Linguistic Compactness

Beauties of English Index


Virgil studies brevity more than any other poet. But he had the advantage of a language wherein much may be comprehended in a little space. We, and all the modern tongues, have more articles and pronouns, besides signs of tenses and cases, and other barbarities on which our speech is built by the fault of our forefathers….


This inconvenience is common to all modern tongues and this alone constrains us to employ more words than the ancients needed.


By John Dryden : 1631-1700 : The works of Virgil translated into English Verse