A really fascinating read, especially as I’m currently living in a bilingual region of Spain and noting with interest as people move in and out of languages. Thank you.
'Canorum' may be an echo of Cicero on the sonorous quality of an old man's voice: "canorum illud in voce splendescit etiam nescio quo pacto in senectute" (for that matter, cf. 'mitis oratio' ad loc.). The OLD treats 'canorum' here as adjectival, but the TLL takes the more obvious approach of treating it as substantive, and Goad may well have read it that way too. As for 'gravi', no idea!
Many thanks Mark, that's a great parallel. Whether or not it's borrowed directly from Cicero, I think it must be right that it's a substantive here; I was worried that felt a bit bold as a suggestion but this is the perfect citation, thank you.
Lovely piece for the Milton fan, thank you
Glad you enjoyed it Duncan, thanks for commenting.
A really fascinating read, especially as I’m currently living in a bilingual region of Spain and noting with interest as people move in and out of languages. Thank you.
'Canorum' may be an echo of Cicero on the sonorous quality of an old man's voice: "canorum illud in voce splendescit etiam nescio quo pacto in senectute" (for that matter, cf. 'mitis oratio' ad loc.). The OLD treats 'canorum' here as adjectival, but the TLL takes the more obvious approach of treating it as substantive, and Goad may well have read it that way too. As for 'gravi', no idea!
Many thanks Mark, that's a great parallel. Whether or not it's borrowed directly from Cicero, I think it must be right that it's a substantive here; I was worried that felt a bit bold as a suggestion but this is the perfect citation, thank you.
Is it possible at all to read "gravi-suavis" as one word, some sort of oxymoronic coinage?