Come, and trip it as you go And in thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty; Mirth, admit me of thy crew, 35 To live with her, and live with thee, In unreproved pleasures free: 40 33. It would seem as if we ought to conceive l'Allegro to be setting the example by dancing himself; for his leg and foot (which last has been the subject of so much notice in the preceding plays, King Lear, the Merchant of Venice, and Edipus) may be fancied to be in the act of dancing. 35. The hand in light (so often brought into action) is here assigned to Euphrosyne (as above pointed out) with which she is to be supposed to introduce Hudibras's Trulla (fig. 20), she being situate close by the hand, as Liberty. 39. The person of l'Allegro (Ralph) in the moon borders immediately upon those above assigned to Euphrosyne and Liberty. 40. Free.-alluding to the wanderings of the moon. To hear the lark begin his flight, 45 41. Close upon the ear of l'Allegro, there is the resemblance of a small bird, in light, just taking wing; with its beak coming to the eye of l'Allegro this is probably the lark alluded to. 45. The lark now in question I take to be different from the one mentioned in the last note; and to be in fact made up of the hand and wrist of Hudibras (situate just by the opening of light between him and Ralph, viz. the window of 46) its beak being formed out of his finger, and the eye out of the same spot of bright light which constituted the piece of coin given as a fee by Hudibras to his lawyer (vide fig. 38); the sweet-briar and other plants (42) are made up of the streaks of light on Hudibras's body. While the cock with lively din Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 50 55 49. The cock is drawn in fig. 53. Ralph's head, from its shape, may well serve for the stack, and the opening mentioned in the last note, for the barn-door. 52. Behind the prototype of the cock may he seen, in pale blurred light, the shape of a hen, formed out of the outline of the face and neck of the boy flying the kite in fig. 35. the hen fronts to the left and her beak in light comes down upon the crown of the boy's head. 53. One of the hounds may be the dog represented as worrying the bear in fig. 13, the boy mentioned in last note may be conceived to be blowing a bugle-horn, the mouth of which is formed by a round spot of light near his chin. Some time walking, not unseen, By hedge-row elms, on hillocs green, Where the great sun begins his state, 60 Robed in flames, and amber light, The clouds in thousand liveries dight; 57. The walking of L'Allegro, may allude to his foot and legs being so prominently in view; or generaily to the wanderings of the moon; and Euphrosyne's head and neck being taken for the stock and the arched light, spotted with small shadows like leaves, for the branches, there will be seen no bad likeness of a large Elm-tree. 59. L'Allegro's face in fact fronts the east side of the moon; but perhaps this passage might intend to allude to the diverging rays of strong light at the southern margin of the moon, as resembling the sun, and the paler lights around it as being like clouds (62). 63. I take the plowman to be the same as the steward in King Lear (fig. S7). And the milk-maid singeth blythe, And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale. Strait mine 65 eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the landscape round it measures, 70 65. The milk-maid may be Hamlet's Ophelia (fig. 61). €6. The mower wetting his scythe, I apprehend to be the same as the rider on the forehand stag (fig. 29). 67. The shepherd and his sweetheart, I refer to the prototypes of Horatio in Hamlet, (fig. 49,) and Portia in the Merchant of Venice (fig. 22). 69. This line evidently announces a change to something new, and we are now accordingly to view the map of the moon not with its south side, but its north side uppermost; when, if the reader should have in his recollection the explanations contained in former notes, he will be at no loss to trace resemblances to all the various objects mentioned between this and the 79th line, of which, the beauty there mentioned, may be referable perhaps to Glycerium, in Andria, fig. 122. |