droop?" So we find numbers=verse, Lat. numeri-e.g. in Pope, "I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came." orient, V. 2, VI. 15. In Elizabethan poetry 'orient' was a 'perpetual' epithet of gems, especially pearls (cf. IV. 238). Perhaps, as used thus, it originally meant 'eastern,' gems coming from the Orient or East; then because these were bright it got the notion 'lustrous,' and 'lustrous' will suit every passage where M. uses it (though in V. 175 'rising' Lat. oriens may be meant). Cf. "orient colours," 1. 546, "sparkling orient gems," III. 507. orisons, V. 145, prayers; once elsewhere in M.-XI. 137. Cotgrave has, “Oraison: Orison, prayer." Cf. Romeo, IV. 3. 3, Hamlet, III. I. 89. From Lat. orationem, through O. F. orison=mod. F. oraison. There is, or was, a less common form in E.; cf. Dyer's Ruins of Rome (1740), "The Pilgrim oft...mid his oraison hears etc." pavilions, v. 653; cf. 1 Kings xx. 12, "he and the kings in the pavilions,” where the margin says "Or, tents." M. uses pavilioned= encamped, XI. 215. From Fr. pavillon (=Lat. papilio) a tent; "so called because spread out like the wings of a butterfly" (Skeat); Pliny and later writers use papilio to mean a tent. reluctant, VI. 58, struggling against-the lit. sense of Lat. reluctari; so 'reluctance' in II. 337, X. 1045. Cf. Blount's Glossographia (1681 ed.), "Reluctate (reluctor), to contend, strive, struggle, or wrestle against." Now 'reluctant' is figurative—‘unwilling, loth.' rined, V. 342; a word much discussed, but, as it seems to me, quite simple. It is an adj., with the termination of a p.p., formed from a noun rine. Milton constantly coined words thus—a fact which it were needless to note, had it not been absurdly objected here that rined must be wrong, because there was no verb 'to rine.' There is no verb 'to mitre,' or 'to helm,' or 'to sword;' but M. uses 'mitred' (Lyc. 112), 'helmed' (VI. 840), 'sworded' (Nat. Ode, 113), and countless similar adjectives. The objection scarce deserves comment. As to the noun rine, not rind, the Shep. Cal. Feb. 111 is generally cited, but as the rhyme there requires that form, and as Spenser avowedly used archaic forms in the poem, the example is perhaps less to the point than the following which I have noticed in Sandys' Relation, 1627 ed.: "In the summer they lance the rine [of the balsam-tree] with a stone,” p. 197; and again, "The bole of this shrub is of least esteeme, the rine of greater," p. 198. These cases, in a popular prose-work, surely prove that rine was a current form. Perhaps M. avoided rinded, as not euphonious, though I find it in Spenser, Virgil's Gnat, 209. sad, V. 94, VI. 541, serious; the original sense was 'sated,' A. S. sad being akin to Lat. satis; then came the notion 'serious, sober, grave.' Cf. Apol. for Smect., "to be severe and ever of a sad gravity," P. W. III. 129, and Hist. of Brit., "this story, though seeming otherwise too light in the midst of a sad narration." Cf. Com. 189, Il Pen. 43. secure, V. 238, VI. 541, without fear or care (Lat. securus), confident, especially over-confident; a frequent use in M. and in Elizabethan E. Cf. Fletcher's quibble "To secure yourselves from these, Be not too secure in ease," and Rich. II. V. 3. 43, 66 secure, fool-hardy king!" Shak. uses 'securely '= carelessly (cf. VI. 130), 'security'= carelessness (cf. Macbeth, III. 5. 32, "security Is mortals' chiefest enemy "). 66 Seraphim; the word is said to mean 'burning.' Cf. Blount's Glossographia (1681), 'Seraphim, i.e. fulgentes aut comburentes; so called, for their burning with divine love and charity." M. alludes to this in v. 249 (note), 804-807, 875; cf. At a Solemn Musick, "bright Seraphim, in burning row." So Drummond, Flowers of Sion, "here do Seraphim Burn with immortal love; " Pope, E. on Man, "the rapt Seraph that adores and burns ;" and Thomson, Castle of In. 11. 