III 5 20.

108. Make the line rhyme properly, giving to union three syllables.

112. The helmed cherubim. See Genesis III 24.

113. The sworded seraphim. See Isaiah VI 2-6.

116. With unexpressive notes, meaning beyond the power of human
expression. So in Lycidas 176; Par. Lost V 595; and in As You Like It,
"the fair, the chaste, and inexpressive she."

119. But when of old the Sons of Morning sung. See Job XXXVIII 7.

124. the weltering waves. Compare Lycidas 13.

125. Ring out, ye crystal spheres. See note, line 48. The elder poetry is
full of the notion that the spheres in their revolutions made music,
which human ears are too gross to hear. See Merchant of Venice V 1 50-65.

136. speckled Vanity. The leopard that confronts Dante in Canto I of
_Hell_ is beautiful with its dappled skin, but symbolizes vain glory.

143. like glories wearing. The adjective _like_ means nothing without a
complement, though the complement sometimes has to be supplied, as in
this instance. Fully expressed the passage would be,--_wearing glories
like those of Truth and Justice_. The _like_ in such a case as this must
be spoken with a fuller tone than when its construction is completely
expressed.

155. those ychained in sleep. The poets, in order to gain a syllable,
long continued to use the ancient participle prefix _y_. See _yclept_,
Allegro 12.

157. With such a horrid clang. See Exodus XIX.

168. The Old Dragon. See Revelation XII 9.

173. Stanzas XIX-XXVI announce the deposition and expulsion of the pagan
deities, and the ruin of the ancient religions. In accordance with his
custom of grouping selected proper names in abundance, thus giving
vividness and concreteness to his story and sonority to his verse, the
poet here illustrates the triumph of the new dispensation by citing the
names of various gods from the Roman, Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian
mythologies.

176. Apollo, the great god, whose oracle was at Delphi, or Delphos.

179. spell, as in Comus 853, and often.

186. Genius. A Latin word, signifying a tutelary or guardian spirit
supposed to preside over a person or place. See Lycidas 183, and
Penseroso 154.

191. The Lars and Lemures. In the Roman mythology these were the spirits
of dead ancestors, worshipped or propitiated in families as having power
for good or evil over the fortunes of their descendants.

194. Affrights the flamens. The Roman flamens were the priests of
particular gods.

195. the chill