"Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe su_ch_ divine enchanting ravi_sh_ment?"
So
"Blotches and blains must all his flesh emboss,"
and perhaps
"I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem"
might be added.
[370] I think Coleridge's nice ear would have blamed the nearness of enemy and calamity in this passage. Mr. Masson leaves out the comma after If not, the pause of which is needful, I think, to the sense, and certainly to keep not a little farther apart from what, ("teach each"!)
[371] "First in his East," is not soothing to the ear.
[372] There seems to be something wrong in this word shores. Did Milton write shoals?
[373] But his etymological notes are worse. For example, "recreant, renouncing the faith, from the old French recroire, which again is from the mediaeval Latin recredere, to 'believe back,' or apostatize." This is pure fancy. The word had no such meaning in either language. He derives serenate from sera, and says that parle means treaty, negotiation, though it is the same word as parley, had the same meanings, and was commonly pronounced like it, as in Marlowe's
"What, shall we parlé with this Christïan?"