45. _Buxom_. Used here in its modern sense. It originally meant pliant, flexible, yielding (from A. S. _búgan_, to bow); then, gay, frolicsome, lively; and at last it became associated with the "cheerful comeliness" of vigorous health. Chaucer has "buxom to ther lawe," and Spenser (_State of Ireland_), "more tractable and buxome to his government." Cf. also _F. Q._ i. 11, 37: "the buxome aire;" an expression which Milton uses twice (_P. L._ ii. 842, v. 270). In _L'Allegro_, 24: "So buxom, blithe, and debonaire;" the only other instance in which he uses the word, it means sprightly or "free" (as in "Come thou goddess, fair and free," a few lines before). Cf. Shakes. _Pericles_, i. prologue: "So buxom, blithe, and full of face, As heaven had lent her all his grace." The word occurs nowhere else in Shakes. except _Hen. V._ iii. 6: "Of buxom valour;" that is, lively valour. Dr. Johnson appears to have had in mind the original meaning of _buxom_ in his comment on this passage: "His epithet _buxom health_ is not elegant; he seems not to understand the word." 47. _Lively cheer_. Cf. Spenser, _Shep. Kal._ Apr.: "In either cheeke depeincten lively chere;" Milton, _Ps._ lxxxiv. 27: "With joy and gladsome cheer." 49. Wakefield quotes Milton, _P. L._ v. 3: "When Adam wak'd, so custom'd; for his sleep Was airy light, from pure digestion bred, And temperate vapours bland." 51. _Regardless of their doom_. Collins, in the _first manuscript_ of his _Ode on the Death of Col. Ross_, has "E'en now, regardful of his doom, Applauding Honour haunts his tomb."[2] [Footnote 2: Mitford gives the first line as "E'en now, _regardless_ of his doom;" and just below, on verse 61, he makes the line from Pope read, "The fury Passions from that _flood_ began." We have verified his quotations as far as possible, and have corrected scores of errors in them. Quite likely there are some errors in those we have not been able to verify.] 55. _Yet see_, etc. Mitford cites Broome, _Ode on Melancholy_: "While round stern ministers of fate, Pain and Disease and Sorrow, wait;" and Otway, _Alcibiades_, v. 2: "Then enter, ye grim ministers of fate." See also _Progress of Poesy_, ii. 1: "Man's feeble race," etc. 59. _Murtherous_. The obsolete spelling of _murderous_, still used in Gray's time. 61. _The fury Passions_. The passions, fierce and cruel as the mythical Furies. Cf. Pope, _Essay on Man_, iii. 167: "The fury Passions from that blood began." 66. Mitford quotes Spenser, _F. Q._: "But gnawing Jealousy out of their sight, Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite." 68. Wakefield quotes Milton, _Sonnet to Mr. Lawes_: "With praise enough for Envy to look wan." 69. _Grim-visag'd, comfortless Despair_. Cf. Shakes. _Rich. III_. i. 1: "Grim-visag'd War;" and _C. of E._ v. 1: "grim and comfortless Despair."