“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;All chance, direction, which thou canst not see.”
“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;All chance, direction, which thou canst not see.”
588.this I hold firm. ‘This’ is explained by the next line: “this belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly.”
590.enthralled, enslaved. Comp. l.1022.
591.which ... harm, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.
595-7.Gathered like scum, etc. According to one editor, this image is “taken from the conjectures of astronomers concerning the dark spots which from time to time appear on the surface of the sun’s body and after a while disappear again; which they suppose to be the scum of that fiery matter which first breeds it, and then breaks through and consumes it.”
598.pillared firmament. The firmament (Lat.firmus, firm or solid) is here regarded as the roof of the earth and supported on pillars. The ancients believed the stars to be fixed in the solid firmament: comp.Par. Reg.iv. 55; alsoWint. Tale, ii. l. 100, “If I mistake In those foundations which I build upon, The centre is not big enough to bear A schoolboy’s top.”
602.for, as regards.let ... girt, though he be surrounded.
603.grisly legions. ‘Grisly,’ radically the same asgrue-some= horrible, causing terror. InPar. Lost, iv. 821, Satan is called “the grisly king.” ‘Legions’ is here a trisyllable.
604.sooty flag of Acheron. Acheron, at first the name of a river of the lower world, came to be used as a name for the whole of the lower world generally. Todd quotes from P. Fletcher’sLocusts(1627): “All hell run out and sooty flags display.”
605.Harpies and Hydras. The Harpies (lit. ‘spoilers’) were unclean monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, with long claws and gaunt faces.Hydras, here used as a general name for monstrous water-serpents (Gk.hydōr, water); the name was first given to the nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. SeeSon.xv. 7, “new rebellions raise TheirHydraheads”; the epithet ‘hydra-headed’ being applied to a rebellion, an epidemic, or other evil that seems to gain strength from every endeavour to repress it.
607.return his purchase back,i.e.‘give up his spoil,’ or (as in theMS.) ‘release his new-got prey.’ To purchase (Fr.pour-chasser) originally meant to pursue eagerly, hence to acquire by fair means or foul: it thus came to mean ‘to steal’ (as frequently in Spenser, Jonson, and Shakespeare), and ‘to buy’ (its current sense). See Trench,Study of Words;Hen. V.iii. 2. 45, “Theywill steal anything, and call itpurchase”; i.Hen. IV.ii. l. 101, “thou shalt have share in ourpurchase.”
609.venturous, ready to venture. Seenote, l. 79.
610.yet, nevertheless. The meaning is: ‘Thoughthy courage is useless,yetI love it.’emprise: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) ofenterprise. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence ‘readiness to undertake’; hence ‘daring.’
611.can do thee little stead,i.e.can help thee little.Stead, both as noun and verb, is obsolete except in certain phrases,e.g.‘to stand in good stead,’ and in composition,e.g.steadfast, homestead, instead, Hampstead, etc. Its strict sense is place or position: comp.Il Pens.3, “How little youbested.”
612.Far other arms,i.e.very different arms. ‘Other’ has here its radical sense of ‘different,’ and can therefore be modified by an adverb.
615.unthread, loosen. Comp.Temp.iv. l. 259, “Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews With aged cramps.”
617.As to make this relation,i.e.as to be able to tell this.
619.a certain shepherd lad. This is supposed to refer to Charles Diodati, Milton’s dearest friend, to whom he addressed his 1st and 6th elegies, and after whose death he wrote the touching poemEpitaphium Damonis, in which he alludes to his friend’s medical and botanical skill:
“There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teachThy friend the name and healing powers of each.”(Cowper’s translation.)
“There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teachThy friend the name and healing powers of each.”
(Cowper’s translation.)
620.Of small regard to see to: in colloquial English, ‘not much to look at.’ This is an old idiom: comp. Greekκαλὸς ἰδεῖν: see English Bible, “goodly to look to,” i.Sam.xvi. 12;Ezek.xxiii. 15;Jer.xlvii. 3.
621.virtuous, of healing power: seenote, l. 165. Comp.Il Pens.113, “the virtuous ring and glass.”
623.beg me sing: seenote, l. 304.
625.ecstasy: seenote, l. 261. The Greekekstasis= standing out of one’s self.
626.scrip, wallet.
627.simples, medicinal herbs. ‘Simple’ (Lat.simplicem, ‘one-fold,’ ‘not compound’) was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its popular use in the sense of ‘herb’ or ‘drug.’
630.me,i.e.for me: the ethic dative.
633.bore. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the plant or the root.
634.unknown and like esteemed: known and esteemed to a like extent,i.e.in both cases not at all.Likehere corresponds to the prefixuninunknown. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, reference to Ascham’sScholemaster.
635.clouted shoon, patched shoes. The expression is found in Shakespeare, ii.Hen. VI.iv. 2. 195, “Spare none but such as go inclouted shoon”;Cym.iv. 2. 214, “put Myclouted broguesfrom off my feet, whose rudeness Answer’d my steps too loud”: see examples in Mayhew and Skeat’sM. E. Dictionary. There are instances, however, ofcloutin the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe. In either sense of the word ‘clouted shoon’ would be heavy and coarse.Shoonis an old plural (O.E.scon); comp.hosen,eyen(= eyes),dohtren(= daughters),foen(= foes), etc.
636.more med’cinal, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus: And yet | more med | ’cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly.Moly. When Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who said: “Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee; so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the flower was like to milk.Molythe gods call it, but it is hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible” (Odyssey, x. 280, etc.,Butcher and Lang’s translation). In his first Elegy Milton alludes to Mōly as the counter-charm to the spells of Circe: see also Tennyson’sLotos-Eaters, “beds of amaranth andmoly.”
638.He called it Hæmony.Heis the shepherd lad of line619.Haemony: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the adjectiveHaemonianis used, in Latin poetry as =Thessalian, Haemonia being the old name of Thessaly. And as Thessaly was regarded as a land of magic, ‘Haemonian’ acquired the sense of ‘magical’ (see Ovid,Met.vii 264, “Haemoniaradices valle resectas,” etc.), and Milton’s Haemony is simply “the magical plant.” Coleridge supposes that by the prickles and gold flower of the plant Milton signified the sorrows and triumph of the Christian life.
639.sovran use: seenote, l. 41. The use of this adjective with charms, medicines, or remedies of any kind was so very common that the word came to imply ‘all-healing,’ ‘supremely efficacious’; seeCor.ii. 1. 125, “The mostsovereignprescription in Galen.”
640.mildew blast: comp.Arc.48-53,Ham.iii. 4. 64, “Here is your husband; Like amildew’dearBlastinghis wholesome brother.” A mildew blast is one giving rise to that kind of blight called mildew (A.S. meledeáw, honey-dew), it being supposed that the prevalence of dry east winds was favourable to its formation.
642.pursed it up, etc.,i.e.put it in my wallet, though I did not attach much importance to it.little reckoning: comp.Lyc.116, where the very same phrase occurs.
643.Till now that. Herethat= when, the clause introduced by it being explanatory ofnow(see Abbott, § 284).
646-7.Entered ... came off. ‘I entered into the very midst of his treacherous enchantments, and yet escaped.’Lime-twigs= snares; in allusion to the practice of catching birds by means of twigs smeared with a viscous substance (called on that account ‘birdlime’). Shakespeare makes repeated allusion to this practice: seeMacbeth, iv. 2. 34;Two Gent.ii. 2. 68; ii.Hen. VI.i. 3. 91; etc.
649.necromancer’s hall. Warton supposes that Milton here thought of a magician’s castle which has an enchanted hall invaded by Christian knights, as we read of in the romances of chivalry.Necromancer, lit. one who by magical power can commune with the dead (Gk.νεκρός, a corpse); hence a sorcerer. From confusion of the first syllable with that of the Lat.niger, black, the art of necromancy came to be called “the black art.”
650.Where if he be, Lat.ubi si sit: in English the relative adverb in such cases is best rendered by a conjunction + a demonstrative adverb; thus, ‘andif he bethere.’
