6634. slyke: cp. l. 7092*, ‘He can so wel hise wordes slyke.’ The word means properly to smoothe, hence to flatter: cp. the modern ‘sleek.’
6635. Be him, &c., i. e. by his own resources or by the help of any other.
6636. To whom: see note on i. 771.
6654. a nyht, i. e. by night, also written ‘anyht,’ ii. 2857.
6672. Protheüs, that is Proteus: cp. note on l. 3082.
6674. in what liknesse, ‘into any form whatsoever.’
6680. under the palle, ‘in secret,’ like ‘under the gore,’ l. 5730.
6713 ff. From Ovid, Metam. iv. 192-255, but with several changes. In the original story the Sun-god came to Leucothoe by night and in the form of her mother. Clytie (not Clymene) discovered the fact (without the aid of Venus) and told it to the father; and it was an incense plant which grew from the place where Leucothoe was buried.
6757. For the expression cp. iii. 2555, ‘Achastus, which with Venus was Hire priest.’
6779. This change into a flower which follows the sun is suggested by Metam. iv. 266 ff., where we are told that Clytie was changed into a heliotrope. Here it is a sun-flower apparently.