From thence
he hurries on his action with variety of events, and ends it in less
compass than two months. This vehemence of his, I confess, is more
suitable to my temper; and therefore I have translated his first book
with greater pleasure than any part of Virgil; but it was not a pleasure
without pains: the continual agitations of the spirits must needs be
a weakening of any constitution, especially in age; and many pauses
are required for refreshment betwixt the heats; the _Iliad_ of itself
being a third part longer than all Virgil's works together.
This is what I thought needful in this place to say of Homer. I proceed
to Ovid and Chaucer, considering the former only in relation to the
latter. With Ovid ended the golden age of the Roman tongue; from Chaucer
the purity of the English tongue began. The manners of the poets were
not unlike: both of them were well-bred, well-natured, amorous, and
libertine, at least in their writings, it may be also in their lives.
Their studies were the same, philosophy and philology. Both of them
were known in astronomy, of which Ovid's books of the Roman feasts,
and Chaucer's treatise of the Astrolabe, are sufficient witnesses.
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