Notes and Index

NOTES.

discovers, exhibits, displays. The usual sense of 'discover' is to find out or make known, but in Milton and Shakespeare the prefix dis- has often the more purely negative force of un-: hence discover = uncover, reveal. Comp.--

"Some high-climbing hill Which to his eye discovers unaware The goodly prospect of some foreign land."

Par. Lost, iii. 546.

Attendant Spirit descends. The part of the attendant spirit was taken by Lawes (see Introduction), who, in his prologue or opening speech, explains who he is and on what errand he has been sent, hints at the plot of the whole masque, and at the same time compliments the Earl in whose honour the masque is being given (lines 30-36). In the ancient classical drama the prologue was sometimes an outline of the plot, sometimes an address to the audience, and sometimes introductory to the plot. The opening of Comus prepares the audience and also directly addresses it (line 43). For the form of the epilogue in the actual performance of the masque see note, l. 975-6.

1. starry threshold, etc. Comp. Virgil: "The sire of gods and monarch of men summons a council to the starry chamber" (sideream in sedem), Aen. x. 2.

2. mansion, abode. Trench points out that this word denotes strictly "a place of tarrying," which might be for a longer or a shorter time: hence 'a resting-place.' Comp. John, xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are many mansions"; and Il Pens. 93, "Her mansion in this fleshly nook." The word has now lost the notion of tarrying, and is applied to a large and important dwelling-house. where, in which: the antecedent is separated from the relative, a frequent construction in Milton (comp. lines 66, 821, etc.). So in Latin, where the grammatical connection would generally be sufficiently indicated by the inflection. shapes ... spirits. An instance of the manner in which Milton endows spiritual beings with personality without making them too distinct. "Of all the poets who have introduced into their works the agency of supernatural beings Milton has succeeded best" (Macaulay). We see this in Par. Lost (e.g. ii. 666). Compare the use of the word 'shape' (Lat. umbra) in l. 207: also L'Alleg. 4, "horrid shapes and shrieks"; and Il Pens. 6, "fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess." Milton's use of the demonstrative those in this line is noteworthy; comp. "that last infirmity of noble mind," Lyc. 71: it implies that the reference is to something well known, and that further particularisation is needless.

3. insphered. 'Sphere,' with its derivatives 'sphery,' 'insphere,' and 'unsphere' (Il Pens. 88), is used by Milton with a literal reference to the cosmical framework as a whole (see Hymn Nat. 48) or to some portion of it. In Shakespeare 'sphere' occurs in the wider sense of 'the path in which anything moves,' and it is to this metaphorical use