The PREFACE.
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 Waller's and Cowley's time, and it seems at present to be almost arriv'd to its Purity and Perfection. [1]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 Dryden's Poems, and Blackmore's 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:
The Comprehensive English Energy?
The weighty Bullion of one Sterling Line,
Drawn to French Wire, would through whole Pages shine.
I speak my Private, but Impartial Sence,
With Freedom, and (I hope) without offence:
For I'll Recant, when France can shew me Wit,
As strong as ours, and as succinctly writ.
[Roscommon's Essay on Translated Verse.
Lastly,
- ↑ Dryd. Dedic. to the E. of Orrery before the Rival Ladies.
