Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering Morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.
Sometime walking, not unseen,
By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate,
Where the great Sun begins his state,
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight;
While the ploughman, near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale,
Under the hawthorn in the dale.

60

53. Oft listening, etc. As all the other images here introduced belong to summer, a hypercritic might object to the hounds and horn, and observe that it is only in the winter that the hills are hoar.

54.

"Ite voi dunque

E non sol precorrete,

Ma provocate ancora

Col rauco suon la sonnachiosa Aurora."

Guarini, Pastor Fido, i. 1.-T.

57. not unseen, i.e. in the open view of men; suitably with the cheerful man. 59. Right against, etc., i.e. with his face to the brightening cast; another in dication of cheerfulness.

"Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,

Opening on Neptune with fair, blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt, green streams."

Mids. N. D. iii. 9.-W.

60. his state, i.e. his stately progress. 62. The clouds, etc., sc. as the attendants on his progress. "Nubesque juxta, variis chlamydata coloribus, pompa solenni, longoque ordine videntur ancil lari surgenti deo," Prolusiones.-W.-dight, i.e. furnished with, dressed; A.-S. dihtan, to arrange.

67. Tells his tale. Headley suggested to Warton that this might signify, takes the number of his sheep. This interpretation, he says, he felt strongly inclined to adopt; and he then proceeds to illustrate and justify it. For example, he quotes from Brown's Shepherd's Pipe,

"When the shepherds from the fold

All their bleating charges told,"

in a description of the dawn. All however that be proves is what no one has ever doubted, that to tell is to count, and tale, account, number; as in 'by weight

VOL. I.

E

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,
Whilst the landskip round it measures;
Russet lawns, and fallows grey,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The labouring clouds do often rest,
Meadows trim with daisies pied,

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide,

70

or by tale.' But whenever these words appear in conjunction, the almost invariable meaning is, to narrate something. Ex. gr.—

"Told him a tale, and took him a noble."

Vision of Piers Ploughman, v. 2554.

"The turtle to her mate hath told her tale.” Surrey, p. 3, Ald. edit.
"The lovers walk and tell their tale,

Both of their bliss and of their bale." Id. p. 73.

"And bid me tell my tale in express words." King John, iv. 2.

"In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire

With good old folks, and let them tell their tales

Of woful ages long ago betid;

And, ere thou bid good-night, to quit their grief

Tell thou the lamentable tale of me,

And send the hearers weeping to their beds." Id. v. 1.

Even, therefore, though, as Warton says, the circumstance should be “trite, common, and general, and belonging only to ideal shepherds," we believe that Milton used these words in this, their ordinary sense. But there is no necessity for supposing, as Warton seems to do, that these were mere love-tales. The image in the poet's mind may have been the same as in Ode on Nat. v. 85 seq., and in both cases he may have thought of Virgil's "Forte sub arguta,” etc, (Buc. vii.). We said above, 'almost invariable;' for 'tell a tale' occurs sometimes in another sense, namely of taking account of, paying attention to.

"And therefore little tale hath he told

Of ony dream, so holy was his heart." Chauc. Tale of Nonnes Prest. "As worme-foule, of which I tell no tale.” Id. Assembly of Foules. 71. lawns. He seems to use this word in its original sense, of heaths, etc., landes, Fr. This and the following nouns are all governed by sees, in v. 77, -grey. We must take this in the sense of light-brown, as in Grey Friars. The flocks wander over the fallows as well as the lawns, picking up the scanty herbage that grows on them.

73. Mountains, etc. See Life of Milton, p. 277.

76. trim. This we take to be a participle (like fledge and others) of the verb to trim, i.e. to adorn, make symmetric (pymian, A.-S., to prepare, set in order); whence we speak of trimming a dress, a boat, etc. As applied here to meadows, it indicates their smoothness, evenness, and regularity, as opposed to the roughness and ruggedness of the mountains, lawns, and fallows.—pied, i.e. variegated. It is here to be joined with 'meadows,' though he doubtless had the "daisies pied" of Shakespeare in his mind.

Towers and battlements it sees,
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some Beauty lies,
The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes. -
Hard by a cottage-chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis, met,
Are at their savoury dinner set
Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;
Or, if the earlier season lead,

To the tanned haycock in the mead.

77. Towers, etc. In Milton's time many of the residences of the nobility and gentry retained the battlements and turrets of the Middle Ages, when every house was a fortress. These ancient baronial residences were also in general surrounded by woods, over whose summits their roofs and battlements might be seen to rise. A prosaic critic might object that it was the castle, and not its towers and battlements, that was bosomed in the trees. The poet could hardly have had Windsor Castle in his mind, for that towers on an eminence far above its silvan girdle.

78. "There stands the castle by yon tuft of trees." Rich. II. ii. 3.—K. 79. lies, i.e. dwells, resides; properly, lodges, stops in. A usual sense of the word in those days.

