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And the swink'd hedger at his supper sat;
I saw them under a green mantling vine
That crawls along the side of yon small hill,
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;
Their port was more than human, as they stood:
I took it for a faëry vision

Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,

And play i' th' plighted clouds.

the next line, is from nature; and hedger, a word new in poetry, although of common use, has a good effect. T. Warton.

293. And the swink'd hedger] The swink'd hedger is the same as the labour'd ox, tired, fatigued. To swink is to work, to labour, as in Spenser's Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. vii. st. 8.

For which men swink and sweat incessantly.

297. Their port was more than human, as they stood:] We have followed the pointing of Milton's two editions in 1645 and 1673, which indeed we generally follow. The edition of 1637 points it otherwise,

Their port was more than human; as they stood, &c.

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I was awe-struck,

295

300

" and stood, and said unto me, " &c."

Comus thus describes to the Lady the striking appearance of her Brothers; and after the same manner, in the Iphigenia in Tauris of Milton's favourite Greek tragedian Euripides, a shepherd describes Pylades and Orestes to Iphigenia the sister of the latter, as preternatural beings and objects of adoration, v. 246.

Ενταύθα δισσους είδε τις νεανιας
Βουφορβος ήμων, καπεχώρησεν παλιν,
Ακροισι δακτυλοισι πορθμεύων ιχνος
Ελεξε δ· Ουκ δρατε ; δαίμονες τινες
Θάσσουσιν οιδε. Θεοσεβης δ' ήμων τις ων
Ανεσχε χειρα, και προσευξατ' εισίδων
Ω πόντιας παι Λευκοθέας, νέων φύλαξ,
Δεσποτα Παλαίμων,

Είτ' ουν επ' ακταις βασσέτον Διοσκόρω,
&c.

Compare note on v. 265.
Warton.

T.

299. Of some gay creatures of the element,] In the north of England this term is still made use of for the sky. Thyer.

301. And play i' th' plighted clouds.] By using plighted here, instead of the more common word plaited, an unpleasant consonance was avoided-and play i' th' plaited clouds. Spenser

And as I past, I worshipp'd; if those you
It were a journey like the path to heaven,
To help you find them.

LADY.

Gentle villager,

seek,

What readiest way would bring me to that place? 305 COMUS.

Due west it rises from this shrubby point.

LADY.

To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose,
In such a scant allowance of star-light,
Would overtask the best land-pilot's art,

hath plight for plait or plaight.
Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. iii. st.
26.

All in a silken camus lilly white,

Purfled upon with many a folded plight:

and again, cant. vi. st. 7. plight is a participle for plaighted or platted.

With gaudy garlands, or fresh flowrets dight

About her neck, or rings of rushes plight.

Calton.

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Chaucer, in the Testament of Love, has plites for folds.. And plite, a verb to fold, Tr. Cr. ii. 1204. From this verb plight, immediately came Milton's plighted, which I do not remember in any other writer. The modern word

is plaited. Of the same family is pleached, in Much ado about Nothing, act iii. s. 1.

And bid her steal into the pleached bower,

Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the

sun,

Forbid the sun to enter.

And in Antony and Cleopatra.
And he has impleached, impli-
cated, in his Lover's Complaint.
Mal. Suppl. Sh. i. 752. T. War-

ton.

304. To help you find them.] In the Manuscript he had written at first, find them out,

309. -overtask] So Sonn. xxii. 10. "overply'd in liberty's "defence." Milton is fond of the compound with over. Various instances occur in Par. Lost; many, as here, of his own

Without the suré guess of well-practis'd feet.

COMUS.

I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, And every bosky bourn from side to side,

coinage. See over-multitude, below, v. 731. and Sonn. ix. 6. over-ween. Where see the note. T. Warton.

310. Without the sure guess ofHe altered the Manuscript, but he had written at first

Without sure steerage of

312. Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, &c.] It was at first in the Manuscript wide wood. Here Mr. Seward imagines that Milton imitated Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, act iv.

-and since have crost

All these woods over, ne'er a nook or dell,

Where any little bird or beast doth dwell,

But I have sought him, ne'er a bend

ing brow

Of any hill, or glade the wind sings

through &c.

Dingle, according to Baily, is a narrow valley between two steep hills: Mr. Thyer of Manchester says, that the word is very commonly used in that part of the kingdom, and Ben Jonson has the word dimble in the same sense. 'Dell is used by Fletcher at the beginning of the Faithful Shepherdess, besides in the passage above quoted,

Nor the shrill pleasing sound of merry pipes

Under some shady dell:

And by Spenser in his Shepherd's Calendar, March, speaking of a sheep,

Fell headlong into a dell.

310

It plainly signifies a steep place or valley, and is much the same as dale. And every bosky bourn. Bosky is woody, from the Belgian bosche and the Italian bosco a wood, says Skinner. It is used by Shakespeare, Tempest, act iv. s. 3.

My bosky acres, and my unshrubb'd down:

and 1 Hen. IV. act v. s. 1.

How bloodily the sun begins to peer
Above yon busky [bosky] hill!

Bourn is bound or limit, from the
French borner, and is thus used
by Shakespeare, Tempest, act
ii. s. 1.

Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard,

none.

Antony and Cleopatra, act i. s. 1.

I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd.
Hamlet, act iii. s. 2.

That undiscover'd country, from
whose bourn
No traveller returns-

And in Lear, Dover cliff is called
chalky bourn, act iv. S. 6.

From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.

312. Drayton has dingle in his Muses Elys. Nymph. ii. vol. iv. p. 1455.

In ding es deep, and mountains hore.
T. Warton.

313. And every bosky bourn from side to side,] A bourn, the

My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;
And if your stray-attendants be yet lodg'd,
Or shroud within these limits, I shall know
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark
From her thatch'd pallat rouse; if otherwise
I can conduct you, Lady, to a low
But loyal cottage, where you may be safe
Till further quest.

LADY.

Shepherd, I take thy word, And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy, Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds

sense of which in this passage has never been explained with precision, properly signifies here, a winding, deep, and narrow valley, with a rivulet at the bottom. In the present instance, the declivities are interspersed with trees and bushes. This sort of valley Comus knew from side to side. He knew both the opposite sides or ridges, and had consequently traversed the intermediate space. Such situations have no other name in the west of England at this day. In the waste and open countries, bourns are the grand separations or divisions of one part of the country

315

320

aboriginal separations or divisions of property, might not the Saxon word gives rise to the French borne? There is a passage in the Faerie Queene, where a river, or rather strait, is called a bourne, ii. vi. 10.

My little boate can safely passe this perilous bourne.

But seemingly also with the sense of division or separation. For afterwards this bourn is styled a shard.

When late he far'd

In Phedria's flitt barck over the per-
lous shard.
T. Warton.
316. Or shroud within these

Within these shroudie limits

from another, and are natural limits,] He had written at first limits of districts and parishes. For bourn is simply nothing more than a boundary. As in the instances cited by Dr. Newton.

321. Till further quest.] He had added in the Manuscript be made, but afterwards blotted it out,

Till further quest be made.

See Furetiere in borne, and Du Cange in borna, Lat. Gloss. In Saxon, burn, or burna, is a stream of water, as is bourn at present in some counties: and as rivers were the most distinguishable T. Warton.

321. See note on Arcades, 34.

With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls

325

And courts of princes, where it first was nam'd,
And yet is most pretended: in a place
Less warranted than this, or less secure,
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial
To my proportion'd strength. Shepherd, lead on. 330
THE TWO BROTHERS.

ELDER BROTHER.

Unmuffle ye faint stars, and thou fair moon,

324. With smoky rafters,] It was at first And smoky rafters. The sentiment here is the same as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, cant. 14. st. 62. of the original, and 52 of Harrington's translation,

As courtesy ofttimes in simple bow'rs Is found as great as in the stately tow'rs.

324.in tap'stry halls] The mode of furnishing halls or stateapartments with tapestry, had not ceased in Milton's time. Palaces, as adorned with tapestry, are here contrasted with lowly sheds, and smoky rafters. A modern poet would have written stuccoed halls. Shakespeare says of Lord Salisbury, Second P. K. Henry VI. act v. s. 3.

And like rich hangings in a homely house,

So was his will in his old feeble body. Compare Browne Brit. Past. b. i. ii. p. 60.

S.

Their homely cotes deck'd trim in low degree,

As now the court with richest tapes-
try.

Hence Cowley may be illustrated,
Ode to Liberty, st. iii.

To the false forest of a well-hung room For honour and preferment come. That is, "a room in the houses "of the great, hung with tapestry, the subject of which is some romantic story, and the scene a forest." And Shakespeare in Cymbel. act iii. s. 4.

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-I am richer than to hang by the walls.

And B. and Fletcher, Sea-voyage,

act i. s. 1.

You must not look for down beds here, nor hangings.

T. Warton.

325. And courts of princes, where it first was nam'd,] This is plainly taken from Spenser, Faery Queen, b. vi. cant. i. st. 1.

Of court, it seems, men courtesy do call,

For that it there most useth to abound. 329. -and square my trial] The Manuscript had at first

--and square this trial:

and at the end of the speech is Exeunt, and at the begining of the next scene, The two brothers enter: and in the Manuscript the two brothers are all along distinguished by 1 Bro. and 2 Bro. 331. Unmuffle ye faint stars,]

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