Spir. What voice is that? my young lord? speak again.
See. Br. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure.

El. Br. Thyrsis? whose artful strains have oft delay'd
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal”,

And sweeten'd every muskrose of the dale?

How camest thou here, good swain? hath any ram
Slipp'd from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook?
How couldst thou find this dark sequester'd nook"?

Spir. O my loved master's heir, and his next joy,
I came not here on such a trivial toy

As a stray'd ewe, or to pursue the stealth

Of pilfering wolf: not all the fleecy wealth,

That doth enrich these downs, is worth a thought

To this my errand, and the care it brought.
But, O my virgin Lady, where is she?
How chance she is not in your company?

El. Br. To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without blame,

Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.

Spir. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.

El. Br. What fears, good Thyrsis? Pr'ythee briefly shew.
Spir. I'll tell ye; 'tis not vain or fabulous,
(Though so esteem'd by shallow ignorance)

a Thyrsis? whose artful strains, &c.

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A compliment to Lawes, who personated the Spirit. We have just such another above, v. 86, but this being spoken by another, comes with better grace and propriety; or, to use Dr. Newton's pertinent expression, is more genteel. Milton's eagerness to praise his friend Lawes makes him here forget the circumstances of the fable: he is more intent on the musician than the shepherd, who comes at a critical season, and whose assistance in the present difficulty should have hastily been asked: but time is lost in a needless encomium, and in idle inquiries how the shepherd could possibly find out this solitary part of the forest the youth, however, seems to be ashamed or unwilling to tell the unlucky accident that had befallen his sister. Perhaps the real boyism of the brother, which yet should have been forgotten by the poet, is to be taken into the account.-T. WARTON. Let it be remembered that "Comus" is a drama of poetic description rather than theatric interest besides, I conceive it exactly in nature for such young adventurers to delight in having their solitude and distress relieved by the acquisition of the aid and company of a faithful domestic of the family: and I farther believe that it is a fine touch of real nature to represent them at the immediate moment forgetting, in a certain degree, their own inmediate distress, and recurring to the well-known amusements and employments of their old shepherd, his skill in pastoral music, his zealous care of his flock, &c. all these domestic circumstances recurring to their minds. Surely this is perfectly in nature; and if we criticise such passages, it should certainly be to commend, and not to censure.-Dus

STER.

:

b Madrigal.

The madrigal was a species of musical composition, now actually in practice, and in high vogue. Lawes, here intended, had composed madrigals: so had Milton's father. The word is not here thrown out at random.-T. WARTON.

e How couldst thou find this dark sequester'd nook ?

Thus the shepherdess Clorin to Thenot, Fletcher's "Faith. Shep." a. ii. s. 1.-T. WARTON.

d Sadly.

Sadly, soberly, seriously, as the word is frequently used by our old authors, and in "Par. Lost," b. vi. 541.-NEWTON.

64

What the sage poets, taught by the heavenly Muse,
Storied of old, in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimeras, and enchanted isles,

And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to helle;
For such there be; but unbelief is blind.

Within the navel' of this hideous wood,
Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells,
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
Deep skill'd in all his mother's witcheries;
And here to every thirsty wanderer

By sly enticement gives his baneful cup,

With many murmurs mix'd, whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,

And the inglorious likeness of a beast

Fixes instead ", unmoulding reason's mintage

e Storied of old, in high immortal verse,

Of dire chimeras, and enchanted isles,

And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to hell.

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The "chimeras dire " of ancient verse have passed away from popular belief; not so the enchanted isles" and the "rifted rocks," whose entrance leads to perdition: the former are to be found in Scandinavian song; and, not to go farther, the volcanic mountains not inaptly support a belief in the existence of the latter. The old Danish ballad of Saint Olof relates how the devout hero conquered the Jutt and the elves of Hornclumner, and transformed them into rocks and stones, forms which they still keep. Other instances might be given from both tale and song. That Etna was till lately believed to be one of the entrances to Satan's realms is sufficiently intimated by a northern tradition, which relates, that on the very day and hour in which an eminent British statesman died, a traveller was startled with the vision of a coach and six galloping full speed up the burning mountain as the pageant swept past, he heard a voice exclaim, "Ho! make way for his grace of Q." In this way the poetic peasantry of the north avenged themselves on a noblewhose actions were not to their mind.-C.

man,

Within the navel.

