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.