The Two Brothers

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

1. Stanza 1, line 1 Unmuffle, uncover yourselves. To muffle is to cover up, e.g. 'to muffle the throat,' 'a muffled sound,' etc. Muffle (subst.) is a diminutive of muff.
2. Stanza 1, line 2 wont'st, i.e. art wont. Wont'st is here apparently the 2nd person singular, present tense, of a verb to wont = to be accustomed; hence also the participle wonted (Il Pens. 37, "keep thy wonted state"). But the M.E. verb was wonen, to dwell or be accustomed, and its participle woned or wont. The fact that wont was a participle being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle formed, viz., wonted (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun wontedness. Milton, however, uses wont as a present only twice in his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a participial adj. with the verb to be (Il Pens. 123, "As she was wont"). benison, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat. benedictio).
3. Stanza 1, line 3 Stoop thy pale visage, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and Il Pens. 72, "Stooping through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see Il Pens. 13, "saintly visage"; Lyc. 62, "His gory visage down the stream was sent." amber: comp. L'Alleg. 61, "Robed in flames and amber light," and Tennyson: "What time the amber morn Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud."
4. Stanza 1, line 4 disinherit, drive out, dispossess. Comp. Two Gent. iii. 2. 87, "This or else nothing, will inherit (i.e. obtain possession of) her."
5. Stanza 1, line 6 Influence ... dammed up. The verb here shows that influence is employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. in and fluo): it was thus used in astrology to denote "an influent course of the planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on, inferior creatures"; comp. L'Alleg. 112, "whose bright eyes Rain influence"; Par. Lost, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various influence." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language, e.g. influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l. 360.
6. Stanza 1, line 7 taper; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)."
7. Stanza 1, line 8 though a rush candle, i.e. 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil.
8. Stanza 1, line 10 long levelled rule; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. Par. Lost, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... Levelled his evening rays." The instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a rule or ruler.
9. Stanza 1, line 11 star of Arcady Or Tyrian Cynosure; here put by synecdoche for 'lode-star.' More particularly, the star of Arcady signifies any of the stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, by which Greek sailors steered; and 'Tyrian Cynosure' signifies the stars comprising that part of the constellation of the Lesser Bear which, from its shape, was called Cynosura, the dog's tail (Greek +kynos oura+), and by which Phoenician or Tyrian sailors steered. See L'Alleg. 80, "The cynosure of neighbouring eyes," where the word is used as a common noun = point of attraction. Both constellations are connected in Greek mythology with the Arcadian nymph Callisto, who was turned by Zeus into the Great Bear while her son Arcas became the Lesser Bear. Milton follows the Roman poets in associating these stars with Arcadia on this account.
10. Stanza 1, line 14 barred, debarred or barred from.
11. Stanza 1, line 15 wattled cotes: enclosures made of hurdles, i.e. frames of plaited twigs. Cote, cot, and coat are varieties of the same word = a covering or enclosure.
12. Stanza 1, line 16 oaten stops: see Lyc. 33, "the oaten flute"; 88, "But now my oat proceeds"; 188, "the tender stops of various quills." The shepherd's pipe, being at first a row of oaten stalks, "the oaten pipe," "oat," etc., came to denote any instrument of this kind and even to signify "pastoral poetry." The 'stops' are the holes over which the player's fingers are placed, also called vent-holes or "ventages" (Ham. iii. 2. 372). See also note on 'azurn,' l. 893.
13. Stanza 1, line 17 whistle ... lodge, i.e. the sound of the shepherd calling his dog by whistling. Or it may be used in the same sense as in L'Alleg. 63, "the ploughman whistles o'er the furrowed land."
14. Stanza 1, line 18 Count ... dames: comp. L'Alleg. 52, "the cock ... Stoutly struts his dames before"; 114, "Ere the first cock his matin rings." Grammatically, 'count' (infinitive) forms with 'cock' the complex object of 'might hear.'
15. Stanza 1, line 20 innumerous, innumerable (Lat. innumerus). Comp. Par. Lost, vii. 455, "Innumerous living creatures"; ix. 1089.
16. Stanza 1, line 21 hapless, unfortunate. Many words, such as happy, lucky, fortunate, etc., which strictly refer to a person's hap or chance, whether good or bad, have become restricted to good hap: in order to give them an unfavourable meaning a negative prefix or suffix is necessary. With reference to the word fortune, Max Müller says: "We speak of good and evil fortune, so did the French, and so did the Romans. By itself fortuna was taken either in a good or a bad sense, though it generally meant good fortune. Whenever there could be any doubt, the Romans defined fortuna by such adjectives as bona, secunda, prospera, for good; mala or adversa for bad fortune ... Fortuna came to mean something like chance."
17. Stanza 1, line 22 her, herself. On the reflexive use of her, see note, l. 163.
18. Stanza 1, line 23 burs; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, e.g. the burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc.
19. Stanza 1, line 26 leans. As Milton frequently omits the nominative, we may supply she: otherwise leans would be intransitive and its nominative 'head': see note, l. 715. fraught, freighted, filled. Freight is itself a later form of fraught: in Sams. Agon., 1075, fraught is a noun (Ger. fracht, a load). See line 732.
20. Stanza 1, line 27 What, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) if (she be) in wild amazement?"
21. Stanza 1, line 29 savage hunger. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals.
22. Stanza 1, line 30 over-exquisite, i.e. too curious, over-inquisitive. Exquisite is here used in the sense of inquisitive; in modern English 'exquisite' has a passive sense only, while 'inquisitive' has an active sense (Lat. quaero, to seek): see note, l. 714. "The dialogue between the two brothers is an amicable contest between fact and philosophy. The younger draws his arguments from common apprehension, and the obvious appearance of things; the elder proceeds on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here the difference of their ages is properly made subservient to a contrast of character" (Warton).
23. Stanza 1, line 31 To cast the fashion, i.e. to prejudge the form. 'To cast' was common in the sense of to calculate or compute; see Shakespeare, ii. Henry IV. i. 1. 166, "You cast the event of war." Some think, however, that the word has here its still more restricted sense as used in astrology, e.g. "to cast a nativity"; others see in it a reference to the founder's art; and others to medical diagnosis.
24. Stanza 1, line 32 Grant they be so: a concessive clause = granted that the evils turn out to be what you imagined. The alternative is given in l. 364.
25. Stanza 1, line 33 What need, etc., i.e. why should a man anticipate his hour of sorrow. 'What' = for what (Lat. quid): comp. l. 752; also On Shakespeare, 6, "What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?" On the verb need Abbott, § 297, says: "It is often found with 'what,' where it is sometimes hard to say whether 'what' is an adverb and 'need' a verb, or 'what' an adjective and 'need' a noun. 'What need the bridge much broader than the flood?' M. Ado, i. 1. 318; either 'why need the bridge (be) broader?' or 'what need is there (that) the bridge (be) broader?'"
26. Stanza 1, line 34 Compare Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "rather bear those ills we have," etc.; and Pope's Essay on Man, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate," etc.
27. Stanza 1, line 37 to seek, at a loss. Compare Par. Lost, viii. 197: "Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek." Bacon, in Adv. of Learning, has: "Men bred in learning are perhaps to seek in points of convenience."
28. Stanza 1, line 38 unprincipled in virtue's book, i.e. ignorant of the elements of virtue. A principle (Lat. principium, beginning) is a fundamental truth; hence the current sense of 'unprincipled,' implying that the man who has no fixed rules of life is the one who will readily fall into evil. Comp. Sams. Agon. 760, "wisest and best men ... with goodness principled."
