Had by him, ere he parted thence, a fon

Much like his father, but his mother more,

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus nam'd:

53. With ivy berries wreath'd.-] Nonnus calls Bacchus xoguucopópos. B. xiv. And Ovid, FAST. i. 393.

Fefta CORYMBIFERI celebrabas, Græcia, Bacchi.

See alfo our author, EL. vi. 15.

57. Much like his father.-] Some of the Greek writers join Comus with Bacchus. See Note on v.

58.

58.-And Comus nam'd.] Doctor Newton obferves, that Comus is a deity of Milton's own making. But if not a natural and easy personification, by our author, of the Greek KOMOΣ, Comeffatio, it should be remembered, that CoмUS is diftinctly and most fublimely perfonified in the AGAMEMNON of Eschylus, edit. Stanl. p. 376. v. 1195. Where fays Caffandra, enumerating in her vaticinal ravings the horrours that haunted her house, "horrid band, who fing of evil things, will never forsake this " house. Behold, Coмus, the drinker of human blood, and fired "with new rage, ftill remains within the house, being fent forward "in an unlucky hour by the Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original crime of this fated family, &c."

86

That

COMUS is here the god of riot and intemperance, and he has affumed new boldness from drinking human blood: that is, because Atreus ferved up his murthered children for a feaft, and Agamemnon was killed at the beginning of a banquet. There is a long and laboured description of the figure of CoMUS in the Icones of Philoftratus, Ο δαίμων ὁ ΚΩΜΟΣ ἐφέσηκεν ἐν θαλά we dúgais xevoaïs, &c. Among other circumftances, his crown of rofes is mentioned. Alfo, σε Κρόταλα, καὶ θρόος ἔναυλος, καὶ βοὴ ἡ " araxles

Who ripe and frolick of his full grown age,
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,
At laft betakes him to this ominous wood,
And in thick fhelter of black fhades embowr'd
Excels his mother at her mighty art,

Offering to every weary traveller
His orient liquor in a crystal glass,

60

65

κι ἄτακος, λαμπάδες τὲ, &ς,” EIKON. B. i. p. 733. feq. edit. Parif. 1608. fol. Compare Erycius Puteanus's CoмUS, a VISION, written 1608. It is remarkable, that Coмus makes no figure in the Roman literature.

Peck fuppofes Milton's Coмus to be CHEMOS, "th' obfcene "dread of Moab's fons." PARAD. L. B. i. 406. But, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is profeffedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's forcerefs Circe. Befides, our author in his early poetry, and he was now only twenty fix years old, is generally more claffical and lefs fcriptural, than in pieces written after he had been deeply tinctured with the bible.

It must not, in the mean time, here be omitted, that Coмus the god of cheer," had been before a dramatic perfonage in one of Jonfon's MASQUES before the Court, 1619. An immenfe cup is carried before him, and he is crowned with roses and other flowers, &c. vol. vi. 29. His attendants carry javelins wreathed with ivy. He enters, riding in triumph from a grove of ivy, to the wild mufic of flutes, tabors and cymbals. At length the grove of ivy is deftroyed, p. 35.·

And the voluptuous CoмUs, god of cheer,

Beat from his grove, and that defac'd, &c.

See alfo Jonfon's FOREST, B. i. 3.

COMUS

COмus puts in for new delights, &c.

60. Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields.] IBERIAN needs not to be explained. As to CELTIC, part of France was called Celtica a country occupied by the Celtes. As in PARAD. LOST, B. i. 519.

-With Saturn old,

Fled over Adria to the Hefperian fields,

And o'er the CELTIC roam'd the utmost ifles,

61. See Note on PAR. REG. iv. 481.

65. -Orient liquor.] Richly bright, from the radiance of the Eaft. So PARAD. L. i. 546. "Banners with ORIENT CO"lours waving." It was a very common description of Colour, and had long ago become literal even in the plaineft profe. In old agreements of glass painters for churches, they bargain to execute

their

To quench the drouth of Phoebus, which as they tafte,
(For most do taste through fond intemp'rate thirst,
Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
Th' express resemblance of the Gods, is chang'd
Into fome brutish form of wolf, or bear,
Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;
And they, so perfect is their misery,

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,

70°

But boast themselves more comely than before; 75-
And all their friends and native home forget,

To roll with pleasure in a fenfual fty.
Therefore, when any favour'd of high Jove,
Chances to pass through this adventrous glade,

their work in orient colours. More inftances occur in the PARADISE LOST. See Thyer's Note against Bentley, iii. 507.

67. For moft do taste through fond intemp'rate thirft.] Thus Ulyffes, taking the charmed cup from Circe. Ovid, METAM. xiv. 276.

-Accipimus facra data pocula dextra,

Quæ fimul ARENTI SITIENTES haufimus ore, &c. 74.-Disfigurement.] PARAD. L. xi. 521.

