bring along in silence, as when one beckons and says "Hist!" 159. dragon yoke: Milton invents his own mythology here, as often elsewhere; it was Ceres, not Cynthia, who was drawn by dragons.

(349) 83. The night-watchman, as he patrolled the streets, formerly rang a bell; in addition to crying the hours he often recited a rhymed benediction, or charm, against mishaps; see Herrick's "Bellman," p. 284. ¶87. outwatch the Bear: sit up all night, since this constellation (which contains the pole star) never sets in northern latitudes. Cf. Milton's Second Defence of the English People (Bohn translation): "My appetite for knowledge was so voracious, that from twelve years of age, I hardly ever left my studies or went to bed before midnight;" also "Lycidas," ll. 29-31, p. 379. ¶88. thrice-great Hermes: a semi-mythical Egyptian philosopher and magician, Thot, the reputed author of many philosophical and mystical books, most of them really the work of the neo-Platonists of the fourth century A. D.; the Greeks identified him with their god of learning, Hermes, whom they called Trismegistus, or "thrice-great." ¶88, 89. unsphere The spirit of Plato: bring back Plato from the region where his soul now is, by reading his books on immortality. 03. The construction is loose. Masson connects "And of those demons" with "unfold" (1. 89) by supplying "tell" understood. But it seems better to think of the connection as still looser, and understand, "read" or some such word, co-ordinate with "outwatch" (1.87) and "unsphere" (1.88), for the demons spoken of are not described in Plato but are mediaeval conceptions; we then get three classes of books read-those attributed to Hermes, Plato's works, and mediaeval books on demonology. 95. consent="feeling with," sympathetic relation (the original Latin sense). "The demons are in sympathetic relation with certain planets and elements; e. g., one [mediaeval] writer made 'seven kinds of aethereal spirits, or angels, according to the number of the seven planets, and in Paradise Regained, II, Milton represents the fallen angles as presiding, under Satan, as powers over earth, air, fire, and water, and causing storms and disasters."-Bell. ¶ 98. sceptred pall: a reference to the scepters and robes of the kings who are usually the prominent characters in Greek tragedy. ¶99, 100. The lines name three of the great sources from which Greek dramatists drew their subjects: Aeschylus wrote a tragedy called The Seven against Thebes, and that city is the scene of Sophocles' Edipus Rex and Antigone; Pelops was the ancestor of Agamemnon, and the fortunes of his line furnished subjects for many plays; incidents connected with the Trojan war were treated dramatically by Sophocles and Euripides. Troy is called divine because its walls were built by Poseidon and it was under the special protection of Pallas. ¶ 102. buskined: the buskin is the symbol of tragedy, because Greek actors when playing tragedy wore a buskin, or high-heeled shoe. ¶ 104. Musaeus: a semimythical Greek musician and poet. ¶ 105-8. See note on "L'Allegro," ll. 145-50, p. 483. ¶ 109. The reference is to Chaucer and his unfinished "Squire's Tale." Cambuscan was king of Tartary; Camball and Algarsife were his sons; Canace was his daughter; the horse of brass, given to Cambuscan by the king of Arabia and India, could fly through the air; a magic ring and mirror were given to Canace, the ring enabling the wearer to understand the language of birds and the medicinal value of herbs, and the mirror revealing the secrets of the future. ¶ 116-20. The allusion is to such poets as Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, whose poems are full of romantic adventure conveying moral lessons, sometimes in the form of allegory (see l. 120). Cf. Milton's Apology for Smectymnuus (1642): "Next. . . . that I may tell ye whither my younger feet wandered, I betook me among those lofty fables and romances, which recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood founded by our victorious kings and from hence had in renown over all Christendom." ¶ 118. turneys tournaments. trophies hung: it was the custom for knights to hang up as trophies the arms and other spoil taken from their opponents in fight. ¶ 121. pale: the adjective, which is transferred by poetic license from "Night" to "career," here denotes nerely the absence of color. ¶ 122. civil-suited: wearing quiet-colored clothes, like those of a civilian, in contrast to the brilliant uniform of a soldier.

=

=

(350) 123. trickt dressed in fine clothes; cf. "tricked out." frounced having the hair frizzled or curled; "flounced" is another form of the same word. ¶ 124. the Attic boy:

Cephalus, a beautiful youth, beloved by Aurora. ¶ 125. kerchieft=having the head covered (Old French "covrir," to cover, "chef," head). ¶ 128. his=its. ¶ 141. garish staring (O. E. "gare," to stare; "gaze" is a variant form from the same root). 142-46. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi. 602-4:

Saxo tamen exit ab imo

Rivus aquae Lethes, per quem cum murmure labens
Invitat somnos crepitantibus unda lapillis.

"Yet from the depth of a rock issues the course of Lethe's water, and the wave, gliding through it with a murmur, invites sleep by a tinkling of little stones." Cf. also Virgil's Eclogues, i. 53-55

Saepes

Hyblaeis apibus florem depasta salicti,

Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro.

"The willow-hedge, whose flower is fed on by Hyblaean bees, will often, with its light humming, induce sleep to come on." Cf. also Drayton's Owl (1604):

See the small brooks as through these groves they travel,
With the smooth cadence of their murmuring;

Each bee with honey laden to the thigh.

¶ 145. consort=company, i. e., other sounds that accompany the sound of the waters. 147-50. Two meanings are possible: the dream may be waving to and fro near the wings of Sleep; or the dream may be waving its own wings to and fro. In either case, “wave at❞ must be taken in a somewhat unusual sense; but the first interpretation is on the whole the better. 149. lively-lifelike, vivid. ¶ 156. pale inclosure; cf. "palings." ¶ 158. massy= massive. proof: "Proof against (=able to bear) the enormous weight of the roof."-Hales. ¶ 159. storied windows: stained-glass windows having figures on them representing scenes from the Bible and from sacred legend. dight = adorned.

(351) 170. spell = make a study of; literally, read slowly and carefully.

(351) AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. ¶ 1. pledges: either "offspring," heavenly joy giving birth to music and verse (cf. "pledges of love," as applied to children), or "assurances,” i. e., the delight of song and poetry are a foretaste of the joys of heaven. The second meaning harmonizes with the main thought of the poem, and is probably the right one. ¶2. Sphere-born: born of the spheres; see note on "turning sphere," p. 479, and Comus, l. 241, p. 490. ¶6. concent=harmony (Latin "concentus," singing together). ¶ 10. burning: in the Cambridge MS, in Milton's hand, are two other readings-"tripled" and "princely." ¶II. Cambridge MS, variant readings: "loud symphonie of silver trumpets blow;" "high lifted loud arch-angell trumpets blow." ¶ 14-16. Cambridge MS, canceled readings:

wth those just spirits that weare the blooming palmes

hymnes devout & sacred Psalmes

singing everlastingly

while all the starrie rounds & arches blue

resound and eccho Hallelu

19, 20, Cambridge MS, canceled reading:

by leaving out those harsh chromatick jarres

of sin, that all our musick marres.

23. diapason: harmony. Diapason, literally "through all" (Greek Stà, through, wâs, all), is the octave, covering all the notes of the scale, and notes sounded at an octave's distance from each other are always in harmony; cf. "in tune with heaven," 1. 26.

(352) 27. consort=company; perhaps there is a punning glance also at 'concert," which was then often spelt "consort." 28. Cambridge MS, canceled readings: "To live & sing wth him in ever-endlesse light;" "ever-glorious light;" "uneclipsed light;" "where day dwells wthout night;" "in endlesse morne of light;" "in never parting light."

(352) COMUS. "A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, on Michaelmasse night, before the Right Honorable, Iohn, Earle of Bridgewater, Vicount Brackly, Lord Praesident of Wales, and one of His Maiesties most honorable Privie Counsell."-Title-page of the 1637 edition. The Earl of Bridgewater was appointed Lord President of Wales in 1631, but seems not to have entered actively upon the duties of the office until 1633 or later; and this mask, on September 29, 1634, may have been part of the festivities attending his formal inauguration. The mask was given in the great hall of the castle, a room sixty feet long by thirty wide, and must have been witnessed by a brilliant assemblage. Henry Lawes, who wrote the music, was one of the most eminent composers in England at the time, and had recently written music for two great court masks, Shirley's Triumph of Peace (1633) and Carew's Caelum Britannicum (1634); he was general manager of Comus, and also took the part of the attendant spirit. The part of the lady was taken by the Earl's daughter, Lady Alice Egerton, then fourteen or fifteen years old. Her two brothers, Viscount Brackley, and Thomas Egerton, aged about thirteen and twelve years respectively, played the elder brother and the second brother. It is not known who took the parts of Comus and Sabrina. It was natural that Milton, although then unknown to the world, should have been invited to write the libretto: Lawes and he were friends, having doubtless met at the house of Milton's father, who was himself a musician of some note; and Lawes, who was tutor in music to the Earl of Bridgewater's family, had already got the young poet to write the words for a little mask, Milton's Arcades, given shortly before in honor of the Countess-Dowager of Derby, step-mother to the Earl.

