294).
Fontenelle's phrase more nearly than that of the English translator
describes Rapin. Though Rapin's erudition was great, he escaped the
quagmire of pedantry. He refers most frequently to the scholiasts and
editors in "_The First Part_" (which is so trivial that one wonders
why he ever troubled to accumulate so much insignificant material),
but after quoting them he does not hesitate to call their ideas
"pedantial" (p. 24) and to refer to their statements as grammarian's
"prattle" (p. 11). And, though at times it seems that his curiosity
and industry impaired his judgment, Rapin does draw significant ideas
from such scholars and critics as Quintilian, Vives, Scaliger,
Donatus, Vossius, Servius, Minturno, Heinsius, and Salmasius.
Rapin's most prominent disciple in England is Pope. Actually, Pope
presents no significant idea on this subject that is foreign to
Rapin, and much of the language--terminology and set phrases--of
Pope's "Discourse" comes directly from Rapin's "Treatise" and from
the section on the pastoral in the _Reflections_. Contrary to his own
statement that he "reconciled" some points on which the critics
disagree and in spite of the fact that he quotes Fontenelle, Pope in
his "Discourse" is a neoclassicist almost as thoroughgoing as Rapin.
The ideas which he says he took from Fontenelle are either
unimportant or may be found in Rapin. Pope ends his "Discourse" by
drawing a general conclusion concerning his _Pastorals_: "But after
all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old
authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, so I have not wanted
care to imitate.
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