Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/48

xxxviii and lastly, in the fifth century, Musæus the grammarian, the contemporary of Nonnus and Coluthus, produced his brilliant poem.

It will not, perhaps, be displeasing to the poetical reader, to be able to compare at his breakfast table, without the trouble of reference to other volumes, the different methods of handling the same story. For this purpose selections are given from Mr. Elton's elegant version of Musæus, so arranged as to form a continuous narrative. Mr. Elton says truly of the Erotopœgnion, "that it is a beautiful and impassioned production, combining in its love-details the warmth and luxuriance of Ovid, with the delicate