For precision and felicity ot phrase Surrey need not shun com-
parison even with the great French poet of his age. The docu-
ments in evidence have here been given the reader, that he may
form his own judgment. It will be a matter of surprise, how-
ever, if the verdict, to some measure at least, does not justify the
Elizabethans in their estimate of Surrey.

That this ability was not reached at a bound, either by Surrey,
or the poets of his age, is shown by the translations from Horace.
The three separate renderings of the same ode, the Tenth Ode of
the Second Book, ¹ may be regarded as studies in English versi-
fication. This must argue either that Surrey and two of his friends
translated this ode in rivalry, or that independently each of the
three turned to Horace, as the exemplar of the art of poetry, to
learn poetic technique. That it is the latter alternative may be
assumed from the widely separated positions of the translations
in Tottel. Surrey's version is on page twenty-seven; the second,
by one of the "Uncertain Authors," on page one hundred and fifty-
seven; and the third was included in the thirty-nine additional
poems of the second edition. If indeed the Miscellany does repre-
sent the combination of two or more commonplace books, the
probability is strong of a diverse authorship.

Such a possibility at once lends a peculiar interest to the poems
themselves. In order that the reader may be able himself to make
the necessary comparison, the Latin will be first cited and then the
three English translations in the order given above.

Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
semper urgendo; neque, dum procellas
cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
litus iniquum.

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.

Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens
pinus, et celsæ graviore casu
decidunt turres, feriuntque summos
fulgura montes.

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