by John Milton
540. by then by the time that.
*chewing ruminating. OED’s earliest participial instance.
542. knot-grass any plant with a knotty stem (OED 2).
dew-besprent sprinkled with dew.
545. flaunting waving gaily like a plume or banner (OED 1).
546. melancholy the reflective mood invoked in Il Penseroso.
547. meditate practise (see Lycidas 66n).
548. close conclusion of a musical phrase (OED 2).
550. barbarous dissonance M. uses the same phrase of ‘Bacchus and his revellers’ at PL vii 32.
552. stop of sudden silence ordered by Comus at line 145.
553. drowsy-frighted] 1637, 1645, 1673, BMS; drowsy-flighted TMS. Either version is possible. The horses have been frighted out of their drowsiness and they have also been flying drowsily. Cp. the ‘drowsy, slow, and flagging wings’ of Night’s horses in Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI IV i 5.
554. litter a curtained vehicle containing a couch (OED 2a).
close-curtained Sleep Cp. Shakespeare, Macbeth II i 51, ‘curtained sleep’.
555. sound the Lady’s song (230–43).
556. steam] TMS, BMS, 1637, 1645; stream 1673.
558. took charmed, captivated.
560. Still silent and always. Denying her nature, Silence wishes to be silent no more (never more / Still) and to be always replaced by song. Cp. PL iv 604.
566. hapless nightingale Cp. the Lady’s reference to Philomela, the ‘love-lorn nightingale’ (234). The Spirit now tactfully turns the allusion back upon the Lady, and so implies that her danger is real.
568. lawns open spaces between woods.
585. period sentence.
586. for me so far as I’m concerned.
589–90. Virtue… enthralled The Elder Brother now admits (what he would not admit at 420–31) that virgins can be Surprised (captured, seized) by force. His word assailed also contradicts the Lady’s claim that heaven would keep her ‘honour unassailed’ (220). Physical assault cannot remove Virtue, but virtue cannot prevent assault.
594. at last at the Last Judgment. Cp. PL x 190, 635.
598. pillared firmament Cp. Job 26. 11: ‘the pillars of heaven’.
599. stubble the short stalks of grain left after reaping. The Bible associates stubble with a poor foundation (I Cor. 3.12) and the burning of the damned (Mal. 4. 1).
604. sooty flag Cp. Phineas Fletcher, The Apollyonists (1627) ii 39: ‘All hell run out, and sooty flags display’.
Acheron one of the rivers of Hell.
605. Harpies taloned bird-women at Hell’s gate (Virgil, Aen. vi 289).
Hydras fifty-headed serpents guarding Tartarus (Aen. vi 576).
forms] 1645, 1673; bugs TMS, BMS, 1637.
606. Ind India.
607. purchase booty, plunder (OED 8a).
608–9. to a foul death, / Cursed as his life] 1645, 1673; and cleave his scalp / Down to the hips TMS, BMS, 1637.
610. emprise chivalric enterprise.
611. stead service.
615. sinews including ‘strength, energy’ (OED 3).
619–21. shepherd… healing herb Commentators have identified the shepherd lad as M. himself, M.’s close friend Charles Diodati (a medical student interested in herbs, Ep. Dam. 150–52), or some other friend. See further 638n, below.
620. to see to to look at.
621. virtuous potent, efficacious.
626. scrip a small bag carried by a shepherd (OED sb 1).
627. simples medicinal herbs.
631–3. The leaf… soil Cp. Marvell’s description in Upon Appleton House (c. 1650) of ‘Conscience’ as a ‘plant’: ‘A prickling leaf it bears… But flowers eternal, and divine, / That in the crowns of saints do shine’ (357–60).
632. another country probably Heaven (as opposed to earth, this soil). But some see this soil as England and the other country as Greece (or Italy). See below, 638n.
635. clouted shoon either ‘patched shoes’ or ‘shoes studded with nails’ (OED ‘clout-shoe’). Cp. Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI, IV ii 182 and Phineas Fletcher, The Purple Island (1633) viii 26.
636. Moly a mythical herb (with a black root and a white flower) given by Hermes to Odysseus to protect him from Circe’s magic (Homer, Od. x 287–303, Ovid, Met. xiv 291–2). Sandys allegorizes Moly as ‘temperance’ (Ovid’s Metamorphosis, 1632, 480).
638. *haemony Various derivations have been proposed, including Haemonia (Thessaly) and Greek haimonios, ‘blood-red’ (thus suggesting Christ’s blood). Charlotte F. Otten (ELR 5, 1975, 81–95) notes that androsaemon (‘man’s blood’) was a real herb, famous as a demonifuge. It fits M.’s description, and Henry Lawes had exorcized a ghost with it.
640. blast infection.
damp noxious vapour.
646. lime-twigs twigs smeared with a sticky substance to catch birds. Cp. ‘gums of glutinous heat’ (917).
647. came off *escaped (OED ‘come’ 65g).
650. *hardihood.
651. brandished blade Cp. Hermes’ instruction that Odysseus rush on Circe with drawn sword (Homer, Od. x 294–5).
651–2. break… ground So Spenser’s Guyon broke the cup offered him by Excess, ‘And with the liquor stained all the lond’ (FQ II xii 57). Guyon also overthrew Genius’s bowl and ‘broke his staffe’ (FQ II xii 49).
655. sons of Vulcan vomit smoke Cacus (a son of Vulcan) ‘vomited smoke’ while fighting Hercules (Virgil, Aen. viii 252–3).
[Stage direction] puts by refuses.
goes about attempts.
660. nerves sinews (the supposed source of bodily strength).
661. Daphne a virgin nymph chased by Apollo. Her father rescued her by turning her into a laurel (Ovid, Met. i 547–52). Comus inverts the story so that metamorphosis becomes a weapon against chastity.
663. Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind Cp. Augustine on the chastity of rape victims: ‘there will be no pollution, if the lust is another’s… purity is a virtue of the mind’ (City of God i 18). See also Marcus (318).
664. corporal rind bodily shell.
665. *immanacled At line 853 the Attendant Spirit distinguishes Comus’s ‘clasping charm’ from his ‘numbing spell’. The Lady is now immanacled by the ‘clasping charm’, which prevents her from rising, though it does not paralyse her (stage direction 658). The ‘numbing spell’ (described in lines 659–62) will completely freeze her.
669. fancy including ‘amorous inclination’ (OED 8b). ‘Fancy’ is the first masquer in Spenser’s masque of Cupid, where he is the father of ‘Desyre’ (FQ III xii 7–9).
beget In TMS this suggestive word is deleted, replaced with ‘invent’, then restored.
670. returns revives.
672–705. And… appetite These lines are inserted in TMS on a pasted leaf.
672.. cordial stimulating (OED 2).
julep sweet drink (OED 1) and something to assuage the heat of passion (OED 2).
673. his its.
crystal bounds glass goblet.
674. balm aromatic fragrance (OED 4).
675–6. Nepenthes… Helena Returning from Troy, Menelaus and Helen were entertained in Egypt by Thone and his wife Polydamna. Polydamna gave Helen the drug Nepenthes, which could banish all sorrows from the mind (Homer, Od. iv 219–32). Nepenthes was not an aphrodisiac, but Comus’s mention of the adulteress Helen is suggestive.
681. usage active use, with a play on ‘usury’ (notice lent, cov’nants, trust, borrower). Shakespeare (Sonnets IV and VI) and Marlowe (Hero and Leander i 232–6) associate procreation with usury.
delicacy pampering indulgence (OED 2) and voluptuousness (OED 1).
682. cov’nants clauses of a legal agreement (OED 4b).
trust (Nature’s) confidence in (the Lady’s) intention to pay (OED 3).
685. *unexempt condition condition to which there can be no exceptions.
687. Refreshment… pain echoing Spenser’s tempter Despair: ‘Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas, / Ease af
ter warre, death after life does greatly please’ (FQ I ix 40).
688. That have You who have.
694. aspects faces and looks.
696. *brewed OED’s earliest participial instance.
698. vizored masked.
forgery deceit.
700. lickerish tempting to the palate (OED 1) and lustful (OED 3).
701–3. Were it… good things Juno was the goddess of marriage, so a draught for Juno might hint at chaste marriage as one of the Lady’s lawful options. The Lady would reject even a decent (let alone an indecent) proposal from Comus, but marriage is still one of the good things that good men might give. This hint is stronger in a cancelled passage in TMS (755f): ‘thou man of lies and fraud, if thou give me it / I throw it on the ground, were it a draft for Juno / I should reject thy hand’s treasonous offer, none / But such as are good men can give good things’.
701. banquets A ‘banquet’ might be a ‘light repast between meals’ (OED 2) rather than a feast, so Juno could banquet and still be well-governed in her appetite.
702–3. none… things Cp. Euripides, Medea 618: ‘There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man’. Cp. PR ii 321–2.
