Note 121 — Chapter II
Reading edition
I do not know who started the idea. It was mentioned in the Retrospective Review (ii. p. 180) in 1820, accepted by Sommer, and elaborated with small success by K. Windscheid. Masson makes no mention of it in his edition of Milton's poetical works. The author of Lycidas was probably a reader and admirer of Browne's poems, but of Britannia's Pastorals rather than of the decidedly inferior eclogues.