785. ~sublime notion and high mystery~. In the _Apology for Smectymnuus_ Milton tells of his study of the "divine volume of Plato," wherein he learned of the "abstracted sublimities" of Chastity and Love: also of his study of the Holy Scripture "unfolding these chaste and high mysteries, with timeless care infused, that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." 790. ~dear wit~. 'Dear' is here used in contempt: its original sense is 'precious' (A.S. _deore_), but in Elizabethan English it has a variety of meanings, _e.g._ intense, serious, grievous, great, etc. Comp. "sad occasion _dear_," _Lyc._ 6; "_dear_ groans," _L. L. L._ v. 2. 874. Craik suggests "that the notion properly involved in it of love, having first become generalised into that of a strong affection of any kind, had thence passed on to that of such an emotion the very reverse of love," as in my _dearest_ foe. ~gay rhetoric~: here so named in contempt, as being the instrument of sophistry. 791. ~fence~, argumentation, _Fence_ is an abbreviation of _defence_: comp. "tongue-fence" (Milton), "fencer in wits' school" (Fuller), _Much Ado_, v. 1. 75. 794. ~rapt spirits~. 'Rapt' = enraptured, as if the mind or soul had been _carried out of itself_ (Lat. _raptus_, seized): comp. _Il Pens._ 40, "Thy _rapt_ soul sitting in thine eyes." Milton also uses the word of the actual snatching away of a person: "What accident hath _rapt_ him from us," _Par. Lost_, ii. 40. 797. ~the brute Earth~, etc., _i.e._ the senseless Earth would become sensible and assist me. 'Brute' = Lat. _brutus_, dull, insensible: comp. Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 9, "_bruta tellus_." 800. ~She fables not~: she speaks truly. This line is alliterative. 801. ~set off~: comp. _Lyc._ 80, "_set off_ to the world." 802. ~though not mortal~: _sc._ 'I am.' ~shuddering dew~. The epithet is, by hypallage, transferred from the person to the dew or cold sweat which 'dips' or moistens his body. 804. ~Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus~, etc.; in allusion to the _Titanomachia_ or contest between Zeus and the Titans. Zeus, having been provided with thunder and lightning by the Cyclops, cast the Titans into Tartarus or Erebus, a region as far below Hell as Heaven is above the Earth. The leader of the Titans was Cronos (Saturn). There is a zeugma in _speaks_ as applied to 'thunder' and 'chains,' unless it be taken as in both cases equivalent to _denounces_. 806. ~Come, no more!~ Comus now addresses the lady. 808. ~canon laws of our foundation~, _i.e._ the established rules of our society. "A humorous application of the language of universities and other foundations" (Keightley).