The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and the Prefident's caftle; then come in country dancers, after them the attendent Spirit, with the Two Brothers, and the Lady. Sp. Back, Shepherds, back, enough your play, Here be without duck or nod Other trippings to be trod 960 960. Here be without duck or nod.] "Here are." By duck or nod, we are to understand the affectations of obeifance. So in K. RICHARD iii. A. i. S. iii. DUCK with French NODS and apish courtesy. Again, in LEAR, A. ii. S. ii. Than twenty filly DUCKING obfervants, Compare MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. i. NoD to him, elves, and do him courtefies. And B. and Fletcher's PILGRIM, A. i. S. ii. vol. v. p. 448. "Still more DUCKING?" Again, PHILASTER, A. V. S. i. vol. i. 165. "No dainty DUCKERS.' And in TIMON OF ATHENS, "The learned pate DUCKS to the golden fool." A. iv. S. iii. It is the fame word in OTHELLO, A. ii. S. i. Yet without the comic fenfe. And let the labouring bark climb hills of feas Olympus high, and DUCK again as low As hell's from heaven. 961. Other trippings to be trod Of lighter toes, &c.] TO TRIP on the toe in a dance, feems to have been technical. So in L'ALLEGRO, V. 33. Come and TRIP it as you go On the light fantastic toe. Where fee the Note. So Shakespeare, TEMP. A. iii. S. iii. Before you can fay come, and go, And breathe twice, and fay fo fo, Will be here with mop and moe. Compare Jonfon, CYNTH. REV. A. ii. S. iv. "Both the Of lighter toes, and fuch court guife As Mercury did first devise, On the lawns, and on the leas. 965 SWIMME and the TRIP are mine: euery body will affirm it, "that hath anie knowledge in dancing." And Drayton, PoLYOLB. S. vi. vol. ii. p. 769. Those delicater dames fo TRIPPINGLY to tread. In the Vifion, in Shakespeare's HENRY THE EIGHTH," Six perfonages enter, folemnly TRIPPING one after another." A. iv. S. ii. In ARCADES, V. 99. TRIP no more in twilight ranks. In the MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Oberon orders his fairies to dance after his ditty TRIPPINGLY. A. ii. S. v. But to TRIP feems to have been the proper pace of a FAIRY. As above, V. 118. TRIP the pert faeries and the dapper elves. And AT A VACATION EXERCISE, V. 62. The fairy-ladies, S. v. About him, fairies, fing a scornful rhime, In MIDS. N. DR. A. iv. S. i. The fairies fing, TRIP we after the night's fhade. In Shakespeare's VENUS AND ADONIS, edit. Malone, p. 41, In Drayton's MuS. ELYS. NYMPH. viii. vol. iv. p. 1509. The evening of the wedding day. And in many more inftances. TROD is also technical. As in Jonfon's SAD SHEPHERD A, i. S. vi. A fwain who beft could TREAD Our country dances. See the next Note. 964. With the mincing Dryades.] So Drayton, of the Lancafhire laffes. PoLYOLB. S. XXVII. vol. iii. p. 1183. Ye fo MINCINGLY that tread. The Second Song prefents them to their Father and Mother. Noble Lord, and Lady bright, I have brought you new delight, Here behold fo goodly grown Three fair branches of your own; Heav'n hath timely try'd their youth, 979 Their faith, their patience, and their truth, And fent them here through hard affays With a crown of deathlefs praise, To triumph in victorious dance O'er fenfual folly, and intemperance. The dances being ended, The Spirit epiloguizes. Sp. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Again, ibid. p. 1185. 