Chapter 1

_change_ come": see also line 841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean 'this mortal state of life,' as distinguished from a future state of immortality. The Spirit uses 'this' as in line 8, in contrast with 'those,' line 2.

11. ~enthroned gods~, etc. In allusion to _Rev._ iv. 4, "And upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold." Milton frequently speaks of the inhabitants of heaven as _enthroned_. The accent here falls on the first syllable of the word.

12. ~Yet some there be~, etc.: 'Although men are generally so exclusively occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who aspire,' etc. _Be_ is here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp. _Lines on Univ. Carrier_, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, "there be that say 't": also lines 519, 668. It is employed to refer to a number of persons or things, regarded as a class. ~by due steps~, _i.e._ by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. '_due_ feet,' _Il Pens._ 155. _Due_, _duty_, and _debt_ are all from Lat. _debitus_, owed.

13. ~their just hands~. 'Just' belongs to the predicate: 'to lay their just hands' = to lay their hands with justice. ~golden key~. Comp. _Matt._ xvi. 19, "I will give unto thee the _keys_ of the kingdom of heaven"; also _Lyc._ 111:

"Two massy keys he bore of metals twain (The _golden_ opes, the iron shuts amain)."

15. ~errand~: comp. _Par. Lost_, iii. 652, "One of the seven Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his swift _errands_": also vii. 579. ~but for such~, _i.e._ unless it were for such.

16. 'I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.' ~ambrosial~, heavenly; also used by Milton in the sense of 'conferring immortality': comp. l. 840; _Par. Lost_, ii. 245; iv. 219, "blooming _ambrosial_ fruit." 'Ambrosial,' like 'amaranthus' (_Lyc._ 149), is cognate with the Sanskrit _amríta_, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the gods: similarly in Tennyson's _Oenone_, 174: see also _In Memoriam_, lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (_Neptune's Triumph_) has 'ambrosian hands,' _i.e._ hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. ~weeds~: now used chiefly in the phrase "widow's weeds," _i.e._ mourning garment. Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or covering: in the lines _On the Death of a Fair Infant_, it is applied to the human body itself; comp. also _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 255, "_Weed_ wide enough to wrap a fairy in." See also _Comus_, 189, 390.

18. ~But to my task~, _i.e._ but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012.

19. ~every ... each~. It is usual to write _every ... every_, or _each ... each_, but Milton occasionally uses 'every' and 'each' together: comp. l. 311 and _Lyc._ 93, "_every_ gust ... off _each_ beaked promontory." _Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more.

20. ~by lot~, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter ('high' Jove), Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto ('nether' or Stygian Jove). In _Iliad_ xv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: "For three brethren are we, and sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots." ~nether~, lower: comp. the phrase 'the upper and the nether lip,' and the name Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton 'the nether empire' (_Par. Lost_, ii. 295). The form _nethermost_ (_Par. Lost_, ii. 955) is, like _aftermost_ and _foremost_, a double superlative.

21. ~sea-girt isles~. Ben Jonson calls Britain a 'sea-girt isle': comp. l. 27. _Isle_ is the M.E. _ile_, in which form the _s_ has been dropped: it is from O.F. _isle_, Lat. _insula_. It is therefore distinct from _island_, where an _s_ has, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E. _iland_, A.S. _igland_ (_ig_ = island: _land_ = land). In line 50 Milton wrote 'iland.'

22. ~like to rich and various gems~, etc. Shakespeare describes England as a 'precious stone set in the silver sea,' _Richard II._ ii. 1. 46: he also speaks of Heaven as being _inlayed_ with stars, _Cym._ v. 5. 352; _M. of V._ v. 1. 59, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick _inlaid_ with patines of bright gold." Compare also _Par. Lost_, iv. 700, where Milton refers to the ground as having a rich _inlay_ of flowers. But for its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned. ~like~: here followed by the preposition _to_, and having its proper force as an adjective: comp. _Il Pens._ 9. Whether _like_ is used as an adjective or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l. 57.

24. ~to grace~, _i.e._ to show favour to: a clause of purpose.

25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct. Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with plural nouns.

26. ~sapphire~. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29: see note there.

27. ~little tridents~, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, "with his trident touched the stars" (_Neptune's Triumph, Proteus' Song_, Ben Jonson).

28. ~greatest and the best~. Comp. Shakespeare's eulogy in _Rich. II._ ii. 1: also Ben Jonson's "Albion, Prince of all his Isles," _Neptune's Triumph, Apollo's Song_.

29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._ 208:

"Sailors _quarter'd_ Heaven, and found a name For every fixt and ev'ry wandering star."

Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into _four_ parts: "at that time the island was actually divided into four separate governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords President of the North and of Wales." (Keightley). ~blue-haired deities~. These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet 'blue-haired' Masson asks: "Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his subordinates": in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities _caerulei dii_, and Neptune _caeruleus deus_, thus associating blue with the sea.

30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the East and the West.

31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle' and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom. and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In herbs," etc.

33. ~An old and haughty nation~. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson's piece _For the Honour of Wales_:

"I is not come here to taulk of Brut, From whence the Welse does take his root," etc.

That they were haughty and 'proud in arms' the Romans found, and after them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the Barons was: "We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and rights." By a statute of Henry VIII. this 'haughty' people were put in possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. ~proud in arms~: this is Virgil's _belloque superbum_, _Aen._ i. 21 (Warton).

34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_.

35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's _Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and chair_."

36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890. Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it was newly assumed. See Introduction.

37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable.

38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_, to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as _horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563, "a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~: this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the brow overhangs the eyes.

39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the prefix. See note, l. 234.

40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the two brothers were younger than she.

41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639.

43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43, 44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (= banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and 'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his lady.

46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the _Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure"; and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins. The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the _Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the isle Ææan, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of mortal speech, own sister to the wizard Æetes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the more common 'out from.'

47. ~misusèd~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all obsolete).

48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery of this loss.

49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_, iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb _list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was _lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.'

50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb _fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech called anadiplosis.

51. ~charmèd cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_): comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.'

52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12, "_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, § 251. ~lost his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them (followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._)

54. ~clustering locks~: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 16, "ivy-crowned Bacchus"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 303; _Sams. Agon._ 569.

55. ~his blithe youth~, _i.e._ his fresh young figure.

57. 'A son much like his father, but more like his mother.' This may indicate that it is upon Comus's character as a sorcerer rather than as a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_:

"Much of the father's face, More of the mother's grace."

58. ~Comus~: see note, l. 46. The Greek word +kômos+ denoted a revel or merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word _comedy_. In classical mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics.

59. ~frolic~: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; comp. _L'Alleg._ 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's _Ulysses_, "a frolic welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new adjective, _frolicsome_, has taken its place; from this, again, comes the noun _frolicsomeness_. _Frolic_ is from the Dutch, and cognate with German _fröhlich_, so that _lic_ in 'frolic' corresponds to _ly_ in such words as cleanly, godly, etc. ~of~: this use of the preposition may be compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as _æger animi_ = sick of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.'

60. ~Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields~, _i.e._ roving through Gaul and Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. _Lyc._ 173, "walked the waves"; _Par. Lost_, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles."

61. ~betakes him~. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple pronouns is common (see Abbott, § 223). Compare l. 163. ~ominous~; literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of monsters (_Lyc._ 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,' etc.

65. ~orient~, bright. The Lat. _oriens_ = rising; hence (from being applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or 'shining': comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 546, "With _orient_ colours waving."

66. ~drouth of Phoebus~, _i.e._ thirst caused by the heat of the sun. Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of rain; the more usual spelling is _drought_. ~which~: see note, l. 2. 'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.'

67. ~fond~, foolish (its primary sense). _Fonned_ was the participle of an old verb _fonnen_, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost. Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_"; _Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal men."

68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French.

69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine."

71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yúz_, panther.

72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In Old English the dative was used.

73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly).

74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of Ulysses: see note, l. 52.

76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: "Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave." Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._ viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, _F. Q._ ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to natural."

77. ~sensual sty~: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to _forget_.

78. ~favoured~: compare Lat. _gratus_ = favoured (adj.).

79. ~adventurous~, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,' applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. ~glade~: strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the wood itself. It is cognate with _glow_ and _glitter_, and its fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat).

80. ~glancing star~, a shooting star. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 556:

"Swift as a shooting star In autumn thwarts the night."

The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense.

81. ~convoy~: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 752, "_convoyed_ By four cherubic shapes." It is another form of _convey_ (Lat. _con_ = together, _via_ = a way).

83. ~sky-robes~: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. ~Iris' woof~, material dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the rainbow: comp. l. 992 and _Par. Lost_, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the woof." Etymologically, _woof_ is connected with _web_ and _weave_: it is short for _on-wef_ = on-web, _i.e._ the cross threads laid on the warp of a loom.

84. ~weeds~: see note, l. 16.

86. ~That to the service~, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of _Comus_ by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to compliment the Earl (see Introduction).

86. ~smooth-dittied~: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. _dictatum_) strictly denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. _Lyc._ 32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare _Son._ xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted.

87. ~knows to still~, etc.: comp. _Lyc._ 10, "he knew Himself to sing."

88. ~nor of less faith~, etc.; _i.e._ he is not less faithful than he is skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most likely to be at hand should any emergency arise.

92. ~viewless~, invisible: comp. _The Passion_, 50, "_viewless_ wing"; _Par. Lost_, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian word: see _M. for M._ iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the formation of adjectives in _-less_: comp. Shelley's _Sensitive Plant_, 'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. ~charming-rod~: see note, l. 52: also l. 653. ~rout~, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of 'defeat,' and is cognate with _route_, _rote_, and _rut_. All come from Lat. _ruptus_, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See _Lyc._ 61, "by the _rout_ that made the hideous roar."

93. ~star ... fold~, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the planet Venus: comp. _Lyc._ 30. As the morning star (called by Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer, the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion:

"Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... Sweet _Hesper-Phosphor_, double name."--

_In Memoriam_, cxxi.

Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic.

94. ~top of heaven~, etc., _i.e._ is far above the horizon. So in _Lyc._ 31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's _descent_," _i.e._ to sink towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky, and on comes Night from the ocean."

95. ~gilded car~: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. Comp. Chaucer, _Test. of Creseide_, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and "Phoebus' wain," line 190.

96. ~his glowing axle doth allay~. In the _Hymn of the Nativity_ Milton alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. _Aen._ iv. 482, "Atlas _Axem_ umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' _His_, in this line, = _its_. _Its_ occurs only three times in Milton's poems, _Od. Nat._ 106; _Par. Lost_, i. 254; _Par. Lost_, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes' dedication of _Comus_. The word does not occur in English at all until the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter pronoun _it_ and of the masculine _he_ being _his_. This gave rise to confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form _its_ gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and other connectives, or by _his_, _her_, _thereof_, etc.

97. ~steep Atlantic stream~. To the ancients the Ocean was the great _stream_ that encompassed the earth: _Iliad_, xiv., "the deep-flowing Okeanos (+bathyrroos+)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase 'the high seas.'

98. ~slope sun~, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays visible shoot up into the sky. _Slope_ = sloped; also used by Milton as an adverb = aslope (_Par. Lost_, iv. 591), and as a verb (_Lyc._ 31).

99. ~dusky~. Milton first wrote 'northern.'

100. ~Pacing toward the other goal~, etc. Comp. _Psalm_ xix. 5: "The sun as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."

102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of _L'Allegro_, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of _L'Allegro_ begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of _Comus_ and his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the "midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and cranks" of _L'Allegro_ have given way to the magic rites of _Comus_, and the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth are ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry.

104. ~jollity~: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. _joli_, pretty) has its primary sense of pleasing or festive.

105. ~Braid your locks with rosy twine~; 'entwine your hair with wreaths of roses.'

106. ~dropping odours~: comp. l. 862-3.

108. ~Advice ... scrupulous head~. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or deliberation. See Chaucer, _Prologue_, 786, "granted him without more _advice_"; and comp. Shakespeare, _M. of V._ iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon more _advice_, Hath sent you here this ring"; also _Par. Lost_, ii. 376, "_Advise_, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See also l. 755, note. _Scrupulous_ = full of scruples, conscientious.

110. ~saws~, sayings, maxims. _Saw_, _say_, and _saga_ (a Norwegian legend) are cognate.

111. ~of purer fire~, _i.e._ having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the Stoics held that whatever consisted of _pure fire_ was divine, _e.g._ the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112.

112. ~the starry quire~: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurgèd ear" of mankind: comp. l. 458 and _Arc._ 63-73. Shakespeare (_M. of V._ v. 1. 61) alludes to the music of the spheres:

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc.

_Quire_ is a form of _choir_ (Lat. _chorus_, a band of singers); in Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the audience. _Quire_ (of paper) is a totally different word, probably derived from Lat. _quatuor_, four.

113. ~nightly watchful spheres~. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright," _Hymn Nat._ 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of 'nocturnal': comp. _Il Pens._ 84, "To bless the doors from _nightly_ harm"; _Arc._ 48, "_nightly_ ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The _nightly_ hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night."

114. ~Lead in swift round~. Comp. _Arc._ 71: "And the low world in measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune."

115. ~sounds~, straits: A.S. _sund_, a strait of the sea, so called because it could be _swum_ across. See Skeat, _Etym. Dict._ _s.v._

116. ~to the moon~, _i.e._ as affected by the moon. For similar uses of 'to,' comp. _Lyc._ 33, "tempered _to_ the oaten flute"; _Lyc._ 44, "fanning their joyous leaves _to_ thy soft lays." ~morrice~. The waters quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"--a weapon used by the Moors in Spain.

117. ~shelves~, flat ledges of rock.

118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of _perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._ "_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_ into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du. _dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of 'neat.'

119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with _dingle_ and _dapple_.

120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens."

121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin _vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception _proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the rule.

124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object being 'Love.'

125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535.

126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial."

127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark.

129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water.

131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore," it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. _uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you _dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks her dragon yoke."

132. ~spets~, a form of _spits_ (as _spettle_ for _spittle_).

133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63. Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature."

134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is 'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~, black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb. _eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness.

135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecatè (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs.

136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.'

137. ~dues~: see note, l. 12.

138. ~blabbing eastern scout~, _i.e._ the tale-telling spy that comes from the East, viz. Morning.

139. ~nice~; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet, expressing at once _curious_ and _squeamish_" (Hurd). It is used by Comus in contempt: comp. ii. _Henry IV._ iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou _nice_ crutch"; and see the index to the Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the "light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._ in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over _Indian_ seas."

140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._ the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps," said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally 'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small.

141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3,

"The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun, For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light."

Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In _Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_: both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.'

142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_, complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_. Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._ serious or important.

143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_:

"Now, now begin to set Your spirits in active heat; And, since your hands are met, Instruct your nimble feet, In motions swift and meet, The happy ground to beat."

144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained. So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_).

At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in octosyllabic couplets.

145. ~different~, _i.e._ different from the voluptuous footing of Comus and his crew.

146. ~footing~: comp. _Lyc._ 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went _footing_ slow."

147. ~shrouds~, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes 'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. ~brakes~, bushes. Shakespeare has "hawthorn-_brake_," _M. N. D._ iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be connected with _bracken_.

148. ~Some virgin sure~, _sc._ 'it is.'

150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements. _Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile). _Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains' (_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note" (_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles.

151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a preposition.

153. ~Thus I hurl~, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is _powdered spells_; but Milton, by a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, substituted _dazzling_" (Masson).

154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A _spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying): here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called because it holds in suspension the magic powder.

155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision. Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam. Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W. Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_.

156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from _presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_): while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. _cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_, neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.'

158. ~suspicious flight~: flight due to suspicion of danger.

160. ~I, under fair pretence~, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.'

161. ~glozing~, flattering, wheedling. Compare _Par. Lost_, ix. 549,

"So _glozed_ the temper, and his proem tuned: Into the heart of Eve his words made way."

_Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr. _glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with _gloss_ = brightness.

162. ~Baited~, rendered attractive. Radically _bait_ is the causative of _bite_; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. _Sams. Ag._ 1066, "The _bait_ of honied words."

163. ~wind me~, etc. The verbs _wind_ (_i.e._ coil) and _hug_ suggest the cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in _Anat. of Mel._, says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and _wind_ himself into human bodies." _Me_ is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic dative.

