Comus
P. 129. 4. With Midas’ ears: i.e. with the ears of an ass; committing: bringing together, setting at variance (Lat. committere). Martial says, ‘Cum Juvenale meo cur me committere tentas?’ i.e. ‘why try to match me with my Juvenal,’ i.e. in a poetical contest with him.
P. 129. 5. exempts: separates, distinguishes; the compound subject ‘worth and skill’ is logically singular, and takes a singular verb.
P. 129. 11. story: ‘the story of Ariadne, set by him to music,’ as explained in a note in ‘Choice Psalms,’ 1648.
P. 129. 13. Casella: ‘a Florentine musician and friend of Dante, who here [‘Purgatorio,’ ii. 91 et seq.] speaks to him with so much tenderness and affection as to make us regret that nothing more is known of him.—Longfellow’s note.
milder shades: i.e. than those of the Inferno which Dante has just left.
‘involved in thickest gloom,
Cotytto’s priests her secret torch illume;
And to such orgies give the lustful night,
That e’en Cotytto sickens at the sight.’
—Gifford’s translation of Juvenal, ii. 91, 92.
251, 252. smoothing... till it smiled: Dr. Symmons, in his ‘Life of Milton,’ remarks: ‘Darkness may aptly be represented by the blackness of the raven; and the stillness of that darkness may be paralleled by an image borrowed from the object of another sense—by the softness of down; but it is surely a transgression which stands in need of pardon when, proceeding a step further and accumulating personifications, we invest this raven-down with life and make it smile.’ The metaphorical use of ‘smile’ or ‘laugh,’ applied to inanimate things that are smooth, shining, glossy, bright in colour, and the like, is, perhaps, common in all literatures. The Latin ‘rideo’ and the Greek γελάω are frequently so used; e.g. ‘florumque coloribus almus ridet ager’ (and the bounteous field laughs with the colours of its flowers).—Ovid, Met., xv. 205; ‘Domus ridet argento’ (the house smiles with glittering silver).—Horace, Odes, IV. xi. 6; ‘Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes angulus ridet’ (that corner of the earth smiles for me above all others).—Horace, Odes, II. vi. 14.
‘And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
That give away their motion to the stars.’
—Coleridge’s Dejection: an Ode.
’ill favourèd, and grim,
Under his eiebrowes looking still askaunce.’
515, 516. what the sage poets... storied: made the theme of story:
Tells him of trophies, statues, tombs, and stories
His victories, his triumphs, and his glories.
—Shakespeare’s V. and A., 1013, 14.
‘Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore.’
—Poe’s Raven, 83.
The italicized portion of the following passage from ‘The Passions and Faculties of the Soul,’ by Reynolds, C. xxxix, given in Trench’s ‘Select Glossary,’ s.v. Wit, defines well ‘dear wit’: ‘I take not wit in that common acceptation, whereby men understand some sudden flashes of conceit whether in style or conference, which, like rotten wood in the dark, have more shine than substance, whose use and ornament are, like themselves, swift and vanishing, at once both admired and forgotten. But I understand a settled, constant and habitual sufficiency of the understanding, whereby it is enabled in any kind of learning, theory, or practice, both to sharpness in search, subtilty in expression, and despatch in execution.’
800-806. spoken aside.
867-889. Listen, and appear to us: Oceanus was the most ancient sea-god,... Neptune, with his trident, was a later being. Tethys was the wife of Oceanus, and mother of the river-gods. Hoary Nereus is the ‘aged Nereus’ of line 835. The Carpathian wizard is the subtle Proteus, ever shifting his shape:... Triton, son of Neptune and Aphrodite,... he was ‘scaly,’ because the lower part of him was fish. Glaucus was a Bœotian fisherman who had been changed into a marine god:... was an oracle for sailors and fishermen. Leucothea (‘the white goddess’) was originally Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, and had received her new name after she had drowned herself and been converted into a sea-deity. Her son that rules the strands was Melicertes, drowned and deified with her, and thenceforward known as Palæmon, or Portumnus, the god of bays and harbours. Thetis, one of the daughters of Nereus, and therefore a sea-deity by birth, married Peleus, and was the mother of Achilles:... Of the Sirens, or singing sea-nymphs... Parthenope and Ligea were two. The ‘dear tomb’ of the first was at Naples... the ‘golden comb’ of the second is from stories of our own mermaids.—Masson’s note, condensed.
