Likeliest and nearest to the present aid

Of this occasion. But I hear the tread

Of hateful steps: I must be viewless now.

90

* Comus enters with a charming Rod in one

Crosier, or top of the shepherd's crook, (or head of the river Mamore) being a symbol of the catholic faith.

*On inspecting the map of Cuba, (the prototype of Comus, who is copied from it in

Fig. 184,

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 glist'ring; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with Torches in their hands.

with his face to the north) it will be found that the tropic of Cancer (the charming rod, in one of his hands) comes up close to the capital town of the Havanna there; and the drinkingglass, according to its protototype above drawn and pointed out, comes to the position of his left hand his rout of monsters is referable to the various resemblances of different beasts, which fancy may attribute to the outlines of the numerous small islands which lie within the marshy district on the south side of Cuba called Le Jardin de la Reine, and above stated to be the principal focus of the pestilential fevers, the main subject of the poem. Their apparel (the sea with which they are surrounded) glisters from their lying within

The star that bids the shepherd fold,
Now the top of heaven doth hold,

And the gilded car of day

His glowing axle doth allay

In the steep Atlantic stream,

And the slope sun his upward beam
Shoots against the dusky pole,

Pacing toward the other goal

95

(98) From this and preceding lines it appears that the season now in contemplation of the poet, is the depth of winter when the sun is in the tropic of Capricorn; which, in Cuba, and the West Indies in general, as being the coolest, must be the pleasantest season of the year, or, in other words, that of joy, feast, and revelry.

Braid your locks with rosy twine,
Dropping odours, dropping wine.
Rigor now is gone to bed,

And advice with scrupulous head:
Strict age, and sour severity

With their grave saws in slumber lie.

We that are of purer fire

Imitate the starry quire,

105

110

Who in their nightly watchful spheres,
Lead in swift round the months and years.
The sounds and seas, with all their finney drove,

Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; 116
And on the tawny sands and shelves

Trip the pert faeries and the dapper elves.

By dimpled brook, and fountain brim,

The wood-nymphs deck'd with daisies trim, 120
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep:
What hath night to do with sleep?

Night hath better sweets to prove,
Venus now wakes, and wakens love.
Come let us our rights begin,

'Tis only day-light that makes sin.

125

Which these dun shades will ne'er report.
Hail, Goddess of nocturnal sport,

Dark-veil'd Cotytto, t' whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame 130

66

(129) The goddess Cotytto has for her prototypethegreat lake called Titicaca de Chuquito (vide copy from D'Anville's map in Pl. V. annexed,) which has the shape of a Guiana lizard, or dragon, as noticed in the expression dragon womb:" it is situate not far from the winter-tropic, or night of the year, as marked by the epithets nocturnal and midnight. The torches may allude to the numerous volcanoes of Peru, in the bordering country; and this lake seems to be invoked by Comus, because almost all the rivers of South America which take their course northerly, seem to derive their source directly or indirectly from thence; and one of the most considerable of them, the Amaru-mayo, is called at the beginning of its course by the name Quetoto.