This story was probably not true; we have all to submit to some such legend about us.
The fact is, Ursus was a bit of a savant, a man of taste, and an old Latin poet.

He was learned in two forms; he Hippocratized and he Pindarized.

He could have vied in bombast with Rapin and Vida.

He could have composed Jesuit tragedies in a style not less triumphant than that of Father Bouhours.

It followed from his familiarity with the venerable rhythms and metres of the ancients, that he had peculiar figures of speech, and a whole family of classical metaphors.