Anchises on his back that wisheth not it were his fortune to perfourme so excellent an acte VVhom doe not the words of Turnus mooue the tale of Turnus hauing planted his image in the imagination Fugientem haec terra videbit Vsque adeone mori miserum est VVhere the Philosophers as they scorne to delight so must they bee content little to mooue sauing wrangling whether Vertue bee the chiefe or the onely good vvhether the contemplatiue or the actiue life doe excell vvhich Plato and Boetius well knew and therefore made Mistres Philosophy very often borrow the masking rayment of Poesie For euen those harde harted euill men who thinke vertue a schoole name and knowe no other good but indulgere genio and therefore despise the austere admonitions of the Philosopher and feele not the inward reason they stand vpon yet will be content to be delighted which is al the good felow Poet seemeth to promise and so steale to see the forme of goodnes which seene they cannot but loue ere themselues be aware as if they tooke a medicine of Cherries Infinite proofes of the strange effects of this poeticall inuention might be alledged onely two shall serue which are so often remembred as I thinke all men knowe them The one of Menenius Agrippa who when the whole people of Rome had resolutely deuided themselues from the Senate with apparant shew of vtter ruine though hee were for that time an excellent Oratour came not among them vpon trust of figuratiue speeches or cunning insinuations and much lesse with farre fet Maximes of Phylosophie which especially if they were Platonick they must haue learned Geometrie before they could well haue cōceiued but forsooth he behaues himselfe like a homely and familiar Poet. Hee telleth them a tale that there was a time when all the parts of the body made a mutinous conspiracie against the belly which they thought deuoured the fruits of each others labour they cōcluded they would let so vnprofitable a spender starue In the end to be short for the tale is notorious and as notorious that it was a tale with punishing the belly they plagued themselues This applied by him wrought such effect in the people as I neuer read that euer words brought forth but then so suddaine so good an alteration for vpon reasonable conditions a perfect reconcilement ensued The other is of Nathan the Prophet who whē the holie Dauid had so far forsaken God as to confirme adulterie with murther when hee was to doe the tenderest office of a friende in laying his owne shame before his eyes sent by God to call againe so chosen a seruant how doth he it but by telling of a man whose beloued Lambe was vngratefullie taken from his bosome the applycation most diuinely true but the discourse it selfe fayned which made Dauid I speake of the second and instrumentall cause as in a glasse to see his own filthines as that heauenly Psalme of mercie wel testifieth By these therefore examples and reasons I think it may be manifest that the Poet with that same hand of delight doth draw the mind more effectually then any other Arte dooth and so a conclusion not vnfitlie ensueth that as vertue is the most excellent resting place for all worldlie learning to make his end of so Poetrie beeing the most familiar to teach it and most princelie to moue towards it in the most excellent work is the most excellent workman But I am content not onely to descipher him by his workes although works in commendation or disprayse must euer holde an high authority but more narrowly will examine his parts so that as in a man though altogether may carry a presence ful of maiestie beautie perchance in some one defectious peece we may find a blemish now in his parts kindes or Species as you list to terme thē it is to be noted that some Poesies haue coupled together two or three kindes as Tragicall and Comicall wher-vpon is risen the Tragi-comicall Some in the like manner haue mingled Prose and Verse as Sanazzar and Boetius Some haue mingled matters Heroicall Pastorall But that commeth all to one in this question for if seuered they be good the coniunction cannot be hurtfull Therefore perchaunce forgetting some leauing some as needlesse to be remembred it shall not be amisse in a worde to cite the speciall kindes to see what faults may be found in the right vse of them Is it then the Pastorall Poem which is misliked for perchance where the hedge is lowest they will soonest leape ouer Is the poore pype disdained which sometime out of Melibeus mouth can shewe the miserie of people vnder hard Lords or rauening Souldiours And again by Titirus what blessednes is deriued to them that lye lowest from the goodnesse of them that sit highest Sometimes vnder the prettie tales of VVolues and Sheepe can include the whole considerations of wrong dooing and patience Sometimes shew that contention for trifles can get but a trifling victorie VVhere perchaunce a man may see that euen Alexander and Darius when they straue who should be Cocke of thys worlds dunghill the benefit they got was that the after-liuers may say Haec memini victum frustra contendere Thirsin Ex