pent with a hundred
heads.

607. his purchase: his acquisition.

610. I love thy courage yet, though thou hast spoken most unwisely.

611. can do thee little stead: can avail thee but little.

617. utmost shifts: most carefully devised precautions.

620. Of small regard to see to: of very insignificant appearance.

621. A virtuous plant is a plant which has virtues, i.e. powers or
qualities.

624. Which when I did. The modern English has lost the power of beginning
a sentence thus, with two relatives.

626. scrip, a word in no way connected with _script_.

627. And show me simples of a thousand names. Compare Hamlet IV 7 145,
"no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under
the moon."

634. Unknown and like esteemed: neither known nor esteemed.

635. Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon. See 2 Henry VI. IV 2
195,--"Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon," and Hamlet IV 5
26,--"By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon."

636. The story of Hermes' giving Ulysses the Moly read in Odyssey X.
"Therewith the slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from
the ground, and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the
root, but the flower was like to milk. Moly the gods call it, but it is
hard for mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are
possible."

638. He called it Haemony. _Haemony_ is a nonce-word of Milton's own
coining. He may have derived it from a Greek word meaning _skilful_ or
from another meaning _blood_.

640. mildew blast, or damp. _Blast_ is defined by Dr. Murray: "A sudden
infection destructive to vegetable or animal life (formerly attributed to
the blowing or breath of some malignant power, foul air, etc.)"; and
_damp_: "An exhalation, a vapor or gas, of a noxious kind."

641. Or ghastly Furies' apparition: or the appearance of terrifying
ghosts.

646. Entered the very lime-twigs of his spells. _Lime_ was a viscous
substance, spread upon the twigs of trees and bushes to entangle the feet
of birds. The figure is frequent in Shakespeare. See Hamlet III 3 68, "O
limed soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engaged."

657. apace: quickly.

In the stage directions, goes about means, makes a movement.

661. as Daphne was, Root-bound, that fled Apollo. The great god, Apollo,
pursuing the nymph Daphne, Diana saved her by transforming her into a
laurel tree.

672. this cordial julep. _Julep_ is a word of Persian orig