MILTON.[358] (continued 2)
Reading edition
[380] So spirito and spirto in Italian, esperis and espirs in Old French.
[381] Milton, however, would not have balked at th' bottomless any more than Drayton at th' rejected or Donne at th' sea. Mr. Masson does not seem to understand this elision, for he corrects i' th' midst to i' the midst, and takes pains to mention it in a note. He might better have restored the n in i', where it is no contraction, but merely indicates the pronunciation, as o' for of and on.
[382] Exactly analogous to that in treasurer when it is shortened to two syllables.
[383] Milton himself has ínvísible, for we cannot suppose him guilty of a verse like
"Shoots invisible virtue even to the deep,"
while, if read rightly, it has just one of those sweeping elisions that he loved.