506. ~To this my errand~, etc., _i.e._ in comparison with this errand of mine and the anxiety it involved. 'To' = in comparison with; an idiom common in Elizabethan English, _e.g._ "There is no woe _to_ this correction," _Two Gent._ ii. 4. 138. See Abbott, § 187.
508. ~How chance~. _Chance_ is here a verb followed by a substantive clause: 'how does it chance that,' etc. This idiom is common in Shakespeare (Abbott, § 37), where it sometimes has the force of an adverb (= perchance): compare _Par. Lost_, ii. 492: "If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet," etc.
509. ~sadly~, seriously. Radically, sad = sated or full (A.S. _saed_); hence the two meanings, 'serious' and 'sorrowful,' the former being common in Spenser, Bacon, and Shakespeare. Comp. 'some _sad_ person of known judgment' (Bacon); _Romeo and Jul._ i. 1. 205, "Tell me in _sadness_, who is that you love"; _Par. Lost_, vi. 541, "settled in his face I see _Sad_ resolution." See also Swinburne's _Miscellanies_ (1886), page 170.
510. ~our neglect~, _i.e._ neglect on our part.
511. ~Ay me~! Comp. _Lyc._ 56, "Ay me! I fondly dream"; 154. This exclamatory phrase = ah me! Its form is due to the French _aymi_ = alas, for me! and has no connection with _ay_ or _aye_ = yes. In this line _true_ rhymes with _shew_: comp. _youth_ and _shew'th_, _Sonnet on his having arrived at the age of twenty-three_.
512. ~Prithee~. A familiar fusion of _I pray thee_, sometimes written 'pr'ythee.' Lines 495-512 form nine rhymed couplets.
514. ~shallow~. Comp. _Son._ i. 6, "_shallow_ cuckoo's bill," xii_a_. 12; _Arc._ 41, "_shallow_-searching Fame."
515. ~sage poets~. Homer and Virgil are meant; both of these mention the chimera. Milton (_Par. Lost_, iii. 19) afterwards speaks of himself as "taught by the heavenly Muse." Comp. _L'Alleg._ 17; _Il Pens._ 117, "great bards besides In sage and solemn tunes have sung."
516. ~storied~, related: 'To story' is here used actively: the past participle is frequent in the sense of 'bearing a story or picture'; _Il Pens._ 159, "storied windows"; Gray's _Elegy_, 41, "storied urn"; Tennyson's "storied walls." _Story_ is an abbreviation of _history_.
517. ~Chimeras~, monsters. Comp. the sublime passage in _Par. Lost_, ii. 618-628. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster, with the head of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and the body of a goat. It was slain by Bellerophon. As a common name 'chimera' is used by Milton to denote a terrible monster, and is now current (in an age which rejects such fabulous creatures) in the sense of a wild fancy; hence the adj. _chimerical_ = wild or fanciful. ~enchanted isles~, _e.g._ those of Circe and Calypso, mentioned in the _Odyssey_.