There is, by the way, a familiar
passage in which the _ch_ sound predominates, not without a touch of
_sh_, in a single couplet:--
"Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe su_ch_ divine enchanting ravi_sh_ment?"
So
"Blotches and blains must all his flesh emboss,"
and perhaps
"I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem"
might be added.
[370] I think Coleridge's nice ear would have blamed the nearness of
_enemy_ and _calamity_ in this passage. Mr. Masson leaves out the
comma after _If not_, the pause of which is needful, I think, to the
sense, and certainly to keep _not_ a little farther apart from
_what_, ("teach each"!)
[371] "First in his East," is not soothing to the ear.
[372] There seems to be something wrong in this word _shores_. Did
Milton write _shoals_?
[373] But his etymological notes are worse. For example, "_recreant_,
renouncing the faith, from the old French _recroire_, which again is
from the mediaeval Latin _recredere_, to 'believe back,' or
apostatize." This is pure fancy. The word had no such meaning in
either language. He derives _serenate_ from _sera_, and says that
_parle_ means treaty, negotiation, though it is the same word as
_parley_, had the same meanings, and was commonly pronounced like it,
as in Marlowe's
"What, shall we _parle_ with this Christian?"
It certainly never meant _treaty_, though it may have meant
_negotiation_.
Pages:
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425