" (L. ii. chap. 3.)
In the same play, by a very Drydenish verse, he gives new force to an
old comparison:--
"And I should break through laws divine and human.
And think 'em cobwebs spread for little man,
_Which all the bulky herd of Nature breaks_."
[41] Not his solemn historical droning under that title, but
addressed "To the Cambrio-Britons on their harp."
[42] "Les poetes euxmemes s'animent et s'echauffent par la lecture
des autres poetes. Messieurs de Malherbe, Corneille, &c., se
disposoient au travail par la lecture des poetes qui etoient de leur
gout."--Vigneul, Marvilliana, I. 64, 65.
[43] For example, Waller had said,
"Others may use the ocean as their road,
Only the English _make it their abode_;
* * * * *
We _tread on billows with a steady foot_"--
long before Campbell. Campbell helps himself to both thoughts,
enlivens them into
"Her march is o'er the mountain wave,
Her home is on the deep,"
and they are his forevermore. His "leviathans afloat" he _lifted_
from the "Annus Mirabilis"; but in what court could Dryden sue?
Again, Waller in another poem calls the Duke of York's flag
"His dreadful streamer, like a comet's hair";
and this, I believe, is the first application of the celestial
portent to this particular comparison.
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