51. charmed cup, i.e. liquor that has been charmed or rendered magical. Charms are incantations or magic verses (Lat. carmina): comp. lines 526 and 817. Grammatically, 'cup' is the object of 'tasted.'

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

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

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

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

"Much of the father's face, More of the mother's grace."

58. Comus: see note, l. 46. The Greek word komos denoted a revel or merry-making; afterwards it came to mean the personification of riotous mirth, the god of Revel. Hence also the word comedy. In classical mythology the individuality of Comus is not well defined: this enabled Milton more readily to endow him with entirely new characteristics.

59. frolic: an instance of the original use of the word as an adjective; comp. L'Alleg. 18, "frolic wind"; Tennyson's Ulysses, "a frolic welcome." It is now chiefly used as a noun or a verb, and a new adjective, frolicsome, has taken its place; from this, again, comes the noun frolicsomeness. Frolic is from the Dutch, and cognate with German froehlich, so that lic in 'frolic' corresponds to ly in such words as cleanly, godly, etc. of: this use of the preposition may be compared with the Latin genitive in such phrases as aeger animi = sick of soul; of = 'because of' or 'in respect of.'

60. Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, i.e. roving through Gaul and Spain. 'Rove' here governs an accusative: comp. Lyc. 173, "walked the waves"; Par. Lost, i. 521, "roamed the utmost Isles."

61. betakes him. The pronoun has here a reflective force: in Elizabethan English, and still more often in Early English, this use of the simple pronouns is common (see Abbott, Sec. 223). Compare l. 163. ominous; literally = full of omens or portents: comp. 'monstrous' = full of monsters (Lyc. 158); also l. 79. 'Ominous' has now acquired the sense of 'ill-omened'; compare the acquired sense of 'hapless,' 'unfortunate,' etc.

65. orient, bright. The Lat. oriens = rising; hence (from being applied to the sun) = eastern (l. 30); and hence generally 'bright' or 'shining': comp. Par. Lost, i. 546, "With orient colours waving."

66. drouth of Phoebus, i.e. thirst caused by the heat of the sun. Phoebus is Apollo, the Sun-god. Compare l. 928, where 'drouth' = want of rain; the more usual spelling is drought. which: see note, l. 2. 'Which' is here object of 'taste,' and refers to 'liquor.'

67. fond, foolish (its primary sense). Fonned was the participle of an old verb fonnen, to be foolish. The word is now used to express great liking or affection: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost. Chaucer has fonne, a fool: comp. Il Pens. 6, "fancies fond"; Lyc. 56, "I fondly dream"; Sams. Agon. 1682, "So fond are mortal men."

68. Soon as, etc., i.e. as soon as the magical draught produces its effect. In line 66 as is temporal. potion. Radically, potion = a drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous draught. Poison is the same word through the French.

69. Express resemblance of the gods. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a god!" See also Par. Lost, iii. 44, "human face divine."

71. ounce. This is the Felis uncia, allied to the panther and the cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian yuz, panther.

72. All other parts, etc. In the Odyssey (see note on l. 52) the bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see Stage direction, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some attributive adjunct—generally a participle ('remaining')—to serve the purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In Old English the dative was used.

73. perfect, complete (Lat. perfectus, done thoroughly).

74. Not once perceive, etc. This was not the case with the followers of Ulysses: see note, l. 52.

76. friends and native home forgot. Circe's cup has here the effect ascribed to the lotus in Odyssey ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men, ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In Tennyson's Lotos-Eaters there is no forgetfulness of friends and home: "Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave." Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (Rep. viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and the so-called virtues but signs of rusticity." Compare also Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 86, "One above the rest in speciall, That had an hog been late, ... did him miscall, That had from hoggish form him brought to natural."

77. sensual sty: see note on l. 52. To those who, "with low-thoughted care," are "unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives," the world becomes little better than a sensual sty. This line is adverbial to forget.

78. favoured: compare Lat. gratus = favoured (adj.).

79. adventurous, full of risks. The current sense of 'adventurous,' applied only to persons, is "enterprising." See l. 61, 609. glade: strictly, an open space in a wood, and hence applied (as here) to the wood itself. It is cognate with glow and glitter, and its fundamental sense is 'a passage for light' (Skeat).

80. glancing star, a shooting star. Comp. Par. Lost, iv. 556:

"Swift as a shooting star In autumn thwarts the night."

The rhythm of the line and the prevalence of sibilants suit the sense.

81. convoy: comp. Par. Lost, vi. 752, "convoyed By four cherubic shapes." It is another form of convey (Lat. con = together, via = a way).

83. sky-robes: the "ambrosial weeds" of line 16. Iris' woof, material dyed in rainbow colours. The goddess Iris was a personification of the rainbow: comp. l. 992 and Par. Lost, xi. 244, "Iris had dipped the woof." Etymologically, woof is connected with web and weave: it is short for on-wef = on-web, i.e. the cross threads laid on the warp of a loom.

84. weeds: see note, l. 16.