illo Coridon Coridon est tempore nobis Or is it the lamenting Elegiack which in a kinde hart would mooue rather pitty thē blame who bewailes with the great Philosopher Heraclitus the weakenes of man-kind and the wretchednes of the world who surely is to be praysed either for compassionate accompanying iust causes of lamentation or for rightly paynting out how weake be the passions of wofulnesse Is it the bitter but wholsome Iambick which rubs the galled minde in making shame the trumpet of villanie with bolde open crying out against naughtines Or the Satirick who Omne vafer vitium ridenti tangit amico VVho sportingly neuer leaueth vntil hee make a man laugh at folly and at length ashamed to laugh at himselfe which he cannot auoyd without auoyding the follie VVho while Circum praecordia ludit giueth vs to feele howe many head-aches a passionate life bringeth vs to How whē all is done Est vlubris animus si nos non deficit aequus No perchance it is the Comick whom naughtie Play-makers and Stage-keepers haue iustly made odious To the argument of abuse I will answer after Onely thus much now is to be said that the Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life which he representeth in the most ridiculous scornefull sort that may be So as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one Now as in Geometry the oblique must bee knowne as wel as the right and in Arithmetick the odde aswell as the euen so in the actions of our life who seeth not the filthines of euil wanteth a great foile to perceiue the beauty of vertue This doth the Comedy handle so in our priuate domestical matters as with hearing it
which from almost the highest estimation of learning is fallen to be the laughingstocke of children So haue I need to bring some more auaileable proofes sith the former is by no man barred of his deserued credite the silly latter hath had euen the names of Philosophers vsed to the defacing of it with great danger of ciuill war amōg the Muses And first truly to al thē that professing learning inueigh against Poetry may iustly be obiected that they goe very neer to vngratfulnes to seek to deface that which in the noblest nations languages that are knowne hath been the first light-giuer to ignorance and first Nurse whose milk by little little enabled them to feed afterwards of tougher knowledges will they now play the Hedghog that being receiued into the den draue out his host or rather the Vipers that with theyr birth kill their Parents Let learned Greece in any of her manifold Sciences be able to shew me one booke before Musaeus Homer Hesiodus all three nothing els but Poets Nay let any historie be brought that can say any VVriters were there before thē if they were not men of the same skil as Orpheus Linus and some other are named who hauing beene the first of that Country that made pens deliuerers of their knowledge to their posterity may iustly chalenge to bee called their Fathers in learning for not only in time they had this priority although in it self antiquity be venerable but went before them as causes to drawe with their charming sweetnes the wild vntamed wits to an admiration of knowledge So as Amphion was sayde to moue stones with his Poetrie to build Thebes And Orpheus to be listened to by beastes indeed stony and beastly people So among the Romans were Liuius Andronicus and Ennius So in the Italian language the first that made it aspire to be a Treasure-house of Science were the Poets Dante Boccace and Petrarch So in our English were Gower and Chawcer After whom encouraged and delighted with theyr excellent fore-going others haue followed to beautifie our mother tongue as wel in the same kinde as in other Arts. This did so notably shewe it selfe that the Phylosophers of Greece durst not a long time appeare to the worlde but vnder the masks of Poets So Thales Empedocles and Parmenides sange their naturall Phylosophie in verses so did Pythagoras and Phocilides their morral counsells so did Tirteus in war matters Solon in matters of policie or rather they beeing Poets dyd exercise their delightful vaine in those points of highest knowledge which before them lay hid to the world For that wise Solon was directly a Poet it is manifest hauing written in verse the notable fable of the Atlantick Iland which was continued by Plato And truely euen Plato whosoeuer well considereth shall find that in the body of his work though the inside strength were Philosophy the skinne as it were beautie depended most of Poetrie for all standeth vpon Dialogues wherein he faineth many honest Burgesses of Athens to speake of such matters that if they had been sette on the racke they would neuer haue confessed them Besides his poetical describing the circumstances of their meetings as the well ordering of a banquet the delicacie of a walke with enterlacing meere tales as Giges Ring and others which who knoweth not to be flowers of Poetrie did neuer walke into Apollos Garden And euen Historiographers although theyr lippes sounde of things doone veritie be written in theyr fore-heads haue been glad to