'Areopagitica': 'sometimes five imprimaturs are seen together,
dialogue-wise, in the piazza of one title-page, complimenting and
ducking each to other with their shaven reverences, whether the author,
who stands by in perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the
press or to the spunge.'
P. 111. _Uzza_: see 2 Sam. vi. 3-8.
P. 112. _Whom do we count a good man_:
'Vir bonus est quis?—
Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat;
Quo multæ magnæque secantur judice lites;
Quo res sponsore, et quo causæ teste tenentur.
Sed videt hunc omnis domus et vicinia tota
Introrsùs turpem, speciosum pelle decorâ.'
—_Epistolarum Liber_, i. 16, vv. 40-45, _Ad Quinctium_.
P. 118. _Crescentius Nomentanus_: Roman patrician, a native of Nomentum
(now La Mentana), tenth century, was at the head of the Italian party
against the Germans and the popes, with title of Consul; was besieged in
the Castle St. Angelo, and finally capitulated on terms honorable to
himself, but was basely put to death by Otho III., A.D. 998.
P. 118. _Nicholas Rentius_: Rienzi, or Rienzo (Niccolo Gabrini), or Cola
di Rienzi, 'the last of the Roman Tribunes,' b. about 1313, d. 1354.
'Then turn we to her latest tribune's name,
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee,
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame—
The friend of Petrarch—hope of Italy—
Rienzi! last of Romans! while the tree
Of Freedom's withered trunk puts forth a leaf,
Even for thy tomb a garland let it be—
The forum's champion, and the people's chief—
Her new-born Numa thou—with reign, alas! too brief.'
—_Byron's Childe Harold_, Canto iv. St. cxiv.
P. 120. _the resentment of Achilles_: the subject of the Iliad.
P. 120. _the return of Ulysses_: the subject of the Odyssey.
P. 120. _the coming of Æneas into Italy_: the subject of the Æneid.
P. 121. _As when those hinds_: he compares the reception given it [the
doctrine of his Divorce pamphlets] to the treatment of the goddess
Latona and her newly born twins by the Lycian rustics. These twins
afterward 'held the sun and moon in fee' (_i.e._ in full possession),
for they were Apollo and Diana; and yet, when the goddess, carrying them
in her arms, and fleeing from the wrath of Juno, stooped in her fatigue
to drink of the water of a small lake, the rustics railed at her and
puddled the lake with their hands and feet; for which, on the instant,
at the goddess's prayer, they were turned into frogs, to live forever in
the mud of their own making (Ovid, _Met._, vi. 335-381).—_Masson._
Wordsworth uses the phrase, 'in fee,' in the same way in the opening
verse of his sonnet on the 'Extinction of the Venetian Republic': 'Once
did She hold the gorgeous east in fee.'
P. 121. _lapse_: fall.
P. 121. _twinned_: as a twin.
P. 121. _dividual_: separate.
P. 121. _undeservedly_: without right or merit; no thanks to them.
P. 121. _virtue, which is reason_: 'Virtus est recta ratio, et animi
habitus, naturæ modo, rationi consentaneus.'—_Cicero._
P. 123. 424. _his son Herod_: king of Judea when Christ was born.
P. 123. 439. _Gideon, and Jephtha_; see _Judges_ vi.-viii. and xi.,
xii.; _the shepherd-lad_: David; see the _Books of Samuel_.
P. 123. 446. _Quintius_: Quintius Cincinnatus: _Fabricius_: the
patriotic Roman who was proof against the bribes of Pyrrhus; _Curius_:
_Curius Dentatus_: who would accept no public rewards; _Regulus_: after
dissuading the Romans from making peace with the Carthaginians, returned
to Carthage, knowing the consequences he would suffer.
_Comus_
P. 129. 4. _With Midas' ears_: _i.e._ with the ears of an ass;
_committing_: bringing together, setting at variance (Lat.
_committere_). Martial says, 'Cum Juvenale meo cur me committere
tentas?' _i.e._ 'why try to match me with my Juvenal,' _i.e._ in a
poetical contest with him.
P. 129. 5. _exempts_: separates, distinguishes; the compound subject
'worth and skill' is logically singular, and takes a singular verb.
