118. ~pert~, lively. Here used in its radical sense (being a form of _perk_, smart): its modern sense is 'forward' or 'impertinent.' Skeat points out that _perk_ and _pert_ were both used as verbs; _e.g._ "_perked_ up in a glistering grief," _Henry VIII._ ii. 3. 21: "how it (a child) speaks, and looks, and _perts_ up the head," Beaumont and Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, i. 1. A similar change of _k_ into _t_ is seen in E. _mate_ from M.E. _make_. ~dapper~, quick (Du. _dapper_, Ger. _tapfer_, brave, quick). It is usual in the sense of 'neat.' 119. ~dimple~. _Dimple_ is a diminutive of _dip_, and cognate with _dingle_ and _dapple_. 120. ~daisies trim~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 75, "Meadows _trim_, with daisies pied"; _Il Pens._ 50, "_trim_ gardens." 121. ~wakes~, night-watches (A.S. _niht-wacu_, a night wake). The adjective _wakeful_ (A.S. _wacol_) is the exact cognate of the Latin _vigil_. The word was applied to the vigil kept at the dedication of a church, then to the feast connected therewith, and finally to an evening merry-making. ~prove~, test, judge of (Lat. _probare_). This is its sense in older writers and in the much-misunderstood phrase--"the exception _proves_ the rule," which means that the exception is a test of the rule. 124. ~Venus now wakes~, etc. Spenser, _Brit. Ida_, ii. 3, has "Night is Love's holyday." In this line ~wakens~ is used transitively, its object being 'Love.' 125. ~rights~. Here used, as sometimes by Spenser, where modern usage requires _rites_ (Lat. _ritus_, a custom): see l. 535. 126. ~daylight ... sin~. Daylight makes sin by revealing it. Contrast the sentiment of Comus with that of Milton in _Par. Lost_, i. 500, "When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial." 127. ~dun shades~: evidently suggested by Fairfax's _Tasso_, ix. 62, "The horrid darkness, and the shadows _dun_." 'Dun' is A.S. _dunn_, dark. 129. ~Cotytto~, the goddess of Licentiousness: here called 'dark-veiled' because her midnight orgies were veiled in darkness. She was a Thracian divinity, and her worshippers were called Baptae ('sprinkled'), because the ceremony of initiation involved the sprinkling of warm water. 131. ~called~, invoked. ~dragon-womb Of Stygian darkness~. The Styx (= 'the abhorred') was the chief river in the lower world. Milton here speaks of darkness as something positive, ejected from the womb of Night, Night being represented as a monster of the lower regions: comp. _Par. Lost_, i. 63. The pronoun 'her' shows that 'womb' is here used in its strict sense, but in _Par. Lost_, i. 673, "in his _womb_ was hid metallic ore," it has the more general sense of "interior": comp. the use of Lat. _uterus_, _Aen._ ii. 258, vii. 499. ~dragon~: Shakespeare refers to the dragons or 'dragon car' of night, _Cym._ ii. 2. 48, "Swift, swift, you _dragons_ of the night"; _Tro. and Cress._ v. 8. 17, "The _dragon_ wing of night o'erspreads the earth"; see also _Il Pens._ 59, "Cynthia checks her dragon yoke."