Pope.—­That he excelled his competitor in the particulars I have mentioned, can’t, I think, be denied.  But yet the spirit and the majesty of ancient Rome were never so well expressed as by Corneille.  Nor has any other French dramatic writer, in the general character of his works, shown such a masculine strength and greatness of thought.  Racine is the swan described by ancient poets, which rises to the clouds on downy wings and sings a sweet but a gentle and plaintive note.  Corneille is the eagle, which soars to the skies on bold and sounding pinions, and fears not to perch on the sceptre of Jupiter, or to bear in his pounces the lightning of the god.

Boileau.—­I am glad to find, Mr. Pope, that in praising Corneille you run into poetry, which is not the language of sober criticism, though sometimes used by Longinus.

Pope.—­I caught the fire from the idea of Corneille.

Boileau.—­He has bright flashes, yet I think that in his thunder there is often more noise than fire.  Don’t you find him too declamatory, too turgid, too unnatural, even in his best tragedies?

Pope.—­I own I do; yet the greatness and elevation of his sentiments, and the nervous vigour of his sense, atone, in my opinion, for all his faults.  But let me now, in my turn, desire your opinion of our epic poet, Milton.

Boileau.—­Longinus perhaps would prefer him to all other writers, for he surpasses even Homer in the sublime; but other critics who require variety, and agreeableness, and a correct regularity of thought and judgment in an epic poem, who can endure no absurdities, no extravagant fictions, would place him far below Virgil.

Pope.—­His genius was indeed so vast and sublime, that his poem seems beyond the limits of criticism, as his subject is beyond the limits of nature.  The bright and excessive blaze of poetical fire, which shines in so many parts of the “Paradise Lost,” will hardly permit the dazzled eye to see its faults.

Boileau.—­The taste of your countrymen is much changed since the days of Charles II., when Dryden was thought a greater poet than Milton!

Pope.—­The politics of Milton at that time brought his poetry into disgrace, for it is a rule with the English, they see no good in a man whose politics they dislike; but, as their notions of government are apt to change, men of parts whom they have slighted become their favourite authors, and others who have possessed their warmest admiration are in their turn undervalued.  This revolution of favour was experienced by Dryden as well as Milton; he lived to see his writings, together with his politics, quite out of fashion.  But even in the days of his highest prosperity, when the generality of the people admired his Almanzor, and thought his Indian Emperor the perfection of tragedy, the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Rochester, the two wittiest noblemen our country has produced, attacked his fame, and turned the rants of his heroes, the jargon of his spirits, and the absurdity of his plots into just ridicule.