Gray has also The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. * * * * * Marmontel in the “Encyclopedie” declares that the Italians did not possess a single comedy worth reading—therein displaying his ignorance. Some of the greatest {576} names in Italian Literature were writers of comedy. Baretti mentions a collection of four thousand dramas made by Apostolo Zeno, of which the greater part were comedies—many of a high order. * * * * * A comedy or opera by Andreini was the origin of “Paradise Lost.” Andreini's Adamo was the model of Milton's Adam. * * * * * Milton has the expression “Forget thyself to marble.” Pope has the line “I have not yet forgot myself to stone.” * * * * * The noble simile of Milton, of Satan with the rising sun in the first book of the Paradise Lost, had nearly occasioned the suppression of that epic: it was supposed to contain a treasonable allusion. * * * * * Campbell's line Like angel visits few and far between, is a palpable plagiarism. Blair has Its visits Like angel visits short and far between. * * * * * In Hudibras are these lines— Each window like the pillory appears With heads thrust through, nailed by the ears. Young in his “Love of Fame” has the following— An opera, like a pillory, may be said To nail our ears down and expose our head. * * * * * Goldsmith's celebrated lines Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long, are stolen from Young; who has Man wants but little, nor that little long. * * * * * The character of the ancient Bacchus, that graceful divinity, seems to have been little understood by Dryden. The line in Virgil Et quocunque deus circum caput egit _honestum_ is thus grossly mistranslated, On whate'er side he turns his _honest_ face. * * * * * There are about one thousand lines identical in the Iliad and Odyssey. * * * * * Macrobius gives the form of an imprecation by which the Romans believed whole towns could be demolished and armies defeated. It commences “Dis Pater sive Jovis mavis sive quo alio nomine fas est nominare,” and ends “Si hæc ita faxitis ut ego sciam, sentiam, intelligamque, tum quisquis votum hoc faxit recte factum esto, ovibus atris tribus, Tellus mater, teque Jupiter, obtestor.” * * * * * The “Courtier” of Baldazzar Castiglione, 1528, is the first attempt at periodical moral Essay with which we are acquainted. The Noctes Atticæ of Aulus Gellius cannot be allowed to rank as such. * * * * * These lines were written over the closet door of M. Menard,