[6.] present deity. See Psalm xlvi. 1.
[7.] affects to nod. See Homer's "Iliad." I, 528-530: "Jove spake, and nodded his dark brow, and the ambrosial locks waved from his immortal head; and he made great Olympus quake."
[8.] hautboys. Oboes. French hautbois. Wind instruments resembling the clarionet.
Bacchus. Compare Shakespeare:
"Come, thou monarch of the vine,
Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne."
—Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii, sc. 7.
[9.] thrice he slew the slain. How could he slay the slain?
[10.] Darius. At the time of this feast at Persepolis, Darius, the vanquished king of Persia, was still living, although a fugitive. In the following year Alexander pursued him into the Parthian Desert, where he was murdered by the satrap of Bactria. By order of Alexander, the body of the unfortunate king was sent to Persepolis, to be buried in the tombs of the kings.
[11.] expos'd he lies. Dryden seems to have written this under the impression that Darius had been killed before the time of the great feast at Persepolis.
[12.] close his eyes. Compare this with the lines from Pope ("Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady"):