707. *budge pompous, formal (OED a 1), with a pun on budge as the lamb’s wool fur on academic gowns (OED sb1 1).
Stoic The Stoic school of philosophy (founded by Zeno in c. 300 BC) despised luxury and regarded the body as the prison of the soul. Later Stoics included Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Cp. PR iv 300–308.
708. Cynic The Cynic school (founded by Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates) despised riches as a distraction from self-knowledge. Diogenes the Cynic lived in a tub.
711. *unwithdrawing not holding anything back, bountiful.
714. sate satisfy and glut.
curious fastidious.
716. green shops mulberry trees (the silkworms’ workshops).
719. hutched stored in a coffer (OED 1).
720. store furnish.
721. pulse legume seeds such as beans or lentils. Cp. Daniel 1.12–16: ‘give us pulse to eat, and water to drink’.
722. frieze coarse woollen cloth.
728. surcharged overburdened (OED 3) and overstocked (OED 2).
732–6. th’ unsought… brows The forehead of the deep is the earth’s crust as seen from its core. They below are dwellers in the underworld, for whom this diamond-studded crust is a star-studded sky. Gems were thought to grow and shine under the earth, so unsought gems would eventually illumine Hell. They below (the inhabitants of the underworld) would then grow inured to light and invade the surface. TMS at first read: ‘Would so bestud the centre with their starlight’.
733. *emblaze illuminate (OED v1 1).
736. shameless brows Cp. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream III ii 382–5: ‘Damned spirits all… to their wormy beds are gone, / For fear lest day should look their shames upon’.
737. coy shy, reserved.
cozened duped.
737–55. List… young yet] BMS omits these lines. Perhaps they were felt to be too sexually explicit for the Ludlow performance.
738. that… name Virginity Cp. Marlowe, Hero and Leander (1598) i 269: ‘This idol which you term virginity’, and John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (c. 1609) I i 124–5: ‘Sure there is a power / In that great name of virgin’.
739–40. Beauty… current The economic imagery (coin, hoarded) recalls lines 680–85, but Comus no longer speaks of repaying Nature’s debt by procreating. He simply urges the Lady to be current (‘be in circulation’). Cp. Marlowe, Hero and Leander i 265–6: ‘Base bullion for the stamp’s sake we allow, / Even so for men’s impression do we you’.
741. mutual including ‘intimate’ (OED 3), ‘responsive’ (OED 5).
partaken including the now obsolete sense ‘share with others’ (OED ‘partake’ 2).
743–4. If you… head Cp. Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream I i 76–8: ‘But earthlier happy is the rose distilled / Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, / Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness’.
745. brag display and boast.
746. solemnities festivals.
748. homely plain.
750. sorry grain poor colour.
ply work at.
751. sampler specimen of embroidery.
tease comb in preparation for spinning, huswife’s Pronounce ‘hussif’s’.
752. vermeil vermilion.
756–61. I… pride These lines may have been spoken aside.
757 juggler sorcerer (OED 2), trickster (OED 3). Cp. Plato’s identification of the Sophist as a ‘juggler’ (Sophist 235b).
759. rules maxims.
pranked dressed up.
760. bolt either ‘utter hastily’ (OED v2 5) or ‘sift’ (OED v1 1), hence ‘argue selectively’.
764. *cateress OED cites ‘caterer’ from 1592.
770. lewdly-pampered wickedly overfed, with overtones of lasciviousness. Cp. Gloucester’s ‘lust-dieted man’ (Shakespeare, King Lear IV i 70).
773. unsuperflous even proportion Editors cite Shakespeare, King Lear III iv 28–35 and IV i 73–4. Cp. also Guyon’s reply to Mammon in FQ II vii 15: ‘through fowle intemperaunce / Frayle men are oft captiv’d to covetise: / But would they thinke, with how small allowaunce / Untroubled Nature doth her selfe suffise, / Such superfluities they would despise’.
778. besotted *morally stupefied (OED 2).
779–806. These lines are not in TMS or BMS. They first appear in 1637 and so were written after the Ludlow performance.
782. sun-clad Cp. Rev. 12. 1: ‘a woman clothed with the sun’.
785. mystery a religious truth known only from divine revelation (OED 2). Cp. An Apology for Smectymnuus, where M. writes of ‘those chaste and high mysteries… that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body’ (YP 1. 892). St Paul calls marriage ‘a great mystery’ (Eph. 5. 32).
786–7. sage / And serious Cp. ‘our sage and serious Poet Spencer’ (YP 2. 516).
787. Virginity The fifteen-year-old Lady is a virgin, but she need not be advocating lifelong celibacy. ‘Virginity’ in Reformed doctrine could include chaste marriage. See Calvin, Institutes IV xii 28: species secunda virginitatis, est matrimonii casta dilectio (‘the second kind of virginity is the chaste love of marriage’). Phillip Stubbes in The Anatomie of Abuses (1583) describes marriage as ‘pure virginitie’ (sig. G8∇). Eve in PL has ‘virgin majesty’ even after consummating her marriage (ix 270). See also Ep. Dam. 214n.
790. gay showy (OED 3) and specious, plausible (OED 5).
791. fence fencing skill (OED’s earliest figurative instance).
793. uncontrolled indisputable, irrepressible.
797. brute earth… shake So in Horace, Odes I xxxiv 9–12, Jove’s thunderbolt shakes the earth, confirming the gods’ existence.
nerves sinews.
803. Dips *suffuses with moisture (OED 4a).
804. Speaks utters (thunder) and pronounces sentence (chains).
Erebus primeval darkness; here, the underworld.
805. Saturn’s crew the Titans and Giants who made war on Jove. See PL i 198–9n.
808. canon laws rules; with a glance at ‘Canon Law’ (laws established by an ecclesiastical council). Cp. Comus as priest (125–37).
foundation any institution such as a college or monastery.
809. suffer tolerate.
809–10. lees… blood The melancholic humour was thought to settle in the blood like the lees (dregs) of wine, causing madness or depression.
816. rod reversed Circe freed Ulysses’ men with her ‘reversed wand’ (Ovid, Met. xiv 300). Sandys (481) sees the wand as ‘perswasions of pleasure’, and its reversal as ‘discipline’.
817. backward mutters of dissevering power charms spoken backwards so as to release the Lady. Spenser’s Britomart releases Amoret by forcing Busyrane ‘his charmes back to reverse’ (FQJ31 xii 36).
*mutters muttered spells.
822. Meliboeus perhaps Spenser
(who tells Sabrina’s story in FQ II x 14–19). ‘Meliboe’ is a wise old shepherd in FQ VI ix–xi. Cp. Virgil, Ecl. i and vii.
823. soothest most truthful.
826. Sobrina the nymph of the river Severn. M.’s version of her legend emphasizes her virginity and obscures the fact that she was born from the adulterous union of Locrine and Estrildis. Locrine’s queen Guendolen raised an army, killed Locrine, and drowned Estrildis and Sabrina in the Severn (named for Sabrina). See Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae II i–v, and Drayton, Polyolbion vi 130–78. Spenser’s Sabrina is a ‘sad virgin innocent of all’, but her death is still caused by ‘disloyall love’ and she does not become a goddess (FQ II x 19). Drayton makes her a goddess and associates her with Nereus (Polyolbion v 1–30).
827.. Whilom formerly.
828.. Brute Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas and the founder of Britain.
831.. Commended entrusted. Most sources say that Sabrina was thrown into the river. She drowns herself in the tragedy Locrine (1595).
835.. Nereus ‘the old man of the sea’ (Homer, II. xviii 141), a benign sea-deity, father of the fifty Nereids.
836.. lank *drooping, languid (OED 3).
838.. nectarea lavers basins of nectar. Nereids pour ‘soueraine balme, and Nectar good’ into Marinell’s wound (Spenser, FQ III iv 40), and the Nereid Thetis protects Patroclus’ corpse with nectar (Homer, II. xix 38). Cp. Lycidas 175.
asphodel immortal flower of Elysium (Homer, Od. xi 539).
840.. ambrosial oils Aphrodite protects Hector’s corpse with ambrosial oil in Homer, Il. xxiii 186–7.
841.. quick swift and living.
immortal change change to an immortal. The phrase may hint that Sabrina never died. Cp. ‘this mortal change’ (10) and see PL xi 700–710.
844–57. Sabrina’s healing powers, her care for cattle, and her special concern for virgins recall Fletcher’s Clorin. Cp. The Faithful Shepherdess (c. 1609) I i 39–40, V iii 74–5.
845.. Helping remedying.
urchin blasts infections breathed by goblins.
ill-luck signs Elves brought disease or bad luck to animals and humans by firing ‘elf-shot’ (neolithic flint arrows) and tying ‘elf-locks’ (matted animal or human hair). Cp. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I iv 88–91.
846.. shrewd mischievous (OED i), as in ‘that shrewd and knavish sprite / Called Robin Goodfellow’ (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream II i 33–4).