Definition of "epick"

He prefixed a very ample preface in the form of a dedication to lord Dorſet ; and there gives an account of the deſign which he had once formed to write an epick poem on the actions either of Arthur or the Black Prince. He conſidered the epick as neceſſarily including ſome kind of ſupernatural agency, and had imaged a new kind of conteſt between the guardian angels of kingdoms, of whom he conceived that each might be repreſented zealous for his charge, without any intended oppoſition to the purpoſes of the Supreme Being, of which all created minds muſt in part be ignorant.

1779, Samuel Johnson, Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, pages 116–117