[172.] He so disseized, etc., i.e. the dragon being thus dispossessed of his rough grip. The construction is nominative absolute.
[185.] And greedy gulfe does gape, etc., i.e. the greedy waters gape as if they would devour the land.
[187.] the blustring brethren, the winds.
[228.] his wide devouring oven, the furnace of his maw, or belly.
[235.] that great Champion, Hercules. The charmed garment steeped in the blood of the Centaur Nessus, whom Hercules had slain, was given him by his wife Dejanira in order to win back his love. Instead of acting as a philter, the poison-robe burned the flesh from his body. Ovid's Metamorphoses, ix, 105.
[xxviii.] Observe the correspondence between the adjectives in l. 244 and the nouns in l. 245. The sense is: "He was so faint," etc.
[261.] The well of life. This incident is borrowed from Bevis of Hampton. The allegory is based on John, iv, 14, and Revelation, xxii, 1.
[267.] Silo, the healing Pool of Siloam, John, ix, 7. Jordan, by bathing in which Naaman was healed of leprosy, II Kings, v, 10.
[268.] Bath, in Somersetshire, a town famous from the earliest times for its medicinal baths. Spau, a town in Belgium noted for its healthful waters, now a generic name for German watering-places.
[269.] Cephise, the river Cephissus in Bœotia whose waters possessed the power of bleaching the fleece of sheep. Cf. Isaiah, i, 18. Hebrus, a river in Thrace, here mentioned because it awaked to music the head and lyre of the dead Orpheus, as he floated down its stream. Ovid's Metamorphoses, xi, 50.