There rests the heroical,{56}whose very name,I think,should daunt all backbiters.For by what conceit can a tongue be directed to speak evil of that which draweth with him no less champions than Achilles,Cyrus,AEneas,Turus,Tydeus,Rinaldo?who doth not only teach and move to truth,but teacheth and moveth to the most high and excellent truth:who maketh magnanimity and justice shine through all misty fearfulness and foggy desires?who,if the saying of Plato and Tully be true,that who could see virtue,would be wonderfully ravished with the love of her beauty;this man setteth her out to make her more lovely,in her holiday apparel,to the eye of any that will deign not to disdain until they understand.But if any thing be already said in the defence of sweet poetry,all concurreth to the maintaining the heroical,which is not only a kind,but the best and most accomplished kind,of poetry.For,as the image of each action stirreth and instructeth the mind,so the lofty image of such worthies most inflameth the mind with desire to be worthy,and informs with counsel how to be worthy.Only let AEneas be worn in the tablet of your memory,how he governeth himself in the ruin of his country;in the preserving his old father,and carrying away his religious ceremonies;in obeying God's commandments,to leave Dido,though not only passionate kindness,but even the human consideration of virtuous gratefulness,would have craved other of him;how in storms,how in sports,how in war,how in peace,how a fugitive,how victorious,how besieged,how besieging,how to strangers,how to allies,how to enemies;how to his own,lastly,how in his inward self,and how in his outward government;and I think,in a mind most prejudiced with a prejudicating humour,he will be found in excellency fruitful.Yea,as Horace saith,"Melius Chrysippo et Crantore:"{57}but,truly,Iimagine it falleth out with these poet-whippers as with some good women who often are sick,but in faith they cannot tell where.So the name of poetry is odious to them,but neither his cause nor effects,neither the sum that contains him,nor the particularities descending from him,give any fast handle to their carping dispraise.
Since,then,{58}poetry is of all human learnings the most ancient,and of most fatherly antiquity,as from whence other learnings have taken their beginnings;since it is so universal that no learned nation doth despise it,nor barbarous nation is without it;since both Roman and Greek gave such divine names unto it,the one of prophesying,the other of making,and that indeed that name of making is fit for him,considering,that where all other arts retain themselves within their subject,and receive,as it were,their being from it,the poet only,only bringeth his own stuff,and doth not learn a conceit out of a matter,but maketh matter for a conceit;since neither his deion nor end containeth any evil,the thing described cannot be evil;since his effects be so good as to teach goodness,and delight the learners of it;since therein (namely,in moral doctrine,the chief of all knowledges)he doth not only far pass the historian,but,for instructing,is well nigh comparable to the philosopher;for moving,leaveth him behind him;since the Holy Scripture (wherein there is no uncleanness)hath whole parts in it poetical,and that even our Saviour Christ vouchsafed to use the flowers of it;since all his kinds are not only in their united forms,but in their severed dissections fully commendable;I think,and think I think rightly,the laurel crown appointed for triumphant captains,doth worthily,of all other learnings,honour the poet's triumph.
But {59}because we have ears as well as tongues,and that the lightest reasons that may be,will seem to weigh greatly,if nothing be put in the counterbalance,let us hear,and,as well as we can,ponder what objections be made against this art,which may be worthy either of yielding or answering.
First,truly,I note,not only in these [Greek text],poet-haters,but in all that kind of people who seek a praise by dispraising others,that they do prodigally spend a great many wandering words in quips and scoffs,carping and taunting at each thing,which,by stirring the spleen,may stay the brain from a thorough beholding,the worthiness of the subject.Those kind of objections,as they are full of a very idle uneasiness (since there is nothing of so sacred a majesty,but that an itching tongue may rub itself upon it),so deserve they no other answer,but,instead of laughing at the jest,to laugh at the jester.We know a playing wit can praise the discretion of an ass,the comfortableness of being in debt,and the jolly commodities of being sick of the plague;so,of the contrary side,if we will turn Ovid's verse,"Ut lateat virtus proximitate mali.""That good lies hid in nearness of the evil,"Agrippa will be as merry in the showing the Vanity of Science,as Erasmus was in the commending of Folly;{60}neither shall any man or matter escape some touch of these smiling railers.But for Erasmus and Agrippa,they had another foundation than the superficial part would promise.
Marry,these other pleasant fault-finders,who will correct the verb before they understand the noun,and confute others'knowledge before they confirm their own;I would have them only remember,that scoffing cometh not of wisdom;so as the best title in true English they get with their merriments,is to be called good fools;for so have our grave forefathers ever termed that humorous kind of jesters.