165. ~virtue~, _i.e._ power or influence (Lat. _virtus_). This radical sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The adjective _virtuous_ is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 it has its older meaning.

166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. In the edition of 1673 the reading was:

"I shall appear some harmless villager, And hearken, if I may, her business here. But here she comes, I fairly step aside."

But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after _may_, and to change _here_ into _hear_. In Masson's text, accordingly, he reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear."

167. ~keeps up~, etc., _i.e._ keeps occupied with his country affairs even up to a late hour. _Gear_: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S. _gearu_, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was _easy gear_," _i.e._ an easy matter, fairly, softly. _Fair_ and _softly_ were two words which went together, signifying _gently_ (Warton).

170. ~mine ear ... My best guide~. Observe the juxtaposition of _mine_ and _my_ in these lines. _Mine_ is frequent before a vowel, especially when the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is intended (Abbott, § 237).

171. ~Methought~, _i.e._ it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' _me_ is the dative, and _thinks_ is an impersonal verb (A.S. _thincan_, to appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from A.S. _thencan_, to make to appear.

173. ~jocund~, merry. Comp. _L'Allegro_, 94, "the _jocund_ rebecks sound." ~gamesome~, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in _-some_, is now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives are obsolete, _e.g._ laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's _English, Past and Present_, v.).

174. ~unlettered hinds~, ignorant rustics (A.S. _hina_, a domestic).

175. ~granges~, granaries, barns (Lat. _granum_, grain). The word is now applied to a farm-house with its outhouses.

176. ~Pan~, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."

177. ~thank the gods amiss~. _Amiss_ stands for M.E. _on misse_ = in error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making" (Keightley). See Introduction.

178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily, hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_; from _wes_, be thou, and _hál_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_, the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk."

180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_ your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright."

184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.

187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. _As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun.

188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited," _Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning.

189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. _votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16.

190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some rich man's chariot" (Masson).

192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts.

193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To _engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge.

195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is therefore to some extent tautological.

197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_, which turns its bright side only to him that bears it."

198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57:

"By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:"

also _Macbeth_, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate _in sense_ with the next clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps" is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. l. 6.

203. ~rife~, prevalent. ~perfect~, distinct; see note, l. 73.

204. ~single darkness~, darkness only. _Single_ is from the same base as _simple_; comp. l. 369.

205. ~What might this be?~ This is a direct question about a past event, and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note there. ~A thousand fantasies~, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That wonderful passage in _Comus_ of the airy tongues, perhaps the most imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the _Anat. of Mel._: "Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or phantasy, Shakespeare says:

"As imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to _shapes_, and gives to _airy nothing_ A local habitation and a name."--

_M. N. D._ v. 1. 14.

Compare also Ben Jonson's _Vision of Delight_:

"Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, And spread thy purple wings; Now all thy figures are allow'd, And various shapes of things: Create of _airy forms_ a stream ... And though it be a waking dream," etc.

207. ~Of calling shapes~, etc. In Heywood's _Hierarchy of Angels_ there is a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. _Aen._ iv. 460. ~beckoning shadows dire~. A characteristic arrangement of words in Milton: comp. lines 470, 945.

208. ~syllable~, pronounce distinctly.

210. ~may startle well~, may well startle.

212. ~siding champion, Conscience~. To side is to take a side, and hence to assist: comp. _Cor._ iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have _sided_ in his behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: in _Son._ xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 2. 379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet Conscience."

213. ~pure-eyed Faith~. Comp. _Lyc._ 81, "those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,' 'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of Charity in the trio is significant: see i. _Cor._ xiii.

214. ~hovering angel~. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt, surrounded. ~golden wings~. In _Il Pens._ 52, Contemplation "soars on golden wing."

216. ~see ye visibly~, _i.e._ you are not mere shapes, but living presences. _Ye_: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between _ye_ and _you_ did not exist in old English; _ye_ was always used as a nominative, and _you_ as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris). It is so in Milton, who has _ye_ as nominative, accusative, and dative; comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also _Arc._ 40, 81, 101. It may be noted that _ye_ can be pronounced more rapidly than _you_, and is therefore frequent when an unaccented syllable is required.

217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' or punishment.

219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate words.

221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of an unaccusing conscience.

222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine.

223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and 'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due probably to change of thought.

225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_ trees."

226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_, and _holloa_.

227. ~make to be heard~. Make = cause.

228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36.

229. ~they~, _i.e._ the brothers.

230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1.

The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers.

231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is _cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_, because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the form of a shell.

232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._ 58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" (_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are forms of the same word.

233. ~the violet-embroidered vale~. The notion that flowers _broider_ or ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 700: "Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay _Broidered_ the ground." In _Lyc._ 148, the flowers themselves wear 'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's _Masque of Hymen_) and with innocence (see _Hamlet_, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales, however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet 'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek +iostephanos+ (= crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, of which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245: see the following note.

234. ~love-lorn nightingale~, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost: comp. Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." _Lorn_ and _lost_ are cognate words, the former being common in the compound _forlorn_: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the nightingale: in _Il Penseroso_ it is 'Philomel'; in _Par. Reg._ iv. 245, it is 'the Attic bird'; and in _Par. Lost_ viii. 518, it is 'the amorous bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales (Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of A{=e}don (Greek +aêdôn+, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by mistake, was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was represented by the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her child.

235. ~her sad song mourneth~, _i.e._ sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad song' forms a kind of cognate accusative.

237. ~likest thy Narcissus~. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1. Grammatically, _likest_ is an adjective qualified adverbially by "(to) thy Narcissus": comp. _Il Pens._ 9, "likest hovering dreams."

238. ~have hid~. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), but the subjunctive mood.

240. ~Tell me but where~, _i.e._ 'Only tell me where.'

241. ~Sweet Queen of Parley~, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. _parler_, to speak): _parlour_, _parole_, _palaver_, _parliament_, _parlance_. etc., are cognate. ~Daughter of the Sphere~, _i.e._ of the sphere which is her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse" (_At a Solemn Music_, 2).

243. ~give resounding grace~, etc., _i.e._ add the charm of echo to the music of the spheres.

The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more striking owing to the consonance of _shell_, _well_ with _vale_, _nightingale_; also of _pair_, _where_ with _are_ and _sphere_; and of _have_ with _cave_. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical passages.

244. ~mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment~. The words _mortal_ and _divine_ are in antithesis: comp. _Il Pens._ 91, 92, "The immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555 and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. _Il Pens._ 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794.

246. ~Sure~, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266.

247. ~vocal~, used proleptically.

248. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.'

251. ~smoothing the raven down~. As the nightingale's song smooths the rugged brow of Night (_Il Pens._ 58), so here the song of the lady smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a winged goddess.

252. ~it~, _i.e._ darkness.

253. ~Circe ... Sirens three~. In the _Odyssey_ the Sirens are two in number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined allusion: see also Horace's _Epist._ i. 2, 23, _Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nôsti_. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids.

254. ~flowery-kirtled Naiades~: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or having their skirts decorated with flowers. A _kirtle_ is a gown; Skeat suggests that it is a diminutive of _skirt_.

255. ~baleful~, injurious (A.S. _balu_, evil).

256. ~sung~. "The verbs _swim_, _begin_, _run_, _drink_, _shrink_, _sink_, _ring_, _sing_, _spring_, have for their proper past tenses _swam_, _began_, _ran_, etc., preserving the original _a_; but in older writers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find forms with _u_, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris). ~take the prisoned soul~, _i.e._ would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned' being used proleptically.

257. ~lap it in Elysium~. _Lap_ is a form of wrap: comp. _L'Alleg._ 136, "_Lap_ me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the blessed; comp. _L'Alleg._ 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." ~Scylla ... Charybdis~. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," _Aen._ vii. 588) resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool.

260. ~slumber~: comp. _Pericles_, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon mine eyes."

261. ~madness~, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in _Il Pens._ 164: "As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into _ecstasies_, And bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in the sense of madness; see _Hamlet_, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with _ecstasy_"; _Temp._ iii. 3. 108, "hinder them from what this _ecstasy_ May now provoke them to": comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," _Wint. Tale_, v. 3. 73. See also l. 625.

262. ~home-felt~, deeply felt. Compare "The _home_ thrust of a friendly sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes _home_ to our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.

