Spenfer's Faerie Queene. See the note, F. Q. ii. xii. 49, edit. 1805. And the note on Comus, ver. 815.

There was published at Ronciglione, in 1634, the year in which Comus was written," L'Incanto di Circe, Fauola Pastorale del Sig. Pietro Fido de Toffia," 12mo. But I find nothing in this drama, which can be cited as applicable to inquiries. into the Origin of Comus. TODD.

THE MASK.

THE PERSONS.

THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the habit

of THYRSIS. COMUS, with his Crew.

THE LADY.

FIRST BROTHER.

SECOND BROTHER.

SABRINA, the Nymph.

The chief Perfons, who prefented, were

The Lord Brackley.

Mr. Thomas Egerton his brother.

The Lady Alice Egerton,

COM US.

The firft Scene difcovers a wild Wood.

The Attendant Spirit defcends or enters.*

BEFORE the ftarry threshold of Jove's court My manfion is, where thofe immortal fhapes Of bright aëreal fpirits live infpher'd

* The Attendant Spirit] The Spirit is called Dæmon in the Cambridge manufcript. This was Platonick. But Dæmon is ufed for Spirit, and alfo for Angel, in Ant. and Cleop. A. ii. S. iii. "Thy demon, that's thy Spirit, which keeps thee, is "Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable,

"Where Cefar's is not; but near him thy angel

"Becomes a fear."

The expreffions, however, are literally from North's Plutarch. See alfo Spenfer's Ruins of Rome, ft. 27. The Spirit's Prologue, which opens the bufinefs of the drama, is introduced after the manner of the Greek Tragedy. He might, however, have avoided any application to an audience, as at v. 43. See, among others, the prologues to the Hecuba, Hippolytus, and Iphigenia in Taurus, of Euripides. T. WARTON.

The Prologues to the Aminta of Taffo, and the Paftor Fido of Guarini, are introduced after the fame manner. And, as Mr. Walker obferves to me, it is probable, that Milton, from the perufal of his favourite Taffo's Meffaggiero, had determined to fubftitute the word Spirit for demon; as the refpective natures of the Spirit (or angel) and demon are fully and fatisfactorily difcuffed in that dialogue, and the line of diftinction strongly marked. TODD.

Ver. 3. Of bright aëreal Spirits live infpher'd] In Il Penserofo, the fpirit of Plato was to be unfphered, v. 88. That is, to be called down from the sphere to which it had been allotted,

In regions mild of calm and ferene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot,
Which men call Earth; and, with low-thoughted

care

5

where it had been infphered: the word occurs exactly in the fame fenfe in Drayton, on his Miftrefs, vol. iv. p. 1352.

"O rapture great and holy !
"Do thou transport me wholly,
"So well her form to vary;
"That I aloft may bear her,
"Whereas I will infphere her

"In regions high and starry."

Compare Shakspeare, Troil. and Creff. A. i. S. iiï.

"the glorious planet Sol

"In noble eminence enthron'd and Spher'd

"Amidft the ether."

Thus alfo Light is "Spher'd in a radiant cloud," Par. Loft, B. vii. 247. T. WARTON.

Enfphear'd occurs in Donne's Poems, ed. 1633, p. 262. But Milton here perhaps had in remembrance the Spirit's Speech at the beginning of B. Jonfon's Fortunate Isles;

"Like a lightning from the skie

"With that winged hafte come I,

"Loofed from the Sphere of Jove." TODD.

Ver. 4. In regions mild &c.] Alluding probably to Homer's happy feat of the gods, Odyf. vi. 42.

Ver. 6.

-ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ

Εμμεναι κ. τ. λ. NEWTON.

low-thoughted care] Pope has borrowed

this expreffion, Elvisa, v. 298.

"Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care."

Thomson has applied the epithet to vice. See his Autumn,

v. 965. TODD.