Helicon. Pegasus. Parnassus. Ovidius. Lipsius. tatio. > when it contemnes common, and knowne conceptions. It utters somewhat above a mortall mouth. Then it gets a loft, and flies away with his Ryder, >whether, before, it was doubtfull to ascend. This the Poets understood by their Helicon, Pegasus, or Parnassus; and this made Ovid to boast: Est, Deus in nobis ; agitante calescimus illo : And Lipsius, to affirme; Scio, Poetam neminem præstantem fuisse, sine parte quadam uberiore divinæ aura. And, hence it is, that the comming up of good Poets, (126) (for I minde not mediocres, or imos) is so thinne and rare among us; Every beggerly Corporation affoords the State a Major, or two Bailiffs, Petron. in yearly: but, solus Rex, aut Poeta, non quotannis fragm. nascitur. To this perfection of Nature in our Poet, 2. Exerci- wee require Exercise of those parts, and frequent. If his wit will not arrive soddainly at the dignitie of the Ancients, let him not yet fall out with it, quarrell, or be over hastily Angry: offer, to turne it away from Study, in a humor; but come to it againe upon better cogitation; try an other time, with labour. If then it succeed not, cast not away the Quills, yet: nor scratch the Wainescott, beate not the poore Deske; but bring all to the forge, and file, againe; tourne it a newe. There is no Statute Law of the Kingdome bidds you bee a Poet, against your will; or the first Quarter. If it come, in a yeare, or two, it is well. The common Rymers powre forth Verses, such as they are, (ex tempore) but there never come from them one Sense, worth the life of a Day. A Rymer, Maxi mus. and a Poet, are two things. It is said of the incom- Age. The third requisite in our Poet, or Maker, is misunderstand i rest2 and so to follow him, till he grow very Hee: or, so like him, as the Copie may be mistaken for the Principall. Not, as a Creature, that swallowes, what it takes in, crude, raw, or indigested; but, that feedes with an Appetite, and hath a Stomacke to concoct, devide, and turne all into nourishment. Not, to imitate servilely, as Horace saith, and catch at vices, for vertue: but, to Horatius. draw forth out of the best, and choisest flowers, with the Bee, and turne all into Honey, worke it into one relish, and savour: make our Imitation sweet: observe, how the best writers have imitated, and follow them. Virgilius. How Virgil, and Statius have imitated Homer: how Horace, Archilochus; how, Alcaus, and the other Liricks: and so of the rest. But, that, which wee especially require in him is an exactnesse of Studie, and multiplicity of reading, which maketh a full man, 4. Lectio. not alone enabling him to know the History, or Statius. Horat. Archil. Alceus. &c. Parnassus. Helicon. Ars coron. M. T. Simylus. Argument of a Poeme, and to report it: but so to master the matter, and Stile, as to shew, hee knowes, how to handle, place, or dispose of either, with elegancie, when need shall bee. And not thinke, hee can leape forth suddainely a Poet, by dreaming hee hath been in Parnassus, or, having washt his lipps (as they say) in Helicon. There goes more to his making, then so. For to Nature, Exercise, Imitation, and Studie, Art must bee added, to make all these perfect. And, though these challenge to themselves much, in the making up of our Maker, it is Art only can lead him to perfection, and leave him there in possession, as planted by her hand. It is the assertion of Tully, If to an excellent nature, there happen an accession, or confirmation of Learning, and (127) Discipline, there will then remaine somewhat noble, and singular. For, as Simylus saith in Stobæus; Ουτε φύσις ἱκανὴ γίνεται τέχνης ἄτερ, ούτε πᾶν τέχνη μὴ φύσιν κεκτημένη without Art, Nature can nere bee perfect; &, without Nature, Art can clayme no being. But, our Poet must beware, that his Studie bee not only to learne of himself; for, hee that shall affect to doe that, confesseth his ever having a Foole to his master. Hee must read many; but, ever the best, and choisest: those, that can teach himany thing, hee must ever account his masters, and reverence: among whom Horace, and (hee that Horatius. taught him) Aristotle, deserv❜d to bee the first in esti-Aristomation. Aristotle, was the first accurate Criticke, and teles. truest Judge; nay, the greatest Philosopher, the world ever had: for, hee noted the vices of all knowledges, in all creatures, and out of many mens perfections in a Science, hee formed still one Art. So hee taught us two Offices together, how we ought to judge rightly of others, and what wee ought to imitate specially in our selves. But all this in vaine, without a naturall wit, and a Poeticall nature in chiefe. For, no man, so soone as hee knowes this, or reades it, shall be able to write the better; but as he is adapted to it by Nature, he shall grow the perfecter Writer. Hee must have Civil prudence, and Eloquence, & that whole; not taken up by snatches, or peeces, in Sentences, or remnants, when he will handle businesse, or carry Counsells, as if he came then out of the Declamors Gallerie, or Shadowe, furnish'd but out of the body of the State, which commonly is the Virorum Schoole of men. The Poet is the neerest Borderer schola VRespub. upon the Orator, and expresseth all his vertues though he be tyed more to numbers; is his equall in ornament, and above him in his strengths. And, (of the kind) the Comicke comes neerest: Because, in moving the minds of men, and stirring of affections (in which Oratory shewes, and especially approves her eminence) hee chiefly excells. What figure of a Lysippus Body was Lysippus, ever able to forme with his Apelles. Graver; or Apelles to paint with his Pencill, as the Comedy to life expresseth so many, and various affections of the minde? 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; tortur'd with expectation; consum'd with feare: no perturbation in common life, but the Orator findes an example of it in the Scene. And then, for the Nævius. Elegancy of Language, read but this Inscription on the Grave of a Comicke Poet: L. Aelius. Stilo. M. Varro. Immortales mortales, si fas esset, flere, I am not of that opinion to conclude a Poets liberty within the narrowe limits of lawes, which either the Grammarians, or Philosophers prescribe. For, before they found out those Lawes, there were many excellent Poets, that fulfill'd them. Amongst Sophocles. whome none more perfect then Sophocles, who liv'd a little before Aristotle. Which of the Greekelings durst ever give precepts |