How to parse. ...

Par. 530, 53I.] ABRIDGMENTS.

291

530 The principal Verb is omitted, and the question
is expressed by the Infinitive (possibly an old form;
Par. 398):(1) "Why longer dwell on horrors?" " Why still
delay?"
The desire to be terse produces countless irregularities in Poetry, even in a polished and fastidious
Poet such as Pope. His meaning is transparent,
but his grammar is (pardonably) most irregular:
(1) " O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads,
And drink the falling tears each other sheds."
POPE.
531 We are accustomed, in Prose, to the condensed
expression (see Par. 223)- "they loved each other;"
but this is a condensation of " and drink the falling
tears —each (shall drink the tears that the) other
sheds." Practically, no doubt Pope regards " each
other" as a Compound Pronoun.
(2) "Who has the vanity to call you friend,
But wants tile honor, injur'd, to defend."-Ib.
That is, "to defend you when you are injured."
(3) "Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms
undone,
Th' enormous faith of many made for one? " - b.
That is, "the abnormal belief that the governed are
made for the governor."
(4) " And on the washy ooze (the waters) deep channels wore;
Easy (i.e., an easy task), ere God had bid the
ground be dry." - Paradise Lost, vii. 304.