Is what I have not leisure to inspect;

But this I must say in my own applause,

Of all the Muses that I recollect,

Whate'er may be her follies or her flaws

In some things, mine's beyond all contradiction

The most sincere that ever dealt in fiction.

III.

And as she treats all things, and ne'er retreats

From anything, this Epic will contain

A wilderness of the most rare conceits,