217. ~the Supreme Good~. God being the Supreme Good, if evil exists, it must exist for God's purposes. Evil exists for the sake of 'vengeance' or punishment.
219. ~glistering guardian~, _i.e._ one clad in the 'pure ambrosial weeds' of l. 16. _Glister_, _glisten_, _glitter_, and _glint_ are cognate words.
221. ~Was I deceived~? There is a break in the construction at the end of line 220. The girl's trust in Heaven is suddenly strengthened by a glimpse of light in the dark sky. Warton regards the repetition of the same words in lines 223, 224 as beautifully expressing the confidence of an unaccusing conscience.
222. ~her~ = its. In Latin _nubes_, a cloud, is feminine.
223. ~does ... turn ... and casts~. Comp. _Il Pens._ 46, 'doth diet' and 'hears.' When two co-ordinate verbs are of the same tense and mood the auxiliary verb should apply to both. The above construction is due probably to change of thought.
225. ~tufted grove~. Comp. _L'Alleg._ 78: "bosomed high in _tufted_ trees."
226. ~hallo~. Also _hallow_ (as in Milton's editions), _halloo_, _halloa_, and _holloa_.
228. ~new-enlivened spirits~, _i.e._ my spirits that have been newly enlivened: for the form of the compound adjective comp. note, l. 36.
230. ~Echo~. In classical mythology she was a nymph whom Juno punished by preventing her from speaking before others or from being silent after others had spoken. She fell in love with Narcissus, and pined away until nothing remained of her but her voice. Compare the invocation to Echo in Ben Jonson's _Cynthia's Revels_, i. 1.
The lady's song, which has been described as "an address to the very Genius of Sound," is here very naturally introduced. The lady wishes to rouse the echoes of the wood in order to attract her brothers' notice, and she does so by addressing Echo, who grieves for the lost youth Narcissus as the lady grieves for her lost brothers.
231. ~thy airy shell~; the atmosphere. Comp. "the hollow round of Cynthia's seat," _Hymn Nat._ 103. The marginal reading in the MS. is _cell_. Some suppose that 'shell' is here used, like Lat. _concha_, because in classical times various musical instruments were made in the form of a shell.
232. ~Meander's margent green~. Maeander, a river of Asia Minor, remarkable for the windings of its course; hence the verb 'to meander,' and hence also (in Keightley's opinion) the mention of the river as a haunt of Echo. It is more probable, however, that, as the lady addresses Echo as the "Sweet Queen of Parley" and the unhappy lover of the lost Narcissus, the river is here mentioned because of its associations with music and misfortune. The Marsyas was a tributary of the Maeander, and the legend was that the flute upon which Marsyas played in his rash contest with Apollo was carried into the Maeander and, after being thrown on land, dedicated to Apollo, the god of song. Comp. _Lyc._ 58-63, where the Muses and misfortune are similarly associated by a reference to Orpheus, whose 'gory visage' and lyre were carried "down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." Further, the Maeander is associated with the sorrows of the maiden Byblis, who seeks her lost brother Caunus (called by Ovid _Maeandrius juvenis_). [Since the above was written, Prof. J. W. Hales has given the following explanation of Milton's allusion: "The real reason is that the Meander was a famous haunt of swans, and the swan was a favourite bird with the Greek and Latin writers--one to whose sweet singing they perpetually allude" (_Athenaeum_, April 20, 1889).] 'Margent.' _Marge_ and _margin_ are forms of the same word.