[Footnote 32: Dionco and Fiametta sang together a long time of Arcite and Palamon.]
[Footnote 33: Not by Chaucer.]
[Footnote 34: Rev. Luke Milbourne, who had attacked Dryden's Virgil.]
[Footnote 35: Sir Richard Blackmore, who had censured Dryden for the indecency of his writings.]
[Footnote 36: "The argument from abuse to use is not valid.">[
[Footnote 37: "You, Demetrius and Tigellius, I bid lament among the chairs of your scholars." Blackmore had once been a schoolmaster.—Noyes.]
PREFACE TO JOSEPH ANDREWS
BY HENRY FIELDING (1742)[A]
THE COMIC EPIC IN PROSE
As it is possible the mere English reader may have a different idea of romance with the author of these little volumes; and may consequently expect a kind of entertainment, not to be found, nor which was even intended, in the following pages; it may not be improper to premise a few words concerning this kind of writing, which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language.