he Globe _Shakespeare_. ~the Indian
steep~. In his _Elegia Tertia_ Milton represents the sun as the
"light-bringing king" whose home is on the shores of the Ganges (_i.e._
in the far East): comp. "the Indian mount," _Par. Lost_, i. 781, and
Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, xxvi., "ere yet the morn Breaks hither over
_Indian_ seas."

140. ~cabined loop-hole~: an allusion to the first glimpse of dawn, _i.e._
the peep of day. Comp. "Out of her window close she blushing peeps,"
said of the morning (P. Fletcher's _Eclogues_), as if the first rays of
the sun struggled through some small aperture. 'Cabined,' literally
'belonging to a cabin,' and therefore small.

141. ~tell-tale Sun~. Compare Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3,

"The thick-locked boughs shut out the _tell-tale_ sun,
For Venus hated his _all-blabbing_ light."

Shakespeare refers to "the tell-tale day" (_R. of L._ 806). In
_Odyssey_, viii., we read how Helios (the sun) kept watch and informed
Vulcan of Venus's love for Mars. ~descry~, etc., _i.e._ make known our
hidden rites. 'Descry' is here used in its primary sense = _describe_:
both words are from Lat. _describere_, to write fully. In Milton and
Shakespeare 'descry' also occurs in the sense of 'to reconnoitre.'

142. ~solemnity~, ceremony, rite. The word is from Lat. _sollus_,
complete, and _annus_, a year; 'solemn' = _solennis_ = _sollennis_.
Hence the changes of meaning: (1) recurring at the end of a completed
year; (2) usual; (3) religious, for sacred festivals recur at stated
intervals; (4) that which is not to be lightly undertaken, _i.e._
serious or important.

143. ~knit hands~, etc. Comp. _Masque of Hymen_:

"Now, now begin to set
Your spirits in active heat;
And, since your hands are met,
Instruct your nimble feet,
In motions swift and meet,
The happy ground to beat."

144. ~light fantastic round~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 34, "Come, and trip it, as
you go, On the light fantastic toe." A round is a dance or 'measure' in
which the dancers join hands, 'Fantastic' = full of fancy, unrestrained.
So Shakespeare uses it of that which has merely been imagined, and has
not yet happened. It is now used in the sense of grotesque. _Fancy_ is a
form of _fantasy_ (Greek _phantasia_).

At this point in the mask Comus and his rout dance a measure, after
which he again speaks, but in a different strain. The change is marked
by a return to blank verse: the previous lines are mostly in
octosyl