Why should'st thou, but for some fellonious end, In thy dark lantern thus close the stars, up That Ŏture hung in Heav'n, and fill'd their lampsc With everlasting oil, to give due light To the misled and lonely traveller? 200th This is the place, as well as I may guess, Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth Yet nought but fingle darkness do I find. 205 Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beck'ning fhadows dire, the virtuous mind, that ever walks attended ya ftrong fiding champion, conscience.— welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Rope, hou hovering Angel girt with golden wings nd thou unblemish'd form of Chastity; fee ye vifibly, and now believe 215 220 That he, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill And cafts a gleam over this tufted grove. 225 I 219. Would fend a gliff'ring guardian] In the Manufcript it was. first Cherub. 221. Was I deceiv'd, or did a fable cloud &c] This presents us with one of the nobleft images in nature, and as beautifully expreffed. The author feems to have been fenfible of its charms, and has therefore contrived to repeat it; and fo artfully, that the repetition adds a new grace to it. Warburton. 229.-are I cannot hallow to my Brothers, but Such noife as I can make to be heard farthest I'll venture, for my new inliven'd fpirits Sweet SONG. Weet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen By flow Meander's margent green, And in the violet-embroider'd vale, 231 Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her fad fong mourneth well, 235 That likeft thy Narciffus are? 229. Manuscript it is are not far off] In the hicle, whereby to receive and return its various impulfes. Teftudo or fhell being a name alfo for a mufical inftrument, a lyre, which could give no found but when it was ftruck upon, the word beautifully alludes to the nature of this vocal nymph; are not far bence. 231. Within thy aery fhell,] The horizon. Warburton. The edition of this Mask with alterations for the stage hath cell inftead of hell: but the common reading is much the best. The nymph is feated in a convex vehicle of air, which on account of its form is called a teftudo or shell. And as all found is communicated by the air, the poet hath very naturally affign'd her this aery ve quæ nec reticere loquenti, Nec prior ipfa loqui poterat refonabilis Echo. Ovid. Met. III. 357. Calton. I cannot but think shell the better word for the reafons affign'd: but O if thou have Hid them in fome flow'ry cave, Tell me but where, Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere, So may'ft thou be tranflated to the skies, 240 And give refounding grace to all Heav'n's harmonies. COMUS. Can How fweetly did they flote upon the wings but yet it may be faid to juftify Dr. Dalton's alteration, that Milton hath alfo written cell in the margin of his Manuscript. 241.daughter of the sphere,] Milton has given her a much nobler and more poetical original than any of the ancient mythologifts. He fuppofes her to owe her firft existence to the reverberation of the mufic of the fpheres; in confequence of which he had juft before called the horizon her aery fhell. And from the Gods (like other celeftial beings of the 245 Of claffical order) fhe came down to men. Warburton. 244. Can any mortal mixture &c.] Before these words there is in the Manufcript, Comus looks in and peaks. 249. How faweetly did they flote upon the wings Of filence,] This is extremely poetical, and infinuates this fublime idea and imagery, that even filence herself was content to convey her mortal enemy, found, on her wings, fo greatly was fhe charmed with its harmony. Warburton. 251. Ac Of filence, through the empty-vaulted night, 258 At every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it fmil'd! I have oft heard My mother Circe with the Sirens three, Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, 253 And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause: г Yet they in pleasing flumber lull'd the fenfe, 260 And in sweet madness robb'd it of itself; But such a facred, and home-felt delight, 1 Manufcript that this and the verfe following were added after the reft in the margin. A kirtle is a woman's gown; a word used by Chaucer, and Spenfer, and Shakespear in 2 Hen. IV. A&t 2. Sc. 11. Falstaff fays to Dol, What will you have a kirtle of? and in one of his Sonnets, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. 256. would take the prifon'd Soul, And |