EMPSON AND BENTLEY
179
sound, though one doesn't know quite why"; "super-subtle" means
"he reads very acutely" but also "what he pretends to see isn't really
there," also perhaps "he conceals what is really obvious," and "mod–
ernist" carries so many overtone$ of "faddist," "sensationalist," and
"subverter of established truths," that one doesn't know how to at–
tach the word to Mr. Empson. Certainly
explication de texte
is a
curiously straightforward, old-fashioned device for a super-subtle
modernist.
But Empson has written on Bentley, who wrote on Milton; he
is, like Bentley, a challenging and rewarding critic because of his
faults as well as his virtues, for he is equally rich in both. Most
critics allow us to feel safe in one quarter or another; with Empson,
anything can happen. Far from being supersubtle, he is wild but
willing; he will cheerfully commit twenty absurdities for a chance at
one insight. To read Empson hard is always useful and pleasant be–
cause
his
mistakes are as much fun as his perceptions. To read him
any less critically than he reads his text is to invite disaster. For he
is one of those guides to the waxworks who are so vehement and pro–
fuse that they tend to overwhelm both the exhibits and the visitors.
One picayune preliminary may dispose of a good many adven–
titious problems. Empson's account of Bentley is impressively inac–
curate verbally. Though he makes some point of quoting originals,
he seems to quote largely from memory, and inaccurately at that.
It seems odd to have "thir" meticulously recorded for "their" when
half a line has been silently dropped from the passage, or a key word
altered to make hash of the sense. The more significant of these mis–
quotations, which involve more than a queer spelling or a dropped
preposition, are indicated briefly in the footnote.
3
Some quotations
are provided with a notation of the source, others not, apparently at
3 Page 159 line 11 read "have no intention to justify" for "make no attempt
to defend"; 160 line 5 read "assisted" for "corrected"; 163 line 17 read "intri–
cate" for "visible"; 164 line 10 read "till then who knew" for "who knew till
then"; line 11 "dire" for "due"; 165 line 11 read "in" for "on"; line 21 "am"
for "and"; 166 line 9 read "you" for "ye"; 167 line 31 read "could" for "with";
170 line 16 read "tow'ring" for "touring"; line 34 "it" for "they"; 173 line 23
read "would suspect they could" for "would have suspected that they could";
176 line 4 read "let none admire that riches grow in Hell; that soil" for "let
none admire; that soil"; 183 line 12 read "Fairest of stars, last in the train of
night" for "Fairest star of night." Errors of representation in connection with X
580 and VI 178 are noted in the text below.
