Poetical Works | Page 4

in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is
gained by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a
bygone age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it
by pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this,
in which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the
point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really significant,
and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is to determine
exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own instructions,
and which according to the printer's whim? It is notorious that in
Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate system, and it
may very well happen that in the
volume of minor poems which the
poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no less
systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that Milton's
own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of the
minor
poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not

correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This
manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. 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