and
Burton's _Anat. of Mel._, "complain of _toys_, and fear without a
cause."

503. ~stealth of~, things stolen by.

506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of
mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom
common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this
correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, Sec. 187.

508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive
clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in
Shakespeare (Abbott, Sec. 37), where it sometimes has the force of an
adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the
radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc.

509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_);
hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being
common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of
known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in
_sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his
face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_
(1886), page 170.

510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part.

511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This
exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas,
for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line
_true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his
having arrived at the age of twenty-three_.

512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written
'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.

513. ~ye~: a dative. See note on l. 216.

514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12;
_Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame."

515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the
chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as
"taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117,
"great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung."

516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past
participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il
Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn";
Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_.

517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii.
618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing mon