v. 11. Birds of chattering note.] For the fable of the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the muses to sing, and were by them changed into magpies, see Ovid, Met. 1. v. fab. 5.
v. 19. Planet.] Venus.
v. 20. Made all the orient laugh.] Hence Chaucer, Knight’s Tale: And all the orisont laugheth of the sight.
It is sometimes read “orient.”
v. 24. Four stars.] Symbolical of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. See Canto XXXI v. 105.
v. 30. The wain.] Charles’s wain, or Bootes.
v. 31. An old man.] Cato.
v. 92. Venerable plumes.] The same metaphor has occurred in Hell Canto XX. v. 41:
—the plumes, That mark’d the better sex.
It is used by Ford in the Lady’s Trial, a. 4. s. 2.