2 43. benighted Britain. Deprived of the light of her Grace's presence.
2 44. Triton. A son of Neptune, generally represented with the body of a man and the tail of a fish. His duty was to calm the sea by a blast on his conch-shell horn.
2 45. Nereids. Nymphs of the sea as distinguished from the Naiads, nymphs of streams and lakes.
2 46. Etesian gale. The Etesian winds were any steady periodical winds.
2 48. Portunus. A lesser sea-god, more particularly the harbor-god.
2 51, 52. In these verses Dryden shows us that he had not shaken off entirely the conceits of his early verse.
2 53. Hibernia. Ireland.
2 56. His father and his grandsire. Ormond's father was the gallant Earl of Ossory, and his grandsire, the first Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the famous supporter of the Stuart cause.
3 58. Kerns. The Irish peasantry.
3 63. Venus is the promise of the sun. Venus, as morning star, is visible in the east just before sunrise.