[3]. sweigh, violent motion; the very word used in the same connexion in the Man of Lawes Tale, B 296; see note to that passage.
[4]. ful hornes, i. e. her horns filled up, as at full moon, when she meets 'with alle the bemes' of the Sun, i. e. reflects them fully.
[7]. derke hornes, horns faintly shining, as when the moon, a thin crescent, is near the sun and nearly all obscured.
'The bente mone with hir hornes pale;' Troil. iii. 624.
[9]. cometh eft ayein hir used cours, returns towards her accustomed course, i. e. appears again, as usual, as a morning-star, in due course. I think the text is incorrect; for cometh read torneth, i. e. turns. Lat. text: 'Solitas iterum mutet habenas.' The planet Venus, towards one apparent extremity of her orbit, follows the sun, as an evening-star; and again, towards the other apparent extremity, precedes it as a morning-star. So Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, ii. 20. 53: 'dicitur Lucifer, cum antegreditur solem, cum subsequitur autem, Hesperus.'
[11]. restreinest, shortenest; the sun's apparent course being shorter in winter. Lat. 'stringis.'
[13]. swifte tydes, short times; viz. of the summer nights.
[19]. Arcturus, α Boötis, in the sign Libra; conspicuous in the nights of spring.
[20]. Sirius, α Canis Maioris, or the Dog-star, in the sign of Cancer; seen before sun-rise in the so-called dog-days, in July and August. It was supposed that the near approach of Sirius to the Sun caused great heat.
[21]. his lawe, i.e. 'its law'; and so again in his propre.