660. ~your nerves ... alabaster~. Comp. _Tempest_, i. 2. 471-484. Milton has the word alabaster three times, twice incorrectly spelled _alablaster_ (in this passage and _Par. Lost_, iv. 544) and once correctly, as now entered in the text (_Par. Reg._ iv. 548). Alabaster is a kind of marble: comp. _On Shak._ 14, "make us _marble_ with too much conceiving." 661. ~or, as Daphne was~, etc. The construction is: 'if I merely wave this wand, you (become) a marble statue, or (you become) root-bound, as Daphne was, that fled Apollo.' Milton inserts the adverbial clause in the predicate, which is not unusual; he then adds an attributive clause, which is not usual in English, though common in Greek and Latin. Daphne, an Arcadian goddess, was pursued by Apollo, and having prayed for aid, she was changed into a laurel tree (Gk. δάφνη): comp, the story of Syrinx and Pan, referred to in _Arc._ 106. 662. ~fled~. Comp. the transitive use of the verb in l. 829, 939, _Son._ xviii. 14, "_fly_ the Babylonian woe"; _Sams. Agon._ 1541, "_fly_ The sight of this so horrid spectacle." 663. ~freedom of my mind~, etc. Comp. Cowper's noble passage, "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free," etc. (_Task_, v. 733). 665. ~corporal rind~: the body, called in _Il Pens._ 92, "this fleshly nook." 668. ~here be all~. See note, l. 12. 669. ~fancy can beget~: comp. _Il Pens._ 6. 672. ~cordial julep~, heart-reviving drink. _Cordial_, lit. hearty (Lat. _cordi_, stem of _cor_, the heart): _julep_, Persian _gulāb_, rose-water. 673. ~his~ = its: see note, l. 96. 674. ~syrups~: Arab, _sharāb_, a drink, wine. 675. ~that Nepenthes~, etc. The allusion is explained by the following lines of the _Odyssey_: "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, turned to new thoughts. Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his father and his mother died ... Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt, where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful" (_Butcher and Lang's translation_, iv. 219-230). 'Nepenthes,' a Greek adj. = sorrow-dispelling (νη, privative; πένθος, grief). It is here used by Milton as the name of an opiate and it is now occasionally used as a general name for drugs that relieve pain. 677. ~Is of such power~, etc.: see note, l. 155. The construction is, 'That Nepenthes is not of such power to stir up joy as this (julep is, nor is it) so friendly to life (nor) so cool to thirst.' 679. ~Why ... to yourself~. Comp. Shakespeare, _Son._ i. 8, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel."