Quips and Cranks,1 and wanton Wiles, 3 And in thy right hand lead with thee Some time walking, not unseen, Under the hawthorn in the dale. Quip, said to be the same as whip, a smart saying. Cranks, Warton considers unexplained, and interprets it cross-purposes. The German word implies weakness or sickness. Probably it is connected with wrench. To crank seems to mean, therefore, to bend; a crank, something bent, twisted.-"See how this river comes me cranking in." Shakespeare, I. Henry IV. Act III. Sc. 1. 2 The goddess of youth. 3 "The allusion is general to inaccessible and uncultivated scenes of nature" (T. Warton), not to the circumstance, as Newton thinks, that mountainous countries are favourable to political liberty. Milton thought of the Oreades of Greek mythology.-Warton. The perfect participle is used in poetry for the adjective in ble; so the adjective in ive see note 1, p. 180. 5 The various pleasures of Milton's Mirth are depicted over the whole range of the day, commencing with the morning. A great beauty of the poem is the adaptation of the pictures to the represented times. 6 See note 7, p. 16. 7 Eastern gate" seems a pet expression with the poets. State; see note 1, p. 99. Dight; see note 3, p. 56. It has been suggested that tale means the counting of the sheep. Tale and tell in this Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, * Sometimes with secure delight Tower'd cities please us then, Where throngs of knights and barons bold, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, sense were not unfamiliar in our poetry, in and about Milton's time."-T. Warton. The counting was made at the dawn of day. 1 The pole-star. "In Shakespeare we have your eyes are lode-stars.'-Mids. Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. 1. And this was no uncommon compliment in Chaucer, Skelton, Sydney, Spencer, &c."-T. Warton. Fiddles. If, as I have supposed, it is Chaucer's ribible, the diminutive of ribibe, used also by Chaucer, I must agree with Sir John Hawkins, that it comes originally from rebeb, the name of a Moorish musical instrument. The Moors brought it into Spain, whence it passed into Italy, and obtained the appellation of ribeca."-T. Warton. Ribibe, ribible, may be analogous to syllabe, syllable. 3 Shows, such as those mentioned below. The god of marriage, a frequent personage in masques. The Roman marriage veil was yellow or flame-coloured.-See Adam's Rom. Antiq. (Boyd), p. 403. The torch (taper) of Hymen seems an importation from the East. 5 Sock (soccus) and buskin (cothurnus), the slipper and boot or shoe, worn respectively by comedians and tragedians, are put for comedy and tragedy. Jonson excelled in comedy. These allusions to chivalric and theatrical amusements are supposed to indicate that Milton had not yet proceeded far in his puritanism. And ever, against eating cares, That Orpheus' self may heave his head Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear Such strains as would have won the ear His half-regain'd Eurydice. These delights if thou canst give, FROM IL PENSEROSO.* Hence, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly, without father bred! Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As the gay motes that people the sun-beams; The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. Hail, divinest Melancholy! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, And therefore to our weaker view O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. * Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, All in a robe of darkest grain, Flowing with majestic train, And sable stole of Cyprus lawn, Over thy decent shoulders drawn. The flute was borrowed by the Greeks from the Lydians; as by the Romans from the Etruscans, the descendants of the Lydians. The Lydian music is frequently alluded to by the classical writers. 2 A fold or twist.-Todd. a The Thracian musician.-See Ovid, Met. x. 1, and xi. 1, et seq. 4 The Melancholy Man. Pensioners, for train, attendants: as in the Mids. Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. 1, of the Fairy Queen-"The cowslips tall her pensioners be." "This was in consequence of Elizabeth's establishment of a band of military courtiers by that name."-T. Warton. Stole "was a veil which covered the head and shoulders, worn only by such of the Roman matrons as were distinguished for their modesty."-"Cyprus is a thin transparent tex ture."-T. Warton. Come, but keep thy wonted state, And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure. Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, Thee, chantress, oft, the woods among, I woo, to hear thy even-song; * * Or let my lamp at midnight hour, What worlds or what vast regions hold 1 "Temperance was one of Milton's favourite virtues." 2 Trismegistus, the Egyptian philosopher or deity, the alleged originator of science and art. From his name are derived the English words hermetical and hermeneutics. The immortal mind, that hath forsook Or what (though rare)3 of later age Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont But kercheft in a comely cloud, While rocking winds are piping loud, Or ushered with a shower still Where the rude axe, with heaved stroke, With such consort as they keep, And let some strange mysterious dream Wave at his wings in airy stream Subjects of the Platonic philosophy. The later Platonists included the Zabian astrology in their systems. 2 Subjects of Greek Tragedies. Pall, the robe Palla. Milton's acquaintance with the ancient models rendered his taste nice in modern dramatic literature. Buskin'd, see note 5, p. 185. Tricked, said to be from " triches," (Gr.) hairs; entangled, hence ornamented, dressed;"tricks his beams."-Lycidas, see p. 190. Frounced, wrinkled, twisted, curiously ornamented; alleged etymology, frons, from the wrinkles of the forehead. Civil is applied by Shakespeare to Night, Rom. and Jul. Act III. Sc. 2. Attic boy. There seems a confusion here between Tithonus and Triptolemus. 5 The wood-deity. 6 Shining, bright. -Compare Shak. Rom. and Jul. Act III. Sc. 2. 7 Compare Virg. Ecl. i. 56-Consort, company, i. e. of the bee and the waters. A difficulty is made of at. "The dream is to wave at the wings of sleep in a 'display of lively portraiture.'"-Brydges. |