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three towers rise over the forehead. Observe how gracefully, in his choice of goddesses to be named, Milton alludes to the age of the Countess of Derby. Observe also the implied compliment, that even the handsomest of her daughters must do her best to keep up with her.

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30, 31. Divine Alpheus," &c. Alpheus or Alpheius was a river in Arcadia. The legend was that a youthful hunter of that name had been in love with the nymph Arethusa, and that, when she fled from him to the island of Ortygia, on the coast of Sicily, he was turned into a river, pursued her in that guise by a secret channel under the sea, and, rising again in Ortygia, became one with her in a well or fountain there, called Arethusa after her.

52. "the cross dire-looking planet," Saturn.

57. "tasselled horn": the horn of the huntsman, which had tassels hung to it.

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63-73. "the celestial Sirens' harmony." Another of those passages in which Milton employs the language of the Ptolemaic system of the Cosmos, and shows also his delight in the Pythagorean sub-notion called the Music of the Spheres. See Introd. to P. L. pp. 36—41, and Od. Nat. 125 -132, with note there. In the present passage, as in that, he is content with nine of the spheres ; but the reason is now plain. It is only "the nine infolded spheres that are concerned in the production of the music of the universe, the tenth, outmost, or Primum Mobile, having apparently a sufficient function in containing them all and protecting them from Chaos. On each of the inner nine sits a Muse or Siren; and these nine Sirens are singing harmoniously on their revolving spheres all the while that the three Fates are turning the spindle of Necessity. This very spindle of Necessity goes round to the tune of the music that lulls the Fates as they turn it. In all this description, Milton, as Warton pointed out, had in view an extraordinary passage in Plato's Republic (Book x. ch. 14). In Plato, of course,

there are only eight spheres. See also Lorenzo's well-known speech to Jessica on the music of the spheres in Merch. of Venice, v. i. ; where, however, it is the stars individually that are supposed to sing.

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81. state," i.e. chair of state.

96-109. "Ladon ""

was a river in Arcadia; "Lycæus," Cyllene," and "Manalus," were mountains in the same;

Erymanthus was an Arcadian river-god. Of Pan and Syrinx all have heard.

COMUS.

20, 21. "Took in by lot," &c. The partition of the universe by lot among the three brothers, Jupiter, Pluto (called the underground or Stygian Jupiter), and Neptune, is described by Neptune himself in the Fifteenth Iliad.

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27. this Isle." Great Britain.

30. "this tract that fronts the falling sun." Wales or West Britain.

31-33. "A noble Peer," &c. The Earl of Bridgewater. See Introd.

46-50. "Bacchus," &c. The story of the voyage of Bacchus along the Tyrrhene shore, of the seizure of him by pirates there, and of their transformation into dolphins for this act of impiety, is told in the Homeric hymn to Bacchus and in Ovid's Metam. iii. The bringing of Bacchus, after this adventure, to Circe's island of Exa, off the Latian coast, is Milton's invention. The visit of Ulysses to the island is a famous incident of the Odyssey.

50-53. "Who knows not Circe, &c?" She was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by an ocean-nymph; and the Odyssey tells how, by her drugs and enchantments, she turned mortals into bestial shapes and kept them on her island. Milton has that account in view.

54-58. "This Nymph had by him a son.. Comus

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named." On referring to L'Allegro, 14-16, it will be seen that, if Milton adheres to the first of his two alternative genealogies for Euphrosyne, or Innocent Mirth, then Comus, the god of sensual Delirium, was her half-brother.

Bacchus

was the father of both; but the respective mothers were the good-tempered Queen Venus and Circe the island-witch. As Milton was punctilious in such matters, he may have had a meaning in this.

60. "the Celtic and Iberian fields." Gaul and Spain. 83. "Iris' woof." Compare P. L., XI. 244.

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84. a swain that to the service of this house belongs," &c. A compliment to Lawes, put into his own mouth.

93. """The star that bids the shepherd fold": i.e. the Evening Star.

116. "morrice," originally morisco, or Moorish dance.

129. "Dark-veiled Cotytto": a Thracian Divinity, whose festival was celebrated by orgies on the hills. Her worship extended in later times to Athens, Corinth, and other places.

135. "Hecat," or Hecate: also a goddess of Thracian origin, and of darksome character. She presided over all kinds of nocturnal ghastliness and spectral horror.

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dainty" "fastidious as

or

139. "The nice Morn on the Indian steep.' In this exquisite picture "nice" means to what she saw ;" and the word must have come with a touch of sarcasm from Comus.

153, 154. "Thus I hurl," &c. At this point imagine the actor who personated Comus flinging from his hand, or making a gesture of flinging, a magical powder, with the result, by some stage-device, of a flash of coloured light. 175. granges," granaries, farm-steads.

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231. "thy airy shell," the hollow vault of the atmosphere. 232. "Meander's margent green." Mr. Keightley suggests that Mæander, the river in Asia Minor so celebrated for its windings, may have been here selected as one of Echo's haunts for that very reason.