29. Stanza 1, line 39 bosoms, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is governed by 'in,' l. 367.
30. Stanza 1, line 40 As that, etc. This is an adverbial clause of consequence to 'unprincipled'; in modern English such a clause would be introduced by 'that,' and in Elizabethan English either by 'as' or 'that.' Here we have both connectives together. single: see note, l. 204. noise, sound.
31. Stanza 1, line 41 Not being in danger, i.e. she not being in danger: absolute construction. This parenthetical line is equivalent to a conditional clause--'if she be not in danger, the mere want of light and noise need not disquiet her.'
32. Stanza 1, line 42 constant, steadfast.
33. Stanza 1, line 43 misbecoming: see note on 'misused,' l. 47. plight, condition. Skeat derives this word from A.S. pliht, danger; others connect it with pledge. It is distinct from plight, l. 301.
34. Stanza 1, line 44 Virtue could see, etc. The best commentary on this line is in lines 381-5: comp. Spenser: "Virtue gives herself light through darkness for to wade," F. Q. i. 1. 12.
35. Stanza 1, line 46 flat sea: comp. Lyc. 98, "level brine": Lat. aequor, a flat surface, used of the sea.
36. Stanza 1, line 47 seeks to, applies herself to. This use of seek is common in the English Bible: see Deut. xii. 5, "unto his habitation shall ye seek"; Isaiah, viii. 19, xi. 10, xix. 3; i. Kings, x. 24.
37. Stanza 1, line 48 her best nurse, Contemplation. The wise man loves contemplation and solitude: comp. Il Penseroso, 51, where "the Cherub Contemplation" is the "first and chiefest" of Melancholy's companions. In Sidney's Arcadia, "Solitariness" is "the nurse of these contemplations."
38. Stanza 1, line 49 plumes. Some would read prunes, both words being used of a bird's smoothing or trimming its feathers--or (more strictly) picking out damaged feathers. See Skeat's Dictionary, and compare Pope's line, "Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings."
39. Stanza 1, line 50 various, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in L'Allegro the 'busy hum of men.'
40. Stanza 1, line 51 all to-ruffled. Milton wrote "all to ruffled," which may be interpreted in various ways: (1) all to-ruffled, (2) all too ruffled, (3) all-to ruffled. The first of these is given in the text as it is etymologically correct: to is an intensive prefix as in 'to-break' = to break in pieces; 'to-tear' = to tear asunder, etc.; while all (= quite) is simply an adverb modifying to-ruffled. But about 1500 A.D. this idiom was misunderstood, and the prefix to was detached from the verb and either read along with all (thus all-to = altogether), or confused with too (thus all-to = too too, decidedly too). It is doubtful in which sense Milton used the phrase; like Shakespeare, he may have disregarded its origin. See Morris, § 324; Abbott, §§ 28, 436.
41. Stanza 1, line 52 He that has light, etc. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 254: 'The mind is its own place,' etc.
42. Stanza 1, line 53 centre, i.e. centre of the earth: comp. Par. Lost i. 686, "Men also ... Ransacked the centre"; and Hymn Nat. 162, "The aged Earth ... Shall from the surface to the centre shake." Sometimes the word 'centre' was used of the Earth itself, the fixed centre of the whole universe according to the Ptolemaic system. The idea here conveyed, however, is not that of immovability (as in Par. Reg. iv. 534, "as a centre firm") but of utter darkness.
43. Stanza 1, line 56 his own dungeon: comp. Sams. Agon. 156, "Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) The dungeon of thyself."
44. Stanza 1, line 58 most affects: has the greatest liking for. It now generally denotes rather a feigned than a real liking: comp. pretend. Lines 386-392 may be compared with Il Pens. 167-174.
45. Stanza 1, line 65 Hesperian tree. An allusion to the tree on which grew the golden apples of Juno, which were guarded by the Hesperides and the sleepless dragon Ladon. Hence the reference to the 'dragon watch': comp. Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women, 255, "Those dragon eyes of anger'd Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night." See also ll. 981-983.
46. Stanza 1, line 67 unenchanted, superior to all the powers of enchantment, not to be enchanted. Similarly Milton has 'unreproved' for 'not reprovable,' 'unvalued' for 'invaluable,' etc.; and Shakespeare has 'unavoided' for 'inevitable,' 'imagined' for 'imaginable,' etc. Abbott (§ 375) says: The passive participle is often used to signify, not that which was and is, but that which was and therefore can be hereafter; in other words -ed is used for -able.
47. Stanza 1, line 68 Compare Chaucer, Doctor's Tale, 44, "She flowered in virginity, With all humility and abstinence."
48. Stanza 1, line 70 unsunned, hidden. Comp. Cym. ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as unsunned snow"; F. Q. ii. 7, "Mammon ... Sunning his treasure hoar."
49. Stanza 1, line 72 as bid me hope, etc. The construction is, 'as (you may) bid me (to) hope (that) Danger will wink on Opportunity and (that Danger will) let a single helpless maiden pass uninjured.'
50. Stanza 1, line 73 Danger will wink on, etc., i.e. danger will shut its eyes to an opportunity. To wink on or wink at is to connive, to refuse to see something: comp. Macbeth, i. 4. 52, "The eye wink at the hand"; Acts, xvii. 30. Warton notes a similar argument by Rosalind in As You Like It, i. 3. 113: "Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold."
51. Stanza 1, line 75 surrounding. Milton is said to be the first author of any note who uses this word in its current sense of 'encompassing,' which it has acquired through a supposed connection with round. Shakespeare does not use it. Its original sense is 'to overflow' (Lat. superundare).
52. Stanza 1, line 76 it recks me not, i.e. I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old verb reck (A.S. récan, to care). Comp. Lyc. 122, "What recks it them."
53. Stanza 1, line 77 dog them both, i.e. follow closely upon night and loneliness. Comp. All's Well, iii. 4. 15, "death and danger dogs the heels of worth."
54. Stanza 1, line 79 unownèd, i.e. 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a participle.
55. Stanza 1, line 81 infer, reason, argue. This use of the word is obsolete. See Shakespeare, iii. Hen. VI. ii. 2. 44, "Inferring arguments of mighty force"; K. John, iii. 1. 213, "Need must needs infer this principle": also Par. Lost, viii. 91, "great or bright infers not excellence."
56. Stanza 1, line 82 without all doubt, i.e. beyond all doubt: a Latinism = sine omni dubitatione.
57. Stanza 1, line 84 arbitrate the event, judge of the result. The meaning is 'Where the result depends equally upon circumstances to be hoped and to be dreaded I incline to hope.'
58. Stanza 1, line 86 squint suspicion. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates suspicion.
59. Stanza 1, line 93 if Heaven gave it, i.e. even although Heaven gave it.
60. Stanza 1, line 94 'Tis chastity. "The passage which begins here and ends at line 475 is a concentrated expression of the moral of the whole Masque, and an exposition also of a cardinal idea of Milton's philosophy" (Masson).
61. Stanza 1, line 95 clad in complete steel, i.e. completely armed; comp. Hamlet, i. 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable.
62. Stanza 1, line 96 quivered nymph. The chaste Diana of the Romans was armed with bow and quiver; and Shakespeare makes virginity "Diana's livery." So in Spenser, Belphoebe, the personification of Chastity, has "at her back a bow and quiver gay." 'Quivered' is the Latin pharetrata.
63. Stanza 1, line 97 trace, traverse, track. unharboured, affording no shelter. Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.