That is, in the midst; a phrase borrowed from the Greeks and Latins.-NEWTON.

With many murmurs mix'd.

That is, in preparing this enchanted cup, the charm of many barbarous unintelligible words was intermixed, to quicken and strengthen its operation.-WArburton.

The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,

And the inglorious likeness of a beast

Fixes instead.

The cup of Circe is now dry, and her enchantments are despised; nor have we any drink in traditionary belief which rivals the "pleasing poison " of the goddess. We have something almost equivalent: an ointment belongs to the fairies, which opens mortal eyes to things immortal, and shows the spirits of good and evil that watch over man. Our witches too have magic staves and magic words, which can transform a hare into a horse, or a ragwort into a pony nay, one of them, as the legend relates, inherited a magic bridle of such wondrous powers, that when she chose to shake it over a man's head, he instantly became a steed, and an obedient one, to carry her on her midnight errands. This gifted dame had two servant lads, one lean, the other fat on the latter upbraiding the former with the humility of his appearance, he answered,-" Lie at the bed stock, and ye will be lean too." The exchange was made at midnight the beldame approached with her bridle; and before he could mutter an averting prayer, he was transformed into a horse, and compelled to bear her over stock and stone to an assembly of sister hags. By prayer and exertion he freed himself from the bridle, and, restored to his own shape, awaited the return of his mistress: before she was aware, he shook the bridle over her head, transformed her to a palfrey, and switched her mercilessly through "dub and mire." The adventure ended in a compromise; the witch became kindly and tolerant, and never employed the enchanted bridle on man again.-C.

Career in de face this have I learn'd,
Taing my freas hard by in the hilly crofts,
That iv is echim-glade; whence night by night
Se mi is monstrous ruct are beard to howl?,
Like saliet viss ir tires at their prey*,
Jong warmed the He

1 der 10servi Las é most bowers.
Yer have they may his ad pallefal spells,
I! nere and the T SEESE
Of them that pass tweeting by the way.
This evening line, by then the chewing flocks
Eaf am der supper on the savoury herb
Of cut-grass dev-bestrict, and were in fold,
I sat me icwn to watch spec a bank
With by cancçied and interwove
With daunting bcey-suckle"; and began,
Wrace in a pleasing of melancholy,
To mediate my rural minstrelsy,
Till fancy had her £; bat, ere a close,
The wocted roar was up amidst the woods,
And I'd the air with barbarous dissonance;
At which I ceased, and listen' them a while,

1 Character'd in the face.

So, in his Divorce." b. i. prof. A law not only written by Moses, but charactered in us by nature."-T. WARTON

i He and his monstr,us runt are heard to howl, &c.

Such was the practice of Cons's mother, Circe. Ovid, Met." xiv. 405.

Magicis Hecaten ululatibus orat.-TODD.

Like sabled wroïnes, or tigers at their prey.

Perhaps from Virgil, “ En.” vil. 15, of Circe's island :

Hinc exaudiri gemitus, iræque lectum.
————— ac formæ magnorum ululare luporum

Quos hominum ex facie Dea seva potentibus herbis

Induerat Circe in vultus ac terga ferarum-NEWTON,

1 Had ta’en their supper, &c.

The supper of the sheep is from a beautiful comparison in Spenser, "Faery. Qu.” i. i. 23. As gentle shepheard in sweete eventide,

When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in west,

High on a hill, his flocke to vewen wide,

Markes which doe byte their hasty supper best.-T. WARTON.

With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honey-suckle.

Perhaps from Shakspeare," Mids. Night's Dr." a. ii. s. 2.

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine.-T. WARTON.

A musical close on his pipe. As in Shakspeare, "K. Rich. II.” a. ii. s. 1.

The setting sun, and music at the close;

As the last taste of sweets is sweetest last.-T. WARTON.

