The Poetical Works of John Milton

extensive and more gigantic. The garden of Eden is vastly richer than woods and forests inhabited by dryads, wood-nymphs, and shepherds, and other sylvan crews, spiritual or embodied. Contemplate the intensity of power, which could delineate the creation of the world, the flight of Satan through Chaos, or our Saviour resisting Satan in the wilderness! To arrive at the highest rank of this divine art, requires a union of all its highest essences: there must be a creation, not only of beauty, but of majesty and profound sensibility, and great intellect and moral wisdom, and grace and grandeur of style, all blended. This the epics, and even the tragedy, have reached but the Mask does not contain, nor did it require to admit this stupendous combination. It was intended as a sport of mental amusement and refined cheerfulness: no tragedy, nor tale coloured with the darker hues of man's contemplations, was designed. In the gay visions of youthful hope the stronger colours and forms of sublimity and pathos do not come forth: the court at Ludlow was met, not to weep, nor be awfully moved;-but to smile: they cried, with "L'Allegro,"

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful jollity-

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek :-
Sport, that wrinkled Care derides;

And Laughter, holding both her sides!

The poet had to accommodate himself to an audience of this character; yet so as not to shrink from the display of some of his own high gifts: and, O, with what inimitable brilliance and force he has performed his task! It is true that there is a mixture of grave philosophy in this poem :-but how calm it is !-how dressed with flowers !-how covered with graceful and brilliant imagery! Other feelings of a more sombre kind are awakened by the descriptions of the scenery of nature in the greater poems, except during the period before the serpent's entry into Eden. There are hours and seasons, when, in the midst of the blackness of our woes, we can dally a little while with our melancholy, our regrets, and our anxieties;— when we are willing to delude ourselves by an escape into Elysian gardens ;-to look upon nothing but the joys of the creation; and to see the scenery of forests, mountains, valleys, meadows, and rivers, in all their unshadowed delightfulness; where echo repeats no sounds but those of joyful music; and gay and untainted beauty walks the woods; and cheerfulness haunts the mountains and the glades; and labour lives in the fresh air in competence and content: delusions, indeed, not a little excessive, but innocent and soothing delusions. Fallen man cannot so enjoy this breathing globe of inexhaustible riches and splendour: but poets may so present it to him: and the charms they thus supply to our fearful and dangerous existence, are medicines and gifts which deserve our deep gratitude; and will not let the memory of the givers be forgotten by posterity. What gift of this kind has our nation had so full of charms and excellence as "Comus?" And here I close, when I recollect how many panegyrists of greater weight than my voice, this perfect composition has already had.

In regions mild of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot,
Which men call earth; and, with low-thoughted care
Confined, and pester'd in this pinfold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants,
Amongst the enthroned godsd on sainted seats.
Yet some there be, that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key,
That opes the palace of Eternity :
To such my errand is; and, but for such,
I would not soilf these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway

a Of bright aerial spirits live insphered.

In "Il Penseroso," the spirit of Plato was to be unsphered, v. 88, that is, to be called down from the sphere to which it had been allotted, where it had been insphered: thus also light is "sphered in a radiant cloud," "Paradise Lost," b. vii. 247.-T. Warton.

b In regions mild, &c.

Alluding probably to Homer's happy seat of the gods, "Odyss." vi. 42.-NEWTON.

c Pinfold.

"Pinfold" is now provincial, and signifies sometimes a sheepfold, but most commonly a pound.-T. WARTON.

d Amongst the enthroned gods.

We may read with Fenton, "the enthroned;" or rather

Amongst the gods enthroned on sainted seats.

But Shakspeare seems to ascertain the old collocation, "Antony and Cleopatra," a. i. s. 3:

Though you in swearing shake the throned gods.

Milton, however, when speaking of the inhabitants of heaven, exclusively of any allusion to the class of angels styled throni, seems to have annexed an idea of a dignity peculiar, and his own, to the word "enthroned." See "Paradise Lost," b. v. 536.-T. WARTON. • That opes the palace of Eternity.

So Pope, with a little alteration, in one of his satires, speaking of virtue,

Her priestess Muse forbids the good to die,
And opes the temple of Eternity.-NEWTON.
f I would not soil, &c.

But, in the "Paradise Lost," an angel eats with Adam, b. v. 433: this, however, was before the fall of our first parent: and as the angel Gabriel condescends to feast with Adam while yet unpolluted, and in his primeval state of innocence; so our guardian spirit would not have soiled the purity of his ambrosial robes with the noisome exhalations of this sin-corrupted earth, but to assist those distinguished mortals, who, by a due progress in virtue, aspire to reach the golden key, which opens the palace of Eternity.-T. Warton.

Of every salt flood & and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove h
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles,
That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep i;
Which he, to grace his tributary godsi,

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents: but this isle,

The greatest and the best of all the main,

He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities;
And all this tract that fronts the falling sun
A noble peer of mickle trust and power

Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms1:
Where his fair offspring m, nursed in princely lore,
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-entrusted sceptre: but their way
Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood,
The nodding horrour of whose shady brows n
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,

Of every salt flood.

As in Lord Surrey's "Songs and Sonnets," &c. edit. 1587:-
And in grene waues when the salt floode

Doth ryse by rage of wynde.-TODD.

h 'Twixt high and nether Jove.

