ed
snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The
spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start
out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_.

763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children
should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503.

764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is
feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent
is unnecessarily repeated.

765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good.

767. ~dictate~. The accent in Milton's time was on the first syllable,
both in noun and verb. ~spare Temperance~. For Milton's praises of
Temperance comp. _Il Pens._ 46, "Spare Fast that oft with gods doth
diet"; also the 6th Elegy, 56-66; _Son._ xx., etc. "There is much in the
Lady which resembles the youthful Milton himself--he, the Lady of his
college--and we may well believe that the great debate concerning
temperance was not altogether dramatic (where, indeed, is Milton truly
dramatic?), but was in part a record of passages in the poet's own
spiritual history." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_.

768. If Nature's blessings were equally distributed instead of being
heaped upon a luxurious few, then (as Shakespeare says, _King Lear_, iv.
1. 73) "distribution should undo excess, And each man have enough."

769. ~beseeming~, suitable. The original sense of _seem_ is 'to be
fitting,' as in the words _beseem_ and _seemly_.

770. ~lewdly-pampered~; one of Milton's most expressive compounds =
wickedly gluttonous. _Lewd_ has passed through several changes of
meaning: (1) the lay-people as distinct from the clergy; (2) ignorant or
unlearned; and finally (2) base or licentious.

774. ~she no whit encumbered~, _i.e._ Nature would not be in the least
surcharged (as Comus represented in l. 728). _No whit_, used adverbially
= not in the least, lit. 'not a particle.' Etymologically _aught_ = a
whit, _naught_ = no whit.

776. ~His praise due paid~, _i.e._ would be duly paid. On _due_, see note,
l. 12. ~gluttony~: abstract for concrete.

779. ~Crams~, _i.e._ crams himself. There are many verbs in English that
may be thus used reflexively without having the pronoun expressed,
_e.g._ _feed_, _prepare_, _change_, _pour_, _press_, etc.

780. ~enow~. 'Enow' conveys the notion of a number, as in early English:
it is also spelt _anow_, and in Chaucer _ynowe_, and is the plural of
_eno