86. That to the service, etc. The part of the Spirit was acted by Lawes, first in "sky-robes," then in shepherd dress. In the dedication of Comus by Lawes to Lord Brackley (anonymous edition of 1637), he alludes to the favours that had been shown him by the Bridgewater family. In the above lines Milton compliments Lawes and enables Lawes to compliment the Earl (see Introduction).

86. smooth-dittied: sweetly-worded. 'Ditty' (Lat. dictatum) strictly denotes the words of a song as distinct from the musical accompaniment; it is now applied to any little piece intended to be sung: comp. Lyc. 32. For a similar panegyric on Lawes' musical genius compare Son. xiii. The musical alliteration in lines 86-88 should be noted.

87. knows to still, etc.: comp. Lyc. 10, "he knew Himself to sing."

88. nor of less faith, etc.; i.e. he is not less faithful than he is skilful in music; and from the nature of his occupation he is most likely to be at hand should any emergency arise.

92. viewless, invisible: comp. The Passion, 50, "viewless wing"; Par. Lost, iii. 518. Masson calls this a peculiarly Shakespearian word: see M. for M. iii. 1. 124, "To be imprisoned in the viewless winds." The word is obsolete, but poets use great liberty in the formation of adjectives in -less: comp. Shelley's Sensitive Plant, 'windless clouds.' See note, l. 574. charming-rod: see note, l. 52: also l. 653. rout, a disorderly crowd. The word is also used in the sense of 'defeat,' and is cognate with route, rote, and rut. All come from Lat. ruptus, broken: a 'rout' is the breaking up of a crowd, or a crowd broken up; a 'route' is a way broken through a forest; 'rote' is a beaten track; and a 'rut' is a track left by a wheel. See Lyc. 61, "by the rout that made the hideous roar."

93. star ... fold, the evening star, Hesperus, an appellation of the planet Venus: comp. Lyc. 30. As the morning star (called by Shakespeare the 'unfolding star'), it is called Phosphorus or Lucifer, the light-bringer. Hence Tennyson's allusion:

"Bright Phosphor, fresher for the night,... Sweet Hesper-Phosphor, double name."—

In Memoriam, cxxi.

Lines 93-144 are in rhymed couplets, and consist for the most part of eight syllables each. The prevailing accentuation is iambic.

94. top of heaven, etc., i.e. is far above the horizon. So in Lyc. 31, it is said to slope "toward heaven's descent," i.e. to sink towards the horizon. Comp. Virgil, Aen. ii. 250, "Round rolls the sky, and on comes Night from the ocean."

95. gilded car: Apollo, as the god of the Sun, rode in a golden chariot. Comp. Chaucer, Test. of Creseide, 208, "Phoebus' golden cart"; and "Phoebus' wain," line 190.

96. his glowing axle doth allay. In the Hymn of the Nativity Milton alludes to the "burning axle-tree" of the sun: comp. Aen. iv. 482, "Atlas Axem umero torquet." There is here an allusion to the opinion of the ancients that the setting of the sun in the Atlantic Ocean was accompanied with a noise, as of the sea hissing (Todd). 'Allay' would thus denote 'quench' or 'cool.' His, in this line, = its. Its occurs only three times in Milton's poems, Od. Nat. 106; Par. Lost, i. 254; Par. Lost, iv. 813: the word is found also in Lawes' dedication of Comus. The word does not occur in English at all until the end of the sixteenth century, the possessive case of the neuter pronoun it and of the masculine he being his. This gave rise to confusion when the old gender system decayed, and the form its gradually came into use, until, by the end of the seventeenth century, it was in general use. Milton, however, scarcely recognised it, its place in his involved syntax being taken by the relative pronouns and other connectives, or by his, her, thereof, etc.

97. steep Atlantic stream. To the ancients the Ocean was the great stream that encompassed the earth: Iliad, xiv., "the deep-flowing Okeanos (bathyrroos)." With this use of 'steep' compare the phrase 'the high seas.'

98. slope sun, sun sunk beneath the horizon, so that the only rays visible shoot up into the sky. Slope = sloped; also used by Milton as an adverb = aslope (Par. Lost, iv. 591), and as a verb (Lyc. 31).

99. dusky. Milton first wrote 'northern.'

100. Pacing toward the other goal, etc. Comp. Psalm xix. 5: "The sun as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."

102. The spirit of lines 102-144 may be contrasted with that of L'Allegro, 25-40. Both pieces are calls upon Mirth and Pleasure, and both are therefore suitably expressed in the same tripping measure and with many similarities of language. But the pleasures of L'Allegro begin with the sun-rise and yet are "unreproved"; those of Comus and his crew begin with the darkness and are "unreproved" only if "these dun shades will ne'er report" them. The "light fantastic toe" of the one is not the "tipsy dance" of the other; and the laughter and liberty that betoken the absence of "wrinkled Care" have nothing in common with the "midnight shout and revelry" that can be enjoyed only when Rigour, Advice, strict Age, and sour Severity have "gone to bed." The "quips and cranks" of L'Allegro have given way to the magic rites of Comus, and the wreathed smiles and dimples that adorn the face of innocent Mirth are ill replaced by the wine-dropping "rosy twine" of revelry.