48, “Seraphs burning round the Almighty's throne." Some scholars, however, derive Seraph' from a root 'to exalt.' For the termination im, see Cherubim. sluice, v. 133, floodgate; from O. F. escluse (mod. F. écluse), Low Lat. exclusa, i.e. exclusa aqua, shut-off water. Afterwards, exclusa meant the place where the water was shut off, viz. the floodgate. sovran, v. 256, vi. 56; spelt thus always in P. L. Probably M. was influenced by Ital. form—sovrano; sovereign comes through O. F. soverain; in each case Lat. superanus is the original. spume, VI. 479, foam, froth—Lat. spuma. Cf. Thomson, Summer, fiery spume Of fat bitumen." Giles Fletcher has an adj. 'spumy '— cf. Christ's Vict. on Earth, 55, "Spumie Bacchus." store, V. 322, abundance; common in Elizabethan E. One of Heywood's Proverbs runs, "store is no sore." Cf. L'Al. 121. From O. F. estoire, store, provisions, Low Lat. instaurum; in Late Lat. instaurare to provide necessaries. surcease, VI. 258, cease, stop; cf. S. A. 404, and Shak. Lucrece, 1766, "If they surcease to be that should survive." Originally a surcease, O. F. sursis (for the noun, cf. Macbeth, 1. 7. 4), was the arrest or stoppage of a legal suit. Derived from O. F. surseoir, to pause= Lat. supersedere, to forbear; so that surcease is quite distinct from cease Fr. cesser, Lat. cessare. = tire, VI. 605; the old form of tier, cf. Spenser, F. Q. I. 4. 3. It seems to have been specially used of a line of cannon; Skeat quotes Florio (1598), 66 a tyre of ordinance". From Fr. tirer, to draw. "cloth tissue, V. 592, "Cloth of silke and siluer, or of siluer and gold woven together" (Minsheu). Cf. Antony and C. II. 2. 204, of-gold of tissue," and Dryden, Æn. 111. 625, "A robe with flowers on golden tissue wrought." Tissue and texture come from Lat. texere— the one straight from Lat., the other through Fr. tisser. uncouth, v. 98, vi. 362; A. S. uncuð, unknown-from un, not, and cut, the p.p. of cunnan, to know. Minsheu has, "Uncouth is a Saxon word, signifying as much as much as incognitus, unknowen." In M. it almost always means 'strange, unfamiliar,' with the implied notion 'unpleasant;' cf. II. 407, 827. unobnoxious, VI. 404; M. always uses obnoxious' liable to '= Lat. obnoxious. Cf. Tenure of Kings, "obnoxious to the doom of law," P. W. II. 32, and Church Gov., "from that time his creature, and obnoxious to comply with his ends in state," II. 461. So in IX. 170, 1094, and S. A. 106. Cf. Bacon, Of Ambition, as for the having of them obnoxious to ruin, if they be of fearful natures, it may do well." utter, v. 614, VI. 716=outer: duplicate forms (and comparatives) from A. S. út, out. utter outer survived to Milton's time in at least one phrase; cf. Blount (1681), "The outward or utter Barristers...... these always plead without the Bar." The example that occurred in the Bible of 1611 in Ezek. x. 5 ("the utter court") has been changed to outer in modern eds. voutsafe, V. 312, VI. 823; from Middle E. vouchen safe, to warrant as safe; vouchen = Law Fr. voucher, to call, Lat. vocare. The spelling voutsafe in the original editions of Milton must have been specially intended by him, from a desire to avoid the awkward sound ch before s. wont, V. 123, VI. 93, are wont; present tense, 3rd pers. plur. Cf. S. A. 1487, "Sons wont to nurse their parents.' The verb won, now used only in the p.p. wonted or wont, from A. S. wunian, was then conjugated, and had two senses— (i) to be used to, (ii) to dwell. For (i) cf. Com. 332, "fair moon, That wont'st to love; " and Nat. Ode, 10, "he wont...to sit," i.e. was wont. For (ii) cf. P. L. VII. 457, “he wons in forest wild;" so often in Spenser, e.g. F. Q. III. 5. 27, “In those same woods...a noble hunteresse did wonne." wrack, VI. 670, destruction; the usual form till late in the 17th century; cf. shipwracked in S. A. 198. wrack, never wreck, is the spelling of noun and verb in the first Folio of Shak., cf. places where the rhyme has prevented modernising, e.g. Macbeth, v. 5. 51, “Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we'll die with harness on our back." We still use "to rack and ruin," where we mean wrack. From A. S. wrecan, to drive, the wreck or wrack, being that which is driven ashore. |