Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, fax's Tasso, c. xiii. 20. Shakespeare, K. Lear, act ii. s. 2. Two Gent. Verona, act i. s. 1. It is a pound in Hudibras. A pinner is a shepherd in some parts of England, one who pins the fold. In old deeds, among manorial rights, the privilege of a pinfold for pound is claimed. T. Warton. 8. Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,] This endeavour is in itself no fault; it becomes so only as it is circumstanced: and the Trinity manuscript gives this circumstance, which was therefore necessary to the justness of the thought, Beyond the written date of mortal change. By the written date is meant Scripture, in which is recorded the abridged date of mortal life. Warburton. I am still inclined to think that this line is better omitted. For though it may not be a fault in itself to Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, yet it certainly is so to strive to keep it up Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives: and he could not have added -the crown that virtue gives After this mortal change if he had said just before 10 Beyond the written date of mortal change: and therefore I cannot but think that he blotted out this line not without reason. 8. Besides, an allusion to the written date of Scripture would be improper in the person of the attendant spirit. For the same reason there seems to be an im propriety in supposing an allusion to St. Peter's golden key in v. 13, where see the note. E. 11. Amongst the enthron'd Gods on sainted seats.] So this verse stands in Milton's manuscript as well as in all his editions: and yet I cannot but prefer the reading of Mr. Fenton's editions, Amongst th' enthroned Gods sainted seats. on 11. Shakespeare, Anton. Cleop. act i. s. 3. Though you in swearing shake the throned Gods. See note on Par. L. v. 535. T. Warton. 13. that golden key, &c.] This seems to be said in allusion to Peter's golden key, mentioned likewise in Lycidas, 110. Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain.) And this verse, which was first That opes the palace of eternity: To such my errand is; and but for such, written That shows &c. after- That opes the palace of eternity, Her priestess Muse forbids the good And opes the temple of eternity. 13. Jonson, Hymen, v. p. 296. of Truth. Her left [holds] a curious bunch of golden keys, With which heaven's gate she locketh and displays. Where displays is opens. T. Warton. Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether The rule and title of each sea-girt isle. ކ 15 20 22. That like to rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep,] The first hint of this beautiful passage seems to have been taken from Shakespeare's Rich. II. act ii. sc. 1. where John of Gaunt calls this island by the same sort of metaphor, -this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea. 22. But Milton has heightened the comparison, omitting Shakespeares petty conceit of the silver sea, the conception of a jeweller, and substituting another and a more striking piece of imagery. This rich inlay, to use an expression in the Paradise Lost, gives beauty to the bosom of the deep, else unadorned. It has its effect bare earth, before the creation, on a simple ground. Thus the was "desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned." P. L. vii. 314. Eve's tresses are unadorned, reason, no verb following the Ibid. iv. 305. T. Warton. nominative case, Neptune. By course commits to several government, And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns, 28. the best of all the main,] So altered in the manuscript from -the best of all his empire. 29. He quarters] That is, Neptune: with which name he honours the king, as sovereign of the four seas; for from the British Neptune alone this noble Peer derives his authority. Warburton. 32. With temper'd awe to proud in arms.] 34. Where his fair offspring, nurs'd in princely lore, &c.] I have been informed from a manuscript of Oldy's, that Lord Bridgewater entered upon his official residence 25 30 35 at Ludlow castle with great solemnity. On this occasion he was attended by a large concourse of the neighbouring nobility and gentry. Among the rest came his children; in particular, Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and Lady Alice, To attend their father's state, And new-intrusted sceptre.They had been on a visit at a house of their relations the Egerton family in Herefordshire; and in passing through Haywood forest were benighted, and the Lady Alice was even lost for a short time. This accident, which in the end was attended with no bad consequences, furnished the subject of a Mask for a Michaelmas festivity, and produced Comus. Lord Bridgewater was appointed Lord President, May 12, 1633. When the perilous adventure in Haywood forest happened, if true, cannot now be told. It must have been soon after. The Mask was acted at Michaelmas, 1634. T. Warton. Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood, 43. And listen why, for I will tell you now Favete linguis: carmina non prius Virginibus puerisque canto. Richardson. Milton might justly enough say this, since Comus is a deity of his own making: but the same allegory has been introduced by most of the principal epic poets under other personages. Such are Homer's Circe, Ariosto's Alcina, Tasso's Armida, and Spenser's Acrasia. From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. Alluding to the ancient custom of poets repeating their own verses at public entertainments. Thyer. 45. From old or modern bard,] It was at first in the manuscript, By old or modern bard 45. —in hall or bower.] That is, literally, in hall or chamber. 40 45 And his Colin Clouts come home again. And purchase highest roome in bowre or hall. Where room is place, as in St. Luke xiv. 8, 9, 10. Shakespeare has bower for chamber, Coriolan. act iii. s. 2. So Chaucer, Mill. T. 259. And Spenser, Prothalam. st. viii. T. Warton. 46. Bacchus, that first &c.] Though he builds his fable on classic mythology, yet his materials of magic have more the air of inchantments in the Gothic Warburton. romances. transform'd,] They were changed 48. After the Tuscan mariners by Bacchus into ships and dolphins, the story of which metamorphosis the reader may see in Ovid. Met. iii. Fab. 8. 50 Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, Much like his father, but his mother more, Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd, 48. This story is alluded to in Homer's fine hymn to Bacchus; the punishments he inflicted on the Tyrrhene pirates are the subjects of the beautiful frieze on the Lantern of Demosthenes, described by Mr. Stuart, in his Antiq. of Athens, p. 33. Dr. J. Warton. Lilius Gyraldus relates, that this history was most beautifully represented in Mosaic work, in the church of St. Agna at Rome, originally a temple of Bacchus. And it is one of the pictures in Philostratus. T. Warton. 50.-who knows not Circe, &c.] See Boethius, 1. iv. m. iii. and Virgil, En. vii. 11. 17. Alcina has an enchanted cup in Ariosto, c. x. 45. T. Warton. 54. —clust'ring] See the notes, Par. L. iv. 303. E. 55. With ivy-berries wreath'd,] Nonnus calls Bacchus xoguμßoPogos, b. xiv. See also Ovid, Fast. i. 393. and our author, El. vi. 15. T. Warton. 57. Much like his father, but his mother more.] This is said, because Milton's Comus, like 55 Homer's Circe, represents all sensual pleasures; and Bacchus, in the heathen mythology, only presides over that of drinking. Thyer. 58. Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd,] This line was at first in the Manuscript, Which therefore she brought up, and nam'd him Comus. 58. and Comus nam'd.] Doctor Newton observes, that Comus is a deity of Milton's own making. But if not a natural and easy personification, by our author, of the Greek кQмOZ, Comessatio, it should be remembered, that Comus is distinctly and most sublimely personified in the Agamemnon of Æschylus, edit. Stanl. p. 376. v. 1195. Where says Cassandra, "That horrid band, "who sing of evil things, will "never forsake this house. Be"hold, Comus, the drinker of "human blood, and fired with "new rage, still remains within "the house, being sent forward "in an unlucky hour by the |