P. 129. 11. _story_: 'the story of Ariadne, set by him to music,' as
explained in a note in 'Choice Psalms,' 1648.
P. 129. 13. _Casella_: 'a Florentine musician and friend of Dante, who
here ['Purgatorio,' ii. 91 _et seq._] speaks to him with so much
tenderness and affection as to make us regret that nothing more is known
of him.—_Longfellow's note._
_milder shades_: _i.e._ than those of the Inferno which Dante has just
left.
3. _insphered_: in their several spheres.
7. _pestered_: here, as indicated by 'pinfold,' the word means
'clogged'; 'pester' is a shortened form of 'impester.' Fr. _empêtrer_
(OF. _empestrer_) 'signifies properly to hobble a horse while he feeds
afield. Mid. Lat. _pastorium_, a clog for horses at
pasture.'—_Brachet's Etymol. Dict. of the French Language_, _s.v._
_dépêtrer_.
10. _After this mortal change_: 'mortal' I understand to be used here as
a noun, the subject of 'change,' a verb in the subjunctive; there is
evidently an allusion to 1 Cor. xv. 52-54, in which occur the
expressions, 'we shall be changed' and 'this mortal must put on
immortality.'
16. _ambrosial weeds_: immortal or heavenly garments, _i.e._ garments
worn by an immortal. Gk. Ἀμβρόσιος, lengthened form of ἄμβροτος,
immortal. See v. 83.
20. _high and nether Jove_: by metonymy for the realms of Jove and
Pluto.
23. _unadornèd_: _i.e._ but for 'the sea-girt isles.'
25. _several_: separate; _by course_: in due order.
29. _quarters_: not literally, but simply, divides, distributes.
30. _this tract that fronts the falling sun_: Wales.
31. _a noble Peer_: the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales,
before whom 'Comus' was presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634.
32. _tempered awe_: _i.e._ tempered with mercy; 'mercy seasons justice.'
34. _nursed in princely lore_: nurtured in high learning.
38. _horror_: ruggedness, shagginess. See v. 429. . . . 'densis
hastilibus horrida myrtus.'—Virgil's _Æneid_, iii. 23. _brows_:
overarching branches.
39. _forlorn and wandering_: entirely lost and, consequently, straying
at random.
48. _After the Tuscan mariners transformed_: a Latinism; so, 'since
created man.'—_P. L._, i. 573. The allusion is to the story of the
Etruscan or Tyrrhenian pirates, who attempted to carry off Bacchus, sell
him as a slave, and were by him changed into dolphins.—_Ovid_, _Met._,
660 _et seq._
49. _listed_: pleased.
50. _On . . . fell_: happened upon.
59. _of_: from, by reason of.
60. _Celtic and Iberian fields_: France and Spain.
61. _ominous_: portentous.
65. _orient_: bright. The word was used independently of the idea of
'eastern.' In the ode 'On the Nativity,' v. 231, the _setting_ sun
'pillows his chin upon an orient wave.' Fuller, in his 'Holy War,' Book
ii. Chap. I., says of Godfrey of Bouillon, 'His soul was enriched with
many virtues, but the most _orient_ of all was his humility, which took
all men's affections without resistance.'
66. _the drouth of Phœbus_: the thirst caused by the sun's heat.
67. _fond_: foolish.
88. _nor of less faith_: _i.e._ than of musical power; 'faith' means the
fidelity of his service.
90. _Likeliest_: the best suited for impersonation by the Attendant
Spirit, by reason of his office of mountain watch over the flocks. He
would therefore be supposed to be near at hand if aid were needed.
92. _viewless_: invisible.
93. _The star that bids the shepherd fold_: the evening star cannot be
said to hold the top of heaven, _i.e._ be in the meridian; any star, the
earliest to appear, must be meant.
101. _his chamber in the east_: an allusion to Psalm xix. 5.
110. _saws_: sayings, maxims; 'grave' is used contemptuously by Comus.
116. _to the moon in wavering morrice move_: the sounds and seas beneath
the moon reflect dancing lights; 'morrice,' a rapid Moorish dance, once
common in England.
129. _Cotytto_: the goddess of shameless and licentious orgies. Her
priests were called _Baptæ_.
