- 104- 
 
 OHARINQX 
 
 KO2
 
 UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 R

 
 MILTON'S 
 ARCADES AND COMUS.
 
 ILonUon: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
 
 AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 BRIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 
 F. A. BROCKHAUS. 
 Iforfc: MACMILLAN AND CO.
 
 f itt fr*ss mes 
 
 W777/ INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND INDEXES 
 
 BY 
 
 A. WILSON VERITY, M.A. 
 
 SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 EDITED 
 FOR THE SYNDICS OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 1891 
 
 [All Rights reserved.}
 
 CambriUgt 
 
 PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY M.A. AND SONS 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ^ I "*HE text of the poems included in this volume is 
 J- substantially that of Professor Masson's "Globe" 
 edition of Milton's Poetical Works, 1877. I have to thank 
 Messrs Macmillan and Co. for their courtesy in allowing 
 me to use this text. In common with all recent editors of 
 Milton I am under great obligations to Professor Masson. 
 School-editions of Comus and Arcades I have avoided using. 
 As some attention is paid in the notes to points of 
 etymology, I may say that the authors from whom most of 
 the information has been taken are Professor Skeat, Professor 
 Earle, Dr Morris, and, for French words, Brachet. The 
 New English Dictionary, too, has been consulted often. 
 I have endeavoured to reproduce with correctness the views 
 of the writers mentioned ; and it need scarcely be added 
 that responsibility for any errors that may be noticed rests 
 with me. 
 
 v. b
 
 vl PREFACE. 
 
 In editing Comus and Arcades I have tried to illustrate 
 the fact that each especially Counts was written with a 
 view to actual representation. Remarks therefore have 
 been made in the notes upon the probable details of the 
 performance of either piece; and with the same object a 
 sketch (necessarily brief) of the history of the Masque has 
 been given in the Introduction. Mr Fleay's great work, the 
 Chronicle History of the stage, contains the facts that bear 
 on the development of the Masque, and Mr Symonds in 
 his Shakspere's Predecessors furnishes exactly the criticism 
 that we want, and from him should expect. To each I 
 owe a considerable debt. 
 
 Mr Leonard Whibley, of Pembroke College, kindly read 
 through the proof-sheets of the Introduction^ offering much 
 friendly and valuable criticism. 
 
 A. W. VERITY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ix Ixxvi 
 
 (Life of Milton : Introductory Notice of the two 
 poems : Sketch of the English Masque.) 
 
 ARCADES 1 g 
 
 COMUS 7 _ 4 6 
 
 NOTES 47-199 
 
 INDEXES 200208
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. 
 
 MILTON'S life falls into three clearly defined divisions. The 
 first period ends with the poet's return from Italy . 
 
 * The three 
 
 in 1639 ; the second at the Restoration in 1660, periods in MU- 
 when release from the fetters of politics enabled 
 him to remind the world that he was a great poet, if not a great 
 controversialist ; the third is brought to a close with his death 
 in 1674. The poems given in the present volume date from the 
 first of these periods ; but it has been judged convenient that 
 we should summarise briefly the main events of all three. 
 
 John Milton was born on December 9, 1608, in London. He 
 came, in his own words, ex genere honesto. A BorH\(K&;the 
 family of Miltons had been settled in Oxfordshire P efs f ath ' r - 
 since the reign of Elizabeth. The poet's father had been 
 educated at an Oxford school, possibly as a chorister in one of 
 the College choir-schools, and imbibing Anglican sympathies 
 had conformed to the Established Church. For this he was 
 disinherited by his father. He settled in London, following the 
 profession of scrivener. A scrivener combined the occupations 
 of lawyer and law-stationer. It appears to have been a lucrative 
 calling ; certainly John Milton (the poet was named after the 
 father) attained to easy circumstances. He married about 
 1600, and had six children, of whom several died young. The 
 third child was the poet. 
 
 The elder Milton was evidently a man of considerable 
 culture, in particular an accomplished musician, and a com-
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 poser whose madrigals were deemed worthy of being printed 
 side by side with those of Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and other 
 leading musicians of the time. To him 1 , no doubt, the poet 
 owed the love of music of which we see frequent indications in 
 the poems. Realising, too, that in his son lay the promise 
 and possibility of future greatness, John Milton took the 
 utmost pains to have the boy adequately educated ; and the 
 lines Ad Patrem show that the ties of affection between father 
 and child were of more than ordinary closeness. 
 
 Milton was sent to St Paul's School as a day scholar about 
 Early train- tne y ear 1620. He also had a tutor, Thomas 
 Young, a Scotchman, who subsequently became 
 Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. More important still, 
 Milton grew up in the stimulating atmosphere of cultured 
 home-life. This was a signal advantage. Most men do not 
 realise that the word ' culture ' signifies anything very definite 
 or desirable before they pass to the University, but for Milton 
 home-life meant from the first broad interests, refinement and 
 the easy, material prosperity under which the literary habit is 
 best developed. In 1625 he left St Paul's. He was not a 
 precocious genius, a 'boy poet,' of the type represented by 
 Chatterton and Shelley. He had not even produced school- 
 exercises of unusual merit. He had, however, done something 
 of infinitely superior import : he had laid the foundation of 
 that far-ranging knowledge which makes Paradise Lost unique 
 for sweep of suggestion, diversity of association, and com- 
 plexity of interests. 
 
 Milton entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, commencing 
 residence in the Easter term of 1625. Seven years 
 
 At Cambridge. . 
 
 were spent at the University. He took his B.A. 
 degree in 1629, proceeded M.A. in 1632, and in the latter year 
 
 1 Milton was especially fond of the organ (see // Pen. 161, P. L. i. 
 708 709, and xi. 560 563), and Aubrey says that the poet's skill on 
 that instrument was imparted by his father. During his residence at 
 Horton Milton made occasional journeys to London to hear, and 
 obtain instruction in, music.
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. xi 
 
 left Cambridge. His experience of University life had not 
 been wholly fortunate. He was, and felt himself to be, out of 
 sympathy with his surroundings ; and whenever in after-years 
 he spoke of Cambridge 1 it was with something of the grave 
 impietas of Gibbon who, unsoftened even by memories of 
 Magdalen, complained that the fourteen months spent at 
 Oxford were the least profitable part of his life. Milton, in 
 fact, anticipates the laments that we find in the correspond- 
 ence of Gray, addressed sometimes to Richard West and 
 reverberated from the banks of the I sis. It may however be 
 fairly assumed that, whether consciously or not, Milton owed 
 a good deal to his University ; and it must not be for- 
 gotten that the uncomplimentary and oft-quoted allusions to 
 Cambridge date for the most part from the unhappy period 
 when Milton the politician and polemical dogmatist had 
 effectually divorced himself at once from Milton the scholar 
 and Milton the poet. A poet he had proved himself before 
 leaving the University. The short but exquisite ode At a 
 Solemn Music, and the Nativity Hymn"* 1 (1629), were already 
 written. 
 
 1 That Milton's feeling towards the authorities of his own college 
 was not entirely unfriendly would appear from the following sentences 
 written in 1641. He takes, he says, the opportunity to "acknowledge 
 publicly, with all grateful mind, that more than ordinary respect which 
 I found, above many of my equals, at the hands of those courteous and 
 learned men, the Fellows of that college wherein I spent some years ; 
 who, at my parting after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, 
 signified many ways how much better it would content them that I 
 would stay ; as by many letters full of kindness and loving respect, 
 both before that time and long after, I was assured of their singular 
 good affection towards me." Perhaps it would have been better for 
 Milton had he been sent to Emmanuel College, long a stronghold of 
 Puritanism. Dr John Preston, the Master of the college at that time, 
 was a noted leader of the Puritan party ; see his Life by Thomas Ball, 
 published in 1885. 
 
 2 Cf. the interesting reference to this ode (which Hallam considered 
 " perhaps the finest in the English language ") at the end of Milton's 
 sixth Elegy > 79 90.
 
 xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Milton's father had settled 1 at Horton in Buckinghamshire. 
 The five years Thither the son retired in 1632. He had gone to 
 i^r^ 6 //L- Cambridge with the intention of qualifying for 
 ton. some profession, perhaps the Church 2 . This 
 
 purpose was soon given up, and when Milton returned to his 
 father's house he seems to have made up his mind that there 
 was no profession which he cared to enter. He would 
 choose the better part of studying and preparing himself, by- 
 rigorous self-discipline and application, for the far-off divine 
 event to which his whole life moved. 
 
 It was Milton's constant resolve to achieve something that 
 The key to should vindicate the ways of God to men, some- 
 Miitonslife. thing great 3 that should justify his own possession 
 of unique powers powers of which, with no trace of egotism, 
 he proclaims himself proudly conscious. The feeling finds 
 repeated expression in his prose ; it is the guiding-star that 
 shines clear and steadfast even through the mists of politics. 
 
 1 As tenant of the Earl of Bridgewater, according to one account ; 
 but probably the tradition arose from Milton's subsequent connection 
 with the Bridgewater family. 
 
 8 Cf. Milton's own words, "The Church, to whose service by the 
 intention of my parents and friends I was destined of a child, and 
 in my own resolutions." What kept him from taking orders was 
 not, at first, any difference of belief, but solely his objection to Church 
 discipline and government. " Coming to some maturity of years, and 
 perceiving what tyranny had invaded in the church, that he who would 
 
 take orders must subscribe slave (I) thought it better to prefer a 
 
 blameless silence before the sacred office of speaking, bought and begun 
 with servitude and forswearing." Milton disliked in particular the 
 episcopal system, and spoke of himself as " Church-outed by the 
 prelates." 
 
 8 Cf. the second sonnet ; " How soon hath Time." Ten years later 
 (1641) Milton speaks of the "inward prompting which grows daily 
 upon me, that by labour and intent study, which I take to be my 
 portion in this life, joined with the strong propensity of nature, 
 I might perhaps leave something so written to after times, as they 
 should not willingly let it die."
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. xiii 
 
 He has a mission to fulfil, a purpose to accomplish, no less 
 than the most fanatic of religious enthusiasts ; and the means 
 whereby this end is to be attained are fourfold : devotion to 
 learning, devotion to religion, ascetic purity of life, and the 
 pursuit of a-irovdaiorrjs or " excellent seriousness " of thought. 
 This period of self-centred isolation lasted from 1632 to 1637. 
 Gibbon tells us among the many wise things contained in that 
 most wise book the Autobiography that every man has two 
 educations, that which he receives from his teachers and that 
 which he owes to himself; the latter being infinitely the more 
 important. During these five years Milton completed his 
 second education; ranging the whole world of classical anti- 
 quity and absorbing the classical genius so thoroughly that 
 the ancients were to him what they afterwards became to 
 Landor, what they have never become to any other English 
 poet in the same degree, even as the very breath of his being; 
 learning, too, all of art, especially music, that contemporary 
 England could furnish ; wresting from modern languages and 
 literatures their last secrets ; and combining these vast and 
 diverse influences into a splendid equipment of hard-won, 
 well-ordered culture. The world has known many greater 
 scholars in the technical, limited sense than Milton, but few 
 men, if any, who have mastered more things worth mastering 
 in art, letters and scholarship 1 . It says much for the poet that 
 he was sustained through this period of study, pursued ohne 
 Hast, ohne Rast, by the full consciousness that all would be 
 crowned by a masterpiece which should add one more testi- 
 mony to the belief in that God who ordains the fates of men. 
 It says also a very great deal for the father who suffered his 
 son to follow in this manner the path of learning 2 . 
 
 1 Milton's poems with their undercurrent of perpetual allusion are 
 the best proof of the width of his reading ; but interesting supplementary 
 evidence is afforded by the commonplace book discovered in 1874, and 
 printed by the Camden Society, 1876. It contains extracts from about 
 80 different authors whose works Milton had studied. 
 
 2 Cf. the poem Ad Patrem, 68 72, in which Milton thanks his 
 father for not having forced him to be a merchant or lawyer. 
 
 V. C
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 True, Milton gave more than one earnest of his future 
 Milton's lyric fame. The dates of the early pieces L Allegro, II 
 ^tianL'conte^t'- Penseroso, Arcades, Comus and Lycidas are not 
 porary ufe. a u certain ; but probably each was composed 
 at Horton before 1638. We must speak of them elsewhere. 
 Here we may note that four of them have great autobiographic 
 value as an indirect commentary, written from Milton's coign 
 of seclusion, upon the moral crisis through which English life 
 and thought were passing, the clash between the careless 
 hedonism of the Cavalier world and the deepening austerity 
 of Puritanism. In U Allegro the poet holds the balance 
 almost equal between the two opposing tendencies. In // 
 Penseroso it becomes clear to which side his sympathies are 
 leaning. Comus makes his position still more definite, and in 
 Lycidas he sounds forth a Cassandra-cry of warning against the 
 folly of his generation. About Lycidas there rests a certain 
 pathos, in that it is the final utterance of Milton's lyric genius. 
 Here he reaches, in Mr Mark Pattison's words, the high-water 
 mark of English verse ; and then the pity of it he resigns 
 that place among the lyrici vales of which the Roman singer 
 was ambitious, and for nearly twenty years suffers his lyre to 
 hang mute and rusty in the temple of the Muses. 
 
 The composition of Lycidas may be assigned to the year 
 Travels in J 637. In the spring of that year Milton started 
 
 "te&stpcriod for Italv> He had Ion 8 made himself a master of 
 in his ufe. Italian, and it was natural that he should seek 
 inspiration in the land where many English poets, from 
 Chaucer to Shelley, have found it. Milton remained abroad 
 some fifteen months. Originally he had intended to include 
 Sicily and Greece in his travels, but news of the troubles in 
 England hastened his return. He was brought face to face 
 , with the question whether or not he should bear 
 
 Cause of fits * 
 
 retum to Eng- his part in the coming struggle; whether without 
 self-reproach he could lead any longer this life of 
 learning and indifference to the public weal. He decided as we 
 might have expected that he would decide, though some good 
 critics see cause to regret the decision. Milton puts his
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. XV 
 
 position very clearly. "I considered it," he says "dishonour- 
 able to be enjoying myself at my ease in foreign lands, while 
 my countrymen were striking a blow for freedom." And again : 
 " Perceiving that the true way to liberty followed on from these 
 beginnings, inasmuch also as I had so prepared myself from 
 my youth that, above all things, I could not be ignorant what 
 is of Divine and what of human right, I resolved, though I 
 was then meditating certain other matters, to transfer into this 
 struggle all my genius and all the strength of my industry." 
 
 The summer of 1639 (July) found Milton back in England. 
 Immediately after his return he wrote the Epita- , r , , 
 
 1 he second 
 
 phium Damonis. the beautiful elegy in which he period, 1639 
 
 , , . . . , . , ... , . 1660. Milton 
 
 lamented the death of his school friend, Diodati. abandons poe- 
 Lycidas was the last of the English lyrics : the try ' 
 Epitaphium, which should be studied in close connection with 
 Lycidas, the last of the long Latin poems. Thenceforth, for a 
 long spell, the rest was silence, so far as concerned poetry. The 
 period which for all men represents the strength and maturity 
 of manhood, which in the cases of other poets produces the best 
 and most characteristic work, is with Milton a blank. In twenty 
 years he composed no more than a bare handful of Sonnets, 
 and even some of these are infected by the taint of political 
 animus. Other interests filled his thoughts the question of 
 Church-reform, education, marriage, and, above all, politics. 
 
 Milton's first treatise upon the government of the Established 
 Church (Of Reformation touching Chttrch-Disci- pamphlets on 
 pline in England) appeared in 1641. Others t a t ^ a % k a ^ 1 . 
 followed in quick succession. The abolition of *> 
 Episcopacy was the watch-word of the enemies of the Anglican 
 Church the delenda est Carthago cry of Puritanism, and no one 
 enforced the point with greater eloquence than Milton. During 
 1641 and 1642 he wrote five pamphlets on the subject. Mean- 
 while he was studying the principles of education. On his 
 return from Italy he had undertaken the training of his nephews 1 . 
 
 1 Edward and John Phillips, sons of Milton's only sister. Both 
 subsequently joined the Royalist party. To Edward Phillips we owe a 
 memoir of the poet. 
 
 C 2
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This led to consideration of the best educational methods ; and 
 
 in the Tractate of Education, 1644, Milton assumed the part of 
 
 educational theorist. In the previous year, May, 
 
 1643, he married 1 . The marriage proved, at the 
 
 time, unfortunate. Its immediate outcome was the pamphlets 
 
 on Divorce. Clearly he had little leisure for literature proper. 
 
 The finest of Milton's prose works, the Areopagitica, a plea 
 
 for the free expression of opinion, was published in 
 
 Political Tarn- r 
 
 Ap- 1644. In 1645 2 he edited the first collection of his 
 
 pointment to - . . . , . . .. 
 
 Latin Secre- poems. In 1649 his advocacy of the anti-royalist 
 
 cause was recognised by the offer of a post under 
 
 the newly appointed Council of State. His vindication of the 
 
 execution of Charles I., The Tenure of Kings, had appeared 
 
 1 His wife (who was only seventeen) was Mary Powell, eldest 
 daughter of Richard Powell, of Forest Hill, a village some little 
 distance from Oxford. She went to stay with her father in July 
 1643, an( l refused to return to Milton ; why, it is not certain. She 
 was reconciled to her husband in 1645, bore him four children, and 
 died in 1652, in her twenty-seventh year. It may be conjectured 
 that the scene in P. L. x. 909 946, in which Eve begs forgiveness 
 of Adam, reproduced the poet's personal experience. 
 
 2 i.e. old style. The volume was entered on the registers of the 
 Stationers' Company under the date of October 6th, 1645. It was 
 published on Jan. i, 1645 6, with the following title-page : 
 
 "Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, composed at 
 several times. Printed by his true Copies. The Songs -were set in Mustek 
 by Mr. Henry Lawes, gentleman of the King's Chappel, and one of His 
 Majesties private Mustek. 
 
 ' - Baccare frontem 
 Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua future.' 
 
 VIRGIL, Edog. -,. 
 
 Printed and published according to Order. London, Printed by Ruth 
 Kaworth, for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at the signe of the 
 Princes Arms in Pauls Churchyard. 1645." 
 
 From the prefatory Address to the Reader it is clear that the collec- 
 tion was due to the initiative of the publisher. Milton's own feeling is 
 expressed by the motto, where the words " vati future " show that, as
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. xvii 
 
 earlier in the same year. Milton accepted the offer, becoming 
 Latin 1 Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs. There 
 was nothing distasteful about his duties. He drew up the 
 despatches to foreign governments, translated state : papers, and 
 served as interpreter to foreign envoys. Had his duties stopped 
 here his acceptance of the post would, I think, have proved 
 an unqualified gain. It brought him into contact with the first 
 men in the state 2 , gave him a practical insight Theadvantage 
 into the working of national affairs and the motives f the post. 
 of human action ; in a word, furnished him with that experience 
 of life which is essential to all poets who aspire to be something 
 more than "the idle singers of an empty day." But unfortu- 
 nately the secretaryship entailed the necessity of Its disadva.,,- 
 defending at every turn the past course of the tagf - 
 revolution and the present policy of the Council. Milton, in 
 fact, held a perpetual brief as advocate for his party. Hence 
 the endless and unedifying controversies into which he drifted ; 
 controversies which wasted the most precious years of his life, 
 warped, as some critics think, his nature, and eventually cost 
 him his eyesight. 
 
 Between 1649 an d J 66o Milton produced no less than eleven 
 pamphlets. Several of these arose out of the pub- Milton's writ- 
 lication of the famous Eikon Basilike. The book f j * 
 was printed in 1649 and created so extraordinary a monwealth. 
 
 he judged, his great achievement was yet to come. The volume was 
 divided into two parts, the first containing the English, the second the 
 Latin poems. Comus was printed at the close of the former, "with a 
 separate title-page to mark its importance. See introduction to Comus. 
 
 1 A Latin Secretary was required because the Council scorned, as 
 Edward Phillips says, "to carry on their affairs in the wheedling, 
 lisping jargon of the cringing French." Milton's salary was ^288, in 
 modern money about ^900. 
 
 2 There is no proof that Milton ever had personal intercourse with 
 Cromwell, and Mr Mark Pattison implies that he was altogether 
 neglected by the foremost men of the time. Yet it seems unlikely 
 that the Secretary of the Committee should not have been on friendly 
 terms with some of its members, Vane, for example, and Whitelocke.
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sensation that Milton was asked to reply to it. This he did 
 with Eikonoklastes, introducing the wholly unworthy sneer at 
 Sidney's Arcadia and the awkwardly expressed reference to 
 Shakespeare 1 . Controversy of this barren type has the in- 
 herent disadvantage that once started it may never end. The 
 Royalists commissioned the Leyden professor, Salmasius, to 
 prepare a counterblast, the Defensio Regia, and this in turn 
 was met by Milton's Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, 1651, 
 over the preparation of which he lost what little 
 
 His blindness. * i 
 
 power of eyesight remained . Salmasius retorted, 
 and died before his second farrago of scurrilities was issued: 
 Milton was bound to answer, and the Defensio Secunda 
 appeared in 1654. Neither of the combatants gained any- 
 thing by the dispute ; while the subsequent development of the 
 controversy in which Milton crushed the Amsterdam pastor 
 
 1 It would have been more to the point to remind his readers that 
 the imprisoned king must have spent a good many hours over La 
 Calprenede's Cassandre. 
 
 2 Perhaps this was the saddest part of the episode. Milton tells us 
 in the Defensio Secunda that his eyesight was injured by excessive study 
 in boyhood: "from the twelfth year of my age I scarce ever left my 
 lessons and went to bed before midnight. This was the first cause of 
 my blindness." Continual reading and writing must have increased 
 the infirmity, and by 1650 the sight of the left eye had gone. He was 
 warned that he must not use the other for book-work. Unfortunately 
 this was just the time when the Commonwealth stood most in need of 
 his services. If Milton had not written the first Defence he might have 
 retained his partial vision. The choice lay between private good and 
 public duty. He repeated in 1650 the sacrifice of 1639. "^ n suc h a 
 case I could not listen to the physician, not if .rEsculapius himself had 
 spoken from his sanctuary; I could not but obey that inward monitor, 
 
 I know not what, that spoke to me from heaven I concluded to 
 
 employ the little remaining eyesight I was to enjoy in doing this, 
 the greatest service to the common weal it was in my power to render " 
 (Second Defence). By the Spring of 1652 Milton was quite blind. He 
 was then in his forty-fourth year. The reference in P. L. in. 21 26, 
 leaves it doubtful from what disease he suffered, whether cataract or 
 amaurosis.
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. xix 
 
 and professor, Morus, goes far to prove the contention of 
 Mr Mark Pattison, that it was an evil day when the poet left 
 his study at Horton to do battle for the Commonwealth amid 
 the vulgar brawls of the market-place. 
 
 "Not here, O Apollo, 
 Were haunts meet for thee. " 
 
 Fortunately this poetic interregnum in Milton's life was 
 not destined to last much longer. The Restoration Thg Restora , 
 came, a blessing in disguise, and in 1660 the ruin #* releases 
 
 , '.,. , ,... . , ,. , . , Milton from 
 
 of Milton s political party and of his personal politics. Re- 
 hopes, the absolute overthrow of the cause for iur>lt f eir y- 
 which he had fought for twenty years, left him free. The 
 author of Lycidas could once more become a poet 1 . 
 
 Much has been written upon this second period, 1639 1660, 
 and a word may be said here. We saw what should Milton 
 parting of the ways confronted Milton on his jSSjJffiS 
 return from Italy. Did he choose aright? Should i'/ e - 
 he have continued upon the path of learned leisure? There 
 are writers who argue that Milton made a mistake. One reply to 
 A poet, they say, should keep clear of political #?*'' 
 strife : fierce controversy can benefit no man : who touches 
 pitch must expect to be, certainly will be, defiled : Milton 
 sacrificed twenty of the best years of his life, doing work which 
 an underling could have done and which was not worth doing : 
 another Comus might have been written, a loftier Lycidas: that 
 literature should be the poorer by the absence of these possible 
 masterpieces, that the second greatest genius which England 
 has produced should in a way be the "inheritor of unfulfilled 
 renown," is and must be a thing entirely and terribly deplorable. 
 This is the view of the purely literary critic. Mr Mark Pattison 
 writes very much to this effect. 
 
 1 We have not attempted to trace the growth of Milton's political 
 and religious opinions: "Through all these stages," Mr Mark Pattison 
 writes, "Milton passed in the space of twenty years Church-Puritan, 
 Presbyterian, Royalist, Independent, Commonwealth's man, Oliverian." 
 To illustrate this statement would need many pages.
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There remains the other side of the question. It may fairly 
 Ttie opposite be contended that had Milton elected in 1639 to 
 
 live the scholars life apart from "the action of 
 men," Paradise Lost, as we have it, could never have been 
 written. Knowledge of life and human nature, insight into the 
 problems of men's motives and emotions, grasp of the broader 
 issues of the human tragedy, all these were essential to the 
 author of an epic poem ; they could only be obtained through 
 commerce with the world ; they would have remained beyond 
 the reach of a recluse. Dryden complained that Milton saw 
 nature through the spectacles of books : we might have had to 
 complain that he saw men through the same medium. For- 
 tunately it is not so : and it is not so because at the age of 
 twenty-two he threw in his fortunes with those of his country ; 
 like the diver in Schiller's ballad he took the plunge which was 
 to cost him so dear. The mere man of letters will never move 
 the world. ^Cschylus fought at Marathon : Shakespeare was 
 practical to the tips of his fingers ; a better business man than 
 Goethe there was not within a radius of a hundred miles of 
 Weimar. 
 
 This aspect of the question is emphasised by Milton himself. 
 Milton's own The man he says, " who would not be frustrate of 
 
 his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, 
 ought himself to be a true poem, that is, a composition and 
 pattern of the best and honourablest things, not 1 presuming to 
 sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he have 
 within himself the experience and the practice of all that which 
 is praiseworthy? Again, in estimating the qualifications which 
 the writer of an epic such as he contemplated should possess, 
 he is careful to include "insight into all seemly and generous 
 arts and affairs? 
 
 Truth usually lies half-way between extremes : perhaps it 
 How politics does so here. No doubt, Milton did gain very 
 j*mSZr * greatly by breathing awhile the larger air of public 
 
 life, even though that air was often tainted by 
 
 1 The italics are not Milton's.
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. XXI 
 
 miasmatic impurities. No doubt, too, twenty years of eristic 
 unrest must have left their mark even on Milton. In one of 
 the very few places 1 where he "abides our question," Shake- 
 speare writes : 
 
 ! for my sake do you with Fortune chide, 
 The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, 
 That did not better for my life provide, 
 
 Than public means, which public manners breeds': 
 Thence comes it that my name receives a brand ; 
 And almost thence my nature is subdu'd 
 To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. 
 
 Milton's genius was subdued in this way. If we compare 
 him, the Milton of the great epics and of Samson Agontstes, 
 with Homer or Shakespeare and none but the greatest can 
 be his parallel we find in him a certain want of humanity, 
 a touch of narrowness. He lacks the large-heartedness, the 
 genial, generous breadth of Shakespeare ; the sympathy and 
 sense of the lacrima rerum that even in Troihis and Cressida or 
 Tijtion of Athens are there for those who have eyes wherewith 
 to see them. Milton reflects many of the less gracious aspects 
 of Puritanism, its intolerance, want of humour, one-sided inten- 
 sity. He is stern, unbending, austere, and it seems natural to 
 assume that this narrowness was to a great extent the price he 
 paid for two decades of ceaseless special pleading and dispute. 
 The real misfortune of his life lay in the fact that he fell on evil, 
 angry days when there was no place for moderate men. He 
 had to be one of two things : either a controversialist or a 
 student : there was no -via media. Probably he chose aright ; 
 but we could wish that the conditions under which he chose 
 had been different. 
 
 The last part of Milton's life, 1660 1674, passed quietly. 
 At the age of fifty-two he was thrown back upon 
 
 ,j , . ,. , T_. , f From the Re- 
 
 poetry, and could at length discharge his self- storation to 
 
 1 , T . mi i i_ i_ j Milton's death. 
 
 imposed obligation. The early poems he had 
 
 never regarded as a fulfilment of the debt due to his Creator ; 
 
 1 Sonnet cxi.
 
 XXli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 even when the fire of political strife burned at its hottest 
 Milton never lost sight of the purpose which had been with 
 him since his boyhood. The main difficulty lay in the selection 
 His great of a suitable subject. He wavered between themes 
 or . k; t i u . sub l drawn from the Scriptures and others taken from 
 
 ject and treat- 
 ment, the history of his own country. For a time he was 
 
 evidently inclined to choose the Arthurian story 1 , the only cycle 
 of events in British history or legend which seems to lend itself 
 naturally to epic treatment. Had he done so we should have 
 lost the Idylls of the King. The rough drafts of his projected 
 schemes, now among the Milton MSS. 2 at Trinity College, 
 shew that exactly ninety-nine possible themes occupied his 
 thoughts from time to time; but even as early as 1641 the 
 story of the lost Paradise began to assume prominence. Still, 
 even when the subject was definitively chosen, the question of its 
 treatment dramatic or epic remained. Milton contemplated 
 the former. He even commenced work upon a drama of which 
 Satan's address to the sun in the fourth book of Paradise Lost 3 
 formed the exordium. These lines were written about 1642. 
 Milton recited them to his nephew Phillips at the time of 
 their composition. Possibly had Milton not been distracted 
 and diverted from poetry by political and other interests he 
 might from 1642 onwards have continued this inchoate drama 
 
 1 This project is not mentioned among the schemes enumerated in 
 the Trinity MSS. Cf. however, the Epitaphium Damonis, 162 178, 
 and the poem Mansus, 80 84. See also the note on Comus, 826 841. 
 Among Milton's prose works was a History of Britain, written for the 
 most part about 1649, but not printed till 1670. In it he used the 
 materials collected for his abandoned epic on the story of King 
 Arthur. 
 
 ^ They include the original drafts of Arcades, Camus, Lycidas, and 
 some of the minor poems, together with Milton's notes on the design 
 of the long poem he meditated composing, and other less important 
 papers. The MSS. were presented to Trinity by a former member of 
 the college, Sir Henry Newton Puckering, who died in 1700. It is not 
 known how they originally came into his possession. 
 
 3 Bk. iv. //. 32 et seq.
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. xxiii 
 
 and thus produced a dramatic epic akin to Samson Agonistes. 
 As things fell out, the scheme was dropped, and never taken up 
 again. When he finally addressed himself to the composition 
 of Paradise Lost he had decided in favour of the epic or 
 narrative form. 
 
 Following Aubrey (from Aubrey and Phillips most of our 
 information concerning Milton is derived) we may p ara dise Lost 
 assume that Milton began to write Paradise Lost be s un - 
 about 1658. He worked continuously at the epic for some five 
 years. It was finished in 1663, the year of his third 1 marriage. 
 Two more years, however, were spent in the necessary revision, 
 and in 1665 Milton placed the completed poem in the hands 
 of his friend Thomas Ellwood 2 . In 1667 Paradise Lost was 
 issued from the press 3 . Milton received ,5. Be- rhepoempnb- 
 fore his death he was paid a second instalment, hslied - 
 ^5. Six editions of the poem had been published by the close 
 of the century. 
 
 When Ellwood returned the MS. of Paradise Lost to Milton 
 
 1 Milton's second marriage took place in the autumn of 1656, i.e. 
 after he had become blind. His wife died in February, 1658. Cf. the 
 Sonnet, "Methought I saw my late espoused saint," the pathos of which 
 is heightened by the fact that he had never seen her. 
 
 3 Cf. the account given in Ellwood's Autobiography: "after some 
 common discourses had passed between us, he called for a manuscript 
 of his; which, being brought, he delivered to me, bidding me take it 
 home with me and read it at my leisure, and, when I had so done, 
 return it to him with my judgment thereupon. When I came home, 
 and had set myself to read it, I found it was that excellent poem which 
 he intituled Paradise Lost." 
 
 3 The delay was due to external circumstances. Milton had been 
 forced by the plague to leave London, settling for a time at Chalfont St 
 Giles in Buckinghamshire, where Ellwood had taken a cottage for him. 
 On his return to London, after "the sickness was over, and the city 
 well cleansed," the Great Fire threw everything into disorder; and 
 there was some little difficulty over the licensing of the poem. For 
 these reasons the publication of Paradise Lost was delayed till the 
 autumn of 1667 (Masson).
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he remarked: "Thou hast said much here of Paradise Lost, 
 but what hast thou to say of Paradise found ? " 
 
 Paradise Re- 
 
 gaitud: Sam- Possibly we owe Paradise Regained to these 
 
 son Agonistes. . , , f . , 
 
 chance words ; or the poem, forming as it does a 
 natural pendant to its predecessor, may have been included 
 in Milton's original design. In any case he must have 
 commenced the second epic about the year 1665. Perhaps 
 he worked at the same time at Samson Agonistes. The two 
 poems were published together in 1671. 
 
 In giving this bare summary of facts it has not been our 
 purpose to offer any criticism upon the poems. It would take 
 too much space to show why Samson Agonistes is in subject- 
 matter the poet's threnody over the fallen form of Puritanism, 
 and in style the most perfectly classical poem in English 
 literature ; or again, why some great writers (among them 
 Coleridge and Wordsworth) have pronounced Paradise Re- 
 gained to be in point of artistic execution the most consum- 
 mate of Milton's works, a judgment which would have pleased 
 the author himself since, according to Phillips, he could never 
 endure to hear Paradise Regained " censured to be much inferior 
 to Paradise Lost." The latter speaks for itself in the rolling 
 splendour of those organ-sounds which Lord Tennyson has 
 celebrated and alone in his time equalled. 
 
 In 1673 Milton brought out a reprint of the 1645 edition of 
 Close of Mil- his Poems, adding most of the sonnets 1 written in 
 
 the interval. The last four years of his life were 
 
 1 The number of Milton's sonnets is twenty-three (if we exclude-the 
 piece on "The New Forcers of Conscience"), five of which were 
 written in Italian, probably during the time of his travels in Itcuy, 
 1638 9. Ten sonnets were printed in the edition of 1645, the last of 
 them being that entitled (from the Cambridge MS.) "To the Lady 
 Margaret Ley." The remaining thirteen were composed between 1645 
 and 1658. The concluding sonnet, therefore (to the memory of Milton's 
 second wife), immediately preceded his commencement of Paradise Lost. 
 Four of these poems, (xv. xvi. XVII. xxn.) could not, on account of 
 their political tone, be included in the edition of 1673. They were first 
 published by Edward Phillips at the end of his memoir of Milton, 1694.
 
 LIFE OF MILTON. XXV 
 
 devoted to prose works of no particular interest to us. He 
 continued to live in London. His third marriage had proved 
 happy, and he enjoyed something of the renown which was 
 rightly his. Various well-known men used to visit him 
 notably Dryden 1 , who on one of his visits asked and received 
 permission to dramatise Paradise Lost. It does not often 
 happen that a university can point to two such poets among 
 her living sons, each without rival in his generation. 
 
 Milton died in 1674, November 8th. He was buried in St 
 Giles' Church, Cripplegate. When we think of him 
 
 , xi_- i / i T i IT < His death. 
 
 we nave to think of a man who lived a life of very 
 singular purity and devotion to duty ; who for what he con- 
 ceived to be his country's good sacrificed and no one can 
 well estimate the sacrifice during twenty years the aim that 
 was nearest to his heart and best suited to his genius ; who, 
 however, eventually realised his desire of writing a great work 
 in gloriam Dei. 
 
 The sonnet on the "Massacre in Piedmont" is usually considered the 
 finest of the collection, of which the late Rector of Lincoln College 
 edited a well-known edition, 1883. The sonnet inscribed with a 
 diamond on a window pane in the cottage at Chalfont where the poet 
 stayed in 1665 is (in the judgment of a good critic) Miltonic, if not 
 Milton's (Garnett's Life of Milton, p. 175). 
 
 1 The lines by Dryden which were printed beneath the portrait of 
 Milton in Tonson's folio edition of Paradise Lost published in 1688 are 
 too familiar to need quotation ; but it is worth noting that the younger 
 poet had in Milton's lifetime described the great epic as "one of the 
 most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation 
 has produced " (prefatory essay to The State of Innocence, 1674). 
 Further, tradition assigned to Dryden (a Catholic and a Royalist) the 
 remark, "this fellow (Milton) cuts us all out and the ancients too."
 
 XXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ARCADES. 
 
 Arcades was first printed in the edition of his poems issued 
 Date of tiie by Milton in 1645. We have no direct means of 
 Masque. determining when it was written. A probable 
 
 date, however, is 1633. We may assume that Milton was busy 
 over Comus in 1634, and since Arcades has great stylistic 
 affinity with the longer Masque and was produced under very 
 similar circumstances, it is fair to suppose that only a brief 
 space of time separated the two poems. Probably Arcades was 
 the earlier : in each of Milton's editions of his minor works it 
 precedes Comus; and it shows, so far as its fragmentary state 
 permits us to judge, rather less finish and maturity of workman- 
 ship. Combining these points, critics are content, for the most 
 part, to take 1 633 as the date of the shorter poem. 
 
 There is, I think, little to be said in favour of the view which 
 would assign the composition of Arcades to an earlier date than 
 163310 1631 or 1630. The evidence of style, the aesthetic 
 test, is never conclusive, but if we compare Arcades with the 
 poems undoubtedly written before Milton left Cambridge we 
 shall at least find that it presents a very strong contrast with 
 them. It is, for instance, far more akin to Comus than to the 
 Nativity Ode: scarcely less so to U Allegro and // Peiiseroso. 
 In all four we have much the same atmosphere of calm, the 
 same fragrance and freshness of outdoor life, the same enjoy- 
 ment of nature and country sights and sounds, so that it is hard 
 to resist the impression that many touches in each were sug- 
 gested by the quiet woodland scenery of Horton. It will be 
 well therefore and safe to accept with Professor Masson the 
 year 1633. 
 
 The title of Arcades explains the circumstances of its compo- 
 sition " Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess 
 Dowager of Derby at Harefield by some Noble Persons of her 
 Family."
 
 ARCADES. xxvii 
 
 The Countess Dowager of Derby was a daughter of Sir John 
 Spencer of Althorpe in Northamptonshire, ancestor The Egerton 
 of the present Earl Spencer. Born about 1560, she -^'^ ^ cades 
 married Lord Strange, eldest son of the fourth Earl * written. 
 of Derby. She had several sisters, two of whom Elizabeth 
 Spencer, afterwards Lady Carey, and Anne Spencer, afterwards 
 Lady Compton were celebrated by Spenser ; as was the 
 Countess herself. Spenser indeed claimed kinship with the 
 Spencer family ; cf. the Protkalamion 1 , 
 
 " Though from another place 1 take my name, 
 An house of auncient fame." 
 
 To Lady Carey he dedicated his Muiopotmos (1590); to 
 Lady Compton his Mother Hubberds Tale (1591) ; to Lady 
 Strange The Tcares of the Muses 2 . This last poem was pub- 
 lished (in the volume curiously entitled Complaints') in 1591. 
 Two years later, September 1593, Lady Strange became 
 Countess of Derby. In the spring of 1594 her husband died 
 (popular report attributing his death to witchcraft), and his 
 widow retained for the rest of her life the title of Alice, 
 Countess Dowager of Derby. The death of the Earl is 
 alluded to in Colin Clout's Come Home Againe. The greater 
 portion of that poem had been previously written, indeed soon 
 after Spenser's return to Ireland in 1591 ; but the whole work 
 was not published till 1595. Between these dates various 
 additions were made, the following lines among them : 
 
 ' ' But Amaryllis, whether fortunate 
 Or else unfortunate may I arcade, 
 That freed is from Cupids yoke by fate, 
 Since which she doth new bands adventure dread." 
 
 "Amaryllis" was the Countess of Derby. Apparently she 
 did not fear "new bands adventure." She married in 1600 Sir 
 
 2 Cf. the note on Arcades, line 8. In each "soft dedication" the 
 poet alluded to his relationship. It may be added that the northern 
 branch of the family to which he belonged spelt the name with s,
 
 XXviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Elizabeth. 
 In 1603 he was made Baron Ellesmere; in 1616, Viscount 
 Brackley. For many years the Countess and her husband 
 lived at Harefield in Middlesex ; they had purchased the 
 property in 1601. No children were born of the marriage. 
 The Countess, however, had three daughters by her first hus- 
 band ; the Lord Keeper was a widower. His son, Sir John 
 Egerton, married her second daughter, Lady Frances Stanley. 
 The father, shortly after being created Viscount Brackley, died 
 in 1617. The Countess, a widow for the second time, was then 
 in her fifty-sixth year, and till her death in 1637 continued to 
 live at Harefield. In 1617 Sir John Egerton, her son-in-law 
 (and stepson), who had succeeded to the title of Viscount 
 Brackley, received the earldom intended for his father. He 
 became Earl of Bridgewater. It was he who commissioned the 
 performance of Comus. 
 
 Milton tells us that Arcades was performed by "some 
 Noble Persons" of the family of the Countess. "Family" 
 means direct descendants and relatives, and these were suffi- 
 ciently numerous. The eldest daughter of the Countess, Lady 
 Chandos, lived at Harefield ; she was a widow with several 
 children. The second daughter, Countess of Bridgewater, had 
 a very large family, most of whom, no doubt, acted in Coinus. 
 There were other grandchildren, the family of the third daughter, 
 Countess of Huntingdon. To these might be added the families 
 of the married sisters of the Countess. Milton therefore when 
 he compared her to Cybele, "mother of a hundred gods," 
 indulged in no poetic hyperbole. Nor does it require any 
 strenuous effort of the imagination to conceive the position 
 which the Countess occupied. She was in a way the head of 
 the whole line, a picturesque survival from the great Elizabethan 
 generation of the Spencer family which the great Elizabethan 
 poet, their kinsman, had honoured in "the proud full sail" of 
 his verse. She lived at the noble country house where the 
 Queen had stayed on one of her progresses, the famous visit 
 in 1602 at which tradition says (but falsely) that Othello was 
 first performed. She had seen her three daughters raised by
 
 ARCADES. xxix 
 
 marriage to splendid rank ; she herself bore one of the greatest 
 of English titles ; her beauty and personal worth had been 
 rehearsed by more than one writer. There was everything in 
 her past life and present fortunes that could stimulate admira- 
 tion and reverence. Out of compliment to her the members 
 of her family conceived the happy idea of repre- , 
 
 rrj r Occasion flf the 
 
 senting a Masque. Perhaps a birthday or some performance of 
 anniversary of felicitous memory was the immediate 
 occasion. In any case the entertainment added one more link 
 to the chain of illustrious associations which unites the name of 
 the Countess with the history of the first great age of English 
 poetry. Milton ended what Spenser had begun. As long as 
 literature endures, the memory of this noble lady of the 
 Elizabethan and Jacobean world will remain. 
 
 A private entertainment at that time meant a Masque 1 . 
 Especially in vogue were slight dramatic pieces 
 which might be characterised as Masque-idylls DramaticPas- 
 of a pastoral type, such as could be played in the 
 open air. The classics were ransacked and pillaged for suitable 
 subjects, the result being representations in which fancy and 
 fiction were supreme, realism or strict dramatic propriety con- 
 spicuously absent. Great ladies fretted their hour on the level 
 grass, under broad, spreading trees, as goddesses, or nymphs, 
 or shepherdesses more Arcadian than any Alpheus had ever 
 seen on his banks. The young noble from the University who 
 knew exactly how a Latin comedy was rendered in the hall 
 of Trinity, or the Templar who had borne his part in the 
 Christmas Revels of one of the Inns of Court, would masque- 
 rade as Apollo, or Sylvanus, or Thyrsis. Everybody was 
 faultless as the graceful figures on a delicate piece of Dresden 
 china or the fine seigneurs in the fetes champetres of Watteau. 
 A lawn made the best of stages ; the woodland background 
 supplied the place of scenery ; madrigals and choruses that 
 blended with the notes of birds and the splash of fountains 
 heightened the illusion ; and if the piece was performed at 
 
 1 See the sketch of the history of the English Masque given later on. 
 
 v. d
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nightfall (as was the case with Arcades 1 ), friendly dusk con- 
 cealed from too critical eyes any imperfections that were best 
 nnrevealed. 
 
 We have nothing quite parallel to these entertainments 
 rofiiiarity of which were very popular and for which Ben 
 these plays. Jonson, the first dramatist of the age, or Campion 
 would think it worth while to write the words, and Ferrabosco, 
 Laniere, Coperario the musical setting. Anyone, however, who 
 has read the admirable description of the Court-play in Mr 
 Shorthouse's Schoolmaster Mark, or seen an out-of-door per- 
 formance of As You Like It, or some similar piece, will have 
 gained a good idea of the purely fanciful species of idyllic, 
 ideal drama represented by Arcades. And in reading the 
 Masque we should bear in mind the circumstances which called 
 it forth and the conditions under which it was rendered. To 
 treat it as simply a piece of exquisite lyric work which it no 
 doubt is ignoring its dramatic character and the fact that it 
 may be illustrated by reference to pastorals of a similar 
 nature seems to me a mistake. We cannot appreciate its 
 beauty fully until we have studied it in connection with what 
 Ben Jonson accomplished on the same lines ; and, as Mr 
 Symonds points out 2 , the style of Arcades reflects very directly 
 the influence of Jonson, just as in the last part of Comus we 
 catch continuous echoes of the music of Fletcher. 
 
 Why Milton, an unknown writer hidden away in a nook of 
 Milton's con- Buckinghamshire, who hitherto had not published 
 ttection -with a single line, was asked to compose the plav* is a 
 
 the Egerton 
 
 family due to matter of conjecture ; though, happily, of conjec- 
 y awes. ^^ nQt ^ ar remove( j f rom certainty. It is as clear 
 as anything well can be which does not rest on proof plain 
 and positive that his share in Arcades was due to the initiation 
 of Henry Lawes. This well known musician 3 was employed 
 by the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater as music-tutor to their 
 children. When the Earl resolved in 1634 to inaugurate his 
 
 1 Cf. line 39. 2 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 361. 
 
 * For a brief account of him see the note upon his Dedication prefixed 
 to the 1637 edition of Comus.
 
 ARCADES. XXXl' 
 
 official career in Wales with the festivities which were held at 
 Ludlow Castle in the autumn of that year, the duty of providing 
 a Masque fell upon Lawes. He applied to Milton for the 
 libretto. This was probably a repetition of what had occurred 
 in the case of Arcades. The younger members of the Bridge- 
 water family had turned to their musical instructor for assist- 
 ance. It is reasonable to suppose that Lawes induced Milton 
 to furnish the poetic material of the play, that he himself 
 composed the incidental music, arranged the scenes, acted (as 
 in Comus) the part of the Genius, and was mainly responsible 
 for the success of the performance. He might quite well have 
 gone to Carew or Shirley, as in the year 1633 he wrote the 
 music for a Masque by each of these writers. But Milton was 
 a friend of long standing, Every musician of note must have 
 visited the house in Spread Eagle Street of John Milton, the 
 elder. Hence Lawes may have known the poet in his boyhood. 
 Milton's sonnet shows that the connection between them was 
 very close. To this friendship we are indebted for Arcades 
 and Comus. 
 
 The former has little pretension to completeness. It re- 
 presents the disiecta membra of a longer enter- incompleteness 
 tainment ; or at best the very slender thread of f Arcades - 
 narrative which held the incidents together. There would be 
 dances 1 of the courtly guise recommended by the Attendant 
 Spirit in Comus ; picturesque grouping of the dramatis persona ; 
 possibly some of the effective devices which Ben Jonson was 
 wont to introduce, using machinery for the purpose ; and a 
 good deal of music. Many such trifles were given at the great 
 houses of Jacobean nobles, to grace a wedding ceremony, to 
 entertain the court on its royal progresses, to show an Italian 
 ambassador that culture had crossed the Alps and reached the 
 toto divisos orbe Britannos. But these were mostly ephemeral 
 pieces, inspired by some special occasion, serving the occasion, 
 and then forgotten. Arcades survives because for once an 
 evening's amusement was married to immortal verse. 
 
 1 E.g. after line 95. 
 
 d 2
 
 XXXli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 COMUS. 
 
 Comus is so closely allied with Arcades that in speaking of 
 the latter it has been necessary to anticipate. The main facts 
 that bear upon the history of Comus are as follows. 
 
 The son-in-law of the Countess of Derby was created, as 
 Why written, we said, Earl of Bridgewater in 1617. This was 
 in return for the services rendered by his father 
 as Lord Chancellor. Perhaps for the same reason the Earl 
 enjoyed a very distinguished position under Charles I. Already 
 a member of the Privy Council, he was made President of 
 the Council of Wales on June 26, 1631. In the next month, 
 July 8th, he became Lord Lieutenant of the Counties on the- 
 Welsh border and of North and South Wales an office that 
 gave him full military and civil jurisdiction in the district 
 named. Though his election dated from the summer of 1631, 
 he did not, it would seem, go to Wales at all until May 1633, 
 and the formal entry upon his duties was delayed till the 
 autumn of the next year. To celebrate that event great fes- 
 tivities were held at his official residence, Ludlow Castle. For 
 this inauguration Milton's Comus was written. On Michaelmas 
 Night, 1634, the first performance took place. 
 
 It may be assumed that Lawes being music-master of the 
 Bridgewater family was asked to furnish a Masque, and that as 
 a friend of Milton he applied to the latter for help. With the 
 Puritan Milton of later years who in Paradise Lost iv. 764, 
 decried "mixed dance or wanton mask," the petition would 
 have fared ill. But at this time there could have been nothing 
 distasteful in it. Milton showed himself in L? Allegro no less 
 friendly to the stage than in // Penseroso to the Church. In the 
 latter the ritual of Anglicanism was celebrated with reverence : 
 in the former " mask and antique pageantry " found a place 
 among the legitimate delights that mirth might offer. Further, 
 there was the desire to do a service to his friend Lawes.
 
 COMUS. xxxiii 
 
 Milton accepted the commission ; and Comus was the outcome. 
 Probably he wrote the piece early in 1634. It 
 
 Dateof Comus. 
 
 had to be ready by the autumn ; Lawes would take 
 some little time over the musical setting of the lyrics ; and the 
 performers would need to prepare the scenery, study their 
 parts, and, in a word, complete the preliminary arrangements 
 incidental to the representation of an unusually long Masque. 
 The spring therefore of 1634 may be received with some 
 confidence as the date of the composition of Comus. 
 
 Whether the play was successful at its representation we 
 do not know. Many of Lawes' friends evidently approved of 
 it. Some were present in the Hall at Ludlow Castle on that 
 September evening; others, perhaps, heard the songs after- 
 wards sung by Lawes himself or his pupils. They realised 
 that there was in England a poet of rare promise and exquisite 
 performance. Copies of Comus were asked for; it became 
 " much desired." At last to save himself the trouble of making 
 these transcripts Lawes published an edition of Comus, pro- 
 bably from the MS. which had been used as the acting-version. 
 This, the first edition of Comus, was issued in The first edi- 
 1637. The title-page of the volume, a slim quarto f ion of Comas. 
 of which the British Museum possesses several copies, runs as 
 follows : 
 
 "A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, on Michael- 
 masse Night, before the Right Honourable John, Earle of 
 Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, Lord President of Wales, and 
 one of his Majesties' most honourable Privy Counsell. 
 
 ' Eheu quid volui misero mihi! floribus Austrum 
 Perditus ' 
 
 London : Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the signe of 
 the Three Pidgeons in Paul's Churchyard, 1637." 
 
 It will be observed that Milton's name is omitted. The 
 motto, however 1 , shows that his consent to the publication had 
 
 1 From Vergil, Eclogue, II. 58 59. Cf. the lines from the seventh 
 Eclogue, 17, 28, which Milton placed on the title-page of the 1645 
 edition of his poems.
 
 XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been obtained: "Alas! what have I been about in my folly! 
 On my flowers I have let in the scirocco, infatuate as I am." 
 The last words imply that Milton had some doubts as to the 
 expediency of printing the volume. Had Lawes issued the 
 imprint against the wishes of Milton the motto chosen would 
 have been pointless. That at least one competent and dis- 
 cerning critic was ready to welcome the new voice in English 
 verse we may judge from Sir Henry Wotton's complimentary 
 letter to Milton 1 . 
 
 In 1645 and 1673 Milton published editions of his poems. 
 Later editions Comus, of course, was printed in each. In neither, 
 of Comus. however, did he describe the poem by the name 
 it has long borne. The title in the 1645 edition reads thus: 
 "A Mask of the Same Author, Presented at Ludlow Castle, 
 1634, before the Earl of Bridgeivater, then President of Wales : 
 Anno Dom. 1645." The title of the later edition is almost 
 identical. A more definite designation being desirable, the 
 Masque was named Comus after its chief character. When, 
 or by whom, this was done the editors do not state. The 
 earliest separate edition I know that has on its title-page the 
 name Comus, is one published at Glasgow in 1745 > DUt others 
 may have preceded. 
 
 The basis of the text of Comus is supplied by the three 
 above-mentioned editions that of Lawes, 1637, 
 and those of Milton, 1645 and 1673. There is 
 also Milton's original draft of the poem among the MSS. at 
 Cambridge; and the Bridgewater manuscript, supposed to be 
 the stage-copy from which the actors learned their parts and 
 believed by Todd to be in Lawes' handwriting, survives. All 
 the differences between these five authorities on the whole, 
 not inconsiderable differences we have not attempted to 
 record. A full textual apparatus criticits could have no place 
 in this volume ; but some of the more interesting variations 
 are noticed. Editors of Milton owe much in this matter to 
 the careful collation made by Todd. Perhaps the last of the 
 editions published during Milton's life has the most weight. It 
 
 1 It will be found prefixed to the text of Comus.
 
 COMUS. XXXV 
 
 gives us Comus , not as the Masque originally left Milton's 
 hands for that we must turn to the Cambridge MS. but in 
 the finally revised form which he wished it to assume. There 
 is a single passage where one is fain to believe that the Trinity 
 manuscript is right, and the printed copies wrong. This is 
 line 553. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the external history of Comus. Something 
 must be said about the poem itself the sources from which 
 Milton drew, the undercurrent of idea that runs throughout, 
 the dramatic value of the Masque, its ethical and literary 
 qualities. 
 
 In lines 43 45 the Attendant Spirit says : 
 
 "I will tell you now The sources of 
 
 What never yet was heard in tale or song, Comus. 
 
 From old or modern bard, in hall or bower." 
 
 This claim to absolute originality must not be pressed. For a 
 good deal in Comus Milton was indebted to previous writers. 
 We shall best be able to estimate that debt if we split up the 
 Masque into its chief component parts. 
 
 There is (i) the main story: that of the sister lost in a 
 wood, entrapped by a magician, and rescued by M . , 
 her brothers; with the attendant incidents. This to George Peele 
 Milton owed, beyond doubt, to the Old Wives' (lss8 - IS95) - 
 Tale (1595) of George Peele, the Elizabethan poet (1558 1598). 
 Warton in his edition of Miltoris Poems upon Several Occasions 
 (1791) summarised thus the points of contact between Comus 
 and the Old Wives' Tale: "This very scarce 1 and curious piece 
 (i.e. Peele's play) exhibits, among other parallel incidents, two 
 Brothers wandering in quest of their Sister, whom an Enchanter 
 had imprisoned. This magician had learned his art from his 
 mother Meroe, as Comus had been instructed by his mother 
 Circe. The Brothers call out the Lady's name, and Echo 
 replies 2 . The Enchanter had given her a potion which suspends 
 
 1 Since then (1791) the two editions of Peele by Dyce and Bullen 
 respectively have been published. 
 
 2 In Comus it is the Lady who invokes the Echo.
 
 xxxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the power of reason, and superinduces oblivion of herself. The 
 Brothers afterwards meet with an Old Man, who is also skilled 
 in magic; and by listening to his soothsayings, they recover 
 their lost Sister. But not till the Enchanter's wreath has been 
 torn from his head, his sword wrested from his hand, a glass 
 broken, and a light extinguished." 
 
 Warton's abstract of the Old Wives' Tale somewhat ac- 
 centuates the resemblance. It does not strike us quite so 
 forcibly when we read Peele's work. Still the similarity is 
 there, and cannot be explained away. That Peele was a 
 writer whom Milton had studied (Milton studied everything, 
 and the author of The Arraignment of Paris is eminently 
 worth reading in spite of Charles Lamb) can be shown from 
 his prose tract the Animadversions upon the Remonstranfs 
 Defence against Smectymnus (1641). When so reliable a critic 
 as Mr Saintsbury, wholly hostile to fanciful attempts to convict 
 one writer of plagiarism from another, says 1 : " The Old Wives' 
 Tale pretty certainly furnished Milton with the subject of 
 Camus" ; we may be content to allow that Milton was not free 
 from obligation to George Peele. 
 
 The popular tradition as to the genesis of Comus, related 
 The tradition- by Oldys and still extant, must also be mentioned, 
 al account of as some g OO d scholars have thought well to endorse 
 COMUS. it, notably Sir Egerton Brydges, one of the ablest 
 
 and most sympathetic of Milton's editors. This was to the 
 effect that Lady Alice Egerton and her two brothers, Viscount 
 Brackley and Mr Thomas Egerton, were actually overtaken by 
 nightfall in Haywood forest near Ludlow : they were returning 
 to the castle from a visit to their relatives, the Egertons, in 
 Herefordshire ; and the sister was separated from her brothers. 
 If this ever took place and news of it reached Milton's ears, then 
 he simply dramatised the episode ; though part of his debt to 
 Peele, the introduction of the magician, would still remain. 
 But it is far more probable that the legend, which dates from 
 the last century, grew out of the Masque than vice versa. The 
 story deserves, I think, but little attention or credence. 
 
 1 Elizabethan Literature, p. 71.
 
 COMUS. XXXV11 
 
 (ii) The protagonist of the piece, Comus, introduces another 
 element in the story. He is in all essentials the , , 
 
 The character 
 
 creation of Milton. In classical Greek K<5/ios f Comus, the 
 
 .- -it i i 11- i j j magician. 
 
 signifies no more than 'revel' or ' revellmg-band. 
 The personification Comus, i.e. pleasure raised to the dignity 
 of a deity, is a post-classical conception, known only to later 
 mythology. Apparently he is first mentioned in the Imagines 
 of Philostratus the elder, who lived in the third century A. D. 
 Philostratus describes a fresco in which Comus is represented, 
 but the account is too slight to have been of much service to 
 Milton, even if he was familiar with it 1 . More definite is the 
 picture drawn by Ben Jonson in the Masque of Pleasure 
 Reconciled to Virtue, (1619). Comus is there apostrophised as 
 
 ' ' The founder of taste 
 
 For fresh meats, or powdered, or pickle, or paste; 
 Devourer of boiled, baked, roasted or sod ; 
 An emptier of cups." 
 
 Obviously this sordid power of dull, " lust-dieted " appetite has 
 little in common with Milton's blithe, caressing personification 
 of pleasure, so fatal because outwardly so beautiful ; and the 
 notion that Milton borrowed his hero from the great Jacobean 
 Masque-writer may be dismissed. 
 
 There is, however, a certain Latin play which may have 
 given suggestions and which from its title deserves The Latin 
 to be mentioned. It was called Comus.. It was Ple v> Comu *- 
 written by a Dutchman, Hendrik van der Putten (who is better 
 known under the name of Erycius Puteanus) sometime professor 
 at Louvain. First printed in 1608, his Comus was reissued at 
 Oxford in 1634, a remarkable coincidence. The Comus of 
 Puteanus is a much subtler embodiment of sensual hedonism 
 than the cup-quaffing deity of Ben Jonson; he approximates 
 more to the graceful reveller and enticing magician of Milton, 
 
 1 The painting of which Philostratus speaks represents Comus just 
 after a carousal : Kal 6 KeS/uos TJKei, v4os irapa. j^ous, awdXbs Kal oCirw 
 Z<t>7lfios, epvffpbs virb otvov, xa.1 KaOetidwv bpObs virb roO /j.edveiv, Imagines, 
 bk. I. ch. 2, Welcker's ed. (1825), p. 6.
 
 xxxvili INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and may have supplied a chance hint. At least the parallel 
 passages which Todd brought together tend to show that 
 Milton had read the work of the Dutch professor. Two or 
 three noticeable parallels occur in the first speech of Comus 
 93 134; and again in the scene where he tempts the Lady 
 706 55 1 . I should be loth to acquit Milton of all indebtedness 
 to Puteanus. I think that he must have gone through the 
 Latin piece, picking out from the worthless slag an occasional 
 atom of genuine ore. 
 
 (iii) The third strand in the material out of which Comus 
 .,..., , is woven is the Circe-myth. In describing the 
 
 alilton s use of ^ 
 
 the legend of supernatural powers of Comus Milton transfers to 
 the wizard the classical attributes of his mother 
 Circe. Like Vergil and Ovid before him he lays the Odyssey 
 under large contribution. Here, however, Spenser had anti- 
 cipated Milton ; cf. the account of the enchantress Acrasia in 
 the Faerie Queene, ii. 12, 50 et seq. Browne, too, had made the 
 adventure of Odysseus and his crew at the island of Circe the 
 theme of The Inner Temple Masque, (1614). Giles Fletcher 
 had gone to the same source of information and inspiration 
 in Chrisfs Victorie on Earth. Giles Fletcher, like his brother, 
 imitated Spenser : each is strongly penetrated with what Mr 
 Saintsbury calls "the Cambridge flavour," one having been 
 a member of Trinity College, the other of King's : and the 
 influence of each on Milton is manifest in his early works. 
 Hence the description of the Lady Pangloretta and her Palace 
 of Vain Delight (Chrisfs Victorie, 49) may have been in 
 Milton's mind when he worked into his poem such parts of 
 the Circe-story as suited his purpose. That this is true of the 
 above-mentioned stanzas of the Faerie Queene appears to me 
 patent ; and The Inner Temple Masque is a work at least worth 
 studying in connection with Comus. They have several points 
 of possibly accidental resemblance 2 . It is not of course to be 
 inferred that Milton deliberately transferred to Comus what 
 
 1 One of these coincidences is pointed out in the note on line 755. 
 
 2 With Browne's best known poem, Britannia's Pastorals (1613), 
 Milton was most certainly familiar.
 
 COMUS. xxxix 
 
 others had written ; we merely imply that he had read two of 
 these poems, if not all three, just as he had read the Odyssey ; 
 and that when he came to traverse the same ground the various 
 influences made themselves felt, determining the choice of a 
 phrase, the addition of a descriptive detail, and so forth. It is 
 all part of the lampadephoria of literature. 
 
 (iv) There remains the legend of the river-goddess Sabrina 
 whose intervention frees the imprisoned lady and The stor , 
 brings the Masque to a happy close. Here and it Sabrina. MU- 
 
 /5 , ton's indebted- 
 
 is a very important part of Comus the influence of ness to Fietch- 
 Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess^ is unmistakeable. er ' 
 This beautiful pastoral was composed before 1625, the year of 
 Fletcher's death. It had been acted as a Court-drama ; repre- 
 sentations were given in the London theatres in 1633 and 1634. 
 The motive of the play is identical with that of Comus, viz. the 
 strength of purity ; and in Fletcher's heroine must be recognised 
 an elder sister of Milton's Sabrina. Speaking briefly we may say 
 that the last two hundred lines of Comus the disenchantment 
 scene betray in the conception of the nymph Sabrina, in the 
 incidents, and the lyric movement, the spell which Fletcher's 
 genius exercised on Milton. Milton chose the story of the 
 goddess who swayed the Severn stream in compliment to his 
 audience. It suited the scene and the setting of his Masque ; 
 and his treatment of the theme reflects, in no servile spirit of 
 imitation, the graceful example of the poet who a generation 
 before had been the pride of Milton's University. 
 
 Some editors ignore or deny this. Bent upon proving 
 Milton's independence they seek at every turn to minimise his 
 obligations. It may be doubted, however, whether much is 
 gained by shirking facts. I believe that in the points enume- 
 rated Milton owed something to Peele, something to Spenser, 
 and more to Fletcher. To admit this does the poet no dis- 
 service. The great artists have themselves set little store on 
 mere originality ; and it might be contended without any 
 
 1 Beaumont, the alter ego of the famous partnership, whose judg- 
 ment (in Pope's line) "check'd what Fletcher writ," had no hand in 
 the piece.
 
 xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 desperate paradox that a writer never demonstrates his pos- 
 session of genius more effectively than when he takes the 
 work of an inferior craftsman and tunes it to finer issues. 
 
 The ethics of plagiarism are simple : if a writer borrows and 
 fails to infuse new life and new charm into that which he has 
 borrowed he stands condemned : but when the true creative 
 artist seizes on seemingly worthless material and passing it 
 through the alembic of his genius enriches literature with the 
 gems of consummate achievement, or when a great poet like 
 Milton openly conveys a suggestion from a dramatist like 
 Fletcher who had doubtless done the same thing by others, 
 we should be slow to upbraid. Literature is a series of echoes, 
 and only two considerations concern us : has the artist added 
 things new ? and into the things old has he breathed the breath 
 of fresh suggestion? If his record is clear on both counts, it is 
 sufficient. Judged by this test Milton has nothing to fear. He 
 borrowed from Peele, and the prosaic Old Wives' Tale was made 
 to render a result of incomparable beauty : he borrowed from 
 Fletcher, and at his touch the grace and wonder at the least of 
 the Faithful Shepherdess, did not yield. After we have told the 
 tale of his debts our sense of his genius is quickened and 
 increased. 
 
 One of the most unfortunate and disastrous pieces of 
 criticism ever written is Johnson's Life of Milton. 
 
 Johnsons , * * 
 
 criticism of It eclipsed in unsympathetic dryness even the 
 jejune notice- of Gray, and compassed in a com- 
 paratively brief space literary misdemeanours which will always 
 rise up against Johnson's reputation. These perverse pro- 
 nouncements upon Comus, and Lycidas, and Paradise Lost, 
 are the Ixion-wheel to which with pathetic and suicidal 
 infelicity Johnson bound himself; so wholly regrettable, not 
 because they inflict a jot of harm on Milton who is beyond 
 the range of cavilling acrimony, but because they do so much 
 to obscure the greatness of a fine critic. This Johnson was ; 
 and no one can suppose that the Life in question is in the 
 least degree representative of his critical faculty. When a 
 writer finds (no doubt Johnson did find, since his honesty is
 
 COMUS. xli 
 
 unimpeachable) the songs in Comus "harsh" and "not very 
 musical," the manner of Lycidas "easy, vulgar and therefore 
 disgusting," we may reasonably arrive at one of two con- 
 clusions : either he is biassed, perhaps unconsciously ; or his 
 sensibility towards certain exquisite types of verse is nil. In 
 this case the former conclusion must be accepted. For reasons 
 religious and political Johnson approached Milton's poetry with 
 distinct parti pris. Milton was identified with the lost cause of 
 Puritanism. Eighteenth century common sense dismissed all 
 forms of religious enthusiasm as phases of insanity 1 . That was 
 one reason why Johnson could never be a fair critic of the poet 
 of Puritanism. Milton was the pride of English Liberalism, 
 and Toryism found its champion in Johnson: hence politi- 
 cal antagonism supplied the second motive of the tatter's 
 prejudice. Johnson, therefore, set to work (without knowing it) 
 to decry Milton, forgetful of Bentley's excellent maxim that no 
 man is written down save by himself, and the anathemas thus 
 recklessly launched very soon came home to roost. They serve 
 to emphasise the extreme fallibility of criticism : they are also 
 useful as supplying a convenient peg whereon to hang some 
 remarks upon Milton's poems. 
 
 For instance, Johnson considered Comus "deficient as a 
 drama : " it lacks, he said, probability. Editors Comus as a 
 more friendly to Milton have echoed the charge. dramfl - 
 But is it quite just ? Criticism of Comus must keep in view the 
 central fact that it is a Masque not comedy, not tragedy, nor 
 a compromise between them such as Shakespeare first brought 
 to perfection ; but a Masque, as the title-page proclaimed. 
 Hence strict and exacting canons of dramatic art which should 
 be applied if the work under discussion were Hamlet, or Le 
 Misanthrope, or The Way of the World to take acknowledged 
 masterpieces in different styles have here no bearing. In a 
 Masque we do not look for accurate and consistent character- 
 isation, for logical development of dramatic motive, for the 
 
 1 Witness Gibbon's treatment of Christianity in the famous chapters 
 of the Decline and Fall, or Robertson's scornful allusions to the 
 Crusades.
 
 xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 balance and interplay of interest, the variety and consecu- 
 tiveness of action which in a drama proper are indispensable. 
 These things lie outside the province of the Masque-writer 
 whose fancy plays unfettered in a land where truth and realism 
 have seldom set foot, and never felt at home. Consequently 
 Comus should not be contrasted with works that belong to a 
 wholly separate sphere of art. It must be placed side by side 
 with, say, Shirley's Triumph of Peace, or Carew's Ccelum 
 Britannicum. Before we condemn it on the score of impro- 
 bability we should read what Ben Jonson and Fletcher, the 
 ablest of professional Masque-writers, have left us of a like 
 description. 
 
