starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations.
Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations.
Hermes: called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school; Thebes, etc.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy; Buskin'd: tragic; Musaeus: a poet in Mythology.
him that left half told: Chaucer, in his incomplete "Squire's Tale."
great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended.
frounced: curled; The Attic Boy: Cephalus.
Poem 114.
Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I.
But apples, etc.: A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.
Poem 115.