'Le donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori, Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto.' If this is true of portions of _Palamon and Arcite_, it is still truer of _The Flower and the Leaf_ (then believed to be a genuine work of Chaucer's), throughout a most brilliant picture of natural beauty and courtly glitter, painted in language of chastened splendour. The other pieces modelled after Chaucer are of inferior interest, yet all excellent in their way. Two of the three tales from Boccaccio are acknowledged masterpieces, _Cymon and Iphigenia_ and _Theodore and Honoria_. The interest of the first chiefly consists in the narrative itself, and that of the second in the way of telling it. The story, indeed, though striking, is fantastic and hardly pleasing, but Dryden's treatment of it is perhaps the most perfect specimen in our language of _l'art de conter_. An example of Dryden's descriptive power may be given in a passage from _The Flower and the Leaf_: 'Thus while I sat intent to see and hear, And drew perfumes of more than vital air, All suddenly I heard the approaching sound Of vocal music, on the enchanted ground: An host of saints it seem'd, so full the choir; } As if the bless'd above did all conspire } To join their voices, and neglect the lyre. } At length there issued from the grove behind A fair assembly of the female kind: A train less fair, as ancient fathers tell, Seduced the sons of heaven to rebel. I pass their forms, and every charming grace; Less than an angel would their worth debase: But their attire, like liveries of a kind, All rich and rare, is fresh within my mind. In velvet white as snow the troop was gown'd, The seams with sparkling emeralds set around: Their hoods and sleeves the same; and purpled o'er With diamonds, pearls, and all the shining store Of eastern pomp; their long-descending train With rubies edged, and sapphires, swept the plain. High on their heads, with jewels richly set, Each lady wore a radiant coronet. Beneath the circles, all the choir was graced With chaplets green on their fair foreheads placed; Of laurel some, of woodbine many more, And wreath of Agnus castus others bore: These last, who with those virgin crowns were dress'd, Appear'd in higher honour than the rest. They danced around; but in the midst was seen } A lady of a more majestic mien; } By stature, and by beauty, mark'd their sovereign queen. } She in the midst began with sober grace; Her servants' eyes were fix'd upon her face, And as she moved or turn'd, her motions view'd, Her measures kept, and step by step pursued. Methought she trod the ground with greater grace, With more of godhead shining in her face; And as in beauty she surpass'd the choir, So, nobler than the rest was her attire.