118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of
_perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat
points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._
"_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a
child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and
Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_
into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du.
_dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of
'neat.'
119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with
_dingle_ and _dapple_.
120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies
pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens."
121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The
adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin
_vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a
church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening
merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense
in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception
_proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the
rule.
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.'
125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage
requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535.
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."
127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The
horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark.
129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled'
because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian
divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because
the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water.
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."