651.brandished blade. Comp. Hermes’ advice to Ulysses: “When it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, even then draw thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her,”Odyssey, x.break his glass. An imitation of Spenser, who makes Sir Guyon break the golden cup of the enchantress Excess,F. Q.i. 12, stanza 56.
652.luscious, delicious. The word is a corruption oflustiousfrom O.E.lust= pleasure: seenote, l. 49.
653.But seize his wand. The force of this injunction is shown by lines815-819.
654.menace high, violent threat.Highis thus used in a number of figurative senses,e.g.a high wind, a high hand, high passions (Par. Lost, ix. 123), high descent, high design, etc.
655.Sons of Vulcan. In theAeneid(Bk. viii. 252) we are told that Cacus, son of Vulcan (the Roman God of Fire), “vomited from his throat huge volumes of smoke” when pursued by Hercules, “Faucibus ingentem fumum,” etc.
657.apace; quickly, at a great pace. This word has changed its meaning: in Chaucer it means ‘at a foot pace,’i.e.slowly. The first syllable is the indefinite article ‘a’ = one (Skeat).
658.bear: the subjunctive used optatively (Abbott, § 365). (Stage Direction)puts by: puts on one side, refuses.goes about to rise,i.e.endeavours to rise. This idiomatic use ofgo aboutstill lingers in the phrase ‘togo aboutone’s business’; comp. ‘toset about’ anything.
659.but, merely: comp. l.656. After the conditional clause we have here a verb in the present tense (‘are chained’), a construction which well expresses the certainty and immediate action of the sorcerer’s spell (see Abbott, § 371).
660.your nerves ... alabaster. Comp.Tempest, i. 2. 471-484. Milton has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelledalablaster(in this passage andPar. Lost, iv. 544) and once correctly, as now entered in the text (Par. Reg.iv. 548). Alabaster is a kind of marble: comp.On Shak.14, “make usmarblewith too much conceiving.”
661.or, as Daphne was, etc. The construction is: ‘if I merely wave this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as Daphne was, that fled Apollo.’ Milton inserts the adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk.δάφνη): comp, the story of Syrinx and Pan, referred to inArc.106.
662.fled. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l.829,939,Son.xviii. 14, “flythe Babylonian woe”;Sams. Agon.1541, “flyThe sight of this so horrid spectacle.”
663.freedom of my mind, etc. Comp. Cowper’s noble passage, “He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,” etc. (Task, v. 733).
665.corporal rind: the body, called inIl Pens.92, “this fleshly nook.”
668.here be all. Seenote, l. 12.
669.fancy can beget: comp.Il Pens.6.
672.cordial julep, heart-reviving drink.Cordial, lit. hearty (Lat.cordi, stem ofcor, the heart):julep, Persiangulāb, rose-water.
673.his= its: seenote, l. 96.
674.syrups: Arab,sharāb, a drink, wine.
675.that Nepenthes, etc. The allusion is explained by the following lines of theOdyssey: “Then Helen, daughter ofZeus, turned to new thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful” (Butcher and Lang’s translation, iv. 219-230). ‘Nepenthes,’ a Greek adj. = sorrow-dispelling (νη, privative;πένθος, grief). It is here used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used as a general name for drugs that relieve pain.
677.Is of such power, etc.: seenote, l. 155. The construction is, ‘That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.’
679.Why ... to yourself. Comp. Shakespeare,Son.i. 8, “Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.”
680.‘Nature gave you your beautiful person to be held in trust on certain conditions, of which the most obligatory is that the body should have refreshment after toil, ease after pain. Yet this very condition you disregard, and deal harshly with yourself by refusing my proferred glass at a time when you are in need of food and rest.’ Comp. Shakespeare,Son.iv. “Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty’s legacy,” etc.
685.unexempt condition,i.e.a condition binding on all and at all times, a law of human nature.
687.mortal frailty,i.e.weak mortals: abstract for concrete.
688.That. The antecedent of this relative isyou, l.682. Seenote, l. 2.
