d actively = cause to blossom: comp. Jonson, _Mask at
Highgate_, "For thee, Favonius, here shall _blow_ New flowers."

995. ~purfled~ = having an embroidered edge (O.F. _pourfiler_): the verb
_to purfle_ survives in the contracted form _to purl_, and is cognate
with profile = a front line or edge. ~shew~: here rhymes with _dew_; comp.
l. 511, 512. This points to the fact that in Milton's time the present
pronunciation of _shew_, though familiar, was not the only one
recognised.

996. ~drenches with Elysian dew~, _i.e._ soaks with heavenly dew. The
Homeric Elysium is described in _Odyssey_, iv.: see note, l. 977; it
was afterwards identified with the abode of the blessed, l. 257.
_Drench_ is the causative of _drink_: here the nominative of the verb is
'Iris' and the object 'beds.'

997. ~if your ears be true~, _i.e._ if your ears be pure: the poet is
about to speak of that which cannot be understood by those with "gross
unpurged ear" (_Arc._ 73, and _Com._ l. 458). He alludes to that pure
Love which "leads up to Heaven," _Par. Lost_, viii. 612.

998. ~hyacinth~. This is the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of
_Lycidas_, 106: it sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a youth beloved
by Apollo.

999. ~Adonis~, the beloved of Venus, died of a wound which he received
from a boar during the chase. The grief of Venus was so great that the
gods of the lower world allowed him to spend six months of every year on
earth. The story is of Asiatic origin, and is supposed to be symbolic of
the revival of nature in spring and its death in winter. Comp. _Par.
Lost_, ix. 439, "those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis," etc.

1000. ~waxing well of~, _i.e._ recovering from. The A.S. _weaxan_ = to
grow or increase: Shakespeare has 'man of wax' = adult, _Rom. and Jul._
i. 3. 76; see also Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.

1002. ~Assyrian queen~, _i.e._ Venus, whose worship came from the East,
probably from Assyria. She was originally identical with Astarte, called
by the Hebrews Ashteroth: see _Par. Lost_, i. 438-452, where Adonis
appears as Thammuz.

1003, 4. ~far above ... advanced~. These words are to be read together:
'advanced' is an attribute to 'Cupid,' and is modified by 'far above.'

1003. ~spangled sheen~, glittering brightness. 'Spangled': _spangle_ is a
diminutive of _spang_ = a metal clasp, and hence 'a shining ornament.'
In poetry it is common to speak of the stars as 'spangles' and of the
heavens as 'spangled': comp.