That thou hast banish'd from thy tongue with lies.
Was this the cottage, and the safe abode
Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these,
These ugly-headed monsters ? Mercy guard me! 695
Hence with thy brew'd inchantments, foul deceiver;
Hast thou betray'd my credulous innocence
With vizor'd falsehood, and base forgery?
And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here
With liquorish baits fit to insnare a brute?
Were it a draft for Juno when she banquets,
I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none
But such as are good men can give good things,
And that which is not good, is not delicious
To a well-govern'd and wise appetite.

ComUS.
O foolishness of men ! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,

700

694. –What grim aspects are being headed like sundry sorts of these,] So Drayton, Polyolb. wild beasts. & xxvii.

696. Hence with thy brew'd Her grim aspect to see.

inchantments,] Magical potions, And Spenser, F. Q. v. ix. 48.

brewed or compounded of in

cantatory herbs and poisonous -With griesly grim aspect Abhorred Murder.

drugs. Shakespeare's Cauldron T. Warton.

is a brewed inchantment, but of

another kind. T. Warton. 695; These.. ugly-headed mon 698. —and base forgery?] In sters?] In Milton's Manuscript, the Manuscript forgeries. and in his editions, it is ougly or

702. - none oughly, which is only an old way But such as are good men can of writing ugly, as appears from

give good things,] several places in Sir Philip Sid

This noble sentiment Milton has ney's Arcadia, and from Shake- borrowed from

borrowed from Euripides, Medea, speare's Sonnets in the edition ver. 618 of the year 1609: and care must be taken that the word be not

Κακου γαρ ανδρος δωρ' ονησιν ουκ εχει. mistaken, as some have mistaken 707. To those budge doctors of it, for owly-headed, Comus's train the Stoic fur,] The Trinity Ma

VOL. IV.

And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence.
Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth,
With such a full and unwithdrawing hand,
Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks,
Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable,
But all to please, and sate the curious taste?
And set to work millions of spinning worms, 715
That in their green shops weave the smooth-hair'd silk
To deck her sons, and that no corner might
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins
She hutch'd th' all-worshipp'd ore, and precious gems
To store her children with: if all the world

720 Should in a pet of temp’rance feed on pulse,

nuscript had at first Stoic gown, These verses were thus at first which is better; for budge sig- in the Manuscript, nifies furred: but I suppose by Covering the earth with odours, and Stoic fur Milton intended to ex with fruits, plain the other obsolete word, Cramming the seas with spawn in. though he fell upon a very in-, numerable, accurate way of doing it. War

The fields with cattle, and the air with burton.

fowl, &c. Mr. Bowle here cites a passage 717. To deck her sons,] So he from Stowe's Survay of London, had written at first, then altered ed. 1618. p. 455. " Budge-rowe, it lo adorn, and afterwards to deck a streete so called of Budge, furre, again. and of Skinners dwelling there." 719. She hutch'd,] That is, The place and name still remain. coffered. Warburton. T. Warlon.

Hutch is an old word, still in 710. Wherefore did Nature pour use, for coffer, Abp. Chichele her bounties forth,

gave a borrowing chest to the With such a full and unwithe University of Oxford, which was drawing hand,]

called Chichele's hutch. T. WarSilius Italicus, xv. 55.

ton. Quantas ipse Deus lætos generavit in 721. feed on pulse,] So it

was at first, then fetches : but I Res homini, plenaque dedit bona suppose the allitteration of f's gaudia dextra?

offended, and then he restored Richardson.

pulse again. 712. Covering the earth, &c.]

usus

OWN

Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,
Th' all-giver would be unthank'd, would be unprais'd,
Not half his riches known, and yet despis’d,
And we should serve him as a grudging master, 725
As a penurious niggard of his wealth,
And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons,
Who would be quite surcharg'd with her own weight,
And strangled with her waste fertility,
Th’ earth cumber'd, and the wing'd air dark'd with

plumes, The herds would over-multitude their lords, The sea o'erfraught would swell, and th' unsought

diamonds Would so imblaze the forehead of the deep, And so bestud with stars, that they below

727. And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons,] In the Manuscript it was at first, Living as Nature's bastards, not her

sons, which latter is an expression taken from Heb. xii. 8. then are ye bastards, and not sons.

730. - dark'd with plumes,] The image taken from what the ancients said of the air of the northern islands, that it was clogged and darkened with feathers. Warburton.

731. The herds, &c.] Mr. Bowle observes, that the tenour of Comus's argument is like that of Clarinda, in B. and Fletcher's Sea-Voyage, a. ii. s. 1. Should all women use this obstinate

And the observation is still further justified from Milton's great intimacy with the plays of the twin-bards. T. Warton.

