hom I mentioned, the late
Earl of Leicester, who valued Chaucer as much as Mr Cowley despised
him. My lord dissuaded me from this attempt, (for I was thinking of
it some years before his death,) and his authority prevailed so far
with me as to defer my undertaking while he lived, in deference to
him; yet my reason was not convinced with what he urged against it.
If the first end of writer be to be understood, then as his language
grows obsolete his thoughts must grow obscure.

'_Multa renascentur, quae jam cecidere; cadentque
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus,
Quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi!_

"When an ancient word, for its sound and significancy, deserves to be
revived, I have that reasonable veneration for antiquity to restore
it. All beyond this is superstition. Words are not like landmarks, so
sacred as never to be removed. Customs are changed, and even statutes
are silently repealed, when the reason ceases for which they were
enacted. As for the other part of the argument--that his thoughts
will lose of their original beauty by the innovation of words--in the
first place, not only their beauty but their being is lost, where
they are no longer understood, which is the present case. I grant
that something must be lost in all transfusion--that is, in all
translations; but the sense will remain, which would otherwise be
lost, or at least be maimed, when it is scarce intelligible, and that
but to a few. How few are there who can read Chaucer, so as to
understand him perfectly! And if imperfectly, then with less profit
and no pleasure. It is not for the use of some old Saxon friends that
I have taken these pains with him--let them neglect my version,
because they have no need of it. I made it for their sakes who
understand sense and poetry as well as they, when that poetry and
sense is put into words which they understand. I will go further, and
dare to add, that what beauties I lose in some places, I give to
others which had them not originally. But in this I may be partial to
myself; let the reader judge, and I submit to his decision. Yet I
think I have just occasion to complain of them, who, because they
understand Chaucer, would deprive the greater part of their
countrymen of the same advantage, and