[40] If there could be any doubt as to his intention of delineating himself in his hero, this adoption of the old Norman name of his family, which he seems to have at first contemplated, would be sufficient to remove it.
[41] In the MS. the names "Robin" and "Rupert" had been successively inserted here and scratched out again.
[42] Here the manuscript is illegible.
[43] Among the acknowledged blemishes of Milton's great poem, is his abrupt transition, in this manner, into an imitation of Ariosto's style, in the "Paradise of Fools."
[44] To his sister, Mrs. Leigh, one of the first presentation copies was sent, with the following inscription in it:—
"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother,
"B."
"Little knew she, that seeming marble heart,
Now mask'd in silence, or withheld by pride,
Was not unskilful in the spoiler's art,
And spread its snares licentious far and wide."
CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO II.
We have here another instance of his propensity to self-misrepresentation. However great might have been the irregularities of his college life, such phrases as the "art of the spoiler" and "spreading snares" were in nowise applicable to them.