[106.] I know the Fyfield tree. See l. [83], The Scholar-Gipsy.
[109.] Ensham, Sandford. Small towns on the Thames; the former, some four miles above Oxford; the latter, a like distance below.
[123.] Wytham flats. Some three miles above Oxford, along the Thames.
[135.] sprent. Sprinkled. The preterit or [p.208] past participle of spreng (obsolete or archaic).
[141-150]. Explain.
[155.] Berkshire. See note, l. [58], The Scholar-Gipsy.
[167.] Arno-vale. The valley of the Arno, a river in Tuscany, Italy, on which Florence is situated.
[175.] To a boon ... country he has fled. That is, to Italy.
[177.]the great Mother. Ceres, the earth goddess.
[181-190]. Daphnis, the ideal Sicilian shepherd of Greek pastoral poetry, was said to have followed into Phrygia his mistress Piplea, who had been carried off by robbers, and to have found her in the power of the king of Phrygia, Lityerses. Lityerses used to make strangers try a contest with him in reaping corn, and to put them to death if he overcame them. Hercules arrived in time to save Daphnis, took upon himself the reaping contest with Lityerses, overcame him, and slew him. The Lityerses-song connected with this tradition was, like the Linus-song, one of the early, plaintive strains of Greek popular poetry, and used to be sung by the corn reapers. Other traditions represented Daphnis as beloved by a nymph, who exacted from him an oath to love no one else. He fell in love with a princess, and was struck blind by the jealous nymph. Mercury, who was his father, raised him to heaven, and made a fountain spring up in the place from which he ascended. At this fountain the Sicilians offered yearly sacrifices. See Servius, Comment, in Vergil. Bucol., V, 20, and VIII, 68.