 If we accord Milton the license which the composers of 
 such pieces habitually claimed and exercised, and judge 
 Comus by the elementary standard of dramatic propriety 
 recognised in these entertainments, the play comes, I cannot 
 help thinking, exceeding well out of the test. Taken simply 
 as a drama, without any reference whatsoever to the beauty 
 of the lyrics or the moral elevation of the serious, philosophic 
 parts, Comus is superior to nine-tenths of the Masque-literature 
 of the xvnth century. Milton has a clear simple story : he 
 tells it in a direct, coherent style. 
 
 Obviously he enjoys one signal advantage over the ordinary 
 Masque- writer. He works on his own lines. There is no 
 need to consider the taste of the scene-painter. In Comus the 
 poet comes first ; the musician, the master of the revels, the 
 designer of the mise-en-scene fill subordinate parts. Often it 
 was otherwise. We frequently find that the poetry of a Masque 
 has been made a minor matter, degraded, as Ben Jonson and 
 Shirley bitterly complained, to a position of subservience to 
 the ruling passion for luxurious ostentation ; only the external 
 splendour of the performance has been considered the archi- 
 tectural wonders that prove the skill of Inigo Jones, the 
 mechanical devices by which the scene may be metamorphosed 
 in a moment, the dazzling brilliance of dress. Poetic interest 
 is killed by the weight of decoration, and the Masque becomes 
 a play without words. The latter barely serve to connect the
 
 COMUS. xliii 
 
 series of scenes ; they are often as devoid of merit, literary or 
 dramatic, as the libretto of a modern opera. 
 
 Milton was saved from this indignity. To have written a 
 Masque or anything else on such terms would have been an act 
 of treason to his genius. When he composed the entertainment 
 for which Lawes asked him he wrote with a free hand, developing 
 his story in his own fashion ; and as a necessary result he pro- 
 duced in Comus a piece of work which, unassailable as literature, 
 compares from the dramatic standpoint not unfavourably with 
 Ben Jonson's best writing. More could not be said : to say 
 as much seems to me bare justice. We should remember, 
 too, that some of the lengthy speeches in Comus which belong 
 rather to the study than the stage (for example, the dissertation 
 on purity, lines 779 806) were not spoken at the original 
 performance of the Masque. Their omission must have light- 
 ened it considerably. 
 
 To these remarks upon the dramatic effectiveness of Comus 
 may be added a word upon its stage-history 1 . The The stage-kh- 
 representation at Ludlow appears to be the only tor y f Comus - 
 one that took place during the seventeenth century. A hundred 
 years later most of Milton's poems were made to supply libretti 
 for contemporary musicians". After Pope had rejected Atter- 
 bury's proposal to adapt Samson Agonistes for the stage, 
 Handel used that epic as the basis of his Oratorio (1742). 
 He had previously set to music Z,' Allegro and // Penseroso 
 (1740). Comus 3 fell to the skilful hands of Dr Arne, and was 
 
 1 The bibliographical appendix to Dr Garnett's Life of Milton has 
 furnished some of the details in this paragraph. 
 
 2 Lawes' music is now in the British Museum (Add. MSS. n, 518). 
 There are five numbers, viz. " From the heavens," " Sweet Echo," 
 "Sabrina Fair," "Back, Shepherds," and "Now my task." These 
 (with the exception of " Sweet Echo") are also printed in Dr Rimbault's 
 Ancient Vocal Music of England, no. 8. 
 
 3 The adaptation of the Masque was made by the Rev. John Dalton, 
 afterwards Canon of Worcester. He altered Comus beyond recognition, 
 dividing it into three acts, redistributing the speeches, introducing fresh 
 characters (among them Lycidas) and scenes, and interpolating songs of
 
 xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 acted in an adapted form at Drury Lane in 1738. Another 
 arrangement 1 of the Masque was made by George Colman, 
 who, retaining Arne's music, produced it at Covent Garden in 
 1772. Of this a revised edition was played at the same theatre 
 in 1815. It was also published, 1815. The British Museum 
 copy contains the autograph ' of Sir Henry Bishop, who 
 composed additional airs for the performance 2 . The last 
 notable rendering of the Masque was that produced under 
 the management of Macready 3 . 
 
 Johnson had fault to find with the songs in Comus. This 
 _ was curious, because the superlative excellence of 
 
 Camus as a 
 
 Poem: its Ly- Milton's lyrics has never been a matter of dispute. 
 In his early poems Milton achieves a style of quin- 
 tessential beauty, reminding us with Wordsworth that poetry is 
 primarily a matter of inspiration, and proving, like Gray, that it 
 must also be a matter of art. Each verse has the requisite 
 ring of spontaneity, yet each is touched with the studied beauty 
 that belongs to poetry alone, the grace that dwells apart from 
 prose and the commerce of the crowd. Richness of imagery, 
 
 his own composition, which Todd considered to be written " with much 
 elegance and taste." The most curious change occurs in Act in., which 
 commences with twenty-six lines taken from L' Allegro, the invocation 
 to Mirth ("Come, thou goddess," line 1 1) being followed by the ap- 
 pearance on the scene of Euphrosyne. Arne's music is bound up in 
 the volume belonging to the British Museum that contains Lawes' five 
 songs for Comus. The music is in MS., save only the setting of the 
 interpolated passage from Z' 'Allegro. This is given in print, being, in 
 fact, an extract from Handel's setting of V Allegro, from which we 
 may infer that Arne's version of this particular portion of Comus was 
 cancelled in favour of Handel's. The stage-version was frequently 
 acted (see Geneste, III. 533 34, IV. 74, and elsewhere), and several 
 times printed. On the title-page of the first imprint (1738) are the 
 words " never presented but on Michaelmas Day, 1634." 
 
 1 Much briefer than the previous version ; the Masque was com- 
 pressed into two acts. It was "acted several times" (Geneste, v. 360). 
 
 2 Grove's Diet, of Music, article on Sir Henry Bishop. 
 8 Diaries, vol. n. pp. 205, 206.
 
 COMUS. xlv 
 
 epithets that (in Macaulay's words) supply " a text for a canto," 
 single phrases that for their curious felicity are, as Archbishop 
 Trench said, "poems in miniature," evanescent touches that 
 recall to the classical reader the old and happy, far-off things 
 of Athens and Rome these qualities that belong mainly to art, 
 are held together and heightened by a perfect genuineness of 
 emotion which is the outcome of sheer inspiration. Above all, 
 Milton gives us what we require most in lyric verse true, 
 unerring melody, and those who are deaf to these sphere-born 
 notes, who, with Johnson, find the 'numbers' of Comus un- 
 pleasing, must be left to their displeasure. 
 
 Apart from their intrinsic beauty the songs gain very con- 
 siderably from their position, forming, as they do, a kind of 
 lyric cadenza on which the Masque closes. It is as if, after 
 bearing the heat and burden of the piece, after enforcing with 
 all the power of his eloquence and righteous enthusiasm the 
 moral which Comus was composed to illustrate, Milton turned 
 to his muse and said paulo minora canamus. The philo- 
 sophic strain was dropped : the poet of L! Allegro reasserted 
 himself ; and Comus came to an end with the notes of Lawes' 
 music ringing through the Hall. 
 
 It would be interesting to know what were the criticisms 
 passed upon the piece as the assembly separated. The Moral of 
 Did the noble guests of the Earl of Bridgewater ^"^^ 
 take the poet's meaning, or had they entertained an Allegory. 
 a prophet unawares ? Perhaps some present felt that this was 
 a Masque not quite like any they had seen in the great 
 banquet-room at Whitehall or the lawyer's Inns of Court ; an 
 entertainment through which amid all the scenic brilliance ran 
 an undercurrent of deep, philosophic earnestness. For once in 
 its history the frivolous, fanciful Masque, dedicated to the idle 
 purposes of wealth and fashion, had been made the instru- 
 ment whereby a great teacher conveyed a great lesson, the 
 doctrine nearest to his heart namely, _sobriety^of Jjfe. There 
 was nothing for which Milton cared more than this. Hence 
 the atmosphere of rare purity in his works, the sustained 
 elevation of thought diffused throughout everything he wrote. 
 
 V.
 
 xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Milton has a strongly-marked strain of asceticism. He praises 
 more than once the "cloistered virtue" of rigid abstinence. 
 He shows an extraordinarily nice sense of what things are fair 
 and of good report; and when he speaks of purity it is often 
 in the language, and always in the spirit, of Saint Paul. " The 
 sublime notion and high mystery" of a disciplined life is, as 
 Masson says, " the Miltonic idea," illustrated by passage after 
 passage alike in the poems and prose works, but nowhere more 
 conspicuous than in Comus. 
 
 Under any circumstances the theme would have kindled his 
 The Puritans muse to ra P t eloquence. But now in the year 
 and the Cava- 1634, when the people was slowly separating into 
 hostile camps, the truth was no longer of merely 
 personal import it had become vitalised with a tragic national 
 intensity. Each day the conflict between the gloom and ungra- 
 ciousness of Puritanism and the pleasure-seeking carelessness 
 of the Cavalier world grew keener. Extremes produce ex- 
 tremes : for one half of the nation life meant pleasure : the 
 other half identified pleasure with sin. When Comus was 
 written Milton stood between the two armies. His nature was 
 not yet sicklied o'er with the pale cast of Calvinism. The life 
 of ideal happiness as pictured in L} Allegro is one into which 
 enter all the influences of culture and nature that bring in their 
 train " the joy in widest commonalty spread ; " the cheerfulness 
 which should be synonymous with Life, and to which Art 
 should minister 1 . And when in // Penseroso Milton celebrates 
 divinest Melancholy, she is not the bitter power whom Dante 
 punished with the pains of Purgatory; rather, she has some- 
 thing of the kindliness that Shakespeare attributes to his 
 goddess Adversity, whose uses are sweet, and of whom it was 
 happily said 2 that she must be a fourth Grace, less known 
 than the classic Three, but still their sister. 
 
 These poems, U Allegro, II Penseroso and Comus, belong to 
 the non-political period in Milton's life. The bare fact that he 
 
 1 Mr Coventry Patmore's fifth essay in the critical collection Prin- 
 ciple in Art puts this point very clearly. 
 * Guesses at Truth,
 
 COMUS. xlvii 
 
 wrote the last showed 1 that he had not yet gone over to help 
 the party whose unreasoning hatred of all amusement had 
 flashed out in Prynne's Histriomastix^ (1633). On the other 
 hand, the whole tone of Comus was opposed to the hedonistic 
 indifferentism of the Cavaliers. It rebuked the quest 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 ; just as in Lycidas, 
 under the guise of pastoral symbolism, he predicted the ruin of 
 the Anglican Church, and at the end of his life lamented the 
 crash of Puritanism through the mouth of Samson Agonistes. 
 Two hundred and fifty years ago therefore 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 for ever ; and the art with which it is set off 
 remains undimmed, the wisdom unfading. 
 
 Analysis of the metre of any English poem is not easy. 
 Over blank verse in particular arises much dispute, The Verse of 
 not least over the blank verse of Milton. A few Cornus - 
 notes, however, on the metre, or metres, of Comus may be 
 useful. Metrically the poem has this great interest; it is the 
 first in which Milton uses blank verse, and unlike Shake- 
 speare whose style was continually developing so that the metre 
 of the Tempest is poles apart from that of The Two Gentlemen, 
 Milton struck out from the very first an exquisite type of blank 
 verse and kept to it. Organically the verse of Comus is identical 
 with that of Paradise Lost. Johnson noted this, and as we have 
 quoted some of his least felicitous dicta upon Comus it is fair 
 to reproduce the very just remark with which his criticism of 
 the Masque commenced. He said : " The greatest of Milton's 
 
 1 Cf. Green's remark, " The historic interest of Milton's Comus 
 lies in its forming part of a protest made by the more cultured Puritans 
 against the gloomier bigotry which persecution was fostering in the 
 party at large," History of English. People, III. p. 166. 
 
 2 Prynne often refers to Masques, and always in terms of scorn ; e.g. 
 on page 783 of the Histriomastix, " Stage-players, Mumeries, Masques, 
 and such like heathenish practises," 1633 edn. 
 
 6 2
 
 xlviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 juvenile performances is the Mask of Coinus, in which may 
 very plainly be discovered the dawn or twilight of Paradise 
 Lost. He appears to have formed very early that system of 
 diction and mode of verse which his maturer judgment ap- 
 proved, and from which he never endeavoured nor desired to 
 deviate." Mr Saintsbury endorses Johnson's remark and we 
 may take it to be substantially correct. 
 
 The distinguishing characteristic of Milton's blank verse 
 is his use of what Professor Masson calls "the free musical 
 paragraph " a verse-system, that is, " in which the mechanism 
 is elastic, or determined from moment to moment by the swell 
 or shrinking of the meaning or feeling 1 ". Mr Saintsbury writes 
 to the same effect when he finds the secret of Milton's pre- 
 eminence in the skill with which the poet builds "what may 
 be called the verse-paragraph 2 ." Blank verse, he points out, 
 is exposed to two dangers : it may be formal and stiff by being 
 arranged in single lines or couplets ; or diffuse and amorphous 
 through lack of internal coherence and balance. In its earlier 
 Earlier types stages the metre suffered from the former tendency. 
 oj Blank Verse. j t ej^gr c i os ed with a strong pause at the end of 
 
 every line, or just struggled to the climax of the couplet. 
 Further than the end of the couplet it never extended until 
 Marlowe 3 took the "drumming decasyllabon " into his hands, 
 broke up the tyranny of the couplet-form, and by the process 
 of overflow carried on the rhythm from verse to verse as the 
 sense required. He was the first English poet who wrote 
 blank verse of an unhampered type, verse in which we ..get 
 variety of pause and cadence and beat as a substitute for 
 
 1 ssay on Milton's Versification. As a matter of fact, Professor 
 Masson is speaking of Lycidas ; he refers to the occurrence throughout 
 that poem of irregular lengths of metre, alternations of short and long 
 lines to fit the changing emotions of the writer. But the phrase ' ' free 
 musical paragraph " is exactly applicable to Milton's blank verse. 
 
 2 Elizabethan Literature, p. 327. 
 
 3 A very full study of Marlowe's influence on the growth of dramatic 
 blank verse will be found in Mr Symonds' Shaksfere's Predecessors, pp. 
 583603.
 
 COMUS. xlix 
 
 rhyme. Following on Marlowe Shakespeare developed the 
 measure as a dramatic instrument. Milton entered on the 
 heritage which Shakespeare bequeathed and carried blank 
 verse to its highest pitch of perfection as a narrative form. 
 
 Briefly, that perfection lies herein : if we analyse a page 
 of Paradise Lost we find that what the poet has Peculiar excel- 
 to say is conveyed, not in single lines, nor in rigid 1 " S ^^nl 
 couplets but in flexible combinations of verses, V"**- 
 which wait upon his meaning, which, therefore, do not twist 
 or strain the sense, and which are regulated by an internal 
 concent and harmony as subtly balanced as a chorus of 
 Sophocles. Milton formulated his theory of blank verse in 
 the preface to Paradise Lost. It amounted to no more than 
 what he had practised years before in Comus. The system may 
 be more elaborate in the later poem ; but the radical identity of 
 the metres of Masque and epic in this the salient quality of 
 Milton's verse deserves notice. 
 
 On the other hand, a technical variation of some importance 
 has to be mentioned, to wit, the prevalence in ,, 
 
 Verses with 
 
 Comus of an extra syllable at the close of a verse. #* extra, syi- 
 The eighth line in Comus belongs to the extra- 
 syllabled type : 
 
 "Strive to keep up a frail and feverish bezw^." 
 
 Here the italicised syllable is superfluous. The percentage of 
 verses in which this metrical license occurs is large in Comus 
 still larger in Samson Agonistes but small (as Coleridge, I 
 believe, first pointed out) in Paradise Lost. According to Pro- 
 fessor Masson, the percentages read as follows : in Comus 9, 
 in Paradise Lost i (about), the rate being higher in other 
 books : in Samson Agonistes 6 : in Paradise Regained 3 4. 
 The growth of the extra-syllable variety is very perceptible in 
 Shakespeare 1 ; and we can readily understand why the blank 
 
 1 It constitutes indeed one of the most important of the metrical 
 tests. Thus Dr Furnivall takes 23 lines from the Comedy of Errors ; 24 
 from Henry VIII. In the extract from the latter there are 8 lines with 
 the supernumerary syllable ; in the extract from the early play not one.
 
 1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 verse measure took this turn. The extra syllable exactly suits 
 the spoken verse of the stage. It runs on into the next line, 
 knitting a passage together with a rapid continuity of movement 
 akin to the naturalness of ordinary conversation. Hence its 
 popularity with playwrights, whose example Milton rightly 
 followed in his dramatic pieces Comus and Samson Agonistes. 
 But epic narrative demands a statelier, slower march, and in 
 Paradise Lost the superfluous final syllable was sparingly 
 employed. 
 
 Another point in the blank verse of Comus, closely connected 
 Apparent w ith what we have just been saying, is the occur- 
 Alexandrines. rence o f lines which look like Alexandrines. An 
 ! Alexandrine must show six distinct beats. There is, I think, 
 only one verse in Comus that agrees strictly with the Alexan- 
 drine form ; viz. line 243 : 
 
 " And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies." 
 
 This is the concluding line of the first song. It has six clearly 
 defined feet; Milton obviously intended it to form a progressive 
 crescendo to the invocation. Other verses which, superficially 
 judged, might be taken as Alexandrines are 192, 617 and 763. 
 These should be ranged under the class entitled by Dr Abbott 
 "apparent Alexandrines." They contain twelve syllables, but 
 the twelve syllables fail to give six beats ; consequently the lines 
 are not Alexandrines and must be explained on some other 
 principle. Thus line 763 runs : 
 
 " Is now the labour of my thoughts : 'tis likeliest." 
 
 Here the scansion ends with '//'/^-liest,' the verse being com- 
 posed of five iambic feet rounded off with a double supernumerary 
 syllable 'like-//Vj/.' Line 617 is more difficult ; but the break in 
 the middle is probably responsible for the seeming irregularity. 
 Since Milton lays great stress upon the internal economy of 
 his blank verse paragraphs, much must depend on 
 
 Casnra. . 
 
 the rest or pause which in English prosody may be 
 
 It was largely on the result of his application of this test to Henry VIII. 
 that Mr Spedding assigned to their respective authors Shakespeare 
 and Fletcher the different parts of the play.
 
 COMUS. H 
 
 treated as the equivalent of the classical ccesura. Milton's 
 favourite rest would seem to be after the third foot ; e.g. 
 
 "And took in strains that might create a soul 
 Under the ribs of Death." || 
 
 If the speech of Thyrsis, 520 580, is studied it will be found 
 that the pause comes some seventeen times or more in the part 
 of the verse indicated above. 
 
 These are the most noteworthy features in the blank verse 
 of Comus its paragraph-arrangement, numerous instances of 
 the extra-syllabled line, pseudo-Alexandrines and frequent 
 caesura after the third foot. 
 
 The lyrics are simple in structure, cast for the most part in 
 the octosyllabic measure much affected by Ben Jonson and 
 easily set as musical recitative. They show that Milton ex- 
 ercised very freely the right of using imperfect imperfect 
 rhymes. As proof of this Professor Masson aptly Ha***- 
 refers to the Echo Song. It has fourteen lines, with four 
 consecutive pairs of irregular rhyme; and it is none the less 
 wholly beautiful. 
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. 
 
 In the last years of the sixteenth century England owed 
 much to Italian culture. For the age of Spenser Italian origin 
 Italy was what France a hundred years afterwards f*e Masque. 
 became for the age of Dryden, the great authority and court 
 of appeal upon things artistic. It was from Italy that the 
 Masque came. Hall tells us in the passage from his Chronicle 
 quoted later on that the entertainment which struck people as 
 so novel in 1512 was introduced "after the manner of Italic." 
 In the Records of the Revels subsequent to this date (1512) 
 occur the words maskelyn and masculers, corruptions of the
 
 lii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Italian Maschera and Mascherati 1 . Marlowe puts these lines 
 into the mouth of Piers Gaveston, the favourite of Edward II.: 
 
 "I must have wanton poets, pleasant wits, 
 Musicians, that with touching of a string, 
 May draw the pliant king which way I please : 
 Music and poetry is his delight ; 
 Therefore I'll have Italian masks by night, 
 Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows.'' 
 
 Edward II. i. i. 
 
 Ben Jonson, again, in the introductory note to the Masque of 
 Hymen^ replying to the objection that his Masques are overladen 
 with learning, writes : "And howsoever some may squeamishly 
 cry out, that all endeavour of learning and sharpness in these 
 transitory devices, especially where it steps beyond their little 
 or (let me not wrong them) no brain at all, is superfluous : I am 
 contented, these fastidious stomachs should leave my full tables, 
 and enjoy at home their clean empty trenchers, fittest for such 
 airy tastes ; where perhaps a few Italian herbs, picked up and 
 made into a salad, may find sweeter acceptance than all the 
 most nourishing and sound meats of the world." So much 
 therefore is clear : the Masque was borrowed from Italy 2 . 
 
 1 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 320. Mr Symonds gives an extremely 
 interesting sketch of the history of the Masque, pp. 317 362. The 
 word Masque is derived from the Arabic maskharat= ' ' a buffoon, jester, 
 man in masquerade, a pleasantry, anything ridiculous" (Skeat). In 
 Italian we have maschera, mascherone, and mascherata. The English 
 spelling with a k, determined, presumably, by the Italian ch, appears 
 to be earlier than the duplicate form Masque. For the latter cf. the 
 French masque, masquerade. France, like England, borrowed it among 
 the numerous Italian words imported during the Italian wars of the 
 early years of the XVIth century. Many of them were names of games. 
 
 3 Mr Fleay thinks that the Court-Masques in Elizabeth's reign were 
 rendered by Italian players. He notes that Italians "made pastime" 
 for the Queen in 1574; that the Records of the Revels mention an 
 Italian interpreter ; and that the speeches of a Masque played before 
 Elizabeth in 1579 were translated from English into Italian, at the 
 Lord Chamberlain's direction, Chronicle History of the Stage, pp. 
 22, 26.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. iiii 
 
 Of the Masque as it was under James I. and Charles we 
 can speak with certainty, the detailed descriptions added to 
 their Entertainments by Ben Jonson and his contemporaries 
 enabling us to follow the performance of a piece as closely and 
 clearly as we might that of a modern drama from the review 
 of a competent critic. With the Masque as practised during 
 the sixteenth century the case is different. References to it, 
 or allusions to festivities at which Masques were performed, are 
 not infrequent ; but full accounts such as we afterwards get are 
 wanting. It is fair, however, to assume that the Masque after 
 its importation into this country kept to its old Italian lines : 
 knowledge therefore of what a Masque meant in Italy will help 
 us to form an idea of what it was in England. 
 
 There appear to have been two Italian forms of entertain- 
 ment to which the description ' Masque ' was ap- Thg M ue 
 plicable : the private Masquerade, and the public *' Italy, the 
 
 Masquerade 
 
 Pageant. In each masques or vizards were worn, and the Page- 
 The union of these entertainments produced the ant ' 
 English Masque of Ben Jonson : not, that is, the English 
 Masque as it was rendered in its earlier stages, but as it 
 eventually took form in its great period from 1603 1634*. 
 Practically the amalgamation of Masquerade and Pageant had 
 been previously effected in Italy. Let us consider for a moment 
 the former. 
 
 Burckhardt 2 and Mr Symonds describe (on the authority of 
 the Venetian Diary of Sanudo) the festivities which followed 
 the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia with Alfonso d'Este at Ferrara 
 in 1502. Amongst the amusements provided were five comedies 
 of Plautus which were performed on five successive nights. 
 Between the scenes were interpolated what we might call alle- 
 gorical Ballets : a number of players came on the scene, dressed 
 in allegorical costumes to represent allegorical characters, 
 executed elaborate dances and rhythmic movements to the 
 
 1 That is, from the accession of James to the date of the composition 
 of Comus. Roughly speaking, this was the time when the Masque 
 flourished best. See, however, p. Ixxii. 
 
 2 Civilisation of the Renascence, English Version, p. 317 et seq.
 
 liv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sound of music, and sang madrigals. This was the Masque 
 in its embryonic state. 
 
 Again, Mr Symonds relates the performance of a comedy 
 played at Urbino in 1513. Like the Plautine comedies on the 
 other occasion it was furnished with Masque-interludes, one 
 after each act. The second of these was a " Masque of Venus, 
 drawn along in her car by a couple of doves, and surrounded 
 by a bevy of Cupids tossing flame from lighted tapers. They 
 set fire to a door, out of which there leaped eight gallant 
 fellows, all in flames, careering round the stage in a fantastic 
 figure. The third was a Masque of Neptune. His chariot was 
 drawn by sea-horses, with eight huge monsters of the deep 
 surrounding it, and gambolling grotesquely to the sound of 
 music. The fourth was a Masque of Juno, seated on a fiery 
 car, drawn by peacocks.... When the comedy ended, Love 
 entered and explained the allegory of the interludes in a 
 concluding epilogue. The whole performance terminated with 
 a piece of concerted music from behind the scenes, 'the 
 invisible music of four viols accompanying as many voices, 
 who sang to a beautiful air a stanza of invocation' to Love 1 ." 
 These extracts throw some light on the Masquerade. The 
 noticeable points are the use of Chariots, for this supplies a 
 connecting link with the Pageant; the classical nature of the 
 subjects ; the allegorical treatment ; the music ; the dancing. 
 The last is the central motive, the point (Tappui of the per- 
 formance, which, we see, is extremely composite, the literary 
 element being confined to a few songs. Entertainments of this 
 kind were given in private houses by great nobles and their 
 friends. The players wore masques, so that there was not 
 much scope for acting. Stress evidently was laid on the 
 dresses and scenic arrangements. But the performances in- 
 volved little or nothing beyond the compass of clever amateurs, 
 desirous of rounding off a grand banquet with some pretty 
 tableaux. 
 
 There was another species of representation in which 
 masques were used; namely, the Pageant or out-of-door 
 
 1 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 324.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Iv 
 
 Procession. Originally the Procession had been religious in 
 manner and matter, forming, in fact, part of the Sacre Rappre- 
 sentazioni associated with the Feast of the Epiphany. But 
 just as the English sacred plays had developed, or degenerated, 
 into secular entertainments which in process of evolution ended 
 in the regular drama, so these Italian ecclesiastical displays 
 slowly assumed a purely mundane nature. The liturgical 
 Procession, originated and sanctioned by the Church, became 
 in Burckhardt's l words "the Florentine Trionfi or train of 
 masked figures on foot and in chariots, the ecclesiastical cha- 
 racter of which gradually gave way to the secular." Florence 
 was especially famous for these shows ; Florentines travelled 
 throughout Italy to superintend them 2 . They were entirely 
 spectacular. Immense chariots, crowded with fancifully dressed 
 figures, classical gods and goddesses and the like, passed 
 through the streets. There were elaborate erections of scaffold- 
 ing to represent scenes from classical mythology. Trains of 
 attendants marched in procession. Such was the Pageant, an 
 open-air celebration appropriate in a land where out-of-door 
 performances are favoured by a friendly sky. It gave great 
 scope to the Italian ingenuity in sculpture, architecture and 
 painting, all these arts being brought to bear upon the de- 
 signing and execution of the scenes. The figures had vizards 
 as in the private Masquerade; the subjects of the spectacle 
 were usually drawn from the classics ; and triumphal cars were 
 employed. 
 
 Since there were so many points of contact between the 
 Pageant and the Masquerade it was natural that . 
 
 The Union of 
 
 there should be some inter-action, the Pageant Masquerade 
 
 .,,..,,, , , , and Pageant. 
 
 influencing the Masquerade, and vice-versa. Ac- 
 cordingly we find that the performances at the palaces of the 
 Italian nobility, particularly in Florence under the reign of 
 Lorenzo di Medici, grew extremely elaborate. The private 
 Masque ceased to be a picturesque chain of dances, set off 
 by scenery and a few madrigals. A composite entertainment 
 came into vogue for which painter, musician, playwright, 
 
 1 P. 407. 2 Ibid. p. 408.
 
 Ivi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sculptor, architect, singer and actor all contributed something. 
 This entertainment was the Italian Masque in its later days 
 when Palladio designed scenes whereon Paul Veronese and 
 Tintoretto lavished the splendours of their palettes. And of a 
 like nature was the English Masque under James I. and Charles 
 when the leading playwright, Ben Jonson, and the first architect 
 of the day, Inigo Jones (himself a disciple of Palladio), and one 
 of the ablest of contemporary musicians, Alfonso Ferrabosco, 
 combined their several powers for the delight of the courtly 
 and critical audiences that crowded the Banquet-chamber at 
 Whitehall. 
 
 We do not hear of the Masque in this country prior to the 
 The Masgur year 1500. But performances not dissimilar from 
 in England. t j ie itaij an Masque-Pageant and Masquerade, and 
 on which it was easy to graft them, already existed. There 
 were, for instance, the City Pageants celebrated in London, of 
 which we have record as early as I236 1 . They are said to 
 have been introduced from the Netherlands, and were carried 
 out by members of the Trade-Guilds. Of dialogue or action 
 they had little, if any ; all the interest centred on the spectacle. 
 The subjects of the scenes symbolically figured were taken 
 from the trades of the various guilds. At a later time the City 
 Shows assumed a literary colouring ; dramatists like Middleton 
 and Dekker thought it worth while to provide the words. But 
 in their earliest form these entertainments fulfilled the promise 
 of their title : they were Pageants, and no more : not so artistic 
 as the Florentine Trionfi, not so classical, but essentially akin. 
 Doubtless familiarity with them stood the Masque-writers in 
 good stead when a Masque like Shirley's Triumph of Peace had 
 to be devised. The latter, though acted at Whitehall, passed in 
 procession through London from Ely House in Holborn to the 
 Palace. That part of the entertainment was a Pageant. Some 
 of those responsible for its execution may have been present at 
 one of the great Venetian or Florentine festivals. Some of the 
 spectators could recall and mentally contrast scenes witnessed 
 on the banks of the Arno or under the shadow of St Mark's. 
 1 Ward, Dramatic Literature, vol. I. p. 80.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ivii 
 
 Still more important for our purpose are the private enter- 
 tainments at Court and at the houses of the richer Private En- 
 nobles. Court-Revels 1 date (at the least) from the r3%? : 
 time of Edward III. They were superintended by etc - 
 an Abbot (or Lord) of Misrule. When the Emperor Sigismund 
 visited England in 1416 he was amused with a pantomimic 
 representation of the Life of St George. "Players of the King's 
 Interludes" are mentioned in the reign of Henry VII. The 
 learned Societies of the Inns of Court did much to foster 
 the progress of the stage. We shall see that their Masques 
 were of the costliest description, being an outcome of the 
 Twelfth Night celebrations. Dugdale tells us that the lawyers 
 made a great point of amusements as an "excellent study" 
 whereby to humanise students such as Mr Justice Shallow is 
 thought to have been. Accordingly "they (i.e. the members of 
 Lincoln's Inn) have very anciently had dancings for their re- 
 creation and delight, commonly called Revels, allowed at certain 
 seasons ; and that by special order of the Society, as appeareth 
 in 9 Henry VI., viz. that there should be four Revells that year, 
 and no more... one person yearly elected of the Society, being 
 made choice of for Director in these pastimes... which sports 
 were long before that time used 2 ." The same rule applied to 
 all four Inns of Court. Further, several nobles (such as the 
 Lords Northumberland, Oxford, Ferrers and Buckingham) kept 
 up troupes of players at their own expense. They had their 
 private companies of musicians ; choristers were attached to 
 their chapels. 
 
 There was much, therefore, to promote the performance of 
 dramatic pieces Interludes, Mummings and Disguisings. Of 
 these the Disguising was practically a simple kind of Masque. 
 It differed only in that the performers did not wear vizards. 
 
 1 A wide term ; cf. the definition of Revels in Minsheu's Dictionary 
 (1617): "Sports of dauncing, masking, comedies, tragedies, and such 
 like, used in the King's house, the houses of Courts (i.e. Inns of Court), 
 and of the great personages." 
 
 2 Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, I. p. 251.
 
 1-viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ben Jonson indeed identifies the Masque and the Disguising 
 in the following extract from the Masque of Augurs : 
 
 "Notch, Be not so musty, Sir ; our desire is only to know 
 whether the King's Majesty and the Court expect any Disguise 
 here to-night? 
 
 Groom, Disguise ! What mean you by that? 
 
 Notch. Disguise was the old English word for a masque, 
 sir, before you were an implement belonging to the Revels. 
 
 Groom. There is no such word in the office now, I assure 
 you, sir; I have served here, man and boy, a prenticeship or 
 twain, and I should know. But by whatsoever you call it, here 
 will be a Masque, and shall be a Masque, when you and the 
 rest of your comrogues shall sit disguised in the stocks 1 ." 
 
 Under these conditions, with the general tendency to imitate 
 introduction anc * acc li ma ti se Italian styles, the Court main- 
 of the Masque taining its establishment of actors and musicians 12 
 
 into Englftttd, 
 
 (mostly Italians), the wealthy nobles lending private 
 support and patronage to the stage, it was natural that an 
 entertainment so popular as the Masque had become in Italy 
 should be imported into England and straightway thrive ; and 
 in the reign of Henry VIII., whose accession had given a great 
 impetus to theatrical amusements of all kinds, the Masque 
 made its appearance. Hall says in his Chronicle*: 
 
 "On the daie of the Epiphanie at night the King with xi 
 other were disguised after the manner of Italic, called a maske, 
 a thing not sene afore in England : thei were appareled in 
 garments long and brode, wrought all with golde, with visers 
 and cappes of gold ; and after the banket doen these Maskers 
 came in with the sixe gentlemen disguised in silke, beryng 
 staffe-torches, and desired the ladies to daunce : some were 
 
 1 Cf. Bacon's Hist, of Henry VII., "masks, which were then called 
 disguises," Pitt Press ed. p. 219. 
 
 2 The salaries paid to the musicians attached to the Court of Eliza- 
 beth amounted to about ;6oo annually. Under James I., the musical 
 establishment numbered over sixty performers. The existence of this 
 body would lessen considerably the cost of producing a Court-Masque. 
 
 8 Collier, I. pp. 6768.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. lix 
 
 content, and some that knew the fashion of it refused, because it 
 was not a thing commonly seen. And after thei daunced and 
 communed together, as the fashion of the maskes is, thei toke 
 their leave and departed ; and so did the Quene and all the 
 ladies." 
 
 From this point onward till the close of the century allusions 
 to the Masque occur frequently. The expenses of the Revels 1 
 in 1515 included "Charges for Masks and Minstrelsy at Calais 
 while the King was at the siege of Terouenne." It was after a 
 Masque-party at Court in 1530 that Henry surprised Wolsey, 
 appearing suddenly at the Cardinal's palace with a train of 
 Masquers 2 . Under Edward VI. and Mary severe restrictions 
 were imposed on the theatre. The Queen, however, supported 
 a company of private players, and in 1557, on St Mark's day, 
 she commanded "a notorious mask of Almaynes, Pilgrymes 
 and Irishemen, with their insidents and accomplishes accord- 
 ingly 3 ." The performance was given out of compliment to her 
 husband who had just come over from Flanders and the newly- 
 arrived Russian ambassador. Two years later Mary visited 
 the Earl of Arundel, at his country-seat Nonsuch, in Surrey. 
 
 1 Collier, I. 68. 
 
 2 The story is told in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. It supplied 
 Shakespeare with the episode at the end of act II. in Henry VIII. 
 Warton writes: "With one of these shows, in 1530, the king formed 
 a scheme to surprise Cardinal Wolsey, while he was celebrating a 
 splendid banquet at his palace of Whitehall. At night his majesty 
 in a masque, with twelve more masquers all richly dight but strangely 
 dressed, privately landed from Westminster at Whitehall stairs. At 
 landing several small pieces of cannon were fired, which the king had 
 before ordered to be placed on the shore near the house. The Cardinal 
 ...was alarmed at this sudden and unusual noise; and immediately 
 ordered Lord Sandys, the King's Chamberlain, who was one of the 
 guests and in the secret, to enquire the reason. Lord Sandys brought 
 answer that fourteen foreign noblemen were below." The Masquers 
 were shown into the presence of the Cardinal, talked French to keep 
 up the pretence, and then removed their masques. History of English 
 Poetry, iv. p. 122. 
 
 3 Collier, I. p. 163.
 
 Ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "There," says Strype 1 , "the Queen had great entertainment, 
 with banquets, especially on Sunday night, made by the said 
 earl; together with a Mask, and the warlike sounds of drums 
 and flutes, and all kinds of musick till midnight." 
 
 Under Elizabeth the Masque steadily advanced. Her 
 favourite Leicester was devoted to the stage. He 
 
 The Masque 
 
 in Elizabeth's acted as Director of the Revels at the Temple 
 during the Twelfth Night diversions of i$6i-62 2 . 
 He had the best company of players then formed in his service ; 
 and on the visit of Elizabeth to Kenilworth in 1592 she was 
 entertained with the Pageants described by Scott. In 1594 the 
 Gentlemen of Gray's Inn followed the fashion and invited the 
 Queen to the Gesta Grayorum. She was so pleased with their 
 Masque that it had to be repeated at Shrove-tide, the second 
 performance taking place at Court. Elizabeth expressed herself 
 "much beholden " to the Society, " for that it did always study 
 for some sports to present unto her 3 ." Part of the poetry was 
 from the pen of Campion. It is interesting to note that the 
 subject was mythological, Proteus, Amphitrite, and several 
 Tritons figuring among the dramatis personae. 
 
 Masques were costly, and Elizabeth had a nice sense of 
 economy : consequently she preferred to see entertainments 
 of this expensive character at the houses of the nobles rather 
 than at her own Court. Still she patronised one writer whose 
 so-called comedies were not far removed from Masques, viz. 
 Lyly ; in 1589 when the consort of James, Anne of Denmark, 
 was expected to arrive in Scotland, Elizabeth despatched a 
 gorgeously equipped train of Masquers 4 to grace the marriage- 
 festivities ; and it may have been some performance by the 
 Children of the Chapel Royal that Spenser had in his mind's 
 
 1 Quoted by Warton, in. p. 313. 
 
 2 Nichols, Progresses of Elizabeth, I. pp. 131 142. 
 8 Ibid. p. 319. 
 
 4 Professor Henry Morley quotes the account of this embassy (which 
 was fruitless, as the Queen failed to come) given in the Records of the 
 Revels. See the Introduction to his recently published edition of Ben 
 Masques, pp. xii., xiii., and Fleay's Chronicle History, p. 77.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixi 
 
 eye when he described "the Maske of Cupid" in the Faerie 
 Queen, iii. 12. 6 25. 
 
 These references, too scattered and fragmentary to be worked 
 into a very coherent narrative, prove at least that Characteris- 
 the Masque had become popular. They do not, xvrth Cen- 
 however, afford very much information as to the tury Masque. 
 nature Of the pieces rendered ; but our impression is that the 
 development of the Masque in England was parallel to that 
 of its Italian original. The Italian Masquerade, as we saw, 
 assimilated several of the more remarkable features of the 
 Masque-Pageant. It expanded into a complex spectacular 
 representation, strongly coloured by the classical sympathy 
 which the Renaissance had done much to accentuate. So 
 with the English Masque. The entertainment of which Hall's 
 Chronicle spoke was a Masquerade distinguished from the old 
 Disguising only by the fact that the actors wore vizards : the dance 
 formed the pivot on which the evening's amusement turned. 
 But the Masques played before Elizabeth depended for their 
 interest on the presentment of picturesque scenes, heightened 
 by grace of music, of movement, of poetry. The influence of 
 the Pageant had made itself felt. Dancing ceased to be the 
 chief feature of the Masque. What was said of the Italian 
 Masque at its highest point of elaboration is mainly true of 
 the Elizabethan Masque, and wholly so of the Masque of Ben 
 Jonspn and his contemporaries. A further point of similarity 
 is that here as across the Alps the Masque remained a private 
 entertainment the appanage of the Court, of cultured societies, 
 of rich nobles. It found no place on the public stage ; firstly, 
 because pieces of which the theme was usually furnished by 
 classical mythology would have little interest for popular 
 audiences ; secondly, because the mere cost of producing a 
 single Masque would probably have ruined a theatrical man- 
 ager like Henslowe. 
 
 With the "pedant reign" of James I. came the opportunity 
 of the Masque- writer. Tames had the Stuart fond- , 
 
 r he Masque in 
 
 ness for amusements. He was learned and liked the xvnth 
 to be the cause of learning in others. Nothing 
 
 v- /
 
 Ixii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 could have suited his taste better than the stately, academic 
 Masque : it presented such wide possibilities to an enlightened 
 Maecenas for the display of his classical bent and scholarship. 
 The King delighted in Masques, and the nobles took their cue 
 from the Court. To produce a Masque before the monarch 
 was the readiest way of winning his favour. The index to 
 Nichols' Progresses of James, with its long list of entertainments 
 rendered at the houses of his courtiers, shows how frequently 
 this expensive method of securing popularity was employed. 
 
 And if Masques were wanted England had at that time 
 The Music of two or three artists preeminently capable of sup- 
 Masques. plying them. Music 1 , of course, counted for much, 
 
 and who could write more effectively than the foreign composer 
 Alfonso Ferrabosco 2 , long settled in this country? He was not 
 a learned musician, not a theorist whose works exhausted the 
 then known resources of musical technique; but, an Italian by 
 birth and training, he could compose exactly the easy, melodious 
 
 1 Cf. the comic prologue with which Love Restored begins. The 
 audience are supposed to be waiting. At last the Masque-Genius, 
 Masquerade, enters to explain the cause of the delay. "Good faith, 
 an't please your Majesty, your Masquers are all at a stand ; I cannot 
 think your Majesty will see any show to-night, at least worth your 
 patience. Some two hours since, we were in that fonvardness, our 
 dances learned, our masqueing attire on, and attired... Unless we 
 should come in like a morrice-dance, and whistle our ballad ourselves, 
 I know not what we should do : we have neither musicians to play our 
 tunes... and the rogue play-boy that acts Cupid is got hoarse." 
 
 2 He was the son of an Italian musician (with the same Christian 
 name) who had come to England about 1550. Alfonso Ferrabosco, 
 the elder, received a pension from Elizabeth in 1567, and twenty years 
 later returned to Italy as Court-composer to the Duke of Savoy. The 
 son accompanied him, and after spending some time abroad settled 
 in England. In 1605 he was appointed music tutor to Prince Henry. 
 He enjoyed the patronage of the Court during his long life. H*e wrote 
 a good deal of Masque-music, and his name often occurs in the song- 
 books of the period. His son in turn was an accomplished musician, 
 a Doctor in Music of the University of Cambridge (per regias literas), 
 and organist of Ely Cathedral. See Grove's Dictionary of Music, s.v.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixiii 
 
 airs and flowing recitative that the stage needed. Most of the 
 incidental music to Ben Jonson's Masques came from his pen. 
 He is mentioned in them more than once 1 . 
 
 To design the scenery of a Masque was no trifling matter, 
 the structural arrangements being at once ornate 
 
 . . f The Scenery. 
 
 and ingenious. An architect of first-rate ability 
 was required; if possible, an architect who had learned in Italy 
 the secrets of classical architecture and explored the mechanism 
 of Italian Pageants. These qualifications were united in Inigo 
 Jones. He had studied in the school of Palladio. He had 
 seen many a Pageant-Procession sweeping towards the Lido 
 at Venice or winding through that Ducal Square at Florence 
 on which the lady in Browning's poem looked down. That 
 England, whose great architectonic masters have been few, 
 should have possessed just then an artist trained under such 
 peculiarly favourable and somewhat abnormal conditions, a 
 man whose rare genius raised the preparation of a theatrical 
 mise-en-sclne* to the dignity of a really fine art, was a coinci- 
 dence of the highest import for the perfecting of the English 
 Masque. 
 
 Nor was the poet lacking. A more competent Masque- 
 writer than Ben Tonson we cannot conceive. He 
 
 , . . , . . ... The Poetry. 
 
 recognised his superlative merit, and wisely pro- 
 claimed it. There could be " no brother near the throne ; " 
 Fletcher and Chapman might follow, longiore intervallo*. And 
 Ben Jonson's work was so perfect because he had the true lyric 
 
 1 e.g. in The Hue and Cry after Cupid "the tunes were Master 
 Alfonso Ferrabosco's ; " and The Masque of Queens "this last song, 
 whose notes (as the former) were the work and honour of my excellent 
 friend, Alfonso Ferrabosco." 
 
 2 Some of his designs are extant ; they are in the possession of the 
 Duke of Devonshire. See Grove's Did. of Music, article on the 
 Masqtie. There is an account of Inigo Jones' connection with the 
 Masque in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, Works (1798), ill. 271 
 
 73- 
 
 3 Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that " next himself, only 
 
 Fletcher and Chapman could make a Masque" Ward, I. p. 589. 
 
 /a
 
 Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vein, could construct a piece with the nicest technical ingenuity, 
 was a master of comic effect and situation (whence the ad- 
 mirable humour of his Anti-masques) and above all, had the 
 whole world of classical antiquity at his feet. Glancing at Ben 
 Jonson's work we shall learn something of that xvilth century 
 Masque of which Milton's Comus was the last great exemplar. 
 Fortunately Jonson not only wrote Masques he edited them, 
 mentioning the occasion on which each was performed, adding 
 sometimes a list of the performers, describing the decorations, 
 showing how the changes of scene were effected, and giving in 
 the foot-notes a commentary on the classical authorities who 
 had supplied him with the subjects and the symbolism adopted 
 in their treatment. 
 
 Jonson wrote 29 Masques and 6 Entertainments. The 
 Ben Jonson's latter are scarcely to be distinguished from the 
 Sc U f" : fs ei a Masque proper. Nearly every one either deals 
 rule classical. di re ctly with a classical theme or has some infu- 
 sion of classicism. Thus the Masque of flymen is a mosaic 
 of references to ancient marriage-customs ; parts might have 
 been written by Catullus. The Hue and Cry after Cupid was 
 suggested by an Idyll of Moschus. Pan's Anniversary is an 
 Arcadian festival, with nymphs and Naiads and shepherds 
 wandering up and down the scene. The Masque of Augurs 
 shows that Jonson knew almost everything that could be known 
 about Roman rites of augury. The commentary on the Masque 
 of Queens offers a digest of the classical conceptions and 
 practices of witchcraft. We need not extend the list. In the 
 matter of subject Ben Jonson practically fixed the type of the 
 Masque. The theme was ordinarily taken from the classics : 
 the dramatis persona; were the old-world dwellers in the classical 
 Olympus or the lesser divinities of mythology : the Masque- 
 writer kept a Vergil or an Ovid, or a Dictionary of Antiquities 
 at his side. Comus is far less tinged with classicism than the 
 ordinary Jacobean Masque. 
 
 Several of Jonson's Masques, The Masque of Blackness 
 (1605), The Masque of Queens (1609), The Fortunate Isles 
 (1626), were Twelfth Night celebrations at Whitehall. The
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixv 
 
 king and queen each produced a Masque then and at Shrove- 
 tide. Ben Jonson wrote for both James and his Occasions on 
 Consort. The Masqtte of Beauty was commanded J ^^"m- 
 by the queen : Love Restored, by her husband. The ed - 
 Court 1 was the Masque-writers' chief patron, and occasions of 
 special importance to the Court were celebrated by performances 
 in the Banqueting Hall. Thus in 1605 Prince Charles was 
 created Duke of York and a Knight of the Bath : Jonson wrote 
 The Masque of Blackness for the festivities that followed the 
 ceremony. In 1610 Prince Henry was declared Prince of 
 Wales and heir to the Crown : the rhymed heroics of the same 
 untiring laureate prophesied prosperity for the young prince 
 who died within three years. 
 
 Often a Masque formed the climax of a marriage-festival. 
 Jonson says in the introductory note to The Hue and Cry after 
 Ciipid: "The worthy custom of honouring worthy marriages 
 with these noble solemnities, hath of late years advanced itself 
 frequently with us ; to the reputation no less of our Court, than 
 nobles; expressing besides (through the difficulties of expense 
 and travail, with the cheerfulness of undertaking) a most real 
 affection in the personators to those for whose sake they would 
 sustain these persons." The Masque of Hymen, A Challenge 
 at Tilt, and other pieces come under this category. 
 
 Again, Royal visits were usually marked by a Masque- 
 representation. When in 1633 the Court stayed at Welbeck 
 with the Earl of Newcastle, the king was received with Love's 
 Welcome at Welbeck. In 1634 the Earl of Newcastle was his 
 host a second time, and Jonson wrote a companion-pageant, 
 Love's Welcome at Bolsover. In fact we may say that in the 
 reigns of James and his successor every noteworthy occasion 
 was signalised in the same way ; and the Earl of Bridgewater 
 only complied with the demands of fashion when in 1634 he 
 laid upon Henry Lawes the commission which resulted in the 
 performance of Milton's Comus. 
 
 1 Jonson speaks of Masques as being "the donatives of great 
 princes to their people", Love's Triumph through Calipolis,
 
 Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 We saw that Arcades and Comus were performed by mem- 
 The And- bers of the Egerton family. There was nothing 
 masque. unusual in this. The players in such entertain- 
 
 ments were generally noble amateurs 1 . The Queen herself, an 
 excellent actress 2 , often took part. She played in The Vision 
 of the Twelve Goddesses, by Samuel Daniel, in 1604; in the 
 same writer's Masque of Tethys (1611); in Jonson's Masque of 
 Blackness^ and in other pieces. Of course the ladies of her 
 Court assisted. Among the Masquers in the Masque of Beauty 
 were the Countesses of Arundel, Derby, Bedford, and Mont- 
 gomery. The Queen's name heads the list. Lower down we 
 read " Lady Arabella." This was the luckless heiress of the 
 House of Lennox. In the exclusiveness of the Masque lay 
 much of its charm. But one 3 part of the performance had to 
 be entrusted to professional players, viz. the Anti-masque or 
 interlude of comedy 4 . Anti-masques were not always intro- 
 duced : when they were, recourse was had to the skilled services 
 of actors from the public theatres. 
 
 1 Cf. the preface to Jonson's Masque of Hymen : " the most royal 
 princes and greatest persons... are commonly the personators of these 
 actions." See also the introduction to the Masque of Queens, and 
 Bacon's Essay on Masques. Lists of these performers are given in 
 Fleay's Chronicle Hist., pp. 183, 184. 
 
 2 Warton, in. p. 319. 
 
 3 We ought perhaps to qualify this statement by adding that 
 professional musicians (usually the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal) 
 were hired when the solo-parts presented great difficulty. At- the 
 conclusion of the Masque of Queens Jonson mentions "that most 
 excellent voice and exact singer, her Majesty's Servant, Master Jo. 
 Allin." Compare, too, the account of Shirley's Triumph of Peace in 
 Whitelocke's Memorials, vol. I. p. 53 et seq. 
 
 4 Anti-masque is, no doubt, the correct spelling, the derivation 
 being clear: anti, masque, i.e. "foil, or false masque." Plausible 
 forms are ante-masque and antic-masque: the former, because the Anti- 
 masque generally preceded the serious part of the entertainment : the 
 latter, because the Anti-masquers were 'anticly' attired. Jonson indeed 
 uses the word antic-masque in the Masque of Augurs, probably for the 
 sake of the pun.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixvii 
 
 It would seem that the first piece in which an Anti-masque 
 occurred was Jonson's Hue and Cry after Cupid (1608). A 
 stage direction in it says: "At this, from behind the trophies, 
 Cupid discovered himself, and came forth armed ; attended with 
 twelve boys, most antickly attired." Cupid invites them in a 
 pretty sextet to "fill the room with revel;" and the direction 
 continues: "They fell into a subtle capricious dance, to as odd 
 a music, each of them bearing two torches, and nodding with 
 their antic faces, with other variety of ridiculous gesture, which 
 gave much occasion of mirth and delight to the spectators." 
 Here we have the Anti-masque in embryo. The Masqiie of 
 Queens, performed next year, is more elaborate. Jonson writes 
 in the introduction : "her Majesty (best knowing that a principal 
 part of life, in these spectacles, lay in their variety) had com- 
 manded me to think on some dance or show, that might precede 
 hers, and have the place of a foil, a false masque." This sen- 
 tence explains the whole theory and practice of the Anti-masque. 
 The latter served, and was meant to serve, as an antithesis to 
 the stately brilliance of the Pageant. The Masque proper was 
 a vision of splendour, suffused with the light that never rested 
 on sea or land. But something suggestive of real life was 
 wanted, characters sketched from the world's Vanity Fair ; 
 and this the Anti-masque gave. 
 
 Ben Jonson (to whom and not to Chapman belongs, I think, 
 the credit of the invention) used the device with ,. , 
 
 Tlie object of 
 
 the happiest effect. He was a master of comedy, the Anti- 
 He wrote an Anti-masque as he might have written 
 a scene in Every Man Out of his Humour. His comic inter- 
 ludes teem with clever, witty strokes, true and dramatic charac- 
 terisation, humorous action. They supply the one element in the 
 Masque faithful to fact, and their effectiveness is increased by 
 the skill with which he inserts them. Often his pieces start with 
 the Anti-masque. Several characters carry on a comic dialogue 
 which reads like an extract from Bartholomew Fair. Then 
 suddenly the scene changes : the curtain is rolled back : the 
 audience are translated at a breath from contemporary London 
 to Olympus or the Elysian fields, and the stereotyped figures of
 
 Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 conventional comedy make way for the stately hierarchy of the 
 classical heaven. Or the band of Anti-masquers will appear in 
 the middle of an entertainment. One moment personifications 
 of Delight, and Harmony, and Love (for the allegorical element 
 predominated throughout the history of the Masque) move 
 across the scene, chanting some rhythmic choral strain to a slow 
 recitative : the next all is confusion : the Anti-masquers rush 
 forward, grotesque in dress and movement. It matters little at 
 what point Ben Jonson brings in the comic diversion. The 
 object aimed at, the effect achieved, are the same : he parodies 1 , 
 as it were, his own work, raises a laugh, and achieves a suc- 
 cession of vivid contrasts, fusing the idealism of mythological 
 pageantry with the laughable commonplace or incongruities of 
 the comtdie humaine' i . 
 
 Milton does not attempt to work out an Anti-masque motive 
 in Comusj very wisely, as he had little humour in his nature. 
 But it may be conjectured that had Ben Jonson been the author 
 of Comus at least two episodes in the poem would have been 
 treated as burlesque interludes ; these occur at line 93 where 
 Comus first appears, and at line 957. 
 
 One more point in Jonson's Masques must be noticed. 
 
 1 Gifford in his excellent criticism on Jonson's Anti-masques speaks 
 of them as "parodies, or opposites of the main Masques." Perhaps a 
 parallel to the Anti-masque may be found in the satyric drama 
 appended to the tragic trilogies of the Greek dramatists. We may 
 remember, too, how Aristophanes heightens the boisterous realism of 
 his comedy by the use of lyric interludes. 
 
 2 In the hands of inferior writers the Anti-masque degenerated 
 into mere buffoonery. It was made a vulgar vehicle of appeal to the 
 'groundlings.' Dr Ward quotes Shirley's lament over the non-literary 
 tone of the Masque in its period of decline : 
 
 "Things go not now 
 
 By learning; I have read 'tis but to bring 
 Some pretty impossibilities, for anti-masques, 
 A little sense and wit disposed with thrift, 
 With here and there monsters to make them laugh 
 For the grand business" The Royal Master ; n. i.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixix 
 
 They are literature: many Jacobean Masques are not. Jonson 
 had a just sense of the dignity of this favourite 
 
 The poetic as- 
 
 form of entertainment. He appreciated keenly p ec t a/the Mas- 
 the finer purposes to which it might be turned, qve ' 
 and championed its poetic side. Ready to allow all praise 
 to the inventive resource of Inigo Jones, to the skill displayed 
 by Ferrabosco in setting the airs and choral pieces, to the 
 ingenuity even with which "Master Thomas Giles 1 " arranged 
 and executed corantos, and galliards, and lavoltas, Jonson 
 insisted that the words were the real life and anima of the 
 Masque. The place of honour should be given to poetry : the 
 other arts music, sculpture, painting must serve as her hand- 
 maids. He contended, putting his contention into practice, that 
 the Masque should be "grounded upon solid learning 2 :" should 
 "carry a mixture of profit. ..no less than delight 3 :" should be 
 the breathing body of high thought and high immortal verse 
 over which floated the "sky-tinctured" robe of scenic splen- 
 dour 4 . 
 
 It was not a popular view ; not by any means the view held 
 by his collaborators. Even some of his brother Masque-writers 
 thought differently 5 . Daniel in the preface to the Masque of 
 Tethys declared that the poet's share in a Masque was "the 
 least... and of least note: the only life consists in show, the 
 art and invention of the architect gives the greatest graces, and 
 is of the most importance." Chapman placed his name below 
 that of Inigo Jones on the title page of the Masque of the Middle 
 Temple (1612 13). Ben Jonson 6 would have none of this sub- 
 
 1 Related, perhaps, to the composer, Nathaniel Giles, an ex- 
 chorister of Magdalen College, Oxford, who attained great celebrity. 
 
 2 Masque of Hymen, preface. 
 
 3 Lovers Triumph through Callipolis, preface. 
 
 4 According to Mr Symonds the Masque of Ben Jonson "was far 
 superior to anything of the kind which had appeared in Italy;" judged, 
 that is, from the standpoint of poetry. 
 
 5 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 343. 
 
 6 On the title page of Pan's Anniversarie he wrote : The Inventors 
 igo yones ; Ben Jonson. In subsequent Masques the order of the
 
 Ixx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 servience- The play was the thing not the decorations. His 
 comedy would wake smiles long after the clever antic-making 
 Anti-masquers had followed the footsteps of Imperial Caesar 
 and turned to clay. The perishable structures of Inigo Jones, 
 the cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces that rose like an 
 exhalation in the Banquet Hall would crumble with all their 
 painting and mechanism into dust; but the poet's exquisite 
 lyrics would echo for ever. 
 
 This was the position assumed by Ben Jonson, and the old, 
 The dispute irreconcileable antagonism between dramatist and 
 ''son'atid inigo scene-painter has never been put more neatly than 
 jottes. i n his "Expostulation with Inigo Jones." They 
 
 were the Dioscuri of the English Masque, and the architect 
 thought that his services were of prior importance; to which 
 the Laureate retorted : 
 
 What is the cause you pomp it so, I ask? 
 
 And all men echo, you have made a masque. 
 
 I chime that too, and I have met with those 
 
 That do cry up the machine, and the shows; 
 
 The majesty of Juno in the clouds, 
 
 And peering forth of Iris in the shrouds; 
 
 The ascent of Lady Fame, which none could spy, 
 
 Not they that sided her, dame Poetry, 
 
 Dame History, dame Architecture too, 
 
 And goody Sculpture, brought with much ado 
 
 To hold her up; O shows, shows, mighty shows, 
 
 The eloquence of masques, what need of prose, 
 
 Or verse, or prose, t' express immortal you? 
 
 Or to make boards to speak, there is a task ! 
 Painting and carpentry are the soul of masque ! 
 
 The last line is the best possible commentary on many Masques. 
 
 names was reversed. Jonson was never reconciled to his old friend, 
 whom he tried to satirise in his last play The Tale of a Tub, 1633, one 
 of the four inferior pieces curtly dismissed by Dryden as "Ben's 
 Dotages." Inigo Jones was introduced as "Vitruvius Hoop." He 
 complained to the Master of the Revels, and the part was struck out.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixxi 
 
 They merely served as pegs whereon to hang costly extrava- 
 gance. For Jonson the Masque meant literature ; and his finest 
 pieces have always the lyric beauty, if only now and then the 
 philosophic elevation, of Milton's Comus. 
 
 We have dealt mainly with Ben Jonson because his work 
 embodies the best achievement of the English otherMasque- 
 Masque during the epoch of its ascendance. But wrlters - 
 he did not stand alone in writing entertainments for the Court 
 and other noble patrons. Shakespeare more than once came 
 very near to composing a Masque. Thus Midsitmmer Nighfs 
 Dream, written probably for some wedding-celebration, is rather 
 a Masque-comedy than comedy proper. The pageant of Hymen x 
 in As You- Like It might have been detached from an ordinary 
 Masque. The same seems true of The Tempest*, Act IV; and, 
 partially so, of Cymbeline, Act v. scene iv. The introduction 
 of Masquers in Henry VIII. has been already noted, and we 
 should not forget the frequent references throughout Shake- 
 
 1 A good example of the influence exercised by the Masque. The 
 episode is a beautiful interpolation which really delays the action of the 
 play. It was omitted in the last century representations of As You 
 Like It, and first restored to the acting-version by Macready in his 
 notable revival of the comedy. An accomplished Shakesperian critic 
 decides against the retention of the pageant Shakespeare's Female 
 Characters, p. 352. 
 
 2 Tieck argued that the whole play belonged to the class of private 
 pieces written for performance at Court, and was really a species of 
 Masque. The theory is favoured by the fact that the Tempest was 
 acted on the occasion of the marriage of James the First's daughter, 
 Princess Elizabeth, with the Elector Palatine in 1613 (Malone, on 
 the authority of the Vertue MSS.). Chapman composed a Masque 
 in honour of the same celebration. Tieck's theory, (restated by 
 Dr Garnett in the Universal Review, April, 1889, and the Irving 
 Shakespeare, vn. p. 176), deserves attention, if only because it 
 emphasises the point that the Tempest has close kinship with the 
 Jacobean Masque. When Shakespeare's comedy was produced at 
 Drury Lane in 1746 the performance concluded with a "Masque of 
 Neptune and Amphitrite," based, probably, on the operatic version of 
 the Tempest by Davenant and Dryden.
 
 Ixxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 speare's plays to the Masque. Briefly there is plenty of 
 evidence to show that he was quite familiar with this academic 
 form of drama, and that his style was not unaffected by it. 
 Among regular authors 1 of Masque-entertainments were Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher; Dekker and Middleton, who wrote City- 
 Pageants ; Daniel, Chapman and Marston, patronised mainly 
 by the Court and nobles ; Shirley and Carew. 
 
 The two last-mentioned poets represent the fading glories of 
 the Masque. It declined somewhat on the death of James in 
 1625. Charles I. indeed was equally devoted to amusements. 
 He was a good actor. As a boy he had played in several of 
 Jonson's pieces, and Lcrue's Triumph through Callipolis (1630) 
 was performed "by his Majesty, with the Lords and Gentlemen 
 Assisting." But the Masque had become too costly 2 . Financial 
 troubles prevented Charles from being so active a patron as his 
 father. Moreover Ben Jonson was in failing health, and had 
 fallen into disfavour. Between 1626 and 1630 he kept silence. 
 In the latter year two Masques came from his pen : after that 
 he wrote no more for the Court. 
 
 Meantime Whitehall had found a rival in the Inns of 
 Masques at the Court. The performances given by the legal 
 innsp/Courf. societies appear to have eclipsed the representa- 
 
 1 Several of them, besides writing regular Masques, introduced in 
 their plays Masque-interludes and pageants similar to the episode in 
 As You Like It. Mr Symonds reminds us of the "Bridal Masque" in 
 Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy. Webster has a kind of Anti-masqu,e in 
 The Duchess of Malfi. 
 
 2 James spent over ^4000 on Masques during the first seven years 
 of his reign, roughly equivalent to about .16000 in modern money. 
 It did not include the sums devoted to the same purpose by the Queen, 
 who was notoriously extravagant. Among especially costly Masques 
 were Daniel's Hymen' 1 s Triumph (,3000), Jonson's Masque of Blackness 
 (also about .3000), The Hzie and Cry after Cupid (nearly (^4000), and 
 Shirley's Triumph of Peace (for which see later). An inexpensive piece 
 like Jonson's Oberon involved an outlay of only 1000 (See Shakspere*s 
 Predecessors, p. 339); but this was an exceptionally cheap evening's 
 diversion.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixxiii 
 
 tions at the Palace. Twelfth Night festivities, we saw, had long 
 been a tradition at the Inns and the Temples. From 1594 
 (when Elizabeth was entertained at Gray's Inn), we hear of their 
 Masques not infrequently. Beaumont and Fletcher composed 
 a piece for the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn in 1612. Dug- 
 dale 1 , quoting from the Registers of Lincoln's Inn, noted that 
 the third occasion in the history of that society on which extra 
 expenses were voted was at "a Mask in n Jan. presented... 
 before the King, at the marraige of the Lady Elizabeth his 
 daughter, to the Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhene ; which 
 cost no less than ^1536. 8s. nd." This must have been 
 Chapman's piece. But the performance beside which all others 
 paled their fires was that of Shirley's Triumph of Peace (1634). 
 Prynne's Histrio Mastix had appeared in the previous year. 
 Here was the counterblast 2 . Extremely costly did it prove. 
 The four Inns of Court combined, and the total outlay exceeded 
 
 1 Progresses of Elizabeth, vol. I. p. 251. 
 
 2 Cf. Whitelocke's account of the circumstances under which the 
 Masque was produced. He says: "About Allholantide several of the 
 principal members of the societies of the four inns of court, amongst 
 whom some were servants to the king, had a design that the inns of 
 court should present their service to the king and queen, and testify 
 their affections to them, by the outward and splendid visible testimony 
 of a royal mask of all the four societies joining together, to be by them 
 brought to the court, as an expression of their love and duty to their 
 majesties. This was hinted at in the court, and by them intimated to 
 the chief of these societies, that it would be well taken from them, and 
 some held it the more seasonable, because this action would manifest 
 the difference of their opinion from Mr Prynne's new learning, and 
 serve to confute his Histrio Mastix against interludes. This design 
 took well with all the inns of court, especially the younger sort of them, 
 and in order to put it into execution, the benchers of each society met, 
 and agreed to have this solemnity performed in the noblest and most 
 stately manner that could be invented" Memorials, vol. I. p. 53. 
 Whitelocke belonged to the Middle Temple where the Revels were 
 more elaborate than at the other Inns of Court, the gentlemen of the 
 society keeping up the old practice of electing a "Prince d'Amour" to 
 preside over entertainments (Ward, II. 572, 73).
 
 Ixxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 j^2i,uuo l . Shirley : s Masque was played on February the 3rd. 
 A fortnight later the Court replied with a performance scarcely 
 less magnificent of Carew's Ccelum Britannicum. The King 
 was among the Masquers 2 . 
 
 With these rival representations, the outcome in part of a 
 fictitious enthusiasm, the Masque touched its zenith and fell. 
 Entertainments which swallowed up a sum equivalent to the 
 revenue of a small country could not be matters of frequent 
 occurrence. The royal purse was none too full. Even the 
 loyalty of the Inns of Court must have been sobered by the bill 
 of ^5000 that each had to pay 3 . The last Masque at Whitehall 
 
 1 According to Whitelocke, "the persons employed in this mask 
 were paid justly and liberally." He had himself made the arrangements 
 for the musical part of the ceremony. It "excelled any music that ever 
 before that time had been heard in England;" and cost ,1000. Some 
 of the musicians (mostly foreigners from the Queen's Chapel) received 
 ;ioo apiece. They rehearsed for weeks, "English, French, Italian 
 and Germans, and other masters of music : forty lutes, at one time, 
 besides other instruments and voices of the most excellent musicians 
 in consort." On the dresses more than .10,000 was spent. The 
 remaining charges were estimated at another .10,000. Particularly 
 noticeable was an Anti-masque of cripples and beggars, over whose 
 "apparelling" the greatest pains had been taken by "Mr Attorney 
 Noy, Sir John Finch, Sir Edward Herbert, Mr Selden, those great and 
 eminent persons." The presence of such distinguished names shows 
 how serious a matter the rendering of a Masque had become. After 
 the Triumph was performed the Queen, Henrietta Maria, and the 
 ladies of her Court danced widi the Masquers, and "thus they continued 
 in their sports until it was almost morning;" the morning, namely, of 
 February 4th, 1634. 
 
 2 Also Viscount Brackley and Mr Thomas Egerton, the "two 
 brothers " in Conius. The Queen was specially pleased with the 
 play, remarking that " pour les habits elle n'avait jamai.s rien vue 
 (jzV) de si brave," Fleay, p. 318. 
 
 3 At Gray's Inn the extra expenses incurred on these occasions were 
 divided equally among "all the Society at that time in Commons," 
 Nichols, Progresses of Elizabeth, 11. p. 393. A list of the Masques 
 represented by the different Inns of Court is printed in Fleay's 
 Chronicle History, pp. 416 418.
 
 THE ENGLISH MASQUE. Ixxv 
 
 of which any notice survives fell on Shrove-Tuesday, 1640. 
 Perhaps pageants more splendid than this pathetic "last 
 scene of all " had been witnessed in the chamber from which a 
 few years later Charles I. stepped forth to his execution ; but 
 never before had the tinsel radiance and glitter of the Masque 
 been thrown into such dazzling relief by the grim shadow of 
 approaching disaster. The performance 1 closed an interesting 
 chapter in the history of the English drama. 
 