934-937. The true construction of these lines is pointed out by Mr. Calton, quoted in Todd’s variorum ed.: ‘May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here and there [may] thy banks [be crowned] upon with groves of myrrh and cinnamon.’
Notes
3. insphered: in their several spheres.
7. pestered: here, as indicated by ‘pinfold,’ the word means ‘clogged’; ‘pester’ is a shortened form of ‘impester.’ Fr. empêtrer (OF. empestrer) ‘signifies properly to hobble a horse while he feeds afield. Mid. Lat. pastorium, a clog for horses at pasture.’—Brachet’s Etymol. Dict. of the French Language, s.v. dépêtrer.
10. After this mortal change: ‘mortal’ I understand to be used here as a noun, the subject of ‘change,’ a verb in the subjunctive; there is evidently an allusion to 1 Cor. xv. 52-54, in which occur the expressions, ‘we shall be changed’ and ‘this mortal must put on immortality.’
16. ambrosial weeds: immortal or heavenly garments, i.e. garments worn by an immortal. Gk. Ἀμβρόσιος, lengthened form of ἄμβροτος, immortal. See v. 83.
20. high and nether Jove: by metonymy for the realms of Jove and Pluto.
23. unadornèd: i.e. but for ‘the sea-girt isles.’
25. several: separate; by course: in due order.
29. quarters: not literally, but simply, divides, distributes.
30. this tract that fronts the falling sun: Wales.
31. a noble Peer: the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales, before whom ‘Comus’ was presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634.
32. tempered awe: i.e. tempered with mercy; ‘mercy seasons justice.’
34. nursed in princely lore: nurtured in high learning.
38. horror: ruggedness, shagginess. See v. 429.... ‘densis hastilibus horrida myrtus.’—Virgil’s Æneid, iii. 23. brows: overarching branches.
39. forlorn and wandering: entirely lost and, consequently, straying at random.
48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed: a Latinism; so, ‘since created man.’—P. L., i. 573. The allusion is to the story of the Etruscan or Tyrrhenian pirates, who attempted to carry off Bacchus, sell him as a slave, and were by him changed into dolphins.—Ovid, Met., 660 et seq.
49. listed: pleased.
50. On... fell: happened upon.
59. of: from, by reason of.
60. Celtic and Iberian fields: France and Spain.
61. ominous: portentous.
65. orient: bright. The word was used independently of the idea of ‘eastern.’ In the ode ‘On the Nativity,’ v. 231, the setting sun ‘pillows his chin upon an orient wave.’ Fuller, in his ‘Holy War,’ Book ii. Chap. I., says of Godfrey of Bouillon, ‘His soul was enriched with many virtues, but the most orient of all was his humility, which took all men’s affections without resistance.’
66. the drouth of Phœbus: the thirst caused by the sun’s heat.
67. fond: foolish.
88. nor of less faith: i.e. than of musical power; ‘faith’ means the fidelity of his service.
90. Likeliest: the best suited for impersonation by the Attendant Spirit, by reason of his office of mountain watch over the flocks. He would therefore be supposed to be near at hand if aid were needed.
92. viewless: invisible.
93. The star that bids the shepherd fold: the evening star cannot be said to hold the top of heaven, i.e. be in the meridian; any star, the earliest to appear, must be meant.
101. his chamber in the east: an allusion to Psalm xix. 5.
110. saws: sayings, maxims; ‘grave’ is used contemptuously by Comus.
116. to the moon in wavering morrice move: the sounds and seas beneath the moon reflect dancing lights; ‘morrice,’ a rapid Moorish dance, once common in England.
