750. ~of sorry grain~, not brilliant, of poor colour. 'Grain' is from Lat. _granum_, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes. Hence _grain_ came to denote certain colours, _e.g._ Tyrian purple, violet, etc., and is so used by Milton: see _Il Pens._ 33, "a robe of darkest _grain_"; _Par. Lost_, v. 285, "sky-tinctured _grain_"; xi. 242, "A military vest of purple ... Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra," etc. And as these were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,' 'a rogue in grain,' 'an ingrained habit.' (See further in Marsh's _Lect. on Eng. Lang._ p. 55). 751. ~sampler~, a sample or pattern piece of needlework. It is a doublet of _exemplar_. ~tease the huswife's wool~. To _tease_ is to comb or card: comp. the Lat. _vexare_. 'Huswife' = house-wife, further corrupted into _hussy_. _Hussif_ (a case for needles, etc.) is a different word. 752. ~What need a vermeil-tinctured lip~? See note, l. 362, on 'what need.' _Vermeil_: a French spelling of _vermilion_. The name is from Lat. _vermis_, a worm (the cochineal insect, from which the colour used to be got); and as _vermis_ is cognate with Sansk. _krimi_, a worm, it follows that _vermilion_, _crimson_, and _carmine_ are cognate. 753. ~tresses~. Homer (_Odyssey_, v. 390) speaks of "the fair-tressed Dawn," εὐπλόκαμος Ἠώς . 755. ~advised~. Contrast with 'Advice,' l. 108. 756. Lines 756-761 are not addressed to Comus. 757. ~but that~: were it not that. 758. ~as mine eyes~: as he has already charmed mine eyes; see note, l. 170. 759. ~rules pranked in reason's garb~, _i.e._ specious arguments. _Pranked_ = decked in a showy manner: Milton (Prose works, i. 147, ed. 1698) speaks of the Episcopal church service _pranking_ herself in the weeds of the Popish mass. Comp. _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 10, "Most goddess-like _prank'd_ up"; _Par. Lost_, ii. 226, "Belial, with words clothed in _reason's garb_." 760-1. I hate when Vice brings forward refined arguments, and Virtue allows them to pass unchallenged. ~bolt~ = to sift or separate, as the _boulting-mill_ separates the meal from the bran; in this sense the word (also spelt _boult_) is used by Chaucer, Spenser (_F. Q._ ii. 4. 24), Shakespeare (_Cor._ iii. 1. 322, _Wint. Tale_, iv. 4. 375, "the fanned snow that's _bolted_ By the northern blasts twice o'er," etc.). The spelling _bolt_ has confused the word with 'bolt,' to shoot or start out. See Index to Globe _Shakespeare_. 763. ~she would her children~, etc., _i.e._ she wished (that) her children should be wantonly luxurious: comp. l. 172; _Par. Lost_, i. 497-503. 764. ~cateress~, stewardess, provider: lit. 'a buyer.' _Cateress_ is feminine: the masculine is _caterer_, where the final _-er_ of the agent is unnecessarily repeated. 765. ~Means ... to the good~: intends ... for the good.