732. The sea o'erfraught &c.] Mr. Warburton remarks, and I agree with him, that this and the four following lines are exceeding childish: and they were thus written at first, The sea o'erfraught would heave her

waters up Above the shore, and th' unsought

diamonds Would so bestud the centre with their

star-light, And so inblaze the forehead of the Were they not taken thence, that they

below Would grow inur’d to day, and come

at last &c. 734. And so bestud with stars,] So Drayton in his most elegant epistle from King John to Matilda, which our author, as we

Would grow inur'd to light, and come at last
To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows.
List Lady, be not coy, and be not cozen'd
With that same vaunted name Virginity.
Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be horded, -
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavory in th' enjoyment of itself;
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose
It withers on the stalk with languish'd head.

shall see, has more largely copied for soon comes age, that will her in the remainder of Comus's

pride deflower;

Gather the rose of love, whilst yet is speech, vol. i. p. 232. Of heaven.

time, Would she put on her star-bestudded Whilst loving thou may'st loved be • crown.

with equal crime: Sylvester calls the stars " glister. or as they are translated by “ing studs." Du Bart. (p. 147. Fairfax, 4to.) D. v. W. 1. And “ the gilt o gather then the rose, while time “ studs of the firmament,” Ibid.

thou hast, (4to. p. 247.) W. i. D. 7. T. Short is the day, done when it scant Warton.

began, 737. – and be not cozen'd] In

Gather the rose of love, while yet

thou may'st the Manuscript

Loving, be lov'd; embracing, be nor be not cozen'd.

embrac'd. 743. If you let slip time, like a And Shakespeare to the same neglected rose

purpose in Venus and Adonis, It withers on the stalk with lan Make use of time, let not advantage

guish'd head.] It was at first,

Beauty within itself would not be

wasted. It withers on the stalk, and fades Fair flow'rs that are not gather'd away.

in their prime, Milton had probably in view a

Rot and consume themselves in

little time. most beautiful comparison of the same kind in Tasso, cant. xvi. st. 743. I rather think, we are 14, 15. which Spenser has lite immediately to refer to a passage rally translated, b. ii. cant. xii. in Milton's favourite, the Midst. 74, 75. the application and summer Night's Dream, where concluding lines of which are Theseus blames Hermione for

refusing to marry Demetrius, a. Gather therefore the rose, whilst yet

i. s. 1. is prime,

But earlier happy is the rose distillid,

these,

Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown 745
In courts, in feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship;
It is for homely features to keep home,
They had their name thence; coarse complexions

Than that, which withering on the offer themselves on purpose to be virgin thorn,

seene, &c. Grows, lives, and dies, in single But a parallelism is as perceptibly blossedness. T. Warton. marked, in this passage from

Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 745. Beauty is nature's brag, st. 74. Works, Lond. 1601. fol. and must be shewn

Signat. M. iiij. In courts, in feasts, and high

What greater torment ever could solemnities, &c.]

have beene, So Fletcher, Faith. Sheph. a. i. Than to inforce the faire to live re8. 1. vol. iii. p. 124.

tir'd?

For what is beautie, if not to be seene, Give not yourself to loneness, and Or what is't to be seene, if not adthose graces

mir'd, Hide from the eyes of men, that were And, though admir'd, unless it love intended

desired ? To live among us swains.

Never were cheekes of roses, lockcs But this argument is pursued

of amber,

Ordained to live imprison'd in a more at large in Drayton's Epis.

chamber! tle above quoted. I will give

Nature created beautie for the view, some of the more palpable resem

&c. blances.

Mr. Bowle adds a stanza of BraFie, peevish girl, ungratefull unto

gadocchio's address to Belphæbe, nature, Did she to this end frame thee such in the Faerie Queene, ii. ii. 39. a creature,

But what art thou, O Lady, which That thou her glory should increase

doost range thereby,

In this wilde forest, where no pleaAnd thou alone should'st scorne so

sure is; ciety?

And doost not it for joyous court ex. Why, heaven made beauty, like her. self, to view,

T. Warton. Not to be shut up in a smoakie mew. A rosy-tinctur'd feature is heaven's

748. It is for homely features Which all men joy to touch, and to

to keep home,] The same turn behold, &c.

and manner of expression is in

the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Here we have at least our au.

at the beginning; thor's “ What need a vermeil. ° “ tinctured lip for that?" And Home-keeping youth have ever

homely wits. again, All things that faire, that pure, that

749. --coarse complexions] It glorious beene,

was at first coarse beetle-brows.