'The laund on which they fought, th' appointed place
In which th' uncoupled hounds began the chace.'
Dryden; Palamon and Arcite, bk. ii. l. 845.
3720. 'Where he expected to find some who would aid him.' Suetonius says—'ipse cum paucis hospitia singulorum adiit. Verum clausis omnium foribus, respondente nullo, in cubiculum rediit,' &c.; cap. xlvii. He afterwards escaped to the villa of his freedman Phaon, four miles from Rome, where he at length gave himself a mortal wound in the extremity of his despair. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 6459-76.
3736. girden of, to strike off; cf. 'gurdeth of gyles hed,' P. Pl. B. ii. 201. A gird is also a sharp striking taunt or quip.—M.
Holofernes.
3746. Oloferne. The story of Holofernes is to be found in the apocryphal book of Judith.
3750. For lesinge, for fear of losing, lest men should lose.
3752. 'He had decreed to destroy all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only,' &c.; Judith, iii. 8.
3756. Eliachim. Tyrwhitt remarks that the name of the high priest was Joacim; Judith, iv. 6. But this is merely the form of the name in our English version. The Vulgate version has the equivalent form Eliachim; cf. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4.