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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
ECLECTIC ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO 
 COMUS, AND LYCIDAS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MILTON 
 
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 NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 1894 
 
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 Copyright, 1 894, by 
 American Book Company. 
 
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INTRODUCTION. 
 
 John Milton was born in London in 1608. He was edu- 
 cated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1632. 
 While yet a student, he wrote several of his shorter poems, and 
 the hymn " On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." Between 
 1632 and 1638 he wrote ''Arcades," "Comus," " Lycidas," 
 " L' Allegro," and "II Penseroso." In 1638 he visited France 
 and Italy, returning to England in the following year. From 
 that time until after the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, he 
 published no poetry, but was actively engaged in political con- 
 troversy, or occupied with his official duties as Latin secretary to 
 Cromwell. His greatest work, " Paradise Lost," begun in 1658, 
 was pubhshed in 1665. ''Paradise Regained" and "Samson 
 Agonistes " were both published in 1671. Milton died in 1674. 
 
 In the four poems comprising this volume we have the best 
 of the earlier works of John Milton. No criticism of them has 
 been more widely accepted than the statement that they proved, 
 upon their first appearance, that another true poet had arisen 
 in England. Written between the years 1632 and 1638, when 
 great questions of Church and State were disturbing the minds of 
 the English people, and preparing the way for the Puritan Revo- 
 lution which very soon followed, they naturally reflect in some 
 
 3 
 
4 INTRODUCriOX. 
 
 measure the spirit of the times. In the heroic age of Elizabeth, 
 which had just passed away, each subject had seemed to feel 
 that he must uphold the honor of the English name at any cost. 
 The influence of the spirit of chivalry had bound men together 
 in the common ties of loyalty and national pride, and was appar- 
 ent not more in the heroic achievements of Raleigh and of Drake 
 than in the immortal works of Shakespeare and of Spenser. But 
 now, under the tyranny of Charles I., and amid the rapid growth 
 of commercial influences, the ennobling sentiments which had 
 formerly shaped men's actions were being gradually stifled. The 
 bonds of unfaltering loyalty and unquestioning obedience were 
 being forced asunder by the opposition which royal despotism had 
 aroused ; and every thinking mind was being swayed by rehgious 
 unrest, or was seeking refuge in dogmatic assertion and ecclesi- 
 astical authority. Even in literature a great change was appar- 
 ent ; *' for a reaction had taken place from poetical impulse and 
 heroic achievement to prosaic weariness and worldly wisdom." 
 In order, therefore, to understand the deeper import and mean- 
 ing of these early poems of Milton, one should enter upon theif 
 study with some knowledge of the conditions of life and thought 
 and purpose which prevailed at the time of their composition, 
 and should bear in mind the influence which these must have 
 had upon the poet and his utterances. 
 
 John Milton graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 
 1632, when twenty-four years of age. During the six years 
 which followed, he remained in his father's home at Horton, 
 Buckinghamshire ; and it was there that he wrote these poems. 
 One might have supposed that the courtly manners of his early 
 home, his musical tastes, and the teachings of his father would 
 have bred in him a disinclination for the strict, self-denying life 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 of Puritanism. But he could not be oblivious to the underlying 
 excellence of the Puritan doctrines, or neglectful of the demands 
 of the times. To him, Duty was ever " the stern daughter of the 
 voice of God." 
 
 In " L'Allegro " (The Cheerful Man) and '' II Penseroso " (The 
 Thoughtful Man) Milton presents, for his own contemplation and 
 ours, pictures of the two paths which seemed at that time to open 
 before him, — the life of a Courtier or Cavalier, and the life of a 
 Puritan. He gives Italian titles to these poems, perhaps because 
 there are no English equivalents which are exactly applicable to 
 his ideals. In the first instance, to say " A Mirthful Man " would 
 suggest a character too shallow or too frivolous, while the ex- 
 pression *' A Cheerful Man" would fail to convey his entire mean- 
 ing ; in the other case, to write of " A Thoughtful Man " would 
 call up the image of a student or a philosopher, and lead to a 
 hasty misjudgment of the intent of the poem. 
 
 Each poem describes the pursuits and pleasures of twelve 
 hours. L'Allegro is introduced to us at the first peep of dawn, 
 listening to the cheerful song of the lark, the cockcrowing, and 
 the music of the huntsman's horn ; then the fieldworkers are 
 observed at their various tasks ; the landscape, with its ever 
 changing beauties, delights the eye ; the humble cottage and the 
 lordly castle each contributes a picture to the scene ; and when 
 the day's duties are at an end, the evening is spent in social 
 delights, in story-telling, in the reading of Jonson's comedies or 
 Shakespeare's " wood-notes wild," or in listening to soft strains of 
 music, 
 
 '■'■ Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 The hidden soul of harmony." 
 
6 INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 II Penseroso starts out in the early evening hours ; he listens 
 'to the song of the nightingale, or, as he walks in the moonhght, 
 hears the far-off curfew sound; he spends the evening in the 
 contemplation of the great tragedies of antiquity, or devotes the 
 later hours of the night to the study of the mysteries of life and 
 immortality ; and with the break of day he betakes himself to 
 some quiet nook in the woods, or listens, under the "high-em- 
 bowed roof" of church or cathedral, to the ecstatic music of 
 full-voiced choir and pealing organ. 
 
 Thus Mirth and Seriousness each finds its own enjoyments in 
 life ; but it is plain that the poet's sympathies are with the latter. 
 Perhaps, all unwitting 'to himself, he thus intimates the ultimate 
 choice of his life, — to ally himself with the seriousness of Puri- 
 tanism rather than permit the mirth of the Cavaliers to tempt him 
 from the plain path of duty. Both poems are nature lyrics, with 
 a reflective background which the reader must discover for |iim- 
 self. Strictly speaking, they are not descriptive poems ; for " the 
 charm of nature poetry is not its description — its rivalry with a 
 painting of the scene ; it is the suggestive power of objects to 
 stimulate the imagination." It is in this quality that the beauty 
 and excellence of these two poems is chiefly to be found. 
 
 " Comus," the third poem in this collection, is a dramatic com- 
 position, — "a fine example of the high literary masque." This 
 species of drama, which is of Italian origin, was introduced into 
 England as early as the reign of Henry VIII., and when " Comus " 
 was written it was in the height of its popularity. It combined 
 lyric poetry, declamation, dialogue, music, and dancing, the whole 
 being set off with elaborate scenery. When, as in this case, the 
 literary element pjedominated, the performance was much like 
 
INTRODUCTION, 7 
 
 that of. an ordinary drama ; but when the poem was subordinate 
 to the scenery, the result was a pageant. 
 
 " Comus " was written for presentation at Ludlow Castle, 
 Shropshire, on Michaelmas night, 1634, the occasion being the 
 induction of the Earl of Bridgewater into the office of Lord 
 President of Wales, to which he had been appointed some three 
 years before. Henry Lawes, a distinguished musical composer, 
 had been intrusted with the preparation of an entertainment, or 
 masque, to be performed in connection with the other festivities 
 of the evening, and it was at his request that Milton undertook 
 the composition of the poem. The leading parts in the play — 
 those of the Lady and her Brothers — were taken by the Earl of 
 Bridgewater's three children, while the part of the Attendant 
 Angel was performed by Lawes himself. The names of those 
 who personated Comus and Sabrina have not been preserved. 
 The presentation took place in the great hall of Ludlow Castle, 
 on a stage erected for the purpose at one end of the room. 
 
 The story which the play brings out is said to have had some 
 foundation in fact. There is a popular tradition, still extant in 
 Shropshire, to the effect that the three children of the Earl of 
 Bridgewater were actually overtaken by nightfall, and separated 
 from one another in Haywood Forest near Ludlow. " If this 
 ever took place, and news of it reached Milton's ears, then he 
 simply dramatized the episode ; but it is far more probable that 
 the legend, which dates from the last century, grew out of the 
 masque, than vice versd^ 
 
 In the writing of this masque Milton borrowed suggestions 
 and ideas from many sources. The main incidents of the story 
 are almost identical with those related in a play entitled " The 
 Old Wives' Tale " by George Peele, published nearly forty years 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 before. Comus, as the personification of revelry, appears in 
 Ben Jonson's masque of " Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue " (pub- 
 lished in 1619), where he is apostrophized as 
 
 " The founder of taste 
 For fresh meats, or powdered, or pickled, or paste ; 
 An emptier of cups." 
 
 He also appears in a Latin play, entitled " Comus," written 
 by Hendrik van der Putten, a Dutch professor at Louvain, and 
 republished at Oxford in 1634. With this play as well as with 
 Jonson's masque, Milton was no doubt familiar. In the writing 
 of the last part of the poem — the disenchantment scene — he 
 owed not a little to Fletcher's pastoral drama, *' The Faithful 
 Shepherdess," which was very popular in the London theaters 
 in 1633. In other passages the influence of earlier poets, and 
 especially of Spenser, is plainly apparent. But whatever he may 
 have borrowed, Milton infused into it new life and a new chaitn, 
 not only presenting it in a highly improved form, but breathing 
 into it the breath of fresh suggestion. 
 
 The poem, besides having an obvious moral signification, was 
 probably intended by Milton to admit of a deep allegorical inter- 
 pretation. In it may be seen the influence of Spenser's " Faerie 
 Queene " upon the thought and literary methods of the poet. 
 Did he intend Comus to represent the corrupt influences of the 
 then existing Court and Church, and the Lady and her friends to 
 personify Virtue and her champions? Or did he intend to por- 
 tray the conflict which is waged between Body and Soul, result- 
 ing finally in the complete triumph of the higher nature over the 
 lower ? " The bare fact that Milton wrote * Comus ' showed that 
 he had not yet gone over to help the party which bore an unrea- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 soning hatred of all amusements. On the other hand, the whole 
 tone of the poem was a rebuke to the seekers of mere pleasure. 
 The revel god personified the worst elements of court life. In 
 his overthrow Milton allegorically foreshadowed the downfall 
 of those who led that life. Two hundred and fifty years ago 
 * Comus ' was terribly real, as a warning against the danger upon 
 which the ship of national life was drifting. But the theme is 
 true yesterday, to-day, and forever ; and the art with which it is 
 set off remains undimmed, the wisdom unfading." (Verity.) 
 
 " Lycidas," the fourth and last poem in the collection, is Mil- 
 ton's tribute to his college friend and companion, Edward King. 
 Milton and King had studied and written together, and their 
 tastes and pursuits were in many respects identical. After grad- 
 uation. King had remained at Cambridge, first as fellow, then as 
 tutor, with the expectation of soon being ordained for the Church. 
 In 1637 he embarked on a vessel at Chester, intending to go 
 over into Ireland, to spend the long vacation with his relatives 
 there. When hardly out to sea, in calm weather, the vessel 
 foundered upon a rock, and nearly all on board were drowned. 
 In the same autumn. King's friends at Cambridge pubhshed a 
 volume of verses dedicated to his memory, and to this volume 
 Milton contributed " Lycidas." 
 
 The poem begins with the intimation that only grief for his dead 
 friend had induced the poet to forego a resolution not to write 
 more until he should be better able to attain to the high ideal he 
 had chosen. In pastoral allegory he refers briefly to their com- 
 mon tasks and pursuits, and represents all nature as bewailing the 
 loss of Lycidas. Yet the reflection that naught could interpose 
 to save his friend induces Milton to question the wisdom of 
 
I o INTRO D UC TION. 
 
 human toil and aspiration. What is fame? Is it not a vain in- 
 firrnity? But then he is reminded that true fame is of no earthly 
 growth, and that Heaven alone can declare what shall be the 
 reward of man's work. Then, returning to his grief for Lycidas, 
 he listens to Triton, who makes inquiry concerning the cause of 
 the shipwreck ; to Comus, asking mournfully who has bereft him 
 of his dearest pledge ; and to St. Peter, bewailing the loss of 
 so promising a youth. This leads him into another digression, 
 wherein he rebukes the worldliness and greed of the clergy of the 
 time, and by implication foretells their downfall. Then the poet 
 resumes his strain, bidding all the flowers of wood and plain to 
 bring their tribute to the memory of Lycidas ; and finally he is 
 persuaded that the youth is not dead, but has been transported 
 to " the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love," and will live 
 henceforth as the Genius of the shore. The shepherds are bid- 
 den to dry their tears ; and the poet declares that other subjects 
 of thought and effort shall hereafter claim his attention — 
 
 '' To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures new." 
 
 "He who wishes to know whether he has a true taste for poetry 
 or not, should consider whether he is highly delighted or not with 
 the perusal of Milton's ' Lycidas.' " 
 
L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 Hence, loathed Melancholy, 
 
 Of Cerberus ^ and blackest Midnight born 
 In Stygian cave forlorn 
 
 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! 
 Find out some uncouth cell, 
 
 Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, 
 And the night raven sings ; 
 
 There, under elion shades and low-browed rocks, 
 As ragged as thy locks, 
 
 In dark Cimmerian desert ^ ever dwell. i o 
 
 But come, thou Goddess fair and free, 
 In heaven yclept ^ Euphrosyne, 
 And by men heart-easing Mirth; 
 Whom lovely Venus, at a birth. 
 With two sister Graces * more, 
 To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore : 
 
 1 Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the 
 infernal regions. His den, the " Stygian cave forlorn," was on the farther 
 bank of the river Styx, where the spirits of the dead were landed from Cha- 
 ron's boat. The Styx was the chief river of the lower world. 
 
 2 The country of the Cimmerii, a sunless region on the confines of the 
 lower world, where the spirits of the dead were condemned to sojourn awhile, 
 ere they were admitted into Hades. (See Guerber. ) 
 
 •^ A corruption of the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon word clipian ("to 
 call "). It is frequently used by the older poets. 
 
 4 The three Graces were Euphrosyne (the mirthful), Aglaia (the bright), 
 and Thalia (the blooming). Classical writers do not agree as to their parent- 
 age. That they were the daughters of Venus (love) and Bacchus (good 
 
 II 
 
12 MILTON. 
 
 Or whether (as some sager sing) ^ 
 ' The froHc wind that breathes the spring. 
 Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 
 
 As he met her once a-Maying,^ 20 
 
 There, on beds of violets blue, 
 And fresh-blown roses washed in dew. 
 Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonair. */ 
 Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 Jest, and youthful Jollity, 
 Quips and cranks and wanton wiles. 
 Nods and becks and wreathed smiles, 
 Such as hang on Hebe's^ cheek. 
 
 And love to live in dimple sleek ; 30 
 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides. 
 And Laughter holding both his sides. 
 Come, and trip it, as you go, 
 On the light fantastic toe ; 
 And in thy right hand lead with thee 
 The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ;* 
 And, if I give thee honor due, 
 Mirth, admit ^ me of thy crew, 
 
 cheer), or perhaps rather of Zephyr (the "frolic wind") and Aurora (the 
 morning) seems best to harmonize with Milton's conception of their character, 
 and especially of that of Euphrosyne (mirth). 
 
 1 " As some," etc., i.e., as some wiser (ones) sing. 
 
 2 Enjoying the sports of May Day, as was formerly the custom in England. 
 In Old English it was not uncommon to prefix " on " or " a " to a verbal 
 noun after verbs of motion; as in " We go a-fishing. " 
 
 3 The goddess of youth, and cupbearer to the gods. 
 
 ^ Note the reason for calling Liberty a mountain nymph. The environ- 
 ment of mountainous regions has doubtless aided in developing physical 
 strength and the desire to use nature's defenses in the maintenance of 
 freedom. Mountainous Switzerland, with its liberty-loving people, may be 
 mentioned as an example. 
 
 5 The word " admit" is here equivalent to " permit." The phrase may 
 be rendered, " Permit me, as one of thy company." 
 
r ALLEGRO. 13 
 
 To live with her, and hve with thee, 
 
 In unreproved pleasures free ; 40 
 
 To hear ^ the lark - begin his flight, 
 And, singing, startle the dull night, 
 From his watchtower in the skies. 
 Till the dappled dawn doth rise ; 
 Then to come, in spite of sorrow. 
 And at my window bid good-morrow, 
 Through the sweetbrier or the vinCj 
 Or the twisted eglantine ; 
 While the cock, with lively din, 
 ^. Scatters the rear of darkness thin ; 50 
 
 And to the stack, or the barn door, 
 Stoutly struts his dames before : 
 Oft listening how the hounds and horn 
 Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, 
 From the side of some hoar hill. 
 Through the high wood echoing shrill : 
 Sometime walking, not unseen. 
 By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, 
 Right against the eastern gate 
 
 Where the great Sun begins his state, 60 
 
 Robed in flames and amber light, 
 The clouds in thousand liveries dight ; 
 While the plowman, near at hand, 
 W^histles o'er the furrowed land. 
 And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 
 And the mower whets his scythe. 
 And every shepherd tells his tale ^ 
 
 1 This infinitive, as well as " to come," below, depends upon " admit," in 
 line 38. 
 
 2 Tne English skylark begins his flight before sunrise, singing as he soars 
 upward, and sometimes passing into the light of the early sunbeams before 
 they have reached the fields and valleys below. 
 
 3 The words "tell" and "tale" are both from the Anglo-Saxon word 
 
14 MILTON. 
 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
 * Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
 
 Whilst the landskip ^ round it measures : (o 
 
 Russet lawns, and fallows gray, 
 
 Where the nibbhng flocks do stray ; 
 
 Mountains on whose barren breast 
 
 The laboring clouds do often rest ; 
 
 Meadows trim, with daisies pied ; 
 
 Shallow brooks, and- rivers wide ; 
 
 Towers and battlements it sees 
 
 Bosomed high in tufted trees, 
 
 Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 
 The cynosure ^ of neighboring eyes. 80 
 
 Hard by a cottage chimney smokes 
 
 From betwixt two aged oaks. 
 
 Where Corydon ^ and Thyrsis ^ met 
 
 Are at their savory dinner set 
 
 Of herbs and other country messes. 
 
 Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses ; 
 
 And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
 
 W^itli Thestylis to bind the sheaves ; 
 
 Or, if the earlier season lead. 
 
 To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 
 
 Sometimes, with secure delight, 
 
 The upland hamlets will invite. 
 
 When the merry bells ring round, 
 
 tellan, one meaning of which is " to count." The expression " tells his tale " 
 is equivalent to " counts his number (of sheep)." 
 
 1 " Landskip," now spelled " landscape," meant originally " landshape," 
 that is, the shape or general aspect of the country. 
 
 2 An object of great or general interest. The word comes from Cynocura 
 (" the dog's tail"), the constellation of the Lesser Bear, by which the Phoe- 
 nician mariners guided their course at sea, 
 
 3 Corydon and Thyrsis are favorite names given to shepherds by writers 
 of pastoral poetry. So, also, Phyllis and Thestylis are names often applied to 
 rustic maidens or shepherdesses. * 
 
V ALLEGRO. 15 
 
 And the jocund rebecks sound 
 
 To many a youth and many a maid 
 
 Dancing in the checkered shade, 
 
 And young and old come forth to play 
 
 On a sunshine holiday, 
 
 Till the livelong daylight fail : 
 
 Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 
 
 With stories told of many a feat, 
 
 How Fairy Mab ^ the junkets eat. 
 
 She was pinched and pulled,' she said ; 
 
 And he,2,by Friar's lantern ^ led, 
 
 Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 
 
 To earn his cream bowl duly set, 
 
 When in one night, ere glimpse of morn. 
 
 His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 
 
 That ten day-laborers could not end ; 
 
 Then lies him down, the lubber fiend,* no 
 
 1 Fairy Mab, or Queen Mab, is the fairy tHat sends dreams. Read 
 Shakespeare's description of her in Romeo and Juliet, Act i., sc. 4. 
 
 2 The pronouns " she " (line 103) and " he " (line 104) refer to members 
 of the company of youths and maidens mentioned above. The telling of folk- 
 lore legends and fairy tales was a favorite amusement w^ith the country people 
 in Milton's time, and the belief in fairies was very general. These mysterious 
 little beings were supposed to be ever ready to play some trick or work some 
 harm, and every misfortune or deed of mischief that could not be otherwise 
 accounted for, was popularly ascribed to them. 
 
 3 The "Friar's lantern" was probably the will-o'-the-wisp, or, as it is 
 sometimes called, Jack-o'-lantern, — a delusive light which was supposed to 
 be produced by souls broken out from purgatory, or by spirits trying to dis- 
 cover hidden treasures. The " drudging goblin " Avas Robin Goodfellow, a 
 domestic goblin, who did his tasks secretly by night. " Your grandames, 
 maids, were wont to set a bowl of milk for him for his pains in grinding of 
 malt or mustard and sweeping the house at midnight. His white bread and 
 milk was his standing fee." (Reginald Scott's Discoverie of Witchcraft.^ 
 
 * " In the rustic imagination, Robin Goodfellow Avas represented as a huge, 
 loutish fellow of great strength, but very lazy." The word " fiend," as used 
 here, means " spirit" or *' goblin," without any necessary reference to his 
 malignant character. 
 
i6 MILTON. 
 
 And, stretched out all the chimney's length, 
 ' Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
 And cropful out of doors he flings, 
 Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 
 By whispering 'winds soon lulled asleep. 
 Towered cities please us then, 
 
 And the busy hum of men,i ^-^ , 
 
 Where throngs of knights an d^ barons '^^^^l,,A^^,,^,,^y^^'^''^ ^"^ 
 In weeds ^ of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 
 
 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
 Rain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit or arms, while both contend 
 To win her grace whom all commend. 
 There let Hymen ^^ oft appear 
 In saffron rcbe, with taper clear, 
 And pomp, and feast, and revelry, 
 With mask and antique pageantry ; 
 Such sights as youthful poets dream 
 
 On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 
 
 Then to the well-trod stage anon. 
 If Jonson's learned sock^ be on, 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
 
 1 " Towered cities," etc., i. e., taking our leave now of the sleeping rustics, 
 we go to enjoy tjie scenes and pleasures of city life, the tournament, the 
 theater, and the wedding festival. 
 
 2 From Anglo-Saxon, waed (" clothing"). 
 
 3 The god of marriage. He is represented in modern poetry as dressed 
 in a saffron-colored robe ; and in works of art, as bearing a torch. 
 
 * The sock was the low shoe worn by actors of comedy in ancient Greece 
 and Rome ; hence the word is used as a symbol of the comic drama. Ben 
 Jonson (English dramatist, 1 5 74-1 63 7) wrote several famous comedies, and 
 the allusion to "Jonson's learned sock" was doubtless intended as a com- 
 pliment to his erudition. Note how happily Milton contrasts Shakespeare, 
 nature's own poet, and master of the romantic drama, with Jonson, the schol- 
 arly master of the classical drama. 
 
L 'ALLEGRO. 1 7 
 
 Warble his native wood-notes wild. 
 
 And ever, against eating cares, 
 
 Lap me in soft Lydian ^ airs. 
 
 Married 2 to immortal verse, 
 
 Such as the meeting ^ soul may pierce, 
 
 In notes with many a winding bout 
 
 Of^hnked sweetness long drawn out /I / ' 140 
 
 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, /tl^'Oc^-'v^ 
 
 The melting voice through mazes running. 
 
 Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 
 The hidden soul of harmony j[^ 
 
 That Orpheus' ^ self may heate his head 
 
 From, golden slumber on a bed 
 
 Of heaped Elysian ^ flowers, and hear 
 
 Such strains as would have won the ear 
 
 Of Pluto to have quite set free 
 
 His half-regained Eurydice. 150 
 
 These delights if thou canst give. 
 
 Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 
 
 1 The soft, voluptuous music of the Lydians as opposed to the harsher 
 Phrygian or Dorian music. " Lap " is a corruption of the word " wrap," 
 meaning to infold. 
 
 2 Joined inseparably. 
 
 3 Appreciative. 
 
 4 Orpheus was the most famous of all musicians. His wife Eurydice hav- 
 ing died, he descended into Hades to bring her back to life. Charmed by 
 the sweetness of his music, Pluto consented that Eurydice should return with 
 him to the upper world, on condition that he should not look back until they 
 were safely outside the bounds of Hades. When almost out, however, Or- 
 pheus, forgetting himself, turned around to see if she were coming, and she 
 vanished from his sight. 
 
 5 The Elysian Fields, or Isles of the Blest, were the regions where those 
 who were beloved of the gods dwelt in happiness, wandering among flowers 
 and enjoying all the beauties which delight the senses or the imagination. 
 
 2 
 
1 8 MILTON 
 
 IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 Hence, vain deluding Joys, 
 
 The brood of Folly without father bred! 
 How little you bested,^ 
 
 Or fill the fixed 2 mind with all your toys ! 
 Dwell in some idle brain, 
 
 And fancies fond ^ with gaudy shapes possess,* 
 As thick and numberless 
 
 As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, 
 Or likest hovering dreams, 
 
 The fickle pensioners of Morpheus'^ train. 10 
 
 But, hail ! thou Goddess ^ sage and holy ! 
 Hail, divinest Melancholy! 
 Whose saintly visage is too bright 
 To hit ^ the sense of human sight. 
 And therefore to our weaker view 
 O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; 
 Black, but such as in esteem 
 Prince Memnon's ^ sister might beseem, 
 Or that starred Ethiope queen ^ that strove 
 
 1 Help ; avail. Used now rarely, and only as a participle. 
 
 2 Steady ; sober. 
 
 3 The word " fond" lias here its original meaning, " foolish." 
 
 4 Fill, or occupy. 
 
 5 Morpheus (" the shaper ") was the son of Sleep and the god of Dreams. 
 
 6 Compare the characterization of Melancholy which follows with that given 
 in the first ten lines of L 'Allegro. 
 
 "^ Touch. 
 
 8 Memnon, the son of Tithonus and Aurora, was a king of Ethiopia, slain 
 by Achilles in the siege of Troy. Although black, he was famed for his 
 beauty. His sister was Hemera. 
 
 y Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, boasted that the beauty of her daughter 
 Andromeda exceeded that of the Nereids, or sea nymphs. Both mother and 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 19 
 
 To set her beauty's praise above 20 
 
 The Sea Nymphs, and their powers offended. 
 
 Yet thou art higher far descended : 
 
 Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore 
 
 To sohtary Saturn bore ;i 
 
 His daughter she ; in Saturn's reign 
 
 Such mixture was not held a stain. 
 
 Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 
 
 He met her, and in secret shades 
 
 Of woody Ida's ^ inmost grove, 
 
 Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 
 
 Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure. 
 
 Sober, steadfast, and demure, 
 
 All in a robe of darkest grain,^ 
 
 Flowing with majestic train, 
 
 And sable stole of cypress lawn * 
 
 Over thy decent ^ shoulders drawn. 
 
 Come ; but keep thy wonted state, 
 
 With even step, and musing gait, 
 
 daughter were "starred," i.e., transferred to the skies as constellations of 
 stars. Cassiopeia is represented in old astronomical prints as a black female 
 figure marked with white stars. 
 
 1 This conception of the parentage of Melancholy is as fanciful as tliat 
 in L'Allegro of the parentage of Mirth, and is equally original with Milton. 
 Vesta was the goddess of the domestic hearth, and therefore symbolizes quiet 
 contemplation ; while Saturn, the son of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Terra), 
 represents retirement. By " Saturn's reign " is meant the golden age of the 
 innocence of the human race, while there was " yet no fear of Jove." 
 
