--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.
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.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
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without 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 that shall affect to do that confesseth his ever
having a fool to his master. He must read many, but ever the best and
choicest; those that can teach him anything he must ever account his
masters, and reverence. Among whom Horace and (he that taught him)
Aristotle deserved to be the first in estimation. Aristotle was the
first accurate critic and truest judge--nay, the 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, 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 then out of the
declaimer's gallery, or shadow furnished but out of the body of the
State, which commonly is the school of men.
_Virorum schola respub_. --_Lysippus_. --_Apelles_. --_Naevius_.
--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
shows, and especially approves her eminence), he chiefly excels. What
figure of a body was Lysippus 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:
"Immortales mortales si fas esset fiere,
Flerent divae Camoenae Naevium poetam;
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro,
Obliti sunt Romae lingua loqui Latina. " {146a}
_L. AElius Stilo_. --_Plautus_. --_M. Varro_. --Or that modester testimony given
by Lucius AElius Stilo upon Plautus, who affirmed, "_Musas_, _si Latine
loqui voluissent_, _Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas_. " And that
illustrious judgment by the most learned M. Varro of him, who pronounced
him the prince of letters and elegancy in 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 were many
excellent poets that fulfilled them, amongst whom none more perfect than
Sophocles, who lived a little before Aristotle.
without 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 that shall affect to do that confesseth his ever
having a fool to his master. He must read many, but ever the best and
choicest; those that can teach him anything he must ever account his
masters, and reverence. Among whom Horace and (he that taught him)
Aristotle deserved to be the first in estimation. Aristotle was the
first accurate critic and truest judge--nay, the 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, 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 then out of the
declaimer's gallery, or shadow furnished but out of the body of the
State, which commonly is the school of men.
_Virorum schola respub_. --_Lysippus_. --_Apelles_. --_Naevius_.
--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
shows, and especially approves her eminence), he chiefly excels. What
figure of a body was Lysippus 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:
"Immortales mortales si fas esset fiere,
Flerent divae Camoenae Naevium poetam;
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro,
Obliti sunt Romae lingua loqui Latina. " {146a}
_L. AElius Stilo_. --_Plautus_. --_M. Varro_. --Or that modester testimony given
by Lucius AElius Stilo upon Plautus, who affirmed, "_Musas_, _si Latine
loqui voluissent_, _Plautino sermone fuisse loquuturas_. " And that
illustrious judgment by the most learned M. Varro of him, who pronounced
him the prince of letters and elegancy in 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 were many
excellent poets that fulfilled them, amongst whom none more perfect than
Sophocles, who lived a little before Aristotle.
