And as I past, I worshipp'd ; if those you seek, LADY. Gentle villager, Comus. LADY. 26. hath plight for plait or plaight. Chaucer, in the Testament of Love, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. iii. st. has plites for folds. And plite, a verb to fold, Tr. Cr. ii. 1204. All in a silken camus lilly white, From this verb plight, immePurfled upon with many a folded diately came Milton's plighted, plight: which I do not remember in any and again, cant. vi. st. 7. plight other writer. The modern word is a participle for plaighted or is plaited. Of the same family platted. is pleached, in Much ado about Nothing, act iii. s. 1. With gaudy garlands, or fresh flow. rets dight And bid her steal into the pleached About her neck, or rings of rushes bower, plight. Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the Calton. sun, Forbid the sun to enter. The lustre of Milton's brilliant imagery is half obscured, And in Antony and Cleopatra, while plight remains unex And he has impleached, impliplained. We are to understand cated, in his Lover's Complaint. the braided or embroidered Mal. Suppl, Sh. i. 752. T. Warclouds: in which certain airy ton. elemental beings are most poeti- 304. To help you find them.] cally supposed to sport, thus pro. In the Manuscript he had written ducing a variety of transient and at first, find them out. dazzling colours, as our author 309. -overtask] So Sonn. says of the sun, Par. L. iv. 586. xxii. 10. “overply'd in liberty's Arraying with reflected purple and “ defence." Milton is fond of gold the compound with over. VaThe clouds that on his western throne rious instances occur in Par. attend. Lost; many, as here, of his own ton. Without the sure guess of well-practis'd feet. ComuS. coinage. See over-multitude, be- Fell headlong into a dell. low, v. 731. and Sonn. ix. 6. It plainly signifies a steep place over-ween. Where see the note. or valley, and is much the same T. Warton. as dale. And every bosky bourn. 310. Without the sureguess of-] Bosku is woody, from the Belgian He altered the Manuscript, but bosche and the Italian bosco a he had written at first wood, says Skinner. It is used Without sure stcerage of by Shakespeare, Tempest, act iv. 312. Dingle, or hushy dell of this so: wild wood, &c.] It was at first My bosky acres, and my unshrubb'd in the Manuscript wide wood. down: Here Mr. Seward imagines that and i Hen. IV. act v. s. 1. Milton imitated Fletcher, Faith. How bloodily the sun begins to peer ful Shepherdess, act iv. Above yon busky (bosky) hill! - and since have crost Bourn is bound or limit, from the All these woods over, ne'er a nook or French borner, and is thus used dell, by Shakespeare, Tempest, act Where any little bird or beast doth .. ii. s. 1. dwell, But I have sought him, ne'er a bend Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, ing brow of any hill, or glade the wind sings through &c. & An Antony and Cleopatra, act i. s. 1. Dingle, according to Baily, is a I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. narrow valley between two steep Hamlet, act iii. s. 2. hills: Mr. Thyer of Manchester That undiscover'd country, from says, that the word is very com whose bourn monly used in that part of the No traveller returns kingdom, and Ben Jonson has And in Lear, Dover cliff is called the word dimble in the same sense. chalky bourn, act iv. s. 6. Dell is used by Fletcher at the beginning of the Faithful Shep From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. herdess, besides in the passage above quoted, 312. Drayton has dingle in his · Nor the shrill pleasing sound of merry Muses Elys. Nymph. ii. vol. iv. p. 1455. Under some shady dell: In dingles deep, and mountains hore. And by Spenser in his Shepherd's T. Warton. Calendar, March, speaking of a 313. And every bosky bourn sheep, from side to side,] A bourn, the none, pipes 315 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; 320 Till further quest. LADY. Shepherd, I take thy word, sense of which in this passage aboriginal separationsor divisions has never been explained with of property, might not the Saxon precision, properly signifies here, word gives rise to the French a winding, deep, and narrow borne ? There is a passage in the valley, with a rivulet at the bot- Faerie Queene, where a river, or tom. In the present instance, the rather strait, is called a bourne, ii. declivities are interspersed with vi. 10. trees and bushes. This sort of My little boate can safely passe this valley Comus knew from side to perilous bourne. side. He knew both the opposite But seemingly also with the sense sides or ridges, and had conse- of division or separation. For quently traversed the inter afterwards this bourn is styled a afterwar mediate space. Such situations