Note 80 — THE TEMPLE OF FAME.
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There saw I stand on a pillere That was of tinned iron cleere, The Latin poete Virgyle, That hath bore up of a great while The fame of pious Æneas. And next him on a pillere was Of copper, Venus' clerk Ovide, That hath y-sowen wondrous wide The great God of Love's name— Tho saw I on a pillere by Of iron wrought full sternely, The greate poet Dan Lucan, That on his shoulders bore up than As high as that I mighte see, The fame of Julius and Pompee. And next him on a pillere stoode Of sulphur, like as he were woode, Dan Claudian, sothe for to tell, That bare up all the fame of hell, &c.—Pope.
Since Homer is placed by Chaucer upon a pillar of iron, he places Virgil upon iron tinned over, to indicate that the Æneis was based upon the Iliad and was both more polished and less vigorous. The sulphur upon which Claudian stands, is typical of the hell he described in his poem on the Rape of Proserpine. Ovid, the poet of love, is put upon a pillar of copper, because copper was the metal of Venus; and Lucan, like Homer, has a pillar of iron allotted to him because he celebrated in his Pharsalia the wars of Cæsar and Pompey, and, as Chaucer says,
Iron Martes metal is, Which that god is of battaile.