A COLLECTION in some respects similar to this was made by the Abbé Batteux in 1771, and published at Paris in two volumes. Besides Horace, Vida, and Boileau, it contained Aristotle's Poetics, and was entitled Les Quatre Poëtiques. The translations were by Batteux, and in French prose. The notes are partly original and partly selected; some are in Latin, some in French; and they are of all degrees of helpfulness. Batteux's collection is now virtually inaccessible, and, were it common, would not appeal strongly to the English-speaking student. Considering the historic importance and intrinsic value of these treatises, there seemed, then, a sufficient reason for joining them anew. The exclusion of Aristotle has been dictated by the impossibility of sufficiently illustrating his treatise within the necessary limits of space, and by the fact that the Latin tradition admits of clearer exposition when segregated from the chief source of Hellenic theory.

For the text of Horace I have relied chiefly upon Wickham, though I have collated Orelli's third edition, and have here and there adopted a reading of his. The analytical summaries in the notes are also by Wickham. The notes to this part include, as will be seen, the chief paraphrases by Pope and Byron of passages from the Ars Poetica, as contained respectively in the Essay on Criticism and the Hints from

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Horace. They are not only various renderings, but are often interpretative of the text, and serve to illustrate the continuity of Horatian influence in the English verse of the last two centuries. The whole of the Horatian part― text, translation, and notes - has been read in proof by my friend and colleague, Professor Edward P. Morris, and may therefore be assumed to have passed the scrutiny of a much more considerable expert in these matters than I can, in reason, ever hope to become.

For the text of Vida I have had before me four editions: Tristram's second edition (Oxford, 1723), the London edition of 1732, Pope's Selecta Poemata Italorum (London, 1740), and Batteux's Les Quatre Poëtiques (Paris, 1771). For the loan of the latter to the Yale Library I am indebted to the Librarian of the Boston Athenæum. These texts are substantially the same, the only important variant that I have noted being in Bk. 2, l. 97, where the first and third mentioned have et, and the others aut. In words like lacryma and simulacrum, the first and third have ch, the others c. Unimportant differences are Tibur, Batteux, Tybur, all the others; cæco, ed. 1723, cæco, all the others, etc. The translation has been taken from Scott's edition of Dryden, Vol. xv. pp. 230265, one or two obvious errors having been corrected. The notes are drawn from no one source, though much assistance has been derived from the edition of 1723.

About the text of Boileau there is virtually no question. Chalmers' English Poets has furnished the translation. The chief single source of information for the notes was found in the Amsterdam edition of 1718.

The punctuation of texts and translations has been freely changed in the interest of perspicuity, and the orthography of the English versions has been brought to a common and modern standard.

In conclusion, I venture to hope that the present compilation may do something to promote a sounder knowledge of poetic processes and theory, as much by incitement to independent thought as by the imposition of authoritative canons. Nay, unless it incite to independent thought, how can any canon impose itself on a free and active intelligence?

YALE UNIVERSITY,

July 4, 1892.

ALBERT S. COOK.