The first Scene discovers a wild Wood. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court Which men call earth; and, with low-thoughted care But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway 3. Insphered. In "Il Penseroso" (line 88) the spirit of Plato was to be unsphered, that is, to be called down from the sphere to which it had been allotted, where it had been insphered.-T. WARTON. 7. Pinfold is now provincial, and signifies sometimes a sheepfold, but most commonly a pound.-T. WARTON. Pester'd: crowded; Ital. pesta, a crowd. 10 15 20 16. I would not soil, &c. That is, this Guardian Spirit would not have soiled the purity of his ambrosial robes with the noisome exhalations of this sin-corrupted earth. (this sin-worn mould,) but to assist those distinguished mortals, who, by a due progress in virtue, aspire to reach the golden key which opens heaven, the palace of Eternity. Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles, Which he, to grace his tributary gods, By course commits to several government, 25 And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns, And wield their little tridents: but this isle, The greatest and the best of all the main, Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named: 20. High and nether, i. e. the upper and lower dominions of Jove.-27. This isle: "Albion, Prince of all the isles."-JONSON. 29. He quarters, that is, Neptune. 33. An old and haughty nation. That is, the Cambro-Britains, who were to be governed by respect mixed with awe. The Earl of Bridgewater, the noble Peer of mickle trust and power, was now go vernour of the Welsh, as lord-president of the principality.-T. WARTON. 44. What never yet, &c. The poet here insinuates that the story or fable of his Mask was new and unborrowed, although distantly founded on ancient poetical history. The allusion is to the ancient mode of entertaining a splendid assem 30 35 40 45 50 55 bly, by singing or reciting tales.-T WARTON. 48. Tuscan mariners. This story alludes to the punishments inflicted by Homer (in his Hymn to Bacchus) on the Tyrrhene pirates, by transforming them into various animals.-Jos. WARTON. 50. Circe, is the celebrated enchantress, whose story as related by Homer is doubtless intended as an allegorical representation of the brutalizing effects of the intoxicating cup. 58. Comus. Newton observes, that Comus is a deity of Milton's own making; but Warton shows that he had before been a dramatic personage in one of Ben Johnson's Masks. An immense cup is carried before him, and he is crowned Who, ripe and frolick of his full-grown age, At last betakes him to this ominous wood; And, in thick shelter of black shades imbower'd, His orient liquor in a crystal glass, To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste, But boast themselves more comely than before; I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, 60 65 70 75 80 That to the service of this house belongs, 85 And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, with roses and other flowers. His at tendants carry javelins wreathed with ivy; and he enters, riding in triumph from a grove of ivy, to the wild music of flutes, talors, and cymbals. At length the grove of ivy is destroyed, 90 that lie in so small a compass.-T. WAR ΤΟΝ. 83. Iris' woof. Milton has frequent allusion to the colours of the rainbow. In the "Ode on the Nativity," (stanza XV.,) Truth and Justice are not only orbed in a rainbow, but are apparelled in its colours. 84. Likeness of a swain. This refers to Henry Lawes, the musician, who performed the combined characters of the Spirit and Thyrsis, in this drama. He was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicarchoral of Salisbury cathedral, and was And the voluptuous Comus, god of cheer, Beat from his grove. But how many would have known any thing of this god of revellings and drunkenness from the neglected and almost forgotten Masks of Johnson, had not the genius of Milton, by drawing such a moral from his story, and clothing it in such exquisite poetry, given him an un-perhaps, at first, choir-boy of that church. dying celebrity. 60. Celtick and Iberian: France and Spain. 61. Ominous: Dangerous, inauspicious. 65. Orient: Richly bright, from the radiance of the East. 80. Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star. There are few finer comparisons He afterwards rose to great distinction as a composer of music, but his name would have been buried in oblivion had he not, by setting to music the songs of Comus, associated his name for ever with this immortal poem. He was also no mean poet himself, as Milton's commendation of him, in his Sonnet, clearly shows. Comus enters with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering: they come in, making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. Coм. The star, that bids the shepherd fold, And the gilded car of day His glowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantick stream; And the slope sun his upward beam Braid your locks with rosy twine, Dropping odours, dropping wine. 95 100 105 Rigour now is gone to bed, And Advice with scrupulous head: Strict Age, and sour Severity, With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 We, that are of purer fire, Imitate the starry quire, Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, Lead in swift round the months and years. The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 115 Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; And, on the tawny sands and shelves, Trip the pert faeries and the dapper elves. Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. Come, let us our rights begin; Which these dun shades will ne'er report.— Dark-veil'd Cotytto! to whom the secret flame 108. Advice. It was in character for Comus to call Advice scrupulous: to depreciate and ridicule it at the expense of truth and propriety.-T. WARTON. 110. Saws: Sayings, maxims. 116. Morrice. The Morrice or Moorish dance was first brought into England in Edward Third's time, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain.-PECK. 120 125 130 126. 'Tis only day-light that makes sin. A sentiment worthy of Comus; meaning, that sin consists not in the act, but in the discovery of it. 129. Cotytto: The goddess of Licentiousness, celebrated with great indecency in private at Athens, at midnight, and hence called dark-veild. 132. Spets: Used by the old writers for 119. Fountain-brim: The edge or brink spits. of a fountain. And makes one blot of all the air; Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, Wherein thou rid'st with Hecate, and befriend Us thy vow'd priests, till utmost end Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 135 140 Break off, break off; I feel the different pace 145 Of some chaste footing near about this ground. Run to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees; Our number may affright: some virgin sure Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms, Which must not be, for that's against my course: And well-plac'd words of glozing courtesy And hug him into snares. When once her eye I shall appear some harmless villager, Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. And hearken if I may, her business here. The LADY enters. LAD. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 150 155 160 165 170 138. Blabbing. So Shakspeare, King | "The Measure") has just been begun, Hen. VI. p. 2. Act iv. Scene 1: The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day. Comus is describing the morning contemptuously, as unfriendly to his secret revels. 139. Nice. A finely-chosen epithet, expressing at once the curious and squeamish.-HURD. 145. Break off. A dance (here called which the Magician almost as soon breaks off, on perceiving the approach of some chaste footing, from a sagacity appropri ate to his character.-T. WARTON. 147. Shrouds: Recesses, harbours, hiding-places. 157. Quaint: That is, strange habits. 161. Glozing: Flattering, deceitful. 168. Fuirly: That is, softly. |