144. round, a country-dance, the favourite one being Sellenger's (St Leger's) Round. Titania invited Oberon to join their round-A Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. 1. 140. For the epithets cf. L' Allegro, 34, "On the light fantastic toe."

The Measure. "Measure denoted any dance remarkable for its well-defined rhythm, but in time the name was applied to a solemn and stately dance of the nature of a Pavan or a Minuet. The dignified character of the dance is proved by the use of the expression to 'tread a measure'; a phrase of frequent occurrence in the works of the Elizabethan dramatists. It is somewhat remarkable that no trace can be found of any special music to which Measures were danced; this circumstance seems to prove that there was no definite form of dance tune for them, but that any stately and rhythmical air was used for the purpose "-Grove's Dictionary of Music. Measure, however, came to be applied to any sort of dance, and the stage-direction in the Cambridge MS. describes the dance here intended as "wild and rude."

145. Break off, i. e. cease dancing. This is the "stop of sudden silence" mentioned in 552.

147. shrouds, places of shelter; see G. 151. trains, allurements; see G.

152, 153. Cf. the notes on 50 and 74. The Cambridge MS. adds the direction They all scatter.

154. dazzling. The Cambridge MS. has powdered; cf. "magic dust," 165. No doubt as the actor spoke these lines, 153-156 (cf. "Thus"), he scattered some powder in the air. A coloured light too may have been burnt behind the scene to heighten the effect-Masson.

spongy, because it seems, like a sponge, to drink in and retain the spells; cf. Troilus and Cressida, II. 2. 12, "More spongy to suck in the sense of fear."

155. blear, deceptive. To blear the eyes is to blur, i.e. make them dim. Dimness led easily to the notion of deceiving.

156. presentments. Cf. Hamlet's "counterfeit presentment," where 'representation,' 'picture' is the sense required, III. 4. 54. 157. quaint habits, i.e. his fanciful magician's dress. Milton has to explain why Comus at his next entry (244) appears as a "gentle shepherd" (271).

160. ends, purposes, intentions.

161. glozing, flattering; with the idea of falsehood. See G. 162. not unplausible, i.e. very specious; an instance of the figure of speech called meiosis (Gk. μείωσις, 'diminution'), by which you express in very moderate language something which you really wish to emphasise, e.g., 'it is no small pleasure to' it is a very great pleasure to. Another name for this

1

figure of rhetoric is litotes ('simplicity,' from the Greek).

163. Wind me, i.e. obtain his confidence. Needlessly changed in some editions to win. Shakespeare has wind with the sense 'to get an unfair advantage over'; e.g. in King Lear, 1. 2. 106, "seek him out: wind me into him, I pray you." the easy-hearted man, unsuspicious.people.

165. virtue, peculiar power; cf. virtuous, 621; see G.

167. gear, business. Properly gear='apparatus,' 'tackle,' as in compounds, travelling or fishing gear, etc. In Elizabethan English it usually has the wider meaning of 'affair,' 'matter in hand.' Cf. Romeo and Juliet, II. 4. 107, "Here's goodly gear," i.e. as we might say colloquially, 'a pretty business.'

166-169. The edition of 1673 differs from that of 1645, by omitting 167, transposing 168, 169, and giving hear for here in 169. Most editors keep to the text of the earlier edition, except that they substitute hear for here. Some, however, follow the 1645 ed. in printing "And hearken, if I may, her business here," and take hearken transitively.

168. fairly, softly; cf. "Soft and fair, friar," Much Ado About Nothing, V. 4. 72. Comus steps back into the wood. 172. ill-managed, disorderly.

173-177. Milton is thinking of a shearing feast and harvesthome, such as Herrick describes in the Hesperides (a work from which we learn much about the rural life of Milton's generation). See again 848, Lyc. 117, and L' Allegro, 91—114.

174. hinds, peasants; see G.

175. granges, barns, granaries; from Lat. granum, corn. Now a poetic word in this sense; cf. Tennyson's Demeter, "Rejoicing in the harvest and the grange."

177. amiss, i.e. in a wrong way.

178. swilled, drunken; a coarse word, applicable to animals but suiting the context here. Cf. the description in Par. Lost, 1. 502, of revellers "flown with insolence and wine," i.e. flushed

179. wassailers ; see G.

180. inform, find guidance for. Cf. Samson Agonistes, 335.

181. blind, obscure; as in 'blind alley.'

183. to lodge, to pass the night.

184. the spreading favour, the kindly shelter.

188. then when; a favourite emphatic phrase with Milton; cf. Par. Lost, IV. 970, "Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains."

gray-hooded Even; hence Keats's line in Endymion, I.: "She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives

How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-gray hood." 189. sad, sober, serious, without any notion of sorrow; cf. sadly in line 509, and see G.

votarist. Used of anyone who had taken a vow (votum); here a vow of pilgrimage. Cf. Timon of Athens, IV. 3. 27, "I am no idle votarist."

A palmer was one who bore a palm-branch in memory of having been to the Holy Land"-Skeat.

The comparison between "the gray-hooded Even" and a palmer may be illustrated by one of Greene's lyrics describing Love dressed as a pilgrim:

"Down the valley gan he track,

Bag and bottle at his back,

In a surcoat all of gray;

Such wear palmers on the way,
When with scrip and staff they see
Jesus' grave on Calvary."

So Collins in his Ode, "How sleep the brave," stanza 2:
"There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay."
190. i.e. they left her just as the sun was sinking.
193. engaged, ventured, committed.

195-225. From "else O thievish Night" down to "tufted grove" (225) is omitted in the Bridgewater MS., i.e. was not acted; perhaps to lighten the part of the young lady; perhaps from motives of delicacy-Masson.

195-200. This piece of imagery has been very generally censured as far-fetched and unnatural. The fact is that Milton's early poems do show just a trace of the fault which mars the works of those fantastic contemporary writers, such as Donne and Crashaw, whom Johnson calls the 'metaphysical' poets (Life of Cowley). One of the 'notes of this school of writers was the use of fantastic imagery, far-fetched metaphors. Cf. the Nativity Ode, 229-231:

"So when the sun in bed,

Curtained with cloudy red,
Pillows his chin upon an orient wave."

The image there is a mere 'conceit,' which barely escapes the grotesque.

198. their lamps; a much used comparison; cf. Shelley's line, "The lamps of Heaven flash with a softer light," Adonais, XIX. Shakespeare quaintly compared the stars to candles in Romeo and Juliet, III. 5. 9-"Night's candles are burnt out"; and Macbeth, II. 1. 5.

203. perfect in, perfectly clear to. 204. single, total.

205. what might? what could this be? The original sense of may was 'can,' 'be able.'

207-209. Milton was drawing upon popular superstition. Perhaps some of his audience believed in these "calling shapes" and "airy tongues" of which medieval romance is full. Editors cite many illustrations, e.g. the "strange shapes" and "sounds and sweet airs" and "voices" of The Tempest, III. 2. 144– 149, 3. 18-39.

207. beckoning shadows dire. The order (Greek) of the words a noun placed between two qualifying words-is a favourite with Milton. Chaucer too has it. In his note on Lycidas, 6, Mr Jerram quotes Euripides, Phænissa, 234, νιφόβολον ὄρος ἱρόν (‘snowclad mount divine,' viz. Parnassus). Gray probably borrowed the device from Milton; cf. his Elegy, 53, "Full many a gem of purest ray serene." Cf. also Tennyson's early poems, in which the influence of Milton is very noticeable; e.g. The Lotos-Eaters, VII., "With half-dropt eyelid still," and The Palace of Art, "In diverse raiment strange." beckoning. Like the ghost in Hamlet, I. 4. 58. 208. airy tongues. Cf. Endymion, IV.: "No, never more

Shall airy voices cheat me to the shore." Probably due to Comus. syllable, i.e. pronounce clearly. 212. siding, going by the side; hence 'defending.'

214. girt with golden wings. Possibly a reminiscence of Psalm 1xviii. 13: "yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold."

215. unblemished, that may not be blemished; see 349, note. Chastity. A departure from the ordinary Trinity of Faith, Hope and Charity (to keep the Authorised Version of ἀγάπη). Comus is an enforcement of the doctrine intensely sacred in Milton's eye-the doctrine of purity; and it is worth noting that the substantive chastity occurs seven times in the poem; the adjective chaste four times.

216. ye; the original distinction between ye (nominative) and you (objective) was often ignored by Elizabethan writers; we see it in John xv. 16, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

The

217. Supreme. Scan supreme; see note on 273. sense in 217-219 is: 'he who uses all evil powers as agents to execute his displeasure against wicked men would send...'

221. Was I deceived? A moment before she had expressed the belief that Providence would, if necessary, interpose to protect her. The rift in the clouds seems an omen: the moonlight is like a "glistering guardian."

223, 224. Milton employs sparingly, but with fine effect, the artifice of verbal repetition. Cf. Par. Lost, VII. 25, 26: "though fallen on evil days,

On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.”

No modern poet uses this device more beautifully than Tennyson. Cf. in Enoch Arden the latter part of the great passage that begins "The mountain wooded to the peak."

224. Cf. the proverb "no cloud without a silver lining."
225. casts. We should expect cast after does in 223.
228. nerv-enlivened, i.e. by the favourable sign in the sky.

230. Invocations of Echo, whose reply would be counterfeited behind the scenery, were not uncommon in Masques. It was a pretty, fanciful device appropriate to the fanciful character of the ordinary Masque. Also, it gave an opportunity for the introduction of Music (ever a great feature of Masque-performances).

Echo, a mountain-nymph (Oread, from ὄρος, a mountain) who was changed by Juno into an Echo "that is, a being with no control over its tongue, which is neither able to speak before