Atterbury had thus written to him on this subject, in 1720: "What I said to you in mine, about the monument, was intended only to quicken, not to alarm you. It is not worth your while to know what I meant by it; but when I see you, you shall. I hope you may be at the Deanery towards the end of October, by which time I think of settling there for the winter. What do you think of some such short inscription as this in Latin, which may, in a few words, say all that is to be said of Dryden, and yet nothing more than he deserves? JOHANNI DRYDENO, CUI POESIS ANGICANA VIM SUAM AC VENERES DEBET; ET SI QUA IN POSTERUM AUGEBITUR LAUDE, EST ADHUC DEBITURA. HONORIS ERGO P. ETC. "To show you that I am as much in earnest in the affair as you yourself, something I will send you of this kind in English. If your design holds, of fixing Dryden's name only below, and his busto above, may not lines like these be graved just under the name? This Sheffield raised, to Dryden's ashes just; Here fixed his name, and there his laureled bust: What else the Muse in marble might express, Is known already: praise would make him less. "Or thus: More needs not; when acknowledged merits reign, Praise is impertinent, and censure vain." The thought, as Mr. Malone observes, is nearly the same as in the following lines in "Luctus Britannici," by William Marston, of Trinity College, Cambridge: "_In_ JOANNEM DRYDEN, _poelarum facile principem._ Si quis in has aedes intret fortasse viator, Busta poetarum dum veneranda notet, Cernat et exuvias Drydeni,--plura referre Haud opus: ad laudes _vox ea_ sola satis." [7] Life of Pope. [8] ["The Bacon of the rhyming tribe," as Landor has since called him in a vigorous description (_Works_, vol. viii. p. 137).--ED.] [9] [Transcriber's note: "See page 39" in original. This is to be found in Section I.] [10] "_Novimus judicium Drydeni de poemate quodam Chauceri, pulchro sane illo, et admodum laudando, nimirum quod non modo vere epicura sit, sed Iliada etiam alque Aeneada aequet, imo superet. Sed novimus eodem tempore viri illius maximi non semper accuratissimas esse censuras, nec ad severissimam critices normam exactas: illo judice id plerumque optimum est, quod nunc prae manibus habet, et in quo nunc occupatur_." [11] Dryden was not the first who translated this tale of terror. There is in the collection of the late John, Duke of Roxburghe, "A Notable History of Nastagio and Traversari, no less pitiful than pleasaunt; translated out of Italian into English verse, by C.T. London, 1569." [12] "_Amor puo troppo piu, che ne voi ne io possiamo_." This sentiment loses its dignity amid the "levelling of mountains and raising plains," with which Dryden has chosen to illustrate it. [13] An emblem of a similar kind is said to have been found in the palace of Tippoo Sultan. [14] As "Near bliss, and yet not blessed." And this merciless quibble, where Arcite complains of the flames he endures for Emily:--