>Son.</i> viii. 8: +“Whatever <i>clime</i> the sun’s bright circle +warms.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_978" id="note_978"></a><a href="#line_970">978.</a> +<b>day ... eye</b>. Comp. <i>Son.</i> i. 5: “the <i>eye</i> of +day”; and <i>Lyc.</i> 26: “the opening <i>eyelids</i> of +the Morn.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_979" id="note_979"></a><a href="#line_970">979.</a> +<b>broad fields of the sky</b>. Comp. Virgil’s +“<i>Aëris in campis latis</i>,” <i>Aen.</i> vi. +888.</p> + +<p><a name="note_980" id="note_980"></a><a href="#line_980">980.</a> +<b>suck the liquid air</b>, inhale the pure air. ‘Liquid’ +(lit. flowing) is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure +and sweet: comp. <i>Son.</i> i. 5, “thy liquid notes.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_981" id="note_981"></a><a href="#line_980">981.</a> +<b>All amidst</b>. For this adverbial use of <i>all</i> (here +modifying the following prepositional phrase), compare <i>Il Pens.</i> +33, “<i>all</i> in a robe of darkest grain.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_982" id="note_982"></a><a href="#line_980">982.</a> +<b>Hesperus</b>: see <a href="#note_393">note</a>, l. 393. Hesperus, +the brother of Atlas, had three daughters—Aegle, Cynthia, and +Hesperia. They were famed for their sweet song. In Milton’s +<span class="smcap">MS.</span> <i>Hesperus</i> is written over +<i>Atlas</i>: Spenser makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in +<i>Pleasure reconciled to Virtue</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_984" id="note_984"></a><a href="#line_980">984.</a> +<b>crispéd shades</b>. ‘Crisped,’ like +‘curled’ (comp. “curl the grove,” <i>Arc.</i> +46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the same +meaning. The original form is the adjective ‘crisp’ (Lat. +<i>crispus</i> = curled), from which comes the verb <i>to crisp</i> +and the participle <i>crisped</i>. Compare “the <i>crisped</i> +brooks ... ran nectar,” <i>Par. Lost</i>, iv. 237, where the +word is best rendered ‘rippled’; also Tennyson’s +<i>Claribel</i>, 19, “the babbling runnel +<i>crispeth</i>.” In the present case the reference is to the +foliage of the trees.</p> + +<p><a name="note_985" id="note_985"></a><a href="#line_980">985.</a> +<b>spruce</b>, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of +levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of +gay or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word +<i>jolly</i>, on which Pattison says:—“This is an instance +of the disadvantage under which poetry in a living language labours. +No knowledge of the meaning which a word bore in 1631 can wholly +banish the later and vulgar associations which may have gathered round +it since. Apart from direct parody and burlesque, the tendency of +living speech is gradually to degrade the noble; so that as time goes +on the range of poetical expression grows from generation to +generation more and more restricted.” The origin of the word +<i>spruce</i> is disputed: Skeat holds that it is a corruption of +Pruce (old Fr. <i>Pruce</i>, mod. Fr. <a class="pagebreak" +name="Page_109" id="Page_109" title="109"></a><i>Prusse</i>) = +Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the +fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some +English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also +Trench, <i>Select Glossary</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_986" id="note_986"></a><a href="#line_980">986.</a> +<b>The Graces</b>. The three Graces of classical mythology were +Euphrosyne (the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and +Thalia (the blooming one). See <i>L’Alleg.</i> 12: +“Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister +Graces more, To ivy-crownèd Bacchus bore.” They were +sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the goddesses who +purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life. +<b>rosy-bosomed Hours</b>. The Hours (Horæ) of classical +mythology were the goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was +described as the dance of the Horæ. The Hora of Spring +accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent from the lower world, +and the expression “The chamber of the Horæ opens” +is equivalent to “The Spring is coming.” +‘Rosy-bosomed’; the Gk. <span class="translit" +title="rhodokolpos">ῥοδόκολπος</span>: +compare the epithets ‘rosy-fingered’ (applied by Homer to +the dawn), ‘rosy-armed,’ etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_989" id="note_989"></a><a href="#line_980">989.</a> +<b>musky ... fling</b>. Compare <i>Par. Lost</i>, viii. 515: +“Fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from +their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.” In +this passage the verb <i>fling</i> is similarly used. +‘Musky’ = fragrant: comp. ‘musk-rose,’ l. <a +href="#line_490">496</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_990" id="note_990"></a><a href="#line_990">990.</a> +<b>cedarn alleys</b>, <i>i.e.</i> alleys of cedar trees. For +‘alley,’ comp. l. <a href="#line_310">311</a>. For the +form of ‘cedarn,’ see <a href="#note_893">note</a> on +‘azurn,’ l. 893. Tennyson uses the word +‘cedarn’ in <i>Recoll. of Arab. Nights</i>, 115.</p> + +<p><a name="note_991" id="note_991"></a><a href="#line_990">991.</a> +<b>Nard and cassia</b>; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes +applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called <i>spike-nard</i>; see +allusion in the Bible, <i>Mark</i>, xiv. 3; <i>Exod.</i> xxx. 24, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_992" id="note_992"></a><a href="#line_990">992.</a> +<b>Iris ... humid bow</b>: see <a href="#note_83">note</a>, l. 83. The +allusion is, of course, to the rainbow.</p> + +<p><a name="note_993" id="note_993"></a><a href="#line_990">993.</a> +<b>blow</b>, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, +<i>Mask at Highgate</i>, “For thee, Favonius, here shall +<i>blow</i> New flowers.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_995" id="note_995"></a><a href="#line_990">995.</a> +<b>purfled</b> = having an embroidered edge (O.F. <i>pourfiler</i>): +the verb <i>to purfle</i> survives in the contracted form <i>to +purl</i>, and is cognate with profile = a front line or edge. +<b>shew</b>: here rhymes with <i>dew</i>; comp. l. <a +href="#line_510">511, 512</a>. This points to the fact that in +Milton’s time the present pronunciation of <i>shew</i>, though +familiar, was not the only one recognised.</p> + +<p><a name="note_996" id="note_996"></a><a href="#line_990">996.</a> +<b>drenches with Elysian dew</b>, <i>i.e.</i> soaks with heavenly dew. +The Homeric Elysium is described in <i>Odyssey</i>, iv.: see <a +href="#note_977">note</a>, l. 977; +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_110" id="Page_110" title="110"></a> +it was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. <a +href="#line_250">257</a>. <i>Drench</i> is the causative of +<i>drink</i>: here the nominative of the verb is ‘Iris’ +and the object ‘beds.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_997" id="note_997"></a><a href="#line_990">997.</a> +<b>if your ears be true</b>, <i>i.e.</i> if your ears be pure: the +poet is about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those +with “gross unpurgèd ear” (<i>Arc.</i> 73, and +<i>Com.</i> l. 458). He alludes to that pure Love which “leads +up to Heaven,” <i>Par. Lost</i>, viii. 612.</p> + +<p><a name="note_998" id="note_998"></a><a href="#line_990">998.</a> +<b>hyacinth</b>. This is the “sanguine flower inscribed with +woe” of <i>Lycidas</i>, 106: it sprang from the blood of +Hyacinthus, a youth beloved by Apollo.</p> + +<p><a name="note_999" id="note_999"></a><a href="#line_990">999.</a> +<b>Adonis</b>, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received +from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the +gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year +on earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be +symbolic of the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. +Comp. <i>Par. Lost</i>, ix. 439, “those gardens feigned Or of +revived Adonis,” etc.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1000" id="note_1000"></a><a +href="#line_1000">1000.</a> <b>waxing well of</b>, <i>i.e.</i> +recovering from. The A.S. <i>weaxan</i> = to grow or increase: +Shakespeare has ‘man of wax’ = adult, <i>Rom. and Jul.</i> +i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe <i>Shakespeare</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1002" id="note_1002"></a><a +href="#line_1000">1002.</a> <b>Assyrian queen</b>, <i>i.e.</i> Venus, +whose worship came from the East, probably from Assyria. She was +originally identical with Astarte, called by the Hebrews Ashteroth: +see <i>Par. Lost</i>, i. 438-452, where Adonis appears as Thammuz.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1003-4" id="note_1003-4"></a><a href="#line_1000">1003, 4.</a> +<b>far above ... advanced</b>. These words are to be read together: +‘advanced’ is an attribute to ‘Cupid,’ and is +modified by ‘far above.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_1003" id="note_1003"></a><a href="#line_1000">1003.</a> +<b>spangled sheen</b>, glittering brightness. ‘Spangled’: +<i>spangle</i> is a diminutive of <i>spang</i> = a metal clasp, and +hence ‘a shining ornament.’ In poetry it is common to +speak of the stars as ‘spangles’ and of the heavens as +‘spangled’: comp. Addison’s well-known lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“The spacious firmament on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all the blue ethereal sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And <i>spangled</i> heavens, a shining frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their great Original proclaim.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Comp. also <i>Lyc.</i> 170, “with <i>new-spangled</i> +ore.” ‘Sheen’ is here used as a noun, as in line <a +href="#line_890">893</a>; also in <i>Hymn Nat.</i> 145, “throned +in celestial <i>sheen</i>”: <i>Epitaph on M. of W.</i> 73, +“clad in radiant <i>sheen</i>.” The word occurs in Spenser +as an adjective also: comp. “her dainty corse so fair and +<i>sheen</i>,” <i>F. Q.</i> ii. 1. 10. In the line “By +fountain clear or spangled starlight <i>sheen</i>” (<i>M. N. +D.</i> ii. l. 29) it is doubtful whether the word is a noun or an +adjective. Milton uses the adjective <i>sheeny</i> (<i>Death of Fair +Infant</i>, 48).</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_111" id="Page_111" title="111"></a> +<a name="note_1004" id="note_1004"></a><a href="#line_1000">1004.</a> +<b>Celestial Cupid</b>. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the <a +href="#note_445">note</a> to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche +(the human soul) to whom he is united after she has been purified by a +life of trial and misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as +follows: Cupid was in love with Psyche, but warned her that she must +not seek to know who he was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew +near to him with a lamp while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil +falling on him, he awoke, and fled from her. She now wandered from +place to place, persecuted by Venus; but after great sorrow, during +which she was secretly supported by Cupid, she became immortal and was +united to him for ever. In this story Psyche represents the human soul +(Gk. <span class="translit" +title="psych">ψυχή</span>), which is disciplined +and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the enjoyment of +true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton’s Allegory it is +only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in his +<i>Apology for Smectymnuus</i> he calls it that Love “whose +charming cup is only virtue,” and whose “first and +chiefest office ... begins and ends in the soul, producing those happy +twins of her divine generation, Knowledge and Virtue.” To this +high and mystical love Milton again alludes in <i>Epitaphium +Damonis</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“In other part, the expansive vault above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there too, even there the god of love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sends every arrow to the lofty sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0 toright"><i>Cowper’s translation.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_1007" id="note_1007"></a><a href="#line_1000">1007.</a> +<b>among</b>: preposition governing ‘gods.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_1008" id="note_1008"></a><a href="#line_1000">1008.</a> +<b>make</b>: subjunctive after ‘till.’ Its nominative is +‘consent.’</p> + +<p><a name="note_1010" id="note_1010"></a><a href="#line_1010">1010.</a> +<b>blissful</b>, blest. <i>Bliss</i> is cognate with <i>bless</i> and +<i>blithe</i>. Comp. “the <i>blest</i> kingdoms meek of joy and +love,” <i>Lyc.</i> 177. <b>are to be born</b>. There seems to be +here a confusion of constructions between the subjunctive co-ordinate +with <i>make</i> and the indicative dependent in meaning on +“Jove hath sworn” in the following line.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1011" id="note_1011"></a><a href="#line_1010">1011.</a> +<b>Youth and Joy</b>. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the +trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of +Cupid and Psyche, but she is “the daughter late,” +<i>i.e.</i> she is possible only to the purified soul. See also <a +href="#note_1004">note</a> on l. 1004.</p> + +<p><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_112" id="Page_112" title="112"></a> +<a name="note_1012" id="note_1012"></a><a href="#line_1010">1012.</a> +<b>my task</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the task alluded to in line <a +href="#line_10">18</a>. This line is an adverbial clause = Now that +(or <i>because</i>) my task is smoothly done.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1013" id="note_1013"></a><a href="#line_1010">1013.</a> +The Spirit’s task being finished he is free to soar where he +pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by +virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1014" id="note_1014"></a><a href="#line_1010">1014.</a> +<b>green earth’s end</b>. The world as known to the ancients did not +extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, +which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. <i>Par. +Lost</i>, viii. 630:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“But I can now no more; the parting sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the earth’s green Cape and Verdant Isles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hesperean sets, my signal to depart.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_1015" id="note_1015"></a><a href="#line_1010">1015.</a> +<b>bowed welkin</b>: the meaning of the line is, “Where the arched sky +curves slowly towards the horizon.” <i>Welkin</i> is, radically, +“the region of clouds,” A.S. <i>wolcnu</i>, clouds.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1017" id="note_1017"></a><a href="#line_1010">1017.</a> +<b>corners of the moon</b>, <i>i.e.</i> its horns. The crescent moon is said +to be ‘horned’ (Lat. <i>cornu</i>, a horn). Comp. the +lines in <i>Macbeth</i>, iii. 5. 23, 24: “Upon the corners of +the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound.”</p> + +<p><a name="note_1020" id="note_1020"></a><a href="#line_1020">1020.</a> +<b>She can teach ye how to climb</b>, etc. Compare Jonson’s song to +Virtue:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">“Though a stranger here on earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In heaven she hath her right of birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There, there is Virtue’s seat:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strive to keep her your own;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">’Tis only she can make you great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though place here make you known.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="note_1021" id="note_1021"></a><a href="#line_1020">1021.</a> +<b>sphery chime</b>, <i>i.e.</i> the music of the spheres. “To +climb higher than the sphery chime” means to ascend beyond the +spheres into the empyrean or true heaven—the abode of God and +the purest Spirits. Milton therefore implies that by virtue alone can +we come into God’s presence. See <a href="#note_112">note</a> on +“the starry quire,” line 112. ‘Chime’ is +strictly ‘harmony,’ as in “silver +<i>chime</i>,” <i>Hymn Nat.</i> 128: the word is cognate with +<i>cymbal</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="note_1022" id="note_1022"></a><a href="#line_1020">1022, 3.</a> +<b>if Virtue feeble were</b>, etc. A triumphant expression of that +confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine +Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. +Milton’s whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed +in the last two lines of his <i>Comus</i>.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="biggap"> +<a class="pagebreak" name="Page_113" id="Page_113" title="113"></a> +INDEX TO THE NOTES.</h2> + + +<div class="index"> +<p>A.</p> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Acheron, <a href="#note_604">604</a>.</li> + +<li>Adonis, <a href="#note_999">999</a>.</li> + +<li>Adventurous, <a href="#note_79">79</a>.</li> + +<li>Advice, <a href="#note_108">108</a>;<ul class="IX"> +<li> advised, <a href="#note_755">755</a>.</li></ul></li> + +<li>Affects, <a href="#note_386">386</a>.</li> + +<li>Alabaster, <a href="#note_660">660</a>.</li> + +<li>All, <a href="#note_714">714</a>, <a href="#note_981">981</a>.</li> + +<li>All ear, <a href="#note_560">560</a>.</li> + +<li>Alley, <a href="#note_311">311</a>, <a href="#note_990">990</a>.</li> + +<li>All-giver, <a href="#note_723">723</a>.</li> + +<li>All to-ruffled, <a href="#note_380">380</a>.</li> + +<li>Amber-dropping, <a href="#note_863">863</a>.</li> + +<li>Ambrosial, <a href="#note_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Amiss, <a href="#note_177">177</a>.</li> + +<li>Apace, <a href="#note_657">657</a>.</li> + +<li>Arbitrate, <a href="#note_411">411</a>.</li> + +<li>Asphodel, <a href="#note_838">838</a>.</li> + +<li>Assays, <a href="#note_972">972</a>.</li> + +<li>Assyrian Queen, <a href="#note_1002">1002</a>.</li> + +<li>Ay me, <a href="#note_511">511</a>.</li> + +<li>Azurn, <a href="#note_893">893</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p>B.</p> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Backward, <a href="#note_817">817</a>.</li> + +<li>Baited, <a href="#note_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li>Bandite, <a href="#note_426">426</a>.</li> + +<li>Be, <a href="#note_12">12</a>, <a href="#note_519">519</a>.</li> + +<li>Benison, <a href="#note_332">332</a>.</li> + +<li>Beryl, <a href="#note_933">933</a>.</li> + +<li>Beseeming, <a href="#note_769">769</a>.</li> + +<li>Blank, <a href="#note_452">452</a>.</li> + +<li>Blissful, <a href="#note_1010">1010</a>.</li> + +<li>Blue-haired, <a href="#note_29">29</a>.</li> + +<li>Blow, <a href="#note_993">993</a>.</li> + +<li>Bolt, <a href="#note_760">760</a>.</li> + +<li>Bosky, <a href="#note_312">313</a>.</li> + +<li>Bourn, <a href="#note_312">313</a>.</li> + +<li>Brakes, <a href="#note_147">147</a>.</li> + +<li>Brimmed, <a href="#note_925">925</a>.</li> + +<li>Brinded, <a href="#note_443">443</a>.</li> + +<li>Brute, <a href="#note_797">797</a>.</li> + +<li>Budge, <a href="#note_707">707</a>.</li> + +<li>Burs, <a href="#note_352">352</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p>C.</p> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Cassia, <a href="#note_991">991</a>.</li> + +<li>Cast, <a href="#note_360">360</a>.</li> + +<li>Cateress, <a href="#note_764">764</a>.</li> + +<li>Cedarn, <a href="#note_990">990</a>.</li> + +<li>Centre, <a href="#note_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li>Certain, <a href="#note_266">266</a>.</li> + +<li>Chance, <a href="#note_508">508</a>.</li> + +<li>Charactered, <a href="#note_529">530</a>.</li> + +<li>Charmèd, <a href="#note_51">51</a>.</li> + +<li>Charnel, carnal, <a href="#note_471">471</a>.</li> + +<li>Charybdis, <a href="#note_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li>Chime, <a href="#note_1021">1021</a>.</li> + +<li>Chimeras, <a href="#note_517">517</a>.</li> + +<li>Circe, <a href="#note_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>Clime, <a href="#note_977">977</a>.</li> + +<li>Close, <a href="#note_548">548</a>.</li> + +<li>Clouted, <a href="#note_635">635</a>.</li> + +<li>Company, <a href="#note_274">274</a>.</li> + +<li>Comus, <a href="#note_46">46</a>, <a href="#note_58">58</a>.</li> + +<li>Convoy, <a href="#note_81">81</a>.</li> + +<li>Cordial, <a href="#note_672">672</a>.</li> + +<li>Corners, <a href="#note_1017">1017</a>.</li> + +<li>Cotes, <a href="#note_344">344</a>.</li> + +<li>Cotytto, <a href="#note_129">129</a>.</li> + +<li>Courtesy, <a href="#note_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_114" id="Page_114" title="114"></a>Cozened, <a href="#note_737">737</a>.</li> + +<li>Crabbed, <a href="#note_477">477</a>.</li> + +<li>Crisped, <a href="#note_984">984</a>.</li> + +<li>Crofts, <a href="#note_531">531</a>.</li> + +<li>Crowned, <a href="#note_934">934</a>.</li> + +<li>Curfew, <a href="#note_434">435</a>.</li> + +<li>Curious, <a href="#note_714">714</a>.</li> + +<li>Cynic, <a href="#note_708">708</a>.</li> + +<li>Cynosure, <a href="#note_341">342</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<p>D.</p> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Dapper, <a href="#note_118">118</a>.</li> + +<li>Darked, <a href="#note_730">730</a>.</li> + +<li>Dear, <a href="#note_790">790</a>.</li> + +<li>Dell, <a href="#note_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li>Descry, <a href="#note_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Dew-besprent, <a href="#note_542">542</a>.</li> + +<li>Dimple, <a href="#note_119">119</a>.</li> + +<li>Dingle, <a href="#note_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li>Disinherit, <a href="#note_334">334</a>.</li> + +<li>Ditty, <a href="#note_86">86</a>.</li> + +<li>Drench, <a href="#note_996">996</a>.</li> + +<li>Drouth, <a href="#note_66">66</a>.</li> + +<li>Drowsy frighted, <a href="#note_553">553</a>.</li> + +<li>Due, <a href="#note_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li>Dun, <a href="#note_127">127</a>.</li> + +<li>Durst, <a href="#note_577">577</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>E.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Each ... every, <a href="#note_19">19</a>, <a href="#note_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li>Earth-shaking, <a href="#note_869">869</a>.</li> + +<li>Ebon, <a href="#note_134">134</a>.</li> + +<li>Ecstasy, <a href="#note_261">261</a>, <a href="#note_625">625</a>.</li> + +<li>Element, <a href="#note_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li>Elysium, <a href="#note_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li>Emblaze, <a href="#note_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>Emprise, <a href="#note_610">610</a>.</li> + +<li>Engaged, <a href="#note_193">193</a>.</li> + +<li>Enow, <a href="#note_780">780</a>.</li> + +<li>Erebus, <a href="#note_804">804</a>.</li> + +<li>Every ... each, <a href="#note_19">19</a>, <a href="#note_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li>Eye, <a href="#note_329">329</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>F.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Faery, <a href="#note_298">298</a>.</li> + +<li>Fairly, <a href="#note_167">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Fantastic, <a href="#note_144">144</a>, <a href="#note_205">205</a>.</li> + +<li>Fence, <a href="#note_791">791</a>.</li> + +<li>Firmament, <a href="#note_598">598</a>.</li> + +<li>Fond, <a href="#note_67">67</a>.</li> + +<li>For, <a href="#note_586">586</a>, <a href="#note_602">602</a>.</li> + +<li>Forestalling, <a href="#note_285">285</a>.</li> + +<li>Forlorn, <a href="#note_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li>Fraught, <a href="#note_355">355</a>, <a href="#note_732">732</a>.</li> + +<li>Freezed, <a href="#note_449">449</a>.</li> + +<li>Frighted, <a href="#note_553">553</a>.</li> + +<li>Frolic, <a href="#note_59">59</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>G.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Gear, <a href="#note_167">167</a>.</li> + +<li>Glistering, <a href="#note_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Glozing, <a href="#note_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Goodly, <a href="#note_968">968</a>.</li> + +<li>Graces, <a href="#note_986">986</a>.</li> + +<li>Grain, <a href="#note_750">750</a>.</li> + +<li>Granges, <a href="#note_175">175</a>.</li> + +<li>Gratulate, <a href="#note_949">949</a>.</li> + +<li>Grisly, <a href="#note_603">603</a>.</li> + +<li>Guise, <a href="#note_961">961</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>H.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Haemony, <a href="#note_638">638</a>.</li> + +<li>Hag, <a href="#note_434">434</a>.</li> + +<li>Hallo, <a href="#note_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li>Hapless, <a href="#note_350">350</a>.</li> + +<li>Harpies, <a href="#note_605">605</a>.</li> + +<li>Harrowed, <a href="#note_565">565</a>.</li> + +<li>Heave, <a href="#note_885">885</a>.</li> + +<li>Hecate, <a href="#note_135">135</a>.</li> + +<li>Help, <a href="#note_304">304</a>, <a href="#note_845">845</a>.</li> + +<li>Hence, <a href="#note_824">824</a>.</li> + +<li>Her, <a href="#note_351">351</a>, <a href="#note_455">455</a>.</li> + +<li>Hesperian, <a href="#note_393">393</a>.</li> + +<li>High, <a href="#note_654">654</a>.</li> + +<li>Hinds, <a href="#note_174">174</a>.</li> + +<li>Holiday, <a href="#note_959">959</a>.</li> + +<li>Home-felt, <a href="#note_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li>Homely, <a href="#note_748">748</a>.</li> + +<li>Horror, <a href="#note_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Hours, <a href="#note_986">986</a>.</li> + +<li>How chance, <a href="#note_508">508</a>.</li> + +<li>Huswife, <a href="#note_751">751</a>.</li> + +<li>Hutched, <a href="#note_719">719</a>.</li> + +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_115" id="Page_115" title="115"></a>Hyacinth, <a href="#note_998">998</a>.</li> + +<li>Hydras. <a href="#note_605">605</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>I.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Imbathe, <a href="#note_837">837</a>.</li> + +<li>Imbodies, <a href="#note_468">468</a>.</li> + +<li>Imbrutes, <a href="#note_468">468</a>.</li> + +<li>Immured, <a href="#note_521">521</a>.</li> + +<li>Infamous, <a href="#note_424">424</a>.</li> + +<li>Infer, <a href="#note_408">408</a>.</li> + +<li>Influence, <a href="#note_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>Inlay, <a href="#note_22">22</a>.</li> + +<li>Innumerous, <a href="#note_349">349</a>.</li> + +<li>Insphered, <a href="#note_3">3</a>.</li> + +<li>Interwove, <a href="#note_544">544</a>.</li> + +<li>Inured, <a href="#note_735">735</a>.</li> + +<li>Iris, <a href="#note_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Isle, <a href="#note_21">21</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>J.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Jocund, <a href="#note_173">172</a>.</li> + +<li>Jollity, <a href="#note_104">104</a>.</li> + +<li>Julep, <a href="#note_672">672</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>K.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Knot-grass, <a href="#note_542">542</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>L.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Lackey, <a href="#note_455">455</a>.</li> + +<li>Lake, <a href="#note_865">865</a>.</li> + +<li>Languished, <a href="#note_744">744</a>.</li> + +<li>Lank, <a href="#note_836">836</a>.</li> + +<li>Lap, <a href="#note_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li>Lawn, <a href="#note_568">568</a>.</li> + +<li>Lees, <a href="#note_809">809</a>.</li> + +<li>Leucothea, <a href="#note_875">875</a>.</li> + +<li>Lewdly-pampered, <a href="#note_770">770</a>.</li> + +<li>Like, <a href="#note_22">22</a>, <a href="#note_634">634</a>.</li> + +<li>Lime-twigs, <a href="#note_646">646</a>.</li> + +<li>Liquid, <a href="#note_980">980</a>.</li> + +<li>Liquorish, <a href="#note_700">700</a>.</li> + +<li>Listed, <a href="#note_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li>Listened, <a href="#note_551">551</a>.</li> + +<li>Liveried, <a href="#note_455">455</a>.</li> + +<li>Lore, <a href="#note_34">34</a>.</li> + +<li>Love-lorn, <a href="#note_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li>Luscious, <a href="#note_652">652</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>M.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Madness, <a href="#note_261">261</a>.</li> + +<li>Madrigal, <a href="#note_495">495</a>.</li> + +<li>Mansion, <a href="#note_2">2</a>.</li> + +<li>Mantling, <a href="#note_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Many a, <a href="#note_949">949</a>.</li> + +<li>Margent, <a href="#note_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Me, <a href="#note_163">163</a>, <a href="#note_630">630</a>.</li> + +<li>Meander, <a href="#note_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Meditate, <a href="#note_547">547</a>.</li> + +<li>Melancholy, <a href="#note_809">810</a>.</li> + +<li>Methought, <a href="#note_171">171</a>.</li> + +<li>Meliboeus, <a href="#note_822">822</a>.</li> + +<li>Mickle, <a href="#note_31">31</a>.</li> + +<li>Mildew, <a href="#note_640">640</a>.</li> + +<li>Mincing, <a href="#note_964">964</a>.</li> + +<li>Mintage, <a href="#note_529">529</a>.</li> + +<li>Misusèd, <a href="#note_47">47</a>.</li> + +<li>Moly, <a href="#note_636">636</a>.</li> + +<li>Monstrous, <a href="#note_533">533</a>.</li> + +<li>Mountaineer, <a href="#note_426">426</a>.</li> + +<li>Morrice, <a href="#note_116">116</a>.</li> + +<li>Mortal, <a href="#note_10">10</a>.</li> + +<li>Murmurs, <a href="#note_526">526</a>.</li> + +<li>Mutters, <a href="#note_817">817</a>.</li> + +<li>My, mine, <a href="#note_170">170</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>N.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Naiades, <a href="#note_254">254</a>.</li> + +<li>Nard, <a href="#note_991">991</a>.</li> + +<li>Navel, <a href="#note_520">520</a>.</li> + +<li>Necromancer, <a href="#note_649">649</a>.</li> + +<li>Nectar, <a href="#note_479">479</a>.</li> + +<li>Neighbour, <a href="#note_484">484</a>.</li> + +<li>Nepenthes, <a href="#note_675">675</a>.</li> + +<li>Nereus, <a href="#note_835">835</a>.</li> + +<li>Nether, <a href="#note_20">20</a>.</li> + +<li>New-intrusted, <a href="#note_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li>Nice, <a href="#note_139">139</a>.</li> + +<li>Night-foundered, <a href="#note_483">483</a>.</li> + +<li>Nightingale, <a href="#note_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li>Nightly, <a href="#note_113">113</a>.</li> + +<li>Nor ... nor, <a href="#note_784">784</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>O.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Oaten, <a href="#note_345">345</a>, <a href="#note_893">893</a>.</li> + +<li>Oceanus, <a href="#note_97">97</a>, <a href="#note_868">868</a>.</li> + +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_116" id="Page_116" title="116"></a>Of, <a href="#note_59">59</a>, <a href="#note_155">155</a>, <a href="#note_836">836</a>, <a href="#note_1000">1000</a>.</li> + +<li>Ominous, <a href="#note_61">61</a>.</li> + +<li>Orient, <a href="#note_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li>Other, <a href="#note_612">612</a>.</li> + +<li>Oughly-headed, <a href="#note_695">695</a>.</li> + +<li>Ounce, <a href="#note_71">71</a>.</li> + +<li>Over-exquisite, <a href="#note_359">359</a>.</li> + +<li>Over-multitude, <a href="#note_731">731</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>P.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Palmer, <a href="#note_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li>Pan, <a href="#note_176">176</a>.</li> + +<li>Pard, <a href="#note_444">444</a>.</li> + +<li>Parley, <a href="#note_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Pent, <a href="#note_499">499</a>.</li> + +<li>Perfect, <a href="#note_73">73</a>, <a href="#note_203">203</a>.</li> + +<li>Perplexed, <a href="#note_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Pert, <a href="#note_118">118</a>.</li> + +<li>Pestered, <a href="#note_7">7</a>.</li> + +<li>Pinfold, <a href="#note_7">7</a>.</li> + +<li>Plight, <a href="#note_372">372</a>.</li> + +<li>Plighted, 301</li> + +<li>Plumes, <a href="#note_378">378</a>.</li> + +<li>Potion, <a href="#note_68">68</a>.</li> + +<li>Pranked, <a href="#note_759">759</a>.</li> + +<li>Presentments, <a href="#note_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Prime, <a href="#note_289">289</a>.</li> + +<li>Prithee, <a href="#note_615">615</a>.</li> + +<li>Prove, <a href="#note_121">123</a>.</li> + +<li>Purchase, <a href="#note_607">607</a>.</li> + +<li>Purfled, <a href="#note_995">995</a>.</li> + +<li>Psyche, <a href="#note_1004">1004</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>Q.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Quaint, <a href="#note_156">157</a>.</li> + +<li>Quarters, <a href="#note_29">29</a>.</li> + +<li>Quire, <a href="#note_112">112</a>.</li> + +<li>Quivered, <a href="#note_422">422</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>R.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Rapt, <a href="#note_794">794</a>.</li> + +<li>Ravishment, <a href="#note_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li>Reared, <a href="#note_836">836</a>.</li> + +<li>Recks, <a href="#note_404">404</a>.</li> + +<li>Regard, <a href="#note_620">620</a>.</li> + +<li>Rifted, <a href="#note_518">518</a>.</li> + +<li>Rite, <a href="#note_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li>Roost, <a href="#note_317">317</a>.</li> + +<li>Rosy-bosomed, <a href="#note_986">986</a>.</li> + +<li>Rout, 92-<a href="#note_93">93</a>.</li> + +<li>Rule, <a href="#note_340">340</a>.</li> + +<li>Rushy-fringed, <a href="#note_890">890</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>S.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Sabrina, <a href="#note_826">826</a>.</li> + +<li>Sadly, <a href="#note_509">509</a>.</li> + +<li>Sampler, <a href="#note_751">751</a>.</li> + +<li>Saws, <a href="#note_110">110</a>.</li> + +<li>Scape, <a href="#note_814">814</a>.</li> + +<li>Scylla, <a href="#note_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li>Serene, <a href="#note_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li>Several, <a href="#note_25">25</a>.</li> + +<li>Shagged, <a href="#note_429">429</a>.</li> + +<li>Shapes, <a href="#note_2">2</a>.</li> + +<li>Sheen, <a href="#note_893">893</a>, <a href="#note_1003">1003</a>.</li> + +<li>Shell, <a href="#note_231">231</a>, <a href="#note_837">837</a>.</li> + +<li>Shew, <a href="#note_995">995</a>.</li> + +<li>Shoon, <a href="#note_635">635</a>.</li> + +<li>Should, <a href="#note_482">482</a>.</li> + +<li>Shrewd, <a href="#note_846">846</a>.</li> + +<li>Shrouds, <a href="#note_147">147</a>.</li> + +<li>Shuddering, <a href="#note_802">802</a>.</li> + +<li>Siding, <a href="#note_212">212</a>.</li> + +<li>Simples, <a href="#note_627">627</a>.</li> + +<li>Single, <a href="#note_204">204</a>.</li> + +<li>Sirens, <a href="#note_253">253</a>, <a href="#note_878">878</a>.</li> + +<li>Sleeking, <a href="#note_882">882</a>.</li> + +<li>Slope, <a href="#note_98">98</a>.</li> + +<li>Solemnity, <a href="#note_142">142</a>.</li> + +<li>Soothest, <a href="#note_823">823</a>.</li> + +<li>Sooth-saying, <a href="#note_874">874</a>.</li> + +<li>Sounds, <a href="#note_115">115</a>.</li> + +<li>Sovran, <a href="#note_41">41</a>, <a href="#note_639">639</a>.</li> + +<li>Spangled, <a href="#note_1003">1003</a>.</li> + +<li>Spell, <a href="#note_154">154</a>.</li> + +<li>Spets, <a href="#note_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li>Sphery, <a href="#note_1021">1021</a>.</li> + +<li>Spruce, <a href="#note_985">985</a>.</li> + +<li>Square, <a href="#note_329">329</a>.</li> + +<li>Squint, <a href="#note_413">413</a>.</li> + +<li>Stabled, <a href="#note_534">534</a>.</li> + +<li>Star of Arcady, <a href="#note_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>State, <a href="#note_35">35</a>.</li> + +<li><a class="pagebreak" name="Page_117" id="Page_117" title="117"></a>Stead, <a href="#note_611">611</a>.</li> + +<li>Step-dame, <a href="#note_830">830</a>.</li> + +<li>Still, <a href="#note_560">560</a>.</li> + +<li>Stoic, <a href="#note_707">707</a>.</li> + +<li>Stops, <a href="#note_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li>Storied, <a href="#note_516">516</a>.</li> + +<li>Straight, <a href="#note_811">811</a>.</li> + +<li>Strook, <a href="#note_301">301</a>.</li> + +<li>Stygian, <a href="#note_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li>Sun-clad, <a href="#note_782">782</a>.</li> + +<li>Sung, <a href="#note_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li>Sure, <a href="#note_148">148</a>.</li> + +<li>Surrounding, <a href="#note_403">403</a>.</li> + +<li>Swain, <a href="#note_497">497</a>.</li> + +<li>Swart, <a href="#note_436">436</a>.</li> + +<li>Swinked, <a href="#note_293">293</a>.</li> + +<li>Sylvan, <a href="#note_268">268</a>.</li> + +<li>Syrups, <a href="#note_674">674</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>T.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Tapestry, <a href="#note_324">324</a>.</li> + +<li>Temple, <a href="#note_461">461</a>.</li> + +<li>Thyrsis, <a href="#note_494">494</a>.</li> + +<li>Timely, <a href="#note_689">689</a>, <a href="#note_970">970</a>.</li> + +<li>Tinsel-slippered, <a href="#note_877">877</a>.</li> + +<li>To-ruffled, <a href="#note_380">380</a>.</li> + +<li>To seek, <a href="#note_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li>Toy, <a href="#note_502">502</a>.</li> + +<li>Trains, <a href="#note_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Treasonous, <a href="#note_702">702</a>.</li> + +<li>Trippings, <a href="#note_961">961</a>.</li> + +<li>Turkis, <a href="#note_894">894</a>.</li> + +<li>Tuscan, <a href="#note_48">48</a>.</li> + +<li>Twain, <a href="#note_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li>Tyrrhene, <a href="#note_49">49</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>U.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Unblenched, <a href="#note_430">430</a>.</li> + +<li>Unenchanted, <a href="#note_395">395</a>.</li> + +<li>Unmuffle, <a href="#note_331">331</a>.</li> + +<li>Unprincipled, <a href="#note_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Unweeting, <a href="#note_539">539</a>.</li> + +<li>Unwithdrawing, <a href="#note_711">711</a>.</li> + +<li>Urchin, <a href="#note_845">845</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>V.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Various, <a href="#note_379">379</a>.</li> + +<li>Venturous, <a href="#note_609">609</a>.</li> + +<li>Vermeil-tinctured, <a href="#note_752">752</a>.</li> + +<li>Very, <a href="#note_428">427</a>.</li> + +<li>Vialed, <a href="#note_847">847</a>.</li> + +<li>Viewless, <a href="#note_92">92</a>.</li> + +<li>Violet-embroidered, <a href="#note_233">233</a>.</li> + +<li>Virtue, <a href="#note_165">165</a>, <a href="#note_621">621</a>.</li> + +<li>Visage, <a href="#note_333">333</a>.</li> + +<li>Vizored, <a href="#note_698">698</a>.</li> + +<li>Votarist, <a href="#note_189">189</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>W.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Wakes, <a href="#note_121">121</a>.</li> + +<li>Warranted, <a href="#note_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li>Wassailers, <a href="#note_178">179</a>.</li> + +<li>Waste, <a href="#note_728">728</a>, <a href="#note_942">942</a>.</li> + +<li>Weeds, <a href="#note_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Welkin, <a href="#note_1015">1015</a>.</li> + +<li>What need, <a href="#note_362">362</a>.</li> + +<li>Whilom, <a href="#note_827">827</a>.</li> + +<li>Whit, <a href="#note_774">774</a>.</li> + +<li>Who, <a href="#note_728">728</a>.</li> + +<li>Wily, <a href="#note_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Wink, <a href="#note_401">401</a>.</li> + +<li>Wished, <a href="#note_574">574</a>, <a href="#note_950">950</a>.</li> + +<li>Wizard, <a href="#note_571">571</a>, <a href="#note_872">872</a>.</li> + +<li>Wont, <a href="#note_332">332</a>, <a href="#note_549">549</a>.</li> + +<li>Woof, <a href="#note_83">83</a>.</li> + + +</ul><p>Y.</p><ul class="IX"> + +<li>Ye, <a href="#note_216">216</a>.</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<hr /> +<p class="center little">GLASGOW: PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milton's Comus, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + +***** This file should be named 19819-h.htm or 19819-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/1/19819/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Milton's Comus + +Author: John Milton + +Editor: William Bell + +Release Date: November 15, 2006 [EBook #19819] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + +{Transcriber's notes: + ~Bold~ text is surrounded by tildes ~, _italic_ text by underscores _. + +Greek+ text is transliterated and surrounded by plus signs +. + oe ligatures have been unpacked. + Letters with overscores are represented as {=a}, {=e}, {=o}. + The use of e and e to indicate stresses is inconsistent, as is + the use of ae ligatures. No changes have been made to the original. +} + + + + MILTON'S COMUS + + WITH + INTRODUCTION AND NOTES + + BY + WILLIAM BELL, M.A. + PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, LAHORE + + + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO + AND NEW YORK + 1891 + + [_All rights reserved_] + + + + + First Edition, 1890. + Reprinted, 1891. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION, vii + COMUS, 7 + NOTES, 38 + INDEX TO THE NOTES, 113 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Few poems have been more variously designated than _Comus_. Milton +himself describes it simply as "A Mask"; by others it has been +criticised and estimated as a lyrical drama, a drama in the epic style, +a lyric poem in the _form_ of a play, a phantasy, an allegory, a +philosophical poem, a suite of speeches or majestic soliloquies, and +even a didactic poem. Such variety in the description of the poem is +explained partly by its complex charm and many-sided interest, and +partly by the desire to describe it from that point of view which should +best reconcile its literary form with what we know of the genius and +powers of its author. Those who, like Dr. Johnson, have blamed it as a +drama, have admired it "as a series of lines," or as a lyric; one +writer, who has found that its characters are nothing, its sentiments +tedious, its story uninteresting, has nevertheless "doubted whether +there will ever be any similar poem which gives so true a conception of +the capacity and the dignity of the mind by which it was produced" +(Bagehot's _Literary Studies_). Some who have praised it as an allegory +see in it a satire on the evils both of the Church and of the State, +while others regard it as alluding to the vices of the Court alone. Some +have found its lyrical parts the best, while others, charmed with its +"divine philosophy," have commended those deep conceits which place it +alongside of the _Faerie Queen_, as shadowing forth an episode in the +education of a noble soul and as a poet's lesson against intemperance +and impurity. But no one can refuse to admit that, more than any other +of Milton's shorter poems, it gives us an insight into the peculiar +genius and character of its author: it was, in the opinion of Hallam, +"sufficient to convince any one of taste and feeling that a great poet +had arisen in England, and one partly formed in a different school from +his contemporaries." It is true that in the early poems we do not find +the whole of Milton, for he had yet to pass through many years of +trouble and controversy; but _Comus_, in a special degree, reveals or +foreshadows much of the Milton of _Paradise Lost_. Whether we regard its +place in Milton's life, in the series of his works, or in English +literature as a whole, the poem is full of significance: it is worth +while, therefore, to consider how its form was determined by the +external circumstances and previous training of the poet; by his +favourite studies in poetry, philosophy, history, and music; and by his +noble theory of life in general, and of a poet's life in particular. + +The mask was represented at Ludlow Castle on September 29th, 1634; it +was probably composed early in that year. It belongs, therefore, to that +group of poems (_L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _Arcades_, _Comus_, and +_Lycidas_) written by Milton while living in his father's house at +Horton, near Windsor, after having left the University of Cambridge in +July, 1632. As he was born in 1608, he would be twenty-five years of age +when this poem was composed. During his stay at Horton (1632-39), which +was broken only by a journey to Italy in 1638-9, he was chiefly occupied +with the study of the Greek, Roman, Italian, and English literatures, +each of which has left its impress on _Comus_. He read widely and +carefully, and it has been said that his great and original imagination +was almost entirely nourished, or at least stimulated, by books: his +residence at Horton was, accordingly, pre-eminently what he intended it +to be, and what his father wisely and gladly permitted it to be--a time +of preparation and ripening for the work to which he had dedicated +himself. We are reminded of his own words in _Comus_: + + And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. + +We find in _Comus_ abundant reminiscences of Milton's study of the +literature of antiquity. "It would not be too much to say that the +literature of antiquity was to Milton's genius what soil and light are +to a plant. It nourished, it coloured, it developed it. It determined +not merely his character as an artist, but it exercised an influence on +his intellect and temper scarcely less powerful than hereditary +instincts and contemporary history. It at once animated and chastened +his imagination; it modified his fancy; it furnished him with his +models. On it his taste was formed; on it his style was moulded. From it +his diction and his method derived their peculiarities. It transformed +what would in all probability have been the mere counterpart of +Caedmon's Paraphrase or Langland's Vision into Paradise Lost; and what +would have been the mere counterpart of Corydon's Doleful Knell and the +satire of the Three Estates, into Lycidas and Comus." (_Quarterly +Review_, No. 326.) + +But Milton has also told us that Spenser was his master, and the full +charm of _Comus_ cannot be realised without reference to the artistic +and philosophical spirit of the author of the _Faerie Queene_. Both +poems deal with the war between the body and the soul--between the lower +and the higher nature. In an essay on 'Spenser as a philosophic poet,' +De Vere says: "The perils and degradations of an animalised life are +shown under the allegory of Sir Guyon's sea voyage with its successive +storms and whirlpools, its 'rock of Reproach' strewn with wrecks and +dead men's bones, its 'wandering islands,' its 'quicksands of +Unthriftihead,' its 'whirlepoole of Decay,' its 'sea-monsters,' and +lastly, its 'bower of Bliss,' and the doom which overtakes it, together +with the deliverance of Acrasia's victims, transformed by that witch's +spells into beasts. Still more powerful is the allegory of worldly +ambition, illustrated under the name of 'the cave of Mammon.' The Legend +of Holiness delineates with not less insight those enemies which wage +war upon the spiritual life." All this Milton had studied in the _Faerie +Queene_, and had understood it; and, like Sir Guyon, he felt himself to +be a knight enrolled under the banner of Parity and Self-Control. So +that, in _Comus_, we find the sovereign value of Temperance or +Self-Regulation--what the Greeks called +sophrosyne+--set forth +no less clearly than in Spenser's poem: in Milton's mask it becomes +almost identical with Virtue itself. The enchantments of Acrasia in her +Bower of Bliss become the spells of Comus; the armour of Belphoebe +becomes the "complete steel" of Chastity; while the supremacy of +Conscience, the bounty of Nature and man's ingratitude, the unloveliness +of Mammon and of Excess, the blossom of Courtesy oft found on lowly +stalk, and the final triumph of Virtue through striving and temptation, +all are dwelt upon. + + It is the mind that maketh good or ill, + That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore: + +so speaks Spenser; and Milton similarly-- + + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + +In endeavouring still further to trace, by means of verbal or structural +resemblances, the sources from which Milton drew his materials for +_Comus_, critics have referred to Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ (1595); to +Fletcher's pastoral, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, of which Charles Lamb +has said that if all its parts 'had been in unison with its many +innocent scenes and sweet lyric intermixtures, it had been a poem fit to +vie with _Comus_ or the _Arcadia_, to have been put into the hands of +boys and virgins, to have made matter for young dreams, like the loves +of Hermia and Lysander'; to Ben Jonson's mask of _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_ (1619), in which Comus is "the god of cheer, or the Belly"; and +to the _Comus_ of Erycius Puteanus (Henri du Puy), Professor of +Eloquence at Louvain. It is true that Fletcher's pastoral was being +acted in London about the time Milton was writing his _Comus_, that the +poem by the Dutch Professor was republished at Oxford in 1634, and that +resemblances are evident between Milton's poem and those named. But +Professor Masson does well in warning us that "infinitely too much has +been made of such coincidences. After all of them, even the most ideal +and poetical, the feeling in reading _Comus_ is that all here is +different, all peculiar." Whatever Milton borrowed, he borrowed, as he +says himself, in order to better it. + +It is interesting to consider the mutual relations of the poems written +by Milton at Horton. Everything that Milton wrote is Miltonic; he had +what has been called the power of transforming everything into himself, +and these poems are, accordingly, evidences of the development of +Milton's opinions and of his secret purpose. It has been said that +_L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are to be regarded as "the pleadings, the +decision on which is in Comus"--_L'Allegro_ representing the Cavalier, +and _Il Penseroso_ the Puritan element. This is true only in a limited +sense. It is true that the Puritan element in the Horton series of poems +becomes more patent as we pass from the two lyrics to the mask of +_Comus_, and from _Comus_ to the elegy of _Lycidas_, just as, in the +corresponding periods of time, the evils connected with the reign of +Charles I. and with Laud's crusade against Puritanism were becoming more +pronounced. But we can hardly regard Milton as having expressed any new +decision in _Comus_: the decision is already made when "vain deluding +Joys" are banished in _Il Penseroso_, and "loathed Melancholy" in +_L'Allegro_. The mask is an expansion and exaltation of the delights of +the contemplative man, but there is still a place for the "unreproved +pleasures" of the cheerful man. Unless it were so, _Comus_ could not +have been written; there would have been no "sunshine holiday" for the +rustics and no "victorious dance" for the gentle lady and her brothers. +But in _Comus_ we realise the mutual relation of _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_; we see their application to the joys and sorrows of the +actual life of individuals; we observe human nature in contact with the +"hard assays" of life. And, subsequently, in _Lycidas_ we are made to +realise that this human nature is Milton's own, and to understand how it +was that his Puritanism which, three years before, had permitted him to +write a cavalier mask, should, three years after, lead him from the +fresh fields of poetry into the barren plains of controversial prose. + +The Mask was a favourite form of entertainment in England in Milton's +youth, and had been so from the time of Henry VIII., in whose reign +elaborate masked shows, introduced from Italy, first became popular. But +they seem to have found their way into England, in a crude form, even +earlier; and we read of court disguisings in the reign of Edward III. It +is usually said that the Mask derives its name from the fact that the +actors wore masks, and in Hall's Chronicle we read that, in 1512, "on +the day of Epiphany at night, the king, with eleven others, was +disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen +before in England; they were appareled in garments long and broad, +wrought all with gold, with _visors_ and caps of gold." The truth, +however, seems to be that the use of a visor was not essential in such +entertainments, which, from the first, were called 'masks,' the word +'masker' being used sometimes of the players, and sometimes of their +disguises. The word has come to us, through the French form _masque_, +cognate with Spanish _mascarada_, a masquerade or assembly of maskers, +otherwise called a mummery. Up to the time of Henry VIII. these +entertainments were of the nature of dumb-show or _tableaux vivants_, +and delighted the spectators chiefly by the splendour of the costumes +and machinery employed in their representation; but, afterwards, the +chief actors spoke their parts, singing and dancing were introduced, and +the composition of masks for royal and other courtly patrons became an +occupation worthy of a poet. They were frequently combined with other +forms of amusement, all of which were, in the case of the Court, placed +under the management of a Master of Revels, whose official title was +Magister Jocorum, Revellorum et _Mascorum_; in the first printed English +tragedy, _Gorboduc_ (1565), each act opens with what is called a +dumb-show or mask. But the more elaborate form of the Mask soon grew to +be an entertainment complete in itself, and the demand for such became +so great in the time of James I. and Charles I. that the history of +these reigns might almost be traced in the succession of masks then +written. Ben Jonson, who thoroughly established the Mask in English +literature, wrote many Court Masks, and made them a vehicle less for the +display of 'painting and carpentry' than for the expression of the +intellectual and social life of his time. His masks are excelled only +by _Comus_, and possess in a high degree that 'Doric delicacy' in their +songs and odes which Sir Henry Wotton found so ravishing in Milton's +mask. Jonson, in his lifetime, declared that, next himself, only +Fletcher and Chapman could write a mask; and apart from the compositions +of these writers and of William Browne (_Inner Temple Masque_), there +are few specimens worthy to be named along with Jonson's until we come +to Milton's _Arcades_. Other mask-writers were Middleton, Dekker, +Shirley, Carew, and Davenant; and it is interesting to note that in +Carew's _Coelum Brittanicum_ (1633-4), for which Lawes composed the +music, the two boys who afterwards acted in _Comus_ had juvenile parts. +It has been pointed out that the popularity of the Mask in Milton's +youth received a stimulus from the Puritan hatred of the theatre which +found expression at that time, and drove non-Puritans to welcome the +Mask as a protest against that spirit which saw nothing but evil in +every form of dramatic entertainment. Milton, who enjoyed the +theatre--both "Jonson's learned sock" and what "ennobled hath the +buskined stage"--was led, through his friendship with the musician +Lawes, to compose a mask to celebrate the entry of the Earl of +Bridgewater upon his office of "Lord President of the Council in the +Principality of Wales and the Marches of the same." He had already +written, also at the request of Lawes, a mask, or portion of a mask, +called _Arcades_, and the success of this may have stimulated him to +higher effort. The result was _Comus_, in which the Mask reached its +highest level, and after which it practically faded out of our +literature. + +Milton's two masks, _Arcades_ and _Comus_, were written for members of +the same noble family, the former in honour of the Countess Dowager of +Derby, and the latter in honour of John, first Earl of Bridgewater, who +was both her stepson and son-in-law. This two-fold relation arose from +the fact that the Earl was the son of Viscount Brackley, the Countess's +second husband, and had himself married Lady Frances Stanley, a daughter +of the Countess by her first husband, the fifth Earl of Derby. Amongst +the children of the Earl of Bridgewater were three who took important +parts in the representation of _Comus_--Alice, the youngest daughter, +then about fourteen years of age, who appeared as _The Lady_; John, +Viscount Brackley, who took the part of the _Elder Brother_, and Thomas +Egerton, who appeared as the _Second Brother_. We do not know who acted +the parts of _Comus_ and _Sabrina_, but the part of the _Attendant +Spirit_ was taken by Henry Lawes, "gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and +one of His Majesty's private musicians." The Earl's children were his +pupils, and the mask was naturally produced under his direction. +Milton's friendship with Lawes is shown by the sonnet which the poet +addressed to the musician: + + Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd song + First taught our English music how to span + Words with just note and accent, not to scan + With Midas' ears, committing short and long; + Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, + With praise enough for Envy to look wan; + To after age thou shalt be writ the man, + That with smooth air could'st humour best our tongue. + Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing + To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, + That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story. + Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher + Than his Casella, who he woo'd to sing, + Met in the milder shades of Purgatory. + +We must remember also that it was to Lawes that Milton's _Comus_ owed +its first publication, and, as we see from the dedication prefixed to +the text, that he was justly proud of his share in its first +representation. + +Such were the persons who appeared in Milton's mask; they are few in +number, and the plan of the piece is correspondingly simple. There are +three scenes which may be briefly characterised thus: + + I. The Tempter and the Tempted: lines 1-658. + _Scene_: A wild wood. + + II. The Temptation and the Rescue: lines 659-958. + _Scene_: The Palace of Comus. + + III. The Triumph: lines 959-1023. + _Scene_: The President's Castle. + +In the first scene, after a kind of prologue (lines 1-92), the interest +rises as we are introduced first to Comus and his rout, then to the Lady +alone and "night-foundered," and finally to Comus and the Lady in +company. At the same time the nature of the Lady's trial and her +subsequent victory are foreshadowed in a conversation between the +brothers and the attendant Spirit. This is one of the more Miltonic +parts of the mask: in the philosophical reasoning of the elder brother, +as opposed to the matter-of-fact arguments of the younger, we trace the +young poet fresh from the study of the divine volume of Plato, and +filled with a noble trust in God. In the second scene we breathe the +unhallowed air of the abode of the wily tempter, who endeavours, "under +fair pretence of friendly ends," to wind himself into the pure heart of +the Lady. But his "gay rhetoric" is futile against the "sun-clad power +of chastity"; and he is driven off the scene by the two brothers, who +are led and instructed by the Spirit disguised as the shepherd Thyrsis. +But the Lady, having been lured into the haunt of impurity, is left +spell-bound, and appeal is made to the pure nymph Sabrina, who is "swift +to aid a virgin, such as was herself, in hard-besetting need." It is in +the contention between Comus and the Lady in this scene that the +interest of the mask may be said to culminate, for here its purpose +stands revealed: "it is a song to Temperance as the ground of Freedom, +to temperance as the guard of all the virtues, to beauty as secured by +temperance, and its central point and climax is in the pleading of these +motives by the Lady against their opposites in the mouth of the Lord of +sensual Revel." _Milton: Classical Writers_. In the third scene the Lady +Alice and her brothers are presented by the Spirit to their noble father +and mother as triumphing "in victorious dance o'er sensual folly and +intemperance." The Spirit then speaks the epilogue, calling upon mortals +who love true freedom to strive after virtue: + + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + +The last couplet Milton afterwards, on his Italian journey, entered in +an album belonging to an Italian named Cerdogni, and underneath it the +words, _Coelum non animum muto dum trans mare curro_, and his +signature, Joannes Miltonius, Anglus. The juxtaposition of these verses +is significant: though he had left his own land Milton had not become +what, fifty or sixty years before, Roger Ascham had condemned as an +"Italianated Englishman." He was one of those "worthy Gentlemen of +England, whom all the Siren tongues of Italy could never untwine from +the mast of God's word; nor no enchantment of vanity overturn them from +the fear of God and love of honesty" (Ascham's _Scholemaster_). And one +might almost infer that Milton, in his account of the sovereign plant +Haemony which was to foil the wiles of _Comus_, had remembered not only +Homer's description of the root Moly "that Hermes once to wise Ulysses +gave,"{16:A} but also Ascham's remarks thereupon: "The true medicine +against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure, +the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the black +root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; which Hesiod +termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the beginning, but in +the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to be marvelled at, +the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this medicine against sin and +vanity is not found out by man, but given and taught by God." Milton's +_Comus_, like his last great poems, is a poetical expression of the same +belief. "His poetical works, the outcome of his inner life, his life of +artistic contemplation, are," in the words of Prof. Dowden, "various +renderings of one dominant idea--that the struggle for mastery between +good and evil is the prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the +righteous cause is assured by the existence of a divine order of the +universe, which Milton knew by the name of 'Providence.'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{16:A} It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable, +employs in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of +Milton's description of Haemony; compare the following extract from _The +Adventures of Ulysses_ with lines 629-640 of _Comus_: "The flower of the +herb Moly, which is sovereign against enchantments: the moly is a small +unsightly root, its virtues but little known, and in low estimation; the +dull shepherd treads on it every day with his clouted shoes, but it bears +a small white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights, +mildews, and damps." + + + + + COMUS. + + + A MASK + + PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634. + + BEFORE + + JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, + + THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES. + + + + +_The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the +following Poem._ + + +From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. + +SIR, + +It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first +taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I +wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if +I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I +understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar +phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and +to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned +friend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some +good authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to have +been familiar. + +Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a +very kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for a +dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should +much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a +certain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainly +confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa +mollities_.{19:A} But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only owe +you thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true +artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, with +singular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in +the very close of the late R.'s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto it +is added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the +principal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader +_con la bocca dolce_.{20:A} + +Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more +privilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch{20:B} +Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few +lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord +S. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directions +for shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside by +my choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice. + +I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of +France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passage +into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to +Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the +interest you have given me in your safety. + +At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Roman +courtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca di +Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man, +that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat +of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his +native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the +centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice, +how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or +of mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I pensieri +stretti, ed il viso sciolto_,{21:A} will go safely over the whole world. +Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth +need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the +best of all securities, God's dear love, remaining + + Your friend as much to command + as any of longer date, + + HENRY WOTTON. + +_Postscript._ + +Sir,--I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure +without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging +letter, having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected +the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, +I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even +for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the +cradle.{21:B} + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{19:A} It is delicacy itself. + +{20:A} With a sweet taste in his mouth (so that he may desire more). + +{20:B} Avoid. + +{21:A} "Thoughts close, countenance open." + +{21:B} This letter was printed in the edition of 1645, but omitted in +that of 1673. It was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton +College, just in time to overtake Milton before he set out on his journey +to Italy. As a parting act of courtesy Milton had sent Sir Henry a letter +with a copy of Lawes's edition of his _Comus_, and the above letter is an +acknowledgment of the favour. + + + + +TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE{22:A} + +JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY, + +_Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, etc._ + + +MY LORD, + +This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and +others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the +performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to +you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a +legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often +copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, +and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and +now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and +rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full +assurance to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet +Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from +the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most +honoured Parents, and as in this representation your attendant +_Thyrsis_,{22:B} so now in all real expression, + + Your faithful and most humble Servant, + + H. LAWES. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +{22:A} Dedication of the anonymous edition of 1637: reprinted in the +edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673. + +{22:B} See Notes, line 494. + + + + +THE PERSONS. + + The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of THYRSIS. + COMUS, with his Crew. + The LADY. + FIRST BROTHER. + SECOND BROTHER. + SABRINA, the Nymph. + + The Chief Persons which presented were:-- + The Lord Brackley; + Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother; + The Lady Alice Egerton. + + + + + +COMUS. + + +_The first Scene discovers a wild wood._ + +_The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters._ + + Before the starry threshold of Jove's court + My mansion is, where those immortal shapes + Of bright aerial spirits live insphered + In regions mild of calm and serene air, + Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot + Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, + Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, + Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, + Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, + After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 + Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. + Yet some there be that by due steps aspire + To lay their just hands on that golden key + That opes the palace of eternity. + To such my errand is; and, but for such, + I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds + With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould. + But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway + Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream, + Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20 + Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles + That, like to rich and various gems, inlay + The unadorned bosom of the deep; + Which he, to grace his tributary gods, + By course commits to several government, + And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns + And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, + The greatest and the best of all the main, + He quarters to his blue-haired deities; + And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 + A noble Peer of mickle trust and power + Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide + An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: + Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, + Are coming to attend their father's state, + And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way + Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, + The nodding horror of whose shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; + And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 + But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, + I was despatched for their defence and guard: + And listen why; for I will tell you now + What never yet was heard in tale or song, + From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. + Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape + Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, + After the Tuscan mariners transformed, + Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, + On Circe's island fell: (who knows not Circe, 50 + The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup + Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, + And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) + This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, + With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, + Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son + Much like his father, but his mother more, + Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: + Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, + Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 + At last betakes him to this ominous wood, + And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, + Excels his mother at her mighty art; + Offering to every weary traveller + His orient liquor in a crystal glass, + To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste + (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst), + Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, + The express resemblance of the gods, is changed + Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 + Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, + All other parts remaining as they were. + And they, so perfect is their misery, + Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, + But boast themselves more comely than before, + And all their friends and native home forget, + To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. + Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove + Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, + Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 + I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, + As now I do. But first I must put off + These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, + And take the weeds and likeness of a swain + That to the service of this house belongs, + Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, + Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, + And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, + And in this office of his mountain watch + Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 + Of this occasion. But I hear the tread + Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. + +_COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; +with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, +but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in +making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands._ + + _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold + Now the top of heaven doth hold; + And the gilded car of day + His glowing axle doth allay + In the steep Atlantic stream; + And the slope sun his upward beam + Shoots against the dusky pole, + Pacing toward the other goal 100 + Of his chamber in the east. + Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, + Midnight shout and revelry, + Tipsy dance and jollity. + Braid your locks with rosy twine, + Dropping odours, dropping wine. + Rigour now is gone to bed; + And Advice with scrupulous head, + Strict Age, and sour Severity, + With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 + We, that are of purer fire, + Imitate the starry quire, + Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, + Lead in swift round the months and years. + The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, + Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; + And on the tawny sands and shelves + Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. + By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, + The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 + Their merry wakes and pastimes keep: + What hath night to do with sleep? + Night hath better sweets to prove; + Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. + Come, let us our rights begin; + 'Tis only daylight that makes sin, + Which these dun shades will ne'er report. + Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, + Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame + Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 + That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb + Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, + And makes one blot of all the air! + Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, + Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend + Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end + Of all thy dues be done, and none left out, + Ere the blabbing eastern scout, + The nice Morn on the Indian steep, + From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 + And to the tell-tale Sun descry + Our concealed solemnity. + Come, knit hands, and beat the ground + In a light fantastic round. [_The Measure._ + Break off, break off! I feel the different pace + Of some chaste footing near about this ground. + Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees; + Our number may affright. Some virgin sure + (For so I can distinguish by mine art) + Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 + And to my wily trains: I shall ere long + Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed + About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl + My dazzling spells into the spongy air, + Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, + And give it false presentments, lest the place + And my quaint habits breed astonishment, + And put the damsel to suspicious flight; + Which must not be, for that's against my course. + I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 + And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, + Baited with reasons not unplausible, + Wind me into the easy-hearted man, + And hug him into snares. When once her eye + Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, + I shall appear some harmless villager + Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. + But here she comes; I fairly step aside, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + +_The LADY enters._ + + _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, + My best guide now. Methought it was the sound + Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 172 + Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe + Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, + When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, + In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, + And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth + To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence + Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else + Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 + In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? + My brothers, when they saw me wearied out + With this long way, resolving here to lodge + Under the spreading favour of these pines, + Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side + To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit + As the kind hospitable woods provide. + They left me then when the grey-hooded Even, + Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, + Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 + But where they are, and why they came not back, + Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest + They had engaged their wandering steps too far; + And envious darkness, ere they could return, + Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, + Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, + In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars + That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps + With everlasting oil to give due light + To the misled and lonely traveller? 200 + This is the place, as well as I may guess, + Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth + Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear; + Yet nought but single darkness do I find. + What might this be? A thousand fantasies + Begin to throng into my memory, + Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, + And airy tongues that syllable men's names + On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion, Conscience. + O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, + Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, + And thou unblemished form of Chastity! + I see ye visibly, and now believe + That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill + Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, + Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, + To keep my life and honour unassailed.... 220 + Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night? + I did not err: there does a sable cloud + Turn forth her silver lining on the night, + And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. + I cannot hallo to my brothers, but + Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest + I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits + Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. + +_Song._ + + Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 + Within thy airy shell + By slow Meander's margent green, + And in the violet-embroidered vale + Where the love-lorn nightingale + Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: + Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair + That likest thy Narcissus are? + O, if thou have + Hid them in some flowery cave, + Tell me but where, 240 + Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere! + So may'st thou be translated to the skies, + And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies! + + _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould + Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? + Sure something holy lodges in that breast, + And with these raptures moves the vocal air + To testify his hidden residence. + How sweetly did they float upon the wings + Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 + At every fall smoothing the raven down + Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard + My mother Circe with the Sirens three, + Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, + Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, + Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, + And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, + And chid her barking waves into attention, + And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. + Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 + And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; + But such a sacred and home-felt delight, + Such sober certainty of waking bliss, + I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, + And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder! + Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, + Unless the goddess that in rural shrine + Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan by blest song + Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog + To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 + + _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise + That is addressed to unattending ears. + Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift + How to regain my severed company, + Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo + To give me answer from her mossy couch. + + _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? + + _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. + + _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? + + _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 + + _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? + + _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. + + _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, lady? + + _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return. + + _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. + + _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit! + + _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need? + + _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose. + + _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? + + _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 + + _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox + In his loose traces from the furrow came, + And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. + I saw them under a green mantling vine, + That crawls along the side of yon small hill, + Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; + Their port was more than human, as they stood + I took it for a faery vision + Of some gay creatures of the element, + That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 + And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, + And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, + It were a journey like the path to Heaven + To help you find them. + + _Lady._ Gentle villager, + What readiest way would bring me to that place? + + _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point. + + _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, + In such a scant allowance of star-light, + Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, + Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 + + _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green, + Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, + And every bosky bourn from side to side, + My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; + And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged, + Or shroud within these limits, I shall know + Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark + From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, + I can conduct you, lady, to a low + But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 + Till further quest. + + _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word, + And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, + Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, + With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls + And courts of princes, where it first was named, + And yet is most pretended. In a place + Less warranted than this, or less secure, + I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. + Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial + To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on. + +[_Exeunt._ + +_Enter the TWO BROTHERS._ + + _Elder Brother._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, 331 + That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, + Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, + And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here + In double night of darkness and of shades; + Or, if your influence be quite dammed up + With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, + Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole + Of some clay habitation, visit us + With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 + And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, + Or Tyrian Cynosure. + + _Second Brother._ Or, if our eyes + Be barred that happiness, might we but hear + The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, + Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, + Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock + Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, + 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, + In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. + But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 + Where may she wander now, whither betake her + From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? + Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, + Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm + Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. + What if in wild amazement and affright, + Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp + Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! + + _Elder Brother._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite + To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360 + For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, + What need a man forestall his date of grief, + And run to meet what he would most avoid? + Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, + How bitter is such self-delusion! + I do not think my sister so to seek, + Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, + And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, + As that the single want of light and noise + (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 + Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, + And put them into misbecoming plight. + Virtue could see to do what Virtue would + By her own radiant light, though sun and moon + Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self + Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, + Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, + She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, + That, in the various bustle of resort, + Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 + He that has light within his own clear breast + May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: + But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts + Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; + Himself is his own dungeon. + + _Second Brother._ 'Tis most true + That musing meditation most affects + The pensive secrecy of desert cell, + Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, + And sits as safe as in a senate-house; + For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 + His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, + Or do his grey hairs any violence? + But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree + Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard + Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye + To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, + From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. + You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps + Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, + And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 + Danger will wink on Opportunity, + And let a single helpless maiden pass + Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. + Of night or loneliness it recks me not; + I fear the dread events that dog them both, + Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person + Of our unowned sister. + + _Elder Brother._ I do not, brother, + Infer as if I thought my sister's state + Secure without all doubt or controversy; + Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 + Does arbitrate the event, my nature is + That I incline to hope rather than fear, + And gladly banish squint suspicion. + My sister is not so defenceless left + As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, + Which you remember not. + + _Second Brother._ What hidden strength, + Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? + + _Elder Brother._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, + Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. + 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 + She that has that is clad in complete steel, + And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, + May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths, + Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; + Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, + No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, + Will dare to soil her virgin purity. + Yea, there where very desolation dwells, + By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, + She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 + Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. + Some say no evil thing that walks by night, + In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, + Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, + That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, + No goblin or swart faery of the mine, + Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. + Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call + Antiquity from the old schools of Greece + To testify the arms of chastity? 440 + Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow + Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste, + Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness + And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought + The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men + Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. + What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield + That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, + Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, + But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 + And noble grace that dashed brute violence + With sudden adoration and blank awe? + So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity + That, when a soul is found sincerely so, + A thousand liveried angels lackey her, + Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, + And in clear dream and solemn vision + Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; + Till oft converse with heavenly habitants + Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 + The unpolluted temple of the mind, + And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, + Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, + By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, + But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, + Lets in defilement to the inward parts, + The soul grows clotted by contagion, + Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose + The divine property of her first being. + Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 + Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres, + Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, + As loth to leave the body that it loved, + And linked itself by carnal sensualty + To a degenerate and degraded state. + + _Second Brother._ How charming is divine Philosophy! + Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, + But musical as is Apollo's lute, + And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, + Where no crude surfeit reigns. + + _Elder Brother._ List! list! I hear 480 + Some far-off hallo break the silent air. + + _Second Brother._ Methought so too; what should it be? + + _Elder Brother._ For certain, + Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, + Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, + Some roving robber calling to his fellows. + + _Second Brother._ Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near! + Best draw, and stand upon our guard. + + _Elder Brother._ I'll hallo. + If he be friendly, he comes well: if not, + Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! + +_Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd._ + + That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490 + Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. + + _Spirit._ What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again. + + _Second Brother._ O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed + The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, + And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. + How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram + Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, + Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? + How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 + + _Spirit._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, + I came not here on such a trivial toy + As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth + Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth + That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought + To this my errand, and the care it brought, + But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? + How chance she is not in your company? + + _Elder Brother._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame + Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 + + _Spirit._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. + + _Elder Brother._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew. + + _Spirit._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous + (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) + What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, + Storied of old in high immortal verse + Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, + And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; + For such there be, but unbelief is blind. + Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 + Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, + Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, + Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, + And here to every thirsty wanderer + By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, + With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison + The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, + And the inglorious likeness of a beast + Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage + Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530 + Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts + That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night + He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl + Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, + Doing abhorred rites to Hecate + In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. + Yet have they many baits and guileful spells + To inveigle and invite the unwary sense + Of them that pass unweeting by the way. + This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 + Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb + Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, + I sat me down to watch upon a bank + With ivy canopied, and interwove + With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, + Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, + To meditate my rural minstrelsy, + Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close + The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, + And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 + At which I ceased, and listened them awhile, + Till an unusual stop of sudden silence + Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds + That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. + At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound + Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, + And stole upon the air, that even Silence + Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might + Deny her nature, and be never more, + Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 + And took in strains that might create a soul + Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long + Too well I did perceive it was the voice + Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. + Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; + And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, + "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!" + Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, + Through paths and turnings often trod by day, + Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 + Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise + (For so by certain signs I knew), had met + Already, ere my best speed could prevent, + The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey; + Who gently asked if he had seen such two, + Supposing him some neighbour villager. + Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed + Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung + Into swift flight, till I had found you here; + But further know I not. + + _Second Brother._ O night and shades, 580 + How are ye joined with hell in triple knot + Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, + Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence + You gave me, brother? + + _Elder Brother._ Yes, and keep it still; + Lean on it safely; not a period + Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats + Of malice or of sorcery, or that power + Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: + Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, + Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 + Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm + Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. + But evil on itself shall back recoil, + And mix no more with goodness, when at last, + Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, + It shall be in eternal restless change + Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, + The pillared firmament is rottenness, + And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! + Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 + May never this just sword be lifted up; + But, for that damned magician, let him be girt + With all the grisly legions that troop + Under the sooty flag of Acheron, + Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms + 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to return his purchase back, + Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life. + + _Spirit._ Alas! good venturous youth, + I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 + But here thy sword can do thee little stead. + Far other arms and other weapons must + Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. + He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, + And crumble all thy sinews. + + _Elder Brother._ Why, prithee, Shepherd, + How durst thou then thyself approach so near + As to make this relation? + + _Spirit._ Care and utmost shifts + How to secure the Lady from surprisal + Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, + Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 + In every virtuous plant and healing herb + That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. + He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; + Which when I did, he on the tender grass + Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, + And in requital ope his leathern scrip, + And show me simples of a thousand names, + Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. + Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, + But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 + The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, + But in another country, as he said, + Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: + Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain + Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; + And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly + That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. + He called it Haemony, and gave it me, + And bade me keep it as of sovran use + 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 + Or ghastly Furies' apparition. + I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, + Till now that this extremity compelled. + But now I find it true; for by this means + I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, + Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, + And yet came off. If you have this about you + (As I will give you when we go) you may + Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; + Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 + And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, + And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; + But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew + Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, + Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, + Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. + + _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; + And some good angel bear a shield before us! + +_The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of +deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. COMUS +appears with his rabble, and the LADY set in an enchanted chair: to whom +he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise._ + + _Comus._ Nay, lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, + Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 + And you a statue, or as Daphne was, + Root-bound, that fled Apollo. + + _Lady._ Fool, do not boast. + Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind + With all thy charms, although this corporal rind + Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. + + _Comus._ Why are you vexed, lady? why do you frown? + Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates + Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures + That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, + When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 + Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. + And first behold this cordial julep here, + That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, + With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. + Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone + In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena + Is of such power to stir up joy as this, + To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. + Why should you be so cruel to yourself, + And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 + For gentle usage and soft delicacy? + But you invert the covenants of her trust, + And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, + With that which you received on other terms, + Scorning the unexempt condition + By which all mortal frailty must subsist, + Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, + That have been tired all day without repast, + And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, + This will restore all soon. + + _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 + 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty + That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. + Was this the cottage and the safe abode + Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, + These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! + Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! + Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence + With vizored falsehood and base forgery? + And would'st thou seek again to trap me here + With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 + Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, + I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None + But such as are good men can give good things; + And that which is not good is not delicious + To a well-governed and wise appetite. + + _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears + To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, + And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, + Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! + Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 + With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, + Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, + Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, + But all to please and sate the curious taste? + And set to work millions of spinning worms, + That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, + To deck her sons; and, that no corner might + Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins + She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems, + To store her children with. If all the world 720 + Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, + Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, + The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, + Not half his riches known, and yet despised; + And we should serve him as a grudging master, + As a penurious niggard of his wealth, + And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, + Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, + And strangled with her waste fertility: + The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730 + The herds would over-multitude their lords; + The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds + Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, + And so bestud with stars, that they below + Would grow inured to light, and come at last + To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. + List, lady; be not coy, and be not cozened + With that same vaunted name, Virginity. + Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded, + But must be current; and the good thereof 740 + Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, + Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself. + If you let slip time, like a neglected rose + It withers on the stalk with languished head. + Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown + In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, + Where most may wonder at the workmanship. + It is for homely features to keep home; + They had their name thence: coarse complexions + And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 + The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. + What need of vermeil-tinctured lip for that, + Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? + There was another meaning in these gifts; + Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet. + + _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips + In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler + Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, + Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. + I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760 + And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. + Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, + As if she would her children should be riotous + With her abundance. She, good cateress, + Means her provision only to the good, + That live according to her sober laws, + And holy dictate of spare Temperance. + If every just man that now pines with want + Had but a moderate and beseeming share + Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 + Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, + Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed + In unsuperfluous even proportions, + And she no whit encumbered with her store; + And then the Giver would be better thanked, + His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony + Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, + But with besotted base ingratitude + Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? + Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780 + Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words + Against the sun-clad power of chastity + Fain would I something say;--yet to what end? + Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend + The sublime notion and high mystery + That must be uttered to unfold the sage + And serious doctrine of Virginity; + And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know + More happiness than this thy present lot. + Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 + That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; + Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. + Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth + Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits + To such a flame of sacred vehemence + That dumb things would be moved to sympathise, + And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, + Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, + Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. + + _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 + Her words set off by some superior power; + And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew + Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove + Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus + To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, + And try her yet more strongly.--Come, no more! + This is mere moral babble, and direct + Against the canon laws of our foundation. + I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees + And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 + + But this will cure all straight; one sip of this + Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight + Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. + +_The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his +hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, +but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in._ + + _Spirit._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape? + O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, + And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, + And backward mutters of dissevering power, + We cannot free the Lady that sits here + In stony fetters fixed and motionless. + Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 + Some other means I have which may be used, + Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, + The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. + There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, + That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream: + Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; + Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, + That had the sceptre from his father Brute. + She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit + Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830 + Commended her fair innocence to the flood + That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. + The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, + Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, + Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; + Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, + And gave her to his daughters to imbathe + In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel, + And through the porch and inlet of each sense + Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 + And underwent a quick immortal change, + Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains + Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve + Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, + Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs + That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, + Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: + For which the shepherds, at their festivals, + Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, + And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 + Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. + And, as the old swain said, she can unlock + The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, + If she be right invoked in warbled song; + For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift + To aid a virgin, such as was herself, + In hard-besetting need. This will I try, + And add the power of some adjuring verse. + +_Song._ + + Sabrina fair, + Listen where thou art sitting 860 + Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, + In twisted braids of lilies knitting + The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; + Listen for dear honour's sake, + Goddess of the silver lake, + Listen and save! + + Listen, and appear to us, + In name of great Oceanus. + By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, + And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870 + By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, + And the Carpathian wizard's hook; + By scaly Triton's winding shell, + And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; + By Leucothea's lovely hands, + And her son that rules the strands; + By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, + And the songs of Sirens sweet; + By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, + And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 + Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks + Sleeking her soft alluring locks; + By all the Nymphs that nightly dance + Upon thy streams with wily glance; + Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head + From thy coral-paven bed, + And bridle in thy headlong wave, + Till thou our summons answered have. + Listen and save! + +_SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings._ + + By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 + Where grows the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen + Of turkis blue, and emerald green, + That in the channel strays; + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head, + That bends not as I tread. + Gentle swain, at thy request 900 + I am here! + + _Spirit._ Goddess dear, + We implore thy powerful hand + To undo the charmed band + Of true virgin here distressed + Through the force and through the wile + Of unblessed enchanter vile. + + _Sabrina._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best + To help ensnared chastity. + Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 + Thus I sprinkle on thy breast + Drops that from my fountain pure + I have kept of precious cure; + Thrice upon thy finger's tip, + Thrice upon thy rubied lip: + Next this marble venomed seat, + Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, + I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. + Now the spell hath lost his hold; + And I must haste ere morning hour 920 + To wait in Amphitrite's bower. + +_SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat._ + + _Spirit._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine, + Sprung of old Anchises' line, + May thy brimmed waves for this + Their full tribute never miss + From a thousand petty rills, + That tumble down the snowy hills: + Summer drouth or singed air + Never scorch thy tresses fair, + Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 + Thy molten crystal fill with mud; + May thy billows roll ashore + The beryl and the golden ore; + May thy lofty head be crowned + With many a tower and terrace round, + And here and there thy banks upon + With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. + Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, + Let us fly this cursed place, + Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 + With some other new device. + Not a waste or needless sound + Till we come to holier ground. + I shall be your faithful guide + Through this gloomy covert wide; + And not many furlongs thence + Is your Father's residence, + Where this night are met in state + Many a friend to gratulate + His wished presence, and beside 950 + All the swains that there abide + With jigs and rural dance resort. + We shall catch them at their sport, + And our sudden coming there + Will double all their mirth and cheer. + Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, + But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. + +_The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle; +then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with the +Two BROTHERS and the LADY._ + +_Song._ + + _Spirit._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play + Till next sunshine holiday. + Here be, without duck or nod, 960 + Other trippings to be trod + Of lighter toes, and such court guise + As Mercury did first devise + With the mincing Dryades + On the lawns and on the leas. + +_This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother._ + + Noble Lord and Lady bright, + I have brought ye new delight. + Here behold so goodly grown + Three fair branches of your own. + Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 + Their faith, their patience, and their truth, + And sent them here through hard assays + With a crown of deathless praise, + To triumph in victorious dance + O'er sensual folly and intemperance. + +_The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes._ + + _Spirit._ To the ocean now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad fields of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air, 980 + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + Along the crisped shades and bowers + Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; + The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours + Thither all their bounties bring. + There eternal Summer dwells, + And west winds with musky wing + About the cedarn alleys fling 990 + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can shew, + And drenches with Elysian dew + (List, mortals, if your ears be true) + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where young Adonis oft reposes, + Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 + In slumber soft, and on the ground + Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. + But far above, in spangled sheen, + Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced + Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced + After her wandering labours long, + Till free consent the gods among + Make her his eternal bride, + And from her fair unspotted side + Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 + Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. + But now my task is smoothly done, + I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth's end, + Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, + And from thence can soar as soon + To the corners of the moon. + Mortals, that would follow me, + Love Virtue; she alone is free. + She can teach ye how to climb 1020 + Higher than the sphery chime; + Or, if Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her. + + + + +NOTES. + + +~discovers~, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of 'discover' is to find +out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix _dis-_ has +often the more purely negative force of _un-_: hence discover = uncover, +reveal. Comp.