'involved in thickest gloom,
Cotytto's priests her secret torch illume;
And to such orgies give the lustful night,
That e'en Cotytto sickens at the sight.'
—_Gifford's translation of Juvenal_, ii. 91, 92.
132. _spets_: spits.
135. _Hecate_: goddess of sorcery and magic and 'of all kinds of
nocturnal ghastliness, such as spectral sights, the howlings of dogs,
haunted spots, the graves of the murdered, witches at their
incantations' (_Masson_). King Lear (I. i. 112) swears by 'the mysteries
of Hecate and the night.'
139. _nice_: fastidious, over-scrupulous; used contemptuously by Comus.
141. _descry_: reveal.
144. _round_: a circular dance; in 'L'Allegro,' 34, we have 'the light
fantastic toe.'
151. _trains_: enticements, allurements.
154. _spungy air_: which absorbs his 'dazzling spells.'
155. _blear_: dim, deceiving.
156. _false presentments_: representations which deceive the eye.
157. _quaint habits_: strange garments.
165. _virtue_: peculiar power. See v. 621; 'Il Pens.,' 113.
167. _country gear_: rural affairs.
168. _fairly_: softly.
175. _granges_: used in its original sense—barns. (Fr. _grange_.)
178. _swilled_: drunken.
180. _inform my unacquainted feet_: where else shall I learn my way than
from these revellers.
203. _perfect_: perfectly distinct, sure, certain, unmistakable. There
is a similar use of the word in Shakespeare: 'Thou art perfect, then,
our ship hath touched upon the deserts of Bohemia?'—_Winter's Tale_,
III. iii. 1; 'I am perfect that the Pannonians and Dalmatians for their
liberties are now in arms.'—_Cymb._, III. i. 73; 'What hast thou done?
I am perfect what' ('I know full well, I am fully aware.'
_Schmidt_).—_Cymb._, IV. ii. 118.
204. _single darkness_: pure darkness, only that and nothing more.
210. _may startle well_: _i.e._ may well (or indeed) startle.
212. _strong-siding_: strongly supporting.
215. _Chastity_: significantly substituted for Charity, as the companion
virtue of Faith and Hope, it being the _theme_, the central idea of the
poem, to which an explicit expression is given in the Elder Brother's
speech, vv. 418-475, and in the speech of the Lady to Comus, 780-799.
231. _airy shell_: the dome of the sky; 'cell' is in the margin of
Milton's MS.
248. _his_: (old neuter genitive) its, referring to 'something.'
251. _fall_: cadence.
251, 252. _smoothing . . . till it smiled_: Dr. Symmons, in his 'Life of
Milton,' remarks: 'Darkness may aptly be represented by the blackness of
the raven; and the stillness of that darkness may be paralleled by an
image borrowed from the object of another sense—by the softness of
down; but it is surely a transgression which stands in need of pardon
when, proceeding a step further and accumulating personifications, we
invest this raven-down with life and make it smile.' The metaphorical
use of 'smile' or 'laugh,' applied to inanimate things that are
smooth, shining, glossy, bright in colour, and the like, is, perhaps,
common in all literatures. The Latin 'rideo' and the Greek γελάω
are frequently so used; _e.g._ 'florumque coloribus almus ridet
ager' (and the bounteous field laughs with the colours of its
flowers).—_Ovid_, _Met._, xv. 205; 'Domus ridet argento' (the house
smiles with glittering silver).—_Horace_, _Odes_, IV. xi. 6; 'Ille
terrarum mihi praeter omnes angulus ridet' (that corner of the earth
smiles for me above all others).—_Horace_, _Odes_, II. vi. 14.
262. _home-felt delight_: _i.e._ delight that keeps one at home with
himself, does not carry him out of himself; in contrast with the singing
of Circe and the Sirens three, which 'in sweet madness _robbed it_ (the
sense) _of itself_.'
267. _unless the goddess_: _i.e._ unless (thou be) the goddess;
'dwell'st' should properly be 'dwells,' the antecedent of the relative
'that' being 'goddess,' third person, not 'thou' in the ellipsis.
273. _extreme shift_: last resort; Fr. _dernier ressort_.
279. _near ushering_: attending near at hand.
