Song

Notes by William Bell, Comus (1890; Project Gutenberg #19819).

1. Stanza 1, line 5 amber-dropping: see note, 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.' Amber conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see Sams. Agon. 720, "amber scent of odorous perfume."
2. Stanza 1, line 7 silver lake, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. lacus in the sense of 'a river.'
3. Stanza 2, line 2 great Oceanus, Gk. +Ôkeanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact, throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent epithets" of the various divinities.
4. Stanza 2, line 3 earth-shaking Neptune's mace, i.e. the trident of Poseidon (Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. Iliad, xii. 27, "And the Shaker of the Earth with his trident in his hands," etc. In Par. Lost, x. 294, Milton provides Death with a "mace petrifick."
5. Stanza 2, line 4 Tethys' ... pace. Tethys, wife of Oceanus, their children being the Oceanides and river-gods. In Hesiod she is 'the venerable' (+potnia Têthys+), and in Ovid 'the hoary.'
6. Stanza 2, line 5 hoary Nereus: see note, l. 835.
7. Stanza 2, line 6 Carpathian wizard's hook. See Virgil's Georg. iv. 387, "In the sea-god's Carpathian gulf there lives a seer, Proteus, of the sea's own hue ... all things are known to him, those which are, those which have been, and those which drag their length through the advancing future." Wizard = diviner, without the depreciatory sense of line 571; see note there. Hook: Proteus had a shepherd's hook, because he tended "the monstrous herds of loathly sea-calves": Odyssey, iv. 385-463.
8. Stanza 2, line 7 scaly Triton's ... shell. In Lycidas, 89, he is "the Herald of the Sea." He bore a 'wreathed horn' or shell which he blew at the command of Neptune in order to still the restless waves of the sea. He was 'scaly,' the lower part of his body being like that of a fish.
9. Stanza 2, line 8 soothsaying Glaucus. He was a Boeotian fisherman who had been changed into a marine deity, and was regarded by fishermen and sailors as a soothsayer or oracle: see note, l. 823.
10. Stanza 2, line 9 Leucothea: lit. "the white goddess" (Gk. +leukê+, +thea+), the name by which Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was worshipped after she had thrown herself into the sea to avoid her enraged husband Athamas.
11. Stanza 2, line 10 her son, i.e. Melisertes, drowned and deified along with his mother: as a sea-deity he was called Palaemon, identified by the Romans with their god of harbours, Portumnus.
12. Stanza 2, line 11 tinsel-slippered. The 'permanent epithet' of Thetis, a daughter of Nereus and mother of Achilles, is "silver-footed" (Gk. +argyropeza+). Comp. Neptune's Triumph (Jonson): "And all the silver-footed nymphs were drest To wait upon him, to the Ocean's feast." 'Tinsel-slippered' is a paraphrase of this, for 'tinsel' is a cloth worked with silver (or gold): the notion of cheap finery is not radical. Etymologically, tinsel is that which glitters or scintillates. On the beauty of this epithet, and of Milton's compound epithets generally, see Trench, English Past and Present, p. 296.
13. Stanza 2, line 12 Sirens ... Parthenopè's ... Ligea's. The three Sirens (see note, l. 253) were Parthenopè, Lig{=e}a, and Lucosia. The tomb of the first was at Naples (see Milton's Ad Leonaram, iii., "Credula quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana Achelöiados," etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (Georg. iv. 336) as a sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of smoothing her hair with a golden comb.
14. Stanza 2, line 15 Wherewith = with which. The true adjective clause is "sleeking ... locks" = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is "she sits ... rocks" = seated on ... rocks.
15. Stanza 2, line 16 Sleeking, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of 'sleek' is greasy: comp. Lyc. 99, "On the level brine Sleek Panopè with all her sisters played."
16. Stanza 2, line 19 heave, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in L'Alleg. 145, "Orpheus' self may heave his head."
