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Show •^ " JMlToiNJ. In imitation of this place, our admirable Cowley thus paints Goliah. The Valley, now, this Monfter feem'd to fill; And we, methought, look'd up to him from our Hill. Where tie two Words, Seem'd and Methought, have Mollified the Figure; and yet if they bad not been there, tbe fright cf the Ifraelites might have excufed their bdief of ihe Giant s Stature. In the eighth of tbe yEneids, Virgil paints the Swiftnefes of Camilla thus: Ilia vd inta&a: fegetis per fumma volaret Gramina, ncc teneras curfu liefifl'et ariftas: Vel Mare per medium, fluftu fufpenfa tumenti, Ferret iter, celere nee tingeret arquore plantas. Tou are not oblig'd, as in Hijlory, to a literal Belief of what the Poet fays: but yon are pleas'd with the Image, without being cuuztn'd by the Fiction. Tu even in Hiftory, Longinus quotes Herodotus on this occafion of Hyperboles The Lacedemonians, fays he, at the Straits of Thermopylae, defended themfelves to tbe laft Extremity; and when their Arms faiPd them, fought it out With their Nails and Teeth ; till at length (tbe Pcrfians fhooting continually upon them) they lay buried under tbe Arrows of their Enemies. It is not reafonable, (continues the Critick) to believe that Men could defend themfelves with their Nails and Teeth from an armed Multitude; nor that they lay buried under a Pile of Darts and Arrows: And yet there wants not probability for the Figure; becaufe the Hypeibole feems not to have been made for tbe fake of the Defcription, but rather to have been produced from the occafion. Tis true, the boldnefs of the Figures are to be hidden fometimes by the addrefs of the Pcet, that they may work their EffVcl upon the Mind, without difeovenig the Art which caus'd it. And therefore they are principally to be us'd in Puffion; when we fpeak more warmly, and with more precipitation than at other times: For then, S'\ vis m e Here, dolendum eft primum ipfi tibi ; tbe Poet muft put on the Paffion he endeavours t» reprefent. A Man in fetch an occafficn u not cool enough, either to reafon rightly, OrHto talk calmly. Aggravations art then inf their proper Places; Interrogations, Exclamations, Hyperbata, or a diforder'd connexion of Difcourfe, are graceful there, becaufe they are Natural. The fum of all depends on v hat before I hinted, That this Boldnefs of Expr,fion is not to be blam'd, if it be manag'd by the Coolnefs and Difcrttion which is necejfary to a Poet. Tet before I leave this Subject, I cannot but take notice how dlfengenuous cur Adverfaries ap. pear: All that is dull, tnfipid, languiflsing, and without Sinews in a Poem, they call an Imitation of Nature: They only offend our moft equitable Judges, who think beyond them ; and lively Inta. ges and Elocution are never to be forgiven. What Fuftian, as they call it, have I heard thefe Gentlemen find out in Mr. Cowley'/ Odts f I acknowledge my felf unworthy to defend fo excellent an Author : Neither have I room to do it here; only in general I will fay, That nothing can appear wore beautiful to me, than tbe Strength cf thofe Images which they condemn. Imaging is, in it felf, the very height and life of Poetry. 'Tis, as Longinus defenbes it, a Difcourfe, which by a kind of Enthufiafm, or extraordinary Emotion of tbe Soul, makes it fetm to us^ that we behold thofe things which tbe Poet paints, fo as to be pleas'd with 'em and to admire em. * If Poetry be Imitation that part of it muft needs be beft, which deferibes moft lively our Aclwns and Paffions, our Virtues and our Vices, our Follies and our Humours; for neitheru Comedy without its part of Imaging; and they who do it beft, are certainly the moft excellent in their hnd This is too plainly prov'd to ie denied. But bow are Poetical Fsitions, bow a*e Hip. f centaurs and Chimera's, or how are Angels and Immaterial Subftances to bt msered • whici Nam certe ex vivo, Ceutauri non fit Imago, Nulla fu,t quomam talis natura animal: Nigh* bream^ Benfj^to i_5ofVrch^V^', ^Peft- 4» Midfummer fif„ «/_- Amth,nfl,' tn Z"r J""' ^f,"V' ft *""'" "" T«< «™-*<«« ft < ** .W „ by _**_, lltm u, „htr t^ziTd, ?&m* **- I wifh TheTRETACET ^M2s^7Sts^<___:^*-*™*. M . ? 5$>? I have htard Seraph a n d Cherub carelefs of their Charge A n d wanton, in full eafe n o w live atbrfe Ungarded leave the PafTes of the Skv A n d all diffolv'd in Hallelujah's He. % > r*r.