133. ~one blot~, _i.e._ a universal blot: comp. _Macbeth_, ii. 2. 63.
Milton first wrote, "And makes a blot of nature."
134. ~Stay~, here used causally = check. The radical sense of the word is
'to support,' as in the substantive _stay_ and its plural _stays_. ~ebon~,
black as ebony. Ebony is so called because it is hard as a stone (Heb.
_eben_, a stone); and the wood being of a dark colour, the name has
become a synonym both for hardness and for blackness.
135. ~Hecat'~, _i.e._ Hecatè (as in line 535): a mysterious Thracian
divinity, afterwards regarded as the goddess of witchcraft: for these
reasons a fit companion for Cotytto and a fit patroness of Comus. Jonson
calls her "the mistress of witches." She was supposed to send forth at
night all kinds of demons and phantoms, and to wander about with the
souls of the dead and amidst the howling of dogs.
136. ~utmost end~, full completion. Compare _L'Alleg._ 109, "the corn
That ten day-labourers could not _end_," where 'end' = 'complete.'