the end is written with a stroke of contraction over the a, and without the t. This is not a true contraction, and would not have been used by the author in writing his lines. The poem has probably been transcribed from a draught copy, and the word written down as imperfectly deciphered by the scribe. "The more important question, as determining authorship, is as to the signature. I have closely examined it, both with the naked eye and under strong magnifying power, and have always come to the same conclusion. The first of the two letters is a 'P,' similar in form to that used in the word 'Psyche' in the poem itself. The second is an unquestioned 'M,' but not of the form used by Milton. "British Museum, July 25. "EDW. A. BOND." It is fair also to point attention to the difference of opinion among experts indicated by the fact that the editor of the Athenæum records in his journal that he examined the signature to the MS. Epitaph "in a good light, with two magnifying glasses, in the presence of four officers of the British Museum. We all resolved the signature into J. M." As the object of this controversy, happily so free from bitterness, is not to prevail in combat, but to ascertain truth, I reply to the denial that the handwriting as well as the poetry of the Epitaph is Milton's, by publishing a facsimile as the best help to a true settlement of that part of the question. One or two suggestions, however, bearing upon this part of the argument I wish to add. That there are obvious affinities between the writing of a little off-hand complimentary inscription in a book called the Mel Heliconium, and the writing of this Epitaph. That Mr. Bond long since denied that inscription to be in Milton's writing upon grounds which were not unsuccessfully disputed, and were not held to be satisfactory by the late Mr. Sotheby in the volume which contains the result of his special research into the handwriting of Milton; Mr. Sotheby being hitherto the only man who has made the difficult subject of Milton's handwriting a special study. That the probabilities are very great indeed against the writing by any one else than Milton of a thoroughly Miltonic piece at the back of a printed leaf of Milton's first collection of his poems; this being done only two years after its first publication, before Milton's name had become a power. The improbability is enormously increased by the fact that this unknown second Milton must have had a name beginning with M. and a Christian name of which the initial, when faded and half obliterated, as it now is, bears, at least, a strong resemblance to a J. It is to be observed, too, that the denial of this letter to be a J, and declaration upon doubtful evidence of one small scratch that it must be a P, sets out from the presumption of a uniformity and freedom from occasional chance touches of the pen, which is not to be found in the known signatures of Milton, and is rare in the signature of any man. It is also not unworthy of notice that Mr. Bond finds in the line "A vitall tincture still retain," the word "still" to have been written over the word "yet." This is a change more likely to have been made by an author copying his own lines than by a mere transcriber. And whoever may be the transcriber of this Epitaph, the author of it is John Milton. August 4, 1868. H. M. |