JC-NRLF 
 
%afce EngU&b Classics 
 MILTON'S 
 
 MINOR POEMS 
 
 L' ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO, COMUS, 
 AND LYCIDAS 
 
 EDITED FOR SCHOOL USB 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON, M. A., Ph. D< 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 CHICAGO 
 8COTT, FORESMAN AND C01VIPANY 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY 
 SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 
 
 PR'NTERS AND BINDERS, CHICAGO. 
 
OF THE 
 
 ' v M '_ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In the present edition the main endeavor ht* 
 been to provide an apparatus that should ensure 
 the complete intelligibility of the four poems form- 
 ing the text, and an understanding of the circum- 
 stances in which they were written. This has 
 made necessary not only an outline of the poet's 
 life, but also a sketch of some of the main tenden- 
 cies in English politics, civil and ecclesiastical, during 
 his youth. Without some such view, it is impos- 
 sible for the student to grasp the significance of 
 the political allusions in Lycidas, while the other 
 three poems all gain immensely in interest when 
 it is seen how they are related to the Puritanism 
 of which the poetry of Milton is the supreme 
 literary expression. 
 
 In addition to the biographical and historical 
 material, a concise statement is given of what is 
 known of the sources of the poems. Teachers 
 using the book have a right to demand that this 
 should be supplied, yet it is by no means to be 
 understood that all students should be required to 
 study it in detail. It is doubtful, indeed, whether 
 the minds of young students should be burdened 
 by more than the general bearing of such a state- 
 ment of Milton's real or supposed debt to previous 
 
 writers. More important, because more vital to 
 * 
 
 204509 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 the understanding of literary history, is the at- 
 tempt to outline the development of such forms as 
 the pastoral elegy and the masque previous to 
 their being used by Milton. 
 
 The work of aesthetic interpretation has been 
 left almost entirely to the teacher, but a few 
 suggestions may be made. An unusually good 
 opportunity for bringing out the beauty of coher- 
 ent structure in short poems is afforded by the 
 present texts. The plan of L 'Allegro and II Pense- 
 roso, which is roughly traced in the Introduction, 
 should be worked out in detail by the student. 
 Lycidas will be grasped in a much more satisfac- 
 tory way if it is clearly brought out in class that 
 there is a regular sequence of parts in the elegy, 
 interrupted by digressions. On the basis of the 
 analysis of the masque elements in Comus which 
 will be found on pp. 63-8, the teacher may enlarge 
 on the characteristically Miltonic elements in the 
 poem. 
 
 The main facts in connection with the versifica- 
 tion of the poems have been stated as simply as 
 possible. The artistic value of the lines, however, 
 will be best imparted viva voce, and here again the 
 opportunity is exceptional. (The alternating long 
 and short lines at the beginning of L y Allegro and 
 II Penseroso, and the short, rapid measure of the 
 main parts of these poems |Khe blank verse and the 
 lyrical passages in Comush and* the seeming irregu- 
 larity in the arrangement of rhymes in Lycidas, -all 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 afford admirable examples of the use a great poet 
 makes of metrical devices, and should give rise to 
 stimulating discussions. Attention should be drawn 
 also to Milton 's double epithets, and the question 
 of the justification of his coinages raised. The first 
 two poems consist of series of pictures, and the 
 student should be induced to test the vividness of 
 these, one by one, by attempting to visualize them. 
 The characteristic ethical elements which appear 
 in all Milton 's productions might also be educed 
 and illustrated by reference to his own life. 
 
 The great mine of information on the life and 
 times of Milton is Professor David Masson 's mag- 
 nificent work, The Life of John Milton, narrated in 
 connection with the political, ecclesiastical, and literary 
 history of his time (6 vols., Macmillan & Co., new 
 ed., Lond., 1881-94). For those to whom this is not 
 accessible, or who desire something on a smaller 
 scale, Mark Pattison 's Milton in the English Men 
 of Letters series, Dr. Garnett 's in the Great Writers 
 series, and the recent volumes on Milton by Pro- 
 fessor Trent (Macmillan, N. Y., 1899) and Professor 
 Raleigh (Putnam, N. Y., 1900) may be mentioned. 
 Dr. Garnett 's book contains an excellent bibli- 
 ography. Of annotated editions of Milton 's poems 
 the most elaborate is again Masson 's (2d ed., 3 vols., 
 Macmillan, Lond., 1894). Verity 's editions (Cam- 
 bridge University Press) are very full and scholarly, 
 and Professor Trent's edition of the poems con- 
 tained in the present volume (Longmans, 1898) has 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 a number of suggestive interpretative notes. 
 Professor Corson has recently published an Intro* 
 duction to Milton which conveniently brings to- 
 gether the more important autobiographical pas- 
 sages from the prose works, but its value is lessened 
 by the lack of exact references to the sources of 
 the texts quoted. Discussions of Milton 's versi- 
 fication will be found in the third volume of 
 Masson 's large edition of the poems, and in Milton 's 
 Prosody by Robert Bridges (Clarendon Press). It 
 is, perhaps, unnecessary to refer to the well known 
 essays on Milton by Macaulay and Lowell. 
 
 In the preparation of the introduction and notes 
 I have freely consulted the work of previous 
 editors, especially Masson, Verity, Browne, and 
 Trent, and detailed acknowledgment of obligations 
 to these and others will be found in the appropri- 
 ate places. To Professor Masson, as author of the 
 Life of Milton, every modern student of Milton owes 
 an immense debt, and I have to add to this general 
 recognition that of the more personal obligation 
 which a student owes to an inspiring teacher. I also 
 wish to thank, for suggestions in connection with 
 the treatment of the masque, my friends Dr. A. H. 
 Thorndike of Western Reserve University, and Dr. 
 John Lester, recently of Harvard, and, for helpful 
 criticisms throughout, Mr. L. T. Damon of thie 
 University of Chicago. 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, September, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE ..-.... -5 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. England in Milton's Youth 11 
 
 II. The Life of Milton 20 
 
 III. U Allegro and II Penseroso 33 
 
 IV. Comus 35 
 
 V. Lycidas 43 
 
 VI. Milton's Puritanism 47 
 
 TEXT ......... 53 
 
 NOTES ....-. 115 
 
 WORD INDEX 157 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. ENGLAND IN MILTON 's YOUTH 
 Among English men of letters there is none 
 whose life andjvork stand in more intimate rela- 
 tiozL_with the history of his times than those of 
 Milton. Not only was he for a long period im- 
 mersed in political controversy and public busi- 
 ness, but there are few of his important works 
 which do not become more significant in the light 
 of contemporary events, and in turn help the 
 understanding of these events themselves. Both 
 by temperament and by circumstances he was 
 destined 10 be much more than an interested on- 
 looker during the momentous struggles which had 
 begun to trouble the peace of England at the time 
 he reached manhood; and it is by no accident that 
 his most adequate biography is at the same time 
 a history of his country for three-quarters of a 
 century. 
 
 At the time of Milton's birth in 1608, England 
 was passing through a period of transition. Much 
 of thaj^remarkablevigor and abundance of life 
 whichjiad characterized the age of ElizabeffT still 
 remained; and the drama, the most typical ex- 
 pf ession of that age in literature, had hardly begun 
 
It' INTRODUCTION 
 
 to decline. Yet, with the change of dynasty at 
 the union of the crowns of England and Scotland 
 in 1603, there had appeared a tendency to depart 
 fromthg^ policy^ of toleration which HadTSade 
 possible the united patriotism of the preceding 
 reign. Thenew Kinj^James I., had definite pref- 
 erences in Religious matters^ and insisted on making 
 tEem felt. Lines of cleavage 1 , which had before 
 been only vaguely traceable, broadened into divid- 
 ing gulfs, ai\d the religious world began more and 
 morg_to break up into sects and parties. The 
 antagonisms between these, already in many cases 
 present during the reign of Elizabeth, were 
 strengthened when, in the time of Charles I., 
 political issues were added to ecclesiastical; and 
 the hostilityHand intolerance grew more and more 
 acute, until in 1642 difference of opinion culmi- 
 nated inlhe horrors o civil war. 
 
 ^Theoretically, all Englishmen^wg Tne^w of 
 theTStablished Church. Eutin practice there 
 were two important groups outside the Anglican 
 fold, the Roman Catholics and the Protestant 
 Separatists^ Under Elizabeth, the persecution of 
 the Roman Catholics had varied in intensity 
 according to the requirements of the political 
 situation. Thus, when a Catholic power like Spain 
 threatened the national safety, considerable rigor 
 was used to prevent Catholic risings at home. 
 Similarly, in the reign of James, the alarm caused 
 
ENGLAND IN MILTON'S YOUTH 13 
 
 by the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 led to the exercise 
 of oppressive measures against the same religion. 
 On the other hand, during the negotiations with 
 Spain for a marriage between the Infanta and 
 Prince Charles (1617-1623), these measures were 
 naturally relaxed; and this relaxation continued 
 after 1624, when Charles married Henrietta Maria 
 of France, who was, like the Infanta, a Catholic. 
 Queen Henrietta's influence in this direction 
 remained operative throughout her husband's 
 reign, and had the additional effect of increasing 
 the suspicion with which the Puritans regarded 
 the ecclesiastical policy of the court party. 
 
 At the opposite extreme from the Roman 
 Catholic dissenters were the Protestant Separatists, 
 who had left the church of their own accord. 
 Many of them emigrated to Holland, and, later, 
 to America, while others, chiefly Independents and 
 Baptists, attempted, in defiance of the law, to 
 follow their own modes of worship in .secret. 
 These last sects were, numerically, unimportant. 
 
 Inside the Church there were 
 
 ~~~ 
 
 jhe Prelatists and the Puritans. The Prelatists 
 Vere those who were on the whole satisfied with 
 the established Episcopacy; and at the accession 
 oTTames" I. they probably numbered about nine- 
 tenths of the whole Church. The attitude of the 
 Puritans at that time is defined by a petition 
 which they~presented to James shortly after" his 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 arrival in England. In this document they ob- 
 jected to certain administrative abuses, sucl^ as 
 thejnefficienqLof some of the nlergy^an^the hold- 
 ingjrf church livings by absentees, whether clerical 
 qr^lay, yho drew a large part of the tithes and 
 hired a vicar on_a_small salary to care for the 
 parish. More significant was their request to be 
 relie^edJrom compulsor^^arjidpaition in certain 
 of the ceremonies of the Church^ such as the 
 wearing of surplices^Jhe u^eof_Jhe_^r^sshi 
 h^ptisrg the ^oEJjrvation of holy days (except 
 Saobath/which they wished to have observed 
 more strictly), and bowing at the name of Jesus. 
 The doctrinal -differences which became so im- 
 portant later were not mentioned. 
 
 The Puritans gained less than nothing by their 
 petition. The next Convocation of the Clergy 
 (1603, 4) passed a number of canons reaffirming 
 the necessity of the ritual to which objection had 
 been made, and denying the right to dissent. The 
 laws against Nonconformists were more strictly 
 enforced, and many were imprisoned or banished. 
 The effect on the Puritans was seen in the appear- 
 ance of numerous pamphlets, printed hi Holland 
 or secretly in England, protesting against the 
 action of the Prelatists, and in some cases arguing 
 for Independency or Presbyjterianism. 
 
 On the appointment .of a Low Church Arch- 
 bishop in 1611, the struggle slackened somewhat; 
 
ENGLAND IN MILTON'S YOUTH 15 
 
 but about 1619 a new element of great importance 
 was introduced. This was the appearance of what 
 was called Arminianism, a doctrinal opposition to 
 the Calvinistic beliefs that salvation was possible 
 only for those predestined to it, and that those 
 who were so elected by God to be saved were 
 incapable of resisting His grace. The situation 
 was complicated for James, who was himself a 
 Calvinist, by the fact that the men of Arminian 
 tendencies were those who were most zealous in the 
 support of Prelacy and the royal prerogative. He 
 attempted to solve the difficulty by issuing Direc- 
 tions to Preachers, in which he forbade any clergy- 
 man below the degree of Dean to preach on the 
 disputed questions at all; but, as might have been 
 expected, this interference with the liberty of 
 discussion on both sides did little to reassure the 
 Puritans, who saw in the Arminianism of the 
 Prelatists only one more indication of their lean- 
 ings towards Rome. In fact, many who had 
 taken no part with the Puritans in the agitation 
 against ceremonial were forced to join them by 
 the appearance of this new theological issue. 
 
 It was at this juncture that there stepped into 
 the front rank among the leaders in church and 
 state, a man who in a few years became, by force of 
 the definiteness of his views and the restlessness of 
 his energy, the chief agent in hurrying the nation 
 towards the terrible conflict that lay before it. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 William Laud was a man of few aims. He believed 
 in the strictest uniformity in worship, and was 
 willing to resort to coercion to bring it about. He 
 was " in favor of a ceremonial of worship in which 
 advantage should be taken of every external aid 
 of architecture, decoration, furniture, gesture, or 
 costume, either actually at the time allowed in the 
 Church of England, or for which there was good 
 precedent in more ancient ritual." 1 He "believed 
 in the 'divine Apostolic right' of Episcopacy, and 
 . . . .therefore, could not recognize as a true portion 
 of the Catholic Church of Christ any community 
 or set of men who pretended to have emancipated 
 themselves from Bishops." 1 Thus he regarded the 
 members of the Church of Rome as belonging to a 
 true Church, but did not so regard the Independ- 
 ents and Presbyterians. On the doctrine of 
 Election he was anti-Calvinist, and he was a strong 
 upholder of the royal prerogative in church and 
 state. 
 
 ^When Charles I. ascended the throne iiLl625, he 
 held his father's beliefs concerning the supremacy 
 of the crown, but in theqlogy_was inclined to the 
 ASaJnianisnTof Laud. The history of his reign is 
 the history, of the attempt to force these opinions 
 upon the people of the United Kingdom. When 
 his first Parliament met, it insisted on prosecuting 
 the King's chaplain for Arminianism, and showed 
 
 1 Masson's Life of Hilton, ed. 1881, vol. I, p, 362. 
 
ENGLAND IN MILTON'S YOUTH 17 
 
 its distrust of the policy and advisers of the crown 
 by restricting the usual grants of money. Charles 
 retaliated by dissolving the Parliament. The sec- 
 ond Parliament followed its predecessors in its 
 protests against Arminianism and illegal taxation, 
 and met a similar fate. Then for nearly two years 
 (June, 1 626- March, 1628) Charles governed with- 
 out a Parliament, and raised money by such illegal 
 means as forced I5ans^ Meanwhile, the parly ol 
 La;ud became more open and vigorous in its ad- 
 vocacy of the King's supremacy, and of the doc- 
 trine that resistance to his will was sacrilege. The 
 phrase "absolute monarchy," which in the time of 
 the Tudors was used to describe a government free 
 from foreign or Papal interference, had been inter- 
 preted by James I. in the sense of a monarchy un- 
 restrained by law or the will of the people, 1 and 
 the doctrine thus implied became a Watchword of 
 the Royalist party. Forced by lack of money, 
 the King called a third Parliament, only to be met 
 once more with vehement protests against civil 
 and religious grievances. He yielded, obtained a 
 grant of subsidies, and prorogued Parliament. But 
 the value of his supposed concessions soon ap- 
 peared. Almost at once he relapsed into his 
 previous arbitrary methods; Laud and other Ar- 
 minians were promoted, and illegal taxation was 
 
 1 See Green's Short History of the English People, Lond. , 
 1889, chap, viii., sec. II, p. 478. 
 
\8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 again exacted. When this Parliament re-assem- 
 bled in the beginning of the following year (1629), 
 the old discussions were renewed with greater 
 fervor than ever. Laud had used the interval to 
 issue a Declaration, to be prefixed to the Thirty- 
 nine Articles, 1 reaffirming the King's supremacy 
 in the Church, and forbidding discussion of the 
 Articles. This Declaration became the main object 
 of attack, but the King stood firm, the Parliament 
 was dissolved, and Charles began a period of per- 
 sonal government which lasted for eleven years 
 (1629-1640). ' 
 
 The period during which Charles ruled without 
 a Parliament was marked by a development of the 
 policy which Laud, soon to become Archbishop, 
 had already marked out. In religious affairs, 
 there was an increase in the restrictions on 
 freedom of discussion by the clergy, and the new 
 Primate's favorite ideas in matters of worship and 
 discipline were enforced by his control of Church 
 legislation, patronage, and organization. Con- 
 venient instruments of coercion were found in the 
 already existing Courts of Star Chamber and of 
 High Commission, which were used with unsparing 
 severity in the punishment and suppression of 
 Separatists outside the Church, and Puritans 
 
 1 These articles of religion, originally drawn up in 
 the reign of Edward VI, were, with little change, re- 
 affirmed at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and still 
 \emain the official statement of Anglican belief. 
 
OF 
 
 FO 
 ENGLAND IN MILTON'S YOUTH 19 
 
 within. Men guilty of preaching or writing 
 against Laudian principles were fined, imprisoned, 
 and mutilated in the pillory; and the persecutions 
 were carried even into the Universities. In secular 
 politics, the chief problem was the raising of money, 
 and resort was had to the sale of monopolies in 
 almost all the articles of common consumption, to 
 the revival of obsolete taxes, to fines for a multi- 
 tude of petty offenses, to the sale of indulgences to 
 Catholics who wished to practice their own religion, 
 and, finally, to Ship-money. This last was an old 
 tax, instituted before England had a permanent 
 navy, to provide money for ships to defend the 
 coast towns. It was now revived, and levied, not 
 only on the seaboard as before, but over the 
 whole country; and it was on the refusal of John 
 Hampden to pay this tax that the spirit of the 
 country at last rose to resist. Meanwhile, Charles 
 and Laud had been attempting to impose Episco- 
 pacy on Presbyterian Scotland, but the task was 
 beyond their power, and the Scots were already 
 in armed rebellion. 
 
 Nearly four years were to pass before the Civil 
 War in England actually broke out; but it was 
 the rumor of these events of the year 1638, reaching 
 Milton in Italy, which determined him to return to 
 bear his share in his country's struggle for freedom, 
 and which brought to a close the period of his life 
 that includes those of his writings with which 
 we are more immediately concerned. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 II. THE LIFE OF MILTON 
 
 The intimate relation between the writings of 
 Milton and the history of his times, to which allu- 
 sion has been made, is symbolized by the coinci- 
 dence of the periods into which his life naturally 
 falls with the periods into which English history 
 in the seventeenth century divides itself. The 
 first of these extends from Milton 's birth to his 
 return from Italy, and corresponds with that por- 
 tion of the history which has just been outlined. 
 The second ends with his retirement into private 
 life in 1660, and coincides with the period of the 
 Civil War and the Commonwealth. The third 
 closes with his death in 1674, and falls within the 
 period of the Restoration. 
 
 This threefold classification applies also to his 
 literary productions. The first group of these, in 
 which the poems in this volume are the most im- 
 portant, belongs to the period before 1639; the 
 second, consisting chiefly of controversial works in 
 prose, to the period between 1640 and 1660; and 
 the third, the group containing the two great epics 
 and Samson Agonistes, to the period of his retire- 
 ment. 
 
 (a) First Period (1608-1639) 
 
 John Milton w r as born in Bread Street, London, 
 on the ninth of December, 1608. He was the son 
 of John Milton, a prosperous scrivener (i. e., attor- 
 ney and law-stationer), a man of good family and 
 
THE LIFE OP MILTON 21 
 
 considerable culture, especially devoted_jto m^sic. 
 In the education ofthe future poet the elder 
 Milton was exceptionally generous. From child- 
 hood-JijL destined him for the Church, and his 
 preparation was begun at home, and continued at 
 St. Paul's School and at Cambridge. We have 
 abundant evidence that the boy \vas from the first 
 a quick and diligent student, and that the late 
 study to which he was addicted from childhood 
 was the beginning of that injury to his eyes which 
 ended in blindness. .He entered Christ's College, 
 -Cambridge, in 1625, took Jbe-degggg QJLSZ2L in 
 Ol_A. in 1632, when he left-the Uni- 
 
 versity after seven years' residence. Like several 
 other poets who have brought renown to Cam- 
 bridge, Milton was severely critical of his Univer- 
 sity. Yet he seems to have been highly respected 
 while there, both for the purity of his conduct and 
 the brilliance of his scholarship; and years after- 
 wards he made public acknowledgment of "that 
 more than ordinary favour and respect, which I 
 found above any of my equals at the hands of 
 those courteous and learned men, the fellows of 
 that College wherein I spent some years: who at 
 my parting . . . signified many ways how much 
 better it would content them that I would stay." 1 
 
 1 Apology for Smectymnuus, Milton's Works, ed. Mit- 
 ford, vol. Ill, p. 266. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Milton left Cambridge for his father's house at 
 Horton in Buckinghamshire with his career still 
 unsettled. It has been mentioned that he had 
 been intended for the Church, but this prospect 
 he had given up before he took his Master's 
 degree. The reasons for the change of purpose he 
 has himself stated in no uncertain words. " Coming 
 to some maturity of years, and perceiving what 
 tyranny had invaded the Church, that he who 
 would take orders must subscribe slave, and take 
 an oath withal, ... I thought it better to prefer a 
 blameless silence before the sacred office of speak- 
 ing bought and begun with servitude and fore- 
 swearing." 1 And he refers to having been " Church- 
 outed by the Prelates" a phrase which finds 
 sufficient explanation in what has been said of the 
 policy of Laud. 
 
 The life to which Milton settled down at Hor- 
 ton was one of quiet but persistent study, varied 
 with occasional poetical production. Authorship^ 
 indeed, seems to have taken the place of the min- 
 istry in his vague plans for the future, though the 
 particular form it was to take was long undefined. 
 Even as a child he had written verses, and at the 
 University he had produced, besides academic 
 exercises and a number of., Latin poems, occasional 
 poetical effusions in English, the most notable 
 1 The Eeasm of Church Government (1641), Works, vol. 
 
 in, p. 150. 
 
THE LIFE OF MILTON 23 
 
 Boe 
 
 ing the Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity 
 and the enthusiastic Epitaph on Shakspere. Among 
 all the writings of that period, however, the most 
 interesting autobiographically is the Sonnet on his 
 Being Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three, which may 
 be quoted here to show how he anticipated the 
 criticisms upon his apparent lack of purpose and 
 achievement: 
 
 How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, 
 
 Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! 
 
 My hasting days fly on with full career, 
 
 But my lateWning no bud or blossom shew'th 
 
 Perhaps my semblanceT^ight deceive the truth, 
 That Lto' manhood am arrived so near; 
 And^nward ripeness doth much less appear, 
 That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th. 
 
 Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow, 
 
 It shall be still in strictest measure even 
 To that same lot, however mean or high, 
 
 Toward which Time leads me, 'and the will of Heaven. 
 All is, if I have grace to use it so, 
 As ever in my great Task-Master's eye 
 
 We may note implied here (besides the con- 
 sciousness that he might seem open to reproach) 
 an^attitude__ofawaiting without impatien-Jjie 
 fulfilment of his~3estiny, and a determination that 
 to whatever goal he might ultimately be led, 
 there should be no doubt as to the principles by 
 which he was to be governed on his road thither. 
 Both things were profoundly characteristic. In 
 
24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 his own ultimate greatness Milton never ceased to 
 believe: yet he looked forward to it in no vain- 
 glorious spirit, but with a legitimate pride in the 
 part allotted to him in the purposes of Providence- 
 With equal certainty did he hold to the necessity 
 of personal purity and integrity in the man who 
 was to perform noble deeds, whether in affairs or 
 in literature. The man who "speaks of high 
 matters/ ' he insists, must live temperately and 
 have "a youth chaste and free from guilt, and 
 rigid morals, and hands without stain." 1 And 
 again; " He who would not be frustrate of his hope 
 to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought 
 himself to be a true poem; that is, a composition, 
 and pattern of the best and honour ablest things; 
 not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men, 
 or famous cities, unless he have in himself the 
 experience and the practice of all that which is 
 praiseworthy." 2 Such was the spirit in which 
 Milton prepared himself for his life-work. 
 
 Among the results of the years spent at Horton 
 between 1632 and 1638 were a Latin poem, Ad 
 Patrem, apparently written n reply to some mild 
 remonstrance from his father on his giving up the 
 prospect of a regular profession in favor of scholar- 
 ship and letters; U Allegro; II Penseroso; Arcades 
 
 1 Letter to Charles Diodati. 
 
 2 Apology for Smectymnuus, Works, ed. Mitford, vol. 
 UI, pp, 270,1. 
 
THE LIFE OF MILTON 25 
 
 (part of an entertainment given in honor of the 
 Dowager Countess of Derby); Comus; and Lycidas. 
 In Milton's days and for long afterwards, no 
 young gentleman's education was regarded as 
 complete until he had made " the Grand Tour " of 
 the continent. It was, then, in accordance with 
 fashion, as well, no doubt, as with his own taste, 
 that in 1638 Milton set out on a journey to Italy, f 
 After some days in Paris, he passed on by way of 
 Nice to Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence, in 
 which last city he spent about two months in the 
 society of wits and men of letters. He seems to 
 have been received with marked courtesy, and to 
 have appreciated the reception. In or near Flor- 
 ence he "found and visited the famous Galileo, 
 grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition for think- 
 ing in Astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan 
 and Dominican licencers thought," a martyr 
 to truth who doubtless appealed strongly to 
 Milton's indignation, and who would have touched 
 him still more deeply could he have foreseen that 
 one day they were to suffer in common the fate of 
 blindness. After two months more spent in Rome, 
 he visited Naples, and had intended to cross to Sicily I 
 and go thence to Greece, when rumors of civil war I 
 in England led him to turn his face homewards, 
 "inasmuch," he says, "as I thought it base to be 
 travelling at my ease for intellectual culture while 
 my countrymen at home were fighting for liberty." 
 
26 INTRODUCTION 
 
 He may have learned that things had not gone so 
 far as he feared, for he did not go directly to 
 England, but paid second visits to Rome (where 
 his boldness in religious discussion led him to run 
 risks from the Jesuits), and to Florence, thence to 
 Venice, Verona, Milan, and Geneva, and so by 
 Paris to England, where we find him in August, 
 1639. His writings produced abroad were all in 
 Italian or Latin, and seem to have brought him 
 / considerable distinction among the Italian men of 
 / letters whom he met. 
 
 (6) Second Period (1640-1660) 
 
 Thus was closed the period of Milton's education; 
 
 and had public affairs permitted it, he might 
 
 now have begun to carry out his plan for the great 
 
 poem which was the most persistent of the many 
 
 schemes he had meditated for literary production 
 
 on a large scale. But public affairs did not permit 
 
 it. Whatever view one takes of the merits of the 
 
 political and religious questions involved, or of 
 
 the permanent value of the prose writings which 
 
 formed Milton's contribution to their settlement, 
 
 it seems clear that a man of his temperament and 
 
 principles could not have done otherwise than he 
 
 did. There has been much not very fruitful dis- 
 
 \ cussion on what he might have written in pure 
 
 I literature had he turned his back^ugon thec^use 
 
 y qfjiB^rtyT^e^a^^^Sose welfare waSTnsoeepest 
 
 passion. Butsuch conduct in such a man would 
 
THE LIFE OF MILTON 27 
 
 have been desertion, and, according to his own 
 principles, would have unfitted him for noble 
 achievement in any field. 
 
 Yet Milton did not plunge rashly into the con- 
 flict. Shortly after he returned from the Conti- 
 nent, the household at Horton was broken up, 
 and he wea^bT^ndon to resume his studies, and I) 
 decide on the formTa^d^ub]^c?*^fTn^gr^t poem. V 
 Part of his time was occupied in teaching his two 
 nephews, and afterwards he took under his care 
 a small number of other youths, sons of his friends, 
 T n TjH 2 ? hpuna,rri*H Mmy P"\v&\] } the daughter of 
 an Oxfordshire Royalist. In about a month she 
 left him and remained away for two years, at the 
 end of which time she sought and obtained a 
 reconciliation. She died in 1653 or 1654, leaving 
 him three little daughters. He married a second 
 time in 1656, but this wife lived only fifteen 
 months after the marriage. 
 
 The main occupation of his first years in London 
 waSuXontroversy. We have said that liberty was 
 MijtQjjVHeepestmssion, 3j^j^bGrt^?f^^urr(, up- 
 the themej)Jns prose^ritings. There are " three 
 species of liberty," he says, " which are essential to 
 the happiness of social life religious, domestic, 
 ancLcivil," and for all three Ke fought. Hislnost 
 important prose works may, indeed, be roughly 
 classed under these heads: 
 
\ 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 1. RELIGIOUS, A group of five pamphlets 
 against Episcopacy (1641, 2). 
 
 2. DOMESTIC. This he subdivides as follows: 
 a EDUCATION: one pamphlet (1644). 
 
 b. MARRIAGE: four pamphlets on behalf of 
 freedom of Divorce (1643-5). Milton's 
 personal experience with his first wife 
 seems to have first led to his consideration 
 of this subject. 
 
 c. FREE SPEECH: Areopagitica (1644), an 
 argument in favor of unlicensed printing. 
 This is the most important of Milton's prose 
 writings regarded as literature. 
 
 3. CIVIL. A large number of pamphlets on 
 questions arising out of the execution of 
 Charles I and the establishment of a Com- 
 monwealth (1649-1660). 
 
 His prose writing continued into his last period, 
 when he produced, among other things, a history 
 of Britain to the Norman Conquest, and a Latin 
 disquisition on Christian Doctrine, which is our 
 chief source of information about his later theolog- 
 ical opinions. 
 
 Meanwhile, the crisis in national affairs was 
 growing more acute. In 1639, the Scots had 
 obtained from Charles, through force of arms, the 
 temporary withdrawal of all attempts to force 
 Episcopacy upon them. Soon, however, he had 
 broken with them again, had called the Short 
 
THE LIFE OF MILTON 29 
 
 Parliament in order to obtain supplies, had been 
 presented with a request for the redress of griev- 
 ances, and had once more ordered a dissolution. 
 A second attempt to subdue the Scotch resistance 
 by force failed, and in November, 1640, Charles 
 called the famous Long Parliament. This assem- 
 bly began by instituting constitutional reforms 
 with great energy, and later took up Church ques- 
 tions. It was at this juncture that Milton entered 
 the lists with his pamphlets against Episcopacy. 7 
 
 In 1642, the differences between Charles and V 
 the Parliamentary party became so acute that 
 civil war broke out; and after a struggle of four 
 years it ended in the overthrow of the Realists, 
 and the surrender of the King to the Scots aux- 
 iliaries who had been fighting on the Parliamentary 
 side in England. 
 
 Now a new cause of controversy arose. The 
 opponents of the King split into two parties, one 
 desirous of establishing a strict and uniform 
 national church on Presbyterian principles, with 
 no toleration for dissenters, the other standing for 
 the right of liberty of worship for those whose / 
 consciences forbade their entering the established / 
 Church. The latter party, supported by Cromwell V 
 and the army, triumphed; and to this side Milton 
 belonged. 
 
 Charles, meanwhile, had been negotiated with 
 again and again; had entered into a treaty with 
 
30 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the Scots with the result of bringing about a second 
 civil war, which ended abruptly in the overthrow 
 of his allies; and had finally been brought to trial 
 by the army and the remnant of the Long Parlia- 
 
 V ment, condemned, and executed (January, 1649). 
 
 ^ England now became a Republic, and Milton 
 threw himself into the task of defending the 
 principles on which it had been established. He 
 became officially associated with the new govern- 
 ment as Secretary for Foreign Tongues, in which 
 capacity he not only conducted its foreign corre- 
 spondence, but also acted as its literary adviser 
 and champion in the controversies by pamphlet 
 that arose in connection with the execution of the 
 King and the theory of the Commonwealth. It 
 was in the midst of these activities that a great 
 calamity fell upon him. The defence of the late 
 King had been undertaken by the famous Dutch 
 Latinist Salmasius in a Defensio Regia, and to 
 Milton fell the task of replying to it. His eyesight, 
 weakened even in childhood by overstudy, was 
 now failing fast, and he was warned by physicians 
 that it would go altogether if he persisted in this 
 work. But to Milton the fight he had entered was 
 no mere matter of professional employment as it 
 was to his opponent, and he deliberately sacrificed 
 what remained to him of light in the service of the 
 cause to which he was devoted. The reply was a 
 most effective one, but it left Milton hopelessly 
 
THE LIFE 0^ M1LTQJS 31 
 
 blind. With the aid of an assistant, however, he 
 retained his office through the Protectorate of 
 Cromwell, until the eve of the Restoration. 
 (c) Third Period (1660-1674) 
 
 Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, his son Richard 
 succeeded him for a short time, and in 1660 Charles 
 II. was restored to the throne. To the last Milton 
 fought with tremendous earnestness against this 
 catastrophe. For, to him, it was indeed a catas- 
 trophe. The return of the Stuarts meant to 
 him not only great personal danger, but, 
 what was far more important, it meant the over- 
 throw of all that he had for twenty years spent 
 himself to uphold. It meant the setting up in 
 government, in religion, and in society, of ideals 
 and institutions that he could not but regard as 
 the extreme of reaction and national degradation. J 
 Almost by a miracle he escaped personal violence, v 
 but he was of necessity forced into obscure retire- 
 ment; and there, reduced in fortune, blind, and 
 broken-hearted, he devoted himself to the pro- / 
 auction of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. V 
 The great schemes which in his early manhood 
 he had planned and dreamed over, had for years 
 been laid aside; but now at last he had a mournful 
 leisure, and with magnificent fortitude he availed 
 himself of the opportunity. 
 
 Paradise Lost had been begun even before the 
 King's return; in 1665 it was finished, and in 1667 
 
32 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the first edition appeared. Paradise Regained 
 and Samson Agonistes were published in 1671. 
 The History of Britain already mentioned, and a 
 number of other prose works, chiefly of a personal 
 and curious interest, were produced in the same 
 period. 
 
 In 1657, Milton's second wife, Catherine Wood- 
 cock, had died. For about seven years after, he 
 lived alone with his three daughters, whom he 
 trained to read to him not merely in English, but 
 in Latin, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, and He- 
 brew, though they did not understand a word of 
 what they read. What little we know of their 
 relations to their father is not pleasant. They 
 seem to have been rebellious and undutiful, 
 though doubtless there was much provocation. 
 In 1663, Milton took a third wife, Elizabeth 
 Minshull, who did much' to give ease and comfort 
 to his last years, and who long survived him. 
 
 The retirement in which he lived during this 
 third period, when public affairs seemed to him 
 to have gone all wrong, was not absolutely soli- 
 tary. He was visited by a number of friends and 
 admirers, men of culture and rank, and often by 
 foreigners who wished, before they left London, to 
 see the great Latinist who had humbled Salmasius. 
 The harshness that appears in his controversial 
 writings, and the somewhat unsympathetic aus- 
 terity that seems to be indicated by his relations 
 

 L' ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO 33 
 
 with his first wife and his children, are to be coun- 
 terbalanced in our minds by the impression of 
 companionableness that we derive from the picture 
 of the old blind poet, sought out by many who not 
 merely admired his greatness, but found pleasure 
 in his society, and counted it a privilege to talk 
 with him and read to him. Stern and sad he 
 could hardly fail to be, but his old age was peaceful 
 and not bitter. 
 
 He died on November 8, 1674, and was buried 
 in the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. 
 
 III. L 'ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO 
 
 jind II PmserosQjWQ believed to jiave 
 
 They are com- 
 panion studies 01 the cmiracteristic occupations of 
 two men of different temperaments, or of the same 
 man in two different moods. The plan of the t:wo 
 pieces is in general the same. Both begin with 
 an invocation and a fanciful mythological gene- 
 alogy, and proceed to describe a series of imagined 
 typical experiences. These follow roughly the 
 times of the day in natural succession, but it is 
 not to be supposed that in either case Milton 
 meant the hero to include within one span of 
 twenty-four hours all the occupations mentioned. 
 : Thus L 'Allegro, the cheerful man, may rise with the 
 lark, walk out among the blithe sounds of the 
 early morning, observe the various occupations of 
 
34 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the country people, and in the evening sit by the 
 fire and hear their rustic tales. Or he may spend 
 his time among the brilliant gaieties of the court, 
 or go to the theatre, or listen to light music. On 
 the other hand, II Penseroso, the meditative man, 
 hears the nightingale instead of the lark, and 
 walking out by moonlight, he catches the sound 
 of a far-off curfew over the waters. Or, if the 
 evening is chill, he will sit by his fireside listening 
 to the sounds in the street below, or studying 
 philosophy and literature until the dawn. The 
 congenial morning for him will be cloudy, with 
 showers and wind, and when the sun begins to 
 glare he will seek shades in the gloom of the forest, 
 where he will drowse beside a murmuring stream. 
 He will find delight, too, in the dim light of a great 
 church, and in the solemn tones of the organ. His 
 Jd age he would spend in the peaceful retirement 
 of a hermitage* 
 
 f Milton is supposed by some to have received 
 suggestions for these poems from Burton's Anat- 
 omy of Melancholy, especially the prefatory verses 
 called The Author's Abstract of Melancholy, and 
 from the song, Hence, all you vain delights, in 
 Beaumont and Fletcher's The Nice Valour. In 
 neither case is the obligation very clearly marked. 
 Another probable source of suggestion, to which 
 attention does not seem to have yet been called, 
 is in John Marston's Scourge of Villainy , Satire xi; 
 
COMUS 35 
 
 Sleep, grim Reproof; my jocund Muse doth sing 
 In other keys, to nimbler fingering. 
 Dull-sprighted Melancholy, leave my brain- 
 To hell, Cimmerian night! in lively vein 
 I strive to paint, then thence all dark intent 
 And sullen frowns! Come, sporting Merriment 
 Cheek-dimpling Laughter, crown my very soul 
 With jouisance, whilst mirthful jests control 
 The gouty humours of these pride-swolTn days. 1 
 
 The resemblance of these lines, both in thought 
 and phrasing, to the opening of U Allegro scarcely 
 needs to be pointed out. 
 
 Both poems contain the same variety of metres ,\ 
 They open with ten liries of six and ten syllables 
 alternately, while the main parts of the poems 
 consist of lines of eight syllables. The accents 
 fall as a rule on the even, but not infrequently on 
 the odd, syllables, and' in the latter case, the line 
 is one syllable shorter. The arrangement of rhymes 
 in the opening lines is as follows: a b b a c d d 
 e e c; throughout the rest of the poems the lines 
 rhyme in pairs. 
 
 IV. COMUS 
 
 / During the reign of Charles I., as for a consider- 
 'able time previously, the government of certain 
 outlying parts of the realm was presided over by 
 noblemen with almost vice-regal state. Such 
 was the position of Wentworth, afterwards Earl 
 
 1 The Works of John Marston, ed. by A. EL Bullen. 
 London, 1887, vol. Ill, p. 371. 
 
36 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Strafford, as Lord President of the North and 
 
 later as Lord Deputy in Ireland, and such also was 
 
 that of the Earl of Bridge water, who had been 
 
 | created Lord President of Wales. The appoint- 
 
 . ment was made in 1631, but the Earl does not 
 
 seem to have actually entered upon his office until 
 
 a year or tw r o later. At any rate, it was not till 
 
 / the summer of 1634 that the celebrations in honor 
 
 / of his inauguration were held; and it was these 
 
 / celebrations that gave occasion for the writing of 
 
 Comus. 
 
 Mr. Henry Lawes, one of the mosc distinguished 
 musicians of the time, and a person of experience 
 in the presentation of court entertainments, was 
 intimate both with the Bridgewaters to some of 
 whom he had given instruction in music and 
 with Milton. Indeed, he had already induced 
 the young poet to write his Arcades for an enter- 
 tainment to be given in honor of a member of the 
 same noble family. It is more than probable, 
 / then, that it was through Lawes that Milton came 
 / to compose this work, so far his most considerable 
 production. Lawes himself wrote the music for 
 the songs, attended to the stage management, 
 acted the very important part of the Attendant 
 Spirit, and, some years later, obtained Milton's 
 consent to the publication of the poem itself. 
 
 The form of the entertainment was far from 
 unusual at the time. The practice of dancing by 
 
COMUS 37 
 
 masked figures had existed as part of the revels 
 'on festive occasions in England for two or three 
 centuries; but in the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, if not sooner, the additional feature of 
 the dancing of the masquers with the spectators 
 was introduced (from Italy, one chronicler seems 
 to say), and the name masque was used of the 
 performance. Throughout the reign of Elizabeth, / 
 it underwent a considerable development, and / 
 came to be a common episode in the regular/ 
 drama, as well as a frequent part of the gorgeous/ 
 entertainments in which that queen delighted.* 
 f But it was not till the accession of James I. that, \ 
 
 the* hfl.Tiffc_nf Ttem Jnrt^on^Jt took rank in 
 Jandjis a form of literature/^ To the introductory 
 speech and the occasional songs in which had 
 hitherto mainly consisted the literary elements of 
 the representation, Jonson added dialogue of 
 varying length and the grotesque anti-masque, 
 while the mechanical ingenuity of Inigo Jones and 
 the musical ability of men like Lawes combined to 
 build up those splendid and costly performances 
 which were one of the chief sources of brilliancy 
 in the court society of the reigns of James I. and 
 Charles I. The form was at its point of highest V 
 development when Milton produced Comus; and j 
 an analysis of that performance into its most im- 
 portant elements will sufficiently indicate the 
 characteristics of the type. 
 
u 
 
 38 INTRODUCTION 
 
 1. The occasion was that of an important 
 festivity in a great family. So royal accessions, 
 progresses, weddings, and the like, were most 
 frequently celebrated by a masque. 
 
 2. Most of the actors in Comus were members 
 of a noble family. This was usual, and distin- 
 guished the masque from the stage-plays performed 
 by professional actors. 
 
 3. The long introductory speech by the At- 
 tendant Spirit, in which the situation is explained 
 to the audience, represents the prologue wtiich, 
 spoken by a "presenter," was probably the first 
 literary element to attach itself to the original 
 masque dance. ' 
 
 4. At vv. 960 and 974 the words of the Spirit 
 indicate courtly dancing of a different type from 
 that of the rustics that has just taken place. This 
 was doubtless taken part in by some members of 
 the audience, as such mixed dances had been a 
 feature of masques since the time of Henry VIII. 
 at least. 
 
 5. The dance of monsters, introduced by vv. 
 143, 4, and the country dances referred to in vv. 
 951 ff. and 958, and indicated by the stage direc- 
 tion at v. 957, are examples of the anti-masque 
 used by Jonson to afford contrast and amusement. 
 The anti-masque was frequently performed by 
 professionals of whose names no records are 
 preserved, and as Comus himself takes part in 
 
COMUS 39 
 
 the first one at v. 144, we may here have a reason 
 
 why the name of the performer who acted this role 
 has not been handed down. 
 
 6. The mythological element seen, for example, 
 in the character and genealogy of Comus and of 
 Sabrina,had for long been one of the characteristics 
 of the type. The water-nymphs were especially 
 common. 
 
 7. Since masques were usually produced in 
 honor of some great personage, it was natural that 
 flattering speeches and complimentary allusions 
 should be prominent in the dialogue. Examples 
 of this are found in Comus in the following pas- 
 sages : 
 
 a. To the Earl of Bridgewater, vv. 30-36. 
 
 b. To the Bridgewater family, vv. 34, 966 - 975, 
 and more especially to the Lady Alice Egerton, 
 vv. 145-150, 244-264, 366 ff., 555-562, 739 ff., and 
 her brothers, the Viscount Brackley and Mr. 
 Thomas Egerton, vv. 297-303. 
 
 c. To Mr. Henry Lawes, the musician, who 
 acted Thyrsis, vv. 494-496. 
 
 d. To the Welsh people, who were doubtless 
 represented in the audience, v. 33. 
 
 8. The lyrics, which were added to the original 
 dance very early in the development of the masque, 
 are represented here by the song to Echo, vv. 
 230-243, the songs to Sabrina, w. 859-889, and 
 
*0 INTRODUCTION 
 
 by Sabrfna, w. 890-900, as well as by the lyrical 
 speeches of the Spirit at the end. 
 
 pastoral element appears in. the disguise 
 Spirit and Comus as shepherds, in the 
 speeches made by them in this character, especially 
 in such passages as w. 493-496, 540-548, and 
 822, 3, where reference is made to shepherds as 
 devotees of the Muses, and in the dance of shep- 
 herds in the second anti-masque. The presence 
 of such features as these in this and other masques 
 has led some critics to confuse the masque in 
 general with the pastoral. 1 There is not, how- 
 ever, any essential connection between the two 
 types; though the conventions of pastoral poetry 
 occasionally found their way into the masque as 
 they did into other literary forms. 
 
 10., The didacticism by which^ Milton availed 
 
 himself of a festive occasion to proclaim his belief 
 in the supreme value of purity/had precedent in 
 the practice Of Jonson. The earnestness and 
 elevation, however, of this part of the work 
 suggest how widely Milton's ideas of the scope and 
 purpose of poetry differed from those of his prede- 
 cessors in the masque and of his contemporaries * 
 in English poetry generally. 
 
 These points describe with some fullness the 
 type of dramatic composition to which Comus be- 
 longs. A comparison of this analysis with Milton's 
 
 1 See especially Macaulay's Essay on Milton. 
 
COMUS 41 
 
 poem as a whole shows how much its greatness 
 depends on the use he made of the form, how little 
 on. the form itself. 
 
 The figure of_Comus, God of Cheer or of the 
 Belly, had appeared in Ben Jonson's masque of 
 ~fteaure Reconciled to Virtue in 1619, but the re- 
 semblance to Milton's creation does not go much 
 farther than what is implied in the name. 
 
 Much more suggestive as a source is a curious ^ 
 Latin work, written mostly in prose by a Dutch- 
 man, Hendrik van der Putten. ComuSj sive Pha- 
 gesiposia Cimmeria: Somnium, as it was called, 
 had been published at Oxford in the year in which 
 Comus was composed. It is " the description of a 
 dream in which Comus, the genius of Love and 
 Cheerfulness, appears to the author, declares him- 
 self the lord of the whole wide realm of pleasure, 
 and briefly expounds his idea of life." In a " won- 
 drous structure, the palace of Comus, . . a 
 feast is celebrated, the guests at which are masked; 
 but those that one takes for men are Daunian 
 and Getulian wolves, dangerous monsters by their 
 bite, hiding their true n.ature under masks and 
 
 hypocritical appearances Comus .... is 
 
 found at a brilliant table surrounded by all the 
 refinements of luxury. . . . During the feast 
 Comus sings an ode on the mysteries of his wor- 
 ship. . . . Then Tabutius, an old man, begins 
 to moralize prolixly. . . . The themes which 
 
 y 
 
42 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he handles are drunkenness, excess in eating, fre- 
 quent banquets, . . . and the like." 1 
 
 \ In George Peele's Old Wives' Tale (pub. 1595), 
 there are two brothers searching for a lost sister 
 who has fallen into the power of an enchanter. 
 The enchanter has learned his magic from his 
 witch mother, and exercises it by means of a 
 potion .which induces forge tfulness. Finally the 
 enchantment is broken and the lady liberated. It 
 contains also an echo-song, vaguely suggestive of 
 the first lyric in Comus. There is no reason why 
 Milton may not have read this play, and had one 
 or two- of its features in mind when he constructed 
 the plot of his masque, but the method of treat- 
 
 f ment and the whole atmosphere of the two works 
 are so utterly different that it would be a mistake 
 to regard the Old Wives' Tale as in any important 
 sense the original of Comus. 
 
 Even less substantial are the resemblances to 
 Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess. This play, largely 
 imitated from two Italian pastoral dramas, Tasso's 
 Aminta and Guarini's Pastor Fido, is entirely 
 different in plot from Comus, and it has no charac- 
 ters which correspond. The resemblances chiefly 
 consist in the fact that the virtue of chastity is 
 the main theme of both, and in a number of small 
 
 1 Masson, Poetical Works of John Milton, Lond. and 
 N. Y., 1894, vol. I, pp. 174-6, abridged from I. Schmidt's 
 Milton's Comus, Berlin, 1860. 
 
LYCIDAS 43 
 
 details none of which is important enough to 
 justify any decided statement about Milton's in- 
 debtedness. 
 
 In the Inner Temple Masque by William Browne / 
 (1614), the chief character is Circe, whose attempts I 
 to enchant Ulysses bear some likeness to the wiles 
 of Comus. She is surrounded by nymphs and 
 sirens (cf . Comus, vv. 252-257) and has a following 
 of men in beasts' shapes who dance an anti- 
 masque (cf. Comus, v. 144). It is probable that 
 Milton derived suggestions from this production. 
 
 Other sources of detail in Comus, such as the 
 Circe episode from the Odyssey, are pointed out in 
 the notes. 
 
 The^ dialogue of Comus is written in the blank / 
 verge of ten syllables with five accents, which^was/ 
 
 the usual metre of the English drama. One pas- 
 '' sage (yv. 495-512) is rhymed in couplets. There 
 are besides two long lyrical passages (vv. 93-144 
 and 902-1023) in the same octosyllabic metre as 
 the greater part of L 'Allegro and II Penseroso. 
 The songs are made up of a variety of lines, vari- 
 ously rhymed. 
 
 V. LYCIDAS 
 
 Lycidas was written in 1637, and published in 
 the following year as the last of a collection of 
 poems by various hands, lamenting the death of 
 Edward King, a Fellow of Christ's College, Cam- 
 bridge. In August, 1637, King had set out to 
 
44 INTRODUCTION 
 
 visit relatives in Ireland; but the vessel in which 
 he was crossing the Irish Sea foundered and was 
 lost. Milton and he had been at Christ's at the 
 same time, and though the intimacy between them 
 was not of such warmth as that existing between 
 Milton and Charles Diodati, for whom he wrote 
 his Latin elegy, (the Epitaphium Damonis) ,he yet 
 seems to have known King well, and to have had a 
 sincere admiration for both his character and his 
 ability. 
 
 The poem is a pastoral elegy following the tra- 
 dition begun by Theocritus. In works of this 
 type, the scene is laid in a fanciful Sicily or Ar- 
 cadia, whose inhabitants are figured as shepherds, 
 spending th^ir days watching their sheep and 
 playing on their pipes of straw. The example of 
 \ the Sicilian School had been followed by Vergil 
 and other classical writers, and with the Renais- 
 sance there had come a great revival of the pas- 
 toral throughout western Europe. The idea had 
 been used not only in elegy but also in prose 
 romance and in the drama; and Milton had Eng- 
 lish examples in such works as Sir Philip Sidney's 
 Arcadia and The Faithful Shepherdess of John 
 Fletcher. He had already employed the pastoral 
 fiction in Arcades and in parts of Comus, and 
 throughout the present poem the setting and 
 imagery are of this nature. 
 
LYCIDAS 45 
 
 The poem opens with a statement of the occasion 
 (vv. 1-14), and this is followed by the conventional 
 invocation of the Muses (vv. 15-22). 
 
 The pastoral proper begins with v. 23, where he 
 images the life of King and himself while students at 
 Cambridge, following the same studies and alike x 
 experimenting in poetr}^ as that of two young * 
 shepherds, born on the same hillside, herding 
 their flocks together, and piping on the oaten flute. 
 This figure is kept up throughout the poem, ex- 
 cept in the digressions. 
 
 The first of these (vv. 64-84) deals~with Poetry 
 and J^ame^and is very significant of the spirit in 
 which Milton devoted himself to a poetical career. 
 In it he rises from the lower view uf Fame as mere 
 worldly reputation to a conception of it as the 
 stamp of (Jivine approval 
 
 The lament is then resumed (v. 85) in an attempt 
 to fix the blame for the disaster, and at v. 108 
 St. Peter is introduced as the guardian of the 
 church he founded, lamenting the death of so v 
 promising a youth at a time when the ministry 
 was crowded with hirelings. In this digression on 
 the state of the English Church, the service of 
 which King had intended to enter, we have a 1 
 splendid bur?t of indignation against those abuses 
 which from Milton's point of view were bringing 
 the Church into deeper and deeper degradation. 1 
 
 1 See Section I of this Introduction. 
 
46 INTRODUCTION 
 
 His hope that a short and effective remedy was 
 at hand is expressed in'vv. 130, 1. 
 
 The elegy proper is then taken up again (vv. 
 165-185), and he rises from the tone of regret that 
 has prevailed hitherto to a triumphant assertion 
 of his friend's immortality. In these lines he 
 leaves the classical and pagan allusions, which, 
 following the tradition of the pastoral, he had 
 freely introduced in the earlier pages, and adopts 
 the language of the New Testament. 
 
 In the last eight lines we have a kind of epilogue 
 in which Milton separates himself from the speaker 
 in the foregoing lament, tells of the close of the 
 shepherd's lay., and refers symbolically to his own 
 approaching change of occupation. 
 
 The metre of Lycidas consists mainly of ^ten- 
 syllabled lines, with the accents on the even sylla- 
 bles. It is rhymed^lrregularly^but with the most 
 subtly musical effectTanoT^t is varied by the 
 occasional introduction of a blank verse line and 
 of a shorter line of three accents. 1 So successfully 
 has Milton used this freedom that the poem ranks 
 as one of the most varied and best sustained 
 pieces of rhythm in the language. 
 
 1 For examples of blank verse lines, see vv. 1, 22, 
 39. 51, 82, 91, 161; of lines of three accents, see vv. 4, 19, 
 21, 33, 41, 43, 48, 56, 79, 88, 90, 95, 108, 145. 
 
MILTON'S PURITANISM 47 
 
 VI. MILTON'S PURITANISM 
 In reading the poems of Milton contained in the 
 present volume, it is easy to be at a loss to account 
 for what may appear their inconsistency with 
 Puritanism, as Puritanism is ordinarily conceived. 
 L' Allegro and II Penseroso both show a genuine 
 delight in_art, and a capacity for sheer pleasure 
 which Puritanism is_supppsed to Jiava_shunn@d. 
 Comus ^Belongs to^a type of dramatic literature 
 which, more than any other, is associated with the 
 pleasure-loving Cavalier society, and which is 
 particularly identified with that Court the downfall 
 of which the triumph of Puritanism implied. 
 And LycidaSj in spite of the outburst on the cor- 
 ruption in the Church, shows an anxious care for 
 that Church itself the Church which Puritanism 
 attempted to transform, if not to destroy. How 
 is the author of such poems to be accounted a 
 Puritan? 
 
 The explanation lies in a clearer understanding, 
 first, of the history of Puritanism itself; and, sec- 
 ond, of the growth of Milton's opinions. 
 
 In the first section of this Introduction, there 
 has been indicated a gradual development of Puri- 
 tan sentiment with regard to ritual and doctrine. 
 This was brought about largely by the innovations 
 of the High Church party; for, as that party at- 
 tempted more and more effectually to introduce 
 its views and practices into the Established 
 
48 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Church, the Puritans were led to define more 
 clearly and emphasize more strongly their points 
 of difference. Partly, perhaps, through the ani- 
 mus of controversy, partly through logical neces- 
 sity, these points of difference increased in number 
 and apparent importance. They began to appear 
 in fields that had at first been quite remote from 
 the dispute. Thus, in the earlier part of the 
 seventeenth century, there had been many 
 English gentlemen, Puritan in theology, who were 
 lovers of the beautiful in art, in literature, and, 
 like Milton's father, in music; and who, whil6 rig- 
 orously pure in their private morals, were yet gen- 
 erous in their culture and cheerful in their attitude 
 towards life. But it was by the Cavalier that the 
 pleasure-giving sides of life were most assiduously 
 cultivated; and when the Puritans found them- 
 selves forced by the ecclesiastical and political 
 issues of the time to take sides against the Cav- 
 aliers, they were led by the violence of the more 
 extreme members of their party to relegate to the 
 background those aesthetic tastes which they held 
 in common with the more refined men of the oppo- 
 site party, and finally, in many cases, to regard all 
 such things as wiles of" the devil. Thus became 
 predominant that narrow and unlovely typ'Q of 
 Puritanism which to-day is so often regarded as 
 the only one; while, as a matter of fact, it was only 
 the triumph of an extreme party brought about 
 
MILTON'S PURITANISM 49 
 
 by the open rupture with those who, whatever 
 may have been their vices, were generous in their 
 view of the place of beauty in life. 
 
 Now Milton, by upbringing and by tempera- 
 ment, belonged to the more moderate and cultured 
 group of Puritans. He was brought up in a 
 refined home, his father was a man of artistic 
 sensibilities, and the poet himself received, as we 
 have seen, a mo^liberal^eclujcatipn. His purpose, 
 cherished till manhood, of becoming a clergyman, 
 along with the passage in II Penseroso which shows 
 his appreciation of beautiful architecture and 
 music in the services of the Church, is sufficient to 
 disprove any natural aversion to the English 
 Church itself. Further, he deliberately chose an 
 artistic career; and after the turmoil of the Puritan 
 Revolution was over, he returned to it. For 
 nothing are the poems in the present volume more 
 notable than for their artistic qualities. 
 
 But keen as was Milton's love of art, there were 
 things for which he cared still more. Throughout 
 these earlier productions we find him constantly 
 awake to the moral questions suggested by his 
 subject. Comus, a poem written ostensibly for 
 the entertSmment ot a lestive gathering;, "Isf 
 an expfessionT of his convictions on fundamental 
 moral problems.JIK n 
 
 diligence, the necessity of the strictest personal 
 purity for the best results, whether in thinking or 
 
50 INTRODUCTION 
 
 living, the conviction that Virtue must in the long 
 run triumph these things, and not the celebration 
 of the inauguration of the Earl of Bridgewater, 
 are the real themes of the masque. The passion 
 in Lycidas rises to its highest pitch, not in ex- 
 pressions of grief over the death of his friend, but 
 in an almost irrelevant burst of righteous indig- 
 nation over the degradation of the holy office, 
 and the falsehood and hypocrisy and selfishness 
 which were undermining the foundations of the 
 Church. 
 
 When he was on the threshold of his career, 
 national events turned this moral enthusiasm into 
 a new channel. The sacred principle of liberty was 
 in danger. Without hesitation, Milton laid aside 
 his poetry and turned to the service of the cause 
 which seemed to him to call most loudly for help; 
 and since the upholders of that cause had in many 
 cases no sympathy with those other interests to 
 which he had expected to devote himself, the 
 period of his active association with them is al- 
 ^n\ns,t- {wren of poetical production. 
 
 Yet the old ideal was befor^ETm still; and when, 
 old, blind, and disappointed of the .results of his 
 long hope and endeavor, he retired to his obscure 
 corner, it was not like Swift, " to die like a poisoned 
 rat in a hole/' but to take up the task that he had 
 always regarded as his, and to carry it to a glorious 
 consummation. Paradise Lost may be the epic of 
 
MILTON'S PURITANISM 51 
 
 a dead or dying theology; Samson Agonistes may 
 be the grim deathsong of the ruined Roundhead ; 
 but in both Milton is the artist still, and the last- 
 ing proof of the possibility of the combination of 
 Puritanism and culture. 
 
 
L'ALLEGRO 
 
 HENCE, loathed Melancholy, 
 
 Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born 
 In Stygian cave forlorn 
 
 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights 
 
 unholy! '.jzJ^ 
 5 Find out gome uncoSith cell, 
 
 Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous 
 
 wings, 
 And the night-raven sings; 
 
 There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, 
 As ragged as thy locks, 
 10 In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 
 But come,\thou Goddess fair land free, 
 In heaven yclept EiiphxQs^jae, 
 And by men heart-easing Mirth, 
 Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, 
 is With two! sister Graces more, 
 To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: - 
 Or whether (as some sager sing) 
 
 e faolie wind tlmt breathes the spring, 
 Stiyr, with Aurora playing, 
 s met her once a-Maying, 
 There, on beds of violets blue, 
 And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, 
 Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 
 
54 . MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Scrbuxom, blithe, and debonair. 
 jx^Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 "Jest, and youthful , 
 
 Quips and cranks 
 
 ^xNods and becks and wreathed smiles, ~ * 
 X Such as hang on Hebe's che&J?^* r * r " % *\^ \" 
 
 And love to live in dimple sleek; ao 
 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
 
 AndLaughter holding both his sides. 
 / I Come, and trip it, as you go, 
 -\0n the light fantastic toe; 
 / And in thy right hand lead with thee 35 
 
 The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty ;/ 
 
 And, if I give thee honour due, 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew, 
 
 To live with her, and live with thee, 
 
 unreproved pleasures free: 
 
 To hear the lark begin his flight, "^ 
 
 And, singing, startle the dull night, 
 f :>"" From his watch-tower in the skies, 
 /-Till the dapplgd dawn doth rise; 
 
 Then to come, hi spite of sorrow, & 
 
 And at my window bid good-morrow, 
 
 Through the sweet-briar or the vine, 
 ^y^Or the twisted eglantine; 
 
 \VTiile the cock, with lively din, 
 
 Scatters the rear of darkness thin, $ 
 
 / And to the stack, or the barn-door, 
 ,, Stoutly struts his dames before: 
 
L'ALLEGRO 55 
 
 Oft listening how the hounds and horn/*' 
 
 ^xCheerly rouse the slumbering morn, Y^^aT^^^ 
 s^ From the side of some hoar hill, 
 / Through the high wood echoing shrill: 
 y Sometime! walking! not uijseen, 
 
 By hedgqrow elmsL on hillocks green, 
 
 Right atainstl tha eastern gate,, 
 eo Where the great Sun begins his stai 
 
 Robed in flames and amber light, 
 jj^The clouds in thousand liveries dight; 
 
 II N^ ' mtit '_ 
 
 1 , While the plowman, near at hand, 
 & Whistles o'er the furrowed land, 
 
 the milkmaid singeth blithe, 
 
 /'And the mower whets his scythe, ^ Q* 
 f /And every shepherd tells hiT^al^ 
 
 the ha\vthorn in the dale. 
 r Straight 'mine eye hath caught new pleasures 
 70 Whilst the landskip roun 
 ^Russet lawnsj and f 
 
 -/Where the nibbling flocks do stray; 
 f .Mountains on whose barren breast 
 The labouring clouds do often rest; 
 ^d Meadows trim, with daisies pied; 
 i^hallow brooks, and rivers wide; 
 "Towers and bat%m,ents.it sees 
 
 Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 so " v l 'ne cynosure of neighbouring eyes. 
 Hard by a cottage chimney smokes ^ 
 
66 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 xTYom betwixt two aged oaks, ^^* - 
 
 Where Corydon and Thyrsis met feT^T. 
 
 Are at their savoury dinner jSt lyH^Crvj 
 
 Of herbs and other countryTmlsses, 
 Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses; 
 And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
 With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; 
 Or, if the earlier season lead, 
 
 >*To thekannedfcaykKJck inUhe_mead. 
 * Sometimes with 
 
 ^XtSometimes,! with 
 
 The upland hamlets will invite, 
 When the merry bells ring round, 
 
 the jocund rebecks sound 
 To many a youth and many a maid 
 Dancing in the chequered shade, 
 And young and old come forth to play 
 
 x On a sunshine holiday, 
 
 ^,-Till the livelong daylight fail: 
 
 /Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 
 With stories told of many a feat, 
 How Faery Mab the junkets eat.- 
 
 was pinched and pulled, she said; 
 And he, by Friar's lantern, led, 
 
 . Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 
 To earn his cream-bowl duly set, 
 
 ^/When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, 
 His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 
 That ten day-labourers couklnot end; 
 Then lies him down, the lubber-fiend, 
 
L'ALLEGRO 67 
 
 ^ 
 
 ( 
 
 And, stretched out all 
 s Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
 And crop-full out of doors he flings, 
 ^ Ere the first cock his matin pings. 
 115 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, ^ 
 ( By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.!/ 
 ^Towered cities please us then, v- 
 
 XAnd the busy hum of men, -^y 
 
 Where throngs of knights and barons bold, 
 
 <***Zyi*& ,., Jk*^&&r ,1 
 
 isoInsAveeds of peace, nigh friumpns hold, 
 
 With storemmdies, whose bright eyes 
 Rain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit or arms, while both contend 
 To win her grace whorn jjll < $ rlm end. 
 There let Hymeiaottappfer ^ 
 In saffron robe7"with taper clear, 
 And pomp, and feast, and revelry, 
 With mask and antique pageantry; 
 Such sights as youthful poets dream 
 130 On summer eves by haunted stream. 
 Then to the well-trod stage anon> 
 If Jonson's learned sock be on, 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
 /Warble his native wood-notes wild, 
 135 And ever, against eating cares, 
 ^Lap me in soft Lydian airs, 
 , ''JtMarried to immor^^verse, 
 jr Such as the Tmeetrngsoul may pierce, 
 In notes with many a winding bout 
 
58 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Of linked sweetness long drawn out 140 
 
 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 
 
 The melting voice through mazes running, 
 
 Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 
 The hidden soul of harmony; 
 
 That Orpheus' self may heave his head 145 
 
 From golden slumber on a bed 
 
 Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear 
 
 Such strains as would have won the ear 
 
 Of Pluto to have quite set free 
 
 His half-regained Eurydice. iso 
 
 These delights if thou canst give, / 
 
 Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 
 
^* 
 
 r\ 
 IL \PENSEROSO 
 
 1 Hence, vain, deluding Joys, 
 
 The brood of EoUywithout father bred! 
 How little you bested; 
 Or fill the fixM mind with all your toys! 
 
 6 Dwell in some, idle bram, /? 
 
 . , e . X^^^ry *^f^\^ \ 
 And fanciesvfond with^gaudy shapes) possess, 
 
 As thick and numberless 
 As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, 
 
 Or likest ho vermg* dreams, 
 The fickle pensi6ners*bf Morpheus' train. 
 
 But, hail! thou Goddess sage and holy! 
 
 Hail, divinest Melancholy! 
 i Whose saintly/visage is too bright 
 i ToTut^'trie 1 sense of human sigjjt, 
 is And therefore to our 
 
 O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's 
 : Black, but such as in esteem 
 
 Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, 
 
 Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove 
 20 To set her beauty's praise above 
 
 The Sea-Nymph's, and their powers offended. 
 
 Yet thou art higher far descended: , 
 
 Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore ) 
 
 To solitary Saturn bore; 
 96 His*jfaughter she; in Saturn's reign, 
 
 . 
 
60 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Such mixture was not held a stain. 
 
 Oft|in glim^nering|bowers)and glades 
 
 He metiher, and' in scfcret shades 
 
 Of woody Ida's inmost 1 grove. 
 
 Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. so 
 
 Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure* 
 - Sober, steadfast, and I demure, 
 
 All hi a robejof daijkest grain, 
 ' Flowing \witn (majestic tram, 
 
 And sable stole^f cypress lawn 35 
 
 Over thy ofcenr^houlders. drawn ' 
 e; but keep thy wonted ^m^7^ 
 
 With even step, and musing gait, 
 
 And looks commercing with the skies. 
 
 Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes: 40 
 
 There, held hi holy passion still, 
 
 Forget thyself to marble, till 
 
 With a < gaaladen downward cast 
 
 Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 
 
 And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 45 
 
 Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet, 
 
 And hears the Muses in a ring 
 
 Aye round about Jove's altar sing; 
 
 And add to these retired Leisure, 
 
 That in trim gardens takes his pleasure; sc 
 
 But, first and chief est, with thee bring 
 
 Him that yon soars on golden wing, 
 ^ Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, 
 
 The Cherub Contemplation; 
 
IL PENSEROSO 61 
 
 55 And the mute Silence hist along, 
 /X'Less Philomel will deign a song,& 
 
 In her sweetest saddest plight,!*^ 
 
 Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, -f** 
 
 While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke 
 yeo Gently o'er th' accustomed oak. 
 ; Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, 
 
 Most musical, most melancholy! 
 *- Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among 
 
 I woo, to hear thy even-song; 
 es And, missing thee, I walk unseen 
 
 On the dry smooth-shaven green,-^ 
 
 To behold the wandering moon, -^ 
 
 Riding near her highest noon, 
 
 Like one that had been led astray 
 70 Through the heaven's wide pathless way, "" 
 
 And oft, as if her head she bowed, 
 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud. ~ 
 
 Oft, on a plat of rising ground, 
 
 I hear the far-off curfew sound, 
 75 Over some wide-watered shore, " ^* 
 ^Swinging slow with sullen roar; 
 y-Or, if the air will not permit, 
 
 Some still removed place will fit, 
 
 Where glowing embers through the room 
 so Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 
 - Far from all resort of mirth, * "* - ** 
 
 Save the cricket on the hearth, 
 
 Or the bellman's drowsy charm +* 1 ** 
 
62 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 To bless the doors from nightly harm. 
 Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 
 Be seen in some high lonely tower, 
 Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, 
 With thrice great Hermes, or 
 The spirit of Plato, to unfold 
 What worlds or what vast regions hold 
 The immortal mind that hath forsook 
 Her mansion in this fleshly nook; 
 And of those demons that are found 
 In fire, air, flood, or underground, 
 Whose power hath a true consent 
 With planet or with element. 
 Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 
 In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 
 Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line, 
 
 Or the tale of Troy divine, 
 r what (though rare) of later age 
 Ennobled hath the buskined stage. 
 But, sad Virgin! that thy power 
 Might raise Musseus from his bower; 
 Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing 
 Such notes as, warbled to the string, 
 Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 
 And made Hell grant what love did seek; 
 Or call up him that left half told 
 The story of Cambuscan bold, 
 Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 
 And who had Canace to wife, 
 
TJ* PFNSEKOSO 
 
 That owned the virtuous ring and glass, 
 And of the wondrous horse of brass 
 
 us On which the Tartar king did ride; 
 And if aught else great bards beside 
 In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 
 Of tourneys, and of trophies hung, , 
 Of forests, and enchantments drear, 
 
 120 Where more is meant then meets the ear. 
 Thus, .^" me m thy P a ^ e career, 
 
 appear, 
 
 Not tnckeoand frounced, as she was wont 
 With the Attic boy to hunt, 
 
 125 But kerchieft in a comely cloud, - 
 While rocking winds are piping loud, 
 Or ushered with a shower still, 
 When the gust hath blown his fill,- 
 
 \ Ending on 4he t rustling Jeave 
 
 1T7UU *YWl fc L **T V ^"A* ' " 
 
 130 With minute-drops from on the eave 
 
 , when the sun begins to fling 
 His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring 
 To arched walks of twilight groves, - 
 And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, 
 
 135 Of pine, or monumental oak, 
 Where the rude axe with heaved stroke's- 
 'Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 
 for fright them from their hallowed haunt*) 
 
 ; There in close covert, by some brook, 
 
 i40 Where no profaner eye may look, 
 
 \ Hide me from day's garish eye, 
 
6* MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 ^* While the bee with honeyed thigh, 
 That at her flowery work doth sing, 
 And the waters murmuring, 
 
 s With such consort as they keep, I4g 
 
 ^ Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
 
 And let some strange mysterious dream 
 ^Wave at his wings, in airy stream 
 Of lively portraiture displaced, 
 "Softly on my eyelids laid; . 15C 
 
 And, as I wake, sweet music breathe 
 Above, about, or underneath, 
 Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, 
 Or the unseen Genius of the wood. 
 -But let my due feet never fail ^ 
 
 To walk the studious cloister's pale, 
 AII ; i vi \~-K itr i rf-r*- ,. 
 And love the high emuowed roof, 
 
 AncFstonea windows richly digrit, 
 
 'asting a dim religious light. 16C 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow, 
 To the full-voiced quire below, 
 In service high and anthems clear, 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 165 
 
 L. And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 
 pAnd may at last my weary age 
 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage. 
 
 t^^u. ^J^ww r\ <^ K^CSS^ 
 Ine hairy gown and mossy cell, 
 
 '' " gr / ' A ^ Q-JX- f^ 
 
 Where I may sit and rightly spell o#*^* ** 170 
 
IL PENSEROSO 65 
 
 every st^r that heaven doth shew, 
 And every herb that sips the dew, 
 Till old experience do attain 
 To something like prophetic strain. 
 35 These pleasures, Melancholy, give: 
 .And I with thee will choose to live. 
 
COMUS 
 
 A MASQUE PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, 
 
 BEFORE THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WALES 
 
 THE PERSONS 
 
 The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit of 
 
 THYRSIS. 
 
 COMUS, with his crew. 
 THE LADY. 
 FIRST BROTHER. 
 SECOND BROTHER. 
 SABRINA, the Nymph. 
 
 The Chief Persons which presented were 
 The LORD BRACKLEY; 
 Mr. THOMAS EGERTON, his brother; 
 The Lady ALICE EGERTON. 
 
 The First Scene Discovers a Wild Wood 
 The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters 
 
 BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court 
 
 My mansion is, where those immortal shapes 
 
 Of bright aerial spirits live insphered 
 
 In regions mild of calm and serene air, 
 
 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot \ 
 
 66 
 
COMUS 67 
 
 Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted 
 
 care, 
 
 Confined and pestered in this pinfold here, 
 Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, 
 Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, 
 
 10 After this mortal change, to her true servants 
 Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats. 
 Yet some there be that by due steps aspire 
 To lay their just hands on that golden key 
 That opes the palace of eternity. 
 
 15 To such my errand is; and, but for such, 
 I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds 
 With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould. 
 But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway 
 Of every salt flood and each ebbjng strain,* 
 
 20 Took in by lot, 'twixt high and neffier 
 Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles 
 That, like to rich and various gems, inlay 
 The unadorned bosom of the deep; 
 Which he, to grace his tributary gods, 
 
 25 By course commits to several government, 
 And gives them leave to wear their sapphire 
 
 crowns 
 
 And wield their little tridents. But this Isle, 
 The greatest and the best of all the main, 
 He quarters to his blue-haired deities; 
 
 30 And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 
 4^ioble Peer of mickle trust and power "~ 
 Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 
 
68 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 An old and haughty nation, proud in arms: 
 Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, 
 I Are coming to attend their father's state, 35 
 
 And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way 
 /Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear 
 
 wood, 
 
 The nodding horror of whose shady brows 
 Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger; 
 And here their tender age might suffer peril, 48 
 But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, 
 I was dispatched for their defence and "guard: 
 And listen why; for I will tell you now 
 What never yet was heard in tale or song, 
 From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. 45 
 
 Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape 
 "Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
 I After the Tuscan mariners transformed, 
 / Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, 
 >0n Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 
 ^SThe daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup 
 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 
 And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) 
 This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks, 
 With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, 55 
 Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son 
 I Much like his father, but his mother more, 
 \Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus 
 
 named: 
 Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age, 
 
COMUS 69 
 
 eo Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 
 At last betakes him to this ominous wood, 
 And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, 
 Excels his mother at her mighty art; 
 Offering to every weary traveller 
 
 65 His orient liquor in a crystal glass, 
 To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they 
 
 taste 
 (For most do taste through fond intemperate 
 
 thirst), 
 
 Soon as the potion works, their human count 'nance. 
 The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
 
 70 Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 
 Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, 
 All other parts remaining as they were. 
 And they, so perfect is their misery, 
 Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, 
 
 75 But boast themselves more comely than before, 
 And all their friends and native home forget, 
 To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty. 
 Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove 
 Chances to pass through this adventurous glade, 
 
 so Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 
 I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, 
 ASJLQW I do. But first I must put off 
 These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, 
 And take the weeds and likeness of a swain 
 
 85 That to the service of this house belongs, 
 Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, 
 
70 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 / \ 
 
 Well knows to still ;the wild winds when they roar, 
 And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, 
 And in this office of his mountain watch 
 Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid gc 
 
 Of this occasion. But I hear the tread 
 Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. 
 
 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 other- 
 wise like men and women, their apparel glistering. 
 They come in making a riotous and unruly noise, 
 with torches in their hands. 
 
 Comus. The star that bids the shepherd fold, 
 Now the top of heaven doth hold; 
 Ami the gilded car of_day_ 95 
 
 His glowing axle doth allay 
 In the steep Atlantic stream; 
 And the slope sun his upward beam 
 Shoots against the dusky pole, 
 Pacing toward the other goal 100 
 
 Of his chamber in the east. 
 Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 
 Midnight shout and revelry, 
 Tipsy dance and jollity. 
 
 Braid your locks with rosy twine, leg 
 
 Dropping odours, dropping wine. 
 Rigor now is gone to bed; 
 And Advice with scrupulous head, 
 

 COMUS 71 
 
 Strict Age, and sour Severity, 
 110 With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 
 
 We, that are of purer fire, 
 
 Imitate the starry quire, 
 
 Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, I 
 
 Lead in swift round the months and years. 
 us The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 
 
 Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; 
 
 And on the tawny sands and shelves 
 
 Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves; 
 
 By dimpled brook and fountain-brim, 
 120 The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 
 
 Their merry wakes and pastimes keep : 
 
 What hath night to do with sleep? 
 
 Night hath better sweets to prove; 
 
 Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. 
 125 Come, let us our rites begin; 
 
 ; Tis only daylight that makes sin, 
 
 Which these dun shades will ne'er report. 
 (Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport, 
 
 Dark- veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame 
 130 Of midnight torches burns! mysterious dame, 
 
 That ne'er art called but when the dragon womb 
 
 Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, 
 
 And makes one blot of all the air! 
 
 Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, 
 135 Wherein thou ridest with Hecat', and befriend 
 
 Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end 
 
 Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; 
 
72 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 
 
 The nice Morn on the Jndian_steep, 
 
 From her cabined loop-hole peep, no 
 
 And to the tell-tale Sun descry 
 
 Our concealed solemnity. 
 
 Come, knit hands, and beat the ground 
 
 In a light fantastic round.) 
 
 The Measure 
 
 Break off, break off! I feel the different pace 145 
 Of some chaste footing near about this ground. 
 Run to your shrouds within these brakes and 
 
 trees; 
 
 Our number may affright. Some virgin sure 
 (For so I can distinguish by mine art) 
 Benighted in these woods! Now to my charms, 150 
 And to my wily trains: I shall ere long 
 Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
 About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
 My dazzling spells into the spongy air, 
 Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 155 
 And give it false preserftments, lest the place 
 And my quaint hffiitsbreed astonishment, 
 And put the damsel to suspicious flight; 
 Which must not be, for that's against my course. 
 I, under fair pretence of friendl^ends, ieo 
 
 And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, 
 Baited with reasons not unplausible, 
 Wind me into the easy-hearted man, 
 
COMUS 73 
 
 And hug him into snares. When once her eyj 
 165 Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, 
 I shall appear some hamiless villager, 
 
 Whom thrift keeps < up*atx)ut his country g^ar. 
 But here she comes; I fairly step aside, 
 And hearken, if I may her business hear. 
 
 The LADY enters 
 
 170 Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be 
 
 true, 
 
 My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 
 Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 
 Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 
 Stirs up among the loose unlettered hinds, 
 
 175 When, for their teeming flocks and granges full, 
 In wanton^ dance they praise the bounteous Pan, 
 And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth 
 To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence 
 Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else 
 
 iso Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 
 In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? 
 My brothers, when they saw me wearied out 
 With this long way, resolving here to lodge 
 (Under the spreading favour of these pines,) 
 
 185 Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side 
 To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit 
 As the kind hospitable woods provide. 
 They left me then, when the grey-hooded Even, 
 Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, 
 
 
74 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. 190 
 But where they are, and why they came not back, 
 Is now the labour of my thoughts. Tis likeliest 
 They had engaged their wandering steps too far; 
 And envious darkness, ere they could return, 
 Had stole them from me. Else, thievish Night, 195 
 Why shouldst thou, but for some felonk)ii end, 
 In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars 
 That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps 
 With everlasting oil to give due light 
 /To the misled and lonely traveller? ) 200 
 
 This is the place, as well as I may guess, 
 Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth 
 Was rife, and P e ^^^_^Y listening ear; 
 Yet nought but smgJ^oa^^ss do I find. 
 What might this be? A thousand fantasies 205 
 
 Begin to throng into my memory, 
 Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 
 And airy tongues that syllable men's names 
 On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. 
 These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210 
 The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 
 By a strong-siding champion, Conscience. 
 Oh, welcome, pure-eyed Ijjith. white-handed 
 
 Hoge, 
 
 Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 
 And thou, unblemished form of Chastity! 215 
 
 I see ye visibly, and now believe 
 That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 
 
COMUS 75 
 
 Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, 
 Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, 
 
 220 To keep my life and honour unassailed .... 
 Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 
 (Turn forth her silver lining on the night? \ 
 I did not err: there does a sable cloud 
 Turn forth her silvei lining on the night, 
 
 225 And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.") 
 I can not hallo to my brothers, but 
 Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 
 I'll venture; for my new-enlivened spirits 
 Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. 
 
 Song 
 
 230 Sweet Echo, sweetest n YffiP]i i that liv'st unseen 
 
 Within thy ajry^lhdl^^ 
 
 / j if i * ^^^ 
 
 By slow Meander's marg&nt*green, 
 And in the violet-embroidered vale 
 Where the love-lorn nightingale 
 235 Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: 
 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
 That likest thy Narcissus are? 
 
 0, if thou have 
 
 Hid them in some flowery cave, 
 240 Tell me bi^where,^ 
 
 Sweet Queen ofTParley,Daughter of the Sphere! 
 So may'st thou be translated to the skies, 
 And give resounding grace to all Heaven's har- 
 monies. 
 
76 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Comus. Can any mortal mixture of earth's 
 
 mould 
 
 Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? 345 
 Sure something holy lodges in that breasi, 
 And with-ihese raptures moves the vocal air 
 To testify^ hidden residence. 
 How sweetly did they float upon the wings 
 Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 
 At everylallsmoothing the raven down 
 Of darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard 
 My mother Circe with the Siren*three, 
 Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, 
 Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 
 
 Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, 
 And lap it in Elysium: Scylla wept, 
 And chid her barking waves into attention, 
 And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. 
 Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, see 
 And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; 
 But such a sacred and home-felt delight, 
 Such sober certainty of waking bliss, 
 I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, 
 And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign wonder! 265 
 Whom, certain, these rough shades did never 
 
 breed, 
 
 Unless the goddess that in rural shrine 
 Dwell'st here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song 
 Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 
 To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 
 
COMUS 77 
 
 Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd 111 is lost that 
 
 praise 
 
 That is addressed to unattending ei 
 Not any boast of skill, but extigmeshift 
 How to regain my severed company, 
 275 Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 
 To give me answer from her mossy couch. 
 
 Comus. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft 
 you thus? 
 
 Lady. Dim darkness, and this leavy labyrinth* 
 Comus. Could that divide you from near- 
 ushering guides? ^f***f >***<*^***&*i 
 280 Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 
 Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? 
 Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly 
 
 spring. 
 Comus. And left your fair side all unguarded, 
 
 Lady? 
 .Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick 
 
 return. 
 285 Comus. Perhaps forestalling night prevented 
 
 them. 
 
 Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit! 
 Comus. Imports their loss, beside thejpresent 
 npprl? *L fcflu^* -te~*- vv^%>*^t>^^ 
 
 llCt/Ll. *J* ****** 
 
 Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 
 Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youthful 
 
 bloom? 
 29c Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips 
 
78 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Comus. Two such I saw, what time the laboured 
 
 ox 
 
 In his loose traces from the furrow came, 
 And the swinked hedger at his supper sat. 
 I saw them under a green mantling vine, 
 That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 295 
 
 Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots: 
 
 ^^^fcAxV^ 
 
 Their port wafc more than human, as they stood. 
 
 I took it for a faery vision 
 
 Of some gay creatures of the ele$"en% 
 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, soo 
 
 And play i' the *pn^ea clouds. I was awe- 
 
 strook, 
 
 And, as I passed, I worshiped. If those you seek, 
 It were a journey like the path to Heaven 
 To help you find them. 
 Lady. Gentle villager, 
 
 What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 
 
 Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby 
 point. 
 
 Lady. To find that out, good shepherd, I sup- 
 pose, 
 
 In such a scant allowance of star-light, 
 Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, 
 Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. ao 
 
 Comus. I know each lane, and every alley green, 
 Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood, 
 
 QJ- t.-nj\i M*( f}\'~~* f ~ 
 
 And every oosky bffnrnTrom side to side, 
 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; 
 

 COMUS 79 
 
 315 AncLifYOur stray attendance be yet lodged, 
 Or^nromwithin these limits, I shall kiiow 
 Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
 From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise, 
 I can conduct you, Lady, to a low 
 
 320 But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 
 Till further quest. 
 
 Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word, 
 
 And trust thy honest-offered courtesy; 
 Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, 
 With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls 
 
 325 And courts of princes, where it first was named, 
 And yet is most pretended.^ In a place 
 
 |*1K<I|^^ secure, 
 
 I cannot be, that I should fear to changei 
 Eye me, blest Providence, and sqtferarriy trial 
 
 330 To my proportioned strength! Shepherd, lead on, 
 
 The TWO BROTHERS 
 
 Eld. Bro. Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou. 
 
 ThafwonTsttoTove the traveller's benison, 
 Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
 And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here 
 335 In double night of darkness and of shades; 
 Or, if your influence be quite dammed up 
 With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
 Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole 
 Of some clay habitation, visit us 
 
80 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 
 And thou shalt be our Star of Arcady, 
 Or Tyrian Cynosure. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Or, if our eyes 
 
 Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
 The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, 
 Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, 345 
 
 Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
 Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, 
 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering, 
 In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. 
 But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister! sso 
 
 Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
 From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and 
 
 thistles? 
 
 Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, 
 Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm 
 Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 355 
 What if in wild amazement and affright, 
 Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
 Of savagejhunger, or of savage heat? ^ JUS^A**" 
 
 Eld. Bro. Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite 
 To cast the fashion of uncertain evils; seo 
 
 For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, 
 What need a man forestall his date of grief, 
 And run to meet what he would most avoid? 
 Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, 
 How bitter is such self-delusion! * 365 
 
 I do not think my sister so tojeek, ^ ^ 
 

 COMUS 81 
 
 Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, 
 
 And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 
 
 As that the suf|le want of light and noise 
 
 370 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 
 
 Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, 
 And put them into misbecoming plight. 
 /' Virtue could see to do what Virtue would 
 * By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 
 
 875 Were in the flat^ea sunk. And Wisdom's self 
 Oftl$eksjto sweet retired solitude, 
 Where, with her best nurse, Contempjation, 
 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 
 That, in the various bustle of resort, 
 
 sso Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 
 He that has light within his own clear breast 
 May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day: 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; 
 
 885 Himself is his own dungeon. 
 
 Sec.Bro. Tis most true 
 
 That musing meditation most affra^ 
 The pensive secrecy of desert cell, 
 Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, 
 And sits as safe as in a senate-house; 
 
 890 For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 
 His few books, or his beads, or maple dish, 
 Or do his gray hairs any violence? 
 But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree 
 Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 
 
82 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 ^j ^^L- 
 
 Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye 
 To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit 
 From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. ,. 
 JYou may as well spread out the unsunned heaps 
 /Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, 
 / And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 
 
 Danger will wink on Opportunity, 
 And let a single helpless maiden pass 
 Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 
 Of night or loneliness it recks me not; 
 I fear the dread [ eygnts, that dog them both, 405 
 Lest some ill-greetmgtouch attempt the person 
 Of ourt^fowne^^is^erT ' 
 
 Eld. Bro. I do not, brother, 
 
 Infer as if I thought my sister's state 
 Secure without all doubt or controversy; 
 Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 
 
 Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
 That I incline to hope rather than fear, 
 And gladly banish squint suspicion. 
 My sister is not so defenceless left 
 As you imagine; she has a hidden strength, 4is 
 
 Which you remember not. 
 
 Sec. Bro. What hidden strength, 
 
 Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that? 
 
 Eld. Bro. I mean that too, but yet a hidden 
 
 strength, 
 
 Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 
 Tis chastity, my brother, chastity; 420 
 
OOMUS 83 
 
 She that has that is clad in complete steej 
 And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, 
 May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths, 
 Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds; 
 
 425 Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 
 No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer, 
 Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 
 Yea, there where very desolation dwells, 
 (By grots and caverns shagged with horrid shades, 
 
 430 She may pass on with unblenchedL 
 
 Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 
 Some say no evil thing that walks hy nighf-j 
 In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, 
 Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, 
 
 435 That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 
 No goblin or swart faery of the mine, 
 Hath hurtful power o^erjyug virginity, 
 Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call 
 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 
 
 440 To testify the arms of chastity? 
 
 Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, 
 Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste, 
 Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness 
 And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought 
 
 445 The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men 
 
 Feared her sjgrn frown, and shewas queen o' the 
 
 woods. 
 
 What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield 
 That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 
 
84 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Wherewith she freezed her foes -to congealed stone, 
 But rigid looks of^chaste austerity^ 450 
 
 And noble grace that dashed brute violence 
 With sudden adoration and blank awe? 
 So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity 
 
 ' That, when a soul is found sincerely so, 
 A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 455 
 
 Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, 
 And in clear dream and solemn vision 
 Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; 
 Till oft converse with heavenly habitants 
 Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 480 
 The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
 And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 
 Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, 
 
 /By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 
 But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 465 
 
 Letsjn defilement to the inward parts, 
 The souLgrows clotted by contagion, 
 Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite |pse 
 The divine property of her first being. 
 Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 
 Oft seen in charnel-vaults and sepulchres^; 
 Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 
 As loth to leave the body that it loved, 
 And linked itself by carnal sensualty 
 To a degenerate and degraded state. 475 
 
 Sec. Bro. How charming is divine Philosophy! 
 Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 

 COMUS 85 
 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
 480 Where no crude surfeit reigns. 
 
 Eld. Bro. List! list! I hear 
 
 Some far-off hallo break the silent air. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Methought so too; what should it be? 
 Eld. Bro. For certain, 
 
 Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, 
 Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, 
 485 Some roving robber calling to his fellows. 
 
 Sec. Bro. Heaven keep my sister! Again, again, 
 
 and near! 
 Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 
 
 Eld. Bro. I'll hallo. 
 
 If he be friendly, he comes well; if not, 
 Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us! 
 
 The ATTENDANT SPIRIT, habited like a shepherd 
 490 That hallo I should know. What are you? speak. 
 Come not too near; you fall on iron stakes else. 
 Spir. What voice is that? my young Lord? 
 
 speak again. 
 Sec. Bro. brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, 
 
 sure. 
 Eld. Bro. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have 
 
 oft delayed 
 
 495 The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 
 And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. 
 How earnest thou here, good swain? Hath any 
 ram 
 
86 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam, 
 
 Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? 
 
 How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook? 500 
 
 Spir. my loved master's heir, and his next joy, 
 I came not here on such a trivial toy 
 As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth 
 Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth 
 That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought sos 
 To this my errand, and the care it brought. 
 But, oh! my virgin Lady, where is she? 
 How chance she is not in your company? 
 
 Eld. Bro. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, without 
 
 blame 
 Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 5io 
 
 Spir. Ay me unhappy! then my fe_ars_a^re true. 
 Eld. Bro. What fears, good Thyrsis? Prithee 
 
 briefly shew. 
 
 Spir. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
 (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) 
 What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly sis 
 
 Muse, 
 
 Storied of old in high immortal verse 
 Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, 
 And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell; 
 For such there be, but unbelief is blind. 
 
 Within the navel of this hideous wood, 520 
 
 Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells. 
 Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, 
 Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries, 
 
COMUS 87 
 
 And here to every thirsty wanderer 
 525 By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 
 
 With many murmurs mixed, whose pleasing poison 
 The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, 
 And the inglorious likeness of a beast 
 Fixes instead, un moulding reason's mintage 
 530 Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 
 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts 
 That brow this bottom glade; whence night by 
 
 (night 
 He and his monstrous rout arejieard to howl 
 Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, 
 
 535 Doing abhorred rites to Hecate 
 
 In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers. 
 Yet have they many baits and_guileful spells 
 To inveigle and invite the unwary sense 
 Of them that pass unweeting by the way. 
 
 MoThi&eveninjy late, by then the chewing flocks 
 Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb 
 Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, 
 I sate me down to watch upon a bank 
 With ivy canopied, and interwove 
 
 545 With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 
 Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, 
 
 I To meditate my rural minstrelsy, 
 Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close 
 The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, 
 560 And filled the air with barbarous dissonance; 
 At which I ceased, and listened them a while. 
 
88 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Till an unusual stop of suddenjdlence 
 
 Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted steeds 
 
 That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. 
 
 At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 555 
 
 Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, 
 
 And stole upon the air, that even Silence 
 
 Was took ere she was ware, and wished she might 
 
 Deny her nature, and be never more, 
 
 Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, seo 
 
 And took in strains that might create a soul 
 
 Under the ribs of Death. But, oh! ere long 
 
 Too well I did perceive it was thejvoice 
 
 Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. 
 
 Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear; 565 
 
 And "0 poor hapless nightingale," thought I, 
 
 "How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly 
 
 snare!" 
 
 Then down the lawns I ran with headlong haste, 
 Through paths and turnings often trod by day, 
 Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 
 
 Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise 
 (For so by certain signs I knew), had met 
 Already, ere my best speed could prevent, 
 The aidless innocent Lady, his wished prey; 
 Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 575 
 
 Supposing him some neighbour villager. 
 Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 
 Ye were the two she meant; with that I sprung 
 Into swiftjlight, till I had found you here; 
 
COMUS 89 
 
 680 But further know I not. 
 
 Sec. Bro. night and shades, 
 
 How are ye joined with helljn triple knot, 
 Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, 
 Alone and helpless! Is this the confidence 
 You gave me, brother? 
 
 Eld. Bro. Yes, and keep it still; 
 
 685 Lean on it safely; not a period 
 
 i Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats 
 Of malice^orosorcery, or that power ./ 
 Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm: 
 Virtue mayjb^assailed, but neveriurt, 
 
 690 Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled; 
 Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm 
 Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. 
 But evil jm itself shall back recoil, 
 And mix no more with goodness, when at last, 
 
 595 Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, 
 It shall be in eternal restless change 
 Self-fed and selfHonsumed. If this fail, 
 The pillared firmament is rottenness, 
 And earth's base built on stubble. But come, 
 let's on! 
 
 coo Against the opposing will and arm of heaven 
 May never this just sword be lifted up; 
 But for that damned magician, let him be girt 
 With all the grisly legions that troop 
 Under the sooty flag of Acheron^ ^X^ 
 
 cos Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 
 
90 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, 
 And force him to return his purchase back, 
 Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, 
 Cursed as his life. 
 
 Spir. Alas! good venturous youth, 
 
 I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise; 311 
 
 But here thy sword can do thee little stead. 
 Far other arms and other weapons must 
 Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. 
 He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, 
 And crumble all thy sinews. 
 
 Eld. Bro. Why, prithee, Shepherd, 611 
 
 How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
 As to make this relation? 
 
 Spir. Care and utmost shifts 
 
 How to secure the Lady from surprisal 
 Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad, 
 Of small regard to see to, yet well_skilled 62 
 
 In every virtuous plant and healing herb 
 That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
 He loved me well, and oft would beg mejiing; 
 Which, when I did, he on the tender grass 
 Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 
 And in requital <>$ Ws leathern scrip, 
 And shew me simpfes 01 a thousand names, 
 Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
 Amongst the rest a small unsightly root, 
 But of divine effect, he culled me out: 
 The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, 
 
COMUS 91 
 
 But in another country, as he said, 
 Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil: 
 Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain 
 35 Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon; 
 And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly 
 That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 
 He called it Hsemony, and gavej^me^ 
 And bade me keep it as of sovra&use 
 
 iiof'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or /damp, 
 
 v^ * ^ __^ * . . 
 
 Or ghastly Furies' apparition. ^-* *" 
 I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, 
 Till now that this extremity compelled. 
 But now I find it true; for by this means 
 
 145 1 knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, 
 Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells, 
 And yet came off. If you have this about you 
 (As I will give you when we go), you may 
 Boldly assault the necromancer's hall; 
 
 iso Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood, 
 And brandished blade rush on him: break his glass, 
 And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; 
 But seize his wando Though he and his curst 
 
 crew 
 Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, 
 
 m Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, 
 Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 
 
 Eld.Bro. Thyrsis, lead on apace; I'll follow 
 
 thee; 
 And some good angel bear a shield before us! 
 
92 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all 
 manner of deliciousness: soft music, tables spread 
 with all dainties. COMUS appears with his rabble, 
 and THE LADY set in an enchanted chair: to whom 
 he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes 
 about to rise 
 
 Comus. Nay, Lady, sit; if I but wave this wand, 
 Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, e 
 
 And you a statue; or as Daphne was, 
 Root-bound, that fled Apollo. 
 
 Lady. Fool, do not boast; 
 
 Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind 
 With all thy charms, although this corporal rind 
 Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. 
 
 Comus. Why are you vexed, Lady? why do you 
 
 frown? 
 
 Here dwell no frowns, nor anger; from these gates 
 Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures 
 That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts, 
 When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 
 Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 
 And first behold this cordial julep here, 
 That flames and dances in his crystal bounds, 
 With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. 
 Not that Nepenthes, which the wife of Thone 
 In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena 
 Is of such power to stir up joy as this, 
 To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 
 
ICOMUS 93 
 
 Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 
 
 680 And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 
 For gentle usage and soft delicacy? 
 But you invert the covenants of her trust, 
 And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, 
 With that which you received on other terms, 
 
 ess Scorning the unexempt condition 
 
 By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 
 Refreshment after toil, easejifter pain, 
 That have been tired all day without repast, 
 And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 
 
 690 This will restore all soon. 
 
 Lady. 'Twill not, false traitors 
 
 Twill not restore the truth and honesty 
 That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies, 
 Was this the cottage and the safe abode 
 Thou told'st me of? What grim aspects are these, 
 
 695 These ugly-headed monsters? Mercy guard me! 
 Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul de- 
 ceiver! 
 
 Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
 With vizored falsehood and base forgery? 
 And would 'st thou seek again to trap me here 
 
 x> With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 
 Were it a draughtjor_Juno when she banquets, 
 I would not taste thy treason rms offer. None 
 But such as are good men can, give good things; 
 And that which is not goocHs not delicious 
 
 705 To a well-governed and wise appetite. 
 
94 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Comus. foolishness of men! that lend their 
 
 ears 
 
 To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, 
 And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, 
 Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence! 
 Wherefore did Na-ture pour her bounties forth TK 
 With such a full and un withdrawing hand, 
 Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, 
 Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable, 
 But all to please and sate the curious taste? 
 And set to work millions of spinning worms, 711 
 That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired 
 
 silk, 
 
 To deck her sons; and, that no corner might 
 Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins 
 She hutched the all-worshiped ore and precious 
 
 gems, 
 
 To store her children with. If all the world 72 
 Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, 
 Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but 
 
 frieze, 
 The All-giver would be unthanked, would be un- 
 
 jpraised, 
 
 Not half his riches known, and yet despised; 
 And we should serve him as a grudging master, 72 
 As a penurious niggard of his wealth, 
 And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, 
 Who would be quite surcharged with her own 
 
 weight, 
 
COMUS 95 
 
 And strangled with her waste fertility: 
 rao The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked 
 with plumes, 
 
 The herds would over-multitude their lords; 
 
 The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought 
 diamonds 
 
 Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, 
 
 And so bestud with stars, that they below 
 res Would grow inured to light, and come at last 
 
 To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 
 
 List, Lady; be not coy, and be not cozened 
 
 With that same vaunted name, Virginity. 
 
 Beauty is Nature's coin) must not be hoarded^ 
 r4o But must be currerr^ and the good thereof 
 
 Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, 
 
 Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself. 
 
 If you let slip time, like a neglected rose 
 
 It withers on the stalk with languished head. 
 r45 Beauty is Nature's brag,\and must be shown 
 Qn courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, 
 ^Vliere most may wonder at the workmanship. 
 
 It is for homely features to keep home; 
 
 They had their name thence: coarse complexions 
 750 And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 
 
 The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. 
 
 What need ai^ermeil-tinctured lip for that, 
 
 Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn? 
 
 There was another meaning in these gifts; 
 755 Think what, and be advised; you are but young yet 
 
96 MILTON'S MiNOR POEMS 
 
 Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my 
 
 lips 
 
 In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler' 
 Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, 
 Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. 
 
 / 1 hate when vice can bolt her arguments, w. 
 
 * And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. 
 Impostor! do not charge most innocent Nature, 
 As if she would her children should be riotous 
 With her abundance. She, good cateress, 
 Means her provision only to the good, 765 
 
 That live according to her seber laws, 
 And holy dictate of spare Temperance. 
 If every justjman that now pines with want 
 Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
 Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 77< 
 
 Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
 Nature^ full blessings would be well dispensed 
 In unsuperfluous even proportion, 
 And she no whit encumbered with her store; 
 And then the Giver would be better thanked, 775 
 His praise due paid: for swinish gluttony 
 Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 
 But with besotted base ingratitude 
 Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? 
 Or have I said enough? To him that dares 730 
 
 Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words 
 Against the sun-clad power of chastity 
 Fain would I something say; yet to what end? 
 
COMUS 97 
 
 Thou hast not ear, nor soul, to apprehend 
 185 The sublime notion and high mystery 
 
 That must be uttered to unfold the sage 
 
 And serious doctrine of Virginity; 
 
 And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 
 
 More happiness than this thy present lot. 
 790 Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 
 
 That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence; 
 
 Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 
 
 Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 
 
 Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 
 795 To such a flame of sacred vehemence, 
 
 That dumb things would be .moved to sympathize, 
 
 And the brute earth would lend her nerves, and 
 shake, 
 
 Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 
 
 Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. 
 soo Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear 
 
 Her words set off by some superior power; 
 
 And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering dew 
 
 Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
 
 Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus 
 s805 To some of Saturn's crew. I must dissemble, 
 
 And try her yet more strongly. Come, no more! 
 
 This is mere moral babble, and direct 
 
 Against the canon laws of our foundation; 
 
 I must not suffer this, yet 'tis but the lees 
 Jio And settlings of a melancholy blood. 
 
 But this will cure all straight; one sip of this 
 
98 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, 
 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. 
 
 The BROTHERS rush in with swords drawn, wrest his 
 glass out of his hand, and break it against the 
 ground: his rout make sign of resistance, but are 
 all driven in. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT comes in 
 
 Spir. What! have you let the false enchanter 
 
 scape? 
 
 O ye mistook; ye should have snatched his wand, sis 
 And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, 
 And backward mutters of dissevering power, 
 We cannot free the Lady that sits here 
 In stony fetters fixed and motionless. 
 Yet stay, be not disturbed; now I bethink me, 820 
 Some other means I have which may be used, 
 Which once of Meliboeus old I learnt, 
 The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 
 
 There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, 
 That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn 825 
 
 stream: 
 
 Sabrina is her name: a virgin pure; 
 Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, 
 That had the sceptre from his father Brute. 
 She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit 
 Of her enraged stepdame, Guendolen, gsc 
 
 Commended her fair innocence to the flood 
 That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing 
 course. 
 
COMUS 99 
 
 The water nymphs, that in the bottom played, 
 Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, 
 
 835 Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall; 
 Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, 
 And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 In nectared lavers strewed with asphodil, 
 And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
 
 840 Dropt in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 
 And underwent a quick immortal change, 
 Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains 
 Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve 
 Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, 
 
 845 Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs 
 That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, 
 Which she with precious vialed liquors heals: 
 For which the shepherds, at their festivals, I 
 / Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 
 
 SEC And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 
 ^Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 
 And, as the old swain said, she can unlock 
 The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, 
 If she be right invoked in warbled song; 
 
 &5 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 
 To aid a virgin, such as was her self, 
 In hard-besetting need. This will I try, 
 And add the power of some adjuring verse. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
100 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Song 
 Sabrina fair, 
 
 Listen where thou art sitting 
 Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, 
 
 In twisted braids of lilies knitting 
 The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; 
 Listen for dear honour's sakeT" 
 Goddess of the silver lake, 
 Listen and save. 
 
 Listen, and appear to us, 
 In name of great Oceanus. 
 By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, 
 And Tethys' grave majestic pace; 
 By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, 
 And the Carpathian wizard's hook; 
 By scaly Triton's winding shell, 
 And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell; 
 By Leucothea's lovely hands, 
 And her son that rules the strands; 
 By Thetis' tinsel-slippered feet, 
 And the songs of Sirens sweet; 
 By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, 
 And fair Ligea's golden comb, 
 Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 
 Sleeking her soft alluring locks; 
 By all the Nymphs that nightly dance 
 Upon thy streams with wily glance; 
 Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 
 From thy coral-paven bed, 
 
COMTTS 101 
 
 And bridle in thy headlong wave, 
 , Till thou our summons answered have. 
 Listen and save! 
 
 SABRINA rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings 
 
 ) By the rushy-fringed bank, 
 
 Where grows the willow and the osier dank, 
 
 My sliding chariot stays, 
 Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen 
 pf turkis blue, and emerald green, j 
 > ' That in the channel strays; 
 Whilst from off the waters fleet 
 Thus I set my printlessjfeet 
 O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 
 
 That bends not as I tread. 
 3 Gentle swain, at thy request 
 
 I am here. 
 Spir. Goddess dear, 
 
 We implore thy powerful hand 
 To undo the charmed band 
 3 Of true virgin here distressed 
 
 Through the force and through the wile 
 Of unblessed enchanter vile. 
 
 Sabr, Shepherd, 'tis my office best 
 To help ensnared chastity. 
 9 Brightest Lady, look on me. 
 Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
 Drops that from my fountain pure 
 I have kept of precious cure; 
 
102 'MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Thrice upon thy finger's tip, 
 
 Thrice upon thy rubied lip: 915 
 
 Next this marble venomed seat, 
 
 Smeared with gums of glutinous heat, , 
 
 I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 
 
 Now the spell hath lost his hold; 
 
 And I must haste ere morning hour 920 
 
 To wait in Amphitrite's bower. 
 
 SABRINA descends, and THE LADY rises out of her 
 seat 
 
 Spir. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
 Sprung of old Anchises' line, 
 May thy brimmed waves for this 
 Their full tribute never miss 925 
 
 /From a thousand petty rills, 
 That tumble down the snowy hills: 
 Summer drought or singed air 
 Never scorch thy tresses fair, 
 Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 
 
 Thy molten crystal fill with mud; 
 May thy billows roll ashore 
 The beryl and the golden ore; 
 May thy lofty head be crowned 
 With many a tower and terrace round, 935 
 
 And here and there thy banks upon 
 With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 
 
 Come, Lady; while Heaven lends us grace, 
 Let us fly this cursed place, 
 
COMUS 103 
 
 940 Lest the sorcerer us entice 
 
 With some other new device. 
 
 Not a waste or needless sound 
 
 Till we come to holier ground. 
 
 I shall be your faithful guide 
 945 Through this gloomy covert wide; 
 
 And not many furlongs thence 
 
 Is your Father's residence, 
 
 Where this night are met in state 
 
 Many a friend to gratulate 
 950 His wished presence, and beside 
 
 All the swains that there abide 
 
 With jigs and rural dance resort. 
 
 We shall catch them at their sport, 
 
 And our sudden coming there 
 f >5 Will double all their mirth and cheer. 
 
 Come, let us haste; the stars grow high, 
 
 But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. 
 
 The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and 
 the President's Castle: then come in Country 
 Dancers, after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT with 
 the two BROTHERS and THE LADY 
 
 Song 
 
 Spir. Back, shepherds, back! enough your 
 
 play 
 
 Till next sun-shine holiday, 
 eo Here be, without duck or nod, 
 
104 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Other trippings to be trod 
 
 Of lighter toes, and such court guise 
 
 As Mercury did first devise 
 
 With the mincing Dryades 
 
 On the lawns and on the leas. 965 
 
 This second Song presents them to their Father and 
 Mother 
 
 Noble Lord and Lady bright, 
 
 I have brought ye new delight. 
 
 Here behold so goodly grown 
 
 Three fair branches of your own. 
 
 Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 
 
 Their faith, their patience, and their truth, 
 
 And sent them here through hard assays 
 
 With a crown of deathless praise, 
 
 To triumph in victorious dance 
 
 O'er sensual folly and intemperance. 975 
 
 The dances ended, the SPIRIT epiloguizes 
 
 Spir. To the ocean now I fly, 
 And those happy climes that lie 
 Where day never shuts his eye, 
 Up in the broad fields of the sky. 
 There I suck the liquid air, 980 
 
 All amidst the gardens fair 
 Of Hesperus, and his daughters three 
 That sing about the golden tree. 
 
COMUS 105 
 
 Along the crisped shades and bowers 
 585 Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; 
 
 The Graces, and the rosy-bosomed Hours 
 
 Thither all their bounties bring; 
 
 There eternal Summer dwells, 
 
 And west-winds, with musky wing 
 wo About the cedarn alleys fling 
 
 Nard and cassia's balmy smells. 
 \ Iris there with humid bow 
 
 Waters the odorous banks, that blow 
 
 Flowers of more mingled hue 
 995 Than her purfled scarf can shew, 
 
 And drenches with Elysian dew 
 
 (List,_mortals, if your ears be true) 
 <TBeds of hyacinth and roses, 
 
 Where young Adonis oft reposes, 
 ooo Waxing well of his deep wound, 
 
 In slumber soft, and on the ground 
 
 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. 
 
 But far above, in spangled sheen, 
 
 Celestial Cupid^her famed son, advanced 
 KJS Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced 
 
 After her wandering labours long, 
 
 Till free consent the gods among 
 
 Make her his eternal bride, 
 
 And from her fair unspotted side 
 10 Two blissful twins are to be born, 
 
 Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. 
 But now my task is smoothly done: 
 
106 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 I can fly, or I can run, 
 Quickly to the green earth's end, 
 Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, 101 
 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 ye how to climb ia 
 
 Higher than the sphery chime; 
 f Or, if Virtue feeble were, 
 
 Heaven itself would stoop to her. 
 
LYCIDAS 
 
 In this Monody the Author bewails a learned Friend, 
 unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on 
 the Irish Seas, 1637; and, by occasion, foretells the ruin 
 of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. 
 
 / i> V V L// *S / ^ / 
 
 YET oncemore, Oyela>nrek, and oncepiore, <=- 
 
 Ye myrtles b^^n; with iv^myer Jgre;^*- 2^+' 
 I^dm^jo pluck Vour berries harsh land crude, c 
 
 And with fOTcea fingers rude *~ / 
 t m *-ib- *' ' 
 
 5 Shatter your leaves -before the mellowing year.*- 
 
 Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear, 
 Compels me to disturb your season due; 
 For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, 
 Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer 
 
 10 Who would not sing for Lycidas? He Knew 
 Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
 He rnupt not float upon his watery bier v 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 \yithout thS meed of some melodious tear^ 
 
 is Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove dotty spring; 
 Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
 Hence with denial vain and coy excuse: 
 So may ^pme gentle/Muse k*w 
 
 UP ^cf^rutT iCfcJL '> / / ' ' >^* 
 
 go With mcky worasr^vour my destined Urn, 
 And as he passes turn ( ^ / 
 
 107 
 
108 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud! 
 
 For we were nursed upon the self-same hill, 
 Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; 
 
 ; Together both, ere the high lawns appeared . 25 
 Under the opening eyelids of the Morn,. 
 We drove a-field, and both together heard 
 Wha ; t time the grey-fly winds her sultry horn, 
 Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
 Oft till the star that rose at evening bright so 
 
 Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering 
 
 wheel. 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute; 
 
 ~~ Tempered to the oaten flute, 
 Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long; 35 
 And old Damcetas loved to hear our song. 
 /But, oh! the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
 Now thou art gone, and never must return! 
 Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 
 With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 
 And all their echoes, mourn. 
 
 \The willows, and the hazel copses green, J 
 Shall now no more be seen 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays./ 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, 45 
 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 When first the white-thorn blows; 
 Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. 
 
LYCIDAS 109 
 
 60 Whereja^erfi-^e, Nymphs, when the remorseless 
 
 deep 
 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas? 
 For neither were ye playing on the steep 
 Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
 Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, 
 
 55 Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 
 Ay me! I fondly dream 
 "Had ye been there,". .. .for what could that 
 
 have done? 
 
 What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, 
 The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, 
 
 eo Whom universal nature did lament, 
 When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 His gory visage down the stream was 
 Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 
 7 Alas! what boots it with uncessant care 
 
 85 To tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade, 
 And strictly meditate the thankless Muse? 
 Were it not better done, as others use, 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, 
 Or with the tangles of Nesera'a hair? 
 
 to Fame is the spur that 4 ,he clear spirit doth raise 
 (That last infirmity of noble mind) 
 To scorn delights, and live laborious days; 
 But, the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
 And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
 
 TO Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 
 And slits the thin-spun life. " But not the praise," 
 
Ill* MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears: 
 " Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, so 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
 And perfect witness of all- judging Jove; 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed^^-^*-*^ 
 ^Oi so much fame in_heaven expect thy meed.'N 
 
 fountain Arethuse, and thou honoured flood, 85 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds. 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood. 
 ' But now my oat proceeds, 
 And listens to the Herald^of the Sea 
 That came in Neptune's plea. 90 
 
 He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 
 What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain^? 
 And questioned every gust of rugged wings 
 That blows from off each beaked promontory , 
 They knew not of his story; 95 
 
 And sage Hippotades their answer brings, 
 That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed: 
 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
 Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 
 It was that fatal and perfidious bark, j 
 
 Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 
 That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 
 
 Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
 His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge * 
 
LYCIDAS 111 
 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
 
 ;i< AhI who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest 
 pledge?" 
 
 Last came, and last did go, ^ 
 
 The Pilot of the Galilean Lake; 
 no Two massy keys he bore of metals twain 
 
 (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 
 
 He shook his mitred lock, and stern bespake: 
 
 "How well could I have spared for thee, young 
 swain, 
 
 Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, 
 115 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make, 
 
 Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, 
 
 And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 
 
 Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how 
 
 to hold 
 120 A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least 
 
 That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! 
 
 What recks it them? What need they? They are 
 sped; 
 
 And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; 
 125 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 
 
 But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
 
 Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; 
 
 Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 
 ;soBut that two-handed engine at the door 
 
112 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 
 
 Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past 
 That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, 
 And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
 Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues^\ sa 
 Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
 Of shades, and wanton winds f\nd gushing brooks, 
 On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, 
 Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, 
 That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, u 
 And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. 
 Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
 The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, 
 The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
 The glpwin^violet, ^ / ^ / ^/ / 14 
 The musk-rose, aria the well-attired woodbine, 
 (With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, \ 
 And every flower that sad embroidery wears; 
 Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
 And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 15 
 
 To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 
 For so, to interpose a little ease, 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 
 Ay me! Whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
 Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurPd; 15 
 Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 
 Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 
 Visit 'st the bottom of the monstrous world; 
 Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied, 
 

 LYCIDAS 113 
 
 leo Sleep's! by the fable of Bellerus old, 
 
 Where the great Vision of the guarded mount 
 Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold. 
 
 ^ Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth: 
 
 X And, ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 
 neB Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 
 For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
 So sinks the day-star in the ocean be(J, 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 
 170 And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore 
 Flames m^ the forehead of the morning sky: 
 So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
 Through the dear might of Him that walked the 
 
 waves, 
 Where, other groves and other streams along, 
 
 175 With nectar pure his jx>zy locks he laves, 
 And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 There entertain him all the Saints above, 
 In solemn troops, and sweet societies, 
 
 iso That sing, and singing in their glory move, 
 And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. 
 Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 
 Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 
 In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 
 
 185 To all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
114 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 ' 
 Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and 
 
 rills/ 
 
 While thqf still mom; went out/with saqjdals grey; 
 Hejbouchedjthe tender stops of various quills, 
 ( /xWith eater thought warbling his Doric lay. 
 
 And now Jthe sun had stretched tout all tho hills, 190 
 And now was dropt into the western bay. 
 At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue: 
 To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 
 
NOTES 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 A. S. Anglo Saxon. 
 
 B. R. C. Browne, Mttton's Poetical Works (Clarendon Press). 
 Cf. -Compare. ^ 
 
 Fr. French. 
 Lat. Latin. 
 
 M. Masson, Milton's Poetical Works (Macmillan). 
 O. F. Old French. 
 
 Skeat Skeat's Etymological Dictionary. 
 
 T. W. P. Trent, Milton' 8 V Allegro, II Penseroso,etc. (Longmans)/ 
 V. A. W. Verity, editions of V Allegro, II Penseroso, etc. (Cam- 
 bridge University Press). 
 
 I/ALLEGRO 
 
 Title I? Allegro: Italian, the cheerful man. 
 
 1. Melancholy. The mythological figures in these 
 poems are sometimes taken from the classics, sometimes, 
 as in this case, created and given a parentage by Milton. 
 
 2. Cerberus: in Greek mythology, the three-headed 
 dog who guarded the entrance to the lower world. 
 
 3. Stygian. The cave of Cerberus looked out on the 
 Styx, one of the four rivers of Hades. 
 
 5. uncouth: literally, "unknown," hence "wild," 
 "fearful." 
 
 6. brooding: partly literal, in keeping with the figure 
 suggested also by wings; partly metaphorical, in keeping 
 with the idea of watchfulness in jealous. 
 
 7. night-raven. The raven is not a night bird, yet 
 Shakspere also uses this term. The croaking of a raven 
 was regarded as ominous, and perhaps the compound 
 was formed, without reference to natural history, to 
 intensify the idea of gloom. 
 115 
 
116 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 10. Cimmerian. The Cimmerians were a mythical 
 people who, according to Homer (Odyssey t xi, 14) dwelt in 
 perpetual mist and darkness. 
 
 12-16. This account of the parentage of the three 
 Graces (Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia) has been traced 
 to Servius, a fourth century commentator on Vergil. 
 
 12. Euphrosyne: Mirth, yclept: called, from the past 
 participle of A. S. cleopian. 
 
 17. sager: more sagely, or, "some wiser poets." 
 
 19. Zephyr: the west wind. Aurora: the dawn. 
 
 12-24. Note the significance of the two parentages 
 suggested for Mirth: first, Love and Wine; second, and 
 to Milton preferable, the spring breeze and the early 
 morning. 
 
 22. Cf. Shakspere's "Morning roses newly wash'd 
 with dew" (Taming of the Shrew, II, i, 174). 
 
 24. buxom: originally, * 'pliant;" later, as here, 
 "gracious," "lively." What is the modern sense? 
 debonair: O. F. de ban aire t of a good mien (Skeat); 
 courteous, pleasant. 
 
 27. Quips: sharp speeches, cranks: witty turns of 
 expression, wanton wiles: sportive tricks. 
 
 28. becks: nods, signs, bows. (Contracted -from 
 beckon. ) 
 
 29. Hebe: the goddess of Youth, who carried the cups 
 of nectar to the gods. 
 
 36. mountain-nymph. Inhabitants of mountainous 
 countries are proverbially lovers of liberty. 
 
 40. unreprovdd: unreprovable. 
 
 45-48. The sense of this passage has been much dis- 
 puted. The chief interpretations are these: (1) That 
 it is the lark that comes. But it has been pointed out 
 that it is not true to nature to make a lark come to a 
 window, and some have instanced this as an example 
 of Milton's inaccuracy in natural description. The 
 
NOTES L'ALLEGRO 117 
 
 grammar also is unsatisfactory under this interpretation, 
 to being unnecessary: hear the lark begin . . . to come . . . 
 and bid. Again, if the lark is meant, why in spite of 
 sorrow? (2) That L* Allegro is already out walking, and 
 comes to the cottage window and bids good-morrow 
 from the outside. To come would then be coordinate 
 with to live (ver. 39) and to hear (ver. 41). This is M.'s 
 view. (3) That L' Allegro, hearing the song of the lark, 
 rises and comes to the window to bid good-morrow to 
 whatever may be outside as he looks out through the 
 vines. The grammatical construction according to this 
 view is the same as in (2), and this has the advantage of 
 making the succeeding barnyard scene a natural sequence. 
 The following couplet from Sylvester's translation of 
 Du Bartas (p. 70) a book well-known to Milton, is worth 
 noting in this connection: 
 
 The cheerful birds, chippfng him sweet good morrow, 
 
 With Nature's music do beguile his sorrow. 
 
 The passage is noted by C. Dunster in Considerations on 
 Milton's Early Reading, etc., Lond., 1800, p. 62. 
 
 48. eglantine. Milton is not exact here. Eglantine 
 is really the same as sweet-briar, and is not twisting. It 
 has been suggested that he means honeysuckle. 
 
 50. The figure seems to be that of the rear of a 
 retreating army scattering before the trumpet blast of 
 the enemy, and to be mock-heroic in its application to 
 the strutting fowl. 
 
 57. not unseen. ' 'Happy men love witnesses of their 
 joy" (Kurd, quoted by M.). 
 
 60. state: stately progress (Keightley). 
 
 62. liveries: used not merely in the sense of ' 'dress, " 
 but of the dress delivered by a lord to his retinue, and so 
 suggesting the idea of the clouds as retainers of the sun 
 in his stately progress, dight: arrayed. 
 
 67. tells his tale: counts his number (of sheep). 
 
118 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 70.landskip: an older spelling of ' 'landscape, " the 
 suffix being the same as in friends/wp, worship, etc. 
 
 71. fallows: ploughed land unsown; originally, "pale- 
 colored, '' as in fallow-deer. 
 
 75. pied: variegated, like a (mag)pie. 
 
 78. bosomed: surrounded breast-high. 
 
 79. lies: dwells. 
 
 80. cynosure: literally, "dog's tail," a name given to 
 that part of the constellation of the Lesser Bear in which 
 the polestar is situated, whence the present use in the 
 sense of an object to which all eyes are directed. Cf. 
 Comus, ver. 342 and note. 
 
 83-8. Corydon and Thyrsis . . . Phyttis ... . Thestylis: 
 typical names of peasants in the pastoral poetry of Theo- 
 critus and Vergil. 
 
 85. messes: dishes. 
 
 87. bower: chamber. 
 
 91. secure: used in the literal sense of "free from care." 
 
 92. upland: remote from towns. 
 
 94. rebeck: a musical instrument now obsolete, which 
 resembled a fiddle, but had fewer strings. 
 
 96. chequered: i. e., with the sun shining through the 
 spaces between the leaves. 
 
 100. spicy. The practice of flavoring ale and wine 
 with nutmeg and other spices was common. 
 
 102. Faery Mob. See Romeo and Juliet, I, iv, 54-95, 
 and Shelley ' s Queen Mab. M. quotes Jonson's Satyr, 
 
 beginning: 
 
 This is Mab, the mistress Fairy, 
 That doth nightly rob the dairy. 
 
 junkets: originally, a kind of cream-cheese (wrapt in 
 rushes, from Italian giunco, a rush), and now most 
 commonly used of curds and cream. 
 
 103.; pinched. This was the usual sign of the anger 
 of the fairies. Cf. the sufferings of Falstaff in The Merry 
 Wives of Windsor, V, v, 96, 103-105. 
 
NOTES-L' ALLEGRO 119 
 
 103, 4. she. . . he: individuals in the company. 
 104. Friar's lantern. The allusion is to the ignis 
 
 fatuus, known by various popular names> such as " Will- 
 o'-the-wisp," "Jack o' Lanthorn," etc. Friar's has, 
 in all probability, no connection with Friar Rush, a 
 demon of folk-lore who was disguised as a friar. Scott, 
 however, as the New English Dictionary notes, has 
 confused the two, probably misinterpreting Milton: 
 
 Better we had through mire and bush 
 Been lanthorn-led by Friar Rush. 
 
 Marmion, IV, 1. 
 
 104, 5. The punctuation here is that of the first edi- 
 tion, making he the subject of tells. If this is thought 
 to crowd the sense too much, the reading of the second 
 edition may be taken, with a period after led, and the 
 subject of tells to be supplied. 
 
 105-114. Cf. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, I, i\, 
 1, 2, (quoted by Warton and others): "A bigger kind 
 there is of them [i. e. , spirits] called with us hobgob- 
 lins and Robin Goodfellows, that would in these super- 
 stitious times grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, 
 or do any manner of drudgery work." 
 
 1 1 0. lubber: clumsy, doltish. 
 
 1 1 1. chimney: fireplace. 
 
 113. crop: here used for "stomach." 
 
 1 17. M. thinks that what follows is meant to suggest 
 merely L' Allegro's evening reading. But it seems more 
 naturally taken as describing actual experiences in the 
 city, just as the previous passage has described actual 
 country sights. In a poem dealing with a series of typ- 
 ical occupations, there is no need to make it possible to 
 fit them into a practicable time-table for one day, and it 
 is no objection that no means are provided to transport 
 L* Allegro to the town. 
 
120 MILTOK'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 120. weeds: garments. There are two weeds in 
 English. In what modern phrase do we find the one 
 here used? triumphs: pageants, spectacles. 
 
 121. store: abundance. 
 
 122. influence. The original use of this word had 
 reference to the astrological belief in the power of the 
 stars over human destiny. The easy comparison of 
 bright eyes to stars strengthens the suggestion that the 
 poet had the original sense of the word in mind here. 
 
 123. The references are to contests in poetry and to 
 tournaments, in both of which ladies were accustomed 
 to award the prize. 
 
 124. her: i. e. t the presiding lady Queen of Love, 
 Queen of the Tourney, or whatever her title might be for 
 the particular occasion. 
 
 125-8. Milton has in mind the court masques 
 which reached their highest degree of splendor in the 
 reigns of James I. and Charles I. See Introduction, pp. 34 ff. 
 
 125. Hymen: the God of Marriage, a common figure 
 in masques, since they were frequently presented on the 
 occasion of the marriages of nobles. Cf. As You Like It, 
 V, iv, 113 ff., and Ben Jonson's Masque of Hymen. 
 
 1 26. saffron. In the masques, Hymen appeared in a 
 yellow robe. 
 
 132, 3. Milton here points out the familiar contrast 
 between the learning shown in Jonson's plays, and the 
 spontaneity and natural genius of Shakspere' s. On the 
 ground of the comparatively faint praise given here to 
 Shakspere, and of one or two other passages equally 
 doubtful, some have based the opinion that Milton had 
 an inadequate appreciation of Shakspere. 
 
 132. sock. The soceus was the low-heeled slipper 
 worn by actors in the classical comedy, as opposed to 
 the high-heeled buskin used in tragedy. Cf. 11 Pens., 
 ver. 102: 
 
NOTES 1L PENSEROSO 121 
 
 1 33. Fancy: used in the wider sense of "Imagination." 
 
 135. Note that these lines describing L' Allegro's mu- 
 sical diversions are the most melodious in the poem. 
 
 136. Lydian. The three "modes' ' of ancient music 
 were the Dorian, the Phrygian, and the Lydian, char- 
 acterized respectively by stateliness, liveliness, and soft- 
 ness. 
 
 138. meeting: responsive. Soul is the object of. pierce. 
 
 139 bout: literally, a "bend" or "round;" here, a 
 "passage." 
 
 141. Note the apparent contradiction between ad- 
 jectives and nouns. The adjectives describe the ap- 
 pearance of unconsciousness in a work of art where the 
 perfection is shown in the concealment of the pains 
 taken. The figure used here is called oxymoron. 
 
 142-4. "The accompanied voice is meant, otherwise 
 there would be melody, but not harmony" (B.). 
 
 145. Orpheus: the famous mythical poet and musi- 
 cian, who, when his wife Eurydice died, descended into 
 Hades, and so charmed by his music the rulers of the 
 underworld that he was permitted to take his wife away 
 with him, on condition that he should not gaze around 
 him as he returned through the shades. But, just as 
 he was leaving, he looked behind, and Eurydice had to 
 remain hence quite and half-regained. 
 
 147. Ely sian. In the Greek mythology, the Elysian 
 fields were the abode of the blessed after death. 
 
 149. Pluto: the god of the underworld. 
 
 ^ IL PENSEROSO 
 
 Title The statement made by Mark Pattison that 
 Milton was mistaken as to both the form and the mean- 
 ing of this word has been disproved by W. H. David 
 (Notes and Queries, 7th series, VIII, 326). The word is 
 
122 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 correct Italian of the seventeenth century, and means 
 "pensive" or "meditative." 
 
 3. bested' (or bestead): help, avail. 
 
 Q.fond: foolish, the original meaning, possess: take 
 possession of, enter into. The object of possess is fancies. 
 
 6-9. The gaudy shapes are most like to dreams. 
 
 10. pensioners: retinue. 
 
 14. hit: meet, agree with, be tolerable to. 
 
 15. weaker: the comparative used in the sense of "too 
 weak." 
 
 17, 18. i. e., though she seems black, yet her beauty 
 is as estimable as befits the sister of Memnon. 
 
 18. Memnon: the Ethiopian prince, famous for his 
 beauty, who fought for Troy (Odyssey, xi, 552). His sis- 
 ter, Hemera, is mentioned by Dictys, but the fact of her 
 beauty seems to have been inferred by Milton from 
 , Homer's statement about Memnon. 
 
 19. starred Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, who boosted 
 that she (or, according to a common version, her daugh- 
 ter Andromeda) was more beautiful than the Nereids. 
 These latter persuaded Poseidon to send floods and a 
 monster to ravage the land. Andromeda was given up 
 to the monster in atonement, but was rescued by Perseus. 
 Both mother and daughter were afterwards placed among 
 the constellations: hence starred. 
 
 23. Vesta: the goddess of the hearth. In her worship 
 special stress was laid on purity. 
 
 24, 5. Saturn. This god was reputed the founder of 
 civilization. The derivation of Melancholy from Purity 
 and Solitude or Culture, is, like the second one suggested^ 
 for Euphrosyne in U Allegro, of the poet's own manufac- 
 ture. Milton probably also had in mind the astrological 
 belief that the influence of Saturn made men morose. 
 (Cf, Saturnine.) Saturn's reign is the fabled golden age. 
 
NOTES-IL PENSEROSO 123 
 
 29. Ida: the mountain in Crete where Jupiter was 
 reared. 
 
 30. Jupiter (Zeus), according to the myth, overthrew 
 Saturn (Cronus). 
 
 33. grain: originally a small seed, but used especially 
 of the insect coccus from which the red cochineal dye ia 
 made. Hence "to dye in grain" meant to dye a fast 
 color, in Comus, ver. 750, red, but here and in Par. Lost, 
 XI, 242, 3, probably a dark purple. 
 
 35. stole: sometimes a long robe, or, in ecclesiastical 
 vestments, a scarf, but here more probably in the sense 
 of a veil or hood, since her robe has already been men- 
 tioned, cypress: (probably from Cyprus, the island in 
 the Mediterranean, New English Dictionary) made of 
 cypress or crape, lawn: a fine linen. 
 
 36. decent: comely. 
 
 37. state: stateliness, dignity. 
 
 39. commercing: having intercourse. 
 
 40. rapt: originally past participle of verb rap, to 
 transport. 
 
 41. still. Adjective or adverb? 
 
 43. sad: serious, rather than "sorrowful.' 1 "Leaden 
 was the Saturnian colour" (M,). cast: turn of the eyes, 
 gaze. 
 
 44. i. e. 9 fix your eyes as fast on earth as formerly on 
 heaven. 
 
 45-8. Milton here implies his favorite doctrine of 
 the necessity of temperance for the highest inspiration. 
 
 47, 8. "The Muses haunt the hill of Helicon, mighty 
 f and divine, and dance with tender feet around the fount- 
 ain and the altar of the great son of Kronion" (Hesiod's 
 Theogony quoted by V.). 
 
 52-4. See Ezekiel X. The name Contemplation seems 
 to have been given to the Cherub by Milton. To the 
 
124 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 Cherubim was attributed knowledge, to the Seraphim, 
 love. 
 
 55. hist. This may be (1) an imperative in the sense 
 of "bring silently/' or (2) a past participle in the sense 
 of "hushed," silence being then an object of bring, ver. 51. 
 
 56. Philomel. Philomela, daughter of Pandion, King 
 of Attica, was changed into a nightingale in order to save 
 her from Tereus, her brother-in-law. 
 
 57. plight: mood. 
 
 59. Cynthia: Diana, who was born on Mt. Cynthus in 
 Delos. The moon is here represented as checking her 
 car to listen to the nightingale singing in its haunt in the 
 oak-tree. The attributing of a dragon yoke to Diana in- 
 stead of to Ceres has been regarded as Milton's own 
 transference, but in Dekker's Song of the Cyclops in Lon- 
 don's Tempe (1629) I find 
 
 We shoe the horses of the sun, 
 Harness the dragons of the moon, 
 
 and in A Midsummer Night' 's Dream, III, ii, 379, 
 
 For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. 
 
 65. unseen: in direct contrast with IS All., ver. 57. 
 
 73. plat: plot. 
 
 74. curfew: (Fr. couvrir t to cover; feu y fire) the bell 
 rung at eight or nine o' clock in the evening as a signal 
 to put out all fires. The practice of ringing the curfew 
 goes back at least to the Conquest, and was meant to 
 prevent risk of conflagration. 
 
 78. removed: remote. 
 
 80. "The light of the fire is so soft as to be a kind of 
 darkness" (V.). "The 'glowing embers' make 'darkness 
 visible* " (T.). The phrase is probably meant to be 
 suggestive rather than exact, and to refer vaguely to the 
 black shadows that throng a fire-lit room. 
 
 83. bellman: the night-watchman who used to patrol 
 the city streets, keeping order, and announcing the hours 
 
NOTES-IL PENSEROSO 126 
 
 and the state of the weather. The kind of charms they 
 recited may be gathered from Herrick's verses: 
 
 From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, 
 From murders Benedicitie. 
 From all mischances, that may fright 
 Your pleasing slumbers in the night: 
 Mercie secure ye all, and keep 
 The Goblin from ye, while ye sleep. 
 Past one o'clock, and almost two, 
 My masters all, Good day to you. 
 Grosart's ed. of Herrick, Lond., 1876, II, 28. 
 
 84. nightly: by night (not "every night"). 
 
 87. i. e., all night, as the Bear never sets, but disap- 
 pears only with the coming of daylight. 
 
 88. with: studying Hermes Trismegistus (i. e., thrice 
 great), the fabled Egyptian philosopher and king, had 
 ascribed to him a number of forged writings, and was 
 credited with the invention of magic and the black arts 
 generally, unsphere: call from the sphere it now inhabits. 
 
 89-96. The references here are to the subjects dis- 
 cussed in Plato's Phaedo. The whole passage means 
 simply that II Penseroso would enjoy sitting up all 
 night reading Hermes and Plato. 
 
 93. Some such word as "tell" should be understood 
 before of those. Demons: the spirits inhabiting the four 
 elements, fire, air, earth, and water, into which the 
 Greek and Medieval philosophers divided the material 
 universe. 
 
 95. consent: agreement, influence. The reference is 
 to astrology. 
 
 98. sceptred: because tragedy dealt with the calami- 
 ties of princes, pall: "Lat. palla, the mantle worn by 
 tragic actors" (V.). 
 
 99, 100. The chief subjects of Greek tragedy were 
 drawn from the stories of the royal house of Thebes, the 
 descendants of Pelops, and the Trojan War. 
 
126 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 101, 2. A somewhat slighting reference to the Eliza- 
 bethan and Jacobean drama. For buskined cf. IS All. , 
 ver. 131 and note. 
 
 104. Musaem: a mythical singer, sometimes said to be 
 the son of Orpheus. 
 
 105-8. See note on L'AU., ver. 145-150. 
 
 109-15. The references here are to the Squire's Tale, 
 which Chaucer left unfinished. Cambuscan ( which 
 Chaucer accented on the last syllable) is a corrupted form 
 of Genghis Khan, the name of the eastern ruler at whose 
 court the story opens. Camball and Algarsife were his 
 sons, and Canace his daughter. Canace received gifts of a 
 ring that enabled her to understand the language of birds 
 and to know the medicinal properties of plants, and a 
 mirror in which one's future could be seen. Cambuscan 
 himself received a horse of brass which, by the turning of 
 a pin, would bear the rider any distance he pleased in 
 twenty-four hours, and a sword which would cut through 
 anything, and the wounds from which could be cured 
 only by being stroked by the flat of the sword itself. 
 
 1 13. virtuous: having virtue or exceptional power. 
 
 116. The allusion best fits Spenser and the Faerie 
 Queene. The plural bards may be meant to include other 
 writers of chivalrous poetry, such as Tasso and Ariosto. 
 
 120. A reference to the allegory in the Faerie Queene 
 and similar works. 
 
 122. civil-suited: quietly dressed, i. e., in plain citizen 
 garb, as differing from court or military dress (M.). 
 
 123. tricked: adorned, frounced: with hair curled. 
 
 124. the Attic boy: Cephalus, grandson of the King of 
 Attica, whom Eos, goddess of the Dawn, carried off on 
 account of his beauty. 
 
 125. With a cloud worn like a kerchief on her head. 
 
 127. ushered: attended, shown in. Still is an adj. 
 here. 
 
NOTES IL PENSEROSO 127 
 
 130. minute-drops: drops falling at intervals of a 
 minute. 
 
 134. brown: used for "dark," without emphasis on 
 particular color. Sylvan: Silvanus, the old Italian god of 
 woods and fields. 
 
 135. monumental: memorial of past times, with the 
 additional idea of "massiveness." 
 
 140. profaner. This is sometimes taken as equiva- 
 lent to "too profane," like the Latin absolute compara- 
 tive. Cf. weaker in ver. 15. 
 
 141. garish: staring. 
 
 145. consort: so spelled means strictly "partner." 
 But the word was often confused with "concert," and 
 may be so here, in the sense of "harmony." 
 
 147-50. This passage is very obscure, and no satis- 
 factory interpretation has yet been offered. V. para- 
 phrases thus: "Let some dream float with undulating 
 motion, (i. e., wave) at the wings of Sleep, amid a stream of 
 vivid pictures which rest lightly on the eyelids." But 
 the use of at is peculiar, and it is not clear that his in 
 ver. 148 refers to sleep and not to dream. Dunster here 
 again quotes from Syl vested a passage which Milton seems 
 to have had in mind: \ 
 
 Confusedly about the silent bed, 
 Fantastic swarms of dreams there hovered, 
 Green, red, and yellow, tawny, black, and blue; 
 They make no noise but right resemble may 
 Th' unnumber'd moats that in the sunbeams play. 
 Considerations on Milton' s Early Heading, etc., p. 70, 
 
 154. Genius: guardian spirit. 
 
 155. due. His feet are due in the cloister in the sense 
 that it is the appropriate place for such a man. Cf. 
 Comus, ver. 11. But Keightley explains it thus, "Denot- 
 ing that it was his constant resort," and he has been 
 much quoted. 
 
128 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 156. pale: enclosed place. Cloister has also literally 
 this meaning, but Milton had in mind the special appli- 
 cation of the word to the covered walks in the English 
 Colleges. 
 
 157. love. We have to supply a new subject here: 
 let me love. embowZd: vaulted. 
 
 158. antique. If we retain Milton's own spelling, 
 antick, the meaning would be "fancifully ornamented." 
 massy-proof: proof against mass, i. e., able to bear the 
 weight. 
 
 159. storied: painted with (Scripture) histories. 
 dight: decorated. Cf. L'AIL, ver. 62. 
 
 161-6. If we suppose this poem to be an indication 
 of Milton's personal tastes, we see that at this time he 
 was far from feeling the antagonism towards the ritual of 
 the Church which he shows later in his prose writings. 
 See Introduction, p. 47. 
 
 169. hairy gown: the coarse dress of the hermit. 
 
 170. spell: study laboriously. 
 
 171. of. The sense would be unaltered by the omis- 
 sion of this preposition. It may be taken as equivalent 
 to "about." 
 
 COMUS 
 
 For the occasion and the actors, see Introduction, 
 pp. 33 ff. 
 
 I Title. Comus. The name is from a Greek word mean- 
 / ing "revel" 01 "band of revelers." The personification as 
 / the God of Mirth belongs to late classical mythology. He 
 / had already appeared in English literature in Jonson's 
 / masque of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1619), and still 
 ' earlier in French, presented: represented, acted. dis- 
 covers: reveals, the usual technical term for displaying a 
 scene on the stage. 
 
 Iff. This opening speech by the Attendant Spirit 
 serves as a sort- of prologue to explain the situation. 
 
NOTES-COMUS 129 
 
 2. those: L e., those well known. 
 
 3. insphered. It has been questioned whether this 
 means "each in his separate star," or refers to the 
 spheres of the Ptolemaic system. But perhaps it is bet- 
 ter taken as merely * 'surrounded by regions, " etc. 
 
 7. pestered: clogged, hampered, pinfold: properly "a 
 pound for cattle:" here, "a narrow enclosure." 
 
 8. this mortal change. The "change by death" is the 
 meaning that first strikes one, but the use of this inclines 
 us to accept M.'s explanation, "this mortal state of life." 
 
 1 1. gods: saints in the company of God. 
 
 12. due. Cf. II Pens., ver. 155 and note. 
 
 16. ambrosial: heavenly, as ambrosia was the food of 
 the gods. For weeds, cf. IS AIL, ver. 120 and note. 
 
 17. mould: earth, rather than the human form he ia 
 wearing. 
 
 18-23. When Saturn's empire was divided, Neptune 
 was assigned the Sea, Jupiter Heaven, Pluto Hades; 
 hence nether Jove = Pluto. 
 
 23. unadorned: i. e., otherwise unadorned. 
 
 25. i. e., each island to its own governing deity. 
 
 29. quarters: assigns, blue-haired: from the color of 
 the sea. V. notes that this was the conventional color 
 of sea-nymphs' hair in the masques, and Bell (quoted by 
 T. ) traces the epithet back to Ovid. 
 
 30. this tract: Wales. 
 
 31. peer: the Earl of Bridge water, to celebrate whose 
 installation as Lord President of Wales, Comus was pro- 
 duced, mickle: great. The word survives in Scottish. 
 
 33. i. e., of course, the Welsh. 
 
 35. state: referring to the ceremony of installation. 
 Cf. L'AIL, ver. 60 and note. 
 
 37. perplexed: entangled. 
 
 38. horror: used with the classical connotation of 
 'rough," ''shaggy," "bristling." 
 
130 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 45. hall or bower: in the general assemblage in the 
 hall of state, or in the lady's chamber. 
 
 43-5. V. takes this as a claim to originality for the 
 whole work, but it seems rather to be an admission 
 that the character and parentage of Comus are of Milton's 
 own invention. 
 
 48. The reference is to the story of Bacchus, who, 
 sailing to Naxos, was seized and bound by the sailors, 
 who intended to sell him as a slave. But he freed him- 
 self from his fetters, turned the masts and oars into ser- 
 pents and himself into a lion, while the sailors went 
 mad, jumped overboard, and were changed into dolphins. 
 transformed: note the Latinism in the use of the past 
 participle. 
 
 49. Tyrrhene shore: the western shore of the central 
 part of Italy. 
 
 49. listed: willed. 
 
 55. The association of ivy with Bacchus was tradi- 
 tional. Cf. L'Att., ver. 16. 
 
 59. frolic . . . age: rejoicing in his prime. 
 
 60. Celtic and Iberian fields: France and Spain. 
 
 65. orient. The associations which the word carries 
 are of brightness, richness, and mystery. 
 
 66. drouth: dry ness, thirst. 
 
 67. fond: foolish. Cf. 11 Pens., ver. 6 and note. 
 
 69. express: complete and exact. 
 
 71. ounce: a kind of lynx. 
 
 77. In Homer's account of Circe, the minds of the 
 victims remain unchanged. This gives greater pathos, 
 but Milton's version implies greater degradation. 
 
 83. Iris: the goddess of the rainbow. 
 
 84. weeds. Cf. V All., ver. 120 and note. 
 
 86.- Thia is usually interpreted as a compliment to 
 Lawes, who wrote the music for the masque. 
 
NOTES COMUS 131 
 
 87. knows to still: another Latinism. Cf. Lyc. t ver. 
 10, 11, "He knew Himself to sing." 
 
 88. nor... faith: nor less faithful than skilful in 
 music. 
 
 89-91. He explains his choice of a disguise by say- 
 ing that as a shepherd his appearance will be plausible in 
 this place where he has to be at hand to give assistance. 
 
 92. viewless: invisible. 
 
 Stage direction. rout: unruly crowd. 
 
 93. star: the evening star, Hesperus, fold: the verb 
 horn fold, a sheep pen. 
 
 96. allay: cool. 
 
 97. steep: deep, or descriptive of the rising appear- 
 ance of the sea seen from the shore, stream: the ancients 
 regarded the Atlantic as a great stream flowing round 
 the earth. 
 
 98, slope: that has sloped down below the horizon. 
 
 100, 1. Critics usually quote Psalm XIX, 4, 5, "In 
 them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a 
 bridegroom coming out of his chamber." 
 
 105. rosy twine: wreaths of roses. 
 
 110. saws: maxims. 
 
 \12.~ starry quire: referring to the belief that the 
 spheres make music as they move. Quire is the older 
 spelling of choir. From the next line it appears that 
 the spirits inhabiting the spheres are meant. 
 
 115. sounds: straits, the geographical term. 
 
 116. morrice: morrice or Moorish dance. 
 
 1 1 8. pert: smart, dapper: neat, dainty. 
 
 121 . wakes: night watches. 
 
 l29.Cottyto: a Thracian goddess of debauchery, 
 whose licentious rites were celebrated by night. 
 
 131. called: invoked, dragon-womb: "alluding per- 
 haps to the idea that the chariot of the night was 
 drawn by dragons" (V.) or "that the womb of darknes3 
 breeds monsters" (T.). Cf. note to II Pens., ver. 59. 
 
132 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 132. Stygian: of the underworld; from Styx, one 
 of the four rivers of Hades, spets: spits. 
 
 135. Hecat': Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, 
 often confused with the goddess of Hades. 
 
 139. nioe: fastidious, prudish (used sneeringly). In- 
 dian steep: the eastern ascent of the heavens. 
 
 140. cabined. "Confined," "narrow," is the usual 
 meaning, but it does not seem very appropriate here. 
 The phrase is perhaps, better understood as equivalent to 
 "the loop-hole of her cabin," the cabined being used 
 merely to make loop-hole more vivid, but not to be empha- 
 sized itself. 
 
 144. round: a country dance. 
 
 Stage direction. The Measure: i. e. t the dance takes 
 place here. 
 
 147. shrouds: covers, hiding placeSo brakes: brush- 
 wood, undergrowth. 
 
 151. trains: snares. 
 
 154. spongy: that can hold the spells as a sponge 
 holds water. 
 
 1 56 . blear illusion: il lusion that makes bleared or dim. 
 presentments: pictures, appearances. 
 
 157. quaint habits: odd garments. 
 
 159. course: plan of action. 
 
 161. glozing: flattering, deceptive. 
 
 163. wind: creep like a serpent, insinuate'myself into 
 his bosom. 
 
 165. virtue: power. Cf . 11 Pens., ver. 113, "virtuous 
 ring." 
 
 167. Keeps awake about his country affairs. 
 
 168. -fairly: quietly. "Fair and softly" was a com- 
 mon phrase meaning "gently." 
 
 172. ill-managed: uncontrolled. 
 
 475. teeming: fruitful, granges: granaries. 
 
NOTES COMDS 133 
 
 176. loose: loose-mannered, without polite restraint. 
 hinds: peasants. Pan: the god of shepherds and of 
 country life generally. 
 
 177. amiss: in the wrong way, for they misuse their 
 gifts. 
 
 178. swilled insolence: insolence caused by swilling or 
 drinking freely. 
 
 179. wassailers: carousers, from wassail, to drink a 
 health. 
 
 180. inform: get information or direction for. 
 
 189. sad: serious, votarist: one who has taken a vow. 
 palmer: one who bears a palm-branch in token of having 
 been to the Holy Land (Skeat). 
 
 190. wain: , wagon. 
 
 193. engaged: entangled. 
 
 203. rife: abundant, perfect: quite distinct. 
 
 205. single: perfect, complete, unmixed. 
 
 210. may startle well: may indeed startle. 
 
 212. strong-siding: taking one's side strongly. 
 
 214. girt: surrounded, or simply, "furnished with." 
 
 215. Chastity. We expect "charity," to complete 
 the Pauline trinity, but Milton uses this device to em- 
 phasize chastity, the main theme of the poem. 
 
 21 9. glistering: shining. Cf. Lyc. 9 ver. 79. 
 
 225. casts: grammatically coordinate with does rather 
 than with turn. 
 
 231. airy shell: the atmosphere. 
 
 232. Meander: a river in Asia Minor, whose winding 
 course has given us the word "meander." mar gent: 
 margin. 
 
 237. Narcissus: a beautiful youth whom Echo loved 
 in vain, so that she pined away in grief till nothing was 
 left of her but her voice. 
 
 241. Parley: conversation, daughter of the sphere: the 
 reference in sphere may be to the airy shell of ver. 231, or 
 
134 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 to a theory that echo had "her origin from the reverbera- 
 
 tion of the music of the spheres." Editors cf. Milton's 
 
 At a Solemn Music, ver. 2, * 'Sphere-born harmonious 
 
 sisters, Voice and Verse." 
 
 % 243. Add the beauty of repetition to the music of the 
 
 spheres. 
 
 247. vocal: i. e., which carries the voice. 
 
 248. his: for "its," i. e. of "something holy." 
 
 251. fall: cadence. 
 
 253. Sirens: the nymphs described in the Odyssey 
 and elsewhere, who lured mariners to their death by 
 their singing. 
 
 25&.flowery-kirtled: with garments made of, or adorn- 
 ed with, flowers. The naiads were properly nymphs of 
 fresh water. 
 
 257 '.Elysium: see note to I? All., ver. 147. Scylla; a 
 monster with a bark like that of a whelp, (hence barking 
 in ver. 258) afterwards identified with rocks on the 
 Italian side of the Straits of Messina. 
 
 259. Charybdis: the whirlpool on the Sicilian side of 
 the Straits of Messina. 
 
 262.homefelt: felt home, keenly, intimately. 
 
 263. ivaking: i. e., as contrasted with the dreamy 
 pleasure given by the sirens. 
 
 267. unless: supply "thoube." 
 
 268. Sylvan: Silvanus. See 11 Pens., ver. 134, note. 
 
 271. ill is lost: is unfortunately lost, a Latinism. 
 
 273. extreme shift: last resort. 
 
 277-90. This dialogue in alternate single lines is in 
 imitation of classical tragedy. 
 
 279. near-ushering: going immediately before. 
 
 285. forestalling: coming sooner than was expected. 
 
 286. hit: guess. 
 
 287. Is their loss important? 
 
 290. Hebe: cup-bearer of the gods, goddess of youth. 
 Cf. L'Att., ver. 29. 
 
NOTES-COMUS 135 
 
 291. what time. Cf. Lyc. } ver. 28 and note, labour- 
 ed: tired with labour. 
 
 293. swnked: tired with toil (A. S.,swincan, to labour), 
 hedger: a man who mends hedges, a farm labourer. This 
 method of noting time is according to classical tradition, 
 though the local color is English. 
 
 294. mantling: covering (as with a mantle). 
 
 297. port: bearing. 
 
 299. element: air, sky. 
 
 301. plighted: folded. This plight is really the same 
 word as plait (Lat. plicare, to fold) and is to be distin- 
 guished from the word of Teutonic origin, plight, 
 obligation, as in troth-plight, strook: obsolete form of 
 struck. 
 
 303. i. e. y to be undertaken as eagerly, with such 
 bliss at the end. Note the studiously flattering tone of 
 Comus's references to the brothers. 
 
 312. dingle: a narrow valley or dell. 
 
 313. bosky: bushy, bourn: stream; more familiar in 
 the northern form burn. 
 
 314. ancient: long familiar. 
 
 315. stray attendance: strayed attendants, abstract for 
 concrete. 
 
 316. shroud: are sheltered. Cf. ver. 147 and note. 
 
 317. low-roosted: because it builds on the ground. 
 
 318. thatched pallet: in reference to the woven grasses 
 with which the lark lines its nest. 
 
 318. rouse. This may be taken as an intransitive use, 
 ="rise," or lark may be regarded as its object, and 
 morrow as its subject (M.). 
 
 321.- further quest: till further search is made. 
 
 325. In reference to the derivation of courtesy from 
 court. 
 
 327. less warranted: giving less assurance of safety. 
 The general sense is: This place is so insecure that there 
 is no risk that a change would be for the worse. 
 
136 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 329. square: make fit or suffici3nt. 
 
 332. wont'st: art accustomed, benison: benediction, 
 blessing. 
 
 334. disinherit: dispossess. So inherit is common in 
 Shaksperean English without the idea of succession. 
 
 338. rush candle: candle with the pith of a rush for 
 a wick, wicker hole: "the wretched wicker-crossed aper- 
 ture, not worth the name of a window" (M.). 
 
 340. rule. The figure is from a rule for drawing 
 straight lines. 
 
 341. Star . . . Cynosure. Callisto, daughter of the King 
 of Arcady, was turned into the constellation of the 
 Greater Bear, and her son Areas into that of the Lesser 
 Bear. Greek sailors steered by the Greater Bear, and 
 Phoenician (including those of Tyre) by the Lesser, in 
 which is situated the polestar. For Cynosure, see IS AIL, 
 ver. 80, note. 
 
 344. wattled cotes: sheep-pens enclosed by hurdles 
 made of interwoven branches. 
 
 345. Cf. Lye., ver. 188 and note. 
 
 349. innumerous: innumerable. 
 
 355. head. It seems better to take head as subject 
 of leans than to supply "she." 
 
 358. hunger: of wild beasts; heat: of human lust. 
 
 359. over-exquisite: too curious, running too much 
 into subtle detail. 
 
 360. cast: forecast, foretell. 
 
 366. to seek: at a loss. 
 
 367. unprincipled: ignorant of the principles. 
 
 368. bosoms: embosoms, holds in her heart. 
 
 369. single: mere. 
 
 372. plight: condition, from the same source as plight- 
 td in ver. 301, on which see note. 
 
 376 seeks to: has recourse to. 
 
 379. resort: places of resort. 
 
NOTES COMUS 137 
 
 380. to-ruffled. This prefix to- meant first "in pieces" 
 as in to-brokerij then it became merely intensive as here, 
 where the meaning is "much ruffled." 
 
 382. centre: i. e., of the earth. 
 
 386.- affects: loves. 
 
 390. weeds: cf. L'AU. t ver. 120 and note, beads: 
 rosary: originally, "prayers," then "little balls for 
 counting prayers." 
 
 393. Hesperian tree: the tree that bore the golden 
 apples, presented to Hera by Gaea on her marriage with 
 Zeus. It was guarded by the daughters of Hesperus, and 
 by a dragon (ver. 395) which Hercules slew in his labour 
 of obtaining the Hesperian apples. 
 
 395.unenchanted: not able to be enchanted. 
 
 398. unsunned: kept in the dark. 
 
 401. wink on: shut its eyes to. 
 
 404. it recks me not: I do not trouble about. 
 
 406. ill-greeting: rude. 
 
 407. unowned: unmarried or unprotected. 
 
 408. infer: reason. 
 
 413. squint: not straightforward. 
 
 419. if: even if. 
 
 423. unharboured: without shelters. The original sense 
 of harbour was "army-shelter," and had nothing to do 
 with the sea. 
 
 424. Infamous. The accent is on the second syllable. 
 
 426. trace: trace her way through. 
 
 4:2G.bandite: Milton's spelling of "bandit." 
 
 430. unblenched. This word combines the notions 
 of "unfaltering," and "not made pale by fear. M 
 
 432, 3. Cf. L'AIL, ver. 104 and note. 
 
 434. unlaid. To "lay" a ghost is to pacify or charm 
 him so that he ceases to walk. 
 
 435. curfew. Cf. 11. Pens., ver. 74, note. From curfew 
 to cock-crow was the period when ghosts were supposed 
 to be permitted to walk. 
 
138 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 436 swart . . . mine. Popular superstition peopled 
 mines with spirits of earth called "gnomes." 
 
 443. brinded: brindled, streaked, literally "branded." 
 
 447. r -(rm#on. The head of Medusa, the only one of 
 the three Gorgons who was mortal, regained its petrify- 
 ing power even after it waa cut off by Perseus and placed 
 in the shield of Athene. The moral interpretation of 
 the myths of Diana's invulnerability by Cupid and of 
 the Gorgon shield is Milton's own. 
 
 451. dashed: suddenly checked. 
 
 452. blank: sheer. 
 
 455. lackey: wait on. 
 
 459. oft converse: frequent intercourse. 
 
 460. begin: subjunctive mood. Note that the in- 
 dicative is used in turns (ver. 462), as if, according to M;, 
 to show increased certainty. 
 
 468. imbodies and imbrutes: becomes fleshly and 
 brutish. 
 
 469. -property: peculiar quality. 
 
 463-75. Warton notes that Milton here paraphrases 
 a passage from Plato's Phaedo. 
 
 471. charnel: burial. 
 
 474:. sensually. It is necessary to retain Milton's 
 spelling here for the sake of the metre. 
 
 479. nectar ed: heavenly. Cf. ambrosial in ver. 16 and 
 note. 
 
 480. crude: unrefined. 
 
 483. night-foundered*, lost in the night. 
 
 491. iron stakes: i. e., their swords. 
 
 494. Thyrsis: a traditional pastoral name. 
 
 495. huddling: either hastening, or with the sense of 
 heaping up its waters through delaying, madrigal: a 
 kind of pastoral song. The passage is obviously meant 
 as a compliment to Lawes, who acted Thyrsis, in his 
 own character as a musician. Note that ver. 495-512 
 
NOTES COMUS 139 
 
 rhyme in couplets, the rest of the poem (except the 
 lyrics) being in blank verse. 
 
 501. next: nearest, dearest. 
 
 502. toy: trifle. Cf. 11 Pens., ver. 4. 
 
 503. stealth: the abstract noun from steal. 
 
 506. to: compared to. 
 
 508. how chance: how chances it? According to V., it 
 is a combination of this construction and the adverbial 
 "by what chance?' ' 
 
 509. sadly: seriously. 
 
 516. Stoned. Cf. // Pens., ver. 154. 
 
 517. chimeras: fire-breathing monsters, part lion, part 
 serpent, and part goat. 
 
 520. navel: centre. 
 
 521. immured: walled in. 
 
 526. murmurs: muttered charms. 
 
 529. mintage: stamp, imprint. 
 
 530. charactered: marked, engraved, stamped. 
 
 531. crofts: small fields. 
 
 532. that . . . glade: overhanging this deep wooded 
 valley. 
 
 533. monstrous rout: band of monsters. 
 
 534. stabled: in their lairs. 
 
 535. Hecate: goddess of witchcraft. Cf. ver. 135 and 
 note. 
 
 539. unweeting: unwitting. 
 
 542. besprent: besprinkled. 
 
 547. meditate: practise (imitated from Vergil). Cf. 
 Lye., ver. 66 and note. 
 
 548. ere a close: before I had finished a song. 
 
 552. i. e., when Comus hushed his revellers at the 
 lady's approach. 
 
 553. drowsy-flighted. This is the reading of the Cam- 
 bridge MS., and is preferred by M. and others, who take 
 it as meaning "flying drowsily." Milton's early printed 
 
140 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 editions have "drowsie frighted," i. e. y drowsy, as being 
 the horses of the chariot of sleep, and frighted by the 
 noise of Comus and his rout. 
 
 558. took. This is usually explained as "charmed," 
 a common Shaksperean usage, which fits the context. 
 On the other hand, the phrase took ere she was ware may 
 mean merely "taken unawares," "surprised." 
 
 559, 60. be . . . displaced: cease to exist, if her place 
 could be always taken by such sounds. 
 
 565. amazed: confounded, not merely "astonished" as 
 in modern English. 
 
 573. prevent. Here it probably includes the etymo- 
 logical sense of "anticipate." 
 
 585. period: sentence. 
 
 591. After meant supply "to be" or "to do." 
 
 592. happy trial: trial which will result happily. 
 
 597. pillared: referring to the ancient belief as to the 
 manner in which the heavens were supported. 
 
 604. Acheron: one of the rivers of the lower world. 
 Used here for the infernal regions in general. 
 
 605. Harpies: monstrous creatures in Greek mythol- 
 ogy, half woman and half bird. Hydras. The Hydra 
 was the many-headed serpent slain by Hercules. 
 
 607. purchase: acquisition, prize, prey. 
 
 610. emprise: poetical form of "enterprise." 
 
 611. stead: service, assistance. 
 
 614. unthread: unstring, loosen. 
 
 617. relation: tale, shifts: skilful devices. 
 
 620. to see to: to look at. The editors attempt to 
 identify this shepherd lad with Milton's early friend 
 Diodati, who taught him botany, and on the occasion of 
 whose death Milton wrote the Latin Epitaphiwn Damonis. 
 
 621. virtuous: see note on ver. 165, and cf. 11 Pens., 
 ver. 113 and note. 
 
 626. scrip: bag. 
 
NOTES COMUS 141 
 
 627. simples: medicinal herbs, originally single ingre- 
 dients in compounded drugs. 
 
 634. like esteemed: i. e., likewise unesteemed. 
 
 636. M oly: the name of the plant in the passage in 
 Homer here alluded to (Odyssey, x). 
 
 637. To enable him to resist the spells of Circe. 
 
 638. Hsemony: a name that appears to have been in- 
 vented by Milton from Heemonia or Thessaly, the land 
 of magic. 
 
 639. sovran: literally, "supreme;" here," of the high- 
 est efficacy." 
 
 641. Furies: goddesses of vengeance. 
 
 Stage direction. goes about: makes an attempt. 
 
 642. pursed it up: put it away in my purse. 
 
 661. Daphne: a maiden who was pursued by Apollo, 
 and, at her own request, turned into a bay-tree. The 
 syntax here is loose, but easily intelligible. 
 
 672. julep: from a Persian word meaning "rose- 
 water;" here, "a sweet drink." 
 
 673. his:- its. 
 
 675. Nepenthes: cf. Odyssey, iv, 219-226: "Then 
 Helen, daughter of Zeus .... cast a drug into the wine 
 whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, 
 and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should 
 drink a draught thereof, when it is . mingled in the 
 bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his 
 cheeks, not though his mother and father died, not 
 though men slew his brother or dear son with the sword 
 before his face, and his own eyes beheld it." (Butcher 
 and Lang's translation.) 
 
 685. unexempt condition: condition from which no 
 mortal is exempt. 
 
 688. that. The antecedent is you in ver. 682. 
 
 694. aspects: appearances, sights. 
 
 695. ugly: Milton's spelling is oughly. 
 
142 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 698. vizored: wearing a mask. 
 
 700. liquorish: tempting to the appetite. 
 
 707. budge. The word has two meanings: (1) a kind 
 of fur, (2) stout, pompous, surly. The second one is not 
 found elsewhere as early as the date of Comus, and the 
 use of/wr in the same line supports the view that (1) is 
 meant. If so, it is probably an allusion to the fur used 
 on academic gowns, here suggested by doctors. 
 
 708. Cynic tub: in reference to the tub in which Di- 
 ogenes the Cynic philosopher is said to have lived. The 
 Stoic and the Cynic philosophers are alluded to here on 
 account of their contempt for the pleasures of the senses. 
 
 714. but all: except merely, sate: satisfy, curious: 
 dainty, critical (V.); perhaps with a shade of the sense 
 of ' 'inquisitive, " ' 'eager to try new sensations." 
 
 719. hutched: enclosed. 
 
 722. frieze: a coarse woolen cloth. 
 
 734. they below. Various interpretations have been 
 made of this. (1) If the deep = the sea, then they below 
 = sea-monsters, or (2) men (V). (3) If the deep = the 
 center of the earth, then they below = gnomes (T). 
 
 735. inured: hardened, accustomed. 
 
 737. coy: bashful or disdainful at this period with- 
 out the implication of affectation, cozened: cheated. 
 
 750. sorry grain: wretched hue. Cf. II Pens., ver. 
 33, note. 
 
 751. sampler: a pattern piece of needlework, tease: 
 to comb or card wool, scratch or raise the nap of cloth 
 (Skeat). The modern sense of "irritate" is derived 
 from this. 
 
 759. pranked: dressed up. 
 
 760. bolt: to separate the flour from the bran, hence, 
 "to refine." 
 
 779-806. This passage is wanting in the earlier 
 MSS. and seems to have been added later. 
 
NOTES COMUS 143 
 
 80 1. set off: supported by. 
 
 804. Erebus: the darkness of the lower world. 
 
 805. Saturn? s crew: the Titans who supported Saturn 
 against Jupiter. 
 
 808. canon . . . foundation: the rules of our company. 
 The figure is from the ecclesiastical laws established by 
 the Papacy and the Church Councils; and the word 
 foundation was familiar in connection with endowed in- 
 stitutions such as the Colleges of the Universities. 
 
 816,7. The idea is, of course, to undo the force of 
 the spells by reversing the process used by Comus. 
 
 822. Melibceus: a traditional name for a shepherd in 
 pastoral poetry. The story of Sabrina had been told by 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, the prose chronicler, and by 
 Sackville, Dray ton, Warner, and Spenser. Geoffrey and 
 Spenser have been most frequently identified with Me- 
 liboeus by the editors. 
 
 825. The masque was performed not far from the 
 Severn. 
 
 827. Locrine. Mr. Swinburne has written a tragedy 
 on this subject. 
 
 828. Brute: from this legendary Brutus medieval 
 writers derived the name Britain. 
 
 834. pearled: adorned with pearls. The association 
 of pearls with water-divinities was conventional. 
 
 835. Nereus: the father of the Nereids or water- 
 nymphs. 
 
 838. lavers: baths, nectared: "often has much the 
 same force as ambrosial, i. e., fragrant" (V.). In the 
 baths filled with nectar floated asphodels, the flower 
 that grows over the Elysian fields where the blessed 
 dead wander. 
 
 845. helping: supply "to cure", urchin blasts: in- 
 fluence of wicked elves. Urchin is used here in a 
 
144 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 sense intermediate between the original one of "hedge- 
 hog' ' (a beast of ill-omen) and the modern one of "small 
 child." 
 
 863 amber-dropping hair. This does not seem to mean 
 anything more difficult than that amber-colored water 
 was dropping from her hair. Several editors, however, 
 suppose that the amber color was reflected from her 
 hair. 
 
 870. Oceanus: in Greek mythology, the god of the 
 great river that flowed around the earth. Tethys : the 
 wife of Oceanus. 
 
 871.Nereutf. Cf. ver. 835 and note. 
 
 872. Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus, the "old 
 man of the sea," had the power of prophecy (whence 
 wizard), lived on the island of Carpathos near Crete 
 (whence Carpathian), and was the shepherd of the flocks 
 of Amphitrite, L e., the seals (whence hook). 
 
 873. Triton. Cf. Lye., ver. 89 and note. 
 
 874. Glaucus: a fisherman of Boeotia who was changed 
 into a sea-god with a gift of prophecy. 
 
 875. Leucothea: i. e., the white goddess the name 
 given to Ino after she had been saved from drowning 
 by the dolphins and had been made a sea-goddess. 
 Homer calls her "Ino of the fair ankles." See next note. 
 
 877. her son. When Ino threw herself into the sea 
 to escape from her mad husband, Athamas, she had with 
 her Melicertes,' her son, who also was deified as Palsemon. 
 
 877. Thetis: the daughter of Nereus and mother of 
 Achilles, always called "silver-footed" by Homer. Mil- 
 ton translates the epithet, using tinsel in the sense of 
 "silvery," "flashing." 
 
 879. Parthenope: one of the Sirens who was fabled to 
 have been buried near Naples. 
 
 880. Ligea: another of the Sirens. 
 
 891. osier: the water- willow. 
 
NOTES-COMUS j*5 
 
 893. azurn. This derivative from azure occurs no- 
 wttere else. 
 
 893-5. The sense of this passage seems to be that 
 the chariot is inlaid with agate, turquoise, and emerald 
 colors, like the shifting blue and green lights that 
 glimmer through the" water (in the channel strays). 
 
 917. of glutinous heat: i. e., glutinous when heated. 
 
 921. Amphitrite: the wife of Neptune. 
 
 923. In ver. 827, Locrine was stated to be the son of 
 Brutus who was descended from JEneas, the son of 
 Anchises. 
 
 934-7. The confusion of figure here is due to the 
 two conceptions of Sabrina as a maiden and as a river. 
 In the crowned head he is thinking of the former, in the 
 towers and groves, of the latter. Roun:l (ver. 935) may be 
 taken as an adverb modifying crowned, and upon (ver. 
 936) as a preposition governing banks. 
 
 945. covert: thicket. Editors have noted that the 
 scene has changed from the palace (cursed place, ver. 939), 
 but T. points out that the Spirit may refer by anticipa- 
 tion to the covert, everyone knowing that a forest lay 
 round the palace of Comus. This is supported, he notes 
 acutely, by the use of thence, not "hence," in the next 
 line. 
 949. gratulate: welcome, rejoice in, 
 
 963. Mercury does not seem to be elsewhere associ- 
 ated with the wood nymphs or Dryads. He may be 
 mentioned here on account of his being the god of in- 
 ventiveness (cf. devise), the discoverer- of music, and 
 proverbially light-footed. 
 
 972. assays: tests. 
 
 976-1011. When the masque was originally per- 
 formed, this passage, with slight change, was sung at the 
 opening, and the epilogue began at But now my 
 ver. 1012, 
 
146 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS , 
 
 981, 2. Cf. ver. 393 and note. 
 
 985. spruce: gay, fresh. 
 
 91. nard and cassia: aromatic plants. 
 
 992. Iris: goddess of the rainbow. Cf. ver, 83, Irit 
 woof, 
 
 995. purfled: with embroidered edge (V.). 
 
 999. Adonis: the youth beloved of Venus, who died 
 of a wound from a boar's tusk. [The ' 'gardens of 
 Adonis," to which many editors refer in connection 
 with this passage, are not here alluded to.] 
 
 1002. Assyrian queen: Ashtaroth, i. e:, Venus. She 
 is given her oriental name here in recollection of the 
 eastern origin of the Adonis myth. 
 
 1005. Psyche: the soul, beloved of Cupid, according 
 to a late [myth. Venus opposed her son's love, and 
 wandering labors refers to the tasks set by the goddess 
 for Psyche to perform before she could gain immortality 
 and be united to Cupid. 
 
 101 1. This offspring of Cupid and Psyche is Milton's 
 own invention. 
 
 1015. bowed welkin: vaulted heaven. 
 
 LYCIDAS 
 
 Title. The name is taken from the pastoral poetry 
 of Theocritus and Vergil. Here it stands for Edward 
 King, the subject of the elegy. Monody: originally "a 
 solo, 7 ' then "a lament. " This argument was written by 
 Milton for the second edition of the poem.. 
 
 1-14. The poem opens with a reference to Milton's 
 resuming the writing of poetry Yet once more after he" 
 had determined to discontinue it for a time. * 
 
 1, 2. laurels . . . myrtles . . . ivy: evergreens tradition- 
 ally used for the crowning of poets. . 
 
 2. brown: dark. Cf. II Pens. , ver. 134 and note, sere: 
 dry, withered. 
 
NOTES- 1 YCIDAS 147 
 
 3. crude: unripe (with reference to his sense of un- 
 readiness for writing great poetry). 
 
 5. shatter: scatter (originally forms of the same word). 
 before . . . year: before the autumn ripens the fruit, i. e., 
 before time matures my genius. 
 
 6. dear. In Shakspere this word is used, as here, of 
 anything that comes home to one intimately, whether 
 good or bad. constraint: compulsion. 
 
 7. compels: singular verb, because constraint and occa- 
 sion refer to one idea, due: proper. 
 
 9. peer: equal. 
 
 10. knevi to sing: a Latin idiom. In modern English 
 we should say, ''knew how." 
 
 1 1 . rhyme: used here for verse. 
 
 13. welter: toss about. 
 
 14. tear. This was a conventional figure for elegiac 
 poetry. 
 
 15. sisters. The Muses were goddesses of inspiring 
 springs, and so were associated with a number of 
 fountains. V. thinks that sacred well here is Aganippe on 
 Mt. Helicon, where there was an altar to Jove; M. and B. 
 think it is Pieria, near Mt. Olympus, on whicfo were 
