0 MILTON'S COMUS
1
2 WITH
3 INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
4
5 BY
6 WILLIAM BELL, M.A.
7 PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC, GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, LAHORE
8
9
10
11
12 London
13 MACMILLAN AND CO
14 AND NEW YORK
15 1891
16
17 [_All rights reserved_]
18
19
20
21
22 First Edition, 1890.
23 Reprinted, 1891.
24
25
26
27
28 CONTENTS.
29
30 PAGE
31 INTRODUCTION, vii
32 COMUS, 7
33 NOTES, 38
34 INDEX TO THE NOTES, 113
35
36
37
38
39 INTRODUCTION.
40
41
42 Few poems have been more variously designated than _Comus_. Milton
43 himself describes it simply as "A Mask"; by others it has been
44 criticised and estimated as a lyrical drama, a drama in the epic style,
45 a lyric poem in the _form_ of a play, a phantasy, an allegory, a
46 philosophical poem, a suite of speeches or majestic soliloquies, and
47 even a didactic poem. Such variety in the description of the poem is
48 explained partly by its complex charm and many-sided interest, and
49 partly by the desire to describe it from that point of view which should
50 best reconcile its literary form with what we know of the genius and
51 powers of its author. Those who, like Dr. Johnson, have blamed it as a
52 drama, have admired it "as a series of lines," or as a lyric; one
53 writer, who has found that its characters are nothing, its sentiments
54 tedious, its story uninteresting, has nevertheless "doubted whether
55 there will ever be any similar poem which gives so true a conception of
56 the capacity and the dignity of the mind by which it was produced"
57 (Bagehot's _Literary Studies_). Some who have praised it as an allegory
58 see in it a satire on the evils both of the Church and of the State,
59 while others regard it as alluding to the vices of the Court alone. Some
60 have found its lyrical parts the best, while others, charmed with its
61 "divine philosophy," have commended those deep conceits which place it
62 alongside of the _Faerie Queen_, as shadowing forth an episode in the
63 education of a noble soul and as a poet's lesson against intemperance
64 and impurity. But no one can refuse to admit that, more than any other
65 of Milton's shorter poems, it gives us an insight into the peculiar
66 genius and character of its author: it was, in the opinion of Hallam,
67 "sufficient to convince any one of taste and feeling that a great poet
68 had arisen in England, and one partly formed in a different school from
69 his contemporaries." It is true that in the early poems we do not find
70 the whole of Milton, for he had yet to pass through many years of
71 trouble and controversy; but _Comus_, in a special degree, reveals or
72 foreshadows much of the Milton of _Paradise Lost_. Whether we regard its
73 place in Milton's life, in the series of his works, or in English
74 literature as a whole, the poem is full of significance: it is worth
75 while, therefore, to consider how its form was determined by the
76 external circumstances and previous training of the poet; by his
77 favourite studies in poetry, philosophy, history, and music; and by his
78 noble theory of life in general, and of a poet's life in particular.
79
80 The mask was represented at Ludlow Castle on September 29th, 1634; it
81 was probably composed early in that year. It belongs, therefore, to that
82 group of poems (_L'Allegro_, _Il Penseroso_, _Arcades_, _Comus_, and
83 _Lycidas_) written by Milton while living in his father's house at
84 Horton, near Windsor, after having left the University of Cambridge in
85 July, 1632. As he was born in 1608, he would be twenty-five years of age
86 when this poem was composed. During his stay at Horton (1632-39), which
87 was broken only by a journey to Italy in 1638-9, he was chiefly occupied
88 with the study of the Greek, Roman, Italian, and English literatures,
89 each of which has left its impress on _Comus_. He read widely and
90 carefully, and it has been said that his great and original imagination
91 was almost entirely nourished, or at least stimulated, by books: his
92 residence at Horton was, accordingly, pre-eminently what he intended it
93 to be, and what his father wisely and gladly permitted it to be--a time
94 of preparation and ripening for the work to which he had dedicated
95 himself. We are reminded of his own words in _Comus_:
96
97 And Wisdom's self
98 Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
99 Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,
100 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
101 That, in the various bustle of resort,
102 Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired.
103
104 We find in _Comus_ abundant reminiscences of Milton's study of the
105 literature of antiquity. "It would not be too much to say that the
106 literature of antiquity was to Milton's genius what soil and light are
107 to a plant. It nourished, it coloured, it developed it. It determined
108 not merely his character as an artist, but it exercised an influence on
109 his intellect and temper scarcely less powerful than hereditary
110 instincts and contemporary history. It at once animated and chastened
111 his imagination; it modified his fancy; it furnished him with his
112 models. On it his taste was formed; on it his style was moulded. From it
113 his diction and his method derived their peculiarities. It transformed
114 what would in all probability have been the mere counterpart of
115 Caedmon's Paraphrase or Langland's Vision into Paradise Lost; and what
116 would have been the mere counterpart of Corydon's Doleful Knell and the
117 satire of the Three Estates, into Lycidas and Comus." (_Quarterly
118 Review_, No. 326.)
119
120 But Milton has also told us that Spenser was his master, and the full
121 charm of _Comus_ cannot be realised without reference to the artistic
122 and philosophical spirit of the author of the _Faerie Queene_. Both
123 poems deal with the war between the body and the soul--between the lower
124 and the higher nature. In an essay on 'Spenser as a philosophic poet,'
125 De Vere says: "The perils and degradations of an animalised life are
126 shown under the allegory of Sir Guyon's sea voyage with its successive
127 storms and whirlpools, its 'rock of Reproach' strewn with wrecks and
128 dead men's bones, its 'wandering islands,' its 'quicksands of
129 Unthriftihead,' its 'whirlepoole of Decay,' its 'sea-monsters,' and
130 lastly, its 'bower of Bliss,' and the doom which overtakes it, together
131 with the deliverance of Acrasia's victims, transformed by that witch's
132 spells into beasts. Still more powerful is the allegory of worldly
133 ambition, illustrated under the name of 'the cave of Mammon.' The Legend
134 of Holiness delineates with not less insight those enemies which wage
135 war upon the spiritual life." All this Milton had studied in the _Faerie
136 Queene_, and had understood it; and, like Sir Guyon, he felt himself to
137 be a knight enrolled under the banner of Parity and Self-Control. So
138 that, in _Comus_, we find the sovereign value of Temperance or
139 Self-Regulation--what the Greeks called +sophrosyne+--set forth
140 no less clearly than in Spenser's poem: in Milton's mask it becomes
141 almost identical with Virtue itself. The enchantments of Acrasia in her
142 Bower of Bliss become the spells of Comus; the armour of Belphoebe
143 becomes the "complete steel" of Chastity; while the supremacy of
144 Conscience, the bounty of Nature and man's ingratitude, the unloveliness
145 of Mammon and of Excess, the blossom of Courtesy oft found on lowly
146 stalk, and the final triumph of Virtue through striving and temptation,
147 all are dwelt upon.
148
149 It is the mind that maketh good or ill,
150 That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore:
151
152 so speaks Spenser; and Milton similarly--
153
154 He that has light within his own clear breast
155 May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day:
156 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
157 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
158 Himself is his own dungeon.
159
160 In endeavouring still further to trace, by means of verbal or structural
161 resemblances, the sources from which Milton drew his materials for
162 _Comus_, critics have referred to Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ (1595); to
163 Fletcher's pastoral, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, of which Charles Lamb
164 has said that if all its parts 'had been in unison with its many
165 innocent scenes and sweet lyric intermixtures, it had been a poem fit to
166 vie with _Comus_ or the _Arcadia_, to have been put into the hands of
167 boys and virgins, to have made matter for young dreams, like the loves
168 of Hermia and Lysander'; to Ben Jonson's mask of _Pleasure reconciled to
169 Virtue_ (1619), in which Comus is "the god of cheer, or the Belly"; and
170 to the _Comus_ of Erycius Puteanus (Henri du Puy), Professor of
171 Eloquence at Louvain. It is true that Fletcher's pastoral was being
172 acted in London about the time Milton was writing his _Comus_, that the
173 poem by the Dutch Professor was republished at Oxford in 1634, and that
174 resemblances are evident between Milton's poem and those named. But
175 Professor Masson does well in warning us that "infinitely too much has
176 been made of such coincidences. After all of them, even the most ideal
177 and poetical, the feeling in reading _Comus_ is that all here is
178 different, all peculiar." Whatever Milton borrowed, he borrowed, as he
179 says himself, in order to better it.
180
181 It is interesting to consider the mutual relations of the poems written
182 by Milton at Horton. Everything that Milton wrote is Miltonic; he had
183 what has been called the power of transforming everything into himself,
184 and these poems are, accordingly, evidences of the development of
185 Milton's opinions and of his secret purpose. It has been said that
186 _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_ are to be regarded as "the pleadings, the
187 decision on which is in Comus"--_L'Allegro_ representing the Cavalier,
188 and _Il Penseroso_ the Puritan element. This is true only in a limited
189 sense. It is true that the Puritan element in the Horton series of poems
190 becomes more patent as we pass from the two lyrics to the mask of
191 _Comus_, and from _Comus_ to the elegy of _Lycidas_, just as, in the
192 corresponding periods of time, the evils connected with the reign of
193 Charles I. and with Laud's crusade against Puritanism were becoming more
194 pronounced. But we can hardly regard Milton as having expressed any new
195 decision in _Comus_: the decision is already made when "vain deluding
196 Joys" are banished in _Il Penseroso_, and "loathed Melancholy" in
197 _L'Allegro_. The mask is an expansion and exaltation of the delights of
198 the contemplative man, but there is still a place for the "unreproved
199 pleasures" of the cheerful man. Unless it were so, _Comus_ could not
200 have been written; there would have been no "sunshine holiday" for the
201 rustics and no "victorious dance" for the gentle lady and her brothers.
202 But in _Comus_ we realise the mutual relation of _L'Allegro_ and _Il
203 Penseroso_; we see their application to the joys and sorrows of the
204 actual life of individuals; we observe human nature in contact with the
205 "hard assays" of life. And, subsequently, in _Lycidas_ we are made to
206 realise that this human nature is Milton's own, and to understand how it
207 was that his Puritanism which, three years before, had permitted him to
208 write a cavalier mask, should, three years after, lead him from the
209 fresh fields of poetry into the barren plains of controversial prose.
210
211 The Mask was a favourite form of entertainment in England in Milton's
212 youth, and had been so from the time of Henry VIII., in whose reign
213 elaborate masked shows, introduced from Italy, first became popular. But
214 they seem to have found their way into England, in a crude form, even
215 earlier; and we read of court disguisings in the reign of Edward III. It
216 is usually said that the Mask derives its name from the fact that the
217 actors wore masks, and in Hall's Chronicle we read that, in 1512, "on
218 the day of Epiphany at night, the king, with eleven others, was
219 disguised after the manner of Italy, called a Mask, a thing not seen
220 before in England; they were appareled in garments long and broad,
221 wrought all with gold, with _visors_ and caps of gold." The truth,
222 however, seems to be that the use of a visor was not essential in such
223 entertainments, which, from the first, were called 'masks,' the word
224 'masker' being used sometimes of the players, and sometimes of their
225 disguises. The word has come to us, through the French form _masque_,
226 cognate with Spanish _mascarada_, a masquerade or assembly of maskers,
227 otherwise called a mummery. Up to the time of Henry VIII. these
228 entertainments were of the nature of dumb-show or _tableaux vivants_,
229 and delighted the spectators chiefly by the splendour of the costumes
230 and machinery employed in their representation; but, afterwards, the
231 chief actors spoke their parts, singing and dancing were introduced, and
232 the composition of masks for royal and other courtly patrons became an
233 occupation worthy of a poet. They were frequently combined with other
234 forms of amusement, all of which were, in the case of the Court, placed
235 under the management of a Master of Revels, whose official title was
236 Magister Jocorum, Revellorum et _Mascorum_; in the first printed English
237 tragedy, _Gorboduc_ (1565), each act opens with what is called a
238 dumb-show or mask. But the more elaborate form of the Mask soon grew to
239 be an entertainment complete in itself, and the demand for such became
240 so great in the time of James I. and Charles I. that the history of
241 these reigns might almost be traced in the succession of masks then
242 written. Ben Jonson, who thoroughly established the Mask in English
243 literature, wrote many Court Masks, and made them a vehicle less for the
244 display of 'painting and carpentry' than for the expression of the
245 intellectual and social life of his time. His masks are excelled only
246 by _Comus_, and possess in a high degree that 'Doric delicacy' in their
247 songs and odes which Sir Henry Wotton found so ravishing in Milton's
248 mask. Jonson, in his lifetime, declared that, next himself, only
249 Fletcher and Chapman could write a mask; and apart from the compositions
250 of these writers and of William Browne (_Inner Temple Masque_), there
251 are few specimens worthy to be named along with Jonson's until we come
252 to Milton's _Arcades_. Other mask-writers were Middleton, Dekker,
253 Shirley, Carew, and Davenant; and it is interesting to note that in
254 Carew's _Coelum Brittanicum_ (1633-4), for which Lawes composed the
255 music, the two boys who afterwards acted in _Comus_ had juvenile parts.
256 It has been pointed out that the popularity of the Mask in Milton's
257 youth received a stimulus from the Puritan hatred of the theatre which
258 found expression at that time, and drove non-Puritans to welcome the
259 Mask as a protest against that spirit which saw nothing but evil in
260 every form of dramatic entertainment. Milton, who enjoyed the
261 theatre--both "Jonson's learned sock" and what "ennobled hath the
262 buskined stage"--was led, through his friendship with the musician
263 Lawes, to compose a mask to celebrate the entry of the Earl of
264 Bridgewater upon his office of "Lord President of the Council in the
265 Principality of Wales and the Marches of the same." He had already
266 written, also at the request of Lawes, a mask, or portion of a mask,
267 called _Arcades_, and the success of this may have stimulated him to
268 higher effort. The result was _Comus_, in which the Mask reached its
269 highest level, and after which it practically faded out of our
270 literature.
271
272 Milton's two masks, _Arcades_ and _Comus_, were written for members of
273 the same noble family, the former in honour of the Countess Dowager of
274 Derby, and the latter in honour of John, first Earl of Bridgewater, who
275 was both her stepson and son-in-law. This two-fold relation arose from
276 the fact that the Earl was the son of Viscount Brackley, the Countess's
277 second husband, and had himself married Lady Frances Stanley, a daughter
278 of the Countess by her first husband, the fifth Earl of Derby. Amongst
279 the children of the Earl of Bridgewater were three who took important
280 parts in the representation of _Comus_--Alice, the youngest daughter,
281 then about fourteen years of age, who appeared as _The Lady_; John,
282 Viscount Brackley, who took the part of the _Elder Brother_, and Thomas
283 Egerton, who appeared as the _Second Brother_. We do not know who acted
284 the parts of _Comus_ and _Sabrina_, but the part of the _Attendant
285 Spirit_ was taken by Henry Lawes, "gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and
286 one of His Majesty's private musicians." The Earl's children were his
287 pupils, and the mask was naturally produced under his direction.
288 Milton's friendship with Lawes is shown by the sonnet which the poet
289 addressed to the musician:
290
291 Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd song
292 First taught our English music how to span
293 Words with just note and accent, not to scan
294 With Midas' ears, committing short and long;
295 Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
296 With praise enough for Envy to look wan;
297 To after age thou shalt be writ the man,
298 That with smooth air could'st humour best our tongue.
299 Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing
300 To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire,
301 That tun'st their happiest lines in hymn, or story.
302 Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
303 Than his Casella, who he woo'd to sing,
304 Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.
305
306 We must remember also that it was to Lawes that Milton's _Comus_ owed
307 its first publication, and, as we see from the dedication prefixed to
308 the text, that he was justly proud of his share in its first
309 representation.
310
311 Such were the persons who appeared in Milton's mask; they are few in
312 number, and the plan of the piece is correspondingly simple. There are
313 three scenes which may be briefly characterised thus:
314
315 I. The Tempter and the Tempted: lines 1-658.
316 _Scene_: A wild wood.
317
318 II. The Temptation and the Rescue: lines 659-958.
319 _Scene_: The Palace of Comus.
320
321 III. The Triumph: lines 959-1023.
322 _Scene_: The President's Castle.
323
324 In the first scene, after a kind of prologue (lines 1-92), the interest
325 rises as we are introduced first to Comus and his rout, then to the Lady
326 alone and "night-foundered," and finally to Comus and the Lady in
327 company. At the same time the nature of the Lady's trial and her
328 subsequent victory are foreshadowed in a conversation between the
329 brothers and the attendant Spirit. This is one of the more Miltonic
330 parts of the mask: in the philosophical reasoning of the elder brother,
331 as opposed to the matter-of-fact arguments of the younger, we trace the
332 young poet fresh from the study of the divine volume of Plato, and
333 filled with a noble trust in God. In the second scene we breathe the
334 unhallowed air of the abode of the wily tempter, who endeavours, "under
335 fair pretence of friendly ends," to wind himself into the pure heart of
336 the Lady. But his "gay rhetoric" is futile against the "sun-clad power
337 of chastity"; and he is driven off the scene by the two brothers, who
338 are led and instructed by the Spirit disguised as the shepherd Thyrsis.
339 But the Lady, having been lured into the haunt of impurity, is left
340 spell-bound, and appeal is made to the pure nymph Sabrina, who is "swift
341 to aid a virgin, such as was herself, in hard-besetting need." It is in
342 the contention between Comus and the Lady in this scene that the
343 interest of the mask may be said to culminate, for here its purpose
344 stands revealed: "it is a song to Temperance as the ground of Freedom,
345 to temperance as the guard of all the virtues, to beauty as secured by
346 temperance, and its central point and climax is in the pleading of these
347 motives by the Lady against their opposites in the mouth of the Lord of
348 sensual Revel." _Milton: Classical Writers_. In the third scene the Lady
349 Alice and her brothers are presented by the Spirit to their noble father
350 and mother as triumphing "in victorious dance o'er sensual folly and
351 intemperance." The Spirit then speaks the epilogue, calling upon mortals
352 who love true freedom to strive after virtue:
353
354 Love Virtue; she alone is free.
355 She can teach ye how to climb
356 Higher than the sphery chime;
357 Or, if Virtue feeble were,
358 Heaven itself would stoop to her.
359
360 The last couplet Milton afterwards, on his Italian journey, entered in
361 an album belonging to an Italian named Cerdogni, and underneath it the
362 words, _Coelum non animum muto dum trans mare curro_, and his
363 signature, Joannes Miltonius, Anglus. The juxtaposition of these verses
364 is significant: though he had left his own land Milton had not become
365 what, fifty or sixty years before, Roger Ascham had condemned as an
366 "Italianated Englishman." He was one of those "worthy Gentlemen of
367 England, whom all the Siren tongues of Italy could never untwine from
368 the mast of God's word; nor no enchantment of vanity overturn them from
369 the fear of God and love of honesty" (Ascham's _Scholemaster_). And one
370 might almost infer that Milton, in his account of the sovereign plant
371 Haemony which was to foil the wiles of _Comus_, had remembered not only
372 Homer's description of the root Moly "that Hermes once to wise Ulysses
373 gave,"{16:A} but also Ascham's remarks thereupon: "The true medicine
374 against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure,
375 the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the black
376 root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; which Hesiod
377 termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the beginning, but in
378 the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to be marvelled at,
379 the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this medicine against sin and
380 vanity is not found out by man, but given and taught by God." Milton's
381 _Comus_, like his last great poems, is a poetical expression of the same
382 belief. "His poetical works, the outcome of his inner life, his life of
383 artistic contemplation, are," in the words of Prof. Dowden, "various
384 renderings of one dominant idea--that the struggle for mastery between
385 good and evil is the prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the
386 righteous cause is assured by the existence of a divine order of the
387 universe, which Milton knew by the name of 'Providence.'"
388
389
390 FOOTNOTES:
391
392 {16:A} It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable,
393 employs in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of
394 Milton's description of Haemony; compare the following extract from _The
395 Adventures of Ulysses_ with lines 629-640 of _Comus_: "The flower of the
396 herb Moly, which is sovereign against enchantments: the moly is a small
397 unsightly root, its virtues but little known, and in low estimation; the
398 dull shepherd treads on it every day with his clouted shoes, but it bears
399 a small white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights,
400 mildews, and damps."
401
402
403
404
405 COMUS.
406
407
408 A MASK
409
410 PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634.
411
412 BEFORE
413
414 JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,
415
416 THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.
417
418
419
420
421 _The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the
422 following Poem._
423
424
425 From the College, this 13 of April, 1638.
426
427 SIR,
428
429 It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first
430 taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I
431 wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if
432 I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I
433 understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar
434 phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and
435 to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned
436 friend, at a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some
437 good authors of the antient time; among which I observed you to have
438 been familiar.
439
440 Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a
441 very kind letter from you dated the sixth of this month, and for a
442 dainty piece of entertainment which came therewith. Wherein I should
443 much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a
444 certain Doric delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must plainly
445 confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language: _Ipsa
446 mollities_.{19:A} But I must not omit to tell you, that I now only owe
447 you thanks for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true
448 artificer. For the work itself I had viewed some good while before, with
449 singular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in
450 the very close of the late R.'s poems, printed at Oxford; whereunto it
451 is added (as I now suppose) that the accessory might help out the
452 principal, according to the art of stationers, and to leave the reader
453 _con la bocca dolce_.{20:A}
454
455 Now, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more
456 privilege of discourse with you; I suppose you will not blanch{20:B}
457 Paris in your way; therefore I have been bold to trouble you with a few
458 lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord
459 S. as his governor, and you may surely receive from him good directions
460 for shaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did reside by
461 my choice some time for the king, after mine own recess from Venice.
462
463 I should think that your best line will be through the whole length of
464 France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa, whence the passage
465 into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to
466 Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the
467 interest you have given me in your safety.
468
469 At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipione, an old Roman
470 courtier in dangerous times, having been steward to the Duca di
471 Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this only man,
472 that escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat
473 of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his
474 native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the
475 centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his advice,
476 how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or
477 of mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I pensieri
478 stretti, ed il viso sciolto_,{21:A} will go safely over the whole world.
479 Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth
480 need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the
481 best of all securities, God's dear love, remaining
482
483 Your friend as much to command
484 as any of longer date,
485
486 HENRY WOTTON.
487
488 _Postscript._
489
490 Sir,--I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your departure
491 without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging
492 letter, having myself through some business, I know not how, neglected
493 the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed,
494 I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even
495 for some fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the
496 cradle.{21:B}
497
498
499 FOOTNOTES:
500
501 {19:A} It is delicacy itself.
502
503 {20:A} With a sweet taste in his mouth (so that he may desire more).
504
505 {20:B} Avoid.
506
507 {21:A} "Thoughts close, countenance open."
508
509 {21:B} This letter was printed in the edition of 1645, but omitted in
510 that of 1673. It was written by Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton
511 College, just in time to overtake Milton before he set out on his journey
512 to Italy. As a parting act of courtesy Milton had sent Sir Henry a letter
513 with a copy of Lawes's edition of his _Comus_, and the above letter is an
514 acknowledgment of the favour.
