NOTES.

Spirit.What! have you let the false enchanter scape?O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand,And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed,And backward mutters of dissevering power,We cannot free the Lady that sits hereIn stony fetters fixed and motionless.Yet stay: be not disturbed; now I bethink me,820Some other means I have which may be used,Which once of Melibœus old I learnt,The soothest shepherd that e’er piped on plains.There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream:Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure;Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,That had the sceptre from his father Brute.She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuitOf her enragéd stepdame, Guendolen,830Commended her fair innocence to the floodThat stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course.The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played,Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,Bearing her straight to aged Nereus’ hall;Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head,And gave her to his daughters to imbatheIn nectared lavers strewed with asphodel,And through the porch and inlet of each senseDropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived,840And underwent a quick immortal change,Made Goddess of the river. Still she retainsHer maiden gentleness, and oft at eveVisits the herds along the twilight meadows,Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signsThat the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,Which she with precious vialed liquors heals:For which the shepherds, at their festivals,Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream850Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.And, as the old swain said, she can unlockThe clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,If she be right invoked in warbled song;For maidenhood she loves, and will be swiftTo aid a virgin, such as was herself,In hard-besetting need. This will I try,And add the power of some adjuring verse.

Song.

Sabrina fair,Listen where thou art sitting860Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,In twisted braids of lilies knittingThe loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;Listen for dear honour’s sake,Goddess of the silver lake,Listen and save!Listen, and appear to us,In name of great Oceanus.By the earth-shaking Neptune’s mace,And Tethys’ grave majestic pace;870By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,And the Carpathian wizard’s hook;By scaly Triton’s winding shell,And old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell;By Leucothea’s lovely hands,And her son that rules the strands;By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet,And the songs of Sirens sweet;By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb,And fair Ligea’s golden comb,880Wherewith she sits on diamond rocksSleeking her soft alluring locks;By all the Nymphs that nightly danceUpon thy streams with wily glance;Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy headFrom thy coral-paven bed,And bridle in thy headlong wave,Till thou our summons answered have.Listen and save!

Listen, and appear to us,In name of great Oceanus.By the earth-shaking Neptune’s mace,And Tethys’ grave majestic pace;870By hoary Nereus’ wrinkled look,And the Carpathian wizard’s hook;By scaly Triton’s winding shell,And old soothsaying Glaucus’ spell;By Leucothea’s lovely hands,And her son that rules the strands;By Thetis’ tinsel-slippered feet,And the songs of Sirens sweet;By dead Parthenope’s dear tomb,And fair Ligea’s golden comb,880Wherewith she sits on diamond rocksSleeking her soft alluring locks;By all the Nymphs that nightly danceUpon thy streams with wily glance;Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy headFrom thy coral-paven bed,And bridle in thy headlong wave,Till thou our summons answered have.Listen and save!

Sabrinarises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings.

By the rushy-fringéd bank,890Where grows the willow and the osier dank,My sliding chariot stays,Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheenOf turkis blue, and emerald green,That in the channel strays;Whilst from off the waters fleetThus I set my printless feetO’er the cowslip’s velvet head,That bends not as I tread.Gentle swain, at thy request900I am here!

Spirit.Goddess dear,We implore thy powerful handTo undo the charméd bandOf true virgin here distressedThrough the force and through the wileOf unblessed enchanter vile.Sabrina.Shepherd, ’tis my office bestTo help ensnared chastity.Brightest Lady, look on me.910Thus I sprinkle on thy breastDrops that from my fountain pureI have kept of precious cure;Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,Thrice upon thy rubied lip:Next this marble venomed seat,Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.Now the spell hath lost his hold;And I must haste ere morning hour920To wait in Amphitrite’s bower.

Spirit.Goddess dear,We implore thy powerful handTo undo the charméd bandOf true virgin here distressedThrough the force and through the wileOf unblessed enchanter vile.

Sabrina.Shepherd, ’tis my office bestTo help ensnared chastity.Brightest Lady, look on me.910Thus I sprinkle on thy breastDrops that from my fountain pureI have kept of precious cure;Thrice upon thy finger’s tip,Thrice upon thy rubied lip:Next this marble venomed seat,Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,I touch with chaste palms moist and cold.Now the spell hath lost his hold;And I must haste ere morning hour920To wait in Amphitrite’s bower.

