5 FEBRUARY 1876, Page 14

" BARBARIC " PEARL

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Pray mark that the reading of the line in Milton is not

"pearls," as "C. B. C." makes out, but "pearl ;" and as sound often points out sense, the weight of evidence in this way seems surely to favour " barbarick pearl and gold," and not "kings barbarick." Besides the passage adduced from Virgil, we read in Tasso :—

"E riceo di barbaric° ornamento."—Gier. Lib., c. 17, line 10.

And Pope :— "Glorious to behold With diamond flaming and barbariok gold."