515
516
517
518
519 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE{22:A}
520
521 JOHN, LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY,
522
523 _Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, etc._
524
525
526 MY LORD,
527
528 This Poem, which received its first occasion of birth from yourself and
529 others of your noble family, and much honour from your own person in the
530 performance, now returns again to make a final Dedication of itself to
531 you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a
532 legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often
533 copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction,
534 and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view; and
535 now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and
536 rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full
537 assurance to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, sweet
538 Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from
539 the hands of him who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most
540 honoured Parents, and as in this representation your attendant
541 _Thyrsis_,{22:B} so now in all real expression,
542
543 Your faithful and most humble Servant,
544
545 H. LAWES.
546
547
548 FOOTNOTES:
549
550 {22:A} Dedication of the anonymous edition of 1637: reprinted in the
551 edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673.
552
553 {22:B} See Notes, line 494.
554
555
556
557
558 THE PERSONS.
559
560 The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of THYRSIS.
561 COMUS, with his Crew.
562 The LADY.
563 FIRST BROTHER.
564 SECOND BROTHER.
565 SABRINA, the Nymph.
566
567 The Chief Persons which presented were:--
568 The Lord Brackley;
569 Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother;
570 The Lady Alice Egerton.
571
572
573
574
575
576 COMUS.
577
578
579 _The first Scene discovers a wild wood._
580
581 _The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters._
582
583 Before the starry threshold of Jove's court
584 My mansion is, where those immortal shapes
585 Of bright aerial spirits live insphered
586 In regions mild of calm and serene air,
587 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
588 Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care,
589 Confined and pestered in this pinfold here,
590 Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
591 Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,
592 After this mortal change, to her true servants 10
593 Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
594 Yet some there be that by due steps aspire
595 To lay their just hands on that golden key
596 That opes the palace of eternity.
597 To such my errand is; and, but for such,
598 I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
599 With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
600 But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway
601 Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,
602 Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20
603 Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles
604 That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
605 The unadorned bosom of the deep;
606 Which he, to grace his tributary gods,
607 By course commits to several government,
608 And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns
609 And wield their little tridents. But this Isle,
610 The greatest and the best of all the main,
611 He quarters to his blue-haired deities;
612 And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30
613 A noble Peer of mickle trust and power
614 Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide
615 An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:
616 Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore,
617 Are coming to attend their father's state,
618 And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way
619 Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,
620 The nodding horror of whose shady brows
621 Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;
622 And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40
623 But that, by quick command from sovran Jove,
624 I was despatched for their defence and guard:
625 And listen why; for I will tell you now
626 What never yet was heard in tale or song,
627 From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.
628 Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
629 Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,
630 After the Tuscan mariners transformed,
631 Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,
632 On Circe's island fell: (who knows not Circe, 50
633 The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup
634 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,
635 And downward fell into a grovelling swine?)
636 This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks,
637 With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,
638 Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son
639 Much like his father, but his mother more,
640 Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named:
641 Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age,
642 Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60
643 At last betakes him to this ominous wood,
644 And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered,
645 Excels his mother at her mighty art;
646 Offering to every weary traveller
647 His orient liquor in a crystal glass,
648 To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste
649 (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
650 Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
651 The express resemblance of the gods, is changed
652 Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70
653 Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
654 All other parts remaining as they were.
655 And they, so perfect is their misery,
656 Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
657 But boast themselves more comely than before,
658 And all their friends and native home forget,
659 To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
660 Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove
661 Chances to pass through this adventurous glade,
662 Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80
663 I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy,
664 As now I do. But first I must put off
665 These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof,
666 And take the weeds and likeness of a swain
667 That to the service of this house belongs,
668 Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song,
669 Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
670 And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith,
671 And in this office of his mountain watch
672 Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90
673 Of this occasion. But I hear the tread
674 Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now.
675
676 _COMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other;
677 with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts,
678 but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering. They come in
679 making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands._
680
681 _Comus._ The star that bids the shepherd fold
682 Now the top of heaven doth hold;
683 And the gilded car of day
684 His glowing axle doth allay
685 In the steep Atlantic stream;
686 And the slope sun his upward beam
687 Shoots against the dusky pole,
688 Pacing toward the other goal 100
689 Of his chamber in the east.
690 Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,
691 Midnight shout and revelry,
692 Tipsy dance and jollity.
693 Braid your locks with rosy twine,
694 Dropping odours, dropping wine.
695 Rigour now is gone to bed;
696 And Advice with scrupulous head,
697 Strict Age, and sour Severity,
698 With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110
699 We, that are of purer fire,
700 Imitate the starry quire,
701 Who, in their nightly watchful spheres,
702 Lead in swift round the months and years.
703 The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,
704 Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
705 And on the tawny sands and shelves
706 Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
707 By dimpled brook and fountain-brim,
708 The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120
709 Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:
710 What hath night to do with sleep?
711 Night hath better sweets to prove;
712 Venus now wakes, and wakens Love.
713 Come, let us our rights begin;
714 'Tis only daylight that makes sin,
715 Which these dun shades will ne'er report.
716 Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,
717 Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
718 Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130
719 That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb
720 Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom,
721 And makes one blot of all the air!
722 Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,
723 Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend
724 Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end
725 Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,
726 Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
727 The nice Morn on the Indian steep,
728 From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140
729 And to the tell-tale Sun descry
730 Our concealed solemnity.
731 Come, knit hands, and beat the ground
732 In a light fantastic round. [_The Measure._
733 Break off, break off! I feel the different pace
734 Of some chaste footing near about this ground.
735 Run to your shrouds within these brakes and trees;
736 Our number may affright. Some virgin sure
737 (For so I can distinguish by mine art)
738 Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150
739 And to my wily trains: I shall ere long
740 Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed
741 About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl
742 My dazzling spells into the spongy air,
743 Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion,
744 And give it false presentments, lest the place
745 And my quaint habits breed astonishment,
746 And put the damsel to suspicious flight;
747 Which must not be, for that's against my course.
748 I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160
749 And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,
750 Baited with reasons not unplausible,
751 Wind me into the easy-hearted man,
752 And hug him into snares. When once her eye
753 Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,
754 I shall appear some harmless villager
755 Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.
756 But here she comes; I fairly step aside,
757 And hearken, if I may, her business here.
758
759 _The LADY enters._
760
761 _Lady._ This way the noise was, if mine ear be true,
762 My best guide now. Methought it was the sound
763 Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 172
764 Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe
765 Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,
766 When, for their teeming flocks and granges full,
767 In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
768 And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth
769 To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence
770 Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else
771 Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180
772 In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
773 My brothers, when they saw me wearied out
774 With this long way, resolving here to lodge
775 Under the spreading favour of these pines,
776 Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side
777 To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit
778 As the kind hospitable woods provide.
779 They left me then when the grey-hooded Even,
780 Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
781 Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190
782 But where they are, and why they came not back,
783 Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest
784 They had engaged their wandering steps too far;
785 And envious darkness, ere they could return,
786 Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night,
787 Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,
788 In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars
789 That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps
790 With everlasting oil to give due light
791 To the misled and lonely traveller? 200
792 This is the place, as well as I may guess,
793 Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
794 Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear;
795 Yet nought but single darkness do I find.
796 What might this be? A thousand fantasies
797 Begin to throng into my memory,
798 Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
799 And airy tongues that syllable men's names
800 On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
801 These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210
802 The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended
803 By a strong siding champion, Conscience.
804 O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope,
805 Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings,
806 And thou unblemished form of Chastity!
807 I see ye visibly, and now believe
808 That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
809 Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
810 Would send a glistering guardian, if need were,
811 To keep my life and honour unassailed.... 220
812 Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
813 Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
814 I did not err: there does a sable cloud
815 Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
816 And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.
817 I cannot hallo to my brothers, but
818 Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest
819 I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits
820 Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off.
821
822 _Song._
823
824 Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230
825 Within thy airy shell
826 By slow Meander's margent green,
827 And in the violet-embroidered vale
828 Where the love-lorn nightingale
829 Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:
830 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
831 That likest thy Narcissus are?
832 O, if thou have
833 Hid them in some flowery cave,
834 Tell me but where, 240
835 Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere!
836 So may'st thou be translated to the skies,
837 And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies!
838
839 _Comus._ Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
840 Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?
841 Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
842 And with these raptures moves the vocal air
843 To testify his hidden residence.
844 How sweetly did they float upon the wings
845 Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250
846 At every fall smoothing the raven down
847 Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard
848 My mother Circe with the Sirens three,
849 Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades,
850 Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs,
851 Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul,
852 And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept,
853 And chid her barking waves into attention,
854 And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause.
855 Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260
856 And in sweet madness robbed it of itself;
857 But such a sacred and home-felt delight,
858 Such sober certainty of waking bliss,
859 I never heard till now. I'll speak to her,
860 And she shall be my queen.--Hail, foreign wonder!
861 Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,
862 Unless the goddess that in rural shrine
863 Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan by blest song
864 Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
865 To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270
866
867 _Lady._ Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise
868 That is addressed to unattending ears.
869 Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift
870 How to regain my severed company,
871 Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo
872 To give me answer from her mossy couch.
873
874 _Comus._ What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus?
875
876 _Lady._ Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth.
877
878 _Comus._ Could that divide you from near-ushering guides?
879
880 _Lady._ They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280
881
882 _Comus._ By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?
883
884 _Lady._ To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring.
885
886 _Comus._ And left your fair side all unguarded, lady?
887
888 _Lady._ They were but twain, and purposed quick return.
889
890 _Comus._ Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.
891
892 _Lady._ How easy my misfortune is to hit!
893
894 _Comus._ Imports their loss, beside the present need?
895
896 _Lady._ No less than if I should my brothers lose.
897
898 _Comus._ Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
899
900 _Lady._ As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290
901
902 _Comus._ Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox
903 In his loose traces from the furrow came,
904 And the swinked hedger at his supper sat.
905 I saw them under a green mantling vine,
906 That crawls along the side of yon small hill,
907 Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;
908 Their port was more than human, as they stood
909 I took it for a faery vision
910 Of some gay creatures of the element,
911 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300
912 And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook,
913 And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek,
914 It were a journey like the path to Heaven
915 To help you find them.
916
917 _Lady._ Gentle villager,
918 What readiest way would bring me to that place?
919
920 _Comus._ Due west it rises from this shrubby point.
921
922 _Lady._ To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose,
923 In such a scant allowance of star-light,
924 Would overtask the best land-pilot's art,
925 Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310
926
927 _Comus._ I know each lane, and every alley green,
928 Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood,
929 And every bosky bourn from side to side,
930 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;
931 And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged,
932 Or shroud within these limits, I shall know
933 Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
934 From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise,
935 I can conduct you, lady, to a low
936 But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320
937 Till further quest.
938
939 _Lady._ Shepherd, I take thy word,
940 And trust thy honest-offered courtesy,
941 Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds,
942 With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls
943 And courts of princes, where it first was named,
944 And yet is most pretended. In a place
945 Less warranted than this, or less secure,
946 I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
947 Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial
948 To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on.
949
950 [_Exeunt._
951
952 _Enter the TWO BROTHERS._
953
954 _Elder Brother._ Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair moon, 331
955 That wont'st to love the traveller's benison,
956 Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,
957 And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here
958 In double night of darkness and of shades;
959 Or, if your influence be quite dammed up
960 With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,
961 Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole
962 Of some clay habitation, visit us
963 With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340
964 And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
965 Or Tyrian Cynosure.
966
967 _Second Brother._ Or, if our eyes
968 Be barred that happiness, might we but hear
969 The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,
970 Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
971 Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
972 Count the night-watches to his feathery dames,
973 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering,
974 In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
975 But, Oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350
976 Where may she wander now, whither betake her
977 From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles?
978 Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now,
979 Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm
980 Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears.
981 What if in wild amazement and affright,
982 Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp
983 Of savage hunger, or of savage heat!
984
985 _Elder Brother._ Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite
986 To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; 360
987 For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
988 What need a man forestall his date of grief,
989 And run to meet what he would most avoid?
990 Or, if they be but false alarms of fear,
991 How bitter is such self-delusion!
992 I do not think my sister so to seek,
993 Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,
994 And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
995 As that the single want of light and noise
996 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370
997 Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
998 And put them into misbecoming plight.
999 Virtue could see to do what Virtue would
1000 By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
1001 Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self
1002 Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,
1003 Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation,
1004 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
1005 That, in the various bustle of resort,
1006 Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380
1007 He that has light within his own clear breast
1008 May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day:
1009 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
1010 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
1011 Himself is his own dungeon.
1012
1013 _Second Brother._ 'Tis most true
1014 That musing meditation most affects
1015 The pensive secrecy of desert cell,
1016 Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
1017 And sits as safe as in a senate-house;
1018 For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390
1019 His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
1020 Or do his grey hairs any violence?
1021 But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree
1022 Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
1023 Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye
1024 To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit,
1025 From the rash hand of bold Incontinence.
1026 You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps
1027 Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,
1028 And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400
1029 Danger will wink on Opportunity,
1030 And let a single helpless maiden pass
1031 Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste.
1032 Of night or loneliness it recks me not;
1033 I fear the dread events that dog them both,
1034 Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
1035 Of our unowned sister.
1036
1037 _Elder Brother._ I do not, brother,
1038 Infer as if I thought my sister's state
1039 Secure without all doubt or controversy;
1040 Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410
1041 Does arbitrate the event, my nature is
1042 That I incline to hope rather than fear,
1043 And gladly banish squint suspicion.
1044 My sister is not so defenceless left
1045 As you imagine; she has a hidden strength,
1046 Which you remember not.
1047
1048 _Second Brother._ What hidden strength,
1049 Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?
1050
1051 _Elder Brother._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,
1052 Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own.
1053 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420
1054 She that has that is clad in complete steel,
1055 And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen,
1056 May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths,
1057 Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;
1058 Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
1059 No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,
1060 Will dare to soil her virgin purity.
1061 Yea, there where very desolation dwells,
1062 By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
1063 She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430
1064 Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
1065 Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
1066 In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
1067 Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
1068 That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
1069 No goblin or swart faery of the mine,
1070 Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
1071 Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call
1072 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
1073 To testify the arms of chastity? 440
1074 Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow
1075 Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste,
1076 Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness
1077 And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought
1078 The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men
1079 Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods.
1080 What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield
1081 That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
1082 Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
1083 But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450
1084 And noble grace that dashed brute violence
1085 With sudden adoration and blank awe?
1086 So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity
1087 That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
1088 A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
1089 Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
1090 And in clear dream and solemn vision
1091 Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
1092 Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
1093 Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460
1094 The unpolluted temple of the mind,
1095 And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
1096 Till all be made immortal. But, when lust,
1097 By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
1098 But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
1099 Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
1100 The soul grows clotted by contagion,
1101 Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite loose
1102 The divine property of her first being.
1103 Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470
1104 Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres,
1105 Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave,
1106 As loth to leave the body that it loved,
1107 And linked itself by carnal sensualty
1108 To a degenerate and degraded state.
1109
1110 _Second Brother._ How charming is divine Philosophy!
1111 Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
1112 But musical as is Apollo's lute,
1113 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
1114 Where no crude surfeit reigns.
1115
1116 _Elder Brother._ List! list! I hear 480
1117 Some far-off hallo break the silent air.
1118
1119 _Second Brother._ Methought so too; what should it be?
1120
1121 _Elder Brother._ For certain,
1122 Either some one, like us, night-foundered here,
1123 Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst,
1124 Some roving robber calling to his fellows.
1125
1126 _Second Brother._ Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, and near!
1127 Best draw, and stand upon our guard.
1128
1129 _Elder Brother._ I'll hallo.
1130 If he be friendly, he comes well: if not,
1131 Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us!
1132
1133 _Enter the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd._
1134
1135 That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 490
1136 Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else.
1137
1138 _Spirit._ What voice is that? my young Lord? speak again.
1139
1140 _Second Brother._ O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure.
1141
1142 _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed
1143 The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,
1144 And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale.
1145 How camest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram
1146 Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
1147 Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?
1148 How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500
1149
1150 _Spirit._ O my loved master's heir, and his next joy,
1151 I came not here on such a trivial toy
1152 As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth
1153 Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth
1154 That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought
1155 To this my errand, and the care it brought,
1156 But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she?
1157 How chance she is not in your company?
1158
1159 _Elder Brother._ To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame
1160 Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510
1161
1162 _Spirit._ Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.
1163
1164 _Elder Brother._ What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee briefly shew.
1165
1166 _Spirit._ I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous
1167 (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance)
1168 What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,
1169 Storied of old in high immortal verse
1170 Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles,
1171 And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell;
1172 For such there be, but unbelief is blind.
1173 Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520
1174 Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,
1175 Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
1176 Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries,
1177 And here to every thirsty wanderer
1178 By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,
1179 With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison
1180 The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
1181 And the inglorious likeness of a beast
1182 Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage
1183 Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530
1184 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts
1185 That brow this bottom glade; whence night by night
1186 He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl
1187 Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,
1188 Doing abhorred rites to Hecate
1189 In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers.
1190 Yet have they many baits and guileful spells
1191 To inveigle and invite the unwary sense
1192 Of them that pass unweeting by the way.
1193 This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540
1194 Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb
1195 Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold,
1196 I sat me down to watch upon a bank
1197 With ivy canopied, and interwove
1198 With flaunting honeysuckle, and began,
1199 Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
1200 To meditate my rural minstrelsy,
1201 Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close
1202 The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
1203 And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550
1204 At which I ceased, and listened them awhile,
1205 Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
1206 Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds
1207 That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep.
1208 At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound
1209 Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes,
1210 And stole upon the air, that even Silence
1211 Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might
1212 Deny her nature, and be never more,
1213 Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560
1214 And took in strains that might create a soul
1215 Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long
1216 Too well I did perceive it was the voice
1217 Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister.
1218 Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear;
1219 And "O poor hapless nightingale," thought I,
1220 "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare!"
1221 Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste,
1222 Through paths and turnings often trod by day,
1223 Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570
1224 Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise
1225 (For so by certain signs I knew), had met
1226 Already, ere my best speed could prevent,
1227 The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey;
1228 Who gently asked if he had seen such two,
1229 Supposing him some neighbour villager.
1230 Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed
1231 Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung
1232 Into swift flight, till I had found you here;
1233 But further know I not.
1234
1235 _Second Brother._ O night and shades, 580
1236 How are ye joined with hell in triple knot
1237 Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin,
1238 Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence
1239 You gave me, brother?
1240
1241 _Elder Brother._ Yes, and keep it still;
1242 Lean on it safely; not a period
1243 Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats
1244 Of malice or of sorcery, or that power
1245 Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm:
1246 Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,
1247 Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590
1248 Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm
1249 Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
1250 But evil on itself shall back recoil,
1251 And mix no more with goodness, when at last,
1252 Gathered like scum, and settled to itself,
1253 It shall be in eternal restless change
1254 Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
1255 The pillared firmament is rottenness,
1256 And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on!
1257 Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600
1258 May never this just sword be lifted up;
1259 But, for that damned magician, let him be girt
1260 With all the grisly legions that troop
1261 Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
1262 Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms
1263 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out,
1264 And force him to return his purchase back,
1265 Or drag him by the curls to a foul death,
1266 Cursed as his life.
1267
1268 _Spirit._ Alas! good venturous youth,
1269 I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610
1270 But here thy sword can do thee little stead.
1271 Far other arms and other weapons must
1272 Be those that quell the might of hellish charms.
1273 He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints,
1274 And crumble all thy sinews.
1275
1276 _Elder Brother._ Why, prithee, Shepherd,
1277 How durst thou then thyself approach so near
1278 As to make this relation?
1279
1280 _Spirit._ Care and utmost shifts
1281 How to secure the Lady from surprisal
1282 Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,
1283 Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620
1284 In every virtuous plant and healing herb
1285 That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray.
1286 He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing;
1287 Which when I did, he on the tender grass
1288 Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy,
1289 And in requital ope his leathern scrip,
1290 And show me simples of a thousand names,
1291 Telling their strange and vigorous faculties.
1292 Amongst the rest a small unsightly root,
1293 But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630
1294 The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
1295 But in another country, as he said,
1296 Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:
1297 Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain
1298 Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;
1299 And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly
1300 That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.
1301 He called it Haemony, and gave it me,
1302 And bade me keep it as of sovran use
1303 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640
1304 Or ghastly Furies' apparition.
1305 I pursed it up, but little reckoning made,
1306 Till now that this extremity compelled.
1307 But now I find it true; for by this means
1308 I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised,
1309 Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells,
1310 And yet came off. If you have this about you
1311 (As I will give you when we go) you may
1312 Boldly assault the necromancer's hall;
1313 Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650
1314 And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass,
1315 And shed the luscious liquor on the ground;
1316 But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew
1317 Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high,
1318 Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke,
1319 Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink.
1320
1321 _Elder Brother._ Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee;
1322 And some good angel bear a shield before us!
1323
1324 _The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of
1325 deliciousness: soft music, tables spread with all dainties. COMUS
1326 appears with his rabble, and the LADY set in an enchanted chair: to whom
1327 he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise._
1328
1329 _Comus._ Nay, lady, sit. If I but wave this wand,
1330 Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660
1331 And you a statue, or as Daphne was,
1332 Root-bound, that fled Apollo.
1333
1334 _Lady._ Fool, do not boast.
1335 Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind
1336 With all thy charms, although this corporal rind
1337 Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good.
1338
1339 _Comus._ Why are you vexed, lady? why do you frown?
1340 Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates
1341 Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures
1342 That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts,
1343 When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670
1344 Brisk as the April buds in primrose season.
1345 And first behold this cordial julep here,
1346 That flames and dances in his crystal bounds,
1347 With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed.
1348 Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
1349 In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
1350 Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
1351 To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.
1352 Why should you be so cruel to yourself,
1353 And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680
1354 For gentle usage and soft delicacy?
1355 But you invert the covenants of her trust,
1356 And harshly deal, like an ill borrower,
1357 With that which you received on other terms,
1358 Scorning the unexempt condition
1359 By which all mortal frailty must subsist,
1360 Refreshment after toil, ease after pain,
1361 That have been tired all day without repast,
1362 And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin,
1363 This will restore all soon.
1364
1365 _Lady._ 'Twill not, false traitor! 690
1366 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty
1367 That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies.
1368 Was this the cottage and the safe abode
1369 Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these,
1370 These oughly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me!
1371 Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!
1372 Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence
1373 With vizored falsehood and base forgery?
1374 And would'st thou seek again to trap me here
1375 With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700
1376 Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets,
1377 I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None
1378 But such as are good men can give good things;
1379 And that which is not good is not delicious
1380 To a well-governed and wise appetite.
1381
1382 _Comus._ O foolishness of men! that lend their ears
1383 To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,
1384 And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,
1385 Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence!
1386 Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710
1387 With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,
1388 Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,
1389 Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,
1390 But all to please and sate the curious taste?
1391 And set to work millions of spinning worms,
1392 That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk,
1393 To deck her sons; and, that no corner might
1394 Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins
1395 She hutched the all-worshipped ore and precious gems,
1396 To store her children with. If all the world 720
1397 Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse,
1398 Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,
1399 The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised,
1400 Not half his riches known, and yet despised;
1401 And we should serve him as a grudging master,
1402 As a penurious niggard of his wealth,
1403 And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons,
1404 Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight,
1405 And strangled with her waste fertility:
1406 The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 730
1407 The herds would over-multitude their lords;
1408 The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought diamonds
1409 Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep,
1410 And so bestud with stars, that they below
1411 Would grow inured to light, and come at last
1412 To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.
1413 List, lady; be not coy, and be not cozened
1414 With that same vaunted name, Virginity.
1415 Beauty is Nature's coin; must not be hoarded,
1416 But must be current; and the good thereof 740
1417 Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
1418 Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself.
