THE LIVE S OF THE POET S O F GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, DEAN To the TIME of SWIFT. Compiled from ample Materials fcattered in a Va- By Mr. CIB B E R. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed for R. GRIFFITHS, at the Dunciad in MDCCLIII, T has been obferved that men of eminence in all ages, and diftinguished for the fame excellence, have generally had fomething in their lives fimilar to each other. The place of Homer's nativity, has not been more varioufly conjectur'd, or his parents more differently affigned, than our author's. Leland, that learned antiquarian, who lived nearest to Chaucer's time, of all those who have wrote his life, was commiffioned by king Henry VIII, to fearch all the libraries, and religious houfes in England, wherein thofe Archives were preserved, before their deftruction was produced by the Reformation, or Polydore Virgil had confumed fuch curious pieces as would have contradicted his B fa |