[753.] tresses. Homer (Odyssey, v. 390) speaks of “the fair-tressed Dawn,” εὐπλόκαμος Ἠώς.
[755.] advised. Contrast with ‘Advice,’ l. [108].
[756.] Lines [756-761] are not addressed to Comus.
[757.] but that: were it not that.
[758.] as mine eyes: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see [note, l. 170].
[759.] rules pranked in reason’s garb, i.e. specious arguments. Pranked = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service pranking herself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 10, “Most goddess-like prank’d up”; Par. Lost, ii. 226, “Belial, with words clothed in reason’s garb.”
[760-1.] I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows them to pass unchallenged. bolt = to sift or separate, as the boulting-mill separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word (also spelt boult) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (F. Q. ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (Cor. iii. 1. 322, Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 375, “the fanned snow that’s bolted By the northern blasts twice o’er,” etc.). The spelling bolt has confused the word with ‘bolt,’ to shoot or start out. See Index to Globe Shakespeare.
[763.] she would her children, etc., i.e. she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. [172]; Par. Lost, i. 497-503.
[764.] cateress, stewardess, provider: lit. ‘a buyer.’ Cateress is feminine: the masculine is caterer, where the final -er of the agent is unnecessarily repeated.
[765.] Means ... to the good: intends ... for the good.