329. ~Eye me~, _i.e._ look on me. To _eye_ a person now usually implies
watching narrowly or suspiciously. ~square~, accommodate, adjust. The adj.
'proportioned' is here used proleptically, denoting the result of the
action indicated by the verb 'square.' Comp. _M. for M._ v. 1: "Thou 'rt
said to have a stubborn soul, ... And _squar'st_ thy life accordingly."
~Exeunt~, _i.e._ they go out, they leave the stage.
331. ~Unmuffle~, uncover yourselves. To _muffle_ is to cover up, _e.g._
'to _muffle_ the throat,' 'a _muffled_ sound,' etc. _Muffle_ (subst.) is
a diminutive of _muff_.
332. ~wont'st~, _i.e._ art wont. _Wont'st_ is here apparently the 2nd
person singular, present tense, of a verb _to wont_ = to be accustomed;
hence also the participle _wonted_ (_Il Pens._ 37, "keep thy _wonted_
state"). But the M.E. verb was _wonen_, to dwell or be accustomed, and
its participle _woned_ or _wont_. The fact that _wont_ was a participle
being forgotten, it was treated as a distinct verb, and a new participle
formed, viz., _wonted_ (= won-ed-ed); from this again comes the noun
_wontedness_. Milton, however, uses _wont_ as a present only twice in
his poetry: as in modern English he uses it as a noun (= custom) or as a
participial adj. with the verb _to be_ (_Il Pens._ 123, "As she was
wont"). ~benison~, blessing: radically the same as 'benediction' (Lat.
_benedictio_).
333. ~Stoop thy pale visage~, etc. Comp. l. 1023 and _Il Pens._ 72,
"_Stooping_ through a fleecy cloud." 'Visage,' a word now mostly used
with a touch of contempt, in Milton simply denotes 'face': see _Il
Pens._ 13, "saintly _visage_"; _Lyc._ 62, "His gory _visage_ down the
stream was sent." ~amber~: comp. _L'Alleg._ 61, "Robed in flames and
_amber_ light," and Tennyson:
"What time the _amber_ morn
Forth gushes from beneath a low-hung cloud."
334. ~disinherit~, drive out, dispossess. Comp. _Two Gent._ iii. 2. 87,
"This or else nothing, will _inherit_ (_i.e._ obtain possession of)
her."
336. ~Influence ... dammed up~. The verb here shows that influence is
employed in its strict sense, = a flowing in (Lat. _in_ and _fluo_): it
was thus used in astrology to denote "an _influent_ course of the
planets, their virtue being infused into, or their course working on,
inferior creatures"; comp. _L'Alleg._ 112, "whose bright eyes Rain
_influence_"; _Par. Lost_, iv. 669, "with kindly heat Of various
_influence_." Astrology has left many traces upon the English language,
_e.g._ influence, disastrous, ill-starred, ascendant, etc. See also l.
360.
337. ~taper~; here a vocative, the verb being "visit (thou)."
338. ~though a rush candle~, _i.e._ 'though it be only a rush-candle'; a
rush light, obtained from the pith of a rush dipped in oil.
340. ~long levelled rule~; straight horizontal beam of light: comp. _Par.
Lost_, iv. 543, "the setting sun ... _Levelled_ his evening rays." The
instrument with which straight lines are drawn is called a _rule_ or
ruler.
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