NOTES.
Reading edition
discovers, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of ‘discover’ is to find out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix dis- has often the more purely negative force of un-: hence discover = uncover, reveal. Comp.—
“Some high-climbing hill Which to his eye discovers unaware The goodly prospect of some foreign land.” Par. Lost, iii. 546.
Attendant Spirit descends. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the plot. The opening of Comus prepares the audience and also directly addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6.
1. starry threshold, etc. Comp. Virgil: “The sire of gods and monarch of men summons a council to the starry chamber” (sideream in sedem), Aen. x. 2.
5. this dim spot. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted.
6. There are here two attributive clauses: “which men call Earth” and “(in which) men strive,” etc. low-thoughted care; narrow-minded anxiety, care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective ‘low-browed,’ L’Alleg. 8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in his Eloisa.
8. frail and feverish. Comp. “life’s fitful fever” (Macbeth, iii. 2. 23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative.
9. crown that Virtue gives. This is Scriptural language: comp. Rev. iv. 4; 2 Tim. iv. 8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.”
11. enthroned gods, etc. In allusion to Rev. iv. 4, “And upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold.” Milton frequently speaks of the inhabitants of heaven as enthroned. The accent here falls on the first syllable of the word.
13. their just hands. ‘Just’ belongs to the predicate: ‘to lay their just hands’ = to lay their hands with justice. golden key. Comp. Matt. xvi. 19, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; also Lyc. 111:
“Two massy keys he bore of metals twain (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).”
15. errand: comp. Par. Lost, iii. 652, “One of the seven Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his swift errands”: also vii. 579. but for such, i.e. unless it were for such.
18. But to my task, i.e. but I must proceed to my task: see l. 1012.
24. to grace, i.e. to show favour to: a clause of purpose.
26. sapphire. This colour is again associated with the sea in line 29: see note there.
27. little tridents, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, “with his trident touched the stars” (Neptune’s Triumph, Proteus’ Song, Ben Jonson).
28. greatest and the best. Comp. Shakespeare’s eulogy in Rich. II. ii. 1: also Ben Jonson’s “Albion, Prince of all his Isles,” Neptune’s Triumph, Apollo’s Song.
“Sailors quarter’d Heaven, and found a name For every fixt and ev’ry wandering star.”
Some would take the word as strictly denoting division into four parts: “at that time the island was actually divided into four separate governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords President of the North and of Wales.” (Keightley). blue-haired deities. These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little tridents (line 27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the complimentary nature of lines 30-36. Regarding the epithet ‘blue-haired’ Masson asks: “Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his subordinates”: in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deities caerulei dii, and Neptune caeruleus deus, thus associating blue with the sea.
33. An old and haughty nation. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who probably first entered Britain about B.C. 500: they are therefore rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson’s piece For the Honour of Wales:
“I is not come here to taulk of Brut, From whence the Welse does take his root,” etc.
That they were haughty and ‘proud in arms’ the Romans found, and after them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the Barons was: “We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and rights.” By a statute of Henry VIII. this ‘haughty’ people were put in possession of the same rights and liberties as the English. proud in arms: this is Virgil’s belloque superbum, Aen. i. 21 (Warton).
54. clustering locks: comp. l. 608. Milton here pictures the Theban Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp. L’Alleg. 16, “ivy-crowned Bacchus”; Par. Lost, iv. 303; Sams. Agon. 569.
55. his blithe youth, i.e. his fresh young figure.
57. ‘A son much like his father, but more like his mother.’ This may indicate that it is upon Comus’s character as a sorcerer rather than as a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp. Masque of Hymen:
“Much of the father’s face, More of the mother’s grace.”
72. All other parts, etc. In the Odyssey (see note on l. 52) the bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see Stage direction, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun (‘parts’) is neither the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some attributive adjunct—generally a participle (‘remaining’)—to serve the purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In Old English the dative was used.
74. Not once perceive, etc. This was not the case with the followers of Ulysses: see note, l. 52.
76. friends and native home forgot. Circe’s cup has here the effect ascribed to the lotus in Odyssey ix. “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.” In Tennyson’s Lotos-Eaters there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: “Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave.” Masson also refers to Plato’s ethical application of the story (Rep. viii.); “Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity.” Compare also Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 86, “One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to natural.”
77. sensual sty: see note on l. 52. To those who, “with low-thoughted care,” are “unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,” the world becomes little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to forget.
78. favoured: compare Lat. gratus = favoured (adj.).
“Swift as a shooting star In autumn thwarts the night.”
The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense.
84. weeds: see note, l. 16.
86. smooth-dittied: sweetly-worded. ‘Ditty’ (Lat. dictatum) strictly denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. Lyc. 32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes’ musical genius compare Son. xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted.
87. knows to still, etc.: comp. Lyc. 10, “he knew Himself to sing.”
“Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name.”— In Memoriam, cxxi.
Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic.
94. top of heaven, etc., i.e. is far above the horizon. So in Lyc. 31, it is said to slope “toward heaven’s descent,” i.e. to sink towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, Aen. ii. 250, “Round rolls the sky, and on comes Night from the ocean.”
95. gilded car: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. Comp. Chaucer, Test. of Creseide, 208, “Phoebus’ golden cart”; and “Phoebus’ wain,” line 190.
99. dusky. Milton first wrote ‘northern.’
102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of L’Allegro, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of L’Allegro begin with the sun-rise and yet are “unreproved”; those of Comus and his crew begin with the darkness and are “unreproved” only if “these dun shades will ne’er report” them. The “light fantastic toe” of the one is not the “tipsy dance” of the other; and the laughter and liberty that betoken the absence of “wrinkled Care” have nothing in common with the “midnight shout and revelry” that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have “gone to bed.” The “quips and cranks” of L’Allegro have given way to the magic rites of Comus, and the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth are ill replaced by the wine-dropping “rosy twine” of revelry.
105. Braid your locks with rosy twine; ‘entwine your hair with wreaths of roses.’
106. dropping odours: comp. l. 862-3.
111. of purer fire, i.e. having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the Stoics held that whatever consisted of pure fire was divine, e.g. the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112.
“There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins,” etc.
Quire is a form of choir (Lat. chorus, a band of singers); in Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the audience. Quire (of paper) is a totally different word, probably derived from Lat. quatuor, four.
114. Lead in swift round. Comp. Arc. 71: “And the low world in measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune.”
117. shelves, flat ledges of rock.
124. Venus now wakes, etc. Spenser, Brit. Ida, ii. 3, has “Night is Love’s holyday.” In this line wakens is used transitively, its object being ‘Love.’
126. daylight ... sin. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in Par. Lost, i. 500, “When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial.”
131. called, invoked. dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness. The Styx (= ‘the abhorred’) was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. Par. Lost, i. 63. The pronoun ‘her’ shows that ‘womb’ is here used in its strict sense, but in Par. Lost, i. 673, “in his womb was hid metallic ore,” it has the more general sense of “interior”: comp. the use of Lat. uterus, Aen. ii. 258, vii. 499. dragon: Shakespeare refers to the dragons or ‘dragon car’ of night, Cym. ii. 2. 48, “Swift, swift, you dragons of the night”; Tro. and Cress. v. 8. 17, “The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth”; see also Il Pens. 59, “Cynthia checks her dragon yoke.”
133. one blot, i.e. a universal blot: comp. Macbeth, ii. 2. 63. Milton first wrote, “And makes a blot of nature.”
136. utmost end, full completion. Compare L’Alleg. 109, “the corn That ten day-labourers could not end,” where ‘end’ = ‘complete.’
137. dues: see note, l. 12.
138. blabbing eastern scout, i.e. the tale-telling spy that comes from the East, viz. Morning.
“The thick-locked boughs shut out the tell-tale sun, For Venus hated his all-blabbing light.”
Shakespeare refers to “the tell-tale day” (R. of L. 806). In Odyssey, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed Vulcan of Venus’s love for Mars. descry, etc., i.e. make known our hidden rites. ‘Descry’ is here used in its primary sense = describe: both words are from Lat. describere, to write fully. In Milton and Shakespeare ‘descry’ also occurs in the sense of ‘to reconnoitre.’
143. knit hands, etc. Comp. Masque of Hymen:
“Now, now begin to set Your spirits in active heat; And, since your hands are met, Instruct your nimble feet, In motions swift and meet, The happy ground to beat.”
At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in octosyllabic couplets.
145. different, i.e. different from the voluptuous footing of Comus and his crew.
146. footing: comp. Lyc. 103, “Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow.”
153. Thus I hurl, etc. “Conceive that at this moment of the performance the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is powdered spells; but Milton, by a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, substituted dazzling” (Masson).
158. suspicious flight: flight due to suspicion of danger.
“So glozed the temper, and his proem tuned: Into the heart of Eve his words made way.”
Gloze is from the old word glose, a gloss or explanation (Gr. glossa, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with gloss = brightness.
166. The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. In the edition of 1673 the reading was:
“I shall appear some harmless villager, And hearken, if I may, her business here. But here she comes, I fairly step aside.”
But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after may, and to change here into hear. In Masson’s text, accordingly, he reads: “And hearken, if I may her business hear.”
184. spreading favour. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.
187. kind hospitable woods: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. As in this line (after such) has the force of a relative pronoun.
188. grey-hooded Even. Comp. “sandals grey,” Lyc. 187; “civil-suited,” Il Pens. 122; both applied to morning.
192. labour ... thoughts, the burden of my thoughts.
195. stole, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is frequent in Elizabethan English. Else, etc. The meaning is: ‘The envious darkness must have stolen my brothers, otherwise why should night hide the light of the stars?’ The clause ‘but for some felonious end’ is therefore to some extent tautological.
197. dark lantern. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; “Vice is like a dark lanthorn, which turns its bright side only to him that bears it.”
“By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:”
also Macbeth, ii. 1. 5, “There’s husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out.” There is here an irregularity of syntax. “That Nature hung in heaven” is a relative clause co-ordinate in sense with the next clause; but by a change of thought the phrase “and filled their lamps” is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. l. 6.
“As imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.“— M. N. D. v. 1. 14.
Compare also Ben Jonson’s Vision of Delight:
“Break, Phant’sie, from thy cave of cloud, And spread thy purple wings; Now all thy figures are allow’d, And various shapes of things: Create of airy forms a stream ... And though it be a waking dream,” etc.
208. syllable, pronounce distinctly.
213. pure-eyed Faith. Comp. Lyc. 81, “those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove”; also the Scriptural words, “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” The maiden, whose safeguard is her purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. ‘pure-eyed,’ ‘white-handed,’ and ‘unblemished.’ The placing of Chastity instead of Charity in the trio is significant: see i. Cor. xiii.
214. hovering angel. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The word ‘hover’ is found frequently in the sense of ‘shelter.’ girt, surrounded. golden wings. In Il Pens. 52, Contemplation “soars on golden wing.”
217. the Supreme Good. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it must exist for God’s purposes. Evil exists for the sake of ‘vengeance’ or punishment.
221. Was I deceived? There is a break in the construction at the end of line 220. The girl’s trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of an unaccusing conscience.
222. her = its. In Latin nubes, a cloud, is feminine.
223. does ... turn ... and casts. Comp. Il Pens. 46, ‘doth diet’ and ‘hears.’ When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due probably to change of thought.
225. tufted grove. Comp. L’Alleg. 78: “bosomed high in tufted trees.”
227. make to be heard. Make = cause.
229. they, i.e. the brothers.
The lady’s song, which has been described as “an address to the very Genius of Sound,” is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers’ notice, and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers.
235. her sad song mourneth, i.e. sings her plaintive melody. ‘Sad song’ forms a kind of cognate accusative.
237. likest thy Narcissus. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in Cynthia’s Revels, i. 1. Grammatically, likest is an adjective qualified adverbially by “(to) thy Narcissus”: comp. Il Pens. 9, “likest hovering dreams.”
238. have hid. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), but the subjunctive mood.
243. give resounding grace, etc., i.e. add the charm of echo to the music of the spheres.
The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more striking owing to the consonance of shell, well with vale, nightingale; also of pair, where with are and sphere; and of have with cave. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration of Milton’s free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical passages.
247. vocal, used proleptically.
251. smoothing the raven down. As the nightingale’s song smooths the rugged brow of Night (Il Pens. 58), so here the song of the lady smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a winged goddess.
252. it, i.e. darkness.
255. baleful, injurious (A.S. balu, evil).
263. waking bliss, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the song of Circe.
265. Hail, foreign wonder! Warton notes that Comus is universally allowed to have taken some of its tints from the Tempest, and quotes, “O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?” i. 2. 426.
267. Unless the goddess, etc. = unless thou be the goddess that in rural shrine dwells here. Here, as often in Latin, we have ‘unless’ (Lat. nisi, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the antecedent.
271. ill is lost. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = male perditur: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to “there is little loss in losing.”
273. extreme shift; last resource. Comp. l. 617.
277. What chance, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer occupy alternate lines: it is called stichomythia, and is admirable when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the Supplices of Euripides). In Samson Agonistes, which is modelled on the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it.