104. jollity: has here its modern sense of boisterous mirth. In Milton occasionally the adjective 'jolly' (Fr. joli, pretty) has its primary sense of pleasing or festive.

105. Braid your locks with rosy twine; 'entwine your hair with wreaths of roses.'

106. dropping odours: comp. l. 862-3.

108. Advice ... scrupulous head. 'Advice,' now used chiefly to signify counsel given by another, was formerly used also of self-counsel or deliberation. See Chaucer, Prologue, 786, "granted him without more advice"; and comp. Shakespeare, M. of V. iv. 2. 6, "Bassanio upon more advice, Hath sent you here this ring"; also Par. Lost, ii. 376, "Advise, if this be worth Attempting," where 'advise' = consider. See also l. 755, note. Scrupulous = full of scruples, conscientious.

110. saws, sayings, maxims. Saw, say, and saga (a Norwegian legend) are cognate.

111. of purer fire, i.e. having a higher or diviner nature. (Or, as there is really no question of degree, we may render the phrase as = divine.) Compare the Platonic doctrine that each element had living creatures belonging to it, those of fire being the gods; similarly the Stoics held that whatever consisted of pure fire was divine, e.g. the stars: hence the additional significance of line 112.

112. the starry quire: an allusion to the music of the spheres; see lines 3, 1021. Pythagoras supposed that the planets emitted sounds proportional to their distances from the earth and formed a celestial concert too melodious to affect the "gross unpurged ear" of mankind: comp. l. 458 and Arc. 63-73. Shakespeare (M. of V. v. 1. 61) alludes to the music of the spheres:

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins," etc.

Quire is a form of choir (Lat. chorus, a band of singers); in Greek tragedy the chorus was supposed to represent the sentiments of the audience. Quire (of paper) is a totally different word, probably derived from Lat. quatuor, four.

113. nightly watchful spheres. Milton elsewhere alludes to the stars keeping watch: "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright," Hymn Nat. 21. 'Nightly,' used as an adjective in the sense of 'nocturnal': comp. Il Pens. 84, "To bless the doors from nightly harm"; Arc. 48, "nightly ill"; and Wordsworth's line: "The nightly hunter lifting up his eyes." Its ordinary sense is "night by night."

114. Lead in swift round. Comp. Arc. 71: "And the low world in measured motion draw, After the heavenly tune."

115. sounds, straits: A.S. sund, a strait of the sea, so called because it could be swum across. See Skeat, Etym. Dict. s.v.

116. to the moon, i.e. as affected by the moon. For similar uses of 'to,' comp. Lyc. 33, "tempered to the oaten flute"; Lyc. 44, "fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays." morrice. The waters quiver in the moonlight as if dancing. The morrice = a morris or Moorish dance, brought into Spain by the Moors, and thence introduced into England by John of Gaunt. We read also of a "morris-pike"—a weapon used by the Moors in Spain.

117. shelves, flat ledges of rock.

118. pert, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of perk, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat points out that perk and pert were both used as verbs; e.g. "perked up in a glistering grief," Henry VIII. ii. 3. 21: "how it (a child) speaks, and looks, and perts up the head," Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 1. A similar change of k into t is seen in E. mate from M.E. make. dapper, quick (Du. dapper, Ger. tapfer, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of 'neat.'

119. dimple. Dimple is a diminutive of dip, and cognate with dingle and dapple.

120. daisies trim: comp. L'Alleg. 75, "Meadows trim, with daisies pied"; Il Pens. 50, "trim gardens."

121. wakes, night-watches (A.S. niht-wacu, a night wake). The adjective wakeful (A.S. wacol) is the exact cognate of the Latin vigil. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening merry-making. prove, test, judge of (Lat. probare). This is its sense in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase—"the exception proves the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the rule.

124. Venus now wakes, etc. Spenser, Brit. Ida, ii. 3, has "Night is Love's holyday." In this line wakens is used transitively, its object being 'Love.'

125. rights. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage requires rites (Lat. ritus, a custom): see l. 535.

126. daylight ... sin. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in Par. Lost, i. 500, "When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial."

127. dun shades: evidently suggested by Fairfax's Tasso, ix. 62, "The horrid darkness, and the shadows dun." 'Dun' is A.S. dunn, dark.

129. Cotytto, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water.

131. called, invoked. dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness. The Styx (= 'the abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. Par. Lost, i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict sense, but in Par. Lost, i. 673, "in his womb was hid metallic ore," it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. uterus, Aen. ii. 258, vii. 499. dragon: Shakespeare refers to the dragons or 'dragon car' of night, Cym. ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you dragons of the night"; Tro. and Cress. v. 8. 17, "The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also Il Pens. 59, "Cynthia checks her dragon yoke."

132. spets, a form of spits (as spettle for spittle).

133. one blot, i.e. a universal blot: comp. Macbeth, ii. 2. 63. Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature."

134. Stay, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is 'to support,' as in the substantive stay and its plural stays. ebon, black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb. eben, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness.

