6 Lucina came: a manchild forth I brought: 7 The woods, the nymphs, my bowers, my midwives were,

nymphs > (Nymphs are the minor female divinities with whom the Greeks peopled all parts of nature: the seas, springs, rivers, grottoes, trees, mountains. The nymphs referred to here are evidently dryads, wood-nymphs) bowers > rooms, hence: shelter [the woods were my shelter, the nymphs my midwives]; or, just possibly, in view of the spelling and number of bowres: muscles [the woods, the nymphs, and my own exertions were my only help in childbirth]

8 Hard help at need. So dear you babe I bought,

need >

9 Yet naught too dear I deemed, while so my dear I sought.

naught > not at all so my dear > [thus Sir Mordant]

201.54

Him so I sought, and so at last I found,
2 Where him that witch had thralled to her will,
In chaines of lust and lewd desires ybound,
4 And so transformed from his former skill,
That me he knew not, neither his owne ill;
6 Till through wise handling and faire gouernance,
I him recured to a better will,
8 Purged from drugs of foule intemperance:
Then meanes I gan deuise for his deliuerance.

1 "Him so I sought, and so at last I found,

so > thus