[62] A shell plentiful on the coast of Palestine, and worn by pilgrims to show that they had visited that country.
[63] Evil was pronounced almost as a monosyllable, and was at last contracted to ill.
[64] "Come to find a place." The transitive verb stow means to put in a place: here it is used intransitively.
[65] The list of servants then kept in large houses, the number of such being far greater than it is now.
[66] There has been some blundering in the transcription of the last two lines of this stanza. In the former of the two I have substituted doth for dost, evidently wrong. In the latter, the word cradle is doubtful. I suggest cradled, but am not satisfied with it. The meaning is, however, plain enough.
[67] "The very blessing the soul needed."
[68] An old English game, still in use in Scotland and America, but vanishing before cricket.
[69] Silly means innocent, and therefore blessed; ignorant of evil, and in so far helpless. It is easy to see how affection came to apply it to idiots. It is applied to the ox and ass in the next stanza, and is often an epithet of shepherds.
[70] See Poems by Sir Henry Wotton and others. Edited by the Rev. John Hannah.
[71] "Know thyself."