Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 566 Awaiting what command their mighty Chief Had to impose. t The "awaiting" is foreshadowed, in the original, by the "command" to "forbear execution". 1.576 Compare the prose text as given under No LXII, above. .... LXV. Giants. ... though all the giant brood. Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined . . . Compare: "... and had issue by them a second breed of giants" (Fl. p. 476 a)... "The island, not yet Britain but Albion, was in a manner desert and inhospitable; kept only by a remnant of giants. Them Brutus destroys, and to his people divides the land, which with some reference to his own name he thenceforth calls Britain. To Corineus, Cornwall, as we now call it, fell by lot; the rather by him liked, for that the hugest giants in rocks and caves were said to lurk still there; which kind of monsters to deal with was his old exercise" (Fl. p. 478 b). Note: The reference to "Britain" and the fighting in Cornwall, subjects no doubt originally intended for treatment in the projected grand national epic, seem to have inspired the poet with the allusion to what resounds 580 In fable or romance of Uther's son, Begirt with British and Armoric knights. which was elaborated into that magnificent allusion to the glories of chivalry in the lines that follow immediately. 2.410 LXVI. Strict Sentries. ...What strength, what art, can then Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 415 Choice in our suffrage; for on whom we send Compare, from the episode treated under Nos LXII and LXIV: "Calls to him Anacletus, and... enjoins him, that he should go at the second hour of the night to the Greekish leagre, and tell the guards he had brought Antigonus by stealth out of prison to a certain woody vale, unable through the weight (416) of his fetters to move him further... great profession of fidelity first made, he frames his tale... and they now fully assured, with a credulous rashness (414) leaving their stations (412) . . (Fl. p. 477 b). Note that "credulous rashness" is completely inverted. The plural "stations" is a hapax legomenon. Afresh, with conscious terror vex me round, Before mine eyes in opposition sits Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on... Compare, again from the same episode treated in Nos LXII, LXIV, and LXVI: “Brutus ... suddenly sets upon him, and with slaughter of the Greeks pursues (790) him to the passage of a river... where at the ford he overlays (792) them afresh (801)“. (Fl. p. 477 a). Note that the adverb "afresh" is a hapax legomenon. LXVIII. Dislegomena. Under this head three cases of words and expressions will be discussed which, by their distribution, throw light upon the relative chronology of books I, II, and IX, which seem to belong to the same period. (1) The expression by stealth is found in 9.68 and 2.945. Its original may be discovered in the following prose passage, with which both poetic versions have the idea expressed in "guards" in common: ... and tell the guards he had brought Antigonus by stealth out of prison..." (Fl. p. 477 b). 9.687 66 ... and on the coast averse From entrance or cherubic watch by stealth Found unsuspected way... .2.945 the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloined (2) The word "ambush" is found in close proximity to the expression discussed above, viz. in the famous photophobic episode (see Nos LXII, LXIV, LXVI): "... and they '. . . and they ... fared accordingly by the ambush that there waited them" (Fl. p. 477 b). It occurs only twice (dislegomenon) in Milton's poetry, viz. in the two places mentioned below. The fact that the second similarity is found in book IX only might be taken for proof of the priority of that book. Such ambush, hid among sweet flowers and shades, Waited with hellish rancour imminent... 9.408 2.344 ... Or ambush from the deep... (3) The verb "to recollect" in the original sense of "re-collecting" or "gathering again" is found twice in the prose text, and also in books IX and I. 66 66 Compare: "... Pandrasus with all speed recollecting... (Fl. p. 477 a, the photophobic passage!) "Brennus, nevertheless finding means to recollect his navy...“ (ib. p. 481 a) The interdependence of the two poetic passages is proved by the recurrence of the adverb "soon". A Survey of the Passages of the Minor Poems (A) the "History of Moscovia", and (B) the The similarities discoverable in the Minor Poems differ from those in PL. by being less numerous and less "verbal“ in character. The subjects of both prose works must have occupied Milton's mind before the composition of the Companion Poems and "Comus" at least. It is very doubtful whether the two prose works existed at all at that time; it would, therefore, be more accurate to speak of the influence of their sources only. The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 20 As he met her once a-Maying. There, on beds of violets blue, And fresh-blown roses washed in dew. . . Compare the original account of Rose Island in Hakluyt's collections: "Rose Island in St. Nicholas Bay is full of roses damask and red, of violets and wild rosemary . . . The snow here about the midst of May is cleared, having been two months in melting; then the ground is made dry within 14 days after, and then the grass is knee-high within a month ... That island hath fir and birch, and a fresh spring near the house built there by the English" (Goldsmid's reprint 3, p. 310). Milton's prose version is almost identical with the above text (see No 4). The curious use made of the homonymous nature of the noun "spring" is not without parallels. Later on, Milton was to use the same passage in the composition of book IV; see No IX, above. The selection of words is different in the two cases; thus, e. g., the genuine "roses and violets" of No LXIX are replaced by the commonplace "flowers". The introduction of the figure of "Zephyr", suggested, no doubt, by the idea of the advent of spring, is common to both passages, and serves to strengthen the view expressed as to their origin. 69 70 LXX. An Imaginary Landscape. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, Russet lawns and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Mountains on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest; 75 Meadows trim with daisies pied; Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; Towers and battlements it sees . . . The above description strongly reminds of 9.445ff., analysed under No XXII, above. Most of the items in both seem to have been suggested by Milton's reading of texts concerning Russia. The words italicized in the above extract from "L'Allegro" may all be discovered in the "History". The combination "towers and battlements" is used in connection with the incident at Greenwich (chap. V); it seems Milton's own: the original text speaks of "towers" only: "The Privy Council, they looked out of the windows of the Court, and the rest ran up to the tops of the towers" (Goldsmid's reprint, 3, p. 56). An unmistakable connection is established between the two poetic passages by the "milkmaid" (Al. 11. 65), and the "fair virgin“ (9.452), mentioned immediately after the "dairy". The colour-name "russet" is mentioned together with many others in descriptions of kinds of cloth in Hakluyt's collections (Goldsmid's reprint, 3, pp. 297 and 307, the latter place being but three pages removed from the report on Rose Islands, see No LXIX). 11. 81-90 remind of the references to the fertile nature of the interior of Russia: "Their fields yield such store of corn, that in conveying it towards Mosco, sometimes in a forenoon, a man shall see seven hundred or eight hundred sleds, going and coming, laden with corn and saltfish" (Goldsmid's reprint, 3, p. 70). 117 LXXI. A Russian Triumph. Towered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold, 120 In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, 125 There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe, with taper clear, |