~ -,""•"T * cannot. IWctently canvas d by my a __*, an,, . C„«. «, _*_, bJhrltffA ^j^fe^*-. Invadunt Urbem, fomno vlnoq; repultatn Where their vaft Courts the Mother Waters keep, &c. For if the Mafs of Waters be the Mothers, then their Daughters the littU ff* 1 , vi all good manners to make Curtfee to them, and ask them BMn\ J r ?""' " ' W ridicule the beft Defections, wbei once a Man is ifthlbZo^JiZ _tf twZtT"_T own dull Jeft! But animate which is fironAy and beautiful!, fL TP\ I wb«™ "hit « f A l l Poetry when the "merry Fit is LfaZiftZ^ * * R ^ , I promts d to fay fomewhat ./Poetick Licence, but have in part anticipated my Difcourfe alread Poetick Licence, I take to be the Liberty which Poets haveaffum^d 0 themelveIndA est fpeaimg things in Verfe, which are beyond the Severity of Profe. 'Tis that ZtLuLlrV? j. ^ M diftingutfees and fets the bounds betwixt OtlJ faluta J v ^ ^ ^ k i regards the Thought, or Imagination of a Poet, confifts m Fidion; but then lofe TholgZ mufle exprefs'd; and here anfe two other branches of it: For if this Licence be included ,n a^UWord % i T °fJ PV h m \Sm'7 cr r/r r°Pf^ °f **»« '• ^th which, are ef a much larfer Extent, and more forcibly to be us'd m Verfe than Profe. This is that Birth-ri*bt which is dtriv'd to us from our great Forefathers, even from Homer down to Ben. And they who would deny it to us, have, in plain ttrms, the Foxes Quarrel to tbe Grapes, they cannot reach it. How far thefe Liberties are to be extended, I will not prefume to determine here, fince Horace does not. But it is certain, that they are to be varied according to the Language and Age in which an Author writes. That which would be allow'd to a Grecian Poet, Martial tells you, would not be fuffer'd in a Roman. And 'tis evident, that the Englifh docs more nearly follow ibeflnffnefs ofthe latter, than the freedoms of tbe former. Connexion of Epithetes, or the conjunction of two Words m one, are frequent and elegant in the Greek ; which yet Sir Philip Sydney, and iheTranftator of D u Bartas, have unluckily attempted in the Englifh; tho this, I confefs, is not fo proper an Inftance of Poetick Licence, as it u of variety of Idiom in Languages. Horace a little explains himfelf on thisfeubjell of Licentia Poetica in thefe Verfes-. Picftoribus arque Poetis Quidlibet audendi temper fuit aequa poteftas: Sed non, ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut Serpentes Avibus geminentur, Tygribus Hoedl He would have 0 Poem of a Piece ; not to begin one thing, and end with another : He reftrains it fo far, that Thoughts tf an unlike Nature ought not tt be joyn'd together. That were indeed to make a Choas. He tax'd not Homer, nor the Divine Virgil, for intereffing their Gods in the Wars of Troy and Italy: Neither, had he now liv'd, would be have tax'd Milton, as cur falfe Criticks have prefum'd to do, for bis Choice of a fupernatural Argument; but he would have blam'd any Author, ivho was a Crifiian, bad he introdue'd into bis Poems Heathen Deities, as Taffo a condemn'd by Rapin on the like oocafeon : And at Camoens, tbe Author of the Lufiads ought to be cenfur'd by all his Readers, when he brings in Bacchus and Chrift into the fame Adventure of bis Fable. From that which has been faid, it may be colleded, that the Definition of Wit (which has beenfo fttn attempted, (and ever unfuccefefully, by many Potts) is only this, That it is a Propriety of Thoughts and Words; or in other Terms, Thoughts and Words elegantly adapted to the Subject. If our Crtttch will joyn iffue on this Definition, that we may convenire in aliqo tertio ; if they will take it as a granted Principle, 'twill be eafie to put an end to the Difpute. No Man will difagree from another t Judgment, concerning this Dignity of Style, in Heroick Poetry ; but all reafonable Men Witt conclude it neceffary, That feublmefe Subyetl s ought to beadorn'd with thejublimeft, and (confequently fen) with tbe moft figurative Expreffions. In the mean time, I will not run into their faults of impofmg my Opinions on other Men, any more than I would my Writings on their Tafte: I have only laid'down and that feuperficially enough, my prefent Thoughts ; and jhall be glad to be taughtbetter, by thofeewU pretend to reform our Poetry. G s 8 B THE |