1419 If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
1420 It withers on the stalk with languished head.
1421 Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown
1422 In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
1423 Where most may wonder at the workmanship.
1424 It is for homely features to keep home;
1425 They had their name thence: coarse complexions
1426 And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750
1427 The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool.
1428 What need of vermeil-tinctured lip for that,
1429 Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
1430 There was another meaning in these gifts;
1431 Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet.
1432
1433 _Lady._ I had not thought to have unlocked my lips
1434 In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler
1435 Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,
1436 Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb.
1437 I hate when vice can bolt her arguments 760
1438 And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.
1439 Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature,
1440 As if she would her children should be riotous
1441 With her abundance. She, good cateress,
1442 Means her provision only to the good,
1443 That live according to her sober laws,
1444 And holy dictate of spare Temperance.
1445 If every just man that now pines with want
1446 Had but a moderate and beseeming share
1447 Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770
1448 Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
1449 Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed
1450 In unsuperfluous even proportions,
1451 And she no whit encumbered with her store;
1452 And then the Giver would be better thanked,
1453 His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony
1454 Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast,
1455 But with besotted base ingratitude
1456 Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on?
1457 Or have I said enow? To him that dares 780
1458 Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
1459 Against the sun-clad power of chastity
1460 Fain would I something say;--yet to what end?
1461 Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend
1462 The sublime notion and high mystery
1463 That must be uttered to unfold the sage
1464 And serious doctrine of Virginity;
1465 And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
1466 More happiness than this thy present lot.
1467 Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790
1468 That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence;
1469 Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced.
1470 Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth
1471 Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
1472 To such a flame of sacred vehemence
1473 That dumb things would be moved to sympathise,
1474 And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and shake,
1475 Till all thy magic structures, reared so high,
1476 Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head.
1477
1478 _Comus._ She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800
1479 Her words set off by some superior power;
1480 And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew
1481 Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove
1482 Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus
1483 To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble,
1484 And try her yet more strongly.--Come, no more!
1485 This is mere moral babble, and direct
1486 Against the canon laws of our foundation.
1487 I must not suffer this; yet 'tis but the lees
1488 And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810
1489
1490 But this will cure all straight; one sip of this
1491 Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight
1492 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.
1493
1494 _The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his
1495 hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance,
1496 but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in._
1497
1498 _Spirit._ What! have you let the false enchanter scape?
1499 O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand,
1500 And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,
1501 And backward mutters of dissevering power,
1502 We cannot free the Lady that sits here
1503 In stony fetters fixed and motionless.
1504 Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820
1505 Some other means I have which may be used,
1506 Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt,
1507 The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains.
1508 There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,
1509 That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream:
1510 Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure;
1511 Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,
1512 That had the sceptre from his father Brute.
1513 She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
1514 Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830
1515 Commended her fair innocence to the flood
1516 That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.
1517 The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,
1518 Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,
1519 Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;
1520 Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,
1521 And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
1522 In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,
1523 And through the porch and inlet of each sense
1524 Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840
1525 And underwent a quick immortal change,
1526 Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains
1527 Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
1528 Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,
1529 Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs
1530 That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,
1531 Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:
1532 For which the shepherds, at their festivals,
1533 Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
1534 And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850
1535 Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.
1536 And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
1537 The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
1538 If she be right invoked in warbled song;
1539 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
1540 To aid a virgin, such as was herself,
1541 In hard-besetting need. This will I try,
1542 And add the power of some adjuring verse.
1543
1544 _Song._
1545
1546 Sabrina fair,
1547 Listen where thou art sitting 860
1548 Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
1549 In twisted braids of lilies knitting
1550 The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
1551 Listen for dear honour's sake,
1552 Goddess of the silver lake,
1553 Listen and save!
1554
1555 Listen, and appear to us,
1556 In name of great Oceanus.
1557 By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
1558 And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 870
1559 By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
1560 And the Carpathian wizard's hook;
1561 By scaly Triton's winding shell,
1562 And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell;
1563 By Leucothea's lovely hands,
1564 And her son that rules the strands;
1565 By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet,
1566 And the songs of Sirens sweet;
1567 By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
1568 And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880
1569 Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks
1570 Sleeking her soft alluring locks;
1571 By all the Nymphs that nightly dance
1572 Upon thy streams with wily glance;
1573 Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
1574 From thy coral-paven bed,
1575 And bridle in thy headlong wave,
1576 Till thou our summons answered have.
1577 Listen and save!
1578
1579 _SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings._
1580
1581 By the rushy-fringed bank, 890
1582 Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
1583 My sliding chariot stays,
1584 Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen
1585 Of turkis blue, and emerald green,
1586 That in the channel strays;
1587 Whilst from off the waters fleet
1588 Thus I set my printless feet
1589 O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
1590 That bends not as I tread.
1591 Gentle swain, at thy request 900
1592 I am here!
1593
1594 _Spirit._ Goddess dear,
1595 We implore thy powerful hand
1596 To undo the charmed band
1597 Of true virgin here distressed
1598 Through the force and through the wile
1599 Of unblessed enchanter vile.
1600
1601 _Sabrina._ Shepherd, 'tis my office best
1602 To help ensnared chastity.
1603 Brightest Lady, look on me. 910
1604 Thus I sprinkle on thy breast
1605 Drops that from my fountain pure
1606 I have kept of precious cure;
1607 Thrice upon thy finger's tip,
1608 Thrice upon thy rubied lip:
1609 Next this marble venomed seat,
1610 Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,
1611 I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.
1612 Now the spell hath lost his hold;
1613 And I must haste ere morning hour 920
1614 To wait in Amphitrite's bower.
1615
1616 _SABRINA descends, and the LADY rises out of her seat._
1617
1618 _Spirit._ Virgin, daughter of Locrine,
1619 Sprung of old Anchises' line,
1620 May thy brimmed waves for this
1621 Their full tribute never miss
1622 From a thousand petty rills,
1623 That tumble down the snowy hills:
1624 Summer drouth or singed air
1625 Never scorch thy tresses fair,
1626 Nor wet October's torrent flood 930
1627 Thy molten crystal fill with mud;
1628 May thy billows roll ashore
1629 The beryl and the golden ore;
1630 May thy lofty head be crowned
1631 With many a tower and terrace round,
1632 And here and there thy banks upon
1633 With groves of myrrh and cinnamon.
1634 Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace,
1635 Let us fly this cursed place,
1636 Lest the sorcerer us entice 940
1637 With some other new device.
1638 Not a waste or needless sound
1639 Till we come to holier ground.
1640 I shall be your faithful guide
1641 Through this gloomy covert wide;
1642 And not many furlongs thence
1643 Is your Father's residence,
1644 Where this night are met in state
1645 Many a friend to gratulate
1646 His wished presence, and beside 950
1647 All the swains that there abide
1648 With jigs and rural dance resort.
1649 We shall catch them at their sport,
1650 And our sudden coming there
1651 Will double all their mirth and cheer.
1652 Come, let us haste; the stars grow high,
1653 But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
1654
1655 _The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle;
1656 then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with the
1657 Two BROTHERS and the LADY._
1658
1659 _Song._
1660
1661 _Spirit._ Back, shepherds, back! Enough your play
1662 Till next sunshine holiday.
1663 Here be, without duck or nod, 960
1664 Other trippings to be trod
1665 Of lighter toes, and such court guise
1666 As Mercury did first devise
1667 With the mincing Dryades
1668 On the lawns and on the leas.
1669
1670 _This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother._
1671
1672 Noble Lord and Lady bright,
1673 I have brought ye new delight.
1674 Here behold so goodly grown
1675 Three fair branches of your own.
1676 Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970
1677 Their faith, their patience, and their truth,
1678 And sent them here through hard assays
1679 With a crown of deathless praise,
1680 To triumph in victorious dance
1681 O'er sensual folly and intemperance.
1682
1683 _The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes._
1684
1685 _Spirit._ To the ocean now I fly,
1686 And those happy climes that lie
1687 Where day never shuts his eye,
1688 Up in the broad fields of the sky.
1689 There I suck the liquid air, 980
1690 All amidst the gardens fair
1691 Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
1692 That sing about the golden tree.
1693 Along the crisped shades and bowers
1694 Revels the spruce and jocund Spring;
1695 The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours
1696 Thither all their bounties bring.
1697 There eternal Summer dwells,
1698 And west winds with musky wing
1699 About the cedarn alleys fling 990
1700 Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
1701 Iris there with humid bow
1702 Waters the odorous banks, that blow
1703 Flowers of more mingled hue
1704 Than her purfled scarf can shew,
1705 And drenches with Elysian dew
1706 (List, mortals, if your ears be true)
1707 Beds of hyacinth and roses,
1708 Where young Adonis oft reposes,
1709 Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000
1710 In slumber soft, and on the ground
1711 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.
1712 But far above, in spangled sheen,
1713 Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced
1714 Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced
1715 After her wandering labours long,
1716 Till free consent the gods among
1717 Make her his eternal bride,
1718 And from her fair unspotted side
1719 Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010
1720 Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.
1721 But now my task is smoothly done,
1722 I can fly, or I can run
1723 Quickly to the green earth's end,
1724 Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend,
1725 And from thence can soar as soon
1726 To the corners of the moon.
1727 Mortals, that would follow me,
1728 Love Virtue; she alone is free.
1729 She can teach ye how to climb 1020
1730 Higher than the sphery chime;
1731 Or, if Virtue feeble were,
1732 Heaven itself would stoop to her.
1733
1734
1735
1736
1737 NOTES.
1738
1739
1740 ~discovers~, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of 'discover' is to find
1741 out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix _dis-_ has
1742 often the more purely negative force of _un-_: hence discover = uncover,
1743 reveal. Comp.--
1744
1745 "Some high-climbing hill
1746 Which to his eye _discovers_ unaware
1747 The goodly prospect of some foreign land."
1748
1749 _Par. Lost_, iii. 546.
1750
1751 ~Attendant Spirit descends~. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by
1752 Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech,
1753 explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the
1754 plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in
1755 whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient
1756 classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot,
1757 sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the
1758 plot. The opening of _Comus_ prepares the audience and also directly
1759 addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual
1760 performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6.
1761
1762 1. ~starry threshold~, etc. Comp. Virgil: "The sire of gods and monarch of
1763 men summons a council to the starry chamber" (_sideream in sedem_),
1764 _Aen._ x. 2.
1765
1766 2. ~mansion~, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly "a
1767 place of tarrying," which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence
1768 'a resting-place.' Comp. _John_, xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are many
1769 _mansions_"; and _Il Pens._ 93, "Her _mansion_ in this fleshly nook."
1770 The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large
1771 and important dwelling-house. ~where~, in which: the antecedent is
1772 separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp.
1773 lines 66, 821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection
1774 would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection. ~shapes ...
1775 spirits~. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual
1776 beings with personality without making them too distinct. "Of all the
1777 poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural
1778 beings Milton has succeeded best" (Macaulay). We see this in _Par. Lost_
1779 (_e.g._ ii. 666). Compare the use of the word 'shape' (Lat. _umbra_) in
1780 l. 207: also _L'Alleg._ 4, "horrid _shapes_ and shrieks"; and _Il Pens._
1781 6, "fancies fond with gaudy _shapes_ possess." Milton's use of the
1782 demonstrative ~those~ in this line is noteworthy; comp. "_that_ last
1783 infirmity of noble mind," _Lyc._ 71: it implies that the reference is to
1784 something well known, and that further particularisation is needless.
1785
1786 3. ~insphered~. 'Sphere,' with its derivatives 'sphery,' 'insphere,' and
1787 'unsphere' (_Il Pens._ 88), is used by Milton with a literal reference
1788 to the cosmical framework as a whole (see _Hymn Nat._ 48) or to some
1789 portion of it. In Shakespeare 'sphere' occurs in the wider sense of 'the
1790 path in which anything moves,' and it is to this metaphorical use of the
1791 word that we owe such phrases as 'a person's sphere of life,' 'sphere of
1792 action,' etc. See also _Comus_, 112-4, 241-3, 1021; _Arc._ 62-7; _Par.
1793 Lost_, v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres.
1794
1795 4. ~mild~: an attributive of the whole clause, 'regions of calm and serene
1796 air.' ~calm and serene~. These are not mere synonyms: the Lat. _serenus_ =
1797 bright or unclouded, so that the two epithets are to be respectively
1798 contrasted with 'smoke' and 'stir' (line 5); 'calm' being opposed to
1799 'stir' and 'serene' to 'smoke.' Compare Homer's description of the seat
1800 of the gods: "Not by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth
1801 the snow come nigh thereto, but _most clear_ air is spread about it
1802 _cloudless_, and the white light floats over it," _Odyssey_, vi.: comp.
1803 note, l. 977.
1804
1805 5. ~this dim spot~. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those
1806 immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted.
1807
1808 6. There are here two attributive clauses: "which men call Earth" and
1809 "(in which) men strive," etc. ~low-thoughted care~; narrow-minded anxiety,
1810 care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective 'low-browed,'
1811 _L'Alleg._ 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his _Eloisa_.
1812
1813 7. This line is attributive to 'men.' ~pestered ... pinfold~, crowded
1814 together in this cramped space, the Earth. _Pester_, which has no
1815 connection with _pest_, is a shortened form of _impester_, Fr.
1816 _empetrer_, to shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The
1817 radical sense is that of clogging (comp. _Son._ xii. 1); hence of
1818 crowding; and finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. 'Pinfold'
1819 is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle are _pounded_ or shut up:
1820 etymologically, the word = _pind-fold_, a corruption of _pound-fold_.
1821 Comp. _impound_, sheep-_fold_, etc.
1822
1823 8. ~frail and feverish~. Comp. "life's fitful fever" (_Macbeth_, iii. 2.
1824 23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative.
1825
1826 9. ~crown that Virtue gives~. This is Scriptural language: comp. _Rev._
1827 iv. 4; 2 _Tim._ iv. 8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of
1828 righteousness."
1829
1830 10. ~this mortal change~. In Milton's MS. line 7 was followed by the
1831 words, 'beyond the written date of mortal change,' _i.e._ beyond, or
1832 after, man's appointed time to die. These words were struck out, but we
1833 may suppose that the words 'mortal change' in line 10 have a similar
1834 meaning. Milton frequently uses 'mortal' in the sense of 'liable to
1835 death,' and hence 'human' as opposed to 'divine': the mortal change is
1836 therefore 'the change which occurs to all human beings.' Comp. _Job_,
1837 xiv. 14: "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my
1838 _change_ come": see also line 841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean 'this
1839 mortal state of life,' as distinguished from a future state of
1840 immortality. The Spirit uses 'this' as in line 8, in contrast with
1841 'those,' line 2.
1842
1843 11. ~enthroned gods~, etc. In allusion to _Rev._ iv. 4, "And upon the
1844 thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments;
1845 and on their heads crowns of gold." Milton frequently speaks of the
1846 inhabitants of heaven as _enthroned_. The accent here falls on the first
1847 syllable of the word.
1848
1849 12. ~Yet some there be~, etc.: 'Although men are generally so exclusively
1850 occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who
1851 aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in
1852 Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp.
1853 _Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase,
1854 "there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to
1855 a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~,
1856 _i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il
1857 Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed.
1858
1859 13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their
1860 just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._
1861 xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven";
1862 also _Lyc._ 111:
1863
1864 "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain
1865 (The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)."
1866
1867 15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's
1868 presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his
1869 eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his
1870 swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for
1871 such.
1872
1873 16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the
1874 noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also
1875 used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840;
1876 _Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit."
1877 'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the
1878 Sanskrit _amrita_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the
1879 gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_,
1880 lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._
1881 hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now
1882 used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment.
1883 Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or
1884 covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to
1885 the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide
1886 enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390.
1887
1888 18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012.
1889
1890 19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ...
1891 each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp.
1892 l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory."
1893 _Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with
1894 reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more.
1895
1896 20. ~by lot~, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the
1897 universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter ('high' Jove),
1898 Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto ('nether' or Stygian Jove). In
1899 _Iliad_ xv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: "For three brethren are we, and
1900 sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things
1901 divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary
1902 sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots." ~nether~,
1903 lower: comp. the phrase 'the upper and the nether lip,' and the name
1904 Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton 'the nether
1905 empire' (_Par. Lost_, ii. 295). The form _nethermost_ (_Par. Lost_, ii.
1906 955) is, like _aftermost_ and _foremost_, a double superlative.
1907
1908 21. ~sea-girt isles~. Ben Jonson calls Britain a 'sea-girt isle': comp. l.
1909 27. _Isle_ is the M.E. _ile_, in which form the _s_ has been dropped: it
1910 is from O.F. _isle_, Lat. _insula_. It is therefore distinct from
1911 _island_, where an _s_ has, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E.
1912 _iland_, A.S. _igland_ (_ig_ = island: _land_ = land). In line 50 Milton
1913 wrote 'iland.'
1914
1915 22. ~like to rich and various gems~, etc. Shakespeare describes England as
1916 a 'precious stone set in the silver sea,' _Richard II._ ii. 1. 46: he
1917 also speaks of Heaven as being _inlayed_ with stars, _Cym._ v. 5. 352;
1918 _M. of V._ v. 1. 59, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick _inlaid_
1919 with patines of bright gold." Compare also _Par. Lost_, iv. 700, where
1920 Milton refers to the ground as having a rich _inlay_ of flowers. But for
1921 its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned. ~like~: here
1922 followed by the preposition _to_, and having its proper force as an
1923 adjective: comp. _Il Pens._ 9. Whether _like_ is used as an adjective
1924 or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. 57.
1925
1926 24. ~to grace~, _i.e._ to show favour to: a clause of purpose.
1927
1928 25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits
1929 to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct.
1930 Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with
1931 plural nouns.
1932
1933 26. ~sapphire~. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29:
1934 see note there.
1935
1936 27. ~little tridents~, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, "with his
1937 trident touched the stars" (_Neptune's Triumph, Proteus' Song_, Ben
1938 Jonson).
1939
1940 28. ~greatest and the best~. Comp. Shakespeare's eulogy in _Rich. II._ ii.
1941 1: also Ben Jonson's "Albion, Prince of all his Isles," _Neptune's
1942 Triumph, Apollo's Song_.
1943
1944 29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._
1945 208:
1946
1947 "Sailors _quarter'd_ Heaven, and found a name
1948 For every fixt and ev'ry wandering star."
1949
1950 Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into _four_
1951 parts: "at that time the island was actually divided into four separate
1952 governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords
1953 President of the North and of Wales." (Keightley). ~blue-haired deities~.
1954 These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little
1955 tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the
1956 complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet 'blue-haired'
1957 Masson asks: "Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour,
1958 inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with
1959 Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his
1960 subordinates": in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green
1961 hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities _caerulei dii_, and
1962 Neptune _caeruleus deus_, thus associating blue with the sea.
1963
1964 30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is
1965 entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer
1966 referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was
1967 entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the
1968 four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and
1969 Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the
1970 fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's
1971 Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and
1972 private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a
1973 profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a
1974 dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as
1975 well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in
1976 those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor.
1977 As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of
1978 patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and
1979 occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the
1980 East and the West.
1981
1982 31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle'
1983 and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom.
1984 and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In
1985 herbs," etc.
1986
1987 33. ~An old and haughty nation~. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who
1988 probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore
1989 rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson's piece _For the
1990 Honour of Wales_:
1991
1992 "I is not come here to taulk of Brut,
1993 From whence the Welse does take his root," etc.
1994
1995 That they were haughty and 'proud in arms' the Romans found, and after
1996 them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of
1997 Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by
1998 that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the
1999 Barons was: "We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince
2000 to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we
2001 know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and
2002 rights." By a statute of Henry VIII. this 'haughty' people were put in
2003 possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. ~proud in
2004 arms~: this is Virgil's _belloque superbum_, _Aen._ i. 21 (Warton).
2005
2006 34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high
2007 position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth
2008 distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to
2009 their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_.
2010
2011 35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies
2012 connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old
2013 sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's
2014 _Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and
2015 chair_."
2016
2017 36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple
2018 adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the
2019 form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is
2020 formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890.
2021 Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it
2022 was newly assumed. See Introduction.
2023
2024 37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or
2025 twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to
2026 inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable.
2027
2028 38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also
2029 to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_,
2030 to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as
2031 _horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563,
2032 "a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~:
2033 this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the
2034 brow overhangs the eyes.
2035
2036 39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an
2037 adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose
2038 utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but
2039 in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the
2040 prefix. See note, l. 234.
2041
2042 40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the
2043 two brothers were younger than she.
2044
2045 41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a
2046 subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was
2047 despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may
2048 regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick
2049 command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being
2050 commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is
2051 Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is
2052 due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate
2053 with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639.
2054
2055 43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43,
2056 44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina
2057 non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask
2058 is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern
2059 song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (=
2060 banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and
2061 'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his
2062 lady.
2063
2064 46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il
2065 Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is
2066 designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and
2067 Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring
2068 from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the
2069 misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These
2070 parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former,
2071 mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated
2072 with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay
2073 exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and
2074 magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as
2075 represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which
2076 mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the
2077 _Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in
2078 Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the
2079 clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure";
2080 and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the
2081 genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is
2082 a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically
2083 to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow
2084 Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the
2085 classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who
2086 taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on
2087 one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates:
2088 these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the
2089 mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins.
2090 The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the
2091 _Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the
2092 isle AEaean, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of
2093 mortal speech, own sister to the wizard AEetes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~,
2094 etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the
2095 more common 'out from.'
2096
2097 47. ~misused~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by
2098 Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all
2099 obsolete).
2100
2101 48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the
2102 transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are
2103 called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or
2104 Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical
2105 construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a
2106 substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected
2107 with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in
2108 the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the
2109 creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery
2110 of this loss.
2111
2112 49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_,
2113 iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb
2114 _list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer
2115 we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word
2116 survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was
2117 _lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which
2118 it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.'
2119
2120 50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of
2121 Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph
2122 Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb
2123 _fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the
2124 interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech
2125 called anadiplosis.
2126
2127 51. ~charmed cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered
2128 magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_):
2129 comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.'
2130
2131 52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this
2132 construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently
2133 uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12,
2134 "_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, Sec. 251. ~lost
2135 his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them
2136 (followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and
2137 made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with
2138 Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them
2139 utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup
2140 and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in
2141 the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice,
2142 the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of
2143 old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns
2144 and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do
2145 always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._)
2146
2147 54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban
2148 Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath
2149 of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp.
2150 _L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams.
2151 Agon._ 569.
2152
2153 55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure.
2154
2155 57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may
2156 indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as
2157 a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_:
2158
2159 "Much of the father's face,
2160 More of the mother's grace."
2161
2162 58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word +komos+ denoted a revel or
2163 merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous
2164 mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In classical
2165 mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled
2166 Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics.
2167
2168 59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective;
2169 comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic
2170 welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new
2171 adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes
2172 the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with
2173 German _froehlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such
2174 words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be
2175 compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _aeger animi_ = sick
2176 of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.'
2177
2178 60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and
2179 Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the
2180 waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles."
2181
2182 61. ~betakes him~. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan
2183 English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple
2184 pronouns is common (see Abbott, Sec. 223). Compare l. 163. ~ominous~;
2185 literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of
2186 monsters (_Lyc._ 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense
2187 of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,'
2188 etc.
2189
2190 65. ~orient~, bright. The Lat. _oriens_ = rising; hence (from being
2191 applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or
2192 'shining': comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 546, "With _orient_ colours waving."
2193
2194 66. ~drouth of Phoebus~, _i.e._ thirst caused by the heat of the sun.
2195 Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of
2196 rain; the more usual spelling is _drought_. ~which~: see note, l. 2.
2197 'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.'
2198
2199 67. ~fond~, foolish (its primary sense). _Fonned_ was the participle of an
2200 old verb _fonnen_, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great
2201 liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost.
2202 Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_";
2203 _Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal
2204 men."
2205
2206 68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its
2207 effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a
2208 drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous
2209 draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French.
2210
2211 69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of
2212 work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a
2213 god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine."
2214
2215 71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the
2216 cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yuz_, panther.
2217
2218 72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the
2219 bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only
2220 the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the
2221 performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage
2222 direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the
2223 absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither
2224 the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some
2225 attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the
2226 purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is
2227 usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of
2228 pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In
2229 Old English the dative was used.
2230
2231 73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly).
2232
2233 74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of
2234 Ulysses: see note, l. 52.
2235
2236 76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect
2237 ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat
2238 the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor
2239 to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men,
2240 ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In
2241 Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home:
2242 "Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave."
2243 Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._
2244 viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in
2245 sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and
2246 the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, _F.
2247 Q._ ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been
2248 late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to
2249 natural."
2250
2251 77. ~sensual sty~: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted
2252 care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes
2253 little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to _forget_.
2254
2255 78. ~favoured~: compare Lat. _gratus_ = favoured (adj.).
2256
2257 79. ~adventurous~, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,'
2258 applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. ~glade~:
2259 strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the
2260 wood itself. It is cognate with _glow_ and _glitter_, and its
2261 fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat).
2262
2263 80. ~glancing star~, a shooting star. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 556:
2264
2265 "Swift as a shooting star
2266 In autumn thwarts the night."
2267
2268 The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense.
2269
2270 81. ~convoy~: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 752, "_convoyed_ By four cherubic
2271 shapes." It is another form of _convey_ (Lat. _con_ = together, _via_ =
2272 a way).
2273
2274 83. ~sky-robes~: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. ~Iris' woof~, material
2275 dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the
2276 rainbow: comp. l. 992 and _Par. Lost_, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the
2277 woof." Etymologically, _woof_ is connected with _web_ and _weave_: it is
2278 short for _on-wef_ = on-web, _i.e._ the cross threads laid on the warp
2279 of a loom.
2280
2281 84. ~weeds~: see note, l. 16.
2282
2283 86. ~That to the service~, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes,
2284 first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of
2285 _Comus_ by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he
2286 alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater
2287 family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to
2288 compliment the Earl (see Introduction).
2289
2290 86. ~smooth-dittied~: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. _dictatum_) strictly
2291 denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment;
2292 it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. _Lyc._
2293 32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare _Son._
2294 xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted.
2295
2296 87. ~knows to still~, etc.: comp. _Lyc._ 10, "he knew Himself to sing."
2297
2298 88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is
2299 skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most
2300 likely to be at hand should any emergency arise.
2301
2302 92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing";
2303 _Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian
2304 word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless
2305 winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the
2306 formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_,
2307 'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also
2308 l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of
2309 'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from
2310 Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a
2311 crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a
2312 beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by
2313 the _rout_ that made the hideous roar."
2314
2315 93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the
2316 planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by
2317 Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer,
2318 the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion:
2319
2320 "Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,...
2321 Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."--
2322
2323 _In Memoriam_, cxxi.
2324
2325 Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of
2326 eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic.
2327
2328 94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._
2329 31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink
2330 towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky,
2331 and on comes Night from the ocean."
2332
2333 95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot.
2334 Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and
2335 "Phoebus' wain," line 190.
2336
2337 96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton
2338 alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482,
2339 "Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion
2340 of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was
2341 accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would
2342 thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_
2343 occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_,
2344 i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes'
2345 dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until
2346 the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter
2347 pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to
2348 confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_
2349 gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century,
2350 it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its
2351 place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and
2352 other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc.
2353
2354 97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great
2355 _stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing
2356 Okeanos (+bathyrroos+)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase
2357 'the high seas.'
2358
2359 98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays
2360 visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as
2361 an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31).
2362
2363 99. ~dusky~. Milton first wrote 'northern.'
2364
2365 100. ~Pacing toward the other goal~, etc. Comp. _Psalm_ xix. 5: "The sun
2366 as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man
2367 to run a race."
2368
2369 102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of
2370 _L'Allegro_, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and
2371 both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and
2372 with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of _L'Allegro_
2373 begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of _Comus_ and
2374 his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun
2375 shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is
2376 not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that
2377 betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the
2378 "midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour,
2379 Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and
2380 cranks" of _L'Allegro_ have given way to the magic rites of _Comus_, and
2381 the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth
2382 are ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry.
2383
2384 104. ~jollity~: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton
2385 occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. _joli_, pretty) has its primary
2386 sense of pleasing or festive.
2387
2388 105. ~Braid your locks with rosy twine~; 'entwine your hair with wreaths
2389 of roses.'
2390
2391 106. ~dropping odours~: comp. l. 862-3.
2392
2393 108. ~Advice ... scrupulous head~. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify
2394 counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or
2395 deliberation. See Chaucer, _Prologue_, 786, "granted him without more
2396 _advice_"; and comp. Shakespeare, _M. of V._ iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon
2397 more _advice_, Hath sent you here this ring"; also _Par. Lost_, ii. 376,
2398 "_Advise_, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See
2399 also l. 755, note. _Scrupulous_ = full of scruples, conscientious.
2400
2401 110. ~saws~, sayings, maxims. _Saw_, _say_, and _saga_ (a Norwegian
2402 legend) are cognate.
2403
2404 111. ~of purer fire~, _i.e._ having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as
2405 there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as =
2406 divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living
2407 creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the
2408 Stoics held that whatever consisted of _pure fire_ was divine, _e.g._
2409 the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112.
2410
2411 112. ~the starry quire~: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see
2412 lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds
2413 proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial
2414 concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurged ear" of mankind:
2415 comp. l. 458 and _Arc._ 63-73. Shakespeare (_M. of V._ v. 1. 61) alludes
2416 to the music of the spheres:
2417
2418 "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
2419 But in his motion like an angel sings,
2420 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc.
2421
2422 _Quire_ is a form of _choir_ (Lat. _chorus_, a band of singers); in
2423 Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the
2424 audience. _Quire_ (of paper) is a totally different word, probably
2425 derived from Lat. _quatuor_, four.
2426
2427 113. ~nightly watchful spheres~. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars
2428 keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright,"
2429 _Hymn Nat._ 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of
2430 'nocturnal': comp. _Il Pens._ 84, "To bless the doors from _nightly_
2431 harm"; _Arc._ 48, "_nightly_ ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The _nightly_
2432 hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night."
2433
2434 114. ~Lead in swift round~. Comp. _Arc._ 71: "And the low world in
2435 measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune."
2436
2437 115. ~sounds~, straits: A.S. _sund_, a strait of the sea, so called
2438 because it could be _swum_ across. See Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ _s.v._
2439
2440 116. ~to the moon~, _i.e._ as affected by the moon. For similar uses of
2441 'to,' comp. _Lyc._ 33, "tempered _to_ the oaten flute"; _Lyc._ 44,
2442 "fanning their joyous leaves _to_ thy soft lays." ~morrice~. The waters
2443 quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish
2444 dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into
2445 England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"--a weapon used
2446 by the Moors in Spain.
2447
2448 117. ~shelves~, flat ledges of rock.
2449
2450 118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of
2451 _perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat
2452 points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._
2453 "_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a
2454 child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and
2455 Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_
2456 into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du.
2457 _dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of
2458 'neat.'
2459
2460 119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with
2461 _dingle_ and _dapple_.
2462
2463 120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies
2464 pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens."
2465
2466 121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The
2467 adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin
2468 _vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a
2469 church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening
2470 merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense
2471 in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception
2472 _proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the
2473 rule.
2474
2475 124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is
2476 Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object
2477 being 'Love.'
2478
2479 125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage
2480 requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535.
2481
2482 126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the
2483 sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When
2484 night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial."
2485
2486 127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The
2487 horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark.
2488
2489 129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled'
2490 because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian
2491 divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because
2492 the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water.
2493
2494 131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the
2495 abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of
2496 darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night
2497 being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_,
2498 i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict
2499 sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore,"
2500 it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat.
2501 _uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the
2502 dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you
2503 _dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing
2504 of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks
2505 her dragon yoke."
2506
2507 132. ~spets~, a form of _spits_ (as _spettle_ for _spittle_).
2508
2509 133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63.
2510 Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature."
2511
2512 134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is
2513 'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~,
2514 black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb.
2515 _eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has
2516 become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness.
2517
2518 135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecate (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian
2519 divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these
2520 reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson
2521 calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at
2522 night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the
2523 souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs.
2524
2525 136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn
2526 That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.'
2527
2528 137. ~dues~: see note, l. 12.
2529
2530 138. ~blabbing eastern scout~, _i.e._ the tale-telling spy that comes from
2531 the East, viz. Morning.
2532
2533 139. ~nice~; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet,
2534 expressing at once _curious_ and _squeamish_" (Hurd). It is used by
2535 Comus in contempt: comp. ii. _Henry IV._ iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou
2536 _nice_ crutch"; and see the index to the Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian
2537 steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the
2538 "light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._
2539 in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and
2540 Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over
2541 _Indian_ seas."
2542
2543 140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._
2544 the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps,"
2545 said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of
2546 the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally
2547 'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small.
2548
2549 141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3,
2550
2551 "The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun,
2552 For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light."
2553
2554 Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In
2555 _Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed
2556 Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our
2557 hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_:
2558 both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and
2559 Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.'
2560
2561 142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_,
2562 complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_.
2563 Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed
2564 year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated
2565 intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._
2566 serious or important.
2567
2568 143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_:
2569
2570 "Now, now begin to set
2571 Your spirits in active heat;
2572 And, since your hands are met,
2573 Instruct your nimble feet,
2574 In motions swift and meet,
2575 The happy ground to beat."
2576
2577 144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as
2578 you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in
2579 which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained.
2580 So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has
2581 not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a
2582 form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_).
2583
2584 At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after
2585 which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked
2586 by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in
2587 octosyllabic couplets.
2588
2589 145. ~different~, _i.e._ different from the voluptuous footing of Comus
2590 and his crew.
2591
2592 146. ~footing~: comp. _Lyc._ 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went _footing_
2593 slow."
2594
2595 147. ~shrouds~, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes
2596 'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and
2597 finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of
2598 Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The
2599 Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of
2600 the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. ~brakes~, bushes. Shakespeare has
2601 "hawthorn-_brake_," _M. N. D._ iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be
2602 connected with _bracken_.
2603
2604 148. ~Some virgin sure~, _sc._ 'it is.'
2605
2606 150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements.
2607 _Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic
2608 verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile).
2609 _Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains'
2610 (_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note"
2611 (_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some
2612 would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles.
2613
2614 151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was
2615 an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a
2616 preposition.
2617
2618 153. ~Thus I hurl~, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance
2619 the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture
2620 as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is
2621 kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft
2622 among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is _powdered spells_; but Milton, by
2623 a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick,
2624 substituted _dazzling_" (Masson).
2625
2626 154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A
2627 _spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying):
2628 here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called
2629 because it holds in suspension the magic powder.
2630
2631 155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are
2632 attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a
2633 characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear
2634 illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision.
2635 Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam.
2636 Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial
2637 argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W.
2638 Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_.
2639
2640 156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from
2641 _presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_):
2642 while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being
2643 before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense
2644 of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat.
2645 _cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In
2646 French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_,
2647 neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or
2648 delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.'
2649
2650 158. ~suspicious flight~: flight due to suspicion of danger.
2651
2652 160. ~I, under fair pretence~, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly
2653 intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I
2654 insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.'
2655
2656 161. ~glozing~, flattering, wheedling. Compare _Par. Lost_, ix. 549,
2657
2658 "So _glozed_ the temper, and his proem tuned:
2659 Into the heart of Eve his words made way."
2660
2661 _Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr.
2662 _glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in
2663 his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names
2664 are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely
2665 denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an
2666 endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with _gloss_ =
2667 brightness.
2668
2669 162. ~Baited~, rendered attractive. Radically _bait_ is the causative of
2670 _bite_; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. _Sams. Ag._ 1066, "The
2671 _bait_ of honied words."
2672
2673 163. ~wind me~, etc. The verbs _wind_ (_i.e._ coil) and _hug_ suggest the
2674 cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart
2675 or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in
2676 _Anat. of Mel._, says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible
2677 spirit, can easily insinuate and _wind_ himself into human bodies."
2678 _Me_ is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic
2679 dative.
2680
2681 165. ~virtue~, _i.e._ power or influence (Lat. _virtus_). This radical
2682 sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The
2683 adjective _virtuous_ is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621
2684 it has its older meaning.
2685
2686 166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645.
2687 In the edition of 1673 the reading was:
2688
2689 "I shall appear some harmless villager,
2690 And hearken, if I may, her business here.
2691 But here she comes, I fairly step aside."
2692
2693 But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after _may_,
2694 and to change _here_ into _hear_. In Masson's text, accordingly, he
2695 reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear."
2696
2697 167. ~keeps up~, etc., _i.e._ keeps occupied with his country affairs even
2698 up to a late hour. _Gear_: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S.
2699 _gearu_, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._
2700 vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was _easy gear_," _i.e._ an easy matter,
2701 fairly, softly. _Fair_ and _softly_ were two words which went together,
2702 signifying _gently_ (Warton).
2703
2704 170. ~mine ear ... My best guide~. Observe the juxtaposition of _mine_ and
2705 _my_ in these lines. _Mine_ is frequent before a vowel, especially when
2706 the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is
2707 almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is
2708 intended (Abbott, Sec. 237).
2709
2710 171. ~Methought~, _i.e._ it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' _me_ is
2711 the dative, and _thinks_ is an impersonal verb (A.S. _thincan_, to
2712 appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from
2713 A.S. _thencan_, to make to appear.
2714
2715 173. ~jocund~, merry. Comp. _L'Allegro_, 94, "the _jocund_ rebecks sound."
2716 ~gamesome~, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in _-some_, is
2717 now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives
2718 are obsolete, _e.g._ laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's
2719 _English, Past and Present_, v.).
2720
2721 174. ~unlettered hinds~, ignorant rustics (A.S. _hina_, a domestic).
2722
2723 175. ~granges~, granaries, barns (Lat. _granum_, grain). The word is now
2724 applied to a farm-house with its outhouses.
2725
2726 176. ~Pan~, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see _Arc._
2727 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."
2728
2729 177. ~thank the gods amiss~. _Amiss_ stands for M.E. _on misse_ = in
2730 error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods
2731 should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making"
2732 (Keightley). See Introduction.
2733
2734 178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those
2735 carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily,
2736 hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_;
2737 from _wes_, be thou, and _hal_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form
2738 of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the
2739 sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to
2740 is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_,
2741 the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir
2742 Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk."
2743
2744 180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_
2745 your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well
2746 illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when
2747 they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright."
2748
2749 184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.
2750
2751 187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which
2752 attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195.
2753 _As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun.
2754
2755 188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited,"
2756 _Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning.
2757
2758 189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat.
2759 _votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to
2760 one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present
2761 case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a
2762 palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would
2763 naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a
2764 palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is
2765 a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16.
2766
2767 190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically
2768 realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a
2769 venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some
2770 rich man's chariot" (Masson).
2771
2772 192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts.
2773
2774 193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that
2775 in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To
2776 _engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge.
2777
2778 195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is
2779 frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious
2780 darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide
2781 the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is
2782 therefore to some extent tautological.
2783
2784 197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be
2785 concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern
2786 is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_,
2787 which turns its bright side only to him that bears it."
2788
2789 198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57:
2790
2791 "By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove
2792 Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:"
2793
2794 also _Macbeth_, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles
2795 are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung
2796 in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate _in sense_ with the next
2797 clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps"
2798 is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp.
2799 l. 6.
2800
2801 203. ~rife~, prevalent. ~perfect~, distinct; see note, l. 73.
2802
2803 204. ~single darkness~, darkness only. _Single_ is from the same base as
2804 _simple_; comp. l. 369.
2805
2806 205. ~What might this be?~ This is a direct question about a past event,
2807 and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note
2808 there. ~A thousand fantasies~, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That
2809 wonderful passage in _Comus_ of the airy tongues, perhaps the most
2810 imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry
2811 sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to
2812 understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the _Anat. of Mel._:
2813 "Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth
2814 over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the
2815 dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie
2816 presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or
2817 phantasy, Shakespeare says:
2818
2819 "As imagination bodies forth
2820 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
2821 Turns them to _shapes_, and gives to _airy nothing_
2822 A local habitation and a name."--
2823
2824 _M. N. D._ v. 1. 14.
2825
2826 Compare also Ben Jonson's _Vision of Delight_:
2827
2828 "Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud,
2829 And spread thy purple wings;
2830 Now all thy figures are allow'd,
2831 And various shapes of things:
2832 Create of _airy forms_ a stream ...
2833 And though it be a waking dream," etc.
2834
2835 207. ~Of calling shapes~, etc. In Heywood's _Hierarchy of Angels_ there is
2836 a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such
2837 words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's
2838 power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. _Aen._ iv.
2839 460. ~beckoning shadows dire~. A characteristic arrangement of words in
2840 Milton: comp. lines 470, 945.
2841
2842 208. ~syllable~, pronounce distinctly.
2843
2844 210. ~may startle well~, may well startle.
2845
2846 212. ~siding champion, Conscience~. To side is to take a side, and hence
2847 to assist: comp. _Cor._ iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have _sided_ in his
2848 behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense:
2849 in _Son._ xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2.
2850 379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet
2851 Conscience."
2852
2853 213. ~pure-eyed Faith~. Comp. _Lyc._ 81, "those pure eyes And perfect
2854 witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of
2855 purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her
2856 purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by
2857 an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,'
2858 'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of
2859 Charity in the trio is significant: see i. _Cor._ xiii.
2860
2861 214. ~hovering angel~. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The
2862 word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt,
2863 surrounded. ~golden wings~. In _Il Pens._ 52, Contemplation "soars on
2864 golden wing."
2865
2866 216. ~see ye visibly~, _i.e._ you are not mere shapes, but living
2867 presences. _Ye_: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between
2868 _ye_ and _you_ did not exist in old English; _ye_ was always used as a
2869 nominative, and _you_ as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible
2870 the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the
2871 Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris).
2872 It is so in Milton, who has _ye_ as nominative, accusative, and dative;
2873 comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also _Arc._ 40, 81, 101. It may be noted
2874 that _ye_ can be pronounced more rapidly than _you_, and is therefore
2875 frequent when an unaccented syllable is required.
2876
2877 217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it
2878 must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance'
2879 or punishment.
2880
2881 219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds'
2882 of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate
2883 words.
2884
2885 221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of
2886 line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a
2887 glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the
2888 same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of
2889 an unaccusing conscience.
2890
2891 222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine.
2892
2893 223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and
2894 'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the
2895 auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due
2896 probably to change of thought.
2897
2898 225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_
2899 trees."
2900
2901 226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_,
2902 and _holloa_.
2903
2904 227. ~make to be heard~. Make = cause.
2905
2906 228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly
2907 enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36.
2908
2909 229. ~they~, _i.e._ the brothers.
2910
2911 230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by
2912 preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after
2913 others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until
2914 nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in
2915 Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1.
2916
2917 The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very
2918 Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to
2919 rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice,
2920 and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth
2921 Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers.
2922
2923 231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of
2924 Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is
2925 _cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_,
2926 because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the
2927 form of a shell.
2928
2929 232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor,
2930 remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,'
2931 and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a
2932 haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses
2933 Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost
2934 Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with
2935 music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and
2936 the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash
2937 contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being
2938 thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._
2939 58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a
2940 reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down
2941 the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is
2942 associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost
2943 brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above
2944 was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of
2945 Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous
2946 haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and
2947 Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude"
2948 (_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are
2949 forms of the same word.
2950
2951 233. ~the violet-embroidered vale~. The notion that flowers _broider_ or
2952 ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 700:
2953 "Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay
2954 _Broidered_ the ground." In _Lyc._ 148, the flowers themselves wear
2955 'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale
2956 because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's _Masque of
2957 Hymen_) and with innocence (see _Hamlet_, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you
2958 some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales,
2959 however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and
2960 argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close
2961 by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and
2962 where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus
2963 as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet
2964 'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek +iostephanos+ (=
2965 crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, of
2966 which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the
2967 violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might
2968 here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in _Par. Reg._
2969 iv. 245: see the following note.
2970
2971 234. ~love-lorn nightingale~, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost:
2972 comp. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the
2973 poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night
2974 through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and
2975 fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." _Lorn_ and
2976 _lost_ are cognate words, the former being common in the compound
2977 _forlorn_: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the
2978 nightingale: in _Il Penseroso_ it is 'Philomel'; in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245,
2979 it is 'the Attic bird'; and in _Par. Lost_ viii. 518, it is 'the amorous
2980 bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of
2981 Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was
2982 Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales
2983 (Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale
2984 that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The
2985 epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of A{=e}don
2986 (Greek +aedon+, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by
2987 mistake, was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was
2988 represented by the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her
2989 child.
2990
2991 235. ~her sad song mourneth~, _i.e._ sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad
2992 song' forms a kind of cognate accusative.
2993
2994 237. ~likest thy Narcissus~. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of
2995 Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image
2996 reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he
2997 accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his
2998 name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in _Cynthia's Revels_,
2999 i. 1. Grammatically, _likest_ is an adjective qualified adverbially by
3000 "(to) thy Narcissus": comp. _Il Pens._ 9, "likest hovering dreams."
3001
3002 238. ~have hid~. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks),
3003 but the subjunctive mood.
3004
3005 240. ~Tell me but where~, _i.e._ 'Only tell me where.'
3006
3007 241. ~Sweet Queen of Parley~, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. _parler_,
3008 to speak): _parlour_, _parole_, _palaver_, _parliament_, _parlance_.
3009 etc., are cognate. ~Daughter of the Sphere~, _i.e._ of the sphere which is
3010 her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice
3011 and Verse" (_At a Solemn Music_, 2).
3012
3013 243. ~give resounding grace~, etc., _i.e._ add the charm of echo to the
3014 music of the spheres.
3015
3016 The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in
3017 length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more
3018 striking owing to the consonance of _shell_, _well_ with _vale_,
3019 _nightingale_; also of _pair_, _where_ with _are_ and _sphere_; and of
3020 _have_ with _cave_. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration
3021 of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical
3022 passages.
3023
3024 244. ~mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment~. The words _mortal_
3025 and _divine_ are in antithesis: comp. _Il Pens._ 91, 92, "The immortal
3026 mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines
3027 embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555
3028 and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. _Il
3029 Pens._ 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794.
3030
3031 246. ~Sure~, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266.
