2''as.vi.i37.,AuG.i4.'58.] NOTES AND QUERlife. 



123 



duction of a young Templar of sprightly parts, 

 who employed his leisure in the meritorious de- 

 sign of reducing Coke's Institutes into a metrical 

 form for the benefit of the legal profession, — a re- 

 sult cleverly etfected, in the specimen given, by 

 the addition to the author's text of the line in 

 bi'ackets : 



" Tenant in fee 

 Simple is he, 

 [And need neither quake nor quiver,] 

 Who holds his lands, 

 Free of all demands. 

 To him and his heirs for ever." 



Of all our great writers, Milton seems to afford 

 the most complete example of this kind of nume- 

 rous prose. Among frequent specimens of unpre- 

 meditated verse that occur iu his prose-writings, 

 while the lighter anapaestic cadence is rarely 

 found, he generally falls into the graver iambic 

 and heroic measures. His ear was so attuned to 

 these cadences, that it was scarcely a poetical ex- 

 aggeration to say, that he — 



" . . fed on thoughts that voluntary' move 

 Harmonious numbers . . . ." 



Allow me, then, in connexion with the above 

 remarks, to close this paper with the result of an 

 experiment which I recently made, by dipping 

 into the first that came to hand of the seven 

 volumes of Milton's Prose WorJis by Symmons 

 (vol. iv. p. 14.), in order to ascertain how many 

 verses of the heroic measure I could discover in a 

 single page. I may add, that I made a similar 

 trial with Clarendon and with Barrow, but in vain. 

 With Hooker and Jeremy Taylor, especially the 

 latter, I had greater success. Among contempo- 

 rary writers, Lord Macaulay, in his History, not 

 unfrequently falls into blank verse, and it abounds 

 in the magnificent periods of Mr. De Quincey. 



I must premise, that, in arranging this page of 

 Milton metrically, I have, in one or two instances, 

 ventured to omit or transpose a word or a sylla- 

 ble : making, however, due allowance for some 

 harsh lines, the general result is certainly very re- 

 markable. 



" Leir, who next reigned, had only daughters three, 

 And no male issue : governed laudably, 

 And built Oaerleir, now Leicester, on the bank 

 Of Sora. But at last, failing through age, 



Determines to bestow his daughters 



And so among tliein to divide his kingdom. 



Yet lirsf, to try which of them loved him best, 

 (A trial that might have made him, h.id ho known 

 As wisely how to try, as he seemed to know 

 How much the trying behooved him,) he resolves 

 A simple resolution, — to ask them 

 Solemnly in order; and which of them 

 Should profess largest, her to believe .... 



(jonerill, the eldest, apprehending well 

 Her father's weakness, answers, invoking heaven, 

 That she loved liim above her soul . . . 

 'Therefore,' quoth the old man, o'erjoyed, 'since thou 

 So honourest my declining age, to thee 

 AuJ to the husband thou shalt choose, I give 



The third part of my realm.' So fair a speeding 



For a few words soon uttered, was to Regan, 



The second, ample instruction what to say. 



She, on the same demand, spares no protesting ; 



' The gods must witness, that to express her thoughts 



She knew not, but that she loved him above 



All creatures; ' and receives equal reward. 



But Cordelia, 

 The youngest, though the best beloved, and now 

 Before her eyes the rich and present hire 

 Of a little easy soothing, the danger also 

 And the loss likely to betide plain dealing. 

 Yet moves not from the solid purpose of a 

 Sincere and virtuous answer. ' Father,' saith she, 

 ' My love towards you is as my duty bids : 

 What should a father seek, what can a child 

 More promise? They who pretend beyond this 

 Flatter.' When the old man, sorry to hear 

 This, and wishing her to recall those words. 

 Persisted asking; with a loyal sadness 

 At her father's infirmity, but something 

 O'the sudden harsh, and glancing rather at 

 Her sisters, than speaking her own mind — ' Two waj's 

 Only,' said she, ' I have to answer what you 

 Require me: the former, your command, is 



I should recant ; accept then 



This other which is left me ; look how much 

 You have, — so much your value is, and so much 

 I love you. 'Then hear thou,' quoth Leir, now all 

 In passion, 'what thy ingratitute hath gained thee; 



because thou hast not reverenced 



Thine aged father equal to thy sisters. 

 Part in my kingdom, or what else is mine, 



Reckon to have none.' " 



Tke History of Britain, Book I. 



Milton, in a Latin epistle to his N'eapolitau 

 friend, Manso, tells him that in early youth he 

 had meditated an epic poem, which was to chro- 

 nicle the chief events from the lauding of Brutus 

 to the time of Arthur : 



" . . . . revocabo in carmine reges, 

 Brennumque, Arviragumque duces, priscumque Be- 



linum, 

 Arturumque, etiam sub terris bella raoventem." 



If, as has been conjectured, the youthful im- 

 pulse of attachment to this subject produced his 

 History of England, it is not improbable that a 

 lingering reminiscence of the intended epic may 

 have suggested the poetical diction, and have im- 

 parted to this first book the metrical cadence that 

 so largely pervades it. W. L. Nichols. 



Grasmere. 



SWJFT : GULLIVER S TEAVELS. 



Few persons, while reading these grotesque 

 fictious, trouble themselves to verity Swift's right 

 to the praise which has always been given to him 

 for his accurate preservation of proportions. It 

 may be affirmed, from his other writings, that 

 Swift was not much given to arithmetic; and it 

 may be presumed that the eye of some friend was 

 upon his manuscript of the tr.avcls. Arbuthnot 

 was the most likely person : his work on ancient 

 weights and measures was published nearly at the 



