...standard of their language ; and a masculine vigour is that of ours. Like their tongue is the genius of their poets, light and trifling in comparison of the English ; more proper for sonnets, madi-igals and elegies, than heroic poetry " ... " The want of genius, of which I have accused the...

...standard of their language ; and a masculine vigour is that of ours. Like their tongue is the genius of their poets, light and trifling in comparison of the English ; more proper for sonnets, madri- 5 gals, and elegies, than heroic poetry. The turn on thoughts and words is their chief talent...

...16, l. 2. turn of words : speaking of the French poets in the Dedication of the Aeneis Dryden wrote : 'the turn on thoughts and words is their chief talent...Poem is too stately to receive those little ornaments ' (Essays, ii, p. 219 ; v. also p. 108, l. 17 and note). l. 28. One of our late great poets : Cowley....

...standard of their language; and a masculine vigour is that of ours. Like their tongue is the genius of their poets, light and trifling in comparison of...is too stately to receive those little ornaments.' 11 King of England Defoe's veneration of William HI (whom he claimed to know personally) is frequently...

...before, to Ovid's disadvantage, and now touched again on this subject. Speaking of French poets, he said: "The turn on thoughts and words is their chief talent,...is too stately to receive those little ornaments. . . . Virgil is never frequent in those turns, like Ovid, but much more sparing of them in his Aeneis...