135. Hecat', i.e. Hecate (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs.

136. utmost end, full completion. Compare L'Alleg. 109, "the corn That ten day-labourers could not end," where 'end' = 'complete.'

137. dues: see note, l. 12.

138. blabbing eastern scout, i.e. the tale-telling spy that comes from the East, viz. Morning.

139. nice; hard to please, fastidious: "a finely chosen epithet, expressing at once curious and squeamish" (Hurd). It is used by Comus in contempt: comp. ii. Henry IV. iv. 1, "Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch"; and see the index to the Globe Shakespeare. the Indian steep. In his Elegia Tertia Milton represents the sun as the "light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (i.e. in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," Par. Lost, i. 781, and Tennyson's In Memoriam, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over Indian seas."

140. cabined loop-hole: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, i.e. the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps," said of the morning (P. Fletcher's Eclogues), as if the first rays of the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally 'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small.

141. tell-tale Sun. Compare Spenser, Brit. Ida, ii. 3,

"The thick-locked boughs shut out the tell-tale sun, For Venus hated his all-blabbing light."

Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (R. of L. 806). In Odyssey, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. descry, etc., i.e. make known our hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = describe: both words are from Lat. describere, to write fully. In Milton and Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.'

142. solemnity, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. sollus, complete, and annus, a year; 'solemn' = solennis = sollennis. Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, i.e. serious or important.

143. knit hands, etc. Comp. Masque of Hymen:

"Now, now begin to set Your spirits in active heat; And, since your hands are met, Instruct your nimble feet, In motions swift and meet, The happy ground to beat."

144. light fantastic round: comp. L'Alleg. 34, "Come, and trip it, as you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained. So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. Fancy is a form of fantasy (Greek phantasia).

At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in octosyllabic couplets.

145. different, i.e. different from the voluptuous footing of Comus and his crew.

146. footing: comp. Lyc. 103, "Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow."

147. 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.

148. Some virgin sure, sc. 'it is.'

150. 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.

151. 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.

153. 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).

154. 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.

155. 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.

156. 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.'

158. suspicious flight: flight due to suspicion of danger.

160. 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.'

161. 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.

162. 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."

163. 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.

165. 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.

166. 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."

167. 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).

170. 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, Sec. 237).

171. 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.

173. 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.).

174. unlettered hinds, ignorant rustics (A.S. hina, a domestic).

175. granges, granaries, barns (Lat. granum, grain). The word is now applied to a farm-house with its outhouses.

176. Pan, the god of everything connected with pastoral life: see Arc. 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."

177. 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.

178. 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 hal, 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."

180. 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."

184. spreading favour. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.

187. 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.

188. grey-hooded Even. Comp. "sandals grey," Lyc. 187; "civil-suited," Il Pens. 122; both applied to morning.

189. 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.

190. 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).

192. labour ... thoughts, the burden of my thoughts.

193. 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.

195. 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.

197. 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."

198. 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.

203. rife, prevalent. perfect, distinct; see note, l. 73.

204. single darkness, darkness only. Single is from the same base as simple; comp. l. 369.

205. 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.

207. 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.

208. syllable, pronounce distinctly.

210. may startle well, may well startle.

212. 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."

213. 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.

214. 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."

216. 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.

217. 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.

219. glistering guardian, i.e. one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' of l. 16. Glister, glisten, glitter, and glint are cognate words.

221. 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.

222. her = its. In Latin nubes, a cloud, is feminine.

223. 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.

225. tufted grove. Comp. L'Alleg. 78: "bosomed high in tufted trees."

226. hallo. Also hallow (as in Milton's editions), halloo, halloa, and holloa.

227. make to be heard. Make = cause.

228. new-enlivened spirits, i.e. my spirits that have been newly enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36.

229. they, i.e. the brothers.

230. Echo. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, i. 1.

The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers.

231. thy airy shell; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of Cynthia's seat," Hymn Nat. 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is cell. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. concha, because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the form of a shell.

232. Meander's margent green. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. Lyc. 58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost brother Caunus (called by Ovid Maeandrius juvenis). [Since the above was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and Latin writers—one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" (Athenaeum, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' Marge and margin are forms of the same word.

233. the violet-embroidered vale. The notion that flowers broider or ornament the ground is common in poetry: comp. Par. Lost, iv. 700: "Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay Broidered the ground." In Lyc. 148, the flowers themselves wear 'embroidery.' The nightingale is made to haunt a violet-embroidered vale because these flowers are associated with love (see Jonson's Masque of Hymen) and with innocence (see Hamlet, iv. 5. 158: "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died"). Prof. Hales, however, thinks that some particular vale is here alluded to, and argues, with much acumen, that the poet referred to the woodlands close by Athens to the north-west, through which the Cephissus flowed, and where stood the birthplace of Sophocles, who sings of his native Colonus as frequented by nightingales. The same critic regards the epithet 'violet-embroidered' as a translation of the Greek iostephanos (= crowned with violets), frequently applied by Aristophanes to Athens, of which Colonus was a suburb. Macaulay also refers to Athens as "the violet-crowned city." It is, at least, very probable that Milton might here associate the nightingale with Colonus, as he does in Par. Reg. iv. 245: see the following note.

