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That opes the palace of eternity:

To such my errand is; and but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.

But to my task. Neptune besides the sway
Of every salt flood, and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles
That like to rich and various gens inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep,
Which he to grace his tributary Gods

written That shows &c. after-
wards altered,

That opes the palace of eternity,
Mr. Pope has transferred with a
little alteration into one of his
Satires, speaking of Virtue,

Her priestess Muse forbids the good

to die,

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Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether
Jove

The rule and title of each sea-girt isle.
And they were altered with great

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22. That like to rich and various gems inlay

The unadorned bosom of the deep,]

The first hint of this beautiful passage seems to have been taken ii. sc. 1. where John of Gaunt from Shakespeare's Rich. II. act calls this island by the same sort of metaphor,

-this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea.

22. But Milton has heightened the comparison, omitting Shakespeares petty conceit of the silver sea, the conception of a jeweller, and substituting another and a more striking piece of imagery. sion in the Paradise Lost, gives This rich inlay, to use an expresbeauty to the bosom of the deep, else unadorned. It has its effect bare earth, before the creation, on a simple ground. Thus the was" desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned." P. L. vii. 314.

Eve's tresses are unadorned,

reason, no verb following the Ibid. iv. 305. T. Warton. nominative case, Neptune.

By course commits to several government,
And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents: but this isle,
The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities;
And all this tract that fronts the falling sun
A noble Peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide
An old, and haughty nation proud in arms:
Where his fair offspring nurs'd in princely lore
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-intrusted sceptre; but their way

28. -the best of all the main,] So altered in the manuscript from -the best of all his empire.

29. He quarters] That is, Neptune: with which name he honours the king, as sovereign of the four seas; for from the British Neptune alone this noble Peer derives his authority. Warburton.

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335

at Ludlow castle with great solemnity. On this occasion he was attended by a large concourse of the neighbouring nobility and gentry. Among the rest came his children; in particular, Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and Lady Alice,

-To attend their father's state, And new-intrusted sceptre.

32.-With temper'd awe to They had been on a visit at a

guide

An old and haughty nation,

proud in arms.] That is, the Cambro-Britons, who were to be governed by respect mixed with awe. The Earl of Bridgewater, "A noble Peer of "mickle trust and power," was now governor of the Welch as lord-president of the principality. "Proud in arms," is Virgil's "belloque superbi." En. i. 21. T. Warton.

34. Where his fair offspring, nurs'd in princely lore, &c.] I have been informed from a manuscript of Oldys, that Lord Bridgewater entered upon his official residence

house of their relations the Egerton family in Herefordshire; and in passing through Haywood forest were benighted, and the Lady Alice was even lost for a short time. This accident, which in the end was attended with no bad consequences, furnished the subject of a Mask for a Michaelmas festivity, and produced Comus. Lord Bridgewater was appointed Lord President, May 12, 1633. When the perilous adventure in Haywood forest happened, if true, cannot now be told. It must have been soon after. The Mask was acted at Michaelmas, 1634. T. Warton

Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood,
The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wand'ring passenger;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that by quick command from sovereign Jove
I was dispatch'd for their defence and guard;
And listen why, for I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transform'd,

43. And listen why, for I will

tell you now

What never yet was heard &c.]
Horace, od. iii. i. 2.

Favete linguis: carmina non prius
Audita-

Virginibus puerisque canto. Richardson. Milton might justly enough say this, since Comus is a deity of his own making: but the same allegory has been introduced by most of the principal epic poets under other personages. Such are Homer's Circe, Ariosto's Alcina, Tasso's Armida, and Spen

ser's Acrasia.

From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.

Alluding to the ancient custom of poets repeating their own verses at public entertainments. Thyer.

45. From old or modern bard,] It was at first in the manuscript,

By old or modern bard

45. —in hall or bower.] That is, literally, in hall or chamber.

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45

The two words are often thus joined in the old metrical romances. And thus in Spenser's Astrophel.

Merrily masking both in bowre and hall.

And his Colin Clouts come home again.

And purchase highest roome in bowre or hall.

Where room is place, as in St. Luke xiv. 8, 9, 10. Shakespeare has bower for chamber, Coriolan. act iii. s. 2. So Chaucer, Mill. T. 259. And Spenser, Prothalam. st. viii. T. Warton.

46. Bacchus, that first &c.] Though he builds his fable on classic mythology, yet his materials of magic have more the air of inchantments in the Gothic romances. Warburton.

transform'd,] They were changed 48. After the Tuscan mariners by Bacchus into ships and dolphins, the story of which metamorphosis the reader may see in Ovid. Met. iii. Fab. 8.

