Enter Comus. Comus. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 245 fenfe and elegance, of a most beautiful line, by making a pleasant profeffional alteration. And hold a counterpoint to all heav'n's harmonies. The goddess Echo was of peculiar service in the machinery of a Mask, and therefore often introduced. Milton has here used her much more rationally than most of his brother mask-writers, She is invoked in a fong, but not without the ufual tricks of furprifing the audience by ftrange and unexpected repetitions of found, in Browne's INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, to which I have fuppofed our author might have had an eye, p. 136. She often appears in Jonfon's masks. This frequent introduction, however, of Echo in the masks of his time, feems to be ridiculed even by Jonfon himself in CYNTHIA'S REVELLS, A. i. S. i, Mercury invokes Echo, and wishes that she would falute him with her repercuffive voice, that he may know with certainty in what caverne of the earth her ayrie fpirit is contained. "How or where 66 I may direct my fpeech, that thou maist heare." When the fpeaks, Mercury wondering that she is so near at hand, proceeds with great folemnity. Knowe, gentle foule then, I am fent from Ioue; Commands that now, after three thoufand yeeres Enricht with vocall and articulate power. He then, in burlefque of this fort of machinery ufual on the occafion, prepares to ftrike the obfequious earth twice with his winged rod, to give thee way. And as a fong was always the fure confequence of Echo being raised, a burlesque fong follows, which Mercury thus introduces. Begin, and more to grace thy cunning voice, The humourous aire fhall mixe her folemne tunes This play was first acted in 1600. WARTON. v. 244. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould Breathe fuch divine inchanting ravishment?] This was plainly perfonal. Here the poet availed himself of an opportunity of paying a juft compliment to the voice and skill of a real fongftrefs; juft as the two boys are complimented for their beauty Sure fomething holy lodges in that breast, How sweetly did they flote upon the wings 250 and elegance of figure. And afterwards, the ftrains that "might "create a foul under the ribs of death," are brought home, and found to be the voice "of my moft honour'd Lady," v. 564. Where the real and affumed characters of the speaker are blended. WARTON. v. 249. Hot fweetly did they flote upon the wings Of filence. This is extremely poetical, and infinuates this fublime idea and imagery, that even filence herfelf was content to convey her mortal enemy, found, on her wings, fo greatly was the charmed with its harmony. WARBURTON. The Peons, formed of the Pyrrhic and Iambic, render this pafTage alfo extremely charming and expreffive : How fweetly did they flote upon the wings Of silence. EDITOR. v. 252. I have oft heard My mother Cince, with the Sirens three, &c. &c.] Originally from Ovid. METAM. xiv. 264. Of Circe. Nereides, Nymphæque fimul, quæ vellera motis Nulla trahunt digitis, nec fila fequentia ducunt, Gramina difponunt; fparfofque fine ordine flores Secernunt calathis, variafque coloribus herbas. Ipfa, quod hæ faciunt, opus exigit: ipfa quid ufus Quoque fit in folio, quæ fit concordia miftis, Novit; et advertens penfas examinat herbas, See alfo ibid. v. 22. 34. Milton calls the Naiades, he should have faid Nereides, flowery-kirtled, because they were employed in collecting flowers. But William Browne, the paftoral writer, had just before preceded our author in this imitation from Ovid, in his INNER TEMPLE MASQUE, on the ftory of Circe, p. 143. Call to a dance the fair Nereides, With other Nymphs which do in every creeke, Here, in fimples, we have our author's " potent herbs and drugs." It is remarkable, that Milton has intermixed the Sirens with Circe's Nymphs. Circe indeed is a fongftrefs in the Odyffey: but the has nothing to do with the Sirens. Perhaps Milton had this alfo from Browne's Mafque, where Circe ufes the mufic of My mother Circe with the Sirens three, Amidft the flowry-kirtled Naiades, Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 Who, as they fung, would take the prison'd soul, the Sirens in the process of her incantation. p. 134. Syrens, ynough, ceafe; Circe has prevayl'd. A fingle line of Horace perhaps occafioned this confusion of two diftinct fables. EPIST. i. ii. 23. Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nofti. Milton, as we have feen, calls the Naiades, attendant, on Circe, flowery-kirtled. They, or her Nymphs, are introduced by Browne "With chaplets of flowers, herbs, and weeds, on their heads, &c," P. 144. And the harmony of Circe's choir of Nymphs is defcribed by Browne, p. 145. It is not faid either in Homer or Ovid, that Circe's Nymphs were skilled in finging. WARTON. v. 254. Amidst the flowry-kirtled Naiades.] Doctor Newton remarks here, that kirtle is a woman's gown. So it is in the pastoral writer's of Milton's age, and before. And in Shakspeare, where Falftaffe afks Doll, "What stuff wilt have a kirtle of?" SECOND P. K. HENR. IV. A. ii. S. iv. But it originally fignified a man's garment, and was fo ufed anciently. At least, most commonly, In Spenfer, Envy, not a female deity, wears a "kirtle of dif"coloured fay," F. Q. i. iv. 31. It was the name of the furcoat at the creation of Knights of the Garter. Sée Anstis, O&D. GART. 1. 317. In an original roll of the Houfhold Expences of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, dated 1394, is this entry." In "furrura duarum curtellarum pro Domino cum furrura agnina, "x. s." That is, "For furring, or facing two kirtles før my Lord "with lambs-fkin, ros." WARTON, v. 256. Who, as they fung, would take the prifon'd faul, And lap it in Elyfium.] In the old play, the RETURN FROM PARNASSUS, 1606. A. i. S. ii. Sweet Conftable doth take the wondering ear, And lays it up in willing prifonment. Prifoned was more common than imprisoned. Shakspeare, Love's LAB. LOST, A. iv. S. iii, univerfal plodding prisons up The nimble fpirits in the arteries. And in Beaumont and Fletcher's PHILASTER, A, v. S. i, “ Per"petual prifonment." These are few inftances out of many. We have "lapped in delight," in Spenfer, F. Q. v. vi, 6. And in L'ALLEGRO, V. 136. " Lap me in soft Lydian airs." WARTON. Compare ODE NATIV. V. 98. 66 And lap it in Elyfium; Scylla wept, And all their fouls in blissful rapture took. And Thomson, SPRING. V. 499. 260 Breathes thro' the sense, and takes the ravish'd foul. ED. v. 257. And lap it in Elyfium.] Lap it in Elyfium is fublimely expreffed to imply the binding up of its rational faculties, and is opposed to the fober certainty of waking bliss. But the imagery is taken from Shakspeare, who has employed it, in praife of mufic, on twenty occafions. WARBURTON. The extraordinary fweetnefs of this cadence, heightened by the remaining part of the verfe, "Scylla wept,' cannot be unnoticed by the reader. Such founds as these will "take the "prifon'd foul, and lap it in Elyfium." See Say's Essay on the Harmony of Numbers, p. 127. EDITOR, Ibid. •Scylla wept, And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmur'd foft applaufe.] Silius Italicus, of a Sicilian fhepherd turning his reed, BELL. PUN. xiv. 467. Scyllæi tacuere canes, ftetit atra Charybdis. The fame fituation and circumstances dictated a fimilar fiction or mode of expreffion in either poet. But Silius avoided the boldnefs, perhaps impropriety, of the last image in Milton. WARTON. v. 259. fell Charybdis.] So, in Sandys's TRAVELS, ed. 1615. p. 248. And fell Charybdis rageth now in vain. And in Sylvefter's Du BART. ed. fol. 1621. p. 216. Through fell Charybdis EDITOR. v. 260. Yet they in pleafing Slumber lull'd the fenfe.] So Spenfer, FAERY QUEENE, ITRODUCT. B. iii. ft. 4. My fences lulled are in flomber of delight. EDITOR. v. 261. And in fweet madnefs robb'd it of itfelf, &c.] Compare Shakspeare, WINTER'S TALE. A. and S. ult. O fweet Paulina! Make me to think fo twenty years together; No fettled fenfes of the word can match The pleafure of that madness. EDITOR. v. 263. Such fober certainty of waking blifs.] Guarini PASTOR FIDO, A. v. Sc. ult. Vorrei pur, ch' altra prova Mi feffe omai fentire, Che'l mio dolce vegghiar' non è dormire. But fuch a facred and home-felt delight, Such fober certainty of waking bliss 264 I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, By the way, Milton, I think, has been indebted to this beautiful poem for an expreffion in L'ALLEGRO, v. 54. Roufe the flumb'ring morn; which the commentators have not noted. A. i. S. i. Ite voi dunque, E non fol precorrete, Ma provocate ancora Col rauco fuon la fonnachiofa Aurora. EDITOR. v. 265. Hail, foreign wonder! Whom certain thefe rough Shades did never breed, Unless the Goddefs, &c.] Thus Fletcher, FAITHF. SHEP. A. v. S. i. vol. iii. p. 188. -Whate'er fhe be; B'eft thou her spirit, or fome divinity; That in her shape thinks good to walk this grove. But perhaps our author had an unperceived retrospect to the TEMPEST, A. i. S. ii. Ferd. -Moft fure, the Goddess On whom these airs attend!. -My prime requeft, Which I do laft pronounce, is, O you wonder! Milton's imitation explains Shakspeare. Maid is certainly a S. iv. p. 70. -Hayle glorious deitie! If fuch thou art, and who can deeme you leffe? Which from the ocean drawes her pedigree, &c. Homer, the father of true elegance as well as of true poetry, in the addrefs of Ulyffes to Nauficaa, is the original author of this piece of gallantry, which could not escape the vigilance of Virgil. See ARCADES, v. 44. WARTON. |
