Note 37 — Chapter IV · ULYSSES TELLS HIS STORY TO ALCINOUS.
Reading edition
So the Spirit, in Milton’s “Comus,” gives to the brother of the Lady a sure antidote to the spell of the enchanter (himself represented as a son of Circe):—
“Among the rest a small unsightly root, But of divine effect, he culled me out; The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on’t, 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 med’cinal is it than that Moly That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.”