Chapter 8
In L'Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire day of his pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The melancholy man moves through a programme less definitely and regularly planned. The scenes of his delights are mostly in the hours of the night: when the sun is up, he hides himself from day's garish eye.
L'Allegro.
2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. Milton follows the example of the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal beings whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the ancient freedom in assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no authority as a canon, but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as suits his purpose. He knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed for himself the privilege which they exercised of shaping the myths as they pleased. We are not therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction of any system of mythology. _Cerberus_ was the terrible three-headed dog of Pluto. His station was at the entrance to the lower world, or the _Stygian cave_.
3. The Stygian cave is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, "the flood of deadly hate."
5. some uncouth cell. _Uncouth_ may be used here in its original sense of _unknown_, as in Par. Lost VIII 230.
10. In dark Cimmerian desert. The Cimmerians were a people fabled by the ancients to live in perpetual darkness.
12. yclept is the participle of the obsolete verb _clepe_, with the ancient prefix _y_, as in ychained, Hymn on the Nativity 155.
15. two sister Graces more. Hesiod names, as the three Graces, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome.
18. The frolic wind. See _frolic_ again as an adjective, Comus 59.
24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair. See Shakespeare's Pericles, I Gower 23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies and changes of meaning.
25-36. We readily accept and understand the personification of Jest, Jollity, Sport, Laughter, and Liberty, but the plurals, Quips, Cranks, Wiles, Nods, Becks, Smiles, we do not manage quite so easily, especially in view of the couplet 29-30.
28. Smiles may be said to be wreathed because they inwreathe the face. See Par. Lost III 361.
33. trip it, as you go. So in Shakespeare, "I'll queen it no inch further; Rather than fool it so; I'll go brave it at the court, lording it in London streets."
41. With this line begins a series of illustrations of the _unreproved pleasures_ which L'Allegro is going to enjoy during a day of leisure. At first the specified pleasures or occupations are introduced by infinitives, _to hear, to come_; but the construction soon changes, as we shall see. The first pleasure is To hear the lark, etc. 41-44. L'Allegro begins his day with early morning. Here we must imagine him as having risen and gone forth where he can see the sky and can look about him to see what is going on in the farm-yard.
45-46. Then to come, in spite of sorrow, And at my window bid good-morrow.
It must be L'Allegro himself who comes to the window, and as he is outside, he comes to look in through the shrubbery and bid good morning to the cottage inmates, who are now up and about their work. The pertinency of the phrase, _in spite of sorrow_, is not intelligible.
53. Oft listening how the hounds and horn. This "pleasure" and the next--_sometime walking_--are introduced with present participles. There is no interruption of grammatical consistency.
57. Sometime walking, not unseen. See the counterpart of this line, Penseroso 65. Todd quotes the note of Bishop Hurd,--"Happy men love witnesses of their joy: the splenetic love solitude."
59. against, _i.e._ toward.
62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight. _Dight_ is the participle of the verb _to dight_, meaning to adorn. It is still used as an archaism.
67. And every shepherd tells his tale. This undoubtedly means _counts the number_ of his flock. In Shakespeare we find, to _tell_ money, years, steps, a hundred. So _tale_ often means an enumeration, a number. L'Allegro finds the shepherds in the morning counting their sheep, not telling stories.
68. With this line ends the long, loose sentence that began with line 37. We now come to a full stop, and with line 69 begin a new sentence.
70. the landskip. A word of late origin in English, of unsettled spelling in Milton's day.
71. Russet lawns. In Milton, _lawn_ means field or pasture. See Lycidas 25.
77. In this line the subject, _mine eye_, is resumed.
80. The cynosure of neighboring eyes. In the constellation Cynosure, usually called the Lesser Bear, is the pole-star, to which very many eyes are directed.
81. A new "pleasure" is introduced, with a new grammatical subject.
83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met. The proper names in lines 83-88 add to the poem a pleasing touch of pastoral simplicity and cheerfulness. They are taken from the common stock of names, which, originally devised by the Greek idyllists for their shepherds and shepherdesses, have by the pastoral poets of all subsequent ages been appropriated to their special use. Corydon and Thyrsis stand for farm-laborers, Phyllis and Thestylis for their wives or housekeepers. The day of L'Allegro has now advanced to dinner-time. Phyllis has been preparing the frugal meal, as we could surmise from the smoking chimney. As soon as the dinner is over the women go out to work with the men in the harvest field.
87. bower means simply _dwelling_.
90. In the tanned haycock we see the hay dried and browned by the sun.
91. The scene changes and brings yet another "pleasure." secure delight is delight without care, _sine cura_. See Samson Agonistes 55.
96. in the chequered shade. They danced under trees through whose foliage the sunlight filtered.
99. Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling is now in order.
102. Sufficient information about Faery Mab can be got from Romeo and Juliet I 4 53-95.
103-104. She, _i.e._ one of the maids; And he,--one of the youths. The Friar's lantern is the ignis fatuus, or will-o'-the-wisp, fabled to lead men into dangerous marshes.
105. A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject of tells must be _he_. the drudging goblin. This is Robin Goodfellow, known to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a character in his Court Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to recount many of his pranks, and says, among other things, "I am the honest plain country spirit, and harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean, riddles for the country maids, and does all their other drudgery."
109. could not end. Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations as an instance of the verb _end_ meaning _to put into the barn, to get in._ So in Coriolanus V 6 87.
110. the lubber fiend. This goblin is loutish in shape and fiendish-looking, though so good to those who treat him well.
115. Thus done the tales. An absolute construction, imitating the Latin ablative absolute.
117. The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their day's labor, L'Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life are prolonged further into the night.
120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold. This must mean such things as masques and revelries among the upper classes.
122. Rain influence. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 71.
124. What is the antecedent of whom?
125. What ceremony is here introduced?
128. Do not misunderstand the word mask. Its meaning becomes plain from the context.
131. To what pleasure does L'Allegro now betake himself?
132. Among the dramatists of the Jacobean time Ben Jonson had especially the repute of scholarship. The sock symbolizes comedy, as the buskin does tragedy. Compare Il Penseroso 102.
133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild.
The couplet seems intended to convey the idea of a counterpart or contrast to the _learned sock_ of Jonson. So considered, it is by no means an unhappy characterization.
135. The last of the "unreproved pleasures" that L'Allegro wishes he may enjoy, seems not so much planned to follow the rest in sequence of time as to accompany them and be diffused through them all. Observe the ever in this line. The eating cares are a reminiscence of Horace's _curas edaces_, Ode II 11 18.
136. Lap me in soft Lydian airs. The three chief modes, or moods, of Greek music were the _Lydian_, which was soft and pathetic; the _Dorian_, especially adapted to war (see Par. Lost 550); and the _Phrygian_, which was bold and vehement.
138. the meeting soul. The soul, in its eagerness, goes forth to meet and welcome the music.
139. The word bout seems to point at a piece of music somewhat in the nature of a round, or catch.
145. That Orpheus' self may heave his head. Even Orpheus, who in his life "drew trees, stones, and floods" by the power of his music, and who now reposes in Elysium, would lift his head to listen to the strains that L'Allegro would fain hear.
149. Orpheus, with _his_ music, had succeeded in obtaining from Pluto only a conditional release of his wife Eurydice. He was not to look back upon her till he was quite clear of Pluto's domains. He failed to make good the condition, and so again lost his Eurydice.
Il Penseroso.
3. How little you bested. The verb _bested_ means _to avail, to be of service_. It is not the same word that we find in Isaiah VIII 21, "hardly bestead and hungry."
6. fond here has its primitive meaning, _foolish_. Understand possess in the sense in which it is used in the Bible,--"possessed with devils."
10. Make two syllables of Morpheus.
12. Note that while he invoked Mirth in L'Allegro under her Greek name Euphrosyne, the poet finds no corresponding Greek designation for Melancholy. To us Melancholy seems a name unhappily chosen. But see how Milton applies it in line 62 below, and in Comus 546. To him the word evidently connotes pensive meditation rather than gloomy depression.
14. To hit the sense of human sight: to be gazed at by human eyes.
18. Prince Memnon was a fabled Ethiopian prince, black, and celebrated for his beauty. Recall Virgil's _nigri Memnonis arma_.
19. that starred Ethiop queen. Cassiopeia, wife of the Ethiopian king Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where she became the beautiful constellation which we know by her name.
23. bright-haired Vesta. _Vesta_--in Greek, Hestia--"was the goddess of the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity fitted her peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty."
30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove, _i.e._ before Saturn was dethroned by Jupiter.
33. All in a robe of darkest grain. In Par. Lost V 285, the third pair of Raphael's wings have the color of _sky-tinctured grain_; and XI 242, his vest is of purple livelier than "the grain of Sarra," or Tyrian purple. This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is of a deep rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes from Southey's _Thalaba_, "The ebony ... with darkness feeds its boughs of raven grain." What objection is there to making the _grain_ in Milton's passage _black_?
35. And sable stole of cypress lawn. Dr. Murray thus defines _cypress lawn_, "A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of mourning."
37. Come; but keep thy wonted state. Compare with this passage, L'Allegro 33.
40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes. In Cymbeline I 6 51 we find the present tense of the verb of which _rapt_ is the participle: "What, dear Sir, thus raps you?" Do not confound this word with _rap_, meaning to strike.
42. Forget thyself to marble. With this compare On Shakespeare 14.
43. With a sad leaden downward cast. So in Love's Labor's Lost IV 3 321, "In leaden contemplation;" Othello III 4 177, "I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed." So also Gray in the Hymn to Adversity, "With leaden eye that loves the ground."
45-55. Compare the company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to bring along with her with that which L'Allegro wishes to see attending Mirth.
46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. Only the rigid ascetic has a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial music.
48. Aye, as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets with the vowel sound in _day_.
53. the fiery-wheeled throne. See Daniel VII 9.
54. The Cherub Contemplation. Pronounce _contemplation_ with five syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the nature and office of the _cherub_ of the Scriptures. Milton in many passages of Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the account given by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. According to Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in heaven, namely,--seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the special attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things.
55. hist, primarily an interjection commanding silence, becomes here a verb.
56. With the introduction of the nightingale comes the first intimation of the time of day at which Il Penseroso conceives the course of his satisfactions to begin.
57. Everywhere else in Milton plight is used with its modern connotations.
59. The moon stops to hear the nightingale's song.
65. Remember L'Allegro's _not unseen_.
77. Up to this point Il Penseroso has been walking in the open air.
78. removed,--remote, retired.
87. As the Bear never sets, to outwatch him must mean to sit up all night.
88. With thrice great Hermes. "Hermes Trismegistos--Hermes thrice-greatest--is the name given by the Neo-Platonists and the devotees of mysticism and alchemy to the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded as more or less identified with the Grecian Hermes, and as the author of all mysterious doctrines, and especially of the secrets of alchemy." (The _New Eng. Dicty._) To such studies the serious mediæval scholars devoted themselves. To unsphere the spirit of Plato is to call him from the sphere in which he abides in the other world, or, simply, to take in hand for study his writings on immortality.
93-96. On the four classes of demons,--Salamanders, Sylphs, Nymphs, Gnomes,--see Pope's Rape of the Lock. These demons are in complicity with the planets and other heavenly bodies to influence mortals.
97-102. Thebes, Pelops' line, and the tale of Troy are the staple subjects of the great Attic tragedians. It seems strange that the poet finds no occasion to name Shakespeare here, as well as in L'Allegro.
104-105. Musæus and Orpheus are semi-mythical bards, to whom is ascribed a greatness proportioned to their obscurity.
105-108. See note on L'Allegro, 149.
109-115. Or call up him that left half-told. This refers to Chaucer and to his Squieres Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It is left unfinished. Note that Milton changes not only the spelling but the accent of the chief character's name. Chaucer writes, "This noble king was cleped Cambinskan."
120. Stories in which more is meant than meets the ear refer to allegories, like the Fairy Queen.
121. Having thus filled the night with the occupations that he loves, Il Penseroso now greets the morning, which he hopes to find stormy with wind and rain.
122. civil-suited Morn: _i.e._ Morn in the everyday habiliments of business.
123-124. Eos--Aurora, the Dawn--carried off several youths distinguished for their beauty. the Attic boy is probably Cephalus, whom she stole from his wife Procris.
125. kerchieft in a comely cloud. _Kerchief_ is here used in its original and proper sense. Look up its origin.
126. The winds may be called rocking because they visibly rock the trees, or because they shake houses.
127. Or ushered with a shower still. The shower falls gently, without wind.
130. With minute-drops from off the eaves. After the rain has ceased, and while the thatch is draining, the drops fall at regular intervals for a time,--as it were, a drop every minute. Il Penseroso listens with contentment to the wind, the rustling rain-fall on the leaves, and the monotonous patter of the drops when the rain is over.
131. The shower is past, and the sun appears, but Il Penseroso finds its beams flaring and distasteful. He seeks covert in the dense groves.
134. Sylvan is the god of the woods.
135. The monumental oak is so called from its great age and size.
140. Consciously nursing his melancholy, Il Penseroso deems the wood that hides him a sacred place, and resents intrusion as a profanation.
141. Hide me from day's garish eye. See Richard III. IV 4 89, Romeo and Juliet III 2 25.
142. While the bee with honeyed thigh. Is this good apiology?
146. Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. Note that sleep is represented as having feathers. These feathers, in their soft, gentle movement and in their refreshing effect are likened to dew. The figure is a common one with the poets. In Par. Lost IX 1044, Milton has,--"till dewy sleep oppressed them." Cowper, Iliad II, 41, has,--"Awaking from thy dewy slumbers."
148. his refers to the _dewy-feathered sleep_. Il Penseroso asks that a strange, mysterious dream, hovering close by the wings of sleep, and lightly pictured in a succession of vivid forms, may be laid on his eye-lids.
155-166. The word studious in line 156 determines that the passage refers to college life and not to church attendance. The old English colleges have their cloisters, and these have much the same architectural features as do churches.
157. embowed means vaulted, or bent like a _bow_.
158. massy-proof: massive and proof against all failure to support their load.