DISFIGURING not God's likeness, but their own.

And, iv. 127. of Satan.

Saw him DISFIGUR'D, more than could befall
Spirit of happy fort.---

75. But boast themselves.-] He certainly alludes to that fine fatire in a dialogue of Plutarch, OPP. Tom. ii. Francof. fol. 1620. p. 985. Where fome of Ulyffes's companions, difgufted with the vices and vanities of human life, refuse to be restored by Circe into the shape of men. Dr. J. WARTON.

Or, perhaps, to J. Baptifta Gelli's Italian Dialogues, called CIRCE, formed on Plutarch's plan.

77. To roll with pleasure in a fenfual fty.] Milton applies the fame fable, in the fame language, to Tiberius. PARADISE REG. iv. 100.

-Expell this MONSTER from his throne,

Now made a STY.

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star

I shoot from heav'n, to give him fafe convoy,

78. Therefore when any favour'd of high Jove

8a

Chances to pass through this adventrous glade,] The SPIRIT in COMUS is the SATYRE in Fletcher's FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. He is fent by Pan to guide fhepherds paffing through a forest by moonlight, and to protect innocence in diftrefs. A. iii. S. i. vol. iii. p. 145.

But to my charge. Here muft I stay
To fee what mortals lose their way,
And by a falfe fire, seeming bright,
Train them in, and set them right:
Then muft I watch if any be
Forcing of a chastity;

If I find it, then in haft

I give my wreathed horn a blast,
And the Faeries all will run, &c.

See also above, v. 18. Where our Spirit fays,

80. Swift as the Sparkle of a glancing ftar.] There are few finer comparisons that lie in fo fmall a compafs. The angel Michael thus defcends in Taffo, Stella cader, &c. ix. 62. Milton has repeated the thought in PARAD. L. B. iv. 555.

Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even
On a fun-beam, swIFT, as a SHOOTING STAR
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir'd
Imprefs the air, &c.

Where the additional or confequential circumstances heighten and illuftrate the shooting ftar, and therefore contribute to convey a ftronger image of the descent of Uriel. But the poet there speaks: and in this addrefs of the Spirit, any adjunctive digreffions of that kind, would have been improper and without effect. I know not, that the idea of the rapid and dazzling descent of a celestial being is intended to be impreffed in Homer's comparison of the descent of Minerva, applied by the commentators to this paffage of CoMUS. See IL. iv. 74. The ftar to which Minerva is compared, emits fparkles, but is stationary; it does not fall from its place. It is a bright portentous meteor, alarming the world. And its fparkles, which are only accompaniments, are not fo introduced as to form the ground of the fimilitude. Shakespeare has the fame. thought, but with a more complicated allufion, in VENUS AND ADONIS, edit. 1596. Signat. C. iiij. It is where Adonis fuddenly tarts from Venus in the night.

Looke

As now I do: But first I must put off
These my sky robes spun out of Iris woof,
And take the weeds and likeness of a swain,
That to the service of this houfe belongs,

Who with his foft pipe, and smooth-dittied fong,

Looke how a bright star SHOOTETH from the skie,

So glides he in the night from Venus' eye.

Compare PAR. REG. iv. 619.

85

By the way, the fiction of Uriel's descent and ascent by a funbeam, is in Drayton's Legend of Robert D. of Normandy, ft. 43. As on the fun-beams gloriously I ride,

By them I mount, and down by them I slide.

Young has adapted this idea to his own peculiar caft of conception and of compofition, N. THOUGHTS, ix.

Perhaps a thousand demigods defcend

On every beam we fee, to walk with men.

83. These my fky robes Spun out of Iris woof.] So our author of the archangel's military robe. PARAD. L. xi. 244.

-Iris had dipt the woof,

Mr. Steevens fuggefts, that the vulgar phrase Irish ftitch is a corruption from Iris. Milton has frequent allufions to the colours of the rainbow. TRUTH and JUSTICE are not only orbed in a rainbow, but are apparalled in its colours. ODE ON NATIV. ft.XV. 85. And take the weeds and likeness of a fain

That to the fervice of this house belongs.] Henry Lawes, the musician, acted the part of the SPIRIT. He taught mufic in lord Bridgewater's family, and the Lady Alice, who played the LADY in our Mask, and excelled in finging, was his scholar, See PRELIMINARY NOTES.

86. Who with his foft pipe, and fmooth-dittied fong,

Well knows to fill the wild winds when they roar,

And hub the waving woods.- -] Lawes himself, no bad poet, in "A Paftorall Elegie to the memorie of his brother Wil"liam," applies the fame compliment to his brother's musical skill. Weep, fhepherd swaines!

For him that was the glorie of your plaines.
He could allay the murmures of the wind;
He could appease

The fullen feas,

And calme the fury of the winds.

This is printed among "CHOICE PSALMES put into Mufick, &c.

By