 2 There were several mountains called Ida. The one here alluded to is on 
 the island of Crete, and was a favorite trysting place of the gods. 
 
 3 Tyrian purple. The word " grain " was applied to the dried body of an 
 insect (the size of a seed or grain) from which the Tyrian dye was obtained ; 
 afterwards it was applied to the dye itself and to the color produced by it. 
 
 4 " Stole of cypress lawn," i.e., robe of crape of the finest kind. The 
 word "cypress," used alone, denotes crape, while lawn denotes the finest 
 quality of cloth. 
 
 5 Comely; graceful. 
 
20 MILTON. 
 
 And looks commercing with the skies, 
 
 'Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: 40 
 
 There, held in holy passion still, 
 Forget thyself to marble,^ till 
 With a sad leaden downward cast 
 Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 
 And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 
 Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. 
 And hears the Muses ^ in a ring 
 Aye^ round about Jove's altar sing; 
 And add to these retired Leisure, 
 
 That in trim gardens takes his pleasure ; 50 
 
 But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
 Him that yon soars on golden wing, 
 Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,^ 
 The Cherub Contemplation ; 
 And the mute Silence hist ^ along, 
 'Less Philomel ^ will deign a song. 
 In her sweetest saddest plight. 
 Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, 
 While Cynthia '^ checks her dragon yoke 
 
 1 " Forget thyself," etc., i.e., become as insensible to your surroundings 
 as a statue. 
 
 2 The nine Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. They 
 were : Calliope, Muse of epic poetry ; Clio, Muse of history ; Erato, Muse of 
 love ditties; Euterpe, Muse of lyric poetry; Melpomene, Muse of tragedy; 
 Polyhymnia, Muse of sacred poetry ; Terpsichore, Muse of choral song and 
 dance ; Thalia, Muse of comedy ; and Urania, Muse of astronomy. 
 
 ^ Always ; forever. 
 
 4 See Ezehiel x. i, 2, and 6. Ezekiel describes a vision of a sapphire 
 throne, the wheels of which were four cherubs, each wheel or cherub being 
 full of eyes all over, while in the midst of them and underneath the throne 
 was a burning fire. Milton brings into his company one of these cherubs, 
 whom he names Contemplation. 
 
 5 Hush, or whisper. 
 
 6 " 'Less Philomel," i.e., unless the nightingale. 
 
 7 A name for the goddess of the moon. Cynthia's chariot was drawn by 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 21 
 
 Gently o'er the accustomed oak.i 60 
 
 Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 
 
 Most musical, most melancholy! 
 
 Thee, chauntress,^ oft the woods among 
 
 I woo, to hear thy evensong; 
 
 And, missing thee, I walk unseen 
 
 On the dry smooth-shaven green, 
 
 To behold the wandering moon, 
 
 Riding near her highest noon, 
 
 Like one that had been led astray 
 
 Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 
 
 And oft, as if her head she bowed, 
 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 
 
 Oft, on a plat of rising ground, 
 
 I hear the far-off curfew ^ sound. 
 
 Over some wide-watered shore. 
 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar ; 
 
 Or, if the air will not permit, 
 
 Some still removed place will fit. 
 
 Where glowing embers through the room 
 
 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 
 
 Far from all resort of mirth. 
 
 Save the cricket on the hearth. 
 
 Or the bellman's * drowsy charm 
 
 horses and not by dragons, as here represented. It was Ceres, the goddess 
 of plenty, who had a " dragon yoke." Shakespeare several times alludes to 
 the dragon team of night. 
 
 1 " Accustomed oak," i.e., the oak where the nightingale was accustomed 
 to sing and the poet was wont to listen to her. 
 
 2 Songstress. 
 
 3 From French, couvre-feii ("cover fire"); the bell which was rung in 
 the evening as a signal that all fires Avere to be covered and all lights extin- 
 guished. The custom, which was instituted as a law by William the Con- 
 queror, was still quite generally observed in Milton's time. 
 
 4 The watchman who patrolled the streets and called out the hour of night. 
 Sometimes he repeated scraps of pious poetry in order to charm away danger. 
 
2 2 MILTON. 
 
 To bless the doors from nightly harm. 
 ' Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 
 Be seen in some high lonely tower, 
 Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,i 
 With thrice-great Hermes,^ or unsphere 
 The spirit of Plato, to unfold 
 
 What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 
 
 The immortal mind that hath forsook 
 Her mansion in this fleshly nook ;^ 
 And of those demons that are found 
 In fire, air, flood, or underground, 
 Whose power hath a true consent * 
 With planet or with element. 
 Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
 In sceptered pall ^ come sweeping by, 
 Presenting Thebes,^ or Pelops' line. 
 
 Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 
 
 Or what (though rare) of later age 
 Ennobled hath the buskined '^ stage. 
 But, O sad Virgin! that thy power 
 
 1 The constellation of the Great Bear, which in these latitudes never sets. 
 To " outwatch the Bear " would be to remain awake until daybreak. 
 
 2 Hermes Trismegistus, an ancient Egyptian philosopher, the supposed 
 author of certain once-famous works on philosophy. 
 
 3 " Unsphere tlie spirit of Plato," etc., i.e., study Plato's philosophy of 
 the immortality of the soul, and of the relation of the spirits (" demons ") to 
 the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, over which they presided. The 
 literal meaning of the phrase is " bring back the disembodied spirit of Plato 
 from the sphere which he now inhabits." 
 
 * Sympathy. 
 
 ^ " Sceptered pall," i.e., royal robes. 
 
 6 The three most popular subjects of Greek tragedy were those relating to 
 the city of Thebes, to the descendants of Pelops (an early king of Greece), 
 and to the memorable Avar with Troy. 
 
 ■^ The buskin was the high -heeled boot worn by the actors of tragedy in 
 the theaters of ancient Greece. It is therefore sometimes used as a symbol of 
 the tragic drama. See note on " sock," L'Allegro, line 132. 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 23 
 
 Might raise Musasus 1 from his bower ; 
 
 Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 
 
 Such notes as, warbled to the string, 
 
 Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek. 
 
 And made Hell grant what love did seek;2 
 
 Or call up him that left half told 
 
 The story of Cambuscan bold, 110 
 
 Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 
 
 And who had Canace to wife. 
 
 That owned the virtuous ring and glass ; 
 
 And of the wondrous horse of brass 
 
 On which the Tartar king did ride \^ 
 
 And if aught else great bards * beside 
 
 In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 
 
 Of turneys, and of trophies hung, 
 
 Of forests, and enchantments drear. 
 
 Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 
 
 Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 
 
 Till civil-suited ^ Morn appear. 
 
 Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont 
 
 With the Attic boy ^ to hunt. 
 
 But kerchieft '^ in a comely cloud, 
 
 1 An ancient Greek minstrel, or poet. 
 
 2 See note on L'Allegro, line 145. 
 
 3 " Or call up him," etc. An allusion to the poet Chaucer (1340-1400) 
 and the poem The Squiers Tale, which he left unfinished. In this tale 
 Cambuscan is a king of Tartary ; Camball and Algarsife are his sons ; and 
 Canac^ is his daughter. The horse of brass is a present from a neighboring 
 king, as are also Canace's ring and glass. The word "virtuous" here 
 means " having magic power." 
 
 4 " And if aught else," etc. A reference probably to the poets Ariosto, 
 Tasso, and Spenser, and the romantic character and underlying moral purpose 
 of their works. 
 
 5 Contrast this description of Morning with that in L'Allegro. 
 ^ Cephalus, an Athenian youth, beloved by Aurora. 
 
 "^ Having the head covered, as with a kerchief. 
 
24 MILTON. 
 
 While rocking winds are piping loud, 
 • Or ushered with a shower still, 
 When the gust hath blown his ^ fill, 
 Ending on the rustling leaves. 
 
 With minute drops ^ from off the eaves. 130 
 
 And, when the sun begins to fling 
 His flaring beams, me. Goddess, bring 
 To arched walks of twilight groves. 
 And shadows brown, that Sylvan*^ loves. 
 Of pine, or monumental oak, 
 Where the rude ax with heaved stroke 
 Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 
 Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 
 There, in close covert, by some brook, 
 Where no prof an er eye may look, 140 
 
 Hide me from day's garish eye, * 
 While the bee with honeyed thigh. 
 That at her flowery work doth sing. 
 And the waters murmuring, 
 With such consort ^ as they keep, 
 Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
 And let some strange mysterious dream 
 Wave at his wings, in airy stream 
 Of lively portraiture displayed. 
 
 Softly on my eyelids laid ; 150 
 
 And, as I wake, sweet music breathe 
 Above, about, or underneath. 
 Sent by some Spirit to mortals good. 
 Or the unseen Genius of the wood. 
 
 1 Its. 
 
 2 " Minute drops," i.e., drops falling slowly and at regular intervals as 
 the shower comes to an end. Compare with " minute gun." 
 
 3 Sylvanus, the god of the woods. 
 
 * " Day's garish eye," i.e., the dazzling sun. 
 5 Concert; harmony. 
 
IL PEXSEROSO. 25 
 
 But let my due feet ^ never fail 
 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale,- 
 
 And love the high embowed '^ roof, 
 
 With antique pillars massy proof,* 
 
 And storied windows ^ richly dight. 
 
 Casting a dim rehgious light. 160 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow, 
 
 To the full-voiced quire ^ below, 
 
 In service high and anthems clear, 
 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear. 
 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 
 And bring all heaven before mine eyes. 
 
 And may at last my weary age 
 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage. 
 
 The hairy gown and mossy cell, 
 
 Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 
 
 Of every star that heaven doth shew. 
 
 And every herb that sips the dew,^ 
 
 Till old experience do attain 
 
 To something like prophetic strain. ^ 
 
 These pleasures, Melancholy, give ; 
 
 And I with thee will choose to live. 
 
 1 " Due feet," i.e., feet that are due at a certain place at a certain time. 
 
 2 "To walk," etc., i.e., to resort to the precincts or inclosure of some 
 building devoted to study or religious meditation. The word " pale " means 
 here " inclosure " or " boundary." 
 
 ^ Arched. 
 
 * Massive enough to be proof against the great weight which they are 
 intended to support. 
 
 5 " Storied windows," i.e., windows of stained glass with Scripture stories 
 represented on them. 
 
 6 Old spelling of choir. 
 
 "^ " Rightly spell," etc., i.e., study aright the phenomena of nature. 
 8 Utterance. 
 
COMUS: A MASQUE. 
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 
 The Attendant Spirit, after- 
 wards in the habit of Thyrsis. 
 Com us, with his Crew. 
 The Lady. 
 
 First Brother. 
 Second Brother. 
 Sabrina, the Nytnph. 
 
 The first Scene discovers a Wild Wood. 
 The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. 
 
 Before the starry threshold of Jove's court 
 
 My mansion is, where those immortal shapes 
 
 Of bright aerial spirits live insphered ^ 
 
 In regions mild of calm and serene air, 
 
 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 
 
 Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, 
 
 Confined and pestered ^ in this pinfold ^ here. 
 
 Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being. 
 
 Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives. 
 
 After this mortal change, to her true servants lo 
 
 Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. 
 
 Yet some there be that by due steps aspire 
 
 1 In the sphere assigned to them. Compare with II Penseroso, hne 88. 
 
 2 Encumbered. " Pester " originally meant " a clog for horses in a pas- 
 ture," hence, in its verbal signification, " to impede." 
 
 3 A. pound, pen, fold, or inclosure for confining stray cattle. 
 
 26 
 
 <l 
 
COMUS: A MASQUE. 27 
 
 To lay their just hands on that golden key 1 
 That opes the palace of eternity. 
 To such my errand is ; and, but for such, 
 I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds ^ 
 With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mold.^ 
 
 But to my task. Neptune ^ besides the sway 
 Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream. 
 Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove,^ 20 
 
 Imperial rule of all the seagirt isles 
 That, hke to rich and various gems, inlay 
 The unadorned bosom of the deep ; 
 Which he, to grace his tributary gods. 
 By course commits to several ^ government, 
 And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns. 
 And wield their httle tridents. But this Isle,'^ 
 The greatest and the best of all the main, 
 He quarters to his blue-haired deities ;^ 
 
 1 "Yet some," etc. St. Peter is represented as carrying the golden key 
 with which to unlock the gates of heaven (see Lycidas, line no). Milton 
 here means that there are some who by their virtuous lives strive to merit 
 admittance into heaven. 
 
 2 " Ambrosial weeds," i.e., immortal garments. Ambrosia was the food 
 of the gods. For " weeds," see note on L'Allegro, line 120. 
 
 3 World. 
 
 * The god of the sea and of all waters. His scepter was a three-pronged 
 fork, or trident. 
 
 ^ " Took in by lot," etc. The sons of Saturn, after the dethronement of 
 their father, divided the government of the world by lot among themselves. 
 Jupiter (high Jove) obtained the heavens and the mainland ; Neptune, the sea 
 and its islands ; and Pluto (nether Jove), the infernal regions. 
 
 ^ Separate. 
 
 ■^ Great Britain. 
 
 8 " Quarters to," etc., i.e., assigns to the deities of the sea. Neptune and 
 his subordinates are referred to in classical poetry as " green -haired." Pos- 
 sibly Milton adopted " blue-haired " as more fitly symbolizing the sea waves ; 
 perhaps, also, he had in mind the blue-stained Britons who fought with 
 Caesar. 
 
28 MILTON. 
 
 And all this tract ^ that fronts the falling sun 30 
 
 A noble Peer ^ of mickle ^ trust and power 
 
 Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 
 
 An old and haughty nation,* proud in arms : 
 
 Where his fair offspring,^ nursed in princely lore, 
 
 Are coming to attend their father's state, 
 
 And new-intrusted scepter. But their way 
 
 Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,^ 
 
 The nodding horror of whose shady brows 
 
 Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger ; 
 
 And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 
 
 But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, 
 
 I was dispatched for their defense and guard : 
 
 And listen why ; for I will tell you now 
 
 What never yet was heard in tale or song. 
 
 From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 
 
 Bacchus,'^ that first from out the purple grape 
 Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
 After the Tuscan mariners transformed, 
 Coasting the Tyrrhene ^ shore, as the winds listed. 
 On Circe's island^ fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 
 
 The daughter of the vSun, whose charmed cup 
 
 1 Wales. 2 The Earl of Bridgewater (see Introduction, p. 6). 
 
 3 Great ; much. * The Welsh. 
 
 5 The three children of the Earl of Bridgewater, who were now coming to 
 Ludlow Castle on the occasion of their father's induction into office. 
 
 6 This is probably an allusion to the densely wooded region of Shropshire 
 in the neighborhood of Ludlow Castle. 
 
 '^ The god of wine and revelry. 
 
 ^ Italian. The story is that on one occasion Tuscan pirates attempted to 
 carry Bacchus to Italy to sell him as a slave. Suddenly the chains dropped 
 from his limbs and he assumed the form of a lion. The ship stood still while 
 vines grew up and entwined themselves round the mast and sails ; and the 
 pirates, in terror, leaped into the sea, where they were transformed into 
 dolphins. 
 
 ^ JExa., near the shore of Tuscany. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 29 
 
 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 
 
 And downward fell into a groveling swine?) 
 
 This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, 
 
 With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth. 
 
 Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son 
 
 Much like his father, but his mother more. 
 
 Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus ^ named : 
 
 Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, 
 
 Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,- 60 
 
 At last betakes him to this ominous wood, 
 
 And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered. 
 
 Excels his mother at her mighty art ; 
 
 Offering to every weary traveler 
 
 His orient liquor in a crystal glass. 
 
 To quench the drouth of Phoebus ;^ which as they taste 
 
 (For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst). 
 
 Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance. 
 
 The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
 
 Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 
 
 Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, 
 
 All other parts remaining as they were. 
 
 And they, so perfect is their misery, 
 
 Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, 
 
 But boast themselves more comely than before, 
 
 And all their friends and native home forget, 
 
 To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. 
 
 Therefore, when any favored of high Jove 
 
 Chances to pass through this adventurous glade. 
 
 Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 
 
 I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, 
 
 1 This genealogy of Comus is purely the invention of Milton's fancy, and 
 has no warrant in ancient mythology. 
 
 2 " Celtic," etc., i.e., France and Spain. 
 
 ^ " Drouth," etc., i.e., the thirst caused by the sun's heat. Phoebus was 
 the sun god, or personification of the sun. 
 
30 MILTON. 
 
 As now I do. But first I must put off 
 
 These my sky robes, spun out of Iris' ^ woof, 
 
 And take the weeds and hkeness of a swain 
 
 That to the service of this house belongs; 
 
 Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, 
 
 Well knows ^ to still the wild winds when they roar, 
 
 And hush the waving woods ; nor of less faith, 
 
 And in this office of his mountain watch 
 
 Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 
 
 Of this occasion. But I hear the tread 
 
 Of hateful steps ; I must be viewless now. 
 
 CoMUS enters, zvith a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with 
 him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but other- 
 wise like men and women, their apparel glistering.^ They come in making 
 a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. 
 
 Cot7ius. The star * that bids the shepherd fold ^ 
 Now the top of heaven doth hold ; 
 And the gilded car of day 
 His glowing axle doth allay 
 In the steep Atlantic stream;^ 
 And the slope sun his upward beam 
 Shoots against the dusky pole, 
 
 Pacing towards the other goal 100 
 
 Of his chamber in the east.'^ 
 Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 
 
 1 The personification of the rainbow. It maybe inferred that the Attendant 
 Spirit's sky robes were of the colors of the rainbow. 
 
 2 Supply "how." 3 Glittering. 
 ^ The evening star, Hesperus or Venus. 
 
 5 Drive his sheep into the fold. ■ 
 
 6 " In the steep," etc., i.e., in the sloping Atlantic flood, where it curves 
 below the western horizon. 
 
 "7 " Pacing towards," etc., i.e., returning towards his rising place in the 
 east. 
 
 
 I 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 31 
 
 Midnight shout and revelry, 
 
 Tipsy dance and joUity. 
 
 Braid your locks with rosy twine,^ 
 
 Dropping odors, dropping wine. 
 
 Rigor now is gone to bed ; 
 
 And Advice with scrupulous head, 
 
 Strict Age, and sour Severity, 
 
 With their grave saws,^ in slumber lie. no 
 
 We, that are of purer fire. 
 
 Imitate the starry quire,^ 
 
 Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, 
 
 Lead in swift round the months and years. 
 
 The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 
 
 Now to the moon in wavering morrice^ move; 
 
 And on the tawny sands and shelves 
 
 Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. 
 
 By dimpled brook and fountain brim, 
 
 The wood nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 
 
 Their merry wakes ^ and pastimes keep : 
 
 What hath night to do with sleep ? 
 
 Night hath better sweets to prove ; 
 
 Venus ^ now wakes, and wakens Love. 
 
 Come, let us our rites begin ; 
 
 'Tis only daylight that makes sin. 
 
 Which these dun shades will ne'er report. — 
 
 Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, 
 
 1 Roses twined together. 2 Wise sayings ; sober rules. 
 
 3 Choir. Used here, perhaps, with its original signification, a band of 
 choral dancers. The poet has also in mind the ancient notion of the music 
 of the spheres. 
 
 ^ The morris, or Moorish dance, was introduced into England in the reign 
 of Edward III. It was a prominent feature of the May Day and other out- 
 door festivities. 
 
 5 Nocturnal amusements. Originally a " wake " was the watch or sitting 
 up till late before one of the church holidays. 
 
 ^ Goddess of love and beauty. 
 
32 MILTON. 
 
 Dark-veiled Cotytto,i to whom the secret flame 
 
 Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 130 
 
 That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb 
 
 Of Stygian darkness ^ spets^ her thickest gloom, 
 
 And makes one blot of all the air! 
 
 Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, 
 
 Wherein thou ridest with Hecat',^ and befriend , 
 
 Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end I 
 
 Of all thy dues be done, and none left out ; 
 
 Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 
 
 The nice Morn on the Indian steep. 
 
 From her cabined loophole peep,^ 140 11 
 
 And to the telltale Sun descry *' 
 
 Our concealed solemnity. 
 
 Come, knit hands, and beat the ground 
 
 In a light fantastic round.^ \The Measzire. 
 
 Break off, break off ! "^ I feel the different pace 
 Of some chaste footing near about 'this ground. 
 Run to your shrouds ^ within these brakes and trees ; 
 Our number may affright. Some virgin sure 
 (For so I can distinguish by mine art) 
 Benighted in these woods ! Now to my charms, 150 
 And to my wily trains : ^ I shall ere long 
 Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
 About m)^ mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
 My dazzling spells into the spongy ^^ air, 
 
 1 A Thracian goddess whose licentious festivals were celebrated at night. 
 
 2 " Stygian darkness," i.e., the darkness of the infernal regions. See note 
 
 on L'AUegro, line 3. ■ 
 
 2 Spits ; ejects. 
 
 4 Hecate, the goddess of sorcery, supposed to preside over all nocturnal 
 horrors. 
 
 5 "Nice Morn," etc., i.e., the fastidious dawn peeps from among the 
 clouds on the eastern (Indian) horizon. 
 
 6 Dance; measure. '^ " Break off," i.e., cease dancing, 
 s Hiding places. 9 Allurements. 10 Absorbent. 
 
 I 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. ZZ 
 
 Of power to cheat the e)re with blear ^ illusion, 
 
 And give it false presentments, lest the place 
 
 And my quaint habits breed astonishment, 
 
 And put the damsel to suspicious flight ; 
 
 Which must not be, for that's against my course. 
 
 I, under fair pretense of friendly ends, i6o 
 
 And well-placed words of glozing 2 courtesy, 
 
 Baited with reasons not unplausible, 
 
 Wind me into the easy-hearted man, 
 
 And hug him into snares. When once her eye 
 
 Hath met the virtue ^ of this magic dust, 
 
 I shall api^ear some harmless villager, 
 
 AVhom thrift keeps up about his country gear,^ — 
 
 But here she comes ; I fairly step aside. 
 
 And hearken, if I ma}^, her business here. 
 
 The Lady enters. 
 
 Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 
 My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 
 Of riot and ill-managed merriment. 
 Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 
 Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds,^ 
 When, for their teeming flocks atnd granges full. 
 In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,^ 
 And thank the gods amiss.''' I should be loath 
 To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence 
 Of such late wassailers ; yet, oh! where else 
 Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 
 
 In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? 
 My brothers, when they saw me wearied out 
 
 1 Blurred ; deceitful. 2 Flattering. 3 Peculiar power. 
 
 * Business ; dutie^. 5 Peasants. 
 
 6 God of shepherds and pastoral life. 
 
 ■^ By acts altogether displeasing to them. 
 
 3 
 
34 MILTON. 
 
 With this long way, resolving here to lodge 
 
 Under the spreading favor of these pines, 
 
 Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket side 
 
 To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit 
 
 As the kind hospitable woods provide. 
 
 They left me then when the gray-hooded Even, 
 
 Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,i 
 
 Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.2 igo 
 
 But whejpe they are, and why they came not back, 
 
 Is now the labor of my thoughts. 'Tis hkeliest 
 
 They had engaged their wandering steps too far;^ 
 
 And envious darkness, ere they could return. 
 
 Had stole them from me. Else, O thievish Night, 
 
 Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end. 
 
 In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars 
 
 That Nature hung \\\ heaven, and filled their lajnps 
 
 With everlasting oil, to give due light 
 
 To the misled and lonely traveler? 200 
 
 This is the place, as well as I may guess. 
 
 Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth 
 
 Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear ; 
 
 Yet naught but single ^ darkness do I find. 
 
 What might this be ? A thousand fantasies 
 
 Begin to throng into my memory. 
 
 Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 
 
 And airy tongues that syllable men's nariies 
 
 On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. 
 
 These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 
 
 The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 
 
 By a strong siding ^ champion. Conscience, — 
 
 1 " Votarist in palmer's weed," i.e., a pilgrim clad in the garb of one re- 
 turning from the Holy Sepulcher. 
 
 2 " Phoebus' wain," i.e., the sun car. See note on litie 66. 
 
 3 " Engaged," etc., i.e., had undertaken to go too far. 
 ^ Only. 5 Supporting. 
 
COMUS: A MASQUE. 35 
 
 O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 
 
 Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 
 
 And thou unblemished form of Chastity ! 
 
 I see ye visibly, and now believe 
 
 That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 
 
 Are but as slavish officers of vengeance. 
 
 Would send a glistering guardian, if need were. 
 
 To keep my life and honor unassailed. — 220 
 
 Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 
 
 Turn forth her silver lining on the night ? 
 
 I did not err : there does a sable cloud 
 
 Turn forth her silver lining on the night. 
 
 And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 
 
 I cannot hallo to my brothers, but 
 
 Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 
 
 I'll venture ; for my new-enlivened ^ spirits 
 
 Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Sweet Echo,'^ sweetest nymph, that liv^st unseen 230 
 
 Within thy airy shell 
 By slow Meander's ^ margent green. 
 And in the violet-etnbroidered vale 
 Where the lovelorn nightingale 
 Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well : 
 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
 That likest thy Narcissus are? 
 
 O, if thou have 
 Hid them in some flowery cave, 
 
 Tell me but where, 240 
 
 1 Encouraged. 
 
 2 The nymph Echo loved Narcissus ; as her love was not returned, she 
 pined away until nothing remained but her beautiful voice. 
 
 3 A winding river in Asia Minor. 
 
36 MILTON. 
 
 Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere I '^ 
 So mafst thou be translated to the skies, 
 And give resounding grace to all heaven^ s harmonies ! 
 
 Comiis. Can an)?- mortal mixture of earth's mold 
 Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment ? 
 Sure something holy lodges in that breast, 
 And with these raptures moves the vocal air 
 To testify his - hidden residence. 
 How sweetly did they float upon the wings 
 Of silence, through the empty- vaulted night, 250 
 
 At every fall smoothing the raven down ^ 
 Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard 
 My mother Circe, with the Sirens * three, 
 Amidst the fiowery-kirtled Naiades,^ 
 Culhng their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 
 Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul. 
 And lap it in Elysium :^ Scylla wept, 
 And chid her barking waves into attention, 
 And fell Charybdis "^ murmured soft applause. 
 Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 
 
 And in sweet madness robbed it of itself ; 
 
 1 " Queen," etc., i.e., Queen of Speech, Daughter of the Air. 
 
 2 Its. The antecedent of the word is " something holy," line 246. The 
 neuter possessive pronoun its is of comparatively recent origin. Spenser did 
 not use it at all, nor is it found anywhere in the authorized version of the 
 English Bible. It occurs but nine times in Shakespeare's works ; and Milton 
 seems to prefer the old form, his. 
 
 3 " The raven down," i.e., the black, feathery softness. 
 
 * Sea nymphs, who by their songs lured people to death. In ancient 
 mythology they had no connection with Circe. 
 
 5 Nymphs of the fountains and streams. 
 
 6 " Lap it," etc., i.e., enwrap it in heavenly bliss. See note on " Elysi- 
 an," L'Allegro, line 147. 
 
 "^ Scylla and Charybdis were rocks upon opposite sides of the Sicilian 
 Straits. The myth states that Circe transformed the nymph Scylla, who 
 lived under the rock of that name, into a barking dog. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 37 
 
 But such a sacred and home-felt dehght, 
 
 Such sober certainty of waking bliss, 
 
 I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, 
 
 And she shall be my queen. — Hail, foreign wonder! 
 
 Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, 
 
 Unless the goddess that in rural shrine 
 
 ^Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, ^ by blest song 
 
 Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 
 
 To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 
 
 Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise 
 That is addressed to unattending ears. 
 Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift ^ 
 How to regain my severed company, 
 Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 
 To give me answer from her mossy couch. 
 
 Covins. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you 
 thus ? 
 
 Lady. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. 
 
 Conms. Could that divide you from near-ushering 
 guides ? 
 
 Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 
 
 Coimis. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? 
 
 Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. 
 
 Cojmis. And left your fair side all unguarded. Lady? 
 
 Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick re- 
 turn. 
 
 ComiLS. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 
 
 Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit!^ 
 
 Connis. Imports their loss, beside the present need? 
 
 Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 
 
 Comiis. W^ere they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? 
 
 Lady. As smooth as Hebe's ^ their unrazored lips. 290 
 
 1 See note on II Penseroso, line 134. 
 
 2 " Extreme shift," i.e., the last expedient. 
 
 3 Guess. 4 See note on L'Allegro, line 29. 
 
3& MILTON. 
 
 Comics. Two such I saw, what time the labored ox 
 In his loose traces from the furrow came, 
 And the swinked hedger i at his supper sat. 
 I saw them under a green mantling vine, 
 That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 
 Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots ; 
 Their port ^ was more than human, as they stood. 
 I took it for a fairy vision 
 Of some gay creatures of the element,^ 
 That in the colors of the rainbow live, 300 
 
 And play i' the plighted ■^ clouds. I was awe-strook,'^ 
 And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek. 
 It were a journey like the path to heaven 
 To help you find them. 
 
 Lady. Gentle villager. 
 
 What readiest way would bring me to that place?* 
 
 Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 
 
 Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, 
 In such a scant allowance of starlight. 
 Would overtask the best land pilot's art, 
 Without the sure guess of well-practiced feet. 310 
 
 Comics. I know each lane, and every alley green, 
 Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood. 
 And every bosky bourn ^ from side to side, 
 My daily walks and ancient neighborhood ; 
 And, if your stray attendance "^ be yet lodged, 
 Or shroud ^ within these limits, I shall know 
 Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
 From her thatched pallet ^ rouse. If otherwise, 
 
 1 ** Swinked hedger," i.e., tired laborer. 
 
 2 Bearing; manner. The poet here pays a compliment to the two sons of 
 the Earl of Bridgewater, who were about to come on the stage. 
 
 3 Air. 4 Plaited; interwoven. ^ Awe-struck. 
 6 Shrubby-banked watercourse. '^ Attendants. 
 
 8 Are hidden. See the use of the same word as a noun, line 147. 
 
 9 The lark makes her nest on the ground. 
 
COMUS: A MASQUE. 39 
 
 I can conduct you, Lady, to a low 
 
 But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 
 
 Till further quest. 
 
 Lady, Shepherd, I take thy word, 
 
 And trust thy honest-offered courtesy. 
 Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, 
 With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls 
 And courts of princes, where it first was named,^ 
 , And yet is most pretended. In a place 
 Less warranted than this, or less secure, 
 I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. — 
 Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 
 To my proportioned strength! 2 — Shepherd, lead on. 330 
 
 \Excuiit. 
 
 Enter the Two Brothers. 
 
 Elder Bivther. Unmuffle, ye faint stars ; and thou, fair 
 moon, 
 That wont'st to love the traveler's benison, 
 Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
 And disinherit Chaos that reigns here 
 In double night of darkness and of shades ; 
 Or, if your influence be quite dammed up 
 With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
 Though a rush candle from the wicker hole ^ 
 Of some clay habitation, visit us 
 
 With thy long leveled rule of streaming light, 340 
 
 And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,'^ 
 Or Tyrian Cynosure. 
 
 1 Courtesy meant originally the manners of the court. 
 
 2 " Square my trial," etc., i.e., adapt my trial to the proportions of my 
 strength. 
 
 5 Wicker-crossed opening, or window. 
 
 * *' Star of Arcady," i.e., any star in the constellation of the Great Bear. 
 It was so called from Calisto, daughter of a king of Arcadia, who was changed 
 
40 MIL TON. 
 
 Seco7id Brothe)'. Or, if our eyes 
 Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
 The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,^ 
 Or sound of pastoi'al reed with oaten stops^^ 
 Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
 Count the night watches to his feathery dames, 
 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, 
 In this close dungeon of innumerous ^ boughs. 
 But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350 
 
 Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
 From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles? 
 Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, 
 Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm 
 Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 
 What if in wild amazement and affright, 
 Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
 Of savage hunger, or of savage heat! 
 
 Elder Brother. Peace, brother : be not over-exquisite * 
 To cast the fashion^ of uncertain evils; 360 
 
 For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, 
 What need a man forestall his date of grief. 
 And run to meet what he would most avoid? 
 Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, 
 How bitter is such self-delusion! 
 I do not think my sister so to seek,^ 
 Or so unprincipled in virtue's book. 
 And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 
 
 into that constellation. The Greek sailors steered their vessels by a star of 
 Arcady; the Phoenicians, by the Cynosura. See note on L'Allegro, line 80. 
 
 1 " Wattled cotes," i.e., cots or sheltering places made of wattled withes, 
 or twigs. 
 
 "^ The stops are the holes in an oaten pipe, or reed, used as a musical in- 
 strument. 
 
 3 Innumerable. 4 Overanxious, or inquisitive. 
 
 5 " To cast the fashion," i.e., to predict the nature. 
 
 6 ** So to seek," i.e., so ignorant what to do. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 41 
 
 As that the single want of light and noise 
 
 (Not being in danger, as 1 trust she is not) 370 
 
 Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, 
 
 isjid put them into misbecoming plight. 
 
 Virtue could see to do what Virtue would 
 
 By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 
 
 Were in the flat sea sunk.^ And Wisdom's self 
 
 Oft seeks ^ to sweet retired solitude, 
 
 Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, 
 
 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 
 
 That, in the various bustle of resort. 
 
 Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 
 
 He that has light within his own clear breast. 
 
 May sit i' the center,^ and enjoy bright day : 
 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 
 
 Benighted walks under the midday sun ; 
 
 Himself is his own dungeon. 
 
 Second Brother. 'Tis most true 
 
 That musing Meditation most affects 
 The pensive secrecy of desert cell. 
 Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, 
 And sits as safe as in a senate house ; 
 For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 
 
 His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, 
 Or do his gray hairs any violence? 
 But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree* 
 Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 
 Of dragon watch with unenchanted eye 
 To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, 
 From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. 
 
 1 ' ' Virtue could, " etc. Spenser says : ' ' Virtue gives herselfe light, through 
 darknesse for to wade." — Faerie Queene, Book I., line I. 
 
 2 Resorts. 3 In the center of the earth, or utter darkness. 
 
 * The tree which was under the guardianship of the Hesperides, and which 
 bore golden apples. It was watched by a dragon. 
 
4 2 MILTON. 
 
 You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps 
 
 Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, 
 
 And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 
 
 Danger will wink on Opportunity, 
 
 And let a single helpless maiden pass 
 
 Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 
 
 Of night or loneliness it recks me not ;^ 
 
 I fear the dread events that dog ^ them both, 
 
 Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person 
 
 Of our unowned ^ sister. 
 
 Elder Brother. I do not, brother, 
 
 Infer as if I thought my sister's state 
 Secure without all doubt or controversy ; 
 Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 
 
 • Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
 That I incline to hope rather than fear, 
 And gladly banish squint ^ suspicion. 
 My sister is not so defenseless left 
 As you imagine ; she has a hidden strength. 
 Which you remember not. 
 
 Second Bi^other. What hidden strength, 
 
 Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? 
 
 Elder Brother. I mean that too, but yet a hidden 
 strength, 
 Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 
 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity: 420 
 
 She that has that is clad in complete steel. 
 And, like a quivered nymph ^ with arrows keen, 
 May trace huge forests, and unharbored heaths, 
 Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds ; 
 Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 
 
 1 " It recks," etc., i.e., I take no account. 
 
 2 Pursue. 3 Unprotected. * Looking askance or sideways. 
 
 5 A reference to one of the nymphs or companions of the chaste goddess 
 Diana. See note on h'ne 441. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 43 
 
 No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaineer, 
 
 Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 
 
 Yea, there where very desolation dwells, 
 
 By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, 
 
 She may pass on with unblenched ^ majesty, 430 
 
 Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 
 
 Some say no evil thing that walks by night. 
 
 In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, 
 
 Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost 
 
 That breaks his magic chains at curfew ^ time, 
 
 No goblin or swart faery ^ of the mine. 
 
 Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. 
 
 Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call 
 
 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 
 
 To testify the arms of chastity? 440 
 
 Hence had the huntress Dian ^ her dread bow, 
 
 Fair silver-shafted queen, forever chaste. 
 
 Wherewith she tamed the brinded ^ lioness 
 
 And spotted mountain pard, but set at naught 
 
 The frivolous bolt of Cupid ;^ gods and men 
 
 Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. 
 
 What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield ^ 
 
 1 Fearless. 
 
 2 See note on II Penseroso, line 74. There was a popular superstition that 
 certain evil spirits were always abroad from curfew time till the crowing of 
 the cock at dawn. 
 
 3 " Swart faery," i.e., black fairy, or elf, such as, according to ancient 
 superstition, dwelt in mines. 
 
 4 " Diana (Cynthia) was not only goddess of the moon, but also of the 
 chase. In works of art she is represented as a beautiful maiden, clad in a short 
 hunting dress, and with a crescent on her well-poised head." (Guerber.) 
 
 5 Brindled; streaked. 
 
 6 Cupid, son of Venus and Mars, was god of love. The bolts or darts 
 which he shot from his bow had the power of exciting love in the heart of 
 any one whom they pierced. 
 
 '' The three Gorgons were hideous monsters whose faces were so fearful 
 that whoever looked on them became " concealed stone." One of these 
 
44 MILTON. 
 
 That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 
 
 Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone, 
 
 But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 
 
 And noble grace that dashed brute violence 
 
 With sudden adoration and blank awe ? 
 
 So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity 
 
 That, when a soul is found sincerely so, 
 
 A thousand liveried angels lackey her. 
 
 Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt. 
 
 And in clear dream and solemn vision 
 
 Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear ; 
 
 Till oft ^ converse with heavenly habitants 
 
 Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 
 
 The unpolluted temple of the mind. 
 
 And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence. 
 
 Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, 
 
 By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 
 
 But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 
 
 Lets in defilement to the inward parts. 
 
 The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
 
 Imbodies, and imbrutes,^ till she quite lose 
 
 The divine property of her first being. 
 
 Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 
 
 Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchers, 
 
 Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 
 
 As loath to leave the body that it loved, 
 
 And linked itself by carnal sensualty 
 
 To a degenerate and degraded state.^ 
 
 creatures, Medusa, was slain by Perseus, and her head was presented to 
 'Minerva, who placed it in her shield, where the face continued to retain its 
 petrifying power. 
 
 1 Frequent. 
 
 2 " Imbodies, and inibrutes," i.e., becomes carnal and brutal. 
 
 3 Milton has here adapted a well-known passage from Plato's Phredo, in 
 which Socrates is speaking of souls that have given themselves up to corporeal 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 45 
 
 Seco7id Brother. How charming is divine philosophy! 
 Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute,^ 
 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit ^ reigns. 
 
 Elder Brother. List! list! I hear 480 
 
 Some far-off hallo break the silent air. 
 
 Second Brother. Methought so too ; what should it be '^ 
 
 Elder Brother. For certain, 
 
 Either some one, like us, night foundered here ; 
 Or else some neighbor woodman ; or, at worst. 
 Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 
 
 Second Bi^other. Heaven keep my sister! Again, 
 again, and near! 
 Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 
 
 Elder Brother. I'll hallo. 
 
 If he be friendly, he comes well : if not, 
 Defense is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! 
 
 Enter the Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd. 
 
 That hallo I should know. What are you ? speak. 490 
 Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes^ else. 
 
 Spirit. What voice is that ? my young lord ? speak 
 
 again. 
 Second Brother. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, 
 
 sure. 
 Elder Brother. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft 
 delayed 
 
 pleasures. When the body dies, these souls, he says, being unfit to soar to 
 heaven, are weighed down to earth, and wander as visible, shadowy phantoms 
 amongst the tombs. 
 
 1 Apollo was the god of song and music, and was said to have been the in- 
 ventor of the flute. 
 
 2 " Crude surfeit," i.e., unheal thful excess. 
 
 3 " Fall on iron stakes," i.e., come in contact with our swords. 
 
4 6 MILTON. 
 
 The huddling brook ^ to hear his madrigal, 
 • And sweetened every musk rose of the dale. — 
 
 How earnest thou here, good swain? Hath any ram 
 
 Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, 
 
 Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? 
 
 How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 
 
 Spirit. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy, 
 I came not here on such a trivial toy 
 As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth 
 Of pilfering wolf ; not all the fleecy wealth 
 That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 
 To this my errand, and the care it brought. 
 But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? 
 How chance she is not in your company? 
 
 Elder Brother. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without 
 blame 
 Or our neglect, we lost her as we came, 510 
 
 Spirit. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true. 
 
 Elder Brother. What fears, good Th3''rsis? Prithee 2 
 briefly show. 
 
 Spirit. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
 (Though S0 esteemed by shallow ignorance) 
 What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 
 Storied of old in high immortal verse 
 Of dire Chimeras '^ and enchanted isles. 
 And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell ; 
 For such there be, but unbeHef is blind. 
 
 1 " Huddling brook." The waters are huddled together as they delay to 
 listen to his music. The poet is here paying a compliment to Henry Lawes, 
 who acted the part of the Attendant Spirit _and had arranged the music for the 
 masque. 
 