17. Stanza 2, line 21 bridle in, i.e. restrain.
18. Stanza 2, line 22 have: subjunctive after till, as frequently in Milton.
19. Stanza 3, line 1 rushy-fringèd, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29; "false-played," Shakespeare, A. and C. iv. 14.
20. Stanza 3, line 2 grows. A singular with two nominatives connected by and: the verb is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or their branches. dank, damp: comp. Par. Lost, vii. 441, "oft they quit the dank" (= the water).
21. Stanza 3, line 4 Thick set, etc., i.e. thickly inlaid with agate and beautified with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in set. azurn sheen. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the suffix -en = made of. Most of the adjectives in -en that still survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," e.g. golden hair, etc. Azurn and cedarn (l. 990), hornen, treen, corden, glassen, reeden, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, English Past and Present. Comp. 'oaten' (Lyc. 33), 'oaken' (Arc. 45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold that he adopted them from the Italian azzurino and cedrino.
22. Stanza 3, line 5 turkis; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey (Pers. turk, a Turk).
23. Stanza 3, line 6 That ... strays. Milton does not imply that these stones were found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon grows on its banks.
24. Stanza 3, line 8 printless feet. Comp. Temp. v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also Arc. 85: "Where no print of step hath been."
25. Stanza 4, line 1 It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best').
26. Stanza 4, line 12 of precious cure, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,' l. 155.
27. Stanza 4, line 13 References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, e.g. in the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (Aen. vi. 229), in Ovid (Met. iv. 479), in Par. Lost, xi. 416.
28. Stanza 4, line 15 Next: an adverb modifying 'touch.'
29. Stanza 4, line 16 glutinous, sticky, viscous. The epithet is transferred from the effect to the cause.
30. Stanza 4, line 20 Amphitrite: the wife of Neptune (Poseidon) and goddess of the Sea.
31. Stanza 5, line 2 Anchises line: see note, l. 827. Locrine was the son of Brutus, who was the son of Silvius, who was the grandson of the great Aeneas, who was the son of old Anchises.
32. Stanza 5, line 3 may ... miss. This verb is optative: so are '(may) scorch,' '(may) fill,' 'may roll,' and 'may be crowned.'
33. Stanza 5, line 3 brimmèd. The passive participle is so often used where we now use the active that 'brimmed' may mean 'brimming' = full to the brim. On the other hand, 'brim' is frequent in the sense of bank (comp. l. 119), so that some regard 'brimmed' as = enclosed within banks.
34. Stanza 5, line 7 singèd, scorched. We should rather say 'scorching.' On the good wishes expressed in lines 924-937 Masson's comment is: "The whole of this poetic blessing on the Severn and its neighbourhood, involving the wish of what we should call 'solid commercial prosperity,' would go to the heart of the assemblage at Ludlow."
35. Stanza 5, line 12 beryl: in the Bible (Rev. xxi. 20) this precious stone forms one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The word is of Eastern origin: comp. Arab, billaur, crystal. golden ore. As a matter of fact gold has been found in the Welsh mountains.
36. Stanza 5, line 13 May thy lofty head, etc. The grammatical construction is: 'May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and here and there (may thy lofty head be crowned) with groves of myrrh and cinnamon (growing) upon thy banks.' This makes 'banks' objective, and 'upon' a preposition: the only objection to this reading is that the notion of crowning the head upon the banks is peculiar. The difficulty vanishes when we recollect that Milton frequently connects two clauses with one subject rather loosely: the subject of the second clause is 'thou,' implied in 'thy lofty head.' An exact parallel to this is found in L'Alleg. 121, 122: 'whose bright eyes rain influence and judge the prize'; also in Il Pens. 155-7; 'let my due feet never fail to walk ... and love, etc.': also in Lyc. 88, 89. The explanation adopted by Prof. Masson is that Milton had in view two Greek verbs--+peristephanoô+, 'to put a crown round,' and +epistephanoô+, "to put a crown upon": thus, "May thy lofty head be crowned round with many a tower and terrace, and thy banks here and there be crowned upon with groves of myrrh and cinnamon." This makes 'banks' nominative, and 'upon' an adverb. In the Bridgewater MS. the stage direction here is, Song ends.
