embassage spoiled by a careless Ambassa- the Q. one to the other, and be bespoken ere dor? and is it not as great an indignity, it come. So much for invention and order. that an excellent conceit and capacity, by Modus.-I. Brevitas.-Now for Fashion: the indiligence of an idle tongue, should it consists in four things, which are qualibe disgraced? Negligent speech doth not ties of your style. The first is brevity: for only discredit the person of the Speaker, but they must not be treatises or discourses it discrediteth the opinion of his reason and (your letters) except it be to learned men. judgment; it discrediteth the force and And even among them there is a kind of uniformity of the matter and substance. thrift and saving of words. Therefore you If it be so then in words, which fly and are to examine the clearest passages of escape censure, and where one good phrase your understanding, and through them to begs pardon for many incongruities and convey the sweetest and most significant faults, how shall he then be thought wise, words you can devise, that you may the whose penning is thin and shallow? how easier teach them the readiest way to shall you look for wit from him, whose another man's apprehension, and open leisure and head, assisted with the exami- their meaning fully, roundly, and distinctly; nation of his eyes, yield you no life or sharp- so as the reader may not think a second ness in his writing? view cast away upon your letter. And though respect be a part following this, yet De stylo epistolari.-Inventio.-In writ- now here, and still I must remember it, if ing there is to be regarded the Invention you write to a man, whose estate and cense, and the Fashion. For the Invention, that as senses, you are familiar with, you may ariseth upon your business whereof there the bolder (to set a task to his brain) vencan be no rules of more certainty, or pre- ture on a knot. But if to your superior you cepts of better direction given, than con- are bound to measure him in three farther jecture can lay down from the several points: first, your interest in him; secondly, occasions of men's particular lives and vo- his capacity in your letters; thirdly, his cations: but sometimes men make baseness leisure to peruse them. For your interest of kindness: As "I could not satisfy my- or favour with him, you are to be the self till I had discharged my remembrance, shorter or longer, more familiar or submiss, and charged my letters with commenda- as he will afford you time. For his cation to you" or, "My business is no other pacity, you are to be quicker and fuller of than to testify my love to you, and to those reaches and glances of wit or learnput you in mind of my willingness to do ing, as he is able to entertain them. For you all kind offices:" or, "Sir, have you his leisure, you are commanded to the leisure to descend to the remembering of greater briefness, as his place is of greater that assurance you have long possest in discharges and cares. But with your betters, your servant, and upon your next oppor-you are not to put riddles of wit, by being tunity make him happy with some commands from you?" or the like; that go a begging for some meaning, and labour to be delivered of the great burthen of nothing. When you have invented, and that your business be matter, and not bare form or mere ceremony, but some earnest, then are you to proceed to the ordering of it, and digesting the parts, which is had out of two circumstances. One is the understanding of the persons to whom you are to write; the other is the coherence of your sentence. For men's capacity to weigh what will be apprehended with greatest attention or Quintilian.-But, as Quintilian saith, leisure; what next regarded and longed there is a briefness of the parts sometimes for especially, and what last will leave that makes the whole long; as, I came to satisfaction, and (as it were) the sweetest the stairs, I took a pair of oars, they memorial and belief of all that is past in launched out, rowed apace, I landed at the his understanding whom you write to. Court gate, I paid my fare, went up to the For the consequence of sentences, you presence, asked for my lord, I was admitted. must be sure that every clause do give | All this is but, I went to the Court, and VOL. III.

too scarce of words: not to cause the trouble of making breviates by writing too riotous and wastingly. Brevity is attained in matter, by avoiding idle compliments, prefaces, protestations, parentheses, superfluous circuit of figures and digressions: in the composition, by omitting conjunctions [not only, but also; both the one and the other, whereby it cometh to pass] and such like idle particles, that have no great business in a serious letter but breaking of sentences, as oftentimes a short journey is made long by unnecessary baits.

