817. And backward mutters of dissevering power. The "many murmurs" with which his incantations have been mixed must be spoken backward in order to undo their effect. This backward repetition of the charm has the power to break the spell which the charm has wrought. 822. Meliboeus is yet another of the stock names of pastoral poetry. 823. The soothest shepherd. The ancient adjective _sooth_ means essentially nothing more than _true_. 826. Sabrina is her name. The story of Sabrina is told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history is included in the volume of Bohn's Antiquarian Library, entitled _Six Old English Chronicles_. The book is easily accessible. 827. Whilom is derived from the dative plural _hwilum_ of the Old English noun _hwil_, and originally meant _at times_. 831. What does Sabrina do in this line? 835. aged Nereus was one of the numerous Greek deities of the water. He and his wife Doris had fifty or a hundred daughters, who are called Nereids. 838. In nectared lavers strewed with asphodel. The _nectar_ of the gods, which we usually think of as their drink, was also applied to other purposes, as when Thetis anoints with it the body of Patroclus, to prevent decay. _Asphodel_ is a flower in our actual flora; but in the poets Asphodel is an immortal flower growing abundantly in the meadows of Elysium. 840. ambrosial here means, _conferring immortality_. 845. Helping all urchin blasts; _i.e._ helping the victims of the blasts against their baleful influence. See note on line 640. See Merry Wives of Windsor IV 4 49. 851. The word daffodil is directly derived from asphodel, with a _d_ unaccountably prefixed. The English daffodil is the narcissus. 858. adjuring: charging or entreating solemnly and earnestly, as if under oath. 868. Oceanus is the personified Ocean, a broad, flowing stream encircling the earth. 869. Earth-shaking is a Homeric epithet of Neptune. The mace of Neptune must be his trident. 870. Tethys is wife of Oceanus and mother of the Oceanids. She reared the great goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Her pace is suitable to her dignity. 871. hoary Nereus. See note on line 835. 872. the Carpathian wizard's hook. Proteus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, herded the sea-calves of Neptune on the island of Carpathus. As a herdsman he bore a crook, or _hook_. He had the gift of prophecy, and so is called a _wizard_. 873. Scaly Triton's winding shell. _Triton_ was herald of Neptune and so carried a shell, which he was wont to _wind_ as a horn. His body was in part covered with scales like those of a fish. 874. The soothsaying Glaucus was a prophet, and gave oracles at Delos. He is represented as a man whose hair and beard are dripping with water, with bristly eyebrows, his breast covered with sea-weeds, and the lower part of his body ending in the tail of a fish. 875. By Leucothea's lovely hands, And her son that rules the strands.