Philip Gaultier, With all his genius, has his incongruities and anachronisms; but his poem is founded substantially upon the History of Quintus Curtius, which he has done into Latin hexameters, with the addition of long speeches and some few inventions. Aristotle is represented with a hideous exterior, face and body lean, hair neglected, and the air of a pedant exhausted by study. The soldiers of Alexander are called _Quirites_, as if they were Romans. The month of June in Greece is described as if it were in Rome:-- "Mensis erat, cujus juvenum de nimine nomen." Events connected with the passion of Jesus Christ are treated as having already passed in the time of Alexander. The poem is divided into ten books,[55] and the ten initial letters of these books, when put together like an acrostic, spell the name of the Archbishop, _Guillermus_, the equivalent for William at that time, who was the patron of the poet. Besides this conceit, there is a dedication both at the beginning and at the end. Quantity, especially in Greek or Asiatic words, is disregarded; and there are affectations in style, of which the very beginning is an instance:-- "_Gesta_ ducis Macedum totum _digesta_ per orbem Musa, refer." In the same vein is the verse,-- "Inclitus ille Clitus," etc.; and another verse, describing the violence of the soldiers after victory:-- "Extorquent torques, et inaures perdidit auris." A rapid analysis of the poem will at least exhibit the order of the events it narrates, and its topics, with something of its character. Alexander appears, in the first book, a youth panting for combat with the Persians, enemies of his country and of his father. There also is his teacher, Aristotle. Philip dies, and the son repairs to Corinth to be crowned. Under the counsels of Demosthenes, the Athenians declare against him. The young King arrives under the walls of Athens. Demosthenes speaks for war; AEschines for peace. The party of peace prevails; and the Macedonian turns to Thebes, which he besieges and captures by assault. The poet Cloades, approaching the conqueror, chants in lyric verses an appeal for pardon, and reminds him that without clemency a kingdom is unstable:-- "_Instabile est regnum quod non clementia firmat._"