overloaded, 'overfraught' (l. 732).
~waste fertility~, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of
'waste' seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles
as 'elevate' (= elevated), 'instruct' (= instructed), etc., which occur
in Milton (comp. _English Past and Present_, vi.).

729. ~strangled~, suffocated.

730. ~winged air darked with plumes~, _i.e._ the air being darkened by the
flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has _dark_ as a verb. Both
clauses in this line are absolute.

731. ~over-multitude~, outnumber. This line and the preceding one
illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of
speech was used for another.

732. ~o'erfraught~: see note, l. 355.

733. ~emblaze~, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference
to the sense of _emblazon_, which is from M.E. _blazen_, to blaze
abroad, to proclaim.

734. ~bestud with stars~. In Milton's MS. it is 'bestud the centre with
their star-light,' _centre_ being the 'centre of the earth.'

735. ~inured~, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. _Inure_ is
from the old phrase 'in ure' = in operation (Fr. _oeuvre_, work).

737. ~coy~: shy or reserved. ~cozened~: cheated, beguiled. The origin of
this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims
kindred or _cousinship_ with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.

739-755. ~Beauty is Nature's coin~, etc. "The idea that runs through these
seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and
Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and
Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (_M. N. D._ i. 1. 76-8):

"Earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness."

See also Shakespeare's first six sonnets, which are pervaded by the idea
in all its subtleties" (Masson).

743. ~let slip time~, _i.e._ allow time _to_ slip: see note, l. 304. Comp.
_Par. Lost_, i. 178. "Let us not _slip_ the occasion."

744. ~It~ = beauty. ~languished~, languid or languishing: comp. _Par.
Lost_, vi. 496, "their languished hope revived"; _Epitaph on M. of W._
33. The suffix _-ed_ is frequent in Elizabethan English where we now
have _-ing_ (Abbott, Sec. 374).

747. ~most~, as many as possible.

748. ~homely ... home~. There is here a play upon words as in _Two Gent._
i. 1. 2: "_Home-keeping_ youth have ever _homely_ wits." _Homely_