[82] To understood: to sweeten.
[83] He plays upon the astrological terms, houses and schemes. The astrologers divided the heavens into twelve houses; and the diagrams by which they represented the relative positions of the heavenly bodies, they called schemes.
[84] The tree of knowledge.
[85] Dyce, following Seward, substitutes curse.
[86] A glimmer of that Platonism of which, happily, we have so much more in the seventeenth century.
[87] Should this be "in fees;" that is, in acknowledgment of his feudal sovereignty?
[88] Warm is here elongated, almost treated as a dissyllable.
[89] "He ought not to be forsaken: whoever weighs the matter rightly, will come to this conclusion."
[90] The Eridan is the Po.—As regards classical allusions in connexion with sacred things, I would remind my reader of the great reverence our ancestors had for the classics, from the influence they had had in reviving the literature of the country.—I need hardly remind him of the commonly-received fancy that the swan does sing once—just as his death draws nigh. Does this come from the legend of Cycnus changed into a swan while lamenting the death of his friend Phaeton? or was that legend founded on the yet older fancy? The glorious bird looks as if he ought to sing.
[91] The poet refers to the singing of the hymn before our Lord went to the garden by the brook Cedron.