37. Stanza 5, line 21 Not a waste, etc., i.e. 'Let there not be a superfluous or unnecessary sound until we come.' 'waste' is an attributive: see note, l. 728.
38. Stanza 5, line 24 gloomy covert wide: see note, l. 207.
39. Stanza 5, line 25 not many furlongs. These words are deliberately inserted to keep up the illusion. It is probable that, in the actual representation of the mask, the scene representing the enchanted palace was removed when Comus's rout was driven off the stage, and a woodland scene redisplayed. This would give additional significance to these lines and to the change of scene after l. 957. 'Furlong' = furrow-long: it thus came to mean the length of a field, and is now a measure of length.
40. Stanza 5, line 28 many a friend. 'Many a' is a peculiar idiom, which has been explained in different ways. One view is that 'many' is a corruption of the French mesnie, a train or company, and 'a' a corruption of the preposition 'of,' the singular noun being then substituted for the plural through confusion of the preposition with the article. A more correct view seems to be that 'many' is the A.S. manig, which was in old English used with a singular noun and without the article, e.g. manig mann = many men. In the thirteenth century the indefinite article began to be inserted; thus mony enne thing = many a thing, just as we say 'what a thing,' 'such a thing.' This would seem to show that 'a' is not a corruption of 'of,' and that there is no connection with the French word mesnie. Milton, in this passage, uses 'many a friend' with a plural verb. gratulate. The simple verb is now replaced by the compound congratulate (Lat. gratulari, to wish joy to a person).
41. Stanza 5, line 29 wished, i.e. wished for; see note, l. 574. and beside, i.e. 'and where, besides,' etc.
42. Stanza 5, line 31 jigs, lively dances.
43. Stanza 7, line 1 Back, shepherds, back! On the rising of the curtain, the stage is occupied by peasants engaged in a merry dance. Soon after the attendant Spirit enters with the above words. Enough your play, i.e. we have had enough of your dancing, which must now give way to 'other trippings.'
44. Stanza 7, line 2 sunshine holiday. Comp. L'Alleg. 98, where the same expression is used. There is a close resemblance between the language of this song and lines 91-99 of L'Allegro. Milton's own spelling of 'holiday' is 'holyday,' which shows the origin of the word. The accent in such compounds (comp. blue-bell, blackbird, etc.) falls on the adjective: it is only in this way that the ear can tell whether the compound forms (e.g. hóliday) or the separate words (e.g. hóly dáy) are being used.
45. Stanza 7, line 3 Here be: see note, l. 12. without duck or nod: words used to describe the ungraceful dancing and awkward courtesy of the country people.
46. Stanza 7, line 4 trippings ... lighter toes ... court guise: words used to describe the graceful movements of the Lady and her brothers: comp. L'Alleg. 33: "trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." Trod (or trodden), past participle of tread: 'to tread a measure' is a common expression, meaning 'to dance.' 'Court guise,' i.e. courtly mien; guise is a doublet of wise = way, e.g. 'in this wise,' 'likewise,' 'otherwise.' In such pairs of words as guise and wise, guard and ward, guile and wile, the forms in gu have come into English through the French.
47. Stanza 7, line 6 Mercury (the Greek Hermes) was the herald of the gods, and as such was represented as having winged ankles (Gk. +ptênopedilos+): his name is here used as a synonym both for agility and refinement.
48. Stanza 7, line 7 mincing Dryades. The Dryades are wood-nymphs (Gk. +drys+, a tree), here represented as mincing, i.e. tripping with short steps, unlike the clumsy striding of the country people. Comp. Merch. of V. iii. 4. 67: "turn two mincing steps Into a manly stride." Applied to a person's gait (or speech), the word now implies affectation.