263. ~waking bliss~, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the song of Circe.

265. ~Hail, foreign wonder!~ Warton notes that _Comus_ is universally allowed to have taken some of its tints from the _Tempest_, and quotes, "O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426.

266. ~certain~: see note, l. 246.

267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless' (Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the antecedent.

268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood).

269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and "mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95.

271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to "there is little loss in losing."

273. ~extreme shift~; last resource. Comp. l. 617.

274. ~my severed company~: a condensed expression = the companions separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called Synecdoche.

277. ~What chance~, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer occupy alternate lines: it is called _stichomythia_, and is admirable when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the _Supplices_ of Euripides). In _Samson Agonistes_, which is modelled on the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it.

278. An alliterative line.

279. ~near ushering~, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. _ostium_, a door).

284. ~twain~: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after its substantive as in _Lyc._ 110, "of metals _twain_," and as a substantive.

285. ~forestalling~, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a _stall_ in the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to anticipate.' ~prevented~. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l. 362; _Par. Lost_, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this _prevention_ more Incensed."

286. ~to hit~. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. "good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc.

287. ~Imports their loss~, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the loss of them important?'

289. ~manly prime~, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth' ends: comp. _Par. Lost_, xi. 245, "_prime_ in manhood where youth ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' = Spring.

290. ~Hebe~, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared on the lips of the brothers.

291. ~what time~: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. _quo tempore_). Compare Horace, _Od._ iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." ~laboured~: wearied with labour.

292. ~loose traces~. Because no longer taut from the draught of the plough.

293. ~swinked~, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. _swincan_, to toil). Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense of toil is due to that of constant movement from the _swinging_ of the labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman.

294. ~mantling~, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. _Temp._ v. 1. 67, "fumes that _mantle_ Their clearer reason."

297. ~port~, bearing, mien.

298. ~faery~. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. _faerie_ than the current form.

299. ~the element~; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means 'the air.' Comp. _Hen. V._ iv. 1. 107, "The _element_ shows him as it doth to me"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 490, "the louring _element_ Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc.

301. ~plighted~, interwoven or _plaited_. The verb 'plight' (or more properly _plite_) is a variant of _plait_: see _Il Pens._ 57, "her sweetest saddest _plight_." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l. 372. ~awe-strook~. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. 'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.'

302. ~worshiped~. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before _-ed_.

303. ~were~ = would be: subjunctive. ~like the path to Heaven~; _i.e._ it would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (_Matt._ vii.) as in _Son._ ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth."

304. ~help you find~: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used without _to_ where _to_ would now be inserted. This omission of the preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the infinitive was the termination _en_ (_e.g._ he can _speken_). The infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, which was preceded by the preposition _to_, and when this became confused with the simple infinitive the use of _to_ became general. Comp. _Son._ xx. 4, "_Help_ waste a sullen day."

305. ~readiest way~. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate.

311. ~each ... every~: see note, l. 19. ~alley~, a walk or avenue.

312. ~Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn~. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben Jonson's _Sad Shepherd_) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus, might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or _bush_ (M.E. _busch_, _bush_, _bush_). 'See Tennyson's _Dream of F. W._ 243, "the sombre _boscage_ of the wood."

315. ~stray attendance~ = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in line 274. Comp. _Par. Lost_, x. 80, "_Attendance_ none shall need, nor train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous _servitude_" (= servants).

316. ~shroud~, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see note, l. 147.

317. ~low-roosted lark~, _i.e._ the lark that has roosted on the ground. This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground. 'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with _rest_, but denotes a perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the corn-stalks or rushes over it.

318. ~rouse~. Here used intransitively = awake.

322. ~honest-offered~: see notes, ll. 36, 228.

323. ~sooner~, more readily.

324. ~tapestry halls~. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating walls." The word is said to be from the Persian.

325. ~first was named~. The meaning is: '_Courtesy_ which is derived from _court_, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes, _courtship_) has, like _civility_, lost much of its deeper significance. Comp. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 1. 1:

"Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, For that it there most useth to abound."

327. ~less warranted~, _i.e._ when I have less _guarantee_ of safety. _Guarantee_ and _warrant_, like _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, are radically the same.

329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj. 'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly." ~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage.

331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._ 'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is a diminutive of _muff_.

332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed; hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_ state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun _wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat. _benedictio_).

333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72, "_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and _amber_ light," and Tennyson:

"What time the _amber_ morn Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud."

334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87, "This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of) her."

336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain _influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various _influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language, _e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. 360.

337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)."

338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil.

340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or ruler.

341. ~star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure~; here put by synecdoche for 'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was called _Cynosura_, the dog's tail (Greek +kynos oura+), and by which Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See _L'Alleg._ 80, "The _cynosure_ of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common noun = point of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek mythology with the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into the Great Bear while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton follows the Roman poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this account.

343. ~barred~, debarred or barred _from_.

344. ~wattled cotes~: enclosures made of hurdles, _i.e._ frames of plaited twigs. _Cote_, _cot_, and _coat_ are varieties of the same word = a covering or enclosure.

345. ~oaten stops~: see _Lyc._ 33, "the _oaten_ flute"; 88, "But now my _oat_ proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various _quills_." The shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe," "oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages" (_Ham._ iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893.

346. ~whistle ... lodge~, _i.e._ the sound of the shepherd calling his dog by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in _L'Alleg._ 63, "the ploughman _whistles_ o'er the furrowed land."

347. ~Count ... dames~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts his _dames_ before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings." Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object of 'might hear.'

349. ~innumerous~, innumerable (Lat. _innumerus_). Comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 455, "_Innumerous_ living creatures"; ix. 1089.

350. ~hapless~, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary.

With reference to the word _fortune_, Max Müller says: "We speak of good and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself _fortuna_ was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans defined _fortuna_ by such adjectives as _bona_, _secunda_, _prospera_, for good; _mala_ or _adversa_ for bad fortune ... _Fortuna_ came to mean something like chance."

351. ~her~, herself. On the reflexive use of _her_, see note, l. 163.

352. ~burs~; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, _e.g._ the burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc.

355. ~leans~. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply _she_: otherwise _leans_ would be intransitive and its nominative 'head': see note, l. 715. ~fraught~, freighted, filled. _Freight_ is itself a later form of _fraught_: in _Sams. Agon._, 1075, _fraught_ is a noun (Ger. _fracht_, a load). See line 732.

356. ~What~, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) if (she be) in wild amazement?"

358. ~savage hunger~. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals.

359. ~over-exquisite~, _i.e._ too curious, over-inquisitive. _Exquisite_ is here used in the sense of _inquisitive_; in modern English 'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active sense (Lat. _quaero_, to seek): see note, l. 714.

"The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast of character" (Warton).

360. ~To cast the fashion~, _i.e._ to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii. _Henry IV._ i. 1. 166, "You _cast_ the event of war." Some think, however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used in astrology, _e.g._ "to _cast_ a nativity"; others see in it a reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis.

361. ~Grant they be so~: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364.

362. ~What need~, etc., _i.e._ why should a man anticipate his hour of sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. _quid_): comp. l. 752; also _On Shakespeare_, 6, "_What need'st_ thou such weak witness of thy name?" On the verb _need_ Abbott, § 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,' where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need' a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge much broader than the flood?' _M. Ado_, i. 1. 318; either '_why need_ the bridge (be) broader?' or '_what need_ is there (that) the bridge (be) broader?'"

363. Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we have," etc.; and Pope's _Essay on Man_, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate," etc.

366. ~to seek~, at a loss. Compare _Par. Lost_, viii. 197: "Unpractised, unprepared, and still _to seek_." Bacon, in _Adv. of Learning_, has: "Men bred in learning are perhaps _to seek_ in points of convenience."

367. ~unprincipled in virtue's book~, _i.e._ ignorant of the elements of virtue. A principle (Lat. _principium_, beginning) is a fundamental truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into evil. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness _principled_."

368. ~bosoms~, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is governed by 'in,' l. 367.

369. ~As that~, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to 'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by 'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we have both connectives together. ~single~: see note, l. 204. noise, sound.

370. ~Not being in danger~, _i.e._ she not being in danger: absolute construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need not disquiet her.'

371. ~constant~, steadfast.

