He instinctively saw the absurdity of attempting to subdue
English to misunderstood laws of Latin quantities, which would, for
example, make the vowel in "debt" long, in the teeth of use and wont.
We give a specimen of the hexameters which satisfied so entirely the ear
of Master Gabriel Harvey,--an ear that must have been long by position,
in virtue of its place on his head.
Not the like _Discourser_, for Tongue and head to be found out;
Not the like _resolute Man_, for great and serious affayres;
Not the like _Lynx_, to spie out secretes and priuities of States;
_Eyed_ like to _Argus_, _Earde_ like to _Midas_, _Nosd_ like to _Naso_,
Winged like to _Mercury_, fittst of a Thousand for to be employed.
And here are a few from "worthy M. Stanyhurst's" translation of the
"Aeneid."
Laocoon storming from Princelie Castel is hastning,
And a far of beloing: What fond phantastical harebraine
Madnesse hath enchaunted your wits, you townsmen unhappie?
Weene you (blind hodipecks) the Greekish nauie returned,
Or that their presents want craft? is subtil Vlisses
So soone forgotten? My life for an haulfpennie (Trojans), etc.
Mr. Abraham Fraunce translates two verses of Heliodorus thus:--
Now had fyery Phlegon his dayes reuolution ended,
And his snoring snowt with salt waues all to bee washed.
Witty Tom Nash was right enough when he called this kind of stuff, "that
drunken, staggering kinde of verse which is all vp hill and downe hill,
like the waye betwixt Stamford and Beechfeeld, and goes like a horse
plunging through the myre in the deep of winter, now soust up to the
saddle, and straight aloft on his tiptoes.
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