Sabrinadescends, and theLadyrises out of her seat.

Spirit.Virgin, daughter of Locrine,Sprung of old Anchises’ line,May thy brimméd waves for thisTheir full tribute never missFrom a thousand petty rills,That tumble down the snowy hills:Summer drouth or singéd airNever scorch thy tresses fair,Nor wet October’s torrent flood930Thy molten crystal fill with mud;May thy billows roll ashoreThe beryl and the golden ore;May thy lofty head be crownedWith many a tower and terrace round,And here and there thy banks uponWith groves of myrrh and cinnamon.Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace,Let us fly this curséd place,Lest the sorcerer us entice940With some other new device.Not a waste or needless soundTill we come to holier ground.I shall be your faithful guideThrough this gloomy covert wide;And not many furlongs thenceIs your Father’s residence,Where this night are met in stateMany a friend to gratulateHis wished presence, and beside950All the swains that there abideWith jigs and rural dance resort.We shall catch them at their sport,And our sudden coming thereWill double all their mirth and cheer.Come, let us haste; the stars grow high,But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky.

The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President’s Castle; then come in Country Dancers; after them theAttendant Spirit, with the TwoBrothersand theLady.

Song.

Spirit.Back, shepherds, back! Enough your playTill next sunshine holiday.Here be, without duck or nod,960Other trippings to be trodOf lighter toes, and such court guiseAs Mercury did first deviseWith the mincing DryadesOn the lawns and on the leas.

This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother.

Noble Lord and Lady bright,I have brought ye new delight.Here behold so goodly grownThree fair branches of your own.Heaven hath timely tried their youth,970Their faith, their patience, and their truth,And sent them here through hard assaysWith a crown of deathless praise,To triumph in victorious danceO’er sensual folly and intemperance.

The dances ended, theSpiritepiloguizes.

Spirit.To the ocean now I fly,And those happy climes that lieWhere day never shuts his eye,Up in the broad fields of the sky.There I suck the liquid air,980All amidst the gardens fairOf Hesperus, and his daughters threeThat sing about the golden tree.Along the crispéd shades and bowersRevels the spruce and jocund Spring;The Graces and the rosy-bosomed HoursThither all their bounties bring.There eternal Summer dwells,And west winds with musky wingAbout the cedarn alleys fling990Nard and cassia’s balmy smells.Iris there with humid bowWaters the odorous banks, that blowFlowers of more mingled hueThan her purfled scarf can shew,And drenches with Elysian dew(List, mortals, if your ears be true)Beds of hyacinth and roses,Where young Adonis oft reposes,Waxing well of his deep wound,1000In slumber soft, and on the groundSadly sits the Assyrian queen.But far above, in spangled sheen,Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advancedHolds his dear Psyche, sweet entrancedAfter her wandering labours long,Till free consent the gods amongMake her his eternal bride,And from her fair unspotted sideTwo blissful twins are to be born,1010Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn.But now my task is smoothly done,I can fly, or I can runQuickly to the green earth’s end,Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend,And from thence can soar as soonTo the corners of the moon.Mortals, that would follow me,Love Virtue; she alone is free.She can teach ye how to climb1020Higher than the sphery chime;Or, if Virtue feeble were,Heaven itself would stoop to her.

discovers, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of ‘discover’ is to find out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefixdis-has often the more purely negative force ofun-: hence discover = uncover, reveal. Comp.—

“Some high-climbing hillWhich to his eyediscoversunawareThe goodly prospect of some foreign land.”Par. Lost, iii. 546.

“Some high-climbing hillWhich to his eyediscoversunawareThe goodly prospect of some foreign land.”

Par. Lost, iii. 546.

Attendant Spirit descends. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in whose honour the masque is being given (lines30-36). In the ancient classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the plot. The opening ofComusprepares the audience and also directly addresses it (line43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual performance of the masque seenote, l. 975-6.

