Dictate, O mighty judge, what thou hast seen <br />Of cities and of courts, of books and men, <br />And deign to let thy servant hold the pen. <br /> <br />Through ages, thus, I may presume to live, <br />And from the transcript of thy prose receive <br />What my own short-lived verse can never give. <br /> <br />Thus shall fair Britain, with a gracious smile, <br />Accept the work, and the instructed isle <br />For more than treaties made shall bless my toil. <br /> <br />Nor longer hence the Gallic style preferr'd, <br />Wisdom in English idiom shall be heard, <br />While Talbot tells the world where Montaigne err'd.<br /><br />Matthew Prior<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/written-in-montaignes-essays-given-to-the-duke-of-shrewsbury-in-france-after-the-peace/
