The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-28


the turning, as to lead us from the conceit OF a
"fy in AMBER" to the, inspiring thought that |
the dead may find glorious sepulchre in the |
memory of those who survive them.
Touch not this mine followed urn;
THESE ashes which do here remain
a vital tincture still retain;
a seminal form within tho deeps
OF this little chaos sleeps;
The thread OF life untwisJed Is
Into It's first constituencies
Infant nature cTaded here
In It's principles appear.
Yhis plant thus cdict1t'd into dust
In It's ashes rest IL must
Until sweet Psyche shall inspire
AsJftening and prolific fite
And in his fostering arms enfOld
This heavy and this earJnly mould,
Then as ain I'll be no more
But boOme and blossom (as bsfOre)
When this cold numbness shall retreat
BY more than chemtc heat"
We have printed in italics the words whose
reading has been changed in consequence of a
more careful study since Mr.. Morley first pub
lished the poem. Inconsistencies" was ''ex-
istencies, "thus cacin'd'' was tho entered"
and prolific was "@tifc."
A writer signing himself rs. NJ. P.," pub
fishes letter in the Times of July 2S, in
which lie concludes against the prob .bility of
the poem being Milton's, because, while the
word "its" does not occur i'll the authorized
translation of the Bible, nor he believes, in
NliltOn's Poems, and is only used three times
in Shakespeare, in the "Epitaph" it occurs no
less than four times. This statement of rs.
M. P" has had perhaps as much weight
against the authenticity Of the "Epitaph"
as anything that has been brought
forward; it has been extensively copied,
and poor Lord Winchilsea, who in his
zeal picks up any stone his hand
touches without looking to see whether it
| be clean or not, has snatched this from s. NJ.
p hands, and thrown it with a resonant shout
against MIR. Morley and his poem. But if in
stead of taking rs. NJ. P.'s" word for it, he had
made little inquiry, he would have found in
a valuable book by that most accurate and
pans-taking writer, Prof. George l.. Craik,
1.-The English of Shakespeare" that Shake
speare has used the word 'ts'' four times, GER
tainly, and according to some editions, seven
times, and there may be other instances that
| have escaped MIR. Craik's observation, though
it is difficult to speak positively, since Mrs.
| Clark's concordance does not include the word.
! So far as we know, and as is indeed probable
the word is not used in the authorized version
of the Bible, but which is more to our purpose
Milton uses it at least twice. In Paradise Lost,
l. 254:
"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make heaven of hell, hell of heaven"
And again, Paradise Lost, ", Sl3:-
--"no faIsehood can endure
| Touch of celestial temper, but returns
OF force to dS own likeness"
Mr.. Dixon is especially struck with the lines
| "a seminal form within the deeps
OfthiS little chaos Sleeps"
But, in our case, these two lines, with one that
pTecedes them
"Disiilleth down plenteously"
seemed to us, at the first, very suspicious,
and in all three we still find something modern
| that plaques us. To our ear they are not like
! Milton, but they recall the tone of Andrew
Marvell's verse, and it may be a coincidence
worth mentioning that, after reading the
verses, we remarked to friend that if the
| initials were "a. M instead of ~. NJ" we
should be very,willing to believe that they
were written by Andrew MARVEL, an excellent
poet and the friend of Milton. Two persons
in England it seems have made the same OBJ
servatiop, one of whom is "W. V. H." which
initials We believe are those of Mr.. Vernon
HarcOurt, 'Historicus," who does not believe
that Milton composed the poem.
Professor Brewer has found another point
against the authenticity of "The Epitaph' in
the fact that when Milton, in the year 1878,
the year before his death, reprinted his Juve-
nile Poems, he did not include "The Epitaph"
among the numerous additions that he made
to the English poems of the edition Published
in lC45, the one in copy of which is Mr..
Morleys treasure-trove. Professor Brewer
says that in the edition of 1878 Milton showed
a desire to gather up everything that he had
written not hitherto publis he'd, even including
his college exercises, and that under these
circumstances his leaving out line Epltaph"
is strong point against it's authenticity.
Certainly, this is point of Importance; but,
until it can be shown either that Milton has,
somewhere, clearly expressed determination
to include in the edition of 1873 every poem
that he had written up to that date, and that
still remained unpublished; or that, excepting
''The Epitaph," every poem that he ever
wrote has now been published; Professor
Brewers objection can hardly be considered a
vital one. 1t is not an impossible supposition
that Milton may have forgotten in 1878 a little
poem that he had written on the blank page
of book published twenty-siX years before,
and which had never been anywhere printed.
The reader may expect us to give decided
opinion as to the authenticity of "The Epi-
taph," but this we hardly feel able to do.
Certainly, it is not unworthy of Milton; the
manner is his, the phraseolOgy is his, and,
what is of more importance, The thought is
his. 1t is, no doubt, as Mr. Morley asserts,
"a sketch wanting in some place the last
touches Of the master" "And yet," he asks,
"who but Milton could have left us such a
sketch 2'' So far, we entirely agree with him,
but il is a question whether il may not be a
forgery. To this we venture reply that We
might think so were it not for the striking re-
semblances between it and the Epitaph on
Shakespeare written fifteen years before. A
forger would hardly have put together scraps
in this way from an earlier poem of his
author. He would have made his coat of new
cloth. May it not be that, in the affinity be-
tween the two poems, is found the strongest
proof yet brought forward of MiltOn's author
Ship OF the one for whose discovery we are in-
Gabtpd IN pTOfagGOr MnrlaU