Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/29

 jection. But it may be reply'd, That tho' our Language is not so smooth and sonorous as the Greek, yet it comes the next to it of any Language. 'Tis well known how it has been refining ever since Wallers and Cowleys time, and it seems at present to be almost arriv'd to its Purity and Perfection. Dryden calls it a Noble Language, and is only sorry we have not a more certain measure of it, as they have in France, where they have an Academy erected for that purpose, and endowed with large Privileges by the present King. Rapin himself acknowledges the Majesty of our Language, which, he says, is proper for great Expressions: Rymer compares the Spanish, the Italian, the French, and the German, to our Language, and prefers the English to all the rest; which, he says, has a weight, fullness, vigour, force, gravity, and fitness for Heroick Poesie, above all other Languages. How true this is, appears from the daily Writings of our Poets, and especially from some of Drydens Poems, and Blackmores Prince Arthur, where their Expression is lofty and Majestical, the Verse smooth and strong, and the Numbers truly harmonious, and befitting their respective designs. I shall only add the Opinion of Roscommon in the Case, who speaking in Commendation of the English Language, makes it by much to be Superiour to the French. His words are these: