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^infants' Juries xrf ^txglisfe lassixs. 
 
 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO, COMUS, 
 AND LYCIDAS. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LOUISE MANNING HODGKINS, M.A. 
 
 " Had Paradise Lost remained unwritten, the earlier lyrics of Milton 
 would have ranked him above all his contemporaries in Lyric Poetry" 
 
 BAYNB. 
 
 LEACH, SHEWELL, & SANBORN. 
 BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1893, 
 BY LEACH, SHEWELL, & SANBORN. 
 
 TYPOGRAPHY AND ELECTROTYPING BY 
 C. J. PETEKS & SON, BOSTON. 
 
 BERWICK & SMITH, PRINTERS, BOSTON. 
 
933 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 No conscientious worker can edit or annotate any 
 portion of the Poetical Works of Milton without an 
 acknowledgment of his indebtedness to David Masson, 
 who devoted a score of years to his voluminous edition 
 of the life and works of John Milton. The large size 
 of Masson's edition puts it out of the reach of the 
 ordinary student. The present work, while it follows 
 in the footsteps of the nobler scholar in text, and for 
 the most part takes his dictum in disputed renderings, 
 aims to cover only those points that are necessary to 
 an intelligent study of the poems included in its pages. 
 
 Thanks are extended to Dr. Eice of the Springfield 
 Public Library, and Superintendent Cutter of the Bos- 
 ton Athenaeum, for many courtesies in the way of library 
 facilities during the preparation of this little volume. 
 
 L. M. H. 
 
 MARCH, 1893. 
 
 M633318 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CONTEMPORANEOUS LYRIC POETS vii 
 
 REFERENCES FOR THE STUDY OF MILTON ix 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE xi 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1 
 
 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS 10 
 
 FAMOUS MASQUES 15 
 
 L' ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO 21 
 
 COMUS 35 
 
 LYCIDAS 72 
 
 NOTES ON: 
 
 L' ALLEGRO 79 
 
 IL PENSEROSO 83 
 
 COMUS 88 
 
 LYCIDAS 97 
 
CONTEMPORANEOUS LYRIC POETS. 
 
 JOHN DONNE, 1573-1631. __ 
 
 WILLIAM BK'OWNE, 1588-1643. 
 
 THOMAS CAREW, 1589-1639. 
 
 ROBERT HERRICK, 1594-1674. 
 
 SIR JOHN SUCKLING, 1608-1642. 
 
 RICHARD LOVELACE, 1618-1658. 
 
 WILLIAM DRUMMOND, 1585-1649. 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT, 1592-1634. 
 
 JEREMY TAYLOR (a lyric poet who wrote his lyrics in prose), 
 
 1613-1667. 
 
 RICHARD CRASHAW, 1615-1650. 
 HENRY VAUGHAN, 1621-1695. 
 ABRAHAM COWLEY, 1618-1667. 
 EDMUND WALLER, 1605-1687. 
 SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT, 1605-1668. 
 (JOHN MILTON, 1608-1674.) 
 ANDREW MARVELL, 1621-1678. 
 SAMUEL BUTLER, 1612-1680. 
 JOHN DRYDEN, 1631-1700. 
 
REFERENCES FOR THE STUDY OF 
 MILTON. 
 
 MASSON'S The Life and Times of John Milton. 
 
 MASSON'S Milton's Poetical Works. 
 
 STOPFORD BROOKE'S Milton. 
 
 MARK PATTISON'S Milton (English Men of Letters Series). 
 
 WALTER BAGEHOT'S Literary Studies (Milton Essays). 
 
 MAC AUL AY'S Essay on Milton. 
 
 Lo WELL'S Essay on Milton. 
 
 BIRRELL'S Obiter Dicta (Second Series) Essay on Milton. 
 
 CARLYLE'S Heroes and Hero Worship (The Hero as King). 
 
 CARLYLE'S Letters and Speeches of Cromwell. 
 
 FAIRFAX Correspondence (Reign of Charles I.). 
 
 MRS. CHARLES'S Dray tons and Davenants. 
 
 SEELEY'S Essays (Milton). 
 
 STEIN'S Milton und seine Zeit. 
 
 SYMONDS'S Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe, Vol. II., 
 pp. 362-382. 
 
 ADDISON'S Spectator (Essays on Paradise Lost). 
 
 DR. JOHNSON'S Lives (Milton: Fora most unjust and unfavor- 
 able view). 
 
 INTRODUCTION to Globe Ed. of Milton. 
 
 GAIUDNEU'S Puritan Revolution. (Epochs of Modern History). 
 
 T. H. GREEN'S Lectures on English Commonwealth, Vol. III. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OP THE 
 LIFE OF MILTON. 
 
 1608. Dec. 9, John Milton, son of John and Sarah Milton, is 
 born in Bread Street, Cheapside, London. 
 
 1619-1620 (approximate date). Under the tutelage of Thomas 
 Young, a Puritan teacher. 
 
 1620 (?)-1624. A pupil at St. Paul's, London. 
 
 1625-1632. A student at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he 
 takes respectively the B. A. and M.A. degrees. (During this period 
 \ve have two notable poems, On Shakespeare and Ode on the 
 Nativity, with others of less importance.) 
 
 1632-1638. Residence with his parents at Horton. (During this 
 period occurs the death of his mother; also all the poems included 
 in this book are written.) 
 
 1638-1639. Period of travel on the Continent, chiefly in Italy. 
 (During this period Italian Sonnets.) 
 
 1639. Milton a school-teacher in London (see Tractate on Edu- 
 cation). 
 
 1641-1642. Earliest controversial pamphlets, 
 
 1643. First marriage to Mary Powell. 
 
 1644. Divorce pamphlets, Publication of his best piece of 
 prose, Areopagitica, 
 
 1648-1649. Secretary of Cromwell, the highest office in the new 
 Commonwealth. (Period of several of the sonnets.) 
 1651. Publication of The Defence of the English People. 
 1654. Milton becomes blind. 
 
xii MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 1656. Second marriage to Catharine Woodcock. 
 
 1657. Retirement from public life. 
 
 1660. The Restoration of Charles II. Milton temporarily in 
 hiding. 
 
 1663. Third marriage to Elizabeth Minshull. 
 
 1665. Residence in Chalfont during the London Plague. 
 
 1665. Completion of Paradise Lost. 
 
 1665-1666. The composition of Paradise Regained and Samson 
 Agonistes. 
 
 1667. Publication of Paradise Lost. 
 
 1671. Publication of Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. 
 
 1674. Nov. 8, John Milton dies. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 MILTON and the first American book * were born in the same 
 year, 1608. In England, James the First had succeeded Eliza- 
 beth, the High Church was in the ascendant, the Puritans in 
 the minority, and talk was rife of emigration to America. 
 The Gunpowder Plot had been recently discovered (1605), 
 the Scotch were settling the northern part of Ireland, and the 
 first colonizations from England were being made in India. 
 
 Abroad, the last of the Moors had been driven from Spain, 
 Cervantes had published his "Don Quixote" (1605), Galileo 
 was being persecuted for upholding the Copernican system, 
 Guido was producing his now world-renowned masterpieces, 
 and Rubens was studying in Italy. 
 
 The glory of the Elizabethan literature was yet undimmed, 
 for Bacon was still the trusted counsellor of the kin^. and 
 
 O ' 
 
 Shakespeare had not retired to Stratford on Avon ; Ben Jonson, 
 Beaumont, Fletcher, Chapman, Marston, Dekker, were the 
 4 ' applause and wonder" of the stage; and Daniel, Drayton, 
 and Donne, by much weaker work, were demonstrating that 
 there was great opportunity for the powers of a new lyric poet. 
 Like Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Pope, Browning, and 
 Ruskin, Milton's eyes looked first on the scenes of the largest 
 city of the world ; but at that date it was not the London of 
 * A True Relation of Virginia by Capt. John Smith, 
 1 
 
2 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 two millions, but a Boston-sized city of a few hundred thou- 
 sands. In the very heart of it was Milton's home in Bread 
 Street, not two minutes' walk from Mermaid Tavern, immor- 
 talized by the presence of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, 
 and Fletcher, and the song of Keats beginning : 
 
 " Souls of poets dead and gone, 
 What Elysium have ye known, 
 Happy field or mossy cavern, 
 Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern ?" 
 
 Nor was it more than five minutes to St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 and all the life and bustle of Cheapside. 
 
 Milton's parentage is even more interesting than that of 
 Shakespeare, since we can early trace in the epic poet, physi- 
 cal, intellectual, and spiritual traits that must have been a 
 direct inheritance, as is instanced in his love of music, his 
 Puritan predilections, his religious faith, and unfortunately his 
 tendency to weak vision that finally resulted in total blind- 
 ness. 
 
 Milton has consciously or unconsciously drawn his own child- 
 portrait in his description of the childhood of Jesus : 
 
 " When I was yet a child no childish play 
 To me was pleasing; all my mind was set 
 Serious to learn and know, and thence to do 
 What might be public good; myself I thought 
 Born to that end, born to promote all truth, 
 All righteous things." 
 
 Paradise Regained, Book I., 201-206. 
 
 Milton's youthful beauty was so distinguished that he was 
 painted when only a child of ten, by the famous artist Jansen, 
 who gives us an ideal picture of the poet-child. Thus, in a 
 household full of Puritan austerities, but softened and refined 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 3 
 
 by the frequent visits of artistic musical friends who found 
 delight in the madrigal as well as the psalm, Milton grew 
 to early manhood. 
 
 In reviewing Milton's life, it looks very much as if Milton 
 gravely resolved to be a great man and achieved it. At eleven 
 he had paraphrased the psalm we still sing in our churches, 
 
 "Let us with a gladsome inind 
 Praise the Lord, for he is kind; " 
 
 thus illustrating at the start his religious passion. At this 
 time he was preparing for college at St. Paul's, or was one of 
 " Paul's pigeons," as the popular phrase of the day termed all 
 St. Paul's boys. 
 
 At this early age he is mastering Latin, Hebrew, Greek, 
 French, and Italian, and, at a period when it is necessary that 
 a maid should sit up with him, is allowed to stay up till 
 nearly midnight to study. 
 
 When, at sixteen -years of age, he enters Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, his acquirements are such that, as in Jonathan 
 Edwards' case in our own country, it would have seemed fitting 
 to present him his degree at the outset. He is of so delicate 
 a colouring, and so gentle of deportment, that at college he 
 wins the nickname of " the lady." Wordsworth in his Prelude, 
 in the division entitled " Cambridge," gives us.a charming pen- 
 portrait of Milton at college : 
 
 " Yea, our blind poet who in later day 
 Stood almost single, uttering odious truth, 
 
 I seemed to see him here 
 Familiarly, and in his scholar's dress 
 Bounding before me, yet a stripling youth, 
 A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks 
 Angelical, keen eye, courageous look, 
 And conscious step of purity and pride." 
 
4 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 A description of Milton's life at Cambridge from his own 
 hand, is to be found in Lycidas, lines 23-36 of this edition. 
 
 It is in college that Milton's muse first awakens ; and from 
 this time we have, among several poems, two that have grown 
 greater with age, the one, doubtless partly for its noble asso- 
 ciation, an epitaph on Shakespeare, prefixed to the Second 
 Folio of the dramatist ; the other, for its masterly power, the 
 famous Ode on the Nativity of Christ. One needs to read 
 but this last-named poem to learn that a breadth of learning 
 and depth of wisdom, joined to a poet's " fine frenzy," was 
 proclaimed in the under-graduate and that "a star that 
 dwelt apart" had arisen in the poetical firmament of England. 
 
 After Milton had taken his degrees, he had what might be 
 well coveted for every thoughtful young graduate, a season of 
 rest for several years, of which he says, 
 
 " At my father's country residence, whither he had retired 
 to pass his age, I, with every advantage of leisure, spent a 
 complete holiday in turning over the Greek and Latin writers ; 
 not but that I sometimes exchanged the country for the town, 
 either for the purpose of buying books, or for that of learning 
 something new in mathematics or music, in which sciences I 
 then delighted." 
 
 From this happy interlude in a life that was destined to 
 know the stormiest scenes, ere Milton had become too wise in 
 the knowledge of the world and somewhat roughened by its 
 asperities, we have the exquisite lyrics L' Allegro and 
 II Penseroso, the matchless masque of Comus, and the 
 divine elegy of Lycidas. Given Milton the environment of 
 our late-lamented Tennyson, and we should have had the poet 
 that these sweetest of lyrics introduced to the world, but we 
 should have forever failed a great English Epic. 
 
 In 1638 Milton says, " Having passed five years in this man- 
 ner, after my mother's death I, being desirous of seeing for- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5 
 
 eign lands, and especially Italy, went abroad with one servant, 
 having by entreaty obtained my father's consent.' 1 
 
 He travelled in elegant leisure with distinguished letters of 
 introduction that opened to him the doors of poets and artists. 
 Most of his time was passed in Italy, while a proposed three 
 years 1 absence was shortened to less than two, because, as he 
 said, " I deemed it dishonourable to be enjoying myself at my 
 ease in foreign lands while my countrymen were striking a 
 blow for freedom." 
 
 This freedom was from the tyranny of the Stuart dynasty, 
 whose doctrine of the " divine right of kings " was to Milton by 
 nature and education the most obnoxious of teachings. 
 
 At the end of his journey Milton writes in his journal, "I 
 again take God to witness that in all those places where so 
 many things are considered lawful, I lived sound and untouched 
 from all profligacy, and having this thought perpetually with 
 me, that, though I might escape the eyes of men, I certainly 
 could not the eyes of God." 
 
 This recalls Wordsworth's lines with reference to himself 
 when he left college: 
 
 " By personal ambition unenslaved, 
 Frugal as there was need, and tho' self-willed, 
 From dangerous passion free." 
 