shard. have no other name in the west When late he far'd of England at this day. In the In Phedria's Aitt barck over the perwaste and open countries, bourns lous shard. are the grand separations or di T. Warion. visions of one part of the country 316. Or shroud within these from another, and are natural limits,] He had written at first limits of districts and parishes. For bourn is simply nothing more Within these shroudie limitsthan a boundary. As in the 321. Til further quest.] He instances cited by Dr. Newton. had added in the Manuscript be See Furetiere in borne, and Du made, but afterwards blotted it Cange in borna, Lat. Gloss. In out, Saxon, burn, or burna, is a stream Till further quest be made. of water, as is bourn at present in some counties: and as rivers 321. See note on Arcades, 34. were the most distinguishable T. Warlon. With smoky rafters, than in tap’stry halls The Two BROTHERS. ELDER BROTHER. 324. With smoky rafters,] It To the false forest of a well-hung room was at first And smoky rafters. For honour and preferment come. The sentiment here is the saine That is, “a room in the houses as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, “ of the great, hung with tape. cant. 14. st. 62. of the original, “stry, the subject of which is and 52 of Harrington's trans- “ some romantic story, and the lation, “ scene a forest." And ShakeAs courtesy ofttimes in simple bow'rs speare in Cymbel. act iii. S. 4. Is found as great as in the stately -I am richer than to hang by the tow'rs. walls. 324. - in tap'stry halls 7 The And B. and Fletcher, Sea-voyage, mode of furnishing halls or state- act i. s. 1. apartments with tapestry, had not You must not look for down beds ceased in Milton's time. Palaces, here, nor luangings. as adorned with tapestry, are here T. Warton. contrasted with lupoly sheds, and 325. And courts of princes, smoky rafters. A . modern poet where it first was nam’d) This is would have written stuccoed plainly taken from Spenser, Faery halls. Shakespeare says of Lord Queen, b. vi. cant. 1. st. 1. Salisbury, Second P. K. Henry Of court, it seems, men courtesy do VI. act v. s. 3. And like rich hangings in a homely for that it there most useth to abound. house, 329. — and square my trial So was his will in his old feeble body. The Manuscript had at first Compare Browne Brit. Past, b. i. and square this trial : s. ii. p. 60. and at the end of the speech is Their homely cotes deck'd trim in low Exeunt, and at the begining of degree, the next scene, The two brothers As now the court with richest tapes. enter: and in the Manuscript try. the two brothers are all along Hence Cowley may be illustrated, distinguished by 1 Bro. and 2 Bro. Ode to Liberty, st. iji. 331. Unmuffle ye faint stars] call, That wont'st to love the traveller's benizon, Muffle was not so low a word Maid's Tragedy, in the Masque, as at present. Drayton, Browne, act i. 8. 1. and Sylvester, have it in several Bright Cinthia, hear my voice! places, and with the same appli Appear, no longer thy pale visage cation to the moon, or the stars. shroud, T. Warlon. But strike thy silver borns quite 332. That wont'st to love the tra through a cloud. Bowle. veller's benizon,] An allusion to Spenser, Faery Queen, b. iii. 334. — disinherit Chaos.] This cant. 1. st. 43. expression should be animad. As when fair Cynthia, in darksome verted upon, as hyperbolical and bonibast. Dr. J. Warton. Is in a noyous cloud enveloped, 335. In double night, of darkWhere she may find the substance thin and light, ness and of shades ;] See v. 580. Breaks forth her silver beams, and and compare P. R. i. 500. her bright head now began Discovers to the world discomfited; Night with her sullen wings to doue Of the poor travellir that went astray, ble shade With thousand blessings she is hericd. The desert. 333. Stoop thy pule visage Mr. Bowle cites a line of Pacuthrough an amber cloud,] Popular vius, quoted by Cicero De Di. or philosophical opinions have vinat. I. i. xiv. their use indifferently in poetry. And which soever it be, that af. Tenebræ conduplicantur, noctisque et fords the most beautiful image, nimborum occæcat nigror. T. Warton. whether that founded in the truth of things, or in the deceptions of We may also compare Ovid, sense, that is always to be pre- Met. xi., 548. ferred. But poets have neglected - tanta vertigine pontus this obvious rule, and have run Fervet, et inductå piceis a nubibus into two extremes. Those who umbra affect to imitate the ancients only Omne latet cælum, duplicataque noc. use the first, and those who af tis imago est, fect to shew their superior know. And ibid. 521. ledge, only the second. Warbur. Cæcaque nox premitur lenebrisque ton. hyemisque suisque. . Compare B. and Fletcher's Dunster. |