perfection of delicacy. The Italian words below mean,--My dear Henry,
thoughts close, face open.
1. Before the starry threshold of Jove's court. The attendant spirit not
only announces himself as a dweller in heaven, but he specifies his
particular function among the celestials: he is doorkeeper in the house
of God.
3. insphered. Compare Il Penseroso 88.
7. Confined and pestered. _Pester_ has its primitive meaning, to clog or
encumber. In this pinfold here. _Pinfold_ is probably not connected with
the verb to pen, but is a shortened form of poundfold, and means,
literally, an enclosure for stray cattle.
10. After this mortal change: after this life on earth, which is subject
to death.
11. Amongst the enthroned gods. Make but two syllables of _enthroned_,
and accent the first.
The long sentence ending with line 11 is very loose in construction: the
_and_ in line 7 is a cooerdinate conjunction, but does not connect
cooerdinate elements.
13. To lay their just hands on that golden key. Compare Lycidas 110.
16. these pure ambrosial weeds. Ambrosial has its proper
meaning,--pertaining to the immortals.
20. by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. Neptune drew lots with Jupiter
and Pluto. To Jupiter fell the region of the upper air, to Pluto the
lower world, and to Neptune the sea. The ancient poets sometimes spoke of
Jupiter and Pluto as the upper and the lower Jove.
25. By course commits to several government: in due order he assigns the
islands to his tributaries, giving them an island apiece.
27. But this Isle is so large that he has to divide it.
29. Consider quarters to mean nothing more than divides. his blue-haired
deities. The epithet is conventional, taken from the Greek poets, and
probably has no special significance in this passage.
31. A noble Peer. This connects the poem with actual persons and
announces its occasion. The noble peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, and
the event which is to be celebrated is his appointment to the
Vice-royalty of Wales.
33. The old and haughty nation are the Welsh.
34. his fair offspring are two sons and a daughter, who are to play the
parts of the Two Brothers and the Lady in the mask.
37. the perplexed paths of this drear wood. Compare Par. Lost IV 176.
41. sovran. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 60.
45. in hall or bower. Hall and bower are conventionally coupled by the
poets to signify the dwellings, respectively, of the gentry and the
laboring classes.
46. The transformation by Bacchus of the treacherous Tuscan sailors into
dolphins belongs to the established myths of that god. But Milton
exercises his right as a poet to add to the classic story whatever suits
his purposes.
48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed; a Latinism, meaning, after the
transformation of the Tuscan mariners.
50. fell: chanced to land.
For the story of Circe, see the Odyssey X.
58. Understand that no such distinct character as Comus belongs to the
received mythology. Milton is a myth-maker.
59. frolic is used as an adjective, as in L'Allegro 18.
60. the Celtic and Iberian fields. The god traversed Gaul and Spain, on
his way to Britain.
61. ominous: abounding in mysterious signs of danger.
65. His orient liquor. See line 673 of this poem.
72. Note that only the countenance is changed.
87. Well knows to still the wild winds. The poem moves throughout in the
realm of romance. The swain Thyrsis is in his own character a
practitioner of magic.
88. nor of less faith. Thyrsis has just been described as a person of
great skill.
90. Likeliest: most likely to be.
93. The transition from the stately mood of the Attendant Spirit's
exordium to the noisy exhilaration of Comus is marked by appropriate
changes in the verse. Comus speaks in a lyric strain, and his tone is
exultant. When he comes to serious business, in line 145, he also employs
blank-verse. The lyric lines, 93-144, rhyme in couplets, and vary in
length, most of them having four accents, while some have five. The
four-accent lines vary between seven and eight syllables, many of them
dropping the initial light syllable, or anakrusis (Auftakt). These
seven-syllable lines have a trochaic effect, but are to be scanned as
iambic, the standard rhythm of the poem. The star that bids the shepherd
fold. So Collins, in his ode To Evening,--"For when thy folding-star
arising shows His paly circlet." See also Measure for Measure IV 2 218.
96. doth allay: doth cool.
97. The epithet steep is applied to the ocean, though really it is the
course of the downward-moving sun that is steep.