There is an old tradition that the central incident of the masque, the losing of the lady in the wood, was based upon a real experience of Lady Alice; but, as Masson remarks, it is probable that the tradition grew up out of the masque itself. Some literary sources of Comus may be indicated. The conception of Comus and his enchantments evidently was based on the Homeric account of Circe: "In the forest glades they found the halls of Circe builded, of polished stone, in a place with wide prospect. And all around the palace mountain-bred wolves and lions were roaming, whom she herself had bewitched with evil drugs that she gave them. Yet the beasts did not set on my men, but, lo, they ramped about them and fawned on them, wagging their long tails. . . . So she led them in, and set them upon chairs and high seats, and made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned there weeping."-Odyssey, x. 210-41, Butcher and Lang's translation. Cf. The Faerie Queene, II. xii. st. 84-87. Comus himself (Greek κŵμos, a revel) was an invention of the later classical mythology; and Philostratus, an author of the third century A. D., pictures him as "drunk and languid after a repast." Hendrik van der Putten, a Dutchman, wrote a Latin work, in prose and verse, called "Comus," first published about 1608, republished in 1611 and again (at Oxford) in 1634; it describes the palace of Comus and a banquet and orgies there, during which an old man harangues on the hollowness of such pleasures. Jonson's mask, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (acted in 1619, published in 1641), has an anti-mask of Comus and his attendants, whose entry is thus described: "A grove of ivy at his [Altas'] feet; out of which, to a wild music of cymbals, flutes, and tabors is brought forth Comus, the god of Cheer, or the Belly, riding in triumph, his head crowned with roses and other flowers, his hair curled " The wide difference between this Comus and Milton's is emphasized by the hymn sung to him, the opening lines of which are these:

Room! room! make room for the bouncing Belly,
First father of sauce and deviser of jelly;
Prime master of arts and the giver of wit,

That found out the excellent engine the spit.

But the closing lines of the mask, in praise of virtue, as Professor Sampson has remarked, are not far from the spirit of Comus;

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

Browne's Inner Temple Mask (acted in 1615, but not published until the eighteenth century) has an anti-mask of Circe's monsters. In plot there are several striking similarities between Comus and Peele's Old Wives' Tale (1595): in the latter, two brothers seek their sister, who has been carried off by a wizard; they call on Echo to tell where she is; by the aid of a dead man's spirit, the wizard is overpowered, and the sister, who is found seated and entranced, is released. Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess (acted in 1608, and revived in London in 1633) is ike Comus in its theme-the praise of virginity and its inviolability—and in the sweetness and grace of its style and verse.

1. In the Bridgewater MS, which was the acting copy and was preserved in the family, the mask begins with ll. 976-83, 988-99 (with many variant readings), which were cleverly adapted to the prologue by changing the first words to "From the heavens"; then followed the present opening lines. 4. After this line there occur in the Cambridge MS these canceled lines:

==

=

amidst the Hespian gardens on whose bancks

bedew'd wth nectar, & celestiall songs
aeternall roses grow, & hyacinth yeeld

& fruits of golden rind, on whose faire tree
the scalie-harnest dragon ever keeps
his uninchanted eye, & round the verge
& sacred limits of this blisfull Isle
the jealous ocean that old river winds
his farre-extended armes till wth steepe fall
halfe his wast flood ye wide Atlantique fills
& halfe the slow unfadom'd Stygian poole
but soft I was not sent to court yor wonder
wth distant worlds, & strange removed clim
yet thence I come and oft fro thence behold

17. pestered shackled (Low Latin "impastoriare," old French "empestrer," to shackle as a horse in a "pasture'). pinfold = pound, inclosure for cattle. 10. mortal change: death. 13. golden key: cf. "Lycidas," ll. 110, 111, p. 381. ¶ 16. ambrosial-heavenly (Greek außpórios, immortal; cf. "ambrosia," the food of the immortals). weeds = garments. ¶ 17. mould = earth. 18-20. When the older dynasty of gods was overthrown, Jove became sovereign of the sky, Pluto of the underworld, and Neptune of the sea. ¶ 21. Cambridge MS, canceled reading, "the rule and title." ¶ 28. the main: Cambridge MS, "his empire ¶29. quarters allots. blue-haired: blue was the distinctive color of the old Britons, who painted their bodies with a blue pigment before going into battle; but it is probable that the word (like "sapphire," 1. 26) is used merely with reference to the color of the sea (cf. Ovid's phrase, used of sea-gods, "caerulei dii''). ¶ 30. this tract: Wales.