 With the Restoration the drama revived ; but the Masque 
 had no part in its recrudescence. It did not 
 
 ,- . . . Tfa Masque 
 
 indeed die out entirely : entertainments which after the RC- 
 have been popular are always liable to periodic 
 resuscitation from the whims of fashion. In 1675 tne Court 
 played Crown's Masque of Call 'sto 2 . There was a Masque at 
 Gray's Inn on Shrove-Tuesday, 1683 3 . Similar representations 
 during the xvmth century, and even in our own time 4 , might 
 be recorded. But spasmodic revivals have a purely antiquarian 
 interest. Substantially the Masque, as a recognised and regu- 
 larly practised type of drama, ended with the outbreak of the 
 Civil War ; and there were various reasons why it did not come 
 to life again. 
 
 First, it had never been based on any firm foun- 
 dation of popular acceptance. Art which is exclusive and 
 dependent on the patronage of fashion must always be pre- 
 carious, since what is in vogue to day is voted obsolete to- 
 morrow. The Jacobean nobles had travelled in Italy, bringing 
 home the last-born ingenuities of the Italian Masque : their 
 grandsons stayed in Paris and transplanted to English soil the 
 
 1 The piece was the Salmacida Spolia of Davenant who had suc- 
 ceeded Ben Jonson as Poet Laureate. 
 
 2 Cf. Evelyn's Diary, II. 94, " saw a comedy, at night, at Court, 
 acted by the ladies only." 
 
 3 Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth (1823), vol. I. p. xxi. He 
 prints a facsimile of the ticket of admission to the Hall of Gray's Inn 
 on this occasion. 
 
 4 See Grove's Diet, of Music, Article on the Masque, where a piece 
 (Freya's Gift) by the late Professor of Music at Cambridge, Sir George 
 Macfarren, is classed as a Masque.
 
 Ixxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 comedy of Moliere. Again, the conditions* under which the 
 stage thrived after the Restoration were different from what 
 they had been before the Civil War. As the public theatre 
 developed private representations declined. Under the tyranny 
 of Puritanism the tradition of amateur-acting had passed away. 
 The stage was now in the hands of professional players who 
 trusted entirely to popular support ; and the audiences who 
 applauded the eccentricities of Sir Fopling Flutter or Sir 
 Courtly Nice would have cared nothing for the lyric charm 
 and learning of Jonson's Masque of Hymen. Lastly, the 
 Masque had been too multifarious in motive. It had in- 
 cluded everything that could be pressed into the service 
 of the stage, the interest of costly scenery, sculpture, painting, 
 architecture ; comedy, declamation, dialogue ; picturesque 
 dance and movement ; music in the form of solo-melodies, 
 of recitative to which much of the libretto was declaimed, and 
 of incidental accompaniment to the action. 
 
 A priori we should expect that an art so complex would fall 
 . to pieces, and that some outcome that embodied 
 
 The Masque is ' . ' . . . 
 
 succeeded by the mam elements of the original would arise from 
 its ruins. The Opera was the direct and lineal 
 successor of the Masque. Some of the later Masques of 
 Charles' reign cannot have been far removed from operas. 
 The transition was easy. Musicians who began by writing 
 Masque-music ended by composing operas. The first piece to 
 which historians of the drama assign the title opera is Davenant's 
 Siege of Rhodes^, 1656. Part of the music was written by 
 Lawes, part by Lock. The latter, who afterwards gained 
 celebrity by his operatic setting of Davenant's adaptation of 
 Macbeth (1673), and Shad well's Psyche, had as a young man 
 supplied the musical framework of Shirley's Masque, Cupid 
 and Death. Lawes' connection with the Masque is noticed 
 elsewhere. The names of these composers supply the necessary 
 link of connection. They unite the first period of the short- 
 lived English Opera with the later history of the once-resplen- 
 dent English Masque. 
 
 1 Some account of the performance is given in Mr Sutherland 
 Edwards' History of the Opera, vol. I. 30, 31.
 
 ARCADES. 
 
 V.
 
 ARCADES. 
 
 Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby 
 at Harefield by some Noble Persons of her Family ; who appear on 
 the Scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with 
 this song: 
 
 I . Song. 
 
 LOOK, Nymphs and Shepherds, look ! 
 What sudden blaze of majesty 
 Is that which we from hence descry, 
 Too divine to be mistook? 
 
 This, this is she 
 
 To whom our vows and wishes bend : 
 Here our solemn search hath end. 
 Fame, that her high worth to raise 
 Seemed erst so lavish and profuse, 
 We may justly now accuse 10 
 
 Of detraction from her praise : 
 
 Less than half we find expressed ; 
 
 Envy bid conceal the rest. 
 
 Mark what radiant state she spreads, 
 In circle round her shining throne 
 Shooting her beams like silver threads : 
 This, this is she alone, 
 
 Sitting like a goddess bright 
 
 In the centre of her light.
 
 4 ARCADES. 
 
 Might she the wise Latona be, 20 
 
 Or the towered Cybele, 
 Mother of a hundred gods? 
 Juno dares not give her odds : 
 
 Who had thought this clime had held 
 
 A deity so unparalleled? 
 
 At they come forward, THE GENIUS OF THE WOOD appears, and, 
 turning toward them, speaks. 
 
 Gen. Stay, gentle Swains, for, though in this disguise, 
 I see bright honour sparkle through your eyes ; 
 Of famous Arcady ye are, and sprung 
 Of that renowned flood, so often sung, 
 Divine Alpheus, who, by secret sluice, 30 
 
 Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse; 
 And ye, the breathing roses of the wood, 
 Fair silver-buskined Nymphs, as great and good. 
 I know this quest of yours and free intent 
 Was all in honour and devotion meant 
 To the great mistress of yon princely shrine, 
 Whom with low reverence I adore as mine, 
 And with all helpful service will comply 
 To further this night's glad solemnity, 
 And lead ye where ye may more near behold 40 
 
 What shallow-searching Fame hath left untold; 
 Which I full oft, amidst these shades alone, 
 Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon. 
 For know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power 
 Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower, 
 To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove 
 With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove; 
 And all my plants I save from nightly ill 
 Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill ;
 
 ARCADES. 5 
 
 And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, 50 
 
 And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue, 
 
 Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites, 
 
 Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites. 
 
 When evening grey doth rise, I fetch my round 
 
 Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground; 
 
 And early, ere the odorous breath of morn 
 
 Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled horn 
 
 Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about, 
 
 Number my ranks, and visit every sprout 
 
 With puissant words and murmurs made to bless. 60 
 
 But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness 
 
 Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I 
 
 To the celestial Sirens' harmony, 
 
 That sit upon the nine infolded spheres, 
 
 And sing to those that hold the vital shears, 
 
 And turn the adamantine spindle round 
 
 On which the fate of gods and men is wound. 
 
 Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, 
 
 To lull the daughters of Necessity, 
 
 And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 70 
 
 And the low world in measured motion draw 
 
 After the heavenly tune, which none can hear 
 
 Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. 
 
 And yet such music worthiest were to blaze 
 
 The peerless height of her immortal praise 
 
 Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit, 
 
 If my inferior hand or voice could hit 
 
 Inimitable sounds. Yet, as we go, 
 
 Whate'er the skill of lesser gods can show 
 
 I will assay, her worth to celebrate, 80 
 
 And so attend ye toward her glittering state; 
 
 Where ye may all, that are of noble stem, 
 
 Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem.
 
 ARCADES. 
 
 II. Song. 
 
 O'er the smooth enamelled green, 
 Where no print of step hath been, 
 
 Follow me, as I sing 
 
 And touch the warbled string : 
 Under the shady roof 
 Of branching elm star-proof 
 
 Follow me. 90 
 
 I will bring you where she sits, 
 Clad in splendour as befits 
 
 Her deity. 
 Such a rural Queen 
 All Arcadia hath not seen. 
 
 III. Song. 
 
 Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more 
 
 By sandy Ladon's lilied banks; 
 On old Lycseus, or Cyllene hoar, 
 
 Trip no more in twilight ranks ; 
 Though Erymanth your loss deplore, 
 
 A better soil shall give ye thanks. 
 From the stony Maenalus 
 Bring your flocks, and live with us; 
 Here ye shall have greater grace, 
 To serve the Lady of this place. 
 Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, 
 Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. 
 
 Such a rural Queen 
 
 All Arcadia hath not seen.
 
 COMUS. 
 
 ; A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634.
 
 DEDICATION 1 OF THE ANONYMOUS EDITION OF 1637. 
 
 " To the Right Honourable John, Lord Brackley^ son and 
 heir-apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater etc." 
 
 " MY LORD, 
 
 " This Poem, which received its first occasion of 
 birth from yourself and others of your noble family, and much 
 honour from your own person in the performance, now returns 
 again to make a final dedication of itself to you. Although 
 not openly acknowledged by the Author, yet it is a legitimate 
 offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often copying 
 of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction, 
 and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public 
 view, and now to offer it up, in all rightful devotion, to those 
 fair hopes and rare endowments of your much-promising youth, 
 which give a full assurance to all that know you of a future 
 excellence. Live, sweet Lord, to be the honour of your name ; 
 and receive this as your own from the hands of him who hath 
 by many favours been long obliged to your most honoured 
 Parents, and, as in this representation your attendant Thyrsis, 
 so now in all real expression 
 
 Your most faithful and most humble Servant, 
 H. LAWES." 
 
 1 Reprinted in the edition of 1645 : omitted in that of 1673.
 
 " The Copy 1 of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the 
 Author upon the following Poem." 
 
 " From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " It was a special favour when you lately bestowed 
 upon me here the first taste of your acquaintance, though no 
 longer than to make me know that I wanted more time to value 
 it and to enjoy it rightly ; and, in truth, if I then could have 
 imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I understood 
 afterwards by Mr H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar 
 phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme 
 thirst), and to have begged your conversation again, jointly with 
 your said learned friend, over a poor meal or two, that we 
 might have banded together some good Authors of the ancient 
 time ; among which I observed you to have been familiar. 
 
 " Since your going, you have charged me with new obliga- 
 tions, both for a very kind letter from you dated the 6th of this 
 month, and for a dainty piece of entertainment which came 
 therewith. Wherein I should much commend the tragical part, 
 if the lyrical did not ravish me with a certain Doric delicacy 
 in your Songs and Odes, whereunto I must plainly confess to 
 have seen yet nothing parallel in our language : Ipsa mollities. 
 But I must not omit to tell you that I now only owe you thanks 
 for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true artificer. 
 For the work itself I had viewed some good while before with 
 singular delight ; having received it from our common friend 
 Mr R., in the very close of the late R.'s Poems, printed at 
 Oxford : whereunto it was added (as I now suppose) that the 
 accessor)' might help out the principal, according to the art of 
 Stationers, and to leave the reader con la bocca dolce. 
 
 "Now, Sir, concerning your travels : wherein I may challenge 
 a little more privilege of discourse with you. I suppose you 
 will not blanch Paris in your way : therefore I have been bold 
 to trouble you with a few lines to Mr. M. B., whom you shall 
 
 1 Omitted in the reprint of 1673, this letter was given in the edition 
 of 1645.
 
 COMUS. 1 1 
 
 easily find attending the young Lord S. as his governor ; and 
 you may surely receive from him good directions for the shaping 
 of your farther journey into Italy where he did reside, by my 
 choice, some time for the King, after mine own recess from 
 Venice. 
 
 " I should think that your best line will be through the whole 
 length of France to Marseilles, and thence by sea to Genoa; 
 whence the passage into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravesend 
 barge. I hasten, as you do, to Florence or Siena, the rather to 
 tell you a short story, from the interest you have given me in 
 your safety. 
 
 " At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni, 
 an old Roman courtier in dangerous times ; having been steward 
 to the Duca di Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, 
 save this only man that escaped by foresight of the tempest. 
 With him I had often much chat of those affairs, into which he 
 took pleasure to look back from his native harbour ; and, at my 
 departure toward Rome (which had been the centre of his 
 experience), I had won his confidence enough to beg his advice 
 how I might carry myself there without offence of others or of 
 mine own conscience. ' Signor Arrigo mio,' says he, l i pensieti 
 stretti ed il viso sciolto will go safely over the whole world.' Of 
 which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment 
 doth need no commentary ; and therefore, Sir, I will commit 
 you, with it, to the best of all securities, God's dear love, 
 remaining 
 
 " Your friend, as much to command as any of longer date, 
 
 " HENRY WOTTON." 
 
 Postscript. 
 
 " Sir : I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent your 
 departure without some acknowledgment from me of the receipt 
 of your obliging letter ; having myself through some business, 
 I know not how, neglected the ordinary conveyance. In any 
 part where I shall understand you fixed, I shall be glad and 
 diligent to entertain you with home-novelties, even for some 
 fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in the 
 cradle."
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 
 THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the 
 
 habit of THYRSIS. 
 COMUS, with his Crew. 
 THE LADY. 
 FIRST BROTHER. 
 SECOND BROTHER. 
 SABRINA, the Nymph. 
 
 The Chief Persons which presented were : 
 
 The Lord Brackley; 
 
 Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother; 
 
 The Lady Alice Egerton.
 
 COMUS. 
 
 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 af frail and feverish being, j 
 Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, 
 After this mortal change, to her true servants 
 Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. 
 Yet some there be that by due steps aspire 
 To lay their just hands on that golden key 
 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 vapours of this sin-worn mould. 
 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, 
 Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles 
 That, like to rich and various gems, inlay 
 The unadorned bosom of the deep;
 
 14 COMUS. 
 
 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 little tridents. But this Isle, 
 The greatest and the best of all the main, 
 He quarters to his blue-haired deities; 
 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, 
 i Are coming to attend their father's state, 
 And new-intrusted sceptre. 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 despatched for their defence 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 Sun, whose charmed cup 
 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 
 And downward fell into a grovelling 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
 
 COMUS. 15 
 
 Much like his father, but his mother more, 
 
 Whom therefore she brought up, and Com us 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 imbowered, 
 
 Excels his mother at her mighty art; 
 
 Offering to every weary traveller 
 
 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 favoured 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. 
 
 As now I do. But first I must put off 
 
 These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, 
 
 And take the weeds and likeness of a swain 
 
 That to the service of this house belongs, 
 
 Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, UfrUO 
 
 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
 
 1 6 COMUS. 
 
 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, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; 
 
 with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild 
 
 *"' : " t>* as * s > but othenoise like men and women, their apparel glistering. 
 
 They come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in 
 
 their hands. 
 
 Comus. 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 toward the other goal 100 
 
 Of his chamber in the east. 
 Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 
 Midnight shout and revelry, 
 Tipsy dance and jollity. 
 Braid your locks with rosy twine, 
 Dropping odours, dropping wine. 
 Rigour 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;
 
 COMUS. I/ 
 
 And on the tawny sands and shelves 
 
 Trip the pert faeries 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, 
 
 Dark-veiled Cotytto, 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 
 
 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 loop-hole peep, 140 
 
 And to the tell-tale Sun descry 
 
 Our concealed solemnity. 
 
 Come, knit hands, and beat the ground 
 
 In a light fantastic round. 
 
 The Measure. 
 
 Break off, break off! I feel the different pace 
 Of some chaste footing near about this ground. 
 
 v. ?
 
 1 8 COMUS. 
 
 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, 1 50 
 
 And to my wily trains : I shall ere long 
 
 Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
 
 About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
 
 My dazzling spells into the spongy air, 
 
 Of power to cheat the eye 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 fairjjretence of friendly ends, 160 
 
 And well-placed words of glozing 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 appear some harmless villager, 
 
 Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. 
 
 But here she comes ; I fairly step aside, 
 
 And hearken, if I may her business hear. 
 
 The LADY enters. 
 
 Lady. This way the noise was, if mine' ear be true, 
 My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 171 
 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 and granges full, 
 In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, 
 And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth
 
 COMUS. 19 
 
 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 
 
 With this long way, resolving here to lodge 
 
 Under the spreading favour 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 grey-hooded Even, 
 
 Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, 
 
 Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 
 
 But where they are, and why they came not back, 
 
 Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest 
 
 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 in heaven, and filled their lamps 
 
 With everlasting oil, to give due light 
 
 To the misled and lonely traveller? 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 nought but single darkness do I find. 
 
 What might this be? A thousand! fantasies j 
 
 Begin to throng into my \memory, 
 
 Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 
 
 And airy tongues that syllable men's names 
 
 On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. 
 
 These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 
 
 2 2
 
 2O COMUS. 
 
 The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 
 
 By a strong siding champion, Conscience. 
 
 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 honour 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-embroidered vale 
 Where the love-lorn 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 
 
 Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the sphere !
 
 COMUS. 21 
 
 So may'st thou be translated to the skies, 
 And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies ! 
 
 Comus. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 
 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 flowery-kirtled Naiades, 
 Culling 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; 
 But such a sacred and home-felt delight, 
 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
 
 22 COMUS. 
 
 How to regain my severed company, 
 Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 
 To give me answer from her mossy couch. 
 
 Comus. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus ? 
 
 Lady. Dim darkness and this leavy labyrinth. 
 
 Comus. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides ? 
 
 Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 
 
 Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? 
 
 Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly spring. 
 
 Comus. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? 
 
 Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick return. 
 
 Comus. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 
 
 Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit ! 
 
 Comus. Imports their loss, beside the present need? 
 
 Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 
 
 Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom ? 
 
 Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 
 
 Comus. Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox 
 In his loose traces from the furrow came, 
 And the swinked hedger 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 faery vision 
 Of some gay creatures of the element, 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 
 
 And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awe-strook, 
 And, as I passed, I worshipped. 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. 23 
 
 Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 
 
 Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, 
 In such a scant allowance of star-light, 
 Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, 
 Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 
 
 Comus. 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 neighbourhood; 
 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, 
 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 ! Shepherd, lead on. . . 330 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 Enter the Two BROTHERS. 
 
 Eld. Bro. Unmuffle, ye faint stars ; and thou, fair moon, 
 That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, 
 Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
 And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here
 
 24 COMUS. 
 
 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 levelled rule of streaming light, 340 
 
 And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, 
 
 Or Tyrian Cynosure. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Or, if our eyes 
 
 Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
 The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, 
 Or sound of pastoral 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 ! 
 
 Eld. Bro. 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,
 
 COMUS. 25 
 
 Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, 
 
 And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 
 
 As that the single want of light and noise 
 
 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 
 
 Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, 
 
 And 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 centre, and enjoy bright day : 
 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 
 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun ; 
 
 Himself is his own dungeon. 
 
 Sec. Bro. 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 grey 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. 
 You may as well spread out the unsunned heaps
 
 26 COMUS. 
 
 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. 
 
 Eld, Bro. 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 defenceless left 
 As you imagine ; she has a hidden strength, 
 Which you remember not. 
 
 Sec. Bro. What hidden strength, 
 
 Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? 
 
 Eld. Bro. 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 unharboured heaths, 
 Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds ; 
 Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 
 No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, 
 Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 
 Yea, there where very desolation dwells, 
 By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades,
 
 COMUS. 27 
 
 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 meagre 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 for ever chaste, 
 
 Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness 
 
 And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought 
 
 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 
 
 ' H?^^ " 
 
 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 i WOYt-fs~L 
 
 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,
 
 28 COMUS. 
 
 Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, 
 
 By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 7;, $- 
 
 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 sepulchres, 
 
 Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 
 
 As loth to leave the body that it loved, 
 
 And linked itself by carnal sensually 
 
 To a degenerate and degraded state. 
 
 Sec. Bro. 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. 
 
 Eld. Bro. List ! list ! I hear 480 
 
 Some far-off hallo break the silent air. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Methought so too ; what should it be ? 
 
 Eld. Bro. For certain, 
 
 Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, 
 Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, 
 Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Heaven keep my sister ! Again, again, and near ! 
 Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 
 
 Eld. Bro. I'll hallo. 
 
 If he be friendly, he comes well : if not, 
 Defence 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
 
 COM US. 29 
 
 Come not too near ; you fall on iron stakes else. 
 
 Spir. What voice is that ? my young Lord ? speak again. 
 
 Sec. Bro. O brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, sure. 
 
 Eld. Bro. Thyrsis ! whose artful strains have oft delayed 
 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 
 
 Spir. 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 ? 
 
 Eld. Bro. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without blame 
 Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 
 
 Spir. Ay me unhappy ! then my fears are true. 
 
 Eld. Bro. What fears, good Thyrsis ? Prithee briefly shew. 
 
 Spir. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
 (Though so 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 unbelief is blind. 
 
 Within the navel 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,
 
 30 COMUS. 
 
 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 likeness of a beast 
 
 Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's mintage 
 
 Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530 
 
 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts 
 
 That Wow this bottom glade; whence night by night 
 
 He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
 
 Ijke 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 savoury herb 
 
 Of knot-grass 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 
 
 The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, 
 
 And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 550 
 
 At which I ceased, and listened them a while, 
 
 Till an unusual stop of sudden silence 
 
 Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted 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,
 
 COMUS. 31 
 
 And stole upon the air, that even Silence 
 
 Was t&ok ere she was ware, and wished she might 
 
 Deny 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 ! ere long 
 
 Too well I did perceive it was the voice 
 
 Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. 
 
 Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear ; 
 
 And 'O poor hapless nightingale,' thought I, 
 
 1 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 neighbour villager. 
 
 Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 
 
 Ye were the two she meant ; with that I sprung 
 
 Into swift flight, till I had found you here; 
 
 But further know I not. 
 
 Sec. Bro. 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? 
 
 Eld. Bro. 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
 
 32 COMUS. 
 
 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 lifted up ; 
 
 But, for that damned magician, let him be girt 
 
 With all the griesly legions that troop 
 
 Under the sooty flag of Acheron, 
 
 Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 
 
 '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. 
 
 Spir, Alas ! good venturous youth, 
 
 I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 610 
 
 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. 
 
 Eld, Bro. Why, prithee, Shepherd, 
 
 How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
 As to make this relation ? 
 
 Spir, Care and utmost shifts
 
 COMUS. 33 
 
 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. 630 
 
 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 like esteemed, and the dull swain 
 Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ; 
 And yet more medicinal is it than that Moly 
 That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 
 He called it Hsemony, 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
 
 34 
 
 COM US. 
 
 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. 
 
 Eld. Bro. Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow thee; 
 And some good angel bear a shield before us ! 
 
 The Scene changes to a stately palace, set otit ivith all manner of 
 deliciousness : soft music, tables spread with all dainties. COMUS 
 appears ivith 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. 
 
 Comus. 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 
 Sorrov/ 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
 
 COMUS. 35 
 
 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? 
 
 But you invert the covenants of her trust, 
 
 And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, 
 
 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 ugly-headed monsters ? Mercy guard me ! 
 Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver ! 
 Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
 With vizored falsehood and base forgery? 
 And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here 
 With lickerish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 
 
 Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, 
 I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
 But such as are good men can give good things; p:~ 
 And that which is not good is not delicious 
 To a well-governed and wise appetite. Jt&ttO 
 
 Comus. O foolishness of men ! that lend their ears 
 To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, 
 And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, 
 
 32
 
 36 COM US. 
 
 Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence ! 
 
 Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 
 
 With such a full and unwithdrawing hand, 
 
 Covering the earth with odours, 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-worshipped ore and precious gems, 
 
 store her children with. If all the world 720 
 
 * Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, 
 
 rink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, 
 he 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 fertility : 
 The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with plumes, 
 The herds would over-multitude their lords; 731 
 
 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 light, and come at last 
 To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 
 JList, 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 bliss,
 
 COMUS. 37 
 
 Unsavoury 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 a vermeil-tinctured 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, 
 , , , . . , it _ , 
 
 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 
 
 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;
 
 38 COMUS. 
 
 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 ; 
 
 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; 
 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
 
 COMUS. 39 
 
 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 delight 
 
 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste . . . 
 
 The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his 
 hand, and break it against the ground: his rout make sign of re- 
 sistance, but are all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in. 
 
 Spir. What ! have you let the false enchanter scape ? 
 O 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 Melibceus old I learnt, 
 The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 
 
 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 sceptre 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 cross-flowing 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,
 
 4O COMUS. 
 
 And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 
 In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil, 
 
 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 
 
 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 train of thy amber-dropping hair ; 
 
 Listen for dear honour's sake, 
 
 Goddess of the silver lake, 
 Listen and save !
 
 COMUS. 4t 
 
 Listen, and appear to us, 
 
 In name of great Oceanus, 
 
 By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, 
 
 And Tethys' grave majestic pace ; 870 
 
 By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, 
 
 And the Carpathian wizard's hook ; (PV2C 
 
 By scaly Triton's winding shell, 
 
 And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell ; 
 
 By Leucothea's lovely hands, 
 
 And her son that rules the strands; 
 
 By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, 
 
 And the songs of Sirens sweet; 
 
 By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, 
 
 And fair Ligea's golden comb, 880 
 
 Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 
 
 Sleeking her soft alluring locks; 
 
 By all the nymphs that nightly dance 
 
 Upon thy streams with wily glance; 
 
 Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 
 
 From thy coral-paven bed, 
 
 And bridle in 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 azurn sheen 
 Of turkis blue, and emerald green, 
 
 That in the channel strays : 
 Whilst from off the waters fleet 
 Thus I set my printless feet
 
 42 COMUS. 
 
 O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 
 
 That bends not as I tread. 
 
 Gentle swain, at thy request 900 
 
 I am here ! 
 
 Spir. 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. 
 
 Sabr. 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 ringer'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. 
 
 SABRINA descends, and THE LADY rises out of her seat. 
 
 Spir. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
 Sprung of old Anchises' line, 
 May thy brimmed waves for this 
 Their full tribute never miss 
 From a thousand petty rills, 
 That tumble down the snowy hills :
 
 COMUS. 43 
 
 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 
 Will double all their mirth and cheer. 
 Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, 
 But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.
 
 44 COM us. 
 
 The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Tinvn, and the President's Castle : 
 then come in Country Dancers; after them the ATTENDANT 
 SPIRIT, with the t^vo BROTHERS and THE LADY. 
 
 Song, 
 
 Spir. Back, shepherds, back ! Enough your play 
 Till next sun-shine holiday. 
 
 Here be, without duck or nod, 960 
 
 Other trippings to be trod 
 Of lighter toes, and such court guise 
 As Mercury did first devise 
 With the mincing Dryades 
 On the lawns and 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 epiloguizes. 
 
 Spir. To the ocean now I fly, 
 And those happy climes that lie 
 Where day never shuts his eye, 
 Up in the broad fields of the sky.
 
 COMUS. 45 
 
 There I suck the liquid air, 980 
 
 All amidst the gardens fair 
 
 Of Hesperus, 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 shew, 
 
 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 
 
 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. (3WR.C 
 
 But far above, in spangled sheen, 
 
 Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced 
 
 Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced, 
 
 After her wandering labours 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, 1010 
 
 Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.
 
 46 COMUS. 
 
 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 
 Higher than the sphery chime ; 
 Or if Virtue feeble were, 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 ARCADES. 
 
 Title. Presented to, i.e. represented before. For present cf. the 
 direction at the beginning of Comus, The chief Persons which presented. 
 
 Dowager. Properly dcnvager means ' a widow with a jointure ; ' 
 coined from dowage= l &n. endowment.' The first part of the word is 
 obviously French dou-er, from dotare. Cf. Lat. dos, allied to do, dare ; 
 and dower Q. F. doaire, later douaire=dotarium. Age (dow-age-r) 
 is the French form of Latin aticum, not, as is sometimes stated, of 
 Low Lat. agium. Thus viaticum = voyage : Low Lat. carnaticum = 
 carnage ; and so forth. Then from age to ager was an easy step : 
 cottage cottage-r, dcnvage dowage-r. In modern E. the strict meaning 
 of dowager is lost : the word merely distinguishes the widow of a 
 nobleman from the wife of the heir who succeeds to his title. Shake- 
 speare, however, uses dowager with much closer reference to its proper 
 sense. Cf. Midsummer N. D. I. i. 5 : 
 
 " A dowager 
 
 Long withering out a young man's revenue ; " 
 
 i. e. a widow who by living on keeps the heir out of the estate. So 
 the same scene, 159 : 
 
 ' ' A dowager 
 
 Of great revenue." 
 
 For the other use cf. Henry VIII. HI. i. 70, IV. i. 23, passages which 
 Shakespeare may, or may not, have written. 
 Habit, i.e. dress. See Camus, 157, note. 
 
 Seat of State, i.e. the raised throne over which rested a canopy. 
 Cf. Henry VIII. iv. i. 67 : 
 
 "While her grace sat down 
 To rest awhile, some half an hour or so, 
 In a rich chair of state."
 
 48 ARCADES. 
 
 Sometimes we have state alone with the same sense ; e.g. in Macbeth 
 
 III. 4. 5 = 
 
 "Our hostess keeps her state." 
 
 At the performance of a Masque, or out-of-doors entertainment such 
 as was Arcades, this seat of dignity, occupied by the person in whose 
 honour the festivity was given, stood in a central position facing the 
 stage. Cf. the following stage-directions : Shirley's Triumph of Peace: 
 "At the lower end of the room, opposite to the State, was raised a 
 stage with a descent of stairs in two branches leading into the room ; " 
 where Dyce's footnote is, "i.e. the raised platform on which were 
 placed the royal seats under a Canopy" Shirley's Works, vi. p. 262. 
 Again : " The Great Hall (wherein the Masque was presented) received 
 this division, and order. The upper part where the cloth and chair of 
 state were placed, had scaffolds and seats on either side " Masque of 
 the Marriage of the Lord Hayes, by the Cambridge Musician Thomas 
 Campion, Bullen's ed. p. 150. 
 
 State might also signify the canopy by itself ; cf. P. L. X. 445 : 
 
 "Under state 
 Of richest texture spread." 
 
 Cotgrave indeed implied that it first meant the covering, then the 
 throne ; but 'there is nothing to prove this. Cf. his explanation of dais 
 or daiz: " A cloth of Estate, Canopie or Heauen, that stands ouer the 
 heads of Princes thrones, also, the whole State or seat of Estate." 
 In any case the canopy would be made of very rich material ; cf. Giles 
 Fletcher's Christ's Victorie in Heaven, 61 : 
 
 " Over her hung a Canopie of State 
 Not of rich tissew, nor of spangled gold " 
 
 (Grosart's ed. p. 119); the implication being that these textures were 
 usually employed. No doubt the simple expression State was an 
 abbreviation of Chair of State ; state in the latter having its common 
 meaning 'splendour,' 'pomp.' Note that in sixteenth century English 
 we get estate and state in the same sense. Cf. Cotgrave above and Spenser, 
 F, Q. VI. i. 27 "discovering my estate." Afterwards the forms split 
 up, estate in modern E. being practically confined to the meaning 
 'property.' Estate is the commoner in early E., from O. F. estat, Lat. 
 statum. Latin initial st became est cf. O. F. ester from stare just 
 as sp was lengthened to esp cf. esperer from sperare. The abbreviated 
 form state represents the tendency to drop an unaccented syllable at the
 
 NOTES. 49 
 
 beginning of a word ; cf. the double forms strange, tstrange squire, 
 esquire. Morris, Outlines, pp. 76, 77. 
 
 Song. Sung by one member of the band of Masquers ; not by 
 them all. 
 
 r. As pointed out elsewhere, Comus 966, this practice of address- 
 ing from the stage some noble person in the audience was quite 
 regular. 
 
 5. This, this is she. The line would have a familiar ring for the 
 Countess of Derby. Ben Jonson had written in The Satyr : 
 
 ' ' This is she, this is she 
 
 In whose world of grace 
 Every season, person, place, 
 That receive her happy be." 
 
 The Satyr was Ben Jonson's first Entertainment (Ward, Dramatic 
 Literature, I. p. 524). It was performed in June, 1603, before the 
 queen, Anne of Denmark, wife of James I., on her way to London. The 
 scene was Althorpe near Northampton, the country seat of Sir John 
 Spencer, father of the future Countess of Derby. Doubtless she was 
 present on that occasion, and the words would now be a pleasant re- 
 miniscence. The editors note too that Marston has a very similar verse 
 perhaps with the same graceful purpose in the Masque presented 
 by Lord and Lady Huntingdon (her daughter) before the Countess in 
 1607. Milton may have remembered Arcades when many years later 
 he began the first chorus in S. A. : 
 
 "This, this is he; softly awhile; 
 Let us not break in upon him," 115, 116. 
 
 6 7. As though she were a deity to whom their adoration should 
 be directed. 
 
 813. Spenser, as we have said (Introduction], had more than 
 once celebrated the beauty and noble character of the Countess. 
 
 It was to her that he dedicated the Teares of the Muses 1591, not 
 forgetting to claim kinship with the house of Spencer, a claim which 
 was allowed. Again, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe lines 536 
 583 refer to the Countess then Lady Strange and her sisters. 
 
 9. Lavish. From an obsolete verb lave= 'pour out; ' whence, by 
 a metaphor, the idea of giving bountifully. Confused, but not cognate, 
 with lave, Lat. lavo. See Comus 465, note. 
 
 v. 4
 
 50 ARCADES. 
 
 10 14. These lines at first stood rather differently. Fame, said 
 the poet, 
 
 " Now seems guilty of abuse 
 And detraction from her praise : 
 Less than half she hath expressed ; 
 Envy bid her hide the rest." Cambridge MS. 
 
 The difference between the original and the substituted lines does not 
 seem great ; though abuse in the first couplet was rather a strong word. 
 14 15. Partly metaphorical, partly a flattering reference to the 
 splendid assemblage grouped round the throne of the Countess. State 
 in Shakespeare often = ' the attendants on a great person;' hence his 
 ' household,' 'court.' Cf. Henry VIII. v. i. 24 : 
 
 " His grace of Canterbury, 
 Who holds his state at door." 
 
 10. Latona, i.e. Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis ; cf. 
 Milton's seventh sonnet : 
 
 " Railed at Latona's twin-born progeny, 
 
 Which after held the Sun and Moon in fee." 
 
 Leto = ' the concealed' or 'obscure,' and from the fact that she gave 
 birth to the deities of the sun and moon " her whole legend seems 
 to indicate nothing else but the issuing from darkness to light," Diet, of 
 Mythology. Perhaps wise because the goddess of obscurity. The point 
 of the comparison is, that from the Countess of Derby has descended 
 a brilliant line of sons and daughters, just as from Latona were born 
 Apollo and Artemis. The verse therefore conveys a twofold com- 
 pliment, to the Countess and the family assembled round her. 
 
 si, 11. Towered Cybele. Cybele, or Rhea, or Berecynthia, was the 
 wife of Saturn, and mother of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and other 
 deities : hence Milton's " mother of a hundred gods." In classical 
 writers she often appears as the /te-yaX?; f^^r^p. 
 
 Towered reproduces Vergil's turrita in ^Eneid VI. 785, a passage 
 which may have suggested the present : 
 
 qualis Berecynthia mater 
 Invehitur curru Phrygian turrita per urbes, 
 Lata deuin partu, centum complexa nepotes, 
 Omnes ccelicolas. 
 Cf. Spenser, Ruines of Rome vi. : 
 
 " Such as the Berecynthian Goddesse bright, 
 In her swifte charret with high turrets crownde."
 
 NOTES. 5 1 
 
 Line 62 of Milton's Elegia Quintet is a rather forced reference to the 
 same idea, which in works of art is symbolised by the crown on 
 the head of the goddess. The Countess of Derby might fairly be 
 compared to Cybele because (i) she had centum nepotes, (ii) she 
 probably wore her coronet and was therefore turrita. Masson notes 
 (in. 391) that the recumbent figure of this lady in Harefield church 
 bears a very beautiful crown. 
 
 23. Juno, i.e. the queen of heaven herself. In the Cambridge MS. 
 the name is changed several times. Milton first wrote Juno, then 
 erased it in favour of Ceres, and finally came back to the original. 
 
 Odds, i.e. advantage. Juno could not concede anything in her 
 favour : if they contended it would have to be on equal terms. Odds 
 often bears this sense in Shakespeare; "thou hast the odds of me," 
 Titus Andronicus, v. i. 19; "and with that odds he weighs King 
 Richard down," Richard III. in. 4. 89. The Icelandic word oddi= 
 ' ' a triangle, a point of land ; metaphorically (from the triangle) an odd 
 number " (Skeat). Allied to Icelandic oddr ' a point.' 
 
 The Genius of the Wood. Not an unfamiliar character in Masques. 
 Cf. " here comes Sylvanus, god of these woods, whose presence is rare, 
 and imports some novelty," Campion's Entertainment Given by the 
 Lord Knowles, Bullen's ed. 1 58. This rex nemorensis was useful as a 
 detis ex machina. 
 
 2,6. Gentle Swains, i.e. the gentlemen who took part in the 
 entertainment. The ladies are mentioned lower down, 33. 
 
 for explains gentle : outwardly they may be swains ; only he 
 can tell that they are 'gentle,' i.e. well-born. The adjective has 
 lost this sense except in the compound gentleman and the phrase 
 "of gentle birth." Shakespeare uses gentility = f good, extraction,' 
 As You L. I. i. i. 22 ; gentles= l gentlefolk,' Love's Z. L. iv. 2. 172 ; 
 and. gentle as a verb= ' ennoble,' Henry V. IV. 3. 63 : 
 
 "be he ne'er so vile, 
 This day shall gentle his condition." 
 
 Gent His, ' belonging to the same clan ' (gens), fared in French 
 much as in English. Gentil keeps the idea of birth in gentilhomme, 
 which we half appropriated as gentleman ; for the rest gentil= ' pretty ;' 
 cf. gentle=- 1 kind.' 
 
 28. Famous Arcady. Having called his piece Arcades ' the 
 Arcadians,' Milton was in duty bound to celebrate Arcadia, the 
 ideal land of pastoral life and pastoral associations. 
 
 42
 
 52 ARCADES. 
 
 Famous, because from the classics downwards its praises had so 
 often been sung. Everybody was familiar with the beauties of the 
 country since everybody read Sidney's Arcadia (published in 1590, but 
 written about 1580), though some people may have agreed with Milton 
 that the great Elizabethan romance was a "vain and amatorious poem" 
 (Eikonoclastes). Gabriel Harvey sneeringly suggested that Greene, his 
 Cambridge contemporary, should paint an alternative picture of Arcadia 
 and then rewrite the Faerie Queene (cf. Symonds' Shakspere's Pre- 
 decessors, p. 551). 
 
 29 31. Alpheuswasariverin.<4raz</ia. The legend said that a hunter 
 named Alpheus fell in love with Arethusa, one of the nymphs attendant 
 on Diana. To escape from him she was changed into a fountain whose 
 waters flowed under the earth and rose again at Ortygia in Sicily, near 
 Syracuse. Alpheus, however, was metamorphosed into a river, and 
 imitating her example passed under the Adriatic to unite with the 
 nymph in the fountain Arethusa. Probably the myth arose from the 
 fact that the river Alpheus goes underground not far from its source, 
 reappearing at some distance. 
 
 29. So often sung, e.g. by Vergil, JEneid III. 694 96 : 
 
 Alpheum fama est hue Elidis amnem 
 Occullas egisse mas subter mare, qui nunc 
 Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis, 
 
 Cf. Lye., lines 85 and 132, where Arethusa and Alpheus are treated as 
 names symbolical of pastoral verse, especially of the type of pastoral 
 elegy which in Lye. Milton borrowed from the Sicilian singers Theo- 
 critus, Bion and Moschus. Shelley among modern poets has told the 
 Alpheus legend in his exquisite lyric : 
 " Arethusa arose 
 From her couch of snows." 
 
 30. Divine ; because a river-god. 
 
 Secret sluice, i.e. subterranean channel. Todd notes that this 
 curious phrase is found in Sylvester's Du Bartas (1598), a work which 
 Milton had studied very closely. See Comus 132. Sluice is O. F. 
 escluse, modern ecluse ; cf. recluse from O. F. recluse. Escluse (Spanish 
 esclusa) is from Low Lat. exclusa, i.e. exclusa aqua, shut-off water. 
 Brachet says: "exclusa aqua... is used thus in Fortunatus and several 
 Merovingian documents ; " and if we turn to Du Cange we find the 
 following line from Fortunatus, X. 1 2 : 
 
 Inde per exclusas cauta rate pergimus undas.
 
 NOTES. 53 
 
 Afterwards exclusa, from signifying the water shut off, came to mean 
 the place where this was done, i.e. the mill-dam or flood-gate. Cf. 
 Du Cange, s.v. exclusa: " escluse, clusa, Locus ubi concluduntur aquce. 
 Conclusio aquarum" Apparently in English sluice has always been a 
 monosyllable, the es or ex dropping out, perhaps from the awkwardness 
 of the sound. French retained the preposition ; i.e. in O. F. escluse, 
 in modern F. ecluse, the accent (e) representing lost s, as ecrire for 
 escrire. But in Low Latin the abbreviation exclusa to sclusa or clusa, 
 had taken place ; cf. Du Cange, sicpra, and Brachet's quotation from the 
 Lex Salica : " si quis schtsam de moliendo alieno rumperit." To us the 
 rhyme sluice Arethiise seems awkward, since sluice has the sound of 
 the light s (as in recluse') whereas the s in Arethusa is a z. Most likely 
 the pronunciation of sluice has changed ; in Milton's time it may 
 have = sluze. 
 
 32. Breathing. Perhaps ' fragrant ' is the sense ; cf. the Ode to 
 Evening, by Collins : 
 
 " And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest eve.'* 
 
 Collins has the epithet frequently. 
 
 33. Silver-buskined. No doubt, literally true of the dresses of 
 the ladies. Buskined stage in // Pen. 102 stands for ' Tragedy,' the 
 Muse of which wears the buskin (cothurnus}, while her sister Comedy 
 prefers the sock (cf. L' A I., 132, and the Glosse to the Shepheards 
 Calender, October). Buskin is a Dutch word and a good example 
 of metathesis ; it should be brttskin or burskin, the letter r being 
 very liable to shift its place. See the instances given in Professor 
 Skeat's Principles of Etymology, p. 376. The Middle Dutch form is 
 broosken, i. e. a diminutive of broos, ' a legging. ' English has a con- 
 siderable number of Dutch words, introduced in different ways at 
 different times. Several are sea-terms, such as sloop, yacht, reef, skipper, 
 smack; some of the cant-terms used by the Elizabethans were Dutch ; 
 and not a few words still current, e.g. deck, fop, frolic, jeer, uproar, 
 waggon, found their way into England during Elizabeth's reign, through 
 the wars in the Netherlands against Spain. Thus George Gascoigne 
 (author of The Steel Glass) and Ben Jonson, after they left the 
 University (Cambridge), served as volunteers in Flanders, picked up 
 stray words (mostly military), and on their return naturalised them. 
 The same thing would be done by other travellers. See Skeat's Principles, 
 pp. 481 485, or his Concise Dictionary, where, p. 607, a full list of 
 these importations is given.
 
 54 ARCADES. 
 
 34. Quest, i.e. search; cf. Cotgrave : "Qiteste: A quest, inquirie, 
 search, inquisition, seeking." Quest = O. F. queste (modern quete) = 
 qiuzsita (res), a thing sought. 
 
 41. The Genius is made to repeat what had been said in the 
 introductory song, stanza u. 
 
 44. By lot, i.e. by appointment. For the same phrase in a rather 
 different sense cf. Comns 20. Lot is A. S. hlot ; for loss of initial h in 
 ///, hn, and hr, see note on lank, Comns 836. Cognate with Germ. 
 loos. The Attendant Spirit in Comus 41 announces himself as the 
 minister of ' ' sovran Jove." 
 
 46. Curl, ' adorn.' Curl is used in allusion to the metaphor in 
 ringlets. What the deity does amounts in plain prose to this : he 
 makes the young trees ( ' saplings ') grow tall and strong, decks the 
 grove with creepers and undergrowth, and intersperses it with winding 
 paths. Ringlets is intentionally vague and fanciful ; it just suggests the 
 tangled growth of a forest foliage, creepers and so forth. Curl is 
 from the Low German (to be more correct, Friesic) krul ; in Middle E. 
 spelt crul. For the shifting of the r see 1. 33. Probably cognate with 
 crook. " Middle English," we may explain, signifies in Skeat's words, 
 "English from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries inclusive." 
 
 47. Quaint, i.e. dainty, pretty; see Comus, 157. The alliteration" 
 of the verse is in the manner of the author of Atalanta in Calydon. 
 Perhaps w is treated alliteratively more than any other letter; cf. the 
 case of v in Latin. To Milton the sound was especially grateful ; cf. 
 the Nativity Ode, 51, 52 : 
 
 "And, waving wide her myrtle wand, 
 She strikes a universal peace through sea and land ; " 
 
 and again 64, 
 
 "The winds, with wonder whist." 
 
 So P. R. I. 221. Cf. for a different sound line 61 infra. Masson notes 
 that a couplet in the Faerie Queene, I. 2. 13, has much the same ring as 
 the present verse : 
 
 " Her wanton palfrey all was overspred 
 With tinsell trappings, woven like a wave." 
 
 The history of alliteration in English is interesting. In Saxon poetry 
 this trick of language occupied the place of rhyme, and as late as the 
 fourteenth century we find it holding its ground against the rhymed 
 iambic couplet (Earle's English Tongue, p. 608). During that century
 
 NOTES. 55 
 
 rhyme prevailed, but alliteration still exercised a very strong influence. 
 Cf., for example, some of Gascoigne's works (1536 1577), and pieces in 
 Totters Miscellany, 1557. By Shakespeare's time alliteration was 
 spoken of as a mark of pedantry. It became a phase of Euphuism. 
 When the University wits, Gabriel Harvey of Trinity Hall and Thomas 
 Nash of St John's College, the ablest of contemporary satirists, fell out, 
 the former taunted his adversary with imitating Greene, who in turn 
 had imitated Lyly ; to which Nash replied ; " Did I ever stuff my style 
 with herbs and stones [This alludes to Lyly's way of illustrating his 
 remarks by absurd similes drawn from an impossible natural history], or 
 apprentice myself to the running of the letter ? " Shaksperfs Predecessors, 
 p. 552. Shakespeare again, sketching the character of a pedant, makes 
 Holofernes "affect the letter," Love's L. L. iv. i. 56, and ridicules 
 alliteration in Midsummer N. D. V. 2, and elsewhere. Yet Shakespeare 
 himself sometimes ventures to write a line like the following : 
 
 "Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth," 
 
 Richard II. n. i. 52. 
 
 Spenser presents still more striking and frequent examples. We may 
 perhaps conclude that in the English of Shakespeare and Milton 
 occasional alliteration was permissible ; if it became a mannerism (as it 
 has become in much modern verse) public taste dissented and con- 
 demned the use. 
 
 47 53. Cf. Comus, 843 47, and the address to Pan in Endymion 
 
 i : 
 
 ' ' Breather round our farms, 
 
 To keep off mildews, and all weather harms." 
 
 50. Cf. Gray's Elegy, 99 : 
 
 "Brushing with hasty steps the dew away." So P. L. v. 429. 
 
 51. Thwarting, Perhaps in its literal sense 'crossing,' i.e. light- 
 ning which runs zig-zag athwart the heaven ; cf. Shakespeare's "Cross 
 blue lightning," jfulius Ccesar I. 3. 50; and Lear IV. 7. 35 "Quick 
 cross lightning." In Pericles IV. 4. 10 thwart= ' pass over :' 
 
 " Pericles 
 Is now again thwarting the wayward seas." 
 
 From the notion 'crossing' conies the secondary and common sense 
 'hindering,' which, of course, would suit here: the thunder damages 
 the growth of the forest and field. Properly thwart was an adverb ;
 
 56 ARCADES. 
 
 then an adjective, cf. Lear i. 4. 305 ; lastly a verb. A Scandinavian 
 word. 
 
 52. Cross, i.e. the planet whose evil aspect (dire-looking) brings 
 crosses or troubles. This seems more probable than cross = 'vexed.' 
 The reference is to Saturn, the morose, malign planet. Men born 
 under Saturn (like Conrade in Much Ado I. 3. 12) are surly-tempered, 
 in fact, Saturnine. In // Pen. (24) Milton makes Saturn the father of 
 Melancholy ; and in the Epitaphium Damonis, 78 80, he celebrates 
 the evil influence of the planet : 
 
 Aut te perdit amor, aut te male fascinat astrum ; 
 Saturni grave safe futt pastoribus astrum 
 Intimaque obliquo figit prcecordia plumbo. 
 
 In one of the finest passages of his History of the World (quoted in 
 Saintsbury's Elizabethan Literature, pp. 214, 215) Raleigh compares 
 the seven ages of man Shakespeare in As You Like It, n. 7. 143 166, 
 merely worked up an old-world idea to the seven planets. " The sixth 
 age," he says, "is ascribed to Jupiter; in which we begin to take 
 account of our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the perfection of 
 our understanding. The last and seventh, to Saturn ; wherein our days 
 are sad and overcast ; and in which we find by dear and lamentable 
 experience, and by the loss which can never be repaired ; that, of all 
 our vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth." 
 
 Smites. Compare Shakespeare's use of strike, to signify the harmful 
 influence exercised by the planets; e.g. in Hamlet I. i. 162, Coriolanus 
 II. 2. 117. 
 
 53. i.e. the worm that preys on blossoms, especially roses; often 
 called canker by Shakespeare. By a metaphor it came to signify any 
 corroding evil. Lat. cancer (a ' crab ' also an ' eating tumour ') was 
 one of the Latin words of the 'Second Period' (i.e. roughly speaking, 
 from A.D. 596 1000) which established themselves in Anglo-Saxon; 
 that is to say, canker did not come to us through the French ; it was 
 naturalized in Old English before the Conquest. The English were 
 converted to Christianity about 596 A.D., and many Latin words were 
 introduced by Roman ecclesiastics and English writers translating from 
 the Latin : Morris, Outlines of English Accidence, 28, 29. Cancer, the 
 disease, is the same word, the difference in meaning being shown by 
 difference in spelling, c for k. 
 
 Venom : from O. F. venim, i. e. venenum. The form venym occurs 
 in Piers the Plrnvman and Chaucer ; cf. Mayhew and Skeat's Middle
 
 NOTES. 57 
 
 English Did. s. v. Lat. e= French i (ven-^-num) is seen in various 
 words; e.g. mercedem merci. But venim is noticeable because the 
 change e to / does not often take place before a nasal. 
 
 54. Fetch, i.e. make : "I'll fetch a turn about the garden" = 'take a 
 walk,' Cymbelinel. i. 81. Fetch in this sense must long have been in 
 current use; cf. Congreve's Way of the World (1700) IV. 4, "I made 
 bold to see, to come, and know if that how you were disposed to fetch 
 a walk this evening." We still speak of a vessel 'fetching its course' by 
 any point, i.e. steering by it. 
 
 55. Over the mount. Masson reminds us that Harefield House 
 stood on a slight slope. Milton may have been there. Horton is only 
 ten miles from Harefield, and Arcades was probably written at the 
 former. 
 
 57. Cf. L' AIL 53, 54 and Gray's Elegy, 19, 20. There would be 
 tassels hanging from the horn of the huntsman. Cf. the Faerie Queene, 
 
 1.8.3: 
 
 ' ' Then took that Squire an horn of bugle small, 
 Which hung adowne his side in twisted gold 
 And tasselles gay." 
 
 Trumpeters on state- occasions often have ornamental cloths attached to 
 their instruments. O. F. tassel (the modern word being tasseau, but 
 rarely used in this sense) is from Lat. taxillus, the diminutive of talus, 
 ' a die. ' Apparently a tassel was a piece of stuff cut in such a way as to 
 resemble a die. Tassel applied to a hawk, i.e. the male bird (cf. 
 Shakespeare's tassel-gentle in Romeo and Juliet n. 2. 160), is a corruption 
 of tiercel or tercel. May the spelling of one word have influenced that 
 of the other ? This frequently happens with words wholly distinct in 
 meaning and origin, but somewhat alike in sound. Cf. note on 
 alabaster, Comus 660. 
 
 59. Ranks, i. e. the metaphor of a general inspecting a regiment. 
 He ' numbers ' them to see that none are missing. 
 
 60. Murmurs, i.e. muttered charms. Cf. Comus 526 : 
 
 "His baneful cup 
 With many murmurs mixt." 
 
 62. Locked up mortal sense. Substituted in the Cambridge MS. for 
 the first reading chained mortality. 
 
 Mortal sense = the senses of mortals, in particular their sense of 
 hearing. 
 
 63. Sirens'. Even educated people often write syren under the
 
 58 ARCADES. 
 
 impression that they are retaining the Greek form ; the latter being, as a 
 matter of fact, fffip^v. Cf. the misspelling tyro, for Latin tiro. The 
 letters i and y have suffered much from these false notions of etymology. 
 Thus we get style instead of stile because it was supposed that Latin 
 stilus was derived from Gk orOXos. So again with sylvan, due to the 
 idea that Lat. silva came from Gk v\t\ and should therefore be written 
 sylva. See Skeat upon "Etymological Spelling," Principles pp. 
 326 28. French gives the correct form sirene. 
 
 64. Sphere is a word of very frequent occurrence in Milton. Many 
 passages and this is one are unintelligible unless we know what he 
 meant by it. In Milton's time the Copernican system of astronomy was 
 not generally approved. Milton himself did not, seemingly, accept it, 
 although two passages in P. Z. (iv. 592 597, and vm. 15 178) show 
 that he was quite familiar with the arguments in its favour (Masson). 
 Certainly for the purposes of his great poem he adopts the old Ptolemaic 
 or Alphonsine System. The astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria held 
 that the Earth was the fixed centre of the Mundane Universe; and that 
 the central Earth was enclosed at different distances by eight successive 
 Spheres of space. Seven of these Spheres were the Spheres or Orbs of 
 the Seven Planets in this order, if we start from the central Earth : the 
 Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Outside 
 the last of these Spheres (i. e. Saturn) was an eighth Sphere, namely the 
 Firmament in which were set the fixed stars. This eighth Sphere moved 
 from East to West, completing a revolution in twenty-four hours; it 
 carried with it the Seven inside Spheres, though the latter were supposed 
 to have separate motions of their own. This system was considered 
 satisfactory up till the Middle Ages. Afterwards a ninth Sphere was 
 added, viz. the Crystalline Sphere, outside the Firmament or Sphere of 
 the fixed Stars. Finally the number was brought up to ten' by a 
 supplementary tenth Sphere, the Primum Mobile, enclosing all the 
 others. 
 
 The development of the Ptolemaic system from eight to ten spheres was 
 associated with the name of the Astronomer, Alphonsus X. of Castille 
 1252 1284. Hence it is sometimes called the Alphonsine System. 
 Now, whenever writers who lived prior to the middle of the xvnth 
 century Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and others use the word 
 sphere, they are referring not to the modern Copernican theory of the 
 Universe, but this obsolete Ptolemaic or Alphonsine System. It does 
 not make much difference how many spheres they recognise : Marlowe 
 allows nine in Faustus II. 2 ; Ben Jonson only eight in the Sad Shepherd
 
 NOTES. 59 
 
 III. 2. Sphere, in any case, had for these writers associations which are 
 now lost. (Abridged from Masson.) 
 
 With regard to this long and at first sight difficult passage, lines 
 62 71, it may be explained that Milton is adapting part of Plato's 
 account of the Myth of Er in the tenth book of the Republic 616 617. 
 Plato says and we should note how closely Milton follows the 
 original 
 
 "They looked down upon a straight pillar of light, stretching across 
 the whole heaven and earth, more like the rainbow than anything else, 
 only brighter and clearer. This they reached when they had gone 
 forward a day's journey ; and, arriving at the centre of the light, they 
 saw that its extremities were fastened by chains to the sky. For this 
 light binds the sky together, like the hawser that strengthens a trireme, 
 and thus holds together the whole revolving universe. To the extremities 
 is fastened the distaff of Necessity, by means of which all the revolutions 
 of the universe are kept up. The shaft and hook of this distaff are made 
 of steel ; the whorl is a compound of steel and other materials. The 
 nature of the whorl may be thus described. In shape it is like an 
 ordinary whorl ; but from Er's account we must picture it to ourselves 
 under the form of a large hollow whorl, scooped out right through, into 
 which a similar, but smaller, whorl is nicely inserted, like those boxes 
 which fit into one another. In the same way a third whorl is inserted 
 within the second, a fourth within the third, and so on to four more. For 
 in all there are eight whorls, inserted into one another... and all together 
 forming one solid whorl embracing the shaft, which is passed right through 
 the centre of the eighth." Then follows a description of these whorls or 
 spheres their size, colour ; and he continues : " The distaff spins round 
 upon the knees of Necessity. Upon each of its circles stands a siren, who 
 travels round with the circle, uttering one note in one tone ; and from all 
 the eight notes there results a single harmony. At equal distances around 
 sit three other personages, each on a throne. These are the daughters 
 of Necessity, the Fates, Lachesis, Clotho, Atropos; who, clothed in 
 white robes, with garlands on their heads, chant to the music of the 
 sirens, Lachesis the events of the past, Clotho those of the present, 
 Atropos those of the future. Clotho with her right hand takes hold of 
 the outermost rim of the distaff, and twirls it altogether, at intervals ; and 
 Atropos with her left hand twirls the inner circles in like manner; 
 while Lachesis takes hold of each in turn with either hand." 
 
 Davies and Vaughan, 364 66.
 
 60 ARCADES. 
 
 Infolded, because, as Plato says, they are inserted one within the 
 other, after the fashion of a puzzle. 
 65. To those, i.e. the Destinies; 
 
 "Those three fatall Sisters, whose sad hands 
 Doo weave the direfull threds of destinie, 
 And in their wrath breake off the vitall bands." 
 
 Spenser, Daphna'ida, 16 18. 
 
 The shears (which, strictly, were not held by the three Moi/xu, but only 
 by Atropos cf. the old line Clotho colttm retinet, Lachesis net, et 
 Atropos occat) are 'vital' because they sever the threads of life (vita) ; 
 cf. Lye. 75 
 
 "Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears." 
 
 In Midsummer N. D. V. i . 89 92 the Destinies are made fun of. We 
 may remember that the classicism of this passage, with its recondite 
 references, would for most of Milton's hearers present no difficulty, 
 since the Fates were not unfamiliar figures among the dramatis personae 
 of Masque-writers. Thus a stage direction in Ben Jonson's Entertain- 
 ment at Theobalds, 1607, mentions the entry of "The Three Parcae, the 
 one holding the rock, the other the spindle, and the third the shears, 
 with a book of Adamant lying open before them." Campion, again, 
 in the Masque for the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset, 1613, introduces 
 "the three Destinies, in long robes of white taffeta;... and in their left 
 hands they carried distaffs" Bullen's Campion, 218. Each extract 
 suggests that its writer was acquainted with the description in Plato 
 quoted above. A young Jacobean nobleman who was present at many 
 of these Masque-entertainments could scarcely help acquiring a consider- 
 able knowledge of classical mythology and legend. 
 
 69. The daughters, i.e. Lachesis, Clotho and Atropos. 
 
 70. 71. It is the influence of this celestial music that directs aright 
 the revolutions of the universe. 
 
 71. In measured motion. Cf. the poem Naturam non Pali Seniutn, 
 33 38, especially lines 37, 38, which Cowper seems to have translated 
 with the present passage before him : 
 
 Volvitur hinc lapsu Mundi rota prima diurno, 
 Raptat et ambilos soda -vertigine cmlos. 
 
 "Hence the prime mover wheels itself about 
 Continual, day by day, and with it bears 
 In social measure the swift heavens round."
 
 NOTES. 6 1 
 
 72. Heavenly tune. This notion of "the great sphere-music of 
 stars and constellations" (Tennyson's Parnassus) was referred to Pytha- 
 goras. So Milton in his Latin exercise De Spherarum Concentu says : 
 "solus inter mortales concentum audisse fertur Pythagoras" Prose 
 Works, vol. vi. p. 155. In a note on P. L. V. 625 27, Todd 
 quotes (without reference) a beautiful sentence from the Alexandrian 
 Philo Judseus : 6 5 ofipavbs del /ueX^Se?, Kara ras Kifr]ffeis r&v ovruv 
 ev ai/njJ TT\I> irafAfjiovffov apfj.oi>tav a.irore\(av. Cf. Cicero's Republic, VI. 
 18. 
 
 The beauty of the idea explains the hold it has gained upon English 
 poetry. Shakespeare refers to it several times, e.g. Twelfth Night in. 
 I. 121 : 
 
 "I had rather hear you to solicit that 
 
 Than music from the spheres;" 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra v. 2. 83 84; and the Merchant of Venice v. 
 60. For Milton cf. the Nativity Ode 125 132; and the poem At a 
 Solemn Music. In the latter Milton has done what he so often did 
 taken a theory of the ancients and penetrated it with Christian associa- 
 tions; cf. Comus 977 et seq. (with note), and Lye. 180. 
 
 72. 73. Cf. Merchant of Venice v. 60 65; Lorenzo is speaking to 
 Jessica and pointing to the starlit heaven : 
 
 "There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherabins; 
 Such harmony is in immortal souls; 
 But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it." 
 
 73. Human mould, i.e. one who bears the form of humanity. 
 Mould 'is from Lat. modulus, through O.F. modle Modern F. mottle. 
 
 74 8 1. A magnificent compliment to the Countess : only the 
 harmony of the spheres was worthy to celebrate her praise. 
 
 74. Blaze, i.e. proclaim; cf. Romeo and Juliet i\\. 3. 150 i : 
 
 "Till we can find a time 
 To blaze your marriage." 
 
 So in the Authorised Version, Mark i. 45. Cf. emblaze in //. Henry 
 VI. IV. 10. 76. -#/az<?='fame' in Lye. 74 (probably). The notion of 
 the word is 'noising abroad' as by note of trumpet. A. S. bla:sen-= l \.o 
 blow;' cf. Germ, blasen, in the same sense. Cognates are blare, blast 
 and blason= 'a proclamation,' in Hamlet I. 5. 21.
 
 62 ARCADES. 
 
 76. Fit, i.e. 'such music ' were fit 
 
 78. Go. 'Walk,' a common meaning in Shakespeare: "ride more 
 than thou goest," Lear I. 4. 134. 
 
 79. So in // Pen. 151 154 the poet asks that music may breathe 
 upon him : 
 
 "Sent by some spirit to mortals good, 
 Or the unseen Genius of the wood." 
 
 80. Assay, i.e. essay, attempt. See Comits 972, note. 
 
 81. State. 'Throne;' as before. 
 Si. Stem, Le. birth. 
 
 Song. This was sung by the Genius of the wood, perhaps to the 
 accompaniment of a lute, Lawes being a notably skilled player of that 
 instrument. The Masquers or Chorus advanced with him and did 
 obeisance to the throned lady. 
 
 83. Looking back on this long piece of rhymed heroics we are 
 struck by the almost unbroken series of complete rhymes. Usually 
 Milton does not stint himself in the employment of imperfect rhyme. 
 See Introduction to Comus. 
 
 84. Enamelled, i. e. so smooth as to look like enamel-work ; cf. 
 Lye. 139, P. L. 149. A perfect specimen of the purely literary epithet. 
 Milton was neither a close observer of nature like Tennyson, nor an 
 enthusiast like Wordsworth ; hence in painting any picture of nature he 
 too often drew (as did Gray) upon the conventional imagery passed 
 down from poet to poet. To this we owe the soi-disant 'poetic diction' 
 against which Wordsworth's early work was a long protest. In Sidney's 
 Arcadia the meadows were "enamelled with all sorts of eye-pleasing 
 flowers;" and 'enamelled' have they been but too often since. Mr 
 Ruskin has a curious criticism on the word in Modern Painters, III. 
 729. Derivation: en = ' on,' Lat. in. The second part -amel- is O. F. 
 esmail, Mod. email ; cf. Ital. smalto and smaltare, ' to enamel ' (given 
 in Florio). Of German origin, the notion being ' something fused, 
 melted' (Brachet) ; i. e. cognate with Germ, schmelzen'io smelt.' 
 See Mayhew and Skeat, s. v. Amellen. 
 
 89. Branching elm star-proof. Most editors think that the pretty 
 epithet "star-proof" was suggested by the Faerie Queene I. i. 7, where 
 Spenser speaks of a grove 
 
 "Not perceable with power of any starr." 
 
 A closer parallel, however, occurs in Peele's play, David and Bethsabe: 
 "This shade, sun-proof, is yet no proof for thee."
 
 NOTES. 63 
 
 Matthew Arnold may have remembered one or the other when he 
 wrote : 
 
 "The hills are clothed with pines sun -proof." 
 
 Church of Brou II. 
 
 Cowper echoes the present line in translating the first Elegy 49, 5) an( l 
 the Epitaphium Damonis 69. Curiously enough Mark Pattison treats 
 it as an instance of Milton's inaccuracy in describing nature: "the 
 elm" (he says), "one of the thinnest foliaged trees of the forest, is 
 inappropriately named star-proof," Life of Milton p. 25. Each can 
 settle the question for himself: Milton, if wrong, is wrong with Tenny- 
 son : cf. In Memoriam xcv. : 
 
 "And gathering freshlier overhead, 
 Rock'd the full-foliaged elms." 
 
 Proof "in these compounds retains the old sense of the noun, viz. 'test,' 
 'trial.' The "exception proves the rule" (exceptio probat regulam) 
 because it puts the latter to the test. Cf. Cotgrave's explanation of 
 O. F. prover: "to prove, try, essay, verifie." From Lat. probare. 
 Low Latin has a substantive proba; whence German probe= l rehearsal 
 (i.e. trial) of a play.' 
 
 90. The refrain that Shelley uses so beautifully in Prometheus 
 Unbound li. 
 
 96. Song, Arcades is so fragmentary that we are unable to follow 
 the course of the Masque as actually performed. Perhaps after the 
 preceding song a minuet or some other graceful dance (cf. Comus 962 
 65) took place ; then the entertainment was brought to a close by the 
 Masquers singing the final song as a madrigal. That, as we know 
 from Comus, 495, was a form of musical composition in which 
 Lawes excelled. The concluding couplet, first sung by the Masquers 
 part-wise and then given out by the whole body, would emphasize 
 the idea with which Arcades was produced; namely, homage to the 
 Countess. 
 
 97. Sandy Ladon. A river in Arcadia which fell into the 
 Alpheus. A poet alluding to the legend of Pan and the nymph Syrinx, 
 or describing the pastoral life of Arcadia, was evidently bound to 
 introduce the "Sandy Ladon." Cf. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals 
 II. 4 : 
 
 "The silver Ladon on his sandy shore 
 Heard my complaints. " Carew Hazlitt's ed. n. p. 88 ;
 
 64 ARCADES. 
 
 and Giles Fletcher, Chrisfs Victorie in Heaven, 47 : 
 "Like to the reede of Arcadie 
 Which Pan of Syrinx made, when she did flie 
 To Ladon's Sands." Grosart, p. 113. 
 
 Lilied occurs in Tennyson : ' ' The streams through many a lilied 
 row." Song in the Juvenilia. 
 
 99. Lycaeus, Erymanthus (100), Maenalus (102), and Cyllene were 
 mountains in Arcadia; the three first being associated with Pan. 
 Cyllene, the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, on the frontiers of 
 Arcadia and Achaia, was the birthplace of Hermes and sacred to 
 him : whence the epithet Cyllenius applied to Mercury, the Hermes of 
 Roman mythology. Cf. Vergil's quos ignis calo Cyllenius erret in orbes, 
 where Cyllenius ignis = the planet Mercury. Cf. too the quotation 
 from Carew's Calum Britannicum in the note on Comus, the first stage 
 direction. That the mountain was a favourite resort of the nymphs we 
 know from Ben Jonson's Penates. Mercury appearing on the scene 
 says: "The place whereon you are now advanced is the Arcadian hill 
 
 Cyllene, the place where myself was begot and born Here, for her 
 
 month, the yearly delicate May keeps state Hither the Dryads of the 
 
 valley, and nymphs of the great river come every morning to taste of 
 her favours." 
 
 100. Erymanih. On the frontiers of Achaia and Elis. There 
 was also a river of the same name. Cf. Shelley's Arethusa: 
 
 " Then Alpheus bold, 
 On his glacier cold, 
 With his trident the mountains strook; 
 And opened a chasm 
 In the rocks; with the spasm 
 All Erymanthus shook." 
 
 The killing of the Erymanthian boar was one of the labours of Hercules. 
 It may be noted that Milton very rarely shortens classical names ; cf. 
 however Lycid for Lycidas (151). In Chaucer and Spenser these 
 abbreviations are common. 
 
 102. Manalus. A favourite haunt of Pan. Vergil mentions Lyoeus 
 and Maenalus together : 
 
 Ipse nemus linquens patrium salttisque Lycai 
 Pan, ovium custos, tua si tlbi M&nala cur<z. 
 
 G. i. 16, 17. 
 So Ben Jonson in the Masque of Pan's Anniversary, Hymn iv. 5. 15.
 
 NOTES. 65 
 
 Manalius became an epithet of the god. Cf. Ovid, Fasti, IV. 650, 
 imitated by Milton in the fifth Elegy 125 : 
 
 Per sata hixuriat fruticetaqtte Manalius Pan. 
 A later reference to the legend is Shelley's 
 
 "Singing how clown the vale of Msenalus 
 I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed." 
 
 Hymn of Pan. 
 
