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In a different hand "wild wood."

Ver. 316. Within these shroudie limits.

Ver. 321. Till further quest be made.
Ver. 323. And smoakie rafters.

Ver. 326. And is pretended yet.

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She that has that, is clad in compleate steele:

And may on every needful accident,
Be it not don in pride or wilfull tempting,
Walk through huge forests and un-
harbour'd heaths,

Infamous hills, and sandie perilous
wilds;
[Chastitie,
Where, through the sacred awe of
No savage fierce, bandite, or moun-
taneere,

Shall dare to soile her virgin puritie.

Ver. 327. Less warranted than this I cannot be. Ver. 428. Yea, even where very desolation

Ver. 329.

Square this tryal.

After v. 330, STAGE-DIRECTION. "Exeunt.

The two Brothers enter."

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But first lone, then sad, and lastly close.

dwells, [horrid shades, By grots and caverns shagg'd with And yawning dens, where glaring mon

sters house,

She may pass on, &c.

The line And yawning, &c. is crossed, and therefore omitted, I suppose, in the printed copies. Ver. 432. Nay more, no evill thing, &c.

Ver. 352. From the chill dew, in this dead soli-Ver. 433. In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorie fen, Blue wrinkled hag, or stubborne unlaid ghost.

tude?

[ster now, Perhaps some cold banke is her boulOr 'gainst the rugged barke of some broad elme

She leanes her thoughtfull head musing at our unkindnesse:

Or lost in wild amazement and affright, So fares, as did forsaken Proserpine, When the big rowling flakes of pitchie And darknesse wound her in. [clouds 1 Br. Peace, brother, peace, I do not think my sister, &c.

Ver. 448. That wise Minerva wore, æternal virgin.
Then, unvanquish'd, then, unconquer'd.
Ver. 452. With suddaine adoration of her pure-

nesse.

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Dead solitude is also surrounding wild. Some of the additional lines (v. 350-366.) are on a sepa

Ver. 481.

rate slip of paper.

Ver. 485.

Ver. 361. Which, grant they be so, &c.

Some curl'd man of the sword calling to his fellows.

Ver. 362.

The date of grief.

Hedger is sword.

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Ver. 365. This self-delusion..

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also, written over curl'd man of the

Had best looke to his forehead: here be brambles.

STAGE-DIRECTION. "He hallows: the guardian

Ver. 383. Walks in black vapours, though the damon hallows again, and enters in the habit of a

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Ver. 491. Come not too neere; you fall on pointed stakes else.

Ver. 390. For who would rob a hermit of his Ver. 492. Dam. What voice, &c.

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Rose like the softe steame of distill'd perfumes.

So he had at first written these lines in the former of which softe is altered to still, then to sweet, and lastly re-admitted; but in the latter softe is erased, and the line is completed thus: Rose like the steam of slow distill'd perfumes. But slow is altered to rich. Possibly Gray had noticed this very curious passage in Milton's manuscript; for, in his Progress of Poesy, he calls the Eolian lyre

"Parent of sweet and solemn breathing airs:"

which is Milton's second alteration of ver. 555. Ver. 563. Too well I might perceive.Ver. 574. The helplesse innocent lady.Ver. 605. Harpyes and hydras, or all the monstrous buggs.

'Twixt Africa and Inde, l'le find him [prey,

out,

And force him to release his new-gol

Or drag him by the curles, and cleave his scalpe Down to the hips.

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for before, Comus's first speech was uninterruptedly continued thus,

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Root-bound, that fled Apollo. Why' do you frown?” Ver. 669. That youth and fancie can beget, When the briske blood growes lively.In the former line it was also written" can invent ;" and in the latter "blood returnes." Ver. 678. To life so friendly, and so coole to thirst. [ing Poor ladie thou hast need of some refreshWhy should you, &c.——

After v. 697, the nine lines now standing were introduced instead of "Poore ladie, &c." as above.

Ver. 687. That hast been tired all day.-
Ver. 689. Heere fair virgin.

Ver. 695. Ougly-headed monsters.
Ver. 696. Hence with thy hel-brew'd opiate.
Then foule-bru'd, then brew'd enchantments.
Ver. 698. With visor'd falshood and base for-
geries.