129. Cotytto: the goddess of shameless and licentious orgies. Her priests were called Baptæ.
132. spets: spits.
135. Hecate: goddess of sorcery and magic and ‘of all kinds of nocturnal ghastliness, such as spectral sights, the howlings of dogs, haunted spots, the graves of the murdered, witches at their incantations’ (Masson). King Lear (I. i. 112) swears by ‘the mysteries of Hecate and the night.’
139. nice: fastidious, over-scrupulous; used contemptuously by Comus.
141. descry: reveal.
144. round: a circular dance; in ‘L’Allegro,’ 34, we have ‘the light fantastic toe.’
151. trains: enticements, allurements.
154. spungy air: which absorbs his ‘dazzling spells.’
155. blear: dim, deceiving.
156. false presentments: representations which deceive the eye.
157. quaint habits: strange garments.
165. virtue: peculiar power. See v. 621; ‘Il Pens.,’ 113.
167. country gear: rural affairs.
168. fairly: softly.
175. granges: used in its original sense—barns. (Fr. grange.)
178. swilled: drunken.
180. inform my unacquainted feet: where else shall I learn my way than from these revellers.
203. perfect: perfectly distinct, sure, certain, unmistakable. There is a similar use of the word in Shakespeare: ‘Thou art perfect, then, our ship hath touched upon the deserts of Bohemia?’—Winter’s Tale, III. iii. 1; ‘I am perfect that the Pannonians and Dalmatians for their liberties are now in arms.’—Cymb., III. i. 73; ‘What hast thou done? I am perfect what’ (‘I know full well, I am fully aware.’ Schmidt).—Cymb., IV. ii. 118.
204. single darkness: pure darkness, only that and nothing more.
210. may startle well: i.e. may well (or indeed) startle.
212. strong-siding: strongly supporting.
215. Chastity: significantly substituted for Charity, as the companion virtue of Faith and Hope, it being the theme, the central idea of the poem, to which an explicit expression is given in the Elder Brother’s speech, vv. 418-475, and in the speech of the Lady to Comus, 780-799.
231. airy shell: the dome of the sky; ‘cell’ is in the margin of Milton’s Ms.
248. his: (old neuter genitive) its, referring to ‘something.’
251. fall: cadence.
262. home-felt delight: i.e. delight that keeps one at home with himself, does not carry him out of himself; in contrast with the singing of Circe and the Sirens three, which ‘in sweet madness robbed it (the sense) of itself.’
267. unless the goddess: i.e. unless (thou be) the goddess; ‘dwell’st’ should properly be ‘dwells,’ the antecedent of the relative ‘that’ being ‘goddess,’ third person, not ‘thou’ in the ellipsis.
273. extreme shift: last resort; Fr. dernier ressort.
279. near ushering: attending near at hand.
285. forestalling night: preventing, or hindering, night came before them; ‘forestall’ has here the present sense of ‘prevent,’ and ‘prevent’ its old, literal sense of come before.
287. imports their loss: does their loss signify other than your present need of them?
290. Hebe: the goddess of youth; cupbearer to the gods before Ganymedes.
293. Swinked: hard-worked. Spenser frequently uses the verb ‘swink,’ and several times in connection with ‘sweat’; severe toil is always implied in his use of the word: ‘For which men swinck and sweat incessantly.’—F. Q., 2. 7, 8; ’And every one did swincke, and every one did sweat.’—2. 7, 36; ‘For which he long in vaine did sweate and swinke,’ 6. 4, 32; ‘Of mortal men, that swincke and sweate for nought.’—The Sheapherd’s Calender, November, 154; ‘For they doo swinke and sweate to feed the other.’—Mother Hubbard’s Tale, 163.
301. plighted: folded, involved.
313. bosky bourn: Masson explains ‘shrubby boundary or watercourse.’ Warton’s explanation seems better supported by the context: ‘A bourn... properly signifies here, a winding, deep, and narrow valley, with a rivulet at the bottom. In the present instance, the declivities are interspersed with trees and bushes. This sort of valley Comus knew from side to side. He knew both the opposite sides or ridges, and had consequently traversed the intermediate space.’
