Page:Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782).pdf/16

Rh those at Stone-henge; but the beautiful fabrick that he has raised is tied together by modern cement, and is covered with a stucco of no older date than that of Mess. Wyat and Adams.

To be more particular: In what poet of the time of Edward IV., or for a century afterwards, will the Dean of Exeter find what we frequently meet with in the Battle of Haftings No 1, and No 2 , at the conclusion of speeches–“Thus be;”–“Thus Leofwine;”–“He said; and as,” &c? In none Iam confident. This latter is a form of expression in heroick poetry, that Pope has frequently made use of in his Homer (from whence Chatterton undoubtedly copied it), and was sometimes employed by Dryden and Cowley; but I believe it will not be easy to trace it to Harrington or Spenser; most assuredly it cannot be traced up to the fifteenth century.–In what English poem of that age will he find similies dressed in the modern garb with which Chatterton has clothed them throughout these pieces?–“As when a flight of cranes, &c.—So prone,” &c.–“As when a drove of wolves, &c. So fought,” &c. &c.–If the reverend Antiquarian can find this kind of phraseology in any one poet of the time of King Edward IV., or even for fifty years afterwards, I will acknowledge the antiquity of every line contained in his quarto volume. Most assuredly neither he nor his colleague can produce any such instance. Even in the latter end of the sixteenth century, (a large bound from 1460,) poetical comparisons, of the kind here alluded to, were