"--CHAUCER'S Testament of Love.
+ Holinsh d,i his Chronicle, observes, "Afterwards, also, by
diligent vell f Geffry Chaucer and John Gowre, in the time of
Richard the Second, and after them of John Scogan and John
Lydgate, monke of Berrie, our said toong was brought to an
excellent passe, notwithstanding that it never came unto the type
of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John
Jewell, Bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundrie learned and
excellent writers, have fully accomplished the ornature of the
same to their great praise and mortal commendation."
"Ah," said the little quarto, with a heavy sigh, "I see how it
is: these in modern scribblers have superseded all the good old
authors. I suppose nothing is read nowadays but Sir Philip
Sidney's Arcadia, Sackville's stately plays and Mirror for
Magistrates, or the fine-spun euphuisms of the `unparalleled John
Lyly.'"
"There you are again mistaken," said I; "the writers whom you
suppose in vogue, because they happened to be so when you were
last in circulation, have long since had their day. Sir Philip
Sidney's Arcadia, the immortality of which was so fondly
predicted by his admirers,* and which, in truth, was full of
noble thoughts, delicate images, and graceful turns of language,
is now scarcely ever mentioned.
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