vacant: At leisure.
Solicitous and blank: Anxious and nonplussed.
frequence: Assembly.
tasted: Made trial of.
Asmodai: The lecherous devil of the apocryphal book of Tobit. See PL, IV, 168–71.
incubus: A devil that had sex with women while they slept.
magnetic: Magnet.
Before the Flood … begat a race: Milton here follows a patristic tradition identifying the lustful sons of God of Genesis 6 with fallen angels.
Pelléan conqueror: Alexander the Great, from Pella in Macedon.
slightly: Indifferently.
he surnamed of Africa: Scipio Africanus.
fond: (1) Loving; (2) foolish.
zone: Girdle.
Grisamber: Ambergris, an intestinal secretion of the sperm whale, used in cooking.
Pontus: The Black Sea; Lucrine bay: A lagoon near Naples, famous for oysters.
cates: Delicacies.
crude: (1) Uncooked; (2) sour; diverted: (1) Pleased; (2) turned awry.
Ganymede: The beautiful Trojan boy abducted by Jove to be his cup-bearer. The name was a byword for homosexual love. Hylas: A beautiful youth loved by Hercules.
Naiades: Fresh-water nymphs.
Amalthea’s horn: The horn of plenty.
Logres … Lyonesse: Regions of Arthurian Britain.
Lancelot … Pellenore: Arthurian knights.
Flora: Roman goddess of flowers and springtime.
What doubts: Why fears.
Defends: Forbids.