borrow both fashion and perchance weight of Poets So Herodotus entituled his Historie by the name of the nine Muses and both he and all the rest that followed him either stole or vsurped of Poetrie their passionate describing of passions the many particularities of battailes which no man could affirme or if that be denied me long Orations put in the mouthes of great Kings and Captaines which it is certaine they neuer pronounced So that truely neyther Phylosopher nor Historiographer coulde at the first haue entred into the gates of populer iudgements if they had not taken a great pasport of Poetry which in all Nations at this day wher learning florisheth not is plaine to be seene in all which they haue some feeling of Poetry In Turky besides their lawe-giuing Diuines they haue no other VVriters but Poets In our neighbour Countrey Ireland where truelie learning goeth very bare yet are theyr Poets held in a deuoute reuerence Euen among the most barbarous and simple Indians where no writing is yet haue they their Poets who make and sing songs which they call Areytos both of theyr Auncestors deedes praises of theyr Gods A sufficient probabilitie that if euer learning come among thē it must be by hauing theyr hard dull wits softned and sharpened with the sweete delights of Poetrie For vntill they find a pleasure in the exercises of the minde great promises of much knowledge will little perswade them that knowe not the fruites of knowledge In VVales the true remnant of the auncient Brittons as there are good authorities to shewe the long time they had Poets which they called Bardes so thorough all the conquests of Romaines Saxons Danes and Normans some of whom did seeke to ruine all memory of learning from among them yet doo their Poets euen to this day last so as it is not more notable in soone beginning then in long continuing But since the Authors of most of our Sciences were the Romans and before them the Greekes let vs a little stand vppon their authorities but euen so farre as to see what names they haue giuen vnto this now scorned skill Among the Romans a Poet was called Vates which is as much as a Diuiner Fore-seer or Prophet as by his conioyned wordes Vaticinium Vaticinari is manifest so heauenly a title did that excellent people bestow vpō this hart-rauishing knowledge And so farre were they carried into the admiration thereof that they thought in the chaunceable hitting vppon any such verses great fore-tokens of their following fortunes were placed VVhereupon grew the worde of Sortes Virgilianae when by suddaine opening Virgils booke they lighted vpon any verse of hys making whereof the histories of the Emperors liues are full as of Albinus the Gouernour of our Iland who in his childe-hoode mette with this verse Arma amens capio nec sat rationis in armis And in his age performed it which although it were a very vaine and godles superstition as also it was to think that spirits were commaunded by such verses whereupon this word charmes deriued of Carmina commeth so yet serueth it to shew the great reuerence those wits were helde in And altogether not without ground since both the Oracles of Delphos and Sibillas prophecies were wholy deliuered in verses For that same exquisite obseruing of number and measure in words and that high flying liberty of conceit proper to the Poet did seeme to haue some dyuine force in it And may
Amphion Homer in his hymnes and many other both Greekes and Romaines and this Poesie must be vsed by whosoeuer will follow S. Iames his counsell in singing Psalmes when they are merry and I knowe is vsed with the fruite of comfort by some when in sorrowfull pangs of their death-bringing sinnes they find the consolation of the neuer-leauing goodnesse The second kinde is of them that deale with matters Philosophicall eyther morrall as Tirteus Phocilides and Cato or naturall as Lucretius and Virgils Georgicks or Astronomicall as Manilius Pontanus or historical as Lucan which who mislike the faulte is in their iudgements quite out of taste and not in the sweet foode of sweetly vttered knowledge But because thys second sorte is wrapped within the folde of the proposed subiect and takes not the course of his owne inuention whether they properly be Poets or no let Gramarians dispute and goe to the thyrd indeed right Poets of whom chiefly this question ariseth betwixt whom these second is such a kinde of difference as betwixt the meaner sort of Painters who counterfet onely such faces as are sette before them and the more excellent who hauing no law but wit bestow that in cullours vpon you which is fittest for the eye to see as the constant though lamenting looke of Lucrecia when she punished in her selfe an others fault VVherein he painteth not Lucrecia whom he neuer sawe but painteth the outwarde beauty of such a vertue for these third be they which most properly do imitate to teach and delight and to imitate borrow nothing of what is hath been or shall be but range onely rayned with learned discretion into the diuine consideration of what may be and should be These bee they