3032
3033 247. ~vocal~, used proleptically.
3034
3035 248. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.'
3036
3037 251. ~smoothing the raven down~. As the nightingale's song smooths the
3038 rugged brow of Night (_Il Pens._ 58), so here the song of the lady
3039 smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a
3040 winged goddess.
3041
3042 252. ~it~, _i.e._ darkness.
3043
3044 253. ~Circe ... Sirens three~. In the _Odyssey_ the Sirens are two in
3045 number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island
3046 off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured
3047 sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a
3048 sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined
3049 allusion: see also Horace's _Epist._ i. 2, 23, _Sirenum voces, et Circes
3050 pocula nosti_. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god
3051 Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids.
3052
3053 254. ~flowery-kirtled Naiades~: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or
3054 having their skirts decorated with flowers. A _kirtle_ is a gown; Skeat
3055 suggests that it is a diminutive of _skirt_.
3056
3057 255. ~baleful~, injurious (A.S. _balu_, evil).
3058
3059 256. ~sung~. "The verbs _swim_, _begin_, _run_, _drink_, _shrink_, _sink_,
3060 _ring_, _sing_, _spring_, have for their proper past tenses _swam_,
3061 _began_, _ran_, etc., preserving the original _a_; but in older writers
3062 (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find
3063 forms with _u_, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris).
3064 ~take the prisoned soul~, _i.e._ would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned'
3065 being used proleptically.
3066
3067 257. ~lap it in Elysium~. _Lap_ is a form of wrap: comp. _L'Alleg._ 136,
3068 "_Lap_ me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the
3069 blessed; comp. _L'Alleg._ 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." ~Scylla ...
3070 Charybdis~. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god
3071 Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She
3072 threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the
3073 surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," _Aen._ vii. 588)
3074 resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon,
3075 and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool.
3076
3077 260. ~slumber~: comp. _Pericles_, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon
3078 mine eyes."
3079
3080 261. ~madness~, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in _Il Pens._ 164: "As
3081 may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into _ecstasies_, And
3082 bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in
3083 the sense of madness; see _Hamlet_, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form
3084 and feature of blown youth, Blasted with _ecstasy_"; _Temp._ iii. 3.
3085 108, "hinder them from what this _ecstasy_ May now provoke them to":
3086 comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," _Wint. Tale_, v. 3. 73. See
3087 also l. 625.
3088
3089 262. ~home-felt~, deeply felt. Compare "The _home_ thrust of a friendly
3090 sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes _home_ to
3091 our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.
3092
3093 263. ~waking bliss~, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the
3094 song of Circe.
3095
3096 265. ~Hail, foreign wonder!~ Warton notes that _Comus_ is universally
3097 allowed to have taken some of its tints from the _Tempest_, and quotes,
3098 "O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426.
3099
3100 266. ~certain~: see note, l. 246.
3101
3102 267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in
3103 rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless'
3104 (Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and,
3105 also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the
3106 antecedent.
3107
3108 268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that
3109 Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."
3110 Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is
3111 corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood).
3112
3113 269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in
3114 which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and
3115 "mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a
3116 reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the
3117 Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95.
3118
3119 271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male
3120 perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to
3121 "there is little loss in losing."
3122
3123 273. ~extreme shift~; last resource. Comp. l. 617.
3124
3125 274. ~my severed company~: a condensed expression = the companions
3126 separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called
3127 Synecdoche.
3128
3129 277. ~What chance~, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that
3130 form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer
3131 occupy alternate lines: it is called _stichomythia_, and is admirable
3132 when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the
3133 _Supplices_ of Euripides). In _Samson Agonistes_, which is modelled on
3134 the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it.
3135
3136 278. An alliterative line.
3137
3138 279. ~near ushering~, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat.
3139 _ostium_, a door).
3140
3141 284. ~twain~: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after
3142 its substantive as in _Lyc._ 110, "of metals _twain_," and as a
3143 substantive.
3144
3145 285. ~forestalling~, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing
3146 term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a _stall_ in
3147 the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to
3148 anticipate.' ~prevented~. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,'
3149 seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to
3150 anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l.
3151 362; _Par. Lost_, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this
3152 _prevention_ more Incensed."
3153
3154 286. ~to hit~. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp.
3155 "good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc.
3156
3157 287. ~Imports their loss~, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the
3158 loss of them important?'
3159
3160 289. ~manly prime~, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they
3161 merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth'
3162 ends: comp. _Par. Lost_, xi. 245, "_prime_ in manhood where youth
3163 ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet
3164 such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' =
3165 Spring.
3166
3167 290. ~Hebe~, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared
3168 on the lips of the brothers.
3169
3170 291. ~what time~: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. _quo tempore_).
3171 Compare Horace, _Od._ iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of
3172 the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." ~laboured~:
3173 wearied with labour.
3174
3175 292. ~loose traces~. Because no longer taut from the draught of the
3176 plough.
3177
3178 293. ~swinked~, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. _swincan_, to toil).
3179 Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense
3180 of toil is due to that of constant movement from the _swinging_ of the
3181 labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman.
3182
3183 294. ~mantling~, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp.
3184 _Temp._ v. 1. 67, "fumes that _mantle_ Their clearer reason."
3185
3186 297. ~port~, bearing, mien.
3187
3188 298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than
3189 the current form.
3190
3191 299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher
3192 Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the
3193 four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means
3194 'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it
3195 doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er
3196 the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc.
3197
3198 301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more
3199 properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her
3200 sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l.
3201 372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz.
3202 'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.'
3203
3204 302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before
3205 _-ed_.
3206
3207 303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it
3208 would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the
3209 Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._
3210 vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth."
3211
3212 304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used
3213 without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the
3214 preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the
3215 sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the
3216 infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The
3217 infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund,
3218 which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became
3219 confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general.
3220 Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day."
3221
3222 305. ~readiest way~. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate.
3223
3224 311. ~each ... every~: see note, l. 19. ~alley~, a walk or avenue.
3225
3226 312. ~Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn~. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben
3227 Jonson's _Sad Shepherd_) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a
3228 narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so
3229 deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or
3230 thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word
3231 etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus,
3232 might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred
3233 to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or _bush_ (M.E. _busch_,
3234 _bush_, _bush_). 'See Tennyson's _Dream of F. W._ 243, "the sombre
3235 _boscage_ of the wood."
3236
3237 315. ~stray attendance~ = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in
3238 line 274. Comp. _Par. Lost_, x. 80, "_Attendance_ none shall need, nor
3239 train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous _servitude_" (=
3240 servants).
3241
3242 316. ~shroud~, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see
3243 note, l. 147.
3244
3245 317. ~low-roosted lark~, _i.e._ the lark that has roosted on the ground.
3246 This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising
3247 from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground.
3248 'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with _rest_, but denotes a
3249 perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of
3250 supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may
3251 therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson
3252 takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the
3253 corn-stalks or rushes over it.
3254
3255 318. ~rouse~. Here used intransitively = awake.
3256
3257 322. ~honest-offered~: see notes, ll. 36, 228.
3258
3259 323. ~sooner~, more readily.
3260
3261 324. ~tapestry halls~. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of
3262 carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating
3263 walls." The word is said to be from the Persian.
3264
3265 325. ~first was named~. The meaning is: '_Courtesy_ which is derived from
3266 _court_, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is
3267 nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This
3268 sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a
3269 humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes,
3270 _courtship_) has, like _civility_, lost much of its deeper significance.
3271 Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 1. 1:
3272
3273 "Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call,
3274 For that it there most useth to abound."
3275
3276 327. ~less warranted~, _i.e._ when I have less _guarantee_ of safety.
3277 _Guarantee_ and _warrant_, like _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_,
3278 are radically the same.
3279
3280 329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies
3281 watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj.
3282 'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the
3283 action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt
3284 said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly."
3285 ~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage.
3286
3287 331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._
3288 'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is
3289 a diminutive of _muff_.
3290
3291 332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd
3292 person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed;
3293 hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_
3294 state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and
3295 its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle
3296 being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle
3297 formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun
3298 _wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in
3299 his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a
3300 participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was
3301 wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat.
3302 _benedictio_).
3303
3304 333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72,
3305 "_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used
3306 with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il
3307 Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the
3308 stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and
3309 _amber_ light," and Tennyson:
3310
3311 "What time the _amber_ morn
3312 Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud."
3313
3314 334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87,
3315 "This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of)
3316 her."
3317
3318 336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is
3319 employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it
3320 was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the
3321 planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on,
3322 inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain
3323 _influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various
3324 _influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language,
3325 _e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l.
3326 360.
3327
3328 337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)."
3329
3330 338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a
3331 rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil.
3332
3333 340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par.
3334 Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The
3335 instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or
3336 ruler.
3337
3338 341. ~star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure~; here put by synecdoche for
3339 'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the
3340 stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors
3341 steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part
3342 of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was
3343 called _Cynosura_, the dog's tail (Greek +kynos oura+), and by which
3344 Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See _L'Alleg._ 80, "The _cynosure_
3345 of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common noun = point
3346 of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek mythology with
3347 the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into the Great Bear
3348 while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton follows the Roman
3349 poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this account.
3350
3351 343. ~barred~, debarred or barred _from_.
3352
3353 344. ~wattled cotes~: enclosures made of hurdles, _i.e._ frames of
3354 plaited twigs. _Cote_, _cot_, and _coat_ are varieties of the same word
3355 = a covering or enclosure.
3356
3357 345. ~oaten stops~: see _Lyc._ 33, "the _oaten_ flute"; 88, "But now my
3358 _oat_ proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various _quills_." The
3359 shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe,"
3360 "oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to
3361 signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the
3362 player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages"
3363 (_Ham._ iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893.
3364
3365 346. ~whistle ... lodge~, _i.e._ the sound of the shepherd calling his dog
3366 by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in _L'Alleg._ 63,
3367 "the ploughman _whistles_ o'er the furrowed land."
3368
3369 347. ~Count ... dames~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts
3370 his _dames_ before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings."
3371 Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object
3372 of 'might hear.'
3373
3374 349. ~innumerous~, innumerable (Lat. _innumerus_). Comp. _Par. Lost_, vii.
3375 455, "_Innumerous_ living creatures"; ix. 1089.
3376
3377 350. ~hapless~, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate,
3378 etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or
3379 bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an
3380 unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary.
3381
3382 With reference to the word _fortune_, Max Mueller says: "We speak of good
3383 and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself
3384 _fortuna_ was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally
3385 meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans
3386 defined _fortuna_ by such adjectives as _bona_, _secunda_, _prospera_,
3387 for good; _mala_ or _adversa_ for bad fortune ... _Fortuna_ came to mean
3388 something like chance."
3389
3390 351. ~her~, herself. On the reflexive use of _her_, see note, l. 163.
3391
3392 352. ~burs~; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, _e.g._ the
3393 burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc.
3394
3395 355. ~leans~. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply
3396 _she_: otherwise _leans_ would be intransitive and its nominative
3397 'head': see note, l. 715. ~fraught~, freighted, filled. _Freight_ is
3398 itself a later form of _fraught_: in _Sams. Agon._, 1075, _fraught_ is a
3399 noun (Ger. _fracht_, a load). See line 732.
3400
3401 356. ~What~, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done)
3402 if (she be) in wild amazement?"
3403
3404 358. ~savage hunger~. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals.
3405
3406 359. ~over-exquisite~, _i.e._ too curious, over-inquisitive. _Exquisite_
3407 is here used in the sense of _inquisitive_; in modern English
3408 'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active
3409 sense (Lat. _quaero_, to seek): see note, l. 714.
3410
3411 "The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between
3412 fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common
3413 apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds
3414 on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here
3415 the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast
3416 of character" (Warton).
3417
3418 360. ~To cast the fashion~, _i.e._ to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was
3419 common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii.
3420 _Henry IV._ i. 1. 166, "You _cast_ the event of war." Some think,
3421 however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used
3422 in astrology, _e.g._ "to _cast_ a nativity"; others see in it a
3423 reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis.
3424
3425 361. ~Grant they be so~: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn
3426 out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364.
3427
3428 362. ~What need~, etc., _i.e._ why should a man anticipate his hour of
3429 sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. _quid_): comp. l. 752; also _On
3430 Shakespeare_, 6, "_What need'st_ thou such weak witness of thy name?" On
3431 the verb _need_ Abbott, Sec. 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,'
3432 where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need'
3433 a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge
3434 much broader than the flood?' _M. Ado_, i. 1. 318; either '_why need_
3435 the bridge (be) broader?' or '_what need_ is there (that) the bridge
3436 (be) broader?'"
3437
3438 363. Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we
3439 have," etc.; and Pope's _Essay on Man_, "Heaven from all creatures hides
3440 the book of fate," etc.
3441
3442 366. ~to seek~, at a loss. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 197: "Unpractised,
3443 unprepared, and still _to seek_." Bacon, in _Adv. of Learning_, has:
3444 "Men bred in learning are perhaps _to seek_ in points of convenience."
3445
3446 367. ~unprincipled in virtue's book~, _i.e._ ignorant of the elements of
3447 virtue. A principle (Lat. _principium_, beginning) is a fundamental
3448 truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man
3449 who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into
3450 evil. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness
3451 _principled_."
3452
3453 368. ~bosoms~, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is
3454 governed by 'in,' l. 367.
3455
3456 369. ~As that~, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to
3457 'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by
3458 'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we
3459 have both connectives together. ~single~: see note, l. 204. noise, sound.
3460
3461 370. ~Not being in danger~, _i.e._ she not being in danger: absolute
3462 construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional
3463 clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need
3464 not disquiet her.'
3465
3466 371. ~constant~, steadfast.
3467
3468 372. ~misbecoming~: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. ~plight~, condition.
3469 Skeat derives this word from A.S. _pliht_, danger; others connect it
3470 with _pledge_. It is distinct from _plight_, l. 301.
3471
3472 373. ~Virtue could see~, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines
3473 381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for
3474 to wade," _F. Q._ i. 1. 12.
3475
3476 375. ~flat sea~: comp. _Lyc._ 98, "level brine": Lat. _aequor_, a flat
3477 surface, used of the sea.
3478
3479 376. ~seeks to~, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the
3480 English Bible: see _Deut._ xii. 5, "_unto_ his habitation shall ye
3481 _seek_"; _Isaiah_, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. _Kings_, x. 24.
3482
3483 377. ~her best nurse, Contemplation~. The wise man loves contemplation and
3484 solitude: comp. _Il Penseroso_, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is
3485 the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's
3486 _Arcadia_, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations."
3487
3488 378. ~plumes~. Some would read _prunes_, both words being used of a bird's
3489 smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out
3490 damaged feathers. See Skeat's _Dictionary_, and compare Pope's line,
3491 "Where Contemplation _prunes_ her ruffled wings."
3492
3493 379. ~various~, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in
3494 _L'Allegro_ the 'busy hum of men.'
3495
3496 380. ~all to-ruffled~. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be
3497 interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled,
3498 (3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is
3499 etymologically correct: _to_ is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' =
3500 to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while _all_ (=
3501 quite) is simply an adverb modifying _to-ruffled_. But about 1500 A.D.
3502 this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix _to_ was detached from the
3503 verb and either read along with _all_ (thus all-to = altogether), or
3504 confused with _too_ (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is
3505 doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may
3506 have disregarded its origin. See Morris, Sec. 324; Abbott, Sec.Sec. 28, 436.
3507
3508 381. ~He that has light~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 254: 'The mind is
3509 its own place,' etc.
3510
3511 382. ~centre~, _i.e._ centre of the earth: comp. _Par. Lost_ i. 686, "Men
3512 also ... Ransacked the _centre_"; and _Hymn Nat._ 162, "The aged Earth
3513 ... Shall from the surface to the _centre_ shake." Sometimes the word
3514 'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the _fixed_ centre of the whole
3515 universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed,
3516 however, is not that of immovability (as in _Par. Reg._ iv. 534, "as a
3517 _centre_ firm") but of utter darkness.
3518
3519 385. ~his own dungeon~: comp. _Sams. Agon._ 156, "Thou art become (O worst
3520 imprisonment!) The _dungeon_ of thyself."
3521
3522 386. ~most affects~: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes
3523 rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. _pretend_. Lines 386-392 may
3524 be compared with _Il Pens._ 167-174.
3525
3526 393. ~Hesperian tree~. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden
3527 apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless
3528 dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp.
3529 Tennyson's _Dream of Fair Women_, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd
3530 Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983.
3531
3532 395. ~unenchanted~, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be
3533 enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,'
3534 'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for
3535 'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott (Sec. 375) says: The
3536 passive participle is often used to signify, not that which _was_ and
3537 _is_, but that which _was_ and therefore _can be hereafter_; in other
3538 words _-ed_ is used for _-able_.
3539
3540 396. Compare Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, 44, "She flowered in virginity,
3541 With all humility and abstinence."
3542
3543 398. ~unsunned~, hidden. Comp. _Cym._ ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as _unsunned_
3544 snow"; _F. Q._ ii. 7, "Mammon ... _Sunning_ his treasure hoar."
3545
3546 400. ~as bid me hope~, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to)
3547 hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a
3548 single helpless maiden pass uninjured.'
3549
3550 401. ~Danger will wink on~, etc., _i.e._ danger will shut its eyes to an
3551 opportunity. To _wink on_ or _wink at_ is to connive, to refuse to see
3552 something: comp. _Macbeth_, i. 4. 52, "The eye _wink_ at the hand";
3553 _Acts_, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in _As You
3554 Like It_, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold."
3555
3556 403. ~surrounding~. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who
3557 uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has
3558 acquired through a supposed connection with _round_. Shakespeare does
3559 not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. _superundare_).
3560
3561 404. ~it recks me not~, _i.e._ I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old
3562 verb _reck_ (A.S. _recan_, to care). Comp. _Lyc._ 122, "What _recks_ it
3563 them."
3564
3565 405. ~dog them both~, _i.e._ follow closely upon night and loneliness.
3566 Comp. _All's Well_, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger _dogs_ the heels of
3567 worth."
3568
3569 407. ~unowned~, _i.e._ 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.'
3570 Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a
3571 participle.
3572
3573 408. ~infer~, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See
3574 Shakespeare, iii. _Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 44, "_Inferring_ arguments of mighty
3575 force"; _K. John_, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs _infer_ this
3576 principle": also _Par. Lost_, viii. 91, "great or bright _infers_ not
3577 excellence."
3578
3579 409. ~without all doubt~, _i.e._ beyond all doubt: a Latinism = _sine omni
3580 dubitatione_.
3581
3582 411. ~arbitrate the event~, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the
3583 result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded
3584 I incline to hope.'
3585
3586 413. ~squint suspicion~. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and
3587 squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates
3588 suspicion.
3589
3590 419. ~if Heaven gave it~, _i.e._ even _although_ Heaven gave it.
3591
3592 420. ~'Tis chastity~. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475
3593 is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an
3594 exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson).
3595
3596 421. ~clad in complete steel~, _i.e._ completely armed; comp. _Hamlet_, i.
3597 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable.
3598
3599 422. ~quivered nymph~. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow
3600 and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in
3601 Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a
3602 bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin _pharetrata_.
3603
3604 423. ~trace~, traverse, track. ~unharboured~, affording no shelter.
3605 Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.
3606
3607 424. ~Infamous~, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now
3608 implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult.
3609
3610 425. ~sacred rays~: comp. l. 782.
3611
3612 426. ~bandite or mountaineer~. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare _bandetto_, and
3613 now _bandit_) is borrowed from the Italian _bandito_, outlawed or
3614 _banned_. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it
3615 has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers
3616 in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the
3617 changes of meaning. See _Temp._ iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that
3618 there were _mountaineers_ Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also _Cym._ iv. 2.
3619 120, "Who called me traitor, _mountaineer_."
3620
3621 428. ~very desolation~. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced
3622 to Lat. _verus_ = true: comp. l. 646.
3623
3624 429. ~shagged ... shades~. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is
3625 probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38.
3626
3627 430. ~unblenched~, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded
3628 with 'unblanched,' is from _blench_, a causal of _blink_.
3629
3630 431. ~Be it not~: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.
3631
3632 432. ~Some say~, etc. Compare _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158:
3633
3634 "Some say that, ever against that season comes
3635 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
3636 The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
3637 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad."
3638
3639 433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are
3640 found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different
3641 orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in
3642 his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds
3643 of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and
3644 subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc."
3645
3646 434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a
3647 prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2.
3648 188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or
3649 wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of
3650 spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._
3651 v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend
3652 Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his
3653 matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover),
3654 the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a
3655 signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.
3656
3657 436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read,
3658 "Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm.
3659 Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are
3660 commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old
3661 writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines
3662 there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the
3663 labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_)
3664 here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits
3665 were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the
3666 _swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making.
3667
3668 438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like
3669 _you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, Sec.
3670 236.
3671
3672 439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from
3673 the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of
3674 Greece.
3675
3676 440. ~to testify~, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421.
3677
3678 441. ~Dian~. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was
3679 insensible to the bolts of Cupid, _i.e._ to the power of love. She was
3680 the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the
3681 same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and
3682 animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 1,
3683 "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc.
3684
3685 442. ~silver-shafted queen~. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as
3686 huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which
3687 were frequently called _shafts_, and as the latter she bore shafts or
3688 rays of light. _Shaft_ is etymologically 'a _shaven_ rod.' In Chaucer,
3689 _C. T._ 1364, 'shaft' = arrow.
3690
3691 443. ~brinded lioness~. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "_brinded_
3692 cat," _Macb._ iv. 1. 1: _brind_ is etymologically connected with
3693 _brand_.
3694
3695 444. ~mountain-pard~, _i.e._ panther or other spotted wild beast. _Pard_,
3696 originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-_pard_ and
3697 camelo-_pard_.
3698
3699 445. ~frivolous ... Cupid~. See the speech of Oberon, _M. N. D._ ii. 1.
3700 65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as
3701 the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros
3702 who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l.
3703 1004.
3704
3705 447. ~snaky-headed Gorgon shield~. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons,
3706 frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and
3707 who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa
3708 was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her.
3709 Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield,
3710 which confounded Cupid: see _Par. Lost_, ii. 610.
3711
3712 449. ~freezed~, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically,
3713 the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.'
3714
3715 450. ~But~, except: a preposition.
3716
3717 451. ~dashed~, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.
3718
3719 452. ~blank awe~: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank
3720 astonishment,' and see _Par. Lost_, ix. 890.
3721
3722 454. ~so~, _i.e._ chaste.
3723
3724 455. ~liveried angels lackey her~, _i.e._ ministering angels attend her.
3725 So, in _L'Alleg._ 62, "the clouds in thousand _liveries_ dight"; a
3726 servant's livery being the distinctive dress _delivered_ to him by his
3727 master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy,
3728 who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good
3729 sense, without implying servility (as in _Ant. and Cleop._ i. 4. 46,
3730 "_lackeying_ the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the
3731 feminine personification: see line 396.
3732
3733 457. ~vision~: a trisyllable.
3734
3735 458. ~no gross ear~. See notes, l. 112 and 997.
3736
3737 459. ~oft converse~, frequent communion. _Oft_ is here used adjectively:
3738 this use is common in the English Bible, _e.g._ i. _Tim._ v. 23, "thine
3739 _often_ infirmities."
