1. this three years’ day: three years ago to-day.
10. Milton’s duties as Latin secretary to the government were exceedingly arduous.
Milton’s second wife died in February, 1658; her child lived but a short time. At the time of his second marriage Milton had been blind several years. Notice the reference in the sonnet to the sense of sight: in his dream he saw.
2. like Alcestis. Read the story of the Love of Alcestis in William Morris’s Earthly Paradise; and read in Euripides, “That strangest, saddest, sweetest song of his, Alkestis.”
6. Purification in the Old Law. See Leviticus XII.