64. Stanza 1, line 98 Infámous, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult.
65. Stanza 1, line 99 sacred rays: comp. l. 782.
66. Stanza 1, line 100 bandite or mountaineer. 'Bandite' (in Shakespeare bandetto, and now bandit) is borrowed from the Italian bandito, outlawed or banned. 'Mountaineer,' here used in a bad sense. In modern English it has reverted to its original sense--a dweller in mountains. The dwellers in mountains are often fierce and readily become freebooters: hence the changes of meaning. See Temp. iii. 3. 44, "Who would believe that there were mountaineers Dew-lapp'd like bulls"; also Cym. iv. 2. 120, "Who called me traitor, mountaineer."
67. Stanza 1, line 102 very desolation. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced to Lat. verus = true: comp. l. 646.
68. Stanza 1, line 103 shagged ... shades. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38.
69. Stanza 1, line 104 unblenched, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded with 'unblanched,' is from blench, a causal of blink.
70. Stanza 1, line 105 Be it not: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.
71. Stanza 1, line 106 Some say, etc. Compare Hamlet, i. 1. 158: "Some say that, ever against that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad."
72. Stanza 1, line 107 In fog or fire, etc. Comp. Il Pens. 93, "those demons that are found In fire, air, flood, or underground": an allusion to the different orders and powers of demons as accepted in the Middle Ages. Burton, in his Anat. of Mel., quotes from a writer who thus enumerates the kinds of sublunary spirits--"fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean, besides fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc."
73. Stanza 1, line 108 meagre hag, lean witch. Hag is from A.S. haegtesse, a prophetess or witch. Comp. Par. Lost, ii. 662; M. W. of W. iv. 2. 188, "Come down, you witch, you hag." unlaid ghost, unpacified or wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see Temp. v. 1. 40; King Lear, iii. 4. 120, "This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew," etc.) until "the first cock his matin rings" (L'Alleg. 14). 'Curfew' (Fr. couvre-feu = fire-cover), the bell that was rung at eight or nine o'clock in the evening as a signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.
74. Stanza 1, line 110 swart faery of the mine. In Burton's Anat. of Mel. we read, "Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are commonly seen about mines of metals," etc. Warton quotes from an old writer: "Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the labourers in the pit." 'Swart' (also swarty, swarth, and swarthy) here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits were called the Svartalfar, or black elves. Comp. Lyc. 138, "the swart star," where 'swart' = swart making.
75. Stanza 1, line 112 Do ye believe. Ye is properly a second person plural, but (like you) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § 236.
76. Stanza 1, line 113 old schools of Greece. The brother now turns for his arguments from the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of Greece.
77. Stanza 1, line 114 to testify, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421.
78. Stanza 1, line 115 Dian. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was insensible to the bolts of Cupid, i.e. to the power of love. She was the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in Cynthia's Revels, v. 1, "Queen and huntress, chaste and fair," etc.
79. Stanza 1, line 116 silver-shafted queen. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which were frequently called shafts, and as the latter she bore shafts or rays of light. Shaft is etymologically 'a shaven rod.' In Chaucer, C. T. 1364, 'shaft' = arrow.
80. Stanza 1, line 117 brinded lioness. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "brinded cat," Macb. iv. 1. 1: brind is etymologically connected with brand.
81. Stanza 1, line 118 mountain-pard, i.e. panther or other spotted wild beast. Pard, originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-pard and camelo-pard.
82. Stanza 1, line 119 frivolous ... Cupid. See the speech of Oberon, M. N. D. ii. 1. 65. The epithet 'frivolous' applies to Cupid in his lower character as the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see note, l. 1004.
83. Stanza 1, line 121 snaky-headed Gorgon shield. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, frightful beings, whose heads were covered with hissing serpents, and who had wings, brazen claws, and huge teeth. Whoever looked at Medusa was turned into stone, but Perseus, by the aid of enchantment, slew her. Minerva (Athene) placed the monster's head in the centre of her shield, which confounded Cupid: see Par. Lost, ii. 610.
84. Stanza 1, line 123 freezed, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.'
85. Stanza 1, line 124 But, except: a preposition.
86. Stanza 1, line 125 dashed, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.
87. Stanza 1, line 126 blank awe: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank astonishment,' and see Par. Lost, ix. 890.
88. Stanza 1, line 128 so, i.e. chaste.
89. Stanza 1, line 129 liveried angels lackey her, i.e. ministering angels attend her. So, in L'Alleg. 62, "the clouds in thousand liveries dight"; a servant's livery being the distinctive dress delivered to him by his master. 'Lackey,' to wait upon, from 'lackey' (or lacquey), a footboy, who runs by the side of his master. The word is here used in a good sense, without implying servility (as in Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. 46, "lackeying the varying tide"). 'Her': the soul. Milton is fond of the feminine personification: see line 396.
90. Stanza 1, line 131 vision: a trisyllable.
91. Stanza 1, line 132 no gross ear. See notes, l. 112 and 997.
92. Stanza 1, line 133 oft converse, frequent communion. Oft is here used adjectively: this use is common in the English Bible, e.g. i. Tim. v. 23, "thine often infirmities."
93. Stanza 1, line 134 Begin to cast ... turns. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and vividness.
94. Stanza 1, line 135 temple of the mind, i.e. the body. This metaphor is common: see Shakespeare, Temp. i. 2. 57, "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple"; and the Bible, John, ii. 21, "He spake of the temple of his body."
95. Stanza 1, line 136 the soul's essence. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality.
96. Stanza 1, line 139 most, above all.
97. Stanza 1, line 141 soul grows clotted. This doctrine is expounded in Plato's Phaedo, in a conversation between Socrates and Cebes: Socrates (speaking of the pure soul). That soul, I say, herself invisible, departs to the invisible world--to the divine and immortal and rational: thither arriving, she is secure of bliss, and is released from the error and folly of men, their fears and wild passions and all other human ills, and for ever dwells, as they say of the initiated, in company with the gods. Is not this true, Cebes? Cebes. Yes; beyond a doubt. Soc. But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts--the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible and can be attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed? Ceb. That is impossible. Soc. She is held fast by the corporeal, which the continual association and constant care of the body have wrought into her nature. Ceb. Very true. Soc. And this corporeal element, my friend, is heavy and weighty and earthy, and is that element by which such a soul is depressed and dragged down again into the visible world, because she is afraid of the invisible and of the world below--prowling about tombs and sepulchres, in the neighbourhood of which, as they tell us, are seen certain ghostly apparitions of souls which have not departed pure, but are cloyed with sight and therefore visible. Ceb. That is very likely, Socrates. Soc. Yes, that is very likely, Cebes; and these must be the souls, not of the good, but of the evil, who are compelled to wander about such places in payment of the penalty of their former evil way of life; and they continue to wander until through the craving after the corporeal which never leaves them, they are imprisoned finally in another body. And they may be supposed to find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives. Further on in the same dialogue, Socrates says: Each pleasure and pain is a sort of nail which nails and rivets the soul to the body, until she …
98. Stanza 1, line 142 imbodies and imbrutes, i.e. becomes materialised and brutish. Imbody, ordinarily used as a transitive verb, is here intransitive. Imbrute (said to have been coined by Milton) is also intransitive; in Par. Lost, ix. 166, it is transitive. The use of the word may have been suggested by the Phaedo, where the souls of the wicked are said to "find their prisons in the same natures which they have had in their former lives," those of gluttons and drunkards passing into asses and animals of that sort.
99. Stanza 1, line 143 divine property. In his prose works Milton calls the soul 'that divine particle of God's breathing': comp. Horace, Sat. ii. 2. 79, "affigit humo divinae particulam aurae"; and Plato's Phaedo, "The soul resembles the divine, and the body the mortal."
