a narrative poem. Some authorities restrict the term to narrative poems written in a lofty style and describing the exploits of heroes. Others widen the definition so as to include not only long narrative poems of romantic or supernatural adventure, but also those of a historical, legendary, mock-heroic or humorous character. The epic is distinguished from the drama by the fact that in the epic the author frequently speaks in his own person as narrator; and it is distinguished from lyrical poetry by the predominance of action rather than emotion. Among the more famous epics of the world's literature may be noted Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, the German Nibelungenlied, the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, the French Song of Roland, Dante's Divina Commedia, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Milton's Paradise Lost, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Camoens's Lusiad (Portuguese) and Firdausi's Shah Namah (Persian). Hesiod's Theogony, the poetic Edda, the Finnish Kalevala and the Indian Mahabharata may be described as collections of epic legend; and specimens of the mock-heroic and humorous epic are found in The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, Reynard the Fox, Butler's Hudibras and Pope's Rape of the Lock.