49. Stanza 7, line 8 lawns ... leas. On 'lawn,' see note, l. 568: a 'lea' is a meadow.
50. Stanza 8, line 1 This song is sung by Lawes while presenting the three young persons to the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater.
51. Stanza 8, line 2 ye: see note, l. 216.
52. Stanza 8, line 3 so goodly grown, i.e. grown so goodly. Goodly = handsome (A.S. gódlic = goodlike).
53. Stanza 8, line 5 timely. Here an adverb: in l. 689 it is an adjective. Comp. the two phrases in Macbeth: "To gain the timely inn," iii. 3. 7; and "To call timely on him," ii. 3. 51.
54. Stanza 8, line 7 assays, trials, temptations. Assay is used by Milton in the sense of 'attempt' as well as of 'trial': see Arc. 80, "I will assay, her worth to celebrate." The former meaning is now confined to the form essay (radically the same word); and the use of assay has been still further restricted from its being used chiefly of the testing of metals. Comp. Par. Lost, iv. 932, "hard assays and ill successes"; Par. Reg. i. 264, iv. 478.
55. Stanza 8, line 9 To triumph. The whole purpose of the poem is succinctly expressed in these lines. Stage Direction: Spirit epiloguizes, i.e. sings the epilogue or concluding stanzas. In one of Lawes' manuscripts of the mask, the epilogue consists of twelve lines only, those numbered 1012-1023. From the same copy we find that line 976 had been altered by Lawes in such a manner as to convert the first part of the epilogue into a prologue which, in his character as Attendant Spirit, he sang whilst descending upon the stage:-- From the heavens now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad field of the sky. There I suck the liquid air All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That sing about the golden tree. There eternal summer dwells, And west winds, with musky wing, About the cedarn alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can show, Yellow, watchet, green, and blue, And drenches oft with Manna dew Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where many a cherub soft reposes. Doubtless this was the arrangement in the actual performance of the mask.
56. Stanza 10, line 1 To the ocean, etc. The resemblance of this song, in rhythm and rhyme, to the song of Ariel in the Tempest, v. 1. 88-94, has been frequently pointed out: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I," etc. Compare also the song of Johphiel in The Fortunate Isles (Ben Jonson): "Like a lightning from the sky," etc. The epilogue as sung by Lawes (ll. 1012-1023) may also be compared with the epilogue of the Tempest: "Now my charms are all o'erthrown," etc.
57. Stanza 10, line 2 happy climes. Comp. Odyssey, iv. 566: "The deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end ... where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill west to blow cool on men": see also l. 14. 'Clime,' radically the same as climate, is still used in its literal sense = a region of the earth; while 'climate' has the secondary meaning of 'atmospheric conditions.' Comp. Son. viii. 8: "Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms."
58. Stanza 10, line 3 day ... eye. Comp. Son. i. 5: "the eye of day"; and Lyc. 26: "the opening eyelids of the Morn."
59. Stanza 10, line 4 broad fields of the sky. Comp. Virgil's "Aëris in campis latis," Aen. vi. 888.
60. Stanza 10, line 5 suck the liquid air, inhale the pure air. 'Liquid' (lit. flowing) is used figuratively and generally in the sense of pure and sweet: comp. Son. i. 5, "thy liquid notes."
61. Stanza 10, line 6 All amidst. For this adverbial use of all (here modifying the following prepositional phrase), compare Il Pens. 33, "all in a robe of darkest grain."
62. Stanza 10, line 7 Hesperus: see note, l. 393. Hesperus, the brother of Atlas, had three daughters--Aegle, Cynthia, and Hesperia. They were famed for their sweet song. In Milton's MS. Hesperus is written over Atlas: Spenser makes them daughters of Atlas, as does Jonson in Pleasure reconciled to Virtue.
63. Stanza 10, line 9 crispéd shades. 'Crisped,' like 'curled' (comp. "curl the grove," Arc. 46) is a common expression in the poetry of the time, and has the same meaning. The original form is the adjective 'crisp' (Lat. crispus = curled), from which comes the verb to crisp and the participle crisped. Compare "the crisped brooks ... ran nectar," Par. Lost, iv. 237, where the word is best rendered 'rippled'; also Tennyson's Claribel, 19, "the babbling runnel crispeth." In the present case the reference is to the foliage of the trees.
64. Stanza 10, line 10 spruce, gay. This word, now applied to persons with a touch of levity, was formerly used both of things and persons in the sense of gay or neat. Compare the present and earlier uses of the word jolly, on which Pattison says:--"This is an instance of the disadvantage under which poetry in a living language labours. No knowledge of the meaning which a word bore in 1631 can wholly banish the later and vulgar associations which may have gathered round it since. Apart from direct parody and burlesque, the tendency of living speech is gradually to degrade the noble; so that as time goes on the range of poetical expression grows from generation to generation more and more restricted." The origin of the word spruce is disputed: Skeat holds that it is a corruption of Pruce (old Fr. Pruce, mod. Fr. Prusse) = Prussia; we read in the 14th century of persons dressed after the fashion of Prussia or Spruce, and Prussia was called Sprussia by some English writers up to the beginning of the 17th century. See also Trench, Select Glossary.
65. Stanza 10, line 11 The Graces. The three Graces of classical mythology were Euphrosyne (the light-hearted one), Aglaia (the bright one), and Thalia (the blooming one). See L'Alleg. 12: "Euphrosyne ... Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, With two sister Graces more, To ivy-crownèd Bacchus bore." They were sometimes represented as daughters of Zeus, and as the goddesses who purified and enhanced all the innocent pleasures of life. rosy-bosomed Hours. The Hours (Horæ) of classical mythology were the goddesses of the Seasons, whose course was described as the dance of the Horæ. The Hora of Spring accompanied Persephone every year on her ascent from the lower world, and the expression "The chamber of the Horæ opens" is equivalent to "The Spring is coming." 'Rosy-bosomed'; the Gk. +rhodokolpos+: compare the epithets 'rosy-fingered' (applied by Homer to the dawn), 'rosy-armed,' etc.
66. Stanza 10, line 14 musky ... fling. Compare Par. Lost, viii. 515: "Fresh gales and gentle airs Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub." In this passage the verb fling is similarly used. 'Musky' = fragrant: comp. 'musk-rose,' l. 496.
67. Stanza 10, line 15 cedarn alleys, i.e. alleys of cedar trees. For 'alley,' comp. l. 311. For the form of 'cedarn,' see note on 'azurn,' l. 893. Tennyson uses the word 'cedarn' in Recoll. of Arab. Nights, 115.
68. Stanza 10, line 16 Nard and cassia; two aromatic plants. Cassia is a name sometimes applied to the wild cinnamon: nard is also called spike-nard; see allusion in the Bible, Mark, xiv. 3; Exod. xxx. 24, etc.
69. Stanza 10, line 17 Iris ... humid bow: see note, l. 83. The allusion is, of course, to the rainbow.
70. Stanza 10, line 18 blow, here used actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, Mask at Highgate, "For thee, Favonius, here shall blow New flowers."
71. Stanza 10, line 20 purfled = having an embroidered edge (O.F. pourfiler): the verb to purfle survives in the contracted form to purl, and is cognate with profile = a front line or edge. shew: here rhymes with dew; comp. l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present pronunciation of shew, though familiar, was not the only one recognised.
72. Stanza 10, line 21 drenches with Elysian dew, i.e. soaks with heavenly dew. The Homeric Elysium is described in Odyssey, iv.: see note, l. 977; it was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257. Drench is the causative of drink: here the nominative of the verb is 'Iris' and the object 'beds.'
