SONG III. Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more Bring your flocks, and live with us; To serve the Lady of this place. Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were, Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. Such a rural Queen All Arcadia hath not seen. 100 96. Nymphs, etc. This also was probably sung by the Genius when the dances were finished; or, possibly, by the Nymphs and Shepherds who were present. 97. By sandy Ladon, etc. This Arcadian stream has been little honoured by the ancient poets. Milton was the first to adorn his banks with lilies. All the other places mentioned here are mountains in Arcadia. 99. Trip, etc., i.e. dance there no longer by twilight: see on L'Allegro, v. 33. COMUS, A MASK, PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, BEFORE THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.-M. The first Scene discovers a wild wood. The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court In regions mild of calm and serene air, Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, 2. those, i.e. those well-known, of whose existence there is no doubt. 3. insphered, i.e. placed in their sphere, i.e. the Empyrean: see Life of Milton, p. 459. 4. serene. Perhaps it may not be needless to observe that, with the usual license (comp. v. 37), this word is here accented on the first syllable. "Her more than Sérene Majesty being present." Massinger, Picture, i. 2. This poet, by the way, abounds in similar instances. For this license, or, more properly speaking, necessity, see Fairy Mythology, p. 35. 7. pestered, i.e. crowded, trampling on each other; pestare, It. "Or saw the churches and new Calendar Pestered with mongrel saints and relics dear." Hall, Sat. iv. 7.—T. -pin-fold, i.e. pen or pound, which last word appears to be a corruption of it. 8. Strive, etc. Meaning the love of life which is so strong in most men's bosoms. Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, To such my errand is; and, but for such, 10 20 9. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,” Rev. iii. 21. "And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four-and-twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold." Ib. iv. 4. 11. enthroned. So we print this word, with Fenton. In all the original editions it is enthron'd; but slips of this kind were common. Even in the in general accurately printed first edition of Par. Lost there are several. Todd however will retain the blunder, and even admires it. "Milton's own collocation," says he, "presents one of those pleasing varieties in versification which dramatic poetry admits of. The second foot is unaccented, as in Hamlet, iii. 1 :— The pangs of de | spis'd love | the law's delay'" !! 13. that golden key, etc. This seems to be a conception of the poet's own: see on Lycidas, v. 110. He may have had in his mind, however, the following passage in Jonson's The Barriers : "Her [Truth] right hand holds a sun, with burning rays, Her left a curious bunch of golden keys, With which Heaven's gate she locketh and displays."-K. 15. errand. Warton observes that this word had become uniformly vulgar in his time. That does not seem to be the case at present. 16. weeds, i.e. clothes (A.-S. pád); now only used of the dress of widows, and of the useless or injurious plants that clothe neglected lands. 18. "Now to my charge. Echo, fair Echo, speak!" Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1.—K. 20. Took, etc. See Ilias, xv. 187 seq.-nether Jove, i.e. Hades. Zeus καταχθόνιος. 22. "This precious stone set in the silver sea." Rich. II. ii. 1.—W. 23. unadorned, i.e. otherwise unadorned. By course commits to several government, And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns, 30 40 25. By course, i.e. in turn, in succession. The phrase seems to have been suggested by the courses of the priests and Levites in the Temple.-several, i.e. separate. These 'tributary gods' are the presidents, etc., who succeed each other by the appointment of the sovereign. 29. He quarters. This may mean simply, divides. But at that time the island was actually divided into four separate governments; for beside those at London and Edinburgh, there were Lords-President of the North and of Wales. 30. And all, etc., i.e. Wales, of which the Earl of Bridgewater was President. 32. tempered awe, i.e. awe tempered by grace and affability. 33. An old, etc., i.e. the Welsh, who are descendants of the Britons, the original inhabitants of the island: their pride is well known.-proud in arms. Belloque superbum," En. i. 21.—W. 66 34. Where. It should be whither.-nursed in princely lore. Perhaps on account of their frequenting the Court: see Life of Milton, p. 278. 38. "Raro un silenzio, un solitario orrore D'ombrosa selva, mai tanto mi piacque." Petr. Son. 143.-T. 44. What, etc. Alluding to the-custom, in former times, of minstrels relating or singing adventures for the entertainment of lords and ladies in the hall of the castle, or in the chamber (bup, A.-S.) of its mistress, for herself and her ladies. Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape And downward fell into a grovelling swine? At last betakes him to this ominous wood, And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered, Offering to every weary traveller To quench the drought of Phoebus; which as they taste 50 60 70 46. Bacchus, etc. The following adventure is related in the Homeridian Hymn to Dionysos, and by Ovid, Met. iii. 360 seq. In both however the scene is in the gaan sea, and the mariners are Tyrrhenians, not Tuscans. 49. as the winds listed. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," John, iii. 8.—W. 50. Who knows not. A frequent form in Spenser. 58. Comus, i.e. excess, revelry, which had been already personified, but in a far different sense, by Eschylos, Agam. v. 1195. Ben Jonson also had introduced him in his Mask of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, as 'the god of cheer:' see Life of Milton, p. 283. 59. frolic. See on L'Allegro, v. 18. 60. the Celtic, etc., i.c. Britain, France, and Spain. 61. ominous. Here, like portentous, it signifies dangerous. "All that were made for man's use fly this desert; No acry fowl dares make his flight upon it, It is so ominons." Fletcher, Sea Voyage, i. 1.-W. 65. orient, i.e. bright: see on Par. Lost, i. 546. |