he Thoughtful aspects
of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological
introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the
first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that
Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.

112: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for _Cerberus_ we should
read _Erebus_, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of
Night. But the issue of this union is not Sadness, but Day and
Aether:--completing the circle of primary creation, as the parents are
both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.)

_the mountain nymph_: compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. 210.

_The clouds in thousand liveries dight_: is in _apposition_ to the
preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton.

_tells his tale_: counts his flock; _Cynosure_: the Pole Star; _Corydon,
Thyrsis_, etc.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls; _Jonson's learned
sock_: the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate
comedies; _Lydian airs_: a light and festive style of ancient music.

113: _bestead_: avail.

_starr'd Ethiop queen_: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and
thence translated amongst the constellations.

_Cynthia_: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient
representations.

_Hermes_: called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist
school; _Thebes_, etc.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy; _Buskin'd_:
tragic; _Musaeus_: a poet in Mythology.

_him that left half told_: Chaucer, in his incomplete "Squire's Tale."

_great bards_: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended.

_frounced_: curled; _The Attic Boy_: Cephalus.

Poem 114.

Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of
Charles I.

_But apples_, etc.: A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.

Poem 115.

_concent_: harmony.

Poem 123.

_The Bard_.: This Ode is founded on a fable that Edward I., after
conquering Wales, put the native Poets to death. After lamenting his
comrades (st. 2, 3) the Bard prophesies the fate of Edward II. and the
conquests of Edward III. (4); his death and that of the Black Prince
(5): of Richard II, with the wars of York and Lancaster, the murder of
Henry VI. (the _meek usurper_), and of Edward V. and his brother (6). He
turns to the glory and prosperity following the accession of the Tudors
(7), through Elizabeth's reign (8): and concludes