No More Learning

Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--

Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.

A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this

Amongst th' enthroned gods

But the 1645 edition reads:

Amongst the enthron'd gods

and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:

It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.

But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.

Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:

Warblest at eve when all the woods are still

but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st.
'

The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--

And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,

but in the 1645 edition:--

And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,

goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.

Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib. 2. v. 414, for we read wee. ' This correction
shows not only that Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he
found means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies a
facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double vowel
exactly was (and it is found to affect the other monosyllabic pronouns)
it is not so easy to discover, though roughly it is clear the
reduplication was intended to mark emphasis. For example, in the speech
of the Divine Son after the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns
which the voice would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double
vowel:

Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.

In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249) where
the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is printed mee the
first four times, and afterwards me; but it is noticeable that these
first four times the emphatic word does not stand in the stressed place
of the verse, so that a careless reader might not emphasize it, unless
his attention were specially led by some such sign:

Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.