53 238. frowning stars. If the stars at her birth were such and so placed that they boded ill, they might be said to frown.
53 250-260. The omen foretells the event. One altar seems extinguished and then relights when the other goes out entirely. So Palamon seems to fail, but eventually wins Emilia after the death of Arcite.
54 290. planetary hour. This was the fourth hour of the day.
54 291. heptarchy. A rule by seven. It refers here to the seven great gods, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan, Apollo, Mercury.
55 297. Hyperborean. Beyond the North. Applied originally to a blessed people who dwelt beyond the north wind.
55 320. Vulcan had thee in his net enthralled. Vulcan, the husband of Venus, once discovered improper relations between her and Mars, and he entrapped the guilty pair in the meshes of an invisible net and exposed them to the laughter of the gods. This passage would appeal to the taste of Dryden's Restoration readers, and is developed with a light grace, characteristic of the period.
55 325-332. In these verses the poet brings out the character of Arcite, a more mannish man than Palamon.
56 355, 356. Arcite prays for victory; nothing else will satisfy. He obtains his prayer, but loses Emily.
57 389. trined. An astrological term, meaning that the planets Saturn and Venus were distant from each other 120°, or one-third of the zodiac, a benign aspect.
57 390. with stern Mars in Capricorn was joined. Both Mars and Saturn were in the sign of the zodiac, Capricorn.