 The historical chapter that follows is familiar to all, the 
 temporary fall of the Stuarts, the execution of King Charles 
 the First, the rise of the Cromwellian party, the defeat of 
 Archbishop Laud, the short-lived period of the Commonwealth 
 (1649-1660), and the Restoration of the Stuarts in the return 
 of Charles the Second in 1660. 
 
 Milton was not hasty in allying himself with the Cromwell- 
 ians, but for several years lived in London, first as a school- 
 teacher though not a successful one, then as a pamphlet- writer, 
 
6 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 until in 1648 we find him the Latin Secretary of Cromwell, and 
 " foremost of the fore " in pushing the schemes for making Eng- 
 land the Monarchy, England the Republican Commonwealth. 
 The poet's lyre is forgotten save now and then the " strains, 
 alas, too few" whose echo lingers in the sonnets that were 
 pressed into the service of the state during this period. The 
 "left hand" which he had for prose is never idle, and pam- 
 phlet follows pamphlet in the interests of national and eccle- 
 siastical freedom. 
 
 Freedom in social life is illustrated by his pamphlets on 
 Divorce, in religious life by his pamphlets on Ecclesiastical 
 Liberty, in national life by his defence of the execution of the 
 king that made him the most talked-of man in all Europe. 
 Caught as in a maelstrom, he gives a sigh for days that are no 
 more " in these words : " I may one day hope to have ye again 
 [his studies] in a still time when there shall be no chidings ; 
 not in these noises." 
 
 With the Restoration came quiet enough for Milton. To 
 save his life, his friends kept him at first in close hiding ; but 
 with the general pardon and amnesty proclaimed by Charles 
 the Second he again ventured into the world, a world now for 
 him a world of darkness, for with the strain of the Cromwell- 
 ian days had resulted entire loss of sight. In obscure places 
 at Holborn, Aldersgate, Bunhill Fields, Chalfont, he lived the 
 remainder of his days, while the gay court of the Merry Mon- 
 arch forgot the most kingly soul in all the realm. 
 
 He had three times married, with varying fortunes in do- 
 mestic life. His first wife, Mary Powell, was the mother of 
 his three daughters it is to his second wife, Catharine Wood- 
 cock, the sonnet To my Deceased Wife is addressed ; his 
 last wife, Elizabeth Minshull, survived him. 
 
 Wedded to books, to immortal verse, to affairs of state, it is 
 questioned whether any of the three found in Milton even 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 1 
 
 the dominating but " gracious consort " depicted in the Para- 
 dise Lost. There are certainly passages in Milton's life that 
 are not admirable. The Milton who had no patience with his 
 young and probably thoughtless wife, emphasizing by his 
 divorce pamphlets what he should have concealed during her 
 brief absence from him, the Milton who heaps opprobrious 
 epithets on his enemies, the Milton who neither understood 
 nor seemed to care to understand his daughters, mentioning 
 them in his will as undutiful and unkind, this is the Milton 
 one would take less pains to cultivate. 
 
 Fallen on evil days, he revived an ambition of his youth to 
 write " a work not to be raised from the heat of youth or the 
 vapours of wine, not to be obtained of dame Memory and her 
 siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit 
 that can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and send 
 out His Seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch 
 and purify the lips of whom he pleases. To this must be 
 added industrious and select reading, steady observation, and 
 insight into all seemly arts and affairs." 
 
 Such a work, the " epic of a lost cause," appeared in Para- 
 dise Lost, a poem that the public, as Milton craved, would not 
 "willingly let die," although the partisan spirit of the times, 
 and the ill repute of the author in the eyes of the court, gave 
 it scant recognition till years after his death. 
 
 It is said that Dr. Johnson's verdict against Milton kept at 
 least two generations from reading the best poet of the age, 
 although in all times he has had " fit audience though few." 
 Of the Restoration he demanded far too much learning and 
 sound scholarship to find popularity, though until after the 
 glorious Revolution, when the liberal party took him up, no 
 poet who had defended regicide had the smallest chance for 
 fame. But it was renown that Milton coveted, and for that a 
 great soul can wait beyond a lifetime. So bitter was the spirit 
 
8 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 against him, that it was as late as 1737 before his bust found 
 admission to Westminster Abbey, where a generation before 
 the Dean had refused admittance to an inscription for John 
 Phillips's monument because, forsooth, it contained a reference 
 to Milton. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of Paradise Lost as a justifica- 
 tion of the ways of God with men, as a specimen of the purest 
 blank verse, and as a study of national life in the latter part 
 of the seventeenth century, the poem is invaluable. 
 
 Paradise Regained shortly followed, and Samson Ago- 
 nistes. These were Milton's latest productions. He died Nov. 
 8, 1674, nearly sixty-seven years of age, having lived in three 
 of the most significant periods of English History. This is, 
 undoubtedly, the reason that we may study three Miltons, 
 the first, the Milton before the Civil War, an Elizabethan 
 lyric poet, and a man whose perfection of culture represents 
 the culture not only of England but of Europe. This is the 
 Milton of the following pages ; the Milton of the Civil War, 
 the statesman and great prose-writer so learned in the lan- 
 guages that one facetiously remarked of him that a second 
 confusion of tongues would not disturb Milton, since he would 
 understand them all ; Milton the old blind poet of the days of 
 the Restoration, who gave England her noble Epic. 
 
 Says that prince of sound critics, Landor, " It may be doubted 
 whether the Creator ever created one altogether so great as 
 Milton, taking into view at once his manly virtues, his super- 
 human genius, his zeal for truth, for true piety, true freedom, 
 his eloquence in displaying it, his contempt of personal power, 
 his glory and exultation in his country's." 
 
 "My mind, 1 " says Coleridge, " is not capable of forming a 
 more august conception than arises from the contemplation of 
 this great man in his later days. Poor, sick, blind, slandered, 
 persecuted in an age in which he was as little understood by 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 
 
 the party for whom as by that against whom he had contended, 
 and among men before whom he strode so far as to dwarf 
 himself by the distance, yet still listening to the music of his 
 own thoughts, or if additionally cheered, yet cheered only by 
 the prophetic faith of two or three solitary individuals, he did 
 nevertheless 
 
 " Argue not 
 
 Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
 Of heart or hope; but still bore up and steered 
 Eight onward." 
 
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 STYLE. 
 
 " Three poets in three distant ages born, 
 Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; 
 The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, 
 The next in majesty, in both the last. 
 The force of Nature could no further go: 
 To make a third, she joined the other two." 
 
 Dry den. 
 
 In an age, branded to-day for its lack of appreciation of 
 Shakespeare and Milton, there was one man the nearest a 
 great poet of them all who saw that the reputation of these 
 two did not lie in the interpretation of the Restoration Period. 
 
 Of Milton, Dryden said, " This man cuts us all out and the 
 ancients too." In the familiar couplets quoted are indicated the 
 chief qualities of Milton's style. To sublimity and majesty may 
 be added sweetness and strength with a purity of diction unat- 
 tained by any other English poet up to his time. 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 
 The vocabulary of Milton is second in copiousness to that of 
 Shakespeare with this difference. The universal interest in 
 humanity of the dramatic poet gave him a universal vocabu- 
 lary. Milton's academic culture not only causes him to use 
 many Latinized words, but represses his spirit and makes him 
 
 10 
 
LITERARY CHARCTERISTICS. 11 
 
 sift his words, electing only those that are most choice. He 
 is said to have used about eight thousand words. Shake- 
 speare uses fifteen thousand. In Shakespeare sixty per cent 
 are Anglo-S^xon, in Milton less than thirty-three ; the earlier 
 poems yield a much higher rate of native words than those 
 that were written after the Civil War. This is easily accounted 
 for when we recall that his Secretaryship was a Latin Secre- 
 taryship. 
 
 VERSIFICATION. 
 
 Milton's versification is "musical as bright Apollo's lute." 
 It was not without the most remunerative results in his poeti- 
 cal work that he had listened in his childhood and youth to the 
 best music, and in later years made it " a refreshment to labori- 
 ous days. 1 ' So well trained is his ear, that he affirmed that 
 the lawlessness of Shakespeare's blank verse placed it out of 
 the conditions necessary for its creation ; hence, to his judg- 
 ment it was not properly blank verse. His perfect rhythm and 
 rhyme make him one of the most harmonious poets for read- 
 ing aloud ; yet his verse is not despotic as in Swinburne, and 
 the sense and sound, like a flowing and ebbing wave, rise and 
 fall together. This may be well seen in some of his sonnets, 
 the form in this case offering the best opportunity for the 
 wave effect. 
 
 For the most part Milton's verse is iambic, the prevailing 
 measure of English verse. 
 
L' ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 THE composition of L 1 Allegro and II Penseroso may be 
 assigned to the early years of the residence at Horton, prob- 
 ably about 1632 or 1633. That he had not yet become master 
 of the Italian in which he afterwards freely wrote, is evidenced 
 by the faulty construction of the word Penseroso, which the 
 Italians disclaim as an Italian word. 
 
 The versification is mainly in octosyllabic iambics, with occa- 
 sionally a trochaic initial verse. Each poem opens with a lyric 
 whose metre is varied. The perfect majestic sustained rhythm 
 of Paradise Lost was a study of later years. 
 
 The general treatment of his theme is not original with Mil- 
 ton. For poems akin to L' Allegro and II Penseroso, it is 
 worth the pains to read Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd, 
 Raleigh's Nymph's Reply, and other contemporary lyrics. 
 The two poems are perfect Elizabethan in naturalness, vigour, 
 and spontaneity, but Puritan in moral tone. 
 
 These odes should be read together, as they were doubt- 
 less written as companion pieces, and, as a study of parallels 
 of thought, are unexampled in English poetry. L 7 Allegro is 
 a view of nature, man, art, and books, as these appear to the 
 man of culture when he is filled with the spirit of appreciative 
 joy. II Penseroso is the same view when the observer is 
 
 12 
 
L' ALLEGRO AND 1L PENSEROSO. 13 
 
 in a mood of contemplative sadness. . In the one poem Milton 
 invites Mirth to be the companion of his day, and from the 
 joyous dawn carolled in by the lark takes us through a rustic 
 day to a social evening around the hearth, with the later hours 
 given to the poets and music. 
 
 II Penseroso invites Melancholy to be her " guide, philos- 
 opher, and friend," and under *' the wandering moon 1 ' listens 
 to the nightingale in solitary, musing Sleep, induced "in 
 arched walks of twilight groves," a slumber dispelled by 
 religious music in organ-tones, until the mind can conceive no 
 higher satisfaction in life than " the hairy gown and mossy 
 cell " of the hermit. 
 
 While the atmosphere of L' Allegro is distinctly social, 
 and that of II Penseroso as distinctly solitary, it is to be 
 noted that both poems find the climax of enjoyment in soli- 
 tariness. 
 
 Possibly it is for this reason that II Penseroso is popularly 
 supposed to be the preferred mood of the poet, for undoubtedly 
 the poems are somewhat autobiographic. When one reads the 
 epitaph on Hobson, the carrier, and studies carefully the poet's 
 earlier life, he is forced, however, to the conclusion that Milton 
 was also capable of the gayer disposition until the Civil 
 War and its stern events fixed a mind often disposed to 
 cavalier rhymes and light-hearted impressions, in utter serious- 
 ness. 
 
 It is a pity that many of Milton's critics have attempted to 
 destroy the pure poetic art of these master-pieces by assuming 
 that the ideal scenery portrayed can be identified with Horton, 
 Oxford, or Windsor. Like the Forest of Arden, the grove 
 in Midsummer Night's Dream, the enchanted island of the 
 Tempest, the landscape pictures of L'Allegro and II 
 Penseroso existed only in the imagination of the poet, where 
 gorgeous towers and cloud-capped palaces might be created 
 
14 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 at will. It is a country, too, not seen by the rustic, but by 
 the scholarly, artistic, university-trained Milton. 
 
 A good comparative analysis of these two poems may be 
 found in Bell's Edition, "L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso," 
 page 48. 
 
 These two poems may well be named, Poems of Milton's 
 period of hope. The great Civil War destroyed the beautiful 
 Elizabethan style as it also ruined much fine architecture, and 
 Milton's earliest style went with it. 
 
FAMOUS MASQUES (FOR COMPARISON). 
 
 PEELE'S Arraignment of Paris, 1584. 
 BEN JONSON'S Masque of Oberon, 1611. 
 CHAPMAN'S Memorable Masque, 1613. 
 DANIEL'S Hymen's Triumph, 1613. 
 SHIRLEY'S Triumph of Peace, 1634. 
 MILTON'S Comus, 1634. 
 
COMUS. 
 
 IN no Miltonic poem do we find the illustration of Mil- 
 ton's musical and poetic talent combined as in Comus. 
 Comus is a masque. The masque is something between 
 a pageant and a play ; it combines recitative, lyric poetry, 
 and songs with music and dancing, the latter and lighter 
 portions of the entertainment to be shared by the guests. 
 
 The English masque was an Italian importation. In Italy 
 the climate and outdoor scenery favored extravagant pageant 
 and procession ; in England an uncertain sky made it neces- 
 sary that the larger portion of the entertainment should be 
 under cover; hence there resulted less of the work of the 
 mechanic, the scene-painter, and the milliner, and more of 
 the actor, the musician, and the poet. Thus the English 
 raised the masque to the dignity of literature, and, in the 
 imperfection of English music, gave it substantial value as 
 poetry. 
 
 Despite this fact, the success of the masque depended largely 
 on the magnificence of the spectacle produced ; and the rival 
 merits of Inigo Jones, the great architect of masques, and 
 Ben Jonson, their most popular poet, ended at last in an 
 estrangement between the two artists. 
 
