L'ALLEGRO.

HENCE, loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born

In Stygian cave forlorn

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy! Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night raven sings;

There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,
As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert 2 ever dwell.

But come, thou Goddess fair and free,
In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,
And by men heart-easing Mirth;
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,
With two sister Graces 4 more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:

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1 Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the infernal regions. His den, the "Stygian cave forlorn," was on the farther bank of the river Styx, where the spirits of the dead were landed from Charon's boat. The Styx was the chief river of the lower world.

2 The country of the Cimmerii, a sunless region on the confines of the lower world, where the spirits of the dead were condemned to sojourn awhile, ere they were admitted into Hades. (See Guerber.)

3 A corruption of the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon word clipian (“ to call"). It is frequently used by the older poets.

4 The three Graces were Euphrosyne (the mirthful), Aglaia (the bright), and Thalia (the blooming). Classical writers do not agree as to their parentThat they were the daughters of Venus (love) and Bacchus (good

age.

II

Or whether (as some sager sing)1

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a-Maying,2
There, on beds of violets blue,

And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,
Filled her with thee, a daughter fair,
So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jest, and youthful Jollity,

Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathèd smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's 3 cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it, as you go,
On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ;4
And, if I give thee honor due,

Mirth, admit 5 me of thy crew,

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cheer), or perhaps rather of Zephyr (the "frolic wind") and Aurora (the morning) seems best to harmonize with Milton's conception of their character, and especially of that of Euphrosyne (mirth).

1

As some," etc., i.e., as some wiser (ones) sing.

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2 Enjoying the sports of May Day, as was formerly the custom in England. In Old English it was not uncommon to prefix on or "a" to a verbal noun after verbs of motion; as in "We go a-fishing."

3 The goddess of youth, and cupbearer to the gods.

4 Note the reason for calling Liberty a mountain nymph. The environment of mountainous regions has doubtless aided in developing physical strength and the desire to use nature's defenses in the maintenance of freedom. Mountainous Switzerland, with its liberty-loving people, may be mentioned as an example.

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permit." The phrase may

5 The word "admit" is here equivalent to be rendered, "Permit me, as one of thy company."

To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreprovèd pleasures free;
To hear the lark 2 begin his flight,
And, singing, startle the dull night,
From his watchtower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise;
Then to come, in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweetbrier or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine;

While the cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darkness thin;
And to the stack, or the barn door,
Stoutly struts his dames before:

Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill:
Sometime walking, not unseen,
By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green,
Right against the eastern gate
Where the great Sun begins his state,
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight;
While the plowman, near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrowed land,
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale 3

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1 This infinitive, as well as "to come," below, depends upon " admit," in line 38.

2 The English skylark begins his flight before sunrise, singing as he soars upward, and sometimes passing into the light of the early sunbeams before they have reached the fields and valleys below.

3 The words "tell" and "tale" are both from the Anglo-Saxon word

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,

Whilst the landskip 1 round it measures:

Russet lawns, and fallows gray,

Where the nibbling flocks do stray;
Mountains on whose barren breast
The laboring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim, with daisies pied;
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure 2 of neighboring eyes.
Hard by a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two aged oaks,
Where Corydon 3 and Thyrsis 3 met
Are at their savory dinner set

Of herbs and other country messes,
Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;
And then in haste her bower she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;

Or, if the earlier season lead,

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To the tanned haycock in the mead.

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Sometimes, with secure delight,

The upland hamlets will invite,

When the merry bells ring round,

tellan, one meaning of which is " to count." The expression

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is equivalent to counts his number (of sheep)."

"tells his tale"

1 "Landskip," now spelled " landscape," meant originally "landshape," that is, the shape or general aspect of the country.

2 An object of great or general interest. The word comes from Cynosura ("the dog's tail”), the constellation of the Lesser Bear, by which the Phonician mariners guided their course at sea.

3 Corydon and Thyrsis are favorite names given to shepherds by writers of pastoral poetry. So, also, Phyllis and Thestylis are names often applied to rustic maidens or shepherdesses.

And the jocund rebecks sound

To many a youth and many a maid
Dancing in the checkered shade,

And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail:
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told of many a feat,

How Fairy Mab1 the junkets eat.
She was pinched and pulled, she said;
And he,2 by Friar's lantern3 led,
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-laborers could not end;
Then lies him down, the lubber fiend,4

1 Fairy Mab, or Queen Mab, is the fairy that sends dreams. Shakespeare's description of her in Romeo and Juliet, Act i., sc. 4.

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2 The pronouns she" (line 103) and “he” (line 104) refer to members of the company of youths and maidens mentioned above. The telling of folklore legends and fairy tales was a favorite amusement with the country people in Milton's time, and the belief in fairies was very general. These mysterious little beings were supposed to be ever ready to play some trick or work some harm, and every misfortune or deed of mischief that could not be otherwise accounted for, was popularly ascribed to them.

3 The Friar's lantern was probably the will-o'-the-wisp, or, as it is sometimes called, Jack-o'-lantern, -a delusive light which was supposed to be produced by souls broken out from purgatory, or by spirits trying to discover hidden treasures. The "drudging goblin was Robin Goodfellow, a domestic goblin, who did his tasks secretly by night. "Your grandames,

maids, were wont to set a bowl of milk for him for his pains in grinding of malt or mustard and sweeping the house at midnight. His white bread and milk was his standing fee." (REGINALD SCOTT's Discoverie of Witchcraft.) 4 "In the rustic imagination, Robin Goodfellow was represented as a huge, loutish fellow of great strength, but very lazy." The word " fiend,” as used here, means spirit" or goblin," without any necessary reference to his malignant character.

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