689.timely, seasonable. So ‘timeless’ = unseasonable (Scott’sMarmion, iii. 223, “gambol rude andtimelessjoke”): comp.Son.ii. 8, “timely-happy spirits”; and l.970.
693.Was this ... abode? The verb is singular, because ‘cottage’ and ‘safe abode’ convey one idea: see Comus’s words, l.320. Notice also that the past tense is used as referring to the past act of telling.
694.aspects: accent on final syllable.
695.oughly-headed: so spelt in Milton’sMS.= ugly-headed.Uglyis radically connected withawe.
698.with visored falsehood and base forgery. A vizor (also speltvisor,visard,vizard) is a mask, “a false face.” The allusionis to Comus’s disguise: see l.166.Within this line, as in lines672and700, denotesby means of.
700.liquorish baits: seenoteonbaited, l. 162. ‘Liquorish,’ by catachresis forlickerish= tempting to the appetite, causing one tolickone’s lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three wordslickerish(as above),liquorish(which is really meaningless) andliquorice(= licorice = Lat.glycyrrhiza), a plant with a sweet root.
702.treasonous; an obsolete word. The current form ‘treasonable’ has usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare usetreasonousin the more general sense oftraitorous(a cognate word). In this line ‘offer’ = the thing offered.
703.good men ... good things. This noble sentiment Milton has borrowed from Euripides,Medea, 618,Κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρος δῶρ᾿ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει“the gifts of the bad man are without profit.” (Newton).
704.that which is not good, etc. This is Platonic: the soul has a rational principle and an irrational or appetitive, and when the former controls the latter, the desires are for what is good only (Rep.iv. 439).
707.budge doctors of the Stoic fur. Budge is lambskin with the wool dressed outwards, worn on the edge of the hoods of bachelors of arts, etc. Therefore, if bothbudgeandfurbe taken literally the line is tautological. But ‘budge’ has the secondary sense of ‘solemn,’ like a doctor in his robes; and ‘fur’ may be used figuratively in the sense ofsect, just as “the cloth” is used to denote the clergy. The whole phrase would thus be equivalent to ‘solemn doctors of the Stoic sect.’ It is possible that Milton makes equivocal reference to the two senses of ‘budge.’
708.the Cynic tub= the tub of Diogenes the Cynic, here put in contempt for the Cynic school of Greek philosophy, which was the forerunner of the Stoic system. Diogenes, one of the early Cynics, lived in a tub, and was fond of calling himselfὁ κύων(the dog).
709.the: here used generically.
711.unwithdrawing. In this participle the termination-ingseems almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. “all-obeyingbreath” (= obeyed by all),A. and C.iii. 13, 77. Nature’s gifts are not only full but continuous.
714.all to please ... curious taste.All= entirely, here modifies the infinitives please and sate.Curious= fastidious: its original sense is ‘careful’ or ‘anxious.’ Compare the two senses ofexquisite,notel. 359.
715.set,i.e.she set. The pronominal subject is omitted.
717.To deck: infinitive of purpose.
718.in her own loins,i.e.in the bowels of the earth.
719.hutched= stored up, enclosed.Hutchis an old word for chest or coffer, chiefly used now in the compound ‘rabbit-hutch.’
720.To store her children with,i.e.wherewithto store her children. Or we may read, ‘in order to store her children with (them).’ ‘Store’ = provide.
721.pet of temperance,i.e.a sudden and transitory fit of temperance.pulse. So Daniel and his three companions refused the dainties of the King of Babylon and fed on pulse and water;Dan.i.
722.frieze, coarse woollen cloth.
723.All-giver. Comp. Gk.πανδώρα, an epithet applied to the earth as the giver of all.
725.‘And we should serve him as (if he were) a grudging master and a penurious niggard of his wealth, and (we should) live like Nature’s bastards’: seeHebrewsxii. 8, “If ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are yebastards, and not sons.”
728.Who. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronounher,i.e.the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have their full force as genitives: comp.L’Alleg.124, “her grace whom” = the grace of her whom.surcharged: overloaded, ‘overfraught’ (l.732).waste fertility, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of ‘waste’ seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles as ‘elevate’ (= elevated), ‘instruct’ (= instructed), etc., which occur in Milton (comp.English Past and Present, vi.).
729.strangled, suffocated.
730.winged air darked with plumes,i.e.the air being darkened by the flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also hasdarkas a verb. Both clauses in this line are absolute.
731.over-multitude, outnumber. This line and the preceding one illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of speech was used for another.
732.o’erfraught: seenote, l. 355.
733.emblaze, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference to the sense ofemblazon, which is from M.E.blazen, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.
734.bestud with stars. In Milton’sMS.it is ‘bestud the centre with their star-light,’centrebeing the ‘centre of the earth.’
735.inured, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive.Inureis from the old phrase ‘in ure’ = in operation (Fr.œuvre, work).
737.coy: shy or reserved.cozened: cheated, beguiled. The origin of this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims kindred orcousinshipwith another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.
739-755.Beauty is Nature’s coin, etc. “The idea that runs through these seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (M. N. D.i. 1. 76-8):
“Earthlier happy is the rose distilledThan that which, withering on the virgin thorn,Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.”
“Earthlier happy is the rose distilledThan that which, withering on the virgin thorn,Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.”
See also Shakespeare’s first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea in all its subtleties” (Masson).
743.let slip time,i.e.allow timetoslip: seenote, l. 304. Comp.Par. Lost, i. 178. “Let us notslipthe occasion.”
744.It= beauty.languished, languid or languishing: comp.Par. Lost, vi. 496, “their languished hope revived”;Epitaph on M. of W.33. The suffix-edis frequent in Elizabethan English where we now have-ing(Abbott, § 374).
747.most, as many as possible.
748.homely ... home. There is here a play upon words as inTwo Gent.i. 1. 2: “Home-keepingyouth have everhomelywits.”Homelyis derived fromhome.
749.Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for household occupations.
750.of sorry grain, not brilliant, of poor colour. ‘Grain’ is from Lat.granum, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hencegraincame to denote certain colours,e.g.Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so used by Milton: seeIl Pens.33, “a robe of darkestgrain”;Par. Lost, v. 285, “sky-tincturedgrain”; xi. 242, “A military vest of purple ... Livelier than ... thegrainOf Sarra,” etc. And as these were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as ‘to dye in grain,’ ‘a rogue in grain,’ ‘an ingrained habit.’ (See further in Marsh’sLect. on Eng. Lang.p. 55).
751.sampler, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet ofexemplar.tease the huswife’s wool. Toteaseis to comb or card: comp. the Lat.vexare. ‘Huswife’ = house-wife, further corrupted intohussy.Hussif(a case for needles, etc.) is a different word.
752.What need a vermeil-tinctured lip? Seenote, l. 362, on ‘what need.’Vermeil: a French spelling ofvermilion. The name is from Lat.vermis, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used to be got); and asvermisis cognate with Sansk.krimi, a worm, it follows thatvermilion,crimson, andcarmineare cognate.
753.tresses. Homer (Odyssey, v. 390) speaks of “the fair-tressed Dawn,”εὐπλόκαμος Ἠώς.
755.advised. Contrast with ‘Advice,’ l.108.
756.Lines756-761are not addressed to Comus.
757.but that: were it not that.
758.as mine eyes: as he has already charmed mine eyes; seenote, l. 170.
759.rules pranked in reason’s garb,i.e.specious arguments.Pranked= decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church serviceprankingherself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp.Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 10, “Most goddess-likeprank’dup”;Par. Lost, ii. 226, “Belial, with words clothed inreason’s garb.”
760-1.I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows them to pass unchallenged.bolt= to sift or separate, as theboulting-millseparates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word (also speltboult) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (F. Q.ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (Cor.iii. 1. 322,Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 375, “the fanned snow that’sboltedBy the northern blasts twice o’er,” etc.). The spellingbolthas confused the word with ‘bolt,’ to shoot or start out. See Index to GlobeShakespeare.