100. Stanza 1, line 144 gloomy shadows damp: see note, l. 207.
101. Stanza 1, line 145 charnel-vaults, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. charnel, Lat. carnalis; caro, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474.
102. Stanza 1, line 147 As loth, etc. The construction is: 'As (being) loth to leave the body that it loved, and (as having) linked itself to a degenerate and degraded state.' it: by syntax this pronoun refers to 'shadows,' or (in thought) 'such shadow.' It seems best, however, to connect it with 'soul,' line 467.
103. Stanza 1, line 148 sensualty. The modern form of the word is sensuality.
104. Stanza 1, line 149 degenerate and degraded: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter because 'imbruted.'
105. Stanza 1, line 150 divine Philosophy, i.e. such philosophy as is to be found in "the divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it).
106. Stanza 1, line 151 crabbed, sour or bitter: comp. crab-apple. Crab (a shell-fish) and crab (a kind of apple) are radically connected, both conveying the idea of scratching or pinching (Skeat).
107. Stanza 1, line 152 Apollo's lute: Apollo being the god of song and music. Comp. Par. Reg. i. 478-480; L. L. L. iv. 3. 342, "as sweet and musical As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair."
108. Stanza 1, line 153 nectared sweets. Nectar (Gk. +nektar+, the drink of the gods) is repeatedly used by Milton to express the greatest sweetness: see l. 838; Par. Lost, iv. 333, "Nectarine fruits"; v. 306, 426.
109. Stanza 1, line 158 Methought: see note, l. 171. what should it be? This is a direct question about a past event, and means 'What was it likely to be?' "It seems to increase the emphasis of the interrogation, since a doubt about the past (time having been given for investigation) implies more perplexity than a doubt about the future" (Abbott, § 325). For certain, i.e. for certain truth, certainly.
110. Stanza 1, line 161 night-foundered; benighted, lost in the darkness. Radically, 'to founder' is to go to the bottom (Fr. fondrer; Lat. fundus, the bottom), hence applied to ships; it is also applied to horses sinking in a slough. The compound is Miltonic (see Par. Lost, i. 204), and is sometimes stigmatised as meaningless; on the contrary, it is very expressive, implying that the brothers are swallowed up in night and have lost their way. 'Founder' is here used in the secondary sense of 'to be lost' or 'to be in distress.'
111. Stanza 1, line 162 neighbour. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, i.e. a peasant dwelling near.
112. Stanza 1, line 165 Best draw: we had best draw our swords.
113. Stanza 1, line 168 Defence is a good cause, etc., i.e. 'in defending ourselves we are engaged in a good cause, and may Heaven be on our side.'
114. Stanza 2, line 1 That hallo. We are to understand that the Attendant Spirit has halloed just before entering; this is shown by the stage-direction given in the edition of Comus printed by Lawes in 1637: He hallos; the Guardian Dæmon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd.
115. Stanza 2, line 2 you fall, etc., i.e. otherwise you will fall on our swords.
116. Stanza 2, line 4 sure: see note, l. 246.
117. Stanza 2, line 5 Thyrsis, Like Lycidas, this name is common in pastoral poetry. In Milton's Epitaphium Damonis it stands for Milton himself; in Comus it belongs to Lawes, who now receives additional praise for his musical genius. In lines 86-88 the compliment is enforced by alliterative verses, and here by the aid of rhyme (495-512). Masson thinks that the poet, having spoken of the madrigals of Thyrsis, may have introduced this rhymed passage in order to prolong the feeling of Pastoralism by calling up the cadence of known English pastoral poems.
118. Stanza 2, line 6 huddling. This conveys the two ideas of hastening and crowding: comp. Horace, Ars Poetica, 19, "Et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros." madrigal: a pastoral or shepherd's song (Ital. mandra, a flock): such compositions, then in favour, had been made by Lawes and by Milton's father.
119. Stanza 2, line 7 sweetened ... dale; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music.
120. Stanza 2, line 8 swain: a word of common use in pastoral poetry. It denotes strictly a peasant or, more correctly, a young man: comp. the compounds boat-swain, cox-swain. See Arc. 26, "Stay, gentle swains," etc.
121. Stanza 2, line 10 pent, penned, participle of pen, to shut up (A.S. pennan, which is connected with pin, seen in pin-fold, l. 7). forsook: a form of the past tense used for the participle.
122. Stanza 2, line 12 and his next joy, i.e. 'and (thou), his next joy'--words addressed to the second brother.
123. Stanza 2, line 13 trivial toy, ordinary trifle. The phrase seems redundant, but 'trivial' may here be used in the strict sense of common or well-known. Compare Il Pens. 4, "fill the fixed mind with all your toys"; and Burton's Anat. of Mel., "complain of toys, and fear without a cause."
124. Stanza 2, line 14 stealth of, things stolen by.
125. Stanza 2, line 17 To this my errand, etc., i.e. in comparison with this errand of mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom common in Elizabethan English, e.g. "There is no woe to this correction," Two Gent. ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187.
126. Stanza 2, line 19 How chance. Chance is here a verb followed by a substantive clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in Shakespeare (Abbott, § 37), where it sometimes has the force of an adverb (= perchance): compare Par. Lost, ii. 492: "If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc.
127. Stanza 2, line 20 sadly, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. saed); hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some sad person of known judgment' (Bacon); Romeo and Jul. i. 1. 205, "Tell me in sadness, who is that you love"; Par. Lost, vi. 541, "settled in his face I see Sad resolution." See also Swinburne's Miscellanies (1886), page 170.
128. Stanza 2, line 21 our neglect, i.e. neglect on our part.
129. Stanza 2, line 22 Ay me! Comp. Lyc. 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French aymi = alas, for me! and has no connection with ay or aye = yes. In this line true rhymes with shew: comp. youth and shew'th, Sonnet on his having arrived at the age of twenty-three.
130. Stanza 2, line 23 Prithee. A familiar fusion of I pray thee, sometimes written 'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.
131. Stanza 2, line 25 ye: a dative. See note on l. 216.
132. Stanza 2, line 26 shallow. Comp. Son. i. 6, "shallow cuckoo's bill," xiia. 12; Arc. 41, "shallow-searching Fame."
133. Stanza 2, line 27 sage poets. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the chimera. Milton (Par. Lost, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as "taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. L'Alleg. 17; Il Pens. 117, "great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung."
134. Stanza 2, line 28 storied, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; Il Pens. 159, "storied windows"; Gray's Elegy, 41, "storied urn"; Tennyson's "storied walls." Story is an abbreviation of history.
135. Stanza 2, line 29 Chimeras, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in Par. Lost, ii. 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. chimerical = wild or fanciful. enchanted isles, e.g. those of Circe and Calypso, mentioned in the Odyssey.
136. Stanza 2, line 30 rifted rocks: rifted = riven. Orpheus, in search of Eurydice, entered the lower world through the rocky jaws of Taenarus, a cape in the south of Greece (see Virgil Georg. iv. 467, Taenarias fauces); here also Hercules emerged from Hell with the captive Cerberus.
137. Stanza 2, line 31 such there be. See note on l. 12 for this indicative use of be.
138. Stanza 2, line 32 navel, centre, inmost recess. Shakespeare (Cor. iii. l. 123) speaks of the 'navel of the state'; and in Greek Calypso's island was 'the navel of the sea,' while Apollo's temple at Delphi was 'the navel of the earth.'
