To win her grace, whom all commend. In saffron robe, with taper clear, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, And ever, against eating cares, Married to immortal verse, Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 124. her grace. 130 On these occasions there was always one lady, frequently a queen, who presided and gave the prizes, 125. There, etc. Another occasion of great display and festivity in those days was the celebration of marriages. The description of Hymen is after Ovid, Met. x. 1 seq. 128. And pomp, etc. A pomp (TоμÃ1⁄2 from πéμÑш) was a solemn procession; but perhaps Milton uses it here in its modern sense of state, parade.-revelry (from reveiller, to wake up), may denote gaiety, festivity in general, but it is rather to be taken here in a more restricted sense as the Revels at Court, of which there was a Master, consisted in the representation of plays, masks, etc., before the sovereign and the nobility.-mask. Of this we have an example in Comus and in the beautiful Masks of Ben Jonson: see also the Mask of Cupid, in the Faery Queen.-antique pageantry, i.e. pageantry such as had been used even in the Middle Ages. These were shows, mostly allegoric, presented by corporations, etc., on the reception of monarchs and other distinguished persons. An account of those displayed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth will be found in our History of England. 131. Then, etc. He will then go to one of the playhouses and see a comedy, ex. gr. the Fox or the Alchemist of Jonson, or As You Like it, the Winter's Tale, or one of the other comedies of Shakespeare, so redolent of rural life and simple nature. 135. And ever, etc. Having gone through all the sources of pleasure peculiar to town and country, he concludes with music, which suits all times and places.-eating cares. See on Epitaph. Dam, v. 46. 136. Lap, i.e. wrap me up, involve me, entrance me with: comp. Com. v. 257. Amongst loose ladies lapped in delight." F. Q. v. 6, 6.—K. -Lydian airs. The Lydian mood of the ancient musicians was counted soft and sweet. In notes with many a winding bout That Orpheus' self may heave his head, Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear Of Pluto, to have quite set free These delights if thou canst give, 140 150 IL PENSEROSO.-M. HENCE, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred! 139. bout. This is not the French bout, end; but rather, as Todd thinks, the word which Spenser spells bought, and uses so frequently (ex. gr. F. Q. i. 1, 15; 11, 11), and which comes from bow, and signifies wreath, twist, turn; as we say, for this bout, a bout at anything. 140. long, i.e. at length, lasting long. 141. With, etc., i.e. though the singer (for it is only vocal music he means) seems to give himself up completely to his rapture, he still is guided by art and science. Wanton heed and giddy cunning are like curiosa felicitas.—cunning, i.e. knowledge, skill. "Let my right hand forget her cunning." Ps. cxxxvii. 5. 143. Untwisting, etc., i.e. By this rapidity of execution, united with science, the singer is enabled to loosen all the bonds that enchain the soul, i.e. the full powers, of harmony, and set it at liberty, so that it may produce its perfect effect on the minds of the auditors. 149. quite set free, i.e. to have made no conditions for her release, as he did with Orpheus. 1. Hence, etc. In Fletcher's Nice Valour (iii. 3) there is a song commencing "Hence all you vain delights," on which Mr. Dyce (quoting also another critic) observes, "To this beautiful song Milton undoubtedly has some obligations in his Il Penseroso." Now Milton's poem was printed in 1645, Fletcher's play in 1647 for the first time. It is thus that coincidence is often deemed to be plagiarism. 2. The brood, etc., i.e. that are pure folly. How little you bested, Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As the gay motes that people the sunbeams, The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. But hail, thou Goddess sage and holy ! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, 3. bested, i.e. avail, satisfy; bestellen, Germ. 4. fixed, i.e. steady, serious. "Yet nothing could my fixed mind remove." F. Q. iv. 7, 16.—T. -toys, i.e. trifles: the Dutch tooi, ornament. "Counted but toyes to busy idle brains.” Spenser, Col. Clout's Come, etc., v. 704.-K. 6. fancies fond, i.e. foolish imaginations, the minds of silly people.-possess, i.e. cause to be possessed or haunted. "That with your loves do their rude hearts possess.” Alluding to the possession by evil spirits. Spenser, Daphnaida, v. 527. K. 7. "As thicke as motes in the sunne beam." Chaucer, C. T.-W. 10. fickle, i.e. variable. "O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass." Shakesp. Son. cxxvi. — W. -pensioners. Queen Elizabeth formed a company of tall handsome young men of the best families, who, under the name of Gentlemen-pensioners, were devoted to her service and accompanied her on progresses, etc. Hence they ranked high. "And yet there ha been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners." Mer. Wives of Windsor, ii. 2.—W. "The cowslips tall her pensioners be." Mids. N. Dr. ii. 1.——W. Milton correctly places them in the train of Morpheus. 