49 109. harbinger. One who provides or secures lodgings for another, from the Old French herbegtsr, whence harbor.
49 120. Phosphor. Light bringer, from phos and phero.
49 124. preventing. With the literal significance of the word, coming before, i.e., he rose before day.
50 134. Thy month. May referred to as the month of Venus, since it is, in the poets, particularly a season for love-making.
50 145. gladder. Thou who makest glad.
50 146. Increase. Offspring of Jove.
50 147. Adonis. A beautiful youth, loved by Venus, with whom he spent eight months of the year. When he was killed by a boar, so great was the sorrow of the goddess, that the deities of the nether world allowed her to possess him for half of each year.
51 164. Notice the force of Palamon's request. He cares not so much for glory of conquest as for the delights of possession. His prayer is answered, for, though conquered, he eventually weds Emilia.
51 168. your fifth orb. The heavens werel supposed to consist of concentric hollow spheres called orbs, and the sun, moon, stars, and planets moved in their respective orbs, the planet Venus in the fifth.
51 169. clue. Thread.