25. ~By course commits~, etc., _i.e._ "In regular distribution he commits
to each his distinct government." ~several~: separate or distinct.
Radically _several_ is from the verb _sever_: it is now used only with
plural nouns.
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_.
29. ~quarters~, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden, _Georg. I._
208:
"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.
30. 'And all this region that looks towards the West (_i.e._ Wales) is
entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.' The peer
referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was
entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the
four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and
Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the
fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of "his Majestie's
Counsellors," he had continued to serve in various important public and
private offices. On his monument there is the following: "He was a
profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a
dutiful Son to his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as
well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in
those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor.
As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of
patience and piety." ~falling sun~: Lat. _sol occidens_. Orient and
occident (lit. 'rising' and 'falling') are frequently used to denote the
East and the West.
31. ~mickle~ (A.S. _micel_) great. From this word comes _much_. 'Mickle'
and 'muckle' are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp. _Rom.
and Jul._ ii. 3. 15, "O, _mickle_ is the powerful grace that lies In
herbs," etc.
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).
34. ~nursed in princely lore~, brought up in a manner worthy of their high
position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth
distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to
their connection with the court. _Lore_ is cognate with _learn_.
35. ~their father's state~. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies
connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old
sense of 'state' is 'chair of state': comp. _Arc._ 81, and Jonson's
_Hymenaei_, "And see where Juno ... Displays her glittering _state and
chair_."
36. ~new-intrusted~, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple
adverb, _new_ being = newly; comp. 'smooth-dittied,' l. 86. Contrast the
form of the epithet "blue-haired," where the compound adjective is
formed as if from a noun, "blue-hair": comp. "rushy-fringed," l. 890.
Strictly speaking, the Earl's power was not 'new-intrusted,' though it
was newly assumed. See Introduction.
37. ~perplexed~, interwoven, entangled (Lat. _plecto_, to plait or
twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to
inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable.
38. ~horror~. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also
to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat. _horrere_,
to bristle, and may be rendered 'shagginess' or 'ruggedness,' just as
_horrid_, l. 429, means bristling or rugged. Comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 563,
"a _horrid_ front Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms." ~shady brows~:
this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the
brow overhangs the eyes.
39. ~Threats~: not current as a verb. ~forlorn~, now used only as an
adjective, is the past participle of the old verb _forleosen_, to lose
utterly: the prefix _for_ has an intensive force, as in _forswear_; but
in the latter word the sense of _from_ is more fully preserved in the
prefix. See note, l. 234.
40. ~tender age~. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the
two brothers were younger than she.
41. ~But that~, etc. Grammatically, _but_ may be regarded as a
subordinative conjunction = 'unless (it had happened) that I was
despatched': or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may
regard it as governing the substantive clause, 'that ... guard.' ~quick
command~: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being
commands that are to be carried quickly. ~sovran~, supreme. This is
Milton's spelling of the modern word _sovereign_, in which the _g_ is
due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate
with _reign_. The word is from Lat. _superanum_ = chief: comp. l. 639.
43. ~And listen why~; _sc._ 'I was despatched.' The language of lines 43,
44 is suggested by Horace's _Odes_, iii. 1, 2: "Favete linguis; carmina
non prius Audita ... canto." The poet implies that the plot of his mask
is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern
song or tale that was ever recited either in the 'hall' (=
banqueting-hall) or in the 'bower' (= private chamber). Or 'hall' and
'bower' may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his
lady.
46. Milton in his usual significant manner (comp. _L'Allegro_ and _Il
Penseroso_), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is
designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and
Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring
from parents representing the pleasure of man's lower nature and the
misuse of man's higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These
parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former,
mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (see _L'Allegro_); but, mated
with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuary whose gay
exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and
magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as
represented in Ben Jonson's _Pleasure reconciled to Virtue_, in which
mask "Comus" and "The Belly" are throughout synonymous. In the
_Agamemnon_ of Aeschylus, Comus is a "drinker of human blood"; in
Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is "the
clerk of gluttony's kitchen"; in Massinger he is "the god of pleasure";
and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the
genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, "Milton's _Comus_ is
a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically
to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow
Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the
classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain." ~Bacchus~, the god who
taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on
one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates:
these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the
mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins.
The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton's own invention; in the
_Odyssey_ it is Ulysses who lights upon her island: "And we came to the
isle Ææan, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of
mortal speech, own sister to the wizard Æetes," _Odys._ x. ~from out~,
etc. Comp. _Par. Lost_, v. 345. 'From out' has the same force as the
more common 'out from.'
47. ~misusèd~, abused. The prefix _mis-_ was very generally used by
Milton; _e.g._ _mislike_, _misdeem_, _miscreated_, _misthought_ (all
obsolete).
48. ~After the Tuscan mariners transformed~, _i.e._ after the
transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid, _Met._ iii.). They are
called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or
Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical
construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a
substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected
with another noun by the preposition _of_, and used to denote a fact in
the past; _e.g._ "since created man" (_P. L._ i. 573) = since the
creation of man: "this loss recovered" (_P. L._ ii. 21) = the recovery
of this loss.
49. ~as the winds listed~; at the pleasure of the winds: comp. _John_,
iii. 8, "the wind bloweth where it _listeth_"; _Lyc._ 123. The verb
_list_ is, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer
we find 'if thee lust' or 'if thee list' = if it please thee. The word
survives in the adjective _listless_ of which the older form was
_lustless_: the noun _lust_ has lost its original and wider sense (which
it still has in German), and now signifies 'longing desire.'
50. ~On Circe's island fell~. Circe's island = Aeaea, off the coast of
Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by the ocean-nymph
Perse. On 'island,' see note, l. 21; and with this use of the verb
_fall_ comp. the Latin _incidere in_. The sudden introduction of the
interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech
called anadiplosis.
51. ~charmèd cup~, _i.e._ liquor that has been _charmed_ or rendered
magical. _Charms_ are incantations or magic verses (Lat. _carmina_):
comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.'
52. ~Whoever tasted lost~, _i.e._ who tasted (he) lost. In this
construction _whoever_ must precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently
uses _who_ in this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp. _Son._ xii. 12,
"_who_ loves that must first be wise and good." See Abbott, § 251. ~lost
his upright shape~. In _Odyssey_ x. we read: "So Circe led them
(followers of Ulysses) 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, and Circe flung them acorns
and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do
always batten." (_Butcher and Lang's translation._)
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.