842. ~Made Goddess~, etc. This participial construction is frequent in
Milton as in Latin: it is equivalent to an explanatory clause.
844. ~twilight meadows~: comp. "twilight groves," _Il Pens._ 133;
"twilight ranks," _Arc._ 99; _Hymn Nat._ 188.
845. ~Helping all urchin blasts~, remedying or preventing the blighting
influence of evil spirits. 'Urchin blasts' is probably here used
generally for what in _Arcades_, 49-53, are called "noisome winds and
blasting vapours chill," 'urchin' being common in the sense of 'goblin'
(_M. W. of W._ iv. 4. 49). Strictly the word denotes the hedgehog, which
for various reasons was popularly regarded with great dread, and hence
mischievous spirits were supposed to assume its form: comp. Shakespeare,
_Temp_, i. 2. 326, ii. 2. 5, "Fright me with _urchin_-shows"; _Titus
And._ ii. 3. 101; _Macbeth_, iv. 1. 2, "Thrice and once the _hedge-pig_
whined," etc. Compare the protecting duties of the Genius in _Arcades_.
~Helping~: comp. the phrases, "I cannot _help_ it," _i.e._ prevent it; "it
cannot be _helped_," _i.e._ remedied, etc.
846. ~shrewd~. Here used in its radical sense = _shrew-ed_, malicious,
like a shrew. Comp. _M. N. D._ ii. 1, "That _shrewd_ and knavish sprite
called Robin Goodfellow." Chaucer has the verb _shrew_ = to curse; the
current verb is _beshrew_.