The Measure

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

1. Stanza 1, line 1 different, i.e. different from the voluptuous footing of Comus and his crew.
2. Stanza 1, line 2 footing: comp. Lyc. 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow."
3. Stanza 1, line 3 shrouds, coverts, places of hiding. The word etymologically denotes 'something cut off,' being allied to 'shred'; hence a garment; and finally (as in Milton) any covering or means of covering. Many of Latimer's sermons are described as having been "preached in The Shrouds," a covered place near St. Paul's Cathedral. The modern use of the word is restricted: comp. l. 316. brakes, bushes. Shakespeare has "hawthorn-brake," M. N. D. iii. l. 3, and the word seems to be connected with bracken.
4. Stanza 1, line 4 Some virgin sure, sc. 'it is.'
5. Stanza 1, line 6 charms ... wily trains; i.e. spells ... cunning allurements. Charm is the Lat. carmen, a song, also used in the sense of 'magic verses'; wily = full of wile (etymologically the same as guile). Train here denotes an artifice or snare as in 'venereal trains' (Sams. Agon. 533): "Oh, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note" (Com. of Errors, iii. 2. 45). See Index, Globe Shakespeare. Some would take 'wily trains' as = trains of wiles.
6. Stanza 1, line 7 ere long: ere has here the force of a preposition; in A.S. it was an adverb as well = soon, but now it is used only as a conjunction or a preposition.
7. Stanza 1, line 9 Thus I hurl, etc. "Conceive that at this moment of the performance the actor who personates Comus flings into the air, or makes a gesture as if flinging into the air, some powder, which, by a stage-device, is kindled so as to produce a flash of blue light. In the original draft among the Cambridge MSS. the phrase is powdered spells; but Milton, by a judicious change, concealing the mechanism of the stage-trick, substituted dazzling" (Masson).
8. Stanza 1, line 10 dazzling. This implies both brightness and illusion. spells. A spell is properly a magical form of words (A.S. spel, a saying): here it refers to the whole enchantment employed. spongy air: so called because it holds in suspension the magic powder.
9. Stanza 1, line 11 Of power to cheat ... and (to) give, etc. These lines are attributive to 'spells.' The preposition 'of' is thus used to denote a characteristic; thus 'of power' = powerful; comp. l. 677. blear illusion; deception, that which deceives by blurring the vision. Shakespeare has 'bleared thine eye' = dimmed thy vision, deceived (Tam. Shrew, v. 1. 120). Comp. "This may stand for a pretty superficial argument, to blear our eyes, and lull us asleep in security" (Sir W. Raleigh). Blur is another form of blear.
10. Stanza 1, line 12 presentments, appearances. This word is to be distinguished from presentiment. A presentiment is a "fore-feeling" (Lat. praesentire): while a presentment is something presented (Lat. praesens, being before). Shakespeare, Ham. iii. 4. 54, has 'presentment' in the sense of picture. quaint habits, unfamiliar dress. Quaint is from Lat. cognitus, so that its primary sense is 'known' or 'remarkable.' In French it became coint, which was treated as if from Lat. comptus, neat; hence the word is frequent in the sense of neat, exact, or delicate. Its modern sense is 'unusual' or 'odd.'
11. Stanza 1, line 14 suspicious flight: flight due to suspicion of danger.
12. Stanza 1, line 16 I, under fair pretence, etc.: 'Under the mask of friendly intentions and with the plausible language of wheedling courtesy, I insinuate myself into the unsuspecting mind and ensnare it.'
13. Stanza 1, line 17 glozing, flattering, wheedling. Compare Par. Lost, ix. 549, "So glozed the temper, and his proem tuned: Into the heart of Eve his words made way." Gloze is from the old word glose, a gloss or explanation (Gr. glossa, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with gloss = brightness.
14. Stanza 1, line 18 Baited, rendered attractive. Radically bait is the causative of bite; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. Sams. Ag. 1066, "The bait of honied words."
15. Stanza 1, line 19 wind me, etc. The verbs wind (i.e. coil) and hug suggest the cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart or mind is easily overcome: 'man' is here used generically. Burton, in Anat. of Mel., says: "The devil, being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself into human bodies." Me is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic dative.
16. Stanza 1, line 21 virtue, i.e. power or influence (Lat. virtus). This radical sense is still found in the phrase 'by virtue of' = by the power of. The adjective virtuous is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 it has its older meaning.
