12 165. An Alexandrine verse.
12 169. morn of cheerful May. The conventional month for love in the old poets. Dryden followed Chaucer.
12 186. Aurora. Goddess of the morning-red. Each morning she rose from the couch of Tithonus, and drove swiftly from Oceanus to Olympus to announce to gods and mortals the coming of day.
13 199. Philomel. Nightingale. Philomela, dishonored by her brother-in-law, was changed to a nightingale.
13 214. hateful eyes. Eyes full of hate.
14 245. horoscope. A diagram of the heavens by which astrologers calculated nativities. Dryden resembled Chaucer in his belief in astrology.
14 246. Saturn in the dungeon of the sky. Arcite declares that the horoscope of their birth predicted chains, for it showed the planet Saturn, an evil star at best, in the dungeon of the sky.
14 252. Unhappy planets. Planets that were thought to cause unhappiness.
14 258. Actaeon. He unintentionally came upon Diana and her nymphs while they were bathing in the stream, was transformed into a stag by the goddess, and was coursed to death by his own hounds.
14 261. Cyprian Queen. Venus; Cyprus was a chief seat of her worship.