139. Stanza 2, line 33 Immured, enclosed. Here used generally: radically it = shut up within walls (Lat. murus, a wall).
140. Stanza 2, line 35 witcheries, enchantments.
141. Stanza 2, line 38 murmurs. The incantations or spells of evil powers were sung or murmured over the doomed object; sometimes they were muttered (as here) over the enchanted food or drink prepared for the victim. Comp. l. 817 and Arc. 60, "With puissant words and murmurs made to bless."
142. Stanza 2, line 41 unmoulding reason's mintage charactered, i.e. defacing those signs of a rational soul that are stamped on the human face. The figure is taken from the process of melting down coins in order to restamp them. 'Charactered': here used in its primary sense (Gk. +charaktêr+, an engraven or stamped mark), as in the phrase 'printed characters.' The word is here accented on the second syllable; in modern English on the first.
143. Stanza 2, line 43 crofts that brow = crofts that overhang. Croft = a small field, generally adjoining a house. Brow = overhang: comp. L'Alleg. 8, "low-browed rocks."
144. Stanza 2, line 44 bottom glade: the glade below. The word bottom, however, is frequent in Shakespeare in the sense of 'valley'; hence 'bottom glade' might be interpreted 'glade in the valley.'
145. Stanza 2, line 45 monstrous rout; see note on the stage-direction after l. 92. Comp. 'the bottom of the monstrous world,' Lyc. 158. In Aen. vii. 15, we read that when Aeneas sailed past Circe's island he heard "the growling noise of lions in wrath, ... and shapes of huge wolves fiercely howling."
146. Stanza 2, line 46 stabled wolves, wolves in their dens. Stable (= a standing-place) is used by Milton in the general sense of abode, e.g. in Par. Lost, xi. 752, "sea-monsters whelped and stabled." Comp. "Stable for camels," Ezek. xxv. 5, and the Latin stabulum, Aen. vi. 179, stabula alta ferarum.
147. Stanza 2, line 47 Hecate: see l. 135.
148. Stanza 2, line 48 bowers: see note, l. 45.
149. Stanza 2, line 51 unweeting; unwitting, unknowing. This spelling is found in Spenser's Faerie Queene, both in the compounds and in the simple verb weet, a corruption of wit (A.S. witan, to know). Compare Par. Reg. i. 126, "unweeting, he fulfilled The purposed counsel." Sams. Agon. 1680; Chaucer, Doctor's Tale, "Virginius came to weet the judge's will."
150. Stanza 2, line 52 by then, i.e. by the time when. The demonstrative adverb thus implies a relative adverb: comp. the Greek, where the demonstrative is generally omitted, though in Homer occasionally the demonstrative alone is used. Another rendering is to make line 540 parenthetical.
151. Stanza 2, line 54 knot-grass. A grass with knotted or jointed stem: some, however, suppose marjoram to be intended here. dew-besprent, i.e. besprinkled with dew: comp. Lyc. 29. Be is an intensive prefix; sprent is connected with M.E. sprengen, to scatter, of which sprinkle is the frequentative form.
152. Stanza 2, line 55 sat me down: see note, l. 61.
153. Stanza 2, line 56 canopied, and interwove. Comp. M. N. D. ii. 2. 49, 'I know a bank,' etc. In sense 'canopied' refers to 'bank,' and 'interwove' to 'ivy.' There are two forms of the past participle of weave, viz. wove and woven: see Arc. 47.
154. Stanza 2, line 57 flaunting, showy, garish. In Lyc. 146, the poet first wrote 'garish columbine,' then 'well-attired woodbine.'
155. Stanza 2, line 59 meditate ... minstrelsy, i.e. to sing a pastoral song: comp. Lyc. 32. 66. To meditate the muse is a Virgilian phrase: see Ecl. i. and vi. The Lat. meditor has the meaning of 'to apply one's self to,' and does not mean merely to ponder.
156. Stanza 2, line 60 had, should have: comp. l. 394. ere a close, i.e. before he had finished his song (Masson). Close occurs in the technical sense of 'the final cadence of a piece of music.'
157. Stanza 2, line 61 wonted: see note, l. 332.
158. Stanza 2, line 62 barbarous: comp. Son. xii. 3, "a barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, etc."
159. Stanza 2, line 63 listened them. The omission of to after verbs of hearing is frequent in Shakespeare and others: comp. "To listen our purpose"; "List a brief tale"; "hearken the end"; etc. (see Abbott, § 199). 'Them': this refers to the sounds implied in 'dissonance.'
160. Stanza 2, line 64 unusual stop. This refers to what happened at l. 145, and the "soft and solemn-breathing sound" to l. 230.
161. Stanza 2, line 65 drowsy frighted, i.e. drowsy and frighted. The noise of Comus's rout is here supposed to have kept the horses of night awake and in a state of drowsy agitation until the sudden calm put an end to their uneasiness. In Milton's corrected MS. we read 'drowsy flighted,' where the two words are not co-ordinate epithets but must be regarded as expressing one idea = flying drowsily; to express this some insert a hyphen. Comp. 'dewy-feathered,' Il Pens. 146, and others of Milton's remarkable compound adjectives. The reading in the text is that of the printed editions of 1637, '45, and '73.
162. Stanza 2, line 66 Sleep (or Night) is represented as drawn by horses in a chariot with its curtains closely drawn. Comp. Macbeth, ii. l. 51, "curtained sleep."
163. Stanza 2, line 67 'The lady's song rose into the air so sweetly and imperceptibly that silence was taken unawares and so charmed that she would gladly have renounced her nature and existence for ever if her place could always be filled by such music.' Comp. Par. Lost, iv. 604, "She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleased"; also Jonson's Vision of Delight: "Yet let it like an odour rise To all the senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, Or music in their ear."
164. Stanza 2, line 70 took, taken. Comp. l. 256 for a similar use of take, and compare 'forsook,' line 499, for the form of the word.
165. Stanza 2, line 72 Still, always. This use of still is frequent in Elizabethan writers (Abbott, § 69). I was all ear. Warton notes this expressive idiom (still current) in Drummond's 'Sonnet to the Nightingale,' and in Tempest, iv. l. 59, "all eyes." All is an attribute of I.
166. Stanza 2, line 73 create a soul, etc., i.e. breathe life even into the dead: comp. L'Alleg. 144. Warton supposes that Milton may have seen a picture in an old edition of Quarles' Emblems, in which "a soul in the figure of an infant is represented within the ribs of a skeleton, as in its prison." Rom. vii. 24, "Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
167. Stanza 2, line 77 harrowed, distracted, torn as by a harrow. This is probably the meaning, but there is a verb 'harrow' corrupted from 'harry,' to subdue; hence some read "harried with grief and fear."
168. Stanza 2, line 79 How sweet ... how near. This sentence contains two exclamations: this is a Greek construction. In English the idiom is "How sweet ... and how near," etc. We may, however, render the line thus: "How sweet..., how near the deadly snare is!"
169. Stanza 2, line 80 lawns. 'Lawn' is always used by Milton to denote an open stretch of grassy ground, whereas in modern usage it is applied generally to a smooth piece of grass-grown land in front of a house. The origin of the word is disputed, but it seems radically to denote 'a clear space'; it is said to be cognate with llan used as a prefix in the names of certain Welsh towns, e.g. Llandaff, Llangollen. In Chaucer it takes the form launde.
170. Stanza 2, line 81 often trod by day, which I have often trod by day, and therefore know well.
171. Stanza 2, line 82 mine ear: see note, l. 171.
172. Stanza 2, line 83 wizard. Here used in contempt, like many other words with the suffix -ard, or -art, as braggart, sluggard, etc. Milton occasionally, however, uses the word merely in the sense of magician or magical, without implying contempt: see Lyc. 55, "Deva spreads her wizard stream."
