Oft, on a plat of rising ground, Over some wide watered shore, 75 Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom: 80 Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm, To bless the doors from nightly harm. Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft out-watch the Bear With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere The spirit of Plato, to unfold What worlds, or what vast regions, hold 75. Over, &c.] That is, the sound swinging slow, &c., over some wide-watered shore. 77. The air.] The state of the atmosphere; the weather. 78. Some still removed place.] Some quiet retired place will be found suitable. So, in Shakspeare's Hamlet, iv. 4, the ghost beckons Hamlet 'to a more removed ground.' 80. Teach light, &c.] So Spenser has 'A little gloomy light much like a shade.' F. Q. I. i. 14. 83. The bellman's drowsy charm.] The drowsily uttered charm of the watchman. In old times, the night watchman, who called the hours, was often heard uttering charms, or night spells, to avert sundry perils of night from people's dwellings. E 85 90 84. Nightly.] In the night; nocturnal. We now restrict this word to mean night by night. 87. Out-watch the Bear.] Have my lamp burning when the celestial lamp, called the Bear, has ceased to shine. 88. With thrice-great Hermes.] Studying the works of Hermes, the Egyptian, who was thricegreat, viz.: as a philosopher, a priest, and a king, and was therefore named Trismegistus or Termaximus. Or unsphere, &c.] Holding communion with the mind of Plato, by reading his works, is here regarded as calling his spirit from its sphere to impart knowledge such as is contained in his Phado, &c., respecting the regions of the blessed, &c. The immortal mind that hath forsook But O, sad Virgin, that thy power 95 100 105 regal woes were most suitable for tragedy. 99. Presenting Thebes, &c.] The Thebes here referred to is the capital of Boeotia; stories concerning which form subjects of the Greek drama. The woes of the descendants of Pelops, king of Phrygia, and the calamities of Troy, supplied also material for the ancient tragic muse. Troy is here called divine on account of the interest which the gods manifested concerning it during its memorable siege. 101. Or what (though rare)&c.] Or whatever subject of a later time has done honour to the tragic stage, though such representa tions have been rare. See Note on l. 132 of L'Allegro. 104. Museus.] An ancient Greek poet, none of whose compositions are extant. Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what love did seek: The story of Cambuscan bold, And who had Canace to wife That owned the virtuous ring and glass; sage In Of forests and enchantments drear, Where more is meant than meets the ear. Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, Till civil-suited morn appear, 108. And made Hell grant, &c.] An allusion to the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. See L'Allegro, l. 148. 109. Him that left half-told, &c.] Chaucer is meant; the half-told story being his Squire's Tale. The Cambuscan of Milton is in Chaucer Cambinskan, a king who dwelt at Sarray, in the land of Tartary,' and who had two sons, Algarsife and Camballo, and a daughter, Canace. The king of Araby and Ind sent, as presents, a horse of brass to the Tartar king, that would carry him speedily wherever he wished to go, and a gold ring and glass mirror to Canace; the virtue of the ring being that it made the wearer understand the language of birds and the properties of herbs, while the mirror enabled its possessor to 110 115 120 divine secrets and foretell things future. According to Chaucer, some knight (called, through a mistake in the Squire's Tale, Camballo) was to win Canace by fighting with her two brothers. Spenser endeavoured to carry on the story in his Faerie Queene, Book IV., cantos ii. and iii., and made Canace become the wife of Triamond. 116. And if aught else, &c.] And whatever else, &c. (Lat. siquid). Such poets as Spenser, Tasso, and Ariosto, are here intended; they profess to give moral instruction under the veil of romantic fictions, on which account Milton says that in their poetry' more is meant than meets the ear.' 121. Thus, Night, &c.] Thus let me be oft seen by thee, O Night, in thy pale course, till Not tricked and frounced as she was wont With the Attic boy to hunt, But kercheft in a comely cloud, While rocking winds are piping loud, Or ushered with a shower still, With minute drops from off the eaves. I Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 125 130 135 140 Aurora comes in civil, i.e. sober But for one civil goun her lady gave her, One civil suit I have left too, and that's So also Shakspeare, in Romeo and Juliet, iii. 4: Come, civil night, thou sober-suited matron. 123. Not tricked, &c.] To trick is to array; to frounce is to frizzle the hair; Fr. froncer, to gather, to pucker. 124. The Attic boy.] Cephalus, the husband of Procris. When he was stag-hunting on Mount Hymettus, in Attica, Aurora, who was in love with him, carried him off, but could not prevail upon him to be unfaithful to Procris. See Ovid, Met. vii. 701. 125. Kercheft.] Having her head wrapped. Fr. couvre chef. 127. A shower still.] A quiet or gentle shower, when the wind has ceased, ending with drops falling at short intervals from off the eaves on the rustling leaves. 133. Twilight groves.] Groves in whose arched walks the light is as the morning twilight. 134. Silvan.] The rural deity Silvanus. 135. Monumental.] Hung with memorials. See what Ovid says, Met. viii., of the memores tabellæ, 7. 744, and the attonite Dryades, 7.777. Hide me from day's garish eye, With such concert as they keep Entice the dewy-feathered sleep; And as I wake, sweet music breathe But let my due feet never fail 141. Day's garish eye.] The word garish, or gairish, signifies making a gaudy display; from the Saxon gearwian. Juliet, in Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2, says: That all the world shall be in love with night, And pay no worship to the garish sun. 145. Consort.] Mingling of sounds. The bee and the waters with their mingling tones entice, &c. For consort in this sense we now use concert. Your music's harsh, discharge it; I have provided A better consort. Massinger's City Madam, iv. 2. 148. Wave at his wings, &c.] The construction seems to be, 'Let some strange mysterious dream, of lively portraiture displayed, wave in aery stream at sleep's wings laid softly on my eyelids.' 145 150 155 155. My due feet, &c.] Due means when the stated hour of church service calls. 157. And love, &c.] Whether the construction be let my due feet love, or let my due feet never fail to love, the high embowed roof, we have a literal incongruity, which, however, does not disturb the poetic imagination. As Warton says of another passage in Milton: We must not here eek for precise meanings of parts, but acquiesce in a general idea resulting from the whole.' It may be observed that in after life the poetic spirit of Milton did not fail to love the things themselves which he here commends, although his puritan spiIrit made him adverse to them on account of circumstances with which they were connected. |