Where perhaps some beauty lies,*
The cynosure of neighb'ring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis met
Are at their savory dinner set

Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;

And then in haste her bower* she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves,
Or, if the earlier season lead,
To the tanned haycock in the mead.
Sometimes with secure* delight
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs sound

To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade;

71. lies, dwells, resides.

72. cynosure, any object that strongly

attracts attention.

by Theo'critus; hence, a country lass in general.

83. secure, free from care.

66

75. Corydon and Thyr'sis, names of 84. upland hamlets. Upland is

shepherds, used by Virgil.

77. messes,

dishes of food.

78. Phyllis, the name of a country girl

that figures in Virgil's Eclogues;
hence meant to typify any rus-
tic maiden.

So. Thes'tylis, a female slave mentioned

here used, not in the primary sense the meaning is country

hamlets as contrasted with the "Towered cities" mentioned in line 109.

86. rebecs, a stringed instrument of the fiddle kind.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-72. The cynosure, etc. What figure of speech is this? (See Def. 20.)-What is the derivation of "cynosure ?"

73-82. Hard by... mead. Is this a period or a loose sentence? (See Defs. 57, 58.)—Change this sentence into the prose order.

75-80. Contrast the allusions in these lines with those in lines 92-106. Which are classical? Which are derived from old English folk-lore?

83. secure. How does the meaning here differ from the modern sense? 83-108, and 109-116. In the former passage we have a picture of rustic pleasures in the upland hamlets: what contrasting pictures have we in the latter passage?

And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail;
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told of many a feat:
How fairy Mab the junkets* eat;
She was pinched and pulled, she said;
And he, by friar's lantern* led;
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-laborers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubbar* fiend,
And, stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,

By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.
Towered cities please us then,

And the busy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold,
In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold,

94. Mab, the queen of the fairies; 97. Tells... drudging goblin. Supply

junkets, sweetmeats, dainties.

95, 96. She... he: that is, some of the story-tellers.

96. And he... led: that is, he (one of the story-tellers) recounts that "he was led by," etc. There is said to be here an error in

he (that is, the last story-teller) as subject of "tells." By "drudging goblin" is meant a Robin Goodfellow, a domestic fairy that would do any kind of drudging work for a bowl of milk.

Milton's folklore: “Friar 105. he flings: that is, he flings him

Rush haunted houses, not
fields," and the sprite that
played the prank referred to
must have been Jack-o'-the-
Lanthorn, or Will-o'-the-Wisp.

self; he rushes.

109. then: that is, at some other time. 112. weeds, garments; triumphs, public shows or spectacles, as pageants, tournaments, etc.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-107, 108. Thus done. . . asleep. Analyze this sentence.

With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit or arms, while both contend
To win her grace whom all commend.
There let Hymen oft appear

In saffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask and antique pageantry;
Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson's learned sock be on,

Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever, against eating cares,

115

120

125

Lap me in soft Lydian airs,

Married to immortal verse

Such as the meeting soul may pierce

119. pomp, solemn procession.
120. mask, a masquerade.
124. If Jonson's learnéd sock: that is,
if one of Ben Jonson's comedies
be playing; sock, a low-heeled
shoe worn by comedians in
ancient times.

113. store of ladies, many ladies.
114. Rain influence. According to the
doctrine of astrology, the rays
or aspects flowing upon (Lat.
influere, to flow upon) men ex-
ercised a mysterious power over
their fortunes: hence the mod-
ern meaning of “influence." In 128.
the passage above, the word is
used in its original sense.

117. Hymen, the god of marriage.

Lydian airs. Of the three modes or styles of Greek music, the "Lydian" was the soft and voluptuous.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-113. whose bright eyes, etc. Observe the splendor of the imagery. What is the figure of speech, and from what is it taken? (See note on "influence.")

124. Jonson's learned sock. Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote tragedies as well as comedies. Can you tell why it is befitting in this poem to refer to him exclusively as a writer of comedies?-Contrast with the "gorgeous Tragedy" in Il Penseroso (line 88, etc., page 60, of this book).

125, 126. sweetest Shakespeare... wood-notes wild. Do you think that "sweetest" and "warbling his native wood-notes," etc., are adequate expressions to apply to the greatest literary artist that the world has ever seen?

130

In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out
With wanton heed, and giddy cunning,
The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony;

That Orpheus' self may heave his head

From golden slumber on a bed

Of heaped Elysian flowers, and hear

Such strains as would have won the ear

Of Pluto to have quite set free

His half-regained Eurydice.
These delights if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

131. bout, a bend or turn-here a musical passage.

133. wanton, sportive, flying free. In this line the adjective describes the appearance, the noun the reality.

137-142. Orpheus'... Euryd ́ice.

Or

jects.

His wife, Eurydice, having died, he followed her into the infernal region, where the god Pluto was so moved by the music that Orpheus almost succeeded in carrying her back to earth.

pheus, son of Apollo, who, with 139. Elysian, pertaining to Elysium,

the music of his lyre, had the

the abode of the blessed after death.

power to move inanimate ob

LITERARY ANALYSIS. 137-142. That Orpheus' self... Eurydice. What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 34.) It is in Milton's best style-rich, chaste, and classic.

127-144. Commit to memory this splendid passage.

NOTE ON THE VOCABULARY.-Ninety per cent. of the words in L'Allegro are of Anglo-Saxon origin-proper names being excluded and repetition of words counted.

135

140

NOTES.

II-IL PENSEROSO.

Hence, vain deluding joys,

The brood of Folly without father bred!
How little you bestead,*

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys.

Dwell in some idle brain,

And fancies fond* with gaudy shapes possess,
As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams,
Or likest hovering dreams,

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
But hail, thou goddess sage and holy,
Hail, divinest Melancholy,

Whose saintly visage is too bright

To hit the sense of human sight,

And therefore to our weaker view

O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue-
Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,

Or that starred Ethiop queen that strove

To set her beauty's praise above

The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.

3. bestead, avail.

6. fond, foolish.

very lovely.-beseem, seem fit

for.

10. pensioners, retinue, followers.—Mor- 19–21. that starred Ethiop queen, etc.

pheus, the son of Sleep, and the
god of dreams.

14. hit, meet, touch; to strike.
16. O'erlaid with black: that is, darken-

ed in visage.

18. Prince Memnon's sister. Memnon was an Ethiopian prince mentioned by Homer. He was celebrated for his beauty. The "sister" was Hem'era, and is

The allusion is to Cassiope'a, wife of Cepheus, King of Ethiopia. The usual story is that it was the beauty of her daughter Androm'eda that she declared to surpass that of the "seanymphs" (Nereides). Cassiopea, as also her daughter, was "starred," that is, placed among the constellations after death.

=

also supposed to have been 21. their powers their divinity.

'This is an "allusion” in the proper sense of the word—that is to say, it is an oblique, or indirect, reference. The word is often misapplied to direct reference or mention.

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