Qui tant est précieuse et chiere,
Bien est de trois onces pesans;
La vertus est en il si grans,
Qui en sa baillie l’aroit,
Jà riens demander ne saroit,
Que maintenant ne l’éust preste.”
[305] Lydgate’s Minor Poems, in vol. ii of the Percy Society’s publications, p. 179 ff.—Ritson, the censorious, styles honest Dan Lydgate “a voluminous, prosaic, drivelling monk.” This is hard measure. That the drivels is just as true as it would be to say that Ritson had no gall in his composition. That he is sometimes prosaic can’t be denied; but he has many fine passages of true poetry. If to be voluminous be a sin—then may Heaven pity our popular novel-spinners!
[306] Anvár-i Suhaylí, by Husain Vá’iz al-Káshifí. Translated by Edward B. Eastwick, 1854. Ch. i, story 19.
[307] Le Grand omits the bird’s lay, of which these verses are merely the exordium.