PREFACE
seventeenth century, but repudiated, in a brilliant and learned essay, by Congreve, as founded on a total misconception of the laws of Pindar's prosody. Later, Swinburne perceived the falsity of the "Pindaresque" ode, and his mature poems are types of disciplined evolution. There were therefore reasons of various kinds, external and internal, why the Ode to Mazzini, if not printed soon after it was written, could not be printed by Swinburne at all.
Of Swinburne's undergraduate poems some other examples have been preserved, and will be found in the ensuing pages. In 1857 the subject given at Oxford for the Newdigate Prize was "The Temple of Janus." Both John Nichol and Swinburne were competitors, and each declared that the other was sure to be successful. It was, however, awarded to Philip Stanhope Worsley of Corpus (1835-1866), afterwards a distinguished translator of Homer. Swinburne and Nichol went to hear Worsley read his poem at Commemoration, and the late Mr. Pringle Nichol obliged me with this anecdote. The two unsuccessful poets were not indisposed to be critical, when Nichol, hearing the line—
"Stars in their courses fought the fight of Rome,"
whispered to his companion, "That's fine";
xix.