 1 06. Syrinx. Spenser in the Shepheards Calender, April, has: 
 
 "For shee is Syrinx daughter without spotte;" 
 
 upon which the writer of the Glosse (identified by some recent critics on 
 very slender ground with Spenser himself) comments: "Syrinx is the 
 name of a nymphe of Arcadie, whom when Pan being in love pursued, 
 she, flying from him, of the Gods was turned into a reede. So that 
 Pan catching at the Reedes, in stede of the Damosell, and puffing 
 hard, (for he was almost out of wind,) with hys breath made the Reedes 
 to pype; which he seeing, tooke of them, and, in remembrance of his 
 lost love, made him a pype thereof." 
 
 The river in which the nymph took refuge was the above-mentioned 
 Ladon; see Vergil Eclogue II. 31, Ovid Met. I. 690 et seq. 20pt7= 
 'a pipe.' 
 
 Were* The preterite subjunctive was then much more used than 
 now. The following sentence from the Areopagitica has to us an 
 antiquated ring: "He who were pleasantly dispos'd, could not well 
 avoid to liken it to the exploit of that gallant man who thought to 
 pound up the crows by shutting his Park -gate. " 
 
 As an effective example of the beauty of the idiom, Earle, p. 543, 
 quotes from Tennyson's (Enone: 
 
 "And, because right is right, to follow right, 
 Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence. '' 
 
 107. Her, i.e. the new deity to whom the nymphs and shepherds 
 should pay reverence ; that is, the noble lady in whose honour Arcades 
 was performed. 
 
 108. 109. The repetition of the refrain has point. After they have 
 seen the "rural queen" the Masquers endorse what the Genius had 
 said before they came into her presence: to look at her was to do 
 reverence. 
 
 V.
 
 COMUS. 
 
 Laivcs 1 Dedication, Henry Lawes, whose name must often be 
 mentioned in connection with Cotmis, stood at the head of the English 
 composers of his time. He was born in 1595. His father was a vicar- 
 choral of Salisbury Cathedral, and probably the boy received his first 
 training as a chorister in the Cathedral choir. Later on he studied under 
 the well-known musician Giovanni Coperario, an Englishman who had 
 Italianised his patronymic John Cooper. In 1626 Lawes was made one 
 of the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal. Coperario had won distinction 
 as a writer of music for Masques : that for the Masqiie of Flowers, 
 1614, was from his pen; and Lawes soon turned his attention the same 
 way. In 1633, in conjunction with his brother William Lawes and 
 Simon Ives of St Paul's choir, he produced the incidental music to 
 Shirley's Triumph of Peace; and wrote single-handed the music of 
 Carew's Calitm Britannicum. Comus followed in 1634. Probably 
 Lawes was responsible for the production of Arcades. He excelled as a 
 song-writer. He did not belong to the line of our learned church- 
 composers. He wrote little sacred music, little at any rate that has 
 survived, though we possess the coronation anthem "Zadock the 
 Priest" composed at the accession of Charles II. The older his- 
 torians of English music Burney and Hawkins treat Lawes rather 
 contemptuously. The former dismissed his music as "languid and 
 insipid ; " the latter complained that much of it was a compromise 
 between recitative and air. Really Lawes' merit lay herein. A poet 
 himself, he was content in setting the poetry of others to subordinate 
 the music to the verse. Accent and rhythm were preserved, and the 
 melody (very often a species of aria parlante} did not divert attention 
 from the words. This is perhaps rare with musicians, and it accounted 
 for Lawes' great popularity with contemporary poets Cartwright, Waller, 
 Carew, Herrick and others. Herrick and Milton were not alone in 
 praising the favourite Court-composer. During the civil war he lost his 
 post in the Chapel Royal, but was reinstated at the Restoration. He 
 died in 1662. He was buried in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey. A 
 portrait of him hangs in the Music-school at Oxford. The elder brother 
 was killed at the siege of Chester in 1645. The following sonnet by 
 Milton was first printed in 1648 among several laudatory pieces of verse
 
 NOTES. 67 
 
 prefixed to a volume of Choice Psalmes, put into Mustek for three Voices : 
 composed by Henry and William Lawes, brothers, and Servants to his 
 Majestic : 
 
 " HARRY, whose tuneful and well measured song 
 First taught our English music how to span 
 Words with just note and accent, not to scan 
 With Midas' ears, committing short and long, 
 
 Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 
 With praise enough for Envy to look wan; 
 To after age thou shalt be writ the man, 
 
 That with smooth air couldst humour best our tongue. 
 
 Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing 
 To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus' quire, 
 That tunest their happiest lines in hymn, or story. 
 
 Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher 
 Than his Casella, whom he woo'd to sing, 
 Met in the milder shades of Purgatory." 
 
 The first quatrain exactly expresses the quality for which Lawes' music 
 was conspicuous ; cf. Comtis 86 88, and 494 96. The Cambridge 
 draft of these lines is dated Feb. 9, 1646, new style. Evidently political 
 differences had not interrupted the friendship of poet and composer. 
 The best account of Lawes is given in the Article on him in Grove's 
 Dictionary of Music. 
 
 Lord Brackley. The second Earl of Bridgewater, born in 1622; he 
 succeeded his father in 1649, and died in 1686. This dedication was 
 omitted (as we have said) from the edition of 1673 ; not unnaturally, since 
 the Earl and the poet had taken opposite sides in the civil troubles. 
 The former was arrested in 1651 on suspicion of being a royalist. 
 Milton's polemical tract Pro populo Anglicano defensio appeared in that 
 year, and the Earl of Bridgewater wrote on the title-page of his copy 
 " Liber igne, author furca dignissimi" (Todd). For the rest he seems 
 to have been a genial, learned man who patronised literature and 
 "delighted much in his library." See the Article in the Dictionary of 
 Biography. Of the younger brother, Mr Thomas Egerton, who took part 
 in the Masque, little is known. The sister, Lady Alice, married 
 Richard Vaughan, Earl of Carberry. 
 
 The copy of a Letter. The writer of this letter, Sir Henry Wotton, 
 was a man of note in diplomacy and literature. Born in 1568 at Bocton 
 or Boughton Hall in Kent, he was educated at Winchester College, and
 
 68 COMUS. 
 
 New College ; migrating from the latter to Queen's. He left Oxford in 
 1 589 and travelled for some years, though not so long as Walton says. 
 Many of his letters to Lord Zouch are dated from Italy. In 1596 he 
 became secretary to the Earl of Essex, and after the execution of the 
 latter found it expedient to go abroad again. The reigning Duke of 
 Florence, Ferdinand I., employed him upon a secret mission to James 
 of Scotland, and, on the death of Elizabeth, Wotton was rewarded for his 
 services with the post of English representative at Venice (Winwood, n. 
 p. 221). He was also knighted, perhaps through the influence of his 
 half-brother who had been raised to the peerage and was the Controller 
 of the royal household. Sir Henry continued for many years, though 
 with occasional breaks, in the diplomatic service; and in 1623, the 
 Provostship of Eton falling vacant, had influence enough to secure the 
 appointment. He was formally instituted Provost in 1625. Some years 
 later, 1629, he took orders in the Church. Henceforth, till his death in 
 1639, his time was passed in scholarly leisure, enlivened by occasional 
 visits to Oxford and much fishing in the company of Isaac Walton. 
 Wotton's chief work was posthumously published in 1651, under a title 
 which explains its miscellaneous contents: " Reliquia Wottoniana ; or, 
 a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems, with Characters of sundry Person- 
 ages, and other incomparable Pieces of Language and Art: By the 
 curious Pencil of the ever memorable Sir Henry Wotton, Knt., late 
 Provost of Eaton College, 1651." The fourth edition of the Reliquue, 
 1685, contained the hitherto unpublished series of letters to Lord Zouch, 
 perhaps the most valuable part of the volume. Wotton's life was told 
 by his friend Isaac Walton ; sundry errors therein are corrected by Mr 
 Bullen in his edition of the Lives (Bohn's Series). Of his poetry (most 
 people know the piece "You Meaner Beauties of the Night") the best 
 edition is that by the late Archdeacon Hannah in the Aldine Series 
 Poems of Raleigh, Wotton and other Courtly Poets. It is prefaced by a 
 very valuable introduction. The poems were also edited by Dyce for 
 the Percy Society. Wotton's prose, as Professor Minto notes, has a 
 certain Johnsonian dignity and balance. Perhaps the Reliquia does 
 not now find many readers; but every one has heard of Sir Henry's 
 definition of an ambassador as "an honest man sent to lie abroad for 
 the good of his country." This was written in Latin (Legatus est vir 
 bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum Reipubluce causa) in the album of 
 a German friend at Augsburg. Like many epigrams it got its author 
 into trouble. The enemies of James thought that ad mentiendum 
 accurately summarised the characteristics of English diplomacy. See
 
 NOTES. 69 
 
 Wimvood, n. 407. The equivoque had more point then than now, 
 because "to lie" was technically used of an ambassador's residence 
 abroad (Hannah). Wotton seems to have had a turn for aphorism. 
 His favourite motto engraved on his tombstone was disputandi pru- 
 ritus ecclesiarum scabies. Sir Henry Wotton admirably represents the 
 type of courtier, wit and scholar; a man, as Walton phrases it, "of a 
 choice shape, tall of stature, and of a most persuasive behaviour." 
 
 From the College. Most of Wotton's letters written during his 
 Provostship are prefaced or signed at the end with these words ; and 
 the value of his correspondence, more especially of his letters from 
 Italy, is increased by the fact that as befitted a diplomatist he very 
 rarely failed to give the full date and address. So lower down we can 
 fix to the very month the time when he was "tabled" at Siena. 
 
 2. The first taste. Milton had retired to his father's house at 
 Horton in 1632. Horton being so close to Eton it is curious that Sir 
 Henry had not previously met his neighbour. 
 
 6. Mr H. Almost certainly the "ever-memorable" John Hales. 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries, ist series, vi. p. 5, mentioned 
 that he possessed a copy of Wotton's Reliquite in which a MS. note, 
 dating from the last century, filled in the name; and Todd had pre- 
 viously suggested Hales who was for some years a Fellow of Eton 
 and Canon of Windsor. Hales belonged to the Broad Church school 
 of divines and anticipated Chillingworth in advocating tolerance. He 
 died in 1656, in his 73rd year. Some of his works were published in 
 1659, under the title Golden Remains. His learning won for him the 
 epithet "ever-memorable." For allusions to him in the Reliquice, see 
 
 PP- 369, 475- 
 
 A less probable theory identifies "Mr H." with the Polish immigri 
 Samuel Hartlib, to whom Milton addressed the Tractate of Education. 
 
 16. Doric, i.e. Theocritean. Cp. Lye. 189: 
 
 "With eager thought warbling his Doric lay." 
 
 Wotton shows his critical faculty in singling out the lyric portions of 
 Comus for special commendation. 
 
 21. i.e. he has known the poem, but not the name of its author. 
 
 23. Mr R. This "common friend" the vulgarism 'mutual 
 friend' is modern was probably John Rouse of Oriel College, some- 
 time (1620 1652) Bodley's Librarian. Milton had been incorporated 
 M.A. at Oxford in 1635, according to the common practice, and on one 
 of his visits to the University must have found his way to the Bodleian ;
 
 70 COMUS. 
 
 or he may have met Rouse in some Oxford Common Room. Some 
 years later (1647) the poet addressed Rouse in an elaborate Latin ode, 
 celebrating the "sedes beatas" of the Library 
 
 Quo neque lingua procax vulgi penetrabit, atqne longe 
 Turba legentum prava facesset. 
 
 It has been suggested not without reason that the reference may be 
 to Robert Randolph of Christ Church, brother of the poet; see next 
 note. But the other explanation seems preferable. If Robert Randolph 
 had been the sender of the poems Sir Henry Wotton was too courtly a 
 man to have sneered at them. 
 
 in (he -very close. Sir Henry Wotton means that his Oxford 
 friend had inserted a copy of Lawes' edition of Comus at the end of a 
 volume of poems by "the late R." I think Oldys was the first to 
 identify the latter with Thomas Randolph, the Cambridge poet. The 
 British Museum possesses an interleaved copy of Langbaine's Dramatick 
 Poets, 1691, which was once in the library of Oldys. It bears his 
 initials on the title-page "W. O. ij^" and is full of very valuable 
 and little used notes from the pen of that busy "thirsty fly" of 
 literature. Oldys quotes Sir Henry's words with the remark "these 
 are certainly meant for Randolph's poems"; and over against Lang- 
 baine's account of Comus he writes: "I think the Masque was printed 
 soon after it was first acted, and was then often bound up with the first 
 edition of Randolph's poems in 4." Langbaine, probably by a mis- 
 print, gave 1687 as the date of Lawes' edition, and Oldys evidently 
 did not know much about the early imprints of Comus. His statement 
 that the quarto of 1637 was frequently bound together with the 1638 
 edition of Randolph is unsupported by any evidence. No extant copy 
 of the works of the latter contains Comus. The identification however 
 of "the late R. " with Randolph is something favoured by the dates. 
 Randolph died, according to Wood's account in the Atheiuz, in 1634; 
 an edition of his poems in quarto form was issued at Oxford by his 
 brother in 1638. Still we do not know whether this edition appeared 
 so early in the year as April, and it seems curious that Sir Henry 
 should speak of having received his present "some good while." If 
 as the editors think the allusion be to this edition of Randolph, then 
 the volume with its inserted copy of Comus could not have been very 
 long in Sir Henry's hands. Also the suggestion that the accessory had 
 to help out the principal was much out of place if directed against 
 Randolph, as Oldys himself admitted.
 
 NOTES. /I 
 
 Born in 1605 and educated at Westminster and Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, of which he became a fellow, Randolph was an exceedingly 
 clever and gifted writer, one of the ablest of the intellectual 'sons' of 
 Ben Jonson. Besides a number of pieces of by no means mediocre 
 verse he produced some excellent dramatic work, notably a pastoral, 
 Amyntas; an obvious and successful imitation of Ben Jonson in The 
 Jealous Lovers; and a series of scenes thrown into dialogue -form, 
 entitled The Muses' Looking- Glass. If Sir Henry Wotton could not 
 read the last on the list con la bocca dolce. he must have been unduly 
 fastidious. 
 
 Randolph's father, curiously enough, was steward of the Lord Zouch 
 to whom many of the letters in the Reliquia are addressed, and through 
 this connection Sir Henry may have met the Trinity fellow. Milton, we 
 may add, paid Randolph the compliment of borrowing a line from his 
 early dramatic sketch Aristippus. JL' All. 24 was clearly inspired by 
 the couplet 
 
 "A bowl of wine is wondrous good cheer, 
 To make one blithe, buxom and debonair." 
 
 Mr Carew Hazlitt edited a reprint (1875) of Randolph's Works from 
 which much information is obtainable. 
 
 16. con la bocca dolce, i.e. with a pleasant taste on the palate. Cf. 
 the French bonne louche. Cowley, who uses a good many Gallicisms, 
 writes at the end of his essay on Liberty : " I shall conclude this tedious 
 discourse with a prayer of mine in a copy of Latin verses... and (pour 
 faire bonne bouche) with some other verses upon the same subject." 
 Bouche and bocca are from Lat. bucca. 
 
 29. Blanch, i.e. shrink from. Cf. Bacon's Advancement of Learn- 
 ing, ii. 69: "In annotacions...it is ouer vsual to blaunche the obscure 
 places, and discoarse upon the playne;" and Evelyn, Memoirs, in. 
 2. 40: "whether am I to blanche this particular?" (New English 
 Dictionary, s. v.). If we used the verb at all we should treat it as 
 intransitive, inserting from. For the etymology see note on unblenched, 
 1. 430, and blank, 452. 
 
 Paris. Milton arrived there in April or May of this year (1638). 
 He seems to have stayed some little time, not reaching Florence till 
 August. 
 
 30. Mr M. B. Identified with Michael Branthwaite. Sir Henry 
 Wotton mentions him in the Reliquice as "heretofore his Majesties Agent 
 in Venice, a gentleman of approved confidence and sincerity," p. 546.
 
 72 COMUS. 
 
 Cf. also p. 549 where Branthwaite is the bearer of a letter from Sir 
 Henry Wotton to the Duke of Buckingham. This was in 1626. 
 Afterwards Branthwaite became diplomatic agent at Paris. Probably he 
 is the "Mr B." referred to in a later letter from which we quote below. 
 The Michael Branthwaite mentioned by Wood in the Athena is a 
 different man. Perhaps Sir Henry's friend was a connection of the well- 
 known Cambridge scholar, William Branthwaite, who was entered of 
 Clare Hall in 1 578, served on one of the Cambridge committees appointed 
 by James for the drawing up of the Authorised Version, and died during 
 his Vice- Chancellorship in 1620. 
 
 p. n, i. Lord S., i.e. Lord Scudamore, son of the English am- 
 bassador at Paris. It was to the latter (a friend of Laud, appointed 
 to the embassy in 1635) that Milton owed his introduction to Grotius, 
 the only detail of his residence in the French capital which we know. 
 Milton may have been recommended to Viscount Scudamore by the 
 Egerton family. In any case he had occasion to express gratitude 
 for the courtesy received from the ambassador. See the Defensio 
 Secunda (translated by Archdeacon Wrangham, 1816), our chief source 
 of information upon the poet's travels. 
 
 7. Marseilles... to Genoa. The route that Addison took; see the 
 beginning of his Travels. People going to Italy by sea would naturally 
 make for the great Mediterranean port. Thus Howell in the Instructions 
 
 for Forreine Travell recommends travellers to see France first, then the 
 Spanish peninsula, and afterwards make their way to Barcelona to 
 ' ' take the Gallies for Italy, for there are divers Fleets passe in the yeare 
 thence with treasure, and crosse the Mediterranean to Genoa," edn. 
 1650, p. 53. Sir Henry Wotton implies that Milton will not care to 
 remain at Genoa. Howell writes to like effect: "Having put foot 
 ashoare in Genoa I will not wish him (i.e. the traveller) to stay long 
 there... let him hasten to Toscany, to Siena, where the prime Italian 
 dialect is spoken," pp. 53, 54. As a matter of fact Milton did not 
 follow Sir Henry's advice with regard to the route. Travelling south he 
 entered Italy by way of Nice and thence coasted to Genoa. At Florence 
 he spent two months, August and September. It was a favourite 
 resting-place with English voyagers. Howell speaks of it with 
 enthusiasm, Letters, p. 63, edn. 1753. 
 
 8. Gravesend barge. The reference may be explained by a pas- 
 sage from Hasted's History of Kent, vol. I. p. 450: "King Richard 
 II. granted to the Abbot and Convent of St Mary Graces, that the 
 inhabitants of Gravesend and Milton should have the sole privilege of
 
 NOTES. 73 
 
 carrying passengers by water from hence to London, on condition that 
 they should provide boats for that purpose, and carry all passengers 
 either at 2</. per head with their bundle, or let the hire of the whole boat 
 at 4^. This charter was confirmed several times afterwards by succeeding 
 kings, and under proper regulation by the legislature they still (1778) 
 enjoy the privilege." Information to the same effect is given in the 
 Remembrancia of the City of London, pp. 511, 512. 
 
 12. At Siena. This was in the autumn of 1592. Cf. the following 
 extracts from Sir Henry's correspondence. "I am here," he writes to 
 Lord Zouch from Siena, Oct. 25, 1592, "by the means of certain 
 Persons (to whom I was recommended) gotten into the House of 
 Scipione Alberti, an ancient Courtier of the Popes, and a Gentleman 
 of this Town, at whose Table I live" and he adds "but dearly." 
 So again from Geneva in the following summer, August 22: "Before 
 I conclude this I must advertise your Honour, that I have certain 
 Papers for you, and amongst the rest, the manner of Service in the 
 Courts of Rome, with Points appertinent, described at my request by 
 Scipione Alberti, my Host in Sienna, and sometime Major duomo of 
 the Duke of Paliano. I was the more earnest with him, remembering 
 
 your Honour to have wish'd for such a thing I have likewise written 
 
 by the same man the Death of the Dutchess of Paliano in the bloody 
 times of Paulus the Fourth." Reliqttia, ed. 4, 1685, pp. 699 and 711. 
 The reference to the Duke of Pagliano I cannot explain. "Paulus the 
 Fourth" is meant for Paul IV. previously Cardinal Caraffa who was 
 Pope from 1555 to 1559. He belonged to the line of selanti occupants 
 of the Papal throne. 
 
 13. Evidently the story that follows was a favourite with Sir 
 Henry; we have another version of it in the Reliquia. The advice 
 of the Provost had been asked by some travellers, and he replied by 
 mentioning that "Catholick Rule which was given me long since by 
 an old Roman Courtier, with whom I tabled in Siena, and whose 
 Counsels I begged for the Government of myself at my departure from 
 him towards the foresaid Court, where he had been so well versed. 
 Sinor Arrigo (says he), there is one short remembrance will carry you 
 safe through the whole World. I was glad to hear such a preservative 
 contracted into so little room, and so besought him to honour me with 
 it. Nothing but this (saith he) Gli Pensiere stretti, ed il Viso sciolto : 
 that is, as I use to translate it, Your Thoughts close and your Coun- 
 tenance loose. This was that Moral Antidote which I imparted to Mr 
 B. and his Fellow-Travellers when they were last with me."
 
 74 COMUS. 
 
 There was a certain irony in Sir Henry Wotton's assuming the part 
 of judicious adviser ; as Archdeacon Hannah remarks, he had not 
 proved himself a particularly cautious ambassador {Courtly Poets, 
 p. xv.). Long experience, however, of Italian life had doubtless 
 impressed upon him one fact that a Protestant, more especially so 
 aggressively outspoken a Protestant as was Milton could not be too 
 careful how he bore himself in the land of the Inquisition. The fierce 
 times of persecution were over the Catholic reaction had somewhat 
 spent itself in Italy; but a stern unbending Puritan might still have 
 very easily got into trouble. And it is strange that Milton did not; for 
 he paid no attention to the maxim of pensieri stretti, but freely offended 
 the English Jesuits and others at Rome by ill- timed expression of his 
 religious beliefs. Mark Pattison, pp. 33 38. 
 
 The performance. This took place, Michaelmas night, 1634, in the 
 great Hall of Ludlow Castle, afterwards, says Professor Masson, called 
 'Comus Hall.' At the end of the room a stage was erected, concealed 
 from the audience by a curtain or screen (see note at line 658), until the 
 piece began. The Earl and Countess of Bridgewater, we may presume, 
 occupied the Throne of State (see Arcades, note on the first stage- 
 direction) ; the audience filling the rest of the hall. When everything 
 was ready the scene, representing a wood, was disclosed. 
 
 THE PERSONS. The Masque contains six characters. We know 
 how four of the parts were filled. Lawes played the part of 
 the Attendant Spirit, afterwards Thyrsis ; cf. his dedicatory letter. 
 At the end of his edition he mentions the names of the Lady Alice 
 Egerton and her brothers. This leaves two parts unaccounted for 
 Comus and Sabrina. For the latter one of the other Ladies Egerton 
 may have appeared ; and the Comus, no doubt, was some friend of 
 the Bridgewater family. 
 
 Presented, i.e. represented the characters. Cf. Tempest, iv. 167, 
 "when I presented Ceres." 
 
 TJie first scene. The stage-directions throughout Comus are ex- 
 tremely simple. Usually Masque-writers especially Ben Jonson, 
 Campion, and Shirley insert very full details as to the arrangement 
 of the scenes, the dresses of the dramatis persona, the music, and so 
 forth. 
 
 Discovers, i.e. reveals. Discover, now almost limited to the sense 
 'find out,' is a. word of very various use in Shakespeare, 'lay open to 
 view ' and 'show' being its commonest meanings. We find the latter
 
 NOTES. 75 
 
 at least as late as Addison ; cf. the Character of Will Wimble: " I was 
 very much pleased to observe... the secret joy which his guest discovered 
 at sight of the good old knight." 
 
 The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends. Probably the scenery in the 
 background represented a hill ; down this the Spirit comes, and at the 
 actual representation of Comus his arrival was heralded by music. This 
 we know from the Bridgewater MS. (the stage-copy in accordance with 
 which the piece was performed), where the attendant Genius enters 
 with a song. The song in question consisted of the lines which 
 properly stood in the epilogue of Comus ; viz. lines 976 ion. There 
 they form part of the speech of the Spirit when he leaves the scene. 
 Lawes detached the epiloguising passage from its context and fitted 
 it in at the opening as a speech of arrival. To do this only one change 
 was necessary: for "to the heavens now I fly" the Bridgewater MS. 
 reads "from the heavens." Thft alteration involved some tautology: 
 having explained in the song that he came from heaven it was 
 superfluous to add that his mansion lay before the threshold of 
 love's palace. Also, spoken at the close of the Masque the verses 
 have a point which they here lose ; they were meant to emphasize 
 the moral of Comus. See note on lines 1003 ion. The change 
 illustrates the fact which we shall have occasion to note more than 
 once viz. that many of the details of the performance of Comus 
 were determined by the musician rather than the poet. In this 
 particular instance I believe that Lawes was influenced by the 
 example of Carew's Calum Britannicum, for which in the previous 
 year he had written the incidental music. This famous Masque began 
 with a long speech in blank verse by the god Mercury : 
 
 "From the high Senate of the gods, to you 
 
 Come I, Cyllenius, love's Ambassadour. " 
 
 But the entry of the deity is marked by "loud musicke;" then comes 
 the address. The commencement, therefore, of Comus as arranged by 
 Lawes was exactly similar to that of the Cczlum Britannicum. See 
 Hazlitt's Carew, Roxburghe Library, p. 199. 
 
 i. Note that this introductory speech serves as a prologue of the 
 Euripidean type. It explains the purport of the piece before any action 
 takes place. S. A. begins more directly with the speech of Samson. 
 In the third draft of the scheme of P. Z., which Was to be treated in 
 dramatic form, Milton sketched the outlines of a prologue similar to the
 
 76 COMUS. 
 
 present: "Moses irpo\oyifei, recounting how he assumed his true body; 
 that it corrupts not " etc. Later on came the drama proper, divided 
 into the orthodox five acts. The paper referred to is among the Milton 
 MSS. in the library of Trinity College ; see Introduction, p. xxii. 
 
 3. Aerial spirits. Burton has the phrase in a different sense ; his 
 "aerial spirits" are "such as keep quarter most part in the air, cause 
 many tempests, thunder and lightnings, tear Oaks, fire Steeples, Houses, 
 strike men and beasts," Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 28, ed. of 1676. 
 
 Insphered. Cf. // Pen. 8891 : 
 
 " Unsphere 
 
 The spirit of Plato, to unfold 
 What worlds or what vast regions hold 
 The immortal mind ; " . 
 
 i.e. call down the soul of Plato from the sphere it inhabits. It must be 
 remembered that sphere in Milton is always used more or less in reference 
 to the Ptolemaic system ; cf. the note on Arcades, 64. Shakespeare 
 has sphered in two senses, (i) 'round as a sphere,' (ii) 'placed in a 
 sphere.' Cf. Troilus, I. 3. 90 "In noble eminence enthron'd and 
 spher'd " (said of the sun). 
 
 4. Serene. Apparently the stress falls on the first syllable SlraU. 
 See note on 1. 273. 
 
 In the Cambridge MS. after line 4 follow fourteen verses which 
 Milton rejected, though some of the expressions used in them were 
 subsequently (cf. 393 95) worked into the poem. The lines are : 
 
 "Amidst the Hesperian gardens, on whose banks, 
 Bedewed with nectar and celestial songs, 
 Eternal roses grow, and hyacinths, 
 And fruits of golden rind, on whose fair tree 
 The scaly-harnessed dragon ever keeps 
 His unenchanted eye. Around the verge 
 And sacred limits of this blissful Isle 
 The jealous Ocean, that old river, winds 
 His far-extended arms, till with steep fall 
 Half his waste flood the wild Atlantic fills, 
 And half the slow unfathomed Stygian pool. 
 But soft ! I was not sent to court your wonder 
 With distant worlds and strange removed climes. 
 Yet thence I come, and oft from thence behold "- 
 
 What the Spirit 'beholds' is "the smoke and stir of this dim narrow
 
 NOTES. 77 
 
 spot." When Milton crossed the whole passage out he inserted above at 
 the beginning of line 5, removed narrow, and so gave us the present text. 
 
 5. Cf. P. L. II. 868 where he speaks of "the gods who live at 
 ease;" adapting Homer's deal pela f&ovres, Iliad VI. 138. 
 
 7. Pestered. 'Shackled,' 'kept prisoners in.' It has been con- 
 nected vtiihfestis; also with Italian pesta= 'a crowd.' But pester is 
 short for impester; and impester=O. F. empestrer, modern F. empetrer. 
 Cotgrave explains empestrer by "to pester, entangle, incumber." 
 Empestrer comes from Lat. im (or in) and pastorium, a Low Latin 
 word =' clog for a horse at pasture.' Cf. Du Cange : " Pastorium 
 idem videtur Pastorium quod Italis Pastoia etiam mine dicitur, Pedica 
 nempe seu compedes quibus equi, ne aberrent in pascuis, impediuntur : 
 nostris Entraves. " Brachet notes that pastorium often occurs with 
 this sense in old laws; e.g. "si quis pastorium de caballo alieno 
 tulerit..." The opposite of empfarer is depetrer, i.e. depestrer='to 
 unloose the horse ; ' whence the general meaning ' disencumber. ' Pester 
 now =' annoy;' but we sometimes find it used with reference to the 
 original sense. Thus in North's Plutarch, in the description of 
 Cleopatra's barge, it is said that "the wharf's side (was) pestered 
 with innumerable multitudes of people" Skeat's ed. p. 175. The 
 word has special appropriateness in our text because pinfold which 
 follows carries out the idea of an animal shackled and confined. 
 
 Pinfold. Skeatsays: "Pinfold, for pind-fold; from A. S. pyndan, 
 to pen up" (Principles of Etymology, p. 427). "If I had thee in 
 Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me," Lear n. 2. 9. 
 The more usual word pound ('an enclosure for strayed cattle') is akin 
 to pinfold. 
 
 10. Mortal change, i.e. change from mortality; cf. "quick im- 
 mortal change "= 'change which quickly made her immortal,' 1. 841. 
 
 n. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra I. 3. 28: 
 
 "Though you in swearing shake the throned gods." 
 Comus contains not a few of the commonplaces that are handed on 
 from poet to poet. We may trace in the language of these opening 
 lines the influence of the Revelation iv. Cowper in translating the 
 Latin poem Mansus, 95, 96, echoed our text : 
 
 "Born to those seats, to which the blest aspire." 
 
 13. Golden key. Cf. the reference to St Peter in Lye. no, in : 
 "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain; 
 The golden opes, the iron shuts amain."
 
 78 COMUS. 
 
 In each case Milton is referring to the words of Christ in Matthew, xvi. 
 19, "and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 
 Commenting on the passage in Lye., Masson remarks; "the number 
 of the keys given to St Peter is not mentioned in Scripture, but 
 ecclesiastical and poetical tradition had made them two, and other- 
 wise distinguished them" in. p. 453. We find the same allusion in 
 Ben Jonson, The Barriers. He is describing the figure of Truth : 
 " Her right hand holds a sun with burning rays, 
 Her left a curious bunch of golden keys 
 With which heaven's gate she locketh and displays." 
 Gray in the Progress of Poesy, and Tennyson in In Afemoriam, LXIV., 
 infuse fresh associations into the phrase. 
 
 1 6. Ambrosial. The epithet had two main senses: (i) 'belonging 
 to heaven,' 'worthy of the gods:' hence applied to their food, raiment 
 (as here), and so forth; (ii) 'divinely fragrant,' i.e. perfumed as with 
 ambrosia, balmy. Milton has the word repeatedly ; Tennyson, perhaps 
 even more often. Der. d/j.j3poTos= 'immortal.' Ambrosia is one of the 
 many Greek words adopted in their original or latinised forms; cf. 
 Earle's list, Philology of the English Tongue, p. 352. 
 
 17. Sin-worn, i.e. worn out by sinr 
 
 ' ' plagued 
 
 And worn with famine." P. L. x. 572, 3. 
 
 But the sense might be 'worn amid sin.' For weeds = 'dress,' see 
 line 189. 
 
 1 8. Sway, 'rule,' a favourite word with Milton both as noun and 
 verb, is of Scandinavian origin. It properly means 'to bend;' hence 
 the idea of enforcing submission. 
 
 20. For the division of empire cf. Iliad XV. 190 et seq. ; Poseidon's 
 words to Iris: "Three brethren are we, and sons of Kronos, whom 
 Rhea bare, Zeus and myself, and Hades is the third, the ruler of the 
 folk in the under world. And in three lots are all things divided, and 
 each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my 
 habitation for ever, when we shook the lots : and Hades drew the 
 murky darkness, and Zeus the wide heaven, in clear air and clouds, 
 but the earth and the high Olympus are yet common to all " The 
 Iliad, Done into English Prose by Lang, Leaf and Myers. 
 
 'T-wixi high... Probably the words are qualified by lot; lot 
 having the sense 'agreement :' i.e. Neptune took the sea for his share 
 through a compact between Zeus and Hades. '7W.r/, however, might
 
 NOTES. 79 
 
 be used of place, i.e. Neptune's dominion lay between Heaven above 
 and Hades below. In the latter case a comma after lot is necessary ; 
 and the word would have its ordinary meaning. Cf. Arcades 44. 
 
 Nether yove. Hades, Zeus KaraxQovios Iliad IX. 457. 
 
 23. Unadorned, i.e. which would be unadorned but for the island. 
 
 25. i.e. each island is committed to a particular deity. In modern 
 English several is much more often an indefinite pronoun = 'a few' than, 
 as here and frequently in Shakespeare, an adjective. Derived from 
 O. F. several, Low Lat. separabile='a. thing apart.' For a medial / 
 in Latin = $ in popular Lat. v in French, see note on Sovran, 1. 41. 
 
 27. It is impossible not to compare Shakespeare's patriotic 
 
 panegyric on 
 
 "this sceptered isle... 
 
 This fortress built by nature for herself"- 
 
 Richard II. \\. i. 40 44. 
 
 Spenser in the dedicatory stanzas of the Faerie Queene (iv) salutes 
 Elizabeth as ' ' Great Ladie of the greatest Isle. " 
 
 28. Main. 'Sea;' but it could also mean 'mainland,' as in Lear, 
 III. i. 6, "Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main." Main = 
 Icelandic megin, i.e. megin-sjijr, 'mighty sea.' Megin, frequent in 
 compounds, is from Aryan base magh, 'to be great,' whence fdyas, 
 magnus etc. See Skeat, Diet. s. v. may, or better, his note on Two 
 Noble Kinsmen, p. 119. 
 
 29. Quarters, i. e. assigns. Blue-haired. Masson finds the epithet 
 curious; but from the stage-directions in other Masques it may be in- 
 ferred that convention associated hair of this hue with the deities of the 
 sea. It was intended, of course, to symbolise the colour of the waves. 
 Cf. the quotation from Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness in the note on 
 line 873. Again in Beaumont and Fletcher's Masque of the Inner 
 Temple and Grays Inn (1612) four Naiads appear on the stage, "with 
 blueish tresses on their heads, garlands of waterlilies" Moxon's ed., 
 II. 687. Poetic tradition counts for a great deal in the Masque. 
 Cowper has a reminiscence of the present line in his translation of a 
 couplet in the poem Mansus, 32, 33. Milton's Latin runs: 
 
 Qua Thamesis late puris argenteus tindis 
 Oceani glaucos perfundit gurgite crines; 
 which Cowper renders : 
 
 "Where Thames with his unsullied waves 
 The tresses of the blue-haired Ocean lave 1 ;. ''
 
 80 COMUS. 
 
 30. Tkis tract. Wales. 
 
 31. Noble Peer, i.e. the Earl of Bridgewater, who was present. 
 Milton contrives in the course of Comus to pay a compliment to all 
 those who were mainly concerned in the performance of the Masque; 
 cf. lines 86 88, 244 48, 297 301, 496 97. 
 
 It was no unusual thing for the Elizabethan dramatists to insert pieces 
 of flattery to the queen when they knew that she would be present at 
 the representation of a play. 
 
 Micel 'great' in old English; it is the original form of much; 
 micel, michel, muchel, muck being the stages of transition ; allied to Gk 
 /i^yas, /te7-d-Xo. Cf. note on main, 1. 28. 
 
 32. with tempered awe, i.e. with a due mixture of firmness and 
 conciliation. From Rymer it would appear that the new Lord President 
 received very particular instructions as to the official course which he 
 should pursue. 
 
 33. nation, i.e. the Welsh. Milton knew that there would be 
 Welshmen present among his audience. One of Ben Jonson's Enter- 
 tainments fulfils the promise of its title For the Honour of Wales and 
 pays every possible compliment to the "old and haughty nation, proud 
 in arms." 
 
 36. New-intrusted. Really the Earl's appointment dated, as we 
 have seen, from the summer of 1631. 
 
 37. Perplexed, i.e. entangled. Scan perplexed vcA compare 1. 273 
 note. 
 
 38. Horror. Cf. horrid horrldus in 429. It is the kind of 
 word which Milton, with his classical sympathy, takes straight from 
 Vergil. 
 
 39. Forlorn. Perhaps in its etymological sense 'lost;' see 1. 236, 
 note. 
 
 41. Cf. Arcades, 44, 45, where the Genius of the Wood proclaims 
 himself the minister of Jove. 
 
 Sovran. This form is invariable in P. L. ; so sovranty, P. L. II. 
 446, XII. 35. In P. R. I. 84 the early editions have sotfraigtt, which 
 is closer to the modern form. Sovereign is derived from souverain, 
 O. F. soverain. Souverain came from superanum [a medial / in 
 classical Latin became b in the popular Latin spoken in Gaul after its 
 conquest by Caesar, cf. sabonem for saponem; and b in turn dropped 
 to v in French e.g. avoir from habere, devoir from debere\ Trench 
 pointed out that in English "all the words of dignity, state, honour, 
 and preeminence, with one remarkable exception (i.e. King), descend
 
 NOTES. 8 i 
 
 to us" from the Normans. Amongst these importations was sovereign. 
 Sovran represents, not so much the French souverain, as the Italian 
 sovrano. 
 
 43. You. Milton wrote ye. In old English ye was used as a 
 nominative, you as a dat. or accus. The English Bible (161 1) observes 
 this rule. But in Shakespeare we find you for nom. and ye for accus. 
 
 Johnson condemned this address to the audience; "a mode of 
 communication so contrary to the nature of dramatic representation, 
 that no precedents can support it." But throughout his criticism of 
 Comus (and the Life of Milton represents Johnson at his worst ; see 
 Introduction and note on line 859) he made the cardinal mistake of 
 judging the piece by the standard of dramas proper. Comus is a 
 Masque, and should be treated as such ; we must compare it, not with 
 the plays of Shakespeare, but with the Entertainments of Ben Jonson; 
 and it will not suffer by the comparison. 
 
 44. Horace's 
 
 carmina non prius 
 audita musarum sacerdos 
 canto Odes, HI. i. 24. 
 
 We have a similar claim to originality at the beginning of P. L. \. 
 
 1316: 
 
 "I thence 
 Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song, 
 
 while it pursues 
 
 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.' 
 
 How much, or how little, Comus owed to previous works, we have 
 already seen. For the apparent egotism of the poet cf. note on 1. 515. 
 
 45. The "old" bards might be the "fine fablers and lowd lyers" 
 of whom we read in the Glosse to the Shepheards Cal. , April, ' ' such as 
 were the Authors of King Arthure the Great, and such like, who tell 
 many an unlawfull leasing." Milton himself alludes more than once to 
 some of the great cycles of mediaeval prose and poetic romance ; cf. 
 P. L. i. 579587 5 P> R- n. 35861. 
 
 Hall or bower. Perhaps a traditional phrase ; cf. Spenser's Astro- 
 phel, 17, 28: 
 
 "And he himselfe seemed made for meriment, 
 Merily masking both in bowre and hall;" 
 
 the subject of the verses being Sir Philip Sidney. 
 
 v. 6
 
 82 COMUS. 
 
 " Hall " = the room of State in which the whole household assembled; 
 " bower "= the ladies' private room. 
 
 48. The allusion is to the story of Bacchus being seized on his way 
 from Icaria to Naxos. "He hired a ship which belonged to Tyrrhenian 
 pirates; but the men, instead of landing at Naxos, steered towards Asia, 
 to sell him there as a slave. Thereupon the god changed the mast and 
 oars into serpents, and himself into a lion; ivy grew round the vessel, 
 and the sound of flutes was heard on every side ; the sailors were seized 
 with madness, leaped into the sea, and were metamorphosed into 
 dolphins." Smith's Classical Diet. Ovid relates the legend in the 
 third book of the Metamorphoses, 660 et seq. 
 
 After the... A cumbrous L.ztmism=post mutatos nantas. Cf. /'. Z. 
 V. 247 8 : 
 
 "Nor delayed 
 The winged Saint after his charge received;" 
 
 and same bk. 332. Abbott, Shakespearian Gram. par. 418, quotes a 
 similar case from Alts Well, it. r. 6: 
 
 "It is our hope, sir, 
 After well enter'd soldiers, to return;" 
 
 i.e. after we have been entered or initiated as soldiers. The participle 
 is made to do the duty of a substantive followed by a genitive case, as in 
 post conditam urbem and such like phrases ; but the idiom seems alien to 
 the genius of our language and is obsolete. 
 
 50. Circus island, viz. the island of Aea; cf. Odyssey, X. 133 
 136: 
 
 ZvOev 8t irportpw ir\fofj.ev aKaxyfJ-tvoi yrop, 
 Alairjv 8* ^s vfjffov a<j>iK6fJLeO' ' i-vGa 5' froie 
 
 The Romans placed Circe's home on the promontory of Circeii (Monte 
 Circello), in Italy; cf. JEneid, III. 385: 
 
 et salts Ausonii histrandum navibus tequor 
 Infernique locus sEaaque insula Circes. 
 
 Island. Milton wrote the correct form Hand. The s in the modern 
 form island was due to confusion with French isle, Lat. insula. 
 I-land= 'waterland;' the first half of the word, /', being traceable to 
 the root which gives us A.S. <*p=' stream* ( c ^- Angles-y), German 
 aue= 'meadow near water,' and, on the side of the classical languages, 
 Lat. aqua. Raphe Robynson in his translation of the Utopia always (I
 
 NOTES. 83 
 
 believe) writes ilande; e.g. on page 87 of the Pitt Press ed.: "they had 
 rather suffer their forreyne townes to decaye and peryshe, then any 
 cytie of theire owne ilande to be diminished." It should be added that 
 isle is a correct spelling: isle does come from O. P. isle = He. 
 Who knows not Circe ? 
 
 This rhetorical repetition of a name or word in the form of a question 
 is an artifice frequently used by Spenser: cf. Shepheards Calender, 
 August: 
 
 "A doolefull verse 
 
 Of Rosalend (who knows not Rosalend ?) 
 That Colin made;" 
 
 again, the same poem, Januarie: 
 
 "I love thilke lasse, (Alas! why do I love?) 
 And- am forlorne, (Alas! why am I lorne?)." 
 
 The Glosse to the latter remarks: "A prety epanorthosis in these two 
 Verses" Globe ed. pp. 447, 471. We find the trick employed by 
 other writers; e.g. by the unknown author of Brittain's Ida, I. i : 
 
 " In Ida vale (who knows not Ida Vale?)." 
 
 It is one of the affectations of pastoral idiom in Matthew Arnold's 
 Thy r sis (12). 
 
 51. Cf. The Inner Temple Masque, 
 
 "Mighty Circe (daughter to the Sun)" 
 
 Hazlitt's edition of Browne, n. p. 244. Her mother was Perse, one of 
 the Oceanides, Odyssey, X. 136. Milton in the sixth Elegy, 73, mentions 
 monstrificam Perseia Phaebados aulani. 
 
 52, 53. Milton speaks as though physical uprightness symbolised 
 moral. So in the same literal way he describes Mammon in P. L. j. 
 679, 680 as 
 
 "the least erected spirit that fell 
 From Heaven." 
 
 The poet was himself a very graceful man; Aubrey tells us, "his 
 harmonical and ingenious soul dwelt in a beautiful and well proportioned 
 body." 
 
 55. The representations of Bacchus in art differ widely; but the 
 youthful god described here is a recognised type. It was probably 
 the traditional association of ivy with the wine-god that led to the 
 custom of affixing an ivy-bush at the doors of taverns: whence again the 
 
 62
 
 4 COMUS. 
 
 proverb "good wine needs no bush," which is traceable at least as far 
 back as Shakespeare, As You Like It, Epilogue, 4. 6. 
 
 56, 57. In L' Al. 14 24 Milton speculates as to the parentage of 
 Mirth = Euphrosyne. He offers two theories, one being that she is the 
 child of Bacchus and Venus. Comus would in that case be her half- 
 brother: she, Pleasure on its innocent side: he, on its sensual. Comus 
 however must typify not sensuality alone, but also illicit powers. Hence 
 he inherits the qualities of his mother, and excels her. If she was 
 jro\v<f>dpna.Kos (Odyssey X. 276) he must be and is still mightier. For 
 this union of Bacchus and Circe the poet had no authority in the 
 classics. 
 
 59. Frolic. G.frb'hKch, 'gay.' 
 
 60. i.e. France and Spain. Cf. P. L. i. 521 : 
 
 " Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 
 And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles." 
 
 61. Ominous. Not so much 'threatening, 'as 'full of portents or 
 magical appearances.' The wood is peopled with "calling shapes and 
 beckoning shadows dire," 1. 207. Ominous is a dissyllable. 
 
 64. Traveller. Printed travailer in the early editions, and I am not 
 quite sure that it is right to reject the form, as does Masson. Travel 
 and travail are identical. Their history is as follows : A Low Latin verb 
 travare (what Skeat calls a " theoretical form " i.e. a word which we 
 may be sure existed, though no instance of its actual occurrence can be 
 quoted) meant ' to fetter, ' ' clog ; ' derived from trabs, because the clog 
 took the form of a beam; extant in French entraver'io shackle.' 
 Cf. also the Chaucerian word trave= " a frame in which travellers 
 confine unruly horses " (May/ten' and Skeat s.v.), and Ital. travdglio with 
 same sense. From the idea of 'fettering' came that of 'doing a thing 
 with difficulty ;' i.e. 'toiling,' 'labouring.' Hence French travail; also 
 English travail, of a woman in childbirth. Then came the notion of 
 'journeying,' because to journey in olden times was a matter of difficulty 
 or travail. It need scarcely be added that in modern English the dis- 
 tinction in meaning is represented by difference in spelling: travel 
 'make a journey:' travail^ ' toil. ' But in the xvith century, and, as 
 we see from the present line, in early XVllth century English the distinc- 
 tion was not recognised : people often wrote travailer where we should 
 say traveller, and conversely travel where they meant ' work hard.' Thus 
 in the Life of Sir Tiiomas More by his son-in-law, William Roper (died 
 I 57?)> we rea d that Henry VIII commissioned Wolsey to procure for
 
 NOTES. 85 
 
 him the services of More "and the Cardinall accordinge to the King's 
 request earnestlie travelled with him" (i.e. entreated More). On the 
 other hand cf. the following from Robynson's translation of the Utopia: 
 "But after the departynge of mayster Vespuce, when he had travailed 
 thorough and aboute many countreyes...he arrived in Taprobane" Pitt 
 Press ed. of the Utopia, pp. VIH. 20. The quartos and early editions 
 of Shakespeare give quite indiscriminately travail and travel (vb. and 
 n.); travailer, travailor, traveller, travellour and the modern traveller. 
 The original base of all these words viz. trabs, or rather trabem is 
 clearly seen in the Spanish tradayo= ( toil,' > trabar=. l \.o clog,' and Low 
 Lat. trabaculum. 
 
 65. Orient. In a note on Midsummer N. D. IV. 1. 59 Mr Aldis 
 Wright points out that orient was first applied to pearls and other gems 
 as coming from the Orient or east; afterwards, because the objects 
 which it ordinarily described were bright, orient was used of anything 
 brilliant and lustrous. Cf. for example, P. L. 1. 545 6 : 
 
 "Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 
 With orient colours waving." 
 
 The tears of the goddess in Venus and Adonis, 981 are "orient" drops. 
 
 66. Drmtth. Akin to dry, drugs (properly dried roots), and 
 Germ, trocken. 
 
 67. Fond, i.e. foolish, its original, and in Shakespeare commonest, 
 meaning; " a very foolish, fond old man," Lear, IV. 7, 60. Middle E. 
 fon = ' a fool, ' 3cciA.fotid= ' made like a fool ;' i.e. it is past part, otfonnen. 
 Consequently the d is a proper suffix, representing the participial 
 termination, and not, as we might at first sight think, the excrescent d 
 that sometimes comes after n in a final accented syllable; e.g. in hind 
 from M.E. hine. Skeat, Principles, 370, 4/4. 
 
 69. An echo of Genesis, i.t-j: "So God created man in his own 
 image, in the image of God created he him." 
 
 Express, i.e. exact. Express in Shakespeare implies accuracy or 
 directness of words (putting Hamlet, II. 2. 317 on one side where it = 
 expressive); from exactness of speech comes the idea precision in 
 anything. Lat. expressus. 
 
 71. Ounce, Also written once ; it was a kind of lynx -felis uncia. 
 Pliny speaks of it as being not a European animal: "The onces be 
 likewise taken for strange and forrein, and of all foure-footed beasts they 
 have the quickest eye and see best" Natural History, Holland's 
 Translation, bk. xxvili. chap. vm. p. 316. The word once appears in
 
 86 COMUS. 
 
 all the Romance languages; e.g. F. once, Span, onza, Port, on fa, 
 and Ital. lonza (i.e. Penza}. Its derivation is unknown ; possibly Persian 
 yiiz, a panther, lynx. Yiiz when nasalised is not far from once. Brachet 
 makes the suggestion. For oriental words in English see note on 1. 674. 
 
 72. A departure from Homer's account, which represents Circe's 
 victims as changed entirely into beasts. Masson notes that this partial 
 metamorphosis suited better the purposes of the stage. Each character 
 would wear a mask representing some animal's head, as does Bottom in 
 Midsummer N. D. Cf. the stage-direction that follows "headed like 
 sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women." 
 
 73. Perfect, i.e. complete; the idea of completeness led to that of 
 excellence. Both Milton's editions print perfect. Usually he prefers 
 perfet ; the latter obviously reflects the influence of Fr. parfait. The 
 spelling of the word was quite arbitrary. In Shakespeare the quartos 
 twice give perfit ; so the folios in two other passages. Cf. Robynson's 
 translation of the Utopia: "in you is so perfitte lernynge, " p. 25; 
 but p. 105, "to perfet blessednes our nature is allured," Pitt 
 Press ed. 
 
 74. Milton has not followed Homer ; cf. Odyssey, x. 237 et seq. : 
 "Now when she had given the cup and they had drunk it off, presently 
 she smote them with a wand, and in the styes of the swine she penned 
 them. So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape of 
 swine, but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned 
 there weeping " Butcher and Lang's translation. Perhaps Homer's 
 account gives greater pathos: Circe's victims are conscious of the 
 contrast between their present and past ; and pathos is largely a 
 matter of self-appreciated contrast. Milton made the change as a 
 means of emphasizing the completeness of the power of Comus, i.e. 
 the deadliness of the pleasure he had to offer. 
 
 76. Cf. Odyssey, X. 235, 36. Milton recollected also the descrip- 
 tion of the Lotophagi in the ninth book of the Odyssey, 94 et seq., 
 "Now whosoever of them did eat the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus, 
 had no more wish to bring tidings nor to come back, but there he 
 chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on the lotus, 
 and forgetful of his homeward way" (Butcher and Lang). Plato has 
 a fine metaphorical application of the story in the eighth book of the 
 Republic; and it would be superfluous to do more than mention 
 Tennyson's Lotos-eaters. 
 
 78. i.e. pattci qnos aquus amavit 
 
 yiipiter. Aeneid~\'\. 129, 130,
 
 NOTES. 87 
 
 80. The simile is repeated in P. L. I. 744 46. There, as here, 
 the rhythm of the verses closely reproduces the motion described ; for 
 which reason they may be quoted : 
 
 "And with the setting sun 
 Dropped from the zenith like a falling star, 
 On Lemnos, the yEgean isle." 
 
 The full vowel-sound of the last line sEgean isle is clearly intended 
 to suggest rest, i.e. the cessation of the god's flight. For a similar 
 effect cf. 340. 
 
 81. Convoy, 'escort.' Fr. convoi is from Low Lat. conviare. 
 The same word as convey. 
 
 83. i.e. robes dyed in the tints of the rainbow ; Iris being the 
 goddess of the rainbow and " many-colour'd messenger" of Juno, 
 Tempest, iv. i. 76.- Milton repeats the idea in P. L. xi. 244: 
 
 "Over his lucid arms 
 A military vest of purple flowed ; 
 Iris had dipt the woof." 
 
 Derivatives from Iris are F. irise and iridescent. 
 
 Woof. It should be spelt oof. The w was prefixed because 
 popular etymology derived woof direct from -weave ; which is incorrect. 
 Middle English oof (by contraction) = A. S. ckvef ; i.e. A. S. 6 con- 
 tracted from the preposition on =' upon,' and wef (modern -weft} 
 meaning the threads that cross the warp. Woof therefore does 
 come originally from A. S. -wefan ; only not in the way people 
 supposed. 
 
 86 91. The compliment to Lawes is repeated at 494 96. Milton 
 chooses his epithets "soft pipe," "smooth-dittied song" with careful 
 reference to the qualities of Lawes' music. See the introductory note 
 on the composer, and compare the language of Milton's Sonnet to his 
 friend. 
 
 87. Knows to. For the construction (where we should insert how) 
 cf. Lye. 10, 1 1 : 
 
 "He knew 
 Himself to sing." 
 
 The idiom is an obvious classicism, on the model of the infinitive after 
 words like ^Trto-ra/jLai, calleo. 
 
 87, 88. For the alliteration cf. Arcades, 47. 
 
 89. Office i.e. duty, officiwn.
 
 88 COMUS. 
 
 90. Likeliest. 'Most fitting;' so 2 Henry IV, in. 2. 273: "They 
 are your likeliest men ; and I would have you served with the best." 
 Not far removed from likely 1 pleasing; ' as we say, ' a likely lad.' 
 
 91. 92. i.e. best qualified to lend the help that this occasion 
 requires. 
 
 92. Vieivless, 'invisible.' Cf. The Passion, 50. Milton remembered 
 Claudio's "viewless winds," Measure for M. III. i. 124. The termina- 
 tion less, purely Saxon, is now active: viewless in modern E. would 
 mean 'having no view.' But in the English of Shakespeare and 
 Milton adjectival and participial endings had not become stereotyped. 
 See note on 1. 349. 
 
 The Attendant Spirit moves from the stage, and Comus appears 
 with his followers. Strictly this was the Anti-masque, or comic interlude, 
 and would have been treated as such at greater length by Ben Jonson or 
 Shirley. See Introduction. What we may perhaps call the second 
 Anti-masque is introduced at 957. 
 
 Stage-direction. The stage-direction in the Cambridge MS. omits 
 several points here introduced: e.g. there is no mention of torches; 
 nor have the characters 'glistering' apparel. It is easy to see why: 
 Milton himself had had no experience of writing for the stage ; probably 
 he had not often been inside a theatre. When he wrote Comus he 
 thought chiefly of the poetry and the moral which it enforced ; mere 
 scenic details could be left to Lawes and others more conversant with 
 stage-requirements. Lawes, who had been so busy earlier in the year 
 over the production of Shirley's Triumph of Peace and Carew's 
 Calum Britannicitm, may have suggested the torches which would 
 add greatly to the effectiveness of the scene. 
 
 Comus would wear a fantastic dress to remind the audience of 
 his supernatural powers; cf. the allusion in line 153 to his "quaint 
 habits." Campion in one of his Masques brings "two enchanters" 
 on the stage Rumour and Error; the latter dressed "in a skin coat 
 scaled like a serpent, and an antic habit painted with snakes, a hair 
 of curled snakes, and a deformed Vizard" Bullen's Campion, p. 216. 
 Symbolical garb of this kind was much employed, as was only natural, 
 Masques dealing so often with allegory. 
 
 Rout of Monsters. J?out = 'band,' is common in Spenser and 
 Shakespeare. French route comes from Lat. rupta = (i) "a defeat, 
 flying mass of broken troops, (ii) a fragment of an army, a troop" 
 Skeat. Rmtte= 'way' is the same word. Rupta often means a 'road ' 
 jn mediaeval Lat, texts, via having been originally understood,
 
 NOTES. 89 
 
 The Anti-masque in Browne's Inner Temple entertainment is described 
 very quaintly. A confused troop of animals rushes on to the stage, 
 "beinge fuch as by Circe were fuppofed to haue beene tranfformed 
 (havinge ye mindes of men ftill) into theefe f hapes followinge : 
 
 2 w' h heartes, heades and bodyes as Action is, 
 
 2 like Midas, w th Affes eares, pictur'd, 
 
 2 like wolues as Lycaon is drawne, 
 
 i like Baboons. 
 
 Grillus (of whom Plutarche writes in his morralles) in ye fhape of a 
 hagge" Hazlitt's ed. , Roxburghe Library, n. 250. 
 
 Glistering. Referring, probably, to the cloth of silver and tinsel 
 (see 1. 877), which were used a good deal on the stage. 
 
 They come in, etc. The Cambridge MS. is more concise : Intrant 
 KWfjuifoi'Tfs, says the direction. But it was scarcely necessary to emphasize 
 so pointedly the derivation of Camus. 
 
 93. Keightley notes that Milton has adapted Shakespeare's converse 
 description of the morning-star, Measure for M. iv. 2. 218, " Look the 
 unfolding star calls up the shepherd." In the one case the star is 
 Hesperus ; in the other, Phosphorus : 
 
 "Sweet Hesper- Phosphor, double name 
 For what is one, the first, the last"- 
 
 IH Memoriam, cxxi. 
 
 95 97. Milton may have had in his mind the classical belief that 
 the waves of the Atlantic hissed as the fiery wheels of the sun's chariot 
 touched them; cf. Juvenal's 
 
 Audiet Herculeo strident em gurgite solem, 
 
 XIV. 280, where Professor Mayor quotes numerous parallels ; to which 
 might be added the lines in Milton's own poem Naturam non Pati 
 Senium, 25 28: 
 
 Tit quoque, Phcebe, tui casus imitabere nati 
 Pracipiti ctirru, subitaque ferere ruina 
 Pronus, et extincta fumabit lampade Nereus, 
 Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto. 
 
 96. Allay. 'Steep,' 'cool;' the metaphor, perhaps, of allay = 
 alloy; see below. There were three verbs allay, quite separate in origin, 
 but akin in form and meaning: wherefore identified. There was (i) 
 a purely English word allay, from A. S. dlecgan'lQ lay down;'
 
 90 COMUS. 
 
 formed from lecgan 'to lay,' the causal verb of licgan 'to lie;' and 
 a, the A. S. intensive prefix. In Gower's Confessio A mantis t in. 11. 
 273 it is spelt alaien. The / was doubled from false analogy. In some 
 words e.g. accurse, affright, allay the A. S. prefix & was confused 
 with French and Latin ac or al (according to assimilation) = ad. Strictly 
 we should write a-curse, a-fright, a-lay, just as we do write a-bide. 
 Allay, then, from dlecgan, = 'to reduce,' 'quell.' (ii) There was a 
 Middle English verb aleggen, ' to alleviate,' from O. F. aleger, Low 
 Lat. alleuiare; cf. Shepheards Cal. March, 5. In the Xivth century 
 both words (i) and (ii) were spelt aleggen. Hence at that time to 
 aleggen peine might mean either 'to quell pain,' or 'to lighten it.' 
 Naturally the verbs were confused. Then (iii) we have allay ' to mix,' 
 now spelt alloy, on the analogy of French aloyer. The history of no. 
 (iii) is curious. O. F. aleyer or alayer = l \.o mix,' 'unite;' from Lat. 
 alligare. The verb appeared in English as alay or allay. It was 
 specially used of mixing liquids. Dr Murray quotes from Sir Thomas 
 Elyot's Castle of Hdth (dating from the reign of Henry VHIth), 
 "Whyte wine alayd with much water;" cf. Shakespeare's "allaying 
 Tiber," Coriolanus, ii. i. 53, imitated by Lovelace in the famous To 
 Althea from Prison. But to mix water with wine is to reduce the 
 strength of the latter; in fact to "quell" it. Hence allay no. (iii), 
 like allay no. (ii), was more or less merged in no. (i) ; we may say 
 that it retained its original sense of uniting only in one connection, 
 viz. the mixing or debasing of metals ; and then it was written not 
 allay but alloy. The change in form was due to French aloyer. 
 French people thought that alayer or aleyer (from alligare) was derived 
 from a lai or a lei = ad legem, because metals were mixed ad legem, i.e. 
 according to a certain standard in the coinage. When O. F. lai or 
 lei became loi, alayer or aleyer passed to aloyer; cf. o/0z='a standard 
 of value.' The English verb followed suit, so that the word which 
 Sir Thomas Elyot used practically lost its identity : spelt allay it was 
 merged in allay no. (i) : when it kept its old meaning ' to mix ' it had 
 to adapt itself to French aloyer and appear as alloy. Allay illustrates 
 the tendency to form-confluence in language. See 1. 313. 
 
 97. Steep. Standing on the seashore we can verify the accuracy of 
 steep. Tennyson gives us the same graphic emphasis in The Progress of 
 Spring, VI. : 
 
 "The slant seas leaning on the mangrove copse." 
 For a similar studied use of a descriptive epithet see line 375.
 
 NOTES. 91 
 
 98, 99. Amplified in P. L. IV. 539 43 : 
 
 ' ' Where Heaven 
 
 With Earth and Ocean meets, the setting Sun 
 Slowly descended, and with right aspect 
 Against the eastern gate of Paradise 
 Levelled his evening rays." 
 
 101. The imagery of Psalm xix. 5, " In them hath he set a 
 tabernacle for the sun: which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of 
 his chamber." 
 
 104. Jollity. Some of the qualities here apostrophised figure as 
 allegorical dramatis persona in the Masque-literature of the time. 
 Members of Milton's audience might have seen the procession through 
 London of Shirley's Triumph of Peace; in which case they would 
 certainly have noticed "Jollity and Laughter: Jollity in a flame- 
 coloured suit, but tricked like a morice-dancer, with scarfs and 
 napkins (i.e. handkerchiefs), his hat fashioned like a cone, with a 
 little fall. Laughter in a long side coat of several colours, laughing, 
 Vizards on his breast and back." Shirley's Works (Dyce's ed. ), vi. 
 259. 
 
 Jolly belongs to the not very large class of Scandinavian words 
 imported through the French. The modern F. joli was in O. F. jolif, 
 "jolly, gay, trim, fine" (Cotgrave). Jolif appeared in Middle E. under 
 various forms -jolif, jolef, joly. O. F. jolivte, the noun, became in 
 Middle E. jolifte and jolitee (Chaucer). The Scandinavian base is 
 seen in A. S. gj/Az = ' make merry,' 'keep festival;' Dutch joelen 'to 
 revel;' and English Yule, 'time of revelry.' See Skeat s.v. Yule, with 
 his Middle E. Diet. s.v. jolif. 
 
 105. Rosy twine, i.e. twined roses. Cf. Nativity Ode, 226. 
 
 107. Rigour. It will be noticed that Comus is full of these per- 
 sonified abstractions ; the use of them (to which, perhaps, the allegorising 
 tendency of the Masque may have contributed something) is a charac- 
 teristic of Milton's early style; cf. the Nativity Ode, II Pen., ISA!, 
 passim. In XVIIIth century poetry this rather tricky artifice became a 
 mannerism. Gray was a conspicuous offender. It was an aspect of the 
 "poetical diction" which Wordsworth denounced in the famous 
 preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1815. Usually the substantive is 
 accompanied by an adjective e.g. "pure-eyed Faith," "white- 
 handed Hope," 1. 213. 
 
 109. Sour, i,e, morose, as sometimes in Shakespeare ; e.g.
 
 92 COMUS. 
 
 Richard III. I. 4. 46 the folio reading : "With thai sour 
 ferryman which poets write of," viz. Charon. 
 
 no. Saws, i.e. maxims. The Justice in As You Like It, \\. 7. 
 156 (the "seven ages of man" passage) is "full of wise saws." Saw, 
 say, saga (Icelandic) are allied words. 
 
 in. Fire. Alluding to the old theory that everything is composed 
 of four elements earth, water, fire and air; the two last being the 
 lighter elements. "I am fire and air," says Cleopatra (v. 2. 292) when 
 she is about to die : henceforth she will be free of the earthy substance 
 that clogs her spirit. 
 
 Ji 2. Quire. Spelt, as pronounced, quire till the close of the 
 xvilth century (Neiv English Did.). Cf. Cotgrave: "Chceur; the 
 quire of a church, a troop of singers." We sometimes find the form 
 quirister i.e. chorister. The modem choir represents a desire to 
 approximate the word to its Latin original, chorus. Earle notes that 
 quire was one of the earliest Latin or French words in our language in 
 which the letter q appeared. Q is a Latin letter; Anglo-Saxon writers 
 expressed the sound qu by cw. Q began to be recognised at the beginning 
 of the xillth century; and before the end of the century qu had 
 displaced au in many Anglo-Saxon words; e.g. queen for A.S. civen. 
 Earle, Philology of the English Tongue, p. 142. 
 
 113. Anticipated in the Vacation Exercise, 40; "the spheres of 
 watchful fire." For Milton's conception of the 'spheres' see Arcades, 
 64, note. 
 
 115. Sounds. 'Straits.' A.S. sund meant (amongst other things) 
 'a strait of the sea that could be yivum across;' i.e. cognate with sivi/a. 
 
 116. Wavering morrice, i.e. an undulating dance, obviously imi- 
 tated in Endymion IV. where the four Seasons join in a ' 'floating morris. " 
 Another name was Morisco, i.e. Moorish dance. It is said to have 
 been introduced into England in the reign of Edward III when John of 
 Gaunt returned from Spain. A morris (to keep the more usual spelling) 
 formed, and in some counties still forms, part of the rustic festivities at 
 Whitsuntide and May-day; cf. Henry V. II. 4. 25: "England were 
 busied with a Whitsun morris;" and All's Well, II. 2. 25, "As fit as ten 
 groats is for the hand of an attorney... a morris for May-day." Stow in 
 the Survey of London, 1613, p. 9 writes: "I find also that in the 
 moneth of May, the Citizens of London of all estates, lightly in euery 
 Parish, or sometimes two or three parishes ioyning togither, had their 
 seuerall mayings, and did fetch in Maypoles, with diuerse warlike 
 shewes, with good Archers, Morice dauncers and other deuices for
 
 NOTES. 93 
 
 pastime all the day long, and towards the Euening they had stage 
 playes." A detailed description of the morris may be found in Douce's 
 Illustrations of Shakespeare, Dissertation in. Perhaps the word has 
 not been often used (in poetry) since Wordsworth's couplet : 
 
 "In shoals and bands, a morrice train, 
 Thou greet'st the traveller in the lane." 
 
 To the Daisy. 
 
 117. Tawny sands. A small point, worth noting: Milton wrote 
 "yellow sands" (Cambridge MS), and then substituted fawny to avoid 
 too obvious comparison with Shakespeare; cf. Midsummer N. D. n. i. 
 67, "And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands." Still more, Ariel's 
 song "Come unto these yellow sands," Tempest, I. 2. 376. The nymph 
 in Endymion II. ruled over 
 
 ' ' Grotto-sands 
 Tawny and gold." 
 
 In his early works Keats treated Milton very much as Milton in Comus 
 treated the Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher, or as Vergil dealt with 
 Ennius. 
 
 118. Pert. Used twice by Shakespeare to mean 'lively,' 'alert' 
 (Schmidt); "Awake the pert and nimble spirit of youth," Midsummer 
 N. D. I. r. 13. So Cotgrave to much the same effect; "Accointer, to 
 make jolly, peart, quaint, comely." But pert had, and now invariably 
 has, an uncomplimentary sense, viz. 'saucy,' the diversity in meaning 
 being accounted for thus. There were two words : (i) pert=perk, 
 ' smart ;'cf. The Shepheards Calender, Februarie: "Perke as a Peacock." 
 (ii) Pert, short for malapert, O. F. #/=' ill,' apert= 'expert:' i.e. 
 mal-apert ' badly expert '=' mischievous. ' The two sources were 
 confused, and pert has survived in the sense malapert. 
 
 Faeries. Faerie, modern fairy, is a collective noun ; it means 'enchant- 
 ment;' in early English land of fairie= 'land of enchantment.' 
 Strictly an elf is not a fairy, but a fay. The incorrect use is prior to 
 Shakespeare. Fay is from O. Y.fae-= modern fee; cf. Portuguese fada, 
 Ital._/a/a. Each comes from Low Lat. word fata, 'goddess of destiny' 
 (fatum). According to Brachet, an inscription of the time of 
 Diocletian "uses fata for Parca, so leaving no doubt as to the exact 
 meaning of this late word." 
 
 Dapper. Original sense 'brave;' cf. G. /<*/= 'bold.' Later it 
 came to mean, as now, 'spruce, 1 'dainty.' Cotgrave explains godinet by 
 ' ' Prettie, dapper, feat, peart ; " and the glosse to the Shepheards Calender,
 
 94 COMUS. 
 
 October, has "Dapper, pretye." In the Hesperides Herrick speaks of 
 "many a dapper chorister" ( The Temple). The epithet, then, is exactly 
 applicable to an elf. 
 
 Ekes. The Glosse to the Shepheards Calender, June, records 
 the old theory as to the derivation of elf: " Sooth is, that when all 
 Italy was distraicte into the Factions of the Guelfes and the Gibelins, 
 being two famous houses in Florence, the name began through their 
 great mischiefes and many outrages to be so odious, or rather dreadfull, 
 in the peoples eares, that, if theyr children at any time were frowarde 
 and wanton, they would say to them that the Guelfe or the Gibeline 
 came. Which words nowe from them (as many things els) be 
 come into our usage, and for Guelfes and Gibelines, we say Elfes 
 and Goblins." For Goblin see line 436. Elf is purely Teutonic: 
 A. S. eel/, G. elf. 
 
 ill. Comus celebrates the night time in his twofold character of 
 magician and patron of license. Cf. the reference in the Two Gentlemen 
 of Verona, II. 7. 3, to 
 
 "Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind:" 
 
 where dark-working= 'who work in the dark.' 
 Gray's Installation Ode begins rather curiously : 
 
 ' ' Hence ! Avaunt ! ('tis holy ground) 
 Comus, and his midnight crew." 
 
 128 130. Cotytto, or Cotys, was a Thracian goddess, worshipped 
 by the Edoni. The Cotyttia, a festival held in her honour, took place 
 at night. Her worship "was adopted by several Greek states, chiefly 
 those which were induced by their commercial interest to maintain 
 friendly relations with Thrace" Smith's Did. of Antiquities. 
 
 These licentious rites were secret, as we may infer from Horace, 
 Epode XVII. 56, 57 : 
 
 Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia 
 Volgata: 
 
 and they appear to have penetrated to Athens; cf. Juvenal, n. 91, 91: 
 
 Talia secreta coluerunt orgia tada 
 Cecropiatn soliti Bapta lassare Cotytto. 
 
 Perhaps Juvenal's lines (cf. secreta tada) suggested Milton's "secret 
 flame." 
 
 131. Called, i.e. invoked.
 
 NOTES. 95 
 
 Dragon. Alluding perhaps to the idea that the chariot of the 
 night was drawn by dragons. Drayton in the Man in the Moon (43 1 ) 
 speaks of Diana "summoning the dragons that her chariot draw." Cf. 
 Cymbeline, II. 2. 48: "Swift, swift, you dragons of the night." There 
 is the same reference in Midsummer N. D. III. i. 379, and // Pen. 59, 
 "while Cynthia checks her dragon yoke." Strictly, Ceres was the only 
 goddess to ;whom Roman poets assigned a car harnessed with dragons. 
 
 132. Stygian darkness, i.e. darkness as of the nether world. Styx, 
 one of the four rivers of Hades, "the flood of deadly hate," P.L. 577, 
 is a synonym of hell. Cf. line 604. From ffrvyeiv. 
 
 Spet, where we should write spit, was not uncommon. In Mer- 
 chant of Venice, I. 3. 113, both Quartos and F x have "spet upon my 
 Jewish gaberdine," changed in modern texts to spit. The form occurs 
 several times in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas. 
 
 134. Ebon, i.e. black; "death's ebon dart," Venus and Adonis, 
 948. The form used by Spenser is closer to the etymology ebenus, 
 ?/3ei/os; cf. F.Q. n. 7. 52: 
 
 "Trees of bitter Gall, and Heben sad." 
 
 j 35. Hecate. The goddess of sorcery ; professors of the black arts 
 claimed her patronage. See 535, note. The allusion to her charioteer- 
 ing is conventional. Reginald Scot complained "that certaine wicked 
 women, following Sathans provocations, beleeve and professe, that in the 
 night times they ride abroad with Diana (i.e. Hecate), the goddesse of 
 the Pagans, or else with Herodias, with an innumerable multitude, upon 
 certeine beasts, and passe over manie countries and nations, in the 
 silence of the night, and doo whatsoever those fairies or ladies 
 command " Discoveries of Witchcraft, bk. 3, ch. xvi. For the scansion 
 of the name as a dissyllable cf. Midsummer N. D. V. 391 : "By the 
 triple Hecate's team. " Many parallels (e.g. Greene's Friar Bacon, xr. 1 8, 
 Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, IT. 3) might be quoted, down to Byron's 
 
 "Alike beheld beneath pale Hecate's blaze." 
 
 Childe Harold, n. 22. 
 
 138 140. These lines are a little mosaic of borrowed touches. 
 Cf. 2 Henry Vf. IV. i. i : "The gaudy, blabbing and remorseful day;" 
 a passage (written by Marlowe, I believe, not Shakespeare), upon which 
 Milton draws later in Comus, verses 552, 553. For Indian steep see 
 infra, 139, note. Tell-tale is from Lucrece, 806 : 
 
 "Make me not object to the tell-tale Day." 
 Milton, however, was not the first poet to appropriate these epithets : a
 
 96 COMUS. 
 
 couplet in Brittaiiis Ida II. 3, gives us "tell-tale Sunne" and "all- 
 blabbing light'' Grosart's Phineas Fletcher, I. p. 58. 
 
 Scout. Middle E. scottte, O. F. escoute (in Cotgrave). Cf. neuter, 
 with its doublet ausculter, from auscultare. 
 
 139. Nice. In Elizabethan English nice often had a bad meaning 
 'finicking,' or 'super-subtle,' or 'squeamish.' This last, I think, fits 
 the present line, the speaker being Comus. He sneers at Ihe morning 
 as too prudish to approve of their rites. For nice, implying prudery, 
 cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, ill. i. 82 : 
 
 "There is a lady in Verona here, 
 \Vhom I affect; but she is nice and coy." 
 
 Again in the Areopagitica Milton writes: "But then all human learning 
 and controversie in religious points must remove out of the world, yea, 
 the Bible itself: for that at times relates blasphemy not nicely," i.e. in 
 a straightfonvard, unsqueamish manner Hales' ed. p. 19. Derived 
 from O. F. nice, Lat. nescius, nice both in French and English retained 
 for some time the etymological sense ' ignorant ; ' cf. Chaucer, Canterbury 
 Tales, 6520 "wise and nothing nice." 
 
 Cf. Midsummer N. D. II. i. 69, "the farthest steep of India," 
 where the first quarto reads steppe, an obvious mistake for steepe which 
 Q 2 and the folios give. This is one of the not unfrequent reminiscences 
 of Shakespeare's play that occur in Comus and Milton's early poems. 
 141. Descry. 'Reveal;' cf. Spenser F. Q. VI. 7. 12: 
 "The fearfull swayne beholding death so nie, 
 
 Cryde out aloud for mercie, him to save; 
 
 In lieu whereof he would to him descrie 
 
 Great treason to him meant." 
 
 A natural meaning, since descry and describe are both from describe*. 
 
 144. Round. A country-dance, the favourite one being Sellehger's 
 (St Leger's) Round. Titania invited Oberon to join their round 
 M. N. D. II. i. 140. Often mentioned in Herrick's Hesperides. For the 
 epithets cf. Z.' Al, 34. 
 
 The Measure. " Measure denoted any dance remarkable for its well- 
 defined rhythm, but in time the name was applied to a solemn and 
 stately dance of the nature of a Pavan or a Minuet. The dignified 
 character of the dance is proved by the use of the expression to ' tread a 
 measure ; ' a phrase of frequent occurrence in the works of the Elizabethan 
 dramatists. It is somewhat remarkable that no trace can be found of 
 any special music to which Measures were danced; this circumstance
 
 NOTES. 97 
 
 seems to prove that there was no definite form of dance tune for them, 
 but that any stately and rhythmical air was used for the purpose." 
 Grove's Diet, of Music. That the Measure was, strictly, a dance of the 
 nature described in this extract might be proved from the reference to it 
 in Much Ado, 11. i. 80: "a measure, full of state, and ancientry." On 
 the other hand the stage-direction in the Cambridge MS. of Comus 
 leaves no doubt as to the character of the "light fantastic round " which 
 here took place; it says: "The Measure, in a wild, rude and 
 wanton Antic." Shakespeare once uses measure to signify the music 
 that accompanied the dance King John, in. r. 104. 
 
 145. Break off, i.e. cease dancing. This is the "sudden stop of 
 silence" mentioned in 1. 552. For break ^"='stop' cf. Measiire for 
 Measure, iv. i. 7, "break off thy song." The verses are not unlike S. A. 
 no, in. 
 
 147. Shrouds, i.e. places of shelter. A. S. scriid= 'garment;' 
 in this sense shroud soon became limited to 'funeral garment,' i.e. 
 winding-sheet; as often in Shakespeare. But it also developed a 
 secondary, now obsolete, meaning, 'shelter;' cf. Antony and Cleopatra, 
 III. 3. 71, "put yourself under his shroud." So Boyer's French Diet. 
 "shrowd (or shelter), couvert, aM." Cf. 1. 316. 
 
 The Cambridge MS. adds the direction They all scatter. 
 
 148. Affright. For the incorrect doubling of the f see note on 
 allay, 96. Fright from A.S. fyrhto is a good instance of metathesis, r 
 being very -liable, as we have noted, to shift its place; cf. the numerals 
 third for thrid, thirteen for thritteen, where three, Germ, drei, proves 
 the original position of the r. 
 
 151. Trains. 'Allurements;' so S. A. 533, "fair fallacious looks, 
 venereal trains;" and line 932. Cf. Cotgrave: "Traine: A plot, 
 practise, conspiracie, deuise;" and Boyer, French Diet, "Train (a trap 
 or wheedle), embuches, piege, amorce, ruse, attrapoire." Shakespeare 
 has the substantive only once Macbeth, IV. 3. 118: 
 
 " Macbeth 
 By many of these trains hath sought to win me." 
 
 The verb he uses in various places, e.g. i Henry IV. v. 2. 21, "we did 
 train him on." For Spenser, cf. the Faerie Queen, I. 9. 31. From French 
 trainer, itself derived from traho, which in Low Lat.= 'to betray;' cf. 
 Du Cange: " Trahere, idem est quod insidiose decipere, turpiter fallere, 
 dolose seducere, quo sensu Galli suum Trahir usurpant, a Trahere 
 formatum." He explains trahere= 'deceive' as a metaphor from bird- 
 
 v. 7
 
 98 COMUS. 
 
 catching : birds are drawn lato the nets by baits ; whence the general 
 notion of trickery. 
 
 154. Dazzling. The Cambridge MS. has powdered; cf. "magic 
 dust," 1. 165. No doubt as the actor -spoke these lines, 153 56, he 
 scattered some powder in the air. A coloured light too may have been 
 burnt behind the scene to heighten the effect. 
 
 Spongy, because it seems, like a sponge, to drink in and retain 
 the spells ; cf. Troihis and Cressida, n. 2. 12 : " More spungy to suck 
 in the sense of fear." Sometimes the epithet meant 'rainy;' e.g. in the 
 Tempest, iv. 65, "spungy April," and Cymbeline, \\'. 2. 349. Browne 
 has it in that sense several times in Britannia?* Pastorals ; e.g. I. 5, 
 "spongy clouds swoln big with water" see Hazlitt's ed. vol. I. pp. 65, 
 134. Spongers, from Lat. spongia (Gk. (nroyy6s) through O. F. esponge, 
 mod. F. eponge ; for Lat. sp = O. F. esp = ep, see Arcades, note on State. 
 
 155. Blear. 'Deceptive.' To blear the eyes is to blur, i.e. make 
 them dim. Dimness naturally led to the notion of deceiving. Skeat 
 quotes Levins, 1570: " A blirre, deceptio; to blirre, fallere." For a good 
 illustration of its use cf. Taming of the Shrew, v. 2. 120: "while 
 counterfeit supposes blear 'd thine eyne;" i.e. while you were fooled and 
 did not see what was happening. Possibly blear and blur are akin to 
 blink. This would account for the curious expression "blear-eyed as a 
 cat;" cats are not dim-sighted, but they blink a good deal. See 
 Mayhem and Skeat, s.v. bleren, the Middle E. verb= 'to dim.' 
 
 156. False presentments, i.e. imaginary pictures. Cf. Hamlet's 
 "counterfeit presentment" where 'representation* or 'picture' is the 
 sense required, in. 4, 52. 
 
 157. Quaint. Almost in its limited modern sense ' eccentric.' But 
 quaint in the English of Shakespeare and Milton often meant something 
 'prettily decorated,' 'dainty,' 'neat;' e.g. in Taming of the Shrew, III. 
 i. 149: "A gown more quaint, more pleasing;" Much Ado, in." 4. 22, 
 "a fine, quaint, graceful. ..fashion." So in P. L. ix. 35: 
 
 "emblazoned shields, 
 Impresses quaint," 
 
 i.e. pretty heraldic devices. This would suit the present verse: the 
 dress of Comus was at once strange and ornamented. Spenser uses the 
 epithet = ' fastidious ; ' 
 
 "she nothing quaint, 
 Nor sdeignfull of so homely fashion, 
 Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon"- 
 
 F. Q. in. 7. 10;
 
 NOTES. 99 
 
 and in Cotgrave we find "Coin/: quaint, compt, neat, fine." These 
 extracts shew how wide was the signification of the word as compared 
 with its one meaning in modern English, viz. 'odd.' Rightly derived 
 by Diez from cognitus cf. acquaint from adcognitare; wrongly by Du 
 Cange from comphis. The latter says, s.v. Cointises: " Galli Coints 
 dicebant cultos, ornatos, elegantes, Comptos, wide vocis origo, Hinc 
 contoier pro ornare." It almost seems as if, in Earle's words, quaint 
 had drawn its body or physical formation from the one source, cognitus y 
 and its mind or sentiment from the other, comptits. 
 
 Habits, i.e. dress; Lat. habitus. Extant only in the compound 
 'riding-habit.' It is not clear when habit in this sense passed out of 
 currency ; certainly not before Addison's time. Cf. The Spectator Club : 
 "He has all his life dressed very well, and remembered habits as 
 others do men." 
 
 161. dozing. ' Flattering ;' with the idea of falsehood. Cf. P. L. 
 III. 93, "For man will hearken to his glozing lies." Gloze is the 
 Middle English glossen='lo make glosses;' the history of glosse being 
 as follows. From Gk. 7\w<r<ra, signifying (i) the tongue, (ii) a language, 
 (iii) a word, or a word that has to be explained i.e. y\u(ro-r)/ji.a.. In this 
 last sense it passed into Latin ; cf. Forcellini : ' 'proprie glossa vocantur 
 vocabula obscuriora et minus usitata, qua interpretations indigent, 
 cujusmodi sunt ea qua certe sunt dialecti propria, eoque aliena a lingua 
 communi." Next (iv) from meaning the word which required comment 
 glossa stood for the comment itself; cf. again Forcellini: " 'accipitur 
 etiam pro interpretatione, seu explicatione eorum qua ab aliis obscure 
 scriptafuere." But comments are too often false, perverting the sense 
 of the original which they profess to explain : hence (v) the notion of 
 falsehood in gloss and gloze, which may be aptly illustrated by a passage 
 in Ford's Perkin Warbeck, I. i : 
 
 "You construe my griefs to so hard a sense, 
 That where the text is argument of pity, 
 Matter of earnest love, your gloss corrupts it." 
 
 Gifford's ed. u. 17. 
 
 Cf. too Henry V. i. 2. 38 41. The Archbishop of Canterbury is 
 supporting the claim of Henry to the crown of France. There is, he 
 argues, only one obstacle the provision 
 
 "'In terram Salicam mulieres ne sttccedant, 
 No woman shall succeed in Salique land : ' 
 Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze 
 To be the realm of France;" 
 
 72
 
 100 COMUS. 
 
 i.e. falsely interpret as applying to France. Glozing= 'deceitful' is not 
 uncommon in Elizabethan writers : 
 
 " For he could well his glozing speaches frame " 
 
 Faerie Queene, in. 8. 14. 
 
 Shelley remembered the history of the word when he wrote : 
 
 "Tomes 
 Of reasoned wrong, glozed on by ignorance "- 
 
 Prometheus, III. 4. 
 
 162. Baited. Bait is Scandinavian; Icelandic blta = ' to bite :' the 
 causal verb of this is Va='make to bite;' and the Icelandic sound ei 
 commonly appears as at or ay in mod. English (Principles of Etymology, 
 p. 463). For instance, hail! as an exclamation is the same as Icelandic 
 heill, used in greetings. A bait, therefore, = 'an enticement to feed.' To 
 bait horses is to let them eat. 
 
 163. Wind me, i.e. obtain his confidence. Needlessly changed in 
 some editions to win. Shakespeare has wind two or three times with the 
 sense 'getting an unfair advantage over a person;' e.g. Lear, i. 2. 
 1 06, "seek him out : wind me into him, I pray you." 
 
 165. Virtiie, i.e. peculiar power; cf. virtuous, 621 and // Pen. 
 
 "3- 
 
 167. Gear. 'Business.' Properly gear= l apparatus,' 'tackle,' the 
 sense which it retains in compounds: travelling, or faking, gear, etc. In 
 Elizabethan English it usually has the wider meaning of ' affair, ' ' matter 
 in hand.' Cf. Romeo and Juliet, II. 4. 107 " here's goodly gear," i.e. as 
 we might say colloquially, 'a pretty business.' So Titus Androniais, iv. 
 3. 52, "come, to this gear"= 'let us set about it." A.S.?ar0='ready;' 
 whence yare, yarely ('briskly'), the transition from g toy being very 
 slight, since g preceding e or i probably had almost a.y sound in Saxon 
 times. For a long period i2th to i4th century this sound, half y, 
 half g, was represented by a letter 3 which afterwards dropped out of 
 use. When this letter became obsolete the words in which it occurred 
 mostly settled down to the regular y sound. See Mayhew and Skeat, 
 pp. 266 269, Earle's English Tongue, pp. 130, 131. 
 
 166 9. The edition of 1673 differs from that of 1645. I have kept 
 to the text of the latter. 
 
 168. Fairly. 'Softly;' "soft and fair, friar" Much Ado, V. 
 
 4- 72- 
 
 169. Comus here steps back into the wood. 
 
 170. Noise. Sometimes in XVI ith century English a compli-
 
 NOTES. 10 1 
 
 mentary word. Shakespeare uses it (without irony) of music, e.g. in 
 The Tempest, ill. 2. 144; so Milton in the Nativity Ode, 97. The ety- 
 mology is much disputed : possibly from nausea (Greek vava-ia Latinised), 
 the connection being seasickness, then annoyance, then quarrel, then 
 the clamour that attends a quarrel (Brachet). Others connect with 
 Lat. noxia = noxa. 
 
 174. Hinds. 'Peasants.' The earlier form was hine, ' a domestic ;' 
 cf. the Old E. hine-hede=* service;' akin to A.S. hin, 'a house,' from 
 the root seen in Kfiftat, civis and on the Teutonic side home, hamlet, 
 etc. For the excrescent d see note on. fond, 1. 67. Hind belonged to 
 the class of words which represented, in Trench's phrase, "the broad 
 basis" of English; the words, that is, which touched closely the life 
 of the conquered Saxons, and refused to make way for Norman alter- 
 natives. In the eyes of his Norman lord a countryman was a 'villain,' 
 (Lear, III. 7. 78) i.e. villanus ; for his fellow-labourers he remained a 
 hind or chtirl. Eventually both hind and villain yielded to peasant. 
 
 175 177. i.e. at a harvest -home such as Herrick pictures in the 
 Hesperides, e.g. The Country Life. Cf. L'Al. 91 114. Pan's An- 
 niversary is the title and subject of one of Ben Jonson's Masques. 
 
 175. Granges. Grange had three meanings (i) A barn or granary : 
 
 "Thy cellars filled with such choice of wine 
 And of all graines such plenty in thy grange." 
 
 Grosart's Sylvester, n. p. 28. 
 
 This is the etymological sense, Grange being derived through the French 
 from Low Lat. Granea. Cf. Du Cange : "granea, loctis, sen aedes, iibi 
 grana frumentaria reconduntur, nostris Grange." [Granea would 
 become grania, then granja, lastly grange.] Granges =' barns' suits 
 the present line. We rarely find the word used thus in modern verse, 
 but cf. Tennyson's Demeter: 
 
 "Once more the reaper in the gleam of dawn 
 Will see me by the landmark far away, 
 Rejoicing in the harvest and the grange." 
 
 So Matthew Arnold in the Scholar Gipsy: 
 
 "Then sought thy straw in some sequester'd grange." 
 
 (ii) Grange meant a country-house, as it usually does now. 
 Nash in his tract, Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, speaking of the 
 plague, complains that the poor must remain in the city, while 
 "ritch men haue theyr country granges to fly to." Prose Workes t
 
 102 COMUS. 
 
 Huth Library, iv. p. 246. In the Ballad of Flodden Feilde grange 
 is applied to the country-seat of the Egerton family Bishop Percy's 
 Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall, vol. i. p. 338. And Cotgrave 
 has: "Beauregard: A summer house or graunge ; a house for 
 recreation or pleasure." 
 
 (iii) Grange was applied to lonely, isolated houses, this use being, 
 according to Warton, common in the eastern counties of England. 
 Hence the point of Brabantio's reply to lago in Othello, I. i. 106: 
 "What tell'st thou me of robbing? this is Venice; 
 
 My house is not a grange ; " 
 
 i.e. not a place where he could be robbed and nobody the wiser. It 
 would be superfluous to mention the ' ' moated grange " of Measure for 
 Measure and Tennyson's Mariana. 
 
 178. Swilled insolence. Anticipating the rather quaint lines in 
 P. L. I. 5012 : 
 
 " Sons 
 
 Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine." 
 Swill is almost always used offensively : cf. Richard III. v. i. 9 : 
 
 " swills your warm blood ; " 
 where the subject of the verb is " this foul swine," the king. 
 
 179. Wassailers. 'Revellers;' formed from -wassail: as to which 
 Skeat writes : "Originally a drinking of a health, from the Northern 
 English wees heel, answering to A. S. wes hdl, lit. 'be whole,' a form of 
 wishing good health. Here wes is imperative sing, of wesan, to be ; 
 and hdl is the same as mod. E. whole." The second half of the 
 compound is seen more clearly in hale; but hale ('strong,' 'hearty') 
 and whole are identical words what Skeat calls ' doublets.' 
 
 The use of the word wassail, which from signifying this saluta- 
 tion in drinking (cf. the Prosit! of German student-life) came to.mean 
 'a revel' or 'drinking-bout,' might be copiously illustrated. Bullokar's 
 Expositor (1616) has " Wassaile, a term usual heretofore for quaffing 
 and carowsing." Cf. several passages in Shakespeare, e.g. Love's L. L. 
 V. i. 318, "at wakes and wassails;" i Henry IV. I. i. 179, "A 
 wassail candle, my lord," i.e. fit for a wassail; and Macbeth, I. 7. 
 64, where Lady Macbeth promises to overcome the chamberlains 
 "with wine and wassail." In Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas 
 (1616) numerous allegorical dramatis persona appear, amongst them 
 being Father Christmas with his ten sons and daughters. One of the 
 latter is Wassel, "her page bearing a brown bowl, drest with ribands."
 
 NOTES. 103 
 
 Perhaps no poet has celebrated the word and its associations more ten- 
 derly than Herrick. In the In Memoriam, cv. (" Nor bowl of wassail 
 mantle warm") it seems a little pedantic. 
 
 180. Inform. 'Guide,' 'direct;' cf. S. A. 333 6: 
 
 " If old respect 
 
 hither hath inform'd 
 
 Your younger feet." 
 
 181. Blind, i.e. obscure, not an uncommon meaning in Eliza- 
 bethan English. Cf. Robynson's translation of the Utopia: "those 
 lawes, which either be in number mo then be hable to be read, or 
 else blinder and darker, then that anye man can well understand 
 them," Pitt Press ed. p. 126. Shakespeare has: "The blind cave of 
 night." Richard III. v. 3. 61. Perhaps the sole survival of this use 
 in modern English is our expression ' ' blind alley." 
 
 1 88. Grey -hooded. Clearly the original of Keats' 
 
 "She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives 
 How tiptoe Night holds back her dark grey hood"- 
 
 Endymion, I. 
 
 The reference to a palmer in the next line makes the colour gray 
 appropriate. Cf. the description in one of Greene's lyrics of Love 
 dressed as a pilgrim : 
 
 "Down the valley gan he track, 
 Bag and bottle at his back, 
 In a surcoat all of grey; 
 Such wear palmers on the way, 
 When with scrip and staff they see 
 Jesus' grave on Calvary." 
 
 The verse has a suggestion of Arcades, 54. 
 
 189. Sad. 'Sober,' 'serious,' without any notion of sorrow; cf. 
 sadly in line 509. The original sense was 'sated,' A. S. scad being 
 akin to Latin satis. Then the idea 'satisfied' passed to that of 
 "serious, firm, sober, discreet, grave" (Mayhem and Skeat, s.v.). This 
 meaning was common; cf. the Utopia: "I can not tell whether it 
 were best to reherse the communication that folowed, for it was not 
 very sad," p. 44, Pitt Press ed. ; where Professor Lumby notes that 
 in Wycliffe's version of the New Test. Peter is called "a sad stone," i.e. 
 one firmly fixed. He quotes also from Chaucer, Man of Law, "A 
 company of chapmen riche and thereto sadde and trewe," i.e. decorous.
 
 104 COM US. 
 
 Country-people in the north of England speak of bread being "sad," 
 when they mean that it is heavy. 
 
 Votarist. Used of anyone who had taken a vow (votutii) ; here a 
 vow of pilgrimage. Shakespeare prefers the form votary, Lovers L. L. 
 II. 37 and IV. i. 141; but we .find votarist in Timon of Athens, IV. 3. 
 17, "I am no idle votarist." 
 
 Weed, i.e. dress; A. S. weed 'garment.' The word has become 
 curiously specialised. Now the plural, weeds, is always used, signifying 
 only one kind of dress. But in Elizabethan English we often find the 
 singular, -weed, and the sense is not limited to any particular sort of 
 clothing. Cf. Midsummer N. D. II. i. 256: "Weed wide enough to 
 wrap a fairy in." " Dank and dropping weeds " is Milton's translation 
 of uvida vestimenta in Horace, Odes, I. 5. 15. The exact phrase of our 
 text occurs in the Faerie Queen, II. i. 52: "weake wretch, I wrapt 
 myself in Palmers weed," where the stanza refers to the story of the 
 enchantress Acrasia, a part of Spenser's poem which, as we have 
 seen, supplied Milton with several hints. A Palmer (in Church 
 Latin palmarius) was "one who bore a palm-branch in memory of 
 having been to the Holy Land " (Skeat). 
 
 191 92. Milton is partial to this cumbrous form of indirect 
 question; among not infrequent instances in S. A. cf. line 1380: 
 " How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach." 
 
 195 225. From "else O thievish Night" down to "tufted grove," 
 (225) is omitted in the Bridgewater MS.; perhaps to lighten the part of 
 the young lady; perhaps from motives of delicacy (Masson, in. 442). 
 
 196. Felonious, i.e. wicked or thievish. Cf. "felon winds" Lycidas, 
 91. Pope has "felon hate," Odyssey, IV. 712. O. F. Felon, 'a felon,' 
 is from Low Lat. fellonem, accus. of fello, 'a traitor.' The latter may 
 be Celtic and really cognate with fallere, though Brachet marks its 
 origin unknown. 
 
 197 200. An obvious and somewhat overworn piece of imagery : 
 cf. " the pale stars 
 
 Quenched their everlasting lamps in night." 
 
 Giles Fletcher, Christ's Trittmfh over Death, 26. 
 
 Numerous parallels might be quoted down to Shelley's "The lamps 
 of Heaven flash with a softer light " Adonais xix. Shakespeare 
 quaintly compared the stars to candles in Romeo and Juliet, in. 5. 59 
 "night's candles are burnt out;" and repeated the simile in Macbeth, 
 11.1.5 an d elsewhere.
 
 NOTES. 105 
 
 204. Single, i.e. complete. In 369 &?= 'mere.' 
 205 209. It does not seem necessary to refer the idea of these 
 verses directly to the supernatural music in the Tempest. Milton was 
 drawing upon a popular superstition; cf. his allusion in P. R. II. 274 
 to the "spirits of air, and woods, and springs." No doubt many of his 
 audience believed in these "calling shapes" and "airy tongues" of 
 which mediaeval romance is full. There is a similar passage in the 
 Faithful Shepherdess, I : 
 
 ' ' Voices calling me in dead of night 
 
 To make me follow 
 
 Through mire and standing pools, to find my ruin." 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, I. p. 265. Moxon's ed. 
 
 207. Beckoning. Like the ghost in Hamlet, I. 4. 58. 
 
 208. Airy tongues. Cf. Endymion, II. : 
 
 " Follow 
 
 Where airy voices lead ; " 
 and later (iv.): 
 
 "Never more 
 Shall airy voices cheat me to the shore." 
 
 Probably due to Comus. 
 
 Syllable, i.e. pronounce clearly. 
 
 212. Siding, i.e. going by the side; hence 'defending.' Chapman 
 describing the procession of a Masque through London writes : " Euery 
 one of these horse had two Moores...that for State sided them." 
 Works (Pearson's Reprint), III. 93. 
 
 213. "White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee," says 
 Berowne to the princess in Love's Labour 's Lost, V. 2. 230. There the 
 epithet was a mere compliment : here it is a piece of symbolism. 
 
 714. Girt with golden wings. Possibly a reminiscence of Psalm 
 Ixviii. 13: "yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with 
 silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." Cf. // Pen. 52. 
 
 215. Chastity. A departure from the ordinary Trinity of Faith, 
 Hope and Charity (to keep the Authorised Version of Ayairri). Comus, 
 as we have said, is an enforcement of the doctrine intensely sacred in 
 Milton's eye the doctrine of purity; and it is worth noting that the 
 substantive chastity occurs seven times in the poem ; the adjective chaste 
 four times. Cf. lines 78 99. 
 
 216. The Cambridge MS. has some pretty lines, afterwards re- 
 jected by the poet :
 
 106 COMUS. 
 
 "I see ye visibly; and while I see ye, 
 This dusky hollow is a Paradise, 
 And Heaven-gates o'er my head: now I believe." 
 
 217. Supreme. Scan supreme; see note on 1. 273. The sense is: 
 'he who uses all evil powers as agents to execute his displeasure against 
 wicked men would send...' 
 
 219. Glistering. Shakespeare has glister rather more often than 
 glitter; e.g. in the usually misquoted line in the Merchant of Venice, 
 II. 7. 65, "All that glisters is not gold." Cf. Gray on the Death 
 of a Favourite Cat. Glister occurs once only in the Authorised 
 Version i Chronicles, xxix. 2. 
 
 221. Was I deceived. A moment before she had expressed the 
 belief that providence would, if necessary, interpose to protect her. 
 The rift in the clouds seems an omen: the moonlight is the "glistering 
 guardian." 
 
 223. 224. Milton employs sparingly, but always with fine effect, 
 the artifice of verbal repetition. For a good example we may take 
 P. L. vn. 25, 26 : 
 
 "though fallen on evil days, 
 On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;" 
 
 or 5. A. 80, 8r: 
 
 "O dark, dark, dark amid the blaze of noon, 
 Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse." 
 
 No modern poet uses this device more beautifully than Tennyson. 
 
 224. Cf. the proverb "no cloud without a silver lining." 
 
 225. Casts. We should expect cast after does in 1. 223. 
 228. New-enlivened, i.e. by the favourable sign in the sky. 
 
 230. The editors think that this appeal to the Echo may have been 
 suggested by a scene in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, I. i. But it is 
 unnecessary to fix upon any special work. The Masque-writer, like 
 the playwright, employed certain stereotyped devices, and addressing 
 the Echo may almost be classed among them. We find it used in one 
 of the earliest of printed Masques, those, namely, that were performed 
 before Queen Elizabeth in 1592, 1593. Warton in his comparison of 
 Comus with the Old Wives' Tale noted that the Echo is invoked in 
 the latter (cf. the Introduction} ; and from a passage in Ben Jonson's 
 Penates we may infer that in pastoral verse such addresses were a 
 traditional feature. The country folk, he says,
 
 NOTES. ID/ 
 
 "Cleave the air with many a shout, 
 As they would hunt poor Echo out 
 Of yonder valley, who doth flout 
 Their rustic noise. To visit whom 
 You shall behold whole bevies come 
 Of gaudy nymphs " 
 
 It is easy to see why the trick was so popular. The Masque was much 
 concerned with the presentment of fantastic scenes, where everything 
 made for picturesqueness of effect and suggestiveness of sound to gratify 
 eye and ear. The reply of the Echo would, of course, be counterfeited, 
 and this would add to the idealism of the scene. And then these 
 appeals were the musician's opportunity : Lawes could bring in his 
 "smooth-dittied" song. 
 
 231. Airy shell, i.e. the vault of Heaven. Cf. the Nativity Ode, 
 100. 
 
 232. There seems to be no classical authority for this association 
 of Echo and Meander, though we meet with it in Gray's Progress of 
 Poesy, 69 72, an imitation perhaps of the present passage. Meander 
 is the modern Mendereh, rising in Phrygia. The circuitous course of 
 the river has given us the word meander, 
 
 Margent. Shakespeare invariably uses this form ; never margin or 
 marge, except in the compound sea-marge, which occurs once, Tempest, 
 iv. i. 69. 
 
 234. Love-lorn, Lorn is the past part, of A. S. ledsan ; lost being 
 the weak form. For strong verbs dropping to weak verbs see 1. 449, 
 note. Forlorn is exactly the Ger. verloren ; for and ver being 
 identical, intensive prefixes. 
 
 237. Thy Narcissus. 
 
 " Eke wailfull Eccho, forgetting her deare 
 Narcissus, their last accents doth resownd." 
 
 Spenser, A Pastorall Aeglogue. Globe ed., 567. 
 
 Echo, one of the Oreads or mountain nymphs, fell in love with 
 Narcissus and, the love not being returned, pined away till only her 
 voice remained ; as we learn from Ovid, Met. in. 356 et seq. 
 
 241. Cf. the epithet 'sphereborn' applied to the "harmonious 
 sisters, Voice and Verse" At a Solemn Music, i. 
 
 242. Translated. 'Raised aloft.' Derived from transfero =' transfer 
 from one place to another,' and once common in this sense: "By 
 turninge, translatinge, and removinge thies markes into other places
 
 108 COMUS. 
 
 they maye destroye theire enemies navies," Utopia, Bk. n. p. 68, Pitt 
 Press ed. A bishop can be 'translated' from one see to another. A 
 frequent Shakespearian meaning is ' transformed : ' e.g. Midsummer 
 N. D. III. i. 122, "Bottom, thou art translated." 
 
 243. i.e. re-echo the music of heaven. In the Cambridge MS. the 
 verse begins And hold a counterpoint. Perhaps counterpoint, the 
 musical term, seemed too technical. Note that the verse is an 
 Alexandrine, the only one in the poem (Introduction). Milton was 
 fond of the metre; see the Nativity Ode, or the lines on the Death of a 
 Fair Infant. Coming at the close of a stanza an Alexandrine rounds 
 it off effectively, but versifiers used the trick so freely that Pope in 
 the Essay on Criticism protested. 
 
 244. In the Cambridge MS. the return of Comus to the scene is 
 marked by a stage-direction Comus looks in and speaks. Probably he 
 appears at the side of the stage, not revealing himself to the lady till 
 1. 265. 
 
 244, 245. The language of the couplet is a little extravagant ; but 
 we must remember that it was inserted out of compliment to the 
 composer and the Lady Egerton who had sung the air. 
 
 246 8. In Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Bk. v. we read : 
 "Touching musical harmony... so pleasing effects it hath in that very 
 part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced 
 to think, that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony." This 
 theory the Glosse to the Shepheards Calender, October refers to its 
 original holders : ' ' What the secrete working of Musick is in the 
 myndes of men, appeareth hereby, that some of the auncient Philo- 
 sophers, and those the moste wise, as Plato and Pythagoras, held for 
 opinion, that the mynd was made of a certaine harmonic and musicall 
 nombers." 
 
 248. His, i.e. its. The possessive pronouns in English were 
 formed from the genitive case of the personal pronouns. The genitive 
 of the pronoun of the third person in A. S. was declined as follows : 
 
 Mas. Fern. Neut. 
 his hire his. 
 
 These forms served as adjective or possessive pronouns. His for the 
 masculine has obviously survived : hire has become her: his for the 
 neuter is obsolete. About the end of the xvith century its came into 
 currency as the neuter possessive pronoun and displaced his ; but very 
 slowly. Spenser, for example, never writes its: Shakespeare in only
 
 NOTES. 
 
 a few passages nine, according to Schmidt (Lexicon), and seven of 
 these occur in the Tempest and Winter's Tale, plays that date from 
 the close of Shakespeare's career. For the rest he keeps to the old 
 idiom; cf. Julius Ctesar, I. 2. 124: 
 
 " And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, 
 Did lose his lustre." 
 
 That the new pronoun did not meet with ready acceptance is shown 
 by the fact that it is not found in the Bible of 1611 our Version. 
 Cf. Genesis i. 12 : "and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding 
 seed after his kind;" again iii. 15 : "// shall bruise thy head, and thou 
 shalt bruise his heel;" and Leviticus xxiii. 37, "everything upon his 
 day. " In passages where a modern poet would have no hesitation in 
 writing its Milton's practice varies. Sometimes he retains the ancient 
 idiom, his, as here (248) and again at line 919; in three places, 
 Nativity Ode, 106, P. L. i. 254, />. Z. IV. 813, he has its ; and very 
 often if the antecedent be feminine he avoids the difficulty by per- 
 sonifying the noun and saying her. As proving that its is com- 
 paratively a modernism we may note that "ike own"="zV.f own" was 
 a common turn of language. Cf. Robynson's translation of the Utopia, 
 "They marveile also that golde, whych of the owne nature is a thinge 
 so unprofytable," p. 101, and p. 113, "shal it not know the owne 
 wealthe ? " Pitt Press ed. According to Morris this expression occurs 
 in Hooker, 1553 1600 (Historical Outlines, p. 124, from which several 
 of these references are taken). 
 
 251 2. These lines exemplify Milton's faculty for suggesting 
 by means of metaphor the quality in which Coleridge among modern 
 poets is preeminent. We are to conceive of darkness as being a 
 dusky bird whose ruffled wings cover the earth imagery which is 
 illustrated by the "dewy- feathered sleep" of // Pen. 146, and L"Al. 6, 
 where "brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings." Cf. too, the 
 apostrophe to sleep in Endymion I. : 
 
 ' ' O magic sleep ! O comfortable bird ! 
 That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind 
 Till it is hushed and smoothed." 
 
 And on this bird of night falls the spell of harmony, just as in the 
 first Pythian Ode of Pindar the eagle of Zeus was charmed to rest by 
 music :
 
 1 10 COM US. 
 
 "Perching on the sceptred hand 
 Of Jove, the magic lulls the feather'd king 
 With ruffled plumes and flagging wing: 
 Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie 
 The terror of his beak, and light'nings of his eye." 
 The Progress of Poetry i . 2 ; 
 
 where Gray refers in the footnote to his Pindaric model. Cf. also 
 Empedodes on Etna, II. i, early and // Pen. 58. The raven, of 
 course, is chosen as symbolising darkness by its colour and as being 
 the bird of evil omen; cf. Z' Al. 7, "the night-raven sings." It may 
 be objected that smiled strikes a false note; that, in fact, it introduces 
 confusion of metaphor : feathers cannot smile. But analysis of meta- 
 phor rarely yields very satisfactory results; much of Shakespeare's 
 imagery will not bear minute investigation. The poet may be granted 
 a certain license if he pleases the imagination by a picture which 
 is suggestive, intelligible, and not obtrusively incongruous. The 
 present metaphor does not offend by want of harmony : on the con- 
 trary, it gratifies; and that is sufficient. Mrs Gaskell has a happy 
 allusion to this passage: "she was late that she knew she would be. 
 Miss Simmonds was vexed and cross. That also she had anticipated 
 and had intended to smooth her raven down by extraordinary dili- 
 gence." Mary Barton, II. p. 27. 
 
 251. Fall. 'Cadence:' "That strain again! it had a dying fall," 
 Twelfth Night, l. r. 4. Cf. close, in 1. 548. 
 
 253. Milton treats the classics a little freely. In Homer the 
 Sirens have nothing to do with Circe. She appears in book X. of the 
 Odyssey: they in bk. XII. : indeed Circe at the beginning of the latter 
 warns Odysseus against the Singing Maidens, and recommends the 
 expedient of anointing the ears of his sailors with the honey-sweet wax. 
 Possibly Milton, followed Browne, who in the Inner Temple Masque 
 represented the Sirens as attending on the goddess. 
 
 Sirens three. In Homer only two; cf. Odyssey, xn. 52 and 185, 
 where the dual is used. They were assigned to different islands: (i) 
 In the straits of Sicily: (ii) somewhere south east of Circe's isle, Aea 
 (as in Homer): (iii) Capri. Milton mentions two of the Sirens, 
 Parthenope and Ligea, later on 879, 880. 
 
 254. In Odyssey, x. 350, 351 Circe is waited upon by four maidens, 
 "born of the wells, and of the woods, and of the holy rivers, that flow 
 forward into the salt sea." There were in Greek mythology a large
 
 NOTES. 1 1 1 
 
 number of inferior female divinities, collectively denominated Ntf/u^at, 
 and subdivided into classes named according to the localities they 
 inhabited; the Naiads being "the nymphs of freshwater, whether of 
 rivers, lakes, brooks or wells" (Classical Dictionary}. In P. R. n. 344 
 6, as here, Milton associates them specially with flowers. Perhaps 
 he transferred to them the \fi/j.<Si> ' bvOepbevTa. in which Homer placed 
 the Sirens. 
 
 255. Potent herbs. Circe being the dea sava potentibus herbis, 
 ALneid, vil. 19. The Nereids gather simples for her in Ovid, Met. xiv. 
 261 et seq.; as also in The Inner Temple Masque Hazlitt II. 254. 
 
 257 9. Odysseus had to sail a considerable distance beyond the 
 island of the Sirens before he reached the straits where lay Scylla on 
 the Italian, and Charybdis on the Sicilian, side. The voices could 
 scarcely have penetrated so far. All through this passage Milton 
 adapts rather than follows Homer's account of the classical figures 
 enumerated. 
 
 This is not the only place in literature where Scylla and Charybdis 
 fall under the influence of music. The shepherd in Silius Italicus 
 charmed them : Scyllai tacuere canes ; stetit atra Charybdis, Bettum 
 Punicum, Xiv. 467. The fame of the twin monsters survived through 
 the mediaeval verse, incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim ; 
 Merchant of Venice, III. 5. 19. 
 
 258. Barking. Cf. Odyssey, xn. 85, 86: "Therein dwelleth 
 Scylla, yelping terribly (Seivbv XeXa/cuta), her voice indeed is no greater 
 than the voice of a new-born whelp;" and Vergil's multis circum 
 latrantibus undis, sEneid, vil. 588. So the Utopia, p. 23, Pitt Press 
 ed. : "For nothyng is more easye to bee founde, than bee barkynge 
 Scyllaes." 
 
 260. Lulled. Zz<//='sing to rest.' Old Dutch /#/&= 'sing in a 
 humming voice.' No doubt an onomatopreic word, formed from the 
 sound lu lu which nurses repeated in sending children to sleep. Cf. 
 Cotgrave, "Assopir: to lay, bring, or lull, asleep;" and Minsheu (1599) 
 "to lull as the nurse doth her childe." Loll is a derivative from lull. 
 It looks as though the two words were occasionally confounded, or 
 treated as interchangeable. Thus Baret (1573) has: " Lulling = flag- 
 ging. Flaccidus;" where lolling, i.e. 'lounging lazily,' appears to be 
 the sense. Again, in Richard III. III. 7. 72 the quartos and folios 
 without exception read : "He is not lulling on a lewd day bed ;" which 
 most editors change to lolling. Lull, from meaning 'soothe to sleep,' 
 came to have the wider signification 'fondle;' cf. again Cotgrave:
 
 112 COMUS. 
 
 "Mignarder, to lull, dandle, cherish, make much of." This may 
 explain Chaucer's use in The Marchantes Tale, 9697. 
 
 161. Home-felt, 'keenly felt;' home suggesting 'to the full.' As 
 we say, 'pay him home,' 'drive it home.' Frequent in Shakespeare; 
 e.g. Measure for Measure, IV. 3. 138: "Accuse him home and home;" 
 Lear, in. 3. 13, "The injuries will be revenged home." 
 
 265. We can scarcely refrain from comparing Ferdinand's address 
 to Miranda : 
 
 "my prime request, 
 
 Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! 
 If you be maid, or no?" Tempest, i. 2. 427 9. 
 
 267. 8. Unless the goddess 
 
 DweWst here 
 An abbreviated way of saying 'unless thou art the goddess that dwells.' 
 
 268. Sylvan. Sylvanus, originally the god of fields and forests, 
 was in later times identified with Pan, the god of nature in general. 
 
 269. Cf. Arcades, 48, 49. 
 
 271. /// is lost, i.e. male perditur. 
 
 273. Extreme. With the stress on the penultimate extreme. 
 In Shakespeare the tendency of dissyllabic adjectives and participles 
 normally accented on the second syllable is to throw the accent back 
 when they precede a noun whose accent falls on the first syllable, or 
 a monosyllable. Thus, to take extreme as an example we find : 
 
 "And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly," Lncrece, 230; 
 again: 
 
 "But that the extreme peril of the case 
 Enforced us to this execution" Richard III. in. 5. 44, 45. 
 
 On the other hand : 
 
 "Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust," Sonnet, 129. 4. 
 
 The principle applies in Shakespeare, and often in Milton, to a number 
 of adjectives like obscure, secure, supreme, sincere, complete, profane ; 
 and participles exhaled, despised, dispersed. Cf. 421, 449. 
 
 277 90. The severely Sophoclean style of this passage is curious. 
 Even in S. A. (which for Goethe had "more of the antique spirit than 
 any other production of any other modern poet," Eckermann in Oxen- 
 ford's translation n. p. 220) we do not find a piece of ffTixpfivdla. so long 
 as the present. The nearest approach is the dialogue between Manoah 
 and the Messenger, 1552 et seq. There are a few examples of the same
 
 NOTES. 113 
 
 type of dialogue in Shakespeare's early plays (cf. Richard III. iv. 4. 
 343 361); none, I think, in the later dramas. Probably at the outset 
 of his career Shakespeare fell somewhat under the influence of the 
 English classical tragedy based upon Seneca. Thus the Misfortunes of 
 Arthur, produced by members of Gray's Inn amongst them was 
 Francis Bacon, the future Lord Verulam before Elizabeth in 1587, has 
 several passages like the following: 
 
 G. "And fear you not so strange and uncouth war? 
 
 M. No, were they wars that grew from out the ground? 
 
 G. Nor yet your sire so huge, yourself so small? 
 
 M. The smallest axe may fell the hugest oak;" 
 
 and so on. 
 
 278. Leavy. So both Milton's editions. Most editors change to 
 leafy. Leavy appears to have been more common. Shakespeare 
 always uses it; e.g. "leavy screens," Macbeth v. 6. i ; Much Ado u. 
 3. 75, where it rhymes with heavy ; and Pericles v. i. 51. Coles' 
 Latin Dictionary has "i,ea.vy,fronJosus;" and Boyer, "Leavy (or full 
 of leaves) Feuillu, plein de feuilles." Neither writes leafy. We have 
 it however in the Authorised Version, 1611; cf. Mark xi. Contents, 
 "curseth the fruitless leafy tree." V in place of f was characteristic of 
 the southern dialects. In the old poem of The Owl and the Nightin- 
 gale, written in Dorsetshire some time in the reign of Henry III. (1260 
 or thereabout), we find vo for foe, vairer for fairer etc. (Earle, p. 58). 
 And the same pronunciation may still be heard any day in Somerset- 
 shire ; fallow field is always (from a labourer) valloiv vicld. 
 
 279. Near-ushering. 'Going just ahead.' 
 
 285. Prevented. 'Anticipated;' frequent in Shakespeare, Spenser 
 and other Elizabethans. The etymology of the word pr&venio 
 disappears in the modern meaning 'hinder.' 
 
 286. Hit. 'Guess;' metaphor of shooting at a target. 
 
 "But what it is, hard is to say, 
 Harder to hit" S. A. 1013 14. 
 
 290. Cf. Z' Al. 29. Hebe, the cup-bearer of the gods, Iliad iv. 
 i, stands for the personification of youth. In the lines Ad Salsillum, 
 23, 24, Milton salutes good health (salus) as the 'sister of Hebe' (Hebes 
 Germana], 
 
 291. What time. 'At the time when,' quo tempore. Once a 
 common idiom. Cf. Psalm Ivi. 3, "What time I am afraid, I will 
 trust in thee;" and Titus Andronicus iv. 3. 19: 
 
 v. 8
 
 114 COMUS. 
 
 "I made thee miserable 
 What time I threw the people's suffrages 
 On him." 
 So Lycidas, 28. 
 
 291 93. A stereotyped method in pastoral poetry of fixing the 
 time, for which Homer's /Sot/XurivSe may have been originally respon- 
 sible. Cf. Vergil's asfice, aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci, 
 Eclogue, n. 66. 
 
 293. Swinked. 'Wearied.' A. S. swincan 1 labour,' 'work hard;' 
 very common in old English. Cf. Faerie Qneette II. 7. 8: 
 
 "Honour, estate, and all this worldes good, 
 
 For which men swinck and sweat incessantly." 
 
 So the Glosse to the Shepheards Calettder, April : " Forswonck, over- 
 laboured," where for is intensive, i.e. 'thoroughly tired.' Swinker is 
 a synonym of labourer in Cockeram's Dictionary, 1626. Shelley has 
 the verb in his humorous Letter to Maria Gisborne: 
 
 "that dew which the gnomes drink, 
 When at their subterranean toil they swink." 
 
 295. Yon. Pointing to some part of the scenery in the back- 
 ground. In Lye. 40, Milton conveys by a single epithet ('gadding') 
 the same picture of the vine's straggling growth. 
 
 297 301. Milton has said something complimentary concerning 
 all who were immediately interested in the production of Comus: the 
 Earl of Bridgewater himself, 31; Henry Lawes, 84 91; Lady Alice 
 Egerton, 244 270; and now the sons Lord Brackley and his brother 
 are remembered. 
 
 297. Port. 'Bearing;' frequent in Shakespeare "assume the 
 port of Mars," Henry V. prologue 6. Cf. portance and portaunce in 
 Spenser. 
 
 299. Element. 'Sky.' The clown in Twelfth Night, in. i. 65, 
 condemned the word as hackneyed. For a good instance of its use cf. 
 North's Plutarch (Skeat's ed.) p. 97: "Touching the fires in the 
 element, and spirits running up and down in the night, are not all 
 these signs perhaps worth the noting?" 
 
 301. Plighted, i.e. folded. It suggests the involved masses of 
 banked clouds; what Milton in the Nativity Ode, 146, calls "tissued 
 clouds." Plight (vb. and n.), = 'fold,' was in current use; cf. Lear I. i. 
 283: 
 
 "Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides;"
 
 NOTES. 1 1 5 
 
 where the variant of the quartos, pleated, makes the sense more obvious. 
 Spenser has plight as past part, in the Faerie Queene, II. 7. 7 "Of 
 rushes plight ;" again in vr. 7. 43, "And on his head a roll of linnen 
 plight." Cf. the extract from Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement in the note 
 on 759. It should be spelt plite; and in Chaucer we find pliten, the 
 verb, Troilusll. 697. Note that plight (i) = ' obligation,' nearly obsolete 
 as noun, but common in the derived verb ("plight one's faith"), is 
 Teutonic; whereas plight (ii) 'condition' ("in a sad plight") is of 
 Romance origin and really identical with //z^='fold.' In his 
 Dictionary Skeat did not draw the distinction ; but see the Principles 
 of Etymology, p. 244, footnote. A number of words French pit, plier, 
 pliturztc., English ply, plait are derived tvomplicare; cf. irXticeiv. 
 
 301. Awe-strook. Professor Masson notes (P. L. 11. 165) that Milton 
 usually writes strook rather than struck both as preterite and past part. 
 We constantly find it in the quartos of Shakespeare. 
 
 308. Allowance. In allow two words have run together. Allow = 
 'approve of is from Lat. allaudare. Formerly it had the stronger sense 
 'praise;' cf. St Paul's "that which I do I allow not," Romans\\\. 15. 
 Allow= 'make a grant to," whence allowance, comes from allocare, a Low 
 Latin word = 'assign,' e.g. a stipend. Allowance in this sense does not 
 occur in Shakespeare, but we find it in the Authorised Version; cf. 
 77. Kings xxv. 30 : "and his allowance was a continual allowance given 
 him of the king, a daily rate for every day." 
 
 311. Alley. Shakespeare uses alley = 'a shady walk' two or three 
 times; e.g. in Much Ado I. 2. 10. The derivation of French aller 
 (from which of course we get alley) is much disputed; possibly from 
 adnare. 
 
 312. Dingle. ' ' A hollow between hills : dale " Johnson. Dimple 
 and dingle are 'doublets,' from a Norwegian word depil=^z. pool.' 
 The central idea is ' something scooped out ' so as to leave a hollow 
 place. Ben Jonson in the Sad Shepherd, II. 2, has a third form dimble: 
 
 "Within a gloomy dimble she doth dwell, 
 Down in a pit." 
 
 313. Bosky bourn, i.e. a stream with shrubs and trees on the 
 banks. Bourn = ' brook, ' Teutonic, and bourn = ' boundary, ' Romance, 
 must be carefully distinguished. The former is "a variant of Burn, 
 being the form commonly used in the south of England, since the 
 1 4th c. ; a small stream, or brook; often applied (in this spelling) to 
 the winter bournes or winter torrents of the chalk downs. Applied to 
 
 82
 
 Il6 COMUS. 
 
 northern streams it is usually spelt Burn" N'ew English Dictionary. 
 Shakespeare uses boitrn = 'brook' in one passage, Lear m. 6. 27, 
 "come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me," where he is quoting the words 
 of an old ballad (1558) by William Birch. The original song (as given 
 in the Harleian Miscellany, X. 260) prints not bourn, but born, showing 
 that the word was not very clearly understood. Bourn survives in 
 some proper names, e.g. Bournemouth. With regard to etymology, 
 bourn or burn is purely Teutonic, the underlying sense being 'foun- 
 tain;' cf. A.S. burna, G. brunnen, 'a spring.' See Mayhem and Skeat, 
 s.v. Bourn = ' boundary, ' as in Hamlet's 
 
 " undiscover'd country, from whose bourn 
 No traveller returns." in. i. 79, 
 
 is the French borne; cf. borner, 'to limit;' and the derivation of the 
 latter is much disputed. In Skeat's Principles, pp. 410 413, are some 
 interesting remarks upon "confluence of forms;" that is to say, upon 
 the tendency of words to flow together and become inseparable. This 
 happens in the case of words which have a certain resemblance; and 
 the process is assisted by the loss in our language of inflexions. Two 
 nouns look alike : if one is clipped of a letter they will become identical : 
 the clipping often takes place, and henceforth they are indistinguishable. 
 Or a vowel may be changed, the half-conscious object always being to 
 assimilate slightly different words. So perhaps in the south of England 
 the spelling of burn ('brook') was affected by that of the more usual 
 novm bourn ('limit'). 
 
 Bosky, Cf. Low Lat. boscum, buscum, 'a wood;' O. F. bosquet, 
 c a little wood,' whence bouquet, and modern Fr. bois, English bush. 
 Bosky, with its cognates, is confined to poetry: 
 
 " Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood." 
 
 Dream of Fair Women., 
 
 315. Attendance, i.e. attendants; abstract for concrete. Cf. 
 poverty =' poor people,' Lear in. 4. 26: 
 
 "You houseless poverty, 
 Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are;" 
 
 one of the many examples quoted by Schmidt, Shakespeare Lexicon, pp. 
 1421, 1422. 
 
 Stray, i.e. who have gone astray. 
 
 316. Shroud, i.e. are sheltered. Spenser in the Present State of 
 Ireland deplores the robbing of travellers that prevails " for wante of
 
 NOTES. II/ 
 
 safer places to shrowde themselves in," Globe ed. p. 68 1. So P. R. iv. 
 41920; 
 
 "111 wast thou shrouded then, 
 O patient Son of God." 
 See note on the noun, 1. 147. 
 
 317,318. Cf. P. R. 279, 280 : 
 
 "And now the herald lark 
 Left his ground-nest." 
 
 322 26. The sentiment reminds us of the Republican Milton of 
 the Commonwealth days. 
 
 324. Tapestry. Usually of a scarlet tint ; cf. Taming of the Shrew 
 II. i. 351, "my hangings all of Tyrian tapestry;" and Fawkes' 
 Translation of Theocritus, Idyl 1 5 : 
 
 " Lo purple tapestry arranged on high 
 Charms the spectator with Tyrian dye;" 
 
 "purple" having the vague force aipurpureus. Tapestry is a corruption 
 of tapisserie. Spenser uses the form tapet which looks like a direct 
 Anglicisation of Lat. tapete, Gr. rawf/nov ; see Muiopotmos 276. 
 Apparently the word could be applied to any sort of material. Hakluyt 
 speaks of a "tapistrie of feathers of divers hues" Voyages in. p. 316. 
 Cowper laid this line under contribution when he translated the sixth 
 Elegy, 49 : 
 
 " In tapestried halls high- roofed the sprightly lyre 
 Directs the dancers;" 
 
 Milton's Latin being auditurque chelys suspensa tapetia circum. 
 
 325. The derivation courtesy from court is correct. Cf. Greene's 
 Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, III. 67, "His courtesy gentle, smelling 
 of the court;" and the Faerie Queetie, VI. I. i : 
 
 "Of Court, it seems, men Courtesie doe call, 
 For that it there most useth to abound." 
 
 O. F. court, or corf, whence modern F. cour and English court, is from 
 Lat. cohortem = z. yard, a farm, and in the Low Latin form cortem, a 
 country-house, or palace, or tribunal. 
 
 329. Square. 'Adjust;' cf. Alts well u. i. 153: "As 'tis with us 
 that square our guess by shows," i.e. judge by external signs. 
 
 331. Cf. Romeo and Juliet v. 3. 21, "Muffle me, night, awhile." 
 In the Princess the sea is "glazed with muffled moonlight," i.e. the light
 
 Il8 COMUS. 
 
 of a moon half hidden by clouds. It seems a prosaic word, with 
 commonplace associations, albeit very often used by Tennyson and 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 332. Wonfst. A present tense; so S. A. 1487: 
 
 "Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age;" 
 
 where, however, are might be understood from the previous line. 
 Wont as past tense, = ' was wont,' occurs in the Nativity Ode, 10 : 
 
 "That glorious form, that light unsufferable, 
 And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, 
 Wherewith he wont at Heaven's high council-table 
 To sit..." 
 
 They are the tenses of a now almost obsolete verb won = (i) ' dwell, ' 
 (ii) 'be used to.' Won in the former sense comes in P. L. vn. 457 : 
 
 "where he wons 
 In forest wild." 
 
 It is common in Spenser; e.g. F. Q. III. 5. 27 : 
 
 "In those same woods ye well reme;nber may 
 How that a noble hunteresse did wonne." 
 
 The verb survives in the participles wont and wonted, neither being 
 correct. The past part, of won should be ivon-ed. But the ed of a 
 p. p. often becomes through careless pronunciation /. So -waned was 
 written -wont. Then people forgot that wont was already a p. p., and 
 added ed: consequently wonted=won-ed-ed. 
 
 Benison ; from O. F. beneison (whose place has been taken by 
 benediction), like orison from O.F. oreison, mod. oraison, i.e. orationem. 
 
 333. Stoop. So the "wandering moon" in // Pen. 71 2: 
 
 "her head she bowed, 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud." 
 
 Perhaps Keats was not unmindful of Milton when he wrote: 
 
 "The moon put forth a little diamond peak, 
 Bright signal that she only stooped to tie 
 Her silver sandals." Endymion iv. 
 
 Spenser applies "stouping" to the setting sun Shepheards Calender, 
 March. 
 
 Amber. Amber is a fossil resin, found chiefly along the southern
 
 NOTES. 119 
 
 shore of the Baltic ; in hue yellowish and translucent. Formerly it was 
 supposed to be a concretion of birds' tears, a pretty superstition to 
 which Moore alludes in The Fire Worshippers: 
 
 "Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber 
 That ever the sorrowing sea-bird hath wept." 
 
 A favourite epithet with Tennyson, connoting obviously very diverse 
 degrees of yellow brilliancy. Cf. the Ode to Memory, iv: 
 
 "What time the amber moon 
 Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud;" 
 
 and Margaret I. : 
 
 "Like the tender amber round 
 Which the moon about her spreadeth, 
 Moving thro' a fleecy night." 
 
 Amber is the tint of the atmosphere in the Lotos-Eaters, Choric Song V., 
 and of the sunrise in Z' A 1. 61. 
 
 334. Disinherit. 'Dispossess.' Inherit in Shakespeare frequently 
 signifies 'to have,' 'possess,' without any notion, as now, of heirship; 
 e.g. Romeo and Juliet I. 2. 30: 
 
 "Such delight shall you inherit at my house." 
 
 335. "Double darkness" in Samson Agonistes, 593, has a more 
 tragic force ; the darkness being that of blindness and death. 
 
 337 340. The construction has a certain awkwardness; the sense 
 is : " if your influence (i.e. the moon's) be quite eclipsed, then do thou, 
 gentle taper, from some quarter, visit us, and thou shalt be..." 
 
 340. A beautiful instance of the sound echoing the sense. The 
 alliteration is clearly intended to suggest the pathway of brilliance 
 which radiates out into the darkness. Possibly when he wrote the 
 words "rule of light," Milton may have been thinking of a verse in 
 his favorite poet Euripides : 
 
 Xo/xirpa filv O.KT\S rj\tov, KO.VUV o-a^ijy, 
 
 ?/3a\\e yaiav. Supplices 650. 
 
 341, 42. A somewhat fanciful way of saying that they will direct 
 their course by the light of the taper as a mariner does his by means of 
 the constellations. Star of Arcady=&Ky star in the constellation of the 
 Greater Bear. Cynosure = the constellation of the Lesser Bear, which 
 contains the pole star; so called from its supposed resemblance to the
 
 120 COMUS. 
 
 shape of a dog's tail KWOI ovpd. The story ran (Ovid, Met. n. 410) 
 that Callisto, after being turned into a she-bear by Juno, was stellified 
 as the Greater Bear by Jupiter. She was the daughter of Lycaon 
 claramque Lycaoiiis Arcton, Georg. I. 138 king of Arcadia: whence 
 Milton's "star of Arcady." Areas, either the son of Callisto (Jupiter 
 being the father), or the brother (the legends varied), was changed 
 into the Lesser Bear. Greek sailors steered by the Greater Bear; 
 the Phoenicians by the Lesser hence "Tyrian Cynosure." Cf. Ovid, 
 Fasti in. 107, 8: 
 
 duas Aretos quarum Cynositra felatitr 
 Sidoniis, Helicen Grain carina notet. 
 
 For the same reason the Lesser Bear was also called $ou>iKij. As 
 Cynosura meant literally the star to which sailors looked, Cynosure 
 came to signify metaphorically (i) 'a guiding star,' (ii) 'an object on 
 which attention is specially fixed.' For the former cf. Racket's Life of 
 Abp Williams, I. 171: "The Countess of Buckingham was the 
 Cynosura that alt the Papists steered by" Encyclopedic Diet. s. v. 
 Cynosure; and Bishop Hall, Cases of Conscience; "For the guidance 
 either of our caution or liberty, in matters of borrowing and lending, the 
 only Cynosure is our charity" Latham's Johnson. So Sylvester's 
 Du Bartas : 
 
 "To the bright Lamp which serves for Cynosure 
 To all that sail upon the sea obscure." 
 
 Grosart's ed., vol. i. p. 88. 
 
 This sense, now obsolete, is required by the present verse in C omits. 
 We have the other meaning in L' Al. 80 : 
 
 "Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes. " 
 
 It is common in modern English: "Richmond was the Cynosure on 
 which all northern eyes were fixed " The Times, in an article on the 
 American War. 
 
 344. Wattled cotes, i.e. sheepfolds made with small hurdles. In 
 Shakespeare cote 'cottage,' As You Like It, n. 4. 83 and III. i. 448. 
 Its use here may be illustrated from the Shepheards Calender, December, 
 77, 78: 
 
 "And learn'd of lighter timber cotes to frame, 
 Such as might save my sheepe and me fro' shame;"
 
 NOTES. 1 2 1 
 
 where the Glosse explains: "Sheepcotes, for such be the exercises of 
 shepheards." Matthew Arnold borrowed the phrase in The Scholar 
 Gipsy : 
 
 "Go, shepherd, and untie the wattled cotes." 
 
 and Tennyson varied it in the Ode to Memory, iv. : 
 
 " Pour round my ears the livelong bleat 
 Of the thick -fleeced sheep from wattled folds." 
 
 Wattle =' hurdle' is the same word as -wallet '= 'a bag,' the latter 
 being a corruption of wattle. The underlying idea in each is ' something 
 twined, woven together.' 
 
 345. Pastoral reed, i.e. the traditional shepherd's pipe. 
 
 Oaten. Cf. Lye. 33, 88, and Love's L. L. v. 2. 913. The oaten 
 pipe has been accepted by English writers as distinctly symbolical of 
 pastoral music, without, as Mr Jerram points out in his note on Lye. 33, 
 any direct authority in the classics. In Theocritus we hear of the 
 Ka\afjLos or atfXoj (i.e. reeds), or Pan's pipe, <rvpiy%. In Latin we 
 find calamus, tibia and cicuta (the stem of hemlock) used in the 
 same connection. Probably the notion of the "oaten straw" is to 
 be traced to Vergil's tenui avena, in the first Eclogue, i. Cf. the 
 Glosse to the Shepheards Cal., October, " Oaten reedes, Avena." But 
 avena could be applied to any stalk. 
 
 Stops are the small holes in wind instruments like the flute. Cf. 
 Hamlet III. i. 366 76 : "Will you play upon the pipe. ...It is as easy 
 as lying : govern these ventages with your finger and thumb... these are 
 the stops." Collins, who imitated Milton very often, began his Ode to 
 Evening with the words "If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song...." 
 
 349. Innumerous. 'Innumerable;' L. innumerus. Cf. P. L. 
 VII. 455, "innumerous living things." We find much the same 
 shifting, irregular use of adjectival and participial terminations in 
 Shakespeare; e.g. unvalued^ 'invaluable' in Richard III. I. 4. 27; 
 unavoided= ( unavoidable,' Richard II. II. i. 268; unexpressive='m- 
 expressible,' As You Like It in. 2. 10; with many other examples. 
 
 350. As Masson observes, we have from line 350 to line 475 the 
 most continuous exposition that Comus contains of the central doctrine 
 upon which the Masque turns. The idea is never absent from Milton's 
 thoughts ; but in no other part of the poem is it treated at such length. 
 
 352. " Properly burs mean the unopened flowers of the Burdock," 
 Ellacomb, Plant Lore of Shakespear, p. 52. Several British wild plants 
 have the prefix bur ; bur-marigold, bur-parsley, bur-reed. From French
 
 122 COMUS. 
 
 bourre, Low Lat. burra (see note on bolt, 1. 760), applied to the hair of 
 animals or the fluffy pollen shed by some flowers. 
 
 355 62. The Cambridge draft here shows a considerable di- 
 vergence from our text. Milton wrote a rather overdrawn simile, 
 comparing the sister to 
 
 "Forsaken Proserpine, 
 
 When the big rolling flakes of pitchy clouds 
 And darkness wound her in." 
 
 These three lines he rejected in favour of the seven here given. 
 
 355. Leans, i.e. she leans, the nominative being easily understood 
 from her in line 353. We might also take it intransitively, with head as 
 the subject. 
 
 Fraught. The normal form of the participle ; but \VQfmAfraughted 
 in Shakespeare : 
 
 "O cruel speeding! 
 
 Fraughted with gall." 
 
 Passionate Pilgrim 269, 270. 
 
 In modern English fraught is always a past part., and never used 
 except, as here, in a metaphorical sense 'fraught with danger,' etc. 
 When we speak of lading a vessel we write freight. In Elizabethan 
 English this difference was not observed. Shakespeare says : 
 
 "e'er 
 
 It should the good ship so have swallow'd, and 
 The fraughting souls within her ; " 
 
 i.e. those who made up the freight that the vessel carried. Tempest 
 I. i. 12 13. For the noun fraught= freight cf. Marlowe, yew of 
 Malta i. i : "Come ashore and see the fraught discharg'd." Cotgrave 
 has : " Freteure : A fraughting, loading, and furnishing of a (hired) 
 ship;" and he explains fret by "the fraught or freight of a ship, 
 also, the hire that's paid for a ship." Fraught is akin to G. fracht 
 'cargo.' Freight is the French fret (cf. freter, fretement etc.), and 
 the misspelling gh was due to the influence of fraught, with which 
 the word was confused. Fret may be cognate with fracht ; but this 
 is not certain. 
 
 359. Over-exquisite. 'Too careful,' 'too subtle;' much the same 
 as L. exquisitus. Gabriel Harvey writing to Spenser says, " it hath 
 
 bene the usual practise of the most exquisite and odde wittes rather 
 
 to shewe and advance themselves that way, then any other." Globe
 
 NOTES. 123 
 
 Spenser, p. 710. Combined with 'odde,' exquisite implies super- 
 subtlety. 
 
 360. Cast, i.e. conjecture the nature of; perhaps from the metaphor 
 of casting a nativity. Cf. i Henry IV. I. i. 166: "You cast the 
 event of war," i.e. 'calculate.' Landor conveys the same counsel in 
 very similar language : 
 
 "Oh seek not destined evils to divine, 
 Found out at last too soon." Gebir, vi. 
 
 361. While they rest unknown, 
 
 "I had been happy 
 
 So I had nothing known," 
 is the burden of Othello's complaint, in. 3. 346 48. 
 
 363. Alluding to the proverb "do not meet your trouble half-way." 
 Cf. Much Ado i. i. 97 99: "Good Signior Leonato, you are come to 
 meet your trouble ; the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you 
 encounter it." 
 
 366. So to seek, i.e. so ignorant what to do, so much at a loss. 
 The phrase implies incapacity, or want of knowledge ; cf. the fol- 
 lowing instances of its use : " Perhaps some better schollars are nigh 
 hand as farre to seeke in the rudiments," Pierces Supererogation, 
 Grosart's Gabriel Harvey, II. 229: "So shall not our English poets, 
 though they be to seek of the Greek and Latin languages, lament 
 for lack of knowledge." Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie, p. 169: 
 "They do daylie practise and exercise themselves in the discipline 
 of warre...lest they should be to seke in the feate of armes." Utopia, 
 p. 131, Pitt Press ed. We still say that a quality is 'sadly to seek' in 
 a man when we mean that he does not possess it. 
 
 367. Unprincipled. 'Unversed in the principles of.' Cf. prin- 
 cipled in S, A. 760 6 1 : 
 
 " With goodness principled not to reject 
 
 The penitent;" 
 i.e. instructed by goodness. 
 
 368. Bosoms, i.e. the peace which goodness has in its bosom. 
 Shakespeare (or Fletcher?) uses bosom as a verb =' inclose in the 
 heart,' ' carefully guard,' in Henry VIII. I. i. 112 : 
 
 " Bosom up my counsel, 
 You'll find it wholesome." 
 We have the participle in L" Al. 78 : 
 
 " Bosomed high in tufted trees ; "
 
 124 COMUS. 
 
 a line which recalls Wordsworth's description of "Como, bosomed deep 
 in chestnut groves." 
 
 369. Single. ' Mere.' 
 
 "Seal me there 
 Your single bond." 
 
 Merchant of Venice, I. 3. 146. 
 
 370. Not being, i.e. she not being. Milton has several instances 
 of the absolute case, but with the pronoun inserted. Cf. S. A. 462, 3 : 
 
 "Dagon hath presumed, 
 Me overthrown, to enter lists with God." 
 
 Morris (Historical Outlines, p. 103) quotes Wycliffe's version of 
 Matthew xxviii. 12: "Thei haw stolen him, us slepinge." 
 
 373 5. A reminiscence, probably, of Romeo and Juliet in. 2. 
 8, 9, a passage with which Milton was certainly familiar, as the de- 
 scription of night in lines 10 and u suggested the epithet "civil- 
 suited" in // Pen. 112. Cf. also the note on 1. 554 of this poem. In 
 the Faerie Queene, I. i. 12 : 
 
 "Vertue gives herselfe light through darknesse for to wade." 
 
 375. Flat. Cf. " the level brine " in Lye. 98. Warton's proposal, 
 " in the sea flat sunk," destroys all the vividness of the picture. See 
 1. 97, with note. 
 
 Wisdom's self. Self, Germ, selbe, began by being an adjective = 
 'same.' In Shakespeare it sometimes = ' self-same ;' cf. Twelfth Night 
 
 I. i. 39, where the editors of the later folios change "one self king" 
 to "one selfsame king," through misunderstanding of the idiom. In 
 its second stage self was used to strengthen the reflexive pronoun ; 
 finally it became a noun. Wisdom's self= Wisdom herself, would sound 
 awkward in modern E.; but the usage was once common; cf. Coriolanus 
 
 II. 2. 98: 
 
 " Tarquin's self he met, 
 And struck him." 
 
 See Morris, Outlines, p. 122. Cowley in his essay Of Solitude. 
 arrives at the conclusion that a life of isolation is suited to Learning 
 alone. Man, he argues, before he can dwell apart from society must 
 "learn the art and get the habit of thinking ; for this too, no less 
 than well speaking, depends upon much practice ; and cogitation is 
 the thing which distinguishes the solitude of a god from a wild beast. 
 Now because the soul of man is not by its own nature or observa- 
 tion furnished with sufficient materials to work upon ; it is necessary
 
 NOTES. 125 
 
 for it to have continual resources to learning and books for fresh sup- 
 plies, so that the solitary life will grow indigent, and be ready to starve 
 without them... I therefore cannot much recommend solitude to a man 
 totally illiterate." 
 
 Mr Mark Pattison notes that these verses, 375 380, possess a 
 personal interest. They are a fragment of the poet's autobiography, 
 exactly descriptive of the five years he spent at Horton, 1632 1637. 
 Throughout the poems we catch from time to time a glimpse of Milton 
 the man. 
 
 376. Seeks to. 'Repairs to;' a phrase that has ceased to be 
 current, though formerly common. Shakespeare has it in Lucrece, 293 : 
 
 "With a pure appeal seeks to the heart;" 
 
 and several instances occur in the Authorised Version e.g. i Kings 
 x. 24: "and all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom;" 
 Deuteronomy xii. 5, "Unto his habitation shall ye seek." 
 
 377. Contrast // Pen. 54, where in a description inspired by the 
 tenth chapter of Ezekiel Milton speaks of " the Cherub Contempla- 
 tion." More natural, perhaps, than the imagery of either passage is 
 Spenser's picture of the 
 
 "aged holy man... 
 
 That day and night said his devotion, 
 Ne other worldly business did apply: 
 His name was hevenly Contemplation, 
 Of God and goodness was his meditation." 
 
 F. Q. I. 10. 46. 
 
 378. Plumes. Some editors would change to the more usual 
 prune; conversely in i Henry IV. I. i. 98 "makes him prune 
 himself" Hanmer substituted plume. 
 
 380. All to-ruffled. In Milton's editions the reading stands all to 
 ruffled, i.e. three distinct words. Some editors print all too ruffled ; 
 others ail-to ruffled ; and others all to-ruffled. The choice rests 
 between the two last. Ail-to is a well-known difficulty. First as to 
 the prefix to. (i) It meant 'asunder,' 'in pieces :' f cf. German zer, as 
 in zerbrechen, zermalmen etc. ; Latin dis. (ii) It had an intensive force, 
 emphasizing the sense of the verb with which it was compounded. 
 In the glossarial index to Skeat's Piers the Plowman, II. p. 450 et seq. , 
 we find a number of words which illustrate both uses ; e.g. to-dryue = 
 'drive quite away ;' to-quashte 'dashed to pieces;' to-broken =' broken 
 to bits.' 1 To in this second, intensive sense was often strengthened by
 
 126 COMUS. 
 
 the word all. Then the idiom became very irregular. \Ve have three 
 main uses : (a) where all, to and the verb are separate ; cf. Judges 
 ix. 53, " And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon 
 Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull." (3) Where to is not 
 merely detached from the verb but united by force of accent with 
 the all ; cf. Latimer's Sermons, 1538, "We be fallen into the dirt, and 
 be ail-to dirtied, even up to the ears." (() Where all, to and verb 
 are joined ; cf. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, II. 48, " she all-to-be- 
 fooled me." The New English Dictionary notes that ail-to is especially 
 frequent before verbs that commence with the prefix be. Now in the 
 present line it seems to me impossible to decide which Milton intended. 
 He may have meant the words to be distinct all to ruffled; cf. the 
 quotation from Judges. But ail-to ruffled would have been equally in 
 accordance with popular usage ; cf. the quotation from Latimer. And 
 again all to-ruffled would have been most correct, since to was properly 
 a part of the verb. There is, however, just one thing that makes me 
 incline to the text here adopted viz. the rhythm. Reading the line 
 quickly or slowly we cannot help treating it as a pure iambic verse in 
 which to goes closely with the following, not the preceding, word. 
 
 381 82. Light within his... breast. There is true tragic irony in 
 these lines. Thirty years later when Milton was himself blind he 
 lamented in S. A. 160 163 the case of the soul 
 
 "Shut up from outward light, 
 To incorporate with gloomy night; 
 For inward light, alas ! 
 Puts forth no visual beam." 
 
 Cf. the apostrophe " Hail, holy Light!" with which he commences the 
 third book of Paradise Lost. 
 
 381 85. The sentiment expressed in P. L. \. 254 5: 
 
 "The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven;" 
 
 in other words, we are dependent on ourselves, not on external circum- 
 stances, for happiness. 
 
 382. Centre. That is, of the earth ; cf. Hamlet's 
 
 "I will find 
 
 Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed 
 Within the centre." II. i. 157 59. 
 
 Sometimes, e.g. in P. L. i. 686, centre = the earth itself, as being,
 
 NOTES. 1 27 
 
 according to the Ptolemaic system, the middle point of the universe. 
 See note on Arcades 64. Centre has both meanings in Shakespeare. 
 385. Repeated in S. A. 155 : 
 
 " Thou art become (O worst imprisonment) 
 The dungeon of thyself." 
 
 385 389. Cf. // Pen. 167 174, where Milton paints the ideal 
 close of the studious life. 
 
 388. Milton's anticipation of Gray's more felicitous 
 
 "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife." 
 
 389. Senate-house. Referring, says one editor, to the Senate-house 
 at Cambridge ; but that building dates from the next century. Begun 
 1722, it was finished in 1730. Milton was thinking of the Roman 
 Curia. Twenty years later Cromwell showed, April 2oth, 1653, that 
 the great English Council-chamber was not inviolable. 
 
 391. Beads, i.e. of the rosary; a curious touch as coming from 
 the Puritan Milton; but every detail in the description cell, weeds, 
 grey hairs etc. reproduces in a conventional manner the conventional 
 picture of learned asceticism. If Milton had written Comus after his 
 return from Italy we might have thought that in these lines he was 
 simply repainting in words some picture seen in an Italian palace. 
 
 Bead originally meant prayer ; afterwards the perforated balls used 
 by Roman Catholics in counting their prayers were called beads. We 
 find the word in several compounds, some of which are not obsolete, 
 e.g. beyde-roule, "bead-roll, prayer-roll, catalogue of persons for whom 
 prayers are to be said," May hew and Skeat ; bede-sang, "the singing 
 of the prayers," New E. Diet.; beadsman, one who prayed for others, 
 as in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, I. i. 18, "I will be thy beadsman;" 
 and beadfolk cf. the old play Calisto and Melibcea (1520) : 
 
 "This knight and I both thy beadfolks shall be," 
 
 Dodsley, vol. I. p. 85. 
 
 The A. S. noun was bed or gebed ; cf. Germ. gebet, 'prayer.' The verb 
 bid ' to pray,' extant in the compound bidding-prayer, from A. S. 
 biddan, has been ousted by bid ' to command,' from A. S. beodan. 
 Skeat, Principles, pp. 164, 167. 
 
 Maple dish. In the sixth Elegy, 61, he prefers 'beechen : ' 
 
 Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo. 
 393 402. The sentiment expressed by Rosalind in As You Like
 
 128 COMUS. 
 
 //, I. 3. 106, 7, when Celia proposes that they should fly from the 
 court to the forest of Arden. 
 
 395. Unenchanted, ' Not to be enchanted ; ' see note on 349. 
 
 The slaying of the dragon Ladon who with the Hesperides 
 guarded the golden apples which Ge had given to Hera at her marriage 
 with Zeus, was one of the labours of Hercules j&neid iv. 484. We 
 have already seen (note on 1. 4) that part of this passage, 393 397, 
 previously appeared in those introductory verses that Milton rejected. 
 
 398. Unsunned heaps. 'Unsunned' because kept secret perhaps 
 buried (defosso incubat auro) ; and the epithet may have been suggested 
 by the Faerie Queene, II. 7, Argument, where 
 
 "Guyon findes Mamon in a delve 
 Sunning his threasure hore." 
 
 Cf. too Cymbeline II. 5. 13, "Chaste as unsunn'd snow." 
 401. Wink on. 'Be blind to.' Cf. Macbeth I. 4. 52 : 
 
 " Stars hide your fires ; 
 
 Let not light see my black and deep desires: 
 The eye wink at the hand," 
 
 i.e. let not the eye perceive what the hand is doing. This seems 
 to suit our text. 'Danger' is not to see its opportunity, and, not seeing, 
 is to let the maiden pass unmolested; a thing, argues the brother, 
 for which we cannot hope. But the personification of danger is 
 strained. The passage would be much simpler if Milton had written 
 Desire. 
 
 Opportunity. Cf. Lucrece: 
 
 " O Opportunity ! thy guilt is great : 
 Tis thou that execut'st the traitor's treason," 
 
 871 et seq. 
 King John put the same truth differently : 
 
 "How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds 
 Makes ill deeds done." 
 
 iv. i. 219 20. 
 
 404. // recks me not. Cf. Lye. 123: "What recks it them? what 
 need they?" Shakespeare always uses reck ('care for,' 'mind') 
 personally; e.g. in Hamlet I. 3. 51: "He recks not his own rede" = 
 ' does not trouble to follow the advice he gives to others.' So Milton 
 in P. I.. IX. 173, "I reck not." Reckoning 'heed,' occurs in line 642. 
 In the Seventeenth Article of Religion the curious word ivretchlessness
 
 NOTES. 129 
 
 ' carelessness' has the same origin, viz. A. S. recan, 'to care,' and 
 A. S.receleas, 'careless; 1 the w having been prefixed from false analogy. 
 See note on rapt, sometimes misspelt wrapt, line 794. 
 
 408. Infer. 'Argue.' In P. L. vn. 116 infer' prove,' as some- 
 times in Shakespeare, e.g. King John, m. i. 213. 
 
 410 12. i.e. 'where the chances seem equal, there being as much 
 ground for hope as for fear, I incline to the former.' 
 
 Equal poise. Cf. Measure for Measure, II. 4. 68, 69: 
 
 "Pleas'd you to do't, at peril of your soul, 
 Were equal poise of sin and charity." 
 
 That is, ' If you consented to do this there would be as much benevo- 
 lence in the action as guilt.' Poise: cf. O. F. peiser, poiser: modern 
 peser. O. F. pots is now misspelt poids from a notion that it comes 
 from Latin pondus; really derived from pensum='a. quantity weighed 
 out.' 
 
 411. Event =' issue;' L. e^^ent^is, common in Shakespeare. 
 
 413. Squint. Ben Jonson speaks of "squint-eyed Slander," The 
 Barriers. 
 
 419. If. 'Even if.' 
 
 420 424. Milton, almost certainly, was thinking of the descrip- 
 tion of Parthenia in Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, x. 27 32: 
 
 "A warlike maid, 
 Parthenia, all in steel and gilded arms;" 
 
 see Grosart's ed., vol. iv. 289 292. 
 421. Cf. Hamlet, I. 4. 51 53: 
 
 "What may this mean, 
 
 That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, 
 Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon?" 
 
 For the accent on first syllable complete see note on line 273. 
 422 424. In the Cambridge MS. the passage stands: 
 
 " And may, on every needful accident, 
 Be it not done in pride or wilful attempting, 
 Walk through huge forests." 
 
 The second verse Milton has incorporated lower down (431), with a 
 slight variation. By adding 1. 422 of our text he increased the clearness 
 of the picture. 
 
 423. Trace. 'Pass through;' reminiscent of Midsummer JV. D. 
 
 V. Q
 
 130 COMUS. 
 
 II. i. 25: "to trace the forests wild." Trace in Much Ado, in. i. 
 i6i='walk up and down' "As we do trace this alley." In the 
 faerie Queene, iv. 8. 34, the sense is 'travel:' 
 
 "How all the way the Prince on footpace trac'd." 
 
 Unharboured, i.e. unharbouring = ' yielding no shelter ;' the proper 
 sense of harbottr. Cf. Tennyson's Geraint and Enid, ' ' O friend, I 
 seek a harbourage for the night." Harbour is the Icelandic her-bergi, 
 'an army-shelter,' the Middle E. form being herbenve. For the first 
 half cf. Germ. heer= ( sin army;' for the second, cf. Germ, bergen ^io 
 conceal.' French auberge, ' an inn,' is the same word. In the Chanson 
 de Roland (Xlth cent.) O. F. herberge meant ' a military station,' being 
 one of the war-terms derived from Old High German. See Brachet, 
 s. v. auberge, with Mayhew and Skeat, s. v. herbenue. 
 
 424. Infamous hills. "And now he haunts th'infamous woods 
 and downs," Phineas Fletcher, Piscatorie Eclogues, I. 14. Infamous = 
 'of evil name,' an obvious Latinism; cf. Horace's infames scapulas, 
 Odes, r. 3. 20. We might compare "opprobrious hill" in P. L. I. 
 403, applied to the southern part of the Mount of Olives. The 
 accentuation infamous occurs in the Death of a Fair Infant, 1 2 : 
 
 "Thereby to wipe away th'infamous blot." 
 
 426. Bandite. The word had not got naturalised in its present 
 form. Shakespeare uses the quasi-Italian banditto, 2 Henry VI. iv. i. 
 135, the correct form being bandito. The noun illustrates the illogical 
 treatment which language receives from the people. In the singular 
 bandito has been Anglicised into bandit ; but we seldom write bandits 
 for the plural ; we prefer banditti, and repeat Shakespeare's blunder of 
 spelling it with two fs. A bandit was a man who had been placed 
 under the ban, i.e. excommunicated by proclamation of the Church, 
 which still reminds us of the derivation of the word by the phrase 
 marriage-banns. 
 
 Mountaineer, An opprobrious term, as always in Shakespeare; 
 "Call'd me traitor, mountaineer," Cymbeline, IV. 2. 120. People who 
 lived in mountain-districts might naturally be taken as types of savage 
 un-civilization. Very parallel is the use oiuplandish in a contemptuous 
 sense; cf. Puttenham's Art of Poesy, "Any uplandish village or corner 
 of a realme, where there is no resort but of poor rustical people," p. 157, 
 Arber's Reprint. 
 
 The termination ecr in a word like pioneer represents the French
 
 NOTES. 131 
 
 ier; pioneer =pionnier. Some words ending in eer are arbitrarily formed 
 upon this model ; that is to say, they have no French original in ier. 
 Mountaineer is a case in point; the French noun being montagnard. 
 These substantives in eer, whether really representative of a French 
 forerunner in ier (e.g. pioneer), or fashioned from analogy (e.g. moun- 
 taineer), have the French accent, i.e. at the end. 
 
 428. Very. In Shakespeare very is much oftener adjective than 
 adverb, being used, as here, to give the substantive its full sense. 
 Compare the Creed " Very God of very God." 
 
 429. Horrid. A conventional epithet (cf. P. L. ix. 185), in 
 which we recognise the Latin horridus rather than the modern horrid. 
 Cf. Horror, 1. 38. 
 
 430. Unblenched. 'Unfaltering:' "if he but blench, (i.e. start) I 
 know my course," says Hamlet (n. 2. 626), when he plans the scene 
 which is to betray the king into involuntary admission of guilt. Blench 
 and blanch are identical. 
 
 432. Some say. A convenient phrase (cf. Hamlet, I. i. 158) by 
 which Milton does not commit himself. Apparently he endorsed the 
 popular beliefs as to evil powers; cf. II Pen. 93, 94, and the Nativity 
 Ode, Stanza XXVI. 
 
 Walks. The technical term ; cf. Winter's Tale, in. 3. 17: 
 
 "I have heard (but not believ'd), the spirits o' the dead 
 May walk again." 
 
 433. In Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens eleven witches appear, 
 
 "From the lakes, and from the fens, 
 From the rocks, and from the dens;" 
 
 and the author explains in a footnote that "these places, in their own 
 nature dire and dismal, are reckoned up as the fittest from whence such 
 persons should come, and were notably observed by that excellent 
 Lucan in the description of his Erichtho, lib. 6." The witch in the 
 Sad Shepherd, n. 2, 
 
 "Steals forth... in the fogs, 
 And rotten mists, upon the fens and bogs." 
 
 Or fire. The "evil thing" attended by a flame (ignis fatuus) is the 
 spirit variously known as Jack-o'-the-Lanthorn and Will-o'-the-Wisp. 
 Cf. L'Al. 104 (where Milton's folklore is incorrect, Friar Rush being 
 quite a separate character) and P. L. ix. 634 42 : 
 
 92
 
 132 COMUS. 
 
 ' ' As when a wandering fire, 
 
 (Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends), 
 Hovering and blazing with delusive light, 
 Misleads the amazed night-wanderer." 
 
 This last line seems to be from Midsummer N, D, n. i. 39. 
 
 434. Bhte. There were witches to represent most colours. 
 Hecate in Middleton's play The Witch I. 2 summons her familiars: 
 "white spirits, black spirits, grey spirits, red spirits;" see Reginald 
 Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, Chap, xxxiii., whence Middleton 
 borrowed. The white witch was innocuous: she possessed super- 
 natural powers and used them for good purposes, as in Kingsley's 
 Westward Ho! Cf. the Spectator, 131: "the character which I go 
 under in part of the neighbourhood is what they here call a white 
 witch." Blue in the present verse might have the same force as 
 blue-eyed in the Tempest, i. i. 269, where the epithet (of which 
 blear-eyed is a needless emendation) refers not to the colour of the 
 eyes, but to the dark circles under them that come from physical 
 exhaustion. Cf. Lucrece, 1587 and As You Like It, in. 2. 393. 
 'Haggard-looking' would then be the idea conveyed. 
 
 Stubborn, because refusing to be exorcised or 'laid.' " Ghost unlaid 
 forbear thee!" is the prayer of Guiderius for Imogen in Cymbeline, IV. 
 2. 278. The only tongue in which a spirit could be addressed with effect 
 was Latin; cf. Marcellus' "Thou art a scholar; speak to it Horatio "- 
 Hamlet, I. i. 42. Reginald Scot in the Discoverie of Witchcraft, Bk XV. 
 Chaps viii. xiv. gives a number of the proper forms of conjuration. 
 
 435. The "foul fiend" in Lear, in. 4. 121, "begins at curfew, and 
 walks till the first clock;" and the spirits in The Tempest, V. i. 39 40 
 
 "rejoice 
 To hear the solemn curfew." 
 
 Magic chains. Cf. "each fettered ghost," Nativity Ode, 234. 
 
 Curfew time, i.e. eight o'clock ; cf. // Pen. 74. Curfew couvre-feu, 
 O. F. covre-feu, i.e. time for putting out lights ; couvrir being from 
 co-operire, feu from focum. The first half of the word is a good 
 instance of two syllables, couvre, blending into one, cur, by syncope. 
 This is due entirely to the stress of accent. Cf. kerchief = couvre-chef 
 i.e. head-cover. Such amalgamation is frequent in compound words. 
 See Morris, Outlines, pp. 77, 78. Shakespeare in one passage, Romeo 
 and Juliet, IV. 4. 4, uses cnrfevu bell of the early matins bell, the
 
 NOTES. 133 
 
 explanation being that some houses had only one bell which served 
 the double purpose, at dark and at day break. 
 
 436. Goblin. For the old derivation from Ghibeline see line 118. 
 It probably influenced the spelling of the word ; cf. the Faerie Qttcene, 
 
 II. 10. 73: 
 
 "His sonne was Elfinel, who overcame 
 
 The wicked Gobbelines in bloody field." 
 
 Goblin is from O. F. gobelin, Low ~La\.. gobelinum ; gobelinus being the 
 diminutive of Low L. cobalus 'mountain-sprite;' cf. Gk. /c<5/3a\or, 'a 
 rogue.' Usually the Germ, kobold is connected with them, but it may 
 be a Teutonic word, meaning 'house-spirit;' the first half cognate 
 with A. S. c6fa, 'a chamber.' 
 
 Faery. Rarely used, as here, of a malignant power ; cf. Comedy of 
 Errors, iv. i. 35 : 
 
 "A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;" 
 
 where, however, many editors (the Cambridge included) read fury, 
 despite the folios. 
 
 Of the mine. It was an old and universal superstition (upon which 
 Grimm gives much information) that mines were inhabited by evil 
 spirits. Cf. Fenton's Secrete Wonders of Nature, 1569: "There 
 appeare at this day many strange visions and wicked sprites in the 
 metal mines of the great Turke;" and again: "In the metal mine 
 at Anneburg was a mettal spirite which killed twelve workmen; the 
 same causing the rest to forsake the myne, albeit it was very riche. " 
 So Keats in Lamia : 
 
 "Empty the haunted air and gnomed mine;" 
 i.e. mine where gnomes (sprites) dwell. 
 
 438 40. ' Shall I appeal to the works of Greek philosophers for 
 testimony to the power of purity?' Milton panegyrises the philoso* 
 phers of Athens in the most famous passage of P. Jf., iv. 240 284. 
 
 441. Dian. The type of chastity. 
 
 443. Brinded. 'Spotted' or 'streaked.' Cf. Macbeth, iv. i. i. 
 Coles' Latin Dictionary gives : " 'rinded, variegatus." Milton speaks 
 of the lion's "brinded mane" in P. L. vn. 466. Two other forms 
 were in use, brindle and brindled. The latter alone is extant with us, 
 but in New England they still speak of a "brindle yearling;" and 
 brindle is the older. The termination It is Saxon; it signified the 
 possession of a quality; but people forgot this fact, and gave the word 
 the more familiar termination ed. The same thing often happened with
 
 134 COMUS. 
 
 words in el: thus new-fangel was changed to neiv-fangled. At other 
 times the termination sh was taken: hence tickle (which Shakespeare 
 uses Measure for Measure, I. 2. 177) became ticklish. Every one knew 
 that ed and sh were endings that implied the possession of a quality ; it 
 was forgotten that el and le had the same force (Earle, pp. 376, 37?)- 
 Properly brinded= ' marked with a brand.' The vowel- mutation, 
 brand to brind, is shown in Skeat, Principles, p. 466. 
 
 444. Mountain-pard. A kind of wild cat, usually called cat-o'- 
 mountain; cf. Merry Wives, II. 2. 27, and The Tempest, IV. i. 262, 
 where Mr Aldis Wright quotes from Topsell, History of Four-footed 
 Beasts: "The greatest therefore they call Panthers. The second they 
 call Pardals, and the third, least of all, they call Leopards, which for 
 the same cause in England is called a Cat of the Mountain," p. 448. 
 Boyer's French Dictionary has : " Cat-a-mountain, (a Mongrel Sort of 
 wild Cat) Chat-pard." 
 
 445. Bolt of Cupid. Bolt= 'arrow;' but Cupid was said to have 
 two kinds of darts, one with a golden, the other with a leaden tip ; the 
 former to cause, the latter to repel, love : 
 
 fugat hoc, facit illud amorem : 
 Quod fa fit, auratutn est, et cuspide fulget acula : 
 Quod fugat, obtusum est, et habet sub arundine plumbum. 
 
 Ovid, Met. I. 469 71. 
 
 Cf. the Glosse to the Shepheards Calendar, March: "He (Cupid), is 
 sayd also to have shafts, some leaden, some golden: that is, both 
 pleasure for the gracious and loved, and sorrow for the lover that is 
 disdayned or forsaken." Massinger is fond of the allusion. 
 
 447. The Gorgoneion or head of Medusa (whom Perseus had slain) 
 was represented on the shield of Athene; cf. Iliad, V. 738 41 : "about 
 
 her shoulders cast she (viz. Athene) the tasselled aegis terrible .and 
 
 therein is the dreadful monster's Gorgon head, dreadful and grim, 
 portent of aegis-bearing Zeus." It came "in more civilised times to 
 be regarded as merely an airoTpoTraiov or charm to avert the evil eye and 
 other dangers " (Leaf). We meet with references to the story several 
 times in Milton's works ; e.g. in the Latin poem, Naturam non pati 
 Senium, 22, Horribilisqne rdecta Gorgone Pallas. In P. L. II. 6ij 
 the Medusa guards the river of Lethe "with Gorgonian terrour." 
 
 Snaky-headed, because, according to one version, her hair had been 
 changed into serpents by Athene. 
 
 449. Freezed. The weak form of the preterite is not uncommon in
 
 NOTES. 135 
 
 contemporary writers. Strong verbs suffer perpetually from the in- 
 cursions of the weak conjugation. 
 
 Congealed, For the scansion cf. Richard III. \. 2. 55 6 : 
 
 " Henry's wounds 
 Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh." 
 
 See note on 1. 273. 
 
 450 53. Milton points the moral; and we may here note how he 
 has taken two old-world, seemingly outworn legends and invested them 
 with an entirely new significance. It is Plato's method. Plato will often 
 select some popular expression and apply it in a novel, metaphysical 
 sense; or some popular beliei, and read into it a fresh meaning, thereby 
 raising superstition to the higher plane of philosophy. 
 
 451. Dashed. ' Put out of countenance. ' 
 
 " logo. I see, this hath a little dash'd your spirits. 
 Othello. Not a jot, not a jot" in. 3. 214. 
 
 452. Blank. Cf. blank as a verb, 'make to turn pale,' in S. A. 
 471: "And with confusion blank his worshippers." So Hamlet, in. 2. 
 230, "Each opposite that blanks the face of joy." The adjective now 
 is somewhat colloquial, 'blank dismay,' 'blank confusion,' etc. being 
 expressions that belong rather to every-day speech than to poetry. 
 Blanch = ' to whiten ' and blank are cognates with blanch = blench (line 
 430, note) ; but they retain more distinctly the original idea of 'white- 
 ness. Milton, for example, uses blanc as an exact equivalent of the 
 French blanc: 
 
 "To the blanc Moon 
 
 Her office they prescribed " P. L. X. 656. 
 
 Perhaps the only ordinary word in which we recognise at once the 
 French blanc is blanket, F. blanchet, a diminutive of blanc; so called 
 because properly of a white colour. 
 
 454. Sincerely. 'Entirely:' cf. the lines On Time: 
 
 "Everything that is sincerely good 
 And perfectly divine." 
 
 Sincere= 'pure,' 'without alloy' (i.e. L. sincerus) in i Peter, ii. 2: 
 "desire the sincere milk of the word." 
 
 455. Liveried. Livery (French livree) could be used in Milton's 
 time of any kind of dress ; cf. P. L. IV. 598 99: 
 
 ' ' twilight gray 
 Had in her sober livery all things clad."
 
 136 COMUS. 
 
 But usually the word bore the meaning to which it is almost limited in 
 modern E. ; cf. Spenser's Slate of Ireland, " Liverye is also called the 
 upper garment which serving men weareth, soe called (as I suppose) 
 for that it is delivered and taken from him at pleasure," Globe ed. 
 p. 623. Cf. also the French phrase habits de livree = 'clothes delivered 
 yearly by'the king to the officers of his household.' Middle E. lyvere 
 signified 'something handed over,' not necessarily dress ; cf. Cotgrave's 
 explanation of la livree des chanoines, ' ' their liverie or corrodie ; their 
 stipend, exhibition, dailie allowance in victuals or money." The legal 
 phrase Sue livery (used in Richard II. n. i. 203, 204) preserves 
 the original notion of delivering. Fr. livrer is from liberare = ' to 
 abandon ' (in Low Latin). See Mayhew and Skeat, s.v. lyvere. 
 
 Lackey. 'Attend.' Lackeying is Theobald's fine emendation, (and 
 no Shakespearian critic has been more successful as an emendator than 
 Theobald), in Antony and Cleopatra, I. 4. 46, where Ff. read lacking: 
 
 " Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide." 
 Steevens illustrated the use of the word, which has deteriorated in 
 sense, by two quotations from Chapman's Homer : 
 
 "Who would willingly 
 
 Lacky along so vast a lake of brine" Odyssey \. ; 
 and Iliad XXIV. : 
 
 "My guide to Argos either ship'd or lackying thy side." 
 Lackey is from the O. F. laquay "a lackey, foot-boy," (Cotgrave). 
 Laquay itself, modern F. laquais, is of disputed origin, but Brachet 
 derives from Spanish lacayo 'a servant,' treating it as one of the many 
 Spanish words which took root in France through the occupation of 
 French soil by Spanish armies at the end of the xvith century. 
 
 This idea of the Guardian Angel watching over men is often present 
 to Milton; see line 658, with S. A. 1431 and the Death of a. .Fair 
 Infant, 57 61. Cf. the Faerie Qtteenc, n. 8. i, 2. 
 
 458. Cf. 784 (note) and Arcades, 73 ; the latter is very like Mid- 
 summer N. D. III. i. 163. 
 
 459. Heavenly habitants. 'Habitants of heaven,' i.e. the "liveried 
 angels" of 455. In the three passages in Shakespeare where converse 
 'intercourse' occurs the stress falls, as here, on the second syllable 
 converse. 
 
 460 63. This fine conception of self-perfectibility, "till body up 
 to spirit work," is developed at greater length in P. L. v. 469 503; 
 see in particular lines 496 99:
 
 NOTES. IS? 
 
 "And from these corporal nutriments, perhaps, 
 Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit, 
 Improved by tract of time, and wing'd ascend 
 Ethereal." 
 
 461. Temple of the mind. Employing the imagery of Scripture : 
 cf. St John, ii. 21, "He spake of the temple of his body;" and 
 i Corinthians, iii. 17, "The temple of God is holy, which temple 
 ye are." Shakespeare frequently uses the metaphor ; never with 
 greater effect than in Macbeth, II. 3. 73, where Macduff announces 
 the murder of Duncan: 
 
 " Murder hath broke ope 
 
 The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
 The life o' the building." 
 
 463 69. Milton passes to the converse of the previous idea. As 
 the body may by self-discipline become soul, the soul by the self- 
 indulgence of its possessor may become body. 
 
 465. Lewd. A.S. lcpived= ' ignorant. ' Lewd preserved this sense 
 for a long time; e.g. in Chaucer. Even Spenser writes lewdly 
 'foolishly,' ' ignorantly ; ' cf. Shepheards Calender, Februarie: 
 
 " Lewdly complainest thou, Isesie ladde, 
 Of Winters wracke for making thee sadde. " 
 
 From signifying 'ignorant,' lewd passed to the meaning 'base,' 'de- 
 praved;' whence, by an easy transition, 'lustful.' The latter is the 
 invariable acceptation of the epithet in modern English. In Shake- 
 speare and seventeenth century writers the context of a passage 
 determines whether lewd connotes general baseness, or the special 
 aspect thereof lust. See Mayhew and Skeat, s.v. leived. 
 
 Lavish. The spelling of the word in old English was very arbitrary, 
 varying between lavish, laves and lazy. In Robynson's translation of 
 the Utopia we even find lavasse ' ' through their lavasse and prodigall 
 spendynge " Pitt Press ed. p. 29. See Arcades, 1. 9. 
 
 466. "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts," Psalm li. 6. 
 468. Repeated with a slight variation in P. L. ix. 166 67 : 
 
 "This essence to incarnate and imbrute, 
 That to the highth of deity aspired ! " 
 
 Smt>rute='grow brutish.' 
 
 47 75- Milton here adapts a well-known passage in the Phado, 
 81, which it will be best to reproduce in Professor Jowett's version :
 
 138 COMUS. 
 
 " But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of 
 her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, 
 
 and is in love with and fascinated by the body do you suppose that 
 
 such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed ? 
 
 That is impossible, he replied. 
 
 She is engrossed by the corporeal, which the continual association 
 and constant care of the body have made natural to her. 
 
 Very true. 
 
 And this, my friend, may be conceived to be that heavy, weighty, 
 earthy element of sight by which such a soul is depressed and dragged 
 down again into the visible world, because she is afraid of the invisible 
 and of the world below prowling about tombs and sepulchres, in the 
 neighbourhood of which, as they tell us, are seen certain ghostly 
 apparitions of souls, which have not departed pure, but are cloyed 
 with sight and therefore visible." Dialogues of Plato, vol. I. p. 429. 
 
 In his note on this passage (which exemplifies the Platonic practice 
 mentioned above, 450 53), Geddes quotes a parallel Rabbinical super- 
 stition, to the effect that " tribus diebus anima vagatur circa sepulchrum, 
 expectans ut redeat in corpus. Cum vero mdet quod imtnutatur asfectus 
 faciei recedit et relinquit" It was, no doubt, some vague belief in the 
 continued association of body and soul after death, and the durability 
 of the former, that led to the yearly offering of meat and drink, and 
 even clothes, at tombs Thticydides, in. 58. Many popular superstitions 
 as to the attachment which the soul feels for its corporeal tenement 
 might be instanced ; e.g. the old Bohemian idea that the anima of a 
 dead man took the form of a bird and perched upon a tree near to the 
 spot where the body was being burnt. When the latter was consumed 
 the soul flitted away. 
 
 470. Gloomy shadows. Plato's phrase is \lsv\G>v o-KiodSrj (pavToff^ara. 
 
 471. i.e. Trepi r& /jLvrifMard re Ka.1 TOI>S ra^oi/s KvXivdov/j^vrj, as Plato 
 says of the soul. 
 
 Sepulchres. Milton, like Shakespeare, accentuates the noun sepul- 
 chre on the first syllable : the verb, on the penultimate. Cf. Samson 
 Agonistes, 102: 
 
 "Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave;" 
 and the Epitaph on Shakespeare, 15 : 
 
 " And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie.'' 
 
 473. It. We might have expected they, " gloomy shadows " being 
 the subject of the sentence.
 
 NOTES. 1 39 
 
 474. Sensually. Both editions 1645 an< l 1673 print sensually, 
 and the metre requires it. Some editors wrongly change to sensuality. 
 
 476. How charming.... Later in life Milton thought otherwise; 
 cf. S. A. 300 307 and P. R. iv. 285 et seq. 
 
 Charming. In the ordinary modern acceptation, 'delightful,' 
 'lovely.' But this use is rare in early English. Charm in Shake- 
 speare nearly always implies 'working with a charm or spell.' 
 
 477. Cf. Berowne's description of love in Love's Labour's Lost, 
 iv. 3-339340 = 
 
 " Subtle as Sphinx ; as sweet and musical 
 As bright Apollo's lute. " 
 
 There is a certain humour in taking Shakespeare's phrase and 
 transferring it to philosophy. The editors have noticed that Milton 
 uses very similar language in a passage in the Tractate of Education 
 addressed to Samuel Hartlib, 1644: "I shall not detain you longer 
 in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct 
 you to a hill- side, where I will point you out the right path of a 
 virtuous and noble education, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but 
 also so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious 
 sounds, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming." 
 
 479. Nectared. 'Fragrant as nectar ;' see 838. 
 
 480. Crude, i.e. undigested, a common meaning of crudus ; cf. 
 Juvenal's crudum pavonem in balnea portas, Sat. 1-143. The epithet 
 (which Shakespeare never uses) occurs several times hi Milton, usually 
 with the Latin notion of 'rawness' or 'unripeness.' Cf. Lye. 3, " berries 
 harsh and crude," i.e. unripe ; S. A. 700, "crude old age," i.e. premature 
 because not ripe ; P. L. VI. 5 1 1 : " The originals of Nature in then- 
 crude conception ;" where the sense is 'raw,' 'unworked.' 
 
 Surfeit: O. F. surfait or sorfait, 'excess;' strictly the past participle 
 of sorfaire='to exaggerate,' i.e. super-facere. Proverbial wisdom said 
 "surfeit is the father of much fast," Measure for M. I. 2. 130. 
 
 483. Night-foundered. 'Overtaken by,' or 'plunged in, night;' 
 used again in P. L. I. 204 : 
 
 " The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff." 
 
 Foundered; the past part, of O. E. foundren ' to founder, also to cause 
 to sink,' Mayhew and Skeat, s. v. Cf. O. F. fondrer 'to fall,' now 
 not used as a simple verb, but extant in the compound s'effindrer='to 
 sink down ; ' from L. fuiuius.
 
 140 COMUS. 
 
 486. Again, again .' i.e. the shout. 
 
 489. Cf. the sentiment of the king in 2 Henry VI. m. 2. 233 : 
 " Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just." 
 
 490. That hallo I should know. Wtiat are you? speak. We might 
 have expected this to be said by the Attendant Spirit. "That 
 hallo" looks like a reference to "I'll hallo" in 487. Probably 
 what happened was this : the elder brother called out, 487, and the 
 Spirit answered. His reply is marked in the stage-direction of Lawes' 
 edition, 1637, which runs thus : " He hallos ; the Guardian Daemon 
 hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd." In line 490, 
 therefore, "that" refers to the answer given by Thyrsis before he 
 actually appears on the stage. 
 
 491. i.e. they present their swords. 
 
 494. Thyrsis. The traditional shepherd name as far back as 
 Theocritus; cf. the first Idyl, and Vergil's seventh Eclogue. In the 
 Epitaphium Damonis, 4, Milton speaks of himself under that title: 
 
 Quas miser effudit voces, qua murmura Thyrsis. 
 
 Matthew Arnold's monody on Clough lent the word new life and 
 associations. 
 
 The lines, 494 496, are an intentional compliment to Lawes. 
 Johnson hypercritically complains that they delay the action of the 
 piece ; but an interlude of three verses is not a very serious matter. 
 Cf. 84, 85. 
 
 495 512. Note that there follow here 18 lines of rhymed heroics. 
 Why, for once, does Milton abandon blank verse ? Probably the answer 
 is to be found in Masson's explanation, viz. that having mentioned 
 the word madrigal in 495 Milton wished to carry on for a moment the 
 idea of pastoral poetry which madrigal suggests. The heroic couplet 
 had been largely dedicated to the services of pastoral verse ; e.g. in a 
 considerable portion of the Shepheards Calender, an example of extreme 
 pastoralism. Ben Jonson in the Sad Shepherd gives us the same com- 
 bination of blank verse, rhymed decasyllabics, and periodic lyrics. 
 
 495. Huddling', because the waters stop in their course to listen : 
 the picture suggested by Horace's densum humeris bibit aure vulgus. 
 
 Madrigal. Italian madrigale, a pastoral song. From fuivSpa, which 
 has three meanings: (i) an enclosed space; (ii) a fold, stable cf. 
 Theocritus iv. 61 ; (iii) a Monastery, whence archimandrite. Although 
 the correct etymology was given by Menage, Dr Buniey supposed that 
 madrigal was derived from Alia Afadre, " the first words of certain
 
 NOTES. 141 
 
 short hymns addressed to the Virgin." The verse is an obvious allusion 
 to the Orpheus legend; cf. L' Al. 145 150; // Pen. 105 108 ; and 
 the lines Ad Patrem, 52 55 : 
 
 Silvestres decet iste chores, non Orfhea, cantus 
 Qui tenuit fluvios et quercubus addidit aures. 
 
 Milton of course knew Horace's 
 
 Orphea 
 
 Arte materna rapidos morantem 
 Fluminum lapsus. Odes I. 12. 6 8; 
 
 and other passages to the same effect. Cf. too Lye. 42 44. 
 
 499. Wether. Properly wether means 'a yearling/ from the base 
 seen in Gk. ?ros. Cf. Gothic withrus='s. lamb.' 
 
 500. Sequestered. Milton uses the verb intransitively in the Areo- 
 pagitica, Hales' ed. p. 25: "To sequester out of the world into 
 Atlantick and Eutopian polities, which can never be drawn into use, 
 will not mend our condition." Shakespeare in Titus Andronicus, II. 
 3. 75 (if indeed Shakespeare should be held responsible for that play) 
 seems to lay the stress on the first syllable : 
 
 "Why are you sequester'd from all your train?" 
 
 French sequestrer (L. sequestrare) = 'lay aside;' hence the idea of 
 'remoteness' in sequestered= l withdrawn,' 'retired.' 
 
 501. Next. 'Dearest.' So nearest (less frequently next) in Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 502. Toy. 'Trifle.' A very common meaning in Shakespeare; 
 e.g. Lucrece 214, "Or sells eternity to get a toy." For derivation cf. 
 German z/g-=' stuff,' 'trash;' as in compounds, e.g. Spielzeug= ' play- 
 things.' A good example of Grimm's law. 
 
 506. To. 'Compared to;' " Hyperion to a satyr." Hamlet, \. i. 
 140. 
 
 507. Strictly the question is unnecessary. Thyrsis knew that the 
 lady was in the power of Comus ; lines 571 78. But the enquiry leads 
 up to the explanation that follows. 
 
 508. How chance, i.e. how happens it? A Shakespearian use: 
 "How chance the roses there do fade so fast?" Midsummer N. D. 
 I. i. 129. It is a blending of two constructions: (i) 'How does it 
 chance that she is not in your company?' (ii) 'by what chance is she 
 not?' In (i) chance is a verb: in (ii) by what chance is equivalent 
 to an adverb. See Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, p. 37.
 
 142 COM US. 
 
 509. Sadly. 'Seriously;' cf. Romeo and Juliet, I. j.voj: "But 
 sadly tell me, who." So sad often =' serious;' e.g. in As You Like ft, 
 ill. i. 156: " Sad brow and sober maid. " Seel. 189. 
 
 Without blame ; i.e. without blame to us. 
 
 511 12. Observe the rhyme, true and shew. It proves that the 
 pronunciation of the latter must have entirely changed. Cf. 993 996 ; 
 and Sonnet n. : 
 
 " How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, 
 Stolen on his wing my three-and- twentieth year ! 
 My hasting days fly on with full career, 
 But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th." 
 
 513. Fabulous ; i.e. mere matter of legend, fabula. The Spectator 
 had no sympathy with the man to whom "the appearance of spirits 
 (seemed) fabulous and groundless," essay on Ghosts and Apparitions. 
 Hence the common modern acceptation 'excessive,' 'incredibly great.' 
 
 515. Repeated in P. L. in. 19: 
 
 "I sung of Chaos and eternal Night, 
 Taught by the Heavenly Muse." 
 
 This claim to direct inspiration is common with the Elizabethan poets. 
 Milton is so great, and so justly conscious of his greatness, that coming 
 from him the words have no trace of boastfu egotism. Among the 
 'sage poets' would be Homer and Vergil, Tasso and Spenser. 
 
 516. Storied. 'Narrated.' Cf. Venus and Adonis, 1013, 1014: 
 
 "Tells him of trophies, statues, tombs, and stories 
 His victories, his triumphs, and his glories." 
 
 Storied 'in // Pen. 159 and Gray's Elegy 40, = ' figured or painted with 
 stories.' In this sense it has become a favourite epithet with poets : cf. 
 Lander's Count Julian, n. i : 
 
 " Storied tapestry 
 
 Swells its rich arch for him triumphantly;" 
 and Tennyson's Ode to Memory v. : 
 
 "Where sweetest sunlight falls 
 Upon the storied walls." 
 
 517. Cf. P. L. n. 628 : 
 
 "Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimasras dire." 
 Milton's poetry is curiously full of these verbal echoes ; partly because
 
 NOTES. 143 
 
 he so often employs traditional epithets, taken straight from the classics. 
 For the Chimasra cf. Iliad vi. 181 : irpfoOe \tui>, 6-iriOev 8 dpaKuv, p^cai} 
 
 Enchanted isles. Referring, we can scarcely doubt, to the "Wan- 
 dring Islands" of the Faerie Queene, II. 12. n et seq. Spenser in 
 turn followed Tasso's account of the isle of Armida. Belief in 
 the existence of these places of mystery was evidently common ; 
 Hakluyt, describing the Insults fortunes, says: "About these islands 
 are certain flitting islands, which have been oftentimes seen ; and 
 when men approached near them, they vanished... and, therefore, it 
 should seem he is not yet born, to whom God hath appointed the 
 finding of them." 
 
 518. Rifted. This may be the pp. of rive or rift. Both verbs 
 were in use. For the latter cf . Winter's Tale, V. i . 66 : 
 
 "Your ears 
 Should rift to hear me." 
 
 Rift (spelt ryft) occurs in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement, 1530 (Skeat). 
 
 519. There be. Morris says: "The root be was conjugated in the 
 present tense, singular and plural, as late as Milton's time," Outlines, 
 p. 182. Cf. P. L. I. 84, "if thou beest he." This particular phrase 
 occurs very often in Shakespeare, e.g. Tempest, v. 134, 
 
 "If thou beest Prospero, 
 Give us particulars." 
 
 In Old English it would have been written beost. But the singular 
 was less common than the plural. We find the latter many times in 
 Shakespeare and the Authorised Version: e.g. Genesis xlii. 32, "We 
 be twelve brethren;" Matthew xv. 14, "They be blind leaders of the 
 blind." Morris quotes, too, an example from Childe Harold ; that 
 poem however does not represent our modern idiom because the 
 earlier cantos at least were an obvious imitation of Spenser's style. 
 As showing that be = are was on the wane even in Milton's day Earle 
 notes that in the revision of the Common Prayer-Book in 1661, are 
 was substituted for be in forty-three places, the latter being left in only 
 one, viz. The Catechism, "which be they?" Even in the subjunctive 
 be scarcely holds its ground, and all the inflexions are lost. From 
 the Sanskrit root bhu to which we owe <t>6eiv, fui, fore, French fns, 
 fusse. 
 
 520. Navel. 'Centre;' cf. use of 6/ji(f>a\os and umbilicus. Sir
 
 144 COMUS. 
 
 Thomas More placed the chief town of his island of Utopia tatujnam 
 in nmbilico terra, rendered by the translator "just in the middes of the 
 ilande," Pitt Press ed., p. 69. Cf. Shakespeare's "Even when the 
 navel of the state was touched,' 1 Coriolattus, ill. i. 122. Byron 
 coined a participle : 
 
 "Nemi navelled in the woody hills." 
 
 Childe Harold, iv. 173. 
 
 526. Murmurs, i.e. incantations spoken over the potion as it was 
 being brewed. For wr;wr= 'spell' cf. Arcades, 60, "murmurs made 
 to bless." The editors remind us of Statius, Thebais, IX. 732, 3: 
 
 Cantusque sacros et conscia miscet 
 Murmura. 
 
 An equally pointed reference would be Macbeth iv. i, with the refrain 
 of the witches, 
 
 "Double, double toil and trouble." 
 
 529. Reason in Milton is the chief faculty of the soul. Cf. P. L. 
 v. 100 2 : 
 
 " But know, that in the soul 
 Are many lesser faculties that serve 
 Reason as chief." 
 
 In P. Z. XII. 97 he identifies it with virtue "virtue, which is reason;" 
 in in. 108, with freewill "reason also is choice." Reason in fact for 
 Milton is an embodiment of those higher qualities of intellect and 
 emotion which separate men from the brute creation. 
 
 530. Charactered. 'Stamped;' a continuation of the metaphor 
 in unmoulding (i.e. breaking up the pattern) and mintage. We may 
 note the accentuation, charactered; cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, n. 
 7- 34: 
 
 "The table wherein all my thoughts 
 Are visibly character'd and engrav'd." 
 
 Shakespeare accents the verb indifferently on the first or second 
 syllable, according as the metre requires; the substantive is always 
 character, save only in Richard III. in. i. 81. For a good instance of 
 character preserving its etymological sense 'image' (xapaKi-^p) cf. Faerie 
 Qtieene, V. 6. 2 : 
 
 "Whose character in th' Adamantine mould 
 Of his true hart so firmely was engraved."
 
 NOTES. 145 
 
 531. Crofts. In Johnson's definition a croft is: "A little close 
 adjoining to a house, and used for corn or pasture." Landor illustrates 
 its meaning : 
 
 " Where the hoof of Moorish horse laid waste 
 His narrow croft and winter garden-plot." 
 
 Count Jttlian, v. 4. 
 
 Skeat compares Old Dutch crochl, 'a field on the downs,' Middle E. 
 Diet. s. v. 
 
 532. Brow, i.e. that slope down to the valley. 
 
 533. Monstrous rout. 'Herd of monsters;' an instance of the 
 adjective doing the duty of the first part of a compound noun ; 
 cf. Lye. 158. Monster-rout would sound awkward. German has a 
 distinct advantage over English in this respect. Much valuable 
 information upon the free use of the adjective in seventeenth century 
 English is given in Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon, pp. 1415, 1416. 
 
 534. Alluding to the description of the island of Circe at the 
 beginning of the seventh book of the sEneid. Perhaps stabled= ' which 
 have got inside the sheep-folds,' and, as we know from Vergil, Eclogue 
 III. 80, triste lupus stabulis. This interpretation, however, is a little 
 forced, and Milton may only have meant 'wolves in their haunts;' cf. 
 P. L. xi. 750 2 : 
 
 " Palaces, 
 
 Where luxury late reigned, sea-monsters whelped, 
 And stabled;" 
 
 i.e. had their lairs. 
 
 535. Doing abhorred rites to Hecate. Like Simaetha in the second 
 Idyl of Theocritus : " I will bewitch him with my enchantments. Do 
 thou Selene shine clear and fair, for softly, Goddess, to thee will I 
 sing and to Hecate of hell. Hail ! awful Hecate ! to the end be 
 thou of our company, and make this medicine of mine not weaker 
 than the spells of Circe," Lang's version. The goddess is solemnly 
 invoked in Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens: 
 
 " And thou, three-formed Star, that on these nights 
 Art only powerful, to whose triple name 
 Thus we incline, once twice and thrice the same; 
 If now, with rites profane enough, 
 We do invoke thee ; " 
 
 where the footnote (by Ben Jonson himself) explains: "Hecate, who 
 V. 10
 
 146 COM US. 
 
 is called Trivia or Triformis, of whom Virgil, sEneid lib. 4. She was 
 believed to govern in witchcraft ; and is remembered in all these invo- 
 cations." Cf. the formula of conjuration in Chapman's Bussyd'Ambois, 
 IV. i , vent, per noctis &* tencbrarum abdita profundissima ; per ipsos 
 motus horanim, Hecatesqite. For a previous reference in Cotmis see 
 
 I- 135- 
 
 Doing rites may have been intended as a translation of sacra facere, 
 or if pa p^tiv. 
 
 538. Inveigle has a modern ring; but Shakespeare uses it once, 
 Troilus II. 3. 99; also Spenser, F. Q. I. 12. 32. Pronunciation varies 
 between inveegle and invaygle. Sir Thomas Browne probably preferred 
 the latter ; he spelt the word enveagle, and ea usually had the sound of 
 ay. Cf. the Religio Medici, fol. 1686, p. 4: "these Opinions I never 
 maintained... or endeavoured to enveagle any man's belief." See Earle, 
 English Tongue, p. 176. Possibly from aveugler'\.Q blind,' itself 
 derived from Lat. ab and oculus. 
 
 539. Unweeting. Milton always writes nn-weeting, not unwitting : 
 e.g. Death of a Fair Infant 23, 24 : 
 
 "For so Apollo, with unweeting hand, 
 Whilom did slay his dearly-loved mate." 
 
 He could point to the same spelling in Spenser, Faerie Qiieene I. 3.6: 
 "As he her wronged innocence did weet." 
 
 This double e was due to the desire to retain the full sound of the long 
 Saxon i. The latter had dropped out. Professor Earle, p. 119, knows 
 of but "one well-attested example of its complete survival both in the 
 character and in the sound, and that is in the name life of a village 
 near Exeter, a name documentarily extant in a writing of the eleventh 
 century;" and now, as then, pronounced Eade. When the sound 
 survived the spelling changed; e.g. fleece for A. S. flis ; but often the 
 sound altered to igh or eye, as in life fqr A. S. lif( = leeve). From a root 
 wid are derived ISeiv and videri, with their cognates, on the side of the 
 classical languages, and in the Teutonic group German wissen, English 
 wit, and allied words. 
 
 540. By then. 'By the time that.' Cf. Shakespeare's by this 
 'by this time;' "And I do know, by this they stay for me." Julius 
 Casar I. 3. 125. 
 
 542. Knot-grass. There is a stock joke in the dramatists that 
 short people have eaten knotgrass, whose special property it was to
 
 NOTES. 147 
 
 stop growth. " Say they should put him into a straight pair of gaskins, 
 'twere worse than knot-grass; he would never grow after it." Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle II. 2. Shakespeare's 
 epithet is "hindering." Midsummer N. D. III. 2. 329. 
 
 546. Melancholy. Not gloomy dejection, but the mood of serious- 
 ness or reflection celebrated in // Penseroso; what Gray in one of his 
 letters calls "white Melancholy, or rather Leucocholy" (Works, Gosse's 
 ed. n. 114). 
 
 547. Meditate my rural minstrelsy. In simpler language, ' play 
 on my shepherd's pipe.' Milton's second edition (1673) made the 
 unnecessary addition upon, which gives a different turn to the sense. 
 Cf. Lycidas 66: 
 
 "And strictly meditate the thankless Muse." 
 An obvious Latinism ; being, in fact, Vergil's 
 
 Silvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena, 
 Eclogue I. 2. So Eclogue VI. 8. Cf. the use of fueXerav. 
 
 548. Ere a close; i.e. before there came a close; ere being a prepo- 
 sition. Close has its musical sense, 'cadence.' Cf. Richard II. n. 1. 12: 
 
 "The setting sun, and music at the close, 
 As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last." 
 
 So in an old play Lingua, L i : 
 
 "For though (perchance) the first strains pleasing are, 
 I dare engage the close mine ears will jar" 
 
 Dodsley's Old Plays, ix. 338. 
 
 There is also the technical expression half-close. A musician himself, 
 Milton draws largely on the terminology of his favourite art. Cf. line 
 243, with note, and the Nativity Ode, roo. Milton, as we have seen, 
 is the poet of great culture, and this culture supplies him with a 
 variety of illustrations. 
 
 549. Was up. ' Had begun.' Frequent in Shakespeare ; e.g. 
 Julius Casar v. I. 68: "The storm is up, and all is on the hazard." 
 The 'Hunt's up' was the title of an old ballad-tune, referred to in 
 Romeo and Juliet ill. 5. 34, and Titus Andronicus n. 2. i. 
 
 551. Listened them. Cf. Much Ado in. i. u 12: 
 
 "There will she hide her, 
 To listen our purpose" 
 
 (i.e. conversation, Fr. propos) ; where the later folios needlessly insert to. 
 
 10 2
 
 148 COMUS. 
 
 As a rule, however, Shakespeare has list more often than listen with an 
 accusative, e.g. Lear v. 3. 181, " List a brief tale." 
 
 552. An unusual stop, i.e. at line 145, where Comus bade his 
 followers "break off." 
 
 553. Drowsy-flighted steeds. I have followed (with some hesitation) 
 Professor Masson's example and retained what is practically the reading 
 of the Cambridge MS. The latter gives drowsy flighted, i.e. two words 
 unhyphened. All three early editions that of Lawes, 1637, and those 
 of Milton, 1645 and 1673 read drowsie frighted, i.e. again separate 
 words without hyphen. This must mean, 'the drowsy steeds of night 
 which had been frighted by the noise of Comus and his crew.' It 
 certainly has the weight of authority on its side ; but it seems to me 
 lame and impotent compared with drowsy-flighted, removing from the 
 passage half of the picturesqueness suggested by the Cambridge text. I 
 am fain to believe that the latter is correct, and that drowsy frighted 
 was an error on the part of Lawes which escaped the notice of Milton. 
 Indirect, but strong, evidence in favour of the text here adopted is 
 furnished by the passage in 2 Henry VI. iv. i. 3 6, which Milton must 
 have had in his mind's eye : 
 
 "And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades 
 That drag the tragic melancholy night; 
 Who with their drowsy, slow and flagging wings 
 Clip dead men's graves." 
 
 We have, surely, in the third line of this quotation the germ of drowsy- 
 flighted (for Milton was never ashamed to borrow from Shakespeare, 
 "dear son of memory, great heir of fame"), and it appears most im- 
 probable that he should have changed the line so manifestly for the 
 worse. It may be" added that some editors keep the text of the early 
 editions, but explain frighted to signify freighted. They print drowsy - 
 frighted the insertion of the hyphen amounts to little, as printers were 
 careless about such details and interpret 'the steeds of night heavy 
 with sleep.' For the same picture of the chariot of the dusk cf. 
 the Latin poem In Quintum Novembris 69, 70, and the Nativity Ode 
 236. 
 
 554. Close-curtained Sleep. We cannot help remembering Macbeth's 
 "curtained sleep," II. i. 51; and Juliet's "Spread thy close curtain, 
 night," Romeo and Juliet in. 2. 5, this last line occurring in a passage 
 from which Milton has borrowed more than once. See note on 1. 373. 
 Spen.ser employs the same obvious imageiy, Faerie Queen e \. 4. 44.
 
 NOTES. 149 
 
 555. Solemn-breathing. The epithet pleased Gray : 
 
 " Oh ! sovereign of the willing soul, 
 Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs." 
 
 Progress of Poesy, I. i. 
 
 Solemn implies 'religious;' as in Milton's own poem, At a Solemn 
 Music. 
 
 556. Steam. The edition of 1673 spoils the metaphor by substituting 
 stream. Todd quotes a beautiful parallel from Bacon's Essays (no.XLVi.): 
 "Because the breath of flowers is farre sweeter in the aire, where it 
 comes and goes like the warbling of music." Still closer, however, is 
 Tennyson's: 
 
 "They find a music centred in a doleful song 
 Steaming up" The Lotos-Eaters. 
 
 557 560. Wart on found the 'conceit' unworthy of the poet: 
 Milton evidently thought otherwise, as he practically repeated it in 
 P. L. iv. 604 : 
 
 " She (the nightingale) all night long her amorous descant sang : 
 Silence was pleased." 
 
 For the personification of Silence, cf. // Pen. 55. 
 
 558. Took. 'Charmed,' 'laid under a spell.' Take is used by 
 Shakespeare of the influence, especially the malignant influence, of 
 supernatural powers. Cf. Hamlet I. i. 162 3: 
 
 "The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, 
 No fairy takes;" 
 
 and Lear IT. 4. 165 6 : 
 
 "Strike her young bones, 
 You taking airs, with lameness." 
 
 This, rather than 'taken prisoner,' is the metaphor here, as in Tenny- 
 son's Dying Swan, III. : 
 
 "The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul 
 Of that waste place." 
 
 Cf. the Nativity Ode, 98. 
 
 559 560. I.e. cease to exist, if she could always be displaced or 
 banished in the same way. Cf. Sylvester, " Silence dislodged at the 
 first word," Grosart's ed. I. p. 169. 
 
 560. All ear. Cf. Shakespeare's "purblinded Argus, all eyes and 
 no sight," Troilus and Cressida I. i. 31 ; all being an adverb.
 
 1 50 COMUS. 
 
 562. Under the ribs of Death, A remarkably definite picture, in 
 contrast with the conception of Death as a vague personification of 
 horror in P. L. II. 666 673 : 
 
 "The other shape 
 
 If shape it might be called that shape had none 
 Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb." 
 
 The description in our text is conventional. In some popular Book of 
 Emblems, or the famous series of woodcuts entitled the Dance of 
 Death they were published at Lyons in 1538 and were long attributed 
 to Holbein Milton may have seen an allegorical representation of 
 Death as a grim "bare-ribbed" skeleton. "Bare-ribbed" is the epithet 
 applied to Death by Shakespeare in King John v. 2. 177. Realism 
 of the same type is seen in Lncrece 1761 : 
 
 "Shows me a bare-boned death by time outworn." 
 
 565. Amazed. ' Confounded ;' amaze in Shakesperian English has 
 a much stronger sense than now. The latter part of the line recalls 
 Hamlet I. i. 44 (in the reading of the folios, the quartos printing 
 horrowes) : "it harrows me with fear and wonder." 
 
 568. Lawns. Lawn="z. space of grass-covered ground, a glade" 
 (Skeat); i.e. an open place clear of wood, like L. salttis. A graceful 
 word, occurring often in Milton; e.g. Lycidas 25; L 1 Al. 71; // Pen. 
 35; and elsewhere. The limited meaning, 'grassplot in a garden,' is 
 modern. The earlier form was laund; the d dropped out. Probably 
 from French lande, 'waste land,' itself the German land. The au was 
 intended to represent the fuller sound of French a ; cf. cAaunt, the old 
 spelling of chant, from chanter, launch from lancer, and other words 
 Earle, pp. 168, 169. Zaw='fine linen' (as worn by bishops) may be 
 a peculiar use of the same noun ' ' which was used in the sense of a vista 
 through trees, and might hence be applied to a transparent covering " 
 Skeat, following Wedgwood. Skeat, however, is doubtful on the 
 subject. 
 
 573. Prevent, i.e. anticipitate. 
 
 577. Durst. Dare, allied to Oappfiv, Qapafiv, may be classed 
 with auxiliaries like can could, may might. Properly these verbs 
 belong to the strong conjugation, since they form the preterite by vowel- 
 change. But the preterite ceased to be used only as a past tense ; 
 it acquired a present signification. Thus "I durst not" may mean 
 either 'I dared not' or 'I dare not.' When this happened the verb in 
 some cases followed the tendency of strong verbs to drop into the weak
 
 NOTES. 1 5 I 
 
 form and developed a weak preterite. Hence we get the two preterites 
 of dare, viz. durst as past and present ; dared for past alone. 
 
 585. Period, ' Sentence;' so possibly in Lucrece 565, and the Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona II. i. 122, "a pretty period;" but in each of these 
 cases the sense, 'end,' 'conclusion,' which period so often bears in 
 Shakespeare is feasible. 
 
 586. For me, i.e. as far as I am concerned. 
 
 588. In P. L. n. 910 "Chance governs all," subject only to the 
 "high arbiter," Chaos. 
 
 591. I.e. that which mischief intended to be most harmful. 
 
 592. Happy trial, i.e. trial of happiness; or the adjective might 
 have a proleptic force 'the trial which proves virtue happy.' 
 
 593. Recoil. Fr. reculer, whence the old spelling recule: cf. the 
 Utopia: "For it is well knowen, that when theire owne army hathe 
 
 reculed and in dyspayre turned backe then the priestes cumming 
 
 betwene have stayed the murder," Pitt Press ed. p. 154. 
 
 594 597. Slowly separating from the good the evil element preys 
 upon itself, just as the figure of Sin in P. L. II. 799 800 is gnawed by 
 the whelps of her own womb. 
 
 595. Scum. Cf. German sc/taum= ( foa.m;' e.g. in meer-schaum. 
 From the time of Shakespeare downwards the word has always had a 
 bad sense. Meaning, properly the impurities that rise to the surface of 
 liquids in boiling it naturally came to signify 'dross,' ' refuse.' To skim 
 is to remove the scum; the vowel-change being regular, as in fill from 
 full. A good many words that begin with the sound sk are of Scandi- 
 navian origin; see 1. 620. 
 
 603. Legions. Scan as a trisyllable. 
 
 604. Acheron. Strictly the river of the lower world round which 
 the shades hover, as in P. L. II. 578: 
 
 "Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; 
 Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep : " 
 
 then put for the lower world itself; cf. the use of Stygian, 1. 132. From 
 axos, ptw. 
 
 607. Purchase. 'Booty;' cf. Faerie Queene VI. n, 12: 
 
 "the mayd of whom they spake 
 Was his own purchas and his onely prize." 
 
 Schmidt finds the same sense in Cymbeline I. 4. 91: "if there were 
 wealth enough for the purchase." From O. F. furchacer=\.o 'pursue
 
 I$2 COMUS. 
 
 eagerly,' 'acquire;' i.e. fur = four, and c/iacer'to hunt after.' The 
 latter derives from captare. 
 
 608. In Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, 1619, Comus 
 has "his head crown'd with roses and other flowers, his hair curled." 
 In Elizabethan and later times curling the hair was a mark of the 
 utmost effeminacy and affectation; see Lear in. 4. 87. 
 
 6n. Stead. 'Service;' not uncommon as a verb in Shakespeare; 
 e.g. in Merchant of Venice I. 3. 7, "May you stead me?" i.e. can you 
 help me? Cf. bested in // Pen. 3 and 2 Hen. VI. II. 3. 56. 
 
 612. Other, i.e. mightier. For the emphatic repetition, other... 
 other, cf. Lye. 174, and the Canzone (11. 7, 8) among Milton's Italian 
 poems. 
 
 614, 615. A certain resemblance is traceable to Prospero's speech 
 to Ariel at the end of the fourth act of The Tempest, 259 260. 
 