(353) 33. An old and haughty nation: the Welsh, descended from the Britons, who occupied the island before the coming of the Angles and Saxons. proud in arms: cf. Virgil Eneid, i. 21, "belloque superbum"; the Britons showed dogged courage in fight against the Angles and Saxons, and earlier against the Romans. ¶35. state: stately pomp and ceremonies connected with his new office. 37. perplext = entangled, intricate. ¶38. horror: Milton regularly uses this word in its original Latin sense of something bristling with rough points, shaggy, and therefore inspiring fear. ¶41. quick: securing immediate action. ¶ 45hall. ... bower: the great assembly room and the private apartments of a castle. ¶48. A

Latin construction for "after the transformation of the Tuscan mariners." The Tuscan mariners were pirates who captured Bacchus off the coast of Etruria, a district- of northern Italy; the god drove them into madness by changing the masts and oars into serpents and himself into a lion, and they leaped into the sea and were transformed into dolphins. ¶ 49. Tyrrhene Etruscan, Etrurian. ¶ 60. Celtic and Iberian fields: France and Spain. ¶ 65. orient=bright, clear; from "orient," as meaning the east, either because the light dawns there, or because the brightest and purest gems, especially pearls, came from the East. 67. fond-foolish; in the Cambridge MS, canceled reading, "weake." ¶ 71. ounce: a kind of small leopard.

(354) 83. Iris': Iris was the Greeks' personification of the rainbow. 88. faithfidelity; i. e., he is as faithful in his duty as he is gifted in music. 89-91. The meaning is that the shepherd, because of his occupation as watcher of the sheep on the mountain, is the likeliest person to be in this place and ready to give aid on this occasion; hence his presence would not excite surprise. ¶92. viewless=invisible. ¶96. His-its. ¶97. Atlantic stream: the ancients conceived of the ocean as a river flowing around the world. ¶99. dusky: Cambridge MS, canceled reading, "northren." ¶ 100, 101. The ancients thought of the sun as traveling eastward, under the earth, during the night. 105. rosy twine: the Greeks entwined roses in their hair at feasts.

(355) 110. saws = moral maxims. ¶113. spheres: see note on "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," l. 48, p. 479. ¶ 116. morrice: a dance; the word is a corruption of "Moorish," the dance coming from Spain, where the Moors once prevailed. ¶ 117. shelves-flat ledges. 118. pert=lively, nimble; "perk" is an allied form. dapper = quick. ¶ 121. wakes-night revels; a wake was originally a celebration on the eve of a saint's day or other church festival (cf. "The Wake," p. 280). ¶ 129. Cotytto: a Thracian goddess, worshiped in parts of Greece; her rites were licentious. ¶ 132. spets spits. 133. Cambridge MS, "and makes a blot of nature." ¶ 134. cloudy: Cambridge MS, "polisht." ¶ 135. Hecat': see note on The Faerie Queene, I. i. l. 174, p. 434. ¶ 139. nice=fastidious, squeamish. ¶ 140. cabined loophole: a reference to the scantiness of the first light of dawn, as if the light came through a small opening; "cabin" was used of any confined space. ¶ 141. descry=reveal, betray; literally, cry out (Old French "decryer," proclaim). ¶ 142. solemnity: rite, ceremony; there is no suggestion of seriousness. The word comes from Latin "solus," complete, "annus," year; hence "solemnity" means a celebration at the end of a year or other period, then any ceremonies or rites. ¶ 144. fantastic-guided by fancy alone, unrestrained.

(356) 151. trains = artifices; the fundamental idea is of a series of cunningly arranged steps that lead the victim on into the trap. ¶ 154. dazzling: Cambridge MS, "powder'd." ¶ 157. quaint: perhaps "strange, unusual, fantastic," but it may mean "elegant," "artfully made," the point being that the lady would not expect to meet one so attired in this wild wood. habits=garments. ¶ 161. glozing = flattering (Greek yλwoσa, tongue, speech). ¶ 165. virtue -power; cf "by virtue of." ¶ 167. gear = business; originally, preparation, making ready (O. E. "gearu," ready). ¶ 168. fairly softly. ¶ 175. granges = granaries. ¶ 181. mazes tangled: Cambridge MS, canceled reading, "alleys :.. arched." (357) 189. sad serious, grave; perhaps, sober-suited. votarist: one who has taken a religious vow. palmer's: pilgrims who had been to the Holy Land carried palm-branches, symbols of victory. weed garment. 204. single only. ¶ 207. Cf. Hamlet, I. iv. 58 ff. ¶208, 209. Cf. The Tempest, I. ii. 376 ff. ¶ 213-15. Cf. I Cor. 13:13, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity"; Milton's change of charity to chastity was necessitated by his theme. ¶ 221-25. Cf. Ovid, Fasti, v. 545: "Fallor? an arma sonant? non fallimur: arma sonabant;" 'Am I deceived? are arms sounding? we are not deceived: arms were sounding."

(358) 231. airy shell: the atmosphere, beneath the hollow sphere of the moon; cf. "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," ll. 102, 103, p. 337. 232. Meander's: the Meander was a river in Asia Minor, famous for its windings; the pertinence of the allusion to it here is not clear, but Hales's explanation is plausible-"the Meander was a famous haunt of swans, and the swan was a favorite bird with the Greek and Latin writers, one to whose sweet singing