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PREFACE

The student who diligently peruses the lines of a great poem may go far toward a realization of its character. He may appreciate, in a degree, its loveliness, strength, and direct hold upon the catholic truth of life. But he will be more sensitive to these appeals, and receive gifts that are richer and less perishable, according as he comprehends the forces by whose interaction. the poem was produced. These are of two kinds— the innate forces of the poet's character, and certain more external forces, such as, in the case of Milton, are represented by Hellenism and Hebraism. Their activity is greatest where they meet and touch, and at this point their nature and measure are most easily discerned. From a contemplation of the poem in its genesis one returns to a deeper understanding and enjoyment of it as a completed whole. The present study, though it deals with but one of the important cultural influences affecting Milton, and with it but in part, endeavors by this method to deepen and clarify the appreciation of his art and teaching.

My interest in the present work has found support and encouragement in the opinions of Mr. Churton Collins, as expressed in his valuable book, The Study of English Literature. The particular subject was suggested by Miss Alice Sawtelle's study of the sources of Spenser's Mythology, which has served also as a helpful model. What is here printed as the second part was submitted as a doctoral thesis to the Philosophical Faculty of Yale University.

Any one who deals seriously with Milton's relation to his sources, especially to the classical ones, must become indebted in many ways to the scholarly editions of Newton and Todd, as well as to the increase of their

wealth in the editions of Browne, Masson, Jerram, Verity, Hales, Cook, and Trent. In the tracing of the sources, however, I have, for the most part, worked independently of editorial annotations, and have found it both necessary and possible to carry the work beyond the limit of previous researches in this field. So thorough and extensive was Milton's reading that a study of his sources may be prolonged indefinitely before it fails of interest and profit. For this reason I have doubtless transgressed, in places, the strict boundary of my subject, as in my discussion of Milton's use of 'Chance,' or his allusion to the Chalybeans. The requisite apparatus included Roscher's Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie, Preller's Griechische Mythologie, and the Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopädie, to which I may add Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. The text used is generally that of Masson, but I have now and again taken liberties with respect to spelling and punctuation, usually with the aim of securing more perfect consistency. The principal translators cited are as follows: of the Iliad, Lang, Leaf, and Myers; of the Odyssey, Butcher and Lang; of Vergil, Lonsdale and Lee; of Plato, Jowett; of Ovid, Riley; of Theocritus, Lang; of Pindar, Myers; of Eschylus and Sophocles, Plumptre.

I speak with hesitation of my debt to my teachers, since I can hope to express but inadequately my gratitude to them. Of such indebtedness this work represents, indeed, but a small part. Had it not been for the advice and unfailing inspiration of Professor Albert S. Cook, it would never have been begun. To the enthusiasm and delicate appreciation of Professor Thomas D. Seymour I owe the beginning and deepening of an interest in Greek literature which has imparted zest to my labors. I am also grateful to Professor Seymour, to Miss Laura E. Lockwood, of Wellesley College, whose Milton Lexicon is shortly to appear, and especially to Professor Cook, for their care in reading the proof, and

the freedom with which they have suggested corrections and improvements. To my brother, Mr. H. W. Osgood, I would record my acknowledgments for his assistance in compiling indexes and in preparing the manuscript for the press.

In the consciousness of one's mistakes and shortcomings it is a comfort to find one's sentiments expressed, with his peculiar nobility of tone and phrase, by the great lexicographer and essayist of the last century, whose success in most things that he undertook must be the despair of lesser abilities: 'In things difficult there is danger from ignorance, and in things easy from confidence; the mind, afraid of greatness, and disdainful of littleness, hastily withdraws herself from painful searches, and passes with scornful rapidity over tasks not adequate to her powers, sometimes too secure for caution, and again too anxious for vigorous effort; sometimes idle in a plain path, and sometimes distracted in labyrinths, and dissipated by different intentions.'

YALE UNIVERSITY, December 23, 1899.

C. G. O.