BOOK V.] MY EMENDATIONS-VERBAL. lvii protests against an equal being put to reign over equals (line 820), to be "eclipsed under the name of King Anointed"; he is carried away by his indignation to exclaim that even the rule of the Almighty is hardly admissible-"Too much to one, but double how endured"? then 'how much less for this peer (our equal) to be our Lord'? The apposition of peer, therefore, to Lord possesses marked force. On these lines of argument Abdiel strictly confines himself in his reply. "King" may be the word that has dropped out instead of "peer," as Satan uses it in lines 769 and 777. That we were formed THUS, sayest thou, [Line 853] All the copies erroneously print then. Abdiel has just stated that the "Mighty Father, by his Son, made all things, and all the Spirits of Heaven;" which Satan begins to question in the obvious way shown in my correction. I When NATAL course had circled his full orb [Line 861] Fatal is the slovenly error in all the editions. am inclined to think that the same error occurs in line 104, Book II. Then thou shalt behold Whether by supplication we intend [To] Address OR to begirt the Almighty throne, Beseeching or besieging. The received and absurd reading is this Address, and to begirt the Almighty throne [Line 868] It must be obvious that Satan could not mean that he would both address and begirt the throne of the Almighty at one and the same moment, as he is made to do in the usual reading; the following line plainly embodies and repeats the intention expressed in the previous line. The punctuation is also bad. I see thy fall Determined, and thy hapless crew involved In this perfidious fraud, CONTAGIOUS spread, [Line 880] The blunder in all the editions presents itself in this form: In this perfidious fraud, contagion spread without any comma at the end of the line. BOOK VI. a noble stroke he lifted high, Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell [Line 191] The mutilation is sight. Plainly the word should be that which I have substituted-' that no skill or dextrousness could evade the stroke.' See lines 319, 320,"nor odds appeared in might or swift prevention." BOOK VI.] MY EMENDATIONS-VERBAL. lix Unvanquished? Easier to transact with me That thou shouldst hope, imperious, THAN with threats To chase me hence ! [Line 287] The received reading is and. The punctuation preceding is at fault also; in all the editions it is thus :Hast thou turned the least of these To flight? or if to fall, but that they rise See note, True 'TIS (is), less firmly armed [Line 430] Training his devilish enginery, [Line 553] p. 151. But No (now) foul dissipation followed [Line 597] The enormous blunder of substituting now for no in this connection, is of itself sufficient to discredit every edition in which it appears-and in every one it appears. See my Note, p. 152. I have adopted Upton's suggestion, "in whose face th' Invisible is beheld visibly," as obviously right and necessary. The other editions read, "face invisible." See p. 86 for similar instance of omission. My EXULTATION and my delight, [Line 727] "My exaltation" is the received reading, which the context plainly disposes of. To final battle drew, disdaining flight Or FEIGNED retreat; [Line 799] "Or faint retreat" is the erroneous reading of all the copies. "To flight or foul retreat "-555, I. No (nor) other strife with them do I vouchsafe ! [Linė 823] The repugnant mutilation of Nor for No will be seen in every edition. tempestuous fell His arrows. From the fourfold-visaged Four, Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels (One spirit in them ruled, and every eye Glared lightning), WAS shot forth pernicious fire The restoration here is of great magnitude. The Son has delivered "ten thousand thunders" into the midst of Satan's host, "nor less tempestuous fell his arrows." Then the action of the "Four" is described, who "shot forth pernicious fire." All the editions, however, confound the separate part which the latter took with that of the Son, by not concluding the sentence at "arrows," as I have done. The parenthetical clause, besides, is missed, and the mutilation is not recognized. This is how the passage is received : tempestuous fell His arrows, from the four-fold visaged Four, One spirit in them ruled, and every eye Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire THE EMENDED PUNCTUATION. Under this heading I collect together the more pernicious and obnoxious instances of failure in the Punctuation which debase the Poem, and which betray in most cases an inability to understand the several passages so treated, and in others a want of familiarity with any intelligible or just principles of punctuation. The more grievous blunders, it may be presumed, nowever, could never have maintained their tenacious and mischievous hold in the text but for the confiding belief that they were veritably delivered and endorsed by the venerable seer himself who dictated the verse ; so that both verse and points, like Buddha's tooth, have come to be enshrined and protected from any approach but that of reverence and adoration! The previous pages will have shown what a "boggy Syrtis" we have been travelling over, but we have not yet, unhappily, escaped that baleful region. Newton and later commentators have written in despair about certain "inexplicable passages," but their despair arose out of what were excrescences and mutilations, and which by no possibility could have formed part of the genuine text or of Milton's inspiration; consequently the more they laboured at a mutilation, the deeper they sank confounded. And while most of their exegetical Notes are of great value, true critical sagacity and insight seem to have been strangely wanting, or the Poem could not have come down to us in the distorted and disordered condition it has. As I have demonstrated, in hundreds of instances, that the received punctuation merits nothing but e |