What of Henry of Huntingdon, who, besides a learned history of
England, wrote a treatise on the contempt of the world, which the
world has revenged by forgetting him? What is quoted of Joseph of
Exeter, styled the miracle of his age in classical composition?
Of his three great heroic poems, one is lost forever, excepting a
mere fragment; the others are known only to a few of the curious
in literature; and as to his love verses and epigrams, they have
entirely disappeared. What is in current use of John Wallis the
Franciscan, who acquired the name of the tree of life? Of William
of Malmsbury--of Simeon of Durham--of Benedict of
Peterborough--of John Hanvill of St. Albans--of----"
"Prithee, friend," cried the quarto in a testy tone, "how old do
you think me? You are talking of authors that lived long before
my time, and wrote either in Latin or French, so that they in a
manner expatriated themselves, and deserved to be forgotten;* but
I, sir, was ushered into the world from the press of the renowned
Wynkyn de Worde. I was written in my own native tongue, at a time
when the language had become fixed; and indeed I was considered a
model of pure and elegant English."
(I should observe that these remarks were couched in such
intolerably antiquated terms, that I have had infinite difficulty
in rendering them into modern phraseology.
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