99-101. Milton uses pole, as the poets were wont to do, to mean the sky;
and the passage means,--the sun, moving about the earth in his oblique
course, now shines upon that part of the heavens which, when it is
daylight to us, is in shadow.
105. with rosy twine; with twined, or wreathed, roses.
108-109. Advice ... Age ... Severity. For these abstract terms substitute
their concretes.
110. their grave saws. So Hamlet I 5 100, "all saws of books."
116. in wavering morrice. See M. N. Dream II 1 98; All's Well II 2 25.
118. the dapper elves. _Dapper_ is akin to the German _tapfer_, but with
a very different connotation.
124. Love: the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid.
129. Dark-veiled Cotytto was a Thracian goddess, whose worship was
connected with licentious frivolity.
133. makes one blot of all the air. Compare line 204 of this poem.
135. thou ridest with Hecat'. _Hecate_ was a goddess of the lower world,
mistress of witchcraft and the black arts.
139. The nice Morn. _Nice_ is used in a disparaging sense, meaning over
particular, minutely critical.
140. From her cabined loop-hole peep. As if morn dwelt in a cabin and
clandestinely peeped from a small window.
141. descry must here mean reveal.
144. In a light fantastic round. Recall L'Allegro 34. Comus and his crew
are now dancing.
147. shrouds: hiding-places. See the verb, line 316.
151. my wily trains. _Trains_ are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 118.
154. The air is spongy because it absorbs his magic dust.
155. blear, usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing
objects with blear eyes.
174. the loose unlettered hinds. The hinds are farm-servants, usually
with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are loose because
unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of propriety.
177. amiss: in wrong or unseemly ways.
178. swilled is a very contemptuous word.
179. wassailers. See Macbeth I 7 64. The word has an interesting
etymology.
188. the grey-hooded Even. Milton is fond of applying the epithet _gray_
to the evening and the dawn. See Par. Lost IV 598, Lycidas 187.
189. Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. The votarist is one who has
made a vow. In this case he goes on a pilgrimage, carrying a palm branch,
and wearing the pilgrim garb.
203. the tumult of loud mirth was rife. As to the meaning of _rife_
compare Sam. Ag. 866 and Par. Lost I 650.
204. Yet nought but single darkness do I find. The darkness is unbroken
by any ray of light.
210. may startle well, but not astound. _Astound_ is a strong word. See
Par. Lost I 281.
212. a strong siding champion: a champion who sides with the virtuous
mind.
222. her silver lining. Note Milton's avoidance of the possessive _its_.
In all his verse he uses _its_ but three times.
231. Within thy airy shell. The _airy shell_ in which Echo lives must be
the "hollow round" of the atmosphere. Compare Hymn on the Nativity
100-103.
232. The Meander is the river of Asia Minor, famous for its windings.
233-237. The mention of the nightingale and Narcissus in this passage
suggests that it may be a reminiscence of the chorus in the Oedipus
Coloneus,--"Of this land of goodly steeds, O stranger."
237. Echo's passion for the beautiful Narcissus was not requited, and she
pined away till she became a mere voice, which she could not utter till
she was spoken to.
241. Daughter of the Sphere: daughter of the air, which forms a hollow
sphere about the earth.
243. And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies: by echoing back
the music of the spheres.
249-252. Even darkness smiled, as if acknowledging itself agreeably
caressed by the strains of the lady's song.
251. At every fall. _Fall_, as a musical term, is "a sinking down or
lowering of the note or voice; cadence" (New Eng. Dict.).
253. the Sirens dwelt on an island near Sicily, and by their sweet song
allured mariners to destruction. See Odyssey XII.
254. the Naiades were nymphs attendant on Circe and the Sirens.
257. And lap it in Elysium. Compare L'Allegro 136.
257-259. Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous rocks and whirlpools on
opposite sides of the strait of Messina. They were personified as cruel
sea-monsters.
260. Yet they: Circe and the Sirens.
267. Unless the goddess. Supply _thou art_.
273. extreme shift: a pressing necessity of devising some expedient.
289. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom? Were they in the prime
of adult manhood, or in the bloom of youth?
