[878-80.] Sirens ... Parthenopè’s ... Ligea’s. The three Sirens (see [note], l. 253) were Parthenopè, Ligēa, and Lucosia. The tomb of the first was at Naples (see Milton’s Ad Leonaram, iii., “Credula quid liquidam Sirena, Neapoli, jactas, Claraque Parthenopes fana Achelöiados,” etc.). Ligea, described by Virgil (Georg. iv. 336) as a sea-nymph, is here represented as seated, like a mermaid, in the act of smoothing her hair with a golden comb.
[881.] Wherewith = with which. The true adjective clause is “sleeking ... locks” = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is “she sits ... rocks” = seated on ... rocks.
[882.] Sleeking, making sleek or glossy. The original sense of ‘sleek’ is greasy: comp. Lyc. 99, “On the level brine Sleek Panopè with all her sisters played.”
[885.] heave, raise. Comp. the similar use of the word in L’Alleg. 145, “Orpheus’ self may heave his head.”
[887.] bridle in, i.e. restrain.
[888.] have: subjunctive after till, as frequently in Milton.
[890.] rushy-fringèd, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be rush-fringed: we may regard Milton’s form as a participle formed from the compound noun “rushy-fringe”: comp. ‘blue-haired,’ l. [29]; “false-played,” Shakespeare, A. and C. iv. 14.
[891.] grows. A singular with two nominatives connected by and: the verb is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent to “the willow with its osiers dank,” osiers being water-willows or their branches. dank, damp: comp. Par. Lost, vii. 441, “oft they quit the dank” (= the water).
[893.] Thick set, etc., i.e. thickly inlaid with agate and beautified with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in set. azurn sheen. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. [1003]; see [note] there. ‘Azurn’: modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the suffix -en = made of. Most of the adjectives in -en that still survive do not now denote “made of,” but simply “like,” e.g. golden hair, etc. Azurn and cedarn (l. [990]), hornen, treen, corden, glassen, reeden, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench, English Past and Present. Comp. ‘oaten’ (Lyc. 33), ‘oaken’ (Arc. 45). As the words ‘azurn’ and ‘cedarn’ are peculiar to Milton some hold that he adopted them from the Italian azzurino and cedrino.
[894.] turkis; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. ‘the Turkish stone,’ a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey (Pers. turk, a Turk).