Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/400

 326 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.ix.ooT.22,i92i. Ib. ii. 420 : folk who saw its name In old records, would turn the page and blame. . . In Wordsworth : But if to these Wayfarers once pertained Aught of romantic interest. (' Excursion,' viii. 84.) i,nd in M. Arnold's half a century later ' Westminster Abbey ' : A strange wayfarer coming to his side, and in ' Heine's Grave ' : 'tis here That black tombstone, the name Carved there no more. and the second ' Rachel ' sonnet : (Polymnia), full on her deathbed. -'Twas well. In Coventry Patmore, too* ' The Toys ' :- And six or seven shells, A bottle with bluebells. And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art To comfort his sad heart. Then, Swinburne's ' Atalanta ' : and the wind First flung round faces of seafaring men White splendid snowflakes of the slumbering foam. And Morris's ' Jason ' : The earthborn sprang On to the tumbling earth and the sunlight Shone on bright arms, clean ready for the fight. Older poets* heard more of the good sounds. They are quoted here below, with some younger imitation. Perhaps forefathers in the following may be given as fixed stress ' Dr. Faustus ' (c. 1590), I. iii. 99 : Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid Within the massy entrails of the earth. And ' Romeo and Juliet,' IV. iii. 51 : And madly play with my forefathers' joints. And Dryden, a century after : Our wise forefathers, great by sea and land, Had once the power and absolute command. (' Juvenal,' Sat. x.) Wherein Dryden had also His least effort before Jove's altar tries ; -as alluded to above. to " so foolhardy " (I. i. 695), and other such, are, or may be, wilful and whims. Indeed, in the exceptional direction too (I. iii. 1023) : " Because he had but one to subdue As was a paltry narrow tub to Diogenes." Yet he may have heard, or half heard, it so ; as suggested in the last passage of older accent rgiven below. ' Dr. Faustus,' I. i. 144 : And meet me in my study at midnight.* ' A Woman killed with Kindness ' : And it is just midnight. Where are my keys ? (In Shakespeare, be it said, nearly always midnight. ) ' Comedy of Errors,' I. i. : Such as seafaring men provide for storms. ' Richard III.,' III. iv. 91 : As 'twere triumphing at mine enemies. (Yet in Shakespeare and in Milton, the infinitive triumph.) And Milton ' On Time ' : Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time. which grander tone is heard in many poets, centuries younger. Heywood's ' A Woman killed with Kind- ness ' : There goest thou, the most perfe'ctest man. Ib.: So she from these rude carters leave extracts. ' Faery Queene,' vii. 7, 13: This great grandmother of all creatures bred Great Nature, ever young, yet full of old. Ib. i. 12, 33 : And on the ground herself prostrating low. Ib., i. 6, 12 : And all prostrate upon the lowly plaine Do kiss her feete, and fawne on her with count' nance faine. Though Massinger in 1622 ' Virgin Martyr,' II. iii. : A rocky heart, killing with cruelty A life that's prostrated beneath your feet. Ib. VII. vii. 41 : chill December, . . . through merry feasting which he made And great bonfires did not the cold remember. Ib. I. vi. 24 : And the robuckes in flight to overtake. Ib. III. iii. 2 : The fatall purpose of divine foresight. Donne's ' Lines to His Mistress ' (c. 1620) : To walk in expectation ; till from thence Our greatest King shall call thee to His presence. " For not keeping accent Donne deserved to be hanged," Ben Jonson maintained. B u t so before the presence day of Shake- speare and Milton the old Christmas carol, ' The First Nowell,' offered there in His presence Both gold and myrrh and frankincense ; spondeus of two long times in Puttenharn's
 * Butler's ' Hudibras's ' vain jeopardy rhyming
 * " Midnight," an example of the foote
 * ' Arte of English Poesie ' (1588).