[434.] meagre hag, lean witch. Hag is from A.S. haegtesse, a prophetess or witch. Comp. Par. Lost, ii. 662; M. W. of W. iv. 2. 188, “Come down, you witch, you hag.” unlaid ghost, unpacified or wandering spirit. It was a superstition that ghosts left the world of spirits and wandered on the earth from the hour of curfew (see Temp. v. 1. 40; King Lear, iii. 4. 120, “This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet; he begins at curfew,” etc.) until “the first cock his matin rings” (L’Alleg. 14). ‘Curfew’ (Fr. couvre-feu = fire-cover), the bell that was rung at eight or nine o’clock in the evening as a signal that all fires and lights were to be extinguished.
[436.] swart faery of the mine. In Burton’s Anat. of Mel. we read, “Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. Olaus Magnus makes six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These are commonly seen about mines of metals,” etc. Warton quotes from an old writer: “Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines there appear strange shapes and spirits who are apparelled like unto the labourers in the pit.” ‘Swart’ (also swarty, swarth, and swarthy) here means black: in Scandinavian mythology these subterranean spirits were called the Svartalfar, or black elves. Comp. Lyc. 138, “the swart star,” where ‘swart’ = swart making.
[438.] Do ye believe. Ye is properly a second person plural, but (like you) is frequently used as a singular: for examples, see Abbott, § 236.
[439.] old schools of Greece. The brother now turns for his arguments from the mediaeval mythology of Northern Europe to the ancient legends of Greece.
[440.] to testify, to bear witness to: comp. l. [248], [421].
[441.] Dian. Diana was the huntress among the immortals: she was insensible to the bolts of Cupid, i.e. to the power of love. She was the protectress of the flocks and game from beasts of prey, and at the same time was believed to send plagues and sudden deaths among men and animals. Comp. the song to Cynthia (Diana) in Cynthia’s Revels, v. 1, “Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,” etc.
[442.] silver-shafted queen. The epithet is applicable to Diana both as huntress and goddess of the moon: as the former she bore arrows which were frequently called shafts, and as the latter she bore shafts or rays of light. Shaft is etymologically ‘a shaven rod.’ In Chaucer, C. T. 1364, ‘shaft’ = arrow.
[443.] brinded lioness. ‘Brinded’ = brindled or streaked. Comp. “brinded cat,” Macb. iv. 1. 1: brind is etymologically connected with brand.
[444.] mountain-pard, i.e. panther or other spotted wild beast. Pard, originally a Persian word, is common in the compounds leo-pard and camelo-pard.
[445.] frivolous ... Cupid. See the speech of Oberon, M. N. D. ii. 1. 65. The epithet ‘frivolous’ applies to Cupid in his lower character as the wanton god of sensual love, not in his character as the fair Eros who unites all the discordant elements of the universe: see [note], l. 1004.