33. "grain": colour. See note, Par. Lost, V. 285. 35. "sable stole of cypress lawn": i.e. scarf or mantilla of fine black linen crape. Some derive the word cypress in this sense from the old French word crespé, crisped or curled (modern crêpé, whence crape); there is a probability, however, that this kind of fabric was brought first from the island of Cyprus, and that the name signifies that origin. Frequently, in the old poets, when the fabric is mentioned, it is spelt "Cyprus": thus in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale the pedlar Autolycus comes in with his wares (IV. 4) singing— But we have also the spellings "cypress," "cypres," "cipresse," "cipres," &c., as if all recollection of the island in connexion with the article had been lost. Milton's spelling in this line both in the First and in the Second Edition is "Cipres," with a capital letter and in italics; which is his usual way of printing a proper name. 37. "keep thy wonted state": i.e. stately mien and behaviour. One of the old meanings of the noun "state was "regal or ceremonial chair," or the "canopy" over such a chair (see note to Par. Lost, VII. 440); and from this meaning there were extensions. Sometimes these still implied the seated posture, as in Ben Jonson's lines (Cynthia's Revels, v. 3) cited by Warton : 66 "Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep." But the stately" behaviour might be maintained after the chair was left; and Milton here, though using Jonson's very phrase, imagines it of Melancholy not seated, but walking "with even step and musing gait." 39. "commercing": accented on the second syllable, as was then rather common. 42. "Forget thyself to marble": same idea as in line 14 of the piece On Shakespeare; which see, and the note on it. 43. "With a sad leaden downward cast." Leaden-coloured eyesockets betoken melancholy, or excess of thoughtfulness; but see Epitaph. Dam. 79, 80: "Saturni grave sæpe fuit pastoribus astrum, i.e. the star Saturn has a leaden or dispiriting influence on shepherds, or sons of the Muses, making them causelessly melancholy. It is much to Warton's credit that, in his note on these lines in the Latin poem, he thought of referring to the present line in Il Penseroso. Leaden was the Saturnian colour; and Melancholy was the daughter of Saturn. Her eyes had the leaden hue of the blast from her father's star. 46-48. "Spare Fast," &c. Spare Fast," &c. A favourite Miltonic principle here. See again Eleg. Sexta, 55-66. 51-54. "But, first and chiefest, with thee bring Him that yon soars on golden wing, The Cherub Contemplation." A daring use of the great vision, in Ezekiel, chap. x., of the sapphire throne, the wheels of which were four cherubs, each wheel or cherub full of eyes all over, while in the midst of them, and underneath the throne, was a burning fire. Milton, whether on any hint from previous Biblical commentators I know not, ventures to name one of these cherubs who guide the fiery wheelings of the visionary throne. He is the Cherub Contemplation. With Milton, as with other writers of his century, Contemplation was a word of high meaning. It was by the serene faculty named Contemplation that one attained the clearest notions of divine things,-mounted, as it were, into the very blaze of the Eternal, or the sight of the Throne of God. Nay, the Throne itself wheeled partly on him!" yon" (A.-S. geond) adverbially for yonder," as if the poet pointed his finger to heaven when he spoke of Contemplation. In nine other cases in which the word occurs in Milton's poetry it is uniformly an adjective,-"yon flowing estuary," &c. The adverbial use of yon still exists in Scotland. 55, 56. "And the mute Silence hist along, 'Less Philomel will deign a song." "Hist" is imperative, in continuation of the imperative "bring" in line 51; and the meaning is "Move through the mute Silence hushingly, or saying Hush!-i.e. telling the Silence to continue-unless the nightingale shall choose to break it by one of her songs."-Less or les, as a contraction or substitute for unless, occurs occasionally in old writers; and Richardson, in his Dictionary, quotes two examples from Ben Jonson. That Milton here means it for a contraction appears by his prefixing the apostrophe. This is done both in the First and in the Second Edition. 59, 60. "While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke i.e. "while the Moon, entranced with the song, is seen to check the pace of her dragon-drawn chariot over a particular oak-tree, that she may listen the longer." In Milton's Latin poem, In ob. Præs. El. (56 -58) there is exactly the same image for the Moon in her course:— "deam Vidi triformem, dum coercebat suos Frænis dracones aureis." Shakespeare also, in two passages quoted by Mr. Browne (Mid. N. Dr. III. 2, and Cymbel. II. 2) has "Night's dragons," or "dragons of the night." This is apparently a modern poetical liberty; for in the ancient mythology, as Mr. Keightley remarks, it is only the chariot of Demeter or Ceres that is drawn by dragons.-"accustomed oak." Why the epithet "accustomed "? Is it because Milton here thinks not from the point of view of Cynthia, but from that of an observer of Cynthia? Was there a particular oak over which he himself had often watched the slowly-moving Moon? Altogether it is a beautiful picture! 61-64. "Sweet bird," &c. In Sylvester's Du Bartas (First Week, 5th Day) there is a long passage on the Nightingale, in the opening of which a certain stiff resemblance may be discerned to this passage in the Penseroso. He has been speaking of other birds, and especially of the songs of the lark, linnet, and goldfinch, and continues : "All this is nothing to the Nightingale, Milton's fondness for the Nightingale appears not only in the present famous passage and in Sonnet I., but also in Comus, 234-5 and 566-7, and in Par. Lost, IV. 602-604, and 771, and VII. 435-6. 65. "unseen." In antithesis to line 57 of L'Allegro. See note there. 66. "On the dry smooth-shaven green." One fancies this green to be a well-kept lawn near some house, close to the "accustomed oak" of line 60. 