[119] — l. 24 Jonson's learned sock: His comedies are deeply coloured by classical study. L. 28 Lydian airs: used here to express a light and festive style of ancient music. The 'Lydian Mode,' one of the seven original Greek Scales, is nearly identical with our 'Major.'
[120] 145 l. 3 bestead: avail. L. 10 starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations.
[121] — Cynthia: the Moon: Milton seems here to have transferred to her chariot the dragons anciently assigned to Demeter and to Medea.
[122] — Hermes, called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school. L. 27 Thebes, &c.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy. Buskin'd (l. 30) tragic, in opposition to sock above. L. 32 Musaeus: a poet in Mythology. L. 37 him that left half-told: Chaucer in his incomplete 'Squire's Tale.'
[123] — great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here presumably intended. L. 9 frounced: curled. The Attic Boy (l. 10) Cephalus.
[124] 146 Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I.
[125] — l. 9, 10. But apples, &c. A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.
— 147 l. 6 concent: harmony.
[128] 149 A lyric of a strange, fanciful, yet solemn beauty:—Cowley's style intensified by the mysticism of Henry More.—St. 2 monument: the World.
[129] 151 Entitled 'A Song in Honour of St. Cecilia's Day: 1697.'