Chapter 2

etc. In _Par. Lost_, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace petrifick."

870. ~Tethys' ... pace~. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (+potnia Têthys+), and in Ovid 'the hoary.'

871. ~hoary Nereus~: see note, l. 835.

872. ~Carpathian wizard's hook~. See Virgil's _Georg._ iv. 387, "In the sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future." _Wizard_ = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note there. _Hook_: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": _Odyssey_, iv. 385-463.

873. ~scaly Triton's ... shell~. In _Lycidas_, 89, he is "the Herald of the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.

874. ~soothsaying Glaucus~. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823.

875. ~Leucothea~: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leukê+, +thea+), the name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas.

876. ~her son~, _i.e._ Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans with their god of harbours, Portumnus.

877. ~tinsel-slippered~. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+). Comp. _Neptune's Triumph_ (Jonson):

"And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast."

'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. Etymologically, _tinsel_ is that which glitters or _scintillates_. On the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally, see Trench, _English Past and Present_, p. 296.

878-80. ~Sirens ... Parthenopè's ... Ligea's~. The three Sirens (see note, l. 253) were Parthenopè, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the first was at Naples (see Milton's _Ad Leonaram_, iii., "Credula quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana Achelöiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (_Georg._ iv. 336) as a sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of smoothing her hair with a golden comb.

881. ~Wherewith~ = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ... locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is "she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks.

882. ~Sleeking~, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is greasy: comp. _Lyc._ 99, "On the level brine _Sleek_ Panopè with all her sisters played."

885. ~heave~, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in _L'Alleg._ 145, "Orpheus' self may heave his head."

887. ~bridle in~, _i.e._ restrain.

888. ~have~: subjunctive after _till_, as frequently in Milton.

890. ~rushy-fringèd~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29; "false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14.

891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit the _dank_" (= the water).

893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_. ~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_, _glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, _English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._ 45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_.

894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey (Pers. _turk_, a Turk).

895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon grows on its banks.

897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with _printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no print of step hath been."

902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best').

913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,' l. 155.

914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid (_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416.

916. ~Next~: an adverb modifying 'touch.'

917. ~glutinous~, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the effect to the cause.

921. ~Amphitrite~: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea.

923. ~Anchises line~: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who was the son of old Anchises.

924. ~may ... miss~. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.'

925. ~brimmèd~. The passive participle is so often used where we now use the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of _bank_ (comp. l. 119), so that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks.

928. ~singèd~, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow."

933. ~beryl~: in the Bible (_Rev._ xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin: comp. Arab, _billaur_, crystal. ~golden ore~. As a matter of fact gold has been found in the Welsh mountains.

934. ~May thy lofty head~, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and 'upon' a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is 'thou,' implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found in _L'Alleg._ 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and _judge_ the prize'; also in _Il Pens._ 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to _walk ... and love_, etc.': also in _Lyc._ 88, 89. The explanation adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek verbs--+peristephanoô+, 'to put a crown round,' and +epistephanoô+, "to put a crown upon": thus, "May thy lofty head be _crowned round_ with many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be _crowned upon_ with groves of myrrh and cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and 'upon' an adverb.

In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, _Song ends_.

942. ~Not a waste~, etc., _i.e._ 'Let there not be a superfluous or unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note, l. 728.

945. ~gloomy covert wide~: see note, l. 207.

946. ~not many furlongs~. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the length of a field, and is now a measure of length.

949. ~many a friend~. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of the French _mesnie_, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. _manig_, which was in old English used with a singular noun and without the article, _e.g._ _manig mann_ = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite article began to be inserted; thus _mony enne thing_ = many a thing, just as we say 'what _a_ thing,' 'such _a_ thing.' This would seem to show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no connection with the French word _mesnie_. Milton, in this passage, uses 'many a friend' with a plural verb. ~gratulate~. The simple verb is now replaced by the compound _congratulate_ (Lat. _gratulari_, to wish joy to a person).

