fo that (as in a man) though all together may carry a prefence full of majefty and beauty, perchance, in fome one defectuous piece we may find blemish. Now, in his parts, kinds, or fpecies, as you lift to term them, it is to be noted, that fome Poefies have coupled together two or three kinds. as the Tragical and Comical, whereupon is rifen, the Tragi-comical; fome, in the manner, have mingled profe and verfe, as Sannazaro and Boetius; fome have mingled matters heroical and paftoral but that cometh all to one in this queftion; for if fevered they be good, the conjunction cannot be hurtful. Therefore, perchance, forgetting fome, and leaving fome as needless to be remembered, it shall not be amifs, in a word, to cite the fpecial kinds, to fee what faults may be found in the right ufe of them. 1. Is it then the paftoral Poem which is mifliked (For, perchance, where the hedge is loweft, they will fooneft leap over) is the poor pipe difdained, which fometimes, out of Malibeus's.. mouth, can fhew the mifery of people under hard lords and ravening foldiers? And again, by Tytirus, What bleffednefs is derived to them that lie loweft, from the goodness of them that fit higheft? Sometimes under the pretty tales of wolves and fheep, can include the whole confiderations of wrong doing, and patience; fometimes fhew, that contentions for trifles, can get ' who should be cochy but a trifling victory; where, perchance, a man may fee, that even Alexander and Darius, when they ftrove who should be cock of this world's dunghill, the benefit they got, was, that the after-livers may say, Hac memini & viltum fruftra contendere Thyrfim ; Ex illo Corydon, Corydon eft tempore nobis. 2. Or is it the lamenting Elegiack, which, in a kind heart, would move rather pity than blame; who bewaileth, with the great Philosopher Heraclitus, the weakness of mankind, and the wretchedness of the world; who, furely, is to be praised, either for compaffionately accompanying juft caufes of lamentations, or for rightly painting out how weak be the paffions of woefulness? 3. Is it the bitter, but wholefome, Iambick, who rubs the galled mind, in making fhame the trumpet of villainy, with bold and open crying out against naughtiness? 4. Or the Satirick, who, Omne vafer vitium ridenti tangit Amico, Who fportingly never leaveth, until he make a man laugh at folly, and at length, afhamed to laugh at himfelf; which he cannot avoid without avoiding the fully? who, while circum præcordia ludit, giveth us to feel how many head aches a paffionate life bringeth to? How, when all is done, Eft Ulubris, animus, fi nos non deficit aquus? No, No, perchance, it is the Comick; whom naughty play-makers and ftage keepers have justly made odious. To the arguments of abuse, I will after answer; only thus much now is to 5. be faid; That the Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he reprefenteth in the moft ridiculous and scornful fort that may be; fo as it is impoffible that any beholder can be content to be such a one. Now, as in Geometry, the oblique must be known as well as the right, and in Arithmetick, the odd as well as the even; fo in the actions of our life, who feeth not the filthinefs of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue. This doth the Comedy handle fo, in our private and domeftical matters, as, with hearing it, we get, as it were, an experience of what is to be looked for, of a niggardly Demea, of a crafty Davus, of a flattering Gnatho, of a vain-glorious Thrafo: and not only to know what effects are to be expected, but to know, who be fuch, by the fignifying badge given them by the Comedian. And little reafon hath any man to fay, That men learn the evil by seeing it so set out; fince, as faid before, there is no man living, but by the force truth hath in nature, no fooner feeth these men play their parts, but wifheth them in Pif trinum, although, perchance, the fack of his own faults lie fo behind his back, that he feeth not himself to dance the fame measure: whereto, D 4 yet, yet, nothing can more open his eyes, than to fee his own actions contemptibly fet forth. So that the right ufe of Comedy, will, I think, by no. body be blamed. And much lefs of the high and excellent gragedy, that openeth the greateft wounds, and fheweth forth the Ulcers that are covered with Tiffue that maketh kings fear to be tyrants, and tyrants to manifeft their tyrannical hu mours; and with ftirring the affections of admiration and commiferation, teacheth the uncertainty of this world, and upon how weak foundation gilded roofs are builded: that maketh us know, Qui fceptra fævus duro imperio regit, timet timentes, metus in authorem redit. But how much it can move, Plutarch yieldeth a notable teftimony of the abominable tyrant Alexander Pheraus; from whose eyes a Tragedy, well made and represented, drew abundance of tears, who, without all pity, had murthered infinite numbers, and fome of his own blood; so as he that was not ashamed to make matters for Tragedies, yet would not refift the fweet violence of a Tragedy. And if it wrought no farther good in him, it was, that he, in defpight of himself, withdrew himself from hearkening to that which might mollify his hardened heart. But it is not the Tragedy they do miflike, for it were too ab. furd to caft out fo excellent a representation of whatsoever is moft worthy to be learned. Is Is it the Lyrick that moft difpleafeth, who with his tuned Lyre, and well accorded voice, giveth praife, the reward of virtue, to virtuous acts? who giveth moral precepts and natural problems? who fometimes raifeth up his voice to the height of the heavens, in finging the lauds of the immortal God? Certainly, I muft confefs mine own barbarousness ; I never heard the old fong of Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet; and yet is it fung but by fome blind crowder, with no rougher voice, than rude ftyle: which being fo evil apparelled in the duft and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work, trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar? In Hungary, I have feen it the manner at all feafts, and other fuch-like meetings, to have fongs of their ancestors valour, which that right foldier-. like nation, think one of the chiefeft kindlers of brave courage. The incomparable Lacedæmonians did not only carry that kind of mufick everwith them to the field, but even at home, as fuch fongs were made, fo were they all content. to be fingers of them: when the lufty men were to tell what they did, the old men, what they had done, and the young, what they would do. And where a man may fay, That Pindar, many times, praiseth highly victories of small moment, rather matters of fport than virtue; as it may be answered, It was the fault of the Poet, and not 4 |