W

57

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 ever dɩ ell.

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 more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:
Or whether (as some sager sing)

The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a-Maying,
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.

12. Euphrosyne.] This Greek name signifies hilarity or mirth. It was not unusual for a divinity to have one name in heaven, and another among mortals. Euphrosyne was one of the three Graces, the others being Aglaia and Thalia.

Yclept, that is, clept, or called; the old English prefix y being a substitute for the Anglo-Saxon ge. In Milton we have perhaps only two instances of this form of the perfect participle, viz., that which occurs here, and the expression ychained, in his Ode on the Nity, 155. In his Epitaph on Shaxspeare the expression, 'a star-ypointing pyramid' is a license not well warranted, for the syllabic augment was scarcely ever prefixed to the present participle. Dr.smith, in his edition of Marsh's Lectures on the Eng. Lang., Note, p. 232, says: it is possible that Milton wrote ypointed, in which case meaning would be pointed,

the

or

15

20

We

surmounted with a star.'
think that if ypointed is the true
reading, the meaning may still
be having its point directed to the
stars.

the

17. As some sager sing.] As some more wisely celebrate thee. Milton is not here quoting from classical mythology, but expressing in mythological manner the opinion that mirth, instead of being produced by Bacchus and Venus, that is, by wine and love, is more wisely regarded as originating in such pleasure as that of the May morning, when young go forth to welcome the return of spring, and to make preparation for the May-day pastimes. The Graces were usually reputed the daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome; but it suited Milton's subject to make Euphrosyne the offspring either of Bacchus and Venus, or of Zephyrus and Aurora.

24. Buxom, blithe, &c.]-The word buxom, from the German

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity;

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles;

Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's 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;
And, if I give thee honour due,
Mirth, admit me of thy crew,

beugsam, originally signified pliable, yielding, compliant; and such perhaps may be its signification here, although Trench (Select Glossary) thinks Milton's joining of buxom with blithe and debonair an evidence that the meaning common in earlier writers had passed away. Debonair means gentle; and buxom and blithe are associated epithets in Shakspeare's Pericles, i. 1, where Gower says:

Who died, and left a female heir
So buxom, blithe, and full of face.

The buxom air,' that is, the yielding air, occurs oftener than once in Spenser, and Milton twice uses that phrase in his Par. Lost. 27. Quips and cranks.] A quip is a satirical joke; cranks, literally, crooks or windings, here means merry quibbles.

The pretty quips and girds they gave to others were of no less force than the sharpest words and admonitions.'-North's Plutarch, Lycurgus.

'How liked you my quip to Hedon about the garter? was 't not Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, ii. 4. witty?'-Ben

'[Men] able to show us the ways of the Lord straight and faithful as they are, not full of cranks and contradictions.'--Milton's Address to Parliament on the Doctrine, &c. of Divorce.

28. Wreathed.] Curled; forming wreaths on the face.

30. In dimple sleek.] So, in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, i. 1: 'Not the smile lies watching in those dimples, to beguile the easy soul.'

That derides or sets at nought 31. That wrinkled care derides.] wrinkled Care. So in Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, iv. :

Here sportful Laughter dwells, here ever
sitting

Defles all lumpish Griefs and wrinkled
Care.

37. If I give thee, &c.] If the pleasures I have to propose are patronised by thee.

To live with her, and live with thee,
In unreproved pleasures free:
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower 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 sweet-briar, 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;
Some time walking, not unseen,
By hedge-row 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;

41. To hear the lark, &c.] The poet here begins to propose to Mirth such unreproved, that is, innocent, pleasures as he would like to enjoy. The lark soaring to Heaven's gate to salute the approaching morn, is a favourite thought with the poets. Compare Paradise Regained, ii. 289.

45. Then to come, &c.] That is, the lark, when dawn arises, being then to come, deriding, or defying, sorrow.

48. Eglantine.] This is pro

perly the sweet-brier; Milton meant the honey-suckle.

50. Scatters the rear, &c.] Dispels the lingering dimness.

57. Some time walking, &c.] Sometimes walking, not in gloomy solitude, but, as the poem presently tells us, in open sunshine, and where the ploughman, the milkmaid, &c., are about.

61. Amber light.] Amber coloured light.

62. Dight.] Dressed. The clouds are said to be dressed in