385

He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th’ centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day'sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.

2. BROTHER.

'Tis most true,
That musing meditation most affects
The pensive secrecy of desert cell,
Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate-house;
For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,
His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence ?
But beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

890

381. He that has light &c.] This 388. --of men and herds,] It whole speech is a remarkably fine was at first, men or herds. encomium on the force of virtue: 389. And sits as safe as in a but there is something so vastly senate house; Not many years afstriking and astonishing in these ter this was written, Milton's last five lines, that it is impossible friends shewed that the safety of to pass them over without stop- a senate-house was not invioping to admire and enjoy them. lable. But, when the people turn I do not know any place in the legislators, what place is safe whole circle of his poetical per- from the tumults of innovation, formances, where dignity of and the insults of disobedience? sentiment and sublimity of ex- T. Warton. pression are so happily united. 390. For who would rob &c.] Thyer.

These two lines at first stood 384. Benighted walks &c.] In- thus in the Manuscript. stead of these two lines the poet For who would rob a hermit of his had written at first,

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with uninchanted eye,

395
To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.
You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps .
Of miser's treasure by an out-law's den,
And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjur'd in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness it recks me not.;
I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405

400

-can such beauty be

Uninjur'd in this wide surrounding Safe in its own guard, and not drawe waste :

the eye of him that passeth on, to greedy

and I know not whether wide is gaze, &c.

not better than wild, which seems Compare also Shakespeare, As

to be sufficiently implied in

waste. you like it, act i. s. 3. And see below, the note v. 982. T.

404. -it recks] I care not for, Warton.

&c. So “ what recks it them?” 395. Of dragon-watch with un

Lycid. v. 122. and Par. L.-ix. inchanted eye,] That is, which

178.“ Let it, I reck not." And

ii. 50.“ Of god, or hell, or worse, cannot be inchanted. Here is

“ he recked not." See Note on v. more flattery; but certainly such

836. infr. From reck comes retchas no poet in similar circumstances could resist the oppor

lessness, or recklessness, in the tunity of paying. T. Warton.

Thirty-nine Articles, where the 400. -as bid me hope] The

common reading is, “ into wretchfirst reading was,

« lessness of most unclean living."

Artic. xvii. As if, yet with a -as bid me think.

manifest perversion of terms, a 403. Uninjur'd in this wild 4

wretched profligacy was intended. surrounding waste.] The verse was

The precise meaning is, a careat first,

lessness, a confident negligence,

consisting “ of the most abanUninjurd in this vast and hideous « doned course of life." Reck, wild :

with its derivatives, is the lanand at present it stands in the guage of Chaucer and Spenser. Manuscript,

T. Warton.

410

Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person
Of our unowned Sister.

ELDER BROTHER.

I do not, Brother,
Infer, as if I thought my Sister's state
Secure without all doubt, or controversy:
Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is
That I incline to hope, rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.
My Sister is not so defenceless left
As you imagine; she' has a hidden strength
Which you remember not.

2. BROTHER.

What hidden strength,
Unless the strength of heav'n, if you mean that?

ELDER BROTHER.
I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength,
Which if heav'n gave it, may be term’d her own :

409. Secure without all doubt, first passado, and for hope and or controversy:

fear, hopes and fears. Yet where an equal poise &c.] 413. -—squint suspicion.] AlInstead of these lines are the fol- luding probably in this epithet lowing in the Manuscript. to Spenser's description of SusSecure without all doubt or question; picion in his Mask of Cupid, no:

Faery Queen, b. iii. cant. 12. st. I could be willing though now i'th' 15.

dark to try A tough encounter with the shaggicet For he was foul, ill-favoured, and ruffian,

grim, That lurks by hedge or lane of this

Under his eye-brows looking still no dead circuit,

scaunce &c. To have her by my side, though I were

Thyer. sure She might be free from peril where she 415. As you imagine ; &c.] This

verse is redundant in the ManuBut where an equal poise of hope script, and fear &c.

As you imagine, Brother ; she has a For encounter he had written at hidden strength.

'Tis chastity, my Brother, chastity: She that has that, is clad in complete steel, And like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen 420. 'Tis chastity, my Brother, Where through the sacred awe of chastity;

chastity, She that has that, is clad in

No savage fierce, bandito, or moun.

taineer complete steel,

Shall dare to soil her virgin purity. And like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen, &c.]

