"nor from Hell One step, no more than from himself, can fly."—P. L., IV. 21, 22. "Nor in their liquid texture mortal wound Receive, no more than can the fluid air.”—P. L., VI. 348, 349. "Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel: Yet," &c.-P. L., I. 335-337. 66 nor could his eye not ken The empire of Negus.”—P. L., XI. 396, 397. Thus hard pressed for examples of real grammatical superfluity in Milton, I may present these as the best I have found "Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed.”—P. L., "without more train Accompanied than with his own complete Perfections."-P. L., V. 351-353. I. 337. With these I may associate Milton's pretty frequent use of the adverbial forms from hence, from thence, from whence, instead of the simpler adverbs hence, thence, whence. He uses these simple adverbs too, and hence and whence oftener in proportion than thence. CONSTRUCTION CHANGED BY CHANGE OF THOUGHT.-Perhaps there is no subtler observation in Mr. Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar than that which occasioned his invention or adoption of this useful name for a rather frequent and troublesome, but very interesting, class of Shakespearian idioms (Sh. Gr. § 415). It is all the more welcome because it is a recognition of the more general and far-reaching principle that all the so-called Figures of Speech, including all grammatical variations and irregularities, however minute, are to be referred ultimately to equivalent turns, modifications, changes of manoeuvre, in the act of thinking. First let us give two of Mr. Abbott's Shakespearian instances : 66 Purpose is but the slave to memory, Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, But fall unshaken when they mellow be."-Hamlet, ili. 2. Here the change of number from sticks to fall evidently indicates a change in Shakespeare's act of thinking as he wrote. He was first thinking of one piece of fruit, or of fruit as one mass, sticking to a tree; but next moment he sees the shower of separate pieces of fruit falling numerously. Again in the passage "Rather proclaim it; Westmoreland, through our host, Let him depart,"-Henry V. iv. 3. we see the King first only telling Westmoreland what to proclaim, but immediately, in his indignation at the idea called up, passing into the direct imperative, as if he were facing the army and making the procla mation himself. If the reader will now go back on our collection of Miltonic Ellipses (pp. lxxxii. lxxxiii.) he will be able to explain some of the most puzzling of them on this principle. Here, however, are a few cases in which the afterthought, or change of front, if we may so call it, in Milton's mind, and the corresponding change of construction in the sentence, may be better observed: "Or did of late Earth's sons besiege the wall Of sheeny Heaven, and thou some goddess fled.”—D. F. I. 47, 48. "the stars That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps "There does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining to the Night, "So little knows Any, but God alone, to value right -Com. 223-225. The good before him, but perverts best things."-P. L., IV. 201–203. "Much less can bird with beast or fish with fowl So well converse, nor with the ox the ape."-P. L., VIII. 395, 396. "[O flowers] . . . which I bred up with tender hand From the first opening bud, and gave ye names."—P. L., XI. 276, 277. Rescued, had in his righteousness been lost.”—P. L., XI. 681, 682. Henceforth to be foretold what shall befall In apprehension than in substance feel "Deservedly thou griev'st, composed of lies From the beginning, and in lies wilt end."-P. R., I. 407, 408. "Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject The perfect season offered with my aid To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong All to the push of fate," &c.-P. R., IV. 467–470. "thoughts that, like a deadly swarm Of hornets armed, no sooner found alone But rush upon me thronging."-S. A. 19-21. Change of tense, it will be noted, is a very natural form of this curious kind of change of construction; and a few more examples may be given, illustrating this fact: "It was the winter wild While the heaven-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies."-- Od. Nat. 29-31. "And the full wrath beside Of vengeful justice bore for our excess, And seals obedience first with wounding smart."-Upon the Circ. 23-25. 'I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs By the known rules of ancient liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me.”—Sonnet XII. "Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath, Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel, Nor staid till on Niphates' top he lights."-P. L., III. 739–742. INTERCHANGES OF PARTS OF SPEECH.-The most frequent of these by far is the use of an Adjective for an Adverb. This, common in the Elizabethan writers, is incessant in Milton. Examples are "Meanwhile inhabit lax, ye Powers of Heaven" (Par. Lost, VII. 162), “which plain infers" (Par. Lost, IX. 285), "I bring thee voluntary" (Par. Reg., II. 394). And so in every page we have obscure for obscurely, chief for chiefly, safe for safely, frequent for frequently, equal for equally, idle for idly, brief for briefly, easy for easily, attentive for attentively, certain for certainly, advised for advisedly, more glad for more gladly, sager for more sagely, or the like. Next in frequency is the substitution of an Adjective for a Substantive: e.g. "those rebellious" (Par. Lost, I. 71), "this essential" (Par. Lost, II. 97), "the vast Abrupt" (Par. Lost, II. 409), "this profound" (Par. Lost, II. 980), "the esteem of wise" (Par. Lost, IV. 886), "these rebelled" (Par. Lost, VI. 737), "great or bright infers not excellence" (Par. Lost, VIII. 90-91), "My earthly by his heavenly overpowered" (Par. Lost, VIII. 453), "grounded on just and right" (Par. Lost, VIII. 572), "whose higher intellectual more