Immortal Three (The)

Homer, Dante, and Milton.

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn;

The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,

The next in majesty; in both the last;

The force of nature could no farther go,

To make a third, she joined the other two.”

Dryden: A Tablet to the Memory of John Milton (St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside).

⁂ It was originally in the church of All Hallows, Bread Street.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.