See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees
The new-found roll of old Mæonides;*

But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart,

Peers Ovid's Holy Book of Love's sweet smart!t

Boccaccio claimed for himself the glory of having first introduced the works of Homer to his countrymen.

↑I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the

O all-enjoying and all-blending sage,
Long be it mine to con thy mazy page,
Where, half conceal'd, the eye of fancy views

Fauns, nymphs, and winged saints, all gracious to thy

muse!

Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks,
And see in Dian's vest between the ranks
Of the trim vines, some maid that half believes
The vestal fires, of which her lover grieves,

restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of With that sly satyr peering through the leaves!

Boccaccio: where the sage instructor, Racheo, as soon as the

young prince and the beautiful girl Biancafiore had learned

their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of nato a conoscer le lettere, fece legere il santo libro d' Onvidio, Love. Incomincid Racheo a mettere il suo officio in essecu- nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come i santi fuochi di Venere zione con intera sollecitudine. E loro, in breve tempo, inseg- si debbano ne freddi cuori occendere."

235

THE END OF COLERIDGE'S POETICAL WORKS.

THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.