Si quis in has aedes intret fortasse viator,
Busta poetarum dum veneranda notet,
Cernat et exuvias Drydeni,—plura referre
Haud opus: ad laudes vox ea sola satis."
[7] Life of Pope.
[8] ["The Bacon of the rhyming tribe," as Landor has since called him in a vigorous description (Works, vol. viii. p. 137).—ED.]
[9] [Transcriber's note: "See page 39" in original. This is to be found in Section I.]
[10] "Novimus judicium Drydeni de poemate quodam Chauceri, pulchro sane illo, et admodum laudando, nimirum quod non modo vere epicura sit, sed Iliada etiam alque Aeneada aequet, imo superet. Sed novimus eodem tempore viri illius maximi non semper accuratissimas esse censuras, nec ad severissimam critices normam exactas: illo judice id plerumque optimum est, quod nunc prae manibus habet, et in quo nunc occupatur."
[11] Dryden was not the first who translated this tale of terror. There is in the collection of the late John, Duke of Roxburghe, "A Notable History of Nastagio and Traversari, no less pitiful than pleasaunt; translated out of Italian into English verse, by C.T. London, 1569."
[12] "Amor puo troppo piu, che ne voi ne io possiamo." This sentiment loses its dignity amid the "levelling of mountains and raising plains," with which Dryden has chosen to illustrate it.
[13] An emblem of a similar kind is said to have been found in the palace of Tippoo Sultan.
[14] As "Near bliss, and yet not blessed." And this merciless quibble, where Arcite complains of the flames he endures for Emily:—
"Of such a goddess no time leaves record,
Who burnt the temple where she was adored."—Vol. xi.