Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Who ripe, and frolic of his full grown age,
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,

At last betakes him to this ominous wood,
And in thick shelter of black shades imbow'r'd

"Furies his kindred, who chant a hymn recording the original "crime of this fated family, &c."

Την γαρ στεγην, την δ' ούποτ' εκλείπει
Κορος,

Συμφθογγος ουκ ευφωνος.
Και μην πεπωκως, γ ̓ ὡς θρασυνεσθαι πλέον,
Βροτειον αιμα ΚΩΜΟΣ εν δόμοις μένει,
Δυσπέμπτος έξω συγγόνων Εριννύων.
Υμνουσι δ ̓ ὕμνον δώμασι προσημεναι
Πρωταρχον ατην,

Comus is here the god of riot and
intemperance, and he has as-
sumed new boldness from drink-
ing human blood: that is, be-
cause Atreus served up his mur-
dered children for a feast, and
Agamemnon was killed at the
beginning of a banquet. There
is a long and laboured description
of the figure of Comus in the
Icones of Philostratus, o dawv ó
ΚΩΜΟΣ εφεστηκεν εν θαλαμου θυραις
Xeurais, &c. Among other cir-
cumstances, his crown of roses
is mentioned. Also,
66 Κροταλα,

σε και θροος εναυλος, και βοη ατακτος, σε λαμπαδες τε, &c.” ΕΙΚΟΝ Β. i. p. 733. seq. edit. Paris. 1608. fol. Compare Erycius Puteanus's Comus, a Vision, written 1608. It is remarkable, that Comus makes no figure in the Roman literature.

[ocr errors]

Peck supposes Milton's Comus to be Chemos," th' obscene dread "of Moab's sons." P. L. i. 406. But, with a sufficient propriety of allegory, he is professedly made the son of Bacchus and of Homer's sorceress Circe. Besides, our author in his early

60

[blocks in formation]

cheer,

Beat from his grove, and that defac'd, &c.

See also Jonson's Forest, b. i. 3. Comus puts in for new delights, &c. T. Warton.

60. the Celtic and Iberian fields,] France and Spain. Thyer.

61. At last betakes him to this ominous wood.] Ominous is dangerous, inauspicious, full of portents, &c. B. and Fletcher use it in this sense, Sea Voyage, a. i. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 95. Afterwards Comus's wood is called "this "advent'rous glade.". v. 79. T. Warton.

62. And in thick shelter of black shades] In Milton's Manuscript

Excels his mother at her mighty art,
Offering to every weary traveller

His orient liquor in a crystal glass,

65

To quench the drought of Phoebus, which as they taste,
(For most do taste through fond intemp'rate thirst)
Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
Th' express resemblance of the Gods, is chang'd
Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear,
Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were;

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

63. Excels his mother at her mighty art,] In the Trinity Manuscript he had first written potent art, which are Shakespeare's words, and better. Warburton.

65. His orient liquor] That is, of an extreme bright and vivid colour. Warburton.

See the note, P. L. i. 546. E. 67. -through fond] So altered in the Manuscript from through weak intemperate thirst.

68. their human count'nance,

Th' express resemblance of the Gods,] The same thought is again very finely expressed in the following lines of this poem, where the attendant Spirit is describing to the two brothers the effects of this charmed cup.

-whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him
that drinks,

And the inglorious likeness of a beast
Fixes instead, unmoulding reason's
mintage
Character'd in the face.

He gives us much the same idea in his Paradise Lost, where he

70

calls the human face divine, iii. 44. Thyer.

72. All other parts remaining as they were;] It was at first in the Manuscript, as before. There is a remarkable difference in the transformations wrought by Circe and those by her son Comus. In Homer the persons are entirely changed, their mind only remaining as it was before, Odyss. x. 239.

Οἱ δε συων μεν εχον κεφαλας, φωνην τε,
δεμας τε,

Και τριχας· αυτας νους ην εμπεδος, ὡς
To wages wig.

but here only their head or countenance is changed,

All other parts remaining as they were; and for a very good reason, because they were to appear upon the stage, which they might do in masks. In Homer too they are sorry for the exchange, ver.

[blocks in formation]

And they, so perfect is their misery,

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,
But boast themselves more comely than before,
And all their friends and native home forget,
To roll with pleasure in a sensual stye.
Therefore when any favour'd of high Jove
Chances to pass through this advent❜rous glade,

[blocks in formation]

Or as Mr. Thyer conceives, it
might possibly be suggested to
Milton by Spenser in his bower
of bliss, where relating how the
Palmer restored to human shape
those whom Acrasia had changed
into beasts, he says, b. ii. cant.
xii. st. 86.

But one above the rest in special,
That had an hog been late (height
Grill by name)

Repined greatly, and did him mis

call, That had from hoggish form him brought to natural.

75. But boast themselves] He certainly alludes to that fine

75

satire in a dialogue of Plutarch, Opp. tom. ii. Francof. fol. 1620. p. 985. where some of Ulysses's companions, disgusted with the vices and vanities of human life, refuse to be restored by Circe into the shape of men. Dr. J. Warton.

Or, perhaps, to J. Baptista Gelli's Italian Dialogues, called Circe, formed on Plutarch's plan. T. Warton.

78. when any favour'd of high Jove] Virgil, Æn. vi. 129.

-Pauci quos æquus amavit
Jupiter-

78. The Spirit in Comus is the Satyre in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess. He is sent by Pan to guide shepherds passing through a forest by moonlight, and to protect innocence in distress. A. iii. s. 1. vol. iii. 145.

p.

But to my charge. Here must I stay.
To see what mortals lose their way,
And by a false fire, seeming bright,
Train them in, and set them right:
Then must I watch if any be
Forcing of a chastity;

If I find it, then in hast

I give my wreathed horn a blast,
And the Faeries all will run, &c.

See also above, v. 18. Where
our Spirit says,

But to my task.

T. Warton.

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star

I shoot from heav'n, to give him safe convoy,
As now I do: but first I must put off
These my sky robes spun out of Iris' woof,

[blocks in formation]

Nunc theologicam rationem sequitur, [Poeta scil.] quæ adserit flammarum quos cernimus tractus, nimbum esse descendentis numinis. Calton.

There are few finer comparisons that lie in so small a compass. The angel Michael thus descends in Tasso, Stella cader, &c. ix. 62. Milton has repeated the thought in P. L. iv. 555.

Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even

On a sun-beam, swift, as a shooting star

In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir'd

Impress the air, &c.

Where the additional or conse

80

quential circumstances heighten and illustrate the shooting star, and therefore contribute to convey a stronger image of the descent of Uriel. But the poet there speaks: and in this address of the Spirit, any adjunctive digressions of that kind, would have been improper and without effect. I know not, that the idea of the rapid and dazzling descent of a celestial being is intended to be impressed in Homer's comparison of the descent of Minerva, applied by the commentators to this passage of Comus. See Il. iv. 74. The star to which Minerva is compared, emits sparkles, but is stationary; it does not fall from its place. It is a bright portentous meteor, alarming the world. And its sparkles, which are only accompaniments, are not so introduced as to form the ground of a similitude. Shakespeare has the same thought, but with a more complicated allusion, in Venus and Adonis, edit. 1596. Signat. C. iiij. It is where Adonis suddenly starts from Venus in the night.

Looke how a bright star shooteth from the skie,

So glides he in the night from Venus' eye.

T. Warton.

83. -spun out of Iris' woof,] See Paradise Lost, xi. 244.

-Iris had dipp'd the woof.

And take the weeds and likeness of a swain,
That to the service of this house belongs,
Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
And hush the waving woods, nor of less faith,
And in this office of his mountain watch,
Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid
Of this occasion. But I hear the tread
Of hateful steps, I must be viewless now.

85

90

Comus enters with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glistering; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands.

COMUS.

The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heav'n doth hold,

86. Who with his soft pipe, &c.] These three lines were designed as a compliment to Mr. H. Lawes, who acted the attendant Spirit himself. Warburton.

See the Preliminary Notes. Lawes himself, no bad poet, in "A pastorall Elegie to the me"morie of his brother William," applies the same compliment to his brother's musical skill.

-He could allay the murmures of

the wind;

He could appease
The sullen seas,

And calme the fury of the winds. See" Choice Psalms put into musick, &c. By H. and W. Lawes, &c. Lond. 1648." To this book is prefixed Milton's Sonnet to H. Lawes. I have

mentioned Lawes's verses prefixed to Cartwright's Poems. And he wrote a poem also in praise of Dr. Wilson, King Charles's favourite lutenist, prefixed to Wilson's Psalterium Carolinum, &c. fol. 1657. T. Warton.

90. Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid] In Milton's Manuscript it stands Nearest and likeliest to &c. It was at first, to give present aid; and virgin steps, which was altered to hateful steps. Then follows in the Manuscript Goes out. And the title of the following scene runs thus. Comus enters with a charming rod and glass of liquor, with his rout all headed like some wild beasts, their garments some like men's and some like women's; they come on

« PoprzedniaDalej »