that as the first and most noble sorte may iustly bee termed Vates so these are waited on in the excellenst languages and best vnderstandings with the fore described name of Poets for these indeede doo meerely make to imitate and imitate both to delight teach and delight to moue men to take that goodnes in hande which without delight they would flye as from a stranger And teach to make them know that goodnes whereunto they are mooued which being the noblest scope to which euer any learning was directed yet want there not idle tongues to barke at them These be subdiuided into sundry more speciall denominations The most notable bee the Heroick Lirick Tragick Comick Satirick Iambick Elegiack pastorall and certaine others Some of these being deemed according to the matter they deale with some by the sorts of verses they liked best to write in for indeede the greatest part of Poets haue apparelled their poeticall inuentions in that 〈◊〉 kinde of writing which is called verse indeed but apparelled verse being but an ornament and no cause to Poetry sith there haue beene many most excellent Poets that neuer versified and nowe swarme many versifiers that neede neuer aunswere to the name of Poets For Xenophon who did imitate so excellently as to giue vs effigiem iusti imperij the portraiture of a iust Empire vnder the name of Cyrus as Cicero sayth of him made therein an absolute heroicall Poem So did Heliodorus in his sugred inuention of that picture of loue in Theagines and Cariclea and yet both these writ in Prose which I speak to shew that it is not riming and versing that maketh a Poet no more then a long gowne maketh an Aduocate who though he pleaded in armor fhould be an Aduocate and no Souldier But it is that fayning notable images of vertues vices or what els with that delightfull teaching which must be the right describing note to know a Poet by although indeed the Senate of Poets hath chosen verse as their fittest rayment meaning as in matter they passed all in all so in maner to goe beyond them not speaking table talke fashion or like men in a dreame words as they chanceably fall from the mouth but peyzing each sillable of each worde by iust proportion according to the dignitie of the subiect Nowe therefore it shall not bee amisse first to waigh this latter sort of Poetrie by his works then by his partes and if in neyther of these Anatomies hee be condemnable I hope wee shall obtaine a more fauourable sentence This purifiing of wit this enritching of memory enabling of iudgment and enlarging of conceyt which cōmonly we call learning vnder what name soeuer it comforth or to what immediat end soeuer it be directed the final end is to lead draw vs to as high a perfection as our degenerate soules made worse by theyr clayey lodgings can be capable of This according to the inclination of the man bred many formed impressions for some that thought this fellcity principally to be gotten by knowledge and no knowledge to be so high and heauenly as acquaintance with the starres gaue themselues to Astronomie others perswading themselues to be Demi-gods if they knewe the causes of things became naturall and supernaturall Philosophers some an admirable delight drew to Musicke and some the certainty of demonstration to the Mathematickes But all one and other hauing this scope to knowe and by knowledge to lift vp the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enioying his owne diuine essence But when by the ballance of experience it was found that the Astronomer looking to the starres might fall into a ditch that the enquiring Philosopher might be blinde in himselfe and the Mathematician might draw foorth a straight line with a crooked hart then loe did proofe the ouer ruler of opinions make manifest that all these are but seruing Sciences which as they haue each a priuate end in themselues so yet are they all directed to the highest end of the mistres Knowledge by the Greekes called Arkitecktonike which stands as I thinke in the knowledge of a mans selfe in the Ethicke and politick consideration with the end of well dooing and not of well knowing onely euen as the Sadlers next end is to make a good saddle but his farther end to serue a nobler facultie which is horsemanship so the horsemans to souldiery and the Souldier not onely to haue the skill but to performe the practise of a Souldier so that the ending end of all earthly learning being vertuous action those skilles that most serue to bring forth that haue a most iust title to bee Princes ouer all the rest wherein if wee can shewe the Poets noblenes by setting him before his other Competitors among whom as principall challengers step forth the morrall Philosophers whom me thinketh I see comming towards mee with a sullen grauity as though they could not abide vice by day light rudely clothed for to witnes outwardly their cōtempt of outward things with bookes in their hands agaynst glory whereto they sette theyr names sophistically speaking against subtility and angry with any man in whom they see the foule fault of anger these men casting larges as they goe of Definitions Diuisions and Distinctions
