nd less Greek" (_Verses to the Memory of
Shakespeare_).

_Milton_, _L'Allegro_, 133: "Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child." The
same misquotation occurs in Sewell's preface, 1725.

_Dryden_, _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_: "Those who accuse him to have wanted
learning give him the greater commendation" (ed. W. P. Ker, i., p. 80).

42. _Colchus_, etc. _Ars poetica_, 118.

_Siquid tamen_, etc. _Id._ 386. The form _Maeci_ was restored about this
time by Bentley.

43. _Companies of Players._ See Mr. Sidney Lee's _Life of Shakespeare_, p.
34.

_we are told by Ben Johnson._ See p. 22. But Heminge and Condell tell us
so themselves in the preface to the Folio: "His mind and hand went
together: and what he thought he uttered with that easinesse, that wee
have scarce received from him a blot in his papers."

_Vos, O._ _Ars poetica_, 291.

_Poets lose half the Praise_, etc. These lines are not by the Earl of
Roscommon, but by Edmund Waller. They occur in Waller's prefatory verses
to Roscommon's translation of Horace's _Ars poetica_.

Dennis's criticism of Jonson is apparently inspired by Rymer's remarks on
_Catiline_ (_Short View_, pp. 159-163). "In short," says Rymer, "it is
strange that Ben, who understood the turn of Comedy so well, and had found
the success, should thus grope in the dark and jumble things together
without head or tail, without rule or proportion, without any reason or
design."

44. _Vir bonus_, etc. Horace, _Ars poetica_, 445.

45. _ad Populum Phalerae._ Persius, iii. 30.

_Milton._ See Milton's prefatory note to _Samson Agonistes_.

46. _Veneration for Shakespear._ Cf. Dennis's letter to Steele, 26th
March, 1719: "Ever since I was capable of reading Shakespear, I have
always had, and have always expressed, that veneration for him which is
justly his due; of which I believe no one can doubt who has read the Essay
which I published some years ago upon his Genius and Writings."

_Italian Ballad._ Cf. Dennis's _Essay on the Operas after the Italian
Manner_, 1706.

Alexander Pope.

48. _His Characters._ The same idea had been expressed by Gildon in his
_Essay on the Stage_, 1710, p. li.: "He has not only distinguish'd his
principal persons, but there is scarce a messenger comes in but is visibly
different from all the rest of the persons in the play. So that you need
not to mention the name of the person that speaks, when you read the play,
the manners of the persons will sufficiently inf