173. Stanza 2, line 84 certain signs: see l. 644.
174. Stanza 2, line 86 aidless: an obsolete word. See Trench's English Past and Present for a list of about 150 words in -less, all now obsolete: comp. l. 92, note. wished: wished for. Comp. l. 950 for a similar transitive use of the verb.
175. Stanza 2, line 87 such two: two persons of such and such description.
176. Stanza 2, line 89 durst not stay. Durst is the old past tense of dare, and is used as an auxiliary: the form dared is much more modern, and may be used as an independent verb.
177. Stanza 2, line 90 sprung: see note, l. 256.
178. Stanza 2, line 91 till I had found. The language is extremely condensed here, the meaning being, 'I began my flight, and continued to run till I had found you'; the pluperfect tense is used because the speaker is looking back upon his meeting with the brothers after completing a long narration of the circumstances that led up to it. If, however, 'had found' be regarded as a subjunctive, the meaning is, 'I began my flight, and determined to continue it until I had found (i.e. should have found) you.' Comp. Abbott § 361.
179. Stanza 2, line 94 triple knot, a three-fold alliance of Night, Shades, and Hell.
180. Stanza 2, line 97 "This confidence of the elder brother in favour of the final efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry" (Warton). And Todd adds: "Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains."
181. Stanza 2, line 99 safely, confidently. period, sentence.
182. Stanza 2, line 100 for me, i.e. for my part, so far as I am concerned: see note, l. 602.
183. Stanza 2, line 102 Which erring men call Chance. 'Erring' belongs to the predicate; "which men erroneously call Chance." Comp. Pope, Essay on Man: "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see."
184. Stanza 2, line 102 this I hold firm. 'This' is explained by the next line: "this belief, namely, that Virtue may be assailed, etc., I hold firmly."
185. Stanza 2, line 104 enthralled, enslaved. Comp. l. 1022.
186. Stanza 2, line 105 which ... harm, which the Evil Power intended to be most harmful.
187. Stanza 2, line 109 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."
188. Stanza 2, line 112 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; also Wint. 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."
189. Stanza 2, line 116 for, as regards. let ... girt, though he be surrounded.
190. Stanza 2, line 117 grisly legions. 'Grisly,' radically the same as grue-some = horrible, causing terror. In Par. Lost, iv. 821, Satan is called "the grisly king." 'Legions' is here a trisyllable.
191. Stanza 2, line 118 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's Locusts (1627): "All hell run out and sooty flags display."
192. Stanza 2, line 119 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. hyd{=o}r, water); the name was first given to the nine-headed monster slain by Hercules. See Son. xv. 7, "new rebellions raise Their Hydra heads"; 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.
193. Stanza 2, line 121 return his purchase back, i.e. 'give up his spoil,' or (as in the MS.) '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, "They will steal anything, and call it purchase"; i. Hen. IV. ii. l. 101, "thou shalt have share in our purchase."
194. Stanza 2, line 124 venturous, ready to venture. See note, l. 79.
195. Stanza 2, line 125 yet, nevertheless. The meaning is: 'Though thy courage is useless, yet I love it.' emprise: an obsolete form (common in Spenser) of enterprise. It is literally that which is undertaken; hence 'readiness to undertake'; hence 'daring.'
196. Stanza 2, line 126 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 you bested."
197. Stanza 2, line 127 Far other arms, i.e. very different arms. 'Other' has here its radical sense of 'different,' and can therefore be modified by an adverb.
198. Stanza 2, line 129 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."
199. Stanza 2, line 134 As to make this relation, i.e. as to be able to tell this.
200. Stanza 2, line 138 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 poem Epitaphium Damonis, in which he alludes to his friend's medical and botanical skill: "There thou shalt cull me simples, and shalt teach Thy friend the name and healing powers of each." (Cowper's translation.)
201. Stanza 2, line 139 Of small regard to see to: in colloquial English, 'not much to look at.' This is an old idiom: comp. Greek +kalos idein+: see English Bible, "goodly to look to," i. Sam. xvi. 12; Ezek. xxiii. 15; Jer. xlvii. 3.
202. Stanza 2, line 140 virtuous, of healing power: see note, l. 165. Comp. Il Pens. 113, "the virtuous ring and glass."
203. Stanza 2, line 142 beg me sing: see note, l. 304.
204. Stanza 2, line 144 ecstasy: see note, l. 261. The Greek ekstasis = standing out of one's self.
205. Stanza 2, line 145 scrip, wallet.
206. Stanza 2, line 146 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.'
207. Stanza 2, line 149 me, i.e. for me: the ethic dative.
208. Stanza 2, line 152 bore. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the plant or the root.
209. Stanza 2, line 153 unknown and like esteemed: known and esteemed to a like extent, i.e. in both cases not at all. Like here corresponds to the prefix un in unknown. On the description of the plant, see Introduction, reference to Ascham's Scholemaster.
210. Stanza 2, line 154 clouted shoon, patched shoes. The expression is found in Shakespeare, ii. Hen. VI. iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon"; Cym. iv. 2. 214, "put My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in Mayhew and Skeat's M. E. Dictionary. There are instances, however, of clout in 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. Shoon is an old plural (O.E. scon); comp. hosen, eyen (= eyes), dohtren (= daughters), foen (= foes), etc.
211. Stanza 2, line 155 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. Moly the 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 M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells of Circe: see also Tennyson's Lotos-Eaters, "beds of amaranth and moly."
212. Stanza 2, line 157 He called it Hæmony. He is the shepherd lad of line 619. Haemony: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the adjective Haemonian is 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, "Haemonia radices 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.
213. Stanza 2, line 158 sovran use: see note, 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'; see Cor. ii. 1. 125, "The most sovereign prescription in Galen."
214. Stanza 2, line 159 mildew blast: comp. Arc. 48-53, Ham. iii. 4. 64, "Here is your husband; Like a mildew'd ear Blasting his 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.
215. Stanza 2, line 161 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.
216. Stanza 2, line 162 Till now that. Here that = when, the clause introduced by it being explanatory of now (see Abbott, § 284).
217. Stanza 2, line 165 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: see Macbeth, iv. 2. 34; Two Gent. ii. 2. 68; ii. Hen. VI. i. 3. 91; etc.
218. Stanza 2, line 168 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. +nekros+, 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."
219. Stanza 2, line 169 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, 'and if he be there.'
220. Stanza 2, line 170 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.
221. Stanza 2, line 171 luscious, delicious. The word is a corruption of lustious from O.E. lust = pleasure: see note, l. 49.
222. Stanza 2, line 172 But seize his wand. The force of this injunction is shown by lines 815-819.
223. Stanza 2, line 173 menace high, violent threat. High is 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.
224. Stanza 2, line 174 Sons of Vulcan. In the Aeneid (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.
225. Stanza 2, line 176 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).
226. Stanza 2, line 177 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 of go about still lingers in the phrase 'to go about one's business'; comp. 'to set about' anything.
227. Stanza 4, line 1 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).
228. Stanza 4, line 2 your nerves ... alabaster. Comp. Tempest, i. 2. 471-484. Milton has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled alablaster (in this passage and Par. 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 us marble with too much conceiving."
229. Stanza 4, line 3 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. +daphnê+): comp, the story of Syrinx and Pan, referred to in Arc. 106.