763.she would her children, etc.,i.e.she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l.172;Par. Lost, i. 497-503.
764.cateress, stewardess, provider: lit. ‘a buyer.’Cateressis feminine: the masculine iscaterer, where the final-erof the agent is unnecessarily repeated.
765.Means ... to the good: intends ... for the good.
767.dictate. The accent in Milton’s time was on the first syllable, both in noun and verb.spare Temperance. For Milton’s praises of Temperance comp.Il Pens.46, “Spare Fast that oft with gods doth diet”; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66;Son.xx., etc. “There is much in the Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself—he, the Lady of his college—and we may well believe that the great debate concerning temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet’s own spiritual history.” Dowden’sTranscripts and Studies.
768.If Nature’s blessings were equally distributed instead of being heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says,King Lear, iv. 1. 73) “distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough.”
769.beseeming, suitable. The original sense ofseemis ‘to be fitting,’ as in the wordsbeseemandseemly.
770.lewdly-pampered; one of Milton’s most expressive compounds = wickedly gluttonous.Lewdhas passed through several changes of meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious.
774.she no whit encumbered,i.e.Nature would not be in the least surcharged (as Comus represented in l.728).No whit, used adverbially = not in the least, lit. ‘not a particle.’ Etymologicallyaught= a whit,naught= no whit.
776.His praise due paid,i.e.would be duly paid. Ondue, seenote, l. 12.gluttony: abstract for concrete.
779.Crams,i.e.crams himself. There are many verbs in English that may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed,e.g.feed,prepare,change,pour,press, etc.
780.enow. ‘Enow’ conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: it is also speltanow, and in Chaucerynowe, and is the plural ofenough. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines780-799Masson says: “A recurrence, by the sister, with much more mystic fervour, to that Platonic and Miltonic doctrine which had already been propounded by the Elder Brother (see lines420-475).”
782.sun-clad power of chastity. With ‘sun-clad’ compare ‘the sacred rays of chastity,’ l.425. Similarly in theFaerie Queene, iii. 6, Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, “And Phoebus with fair beams did her adorn.”
783.yet to what end?A rhetorical question, = it would be to no purpose.
784.nor ... nor. These correlatives are often used in poetry forneither ... nor(Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), and are equally correct.Noris only a contraction ofneither, and the first may as well be contracted as the second.
785.sublime notion and high mystery. In theApology for SmectymnuusMilton tells of his study of the “divine volume of Plato,” wherein he learned of the “abstracted sublimities” of Chastity and Love: also of his study of the Holy Scripture “unfolding these chaste and high mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
790.dear wit. ‘Dear’ is here used in contempt: its original sense is ‘precious’ (A.S.deore), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety of meanings,e.g.intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. “sad occasiondear,”Lyc.6; “deargroans,”L. L. L.v. 2. 874. Craik suggests “that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love,” as in mydearestfoe.gay rhetoric: here so named in contempt, as being the instrument of sophistry.
791.fence, argumentation,Fenceis an abbreviation ofdefence: comp. “tongue-fence” (Milton), “fencer in wits’ school” (Fuller),Much Ado, v. 1. 75.
794.rapt spirits. ‘Rapt’ = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had beencarried out of itself(Lat.raptus, seized): comp.Il Pens.40, “Thyraptsoul sitting in thine eyes.” Milton also uses the word of the actual snatching away of a person: “What accident hathrapthim from us,”Par. Lost, ii. 40.
797.the brute Earth, etc.,i.e.the senseless Earth would become sensible and assist me. ‘Brute’ = Lat.brutus, dull, insensible: comp. Horace,Odes, i. 34. 9, “bruta tellus.”
800.She fables not: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative.
801.set off: comp.Lyc.80, “set offto the world.”
802.though not mortal:sc.‘I am.’shuddering dew. The epithet is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat which ‘dips’ or moistens his body.
804.Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus, etc.; in allusion to theTitanomachiaor contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma inspeaksas applied to ‘thunder’ and ‘chains,’ unless it be taken as in both cases equivalent todenounces.