Ver. 707. To those budge doctors of the Stois gowne.

Ver. 712. Covering the earth with odours and with fruites, [numerable, Cramming the seas with spawne inThe fields with cattell, and the aire with fowle,

To adorn her sons→→

Ver. 717.
But deck is the first reading, then adorn, then

Ver. 611. But here thy steele can do thee small | deck again.

availe.

Little stead is here crossed, and marked for readmission, as praise in v. 176.

Ver. 721. Should in a pet of temperance feed

on fetches.

But pulse was the first reading, At last, resumed. Ver. 614. He with his bare wand can unquilt thy Ver. 727. Living as nature's bastards, not her

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Ver. 657.

the way] you may,

Boldly assault the necromantik hall; Where if he be, with suddaine violence And brandisht blade rush on him, break his glasse, [ground, And poure the lushious potion on the And seize his wand.

I follow thee,

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Would grow enur'd to day, and come at last.

Ver. 737. List, ladie, be not coy, nor be not

cozen'd.

Here nor had been erased, and again written over the rasure; and afterwards and. Mr. Wharton omits both, and says that " Milton seems to have sounded coy as a dissyllable; as also coarse at v. 749." But the manuscript silences the remark, as far as it relates to this line,

And good heaven cast his best regard Ver. 744. It withers on the stalke and fades

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And settings of a melancholy blood;

But this, &c.
After v. 813. STAGE-DIRECTION. "The brothers
rush in, strike his glasse down: the [monsters,
then] shapes make as though they would resist, but
are all driven in. Dæmon enters with them"
Ver. 814. What have you let the false enchan-
ter pass?

Ver. 816.
Without his art reverst.
Ver. 818. We cannot free the lady that remains.
And, here sits.

Ver. 821. There is another way that may be
us'd.

Ver. 826. Sabrina is her name, a goddess chaste. Then erased; then virgin before goddess, and pure after chaste.

Ver. 829. She, guiltlesse damsel, flying the mad persuite.

Ver. 831,

To the streame.

But first "the flood."

Ver. 834. Held up thire white wrists and re-
ceav'd her in,

And bore her straite to aged Nereus
hall.

Ver. 845. Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck
signes
[lights to leave;
That the shrewd meddling elfe de-
And often takes our cattel with strange
pinches.
Which she, &c.

Temperance is a marginal reading. Patience had
been first written and erased; and is restored
by the line drawn underneath it, as at praise, v.
176. It is also again written over temperance,
erased in the margin.

Ver. 973. To a crowne of deathlesse bays.
After v. 975, STAGE-DIRECTION
"The Dæmon
sings or says.'

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Ver. 976. These concluding lyrics are twice
written in pp. 28, 29, of the MS. the first are
crossed.

Ver. 979. Up in the plaine fields.
Ver. 982. Of Atlas and his daughters three.
Hesperus is written over Atlas, and neeces over
daughters: but daughters are distinguished by
the line underneath, although it had been erased;
which is not the case with Atlas. See Mr.
Whiter's acute remark on this circumstance,
Specimen &c. as above, p. 133.

Ver. 983. After "the goulden tree," he had
written, but crossed,

Where grows the high-borne gold upon
his native tree.

Ver. 984. This verse and the three following
were added.

Ver. 988. That there eternal Summer dwells.
Ver. 990. About the myrtle alleys fling
Balm and cassia's fragrant smells.
Ver. 992. Iris there with garnisht [then garish]
bow.

Ver. 849. Carrol her goodnesse loud in lively Ver. 995. Then her watchet scarf can shew.

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Ver. 857. In honour'd virtue's cause: this will I
trie.

And in the margin "In hard distressed need."
Then follows, "And adde the power of some
strong verse." Adjuring is a marginal correction.
Ver. 860. Listen, virgin, where thou sil'st.
Before v. 867, is written, "To be said."
Ver. 879. By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, &c.
This and the three following lines are crossed.
Ver. 895. That my rich wheeles inlayes.
Ver. 910. Vertuous ladie, look on me.
Ver. 921. To waite on Amphitrite in her bowre.
Ver. 924. May thy crystal waves for this.
Ver. 927. That tumble downe from snowie hills.
Ver. 948. Where this night are come in state.
Ver. 951. All the swains that near abide.
Ver. 956. Come let us haste, the stars are high.
But night reignes monarch yet in the,
mid skie.