I shun" (Par. Lost, IX. 483), "by putting off human" (Par. Lost, IX. 713-14), "the Grand" (Par. Lost, X. 427), "the stony" (Par. Lost, XI. 4), “the magnetic" (Par. Reg., II. 168). -There are some instances of Verb for Noun: e.g. "beyond compare" (Par. Lost, I. 587, 588), "without disturb" (Par. Lost, VI. 549), "at his dispose" (Par. Reg., III. 34 and 369), "the unsearchable dispose" (S. A. 1746). Of Substantive for Adjective the peculiar Miltonic idioms, "ethereal temper," "sky-tinctured grain,' ," "different sex," already noted (antè p. lxxxii.) may be taken as com pound instances; "carbuncle his eyes" (Par. Lost, IX. 500) is a simpler one. "Where he abides, think there thy native soil" (Par. Lost, XI. 292) may possibly be construed as an instance of adverb for noun; but there are not so many instances of this and other odd substitutions in Milton as Mr. Abbott reports among the Elizabethans. "As they sat recline" (Par. Lost, IV. 333), "made so adorn for thy delight" (Par. Lost, VIII. 576), and "sight so deform" (Par. Lost, XI. 494), are not to be mistaken as instances of verb for adjective, the first and third being simple appropriations of the Latin adjectives reclinis and deformis, and the second of the Italian adorno. IRREGULARITIES IN CONCORD AND Government.-Although Milton was more strict in his syntax than the Elizabethans generally had been, instances do occur in him of Elizabethanisms of this glaring kind. Singular Verb with Plural Nominative.-This is frequent in the third person plural; where, however, it is not merely a license or irregularity, but rather a relic of Old English grammar. While the old Southern dialect had eth for the termination of the third person plural indicative present of verbs (loveth) and the old Midland had en (loven), the old Northern had s or es (loves). This last still persists in vernacular Scotch e.g. "Sailors has hard lives." Now, after the standard English had, in the main, dropt inflection in the plural of verbs (saying love in all the three persons), a tradition of the northern inflection in s was kept up in some usages of the third person plural: Instances in Shakespeare are numerous: thus, from Mr. Abbott : "These high wild hills and rough uneven ways 66 Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome."-Rich. II. ii. 3. Plenty and peace breeds cowards.”▲Cymb. iii. 6. It is in the form of this last instance-i.e. of a verb agreeing with two or more nouns-that we find the idiom common in Milton: eg. "His praise and glory was in Israel known.”—Ps. CXIV. 6. "Not those newfangled toys and trimming slight Which takes our late fantastics with delight."-Vac. Ex. 19, 20. "Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear Compels me to disturb your season due."-Lycid. 6, 7. "Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng."-Sonnet XIII. "hill and valley rings."-P. L., II. 495. Kingdom and power and glory appertains."—P. L., VI. 815. "all comeliness and grace Attends thee, and each word, each motion, forms."-P. L., VIII. 222, 223. "Sorrows and labours, opposition, hate, Attends thee, scorns, reproaches, injuries, Violence and stripes, and lastly cruel death."-P. R., IV. 386–388. Here is one striking example of a similar liberty of concord in the first person, where the explanation is not persistence of archaic habit, but bold purpose by the writer himself :— "Both Death and I Am found eternal."-P. L., X. 815, 816. Explicable on the same principle, or on that of change of construction with change of thought, is this false concord of person in a relative clause "Hail, foreign wonder! Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, The following is an instance of what we should now call false concord of case in apposition :— "who rebelled With Satan he who envies now thy state."-P. L., VI. 899, 900. Each is often used by Shakespeare in a plural way, as equivalent to Both or All: e.g. "What each of them by the other lose" (Coriol. iii. 2), "Each in her sleep themselves so beautify" (R. of L., 404). So Milton : "Each in their crystal sluice."-P. L., V. 133. "Each in their several active spheres."-P. L., V. 477. "Cattle and creeping things and beasts of the Earth, "All flesh, Corrupting each their way."-P. L., XI. 888, 889. Occasional violations of our present rules of government occur among the pronouns. "Save He who reigns above" (Par. Lost, II. 814) is a bold use of the nominative for the objective, after precedents in Shakespeare; and the frequency of ye for the usual objective you has been noted in our remarks on Milton's peculiarities of inflection. That idiom, however, is not extinct yet.--The following instances of the objective relative whom are worth noting : "Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd "Beelzebub . . . than whom, Satan except, none higher sat.”—P. L., II. 299, 300. "Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored The Deity."-P. L., V. 805, 806. Theoretically whom should be who in each of these cases (e.g. the first "Belial came last, and a more lewd Spirit than he fell not from Heaven"); but the ear revolts from "than who." Than is used prepositionally in such cases, as it sometimes is even with the direct pronouns : "You are a much greater loser than me" (Swift). OTHER PECULIARITIES AMONG THE PRONOUNS.-One of the most frequent and interesting of these is the use of the possessives of the personal pronouns-my, mine, our; thy, thine, your; his, her, their—as true possessive cases with the full function of our equivalents for them -of me, of us, of thee, of you, of him, of her, of them. Thus they are often antecedents to relatives: eg. : "His high will Whom we resist."-P. L.; I. 161, 162. Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last : "his tyranny who reigns By our delay."-P. L., II. 59, 60. "His love entire Whose progeny you are."-P. L., V. 502, 503. "my folly, who have profaned The mystery of God."-S. A. 377, 378. |