Tuesday, 24 February 2009
An Immortal Name
I was reading A Dissertation on Reading the Classics on Google Books, an XVIIIth-century book written for the son of a duke, telling him what classics he ought to read, when the following quote gave me pause:
I will go no farther in the Poets, only for the Honour of our Country, let me observe to Your Lordship, that while Rome hath been contented to produce some single Rivals to the Grecian Poetry, England hath brought forth the wonderful Cowley's Wit, who was beloved by every Muse he courted, and hath rivalled the Greek and Latin Poets in every Kind, but Tragedy.
He's referring to Abraham Cowley, but I had to look him up in order to know that! (I had assumed he was building up to Shakespeare.) Amazing that the author assumed Cowley to be of such enduring greatness that he would go down in history as the equal of Homer and Vergil! The fact that he was so far off the mark gives us some perspective on history all the same, though—and how surprised we might be at how the things we assume to be historic or enduring from our own lifetimes could end up being in the scheme of things.