3740
3741 460. ~Begin to cast ... turns~. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is
3742 indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and
3743 vividness.
3744
3745 461. ~temple of the mind~, _i.e._ the body. This metaphor is common: see
3746 Shakespeare, _Temp._ i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a
3747 _temple_"; and the Bible, _John_, ii. 21, "He spake of the _temple_ of
3748 his body."
3749
3750 462. ~the soul's essence~. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually
3751 became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality.
3752
3753 465. ~most~, above all.
3754
3755 467. ~soul grows clotted~. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's _Phaedo_,
3756 in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes:
3757
3758 _Socrates_ (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself
3759 invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and
3760 immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss,
3761 and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and
3762 wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as
3763 they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this
3764 true, Cebes?
3765
3766 _Cebes._ Yes; beyond a doubt.
3767
3768 _Soc._ But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the
3769 time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body
3770 always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the
3771 desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that
3772 the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and
3773 see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I
3774 mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual
3775 principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be
3776 attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will
3777 depart pure and unalloyed?
3778
3779 _Ceb._ That is impossible.
3780
3781 _Soc._ She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual
3782 association and constant care of the body have wrought into her
3783 nature.
3784
3785 _Ceb._ Very true.
3786
3787 _Soc._ And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty
3788 and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed
3789 and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is
3790 afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about
3791 tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell
3792 us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not
3793 departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible.
3794
3795 _Ceb._ That is very likely, Socrates.
3796
3797 _Soc._ Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the
3798 souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to
3799 wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former
3800 evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the
3801 craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are
3802 imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to
3803 find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their
3804 former lives.
3805
3806 Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says:
3807
3808 Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the
3809 soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes
3810 that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from
3811 agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is
3812 obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever
3813 to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the
3814 body.--_Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues._
3815
3816 468. ~imbodies and imbrutes~, _i.e._ becomes materialised and brutish.
3817 _Imbody_, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive.
3818 _Imbrute_ (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in
3819 _Par. Lost_, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have
3820 been suggested by the _Phaedo_, where the souls of the wicked are said
3821 to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their
3822 former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and
3823 animals of that sort.
3824
3825 469. ~divine property~. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that
3826 divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, _Sat._ ii. 2. 79,
3827 "affigit humo _divinae particulam aurae_"; and Plato's _Phaedo_, "The
3828 soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal."
3829
3830 470. ~gloomy shadows damp~: see note, l. 207.
3831
3832 471. ~charnel-vaults~, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. _charnel_, Lat.
3833 _carnalis_; _caro_, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474.
3834
3835 473. ~As loth~, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the
3836 body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and
3837 degraded state.' ~it~: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in
3838 thought) '_such_ shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with
3839 'soul,' line 467.
3840
3841 474. ~sensualty~. The modern form of the word is _sensuality_.
3842
3843 475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter
3844 because 'imbruted.'
3845
3846 476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the
3847 divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it).
3848
3849 477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish)
3850 and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the
3851 idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat).
3852
3853 478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par.
3854 Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright
3855 _Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair."
3856
3857 479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is
3858 repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838;
3859 _Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426.
3860
3861 482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct
3862 question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It
3863 seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about
3864 the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more
3865 perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, Sec. 325). ~For certain~,
3866 _i.e._ for certain truth, certainly.
3867
3868 483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to
3869 founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the
3870 bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in
3871 a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is
3872 sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very
3873 expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and
3874 have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of
3875 'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.'
3876
3877 484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in
3878 Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near.
3879
3880 487. ~Best draw~: we had best draw our swords.
3881
3882 489. ~Defence is a good cause~, etc., _i.e._ 'in defending ourselves we
3883 are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.'
3884
3885 490. ~That hallo~. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has
3886 halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given
3887 in the edition of _Comus_ printed by Lawes in 1637: _He hallos; the
3888 Guardian Daemon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd._
3889
3890 491. ~you fall~, etc., _i.e._ otherwise you will fall on our swords.
3891
3892 493. ~sure~: see note, l. 246.
3893
3894 494. ~Thyrsis~, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In
3895 Milton's _Epitaphium Damonis_ it stands for Milton himself; in _Comus_
3896 it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical
3897 genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative
3898 verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the
3899 poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced
3900 this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by
3901 calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems.
3902
3903 495. ~sweetened ... dale~; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying
3904 that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music.
3905
3906 496. ~huddling~. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding:
3907 comp. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 19, "Et _properantis_ aquae per amoenos
3908 ambitus agros." ~madrigal~: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. _mandra_,
3909 a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and
3910 by Milton's father.
3911
3912 497. ~swain~: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly
3913 a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds
3914 boat-_swain_, cox-_swain_. See _Arc._ 26, "Stay, gentle _swains_," etc.
3915
3916 499. ~pent~, penned, participle of _pen_, to shut up (A.S. _pennan_, which
3917 is connected with _pin_, seen in _pin_-fold, l. 7). ~forsook~: a form of
3918 the past tense used for the participle.
3919
3920 501. ~and his next joy~, _i.e._ 'and (thou), his next joy'--words
3921 addressed to the second brother.
3922
3923 502. ~trivial toy~, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but
3924 'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known.
3925 Compare _Il Pens._ 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your _toys_"; and
3926 Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a
3927 cause."
3928
3929 503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by.
3930
3931 506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of
3932 mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom
3933 common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this
3934 correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, Sec. 187.
3935
3936 508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive
3937 clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in
3938 Shakespeare (Abbott, Sec. 37), where it sometimes has the force of an
3939 adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the
3940 radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc.
3941
3942 509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_);
3943 hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being
3944 common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of
3945 known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in
3946 _sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his
3947 face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_
3948 (1886), page 170.
3949
3950 510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part.
3951
3952 511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This
3953 exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas,
3954 for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line
3955 _true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his
3956 having arrived at the age of twenty-three_.
3957
3958 512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written
3959 'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.
3960
3961 513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216.
3962
3963 514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12;
3964 _Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame."
3965
3966 515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the
3967 chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as
3968 "taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117,
3969 "great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung."
3970
3971 516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past
3972 participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il
3973 Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn";
3974 Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_.
3975
3976 517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii.
3977 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a
3978 lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by
3979 Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a
3980 terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such
3981 fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj.
3982 _chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe
3983 and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_.
3984
3985 518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice,
3986 entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in
3987 the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_);
3988 here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus.
3989
3990 519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_.
3991
3992 520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123)
3993 speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was
3994 'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel
3995 of the earth.'
3996
3997 521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up
3998 within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall).
3999
4000 523. ~witcheries~, enchantments.
4001
4002 526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or
4003 murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here)
4004 over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817
4005 and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless."
4006
4007 529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those
4008 signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure
4009 is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp
4010 them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. +charakter+, an
4011 engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The
4012 word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the
4013 first.
4014
4015 531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field,
4016 generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8,
4017 "low-browed rocks."
4018
4019 532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is
4020 frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade'
4021 might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.'
4022
4023 533. ~monstrous rout~; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp.
4024 'the bottom of the monstrous world,' _Lyc._ 158. In _Aen._ vii. 15, we
4025 read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling
4026 noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling."
4027
4028 534. ~stabled wolves~, wolves in their dens. _Stable_ (= a standing-place)
4029 is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, _e.g._ in _Par. Lost_,
4030 xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and _stabled_." Comp. "Stable for
4031 camels," _Ezek._ xxv. 5, and the Latin _stabulum_, _Aen._ vi. 179,
4032 _stabula alta ferarum_.
4033
4034 535. ~Hecate~: see l. 135.
4035
4036 536. ~bowers~: see note, l. 45.
4037
4038 539. ~unweeting~; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in
4039 Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, both in the compounds and in the simple verb
4040 _weet_, a corruption of _wit_ (A.S. _witan_, to know). Compare _Par.
4041 Reg._ i. 126, "_unweeting_, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." _Sams.
4042 Agon._ 1680; Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, "Virginius came _to weet_ the
4043 judge's will."
4044
4045 540. ~by then~, _i.e._ by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus
4046 implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is
4047 generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone
4048 is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical.
4049
4050 542. ~knot-grass~. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however,
4051 suppose marjoram to be intended here. ~dew-besprent~, _i.e._ besprinkled
4052 with dew: comp. _Lyc._ 29. _Be_ is an intensive prefix; _sprent_ is
4053 connected with M.E. _sprengen_, to scatter, of which _sprinkle_ is the
4054 frequentative form.
4055
4056 543. ~sat me down~: see note, l. 61.
4057
4058 544. ~canopied, and interwove~. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 2. 49, 'I know a
4059 bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to
4060 'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of _weave_, viz.
4061 _wove_ and _woven_: see _Arc._ 47.
4062
4063 545. ~flaunting~, showy, garish. In _Lyc._ 146, the poet first wrote
4064 'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.'
4065
4066 547. ~meditate ... minstrelsy~, _i.e._ to sing a pastoral song: comp.
4067 _Lyc._ 32. 66. _To meditate the muse_ is a Virgilian phrase: see _Ecl._
4068 i. and vi. The Lat. _meditor_ has the meaning of 'to apply one's self
4069 to,' and does not mean merely to ponder.
4070
4071 548. ~had~, should have: comp. l. 394. ~ere a close~, _i.e._ before he had
4072 finished his song (Masson). _Close_ occurs in the technical sense of
4073 'the final cadence of a piece of music.'
4074
4075 549. ~wonted~: see note, l. 332.
4076
4077 550. ~barbarous~: comp. _Son._ xii. 3, "a _barbarous_ noise environs me Of
4078 owls and cuckoos, etc."
4079
4080 551. ~listened them~. The omission of _to_ after verbs of hearing is
4081 frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List
4082 a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, Sec. 199). 'Them': this
4083 refers to the _sounds_ implied in 'dissonance.'
4084
4085 552. ~unusual stop~. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft
4086 and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230.
4087
4088 553. ~drowsy frighted~, _i.e._ drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's
4089 rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a
4090 state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their
4091 uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where
4092 the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as
4093 expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a
4094 hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' _Il Pens._ 146, and others of Milton's
4095 remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the
4096 printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73.
4097
4098 554. ~Sleep~ (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot
4099 with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. _Macbeth_, ii. l. 51, "curtained
4100 sleep."
4101
4102 555. 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly
4103 that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly
4104 have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could
4105 always be filled by such music.' Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 604, "She all
4106 night long her amorous descant sung; _Silence was pleased_"; also
4107 Jonson's _Vision of Delight_:
4108
4109 "Yet let it like an odour rise
4110 To all the senses here,
4111 And fall like sleep upon their eyes,
4112 Or music in their ear."
4113
4114 558. ~took~, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of _take_, and compare
4115 'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word.
4116
4117 560. ~Still~, always. This use of _still_ is frequent in Elizabethan
4118 writers (Abbott, Sec. 69). ~I was all ear~. Warton notes this expressive
4119 idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in
4120 _Tempest_, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." _All_ is an attribute of _I_.
4121
4122 561. ~create a soul~, etc., _i.e._ breathe life even into the dead: comp.
4123 _L'Alleg._ 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in
4124 an old edition of Quarles' _Emblems_, in which "a soul in the figure of
4125 an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its
4126 prison." _Rom._ vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this
4127 death?"
4128
4129 565. ~harrowed~, distracted, torn as by a _harrow_. This is probably the
4130 meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue;
4131 hence some read "harried with grief and fear."
4132
4133 567. ~How sweet ... how near~. This sentence contains two exclamations:
4134 this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ...
4135 _and_ how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How
4136 sweet..., how near the deadly snare _is_!"
4137
4138 568. ~lawns~. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of
4139 grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a
4140 smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the
4141 word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it
4142 is said to be cognate with _llan_ used as a prefix in the names of
4143 certain Welsh towns, _e.g._ Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes
4144 the form launde.
4145
4146 569. ~often trod by day~, which I have often trod by day, and therefore
4147 know well.
4148
4149 570. ~mine ear~: see note, l. 171.
4150
4151 571. ~wizard~. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the
4152 suffix _-ard_, or _-art_, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton
4153 occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or
4154 magical, without implying contempt: see _Lyc._ 55, "Deva spreads her
4155 _wizard_ stream."
4156
4157 572. ~certain signs~: see l. 644.
4158
4159 574. ~aidless~: an obsolete word. See Trench's _English Past and Present_
4160 for a list of about 150 words in _-less_, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92,
4161 note. ~wished~: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of
4162 the verb.
4163
4164 575. ~such two~: two persons of such and such description.
4165
4166 577. ~durst not stay~. _Durst_ is the old past tense of _dare_, and is
4167 used as an auxiliary: the form _dared_ is much more modern, and may be
4168 used as an independent verb.
4169
4170 578. ~sprung~: see note, l. 256.
4171
4172 579. ~till I had found~. The language is extremely condensed here, the
4173 meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I _had
4174 found_ you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking
4175 back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long
4176 narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had
4177 found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight,
4178 and determined to continue it until I had found (_i.e._ should have
4179 found) you.' Comp. Abbott Sec. 361.
4180
4181 581. ~triple knot~, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell.
4182
4183 584. "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final
4184 efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy,
4185 delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd
4186 adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains."
4187
4188 585. ~safely~, confidently. ~period~, sentence.
4189
4190 586. ~for me~, _i.e._ for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l.
4191 602.
4192
4193 588. ~Which erring men call Chance~. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate;
4194 "which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, _Essay on Man_:
4195
4196 "All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
4197 All chance, direction, which thou canst not see."
4198
4199 588. ~this I hold firm~. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this
4200 belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly."
4201
4202 590. ~enthralled~, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022.
4203
4204 591. ~which ... harm~, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.
4205
4206 595-7. ~Gathered like scum~, etc. According to one editor, this image is
4207 "taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots
4208 which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun's body and
4209 after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that
4210 fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes
4211 it."
4212
4213 598. ~pillared firmament~. The firmament (Lat. _firmus_, firm or solid) is
4214 here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The
4215 ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp.
4216 _Par. Reg._ iv. 55; also _Wint. Tale_, ii. l. 100, "If I mistake In
4217 those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to
4218 bear A schoolboy's top."
4219
4220 602. ~for~, as regards. ~let ... girt~, though he be surrounded.
4221
4222 603. ~grisly legions~. 'Grisly,' radically the same as _grue-some_ =
4223 horrible, causing terror. In _Par. Lost_, iv. 821, Satan is called "the
4224 grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable.
4225
4226 604. ~sooty flag of Acheron~. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the
4227 lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world
4228 generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher's _Locusts_ (1627): "All hell
4229 run out and sooty flags display."
4230
4231 605. ~Harpies and Hydras~. The Harpies (lit. 'spoilers') were unclean
4232 monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and
4233 gaunt faces. _Hydras_, here used as a general name for monstrous
4234 water-serpents (Gk. _hyd{=o}r_, water); the name was first given to the
4235 nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See _Son._ xv. 7, "new rebellions
4236 raise Their _Hydra_ heads"; the epithet 'hydra-headed' being applied to
4237 a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from
4238 every endeavour to repress it.
4239
4240 607. ~return his purchase back~, _i.e._ 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the
4241 MS.) 'release his new-got prey.' To purchase (Fr. _pour-chasser_)
4242 originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or
4243 foul: it thus came to mean 'to steal' (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson,
4244 and Shakespeare), and 'to buy' (its current sense). See Trench, _Study
4245 of Words_; _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 45, "They will steal anything, and call it
4246 _purchase_"; i. _Hen. IV._ ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our
4247 _purchase_."
4248
4249 609. ~venturous~, ready to venture. See note, l. 79.
4250
4251 610. ~yet~, nevertheless. The meaning is: '_Though_ thy courage is
4252 useless, _yet_ I love it.' ~emprise~: an obsolete form (common in Spenser)
4253 of _enterprise_. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence
4254 'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.'
4255
4256 611. ~can do thee little stead~, _i.e._ can help thee little. _Stead_,
4257 both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases, _e.g._ 'to
4258 stand in good stead,' and in composition, _e.g._ _stead_fast,
4259 home_stead_, in_stead_, Hamp_stead_, etc. Its strict sense is place or
4260 position: comp. _Il Pens._ 3, "How little you _bested_."
4261
4262 612. ~Far other arms~, _i.e._ very different arms. 'Other' has here its
4263 radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an
4264 adverb.
4265
4266 615. ~unthread~, loosen. Comp. _Temp._ iv. l. 259, "Go charge my goblins
4267 that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their
4268 sinews With aged cramps."
4269
4270 617. ~As to make this relation~, _i.e._ as to be able to tell this.
4271
4272 619. ~a certain shepherd lad~. This is supposed to refer to Charles
4273 Diodati, Milton's dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th
4274 elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem _Epitaphium
4275 Damonis_, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical
4276 skill:
4277
4278 "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach
4279 Thy friend the name and healing powers of each."
4280
4281 (_Cowper's translation._)
4282
4283 620. ~Of small regard to see to~: in colloquial English, 'not much to
4284 look at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek +kalos idein+: see English
4285 Bible, "goodly to look to," i. _Sam._ xvi. 12; _Ezek._ xxiii. 15; _Jer._
4286 xlvii. 3.
4287
4288 621. ~virtuous~, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. _Il Pens._ 113,
4289 "the virtuous ring and glass."
4290
4291 623. ~beg me sing~: see note, l. 304.
4292
4293 625. ~ecstasy~: see note, l. 261. The Greek _ekstasis_ = standing out of
4294 one's self.
4295
4296 626. ~scrip~, wallet.
4297
4298 627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,'
4299 'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its
4300 popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.'
4301
4302 630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative.
4303
4304 633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the
4305 plant or the root.
4306
4307 634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent,
4308 _i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix
4309 _un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction,
4310 reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_.
4311
4312 635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in
4313 Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in
4314 _clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off
4315 my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in
4316 Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of
4317 _clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe.
4318 In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse.
4319 _Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes),
4320 _dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc.
4321
4322 636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus:
4323 And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When
4324 Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who
4325 said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring
4326 deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of
4327 Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee
4328 all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast
4329 drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee;
4330 so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the
4331 slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground,
4332 and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the
4333 flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for
4334 mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible"
4335 (_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his
4336 first Elegy Milton alludes to M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells
4337 of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and
4338 _moly_."
4339
4340 638. ~He called it Haemony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619.
4341 _Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the
4342 adjective _Haemonian_ is used, in Latin poetry as = _Thessalian_,
4343 Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as
4344 a land of magic, 'Haemonian' acquired the sense of 'magical' (see Ovid,
4345 _Met._ vii 264, "_Haemonia_ radices valle resectas," etc.), and Milton's
4346 Haemony is simply "the magical plant." Coleridge supposes that by the
4347 prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and
4348 triumph of the Christian life.
4349
4350 639. ~sovran use~: see note, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms,
4351 medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came
4352 to imply 'all-healing,' 'supremely efficacious'; see _Cor._ ii. 1. 125,
4353 "The most _sovereign_ prescription in Galen."
4354
4355 640. ~mildew blast~: comp. _Arc._ 48-53, _Ham._ iii. 4. 64, "Here is your
4356 husband; Like a _mildew'd_ ear _Blasting_ his wholesome brother." A
4357 mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew
4358 (A.S. meledeaw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry
4359 east winds was favourable to its formation.
4360
4361 642. ~pursed it up~, etc., _i.e._ put it in my wallet, though I did not
4362 attach much importance to it. ~little reckoning~: comp. _Lyc._ 116, where
4363 the very same phrase occurs.
4364
4365 643. ~Till now that~. Here _that_ = when, the clause introduced by it
4366 being explanatory of _now_ (see Abbott, Sec. 284).
4367
4368 646-7. ~Entered ... came off~. 'I entered into the very midst of his
4369 treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.' _Lime-twigs_ = snares; in
4370 allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared
4371 with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime').
4372 Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: see _Macbeth_, iv.
4373 2. 34; _Two Gent._ ii. 2. 68; ii. _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 91; etc.
4374
4375 649. ~necromancer's hall~. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a
4376 magician's castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian
4377 knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry. _Necromancer_, lit.
4378 one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk. +nekros+, a
4379 corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with
4380 that of the Lat. _niger_, black, the art of necromancy came to be called
4381 "the black art."
4382
4383 650. ~Where if he be~, Lat. _ubi si sit_: in English the relative adverb
4384 in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative
4385 adverb; thus, '_and_ if he be _there_.'
4386
4387 651. ~brandished blade~. Comp. Hermes' advice to Ulysses: "When it shall
4388 be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp
4389 sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her,"
4390 _Odyssey_, x. ~break his glass~. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir
4391 Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, _F. Q._ i. 12,
4392 stanza 56.
4393
4394 652. ~luscious~, delicious. The word is a corruption of _lustious_ from
4395 O.E. _lust_ = pleasure: see note, l. 49.
4396
4397 653. ~But seize his wand~. The force of this injunction is shown by lines
4398 815-819.
4399
4400 654. ~menace high~, violent threat. _High_ is thus used in a number of
4401 figurative senses, _e.g._ a high wind, a high hand, high passions (_Par.
4402 Lost_, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc.
4403
4404 655. ~Sons of Vulcan~. In the _Aeneid_ (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that
4405 Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), "vomited from his throat
4406 huge volumes of smoke" when pursued by Hercules, "_Faucibus ingentem
4407 fumum_," etc.
4408
4409 657. ~apace~; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its
4410 meaning: in Chaucer it means 'at a foot pace,' _i.e._ slowly. The first
4411 syllable is the indefinite article '_a_' = one (Skeat).
4412
4413 658. ~bear~: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, Sec. 365). (_Stage
4414 Direction_) ~puts by~: puts on one side, refuses. ~goes about to rise~,
4415 _i.e._ endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of _go about_ still
4416 lingers in the phrase 'to _go about_ one's business'; comp. 'to _set
4417 about_' anything.
4418
4419 659. ~but~, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have
4420 here a verb in the present tense ('are chained'), a construction which
4421 well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer's
4422 spell (see Abbott, Sec. 371).
4423
4424 660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton
4425 has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled
4426 _alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once
4427 correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster
4428 is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too
4429 much conceiving."
4430
4431 661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave
4432 this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as
4433 Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in
4434 the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause,
4435 which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne,
4436 an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid,
4437 she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. +daphne+): comp, the story of
4438 Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106.
4439
4440 662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._
4441 xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The
4442 sight of this so horrid spectacle."
4443
4444 663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the
4445 freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733).
4446
4447 665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly
4448 nook."
4449
4450 668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12.
4451
4452 669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6.
4453
4454 672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat.
4455 _cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gul{=a}b_,
4456 rose-water.
4457
4458 673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96.
4459
4460 674. ~syrups~: Arab, _shar{=a}b_, a drink, wine.
4461
4462 675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following
4463 lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new
4464 thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a
4465 drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every
4466 sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the
4467 bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though
4468 his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so
4469 helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had
4470 given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in
4471 greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful"
4472 (_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek
4473 adj. = sorrow-dispelling (+ne+, privative; +penthos+, grief). It is here
4474 used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used
4475 as a general name for drugs that relieve pain.
4476
4477 677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is,
4478 'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is,
4479 nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.'
