t, but are to be scanned as
iambic, the standard rhythm of the poem. The star that bids the shepherd
fold. So Collins, in his ode To Evening,--"For when thy folding-star
arising shows His paly circlet." See also Measure for Measure IV 2 218.

96. doth allay: doth cool.

97. The epithet steep is applied to the ocean, though really it is the
course of the downward-moving sun that is steep.

99-101. Milton uses pole, as the poets were wont to do, to mean the sky;
and the passage means,--the sun, moving about the earth in his oblique
course, now shines upon that part of the heavens which, when it is
daylight to us, is in shadow.

105. with rosy twine; with twined, or wreathed, roses.

108-109. Advice ... Age ... Severity. For these abstract terms substitute
their concretes.

110. their grave saws. So Hamlet I 5 100, "all saws of books."

116. in wavering morrice. See M. N. Dream II 1 98; All's Well II 2 25.

118. the dapper elves. _Dapper_ is akin to the German _tapfer_, but with
a very different connotation.

124. Love: the Latin Amor, the Greek Eros, and our Cupid.

129. Dark-veiled Cotytto was a Thracian goddess, whose worship was
connected with licentious frivolity.

133. makes one blot of all the air. Compare line 204 of this poem.

135. thou ridest with Hecat'. _Hecate_ was a goddess of the lower world,
mistress of witchcraft and the black arts.

139. The nice Morn. _Nice_ is used in a disparaging sense, meaning over
particular, minutely critical.

140. From her cabined loop-hole peep. As if morn dwelt in a cabin and
clandestinely peeped from a small window.

141. descry must here mean reveal.

144. In a light fantastic round. Recall L'Allegro 34. Comus and his crew
are now dancing.

147. shrouds: hiding-places. See the verb, line 316.

151. my wily trains. _Trains_ are tricks, as in Macbeth IV 3 118.

154. The air is spongy because it absorbs his magic dust.

155. blear, usually applied to eyes, here refers to the effect of seeing
objects with blear eyes.

174. the loose unlettered hinds. The hinds are farm-servants, usually
with an implication of rudeness and rusticity, and they are loose because
unrestrained in speech and act by considerations of propriety.

177. amiss: in wrong or unseemly ways.

178. swilled is a very contemptuous word.

179. wassailers. See Macbeth I 7 64. The word has an interesting
etymology.

188. the grey-hooded Even. Milton is fond of applying the epithet _gra