117 



Livy is still more replete with sentences of this kind, not to speak of 

 the rhetorical periods of Cicero. Who would look for anything of the 

 kind in an English Author? Yet Milton has among others the fol- 

 lowing sentence : 



Speaking of Satan walking over tlie burning marl, the poet says : — 

 I. 299 " NatMess, he so endured, till on the beach 



Of that inflamed sea he stood and called 



His legions, Angel fonns, who lay entranced 



Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks 



In VaUombi'osa, where the Etrurian shades, 



High over-arched, imbower ; or scattered sedge 



Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed. 



Hath vexed the Ked Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew 



Busiris and his Mempliian cliivalry ; 



While, with perfidious hatred, they pursued 



The sojourners of Go^lien, who beheld 



From the safe shore their floating carcasses 



And bi'ol;ou chariot wheels." 

 We have here not less than ten clauses connected together to form 

 one period. How heavily this lumbering train is dragged along, must 

 be felt at once by every one who has an ear for numbers. I think it 

 wHl be difficult to find such another period in any English author but 

 Milton.* Let us take auother example of the same endeavour at 

 grandiloquence (VI. 307) : Michael and Satan prepare for single 

 combat, when — 



" From each hand with speed retired, 



"V^^lere erst was thickest fight, the angelic throng. 



And left large field, unsafe within the wind 



Of such commotion ; such as, to set forth 



Great things by small, if, nature's concord broke, 



Among the constellations war were sprung, 



Two planets, rushing from aspect malign 



Of fiercest opposition in mid sky. 



Should combat and their jarring spheres confound." 

 I defy any one to construe this passage at first reading. No wonder, 

 that Bentley took in hand his pruning knife. " The context 

 shows," says he, " that Milton gave it warfare instead of ivar were." 

 " Broke and sprung," adds he, " are both participles of the ablative 

 case ; a most frequent composition in Milton, which often makes his 

 style obscure and difficult to those that know not Latin." The motive 



factu esse duxerunt, rebellione facta, frumento commeivtiique nostras proliibere et rem in 

 liiemem product-re, qnod iis superatis aut reditu interclusis neminem postea belli inferendi 

 causa in Briianniam transituruin confidebant. 

 Here are 8 sentences and 5 participial plirasos made up into one syntactical unity. 

 * Benlley expuugcg the latter six lines, from " whose waves," on other grounds. 



