809. ~'tis but the lees~, etc. _Lees_ and _settlings_ are synonymous = dregs. The allusion is to the old physiological system of the four primary humours of the body, viz. blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy (see Burton's _Anat. of Mel._ i. 1, § ii. 2): "Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen"; Gk. μελαγχολία , black bile. See _Sams. Agon._ 600, "_humours black_ That mingle with thy fancy"; and Nash's _Terrors of the Night_ (1594): "(Melancholy) sinketh down to the bottom like the lees of the wine, corrupteth the blood, and is the cause of lunacy." 811. ~straight~, immediately. The adverb _straight_ is now chiefly used of direction; to indicate time _straightway_ (= in a straight way) is more usual: comp. _L'Alleg._ 69: "Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures." 814. ~scape~, a mutilated form of 'escape,' occurs both as a noun and a verb in Shakespeare and Milton: see _Par. Lost_, x. 5, "what can _scape_ the eye of God?"; _Par. Reg._ ii. 189, "then lay'st thy _scapes_ on names adored." 816. ~without his rod reversed~. This use of the participle is a Latinism: see note, l. 48. At the same time it is to be noted that a phrase of this kind introduced by 'without' is in Latin frequently rendered by the ablative absolute: such construction is here inadmissible because 'without' also governs 'mutters.' 817. ~backward mutters~. The notion of a counter-charm produced by reversing the magical wand and by repeating the charm backwards occurs in Ovid (_Met._ xiv. 300), who describes Circe as thus restoring the followers of Ulysses to their human forms. Milton skilfully makes the neglect of the counter-charm the occasion for introducing the legend of Sabrina, which was likely to interest an audience assembled in the neighbourhood of the River Severn. On 'mutters,' see note, l. 526. 820. ~bethink me~. The pronoun after this verb is reflexive. "The deliverance of their sister would be impossible but for supernatural interposition, the aid afforded by the Attendant Spirit from Jove's court. In other words, Divine Providence is asserted. Not without higher than human aid is the Lady rescued, and through the weakness of the mortal instruments of divine grace but half the intended work is accomplished." Dowden's _Transcripts and Studies_. 821. In this line and the next the attributive clauses are separated from the antecedent: see note, l. 2. 822. ~Melibœus~. The name of a shepherd in Virgil's _Eclogue_ i. Possibly the poet Spenser is here meant, as the tale of Sabrina is given in the _Faerie Queene_, ii. 10, 14. The tale is also told by Geoffrey of Monmouth and by Sackville, Drayton and Warner. As Milton refers to a 'shepherd,' _i.e._ a poet, and to 'the soothest shepherd,' _i.e._ the truest poet, and as he follows Spenser's version of the story in this poem, we need not hesitate to identify Meliboeus with Spenser.