975 Ye maids the hornpipe then fo MINCINGLY that tread, And, ibid. p. 1187. -As MINCINGLY fhe traces. And in his ECLOGUES, where the word may hence be underfood, vol. vii. p. 1417. Now fhepherds lay their winter-weeds away, And in neat jackets MINSEN on the plain. And Jonfon, CYNTH. REV. A. iii. S. iv. Some MINCING marmofet Made all of clothes and face. And Shakespeare, MERCH. VEN. A. iii. Ș. iv. Turn two MINCING fteps Into a manly ftride. I prefume it is the fame word, applied to the fimpering dame, in K. LEAR, A. iv. S. iv. That MINCES virtue, and does shake the head To hear of pleasure's name. 976. To the ocean now I fly, &c.] Pindar in his fecond Olympic, and Homer in his fourth Odyffey, defcribe a happy island at Where day never fhuts his eye, Up in the broad fields of the fky: All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his daughters three 980 at the extremity of the ocean, or rather earth, where the fun has his abode, the sky is perpetually ferene and bright, the west wind always blows, and the flowers are of gold. This luxuriant imagery Milton has dreffed anew, from the claffical gardens of antiquity, from Spenfer's gardens of Adonis" fraught with pleasures "manifold," from the fame gardens in Marino's L'ADONE, Ariofto's garden of Paradife, Taffo's garden of Armida, and Spenfer's Bowre of Bliffe. The garden of Eden is abfolutely Milton's own creation. For 979. Up in the broad fields of the sky.] It may be doubted whether from Virgil, "Aeris in campis latis," AN. vi. 888. at first he had written plain fields, with another idea. A level extent of verdure. 980. There I fuck the liquid air.] Thus Ubaldo in Fairfax's TASSO, a good wifard, who dwells in the centre of the earth, but fometimes emerges, to breathe the purer air of mount Carmel. C. xiv. 43. And there in LIQUID AYRE myself difport. 981. All amidst the gardens fair Of Hefperus, and his daughters three That fing about the golden tree.] The daughters of Hefperus the brother of Atlas, first mentioned in Milton's manufcript as their father, had gardens or orchards which produced apples of gold. Spenfer makes them the daughters of Atlas, F. Qii. vii. 54. See Ovid. METAM. iv. 636. And Apollodor. BIBL. L. ii. §. 11. But what ancient fabler celebrates these damfels for their skill in finging? Apollonius Rhodius, an author whom Milton taught to his fcholars, ARGON. iv. 1396. Ἴξον δ ̓ ἱερὸν πέδον, ὦ ἔνι Λάδων Εἰς ἔτι συχθισὸν παγχρύσεα δύετο μῆλα, -Pervenere autem fácrum campum, ubi Ladon And Along the crisped shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocond Spring, 985 The Graces, and the rofy-bofom'd Hours, Thither all their bounties bring; That there eternal Summer dwells, And hence Lucan's virgin-choir, over-looked by the commentators, is to be explained, where he speaks of this golden grove, ix. 360. -Fuit aurea filva, Divitiifque graves et fulvo germine rami, Compare v. 392. fomno damnatus lumina ferpens, &c. But beauty, like the fair HESPERIAN TREE Milton fays in the text, the golden tree. Many fay that the apples of Atlas's garden were of gold: Ovid is the only antient writer that fays the trees were of gold. METAM. iv. 636. Arboreæ FRONDES AURO radiante nitentes EX AURO RAMOS, ex auro poma tegebant. See Note on PARAD. REG. ii. 357. 984. Along the crifped fhades and bowers.] I have fuppofed CRISPED to be curled. See IL PENS. V. 50. In the TEMPEST, we have the "CRISP channels" of brooks, A. iv. S. i. Perhaps in the fame fenfe as in PARAD, L. B. iv. "The 237. "CRISPED brooks," which are faid to run with mazy errour, v. 239. So in the FIRST PART HANRY iv. A, i. S. iv. The Severn hides his CRISPED head in the hollow bank." Yet I will not deny, that the furface of water CURLED by the wind may be fignified. In TIMON OF ATHENS, " Crifp heaven" may either imply the CURLED clouds," or curve, hollow, &c. A. iv. S. iii. Jonfon fays of Zephyr in his MASQUES, vol. vi. p. 26. The rivers run as fmoothed by his hand, Only their heads are CRISPED by his stroke. In the prefent inftance, the meaning of CRISPED is plainly to be seen by the context. 988. That there eternal fummer dwells.] So Fletcher FAITHFUL SHEP. A. iv. S. i. p. 163. On this bower may ever dwell Spring and Summer. |