Note 39 — CABINET CYCLOPÆDIA. (continued 3)

It is curious and provoking to observe in how momentary and contemptible a circumstance originated this enduring injury to the reputation of one of the greatest poets by one of the greatest critics. In a note to the clause in Satire IX., Boileau says, "Un homme de qualité fit un jour ce beau jugement en ma présence." So, because "a fool of quality" ("un sot de qualité," as he words it in the verse) once happened to "say, in the hearing of a wit, that he preferred the "Gerusalemme" to the "Æneid," "all Europe" has been made to "ring from side to side," for a century and a half, with the clinquant of Tasso against the gold of Virgil.