[Footnote 291: Trinity Sunday, the octave of Whitsunday.]
[Footnote 293: Alluding only to the commonwealth party here, and in other parts of the poem. DRYDEN.--See Note II.]
[Footnote 296: The Crescent, which the Turks bear for their arms. DRYDEN. Note III.]
[Footnote 297: The Pope, in the time of Constantine the Great; alluding to the present Pope. DRYDEN.--See Note IV.]
[Footnote 300: The Lemmon Ore, on which the vessel of King James was lost in his return from Scotland. The crew perished, and he himself escaped with difficulty. See Vol. IX. p. 401.]
[Footnote 301: Venerable is here used in its original sense, as deserving of veneration. But the epithet has been so commonly connected with old age, that a modern poet would hardly venture to apply it to an infant.]
[Footnote 303: Alluding to the temptation in the wilderness.]
_Restitit Æneas, clarâque in luce refulsit, Os, humerosque deo similis; namque ipsa decoram Cæsariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventæ Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflarat honores._
[Footnote 305: Edward the Black Prince, born on Trinity Sunday.]
[Footnote 306: The motto of the poem explained.]
[Footnote 312: The death of the Jesuits, executed for the Plot.]
[Footnote 313: All the queen's former children died in infancy.]
[Footnote 314: The year 1688, big with so many events of importance, commenced very unfavourably with stormy weather, and an epidemical distemper among men and cattle.]
[Footnote 317: Original sin, supposed to be washed off by baptism.]
[Footnote 318: See "The Hind and the Panther," p. 224.]
[Footnote 319: The prince christened, but not named.]
[Footnote 320: Jehovah, or the name of God, unlawful to be pronounced by the Jews. DRYDEN.]
[Footnote 321: Some authors say, that the true name of Rome was kept a secret, _ne hostes incantamentis deos elicerent_. DRYDEN.]
[Footnote 322: Candia, where Jupiter was born and lived secretly. DRYDEN.]
[Footnote 323: Pallas, or Minerva, said by the poets to have been bred up by hand. DRYDEN.]
[Footnote 324: The prince had no wet nurse.]
[Footnote 325: The sudden false report of the prince's death. See Note VII.]
[Footnote 327: 1 Samuel, chap. iv. v. 10.]
[Footnote 328: Exodus, chap. xvii. v. 8.]
[Footnote 329: Aristides. See his Life in Plutarch.]