Who, ripe and frolick of his full-grown age, At last betakes him to this ominous wood"; To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste, 60 65 70 of Eschylus, v. 1195, where, says Cassandra, enumerating in her vaticinal ravings the horrors that haunted her house, "That horrid band, who sing of evil things, will never forsake this house. Behold, Comus, the drinker of human blood, and fired with new rage, still remains within the house, being sent forward in an unlucky hour by the Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original crime of this fated family," &c. Peck supposes Milton's Comus to be Chemos, "the obscene dread of Moab's sons," "Par. Lost," b. i. 406: but, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is professedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's sorceress Circe. Besides, our author, in his early poetry, and he was only twenty-six years old, is generally more classical and less scriptural than in pieces written after he had been deeply tinctured with the Bible. It must not, in the mean time, here be omitted, that Comus, the god of cheer, had been before a dramatic personage in one of Jonson's Masks before the court, 1619. An immense cup is carried before him, and he is crowned with roses and other flowers, &c. vol. vi. 29. His attendants carry javelins wreathed with ivy: he enters, riding in triumph from a grove of ivy, to the wild music of flutes, tabors, and cymbals. At length, the grove of ivy is destroyed, p. 35. And the voluptuous Comus, God of cheer, Beat from his grove, and that defaced, &c. See also Jonson's "Forest," b. i. 3 :— Comus puts in for new delights, &c.-T. WARTON. Mr. Hole, in his "Remarks on the Arabian Nights' Entertainments," observes that Mr. Warton's quotation from the " Agamemnon" of Eschylus does not agree with the character of Milton's Comus; and that the Comus of Ben Jonson is not the prototype of Milton's, as in Jonson's mask he is represented, not as a gay seducing voluptuary, but merely as the god of good cheer, Epicuri porcus. Yet Jonson's mask perhaps afforded some hints to Milton. Comus had also appeared in English Literature, as a mere belly-god, before Jonson's introduction of him. See Decker's "Gvls Horne-booke," bl. 1. 1609, p. 4. -TODD. France and Spain.—THYER. y The Celtick and Iberian fields. z Ominous wood. Ominous," is dangerous, inauspicious, full of portents, prodigies, wonders, monstrous appearances, misfortunes; synonymous words for omens. See "Par. Reg." b. iv. 481 :— "This ominous night," &c.-T. WARTON. For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst. Thus Ulysses, taking the charmed cup from Circe, Ovid, " Met." xiv. 276 :— Quæ simul arenti sitientes hausimus ore.-T. WARTON. b Into some brutish form. So Harrington, of Alcina's enchantments, "Orl. Fur." b. vi. st. 52.-TODD. Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, These my sky-robes spun out of Iris' woof", And they, so perfect is their misery, Not once perceive their foul disfigurement. Compare Spenser, “ Faer. Qu.” 11. i. 54. of Sir Mordaunt, where his lady relates to Sir Guyon his wretched captivity in the bower of Bliss, under the enchantress Acrasia, whose "charmed cup," st. 55, finally destroys him; and by whom, says the lady, he had before becn In chaines of lust and lewde desires ybound, And so transformed from his former skill, That me he knew not, neither his owne ill.-ToDD. d But boast themselves, &c. He certainly alludes to that fine satire, in a dialogue of Plutarch, where some of Ulysses's companions, disgusted with the vices and vanities of human life, refuse to be restored by Circe into the shape of men.-Jos. WARTON. Or, perhaps, to J. Baptista Gelli's Italian Dialogues, called "Circe," formed on Plutarch's plan.-T. WARTON. Dr. Newton observes, that there is a remarkable difference in the transformations wrought by Circe, and those by her son Comus: in Homer, the persons are entirely changed, their mind alone remaining as it was before, “Odyss.” x. 239: but here, only their head or countenance is changed, and for a very good reason; because they were to appear upon the stage, which they might do in masks: in Homer too, they are sorry for the exchange, v. 241; but here, the allegory is finely improved, and they have no notion of their disfigurement. This improvement upon Homer might still be copied from Homer, who ascribes much the same effect to the herb Lotos, "Odyss." ix. 94, which whoever tasted, "forgot his friends and native home." After all, Milton perhaps remembered Plato, where he alludes to the intoxicating power of the herb, and to the wretched situation of the Lotophagi, in that striking description of profligate youths, who, immersed in pleasure, not only refuse to hear the advice of friends, "but boast themselves more comely than before.' De Repub. lib. viii.-TODD. e To roll with pleasure in a sensual stye. Milton applies the same fable, in the same language, to Tiberius, " Par. Reg." b. iv. 100. Therefore, when any, favour'd of high Jove, Chances to pass through this adventurous glade. The Spirit in "Comus" is the Satyr in Fletcher's "Faithful Shepherdess." He is sent by Pan to guide shepherds passing through a forest by moonlight, and to protect innocence in distress, a. iii. s. 1.-T. WARTON. Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star. There are few finer comparisons that lie in so small a compass. Milton has repeated the thought in "Par. Lost," b. iv. 555. Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired Compare "Par. Reg." b. iv. 619.-T. WARTON. h Spun out of Iris' woof. So our author of the archangel's military robe," Par. Lost," b. xi. 244." Iris had dipp'd And take the weeds and likeness of a swain Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now k 85 90 [Comus enters with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistening: they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. ] Com. The star, that bids the shepherd fold', Now the top of heaven doth hold ; And the gilded car of day 95 His glowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantick stream; And the slope sun his upward beam Shoots against the dusky pole, Pacing toward the other goal the woof." 100 Milton has frequent allusions to the colours of the rainbow. Truth and Justice are not only orbed in a rainbow, but are appareled in its colours, “Ode on Nativ." st. xv.