Editorial note — INDEX TO THE NOTES.

728. Who. The pronoun here relates not to the word immediately preceding it, but to the substantive implied in the possessive pronoun her, i.e. the sons of her who. His, her, etc., in such constructions have their full force as genitives: comp. L’Alleg. 124, “her grace whom” = the grace of her whom. surcharged: overloaded, ‘overfraught’ (l. 732). waste fertility, wasted or unused abundance. This participial use of ‘waste’ seems to be due to the similarity in sound to such participles as ‘elevate’ (= elevated), ‘instruct’ (= instructed), etc., which occur in Milton (comp. English Past and Present, vi.).