Hireling wolves (l. 14)=the paid clergy.
The second is from the chorus of Samson Agonistes (ll. 1268–1286). Samson Agonistes was first published in 1671, in the small octavo volume which contained Paradise Regained.
[XIII]—[XIV]
The Horatian Ode was first printed in 1776, in Captain Edward Thompson’s edition of Marvell’s Works.
l. 15. side. Party.
32. Bergamot. A kind of pear.
67, &c. The finding of the human head at Rome, regarded as a happy omen, is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist., xxviii. 4).
The second appeared in Poems (1681).
[XV]
Produced in 1643. The author was a famous ballad-monger of Charles I.’s time. The original refrain was ‘When the King comes home in peace again’ (Roxburghe Collection of Ballads, iii. 256; Loyal Garland, 1671 and 1686; Ritson, Ancient Songs). The song was written to support the declining cause of the Royal Martyr. It helped to keep up the spirits of the Cavaliers in the days before the Restoration (1660), which event it was used to celebrate. When the Revolution (1688) drove the Stuarts into exile, this song became a weapon in the hands of the Jacobites.
[XVI]
This was a very popular loyal song in the reign of Charles II. Both words and music are given in Playford’s Musical Companion (1667).