To help you find them. Lady. Gentle villager, What readiest way would bring me to that

place?

305

Com. Due west it rises from this shrubby point.
Lady. To find that out, good shepherd, I suppose,
In such a scant allowance of star-light,
Would overtask the best land-pilot's art,

Without the sure guess of well-practis'd feet. 310
Com. I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood,
And every bosky bourn from side to side,
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood.
And if your stray attendance be yet lodg'd, 315
Or shroud within these limits I shall know

(306) The prototype of the Gemini lie in fact due west from that of Comus, as representing Cuba.

(308) This line alludes, not only to the darkness of the woods in le Jardin de la Reine, but to the lady's separation from her brothers, above explained; those brothers being the prototypes of the sign Gemini, as composed of stars.

Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
From her thatcht pallet rouse; if otherwise
I can conduct you, Lady, to a low

But loyal cottage, where you may be safe

320

Till further quest. La. Shepherd, I take thy word And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,

Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds

With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls

And courts of princes, where it first was nam'd, And yet is most pretended: In a place

Less warranted than this, or less secure,

I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial

326

(324) Smoky rafters. I apprehend this expression to refer to the practice of smoking tobacco so common in the West Indies (and particularly in Cuba,) as an antidote against the ague.

(329) Though a part of the waters from the Bay of Honduras may be considered as being stopped and becoming stagnant at Cuba, yet other parts of them must be conceived to take their course into the Atlantic, by means of that current which sets

To

my proportion'd strength. Shepherd lead on.

The two Brothers,

Eld. Bro. Unmuffle ye faint stars, and thou fair

moon,

That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon,
Stoop thy pale visage thro' an amber cloud

331

constantly to the north-east by Cape Florida; in the neighbourhood of which lies the Isle of Providence, which I take to be here alluded to; as Alabaster Island, another in the same neighbourhood, seems to be referred to hereafter in the 668th line. The south side of North America by the mouths of the Mississippi, and its east side (by the United States) resemble the joiner's instrument called a square, or the letter L; and it is along the latter coast that the current just now spoken of takes its course, which may possibly be alluded trial.

to by the expression square my

(330) Shepherd. The angular district at the east end of Cuba may be assimilated to a shepherd's crook over Comus's head.

And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here

In double night of darkness and of shades ; 335
Or, if your influence be quite damm'd up

With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,
Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole
Of some clay habitation, visit us

With thy long levell'd rule of streaming light, 340
And thou shalt be our star of Arcardy

Or Tyrian Cynosure. 2 Bro. Or if our eyes
Be barr'd that happiness, might we but hear
The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes,
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock

345

(337) "The gentle taper from clay habitation" may allude to the ignes fatui, which are not uncommon in low, foggy, damp situations where wickers or willows grow; and the same may be alluded to in 154, when Comus hurls

"His dazzling spells into the spungy air,"

and again perhaps by the torches which his rout of monsters are introduced with in their hands.

Count the night watches to his feathery dames,
'I would be some solace yet; some little cheering
In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.
But O, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! 350
Where may she wander now, whither betake her
From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and
bristles?

Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now.
Or 'gainst the rugged back of some broad elm,
Leans her unpillow'd head fraught with sad fears.

(353) This line in fact describes the real situation of the lady when the waters which she represents are in their stagnant state: the next line points to the resemblance which the Isle of Cuba has to the stock of a large elm, its root at the west end of the Island; the next line but one, in the word amazement, conveys a hint of Cape Maisy in that Island; and the savage heat of the 358th alludes not merely to the natural temperature of that country as lying within the tropics, but to certain appearances which the prototype of Comus too plainly brings into view.