— — — — — — — In thy face
Shines more awful majesty,
Than dull weak mortality
Dare with misty eyes behold,
And live—
The writer glanced, but very improperly on such an occasion, at Exod. xxxiii. 20. “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”
V. An uncommon construction of words not identical, especially if the subject be the same, or the ideas similar, will look like imitation.
Milton says finely of the Swan,
— — — — —The Swan with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly ROWS
Her state—
I should think he might probably have that line of Fletcher in his head,
How like a Swan she SWIMS HER PACE!
The expression, you see, is very like. ’Tis true, the image in Milton is much nobler. It is taken from a barge of state in a public procession.
VI. We may even pronounce that a single word is taken, when it is new and uncommon.
Milton’s calling a ray of light—a levell’d rule in Comus v. 340, is so particular that, when one reads in Euripides ἡλίου ΚΑΝΩΝ σαφὴς, Suppl. v. 650, one has no doubt that the learned poet translated the Greek word.