285. _forestalling night_: preventing, or hindering, night came before
them; 'forestall' has here the present sense of 'prevent,' and 'prevent'
its old, literal sense of come before.
287. _imports their loss_: does their loss signify other than your
present need of them?
290. _Hebe_: the goddess of youth; cupbearer to the gods before
Ganymedes.
293. _Swinked_: hard-worked. Spenser frequently uses the verb 'swink,'
and several times in connection with 'sweat'; _severe_ toil is always
implied in his use of the word: 'For which men swinck and sweat
incessantly.'—_F. Q._, 2. 7, 8; 'And every one did swincke, and every
one did sweat.'—2. 7, 36; 'For which he long in vaine did sweate and
swinke,' 6. 4, 32; 'Of mortal men, that swincke and sweate for
nought.'—_The Sheapherd's Calender_, _November_, 154; 'For they doo
swinke and sweate to feed the other.'—_Mother Hubbard's Tale_, 163.
301. _plighted_: folded, involved.
313. _bosky bourn_: Masson explains 'shrubby boundary or watercourse.'
Warton's explanation seems better supported by the context: 'A _bourn_
. . . properly signifies here, a winding, deep, and narrow valley, with
a rivulet at the bottom. In the present instance, the declivities are
interspersed with trees and bushes. This sort of valley Comus knew from
_side to side_. He knew _both_ the _opposite sides_ or ridges, and had
consequently traversed the intermediate space.'
315. _attendance_: attendants.
329. _square_: adapt.
332. _wont'st_: art accustomed; _benison_: blessing.
333. _stoop_: the same idea, or _impression_, rather, in regard to the
moon, is expressed in 'Il Penseroso,' 72:
'And oft, as if her head she bowed,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.'
'And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
That give away their motion to the stars.'
—_Coleridge's Dejection: an Ode._
336. _influence_: (astrological) the effect _flowing in, or upon_, from
the stars. See 'P. L.,' vii. 375, viii. 513, ix. 107, x. 662; 'L'Al.,'
122; 'Od. Nat.,' 71.
340. _rule_: long horizontal beam of light.
341. _Star of Arcady_: the constellation of the Greater Bear, by which,
or by some star in which, the Greek mariner steered his course.
342. _Tyrian Cynosure_: the constellation of the Lesser Bear, or the
pole star therein, by which the Phœnician (Tyrian) mariner steered.
344. _wattled cotes_: sheep-pens made of interwoven twigs.
349. _innumerous_: innumerable.
355. _leans_: subject 'she' implied in 'her,' above. See note on 'Samson
Agonistes', 1671; some editors make 'head' the subject.
358. _heat_: lust.
359. _exquisite_: used literally: outsearching; 'consider not too
curiously.'
366. _so to seek_: so wanting, so much at a loss.
367. _unprincipled_: ignorant of the elements, or first principles.
369. _noise_: not to be connected with 'single want of'; the meaning is,
mere darkness and noise.
373. _would_: might wish.
375. _flat sea_: in 'Lycidas,' 98, 'level brine.'
376. _oft seeks to_: oft resorts to.
380. _all to-ruffled_: all ruffled up; the prefix 'to-' is an old
intensive, with force of Ger. 'zer-'; generally imparts the idea of
destruction: 'all to-brake,' broke all in pieces; 'all to-rent,' tore
all in pieces.
382. _centre_: as in Shakespeare, centre of the earth.
386. _affects_: likes, entirely without any of its present meaning of
making a show of.
390. _weeds_: garments.
391. _maple_: maple-wood.
393. _Hesperian tree_: the tree in the Hesperian gardens which bore
golden apples and was guarded by the sleepless dragon Ladon, which was
slain by Hercules.
395. _unenchanted_: not to be enchanted, or wrought upon by magical
spells.
401. _wink on_: not take notice or advantage of.
402. _single_: solitary, alone.
404. _it recks me not_: I take no account of, care not for.
405. _events_: outcomes, consequences.
407. _unowned_: without a protector.
409. _without all doubt_: _i.e._ without any doubt; a Latinism.
413. _squint_: 'looking askance.' Spenser represents Suspect ('F. Q.,'
3. 12, 15) as
'ill favourèd, and grim,
Under his eiebrowes looking still askaunce.'
