"Once more, says fame, for battle he prepares, And threatens rhymers with a second farce; But if as long for that as this we stay, He'll finish Cleveden sooner than his play." _The Review._ ] [Footnote 105: These translations are to be found in the 12th volume, being placed after the versions of Ovid's "Epistles."] [Footnote 106: I cannot find any such passages in Spenser as are here alluded to.] [Footnote 107: Edward Fairfax, natural son of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton in Yorkshire, translated Tasso's celebrated poem, stanza for stanza, with equal elegance and fidelity. His version, entitled "Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the Recovery of Jerusalem," was first published in 1600. Collins has paid the original author and translator the following singular compliment: "How have I sate, while piped the pensive wind, To hear thy harp by British Fairfax strung; Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind Believed the magic wonders that he sung." _Ode on Highland Superstitions._ ] [Footnote 108: It would seem, from this respectful expression, that our author's feud with Rymer (See Vol. XI. p. 60. Vol. XII. p. 46.) was now composed.] [Footnote 109: Jeremy Collier, whose diatribe against the theatre galled Dryden severely.] [Footnote 110: See this version, Vol. XII. p. 357.] [Footnote 111: The celebrated author of the "Leviathan." Burnet says, he was esteemed at court as a mathematician, though he had little talent that way.] [Footnote 112: In this instance Dryden has inverted the fact. Boccacio tells the story of Griselda in his "Decameron," which was written about 1160, and Petrarch did not translate it till 1173, the year of his death, when he executed a Latin version of it. Even then, he mentions it as a traditional tale, which he had often heard with pleasure. The original edition of the story is difficult to discover. Noguier, in his "Histoire de Tholouse," affirms, that this mirror of female patience actually existed about the year 1103, and Le Grand lays claim to her history as originally a French fabliau. It seems certain, at least, that it was not invented by Petrarch, although Chaucer quotes his authority, probably that he might introduce a panegyric on his departed friend: "I wol you tell a tale, which that I Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk, As proved by his wordes, and his werk: He now is dede, and nailed in his cheste, I pray to God so geve his soule reste. Fraunceis Petrark, the laureate poete, Highte this clerke, whose rhetorik swete Enlumined all Itaille of poetrie." _Clerke's Prologue._ ]