——φίλον μὲν φέγγος ἡλίου τόδε.
Καλὸν δὲ πόντου χεῦμ’ ἰδεῖν εὐήνεμον,
Γῆ τ’ ἠρινὸν θάλλουσα, πλούσιόν θ’ ὕδωρ,
Πολλῶν τ’ ἔπαινόν ἐστί μοι λέξαι καλῶν.
Ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν οὕτω λαμπρὸν, οὐδ’ ἰδεῖν, καλὸν,
Ὡς τοῖς ἄπαισι, καὶ πόθῳ δεδηγμένοις,
Παίδων νεογνῶν ἐν δόμοις ἰδεῖν φάος.
VII. There is little doubt in such cases as these. There needs not perhaps be much in the case, sometimes, of single sentiments or images. As where we find “a sentiment or image in two writers precisely the same, yet new and unusual.”
1. Thus we are told very reasonably, that Milton’s clust’ring locks is the copy of Apollonius’ ΠΛΟΚΑΜΟΙ ΒΟΤΡΥΟΕΝΤΕΣ. Obs. on Spenser, p. 80. For though the metaphor be a just one and very natural, yet there is perhaps no other authority for the use of it, but in these two poets. And Milton had certainly read Apollonius.
2. What the same critic observes of Milton’s
——“And curl the grove
In ringlets quaint”—
being taken from Jonson’s
When was old Sherwood’s head more quaintly curl’d?
is still more unquestionable. For here is a combination of signs to convict the former of imitation: Not only the singularity of the image, but the identity of expression, and, what I lay the most stress upon, the boldness of the figure, as employed by Milton. Jonson speaks of old Sherwood’s head, as curl’d. Milton, as conscious of his authority, drops the preparatory idea, and says at once, The grove curl’d.
Let me add to these, two more instances from the same poet.
3. Spenser tells us of