4480
4481 679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy
4482 foe, to thy sweet self too cruel."
4483
4484 680. 'Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on
4485 certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should
4486 have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition
4487 you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred
4488 glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.' Comp.
4489 Shakespeare, _Son._ iv. "Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon
4490 thyself thy beauty's legacy," etc.
4491
4492 685. ~unexempt condition~, _i.e._ a condition binding on all and at all
4493 times, a law of human nature.
4494
4495 687. ~mortal frailty~, _i.e._ weak mortals: abstract for concrete.
4496
4497 688. ~That~. The antecedent of this relative is _you_, l. 682. See note,
4498 l. 2.
4499
4500 689. ~timely~, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's
4501 _Marmion_, iii. 223, "gambol rude and _timeless_ joke"): comp. _Son._
4502 ii. 8, "_timely_-happy spirits"; and l. 970.
4503
4504 693. ~Was this ... abode~? The verb is singular, because 'cottage' and
4505 'safe abode' convey one idea: see Comus's words, l. 320. Notice also
4506 that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling.
4507
4508 694. ~aspects~: accent on final syllable.
4509
4510 695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is
4511 radically connected with _awe_.
4512
4513 698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt
4514 _visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is
4515 to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672
4516 and 700, denotes _by means of_.
4517
4518 700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by
4519 catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to
4520 _lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three
4521 words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless)
4522 and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet
4523 root.
4524
4525 702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has
4526 usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_
4527 in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line
4528 'offer' = the thing offered.
4529
4530 703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has
4531 borrowed from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, +Kakou gar andros dor' onesin ouk
4532 echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton).
4533
4534 704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a
4535 rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former
4536 controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv.
4537 439).
4538
4539 707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool
4540 dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts,
4541 etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is
4542 tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a
4543 doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of
4544 _sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole
4545 phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.'
4546 It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses
4547 of 'budge.'
4548
4549 708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt
4550 for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of
4551 the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and
4552 was fond of calling himself +ho kyon+ (the dog).
4553
4554 709. ~the~: here used generically.
4555
4556 711. ~unwithdrawing~. In this participle the termination _-ing_ seems
4557 almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "_all-obeying_
4558 breath" (= obeyed by all), _A. and C._ iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are
4559 not only full but continuous.
4560
4561 714. ~all to please ... curious taste~. _All_ = entirely, here modifies
4562 the infinitives please and sate. _Curious_ = fastidious: its original
4563 sense is 'careful' or 'anxious.' Compare the two senses of _exquisite_,
4564 note l. 359.
4565
4566 715. ~set~, _i.e._ she set. The pronominal subject is omitted.
4567
4568 717. ~To deck~: infinitive of purpose.
4569
4570 718. ~in her own loins~, _i.e._ in the bowels of the earth.
4571
4572 719. ~hutched~ = stored up, enclosed. _Hutch_ is an old word for chest or
4573 coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.'
4574
4575 720. ~To store her children with~, _i.e._ _wherewith_ to store her
4576 children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).'
4577 'Store' = provide.
4578
4579 721. ~pet of temperance~, _i.e._ a sudden and transitory fit of
4580 temperance. ~pulse~. So Daniel and his three companions refused the
4581 dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; _Dan._ i.
4582
4583 722. ~frieze~, coarse woollen cloth.
4584
4585 723. ~All-giver~. Comp. Gk. +pandora+, an epithet applied to the earth
4586 as the giver of all.
4587
4588 725. 'And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a
4589 penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature's
4590 bastards': see _Hebrews_ xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof
4591 all have been made partakers, then are ye _bastards, and not sons_."
4592
4593 728. ~Who~. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding
4594 it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun _her_,
4595 _i.e._ the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have
4596 their full force as genitives: comp. _L'Alleg._ 124, "her grace whom" =
4597 the grace of her whom. ~surcharged~: overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732).
4598 ~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of
4599 'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles
4600 as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur
4601 in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.).
4602
4603 729. ~strangled~, suffocated.
4604
4605 730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the
4606 flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both
4607 clauses in this line are absolute.
4608
4609 731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one
4610 illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of
4611 speech was used for another.
4612
4613 732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355.
4614
4615 733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference
4616 to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze
4617 abroad, to proclaim.
4618
4619 734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with
4620 their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.'
4621
4622 735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is
4623 from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _oeuvre_, work).
4624
4625 737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of
4626 this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims
4627 kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.
4628
4629 739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these
4630 seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and
4631 Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and
4632 Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8):
4633
4634 "Earthlier happy is the rose distilled
4635 Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
4636 Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness."
4637
4638 See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea
4639 in all its subtleties" (Masson).
4640
4641 743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp.
4642 _Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion."
4643
4644 744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par.
4645 Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._
4646 33. The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now
4647 have _-ing_ (Abbott, Sec. 374).
4648
4649 747. ~most~, as many as possible.
4650
4651 748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._
4652 i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_ is
4653 derived from _home_.
4654
4655 749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for
4656 household occupations.
4657
4658 750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat.
4659 _granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or
4660 cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came
4661 to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so
4662 used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par.
4663 Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of
4664 purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these
4665 were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,'
4666 'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect.
4667 on Eng. Lang._ p. 55).
4668
4669 751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet
4670 of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card:
4671 comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into
4672 _hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word.
4673
4674 752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what
4675 need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from
4676 Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used
4677 to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it
4678 follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate.
4679
4680 753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed
4681 Dawn," +euplokamos Eos+.
4682
4683 755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108.
4684
4685 756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus.
4686
4687 757. ~but that~: were it not that.
4688
4689 758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l.
4690 170.
4691
4692 759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments.
4693 _Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed.
4694 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the
4695 weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most
4696 goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words
4697 clothed in _reason's garb_."
4698
4699 760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue
4700 allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the
4701 _boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word
4702 (also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24),
4703 Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned
4704 snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The
4705 spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start
4706 out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.
4707
4708 763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children
4709 should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503.
4710
4711 764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is
4712 feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent
4713 is unnecessarily repeated.
4714
4715 765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good.
4716
4717 767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable,
4718 both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of
4719 Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth
4720 diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the
4721 Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his
4722 college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning
4723 temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly
4724 dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own
4725 spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.
4726
4727 768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being
4728 heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv.
4729 1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough."
4730
4731 769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be
4732 fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_.
4733
4734 770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds =
4735 wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of
4736 meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or
4737 unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious.
4738
4739 774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least
4740 surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially
4741 = not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a
4742 whit, _naught_ = no whit.
4743
4744 776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note,
4745 l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete.
4746
4747 779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that
4748 may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed,
4749 _e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc.
4750
4751 780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English:
4752 it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of
4753 _enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines
4754 780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic
4755 fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been
4756 propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)."
4757
4758 782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred
4759 rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6,
4760 Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with
4761 fair beams did her adorn."
4762
4763 783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no
4764 purpose.
4765
4766 784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for
4767 _neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether),
4768 and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and
4769 the first may as well be contracted as the second.
4770
4771 785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_
4772 Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he
4773 learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of
4774 his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high
4775 mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord,
4776 and the Lord for the body."
4777
4778 790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is
4779 'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety
4780 of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad
4781 occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik
4782 suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first
4783 become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had
4784 thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love,"
4785 as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as
4786 being the instrument of sophistry.
4787
4788 791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_:
4789 comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much
4790 Ado_, v. 1. 75.
4791
4792 794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been
4793 _carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40,
4794 "Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of
4795 the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him
4796 from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40.
4797
4798 797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become
4799 sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp.
4800 Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_."
4801
4802 800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative.
4803
4804 801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world."
4805
4806 802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet
4807 is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat
4808 which 'dips' or moistens his body.
4809
4810 804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the
4811 _Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been
4812 provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into
4813 Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the
4814 Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma
4815 in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as
4816 in both cases equivalent to _denounces_.
4817
4818 806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady.
4819
4820 808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our
4821 society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and
4822 other foundations" (Keightley).
4823
4824 809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous =
4825 dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four
4826 primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy
4827 (see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, Sec. ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry,
4828 thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of
4829 nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. +melancholia+, black bile.
4830 See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy";
4831 and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to
4832 the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the
4833 cause of lunacy."
4834
4835 811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of
4836 direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more
4837 usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new
4838 pleasures."
4839
4840 814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a
4841 verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_
4842 the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on
4843 names adored."
4844
4845 816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism:
4846 see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of
4847 this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the
4848 ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because
4849 'without' also governs 'mutters.'
4850
4851 817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by
4852 reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs
4853 in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the
4854 followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the
4855 neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of
4856 Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the
4857 neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526.
4858
4859 820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The
4860 deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural
4861 interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's
4862 court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher
4863 than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the
4864 mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is
4865 accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.
4866
4867 821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated
4868 from the antecedent: see note, l. 2.
4869
4870 822. ~Meliboeus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i.
4871 Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given
4872 in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of
4873 Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a
4874 'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the
4875 truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this
4876 poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser.
4877
4878 823. ~soothest~, truest. The A.S. _soth_ meant _true_; hence also 'a true
4879 thing' = truth. It survives in _soothe_ (lit. to affirm to be true),
4880 _soothsay_ (see l. 874), and _forsooth_ (= for a truth).
4881
4882 824. ~from hence~. _Hence_ represents an A.S. word _heonan_, _-an_ being
4883 a suffix = from: so that in the phrase 'from hence' the force of the
4884 preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from
4885 forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp. _Arc._ 3: "which _we from
4886 hence_ descry."
4887
4888 825. ~with moist curb sways~: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a _numen fluminis_
4889 or river-deity.
4890
4891 826. ~Sabrina~: The following is Milton's version of the legend:--"After
4892 this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to
4893 Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High
4894 Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years,
4895 died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact,
4896 and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part,
4897 Loegria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now
4898 Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a
4899 fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back
4900 into Loegria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now
4901 marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to
4902 this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were
4903 found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair,
4904 the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting
4905 the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before
4906 contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being
4907 forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared,
4908 Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other;
4909 and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages
4910 made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a
4911 daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was
4912 off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment,
4913 divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in
4914 rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine,
4915 was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an
4916 army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by
4917 the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But
4918 not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra
4919 she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims
4920 that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by
4921 length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of
4922 Britain_ (1670).
4923
4924 827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwilum_,
4925 instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time.
4926
4927 830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The
4928 prefix _step_ (A.S. _steop-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to
4929 a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words
4930 'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of
4931 mother in the form _dam_.
4932
4933 832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96.
4934
4935 834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet,
4936 as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.
4937
4938 835. ~aged Nereus' hall~, the abode of old Nereus, _i.e._ the bottom of
4939 the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described
4940 as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil, _grandaevus
4941 Nereus_. See also, l. 871, and compare Jonson's _Neptune's Triumph_,
4942 last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home
4943 with pearls."
4944
4945 836. ~piteous of~, _i.e._ full of pity for; comp. Lat. _miseret te
4946 aliorum_ (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive
4947 sense; its active sense is 'causing pity,' _i.e._ pitiful. Comp. Abbott,
4948 Sec. 3. ~reared her lank head~, _i.e._ raised up her drooping head: comp.
4949 _Par. Lost_, viii.: "In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he
4950 _reared_ me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective _lanky_ is
4951 in common use = tall and thin.
4952
4953 837. ~imbathe~, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being
4954 reduplicated, as in Lat. _incidere in_.
4955
4956 838. ~nectared lavers~, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented
4957 with asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. ~asphodel~; the
4958 same, both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see _Lyc._ 150, where it takes
4959 the form 'daffadillies'): Gk. +asphodelos+, M.E. _affodille_. The
4960 initial _d_ in daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l.
4961 851.
4962
4963 839. ~the porch~. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind:
4964 comp. _Haml._ i. 5. 63: "the porches of mine ear"; also the phrase, "the
4965 five gateways of knowledge."
4966
4967 840. ~ambrosial oils~, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and
4968 compare Virgil's use of _ambrosia_ in _Georg._ iv. 415, _liquidum
4969 ambrosiae diffundit odorem_.
4970
4971 841. ~quick immortal change~: comp. l. 10.
4972
4973 842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in
4974 Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.
4975
4976 844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133;
4977 "twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188.
4978
4979 845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting
4980 influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used
4981 generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and
4982 blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin'
4983 (_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which
4984 for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence
4985 mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare,
4986 _Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus
4987 And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_
4988 whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_.
4989 ~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it
4990 cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc.
4991
4992 846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious,
4993 like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite
4994 called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the
4995 current verb is _beshrew_.
4996
4997 847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_.
4998
4999 850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase
5000 to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862.
5001
5002 852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of
5003 Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson).
5004
5005 853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660.
5006
5007 854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._
5008 xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes."
5009
5010 857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song.
5011
5012 858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The
5013 adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are
5014 directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or
5015 not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as
5016 a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.
5017
5018 863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea
5019 is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound
5020 epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.'
5021 _Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see
5022 _Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume."
5023
5024 865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense
5025 of 'a river.'
5026
5027 868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. +Okeanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded
5028 the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river
5029 called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and
5030 afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and
5031 Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact,
5032 throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent
5033 epithets" of the various divinities.
5034
5035 869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon
5036 (Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_,
5037 xii. 27, "And the Shaker of the Earth with his trident in his hands,"
5038 etc. In _Par. Lost_, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace
5039 petrifick."
5040
5041 870. ~Tethys' ... pace~. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being
5042 the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (+potnia
5043 Tethys+), and in Ovid 'the hoary.'
5044
5045 871. ~hoary Nereus~: see note, l. 835.
5046
5047 872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the
5048 sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own
5049 hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have
5050 been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future."
5051 _Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note
5052 there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the
5053 monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463.
5054
5055 873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of
5056 the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the
5057 command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He
5058 was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.
5059
5060 874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been
5061 changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors
5062 as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823.
5063
5064 875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leuke+, +thea+), the
5065 name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had
5066 thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas.
5067
5068 876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his
5069 mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans
5070 with their god of harbours, Portumnus.
5071
5072 877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter
5073 of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+).
5074 Comp. _Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson):
5075
5076 "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest
5077 To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast."
5078
5079 'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth
5080 worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical.
5081 Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On
5082 the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally,
5083 see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296.
5084
5085 878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenope's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see
5086 note, l. 253) were Parthenope, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the
5087 first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid
5088 liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana
5089 Acheloeiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a
5090 sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of
5091 smoothing her hair with a golden comb.
5092
5093 881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ...
5094 locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is
5095 "she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks.
5096
5097 882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is
5098 greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panope with all her
5099 sisters played."
5100
5101 885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145,
5102 "Orpheus' self may heave his head."
5103
5104 887. ~bridle in~, _i.e._ restrain.
5105
5106 888. ~have~: subjunctive after _till_, as frequently in Milton.
5107
5108 890. ~rushy-fringed~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be
5109 rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from
5110 the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29;
5111 "false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14.
5112
5113 891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb
5114 is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent
5115 to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or
5116 their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit
5117 the _dank_" (= the water).
5118
5119 893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified
5120 with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_.
5121 ~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note
5122 there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as
5123 an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the
5124 suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still
5125 survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden
5126 hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_,
5127 _glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench,
5128 _English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._
5129 45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold
5130 that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_.
5131
5132 894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the
5133 Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey
5134 (Pers. _turk_, a Turk).
5135
5136 895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were
5137 found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon
5138 grows on its banks.
5139
5140 897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with
5141 _printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no
5142 print of step hath been."
5143
5144 902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's
5145 song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina
5146 continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best').
5147
5148 913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,'
5149 l. 155.
5150
5151 914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in
5152 the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid
5153 (_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416.
5154
5155 916. ~Next~: an adverb modifying 'touch.'
5156
5157 917. ~glutinous~, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the
5158 effect to the cause.
5159
5160 921. ~Amphitrite~: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea.
5161
5162 923. ~Anchises line~: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who
5163 was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who
5164 was the son of old Anchises.
5165
5166 924. ~may ... miss~. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may)
5167 fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.'
5168
5169 925. ~brimmed~. The passive participle is so often used where we now use
5170 the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the
5171 other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of _bank_ (comp. l. 119), so
5172 that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks.
5173
5174 928. ~singed~, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good
5175 wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of
5176 this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the
5177 wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to
5178 the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow."
5179
5180 933. ~beryl~: in the Bible (_Rev._ xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one
5181 of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin:
5182 comp. Arab, _billaur_, crystal. ~golden ore~. As a matter of fact gold has
5183 been found in the Welsh mountains.
5184
5185 934. ~May thy lofty head~, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May
5186 thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here
5187 and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and
5188 cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and
5189 'upon' a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the
5190 notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty
5191 vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses
5192 with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is
5193 'thou,' implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found
5194 in _L'Alleg._ 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and _judge_
5195 the prize'; also in _Il Pens._ 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to
5196 _walk ... and love_, etc.': also in _Lyc._ 88, 89. The explanation
5197 adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek
5198 verbs--+peristephanoo+, 'to put a crown round,' and +epistephanoo+, "to
5199 put a crown upon": thus, "May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with
5200 many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be _crowned upon_
5201 with groves of myrrh and cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and
5202 'upon' an adverb.
5203
5204 In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, _Song ends_.
5205
5206 942. ~Not a waste~, etc., _i.e._ 'Let there not be a superfluous or
5207 unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note,
5208 l. 728.
5209
5210 945. ~gloomy covert wide~: see note, l. 207.
5211
5212 946. ~not many furlongs~. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up
5213 the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the
5214 mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when
5215 Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed.
5216 This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change
5217 of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the
5218 length of a field, and is now a measure of length.
5219
5220 949. ~many a friend~. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been
5221 explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of
5222 the French _mesnie_, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the
5223 preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the
5224 plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more
5225 correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. _manig_, which was in
5226 old English used with a singular noun and without the article, _e.g._
5227 _manig mann_ = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite
5228 article began to be inserted; thus _mony enne thing_ = many a thing,
5229 just as we say 'what _a_ thing,' 'such _a_ thing.' This would seem to
5230 show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no
5231 connection with the French word _mesnie_. Milton, in this passage, uses
5232 'many a friend' with a plural verb. ~gratulate~. The simple verb is now
5233 replaced by the compound _congratulate_ (Lat. _gratulari_, to wish joy
5234 to a person).
5235
5236 950. ~wished~, _i.e._ wished for; see note, l. 574. ~and beside~, _i.e._
5237 'and where, besides,' etc.
5238
5239 952. ~jigs~, lively dances.
5240
5241 958. ~Back, shepherds, back!~ On the rising of the curtain, the stage is
5242 occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant
5243 Spirit enters with the above words. ~Enough your play~, _i.e._ we have had
5244 enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.'
5245
5246 959. ~sunshine holiday~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 98, where the same expression is
5247 used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and
5248 lines 91-99 of _L'Allegro_. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is
5249 'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such
5250 compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it
5251 is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms
5252 (_e.g._ holiday) or the separate words (_e.g._ holy day) are being used.
5253
5254 960. ~Here be~: see note, l. 12. ~without duck or nod~: words used to
5255 describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country
5256 people.
5257
5258 961. ~trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise~: words used to describe
5259 the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. _L'Alleg._
5260 33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." _Trod_ (or
5261 trodden), past participle of _tread_: 'to tread a measure' is a common
5262 expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' _i.e._ courtly mien;
5263 _guise_ is a doublet of _wise_ = way, _e.g._ 'in this wise,'
5264 'like_wise_,' 'other_wise_.' In such pairs of words as _guise_ and
5265 _wise_, _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, the forms in _gu_ have
5266 come into English through the French.
5267
5268 963. ~Mercury~ (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as
5269 such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. +ptenopedilos+): his
5270 name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement.
5271
5272 964. ~mincing Dryades~. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. +drys+, a
5273 tree), here represented as mincing, _i.e._ tripping with short steps,
5274 unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. _Merch. of V._
5275 iii. 4. 67: "turn two _mincing_ steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a
5276 person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation.
5277
5278 965. ~lawns ... leas~. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow.
5279
5280 966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons
5281 to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater.
5282
5283 967. ~ye~: see note, l. 216.
5284
5285 968. ~so goodly grown~, _i.e._ grown so goodly. _Goodly_ = handsome (A.S.
5286 _godlic_ = goodlike).
5287
5288 970. ~timely~. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two
5289 phrases in _Macbeth_: "To gain the _timely_ inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To
5290 call _timely_ on him," ii. 3. 51.
5291
5292 972. ~assays~, trials, temptations. _Assay_ is used by Milton in the
5293 sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see _Arc._ 80, "I will
5294 _assay_, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to
5295 the form _essay_ (radically the same word); and the use of _assay_ has
5296 been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing
5297 of metals. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 932, "hard _assays_ and ill
5298 successes"; _Par. Reg._ i. 264, iv. 478.
5299
5300 974, 5. ~To triumph~. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly
5301 expressed in these lines. _Stage Direction_: ~Spirit epiloguizes~, _i.e._
5302 sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts
5303 of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered
5304 1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by
5305 Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into
5306 a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst
5307 descending upon the stage:--
5308
5309 _From the heavens_ now I fly,
5310 And those happy climes that lie
5311 Where day never shuts his eye,
5312 Up in the broad _field_ of the sky.
5313 There I suck the liquid air
5314 All amidst the gardens fair
5315 Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
5316 That sing about the golden tree.
5317 There eternal summer dwells,
5318 And west winds, with musky wing,
5319 About the cedarn alleys fling
5320 Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
5321 Iris there with humid bow
5322 Waters the odorous banks, that blow
5323 Flowers of more mingled hue
5324 Than her purfled scarf can show,
5325 _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_,
5326 And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew
5327 Beds of hyacinth and roses,
5328 Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes.
5329
5330 Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the
5331 mask.
5332
5333 976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and
5334 rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been
5335 frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc.
5336 Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson):
5337 "Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll.
5338 1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now
5339 my charms are all o'erthrown," etc.
5340
5341 977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will
5342 convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is
5343 easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain;
5344 but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow
5345 cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_,
5346 is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while
5347 'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp.
5348 _Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms."
5349
5350 978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26:
5351 "the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn."
5352
5353 979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aeris in campis latis_,"
5354 _Aen._ vi. 888.
5355
5356 980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing)
5357 is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp.
5358 _Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes."
5359
5360 981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the
5361 following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe
5362 of darkest grain."
5363
5364 982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had
5365 three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their
5366 sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser
5367 makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to
5368 Virtue_.
5369
5370 984. ~crisped shades~. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove,"
5371 _Arc._ 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the
5372 same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. _crispus_
5373 = curled), from which comes the verb _to crisp_ and the participle
5374 _crisped_. Compare "the _crisped_ brooks ... ran nectar," _Par. Lost_,
5375 iv. 237, where the word is best rendered 'rippled'; also Tennyson's
5376 _Claribel_, 19, "the babbling runnel _crispeth_." In the present case
5377 the reference is to the foliage of the trees.