67. "wandering moon." Mr. Keightley cites the "vaga luna" of Horace (Sat. 1. viii. 21) and the "errantem lunam" of Virgil (En. J. 742). 69. "had." Some editions have "has"; which is a misprint. 72. "Stooping through a fleecy cloud." Everyone must have noticed this appearance of the moon, when surrounded by masses of white cloud-wreath, in an otherwise blue sky. Their motion is transferred to her; and she seems sometimes to wade or bowl through them horizontally, sometimes to stoop among them. 73-76. Oft, on a plat of rising ground, Milton, or Il Penseroso, who has last moment been walking, in fancy, on a dry smooth-shaven green," watching the moon over an oak-tree, is now on a higher bit of flat ground, the level top of some hillock, listening to the sound of the far-off curfew bell, booming in the darkness, or rather in the moonlight, over miles of scenery. But what scenery? "Over some wide-watered shore," he says. Observe the word "some." It is a distinct intimation, if such were at all necessary, that the whole visual circumstance is ideal-that the Penseroso of the poem is not actually out walking in any particular locality, but is imagining himself, in reverie, here, there, and everywhere, at the bidding of his mood. Still, a recollection of some actual spot may well have been in Milton's mind as he suggested the imaginary one. The old custom of ringing the curfew at eight or nine o'clock in the evening (originally the signal for people to put out or cover up their fires: couvre-feu) was kept up in various parts of England in Milton's time, as it is in some to the present day; and, if Milton wanted to think of any particular spot, he could have no difficulty in choosing. The neighbourhood of Oxford, I believe, has put in a claim. The sound of the eight o'clock bell from Christ Church is still one of the characteristics of Oxford, and is heard afar. It might be heard, say, at Forest Hill. But where in that vicinity is the "wide-watered shore"? It is suggested that the word "shore" may stand, as it sometimes does in old writers, for the banks of a river or the boundary of a lake; and, if the country near Oxford were flooded, as it used to be, there would be a sufficient shore in this sense. Even those who have no thought of the neighbourhood of Oxford in the passage still imagine that it is over "some widewatered shore" in the sense of some inland lake or sheet of waters that the curfew is heard sounding. But why should the "wide-watered shore" not be the sea-shore? This seems the natural meaning of the phrase; and would it not be an omission in a poem on Melancholy if there were no mention of "the melancholy main"? Moreover, " shore," in every other case where Milton uses the word, is with him the shore of a sea, or of something that cannot be all seen round at once, and is therefore vast enough to be called a sea; and, even were it not so, the phrase "wide-watered shore" itself would suggest that here at all events Milton was thinking of a long single line of coast beaten against by the waves, and not of a limited circular lake-boundary. In this last case it would be the country or district that would be said to be "widewatered,” and not the "shore."— Swinging slow with sullen roar." Were it concluded that by the "wide-watered shore" Milton meant some imaginary bit of sea-shore, then, by no very forced construction, it might be the sea on this shore, and not the bell, that was swinging and roaring. The ordinary construction, however, which connects "swinging" with the "far-off curfew" is perhaps the more natural. "Roar," as applied to a bell, is not usual, but it is conceivable; and "sullen" is proper enough, for we have Shakespeare's "sullen bell" (King Henry IV. Part II. i. 1), and even his "surly, sullen bell" (Sonnet 71). 77, 78. "Or, if the air will not permit, re "air" is "state of the weather," and the "still, removèd place" is some quiet part of the house conveniently away from the rest.moved" is an alternative form for "remote," with a slightly modified meaning. In Hamlet the ghost beckons the Prince to "a more removèd ground" (I. 4). Observe that, whereas in L'Allegro the evening indoors did not begin till line 117, or near the end of the poem, here we are indoors at line 77, and three-fifths of the poem are yet to come. 83, 84. "Or the bellman's drowsy charm, to bless the doors," &c. The house imagined is, therefore, one in some town, where the bellman or watchman may be heard outside, going his rounds with his usual singsong (charm, from carmen) or cry. Now perfect silence is the rule for the night-policeman on his beat; but of old, not only had he a bell, for warning when necessary, but at stated times he called out information as to the state of the weather, or pious phrases of blessing on those going to bed. "Half-past nine, and a fine cloudy evening," may be remembered by persons yet alive as a cry of the last of the old watchmen in some towns before gas was known; but the pious phrases of blessing were even then extinct. Their style may be learnt from some lines in Herrick's little poem entitled The Bellman, quoted by Warton : 85, 86. "From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, From murder, Benedicite! From all mischances that may fright The goblin from ye while ye sleep!" "Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tower." Evidently we are now back in the country, in the turret of some solitary mansion where there are books, and perhaps astronomical instruments. How fine, however, not to give us the inside view of the turret-room first, but to imagine some one far off outside observing the ray of light from its window! 87. "outwatch the Bear." As the Bear never sets, this implied, as Mr. Keightley has noted, sitting up till daybreak, when all stars disappeared. : 88. "With thrice-great Hermes" i.e. studying the works of the Egyptian king and philosopher Thot, called by the Greeks Hermes Trismegistus, or Hermes the Thrice-great, because they identified him with their god Hermes, or Mercury, and attributed to him the posses |