Oedipus the soone repenting pride in Agamemnon the selfe-deuouring crueltie in his Father Atreus the violence of ambition in the two Theban brothers the sowre-sweetnes of reuenge in Medaea and to fall lower the Terentian Gnato and our Chaucers Pandar so exprest that we nowe vse their names to signifie their trades And finally all vertues vices and passions so in their own naturall seates layd to the viewe that wee seeme not to heare of them but cleerely to see through them But euen in the most excellent determination of goodnes what Philosophers counsell can so redily direct a Prince as the fayned Cyrus in Xenophon or a vertuous man in all fortunes as Aeneas in Virgill or a whole Cōmon-wealth as the way of Sir Thomas Moores Eutopia I say the way because where Sir Thomas Moore erred it was the fault of the man and not of the Poet for that way of patterning a Common-wealth was most absolute though hee perchaunce hath not so absolutely perfourmed it for the question is whether the fayned image of Poesie or the regular instruction of Philosophy hath the more force in teaching wherein if the Philosophers haue more rightly shewed themselues Philosophers then the Poets haue obtained to the high top of their profession as in truth Mediocribus esse poetis Non Dij non homines non concessere Columnae It is I say againe not the fault of the Art but that by fewe men that Arte can bee accomplished Certainly euen our Sauiour Christ could as well haue giuen the morrall common places of vncharitablenes and humblenes as the diuine narration of Diues and Lazarus or of disobedience and mercy as that heauenly discourse of the lost Child and the gratious Father but that hys through-searching wisdom knewe the estate of Diues burning in hell and of Lazarus being in Abrahams bosome would more constantly as it were inhabit both the memory and iudgment Truly for my selfe mee seemes I see before my eyes the lost Childes disdainefull prodigality turned to enuie a Swines dinner which by the learned Diuines are thought not historicall acts but instructing Parables For conclusion I say the Philosopher teacheth but he teacheth obscurely so as the learned onely can vnderstande him that is to say he teacheth them that are already taught but the Poet is the foode for the tenderest stomacks the Poet is indeed the right Popular Philosopher whereof Esops tales giue good proofe whose pretty Allegories stealing vnder the formall tales of Beastes make many more beastly then Beasts begin to heare the sound of vertue from these dumbe speakers But now may it be alledged that if this imagining of matters be so fitte for the imagination then must the Historian needs surpasse who bringeth you images of true matters such as indeede were doone and not such as fantastically or falsely may be suggested to haue been doone Truely Aristotle himselfe in his discourse of Poesie plainely determineth this question saying that Poetry is Philosophoteron and Spoudaioteron that is to say it is more Philosophicall and more studiously serious thē history His reason is because Poesie dealeth with Katholou that is to say with the vniuersall consideration and the history with Kathekaston the perticuler nowe sayth he the vniuersall wayes what is fit to bee sayd or done eyther in likelihood or necessity which the Poesie cōsidereth in his imposed names the perticuler onely marke whether Alcibiades did or suffered this or that Thus farre Aristotle which reason of his as all his is most full of reason For indeed if the question were whether it were better to haue a perticular acte truly or falsly set down there is no doubt which is to be chosen no more thē whether you had rather haue Vespasians picture right as hee was or at the Painters pleasure nothing resembling But if the question be for your owne vse learning whether it be better to haue it set downe as it should be or as it was then certainely is more doctrinable the fained Cirus in Xenophon then the true Cyrus in Iustine and the fayned Aeneas in Virgil then the right Aeneas in Dares Phrigius As to a Lady that desired to fashion her countenance to the best grace a Painter should more benefite her to portraite a most sweet face wryting Canidia vpon it then to paynt Canidia as she was who Horace sweareth was foule and ill fauoured If the Poet doe his part a-right he will shew you in Tantalus Atreus and such like nothing that is not to be shunned In Cyrus Aeneas Vlisses each thing to be followed where the Historian bound to tell things as things were cannot be liberall without hee will be poeticall of a perfect patterne but as in Alexander or Scipio himselfe shew dooings some to be liked some to be misliked And then how will you discerne what to followe but by your owne discretion which you had without reading Quintus Curtius And whereas a man may say though in vniuersall consideration of doctrine the Poet preuaileth yet that the historie in his saying such a thing was doone doth warrant a man more in that hee shall follow The aunswere is manifest that if