178. ~swilled insolence~, etc., _i.e._ the drunken rudeness of those carousing at this late hour. _Swill_: to swill is to drink greedily, hence to drink like a pig. ~wassailers~; from 'wassail' [A.S. _waes hael_; from _wes_, be thou, and _hál_, whole (modern English _hale_)], a form of salutation, used in drinking one's health; and hence employed in the sense of 'revelling' or 'carousing.' The 'wassail-bowl' here referred to is the "spicy nutbrown ale" of _L'Allegro_, 100. In Scott's _Ivanhoe_, the Friar drinks to the Black Knight with the words, "_Waes hale_, Sir Sluggish Knight," the Knight replying "Drink _hale_, Holy Clerk." 180. ~inform ... feet~. Comp. _Sams. Agon._ 335: "hither hath _informed_ your younger _feet_." This use of 'inform' (= direct) is well illustrated in Spenser's _F. Q._ vi. 6: "Which with sage counsel, when they went astray, He could _enforme_, and then reduce aright." 184. ~spreading favour~. Epithet transferred from cause to effect. 187. ~kind hospitable woods~: an instance of the pathetic fallacy which attributes to inanimate objects the feelings of men: comp. ll. 194, 195. _As_ in this line (after _such_) has the force of a relative pronoun. 188. ~grey-hooded Even~. Comp. "sandals grey," _Lyc._ 187; "civil-suited," _Il Pens._ 122; both applied to morning. 189. ~a sad votarist~, etc. A votarist is one who is bound by a vow (Lat. _votum_): the current form is _votary_, applied in a general sense to one _devoted_ to an object, _e.g._ a votary of science. In the present case, the votarist is a _palmer_, _i.e._ a pilgrim who carried a palm-branch in token of his having been to Palestine. Such would naturally wear sober-coloured or homely garments: comp. Drayton, "a palmer poor in homely russet clad." In _Par. Reg._ xiv. 426, Morning is a pilgrim clad in "amice grey." On ~weed~, see note, l. 16. 190. ~hindmost wheels~: comp. l. 95: "If this fine image is optically realised, what we see is Evening succeeding Day as the figure of a venerable grey-hooded mendicant might slowly follow the wheels of some rich man's chariot" (Masson). 192. ~labour ... thoughts~, the burden of my thoughts. 193. ~engaged~, committed: this use of the word may be compared with that in _Hamlet_, iii. 3. 69, "Art more _engaged_" (= bound or entangled). To _engage_ is to bind by a _gage_ or pledge. 195. ~stole~, stolen. This use of the past form for the participle is frequent in Elizabethan English. ~Else~, etc. The meaning is: 'The envious darkness must have stolen my brothers, _otherwise_ why should night hide the light of the stars?' The clause 'but for some felonious end' is therefore to some extent tautological. 197. ~dark lantern~. The stars by a far-fetched metaphor are said to be concealed, though not extinguished, just as the light of a dark lantern is shut off by a slide. Comp. More; "Vice is like a _dark lanthorn_, which turns its bright side only to him that bears it." 198. ~everlasting oil~. Comp. _F. Q._ i. 1. 57: