probably has no special significance in this passage.

31. A noble Peer. This connects the poem with actual persons and
announces its occasion. The noble peer is the Earl of Bridgewater, and
the event which is to be celebrated is his appointment to the
Vice-royalty of Wales.

33. The old and haughty nation are the Welsh.

34. his fair offspring are two sons and a daughter, who are to play the
parts of the Two Brothers and the Lady in the mask.

37. the perplexed paths of this drear wood. Compare Par. Lost IV 176.

41. sovran. See note on Hymn on the Nativity 60.

45. in hall or bower. Hall and bower are conventionally coupled by the
poets to signify the dwellings, respectively, of the gentry and the
laboring classes.

46. The transformation by Bacchus of the treacherous Tuscan sailors into
dolphins belongs to the established myths of that god. But Milton
exercises his right as a poet to add to the classic story whatever suits
his purposes.

48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed; a Latinism, meaning, after the
transformation of the Tuscan mariners.

50. fell: chanced to land.

For the story of Circe, see the Odyssey X.

58. Understand that no such distinct character as Comus belongs to the
received mythology. Milton is a myth-maker.

59. frolic is used as an adjective, as in L'Allegro 18.

60. the Celtic and Iberian fields. The god traversed Gaul and Spain, on
his way to Britain.

61. ominous: abounding in mysterious signs of danger.

65. His orient liquor. See line 673 of this poem.

72. Note that only the countenance is changed.

87. Well knows to still the wild winds. The poem moves throughout in the
realm of romance. The swain Thyrsis is in his own character a
practitioner of magic.

88. nor of less faith. Thyrsis has just been described as a person of
great skill.

90. Likeliest: most likely to be.

93. The transition from the stately mood of the Attendant Spirit's
exordium to the noisy exhilaration of Comus is marked by appropriate
changes in the verse. Comus speaks in a lyric strain, and his tone is
exultant. When he comes to serious business, in line 145, he also employs
blank-verse. The lyric lines, 93-144, rhyme in couplets, and vary in
length, most of them having four accents, while some have five. The
four-accent lines vary between seven and eight syllables, many of them
dropping the initial light syllable, or anakrusis (Auftakt). These
seven-syllable lines have a trochaic effec