890. ~rushy-fringèd~, fringed with rushes. The more usual form would be
rush-fringed: we may regard Milton's form as a participle formed from
the compound noun "rushy-fringe": comp. 'blue-haired,' l. 29;
"false-played," Shakespeare, _A. and C._ iv. 14.
891. ~grows~. A singular with two nominatives connected by _and_: the verb
is to be taken with each. But the compound subject is really equivalent
to "the willow with its osiers dank," osiers being water-willows or
their branches. ~dank~, damp: comp. _Par. Lost_, vii. 441, "oft they quit
the _dank_" (= the water).
893. ~Thick set~, etc., _i.e._ thickly inlaid with agate and beautified
with the azure sheen of turquoise, etc. There is a zeugma in _set_.
~azurn sheen~. Sheen = brightness: it occurs again in l. 1003; see note
there. 'Azurn': modern English has a tendency to use the noun itself as
an adjective in cases where older English used an adjective with the
suffix _-en_ = made of. Most of the adjectives in _-en_ that still
survive do not now denote "made of," but simply "like," _e.g._ golden
hair, etc. _Azurn_ and _cedarn_ (l. 990), _hornen_, _treen_, _corden_,
_glassen_, _reeden_, etc., are practically obsolete; see Trench,
_English Past and Present_. Comp. 'oaten' (_Lyc._ 33), 'oaken' (_Arc._
45). As the words 'azurn' and 'cedarn' are peculiar to Milton some hold
that he adopted them from the Italian _azzurino_ and _cedrino_.
894. ~turkis~; also spelt turkoise, turquois, and turquoise: lit. 'the
Turkish stone,' a Persian gem so called because it came through Turkey
(Pers. _turk_, a Turk).
895. ~That ... strays~. Milton does not imply that these stones were
found in the Severn, nor does he in lines 932-937 imply that cinnamon
grows on its banks.
897. ~printless feet~. Comp. _Temp._ v. i. 34: "Ye that on the sands with
_printless foot_ Do chase the ebbing Neptune"; also _Arc._ 85: "Where no
print of step hath been."
902. It will be noticed that the Spirit takes up the rhymes of Sabrina's
song ('here,' 'dear'; 'request,' 'distressed'), and again Sabrina
continues the rhymes of the Spirit's song ('distressed,' 'best').
913. ~of precious cure~, of curative power. See note on this use of 'of,'
l. 155.
914. References to the efficacy of sprinkling are frequent, _e.g._ in
the English Bible, in Spenser, in Virgil (_Aen._ vi. 229), in Ovid
(_Met._ iv. 479), in _Par. Lost_, xi. 416.