Note 7 — INTRODUCTION
J. V. (James Vincent) Cunningham translation
"Manes Dousici," IV "Ad solem" and V "Ad sidera," Poemata, Leyden, 1613, p. 166. Nicole reads tandem for rursus in the last line of the second poem. Douza is the younger Janus Douza (1571-1596).
Nicole's criticism of these poems is just but superficial. The difficulty with such poems lies in the method, which consists in the establishment by amplification of one pole, followed by the briefest statement of the contrary pole. But the latter is of personal concern and is the essential subject of the poem. Thus the subject is deliberately avoided for the greater part of the poem, and hence there is in the amplification no principle of order to control the detail and its accumulation. This accounts for the features Nicole censures; however, he himself makes a similar point below in condemning negative descriptions.