421. The phrase " complete

« steel” was, "I rather think, a Perhaps Milton remembered a

common expression for “ armed stanza in Fletcher's Purple Is

“ from head to foot.” It occurs land, published but the preceding year, b. x. st. 27. It is

in Dekker's Untrussing of the

Humorous Poet, which was acted in a personification of Virgin

by the Lord Chamberlain's serchastitie.

vants, and the choir-boys of St. With her, her sister went, a warlike Paul's, in 1602. Hamlet ap

maid, Parlhenia, all in steele and gilded peared at least before 1598. arms,

Again, in The weakest goeth to In needle's stead, a mighty spear she the wall, of which the first edisway'd, &c.

tion was in 1600. Hence an exSee El. iv. 109. T. Warton. pression in our author's Apology,

421. She that has that, is clad which also confirms what is here in complete steel, &c.] He has said, s. 1. “ Zeal, whose subfinely improved here upon Ho. “stance is ethereal, arming in race, Od. i. xxii. 1.

“ complete diamond, ascends his Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus &c.

“ fiery chariot, &c." Pr. W. i.

114. T. Warton. and the phrase of complete steel 422. And like a quiver'd nymph is borrowed from Shakespeare. with arrows keen] I make no Hamlet speaking to the Ghost, doubt but Milton in this passage act i. sc. 7.

had his eye upon Spenser's Bel- What may this mean,

phoebe, whose character, arms, That thou, dead corse, again in com and manner of life perfectly corplete steel

respond with this description, Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the

What makes it the more certain moon ?

is, that Spenser intended under And the lines following, before that personage to represent the they were corrected, were thus virtue of chastity. Thus in the in the Manuscript,

introduction to the third book of She that has that, is clad in complete his Faery Queen, compliment• steel,

ing his virgin sovereign Queen And may on every needful accident,

Elizabeth, he says, Be it not done in pride or wilful

i tempting,

But either Gloriana let her choose, Walk through huge forests, and un

· Or in Belphæbe fashioned to be: harbour'd heaths,

In th' one her rule, in th' other her Infamous bills, and sandy perilous rare chastity. wilds,

Thyer. VOL. IV.

425

May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds,
Where through the sacred rays of chastity,
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer
Will dare to soil her virgin purity :
Yea there, where very desolation dwells
By grots, and caverns shagg’d with horrid shades,

428. May trace huge forests, Manners, nor smooth humanity, &c.] Shakespeare's Oberon would

whose heats

Are rougher than himself, and more breed his child-knight to “ trace

misshapen, “ the forests wild.” Mids. N. Thus mildly kneel to me? Sure Dream, act ii. s. 3. In Jonson's there's a power Masques, a fairy says, vol. v. 206. In that great name of Virgin, that

binds fast , Only we are free to trace

All rude uncivil bloods, all appetites All his grounds, as he to chace.

That break their confines; then, T. Warton.

strong Chastily, &c. 423. -huge forests, and un

· · T. Warton. harbour'd heaths,

426.bandite, or mountaineer] Infamous hills, and sandy peril. A mountaineer seems to have ous wilds, &c.]

conveyed the idea of something Perhaps there is more merit in very savage and ferocious. In Horace's particularizations, Od. the Tempest, act iii. s. 3. xxii. 5.

Who would believe that there were Sive per Syrtes iter æstuosas,

mountuineers Sive facturus per inhospitalem

Dewlapp'd like bulls, &c. , Caucasum, &c.

T. Warton. In cymbe

In Cymbeline, act iv. 8. 2.

Yield, rustic mountaineer. 424. Infamous lills,] Expressed

Again, ibid.

; from Horace, Od. i. iii. 20.

Infames scopulos Acroceraunia.

Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, 425. Where through the sacred. Again, act iv. $. 2. rays of chastity,

That here by mountaineer lies slain. No savage fierce, bandite, or In Drayton, Mus. Elys, vol. iv. mountaineer,

p. 1454. | Will dare to soil her virgin purity.]

This Cleon wasi a mountaineer,

And of the wilder kind. So Fletcher, Faith. Sheph. act i. s. 1. vol. iii. p. 109.

'. T. Warton. A satyr kneels to a virgin-shepherdess in 428. Yea there,) In the Manua forest.

script it is, Yea eu’n where &c. -Why should this rough thing, who 429. By gróts, and caverns * never knew

shagg'd with horrid shades,] This