 614. The wand is the usual symbol of supernatural power. Comus 
 may have inherited the ire/M/tijK&jj pafidos of his mother Circe, Odyssey 
 x. 293. 
 
 Unthread. A well-known Shakespearian crux is King John v. 
 4. n, "Unthread the rude eye of rebellion." Shakespeare there (as 
 in Lear II. i. 120) quibbles on the idea of unthreading a needle, and 
 perhaps we ought in the present line to press the metaphor. 
 
 617. Relation, i.e. report; cf. The Tempest v '. 164: 
 "For 'tis a chronicle of day by day, 
 
 Not a relation for a breakfast." 
 
 The verb, relate, preserves this sense; the noun has lost it. Relation 
 in modern E. = ' reference,' 'connection,' reproducing refero in its 
 secondary meaning 'concern' (refert). The French, relation, retains 
 both senses. 
 
 617. Shifts. Usually shift= 'stratagem,' 'contrivance.' Here the 
 sense required is 'reflection.' 
 
 619 628. Probably a reference to Milton's school-friend Diodati, 
 whose premature death in 1638 inspired the Epitaphium Damonis. 
 Lines 150 154 of that poem mention Diodati's knowledge of botany 
 and habit of imparting it to Milton : 
 
 "'Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos, 
 Helleborumque humilesque crocos foliumque hyacinthi, 
 Quasque habet ista palus herbas artesque medentum.' 
 Ah pereant herbas, pereant artesque medentum, 
 Gramina postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro." 
 Among Milton's Epistohe Familiares are two letters addressed to
 
 NOTES. 153 
 
 Diodati; they were written in September 1637, when the latter was 
 settled as a doctor in the north of England. In the second occurs a 
 passage which illustrates our text and which Mr Jerram in his note on 
 the above-quoted verses of the Epitaphium renders thus : ' ' You wish 
 me good health six hundred times, which is as much as I can desire, 
 or even more. Surely you must lately have been appointed the very 
 steward of Health's larder, so lavishly do you dispense all her Stores, 
 or at least Health should now certainly be your parasite, since you so 
 lord it over her and command her to attend your bidding. " Diodati 
 must, I think, be the "shepherd lad" of Contus. 
 
 620. To see to. An obsolete expression = ' to behold;' cf. Ezekiel 
 xxiii. 15 : "girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed at- 
 tire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, " and Joshua xxii. 10. 
 
 Skilled, i.e. versed in the lore of; cf. P. L. IX. 42 : 
 
 " Of these 
 
 Nor skilled, nor studious." 
 
 Skill, which in modern English is almost confined to the idea 
 ' dexterity ' (especially of hand), had a much wider meaning for Shake- 
 speare and Milton. Among the synonyms of it given and illustrated 
 by quotation in Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon are 'discernment,' 
 'sagacity,' 'mental power,' 'knowledge of any art.' The sk points to 
 Scandinavian origin (cf. note on scum, 595), and the base of the word 
 is the root s&ar='cut.' Hence the underlying notion is 'separation,' 
 'drawing distinctions.' 
 
 621. Virtuous, i.e. possessed of medicinal properties; cf. // Peti. 
 113, "the virtuous ring and glass." So Shakespeare: 
 
 "Culling from every flower 
 The virtuous sweets." 2 Henry IV. IV. 5. 76. 
 Cf. -virtue, 1. 165, and P. L. IV. 198, 
 
 " on the virtue thought 
 Of that life-giving plant." 
 
 626. Scrip. "Orig. sense 'scrap,' because made of a scrap of 
 stuff," Skeat. A number of words can be traced back to the root 
 sharp ' cut, ' an extension of skar, as above ; cf. scarf, properly a 
 'shred:' the generic idea being 'cut small' or 'cut sharp.' Scrip is 
 familiar to us from at least one passage: "When I sent you without 
 purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything?" Luke xxii. 35. Scrip 
 = 'a writing' explains itself scriptum, O. F. escript. 
 
 627. Simples. A simple was a single (i.e. simple) ingredient in 
 a compound, especially in a compounded medicine. Its association 
 with medicine led to the common meaning, 'medicinal herb;' once no
 
 154 COMUS. 
 
 doubt in current use, as it occurs so often in Shakespeare "culling 
 of simples," Romeo and Juliet v. i. 40. 
 
 630 633. In point of style this passage, with its accumulation of 
 outs, seems the most awkward in Comus. 
 
 634. Like, i.e. correspondingly: 'as unknown, so unesteemed.' 
 
 635. Clouted. It is tempting to connect with French clou, 'a 
 nail; 1 we must, however, look for the origin of clouted in A. S. cli'it, 
 a 'patch,' and Middle E. clouten 'to mend;' cf. Latimer's Sermons, 
 "he should not have clouting leather to piece his shoes with." The 
 phrase, " clouted shoon," was hackneyed ; see the various references 
 quoted by the editors on 2 Henry VI. iv. 3. 195, and compare Joshua 
 ix. 5, "Old shoes and clouted upon their feet." 
 
 636. Medicinal. Scan medcinal, as in S. A. 627 : 
 
 "No cooling herb 
 Or medicinal liquor can asswage;" 
 
 and cf. the modern tendency to abbreviate medicine to mcd'cine. 
 
 636. 637. Referring to Odyssey X. 281 306; see in particular 
 302 306: "Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that 
 he had plucked from the ground, and he showed me the growth 
 thereof. It was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk. 
 Moly the gods call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig ; howbeit 
 with the gods all things are possible" (Butcher and Lang). Moly 
 is the flower of ideal lands. Tennyson's Lotos-eaters lie 
 
 . "Propt on beds of amaranth and moly;" 
 and Shelley associates the same plants in Prometheus Unbound, n. 4 : 
 
 "folded Elysian flowers, 
 Nepenthe, Moly, Amaranth, fadeless blooms." 
 
 Spenser remembered that the root was black, Sonnet xxvi. For the 
 same allusion elsewhere in Milton, cf. the first Elegy, 87, 88 : 
 Et vitare procul malefidtz infamia Circes 
 Atria, divini Molyos usus ope. 
 
 637. Wise Ulysses. Homer's woXiJ/xTjTtj '05ixr<reys. Tennyson 
 makes him the "gray spirit yearning in desire to follow knowledge." 
 Ulysses. 
 
 638. He called it Hcemony. The name is Milton's invention, and 
 not entirely intelligible. It has been suggested that he intended 
 fficmony as a reference to Hamonia, an old name of Thessaly, the 
 land of magic. Certainly Thessaly, or Haemonia, was the home of 
 mystery and incantations : cf. Horace's
 
 NOTES. 155 
 
 Qua saga, qnis te solvere Thessalis 
 Magus venenis, quis poterit deits ? 
 
 Odes, I. xxvii. 21, 22; 
 and Tibullus, 2. 4. 56. 
 
 639. Sovran. For the form cf. 1. 41. In Shakespeare the epithet 
 often bears, as here, the sense "medicinal and efficacious" (Schmidt.). 
 Cf. Sonnet 153, 8, "Against strange maladies a sovereign cure." So 
 Fletcher in the Faithful Shepherdess, v. 5 : 
 
 " Satyr, bring him to the bower ; 
 We will try the sovereign power 
 Of other waters." 
 
 641. Furies' ; i.e. evil fairies; see note on 436 and cf. Hamlet I. 
 i. 163. 
 
 642. Varied in Lye. 1 16, " Of other care they little reckoning make." 
 Reckoning^ 'heed:' 'make little account of it;' cf. note on 1. 404. 
 
 644 647. Warton points out that it was a recognised expedient in 
 mediaeval tales for a warrior of the type of the Red Crosse Knight 
 to carry a charm, often a herb, as a protective against evil influences. 
 
 650, 651. Not improbably an echo of Odyssey X. 294, 295, where 
 Hermes says, "when it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long 
 wand, then draw thou thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring 
 on her, as one eager to slay her;" Odysseus remembers the instructions, 
 321, 322. Ovid has a parallel passage, Metamorphoses XIII. 293: 
 
 Conanteni virga mulcere capillos 
 Reppulit, el stricto pavidam deterruit ense. 
 
 651, 652. Precisely what Guyon did in the second book of the 
 Faerie Queene, canto 12. The sorceress Acrasia prepared the cup 
 (56) ; it was her custom to present wine to passers by : 
 
 "So she to Guyon offred it to tast, 
 Who, taking it out of her tender hond, 
 The cup to ground did violently cast, 
 That all in peeces it was broken fond, 
 And with the liquor stained all the lond." 
 
 Stanza 57. 
 
 Milton's indebtedness to Spenser has been noted. See Introduction, 
 p. xxxviii. 
 
 653. Seize his wand. Which the brothers fail to do. The wand 
 is the sign of power, as in 1. 614. 
 
 Curst crew. Cf. P. L. VI. 806. In his epics Milton repeatedly 
 applies crev) to Satan's rebellious angels.
 
 156 COMUS. 
 
 655. Vomit smoke, Cf. dEntid vili. 252, 3: 
 
 Paucibus ingentem fumum, mirabile tticltt, 
 Evomit ; 
 where the subject is Cacus, a son of Vulcan. 
 
 The Scene changes. Probably a screen, in technical language a 
 traverse or (ravers, was put forward while the alteration of the scene 
 was being effected. Cf. Nares' Glossary s.v. travers: "At the ap- 
 proach of the countesse into the greate chamber, the hoboyes played 
 untill the roome was marshaled, which once ordered, a travers slided 
 away;" and Ben Jonson's Entertainment at Theobalds, 1607, "The 
 King and Queen, being entered into the gallery, after dinner there was 
 seen nothing but a traverse of white across the room : which suddenly 
 drawn, was discovered a gloomy obscure place." 
 
 Soft Music. Omitted in the Cambridge MS. Doubtless the addition 
 of music was due to Lawes. The idea of tempting by means of a 
 banquet (cf. The Tempest in. 3) meets us in mediaeval romances of 
 virtue assailed by evil powers. 
 
 Enchanted chair. Enchanted because "smeared with gums of 
 glutinous heat," 1. 917. 
 
 Puts by. ' Refuses.' So Czesar rejected the crown : 
 
 "ru. Was the crown offer'd him thrice? 
 Casca. Ay, marry was't, and he put it by twice." 
 
 Julius Casar I. i. 221. 
 
 Goes about. 'Tries.' Shakespeare often uses 'go about '= 'to take 
 trouble' in a bad sense; e.g. in Measure for Measure Hi. i. 215, 
 "see how he goes about to abuse me." 
 
 659 813. Dramatically this is the most effective part of Comus ; 
 even Johnson found merit in the scene. 
 
 660. Alabaster. The two kinds of alabaster must be distinguished. 
 The oriental or calcareous alabaster of the ancients was a carbonate 
 of lime. Cases to hold unguents were made of it ; cf. St Matthew 
 xxvi. 7, "an alabaster box of very precious ointment." The mineral 
 now known as alabaster is a sulphate of lime, and the pure white 
 variety was much used in images and monuments. Hence the appro- 
 priateness of the reference to "statue;" cf. Merchant of Venice I. i. 
 83,84: 
 
 "Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, 
 Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?" 
 
 and "smooth as monumental alabaster" in Othello v. 2. 5. Stow,
 
 NOTES. 157 
 
 describing the cross in Cheapside (to which there is a possible allusion 
 in As You Like It iv. i. 154 "Diana in the fountain") says: "There 
 was then (1596) set up a curious wrought tabernacle of grey marble, 
 and in the same an alabaster image of Diana." Coryat saw in one of 
 the Libraries at Venice "a little world of memorable antiquities, in 
 Alabaster," Crudities, vol. I. p. 224, ed. 1776. The statue of Lady 
 Elizabeth Russell which Addison mentions, Spectator, no. 329, is of the 
 same material. Milton has the word in two other passages, P. L. iv. 
 544 and P. R. iv. 548 ; it seems best to be consistent (with Masson) in 
 printing in each case the correct form alabaster, although the spelling in 
 r 6th and 1 7th centuries is almost always alablaster. This may have been 
 due to a confusion with arblaster, a bowman, also written alablaster 
 (New English Diet.). Arblaster is from O. F. arbaleste, Lat. arcubalista. 
 Alabaster is said to be derived from Alabastron, a town in Egypt. 
 
 66 1, 662. There should be a comma at was, the sentence being a 
 rather awkward in version =" root-bound, as was Daphne." The story 
 of Daphne flying from Apollo and being changed into a laurel-tree at 
 her own petition is told by Ovid, Met. I. 660 et seq. 
 
 663 665. Todd quotes the same sentiment from Cicero, De 
 Finibtis in. : recte invictus, cujus etiam si corpus constringatur, 
 animo tamen vincula injici nulla possunt. 
 
 665. While. 'So long as.' 
 
 668. A reminiscence, perhaps, of Isaiah xxxvi. 10, " they shall 
 obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. " 
 
 672 675. The arrangement of the lines differs in the Cambridge 
 MS. In the latter, lines 672 705 of the present text, which contain 
 Comus' offer of the drink and its rejection by the lady, come in at 
 what is now verse 755. That is, in the Cambridge MS. after the 
 words "Brisk as the April buds in primrose season" Comus continues 
 with the line "O foolishness of men." When he reaches the close of 
 his speech, "Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet" (i.e. 
 verse 755 as it stands in our text), he presents the cordial, and the 
 words run: "Think what, and look upon this cordial julep." Then 
 follows, as here, her refusal of the cup. The change in the order of the 
 speeches involved the slight alteration of the text that occurs in verse 
 755 ; and the whole scene gains in point of variety. 
 
 672. jhdep. Properly rose-water; then any bright drink; finally 
 often used to signify a syrup medicine. The countryman in Henry 
 Vaughan's Praise of a Country Life "knows not what is meant by 
 the apoplexie or the gout; never saw a julep" Grosart's Henry 
 Vaughan, vol. III. p. 243. Julep is from the Persian word
 
 158 COMUS. 
 
 gulab, 'rose-water;' Persian gul^z. rose:' <f = * water.' See line 
 674, note. 
 
 673. Flames and dances. Cf. S. A. 543 6 : 
 
 "Nor did the dancing ruby, 
 Sparkling outpoured, the flavour or the smell, 
 Allure thee." 
 For Aj='its,' see 1. 248. 
 
 674. Syrups. Like julep, of oriental origin. Arabic shar&b, 
 shurab ('wine,' 'beverage 1 ), sherbet, shrub (a drink made with rum) 
 and syrup are all from the same Arabic root = 'to drink.' We have a 
 considerable number of Arabic and Persian words in English. Many 
 have come straight into our language without any intermediate stage. 
 Travellers have brought them back; trade has imported not a few; 
 and by other channels they have reached us. Often, however, an 
 oriental word has been first naturalised in France, and then passed 
 over to England. The study in France during the i2th and i4th 
 centuries of eastern philosophy and science enriched the French 
 vocabulary with numerous technicalities ; these technicalities being 
 first employed in scientific mediaeval Latin and thence finding their 
 way into the French tongue. This is especially true of terms con- 
 nected with (i) astronomy, (ii) alchemy, and (iii) mathematics. For 
 (i) cf. nadir; for (ii) elixir; for (iii) algebre. Again, many of the 
 French Orientalisms were introduced from the Spanish peninsula. 
 For instance, this word syrup, which we borrowed from the French, 
 had been previously taken by the French from the .Spanish, who in 
 turn had conveyed it from the Arabs. Similarly julep, noticed above 
 (673), passed from Persian to Spanish, thence to French, thence to 
 English. 
 
 6/5 676. Nepenthes. The draught that was 
 
 " of soverayne grace, 
 Devized by the Gods, for to asswage 
 Harts grief," Faerie Queene iv. 3. 43. 
 
 Cf. Pope's line " Lull'd with the sweet nepenthe of a court," Epilogue to 
 the Satires. For the classical allusion see Odyssey iv. 219 229, where 
 Menelaus and Helen entertain Telemachus at Sparta ; and " Helen, 
 daughter of Zeus, presently cast a drug into the wine whereof they 
 drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every 
 sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in 
 the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not 
 though his father and mother died Medicines of such virtue
 
 NOTES. 159 
 
 (<f>dpfMKa /j,t)ri6evTa) had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the 
 wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt" (Butcher and Lang). 
 According to Merry this <j>ap/j.a.Koi> was explained by Plutarch to be 
 merely the charm of Helen's eloquence; and in Forcellini we find 
 si Homeri latentem prudentiain altius scruteris, delenimentum illud 
 quod Helena vino miscuit non herba fuit, non ex India succus, sed 
 narrandi opportunitas, qua; hospitem mceroris oblitum ad gaudium 
 flexit. The connection between Egypt and magic is traditional; 
 we see it presumably in the superstition which associated the gypsies 
 with Egypt gypsy being a corruption of Egyptian. 
 
 679. "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel," Shakespeare, 
 Sonnet I. 8. Cf. too Robynson's translation of the Utopia: "When 
 nature biddeth the (i.e. thee) to be good and gentle to other she 
 commaundeth the not to be cruell and ungentle to the selfe," Pitt Press 
 ed. p. 107. Milton remembered the present line when he wrote S. A. 784. 
 
 680. Which Nature lent. As Shakespeare says : 
 
 "Nature never lends 
 The smallest scruple of her excellence, 
 But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 
 Herself the glory of a creditor, 
 Both thanks and use" (i.e. interest) 
 
 Measure for Measure i. i. 36 40. 
 
 Cf. also his fourth Sonnet, 3: "Nature's bequest gives nothing, but 
 doth lend." Nature, Shakespeare means, never gives anything to man 
 for his absolute possession (cf. Lucretius' vitaque mancipio nulli datur, 
 3. 971), but always regards him as holding her presents on trust. 
 
 685. Unexempt condition, i.e. terms which should be strictly 
 observed. 
 
 686. Mortal frailty, i.e. weak human nature. Frail and fragile 
 are doublets; similarly French frih (O. F. fraile) and fragile from 
 L. fragilis. 
 
 688. That. The antecedent must be "you" in 1. 682. 
 
 689. Timely, i.e. early; so the adverb at 970. Timely always 
 bears this sense in Shakespeare: e.g. Comedy of Errors I. i. 139, 
 "happy were I in my timely death." Now it implies 'come at the 
 right time;' hence 'suitable.' 
 
 694. Aspects. 'Objects.' Probably to be scanned aspects, as in 
 P. L. vi. 450 : 
 
 "His words here ended, but his meek aspect 
 Silent yet spake."
 
 160 COMUS. 
 
 Cf. contest for contest, P. L. iv. 872; contr&ry for contrary, S. A. 
 972. In these cases the influence of the French accentuation has 
 been at work. The instinct of the French is to bring the stress at 
 the close of a word: we reverse the process. The study of accent in 
 English is the study of a two-fold process the decline of the French 
 influence and the growth of the Teutonic practice. Chaucer has 
 
 aventiire for our adventure 
 
 fortiine . . . fortune 
 
 verttit ... virtue, etc. 
 
 The effect of French example is strongly marked in Spenser; and in 
 Shakespeare (who always writes aspect) and Milton we meet with 
 instances, less numerous but still not infrequent, that point the same 
 way. See Earle's English. Tongue, pp. 154 56. 
 
 695. Ugly-headed. Printed oughly -headed in both Milton's editions, 
 which Masson retains. Cotgrave has a similar form, "an ill-favoured 
 scrubbe, a little ouglie, or swartie wretch," s. v. Marpaut, and in 
 Earle's Philology, p. 384, an extract is given from Robert Crowley's 
 Epigrams (1550), of which one couplet runs: 
 
 "Wyth terrible tearynge 
 
 A full ouglye syght." 
 
 The spelling therefore of the adjective was not definitely fixed, but it 
 seems arbitrary to keep an obsolete form in a modernised text. 
 
 Ug- ly = Icelandic ugg-ligr, where -ligr=A. S. adjectival suffix -lie, 
 'like,' which in modern E. has become ly. The first half of ug-ly is 
 from the base whence come a number of cognate words signifying 
 'terror;' e.g. Icel. ugga 'to fear,' A. S. oga 'fear,' modern E. awe. 
 
 Skeat notes that the number of Scandinavian words in English that 
 end in g or gg is considerable, e.g.yfof (in both senses), log, snug, stag, 
 with others in which the g has been doubled, e.g. muggy, swagger; 
 Principles, p. 470. Of course, the Scandinavian element in the English 
 language is due to the Danish invasions and the Danish kings of Eng- 
 land. The period when this Scandinavian influence was strongest was 
 from 950 1050. 
 
 696. Brewed enchantments, i.e. the draught "with many murmurs 
 mixed;" cf. S. A, 934, "Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling 
 charms." 
 
 700. Lickerish. 'Dainty.' An apt illustration occurs in Giles 
 Fletcher's Christ's Victorie on Earth, 18: 
 
 " For well that aged syre could tip his tongue, 
 And licke his rugged speech with phrases prime;"
 
 NOTES. l6l 
 
 i.e. make it palatable (Grosart's ed. p. 141). For etymology cf. French 
 lecher, Germ. Leckerei ( = ' dainties'), English lick. The central idea is 
 'to lick : ' hence the notron of something that pleases the taste. 
 
 702, 703. Cf. Euripides, Medea 618, KO.KOV yap avSpbs Sup' 6vri<nv 
 OVK tx et > m 'he same way an enemy's gifts do not profit txOpw adtapa. 
 dupa KOVK 6vriffi/j.a, Ajax 665. 
 
 704. Delicious. A word as common in Milton as it is rare in 
 Shakespeare. Milton, whose influence on Keats is very marked, may 
 have been responsible for the latter's monotonous use of the epithet. 
 
 706 708. I.e. foolish are those who adopt the doctrines of Stoicism 
 or Cynicism and practise rigid, morose abstinence. Such is the general 
 purport of the lines. Cynic tub obviously refers to Diogenes; cf. 
 "the churlish Cynicke in his Tub," Carew's Ctelum Britannicum, 
 Hazlitt's ed. p. 221. Budge doctors is not easy. There were two words 
 budge: a substantive meaning 'fur': an adjective =" surly, stiff, formal," 
 Johnson's Dictionary; "solemn in demeanour, important-looking, 
 pompous, stiff, formal," A r ew English Dictionary. As to the former, 
 Skeat says: "a kind of fur. Budge is lamb-skin with the wool 
 dressed outwards: orig. simply 'skin' F. bouge, a wallet, great pouch, 
 Lat. bulga, a little bag, a word of Gaulish origin." He refers to the 
 same root the word budget '"a. leathern bag' which occurs in The 
 Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 20: i.e. F. bougette (which survives) diminutive of 
 botige, as above. But the New English Dictionary does not, apparently, 
 adopt this explanation. It suggests a possible connection with O. F. 
 bouchet, bochet, a kid, because Bullokar in the Expositor (1616) calls 
 budge "a furre of a kinde of kid in other countries." This would be 
 satisfactory did not Cotgrave and other writers treat it as lambskin. 
 Cf. Cotgrave: "Agneau, Blanche d?agneattx, the furre called, white 
 Lambe, or, white Budge." Perhaps it will be safest to remember 
 Skeat's account and derive from bouge. 
 
 This fur, of whatever species, was much used. We know from 
 Stow's Survey that Budge- Row (in the City, running out of Queen 
 Victoria Street) was so called because most of the London furriers 
 lived there. Budge was specially employed in the ornamentation of 
 academic gowns. Todd quotes a Latin edict of 1414 regulating the 
 academic dress of graduates and students of the University of Cam- 
 bridge : those of the rank of Bachelor might wear only budge or lamb- 
 skin (tantum furruris budgets aut agninis) on their hoods. Cf. Milton's 
 own tract, Observations on the Articles of Peace, "yet for want of 
 stock enough in scripture-phrase to serve the necessary uses of their 
 
 V. II
 
 162 COMUS. 
 
 malice, they are become so liberal, as to part freely with their own 
 budge-gowns from off their backs, and bestow them on the magistrates 
 as a rough garment to deceive;" where he is satirising the members of 
 the Presbytery at Belfast. Finally, in the procession on Lord Mayor's 
 day a certain company of "Budge-bachelors" took part, so-named from 
 the dress they wore. It is probable, then, that in the present passage 
 Milton meant learned men who in virtue of their university degrees 
 could have gowns ornamented in a special fashion. He coined "budge 
 doctor" on the analogy of "Budge-bachelor." He may also have 
 intended his reader to remember the adjective budge. But this is not 
 certain, because no other instance of the use of the word so early as 
 1634 is forthcoming. Dr Murray quotes Elhvood's Autobiography, 
 1715, "The warden was a budge old man;" and Oldham's Art of 
 Poetry, 1686: 
 
 "No tutor, but the budge philosophers he knew." 
 
 Dr Murray dismisses the etymology of the adjective as unknown. 
 
 714. Curious. 'Dainty,' 'critical.' The two main meanings 
 which curious bears in modern English, (i) 'strange,' 'odd,' (ii) 'in- 
 quisitive,' are not found in Shakespeare. He uses the adjective to 
 signify (i) 'careful,' 'scrupulous:' e.g., 
 
 "If my slight Muse do please these curious days," 
 
 Sonnet 38, 13, 
 
 (ii) 'elegant:' "lapped in a most curious mantle," Cymbeline v. 5. 
 361, (iii) 'embarrassing,' i.e. requiring cura; "fraught with curious 
 business," Winter s Tale IV. 4. 525. 
 
 715, 1 6. An advance upon Vergil's theory: 
 
 Velleraque ut foliis depedant tenuia Seres, G. \\. 111. 
 
 719. Hutched, i.e. enclosed. Fr. huche, 'hutch,' 'bin:' Low Lat. 
 hutica. Cf. Du Cange : est enim hutica, quod Belgce nostri Huche 
 vacant, cista major et longior. He also gives hucha, huchia. The 
 original root may be the same as in German hiiten = l io guard,' English 
 heed. Hutch is now seen only in special combinations, e.g. rabbit- 
 hutch; but once common. In the Hampole Psalter it is used of the 
 ark of Israel; "rise lorA.../A0u and the huche of tin. halighyng*-," 
 ed. Bramley, p. 450. "Archbishop Chichele gave a borrowing chest 
 to the University of Oxford, which was called Chichele's Hutch," 
 Warton. A bolting-hutch is the tub into which flour is sifted. "That 
 bolting-hutch !" said Prince Hal of Falstaff, j Henry IV. n. 4. 495.
 
 NOTES. 163 
 
 721. Cf. Daniel i. 12: "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten 
 days ; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." 
 
 722. Frieze, orfrize, was coarse woollen cloth, made chiefly in Wales, 
 as Shakespeare knew, Merry Wives V. 5. 146; originally, however, 
 from Friesland, whence its name. The French called it drap defrise. 
 
 727. "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, 
 then are ye bastards, not sons," Hebrews xii. 8. 
 
 732. Shakespeare is fond of referring to the hidden jewels of the 
 deep; cf. Sonnet 21. 6: 
 
 "With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems." 
 
 So Richard III. \. 4. 26 and Midsummer N. D. in. i. 161. Milton 
 writes in Naturam non pati Senium, 63 65 : 
 
 nee ditior olim 
 
 Terra sacrum sceleri celavit montibus aurum 
 Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. 
 
 734. They below, i.e. men on earth, ol KO.TU). 
 
 737- Coy now implies mock-modesty. Formerly 'contemptuous,' 
 'disdainful,' was the ordinary sense; as perhaps here. Cotgrave has: 
 "Mespriseresse: A coy, a squeamish or scornful dame." Shakespeare 
 coins a verb coy l \.o disdain:' "if he coyed to hear Cominius speak" 
 Coriolanus v. i. 16. From quietus, through French coi. Hence 
 coy and quiet are doublets. 
 
 738. We are reminded of the long dissertation in Measure for 
 Measure, \. i. 121 179. 
 
 739 744- These lines contain an idea which had become a com- 
 monplace of poets, viz. that those who possess personal beauty should 
 marry and through their children enable that beauty to remain in 
 the world instead of dying out. The first seventeen of Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets are a series of variations on this theme an argument developed 
 under different metaphors in favour of the marriage of the unknown 
 "W. H." Shakespeare in Sonnets 4 and 6 employs almost the same 
 imagery as Milton, viz. money lent out at interest. Cf. also Venus and 
 Adonis, 163 174, and Romeo and Juliet, I. i. 221 -226. Outside 
 Shakespeare parallels might be quoted from Ben Jonson's Cynthia's 
 Revels, I. i; Drayton's Legend of Matilda; Brittairfs Ida, n. 7. 8 
 (which Dr Grosart attributes to Phineas Fletcher, not Spenser); and 
 other poems. 
 
 743, 744. Suggested perhaps by, certainly suggestive of, Mid- 
 summer N. D. i. i. 77 79:
 
 1 64 COM US. 
 
 " But earthlier happy is the. rose distill'd 
 Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, 
 Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness." 
 
 Many incidental touches in Milton's early poems show that he was 
 peculiarly familiar with this particular play. Sidney Walker pointed 
 out that a curious parallel to Shakespeare's words occurs in the 
 Colloquies of Erasmus : ego rosam existimo feliciorem, qute marescil in 
 hominis manu, delectans interim et oculos et nares, quain qua putrescit 
 in frulice, edn. 1693, p. 186. The rose is often taken as the type of 
 purity. Giles Fletcher speaks of the "Virgin rose" Chris fs Viclorie 
 on Earth, Grosart's ed. p. 160. 
 
 745. Nature's brag, i.e. that of which nature boasts. The verb 
 brag (a Celtic word) usually had, and now invariably has, a bad sense; 
 but twice in Romeo and Juliet, \. 5. 69 and n. 6. 31, it means 'to be 
 justly proud of;' cf. the former passage: 
 
 " And to say truth, Verona brags of him, 
 To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth." 
 
 Beauty, Milton means, is a possession on which Nature has good 
 reason to pride herself. 
 
 748. Much the same jingle as Shakespeare's 
 
 "Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits," 
 
 The Two Gentlemen, i. i. 2. 
 
 749. Complexions. Scan as four syllables. The termination lion, 
 especially if preceded by c (and complexion is practically a case in point), 
 is very frequently treated as two syllables at the end of a verse; 
 rarely so in the middle of a line. See Abbott's Shakesperian Grammar, 
 PP- 367i 3<58. 
 
 750. Grain, i.e. hue, colour; from O. F. graine, Lat. granum. 
 Granum was the Low Latin equivalent for the classical word caecum. 
 Properly coccum meant a 'berry;' but it was specially used of the 
 cochineal insect found upon the scarlet oak in Spain and other Mediter- 
 ranean countries ; this insect being, from its shape, supposed to be a berry. 
 From the cochineal insect a certain dye was made, called coccum; whence 
 HMfftMCrs'ltod.' In Low Latin granum took the place of coccum: 
 why, or when, is not known. Perhaps people thought that the insect 
 resembled a corn-seed more than a berry. We find this sense of 
 granum in all the dictionaries of mediaeval Latin. Cf. Du Cange: 
 
 "Granum: Coccum... Anglice grain;" Maigne d'Arnis: "Granum:
 
 NOTES. 165 
 
 Coccum Cochinelle;" and Forcellini: Fructus qiwque cocci, quo panni 
 tingunlur, granum dicitur. Granum passed into O. F. and thence 
 into English; cf. Cotgrave "Gratne: the seed of herbs, also grain 
 wherewith cloth is dyed in grain, scarlet die;" and again s. v. mi- 
 graine: " Scarlet, or purple in grain." Chaucer has scarlet-en-grayn. 
 
 Strictly, then, grain should mean a scarlet dye such as could be 
 extracted from the cochineal insect, variously called caecum and 
 granum. But by the time when Milton wrote the word must have 
 lost something of its original sense. It was no longer limited to a scarlet 
 shade; it signified any colour. Thus the wings of Raphael in P. L. 
 V. 285 are "sky-tinctured grain," where the colour must be filled in 
 according to the reader's sense of fitness. In P. L. xi. 241 3 the 
 archangel bore 
 
 "a military vest of purple... 
 Livelier than Melibcean, or the grain 
 Of Sarra." 
 
 Sarra was the old name for Tyre, so that "grain of Sarra "='Tyrian 
 purple;' cf. Sarrano dormiat aura, Georg. n. 506. In // Pen. 33 
 Melancholy wears "a robe of darkest grain;" and in Lycidas, in a 
 passage afterwards much altered, viz. lines 142 et seq., the Cambridge 
 MS. has: 
 
 " And that sad floure that strove 
 
 To write his own woes in the vermeil graine,* 
 
 where the reference is to the hyacinth. These passages show that grain 
 was applied to any shade of colour. Hence "cheeks of sorry grain " = 
 ' cheeks of an unprepossessing hue.' 
 
 From grain= 'a dye' came grain 'a. fibre.' In a phrase like 
 'ingrained vice' the underlying notion is 'something deep down;' 
 whence 'durable,' 'lasting.' Now granum was the strongest of dyes, 
 technically a 'fast' colour, i.e. one that would not fade or wash off: 
 cloth steeped ingrain was red as long as it lasted. Cf. Shakespeare's 
 "That's a fault that water will mend. 
 No, Sir; 'tis in grain: Noah'syfw*/ could not do it" 
 Comedy of Errors III. i. 108. 
 
 So Twelfth Night I. 5. 255. An ingrained fault, therefore, is one in 
 which the character is, as it were, dyed through and through ; and grain 
 from connoting this sense of ' completeness' has, by a metaphor, become 
 synonymous with fibre^ so that we can speak of wood being ' hard in 
 grain' without any reference to its colour. It should be added that
 
 1 66 COMUS. 
 
 some editors would explain Milton's use of the word in this way. 
 Grain, they say, has lost its notion of 'tint,' and in each of the 
 above-quoted passages is equivalent to 'texture.' This seems to me 
 less probable. 
 
 751. Sampler. A piece of needlework, such as Hermia and Helena 
 had made, Midsummer N. D. III. 2. 205. 
 
 Tease is a technicality drawn from the art of cloth-manufacture, 
 'teasing' being the process by which the surface of the cloth is smoothed 
 and roughnesses taken away. For this purpose a certain plant is 
 employed, Dipsacus FuHSnum or Clothier's Teasel, " with large heads 
 of flowers, which are embedded in stiff, hooked bracts. These heads 
 are set in frames and used in the dressing of broad-cloth, the hooks 
 catching up and removing all loose particles of wool, but giving way 
 when held fast by. the substance of the cloth. This is almost the only 
 process in the manufacture of cloth which it has been found impossible 
 to execute by machinery" Flowers of the Field, C. A. Johns, p. 314. 
 The use of the word illustrates Milton's habit of introducing minute 
 pieces of special knowledge, a habit which in P. L. he frequently carries 
 too far. 
 
 Huswife's. Said contemptuously. H r usivife= housewife, just as 
 husband = houseband, where band represents a present participle = 
 'dwelling in.' Huswife was shortened to hussy, with a change in the 
 meaning. Cf. Cotgrave: "Coquette: A fisking or fliperous minx. ..a 
 tailing housewife;" and Boyer: "Jfuswi/e; on se sertquelque fois de ce 
 mot avec mepris, et alors c'est une espece d'injure qui veut dire salope, 
 ou petite impertinente. Mais dans ce sens on ecrit ordinairement 
 Hussy" In Shakespeare the quartos give the form huswife, not house- 
 wife, except in two passages in Othello; and the same holds good of the 
 folios, save for three instances. Cf. also Sylvester, "In Hus-wife's Yse, 
 or holy exercise," Grosart's ed. II. 292. 
 
 752. Vermeil-tinctured lip. Cf. The Winter's Tale ill. 2. 206, 7: 
 
 "If you can bring 
 Tincture or lustre in her lips." 
 
 Tincture in Shakespeare always means ' colour ; ' cf. The Two Gentle- 
 men iv. 4. 1 60, "the lily tincture of her face." Vermeil applied to 
 the face belongs to the class of perpetual epithets. Cf. Endymion iv. : 
 
 "O Sorrow, 
 \Yhy dost borrow 
 The natural hue of health from vermeil lips ? "
 
 NOTES. 167 
 
 It is the kind of studied description in which Gray delighted : 
 "With vermeil-cheek and whisper soft 
 She woos the tardy spring," 
 
 Ode on Vicissitude. 
 
 Derived from vermiculus, 'a little worm,' among the explanations of 
 which quoted by Du Cange are: Lana rubra: vermicuhim> rubriem sive 
 coccineum : est enim vermiculus ex silvestribus frondibus, in quo lana 
 tingitur. In other words vermiculus was the cochineal insect, the dye 
 called coccum or granutn noticed above. 
 
 753. Love-darting eyes. The exact phrase is found in Sylvester's 
 Du Bartas : "Whoso beholds her sweet, love-darting Eyn," Grosart's 
 ed. I. p. 205. Pope borrowed it in the Elegy to the Memory of an 
 Unfortunate Lady : 
 
 "Cold is that breast which warm'd the world before, 
 And those love-darting eyes must roll no more." 
 
 There is a similar compound in Romeo and Juliet, in. i. 47, "death- 
 darting eye of cockatrice." 
 
 Tresses like the morn. A Homeric reminiscence : 
 
 dXX' ore 5rj rplrov Tj^ap u7r\6/ca/*os r^Xecr' 'Hws. 
 So Spenser : 
 
 "And fayre Aurora, with her rosie heare." 
 
 VergiFs Gnat, ix. 
 
 Tress is a favourite word with Milton; cf. P. L. iv. 305 307 
 (where he repeats part of a line (47) in Arcades), P. L. v. 10, Nativity 
 Ode 187. Derived through the French tresse and tresser from Low 
 Lat. trica, 'a plait,' itself the Gr. rpl\a, 'in three parts,' there being a 
 method of plaiting the hair thus. 
 
 754. 755. The couplet sounds like an echo of some words in the 
 Latin play mentioned in the Introduction: Quce mortaliurn sine 
 voluptate vita est? pana est. Plane, si sapere constituisti, fuge: illam- 
 carpe; et quern infinem benigna te natura produxerit cogita. 
 
 755. Vou are but young yet. A somewhat, personal reference, as the 
 Lady Alice Egerton to whom the words are addressed was only twelve 
 years old. It is worth noting that the whole passage from "List, lady," 
 737, down to 755, though extant in the Cambridge MS., is wanting in 
 the Bridgewater copy. This shows that the lines were not spoken at the 
 actual performance. 
 
 756 761, Said aside,
 
 1 68 COM US. 
 
 756. Cf. S. A. 407, "I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart." 
 
 757. Juggler. Fr. jongleur ; I,, joculator. The bad sense of 
 the word, 'charlatan,' 'cheat,' is invariable in Shakespeare; cf. too 
 Boyer's definition of mountebank, "a wandering and juggling physician, 
 a quack." 
 
 759. Pranked. "An old word," says Todd, "used by Chaucer, 
 Spenser, and Shakespeare for affectedly decorated." " Affectedly " might 
 be omitted. In Spenser and Shakespeare /ra='to dress,' 'deck,' 
 without any idea of affectation ; cf. Twelfth Night n. 4. 89: 
 
 "But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems, 
 That nature pranks her in, attracts my soul. 1 ' 
 
 A favourite word with Herrick in the Hesperides: e.g. 
 
 "Some prank them up with oaken leaves." 
 
 The Harvest Home. 
 
 Shelley has it : 
 
 "There grew broad flag flowers, purple prankt with white.'' 
 
 The Question. 
 
 The early dictionaries illustrate its use; cf. Cotgrave under Ajolier: "To 
 pranke, tricke up, set out, make fine." Still better Palsgrave: "I 
 pranke ones goune, I set the plyghtes ('folds,' see note on 1. 301) in 
 order, i.e. mets les plies d'une robe a poynt. Se yonder olde man, his 
 goune is pranked as if he were but a yonge man " Lesclarcissemcnt 
 de la langue Francoyse (1530). Pranker='aDK who dresses gaily,' 
 prankie = ' fine, gorgeous, ' Mayhew and Skeat. Allied to a now obsolete 
 word prink= t io trim,' which in turn was a nasalised form of prick. 
 Skeat mentions a Lowland Scotch verb preek 'to be spruce.' Prance 
 (of a horse) means 'to make a show.' Prttnk (in German) = ' pomp,' 
 'parade.' All cognate words. 
 
 760. Bolt. The idea is drawn from the preparation of flour... To 
 'bolt' (more correctly boulf) is to sift the meal from the bran. An 
 apposite illustration occurs in Coriolanus in. i. 320 3 : 
 
 " Consider this : he has been bred i' the wars 
 Since he could draw a sword, and is ill school'd 
 In bolted language; meal and bran together 
 He throws without distinction." 
 
 Having this sense, 'refining,' 'sifting,' the verb, by a natural metaphor, 
 was specially used of any argumentative process ; cf. Baret's Alvearie 
 (1580), "To boulte. Curiously to discurse and boulte out the truth
 
 NOTES. 169 
 
 in reasoning." Hence the legal expression boltings = " the private 
 arguing of law cases for practice" New English Dictionary. Dr 
 Murray quotes Stow's Survey, ix. ed. 1603, p. 79: "They frequent 
 readings, meetings, boltings, and other learned exercises." Milton in 
 the Animadversions tifon the Remonstrants' Defence (1641) refers to 
 his opponent as "this passing fine sophistical boulting-hutch," Prose 
 Works, Symmons' ed. i. p. 1 70. The present line therefore could be 
 paraphrased: "I hate to see Vice picking out her arguments with the 
 subtle skill of a lawyer." The derivation of bolt is as follows: Low Latin 
 burra =' coarse red cloth,' vestis cujusdam vilioris generis (Forcellini), 
 Surra (cf. note on bur, 1. 352) appears in O. F. as buire ; modern 
 F. bure=* rough cloth.' Thence came a verb bureter, afterwards cor- 
 rupted into buleter, I often displacing r (e.g. pclerin from peregrinus). 
 fiuleter passed into bulter, and from the latter to English boulte (which 
 Palsgrave writes in the Lesclarcissemenf) was an easy transition. The 
 original meaning, then, was 'to sift through red cloth.' A bureau is a 
 desk covered with cloth of this kind ; and the colour, red, reminds us 
 that the root of all the above-mentioned words is seen in Gk wvp. 
 
 764. Cateress. We might compare a passage in Nash's Pierce 
 Penilesse: "They drawe out a dinner with sallets...and make Madonna 
 Nature their best caterer." Gate has an interesting history. It should be 
 acate "things purchased ; such provisions as were not made in the house, 
 but had to be purchased fresh when wanted, as meat, fish etc. Hence 
 all provisions except the home produce of the baker and brewer ; foreign 
 viands, dainties, delicacies" New English Dictionary. The original 
 English form varied between achate (reflecting the influence of O. F., 
 xnth century, achat), and acate (Norman acaf). Then, roughly 
 speaking, the words split up; achate 'purchase :' acale= f provision.' 
 The latter is common prior to xvnth century. Dr Murray quotes 
 Household Ord. of Henry VIII., 1526: "To make provision of fresh 
 acate, as well for flesh as fish." So Chaucer, Prologue 573, Spenser, 
 Faerie Queene II. 9. 31, and Ben Jonson in the Sad Shepherd, I. 3: 
 
 "Bread, wine, acates, fowl, feather, fish or fin." 
 
 Acatcs also appeared in the aphetised form cates which Shakespeare 
 always employs. Of this shortened form the New Dictionary does not 
 give any instance earlier than 1461; cf. Ord.- Royal Household, 1461 
 1483, "Upon frydaye is made paymente for all manner of fresh 
 cates." Derived from Low Latin acceptare, frequentative of accipere, 
 meaning ' to buy.' Cf. modern F. acheter, achat, etc. Du Cange
 
 I/O COMUS. 
 
 s. v. acceptare has : Hinc nostri voceni Acheter, sen nt Picardi 
 efferunt, acater, vel ut est apud Froissartem achapter, pro emere hause- 
 runt. "Aphesis," it may be explained, is the convenient term 
 invented by Dr Murray for the numerous cases where an initial letter or 
 syllable has been lost. Words abbreviated in this way are called 
 "aphetic." Usually they are of French origin (Skeat, Principles, p. 
 385); but among purely English words cf. dffiun adown; Jone= 
 alone. 
 
 767. The verse has a kind of verbal irony, retorting Comus' own 
 words, "in a pet of temperance," 1. 721. The magician had dismissed 
 severe sobriety of living as a mere ill-considered freak : she replies that 
 it is a holy beneficent power, an aspect of ffutppoatvt]. Cf. // Pen. 46, 
 "Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet; " and the still more significant 
 lines in the sixth Elegy, 55 78, translated, as follows, by Cowper: 
 
 ' ' But they, who demi-gods and heroes praise, 
 And feats performed in Jove's more youthful days, 
 Who now the counsels of high heaven explore, 
 Now shades, that echo the Cerberean roar, 
 Simply let these, like him of Samos, live, 
 Let herbs to them a bloodless banquet give ; 
 In beechen goblets let their beverage shine, 
 Cool from the crystal spring their sober wine. 
 Their youth should pass in innocence secure 
 From stain licentious, and in manners pure, 
 Pure as the priest, when robed in white he stands, 
 The fresh lustration ready in his hands. 
 Thus Linus lived, and thus, as poets write, 
 Tiresias, wiser for his loss of sight. 
 Thus exiled Chalcas, thus the bard of Thrace, 
 Melodious tamer of the savage race. 
 Thus trained by temperance, Homer led of yore 
 His chief of Ithaca from shore to shore, 
 Through magic Circe's monster-peopled reign 
 And shoals insidious with the siren train; 
 And through the realms, where grizzly spectres dwell, 
 Whose tribes he fettered in a gory spell ; 
 For these are sacred bards, and from above 
 Drink large infusions from the mind of Jove." 
 
 These lines bear directly on the purport of Comus ; see the Introduction.
 
 NOTES. i;i 
 
 Temperance, as we might expect, is a word of very frequent occurrence 
 in Milton's writings. 
 
 767 774. The argument of Gloster in Lear IV. i. 73, 74, that 
 
 " Distribution should undo excess, 
 And each man have enough." 
 
 The language of the two passages is so similar as to lead us to think 
 that Milton was intentionally expanding Shakespeare's words. 
 
 773. Unsuperfluotis, i.e. not super-abundant. Now sttperfluous = 
 'unnecessary,' a derived meaning, from the original sense 'excessive.' 
 The latter is common in early E. Hall speaking of Richard III., 
 sub anno 1483, says: "Whether it was with the melencoly, and anger 
 that he toke with the Frenche King,... or were it by any superfluous 
 surfet (to the whiche he was muche geuen) he sodainely fell sicke" 
 (Chronicle, p. 339). In Lear IV. i. 70 (cf. last note), the rich man 
 is "superfluous," not because there is no place for him in the world, 
 but because he has too much to live on. 
 
 774. Whit. "The h is misplaced; whit is put for voihl, the same 
 as wight, a person, also a thing, bit" Skeat. 
 
 777. Gorgeous ; from Fr. gorge (Lat. gtirges, and Low Lat. gorgia, 
 'throat'). To puff out the throat was regarded as a mark of pride; 
 cf. modern use of se retigorger= ' to bridle up.' Hence gorgeous = 
 'showy.' These verses (776 7) are partially repeated in P. R. 114: 
 
 "Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts." 
 
 779 806. Wanting in the Cambridge and Bridgewater MSS. 
 Milton added the verses to bring out the moral of the Masque. They 
 come more naturally from the mature writer of 1645 than the young 
 poet of 1634. 
 
 782. "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman 
 clothed with the sun." Revelation xii. i. The editors quote a parallel 
 phrase from Petrarch. In line 425 Milton celebrates "the sacred rays 
 of chastity." We have the compound sun-bright in P. L. VI. 100. 
 
 784. It needs little critical insight to see that from here to the end 
 of the speech the speaker is not the young girl, but Milton himself; 
 and the best commentary on the language and philosophy of the passage 
 is contained in the following extract from the prose-tract, An Apology 
 for Smeclymnus: "Thus from the laureat fraternity of poets, riper 
 years and the ceaseless round of study and reading led me to the shady 
 spaces of philosophy ; but chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and
 
 1/2 COMUS. 
 
 his equal Xenophon : where, if I should tell ye what I learnt of chastity 
 and love, I mean that which is truly so, whose charming cup is only 
 virtue, which she bears in her hand to those who are worthy; (the rest 
 are cheated with a thick intoxicating potion, which a certain sorceress, 
 the abuser of love's nature, carries about;) and how the first and 
 chiefest office of love begins and ends in the soul, producing those 
 happy twins of her divine generation, knowledge and virtue : with 
 such abstracted sublimities as these, it might be worth your listening, 
 readers." Prose Works, vol. I. p. 225, Symmons' ed. So in the 
 same treatise: "Having had the doctrine of Holy Scripture, unfolding 
 those chaste and high mysteries, with timeliest care infused, that the 
 body is for the Lord." \Ve can scarcely resist the impression that 
 Milton in writing these sentences recollected his earlier vindication of 
 the "serious doctrine of Virginity." Apart from verbal coincidences, 
 the "charming cup" of love at once recalls "the pleasing poison" (526) 
 of Comus. 
 
 784. Thou hast nor ear. Cf. 1. 997 : "List mortals, if your ears be 
 true." Comus cannot hear, or hearing will not understand, her praise 
 of purity, just as in Arcades, 72, 73, "the gross unpurged ear" of 
 humanity may not catch the echo of music from the spheres. 
 
 785. No'ion, i.e. idea, or perhaps doctrine. Milton uses the word 
 in only two other passages, viz. P. L. vni. 187, where the sense is 
 'fancy' ("notions vain"), and P. L. vil. 179: 
 
 "So told as earthly notion can receive." 
 
 In the latter notion = ( mind' or 'intellectual power,' its invariable 
 meaning in Shakespeare. Cf. Lear i. 4. 248, "his notion weakens." 
 
 Mystery, i.e. less the mystery of modern E. than ^vcrT-qpiov as used 
 by St Paul; e.g. in i Cor. ii. 2. 7 : "But we speak the wisdom of God 
 in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. " 
 
 788. Art worthy, i.e. deserve, in a bad sense. A rare use, but cf. 
 Winter's Tale n. 3. 109, "worthy to be hanged." 
 
 793. Uncontrolled, i.e. worth left to speak for itself, not set off 
 by fine rhetoric. Possibly, however, zmcontrolled= ' uncontrollable ; ' 
 that is, 'irresistible.' Cf. Lucrece 645 : 
 
 "My uncontrolled tide 
 Turns not." 
 For the uncertain force of the participial termination see 1. 349. 
 
 794. Rapt. This might be written rapped ; it is the past part, of 
 ra^>'to seize hastily,' 'snatch;' cf. Cymbelint I. 6. 50, fr;
 
 NOTES. 173 
 
 "What, dear sir, 
 Thus raps you ?" 
 
 i.e. what transports you? Popular etymology (and apparently Milton 
 himself, P. L. nr. 522) connected it with Latin rapio, and conceived 
 that raptraptus; quite erroneously, since rap is a Teutonic word. 
 Cf. the phrase rape and renne, 'to seize and plunder,' May hew and 
 Skeat, s. v. rapen. The word has experienced another vicissitude : 
 we sometimes meet with wrapt = ' enraptured,' i.e. as a variant form 
 of rapt. Cf. Beattie's Minstrel, I, 
 
 "Lo! where the stripling, wrapt in wonder, roves;" 
 and Shelley's Prometheus, in. 3, "Painting, Sculpture and wrapt 
 Poesy." The introduction of the w seems to have been arbitrary: "in 
 the sixteenth century there was a prodigal disposition to put w before 
 words beginning with an If or with an R." Earle, p. 159. This was 
 due to false analogy. There were a number of words that commenced 
 with ivh and wr, such as "wheat, who, whither, write, wrong, etc. ; 
 and it was to bring other words into conformity with these groups that 
 w was prefixed where it had no business to be. For a conspicuous 
 instance we may take what = hot, which Spenser has several times, 
 e.g. F. Q. n. 9. 29. Ralegh's contemporaries now and then wrote 
 the name Wrawly. Earle treats iurapt = rapt as an example of the same 
 tendency. 
 
 797. Brute. 'Dull,' 'unsympathising:' the bruta tellus of Horace, 
 Odes I. xxxiv. 9. Cf. Tennyson's 
 
 "The brute earth lightens to the sky." 
 
 In Memoriatn, cxxvn. 
 
 Nerves, i.e. sinews (L. nervi), its usual sense in Shakespeare. 
 
 800 806. Spoken aside; but see note on 1. 779. 
 
 800. Cf. i Henry VI. iv. i. 42: "He fables not; I hear the 
 enemy." 
 
 802, i.e. though I am not mortal. 
 
 803 806. Referring to the war between the gods and the Titans. 
 The wrath of Jove l ft\& wrathful Jove' is one of those abstract 
 phrases of which Milton is fond. A curious example occurs in /*. Z. 
 
 11.9636: 
 
 "And by them stood 
 
 Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
 Of Demogorgon ; " 
 i.e. Demogorgon himself.
 
 COMUS. 
 
 805. / must dissemble. This hackneyed phrase occurs first in 
 Marlowe's Jew of Malta, IV.; cf. also 2 Henry VI. v. i. 13. 
 
 807. Mere. Perhaps in the sense 'only;' but mere (from merus) 
 in Shakespeare (and later) often signified 'absolute,' 'complete;' 
 cf. Merchant of Venice III. 2. 265, "engaged my friend to his mere 
 enemy." So merely = 'entirely,' 'quite :' e.g. in Hamlet I. i. 137 : 
 
 "Tis an unweeded garden, 
 
 That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature 
 Possess it merely." 
 
 808. Cf. Coriolanus i. 10. 26, "against the hospitable Canon,'' 
 i.e. against the rule of hospitality. So the same play, in. i. 90. 
 Canon Laws is said in reference to the technical phrase Canon Law, 
 i.e. "ecclesiastical law as laid down in decrees of the pope and 
 statutes of Councils" (New English Dictionary). Formerly the words 
 were reversed, the French droit canon appearing in English as Law 
 Canon. At times the expression was abbreviated to The Canon. 
 Warton notes that Milton in several of his prose tracts uses Canon 
 in contemptuous combinations: e.g. "Canon-iniquity; ' "an insulting 
 and only Canon-wise prelate." To the Puritan poet anything suggestive 
 of Roman Catholicism was distasteful. The study of Canon Law was 
 forbidden at Cambridge in 1538. From KO.V&V = rule. 
 
 Foundation : spoken as though Comus represented some religious 
 institution. "God save the foundation" is Dogbeny's petition, Much 
 Ado v. i. 327, that being the form of thanks usual among those who 
 received alms at the door of a monastery. 
 
 809. 810. Suggested, possibly, by Sylvester : 
 
 " the clutted mud, 
 
 Sunk down in Lees, Earth's Melancholy showes, 
 The pale thin humour." Grosart, I. 28. 
 
 Cf. P. L. XI. 54345. Todd quotes Nash's Terrors of the Xight, 
 1594: "The grossest part of our blood is the melancholy humour; 
 which, in the spleen congealed (whose office it is to displace it), 
 with his thick-steaming fenny vapours casts a mist over the spirit... 
 It (melancholy) sinketh down to the bottom like the lees of the wine, 
 corrupteth all the blood, and is the cause of lunacy." Grosart's ed. in 
 Huth Library, in. 232. There is a similar allusion in S. A. 600 to 
 the old physiology, "which accounted for diseases and states of the 
 body and mind generally by the action of various kinds of 'humours,'"
 
 NOTES. 175 
 
 Masson, in. 329. The latter play a great part in Burton's Anatomy of 
 Melancholy. 
 
 809. Lees, i.e. dregs; Fr. lie. Du Cange s. v. amurca has: Gallis 
 ~Lie...Alit liam, id est, faces vini calcinati. But this derivation of lie 
 from Low Lat. Ha is very doubtful. Brachet does not accept it. 
 
 The stage directions in the Cambridge and Bridgewater MSS. 
 represent the Attendant Spirit (whom they call Damon) as coming 
 in with the brothers. His entrance after the tumult has subsided seems 
 more effective especially in view of the following speech which 
 blames them for not carrying out the onslaught in accordance with his 
 directions. 
 
 814. If the "false enchanter" had not escaped, there would have 
 been no place for Sabrina as the dea ex machina. 
 
 815. Cf. 1. 653, "but seize his wand." 
 
 816,817- Rd reversed, etc. An old theory: Warton quotes Ovid, 
 Metamorphoses xiv. 299 301 : 
 
 Spargimur innocua: succis melioribns herba, 
 Percutimurque caput converse verbere virga, 
 Verbaque dicuntur dictis contraria verbis. 
 
 Milton may have remembered the scene in the Faerie Queene, in. 12. 
 30 42, in which Britomart effects the release of Amoret. In stanza 36 
 the magician is forced 
 
 "to overlooke 
 Those cursed leaves, his charmes back to reverse." 
 
 We may, perhaps, compare the old superstition that witches said 
 their orisons backwards. Addison mentions "a little epigram called 
 the Witches' Prayer, that fell into verse when it was read either back- 
 ward or forward, excepting only that it cursed one way and blessed the 
 other" Spectator, no. 61, on False Wit. 
 
 822. Melibaus. Intended, conceivably, as a somewhat sarcastic 
 allusion to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Chronicler whose account Milton 
 followed (see note on line 841), but who was not the "soothest," 
 i.e. most trustworthy, of men. If, as Masson suggests, the reference 
 was meant it would be parallel to Spenser's mentioning Chaucer under 
 the pastoral pseudonym Tityrus. See The Shepheards Calender, 
 Februarie, 93, 94, with the Glosse ; and compare Milton's Mansus 
 34, where again Tityrus stands for the author of the Canterbury Tales. 
 
 823. Soothest. 'Truest.' A. S. sotT=' true;' whence forsooth, i.e. 
 for a truth, soothsay, to tell the truth. Observe the double o. It was
 
 176 COM us. 
 
 meant to convey the sound of the A. S. long o ; that is, of oa in a 
 word like boat. Up till the middle of the xvth century sooth had the 
 sound which we should give to soathe. After 1550, or thereabout, 
 the oa sound shifted to the modern ft sound, but the spelling remained 
 unchanged. This applies to many words cool, gloom, doom, tool, 
 moon, etc. They were written with a double o, sometimes also with a 
 single o ; and in either case the sound intended, and in pronunciation 
 heard, was not as now long u, but long o. This alteration was only 
 part of a general rearrangement of the sound-equivalents for the long 
 A. S. vowels. See Skeat, Principles, pp. 49 et seq. An attempt to 
 make soothest=' sweetest* was checked by Professor Skeat, Notes and 
 Queries, 6th Series, vol. III. p. 452. Sole was a recognised Middle E. 
 form of sweet; but it could not have made its superlative with th. 
 
 825. Severn. Chosen out of compliment to the audience. Milton 
 had previously hinted at the legend, Vacation Exercise 96 : 
 
 "Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death;" 
 
 where there is an echo of r Hen. IV. I. 3. 103. 
 
 826 841. The story of Sabrina had been previously told, with 
 sundry variations, by several poets: by Drayton in the Polyolbion, 
 Sixth Song, by Warner in Albion's England, and Spenser in the Faerie 
 Qtteene, II. 10. 14 19. The first presentment, however, of the legend 
 occurs in the Latin History of the Britons by Geoffrey of Monmouth 
 (made Bishop of St Asaph in 1152). This Milton reproduced in his 
 own prose History of England; and his version may be given as 
 conveniently explaining the references in our text. He relates how 
 Brutus landed in Albion, built Troja Nova (afterwards called 
 Trinovantum= London), and at his death left his territory to Locrine, 
 Albanact, and Camber, his three sons. Locrine later on defeated 
 Humber, king of the Huns, who had invaded Britain, and, says Milton, 
 "among the spoils of his camp and navy were found certain young 
 maids, and Estrildis above the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king 
 in Germany ; whom Locrine, though before contracted to the daughter 
 of Corineus [a Trojan warrior who accompanying Brutus to Britain had 
 received Cornwall as his share of the conquered territory], resolves to 
 marry. But being forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority 
 and power he feared, Guendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but 
 
 in secret loves the other: and had by her a daughter equally fair, 
 
 whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death 
 of Corineus, divorcing Guendolen, he makes Estrildis now his queen.
 
 NOTES. 1/7 
 
 Guendolen, all in rage, departs into Cornwall, where Madan, the son 
 she had by Locrine, was hitherto brought up by Corineus his grand- 
 father. And gathering an army of her father's friends and subjects, 
 gives battle to her husband by the river Sture (i.e. Stour) ; wherein 
 Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But not so ends the fury of 
 Guendolen : for Estrildis, and her daughter Sabra, she throws into a 
 river : and, to leave a monument of revenge, proclaims that the stream 
 be thenceforth called after the damsel's name; which, by length of 
 time, is changed now to Sabrina, or Severn" Prose Works, 
 Symmons' ed. vol. IV. pp. n, 12. This account, it will be noted, 
 differs in one detail from that adopted in Connis. Milton had con- 
 templated making the early history of Britain, more especially the 
 Arthurian cycle of romance, the theme of his great work. See the 
 Introduction. 
 
 830. Step-dame. Used rather loosely, as may be gathered from 
 the previous note. Shakespeare preferred step-dame to step-mother, 
 the latter occurring only once, Cymbeline I. r. 71. Step is from A. S. 
 steop= 'orphaned.' The oldest compound is ste6pcild= ' step-child. ' 
 We find also steop-bearn= 'step-bairn.' As ste6p means 'orphaned,' 
 'deprived of parents,' these compounds seem more correctly formed 
 than step-father, step-mother. Compare the German use of stief in 
 stief -mutter, stief-kind, etc. 
 
 833. In the Sad Shepherd, I. i, the mourning lover ^Eglamour, 
 lamenting for the lost Earine whom he supposes to have been drowned 
 in the Trent, denounces the river-maidens: 
 
 "Those nymphs, 
 Those treacherous nymphs, pulled in Earine." 
 
 834. Pearled wrists. Herrick in his Teares to Thamasis speaks 
 of the "pure and silver-wristed Naiads," Carew Hazlitt's ed. p. 339. 
 The description here illustrates the conventionalism into which poetry 
 may fall, pearl being so frequently associated with the deities of river 
 or sea. Thus a stage direction in Ben Jonson's Masque of Blackness 
 tells us that the nymphs wore on "the front, ear, necks and wrists, 
 ornament of the most choice and orient pearl." Again, in the same 
 entertainment, the river-god Niger had "his front, neck and wrists 
 adorned with pearl. " Doubtless when Sabrina appeared later on with 
 her company of water-nymphs the audience could appreciate with 
 their own eyes the picturesqueness and truth of the present verse. 
 Pearls are found in many parts of Great Britain ; particularly in some 
 
 V. 13
 
 178 COMUS. 
 
 of the Welsh rivers, e.g. the Esk and Conway. (Streeter, Precious 
 Stones, part III. pp. 23, 24.) 
 
 836. Lank, i.e. drooping. A correct use, as probably the original 
 meaning of A. S. hlanc was ' bending.' The usual sense ' slim,' 
 'slender,' came later. Lank has lost the A; cf. ladder from A. S. 
 hinder. An initial hi or hn or hr is common in A. S. ; and the 
 // always disappears. 
 
 838. I.e. baths into which nectar had been poured and in which 
 asphodel flowers were floating. Cf. S. A. 1726 -28: 
 
 "and from the stream, 
 
 With lavers pure and cleansing herbs, wash off 
 The clotted gore." 
 
 Giles Fletcher describes water falling from the roof of the Hall of 
 Vaine Delight : 
 
 "it leapt with speede, 
 And in the rosie laver seem'd to bleed," 
 
 Christ's Victorie on Earth 48, Grosart's ed. p. 154. Laver must have 
 been in current use, as it occurs several times in the Authorised 
 Version; e.g. Exodus xxx. 18; xxxv. 16. 
 
 Nectared often has much the same force as ambrosial, i.e. fragrant. 
 Cf. the present poem, 479, and the ode on the Death of a Fair 
 Infant, 49: 
 
 "Amongst us here below to hide thy nectared head." 
 
 839. Clearly a reminiscence of Hamlet \. 5. 63, 64: 
 
 "And in the porches of mine ears did pour 
 The leperous distilment." 
 
 840. The editors find here, perhaps fancifully, certain echoes 
 of the Iliad; e.g. of book XIX. 38, where Thetis anoints the dead 
 body of Patroclus; and book xxm. 186, where Aphrodite performs 
 the same office : 
 
 po86ei>rt 5e xP^ 
 
 For ambrosial see line 1 6, note. 
 
 841. I.e. a quick change to immortality; cf. "mortal change," 
 1. 10. 
 
 845. Urchin blasts. Masson says, "evil strokes from the hedge- 
 hog." Certainly urchin usually signifies a hedgehog, and hedgehogs 
 were considered ill-omened and malefic; cf. Tempest i. 2. 326, and II.
 
 NOTES. 179 
 
 2. 5, 10. But from the belief that evil spirits sometimes took the 
 form of a hedgehog, urchin came to mean a sprite or wicked elf. So 
 Shakespeare uses the word in Merry Wives, IV. 4. 49 : " Like urchins, 
 ouphs and fairies;" and many other illustrations might be quoted. 
 Reginald Scot in the Discouerie of Witchcraft (a storehouse of informa- 
 tion on such subjects) enumerates the most common evil agencies: "Bull 
 beggers, spirits, witches, vrchens, elues, hags, fairies," etc., book vn. 
 chap. xv. p. 153, ed. 1584. Cf., again, Harsnet's Declaration of Popish 
 Impostures (the book on which Shakespeare drew in writing King 
 Lear), p. 14 (ed. 1603): "and further, these ill-mannered urchins did 
 swarme about the priests." Urchin blasts therefore must = ' blasts (upon 
 corn, etc.) sent by bad fairies.' From r^z = 'imp' comes, naturally 
 enough, the modern urchin='a. small boy." Derived from O. F. 
 irefon; cf. modern herisson, Lat. ericius, Gk. x~QP- The central idea is 
 'bristliness. ' 
 
 Ill-luck signs. For the typical tricks played by evil powers see 
 Z' Al. 104 112, and Midsummer N. D. n. i. 32 56, where Puck 
 is described as a "shrewd and knavish sprite." Cf. also Edgar's 
 account in Lear, ill. 4. 123, of the "foul fiend" who "mildews the 
 white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of the earth." 
 
 846. Shrewd, Middle E. schrewed (the past participle of schrewen 
 ' to curse'), meant originally 'bad.' Thus Wycliffe translated 
 KOJ. TTO.V <pciv\ov IT pay pa. in James iii. 16 by "al schrewed werk." 
 This sense is frequent in Shakespeare: e.g. "shrewd days and nights" 
 = ' times of ill fortune,' As You Like It V. 4. 179: "foul shrewd news" 
 = ' bad news,' King John \. 4. 14: and "a shrewd turn," where we 
 should say "a bad turn," occurs in Alt's Well, in. 5. 71, and elsewhere. 
 Then came the meaning 'malicious' (which obviously suits the present 
 passage); especially 'malicious of tongue.' Hermia, when angry, was 
 "keen and shrewd," in fact shrewish, Midsummer N. D. in. 2. 323. 
 Lastly there is the sense to which the word is now limited ' cunning, ' 
 'clever:' "he has a shrewd wit," Troihts and Cressida, I. 2. 206. 
 
 849. Carol. The noun carol (from O. F. carole) may be a cor- 
 ruption of Lat. corolla, through Low Lat. carola, the connection in 
 sense being (i) a chain, as of pearls, (ii) a round dance, (iii) a song 
 accompanying the dance, (iv) any song. Thus the Catholicon Anglicum 
 (1483) translates caralle by chorus and corea ; see Way's note on the 
 Promptorium, s. v. caral. 
 
 850. A recognised method in pastoral verse of showing gratitude. 
 In Phineas Fletcher's days the Cam received these honours : 
 
 12 2
 
 i8o COMUS. 
 
 "Ungrateful Chame! how oft thy Thyrsis crown 'd 
 With songs and garlands thy obscurer head." 
 
 Piscatorie Eclogues, 11. 8. 
 Cf. Spenser's Prothalamion, stanza 5. 
 
 851. Cf. Lye. 144, "The white pink, and the pansy freaked with 
 jet." In Gerard's Herbal the pansy (from Fr. pensee, cf. Hamlet iv. 5. 
 178) is described as "in English Harts Ease...Liue in Idlenes (cf. 
 Midsummer N. D. li. i. 168), Cull me to you, and three faces in 
 a hood," p. 705, ed. 1597. The root of pink is seen in French pit/ner, 
 the flower being so-called from its peaked edges. 
 
 Daffodil is a corruption of asphodel, dcr<f>6df\os (a species of nar- 
 cissus). The Middle E. form was affodille from Low Lat. affodillus. 
 Cotgrave writes, " th" affodill, or asphrodill flower." How the d was 
 inserted is not certain; possibly through French jteur d'affrodille, 
 translated "daffodil-flower." (Skeat.) We find the form daffodilly in 
 Lye. 150, and the Shepheards Cal., April ; also daffadowndilly in the 
 latter poem. Shakespeare celebrates the flower in some beautiful lines, 
 Winter's Tale iv. 4. 118 120, and Gerard enumerates, pp. 108 116, 
 such varieties as were then known. 
 
