Torture gilds my heart with madness!
Now for ever fare thee well!
It would be interesting as well as instructive to settle the difference between love verses and nonsense verses, if this were the proper place for doing so. But we are not yet come to the Prosody; nor shall we arrive there very soon unless we get on with the Syntax.
Comparatives, when they may be explained by the word quam, than, require an ablative case, as
Achilles Agamemnone velocior erat:
Achilles was a faster man than Agamemnon.
Fast men in modern times are very apt to outrun the constable.
Tanto, by so much, quanto, by how much, hoc, by this, eo, by this, and quo, by which; with some other words which signify the measure of exceeding; likewise ætate, by age, and natu, by birth, are often joined to comparatives and superlatives, as
Tanto deformissimus, quanto sapientissimus philosophorum.
By so much the ugliest, by how much the wisest of philosophers.