hee stande vpon that was as if hee should argue because it rayned yesterday therefore it shoulde rayne to day then indeede it hath some aduantage to a grose conceite but if hee know an example onlie informes a coniectured likelihood so goe by reason the Poet dooth so farre exceede him as hee is to frame his example to that which is most reasonable be it in warlike politick or priuate matters where the Historian in his bare VVas hath many times that which wee call fortune to ouer-rule the best wisedome Manie times he must tell euents whereof he can yeelde no cause or if hee doe it must be poeticall for that a fayned example hath asmuch force to teach as a true example for as for to mooue it is cleere sith the fayned may bee tuned to the highest key of passion let vs take one example wherein a Poet and a Historian doe concur Herodotus and Iustine do both testifie that Zopirus King Darius faithfull seruaunt seeing his Maister long resisted by the rebellious Babilonians fayned himselfe in extreame disgrace of his King for verifying of which he caused his own nose and eares to be cut off and so flying to the Babylonians was receiued and for his knowne valour so far credited that hee did finde meanes to deliuer them ouer to Darius Much like matter doth Liuie record of Tarquinius and his sonne Xenophon excellently faineth such another stratageme performed by Abradates in Cyrus behalfe Now would I fayne know if occasion bee presented vnto you to serue your Prince by such an honest dissimulation why you doe not as well learne it of Xenophons fiction as of the others verity and truely so much the better as you shall saue your nose by the bargaine for Abradates did not counterfet so far So then the best of the Historian is subiect to the Poet
actiue men receiued their first motions of courage Onlie Alexanders example may serue who by Plutarch is accounted of such vertue that Fortune was not his guide but his foote-stoole whose acts speake for him though Plutarch did not indeede the Phaenix of warlike Princes This Alexander left his Schoolemaister liuing Aristotle behinde him but tooke deade Homer with him he put the Philosopher Calisthenes to death for his seeming philosophicall indeed mutmous stubburnnes But the chiefe thing he euer was heard to wish for was that Homer had been aliue He well found he receiued more brauerie of minde by the patterne of Achilles then by hearing the defination of Fortitude and therefore if Cato misliked Fuluius for carying Ennius with him to the fielde it may be aunswered that if Cato misliked it the noble Fuluius liked it or els he had not doone it for it was not the excellent Cato Vticensis whose authority I would much more have 〈◊〉 but it was the former in 〈…〉 of faults but else a man that had 〈◊〉 sacrificed to the Graces Hee misliked and dryed out vpon all Greeke learning and yet being 80 yeeres olde began to learne it Be like soaring that Pluto understood not Latine indeede the Romance lawes allowed no person to be carried to the warres but hee that was in the Souldiers role and therefore though Cato misliked his vnmustered person hee misliked not his worke And if hee had Scipio Nasica iudged by common consent the best Romaine loued him Both the other Scipio Brothers who had by their vertues no lesse surnames then of Asia and Affrick so loued him that they caused his body to be buried in their Sepulcher So as Cato his authoritie being but against his person and that aunswered with so farre greater then himselfe is heerein of no validitie But now indeede my burthen is great now Plato his name is layde vpon mee whom I must confesse of all Philosophers I haue euer esteemed most worthy of reuerence and with great reason Sith of all Philosophers he is the most poeticall Yet if he will defile the Fountaine out of which his flowing streames haue proceeded let vs boldly examine with what reasons hee did it First truly a man might maliciously obiect that Plato being a Philosopher was a naturall enemie of Poets for indeede after the Philosophers had picked out of the sweete misteries of Poetrie the right discerning true points of knowledge they forthwith putting it in method making a Schoolearte of that which the Poets did onely teach by a diuine delightfulnes beginning to spurne at their guides like vngratefull Prentises were not content to set vp shops for themselues but sought by all meanes to discredit their Maisters VVhich by the force of delight beeing barred them the lesse they could ouerthrow them the more they hated them For indeede they found for Homer seauen Citties stroue who should haue him for their Citizen where many Citties banished Philosophers as not fitte members to liue among them For onely repeating certaine of Euripides verses many Athenians had their lyues saued of the Siracusians when the Athenians themselues thought many Philosophers vnwoorthie to liue Certaine Poets as Simonides and Pindarus had so preuailed with Hiero the first that of a Tirant they made him a iust King where Plato could do so little with Dionisius that he himselfe of a Philosopher was made a slaue But who should doe thus I confesse should requite the obiections made against Poets with like cauillation against Philosophers as likewise one should doe that should bid one read Phaedrus or Symposium in Plato or the discourse of loue in Plutarch and see whether any Poet doe authorize abhominable filthines as they doe Againe a man might aske out of what Common-wealth Plato did banish them insooth thence where he himselfe alloweth communitie of women So as belike this banishment grewe not for effeminate wantonnes sith little should poeticall Sonnets be hurtfull when a man might haue what woman he listed But I honor philosophicall instructions and blesse the wits which bred them so as they be not abused which is likewise stretched to Poetrie S. Paule himselfe who yet for the credite of Poets alledgeth twise two Poets one of them by the name of a Prophet setteth a watch-word vpon Philosophy indeede vpon the abuse So dooth Plato vpon the abuse not vpon Poetrie Plato found fault that the Poets of his time filled the worlde with wrong opinions of the Gods making light tales of that vnspotted essence and therefore would not haue the youth depraued with such opinions Heerin may much be said let this suffice the Poets did not induce such opinions but dyd imitate those opinions already induced For all the Greek stories can well testifie that the very religion of that time stoode vpon many and many-fashioned Gods not taught so by the Poets but followed according to their nature of imitation VVho list may reade in Plutarch the discourses of Isis and Osiris of the cause why Oracles ceased of the diuine prouidence and see whether the Theologie of that nation stood not vpon such dreames which the Poets indeed supersticiously obserued and truly sith they had not the light of Christ did much better in it then the Philosophers who shaking off superstition brought in Atheisme Plato therefore whose authoritie I had much rather iustly conster then vniustly resist meant not in general of Poets in those words of which Iulius Scaliger saith Qua authoritate barbari quidā atque hispidi abuti velint ad Poet as republica exigendos but only meant to driue out those wrong opinions of the Deitie whereof now without further law Christianity hath taken away all the hurtful beliefe perchance as he thought norished by the then esteemed Poets And a man neede goe no further then to Plato himselfe to know his meaning who in his Dialogue called Ion giueth high and rightly diuine commendation to Poetrie So as Plato banishing the abuse not the thing not banishing it but giuing due honor vnto it shall be our Patron and not our aduersarie For indeed I had much rather sith truly I may doe it shew theyr mistaking of Plato vnder whose Lyons skin they would make an Asse-like braying against Poesie thē goe about to ouer-throw his authority whom the wiser a man is the more iust cause he shall find to haue in admiration especially sith he attributeth vnto Poesie more then my selfe doe namely to be a very inspiring of a diuine force farre aboue mans wit as in the afore-named Dialogue is apparant Of the other side who wold shew the honors haue been by the best sort of iudgemēts granted them a whole Sea of examples woulde present themselues Alexanders Caesars Scipios al fauorers of Poets Lelius called the Romane Socrates him selfe a Poet so as part of Heautontimorumenon in Terence was supposed to be made by him And euen the Greek Socrates whom Apollo confirmed to be the onely wise man is sayde to haue spent part of
Kalender hath much Poetrie in his Eglogues indeede worthy the reading if I be not deceiued That same framing of his stile to an old rustick language I dare not alowe sith neyther Theocritus in Greeke Virgill in Latine nor Sanazar in Italian did affect it Besides these doe I not remember to haue seene but fewe to speake boldely printed that haue poeticall sinnewes in them for proofe whereof let but most of the verses bee put in Prose and then aske the meaning and it will be found that one verse did but beget another without ordering at the first what should be at the last which becomes a confused masse of words with a tingling sound of ryme barely accompanied with reason Our Tragedies and Comedies not without cause cried out against obseruing rules neyther of honest ciuilitie nor of skilfull Poetrie excepting Gorboduck againe I say of those that I haue seene which notwithstanding as it is full of stately speeches and well sounding Phrases clyming to the height of Seneca his stile and as full of notable moralitie which it doth most delightfully teach and so obtayne the very end of Poesie yet in troth it is very defectious in the circumstaunces which greeueth mee because it might not remaine as an exact model of all Tragedies For it is faulty both in place time the two necessary companions of all corporall actions For where the stage should alwaies represent but one place and the vttermost time presupposed in it should be both by Aristotles precept and common reason but one day there is both many dayes and many places