Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	day_n	see_v	write_v	2,867	5	5.0971	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50841	Notes on Dryden's Virgil in a letter to a friend : with an essay on the same poet / by Mr. Milbourne.	Milbourne, Luke, 1649-1720.	1698 (1698)	Wing M2035; ESTC R19804	115,901	234

are so far from that Meanness which Mr. D. would throw into their Character that the meanest thing in the whole Sacred Book has more of true Poetic Fire in it than ever He had from the Days of Oliver's Apotheosis to those of Virgil in Macaronique He who can write well in Rhyme may write better in Blank Verse We shall know that when we see how much better Dryden's Homer will be than his Virgil. Perhaps I have as little Reason to complain of the difficulty of Rhyming as any Man except Quarles or Withers They then with our Incomparable Translator make a Triumvirate of Rhymers and great Ones too if that Phrase may pass with us which was condemned in Ben Iohnson formerly But this extraordinary Facility is not so very apparent in Mr. D.'s Works and I never heard he was a great Extempore Man I 'm afraid I have mistaken Virgil 's Sense more often and more grosly Ne'er did Elvira make a truer Confession to her Spanish Friar But how could one Poet mistake another so much I 'm afraid there was not so near a Relation between Virgil and Mr. D.'s Souls as there was between Mr. D.'s and Mr. Oldham's The Confession whoever understands Virgil's Latin and Scheme must acknowledge to be the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth And so much must be said for the Honour of Mr. D.'s Veracity Sorti Pater aequs utrique Ruaeus thinks the word Pater is to be referr'd to Evander And Ruaeus is right in his Judgment for how could any Man in his right Senses think Pallas should tell Turnus of Ioves's impartiality a whim quite contrary to the notions Antiquity had of Fate Fate might be impartial tho it were not unconcern'd for it s not Partiality to determine a dubious Matter where Fate it self requires a determination in the case and according to Mr. D's precedent Declaration Jove can't controul Fate whence it 's plain that if Pater refers to Iupiter it 's very impertinent Turnus had said nothing to Pallas of Iove but wish'd his Father Evander had been present and what more Noble Character could Pallas have given of his Father than that the Honourable Victory or the glorious death of his Son would be equally welcome News to him And what could confirm Pallas's words more strongly than those of Evander when he was brought home Dead Quod si immatura manebat Fo rs natum caecis Volscorum millibus ante Ducentem in Latium Teneros cecidisse juvabit As for Mr. D's Criticism on the other Verse it 's La Cerda's Notion before and it 's of no great consequence whether he or Servius be in the right I say nothing of Sir John Denham Mr. Waller and Mr. Cowley 't is the utmost of my ambition to be thought their Equal Thus the poor Frog would swell himself into an Ox had any of them especially Mr. Cowley undertaken this work we had had Virgils sence and air running thro the whole and the Work would have been known by every Reader without the Advertisement of the Running Title where now we have false Criticism mistaken Sense intolerable Omissions absurd Accretions and indeed any thing rather than Virgil. I own it 's harder to Translate Virgil through than to Translate a single Book yet because Mr. D. throws down his Glove to challenge any one in the 4th 6th and 8th Pastoral and the 1st and 4th Georgic besides several Books of the Aeneïs I have taken it up and have Translated the 4th Pastoral and 1st Georgic and the 1st Pastoral into the bargain and leave it to Segrais 3d sort of Iudges to determine who has Translated Virgil so far best Spencer and Milton are nearest in English to Virgil and Horace in the Latine But which of them resembles Horace Spencer aim'd at an Heroic Poem and so did Milton tho neither of 'em with that success which might have been wish'd but Horace never attempted such a thing as Mr. D. well observes before unless either of them be remarkable for that Curiosa Felicitas formerly admir'd in Horace but Mr. D. knows his own meaning well enough tho I don't My chief Ambition is to please those Readers who have discernment enough to prefer Virgil before any other Poet in the Latin Tongue The Ambition was good but never did any Man fail worse than our Translator for no Man can admire Virgil who can't understand him nor can any Man who understands him be pleased with Mr. D's Translation The Mob Readers are but a sort of French Huguenots or Dutch Boors But how come these to be match'd together Huguenots are so called with some regard to their Religion A Gate would not have given them a Title more than Others who went often in and out at it had not they in particular made it their way to their Publick Worship But pray what respect to that have Boors If they have any I must needs say Mr. Dryden's a very fine Gentleman As we hold there is a middle State of Souls We that is we of the Church of Rome for our Translator pretends to suck the Teats of of that Milk-white Hind if any Mr. D. then believes a Purgatory and as in duty bound should have taken most pains with the 6 th Book of the Aeneis since there 's the original Chart of that wonderful Place and a better account of it than those of all the Roman Champions together amount to yet this Book is none of those he pretends to have succeeded best in Heaven send him a good deliverance Many Paedagogues at School Tutors at the Universities and Gentlemen's Governours in their Travels are the most positive Block-heads in the World Well it 's time then to pull down Schools to leave young Gentlemen to live at Random in our Universities and abroad or make Mr. D. School-Master Tutor and Governor General to both Universities What a glorious Manager would he prove Obscure Authors and old worn out Monuments would be as Intelligible to him as Virgil or Homer and one Page of his English Prosodia would teach 'em more than our Vossius's or Busby's our Preston's or Ellye's or our Lassels's tho jumbled alltogether and a little mooting upon the Magna Charta of Parnassus under his Direction would ruin all our Inns of Court for ever but none 's so bold as blind Bayard But not being of God as a Wit said formerly they could not stand By this it 's plain Mr. D. is no Wit for one of true Wit would be asham'd to Ridicule Scripture and I 'm pretty confident this present Work of Mr. D 's is not of God and for his Translation the more a judicious Reader studies it the worse he 'll like it and every time he takes it up he 'll discover some new Follies in it nor indeed can any Applaud it now or hereafter but such as are born Vervecum in Patria crassoque sub aere Whence I can only call it Impudence not Innocence or Conscience of merit which