Yet Dryden, in the preface, declaims against the "inopem me copia fecit," and similar jingles of Ovid.
[15] [Transcriber's note: "See p. 258" in original. This is to be found in Section VI.]
[16]
"The longest tyranny that ever swayed,
Was that wherein our ancestors betrayed
Their free-born reason to the Stagyrite,
And made his torch their universal light.
So truth, while only one supplied the state,
Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
Still it was bought, like emp'ric wares, or charms,
Hard words sealed up with Aristotle's arms."
[17] These I found quaintly summed up in an old rhyme:
"With a red man read thy rede,
With a brown man break thy bread,
On a pale man draw thy knife,
From a black man keep thy wife."
[18] See the introduction to Britannia Rediviva, vol. x.
[19] Vol. x.
[20] It is twice stated in these volumes (p. 246, and vol. x.), on the authority of the "Life of Southerne," that Dryden had originally five guineas for each prologue, and raised the sum to ten guineas on occasion of Southerne's requiring such a favour for his first play. But I am convinced the sum is exaggerated; and incline now to believe, with Dr. Johnson, that the advance was from two to three guineas only. [See note supra, l.c.—ED.]
[21] Life of Lucian, vol. xviii.
[22] [Is it possible that in this famous passage "Veer" is a clerical error or a misprint for "Ware"? This would at once make sense and a literal version.—ED.]
[23] Poems from the Bannatyne Manuscript, p. 228.