Every beggarly
corporation affords the State a mayor or two bailiffs yearly; but _Solus
rex_, _aut poeta_, _non quotannis nascitur_.
corporation affords the State a mayor or two bailiffs yearly; but _Solus
rex_, _aut poeta_, _non quotannis nascitur_.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
--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, _Frustra poeticas fores sui
compos pulsavit_. And of Aristotle, _Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura
dementiae fuit_. _Nec potest grande aliquid_, _et supra caeteros 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,
"Est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo
Sedibus aethereis spiritus ille venit. " {139a}
_Lipsius_. --_Petron. in. Fragm_. --And Lipsius to affirm, _Scio_, _poetam
neminem praestantem fuisse_, _sine parte quadam uberiore divinae aurae_.
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
nature in our poet we require exercise of those parts, and frequent.
2. _Exercitatio_. --_Virgil_. --_Scaliger_. --_Valer.
Maximus_. --_Euripides_. --_Alcestis_. --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. There is no statute law of the kingdom
bids you be a poet against your will or the first quarter; if it comes 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 worth
the life of a day. A rhymer and a poet are two things. It is said of
the incomparable Virgil that he brought forth his verses like a bear, and
after formed them with licking.
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, _Frustra poeticas fores sui
compos pulsavit_. And of Aristotle, _Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura
dementiae fuit_. _Nec potest grande aliquid_, _et supra caeteros 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,
"Est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo
Sedibus aethereis spiritus ille venit. " {139a}
_Lipsius_. --_Petron. in. Fragm_. --And Lipsius to affirm, _Scio_, _poetam
neminem praestantem fuisse_, _sine parte quadam uberiore divinae aurae_.
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
nature in our poet we require exercise of those parts, and frequent.
2. _Exercitatio_. --_Virgil_. --_Scaliger_. --_Valer.
Maximus_. --_Euripides_. --_Alcestis_. --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. There is no statute law of the kingdom
bids you be a poet against your will or the first quarter; if it comes 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 worth
the life of a day. A rhymer and a poet are two things. It is said of
the incomparable Virgil that he brought forth his verses like a bear, and
after formed them with licking.
