24 THE GOOD-FELLOW POET DELIGHTS. be cradled in their graves, glad they will be to hear the tales of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, Æneas; and, hearing them, must needs hear the right description of wisdom, valor, and justice; which, if they had been 5 barely, that is to say philosophically, set out, they would swear they be brought to school again. That imitation whereof poetry is, hath the most conveniency to nature of all other; insomuch that, as Aristotle saith, those things which in themselves are horrible, as 10 cruel battles, unnatural monsters, are made in poetical imitation delightful. Truly, I have known men, that even with reading Amadis de Gaule, which, God knoweth, wanteth much of a perfect poesy, have found their hearts moved to the exercise of courtesy, liberality, and espe15 cially courage. Who readeth Æneas carrying old Anchises on his back, that wisheth not it were his fortune to perform so excellent an act? Whom do not those words of Turnus move, the tale of Turnus having planted his image in the imagination? 20 Fugientem hæc terra videbit? Where the philosophers, as they scorn to delight, so must they be content little to move -saving wrangling whether virtue be the chief or the only good, whether the con25 templative or the active life do excel-which Plato and Boethius well knew, and therefore made Mistress Philosophy very often borrow the masking raiment of Poesy. For even those hard-hearted evil men who think virtue a school-name, and know no other good 30 but indulgere genio, and therefore despise the austere admonitions of the philosopher, and feel not the inward reason they stand upon, yet will be content to be delighted, which is all the good-fellow poet seemeth to promise; and so steal to see the form of goodness APOLOGUES OF AGRIPPA AND NATHAN. which seen, they cannot but love ere themselves be aware, as if they took a medicine of cherries. 25 Infinite proofs of the strange effects of this poetical invention might be alleged; only two shall serve, which are so often remembered as I think all men know them. 5 The one of Menenius Agrippa, who, when the whole people of Rome had resolutely divided themselves from the senate, with apparent show of utter ruin, though he were, for that time, an excellent orator, came not among them upon trust either of figurative speeches or cunning 10 insinuations, and much less with far-fet maxims of philosophy, which, especially if they were Platonic, they must have learned geometry before they could well have conceived; but, forsooth, he behaves himself like a homely and familiar poet. He telleth them a tale, that there 15 was a time when all the parts of the body made a mutinous conspiracy against the belly, which they thought devoured the fruits of each other's labor; they concluded they would let so unprofitable a spender starve. In the end, to be short for the tale is notorious, and 20 as notorious that it was a tale - with punishing the belly they plagued themselves. This, applied by him, wrought such effect in the people, as I never read that ever words brought forth but then so sudden and so good an alteration; for upon reasonable conditions a perfect reconcile- 25 ment ensued. 30 The other is of Nathan the prophet, who, when the holy David had so far forsaken God as to confirm adultery with murder, when he was to do the tenderest office of a friend, in laying his own shame before his eyes,sent by God to call again so chosen a servant, how doth he it but by telling of a man whose beloved lamb was ungratefully taken from his bosom? The application most divinely true, but the discourse itself feigned; which made David (I speak of the second and instrumental 35 26 VARIOUS SPECIES OF POETRY. cause) as in a glass to see his own filthiness, as that heavenly Psalm of Mercy well testifieth. By these, therefore, examples and reasons, I think it may be manifest that the poet, with that same hand of 5 delight, doth draw the mind more effectually than any other art doth. And so a conclusion not unfitly ensueth : that as virtue is the most excellent resting-place for all worldly learning to make his end of, so poetry, being the most familiar to teach it, and most princely to move 10 towards it, in the most excellent work is the most excellent workman. But I am content not only to decipher him by his works- although works in commendation or dispraise must ever hold a high authority—but more narrowly will 15 examine his parts; so that, as in a man, though all together may carry a presence full of majesty and beauty, perchance in some one defectious piece we may find a blemish. Now in his parts, kinds, or species, as you list to term it is to be noted that some poesies have coupled together two or three kinds, -as tragical and comical, whereupon is risen the tragi-comical; some, in the like manner, have mingled prose and verse, as Sannazzaro and Boethius; some have mingled matters heroical and pas25 toral; but that cometh all to one in this question, for, if severed they be good, the conjunction cannot be hurtful. Therefore, perchance forgetting some, and leaving some as needless to be remembered, it shall not be amiss in a word to cite the special kinds, to see what 30 faults may be found in the right use of them. Is it then the pastoral poem which is misliked? — for perchance where the hedge is lowest they will soonest leap over. Is the poor pipe disdained, which sometimes out of Melibus' mouth can show the misery of 35 people under hard lords and ravening soldiers, and ELEGIAC, IAMBIC, SATIRIC, COMIC. 27 again, by Tityrus, what blessedness is derived to them that lie lowest from the goodness of them that sit highest? sometimes, under the pretty tales of wolves and sheep, can include the whole considerations of wrong-doing and patience; sometimes show that contention for trifles can 5 get but a trifling victory; where perchance a man may see that even Alexander and Darius, when they strave who should be cock of this world's dunghill, the benefit they got was that the after-livers may say: Hæc memini et victum frustra contendere Thyrsim; ΙΟ Or is it the lamenting elegiac, which in a kind heart would move rather pity than blame; who bewaileth, with the great philosopher Heraclitus, the weakness of mankind and the wretchedness of the world; who surely is 15 to be praised, either for compassionate accompanying just causes of lamentation, or for rightly painting out how weak be the passions of wofulness? Is it the bitter but wholesome iambic, who rubs the galled mind, in making shame the trumpet of villainy with 20 bold and open crying out against naughtiness? Or the satiric? who Omne vafer vitium ridenti tangit amico; who sportingly never leaveth till he make a man laugh at folly, and at length ashamed to laugh at himself, which 25 he cannot avoid without avoiding the folly; who, while circum præcordia ludit, giveth us to feel how many headaches a passionate life bringeth us to, - how, when all is done, Est Ulubris, animus si nos non deficit æquus. No, perchance it is the comic; whom naughty playmakers and stage-keepers have justly made odious. To the argument of abuse I will answer after. Only thus 30 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 and scornful sort that may be, so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to 5 be such a one. Now, as in geometry the oblique must be known as well as the right, and in arithmetic the odd as well as the even; so in the actions of our life who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue. This doth the comedy 10 handle so, in our private and domestical matters, as with hearing it we get, as it were, an experience what is to be looked for of a niggardly Demea, of a crafty Davus, of a flattering Gnatho, of a vain-glorious Thraso; and not only to know what effects are to be expected, but to know who be such, by the signifying badge given them by the comedian. And little reason hath any man to say that men learn evil by seeing it so set out; since, as I said before, there is no man living, but by the force truth hath in nature, no sooner seeth these men 20 play their parts, but wisheth them in pistrinum, although perchance the sack of his own faults lie so behind his back, that he seeth not himself to dance the same measure, - whereto yet nothing can more open his eyes than to find his own actions contemptibly set forth. 15 25 So that the right use of comedy will, I think, by nobody be blamed, and much less of the high and excellent tragedy, that openeth the greatest wounds, and showeth forth the ulcers that are covered with tissue; that maketh kings fear to be tyrants, and tyrants manifest their 30 tyrannical humors; that with stirring the effects of admiration and commiseration teacheth the uncertainty of this world, and upon how weak foundations gilden roofs are builded; that maketh us know: 35 Qui sceptra sævus duro imperio regit, Timet timentes, metus in auctorem redit. |