diseased.'

{114a} In Greek poetry the topic is treated in Pindar's _Olympic Odes_,
xi., and in a fragment by Sappho, No. 16 in Bergk's _Poetae Lyrici
Graeci_. In Latin poetry the topic is treated in Ennius as quoted in
Cicero, _De Senectute_, c. 207; in Horace's _Odes_, iii. 30; in Virgil's
_Georgics_, iii. 9; in Propertius, iii. 1; in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, xv.
871 seq.; and in Martial, x. 27 seq. Among French sonnetteers Ronsard
attacked the theme most boldly. His odes and sonnets promise immortality
to the persons to whom they are addressed with an extravagant and a
monotonous liberality. The following lines from Ronsard's Ode (livre i.
No. vii.) 'Au Seigneur Carnavalet,' illustrate his habitual treatment of
the theme:--

C'est un travail de bon-heur
Chanter les hommes louables,
Et leur bastir un honneur
Seul vainqueur des ans muables.
Le marbre ou l'airain vestu
D'un labeur vif par l'enclume
N'animent tant la vertu
Que les Muses par la plume. . .

Les neuf divines pucelles
Gardent ta gloire chez elles;
Et mon luth, qu'ell'ont fait estre
De leurs secrets le grand prestre,
Par cest hymne solennel
Respandra dessus ta race
Je ne scay quoy de sa grace
Qui te doit faire eternel.

(_OEuvres de Ronsard_, ed. Blanchemain, ii. 58, 62.)

I quote two other instances from Ronsard on p. 116, note 1. Desportes
was also prone to indulge in the same conceit; cf. his _Cleonice_, sonnet
62, which Daniel appropriated bodily in his _Delia_ Sonnet xxvi.)
Desportes warns his mistress that she will live in his verse like the
phoenix in fire.

{114b} Ed. Shuckburgh, p. 62.

{114c} Shakespeare Soc. p. 93

{115} Other references to the topic appear in Sonnets xix., liv.,
lxiii., lxv., lxxxi. and cvii.

{116} See the quotation from Ronsard on p. 114, note 1. This sonnet is
also very like Ronsard's Ode (livre v. No. xxxii.) 'A sa Muse,' which
opens:

Plus dur que fer j'ay fini mon ouvrage,
Que 'an, dispos a demener les pas,
Que l'eau, le vent ou le brulant orage,
L'injuriant, ne ru'ront point a bas.
Quand ce viendra que le dernier trespas
M'assoupira d'un somme dur, a l'heure,
Sous le tombeau tout Ronsard n'ira pas,
Restant de luy la part meilleure. . .
Sus donque, Muse, emporte au ciel la gloire
Que j'ay gaignee, annoncant la victoire
Dont a bon droit je me voy jouissant. . .

Cf. also Ronsard'