806.Come, no more!Comus now addresses the lady.
808.canon laws of our foundation,i.e.the established rules of our society. “A humorous application of the language of universities and other foundations” (Keightley).
809.’tis but the lees, etc.Leesandsettlingsare synonymous = dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy (see Burton’sAnat. of Mel.i. 1, § ii. 2): “Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen”;μελαγχολία, black bile. SeeSams. Agon.600, “humours blackThat mingle with thy fancy”; and Nash’sTerrors of the Night(1594): “(Melancholy) sinketh down to the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the cause of lunacy.”
811.straight, immediately. The adverbstraightis now chiefly used of direction; to indicate timestraightway(= in a straight way) is more usual: comp.L’Alleg.69: “Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures.”
814.scape, a mutilated form of ‘escape,’ occurs both as a noun and a verb in Shakespeare and Milton: seePar. Lost, x. 5, “what canscapethe eye of God?”;Par. Reg.ii. 189, “then lay’st thyscapeson names adored.”
816.without his rod reversed. This use of the participle is a Latinism: seenote, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of this kind introduced by ‘without’ is in Latin frequently rendered by the ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because ‘without’ also governs ‘mutters.’
817.backward mutters. The notion of a counter-charm produced by reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs in Ovid (Met.xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the neighbourhood of the River Severn. On ‘mutters,’ seenote, l. 526.
820.bethink me. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. “The deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove’s court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is accomplished.” Dowden’sTranscripts and Studies.
821.In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from the antecedent: seenote, l. 2.
822.Melibœus. The name of a shepherd in Virgil’sEcloguei. Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given in theFaerie Queene, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a ‘shepherd,’i.e.a poet, and to ‘the soothest shepherd,’i.e.the truest poet, and as he follows Spenser’s version of the story in this poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser.
823.soothest, truest. The A.S.sóthmeanttrue; hence also ‘a true thing’ = truth. It survives insoothe(lit. to affirm to be true),soothsay(see l.874), andforsooth(= for a truth).
824.from hence.Hencerepresents an A.S. wordheonan,-anbeing a suffix = from: so that in the phrase ‘from hence’ the force of the preposition is twice introduced. Yet the idiom is common: it arises from forgetfulness of the origin of the word. Comp.Arc.3: “whichwe from hencedescry.”
825.with moist curb sways: comp. l.18. Sabrina was anumen fluminisor river-deity.
826.Sabrina: The following is Milton’s version of the legend:—“After this, Brutus, in a chosen place, builds Troja Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London; and began to enact laws (Heli being then High Priest in Judea); and, having governed the whole isle twenty-four years, died, and was buried in his new Troy. His three sons—Locrine, Albanact, and Camber—divide the land by consent. Locrine had the middle part, Loëgria; Camber possessed Cambria or Wales; Albanact, Albania, now Scotland. But he, in the end, by Humber, King of the Huns, who, with a fleet, invaded that land, was slain in fight, and his people driven back into Loëgria. Locrine and his brother go out against Humber; who now marching onward was by them defeated, and in a river drowned, which to this day retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and navy were found certain young maids, and Estrilidis, above the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king in Germany, from whence Humber, as he went wasting the sea-coast, had led her captive; whom Locrine, though before contracted to the daughter of Corineus, resolves to marry. But being forced and threatened by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, Gwendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in secret loves the other; and, ofttimes retiring as to some sacrifice, through vaults and passages made underground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had by her a daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, divorcing Gwendolen, he makes Estrilidis his Queen. Gwendolen, all in rage, departs into Cornwall; where Pladan, the son she had by Locrine, was hitherto brought up by Corineus, his grandfather; and gathering an army of her father’s friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by the river Sture, wherein Locrine, shot with an arrow, ends his life. But not so ends the fury of Gwendolen, for Estrilidis and her daughter Sabra she throws into a river, and, to have a monument of revenge, proclaims that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel’s name, which by length of time is changed now toSabrinaor Severn.”—History of Britain(1670).
827.Whilom, of old. An obsolete word, lit. ‘at time’; A.S.hwílum, instr. or dat. plur. ofhwil, time.
830.step-dame. For the actual relationship, seenote, l. 826. The prefixstep(A.S.steóp-) means ‘orphaned,’ and appliesproperly to a child whose parent has re-married: it was afterwards used in the words ‘step-father,’ etc.Dame(Fr.dame, a lady) retains the sense of mother in the formdam.
832.his= its: seenote, l. 96.
834.pearled wrists, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.
835.aged Nereus’ hall, the abode of old Nereus,i.e.the bottom of the sea. Nereus, the father of the Nereids, or sea nymphs, is described as the wise and unerring old man of the sea; in Virgil,grandaevus Nereus. See also, l.871, and compare Jonson’sNeptune’s Triumph, last song: “Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home with pearls.”
836.piteous of,i.e.full of pity for; comp. Lat.miseret te aliorum(genitive). Milton occasionally uses the word in this passive sense; its active sense is ‘causing pity,’i.e.pitiful. Comp. Abbott, § 3.reared her lank head,i.e.raised up her drooping head: comp.Par. Lost, viii.: “In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss: herearedme.” ‘Lank,’ lit. slender; hence weak. The adjectivelankyis in common use = tall and thin.
837.imbathe, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being reduplicated, as in Lat.incidere in.
838.nectared lavers, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented with asphodel flowers. On ‘nectar,’ seenote, l. 479.asphodel; the same, both name and thing, as ‘daffodil’ (seeLyc.150, where it takes the form ‘daffadillies’): Gk.ἀσφόδελος, M.E.affodille. The initialdin daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l.851.
839.the porch. So Quintilian calls the ear the vestibule of the mind: comp.Haml.i. 5. 63: “the porches of mine ear”; also the phrase, “the five gateways of knowledge.”
840.ambrosial oils, oils of heavenly fragrance: seenote, l. 16, and compare Virgil’s use ofambrosiainGeorg.iv. 415,liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem.
841.quick immortal change: comp. l.10.
842.Made Goddess, etc. This participial construction is frequent in Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.
844.twilight meadows: comp. “twilight groves,”Il Pens.133; “twilight ranks,”Arc.99;Hymn Nat.188.
845.Helping all urchin blasts, remedying or preventing the blighting influence of evil spirits. ‘Urchin blasts’ is probably here used generally for what inArcades, 49-53, are called “noisome winds and blasting vapours chill,” ‘urchin’ beingcommon in the sense of ‘goblin’ (M. W. of W.iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare,Temp, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, “Fright me withurchin-shows”;Titus And.ii. 3. 101;Macbeth, iv. 1. 2, “Thrice and once thehedge-pigwhined,” etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius inArcades.Helping: comp. the phrases, “I cannothelpit,”i.e.prevent it; “it cannot behelped,”i.e.remedied, etc.
846.shrewd. Here used in its radical sense =shrew-ed, malicious, like a shrew. Comp.M. N. D.ii. 1, “Thatshrewdand knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow.” Chaucer has the verbshrew= to curse; the current verb isbeshrew.
847.vialed, contained inphials.
850.garland wreaths. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase to mean ‘wreathed garlands’: comp. “twisted braids,” l.862.
852.old swain,i.e.Meliboeus (l.862). “But neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend” (Masson).
853.clasping charm: see l.613,660.
854.warbled song: comp.Arc.87, “touch thewarbledstring”;Son.xx. 12, “Warbleimmortal notes.”
857.This will I try,i.e.to invoke her rightly in song.
858.adjuring, charging by something sacred and venerable. The adjuration is contained in lines867-889, which, in Milton’sMS., are directed “to be said,” not sung, and in the BridgewaterMS.“to sing or not.” From the latterMS.it would appear that these lines were sung as a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.
863.amber-dropping: seenote, l. 333; and comp. l.106, where the idea is similar, warranting us in taking ‘amber-dropping’ as a compound epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) ‘amber’ and ‘dropping.’Amberconveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: seeSams. Agon.720, “amberscent of odorous perfume.”