278. An alliterative line.
286. to hit. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. “good to eat,” “deadly to hear,” etc.
287. Imports their loss, etc.: ‘Apart from the present emergency, is the loss of them important?’
291. what time: common in poetry for ‘when’ (Lat. quo tempore). Compare Horace, Od. iii. 6: “what time the sun shifted the shadows of the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen.” laboured: wearied with labour.
292. loose traces. Because no longer taut from the draught of the plough.
297. port, bearing, mien.
302. worshiped. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before -ed.
303. were = would be: subjunctive. like the path to Heaven; i.e. it would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (Matt. vii.) as in Son. ix., “labours up the hill of heavenly Truth.”
315. stray attendance = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in line 274. Comp. Par. Lost, x. 80, “Attendance none shall need, nor train”; xii. 132, “Of herds, and flocks, and numerous servitude” (= servants).
316. shroud, etc. Milton first wrote “within these shroudie limits”: see note, l. 147.
322. honest-offered: see notes, ll. 36, 228.
323. sooner, more readily.
“Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, For that it there most useth to abound.”
“What time the amber morn Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud.”
337. taper; here a vocative, the verb being “visit (thou).”
338. though a rush candle, i.e. ‘though it be only a rush-candle’; a rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil.
343. barred, debarred or barred from.
346. whistle ... lodge, i.e. the sound of the shepherd calling his dog by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in L’Alleg. 63, “the ploughman whistles o’er the furrowed land.”
347. Count ... dames: comp. L’Alleg. 52, “the cock ... Stoutly struts his dames before”; 114, “Ere the first cock his matin rings.” Grammatically, ‘count’ (infinitive) forms with ‘cock’ the complex object of ‘might hear.’
With reference to the word fortune, Max Müller says: “We speak of good and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself fortuna was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans defined fortuna by such adjectives as bona, secunda, prospera, for good; mala or adversa for bad fortune ... Fortuna came to mean something like chance.”
356. What, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: “What (shall be done) if (she be) in wild amazement?”
358. savage hunger. ‘Hunger’ is put by synecdoche for hungry animals.
“The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast of character” (Warton).
361. Grant they be so: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364.
363. Compare Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, “rather bear those ills we have,” etc.; and Pope’s Essay on Man, “Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,” etc.
368. bosoms, holds within itself. The nom. is ‘goodness.’ ‘Peace’ is governed by ‘in,’ l. 367.
369. As that, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to ‘unprincipled’; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by ‘that,’ and in Elizabethan English either by ‘as’ or ‘that.’ Here we have both connectives together. single: see note, l. 204. noise, sound.
371. constant, steadfast.
373. Virtue could see, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines 381-5: comp. Spenser: “Virtue gives herself light through darkness for to wade,” F. Q. i. 1. 12.
375. flat sea: comp. Lyc. 98, “level brine”: Lat. aequor, a flat surface, used of the sea.
376. seeks to, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the English Bible: see Deut. xii. 5, “unto his habitation shall ye seek”; Isaiah, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. Kings, x. 24.
377. her best nurse, Contemplation. The wise man loves contemplation and solitude: comp. Il Penseroso, 51, where “the Cherub Contemplation” is the “first and chiefest” of Melancholy’s companions. In Sidney’s Arcadia, “Solitariness” is “the nurse of these contemplations.”
381. He that has light, etc. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 254: ‘The mind is its own place,’ etc.
385. his own dungeon: comp. Sams. Agon. 156, “Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) The dungeon of thyself.”
396. Compare Chaucer, Doctor’s Tale, 44, “She flowered in virginity, With all humility and abstinence.”
398. unsunned, hidden. Comp. Cym. ii. 5. 13, “As chaste as unsunned snow”; F. Q. ii. 7, “Mammon ... Sunning his treasure hoar.”
405. dog them both, i.e. follow closely upon night and loneliness. Comp. All’s Well, iii. 4. 15, “death and danger dogs the heels of worth.”
407. unownèd, i.e. ‘thinking her to be unowned,’ or ‘as if unowned.’ Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a participle.
419. if Heaven gave it, i.e. even although Heaven gave it.
421. clad in complete steel, i.e. completely armed; comp. Hamlet, i. 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable.
423. trace, traverse, track. unharboured, affording no shelter. Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.
425. sacred rays: comp. l. 782.
431. Be it not: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.
432. Some say, etc. Compare Hamlet, i. 1. 158:
“Some say that, ever against that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad.”