 Throughout the reign of James the First, masques were the 
 favorite form of private theatricals, and were especially in 
 
 16 
 
COMUS. 17 
 
 vogue for ceremonious occasions, as a marriage, a birthday, 
 a royal visit, or a noble reception. One of the most vivid 
 descriptions of the masque may be found in Scott's Kenil- 
 worth, where the novelist describes the masque presented on 
 the occasion of Elizabeth's royal visit to Leicester. 
 
 The occasion of Milton's masque was to celebrate the 
 inauguration of John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, as Lord 
 President of Wales, when he took possession of Ludlow 
 Castle, a seat full of historical interest for its association with 
 Edward Fifth, who was proclaimed king here. In later time 
 it has a literary interest as the place where Samuel Butler 
 wrote a part of his Hudibras ; but it surely has had no greater 
 glory conferred on it than that it was the scene of Milton's 
 Comus. Though written in the decline of the masque, for 
 delicacy of theme, ingenuity of plot, and beauty of expression, 
 this masque outrivals the best of Ben Jonson. It was accom- 
 panied by music written for the occasion by Milton's friend, 
 Henry Lawes, no mean musician in the Earl's household. 
 
 A first reading for the outline of the story will reveal the 
 multiplied opportunity offered by the plot for delightful effects 
 in scenery and surprises in presentation. As an idyllic pastoral 
 masque, it is without a peer. 
 
 As the children of the earl were to take the principal parts, 
 and the earl's daughter to play the role of Lady Alice, this 
 apotheosis of Virtue was a singularly delicate and fitting com- 
 pliment to the character of the family whose incoming the 
 lyrical drama celebrated. The story is told with Doric sim- 
 plicity and Attic grace, and draped as severely as a vestal 
 virgin. 
 
 As an illustration of the mastery of the righteous will over 
 appetite and passion, it forms an excellent contrast to the story 
 of Faust, and is often considered a first study for Milton's 
 Satan, as well as the key-note to his revolutionary sympathies. 
 
LYCID AS. 
 
 " The elegiac poet is a nightingale sitting in darkness cheering 
 his own solitude with sweet sounds." SHELLEY. 
 
 THE word * ' elegy " has come to be applied to any serious poetry 
 tinged with sadness and reflecting the transitory character of 
 life. In Milton's time the meaning was less widely diffused, 
 and in the case of Lycidas, we have a distinct, objective lament 
 for the loss of Edward King, a young college friend, who was 
 drowned in making the passage from Chester to Dublin across 
 the treacherous Irish Sea. Lycidas was the last poem written 
 by Milton before starting on his foreign travels. Its earliest 
 publication was in a collection of poems prepared as a tribute 
 of respect to their dead comrade by his fellow-students ; and 
 Milton's 'contribution, the last in the volume, proved to be 
 the first of value, and indeed the only one whose fame has 
 survived time. 
 
 Lycidas is a pastoral elegy after the manner of The- 
 ocritus and Bion. Shelley's elegy on Keats is an imitation of 
 the same masters, and the two can be profitably compared ; e.g., 
 Shelley also, in allegorical figure, represents himself as a 
 shepherd, lamenting the death of a brother shepherd, and 
 follows Milton in denying death. Milton says, 
 
 18 
 
COMUS. 19 
 
 " Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more; 
 For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead." 
 
 Shelley says, in his Adonais, 
 
 " Peace, peace, he is not dead, he doth not sleep ! 
 He hath awakened from the dream of life." 
 
 Both view nature as shadowed by this bereavement. Milton 
 says, 
 
 " But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
 1 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, 
 And all their echoes mourn." 
 
 Shelley repeats, 
 
 "Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains 
 And feeds her grief with his remembered lay." 
 
 Milton the staunch pnrifcin^ and Shelley the atheist, falsely 
 so-called, take alike a pantheistic view. 
 Milton says, 
 
 " Now Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 
 Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore 
 In thy large recompense, and shalt be good, 
 To all that wander in that perilous flood." 
 
 Shelley, 
 
 1 1 He is made one with Nature. There is heard, 
 His voice in all her music." 
 
 The happy use of figures, flowers, music, in this poem may 
 be made a compensating study. In the latter comparison, 
 
20 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Arnold's Thyrsis, and William Watson's "Lachrymae Mu- 
 sarum," will be found full of imitative passages. Nor will 
 a wise teacher omit the words replete with prophecy found 
 in the famous diatribe included between lines 108-131, a 
 digression surely, but a passage full of power, the more sig- 
 nificant when compared with those sweeter lines that are like 
 the wind sweeping across the strings of an JSolian harp. 
 
L'ALLEGRO. 
 
 HENCE, loathed Melancholy, 
 
 Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born 
 In Stygian cave forlorn 
 
 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy ! 
 Find out some uncouth 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, 
 
 In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. 10 
 
 But come, thou Goddess fair and free, 
 In heaven yclept Euphrosyne, 
 And by men heart-easing Mirth ; 
 Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, 
 With two sister Graces more, 
 To ivy -crowned Bacchus bore : 
 Or whether (as some sager sing) 
 The frolic wind that breathes the spring, 
 Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 
 
 As he met her once a-Maying, 20 
 
 There, on beds of violets blue, 
 And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, 
 
 21 
 
22 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonair. 
 
 Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 Jest and youthful Jollity, 
 Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, 
 Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles, 
 Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, 
 
 And love to live in dimple sleek ; 30 
 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
 And Laughter holding both his sides. 
 Come, and trip it, as you go, 
 On the light fantastic toe ; 
 And in thy right hand lead with thee 
 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, 
 In unreproved pleasures free ; 40 
 
 To hear the lark begin his flight, 
 And, singing, startle the dull night, 
 From his watch-tower in the skies, 
 Till the dappled dawn doth rise ; 
 Then to come, in spite of sorrow, 
 And at my window bid good-morrow, 
 Through the sweetbriar or the vine, 
 Or the twisted eglantine ; 
 While the cock, with lively din, 
 
 Scatters the rear of darkness thin ; 50 
 
 And to the stack, or the barn door, 
 Stoutly struts his dames before : 
 
L'ALLEGRO. 23 
 
 Oft listening how the hounds and horn 
 
 Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, 
 
 From the side of some hoar hill, 
 
 Through the high wood echoing shrill : 
 
 Some time walking, not unseen, 
 
 By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, 
 
 Eight against the eastern gate 
 
 Where the great Sun begins his state, 60 
 
 Eobed in flames and amber light, 
 
 The clouds in thousand liveries dight ; 
 
 While the ploughman, near at hand, 
 
 Whistles o'er the furrowed land, 
 
 And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 
 
 And the mower whets his scythe, 
 
 And every shepherd tells his tale 
 
 Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
 
 Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
 Whilst the landscape round it measures : 70 
 
 Eusset lawns, and fallows grey, 
 Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; 
 Mountains on whose barren breast 
 The labouring clouds do often rest ; 
 Meadows trim, with daisies pied ; 
 Shallow brooks, and rivers wide ; 
 Towers and battlements it sees 
 Bosomed high in tufted trees, 
 Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
 
 The cynosure of neighbouring eyes. 80 
 
 Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes 
 From betwixt two aged oaks, 
 
24 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Where Corydon and Thyrsis met 
 
 Are at their savoury dinner set 
 
 Of herbs and other country messes, 
 
 Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses ; 
 
 And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
 
 With Thestylis to bind the sheaves ; 
 
 Or, if the earlier season lead, 
 
 To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 
 
 Sometimes, with secure delight, 
 The upland hamlets will invite, 
 When the merry bells ring round, 
 And 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 
 On a sunshine holiday, 
 Till the livelong daylight fail : 
 
 Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 
 
 With stories told of many a feat, 
 How Faery Mab the junkets eat. 
 She 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 could not end ; 
 Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, 110 
 
 And, stretched out all the chimney's length, 
 Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
 
VALLEGRO. 25 
 
 Ere the first cock his matin rings, 
 And crop-full out of doors he flings. 
 Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 
 By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. 
 
 Towered cities please us then, 
 And the busy hum of men, 
 Where throngs of knights and barons bold, 
 In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 
 
 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
 Eain influence, and judge the prize 
 Of wit or arms, while both contend 
 To win her grace whom all commend. 
 There let Hymen oft appear 
 In saffron robe, with taper clear, 
 And pomp, and feast, and revelry, 
 With mask, and antique pageantry ; 
 Such sights as youthful poets dream 
 On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 
 
 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. 
 
 And ever, against eating cares, 
 Lap me in soft Lydian airs, 
 Married to immortal verse, 
 Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 
 In notes with many a winding bout 
 Of linked sweetness long drawn out, 140 
 
 With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 
 The melting voice through mazes running, 
 
26 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Untwisting all the chains that tie 
 
 The hidden soul of harmony ; 
 
 That Orpheus' self may heave his head 
 
 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. 150 
 
 These delights if thou canst give, 
 Mirth, with thee I mean to live. 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 HENCE, vain deluding Joys, 
 
 The brood of Folly without father bred ! 
 How little you bested, 
 
 Or fill the fixed niind with all your toys ! 
 Dwell in some idle brain, 
 
 And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, 
 As thick and numberless 
 
 As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, 
 Or likest hovering dreams, 
 
 The fickle pensioners of Morpheus 7 train. 10 
 
 But hail ! thou Goddess sage and holy ! 
 
 Hail, divinest Melancholy ! 
 Whose saintly visage is too bright 
 To hit the sense of human sight, 
 And therefore to our weaker view 
 Overlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; 
 Black, but such as in esteem 
 Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, 
 Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove 
 To set her beauty's praise above 20 
 
 27 
 
28 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended. 
 
 Yet thou art higher far descended : 
 
 Thee bright-haired Vesta long of yore 
 
 To solitary Saturn bore ; 
 
 His daughter she ; in Saturn's reign 
 
 Such mixture was not held a stain. 
 
 Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 
 
 He met her, and in secret shades 
 
 Of woody Ida's inmost grove, 
 
 While yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 
 
 Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, 
 Sober, steadfast, and demure, 
 All in a robe of darkest grain, 
 Flowing with majestic train, 
 A sable stole of cypress lawn, 
 Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 
 Come ; but keep thy wonted state, 
 With even step, and musing gait, 
 And looks commercing with the skies, 
 Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes : 40 
 
 There, held in holy passion still, 
 Forget thyself to marble, till 
 With a sad leaden downward cast 
 Thou fix them on the earth as fast 
 And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 
 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 ; 50 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 29 
 
 But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
 Him that yon soars on golden wing, 
 Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne, 
 The cherub Contemplation ; 
 And the mute Silence hist along, 
 'Less Philomel will deign a song, 
 In her sweetest, saddest plight, 
 Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, 
 While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke 
 Gently o'er the accustomed oak. 60 
 
 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 ; 
 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 
 Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 
 
 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, 
 Over some wide-watered shore, 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar ; 
 Or, if the air will not permit, 
 Some still removed place will fit, 
 Where glowing embers through the room 
 Teach light to counterfeit a gloom 80 
 
30 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Far from all resort of mirth, 
 
 Save the cricket on the hearth, 
 
 Or the bellman's drowsy charm 
 
 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 unsphere 
 
 The spirit of Plato, to unfold 
 
 What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 
 
 The immortal mind, that hath forsook 
 
 Her mansion in this fleshly nook ; 
 
 And of those demons that are found 
 
 In fire, air, flood, or under ground, 
 
 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 7 line, 
 
 Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 
 
 Or what (though rare) of later age 
 
 Ennobled hath the buskined stage. 
 
 But, sad Virgin ! that thy power 
 Might raise Musaeus 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 Cainbuscan bold, . no 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 31 
 
 Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 
 
 And who had Canace to wife, 
 
 That owned the virtuous ring and glass, 
 
 And of the wondrous horse of brass 
 
 On which the Tartar king did ride ; 
 
 And if aught else great bards beside 
 
 In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 
 
 Of turneys, and of trophies hung, 
 
 Of forests, and enchantments drear, 
 
 Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 
 
 Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 
 Till civil-suited Morn appear, 
 Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont 
 With the Attic boy to hunt, 
 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 the rustling leaves, 
 
 With minute-drops from off the eaves. 130 
 
 And, when the sun begins to fling 
 His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring 
 To arched walks of twilight groves, 
 And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, 
 Of pine, or monumental oak, 
 Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 
 Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, 
 Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 
 There, in close covert, by some brook, 
 Where no profaner eye may look, 140 
 
32 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Hide me from day's garish, eye, 
 While the bee with honied thigh, 
 That at her flowery work doth sing, 
 And the waters murmuring, 
 With such consort as they keep, 
 Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
 And let some strange mysterious dream 
 Wave at his wings, in airy stream 
 Of lively portraiture displayed, 
 Softly on my 63 r elids laid ; 160 
 
 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, 
 And love the high embowed roof, 
 With antique pillars massy-proof, 
 '-And storied windows richly dight, 
 Casting a dim religious light. 160 
 
 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 ectasies, 
 And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 
 
 And may at last my weary age 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage, 
 The hairy gown and mossy cell, 
 Where I may sit and rightly spell 170 
 
IL PENSEROSO. 33 
 
 Of every star that heaven doth shew, 
 And every herb that sips the dew, 
 Till old experience do attain 
 To something like prophetic strain. 
 
 These pleasures, Melancholy, give ; 
 And I with thee will choose to live. 
 
COMUS. 
 
 A MASQUE. 
 
 Presented at Ludlow Castle, in 1634, before John, Earl of Bridgewater, 
 then President of Wales. 
 
 THE PERSONS. 
 
 The Attendant Spirit, afterwards 
 
 in the habit of Thyrsis. 
 Comus, with his Crew. 
 
 First Brother. 
 Second Brother. 
 Sabrina, the Nymph. 
 
 The Lady. 
 
 THE CHIEF PERSONS WHICH PRESENTED WERE 
 
 The Lord Brackley. | Mr. Thos. 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 
 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, 
 After this mortal change, to her true servants 10 
 
 34 
 
COMUS. 35 
 
 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. 
 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 ebbing stream, 
 Took in, by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove, 20 
 
 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, 
 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 ; 
 And all this tract that fronts the falling sun 30 
 
 A noble Peer of mickle trust and power 
 Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 
 An old and haughty nation, proud in arms : 
 Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, 
 Are coming to attend their father's state, 
 And new-entrusted 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, 40 
 
36 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 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. 
 
 Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape 
 Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
 After the Tuscan mariners transformed, 
 Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, 
 On Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe, 50 
 
 The 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, 
 Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son 
 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, 
 Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, 60 
 
 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 
 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 countenance, 
 The express resemblance of the gods, is changed 
 Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 
 
COMUS. 37 
 
 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, 
 
 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, 
 
 Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 
 
 I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy, 
 
 As now 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 
 
 That to the service of this house belongs, 
 
 Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, 
 
 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 90 
 
 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 otherwise 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 j 
 
38 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 And the gilded car of day 
 
 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, 
 
 Dropping odours, dropping wine. 
 
 Rigour now is gone to bed ; 
 
 And Advice with scrupulous head, 
 
 Strict Age, and sour Severity, 
 
 With their grave saws, in slumber lie. HO 
 
 We, that are of purer fire, 
 
 Imitate the starry quire, 
 
 Who in their nightly watchful spheres, 
 
 Lead in swift round the months and years. 
 
 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, 
 
 The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 
 
 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. 
 
COMUS. 39 
 
 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 
 
 Of midnight torches burns ! mysterious dame, 130 
 
 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, 
 
 Wherein thou ridest with Hecat ', and befriend 
 
 Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end 
 
 Of all thy dues be done, and none left out ; 
 
 Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 
 
 The nice Morn on the Indian steep, 
 
 From her cabined loop-hole peep, 140 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
40 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 About iny mother Circe. Thus I hurl 
 
 My dazzling spells into the spongy air, 
 
 Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, 
 
 And give it false presentments, lest the place 
 
 And my quaint habits breed astonishment, 
 
 And put the damsel to suspicious flight ; 
 
 Which must not be, for that's against my course. 
 
 I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 
 
 And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, 
 
 Baited with reasons not implausible, 
 
 Wind me into the easy-hearted man, 
 
 And hug him into snares. When once her eye 
 
 Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, 
 
 I shall appear some harmless villager, 
 
 Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. 
 
 But here she comes ; I fairly step aside, 
 
 And hearken, if I may her business hear. 
 
 The Lady enters. 
 
 LADY. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 
 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, 
 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 
 Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 
 
COMUS. 41 
 
 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, 
 
 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, 
 
 Eose 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, 
 
 Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious 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 perfect in my listening ear ; 
 
 Yet nought but single darkness do I find. 
 
 What might this be ? A thousand fantasies 
 
 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 
 
42 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 
 By a strong siding champion, Conscience. 
 
 welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 
 Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 
 And thou unblemished form of Chastity ! 
 
 1 see ye visibly, and now believe 
 
 That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 
 
 Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, 
 
 Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, 
 
 To keep my life and honour unassailed. ... 220 
 
 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 silver lining on the night, 
 
 And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. 
 
 I cannot 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. 
 
 Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 
 
 Within thy airy shell 
 By slow Meander's niargent green, 
 And in the violet-embroidered vale 
 
 Where the love-lorn nightingale 
 Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well : 
 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
 
 That likest thy Narcissus are ? 
 
COMUS. 43 
 
 O, if thou have 
 Hid them in some flowery cave, 
 
 Tell me but where, 240 
 
 Sweet Queen of Parley, daughter of the sphere ! 
 So mayst thou be translated to the skies, 
 And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies ! 
 
 Enter Comus. 
 
 COMUS. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 
 Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment ? 
 Sure something holy lodges in that breast, 
 And with these raptures moves the vocal air 
 To testify his hidden residence. 
 How sweetly did they float upon the wings 
 Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 
 
 At every fall smoothing the raven down 
 Of darkness till it smiled ! I have oft heard 
 My mother Circe with the Sirens three, 
 Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades, 
 Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 
 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 Chary bdis murmured soft applause. 
 Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 
 
 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 ! 
 
44 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, 
 
 Unless the goddess that in rural shrine 
 
 DwelPst here with Pan or Sylvan, by blest song 
 
 Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 
 
 To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 
 
 LADY. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise 
 That is addressed to unattending ears. 
 Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift 
 How to regain my severed company, 
 Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 
 To give me answer from her mossy couch. 
 
 COM. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus ? 
 
 LADY. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. 
 
 COM. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides ? 
 
 LADY. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 
 
 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. 
 
 COMUS. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. 
 
 LADY. How easy my misfortune is to hit ! 
 
 COMUS. Imports their loss, beside the present need ? 
 
 LADY. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 
 
 COMUS. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom ? 
 
 LADY. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazored lips. 290 
 
 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, 
 
COMUS. ' 45 
 
 Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots ; 
 
 Their port was more than human, as they stood. 
 
 I took it for a fairy vision 
 
 Of some gay creatures of the element, 
 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 
 
 And play i' the plighted 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 ? 
 
 COMUS. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 
 
 LADY. To find that out, good shepherd, I suppose, 
 In such a scant allowance of star-light, 
 Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, 
 Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 
 
 COMUS. I know each lane, and every alley green, 
 Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, 
 And every bosky bourn from side to side, 
 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; 
 And, if your stray attendance be yet lodged 
 Or shroud within these limits, I shall know 
 Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark 
 From her thatched pallet rouse. If otherwise 
 I can conduct you, lady, to a low 
 
 But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 
 
 Till further quest. 
 
 LADY. Shepherd, I take thy word, 
 
 And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, 
 Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds, 
 
46 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls 
 
 And courts of princes, where it first was named, 
 
 And yet is most pretended. In a place 
 
 Less warranted than this, or less secure, 
 
 I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. 
 
 Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 
 
 To my proportioned strength ! Shepherd, lead on. 330 
 
 The Two Brothers. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Unmuffle, ye faint stars ; and thou, 
 That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, [fair moon, 
 Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, 
 And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here 
 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 
 
 With thy long levelled rule of streaming light, 340 
 
 And thou shalt be our star of Arcady, 
 Or Tyrian Cynosure. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. 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, 
 Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
 Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, 
 'T would be some solace yet, some little cheering, 
 In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. 
 But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister ! 350 
 
COMUS. 47 
 
 Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
 From the chill dew, among 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. 
 What if in wild amazement, and affright, 
 Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
 Of savage hunger, or of savage heat ! 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Peace, brother ; be not over-exquisite 
 To cast the fashion of uncertain evils ; 360 
 
 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 ! 
 I do not think my sister so to seek, 
 Or so unprincipled in virtue's book, 
 And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 
 As that the single want of light and noise 
 (Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 
 
 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 
 Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 
 Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, 
 Where, with her best nurse, Contemplation, 
 She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 
 That in the various bustle of resort, 
 Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impaired. 380 
 
48 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 I 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 midday sun ; 
 
 Himself is his own dungeon. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. 'T is most true 
 
 That musing Meditation most affects 
 
 The pensive secrecy of desert cell, 
 
 Far from the cheerful haunt of men a^d herds, 
 
 And sits as safe as in a senate-house ; 
 
 For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, 390 
 
 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 
 
 Of dragon watch with un enchanted eye 
 
 To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, 
 
 From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. 
 
 You 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 events that dog them both, 
 
 Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person 
 
 Of our unowned sister. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. I do not, brother, 
 
 Infer as if I thought my sister's state 
 
COMUS. 49 
 
 Secure without all doubt or controversy ; 
 
 Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 410 
 
 Does arbitrate the event, nay 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, 
 
 Which you remember not. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. What hidden strength, 
 
 Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that ? 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. I mean that too, but yet a hidden 
 
 [strength, 
 
 Which, if Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 
 ; T is chastity, my brother, chastity : 420 
 
 She that has that is clad in complete steel, 
 And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, 
 May trace huge forests, and unharboured heaths, 
 Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds ; 
 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, 
 She may pass on with unblenched majesty, 430 
 
 Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 
 Some say no evil thing that walks by night, 
 In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, 
 Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, 
 That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 
 No goblin or swart faery of the mine, 
 
50 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. 
 
 Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call 
 
 Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 
 
 To testify the arms of chastity ? 440 
 
 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 
 
 The frivolous bolt of Cupid ; gods and men 
 
 Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the woods. 
 
 What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield 
 
 That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 
 
 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, 
 
 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 
 
 Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape, 450 
 
 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, 
 
 Lets in defilement to the inward parts, 
 
COMUS. 51 
 
 The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
 
 Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose 
 
 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. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. How charming is divine philosophy ! 
 Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit reigns. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. List ! list ! I hear 430 
 
 Some far-off hallo break the silent air. [be ? 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. Methought so too ; what should it 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. For certain, 
 Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, 
 Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, 
 Some roving robber calling to his fellows, [and near ! 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. Heaven keep my sister. Again, again, 
 Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. I '11 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. 
 
 That hallo I should know. What are you ? speak. 490 
 Come not too near ; you fall on iron stakes else. 
 
52 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 SPIRIT. ' What voice is that ? my young Lord ? speak 
 
 [again. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. brother, >t is niy father's Shep- 
 
 [herd, sure. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Thyrsis ! whose artful strains have 
 
 [oft delayed 
 
 The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, 
 And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. 
 How earnest thou here, good swain ? Hath any ram 
 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 
 
 SPIRIT. 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 
 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 ? 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. To tell thee sadly, Shepherd, with- 
 Or our neglect, we lost her as we came, [out blame 510 
 
 SPIRIT. Ay me unhappy ! then my fears are true. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. What fears, good Thyrsis ? Prythee 
 
 [briefly shew. 
 
 SPIRIT. I'll tell ye. ; T is not vain or fabulous 
 (Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) 
 What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse, 
 Storied of old in high immortal verse 
 Of dire Chimeras and enchanted isles, 
 
COMUS. 53 
 
 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, 
 And here to every thirsty wanderer 
 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, unmoulding reason's mintage 
 Charactered in the face. This I have learnt 530 
 
 Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts 
 That brow this bottom glade ; whence night by night 
 He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
 Like stabled wolves, or tigers at their prey, 
 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. 
 This evening late, by then the chewing flocks 540 
 
 Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb 
 Of knot-grass dew-besprent, and were in fold, 
 I sat me down to watch upon a bank 
 With ivy canopied, and interwove 
 With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 
 Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, 
 To meditate my rural minstrelsy, 
 
54 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close 
 
 The wonted roar was up amidst the woods, 
 
 And filled the air with barbarous dissonance ; 550 
 
 At which I ceased, and listened them a while, 
 
 Till an unusual stop of sudden silence 
 
 Gave respite to the drowsy -flighted steeds 
 
 That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. 
 
 At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 
 
 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, 660 
 
 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 the voice 
 
 Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. 
 
 Amazed I stood, harrowed with grief and fear ; 
 
 And < poor hapless nightingale,' thought I, 
 
 6 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, 
 
 Supposing him some neighbour villager. 
 
 Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 
 
COMUS. 55 
 
 Ye were the two she meant ; with that I sprung 
 Into swift flight, till I had found you here ; 
 But further know I not. 
 
 SECOND BROTHER. night and shades, 580 
 
 How are ye joined with hell in triple knot 
 Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin, 
 Alone and helpless ! Is this the confidence 
 You gave me, brother ? 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Yes, and keep it still ; 
 Lean on it safely ; not a period 
 Shall be unsaid for me. Against the threats 
 Qf malice or of sorcery, or that power 
 Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm : 
 Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, 
 Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled ; 590 
 
 Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm 
 Shall in the happy trial prove most glory. 
 But evil on itself shall back recoil, 
 And mix no more with goodness, when at last, 
 Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, 
 It shall be in eternal restless change 
 Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, 
 The pillared firmament is rottenness, 
 And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's on ! 
 Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 
 
 May never this just sword be lifted up; 
 But, for that damned magician, let him be girt 
 With all the griesly legions that troop 
 Under the sooty flag of Acheron, 
 Harpies and Hydras, or all the monstrous forms 
 
56 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 '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. 
 
 SPIRIT. Alas ! good venturous youth, 
 
 I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise ; 610 
 
 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. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Why, prithee, Shepherd, 
 
 How durst thou then thyself approach so near 
 As to make this relation ? 
 
 SPIRIT. 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 620 
 
 In every virtuous plant and healing herb 
 That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
 He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing ; 
 Which when I did, he on the tender grass 
 Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 
 And in requital ope his leathern scrip, 
 And show me simples of a thousand names, 
 Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
 Among the rest a small unsightly root, 
 But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 
 
 The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, 
 But in another country, as he said, 
 
COMUS. 57 
 
 Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil : 
 
 Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain 
 
 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 Hsernony, and gave it me, 
 
 And bade me keep it as of sovran use 
 
 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew, blast, or damp, 640 
 
 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 
 
 I 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 ; 
 
 Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 
 
 And brandished blade rush on him ; break his glass, 
 
 And shed the luscious liquor on the ground; 
 
 But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew 
 
 Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, 
 
 Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, 
 
 Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 
 
 ELDER BROTHER. Thyrsis, lead on apace ; I'll follow 
 And some good angel bear a shield before us. [thee ; 
 
58 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 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, 660 
 
 And you a statue, or as Daphne was, 
 Boot-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 670 
 
 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. 
 Why should you be so cruel to yourself, 
 And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 
 
COMUS. 59 
 
 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, 
 
 Scorning the unexempt condition 
 
 By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 
 
 Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 
 
 That have been tired all day without repast, 
 
 And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 
 
 This will restore all soon. 
 
 LADY. ? T will not, false traitor ! 690 
 
 'T will 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, 
 These oughly-headed monsters ? Mercy guard me ! 
 Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver ! 
 Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
 With vizored falsehood and base forgery ? 
 And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here 
 With liquorish baits, fit to ensnare a brute ? 700 
 
 Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, 
 I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
 But such as are good men can give good things ; 
 And that which is not good is not delicious 
 To a well-governed and wise appetite. 
 
