.

627. ~simples~, medicinal herbs. 'Simple' (Lat. _simplicem_, 'one-fold,'
'not compound') was used of a single ingredient in a medicine; hence its
popular use in the sense of 'herb' or 'drug.'

630. ~me~, _i.e._ for me: the ethic dative.

633. ~bore~. The nom. of this verb is, in sense, some such word as the
plant or the root.

634. ~unknown and like esteemed~: known and esteemed to a like extent,
_i.e._ in both cases not at all. _Like_ here corresponds to the prefix
_un_ in _unknown_. On the description of the plant, see Introduction,
reference to Ascham's _Scholemaster_.

635. ~clouted shoon~, patched shoes. The expression is found in
Shakespeare, ii. _Hen. VI._ iv. 2. 195, "Spare none but such as go in
_clouted shoon_"; _Cym._ iv. 2. 214, "put My _clouted brogues_ from off
my feet, whose rudeness Answer'd my steps too loud": see examples in
Mayhew and Skeat's _M. E. Dictionary_. There are instances, however, of
_clout_ in the sense of a plate of iron fastened on the sole of a shoe.
In either sense of the word 'clouted shoon' would be heavy and coarse.
_Shoon_ is an old plural (O.E. _scon_); comp. _hosen_, _eyen_ (= eyes),
_dohtren_ (= daughters), _foen_ (= foes), etc.

636. ~more med'cinal~, of greater virtue. The line may be scanned thus:
And yet | more med | 'cinal is | it than | that Mo | ly. ~Moly~. When
Ulysses was approaching the abode of Circe he was met by Hermes, who
said: "Come then, I will redeem thee from thy distress, and bring
deliverance. Lo, take this herb of virtue, and go to the dwelling of
Circe, that it may keep from thy head the evil day. And I will tell thee
all the magic sleight of Circe. She will mix thee a potion and cast
drugs into the mess; but not even so shall she be able to enchant thee;
so helpful is this charmed herb that I shall give thee ... Therewith the
slayer of Argos gave me the plant that he had plucked from the ground,
and he showed me the growth thereof. It was black at the root, but the
flower was like to milk. _Moly_ the gods call it, but it is hard for
mortal men to dig; howbeit with the gods all things are possible"
(_Odyssey_, x. 280, etc., _Butcher and Lang's translation_). In his
first Elegy Milton alludes to M{=o}ly as the counter-charm to the spells
of Circe: see also Tennyson's _Lotos-Eaters_, "beds of amaranth and
_moly_."

638. ~He called it Haemony~. _He_ is the shepherd lad of line 619.
_Haemony_: Milton invents the plant, both name and thing. But the