277-290. These fourteen lines are an instance of "stichomythia, or
conversation in alternate lines, which was always popular on the Attic
stage. This scheme of versification is used chiefly in excited
discussions, where the speakers are hurried along by the eagerness of
their feelings."--Haigh, _The Tragic Drama of the Greeks_.
292. An ox in traces would now be a rare sight.
294. a green mantling vine. See Par. Lost IV 258.
299. gay creatures of the element: creatures of the air,--supernatural
beings.
301. And play i' the plighted clouds. Probably the poet means the
_plaited_, or _pleated_, clouds, conceiving the clouds as appearing
folded together. I was awe-strook. See Hymn on the Nativity 95.
316. Or shroud within these limits. _Shroud_ as a noun we saw above, line
147.
318. From her thatched pallet rouse. The lark builds on the ground,
seeking a spot protected by overarching stems of grass or grain, which
may be called a natural thatch; and if this protection is destroyed by
mowers or reapers, the bird will at once take pains to build a roof or
thatch over the nest, completely covering it, and for a door will make an
opening on the side.
325. where it first was named. The derivation of the words _courteous_
and _courtesy_ from _court_ is obvious.
327. Less warranted than this, or less secure. The lady says that she
cannot be in any place less guaranteed than this against evil, and that
she cannot anywhere be less free from anxiety. Her situation she
conceives to be as bad as it can be.
329. square my trial To my proportioned strength: make my trial
proportionate to my strength.
332. That wont'st to love. _Wont'st_, in the present tense, means, as we
say, art wont.
333. Stoop thy pale visage. Stoop is thus used, transitively, Richard II.
III 1 19, "myself ... have stooped my neck."
334. And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here. _Chaos_, "the formless void
of primordial matter," is personified by Milton here and, much more
conspicuously, in Par. Lost III.
338. a rush-candle: a candle made with a rush for a wick,--the cheapest
kind of light. from the wicker hole Of some clay habitation. Imagine a
hut whose walls are made of wattled twigs plastered with clay. This clay
when dry is apt to fall off in spots, leaving holes through which the
light within can be seen from without. A wicker hole is a hole in the
wicker-work, perhaps made intentionally, to serve as a window.
341-342. The star of Arcady is the constellation of the Greater Bear, and
the Tyrian Cynosure that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in these
constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners.
345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Compare Collins's Ode to
Evening,--_If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song_. The shepherds of
the Greek idylls made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the
oat has therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages.
349. innumerous boughs. Compare Par. Lost VII 455.
358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat: of hungry savages, or of
lustful savages.
361. grant they be so: grant that they are real evils.
365. Make four syllables of delusion.
366. I do not think my sister so to seek: I do not think she has her
seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced.
373-375. Is this practical doctrine?
377. Make five syllables of Contemplation.
380. Were all to-ruffled. The particle _to_--Anglo Saxon _to_, Modern
German _zer_--has disappeared from Modern English. In Old English it was
often used with the force of the Latin _dis_. So still in Chaucer,
_to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende_, and many others.
386. affects: likes, has an affection for.
390. weeds, as in line 84.
393. the fair Hesperian tree. See line 983.
394. had need the guard. An elliptical expression. _Need_ is a noun, but
is treated as if it were a verb.
395. The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides
against Hercules.
401. will wink on Opportunity: will fail to see its chance.
404. it recks me not. The verb is thus used, impersonally, also in
Lycidas 122.
407. The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third foot,
and one at the end.
413. squint suspicion. An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity
is applied to a mental act.
422. quivered: bearing a quiver.
423. unharbored: furnishing no shelter.
424. Infamous hills. Accent _infamous_ as we do now and as Milton does
elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common.
429. Look up the origin of the word grots.
430. unblenched: unstartled.
434. Blue meagre hag. The _hag_ has the livid hue of hunger.
436. swart faery of the mine. A malignant demon dwelling under ground,--a
gnome.
441. the huntress Dian. The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, twin
sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows.
448. wise Minerva. Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually represented as
wearing on her breast the aegis with a border of snakes and the Gorgon's
head in the centre.
460-462. Note the different modes in begin and turns, where we should
look for similar constructions.
