In sage and solemn tunes have sung, Of turneys and of trophies hung, Of forests and enchantments drear, Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont But kerchiefed in a comely cloud, 120 120. 'In quibus plus intelligendum est quam audiendum,” Sen. Ep. 114. -B. 122. civil-suited, i.e. gravely, soberly attired, after the manner of citizens, as opposed to the gay dresses of courtiers and soldiers. 'Come, civil Night, Thou sober-suited matron all in black." Rom. & Jul. iii. 4.—N. "Where is Malvolio? . . . He is sad and civil." Twelfth Night, iii. 4.—W. 123. tricked, i.e. dressed out, adorned. "Brother, why have you tricked me like a bride ? Woman Killed with Kindness.-T. -frounced. Frounce (froncer, Fr.) was to wrinkle or dispose in uneven layers or forms. "Some frounce their curled hair in courtly guize, As a subst. frounce was a plait, a fringe, etc.; the present form of the word is flounce. 124. the Attic boy, i.e. Cephalus. 125. kerchiefed, etc., i.e. having a cloud becomingly arranged like a kerchief (couvre-chef, Fr.) around her head. 126. rocking, i.e. that rock or shake the house. The pleasing melancholy caused by this sound is well known.-piping, i.e. blowing shrill as from a pipe. "Therefore the winds piping to us in vain." Mids. N. Dr. i. 1.—W. 127. Or ushered, etc. He assigns Morn, like the ladies of those days, a gentleman-usher in the still (i.e. silent, gentle : comp. v. 78, The Passion, v. 28) shower which falls when the wind has ceased. An usher (huissier, Fr.) was originally a doorkeeper (huis, Fr.), and, as it was his business to announce and conduct strangers, it came to signify attendant. 129. Ending, etc. This, we think, connects with gust, whose last effects are the rustling of the leaves. With minute-drops from off the eaves. Where the rude axe with heaved stroke While the bee with honeyed thigh, 130 140 130. With minute-drops, etc. This we would connect with r. 127. As the shower is so soft and gentle, what falls on the roof takes some time to collect and run off, and thus it is only once a minute, as it were, that a drop falls from the eaves. Minute-drops, like minute-guns, minute-bells. 131. 133. "When Phoebus with a face of mirth Had flung abroad his beams." Drayton, Nymphidia.— W. "And with his flaring beams mocked ugly night.” Marlow, Hero & Leand.-T. "Now wanders Pan the arched groves and hills." Brown, Brit. Past. ii. 4. "Down through the arched wood the shepherds wend.” Ib. 2.—T. -twilight groves. The glimmering bowers and glades' of v. 27. 134. shadows brown. He seems to have taken this phrase from Fairfax, who often uses it (God. of Bul. vi. 1; xiv. 37; xx. 123). Brown is a favourite word with Milton in the sense of the Italian bruno, 'dark.' "L' aer bruno," Dante, Inf. ii. 1: see above on v. 19. That it has not been needless to direct attention to the proper meaning of the Italian bruno will appear from the extraordinary misconception of it in this and other places of Dante, made by the eccentric Mr. Ruskin, in his Modern Painters, iii. 240. 135. monumental. Because the monuments in churches were often formed of carved oak. "Smooth as monumental alabaster." Othello, v. 2. He had probably in his mind 'the builder oak' of Chaucer and Spenser, and wished to enhance on it. Nothing besides was more suitable to the Penseroso than to think of the most solemn use to which the oak was put. 136. "Fertur quo rara securis." Hor. Sat. i. 7, 27.—K. 140. profaner, i.e. somewhat profane. A Latinism. 141. garish, i.e. gaudy, over-bright. Drayton uses it of fields in his Owl, of flowers in his fifth Nymphal. "Garish sun," Rom. & Jul. iii. 2.-N. 142. "Hyblæis apibus florem depasta salicti, Sæpe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro." Virg. Buc. i. 56.—W. VOL. I. F That at her flowery work doth sing, With such consort as they keep, And let some strange, mysterious dream And, as I wake, sweet music breathe Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, But let my To walk the studious cloisters pale, "See the small brooks as through these groves they travel With the smooth cadence of their murmuring; Each bee with honey laden to the thigh." Drayton, Owl.-W. 150 145. consort. He would seem to use this word here in the sense of concert: see on At a Solemn Music, v. 27.-keep, i.e. keep up, maintain. 116. dewy-feathered, i.e. whose feathers have been steeped in Lethæan dew, which they drop on the eyes of those who are to be cast into slumber. He had probably in his mind Æn. v. 854 seq. 147. And let, etc. We have placed a comma at wings. The poet means that Sleep should bear a dream on his wings. "And on his little wings a dream he bore In haste unto his lord, where he him left before." F. Q. i. 1, 44.