Other trippings to be trod Of lighter toes, and such court guise With the mincing Dryades, On the lawns, and on the leas. 965 This second Song presents them to their Father and Noble Lord, and Lady bright, Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 Their faith, their patience, and their truth, And sent them here through hard assays, To triumph in victorious dance O'er sensual Folly and Intemperance. The Dances [being] ended, the Spirit epiloguizes. Spi. To the ocean now I fly, Of Hesperus, and his daughters three 975 980 Along the crisped shades and bowers 985 The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours, Thither all their bounties bring; There eternal Summer dwells, And West-winds, with musky wing, 990 Nard and Cassia's balmy smells. Waters the odorous banks, that blow 995 1000 Celestial Cupid, her fam'd son, advanc'd, Holds his dear Psyche sweet entranc'd 1005 After her wandering labours long, Till free consent the Gods among Make her his eternal bride, But now my task is smoothly done, 1010 I can fly, or I can run, Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend; 1015 And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon. Mortals, that would follow me, Love virtue; she alone is free: She can teach you how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or if Virtue feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her. 1020 NOTES ON COMUS. 3. Inspher'd in regions, &c.-i.e. they have these regions for their sphere of life and action. 7. Pestered. Crowded, jostled; from the Italian pesta, a crowd. Pin-fold. Properly a pen, or pound, for cattle. 11. By a poetical figure, the epithet sainted is transferred from the sitters to the seats. G. Fletcher, in Christ's Victorie, iii. 5, 1, has thus expressed the same thought more clearly: "And ye glad Spirits, that now sainted sit 16. Weeds. Garments-in this sense still used of the widow's dress. 17. Sin-worn mould. Sin-corrupted earth. 20. 'Twixt high and nether Jove. Between Jupiter and Pluto, the former of whom was supposed to have obtained by lot the rule of all above the earth, and the latter of the realms beneath. 23. Unadorned-i.e. it would be so without them. 24. The lesser sea-gods are here spoken of as paying tribute to their chief, tribute being a token of submission. 25. By course. In regular order. To several government. To the government of different deities. 29. Quarters. Apportions. The blue-hair'd deities. so represented. The Nereids, or sea-nymphs, were 30. This tract &c.-i.e. Wales, of which country the Earl of Bridgewater had lately been appointed president, and had consequently taken up his official residence at Ludlow Castle. 32. Temper'd awe. Awe attempered with kindness. 33. An old and haughty nation. The Welsh, the remnant of the Celts or Britons, who occupied the whole island before the coming of the Saxons. 45. Bower. Chamber. 48. According to a fable of the ancient mythology, the god Bacchus punished the Tuscan pirates, by transforming them into the shapes of various sea-monsters. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, iii. 660. 49. As the wind listed. Suggested, perhaps, by the English version of John iii. 8.-" The wind bloweth where it listeth." Tyrrhene. The same as Tuscan. 50. Circe's island. Anciently called Circeii, now Circello, on the coast of Italy. Circe, the daughter of the Sun, &c. This fable or allegory is given by Homer, Odyssey x. 135, and Virgil, Æneid vii. 11, &c. 58. Comus, the god of revelry, is mentioned by the later writers on classical mythology, but not by the Greek and Latin poets. 59. Frolick of i. e. frolicksome on account of. 60. The Celtick and Iberian fields. France and Spain. The inhabitants of those countries were in ancient times called Celta and Iberi. 61. Ominous. Full of terrors. 65. Orient. Bright. The word properly means rising; and as the sun rises in the east, and shines, it is used in poetry sometimes as a substantive to signify the East, and sometimes as an adjective, in the sense which it has here. 66. The drouth of Phœbus. The thirst produced by the heat of the sun's rays. 71. Ounce. Another name for the Lynx. 73. This is a beautiful improvement on the Homeric allegory. For a person who gives way to an evil appetite is unconsciously brutalized by it. According to Homer, the victims of Circe's enticements were aware of and lamented their disfigurement. 83. Iris' woof. The web of which Iris makes the rainbow. 86. Smooth-dittied. Smooth in its composition, melodious. 89. In order at once to gain the confidence of the persons whom he was to assist, the attendant spirit assumes the appearance and gait of a trusty shepherd who was well known to them, and who, from his office of keeping watch on the mountain, was the person most likely to be about at that time of night, and the nearest at hand to give such aid as the occasion required. 92. Viewless. Invisible. Shakspeare speaks of "the viewless winds." 97. The steep Atlantick stream. The ocean was supposed by Homer to be a river, running round the earth. Milton calls it steep, either because the sun's descent into it from the sky is steep, or because the sea, when viewed from the shore, appears to ascend up towards the sky. 98. Slope. Sloping. 110. Saws. Sayings, maxims. 115. Sounds. Shallows. 116. Wavering morrice. The morrice or Moorish dance; said to have been first brought into England in Edward the Third's time, by John of Gaunt, when he returned from Spain. 125. Rights. Here means rites, ceremonies. 131. Woom. Womb. 132. Spets. Spits. 132. Stygian. Infernal, from the river Styx, supposed to flow through the infernal regions. 139. Nice. Prudish. "A finely chosen epithet, expressing at once curious and squeamish." (Hurd.) Indian. Here synonymous with Eastern. 140. Cabin'd. Narrow, like a cabin or cell. 141. Descry. Discover, expose. After v. 144, a dance takes place, which is called the Measure. 147. Your shrouds. Your hiding-places. 151. Trains. Enticements. 154. Dazzling. Bewildering. The spungy air. Absorbent as a spunge, and therefore retentive of the spells which were cast into it. 155. Blear. Properly dim; but here used in an active sense, causing dimness. 156. Give it false presentments. Make false representations to it. 161. Glozing. Flattering, deceitful. 167. Keeps up-i.e. keeps up so late. 168. Fairly. Softly. 174. Hinds. Peasants. 179. Wassailers. Revellers. 181. Blind. Obscure. 184. Under the favour (or protection) of these spreading pines. 189. Votarist. Votary, one who has taken vows, like a monk or friar. In its modern sense, the word means one who is devoted to a particular religion or doctrine. Palmer. Properly, a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land; so called because he brought back a branch of palm, in token of his pilgrimage. In palmer's weed. In pilgrim's dress, described in Drayton's Polyolbion xi. 2.-" Himself a palmer poor, in homely russet clad." 195. Milton has perhaps allowed his imagination to carry him a little too far, in representing the Night as a thief carrying the stars in a dark lantern, which she closes "for some felonious end." 207. Marco Paolo, the celebrated Venetian traveller, in his account of the desert of Lop in Asia (A. D. 1295), speaks of the voices of demons calling the traveller by name, and imitating the voices of his companions. 204. Nought but single darkness. Nought but darkness only. 208. Syllable. Pronounce syllable by syllable. 212. A strong siding champion-i.e. a champion that takes his side, and protects him. 232. Meander. A river in Asia Minor, celebrated for its |