 2 I pray thee. 
 
 3 The chimera was a mythical monster having a lion's head, a goat's body, 
 and a dragon's tail. Hence, a name applied to any incongruous fancy or 
 creature of the imagination. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 47 
 
 Within the navels of this hideous wood, 520 
 
 Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, 
 Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, 
 Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, 
 And here to every thirsty wanderer 
 By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 
 With many murmurs ^ mixed, whose pleasing poison 
 The visage quite transforms of him that drinks. 
 And the inglorious Hkeness of a beast 
 Fixes instead, unmolding reason's mintage 
 Charactered in the face.-^ This have I learnt 530 
 
 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts * 
 That brow this bottom glade ; whence night by night 
 He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
 Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, 
 Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 
 In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. 
 Yet have they many baits and guileful spells 
 To inveigle and invite the unwary sense 
 Of them that pass unweeting ^ by the way. 
 This evening late, by then ^ the chewing flocks 540 
 
 Had ta'en their supper on the savory herb 
 Of knotgrass dew-besprent, and were in fold, 
 I sat me down to watch upon a bank 
 With ivy canopied, and interwove 
 With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 
 Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy. 
 To meditate '^ my rural minstrelsy. 
 Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close 
 
 1 Center. 2 Muttered incantations. 
 
 3 " Unmolding," etc., i.e., destroying the stamp of reason impressed in 
 the human face. 
 
 4 Small, inclosed fields. 5 UnAvitting; not knowing the dangers. 
 6 " By then," i.e., about the time when. 
 
 '7 " To meditate," i.e., to practice; to devote some time to. 
 
48 MILTON. 
 
 The wonted roar was up ^ amidst the woods, 
 
 And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 
 
 At which I ceased, and listened them awhile, 
 
 Till an unusual stop of sudden silence 
 
 Gave respite to the drowsy frighted ^ steeds 
 
 That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. 
 
 At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 
 
 Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes. 
 
 And stole upon the air, that even Silence 
 
 Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might 
 
 Den}^ her nature, and be never more. 
 
 Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 
 
 And took in strains that might create a soul 
 
 Under the ribs of Death. ^ But, oh I ere long 
 
 Too well I did perceive it was the voice 
 
 Of my most honored Lady, your dear sister. 
 
 Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear ; 
 
 And '' O poor hapless nightingale," thought I, 
 
 ** How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare! " 
 
 Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, 
 
 Through paths and turnings often trod by day, 
 
 Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 
 
 Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise 
 
 (For so by certain signs I knew), had met 
 
 Already, ere my best speed could prevent, 
 
 The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey ; 
 
 Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 
 
 Supposing him some neighbor villager. 
 
 1 Had begun. 
 
 2 " Drowsy frighted," etc., i.e., the drowsy steeds of night that have 
 been frighted by the barbarous dissonance of Comus and his crew. 
 
 3 " Even Silence," etc., i.e., even Silence was so charmed .by this music 
 that she would willingly have ceased to exist if she could always be displaced 
 by it. I could hear nothing else, for these strains were so ravishing that 
 they might even have restored a soul within a lifeless skeleton. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 49 
 
 Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 
 Ye were the two she meant ; with that I sprung 
 Into swift flight, tih I had found you here ; 
 But further know I not. 
 
 Second Bi'otlier. O night and shades, 580 
 
 How are ye joined with hell in triple knot 
 Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, 
 Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence 
 You gave me, brother? 
 
 Elder Bi'othei'. Yes, and keep it still ; 
 
 Lean on it safely ; not a period ^ 
 Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats 
 Of malice or of sorcery, or that power 
 Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm : 
 Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt ; 
 Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 590 
 
 Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm 
 Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. 
 But evil on itself shall back recoil, 
 And mix no more with goodness, when at last, 
 Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. 
 It shall be in eternal restless change 
 Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail. 
 The pillared firmament is rottenness. 
 And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on! 
 Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 
 
 May never this just sword be hfted up ; 
 But, for that damned magician, let him be girt 
 With all the grisly legions that troop 
 Under the sooty flag of Acheron, - 
 Harpies ^ and Hydras,^ or all the monstrous forms 
 
 J- Sentence. 
 
 2 Acheron was one of the rivers of the mfernal regions ; as here used, it 
 means hell itself. 
 
 3 Loathsome winged monsters. ^ Huge water snakes. 
 
 4 
 
50 MILTON. 
 
 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, 
 And force him to return his purchase ^ back, 
 Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, 
 Cursed as his life. 
 
 Spirit. Alas ! good venturous youth, 
 
 I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise ; 6 1 o 
 
 But here thy sword can do thee little stead. 
 Far other arms and other weapons must 
 Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. 
 He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, 
 And crumble all thy sinews. 
 
 Elder Brother. Why, prithee. Shepherd, 
 
 How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
 As to make this relation? 
 
 Spirit. Care and utmost shifts ^ 
 
 How to secure the Lady from surprisal 
 Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, 
 Of small regard to see to,^ yet well skilled 620 
 
 In every virtuous * plant and healing herb 
 That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
 He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing ; 
 Which when I did, he on the tender grass 
 Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy. 
 And in requital ope his leathern scrip, 
 And show me simples '^ of a thousand names. 
 Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
 Amongst the rest a small unsightly root. 
 But of divine effect, he culled me out. 63 o 
 
 The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it. 
 But in another country, as he said, 
 Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil : 
 Unknown, and hke esteemed, and the dull swain 
 
 1 " His purchase," i.e., what he has stolen; his booty. 
 
 2 See note on line 273. ^ To look upon. 
 
 ^ Medicinal. 5 Simple medicinal remedies. 
 
COMUS: A MASQUE. 51 
 
 Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ;i 
 
 And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly 2 
 
 That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 
 
 He called it Haemony,^ and gave it me, 
 
 And bade me keep it as of sovran use 
 
 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 
 
 Or ghastly Furies' apparition. 
 
 I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, 
 
 Till now that this extremity compelled. 
 
 But now I find it true ; for by this means 
 
 I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised. 
 
 Entered the very lime twigs of his spells,^ 
 
 And yet came off. If you have this about you 
 
 (As I will give you when we go) you may 
 
 Boldly assault the necromancer's hall ; 
 
 Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 
 
 And brandished blade rush on him ; break his glass, 
 
 And shed the luscious liquor on the ground ; 
 
 But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew 
 
 Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high. 
 
 Or, like the sons of Vulcan,^ vomit smoke. 
 
 Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 
 
 Elder B7'other. Thyrsis, lead on apace ; Fll follow thee ; 
 And some good angel bear a shield before us! 
 
 1 " Clouted shoon," i.e., patched or hobnailed shoes. 
 
 2 A fabulous herb having the power to protect against the charms of Circe. 
 *' 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, 303-306.) 
 
 3 A name probably coined by Milton from Hsemonia (Thessaly), a land 
 once famous for magic. 
 
 4 " Very lime twigs," etc., an allusion to the method of catching birds by 
 means of twigs covered with a sticky substance. 
 
 5 Vulcan was the god of fire. The allusion is probably to Cacus, a son 
 of Vulcan, who, according to Virgil, vomited huge volumes of smoke when 
 pursued by Hercules. 
 
52 *" MILTON. 
 
 The Scene changes to a stately palace , set out zvith all manner of delic'wiisness : 
 spft ifitisic, tables spread with all damties. CoMUS appears zvith his rabble, 
 and the Lady set in an enchanted chair : to whom he offers his glass ; which 
 she puts by, and goes about'^ to rise. 
 
 Coimis. Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand, 
 Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 
 
 And you a statue,'-^ or as Daphne "^ was, 
 Root bound, that fled Apollo. 
 
 Lady. Fool, do not boast. 
 
 Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind 
 With all thy charms, although this corporal rind * 
 Thou hast immanacled, while ^ Heaven sees good. 
 
 Comus. Why are you vexed. Lady? why do you frown? 
 Here dwell no frowns, nor anger ; from these gates 
 Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures 
 That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, 
 When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 
 
 Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 
 And first behold this cordial julep ^ here. 
 That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, 
 With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. 
 Not that nepenthes "^ which the wife of Thone 
 In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena, 
 Is of such power to stir up joy as this. 
 To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 
 Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 
 And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 
 
 For gentle usage and soft delicacy? 
 
 1 " Goes about," i.e., attempts. 
 
 2 " And you," etc., i.e., as if you were a statue. 
 
 3 A maiden beloved by Apollo. Being pursued by him, and likely to be 
 overtaken, she prayed for aid, and was transformed into a laurel tree. 
 
 4 " Cor])oral rind," i.e., bodily protection ; body. 5 go long as. 
 
 6 " Cordial julep," i.e., exhilarating drink. " Julep " is from two Persian 
 words meaning " rose " and " water." 
 
 '^ A care-dispelling drug, thought to have been opium. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 53 
 
 But you invert the covenants of her trust, 
 
 And harshly deal, like an ill boiTower, 
 
 With that which you received on other terms, 
 
 Scorning the unexempt condition 
 
 By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 
 
 Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 
 
 That have been tired all day without repast. 
 
 And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin. 
 
 This will restore all soon. 
 
 Lady. 'Twill not, false traitor! 690 
 
 'Twill not restore the truth and honesty 
 That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. 
 Was this the cottage and the safe abode 
 Thou told'st me of ? What grim aspects are these. 
 These oughly-headed ^ monsters? Mercy guard me! 
 Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! 
 Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
 With vizored 2 falsehood and base forgery? 
 And would'st thou seek again to trap me here 
 With liquorish^ baits, fit to insnare a brute? 700 
 
 Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets, 
 I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
 But such as are good men can give good things ; 
 And that which is not good is not delicious 
 To a well-governed and wise appetite. 
 
 Coimis. O foohshness of men! that lend their ears 
 To those budge ^ doctors of the Stoic ^ fur, 
 
 1 Ugly-headed. 2 Masked. 
 
 ^ From a German word meaning to " lick the lips ;" hence, dainty, delicious. 
 
 * A kind of fur, or lamb's wool, formerly used for trimming scholastic 
 habits. The word is sometimes used in the sense of " big," and may also 
 mean " surly." 
 
 5 The Stoics were Greek philosophers who taught that men should repress 
 all exhibition of passion and should submit to unavoidable necessity without 
 complaining. 
 
54 MILTON. 
 
 And fetch their precepts from the Cynic ^ tub, 
 
 Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! 
 
 Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 
 
 With such a full and unwithdravving hand, 
 
 Covering the earth with odors, fruits, and flocks, 
 
 Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, 
 
 But all to please and sate the curious taste? 
 
 And set to work millions of spinning worms. 
 
 That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, 
 
 To deck her sons ; and, that no corner might 
 
 Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins 
 
 She hutched ^ the all-worshiped ore and precious gems, 
 
 To store her children with. If all the world 720 
 
 Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse. 
 
 Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,^ 
 
 The All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, 
 
 Not half his riches known, and yet despised ; 
 
 And we should serve him as a grudging master, 
 
 As a penurious niggard of his wealth. 
 
 And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons. 
 
 Who would be quite surcharged with her own weight, 
 
 And strangled with her waste fertihty : 
 
 The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with 
 
 plumes, 730 
 
 The herds would overmultitude their lords ; 
 The sea o'erfraught* would swell, and the unsought 
 
 diamonds 
 Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep. 
 And so bestud with stars, that they below 
 Would grow inured to hght, and come at last 
 To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 
 
 1 The Cynics were Greek philosophers noted for the austerity of their lives. 
 Diogenes, the most distinguished member of the sect, lived in a tub. 
 
 2 Laid up, as in a box. 3 Coarse woolen cloth. 
 4 Overloaded; overfilled. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 55 
 
 List, Lady ; be not coy, and be not cozened 
 With that same vaunted name. Virginity. 
 Beauty is Nature's coin ; must not be hoarded, 
 But must be current ; and the good thereof 740 
 
 Consists in mutual and partaken bhss, 
 Unsavory in the enjoyment of itself. 
 If you let slip time, like a neglected rose 
 It withers on the stalk with languished head. 
 Beauty is Nature's brag,^ and must be shown 
 In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, 
 Where most may wonder at the workmanship. 
 It is for homely features to keep home ; 
 They had their name thence : coarse complexions 
 And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 
 
 The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. 
 What need of vermeil-tinctured 2 lip for that, 
 Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? 
 There was another meaning in these gifts ; 
 Think what, and be advised ; you are but young yet. 
 Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my lips 
 In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler 
 Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, 
 Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. 
 I hate when Vice can bolt her arguments^ 760 
 
 And Virtue has no tongue to check her pride. 
 Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, 
 As if she would her children should be riotous 
 With her abundance. She, good cateress, 
 Means her provision only to the good, 
 That live according to her sober laws. 
 And holy dictate of spare Temperance. 
 If every just man that now pines with want , 
 
 1 Boast. 2 Vermilion-colored. 
 
 3 " Bolt her arguments," i.e., set them forth with fine discrimination. 
 
56 MILTON. 
 
 Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
 
 Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 
 
 Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
 
 Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed 
 
 In unsuperfluous even proportion, 
 
 And she no whit encumbered with her store ; 
 
 And then the Giver would be better thanked, 
 
 His praise due paid : for swinish gluttony 
 
 Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 
 
 But with besotted base ingratitude 
 
 Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? 
 
 Or have I said enow? ^ To him that dares 780 
 
 Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words 
 
 Against the sun clad power of chastity. 
 
 Fain would I something say; — yet to what end? 
 
 Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend 
 
 The sublime notion and high mystery 
 
 That must be uttered to unfold the sage 
 
 And serious doctrine of virginity; 
 
 And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 
 
 More happiness than this thy present lot. 
 
 Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 
 
 That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence ;2 
 
 Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 
 
 Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 
 
 Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 
 
 To such a flame of sacred vehemence 
 
 That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, 
 
 And the brute ^ Earth would lend her nerves, and shake, 
 
 Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 
 
 Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. 
 
 Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear 800 
 
 Her words set off by some superior power ; 
 
 1 Enough. 2 Defense ; swordplay. 3 Senseless. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 57 
 
 And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew 
 
 Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
 
 Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus ^ 
 
 To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 
 
 And try her yet more strongly. — Come, no more! 
 
 This is mere moral babble, and direct 
 
 Against the canon laws of our foundation.^ 
 
 I must not suffer this ; yet 'tis but the lees 
 
 And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 
 
 But this will cure all straight;^ one sip of this 
 
 Will bathe the drooping spirits in deHght 
 
 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. 
 
 The Brothers ricsh in ivitk swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, 
 and break it against the ground : his ront ??iake sign of resistance, but are 
 all driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes iti. 
 
 Spirit. What! have you let the false enchanter scape? 
 Oh, ye mistook ; ye should have snatched his wand, 
 And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, 
 And backward mutters of dissevering power. 
 We cannot free the Lady that sits here 
 In stony fetters fixed and motionless. 
 Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 
 
 Some other means I have which may be used. 
 Which once of Mehbceus * old I learnt, 
 The soothest ^ shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 
 
 1 A name applied to the dark and gloomy space under the earth through 
 which the souls of the dead were obHged to pass on their way to Hades. 
 Milton uses it here for Tartarus, the prison house into which Jupiter cast the 
 Titans, the adherents of his father Saturn. 
 
 2 Institution. ^ Straightway ; immediately. 
 
 * Meliboeus is the name of one of the shepherds in Virgil's Eclogues ; but 
 Milton here probably refers to Geoffrey of Monmouth, an old English chron- 
 icler, the first to relate the story of Locrine and his daughter, 
 
 5 Truest. 
 
58 MILTON. 
 
 There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, 
 • That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream ; 
 Sabrina is her name : a virgin pure ; 
 Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, 
 That had the scepter from his father Brute. ^ ■ 
 She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit 
 Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, 830 
 
 Commended her fair innocence to the flood 
 That stayed her flight with his ^ crossflowing course. 
 The water nymphs, that in the bottom played, 
 Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, 
 Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' ^ hall ; 
 Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank * head, 
 And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,^ 
 And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
 Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 
 
 And underwent a quick immortal change. 
 Made Goddess of the river.^ Still she retains 
 Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve 
 Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, 
 Helping all urchin blasts,'^ and ill-luck signs 
 
 1 Brute, or Brutus, was said to have been a descendant of ^neas, and the 
 first king of Britain. It was from him that the island derived its name. See 
 note on line 923, 
 
 2 Its. 
 
 ^ The good spirit of the sea, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs. 
 
 ^ Languid ; drooping. 
 
 ^ " Nectared lavers," etc., i.e., baths into which nectar had been poured 
 and where asphodels were growing. The asphodel was a flower found in 
 Elysium. 
 
 6 Geoffrey of Monmouth relates that Queen Guendolen, jealous of Sabrina 
 and her mother, Estrildis, raised an army and made war upon Locrine. 
 Locrine was defeated and slain, and Guendolen, assuming the government, 
 commanded Estrildis and Sabrina to be cast into the river, which was ever 
 afterwards called the Severn. 
 
 '^ " Helping," etc., i.e., remedjdng the evil influences of bad fairies, such 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 59 
 
 That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, 
 
 Which she with precious vialed liquors heals : 
 
 For which the shepherds, at their festivals, 
 
 Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 
 
 And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream, 850 
 
 Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils ; 
 
 And, as the old swain said, she can unlock 
 
 The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell. 
 
 If she be right invoked in warbled song ; 
 
 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 
 
 To aid a virgin, such as was herself. 
 
 In hard besetting need. This will I try, 
 
 And add the power of some adjuring verse. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Sabrina fair, 
 
 Listen where thou art sitting 860 
 
 Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, 
 
 In twisted braids of lilies knitting 
 The loose traijt of thy amber-dropping hairj 
 
 Listen for dear honor's sake, 
 
 Goddess of the silver lake. 
 Listen and save / 
 
 Listen, and appear to us. 
 
 In name of great Oceanus,^ 
 
 By the earth-shaking N^eptune's mace. 
 
 And Tethys^'^ grave majestic pace J 870 
 
 By hoary Nereus'' wrinkled look, 
 
 And the Carpathian wizard'' s"^ hookj 
 
 as the blasting of corn, etc. " Urchin " originally meant the hedgehog, but 
 came later to be applied to goblins, imps, and, finally, to small children. 
 
 1 An earlier sea god than Neptune. 2 The wife of Oceanus. 
 
 3 Proteus, the shepherd of the sea, who had the care of Neptune's flocks 
 of seals. 
 
6o MILTON. 
 
 By scaly Tritoii's i wiiiding shell, 
 
 And old soothsaying Glaucus' '^ spell ; 
 
 By Leiicothea^s ^ lovely hands, 
 
 A7id her son that rides the strands ; 
 
 By Thetis^ ^ tinsel-slippered feet, 
 
 And the songs of Sirens sweet; 
 
 By dead Parthenope's ^ dear tomb, 
 
 An d fair Ligea^s^ golden cojnb, 880 
 
 Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 
 
 Sleeking her soft alluring locks j 
 
 By all the nymphs that nightly dance 
 
 Upon thy streams with wily glance ; 
 
 Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 
 
 Fro7h thy coral-paven bed, 
 
 And bridle ifi thy headlong wave, 
 
 Till thou our summons answered have. 
 
 Listen and save / 
 
 Sabrina rises, attended by Water Nymphs, and sings. 
 
 By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 
 
 Where grows the willow and the osier dank. 
 
 My sliding chariot stays, 
 Thick set with agate, and the aziLrn shee?i '^ 
 Of tiirkis'^ blue, aiid emerald greeny 
 
 That in the channel strays j 
 
 1 The son of Neptune. He is represented with a trumpet made of a wind- 
 ing shell, and is sometimes called the herald of the sea. 
 
 2 A Greek fisherman who obtained a place among the sea gods, and had 
 the power of prophecy. 
 
 ^ Ino, fleeing from her mad husband, King Athamas, leaped into the sea 
 with her young son in her arms. The Nereids received them and made them 
 sea deities, changing the name of Ino to Leucothea, or the " white goddess." 
 Her son was Palsemon, the guardian of harbors. 
 
 4 A Nereid, called " the silver-footed," the mother of Achilles. 
 
 ^ One of the Sirens, whose dead body was washed ashore on the present 
 site of Naples. 
 
 ^ Another Siren. The name signifies " the shrill voiced." 
 
 "^ *' Azurn sheen," i.e., azured gleam. 8 Turquoise. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 6 1 
 
 Whilst from off the waters fleet 
 Thus I set 7ny printless feet 
 O^er the cowslip's velvet head. 
 
 That bends not as I tread. 
 Gentle swain, at thy request 900 
 
 I atn here I 
 
 Spirit. Goddess dear, 
 We implore thy powerful hand 
 To undo the charmed band 
 Of true virgin here distressed 
 Through the force and through the wile 
 Of unblessed enchanter vile. 
 
 Sabiina. Shepherd, 'tis my office best 
 To help ensnared chastity. — 
 
 Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 
 
 Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
 Drops that from my fountain pure 
 I have kept of precious cure ; 
 Thrice upon thy finger's tip, 
 Thrice upon thy rubied lip: 
 Next this marble venomed seat, 
 Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, 
 I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 
 / Now the spell hath lost his hold ; 
 
 And I must haste ere morning hour 920 
 
 To wait in Amphitrite's ^ bower. 
 
 Sabrixa descends, and the Lady rises out of her scat. 
 
 Spirit. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
 Sprung of old Anchises' ^ line, 
 
 1 Wife of Neptune. 
 
 2 Anchises, a Trojan prince antl father of ^neas, escaped from the Greeks 
 at the destruction of Troy by being carried out of the burning city on the back 
 of his son. Brutus, the grandfather of Sabrina, was the great-grandson of 
 yEneas. 
 
62 MILTON. 
 
 May thy brimmed waves for this 
 
 Their full tribute never miss 
 
 From a thousand petty rills, 
 
 That tumble down the snowy hills : 
 
 Summer drouth or singed ^ air 
 
 Never scorch thy tresses ^ fair, 
 
 Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 
 
 Thy molten crystal fill with mud ; 
 
 May thy billows roll ashore 
 
 The beryl and the golden ore ; 
 
 May thy lofty head be crowned 
 
 With many a tower and terrace round, 
 
 And here and there thy banks upon 
 
 With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 
 
 Come, Lady ; while Heaven lends us grace. 
 Let us fly this cursed place. 
 
 Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 
 
 With some other new device. 
 Not a waste "^ or needless sound 
 Till we come to holier ground. 
 I shall be your faithful guide 
 Through this gloomy covert wide ; 
 And not many furlongs thence 
 Is your father's residence, 
 Where this night are met in state 
 Many a friend to gratulate 
 
 His wished presence, and beside 950 
 
 All the swains that there abide 
 With jigs and rural dance resort. 
 We shall catch them at their sport, 
 And our sudden coming there 
 
 1 Singeing; scorching hot. 
 
 2 Referring to the foHage along the banks of the Severn. 
 
 3 Useless. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 63 
 
 Will double all their mirth and cheer. 
 Come, let us haste ; the stars grow high, 
 But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky, 
 
 i7ie Scene changes, presenting Litdlozo Toivn, and the President'' s Castle ; 
 then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, ivith 
 the Two Brothers and the Lady. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Spirit. Back, shepherds y back! Enough your play 
 Till next su7ishine holiday. 
 
 Here be, without duck or nod,^ . 960 
 
 Other trippings to be trod 
 Of lighter toes, and S7(ch court guise 
 As Mercury 2 did first devise 
 With the mincing Dryades ^ 
 On the lawns a?td on the leas. 
 
 This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. 
 
 Noble Lord and Lady bright, 
 I have brought ye new delight. 
 Here behold so goodly grown 
 Three fair branches of your own. 
 
 Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 
 
 Their faith, their patience, and their truth. 
 And sent them, here through hard assays * 
 With a crown of deathless praise. 
 To triumph in victorious dance 
 O^er sensual folly and intemperance. 
 
 The dances ended, the Spirit epilogitizes. 
 
 Spirit. To the ocean now I fly, 
 And those happy climes that lie 
 
 1 " Duck or nod," forms of obeisance peculiar to country folk, or servants. 
 
 2 Mercury (Hermes), the messenger of the gods, was the ideal of agility 
 and grace. 
 
 3 Wood nymphs. ^ Trials. 
 
64 MILTON. 
 
 Where day never shuts his eye, 
 
 Up in the broad fields of the sky. 
 
 There I suck the hquid air, 980 
 
 All amidst the gardens fair 
 
 Of Hesperus, 1 and his daughters three 
 
 That sing about the golden tree. 
 
 Along the crisped shades and bowers 
 
 Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 
 
 The Graces ^ and the rosy-bosomed Hours ^ 
 
 Thither all their bounties bring. 
 
 There eternal Summer dwells, 
 
 And west winds with musky wing 
 
 About the cedarn * alleys fling 990 
 
 Nard and cassia's ^ balmy smells. 
 
 Iris ^ there with humid bow 
 
 Waters the odorous banks, that blow 
 
 Flowers of more mingled hue 
 
 Than her purfled '^ scarf can show, 
 
 And drenches with Elysian dew 
 
 (List, mortals, if your ears be true) 
 
 Beds of hyacinth and roses, 
 
 Where young Adonis ^ oft reposes, 
 
 Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 
 
 In slumber soft, and on the ground 
 
 1 See note on line 393. " The Hesperides were daughters of Hesperus, 
 god of the West." (Guerber.) 
 
 2 See note on L' Allegro, line 15. 
 
 3 The Horae (the goddesses of the seasons) were three in number, and 
 were the daughters of Jupiter and Themis. 
 
 4 Cedar lined. 
 
 5 " Nard and cassia," i.e., spikenard and aromatic laurel. 
 
 6 See note on line ^t^. 
 
 7 Embroidered. 
 
 8 A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, and sla^n by a wild boar which he 
 was hunting. On account of Venus's grief for him the gods of the lower 
 world allowed him to return to the earth for six months every year. 
 
COM US: A MASQUE. 65 
 
 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.^ 
 
 But far above, in spangled sheen, 
 
 Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced 
 
 Holds his dear Psyche,^ sweet entranced 
 
 After her wandering labors long, 
 
 Till free consent the gods among 
 
 Make her his eternal bride. 
 
 And from her fair unspotted side 
 
 Two blissful twins are to be born, loio 
 
 Youth and Joy ; so Jove hath sworn. 
 
 But now my task is smoothly done : 
 I can fly, or I can run 
 Quickly to the green earth's end. 
 Where the bowed welkin ^ slow doth bend. 
 And from thence can soar as soon 
 To the corners of the moon. 
 Mortals, that would follow me, 
 Love Virtue ; she alone is free. 
 
 She can teach ye how to climb 1020 
 
 Higher than the sphery • chime ;■* 
 Or, if Virtue feeble were. 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her. 
 
 1 Venus. She was worshiped in Assyria as Astarte. 
 
 2 Psyche, the youngest of three daughters of a king, was loved by Cupid. 
 As a punishment for distrusting him she was forced to wander from place 
 to place and to endure many hardships. Finally, however, Cupid claimed 
 her as his " eternal bride," and she was admitted with him among the gods. 
 
 3 " Bowed welkin," i.e., arched dome of the sky. 
 
 * " Sphery chime," i.e., the njusic of the spheres ; the starry choir referred 
 to in line 112. 
 
66 MILTON. 
 
 LYCIDAS. 
 