73. Stanza 10, line 22 if your ears be true, i.e. if your ears be pure: the poet is about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross unpurgèd ear" (Arc. 73, and Com. l. 458). He alludes to that pure Love which "leads up to Heaven," Par. Lost, viii. 612.
74. Stanza 10, line 23 hyacinth. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of Lycidas, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved by Apollo.
75. Stanza 10, line 24 Adonis, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. Par. Lost, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc.
76. Stanza 10, line 25 waxing well of, i.e. recovering from. The A.S. weaxan = to grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, Rom. and Jul. i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe Shakespeare.
77. Stanza 10, line 27 Assyrian queen, i.e. Venus, whose worship came from the East, probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see Par. Lost, i. 438-452, where Adonis appears as Thammuz.
78. Stanza 10, line 28 far above ... advanced. These words are to be read together: 'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.'
79. Stanza 10, line 28 spangled sheen, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': spangle is a diminutive of spang = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.' In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the heavens as 'spangled': comp. Addison's well-known lines: "The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim." Comp. also Lyc. 170, "with new-spangled ore." 'Sheen' is here used as a noun, as in line 893; also in Hymn Nat. 145, "throned in celestial sheen": Epitaph on M. of W. 73, "clad in radiant sheen." The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse so fair and sheen," F. Q. ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear or spangled starlight sheen" (M. N. D. ii. l. 29) it is doubtful whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective sheeny (Death of Fair Infant, 48).
80. Stanza 10, line 29 Celestial Cupid. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the note to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to whom he is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in love with Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and fled from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by Venus; but after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported by Cupid, she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this story Psyche represents the human soul (Gk. +psychê+), which is disciplined and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the enjoyment of true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it is only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in his Apology for Smectymnuus he calls it that Love "whose charming cup is only virtue," and whose "first and chiefest office ... begins and ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her divine generation, Knowledge and Virtue." To this high and mystical love Milton again alludes in Epitaphium Damonis: "In other part, the expansive vault above, And there too, even there the god of love; With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze, Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls, Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls, Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high Sends every arrow to the lofty sky; Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn The power of Cupid, and enamoured burn." Cowper's translation.
81. Stanza 10, line 32 among: preposition governing 'gods.'
82. Stanza 10, line 33 make: subjunctive after 'till.' Its nominative is 'consent.'
83. Stanza 10, line 35 blissful, blest. Bliss is cognate with bless and blithe. Comp. "the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love," Lyc. 177. are to be born. There seems to be here a confusion of constructions between the subjunctive co-ordinate with make and the indicative dependent in meaning on "Jove hath sworn" in the following line.
84. Stanza 10, line 36 Youth and Joy. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," i.e. she is possible only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004.
85. Stanza 10, line 37 my task, i.e. the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an adverbial clause = Now that (or because) my task is smoothly done.
86. Stanza 10, line 38 The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom.
87. Stanza 10, line 39 green earth's end. The world as known to the ancients did not extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. Par. Lost, viii. 630: "But I can now no more; the parting sun Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles Hesperean sets, my signal to depart."
88. Stanza 10, line 40 bowed welkin: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky curves slowly towards the horizon." Welkin is, radically, "the region of clouds," A.S. wolcnu, clouds.
89. Stanza 10, line 42 corners of the moon, i.e. its horns. The crescent moon is said to be 'horned' (Lat. cornu, a horn). Comp. the lines in Macbeth, iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound."
90. Stanza 10, line 45 She can teach ye how to climb, etc. Compare Jonson's song to Virtue: "Though a stranger here on earth In heaven she hath her right of birth. There, there is Virtue's seat: Strive to keep her your own; 'Tis only she can make you great, Though place here make you known."
91. Stanza 10, line 46 sphery chime, i.e. the music of the spheres. "To climb higher than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence. See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,' as in "silver chime," Hymn Nat. 128: the word is cognate with cymbal.
92. Stanza 10, line 47 if Virtue feeble were, etc. A triumphant expression of that confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed in the last two lines of his Comus.