And the gilded car of day

His glowing axle doth allay

In the steep Atlantic stream,

95

And the slope sun his upward beam

Shoots against the dusky pole,
Pacing toward the other goal

Of his chamber in the east.
Meanwhile welcome Joy, and Feast,
Midnight Shout and Revelry,
Tipsy Dance and Jollity,
Braid your locks with rosy twine,
Dropping odours, dropping wine.
Rigour now is gone to bed,
And Advice with scrupulous head,

in a wild and antic fashion. Intrant κωμάζοντες.

93. The star that bids the shepherd fold,] A pastoral way of counting time. So Virgil, Ecl. vi. 85.

Cogere donec oves stabulis numerum-
que referre

Jussit, et invito processit Vesper
Olympo.

and Georg. iv. 434.

Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit.

93. Shakespeare calls the morning-star, the unfolding star. Meas. for Meas. a. iv. s. 3. T. Warton.

97. In the steep Atlantic stream] So altered in the Manuscript from Tartarean stream.

99. the dusky pole,] In the Manuscript it is northern: dusky is the marginal reading.

100. Pacing toward the other goal

Of his chamber in the east.]

100

105

The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove,
Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
And on the tawny sands and shelves
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
By dimpled brook, and fountain brim,
The wood-nymphs deck'd with daisies trim,
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:
What hath night to do with sleep?

lous head,] It was at first in the
Manuscript,

And quick Law with her scrupulous

head.

115

120

move ;] The morrice or Moorish dance was first brought into England, as I take it, in Edward the Third's time, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain, where he had been to assist his father-in-law, Peter king of Castile, against Henry the Bastard.

Peck.

In the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci, we have "Balli alla mo

resea," which he gives to the age of Charlemagne. Cant. iv. 92. T. Warton.

117. And on the tawny sands] So altered in the Manuscript from yellow sands.

118. Trip the pert faeries] See the note, Comus, 961. E.

119. fountain brim] This was the pastoral language of Milton's age. So Drayton, Bar.

W. vi. 36. and Warner's Albion's
England, b. ix. 46. We have
ocean-brim in P. L. v. 140. T.
Warton.

Night hath better sweets to prove,

Venus now wakes, and wakens Love.

Come let us our rites begin,

'Tis only day-light that makes sin,

Which these dun shades will ne'er report.
Hail Goddess of nocturnal sport,

Dark-veil❜d Cotytto, t' whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame,
That ne'er art call'd, but when the dragon womb
Of Stygian darkness spits her thickest gloom,
And makes one blot of all the air,
Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,

Wherein thou rid'st with Hecat', and befriend
Us thy vow'd priests, till utmost end
Of all thy dues be done, and none left out,

125

130

135

Spetteth his lightning forth. And Spenser has, fire-spetting forge, F. Q. ii. viii. 3. T. Warton.

133. And makes one blot of all the air,] In the Manuscript he had first written And makes a blot of nature, and afterwards And throws a blot o'er all the air, and then corrected it as it stands at present.

134. Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, &c.] In the Manuscript these lines at first run thus,

Stay thy polish'd ebon chair,

Till all thy dues be done, and nought left out.

Afterwards these lines. were
added in the margin,

Wherein thou rid'st with Hecate,
And favour our close jocondrie,

and then altered to what they
are at present.

D

Ere the blabbing eastern scout,

The nice morn on th' Indian steep

From her cabin'd loophole peep,
And to the tell-tale sun descry
Our conceal'd solemnity.

Come, knit hands, and beat the ground
In a light fantastic round.

139. nice morn] A finely chosen epithet, expressing at once curious and squeamish. Hurd.

140. From her cabin'd loophole peep,] So appearing to them who see the morning break from the midst of a wood, at loopholes cut through thickest shade. Paradise Lost, ix. 1110. Cantic. vi. 10. Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? Richardson.

Milton here perhaps imitated Fletcher's beginning of his fifth act of the Faithful Shepherdess.

See the blushing morn doth peep Through the window, while the sun, &c.

140. --cabin'd] Rather cabin's. Comus is describing the morning contemptuously, as it was unwelcome and unfriendly to his secret revels. Compare also Drayton, Mus. Elyz. ed. 1630. p. 22.

The sun out of the east doth peepe, &c. T. Warton. 141. the tell-tale sun] This epithet alludes to the fable of

140

the sun's discovering Mars and And Shakespeare, Mids. N. Dr. Venus together, and telling tales to Vulcan. Odyss. viii. 302.

Ηέλιος γαρ οἱ σκοπιην έχεν, είπε τε μύθον. 143. Come, knit hands, and beat the ground

In a light fantastic round.]

a. iv. s. 1.

Sound music, Come, my queen, take

hand with me,

And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.

T. Warton.

The Measure.

Break off, break off, I feel the different pace
Of some chaste footing near about this ground.
Run to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees;
Our number may affright: some virgin sure
(For so I can distinguish by mine art)

Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms,
And to my wily trains; I shall ere long
Be well-stock'd with as fair a herd as graz'd
About
my mother Circe. Thus I hurl
My dazzling spells into the spungy air,
Of pow'r to cheat the eye with blear illusion,
And give it false presentments, lest the place
And my quaint habits breed astonishment,
And put the damsel to suspicious flight,
Which must not be for that's against my course;

145. I feel the different pace &c.] The following lines before they were altered in the Manuscript run thus,

-I hear the different pace Of some chaste footing near about this ground.

Some virgin sure benighted in these
woods;

For so I can distinguish by mine art.
Run to your shrouds within these
brakes and trees;
Our number may affright.
And in the margin is written,
They all scatter.

151.wily trains;] Rightly altered from what he had first written in his Manuscript,

-Now to my trains, And to my mother's charms— for the charms described are not from the classical pharmacopœa, but the Gothic. Warburton.

145

150

155

153. Thus I hurl &c.] The L lines following were thus in the Manuscript at first.

My powder'd spells into the spungy