230. Stanza 4, line 4 fled. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, Son. xviii. 14, "fly the Babylonian woe"; Sams. Agon. 1541, "fly The sight of this so horrid spectacle."
231. Stanza 4, line 6 freedom of my mind, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (Task, v. 733).
232. Stanza 4, line 7 corporal rind: the body, called in Il Pens. 92, "this fleshly nook."
233. Stanza 4, line 11 here be all. See note, l. 12.
234. Stanza 4, line 12 fancy can beget: comp. Il Pens. 6.
235. Stanza 4, line 15 cordial julep, heart-reviving drink. Cordial, lit. hearty (Lat. cordi, stem of cor, the heart): julep, Persian gul{=a}b, rose-water.
236. Stanza 4, line 16 his = its: see note, l. 96.
237. Stanza 4, line 17 syrups: Arab, shar{=a}b, a drink, wine.
238. Stanza 4, line 18 that Nepenthes, etc. The allusion is explained by the following lines of the Odyssey: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, 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 (+nê+, privative; +penthos+, 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.
239. Stanza 4, line 20 Is of such power, etc.: see note, 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.'
240. Stanza 4, line 22 Why ... to yourself. Comp. Shakespeare, Son. i. 8, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel."
241. Stanza 4, line 23 '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.
242. Stanza 4, line 28 unexempt condition, i.e. a condition binding on all and at all times, a law of human nature.
243. Stanza 4, line 29 mortal frailty, i.e. weak mortals: abstract for concrete.
244. Stanza 4, line 31 That. The antecedent of this relative is you, l. 682. See note, l. 2.
245. Stanza 4, line 32 timely, seasonable. So 'timeless' = unseasonable (Scott's Marmion, iii. 223, "gambol rude and timeless joke"): comp. Son. ii. 8, "timely-happy spirits"; and l. 970.
246. Stanza 4, line 38 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.
247. Stanza 4, line 39 aspects: accent on final syllable.
248. Stanza 4, line 40 oughly-headed: so spelt in Milton's MS. = ugly-headed. Ugly is radically connected with awe.
249. Stanza 4, line 43 with visored falsehood and base forgery. A vizor (also spelt visor, visard, vizard) is a mask, "a false face." The allusion is to Comus's disguise: see l. 166. With in this line, as in lines 672 and 700, denotes by means of.
250. Stanza 4, line 45 liquorish baits: see note on baited, l. 162. 'Liquorish,' by catachresis for lickerish = tempting to the appetite, causing one to lick one's lips. The student should carefully distinguish the three words lickerish (as above), liquorish (which is really meaningless) and liquorice (= licorice = Lat. glycyrrhiza), a plant with a sweet root.
251. Stanza 4, line 47 treasonous; an obsolete word. The current form 'treasonable' has usually a more restricted sense: Milton and Shakespeare use treasonous in the more general sense of traitorous (a cognate word). In this line 'offer' = the thing offered.
252. Stanza 4, line 48 good men ... good things. This noble sentiment Milton has borrowed from Euripides, Medea, 618, +Kakou gar andros dôr' onêsin ouk echei+ "the gifts of the bad man are without profit." (Newton).
253. Stanza 4, line 49 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).
254. Stanza 4, line 52 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 both budge and fur be 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 of sect, 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.'
255. Stanza 4, line 53 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 himself +ho kyôn+ (the dog).
256. Stanza 4, line 54 the: here used generically.
257. Stanza 4, line 56 unwithdrawing. In this participle the termination -ing seems almost equivalent to that of the past participle: comp. "all-obeying breath" (= obeyed by all), A. and C. iii. 13, 77. Nature's gifts are not only full but continuous.
258. Stanza 4, line 59 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 of exquisite, note l. 359.
259. Stanza 4, line 60 set, i.e. she set. The pronominal subject is omitted.
260. Stanza 4, line 62 To deck: infinitive of purpose.
261. Stanza 4, line 63 in her own loins, i.e. in the bowels of the earth.
262. Stanza 4, line 64 hutched = stored up, enclosed. Hutch is an old word for chest or coffer, chiefly used now in the compound 'rabbit-hutch.'
263. Stanza 4, line 65 To store her children with, i.e. wherewith to store her children. Or we may read, 'in order to store her children with (them).' 'Store' = provide.
264. Stanza 4, line 66 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.
265. Stanza 4, line 67 frieze, coarse woollen cloth.
266. Stanza 4, line 68 All-giver. Comp. Gk. +pandôra+, an epithet applied to the earth as the giver of all.
267. Stanza 4, line 70 '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': see Hebrews xii. 8, "If ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
268. Stanza 4, line 73 Who. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun her, 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.).
269. Stanza 4, line 74 strangled, suffocated.
270. Stanza 4, line 75 winged air darked with plumes, i.e. the air being darkened by the flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has dark as a verb. Both clauses in this line are absolute.
271. Stanza 4, line 76 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.
272. Stanza 4, line 77 o'erfraught: see note, l. 355.
273. Stanza 4, line 78 emblaze, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference to the sense of emblazon, which is from M.E. blazen, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.
274. Stanza 4, line 79 bestud with stars. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with their star-light,' centre being the 'centre of the earth.'
275. Stanza 4, line 80 inured, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. Inure is from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. oeuvre, work).
276. Stanza 4, line 82 coy: shy or reserved. cozened: cheated, beguiled. The origin of this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims kindred or cousinship with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.
277. Stanza 4, line 84 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 distilled Than 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).
278. Stanza 4, line 88 let slip time, i.e. allow time to slip: see note, l. 304. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 178. "Let us not slip the occasion."
279. Stanza 4, line 89 It = beauty. languished, languid or languishing: comp. Par. Lost, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; Epitaph on M. of W. 33. The suffix -ed is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now have -ing (Abbott, § 374).
280. Stanza 4, line 92 most, as many as possible.
281. Stanza 4, line 93 homely ... home. There is here a play upon words as in Two Gent. i. 1. 2: "Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits." Homely is derived from home.
282. Stanza 4, line 94 Women with coarse complexions and dull cheeks are good enough for household occupations.
283. Stanza 4, line 95 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. Hence grain came to denote certain colours, e.g. Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so used by Milton: see Il Pens. 33, "a robe of darkest grain"; Par. Lost, v. 285, "sky-tinctured grain"; xi. 242, "A military vest of purple ... Livelier than ... the grain Of 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's Lect. on Eng. Lang. p. 55).
284. Stanza 4, line 96 sampler, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet of exemplar. tease the huswife's wool. To tease is to comb or card: comp. the Lat. vexare. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into hussy. Hussif (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word.
285. Stanza 4, line 97 What need a vermeil-tinctured lip? See note, l. 362, on 'what need.' Vermeil: a French spelling of vermilion. The name is from Lat. vermis, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used to be got); and as vermis is cognate with Sansk. krimi, a worm, it follows that vermilion, crimson, and carmine are cognate.
286. Stanza 4, line 98 tresses. Homer (Odyssey, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed Dawn," +euplokamos Êôs+.
287. Stanza 4, line 100 advised. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108.
288. Stanza 4, line 101 Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus.
289. Stanza 4, line 102 but that: were it not that.
290. Stanza 4, line 103 as mine eyes: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. 170.
291. Stanza 4, line 104 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 service pranking herself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 10, "Most goddess-like prank'd up"; Par. Lost, ii. 226, "Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb."
292. Stanza 4, line 105 I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows them to pass unchallenged. bolt = to sift or separate, as the boulting-mill separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word (also spelt boult) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (F. Q. ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (Cor. iii. 1. 322, Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned snow that's bolted By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The spelling bolt has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start out. See Index to Globe Shakespeare.
