Defence of Poesie (38-40)

No perchance it is the Comick, whom naughtie Play-makers and stage-keepers, haue iustly made odious. To the arguments of abuse, I will after answer, onely thus much now is to be said, that the Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth in the most ridiculous & scornfull sort that may be: so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one. Now as in Geometrie, the oblique must be knowne as well as the right, and in Arithmetick, the odde as well as the euen, so in the actions of our life, who seeth not the filthinesse of euill, wanteth a great foile to perceiue the bewtie of vertue. This doth the Comædie handle so in our priuate and domesticall matters, as with hearing it, wee get as it were an experience what is to be looked for of a niggardly Demea, of a craftie Dauus, of a flattering Gnato, of a vain-glorious Thrasa: and not onely to know what effects are to be expected, but to know who be such, by the signifying badge giuen them by the Comædient. And litle reason hath any man to say, that men learne the euill by seeing it so set out, since as I said before, there is no man liuing, but by the force truth hath in nature, no sooner seeth these men play their parts, but wisheth them in Pistrinum, although perchance the sack of his owne faults lie so behinde his backe, that he seeth not himselfe to dance the same measure: wherto yet nothing can more open his eies, then to see his owne actions contemptibly set forth. So that the right vse of Comædie , will I thinke, by no bodie be blamed; and much lesse of the high and excellent Tragedie, that openeth the greatest woundes, and sheweth forth the Vlcers that are couered with Tissue, that maketh Kings feare to be Tyrants, and Tyrants manifest their tyrannicall humours, that with sturring the affects of Admiration and Comiseration, teacheth the vncertaintie of this world, and vppon how weak foundations guilden roofes are builded: that maketh vs know, Qui scæptra sæuus duro imperio regit, Timet timentes, metus in authorem redit.

But how much it can moue, Plutarch yeeldeth a notable testimonie of the abhominable Tyrant Alexander Pheræus, from whose eyes a Tragedie well made and represented, drew abundance of teares, who without all pittie had murthered infinite numbers, and some of his owne bloud: so as he that was not ashamed to make matters for Tragedies , yet could not resist the sweete violence of a Tragedie. And if it wrought no further good in him, it was, that he in despight of himself, withdrew himselfe from hearkening to that which might mollifie his hardened heart. But it is not the Tragedie they do mislike, for it were too absurd to cast our so excellent a representation of whatsoeuer is most woorthie to be learned.

Is it the Lyricke that moste displeaseth, who with his tuned Lyre and well accorded voice, giueth praise, the reward of vertue, to vertuous acts ? who giueth morall preceptes and naturall Problemes, who sometime raiseth vp his voyce to the height of the heauens, in singing the laudes of the immortall God ? Certainly I must confesse mine owne barbarousnesse, I neuer heard the old Song of Percy and Duglas, that I founde not my heart mooued more then with a Trumpet ; and yet is it sung but by some blinde Crowder, with no rougher voyce, then rude stile: which being so euill apparelled in the dust and Cobwebbes of that vnciuill age, what would it worke, trimmed in the gorgious eloquence of Pindare? In Hungarie I haue seene it the manner at all Feastes and other such like meetings, to haue songs of their ancestors valure, which that right souldierlike nation, think one of the chiefest kindlers of braue courage. The incomperable Lacedemonians, did not onelie carrie that kinde of Musicke euer with them to the field, but euen at home, as such songs were made, so were they all content to be singers of them: when the lustie men were to tell what they did, the old men what they had done, and the yoong what they would doo. And where a man may say that Pindare many times praiseth highly Victories of small moment, rather matters of sport then vertue, as it may be answered, it was the fault of thePoet , and not of the Poetrie; so indeed the chiefe fault was, in the time and custome of the Greekes, who set those toyes at so high a price, that Phillip of Macedon reckoned a horse-race wonne at Olympus, among his three fearefull felicities. But as the vnimitable Pindare often did, so is that kind most capable and most fit, to awake the thoughts from the sleepe of idlenesse, to embrace honourable enterprises.