110 115 Strict Age, and sour Severity 120 lous head,] It was at first in the move ;] The morrice or Moorish Manuscript, dance was first brought into And quick Law with her scrupulous England, as I take it, in Edward head. the Third's time, when John of 108. The MS. reading is the Gaunt returned from Spain, best. It is not the essential attri-, where he had been to assist his bute of Advice to be scrupulous ; father-in-law, Peter king of Casbut it is of quick law, or watchful tile, against Henry the Bastard. law, to be so. Warburton. Peck. It was however in character in the Morgante Maggiore of for Comus to call advice, scrupuPulci, we have “ Balli alla molous. It was his business to de- “ resea,” which he gives to the preciate advice at the expense of age of Charlemagne. Cant. iv. 92. truth. T. Warton. T. Warton. 110. With their grave saws] 117. And on the tawny sands] Saws, sayings, maxims. So Shake So altered in the Manuscript speare, As you like it, act ii. sc. 9. from yellow sands. Full of wise saws. 118. Trip the pert faeries] See the note, Comus, 961. Hamlet, act i. sc. 8. E. 119. — fountain brim] This I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, was the pastoral language of All saws of books. Milton's age. So Drayton, Bar. 114. Lead in swift round] It W. vi. 36. and Warner's Albion's was first written, Lead with swift England, b. ix. 46. We have round. ocean-brim in P. L. y. 140. T. 116. --in wavering morrice Warton, 125 Night hath better sweets to prove, 130 135 123. Night hath better] In the Spelteth his lightning forth. Manuscript Night has better. . And Spenser has, fire-spetting 129. Dark-veil'd Cotytto,] The Goddess of impudence, originally 133. And mukes one blot of all a strumpet, had midnight sacri the air,] In the Manuscript he fices at Athens. She is here there had first written And makes a fore very properly said to be blot of nature, and afterwards dark-veild. Her dues or rites And throws a blot o'er all the air, were called Cotytlia, and her and then corrected it as it stands priests Baptæ; because they, at present. who were initiated into her mys. 134. Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, teries, were sprinkled with warm &c.] In the Manuscript these water. See Peck, and Juvenal lines at first run thus, ii. 91. Stay thy polish'd ebon chair, Til all thy dues be done, and nought left out. tytto. 131. -the dragon womb] Al. Afterwards these lines were luding to the dragons of the added in the margin, night. See Il Penseroso 59. Wherein thou rid'st with Hecate, 132. —spits her thickest gloom,] And favour our close jocondrie, So Drayton of an exhalation or cloud. Bar. W. ü. 35. without and then altered to what they a familiar or low sense. are at present, VOL. IV. Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 139. —nice morn] A finely This sufficiently explains what chosen epithet, expressing at once is meant by the measure followcurious and squeamish. Hurd. ing; which, says Mr. Peck, is 140. From her cabin'd loophole an old way of expression for the peep,] So appearing to them dance, as in Shakespeare, King who see the morning break from Henry VIII. act i. sc. 7. the midst of a wood, at loopholes cut through thickest shade. Para Good, my Lord Cardinal, I have half a dozen healths dise Lost, ix. 1110. Cantic. vi. To drink to these fair ladies, and a 10. Who is she that looketh forth measure as the morning ? Richardson. To lead them once again; and then Milton here perhaps imitated let's dream Fletcher's beginning of his fifth Who's best in favour. act of the Faithful Shepherdess. In Milton's Manuscript the last . See the blushing morn doth peep line was thus at first, Through the window, while the sun, With a light and frolic round. &c. 140. —-cabin' d] Rather cabin's. And then follows, The measure Comus is describing the morning in a wild, rude, and wanton antic. contemptuously, as it was un 143. Compare Fletcher, Faithwelcome and unfriendly to his ful Shepherdess, a. i, s. 1. secret revels. Compare also Arm in arm Drayton, Mus. Elyz. ed. 1630. Tread we softly in a round, p. 22. While the hollow neighbouring ground, &c. The sun out of the east doth peepe, &c. T. Warton. And Jonson, in his Masques. *. 141. -the tell-lale sun] This In motions swift and meet epithet alludes to the fable of The happy ground to beat. the sun's discovering Mars and And Shakespeare. Mids. N. Dr. Venus together, and telling tales iv. s. 1. to Vulcan. Odyss. viii. 302. Ηελιος γαρ οι σκοπιην εχεν, ειπε τι μυθον. Sound music, Come, my queen, take hand with me, 143. Come, knit hands, and And rock the ground whereon these beat the ground sleepers be. In a light funtastic round.] T. Warton.. 145 The Measure. Break off, break off, I feel the different pace Of some chaste footing near about this ground. Run to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees; Our number may affright: some virgin sure (For so I can distinguish by mine art) Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms, 150 And to my wily trains; I shall ere long Be well-stock’d with as fair a herd as graz'd About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl My dazzling spells into the spungy air, Of pow'r to cheat the eye with blear illusion, And give it false presentments, lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment, And put the damsel to suspicious flight, Which must not be for that's against my course; 155 145. -I feel the different pace 153. –Thus I hurl &c.] The &c.] The following lines be- lines following were thus in the fore they were altered in the Manuscript at first. Manuscript run thus, My powder'd spells into the spungy -I hear the different pace Of some chaste footing near about Of pow'r to cheat the eye with sleight this ground. (or blind) illusion, Some virgin sure benighted in these And give it false presentments, else woods; the place &c. For so I can distinguish by mine art. Run to your shrouds within these 153. Thus I hurl brakes and trees; My dazzling spells into the Our number may affright. spungy air.] And in the margin is written, B. Fletcher, Faith. Shep. act iii. They all scatter. s. 1. 151. -wily trains ;] Rightly I strew these herbs to purge the air : altered from what he had first Let your odour drive from hence written in his Manuscript, All mists that dazzle sense, &c. Compare Par. L. viii. 457. T. And to my mother's charms Warion.' for the charms described are not 157. quaint] See notes, from the classical pharmacopæa, Sams. Agon. 1303. and Arcades, but the Gothic. Warburton. 47. T. Warton. 160 165 I under fair pretence of friendly ends, The Lady enters. 170 161. —words of glozing cour. And hearken, if I may, her business tesy] here. But here she comes, I fairly step Flattering, deceitful; as in Par. aside. L. iii. 95. “ glozing lies.” iv. 549. “So gloz'd the tempter." We have restored the true readThe word occurs in Spenser. ing according to the author's Marlow, Lilly, Shakespeare. T. Manuscript, and according to Wartun. the first edition of the Mask in 164. And hug him into snares.] 1637, and according to the first So corrected in the Manuscript edition of the Poems in 1645. from The last line in some editions is varied thus, And hug him into nets. And hearken, if I may, her business 164. when once her eye hear. Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,) But Milton's own is much proThis refers to the MS. reading perer and better, of v. 154. my powdered spells. And hearken, if I may, her business T. Warton. 167. Whom thrift keeps up 168. -fairly] That is, softly. about his country gear.] Here is Hurd. « Fair and softly" were a strange mistake in the edition two words which went together, of the poems printed in 1673, signifying gently. The corpse of which has implicitly been fol. Richard II. was conveyed in a lowed in some other editions. litter through London, “faire This whole verse is omitted, and « and softly.” Froissart, p. ii. the two following are transposed ch. 249. T. Warton. thus, 170. —if mine ear] Manuscript, I shall appear some harmless villager, if my ear. here. |