And sweeten'd every muskrose of the dale!

How cam'ft thou here, good Swain? hath any ram
Slipt from the fold, or young kid lost his dam,
Or straggling weather the pent flock forfook?
How could'st thou find this dark fequefter'd nook?

fhepherd; and the poet has here caught a fit of rhyming from Fletcher's paftoral comedy.

Milton's eagerness to praise his friend Lawes, makes him here forget the circumstances of the fable: he is more intent on the mufician than the fhepherd, who comes at a critical feason, and whose affiftance in the prefent difficulty should have haftily been asked. But time is loft in a needlefs encomium, and in idle enquiries how the fhepherd could poffibly find out this folitary part of the forest. The youth, however, seems to be ashamed or unwilling to tell the unlucky accident that had befallen his fifter. Perhaps the real boyism of the Brother, which yet fhould have been forgotten by the poet, is to be taken into the account.

495. -To hear his madrigal.] The Madrigal was a species of mufical compofition now actually in practice, and in high vogue. Lawes, here intended, had compofed madrigals. So had Milton's father, as we shall see hereafter. The word is not here thrown out at random.

496. And fweeten'd every, &c.] In poetical and picturesque circumstances, in wildness of fancy and imagery, and in weight of fentiment and moral, how greatly does Coмus excell the AMINTA of Taffo, and the PASTOR FIDO of Guarini, which Milton, from his love of Italian poetry, must have frequently read! Coмus, like these two, is a Pastoral Drama, and I have often wondered it is not mentioned as fuch. Dr. J. WARTON.

500. How could't thou find this dark fequefter'd nook ?] Thus the fhepherdess Clorin to Thenot, Fletcher's FAITHF. SHEPH. A. ii. S. i. vol. iii. p. 129.

Shepherd, how cam'ft thou hither to this place?

No way is trodden; all the verdant grafs,

The fpring fhot up, ftands yet unbruised here

Of any foot: only the dappled deere,

Far from the feared found of crooked horn,
Dwell in this faftness.

Compare PARAD. L. B. iv. 789.

Search through this garden, leave unfearch'd no NOOK,

Again, B. ix. 277.

As in a fhady Nook I ftood behind.

VOL. I.

C c

Séquefter'd

Spir. O my lov'd master's heir, and his next joy, 501
I came not here on such a trivial toy

As a stray'd ewe, or to pursue the stealth
Of pilfering wolf; not all the fleecy wealth
That doth enrich these downs, is worth a thought
To this my errand, and the care it brought.
But, O my virgin Lady, where is fhe?
How chance fhe is not in your company ?

506

E. B. To tell thee fadly, Shepherd, without blame, Or our neglect, we loft her as we came.

510

Spir. Ay me unhappy! then my fears are true.
El. B. What fears, good Thyrfis? Prithee briefly fhew.
Spir. I'll tell ye; 'tis not vain or fabulous,
Though fo esteem'd by shallow ignorance,

What the fage poets, taught by th' heavenly Muse, Story'd of old in high immortal verfe,

516

Of dire chimeras, and inchanted iles,

And rifted rocks whofe entrance leads to Hell,

For fuch there be, but unbelief is blind.

Within the navel of this hideous wood,

520

Immur'd in cypress shades a forcerer dwells,

Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,

Deep skill'd in all his mother's witcheries;

And here to every thirsty wanderer

Sequefter'd occurs, in the fame application, PARAD. L. iv. 706. "In fhadier bower, more facred and SEQUESTER'D."

516.

Dire chimeras] PARAD. L. ii. 628. "Gorgons, "and Hydras, and CHIMERAS DIRE."

520. Within the navel of this hideous wood.] So Collins, of Britain,

In the green NAVEL of our isle.

Pindar calls the temple of Delphos," the NAVEL of the earth," OMPAAON óvos. PYTH. vi. i. And in many other places. But it is a common appellation in the Greek writers.

By

By fly enticement gives his baneful cup,

525

530

With many murmurs mix'd, whose pleasing poison
The vifage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast
Fixes instead, unmolding reafon's mintage
Character'd in the face: this have I learnt
Tending my flocks hard by i' th' hilly crofts,
That brow this bottom-glade, whence night by night,
He and his monftrous rout are heard to howl,
Like ftabled wolves, or tigers at their prey,
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate,

535

In their obfcured haunts of inmost bowers.
Yet have they many baits, and guileful spells,
T' inveigle and invite th' unwary sense
Of them that pass unweeting by the way.

This evening late, by then the chewing flocks

540

Had ta'en their fupper on the favoury herb

Of knot-grafs dew-befprent, and were in fold,

526. With many murmurs mix'd.-] That is, in preparing this inchanted cup, the charm of many barbarous unintelligible words was intermixed, to quicken and ftrengthen its operation. W.

531.

-I' th' billy crofts,

So in his DIVORCE, B. i,
Mofes, but CHARACTER'D
See OBSERVAT. Spenfer's

That brow this bottom-glade.-] So Shakespeare, VENUS AND ADONIS, edit, 1596. Signat. A. iiij.

Sweet BOTTOM-graffe, and high delightfull plaine.

540. By then the chewing flocks

Had ta'en their fupper on the favoury herb.] The Supper of the sheep is from a beautiful comparison in Spenfer, FAERIE QUEENE, i. i. 23.

As gentle fhepherd in sweet euentide,

When ruddy Phebus gins to welke in weft,
High on a hill his flock to viewen wide,

Marks which do bite their hafty sUPPER beft.

I fat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove
With flaunting honey-fuckle, and began,
Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,

To meditate my rural minstrelfy,

545

543. I fat me down. -] We have the fame form, PARAD. L. B. iv.

327.

By a fresh fountain fide

They SATE THEM DOWN.

Ibid. I fat me down to watch upon a bank
With ivy canopied, and interwove

With flaunting boney-fuckle.-] Perhaps from Shakespeare,

MIDS. N. DR. A. ii. S. ii.

Quite over CANOPIED with lufcious WOODBINE.
Compare Drayton, QUEST OF CYNTHIA, vol. ii. p. 623.
And their large branches did display
TO CANOPIE the place.

And Phineas Fletcher, PURPLE ISL. C. X. F.

Where th' hillocks feates, fhades yeeld a CANOPIE

Again, ibid. i. 30.

The beech shall yeeld a cool fafe CANOPIE.

And Carew, p. 59. edit. 1651,

-That aged oak

Did CANOPIE the happy pair.

See alfo Shakespeare, SON N. xii. 6.

Which erft from heat did CANOPY the herds.

To which I will add a line from Browne's PASTORALS, which perhaps Pope, a reader of the old poets, might have remembered, B. i. S. iv. p. 74:

VNCANOPIED of any thing but heauen.

See Note on PARAD.REG. ii. 263.

"Nor

545. Flaunting honey-fuckle.-] In LYCIDAS, we have “the GADDING vine," v. 40. Thomfon, SPRING, V. 976. " in the bower where woodbines FLAUNT." It is well-attir'd, in LYCID. V. 146.

547. To meditate my rural minstrely.] Compare the EGLOGUES of Brooke and Davies, Lond. 1614. 12mo. Signat. G. 4.

Ynough is mee to chaunten fwoote my fonges,
And blend hem with my RURALL MYNSTRALSY,

The

Till fancy had her fill; but ere a close,
The wonted roar was up amidst the woods,
And fill'd the air with barbarous diffonance;
At which I ceas'd, and liften'd them a while,
Till an unusual stop of fudden filence
Gave refpit to the droufy-flighted steeds,

550

The whole context is Virgil's "SYLVESTREM tenui MUSAM ME. "DITARIS avena, BUCOL. i. 2. As in LYCIDAS, v. 66.

Or ftrictly MEDITATE the thankless MUSE.

In the next line," but ere a clofe," refers to a mufical CLOSE in his rural minftrelfy, on his pipe. As in Shakespeare's K. RICHARD ii. A. ii. S. i.

The setting fun, and mufic at the CLOSE,

As the laff taste of fweets is sweetest laft.

I had almost forgot to cite in this place Browne's PASTORALS, B. i. S. i. p. 2.

My Muse for lofty pitches fhall not rome,

But homely pipen of her native home:

- And, to the fwaynes, loue's RURALL MINSTRALSIE. 550, -Barbarous diffonance.] PARAD. Ļ. vii. 32.

But drive far off the BARBAROUS DISSONANCE

Of Bacchus, and his revellers.

553. Gave refpit to the droufy-flighted steeds,

That draw the litter of clofe-curtain'd Sleep.] But he makes the horses of Night headlong in their courfe, In QUINT. NOVEMBR. V. 70.

PRÆCIPITESQUE impellit equos.------

It must be allowed, that DROWSY-FLIGHTED is a very harfh combination. Notwithstanding the Cambridge manufcript exhibits droufie-flighted, yet droufie frighted without a compofition, is a more rational and eafy reading, and invariably occurs in the editions 1637, 1645, and 1673. That is, "The drowsy steeds of "Night, who were affrighted on this occafion, at the burbarous diffonance of Comus's nocturnal revelry." Milton made the emendation after he had forgot his firft idea. Compare Browne, BRIT. PAST. B. ii. S. i. p. 21.

All-drowfie Night, who in a carre of jet

By fteedes of iron-gray drawne through the sky. And Sylvefter, of Sleep, DU BART. p. 316, edit. fol. ut fupr. And in a noyflefs COACH, all darkly dight, Takes with him filence, DROUSINESSE, and night.

Mr.