inartificially imagined But if it be so in Gorboduck how much more in al the rest where you shal haue Asia of the one side and Affrick of the other so many other vnder-kingdoms that the Player when he cōmeth in must euer begin with telling where he is or els the tale wil not be conceiued Now ye shal haue three Ladies walke to gather flowers then wee must beleeue the stage to be a Garden By by we heare newes of shipwracke in the same place and then wee are to blame if we accept it not for a Rock Vpon the backe of that comes out a hidious Monster with fire and smoke and then the miserable beholders are bounde to take it for a Caue VVhile in the meane-time two Armies flye in represented with foure swords and bucklers then what harde heart wil not receiue it for a pitched fielde Now of time they are much more liberall for ordinary it is that two young Princes fall in loue After many trauerces she is got with childe deliuered of a faire boy he is lost groweth a man falls in loue is ready to get another child and all this in two houres space which how absurd it is in sence euen sence may imagine and Arte hath taught and all auncient examples iustified and at this day the ordinary Players in Italie wil not erre in Yet wil some bring in an example of Eunuchus in Terence that cōtaineth matter of two dayes yet far short of twenty yeeres True it is and so was it to be playd in two daies and so fitted to the time it set forth And though Plautus hath in one place done amisse let vs hit with him and not misse with him But they wil say how then shal we set forth a story which containeth both many places many times And doe they not knowe that a Tragedie is tied to the lawes of Poesie and not of Historie not bound to follow the storie but hauing liberty either to faine a quite newe matter or to frame the history to the most tragicall conueniencie Againe many things may be told which cannot be shewed if they knowe the difference betwixt reporting and representing As for example I may speake though I am heere of Peru and in speech digresse from that to the discription of Calicut but in action I cannot represent it without Pacolets horse and so was the manner the Auncients tooke by some Nuncius to recount thinges done in former time or other place Lastly if they wil represent an history they must not as Horace saith beginne Ab ouo but they must come to the principall poynt of that one action which they wil represeut By example this wil be best expressed I haue a story of young Polidorus deliuered for safeties sake with great riches by his Father Priamus to Polimnestor king of Thrace in the Troyan war time Hee after some yeeres hearing the ouer-throwe of Priamus for to make the treasure his owne murthereth the child the body of the child is taken vp by Hecuba shee the same day findeth a slight to bee reuenged most cruelly of the Tyrant where nowe would one of our Tragedy writers begin but with the deliuery of the childe Then should he sayle ouer into Thrace so spend I know not how many yeeres and trauaile numbers of places But where dooth Euripides Euen with the finding of the body leauing the rest to be tolde by the spirit of Polidorus This need no further to be inlarged the dullest wit may conceiue it But besides these grosse absurdities how all theyr Playes be neither right Tragedies nor right Comedies mingling Kings Clownes not because the matter so carrieth it but thrust in Clownes by head shoulders to play a part in maiesticall matters with neither decencie nor discretion So as neither the admiration commiseration nor the right sportfulnes is by their mungrell Tragy-comedie obtained I know Apuleius did some-what so but that is a thing recounted with space of time not represented in one moment I knowe the Auncients haue one or two examples of Tragy-comedies as Plautus hath Amphitrio But if we marke them well we shall find that they neuer or very daintily match Horne-pypes and Funeralls So falleth it out that hauing indeed no right Comedy in that comicall part of our Tragedy wee haue nothing but scurrility vnwoorthy of any chast eares or some extreame shew of doltishnes indeed fit to lift vp a loude laughter and nothing els where the whole tract of a Comedy shoulde be full of delight as the Tragedy shoulde be still maintained in a well raised admiration But our Comedians thinke there is no delight without laughter which is very wrong for though laughter may come with delight yet commeth it not of delight as though delight should be the cause of laughter but well may one thing breed both together nay rather in themselues they haue as it were a kind of contrarietie for delight we scarcely doe but in things that haue a conueniencie to our selues or to the generall nature laughter almost euer commeth of things most disproportioned to our selues and nature Delight hath a ioy in it either permanent or present Laughter hath onely a scornful tickling For example we are rauished with delight to see a faire woman and yet are far from being moued to laughter VVee laugh at deformed creatures wherein certainely we cannot