372. ~misbecoming~: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. ~plight~, condition. Skeat derives this word from A.S. _pliht_, danger; others connect it with _pledge_. It is distinct from _plight_, l. 301.

373. ~Virtue could see~, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines 381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for to wade," _F. Q._ i. 1. 12.

375. ~flat sea~: comp. _Lyc._ 98, "level brine": Lat. _aequor_, a flat surface, used of the sea.

376. ~seeks to~, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the English Bible: see _Deut._ xii. 5, "_unto_ his habitation shall ye _seek_"; _Isaiah_, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. _Kings_, x. 24.

377. ~her best nurse, Contemplation~. The wise man loves contemplation and solitude: comp. _Il Penseroso_, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's _Arcadia_, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations."

378. ~plumes~. Some would read _prunes_, both words being used of a bird's smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out damaged feathers. See Skeat's _Dictionary_, and compare Pope's line, "Where Contemplation _prunes_ her ruffled wings."

379. ~various~, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in _L'Allegro_ the 'busy hum of men.'

380. ~all to-ruffled~. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled, (3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is etymologically correct: _to_ is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' = to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while _all_ (= quite) is simply an adverb modifying _to-ruffled_. But about 1500 A.D. this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix _to_ was detached from the verb and either read along with _all_ (thus all-to = altogether), or confused with _too_ (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may have disregarded its origin. See Morris, § 324; Abbott, §§ 28, 436.

381. ~He that has light~, etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 254: 'The mind is its own place,' etc.

382. ~centre~, _i.e._ centre of the earth: comp. _Par. Lost_ i. 686, "Men also ... Ransacked the _centre_"; and _Hymn Nat._ 162, "The aged Earth ... Shall from the surface to the _centre_ shake." Sometimes the word 'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the _fixed_ centre of the whole universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed, however, is not that of immovability (as in _Par. Reg._ iv. 534, "as a _centre_ firm") but of utter darkness.

385. ~his own dungeon~: comp. _Sams. Agon._ 156, "Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) The _dungeon_ of thyself."

386. ~most affects~: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. _pretend_. Lines 386-392 may be compared with _Il Pens._ 167-174.

393. ~Hesperian tree~. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp. Tennyson's _Dream of Fair Women_, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983.

395. ~unenchanted~, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,' 'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for 'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott (§ 375) says: The passive participle is often used to signify, not that which _was_ and _is_, but that which _was_ and therefore _can be hereafter_; in other words _-ed_ is used for _-able_.

396. Compare Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, 44, "She flowered in virginity, With all humility and abstinence."

398. ~unsunned~, hidden. Comp. _Cym._ ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as _unsunned_ snow"; _F. Q._ ii. 7, "Mammon ... _Sunning_ his treasure hoar."

400. ~as bid me hope~, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to) hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a single helpless maiden pass uninjured.'

401. ~Danger will wink on~, etc., _i.e._ danger will shut its eyes to an opportunity. To _wink on_ or _wink at_ is to connive, to refuse to see something: comp. _Macbeth_, i. 4. 52, "The eye _wink_ at the hand"; _Acts_, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in _As You Like It_, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold."

403. ~surrounding~. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has acquired through a supposed connection with _round_. Shakespeare does not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. _superundare_).

404. ~it recks me not~, _i.e._ I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old verb _reck_ (A.S. _récan_, to care). Comp. _Lyc._ 122, "What _recks_ it them."

405. ~dog them both~, _i.e._ follow closely upon night and loneliness. Comp. _All's Well_, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger _dogs_ the heels of worth."

407. ~unownèd~, _i.e._ 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a participle.

408. ~infer~, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See Shakespeare, iii. _Hen. VI._ ii. 2. 44, "_Inferring_ arguments of mighty force"; _K. John_, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs _infer_ this principle": also _Par. Lost_, viii. 91, "great or bright _infers_ not excellence."

409. ~without all doubt~, _i.e._ beyond all doubt: a Latinism = _sine omni dubitatione_.

411. ~arbitrate the event~, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded I incline to hope.'

413. ~squint suspicion~. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates suspicion.

419. ~if Heaven gave it~, _i.e._ even _although_ Heaven gave it.

420. ~'Tis chastity~. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson).

421. ~clad in complete steel~, _i.e._ completely armed; comp. _Hamlet_, i. 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable.

422. ~quivered nymph~. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin _pharetrata_.

423. ~trace~, traverse, track. ~unharboured~, affording no shelter. Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.

424. ~Infámous~, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult.

425. ~sacred rays~: comp. l. 782.

426. ~bandite or mountaineer~. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare _bandetto_, and now _bandit_) is borrowed from the Italian _bandito_, outlawed or _banned_. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the changes of meaning. See _Temp._ iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that there were _mountaineers_ Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also _Cym._ iv. 2. 120, "Who called me traitor, _mountaineer_."

428. ~very desolation~. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced to Lat. _verus_ = true: comp. l. 646.

429. ~shagged ... shades~. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38.

430. ~unblenched~, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded with 'unblanched,' is from _blench_, a causal of _blink_.

431. ~Be it not~: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.

432. ~Some say~, etc. Compare _Hamlet_, i. 1. 158:

"Some say that, ever against that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad."

433. ~In fog or fire~, etc. Comp. _Il Pens._ 93, "those demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in his _Anat. of Mel._, quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc."

434. ~meagre hag~, lean witch. _Hag_ is from A.S. _haegtesse_, a prophetess or witch. Comp. _Par. Lost_, ii. 662; _M. W. of W._ iv. 2. 188, "Come down, you witch, you _hag_." ~unlaid ghost~, unpacified or wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see _Temp._ v. 1. 40; _King Lear_, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his matin rings" (_L'Alleg._ 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. _couvre-feu_ = fire-cover), the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.

436. ~swart faery of the mine~. In Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ we read, "Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also _swarty_, _swarth_, and _swarthy_) here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits were called the _Svartalfar_, or black elves. Comp. _Lyc._ 138, "the _swart_ star," where 'swart' = swart making.

438. ~Do ye believe~. _Ye_ is properly a second person plural, but (like _you_) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § 236.

439. ~old schools of Greece~. The brother now turns for his arguments from the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of Greece.

440. ~to testify~, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421.

441. ~Dian~. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was insensible to the bolts of Cupid, _i.e._ to the power of love. She was the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in _Cynthia's Revels_, v. 1, "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc.

442. ~silver-shafted queen~. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which were frequently called _shafts_, and as the latter she bore shafts or rays of light. _Shaft_ is etymologically 'a _shaven_ rod.' In Chaucer, _C. T._ 1364, 'shaft' = arrow.

443. ~brinded lioness~. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "_brinded_ cat," _Macb._ iv. 1. 1: _brind_ is etymologically connected with _brand_.

444. ~mountain-pard~, _i.e._ panther or other spotted wild beast. _Pard_, originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-_pard_ and camelo-_pard_.

445. ~frivolous ... Cupid~. See the speech of Oberon, _M. N. D._ ii. 1. 65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l. 1004.

447. ~snaky-headed Gorgon shield~. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield, which confounded Cupid: see _Par. Lost_, ii. 610.

449. ~freezed~, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.'

450. ~But~, except: a preposition.

451. ~dashed~, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.

452. ~blank awe~: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank astonishment,' and see _Par. Lost_, ix. 890.

454. ~so~, _i.e._ chaste.

455. ~liveried angels lackey her~, _i.e._ ministering angels attend her. So, in _L'Alleg._ 62, "the clouds in thousand _liveries_ dight"; a servant's livery being the distinctive dress _delivered_ to him by his master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy, who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good sense, without implying servility (as in _Ant. and Cleop._ i. 4. 46, "_lackeying_ the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the feminine personification: see line 396.

457. ~vision~: a trisyllable.

458. ~no gross ear~. See notes, l. 112 and 997.

459. ~oft converse~, frequent communion. _Oft_ is here used adjectively: this use is common in the English Bible, _e.g._ i. _Tim._ v. 23, "thine _often_ infirmities."

460. ~Begin to cast ... turns~. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and vividness.

461. ~temple of the mind~, _i.e._ the body. This metaphor is common: see Shakespeare, _Temp._ i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a _temple_"; and the Bible, _John_, ii. 21, "He spake of the _temple_ of his body."