 the residences of the gods. There is nothing in the 
 passage t<5 give ground for a definite conclusion. Of. 11 
 Pens. , ver. 47, 8, and note. 
 
 18. coy: bashful, difficult of access, disdainful. 
 
 19. Muse here stands for "poet." Note the he in 
 ver. 21. 
 
 20. lucky: wishing me good luck. 
 
 23-36. In this passage the elegy becomes clearly 
 pastoral. The hill, the shepherds, the rural ditties, etc., 
 signify Cambridge, the student society, college verses, 
 etc. But the allegory is not to be interpreted in every 
 detail, or it becomes ridiculous.^ 
 
 27. drove: supply "our flocks." 
 
148 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 28. "i. e. y heard the grey-fly at what time (i. e. t when) 
 she winds her sultry horn" (T.). The grey-fly is said to 
 be the trumpet-fly, which is heard in the heat of noon, 
 whence sultry. 
 
 29. battening: feeding. The word is more accurately 
 used in the intransitive sense of "growing fat." 
 
 30. star: usually understood as Hesperus, the evening 
 star, and an early draft of the lines shows Milton had 
 this in mind at one time. But critics have pointed out 
 that strictly speaking this star does not rise at sunset, 
 but merely becomes visible then. Moreover, it is already 
 sloping toward heaven's descent when it first appears. 
 Perhaps Milton meant to signify the all-night sederunts of 
 fellow-students, in which case the reference would be to 
 any star rising in the evening and setting in the morning. 
 
 33. tempered to: harmonized with. 
 
 34. Satyrs were the sportive divinities of the fields in i 
 Greek mythology, and were later identified with the 
 Fauns of the Romans who also were half men, half goats. 
 
 36. Damcetas: a familiar name in the.pastorajs. *Here 
 it may be taken as standing for any of the older men in 
 authority about the University. 
 
 40. gadding: straggling. 
 
 45. canker: the canker-worm that gnaws the hearts 
 of flowers. 
 
 46. taint-worm. The particular worm referred to is 
 not known, weanling: lately weaned. 
 
 48. white-thorn: the hawthorn, as distinguished from 
 the black-thorn or sloe. 
 
 50-63. This passage addressed to the nymphs has 
 been shown to be imitated from Theocritus (Idyls i ) and 
 Vergil (Eclogues x). 
 
 52. steep. Milton doubtless had in mind some 
 mountain on the coast of Wales near the spot where 
 King was drowned. 
 
NOTES LYCIDAS 149 
 
 53. bards. In calling the Druids bards, Milton has in 
 mind the fact that they were the minstrels as well as the 
 priests of the Celts. 
 
 54. Mona: the Latin name for the island of Angelsey, 
 off the Welsh coast. 
 
 55. Deva: the river Dee, which flows along the 
 boundary of Wales into the Irish Sea. wizard: with super- 
 natural associations. The origin of these associations is 
 diversely explained. "The river was supposed to be a 
 haunt of magicians, and was so described by Spenser and" 
 Drayton' ' (T.). "It was supposed to foretell, by changing 
 its course, good or ill events for England and Wales, of 
 which it forms the boundary" (V.). There is^no reason 
 why Milton should not have had both points in mind. * 
 
 56. fondly: foolishly. Cf. II Pens. , ver. 6 and note. 
 
 58. Calliope: the muse" of epic poetry, and mythical 
 mother of Orpheus. 
 
 59. enchanting: in the literal sense of using enchant- 
 ments, viz., his music. 
 
 61. On the loss of Eurydice, Orpheus so disdained 
 all other women that he enraged the Thracian women, 
 who tore him to pieces. His head was thrown into the 
 river Hebrus, and borne to the island of Lesbos, where it 
 was buried. See note on L'AIL, ver. 145-50. rout: an 
 unruly band. 
 
 64. what boots it: what good is it? 
 
 66: shepherd's trade: as generally in pastoral poetry, 
 this figure stands for the writing of verse, meditate: e^l- 
 tivate, practise. Cf. Comus, ver. 547 and note, thankless^ 
 The epithet is probably meant to imply not so much that 
 the Muse is ungrateful as that her service brings no 
 profit from the world. 
 
 67. use: are accustomed to do. 
 
 67-70. These lines have usually been interpreted as 
 referring to the amatory poetry of the Cavalier lyrists 
 
150 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 such as Herrick. But if the contrast with ver. 66 be held 
 to strictly, does it not rather mean the abandonment of 
 poetry altogether for the life of pleasure of the Cavalier 
 if you like? Amaryllis and Necera are stoek names for the 
 heroines of classical love poetry. 
 
 70. clear. The word here may be taken as combining 
 the senses of "pure," "unsullied," and of the Lat. clarus, 
 illustrious. 
 
 I 71. The weakness which is the last to be overcome 
 by the noble mind. 
 
 73. guerdon: recompense. 
 
 75. Fury. Of the three Fates, Clotho spun the thread 
 of life, Lachesis measured the lengths, and Atropos cut 
 them off. If Atropos is meant here, as seerns^ probable, 
 Milton uses Fury for Fate. Blind Fury expresses more 
 passionately his feeling of the mad unreason of such a 
 premature cutting off as is the subject of the poem. 
 
 76. slits: cuts off. In this sense the same word will 
 serve to govern praise. 
 
 77. Plicebus: introduced here as the god of poetry 
 touched . . . ears. "The action was a symbolical way of 
 recalling a matter to a person's memory, the ear being 
 regarded as the seat of memory" (Conington, quoted by 
 V.). M. interprets trembling ears as an allusion to the 
 popular superstition that a person's ears tingle when 
 people are speaking of him in his absence. Milton thus, 
 he thinks, shows himself conscious of the applicability 
 of the passage on Fame to himself. 
 
 79, 80. The general sense seems to be as follows: 
 Fame does not consist in the showy achievements (=glister- 
 ing foil) exhibited (=set off) to the world, nor in broad ru- 
 mor, foil: gold or silver leaf, such as was placed under 
 transparent gems to increase their brilliance. 
 
 82. Jove: God. The word is used here to preserve 
 the consistency of the classical nomenclature. 
 
NOTES LYCIDAS 151 
 
 83. lastly: finally, without appeal. 
 
 85. The lament is resumed here, after the digression 
 on fame. Arethuse. Arethusa was a spring in the island 
 of Ortygia in the port of Syracuse in Sicily. It is used 
 here in allusion to the Sicilian school of pastoral poets, 
 Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus. 
 
 86. Minclus: the stream by which Vergil was born 
 and which he honoured by his poetry. It flows into the 
 Po near Mantua. Here it is used in allusion to Vergil's 
 pastoral poems. vocal: because used for shepherds 1 
 pipes. 
 
 87. that strain: the speech of Phoebus, mood: used 
 technically for ' 'kind of music." 
 
 -88. i. e., I go on playing on my oaten pipe, or resume 
 my pastoral poem. 
 
 89. Herald: Triton, who was Neptune's trumpeter. 
 
 90. came . . . plea. This may mean either (1) came to 
 hold a court of inquiry on behalf of Neptune, or (2) came 
 in defence of Neptune (by laying the blame on one of the 
 minor powers). 
 
 9 1 .felon: because presumably guilty of the death of 
 King. 
 
 96. Hippotades. ^Eolus, the god of the winds, was the 
 son of Hippotes. 
 
 99. Panope, one of the sea-nymphs called nereids, or 
 daughters of Nereus (hence sisters). 
 
 101. eclipse. Eclipses were regarded as of ill-omen. 
 
 103. Camus: the god of the river Cam, here used to 
 represent the University, footing slow may refer to the 
 sluggish stream of the Cam, or may be part of the repre- 
 sentation of Camus as an old man. 
 
 104. hairy: i. e. y with river- weeds, sedge: a coarse 
 grass that grows on the banks of rivers. 
 
 105. figures dim: faint designs taken by some to be 
 symbolical of the old traditions of Cambridge. 
 
162 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 106. sanguine: bloody (the literal meaning). The 
 flower is the hyacinth, named after the mythical Spartan 
 youth Hyacinthus. He was killed by a quoit thrown by 
 Apollo, but blown aside by Zephyrus, who was jealous of 
 the youth's love for Apollo. From his blood sprang the 
 nower, and on its petals the words, Ai, Ai (alas, alas!) 
 were supposed to be traceable. 
 
 107. reft: snatched away, pledge: child (a transla- 
 tion of the Lat. pignus, which is used in both senses). 
 
 I II. pilot: St. Peter. He is introduced as the 
 .founder of the Church, in which King had intended to 
 take orders. The belief that Peter is the keeper of the 
 keys of heaven is derived, from Matthew, XVI, 19, and 
 the tradition of the number has grown up in the Church. 
 The difference in metal and function is due to Milton. 
 amain: with force. 
 
 112. mitred: wearing a mitre, as a dignitary of the 
 Church, bespoke: used simply in the sense of "spoke." 
 The modern use is restricted. 
 
 1 14. enow: poetical form of "enough." 
 
 115. "First, those who creep into the fold: who do 
 
 not care for office or name, but for secret influence 
 
 Then those who intrude, (thrust, that is) themselves into 
 the fold, who, by natural insolence of heart, and stout 
 eloquence of tongue, and fearlessly perseverant self-asser- 
 tion, obtain hearing and authority with the common 
 crowd. Lastly, those who climb, who by labour and 
 learning, both stout and sound, but selfishly exerted in 
 the cause of their own ambition, gain high dignities and 
 authorities, and become 'lords over the heritage, 'though 
 not 'ensamples to the flock.' " 
 
 Ruskin: Sesame and Lilies , 21. 
 
 117. shearers' feast: i. e., the endowments meant for 
 Vh'e working clergy. 
 
 118. worthy bidden guest: cf. Matthew, XXII, 1-9. 
 
 
NOTES LYCIDA& 153 
 
 119. blind mouths: "A 'Bishop' means 'a person who 
 sees.' A 'Pastor' means 'a person who feeds.' The most 
 unbishoply character a man can have is therefore to be 
 Blind. The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to 
 want to be fed, to be a Mouth." 
 
 Sesame and Lilies, $ 22. 
 
 120, 1. The pastoral imagery familiar in connection 
 with the Church is here united with that of the conven- 
 tional literary type which the poem follows in general. 
 
 122. What recks^.. . sped: What does it matter to 
 them? What iSSBrfrtley want? They have succeeded 
 in getting what they were after, the material rewards of 
 the priesthood. 
 
 123. list: please. The implication is that they 
 preached only when they felt inclined, lean: containing 
 no spiritual nourishment, flashy: watery, insipid, trashy. 
 
 124. scrannel: said to be a Lancashire dialect word 
 meaning "thin," "meagre." The sound of the word and 
 the context go far to give us Milton's idea. Cf. Scottish, 
 scran, to scrape together. 
 
 126. rank: poisonous. The suggestion is that the 
 careless shepherds let the sheep wander into pestilential 
 marshes. Symbolically, it refers to the risk of heresy. 
 draw: inhale. 
 
 128. grim wolf: the church of Rome, privy: referring 
 to the secret proselytizing then going on. 
 
 130. two-handed engine. engine= instrument. The 
 reference here is obscure. A favorite explanation is that 
 it is to "the axellaid unto the root of the tree" (Matthew III, 
 10); M. sees a reference to the two Houses of Parliament 
 V. to the sword of Justice. Perhaps Milton meant noth 
 ing more than that an effective remedy was at the door 
 i. e. t close at hand. 
 
 132. Alpheus. Just as after the digression on Fame h 
 resumed by calling on Arethusa as a symbol of pastora 
 
154 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 poetry, so after this digression on the state of the 
 Church he calls on Alpheus, the lover of Arethusa. The 
 dread voice is, of course, St. Peter's, and the shrinking of 
 the streams represents the checking of the flow of pastor- 
 al verse. 
 
 133. Sicilian muse. Cf. note on ver. 85. 
 
 136. use: dwell, have their haunts. 
 
 138. swart star: i. e. y the star that makes things swart 
 or dark with scorching, the Dog-star, Sirius. sparely: but 
 little, seldom. 
 
 139. quaint enamelled eyes: curiously colored flowers. 
 
 141. purple: imperative of the verb. Purple is used 
 in a general sense, ''to make richly colored." 
 
 142. rathe: early. Used now only in the compara- 
 tive, forsaken. This is usually interpreted as "un wed- 
 ded," partly because Milton first wrote "unwedded" in 
 obvious reminiscence of Shakspere's 
 
 Pale primroses 
 
 That die unmarried, ere they can behold 
 Bright Phoebus in his strength. 
 
 But perhaps he was thinking of the loneliness of the 
 primrose, blooming in retired places, and so early that 
 tew other flowers are out. 
 
 49. (amaranthus. The name is Greek, meaning i 
 "never-fading." 
 
 151. laureate hearse, hearse has had a great variety of ^ 
 meanings, but here it is understood to signify the wood- 
 en frame on which the coffin rested. Memorial stanzas / 
 were often fastened to this, hence laureate refers to Lycidas 
 and the other verses written in honor of King. 
 
 153, 4. Milton recalls the fact that he has been play- 
 ing with the idea that they really had the body of King 
 for burial, when in fact it was lost in the sea. surmise: 
 fancy. 
 
 154. The series of clauses beginning at whilst are all 
 subordinate to the clause iiuver. 153. 
 
NOTES LYCIDA8 155 
 
 156. Hebrides: islands off the west coast of Scotland. 
 
 158. monstrous: inhabited by monsters. 
 
 159. moist vows: tearful vows. 
 
 160. -fable of Bellerus: i. e., Land's End, in the ex- 
 treme southwest of England. The Latin name for this 
 cape was BeSerium, and this word Milton derives from 
 an imaginary Bellerus. 
 
 161 . guarded mount: St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, 
 on which was a craggy seat where the Archangel was 
 fabled to appear at times: hence great vision. There are 
 ruins of a fortress on the hill, but the epithet guarded is 
 more likely to refer to the protection of the angel. 
 
 162. Namancos and Bayona are both on the coast of 
 Spain near Cape Finisterre, the direction in which the 
 vision of the Archangel was fabled to have looked over 
 the sea. 
 
 163. ruth: pity. Professor Corson ingeniously sug- 
 gests that in this line we have a further reference to the 
 ecclesiastical situation. In making the Archangel 
 Michael, the guardian of the Church, look to wards Spain, 
 the stronghold of Catholicism, Milton, he thinks, meant 
 to symbolize the Archangel's watchfulness against 
 foreign danger. But now that the Church is exposed to 
 danger from within, he calls on him to Look homeward, 
 Angel, now, and melt with ruth. 
 
 164. -dolphins: in allusion to the story of Arion, a 
 Greek poet and musician. Once, when he was at sea, 
 the crew determined to kill him for his wealth, but he 
 obtained permission to sing to his lyre for the last time* 
 and then jump into the sea. His music brought a num- 
 ber of dolphins round the ship, and when he jumped 
 overboard they bore him safe to land, where he had the 
 sailors punished. 
 
 168. day-star: the sun. 
 
156 MILTON'S MINOR POEMS 
 
 170. tricks: dresses, ore: here used for 4 'sparkling 
 metal." Milton probably thought of gold. "No doubt, 
 this was due to a mistaken belief that ore=aurum" (V.). 
 
 175. nectar: used to keep up the imagery of pagan 
 mythology, though in a description of the Christian 
 heaven, oozy: moist, referring to the manner of his 
 death. 
 
 176. unexpressive: inexpressible, nuptial song. Cf. 
 Revelation, XIX, 9, "Blessed are they which are bidden 
 to the marriage supper of the Lamb." 
 
 186-193. The last eight lines form a stanza (in ottava 
 rima, as has been pointed out) apart, in which the poet 
 no longer sings as a shepherd, but in a detached way 
 describes the speaker of the foregoing. 
 
 186. uncouth: literally, "unknown," here "rough," 
 "rustic." 
 
 188. stops: the holes in a wind instrument, quills. 
 Skeat says that this sense of "reed" is probably older 
 than that of "feather." 
 
 189. Doric. The Sicilian pastoral poets wrote in the 
 Doric dialect. 
 
 190. Had lengthened out the shadows of the hills, 
 
 192. twitched: gathered round him. 
 
WORD INDEX 
 
 I I/ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEROSO. Ill COMUS. IV LYCIDAS 
 
 Acheron, in, 604. 
 Adonis, in, 999. 
 ^Eolus, iv, 96 n. 
 affects, in, 386. 
 Aganippe, iv, 15 n, 
 airy shell, in, 231. 
 Algarsife, n, 111. 
 allay, in, 96. 
 Allegro, i, Title. 
 Alpheus, iv, 132. 
 amain, iv, 111. 
 amaranthus, iv, 149. 
 Amaryllis, iv, 68. 
 amazed, in, 565. 
 amber-dropping, in, 863. 
 ambrosial, in, 16, 838 n. 
 amiss, in, 177. 
 Amphitrite, in, 921. 
 Anchises, in, 923. 
 ancient, in, 314. 
 Angel, iv, 163. 
 antique, 11, 158. 
 Arcady, in, 341. 
 Arethuse, iv, 85, 132 n. 
 Arion, iv, 164 n. 
 Ariosto, 11, 116 n. 
 Ashtaroth, in, 1002 n. 
 aspects, in, 694. 
 asphodil, in, 838. 
 assays, in, 972. 
 Assyrian, in, 1002. 
 at the door, iv, 130. 
 attendance, in, 315. 
 Attic, n, 124. 
 Aurora, i, 19. 
 azurn, in, 893. 
 
 Bacchus, i, 16; in, 46. 
 bandite, in, 426. 
 bards, iv, 53. 
 battening, iv, 29. 
 Bayona, iv, 162. 
 beads, in, 391. 
 Bear, n, 87; in, 341 n. 
 becks, i, 28. 
 begin, in, 460. 
 Bellerus, iv, 160. 
 bellman, n, 83. 
 benison, in, 332. 
 bespake, iv, 112. 
 besprent, in, 542. 
 bested, 11, 3. 
 blank, in, 452. 
 blasts, in, 845. 
 blear, in, 155. 
 blind mouths, iv, 119. 
 blue-haired, in, 29. 
 bolt, in, 760. 
 boots, iv, 64. 
 bosky, in, 313. 
 bosomed, i, 78. 
 bosoms, in, 368. 
 bottom glade, in, 532. 
 bourn, in, 313. 
 bout, i, 139. 
 bowed, in, 1015. 
 bower, i, 87; in, 45. 
 brakes, in, 147. 
 Bridgewater, Earl of, in s 
 
 31 n. 
 
 brinded, in, 443. 
 brooding, i, 6. 
 brow, in, 532. 
 
 157 
 
158 WORD INDEX 
 
 I L' ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEBOSO, III COMUS. 
 
 IV LTCIDAS. 
 
 brown, 11, 134; iv, 2. 
 Brute, in, 828. 
 budge, in, 707. 
 but, in, 714. 
 buxom, i, 24. 
 
 cabined, in, 140. 
 called, in, 131. 
 Calliope, iv, 58 n. 
 Callisto, in, 341 n. 
 Camball, n, 111. 
 Cambuscan, n, 110. 
 Camus, iv, 103. 
 Canace, n, 112. 
 canker,iv, 45. 
 canon laws, in, 808. 
 Carpathian, in, 872. 
 cassia, in, 991. 
 cast, n, 43; in, 360. 
 casts, in, 225. 
 Celtic, in, 60. 
 centre, in, 382. 
 Cephalus, n, 124 n. 
 Cerberus, i, 2. 
 chamber, in, 101. 
 chance, in, 508. 
 change, in, 10. 
 charactered, in, 530, 
 Chastity, in, 215. 
 charnel, in, 471. 
 Charybdis, in, 259. 
 chequered, i, 96. 
 Cherub, n, 54. 
 chimeras, in, 517. 
 chimney, i, 111. 
 Cimmerian, i, 10. 
 tJirce, in, 77 n. 
 civil-suited, n, 122. 
 clear, iv, 70. 
 climb, iv, 115. 
 cloister, n, 156. 
 close, in, 548. 
 
 cock, i, 49. 
 commercing, n, 39. 
 compels, iv, 7. 
 Comus, in, Title, 
 condition, in, 685. 
 consent, 11, 95. 
 consort, n, 145. 
 constraint, iv, 6. 
 Contemplation, 11, 54. 
 counterfeit, n, 80. 
 converse, in, 459. 
 Corydon, i, 83. 
 cotes, in, 344. 
 Cotytto, in, 129. 
 course, in, 159. 
 courtesy, in, 322. 
 covert, in, 945. 
 coy, in, 737; iv, 18. 
 cozened, in, 737. 
 cranks, i, 27. 
 creep, iv, 115. 
 crofts, m, -531. 
 crop, i, 113. 
 crowned, in, 934. 
 crude, in, 480; iv, 3. 
 Cupid, HI, 1004. 
 curfew, 11, 74; in, 435. 
 curious, in, 714. 
 Cynic, m, 708. 
 cynosure, i, 80; m, 342. 
 Cynthia, n, 59. 
 cypress, n, 35. 
 
 dally, iv, 153. 
 Damoetas, iv, 36. 
 Daphne, m, 661. 
 dapper, m, 118. 
 dashed, in, 451. 
 Daughter of the Sphere. 
 
 in, 241. 
 
 day-star, iv, 168. 
 dear, iv, 6. 
 
WORD INDEX 159 
 
 I [/ALLEGRO. II IL PBNSBBOSO. Ill COMUS. IV LTCLDAB. 
 
 debonair, i, 24. 
 decent, n, 36. 
 Dee, iv, 55 n. 
 deep, in, 733. 
 demons, n, 93. 
 Deva, iv, 55. 
 dight, i, 62; n, 159. 
 dingle, in, 312. 
 Diodati, in, 620 n. 
 discovers, in, 1. 
 disinherit, in, 334. 
 displaced, in, 560. 
 dolphins, iv, 164. 
 Doric, iv, 189. 
 dragon womb, in, 131. 
 dragon-yoke, n, 59. 
 draw, iv, 126. 
 dread voice, iv, 132. 
 dream, n, 147. 
 drouth, in, 66. 
 drove, iv, 27. 
 drowsy-flighted, in, 553. 
 Druids, iv, 53. 
 Dryades, in, 964. 
 Du Bartas, i, 45-8 n. 
 due, 11, 155; in, 12; iv, 7. 
 
 Echo, in, 230, 237 n. 
 eclipses, iv, 101. 
 eglantine, i, 48. 
 element, m, 299. 
 Elysian, i, 147. 
 Elysium, in, 257. 
 embowed, n, 157. 
 emprise, m, 610. 
 enamelled, iv, 139. 
 enchanting, iv, 59. 
 engaged, m, 193. 
 engine, iv, 130. 
 enow, iv, 114. 
 Erebus, in, 804. 
 esteemed, in, 634. 
 
 Ethiop queen, n, 19. 
 Euphrosyne, i, 12. 
 ^Eurydice, i, 150; iv, 61 n. 
 express, in, 69. 
 extreme, in, 273. 
 eyes, iv, 139. 
 
 Faerie Queene, 11, 120 n. 
 
 fairly, m, 168. 
 
 faith, in, 88. 
 
 fall, in, 251. 
 
 fallows, i, 71. 
 
 Fancy, i, 133. 
 
 fast, n, 44. 
 
 Fates, iv, 75 n. 
 
 felon, iv, 91. 
 
 figures, iv, 105. 
 
 flashy, iv, 123. 
 
 flowery-kirtled, m,254. 
 
 foil, iv, 79. 
 
 fold, in, 93. 
 
 fond, n, 6; in, 67. 
 
 fondly, iv, 56. 
 
 footing, iv, 103. 
 
 forestalling, in, 285. 
 
 forsaken, iv, 142. 
 
 foundation, in, 808. 
 
 Friar's lantern, i, 104; in. 
 
 432 n. 
 
 frieze, m, 722. 
 frolic, in, 59. 
 frounced, n, 123. 
 Furies, in, 641. 
 Fury, iv, 75. 
 
 gadding, iv, 40. 
 garish, 11, 141. 
 gaudy shapes, ii y 6. 
 gear, m, 167. 
 Genius, n, 154. 
 ghost, in, 434. 
 girt, in, 214. 
 
160 WORD INDEX 
 
 I L' ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEROSO. Ill COMUS. IV LYCIDAS. 
 
 Glaucus, in, 874. 
 glistering, in, 219; iv, 79. 
 glozing, in, 161. 
 glutinous, in, 917. 
 goblin, i, 105. 
 gods, in, 11. 
 goes about, in, 658. 
 Gorgon, in, 447. 
 Graces, i, 15. 
 grain, n, 33; in, 750. 
 granges, in, 175. 
 gratulate, in, 949. 
 grey-fly, iv, 28. 
 grim wolf, iv, 128. 
 guarded mount, iv, 161. 
 guerdon, iv, 73. 
 
 habits, in, 157. 
 Haemony, in, 638. 
 hairy, 11, 169; iv, 104. 
 hall, in, 45. 
 happy trial, in, 592. 
 harmony, i, 144. 
 Harpies, in, 605. 
 head, in, 355. 
 hearse, iv, 151. 
 heat, in, 358. 
 heaven's descent, iv, 31. 
 Hebe, i, 29; in, 290, 
 Hebrides, iv, 156. 
 Hebrus, iv, 63. 
 Hecate, in, 135, 535. 
 hedger, in, 293. 
 heed, i, 141. 
 helping, in, 845. 
 Herald of the Sea, iv, 89. 
 Hermes, n, 88. 
 Herrick, 11, 83 n. 
 Hesperus, in, 93 n, 982; 
 
 iv, 30 n. 
 
 Hesperian tree, in, 393. 
 hinds, in, 174. 
 
 Hippotades, iv, 96. 
 his, in, 248, 673. 
 hist, 11, 55. 
 hit, 11, 14; in, 286. 
 homefelt, in, 262. 
 horror, in, 38. 
 huddling, in, 495. 
 hunger, in, 358. 
 hutched, in, 719. 
 Hyacinthus, iv, 106 n. 
 Hydras, in, 605. 
 Hymen, i, 125. 
 
 Iberian, in, 6Q. 
 Ida, n, 29. 
 if, in, 419. 
 
 II Penseroso, n, Title, 
 ill is lost, in, 271. 
 ill-greeting, in, 406. 
 ill-managed, in, 172. 
 imbodies, in, 468. 
 imbrutes, in, 468. 
 immured, in, 521. 
 imports, in, 287. 
 Indian steep, in, 139. 
 infamous, in, 424. 
 infer, in, 408. 
 infirmity, iv, 71. 
 influence, I, 122. 
 inform, in, 180. 
 innumerous, in, 349. 
 insphered, in, 3. 
 intrude, iv, 115. 
 inured, in, 735. 
 Iris, in, 83, 992. 
 iron stakes, in, 491. 
 ivy, in, 55; iv, 2. 
 
 Jonson, i, 132; in, Title n. 
 Jove, n, 30; in, 20; iv, 82. 
 Jove's altar, n, 48. 
 Joy, m, 1011, 
 
WORD INDEX 161 
 
 I L' ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEROSO. ' III COMUB. IV LYOIDAS. 
 
 julep, in, 672. 
 junkets, i, 102. 
 
 kerchieft, n, 125. 
 knows to still, in, 87. 
 knew to sing, iv, 10. 
 
 laboured, in, 291. 
 lackey, in, 455. 
 L 'Allegro, i. Title, 
 landskip, i, 70. 
 lantern (Friar's), i, 104. 
 lark, i, 41. 
 lastly, iv, 83. 
 laureate, iv, 151. 
 laurels, iv, 1. 
 lavers, in, 838. 
 Lawes, in, 86 n, 495 n. 
 lawn, n, 35. 
 lean, iv, 123. 
 Leucothea, in, 875. 
 lies, i, 79. 
 Ligea, in, 880. 
 like, in, 634. 
 likeliest, in, 90. 
 liquorish, in, 700. 
 list, iv, 123. 
 listed, in, 49. 
 liveries, i, 62. 
 Locrine, in, 922. 
 loose, in, 174. 
 low-roosted, in, 317. 
 lubber, i, 110. 
 lucky, iv, 20. 
 Lycjdas, iv, Title. 
 Lydian, i, 136. 
 
 Mab, i, 102. 
 madrigal, m, 495. 
 mantling, in, 294. 
 mask, i, 128. 
 massy-proof, n, 158. 
 
 Meander, in, 232. 
 meant, in, 591. 
 measure, in, 144. 
 meditate, in, 547; iv, 66. 
 meeting, i, 138. 
 Melancholy, i, 1. 
 Meliboeus, m, 822. 
 Melicertes, in, 876 n. 
 mellowing, iv, 5. 
 Memnon, n, 18. 
 Mercury, in, 963. 
 messes, i, 85. 
 mickle, m, 31. 
 Mincius, iv, 86. 
 Minerva, m, 448. 
 mintage, in, 529. 
 minute-drops, n, 130. 
 Mirth, i, 13. 
 mitred, iv, 112. 
 moist vows, iv, 159. 
 Moly, in, 636. 
 Mona, iv, 54. 
 monody, iv, Title, 
 monstrous, m, 533; iv, 158 
 monumental, 11, 135. 
 morning roses, i, '22 n. 
 morrice, m, 116. 
 mortal change, in, 10. 
 mould, in, 17. 
 mountain-nymph, i, 36. 
 murmurs, m, 526. 
 Musseus, n, 104. 
 Muse, iv, 19. 
 Muses, n, 47. 
 myrtles, iv, 2. 
 
 Namancos, iv, 162. 
 Narcissus, m, 237. 
 nard, in, 991. 
 navel, in, 520. 
 near-ushering, in, 279. 
 Neaera, iv, 69. 
 
162 WURD INDEX 
 
 I I/ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEROSO. Ill COMUB. IV LYCIDAS. 
 
 nectar, iv, 175. 
 nectared, in, 479, 838. 
 Nepenthes, in, 675. 
 Neptune, in, 18; iv, 90. 
 Nereus, in, 835, 871. 
 nether Jove, in, 20. 
 next, in, 501. 
 nice, in, 139. 
 night-foundered, in, 483. 
 nightly, n, 84. 
 night-raven, I, 7. 
 nuptial song, iv, 176. 
 Nymphs, iv, 50. 
 
 oat, iv, 88. 
 
 Oceanus, in, 868. 
 
 of, n, 171. 
 
 oozy, iv, 175. 
 
 ore, iv, 170. 
 
 orient, in, 65. 
 
 Orpheus, i, 145; n, 105; 
 
 iv, 58. 
 
 osier, in, 891. 
 ounce, in, 71. 
 over-exquisite, in, 359. 
 
 Palaemon, in, 876 n. 
 pale, n, 156. 
 pall, n, 98. 
 pallet, in, 318. 
 palmer, in, 189. 
 Pan, in, 176. 
 Panope, iv, 99. 
 Parley, in, 241. 
 Parthenope, in, 879. 
 pastoral imagery, iv,120n. 
 pastoral reed, HI, 345. 
 path to Heaven, in, 303. 
 pearled, HI, 834. 
 Peer, HI, 31; iv, 9 
 Pelops' line, n, 99. 
 
 Penseroso, n, Title, 
 pensioners, n, 10. 
 perfect, in, 203. 
 period, in, 585. 
 perplexed, in, 37. 
 pert, HI, 118. 
 pestered, in, 7. 
 Philomel, n, 56. 
 Phcebus, iv, 77. 
 Phyllis, i, 86. 
 pied, i, 75. 
 Pieria, iv, 15 n. 
 pillared, in, 598. 
 Pilot, iv, 109. 
 pinched, i, 103. 
 pinfold, HI, 7. 
 plat, 11, 73. 
 
 Plato, n, 89; in, 463-75 n 
 pledge, iv, 107. 
 plight, n, 57; in, 372. 
 plighted, in, 301. 
 Pluto, i, 149; n, 107; in, 
 
 20 n. 
 
 port, in, 297. 
 praise, iv, 76. 
 pranked, in, 759. 
 presented, in, Title, 
 presentments, in, 156. 
 prevent, in, 573. 
 privy, iv, 128. 
 profaner, 11, 140. 
 prologue, in, 1 n. 
 property, in, 469. 
 Proteus, in, 872 n. 
 Psyche, in, 1005. 
 purchase, HI, 607. 
 purfled, in, 995. 
 purple, iv, 141. 
 pursed, HI, 642, 
 
 quaint habits, in, 157 
 quarters, in, 29. 
 
WORD INDEX 163 
 
 I L' ALLEGRO. II IL PENSEROSO. Ill COMUS. IV LTCIDAS 
 
 quest, in, 321. 
 quills, iv, 188. 
 quips, i, 27. 
 quire, in, 112. 
 
 rank, iv, 126. 
 
 rapt, II, 40. 
 
 rathe, iv, 142. 
 
 rebeck, I, 94. 
 
 recks, in, 404; iv, 122. 
 
 reft, iv, 107. 
 
 relation, in, 617. 
 
 removed, n, 78. 
 
 resort, in, 379. 
 
 resounding grace, in, 243. 
 
 reversed, in, 816. 
 
 rhyme, iv, 11. 
 
 rife, in, 203. 
 
 ritual, 11, 161-6 n. 
 
 root-bound, in, 662. 
 
 roses, i, 22. 
 
 rosy twine, in, 105. 
 
 round, in, 144, 935. 
 
 rouse, in, 318. 
 
 rout, in, 92; rv, 61. 
 
 rule, in, 340. 
 
 rush candle, in, 338. 
 
 ruth, iv, 163. 
 
 Sabrina, in, 826. 
 sad, 11, 43; in, 189. 
 sadly, in, 509. 
 saffron, i, 126. 
 sager, i, 17. 
 sampler, in, 751. 
 sanguine, iv, 106. 
 saws, in, 110. 
 sate, in, 714. 
 Saturn, 11, 24; in, 805. 
 Saturn's reign, n, 25. 
 Satyrs, iv, 34. 
 sceptered. n* 98* 
 
 scrannel, iv, 124, 
 scrip, in, 626. 
 Scylla, in, 257. 
 Sea-Nymphs, .11, 21. 
 secure, i, 91. 
 sedge, iv, 104. 
 see to, in, 620. 
 seek, in, 366. 
 seeks to, in, 376. 
 self-same hill, iv, 23. 
 sensualty, in, 474. 
 sere, iv, 2. 
 
 set off, in, 801; iv, 80. 
 several, in, 25. 
 Severn, in, 825. 
 Shakspere, i, 133. 
 shatter, iv, 5. 
 shearers' feast, iv, 117. 
 shepherd's trade, iv, 65. 
 shift, in, 273. 
 shifts, m, 617. 
 shroud, in, 316. 
 shrouds, in, 147. 
 Sicilian Muse, iv, 133. 
 simples, in, 627. 
 single, in, 204, 369. 
 Sirens, iir, 253. 
 Sisters, iv, 15. 
 slits, iv, 76. 
 slope, in, 98. 
 sock, i, 132. 
 sorry, in, 750. 
 sounds, in, 115. 
 sovran, in, 639. 
 sparely, iv, 138. 
 spell, n, 170. 
 Spenser, 11, 116 n. 
 spets, in, 132. 
 sphere, in, 241. ' 
 spicy, i, 100. 
 spruce, in, 985. 
 spongy, in, 154. 
 
164 WORD INDEX 
 
 I L ALLEQRO. II IL PENSBROSO. Ill GOMUS. IV LYCIDA& 
 
 square, in, 329. 
 squint, Hi, 413. 
 St. Peter, iv, 111 n. 
 stabled, in, 534. 
 stage, n, 102. 
 stakes, in, 491. 
 Star, in, 93; iv, 30. 
 Star of Arcady, in, 341. 
 starred, n, 19. 
 starry, in, 112. 
 state, i, 60; 11, 37; in, 35 
 stead, in, 611. 
 stealth, in, 503. 
 steep, in, 97; iv, 52. 
 still, n, 41, 127; in, 56G. 
 Stoic, in, 707. 
 stole, 11, 35. 
 stop, in, 552. 
 stops, iv, 188. 
 store, I, 121. 
 storied, n, 159; ill, 516. 
 strain, iv, 87. 
 stray, in, 315. 
 stream, in, 97. 
 stretched, iv, 190. 
 strong-siding, in, 212. 
 strook, in, 301. * 
 Stygian, i, 3; 111, 132. 
 surmise, iv, 153. 
 swart, in, 436; iv, 138. 
 swilled, in, 178. 
 swinked, ill, 293. 
 Sylvan, 11, 134; in, 268. 
 
 taint-worm, iv, 46. 
 tale, i, 67. 
 Tasso, n, 116 n. 
 tear, iv 9 14. 
 tease, in, 751. 
 teeming, in, 175. 
 temperance, 11, 45-8 n. 
 tempered, iv, 33,, 
 
 Tethys, in, 870. 
 thankless, iv, 66. 
 thatched pallet, in, 318. 
 Thebes, n, 99. 
 Thestylis, i, 88. 
 Thetis, in, 877. 
 they below, in, 734. 
 those, in, 2. 
 thrice-great, n, 88. 
 Thyrsis, i, 83; in, 494. 
 tinsel-slippered, in, 877. 
 to, in, 506. 
 to seek, in, 366. 
 took, in, 558. 
 to-ruffled, in, 380. 
 touched . . .ears, iv, 77. 
 tourneys, n, 118. 
 toy, in, 502. 
 trace, in, 423. 
 trains, in, 151. 
 transformed, in, 48. 
 tricked, n, 123. 
 tricks, iv, 170. 
 Triton, in, 873; iv, 89 n 
 triumphs, I, 120. 
 Troy, n, 100. 
 turkis, in, 894. 
 Tuscan, in, 48. 
 twine, in, 105. 
 twitched, iv, 192. 
 two-handed, iv, 130. 
 Tyrian, in, 342. 
 Tyrrhene, in, 49. 
 
 ugly, in, 695. 
 unadorned, in, 23. 
 unblenched, in, 430. 
 uncouth, i, 5; iv, 186. 
 unenchantedj in, 395. 
 unexempt, in, 685. 
 UD expressive, iv, 176. 
 unharboured, in, 423, 
 
WORD INDEX 165 
 
 I L' ALLEGRO. II IL PENBBROSO. Ill COMUS. iV LYcn>i* 
 
 unlaid, nr, 434. 
 unless, in, 267. 
 unowned, ill, 407. 
 unprincipled, in, 367. 
 unreproved, i, 40. 
 unseen, i, 57; n, 65. 
 unsphere, II, 88. 
 unsunned, in, 398. 
 unthread, in, 614. 
 unweeting, in, 539. 
 upland, i, 92. 
 urchin, in, 845. 
 use, iv, 67, 136. 
 ushered, 11, 127, 
 
 Vergil, iv, 86 n. 
 Vesta, n, 23. 
 viewless, in, 92. 
 virtue, in, 165. 
 virtuous, n, 113; in, 165n. 
 Vision, iv, 161. 
 vizored, in, 698. 
 vocal, in, 247; iv, 86 
 votarist, in, 189. 
 
 wain, in, 190. 
 wakes, in, 121. 
 waking, in, 263. 
 Wales, in, 30 n, 
 wandering labours, Ul, 
 1006. 
 
 wanton, i, 27, 141. 
 warranted, in, 327. 
 wassaiiers, in, 179. 
 wattled, in, 344. 
 weaker, n, 15, 140 n. 
 weanling, iv, 46. 
 weeds, i, 120; m, 16, 84, 
 
 390. 
 
 welkin, in, 1015. 
 well, in, 210. 
 Welsh, in, 33 n. 
 welter, iv, 13. 
 what time, in, 291; iv, 28 
 whilst, iv, 154. 
 white-thorn, iv, 48. 
 wicker hole, in, 338. 
 wiles, i, 27. 
 wind, in, 163. 
 window, i, 46. 
 wink on, in, 401. 
 with, n, 88. 
 wizard, in, 872; iv, 55. 
 wont'st, in, 332. 
 worthy bidden, iv, 11& 
 
 yclept, I, 12. 
 
 yet once more, iv, 1. 
 
 Youth, m, 1011. 
 
 Zephyr, I, 19, " 
 

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