When I read this Æneid to many of my Friends, in company together, most of them quarrel'd at the word falsify'd, as an Innovation in our Language. The fact is confess'd; for I remember not to have read it in any English, Author; though perhaps it may be found in Spencer's Fairy Queen: But suppose it be not there: Why am I forbidden to borrow from the Italian, (a polish'd Language) the word which is wanting in my Native Tongue? Terence has often Grecis'd: Lucretius has follow'd his Example; and pleaded for it; sic quia me cogit patrii Sermonis Egestas. Virgil has confirm'd it by his frequent practice, and even Cicero in Prose, wanting terms of Philosophy in the Latin Tongue, has taken them from Aristotle's Greek. Horace has given us a Rule for Coining Words, si Græco fonte cadunt. Especially when other words are join'd with them, which explain the Sense. I use the word falsifie in this place, to mean that the Shield of Turnus was not of Proof against the Spears and Javlins of the Trojans; which had pierc'd it through and through (as we say) in many places. The words which accompany this new one, make my meaning plain; according to the Precept which Horace gave. But I said I borrow'd the Word from the Italian: Vide Ariosto, Cant. 26.
Ma si l'Usbergo d' Ambi era perfetto
Che mai poter falsarlo in nessun Canto.