433. In fog or fire, etc. Comp. Il Pens. 93, “those demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or underground”: an allusion to the different orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in his Anat. of Mel., quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds of sublunary spirits—“fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc.”
438. Do ye believe. Ye is properly a second person plural, but (like you) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § 236.
439. old schools of Greece. The brother now turns for his arguments from the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of Greece.
441. Dian. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was insensible to the bolts of Cupid, i.e. to the power of love. She was the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in Cynthia’s Revels, v. 1, “Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,” etc.
442. silver-shafted queen. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which were frequently called shafts, and as the latter she bore shafts or rays of light. Shaft is etymologically ‘a shaven rod.’ In Chaucer, C. T. 1364, ‘shaft’ = arrow.
447. snaky-headed Gorgon shield. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. Minerva (Athene) placed the monster’s head in the centre of her shield, which confounded Cupid: see Par. Lost, ii. 610.
451. dashed, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.
454. so, i.e. chaste.
457. vision: a trisyllable.
459. oft converse, frequent communion. Oft is here used adjectively: this use is common in the English Bible, e.g. i. Tim. v. 23, “thine often infirmities.”
462. the soul’s essence. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul’s immortality.
465. most, above all.
467. soul grows clotted. This doctrine is expounded in Plato’s Phaedo, in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes:
Socrates (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world—to the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this true, Cebes?
Cebes. Yes; beyond a doubt.
Soc. 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 and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts—the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be attained only by philosophy;—do you suppose that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed?
Ceb. That is impossible.
Soc. She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual association and constant care of the body have wrought into her nature.
Ceb. Very true.
Soc. And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty and earthy, and is that element 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.
Ceb. That is very likely, Socrates.
Soc. Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives.
Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says:
Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the soul to the body, until she becomes like the body, and believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the body.—Extracted from Jowett’s Translation of the Dialogues.
469. divine property. In his prose works Milton calls the soul ‘that divine particle of God’s breathing’: comp. Horace, Sat. ii. 2. 79, “affigit humo divinae particulam aurae”; and Plato’s Phaedo, “The soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal.”
473. As loth, etc. The construction is: ‘As (being) loth to leave the body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and degraded state.’ it: by syntax this pronoun refers to ‘shadows,’ or (in thought) ‘such shadow.’ It seems best, however, to connect it with ‘soul,’ line 467.
474. sensualty. The modern form of the word is sensuality.
475. degenerate and degraded: the former because ‘imbodied,’ the latter because ‘imbruted.’
476. divine Philosophy, i.e. such philosophy as is to be found in “the divine volume of Plato” (as Milton has called it).
478. Apollo’s lute: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. Par. Reg. i. 478-480; L. L. L. iv. 3. 342, “as sweet and musical As bright Apollo’s lute, strung with his hair.”
487. Best draw: we had best draw our swords.
489. Defence is a good cause, etc., i.e. ‘in defending ourselves we are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.’
491. you fall, etc., i.e. otherwise you will fall on our swords.
493. sure: see note, l. 246.
496. huddling. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: comp. Horace, Ars Poetica, 19, “Et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros.” madrigal: a pastoral or shepherd’s song (Ital. mandra, a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and by Milton’s father.
501. and his next joy, i.e. ‘and (thou), his next joy’—words addressed to the second brother.
503. stealth of, things stolen by.
506. To this my errand, etc., i.e. in comparison with this errand of mine and the anxiety it involved. ‘To’ = in comparison with; an idiom common in Elizabethan English, e.g. “There is no woe to this correction,” Two Gent. ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187.
512. Prithee. A familiar fusion of I pray thee, sometimes written ‘pr’ythee.’ Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.
513. ye: a dative. See note on l. 216.
514. shallow. Comp. Son. i. 6, “shallow cuckoo’s bill,” xiia. 12; Arc. 41, “shallow-searching Fame.”
515. sage poets. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the chimera. Milton (Par. Lost, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as “taught by the heavenly Muse.” Comp. L’Alleg. 17; Il Pens. 117, “great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung.”
523. witcheries, enchantments.
532. bottom glade: the glade below. The word bottom, however, is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of ‘valley’; hence ‘bottom glade’ might be interpreted ‘glade in the valley.’
535. Hecate: see l. 135.
536. bowers: see note, l. 45.
543. sat me down: see note, l. 61.
545. flaunting, showy, garish. In Lyc. 146, the poet first wrote ‘garish columbine,’ then ‘well-attired woodbine.’
552. unusual stop. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the “soft and solemn-breathing sound” to l. 230.
554. Sleep (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. Macbeth, ii. l. 51, “curtained sleep.”
555. ‘The lady’s song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could always be filled by such music.’ Comp. Par. Lost, iv. 604, “She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleased”; also Jonson’s Vision of Delight:
“Yet let it like an odour rise To all the senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, Or music in their ear.”
558. took, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of take, and compare ‘forsook,’ line 499, for the form of the word.
561. create a soul, etc., i.e. breathe life even into the dead: comp. L’Alleg. 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in an old edition of Quarles’ Emblems, in which “a soul in the figure of an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its prison.” Rom. vii. 24, “Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?”
567. How sweet ... how near. This sentence contains two exclamations: this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is “How sweet ... and how near,” etc. We may, however, render the line thus: “How sweet..., how near the deadly snare is!”
569. often trod by day, which I have often trod by day, and therefore know well.
572. certain signs: see l. 644.
575. such two: two persons of such and such description.
578. sprung: see note, l. 256.
581. triple knot, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell.
584. “This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry” (Warton). And Todd adds: “Religion here gave energy to the poet’s strains.”
585. safely, confidently. period, sentence.
588. Which erring men call Chance. ‘Erring’ belongs to the predicate; “which men erroneously call Chance.” Comp. Pope, Essay on Man:
“All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see.”
588. this I hold firm. ‘This’ is explained by the next line: “this belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly.”
591. which ... harm, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.
595-7. Gathered like scum, etc. According to one editor, this image is “taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun’s body and after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes it.”
617. As to make this relation, i.e. as to be able to tell this.
619. a certain shepherd lad. This is supposed to refer to Charles Diodati, Milton’s dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poem Epitaphium Damonis, in which he alludes to his friend’s medical and botanical skill:
“There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach Thy friend the name and healing powers of each.” (Cowper’s translation.)
623. beg me sing: see note, l. 304.
626. scrip, wallet.
633. bore. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the plant or the root.
642. pursed it up, etc., i.e. put it in my wallet, though I did not attach much importance to it. little reckoning: comp. Lyc. 116, where the very same phrase occurs.
643. Till now that. Here that = when, the clause introduced by it being explanatory of now (see Abbott, § 284).
651. brandished blade. Comp. Hermes’ advice to Ulysses: “When it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her,” Odyssey, x. break his glass. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess, F. Q. i. 12, stanza 56.
653. But seize his wand. The force of this injunction is shown by lines 815-819.
655. Sons of Vulcan. In the Aeneid (Bk. viii. 252) we are told that Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), “vomited from his throat huge volumes of smoke” when pursued by Hercules, “Faucibus ingentem fumum,” etc.
658. bear: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, § 365). (Stage Direction) puts by: puts on one side, refuses. goes about to rise, i.e. endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use of go about still lingers in the phrase ‘to go about one’s business’; comp. ‘to set about’ anything.
659. but, merely: comp. l. 656. After the conditional clause we have here a verb in the present tense (‘are chained’), a construction which well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer’s spell (see Abbott, § 371).
661. or, as Daphne was, etc. The construction is: ‘if I merely wave this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as Daphne was, that fled Apollo.’ Milton inserts the adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. δάφνη): comp, the story of Syrinx and Pan, referred to in Arc. 106.
662. fled. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, Son. xviii. 14, “fly the Babylonian woe”; Sams. Agon. 1541, “fly The sight of this so horrid spectacle.”
663. freedom of my mind, etc. Comp. Cowper’s noble passage, “He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,” etc. (Task, v. 733).
665. corporal rind: the body, called in Il Pens. 92, “this fleshly nook.”
668. here be all. See note, l. 12.
673. his = its: see note, l. 96.
677. Is of such power, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, ‘That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.’
679. Why ... to yourself. Comp. Shakespeare, Son. i. 8, “Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.”
685. unexempt condition, i.e. a condition binding on all and at all times, a law of human nature.
687. mortal frailty, i.e. weak mortals: abstract for concrete.
688. That. The antecedent of this relative is you, l. 682. See note, l. 2.
693. Was this ... abode? The verb is singular, because ‘cottage’ and ‘safe abode’ convey one idea: see Comus’s words, l. 320. Notice also that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling.
694. aspects: accent on final syllable.
703. good men ... good things. This noble sentiment Milton has borrowed from Euripides, Medea, 618, Κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρος δῶρ᾿ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει “the gifts of the bad man are without profit.” (Newton).
704. that which is not good, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (Rep. iv. 439).
717. To deck: infinitive of purpose.
718. in her own loins, i.e. in the bowels of the earth.
721. pet of temperance, i.e. a sudden and transitory fit of temperance. pulse. So Daniel and his three companions refused the dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water; Dan. i.
722. frieze, coarse woollen cloth.
725. ‘And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature’s bastards’: see Hebrews xii. 8, “If ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
729. strangled, suffocated.
733. emblaze, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference to the sense of emblazon, which is from M.E. blazen, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.
734. bestud with stars. In Milton’s MS. it is ‘bestud the centre with their star-light,’ centre being the ‘centre of the earth.’
“Earthlier happy is the rose distilled Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.”
See also Shakespeare’s first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea in all its subtleties” (Masson).
743. let slip time, i.e. allow time to slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 178. “Let us not slip the occasion.”
747. most, as many as possible.
749. Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for household occupations.
753. tresses. Homer (Odyssey, v. 390) speaks of “the fair-tressed Dawn,” εὐπλόκαμος Ἠώς.
756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus.
757. but that: were it not that.
758. as mine eyes: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. 170.
763. she would her children, etc., i.e. she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; Par. Lost, i. 497-503.
765. Means ... to the good: intends ... for the good.
767. dictate. The accent in Milton’s time was on the first syllable, both in noun and verb. spare Temperance. For Milton’s praises of Temperance comp. Il Pens. 46, “Spare Fast that oft with gods doth diet”; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; Son. xx., etc. “There is much in the Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself—he, the Lady of his college—and we may well believe that the great debate concerning temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet’s own spiritual history.” Dowden’s Transcripts and Studies.
768. If Nature’s blessings were equally distributed instead of being heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, King Lear, iv. 1. 73) “distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.”
776. His praise due paid, i.e. would be duly paid. On due, see note, l. 12. gluttony: abstract for concrete.
779. Crams, i.e. crams himself. There are many verbs in English that may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed, e.g. feed, prepare, change, pour, press, etc.
783. yet to what end? A rhetorical question, = it would be to no purpose.
785. sublime notion and high mystery. In the Apology for Smectymnuus Milton tells of his study of the “divine volume of Plato,” wherein he learned of the “abstracted sublimities” of Chastity and Love: also of his study of the Holy Scripture “unfolding these chaste and high mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
801. set off: comp. Lyc. 80, “set off to the world.”
806. Come, no more! Comus now addresses the lady.
808. canon laws of our foundation, i.e. the established rules of our society. “A humorous application of the language of universities and other foundations” (Keightley).
816. without his rod reversed. This use of the participle is a Latinism: see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of this kind introduced by ‘without’ is in Latin frequently rendered by the ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because ‘without’ also governs ‘mutters.’
821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from the antecedent: see note, l. 2.
825. with moist curb sways: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a numen fluminis or river-deity.
832. his = its: see note, l. 96.
834. pearled wrists, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.
839. the porch. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: comp. Haml. i. 5. 63: “the porches of mine ear”; also the phrase, “the five gateways of knowledge.”
841. quick immortal change: comp. l. 10.
842. Made Goddess, etc. This participial construction is frequent in Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.
844. twilight meadows: comp. “twilight groves,” Il Pens. 133; “twilight ranks,” Arc. 99; Hymn Nat. 188.
852. old swain, i.e. Meliboeus (l. 862). “But neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend” (Masson).
853. clasping charm: see l. 613, 660.
854. warbled song: comp. Arc. 87, “touch the warbled string”; Son. xx. 12, “Warble immortal notes.”
857. This will I try, i.e. to invoke her rightly in song.
871. hoary Nereus: see note, l. 835.
873. scaly Triton’s ... shell. In Lycidas, 89, he is “the Herald of the Sea.” He bore a ‘wreathed horn’ or shell which he blew at the command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He was ‘scaly,’ the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.
876. her son, i.e. Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans with their god of harbours, Portumnus.
“And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest To wait upon him, to the Ocean’s feast.”
‘Tinsel-slippered’ is a paraphrase of this, for ‘tinsel’ is a cloth worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. Etymologically, tinsel is that which glitters or scintillates. On the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton’s compound epithets generally, see Trench, English Past and Present, p. 296.
881. Wherewith = with which. The true adjective clause is “sleeking ... locks” = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is “she sits ... rocks” = seated on ... rocks.
887. bridle in, i.e. restrain.
888. have: subjunctive after till, as frequently in Milton.
891. grows. A singular with two nominatives connected by and: the verb is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent to “the willow with its osiers dank,” osiers being water-willows or their branches. dank, damp: comp. Par. Lost, vii. 441, “oft they quit the dank” (= the water).
895. That ... strays. Milton does not imply that these stones were found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon grows on its banks.
913. of precious cure, of curative power. See note on this use of ‘of,’ l. 155.
914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, e.g. in the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (Aen. vi. 229), in Ovid (Met. iv. 479), in Par. Lost, xi. 416.
916. Next: an adverb modifying ‘touch.’
921. Amphitrite: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea.
923. Anchises line: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who was the son of old Anchises.
924. may ... miss. This verb is optative: so are ‘(may) scorch,’ ‘(may) fill,’ ‘may roll,’ and ‘may be crowned.’
In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, Song ends.
945. gloomy covert wide: see note, l. 207.
946. not many furlongs. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when Comus’s rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change of scene after l. 957. ‘Furlong’ = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the length of a field, and is now a measure of length.
952. jigs, lively dances.
958. Back, shepherds, back! On the rising of the curtain, the stage is occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant Spirit enters with the above words. Enough your play, i.e. we have had enough of your dancing, which must now give way to ‘other trippings.’
963. Mercury (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. πτηνοπέδιλος): his name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement.
965. lawns ... leas. On ‘lawn,’ see note, l. 568: a ‘lea’ is a meadow.
966. This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater.
967. ye: see note, l. 216.
From the heavens now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad field of the sky. There I suck the liquid air All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree. There eternal summer dwells, And west winds, with musky wing, About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia’s balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can show, Yellow, watchet, green, and blue, And drenches oft with Manna dew Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where many a cherub soft reposes.
Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the mask.
976. To the ocean, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the Tempest, v. 1. 88-94, has been frequently pointed out: “Where the bee sucks, there suck I,” etc. Compare also the song of Johphiel in The Fortunate Isles (Ben Jonson): “Like a lightning from the sky,” etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. 1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the Tempest: “Now my charms are all o’erthrown,” etc.
978. day ... eye. Comp. Son. i. 5: “the eye of day”; and Lyc. 26: “the opening eyelids of the Morn.”
979. broad fields of the sky. Comp. Virgil’s “Aëris in campis latis,” Aen. vi. 888.
982. Hesperus: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had three daughters—Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their sweet song. In Milton’s MS. Hesperus is written over Atlas: Spenser makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in Pleasure reconciled to Virtue.
989. musky ... fling. Compare Par. Lost, viii. 515: “Fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub.” In this passage the verb fling is similarly used. ‘Musky’ = fragrant: comp. ‘musk-rose,’ l. 496.
992. Iris ... humid bow: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to the rainbow.
1003, 4. far above ... advanced. These words are to be read together: ‘advanced’ is an attribute to ‘Cupid,’ and is modified by ‘far above.’
“The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.”
Comp. also Lyc. 170, “with new-spangled ore.” ‘Sheen’ is here used as a noun, as in line 893; also in Hymn Nat. 145, “throned in celestial sheen”: Epitaph on M. of W. 73, “clad in radiant sheen.” The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. “her dainty corse so fair and sheen,” F. Q. ii. 1. 10. In the line “By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen” (M. N. D. ii. l. 29) it is doubtful whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective sheeny (Death of Fair Infant, 48).
“In other part, the expansive vault above, And there too, even there the god of love; With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn.” Cowper’s translation.
1007. among: preposition governing ‘gods.’
1008. make: subjunctive after ‘till.’ Its nominative is ‘consent.’
1011. Youth and Joy. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of Cupid and Psyche, but she is “the daughter late,” i.e. she is possible only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004.
1012. my task, i.e. the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an adverbial clause = Now that (or because) my task is smoothly done.
1013. The Spirit’s task being finished he is free to soar where he pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom.
1014. green earth’s end. The world as known to the ancients did not extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. Par. Lost, viii. 630:
“But I can now no more; the parting sun Beyond the earth’s green Cape and Verdant Isles Hesperean sets, my signal to depart.”
“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.”
1022, 3. if Virtue feeble were, etc. A triumphant expression of that confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. Milton’s whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed in the last two lines of his Comus.