E E

spake with my lord. This is the fault of some Latin writers, within these last hundred years, of my reading; and perhaps Seneca may be appeached of it; I accuse him not.

Quickness, which is the strength and sinews,
as it were, of your penning by pretty say.
ings, similitudes, and conceits; allusions to
some known history, or other common
place, such as are in the Courtier, and the
second book of Cicero de oratore.
4. Discretio.
The last is, respect to
discern what fits yourself, him to whom you
write, and that which you handle, which is
a quality fit to conclude the rest, because it
doth include all. And that must proceed
from ripeness of judgment, which, as one

De Poetica.-We have spoken sufficiently of Oratory, let us now make a diversion to Poetry. Poetry, in the primogeniture, had many peccant humours, and is made to have more now, through the levity and inconstancy of men's judgments. Whereas indeed it is the most prevailing eloquence, Now the and of the most exalted charact. discredits and disgraces are many it hath received, through men's study of depravation or calumny; their practice being to give it diminution of credit, by lessening the professors' estimation, and making the age afraid of their liberty: and the age is grown so tender of her fame, as she calls all writings Aspersions.

2. Perspicuitas.-The next property of epistolary style is Perspicuity, and is oftentimes by affectation of some wit ill angled for, or ostentation of some hidden terms of art. Few words they darken speech, and so do too many; as well too much light hurteth the eyes, as too little; and a long bill of chancery confounds the understand-truly saith, is gotten by four means, God, ing as much as the shortest note; therefore nature, diligence, and conversation. Serve let not your letters be penned like English the first well, and the rest will serve you. statutes, and this is obtained. These vices are eschewed by pondering your business well and distinctly concerning yourself, which is much furthered by uttering your thoughts, and letting them as well come forth to the light and judgment of your own outward senses, as to the censure of other men's ears; for that is the reason why many good scholars speak but fumblingly; like a rich man, that for want of particular note and difference, can bring you no certain ware readily out of his shop. Hence it is, that talkative shallow men do often content the hearers more than the wise. But this may find a speedier redress in writing, where all comes under the last examination of the eyes. First mind it well, then pen it, then examine it, then amend it, and you may be in the better hope of doing reasonably well. Under this virtue may come Plainness, which is not to be curious in the order as to answer a letter, as if you were to answer to interrogatories. As to the first, first; and to the second, secondly, &c. but both in method to use (as ladies do in their attire) a diligent kind of negligence, and their sportive freedom: though with some men you are not to jest, or practise tricks; yet the delivery of the most important things may be carried with such a grace, as that it may yield a pleasure to the conceit of the reader. There must be store, though no excess of terms; as if you are to name store, sometimes you may call it choice, sometimes plenty, sometimes copiousness, or variety; but ever so, that the word which comes in lieu, have not such difference of meaning, as that it may put the sense of the first in hazard to be mistaken. You are not to cast a ring for the perfumed terms of the time, as accommodation, complement, spirit, &c., but use them properly in their place, as others. 3. Vigor. There followeth Life and

That is the state word, the phrase of court (Placentia College) which some call Parasites Place, the Inn of Ignorance.

D. Hieronymus.-Whilst I name no persons, but deride follies, why should any man confess or betray himself? why doth not that of S. Hierome come into their mind, Ubi generalis est de vitiis disputatio, ibi nullius esse persona injuriam? Is it such an inexpiable crime in poets, to tax vices generally, and no offence in them, who, by their exception, confess they have committed them particularly? Are we fallen into those times that we must

not

Auriculas teneras mordaci rodere vero ?❤

Remedii votum semper verius erat, quam spes.t-Sexus fœmin.-If men may but when it offends not; why do physiby no means write freely, or speak truth, cians cure with sharp medicines or corrosives? Is not the same equally lawful in the cure of the mind, that is in the cure of

• Per. Sat. L

t Livius

the body? Some vices, you will say, are so foul, that it is better they should be done than spoken. But they that take offence where no name, character, or signature doth blazon them, seem to me like affected as women, who if they hear any thing ill spoken of the ill of their sex, are presently moved, as if the contumely respected their particular and on the contrary, when they hear good of good women, conclude that it belongs to them all. If I see any thing

Pauper videri Cinna vult, et est pauper.

