ion: the idea of folly being almost entirely lost.
Chaucer has _fonne_, a fool: comp. _Il Pens._ 6, "fancies _fond_";
_Lyc._ 56, "I _fondly_ dream"; _Sams. Agon._ 1682, "So _fond_ are mortal
men."

68. ~Soon as~, etc., _i.e._ as soon as the magical draught produces its
effect. In line 66 _as_ is temporal. ~potion~. Radically, potion = a
drink, but it is generally used in the sense of a medicated or poisonous
draught. _Poison_ is the same word through the French.

69. ~Express resemblance of the gods~. Comp. Shakespeare: "What a piece of
work is man! ... in action how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a
god!" See also _Par. Lost_, iii. 44, "human face divine."

71. ~ounce~. This is the _Felis uncia_, allied to the panther and the
cheetah. Some connect it with the Persian _yuz_, panther.

72. ~All other parts~, etc. In the _Odyssey_ (see note on l. 52) the
bodies of those transformed by Circe were entirely changed; here only
the head. As one editor observes, this suited the convenience of the
performers who were to appear on the stage in masks (see _Stage
direction_, l. 92-3). Grammatically, line 72 is an example of the
absolute construction, common in Latin. The noun ('parts') is neither
the subject nor the object of a verb, but is used along with some
attributive adjunct--generally a participle ('remaining')--to serve the
purpose of an adverb or adverbial clause. The noun (or pronoun) is
usually said to be the nominative absolute; but, in the case of
pronouns, Milton uses the nominative and the objective indifferently. In
Old English the dative was used.

73. ~perfect~, complete (Lat. _perfectus_, done thoroughly).

74. ~Not once perceive~, etc. This was not the case with the followers of
Ulysses: see note, l. 52.

76. ~friends and native home forgot~. Circe's cup has here the effect
ascribed to the lotus in _Odyssey_ ix. "Now whosoever of them did eat
the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus had no more wish to bring tidings nor
to come back, but there he chose to abide with the lotus-eating men,
ever feeding on the lotus and forgetful of his homeward way." In
Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_ there is no forgetfulness of friends and home:
"Sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife and slave."
Masson also refers to Plato's ethical application of the story (_Rep._
viii.); "Plato speaks of the moral lotophagus, or youth steeped in
sensuality, as accounting his very viciousness a developed manhood, and
the