 852. Really what follows was an addition by Milton to the 
 account of the Chronicler. It may have been due to Drayton. In the 
 Fifth Song of the Polyolbion we find that Sabrina was 
 
 "by Nereus taught, the most profoundly wise, 
 That learned her the skill of hidden prophecies, 
 By Thetis' special care." 
 See note on 1. 871. 
 
 853. The clasping charm. Cf. Drayton, "gloomy magicks, and 
 benumbing charms," The Barons Wars n. 12. Campion in the 
 Masque at the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset (1613) appeals to the 
 Good Genius of the piece: 
 
 "She, only she, 
 Can all knotted spells untie;" 
 
 the friendly providence in that case being the Queen, who was present, 
 Bullen's Campion, p. 218. The professional witch had a book of 
 spells which she studied in secret : 
 
 "reading by the glowworm's light 
 The baneful schedule of her nocent charms, 
 And binding characters" The Sad Shepherd II. i. 
 
 Song: i.e. a solo, sung by Lawes and continued down to line 866.
 
 NOTES. I Si 
 
 How the rest of the passage was treated from 867 to 889 is not 
 certain. See note on 867. 
 
 We have commented elsewhere (Introduction) upon Johnson's 
 extraordinary criticism of the lyrics in Camus. As an antidote we may 
 take Mr Saintsbury's remarks: "It is impossible to single out passages 
 (i.e. from Comtis), for the whole is golden. The entering address of 
 Comus, the song 'Sweet Echo,' the descriptive speech of the Spirit, 
 and the magnificent eulogy of the 'sun-clad power of chastity,' would 
 be the most beautiful things where all is beautiful, if the unapproach- 
 able 'Sabrina fair' did not come later, and were not sustained before 
 and after, for nearly two hundred lines of pure nectar." Elizabethan 
 Literature, pp. 321, 322. 
 
 861. Translucent. Milton prefers this form; cf. S. A. 548: 
 
 "Against the eastern ray translucent, pure." 
 
 Ben Jonson writes tralucent ; cf. the Masque of Beauty, "In these 
 squares, the sixteen Masquers were placed ; behind them in the centre 
 of the throne was a tralucent pillar." 
 
 862. Ben Jonson introduces the river-god Thames in Part of the 
 King's Entertainment with "a crown of sedge and reed upon his 
 head, mixed with water-lilies." No doubt, when Sabrina later on 
 appears she wears a chaplet of lilies and other water-flowers. In 
 such matters the Masque-writers followed stage-traditions. 
 
 863. Amber-dropping. Some editors prosaically suggest that there 
 is a reference here to ambergris ; cf. S. A. 720, "an amber scent of 
 odorous perfume." Masson more happily explains amber as an allusion 
 to the hair of the goddess through which waterdrops are trickling. 
 This seems correct.. Sabrina would have yellow locks to symbolise the 
 colour of the river-waves. Compare P. L. in. 359, where the River 
 of Bliss 
 
 "Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;" 
 
 and P. R. 288. So Gray in the Progress of Poesy, II. 3, speaks 
 of "Mseander's amber waves." The epithet, a favourite with Mil- 
 ton, reminds us of Horace's vidimus Jlavum Tiberim ; or Matthew 
 
 Arnold's 
 
 "Great Oxus stream, 
 
 The yellow Oxus, by whose brink I die." 
 
 Sohrab and Rustum, 
 
 In these cases the adjective is picturesque because it adds to the colour
 
 1 82 COMUS. 
 
 of the narrative ; and may be literally true, because the tint of the river 
 is often affected by the soil of the land through which it flows. 
 
 867. Milton intended the solo to end with line 866, inserting 
 before line 867 the direction To be said ; i.e. Lawes was to recite the 
 remaining verses down to 889. The Bridgewater MS. changed the 
 direction The Verse to sing or not; and in the margin showed how 
 the lines might be distributed between Lawes and the two brothers, each 
 taking a part in succession. The passage, that is, would be rendered 
 in the musical recitative for which the composer was famous ; cf. the 
 direction stilo recitative prefixed to a lyric passage in Jonson's Vision 
 of Delight. This, besides being very effective in a piece of invocation 
 interspersed with so many proper names, would afford an agreeable con- 
 trast to the songs that preceded and followed. No doubt, every detail 
 of this kind was carefully debated, the decision resting with Lawes. 
 
 868. Great Oceanus. The god of the river Oceanus which was 
 supposed to encircle the world. The epithets applied to him in the 
 Iliad emphasise his power; cf. Iliad xiv. 245 ("father of all streams"); 
 the same book, 311; and XXI. 195 6 ("the great strength of deep- 
 flowing Ocean, from whom all rivers flow"). Vergil describes him as 
 patretn rerum, G. IV. 382. His palace was vaguely placed in the 
 west, Iliad xiv. 303. 
 
 869. Earth-shaking. In Homer, Poseidon is Kitnjr^p 70?, ewocri- 
 ycuos, fvoffi-xJBuv, "either because he is the lord of earthquakes or simply 
 because the waves of the sea are for ever beating the land " Leaf, 
 Iliad IX. 183. Neptune being identified in the Roman poets with 
 the Greek deity, "all the attributes of the latter are transferred to the 
 former" Smith's Dictionary of Classical Mythology. 
 
 870. Tethys. Wife of Oceanus ; mentioned once only in Homer, 
 Iliad xiv. 201. Tethys Festival was the title of a Masque by Daniel 
 (1610) in which the queen took part. Nichol's Progresses of James I. 
 II. 346 58; Warton's History of English Poetry, ill. 319. 
 
 87 1 . Nereus'' wrinkled look. Nereus was the father of the Nereids, 
 dwelling at the bottom of the sea. Leaf remarks, Iliad \. 358, 
 that he appears in Homer as Trarijp ytpwv and aXtoj ytpuv (the latter 
 being a title of Proteus), but is never mentioned by name. His empire 
 was the ^Egean. "The epithets given him by the poets refer to his 
 old age, his kindliness, and his trustworthy knowledge of the future "- 
 Diet, of Mythology. Cf. Vergil's grandtzvus Nereus, G. IV. 392. 
 There is special appropriateness in the twofold appeal to Thetis and 
 Nereus ; see note on lines 852, 53.
 
 NOTES. 183 
 
 872. The "Carpathian wizard" is Proteus, "the prophetic old 
 man of the sea;" &\ios ytpwv, like Nereus. He is called Egyptian in 
 the fourth book of the Odyssey, 1. 385, in accordance with the legend 
 which assigned the isle of Pharos in Egypt as his dwelling-place. In 
 other stories, however, the island of Carpathos (between Crete and 
 Rhodes) is his home : hence Vergil's 
 
 Est in Carpathio Ncptuni gurgite votes, 
 Caruleus Proteus. G. iv. 387, 88. 
 
 The locus classicus on Proteus is the speech of Menelaus to Telemachus, 
 in which he reports how Eidothea, daughter of Proteus, described 
 the movements of the old man, and how afterwards that account was 
 verified when Menelaus and his companions found "the ancient one 
 of the magic arts" asleep, Odyssey IV. 350 570. Note the number 
 of allusions crowded into the line. Proteus is a " wizard " partly 
 because, like most marine deities, he had the power of foreseeing ; cf. 
 Homer's epithet for him, vrj/j-epr^, and Vergil's 
 
 Novit namque omnia vates, 
 Qtite sint, quce fuerint, qua max ventura trahanlur. 
 
 G. iv. 392, 3; 
 
 partly because he could alter his shape. In this latter accomplishment 
 he was not singular: "A world-old fancy, that has penetrated all 
 nations, finds in sorcery the power to hide or change one's figure " 
 (Grimm). This superstition has given us our word Protean= 'shifting,' 
 'changeable;' and Milton happily refers to it in describing the pro- 
 cesses of chemistry, P. L. III. 603 605. Again, Proteus bears a 
 "hook," in virtue of his office of shepherd to the flocks (seals) of 
 Poseidon ; see the long passage in Odyssey iv. already mentioned 
 (350 570); Georgic iv. 390 et seq. ; Horace, Odes I. 2. 7. Finally, 
 Proteus appears not infrequently in Masques; he is "the gray prophet 
 of the sea" in Ben Jonson's Masque of Beatify. 
 
 873. Scaly Triton's winding shell. Scaly, because Triton (some- 
 what like the figure of Sin in P. L. n. 651) dcsinit in piscem. Ben 
 Jonson introduces six Tritons in the Masque of Blackness, "their upper 
 parts human, save that their hairs were blue (see note on line 29), 
 as partaking of the sea-colour: their desinent parts fish." 
 
 Winding= 'crooked,' 'curling;' cf. Wordsworth's line, 
 
 "Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn," 
 from the sonnet that begins "The world is too much with us." But
 
 1 84 COMUS. 
 
 winding might also mean 'sounding;' as we speak of 'winding a 
 horn.' So Keats must have taken the line; cf. "shell-winding Triton," 
 Endymion n. Milton has a similar reference in the Latin poem 
 Naturam non pati Senium, 57, 58: 
 
 rauca circwnstrepit aquora concha 
 Oceani Tubicen ; 
 
 rendered by Cowper 
 
 "o'er the deep is heard 
 The hoarse alarm of Triton's sounding shell." 
 
 874. Soothsaying Glaucus* spell, Glaucus was the Boeotian fisher- 
 man who eating of a certain herb became metamorphosed into a sea-god. 
 He, too, possessed the gift of prophesying ; hence soothsaying and spell. 
 He was associated with the expedition of the Argonauts, having built 
 the ship Argo. Vergil mentions him by name, G. I. 437. Ovid is 
 more detailed, Metamorphoses, book xin. 900 et seq. 
 
 875. Milton alludes to the "daughter of Cadmus, Ino of the fair 
 ankles, Leucothea, who in time past was a maiden of mortal speech, 
 but now in the depths of the salt sea she had gotten her share of 
 worship from the gods," Odyssey v. 333 335. She was the wife 
 of Athamas, by whom she had two sons. Athamas in a fit of madness 
 killed one son ; she with the other (see next line) plunged into the sea, 
 and became a sea-goddess. She presented Odysseus with the magic 
 veil (Kpridefjivov a^porov) that enabled him to reach the Phoenician 
 coast. Note that Homer's epithet is Ka\\iff(f>vpos. It might be thought 
 that Milton's "lovely hands" was a perfunctory description. Perhaps, 
 however, he remembered the passage later on in the fifth book of the 
 Odyssey, where Odysseus, on landing, threw the veil back into the river: 
 
 tLtp 5' t<f>fpev (j.tya KV/J.O. Kara -p6oi>, al\f/a 5* ap' 'I>u> 
 
 Sti-aro x e />^ <f>i\j]ffiv. 
 
 These last words may have suggested the "lovely hands" of the present 
 verse. Leucothea was identified by the Romans with Matuta, the 
 goddess of the dawn. 
 
 876. Her son, i.e. Melicertes ; cf. Georg. I. 436, 437 : 
 
 Votaqne servati solvent in litore naitftz 
 Glauco et Panopea et Inoo Melicerta. 
 
 After his deification he was called Palaemon, whom the Romans 
 identified with Portnmnus or Portunus, the god of harbours. Portunus 
 is a character in Ben Jonson's Masque, NeptunJs Triumph. 
 
 877. Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet. Thetis was one of the Nereids,
 
 NOTES. 185 
 
 wife of Peleus (cf. Catullus' great poem) and mother of Achilles. Tinsel- 
 slippered is an obvious variation on the Homeric epithet for Thetis 
 dpyvpoirelp. ; see Iliad XVIII. 127. It may be doubted whether 
 Milton improves upon the literal version of the original silver-footed ; 
 but perhaps he avoided using the latter because it had become hack- 
 neyed. Browne had already written in Britannia's Pastorals, book 1 1 : 
 "When Triton's trumpet (with a shrill command) 
 Told silver-footed Thetis was at hand." 
 
 Carew Hazlitt's ed. vol. n. p. 8. 
 Cf. again Ben Jonson, Neptune's Triumph : 
 
 "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest 
 
 To wait upon him;" 
 
 also "silver-footed fays" in the same writer's Paris Anniversary, and 
 Herrick's "silver-footed Thamasis" Hazlitt's ed. p. 338. Milton's 
 fastidious taste rejected a word that had lost its freshness, an adjec- 
 tive which Keats restored to currency in Endyniion, in., where it 
 is applied to the stars. Tinsel now connotes something unreal. In 
 Milton's time the word merely suggested a silvery, flashing surface, 
 in accordance with its etymology : French ttincelle, Latin scintilla. 
 Thus Herrick in the Hesperides speaks of Oberon's palace "tinseld 
 with twilight;" and again of "moonelight tinselling the streames"- 
 Hazlitt, pp. 33, 177. For Milton's audience the epithet would possess 
 a point which is lost on us, there having been a species of shining 
 cloth called tinsel to which allusions are frequent. Hero's wedding- 
 dress in Much Ado, III. 4. 22, has skirts "underborne (trimmed) with 
 a bluish tinsel." So again in Marston's What You Will, I. i : 
 
 " A Florentine cloth -of-silver jerkin, sleeves 
 
 White satin cut on tinsel." Bullen's ed. II. 337. 
 
 In the stage-directions of Jacobean Masques we meet the word very 
 often. 
 
 879. Parthenope 1 s dear tomb. Parthenope, one of the Sirens, was 
 associated with Naples STTOV dflKvvrai /j.vrjfj.a. riav Zetpfyuv /was, Hap6f- 
 VOTTT/J, /col &ywv <7WTeXe?rai yv[j.i>iKbs Kara /j.avretav Strabo, V. 246. 
 Milton has the same allusion in one of the Latin poems Ad Leonoram 
 Roma canentem, 3 : 
 
 Credula quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, 
 
 Claraqtie Parthenopes fana Acheloiados, 
 Littoreamque ttia defunctam Naiada ripa 
 Corpore Chalddico sacra dedisse rogo ?
 
 1 86 COMUS. 
 
 lines which Cowper translated : 
 
 " Naples, too credulous, ah boast no more 
 The sweet-voiced Siren buried on thy shore, 
 That, when Parthenope deceased, she gave 
 Her sacred dust to a Chalcidic grave." 
 
 Not infrequently Parthenope occurs as a synonym of Naples. Thus 
 Wordsworth, in the fine sonnet composed on the eve of Scott's voyage 
 to Italy, writes 
 
 " Be true, 
 
 Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea, 
 Wafting your charge to soft Parthenope." 
 So Landor: 
 
 "Sorrento softer tale may tell, 
 Parthenope sound louder shell," 
 
 Thoughts of Fiesole. 
 
 880 882. LigecCs golden comb. Ligea was another of the Sirens ; 
 appropriately named \iyeia ' shrill-voiced.' The reference to her 
 "soft alluring locks" may have been suggested by Vergil : 
 
 Drymoque Xanthoqne Ligeaqiie Phyllodoceque, 
 Casariern effustz nitidatn per Candida colla. 
 
 Georg. iv. 336, 7 ; 
 
 lines which were probably the original of Landor's "Ligeia vocal, 
 Xantho yellow-haired," Chrysaon. Otherwise, as Masson notes, it is 
 rather the mermaids of northern mythology who comb their tresses, 
 like the faithless wife in Matthew Arnold's Forsaken Merman. 
 
 885. Heave, i.e. lift ; cf. L' Al. 145, " That Orpheus' self may heave 
 his head." The phrase (repeated in P. L. I. 211, and S. A. 197) is 
 imitated by Dryden, Song for St Cecilia s Day 5, and Pope, Dunciad 
 II. 256. 
 
 886. Coral-paven. Paven did not necessarily imply artificial work. 
 The "paved fountain" in Midsummer N. D. II. i. 84 was "a fountain 
 with pebbly bottom," Clarendon Press ed. of that play. 
 
 Sabrina rises. From the stage-directions in other Masques detailing 
 the arrangement of parallel episodes it may be inferred that the 
 appearance of the river-goddess would be effected as in a modern 
 theatre. Part of the centre of the stage would be displaced, and 
 through the aperture the goddess would rise, seated in her car and 
 surrounded by a group of nymphs in picturesque dresses. The intro- 
 duction in this way of deities especially deities of the sea or rivers
 
 NOTES. 187 
 
 was a favourite device with Masque-writers, as it gave scope for the 
 skill of Inigo Jones. 
 
 890. Rushy-fringed. A good specimen of what Earle calls 
 the 'literary' compound; that is to say, the composite word created 
 purely for picturesque effect and confined .to literature. He notes that 
 Milton, Keats and Tennyson are conspicuous for their frequent use of 
 this artifice of language. It is even more characteristic of German 
 writers. 
 
 892. Sliding is a favorite epithet with Phineas Fletcher : 
 
 "The Muses selves sit with the sliding Cam," 
 
 Piscatorie Eclogues, II. 5. 
 
 893. Agate. Derived from the name of the river Achates in Sicily, 
 where, according to Theophrastus, the agate was first found. Strictly, 
 it is not a simple mineral, but a composite substance, made of two or 
 more quartz minerals which have combined. The Western agate is 
 much inferior to the Oriental, its chief centre of industry being a small 
 district in Germany, between Oberstein and Idar near the Rhine. 
 (Streeter's Precious Stones, part II. 59 61.) 
 
 Azurn. The termination may be that which we have in adjec- 
 tives like silvern, leathern, formed straight from the substantive, i.e. 
 siher-n, leather-n. Perhaps, however, Milton (an excellent Italian scho- 
 lar himself) coined azurn as an Anglicisation of the Italian azzurrino; 
 cf. F. azurin. The New E. Dictionary gives no other instance of the 
 use of the word. Shakespeare was content with azure and the partici- 
 pial azured: so Marlowe, Faustus xm. 109, " Arethusa's azur'd arms." 
 
 894. Turkis. Tennyson uses this now somewhat affected form : 
 
 "Turkis and agate and almondine," 
 
 The Merman, in. 
 
 Properly the turquoise is not, as the name implies, a Turkish stone. 
 The Oriental turquoise is chiefly found in a mountain region in the 
 north-east of Persia ; but it reached Europe through Constantinople, and 
 hence became the Turkish gem par excellence. Like most precious 
 stones it has been invested by popular superstition with curious powers. 
 A Russian proverb says, "the colour of a turquoise pales when the well- 
 being of the giver is in danger." 
 
 Emerald green. Emeralds are frequently found in river-beds in 
 different parts of the world, e.g. in Burmah and Algeria; but Streeter 
 in his long list of the varieties of the stone does not mention any English 
 species..
 
 1 88 COMUS. 
 
 895. The line illustrates, slightly but effectively, Milton's way of 
 always correcting his work for the better. In the Cambridge MS. the 
 verse runs : 
 
 "That my rich wheel inlays." 
 
 This is practically a repetition of the previous couplet, and we miss 
 the idea suggested by "strays." With the cancelled line cf. P. L. 
 IV. 701. 
 
 897. A reminiscence of the Tempest, v. 34 :- 
 
 "And ye, that on the sands with printless feet 
 Do chase the ebbing Neptune." 
 
 898. Velvet. Used frequently as an adjective; cf. "velvet buds," 
 Henry V. \. i. 194, "velvet leaves," Passionate Pilgrim, 231, and the 
 very phrase of our text in The Faithful Shepherdess, n. i, "The dew- 
 drops hang on the velvet heads." Gray ventured in the Progress of 
 Poesy to speak of "Idalia's velvet-green;" whereupon Johnson made 
 objection: "an epithet or metaphor drawn from Nature ennobles Art; 
 an epithet or metaphor drawn from Art degrades Nature." 
 
 899. That bends not. Many parallels might be quoted. Vergil 
 made the remark of Camilla : 
 
 Ilia vel intacta: segetis per summa volaret 
 Gramina, nee teneras cursu Itesisset aristas. 
 
 So Shakespeare of Venus in Venus and Adonis; Ben Jonson of Venus 
 in the Vision of the Delight, and of Earine in the Sad Shepherd, I. i. 
 Keats has an imitation in those lines of Endy mion, iv., which Words- 
 worth called "a pretty piece of paganism:" 
 
 "A lover would not tread 
 A cowslip on the head, 
 Though he should dance from eve till peep of day." 
 
 903. The metre employed from this point to the end is much used 
 in the Masques of Ben Jonson and other Masque-writers; perhaps 
 because it lent itself easily to declamation or musical accompaniment. 
 
 904. Cf. 852 53. 
 
 908 921. The editors have noticed here, and indeed throughout 
 the last part of Contus, echoes of the Faithful Shepherdess. Milton 
 had without doubt read Fletcher's Pastoral ; see Introduction. 
 
 914. Thrice. The significant number. We have a somewhat 
 similar scene in Browne's Inner Temple Masque, where Circe releases 
 Odysseus from sleep. Perhaps also Milton recollected the words used
 
 NOTES. 189 
 
 by Puck when he anoints the eyes of Lysander Midsummer N. D. 
 ii. 3. 77So. 
 
 916. Venomed seat. The "enchanted chair" mentioned in the 
 stage-direction at line 659. 
 
 918. Palms moist. In Shakespeare a dry hand is treated as the sign 
 of a cold disposition, not prone to love; e.g. in Twelfth Night I. 3. 77 ; 
 a moist hand as an indication of the opposite temperament Othello 
 in. 4. 3638. 
 
 919. His ; i.e. its; see note on line 248. 
 
 921. Amphitrite' s botver. Compare Shelley's fine description of 
 Venice in the Lines written among the Euganean Hills: 
 
 " Underneath day's azure eyes 
 Ocean's nursling, Venice lies, 
 Amphitrite's destined halls," 
 
 In Cotgrave and in Cockeram's Dictionary, 1626, Amphitrite, properly 
 the goddess of the sea, is given as a synonym of the sea itself. 
 
 923. Anchises' line. The legendary genealogy being: Anchises 
 father of ^neas; ^Eneas father of Ascanius; Ascanius of Silvius; 
 Silvius of Brutus; Brutus of Locrine. Cf. 11. 827, 828. 
 
 924 937. This invocation is in the manner of pastoral verse. In 
 Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, I. 2, the friendly nymph of a stream 
 receives the same kind of blessings. On the other hand, if a river 
 proved unkind drowned the poet's friend or what not it was covered 
 with curses. Thus we find an imprecation upon the Cam in Phineas 
 Fletcher's Piscatorie Eclogues, II. 23 : 
 
 "Let never myrtle on thy banks delight 
 Let dirt and mud thy lazie waters seize, 
 Thy weeds still grow, thy waters still decrease." 
 Grosart's ed. u. p. 260. 
 
 927. Snowy hills. The Welsh mountains amid which the Severn 
 rises. 
 
 928. Singed air. Alluding to the midsummer days 
 
 ubi hiulca siti Jindit cam's astifer arva. 
 
 Georg. ii. 533. 
 
 93 93 i- Todd compares Sylvester's Du Bartas: 
 
 "dirty muds 
 Defil'd the crystal of smooth-sliding floods ; "
 
 190 COMUS. 
 
 reminding us that smooth-sliding is Milton's epithet for the river Mincius 
 in Lye . 86. 
 
 932. Billows. By this time to interpret the passage prosaically 
 Milton has traced the Severn down to Gloucester, where it becomes an 
 arm of the sea and, as such, may be said to have 'billows.' 
 
 933. The beryl is a crystal, varying in hue according to the district 
 from which it comes. "Jewellers distinguish the varieties of this stone 
 in a manner peculiar to themselves, viz. : the green and blue varieties 
 they call Aquamarine, while the yellow variety receives the name of 
 Beryl" Streeter, Precious Stones, part n. p. 65. Perhaps Landor was 
 thinking of the latter when he wrote : 
 
 "Rhine rolls his beryl-coloured wave." Gebir VI. 
 
 The Romans prized the stone. The Cynthia of Propertius must have 
 worn one (v. 7. 9), and Juvenal (v. 37) speaks of cups inaquales beryllo. 
 In England it seems to have been put to various uses. Leland, for 
 instance, tells us that the windows of Sudeley Castle were ornamented 
 with beryls Nichol's Progresses of Qwen Elizabeth, vol. I. p. -xxvi. 
 It may have been from the transparency of the stone that the belief arose 
 in its power of revealing the future and reproducing absent persons if 
 carefully studied ; a belief to which Shakespeare alludes in Measure 
 for Measure, II. 2. 94, 95, and which forms the basis of Rossetti's Rose 
 Mary. From L. beryllus (Gk. firipv\\o$) came F. briller = io sparkle 
 like a beryl ; thence E. brilliant. 
 
 934. 935. Some editors would press the literal meaning and interpret 
 "lofty head" of the river's source; as though Milton meant to say, 
 'may a town spring up, with buildings, terraces, towers, etc., near 
 where the Severn rises.' But it seems more natural to take 'head'... 
 'crowned' as metaphors. All through run the two conceptions of (i) the 
 river personified as a maiden, (ii) the river treated as an ordinary stream. 
 In this line the former predominates. She is "Sabrina fair," the virgin; 
 as such she is to wear a crown on her head, and be, like Cybele, 
 turrita. Practically the same metaphor underlies ffTe<f>dvu/j.a irupywv in 
 the Antigone, 122. The strong idealism of the passage is emphasized in 
 line 937 : "groves of myrrh and cinnamon," common enough in the 
 land of poetic fancy, are not found in the West of England. 
 
 936, 937. The grammar is a little obscure, the connection, perhaps, 
 being, "may thy head be crowned with groves of myrrh here and 
 there upon thy banks." 
 
 938. After verse 937 both MSS., Cambridge and Bridgewater,
 
 NOTES. Ipl 
 
 have the direction Song ends ; which shows that lines 938 957 were 
 spoken, not sung. 
 
 942. Waste. 'Unnecessary;' cf. "waste fertility," 1. 729. 'Deso- 
 late' is the normal meaning in i7th century as in modern E. 
 
 945. This gloomy covert. Massonsays: "Of course, what scenery 
 there was on the stage represented them as still in the 'gloomy covert' 
 or wood, some furlongs from Ludlow. " This requires a word of 
 explanation. We have not been told of any change of scene since line 
 659. In line 939 " this cursed place" must refer to the "stately palace" 
 of Comus. We may assume therefore that during the speech, between 
 938 and 945, some alteration in the scenery is made by which the 
 interior of the palace departs and the original wood is again represented, 
 though only for a moment. Clearly by line 958 they are outside 
 "the stars grow high." Ben Jonson or Campion would have marked 
 the change by a direction. 
 
 949. Gratulate. 'Welcome:' "And gratulate his safe return to 
 Rome," Titus Andronicus I. 221. Cf. Cotgrave, " Parabrin, a 
 gratulation, or welcome." 
 
 952. Jig signified a lively dance, or the tune accompanying it; 
 and in Shakespeare any grotesque piece of verse. So Hamlet in. i. 
 150. Cf. Cotgrave, s. v. farce, "the Jyg at the end of an Enterlude, 
 wherein some pretty knavery is acted." Probably of Scandinavian 
 origin; cf. German geige, 'a fiddle.' 
 
 The Scene changes. Milton entirely disregards the unities of place 
 and time, since (i) the Attendant Spirit and the brother and sister are 
 supposed to have traversed the distance ("not many furlongs") between 
 the palace of Comus and the castle at Ludlow; (ii) in lines 956, 957 it 
 was night time, whereas now the action passes by daylight. 
 
 Then come in Country Dancers. Technically this is the second 
 Anti-masqtte ; the first was provided by the "monstrous rout" of Comus 
 at line 93. Country dance is a good illustration of the process called 
 "popular etymology;" country being a corruption of the F. centre, 
 ' opposite. ' 
 
 958. Back, shepherds. Cf. Jonson's Masque of Blackness : 
 
 "Back seas, back nymphs; but with a forward grace 
 Keep still your reverence to the place." 
 
 958, 959. A variation on Z' Al. 97, 98. Shakespeare has sun- 
 shine as an adjective twice; cf. "many years of sunshine days," 
 Richard II. IV. i. 221; and 3 Henry VI. II. i. 187.
 
 IQ2 COMUS. 
 
 960. Duck is cognate with Germ, tauchen, 'to dip.' In Cotgrave 
 it is a translation oi f longer, "to plunge, dive, duck." 
 
 962. Court guise. The dance might be z.pavane or minuet. 
 964. Mincing here retains the idea of the F. mince, 'dainty,' 
 'neat.' Like dainty and pert the word has deteriorated in meaning, 
 and its use now implies contempt. Dryades = wood-nymphs; from 
 5pvs, an oak. With the rhyme in this couplet, cf. Lye. 154 156. 
 
 966. For the actors to come forward and address some member, or 
 members, of the audience was no unusual episode. Thus in Shirley's 
 Triumph of Peace, the chorus twice advance to the front of the stage 
 and salute the king and queen who were present. Cf. the following 
 extract: "Then the whole train of Musicians move in a comely figure 
 toward the king and queen, and bowing to their state (i.e. canopied 
 throne) this following Ode is sung : 
 
 "To you, great king and queen, whose smile 
 Doth scatter blessings through the isle, 
 To make it best 
 And wonder of the rest, 
 We pay the duty of our birth." 
 
 Shirley's Works, VI. pp. 277, 278. 
 
 972. Assays. 'Trials.' Cf. P. L. IV. 932, and P. R. I. 264. O. F. 
 assai or assay was a variant of essai. Assay is the form used by Chaucer. 
 Essay was first introduced by Caxton (New English Diet.); it took a 
 long time to oust assay, which Spenser and Shakespeare nearly always 
 write. Curiously enough assai has dropped out of French altogether, 
 and assay, its English equivalent, from having once predominated is now 
 used in a single sense, viz. testing of metals. Perhaps the fact that the 
 French essai prevailed over O. F. assai favoured the growth of E. 
 essay. Essai came from Lat. exagium, 'weighing,' 'a trial of exact 
 weight.' Medial x in Latin often changed to ss in French; e.g. essaim 
 (a swarm of bees) from examen; laisserirom. laxare. The medial in 
 exagium disappeared ; cf. Her from ligare, lire from legere (Brachet). 
 
 974. Triumph. Milton, like Shakespeare, varies between triumph, 
 the modern accentuation, and triiimph; for the latter cf. the Ode On 
 Time, 22 : 
 
 "Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time." 
 
 975. The stage-direction implies that after this line there was 
 further dancing in which characters not named took part ; they would 
 be members of the household of the Earl of Bridgewater and friends.
 
 NOTES. 193 
 
 976 979. The resemblance of these verses to the Tempest, v. i 
 ("where the bee sucks"), has often been noticed. It seems to me clear 
 that from this point, line 976, to the close of the Masque Milton's 
 conception of the Attendant Spirit was due partly to Shakespeare's 
 Ariel, partly to Puck in Midsummer N. D, As already explained, 
 the epilogue spoken at the actual performance of Comus began at line 
 1012, "But now my task is smoothly done." The previous lines, 
 9761011, had been used at the outset. Artistically the detachment 
 of the passage from its context was a mistake. To end with a short 
 speech of 12 verses (1012 1023) made an exceedingly abrupt con- 
 clusion; and, more important, the words of the Good Genius of 
 the piece were no doubt intended to point the contrast between true 
 Elysian joy and sensual earthly pleasure. 
 
 977. Happy climes, Cf. P, L. III. 567 70: 
 
 "Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles, 
 Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old, 
 Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales; 
 Thrice happy isles ! " 
 
 Milton, as Professor Masson notes, is fond of drawing pictures of 
 what we may call the Land of the Blessed. See the third Elegy, 
 38 50; the Epitaphium Damonis, 212 219; and Lye. 172 177. 
 In each case the language is entirely ideal, and the description 
 a combination of different literary influences. He seems to have 
 in his mind's eye the classical Conception of the Elysian fields ; 
 the classical view of the Olympian deities and the Olympian realm; 
 and, finally, that Christian presentment of Heaven which is largely 
 due to the language of the Book of The Revelation. Especially 
 noticeable is the infusion of the Christian element in the passage in 
 Lycidas where, in the midst of pastoralism conceived after the 
 manner of the Sicilian singers, Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, the poet 
 declares that Lycidas moves among the heavenly companies who 
 " wipe the tears for ever from his eyes." 
 
 978. Cf. II Pen. 141, " day's garish eye. " 
 
 979. In the broad Jields. Vergil's aeris in catnpis latis, sEneid 
 vi. 888. 
 
 982, 983. Three. The number varied, some accounts giving four; 
 some three; some seven ; and the names were different. In P. R. II. 35 7 
 Milton speaks of the "ladies of the Hesperides," where "Hesperides" 
 = ' the garden or locality.' Golden tree : usually the fruit only is golden. 
 
 V. 13
 
 194 COMUS. 
 
 984. Crisped; i.e. by the wind ruffling the leaves; cf. Keats, 
 Endymion IV. : 
 
 "the wind that now did stir 
 About the crisped oaks." 
 
 The word is more frequently applied to a breeze stirring the surface of 
 water. So "crisped brooks" in P. L, IV. 237, and the Tempest, iv. i. 
 130. Parallels might be quoted from modern poets; e.g. Chihie 
 Harold iv. 211: "I would not their vile breath should crisp the 
 stream:" or Tennyson's Claribel, 19. 
 
 985. Spruce. Here in a good sense, 'dainty:' so Vaughan in Silex 
 Scintillans writes, "like some spruce bride" (Grosart's ed. I. 35). 
 Cf. Cotgrave, s. v. Godin, "Neat, fine, trimme, spruce." But the 
 modern, contemptuous meaning of the word was at least as old as 
 Shakespeare's time ; cf. Love's Labour's Lost v. i . 1 4. Etymo- 
 logically cognate with Prussia, of which the Middle E. form was 
 Spruce (or Pruce). The connection seems remote; it arose thus. 
 Hall's Chronicle tells us that at one time men of fashion "were 
 appareyled after the manner of Prussia or Spruce. " So $prtice suggested 
 the idea of 'smartness,' 'fineness, 1 and people quite forgot that it 
 simply meant Prussian. Spruce fir= Prussian fir; Spruce leather = 
 Prussian leather ; but in each case the original sense of the epithet has 
 been lost sight of. See Skeat, s. v. 
 
 986. Rosy-bosomed. Gray ' conveyed ' the epithet ; cf. Ode to 
 Spring: 
 
 "Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, 
 Fair Venus' train, appear." 
 
 It recalls the poSbiraxvs of Theocritus (applied to Adonis), Idyl. xv. 128. 
 We may note that the Graces and Hours were favorite allegorical 
 dramatis persona in Masques, which perhaps would give more point to 
 the classical references. Lines 984 987 are wanting in the Cambridge 
 and Bridgewater MSS. 
 
 989 991. Repeated in P. Jf. n. 363 5: 
 
 "and winds 
 
 Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned 
 From their soft wings." 
 
 So in the fifth Elegy, 69, Cinnamea Zephyrus leve plaudit odorifer ala. 
 
 990. Cedarn. Formed from the substantive, i.e. cedar-n ; we 
 need not connect it directly with Italian cedrino. Cf. 893.
 
 NOTES. 195 
 
 Cf. Matthew Arnold's 
 
 "The slumb'rous cedarn shade," 
 
 The New Sirens. 
 
 991. Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Here, and in P. L. v. 292, 
 93, Milton is obviously adapting to his own purposes the language of 
 Psalm xlv. 8 : "all thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia." 
 It seems misleading to print Cassia as though the word were a proper 
 name ; cassia being merely a species of scented laurel. Cf. Cotgrave, 
 " Casse, The drug, or spice tearmed cassia... Casse aromatique, the 
 uromaticall wood, barke, or bastard Cinnamon." Under Nard he 
 writes "Spike, or spikenard; (an herb)." 
 
 992. Bow, i.e. the rainbow. 
 
 993. Blow. Transitive; usually said of the flowers themselves, 
 as in Midsummer /V. D. II. i. 249, "where the wild thyme blows," 
 = 'blooms.' 
 
 995. Prirfled. ' With embroidered edge ; ' cf. the Faerie Queene, I. 
 
 "Purfled with gold and pearle of rich assay;" 
 and II. 3. 26: 
 
 "Purfled upon with many a folded plight." 
 
 From F. pom-file: \.e.Jil, 'a thread,' and pour (Lat. pro) confused, 
 as often, with par (L. per), 'throughout.' Cf. Cotgrave: " Pourjiler 
 d'or, To purfle, tinsell, or overcast with gold thread;" and " Pour- 
 fileure, Purfling ; a purfling lace or worke, baudkin-work, tinselling." 
 Purfle (the noun) survives in the contract form pur!, a term used in lace- 
 making. Between 995 and 996 the Cambridge MS. inserts a line, giving 
 the colours of the flowers "yellow, watchet, green and blue." Watchet 
 meant 'pale blue;' cf. Cotgrave, "Pers, watchet, blunket, skie-coloured." 
 Shew. For the rhyme cf. 1. 512. 
 997. Cf. Arcades 72, 73. 
 
 998 1002. By using "Assyrian queen" in line 1002 Milton 
 reminds us that the Adonis legend came from the East. Still more 
 definite is the reference in P. L. I. 446 : 
 
 "TAatnmuz came next behind, 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 
 While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
 Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded." 
 
 132
 
 196 COMUS. 
 
 Commenting on this passage Masson remarks : "The legend was that he 
 (i.e. Thammuz = the Adonis of Greek mythology) was killed by a wild 
 boar in Lebanon ; and the phenomenon of the reddening at a particular 
 season every year of the waters of the Adonis, a stream which flows 
 from Lebanon to the sea near Byblos, was mythologically accounted for by 
 supposing that the blood of Thammuz was then flowing afresh. There 
 were annual festivals at Byblos in Phoenicia in honour of Thammuz, 
 held every year at the season referred to. Women were the chief 
 performers at these festivals the first part of which consisted in 
 lamentations for the death of Thammuz, and the rest in rejoicings over 
 his revival" Masson, III. p. 124. This Eastern cultus (cf. Ezekiel 
 viii. 14, "and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz ") 
 spread to Greece, taking the form of the familiar Adonis myth : that he 
 was killed by the wild boar, was mourned for by Aphrodite, and at last, 
 in consideration of her sorrow, suffered by the gods of the lower world 
 to spend six months in every year upon earth with her. His yearly 
 return to earth was celebrated by religious rites (at Athens, Alexandria 
 and elsewhere) such as Theocritus describes in the xvth Idyl. The 
 story must have been a comparatively late importation into Greece, as 
 no traces of it occur in Homer. Usually it is explained as being a 
 symbolisation of the annual return of spring: "in the Asiatic religions 
 Aphrodite was the fructifying principle of nature, and Adonis appears 
 to have reference to the death of nature in winter and its revival in 
 spring hence he spends six months in the lower and six in the upper 
 world" Smith's Classical Dictionary. 
 
 998, 999. Referring to the so-called "Gardens of Adonis," 
 
 " That one day bloom 'd, and fruitful were the next," 
 
 i Henry VL I. 6. 7; 
 
 where the very roses (on which Adonis lay) were thornless, as we may 
 gather from Ben Jonson's Cynthia 's Revels v. 3: "I pray thee, light 
 honey-bee, remember thou art not now in Adonis' garden, but in 
 Cynthia's presence where thorns lie in garrison about the roses." 
 
 Milton, we may be sure, recollected the long account in the Faerie 
 Queene (ill. 6. 19 42) of this paradise where Adonis was supposed 
 to live in company with Aphrodite; cf. too, Spenser's Hymne in 
 Honour of Love, 11 28. Keats imitates Spenser in Endymion n. ; 
 and Spenser probably owed his ideas on the subject of these mythical 
 gardens to Pliny, Natural History Xix. 4. An alternative region
 
 NOTES. 197 
 
 symbolising the ideal region of bliss was the Garden of Alcinous, and in 
 P. L. IX. 439 44 1 Milton gives us the twofold allusion: 
 
 ' ' Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned 
 Or of revived Adonis, or renowned 
 Alcinous." 
 /ooo. I.e. 
 
 "the wide wound that the boar had trench'd 
 In his soft flank" Venus and Adonis 1052, 53. 
 1 002. Assyrian queen, i.e. Aphrodite ; " her worship was of Eastern 
 origin, and probably introduced by the Phoenicians to the islands of 
 Cyprus, Cythera and others, from whence it spread all over Greece. 
 She appears to have been originally identical with Astarte, called by the 
 Hebrews Ashtoreth, and her connection with Adonis clearly points to 
 Syria " Classical Dictionary. ' ' Assyrian queen " may have been 
 suggested by the title 'Svpiij Oeos, a synonym for the Syrian Astarte. 
 Cf. the Nativity Ode 200 204, with the double reference to "mooned 
 Ashtaroth " and "wounded Thammuz." 
 
 1003 101 1. The myth of Psyche is an allegory of the human soul 
 (^i/X 1 ?) which, after undergoing trials and tortures, is purified by pain 
 and eventually reaches happiness and rest. Probably Milton introduced 
 the story here because he wished to emphasize the sanctity of love, by 
 showing that there is a place for it among the gods. "Comus," says 
 Masson, "had mis-apprehended Love, knew nothing of it except its vile 
 counterfeit... had been outwitted and defeated. But there is true Love, 
 and it is to be found in Heaven." The idea is well illustrated by 
 P. L. vui. 612 629, where Adam questions the angel Raphael 
 "Love not the Heavenly Spirits?" and receives the reply "Without 
 Love no happiness." 
 
 1004. Advanced. Almost a metaphor, since advance was specially 
 used of raising a standard or banner; cf. P. L. I. 535 537 : 
 "Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
 The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, 
 Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." 
 
 Frequent in Shakespeare ; for a beautiful instance cf. Romeo and Juliet 
 v. 3. 94 96, where Romeo is pointing to the body of Juliet : 
 
 "Beauty's ensign yet 
 
 Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, 
 And death's pale flag is not advanced there." 
 This last line was borrowed by Giles Fletcher in Christ's Victorie in
 
 198 COMUS. 
 
 ffeavtn, 14, "And, after all, Death doeth his flag advance," Grosart, 
 p. 97. Cotgrave gives "to raise, advance, lift up" s. v. monter. 
 
 ion. Youth and Joy, Referring to the passage from the Apology 
 for Smectymnus quoted in the note on line 780 we see that later in 
 life Milton made Virtue and Knowledge the offspring of pure Love. 
 Perhaps time had brought to him "the philosophic mind" which 
 Wordsworth celebrates. He was 15 years old when he wrote Counts; 
 33 when he wrote the Apology. 
 
 1012 17. The beginning of Lawes' epilogue, and a series of 
 reminiscences of Shakespeare : e.g. Midsummer N. D. iv. i. 102, 103, 
 where Oberon says : 
 
 "We the globe can compass soon, 
 Swifter than the wandering moon:'' 
 
 the same play, n. i. 175, Puck's words, 
 
 "I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
 
 In forty minutes," 
 i.e. make the circuit of the universe: and Macbeth in. 5. 25, 26: 
 
 " Upon the corner of the moon 
 
 There hangs a vaporous drop profound." 
 
 There, as here (1017), corner = ' horn ' (cormi); cf. the compounds 
 bicorn, unicorn. 
 
 1015. Bowed, because in any landscape the horizon appears to rest 
 upon the earth. The clown in Twelfth Night, in. i. 65, preferred 
 welkin ("out of my welkin") to element because the latter was 
 "overworn." For etymology, cf. German IVolke, a cloud. 
 
 1019. Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (the Masque in 
 which Comus appears) ends with a song in praise of Virtue. The last 
 stanzas run : 
 
 "She, she it is in darkness shines, 
 'Tis she that still herself refines, 
 
 By her own light to every eye; 
 More seen, more known, when Vice stands by; 
 And though a stranger here on earth, 
 In heaven she hath her right of birth. 
 
 There, there is Virtue's seat : 
 Strive to keep her your own : 
 
 'Tis only she can make you great, 
 Though place here make you known."
 
 NOTES. 199 
 
 The first lines of this extract may be compared with Cotnus 373 75; 
 the last stanza would seem to have been in Milton's memory when he 
 finished his Masque. 
 
 1021. Sphery. 'Celestial;' cf. Midsummer N. D. n. i. 99, 
 "Hermia's sphery eyne," where 'starlike' (as in Tennyson's "starlike 
 sorrows of immortal eyes") is the sense. Sphery is one of the many 
 epithets ending in y that Keats uses 
 
 "Hold sphery session for a season due." 
 
 Endymion in. 
 
 1023. There seems to be an echo of this verse in Pope's OJe on 
 St Cecilia's Day, vn. 
 
 1023, 24. Masson writes : "Respecting these closing lines of Conms, 
 in which the moral of the poem is summed up, there is an interesting 
 anecdote: Returning to England in 1639, after his year and more of 
 continental travel and residence in Italy, Milton passed through Geneva. 
 There was then residing there, as teacher of Italian, or the like, a 
 certain Camillo Cerdogni or Cardouin, of Neapolitan birth, and probably 
 of Protestant opinions ; and this Cardouin, or his family, kept an Album, 
 in which it was their habit to secure the autographs of distinguished 
 persons passing through the town. The volume itself, rich with 
 signatures and inscriptions and scraps of verse in all languages, is still 
 extant... Among the autographs in it are those of not a few eminent 
 Englishmen of Milton's time, including Thomas "\Ventworth, afterwards 
 the famous Earl of Strafford; but the most valued autograph is Milton's. 
 It is as follows (all in Milton's hand except the date) : 
 
 if Vertue feeble were 
 Heaven it selfe would stoope to her. 
 Ctcluin non animum muto qui trans mare airro. 
 Joannes Miltonius, 
 
 Anglus. 
 Junii 10. 1639."
 
 I. INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 acates 169, i/o 
 acquaint 99 
 advance 197, 198 
 affright 97 
 agate 187 
 alabaster 156, 157 
 allay 89, 90 
 alley 115 
 allow 115 
 allowance 115 
 alloy 89, 90 
 ail-to 125, 126 
 amaze 150 
 amber 118, 119 
 amber-dropping 181 
 ambrosial 78 
 aspect 159 
 asphodel 180 
 assay 62,- 192 
 attendance 1 16 
 azured 187 
 azurn 187 
 bait 100 
 bandite 130 
 be 143 
 beads 127 
 benison 118 
 beryl 190 
 blabbing 95 
 blanc 135 
 blanch 71, 131 
 blank 135 
 blare 61 
 blason 61 
 blaze 61 
 blear 98 
 
 blench 131 
 blind 103 
 blink 98 
 blow 195 
 blue-haired 79 
 blur 98 
 
 bocca dolce 71 
 bolt (n) 134 
 bolt (vb) 1 68, 169 
 bonne bouche 71 
 bosky 116 
 bosom 123, 124 
 boult 1 68, 169 
 bourn 115, 116 
 bower 81 
 brag 164 
 brand 134 
 break off 97 
 breathing 53 
 brinded 133 
 brute 173 
 budge 161, 162 
 bur 121, 122 
 bureau 169 
 burn j i 6 
 buskin 53 
 cancer 56 
 canker 56 
 canon law 1 74 
 cassia 195 
 cast 123 
 cateress 169 
 cates 169, 170 
 cedarn 194 
 centre 126, 127 
 character 144
 
 INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 2OI 
 
 charm 139 
 choir 92 
 close (n) 147 
 close-curtained 148 
 clouted 154 
 complexion 164 
 convoy 87 
 coral-paven 186 
 corner 198 
 cote 1 20, 121 
 country-dance 191 
 court 1 1 7 
 courtesy 117 
 coy 163 
 crisped 194 
 croft 145 
 cross 56 
 crude 139 
 curfew 132, 133 
 curious 162 
 curl 54 
 cynic 161 
 cynosure 119, 120 
 daffodil 1 80 
 dapper 93 
 dare 1=0, 151 
 dash 135 
 descry 96 
 dingle 115 
 discover 74, 75 
 disinherit 1 19 
 doctor 161, 162 
 doric 69 
 dowager 47 
 drouth 85 
 
 drowsy-flighted 148 
 drag 85 
 dry 85 
 duck 192 
 durst 150, 151 
 ebon 95 
 element 114 
 elf 94 
 enamel 62 
 essay 192 
 estate 48 
 event 129 
 express 85 
 exquisite 122 
 extreme 112 
 
 fabulous 142 
 faery 93, 133 
 fairly 100 
 fall no 
 fay 93 
 
 felonious 104 
 fetch 57 
 fond 85 
 forlorn 80, 107 
 forsooth 175 
 foundation 174 
 foundered 139 
 fragile 159 
 frail 1 59 
 fraught 122 
 freezed 134, 135 
 freight 122 
 frieze 163 
 frolic 84 
 fury 155 
 gear 100 
 gentle 51 
 glistering 89, 106 
 glosse 99 
 glozing 99, 100 
 go 62 
 
 go about 156 
 goblin 133 
 gorgeous 171 
 gorgoneion 134 
 grain 164 166 
 grange 101, 102 
 gratulate 191 
 gray-hooded 103 
 habit 47, 99 
 harbour 130 
 heave 186 
 hind 101 
 his 1 08, 109 
 hit 113 
 home-felt 112 
 horrid 80, 131 
 horror 80 
 huddling 140 
 huswife 166 
 hutched 162 
 imbrute 137 
 infamous 130 
 infer 129 
 inform 103
 
 202 
 
 I. INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 ingrained 165 
 inherit 119 
 innumerous 121 
 insphered 76 
 inveigle 146 
 island 82 
 isle 83 
 
 jig 191 
 jolly 91 
 juggler 1 68 
 julep 157 
 know to 87 
 knot-grass 146, 147 
 lackey 136 
 lank 178 
 laver 178 
 lavish 49, 137 
 lawn 1 50 
 leavy 113 
 lees 175 
 lewd 137 
 lickerish 160, 161 
 likeliest 88 
 lilied 64 
 listen 147 
 livery 135, 136 
 loll in 
 lot 54 
 
 love-darting 167 
 love-lorn 107 
 lull in, 112 
 madrigal 140, 141 
 main 79 
 margent 107 
 meander 107 
 measure 96, 97 
 medicinal 154 
 meditate 147 
 melancholy 147, 174 
 mere 174 
 mickle 80 
 mincing 192 
 morrice 92 
 mould 6 1 
 
 mountaineer 130, 131 
 muffle 117, 118 
 murmur 57, 144 
 mystery 172 
 nard 195 
 navel 143, 144 
 
 nectared 178 
 nepenthes 158, 159 
 nerves 173 
 next 141 
 nice 96 
 
 night-foundered 1 39 
 noise 100, 101 
 notion 172 
 oaten 121 
 odds 51 
 office 87 
 ominous 84 
 orient 85 
 ounce 85 
 palmer 104 
 pansy 180 
 pard 134 
 pearled 177 
 perfect 86 
 period 151 
 perk 93 
 perplexed 80 
 pert 93 
 pestered 77 
 pinfold 77 
 pink 1 80 
 plight 114, 115 
 poise 129 
 port 114 
 pound 77 
 prance 168 
 prank 168 
 present 47, 74 
 presentment 98 
 prevent 113, 150 
 proof 63 
 
 purchase 151, 152 
 purfled 195 
 put by 156 
 quaint 54, 98, 99 
 quest 54 
 quiet 163 
 quire 92 
 rapt 172, 173 
 reason 144 
 reck 128, 129 
 reckoning 155 
 recoil 151 
 relation 152 
 rifted 143
 
 INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 203 
 
 ringlet 54 
 
 rive 143 
 
 rosy-bosomed 1 94 
 
 round (n) 96 
 
 rout 88 
 
 rushy-fringed 187 
 
 sad 103, 104 
 
 sadly 142 
 
 saga 92 
 
 sampler 166 
 
 saturnine 56 
 
 saw 92 
 
 scout 96 
 
 scrip 153 
 
 scum 151 
 
 seat of state 47, 48 
 
 see to 153 
 
 seek to 125 
 
 self 124 
 
 senate-house 127 
 
 sensualty 139 
 
 sepulchre 138 
 
 sequestered 141 
 
 serene 76 
 
 several 79 
 
 shift 152 
 
 shrewd 179 
 
 shroud 97, 116 
 
 siding 105 
 
 simples 153 
 
 sincere 135 
 
 sincerely 135 
 
 single 105, 124 
 
 siren 57 
 
 skill 153 
 
 sliding 187 
 
 sluice 52 
 
 smite 56 
 
 solemn-breathing 149 
 
 soothest 175, 176 
 
 so to seek 123 
 
 sound (n) 92 
 
 sour 91 
 
 sovran 80, 154, 155 
 
 spet 95 
 
 sphere 58, 59 
 
 sphered 76 
 
 sphery 199 
 
 sponge 98 
 
 spongy 98 
 
 spruce 194 
 
 square 117 
 
 stabled 145 
 
 state 47, 48, 50 
 
 stead 1 52 
 
 steep 96 
 
 stem 02 
 
 step-dame 177 
 
 steppe 96 
 
 stoop 118 
 
 stops 121 
 
 storied 142 
 
 story (vb) 142 
 
 strook 115 
 
 stygian 95 
 
 superfluous 171 
 
 surfeit 139 
 
 sway 78 
 
 swill 1 02 
 
 s winked 114 
 
 syllable 105 
 
 syrup 158 
 
 take 149 
 
 tapestry 117 
 
 tassel 57 
 
 tease 166 
 
 tell-tale 95 
 
 temperance 170, 171 
 
 thwart 55 
 
 timely 159 
 
 tincture 166 
 
 tinsel-slippered 184, 18; 
 
 to (prefix) 125, 126 
 
 to-ruffled 125, 126 
 
 toy 141 
 
 trace 129, 130 
 
 train 97 
 
 translate 107 
 
 translucent 181 
 
 travail 84, 85 
 
 traveller 84, 85 
 
 tress 167 
 
 triumph 192 
 
 turkis 187 
 
 ugly 1 60 
 
 unblenched 131 
 
 uncontrolled 172 
 
 unenchanted 128 
 
 unharboured 1 30 
 
 unlock 168
 
 2O4 
 
 II. INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 unprincipled 123 
 unsunned i 28 
 unsuperfluous 171 
 unthread 152 
 unweeting 146 
 uplandish 130 
 urchin 178, 179 
 velvet 1 88 
 venom 56 
 vermeil 166, 167 
 vermeil-tinctured 166 
 very 131 
 viewless 88 
 villain 101 
 virtue 100 
 virtuous 153 
 votarist 104 
 walk 131 
 wassail 102, 103 
 waste 191 
 
 watchet 195 
 
 wattle 121 
 
 weed 104 
 
 welkin 198 
 
 were (preterite subjunctive) 65 
 
 wether 141 
 
 whit 171 
 
 wind (vb) 100 
 
 winding 183, 184 
 
 wink on 128 
 
 wit 146 
 
 wont 118 
 
 woof 87 
 
 worthy 172 
 
 wrapt 173 
 
 wretchlessness 128, 129 
 
 yarely 100 
 
 ye, you 81 
 
 yule 91 
 
 II. INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 A: GENERAL. 
 
 Althorpe, seat of the Spencer 
 
 family, xxvii, 49. 
 Arne, his musical setting of Comas, 
 
 xliii xliv. 
 Bishop, Sir Henry, composes 
 
 music for Comus, xliv. 
 Brackley, Viscount, second Earl 
 
 of Bridgewater, Ixxiv ; 9, 67. 
 Branthwaite, Michael, Milton re- 
 commended to him, 72. 
 Bridgewater, first Earl of, xxviii, 
 
 xxxii, 80. 
 Browne, William, author of The 
 
 Inner Temple Masque, xxxviii, 
 
 89, in. 
 Carew, his Cceltim Britannicum, 
 
 Ixxiv, 75. 
 Charles I , Masques at the Court of, 
 
 Ixxii Ixxv. 
 Co\vper,his translations of Milton's 
 
 Latin Poems, 79, 117, 170, 186. 
 
 Dalton, Rev. John, altered Comus 
 
 for the Stage, xliii xliv. 
 Derby, Countess of, xxvii xxix; 
 
 49- 
 Diodati, Milton's school-friend, 
 
 alluded to in Comus, 152, 153. 
 Drayton, the Sabrina legend told 
 
 by him, 176 ; imitated, perhaps, 
 
 by Milton, 180. 
 Dryden, his admiration of Milton, 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Egerton, references to members of 
 that family, xxviii, 67. 
 
 Ellwood, Thomas, Milton men- 
 tioned in \a& Autobiography, xxiii. 
 
 Ferrabosco, Alfonso, composer of 
 music for Masques, Ixii Ixiii. 
 
 Fletcher, Giles, his poems known 
 to Milton, xxxviii. 
 
 Fletcher, John, his Faithful Shep- 
 herdess, xxxix, 1 88.
 
 II. INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 205 
 
 Fletcher, Phineas, author of the 
 Purple Island, influence on Mil- 
 ton, xxxviii, 129. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, possible 
 allusion to, 175. 
 
 Gravesend barge, 72. 
 
 Gray, borrows from Milton, 55, 
 57, 140, 194. 
 
 Green, the historian, his remarks 
 on the historical importance of 
 Comus, xlvii. 
 
 Hales, John, "the ever-memor- 
 able," friend of Milton, 69. 
 
 Harefield, house of the Countess of 
 Derby, xxviii, 57. 
 
 Hartlib, Samuel, 69. 
 
 Horton, Milton lives at,xii, xxvi, 69. 
 
 James I, patron of the Masque, 
 Ixi Ixii ; Ixiv Ixv. 
 
 Johnson, his criticism of Comus, 
 xl xli ; xliv ; 8 1 . 
 
 Jones, Inigo, designs the scenery 
 of Masques, Ixiii, Ixix Ixx. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, chief of the Jacobean 
 Masque-writers, Ixiv Ixxii. 
 
 Keats, appears to imitate Milton, 
 92, 118, 188. 
 
 Lawes, Henry, the composer, his 
 connection with the Egerton 
 family and with Milton, xxx 
 xxxiii ; his edition of Comus, 
 xxxiii xxxiv ; account of his 
 life, 6667. 
 
 Locke, composer of Masque-music 
 and operas, Ixxvi. 
 
 Ludlow Castle, Comus performed 
 at, xxxii, 74. 
 
 Macready, acted in Comus, xliv. 
 
 Marseilles... to Genoa, ordinary 
 route to Italy, 72. 
 
 Oldys, related the tradition con- 
 cerning Comus, xxxvi. 
 
 Peele, George, Milton's debt to 
 his Old Wives' Tale, xxxv 
 xxxvi. 
 
 Phillips, Ed ward, Mil ton's nephew, 
 xv, xvii. 
 
 Philostratus, his description of 
 Comus, xxxvii. 
 
 Powell, Mary, Milton's first wife, 
 xvi. 
 
 Prynne, attacked the Masque in 
 Histriomastix, xlvii, Ixxiii. 
 
 Randolph, Thomas,the Cambridge 
 poet, 70 71. 
 
 Rouse, John, Bodley's Librarian, 
 6970. 
 
 Sabrina, story of, 176 177. 
 
 Scudamore, Lord, English am- 
 bassador at Paris, 71, 72. 
 
 Shakespeare, imitated by Milton, 
 
 89. 93. 95. 9 6 > I2 4. '39. 148, 
 
 152, 163164, 171, 178, 193, 
 
 1 98 ; and the Masque, Ixxi 
 
 Ixxii. 
 Shirley, dramatist, his Masque, 
 
 The Triumph of Peace, Ixxiii 
 
 Ixxiv, 91, 192. 
 Siena, 73. 
 Spenser, Milton indebted to his 
 
 Faerie Queene, xxxviii, 155. 
 Sylvester, his translation of Du 
 
 Bartas read by Milton, 52, 167, 
 
 174, 189. 
 
 Welsh, compliment to, 80. 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, his letter to 
 
 Milton, 10 ii ; account of, 
 
 67 69 ; advice to travellers, 73 
 
 74- 
 
 B: CLASSICAL. 
 
 Acheron, 151. 
 
 Adonis, legend of, 195 196. 
 
 Alpheus, 52. 
 
 Amphitrite, 189. 
 
 Aphrodite, 197. 
 
 Arcadia, 51, 52. 
 Arcady, Star of, 119, 120. 
 Arethusa, 52. 
 Assyrian Queen, 197. 
 Bacchus, 82, 83.
 
 2O6 
 
 II. INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 Charybdis, 1 1 1 . 
 
 Circe, 82 84 j 145. 
 
 Comus, xxxvii, 84. Cocke- 
 ram's Dictionary (1616) has, 
 "Comus, the God of banquet- 
 ting." 
 
 Coinns, the Latin play, xxxvii 
 xxxviii ; extract from, 167. 
 
 Cotytto, or Cotys, 94. 
 
 Cybele, 50, .si. 
 
 Cyllene, 64 ; Cytteniits an epithet 
 of Mercury, 64. 
 
 Cynic philosophy, 161. 
 
 Cynosure, "Tyrian," 119, 120. 
 
 Daphne, 157. 
 
 Destinies, the three daughters of 
 Necessity, 60. 
 
 Dian, type of purity, 133. 
 
 Echo, 106 107. 
 
 Erymanth, 64. 
 
 Euphrosyne, 84. 
 
 Euripides, 75, 119, 161. 
 
 Fata = goddess of destiny (in Low 
 Lat.), 93. 
 
 Glaucus, 184. 
 
 Hades, 79. 
 
 Hoemonia, old name of Thessaly, 
 
 154- 
 
 Hebe, 113. 
 
 Hecate, 95, 145. 
 
 Hesperides, 128, 193. 
 
 Hesperus, 89. 
 
 Homer, references to, that illus- 
 trate COMUS, 78, 82, 86, no, 
 in, 154, 155, 158, 167, 178, 
 182, 183, 184, 185. 
 
 Horace, 81, 94, 154. 
 
 Ino, 184. 
 
 Iris, 87. 
 
 Juvenal, 89, 94, 139. 
 
 Ladon, 63, 64. 
 
 Latona, or Leto, 50. 
 
 Leucothea = the Roman goddess 
 of the dawn, Matuta, 184. 
 
 Ligea, 186. 
 
 Lycreus, 64. 
 
 Majnalus, 64; Micnalins an epi- 
 thet of Pan, 65. 
 
 Meander, 107. 
 
 Melicertes, 184. 
 
 Minerva, Milton's interpretation 
 of the story of the Medusa's 
 head, 134, 135. 
 
 Naiads, in. 
 
 Narcissus, 107. 
 
 Neptune, 182. 
 
 Nereus, 182. 
 
 Nymphs, in. 
 
 Oceanus, 182. 
 
 Orpheus, 141. 
 
 Ovid, 6~,, 134, 155, 175- 
 
 Pan, 64, 65. 
 
 Parthenope, 185, 186. 
 
 Plato, imitated, 59, 137 138. 
 
 Portumnus, 184. 
 
 Poseidon, 182. 
 
 Proteus, 183. 
 
 Psyche, myth of, 197. 
 
 Sarra=Tyre, 165. 
 
 Saturn, the malignant planet, 56. 
 
 Scylla, in. 
 
 Sirens, 59, 1 10. 
 
 Stoics, 161. 
 
 Styx, 95. 
 
 Sylvanus, 112. 
 
 Syrinx, 65. 
 
 Tethys, 182. 
 
 Thessaly, or Hoemonia, the land 
 of Magic, 154. 
 
 Thetis, 184, 185. 
 
 Thyrsis, 140. 
 
 Triton, 183184. 
 
 Vergil, 82, 147, 150, 155, 165, 
 182186, 188.
 
 III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 2O7 
 
 III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 a, Anglo-Saxon prefix, 90, 97. 
 
 absolute case, use of by Milton, 
 124. 
 
 abstract nouns personified, 91. 
 
 accent, French and Teutonic in 
 English, 1 60; instances of pe- 
 culiar accentuation in Milton, 
 106, 112, 129, 136, 138, 141, 
 144, 159, 1 60. 
 
 agate stone, 187. 
 
 age, French termination = Lat. ati- 
 cum, 47. 
 
 Alexandrine metre, 1, 108. 
 
 allegory, tendency to in the Mas- 
 que, liii -liv, Ixviii, 88, 91 ; cf. 
 Lander's remark, "Allegory has 
 
 few attractions being fit for 
 
 little but an apparition in a 
 Mask," Dream of Petrarca. 
 
 alliteration, 54, 55. 
 
 aphesis, 169, 170. 
 
 astronomy, Ptolemaic and Coper- 
 nican systems of, 58. 
 
 an in English = French a, 150. 
 
 blank verse, Milton's, xlvii li. 
 
 blindness, Milton's reference to his 
 own, 126. 
 
 "budge doctor," 161, 162. 
 
 caesura, in Milton's blank verse, li. 
 
 canon law, 174. 
 
 classical names, rarely shortened 
 by Milton, 64. 
 
 cochineal, the insect used as a dye, 
 164, 165. 
 
 compound words, e.g. cttrfeiv, syn- 
 copated by force of accent, 132. 
 
 "confluence of forms," explained, 
 116; possible cases of, 57, 90, 
 
 157- 
 
 d, excrescent, 85, 101. 
 
 dialogue, classical style of a pas- 
 sage of, in Comus, 112, 113. 
 
 Disguisings, a form of Masque, 
 Iviii. 
 
 Dutch words, in English, 53. 
 
 eer, substantival termination = 
 French ier, 130, 131. 
 
 elements, the four, 92. 
 
 elm-tree, inaccurately (?) described, 
 62, 63. 
 
 emeralds, 187. 
 
 enchanted islands, belief in, 143. 
 
 epilogue to Camus, changed by 
 Lawes, 75, 193, 198. 
 
 "etymological spelling," 57, 58. 
 
 g before e or i =y (almost) in A.S., 
 100. 
 
 Genius of the wood, a familiar 
 character in Masques, 5 1 . 
 
 Hecate, scanned as dissyllable, 95. 
 
 heroic metre, used in Comns, its 
 association with pastoral verse, 
 140. 
 
 /, the A.S. long i (i) represented by 
 ee in mod. E, or changed to igk, 
 146. 
 
 Inns of Court, their patronage of 
 the drama, Ivii, Ix; Masques 
 performed by, Ixxii Ixxiv. 
 
 keys of St Peter, 77, 78. 
 
 Latin constructions in Milton, 82, 
 87 ; words used in their classical 
 sense, 130 (infamous), 131 (hor- 
 rid). 
 
 Latin words in Anglo-Saxon, 56. 
 
 Lotos-eaters, Homer's account of 
 imitated by Milton, 86. 
 
 Masque, Italian, liii Ivi; Eng- 
 lish, Ivi Ixxvi. 
 
 Masque-writers, names of some, 
 Ixxvi. 
 
 metaphor, false, 1 10. 
 
 metathesis, instances of, 53, 54, 97. 
 
 "Middle English," term explained, 
 
 54- 
 
 Midsummer Nighfs Dream, a 
 favorite play with Milton, 96, 
 129, 163, 164, 193, 198.
 
 208 
 
 III. GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 mines, inhabited by spirits, 133. 
 misspellings, due to words similar 
 
 in sound, 57, 90, 116, 157. 
 moly, the herb, 154. 
 morris-dance, 92, 93; see also 
 
 Skeat's note on The Two Noble 
 
 Kinsmen, III. 5. 108. 
 music, Milton's use of musical 
 
 terms, 108, 147. 
 octosyllabic metre, much used in 
 
 Masques, 188. 
 Oriental words in English, 86, 
 
 157. 158- 
 Pageants in Italy, liii Ivi; in 
 
 England, Ivi. 
 pearls, found in Welsh rivers, 177, 
 
 178. 
 
 philosophy, praise of, 139. 
 plagiarism, xl. 
 planets, influence of, 56. 
 "poetic diction," 62, 01. 
 "popular etymology, 173, 191. 
 prologue, lines i 92 of Comus a 
 
 prologue in the style of Euri- 
 pides, 7576. 
 q, a Latin letter, 92. 
 repetition, Milton's use of, 106. 
 Revels, at Court, Ivii ; at the Inns 
 
 of Court, Ivii, Ixxiii. 
 rhyme, imperfect, li; apparently 
 
 irregular, 53, 142. 
 rhythm suiting the sense, 87, 119. 
 
 "rushy-fringed," an instance of 
 the "literary compound," 187. 
 
 Scandinavian element in English 
 language, 160; words with ini- 
 tial sk, 151, 153; with final g 
 or gg, 1 60. 
 
 Solitude, Cowley's Essay on, 124, 
 125. 
 
 Spanish words in French, 136, 
 158- 
 
 sphere-music, 59, 61. 
 
 terminations, adjectival and par- 
 ticipial, used irregularly, 88, 
 121, 172; adjectival endings in 
 cl or le often changed to ed or 
 - f ^> J33. ! 34> the ending ion in 
 substantives treated as two syl- 
 lables, 164. This was common 
 in Tudor, and invariable in Mid- 
 dle E. See Skeat's note on The 
 Two Noble Kinsmen, p. 136. 
 
 theotvn, obsolete idiom = 'its own,' 
 109. 
 
 turquoise, why so called, 187. 
 
 v for/in Southern dialects, 113. 
 
 verbs, strong conjugation changing 
 to weak, 135, 150, 151. 
 
 iv wrongly prefixed to h and r, 
 129, 173. 
 
 white witches, belief in, 132. 
 
 \Vill-o'-the-Wisp, reference to, 
 
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