950. ~wished~, _i.e._ wished for; see note, l. 574. ~and beside~, _i.e._ 'and where, besides,' etc.

952. ~jigs~, lively dances.

958. ~Back, shepherds, back!~ On the rising of the curtain, the stage is occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant Spirit enters with the above words. ~Enough your play~, _i.e._ we have had enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.'

959. ~sunshine holiday~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 98, where the same expression is used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and lines 91-99 of _L'Allegro_. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is 'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms (_e.g._ hóliday) or the separate words (_e.g._ hóly dáy) are being used.

960. ~Here be~: see note, l. 12. ~without duck or nod~: words used to describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country people.

961. ~trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise~: words used to describe the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. _L'Alleg._ 33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." _Trod_ (or trodden), past participle of _tread_: 'to tread a measure' is a common expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' _i.e._ courtly mien; _guise_ is a doublet of _wise_ = way, _e.g._ 'in this wise,' 'like_wise_,' 'other_wise_.' In such pairs of words as _guise_ and _wise_, _guard_ and _ward_, _guile_ and _wile_, the forms in _gu_ have come into English through the French.

963. ~Mercury~ (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. +ptênopedilos+): his name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement.

964. ~mincing Dryades~. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. +drys+, a tree), here represented as mincing, _i.e._ tripping with short steps, unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. _Merch. of V._ iii. 4. 67: "turn two _mincing_ steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation.

965. ~lawns ... leas~. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow.

966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater.

967. ~ye~: see note, l. 216.

968. ~so goodly grown~, _i.e._ grown so goodly. _Goodly_ = handsome (A.S. _gódlic_ = goodlike).

970. ~timely~. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two phrases in _Macbeth_: "To gain the _timely_ inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To call _timely_ on him," ii. 3. 51.

972. ~assays~, trials, temptations. _Assay_ is used by Milton in the sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see _Arc._ 80, "I will _assay_, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to the form _essay_ (radically the same word); and the use of _assay_ has been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing of metals. Comp. _Par. Lost_, iv. 932, "hard _assays_ and ill successes"; _Par. Reg._ i. 264, iv. 478.

974, 5. ~To triumph~. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly expressed in these lines. _Stage Direction_: ~Spirit epiloguizes~, _i.e._ sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered 1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst descending upon the stage:--

_From the heavens_ now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad _field_ of the sky. There I suck the liquid air All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree. There eternal summer dwells, And west winds, with musky wing, About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can show, _Yellow, watchet, green, and blue_, And drenches oft with _Manna_ dew Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where _many a cherub soft_ reposes.

Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the mask.

976. ~To the ocean~, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the _Tempest_, v. 1. 88-94, has been frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. Compare also the song of Johphiel in _The Fortunate Isles_ (Ben Jonson): "Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. 1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the _Tempest_: "Now my charms are all o'erthrown," etc.

977. ~happy climes~. Comp. _Odyssey_, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as _climate_, is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while 'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. _Son._ viii. 8: "Whatever _clime_ the sun's bright circle warms."

978. ~day ... eye~. Comp. _Son._ i. 5: "the _eye_ of day"; and _Lyc._ 26: "the opening _eyelids_ of the Morn."

979. ~broad fields of the sky~. Comp. Virgil's "_Aëris in campis latis_," _Aen._ vi. 888.

980. ~suck the liquid air~, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. _Son._ i. 5, "thy liquid notes."

981. ~All amidst~. For this adverbial use of _all_ (here modifying the following prepositional phrase), compare _Il Pens._ 33, "_all_ in a robe of darkest grain."

982. ~Hesperus~: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their sweet song. In Milton's MS. _Hesperus_ is written over _Atlas_: Spenser makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_.

984. ~crispéd shades~. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove," _Arc._ 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. _crispus_ = curled), from which comes the verb _to crisp_ and the participle _crisped_. Compare "the _crisped_ brooks ... ran nectar," _Par. Lost_,