487. The ellipsis of _we had_ is readily supplied. Draw and stand are
infinitives.
494. Thyrsis, a stock shepherd-name. The spirit henceforth appears to his
fellow-actors in the mask as the shepherd with whom they are familiar.
495-512. These lines express sudden emotion, and approximate lyric in
character. Hence the rhyme.
508. How chance she is not. Supply the ellipsis.
517. Chimeras is here used vaguely in the plural to mean dangerous
monsters.
526. With many murmurs mixed. The enchanter spoke or sang forms of
incantation over his mixing and brewing. Recall Macbeth.
529. The word mintage has an interesting history. The human countenance
is conceived as an imprint, like the characters on a coin.
530. Charactered in the face. The _noun character_ Milton pronounces with
accent on the first syllable, as does Shakespeare. Probably he also
agrees with Shakespeare in pronouncing the _verb_ with the accent on the
second syllable, as this verse suggests.
531. crofts. The word is still in use in England, meaning a small farm.
540. by then the chewing flocks: by the time when, etc.
547. To meditate my rural minstrelsy: to play on my shepherd-pipe and to
sing. To meditate the muse is a standard expression of the pastoral
poets. See Lycidas 66.
552. What do we know was the cause of this unusual stop of sudden
silence?
553-554. The cessation of the din gave to the steeds of sleep, and to
people who were trying to sleep, relief from annoyance.
557-560. Be sure you understand the figure.
560. Still, in its very frequent sense, _always_.
562. Under the ribs of Death: in a skeleton.
575. such two; describing them.
586. Shall be unsaid for me: it is not necessary for me to make any
change in my opinion to make it harmonize with this new aspect of
affairs.
595. Gathered like scum, and settled to itself. The two metaphors thus
combined make a rather strange mixture.
598. The pillared firmament. By the _firmament_ is usually understood the
sphere of the fixed stars. How to introduce the conception of _pillars_
is not clear.
604. Acheron. See Par. Lost II 578.
605. The Harpies were monstrous birds with women's heads. Their doings
are described AEneid III. The Hydra was a monster serpent with a hundred
heads.
607. his purchase: his acquisition.
610. I love thy courage yet, though thou hast spoken most unwisely.
611. can do thee little stead: can avail thee but little.
617. utmost shifts: most carefully devised precautions.
620. Of small regard to see to: of very insignificant appearance.
621. A virtuous plant is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or
qualities.
624. Which when I did. The modern English has lost the power of beginning
a sentence thus, with two relatives.
626. scrip, a word in no way connected with _script_.
627. And show me simples of a thousand names. Compare Hamlet IV 7 145,
"no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under
the moon."
634. Unknown and like esteemed: neither known nor esteemed.
635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. See 2 Henry VI. IV 2
195,--"Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon," and Hamlet IV 5
26,--"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon."
636. The story of Hermes' giving Ulysses the Moly read in Odyssey X.
"Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from
the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the
root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods call it, but it is
hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are
possible."
638. He called it Haemony. _Haemony_ is a nonce-word of Milton's own
coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning _skilful_ or
from another meaning _blood_.
640. mildew blast, or damp. _Blast_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "A sudden
infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly attributed to
the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, etc.)"; and
_damp_: "An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious kind."
641. Or ghastly Furies' apparition: or the appearance of terrifying
ghosts.
646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. _Lime_ was a viscous
substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle the feet
of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet III 3 68, "O
limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged."
657. apace: quickly.
In the stage directions, goes about means, makes a movement.
661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo. The great god, Apollo,
pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her by transforming her into a
laurel tree.
672. this cordial julep. _Julep_ is a word of Persian origin, meaning
rose-water. Note the poet's skill in culling words of delicious sound.
675. Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone In Egypt gave to
Jove-born Helena. See Odyssey IV: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, cast a
drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger,
and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow.... Medicines of such virtue and
so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon,
had given her, a woman of Egypt."
685. the unexempt condition: the condition from which no one is exempt.
695. These oughly-headed monsters. Perhaps by this peculiar spelling,
_oughly_, Milton meant to add to the word _ugly_ a higher degree of
ugliness.
