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COMUS,

A MASK,

PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, BEFORE JOHN EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.

B

THE PERSONS.

THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterward in the habit of THYRSIS.

COMUS, with his Crew.

THE LADY.

FIRST BROTHER.

SECOND BROTHER.

SABRINA, the Nymph.

The chief persons who presented, were

THE LORD BRACKLEY.

MR. THOMAS EGERTON, his brother.

THE LADY ALICE EGERTON.

COMUS.

The first Scene discovers a wild Wood.

THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court
My mansion is, where those immortal shapes
Of bright aerial spirits live insphered

In regions mild of calm and serene air,

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot,

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Which men call earth; and, with low-thoughted care
Confined and pestered in this pinfold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants,

3. Insphered.] Within their assigned sphere. The portions of space occupied by departed souls were called spheres.

7. Pestered in this pinfold.] The word pestered originally means crowded, obstructed. Ital. pesta, a crowd.

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seem consistent with the character of the speaker. Milton had originally written

Strive to keep up a frail and feverish
being

Beyond the written date of mortal change,
Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives,
After this mortal change,

but he blotted out the second line without altering the reference to it in the fourth. Warton, comShirley's Lady of Pleasure, i. menting on another passage in

Your coach whose rude postilion
Must pester every narrow lane.

So all unhoused souls do thither creep,
Nor are they pestered for want of room.
Sandys' Ovid, iv. 441.

A pinfold is a pen or pound for
cattle.

10. After this mortal change.] The demonstrative meaning implied in the word this does not

Milton, says, 'When a poet corrects, he is apt to forget and destroy his original train of thought.' We must, perhaps, allow the words, as they stand, to mean-after this state of mortal change.

Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be that, by due steps, aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key
That opes the palace of eternity:

sway

To such my errand is; and, but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
But to my task. Neptune, besides the
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles,
That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep:
Which he, to grace his tributary gods,

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15. But for such.] The adverbial phrase for such, and the adverb not, in the following line, are connected by the conjunction but, and both modify the verb soil. The construction is, I would not but for such soil these pure, &c.; and, in analysis, the whole phrase not but for such may be treated as an adverbial adjunct to soil.

16. Ambrosial weeds.] The word weeds, which was used to denote garments generally, is still applied to the mourning attire of the widow. Ambrosia signified the food of the gods, and also an unguent said to be used by them, and to be of immortalizing virtue. See lines 840-1.

17. Sin-worn mould.] Sin-corrupted earth.

20. Took in by lot.] On the dethronement of Saturn, his three sons, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, shared the empire of the universe.

Pluto was called Stygian Jove (sacra Jovi Stygio perficere,' Virg. Æn. iv. 638), because he was the chief divinity in the lower world, as Jupiter was in the upper.

22. Like to rich and various gems.] This comparison of the sea-girt isles to gems is probably derived from Shakspeare having called England a 'precious stone set in the silver sea' (Rich. II., ii. 1). The adjective like, which here qualifies isles, is now seldom followed by the preposition to, when that word is necessary to complete the construction. Compare 7. 57.

23. Unadorned.] Naked; not adorned as the land.

24. To grace, &c.] The infinitive thus used makes an adverbial clause that he may grace, &c. In the next line but one an infinitive phrase is used adjectively describing the noun leave.

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,

And wield their little tridents: But this isle,
The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-haired deities;
And all this tract that fronts the falling sun
A noble peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:
Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore,
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-intrusted sceptre: but their way

Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,
The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that by quick command from sovereign Jove
I was despatched for their defence and guard:
And listen why; for I will tell you now

25. By course.] In regular distribution commits to divided government; to each his own distinct government.

29. He quarters, &c.] He apportions to such water-nymphs as the Nereides.

30. All this tract, &c.] The tract fronting the falling sun, or west (sol occideus), is Wales, of which the Earl of Bridgewater was appointed Lord President. His family residence was Ashridge House, a few miles from Tring.

35. Their father's state.] The ceremony of his being instated at Ludlow Castle, his official residence. This is retrospective; as he was appointed to the Presidency of Wales by Charles I., in

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May 1633. The Lady Alice Egerton was only about 13 years of age, and the elder of her brothers about 12, when they performed in the mask at Ludlow Castle.

38. Horror.] Shagginess. See Note on l. 429.

41. But that, &c.] We have here the noun clause that I was despatched, &c., forming an object to the preposition but; and the 41st and 42nd lines constitute an adverbial clause to suffer.

43. Why.] That is, why I was despatched, &c., a noun clause objective. The direct object of the verb tell is the whole of the two succeeding lines.

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