Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 1.djvu/11



THE

LIVES

OF THE

POETS.

IT has been obſerved that men of emirience in all ages, and diſtinguiſhed for the ſame excellence, have generally had ſomething in their lives ſimilar to each other. The place of Homer's nativity, has not been more variouſly conjedctured, or his parents more differently aſſigned than our author's. Leland, who lived neareſt to Chaucer's time of all thoſe who have wrote his life, was commiſſioned by king Henry VIII, to ſearch all the libraries, and religious houſes in England, when thoſe archives were preſerved, before their deſtruction was produced by the reformation, or Polydore Virgil had conſumed fuch curious pieces as would have contradicted his framed and fabulous hiftory. He for ſome reaſons Vol. I. No I.