293. Stanza 4, line 108 she would her children, etc., i.e. she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; Par. Lost, i. 497-503.
294. Stanza 4, line 109 cateress, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' Cateress is feminine: the masculine is caterer, where the final -er of the agent is unnecessarily repeated.
295. Stanza 4, line 110 Means ... to the good: intends ... for the good.
296. Stanza 4, line 112 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's Transcripts and Studies.
297. Stanza 4, line 113 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."
298. Stanza 4, line 114 beseeming, suitable. The original sense of seem is 'to be fitting,' as in the words beseem and seemly.
299. Stanza 4, line 115 lewdly-pampered; one of Milton's most expressive compounds = wickedly gluttonous. Lewd has 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.
300. Stanza 4, line 119 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.' Etymologically aught = a whit, naught = no whit.
301. Stanza 4, line 121 His praise due paid, i.e. would be duly paid. On due, see note, l. 12. gluttony: abstract for concrete.
302. Stanza 4, line 124 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.
303. Stanza 4, line 125 enow. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English: it is also spelt anow, and in Chaucer ynowe, and is the plural of enough. It still occurs as a provincialism in England. On lines 780-799 Masson 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 lines 420-475)."
304. Stanza 4, line 127 sun-clad power of chastity. With 'sun-clad' compare 'the sacred rays of chastity,' l. 425. Similarly in the Faerie Queene, iii. 6, Spenser says of Belphoebe, who represents Chastity, "And Phoebus with fair beams did her adorn."
305. Stanza 4, line 128 yet to what end? A rhetorical question, = it would be to no purpose.
306. Stanza 4, line 129 nor ... nor. These correlatives are often used in poetry for neither ... nor (Shakespeare often omitting the former altogether), and are equally correct. Nor is only a contraction of neither, and the first may as well be contracted as the second.
307. Stanza 4, line 130 sublime notion and high mystery. In the Apology for Smectymnuus Milton 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."
308. Stanza 4, line 135 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 occasion dear," Lyc. 6; "dear groans," 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 my dearest foe. gay rhetoric: here so named in contempt, as being the instrument of sophistry.
309. Stanza 4, line 136 fence, argumentation, Fence is an abbreviation of defence: comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), Much Ado, v. 1. 75.
310. Stanza 4, line 139 rapt spirits. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been carried out of itself (Lat. raptus, seized): comp. Il Pens. 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath rapt him from us," Par. Lost, ii. 40.
311. Stanza 4, line 142 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."
312. Stanza 4, line 145 She fables not: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative.
313. Stanza 4, line 146 set off: comp. Lyc. 80, "set off to the world."
314. Stanza 4, line 147 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.
315. Stanza 4, line 149 Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus, etc.; in allusion to the Titanomachia or 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 in speaks as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as in both cases equivalent to denounces.
316. Stanza 4, line 151 Come, no more! Comus now addresses the lady.
317. Stanza 4, line 153 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).
318. Stanza 4, line 154 'tis but the lees, etc. Lees and settlings are 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's Anat. 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"; Gk. +melancholia+, black bile. See Sams. Agon. 600, "humours black That mingle with thy fancy"; and Nash's Terrors 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."
319. Stanza 4, line 156 straight, immediately. The adverb straight is now chiefly used of direction; to indicate time straightway (= in a straight way) is more usual: comp. L'Alleg. 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures."
320. Stanza 6, line 1 scape, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see Par. Lost, x. 5, "what can scape the eye of God?"; Par. Reg. ii. 189, "then lay'st thy scapes on names adored."
321. Stanza 6, line 3 without his rod reversed. This use of the participle is a Latinism: see note, 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.'
322. Stanza 6, line 4 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,' see note, l. 526.
323. Stanza 6, line 7 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's Transcripts and Studies.
324. Stanza 6, line 8 In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from the antecedent: see note, l. 2.
325. Stanza 6, line 9 Meliboeus. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's Eclogue i. Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given in the Faerie 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.
326. Stanza 6, line 10 soothest, truest. The A.S. sóth meant true; hence also 'a true thing' = truth. It survives in soothe (lit. to affirm to be true), soothsay (see l. 874), and forsooth (= for a truth).
327. Stanza 6, line 11 from hence. Hence represents an A.S. word heonan, -an being 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: "which we from hence descry."
328. Stanza 6, line 12 with moist curb sways: comp. l. 18. Sabrina was a numen fluminis or river-deity.
329. Stanza 6, line 13 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 to Sabrina or Severn."--History of Britain (1670).
330. Stanza 6, line 14 Whilom, of old. An obsolete word, lit. 'at time'; A.S. hwílum, instr. or dat. plur. of hwil, time.
331. Stanza 6, line 17 step-dame. For the actual relationship, see note, l. 826. The prefix step (A.S. steóp-) means 'orphaned,' and applies properly 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 form dam.
332. Stanza 6, line 19 his = its: see note, l. 96.
333. Stanza 6, line 21 pearled wrists, wrists adorned with pearls. An appropriate epithet, as pearls were said to exist in the waters of the Severn.
334. Stanza 6, line 22 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's Neptune's Triumph, last song: "Old Nereus, with his fifty girls, From aged Indus laden home with pearls."
335. Stanza 6, line 23 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: he reared me." 'Lank,' lit. slender; hence weak. The adjective lanky is in common use = tall and thin.
336. Stanza 6, line 24 imbathe, to bathe in: the force of the preposition being reduplicated, as in Lat. incidere in.
337. Stanza 6, line 25 nectared lavers, etc., baths sweetened with nectar and scented with asphodel flowers. On 'nectar,' see note, l. 479. asphodel; the same, both name and thing, as 'daffodil' (see Lyc. 150, where it takes the form 'daffadillies'): Gk. +asphodelos+, M.E. affodille. The initial d in daffodil has not been satisfactorily explained: see l. 851.
338. Stanza 6, line 26 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."
339. Stanza 6, line 27 ambrosial oils, oils of heavenly fragrance: see note, l. 16, and compare Virgil's use of ambrosia in Georg. iv. 415, liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem.
340. Stanza 6, line 28 quick immortal change: comp. l. 10.
341. Stanza 6, line 29 Made Goddess, etc. This participial construction is frequent in Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.
342. Stanza 6, line 31 twilight meadows: comp. "twilight groves," Il Pens. 133; "twilight ranks," Arc. 99; Hymn Nat. 188.
343. Stanza 6, line 32 Helping all urchin blasts, remedying or preventing the blighting influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used generally for what in Arcades, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common 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 with urchin-shows"; Titus And. ii. 3. 101; Macbeth, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in Arcades. Helping: comp. the phrases, "I cannot help it," i.e. prevent it; "it cannot be helped," i.e. remedied, etc.
344. Stanza 6, line 33 shrewd. Here used in its radical sense = shrew-ed, malicious, like a shrew. Comp. M. N. D. ii. 1, "That shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb shrew = to curse; the current verb is beshrew.
345. Stanza 6, line 34 vialed, contained in phials.
346. Stanza 6, line 37 garland wreaths. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862.
347. Stanza 6, line 39 old swain, i.e. Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson).
348. Stanza 6, line 40 clasping charm: see l. 613, 660.
349. Stanza 6, line 41 warbled song: comp. Arc. 87, "touch the warbled string"; Son. xx. 12, "Warble immortal notes."
350. Stanza 6, line 44 This will I try, i.e. to invoke her rightly in song.
351. Stanza 6, line 45 adjuring, charging by something sacred and venerable. The adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.