698. With vizored falsehood: falsehood with its vizor, or face-piece,
down, to conceal its identity.
700. With liquorish baits. _Liquorish_, now usually spelled _lickerish_,
is allied to _lecherous_, and has no connection with _liquor_ or with
_liquorice_.
703. The goodness of the gift lies in the intention of the giver.
707. those budge doctors of the stoic fur. _Budge_ is defined by Dr.
Murray: "Solemn in demeanor, important-looking, pompous, stiff, formal."
Cowper, in his poem Conversation, has the couplet: "The solemn fop;
significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge." _A
doctor of the Stoic fur_ is a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, who wears
a gown of the fur to which his degree of doctor entitles him.
708. fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub: teach doctrines learned
from the Cynic Diogenes, who is reputed to have lived in a tub.
719. hutched: stowed or laid away, as in a chest or hutch.
721. pulse; conceived as the simplest kind of food.
722. frieze; to be pronounced _freeze_.
724. and yet: and what is yet more.
728. Who refers back to Nature.
734. they below: the people of the lower world.
737. coy. See Lycidas 18. cozened. See Merchant of Venice II 9 38.
744. It refers back to beauty.
748. homely; in the modern disparaging sense.
750. grain: color.
751. To ply, or make, a sampler, as a proof of her skill with the needle,
was, until very modern times, the duty of every young girl. The old
samplers are now precious heirlooms in families. to tease the huswife's
wool. To _tease wool_, or to card it, was to use the teasle, or a card,
to prepare it for spinning. Carding and spinning were common duties of
the huswife and her daughters.
753. In what respect can tresses be said to be like the morn?
760. when vice can bolt her arguments. There are two verbs, spelled
alike, _bolt_. One means to sift, and is used often of arguments and
reasonings. To bolt arguments is to construct them with logical care and
precision. The other _bolt_ means to shoot forth or blurt out. We may
take our choice of the two words.
773. How is the line to be scanned?
780. Or have I said enow? In the edition of Comus published in 1645 this
passage reads, _Or have I said enough?_ In the edition of 1673, the
latest that he revised, Milton changed _enough_ to _enow_. Grammatically,
_enough_ is the better form, as the Elizabethan usage favored _enough_
for the form of the adjective with singular nouns and for the adverb, and
_enow_ as the adjective with plurals. It would seem that the poet must
have had some motive of euphony for the change he made.
788. thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know. A Latinism: _dignus es
qui non cognoscas_.
793. the uncontrolled worth Of this pure cause: the invincible power
inherent in the cause by virtue of its nature.
804. Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus To some of Saturn's crew:
pronounces sentence upon his foes, condemning them to the punishments
named. _Erebus_--Darkness--is one of the numerous names of the lower
world, the kingdom of Pluto.
808. the canon laws: the fundamental laws, or the Constitution. Canon
law, generally speaking, is ecclesiastical law, or the law governing the
church.
817. And backward mutters of dissevering power. The "many murmurs" with
which his incantations have been mixed must be spoken backward in order
to undo their effect. This backward repetition of the charm has the power
to break the spell which the charm has wrought.
822. Meliboeus is yet another of the stock names of pastoral poetry.
823. The soothest shepherd. The ancient adjective _sooth_ means
essentially nothing more than _true_.
826. Sabrina is her name. The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of
Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn's Antiquarian
Library, entitled _Six Old English Chronicles_. The book is easily
accessible.
827. Whilom is derived from the dative plural _hwilum_ of the Old English
noun _hwil_, and originally meant _at times_.
831. What does Sabrina do in this line?
835. aged Nereus was one of the numerous Greek deities of the water. He
and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who are called
Nereids.
838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. The _nectar_ of the gods,
which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to other
purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, to
prevent decay. _Asphodel_ is a flower in our actual flora; but in the
poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the meadows of
Elysium.
840. ambrosial here means, _conferring immortality_.
845. Helping all urchin blasts; _i.e._ helping the victims of the blasts
against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See Merry Wives of
Windsor IV 4 49.
851. The word daffodil is directly derived from asphodel, with a _d_
unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus.
858. adjuring: charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as if under
oath.