Note 573 — BOOK IX.
William Julius Mickle translation
White as her swans.—A distant fleet compared to swans on a lake is certainly a happy thought. The allusion to the pomp of Venus, whose agency is immediately concerned, gives it besides a peculiar propriety. This simile, however, is not in the original. It is adopted from an uncommon liberty taken by Fanshaw:—
"The pregnant sails on Neptune's surface creep, Like her own swans, in gate, out-chest, and fether."