Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/87

 that the affected purity of the French, has unsinew'd their Heroick Verse. The Language of an Epick Poem is almost wholly figurative: Yet they are so fearful of a Metaphor, that no Example of Virgil can encourage them to be bold with safety. Sure they might warm them­selves by that sprightly Blaze, without approaching it so close as to singe their Wings; they may come as near it as their Master. Not that I wou'd discourage that purity of diction, in which he excels all other Poets. But he knows how far to extend his Franchises: And advances to the verge, without venturing a Foot beyond it. On the o­ther side, without being injurious to the Memory of our English Pin­dar, I will presume to say, that his Metaphors are sometimes too vio­lent, and his Language is not always pure. But at the same time, I must excuse him. For through the Iniquity of the times, he was forc'd to Travel, at an Age, when, instead of Learning Foreign Lan­guages, he shou'd have studied the Beauties of his Mother Tongue: Which like all other Speeches, is to be cultivated early, or we shall never Write it with any kind of Elegance. Thus by gaining abroad he lost at home: Like the Painter in the Arcadia, who going to see a Skirmish, had his Arms lop'd off: and return'd, says Sir Philip Sydney, well instructed how to draw a Battel, but without a Hand to perform his Work.

There is another thing in which I have presum'd to deviate from him and Spencer. They both make Hemysticks (or half Verses) breaking off in the middle of a Line. I confess there are not many such in the Fairy Queen: And even those few might be occasion'd by his unhappy choice [Page] of so long a Stanza. Mr. Cowley had found out, that no kind of Staff is proper for an Heroick Poem; as being all too Lyrical: Yet though he wrote in Couplets, where Rhyme is freer from constraint, he frequently affects half Verses: of which we