462. ~the soul's essence~. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality.

465. ~most~, above all.

467. ~soul grows clotted~. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's _Phaedo_, in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes:

_Socrates_ (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this true, Cebes?

_Cebes._ Yes; beyond a doubt.

_Soc._ But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed?

_Ceb._ That is impossible.

_Soc._ She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual association and constant care of the body have wrought into her nature.

_Ceb._ Very true.

_Soc._ And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible.

_Ceb._ That is very likely, Socrates.

_Soc._ Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives.

Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says:

Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the body.--_Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues._

468. ~imbodies and imbrutes~, _i.e._ becomes materialised and brutish. _Imbody_, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. _Imbrute_ (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in _Par. Lost_, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have been suggested by the _Phaedo_, where the souls of the wicked are said to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and animals of that sort.

469. ~divine property~. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, _Sat._ ii. 2. 79, "affigit humo _divinae particulam aurae_"; and Plato's _Phaedo_, "The soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal."

470. ~gloomy shadows damp~: see note, l. 207.

471. ~charnel-vaults~, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. _charnel_, Lat. _carnalis_; _caro_, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474.

473. ~As loth~, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and degraded state.' ~it~: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in thought) '_such_ shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with 'soul,' line 467.

474. ~sensualty~. The modern form of the word is _sensuality_.

475. ~degenerate and degraded~: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter because 'imbruted.'

476. ~divine Philosophy~, _i.e._ such philosophy as is to be found in "the divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it).

477. ~crabbed~, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. _Crab_ (a shell-fish) and _crab_ (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat).

478. ~Apollo's lute~: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. _Par. Reg._ i. 478-480; _L. L. L._ iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright _Apollo's lute_, strung with his hair."

479. ~nectared sweets~. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838; _Par. Lost_, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426.

482. ~Methought~: see note, l. 171. ~what should it be?~ This is a direct question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, § 325). ~For certain~, _i.e._ for certain truth, certainly.

483. ~night-foundered~; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. _fondrer_; Lat. _fundus_, the bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see _Par. Lost_, i. 204), and is sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of 'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.'

484. ~neighbour~. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, _i.e._ a peasant dwelling near.

487. ~Best draw~: we had best draw our swords.

489. ~Defence is a good cause~, etc., _i.e._ 'in defending ourselves we are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.'

490. ~That hallo~. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given in the edition of _Comus_ printed by Lawes in 1637: _He hallos; the Guardian Dæmon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd._

491. ~you fall~, etc., _i.e._ otherwise you will fall on our swords.

493. ~sure~: see note, l. 246.

494. ~Thyrsis~, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In Milton's _Epitaphium Damonis_ it stands for Milton himself; in _Comus_ it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems.

495. ~sweetened ... dale~; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music.

496. ~huddling~. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: comp. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 19, "Et _properantis_ aquae per amoenos ambitus agros." ~madrigal~: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. _mandra_, a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and by Milton's father.

497. ~swain~: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds boat-_swain_, cox-_swain_. See _Arc._ 26, "Stay, gentle _swains_," etc.

499. ~pent~, penned, participle of _pen_, to shut up (A.S. _pennan_, which is connected with _pin_, seen in _pin_-fold, l. 7). ~forsook~: a form of the past tense used for the participle.

501. ~and his next joy~, _i.e._ 'and (thou), his next joy'--words addressed to the second brother.

502. ~trivial toy~, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but 'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known. Compare _Il Pens._ 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your _toys_"; and Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a cause."

503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by.

506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187.

508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in Shakespeare (Abbott, § 37), where it sometimes has the force of an adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc.

509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_); hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in _sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_ (1886), page 170.

510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part.

511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas, for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line _true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his having arrived at the age of twenty-three_.

512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written 'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.

513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216.

514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12; _Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame."

515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as "taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, "great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung."

516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_.

517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. _chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_.

518. ~rifted rocks~: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in the south of Greece (see Virgil _Georg._ iv. 467, _Taenarias fauces_); here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus.

519. ~such there be~. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of _be_.

520. ~navel~, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. l. 123) speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was 'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel of the earth.'

521. ~Immured~, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up within walls (Lat. _murus_, a wall).

523. ~witcheries~, enchantments.

526. ~murmurs~. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 and _Arc._ 60, "With puissant words and _murmurs_ made to bless."

529. ~unmoulding reason's mintage charactered~, _i.e._ defacing those signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. +charaktêr+, an engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the first.

531. ~crofts that brow~ = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. _L'Alleg._ 8, "low-browed rocks."

532. ~bottom glade~: the glade below. The word _bottom_, however, is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.'

533. ~monstrous rout~; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. 'the bottom of the monstrous world,' _Lyc._ 158. In _Aen._ vii. 15, we read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling."

534. ~stabled wolves~, wolves in their dens. _Stable_ (= a standing-place) is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, _e.g._ in _Par. Lost_, xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and _stabled_." Comp. "Stable for camels," _Ezek._ xxv. 5, and the Latin _stabulum_, _Aen._ vi. 179, _stabula alta ferarum_.

535. ~Hecate~: see l. 135.

536. ~bowers~: see note, l. 45.

539. ~unweeting~; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, both in the compounds and in the simple verb _weet_, a corruption of _wit_ (A.S. _witan_, to know). Compare _Par. Reg._ i. 126, "_unweeting_, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." _Sams. Agon._ 1680; Chaucer, _Doctor's Tale_, "Virginius came _to weet_ the judge's will."

540. ~by then~, _i.e._ by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical.

542. ~knot-grass~. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however, suppose marjoram to be intended here. ~dew-besprent~, _i.e._ besprinkled with dew: comp. _Lyc._ 29. _Be_ is an intensive prefix; _sprent_ is connected with M.E. _sprengen_, to scatter, of which _sprinkle_ is the frequentative form.

543. ~sat me down~: see note, l. 61.

544. ~canopied, and interwove~. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 2. 49, 'I know a bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to 'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of _weave_, viz. _wove_ and _woven_: see _Arc._ 47.

545. ~flaunting~, showy, garish. In _Lyc._ 146, the poet first wrote 'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.'

547. ~meditate ... minstrelsy~, _i.e._ to sing a pastoral song: comp. _Lyc._ 32. 66. _To meditate the muse_ is a Virgilian phrase: see _Ecl._ i. and vi. The Lat. _meditor_ has the meaning of 'to apply one's self to,' and does not mean merely to ponder.

548. ~had~, should have: comp. l. 394. ~ere a close~, _i.e._ before he had finished his song (Masson). _Close_ occurs in the technical sense of 'the final cadence of a piece of music.'

549. ~wonted~: see note, l. 332.

550. ~barbarous~: comp. _Son._ xii. 3, "a _barbarous_ noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, etc."

551. ~listened them~. The omission of _to_ after verbs of hearing is frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, § 199). 'Them': this refers to the _sounds_ implied in 'dissonance.'

552. ~unusual stop~. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230.

553. ~drowsy frighted~, _i.e._ drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' _Il Pens._ 146, and others of Milton's remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73.

554. ~Sleep~ (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. _Macbeth_, ii. l. 51, "curtained sleep."

555. 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could always be filled by such music.' Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 604, "She all night long her amorous descant sung; _Silence was pleased_"; also Jonson's _Vision of Delight_:

"Yet let it like an odour rise To all the senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, Or music in their ear."

558. ~took~, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of _take_, and compare 'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word.

560. ~Still~, always. This use of _still_ is frequent in Elizabethan writers (Abbott, § 69). ~I was all ear~. Warton notes this expressive idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in _Tempest_, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." _All_ is an attribute of _I_.

561. ~create a soul~, etc., _i.e._ breathe life even into the dead: comp. _L'Alleg._ 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in an old edition of Quarles' _Emblems_, in which "a soul in the figure of an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its prison." _Rom._ vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"

565. ~harrowed~, distracted, torn as by a _harrow_. This is probably the meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue; hence some read "harried with grief and fear."

567. ~How sweet ... how near~. This sentence contains two exclamations: this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ... _and_ how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How sweet..., how near the deadly snare _is_!"

568. ~lawns~. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it is said to be cognate with _llan_ used as a prefix in the names of certain Welsh towns, _e.g._ Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes the form launde.

569. ~often trod by day~, which I have often trod by day, and therefore know well.

