Editorial note — NOTE A.

‘Oh, may my lot grant such a friend who knows

The art to crown with bays a poet’s brows,

If ever in the coming time my lay

Our native kings shall call again to-day,

Shall call up Arthur, even in worlds below

Preparing wars against the heathen foe;

Or tell of that great fellowship renown’d

The high-souled heroes of the Table Round,

And break, if God his present aid affords,

The Saxons’ serried bands with British swords.’

It is curious to note that Milton with all his learning should, like Malory and Caxton, have spoken of the Britons as English, and the Saxons as foreigners—a popular misuse of names which still makes the Lowland Scotch complain if they are called English instead of British, though they are in fact more English than the English in language and in blood.