-T. WARTON. And take the weeds and likeness of a swain, &c. Henry Lawes, the musician, who acted the part of the Spirit.-Todd. Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, And hush the waving woods. Lawes himself, no bad poet, in "A Pastorall Elegie to the memorie of his brother William," applies the same compliment to his brother's musical skill: Weep, shepherd swaines! For him that was the glorie of your plaines. He could allay the murmurs of the wind; He could appease The sullen seas, And calme the fury of the mind. k I must be viewless now. The epithet "viewless occurs in the "Ode on the Passion," st. viii., and in " Par. Lost," b. iii. 518. Shakspeare has "the viewless winds." Spirit's conduct here much resembles that of Oberon in the But who comes here? I am invisible, Mr. Bowle observes, that the And I will overhear their conference.-T. WARTON. 1 The star that bids the shepherd fold. Collins, in his beautiful "Ode to Evening," introduces this pastoral notation of time, accompanied with the most romantic and delightful imagery : When thy folding-star arising shows His paly circlet, at his warning lamp The fragrant Hours and Elves, Who slept in buds the day; And many a nymph, who wreathes her brows with sedge, And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still, The pensive pleasures sweet, Prepare thy shadowy car.-TODD. Of his chatt ber in the East". Braid your locks with rosy twine, And Advice with scrupulous head": With their grave saws, in slumber lie. Imitate the starry quire, Who, in their nightly watchful spheres', The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, = Pacing toward the other goal Of his chamber in the East. 105 110 119 "The sun In allusion to the same metaphors employed by the Psalmist, Ps. xix. 5. as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.” -NEWTON. • Rigour now is gone to bed. Much in the strain of Sidney, England's Helicon," p. 1, edit. 1600. Night hath closed all in her cloake; lealousie itself doth sleepe.-T. WARTON. • And Advice with scrupulous head. The manuscript reading, " And quick Law," is the best. It is not the essential attribute of advice to be scrupulous; but it is of quick law, or watchful law, to be so.— WARBURTON. It was, however, in character for Comus to call" advice scrupulous." It was his business to depreciate, or ridicule, advice, at the expense of truth and propriety.T. WARTON. P Severity. There is an earlier use of this word in the same signification. See Daniel's "Compl. Rosam." st. 39, edit. 1601, fol. Titles that cold seueritie hath found.-T. WARTON. q Saws. "Saws," sayings, maxims. Shakspeare, “As you like it," a. ii. s. 7. Full of wise saws.-NEWTON. So, in the " Ode Nativ." v. 21. r Watchful spheres. "And all the spangled host keep watch in order bright." See also "Vac. Exercise," v. 40. "The spheres of watchful fire." Compare Baruch, iii. 34. "The stars shined in their watches." And Ecclus. xliii. 10.-TODD. • In wavering morrice move. The morrice, or Moorish dance, was first brought into England, as I take it, in Edward III.'s time, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, where he had been to assist his father-in-law, Peter king of Castile, against Henry the bastard.-PECK. And, on the tawny sands and shelves, Trip the pert faeries and the dapper elves. Fairies and elves are common to our national poetry: they also figure in tradition; and among the pastoral inhabitants of the lonesome hills and dales the belief in them is still strong. By dimpled brook" and fountain-brim", 'Tis only day-light that makes sin", Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, Dark-veil'd Cotytto! to whom the secret flame 120 123 130 How they were imported, and from what land, has been and perhaps will continue a matter of conjecture: no one has had the boldness to believe that they are of British growth, though there are people still living who imagine they have seen them, and heard the sound of their elfin minstrelsy. The fairies, according to popular testimony, are an elegant and accomplished race: they dwell in palaces under secluded hills; they frequent, when the summer moon is up, the lonely stream banks; they spread tables sometimes in desert places, and astonish and refresh the benighted and hungry traveller with spiced cakes and perfumed wine; nor do they hesitate to mount their steeds-an elfin race; and, accompanied by music from invisible instruments, ride through the lonely villages at midnight, less to the alarm than the delight of the inhabitants. The last time they were seen in the south of Scotland was some five-and-forty years ago :-" When I was a boy of fifteen," said my informant, "I saw on a summer eve, just after sunset, what seemed a long line of little children running down the summit of a decayed turf fence, which bound as with a vertical belt a hill about half a mile distant: they were very little; they seemed clothed, but bare-headed; and, what was odd, they seemed to sink into the hill when they reached a gap in the ridge down which they were running. There were hundreds of them, but one was twice as tall as the rest: we saw him thrice disappear on our side of the hill and thrice appear at the top again, as if he had passed through below the solid hill. I said we, because though I saw the 'pert fairies and the dapper elves' first, all the inhabitants of the village, some fifteen or so, saw them also." This is the latest account on record of the fairy. folk.-C. By dimpled brook. Shenstone has adopted this picturesque expression, "Ode on Rural Elegance :" Forego a court's alluring pale For dimpled brook and leafy grove.-TODD. Fountain-brim. This was the pastoral language of Milton's age. So Drayton, "Bar. W." vi. 36 :Sporting with Hebe by a fountaine brim.-TODD. w 'Tis only day light that makes sin. Mr. Bowle supposes that Milton had his eye on these gallant lyrics of a song in Jonson's "Fox," a. iii. s. 7 : 'Tis no sinne love's fruit to steale, But the sweet thefts to reveale: To be taken, to be seene, These have crimes accounted beene.-T. WARTON. Dark-veil'd Cotytto. The goddess of wantonness.-TODD. The dragon woom. Popular belief in some districts bestows on British witches the power of turning light into darkness, given by Milton and others to "dark-veil'd Cotytto." In one of the vales of the north dwelt in other days three witches: the first could milk the cows at the same moment for ten miles around her; the second could turn her slipper into a sea-worthy N N |