-- + + "Some high-climbing hill + Which to his eye _discovers_ unaware + The goodly prospect of some foreign land." + + _Par. Lost_, iii. 546. + +~Attendant Spirit descends~. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by +Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, +explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the +plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in +whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient +classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, +sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the +plot. The opening of _Comus_ prepares the audience and also directly +addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual +performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6. + +1. ~starry threshold~, etc. Comp. Virgil: "The sire of gods and monarch of +men summons a council to the starry chamber" (_sideream in sedem_), +_Aen._ x. 2. + +2. ~mansion~, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly "a +place of tarrying," which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence +'a resting-place.' Comp. _John_, xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are many +_mansions_"; and _Il Pens._ 93, "Her _mansion_ in this fleshly nook." +The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large +and important dwelling-house. ~where~, in which: the antecedent is +separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp. +lines 66, 821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection +would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection. ~shapes ... +spirits~. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual +beings with personality without making them too distinct. "Of all the +poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural +beings Milton has succeeded best" (Macaulay). We see this in _Par. Lost_ +(_e.g._ ii. 666). Compare the use of the word 'shape' (Lat. _umbra_) in +l. 207: also _L'Alleg._ 4, "horrid _shapes_ and shrieks"; and _Il Pens._ +6, "fancies fond with gaudy _shapes_ possess." Milton's use of the +demonstrative ~those~ in this line is noteworthy; comp. "_that_ last +infirmity of noble mind," _Lyc._ 71: it implies that the reference is to +something well known, and that further particularisation is needless. + +3. ~insphered~. 'Sphere,' with its derivatives 'sphery,' 'insphere,' and +'unsphere' (_Il Pens._ 88), is used by Milton with a literal reference +to the cosmical framework as a whole (see _Hymn Nat._ 48) or to some +portion of it. In Shakespeare 'sphere' occurs in the wider sense of 'the +path in which anything moves,' and it is to this metaphorical use of the +word that we owe such phrases as 'a person's sphere of life,' 'sphere of +action,' etc. See also _Comus_, 112-4, 241-3, 1021; _Arc._ 62-7; _Par. +Lost_, v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres. + +4. ~mild~: an attributive of the whole clause, 'regions of calm and serene +air.' ~calm and serene~. These are not mere synonyms: the Lat. _serenus_ = +bright or unclouded, so that the two epithets are to be respectively +contrasted with 'smoke' and 'stir' (line 5); 'calm' being opposed to +'stir' and 'serene' to 'smoke.' Compare Homer's description of the seat +of the gods: "Not by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth +the snow come nigh thereto, but _most clear_ air is spread about it +_cloudless_, and the white light floats over it," _Odyssey_, vi.: comp. +note, l. 977. + +5. ~this dim spot~. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those +immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted. + +6. There are here two attributive clauses: "which men call Earth" and +"(in which) men strive," etc. ~low-thoughted care~; narrow-minded anxiety, +care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective 'low-browed,' +_L'Alleg._ 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his _Eloisa_. + +7. This line is attributive to 'men.' ~pestered ... pinfold~, crowded +together in this cramped space, the Earth. _Pester_, which has no +connection with _pest_, is a shortened form of _impester_, Fr. +_empetrer_, to shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The +radical sense is that of clogging (comp. _Son._ xii. 1); hence of +crowding; and finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. 'Pinfold' +is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle are _pounded_ or shut up: +etymologically, the word = _pind-fold_, a corruption of _pound-fold_. +Comp. _impound_, sheep-_fold_, etc. + +8. ~frail and feverish~. Comp. "life's fitful fever" (_Macbeth_, iii. 2. +23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative. + +9. ~crown that Virtue gives~. This is Scriptural language: comp. _Rev._ +iv. 4; 2 _Tim._ iv. 8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of +righteousness." + +10. ~this mortal change~. In Milton's MS. line 7 was followed by the +words, 'beyond the written date of mortal change,' _i.e._ beyond, or +after, man's appointed time to die. These words were struck out, but we +may suppose that the words 'mortal change' in line 10 have a similar +meaning. Milton frequently uses 'mortal' in the sense of 'liable to +death,' and hence 'human' as opposed to 'divine': the mortal change is +therefore 'the change which occurs to all human beings.' Comp. _Job_, +xiv. 14: "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my +_change_ come": see also line 841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean 'this +mortal state of life,' as distinguished from a future state of +immortality. The Spirit uses 'this' as in line 8, in contrast with +'those,' line 2. + +11. ~enthroned gods~, etc. In allusion to _Rev._ iv. 4, "And upon the +thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; +and on their heads crowns of gold." Milton frequently speaks of the +inhabitants of heaven as _enthroned_. The accent here falls on the first +syllable of the word. + +12. ~Yet some there be~, etc.: 'Although men are generally so exclusively +occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who +aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in +Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp. +_Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, +"there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to +a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~, +_i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il +Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed. + +13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their +just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._ +xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven"; +also _Lyc._ 111: + + "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain + (The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)." + +15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's +presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his +eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his +swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for +such. + +16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the +noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also +used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840; +_Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit." +'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the +Sanskrit _amrita_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the +gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_, +lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._ +hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now +used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment. +Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or +covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to +the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide +enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390. + +18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012. + +19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ... +each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp. +l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory." +_Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with +reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more. + +20. ~by lot~, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the +universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter ('high' Jove), +Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto ('nether' or Stygian Jove). In +_Iliad_ xv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: "For three brethren are we, and +sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things +divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary +sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots." ~nether~, +lower: comp. the phrase 'the upper and the nether lip,' and the name +Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton 'the nether +empire' (_Par. Lost_, ii. 295). The form _nethermost_ (_Par. Lost_, ii. +955) is, like _aftermost_ and _foremost_, a double superlative. + +21. ~sea-girt isles~. Ben Jonson calls Britain a 'sea-girt isle': comp. l. +27. _Isle_ is the M.E. _ile_, in which form the _s_ has been dropped: it +is from O.F. _isle_, Lat. _insula_. It is therefore distinct from +_island_, where an _s_ has, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E. +_iland_, A.S. _igland_ (_ig_ = island: _land_ = land). In line 50 Milton +wrote 'iland.' + +22. ~like to rich and various gems~, etc. Shakespeare describes England as +a 'precious stone set in the silver sea,' _Richard II._ ii. 1. 46: he +also speaks of Heaven as being _inlayed_ with stars, _Cym._ v. 5. 352; +_M. of V._ v. 1. 59, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick _inlaid_ +with patines of bright gold." Compare also _Par. Lost_, iv. 700, where +Milton refers to the ground as having a rich _inlay_ of flowers. But for +its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned. ~like~: here +followed by the preposition _to_, and having its proper force as an +adjective: comp. _Il Pens._ 9. Whether _like_ is used as an adjective +or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. 57. + +24. ~to grace~, _i.e._ to show favour to: a clause of purpose. + +25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits +to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct. +Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with +plural nouns. + +26. ~sapphire~. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29: +see note there. + +27. ~little tridents~, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, "with his +trident touched the stars" (_Neptune's Triumph, Proteus' Song_, Ben +Jonson). + +28. ~greatest and the best~. Comp. Shakespeare's eulogy in _Rich. II._ ii. +1: also Ben Jonson's "Albion, Prince of all his Isles," _Neptune's +Triumph, Apollo's Song_. + +29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._ +208: + + "Sailors _quarter'd_ Heaven, and found a name + For every fixt and ev'ry wandering star." + +Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into _four_ +parts: "at that time the island was actually divided into four separate +governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords +President of the North and of Wales." (Keightley). ~blue-haired deities~. +These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little +tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the +complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet 'blue-haired' +Masson asks: "Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, +inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with +Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his +subordinates": in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green +hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities _caerulei dii_, and +Neptune _caeruleus deus_, thus associating blue with the sea. + +30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is +entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer +referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was +entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the +four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and +Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the +fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's +Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and +private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a +profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a +dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as +well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in +those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. +As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of +patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and +occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the +East and the West. + +31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle' +and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom. +and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In +herbs," etc. + +33. ~An old and haughty nation~. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who +probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore +rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson's piece _For the +Honour of Wales_: + + "I is not come here to taulk of Brut, + From whence the Welse does take his root," etc. + +That they were haughty and 'proud in arms' the Romans found, and after +them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of +Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by +that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the +Barons was: "We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince +to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we +know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and +rights." By a statute of Henry VIII. this 'haughty' people were put in +possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. ~proud in +arms~: this is Virgil's _belloque superbum_, _Aen._ i. 21 (Warton). + +34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high +position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth +distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to +their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_. + +35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies +connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old +sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's +_Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and +chair_." + +36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple +adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the +form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is +formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890. +Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it +was newly assumed. See Introduction. + +37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or +twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to +inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable. + +38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also +to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_, +to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as +_horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563, +"a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~: +this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the +brow overhangs the eyes. + +39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an +adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose +utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but +in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the +prefix. See note, l. 234. + +40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the +two brothers were younger than she. + +41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a +subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was +despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may +regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick +command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being +commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is +Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is +due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate +with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639. + +43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43, +44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina +non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask +is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern +song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (= +banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and +'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his +lady. + +46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il +Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is +designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and +Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring +from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the +misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These +parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, +mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated +with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay +exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and +magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as +represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which +mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the +_Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in +Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the +clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure"; +and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the +genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is +a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically +to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow +Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the +classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who +taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on +one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: +these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the +mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins. +The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the +_Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the +isle AEaean, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of +mortal speech, own sister to the wizard AEetes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~, +etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the +more common 'out from.' + +47. ~misused~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by +Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all +obsolete). + +48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the +transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are +called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or +Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical +construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a +substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected +with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in +the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the +creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery +of this loss. + +49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_, +iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb +_list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer +we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word +survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was +_lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which +it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.' + +50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of +Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph +Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb +_fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the +interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech +called anadiplosis. + +51. ~charmed cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered +magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_): +comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.' + +52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this +construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently +uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12, +"_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, Sec. 251. ~lost +his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them +(followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and +made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with +Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them +utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup +and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in +the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, +the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of +old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns +and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do +always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._) + +54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban +Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath +of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. +_L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams. +Agon._ 569. + +55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure. + +57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may +indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as +a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Much of the father's face, + More of the mother's grace." + +58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word +komos+ denoted a revel or +merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous +mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In classical +mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled +Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics. + +59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; +comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic +welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new +adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes +the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with +German _froehlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such +words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be +compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _aeger animi_ = sick +of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.' + +60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and +Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the +waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles." + +61. ~betakes him~. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan +English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple +pronouns is common (see Abbott, Sec. 223). Compare l. 163. ~ominous~; +literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of +monsters (_Lyc._ 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense +of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,' +etc. + +65. ~orient~, bright. The Lat. _oriens_ = rising; hence (from being +applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or +'shining': comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 546, "With _orient_ colours waving." + +66. ~drouth of Phoebus~, _i.e._ thirst caused by the heat of the sun. +Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of +rain; the more usual spelling is _drought_. ~which~: see note, l. 2. +'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.' + +67. ~fond~, foolish (its primary sense). _Fonned_ was the participle of an +old verb _fonnen_, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great +liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost. +Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_"; +_Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal +men." + +68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its +effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a +drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous +draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French. + +69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of +work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a +god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine." + +71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the +cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yuz_, panther. + +72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the +bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only +the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the +performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage +direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the +absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither +the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some +attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the +purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is +usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of +pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In +Old English the dative was used. + +73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly). + +74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of +Ulysses: see note, l. 52. + +76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect +ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat +the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor +to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, +ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In +Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: +"Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave." +Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._ +viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in +sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and +the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, _F. +Q._ ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been +late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to +natural." + +77. ~sensual sty~: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted +care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes +little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to _forget_. + +78. ~favoured~: compare Lat. _gratus_ = favoured (adj.). + +79. ~adventurous~, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,' +applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. ~glade~: +strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the +wood itself. It is cognate with _glow_ and _glitter_, and its +fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat). + +80. ~glancing star~, a shooting star. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 556: + + "Swift as a shooting star + In autumn thwarts the night." + +The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense. + +81. ~convoy~: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 752, "_convoyed_ By four cherubic +shapes." It is another form of _convey_ (Lat. _con_ = together, _via_ = +a way). + +83. ~sky-robes~: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. ~Iris' woof~, material +dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the +rainbow: comp. l. 992 and _Par. Lost_, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the +woof." Etymologically, _woof_ is connected with _web_ and _weave_: it is +short for _on-wef_ = on-web, _i.e._ the cross threads laid on the warp +of a loom. + +84. ~weeds~: see note, l. 16. + +86. ~That to the service~, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, +first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of +_Comus_ by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he +alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater +family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to +compliment the Earl (see Introduction). + +86. ~smooth-dittied~: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. _dictatum_) strictly +denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; +it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. _Lyc._ +32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare _Son._ +xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted. + +87. ~knows to still~, etc.: comp. _Lyc._ 10, "he knew Himself to sing." + +88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is +skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most +likely to be at hand should any emergency arise. + +92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing"; +_Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian +word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless +winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the +formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_, +'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also +l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of +'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from +Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a +crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a +beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by +the _rout_ that made the hideous roar." + +93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the +planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by +Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer, +the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion: + + "Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... + Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."-- + + _In Memoriam_, cxxi. + +Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of +eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic. + +94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._ +31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink +towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky, +and on comes Night from the ocean." + +95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. +Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and +"Phoebus' wain," line 190. + +96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton +alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482, +"Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion +of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was +accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would +thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_ +occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_, +i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes' +dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until +the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter +pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to +confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_ +gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, +it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its +place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and +other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc. + +97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great +_stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing +Okeanos (+bathyrroos+)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase +'the high seas.' + +98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays +visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as +an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31). + +99. ~dusky~. Milton first wrote 'northern.' + +100. ~Pacing toward the other goal~, etc. Comp. _Psalm_ xix. 5: "The sun +as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man +to run a race." + +102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of +_L'Allegro_, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and +both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and +with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of _L'Allegro_ +begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of _Comus_ and +his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun +shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is +not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that +betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the +"midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, +Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and +cranks" of _L'Allegro_ have given way to the magic rites of _Comus_, and +the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth +are ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry. + +104. ~jollity~: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton +occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. _joli_, pretty) has its primary +sense of pleasing or festive. + +105. ~Braid your locks with rosy twine~; 'entwine your hair with wreaths +of roses.' + +106. ~dropping odours~: comp. l. 862-3. + +108. ~Advice ... scrupulous head~. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify +counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or +deliberation. See Chaucer, _Prologue_, 786, "granted him without more +_advice_"; and comp. Shakespeare, _M. of V._ iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon +more _advice_, Hath sent you here this ring"; also _Par. Lost_, ii. 376, +"_Advise_, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See +also l. 755, note. _Scrupulous_ = full of scruples, conscientious. + +110. ~saws~, sayings, maxims. _Saw_, _say_, and _saga_ (a Norwegian +legend) are cognate. + +111. ~of purer fire~, _i.e._ having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as +there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = +divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living +creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the +Stoics held that whatever consisted of _pure fire_ was divine, _e.g._ +the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112. + +112. ~the starry quire~: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see +lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds +proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial +concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurged ear" of mankind: +comp. l. 458 and _Arc._ 63-73. Shakespeare (_M. of V._ v. 1. 61) alludes +to the music of the spheres: + + "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st + But in his motion like an angel sings, + Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc. + +_Quire_ is a form of _choir_ (Lat. _chorus_, a band of singers); in +Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the +audience. _Quire_ (of paper) is a totally different word, probably +derived from Lat. _quatuor_, four. + +113. ~nightly watchful spheres~. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars +keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright," +_Hymn Nat._ 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of +'nocturnal': comp. _Il Pens._ 84, "To bless the doors from _nightly_ +harm"; _Arc._ 48, "_nightly_ ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The _nightly_ +hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night." + +114. ~Lead in swift round~. Comp. _Arc._ 71: "And the low world in +measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune." + +115. ~sounds~, straits: A.S. _sund_, a strait of the sea, so called +because it could be _swum_ across. See Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ _s.v._ + +116. ~to the moon~, _i.e._ as affected by the moon. For similar uses of +'to,' comp. _Lyc._ 33, "tempered _to_ the oaten flute"; _Lyc._ 44, +"fanning their joyous leaves _to_ thy soft lays." ~morrice~. The waters +quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish +dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into +England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"--a weapon used +by the Moors in Spain. + +117. ~shelves~, flat ledges of rock. + +118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of +_perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat +points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._ +"_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a +child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and +Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_ +into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du. +_dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of +'neat.' + +119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with +_dingle_ and _dapple_. + +120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies +pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens." + +121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The +adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin +_vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a +church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening +merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense +in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception +_proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the +rule. + +124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is +Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object +being 'Love.' + +125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage +requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535. + +126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the +sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When +night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial." + +127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The +horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark. + +129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' +because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian +divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because +the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water. + +131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the +abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of +darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night +being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_, +i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict +sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore," +it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. +_uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the +dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you +_dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing +of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks +her dragon yoke." + +132. ~spets~, a form of _spits_ (as _spettle_ for _spittle_). + +133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63. +Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature." + +134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is +'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~, +black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb. +_eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has +become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness. + +135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecate (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian +divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these +reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson +calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at +night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the +souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs. + +136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn +That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.' + +137. ~dues~: see note, l. 12. + +138. ~blabbing eastern scout~, _i.e._ the tale-telling spy that comes from +the East, viz. Morning. + +139. ~nice~; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet, +expressing at once _curious_ and _squeamish_" (Hurd). It is used by +Comus in contempt: comp. ii. _Henry IV._ iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou +_nice_ crutch"; and see the index to the Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian +steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the +"light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._ +in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and +Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over +_Indian_ seas." + +140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._ +the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps," +said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of +the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally +'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small. + +141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, + + "The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun, + For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light." + +Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In +_Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed +Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our +hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_: +both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and +Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.' + +142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_, +complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_. +Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed +year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated +intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._ +serious or important. + +143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_: + + "Now, now begin to set + Your spirits in active heat; + And, since your hands are met, + Instruct your nimble feet, + In motions swift and meet, + The happy ground to beat." + +144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as +you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in +which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained. +So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has +not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a +form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_). + +At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after +which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked +by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in +octosyllabic couplets. + +145. ~different~, _i.e._ different from the voluptuous footing of Comus +and his crew. + +146. ~footing~: comp. _Lyc._ 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went _footing_ +slow." + +147. ~shrouds~, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes +'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and +finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of +Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The +Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of +the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. ~brakes~, bushes. Shakespeare has +"hawthorn-_brake_," _M. N. D._ iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be +connected with _bracken_. + +148. ~Some virgin sure~, _sc._ 'it is.' + +150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements. +_Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic +verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile). +_Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains' +(_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note" +(_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some +would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles. + +151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was +an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a +preposition. + +153. ~Thus I hurl~, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance +the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture +as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is +kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft +among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is _powdered spells_; but Milton, by +a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, +substituted _dazzling_" (Masson). + +154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A +_spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying): +here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called +because it holds in suspension the magic powder. + +155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are +attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a +characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear +illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision. +Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam. +Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial +argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W. +Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_. + +156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from +_presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_): +while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being +before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense +of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. +_cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In +French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_, +neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or +delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.' + +158. ~suspicious flight~: flight due to suspicion of danger. + +160. ~I, under fair pretence~, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly +intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I +insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.' + +161. ~glozing~, flattering, wheedling. Compare _Par. Lost_, ix. 549, + + "So _glozed_ the temper, and his proem tuned: + Into the heart of Eve his words made way." + +_Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr. +_glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in +his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names +are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely +denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an +endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with _gloss_ = +brightness. + +162. ~Baited~, rendered attractive. Radically _bait_ is the causative of +_bite_; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. _Sams. Ag._ 1066, "The +_bait_ of honied words." + +163. ~wind me~, etc. The verbs _wind_ (_i.e._ coil) and _hug_ suggest the +cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart +or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in +_Anat. of Mel._, says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible +spirit, can easily insinuate and _wind_ himself into human bodies." +_Me_ is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic +dative. + +165. ~virtue~, _i.e._ power or influence (Lat. _virtus_). This radical +sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The +adjective _virtuous_ is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 +it has its older meaning. + +166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. +In the edition of 1673 the reading was: + + "I shall appear some harmless villager, + And hearken, if I may, her business here. + But here she comes, I fairly step aside." + +But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after _may_, +and to change _here_ into _hear_. In Masson's text, accordingly, he +reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear." + +167. ~keeps up~, etc., _i.e._ keeps occupied with his country affairs even +up to a late hour. _Gear_: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S. +_gearu_, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ +vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was _easy gear_," _i.e._ an easy matter, +fairly, softly. _Fair_ and _softly_ were two words which went together, +signifying _gently_ (Warton). + +170. ~mine ear ... My best guide~. Observe the juxtaposition of _mine_ and +_my_ in these lines. _Mine_ is frequent before a vowel, especially when +the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is +almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is +intended (Abbott, Sec. 237). + +171. ~Methought~, _i.e._ it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' _me_ is +the dative, and _thinks_ is an impersonal verb (A.S. _thincan_, to +appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from +A.S. _thencan_, to make to appear. + +173. ~jocund~, merry. Comp. _L'Allegro_, 94, "the _jocund_ rebecks sound." +~gamesome~, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in _-some_, is +now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives +are obsolete, _e.g._ laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's +_English, Past and Present_, v.). + +174. ~unlettered hinds~, ignorant rustics (A.S. _hina_, a domestic). + +175. ~granges~, granaries, barns (Lat. _granum_, grain). The word is now +applied to a farm-house with its outhouses. + +176. ~Pan~, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see _Arc._ +106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." + +177. ~thank the gods amiss~. _Amiss_ stands for M.E. _on misse_ = in +error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods +should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making" +(Keightley). See Introduction. + +178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those +carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily, +hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_; +from _wes_, be thou, and _hal_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form +of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the +sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to +is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_, +the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir +Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk." + +180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_ +your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well +illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when +they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright." + +184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect. + +187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which +attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. +_As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun. + +188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited," +_Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning. + +189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. +_votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to +one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present +case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a +palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would +naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a +palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is +a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16. + +190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically +realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a +venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some +rich man's chariot" (Masson). + +192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts. + +193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that +in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To +_engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge. + +195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is +frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious +darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide +the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is +therefore to some extent tautological. + +197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be +concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern +is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_, +which turns its bright side only to him that bears it." + +198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57: + + "By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove + Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:" + +also _Macbeth_, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles +are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung +in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate _in sense_ with the next +clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps" +is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. +l. 6. + +203. ~rife~, prevalent. ~perfect~, distinct; see note, l. 73. + +204. ~single darkness~, darkness only. _Single_ is from the same base as +_simple_; comp. l. 369. + +205. ~What might this be?~ This is a direct question about a past event, +and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note +there. ~A thousand fantasies~, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That +wonderful passage in _Comus_ of the airy tongues, perhaps the most +imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry +sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to +understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the _Anat. of Mel._: +"Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth +over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the +dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie +presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or +phantasy, Shakespeare says: + + "As imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to _shapes_, and gives to _airy nothing_ + A local habitation and a name."-- + + _M. N. D._ v. 1. 14. + +Compare also Ben Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, + And spread thy purple wings; + Now all thy figures are allow'd, + And various shapes of things: + Create of _airy forms_ a stream ... + And though it be a waking dream," etc. + +207. ~Of calling shapes~, etc. In Heywood's _Hierarchy of Angels_ there is +a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such +words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's +power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. _Aen._ iv. +460. ~beckoning shadows dire~. A characteristic arrangement of words in +Milton: comp. lines 470, 945. + +208. ~syllable~, pronounce distinctly. + +210. ~may startle well~, may well startle. + +212. ~siding champion, Conscience~. To side is to take a side, and hence +to assist: comp. _Cor._ iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have _sided_ in his +behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: +in _Son._ xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2. +379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet +Conscience." + +213. ~pure-eyed Faith~. Comp. _Lyc._ 81, "those pure eyes And perfect +witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of +purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her +purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by +an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,' +'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of +Charity in the trio is significant: see i. _Cor._ xiii. + +214. ~hovering angel~. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The +word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt, +surrounded. ~golden wings~. In _Il Pens._ 52, Contemplation "soars on +golden wing." + +216. ~see ye visibly~, _i.e._ you are not mere shapes, but living +presences. _Ye_: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between +_ye_ and _you_ did not exist in old English; _ye_ was always used as a +nominative, and _you_ as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible +the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the +Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris). +It is so in Milton, who has _ye_ as nominative, accusative, and dative; +comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also _Arc._ 40, 81, 101. It may be noted +that _ye_ can be pronounced more rapidly than _you_, and is therefore +frequent when an unaccented syllable is required. + +217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it +must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' +or punishment. + +219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' +of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate +words. + +221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of +line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a +glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the +same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of +an unaccusing conscience. + +222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine. + +223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and +'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the +auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due +probably to change of thought. + +225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_ +trees." + +226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_, +and _holloa_. + +227. ~make to be heard~. Make = cause. + +228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly +enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36. + +229. ~they~, _i.e._ the brothers. + +230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by +preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after +others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until +nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in +Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1. + +The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very +Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to +rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, +and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth +Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers. + +231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of +Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is +_cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_, +because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the +form of a shell. + +232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, +remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' +and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a +haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses +Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost +Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with +music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and +the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash +contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being +thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._ +58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a +reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down +the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is +associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost +brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above +was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of +Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous +haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and +Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" +(_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are +forms of the same word. + +233. ~the violet-embroidered vale~. The notion that flowers _broider_ or +ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 700: +"Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay +_Broidered_ the ground." In _Lyc._ 148, the flowers themselves wear +'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale +because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's _Masque of +Hymen_) and with innocence (see _Hamlet_, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you +some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales, +however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and +argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close +by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and +where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus +as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet +'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek +iostephanos+ (= +crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, of +which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the +violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might +here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in _Par. Reg._ +iv. 245: see the following note. + +234. ~love-lorn nightingale~, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost: +comp. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the +poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night +through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and +fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." _Lorn_ and +_lost_ are cognate words, the former being common in the compound +_forlorn_: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the +nightingale: in _Il Penseroso_ it is 'Philomel'; in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245, +it is 'the Attic bird'; and in _Par. Lost_ viii. 518, it is 'the amorous +bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of +Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was +Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales +(Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale +that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The +epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of A{=e}don +(Greek +aedon+, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by +mistake, was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was +represented by the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her +child. + +235. ~her sad song mourneth~, _i.e._ sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad +song' forms a kind of cognate accusative. + +237. ~likest thy Narcissus~. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of +Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image +reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he +accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his +name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in _Cynthia's Revels_, +i. 1. Grammatically, _likest_ is an adjective qualified adverbially by +"(to) thy Narcissus": comp. _Il Pens._ 9, "likest hovering dreams." + +238. ~have hid~. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), +but the subjunctive mood. + +240. ~Tell me but where~, _i.e._ 'Only tell me where.' + +241. ~Sweet Queen of Parley~, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. _parler_, +to speak): _parlour_, _parole_, _palaver_, _parliament_, _parlance_. +etc., are cognate. ~Daughter of the Sphere~, _i.e._ of the sphere which is +her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice +and Verse" (_At a Solemn Music_, 2). + +243. ~give resounding grace~, etc., _i.e._ add the charm of echo to the +music of the spheres. + +The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in +length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more +striking owing to the consonance of _shell_, _well_ with _vale_, +_nightingale_; also of _pair_, _where_ with _are_ and _sphere_; and of +_have_ with _cave_. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration +of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical +passages. + +244. ~mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment~. The words _mortal_ +and _divine_ are in antithesis: comp. _Il Pens._ 91, 92, "The immortal +mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines +embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555 +and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. _Il +Pens._ 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794. + +246. ~Sure~, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266. + +247. ~vocal~, used proleptically. + +248. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.' + +251. ~smoothing the raven down~. As the nightingale's song smooths the +rugged brow of Night (_Il Pens._ 58), so here the song of the lady +smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a +winged goddess. + +252. ~it~, _i.e._ darkness. + +253. ~Circe ... Sirens three~. In the _Odyssey_ the Sirens are two in +number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island +off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured +sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a +sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined +allusion: see also Horace's _Epist._ i. 2, 23, _Sirenum voces, et Circes +pocula nosti_. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god +Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids. + +254. ~flowery-kirtled Naiades~: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or +having their skirts decorated with flowers. A _kirtle_ is a gown; Skeat +suggests that it is a diminutive of _skirt_. + +255. ~baleful~, injurious (A.S. _balu_, evil). + +256. ~sung~. "The verbs _swim_, _begin_, _run_, _drink_, _shrink_, _sink_, +_ring_, _sing_, _spring_, have for their proper past tenses _swam_, +_began_, _ran_, etc., preserving the original _a_; but in older writers +(sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find +forms with _u_, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris). +~take the prisoned soul~, _i.e._ would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned' +being used proleptically. + +257. ~lap it in Elysium~. _Lap_ is a form of wrap: comp. _L'Alleg._ 136, +"_Lap_ me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the +blessed; comp. _L'Alleg._ 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." ~Scylla ... +Charybdis~. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god +Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She +threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the +surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," _Aen._ vii. 588) +resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, +and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool. + +260. ~slumber~: comp. _Pericles_, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon +mine eyes." + +261. ~madness~, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in _Il Pens._ 164: "As +may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into _ecstasies_, And +bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in +the sense of madness; see _Hamlet_, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form +and feature of blown youth, Blasted with _ecstasy_"; _Temp._ iii. 3. +108, "hinder them from what this _ecstasy_ May now provoke them to": +comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," _Wint. Tale_, v. 3. 73. See +also l. 625. + +262. ~home-felt~, deeply felt. Compare "The _home_ thrust of a friendly +sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes _home_ to +our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +263. ~waking bliss~, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the +song of Circe. + +265. ~Hail, foreign wonder!~ Warton notes that _Comus_ is universally +allowed to have taken some of its tints from the _Tempest_, and quotes, +"O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426. + +266. ~certain~: see note, l. 246. + +267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in +rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless' +(Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, +also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the +antecedent. + +268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that +Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." +Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is +corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood). + +269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in +which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and +"mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a +reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the +Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95. + +271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male +perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to +"there is little loss in losing." + +273. ~extreme shift~; last resource. Comp. l. 617. + +274. ~my severed company~: a condensed expression = the companions +separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called +Synecdoche. + +277. ~What chance~, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that +form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer +occupy alternate lines: it is called _stichomythia_, and is admirable +when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the +_Supplices_ of Euripides). In _Samson Agonistes_, which is modelled on +the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it. + +278. An alliterative line. + +279. ~near ushering~, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. +_ostium_, a door). + +284. ~twain~: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after +its substantive as in _Lyc._ 110, "of metals _twain_," and as a +substantive. + +285. ~forestalling~, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing +term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a _stall_ in +the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to +anticipate.' ~prevented~. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' +seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to +anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l. +362; _Par. Lost_, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this +_prevention_ more Incensed." + +286. ~to hit~. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. +"good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc. + +287. ~Imports their loss~, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the +loss of them important?' + +289. ~manly prime~, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they +merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth' +ends: comp. _Par. Lost_, xi. 245, "_prime_ in manhood where youth +ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet +such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' = +Spring. + +290. ~Hebe~, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared +on the lips of the brothers. + +291. ~what time~: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. _quo tempore_). +Compare Horace, _Od._ iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of +the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." ~laboured~: +wearied with labour. + +292. ~loose traces~. Because no longer taut from the draught of the +plough. + +293. ~swinked~, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. _swincan_, to toil). +Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense +of toil is due to that of constant movement from the _swinging_ of the +labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman. + +294. ~mantling~, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. +_Temp._ v. 1. 67, "fumes that _mantle_ Their clearer reason." + +297. ~port~, bearing, mien. + +298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than +the current form. + +299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher +Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the +four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means +'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it +doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er +the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc. + +301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more +properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her +sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l. +372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. +'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.' + +302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before +_-ed_. + +303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it +would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the +Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._ +vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth." + +304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used +without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the +preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the +sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the +infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The +infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, +which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became +confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general. +Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day." + +305. ~readiest way~. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate. + +311. ~each ... every~: see note, l. 19. ~alley~, a walk or avenue. + +312. ~Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn~. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben +Jonson's _Sad Shepherd_) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a +narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so +deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or +thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word +etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus, +might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred +to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or _bush_ (M.E. _busch_, +_bush_, _bush_). 'See Tennyson's _Dream of F. W._ 243, "the sombre +_boscage_ of the wood." + +315. ~stray attendance~ = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in +line 274. Comp. _Par. Lost_, x. 80, "_Attendance_ none shall need, nor +train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous _servitude_" (= +servants). + +316. ~shroud~, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see +note, l. 147. + +317. ~low-roosted lark~, _i.e._ the lark that has roosted on the ground. +This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising +from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground. +'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with _rest_, but denotes a +perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of +supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may +therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson +takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the +corn-stalks or rushes over it. + +318. ~rouse~. Here used intransitively = awake. + +322. ~honest-offered~: see notes, ll. 36, 228. + +323. ~sooner~, more readily. + +324. ~tapestry halls~. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of +carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating +walls." The word is said to be from the Persian. + +325. ~first was named~. The meaning is: '_Courtesy_ which is derived from +_court_, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is +nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This +sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a +humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes, +_courtship_) has, like _civility_, lost much of its deeper significance. +Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 1. 1: + + "Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, + For that it there most useth to abound." + +327. ~less warranted~, _i.e._ when I have less _guarantee_ of safety. +_Guarantee_ and _warrant_, like _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, +are radically the same. + +329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies +watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj. +'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the +action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt +said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly." +~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage. + +331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._ +'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is +a diminutive of _muff_. + +332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd +person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed; +hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_ +state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and +its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle +being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle +formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun +_wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in +his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a +participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was +wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat. +_benedictio_). + +333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72, +"_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used +with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il +Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the +stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and +_amber_ light," and Tennyson: + + "What time the _amber_ morn + Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud." + +334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87, +"This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of) +her." + +336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is +employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it +was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the +planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on, +inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain +_influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various +_influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language, +_e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. +360. + +337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)." + +338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a +rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil. + +340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par. +Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The +instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or +ruler. + +341. ~star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure~; here put by synecdoche for +'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the +stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors +steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part +of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was +called _Cynosura_, the dog's tail (Greek +kynos oura+), and by which +Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See _L'Alleg._ 80, "The _cynosure_ +of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common noun = point +of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek mythology with +the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into the Great Bear +while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton follows the Roman +poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this account. + +343. ~barred~, debarred or barred _from_. + +344. ~wattled cotes~: enclosures made of hurdles, _i.e._ frames of +plaited twigs. _Cote_, _cot_, and _coat_ are varieties of the same word += a covering or enclosure. + +345. ~oaten stops~: see _Lyc._ 33, "the _oaten_ flute"; 88, "But now my +_oat_ proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various _quills_." The +shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe," +"oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to +signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the +player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages" +(_Ham._ iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893. + +346. ~whistle ... lodge~, _i.e._ the sound of the shepherd calling his dog +by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in _L'Alleg._ 63, +"the ploughman _whistles_ o'er the furrowed land." + +347. ~Count ... dames~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts +his _dames_ before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings." +Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object +of 'might hear.' + +349. ~innumerous~, innumerable (Lat. _innumerus_). Comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. +455, "_Innumerous_ living creatures"; ix. 1089. + +350. ~hapless~, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, +etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or +bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an +unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary. + +With reference to the word _fortune_, Max Mueller says: "We speak of good +and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself +_fortuna_ was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally +meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans +defined _fortuna_ by such adjectives as _bona_, _secunda_, _prospera_, +for good; _mala_ or _adversa_ for bad fortune ... _Fortuna_ came to mean +something like chance." + +351. ~her~, herself. On the reflexive use of _her_, see note, l. 163. + +352. ~burs~; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, _e.g._ the +burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc. + +355. ~leans~. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply +_she_: otherwise _leans_ would be intransitive and its nominative +'head': see note, l. 715. ~fraught~, freighted, filled. _Freight_ is +itself a later form of _fraught_: in _Sams. Agon._, 1075, _fraught_ is a +noun (Ger. _fracht_, a load). See line 732. + +356. ~What~, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) +if (she be) in wild amazement?" + +358. ~savage hunger~. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals. + +359. ~over-exquisite~, _i.e._ too curious, over-inquisitive. _Exquisite_ +is here used in the sense of _inquisitive_; in modern English +'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active +sense (Lat. _quaero_, to seek): see note, l. 714. + +"The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between +fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common +apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds +on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here +the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast +of character" (Warton). + +360. ~To cast the fashion~, _i.e._ to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was +common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii. +_Henry IV._ i. 1. 166, "You _cast_ the event of war." Some think, +however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used +in astrology, _e.g._ "to _cast_ a nativity"; others see in it a +reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis. + +361. ~Grant they be so~: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn +out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364. + +362. ~What need~, etc., _i.e._ why should a man anticipate his hour of +sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. _quid_): comp. l. 752; also _On +Shakespeare_, 6, "_What need'st_ thou such weak witness of thy name?" On +the verb _need_ Abbott, Sec. 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,' +where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need' +a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge +much broader than the flood?' _M. Ado_, i. 1. 318; either '_why need_ +the bridge (be) broader?' or '_what need_ is there (that) the bridge +(be) broader?'" + +363. Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we +have," etc.; and Pope's _Essay on Man_, "Heaven from all creatures hides +the book of fate," etc. + +366. ~to seek~, at a loss. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 197: "Unpractised, +unprepared, and still _to seek_." Bacon, in _Adv. of Learning_, has: +"Men bred in learning are perhaps _to seek_ in points of convenience." + +367. ~unprincipled in virtue's book~, _i.e._ ignorant of the elements of +virtue. A principle (Lat. _principium_, beginning) is a fundamental +truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man +who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into +evil. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness +_principled_." + +368. ~bosoms~, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is +governed by 'in,' l. 367. + +369. ~As that~, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to +'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by +'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we +have both connectives together. ~single~: see note, l. 204. noise, sound. + +370. ~Not being in danger~, _i.e._ she not being in danger: absolute +construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional +clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need +not disquiet her.' + +371. ~constant~, steadfast. + +372. ~misbecoming~: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. ~plight~, condition. +Skeat derives this word from A.S. _pliht_, danger; others connect it +with _pledge_. It is distinct from _plight_, l. 301. + +373. ~Virtue could see~, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines +381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for +to wade," _F. Q._ i. 1. 12. + +375. ~flat sea~: comp. _Lyc._ 98, "level brine": Lat. _aequor_, a flat +surface, used of the sea. + +376. ~seeks to~, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the +English Bible: see _Deut._ xii. 5, "_unto_ his habitation shall ye +_seek_"; _Isaiah_, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. _Kings_, x. 24. + +377. ~her best nurse, Contemplation~. The wise man loves contemplation and +solitude: comp. _Il Penseroso_, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is +the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's +_Arcadia_, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations." + +378. ~plumes~. Some would read _prunes_, both words being used of a bird's +smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out +damaged feathers. See Skeat's _Dictionary_, and compare Pope's line, +"Where Contemplation _prunes_ her ruffled wings." + +379. ~various~, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in +_L'Allegro_ the 'busy hum of men.' + +380. ~all to-ruffled~. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be +interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled, +(3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is +etymologically correct: _to_ is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' = +to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while _all_ (= +quite) is simply an adverb modifying _to-ruffled_. But about 1500 A.D. +this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix _to_ was detached from the +verb and either read along with _all_ (thus all-to = altogether), or +confused with _too_ (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is +doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may +have disregarded its origin. See Morris, Sec. 324; Abbott, Sec.Sec. 28, 436. + +381. ~He that has light~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 254: 'The mind is +its own place,' etc. + +382. ~centre~, _i.e._ centre of the earth: comp. _Par. Lost_ i. 686, "Men +also ... Ransacked the _centre_"; and _Hymn Nat._ 162, "The aged Earth +... Shall from the surface to the _centre_ shake." Sometimes the word +'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the _fixed_ centre of the whole +universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed, +however, is not that of immovability (as in _Par. Reg._ iv. 534, "as a +_centre_ firm") but of utter darkness. + +385. ~his own dungeon~: comp. _Sams. Agon._ 156, "Thou art become (O worst +imprisonment!) The _dungeon_ of thyself." + +386. ~most affects~: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes +rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. _pretend_. Lines 386-392 may +be compared with _Il Pens._ 167-174. + +393. ~Hesperian tree~. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden +apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless +dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp. +Tennyson's _Dream of Fair Women_, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd +Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983. + +395. ~unenchanted~, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be +enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,' +'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for +'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott (Sec. 375) says: The +passive participle is often used to signify, not that which _was_ and +_is_, but that which _was_ and therefore _can be hereafter_; in other +words _-ed_ is used for _-able_. + +396. Compare Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, 44, "She flowered in virginity, +With all humility and abstinence." + +398. ~unsunned~, hidden. Comp. _Cym._ ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as _unsunned_ +snow"; _F. Q._ ii. 7, "Mammon ... _Sunning_ his treasure hoar." + +400. ~as bid me hope~, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to) +hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a +single helpless maiden pass uninjured.' + +401. ~Danger will wink on~, etc., _i.e._ danger will shut its eyes to an +opportunity. To _wink on_ or _wink at_ is to connive, to refuse to see +something: comp. _Macbeth_, i. 4. 52, "The eye _wink_ at the hand"; +_Acts_, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in _As You +Like It_, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold." + +403. ~surrounding~. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who +uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has +acquired through a supposed connection with _round_. Shakespeare does +not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. _superundare_). + +404. ~it recks me not~, _i.e._ I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old +verb _reck_ (A.S. _recan_, to care). Comp. _Lyc._ 122, "What _recks_ it +them." + +405. ~dog them both~, _i.e._ follow closely upon night and loneliness. +Comp. _All's Well_, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger _dogs_ the heels of +worth." + +407. ~unowned~, _i.e._ 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' +Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a +participle. + +408. ~infer~, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See +Shakespeare, iii. _Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 44, "_Inferring_ arguments of mighty +force"; _K. John_, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs _infer_ this +principle": also _Par. Lost_, viii. 91, "great or bright _infers_ not +excellence." + +409. ~without all doubt~, _i.e._ beyond all doubt: a Latinism = _sine omni +dubitatione_. + +411. ~arbitrate the event~, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the +result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded +I incline to hope.' + +413. ~squint suspicion~. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and +squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates +suspicion. + +419. ~if Heaven gave it~, _i.e._ even _although_ Heaven gave it. + +420. ~'Tis chastity~. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 +is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an +exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson). + +421. ~clad in complete steel~, _i.e._ completely armed; comp. _Hamlet_, i. +4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable. + +422. ~quivered nymph~. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow +and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in +Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a +bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin _pharetrata_. + +423. ~trace~, traverse, track. ~unharboured~, affording no shelter. +Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter. + +424. ~Infamous~, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now +implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult. + +425. ~sacred rays~: comp. l. 782. + +426. ~bandite or mountaineer~. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare _bandetto_, and +now _bandit_) is borrowed from the Italian _bandito_, outlawed or +_banned_. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it +has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers +in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the +changes of meaning. See _Temp._ iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that +there were _mountaineers_ Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also _Cym._ iv. 2. +120, "Who called me traitor, _mountaineer_." + +428. ~very desolation~. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced +to Lat. _verus_ = true: comp. l. 646. + +429. ~shagged ... shades~. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is +probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38. + +430. ~unblenched~, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded +with 'unblanched,' is from _blench_, a causal of _blink_. + +431. ~Be it not~: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not. + +432. ~Some say~, etc. Compare _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158: + + "Some say that, ever against that season comes + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, + The bird of dawning singeth all night long: + And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad." + +433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are +found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different +orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in +his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds +of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and +subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc." + +434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a +prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2. +188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or +wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of +spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._ +v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend +Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his +matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover), +the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a +signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished. + +436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read, +"Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. +Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are +commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old +writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines +there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the +labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_) +here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits +were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the +_swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making. + +438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like +_you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, Sec. +236. + +439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from +the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of +Greece. + +440. ~to testify~, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421. + +441. ~Dian~. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was +insensible to the bolts of Cupid, _i.e._ to the power of love. She was +the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the +same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and +animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 1, +"Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc. + +442. ~silver-shafted queen~. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as +huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which +were frequently called _shafts_, and as the latter she bore shafts or +rays of light. _Shaft_ is etymologically 'a _shaven_ rod.' In Chaucer, +_C. T._ 1364, 'shaft' = arrow. + +443. ~brinded lioness~. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "_brinded_ +cat," _Macb._ iv. 1. 1: _brind_ is etymologically connected with +_brand_. + +444. ~mountain-pard~, _i.e._ panther or other spotted wild beast. _Pard_, +originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-_pard_ and +camelo-_pard_. + +445. ~frivolous ... Cupid~. See the speech of Oberon, _M. N. D._ ii. 1. +65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as +the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros +who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l. +1004. + +447. ~snaky-headed Gorgon shield~. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, +frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and +who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa +was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. +Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield, +which confounded Cupid: see _Par. Lost_, ii. 610. + +449. ~freezed~, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, +the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.' + +450. ~But~, except: a preposition. + +451. ~dashed~, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete. + +452. ~blank awe~: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank +astonishment,' and see _Par. Lost_, ix. 890. + +454. ~so~, _i.e._ chaste. + +455. ~liveried angels lackey her~, _i.e._ ministering angels attend her. +So, in _L'Alleg._ 62, "the clouds in thousand _liveries_ dight"; a +servant's livery being the distinctive dress _delivered_ to him by his +master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy, +who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good +sense, without implying servility (as in _Ant. and Cleop._ i. 4. 46, +"_lackeying_ the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the +feminine personification: see line 396. + +457. ~vision~: a trisyllable. + +458. ~no gross ear~. See notes, l. 112 and 997. + +459. ~oft converse~, frequent communion. _Oft_ is here used adjectively: +this use is common in the English Bible, _e.g._ i. _Tim._ v. 23, "thine +_often_ infirmities." + +460. ~Begin to cast ... turns~. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is +indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and +vividness. + +461. ~temple of the mind~, _i.e._ the body. This metaphor is common: see +Shakespeare, _Temp._ i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a +_temple_"; and the Bible, _John_, ii. 21, "He spake of the _temple_ of +his body." + +462. ~the soul's essence~. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually +became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality. + +465. ~most~, above all. + +467. ~soul grows clotted~. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's _Phaedo_, +in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes: + + _Socrates_ (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself + invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and + immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, + and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and + wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as + they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this + true, Cebes? + + _Cebes._ Yes; beyond a doubt. + + _Soc._ But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the + time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body + always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the + desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that + the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and + see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I + mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual + principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be + attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will + depart pure and unalloyed? + + _Ceb._ That is impossible. + + _Soc._ She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual + association and constant care of the body have wrought into her + nature. + + _Ceb._ Very true. + + _Soc._ And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty + and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed + and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is + afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about + tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell + us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not + departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible. + + _Ceb._ That is very likely, Socrates. + + _Soc._ Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the + souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to + wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former + evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the + craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are + imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to + find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their + former lives. + +Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says: + + Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the + soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes + that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from + agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is + obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever + to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the + body.--_Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues._ + +468. ~imbodies and imbrutes~, _i.e._ becomes materialised and brutish. +_Imbody_, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. +_Imbrute_ (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in +_Par. Lost_, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have +been suggested by the _Phaedo_, where the souls of the wicked are said +to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their +former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and +animals of that sort. + +469. ~divine property~. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that +divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, _Sat._ ii. 2. 79, +"affigit humo _divinae particulam aurae_"; and Plato's _Phaedo_, "The +soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal." + +470. ~gloomy shadows damp~: see note, l. 207. + +471. ~charnel-vaults~, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. _charnel_, Lat. +_carnalis_; _caro_, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474. + +473. ~As loth~, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the +body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and +degraded state.' ~it~: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in +thought) '_such_ shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with +'soul,' line 467. + +474. ~sensualty~. The modern form of the word is _sensuality_. + +475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter +because 'imbruted.' + +476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the +divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it). + +477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish) +and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the +idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat). + +478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par. +Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright +_Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair." + +479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is +repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838; +_Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426. + +482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct +question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It +seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about +the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more +perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, Sec. 325). ~For certain~, +_i.e._ for certain truth, certainly. + +483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to +founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the +bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in +a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is +sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very +expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and +have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of +'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.' + +484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in +Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near. + +487. ~Best draw~: we had best draw our swords. + +489. ~Defence is a good cause~, etc., _i.e._ 'in defending ourselves we +are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.' + +490. ~That hallo~. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has +halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given +in the edition of _Comus_ printed by Lawes in 1637: _He hallos; the +Guardian Daemon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd._ + +491. ~you fall~, etc., _i.e._ otherwise you will fall on our swords. + +493. ~sure~: see note, l. 246. + +494. ~Thyrsis~, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In +Milton's _Epitaphium Damonis_ it stands for Milton himself; in _Comus_ +it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical +genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative +verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the +poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced +this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by +calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems. + +495. ~sweetened ... dale~; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying +that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music. + +496. ~huddling~. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: +comp. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 19, "Et _properantis_ aquae per amoenos +ambitus agros." ~madrigal~: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. _mandra_, +a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and +by Milton's father. + +497. ~swain~: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly +a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds +boat-_swain_, cox-_swain_. See _Arc._ 26, "Stay, gentle _swains_," etc. + +499. ~pent~, penned, participle of _pen_, to shut up (A.S. _pennan_, which +is connected with _pin_, seen in _pin_-fold, l. 7). ~forsook~: a form of +the past tense used for the participle. + +501. ~and his next joy~, _i.e._ 'and (thou), his next joy'--words +addressed to the second brother. + +502. ~trivial toy~, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but +'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known. +Compare _Il Pens._ 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your _toys_"; and +Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a +cause." + +503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by. + +506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of +mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom +common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this +correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, Sec. 187. + +508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive +clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in +Shakespeare (Abbott, Sec. 37), where it sometimes has the force of an +adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the +radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc. + +509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_); +hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being +common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of +known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in +_sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his +face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_ +(1886), page 170. + +510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part. + +511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This +exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas, +for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line +_true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his +having arrived at the age of twenty-three_. + +512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written +'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets. + +513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216. + +514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12; +_Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame." + +515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the +chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as +"taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, +"great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung." + +516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past +participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il +Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; +Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_. + +517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. +618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a +lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by +Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a +terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such +fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. +_chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe +and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_. + +518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, +entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in +the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_); +here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus. + +519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_. + +520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123) +speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was +'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel +of the earth.' + +521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up +within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall). + +523. ~witcheries~, enchantments. + +526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or +murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) +over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 +and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless." + +529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those +signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure +is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp +them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. +charakter+, an +engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The +word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the +first. + +531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, +generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8, +"low-browed rocks." + +532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is +frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' +might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.' + +533. ~monstrous rout~; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. +'the bottom of the monstrous world,' _Lyc._ 158. In _Aen._ vii. 15, we +read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling +noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling." + +534. ~stabled wolves~, wolves in their dens. _Stable_ (= a standing-place) +is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, _e.g._ in _Par. Lost_, +xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and _stabled_." Comp. "Stable for +camels," _Ezek._ xxv. 5, and the Latin _stabulum_, _Aen._ vi. 179, +_stabula alta ferarum_. + +535. ~Hecate~: see l. 135. + +536. ~bowers~: see note, l. 45. + +539. ~unweeting~; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, both in the compounds and in the simple verb +_weet_, a corruption of _wit_ (A.S. _witan_, to know). Compare _Par. +Reg._ i. 126, "_unweeting_, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." _Sams. +Agon._ 1680; Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, "Virginius came _to weet_ the +judge's will." + +540. ~by then~, _i.e._ by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus +implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is +generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone +is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical. + +542. ~knot-grass~. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however, +suppose marjoram to be intended here. ~dew-besprent~, _i.e._ besprinkled +with dew: comp. _Lyc._ 29. _Be_ is an intensive prefix; _sprent_ is +connected with M.E. _sprengen_, to scatter, of which _sprinkle_ is the +frequentative form. + +543. ~sat me down~: see note, l. 61. + +544. ~canopied, and interwove~. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 2. 49, 'I know a +bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to +'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of _weave_, viz. +_wove_ and _woven_: see _Arc._ 47. + +545. ~flaunting~, showy, garish. In _Lyc._ 146, the poet first wrote +'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.' + +547. ~meditate ... minstrelsy~, _i.e._ to sing a pastoral song: comp. +_Lyc._ 32. 66. _To meditate the muse_ is a Virgilian phrase: see _Ecl._ +i. and vi. The Lat. _meditor_ has the meaning of 'to apply one's self +to,' and does not mean merely to ponder. + +548. ~had~, should have: comp. l. 394. ~ere a close~, _i.e._ before he had +finished his song (Masson). _Close_ occurs in the technical sense of +'the final cadence of a piece of music.' + +549. ~wonted~: see note, l. 332. + +550. ~barbarous~: comp. _Son._ xii. 3, "a _barbarous_ noise environs me Of +owls and cuckoos, etc." + +551. ~listened them~. The omission of _to_ after verbs of hearing is +frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List +a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, Sec. 199). 