150. ~charms ... wily trains~; _i.e._ spells ... cunning allurements.
_Charm_ is the Lat. _carmen_, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic
verses'; wily = full of _wile_ (etymologically the same as guile).
_Train_ here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains'
(_Sams. Agon._ 533): "Oh, _train_ me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note"
(_Com. of Errors_, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe _Shakespeare_. Some
would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles.
151. ~ere long~: _ere_ has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was
an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a
preposition.
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).
154. ~dazzling~. This implies both brightness and illusion. ~spells~. A
_spell_ is properly a magical form of words (A.S. _spel_, a saying):
here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. ~spongy air~: so called
because it holds in suspension the magic powder.
155. ~Of power to cheat ... and (to) give~, etc. These lines are
attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a
characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. ~blear
illusion~; deception, that which deceives by _blurring_ the vision.
Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (_Tam.
Shrew_, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial
argument, to _blear_ our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W.
Raleigh). _Blur_ is another form of _blear_.
156. ~presentments~, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from
_presentiment_. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. _praesentire_):
while a presentment is something presented (Lat. _praesens_, being
before). Shakespeare, _Ham._ iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense
of picture. ~quaint habits~, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat.
_cognitus_, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In
French it became _coint_, which was treated as if from Lat. _comptus_,
neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or
delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.'