234. love-lorn nightingale, the nightingale whose loved ones are lost: comp. Virgil, Georg. iv. 511: "As the nightingale wailing in the poplar shade plains for her lost young, ... while she weeps the night through, and sitting on a bough, reproduces her piteous melody, and fills the country round with the plaints of her sorrow." Lorn and lost are cognate words, the former being common in the compound forlorn: see note, l. 39. Milton makes frequent allusion to the nightingale: in Il Penseroso it is 'Philomel'; in Par. Reg. iv. 245, it is 'the Attic bird'; and in Par. Lost viii. 518, it is 'the amorous bird of night.' He calls it the Attic bird in allusion to the story of Philomela, the daughter of Pandion, King of Athens. Near the Academy was Colonus, which Sophocles has celebrated as the haunt of nightingales (Browne). Philomela was changed, at her own prayer, into a nightingale that she might escape the vengeance of her brother-in-law Tereus. The epithet 'love-lorn,' however, seems to point to the legend of A{=e}don (Greek aedon, a nightingale), who, having killed her own son by mistake, was changed into a nightingale, whose mournful song was represented by the Greek poets as the lament of the mother for her child.

235. her sad song mourneth, i.e. sings her plaintive melody. 'Sad song' forms a kind of cognate accusative.

237. likest thy Narcissus. Narcissus, who failed to return the love of Echo, was punished by being made to fall in love with his own image reflected in a fountain: this he could never approach, and he accordingly pined away and was changed into the flower which bears his name. See the dialogue between Mercury and Echo in Cynthia's Revels, i. 1. Grammatically, likest is an adjective qualified adverbially by "(to) thy Narcissus": comp. Il Pens. 9, "likest hovering dreams."

238. have hid. This is not a grammatical inaccuracy (as Warton thinks), but the subjunctive mood.

240. Tell me but where, i.e. 'Only tell me where.'

241. Sweet Queen of Parley, etc. 'Parley is conversation (Fr. parler, to speak): parlour, parole, palaver, parliament, parlance. etc., are cognate. Daughter of the Sphere, i.e. of the sphere which is her "airy shell" (l. 231): comp. "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse" (At a Solemn Music, 2).

243. give resounding grace, etc., i.e. add the charm of echo to the music of the spheres.

The metrical structure of this song should be noted: the lines vary in length from two to six feet. The rhymes are few, and the effect is more striking owing to the consonance of shell, well with vale, nightingale; also of pair, where with are and sphere; and of have with cave. Masson regards this song as a striking illustration of Milton's free use of imperfect rhymes, even in his most musical passages.

244. mortal mixture ... divine enchanting ravishment. The words mortal and divine are in antithesis: comp. Il Pens. 91, 92, "The immortal mind that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The lines embody a compliment to the Lady Alice: read in this connection lines 555 and 564. 'Ravishment,' rapture (a cognate word) or ecstasy: comp. Il Pens. 40, "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes"; also l. 794.

246. Sure, used adverbially: comp. line 493, and 'certain,' l. 266.

247. vocal, used proleptically.

248. his = its: see note, l. 96. The pronoun refers to 'something holy.'

251. smoothing the raven down. As the nightingale's song smooths the rugged brow of Night (Il Pens. 58), so here the song of the lady smooths the raven plumage of darkness. In classical mythology Night is a winged goddess.

252. it, i.e. darkness.

253. Circe ... Sirens three. In the Odyssey the Sirens are two in number and have no connection with Circe. They lived on a rocky island off the coast of Sicily and near the rock of Scylla (l. 257), and lured sailors to destruction by the charm of their song. Circe was also a sweet singer and had the power of enchanting men; hence the combined allusion: see also Horace's Epist. i. 2, 23, Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nosti. Besides, the Sirens were daughters of the river-god Achelous, and Circe had Naiads or fountain-nymphs among her maids.

254. flowery-kirtled Naiades: fresh-water nymphs dressed in flowers, or having their skirts decorated with flowers. A kirtle is a gown; Skeat suggests that it is a diminutive of skirt.

255. baleful, injurious (A.S. balu, evil).

256. sung. "The verbs swim, begin, run, drink, shrink, sink, ring, sing, spring, have for their proper past tenses swam, began, ran, etc., preserving the original a; but in older writers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) and in colloquial English we find forms with u, which have come from the passive participles." (Morris). take the prisoned soul, i.e. would take the soul prisoner; 'prisoned' being used proleptically.

257. lap it in Elysium. Lap is a form of wrap: comp. L'Alleg. 136, "Lap me in soft Lydian airs." Elysium: the abode of the spirits of the blessed; comp. L'Alleg. 147, "heaped Elysian flowers." Scylla ... Charybdis. The former, a rival of Circe in the affections of the sea-god Glaucus, was changed into a monster, surrounded by barking dogs. She threw herself into the sea and became a rock, the noise of the surrounding waves ("multis circum latrantibus undis," Aen. vii. 588) resembling the barking of dogs. The latter was a daughter of Poseidon, and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she became a whirlpool.