"And eke a little hermitage thereby,

In which an aged holy man did lie

That night and day said his devotion." F. Q. i. 10, 46.

"The tidings to Earl Douglas came

In Scotland where he lay." Chevy Chase.

"It is at Albius' house,

The jeweller's, where the fair Cytheris lies." Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1. We may add Sir Henry Wootton's punning definition of an ambassador: An honest man appointed to lie abroad for the good of his country." We still retain this sense of lie in lie in gaol, an army lying before a town, etc.

80. The Cynosure, i.e. the lode-star. The Cynosure (kuvòs oùpá) was the Inner or Lesser Bear, by which the Phoenician mariners directed their course. "Esse duas Arctos, quarum Cynosura petatur

Sidoniis, Helicem Graia carina notet." Ov. Fasti, iii. 107.

85. neat-handed. He uses neat-fingered, of a cook, in Animadversions, etc. 89. lead, sc. her thither; i.e. if it be haymaking time.

90. tanned haycock. It might seem from this, that at that time the hay was first made up into field-cocks, as is still done, we believe, in the north of England.

Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound,
To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequered shade,
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,

91

Till the live-long daylight fail;

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

100

With stories told of many a feat,

How faery Mab the junkets eat;
She was pinched and pulled, she said;
And he, by Friar's lantern led,

Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,

91. secure, i.e. void of care. In the Latin sense; se cura.

92. upland, i.e. more elevated, on the sides of the hills; for the meads and cornfields were usually in the plain.

93. When, etc. The ringing of peals on the church-bells was a favourite occupation in those days.

94. rebecks. This instrument, the Spanish rabel, termed by Chaucer and Lydgate, after the French, ribible, seems to have been a kind of fiddle. Ducange, Gloss. v. baudosa' (ap. Warton), quotes from a middle-age Latin poet: "Quidam rebeccam armabant." Sir John Hawkins (ap. eund.) says that its name comes from rebeb, a Moorish musical instrument with two strings, played on with a bow.

97. come. This is a participle here.

99. Till, etc. Connects with v. 94.

100. Then, etc. As the evening is now closing in, they come out of the open air into the house.-the spicy, etc., i.e. the wassail-bowl, like what is now called lamb's-wool. It was composed of ale warmed and seasoned with sugar and nutmeg, with cakes and roasted crab-apples in it.

102. How, etc. For all that follows, with respect to fairies and their feats, we must refer to the Fairy Mythology, England.—junkets. These are the Italian giuncata, or milk curdled with rennet or other substances. So named from the rushes (giunchi) on which it was laid.

103. She, i.e. one of the maidens in company.

104. he, i.e. one of the swains.-by Friar's, etc., i.e. who had been led, etc. See our note on this passage in Fairy Mythology, p. 347, 2nd edit. The reading of the text is that of edit. 1645, while in that of 1673 the line runs thus :"And by the Friar's lantern led,"

so that the only narrator is the maiden. We were inclined to think that the change was made by the poet himself, like those in Comus and elsewhere; for it seemed not likely that it should be a printer's error, a word being inserted to make up the measure.

To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;
Then lies him down, the lubbar-fiend,
And, stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,

And crop-full out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.
Towered cities please us then,

And the busy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold,
In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize

Of wit or arms, while both contend

110

120

110. lies him down. See on The Passion, v. 21.-fiend. Fend in the original editions.

117. then, i.e. after we have exhausted all the pleasures of the country.

118. hum. Todd thinks the idea is taken from a swarm, rather, a hive, of bees.

120.

"Through the foul womb of night

The hum of either army stilly sounds." Hen. V. iii. Chor.-W.

...

"Great Hector in his weeds of peace." Tr. & Cress. iii. 3.-T. -triumphs. "Sir James Hayes at a tilting, among the rest of the pages and gentlemen that in their richest ornaments attended him for that day's triumph, made choice of Mr. Carr to present his shield and device to the King," Wilson, Life of James I. p. 54. "Saw a triumph in M. Del Camp's Academy, where divers of the French and English noblesse . . . did their exercises on horseback, in noble equipage, before a world of spectators and great persons, men and ladies." Evelyn, Diary, Mar. 13, 1650. Marot names his verses on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, "Du Triomphe d'Ardres et Guisnes par les Roys de France et d'Angleterre."

"What news from Oxford? Hold those jousts and triumphs."

"Where thou shalt sit, and from thy state shalt see
The tilts and triumphs that are done for thee."

Drayton, Edw. IV. to Jane Shore.-W. 122. Rain influence. As if they were real stars; alluding to the prevalent astrologic ideas.

123. Of wit, etc. Of the former, in the choice of devices, etc. (see on Par. Lost, ix. 35), of the latter in the tilts and triumphs. For the meaning of wit at that time, see Life of Milton, p. 28.