1.starry threshold, etc. Comp. Virgil: “The sire of gods and monarch of men summons a council to the starry chamber” (sideream in sedem),Aen.x. 2.

2.mansion, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly “a place of tarrying,” which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence ‘a resting-place.’ Comp.John, xiv. 2, “In my Father’s house are manymansions”; andIl Pens.93, “Hermansionin this fleshly nook.” The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large and important dwelling-house.where, in which: the antecedent is separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp. lines66,821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection.shapes ... spirits. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual beings with personality without makingthem too distinct. “Of all the poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural beings Milton has succeeded best” (Macaulay). We see this inPar. Lost(e.g.ii. 666). Compare the use of the word ‘shape’ (Lat.umbra) in l.207: alsoL’Alleg.4, “horridshapesand shrieks”; andIl Pens.6, “fancies fond with gaudyshapespossess.” Milton’s use of the demonstrativethosein this line is noteworthy; comp. “thatlast infirmity of noble mind,”Lyc.71: it implies that the reference is to something well known, and that further particularisation is needless.

3.insphered. ‘Sphere,’ with its derivatives ‘sphery,’ ‘insphere,’ and ‘unsphere’ (Il Pens.88), is used by Milton with a literal reference to the cosmical framework as a whole (seeHymn Nat.48) or to some portion of it. In Shakespeare ‘sphere’ occurs in the wider sense of ‘the path in which anything moves,’ and it is to this metaphorical use of the word that we owe such phrases as ‘a person’s sphere of life,’ ‘sphere of action,’ etc. See alsoComus, 112-4, 241-3, 1021;Arc.62-7;Par. Lost, v. 618; where there are references to the music of the spheres.

4.mild: an attributive of the whole clause, ‘regions of calm and serene air.’calm and serene. These are not mere synonyms: the Lat.serenus= bright or unclouded, so that the two epithets are to be respectively contrasted with ‘smoke’ and ‘stir’ (line5); ‘calm’ being opposed to ‘stir’ and ‘serene’ to ‘smoke.’ Compare Homer’s description of the seat of the gods: “Not by wind is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth the snow come nigh thereto, butmost clearair is spread about itcloudless, and the white light floats over it,”Odyssey, vi.: comp.note, l. 977.

5.this dim spot. The Spirit describes the Earth as it appears to those immortal shapes whose presence he has just quitted.

6.There are here two attributive clauses: “which men call Earth” and “(in which) men strive,” etc.low-thoughted care; narrow-minded anxiety, care about earthly things. Comp. the form of the adjective ‘low-browed,’L’Alleg.8: both epithets are borrowed by Pope in hisEloisa.

7.This line is attributive to ‘men.’pestered ... pinfold, crowded together in this cramped space, the Earth.Pester, which has no connection withpest, is a shortened form ofimpester, Fr.empêtrer, to shackle a horse by the foot when it is at pasture. The radical sense is that of clogging (comp.Son.xii. 1); hence of crowding; and finally of annoyance or encumbrance of any kind. ‘Pinfold’ is strictly an enclosure in which stray cattle arepoundedor shut up: etymologically, the word =pind-fold, a corruption ofpound-fold. Comp.impound, sheep-fold, etc.

8.frail and feverish. Comp. “life’s fitful fever” (Macbeth, iii. 2. 23). This line, like several of the adjacent ones, is alliterative.

9.crown that Virtue gives. This is Scriptural language: comp.Rev.iv. 4; 2Tim.iv. 8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.”

10.this mortal change. In Milton’sMS.line 7 was followed by the words, ‘beyond the written date of mortal change,’i.e.beyond, or after, man’s appointed time to die. These words were struck out, but we may suppose that the words ‘mortal change’ in line10have a similar meaning. Milton frequently uses ‘mortal’ in the sense of ‘liable to death,’ and hence ‘human’ as opposed to ‘divine’: the mortal change is therefore ‘the change which occurs to all human beings.’ Comp.Job, xiv. 14: “all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till mychangecome”: see also line841. Prof. Masson takes it to mean ‘this mortal state of life,’ as distinguished from a future state of immortality. The Spirit uses ‘this’ as in line8, in contrast with ‘those,’ line2.

