22 PREFACE. 



employed the one in labour and exercise, as well as the 

 other in study and contemplation." 



Oppiaii. T^ Tjs afpylrjv Sv(TTepir4a TTjXe SiwKOi 



TheGovernour, <' It is not onely Called Idelnes," says Sir Thomas Elyot, 



B. I. c. XXVI. 



" wherin the body or mynde cesseth from laboure, but specially 

 ydelnes is an omission of al honest exercise." 



Passing over, for the present, the objections of Petrarch, 



let us pause for a moment on the vituperations of Henricus 



Sir T. Ei^'ot's Cornelius Agrippa. So confessedly crabbed a gentleman as 



'I'lie Governour, 



B. I. c. XI. this " noble clerke of Almayn," can add but little weight 

 to the scanty file of semi-classical oppositionists. Admitting 

 in his dedication to Furnatius his mental approximation to 

 the canine qualities of the metamorphosed Queen of Troy, 



H. C. Agrippa " adeo ut cx ipsa indiffnatione ferme cum Troiana ilia Hecuba 



la Uedicat. i). 



Aug. Furnatio, yersus sum in canem, ac nullarum virium sim ad bene dicen- 

 dum, nil amplius memini nisi mordere, oblatrare, maledicere, 

 conviciari," &.C., his verdict cannot be received as that of a 

 candid and unprejudiced adversary. The general contempt 

 with which he visits all the arts and sciences, deprives his 



De Vanit. et anti-cynegetical calumnies of much of their poignancy, and 



Incert. &cc. c. . . 



Lxxvii. renders his ** ars crudehs et tota tragica, cujus voluptas est ni 



morte et in sanguine, quam ipsa deberet refugere humanitas,"^ 

 8cc. scarce worthy of the courser's notice. " 



1. Tlie plaiiiiive [)oel of "The Task," B. in. has seemingly borrowed from Agrip- 

 pa's page the lueniorable crimioation of the hunter's pursuit: 



r. 'o Detested sport, 



Lowper s ' ' 



Tlie Garden. That owes its pleasures to another's pain ; 



Tliat feeds upon the sobs and dying slirieks 

 Of iiannlcss nature, &c. 



2. I purposely omit all notice of the " V^enatio Amphitheatralis," or " V. in 



