Dryden and Pope have recomposed some of Chaucer's Tales in modern verse; and, in doing so, have failed to maintain that very simple and vivid mode of description which renders his poetry so charming to those who feel, as they read, what he wished to describe: I need not, therefore, recommend you to refrain from reading any modern verse translation of him, but to cultivate your taste for old poetry, till you are able to read his as freely as you do the present volume.
The following sentence from Mr. Lamb's preface to his prose tales from the plays of Shakespeare—a book every one of you should read—will explain all I would say upon the present occasion.
'Faint and imperfect images,' he says, 'they must be called, (of the original Dramas) because the beauty of his (Shakspeare's) language is too frequently destroyed by the necessity of changing many of his excellent words into words far less expressive of his