 In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drowned 
 in his passage from Chester on the Irish seas, 1637; and, by occasion, 
 foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. 
 
 Yet once more, O ye laurels, ^ and once more, 
 
 Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 
 
 I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. 
 
 And with forced 2 fingers rude 
 
 Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 
 
 Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear 
 
 Compels me to disturb your season due ; 
 
 For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime. 
 
 Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 
 
 Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew 10 
 
 Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
 
 He must not float upon his watery bier 
 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 
 Without the meed of some melodious tear. 
 
 Begin, then, Sisters ^ of the sacred well 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
 Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
 Hence with denial vain and coy excuse : 
 So may some gentle Muse 
 
 1 The laurel was sacred to Apollo, and has always been associated with 
 poetry. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. 'Ivy was used to deck the brows 
 of the learned, and was sacred to Bacchus. It has been suggested that Mil- 
 ton, in naming these three plants, intends a delicate allusion to King's poetry, 
 beauty, and learning. 
 
 2 Unwilling. 
 
 3 The nine Muses. See note on II Penseroso, line 47. By the " sacred 
 well " the poet probably means the Pierian fountain at the foot of Mount 
 Olympus, the birthplace of the Muses and the " seat of Jove." 
 
 I 
 
LYCIDAS. 67 
 
 With lucky words favor my destined urn,i 20 
 
 And as he passes, turn 
 
 And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud ! 2 
 
 For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill, 
 Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill ; ^ 
 Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 
 Under the opening eyehds of the Morn, 
 We drove a-field, and both together heard 
 What time the grayfly winds her sultry horn,* 
 Battening ^ our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
 Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 
 
 Towards heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute ; 
 Tempered to the oaten flute,^ 
 
 Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns " with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long; 
 And old Damoetas ^ loved to hear our song. 
 
 But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
 Now thou art gone and never must return! 
 Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 
 
 1 " My destined urn," i.e., my approaching or inevitable death. The 
 Romans deposited the ashes of their dead in urns. 
 
 2 " vSable shroud," i.e., dark tomb. 
 
 3 " For we were nursed," etc. Referring to the fact of their companion- 
 ship at college, and the sameness of their tastes and pursuits. 
 
 4 " Winds," etc., i.e., hums in the noontide heat. 
 ^ Feeding; fattening. 
 
 6 " Meanwhile," etc. Reference is made to the early poetical attempts of 
 Milton and King. The "oaten flute " was made of reeds or straws, and was 
 a favorite musical instrument among shepherds ; hence it is emblematic of 
 pastoral poetry. 
 
 ■^ The Satyrs of Greek mythology were represented as of a pleasure-loving 
 nature, always engaged in dance and song. The Roman Fauns — half men, 
 half goats — were of a similar nature. The names here refer to the college- 
 mates of King and Milton. 
 
 * A name frequently used in pastoral poetry. It is supposed to refer here 
 to some " well-remembered Fellow of Christ's College." 
 
68 MILTON. 
 
 \ 
 With wild thyme and the gadding ^ane o'ergrown, 40 
 
 And all their echoes, mourn. 
 
 The willows, and the hazel copses green, 
 
 Shall now no more be seen 
 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, 
 
 Or taintworm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 
 Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 
 When first the whitethorn blows ; 
 
 Such, Lycidas, .thy loss to shepherd's ear. 
 
 Where were ye. Nymphs, when the remorseless, deep 50 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? 
 For neither were ye playing on the steep 1 
 Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
 Nor on the shaggy top of Mona ^ high. 
 Nor yet where Deva "^ spreads her wizard stream. 
 Ay me! I fondly dream 
 
 " Had ye been there," — for what could that have done? 
 What could the Muse * herself that Orpheus bore, 
 The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, 
 Whom universal nature did lament, 60 
 
 When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
 Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 
 
 Alas! what boots it with uncessant care 
 To tend the homel}^, slighted, shepherd's trade, 
 
 1 "The steep," etc., probably Penmaenmawr in Wales, an old Druidic 
 burial place, 
 
 2 The wooded heights of the island of Anglesey, the favorite haunt of the 
 Welsh Druids. 
 
 3 The river Dee, the ancient boundary between England and Wales, and 
 for that reason regarded with a kind of superstitious reverence. 
 
 4 Calliope, the mother of Orpheus. The Thracian women, celebrating 
 the orgies of Bacchus, became enraged at Orpheus, tore him in pieces, and 
 threw his remains into the river Hebrus. His head was washed ashore on 
 the island of Lesbos. 
 
LYCIDAS. 69 
 
 . And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? 
 Were it not better done, as others use,i 
 To sport with Amarjdlis ^ in the shade, 
 Or with the tangles of Neaera's^ hair? 
 Fame is the spur that the clear ^ spirit doth raise 70 
 
 (That last infirmity of noble mind) 
 To scorn delights and live laborious days ; 
 But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
 And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
 Comes the blind Fury * with the abhorred shears, 
 And sHts the thin-spun life. " But not the praise," 
 Phoebus ^ replied, and touched my trembling ears : 
 " Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies,^ 80 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
 And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed. 
 Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." 
 
 O fountain Arethuse,'^ and thou honored flood, 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius,^ crowned with vocal reeds. 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood. 
 
 1 Are accustomed to do. 
 
 2 Amaryllis and Nesera are names of shepherdesses in the Greek and Latin 
 pastorals. 
 
 3 Noble ; pure. 
 
 * It was one of the Fates, Atropos, and not a Fury, that was said to cut 
 the threads of life. In speaking of her as blind, the poet means to imply 
 that she knows no distinction. See Thumann's picture of the three Fates in 
 Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome. 
 
 5 Apollo is here referred to as the god of song. 
 
 6 " Fame is no plant," etc., i.e., fame is not a product merely of this life, 
 nor does it consist in the superficial glitter which delights the world, nor in 
 the widespread notoriety which some men attain. 
 
 "^ A fountain near Syracuse, sacred to the nymph Arethusa ; here men- 
 tioned in allusion to the Sicilian poet, Theocritus, who was born there. 
 
 8 A river in northern Ital)^, famous as flowing past the birthplace of Virgil. 
 
70 MILTON. 
 
 But now my oat ^ proceeds, 
 
 Ai^d listens to the Herald of the Sea,^ 
 
 That came in Neptune's plea, 90 
 
 He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 
 
 What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? 
 
 And questioned every gust of rugged wings 
 
 That blows from off each beaked promontory. 
 
 They knew not of his story ; 
 
 And sage Hippotades ^ their answer brings, 
 
 That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed : 
 
 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
 
 Sleek Panope * with all her sisters played. 
 
 It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 
 
 Built in the eclipse,^ and rigged with curses dark, 
 
 That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 
 
 Next, Camus, ^ reverend sire, went footing slow, 
 His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge,"^ 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe.^ 
 ** Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge? " 
 
 1 My pastoral muse. See note on line t^t^ above. 
 
 2 Triton, son of Neptune, comes forward in the name of his father to 
 make a judicial inquiry concerning the cause of the shipwreck in which 
 Lycidas had perished. 
 
 3 vEolus, king of the winds and son of Hippotes. 
 
 * A sea nymph, one of the daughters of Nereus. See note on Nereus, 
 Comus, line 835. 
 
 5 It was a very common superstition that eclipses brought misfortune upon 
 all undertakings that were begun or completed during their appearance. 
 
 6 The genius of the river Cam, and of Cambridge University. 
 
 "^ " The ' mantle hairy' is the hairy river weed that is found floating on 
 the Cam ; and the ' bonnet ' is the sedge that grows in the river and along its 
 edge." (Bell.) 
 
 8 •' Sanguine flower," etc., referring to the hyacinth. Hyacinthus was a 
 youth beloved by Apollo, and accidentally slain by him while playing at quoits. 
 From his blood sprang the flower which bears his name, on the leaves of 
 which are certain marks said to resemble the Greek word AI (" alas!"). 
 
LYCIDAS. 71 
 
 Last came, and last did go, 
 
 The Pilot 1 of the Galilean Lake ; 
 
 Two massy keys he bore of metals twain 110 
 
 (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 
 
 He shook his mitered locks,^ and stern bespake : — 
 
 " How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,^ 
 
 Enow of such as,'* for their belhes' sake, 
 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make 
 
 Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, 
 
 And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 
 
 Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold 
 
 A sheephook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 
 
 That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! 
 
 What recks it them ? ^ What need they ? They are sped ;^ 
 
 And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
 
 Grate on their scrannel '^ pipes of wretched straw ; 
 
 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. 
 
 But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
 
 Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ; 
 
 Besides what the grim wolf ^ with privy paw 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 130 
 
 1 St. Peter. In Christian art he is always represented with two keys in 
 his hands ; the one to open the gates of heaven, the other, to close them by 
 force. See Comus, line 13. 
 
 2 " Mitered locks," i.e., his head crowned with a bishop's headdress, or 
 miter. 
 
 3 " For thee, young swain." Edward King had been educated for the 
 Church, and was about to be ordained. 
 
 4 " Enow of such," etc. From here to the end of line 131, reference is 
 made to Archbishop Laud and the debased character of the clergy during his 
 administration. Laud had now been archbishop for five years. 
 
 5 " What recks it them? " i.e., what do they care? 
 ^ Provided for. "^ Meager ; thin. 
 
 ^ Milton probably refers here to the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
72 MILTON. 
 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." ^ 
 
 Return, Alpheus;^ the dread voice is past 
 That shrunk thy streams ; return, Sicihan Muse,^ 
 And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
 Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 
 Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
 Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, 
 On whose fresh lap the swart star * sparely looks. 
 Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes, 
 That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 
 And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 
 Bring the rathe ^ primrose that forsaken dies. 
 The tufted crowtoe, and pale jessamine. 
 The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
 The glowing violet. 
 
 The musk rose, and the well-attired woodbine. 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
 And every flower that sad embroidery wears ; 
 Bid amaranthus all his ^ beauty shed, 
 And daffadillies "^ fill their cups with tears, 150 
 
 To strew the laureate hearse ^ where Lycid lies. " ^ 
 
 For so, to interpose a little ease, 
 
 1 " But that two-handed engine," etc., i.e., but the instrument of retribu- 
 tion is ready, and will soon bring swift and complete punishment upon the 
 corrupted clergy. See the latter part of the argument, or note, immediately 
 following the title to this poem. 
 
 2 The river god who was the lover of Arethusa, and made one with her in 
 the fountain near Syracuse ; hence, like her, symbolizing pastoral poetry. 
 
 3 The Muse of pastoral poetry. 
 
 4 Sirius, the Dog Star ; called swart, or swarthy, on account of its sup- 
 posed influence upon vegetation, being in the ascendency during the hottest 
 months of the year. 
 
 5 Early. 6 Jts. See note on Comus, line 248. 
 
 "^ DaflFodils ; meaning the same as asphodels, from the Greek name of a 
 flower of the lily family. 
 
 8 " Laureate hearse," i.e., poet's tomb. See Note i, p. 66. 
 
LYCIDAS.^ 73 
 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise, 
 
 Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
 
 Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled ; 
 
 Whether beyond the stoYmy Hebrides, 
 
 Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 
 
 Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world ; 
 
 Or whether thou, to our moist vows ^ denied, 
 
 Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus^ old, r6o 
 
 Where the great Vision ^ of the guarded mount 
 
 Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold.* 
 
 Look homeward, Angel,^ now, and melt with ruth : 
 
 And, O ye dolphins,*^ waft the hapless youth. 
 
 Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 
 For L3^cidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
 So sinks the day-star ^ in the ocean bed. 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head. 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore^ 170 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 
 So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
 Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,^ 
 Where, other groves and other streams along, 
 
 1 " Moist vows," i.e., tearful prayers. 
 
 2 "Fable of Bellerus," i.e., fabled Bellerus. Bellerus is the name of, a 
 Cornish giant, so called from Bellerium, the ancient name of Land's End, 
 Cornwall. 
 
 3 The vision of St. Michael, on St. Michael's Mount, near Land's End. 
 The mountain is spoken of as " guarded," in allusion to the legend of the 
 archangel's appearance on one of its crags. 
 
 * Namancos and Bayona were near Cape Finisterre in Spain, and in the 
 direct line of vision southwestward from Land's End. 
 
 5 St. Michael. 
 
 6 The allusion is to the story of the musician Arion, who, having thrown 
 himself into the sea to escape from pirates, was taken up by dolphins, and 
 carried on their backs safe to land. 
 
 ^ The sun. 8 Gold. 9 See Matt. xiv. 25. 
 
74 MILTON. 
 
 Wit?i nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 
 
 And hears the unexpressive ^ nuptial song,^ 
 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 
 There entertain him all the Saints above, 
 
 In solemn troops, and sweet societies, 
 
 That sing, and singing in their glory move, i8o 
 
 And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.^ 
 
 Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 
 
 Henceforth thou art the Genius * of the shore. 
 
 In thy large recompense,^ and shalt be good 
 
 To all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
 Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills. 
 While the still morn went out with sandals gray : 
 He touched the tender stops of various quills. 
 With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:^ 
 And now the sun had stretched out" all the hills, 190 
 And now was dropt into the M^estern bay. 
 At last he rose, and twitched ^ his mantle blue : 
 To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 
 
 1 Inexpressible. 
 
 2 " Nuptial song," i.e., marriage hymn. See Rev. xix. 6, 7, 9. 
 
 3 See Isaiah xxv. 8, and Rev. vii. 17. * Guardian spirit. 
 
 5 " In thy large recompense," i.e., as a great recompense to thee. 
 
 6 The ancient pastoral poets wrote in the Doric dialect. A " Doric lay," 
 therefore, is a pastoral poem or song. 
 
 "*■ " Stretched out," i.e., lengthened the shadows of. 
 s Drew closely about him. 
 
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