237. "thy Narcissus" the youth for whose love Echo pined away till only her voice was left, and who was afterwards punished for his insensibility by being made to fall in love with his own image in a fountain, and at length turned into the flower that bears his name.

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241. Daughter of the Sphere." Compare At a Solemn Music, I, 2.

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244-248. Can any

mortal mixture," &c. In the actual performance at Ludlow this, besides its relation to the story, would have the effect of a compliment to the Lady Alice's singing.

252-257. "I have oft heard," &c. In the Odyssey the Sirens or Singing Maidens who lured mariners to their destruction are not companions of Circe, nor inhabitants of her island. But Circe sang herself, and had Naiads, or fountainnymphs, among her handmaidens, who helped her to cull her magical herbs.

257-259. "Scylla

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and fell Charybdis," &c. Homer places the island of the Sirens to the south west of Italy, not far from Scylla and Charybdis.

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293. swinked," laboured, fatigued.

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301. 'awe-strook." See note, P.L., II. 165. 313. bosky bourn," shrubby watercourse.

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341, 342. "our star of Arcady, or Tyrian Cynosure." For Cynosure see note, L'Alleg. 80. It was the Phoenician mariners that steered by that constellation, and hence it is called Tyrian. The Greek mariners steered by the adjacent constellation of the Greater Bear, and "star of Arcady here means any conspicuous star in that constellation. For it was the nymph Callisto, daughter of the Arcadian king Lycaon, that was turned into the Great Bear, and called Arctos, while it was her son Arcas that was whirled up beside her as the Lesser Bear or Tyrian Cynosure.

380, "all to-ruffled." In Milton's own texts this phrase is printed without any hyphen as three distinct words thus "all to ruffl'd"; and, as that does not make sense in our present printing, the question has arisen whether the reading should be all too ruffled (i.e. "all too much ruffled," as in such phrases as "all too sad to tell "); or "all-to ruffled" (where all-to would be an old adverb meaning completely); or "all to-ruffled" (where "to-ruffled" would be taken as the participle of a verb compounded of the simple verb and the intensifying prefix to, and meaning "to ruffle greatly "). Something may be said for each reading; but, on the whole, the last may be chosen. In the authorized English Bible of 1611 (Judges ix. 53) we read "And a certain woman cast a millstone upon Abimelech's head and all to-brake his skull" (i.e. smashed, broke to pieces); and other instances are found of verbs with the intensifying prefix to.

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393-395. the fair Hesperian tree," &c. The golden apples of Juno were in charge of the nymphs called the Hesperides, and were watched in their gardens by the sleepless dragon Ladon. It was one of the labours of Hercules to slay the dragon and obtain the apples.

420. "Tis chastity, my brother, chastity." The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's own life and of his ethical philosophy.

432-437. "Some say,' &c. Undoubtedly, as Warton remarked, Milton had here in his mind the passage in Hamlet (i. 1) beginning "Some say that ever 'gainst that season.

VOL. II.

H H

comes."-The superstition was that the liberty of ghosts to wander began at curfew time in the evening. 459-463. "Till oft converse," &c. Here we have the germ of the peculiar physio-metaphysical speculation afterwards developed more at length in Raphael's speech to Adam in Par. Lost, V. 404-503. See the passage and note to part of it.

463-475.

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But, when lust," &c. The whole passage, as Warton pointed out, is an adoption and translation of one in Plato's Phædo.

476-479. "How charming is divine Philosophy!” &c. A special compliment to Plato, who has just been quoted. note, P. R., IV. 331-364.

See

495-512. Observe that these eighteen lines are rhyming couplets.

515-518. "What the sage poets," &c. The reference is especially to Homer and Virgil, some of whose stories correspond to the description.

555-562. "At last a soft," &c. A renewed compliment (see previous note, 244–248) to the Echo-song of the Lady, and in language of memorable splendour.

586-599. A peculiarly Miltonic passage.

605. "Harpies," unclean bird-shaped creatures; "Hydras," water-serpents.

619-630. "a certain shepherd-lad," &c. Undoubtedly a reference to Milton's bosom-friend, the half-Italian Diodati, practising as a young physician when Comus was written. Compare Epitaph. Dam. 150-154.

636, 637. "than that Moly," &c. See Introd. p. 185. The plant Moly given to Ulysses by Hermes, to protect him against the charms and drugs of Circe (Odyss. x.), is thus described: "It was black at the root, and its flower was milk-white; the gods call it Moly, but it is difficult for mortal men to dig it up.'

638. "He called it Hæmony." Milton invents this name for his imaginary plant. Hæmonia was an old name for Thessaly, especially a land of magic with the Greeks. Spenser speaks of "the grassy banks of Hæmony."

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655. Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke." The giant Cacus, the son of Vulcan, does this in the Æneid, in his last struggle.

661, 662. "as Daphne was," &c. The story of the

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