176.-loose: loose-mannered, without polite restraint. hinds: peasants. Pan: the god of shepherds and of country life generally.

177.-amiss: in the wrong way, for they misuse their

gifts.

178.-swilled insolence: insolence caused by swilling or drinking freely.

179.—wassailers: carousers, from wassail, to drink a

health.

180.-inform: get information or direction for.

189.-sad: serious. votarist: one who has taken a vow. palmer: one who bears a palm-branch in token of having been to the Holy Land (Skeat).

190.-wain: wagon.
193.-engaged: entangled.

203.-rife: abundant. perfect: quite distinct.
205.-single: perfect, complete, unmixed.
210.-may startle well: may indeed startle.
212.-strong-siding: taking one's side strongly.

214.-girt: surrounded, or simply, "furnished with." 215.-Chastity. We expect "charity," to complete the Pauline trinity, but Milton uses this device to emphasize chastity, the main theme of the poem.

219.-glistering: shining. Cf. Lyc., ver. 79.

225.-casts: grammatically coördinate with does rather than with turn.

231.-airy shell: the atmosphere.

232.-Meander: a river in Asia Minor, whose winding course has given us the word "meander." margent: margin.

237.-Narcissus: a beautiful youth whom Echo loved in vain, so that she pined away in grief till nothing was left of her but her voice.

241.-Parley: conversation. daughter of the sphere: the reference in sphere may be to the airy shell of ver. 231, or

to a theory that echo had "her origin from the reverberation of the music of the spheres." Editors cf. Milton's At a Solemn Music, ver. 2, "Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse."

243.-Add the beauty of repetition to the music of the spheres.

247.-vocal: i. e., which carries the voice.

248.—his: for "its," i. e. of "something holy.” 251.-fall: cadence.

253.-Sirens: the nymphs described in the Odyssey and elsewhere, who lured mariners to their death by their singing.

254.-flowery-kirtled: with garments made of, or adorned with, flowers. The naiads were properly nymphs of fresh water.

257.-Elysium: see note to L' All., ver. 147. Scylla: a monster with a bark like that of a whelp, (hence barking in ver. 258) afterwards identified with rocks on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina.

259.-Charybdis: the whirlpool on the Sicilian side of the Straits of Messina.

262.-homefelt: felt home, keenly, intimately.

263.—waking: i. e., as contrasted with the dreamy pleasure given by the sirens.

267.-unless: supply "thou be."

268.-Sylvan: Silvanus. See Il Pens., ver. 134, note. 271.—ill is lost: is unfortunately lost, a Latinism.

273.-extreme shift: last resort.

277-90.-This dialogue in alternate single lines is in imitation of classical tragedy.

279.-near-ushering: going immediately before. 285.-forestalling: coming sooner than was expected. 286.-hit: guess.

287.-Is their loss important?

290.-Hebe: cup-bearer of the gods, goddess of youth. Cf. L'All., ver. 29.

291.-what time. Cf. Lyc., ver. 28 and note. laboured: tired with labour.

293.-swinked: tired with toil (A. S., swincan, to labour). hedger: a man who mends hedges, a farm labourer. This method of noting time is according to classical tradition, though the local color is English.

294.-mantling: covering (as with a mantle). 297.-port: bearing.

299.-element: air, sky.

301.—plighted: folded. This plight is really the same word as plait (Lat. plicare, to fold) and is to be distinguished from the word of Teutonic origin, plight, obligation, as in troth-plight. strook: obsolete form of struck.

303.—i. e., to be undertaken as eagerly, with such bliss at the end. Note the studiously flattering tone of Comus's references to the brothers.

312.-dingle: a narrow valley or dell.

313.-bosky: bushy. bourn: stream; more familiar in the northern form burn.

314.-ancient: long familiar.

315.—stray attendance: strayed attendants, abstract for concrete.

316.-shroud: are sheltered. Cf. ver. 147 and note. 317.-low-roosted: because it builds on the ground. 318.-thatched pallet: in reference to the woven grasses with which the lark lines its nest.

318.-rouse. This may be taken as an intransitive use, "rise," or lark may be regarded as its object, and . morrow as its subject (M.).

321.—further quest: till further search is made.

325.-In reference to the derivation of courtesy from

court.

327.—less warranted: giving less assurance of safety. The general sense is: This place is so insecure that there is no risk that a change would be for the worse.

329.-square: make fit or sufficient.

332.-wont'st: art accustomed. benison: benediction, blessing.

334.—disinherit: dispossess. So inherit is common in Shaksperean English without the idea of succession.

338.-rush candle: candle with the pith of a rush for a wick. wicker hole: "the wretched wicker-crossed aperture, not worth the name of a window" (M.).

340.-rule. The figure is from a rule for drawing straight lines.

341.-Star... Cynosure. Callisto, daughter of the King of Arcady, was turned into the constellation of the Greater Bear, and her son Arcas into that of the Lesser Bear. Greek sailors steered by the Greater Bear, and Phoenician (including those of Tyre) by the Lesser, in which is situated the polestar. For Cynosure, see L'All., ver. 80, note.

344.-wattled cotes: sheep-pens enclosed by hurdles made of interwoven branches.

345.-Cf. Lyc., ver. 188 and note. 349.-innumerous: innumerable.

355.-head. It seems better to take head as subject of leans than to supply "she."

358.-hunger: of wild beasts; heat: of human lust. 359.-over-exquisite: too curious, running too much into subtle detail.

360.-cast: forecast, foretell.

366.-to seek: at a loss.

367.-unprincipled: ignorant of the principles. 368.-bosoms: embosoms, holds in her heart.

369.-single: mere.

372.-plight: condition, from the same source as plighttd in ver. 301, on which see note.

376-seeks to: has recourse to.

379.-resort: places of resort.

L

380.-to-ruffled. This prefix to- meant first "in pieces" as in to-broken, then it became merely intensive as here, where the meaning is "much ruffled."

382.-centre: i. e., of the earth.

386.-affects: loves.

390.-weeds: cf. L'All., ver. 120 and note. beads: rosary: originally, "prayers," then "little balls for counting prayers."

393.—Hesperian tree: the tree that bore the golden apples, presented to Hera by Gaea on her marriage with Zeus. It was guarded by the daughters of Hesperus, and by a dragon (ver. 395) which Hercules slew in his labour of obtaining the Hesperian apples.

395.-unenchanted: not able to be enchanted.
398.-unsunned: kept in the dark.

401.-wink on: shut its eyes to.

404.-it recks me not: I do not trouble about.

406.—ill-greeting: rude.

407.-unowned: unmarried or unprotected.

408.-infer: reason.

413.—squint: not straightforward.

419.-if: even if.

423.-unharboured: without shelters. The original sense of harbour was "army-shelter," and had nothing to do with the sea.

424.-Infamous. The accent is on the second syllable. 426.-trace: trace her way through.

426.-bandite: Milton's spelling of "bandit."

430.-unblenched. This word combines the notions of "unfaltering," and "not made pale by fear."

432, 3.-Cf. L'All., ver. 104 and note.

434.-unlaid. To "lay" a ghost is to pacify or charm him so that he ceases to walk.

435.-curfew. Cf. ll. Pens., ver. 74, note. From curfew to cock-crow was the period when ghosts were supposed to be permitted to walk.