315. attendance: attendants.
329. square: adapt.
332. wont’st: art accustomed; benison: blessing.
333. stoop: the same idea, or impression, rather, in regard to the moon, is expressed in ‘Il Penseroso,’ 72:
‘And oft, as if her head she bowed,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.’
336. influence: (astrological) the effect flowing in, or upon, from the stars. See ‘P. L.,’ vii. 375, viii. 513, ix. 107, x. 662; ‘L’Al.,’ 122; ‘Od. Nat.,’ 71.
340. rule: long horizontal beam of light.
341. Star of Arcady: the constellation of the Greater Bear, by which, or by some star in which, the Greek mariner steered his course.
342. Tyrian Cynosure: the constellation of the Lesser Bear, or the pole star therein, by which the Phœnician (Tyrian) mariner steered.
344. wattled cotes: sheep-pens made of interwoven twigs.
349. innumerous: innumerable.
355. leans: subject ‘she’ implied in ‘her,’ above. See note on ‘Samson Agonistes’, 1671; some editors make ‘head’ the subject.
358. heat: lust.
359. exquisite: used literally: outsearching; ‘consider not too curiously.’
366. so to seek: so wanting, so much at a loss.
367. unprincipled: ignorant of the elements, or first principles.
369. noise: not to be connected with ‘single want of’; the meaning is, mere darkness and noise.
373. would: might wish.
375. flat sea: in ‘Lycidas,’ 98, ‘level brine.’
376. oft seeks to: oft resorts to.
380. all to-ruffled: all ruffled up; the prefix ‘to-' is an old intensive, with force of Ger. ‘zer-‘; generally imparts the idea of destruction: ‘all to-brake,’ broke all in pieces; ‘all to-rent,’ tore all in pieces.
382. centre: as in Shakespeare, centre of the earth.
386. affects: likes, entirely without any of its present meaning of making a show of.
390. weeds: garments.
391. maple: maple-wood.
393. Hesperian tree: the tree in the Hesperian gardens which bore golden apples and was guarded by the sleepless dragon Ladon, which was slain by Hercules.
395. unenchanted: not to be enchanted, or wrought upon by magical spells.
401. wink on: not take notice or advantage of.
402. single: solitary, alone.
404. it recks me not: I take no account of, care not for.
405. events: outcomes, consequences.
407. unowned: without a protector.
409. without all doubt: i.e. without any doubt; a Latinism.
413. squint: ‘looking askance.’ Spenser represents Suspect (‘F. Q.,’ 3. 12, 15) as
419. if: even if Heaven did give it.
423. unharboured: without harbor, or shelter.
424. infámous: of bad reputation.
430. unblenched: fearless, self-sustained.
432. some say: reminds, as has been often noted, of the passage in ‘Hamlet’: ‘some say that ever ’gainst that season comes,’ etc.—I. i. 158.
455. lackey: attend, or wait upon, as guardians.
474. and linked itself: and as if it were itself linked.
494. artful: artistic, skilful.
495. huddling: hurrying; Verity understands ‘huddling’ as the result of ‘delayed.’
501. next joy: Thyrsis addresses the elder brother as his master’s heir, and then the second brother as ‘his next joy,’ i.e. object of his joy.
503. stealth: the thing stolen.
509. sadly: seriously; without blame: i.e. on our part.
520. navel: centre.
526. murmurs: muttered spells, or incantations.
529. mintage: coinage.
533. monstrous rout: rout of monsters; so, ‘monstrous world,’ world of monsters.—Lycidas, 158.
539. unweeting: not knowing.
540. by then: by the time that.
547. meditate: practice; see ‘Lycidas,’ 66.
548. had: subj., should have; close: i.e. of his ‘rural minstrelsy.’
552. unusual stop of sudden silence: see 145.
