from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_;
from _wes_, be thou, and _hal_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form
of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the
sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to
is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_,
the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir
Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk."

180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_
your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well
illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when
they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright."

184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect.

187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which
attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195.
_As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun.

188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited,"
_Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning.

189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat.
_votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to
one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present
case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a
palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would
naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a
palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is
a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16.

190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically
realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a
venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some
rich man's chariot" (Masson).

192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts.

193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that
in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To
_engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge.

195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is
frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious
darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide
the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is
there