19. that starred Ethiop queen. Cassiopeia, wife of the Ethiopian king Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where she became the beautiful constellation which we know by her name. 23. bright-haired Vesta. _Vesta_--in Greek, Hestia--"was the goddess of the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity fitted her peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty." 30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove, _i.e._ before Saturn was dethroned by Jupiter. 33. All in a robe of darkest grain. In Par. Lost V 285, the third pair of Raphael's wings have the color of _sky-tinctured grain_; and XI 242, his vest is of purple livelier than "the grain of Sarra," or Tyrian purple. This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is of a deep rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes from Southey's _Thalaba_, "The ebony ... with darkness feeds its boughs of raven grain." What objection is there to making the _grain_ in Milton's passage _black_? 35. And sable stole of cypress lawn. Dr. Murray thus defines _cypress lawn_, "A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of mourning." 37. Come; but keep thy wonted state. Compare with this passage, L'Allegro 33. 40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes. In Cymbeline I 6 51 we find the present tense of the verb of which _rapt_ is the participle: "What, dear Sir, thus raps you?" Do not confound this word with _rap_, meaning to strike. 42. Forget thyself to marble. With this compare On Shakespeare 14. 43. With a sad leaden downward cast. So in Love's Labor's Lost IV 3 321, "In leaden contemplation;" Othello III 4 177, "I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed." So also Gray in the Hymn to Adversity, "With leaden eye that loves the ground." 45-55. Compare the company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to bring along with her with that which L'Allegro wishes to see attending Mirth. 46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet. Only the rigid ascetic has a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial music. 48. Aye, as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets with the vowel sound in _day_. 53. the fiery-wheeled throne. See Daniel VII 9. 54. The Cherub Contemplation. Pronounce _contemplation_ with five syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the nature and office of the _cherub_ of the Scriptures. Milton in many passages of Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the account given by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. According to Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in heaven, namely,--seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the special attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things.