'Them': this +refers to the _sounds_ implied in 'dissonance.' + +552. ~unusual stop~. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft +and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230. + +553. ~drowsy frighted~, _i.e._ drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's +rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a +state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their +uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where +the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as +expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a +hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' _Il Pens._ 146, and others of Milton's +remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the +printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73. + +554. ~Sleep~ (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot +with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. _Macbeth_, ii. l. 51, "curtained +sleep." + +555. 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly +that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly +have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could +always be filled by such music.' Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 604, "She all +night long her amorous descant sung; _Silence was pleased_"; also +Jonson's _Vision of Delight_: + + "Yet let it like an odour rise + To all the senses here, + And fall like sleep upon their eyes, + Or music in their ear." + +558. ~took~, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of _take_, and compare +'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word. + +560. ~Still~, always. This use of _still_ is frequent in Elizabethan +writers (Abbott, Sec. 69). ~I was all ear~. Warton notes this expressive +idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in +_Tempest_, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." _All_ is an attribute of _I_. + +561. ~create a soul~, etc., _i.e._ breathe life even into the dead: comp. +_L'Alleg._ 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in +an old edition of Quarles' _Emblems_, in which "a soul in the figure of +an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its +prison." _Rom._ vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this +death?" + +565. ~harrowed~, distracted, torn as by a _harrow_. This is probably the +meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue; +hence some read "harried with grief and fear." + +567. ~How sweet ... how near~. This sentence contains two exclamations: +this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ... +_and_ how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How +sweet..., how near the deadly snare _is_!" + +568. ~lawns~. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of +grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a +smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the +word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it +is said to be cognate with _llan_ used as a prefix in the names of +certain Welsh towns, _e.g._ Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes +the form launde. + +569. ~often trod by day~, which I have often trod by day, and therefore +know well. + +570. ~mine ear~: see note, l. 171. + +571. ~wizard~. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the +suffix _-ard_, or _-art_, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton +occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or +magical, without implying contempt: see _Lyc._ 55, "Deva spreads her +_wizard_ stream." + +572. ~certain signs~: see l. 644. + +574. ~aidless~: an obsolete word. See Trench's _English Past and Present_ +for a list of about 150 words in _-less_, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92, +note. ~wished~: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of +the verb. + +575. ~such two~: two persons of such and such description. + +577. ~durst not stay~. _Durst_ is the old past tense of _dare_, and is +used as an auxiliary: the form _dared_ is much more modern, and may be +used as an independent verb. + +578. ~sprung~: see note, l. 256. + +579. ~till I had found~. The language is extremely condensed here, the +meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I _had +found_ you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking +back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long +narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had +found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight, +and determined to continue it until I had found (_i.e._ should have +found) you.' Comp. Abbott Sec. 361. + +581. ~triple knot~, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell. + +584. "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final +efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, +delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd +adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains." + +585. ~safely~, confidently. ~period~, sentence. + +586. ~for me~, _i.e._ for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l. +602. + +588. ~Which erring men call Chance~. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate; +"which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, _Essay on Man_: + + "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; + All chance, direction, which thou canst not see." + +588. ~this I hold firm~. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this +belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly." + +590. ~enthralled~, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022. + +591. ~which ... harm~, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful. + +595-7. ~Gathered like scum~, etc. According to one editor, this image is +"taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots +which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun's body and +after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that +fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes +it." + +598. ~pillared firmament~. The firmament (Lat. _firmus_, firm or solid) is +here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The +ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp. +_Par. Reg._ iv. 55; also _Wint. Tale_, ii. l. 100, "If I mistake In +those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to +bear A schoolboy's top." + +602. ~for~, as regards. ~let ... girt~, though he be surrounded. + +603. ~grisly legions~. 'Grisly,' radically the same as _grue-some_ = +horrible, causing terror. In _Par. Lost_, iv. 821, Satan is called "the +grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable. + +604. ~sooty flag of Acheron~. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the +lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world +generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher's _Locusts_ (1627): "All hell +run out and sooty flags display." + +605. ~Harpies and Hydras~. The Harpies (lit. 'spoilers') were unclean +monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and +gaunt faces. _Hydras_, here used as a general name for monstrous +water-serpents (Gk. _hyd{=o}r_, water); the name was first given to the +nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See _Son._ xv. 7, "new rebellions +raise Their _Hydra_ heads"; the epithet 'hydra-headed' being applied to +a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from +every endeavour to repress it. + +607. ~return his purchase back~, _i.e._ 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the +MS.) 'release his new-got prey.' To purchase (Fr. _pour-chasser_) +originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or +foul: it thus came to mean 'to steal' (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, +and Shakespeare), and 'to buy' (its current sense). See Trench, _Study +of Words_; _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 45, "They will steal anything, and call it +_purchase_"; i. _Hen. IV._ ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our +_purchase_." + +609. ~venturous~, ready to venture. See note, l. 79. + +610. ~yet~, nevertheless. The meaning is: '_Though_ thy courage is +useless, _yet_ I love it.' ~emprise~: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) +of _enterprise_. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence +'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.' + +611. ~can do thee little stead~, _i.e._ can help thee little. _Stead_, +both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases, _e.g._ 'to +stand in good stead,' and in composition, _e.g._ _stead_fast, +home_stead_, in_stead_, Hamp_stead_, etc. Its strict sense is place or +position: comp. _Il Pens._ 3, "How little you _bested_." + +612. ~Far other arms~, _i.e._ very different arms. 'Other' has here its +radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an +adverb. + +615. ~unthread~, loosen. Comp. _Temp._ iv. l. 259, "Go charge my goblins +that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their +sinews With aged cramps." + +617. ~As to make this relation~, _i.e._ as to be able to tell this. + +619. ~a certain shepherd lad~. This is supposed to refer to Charles +Diodati, Milton's dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th +elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem _Epitaphium +Damonis_, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical +skill: + + "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach + Thy friend the name and healing powers of each." + + (_Cowper's translation._) + +620. ~Of small regard to see to~: in colloquial English, 'not much to +look at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek +kalos idein+: see English +Bible, "goodly to look to," i. _Sam._ xvi. 12; _Ezek._ xxiii. 15; _Jer._ +xlvii. 3. + +621. ~virtuous~, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. _Il Pens._ 113, +"the virtuous ring and glass." + +623. ~beg me sing~: see note, l. 304. + +625. ~ecstasy~: see note, l. 261. The Greek _ekstasis_ = standing out of +one's self. + +626. ~scrip~, wallet. + +627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,' +'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its +popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.' + +630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative. + +633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the +plant or the root. + +634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent, +_i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix +_un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, +reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_. + +635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in +Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in +_clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off +my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in +Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of +_clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe. +In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse. +_Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes), +_dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc. + +636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: +And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When +Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who +said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring +deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of +Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee +all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast +drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; +so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the +slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, +and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the +flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for +mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible" +(_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his +first Elegy Milton alludes to M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells +of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and +_moly_." + +638. ~He called it Haemony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619. +_Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the +adjective _Haemonian_ is used, in Latin poetry as = _Thessalian_, +Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as +a land of magic, 'Haemonian' acquired the sense of 'magical' (see Ovid, +_Met._ vii 264, "_Haemonia_ radices valle resectas," etc.), and Milton's +Haemony is simply "the magical plant." Coleridge supposes that by the +prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and +triumph of the Christian life. + +639. ~sovran use~: see note, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms, +medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came +to imply 'all-healing,' 'supremely efficacious'; see _Cor._ ii. 1. 125, +"The most _sovereign_ prescription in Galen." + +640. ~mildew blast~: comp. _Arc._ 48-53, _Ham._ iii. 4. 64, "Here is your +husband; Like a _mildew'd_ ear _Blasting_ his wholesome brother." A +mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew +(A.S. meledeaw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry +east winds was favourable to its formation. + +642. ~pursed it up~, etc., _i.e._ put it in my wallet, though I did not +attach much importance to it. ~little reckoning~: comp. _Lyc._ 116, where +the very same phrase occurs. + +643. ~Till now that~. Here _that_ = when, the clause introduced by it +being explanatory of _now_ (see Abbott, Sec. 284). + +646-7. ~Entered ... came off~. 'I entered into the very midst of his +treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.' _Lime-twigs_ = snares; in +allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared +with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime'). +Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: see _Macbeth_, iv. +2. 34; _Two Gent._ ii. 2. 68; ii. _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 91; etc. + +649. ~necromancer's hall~. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a +magician's castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian +knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry. _Necromancer_, lit. +one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk. +nekros+, a +corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with +that of the Lat. _niger_, black, the art of necromancy came to be called +"the black art." + +650. ~Where if he be~, Lat. _ubi si sit_: in English the relative adverb +in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative +adverb; thus, '_and_ if he be _there_.' + +651. ~brandished blade~. Comp. Hermes' advice to Ulysses: "When it shall +be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp +sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her," +_Odyssey_, x. ~break his glass~. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir +Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, _F. Q._ i. 12, +stanza 56. + +652. ~luscious~, delicious. The word is a corruption of _lustious_ from +O.E. _lust_ = pleasure: see note, l. 49. + +653. ~But seize his wand~. The force of this injunction is shown by lines +815-819. + +654. ~menace high~, violent threat. _High_ is thus used in a number of +figurative senses, _e.g._ a high wind, a high hand, high passions (_Par. +Lost_, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc. + +655. ~Sons of Vulcan~. In the _Aeneid_ (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that +Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), "vomited from his throat +huge volumes of smoke" when pursued by Hercules, "_Faucibus ingentem +fumum_," etc. + +657. ~apace~; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its +meaning: in Chaucer it means 'at a foot pace,' _i.e._ slowly. The first +syllable is the indefinite article '_a_' = one (Skeat). + +658. ~bear~: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, Sec. 365). (_Stage +Direction_) ~puts by~: puts on one side, refuses. ~goes about to rise~, +_i.e._ endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of _go about_ still +lingers in the phrase 'to _go about_ one's business'; comp. 'to _set +about_' anything. + +659. ~but~, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have +here a verb in the present tense ('are chained'), a construction which +well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer's +spell (see Abbott, Sec. 371). + +660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton +has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled +_alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once +correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster +is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too +much conceiving." + +661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave +this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as +Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in +the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, +which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, +an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, +she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. +daphne+): comp, the story of +Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106. + +662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._ +xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The +sight of this so horrid spectacle." + +663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the +freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733). + +665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly +nook." + +668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12. + +669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6. + +672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat. +_cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gul{=a}b_, +rose-water. + +673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +674. ~syrups~: Arab, _shar{=a}b_, a drink, wine. + +675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following +lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new +thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a +drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every +sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the +bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though +his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so +helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had +given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in +greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful" +(_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek +adj. = sorrow-dispelling (+ne+, privative; +penthos+, grief). It is here +used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used +as a general name for drugs that relieve pain. + +677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, +'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, +nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.' + +679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy +foe, to thy sweet self too cruel." + +680. 'Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on +certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should +have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition +you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred +glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.' Comp. +Shakespeare, _Son._ iv. "Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon +thyself thy beauty's legacy," etc. + +685. ~unexempt condition~, _i.e._ a condition binding on all and at all +times, a law of human nature. + +687. ~mortal frailty~, _i.e._ weak mortals: abstract for concrete. + +688. ~That~. The antecedent of this relative is _you_, l. 682. See note, +l. 2. + +689. ~timely~, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's +_Marmion_, iii. 223, "gambol rude and _timeless_ joke"): comp. _Son._ +ii. 8, "_timely_-happy spirits"; and l. 970. + +693. ~Was this ... abode~? The verb is singular, because 'cottage' and +'safe abode' convey one idea: see Comus's words, l. 320. Notice also +that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling. + +694. ~aspects~: accent on final syllable. + +695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is +radically connected with _awe_. + +698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt +_visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is +to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672 +and 700, denotes _by means of_. + +700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by +catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to +_lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three +words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless) +and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet +root. + +702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has +usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_ +in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line +'offer' = the thing offered. + +703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has +borrowed from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, +Kakou gar andros dor' onesin ouk +echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton). + +704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a +rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former +controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv. +439). + +707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool +dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, +etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is +tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a +doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of +_sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole +phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.' +It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses +of 'budge.' + +708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt +for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of +the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and +was fond of calling himself +ho kyon+ (the dog). + +709. ~the~: here used generically. + +711. ~unwithdrawing~. In this participle the termination _-ing_ seems +almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "_all-obeying_ +breath" (= obeyed by all), _A. and C._ iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are +not only full but continuous. + +714. ~all to please ... curious taste~. _All_ = entirely, here modifies +the infinitives please and sate. _Curious_ = fastidious: its original +sense is 'careful' or 'anxious.' Compare the two senses of _exquisite_, +note l. 359. + +715. ~set~, _i.e._ she set. The pronominal subject is omitted. + +717. ~To deck~: infinitive of purpose. + +718. ~in her own loins~, _i.e._ in the bowels of the earth. + +719. ~hutched~ = stored up, enclosed. _Hutch_ is an old word for chest or +coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.' + +720. ~To store her children with~, _i.e._ _wherewith_ to store her +children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).' +'Store' = provide. + +721. ~pet of temperance~, _i.e._ a sudden and transitory fit of +temperance. ~pulse~. So Daniel and his three companions refused the +dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; _Dan._ i. + +722. ~frieze~, coarse woollen cloth. + +723. ~All-giver~. Comp. Gk. +pandora+, an epithet applied to the earth +as the giver of all. + +725. 'And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a +penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature's +bastards': see _Hebrews_ xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof +all have been made partakers, then are ye _bastards, and not sons_." + +728. ~Who~. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding +it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun _her_, +_i.e._ the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have +their full force as genitives: comp. _L'Alleg._ 124, "her grace whom" = +the grace of her whom. ~surcharged~: overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732). +~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of +'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles +as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur +in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.). + +729. ~strangled~, suffocated. + +730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the +flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both +clauses in this line are absolute. + +731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one +illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of +speech was used for another. + +732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355. + +733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference +to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze +abroad, to proclaim. + +734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with +their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.' + +735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is +from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _oeuvre_, work). + +737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of +this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims +kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat. + +739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these +seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and +Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and +Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8): + + "Earthlier happy is the rose distilled + Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, + Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness." + +See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea +in all its subtleties" (Masson). + +743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. +_Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion." + +744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par. +Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._ +33. The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now +have _-ing_ (Abbott, Sec. 374). + +747. ~most~, as many as possible. + +748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._ +i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_ is +derived from _home_. + +749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for +household occupations. + +750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat. +_granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or +cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came +to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so +used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par. +Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of +purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these +were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,' +'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect. +on Eng. Lang._ p. 55). + +751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet +of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card: +comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into +_hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word. + +752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what +need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from +Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used +to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it +follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate. + +753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed +Dawn," +euplokamos Eos+. + +755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108. + +756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus. + +757. ~but that~: were it not that. + +758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. +170. + +759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments. +_Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. +1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the +weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most +goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words +clothed in _reason's garb_." + +760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue +allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the +_boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word +(also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24), +Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned +snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The +spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start +out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children +should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503. + +764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is +feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent +is unnecessarily repeated. + +765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good. + +767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable, +both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of +Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth +diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the +Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his +college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning +temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly +dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own +spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being +heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv. +1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough." + +769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be +fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_. + +770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds = +wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of +meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or +unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious. + +774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least +surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially += not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a +whit, _naught_ = no whit. + +776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note, +l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete. + +779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that +may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed, +_e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc. + +780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: +it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of +_enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines +780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic +fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been +propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)." + +782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred +rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6, +Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with +fair beams did her adorn." + +783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no +purpose. + +784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for +_neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), +and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and +the first may as well be contracted as the second. + +785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_ +Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he +learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of +his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high +mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, +and the Lord for the body." + +790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is +'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety +of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad +occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik +suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first +become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had +thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love," +as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as +being the instrument of sophistry. + +791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_: +comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much +Ado_, v. 1. 75. + +794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been +_carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40, +"Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of +the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him +from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40. + +797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become +sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp. +Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_." + +800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative. + +801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world." + +802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet +is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat +which 'dips' or moistens his body. + +804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the +_Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been +provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into +Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the +Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma +in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as +in both cases equivalent to _denounces_. + +806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady. + +808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our +society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and +other foundations" (Keightley). + +809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous = +dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four +primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy +(see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, Sec. ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry, +thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of +nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. +melancholia+, black bile. +See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy"; +and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to +the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the +cause of lunacy." + +811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of +direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more +usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new +pleasures." + +814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a +verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_ +the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on +names adored." + +816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism: +see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of +this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the +ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because +'without' also governs 'mutters.' + +817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by +reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs +in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the +followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the +neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of +Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the +neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526. + +820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The +deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural +interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's +court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher +than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the +mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is +accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. + +821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated +from the antecedent: see note, l. 2. + +822. ~Meliboeus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i. +Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given +in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of +Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a +'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the +truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this +poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser. + +823. ~soothest~, truest. The A.S. _soth_ meant _true_; hence also 'a true +thing' = truth. It survives in _soothe_ (lit. to affirm to be true), +_soothsay_ (see l. 874), and _forsooth_ (= for a truth). + +824. ~from hence~. _Hence_ represents an A.S. word _heonan_, _-an_ being +a suffix = from: so that in the phrase 'from hence' the force of the +preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from +forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp. _Arc._ 3: "which _we from +hence_ descry." + +825. ~with moist curb sways~: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a _numen fluminis_ +or river-deity. + +826. ~Sabrina~: The following is Milton's version of the legend:--"After +this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to +Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High +Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years, +died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact, +and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, +Loegria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now +Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a +fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back +into Loegria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now +marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to +this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were +found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair, +the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting +the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before +contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being +forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, +Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other; +and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages +made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a +daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was +off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, +divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in +rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, +was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an +army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by +the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But +not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra +she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims +that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by +length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of +Britain_ (1670). + +827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwilum_, +instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time. + +830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The +prefix _step_ (A.S. _steop-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to +a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words +'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of +mother in the form _dam_. + +832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. + +834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, +as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn. + +835. ~aged Nereus' hall~, the abode of old Nereus, _i.e._ the bottom of +the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described +as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil, _grandaevus +Nereus_. See also, l. 871, and compare Jonson's _Neptune's Triumph_, +last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home +with pearls." + +836. ~piteous of~, _i.e._ full of pity for; comp. Lat. _miseret te +aliorum_ (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive +sense; its active sense is 'causing pity,' _i.e._ pitiful. Comp. Abbott, +Sec. 3. ~reared her lank head~, _i.e._ raised up her drooping head: comp. +_Par. Lost_, viii.: "In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he +_reared_ me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective _lanky_ is +in common use = tall and thin. + +837. ~imbathe~, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being +reduplicated, as in Lat. _incidere in_. + +838. ~nectared lavers~, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented +with asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. ~asphodel~; the +same, both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see _Lyc._ 150, where it takes +the form 'daffadillies'): Gk. +asphodelos+, M.E. _affodille_. The +initial _d_ in daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l. +851. + +839. ~the porch~. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: +comp. _Haml._ i. 5. 63: "the porches of mine ear"; also the phrase, "the +five gateways of knowledge." + +840. ~ambrosial oils~, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and +compare Virgil's use of _ambrosia_ in _Georg._ iv. 415, _liquidum +ambrosiae diffundit odorem_. + +841. ~quick immortal change~: comp. l. 10. + +842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in +Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause. + +844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133; +"twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188. + +845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting +influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used +generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and +blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin' +(_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which +for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence +mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare, +_Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus +And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_ +whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_. +~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it +cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc. + +846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious, +like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite +called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the +current verb is _beshrew_. + +847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_. + +850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase +to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862. + +852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of +Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson). + +853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660. + +854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._ +xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes." + +857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song. + +858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The +adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are +directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or +not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as +a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers. + +863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea +is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound +epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.' +_Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see +_Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume." + +865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense +of 'a river.' + +868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. +Okeanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded +the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river +called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and +afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and +Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact, +throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent +epithets" of the various divinities. + +869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon +(Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_, +xii. 27, "And the Shaker of the Earth with his trident in his hands," +etc. In _Par. Lost_, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace +petrifick." + +870. ~Tethys' ... pace~. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being +the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (+potnia +Tethys+), and in Ovid 'the hoary.' + +871. ~hoary Nereus~: see note, l. 835. + +872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the +sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own +hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have +been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future." +_Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note +there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the +monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463. + +873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of +the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the +command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He +was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish. + +874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been +changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors +as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823. + +875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leuke+, +thea+), the +name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had +thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas. + +876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his +mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans +with their god of harbours, Portumnus. + +877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter +of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+). +Comp. _Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson): + + "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest + To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast." + +'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth +worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. +Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On +the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally, +see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296. + +878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenope's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see +note, l. 253) were Parthenope, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the +first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid +liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana +Acheloeiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a +sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of +smoothing her hair with a golden comb. + +881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ... +locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is +"she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks. + +882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is +greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panope with all her +sisters played." + +885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145, +"Orpheus' self may heave his head." + +887. ~bridle in~, _i.e._ restrain. + +888. ~have~: subjunctive after _till_, as frequently in Milton. + +890. ~rushy-fringed~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be +rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from +the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29; +"false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14. + +891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb +is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent +to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or +their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit +the _dank_" (= the water). + +893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified +with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_. +~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note +there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as +an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the +suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still +survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden +hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_, +_glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, +_English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._ +45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold +that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_. + +894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the +Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey +(Pers. _turk_, a Turk). + +895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were +found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon +grows on its banks. + +897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with +_printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no +print of step hath been." + +902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's +song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina +continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best'). + +913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,' +l. 155. + +914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in +the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid +(_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416. + +916. ~Next~: an adverb modifying 'touch.' + +917. ~glutinous~, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the +effect to the cause. + +921. ~Amphitrite~: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea. + +923. ~Anchises line~: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who +was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who +was the son of old Anchises. + +924. ~may ... miss~. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) +fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.' + +925. ~brimmed~. The passive participle is so often used where we now use +the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the +other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of _bank_ (comp. l. 119), so +that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks. + +928. ~singed~, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good +wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of +this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the +wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to +the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow." + +933. ~beryl~: in the Bible (_Rev._ xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one +of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin: +comp. Arab, _billaur_, crystal. ~golden ore~. As a matter of fact gold has +been found in the Welsh mountains. + +934. ~May thy lofty head~, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May +thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here +and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and +cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and +'upon' a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the +notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty +vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses +with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is +'thou,' implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found +in _L'Alleg._ 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and _judge_ +the prize'; also in _Il Pens._ 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to +_walk ... and love_, etc.': also in _Lyc._ 88, 89. The explanation +adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek +verbs--+peristephanoo+, 'to put a crown round,' and +epistephanoo+, "to +put a crown upon": thus, "May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with +many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be _crowned upon_ +with groves of myrrh and cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and +'upon' an adverb. + +In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, _Song ends_. + +942. ~Not a waste~, etc., _i.e._ 'Let there not be a superfluous or +unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note, +l. 728. + +945. ~gloomy covert wide~: see note, l. 207. + +946. ~not many furlongs~. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up +the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the +mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when +Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. +This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change +of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the +length of a field, and is now a measure of length. + +949. ~many a friend~. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been +explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of +the French _mesnie_, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the +preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the +plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more +correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. _manig_, which was in +old English used with a singular noun and without the article, _e.g._ +_manig mann_ = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite +article began to be inserted; thus _mony enne thing_ = many a thing, +just as we say 'what _a_ thing,' 'such _a_ thing.' This would seem to +show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no +connection with the French word _mesnie_. Milton, in this passage, uses +'many a friend' with a plural verb. ~gratulate~. The simple verb is now +replaced by the compound _congratulate_ (Lat. _gratulari_, to wish joy +to a person). + +950. ~wished~, _i.e._ wished for; see note, l. 574. ~and beside~, _i.e._ +'and where, besides,' etc. + +952. ~jigs~, lively dances. + +958. ~Back, shepherds, back!~ On the rising of the curtain, the stage is +occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant +Spirit enters with the above words. ~Enough your play~, _i.e._ we have had +enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.' + +959. ~sunshine holiday~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 98, where the same expression is +used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and +lines 91-99 of _L'Allegro_. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is +'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such +compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it +is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms +(_e.g._ holiday) or the separate words (_e.g._ holy day) are being used. + +960. ~Here be~: see note, l. 12. ~without duck or nod~: words used to +describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country +people. + +961. ~trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise~: words used to describe +the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. _L'Alleg._ +33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." _Trod_ (or +trodden), past participle of _tread_: 'to tread a measure' is a common +expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' _i.e._ courtly mien; +_guise_ is a doublet of _wise_ = way, _e.g._ 'in this wise,' +'like_wise_,' 'other_wise_.' In such pairs of words as _guise_ and +_wise_, _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, the forms in _gu_ have +come into English through the French. + +963. ~Mercury~ (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as +such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. +ptenopedilos+): his +name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement. + +964. ~mincing Dryades~. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. +drys+, a +tree), here represented as mincing, _i.e._ tripping with short steps, +unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. _Merch. of V._ +iii. 4. 67: "turn two _mincing_ steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a +person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation. + +965. ~lawns ... leas~. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow. + +966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons +to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater. + +967. ~ye~: see note, l. 216. + +968. ~so goodly grown~, _i.e._ grown so goodly. _Goodly_ = handsome (A.S. +_godlic_ = goodlike). + +970. ~timely~. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two +phrases in _Macbeth_: "To gain the _timely_ inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To +call _timely_ on him," ii. 3. 51. + +972. ~assays~, trials, temptations. _Assay_ is used by Milton in the +sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see _Arc._ 80, "I will +_assay_, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to +the form _essay_ (radically the same word); and the use of _assay_ has +been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing +of metals. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 932, "hard _assays_ and ill +successes"; _Par. Reg._ i. 264, iv. 478. + +974, 5. ~To triumph~. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly +expressed in these lines. _Stage Direction_: ~Spirit epiloguizes~, _i.e._ +sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts +of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered +1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by +Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into +a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst +descending upon the stage:-- + + _From the heavens_ now I fly, + And those happy climes that lie + Where day never shuts his eye, + Up in the broad _field_ of the sky. + There I suck the liquid air + All amidst the gardens fair + Of Hesperus, and his daughters three + That sing about the golden tree. + There eternal summer dwells, + And west winds, with musky wing, + About the cedarn alleys fling + Nard and cassia's balmy smells. + Iris there with humid bow + Waters the odorous banks, that blow + Flowers of more mingled hue + Than her purfled scarf can show, + _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_, + And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew + Beds of hyacinth and roses, + Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes. + +Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the +mask. + +976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and +rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been +frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. +Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson): +"Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. +1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now +my charms are all o'erthrown," etc. + +977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will +convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is +easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; +but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow +cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_, +is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while +'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. +_Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms." + +978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26: +"the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn." + +979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aeris in campis latis_," +_Aen._ vi. 888. + +980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) +is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. +_Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes." + +981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the +following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe +of darkest grain." + +982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had +three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their +sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser +makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to +Virtue_. + +984. ~crisped shades~. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove," +_Arc._ 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the +same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. _crispus_ += curled), from which comes the verb _to crisp_ and the participle +_crisped_. Compare "the _crisped_ brooks ... ran nectar," _Par. Lost_, +iv. 237, where the word is best rendered 'rippled'; also Tennyson's +_Claribel_, 19, "the babbling runnel _crispeth_." In the present case +the reference is to the foliage of the trees. + +985. ~spruce~, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of +levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of gay +or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word _jolly_, on +which Pattison says:--"This is an instance of the disadvantage under +which poetry in a living language labours. No knowledge of the meaning +which a word bore in 1631 can wholly banish the later and vulgar +associations which may have gathered round it since. Apart from direct +parody and burlesque, the tendency of living speech is gradually to +degrade the noble; so that as time goes on the range of poetical +expression grows from generation to generation more and more +restricted." The origin of the word _spruce_ is disputed: Skeat holds +that it is a corruption of Pruce (old Fr. _Pruce_, mod. Fr. _Prusse_) = +Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the +fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some +English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also +Trench, _Select Glossary_. + +986. ~The Graces~. The three Graces of classical mythology were +Euphrosyne (the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and Thalia +(the blooming one). See _L'Alleg._ 12: "Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely +Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus +bore." They were sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the +goddesses who purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life. +~rosy-bosomed Hours~. The Hours (Horae) of classical mythology were the +goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was described as the dance of the +Horae. The Hora of Spring accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent +from the lower world, and the expression "The chamber of the Horae opens" +is equivalent to "The Spring is coming." 'Rosy-bosomed'; the Gk. ++rhodokolpos+: compare the epithets 'rosy-fingered' (applied by Homer to +the dawn), 'rosy-armed,' etc. + +989. ~musky ... fling~. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 515: "Fresh gales and +gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, +flung odours from the spicy shrub." In this passage the verb _fling_ is +similarly used. 'Musky' = fragrant: comp. 'musk-rose,' l. 496. + +990. ~cedarn alleys~, _i.e._ alleys of cedar trees. For 'alley,' comp. l. +311. For the form of 'cedarn,' see note on 'azurn,' l. 893. Tennyson +uses the word 'cedarn' in _Recoll. of Arab. Nights_, 115. + +991. ~Nard and cassia~; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes +applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called _spike-nard_; see +allusion in the Bible, _Mark_, xiv. 3; _Exod._ xxx. 24, etc. + +992. ~Iris ... humid bow~: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to +the rainbow. + +993. ~blow~, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, _Mask at +Highgate_, "For thee, Favonius, here shall _blow_ New flowers." + +995. ~purfled~ = having an embroidered edge (O.F. _pourfiler_): the verb +_to purfle_ survives in the contracted form _to purl_, and is cognate +with profile = a front line or edge. ~shew~: here rhymes with _dew_; comp. +l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present +pronunciation of _shew_, though familiar, was not the only one +recognised. + +996. ~drenches with Elysian dew~, _i.e._ soaks with heavenly dew. The +Homeric Elysium is described in _Odyssey_, iv.: see note, l. 977; it +was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257. +_Drench_ is the causative of _drink_: here the nominative of the verb is +'Iris' and the object 'beds.' + +997. ~if your ears be true~, _i.e._ if your ears be pure: the poet is +about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross +unpurged ear" (_Arc._ 73, and _Com._ l. 458). He alludes to that pure +Love which "leads up to Heaven," _Par. Lost_, viii. 612. + +998. ~hyacinth~. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of +_Lycidas_, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved +by Apollo. + +999. ~Adonis~, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received +from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the +gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on +earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of +the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. _Par. +Lost_, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc. + +1000. ~waxing well of~, _i.e._ recovering from. The A.S. _weaxan_ = to +grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, _Rom. and Jul._ +i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. + +1002. ~Assyrian queen~, _i.e._ Venus, whose worship came from the East, +probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called +by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see _Par. Lost_, i. 438-452, where Adonis +appears as Thammuz. + +1003, 4. ~far above ... advanced~. These words are to be read together: +'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.' + +1003. ~spangled sheen~, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': _spangle_ is a +diminutive of _spang_ = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.' +In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the +heavens as 'spangled': comp. Addison's well-known lines: + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky, + And _spangled_ heavens, a shining frame, + Their great Original proclaim." + +Comp. also _Lyc._ 170, "with _new-spangled_ ore." 'Sheen' is here used +as a noun, as in line 893; also in _Hymn Nat._ 145, "throned in +celestial _sheen_": _Epitaph on M. of W._ 73, "clad in radiant _sheen_." +The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse +so fair and _sheen_," _F. Q._ ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear +or spangled starlight _sheen_" (_M. N. D._ ii. l. 29) it is doubtful +whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective +_sheeny_ (_Death of Fair Infant_, 48). + +1004. ~Celestial Cupid~. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the +note to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to +whom he is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and +misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in +love with Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he +was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp +while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and +fled from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by +Venus; but after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported +by Cupid, she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this +story Psyche represents the human soul (Gk. +psyche+), which is +disciplined and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the +enjoyment of true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it +is only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in +his _Apology for Smectymnuus_ he calls it that Love "whose charming cup +is only virtue," and whose "first and chiefest office ... begins and +ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her divine generation, +Knowledge and Virtue." To this high and mystical love Milton again +alludes in _Epitaphium Damonis_: + + "In other part, the expansive vault above, + And there too, even there the god of love; + With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays + A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, + Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, + Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, + Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high + Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; + Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn + The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn." + + _Cowper's translation._ + +1007. ~among~: preposition governing 'gods.' + +1008. ~make~: subjunctive after 'till.' Its nominative is 'consent.' + +1010. ~blissful~, blest. _Bliss_ is cognate with _bless_ and _blithe_. +Comp. "the _blest_ kingdoms meek of joy and love," _Lyc._ 177. ~are to be +born~. There seems to be here a confusion of constructions between the +subjunctive co-ordinate with _make_ and the indicative dependent in +meaning on "Jove hath sworn" in the following line. + +1011. ~Youth and Joy~. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the +trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of +Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," _i.e._ she is possible +only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004. + +1012. ~my task~, _i.e._ the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an +adverbial clause = Now that (or _because_) my task is smoothly done. + +1013. The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he +pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by +virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom. + +1014. ~green earth's end~. The world as known to the ancients did not +extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, +which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. _Par. +Lost_, viii. 630: + + "But I can now no more; the parting sun + Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles + Hesperean sets, my signal to depart." + +1015. ~bowed welkin~: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky +curves slowly towards the horizon." _Welkin_ is, radically, "the region +of clouds," A.S. _wolcnu_, clouds. + +1017. ~corners of the moon~, _i.e._ its horns. The crescent moon is said +to be 'horned' (Lat. _cornu_, a horn). Comp. the lines in _Macbeth_, +iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous +drop profound." + +1020. ~She can teach ye how to climb~, etc. Compare Jonson's song to +Virtue: + + "Though a stranger here on earth + In heaven she hath her right of birth. + There, there is Virtue's seat: + Strive to keep her your own; + 'Tis only she can make you great, + Though place here make you known." + +1021. ~sphery chime~, _i.e._ the music of the spheres. "To climb higher +than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the +empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton +therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence. +See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,' +as in "silver _chime_," _Hymn Nat._ 128: the word is cognate with +_cymbal_. + +1022, 3. ~if Virtue feeble were~, etc. A triumphant expression of that +confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine +Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. +Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed +in the last two lines of his _Comus_. + + + + +INDEX TO THE NOTES. + + +A. + +Acheron, 604. + +Adonis, 999. + +Adventurous, 79. + +Advice, 108; + advised, 755. + +Affects, 386. + +Alabaster, 660. + +All, 714, 981. + +All ear, 560. + +Alley, 311, 990. + +All-giver, 723. + +All to-ruffled, 380. + +Amber-dropping, 863. + +Ambrosial, 16. + +Amiss, 177. + +Apace, 657. + +Arbitrate, 411. + +Asphodel, 838. + +Assays, 972. + +Assyrian Queen, 1002. + +Ay me, 511. + +Azurn, 893. + + +B. + +Backward, 817. + +Baited, 162. + +Bandite, 426. + +Be, 12, 519. + +Benison, 332. + +Beryl, 933. + +Beseeming, 769. + +Blank, 452. + +Blissful, 1010. + +Blue-haired, 29. + +Blow, 993. + +Bolt, 760. + +Bosky, 313. + +Bourn, 313. + +Brakes, 147. + +Brimmed, 925. + +Brinded, 443. + +Brute, 797. + +Budge, 707. + +Burs, 352. + + +C. + +Cassia, 991. + +Cast, 360. + +Cateress, 764. + +Cedarn, 990. + +Centre, 382. + +Certain, 266. + +Chance, 508. + +Charactered, 530. + +Charmed, 51. + +Charnel, carnal, 471. + +Charybdis, 257. + +Chime, 1021. + +Chimeras, 517. + +Circe, 50. + +Clime, 977. + +Close, 548. + +Clouted, 635. + +Company, 274. + +Comus, 46, 58. + +Convoy, 81. + +Cordial, 672. + +Corners, 1017. + +Cotes, 344. + +Cotytto, 129. + +Courtesy, 325. + +Cozened, 737. + +Crabbed, 477. + +Crisped, 984. + +Crofts, 531. + +Crowned, 934. + +Curfew, 435. + +Curious, 714. + +Cynic, 708. + +Cynosure, 342. + + +D. + +Dapper, 118. + +Darked, 730. + +Dear, 790. + +Dell, 312. + +Descry, 141. + +Dew-besprent, 542. + +Dimple, 119. + +Dingle, 312. + +Disinherit, 334. + +Ditty, 86. + +Drench, 996. + +Drouth, 66. + +Drowsy frighted, 553. + +Due, 12. + +Dun, 127. + +Durst, 577. + + +E. + +Each ... every, 19, 311. + +Earth-shaking, 869. + +Ebon, 134. + +Ecstasy, 261, 625. + +Element, 299. + +Elysium, 257. + +Emblaze, 732. + +Emprise, 610. + +Engaged, 193. + +Enow, 780. + +Erebus, 804. + +Every ... each, 19, 311. + +Eye, 329. + + +F. + +Faery, 298. + +Fairly, 168. + +Fantastic, 144, 205. + +Fence, 791. + +Firmament, 598. + +Fond, 67. + +For, 586, 602. + +Forestalling, 285. + +Forlorn, 39. + +Fraught, 355, 732. + +Freezed, 449. + +Frighted, 553. + +Frolic, 59. + + +G. + +Gear, 167. + +Glistering, 219. + +Glozing, 161. + +Goodly, 968. + +Graces, 986. + +Grain, 750. + +Granges, 175. + +Gratulate, 949. + +Grisly, 603. + +Guise, 961. + + +H. + +Haemony, 638. + +Hag, 434. + +Hallo, 226. + +Hapless, 350. + +Harpies, 605. + +Harrowed, 565. + +Heave, 885. + +Hecate, 135. + +Help, 304, 845. + +Hence, 824. + +Her, 351, 455. + +Hesperian, 393. + +High, 654. + +Hinds, 174. + +Holiday, 959. + +Home-felt, 262. + +Homely, 748. + +Horror, 38. + +Hours, 986. + +How chance, 508. + +Huswife, 751. + +Hutched, 719. + +Hyacinth, 998. + +Hydras. 605. + + +I. + +Imbathe, 837. + +Imbodies, 468. + +Imbrutes, 468. + +Immured, 521. + +Infamous, 424. + +Infer, 408. + +Influence, 336. + +Inlay, 22. + +Innumerous, 349. + +Insphered, 3. + +Interwove, 544. + +Inured, 735. + +Iris, 83. + +Isle, 21. + + +J. + +Jocund, 172. + +Jollity, 104. + +Julep, 672. + + +K. + +Knot-grass, 542. + + +L. + +Lackey, 455. + +Lake, 865. + +Languished, 744. + +Lank, 836. + +Lap, 257. + +Lawn, 568. + +Lees, 809. + +Leucothea, 875. + +Lewdly-pampered, 770. + +Like, 22, 634. + +Lime-twigs, 646. + +Liquid, 980. + +Liquorish, 700. + +Listed, 49. + +Listened, 551. + +Liveried, 455. + +Lore, 34. + +Love-lorn, 234. + +Luscious, 652. + + +M. + +Madness, 261. + +Madrigal, 495. + +Mansion, 2. + +Mantling, 294. + +Many a, 949. + +Margent, 232. + +Me, 163, 630. + +Meander, 232. + +Meditate, 547. + +Melancholy, 810. + +Methought, 171. + +Meliboeus, 822. + +Mickle, 31. + +Mildew, 640. + +Mincing, 964. + +Mintage, 529. + +Misused, 47. + +Moly, 636. + +Monstrous, 533. + +Mountaineer, 426. + +Morrice, 116. + +Mortal, 10. + +Murmurs, 526. + +Mutters, 817. + +My, mine, 170. + + +N. + +Naiades, 254. + +Nard, 991. + +Navel, 520. + +Necromancer, 649. + +Nectar, 479. + +Neighbour, 484. + +Nepenthes, 675. + +Nereus, 835. + +Nether, 20. + +New-intrusted, 36. + +Nice, 139. + +Night-foundered, 483. + +Nightingale, 234. + +Nightly, 113. + +Nor ... nor, 784. + + +O. + +Oaten, 345, 893. + +Oceanus, 97, 868. + +Of, 59, 155, 836, 1000. + +Ominous, 61. + +Orient, 65. + +Other, 612. + +Oughly-headed, 695. + +Ounce, 71. + +Over-exquisite, 359. + +Over-multitude, 731. + + +P. + +Palmer, 189. + +Pan, 176. + +Pard, 444. + +Parley, 241. + +Pent, 499. + +Perfect, 73, 203. + +Perplexed, 37. + +Pert, 118. + +Pestered, 7. + +Pinfold, 7. + +Plight, 372. + +Plighted, 301 + +Plumes, 378. + +Potion, 68. + +Pranked, 759. + +Presentments, 156. + +Prime, 289. + +Prithee, 615. + +Prove, 123. + +Purchase, 607. + +Purfled, 995. + +Psyche, 1004. + + +Q. + +Quaint, 157. + +Quarters, 29. + +Quire, 112. + +Quivered, 422. + + +R. + +Rapt, 794. + +Ravishment, 244. + +Reared, 836. + +Recks, 404. + +Regard, 620. + +Rifted, 518. + +Rite, 125. + +Roost, 317. + +Rosy-bosomed, 986. + +Rout, 92-93. + +Rule, 340. + +Rushy-fringed, 890. + + +S. + +Sabrina, 826. + +Sadly, 509. + +Sampler, 751. + +Saws, 110. + +Scape, 814. + +Scylla, 257. + +Serene, 4. + +Several, 25. + +Shagged, 429. + +Shapes, 2. + +Sheen, 893, 1003. + +Shell, 231, 837. + +Shew, 995. + +Shoon, 635. + +Should, 482. + +Shrewd, 846. + +Shrouds, 147. + +Shuddering, 802. + +Siding, 212. + +Simples, 627. + +Single, 204. + +Sirens, 253, 878. + +Sleeking, 882. + +Slope, 98. + +Solemnity, 142. + +Soothest, 823. + +Sooth-saying, 874. + +Sounds, 115. + +Sovran, 41, 639. + +Spangled, 1003. + +Spell, 154. + +Spets, 132. + +Sphery, 1021. + +Spruce, 985. + +Square, 329. + +Squint, 413. + +Stabled, 534. + +Star of Arcady, 341. + +State, 35. + +Stead, 611. + +Step-dame, 830. + +Still, 560. + +Stoic, 707. + +Stops, 345. + +Storied, 516. + +Straight, 811. + +Strook, 301. + +Stygian, 132. + +Sun-clad, 782. + +Sung, 256. + +Sure, 148. + +Surrounding, 403. + +Swain, 497. + +Swart, 436. + +Swinked, 293. + +Sylvan, 268. + +Syrups, 674. + + +T. + +Tapestry, 324. + +Temple, 461. + +Thyrsis, 494. + +Timely, 689, 970. + +Tinsel-slippered, 877. + +To-ruffled, 380. + +To seek, 366. + +Toy, 502. + +Trains, 151. + +Treasonous, 702. + +Trippings, 961. + +Turkis, 894. + +Tuscan, 48. + +Twain, 284. + +Tyrrhene, 49. + + +U. + +Unblenched, 430. + +Unenchanted, 395. + +Unmuffle, 331. + +Unprincipled, 367. + +Unweeting, 539. + +Unwithdrawing, 711. + +Urchin, 845. + + +V. + +Various, 379. + +Venturous, 609. + +Vermeil-tinctured, 752. + +Very, 427. + +Vialed, 847. + +Viewless, 92. + +Violet-embroidered, 233. + +Virtue, 165, 621. + +Visage, 333. + +Vizored, 698. + +Votarist, 189. + + +W. + +Wakes, 121. + +Warranted, 327. + +Wassailers, 179. + +Waste, 728, 942. + +Weeds, 16. + +Welkin, 1015. + +What need, 362. + +Whilom, 827. + +Whit, 774. + +Who, 728. + +Wily, 151. + +Wink, 401. + +Wished, 574, 950. + +Wizard, 571, 872. + +Wont, 332, 549. + +Woof, 83. + + +Y. + +Ye, 216. + + + + +GLASGOW: PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Milton's Comus, by John Milton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MILTON'S COMUS *** + +***** This file should be named 19819.txt or 19819.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/8/1/19819/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Louise Pryor and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by Case Western Reserve University Preservation Department +Digital Library) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the 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