570. ~mine ear~: see note, l. 171.

571. ~wizard~. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the suffix _-ard_, or _-art_, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or magical, without implying contempt: see _Lyc._ 55, "Deva spreads her _wizard_ stream."

572. ~certain signs~: see l. 644.

574. ~aidless~: an obsolete word. See Trench's _English Past and Present_ for a list of about 150 words in _-less_, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92, note. ~wished~: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of the verb.

575. ~such two~: two persons of such and such description.

577. ~durst not stay~. _Durst_ is the old past tense of _dare_, and is used as an auxiliary: the form _dared_ is much more modern, and may be used as an independent verb.

578. ~sprung~: see note, l. 256.

579. ~till I had found~. The language is extremely condensed here, the meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I _had found_ you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight, and determined to continue it until I had found (_i.e._ should have found) you.' Comp. Abbott § 361.

581. ~triple knot~, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell.

584. "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains."

585. ~safely~, confidently. ~period~, sentence.

586. ~for me~, _i.e._ for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l. 602.

588. ~Which erring men call Chance~. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate; "which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, _Essay on Man_:

"All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see."

588. ~this I hold firm~. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly."

590. ~enthralled~, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022.

591. ~which ... harm~, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.

595-7. ~Gathered like scum~, etc. According to one editor, this image is "taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun's body and after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes it."

598. ~pillared firmament~. The firmament (Lat. _firmus_, firm or solid) is here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp. _Par. Reg._ iv. 55; also _Wint. Tale_, ii. l. 100, "If I mistake In those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to bear A schoolboy's top."

602. ~for~, as regards. ~let ... girt~, though he be surrounded.

603. ~grisly legions~. 'Grisly,' radically the same as _grue-some_ = horrible, causing terror. In _Par. Lost_, iv. 821, Satan is called "the grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable.

604. ~sooty flag of Acheron~. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher's _Locusts_ (1627): "All hell run out and sooty flags display."

605. ~Harpies and Hydras~. The Harpies (lit. 'spoilers') were unclean monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and gaunt faces. _Hydras_, here used as a general name for monstrous water-serpents (Gk. _hyd{=o}r_, water); the name was first given to the nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See _Son._ xv. 7, "new rebellions raise Their _Hydra_ heads"; the epithet 'hydra-headed' being applied to a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from every endeavour to repress it.

607. ~return his purchase back~, _i.e._ 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the MS.) 'release his new-got prey.' To purchase (Fr. _pour-chasser_) originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or foul: it thus came to mean 'to steal' (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, and Shakespeare), and 'to buy' (its current sense). See Trench, _Study of Words_; _Hen. V._ iii. 2. 45, "They will steal anything, and call it _purchase_"; i. _Hen. IV._ ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our _purchase_."

609. ~venturous~, ready to venture. See note, l. 79.

610. ~yet~, nevertheless. The meaning is: '_Though_ thy courage is useless, _yet_ I love it.' ~emprise~: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) of _enterprise_. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence 'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.'

611. ~can do thee little stead~, _i.e._ can help thee little. _Stead_, both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases, _e.g._ 'to stand in good stead,' and in composition, _e.g._ _stead_fast, home_stead_, in_stead_, Hamp_stead_, etc. Its strict sense is place or position: comp. _Il Pens._ 3, "How little you _bested_."

612. ~Far other arms~, _i.e._ very different arms. 'Other' has here its radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an adverb.

615. ~unthread~, loosen. Comp. _Temp._ iv. l. 259, "Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews With aged cramps."

617. ~As to make this relation~, _i.e._ as to be able to tell this.

619. ~a certain shepherd lad~. This is supposed to refer to Charles Diodati, Milton's dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem _Epitaphium Damonis_, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical skill:

"There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach Thy friend the name and healing powers of each."

(_Cowper's translation._)

620. ~Of small regard to see to~: in colloquial English, 'not much to look at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek +kalos idein+: see English Bible, "goodly to look to," i. _Sam._ xvi. 12; _Ezek._ xxiii. 15; _Jer._ xlvii. 3.

621. ~virtuous~, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. _Il Pens._ 113, "the virtuous ring and glass."

623. ~beg me sing~: see note, l. 304.

625. ~ecstasy~: see note, l. 261. The Greek _ekstasis_ = standing out of one's self.

626. ~scrip~, wallet.

627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,' 'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.'

630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative.

633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the plant or the root.

634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent, _i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix _un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_.

635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in _clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of _clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe. In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse. _Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes), _dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc.

636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible" (_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his first Elegy Milton alludes to M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and _moly_."

638. ~He called it Hæmony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619. _Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the adjective _Haemonian_ is used, in Latin poetry as = _Thessalian_, Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as a land of magic, 'Haemonian' acquired the sense of 'magical' (see Ovid, _Met._ vii 264, "_Haemonia_ radices valle resectas," etc.), and Milton's Haemony is simply "the magical plant." Coleridge supposes that by the prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and triumph of the Christian life.

639. ~sovran use~: see note, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms, medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came to imply 'all-healing,' 'supremely efficacious'; see _Cor._ ii. 1. 125, "The most _sovereign_ prescription in Galen."

640. ~mildew blast~: comp. _Arc._ 48-53, _Ham._ iii. 4. 64, "Here is your husband; Like a _mildew'd_ ear _Blasting_ his wholesome brother." A mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew (A.S. meledeáw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry east winds was favourable to its formation.

642. ~pursed it up~, etc., _i.e._ put it in my wallet, though I did not attach much importance to it. ~little reckoning~: comp. _Lyc._ 116, where the very same phrase occurs.

643. ~Till now that~. Here _that_ = when, the clause introduced by it being explanatory of _now_ (see Abbott, § 284).

646-7. ~Entered ... came off~. 'I entered into the very midst of his treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.' _Lime-twigs_ = snares; in allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared with a viscous substance (called on that account 'birdlime'). Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: see _Macbeth_, iv. 2. 34; _Two Gent._ ii. 2. 68; ii. _Hen. VI._ i. 3. 91; etc.

649. ~necromancer's hall~. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a magician's castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry. _Necromancer_, lit. one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk. +nekros+, a corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with that of the Lat. _niger_, black, the art of necromancy came to be called "the black art."

650. ~Where if he be~, Lat. _ubi si sit_: in English the relative adverb in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative adverb; thus, '_and_ if he be _there_.'

651. ~brandished blade~. Comp. Hermes' advice to Ulysses: "When it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her," _Odyssey_, x. ~break his glass~. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, _F. Q._ i. 12, stanza 56.

652. ~luscious~, delicious. The word is a corruption of _lustious_ from O.E. _lust_ = pleasure: see note, l. 49.

653. ~But seize his wand~. The force of this injunction is shown by lines 815-819.

654. ~menace high~, violent threat. _High_ is thus used in a number of figurative senses, _e.g._ a high wind, a high hand, high passions (_Par. Lost_, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc.

655. ~Sons of Vulcan~. In the _Aeneid_ (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), "vomited from his throat huge volumes of smoke" when pursued by Hercules, "_Faucibus ingentem fumum_," etc.

657. ~apace~; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its meaning: in Chaucer it means 'at a foot pace,' _i.e._ slowly. The first syllable is the indefinite article '_a_' = one (Skeat).

658. ~bear~: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, § 365). (_Stage Direction_) ~puts by~: puts on one side, refuses. ~goes about to rise~, _i.e._ endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of _go about_ still lingers in the phrase 'to _go about_ one's business'; comp. 'to _set about_' anything.

659. ~but~, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have here a verb in the present tense ('are chained'), a construction which well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer's spell (see Abbott, § 371).

660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled _alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too much conceiving."

661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. +daphnê+): comp, the story of Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106.

662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._ xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The sight of this so horrid spectacle."

663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733).

665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly nook."

668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12.

669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6.

672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat. _cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gul{=a}b_, rose-water.

673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96.

674. ~syrups~: Arab, _shar{=a}b_, a drink, wine.

675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful" (_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek adj. = sorrow-dispelling (+nê+, privative; +penthos+, grief). It is here used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used as a general name for drugs that relieve pain.

677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, 'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.'

679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel."

680. 'Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.' Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ iv. "Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy," etc.

