6.: 240

O if thou have
Hid them in some flow'ry cave,

Tell me but where,

queen of parly, daughter of the sphere, So may'st thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all Heav'n's harmonies.

Sweet a

245

COMUS.
Can
any

mortal mixture of earth's mold
Breathe fuch divine inchanting ravishment ?
Sure something holy lodges in that breaft,
And with these raptures moves the vocal air
To testify his hidden residence :
How sweetly did they flote upon the wings

Of

244. Can

but yet it may be said to juftify claffical order) she came down to
Dr. Dalton's alteration, that Mil- men. Warburton.
ton hath also written cell in the

any mortal mixture &c.] margin of his Manuscript.

Before these words there is in the 241. daughter of the sphere,) Manuscripts Comus looks in and Milton has given her a much speaks. nobler and more poetical original 249. How fweetly did they flote than any of the ancient mytholo- upon the wings gifts. He supposes her to of filence, ] This is extremely her first existence to the reverbe. poetical, and infinuates this sublime ration of the music of the spheres; idea and imagery, that even silence in consequence of which he had herself was content to convey her juft before called the horizon her mortal enemy, found, on her wings, aéry shell. And from the Gods so greatly was the charmed with (like other celestial beings of the its harmony. Warburton.

to owe

Of filence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 At

every fall smoothing the raven down Of darkness till it smild! I have oft heard My mother Circe with the Sirens three, Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, 255 Who as they fung, would take the prison'd soul, And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept, And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause: Yet they in pleasing Plumber lulld the sense, 260 And in sweet madness robb’d it of itself; But such a sacred, and home-felt delight, Such sober certainty of waking bliss

I

а

2

251. At every fall smoothing the Manuscript that this and the verse raven down

following were added after the rest of darkness till it fmild! ] The in the margin. A kirtle is a wopoetical essence of darkness is to man's gown ; a word used by Chau

frown. But what we are to cer, and Spenser, and Shakespear fuppose afforded this fine image to in 2 Hen. IV. Ad 2. Sc. II. FalComus, is that fable cloud, which staff says to Dol, What will you the Lady fays just at that time have a kirtle of ? and in one of his turn'd forth her filver lining on the Sonnets, night,

Warburton.

A In the Manuscript, and in the edi

cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider'd all with leaves of tion of 1637 we read Of darkness till the smil'd.

myrtle. 254. Amidf the flow'ry-kirtled 256. would take the prison'd Naiades &c] It appears by the Joul,

And

a

I never heard till now, I'll.speak to her, h264

, And the shall be my queen. Hail foreign wonder, Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Unless the Goddess that in rural shrine

i Dwell’ít here with Pan, or Silvan, by bleft fong Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 269 To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood.

LA D Y.
Nay gentle Shepherd, ill is lost that praise
That is address’d to unattending ears ;
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift
How to regain my sever'd company,“ ***
Compell’d me to awake the courteous Echo

275 To give me answer from her moffy couch.

COMUS.

And lap it in Elyfium ;] Sublimely See Paradise Lost, II. 260. and exprefs d to imply the binding up 1019. and the notes there. its rational faculties, and is opposed 268. Dwell A bere with Pan, &c) to the fober certainty of waking bliss. In the Manuscript he had written

But the imagery is taken from at first Lirft here with Pan &c: "Shakespear who has employ'd it, and see what he says of the Genius in praise of music, on twenty occa- of the wood in Arcades, and comfions. Il Warburton.

pare it with this passage.

270. To touch the proffrous growth 257

Scylla wept, And chid &c.] He had first writ- the Manuscript with what judgment

of this tall wood.] We see by * ten,

Milton corrected. And in this Scylla would weep view the publication of it by the And chide, then Chiding her bark- learned and ingenious Mr. Birch ing waves &c.

was very useful. In this line the VOL. II.

I

Manu.

.

28

COMUS.
What chànce, good Lady, hath bereft you thus?

LADY.
Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.

COM U S.
Could that divide

you from near-ushering guides?

LADY.
They left me weary on a graffy turf.

COMU, S.
By falíhood, or discourtesy, or why?

L A DY.
To seek i'th' valley some cool friendly spring.

COM U S.
And left

your
fair fide all unguarded, Lady?

LADY.
They were but twain, and purpos'd quick return.

COMUS.

a

full grown.

Manuscript had prospering, which 282. To seek i' th' valley fome cool Milton with judgment alter'd to friendly spring. ] Here Mr. prosperous ; for tall wood implies full Sympson observed with me, that grown, to which prosperous agrees, this is a different reason from what bat prospering implies it not to be the had allign'd before ver. 186. Warburton.

To bring me berries, or such 279.-- from near-uhering guides?] cooling fruit &c. He had written at first from their They might have left her on both ushering kanıls; and in the next accounts. vérse, They left me wearied. The

290. As smooth as Hebe's their unfirst alteration seems to be better

razor'd lips. ] Virgil Æn. IX. than the lait.

181.

Ora

COMUS.
Perhaps fore-ftalling night prevented them.

LADY.
How easy my misfortune is to hit! 286

COM U s.
Imports their loss, beside the present need?

LADY.
No less than if I should

my

Brothers lose.

COM U S. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?

LADY.
As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. 290

COM US.
Two such I saw, what time the labor’d ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came,

And

Ora puer primâ fignans intonfa

fol ubi montium juventâ. Richardson.

Mutaret umbras, et juga demeret

Bobus fatigatis. 291. Two fuch I saw, what time The Greeks have a single word

the labur’d ox &c.] In the Ma- that expresses the whole very hap; nuscript it is such two: and the notation of time is in the pastoral pily, Beaute tempus quo boves fol

vuntur, as in Homer Iliad. XVI. manner, as in Virgil. Ecl. II. 66.

779. Aspice, aratra jugo referunt fuf

ΗμG ο Μελισ μετενεισσιτο pensa juvenci :

βελυτoνδε. and in Horace Od. III. VI. 41.

I 2

293. And