My mother Circe with the Sirens three, Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades See also ibid. v. 22, 34. Milton calls the Naiades flowery-kirtled, because they were employed in collecting flowers. But William Browne had just before preceded our author in this imitation from Ovid, in his Inner Temple Masque on the story of Circe, p. 143. Call to a dance the fair Nereides, With other nymphs, which do in every creeke, In woods, on plains, on mountains, simples seeke, For powerfull Circe, and let in a song, &c. Here, in simples, we have our author's "6 potent herbs and "drugs." But see note on ver. 50. It is remarkable, that Milton has intermixed the Sirens with Circe's nymphs. Circe indeed is a songstress in the Odyssey: but she has nothing to do with the Sirens. Perhaps Milton had this also from Browne's Masque, where Circe uses the music of the Sirens in the pro‚cess of her incantation, p. 134. Then, Sirens, quickly wend me to the bowre, L To fitte their welcome, and shew Circe's powre. Again, p. 13. Syrens, ynough, cease: Circe has prevailed. A single line of Horace perhaps occasioned this confusion of two distinct fables. Epist. i. ii. 23. Sirenum voces et Circes pocula nosti. 254. Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades &c.] It appears by the Manuscript that this and the verse following were added after the rest in the margin. A kirtle is a woman's gown; a word used by Chaucer and Spenser, and Shakespeare in 2 Hen. IV. act ii. s. 11. And in one of his Sonnets, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 254. In the pastoral writers of Milton's age and before, kirtle is a woman's gown; but it originally signified a man's garment, and, anciently, was most commonly so used. See Spenser, F. Q. i. iv. 32. It was the name for the surcoat at the creation of Knights of the Garter. See Anstis, Ord. Gart. i. 317. In an original roll of the household expenses of Wykeham, Bp. of Winchester, dated 1394, is this entry. "furrura duarum curtellarum pro "Domino cum furrura agnina, "x. s." That is, for furring or facing two kirtles for my Lord with lambs' skin, 10s. T. War ton. " In Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, Who as they sung, would take the prison'd soul, 255 And chid her barking waves into attention, L Yet they in pleasing slumber lull'd the sense, 260 Hail, foreign wonder, 265 See Paradise Lost, ii. 660. and 1019. and the notes there. 257. Silius Italicus, of a Sicilian shepherd tuning his reed; Bell. Pun. xiv. 467. Scyllæi tacuere canes, stetit atra The same situation and circum- 265.Hail, foreign wonder, Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Unless the goddess, &c.] Thus Fletcher, Faith. Shep. act v. s. 1. vol. iii. p. 188. Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Dwell'st here with Pan, or Silvan, by blest song To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood. 270 Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise COMUS. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you thus? -My prime request, 875 268. Dwell'st here with Pan, Which I do last pronounce, is, O you &c.] In the Manuscript he had wonder, If you be maid or no? Where maid is created being, a -Puer, O dignissime credi And Browne's Britannia's Pas- written at first Liv'st here with Pan, &c. and see what he says of the Genius of the wood in Arcades, and compare it with this passage. 270. To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood. We see by the Manuscript with what judgment Milton corrected. And in this view the publication of it by the learned and ingenious Mr. Birch was very useful. In this line the Manuscript had prospering, which Milton with judgment altered to prosperous; for tall wood implies full grown, to which prosperous agrees, but prospering implies it not to be full grown. Warburton. 277, &c. Here is an imitation of those scenes in the Greek Tragedies, where the dialogue proceeds by question and answer, a single verse being LADY. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth. COMUS. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? LADY. They left me weary on a grassy turf. COMUS. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? LADY. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly spring. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? LADY. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick return. COMUS. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them. LADY. How easy my misfortune is to hit! allotted to each. The Greeks, doubtless, found a grace in this sort of dialogue. As it was one of the characteristics of the Greek drama, it was natural enough for our young poet, passionately fond of the Greek tragedies, to affect this peculiarity. But he judged better in his riper years; there being no instance of this dialogue, I think, in his Samson Agonistes. Hurd. 279. from near-ushering guides?] He had written at first from their ushering hands; and in the next verse, They left me wearied. The first alteration seems to be better than the last. VOL. IV. 280 285 282. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly spring.] This is a different reason from what she had assigned before, ver. 186. To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit, &c. They might have left her on both accounts. 285. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them.] So in Shakespeare, Cymbal. act iii. s. 4. -may This night forestall him of the coming day. See the notes, P. L. x. 1024. T. Warton. E A COMUS. Imports their loss, beside the present need? No less than if I should my Brothers lose, COMUS. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? LADY. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. COMUS. Two such I saw, what time the labour'd ox 290 Aspice, aratra jugo referunt suspensa juvenci: and in Horace, Od. iii. vi. 41. -sol ubi montium Mutaret umbras, et juga demeret Bobus fatigatis. The Greeks have a single word that expresses the whole very happily, Bouλuros tempus quo boves solvuntur, as in Homer, Iliad xvi. 779. Ημος δ' ηέλιος μετενεισσετο βουλυτονδε. 291. -the labour'd ox In his loose traces from the furrow came.] This is classical. But the return of oxen or horses from the plough, is not a natural circumstance of an English evening. In England the ploughman always quits his work at noon. Gray, therefore, with Milton, painted from books and not from the life, where in describing the departing day-light he says, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. The swink'd hedger's supper, in |