Note 940 — COMUS.

934. May thy lofty head, etc. The grammatical construction is: ‘May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.’ This makes ‘banks’ objective, and ‘upon’ a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is ‘thou,’ implied in ‘thy lofty head.’ An exact parallel to this is found in L’Alleg. 121, 122: ‘whose bright eyes rain influence and judge the prize’; also in Il Pens. 155-7; ‘let my due feet never fail to walk ... and love, etc.’: also in Lyc. 88, 89. The explanation adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek verbs—περιστεφανόω, ‘to put a crown round,’ and ἐπιστεφανόω, “to put a crown upon”: thus, “May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be crowned upon with groves of myrrh and cinnamon.” This makes ‘banks’ nominative, and ‘upon’ an adverb.