11.enthroned gods, etc. In allusion toRev.iv. 4, “And upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, arrayed in white garments; and on their heads crowns of gold.” Milton frequently speaks of the inhabitants of heaven asenthroned. The accent here falls on the first syllable of the word.

12.Yet some there be, etc.: ‘Although men are generally so exclusively occupied with the cares of this life, there are nevertheless a few who aspire,’ etc.Beis here purely indicative. This usage is frequent in Elizabethan English, and still survives in parts of England. Comp.Lines on Univ. Carrier, ii. 25, where it occurs in a similar phrase, “there be that say ’t”: also lines519,668. It is employed to refer to a number of persons or things, regarded as a class.by due steps,i.e.by the steps that are due or appointed: comp. ‘duefeet,’Il Pens.155.Due,duty, anddebtare all from Lat.debitus, owed.

13.their just hands. ‘Just’ belongs to the predicate: ‘to lay their just hands’ = to lay their hands with justice.golden key. Comp.Matt.xvi. 19, “I will give unto thee thekeysof the kingdom of heaven”; alsoLyc.111:

“Two massy keys he bore of metals twain(Thegoldenopes, the iron shuts amain).”

15.errand: comp.Par. Lost, iii. 652, “One of the seven Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne, Stand ready at command, and are his eyes That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth Bear his swifterrands”: also vii. 579.but for such,i.e.unless it were for such.

16.‘I would not sully the purity of my heavenly garments with the noisome vapour of this sin-corrupted earth.’ambrosial, heavenly; also used by Milton in the sense of ‘conferring immortality’: comp. l.840;Par. Lost, ii. 245; iv. 219, “bloomingambrosialfruit.” ‘Ambrosial,’ like ‘amaranthus’ (Lyc.149), is cognate with the Sanskritamríta, undying; and is applied by Homer to the hair of the gods: similarly in Tennyson’sOenone, 174: see alsoIn Memoriam, lxxxvi. Ben Jonson (Neptune’s Triumph) has ‘ambrosian hands,’i.e.hands fit for a deity. Ambrosia was the food of the gods.weeds: now used chiefly in the phrase “widow’s weeds,”i.e.mourning garment. Milton and Shakespeare use it in the general sense of garment or covering: in the linesOn the Death of a Fair Infant, it is applied to the human body itself; comp. alsoM. N. D.ii. 1. 255, “Weedwide enough to wrap a fairy in.” See alsoComus,189,390.

18.But to my task,i.e.but I must proceed to my task: see l.1012.

19.every ... each. It is usual to writeevery ... every, oreach ... each, but Milton occasionally uses ‘every’ and ‘each’ together: comp. l.311andLyc.93, “everygust ... offeachbeaked promontory.”Everydenotes each without exception, and can now only be used with reference to more than two objects;eachmay refer to two or more.

20.by lot, etc. When Saturn (Kronos) was dethroned, his empire of the universe was distributed amongst his three sons, Jupiter (‘high’ Jove), Neptune (the god of the Sea), and Pluto (‘nether’ or Stygian Jove). InIliadxv. Neptune (Poseidon) says: “For three brethren are we, and sons of Kronos, whom Rhea bare ... And in three lots are all things divided, and each drew a domain of his own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my habitation for ever, when we shook the lots.”nether, lower: comp. the phrase ‘the upper and the nether lip,’ and the name Netherlands. Hell, the abode of Pluto, is called by Milton ‘the nether empire’ (Par. Lost, ii. 295). The formnethermost(Par. Lost, ii. 955) is, likeaftermostandforemost, a double superlative.

21.sea-girt isles. Ben Jonson calls Britain a ‘sea-girt isle’: comp. l.27.Isleis the M.E.ile, in which form theshas been dropped: it is from O.F.isle, Lat.insula. It is therefore distinct fromisland, where anshas, by confusion, been inserted. Island = M.E.iland, A.S.igland(ig= island:land= land). In line50Milton wrote ‘iland.’

