[123] “Scrannel” is either Milton’s coinage or a borrowing from some dialect (N.E.D.).
[124] This of course is used by many later writers, and was perhaps not regarded in Dryden’s time as an archaism.
[125] “New English Dictionary.”
[126] “Works,” ed. Courthope and Elwin, Vol. X, p. 120.
[127] The prevailing ignorance of earlier English is illustrated in that stanza by Pope’s explanation of the expression “mister wight,” which he had taken from Spenser, as “uncouth mortal.”
[128] “The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, in 6 Vols. with a glossary explaining the old and obscure words. Published by Mr. Hughes, London.”
[129] Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 115-140.
[130] As in Prior’s “Susanna and the Two Elders” and “Erle Robert’s Mice” (1712).
[131] “Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser,” 1754.
[132] “An Answer to the Sompner’s Prologue in Chaucer,” printed anon, in “Lintott’s Miscellany,” entitled “Poems on Several Occasions” (1717), p. 147.