[728.] Who. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun her, i.e. the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have their full force as genitives: comp. L’Alleg. 124, “her grace whom” = the grace of her whom. surcharged: overloaded, ‘overfraught’ (l. [732]). waste fertility, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of ‘waste’ seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles as ‘elevate’ (= elevated), ‘instruct’ (= instructed), etc., which occur in Milton (comp. English Past and Present, vi.).
[729.] strangled, suffocated.
[730.] winged air darked with plumes, i.e. the air being darkened by the flight of innumerable birds. Spenser also has dark as a verb. Both clauses in this line are absolute.
[731.] over-multitude, outnumber. This line and the preceding one illustrate the freedom with which, in earlier English, one part of speech was used for another.
[732.] o’erfraught: see [note], l. 355.
[733.] emblaze, make to blaze, make splendid. There is perhaps a reference to the sense of emblazon, which is from M.E. blazen, to blaze abroad, to proclaim.
[734.] bestud with stars. In Milton’s MS. it is ‘bestud the centre with their star-light,’ centre being the ‘centre of the earth.’
[735.] inured, accustomed, by custom rendered less sensitive. Inure is from the old phrase ‘in ure’ = in operation (Fr. œuvre, work).
[737.] coy: shy or reserved. cozened: cheated, beguiled. The origin of this word is interesting: a cozener is one who, for selfish ends, claims kindred or cousinship with another, and hence a flatterer or cheat.
[739-755.] Beauty is Nature’s coin, etc. “The idea that runs through these seventeen lines is a favourite one with the old poets; and Warton and Todd cite parallel passages from Shakespeare, Daniel, Fletcher, and Drayton. Thus, from Shakespeare (M. N. D. i. 1. 76-8):