Horatius.-Lucretius. So were Horace's odes called Carmina, his lyric songs. And Lucretius designs a whole book in his sixth :

Quod in primo quoque carmine claret.

Epicum.-Dramaticum. —Lyricum. Elegiacum. - Epigrammat. And anciently all the Oracles were called Carmina; or whatever sentence was expressed, were it much or little, it was called an Epic, Dramatic, Lyric, Elegiac, or Epigrammatic poem.

that toucheth me, shall I come forth a betrayer of myself presently? No, if I be wise, I'll dissemble it; if honest, I'll avoid it, lest I publish that on my own forehead which I saw there noted without a title. A man that is on the mending hand will either ingenuously confess or wisely dissemble his disease. And the wise and virtuous will never think any thing belongs to themselves that is written, but rejoice that the good are warned not to be such; and the ill to leave to be such. The person offended hath no reason to be offended with the writer, but with himself; and so to declare that properly to belong to him, which was so spoken of all men, as it could be no man's several, but his that would Poesis.-Artium regina.-Poet. differenwilfully and desperately claim it. It suf- tiæ.-Grammatic. -Logic.-Rhetoric. ficeth I know what kind of persons I dis- Ethica.-A poem, as I have told you, is please, men bred in the declining and the work of the poet; the end and fruit decay of virtue, betrothed to their own his labour and study. Poesy is his skill or vices; that have abandoned or prostituted craft of making; the very fiction itself, their good names; hungry and ambitious reason or form of the work. And these of infamy, invested in all deformity, en-three voices differ, as the thing done, the thralled to ignorance and malice, of à hidden and concealed malignity, and that hold a concomitancy with all evil.

What is a Poet?

Poeta. A poet is that which by the Greeks is called κατ' εξοχην, ὁ Ποιητης, a maker, or a feigner: his art, an art of imitation or feigning; expressing the life of man in fit measure, numbers, and harmony, according to Aristotle; from the word Tole, which signifies to make, or feign. Hence he is called a poet, not he which writeth in measure only, but that feigneth and formeth a fable, and writes things like the truth. For the fable and fiction is, as it were, the form and soul of any poetical work or poem.

What mean you by a Poem? Poema.-A poem is not alone any work, or composition of the poet's in many or few verses; but even one alone verse sometimes makes a perfect poem. As when

But how differs a Poem from what we call Poesy?

1

the

doing, and the doer; the thing feigned, the feigning, and the feigner; so the poem, the poesy, and the poet. Now the poesy is the habit, or the art; nay, rather the queen of arts, which had her original from heaven, received thence from the Hebrews, and had in prime estimation with the Greeks, transmitted to the Latins and all nations that professed civility. The study of it (if we will trust Aristotle) offers to mankind a certain rule and pattern of living well and happily, disposing us to all civil offices of society. If we will believe Tully, it nourisheth and instructeth our youth, delights our age, adorns our prosperity, comforts our adversity, entertains us at home, keeps us company abroad, travails with us, watches, divides the times of our earnest and sports, shares in our country recesses and recreations; insomuch as the wisest and best learned have thought

* Virg. Æn. lib. 3.
† Martial, lib. 8. epig. 19.

her the absolute mistress of manners, and nearest of kin to virtue. And whereas they entitle philosophy to be a rigid and austere poesy; they have, on the contrary, styled poesy a dulcet and gentle philosophy, which leads on and guides us by the hand to action, with a ravishing delight | and incredible sweetness. But before we handle the kinds of poems, with their special differences; or make court to the art itself, as a mistress, I would lead you to the knowledge of our poet, by a perfect information what he is or should be by nature, by exercise, by imitation, by study, and, so bring him down through the disciplines of grammar, logic, rhetoric, and the ethics, adding somewhat out of all, peculiar to himself, and worthy of your admittance or reception.

nature in our poet, we require exercise of those parts, and frequent.

