Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/298

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. x. SEPT. 26, im

the entrance of which, by the law or custom of the family, must only be known to three persons at once, Viz., the Earl of Strathmore, his heir apparent, and any third person they may take into their con- fidence. The extreme antiquity of the building is vouched by the immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and straggling arrangement of the accommodation within doors."

Thus we have here the greater part of the legend as popular with the public the mystery ; the secret chamber known only to the Earl, his heir, and a third person taken into confidence ; and the secret preserved from generation to generation by the law or custom of the family. The monster does not, indeed, find a place in Sir Walter Scott's account, but this may have been provided later by some one with the aid of the superstitious awe called " being ' eerie,' " in the place so favourable thereto.

The chamber, like that known in one or two other ancient buildings, probably led to a secret exit, to be used as a means of escape in case of danger. The thickness of the walls, and the arrangement of the accommodation as described, would much favour the provision of such a secret chamber and passage. And if existing conditions be as suggested, then a member of the family may with perfect accuracy have recently assured an inquirer that the Mystery of Glamis was now even the same as ever. OUTIS.

[For earlier communications on the Mystery of Glamis see 6 S. x. 326, 475 ; xi. 35 ; 9 S. vii. 288.]

MILTONIANA.

' PARADISE LOST,' i. 84-94 :

If thou beest he but Oh how fallen ! how

changed

From him ! who, in the happy realms of light, Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst out- shine

Myriads, though bright if he whom mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope And hazard in the glorious enterprise, Joined with me once, now misery hath joined In equal ruin ; into what pit thou seest From what highth fallen : so much the stronger

proved

He with his thunder : and till then who knew The force of those dire arms ?

The construction of the first nine lines has been very much misunderstood, and in consequence the passage has been for the most part more or less grotesquely punc- tuated. The note of exclamation, rightly following " him," is commonly placed after " bright," while in 11. 5 et sqq. the punctua- tion usually goes to pieces altogether. I have given above Masson's punctuation,

which will do very well, except that some may prefer a semicolon after " bright " and a comma after the following " he." But even Masson strangely misunderstood the construction of 11. 84-92, seeing in them an " approach here and there to the figures of speech known in books of rhetoric as Anacolouth (unfinished clause or sentence) and Synathrcesmus (hubbub)," and of course the reader was bidden to discern herein " a poetical fitness " !

Now as a matter of fact the construction is not unfinished, for " If thou beest. . ., fallen " (1. 92) forms a .complete complex sentence, consisting of a principal part, "into what pit .... fallen," and two sub- ordinate complex clauses " if thou beest . . . .bright " and " if he. . . .ruin."

The key to a right understanding of the construction is recognition of the fact that " who. .. .didst outshine" was not " un- grammatical " in Elizabethan English. See Mason's ' English Grammar,' 469, where, besides the present passage, others from Shakespeare and the A.V. are quoted. These instances might easily be added to- very largely. For one additional instance- see * King Lear,' III. iv. 87-92. More- common, however, was the other con- struction that which alone is correct at the present day. A Miltonic instance occurs, in ' Paradise Lost,' ii. 689-90 :

Art thou he Who first broke peace in Heaven

The next important point to notice is that " whom " does double duty, being governed at one and the same time by

joined " (according to the more usual, construction) and by " hath joined " (accord- ing to the less usual construction). The, use of a phrase, word, or inflexion, to do double duty is so much restricted (it still. exists unnoticed) at the present day that many will probably object to the explana- tion just given, questioning its, correctness.. Such I invite to examine the construction of the italicized words in the following: passages :

Of wiles

More unexpert, I boast not ; them let those Contrive who need, or when they need, not now. 'Paradise Lost,' ii. 51-3. In even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain : A multitude like which the populous North Poured never from her frozen loins.

Ibid., i. 349-52.

" Which, though it be not in our power to bestow, it is in our charity to desire." Browne, * Religio Medici.'

"Of angels, we are not to consider only what: they are and do. "Hooker, ' Ecclesiastical Polity.'