Till an unusual stop of sudden silence
Gave respite to the drowsy frighted steeds",
That draw the litter of close-curtain'd sleep 4:
At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound"
Rose like a stream of rich distill'd perfumes,
And stole upon the air, that even Silence
Was took ere she was ware, and wish'd she might
Deny her nature, and be never more,
Still to be so displaced. I was all ear t,
And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death": but, O! ere long,

P The drowsy frighted steeds, &c.

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I read, according to Milton's manuscript, "drowsy-flighted :” and this genuine reading Dr. Dalton has also preserved in "Comus." "Drowsie frighted" is nonsense, and manifestly an error of the press in all the editions. There can be no doubt, that in this passage Milton had his eye upon the description of night, in "K. Hen. VI." p. ii. a. iv. s. 1.

And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades

That drag the tragic melancholy night,

Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings
Clip dead men's graves.

The idea and the expression of " drowsie-flighted" in the one, are plainly copied from their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings in the other.-Newton.

It must be allowed, that "drowsic-flighted" is a very harsh combination. Notwithstanding the Cambridge manuscript exhibits "drowsie-flighted," yet "drowsie frighted" without a composition, is a more rational and easy reading, and invariably occurs in the editions 1637, 1645, and 1673. That is, "the drowsy steeds of Night, who were affrighted on this occasion, at the barbarous dissonance of Comus's nocturnal revelry." Milton made the emendation after he had forgot his first idea.-T. WARTON.

q Close-curtain'd sleep.

Perhaps from Shakspeare, " Macbeth," a. ii. s. 1.

And wicked dreams abuse

The curtain'd sleep.-THYER,

At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound, &c.

Shakspeare's "Twelfth Night," at the beginning, has here been alleged by Mr. Thyer. The idea is strongly implied in the following lines from Jonson's "Vision of Delight," a Mask presented at Court in the Christmas of 1617.

Yet let it like an odour rise

To all the senses here;

And fall like sleep upon their eyes,

Or musicke in their eare.

But the thought appeared before, where it is exquisitely expressed, in Bacon's "Essays: " -"And because the breath of flowers is farre sweeter in the aire, where it comes and goes like the warbling of musicke." Of Gardens, Ess. xlvi.-T. WARTON.

So Catullus of a rich perfume, "Carm." xiii. 13.

Quod tu cum olfacies, Deos rogabis

Totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.

So Shakspeare, "Winter's Tale,” a. iv. s. 3 :—“ All their other senses stuck in their ears" and, in the "Tempest," Prospero says, "No tongues; all eyes; be silent."—T. WARTON.

u That might create a soul Under the ribs of death.

The general image of creating a soul by harmony is again from Shakspeare: but the par

Stal de insaat je me ; against the threats

Ct muice, or if seery, ie that power

Lan areng men a chance, this I hold firm;—

Vreme may xe si bat never hurt;
Simesed yg mpost firce, but not enthrall'd;

Ya even the vich nischief neant most harm,
Shall in the happy mal prove most glory:
But end in self shall back recci

Ani nix Di noce with goodness; when at ast,
Gather i like seun, and settled to itself,

It shall be in eternal restless change

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teilar me of a son under the m'he of death," which is extremely grotesque, is taken from a heure in Alvar's - Entiers" where a seal in the Spare of an infant is represerei win the mis of a skeleton, sais prisen. This curious picture is presented by Quaries.-WLABURTON.

The picture acried to a not taken from Alciat's ~ Emblems" but from Herman Hugo's -Pa Desuteria, and is the gath; - Suspiriam anime amantis."-TODD.

To harrow" is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin. Thus Shakspeare, Hamlet," as. It harrows me with fear and wonder."-STEEVENS. Yes, and keep it still, &c.

This confidence of the Elder Brother in favour of the final efficacy of virtue, holds forth a very high strain of philosophy, delivered in as high strains of eloquence and poetry.— T. WARTON.

It exhibits the sublimer sentiments of the Christian. Religion here gave energy to the poet's strains.-TODD.