553. drowsy-flighted: this is the reading of the Cambridge Ms., which Masson adopts. Lawes’s ed., 1637, and Milton’s editions, 1645, 1673, read ‘drowsy frighted.’ Masson quite conclusively supports the reading of the Ms., which he explains, ‘always drowsily flying.’ Keightley retains ‘drowsy frighted,’ but says in his note, ‘we are strongly inclined to think it [the Ms. reading] the right reading, and the present one a mistake of Lawes himself or his printer.’
558. took: rapt.
560. still: ever.
585. period: sentence.
586. for me: as for me.
603. grisly: horrible. ‘So spake the grisly terror (Death).’—P. L., ii. 704.
604. Acheron: a river of the lower world; here used for the lower world itself.
607. purchase: acquisition; the word retains here much of its original meaning, i.e. what has been hunted down or stolen.
610. yet: notwithstanding; emprise: here, readiness for any dangerous undertaking.
619. a certain shepherd-lad: a supposed compliment to Milton’s dearest friend, Charles Diodati.
620. to see to: to look upon.
621. virtuous: efficacious, potent.
627. simples: medicinal herbs.
634. and like esteemed: i.e. and (un)esteemed.
635. clouted shoon: patched shoes.
636. Moly: (Gk. μώλυ) a fabulous herb, ‘that Hermes [Mercury] to wise Ulysses gave,’ as a protection against the spells of Circe.—Od., x. 305. See Pope’s note, in his translation, x. 361, Tennyson’s ‘Lotus Eaters,’ 133.
638. Hæmony: supposed to be from Hæmonia, Thessaly, famous for its magic.
641. Furies’: used objectively.
642. little reckoning made: see ‘Lycidas,’ 116.
646. lime-twigs: used metaphorically.
662. root-bound: referring to her metamorphosis into a laurel tree (δάφνη).
673. his: old neuter genitive, its.
675. Nepenthes (Gk. νηπενθὲς, sorrow-soothing): the drug (supposed to be opium) given by Polydamna to Helena, who put it into her husband Menelaus’s wine.—Od., iv. 220 et seq. See note to Pope’s translation, v. 302.
685. unexempt condition: condition to which all mortal frailty is subject, namely, refreshment after toil, ease after pain.
688. that: referring to ‘you,’ 682.
695. oughly: the spelling in Milton’s editions; ’as Milton has the common spelling, ugly, in all other cases where he has used the word, he must have intended a different form here, perhaps to indicate a more guttural pronunciation.’—Masson.
698. visored: masked; he appears as ‘some harmless villager,’ v. 166.
707. budge: austere, morose; fur: used metaphorically for order, sect, profession. Landor remarks that ‘it is the first time Cynic or Stoic ever put on fur.’ ‘Budge’ also means a kind of fur, but it certainly cannot have that meaning here; the context requires the other meaning.
708. from the Cynic tub: i.e. from the tub whence Diogenes, the Cynic, delivered them.
714. curious: careful, nice, delicate, fastidious.
719. hutched: hoarded, laid up, as in a hutch or chest.
724. yet: in addition; or, it may have the force of ‘even.’
744. it: i.e. beauty.
750. grain: ‘a term derived from the Latin granum, a seed or kernel, or grain in the sense of “grain of corn,”—which word granum had come, in later Latin times, to be applied specifically to the coccum, a peculiar dye-stuff consisting of the dried, granular, or seed-like bodies of insects of the genus Coccus, collected in large quantities from trees in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. But that dye was distinctly red. Another name for it, and for the insect producing it, was kermes... whence our “carmine” and “crimson.” “Grain,” therefore, meant a dye of such red as might be produced by the use of kermes or coccum.’—From Masson’s note on ‘Sky-tinctured grain,’ ‘P. L.,’ v. 285, based on George P. Marsh’s dissertation on the etymology of the word, in his ‘Lectures on the English Language’ (1st S., 4th Am. ed., 1861, pp. 65-75). Masson’s note on ‘cheeks of sorry grain’ is ‘i.e. of poor colour,’ as if ‘grain’ were used in the general sense of colour merely. It is better, I think, to understand ‘grain’ here in its special sense of red, but used by Comus ironically, as indicated by ‘sorry.’ Beautiful cheeks are presumed to have a delicate reddish hue; but where the features are homely and the complexion coarse, the cheeks may be said, ironically, to be of a sorry grain, i.e. not red at all.