STAGE-DIRECTIONS.
"Exeunt.-The scene
changes, and then is presented Ludlow town, and
the president's castle: then enter country
dances and such like gambols, &c. At these sports
the Damon, with the two Brothers and the Lady,
enters. The damon sings."

Ver. 962. Of nimbler toes, and courtly guise,
Such as Hermes did devise.

In the former line "such neat guise," had also
been written.

After v. 965. NO STAGE-DIRECTION, only "2
Song."

Ver. 971. Thire faith, thire temperance, and
thire truth.

VOL. VII.

This is in the first copy of the Lyrics. In the
second,

Then her purfled scarf can shew,

Yellow watchet, greene, and blew,
And drenches oft with manna [then
Sabaan] dew

Beds of hyacinth and roses,

Where many a cherub soft reposes.

But Yellow, watchet, greene, and blew," is
crossed in the second copy. What relates to
Adonis, and to Cupid and Psyche, was afterwards
added.

Ver. 1012. Now my message [or buisnesse] well
is done.

Ver. 1014. Farre beyond the earth's end,
Where the welkin low doth bend.
He had also written "the welkin cleere." And
"the earth's greene end."

Ver. 1023. Heav'n itselfe would bow to her.
The following readings, which have occurred in
this manuscript, will he found in Lawes's edi-
tion of Comus in 1637. They were altered in
Milton's own edition of 1645.

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manuscript by the rev. Francis Henry Egerton, I printed it entire in 1798.

I then supposed it to be one of the many copies written before the mask was published, by Henry Lawes, who, on his editing it in 1637, complained in his dedication to lord Brackley, that" the often copying it had tired his pen :" or, at least, to be a transcript of his copy. And I am still of the same opinion.

I mentioned that, at the bottom of the titlepage to this manuscript, the second earl of Bridgewater, who had performed the part of the Elder Brother, has written " Author Io: Milton." This, in my opinion, may be considered as no slight testimony, that the manuscript presents the original form of this drama. The mask was acted in 1634, and was first published by Lawes in 1637, at which time it had certainly been corrected, although it was not then openly acknowledged', by its author. The alterations and additions, therefore, which the printed poem exhibits, might not have been made till long after the representation; perhaps, not till Lawes had expressed his determination to publish it. The coincidence of Lawes's Original Music with certain peculiarities in this manuscript, which I have already stated in the Account of HENRY LAWES, may also favour this supposition.

Most of the various readings in this manuscript agree with Milton's original readings in the Cambridge manuscript; a few are peculiar to itself. Since I published the edition of Comus in 1798, I have examined the latter; and have found a closer agreement between the two manuscripts than I had reason, from the collations of that at Cambridge by Dr. Newton and Mr. Warton, to have supposed.

This manuscript resembles Milton's also in the circumstance of beginning most of the verses with small letters.

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Ver. 83.

grapes.

Which therefore she brought up, and

Comus nam'd.

These my skye webs, spun out of Iris wooffe. "Comus enters with a charminge rod in one hand and a glass of liquor in the other; with him a route of monsters like men and women but headed like wild beasts, &c."

STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 92.

Ver. 99. Shoots against the Northerne pole. Ver. 123. Night has better sweets to prove. STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 144. "The Measure in a wild, rude, and wanton antic" And after v. 147, "they all scatter."

Ver. 170. This waye the noise was, if my eare be true.

Ver. 191. But where they are, and whye they come not back.

The three beautiful lines, preceding this verse in the printed copies, are wanting in this MS. Ver. 195. Had stolne them from me. The remaining hemistich, and the thirty following lines, which the other copies exhibit, are not in this MS.

Ver. 229. Prompt me, and they perhaps are not farr hence.

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The poem opens with the following twenty lines, which in all other copies, hitherto known to the public, form part of the Spirit's epilogue. STAGE-DIRECTION. "The first sceane discovers a wild wood, then a guardian spiritt or damon Ver. 270.

descendes or enters."

