I under fair pretence of friendly ends,

160

And well plac'd words of glozing courtesy

Baited with reasons not unplausible,

Wind me into the easy-hearted man,

And hug him into snares. When once her eye

Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,

165

I shall appear some harmless villager,

Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.

But here she comes, I fairly step aside,
And hearken, if I may, her business here.

)

The Lady enters.

This way the noise was, if mine ear be true,

161. -words of glozing courtesy] Flattering, deceitful; as in Par. L. iii. 95. glozing lies." iv. 549. "so gloz'd the tempter." The word occurs in Spenser, Marlow, Lilly, Shakespeare. T.

Warton.

164. And hug him into snares.] So corrected in the Manuscript

from

And hug him into nets. 164. when once her eye Hath met the virtue of this magic dust,]

This refers to the MS. reading of v. 154. my powdered spells. T. Warton.

167. Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.] Here is a strange mistake in the edition of the poems printed in 1673, which has implicitly been followed in some other editions. This whole verse is omitted, and the two following are transposed thus,

I shall appear some harmless villager,

170

And hearken, if I may, her business here.

But here she comes, I fairly step aside.

We have restored the true reading according to the author's Manuscript, and according to the first edition of Mask in 1637, and according to the first edition of the Poems in 1645.

The last line in some editions is varied thus,

And hearken, if I may, her business hear.

But Milton's own is much properer and better,

And hearken, if I may, her business here.

168. -fairly] That is, softly. Hurd. "Fair and softly" were two words which went together, signifying gently. The corpse of Richard II. was conveyed in a litter through London, "faire " and softly." Froissart, p. ii. ch. 249. T. Warton.

✓ 170. -if mine ear] Manuscript, if my ear.

My best guide now; methought it was the sound
Of riot and ill manag'd merriment,
Such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe
Stirs up among the loose unletter'd hinds,
When for their teeming flocks, and granges full,
In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,
And thank the Gods amiss. I should be loath
To meet the rudeness, and swill'd insolence
Of such late wassailers; yet O where else
Shall I inform my unacquainted feet

173.-gamesome pipe] "Game"some mood." Par. L. vi. 620. Drayton has the word, Ecl. ii. and Ecl. vii. T. Warton.

175. -granges full.] The Manuscript had at first garners, which was altered with judgment. Two rural scenes of festivity are alluded to, the spring [teeming flocks], and the autumn [granges full], sheep-shearing and harvest-home. But the time when the garners are full is in winter, when the corn is thrashed. Warburton.

179. Of such late wassailers; An ingenious author, who should best know the force of English words, as he is employed in drawing up an English dictionary, gives this account of the origin of the word wassailer. Hail or heil for health was in such continual use among the good-fellows of ancient times, that a drinker was called a was-heiler or a wisher of health, and the liquor was termed was-heil, because health was so often wished over it. Thus in the lines of Hanvil the monk,

175

180

Jamque vagante scypho, discincto gutture was-heil,

Ingeminant was-heil: labor est plus perdere vini

Quam sitis,

These words were afterwards corrupted into wassail and wassailer. See Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth, p. 41. So Shakespeare in Hamlet, act i. sc. 7.

The king doth wake to night, and takes his rouse,

Keeps wassail, &c.

179. In some parts of England, especially in the west, it is still customary for a company of mummers, in the evenings of the Christmas-holidays, to go about carousing from house to house, who are called the massailers. Compare Fletcher's Faithf. Shep. act v. s. 1. Selden mentions the " yearly was-haile in the country, " ou the vigil of the new year. Notes on Polyolb. s. ix. vol. iii. p. 838. Compare Love's Lab. Lost, act v. s. ii. and Jonson, Masques, vol. vi. 3. T. Warton.

180. Shall I inform my unacquainted feet, &c.] The expres

In the blind mazes of this tangled wood?
My brothers, when they saw me wearied out
With this long way, resolving here to lodge
Under the spreading favour of these pines,
Stepp'd, as they said, to the next thicket side
To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit
As the kind hospitable woods provide.

They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even,

185

My meat shall be what these wild woods afford,

Berries, and chesnuts, plantanes on whose cheeks

The sun sits smiling, and the lofty fruit

Pull'd from the fair head of the straight-grown-pine.

