1011. Heaven, 14, "And, after all, Death doeth his flag advance," Grosart, p. 97. Cotgrave gives "to raise, advance, lift up" s. v. monter. Youth and Joy. Referring to the passage from the Apology for Smectymnus quoted in the note on line 780 we see that later in life Milton made Virtue and Knowledge the offspring of pure Love. Perhaps time had brought to him "the philosophic mind" which Wordsworth celebrates. He was 25 years old when he wrote Comus; 33 when he wrote the Apology. 1012-17. The beginning of Lawes' epilogue, and a series of reminiscences of Shakespeare: e.g. Midsummer N. D. IV. 1. 102, 103, where Oberon says: "We the globe can compass soon, Swifter than the wandering moon:" the same play, 11. 1. 175, Puck's words, "I'll put a girdle round about the earth i.e. make the circuit of the universe: and Macbeth 111. 5. 25, 26: There hangs a vaporous drop profound." There, as here (1017), corner='horn' (cornu); cf. the compounds bicorn, unicorn. 1015. Bowed, because in any landscape the horizon appears to rest upon the earth. The clown in Twelfth Night, III. 2. 65, preferred welkin ("out of my welkin") to element because the latter was "overworn." For etymology, cf. German Wolke, a cloud. 1019. Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (the Masque in which Comus appears) ends with a song in praise of Virtue. The last stanzas run: "She, she it is in darkness shines, "Tis she that still herself refines, By her own light to every eye; More seen, more known, when Vice stands by; In heaven she hath her right of birth. There, there is Virtue's seat: 'Tis only she can make you great, The first lines of this extract may be compared with Comus 373-75; the last stanza would seem to have been in Milton's memory when he finished his Masque. 2. 99, 1021. Sphery. 'Celestial;' cf. Midsummer N. D. II. "Hermia's sphery eyne,” where ‘starlike' (as in Tennyson's “starlike sorrows of immortal eyes") is the sense. Sphery is one of the many epithets ending in y that Keats uses-— 1023. "Hold sphery session for a season due." Endymion 111. There seems to be an echo of this verse in Pope's Ode on St Cecilia's Day, VII. 1023, 24. Masson writes: "Respecting these closing lines of Comus, in which the moral of the poem is summed up, there is an interesting anecdote:-Returning to England in 1639, after his year and more of continental travel and residence in Italy, Milton passed through Geneva. There was then residing there, as teacher of Italian, or the like, a certain Camillo Cerdogni or Cardouin, of Neapolitan birth, and probably of Protestant opinions; and this Cardouin, or his family, kept an Album, in which it was their habit to secure the autographs of distinguished persons passing through the town. The volume itself, rich with signatures and inscriptions and scraps of verse in all languages, is still extant...Among the autographs in it are those of not a few eminent Englishmen of Milton's time, including Thomas Wentworth, afterwards the famous Earl of Strafford; but the most valued autograph is Milton's. It is as follows (all in Milton's hand except the date): if Vertue feeble were Heaven it selfe would stoope to her. Caelum non animum muto qui trans mare curro. Joannes Miltonius, Junii 10. 1639." Anglus. acates 169, 170 acquaint 99 I. INDEX OF WORDS. advance 197, 198 affright 97 agate 187 alabaster 156, 157 allay 89, 90 alley 115 allow 115 allowance 115 amaze 150 amber 118, 119 amber-dropping 181 ambrosial 78 bandite 130 be 143 blason 61 blaze 61 blench 131 bolt (vb) 168, 169 bonne bouche 71 bosky 116 bosom 123, 124 break off 97 canon law 174 cassia 195 cedarn 194 centre 126, 127 character 144 fabulous 142 forlorn 80, 107 foundered 139 fragile 159 freezed 134, 135 fury 155 olering 89, 106 glosse 99 go about 156 gorgoneion 134 his 108, 109 hit 113 horrid 80, 131 horror 80 huddling 140 huswife 166 hutched 162 imbrute 137 lackey 136 ounce 85 lank 178 laver 178 lavish 49, 137 lawn 150 leavy 113 lees 175 lickerish 160, 161 likeliest 88 lilied 64 listen 147 lot 54 main 79 margent 107 meander 107 measure 96, 97 medicinal 154 meditate 147 melancholy 147, 174 mere 174 mincing 192 morrice 92 mountaineer 130, 131 muffle 117, 118 murmur 57, 144 mystery 172 nard 195 navel 143, 144 palmer 104 present 47, 74 presentment 98 prevent 113, 150 proof 63 purchase 151, 152 put by 156 quaint 54, 98, 99 quiet 163 quire 92 rapt 172, 173 |