author:William Davenant

“ There are some that are not pleased with fiction, unless it be bold; not onely to exceed the work, but also the possibility of Nature: they would have impenetrable Armours, Inchanted Castles, Invulnerable Bodies, Iron Men, Flying Horses, and a thousand other such things, which are easily feigned by them that dare. Against such I defend you (without assenting to those that condemn either Homer or Virgil) by dissenting onely from those that think the Beauty of a Poem consisteth in the exorbitancy of the fiction. ”

“ For as truth is the bound of Historical, so the Resemblance of truth is the utmost limit of Poetical Liberty. In old time amongst the Heathen such strange fictions, and Metamorphoses, were not so remote from the Articles of their Faith, as they are now from ours, and therefore were not so unpleasant. Beyond the actual works of Nature a Poet may now go; but beyond the conceived possibility of Nature, never. ”

“ For it is supposed a Muse, when she is invoked to sing a song of that nature, should maidenly advise the Poet, to set such persons to sing their own vices upon the Stage; for it is not so unseemly in a Tragedy. Of the same kind it is to represent scurrility, or any action or language that moveth much laughter. The delight of an Epique Poem consisteth not in mirth, but admiration. ”

“ For the phrases of Poesie, as the airs of musick with often hearing become insipide, the Reader having no more sense of their force, than our Flesh is sensible of the bones that sustain it. As the sense we have of bodies, consisteth in change and variety of impression, so also does the sense of language in the variety and changeable use of words. ”

“ But because I have observed in Virgil, that the Honour done to Æneas and his companions, has so bright a reflection upon Augustus Cæsar, and other great Romans of that time, as a man may suspect him not constantly possessed with the noble spirit of those his Heroes, and believe you are not acquainted with any great man of the race of Gondibert, I adde to your Justification the puritie of your purpose, in having no other motive of your labour, but to adorn Virtue, and procure her Lovers; than which there cannot be a worthier design, and more becoming noble Poesie. ”

“ But when I considered that also the actions of men, which singly are inconsiderable, after many conjunctures, grow at last either into one great protecting power, or into destroying factions, I could not but approve the structure of your Poem, which ought to be no other than such, as an imitation of humane life requireth. ”

“ That which giveth a Poem the true and natural Colour consisteth in two things, which are; To know well, that is, to have images of Nature in the memory distinct and clear; and To know much. A sign of the first is perspicuity, property, and decency, which delight all sorts of men, either by instructing the ignorant, or soothing the learned in their knowledge. A sign of the latter is novelty of expression, and pleaseth by excitation of the mind; for novelty causeth admiration, and admiration curiosity, which is a delightfull appetite of knowledge. ”

“ Whereby the Fancie, when any work of Art is to be performed, finding her materials at hand and prepared for use, and needs no more than a swift motion over them, that what she wants, and is there to be had, may not lie too long unespied. So that when she seemeth to fly from one Indies to the other, and from Heaven to Earth, and to penetrate into the hardest matter, and obscurest places, into the future, and into her self, and all this in a point of time, the voyage is not very great, her self being all she seeks ”

“ Great persons that have their minds employed on great designs, have not leasure enough to laugh, and are pleased with the contemplation of their own power and virtues, so as they need not the infirmities and vices of other men, to recommend themselves to their own favour by comparison, as all men do when they laugh. Of the second kind, where the disproportion is between the Poet, and the persons of his Poem, one is in the Dialect of the Inferiour sort of people, which is always different from the language of the Court. ”

“ In that you make so small account of the example of almost all the approved Poets, ancient and modern, who thought fit in the beginning, and sometimes also in the progress of their Poems, to invoke a Muse, or some other Deitie, that should dictate to them, or assist them in their writings; they that take not the laws of Art, from any reason of their own, but from the fashion of precedent times, will perhaps accuse your singularitie, For my part, I neither subscribe to their accusation, nor yet condemn that Heathen custom, otherwise than as accessarie to their false Religion. ”

“ For they that wanting the curiosity of furnishing their memories with the rarities of Nature in their youth, and pass their time in making provision onely for their ease, and sensual delight, are children still, at what years soever; as they that coming into a populous Citie, never going out of their Inn, are strangers still, how long soever they have been there. Thirdly, there is no reason for any man to think himself wiser to day than yesterday, which does not equally convince he shall be wiser tomorrow than today. ”

“ As the description of Great Men and Great Actions, is the constant design of a Poet; so the descriptions of worthy circumstances are necessary accessions to a Poem, and being well performed, are the Jewels and most precious ornaments of Poesie. ”

“ But the subject of a Poem, is the manners of men, not natural causes; manners presented, not dictated; and manners feigned (as the name of Poesie imports) not found in men. They that give enterance to Fictions writ in Prose, erre not so much, but they erre: For Prose requiteth delightfulness, not onely of fiction, but of stile; in which if Prose contend with Verse, it is with disadvantage and (as it were) on foot against the strength and wings of Pegasus. ”

“ The former obliges me to say something (by the way) of the Nature and Differences of Poesie.
As Philosophers have divided the Universe (their subject) into three Regions, Celestial, Aërial, and Terrestrial; so the Poets, (whose work it is by imitating humane life, in delightfull and measur'd lines, to avert men from vice, and incline them to virtuous and honourable actions) haue lodg'd themselves in the three Regions of mankind, Court, Citie, and Countrey, correspondent in some proportion, to those three Regions of the World. ”

“ Besides, in the use of the spiritual calling of Divines, there is danger sometimes to be feared, from want of skill, such as is reported of unskilfull Conjurers, that mistaking the rites and ceremonious points of their art, call up such spirits, as they cannot at their pleasure allay again, by whom storms are raised that overthrow buildings, and are the cause of miserable wracks at Sea. Unskilfull Divines do oftentimes the like ”

“ In such a style as Courts may boast of now.
Which no bold tales of Gods or Monsters swell,
But humane Passions, such as with us dwell.
Man is thy theam, his Virtue or his Rage
Drawn to the life in each elaborate Page. ”

“ Another is to derive the Illustration of any thing, from such Metaphors or Comparisons as cannot come into mens thoughts, but by mean conversation, and experience of humble or evil Arts, which the person of an Epique Poem, cannot be thought acquainted with. ”

“ There remains now no more to be considered but the Expression, in which consisteth the countenance and colour of a beautifull Muse; and is given her by the Poet out of his own provision, or is borrowed from others. ”

“ But so far forth as the Fancie of man, has traced the ways of true Philosophie, so far it hath produced very marvellous effects to the benefit of mankind. All that is beautifull or defensible in building, or marvellous in Engines and Instruments of motion; whatsoever commoditie men receive from the observations of the Heavens, from the description of the Earth, from the account of Time, from walking on the Seas ”

“ With shame me thinks great Italie must see
Her Conqu'rors call'd to life again by thee;
Call'd by such powerfull Arts, that ancient Rome
May blush •o less to see her Wit orecome.
Some men their Fancies like their Faiths derive ”