419. _if_: even if Heaven _did_ give it.
423. _unharboured_: without harbor, or shelter.
424. _infámous_: of bad reputation.
430. _unblenched_: fearless, self-sustained.
432. _some say_: reminds, as has been often noted, of the passage in
'Hamlet': 'some say that ever 'gainst that season comes,' etc.—I. i.
158.
455. _lackey_: attend, or wait upon, as guardians.
474. _and linked itself_: and as if it were itself linked.
494. _artful_: artistic, skilful.
495. _huddling_: hurrying; Verity understands 'huddling' as the result
of 'delayed.'
501. _next joy_: Thyrsis addresses the elder brother as his master's
heir, and then the second brother as 'his next joy,' _i.e._ object of
his joy.
503. _stealth_: the thing stolen.
509. _sadly_: seriously; _without blame_: _i.e._ on our part.
515, 516. _what the sage poets . . . storied_: made the theme of story:
Tells him of trophies, statues, tombs, and stories
His victories, his triumphs, and his glories.
—_Shakespeare's V. and A._, 1013, 14.
520. _navel_: centre.
526. _murmurs_: muttered spells, or incantations.
529. _mintage_: coinage.
533. _monstrous rout_: rout of monsters; so, 'monstrous world,' world of
monsters.—_Lycidas_, 158.
539. _unweeting_: not knowing.
540. _by then_: by the time that.
547. _meditate_: practice; see 'Lycidas,' 66.
548. _had_: subj., should have; _close_: _i.e._ of his 'rural
minstrelsy.'
552. _unusual stop of sudden silence_: see 145.
553. _drowsy-flighted_: this is the reading of the Cambridge MS., which
Masson adopts. Lawes's ed., 1637, and Milton's editions, 1645, 1673,
read 'drowsy frighted.' Masson quite conclusively supports the reading
of the MS., which he explains, 'always drowsily flying.' Keightley
retains 'drowsy frighted,' but says in his note, 'we are strongly
inclined to think it [the MS. reading] the right reading, and the
present one a mistake of Lawes himself or his printer.'
558. _took_: rapt.
560. _still_: ever.
585. _period_: sentence.
586. _for me_: as for me.
603. _grisly_: horrible. 'So spake the grisly terror (Death).'—_P. L._,
ii. 704.
604. _Acheron_: a river of the lower world; here used for the lower
world itself.
607. _purchase_: acquisition; the word retains here much of its original
meaning, _i.e._ what has been hunted down or stolen.
610. _yet_: notwithstanding; _emprise_: here, readiness for any
dangerous undertaking.
619. _a certain shepherd-lad_: a supposed compliment to Milton's dearest
friend, Charles Diodati.
620. _to see to_: to look upon.
621. _virtuous_: efficacious, potent.
627. _simples_: medicinal herbs.
634. _and like esteemed_: _i.e._ and (un)esteemed.
635. _clouted shoon_: patched shoes.
636. _Moly_: (Gk. μώλυ) a fabulous herb, 'that Hermes [Mercury] to
wise Ulysses gave,' as a protection against the spells of Circe.—_Od._,
x. 305. See Pope's note, in his translation, x. 361, Tennyson's 'Lotus
Eaters,' 133.
638. _Hæmony_: supposed to be from Hæmonia, Thessaly, famous for its
magic.
641. _Furies'_: used objectively.
642. _little reckoning made_: see 'Lycidas,' 116.
646. _lime-twigs_: used metaphorically.
662. _root-bound_: referring to her metamorphosis into a laurel tree
(δάφνη).
673. _his_: old neuter genitive, its.
675. _Nepenthes_ (Gk. νηπενθὲς, sorrow-soothing): the drug (supposed
to be opium) given by Polydamna to Helena, who put it into her husband
Menelaus's wine.—_Od._, iv. 220 _et seq._ See note to Pope's
translation, v. 302.
'Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore.'
—_Poe's Raven_, 83.
685. _unexempt condition_: condition to which all mortal frailty is
subject, namely, refreshment after toil, ease after pain.
688. _that_: referring to 'you,' 682.
