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notes seem not seldom to have been written by a foreigner.
On this passage in ‘
Comus,’—
I do not think my sister so to seek
Or so unprincipled in virtue's book
And the sweet peace that virtue bosoms ever
As that the single want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)
Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
Mr. Masson tells us, that ‘in very strict construction,
not being would cling to
want as its substantive; but the phrase passes for the
Latin ablative absolute.’
So on the words
forestalling night, ‘i. e. anticipating.
Forestall is literally to anticipate the market by purchasing goods before they are brought to the stall.’
In the verse
Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good,
he explains that ‘
while here has the sense of
so long as.’
But
Mr. Masson's notes on the language are his weakest.
He is careful to tell us, for example, ‘that there are instances of the use of
shine as a substantive in
Spenser,
Ben Jonson, and other poets.’
It is but another way of spelling
sheen, and if
Mr. Masson never heard a shoeblack in the street say, ‘Shall I give you a shine, sir?’
his experience has been singular.
1 His