—K. · The Dream, which consists of an 'acry stream of portraiture,' or various figures, waves with the motion of the wings, and is finally 'laid' on the eyelids of the slumberer. 151. And as, etc. Nothing could be more natural than for one who had been lulled to sleep by the murmuring of the waters and the humming of the bees, and had had a rich dream, in which music probably was mingled, to fancy that he heard music as he awoke. 154. Genius of the wood. See Arcades, v. 44. 155. due. Denoting that it would be his constant resort. 156. In the original editions this line is printed as in our text. It is therefore doubtful whether we should read cloister's, cloisters, or cloisters', and whether pale is a substantive or an adjective. Warton and Dunster, with whom we agree, read 'cloister's pale,' taking the latter as a substantive, signifying an enclosure. The scene, as is evident from what follows, is a cathedral (St. Paul's was probably in the poet's mind), and the ordinary sense of cloister at the time was, at least in poetic diction, convent, monastery. "For aye to be in shady cloister mewed." Mids. N. Dr. i. 1. It was also used of the aisle of a cathedral. In Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, And love the high embowed roof, As may with sweetness, through mine car, And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. 160 i. 4, the scene is "An aisle of the Temple of Vesta," and it commences with "She must pass through this cloister." The original and proper meaning of pale (palum) is, no doubt paling, the woodwork that encloses a space; but it was also used of the included space, as the district round Dublin was called The English Pale, or simply The Pale. This phrase occurs frequently in Spenser's View, etc., of which Milton was a diligent reader, and from which he has adopted other terms; and this very one he uses in the second book of his History of England, "Meantime the Silures forgot not to infest the Roman pale with wide excursions." Even Shenstone has "Forgo a court's alluring pale, For dimpled brook and leafy grove." Ode on Rural Elegance. 'Studious cloister,' like 'studious university' (Two Gent. of Ver. i. 3), is a hypallage, as being resorted to for the sake of study and meditation. "What should he study, and make himselven wood Upon a book in cloister alway to pore." Cant. Tales, Prol. A 'cloister pale' would be a second hypallage, a thing without example; for we do not think that pale could refer to its colour, or the dimness of the light. 157. And love, etc. See Life of Milton, p. 436.-embowed, i.e. arched. St. Mary-le-Bow, i.e. de arcubus. "The bowed welkin," Com. v. 1015. 158. antic, now written antique, and with the accent on the last syllable. Our ancestors seem to have distinguished the two senses of this word solely by the length of the final syllable.-massy-proof. We do not perfectly comprehend the meaning of this expression. It seems to denote that the pillars, from their massiveness, were proof against yielding to the weight of the superincumbent roof. 159. storied, i.e. representing in the stained glass various personages and events of the Old and New Testaments, and of the Lives of the Saints.-dight. See on L'Allegro, v. 62. Todd shows that richly-dight was a compound used by Drayton, Brown, and others. 161. There, etc. In this beautiful and correct description of the effect of cathedral-music on a sensitive mind, Milton doubtless drew from his own early feelings when, living in Bread Street and going to St. Paul's School, he used to resort to the adjacent cathedral, then a fine old Gothic structure, and attend the service, or pace the aisles while it was going on. And may at last my weary age 170 ARCADES.-M. Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by some noble persons of her family, who appear on the scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this song. SONG I. Look nymphs, and shepherds look! Is that which we from hence descry, This, this is she To whom our vows and wishes bend; Fame, that her high worth to raise 167. And may, etc. He would end his days as a hermit. 170. spell, i.e. divine, examine the nature of. 1. Look, etc. We have ventured to alter the punctuation here, placing a (!) at the end of v. 1, and a (?) at the end of v. 4, instead of the comma and colon of the original editions. 5. "This is she, This is she, In whose world of grace," etc. Jonson, Entertainment at Althorpe.-W. |