Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus
And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_
whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_.
~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it
cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc.

846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious,
like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite
called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the
current verb is _beshrew_.

847. ~vialed~, contained in _phials_.

850. ~garland wreaths~. A garland is a wreath, but we may take the phrase
to mean 'wreathed garlands': comp. "twisted braids," l. 862.

852. ~old swain~, _i.e._ Meliboeus (l. 862). "But neither Geoffrey of
Monmouth nor Spenser has the development of the legend" (Masson).

853. ~clasping charm~: see l. 613, 660.

854. ~warbled song~: comp. _Arc._ 87, "touch the _warbled_ string"; _Son._
xx. 12, "_Warble_ immortal notes."

857. ~This will I try~, _i.e._ to invoke her rightly in song.

858. ~adjuring~, charging by something sacred and venerable. The
adjuration is contained in lines 867-889, which, in Milton's MS., are
directed "to be said," not sung, and in the Bridgewater MS. "to sing or
not." From the latter MS. it would appear that these lines were sung as
a kind of trio by Lawes and the two brothers.

863. ~amber-dropping~: see note, l. 333; and comp. l. 106, where the idea
is similar, warranting us in taking 'amber-dropping' as a compound
epithet = dropping amber, and not (as some read) 'amber' and 'dropping.'
_Amber_ conveys the ideas of luminous clearness and fragrance: see
_Sams. Agon._ 720, "_amber_ scent of odorous perfume."

865. ~silver lake~, the Severn. Virgil has the Lat. _lacus_ in the sense
of 'a river.'

868. ~great Oceanus~, Gk. +Okeanon te megan+. The early Greeks regarded
the earth as a flat disc, surrounded by a perpetually flowing river
called Oceanus: the god of this river was also called Oceanus, and
afterwards the name was applied to the Atlantic. Hesiod, Drayton, and
Jonson have all applied the epithet 'great' to the god Oceanus; in fact,
throughout these lines Milton uses what may be called the "permanent
epithets" of the various divinities.

869. ~earth-shaking Neptune's mace~, _i.e._ the trident of Poseidon
(Neptune). Homer calls him +ennosigaios+ = earth-shaking: comp. _Iliad_,