Who ripe, and frolic of his full grown age, At last betakes him to this ominous wood, "Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original "crime of this fated family, &c." Την γαρ στεγην, την δ' ούποτ' εκλείπει Συμφθογγος ουκ ευφωνος. Comus is here the god of riot and σε και θροος εναυλος, και βοη ατακτος, σε λαμπαδες τε, &c.” ΕΙΚΟΝ Β. i. p. 733. seq. edit. Paris. 1608. fol. Compare Erycius Puteanus's Comus, a Vision, written 1608. It is remarkable, that Comus makes no figure in the Roman literature. Peck supposes Milton's Comus to be Chemos," th' obscene dread "of Moab's sons." P. L. i. 406. But, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is professedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's sorceress Circe. Besides, our author in his early 60 cheer, Beat from his grove, and that defac'd, &c. See also Jonson's Forest, b. i. 3. Comus puts in for new delights, &c. T. Warton. 60. the Celtic and Iberian fields,] France and Spain. Thyer. 61. At last betakes him to this ominous wood.] Ominous is dangerous, inauspicious, full of portents, &c. B. and Fletcher use it in this sense, Sea Voyage, a. i. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 95. Afterwards Comus's wood is called "this "advent'rous glade.". v. 79. T. Warton. 62. And in thick shelter of black shades] In Milton's Manuscript Excels his mother at her mighty art, His orient liquor in a crystal glass, 65 To quench the drought of Phoebus, which as they taste, 63. Excels his mother at her mighty art,] In the Trinity Manuscript he had first written potent art, which are Shakespeare's words, and better. Warburton. 65. His orient liquor] That is, of an extreme bright and vivid colour. Warburton. See the note, P. L. i. 546. E. 67. -through fond] So altered in the Manuscript from through weak intemperate thirst. 68. their human count'nance, Th' express resemblance of the Gods,] The same thought is again very finely expressed in the following lines of this poem, where the attendant Spirit is describing to the two brothers the effects of this charmed cup. -whose pleasing poison And the inglorious likeness of a beast He gives us much the same idea in his Paradise Lost, where he 70 calls the human face divine, iii. 44. Thyer. 72. All other parts remaining as they were;] It was at first in the Manuscript, as before. There is a remarkable difference in the transformations wrought by Circe and those by her son Comus. In Homer the persons are entirely changed, their mind only remaining as it was before, Odyss. x. 239. Οἱ δε συων μεν εχον κεφαλας, φωνην τε, Και τριχας· αυτας νους ην εμπεδος, ὡς but here only their head or countenance is changed, All other parts remaining as they were; and for a very good reason, because they were to appear upon the stage, which they might do in masks. In Homer too they are sorry for the exchange, ver. And they, so perfect is their misery, Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, Or as Mr. Thyer conceives, it But one above the rest in special, Repined greatly, and did him mis call, That had from hoggish form him brought to natural. 75. But boast themselves] He certainly alludes to that fine 75 satire in a dialogue of Plutarch, Opp. tom. ii. Francof. fol. 1620. p. 985. where some of Ulysses's companions, disgusted with the vices and vanities of human life, refuse to be restored by Circe into the shape of men. Dr. J. Warton. Or, perhaps, to J. Baptista Gelli's Italian Dialogues, called Circe, formed on Plutarch's plan. T. Warton. 78. when any favour'd of high Jove] Virgil, Æn. vi. 129. -Pauci quos æquus amavit 78. The Spirit in Comus is the Satyre in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess. He is sent by Pan to guide shepherds passing through a forest by moonlight, and to protect innocence in distress. A. iii. s. 1. vol. iii. 145. p. But to my charge. Here must I stay. If I find it, then in hast I give my wreathed horn a blast, See also above, v. 18. Where But to my task. T. Warton. Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star I shoot from heav'n, to give him safe convoy, Nunc theologicam rationem sequitur, [Poeta scil.] quæ adserit flammarum quos cernimus tractus, nimbum esse descendentis numinis. Calton. There are few finer comparisons that lie in so small a compass. The angel Michael thus descends in Tasso, Stella cader, &c. ix. 62. Milton has repeated the thought in P. L. iv. 555. Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even On a sun-beam, swift, as a shooting star In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir'd Impress the air, &c. Where the additional or conse 80 quential circumstances heighten and illustrate the shooting star, and therefore contribute to convey a stronger image of the descent of Uriel. But the poet there speaks: and in this address of the Spirit, any adjunctive digressions of that kind, would have been improper and without effect. I know not, that the idea of the rapid and dazzling descent of a celestial being is intended to be impressed in Homer's comparison of the descent of Minerva, applied by the commentators to this passage of Comus. See Il. iv. 74. The star to which Minerva is compared, emits sparkles, but is stationary; it does not fall from its place. It is a bright portentous meteor, alarming the world. And its sparkles, which are only accompaniments, are not so introduced as to form the ground of a similitude. Shakespeare has the same thought, but with a more complicated allusion, in Venus and Adonis, edit. 1596. Signat. C. iiij. It is where Adonis suddenly starts from Venus in the night. Looke how a bright star shooteth from the skie, So glides he in the night from Venus' eye. T. Warton. 83. -spun out of Iris' woof,] See Paradise Lost, xi. 244. -Iris had dipp'd the woof. And take the weeds and likeness of a swain, 85 90 Comus enters with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. COMUS. The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heav'n doth hold, 86. Who with his soft pipe, &c.] These three lines were designed as a compliment to Mr. H. Lawes, who acted the attendant Spirit himself. Warburton. See the Preliminary Notes. Lawes himself, no bad poet, in "A pastorall Elegie to the me"morie of his brother William," applies the same compliment to his brother's musical skill. -He could allay the murmures of the wind; He could appease And calme the fury of the winds. See" Choice Psalms put into musick, &c. By H. and W. Lawes, &c. Lond. 1648." To this book is prefixed Milton's Sonnet to H. Lawes. I have mentioned Lawes's verses prefixed to Cartwright's Poems. And he wrote a poem also in praise of Dr. Wilson, King Charles's favourite lutenist, prefixed to Wilson's Psalterium Carolinum, &c. fol. 1657. T. Warton. 90. Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid] In Milton's Manuscript it stands Nearest and likeliest to &c. It was at first, to give present aid; and virgin steps, which was altered to hateful steps. Then follows in the Manuscript Goes out. And the title of the following scene runs thus. Comus enters with a charming rod and glass of liquor, with his rout all headed like some wild beasts, their garments some like men's and some like women's; they come on |