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Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed,
On Circe's island fell: (Who knows not Circe
The daughter of the sun? whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling swine)
This Nymph that gaz'd upon his clust'ring locks,
With ivy berries wreath'd, and his blithe youth,
Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son
Much like his father, but his mother more,

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd,

48. This story is alluded to in Homer's fine hymn to Bacchus; the punishments he inflicted on the Tyrrhene pirates are the subjects of the beautiful frieze on the Lantern of Demosthenes, described by Mr. Stuart, in his Antiq. of Athens, p. 33. Dr. J. Warton.

Lilius Gyraldus relates, that this history was most beautifully represented in Mosaic work, in the church of St. Agna at Rome, originally a temple of Bacchus. And it is one of the pictures in Philostratus. T. Warton.

50. —who knows not Circe, &c.] See Boethius, 1. iv. m. iii. and Virgil, Æn. vii. 11. 17. Alcina has an enchanted cup in Ariosto, c. x. 45. T. Warton.

54.-clust'ring] See the notes, Par. L. iv. 303. E.

55. With ivy-berries wreath'd,] Nonnus calls Bacchus κορυμβο Pogos, b. xiv. See also Ovid, Fast. i. 393. and our author, El. vi. 15. T. Warton.

57. Much like his father, but his mother more.] This is said, because Milton's Comus, like

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Homer's Circe, represents all sensual pleasures; and Bacchus, in the heathen mythology, only presides over that of drinking. Thyer.

58. Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd,] This line was at first in the Manuscript,

Which therefore she brought up, and nam'd him Comus.

58. and Comus nam'd.] Doctor Newton observes, that Comus is a deity of Milton's own making. But if not a natural and easy personification, by our author, of the Greek кQмOZ, Comessatio, it should be remembered, that Comus is distinctly and most sublimely personified in the Agamemnon of Eschylus, edit. Stanl. p. 376. v. 1195. Where says Cassandra, "That horrid band, "who sing of evil things, will

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never forsake this house. Be"hold, Comus, the drinker of "human blood, and fired with "new rage, still remains within "the house, being sent forward "in an unlucky hour by the

Who ripe, and frolic of his full grown age,
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,

At last betakes him to this ominous wood,
And in thick shelter of black shades imbow'r'd

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"Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original "crime of this fated family, &c."

Την γαρ στεγην, την δ' ούποτ' εκλείπει
Kogos,

Συμφθογγος ουκ εύφωνος

Και μην πιπωκως, γ ̓ ὡς θρασυνεσθαι πλέον,
Βροτειον αιμα ΚΩΜΟΣ εν δόμοις μενει,
Δυσπέμπτος έξω συγγόνων Εριννύων.
Υμνουσι δ ̓ ὕμνον δώμασι προσημεναι
Πρωταρχον ατην,

Comus is here the god of riot and intemperance, and he has assumed new boldness from drinking human blood: that is, because Atreus served up his murdered children for a feast, and Agamemnon was killed at the beginning of a banquet. There is a long and laboured description of the figure of Comus in the Icones of Philostratus, o da ö ΚΩΜΟΣ εφεστηκεν εν θαλαμου θυραίς Xeurais, &c. Among other circumstances, his crown of roses is mentioned. Also, Keoraha, 66 και θροος έναυλος, και βοή ατακτος, <s λαμπαδες τε, &c.” ΕΙΚΟΝ Β. i. p. 733. seq. edit. Paris. 1608. fol. Compare Erycius Puteanus's Comus, a Vision, written 1608. It is remarkable, that Comus makes no figure in the Roman literature.

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Peck supposes Milton's Comus to be Chemos," th' obscene dread "of Moab's sons." P.L. i. 406. But, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is professedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's sorceress Circe. Besides, our author in his early

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poetry, and he was now only twenty-six years old, is generally more classical and less scriptural, than in pieces written after he had been deeply tinctured with the Bible.

It must not, in the mean time, here be omitted, that Comus the

god of cheer," had been before a dramatic personage in one of Jonson's Masques before the Court, 1619. An immense cup is carried before him, and he is crowned with roses and other flowers, &c. vol. vi. 29. His attendants carry javelins wreathed with ivy. He enters, riding in triumph from a grove of ivy, to the wild music of flutes, tabors, and cymbals. At length the grove of ivy is destroyed, p. 35.

And the voluptuous Comus, god of

cheer,

Beat from his grove, and that defac'd, &c.

See also Jonson's Forest, b. i. 3. Comus puts in for new delights, &c. T. Warton.

60. the Celtic and Iberian fields,] France and Spain. Thyer.

61. At last betakes him to this ominous wood.] Ominous is dangerous, inauspicious, full of portents, &c. B. and Fletcher use it in this sense, Sea Voyage, a. i. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 95. Afterwards Comus's wood is called "this "advent'rous glade." v. 79. T. Warton.

62. And in thick shelter of black shades] In Milton's Manuscript

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