759. pranked: set off, adorned, decked.
760. bolt: sift, refine; a metaphor from the process of separating flour from the bran. But the word may mean, as Dr. Newton explains, ‘to shoot,’ or, as Dr. Johnson explains, ‘to blurt out, or throw out precipitantly.’
782. sun-clad: spiritually refulgent.
785. the sublime notion: see in extract from ‘Apology for Smectymnuus,’ in this volume.
788. worthy: deserving, in a bad sense.
790. your dear wit: the change from ‘thy’ to ‘your’ is not explainable here.
791. her dazzling fence: dear wit’s and gay rhetoric’s dazzling art of fencing. Todd quotes from Prose Works, ‘Hired Masters of Tongue-fence’: ‘dear wit’ and ‘gay rhetoric,’ not constituting a compound idea in Milton’s mind, the relative ‘that,’ of which they are the antecedents, takes a singular verb, and the two nouns are represented by the singular personal pronoun ‘her.’ In the following passage from Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene,’ B. II. C. ii. St. 31, two subjects take a singular verb, and are represented by a singular personal pronoun:
‘But lovely concord, and most sacred peace,
Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds;
Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increace.’
797. brute: senseless; lend her nerves: i.e. to this sacred vehemence.
804. speaks thunder: threatens thunder and the chains of Erebus to some of the Titans who are disposed to be rebellious in their imprisonment in Tartarus. It seems to be meant that Erebus is a more painful region than that into which they were cast after their defeat by Jove (Zeus).
815. snatched his wand: see v. 653.
816. without his rod reversed: the process, as related in Ovid, ‘Met.,’ xiv. 299-305, by which the companions of Ulysses are, through his intervention, retransformed by Circe.
822. Melibœus: Spenser is probably referred to.
823. soothest: truest, most faithful.
826. Sabrina: the legend of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his ‘Latin History of the Britons’; by Drayton, in his ‘Polyolbion,’ 6th Song; by Warner, in his ‘Albion’s England’; by Spenser, in his ‘Faerie Queene,’ II. x. 14-19, and by Milton, in the first book of his ‘History of Britain.’
835. Nereus: ‘the good spirit of the Ægean Sea,’ father of the nereids or sea-nymphs.
852. old swain: Melibœus.
900. gentle swain: the attendant spirit is still in the person and habit of the shepherd Thyrsis.
913. cure: curative power.
919. his: old neuter genitive, its.
921. to wait: to attend in the bower (court) of Amphitrite (wife of Neptune).
922. daughter of Locrine: see vv. 827, 828. The order of the legendary ‘line’ is, Anchises, Æneas, Ascanius, Silvius, Brutus, Locrine.
924. brimmed: full to the brim or edge of the bank; cf. ‘full-fed river.’—Tennyson’s Palace of Art.
929. scorch: optative subj.
960. duck or nod: i.e. of the awkward country dancers.
964. mincing Dryades: daintily stepping wood-nymphs.
968. goodly: interesting and attractive in appearance.
972. assays: trials.
982. Hesperus and his daughters three: brother of Atlas, and father of the Hesperides.
1012. But now, etc.: may be an independent or a subordinate sentence; if the latter, understand ‘that’ after ‘now.’ It is, perhaps, preferable to take it as an independent sentence.
1015. bowed welkin: arched sky; the idea is that the bend is the less noticeable at ‘the green earth’s end.’
1017. corners: horns.
1021. higher than the sphery chime: ‘i.e. to the Empyrean, beyond the spheres which give forth their music.’—Keightley.