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 In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, 5 Which men call earth; and, with low-thoughted care 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. 10 seem consistent with the character of the speaker. Milton had originally written Strive to keep up a frail and feverish Beyond the written date of 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 So all unhoused souls do thither creep, A pinfold is a pen or pound for 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. sway To such my errand is; and, but for such, 15 20 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, Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood, 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 25 30 35 40 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. |