Alces

2. Exercitatio. Virgil.Scaliger.Valer. Maximus.- Euripides. tis.-If his wit will not arrive suddenly at the dignity of the ancients, let him not yet fall out with it, quarrel or be over-hastily angry; offer to turn it away from study in a humour; but come to it again upon better cogitation; try another time with labour. If then it succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk; but bring all to the forge and file again; torn it anew. These is no statute law of the kingdom bids you be a poet against your will, or the first quarter; if it come in a year or two, it is well. The common rhymers pour forth verses, such as they are, ex tempore; but there never comes from them one sense

1. Ingenium.-Seneca.-Plato. -Aris-worth the life of a day. A rhymer and a totle. Helicon.-Pegasus.-Parnassus.Ovid. First, we require in our poet or maker (for that title our language affords him elegantly with the Greek) a goodness of natural wit. For whereas all other arts consist of doctrine and precepts, the poet must be able by nature and instinct to pour out the treasure of his mind; and as Seneca saith, Aliquando secundum Anacreontem insanire jucundum esse; by which he understands the poetical rapture. And according to that of Plato, Frustrà poeticas fores sui compos pulsavit. And of Aristotle, Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixturâ dementia fuit. Nec potest grande aliquid, et supra cæteros loqui, nisi mota mens. Then it riseth higher, as by a divine instinct, when it contemns common and known conceptions. It utters somewhat above a mortal mouth. Then it gets aloft, and flies away with his rider, whither before it was doubtful to ascend. This the poets understood by their Helicon, Pegasus, or Parnassus; and this made Ovid to boast:

poet are two things. It is said of the in-
comparable Virgil, that he brought forth
his verses like a bear, and after formed.
them with licking. Scaliger the father
writes it of him, that he made a quantity of
verses in the morning, which afore night
he reduced to a less number. But that
which Valerius Maximus hath left recorded
of Euripides the tragic poet his answer to
Alcestis, another poet, is as memorable as
modest: who, when it was told to Alcestis,
that Euripides had in three days brought
forth but three verses, and those with some
difficulty and throes; Alcestis, glorying he
could with ease have sent forth an hundred
in the space; Euripides roundly replied,
Like enough; but here is the difference,
thy verses will not last those three days,
mine will to all time. Which was [as much]
as to tell him he could not write a verse.
I have met many of these rattles, that
made a noise and buzzed. They had
their hum,,and no more. Indeed, things
wrote with labour deserve to be so read,
and will last their age.

Est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo : 3. Imitatio. Horatius.-Virgil.-Sta-
Sedibus æthereis spiritus ille venit.

tius.-Homer.-Horat.-Archil.-Alcæus, &c. The third requisite in our poet, or Lipsius.-Petron. in Fragm.—And Lip-maker, is imitation, to be able to convert sius to affirm: Scio, poetam neminem præstantem fuisse, sine parte quadam uberiore divinæ auræ. And hence it is that the coming up of good poets (for I mind not mediocres or imos) is so thin and rare among us. Every beggarly corporation affords the state a mayor, or two bailiffs yearly; but Solus rex, aut poeta, non quotannis nascitur. To this perfection of

the substance or riches of another poet to his own use. To make choice of one excellent man above the rest, and so to follow him till he grow very he, or so like him, as the copy may be mistaken for the principal. Not as a creature that swallows what it takes in crude, raw, or indigested; but that feeds with an appetite, and hath a stomach to concoct, divide, and turn all into nourish

ment. Not to imitate servilely, as Horace saith, and catch at vices for virtue; but to draw forth out of the best and choicest flowers, with the bee, and turn all into honey, work it into one relish and savour: make our imitation sweet; observe how the best writers have imitated, and follow them. How Virgil and Statius have imitated Homer; how Horace, Archilochus; how Alcæus, and the other lyrics; and so of the rest.