 COMUS. O 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 ! 
 
60 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 
 
 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, 
 
 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-worshipped ore and precious gems, 
 
 To store her children with. If all the world 720 
 
 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 u upraised, 
 
 Not half his riches known, and yet despised; 
 
 And we should serve him as a grudging master, 
 
 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, 
 
 And strangled with her waste fertility : 
 
 The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with 
 
 The herds would over-multitude their lords ; [plumes, 730 
 
 The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought dia- 
 
 Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, [monds 
 
 And so bestud with stars, that they below 
 
 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, 
 
COMUS. 61 
 
 But must be current ; and the good thereof 740 
 
 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. 
 
 Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown 
 
 In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, 
 
 Where most may wonder at the workmanship. 
 
 It is for homely features to keep home ; 
 
 They had their name thence : coarse complexions, 
 
 And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply 750 
 
 The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool. 
 
 What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, 
 
 Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn ? 
 
 There was another meaning in these gifts ; 
 
 Think what, and be advised ; you are but young yet. 
 
 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. 
 I hate when vic^can bolt her arguments 760 
 
 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, 
 That live according to her sober laws, 
 And holy dictate of spare Temperance. 
 If every just man that now pines with want 
 Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
 
62 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 
 
 Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
 
 Nature's 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, 
 
 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 enow ? 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 ? 
 
 Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend 
 
 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. 
 
 Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 
 
 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 
 
 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. 
 
COMUS. 63 
 
 COMUS. She'fables not. I feel that I do fear goo 
 Her words set off by some superior power ; 
 And, though not mortal, yet a cold shudderin^lew 
 Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove 
 Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus 
 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 't is but the lees 
 And settlings of a melancholy blood. 810 
 
 But this will cure all straight ; one sip of this 
 Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight 
 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste. . . . 
 
 The BROTHERS rush in with sivords 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. 
 
 SPIRIT. What ! have you let the false enchanter scape ? 
 ye mistook ; ye should have snatched his wand, 
 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 Melibceus old I learnt, 
 The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 
 
64 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, 
 That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn 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, 830 
 
 Commended her fair innocence to the flood 
 That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing course. 
 The water-nymphs that in the bottom played, 
 Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in, 
 Bearing her straight to aged Kerens' hall ; 
 Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head, 
 And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
 In nectared lavers strowed with asphodil, 
 And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
 Dropped in ambrosial oils, till she revived, 840 
 
 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, 
 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, 
 Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 
 And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 
 Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 
 And, as the old swain said, she can unlock 
 The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell 
 
COMUS. 65 
 
 If she be right invoked in warbled song ; 
 For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 
 To aid a virgin, such as was herself, 
 In hard-besetting need. This will I try, 
 And add the power of some adjuring verse. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Sabrina fair, 
 
 Listen where thou art sitting g6Q 
 
 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 sake, 
 
 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 ; 870 
 
 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, 880 
 
66 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 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, 
 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, 890 
 
 Where grows the willow and the osier dank, 
 
 My sliding chariot stays, 
 Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen 
 Of turkis blue, and emerald green, 
 
 That in the channel strays ; 
 Whilst from off the waters fleet 
 Thus I set my printless feet 
 O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 
 
 That bends not as I tread. 
 
 Gentle swain, at thy request 900 
 
 I am here ! 
 
 SPIRIT. Goddess dear, 
 We implore thy powerful hand 
 To undo the charmed band 
 Of true virgin here distressed 
 Through the force, and through the wile 
 Of unblessed enchanter vile. 
 
COMUS. 67 
 
 SABRINA. Shepherd, 't is my office best 
 To help ensnared chastity. 
 
 Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 
 
 Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
 Drops that from my fountain pure 
 I have kept of precious cure ; 
 Thrice upon thy finger's tip, 
 Thrice upon thy rubied lip : 
 Next this marble venoined 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 tJie LADY rises out of her seat. 
 
 SPIRIT. Virgin, daughter of Locriue, 
 Sprung of old Anchises' line, 
 May thy brimmed waves for this 
 Their full tribute never miss 
 From a thousand petty rills, 
 That tumble down the snowy hills : 
 Summer drouth 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 
 
G8 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 With many a tower and terrace round, 
 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, 
 
 Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 
 
 With some other new device. 
 Not a waste or needless sound 
 Till we come to holier ground. 
 I shall be your faithful guide 
 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 
 
 His wished presence, and beside 950 
 
 All the swains that there abide, 
 With jigs and rural dance resort. 
 We shall catch them at their sport, 
 And our sudden coming there 
 Will double all their mirth and cheer. 
 Come, let us haste ; the stars grow high, 
 But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. 
 
COMUS. 69 
 
 The scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and the 
 President's Castle: then come in Country Dancers, 
 after them the ATTENDANT SPIRIT, with two BROTHERS, 
 and the LADY. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 SPIRIT. Back, shepherds, back ! Enough your play, 
 Till next sun-shine holiday. 
 
 Here be, without duck or nod, 960 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
70 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes. 
 
 SPIRIT. 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. 
 Along the crisped shades and bowers 
 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 
 About the cedarn alleys fling 990 
 
 Nard and cassia's balmy smells. 
 Iris there with humid bow 
 Waters the odorous banks, that blow 
 Flowers of more mingled hue 
 Than her purfled scarf can shew, 
 And drenches with Elysian dew 
 (List, mortals, if your ears be true) 
 Beds of hyacinth and roses, 
 Where young Adonis oft reposes, 
 Waxing well of his deep wound, 1000 
 
 In slumber soft, and on the ground 
 
COMUS. 71 
 
 Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. 
 
 J3ut far above in spangled sheen, 
 
 Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced, 
 
 Holds his dear Psyche, sweet entranced 
 
 After her wandering labors long, 
 
 Till free consent the gods among 
 
 Make her his eternal bride, 
 
 And from her fair unspotted side 
 
 Two blissful twins are to be born, 1010 
 
 Youth and Joy ; so Jove hath sworn. 
 
 But now my task is smoothly done : 
 I can fly, or I can run 
 Quickly to the green earth's end, 
 Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, 
 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 1020 
 
 Higher than the sphery chime ; 
 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, 1G37; and, hy 
 occasion, foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their 
 t height. 
 
 YET once more, ye laurels, and once more, 
 
 Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 
 
 I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 
 
 And with forced fingers rude 
 
 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 : 
 
 Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew 10 
 
 Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
 
 He must not float upon his watery bier 
 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 
 Without the meed of some melodious tear. 
 
 Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
 Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
 
 72 
 
LYCIDAS. 73 
 
 Hence with denial vain and coy excuse : 
 
 So may some gentle Muse 
 
 With lucky words favour my destined urn, 20 
 
 And as he passes turn, 
 
 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 
 Under the opening eyelids of the Morn, 
 We drove a-field, and both together heard 
 What 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 30 
 
 Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute ; 
 Tempered to the oaten flute 
 
 Eough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long ; 
 And old Danioetas 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 overgrown, 40 
 And all their echoes, mourn. 
 The willows, and the hazel copses green, 
 Shall now no more be seen 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 
74 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 When first ;the white-thorn blows ; 
 Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear. 
 
 Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 50 
 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, 
 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, 
 Whom universal nature did lament, 60 
 
 When by the rout that made the hideous roar, 
 His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
 Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ? 
 
 Alas ! what boots it with incessant care 
 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's hair ? 
 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 70 
 
 n?hat 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, 
 Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 
 And slits the thin-spun life. " But not the praise," 
 Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears : 
 
LYCIDAS. 75 
 
 " Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, 80 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
 
 And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 
 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 
 
 Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." 
 
 fountain Arethuse, and thou honoured flood, 
 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 ; 
 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, NX) 
 
 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 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
 " Ah ! who hath reft/ 7 quoth he, " my dearest pledge ? " 
 
76 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Last came, and last did go, 
 
 The Pilot of the Galilean lake ; 
 
 Two massy keys he bore of metals twain no 
 
 (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 
 
 He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake : 
 
 " How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
 
 Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, 
 
 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 
 
 A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least 120 
 
 That to the faithful herdsman'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 ; 
 
 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. 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 130 
 
 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. 
 Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
 Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, 
 
LYCIDAS. 77 
 
 On whose fresh lap the swart-star sparely looks, 
 
 Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, 
 
 That on the green turf suck the honied showers, 140 
 
 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 glowing violet, 
 
 The musk-rose, and 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, 150 
 
 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 -hurled; 
 
 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, 
 
 Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 
 
 Where the great Vision of the guarded mount 
 
 Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold : 
 
 Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth : 
 
 And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 
 
 Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more, 
 For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
 
78 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, 
 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 
 
 Flames in 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, 
 
 With nectar pure his oozy 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, 
 
 That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 
 
 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 
 
 To. all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
 us sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 
 While the still morn went out with sandals grey : 
 He touched the tender stops of various quills, 
 With eager thought warbling his Doric lay : 
 And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 
 And now was dropped into the western bay. 
 At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue : 
 To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 
 
NOTES ON L' ALLEGRO. 
 
 LINE 2. Cerberns. The dog that guarded the entrance to Hades 
 and Night is a poetic fancy, to give Melancholy a sufficiently uncanny 
 parentage. In the same way Spenser makes Corceca the mother of 
 Abessa, i.e. Blind Devotion parent to Ignorance. See Faery Queene, 
 Book I., canto iii. 
 
 3. In Stygian Cave. The kennel of Cerberus. 
 
 6. Jealous wings. A particularly good adjective, bringing to the 
 mind the super-solicitude of anything that broods. 
 
 9. Ragged. If Milton intended this word, it is the only time that 
 he uses it, while he uses " rugged " six times. Cf. Isa. ii. 21. 
 
 10. Cimmerian. The mythical Cimmerii dwelt in the farthest 
 west, in a land of mists and darkness; the less legendary tradition 
 localizes them in the vicinity of the Black Sea. 
 
 10-24. Again Milton prefers to create his own mythology, and in- 
 stead of making the three Graces, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, 
 children of Zeus and Hera, gives one a choice of two new pedigrees 
 that spring from his own poetic fancy. 
 
 11. Fair and free. A favorite phrase used by Chaucer, Drayton, 
 Tennyson, and others. 
 
 17. Sager. i.e., wiser ones. 
 
 20. A-Maying. Old form of " on Maying." Cf. St. John xxi. 3. 
 
 24. Buxom, blithe, and debonair. Note alliteration and word 
 origins. 
 
 26-28. Here is offered an excellent lesson in definition with fine 
 distinctions. See Dictionary. 
 
 29. Hebe, The goddess of youth, and cup-bearer to the gods till 
 succeeded by Ganymede. Cf. Comus 1. 290. 
 
 41-80. To hear the lark . . . cynosure of neighbouring eyes. 
 A dawn song, with few peers, and only one superior in Koineo and 
 Juliet, Act iii., Scene 5. 
 
 79 
 
80 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 60-61. Where the great sun begins his state, etc. Cf ., Shake- 
 speare's Sonnet XXXITI. 
 
 67. Every shepherd tells his tale. The better scholars inter- 
 pret this line " counts his sheep," not, at so early a period in the day, 
 interchanges stories with his rustic neighbours. Cf. Exod. v. 18. 
 
 69. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures. A quick 
 transition from a contemplation of the foreground to the more inspir- 
 ing breadth of the background of the picture. 
 
 75. Meadows trim with daisies pied. Cf. " When daisies pied 
 and violets blue." Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act v., 
 Scene 2. 
 
 80. Cynosure. " Cynosura, dog's tail," the constellation of the 
 Lesser Bear, by which the Phoenician mariners directed their course. 
 In Racket's Life of Williams, the Countess of Buckingham is called 
 "the Cynosura that all the Papists steered by." 
 
 81-86. As the poem proceeds, so has the beautiful day, and we are 
 now at high noontide ; at last, in the ninety-ninth line, the " livelong 
 daylight " fails. 
 
 83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met . . . Phillis . . . Thes- 
 tylis. These names in pastoral poetry date back to classical litera- 
 ture, as in Virgil's Eclogues, where Corydon is a lovesick swain. 
 
 91-92. The scene changes in time to afternoon ; in place, to the 
 village. 
 
 94. Rebecks. A three-stringed musical instrument somewhat 
 like the violin. Shakespeare, as ingeniously as Dickens, calls the fid- 
 dler at Juliet's wedding Hugh Rebeck. Romeo and Juliet, Act iv., 
 Scene 5. 
 
 " He tuned his rebec to a mournful note." Drayton. 
 96. Chequered shade. 
 
 " The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, 
 And make a chequered shadow on the ground." 
 
 Titus Andronicus, ii., 3. 
 
 98. On a sunshine holiday. Milton loves this phrase, for it is 
 repeated in Comus, 1. 95. Shakespeare also used sunshine for sun- 
 shiny. Richard II., iv., 1. 
 
 100. A third transition, by which we are introduced to rustic even- 
 ing occupations. 
 
 102. How Faery Mab the junkets eat. Queen Mab has had 
 
NOTES ON L'ALLEGRG. 81 
 
 many portrayals in literature, but all are distanced by the exquisite 
 picture in Shakespeare's Borneo and Juliet, Act i., Scene 4. 1. 54-99. 
 For other descriptions see " This is Mab, the mistress fair," in Ben 
 Jonson's The Satyr,Herrick in The Hesperides, Drayton in his Nim- 
 phidia, "Walter Scott in The Antiquary. According to Shakespeare, 
 she is the Faery's midwife, employed to deliver men's brains of dreams. 
 " Junkets," cream-cheese, a word of interesting derivation. 
 
 103-104. Here follows what in to-day's parlance would be " he 
 said" and " shs said," by a third person who is telling the story. 
 