685. ~unexempt condition~, _i.e._ a condition binding on all and at all times, a law of human nature.

687. ~mortal frailty~, _i.e._ weak mortals: abstract for concrete.

688. ~That~. The antecedent of this relative is _you_, l. 682. See note, l. 2.

689. ~timely~, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's _Marmion_, iii. 223, "gambol rude and _timeless_ joke"): comp. _Son._ ii. 8, "_timely_-happy spirits"; and l. 970.

693. ~Was this ... abode~? The verb is singular, because 'cottage' and 'safe abode' convey one idea: see Comus's words, l. 320. Notice also that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling.

694. ~aspects~: accent on final syllable.

695. ~oughly-headed~: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. _Ugly_ is radically connected with _awe_.

698. ~with visored falsehood and base forgery~. A vizor (also spelt _visor_, _visard_, _vizard_) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. _With_ in this line, as in lines 672 and 700, denotes _by means of_.

700. ~liquorish baits~: see note on _baited_, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by catachresis for _lickerish_ = tempting to the appetite, causing one to _lick_ one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three words _lickerish_ (as above), _liquorish_ (which is really meaningless) and _liquorice_ (= licorice = Lat. _glycyrrhiza_), a plant with a sweet root.

702. ~treasonous~; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use _treasonous_ in the more general sense of _traitorous_ (a cognate word). In this line 'offer' = the thing offered.

703. ~good men ... good things~. This noble sentiment Milton has borrowed from Euripides, _Medea_, 618, +Kakou gar andros dôr' onêsin ouk echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton).

704. ~that which is not good~, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (_Rep._ iv. 439).

707. ~budge doctors of the Stoic fur~. Budge is lambskin with the wool dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, etc. Therefore, if both _budge_ and _fur_ be taken literally the line is tautological. But 'budge' has the secondary sense of 'solemn,' like a doctor in his robes; and 'fur' may be used figuratively in the sense of _sect_, just as "the cloth" is used to denote the clergy. The whole phrase would thus be equivalent to 'solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.' It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses of 'budge.'

708. ~the Cynic tub~ = the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and was fond of calling himself +ho kyôn+ (the dog).

709. ~the~: here used generically.

711. ~unwithdrawing~. In this participle the termination _-ing_ seems almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "_all-obeying_ breath" (= obeyed by all), _A. and C._ iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are not only full but continuous.

714. ~all to please ... curious taste~. _All_ = entirely, here modifies the infinitives please and sate. _Curious_ = fastidious: its original sense is 'careful' or 'anxious.' Compare the two senses of _exquisite_, note l. 359.

715. ~set~, _i.e._ she set. The pronominal subject is omitted.

717. ~To deck~: infinitive of purpose.

718. ~in her own loins~, _i.e._ in the bowels of the earth.

719. ~hutched~ = stored up, enclosed. _Hutch_ is an old word for chest or coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.'

720. ~To store her children with~, _i.e._ _wherewith_ to store her children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).' 'Store' = provide.

721. ~pet of temperance~, _i.e._ a sudden and transitory fit of temperance. ~pulse~. So Daniel and his three companions refused the dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; _Dan._ i.

722. ~frieze~, coarse woollen cloth.

723. ~All-giver~. Comp. Gk. +pandôra+, an epithet applied to the earth as the giver of all.

725. 'And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature's bastards': see _Hebrews_ xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye _bastards, and not sons_."

728. ~Who~. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun _her_, _i.e._ the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have their full force as genitives: comp. _L'Alleg._ 124, "her grace whom" = the grace of her whom. ~surcharged~: overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732). ~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of 'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.).

729. ~strangled~, suffocated.

730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both clauses in this line are absolute.

731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of speech was used for another.

732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355.

733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.

734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.'

735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _oeuvre_, work).

737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.

739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8):

"Earthlier happy is the rose distilled Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness."

See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea in all its subtleties" (Masson).

743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion."

744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par. Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._ 33. The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now have _-ing_ (Abbott, § 374).

747. ~most~, as many as possible.

748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._ i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_ is derived from _home_.

749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for household occupations.

750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat. _granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par. Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,' 'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect. on Eng. Lang._ p. 55).

751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card: comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into _hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word.

752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate.

753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed Dawn," +euplokamos Êôs+.

755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108.

756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus.

757. ~but that~: were it not that.

758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. 170.

759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments. _Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words clothed in _reason's garb_."

760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the _boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word (also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.

763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503.

764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent is unnecessarily repeated.

765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good.

767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable, both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.

768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv. 1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough."

769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_.

770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds = wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious.

774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially = not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a whit, _naught_ = no whit.

776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note, l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete.

779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed, _e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc.

780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of _enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines 780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)."

782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6, Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with fair beams did her adorn."

783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no purpose.

784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for _neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and the first may as well be contracted as the second.

785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_ Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."

790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is 'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love," as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as being the instrument of sophistry.

791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_: comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much Ado_, v. 1. 75.

794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been _carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40, "Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40.

797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp. Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_."

800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative.

801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world."

802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat which 'dips' or moistens his body.

804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the _Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as in both cases equivalent to _denounces_.

806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady.

808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and other foundations" (Keightley).

809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous = dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy (see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, § ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. +melancholia+, black bile. See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy"; and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the cause of lunacy."

811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures."

814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_ the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on names adored."

816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism: see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because 'without' also governs 'mutters.'

817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526.

820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.

821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from the antecedent: see note, l. 2.

822. ~Meliboeus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i. Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a 'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser.

823. ~soothest~, truest. The A.S. _sóth_ meant _true_; hence also 'a true thing' = truth. It survives in _soothe_ (lit. to affirm to be true), _soothsay_ (see l. 874), and _forsooth_ (= for a truth).

824. ~from hence~. _Hence_ represents an A.S. word _heonan_, _-an_ being a suffix = from: so that in the phrase 'from hence' the force of the preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp. _Arc._ 3: "which _we from hence_ descry."

825. ~with moist curb sways~: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a _numen fluminis_ or river-deity.

826. ~Sabrina~: The following is Milton's version of the legend:--"After this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years, died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons--Locrine, Albanact, and Camber--divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, Loëgria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back into Loëgria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other; and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by length of time is changed now to _Sabrina_ or Severn."--_History of Britain_ (1670).

827. ~Whilom~, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. _hwílum_, instr. or dat. plur. of _hwil_, time.

830. ~step-dame~. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The prefix _step_ (A.S. _steóp-_) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly to a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words 'step-father,' etc. _Dame_ (Fr. _dame_, a lady) retains the sense of mother in the form _dam_.

832. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96.

834. ~pearled wrists~, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.

835. ~aged Nereus' hall~, the abode of old Nereus, _i.e._ the bottom of the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil, _grandaevus Nereus_. See also, l. 871, and compare Jonson's _Neptune's Triumph_, last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home with pearls."

836. ~piteous of~, _i.e._ full of pity for; comp. Lat. _miseret te aliorum_ (genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive sense; its active sense is 'causing pity,' _i.e._ pitiful. Comp. Abbott, § 3. ~reared her lank head~, _i.e._ raised up her drooping head: comp. _Par. Lost_, viii.: "In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: he _reared_ me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective _lanky_ is in common use = tall and thin.

837. ~imbathe~, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being reduplicated, as in Lat. _incidere in_.

838. ~nectared lavers~, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented with asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. ~asphodel~; the same, both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see _Lyc._ 150, where it takes the form 'daffadillies'): Gk. +asphodelos+, M.E. _affodille_. The initial _d_ in daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l. 851.

839. ~the porch~. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: comp. _Haml._ i. 5. 63: "the porches of mine ear"; also the phrase, "the five gateways of knowledge."

840. ~ambrosial oils~, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and compare Virgil's use of _ambrosia_ in _Georg._ iv. 415, _liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem_.

841. ~quick immortal change~: comp. l. 10.

842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.

844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133; "twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188.

845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin' (_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare, _Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_ whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_. ~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc.

846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious, like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the current verb is _beshrew_.

847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_.

850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862.

852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson).

853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660.

854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._ xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes."

857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song.

858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.

863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.' _Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see _Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume."

865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense of 'a river.'

868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. +Ôkeanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact, throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent epithets" of the various divinities.

869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon (Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_,