19 414. Fire, water, air, and earth. These were regarded by the ancients as the primary elements of created matter. 20 433. a certain home. The house is a definite existence. 20 434. uncertain place. It is uncertain in the sense that the drunkard has difficulty in finding it. 21 493. forelays. Awaits before, a survival of an old English compound. 21 495. thrids. Threads, as in the phrase, "threads the mazes of the dance." 21 498. Saturn, seated in a luckless place. A second reference to the planet of his nativity and its unlucky position in heaven at the hour of his birth. 21 500. Mars and Venus in a quartil move. Mars and Venus are here the planets. When their longitudes differ by 90° they move in a quartile. It was regarded in astrology as an omen of ill. 23 545. slumbering as he lay. As he lay slumbering. A favorite inversion with Chaucer. 23 547. Hermes. Lat. Mercury, son of Jupiter. One of his chief duties, to act as a messenger of Jupiter to carry sleep and dreams to mortals. 23 550. sleep-compelling rod. Hermes carried a staff, the caduceus, given him by Apollo, about which two serpents were twined. Its touch induced sleep. 23 552. Argus. He had a hundred eyes and was sent by Juno to guard the cow into which lo had been transformed. He was killed by Mercury at the command of Jupiter, and Juno transferred his eyes to the tail of her peacock. 24 573. A labouring hind in show. In appearance a laboring peasant. 24 590. Philostratus. In Chaucer written Philostrate, and so in Shakspere's _Midsummer Night's Dream_, the characters of which plainly followed Chaucer. BOOK II. 26 10. And May within the Twins received the sun. In May the sun is in the sign of the zodiac known as Gemini, or the Twins. Dryden here copies a favorite phrasing of Chaucer, though not used by him in this particular instance. 26 16. Notice the enjambment, i.e., the overflow of this verse into the next. It very rarely occurs in Dryden's later poems. 27 34. Style. Pen, from _stylus_. 27 55. Graces. Three sisters, Aglaia (the brilliant), Euphrosyne (cheerfulness), and Thalia (bloom of life). They were the daughters of Jupiter and Aurora. 27 58. The sultry tropic fears. At the end of May the sun, approaching the summer solstice, gives the longest days; hence its slowness. 28 78. roundelay. It is technically a lyric in which a phrase or idea is continually repeated. 28 84. Friday. Named from Frigga, a Teutonic goddess, identified with Venus. This day of the week among the Latin races is still named from Venus. Italian, _Venerdì_; French,_Vendredi_.