267. ~Unless the goddess~, etc. = unless _thou be_ the goddess that in
rural shrine _dwells_ here. Here, as often in Latin, we have 'unless'
(Lat. _nisi_, etc.) used with a single word instead of a clause: and,
also as in Latin, the verb in the relative clause has the person of the
antecedent.
268. ~Pan or Sylvan~: see l. 176: also _Il Pens._ 134, "shadows brown that
Sylvan loves," and _Arc._ 106, "Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were."
Sylvanus, the god of fields and forests, as denoted by his name which is
corrupted from Silvan (Lat. _silva_, a wood).
269. ~Forbidding~, etc. These lines recall the language of _Arcades_, in
which also a lady is complimented as "a _deity_," "a _rural_ Queen," and
"mistress of yon princely shrine" in the land of Pan. There is a
reference also to her protecting the woods through her servant, the
Genius: _Arc._ 36-53, 91-95.
271. ~ill is lost~. A Latin idiom (as Keightley points out) = _male
perditur_: Prof. Masson, however, would regard it as equivalent to
"there is little loss in losing."