22.like to rich and various gems, etc. Shakespeare describes England as a ‘precious stone set in the silver sea,’Richard II.ii. 1. 46: he also speaks of Heaven as beinginlayedwith stars,Cym.v. 5. 352;M. of V.v. 1. 59, “Look how the floor of heaven Is thickinlaidwith patines of bright gold.” Compare alsoPar. Lost, iv. 700, where Milton refers to the ground as having a richinlayof flowers. But for its inlay of islands the sea would be bare or unadorned.like: here followed by the prepositionto, and having its proper force as an adjective: comp.Il Pens.9. Whetherlikeis used as an adjective or an adverb, the preposition is now usually omitted: comp. l.57.

24.to grace,i.e.to show favour to: a clause of purpose.

25.By course commits, etc.,i.e.“In regular distribution he commits to each his distinct government.”several: separate or distinct. Radicallyseveralis from the verbsever: it is now used only with plural nouns.

26.sapphire. This colour is again associated with the sea in line29: seenotethere.

27.little tridents, in contrast with that of Neptune, who, “with his trident touched the stars” (Neptune’s Triumph, Proteus’ Song, Ben Jonson).

28.greatest and the best. Comp. Shakespeare’s eulogy inRich. II.ii. 1: also Ben Jonson’s “Albion, Prince of all his Isles,”Neptune’s Triumph, Apollo’s Song.

29.quarters, divides into distinct regions. Comp. Dryden,Georg. I.208:

“Sailorsquarter’dHeaven, and found a nameFor every fixt and ev’ry wandering star.”

Some would take the word as strictly denoting division intofourparts: “at that time the island was actually divided into four separate governments: for besides those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords President of the North and of Wales.” (Keightley).blue-haired deities. These must be distinct from the tributary gods who wield their little tridents (line27), otherwise the thought would ill accord with the complimentary nature of lines30-36. Regarding the epithet ‘blue-haired’ Masson asks: “Can there be a recollection of blue as the British colour, inherited from the old times of blue-stained Britons who fought with Caesar? Green-haired is the usual epithet for Neptune and his subordinates”: in Spenser, for example, the sea-nymphs have long green hair. But Ovid expressly calls the sea-deitiescaerulei dii, and Neptunecaeruleus deus, thus associating blue with the sea.

30.‘And all this region that looks towards the West (i.e.Wales) is entrusted to a noble peer of great integrity and power.’ The peer referred to is the Earl of Bridgewater. As Lord President he was entrusted with the civil and military administration of Wales and the four English counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Shropshire. That he was a nobleman of high character is shown by the fact that from 1617, when he was nominated one of “his Majestie’s Counsellors,” he had continued to serve in various important public and private offices. On his monument there is the following: “He was a profound Scholar, an able Statesman, and a good Christian: he was a dutiful Sonto his Mother the Church of England in her persecution, as well as in her great splendour; a loyal Subject to his Sovereign in those worst of times, when it was accounted treason not to be a traitor. As he lived 70 years a pattern of virtue, so he died an example of patience and piety.”falling sun: Lat.sol occidens. Orient and occident (lit. ‘rising’ and ‘falling’) are frequently used to denote the East and the West.

31.mickle(A.S.micel) great. From this word comesmuch. ‘Mickle’ and ‘muckle’ are current in Scotland in the sense of great. Comp.Rom. and Jul.ii. 3. 15, “O,mickleis the powerful grace that lies In herbs,” etc.

33.An old and haughty nation. The Welsh are Kelts, an Aryan people who probably first entered Britain aboutB.C.500: they are therefore rightly spoken of as an old nation. Compare Ben Jonson’s pieceFor the Honour of Wales:

“I is not come here to taulk of Brut,From whence the Welse does take his root,” etc.

That they were haughty and ‘proud in arms’ the Romans found, and after them the Saxons: the latter never really held more than the counties of Monmouth and Hereford. In the reign of Edward I. attempts were made by that king to induce the Welsh to come to terms, but the answer of the Barons was: “We dare not submit to Edward, nor will we suffer our prince to do so, nor do homage to strangers, whose tongue, ways and laws we know not of: we have only raised war in defence of our lands, laws and rights.” By a statute of Henry VIII. this ‘haughty’ people were put in possession of the same rights and liberties as the English.proud in arms: this is Virgil’sbelloque superbum,Aen.i. 21 (Warton).