 104. And he by Friar's lantern led. Milton uses the expression 
 as a synonym of Jack o' lantern ; but in Demonology it is Friar Rush 
 who is the house spirit called by the Scotch, Brownie and the North 
 English, Lob-lie-by-the-Fire. Robin Goodfellow, the Friar of the 
 Lantern, Will o' the Wisp or Puck, is an outdoor spirit. Scott, in 
 Marmion, follows Milton, however, and says, 
 
 " Better we had through mire and bush 
 Been lanthern-led by Friar Rush." 
 
 Marmion. 
 
 106. Tells how the drudging goblin sweat. Another of the 
 fraternity, sometimes called Hobgoblin, and at his best Puck of Shake- 
 speare. He seems to have been a gay companion to Queen Mab, who 
 does for men in the way of assistance or hindrance what Mab does 
 for women. "I am the honest, plain country spirit and harmless 
 Robin Goodfellow " (Lover Restored : Ben Jonson). No better illus- 
 tration could be given of the nth power to which Shakespeare raises 
 his characters than to compare other Robin Goodfellows of the Eliza- 
 bethan age with his tricksy Puck to whom all mortals are fools. 
 
 117. Towered cities please us then. Again a transition indi- 
 cated as before by " then," the youth of " pale intellectual cast,*' after 
 his day given to pastoral delights, instead of following the rustics to 
 be lulled to sleep by " whispering winds," lingers to read his favorite 
 authors. He gives himself up to the delight of old days, of knights 
 and tourneys, of wedding festivals, and after, to the drama of Ben 
 Jonson or Shakespeare so near his own time that it is as if we read 
 to-day in the same spirit, Tennyson and Browning after a day of 
 outdoor pleasure among rustic people. Ben Jonson was made 
 Poet Laureate in 1619. 
 
 120. Weeds of peace. The common poetic term for clothing used 
 
82 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 often in Elizabethan writers. Viola dislikes to appear before she has 
 doffed her " woman's weeds." Twelfth Night, iv., 1. 
 
 122. Rain influence. A figure from astrology, used also in the 
 Ode on the Nativity. 
 
 125-126. There let Hymen . . . taper clear. Hymen, in classi- 
 cal literature, is a sort of overgrown Cupid, bearing a torch and veil. 
 His colors are yellow, as are the marriage colors to-day in some coun- 
 tries. The scenery suggested is that common to the Masque so 
 popular in Shakespeare's time. See Bacon's Essay Of Masques and 
 Triumphs. 
 
 131. Another transition announced by the reiterated " then " when 
 the reading that has been romance now turns to the drama. 
 
 132. If Jonson's learned sock be on. The sock indicated tho 
 comedy; the buskin, tragedy. 
 
 133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, etc. Though this passage 
 is often quoted to prove Milton's appreciation of Shakespeare, a much 
 more adequate conception of the poet is found in Milton's On 
 Shakespeare, written in 1630 and prefacing the Second Folio 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 135-136. And ever . . . soft Lydian airs. The softest and sweet- 
 est music was to accompany or succeed this aesthetic evening. Lydian 
 music was voluptuous as contrasted with Phrygian or Dorian. 
 
 139. Bout, bend, or turn. Spenser, in using the word, spells it 
 " bought," as from bow. 
 
 145-150. That Orpheus' self may .... half regained Eury- 
 dice. Orpheus, grieving for the loss of his wife Eurydice, went to 
 Hades to recover her. His music charmed consent from Pluto for 
 her return to earth, qualified by the condition that he should look not 
 back till he had gained upper air. The test was too severe, and look- 
 ing back to see if she followed, he only saw her slowly receding from 
 him. 
 
 11 O Proserpina, 
 
 For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall 
 From Dis's wagon ! daffodils, 
 That come before the swallow dares, and take 
 The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, 
 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 
 Or Cytherea's breath." 
 
 Winter's Tale, iv., 3. 
 151. Cf. Eccles. viii., 15. 
 
NOTES ON IL PENSEROSO. 
 
 LINES. Bested. To stand by. "I never saw a fellow worse 
 bested." 2 Henry VI., ii., 3. 
 6. Gaudy. From the Old English " gaud." 
 8. As the gay motes, etc. This line is a memory of Chaucer's 
 
 " As thick as motes in the sonne beams." 
 
 10. Pensioners. Retinue; Queen Elizabeth had such a guard 
 whom she called her pensioners. Shakespeare also uses the word in 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, ii., 1. 
 
 " The cowslips tall, her pensioners be." 
 
 18. Prince Memnou's sister. Prince Memnon was the beauti- 
 ful Ethiopian son of Tithonus and Eos, who came to the aid of Priam, 
 towards the close of the Trojan War, and was slain by Achilles. See 
 Odyssey, Book XI. Dewdrops in Greek poetry are called " Aurora's 
 tears for Memnon." 
 
 19-21. Or that starred Ethiop queen . . . offended. Cassi- 
 ope, queen of the Ethiopians, who was so audacious as to compare 
 her beauty to that of the Nereids, and was a sacrifice to her ambition. 
 She was transferred to the skies and became the constellation known 
 as Cassiopeia, which in old maps was represented as a black woman 
 studded with stars, according to Milton's adjective. Milton's version 
 makes Cassiope the victim of Neptune's wrath ; but in classical his- 
 tory, Andromeda, her daughter, pays the penalty of boasted beauty. 
 
 23-30. Thee, bright-haired Vesta ... no fear of Jove. This 
 genealogy is, as in the parentage of Mirth, an inventon of Milton. 
 Saturn, the god from whom we make our adjective " Saturnine," 
 
 83 
 
84 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 wedded to the virgin Vesta of the hearthstone, makes no unfitting 
 origin for solitary thought. 
 
 . Mr. Wartoii thinks Milton's inmost idea was that Melancholy is the 
 daughter of Solitude and Genius. The " pensive nun " of the next 
 line gives some light on this rendering. 
 
 25. His daughter she, i.e., she was his daughter. 
 
 26. Woody Ida, On Mt. Ida, in the island of Crete, was the 
 temple to Cybele surrounded by groves. 
 
 33. Grain. From a small seed this came to mean a colour or dye. 
 
 35. Sable stole of cypress lawn. Black lawn scarf, probably 
 from the Isle of Cyprus, as Shakespeare has also in the wares peddled 
 by Autolycus, 
 
 " Lawn as white as driven snow, 
 Cyprus black as e'er was crow." 
 
 Winter's Tale, iv., 4. 
 
 39. Commerc'ing. Note the accent on the second syllable: it is 
 used in this sense by Shakespeare. 
 
 42. Forget thyself to marble. This phrase recurs in Mil- 
 ton's On Shakespeare. He is fond of repeating favourite phrases, 
 as has been already noted. Cf . the phrase, " I was petrified with 
 fright." 
 
 51-54. But first and chiefest . Contemplation, See Ezo- 
 kiel, chapter x. Milton presumes to name one of the Ezekelian 
 cherubs, and calls him by a name of his own. 
 
 55-56. And the mute silence , . , a song, i.e., Keep up the 
 mute silence unless there be an interruption by Philomel, the night- 
 ingale. This is an unusual use of " hist " as a verb. Cf. 
 
 "After jangling words cometh huiste, peace and be stille." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 59. While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke. The fascinated 
 Moon is supposed to stop her chariot drawn of dragons to listen ; but 
 in old Mythology it was the chariot of Demeter that was drawn of 
 dragons. 
 
 " Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast." 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi., 2. 
 
 61-64. Milton delights in the nightingale, as is seen not only 
 in this familiar passage, but in the Sonnet to the Nightingale, 
 Comus, pp. 566-567, and by several allusions in Paradise Lost. 
 
NOTES ON IL PENSEROSO. 85 
 
 67. Wandering Moon. The moon with all poets is ever a 
 vagrant, unheld of fixed laws. Both Horace and Virgil use the same 
 expression. 
 
 " Wandering companionless 
 Among the stars that bear a different birth." 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 74. Curfew. The curfew ringing, which was the signal for the 
 putting out of hearthstone fires since the days of William the Con- 
 queror, was still held in practice in Milton's time, and yet survives 
 in a few rural parts of England. 
 
 75. The Impossibility of locating the scene of this passage at Hor- 
 ton, Oxford, or Windsor is good proof of its existence only in Poet 
 Land. 
 
 83. Bellman's drowsy charm. This is a reference to a pleasing 
 custom retained still in some German towns, where watchmen an- 
 nounce, at the striking of the hour, the condition of the weather and 
 the peace of the environments. Shakespeare also has " sullen bell." 
 See Herrick's charming poem of The Bellman. 
 
 87. Where I may outwatch the bear. Implying that in this 
 mood he would keep his vigil till morning, since the bear would fade 
 out, not set in his sky. 
 
 Plato. The Athenian philosopher and the most distinguished 
 pupil of Socrates, 429 (?) -347 B.C. 
 
 88. With thrice-great Hermes. The Egyptian king called by 
 the Greeks, Hermes Trismegistus, or thrice-great. 
 
 89-92-96. This passage entire is in evident reference to the discus- 
 sion of the immortality of the soul, as found in the Phaedo and Ti- 
 maeus, though the demons of the flood, fire, air, etc., belong to the 
 later students of Plato. 
 
 93. And of those demons. An interesting ellipsis called 
 zeugma by rhetoricians. 
 
 97. Sometime let gorgeous tragedy, etc. As Comedy suited 
 the mood of L'Allegro, now Tragedy suits this serious strain. 
 
 99-100. Presenting Thebes . . . Troy divine, i.e., whose sto- 
 ries have formed subjects for the great Greek dramatists ^Eschylus 
 ( Seven against Thebes ) Sophocles ( Antigone or Ocedipus) Euripides, 
 (Bacchae). 
 
 101-102. Or what . . . buskined stage. Here would have been 
 an excellent occasion for Milton to still further show his literary 
 
86 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 discernment in honouring Shakespeare hy making him fit compan- 
 ion of the Greek dramatists. Many think it was indicated sufficiently 
 to signify none other, though the fear of Ben Jonson before his eyes 
 might have prevented the young poet, who was so soon to fear nothing 
 in life or death, from a frank acknowledgment of this preference. 
 
 103-120. Here is a true lament for lost literature to which might 
 be added many lost treasures in English poetry. 
 
 110. The story of Cambuscan bold. Chaucer's Squire's Tale 
 that was left unfinished. Cambuscan was the father of Canace, to 
 whom the King of Araby and Ind sent the magic ring and mirror. 
 The ring told the language of every bird that sang, and the glass all 
 that was happening in the world. They were brought by a knight 
 
 " Upon a steed of brass, 
 And in his hand a broad mirror of glass ; 
 Upon his thumb he had of gold a ring." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 116-119. These lines might allude to much literature of a romantic 
 type, doubtless familiar to Milton, as Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser. 
 
 122. Civil-suited morn. Dressed in civilian's suit, not in her 
 gayest apparel as in L' Allegro. 
 
 124. The Attic Boy. Cephalus, the son of Diomede and Deion, 
 who was loved of Aurora, the Dawn. 
 
 128. His fill. " Its," as we use it to-day, was studiously avoided 
 by Milton, who uses " its " but three times in all his poems. 
 
 130. Minute-drops, i.e., falling at frequent steady intervals. 
 
 134. Sylvan loves. Subjects of the god Sylvanus. See Spenser's 
 Faery Queene. Book I., Canto 6. 
 
 147-150. And let some strange .... on my eyelids laid. 
 This is a rather obscure passage, as if dreams had already taken pos- 
 session of the poet sleeper. Without the changes substituted by com- 
 mentators, the rendering seems to be that dreams should flow off the 
 wings of sleep as in a stream on the dreamer. 
 
 151. And as I wake. Milton seems not satisfied with the trans- 
 positions afforded by the " thens " of L'Allegro, and allowing for a 
 clearer understanding on the part of his readers, makes no attempt to 
 indicate the changes of locality. He now enters first the student- 
 cloister that is quickly changed for the more imposing and impressive 
 cathedral. For the first time II Penseroso is in contact with his 
 fellow men, but not as in L'Allegro in their secular life, in which 
 
NOTES ON IL PENSEROSO. 87 
 
 he .might not really have part, but in an act of worship before God, 
 where all come in one common attitude and spirit. 
 
 158. Massy proof, i.e., proof against the weight they support. 
 
 159. Storied windows richly (light. Windows whose subjects 
 were stories from the Bible or ecclesiastical history. 
 
 167-176. Scott, in the Introduction to Canto II. of Marmion, recalls 
 this passage, in the lines 
 
 '.' Here have I thought 'twere sweet to dwell, 
 And rear again the chaplain's cell, 
 Like that same peaceful hermitage 
 Where Milton longed to spend his age." 
 
 Almost as peaceful and retired an old age as he coveted in his youth 
 was granted Milton ; but vexed with the memory of a cause lost, it is 
 doubtful if it yielded all the proposed tranquillity. 
 
 170-174. A memory perchance of Friar Laurence in Shakespeare's 
 Borneo and Juliet. 
 
 Note : L' Allegro does not provide for old age ; it is too happy to 
 be fore-seeing. 
 
NOTES ON COMUS. 
 
 The first scene discovers a wild wood. The Attendant Spirit de- 
 scends or enters. 
 
 LINE 3. Insphered. Milton, like every poet, has his favourite 
 words. Insphered is one, as we have seen in both L' Allegro and 
 II Penseroso. 
 
 7. Confined and pestered in this pinfold here. " Pestered," 
 Masson thinks from pestis, a plague ; Todd, pesta, a crowd ; but why 
 not from the French, empetrer, to entangle? " Pinfold," a sheep en- 
 closure, from Anglo-Saxon pyndan ; our word, " pound," is from the 
 same source. 
 
 9-11. Unmindful of the crown ... on sainted seats. 
 Amongst the enthroned gods. Kev. iv., 4, 11. 
 
 13. That Golden Key. Art and the Church have traditionally 
 given to St. Peter two keys, a golden one to open, an iron to shut, the 
 gates of Heaven. See Lycidas, 110-111. 
 
