Poesie

Poesie is a part of Learning in measure of words for the most part restrained: but in all other points extreamely licensed: and doth truly referre to the Imagination: which beeing not tyed to the Lawes of Matter; may at pleasure joyne that which Nature hath severed: & sever that which Nature hath joyned, and so make unlawfull Matches & divorses of things: Pictoribus atque Poetis &c. It is taken in two senses in respect of Wordes or Matter; In the first sense it is but a Character of stile, and belongeth to Arts of speeche, and is not pertinent for the present. In the later, it is (as hath beene saide) one of the principalll Portions of learning: and is nothing else but Fained History, which may be stiled as well in Prose as in Verse.

The use of this Fained Historie, hath beene to give some shadowe of satisfaction to the minde of Man in those points, wherein the Nature of things doth denie it, the world being in proportion inferiour to the soule: by reason whereof there is agreeable to the spirit of Man, a more ample Greatnesse, a more exact Goodnesse; and a more absolute varietie then can bee found in the Nature of things. Therefore, because the Acts or Events of true Historie, have not that Magnitude, which satisfieth the minde of Man, Poesie saineth Acts and Events Greater and more Heroicall; because true Historie propoundeth the successes and issues of actions, not so agreable to the merits of Vertue and Vice, therefore Poesie faines them more just in Retribution, and more according to Revealed Providence, because true Historie representeth Actions and Events, more ordinarie and lesse interchanged, therefore Poesie endueth them with more Rarenesse, and more unexpected, and alternative Variations. So as it appeareth that Poesie serveth and conferreth to Magnanimitie, Moralitie, and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divinesse, because it doth raise and erect the Minde, by submitting the shewes of things to the desires of the Mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bowe the Mind unto the Nature of things. And we see that by these insinuations and congruities with mans Nature and pleasure, joyned also with the agreement and consort it hath with Musicke, it hath had accesse and estimation in rude times, and barbarous Regions, where other learning stoode excluded.

The division of Poesie which is aptest in the proprietie therof (besides those divisions which are common unto it with history: as fained Chronicles, fained lives, & the Appendices of History, as fained Epistles, fained Orations, and the rest) is into Poesie Narrative; Representative, and Allusive. The Narrative is a meere imitation of History with the excesses before remembred; Choosing for subject commonly Warrs, and Love; rarely State, and sometimes Pleasure or Mirth. Representative is as a visible History, and is an Image of Actions as if they were present, as History is of actions in nature as they are, ( that is) past; Allusive or Parabolicall, is a Narration applied onely to expresse some speciall purpose or conceit. Which later kind of Parabolical wisedome was much more in use in the ancient times, as by the Fables of Aesope, and the briefe sentences of the seven, and the use of Hieroglyphikes may appeare. And the cause was for that it was then of necessitie to expresse any point of reason, which was more sharpe or subtile then the vulgar in that maner, because men in those times wanted both varietie of examples, and subtiltie of conceit: And as Hierogliphikes were before Letters, so parables were before arguments: And neverthelesse now and at all times they doe retaine much life and vigor, because reason cannot bee so sensible, nor examples so fit.

But there remaineth yet another use of Poesy Parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned: for that tendeth to demonstrate, and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and this other to retire and obscure it: That is when the Secrets and Misteries of Religion, Pollicy, or Philosophy, are involved in Fables or Parables. Of this in divine Poesie, wee see the use is authorised. In Heathen Poesie, wee see the exposition of Fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicitie, as in the Fable that the Gyants beeing overthrowne in their warre against the Gods, the Earth their mother in revenge thereof brought forth Fame.

expounded that when Princes & Monarches have suppressed actuall and open Rebels, then the malignitie of people, ( which is the mother of Rebellion, doth bring forth Libels & slanders, and taxations of the states, which is of the same kind with Rebellion, but more Feminine: So in the Fable that the rest of the Gods having conspired to binde Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus with his hundreth hands to his aide, expounded, that Monarchies neede not feare any courbing of their absolutenesse by Mightie Subjects, as long as by wisedome they keepe the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side: So in the fable, that Achilles was brought up under Chyron the Centaure, who was part a man, & part a beast, expounded Ingenuously, but corruptly by Machiavell, that it belongeth to the education and discipline of Princes, to knowe as well how to play the part of the Lyon, in violence, and the Foxe in guile, as of the man in vertue & Justice. Neverthelesse in many the like incounters, I doe rather think that the fable was first, and the exposition devised, then that the Morall was first, & thereupon the fable framed. For I finde it was an auncient vanitie, in Chrisippus, that troubled himselfe with great contention to fasten the assertions of the Stoicks upon fictions of the ancient Poets: But yet that all the Fables and fictions of the Poets, were but pleasure and not figure, I interpose no opinion. Surely of those Poets which are now extant, even Homer himselfe, (notwithstanding he was made a kinde of Scripture, by the later Schooles of the Grecians) yet I should without any difficultie pronounce, that his Fables had no such inwardnesse in his owne meaning: But what they might have, upon a more originall tradition, is not easie to affirme, for he was not the inventor of many of them. In this third part of Learning which is Poesie, I can report no deficience. For being as a plant that commeth of the lust of the earth, without a formall seede, it hath sprung up, and spread abroad, more then any other kinde: But to ascribe unto it that which is due for the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions and customes, we are beholding to Poets, more then to the Philosophers workes, and for wit and eloquence not much lesse then to Orators harangues. But it is not good to stay too long in the Theater: let us now passe on to the judicial Place or Pallace of the Mind, which we are to approach and view, with more reverence and attention.