5378
5379 985. ~spruce~, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of
5380 levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of gay
5381 or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word _jolly_, on
5382 which Pattison says:--"This is an instance of the disadvantage under
5383 which poetry in a living language labours. No knowledge of the meaning
5384 which a word bore in 1631 can wholly banish the later and vulgar
5385 associations which may have gathered round it since. Apart from direct
5386 parody and burlesque, the tendency of living speech is gradually to
5387 degrade the noble; so that as time goes on the range of poetical
5388 expression grows from generation to generation more and more
5389 restricted." The origin of the word _spruce_ is disputed: Skeat holds
5390 that it is a corruption of Pruce (old Fr. _Pruce_, mod. Fr. _Prusse_) =
5391 Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the
5392 fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some
5393 English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also
5394 Trench, _Select Glossary_.
5395
5396 986. ~The Graces~. The three Graces of classical mythology were
5397 Euphrosyne (the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and Thalia
5398 (the blooming one). See _L'Alleg._ 12: "Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely
5399 Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crowned Bacchus
5400 bore." They were sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the
5401 goddesses who purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life.
5402 ~rosy-bosomed Hours~. The Hours (Horae) of classical mythology were the
5403 goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was described as the dance of the
5404 Horae. The Hora of Spring accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent
5405 from the lower world, and the expression "The chamber of the Horae opens"
5406 is equivalent to "The Spring is coming." 'Rosy-bosomed'; the Gk.
5407 +rhodokolpos+: compare the epithets 'rosy-fingered' (applied by Homer to
5408 the dawn), 'rosy-armed,' etc.
5409
5410 989. ~musky ... fling~. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 515: "Fresh gales and
5411 gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose,
5412 flung odours from the spicy shrub." In this passage the verb _fling_ is
5413 similarly used. 'Musky' = fragrant: comp. 'musk-rose,' l. 496.
5414
5415 990. ~cedarn alleys~, _i.e._ alleys of cedar trees. For 'alley,' comp. l.
5416 311. For the form of 'cedarn,' see note on 'azurn,' l. 893. Tennyson
5417 uses the word 'cedarn' in _Recoll. of Arab. Nights_, 115.
5418
5419 991. ~Nard and cassia~; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes
5420 applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called _spike-nard_; see
5421 allusion in the Bible, _Mark_, xiv. 3; _Exod._ xxx. 24, etc.
5422
5423 992. ~Iris ... humid bow~: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to
5424 the rainbow.
5425
5426 993. ~blow~, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, _Mask at
5427 Highgate_, "For thee, Favonius, here shall _blow_ New flowers."
5428
5429 995. ~purfled~ = having an embroidered edge (O.F. _pourfiler_): the verb
5430 _to purfle_ survives in the contracted form _to purl_, and is cognate
5431 with profile = a front line or edge. ~shew~: here rhymes with _dew_; comp.
5432 l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present
5433 pronunciation of _shew_, though familiar, was not the only one
5434 recognised.
5435
5436 996. ~drenches with Elysian dew~, _i.e._ soaks with heavenly dew. The
5437 Homeric Elysium is described in _Odyssey_, iv.: see note, l. 977; it
5438 was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257.
5439 _Drench_ is the causative of _drink_: here the nominative of the verb is
5440 'Iris' and the object 'beds.'
5441
5442 997. ~if your ears be true~, _i.e._ if your ears be pure: the poet is
5443 about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross
5444 unpurged ear" (_Arc._ 73, and _Com._ l. 458). He alludes to that pure
5445 Love which "leads up to Heaven," _Par. Lost_, viii. 612.
5446
5447 998. ~hyacinth~. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of
5448 _Lycidas_, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved
5449 by Apollo.
5450
5451 999. ~Adonis~, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received
5452 from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the
5453 gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on
5454 earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of
5455 the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. _Par.
5456 Lost_, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc.
5457
5458 1000. ~waxing well of~, _i.e._ recovering from. The A.S. _weaxan_ = to
5459 grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, _Rom. and Jul._
5460 i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.
5461
5462 1002. ~Assyrian queen~, _i.e._ Venus, whose worship came from the East,
5463 probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called
5464 by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see _Par. Lost_, i. 438-452, where Adonis
5465 appears as Thammuz.
5466
5467 1003, 4. ~far above ... advanced~. These words are to be read together:
5468 'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.'
5469
5470 1003. ~spangled sheen~, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': _spangle_ is a
5471 diminutive of _spang_ = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.'
5472 In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the
5473 heavens as 'spangled': comp. Addison's well-known lines:
5474
5475 "The spacious firmament on high,
5476 With all the blue ethereal sky,
5477 And _spangled_ heavens, a shining frame,
5478 Their great Original proclaim."
5479
5480 Comp. also _Lyc._ 170, "with _new-spangled_ ore." 'Sheen' is here used
5481 as a noun, as in line 893; also in _Hymn Nat._ 145, "throned in
5482 celestial _sheen_": _Epitaph on M. of W._ 73, "clad in radiant _sheen_."
5483 The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse
5484 so fair and _sheen_," _F. Q._ ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear
5485 or spangled starlight _sheen_" (_M. N. D._ ii. l. 29) it is doubtful
5486 whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective
5487 _sheeny_ (_Death of Fair Infant_, 48).
5488
5489 1004. ~Celestial Cupid~. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the
5490 note to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to
5491 whom he is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and
5492 misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in
5493 love with Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he
5494 was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp
5495 while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and
5496 fled from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by
5497 Venus; but after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported
5498 by Cupid, she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this
5499 story Psyche represents the human soul (Gk. +psyche+), which is
5500 disciplined and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the
5501 enjoyment of true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it
5502 is only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in
5503 his _Apology for Smectymnuus_ he calls it that Love "whose charming cup
5504 is only virtue," and whose "first and chiefest office ... begins and
5505 ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her divine generation,
5506 Knowledge and Virtue." To this high and mystical love Milton again
5507 alludes in _Epitaphium Damonis_:
5508
5509 "In other part, the expansive vault above,
5510 And there too, even there the god of love;
5511 With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays
5512 A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze,
5513 Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls,
5514 Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls,
5515 Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high
5516 Sends every arrow to the lofty sky;
5517 Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn
5518 The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn."
5519
5520 _Cowper's translation._
5521
5522 1007. ~among~: preposition governing 'gods.'
5523
5524 1008. ~make~: subjunctive after 'till.' Its nominative is 'consent.'
5525
5526 1010. ~blissful~, blest. _Bliss_ is cognate with _bless_ and _blithe_.
5527 Comp. "the _blest_ kingdoms meek of joy and love," _Lyc._ 177. ~are to be
5528 born~. There seems to be here a confusion of constructions between the
5529 subjunctive co-ordinate with _make_ and the indicative dependent in
5530 meaning on "Jove hath sworn" in the following line.
5531
5532 1011. ~Youth and Joy~. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the
5533 trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of
5534 Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," _i.e._ she is possible
5535 only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004.
5536
5537 1012. ~my task~, _i.e._ the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an
5538 adverbial clause = Now that (or _because_) my task is smoothly done.
5539
5540 1013. The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he
5541 pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by
5542 virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom.
5543
5544 1014. ~green earth's end~. The world as known to the ancients did not
5545 extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands,
5546 which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. _Par.
5547 Lost_, viii. 630:
5548
5549 "But I can now no more; the parting sun
5550 Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles
5551 Hesperean sets, my signal to depart."
5552
5553 1015. ~bowed welkin~: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky
5554 curves slowly towards the horizon." _Welkin_ is, radically, "the region
5555 of clouds," A.S. _wolcnu_, clouds.
5556
5557 1017. ~corners of the moon~, _i.e._ its horns. The crescent moon is said
5558 to be 'horned' (Lat. _cornu_, a horn). Comp. the lines in _Macbeth_,
5559 iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous
5560 drop profound."
5561
5562 1020. ~She can teach ye how to climb~, etc. Compare Jonson's song to
5563 Virtue:
5564
5565 "Though a stranger here on earth
5566 In heaven she hath her right of birth.
5567 There, there is Virtue's seat:
5568 Strive to keep her your own;
5569 'Tis only she can make you great,
5570 Though place here make you known."
5571
5572 1021. ~sphery chime~, _i.e._ the music of the spheres. "To climb higher
5573 than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the
5574 empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton
5575 therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence.
5576 See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,'
5577 as in "silver _chime_," _Hymn Nat._ 128: the word is cognate with
5578 _cymbal_.
5579
5580 1022, 3. ~if Virtue feeble were~, etc. A triumphant expression of that
5581 confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine
5582 Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque.
5583 Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed
5584 in the last two lines of his _Comus_.
5585
5586
5587
5588
5589 INDEX TO THE NOTES.
5590
5591
5592 A.
5593
5594 Acheron, 604.
5595
5596 Adonis, 999.
5597
5598 Adventurous, 79.
5599
5600 Advice, 108;
5601 advised, 755.
5602
5603 Affects, 386.
5604
5605 Alabaster, 660.
5606
5607 All, 714, 981.
5608
5609 All ear, 560.
5610
5611 Alley, 311, 990.
5612
5613 All-giver, 723.
5614
5615 All to-ruffled, 380.
5616
5617 Amber-dropping, 863.
5618
5619 Ambrosial, 16.
5620
5621 Amiss, 177.
5622
5623 Apace, 657.
5624
5625 Arbitrate, 411.
5626
5627 Asphodel, 838.
5628
5629 Assays, 972.
5630
5631 Assyrian Queen, 1002.
5632
5633 Ay me, 511.
5634
5635 Azurn, 893.
5636
5637
5638 B.
5639
5640 Backward, 817.
5641
5642 Baited, 162.
5643
5644 Bandite, 426.
5645
5646 Be, 12, 519.
5647
5648 Benison, 332.
5649
5650 Beryl, 933.
5651
5652 Beseeming, 769.
5653
5654 Blank, 452.
5655
5656 Blissful, 1010.
5657
5658 Blue-haired, 29.
5659
5660 Blow, 993.
5661
5662 Bolt, 760.
5663
5664 Bosky, 313.
5665
5666 Bourn, 313.
5667
5668 Brakes, 147.
5669
5670 Brimmed, 925.
5671
5672 Brinded, 443.
5673
5674 Brute, 797.
5675
5676 Budge, 707.
5677
5678 Burs, 352.
5679
5680
5681 C.
5682
5683 Cassia, 991.
5684
5685 Cast, 360.
5686
5687 Cateress, 764.
5688
5689 Cedarn, 990.
5690
5691 Centre, 382.
5692
5693 Certain, 266.
5694
5695 Chance, 508.
5696
5697 Charactered, 530.
5698
5699 Charmed, 51.
5700
5701 Charnel, carnal, 471.
5702
5703 Charybdis, 257.
5704
5705 Chime, 1021.
5706
5707 Chimeras, 517.
5708
5709 Circe, 50.
5710
5711 Clime, 977.
5712
5713 Close, 548.
5714
5715 Clouted, 635.
5716
5717 Company, 274.
5718
5719 Comus, 46, 58.
5720
5721 Convoy, 81.
5722
5723 Cordial, 672.
5724
5725 Corners, 1017.
5726
5727 Cotes, 344.
5728
5729 Cotytto, 129.
5730
5731 Courtesy, 325.
5732
5733 Cozened, 737.
5734
5735 Crabbed, 477.
5736
5737 Crisped, 984.
5738
5739 Crofts, 531.
5740
5741 Crowned, 934.
5742
5743 Curfew, 435.
5744
5745 Curious, 714.
5746
5747 Cynic, 708.
5748
5749 Cynosure, 342.
5750
5751
5752 D.
5753
5754 Dapper, 118.
5755
5756 Darked, 730.
5757
5758 Dear, 790.
5759
5760 Dell, 312.
5761
5762 Descry, 141.
5763
5764 Dew-besprent, 542.
5765
5766 Dimple, 119.
5767
5768 Dingle, 312.
5769
5770 Disinherit, 334.
5771
5772 Ditty, 86.
5773
5774 Drench, 996.
5775
5776 Drouth, 66.
5777
5778 Drowsy frighted, 553.
5779
5780 Due, 12.
5781
5782 Dun, 127.
5783
5784 Durst, 577.
5785
5786
5787 E.
5788
5789 Each ... every, 19, 311.
5790
5791 Earth-shaking, 869.
5792
5793 Ebon, 134.
5794
5795 Ecstasy, 261, 625.
5796
5797 Element, 299.
5798
5799 Elysium, 257.
5800
5801 Emblaze, 732.
5802
5803 Emprise, 610.
5804
5805 Engaged, 193.
5806
5807 Enow, 780.
5808
5809 Erebus, 804.
5810
5811 Every ... each, 19, 311.
5812
5813 Eye, 329.
5814
5815
5816 F.
5817
5818 Faery, 298.
5819
5820 Fairly, 168.
5821
5822 Fantastic, 144, 205.
5823
5824 Fence, 791.
5825
5826 Firmament, 598.
5827
5828 Fond, 67.
5829
5830 For, 586, 602.
5831
5832 Forestalling, 285.
5833
5834 Forlorn, 39.
5835
5836 Fraught, 355, 732.
5837
5838 Freezed, 449.
5839
5840 Frighted, 553.
5841
5842 Frolic, 59.
5843
5844
5845 G.
5846
5847 Gear, 167.
5848
5849 Glistering, 219.
5850
5851 Glozing, 161.
5852
5853 Goodly, 968.
5854
5855 Graces, 986.
5856
5857 Grain, 750.
5858
5859 Granges, 175.
5860
5861 Gratulate, 949.
5862
5863 Grisly, 603.
5864
5865 Guise, 961.
5866
5867
5868 H.
5869
5870 Haemony, 638.
5871
5872 Hag, 434.
5873
5874 Hallo, 226.
5875
5876 Hapless, 350.
5877
5878 Harpies, 605.
5879
5880 Harrowed, 565.
5881
5882 Heave, 885.
5883
5884 Hecate, 135.
5885
5886 Help, 304, 845.
5887
5888 Hence, 824.
5889
5890 Her, 351, 455.
5891
5892 Hesperian, 393.
5893
5894 High, 654.
5895
5896 Hinds, 174.
5897
5898 Holiday, 959.
5899
5900 Home-felt, 262.
5901
5902 Homely, 748.
5903
5904 Horror, 38.
5905
5906 Hours, 986.
5907
5908 How chance, 508.
5909
5910 Huswife, 751.
5911
5912 Hutched, 719.
5913
5914 Hyacinth, 998.
5915
5916 Hydras. 605.
5917
5918
5919 I.
5920
5921 Imbathe, 837.
5922
5923 Imbodies, 468.
5924
5925 Imbrutes, 468.
5926
5927 Immured, 521.
5928
5929 Infamous, 424.
5930
5931 Infer, 408.
5932
5933 Influence, 336.
5934
5935 Inlay, 22.
5936
5937 Innumerous, 349.
5938
5939 Insphered, 3.
5940
5941 Interwove, 544.
5942
5943 Inured, 735.
5944
5945 Iris, 83.
5946
5947 Isle, 21.
5948
5949
5950 J.
5951
5952 Jocund, 172.
5953
5954 Jollity, 104.
5955
5956 Julep, 672.
5957
5958
5959 K.
5960
5961 Knot-grass, 542.
5962
5963
5964 L.
5965
5966 Lackey, 455.
5967
5968 Lake, 865.
5969
5970 Languished, 744.
5971
5972 Lank, 836.
5973
5974 Lap, 257.
5975
5976 Lawn, 568.
5977
5978 Lees, 809.
5979
5980 Leucothea, 875.
5981
5982 Lewdly-pampered, 770.
5983
5984 Like, 22, 634.
5985
5986 Lime-twigs, 646.
5987
5988 Liquid, 980.
5989
5990 Liquorish, 700.
5991
5992 Listed, 49.
5993
5994 Listened, 551.
5995
5996 Liveried, 455.
5997
5998 Lore, 34.
5999
6000 Love-lorn, 234.
6001
6002 Luscious, 652.
6003
6004
6005 M.
6006
6007 Madness, 261.
6008
6009 Madrigal, 495.
6010
6011 Mansion, 2.
6012
6013 Mantling, 294.
6014
6015 Many a, 949.
6016
6017 Margent, 232.
6018
6019 Me, 163, 630.
6020
6021 Meander, 232.
6022
6023 Meditate, 547.
6024
6025 Melancholy, 810.
6026
6027 Methought, 171.
6028
6029 Meliboeus, 822.
6030
6031 Mickle, 31.
6032
6033 Mildew, 640.
6034
6035 Mincing, 964.
6036
6037 Mintage, 529.
6038
6039 Misused, 47.
6040
6041 Moly, 636.
6042
6043 Monstrous, 533.
6044
6045 Mountaineer, 426.
6046
6047 Morrice, 116.
6048
6049 Mortal, 10.
6050
6051 Murmurs, 526.
6052
6053 Mutters, 817.
6054
6055 My, mine, 170.
6056
6057
6058 N.
6059
6060 Naiades, 254.
6061
6062 Nard, 991.
6063
6064 Navel, 520.
6065
6066 Necromancer, 649.
6067
6068 Nectar, 479.
6069
6070 Neighbour, 484.
6071
6072 Nepenthes, 675.
6073
6074 Nereus, 835.
6075
6076 Nether, 20.
6077
6078 New-intrusted, 36.
6079
6080 Nice, 139.
6081
6082 Night-foundered, 483.
6083
6084 Nightingale, 234.
6085
6086 Nightly, 113.
6087
6088 Nor ... nor, 784.
6089
6090
6091 O.
6092
6093 Oaten, 345, 893.
6094
6095 Oceanus, 97, 868.
6096
6097 Of, 59, 155, 836, 1000.
6098
6099 Ominous, 61.
6100
6101 Orient, 65.
6102
6103 Other, 612.
6104
6105 Oughly-headed, 695.
6106
6107 Ounce, 71.
6108
6109 Over-exquisite, 359.
6110
6111 Over-multitude, 731.
6112
6113
6114 P.
6115
6116 Palmer, 189.
6117
6118 Pan, 176.
6119
6120 Pard, 444.
6121
6122 Parley, 241.
6123
6124 Pent, 499.
6125
6126 Perfect, 73, 203.
6127
6128 Perplexed, 37.
6129
6130 Pert, 118.
6131
6132 Pestered, 7.
6133
6134 Pinfold, 7.
6135
6136 Plight, 372.
6137
6138 Plighted, 301
6139
6140 Plumes, 378.
6141
6142 Potion, 68.
6143
6144 Pranked, 759.
6145
6146 Presentments, 156.
6147
6148 Prime, 289.
6149
6150 Prithee, 615.
6151
6152 Prove, 123.
6153
6154 Purchase, 607.
6155
6156 Purfled, 995.
6157
6158 Psyche, 1004.
6159
6160
6161 Q.
6162
6163 Quaint, 157.
6164
6165 Quarters, 29.
6166
6167 Quire, 112.
6168
6169 Quivered, 422.
6170
6171
6172 R.
6173
6174 Rapt, 794.
6175
6176 Ravishment, 244.
6177
6178 Reared, 836.
6179
6180 Recks, 404.
6181
6182 Regard, 620.
6183
6184 Rifted, 518.
6185
6186 Rite, 125.
6187
6188 Roost, 317.
6189
6190 Rosy-bosomed, 986.
6191
6192 Rout, 92-93.
6193
6194 Rule, 340.
6195
6196 Rushy-fringed, 890.
6197
6198
6199 S.
6200
6201 Sabrina, 826.
6202
6203 Sadly, 509.
6204
6205 Sampler, 751.
6206
6207 Saws, 110.
6208
6209 Scape, 814.
6210
6211 Scylla, 257.
6212
6213 Serene, 4.
6214
6215 Several, 25.
6216
6217 Shagged, 429.
6218
6219 Shapes, 2.
6220
6221 Sheen, 893, 1003.
6222
6223 Shell, 231, 837.
6224
6225 Shew, 995.
6226
6227 Shoon, 635.
6228
6229 Should, 482.
6230
6231 Shrewd, 846.
6232
6233 Shrouds, 147.
6234
6235 Shuddering, 802.
6236
6237 Siding, 212.
6238
6239 Simples, 627.
6240
6241 Single, 204.
6242
6243 Sirens, 253, 878.
6244
6245 Sleeking, 882.
6246
6247 Slope, 98.
6248
6249 Solemnity, 142.
6250
6251 Soothest, 823.
6252
6253 Sooth-saying, 874.
6254
6255 Sounds, 115.
6256
6257 Sovran, 41, 639.
6258
6259 Spangled, 1003.
6260
6261 Spell, 154.
6262
6263 Spets, 132.
6264
6265 Sphery, 1021.
6266
6267 Spruce, 985.
6268
6269 Square, 329.
6270
6271 Squint, 413.
6272
6273 Stabled, 534.
6274
6275 Star of Arcady, 341.
6276
6277 State, 35.
6278
6279 Stead, 611.
6280
6281 Step-dame, 830.
6282
6283 Still, 560.
6284
6285 Stoic, 707.
6286
6287 Stops, 345.
6288
6289 Storied, 516.
6290
6291 Straight, 811.
6292
6293 Strook, 301.
6294
6295 Stygian, 132.
6296
6297 Sun-clad, 782.
6298
6299 Sung, 256.
6300
6301 Sure, 148.
6302
6303 Surrounding, 403.
6304
6305 Swain, 497.
6306
6307 Swart, 436.
6308
6309 Swinked, 293.
6310
6311 Sylvan, 268.
6312
6313 Syrups, 674.
6314
6315
6316 T.
6317
6318 Tapestry, 324.
6319
6320 Temple, 461.
6321
6322 Thyrsis, 494.
6323
6324 Timely, 689, 970.
6325
6326 Tinsel-slippered, 877.
6327
6328 To-ruffled, 380.
6329
6330 To seek, 366.
6331
6332 Toy, 502.
6333
6334 Trains, 151.
6335
6336 Treasonous, 702.
6337
6338 Trippings, 961.
6339
6340 Turkis, 894.
6341
6342 Tuscan, 48.
6343
6344 Twain, 284.
6345
6346 Tyrrhene, 49.
6347
6348
6349 U.
6350
6351 Unblenched, 430.
6352
6353 Unenchanted, 395.
6354
6355 Unmuffle, 331.
6356
6357 Unprincipled, 367.
6358
6359 Unweeting, 539.
6360
6361 Unwithdrawing, 711.
6362
6363 Urchin, 845.
6364
6365
6366 V.
6367
6368 Various, 379.
6369
6370 Venturous, 609.
6371
6372 Vermeil-tinctured, 752.
6373
6374 Very, 427.
6375
6376 Vialed, 847.
6377
6378 Viewless, 92.
6379
6380 Violet-embroidered, 233.
6381
6382 Virtue, 165, 621.
6383
6384 Visage, 333.
6385
6386 Vizored, 698.
6387
6388 Votarist, 189.
6389
6390
6391 W.
6392
6393 Wakes, 121.
6394
6395 Warranted, 327.
6396
6397 Wassailers, 179.
6398
6399 Waste, 728, 942.
6400
6401 Weeds, 16.
6402
6403 Welkin, 1015.
6404
6405 What need, 362.
6406
6407 Whilom, 827.
6408
6409 Whit, 774.
6410
6411 Who, 728.
6412
6413 Wily, 151.
6414
6415 Wink, 401.
6416
6417 Wished, 574, 950.
6418
6419 Wizard, 571, 872.
6420
6421 Wont, 332, 549.
6422
6423 Woof, 83.
6424
6425
6426 Y.
6427
6428 Ye, 216.
6429
6430
6431
6432
6433 GLASGOW: PRINTED BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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