have used it in describing the upstarting of the fallen angels. Belike and likeliest, though exceptionable, are not so exceptionable as liker. I confess kicking the beam, to be very very low; and words that are in themselves a deformity, cannot, even from the best writers, be precedents of justifiable power. The rest of the words, quoted from Milton, are not used in the demoniac regions, but in that very absurd part, the Limbo of Vanity; which being in itself grossly ludicrous, any phraseology is good enough for it.

You will probably not be able to read this hurried scroll, written at snatches of scanty leisure, as day by day I could seize them, while company were in my house. Forgive my ingenuousness, hazarded in the hope that if you translate the Purgatorio, it may induce you to weed your blank verse a little. It is a rich soil, and wants only a higher degree of husbandry to make it responsible for a-transplantation of the finest powers of another language.

Adieu. I hope we shall meet soon; your's ever, A. SEWARD.

TO MISS SEWARD. *

August, 1806.

I AM very happy in receiving so certain a proof of the amendment in the health of my dear mistress, as her last kind letter affords me. It is a disap

The transcript of this letter, as sent to Miss Seward, was not found among her papers. It is therefore printed from the original draught retained by its writer, which is so much defaced by erasures and alterations as in parts to be scarcely legible.

pointment to Mrs. Cary and myself, that we are not likely soon to have the pleasure of witnessing that amendment in our intended visit.

Sir Charles Ormsby got no farther on his journey to Ireland than Lord Kirkwall's in Wales, when he was obliged to return to London by the threatened approach of a fever and ague. Fearful of being laid up in this house, he did not call here on his way. However, he gives us hopes that we may still see him again before he leaves England, and accompany him to Lichfield.

And now, my dear mistress, let me put in my plea at the bar of the Muses, in answer to the several charges you have brought against my translation. The first instance is from canto i. :

"Yet, to discourse of what there good befel,

All else will I relate discovered there."

If this is not to be understood at all in my version, Mr. Hayley's version has not helped you much, for it has made you misunderstand the meaning of the passage entirely, which is this, "In order to tell of the good things which happened there, I will tell of all else, every other circumstance, let it be ever so bad, which I found in that place." Just as if I was to say, "In order that I may have an opportunity of telling you all the good events of my life, I will, at the same time, enter upon a narration of all those even of a contrary nature."

Second instance, canto xix., line 21 :—

" and be this

A seal to undeceive."

You prove this is not unintelligible by suggesting the right meaning. The use of the word seal for attestation, or rather confirmation, is so very common, that I wonder it could escape your recollection. "He that hath received his testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true," that is, hath attested.John iii., 33.

"How in my words soever she be shent,

To give them seals never, my soul, consent."
Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2.

Third instance. Omission of the pronoun thou after the second person singular of the verb, which so grievously offends you. Of this you are told and believe there is no instance to be found in Milton. Take the following:

"What fury, O Son,

Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

Against thy Father's head? and know'st for whom?"

Par. Lost, b. ii. v. 730.

This is in hell, where you say Milton's phrase never stoops, though I see not why he should be more solicitous to preserve his dignity there than in Heaven, Paradise, or even Limbo itself; and it is plainly by choice, as he might have written,

"Against thy Father's head? know'st thou for whom?"

But he thought, as every one must think, that it was much more dramatic as it stands at present. Again :

"Which way or from what hope dost thou aspire
To greatness? whence authority derivest ?"

VOL. I.

M

Par. Reg., b. ii.

"Then proceed'st to talk

Of th' emperor."

Par. Reg., b. iv.

"For hadst thou not committed

Notorious murder on those thirty men

At Askalon, who never did thee harm,
Then like a robber strip'd'st them of their robes ?"
Samson Agon.

There may be many other like passages in Milton. These have offered themselves on a very cursory view of part of his works, and are sufficient to disprove the broad assertion, that he never omits the pronoun. With the concession that there may be a few instances of the same custom in Shakspeare, I will not rest satisfied; but will maintain that there are very many, that they almost always are instances of a very forcible and spirited tone of language, and therefore, that "the custom must needs be more honoured in the observance than the breach." Take the following ten passages that I met with after a short search.

"Wherefore ey'st him so ?"-Cymbeline, act v. sc. 5.
"Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?"

Anton. and Cleop., act v. sc. 2.

"Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?"

Hamlet, act ii. sc. 1.

"I heard thee say but now thou likedst not that,

When Cassio left my wife:

what didst not like?"

Othello, act iii. sc. 3.

"Hast stolen it from her?"-Act iii. sc. 3.

Oth.

I

"My husband say, that she was false?

say, thy husband: dost understand the word ?"

He, woman.

Act. v. sc. 2.

"Fellow, where goest ?"—Lear, act iv. sc. 1.

"Wilt break my heart?"-Lear, act iii. sc. 4.

"Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?"-Act ii. sc. 4.

"Good even to thee, friend. Art of this house?”

Act ii. sc. 2.

The truth is, that when the dialogue is quick, vehement, unceremonious, passionate, then the omission of the pronoun has generally a good effect.

Fourth instance. "Pity most alive when she is dead," if a blunder, is imputable to Dante, since his words are faithfully translated, just as if I were translating Milton's

"The fairest of her daughters, Eve,"

Par. Lost, b. iv. v. 324,

I should not hesitate to preserve that peculiarity of my author, though commonly esteemed a blunder. Fifth instance. The word ruining is used in the same sense by Milton;

"Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, Hell saw
Heaven ruining from Heaven :"

Par. Lost, b. vi. v. 868:

and as the subject is that in which Milton's phrase never stoops, I trust the authority will content you. Canto xxii., line 15.

Sixth instance.

"With the ten demons on our way we went ;
Ah fearful company! but in the church

With saints, with gluttons at the tavern's mess."