12. Hail, etc. It was the opinion of Bowle that Milton took his Melancholy from Albert Dürer's design of Melancholia, in which, he says, may be observed the black visage, the looks communing with the skies, and the stole drawn over her decent shoulders. She has wings however, which he says Milton transferred to Contemplation (v. 52). But Steevens observes that in that design there is also a winged Cherub. This hypothesis is not by any means improbable, if we had any certainty that Milton had seen Dürer's design. 14. To hit, i.e. to strike, encounter. The allusion here seems to be to the excessive brightness of the presence of Jehovah: see Ex. xxxiii. 20; xxxiv. 29 seq. "Nimium lubricus aspici." Hor. Carm. i. 19, 5.-M. And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue; Prince Memnon's sister might beseem, Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above 20 The Sea-Nymphs', and their powers offended: 16. O'erlaid with blac, i.e. darkened, made black; not covered with a black veil. 17. esteem, i.e. estimation, becomingness. 18. Prince Memnon's, etc. Memnon, the son of Aurora and Tithonus, came to Troy from the distant East, the people of which were dark but handsome. "Nigri Memnonis arma." Æn. i. 493. His sister is not, as Dunster says, a mere creation of the poet's, for Memnon had sisters, who were turned to birds after his death. 19. Or that, etc., i.e. Cassiopè, wife of Cepheus, mother of Andromeda : see our Mythology of Greece and Italy. The whole of this royal family was starred, i.e. transferred to the skies. It is not said in the mythe that they were black, but Milton infers it from their being Æthiopians. Perhaps he had also in his mind the Ethiopian queen in Tasso. “Che bruna è si, ma il bruno il bel non toglie." Ger. Lib. xii. 21. 21. The Sea-Nymphs'. We have printed this as a gen. pl. In those days the gen. sing. and nom. and gen. pl. of nouns were printed all alike. 23. Thee, etc. It is not improbable that, as Warton thinks, he may have understood the flame of genius, while Saturn is the sire on account of the astrologic character of that planet. It is one of Aristotle's Problems, why men of genius are nearly always of a melancholy complexion. For our opinion of this genealogy, see Life of Milton, p. 274. 27. glimmering. On account of the feebleness of the light which was able to penetrate the thick leafy roof. 31. Nun. As being devoted to a life of contemplation. 32. demure. This word now bears rather a bad sense, as denoting the affec All in a robe of darkest grain, And sable stole of cypres-lawn Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 333 tation of modesty; but it originally expressed the reality of that virtue. "She went in countenance and pace demure so womanly," More, of Jane Shore.-T. Goodly mistress Jane Sober, demure Diane." Skelton, Phil. Sparrow.-W. "She is so nice and so demure, So sober, courteous, modest, and precise." True Hist. of King Leir, 1605.—T. "Her mistress she doth give demure good-morrow With soft, slow tongue, true mark of modesty." Shakes. Lucreece.-K. "His [Guyon's] carriage was full comely and upright; His countenance demure and temperate." F. Q. ii. 1, 6.—K. Even Thomson (Spring, 486) uses 'looks demure' in a good sense. Todd derives it from de mœurs, Fr. May it not be demeuré, answering to stayed, staid? 33. grain, i.e. dye, hue; as being dyed in the grain or material, and not after it had been twisted or woven. 35. stole. Bowle and Warton blunder sadly in their account of this article of dress. The stola of the Roman lady was a tunic reaching down to the ankles and flounced (see our note on Hor. Sat. i. 2, 63), not, as Warton says, "a veil that covered the head and shoulders." Milton however seems here to have taken his idea of the stole from the habit of the Romish clergy so named, which only covers the shoulders; or more probably he uses it as equivalent to hood or veil, like Spenser: "Whose goodly beams, though they be over-dight Spenser, Col. Clout's Come, etc., v. 493.—K. "But the same did hide Under a veil, that wimpled was full low; And over all a black stole she did throw." F. Q. i. 1, 4.-K. -cipres. This is simply what is now called crape, from crespe, crêpe, Fr., a word evidently formed from it by transposition. We have retained the orthography of the original editions, as it appears to have been the current one. It probably however derived its name from the island of Cyprus, which may have been the seat of its manufacture. "The Egyptian Moorish women cover their faces with black cypress bespotted with red," Sandys's Travels, p. 109, edit. 1615.-T. "How sell you that piece of white cipresse? Combien vendez-vous cette pièce de crespe?" Erondelle, French Garden, 1605.-T. "That kind of cypress used often for the scarfs and hat-bands at funerals formerly, or for widows' veils,” Milbourne.-W.-lawn. Milton seems to use this as the name of the material qualified by cipres, as we say Holland linen; but cipres and lawn must have been as distinct then as crape and lawn are now, for Autolicus sings 36. "Lawn as white as driven snow; Cyprus black as e'er was crow." Wint. Tale, iv. 3. "Antiquam turpis macies decentes Occupet malas." Hor. Carm. iii. 27, 53.-K. |