 16. Ambrosial weeds. Ambrosial is used here in its true sig- 
 nification of immortal " weeds." See L' Allegro, 120. 
 
 20. Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove. See Book 
 XV. Homer's Iliad. Also Paradise Lost, II., 295. Other authors 
 have named Pluto, Nether Jove. A rather ambiguous reading is 
 here, but the natural interpretation is the best. 
 
 26. Several, Separate. Cf. the verb "to sever." 
 
 27-28. This Isle , , , all the Main. Milton had not reached his 
 period of patriotism. Cf. with this meek expression the passages in 
 King John, Act. v., Sc. 7, lines 116-117, or Richard II., ii., 1. 
 
 29. He quarters to his blue-haired deities, i.e., divides among. 
 " Blue-haired " tasks my comprehension, as Neptune's petty gods 
 were green-haired. 
 
NOTES ON COM US. 89 
 
 30. All this tract. Wales in its entirety. 
 
 31-33. A noble peer . . . proud in arms. This reference, like 
 the famous Shakesperian passage which is supposed to compliment 
 Elizabeth, is a deferential passage in compliment of the Earl of 
 Bridgewater, Viceroy of Wales, among the onlookers at this festival 
 given at his cost. 
 
 40. Tender age. Lady Alice was about fourteen, her brother 
 still younger. 
 
 46-50. The classical character of Milton's learning at so early a 
 period is amply illustrated in his first attempts in verse. In these 
 four and a half lines is compacted the story of Circe (see Classical 
 Dictionary), a passage from the Odyssey, BookX., the Homeric Hymn 
 to Bacchus, and one of Ovid's Metamorphoses, II., 660. 
 
 NOTE. The genealogy that follows is an invention of Milton. 
 
 50. Who knows not Circe. A good example of the rhetorical 
 figure so frequently used by Macaulay. 
 
 54-58. This nymph, etc. This genealogy is of a type in which 
 Milton delighted. Observe, Bacchus and Circe would be a sufficiently 
 pronounced heredity for the character of Comus, the villain of his 
 
 drama. 
 
 " Much of the father's face, 
 More of the mother's grace." 
 
 60. The Celtic and Iberian fields. Gaul and Spain. 
 
 61. This ominous wood. The adjacent wood was that of Shrop- 
 shire, near the place of this performance. 
 
 66. Phoebus. The sun. 
 
 68-72. To change the faces gave a fine spectacular opportunity, for 
 as Comus came on the stage he would be followed by a noisy crew 
 who needed but to have the heads of the various animals represented 
 as masks. 
 
 73-77. Note the difference in results, compared with the rendering 
 of Circe's power by Homer, Odyssey, Book IX. Cf., Spenser's Faery 
 Queene, II., xii., 86-87. 
 
 84-88. And take the weeds . . . the waving woods. Henry 
 Lawes, the composer of the music, who was in the audience, thus has 
 an Elizabethan compliment elegantly turned. 
 
 93. The star that bids the shepherd fold. Hesperus, or 
 Venus. Note the change in metre. 
 
 . " Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd." Shakespeare. 
 
90 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 105. Rosy twine. Twined roses. 
 
 115. Sounds and seas, i.e., shallow straits and seas. 
 
 116. Now to the moon . . . morrice move. A dance imported 
 from Spain. 
 
 129. Dark- veiled Cotytto. The Thracian goddess of immodesty, 
 worshipped with nocturnal rites at Athens in ancient times. 
 
 135. Hecat. A triple deity much obscured in mythological shades. 
 She is Phoebe in Heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina or Hecate 
 in hell. Shakespeare includes all three in 
 
 " By the triple Hecate's team," 
 
 but these are the darker uses, as in Macbeth. 
 
 138-142. Ere the blabbing . . . concealed solemnity. An old 
 fable that the Sun discloses the mysteries or secrets of the night. 
 
 Nice. Fastidious. 
 
 143. Cf. Ariel's Song in The Tempest, Act i., 2. 
 
 144. Light, fantastic. See L' Allegro, lines 33-34. 
 146. Chaste footing. Cf . Lycidas, 103. 
 
 151. Trains. Allurements. 
 
 153-154. Thus I hurl . . . spongy air. Here undoubtedly an 
 effect was produced on the stage by the burning of some chemical 
 powder. 
 
 Comus suffers greatly from comparison with Puck and his antics in 
 Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 167. Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. This 
 line is not found in the edition of 1673. " Gear," business. 
 
 178. Swilled Insolence. Drunken insolence. 
 
 179. Wassailers. Wassail, from the Anglo-Saxon wses hael, 
 " your health! " used by the English anciently in drinking a health. 
 
 188-190. They left me . . . Phoebus' wain. The beauty of 
 this figure, representing a sad palmer slowly following the chariot of 
 the day, is apparent. 
 
 195. Stole. Reading of first and second editions. 
 
 205-209. A thousand fantasies . . . wildernesses. Compare 
 Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, v.,sc. 1, 1. 14-17 ; The Tem- 
 pest, Act iii., sc. 3. 
 
 212. Con-sci-ence. A trisyllable here. 
 
 213-225. Here is one of the best stage effects, as well as immortal 
 passages of the poem. The introduction of the song that follows in 
 
NOTES ON COM US. 91 
 
 order to attract attention is not original, as one well recalls by refer- 
 ence to Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, I., 1. 
 
 For the story of Echo and Narcissus, see Classical Dictionary. 
 
 253. My mother Circe with the sirens three. Circe sang, and 
 Circe gathered herbs, and Circe had an attendant retinue ; but this 
 neighborly conjunction is Milton s own device. See Odyssey, Books 
 X. and XI. 
 
 257-259. Scylla wept . . . soft applause. Glaucus, a fisherman, 
 loved Scylla. Circe, in jealousy, changed her to a monster, when 
 Scylla threw herself in the sea and became a rock. Barking waves, 
 Virgil's uEneid, VII., 588, " multis circum latrantibus undis." 
 
 259. Charybdis. A whirlpool on the coast of Sicily ; mythologi- 
 cally a daughter of Poseidon hurled to the depths by the anger of 
 Jove. There are other legends of her in classical lore. " Between 
 Scylla and Charybdis " is a phrase well understood by those who do 
 not know its origin. 
 
 265. Hail, foreign wonder! This exclamation in a vile mouth 
 is not unlike the pure expression of Ferdinand when he> first looked 
 on Miranda. See The Tempest, i. f 2. 
 
 267. Unless the goddess. Note the ellipsis. 
 
 268. Pan or Sylvan. " Pan," an Arcadian god of the shepherds; 
 " Sylvan," the god of field and forest. 
 
 271. Ill Is lost. A Latin idiom, male perditur. 
 
 277-290. A thoroughly classical form, such as is found again and 
 again in Greek tragedies. Cf. The Maidens of Trachis at entrance of 
 Lichas ; also Creon and Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonos. 
 
 291. What time. This idiom for when is ever a favourite of the 
 poets. 
 
 " What time I am afraid I will trust in thee." 
 " What time the shepherd blowing of his nails." 
 '* What time the grey -fly winds her sullen horn." 
 
 293. Swinked. Tired with labour. 
 
 297-304. Their port was more than human. A thinly dis- 
 guised compliment to the sons, Lord Brackley and Thomas Egerton, 
 who were now to come on the stage. The lines of Comus's address to 
 the lady veil like praises of Alice Egerton. 
 
 The words of this speech are rather flowery and elegant for Comus 
 in his guise as a shepherd. 
 
92 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 301. Plighted. Plaited or folded. 
 
 317-318. Or the low-roosted lark . . . rouse. This phrase 
 might have awakened inquiry as to Milton's knowledge of bird 
 habits. Certainly it demands a figurative interpretation rather than 
 the literal one suggested by Mr. Masson. 
 
 324^327. Here is possibly a beginning of the spirit of republicanism 
 that characterized the life of Milton. 
 
 329. Sqnare my trial. Adapt my trial. 
 
 341-342. See notes on L' Allegro, 180. 
 
 344. Wattled cotes. Pens made of braided twigs. 
 
 349. Inmimerous. Also in Paradise Lost, VII., 455. 
 
 359. Over exquisite. Over curious. 
 
 373. Virtue could see . . . radiant light. Cf. Spenser's Faery 
 Queene, I., L, 12. "Virtue gives herself light thro' darkness for to 
 wade." 
 
 378. Plumes. Many commentators think better " prunes." 
 
 380. All to-ruffled. All too much ruffled. The hyphen is the 
 work of editors. 
 
 381-382. No one more than Milton, both literally and figuratively, 
 had to experience the truth of his own youthful sentiments. 
 
 382. May sit i* the centre. Centre of all things. 
 
 391. Maple dish. Sometimes other woods are named by the 
 poets, especially beechen. 
 
 393-397. Like the fair Hesperian tree . . . Incontinence. 
 Among Juno's wedding-gifts were the golden apples. These were 
 placed under the ward of three nymphs, the Hesperides, who were 
 assisted by the dragon Ladon. One of Hercules' labours was to obtain 
 these apples by slaying the dragon. Read Tennyson's poem of The 
 Hesperides. 
 
 401. Danger -will wink on opportunity. Danger will not be 
 true to his office as a police-officer, but fail intentionally to see. That 
 suggests Shakespeare's "that runaway's eyes may wink," in Komeo 
 and Juliet, Act iii., sc. 2. 
 
 413. Squint suspicion. Cf. Faery Queene, III., xii., 15. 
 
 422. Like a quivered nymph. A Virgilian suggestion of Diana. 
 Cf. Spenser's Belphoebe, Faery Queene, II., iii., 29. 
 
 423. Unharboured. Unsheltered. 
 
 426. Mountaineer. A word that once had a bad sense as well as 
 good. Cf. Cymbeline, Act. iv., scene ii., 1. 
 
NOTES ON COM US. 93 
 
 432-437. Some say . . . true virginity. There is distinct imita- 
 tion here of the famous passage, " Some say that ever 'gainst that 
 season comes." Cf. Hamlet, L, 1., 173-179. Ghosts were supposed 
 to be set free from curfew till cockcrow. 
 
 441-452. From a dialogue of Lucian. 
 
 453-475. This apotheosis of chastity expresses most clearly Milton's 
 mind. He also writes these views again in prose when he defended 
 his own character in the days of the Commonwealth. The philosophy 
 oft is easily recalled in Plato's Phsedo. 
 
 494-496. Thyrsis . . . dale. Thyrsis was a name common in pas- 
 torals, but the passage is in compliment again of Henry Lawes. 
 
 495-512. Note the insertion of a long unrhyined passage illustra- 
 tive of the tune and time of Thyrsis. Contemporary poetry will be 
 found to allow similar freaks. 
 
 520. Navel. Middle or centre. 
 
 529-530. Unmouldiiig reason's mintage . . . face. As in the 
 melting of coin. Note the pronunciation of " charactered," a form 
 of pronunciation retained by Mr. Lowell. 
 
 552. See line 145. 
 
 553. Drowsy-flighted. A beautiful word, but possibly the work 
 of the commentators, since Milton has drowsie-f righted. 
 
 561. And took in strains ... of Death. A memory of a 
 picture in Quarles's Emblems, probably familiar to Milton, repre- 
 senting the soul in the form of a child, struggling to free itself from 
 the form of a skeleton. 
 
 568. Lawns. Any grass-covered space in Elizabethan days is 
 termed a lawn. 
 
 589-599. The ten lines here included was Milton's youthful Credo. 
 
 604. Sooty flag of Acheron. A figurative expression for the 
 nether world. Cf . 
 
 " All hell run out, and sooty flags display." 
 
 Phineas Fletcher. 
 
 605. Harpies and Hydras. The one, monsters with bodies of 
 birds, and heads of maidens; the other, enormous water-serpents. 
 See Classical Dictionary. 
 
 607. Purchase. This word is used in its primary meaning. See 
 Dictionary. 
 619. A certain sheperd lad. This allusion is popularly sup- 
 
94 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 posed to refer to Milton's dear friend, Charles Diodati, and his skill as 
 a botanist. 
 627. Simples. Herbs used in the practice of medicine. 
 
 " I do remember an apothecary. 
 . . . which late I noted, 
 In tattered weeds with overwhelming brows 
 Culling of simples." 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, v., 1. 
 
 636. That Moly. The herb which Hermes gave Ulysses defended 
 him from the sorceries of Circe. See the Odyssey, Book X. 
 
 638. Haemony. This name is another invention of Milton; HSD- 
 monia was the former name of Thessaly. 
 
 639. Sovereign. Cf. "The most sovran prescription in Galen is 
 but einpiricutick.' Coriolanus,ii. t 1, 125. 
 
 642. Lime-twigs. An allusion to the practice of birdsnaring. 
 See Dictionary. 
 
 651. Break his glass. Odyssey, X., Spenser's Faery Queene, 
 II., xii., 56. 
 
 655. Sons of Vulcan. From Virgil's ^Eneid, Liber VIII., 252. 
 
 660. Chained up in alabaster. A favourite expression of Milton 
 and Shakespeare to express a stiffened condition of the will. 
 
 661-4J62. As Daphne was, root-bound. Daphne fleeing Apollo 
 was changed to a laurel-tree. Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 
 
 675. That Nepenthes. See the Odyssey, Book IV. A drug that 
 made one forget all sorrow. 
 
 695. Oughly-headed. Ugly -headed. The orthography is Milton's. 
 
 707. Budge doctors of the Stoic fur. This is a much disputed 
 passage. Good sense would indicate that budge here meant burly, 
 but budge was also the lamb's-wool fur worn by the Bachelor of 
 Cambridge as a sign of his rank. " Fur " is used as we use " cloth," 
 to denote the clergy. 
 
