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SUBSTANTIVES
53
VI, 160, Sunless hangs the severe sky’s weight . . .
and in the follwing instance there may be supposed
a compound substantive:
IV, 20, [the sun] Whose light of eye had looked on no such
twain.
(c). From the language of the Elizabethan era, finally,
Swinburne adopted to a very large extent the use of the
plural form where modern English only admits the
singular. Franz (§ 38) puts this down as a constituent feature
of Shakespearean English, and in close resemblance to
Shakespeare, the plural is chiefly used with abstract nouns.
Some cases are very striking.
I, 269, . . . through each limb there came
Swift little pleasures . . .
II, 121, In the charge of the ruining Atlantic
Where deaths by regiments ride . . .
184, All strengths of other men . . .
IV, 97, Yet . . . would she bemock her praises . . .
VI, 173, Night, mother of mercies . . .
One word is particularly liable to be used in this
way, viz., love. It is found in the plural not only when
meaning the attendants of Venus — as in I, 68 — but
also, and very often, in other cases.
III, 32, What help? The world is full of loves . . .
40, The old days are full of dead old loves of ours . . .
A very striking instance of this archaism is the
following one. The love-affair of Tristram and Iseult is meant;
and the poem has:
IV, 96, [report] A full-mouthed serpent, hissing in men’s ears
Word of their loves . . .
Cf. modern English: amorous relations.
Of course, concrete words are also subject to this
treatment. Snows is a particular favourite of the poet’s.
I, 293, Time sheds them like snows on strange regions . . .
II, 252, And Spain sobs hard through strangling blood ; and snows
Hide the huge eastern woes . . .
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