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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12225	The defence of poesie. By Sir Phillip Sidney, Knight; Defence of poetry	Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586.	1595 (1595)	STC 22535; ESTC S119205	38,183	73

the word remembred But what needes more in a thing so knowne to all men Who is it that euer was scholler that doth not carry away som verses of Virgil Horace or Cato which in his youth hee learned and euē to his old age serue him for hourely lessons as Percontatorem fugito nam garrulus idem est Dum tibi quisque placet credula turba sumas But the fitnes it hath for memorie is notably prooued by all deliuerie of Arts wherein for the most part from Grammer to Logick Mathematickes Phisick and the rest the Rules chiefly necessaie to be borne away are compiled in verses So that verse being in it selfe sweet and orderly and being best for memorie the onely handle of knowledge it must be in iest that any man can speak against it Now then goe we to the most important imputations laid to the poore Poets for ought I can yet learne they are these First that there beeing manie other more frutefull knowledges a man might better spend his time in them then in this Secondly that it is the mother of lyes Thirdly that it is the nurse of abuse infecting vs with many pestilent desires with a Sirens sweetnesse drawing the minde to the Serpents taile of sinfull fansies and herein especially Comedies giue the largest field to eare as Chawcer saith how both in other nations and in ours before Poets did soften vs we were full of courage giuē to martial exercises the pillers of manlike libertie and not lulled a sleepe in shadie idlenes with Poets pastimes And lastly and chiefly they cry out with open mouth as if they had ouershot Robin-hood that Plato banished them out of his Common-wealth Truly this is much if there be much truth in it First to the first That a man might better spend his time is a reason indeed but it doth as they say but petere principium For if it be as I affirme that no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moueth to vertue and that none can both teach and moue thereto so much as Poesie then is the conclusion manifest that incke and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose imployed And certainly though a man should graunt their first assumption it should follow mee thinks very vnwillingly that good is not good because better is better But I still and vtterly deny that there is sprung out of earth a more fruitfull knowledge To the second therfore that they should be the principall lyers I answere Paradoxically but truly I think truly that of all writers vnder the Sunne the Poet is the least lyer and though he wold as a Poet can scarcely be a lyer The Astronomer with his cousin the Geometrician can hardly escape when they take vpon them to measure the height of the starres How often thinke you do the Phisitians lie when they auerre things good for sicknesses which afterwards send Charon a great number of soules drownd in a potion before they come to his Ferrie And no lesse of the rest which take vpon them to affirme Now for the Poet he nothing affirmeth and therefore neuer lieth for as I take it to lie is to affirme that to bee true which is false So as the other Artistes and especially the Historian affirming manie things can in the clowdie knowledge of mankinde hardly escape from manie lies But the Poet as I said before neuer affirmeth the Poet neuer maketh any Circles about your imaginatiō to coniure you to beleeue for true what he writeth he citeth not authorities of other histories but euē for his entrie calleth the sweete Muses to inspire vnto him a good inuention In troth not laboring to tel you what is or is not but what should or should not be And therefore though he recount things not true yet because he telleth them not for true he lieth not without we will say that Nathan lied in his speech before alleaged to Dauid which as a wicked man durst scarce say so think I none so simple wold say that Esope lied in the tales of his beasts for who thinketh that Esope wrote it for actually true were wel worthie to haue his name Cronicled among the beasts he writeth of What childe is there that comming to a play and seeing Thebes written in great letters vpon an old doore doth beleeue that it is Thebes If then a man can arriue to the childes age to know that the Poets persons and dooings are but pictures what should be and not stories what haue bin they will neuer giue the lie to things not Affirmatiuely but Allegorically and figuratiuely written and therefore as in historie looking for truth they may go away full fraught with falshood So in Poesie looking but for fiction they shall vse the narration but as an imaginatiue ground plat of a profitable inuention But hereto is replied that the Poets giue names to men they write of which argueth a conceit of an actuall truth and so not being true prooueth a falshood And dooth the Lawier lye then when vnder the names of Iohn of the Stile and Iohn of the Nokes hee putteth his Case But that is easily answered their naming of men is but to make their picture the more liuely and not to build anie Historie Painting men they cannot leaue men namelesse wee see wee cannot plaie at Chestes but that wee must giue names to our Chessemen and yet mee thinkes he were a verie partiall Champion of truth that would say wee lyed for giuing a peece of wood the reuerende title of a Bishop The Poet nameth Cyrus and Aeneas no other way then to shewe what men of their fames fortunes and estares should doo Their third is how much it abuseth mens wit training it to wanton sinfulnesse and lustfull loue For indeed that is the principall if not onely abuse I can heare alleadged They say the Comedies rather teach then reprehend amorous cōceits They say the Lirick is larded with passionat Sonets the Elegiack weeps the want of his mistresse and that euen to the Heroical Cupid hath ambitiously climed Alas Loue I would thou couldest as wel defend thy selfe as thou canst offend others I would those on whom thou doest attend could either put thee away or yeeld good reason why they keepe thee But grant loue of bewtie to be a beastly fault although it be verie hard since onely man and no beast hath that gift to discerne bewtie graunt that louely name of loue to deserue all hatefull reproches although euen some of my maisters the Philosophers spent a good deale of their Lampoyle in setting foorth the excellencie of it graunt I say what they will haue graunted that not onelie loue but lust but vanitie but if they list scurrilitie possesse manie leaues of the Poets bookes yet thinke I when this is graunted they will finde their sentence may with good manners put the last words foremost and not say that Poetrie abuseth mans wit but that mans wit abuseth Poetrie For I will not denie but

far short of twentie yeares True it is and so was it to be played in two dayes and so fitted to the time it set foorth And though Plautus haue in one place done amisse let vs hit it with him not misse with him But they will say how then shall we set foorth a storie which contains both many places and many times And do they not know that a Tragidie is tied to the lawes of Poesie and not of Historie not bounde to follow the storie but hauing libertie either to faine a quite new matter or to frame the Historie to the most Tragicall conueniencie Againe many things may be told which cannot be shewed if they know the difference betwixt reporting and representing As for example I may speake though I am here of Peru and in speech digresse from that to the description of Calecut But in action I cannot represent it without Pacolets Horse And so was the manner the Auncients tooke by some Nuntius to recount things done in former time or other place Lastly if they will represent an Historie they must not as Horace saith beginne ab ouo but they must come to the principall poynte of that one action which they will represent By example this will be best expressed I haue a storie of yoong Polidorus deliuered for safeties sake with great riches by his Father Priamus to Polminester King of Thrace in the Troyan warre time He after some yeares hearing the ouerthrowe of Priamus for to make the treasure his owne murthereth the Childe the bodie of the Childe is taken vp Hecuba shee the same day findeth a sleight to bee reuenged moste cruelly of the Tyrant Where nowe would one of our Tragedie writers begin but with the deliuerie of the Childe Then should hee saile ouer into Thrace and so spende I know not howe many yeares and trauaile numbers of places But where dooth Euripides euen with the finding of the bodie the rest leauing to be told by the spirite of Polidorus This needes no further to bee enlarged the dullest witte may conceiue it But besides these grosse absurdities howe all their Playes bee neither right Tragedies nor right Comedies mingling Kinges and Clownes not because the matter so carrieth it but thrust in the Clowne by head and shoulders to play a part in maiesticall matters with neither decencie nor discretion so as neither the admiration and Commiseration nor the right sportfulnesse is by their mongrell Tragicomedie obtained I know Apuleius did somewhat so but that is a thing recounted with space of time not represented in one moment and I knowe the Auncients haue one or two examples of Tragicomedies as Plautus hath Amphitrio But if we marke them well wee shall finde that they neuer or verie daintily matche horne Pipes and Funeralls So falleth it out that hauing indeed no right Comedie in that Comicall part of our Tragidie wee haue nothing but scurrillitie vnwoorthie of anie chaste eares or some extreame shewe of doltishnesse indeede fit to lift vp a loude laughter and nothing else where the whole tract of a Comedie should be full of delight as the Tragidie should bee still maintained in a well raised admiration But our Comedients thinke there is no delight without laughter which is verie 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 togither Nay rather in themselues they haue as it were a kinde of contrarietie For delight wee scarcely doo but in thinges that haue a conueniencie to our selues or to the generall nature Laughter almost euer commeth of thinges moste disproportioned to our selues and nature Delight hath a ioy in it either permanent or present Laughter hath onely a scornfull tickling For example wee are rauished with delight to see a faire woman and yet are farre from beeing mooued to laughter Wee laugh at deformed creatures wherein certainly wee cannot delight We delight in good chaunces wee laugh at mischaunces We delight to heare the happinesse of our friendes and Countrey at which hee were worthie to be laughed at that would laugh we shall contrarily laugh sometimes to finde a matter quite mistaken and goe downe the hill against the byas in the mouth of some such men as for the respect of them one shall be hartily sorie he cannot chuse but laugh and so is rather pained then delighted with laughter Yet denie I not but that they may goe well togither for as in Alexanders picture well set out wee delight without laughter and in twentie madde Antiques wee laugh without delight So in Hercules painted with his great beard and furious countenaunce in a womans attyre spinning at Omphales commaundement it breedes both delight and laughter for the representing of so straunge a power in Loue procures delight and the scornefulnesse of the action stirreth laughter But I speake to this purpose that all the ende of the Comicall part bee not vppon suche scornefull matters as stirre laughter onelie but mixe with it that delightfull teaching whiche is the ende of Poesie And the great faulte euen in that poynt of laughter and forbidden plainly by Aristotle is that they stirre laughter in sinfull things which are rather execrable then ridiculous or in miserable which are rather to be pitied then scorned For what is it to make folkes gape at a wretched begger and a beggerly Clowne or against lawe of hospitalitie to least at straungers because they speake not English so well as we do What doo we learne since it is certaine Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit But rather a busie louing Courtier and a hartlesse threatning Thraso a selfe-wise seeming Schoolemaister a wry transformed Traueller these if we saw walke in Stage names which we plaie naturally therein were delightfull laughter and teaching delightfulnesse as in the other the Tragidies of Buchanan do iustly bring foorth a a diuine admiration But I haue lauished out too many words of this Play-matter I do it because as they are excelling parts of Poesie so is there none so much vsed in England and none can be more pittifully abused which like an vnmannerly daughter shewing a bad education causeth her mother Poesies honestie to be called in question Other sort of Poetrie almost haue we none but that Lyricall kind of Songs and Sonets which Lord if he gaue vs so good mindes how well it might be employed and with how heauenly fruites both priuate and publike in singing the praises of the immortall bewtie the immortall goodnes of that God who giueth vs hands to write and wits to conceiue of which we might wel want words but neuer matter of which we could turne our eyes to nothing but we should euer haue new budding occasions But truly many of such writings as come vnder the banner of vnresistable loue if I were a mistresse would neuer perswade mee they were in loue so coldly they