“So glozed the temper, and his proem tuned:
Into the heart of Eve his words made way.”
Gloze is from the old word glose, a gloss or explanation (Gr. glossa, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an endeavour to deceive. The word has no connection with gloss = brightness.
[162.] Baited, rendered attractive. Radically bait is the causative of bite; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. Sams. Ag. 1066, “The bait of honied words.”
[163.] wind me, etc. The verbs wind (i.e. coil) and hug suggest the cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart or mind is easily overcome: ‘man’ is here used generically. Burton, in Anat. of Mel., says: “The devil, being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself into human bodies.” Me is here used reflexively: see [note], l. 61. This is not the ethic dative.
[165.] virtue, i.e. power or influence (Lat. virtus). This radical sense is still found in the phrase ‘by virtue of’ = by the power of. The adjective virtuous is now used only of moral excellence: in line [621] it has its older meaning.
[166.] The reading of the text is that of the editions of 1637 and 1645. In the edition of 1673 the reading was:
“I shall appear some harmless villager,
And hearken, if I may, her business here.
But here she comes, I fairly step aside.”
But in the errata there was a direction to omit the comma after may, and to change here into hear. In Masson’s text, accordingly, he reads: “And hearken, if I may her business hear.”
[167.] keeps up, etc., i.e. keeps occupied with his country affairs even up to a late hour. Gear: its original sense is ‘preparation’ (A.S. gearu, ready); hence ‘business’ or ‘property.’ Comp. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 3. 6, “That to Sir Calidore was easy gear,” i.e. an easy matter, fairly, softly. Fair and softly were two words which went together, signifying gently (Warton).
[170.] mine ear ... My best guide. Observe the juxtaposition of mine and my in these lines. Mine is frequent before a vowel, especially when the possessive adjective is not emphatic. In Shakespeare ‘mine’ is almost always found before “eye,” “ear,” etc., where no emphasis is intended (Abbott, § 237).