root Moly "that Hermes once to wise Ulysses
gave,"{16:A} but also Ascham's remarks thereupon: "The true medicine
against the enchantments of Circe, the vanity of licentious pleasure,
the enticements of all sin, is, in Homer, the herb Moly, with the black
root and white flower, sour at first, but sweet in the end; which Hesiod
termeth the study of Virtue, hard and irksome in the beginning, but in
the end easy and pleasant. And that which is most to be marvelled at,
the divine poet Homer saith plainly that this medicine against sin and
vanity is not found out by man, but given and taught by God." Milton's
_Comus_, like his last great poems, is a poetical expression of the same
belief. "His poetical works, the outcome of his inner life, his life of
artistic contemplation, are," in the words of Prof. Dowden, "various
renderings of one dominant idea--that the struggle for mastery between
good and evil is the prime fact of life; and that a final victory of the
righteous cause is assured by the existence of a divine order of the
universe, which Milton knew by the name of 'Providence.'"

FOOTNOTES:

{16:A} It is noteworthy that Lamb, whose allusiveness is remarkable,
employs in his account of the plant Moly almost the exact words of
Milton's description of Haemony; compare the following extract from _The
Adventures of Ulysses_ with lines 629-640 of _Comus_: "The flower of the
herb Moly, which is sovereign against enchantments: the moly is a small
unsightly root, its virtues but little known, and in low estimation; the
dull shepherd treads on it every day with his clouted shoes, but it bears
a small white flower, which is medicinal against charms, blights,
mildews, and damps."

COMUS.

A MASK

PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634.

BEFORE

JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,

THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.

_The Copy of a Letter written by Sir Henry Wotton to the Author upon the
following Poem._

From the College, this 13 of April, 1638.

SIR,

It was a special favour, when you lately bestowed upon me here the first
taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I
wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if
I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I
understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar
phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and
to have begged your conversation