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 aërial spirits live insphered 1

In regions mild of calm and serene air,

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot

Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care,
Confined and pestered 2 in this pinfold 3 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
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be that by due steps aspire

1 In the sphere assigned to them. Compare with Il Penseroso, line 88.

2 Encumbered.

10

"Pester" originally meant a clog for horses in a pas

66

ture," hence, in its verbal signification, to impede."

3 A. pound, pen, fold, or inclosure for confining stray cattle.

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To lay their just hands on that golden key 1
That opes the palace of eternity.

To such my errand is; and, but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds 2
With the rank vapors of this sin-worn mold.3
But to my task. Neptune besides the sway
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove,5
Imperial rule of all the seagirt isles

That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorned bosom of the deep;

Which he, to grace his tributary gods,

6

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,
And wield their little tridents. But this Isle,7

The greatest and the best of all the main,

He quarters to his blue-haired deities;8

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1 "Yet some," etc. St. Peter is represented as carrying the golden key with which to unlock the gates of heaven (see Lycidas, line 110). Milton here means that there are some who by their virtuous lives strive to merit admittance into heaven.

2 "Ambrosial weeds," i.e., immortal garments. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. For “weeds,” see note on L'Allegro, line 120.

3 World.

4 The god of the sea and of all waters. His scepter was a three-pronged fork, or trident.

5" Took in by lot," etc. The sons of Saturn, after the dethronement of their father, divided the government of the world by lot among themselves. Jupiter (high Jove) obtained the heavens and the mainland; Neptune, the sea and its islands; and Pluto (nether Jove), the infernal regions.

6 Separate.

7 Great Britain.

Neptune and "" Pos

8" 'Quarters to," etc., i.e., assigns to the deities of the sea. his subordinates are referred to in classical poetry as "green-haired.' sibly Milton adopted "blue-haired" as more fitly symbolizing the sea waves; perhaps, also, he had in mind the blue-stained Britons who fought with Cæsar.

And all this tract 1 that fronts the falling sun
A noble Peer 2 of mickle 3 trust and power
Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:
Where his fair offspring,5 nursed in princely lore,
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-intrusted scepter.
But their way

Lies through the perplexed paths of this drear wood,6
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 sovran Jove,
I was dispatched for their defense and guard :
And listen why; for I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.
Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transformed,
Coasting the Tyrrhene 8 shore, as the winds listed,
On Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe,
The daughter of the Sun, whose charmèd cup

1 Wales.

3 Great; much.

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2 The Earl of Bridgewater (see Introduction, p. 6). 4 The Welsh.

5 The three children of the Earl of Bridgewater, who were now coming to Ludlow Castle on the occasion of their father's induction into office.

6 This is probably an allusion to the densely wooded region of Shropshire in the neighborhood of Ludlow Castle.

7 The god of wine and revelry.

8 Italian. The story is that on one occasion Tuscan pirates attempted to carry Bacchus to Italy to sell him as a slave. Suddenly the chains dropped from his limbs and he assumed the form of a lion. The ship stood still while vines grew up and entwined themselves round the mast and sails; and the pirates, in terror, leaped into the sea, where they were transformed into dolphins.

9 Exa, near the shore of Tuscany.

Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,

And downward fell into a groveling swine?)

This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks,
With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth,
Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son

Much like his father, but his mother more,

1

Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus 1 named:
Who, ripe and frolic of his full-grown age,

Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields,2

At last betakes him to this ominous wood,

And, in thick shelter of black shades embowered,
Excels his mother at her mighty art;

Offering to every weary traveler

His orient liquor in a crystal glass,

To quench the drouth of Phoebus ;3 which as they taste
(For most do taste through fond intemperate thirst),
Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance,
The express resemblance of the gods, is changed
Into some brutish form of wolf or bear,
Or ounce or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were.
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 sty.
Therefore, when any favored of high Jove
Chances to pass through this adventurous glade,
Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star

I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy,

бо

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1 This genealogy of Comus is purely the invention of Milton's fancy, and

3" Drouth," etc., i.e., the thirst caused by the sun's heat.

the sun god, or personification of the sun.

Phoebus was

As now I do. But first I must put off
These my sky robes, spun out of Iris' 1 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.

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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.3 They come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands.

Comus. The star 4 that bids the shepherd fold 5
Now the top of heaven doth hold;

And the gilded car of day

His glowing axle doth allay

In the steep Atlantic stream;6

And the slope sun his upward beam
Shoots against the dusky pole,
Pacing towards the other goal

Of his chamber in the east.7

Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast,

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1 The personification of the rainbow. It may be inferred that the Attendant Spirit's sky robes were of the colors of the rainbow.

6 " 'In the steep," etc., i.e., in the sloping Atlantic flood, where it curves below the western horizon.

7 46 'Pacing towards,” etc., i.e., returning towards his rising place in the

east.