The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes. SPIRIT. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lie All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three Revels the spruce and jocund Spring, The Graces, and the rosy-bosomed Hours, Nard and cassia's balmy smells. 980 990 976. To etc. Instead of returning directly to his dwelling in the skies (v. 1), he takes his flight from Ludlow to the west, over the ocean, where the Greeks placed regions of bliss. 979. Up, etc., i.e. up where day never shuts his eye. He has not expressed himself with perfect clearness; for it might seem that the 'happy climes' lay up in the sky, which would not accord with what follows. 981. All amidst, etc. See our Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 240, 3rd dit. 984. crisped, i.e. that had their leaves and branches crisped, i.e. waved and curled, by the Zephyr probably: see on Arcades, v. 46. 985. spruce, i.e. smart, well-attired. The original meaning of this word is, Prussian, as in Spruce-fir; but being used of a kind of dress derived from that country, it got its present sense. They were apparelled after the fashion of Prussia or Spruce," Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 1. 988. There, etc. See Life of Milton, p. 286. 989. "Cinnamea Zephyrus leve plaudit odorifer ala.” El. v. 69.— W. 990. cedarn, i.e. of cedar. See on v. 893. He had probably the Bermudas and their cedars in his mind. 993. blow, i.e. cause to blow. See on On Mar. of Win. v. 33. "For these, Favonius here shall blow New flowers." Jonson, The Penates.-W. "Love is a gentle spirit; The wind that blows the April flowers not softer." Fletch. Lov. Prog. ii. 3.—W. Iris there with humid bow Waters the odorous banks, that blow Than her purfled scarf can shew, And drenches with Elysian dew 1000 In slumber soft, and on the ground Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. But far above, in spangled sheen, Celestial Cupid her famed son advanced 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; 995. purfled. To purfle (pourfiler, Fr.) was to work with gold-thread, to embroider, and thence to fringe, to edge. "The judges with hoods purfled with miniver, like doctors." Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 25.-K. "A goodly lady clad in scarlet red, Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay." F. Q. i. 2, 13.—T. "All in a silken camus lilly-white, Purfled upon with many a folded plight." Ib. ii. 3, 26.—T. 997. if your ears, etc., i.e. if your ear be in a proper condition to hear the mystery of Adonis, and of Cupid and Psyche. 1002. the Assyrian queen, i.e. Venus, identified with Astarte, queen of heaven see on Par. Lost, i. 439. : 1003. But far, etc., i.e. celestial love, as of a purer nature, is raised far above the terrestrial love of Venus and Adonis. See our Mythology on these subjects. 1010. Two, etc. This genealogy also is the poet's own. 1015. Where, etc. The 'bowed welkin' is the curved, arched sky, which bends or inclines slowly, i.e. gradually. 1017. 1018. And from thence can soar as soon Mortals, that would follow me, Heaven itself would stoop to her. Upon the corner of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound." Macbeth, iii. 5.—- W. Strive to keep her your own; "T is only she can make you great, Though place here make you known." 1020 Jonson, Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue.-K. 1021. Higher, etc., i.e. to the Empyrean, beyond the spheres which give forth their music. See Life of Milton, Ptolemaic Astronomy. NOTE on v. 877.—Tinsel-slippered is, as we have observed, intended for a translation of apyvрóreça, whence it is plain that, at least in Milton's view, tinsel was of silver in some form or other. It was evidently named from its brightness, and is probably connected with scintillo, étinceler (Fr.), or tintelen (Dutch). Our conception of it is that it was a silver texture, less dense and stout than cloth of silver; the reader may judge by the following passages if we are right in our ideas of tinsel and of cloth of tissue. Halle, in his account of the coronation of Henry VIII., says that "the lords were richly appareled in tissues, cloth of gold, of silver, tinsels, and velvets." When speaking of King Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he says: "His apparel and trapper (i.e. horse-trappings) was the one side rich cloth of gold, of tissue, the other side cloth of tissue of silver;" and of Anne Boleyn, at her coronation: "She had on a circot [surcoat] of white cloth of tissue, and a mantle of the same furred with ermine." "They have also other ornaments, which they call cawles, made netwise, to the end, as I think, that the cloth of gold, cloth of silver, or else tinsel (for that is the worst), wherewith their heads are covered and attired withal (underneath their cawles), may the better appear and shew itself in the bravest manner." Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses, p. 35, "A great man's daughter receiving from Lady Mary, before she was Queen, goodly apparel of tinsel, cloth of gold, and velvet." Strype, Eccles. Mem. ap. Richardson, v. tinsel. "Her wanton palfrey all was overspread With tinsel-trappings, woven like a wave." F. Q. i. 2, 13. "Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold, And all her steed with tinsel-trappings shone." Ib. iii. 1, 15. "A tinsel veil her amber locks did shroud, That strove to cover what it could not hide, The golden sun behind a silver cloud So streameth out his beams on every side." Fairfax, Godf. iv. 29. “Upon his arm a tinsel scarf he wore, Forsooth his madam's favour, spangled fair." "No cloth of silver, gold, or tissue here.” Fletcher, Purp. Is. vii. 26. Taylor, Praise of Hempseed, Works, p. 64. "A Florentine cloth of silver jerkin, sleeves White satin cut on tinsel." Marston, What You Will, i. 1. "A riche mantle he did wear Made of tinsel-gossamer." Smith, King Oberon's Apparel. We may here observe that Tennyson (In Mem.) has “silvery gossamer.” In Much Ado about Nothing (iii. 4) a gown is described of cloth of gold, with "skirts round, underborne with a bluish tinsel,” i.e. the petticoat was such. We read elsewhere of blue and of white cloth of gold, and cloth of tissue, which probably means that these cloths were worked on or shot with blue or white silk. As cloth of tissue, as we have seen, is spoken of as separate from cloth of gold, etc., and as silks and tissues are named together, as distinct articles, we think that tissue and cloth of tissue was a texture of silk and gold or silver. We may finally observe that tinsel (probably from its resemblance in sound to tinfoil) had got its present sense of copper-leaf gilt or silvered, perhaps in Milton's own time. 128 LYCIDAS.-M. In this MONODY the author bewails a learned friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester, on the Irish seas, 1637; and by occasion foretells the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their height. YET once more, O ye laurels, and once more I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 10 1. Yet once more, etc., i.e. I must again write poetry. The laurel or bay, the myrtle, and the ivy, were plants appropriate to poets. 2. brown, i.e. dark-coloured: see on Пl. Pens. v. 134. "Læta quod pubes hedera virenti Gaudeat pulla magis atque myrto." Hor. Carm. i. 25, 17.—W. ―sere, i.e. dry, withered; from A.-S. reapian, to dry up. Hence, to sear & wound. 3. berries, i.e. branches, with clusters of berries on them. He terms them 'harsh and crude' perhaps simply on account of their bitterness. 5. Shatter, i.e. break off and scatter about.-the mellowing year, sc. does so. These plants all shed their leaves during the year, but gradually, not all at once like the deciduous plants. 6. "Love of yourself, she said, and dear constraint Lets me not sleep." F. Q. i. 1, 53.—T. "Thou art the father of occasion dear." Sidney, Arc. iii.—T. 10. "Neget quis carmina Gallo ?" Virg. Buc. x. 3.-Peck. 11. "Seu condis amabile carmen." Hor. Ep. i. 3, 24.—N. Spens. Ruins of Rome, v. 25.-T. 13. welter, i.e. roll to and fro. A.-S. pealtian; Germ. walzen. |