[3.] Explain the meaning of each word in this line, and of the whole line. The next two stanzas comprise an invocation to the Muse of Poetry. See note 1, page [153].
[4.] Wisards. Wizards. Wise men. The word was originally used in this sense, and not with the depreciatory meaning of "magician," as at present. Spenser says:
"Therefore the antique wizards well invented
That Venus of the fomy sea was bred,"
meaning by "antique wizards" ancient philosophers.
[5.] prevent. Go before; the original meaning of the word, from Lat. præ, before, and venio, to go or come.
"I prevented the dawning of the morning."—Psalm cxix. 147.
"I will have nothing to hinder me in the morning, for I will prevent the sun rising."—Izaak Walton, Compleat Angler.
[6.] angel quire. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God."—Luke ii, 13.
[7.] paramour. See note 9, page [80].
[8.] maiden. Pure, innocent, unpolluted. Compare