 708. The Cynic tub. The tub of Diogenes the Cynic. 
 719. Hutched. Stored. 
 
 743-744. Like a neglected rose . . . with languished head. 
 A passage out-quoted by 
 
 41 Earthlier happy is the rose distilled," etc. 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream , i., 1. 78. 
 
NOTES ON COM US. 95 
 
 745-746. Must be shown . . . high solemnities. Cf. Waller's 
 " Go, lovely rose ." 
 
 760. I hate when vice can bolt her arguments. To sift as the 
 bolting-mill sifts wheat from bran. 
 
 767. Spare Temperance. Dowden thinks the Lady here is indeed 
 Milton, the Lady of his college, whose abstemious habits were hit 
 early as late culture. 
 
 " Distribution should undo excess, 
 And each man have enough." 
 
 King Lear, iv., i, 73. 
 
 791. Fence, Abridgment for defence. 
 
 804. Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus. An allusion to 
 the contest between Zeus and the Titans. See Classical Dictionary. 
 
 817. Backward mutters. In the lore of charms, the power of a 
 charm is dispelled by a reversal of the performance. 
 
 822. Meliboeus, Probably an allusion to Spenser, since Milton 
 takes the Spenserian version of the Sabrina story, but Meliboeus is a 
 character in Virgil's Eclogue I. 
 
 823. Soothest. Truest. 
 
 824-858. The inweaving of the legend of the Severn has a dramatic 
 fitness that should be noted. 
 
 859-890. See Classical Dictionary if necessary for these familiar 
 allusions. 
 
 894. Turkis. The turquoise, originally the Turkish stone. 
 
 897. Printless feet. Supernatural folk leave no mortal footprint. 
 
 921. Amphitrite. Goddess of the sea and wife of Neptune. 
 
 923. Anchises' line. Locrine, in mythological pedigrees, was a 
 direct descendant of Anchises. 
 
 958. Back, shepherds. As the scene changes, the curtain rises 
 on a peasant dance that with its awkward ducks and nods must now 
 give way to the noble family to appear. 
 
 966-975. This song of presentation was sung by Lawes, the com- 
 poser. 
 
 976. To the ocean now I fly. The student familiar with Shake- 
 speare's Tempest will readily see where Milton found his model 
 for his song. 
 
 982. Hesperus and his daughters three. ^Egle, Cynthia, and 
 Hesperia, daughters of Hesperus, were famous for their song. 
 
96 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 999. Adonis. Adonis died of a wound received in the chase. 
 
 1002. Assyrian queen. Venus with reference to her identity 
 with Astarte. 
 
 1003-1004. The story of Cupid and Psyche is too familiar to need 
 reiteration. Its adaptation here is in the purified Psyche. 
 
 1020. She can teach you how to climb. Cf . 
 
 " To a stranger here on earth, 
 In heaven she hath her right of birth. 
 There, there is virtue's seat." 
 
 Ben Jonson's Song of Virtue. 
 
NOTES ON LYCIDAS. 
 
 LINK 1. Yet once more. Milton's last poetical production had 
 been Comus, in 1634. It is to be observed that lines 1, 15, 22, 39, 51, 
 82, 91, 92, 161 are without rhymes. 
 
 1-2. Laurels . . . myrtles . . . ivy. The laurel was sacred to 
 Apollo, the myrtle to Venus, the ivy to poets. 
 
 " Doctarum hederse praemia frontium " (ivy that wreathes the brow 
 of bards). Horace. 
 
 " In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain, 
 In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain." 
 
 Dr. Johnson. 
 (Request of a gentleman to whom a lady had given a sprig of myrtle.) 
 
 3. Harsh and Crude. Alluding to the immaturity of Milton's 
 poetic genius as viewed by himself. 
 
 4. Forced fingers rude. The reluctance of a true poet to write 
 verses of occasion. 
 
 6. Sad occasion dear. Note the use of " dear." Cf. 
 
 '* Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven." 
 
 Hamlet, L, ii., 182. 
 
 7. Compels. Here is an instance of a frequent usage in the ear- 
 lier history of the language, when the close union of two nomina- 
 tives is followed by a verb in the singular. 
 
 8. Ere his prime. Edward King was twenty-five years old. 
 10-11. Who would not sing, etc. A rhetorical construction for 
 
 everybody would sing. Edward King had written verses in Latin 
 and English that had already attracted attention to his talents. 
 
 13. Welter. To toss and tumble in the waves. 
 
 14. Meed. Reward. This is one of many words in this poem 
 
 97 
 
98 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 that will afford the instructor an excellent illustration for the study 
 of cognates. 
 
 41 A rosy garland was the victor's meed." 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 NOTE. The rhyme with which this line ends has been thus far the 
 dominant one. 
 
 15. Sisters of the sacred well. The fountains of the Muses were 
 on Mount Helicon, and were called Aganippe and Hippocrene, but 
 it was the Pierian Spring that sprang immediately from beneath 
 Jove's seat. 
 
 21. And as he passes. He, as here used, refers to some poet in- 
 spired by the Muse, who may, in turn, write an elegy for Milton. 
 
 23-36. For we were nursed . . . hear our song. Notice the 
 exquisite pastoral language in which Milton describes with sustained 
 sweetness his school-friendship with King at Christ Church, Cam- 
 bridge. Cf . 
 
 11 O, and is all forgot? 
 
 All schooldays' friendship, childhood innocence? 
 We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 
 Have with our needles created both one flower, 
 Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 
 Both warbling of one song, both in one key ; 
 AS if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, 
 Had been incorporate. So we grew together, 
 Like to a double cherry, seeming parted ; 
 But yet a union in partition, 
 Two lovely berries moulded on one stem : 
 So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; 
 Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, 
 Due but to one, and crowned with one crest." 
 Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii., Scene 2, 205-215. 
 
 26. Opening eyelids of the morn. Cf. Job iii., 9. 
 32-33. Doubtless the undergraduate attempts of Milton and King ; 
 oaten flute. Cf. Shakespeare's song in Love's Labour's Lost. 
 
 " When daisies pied and violets blue." 
 
 Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act v., Scene 2. 
 
 36. Damoetas. A pastoral name recurring in the classical poets. 
 Various authors have interpreted it as referring here to one of Mil- 
 
NOTES ON LYCIDAS. 99 
 
 ton's tutors or some Fellow of Christ Church who had encouraged the 
 youthful attempts of Milton and King* 
 
 39-44. Thee, shepherd . . . thy soft lays. Milton follows 
 closely here the mourning for Orpheus, as described in Ovid, Meta- 
 morphoses, XI. 
 
 41. And all their echoes mourn. Gf. the joyous echoes of 
 Spenser's Epithalamiain ; also 
 
 " Lost Echo sits among the voiceless mountains 
 And feeds her grief with his remembered lay.'* 
 
 Shelley's Adonais. 
 
 60-55. Where were ye ... wisard stream. This passage fol- 
 lows closely the first Idyll of Theocritus, 66-69, and the tenth Ec- 
 logue of Virgil, 9-12, with the substitution of an English environment 
 suited to the tragedy. 
 
 52-53. On the steep . . . He. A mountain in Caernarvon cele- 
 brated as a burial-place of the Druids. 
 
 54. Moiia. The highest portion of the island of Anglesey, but 
 Mona is not high. 
 
 55. Deva. The river Dee, sung by Spenser, Milton, Drayton, 
 Kingsley, and others. 
 
 59-63. What could the Muse herself . . . the Lesbian shore? 
 The student is referred for this familiar story to Ovid's Metamor- 
 phoses, XI., 1-55, and to Paradise Lost, Book VII., 32-39; also to any 
 classical dictionary. 
 
 63. Swift Hebrus. Probably borrowed from Virgil's " Volucrem 
 Hebrum," as the Hebrus flow slowly. 
 
 64r-84. This passage affords the instructor an excellent opportunity 
 to note the decline of poetry as the Restoration was approached, and 
 the quick sensitiveness of Milton to see and deplore it. " The poets 
 who were alive at this date were such as Wither, Herrick, Shirley, 
 May, Davsnant, Suckling, and Crashaw." Bell. 
 
 66-69. Amaryllis . . . Naera's. Fanciful pastoral names to 
 suggest either the allurements of a life of pleasure or a sort of poetry 
 without virility, probably the latter. 
 
 70-73. This passage now famous has been expressed by various 
 writers before Milton, but is rarely quoted except from him, illustra- 
 trating 
 
 " Tlio' old the thought or oft expressed, 
 Tis his at last that says it best." 
 
100 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 Cf. "I will not deny his appetite for glory which generous minds 
 do ever latest part from." Sir H. Wotton. 
 
 75. Comes the blind Fury. Milton, who rarely errs in this 
 respect, now cites not a Fury, but the Fate, Atropos. 
 
 77. Phoebus. Phoebus Apollo, the god of song. 
 
 79. Glist'rin? foil. An allusion to the practice of placing foil 
 under gems to enhance their brightness. 
 
 85. Arethuse. The famous Sicilian fountain in the island of 
 Ortygia, haunted by the pastoral Muse. 
 
 86. Smooth-sliding Mincius. A tributary river to the Po, near 
 which Virgil was born. 
 
 88. My oat. My gift for writing pastorals. 
 
 89. Herald of the sea. Triton, the son of Neptune, who, in his 
 name, asks the cause of this untimely death. 
 
 " Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
 Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 
 
 Wordsworth's Sonnets. 
 
 96. Hippotades. The son of Hippotes, ^Eolus, king of the 
 winds. 
 
 99. Sleek Panope . . . sisters. The Nereides, whose haunt was 
 the Mediterranean. 
 
 101. Built in the eclipse. It has always been a popular super- 
 stition that anything accomplished in an eclipse is doomed to disaster. 
 
 " Slips of yew, 
 Slivered in the moon's eclipse." 
 
 Witches Songs in Macbeth, iv., 1. 
 
 103. Camus. The personification of Cambridge University on the 
 Cam, lamenting her son. This reverent allusion should tend to disa- 
 buse the mind of a notion held by a few, that Milton cared little for 
 his Alma Mater. 
 
 104-106. The costuming of the genius of the river is somewhat in- 
 volved in imaginative appropriateness, in order to inweave the well- 
 known legend of Hyacinthus. See Classical Dictionary. 
 
 109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake. St. Peter, in his function 
 assigned him in St. Matt, xvi., 19. Buskin has a famous treatment 
 of this entire passage (108^131) in Sesame and Lilies, Lecture I. 
 
NOTES ON LYCIDAS. 101 
 
 110. Two massy keys. There is no Scriptural authority for 
 " two," but ecclesiastical tradition refers usually to two. 
 
 112. Mitred locks. An allusion to St. Peter as the first Bishop 
 of the Christian church. 
 
 113-131. In this famous passage is seen the prophecy of the Milton 
 of the days of the Commonwealth. Already his indignation against 
 the rule of Archbishop Laud causes him to forget for the moment the 
 subject of his elegy, while he inveighs against the state of the Church. 
 As a study of contemptuous phrase, it is without equal ; as a study 
 of the clergy of Milton's time, it is a chapter in history. Cf . Chaucer's 
 Persoun in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. 
 
 119. Blind mouths! A striking mixed figure to illustrate the 
 greed of the clergy. Cf. Sonnet, xvi., 14. 
 
 122. They are sped. They flourish. 
 
 124. Grate on their scrannel pipes. This expression admirably 
 describes the thin, effectless character of the sermons of this period. 
 
 126. But, swoln with wind. Cf. Hosea, xii., 1. 
 
 128. Grim wolf. Church of Home, to which there were daily ac- 
 cessions from the Protestant Church. Acts xx., 29. 
 
 130. Two handed engine. That which must be wielded with 
 both hands. For prolonged discussion, see Masson's Milton, vol. in., 
 pp. 454-456. 
 
 132. Alphens. The poem now returns to its subject. Alpheus 
 was the river-god who loved Arethusa. 
 
 135-151. " The most exquisite flower and colour passage in all Mil- 
 ton's poetry." Masson. Cf . Cymbeline, iv., 2, Winter's Tale, iv., 3, 
 for flower studies from Shakespeare. 
 
 Ruskin has a fine comparison of the use of flowers by Shakespeare 
 and Milton in Modern Painters, vol. iii., p. 160. 
 
 138. The swart-star. Sirius, or Canicula, the dog-star. 
 
 151. Laureate hearse. Originally, and as here used, a construc- 
 tion above the tomb to hold the candles. 
 
 152. For so. In this manner. 
 
 158. Monstrous. The sea-depths peopled with monsters. 
 
 160. Bellerus. A word coined by Milton for a Cornish giant in- 
 habiting Land End, whose early name was Bellerium. 
 
 161. The guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount, on which there 
 is a crag called St. Michael's chair. Milton refers to the story of the 
 vision of the saint on this mount. 
 
102 MILTON LYRICS. 
 
 162. Namancos and Bayona's hold. Towns on the Gallician 
 shore in Spain. 
 
 163. Angel. St. Michael, not Lycidas. 
 
 164. Dolphins. The dolphin was fabled to carry Arion, the Greek 
 musician whom the mariners threw into the sea, safely to shore. 
 
 166. Your sorrow, i.e., Lycidas. Cf. 
 
 " Our love, our hope, our sorrow is not dead." 
 
 Shelley 1 s Adonais. 
 
 176. Unexpressive. Inexpressible. 
 
 " With unexpressive notes to heaven's newborn heir," 
 
 Ode on the Nativity. 
 
 " The fair the chaste, the unexpressive she." 
 
 As YOU like It, Act iiL, Scene 2. 
 
 ' To-morrow shall ye feast in pastures new." 
 
 Fletcher's Purple Island, vi., 77. 
 
 Nuptial Song. See Rev. xix., 6-7. 
 
 189. Doric lay. An allusion to the Doric dialect in which Theo- 
 critus, Bion, and Moschus sang, 
 
 It is to be noted that the last eight lines form a double stanjsa of 
 exquisite beauty, a poem in itself. 
 
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