So, in Sylvester's "Du Bart." 1621, p. 1003 :—

Both upper Jove's and nether's diverse thrones.-DUNSTER.

i That, like to rich and various gems, inlay

The unadorn'd bosom of the deep.

The thought, as has been observed, is first in Shakspeare, of England, "Richard II." a. ii. s. 1. "This precious stone set in the silver sea.' But Milton has heightened the comparison, omitting Shakspeare's petty conceit of the silver sea, the conception of a jeweller, and substituting another and a more striking piece of imagery.-T. Warton. i Tributary gods. " "Wind

Hence perhaps Pope, in a similar vein of allegory, took his "tributary urns, sor Forest," v. 436.-T. Warton.

He quarters.

That is, Neptune; with which name he honours the king, as sovereign of the four seas; for from the British Neptune only this noble peer derives his authority. WARBURTON.

With temper'd awe to guide

An old and haughty nation, proud in arms.

That is, the Cambro-Britons, who were to be governed by respect mixed with awe.— T. WARTON.

m Where his fair offspring, &c.

In "Arcades," v. 27, an allusion is made to the honourable birth of the maskers. Probably an allusion might have been here intended, as well to the personal beauty, as to the princely descent of the young actors from Henry VII.—TODD.

n The nodding horrour of whose shady brows, &c.

Compare Tasso's enchanted forest, "Gier. Lib." c. xiii. st. 2; and Petrarch's Sonnet, composed as he passed through the forest of Ardennes, in his way to Avignon.--TODD.

But that by quick command from sovran Jove
I was despatch'd for their defence and guard :
And listen why°; for I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song P,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower 9.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape r
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transform'd $,
Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed t,
On Circe's island fell: (who knows not Circe,
The daughter of the Sun", whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling swine?)
This nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks w
With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,
Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son
Much like his father, but his mother more,

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named × :

Horace, "Od." г. i. 2 :

• And listen why, &c.

Favete linguis: carmina non prius
Audita-

Virginibus puerisque canto.-RICHARDSON.
P What never yet was heard in tale or song.

The poet insinuates that the story or fable of his Mask was new and unborrowed, although distantly founded on ancient poetical history. The allusion is to the ancient mode of entertaining a splendid assembly, by singing or reciting tales.-T. WARTON.

In hall or bower.

That is, literally, in hall or chamber. old metrical romances.-T. WARTON.

The two words are often thus joined in the

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape, &c.

Though Milton builds his fable on classic mythology, yet his materials of magic have more the air of enchantments in the Gothic romances.- -WARBURTON.

• After the Tuscan mariners transform'd.

This story is alluded to in Homer's fine "Hymn to Bacchus;" the punishments he inflicted on the Tyrrhene pirates, by transforming them into various animals, are the subjects of that beautiful frieze on the lantern of Demosthenes, so accurately and elegantly described by Mr. Stuart, in his "Antiquities of Athens," vol. i. p. 33.-Jos. WARTON. • Winds listed.

So, in St. John, iii. 8.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth."-T. WARTON.
"The daughter of the Sun, &c.

Milton here undoubtedly alluded to Boethius, 1. iv. But see
Alcina has an enchanted cup in Ariosto, c. x. 45.—

Mr. Bowle observes that Virgil, "En." vii. 11. 17. T. WARTON.

And downward fell into a grovelling swine.

Here Milton might have been influenced by G. Fletcher's description of the bower of vain delight, to which our Lord is conducted by Satan. See Christ's Victorie,"

st. 49.-HEADLEY.

This nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks.

This image of hair hanging in clusters, or curls, like a bunch of grapes, Milton afterwards adopted into the "Par. Lost," b. iv. 303. Compare also "Sams. Agon." v. 569. -T. WARTON.

* And Comus named.

Dr. Newton observes, that Comus is a deity of Milton's own making: but it should be remembered, that Comus is distinctly and most sublimely personified in the "Agamemnon”

Who, ripe and frolick of his full-grown age,
Roving the Celtick and Iberian fields,

At last betakes him to this ominous wood";
And, in thick shelter of black shades imbower'd,
Excels his mother at her mighty art,
Offering to every weary traveller
His orient liquor in a crystal glass,

To quench the drouth of Phoebus; which as they taste,
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst a)
Soon as the potion works, their human countenance,
The express resemblance of the gods, is changed
Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear;
Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect is their misery,

of Eschylus, v. 1195, where, says Cassandra, enumerating in her vaticinal ravings the horrors that haunted her house, "That horrid band, who sing of evil things, will never forsake this house. Behold, 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 Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original crime of this fated family," &c. Peck supposes Milton's Comus to be Chemos, "the obscene dread of Moab's sons," "Par. Lost," b. i. 406 : but, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is professedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's sorceress Circe. Besides, our author, in his early poetry, and he was only twenty-six years old, is generally more classical and less scriptural than in pieces written after he had been deeply tinctured with the Bible. It must not, in the mean time, here be omitted, that Comus, the god of cheer, had been before a dramatic personage in one of Jonson's Masks before the court, 1619. An immense cup is carried before him, and he is crowned with roses and other flowers, &c. vol. vi. 29. His attendants carry javelins wreathed with ivy: he enters, riding in triumph from a grove of ivy, to the wild music of flutes, tabors, and cymbals. At length, the grove of ivy is destroyed, p. 35. And the voluptuous Comus, god of cheer, Beat from his grove, and that defaced, &c.

도서

The Poetical Works of John Milton, 1권