159. And storied windows richly dight. Compare L'Allegro, 62.
170. The best possible comment on this use of the verb spell is Milton's own language, Par. Regained IV 382, where Satan, addressing the Son of God, thus speaks:--
Now, contrary, if I read aught in Heaven, Or Heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars Voluminous, or single characters In their conjunction met, give me to spell, Sorrows and labors, opposition, hate, Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries, Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.
Il Penseroso's aspiration is that as an astrologer he may learn the influence of every star and that he may come to know the virtue of every herb.
ARCADES.
The noble persons of the family of the Countess Dowager of Derby were fortunate enough to obtain the services of the poet John Milton to aid in the composition of a mask, which they presented to her ladyship at her residence in the country. Arcades--the Arcadians--is Milton's contribution to this performance. In date the poem precedes Comus, which is known to have been composed in 1634.
On the meaning of the term _mask_, as applied to a dramatic form, see introductory note on Comus.
20. Latona (or Leto) was the mother of Apollo and Diana by Zeus.
21. the towered Cybele is Virgil's Berecyntia Mater, the Phrygian mother, who, wearing her mural crown, drives in her chariot through the cities of Phrygia. She was conceived as one of the very oldest deities, and as mother of a hundred gods. See Æneid VI 785.
28. Of famous Arcady ye are. Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus, was peculiarly the home of music and song, especially among the shepherds. See Virgil, Eclogue VII 4-5.
30. Divine Alpheus. See note on Lycidas 132.
46. curl the grove: bestow upon the grove dense, crisp foliage.
47. With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove. The grove is intersected with a maze of circling and purposeless paths.
49. noisome: full of annoyance, injurious. See Par. Lost XI 478. blasting vapors. See note on Comus 640.
51. thwarting thunder blue. Compare Julius Cæsar I 3 50, "the cross blue lightning."
52. the cross dire-looking planet. Cross means _adverse, unfavorable_. See note on _influence_, Hymn on the Nativity 71.
54. evening gray. See note on Lycidas 187.
60. murmurs. Compare Comus 526.
63. the celestial Sirens' harmony. The Sirens are here advanced to a high function and given a new Epithet. Compare Comus 253.
64. the nine infolded spheres. See note on Hymn on Nativity 48.
65-66. See note on Lycidas 75.
69. the daughters of Necessity: the Fates.
72-73. which none can hear Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. Compare Merchant of Venice V 1 64.
87. touch the warbled string: the string that is accompanied with the voice. See Il Penseroso 106.
97. Ladon, a river of Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus.
98. Lycæus and Cyllene, mountains of Arcadia.
100. Erymanth. Erymanthus is a range of mountains separating Arcadia from Achaia and Elis.
102. Mænalus, another mountain of Arcadia.
106. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were. Syrinx was an Arcadian nymph, who, being pursued by Pan, threw herself into the Ladon, where she was metamorphosed into a reed, of which the shepherds thereafter made their pipes.
AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.
The poet listens to what in the phrase of his time is a _solemn music_, but which we should name a sacred concert. The poem is unalloyed lyric, expressing the rapture to which the music has lifted his soul. We must remember that Milton was himself an amateur musician, and in his days of darkness found habitual diversion at his organ. Indications of a susceptible and appreciative ear for musical harmony are frequent throughout the poems.
7. the sapphire-colored throne. See Ezekiel I 26.
27. consort is the word from which we derive our _concert_.
COMUS.
During the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., the _mask_ was one of the most popular forms of dramatic entertainment. Having a function and a character peculiar to itself, it flourished side by side with the regular plays of the theatrical stage, and gave large scope to the genius of poets, composers, and scenic artists.
The mask was usually designed to grace some important occasion, in which members of the upper classes of society, or even royal personages, were concerned. When the occasion called for particularly brilliant display, and had been long foreseen, the preparations for it would involve immense outlays for costumes, theatrical machinery, for new music, and for a libretto by a play-writer of the greatest note. When the mask was purely a private one, like Arcades and Comus, it was all the fashion for the gentle youths and maidens, for gentlemen and ladies of the highest rank, to take upon themselves the parts of the drama, to rehearse them assiduously, and finally to enact them on the private stage or on the lawn in the presence of a select audience.
The mask thus differentiated itself from the stage play in that it was not given for the pecuniary behoof of a company of actors, but represented rather expenditure for the simple purpose of producing grand effects. To act in a mask was an honor, when common players were social outcasts. The mask was got up for the occasion, and was not intended to keep the boards and attract a paying public. When the august ceremonial was over, the poet had his manuscript, to increase the bulk of his works, and the composer had his score, to furnish airs that might be played and sung in drawing-rooms if they had the good fortune to be popular.
Such was the origin of the poem which Milton, in all the editions published during his lifetime, entitled simply "A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634," but which editors since his day have agreed to name Comus.