260. slumber: comp. Pericles, v. 1. 335, "thick slumber Hangs upon mine eyes."

261. madness, ecstasy. The same idea is expressed in Il Pens. 164: "As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heaven before mine eyes." In Shakespeare 'ecstasy' occurs in the sense of madness; see Hamlet, iii. 1. 167, "That unmatched form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstasy"; Temp. iii. 3. 108, "hinder them from what this ecstasy May now provoke them to": comp. also "the pleasure of that madness," Wint. Tale, v. 3. 73. See also l. 625.

262. home-felt, deeply felt. Compare "The home thrust of a friendly sword is sure" (Dryden); "This is a consideration that comes home to our interest" (Addison): see also Index to Globe Shakespeare.

263. waking bliss, as opposed to the ecstatic slumber induced by the song of Circe.

265. Hail, foreign wonder! Warton notes that Comus is universally allowed to have taken some of its tints from the Tempest, and quotes, "O you wonder! If you be maid, or no?" i. 2. 426.

266. certain: see note, l. 246.

267. Unless the goddess, etc. = unless thou be the goddess that in rural shrine dwells here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless' (Lat. nisi, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and, also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the antecedent.

268. Pan or Sylvan: see l. 176: also Il Pens. 134, "shadows brown that Sylvan loves," and Arc. 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were." Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is corrupted from Silvan (Lat. silva, a wood).

269. Forbidding, etc. These lines recall the language of Arcades, in which also a lady is complimented as "a deity," "a rural Queen," and "mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the Genius: Arc. 36-53, 91-95.

271. ill is lost. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = male perditur: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to "there is little loss in losing."

273. extreme shift; last resource. Comp. l. 617.

274. my severed company: a condensed expression = the companions separated from me. Comp. l. 315: this figure of speech is called Synecdoche.

277. What chance, etc. In lines 277-290 we have a reproduction of that form of dialogue employed in Greek tragedy in which question and answer occupy alternate lines: it is called stichomythia, and is admirable when there is a gradual rise in excitement towards the end (as in the Supplices of Euripides). In Samson Agonistes, which is modelled on the Greek pattern, Milton did not employ it.

278. An alliterative line.

279. near ushering, closely attending. To usher is to introduce (Lat. ostium, a door).

284. twain: thus frequently used as a predicate. It is also used after its substantive as in Lyc. 110, "of metals twain," and as a substantive.

285. forestalling, anticipating. 'Forestall,' originally a marketing term, is to buy up goods before they have been displayed at a stall in the market in order to sell them again at a higher price: hence 'to anticipate.' prevented. 'Prevent,' now used in the sense of 'hinder,' seems in this line to have something of its older meaning, viz., to anticipate (in which case 'forestalling' would be proleptic). Comp. l. 362; Par. Lost, vi. 129, "half-way he met His daring foe, at this prevention more Incensed."

286. to hit. This is the gerundial infinitive after an adjective: comp. "good to eat," "deadly to hear," etc.

287. Imports their loss, etc.: 'Apart from the present emergency, is the loss of them important?'

289. manly prime, etc.: 'Were they in the prime of manhood, or were they merely youths?' With Milton the 'prime of manhood' is where 'youth' ends: comp. Par. Lost, xi. 245, "prime in manhood where youth ended"; iii. 636, "a stripling Cherub he appears, Not of the prime, yet such as in his face Youth smiled celestial." Spenser has 'prime' = Spring.

290. Hebe, the goddess of youth. "The down of manhood" had not appeared on the lips of the brothers.

291. what time: common in poetry for 'when' (Lat. quo tempore). Compare Horace, Od. iii. 6: "what time the sun shifted the shadows of the mountains, and took the yokes from the wearied oxen." laboured: wearied with labour.

292. loose traces. Because no longer taut from the draught of the plough.

293. swinked, overcome with toil, fatigued (A.S. swincan, to toil). Skeat points out that this was once an extremely common word; the sense of toil is due to that of constant movement from the swinging of the labourer's arms. In Chaucer 'swinker' = ploughman.

294. mantling, spreading. To mantle is strictly to cloak or cover: comp. Temp. v. 1. 67, "fumes that mantle Their clearer reason."

297. port, bearing, mien.

298. faery. This spelling is nearer to that of the M.E. faerie than the current form.

299. the element; the air. Since the time of the Greek philosopher Empedocles, fire, earth, air, and water have been popularly called the four elements; when used alone, however, 'the element' commonly means 'the air.' Comp. Hen. V. iv. 1. 107, "The element shows him as it doth to me"; Par. Lost, ii. 490, "the louring element Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower," etc.

301. plighted, interwoven or plaited. The verb 'plight' (or more properly plite) is a variant of plait: see Il Pens. 57, "her sweetest saddest plight." The word has no connection with 'plight,' l. 372. awe-strook. Milton uses three forms of the participle, viz. 'strook,' 'struck,' and 'strucken.'

302. worshiped. The final consonant is now doubled in such verbs before -ed.

303. were = would be: subjunctive. like the path to Heaven; i.e. it would be a pleasure to help, etc. There is (probably) no allusion to the Scripture parable of the narrow and difficult way to Heaven (Matt. vii.) as in Son. ix., "labours up the hill of heavenly Truth."

304. help you find: comp. l. 623. The simple infinitive is here used without to where to would now be inserted. This omission of the preposition now occurs with so few verbs that 'to' is often called the sign of the infinitive, but in Early English the only sign of the infinitive was the termination en (e.g. he can speken). The infinitive, being used as a noun, had a dative form called the gerund, which was preceded by the preposition to, and when this became confused with the simple infinitive the use of to became general. Comp. Son. xx. 4, "Help waste a sullen day."

305. readiest way. Here 'readiest' logically belongs to the predicate.

311. each ... every: see note, l. 19. alley, a walk or avenue.

312. Dingle ... bushy dell ... bosky bourn. 'Dingle' = dimble (see Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd) = dimple = a little dip or depression; hence a narrow valley. 'Dell' = dale, literally a cleft; hence a valley, not so deep as a dingle. 'Bosky bourn,' a stream whose banks are bushy or thickly grown with bushes. 'Bourn,' a boundary, is a distinct word etymologically, but the phrase "from side to side," as used by Comus, might well imply that the valley as well as the stream is here referred to. 'Bosky,' bushy. The noun 'boscage' = jungle or bush (M.E. busch, bush, bush). 'See Tennyson's Dream of F. W. 243, "the sombre boscage of the wood."

315. stray attendance = strayed attendants; abstract for concrete, as in line 274. Comp. Par. Lost, x. 80, "Attendance none shall need, nor train"; xii. 132, "Of herds, and flocks, and numerous servitude" (= servants).

316. shroud, etc. Milton first wrote "within these shroudie limits": see note, l. 147.

317. low-roosted lark, i.e. the lark that has roosted on the ground. This is certainly Milton's meaning, as he refers to the bird as rising from its "thatched pallet" = its nest, which is built on the ground. 'Roost' has, however, no radical connection with rest, but denotes a perch for fowls, and Keightley's remark that Milton is guilty of supposing the lark to sleep, like a hen, upon a perch or roost, may therefore be noticed. But the poets' meaning is obvious. Prof. Masson takes 'thatched' as referring to the texture of the nest or to the corn-stalks or rushes over it.

318. rouse. Here used intransitively = awake.

322. honest-offered: see notes, ll. 36, 228.

323. sooner, more readily.

324. tapestry halls. Halls hung with tapestry, tapestry being "a kind of carpet work, with wrought figures, especially used for decorating walls." The word is said to be from the Persian.

325. first was named. The meaning is: 'Courtesy which is derived from court, and which is still nominally most common in high life, is nevertheless most readily found amongst those of humble station.' This sentiment is becoming in the mouth of Lady Alice when addressed to a humble shepherd. 'Courtesy' (or, as Milton elsewhere writes, courtship) has, like civility, lost much of its deeper significance. Comp. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 1:

"Of Court it seems men Courtesy do call, For that it there most useth to abound."

327. less warranted, i.e. when I have less guarantee of safety. Guarantee and warrant, like guard and ward, guile and wile, are radically the same.

329. Eye me, i.e. look on me. To eye a person now usually implies watching narrowly or suspiciously. square, accommodate, adjust. The adj. 'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. M. for M. v. 1: "Thou 'rt said to have a stubborn soul, ... And squar'st thy life accordingly." Exeunt, i.e. they go out, they leave the stage.

331. 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.

332. 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).

333. 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."

334. disinherit, drive out, dispossess. Comp. Two Gent. iii. 2. 87, "This or else nothing, will inherit (i.e. obtain possession of) her."

336. 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.

337. taper; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)."

338. 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.

340. 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.

341. 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.

343. barred, debarred or barred from.

344. 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.

345. 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.

346. 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."

347. 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.'

349. innumerous, innumerable (Lat. innumerus). Comp. Par. Lost, vii. 455, "Innumerous living creatures"; ix. 1089.

350. 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 Mueller 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."

351. her, herself. On the reflexive use of her, see note, l. 163.

352. burs; burrs, prickly seed-vessels of certain plants, e.g. the burr-thistle, the burdock (= the burr-dock), etc.

355. 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.

356. What, etc. The ellipses may be supplied thus: "What (shall be done) if (she be) in wild amazement?"

358. savage hunger. 'Hunger' is put by synecdoche for hungry animals.

359. 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).

360. 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.

361. 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.

362. 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, Sec. 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?'"

363. 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.

366. 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."

367. 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."

368. bosoms, holds within itself. The nom. is 'goodness.' 'Peace' is governed by 'in,' l. 367.

369. 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.

370. 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.'

371. constant, steadfast.

372. 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.

373. 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.

375. flat sea: comp. Lyc. 98, "level brine": Lat. aequor, a flat surface, used of the sea.

376. 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.

377. 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."

378. 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."

379. various, varied: comp. l. 22. The 'bustle of resort' is in L'Allegro the 'busy hum of men.'

380. 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, Sec. 324; Abbott, Sec.Sec. 28, 436.

381. He that has light, etc. Comp. Par. Lost, i. 254: 'The mind is its own place,' etc.

382. 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.

385. his own dungeon: comp. Sams. Agon. 156, "Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) The dungeon of thyself."

386. 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.

393. 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.

395. 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 (Sec. 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.

396. Compare Chaucer, Doctor's Tale, 44, "She flowered in virginity, With all humility and abstinence."

398. unsunned, hidden. Comp. Cym. ii. 5. 13, "As chaste as unsunned snow"; F. Q. ii. 7, "Mammon ... Sunning his treasure hoar."

400. 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.'

401. 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."

403. 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).

404. it recks me not, i.e. I do not heed: an impersonal use of the old verb reck (A.S. recan, to care). Comp. Lyc. 122, "What recks it them."

405. 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."

407. unowned, i.e. 'thinking her to be unowned,' or 'as if unowned.' Milton thus, as in Latin, frequently condenses a clause into a participle.

408. 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."

409. without all doubt, i.e. beyond all doubt: a Latinism = sine omni dubitatione.

411. 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.'

413. squint suspicion. Compare Quarles: "Heart-gnawing Hatred, and squint-eyed Suspicion." To look askance or sideways frequently indicates suspicion.

419. if Heaven gave it, i.e. even although Heaven gave it.

420. '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).

421. clad in complete steel, i.e. completely armed; comp. Hamlet, i. 4. 52, where the phrase occurs. The accent is on the first syllable.

422. 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.

423. trace, traverse, track. unharboured, affording no shelter. Radically, a harbour is a lodging or shelter.

424. Infamous, having a bad name, ill-famed: a Latinism. The word now implies disgrace or guilt. It is here accented on the penult.

425. sacred rays: comp. l. 782.

426. 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."

428. very desolation. Very (as an adj.) = true or real and may be traced to Lat. verus = true: comp. l. 646.

429. shagged ... shades. 'Shagged' is rugged or shaggy, and 'horrid' is probably used in the Latin sense of 'rough': see note, l. 38.

430. unblenched, undaunted, unflinching. This word, sometimes confounded with 'unblanched,' is from blench, a causal of blink.

431. Be it not: a conditional clause = on condition that it be not.

432. 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."

433. 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."

434. 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.

436. 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.

438. Do ye believe. Ye is properly a second person plural, but (like you) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, Sec. 236.

439. old schools of Greece. The brother now turns for his arguments from the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of Greece.

440. to testify, to bear witness to: comp. l. 248, 421.

441. 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.

442. 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.

443. brinded lioness. 'Brinded' = brindled or streaked. Comp. "brinded cat," Macb. iv. 1. 1: brind is etymologically connected with brand.

444. 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.

445. 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.

447. 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.

449. freezed, froze. The adjective 'congealed' is used proleptically, the meaning being 'froze into a stone so that it was congealed.'

450. But, except: a preposition.

451. dashed, confounded: this meaning of the word is obsolete.

452. blank awe: the awe of one amazed. Comp. the phrase, 'blank astonishment,' and see Par. Lost, ix. 890.

454. so, i.e. chaste.

455. 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.

457. vision: a trisyllable.

458. no gross ear. See notes, l. 112 and 997.

459. 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."

460. Begin to cast ... turns. 'Begin' is subjunctive; 'turns' is indicative: the latter may be used to convey greater certainty and vividness.

461. 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."

462. the soul's essence. As if, by a life of purity, the body gradually became spiritualised, and therefore partook of the soul's immortality.

465. most, above all.

467. 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 becomes like the body, and believes that to be true which the body affirms to be true; and from agreeing with the body, and having the same delights, she is obliged to have the same habits and haunts, and is not likely ever to be pure at her departure, but is always infected by the body.—Extracted from Jowett's Translation of the Dialogues.

468. 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.

469. 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."

470. gloomy shadows damp: see note, l. 207.

471. charnel-vaults, burial vaults. 'Charnel' (O.F. charnel, Lat. carnalis; caro, flesh): comp. 'carnal,' l. 474.

473. 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.

474. sensualty. The modern form of the word is sensuality.

475. degenerate and degraded: the former because 'imbodied,' the latter because 'imbruted.'

476. divine Philosophy, i.e. such philosophy as is to be found in "the divine volume of Plato" (as Milton has called it).

477. 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).

478. 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."

479. 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.

482. 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, Sec. 325). For certain, i.e. for certain truth, certainly.

483. 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.'

484. neighbour. An adjective, as in line 576, and frequently in Shakespeare. Neighbour = nigh-boor, i.e. a peasant dwelling near.

487. Best draw: we had best draw our swords.

489. 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.'

490. 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 Daemon hallos again, and enters in the habit of a shepherd.

491. you fall, etc., i.e. otherwise you will fall on our swords.

493. sure: see note, l. 246.

494. 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.

495. sweetened ... dale; poetical exaggeration or hyperbole, implying that fragrant flowers became even more fragrant from Thyrsis' music.

496. 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.