34.nursed in princely lore, brought up in a manner worthy of their high position. It is to be noted that the Bridgewater family was by birth distantly connected with the royal family. Milton may allude merely to their connection with the court.Loreis cognate withlearn.

35.their father’s state. This probably refers to the actual ceremonies connected with the installation of the Earl as Lord President. The old sense of ‘state’ is ‘chair of state’: comp.Arc.81, and Jonson’sHymenaei, “And see where Juno ... Displays her glitteringstate and chair.”

36.new-intrusted, an adjective compounded of a participle and a simple adverb,newbeing = newly; comp. ‘smooth-dittied,’ l.86. Contrast the form of the epithet “blue-haired,” where the compound adjective is formed as if from a noun, “blue-hair”: comp. “rushy-fringed,” l.890. Strictly speaking, the Earl’s power was not ‘new-intrusted,’ though it was newly assumed. See Introduction.

37.perplexed, interwoven, entangled (Lat.plecto, to plait or twist). The word is here used literally and is therefore applicable to inanimate objects. The accent is on the first syllable.

38.horror. This word is meant not merely to indicate terror, but also to describe the appearance of the paths. Horror is from Lat.horrere, to bristle, and may be rendered ‘shagginess’ or ‘ruggedness,’ just ashorrid, l.429, means bristling or rugged. Comp.Par. Lost, i. 563, “ahorridfront Of dreadful length, and dazzling arms.”shady brows: this may refer to the trees and bushes overhanging the paths, as the brow overhangs the eyes.

39.Threats: not current as a verb.forlorn, now used only as an adjective, is the past participle of the old verbforleosen, to lose utterly: the prefixforhas an intensive force, as inforswear; but in the latter word the sense offromis more fully preserved in the prefix. Seenote, l. 234.

40.tender age. Lady Alice Egerton was about fourteen years of age; the two brothers were younger than she.

41.But that, etc. Grammatically,butmay be regarded as a subordinative conjunction = ‘unless (it had happened) that I was despatched’: or, taking it in its original prepositional sense, we may regard it as governing the substantive clause, ‘that ... guard.’quick command: the adjective has the force of an adverb, quick commands being commands that are to be carried quickly.sovran, supreme. This is Milton’s spelling of the modern wordsovereign, in which thegis due to the mistaken notion that the last syllable of the word is cognate withreign. The word is from Lat.superanum= chief: comp. l.639.

43.And listen why;sc.‘I was despatched.’ The language of lines43, 44is suggested by Horace’sOdes, iii. 1, 2: “Favete linguis; carmina non prius Audita ... canto.” The poet implies that the plot of his mask is original: it is not (he says) to be found in any ancient or modern song or tale that was ever recited either in the ‘hall’ (= banqueting-hall) or in the ‘bower’ (= private chamber). Or ‘hall’ and ‘bower’ may denote respectively the room of the lord and that of his lady.

