"Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment?"
[38.] her. Observe what has already been said (note [28], above) about the pronoun its. Hell, in the Anglo-Saxon language, is feminine. But, just above, observe the expression it self. See, in the [last line] of stanza xv, the pronoun her with heaven as its antecedent. Heofon, in the Anglo-Saxon, is also feminine.
[39.] This stanza is a fine example of word-painting. What idea is conveyed to your mind by the expressions, "orb'd in a rainbow," "like glories wearing," "thron'd in celestiall sheen," "the tissued clouds down stearing," etc.? What kind of glories will Mercy wear? Where will she sit? How will she be enthroned? What are radiant feet? Why are Mercy's feet radiant? Does she steer the tissued clouds "with radiant feet," or does she steer herself down the tissued clouds? Why will the opening of Heaven's high palace wall be "as at some festivall"?
[40.] bitter cross. Compare Shakespeare, "1 Henry IV," Act i, sc. 1, 27:
"Those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross."
[41.] ychain'd. The y is a corruption of the prefix ge, anciently used in connection with the past participle, and still retained in many German words. Often used by Chaucer and Spenser, as in yblessed, yburied, ybrent, yfonden, ygeten, yclad, yfraught, etc.
[42.] trump. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."—1 Thessalonians iv. 16.
[43.] rang. See Exodus xix.
[44.] session. Assize. Both words were originally from the same root, Lat. sedeo, sessum.