17. Stanza 1, line 22 The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. In the edition of 1673 the reading was: "I shall appear some harmless villager, And hearken, if I may, her business here. But here she comes, I fairly step aside." But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after may, and to change here into hear. In Masson's text, accordingly, he reads: "And hearken, if I may her business hear."
18. Stanza 1, line 23 keeps up, etc., i.e. keeps occupied with his country affairs even up to a late hour. Gear: its original sense is 'preparation' (A.S. gearu, ready); hence 'business' or 'property.' Comp. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 6, "That to Sir Calidore was easy gear," i.e. an easy matter, fairly, softly. Fair and softly were two words which went together, signifying gently (Warton).
19. Stanza 2, line 1 mine ear ... My best guide. Observe the juxtaposition of mine and my in these lines. Mine is frequent before a vowel, especially when the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare 'mine' is almost always found before "eye," "ear," etc., where no emphasis is intended (Abbott, § 237).
20. Stanza 2, line 2 Methought, i.e. it seemed to me. In the verb 'methinks' me is the dative, and thinks is an impersonal verb (A.S. thincan, to appear), quite distinct from the causal verb 'I think,' which is from A.S. thencan, to make to appear.
21. Stanza 2, line 4 jocund, merry. Comp. L'Allegro, 94, "the jocund rebecks sound." gamesome, lively. This word, like many other adjectives in -some, is now less common than it was in Elizabethan English: many such adjectives are obsolete, e.g. laboursome, joysome, quietsome, etc. (see Trench's English, Past and Present, v.).
22. Stanza 2, line 5 unlettered hinds, ignorant rustics (A.S. hina, a domestic).
23. Stanza 2, line 6 granges, granaries, barns (Lat. granum, grain). The word is now applied to a farm-house with its outhouses.
24. Stanza 2, line 7 Pan, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see Arc. 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."
25. Stanza 2, line 8 thank the gods amiss. Amiss stands for M.E. on misse = in error. "Perhaps there is a touch of Puritan rigour in this. The gods should be thanked in solemn acts of devotion, and not by merry-making" (Keightley). See Introduction.
26. Stanza 2, line 9 swilled insolence, etc., i.e. the drunken rudeness of those carousing at this late hour. Swill: to swill is to drink greedily, hence to drink like a pig. wassailers; from 'wassail' [A.S. waes hael; from wes, be thou, and hál, whole (modern English hale)], a form of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of L'Allegro, 100. In Scott's Ivanhoe, the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "Waes hale, Sir Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink hale, Holy Clerk."
27. Stanza 2, line 11 inform ... feet. Comp. Sams. Agon. 335: "hither hath informed your younger feet." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well illustrated in Spenser's F. Q. vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when they went astray, He could enforme, and then reduce aright."
28. Stanza 2, line 15 spreading favour. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.
29. Stanza 2, line 18 kind hospitable woods: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. As in this line (after such) has the force of a relative pronoun.
30. Stanza 2, line 19 grey-hooded Even. Comp. "sandals grey," Lyc. 187; "civil-suited," Il Pens. 122; both applied to morning.
31. Stanza 2, line 20 a sad votarist, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. votum): the current form is votary, applied in a general sense to one devoted to an object, e.g. a votary of science. In the present case, the votarist is a palmer, i.e. a pilgrim who carried a palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a palmer poor in homely russet clad." In Par. Reg. xiv. 426, Morning is a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On weed, see note, l. 16.
32. Stanza 2, line 21 hindmost wheels: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some rich man's chariot" (Masson).
33. Stanza 2, line 23 labour ... thoughts, the burden of my thoughts.
34. Stanza 2, line 24 engaged, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that in Hamlet, iii. 3. 69, "Art more engaged" (= bound or entangled). To engage is to bind by a gage or pledge.
35. Stanza 2, line 26 stole, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is frequent in Elizabethan English. Else, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious darkness must have stolen my brothers, otherwise why should night hide the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is therefore to some extent tautological.
36. Stanza 2, line 28 dark lantern. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a dark lanthorn, which turns its bright side only to him that bears it."
37. Stanza 2, line 30 everlasting oil. Comp. F. Q. i. 1. 57: "By this the eternal lamps, wherewith high Jove Doth light the lower world, were half yspent:" also Macbeth, ii. 1. 5, "There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out." There is here an irregularity of syntax. "That Nature hung in heaven" is a relative clause co-ordinate in sense with the next clause; but by a change of thought the phrase "and filled their lamps" is treated as a principal clause, and a new object is introduced: comp. l. 6.
38. Stanza 2, line 34 rife, prevalent. perfect, distinct; see note, l. 73.
39. Stanza 2, line 35 single darkness, darkness only. Single is from the same base as simple; comp. l. 369.
40. Stanza 2, line 36 What might this be? This is a direct question about a past event, and has the same meaning as "what should it be?" in line 482: see note there. A thousand fantasies, etc. On this, passage Lowell says: "That wonderful passage in Comus of the airy tongues, perhaps the most imaginative in suggestion he ever wrote, was conjured out of a dry sentence in Purchas's abstract of Marco Polo. Such examples help us to understand the poet." Reference may also be made to the Anat. of Mel.: "Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, ... and tyrannizeth over our fantasy more than all other affections, especially in the dark"; also to the song prefixed to the same work, "My phantasie presents a thousand ugly shapes," etc. On the power of imagination or phantasy, Shakespeare says: "As imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name."-- M. N. D. v. 1. 14. Compare also Ben Jonson's Vision of Delight: "Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, And spread thy purple wings; Now all thy figures are allow'd, And various shapes of things: Create of airy forms a stream ... And though it be a waking dream," etc.
41. Stanza 2, line 38 Of calling shapes, etc. In Heywood's Hierarchy of Angels there is a reference to travellers seeing strange shapes beckoning to them. Such words as 'shapes,' 'shadows,' 'airy tongues,' etc., illustrate Milton's power to create an indefinite, yet expressive picture. Comp. Aen. iv. 460. beckoning shadows dire. A characteristic arrangement of words in Milton: comp. lines 470, 945.
42. Stanza 2, line 39 syllable, pronounce distinctly.
43. Stanza 2, line 41 may startle well, may well startle.
44. Stanza 2, line 43 siding champion, Conscience. To side is to take a side, and hence to assist: comp. Cor. iv. 2. 2: "The nobles who have sided in his behalf." 'Conscience' (here a trisyllable) is used in its current sense: in Son. xxii. 10 it means consciousness. Comp. Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 379: "A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet Conscience."
45. Stanza 2, line 44 pure-eyed Faith. Comp. Lyc. 81, "those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove"; also the Scriptural words, "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." The maiden, whose safeguard is her purity, calls on Faith, Hope, and Chastity, each being characterised by an epithet denoting purity of thought and act, viz. 'pure-eyed,' 'white-handed,' and 'unblemished.' The placing of Chastity instead of Charity in the trio is significant: see i. Cor. xiii.
46. Stanza 2, line 45 hovering angel. Hope hovers over the maiden to protect her. The word 'hover' is found frequently in the sense of 'shelter.' girt, surrounded. golden wings. In Il Pens. 52, Contemplation "soars on golden wing."
47. Stanza 2, line 47 see ye visibly, i.e. you are not mere shapes, but living presences. Ye: here the object of the verb. "This confusion between ye and you did not exist in old English; ye was always used as a nominative, and you as a dative or accusative. In the English Bible the distinction is very carefully observed, but in the dramatists of the Elizabethan period there is a very loose use of the two forms" (Morris). It is so in Milton, who has ye as nominative, accusative, and dative; comp. lines 513, 967, 1020; also Arc. 40, 81, 101. It may be noted that ye can be pronounced more rapidly than you, and is therefore frequent when an unaccented syllable is required.
48. Stanza 2, line 48 the Supreme Good. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' or punishment.
49. Stanza 2, line 50 glistering guardian, i.e. one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' of l. 16. Glister, glisten, glitter, and glint are cognate words.
50. Stanza 2, line 52 Was I deceived? There is a break in the construction at the end of line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of an unaccusing conscience.
51. Stanza 2, line 53 her = its. In Latin nubes, a cloud, is feminine.
52. Stanza 2, line 54 does ... turn ... and casts. Comp. Il Pens. 46, 'doth diet' and 'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due probably to change of thought.
53. Stanza 2, line 56 tufted grove. Comp. L'Alleg. 78: "bosomed high in tufted trees."
54. Stanza 2, line 57 hallo. Also hallow (as in Milton's editions), halloo, halloa, and holloa.
55. Stanza 2, line 58 make to be heard. Make = cause.
56. Stanza 2, line 59 new-enlivened spirits, i.e. my spirits that have been newly enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36.
57. Stanza 2, line 60 they, i.e. the brothers.