Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/311

Rh here practised a license in imitation of his, by shortening the word Borbocætes a whole syllable, it seems a good opportunity to speak for him where I defend myself. Remember then, that any great genius who introduces poetry into a language, has a power to polish it, and of all the manners of speaking then in use, to settle that for poetical which he judges most adapted to the art. Take notice too, that Homer has not only done this for necessity, but for ornament, since he uses various dialects to humour his sense with sounds which are expressive of it. Thus much in behalf of my author to answer Zoilus: as for myself, who deal with his followers, I must argue from necessity, that the word was stubborn, and would not ply to the quantities of an English verse, and therefore I altered it by the dialect we call poetical, which makes my line so much smoother, that I am ready to cry with their brother Lipsius, when he turned an O into an I, Vel ego me amo, vel me amavit Phoebus quando hoc correxi. To this let me add a recrimination upon some of them. As first, such as choose words written after the manner of those who preceded the purest age of a language, without the necessity I have pleaded, as regundi for regendi, perduit for perdidit, which restoration of obsolete words deserves to be called a critical license or dialect. 2ndly, Those who pretending to verse without an ear, use the poetical dialect of abbreviation, so that the lines shall run the rougher for it. And