Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/18

 give the World a Tast of the thoughts I have conceiv'd of it in general. And a Tast it must only be, since the Limits of a Preface, and the Sense I have of my own inability in passing a Judgment upon so great an Author, do sufficiently excuse me from being more minute and particular, leaving that Task wholly to abler Judges in Poetry.

This therefore must be own'd by all, that he has made a happy Choice of his Subject and Hero, whereby he signalizes his own Country; which is more than any of our English Poets have done before him, besides the Romantick Spencer. He professes in his Preface to have imitated Virgil in his Design, and how well he has Copy'd that great Model let us now see. If we will examine things according to the Rules Bossu has laid down, his Fable will appear to be exactly the same with that of the Æneid. His Action is like that of the Latin Poet, One, Entire, Noble, Great, and Important Action, viz. The Restoration of a decay'd Church and State to its ancient splendor and Glory. The Intrigues he makes use of to hinder his Hero from accomplishing his great and good designs are of the very same make with those of Virgil. For as in the One, Juno, who had equal power both by Sea and Land, raises all the Obstacles, that lay in the way of the Trojan Hero: So in the other, Lucifer the Prince of the Air, equal in Power to Juno, raises all the Storms by Sea, and all the Disturbances by Land, that hindred the settlement of our British Hero. And as the Intrigues, so the Solution or Ʋnravelling of these Intrigues are as just, as regular, and as natural as those in the Æneid. In his Inscription or Title he has follow'd Homer in his Odysseis, and Virgil in his Æneid, who have both inscrib'd their Poems with their Hero's Name. His Proposition is as full, but withal as modest both with respect to himself and his Hero, as Horace requires, and Virgil has practis'd. His Invocation is