[Footnote 163: 'The Dragon:' alluding only to the Commonwealth party, here and in other places of the poem.]
[Footnote 164: 'The travail:' see Rev. xii. 4.]
[Footnote 165: 'Alcides:' Hercules.]
[Footnote 166: 'Sign:' the sign of the cross, as denoting the Roman
Catholic faith.]
[Footnote 167: 'The moon:' the Turkish crescent.]
[Footnote 168: 'Another Sylvester:' the Pope in James II.'s time is here compared to him that governed the Romish Church in the time of Constantine.]
[Footnote 169: 'British line:' St Helen, mother of Constantine the
Great, was an Englishwoman.]
[Footnote 170: 'Fatal Ore:' the sandbank on which the Duke of York had like to have been lost in 1682, on his voyage to Scotland, is known by the name of Lemman Ore.]
[Footnote 171: 'Fiends:' the malcontents who doubted the truth of the birth are here compared to the evil spirits that tempted our Saviour in the wilderness.]
[Footnote 172: 'Æneas:' see Virgil; Æneid, I.]