the constellation of the Greater Bear, and
the Tyrian Cynosure that of the Lesser Bear. Stars in these
constellations served as guides to Greek and Tyrian mariners.

345. Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Compare Collins's Ode to
Evening,--_If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song_. The shepherds of
the Greek idylls made their musical pipes of reeds or oat-straws, and the
oat has therefore been adopted by the pastoral poetry of all ages.

349. innumerous boughs. Compare Par. Lost VII 455.

358. Of savage hunger, or of savage heat: of hungry savages, or of
lustful savages.

361. grant they be so: grant that they are real evils.

365. Make four syllables of delusion.

366. I do not think my sister so to seek: I do not think she has her
seeking, or learning, still to do: I do not think her so inexperienced.

373-375. Is this practical doctrine?

377. Make five syllables of Contemplation.

380. Were all to-ruffled. The particle _to_--Anglo Saxon _to_, Modern
German _zer_--has disappeared from Modern English. In Old English it was
often used with the force of the Latin _dis_. So still in Chaucer,
_to-bete, to-cleve, to-rende_, and many others.

386. affects: likes, has an affection for.

390. weeds, as in line 84.

393. the fair Hesperian tree. See line 983.

394. had need the guard. An elliptical expression. _Need_ is a noun, but
is treated as if it were a verb.

395. The dragon Ladon was not able to defend the apples of Hesperides
against Hercules.

401. will wink on Opportunity: will fail to see its chance.

404. it recks me not. The verb is thus used, impersonally, also in
Lycidas 122.

407. The line has two hypermetric syllables, one after the third foot,
and one at the end.

413. squint suspicion. An epithet applicable only to a physical infirmity
is applied to a mental act.

422. quivered: bearing a quiver.

423. unharbored: furnishing no shelter.

424. Infamous hills. Accent _infamous_ as we do now and as Milton does
elsewhere. Verses thus beginning with trochees are common.

429. Look up the origin of the word grots.

430. unblenched: unstartled.

434. Blue meagre hag. The _hag_ has the livid hue of hunger.

436. swart faery of the mine. A malignant demon dwelling under ground,--a
gnome.

441. the huntress Dian. The powerful goddess Diana, or Artemis, twin
sister of Apollo, was figured bearing a bow and arrows.

448. wise Minerva. Minerva, or Pallas Athene, is usually re