MILTON'S "LYCIDAS."
(Vol. ii., p. 246.; Vol. vi., p. 143.)
Your correspondent Jarltzberg, at the first reference, asks for the sense of the passage,—
"Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing sed:
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
My own view of this passage strongly testifies against the interpretation of another passage at the second reference.
The two-handed engine, I am positive, is St. Michael's sword. Farther on in the poem the bard addresses the angel St. Michael (according to Warton), who is conceived as guarding the Mount from enemies with a drawn sword, for in this form I apprehend does tradition state the vision to have been seen; and he bids him to desist from looking out for enemies towards the coast of Spain, and to "look homeward," at one of his own shepherds who is being washed ashore, in all probability upon this very promontory. Milton elsewhere (Par. Lost, book vi. 251.) speaks of the "huge two-handed sway" of this sword of St. Michael; and here, in Lycidas he repeats the epithet to identify the instrument which is to accomplish the destruction of the wolf. St. Michael's sword is to smite off the head of Satan, who at the door of Christ's fold is, "with privy paw," daily devouring the hungry sheep. Note here that, according to some theologians, the archangel Michael, in prophecy, means Christ himself. (See the authorities quoted by Heber, Bampton Lectures, iv. note l, p. 242.) Hence it is His business to preserve His own sheep. In the Apocalypse the final blow of St. Michael's (or Christ's) two-edged sword, which
is to cleave the serpent's head, is made a distinct subject of prophecy. (See Rev. xii. 7-10.)
While on this subject allow me to ask, Can a dolphin waft? Can a shore wash?
C. Mansfied Ingleby.
Birmingham.