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world round which the shades of the dead hover, as in Par. Lost, II. 578:

"Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep": then put for the lower world itself; cf. the use of Stygian, 132. From ἄxos, pain, sorrow + ῥεεῖν, to flow.

605. Harpies; the 'robbers' or 'spoilers,' from Gk. ἁρπάζειν, to seize. They were hideous, winged female monsters with hooked claws, who swooped upon Æneas and his followers as they were feasting in one of the Ionian islands and carried off their food (Eneid, III. 225-228). One of the most vivid descriptions of the Harpies in English poetry is in William Morris's Jason, V. 219 et seq.

Hydra; literally 'a water serpent' (Gk. ὕδωρ, water); specially used of the Lernean Hydra, a nine-headed serpent, the slaying of which was one of the 'labours' of Hercules. When he cut off one head two fresh heads sprang in its stead, till at last he discovered how to deal with the monster.

606. Twixt Africa and Ind, i.e. from one end of the world to the other-west to east. Ind or Inde is a common poetic form of India; cf. Par. Lost, II. 2.

608. In Ben Jonson's Masque Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue, Comus has "his head crown'd with roses and other flowers, his hair curled." In Elizabethan times curling the hair was a mark of effeminacy and affectation; see King Lear, III. 4. 88.

609. purchase, prize, booty; see G.

610. yet, nevertheless, i.e. though he has just said "alas!” It is vain courage, but he cannot help admiring it.

bold emprise; a frequent Spenserian phrase, with an Italian ring; cf. the first line of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso: "Le cortesie, l' audaci imprese, io canto." Also in Par. Lost, XI. 642.

611. stead, service; cf. the verb in The Merchant of Venice, 1. 3. 7, "May you stead me?" i.e. Can you help me? To do a thing in the stead, i.e. place, of a man is to help him.

612. other, i.e. mightier. For the repetition cf. Lyc. 174. 614, 615. There are resemblances to The Tempest; cf. I. 2. 469-473 (Prospero's first meeting with Ferdinand), IV. 259.

bare, mere. wand; the usual symbol of magical power; cf. Prospero's "staff" (V. 54). unthread, take out of their sockets, dislocate. crumble, cause to shrivel up.

617. As to make, i.e. as to be able to make. relation, report; cf. the verb 'to relate.'

618. surprisal; an echo of 590.

619-628. Probably a reference to Milton's school-friend Diodati, whose premature death in 1638 inspired the Epitaphium Damonis. Lines 150-154 of that poem mention Diodati's knowledge of botany and habit of imparting it to Milton.

620. to see to. An obsolete expression=to behold; cf. Ezekiel xxiii. 15: "Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to," and Joshua xxii. 10, "a great altar to see to."

skilled, i.e. versed in the lore of. Skill was a word of wider scope then. Among the synonyms of it given and illustrated by quotation in Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon are 'discernment,' 'sagacity,' 'mental power,' 'knowledge of any art.'

621. virtuous, possessed of medicinal properties. 626. scrip, bag. "Orig. sense 'scrap, because made of a scrap of stuff"-Skeat. Cf. Luke xxii. 35.

627. simples. A simple was a single (i.e. simple) ingredient in a compound, especially in a compounded medicine. Its association with medicine led to the common meaning 'medicinal herb'; once in current use, as it occurs so often in Shakespeare-"culling of simples," Romeo and Juliet, v. 1. 40. Cf. 630.

630-633. In point of style this passage, with its accumulation of buts, seems the most awkward in Comus.

634. like, i.e. correspondingly: 'as unknown, so unesteemed.' 635. clouted, patched, mended; see G.

636, 637. that, the famous; cf. 2. Moly; the mysterious plant which Hermes (Lat. Mercury) gave Odysseus as a safeguard against the charms of Circe (Odyssey, X. 281-306). In poetry it is the flower of ideal lands. Tennyson's Lotos-Eaters lie "Propt on beds of amaranth and moly"; and Shelley associates the same plants in Prometheus Unbound, II. 4:

"folded Elysian flowers,

Nepenthe, Moly, Amaranth, fadeless blooms."

637. wise. Homer's constant epithet for Odysseus (= Ulysses) is πολύμητις= of many counsels, i.e. ever ready with some wise scheme. This conception of him as the man of wonderful knowledge and thought and experience is brought out most strikingly in Tennyson's Ulysses.

638. Hamony. The name is Milton's invention and commonly explained as a reference to Hamonia, an old name of Thessaly, the land of magic in classical writers (e.g. Horace, Odes, 1. 27. 21, 22). So we may call it 'the Thessalian plant.'

639. sovran, most efficacious; see G.

640. mildew blast, i.e. the hurtful power of mildew sent by evil spirits. Cf. King Lear, III, 4. 120, 123, "This is the foul fiend...he mildews the white wheat."

641. Furies, evil fairies. Scan appariti-ón.

642. i.e. I put it away in my purse, but never thought much about it. See Lyc. 116.

644. it, i.e. what the shepherd had said about the plant. 644-647. Warton points out that it was a recognised expedient in medieval tales for a warrior of the type of the Red Crosse Knight to carry a charm, often a herb, as a protective against evil influences.

650, 651. Probably an echo of Odyssey, X. 294, 295, where Hermes says to Odysseus, "when it shall be that Circe smites thee with her long wand, then draw thou thy sharp sword from thy thigh, and spring on her, as one eager to slay her."

651, 652. So in The Faerie Queene, II. 12. 57, when the sorceress Acrasia offered to Guyon the enchanted cup which she was wont to present to strangers, he flung it down, "And with the liquor stained all the land."

653. seize his wand; which the brothers fail to do. curst crew. Cf. Par. Lost, VI. 806. In his epics Milton repeatedly applies crew to Satan and the rebellious angels.

655. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, and master of the arts, such as working in metals, which need the aid of fire. Hence his "sons" might be expected to "vomit smoke," as did the giant Cacus (one of the "sons"), Æneid, VIII. 252, 253.

The Scene changes. Probably a screen, called a traverse or travers, was put forward while the alteration of the scene was being made. Cf. Ben Jonson's Entertainment at Theobalds, 1607, "The King and Queen, being entered into the gallery, after dinner there was seen nothing but a traverse of white across the room: which suddenly drawn, was discovered a gloomy obscure place." See Nares's Glossary.

soft music. Wanting in the Cambridge MS. Doubtless the addition of music was due to Lawes. The idea of tempting by means of a banquet (cf. The Tempest, III. 3) meets us in medieval romances of virtue assailed by evil powers. I believe that it is the basis of the scene of temptation in Par. Regained, II. 337

enchanted chair; because "smeared with gums," 917. puts by, refuses. So Cæsar (1. 2. 230) rejected the crown : "Ay, marry...he put it by thrice." goes about, tries.

659-813. Dramatically the most effective part of Comus. 660. i.e. your sinews (Lat. nervi) will all be turned to alabaster, and you will become a statue, or rooted to the spot, as was Daphne.

For nerve in its Latin sense cf. the Sonnet to Vane, where he calls money the "nerves" of war, i.e. sinews, as we say. are; a vivid present to suggest immediate effect.

alabaster; a sulphate of lime; the pure white variety was much used in images and monuments: hence "statue" in 661. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, I. 1. 83, 84:

"Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?"

and "smooth as monumental alabaster" in Othello, V. 2. 5.

661. Daphne. The story of Daphne the nymph who fled from Apollo and was changed into a laurel-tree at her own petition is told by Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 660 et seq. 664. corporal rind, bodily covering.

665. while, so long as (and only so long).

668. A reminiscence, perhaps, of Isaiah xxxv. 10, "they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Comus's temptation of the Lady (especially his arguments later on, 710-736) resembles a scene in the religious play Adamo (1613), by the Italian poet Andreini, which deals with the Fall of Man and is thought to have furnished some slight suggestions for Paradise Lost. Andreini makes the World personified, with its vanities, tempt Eve, and reading through the scene (v. 5) in the translation by Hayley one is certainly reminded of this scene in Comus.

672. julep. Properly rose-water; then any bright drink, as here; finally often used to signify a syrup medicine. Persian gul, a rose + áb, water.

674. balm; implying that which soothes.

675, 676. See Odyssey, IV. 219-229, where Menelaus and

Helen entertain Telemachus at Sparta; and "Helen, daughter of Zeus, presently cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his father and mother died......... Medicines of such virtue (φάρμακα μητιόεντα) had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt" (Butcher and Lang).

Properly Nepenthes, or Nepenthe, (Gk. νηπενθής, without pain) meant the drug itself (perhaps opium)-or herb whence it was extracted-which had this power of lulling sorrow for the day on which it was drunk: hence any deliciously soothing liquor. See The Faerie Queene, IV. 3. 43.

679. Cf. Samson Agonistes, 784, and Shakespeare's first Sonnet, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.". In the translation of More's Utopia we read, "When nature biddeth the (i.e. thee) to be good and gentle to other, she commaundeth the not to be cruell and ungentle to the selfe," p. 107, Pitt Press ed. Probably the idea was suggested by Proverbs xi. 17, "The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh."

680. Nature lent. Cf. Shakespeare's fourth Sonnet, 3: "Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend," i.e. nature never gives anything to man for his absolute possession, but always regards him as holding her gifts on "trust."

685. unexempt condition, terms from which no one can be exempt. Observe how the metaphor of trusteeship runs through 680-685; cf. "covenants," "trust," "terms," etc. 686. mortal frailty, weak human nature.

688. That. The antecedent must be "you" in 682. 693, 694. Cf. 319-321.

695. aspects, objects, appearances. Scan aspects and see G. 696. brewed enchantments, i.e. the draught in his crystal cup "with many murmurs mixed" (526). Cf. Samson Agonistes, 934, "Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms."

698. vizored, masked, disguised. forgery, deceit. 700. lickerish, dainty; see G.

702, 703. Cf. Euripides, Medea, 618, κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δῶρ ̓ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει ('for the gifts of a bad man bring no advantage');

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