I'm not sure what's going on here.  I've got a copy of Donne with the
(strange to us) original spellings.  It's all over the place, like in the
"Songs and Sonets[?]" the second to last line of "The Blossome[?]" reads:

"There, to another friend, whom wee shall finde"

and Donne is not all *that* much earlier than Milton.  Even as late as
"Devotions Upon Emergent Occaisions" (1624) there is both "we" and "wee" in
"Meditation XV":

"...wee lie downe in a hope, that wee shall rise the stronger; and we lie
downe in a knowledge, that wee shall rise no more...."

so it seems like there is no standard spelling.


Robert


-----Original Message-----
From: Marcia Karp [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 12:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Milton's erratum


Jennifer Formichelli wrote:

> First of all, thank you for the information. I didn't even know there was
an
> erratum to Paradise Lost.
>
> Second, what do you make of it?

Me to Carrol:

> the erratum for the first edition of PL-"Lib. 2.
> v. 414, for we read wee."

Dear Jennifer,

I think the following must be taken into account when making something of
the
correction:

     memory (used in ways we now don't);
     patient secretaries;
     Milton having something in mind for the dual spellings of the
     pronouns;
     a way to communicate the spelling, both by him and to him

Carrol mentions Helen Darbishire, but she isn't the only one to ponder the
spellings.  Forgive me if I don't rehearse the various ideas.  I can't
recall
them now and am supposed to be doing other things.  Symbolism is not the
only
idea put forth.

Instead of the academic stuff, I'll tell you that Milton's brain was
overflowing
and he would call to the day's amanuensis to _milk me_.  Coincidence, I
suppose,
that at Cambridge his long hair lead to the nickname "The Lady."

Look in Beeching's edition [viii] for the erratum.

Marcia