By laying the scene of his Mask in a wild forest, Milton secured to himself a perpetual fund of picturesque description, which, resulting from situation, was always at hand. He was not obliged to go out of his way for this striking embellishment: it was suggested of necessity by present circumstances. The same

happy choice of scene supplied Sophocles in Philoctetes, Shakespeare in As you like it, and Fletcher in the Faithful Shepherdess, with frequent and even unavoidable opportunities of rural delineation, and that

of the most romantic kind. But Milton has additional advantages: his forest is not only the residence of a magician, but is exhibited under the gloom of midnight. Fletcher, however, to whom Milton is confessedly indebted, avails himself of the latter circumstance. T. Warton.

Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phœbus' wain.
But where they are, and why they came not back,
Is now the labour of my thoughts; 'tis likeliest
They had engag'd their wand'ring steps too far,
And envious darkness, ere they could return,
Had stole them from me; else O thievish Night
Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end,

;

190

195

L

189. Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed, A palmer is a pilgrim, bearing branches of palm from the Holy Land, whither he made a vow to go, and is therefore called votarist in palmer's weed; and so Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. i. st.

52.

-I wrap myself in palmer's weed. In Milton's Manuscript it is weeds. Paradise Regained, iv.

426.

195. Had stole them from me;] In the Manuscript, and in the first edition of 1637, it is stolne.

195. -else O thievish Night &c.] This is extremely low in the midst of a speech of so much gravity and dignity. But the candid reader will impute it, no doubt, to our poet's condescension to that prevailing fondness for this kind of false wit about the time in which he wrote. Thyer.

I suppose Dr. Dalton was of the same opinion, for he has

-till morning fair Came forth with pilgrim steps in omitted these lines in Comus, as amice gray.

190. of Phœbus' wain.] In the Manuscript it was at first -of Phœbus' chair.

192. -likeliest] Milton is fond of this superlative. See Par. L. vi. 688. ix. 414. ii. 525. iii. 659. Likest also occurs frequently. See below, v. 237. and Par. L. ii. 756. iii. 572. vi. 501. ix. 394. T. Warton.

193. They had engag'd &c.] These two lines ran thus at first in the Manuscript,

They had engag'd their youthly steps
To the soon-parting light; and en-
vious darkness, &c.

he adapted it for the stage.

195. Ph. Fletcher's Pisc. Ecl. p. 34. ed. 1633.

-The thievish night

Steals on the world, and robs our eyes of light.

In the present age, in which almost every common writer avoids palpable absurdities, at least monstrous and unnatural conceits, would Milton have introduced this passage? Certainly not. But in the present age, correct and rational as it is, had Comus been written, we should not perhaps have had some of the greatest beauties of its wild and romantic imagery. T. War

L

In thy dark lanthorn thus close up the stars,
That nature hung in heav'n, and fill'd their lamps
With everlasting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
Was rife, and perfect in my list'ning ear,
Yet nought but single darkness do I find.
What might this be? A thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire,
And airy tongues, that syllable men's names

199. -to give due light] He had first written in the Manuscript their light.

203. -rife,] See the note, Par. L. i. 650. Ε.

205. -A thousand fantasies
Begin to throng into my memory,
&c.]

Milton perhaps here remembered
Shakespeare, K. John, act v. s. 7.

With many legions of strange fan-
tasies,
Which in their throng and press to

that last hold
Confound themselves.

T. Warton.

207. Of calling shapes, &c.] This is perfectly agreeable to the superstitious notions of that age, and to the manner of his master Shakespeare: and so Fletcher in the Faithful Shepherdess, act i. speaks

207. These superstitions, which are here finely applied, may be found in the ancient Voyages of Marco Paolo the Venetian. He is speaking of the vast and perilous desert of Lop in Asia. De Regionib. Oriental. lib. i. c. xliv. These fancies, from Marco Paolo, are adopted in Heylin's Cosmographie. See lib. iii. p. 201. ed. 1652. fol. And from Heylin Milton seems to have gleaned his intelligence in Par. L. iii. 437, (where see the note.) Sylvester also has the tradition in the text, in Du Bartas, ed. fol. Pp. 274.

And round about the desart Lop, where oft

By strange phantasmas passengers are scoft.

T. Warton.

208.-that syllable men's names] The Manuscript had first that Of voices calling in the dead of night: lure night-wanderers; the other is and Virgil, Æn. iv. 460.

Hinc exaudiri voces et verba vocantis
Visą viri, nox cum terras obscura
teneret.

the marginal reading.

208. Syllable, pronounce distinctly. As in Ph. Fletcher's Poet. Miscel. "Yet syllabled in