and Bolton describes his works as containing "somewhat a flat, but yet withal a very pure and copious English, and words as warrantable as any man's, and fitter perhaps for prose than measure."
[613:A] Brydges's Theatrum Poetarum, p. 273.
[614:A] Vide Bagster's edit. p. 128.
[618:A] Lord Woodhouslee, speaking of our author's poem entitled, Forth Feasting, observes that it "attracted the envy as well as the praise of Ben Jonson, is superior, in harmony of numbers, to any of the compositions of the contemporary poets of England; and is, in its subject, one of the most elegant panegyrics that ever were addressed by a poet to a prince."—Life of Lord Kaimes.
[618:B] Theatrum Poetarum, p. 195. original edition.
[619:A] Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the translation of Mr. Hoole would entirely supersede the labours of Fairefax. With no discriminating judge of poetry, however, will this ever be the case; there is a lameness and mediocrity in the version of Mr. Hoole, which must always place it far beneath the spirited copy of the elder bard. Had Mr. Brookes completed the Jerusalem with the same harmony and vigour which he has exhibited in the first three books, a desideratum in English literature had been supplied, and the immortal poem of Tasso had appeared clothed in diction and numbers worthy of the most polished era of our poetry.
[620:A] Muses Library, 1741. p. 363.
[620:B] Chalmers's English Poets, vol. vi. p. 295. col. 2.
[621:A] Censura Literaria, vol. ix. p. 53.
[621:B] Vide British Bibliographer, No. VII. p. 118.