695. _oughly_: the spelling in Milton's editions; 'as Milton has the
common spelling, _ugly_, in all other cases where he has used the word,
he must have intended a different form here, perhaps to indicate a more
guttural pronunciation.'—_Masson._
698. _visored_: masked; he appears as 'some harmless villager,' v. 166.
707. _budge_: austere, morose; _fur_: used metaphorically for order,
sect, profession. Landor remarks that 'it is the first time Cynic or
Stoic ever put on fur.' 'Budge' also means a kind of fur, but it
certainly cannot have that meaning here; the context requires the other
meaning.
708. _from the Cynic tub_: _i.e._ from the tub whence Diogenes, the
Cynic, delivered them.
714. _curious_: careful, nice, delicate, fastidious.
719. _hutched_: hoarded, laid up, as in a hutch or chest.
724. _yet_: in addition; or, it may have the force of 'even.'
744. _it_: _i.e._ beauty.
750. _grain_: 'a term derived from the Latin _granum_, a seed or kernel,
or grain in the sense of "grain of corn,"—which word _granum_ had come,
in later Latin times, to be applied specifically to the _coccum_, a
peculiar dye-stuff consisting of the dried, granular, or seed-like
bodies of insects of the genus _Coccus_, collected in large quantities
from trees in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. But that dye was
distinctly red. Another name for it, and for the insect producing it,
was _kermes_ . . . whence our "carmine" and "crimson." "Grain,"
therefore, meant a dye of such red as might be produced by the use of
kermes or coccum.'—From Masson's note on 'Sky-tinctured grain,' 'P.
L.,' v. 285, based on George P. Marsh's dissertation on the etymology of
the word, in his 'Lectures on the English Language' (1st S., 4th Am.
ed., 1861, pp. 65-75). Masson's note on 'cheeks of sorry grain' is
'_i.e._ of poor colour,' as if 'grain' were used in the general sense of
colour merely. It is better, I think, to understand 'grain' here in its
special sense of red, but used by Comus ironically, as indicated by
'sorry.' Beautiful cheeks are presumed to have a delicate reddish hue;
but where the features are homely and the complexion coarse, the cheeks
may be said, ironically, to be of a sorry grain, _i.e._ not red at all.
759. _pranked_: set off, adorned, decked.
760. _bolt_: sift, refine; a metaphor from the process of separating
flour from the bran. But the word may mean, as Dr. Newton explains, 'to
shoot,' or, as Dr. Johnson explains, 'to blurt out, or throw out
precipitantly.'
782. _sun-clad_: spiritually refulgent.
785. _the sublime notion_: see in extract from 'Apology for
Smectymnuus,' in this volume.
788. _worthy_: deserving, in a bad sense.
790. _your dear wit_: the change from 'thy' to 'your' is not explainable
here.
791. _her dazzling fence_: dear wit's and gay rhetoric's dazzling art of
fencing. Todd quotes from Prose Works, 'Hired Masters of Tongue-fence':
'dear wit' and 'gay rhetoric,' not constituting a compound idea in
Milton's mind, the relative 'that,' of which they are the antecedents,
takes a singular verb, and the two nouns are represented by the singular
personal pronoun 'her.' In the following passage from Spenser's 'Faerie
Queene,' B. II. C. ii. St. 31, two subjects take a singular verb, and
are represented by a singular personal pronoun:
'But lovely concord, and most sacred peace,
Doth nourish vertue, and fast friendship breeds;
Weake she makes strong, and strong thing does increace.'
The italicized portion of the following passage from 'The Passions and
Faculties of the Soul,' by Reynolds, C. xxxix, given in Trench's 'Select
Glossary,' _s.v._ Wit, defines well 'dear wit': 'I take not _wit_ in
that common acceptation, whereby men understand _some sudden flashes of
conceit whether in style or conference, which, like rotten wood in the
dark, have more shine than substance, whose use and ornament are, like
themselves, swift and vanishing, at once both admired and forgotten_.
But I understand a settled, constant and habitual sufficiency of the
understanding, whereby it is enabled in any kind of learning, theory, or
practice, both to sharpness in search, subtilty in expression, and
despatch in execution.'
797. _brute_: senseless; _lend her nerves_: _i.e._ to this sacred
vehemence.
800-806. spoken aside.