is the
appropriate and picturesque accompaniment of the statue of Mars:--

"A wolf stood before him at his feet,
With eyen red, and of a man he eat."[13]

In the dialogue, or argumentative parts of the poem, Dryden has
frequently improved on his original, while he falls something short of
him in simple description, or in pathetic effect. Thus, the quarrel
between Arcite and Palamon is wrought up with greater energy by Dryden
than Chaucer, particularly by the addition of the following lines,
describing the enmity of the captives against each other:--

"Now friends no more, nor walking hand in hand,
But when they met, they made a surly stand,
And glared like angry lions as they passed,
And wished that every look might be their last."

But the modern must yield the palm, despite the beauty of his
versification, to the description of Emily by Chaucer; and may be justly
accused of loading the dying speech of Arcite with conceits for which
his original gave no authority.[14]

When the story is of a light and ludicrous kind, as the Fable of the
Cock and Fox, and the Wife of Bath's Tale, Dryden displays all the
humorous expression of his satirical poetry, without its personality.
There is indeed a quaint Cervantic gravity in his mode of expressing
himself, that often glances forth, and enlivens what otherwise would be
mere dry narrative. Thus, he details certain things which passed,

"While Cynion was _endeavouring_ to be wise;"

the force of which single word contains both a ludicrous and appropriate
picture of the revolution which the force of love was gradually creating
in the mind of the poor clown. This tone of expression he perhaps
borrowed from Ariosto, and other poets of Italian chivalry, who are
wont, ever and anon, to raise the mask, and smile even at the romantic
tale they are themselves telling.

Leaving these desultory reflections on Dryden's powers of narrative, I
cannot but notice, that, from haste or negligence, he has sometimes
mistaken the sense of his author. Into the hands of the champions in
"The Flower and the Leaf," he has placed _bows_ instead of _boughs_,
because the word is in the original spelled _bowes_; and, having made
the error, he immediately devises an explanation of the device which he
had mistaken:--

"For bows the strength of brawny arms imply,
Emblems of valour, and of victory."

He has, in like manner, accused Chaucer of introducing Gallicisms into
the Englis