[96. in the chequered shade.] They danced under trees through whose foliage the sunlight filtered.
[99.] Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling is now in order.
[102.] Sufficient information about Faery Mab can be got from Romeo and Juliet I 4 53-95.
[103-104. She], i.e. one of the maids; And he,—one of the youths. The Friar’s lantern is the ignis fatuus, or will-o’-the-wisp, fabled to lead men into dangerous marshes.
[105.] A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject of tells must be he. the drudging goblin. This is Robin Goodfellow, known to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a character in his Court Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to recount many of his pranks, and says, among other things, “I am the honest plain country spirit, and harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean, riddles for the country maids, and does all their other drudgery.”
[109. could not end.] Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations as an instance of the verb end meaning to put into the barn, to get in. So in Coriolanus V 6 87.
[110. the lubber fiend.] This goblin is loutish in shape and fiendish-looking, though so good to those who treat him well.
[115. Thus done the tales.] An absolute construction, imitating the Latin ablative absolute.
[117.] The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their day’s labor, L’Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life are prolonged further into the night.
[120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold.] This must mean such things as masques and revelries among the upper classes.