And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply

750

The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool.
What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
There was another meaning in these gifts,
Think what, and bé advis'd, you are but young yet.
LADY.

I had not thought to have unlock'd my lips
In this unhallow'd air, but that this juggler
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes,
Obtruding false rules prank'd in reason's garb.
I hate when vice can bolt her arguments,

751. The sampler, and to tease &c.] In the Manuscript it is

The sample, or to tease the huswife's wool.

The word tease is commonly used in a metaphorical sense, but here we have it in its proper and original signification, carpere, vellere. See Skinner, Junius, &c.

752. Vermeil-tinctur'd] Edward Bendlowes has this epithet to cheek in his Theophila, cant. i. st. 21. Lond. 1652. We have love-darting in Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 399. ed. fol.

Whoso beholds her sweet lovedarting cyn.

T. Warton. 755. Think what, and be advis'd, you are but young yet.] He had written at first,

Think what, and look upon this cordial julep,

and then followed the verses which are inserted from ver. 672 to 705.

756. I had not thought &c.] The six following lines are spoken aside. Sympson.

754

760

759.-prank'd in reason's garb.] Dressed, clad. So Shakespeare,

-your high self,

The gracious mark o' th' land, you
have obscur'd

With a swain's wearing, and me,
poor lowly maid,
Most Goddess-like prankt up.
Winter's Tale. Peck.

Prank implies a false or af-
Heroic. Epist. vol. i.
fected decoration. Drayton,
p. 335.

To prank old wrinkles up in new attire. T. Warton. 760. I hate when vice can bolt her arguments,] That is, sift. So Chaucer,

But I ne cannot boulte it to the brenne.

Warburton.

In the construction of a mill, a part of the machine is called the boulting-mill, which separates the flour from the bran. Chaucer, Nonnes Pr. T. 1355.

But I ne cannot bolt it to the brenne, As can that holy doctor saint Austen. That is, "I cannot argue, and

And virtue has no tongue to check her pride.
Impostor, do not charge most innocent Nature,
As if she would her children should be riotous
With her abundance; she good cateress
Means her provision only to the good,

765

That live according to her sober laws,

And holy dictate of spare temperance :

If every just man, that now pines with want,
Had but a moderate and beseeming share
Of that which lewdly-pamper'd luxury
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess,
Nature's full blessings would be well dispens'd
In unsuperfluous even proportion,

And she no whit incumber'd with her store,
And then the giver would be better thank❜d,

66

770

775

reasons are as two grains of "wheat hid in two bushels of "chaff; you shall seek all day "ere you find them, &c." The meaning of the whole context is this, "I am offended when vice "pretends to dispute and reason, "for it always uses sophistry." T. Warton.

Bp. Newton indeed rather understands the word, to dart, to shoot, from the substantive bolt for arrow. And Dr. Johnson explains to bolt," to blurt out or throw out precipitantly," citing the passage before See his Dictionary. But he has not less than six quotations which exhibit, in fact, the meta

us.

In boulted language, meal and bran phorical sense of the word here together

He throws without distinction.

It is the same allusion in the
Merch. of Ven. act i. s. 1. "His

contended for by Warburton and Warton, and which tend to confirm their interpretation of it.

E.

His praise due paid; for swinish gluttony
Ne'er looks to Heav'n amidst his gorgeous feast,
But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams, and blasphemes his feeder. Shall I

go

on ?

Or have I said enough? To him that dares
Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words
Against the sun-clad pow'r of Chastity,

. Fain would I something say, yet to what end?
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul to apprehend
The sublime notion, and high mystery,
That must be utter'd to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of virginity,

And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
More happiness than this thy present lot.

780

785

Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric,

790

That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence,
Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinc'd;

Yet should I try, the uncontrolled worth

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits
To such a flame of sacred vehemence,

779.

-Shall I go on?] From hence to ver. 806. in Comus's speech, that is twenty-seven verses, are not in the Manuscript, but were added afterwards.

785. The sublime notion, and high mystery, &c.] That Milton's notions about love and chastity were extremely refined and delicate, not only appears from this poem, but also from many passages in his prose-works, particularly in the Apology for Smectymnuus, where he is

Compare v. 453. et seq.

795

So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity,

&c.

And see
the notes, P. L. viii. 589.
and 615. E.

791. That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence,] We have the substantive fence in Shakespeare, Much ado about Nothing, act v. s. 1.

Despight his nice fence, and his active practice.

defending himself against the And King John, act ii. s. 3.

charge of lewdness which his adversaries had very unjustly

laid against him. Thyer.

Teach us some fence.

T. Warton.

That dumb things would be mov'd to sympathize,
And the brute earth would lend her nerves, and shake,
Till all thy magic structures rear'd so high,

Were shatter'd into heaps o'er thy false head.
COMUS.

She fables not, I feel that I do fear

Her words set off by some superior power;

And though not mortal, yet a cold shudd'ring dew
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove
Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus
To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble,
And try her yet more strongly. Come, no more,
This is mere moral babble, and direct
Against the canon laws of our foundation;
I must not suffer this, yet 'tis but the lees

797. And the brute earth, &c.] The unfeeling earth would sympathise and assist. It is Horace's "Bruta tellus," Od. i. xxxiv. 11. T. Warton.

800. She fables not, &c.] These six lines too are aside. Sympson. 807. This is mere moral babble, &c.] These lines were thus at first in the Manuscript.

This is mere moral stuff, the very lees
And settlings of a melancholy blood:
But this will cure all strait, &c.

808. Against the canon laws of our foundation.] Canon laws, a joke! Warburton.

Here is a ridicule on establishments, and the canon law now greatly encouraged by the church. Perhaps on the Canons of the Church, now rigidly enforced, and at which Milton frequently glances in his prose tracts. He calls Gratian "the "compiler of canon-iniquity."

800

805

Pr. W. i. 211. In his book on Reformation, he speaks of " an "insulting and only canon-wise

prelate." Pr. W. vol. i. 7. And his arguments on Divorce, afford frequent opportunities of exposing what he calls the Ignorance and Iniquity of the CanonLaw. See particularly, ch. iii. T. Warton.

I

809--Yet 'tis but the lees And settlings of a melancholy blood.]

like the Manuscript reading

best,

"This is mere moral stuff, the very
lees."

Yet is bad. But very inaccurate.
Hurd.

So in Sams. Agon. 599.
Believe not these suggestions, which
proceed

From anguish of the mind and
humours black,

That mingle with the fancy.

T. Warton.

And settlings of a melancholy blood:

But this will cure all strait, one sip of this
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight

Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste.

The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, and break it against the ground; his rout make sign of resistance, but are all driven in; The attendant Spirit comes in.

SPIRIT.

What, have you let the false inchanter scape?
ye mistook, ye should have snatch'd his wand

See Upton, Gl. F. Q. in V. sage of Ovid, the great ritualist Bathe. T. Warton. of classical sorcery, before cited,