and what we ought to imitate specially in ourselves. But all this in vain, without a natural wit, and a poetical nature in chief. For no man, so soon as he knows this, or reads it, shall be able to write the better; but as he is adapted to it by nature, he shall grow the perfecter writer. He must have civil prudence and eloquence, and that whole; not taken up by snatches or pieces, in sentences or remnants, when he will handle business, or carry counsels, as if he came

Virorum schola respub.-Lysippus. Apelles.-Nævius.-The poet is the nearest borderer upon the orator, and expresseth all his virtues, though he be tied more to numbers, is his equal in ornament, and above him in his strengths. And (of the kind) the comic comes nearest; because in moving the minds of men, and stirring of affections (in which oratory shews, and especially approves her eminence) he chiefly excels. What figure of a body was Ly-. sippus ever able to form with his graver, or Apelles to paint with his pencil, as the comedy to life expresseth so many and various affections of the mind? There shall the spectator see some insulting with joy, others fretting with melancholy, raging with anger, mad with love, boiling with avarice, undone with riot, tortured with expectation, consumed with fear: no perturbation in common life but the orator finds an example of it in the Scene. And then for the elegancy of language, read but this inscription on the grave of a comic poet :

4. Lectio.-Parnassus.-Helicon.-Ars then out of the declaimer's gallery, or shadow coron.-M. T. Cicero.-Simylus. Stob. furnished but out of the body of the state, -Horat.-Aristot.-But that which we which commonly is the school of men. especially require in him, is an exactness of study, and multiplicity of reading, which maketh a full man, not alone enabling him to know the history or argument of a poem, and to report it; but so to master the matter and style, as to shew he knows how to handle, place, or dispose of either with elegancy, when need shall be. And not think he can leap forth suddenly a poet, by dreaming he hath been in Parnassus, or having washed his lips, as they say, in Helicon. There goes more to his making than so: for to nature, exercise, imitation, and study, art must be added, to make all these perfect. And though these challenge to themselves much, in the making up of our maker, it is art only can lead him to perfection, and leave him there in possession, as planted by her hand. It is the assertion of Tully, if to an excellent nature, there happen an accession or confirmation of learning and discipline, there will then remain somewhat noble and singular. For, as Simylus saith in Stobæus, Ουτε φυσις ικανη γινεται τεχνης ατερ, ούτε παν τεχνη μη φυσιν κεκτημένη: with out art, nature can never be perfect; and without nature, art can claim no being. But our poet must beware, that his study be not only to learn of himself; for he Obliti sunt Romæ linguâ loqui Latinâ. that shall affect to do that, confesseth his ever having a fool to his master. He must-Or that modester testimony given by L. Ælius Stilo.-Plautus.-M. Varro. read many, but ever the best and choicest: Lucius Ælius Stilo upon Plautus, who those that can teach him anything, he must ever account his masters, and reve-Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas. And affirmed, Musas, si latinè loqui voluissent, rence: among whom Horace, and (he that that illustrious judgment by the most taught him) Aristotle, deserved to be the first in estimation. Aristotle was the first learned M. Varro of him, who pronounced accurate critic, and truest judge; nay, the him the prince of letters and elegancy in greatest philosopher the world ever had: for he noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures; and out of many men's perfections in a science, he formed still one art. So he taught us two offices together, how we ought to judge rightly of others,

Immortales mortales si fas esset flere,
Flerent diva Camana Nævium Poetam;
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus the-

sauro,

the Roman language.

Sophocles.-I am not of that opinion to conclude a poet's liberty within the narrow limits of laws which either the grammarians or philosophers prescribe. For before they found out those laws, there