I shoot from heaven to give him safe convoy, Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song, Of hateful steps; I must be viewless now. 85 90 COMUS enters with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. Comus. The star that bids the shepherd fold Now the top of heaven doth hold; And the gilded car of day His glowing axle doth allay And the slope sun his upward beam 83. Spun out of Iris' woof.] Spun from material which Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, had dyed. So in Par. Lost, xi. 244, 'Iris had dipt the woof. 86. Smooth-dittied.] Smoothly worded or adapted to words. Ital. detti, words. 88. Nor of less faith, &c.] And who is no less faithful; and from his business being to keep watch over the flocks upon the hills, may be supposed most likely to be out at this time, and nearest for the immediate aid required. 55 95 93. The star that bids, &c.] The evening star. So Shakspeare (Meas. for Meas. iv. 3) says of the morning star-'Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd.' 97. The steep Atlantic stream.] The word stream here simply means flood. So, Par. Lost, i. 202, the ocean stream;' and Shakspeare, Merch. of Venice, i. 1, speaks of the wreck of a ship scattering all her spices on the stream.' Shoots against the dusky pole, Braid your locks with rosy twine, 100 105 With their grave saws, in slumber lie. 110 Imitate the starry_quire, Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, And on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. 115 120 dancing. Splendet tremulo sub Their merry wakes and pastimes keep; Mites "Tis only day-light that makes sin, Hail! goddess of nocturnal sport, Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame Wherein thou ridest with Hecate, and befriend 122. What hath night to do.] The infinitive is here used adjectively, describing the objective pronoun what. In the next line the infinitive to prove is adverbial to hath and governs which understood. 125. Rights.] That is, rites. So, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, I. vi. 15, Cybele's frantic rights.' 129. Cotytto.] The goddess of licentiousness. The festival of this Thracian divinity resembled that of the Phrygian Cybele. Her rites, and rites similar to hers, were called Cotyttia; and her worshippers were called Baptæ, because when initiated into her mysteries they were sprinkled with warm water. See Juvenal, ii. 91; Horace, Epod. xvii. 56. 131. The dragon womb, &c.] Night is here represented as a Stygian or Tartarean monster producing darkness. Sometimes 125 130 135 Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; The nice morn, on the Indian steep From her cabined loop-hole peep, Our concealed solemnity. Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round. THE MEASURE. Break off, break off, I feel the different pace 140 145 Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms, 150 Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 139. The nice morn, &c.] The Compare L'Allegrò, 33, prudish or fastidious morn on the eastern horizon. 140. Cabined loop-hole.] The epithet cabined here seems to mean confined or contracted like a cabin. 141. Descry.] Here employed in the unusual sense of give notice of; discover. Milton had in mind that passage in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, iii. 1. The sooner we begin, The longer ere the day descry our sin. 143. Beat the ground, &c.] So Horace speaks of beating the ground with light and playful foot: Od. I. xxxvii. 1. Come, and trip it as you go, At this part of the Masque was 146. Near about.] The word near is adverbial to about this ground, which is adverbial to footing. 147. Shrouds.] Retreats, shel ters. 149. So I can distinguish.] The magician has the sagacity to distinguish 'chaste footing' from the lascivious dancing of his own crew. My dazzling spells into the spungy air, eye with blear illusion, And give it false presentments, lest the place Which must not be, for that's against my course; And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, Wind me into the easy-hearted man, When once her eye And hug him into snares. I shall appear some harmless villager, And hearken, if I may, her business here. THE LADY enters. Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true- 154. Dazzling.] Beguiling, illusive. The air is called spungy, because as a sponge holds water so the air held in suspension the magic dust which XComus threw into it. His wonder far exceeded reason's reach, 155. Blear.] Dim, or rather dimming. 156. Presentments.] Representations. So in Shakspeare's Hamlet, iii. 4, 'The counterfeit [i.e. copied] presentment of two brothers.' 157. Quaint habits.] Curious dress. 155 160 165 169 161. Glozing.] Feigning, pretending, insinuating. 167. Keeps up, &c.] Keeps up to this late hour minding his rustic business. 168. Fairly.] Gently, softly. So Fletcher, The Chances, iii. 4, 'We'll ride on fair and softly.' 171. Methought.] It thought me, i.e. I thought. In Chaucer and other old writers we fre quently meet with such expres- Madame, quoth he, how think you |