46.Milton in his usual significant manner (comp.L’AllegroandIl Penseroso), proceeds to invent a genealogy for Comus. The mask is designed to celebrate the victory of Purity and Reason over Desire and Enchantment. Comus, who represents the latter, must therefore spring from parents representing the pleasure of man’s lower nature and the misuse of man’s higher powers on behalf of falsehood and impurity. These parents are the wine-god Bacchus and the sorceress Circe. The former, mated with Love, is the father of Mirth (seeL’Allegro); but, mated with the cunning Circe, his offspring is a voluptuarywhose gay exterior and flattering speech hide his dangerously seductive and magical powers. He bears no resemblance, therefore, to Comus as represented in Ben Jonson’sPleasure reconciled to Virtue, in which mask “Comus” and “The Belly” are throughout synonymous. In theAgamemnonof Aeschylus, Comus is a “drinker of human blood”; in Philostratus, he is a rose-crowned wine-bibber; in Dekker he is “the clerk of gluttony’s kitchen”; in Massinger he is “the god of pleasure”; and in the work of Erycius Puteanus he is a graceful reveller, the genius of love and cheerfulness. Prof. Masson says, “Milton’sComusis a creation of his own, for which he was as little indebted intrinsically to Puteanus as to Ben Jonson. For the purpose of his masque at Ludlow Castle he was bold enough to add a brand-new god, no less, to the classic Pantheon, and to import him into Britain.”Bacchus, the god who taught men the preparation of wine. He is the Greek Dionysus, who, on one of his voyages, hired a vessel belonging to some Tyrrhenian pirates: these men resolved to sell him as a slave. Thereupon, he changed the mast and oars of the ship into serpents and the sailors into dolphins. The meeting of Bacchus with Circe is Milton’s own invention; in theOdysseyit is Ulysses who lights upon her island: “And we came to the isle Ææan, where dwelt Circe of the braided tresses, an awful goddess of mortal speech, own sister to the wizard Æetes,”Odys.x.from out, etc. Comp.Par. Lost, v. 345. ‘From out’ has the same force as the more common ‘out from.’

47.misusèd, abused. The prefixmis-was very generally used by Milton;e.g.mislike,misdeem,miscreated,misthought(all obsolete).

48.After the Tuscan mariners transformed,i.e.after the transformation of the Tuscan mariners (see Ovid,Met.iii.). They are called Tuscan, because Tyrrhenia in Central Italy was named Etruria or Tuscia by the Romans: Etruria includes modern Tuscany. This grammatical construction is common in Latin; a passive participle combined with a substantive answering to an English verbal or abstract noun connected with another noun by the prepositionof, and used to denote a fact in the past;e.g.“since created man” (P. L.i. 573) = since the creation of man: “this loss recovered” (P. L.ii. 21) = the recovery of this loss.

49.as the winds listed; at the pleasure of the winds: comp.John, iii. 8, “the wind bloweth where itlisteth”;Lyc.123. The verblistis, in older English, generally used impersonally, and in Chaucer we find ‘if thee lust’ or ‘if thee list’ = if it please thee. The word survives in the adjectivelistlessof which the older form waslustless: the nounlusthas lost its original and wider sense (which it still has in German), and now signifies ‘longing desire.’

50.On Circe’s island fell. Circe’s island = Aeaea, off the coast of Latium. Circe was the daughter of Helios (the Sun) by theocean-nymph Perse. On ‘island,’ seenote, l. 21; and with this use of the verbfallcomp. the Latinincidere in. The sudden introduction of the interrogative clause in this line is an example of the figure of speech called anadiplosis.

51.charmèd cup,i.e.liquor that has beencharmedor rendered magical.Charmsare incantations or magic verses (Lat.carmina): comp. lines526and817. Grammatically, ‘cup’ is the object of ‘tasted.’

52.Whoever tasted lost,i.e.who tasted (he) lost. In this constructionwhoevermust precede both verbs; Shakespeare frequently useswhoin this sense, and Milton occasionally: comp.Son.xii. 12, “wholoves that must first be wise and good.” See Abbott, § 251.lost his upright shape. InOdysseyx. we read: “So Circe led them (followers of Ulysses) in and set them upon chairs and high seats, and made them a mess of cheese and barley-meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs with the food to make them utterly forget their own country. Now when she had given them the cup and they had drunk it off, presently she smote them with a wand, and in the styes of the swine she penned them. So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape of swine, but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned there weeping, and Circe flung them acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do always batten.” (Butcher and Lang’s translation.)

54.clustering locks: comp. l.608. Milton here pictures the Theban Bacchus, a type of manly beauty, having his head crowned with a wreath of vine and ivy: both of these plants were sacred to the god. Comp.L’Alleg.16, “ivy-crowned Bacchus”;Par. Lost, iv. 303;Sams. Agon.569.

55.his blithe youth,i.e.his fresh young figure.

57.‘A son much like his father, but more like his mother.’ This may indicate that it is upon Comus’s character as a sorcerer rather than as a reveller that the story of the mask depends. Comp.Masque of Hymen:

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