“That servile path thou nobly dost decline
Of tracing word by word, and line by line;
A new and nobler way thou dost pursue
To make translations, and translators too;
They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame,
True to his sense, but truer to his fame.”

—  John Denham

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, Upon his Translation of Pastor Fido, line 15.

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John Denham18
English poet and courtier 1615–1669

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