Page:Hero and Leander; a poem (IA heroleanderpoem00musa).pdf/12

iv able, that not one produces the Poem of Hero and Leander, as the offspring of the more ancient Bard. Neither Servius, or any eminent Commentator of the Mantuan afford the slightest encouragement to such a declaration.

The uncommon Excellence of the performance merited peculiar notice. It cannot be suppos'd, but that these Critics had seen, and in course admir'd it. The happiness of the Imagery, and propriety of the Characters bespeak it to have been drawn from the source of Nature; but though they must necessarily have wish'd, they were not (it may seem) convinc'd, that the notes were those,

Such authorities may preclude the Editor's opinion, who would beg leave to suggest, that the Poem, as originally