767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable,
both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of
Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth
diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the
Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his
college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning
temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly
dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own
spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.
768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being
heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv.
1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough."
769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be
fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_.
770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds =
wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of
meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or
unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious.
774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least
surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially
= not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a
whit, _naught_ = no whit.
776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note,
l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete.
779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that
may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed,
_e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc.
780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English:
it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of
_enough_. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines
780-799 Masson says: "A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic
fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been
propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines 420-475)."
782. ~sun-clad power of chastity~. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred
rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the _Faerie Queene_, iii. 6,
Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with
fair beams did her adorn."
783. ~yet to what end?~ A rhetorical question, = it would be to no
purpose.
784. ~nor ... nor~. These correlatives are often used in poetry for
_neither ... nor_ (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether),
and are equally correct. _Nor_ is only a contraction of _neither_, and
the first may as well be contracted as the second.
785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_
Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he
learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of
his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high
mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body."
790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is
'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety
of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad
occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik
suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first
become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had
thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love,"
as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as
being the instrument of sophistry.
791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_:
comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much
Ado_, v. 1. 75.
794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been
_carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40,
"Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of
the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him
from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40.
797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become
sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp.
Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_."