1011. ~Youth and Joy~. Everlasting youth and joy are found only after the trials of earth are past. So Spenser makes Pleasure the daughter of Cupid and Psyche, but she is "the daughter late," _i.e._ she is possible only to the purified soul. See also note on l. 1004. 1012. ~my task~, _i.e._ the task alluded to in line 18. This line is an adverbial clause = Now that (or _because_) my task is smoothly done. 1013. The Spirit's task being finished he is free to soar where he pleases. There seems to be implied the injunction that mankind can by virtue alone attain to the same spiritual freedom. 1014. ~green earth's end~. The world as known to the ancients did not extend much beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The Cape Verd Islands, which lie outside these straits, may be here referred to: comp. _Par. Lost_, viii. 630: "But I can now no more; the parting sun Beyond the earth's green Cape and Verdant Isles Hesperean sets, my signal to depart." 1015. ~bowed welkin~: the meaning of the line is, "Where the arched sky curves slowly towards the horizon." _Welkin_ is, radically, "the region of clouds," A.S. _wolcnu_, clouds. 1017. ~corners of the moon~, _i.e._ its horns. The crescent moon is said to be 'horned' (Lat. _cornu_, a horn). Comp. the lines in _Macbeth_, iii. 5. 23, 24: "Upon the corners of the moon There hangs a vaporous drop profound." 1020. ~She can teach ye how to climb~, etc. Compare Jonson's song to Virtue: "Though a stranger here on earth In heaven she hath her right of birth. There, there is Virtue's seat: Strive to keep her your own; 'Tis only she can make you great, Though place here make you known." 1021. ~sphery chime~, _i.e._ the music of the spheres. "To climb higher than the sphery chime" means to ascend beyond the spheres into the empyrean or true heaven--the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God's presence. See note on "the starry quire," line 112. 'Chime' is strictly 'harmony,' as in "silver _chime_," _Hymn Nat._ 128: the word is cognate with _cymbal_. 1022, 3. ~if Virtue feeble were~, etc. A triumphant expression of that confidence in the invincibleness of virtue, when aided by Divine Providence, and therefore a fitting conclusion of the whole masque. Milton's whole life reveals his unshaken belief in the truth expressed in the last two lines of his _Comus_. INDEX TO THE NOTES. A. Acheron, 604. Adonis, 999. Adventurous, 79. Advice, 108; advised, 755. Affects, 386. Alabaster, 660. All, 714, 981. All ear, 560. Alley, 311, 990. All-giver, 723. All to-ruffled, 380. Amber-dropping, 863. Ambrosial, 16. Amiss, 177. Apace, 657. Arbitrate, 411. Asphodel, 838. Assays, 972. Assyrian Queen, 1002. Ay me, 511. Azurn, 893. B. Backward, 817. Baited, 162. Bandite, 426. Be, 12, 519. Benison, 332. Beryl, 933. Beseeming, 769. Blank, 452. Blissful, 1010. Blue-haired, 29. Blow, 993.