knows what precisely happened to the elided vowels of Greek and Latin verse? Metrically their suppression may have been absolute, as it is (I am told) in Greek MSS.: but in actual declamation? Similarly, though I cannot doubt that Milton scanned "thAonian mount" and "th' oblivious pool," yet I should not like to say that he read the words so. Nor should I like to have to determine whether in scansion he extended this principle of the elision of the open vowel beyond monosyllables like the and to and the terminal y which slides so easily into a vowel at the beginning of the next word. Thus it satisfies my 'gross unpurged ear to scan "Who highly thus t'entitle me vouchsaf'st" (x. 170); but to wrest an iambus out of the second foot of the line "Virtue in her shape how lovely; saw and pined” (IV. 848) by eliding the double vowel ue ("Virtue in her shape") seems a needless violence, when the easy access of the anapæst (“Virtue | in her shape") solves all. And so with many another line. 66 Some light is thrown on this difficult question of Milton's elisions by the Cambridge autographs of his earlier poems. The evidence, indeed, is not conclusive because the MSS. are not consistent in giving always an elided form where the metre requires one as an alternative to a trisyllabic scansion. But one cannot help drawing some inference from elisions like "Temper'd to th' oaten flute," and elided forms such as watriewestring-batning-wandring-toured, and the many contractions of the inflections of verbs, such as honour'st-tun'stforc't—nurst—stoopt--stolne—dan'ct1. With some of these examples before us, it is not hard to conjecture how Milton would have scanned, say, Paradise Lost, XI. 779, "Wandering that watery desert; I had hope." Similarly when we come across lines of the epic in which Heaven appears to be equivalent to a monosyllable, it is apposite to remember that his autograph has heavn in the prose draft of Adam unparadiz'd (line 2). . 1 Cf. Lycidas, 4, 12, 23, 29, 31, 33; arcades, 21; Comus, 39; Sonnets II. and XIII. And faln in the prose draft of Isaac redeemd serves as a metrical gloss on I. 84, "If thou beest he-but Oh how fallen! how changed!" The drift of such elisions and contractions is obviously to diminish the trisyllabic element, and maintain that iambic rhythm which was ever present1 to Milton's ear and ever wafting the proud full sail of his verse. 1 Two groups of exceptions to the general movement of his lines have been remarked, viz. passages where he indulges his taste for sonorous proper names, and passages "where he follows the Authorised Version of the Bible—especially where the speaker is the Deity." THE ARGUMENT. The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them. God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them, but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him: the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam pleads, but submits the Angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him in vision what shall happen till the Flood. PARADISE LOST. BOOK XI. ΤΗ HUS they, in lowliest plight, repentant stood Prevenient grace descending had removed The stony from their hearts, and made new flesh Inspired, and winged for Heaven with speedier flight Not of mean suitors, nor important less The race of mankind drowned, before the shrine "See, Father, what first-fruits on Earth are sprung 10 20 |