Death of a Fair Infant; At a Vacation Exercise; On the Nativity; The Passion; On a May Morning; On Shakespeare; On the University Carrier (two pieces); Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester; L'Allegro and Il Penseroso; Four of the Sonnets ("O Nightingale," "On the late Massacre in Piedmont," "When I consider how my light is spent," "To Mr. Lawrence"); Translation of the Fifth Ode of Horace; Translations of Psalms I-VIII. (done in 1653); Translations of Psalms LXXX.-LXXXVIII. (done in 1648); and Scraps of Verse from the text of the Prose Pamphlets.

What has to be specially noted respecting the Cambridge volume of the Milton MSS. is that it does not contain a single original draft of any poem of Milton's known to be of earlier date than 1632, the year when he left Cambridge for his rural retirement at Horton. The Sonnet on his having arrived at the age of twenty-three is only an apparent exception. That Sonnet was certainly written in December 1631; but it is only a transcript of a prior original copy that is included in the Letter to a Friend, and this with the intimation in the Letter itself that the Sonnet had been written 66 some while since." On the whole, the inference is that the Cambridge MS. volume begins in 1633, just after Milton had settled himself in Horton.

RULES FOR DECIDING THE TEXT OF THE MINOR POEMS.

An editor's duty, in respect to the text of the Minor Poems of Milton, resolves itself into the following rules:-(1) The great majority of the poems, appearing both in the edition of 1645 and in that of 1673, are to be printed according to the text of these editions, wherever it is common to the two; and, if in any case there is a discrepancy, then the text of 1673 ought to have the preference, except where it may appear that the difference between that and the text of 1645 is a mere error in reprinting. For, while, on the one hand, there is evidence that Milton dictated amendments for the later edition, and intended these to be adopted, on the other hand there is the fact that he could revise the proofs of the earlier edition with his own eyes, but could not give the later the same benefit. Between the two editions, however, there is next to no difficulty; and these between them must fix the text of the poems common to both. Whatever other copies of these poems exist,-whether among the Cambridge

MSS., or (as in the cases of Comus and Lycidas) also in printed form prior to the volumes of 1645 and 1673,—are to be looked upon only as earlier drafts which were superseded, in Milton's own intention, by these printed volumes. (2) Where a poem appears in the volume of 1673, but not in that of 1645, then, on the same principle, it is the text of 1673, and not that of any earlier draft found among the Cambridge MSS., that is to be followed. (3) As respects the few pieces not found in either of Milton's own editions of 1645 and 1673, but added by subsequent editors, the rule might at first sight seem to divide itself. The scraps of verse culled from Milton's prosepamphlets are, of course, to be printed from the text of the pamphlets in which they occur; but what is the proper text of the four Sonnets first published by Phillips in his memoir of Milton,-to wit, the Sonnets to Fairfax, Vane, and Cromwell, and the second Sonnet to Cyriack Skinner? There are drafts of these Sonnets, though only one of them in Milton's own hand, among the Cambridge MSS.; and these drafts differ a good deal from the copies printed by Phillips. Which text is to be followed? At one time, though aware that Phillips was not the most accurate of men, I was disposed to assign some value to his text of the four Sonnets, on the supposition that he may have had copies later than those in the Cambridge MSS., and also because, in at least one instance, he has furnished a reading which has generally recommended itself. But a close comparison of Phillips's text throughout with that of the Cambridge MSS. has convinced me that Newton and subsequent editors have been right in abiding by the MS. copies. In most cases of difference, even where Phillips's readings would do, the MS. readings are better. But there are one or two cases where Phillips has reverted to a reading forbidden in the Cambridge MSS. by actual rejection and erasure; and in the Sonnet to Cromwell he has ruined the metrical structure by the omission of a whole line, patching up the break clumsily so as to preserve the continuity of the sense. For the four Sonnets in question, therefore, the Cambridge MSS. must be authoritative, while Phillips's variations may interest in the Notes. (4) From all that has been said it does not follow that no editorial use is to be made of the Cambridge MSS. except for the four Sonnets last spoken of, or that no use is to be made of the early printed copies of Comus and Lycidas in 1637 and 1638 respectively. On the contrary, it is peculiarly interesting to compare those earlier drafts of some of the poems with the copies as

finally perfected, and to obtain the insight so afforded into Milton's habits of composition, and the critical fastidiousness with which, in each revision of any of his poems, he sought improvements in words or in sound. Hence, in connection with any of the poems of which there is a draft among the Cambridge MSS., an editor, though precluded from letting that draft affect the printed text of the editions of 1645 and 1673, may, with advantage, give a conspectus in his notes of the various readings supplied by the draft, and not only of such various readings as are supplied by the draft in its final state, but even of such as are supplied by the erasures and changes in the MS. before that state was reached. Milton erased and changed so much in the act of writing that it is impossible to give an adequate idea of his habits in this respect except by actual reproduction of the Cambridge MSS. in facsimile. That labour, performed only in part by the late Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby, may yet be performed completely. Meanwhile, an editor must do his best to supply the want by indicating what is of importance in the form of various readings found in the Cambridge drafts.

INTRODUCTIONS TO THE MINOR POEMS

SEVERALLY

The Poems divide themselves in this edition, as in Milton's own editions, into two sets :-THE ENGLISH POEMS (with which go five Italian Sonnets and one Italian Canzone); and THE LATIN POEMS (with which go three scraps of Greek). We shall divide our Introductions to the Poems correspondingly into two Parts, as follows: