Editorial note — INDEX TO THE NOTES.
Reading edition
162. Baited, rendered attractive. Radically bait is the causative of bite; hence a trap is said to be baited. Comp. Sams. Ag. 1066, “The bait of honied words.”
163. wind me, etc. The verbs wind (i.e. coil) and hug suggest the cunning of the serpent. The easy-hearted man is the person whose heart or mind is easily overcome: ‘man’ is here used generically. Burton, in Anat. of Mel., says: “The devil, being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself into human bodies.” Me is here used reflexively: see note, l. 61. This is not the ethic dative.
165. virtue, i.e. power or influence (Lat. virtus). This radical sense is still found in the phrase ‘by virtue of’ = by the power of. The adjective virtuous is now used only of moral excellence: in line 621 it has its older meaning.