From the heavens now I flye, And those happy clymes that lye Where daye never shutts his eye,, Vp in the broad field of the skye. There I suck the liquid ayre All amidst the gardens fayre Of Hesperus, and his daughters three That singe about the goulden tree. There eternall summer dwells, And west wyndes, with muskye winge, About the Cederne allyes flinge Nard and cassia's balmie smells. Iris there with humid bowe Waters the odorous bankes, that blowe Flowers of more mingled hew Then her purfled scarfe can shew, Yellowe, watchett, greene, and blew, And drenches oft with manna dew Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where many a cherub soft reposes.

See Lawes's Dedication.

Ver. 256. Whoe, when they sung, would take the prison'd soule,

Ver. 297.

To touch the prosperinge growth of

this tall wood.

Their porte was more than humane as they stood,

So this line is pointed in the manuscript. Compare note on Com. v. 297.

Ver. 300. That in the cooleness of the raynebow

live.

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A tough encounter with the shaggies! That lurks by hedge or lane of this dead circuit,

[suer To have her by my side, though I were She might be free from perill where she is, But, where an equal poise of hope and feare, &c.

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Ver. 415. As you imagine, brother; she has a hid-The same corrupt reading accidentally occurs in a modern duodecimo edition of Milton's Poetical Works.

den strength.

Ver. 426. Noe salvage, feirce bandite, or moun

taneere.

In the manuscript a comma is placed both after salvage and feirce: the former may be retained; and we might read fierce bandite, instead of savage fierce in the printed copies. And thus Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. iv. v. 41. No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride. Ver. 428. Yea even, where very desolac on dwells

By grots and caverns shag'd with horrid shades,

And yawninge denns,where glaringemonsters house.

Ver. 432. Naye more, noe evill thinge that walks by night.

Ver. 437. Has hurtefull power ore true virginitie:

Doe you beleeve me yet, &c. Ver. 448. The wise Minerva wore, vnconquer'd virgin. Ver. 460. Begins to cast a beam on th' outward shape.

Ver. 465. And most by lewde lascivious act of sin. yer. 472. Hoveringe, and sitting by a new made grave.

STAGE DIRECTION after v. 489. "He hallowes and is answered, the guardian dæmon comes in, habited like a shepheard."

Ver. 497. How cam'st here, good shepheard? hath any ram, &c.

Ver. 513. Ile tell you, tis not vain or fabulous. Ver. 555. At last a sweele and solemne breathinge sound,

Rose like the softe steame of distill'd perfumes,

And stole vpon the aire. These variations present this charming passage, I think, with as strong effect as the other copies. Ver. 563. Too well I might perceive &c. Ver. 581. How are you joyn'd with Hell in triple knott.

Ver. 605. Harpies and Hydraes, or all the monstrous buggs.

Ver. 608. Or drag him by the curles, and cleave his scalpe Downe to the hipps.

Ver. 732. The sea orefraught would swell, and th' vnsought diamonds

Would soe emblaze with starrs, that they belowe

Would growe enur'd to light, and come

at last

To gaze vpon the sunn with shameless

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Ver. 772. Nature's full blessinge would be well dispenst.

Ver. 777.

Ne'er looks to Heav'n amidst his gorgeous feasts.

But with besotted base ingratitude Crams, and blaspheames his feeder. After feeder the following lines in the printed copies, viz. from v. 779, to v. 806, are not in this MS.

Ver. 810. And setlinge of a melancholy bloud. "The brothers STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 813.

rushe in with swords drawne, wrest his glasse of liquor out of his hand, and brake it against the ground; his rowte make signe of resistance, but are all driven in, the Demon is to come in with the brothers."

Ver. 814. What, have yee let the false enchaunter scape?

Ver. 821.

Ver. 828.

Some other meanes I have that may
be vsed.

Whoe had the scepter from his father
Brute.

Ver. 847. is wanting in this MS.

STAGE-DIRECTION after v. 866. "The verse to singe or not."

Ver. 867. Listen, and appear to vs,

In name of greate Oceanus,

By th' Earth-shakinge Neptune's mace,
And Tethis grave majestick pace.

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