And the fwinkt hedger at his fupper fat;

I saw them under a green mantling vine

That crawls along the fide of yon fmall hill, 295 Plucking ripe clusters from the tender fhoots;

Their port was more than human, as they stood:

291.

The labour'd ox

In his loofe traces from the furrow came.] This is claffical. But the return of oxen or horfes from the plough, is not a natural circumstance of an English evening. In England the ploughman always quits his work at noon. Gray, therefore, with Milton, painted from books and not from the life, where in defcribing the departing day-light he says,

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.

The fwinkt hedger's Supper, in the next line, is from Nature. And Hedger, a word new in poetry, although of common ufe, has a good effect. Swinkt is tired, fatigued.

297.

Their port was more than human, as they stood :
I took it for a faery vifion,

Of fome gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,

And play i th' plighted clouds. I was aw-ftruck,

And as I paft, I worshipt.-] I have adopted, in the first

line, the pointing of editions 1645 and 1673. But perhaps that of 1637, is to be preferred.

Their port was more than humaine; as they stood

I took it, &c.

"As they stood before me, I took it, &c." But we have much the fame form of expreffion in the EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER, V. 21.

And in his garland, as he flood,

Ye might difcern a cypress bud.

See ACTS APOST. xxii. 13. 14. " One Ananias came unto me, and "food, and faid unto me, &c."

Comus thus defcribes to the Lady the ftriking appearance of her Brothers and after the same manner, in the IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS of Milton's favourite Greek tragedian Euripides, a fhepherd describes Pylades and Oreftes 'to Iphigenia the fifter of the latter, as preternatural beings and objects of adoration. v. 246. Ἐνταῦθα δισσὸς εἶδε τις νεανίας

Βαφορεὸς ἡμῶν, καπεχώρησεν πάλιν,
*Ακροισι δακτύλοισι πορθμεύων ἴχνος

I took it for a faery vision

Of fome gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,

Ἔλεξε δ'· Οὐκ ὁρᾶτε ; δαίμονες τίνες
Θάσσεσιν οἵδε. Θεοσεβής δ ̓ ἡμῶν τις ὢν
Αν είχε χεῖρα, τὰ προσεύξατ' εἰσίδων
Ω ποντίας παῖ Λευκοθέας, νεῶν φύλαξ,
Δέσποτα Παλαίμων,

Εἴτ ̓ ἂν ἐπ ̓ ἀκταῖς θάσσετον Διοσκόρω, &
Hic geminos adolescentulos vidit quidam
Paftor noftrum, et receffit retro,

Summis pedum relegens veftigium,

Et dixit, Non videtis? Dæmones quidam
Sedent ifti [bic]: quidam vero de nobis religiofior
Suftulit manus, et adoravit intuens,

O marina Leucotheæ fili, &c.

O Domine Palamon, &c.

Sive in litore vos fedetis Gemini.

Compare Note on v. 265. We have PORT in the fame fenfe, PARAD. L. B. xi. 8.

ems,

Their PORT

Not of mean fuitors.

"Their port was more than human," occurs in Cartwright's Poin a piece written 1636, after the exhibition, but before the publication, of CoмUS. To the Queen, p. 268. edit. 2651. 8vo. A ftately maid appear'd, whose light

Did put the little archers all to flight;

"Her fhape was more than human."

And here, a partial determination of the fenfe at Human, may afcertain the punctuation of 1637. There is another of Milton's expreffions “Turn'd him all ear," which, as it occurs in the PARADISE LOST, he may feem to have borrowed from Cartwright, ut fupr. p. 208.

Whose founds do make me wish I were

Either all voice, or elfe ALL EARE.

But it is below in CoмUS, " I was all ear." v. 561. By the way, one of Dryden's Mad Songs, finely fet by Purcell, feems to be indebted for fome hints to Cartwright.

VOL. I.

I'll lay me down and die

Beneath fome hollow tree:
The raven and bat

The owl and the cat,
Shall warble forth my Elegy.

And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was aw-ftruck, And as I paft, I worshipt; if those you seek,

So Cartwright in a poem called SADNESS, p. 221.
Hark! from yonder hollow tree!

The raven hovers o'er my bier,
The bittern on a reed I hear
Pipes my Elegy.

To the paffage above-quotd from Euripides Dr. Warton adds, "There is an impropriety of character, in the mention of Leu"cothea, Palæmon, and the Diofcuri. Euripides has made the "fhepherd, a barbarous inhabitant of Tauris, talk too much like "a Greek."

And play i' th' plighted clouds. -] The luftre of 301. Milton's brilliant imagery is half obscured, while PLIGHT remains unexplained. We are to understand the braided or embroidered clouds: in which certain airy elemental beings are moft poetically supposed to sport, thus producing a variety of tranfient and dazzling colours, as our author says of the fun, PARAD. L. B. iv. 586..

Arraying with reflected purple and gold

The clouds that on his western throne attend.

In Spenfer we find PLIGHT for a Fold, a filken robe, "purfled And upon with many a folded PLIGHT." F. Q. ii. iii. 26. PLIGHT for folded a participle, "ringes of rushes PLIGHT,' ii. vi. 7. Chaucer, in the TESTAMENT OF LOVE, has PLITES for folds. And PLITE, a verb, to fold, TR. CR. ii. 1204. Of a Letter.

Yeve me the labour it to fowe and PLITE. That is, "to ftitch and FOLD it." From this verb PLIGHT, immediately came Milton's PLIGHTED, which I do not remember any other writer. It is obvious to obferve, that the modern word is plaited. Of the fame family is PLEACHED, in M. ADO ABOUT NOTHING. A. iii. S. i.

in

And bid her steal into the PLEACHED bower,
Where honeyfuckles, ripen'd by the fun,

Forbid the fun to enter.

And in ANTONY and CLEOPATRA.

And he has impleached, implicated, in his LOVER'S COMPLAINT. Mal. SUPPL. SH. i. 752.

I take this opportunity of making a flight emendation, which I find has been preoccupied by Bentley, in PARAD. L. iv. 150. Of the fruits and bloffoms of the trees of Eden.

On which the fun more glad impress'd his beams,
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow.

For

It were a journey like the path to heaven,

To help you find them.

Lad. Gentle Villager,

304

What readiest way would bring me to that place?
Com. Due weft it rifes from this fhrubby point.
Lad. To find that out, good Shepherd, I fuppofe,
In such a scant allowance of ftar-light,
Would overtask the beft land-pilot's art,
Without the fure guess of well-practic'd feet. 310.
Com. I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle or bushy dell of this wild wood,

For IN, read ON. We are to attend to the effect of the fun on the evening-cloud, and the rainbow, or its cloud. This reading makes the image plain.

306. Due weft it rifes from this shrubby point.] Milton had perhaps a predilection for the weft, from a fimilar but more picturefque information in AS YOU LIKE IT, A. iv. S. i.

Weft of this place, down in the neighbour bottom,
The rank of offers by the murmuring ftream, &c.

309. Overtak.] So SON N. xxii. 10. "OVERPLY'D in liberty's defence." Of his eyes. Milton is fond of the compound Various inftances occur in PARADISE LOST ; many, as here, of his own coinage. See over-multitude, below, v. 731. and SON N. ix. 6. " They that over-ween.' ." Where fee the note.

with over.

311. I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood,

And every bofky bourn from fide to fide, &c.] The outline is in Fletcher, FAITH. SHEP. A. i. S. i. vol. iii. p. 163. But Milton has judiciously avoided Fletcher's digreffional ornaments, which, however poetical, are here unneceffary, and would have been misplaced.

I have crofs'd

All these woods over, ne'er a nook, or dell,
Where any little bird or, beast doth dwell,
But I have fought him; ne'er a bending brow
Of any hill, or glade the winds fing through,
Nor a green bank, nor fhade, where shepherds use
To fit and riddle, fweetly pipe, &c.

And

And every bosky bourne from side to side,

My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;

And above we have, "under fome SHADY DELL,” A. i. S. i. P. 104.

312. Dingle, or bushy dell, &c.] Peck fuppofes that busky dell explains DINGLE: and by DINGLE, which he thinks is no where elfe to be found in our language, he understands, boughs hanging dingle-dangle over the edge of the dell. But Peck is to be praised only for his industry. The word is ftill in ufe, and fignifies a valley between two fteep hills. DIMBLE is the fame word. In the Dramatis Perfone of the quarto of Jonfon's SAD SHEPHERD, I find," the Witches DIMBLE: 66 and, a gloomie DIMBLE,' A. ii. S. vii. And in Drayton's POLYBION, S. ii. vol. ii. p. 690. And Satyres that in flades and gloonie DIMBLES dwell.

Again, ibid. S. xxvi. vol. iii. p. 1169.

And in a DIMBLE near, even as a place divine,
For contemplation fit, an ivy-cieled bowre, &c.

And DINGLE, in his MUSES ELYS. NYMPH. ii. vol. iv.

1455.

In DINGLES deepe, and mountains hore.

P.

As to "each Lane of this wild wood," we meet with Wood-lanes, in the MOST PLEASANT COMEDIE OF MUCEDORUS, Lond. 1619. 5to. Signat. E. Written 1598.

When thou art vp, the WOOD-LANES fhall be ftrowed
With violets, cowflips, and fweet marigolds,

For thee to trample and to trace uppon.

313. And every bofky bourne from fide to fide.] A BOURN, the fenfe of which in this paffage has never been explained with precifion, properly fignifies here, a winding, deep, and narrow valley, with a rivulet at the bottom. In the prefent inftance, the declivities are interspersed with trees and bufhes. This fort of valley Comus knew from fide to fide. He knew both the oppofite des or ridges, and had confequently traverfed the intermediate fpace. Such fituations have no other name in the weft of England at this day. In the wafte and open countries, BOURNS are the grand feparations or divifions of one part of the country from another, and are natural limits of districts and parishes. For BOURN is fimply nothing more than a Boundary. As in the TEMPEST, A. ii. S. i. BOURN, bound of land, tilth, &c. And in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, "I'll fet a BOURN how "far to be belov’d.” A. i. S. i. And in the WINTER'S TALE, A. i. S. ii." One that fixes no BOURN 'tiwxt his and mine." Dover-cliff is called in LEAR, "this chalky BOURN," that