Of fresh endite through Albion Island brayed
In his Legend of Noble Ladies fayed.
And as for men of latter time, Mr.Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy Testimonies of their approving of him. Mr.Ascham, in one place calleth him English Homer, and makes no doubt to say, that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek. And in another place, where he declareth his Opinion of English Versifying, he useth these Words; Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy Wits, deserve just praise. And last of all, in his Discourse of Germany, he putteth him nothing behind either Thucydides or Homer, for his lively Descriptions of Site of Places, and Nature of Persons, both in outward Shape of Body, and inward Disposition of Mind; adding this withal, That not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever, for his time hath outstript him.
Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepherds Kalendar, calleth him Tityrus, the God of Shepherds, comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus, Virgil. In his Fairy Queen, in his Discourse of Friendship, as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucer's friend, for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had; he writes, That none that lived with him, nor none that came after him, durst presume to revive Chaucer's lost labours in that imperfect Tale of the Squire, but only himself: which he had not done, had he not felt (as he saith) the infusion of Chaucer's own sweet Spirit surviving within him. And a little before, he calls him the most Renowned and Heroical Poet, and his Writings the Works of Heavenly Wit; concluding his commendation in this manner:
Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled,
On Fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed;
I follow here the footing of thy feet,
That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet.
Mr. Cambden, reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham, and the other to Mr. Spenser, and so drawing them together, uttereth of him these words, De Homero nostro Anglico illud vere asseram, quod de Homero eruditus ille Italus dixit.
——Hic ille est, cujus de gurgite sacro,