as it is fit for grown and able writers to stand of themselves, and work with their own strength, to trust and endeavour by their own faculties: so it is fit for the beginner and learner to study others and the best. For the mind and memory are more sharply exercised in comprehending another man's things than our own; and such as accustom themselves, and are familiar with the best authors, shall ever and anon find somewhat of them in themselves, and in the expression of their minds, even when they feel it not, be able to utter something like theirs, which hath an authority above their own. Nay, sometimes it is the reward of a man's study, the praise of quoting another man fitly: and though a man be more prone, and able for one kind of writing than another, yet he must exercise all. For as in an instrument, so in style, there must be a harmony and consent of parts.

I

SIR J. HARINGTON

AN APOLOGY OF POETRY

CANNOT deny but to us that are Christians in respect of the high end of all, which is the health of our souls, not only Poetry but all other studies of philosophy are in a manner vain and superfluous: yea, (as the wise man saith) whatsoever is under the sun is vanity of vanities and nothing but vanity. But since we live with men and not with saints, and because few men can embrace this strict and stoical divinity, or rather indeed, for that the holy scriptures in which those high mysteries of our salvation are contained, are a deep and profound study, and not subject to every weak capacity, no nor to the highest wits and judgments, except they be first illuminate by God's spirit, or instructed by his teachers and preachers: therefore we do first read some other authors, making them as it were a looking-glass to the eyes of our mind; and then after we have gathered more strength,

we enter into profounder studies of higher mysteries, having first, as it were, enabled our eyes by long beholding the sun in a basin of water at last to look upon the sun itself. So we read how that great Moses, whose learning and sanctity is so renowned over all nations, was first instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, before he came to that high contemplation of God and familiarity (as I may so term it) with God. So the notable Prophet Daniel was brought up in the learning of the Chaldeans, and made that the first step of his higher vocation to be a prophet. If then, we may by the example of two such special servants of God spend some of our young years in studies of humanity, what better and more meet study is there for a young man than poetry? specially heroical poesy, that with her sweet stateliness doth erect the mind and lift it up to the consideration of the highest matters: and allureth them, that of themselves would otherwise loathe them, to take and swallow and digest the wholesome precepts of philosophy, and many times even of the true divinity.

J. DRYDEN

SOMEWHAT OF CHAUCER IN PARTICULAR

IN the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, so

I hold him in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans Virgil: he is a perpetual fountain of good sense; learned in all sciences; and therefore speaks properly on all subjects: as he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off: a continence which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace. One of our late great poets is sunk in his reputation, because he could never forgive any conceit which came in his way: but swept like a dragnet great and small. There was plenty enough, but the dishes were ill-sorted; whole pyramids of sweetmeats, for

boys and women, but little of solid meat for men: all this proceeded not from any want of knowledge, but of judgment; neither did he want that in discerning the beauties and faults of other poets; but only indulged himself in the luxury of writing; and perhaps knew it was a fault, but hoped the reader would not find it. For this reason, though he must always be thought a great poet, he is no longer esteemed a good writer and for the impressions which his works have had in so many successive years. Yet at present a hundred books are scarcely purchased once a twelve month: for, as my last Lord Rochester said, though somewhat profanely, Not being of God, he could not stand.

Chaucer followed Nature everywhere; but was never so bold to go beyond her: and there is a great difference of being Poeta and nimis poeta, if we may believe Catullus, as much as betwixt a modest behaviour and affectation. The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; but 'tis like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends, it was auribus istius temporis accommodata: they who lived with him and sometime after him, thought it musical, and it continues so, even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of Lydgate and Gower his contemporaries: there is the rude sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and pleasing, though not perfect. 'Tis true, I cannot go so far as he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine: but this opinion is not worth confuting; 'tis so gross and obvious an error, that common sense, (which is a rule in everything but matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader, that equality of numbers in every verse which we call heroic, was either not known or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It were an easy matter to produce some thousands of his verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwise. We can only say that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that nothing is brought to perfection at the

There

first. We must be children before we grow men. was an Ennius, and in process of time a Lucullus, and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace; even after Chaucer there was a Spenser, a Harington, a Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being; and our numbers were in their nonage till these last appeared.

He must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age. Not a single character has escaped him. All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other, and not only in their inclinations, but in their very physiognomies and persons. Baptista Porta could not have described their natures better, than by the marks which the poet gives them. The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different educations, humours, and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth. Even the grave and serious characters are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity; their discourses are such as belong to their age, their calling and their breeding; such as are becoming of them, and of them only. Some of his persons are vicious, and some vertuous; some are unlearned, or (as Chaucer calls them) lewd, and some are learn'd. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the reeve, the miller, and the cook, are several men, and distinguished from each other, as much as the mincing Lady Prioress, and the broad-speaking, gap-toothed Wife of Bath. But enough of this: there is such a variety of game springing up before me, that I am distracted in my choice, and know not which to follow. 'Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

I

SIR W. TEMPLE

OF POETRY

KNOW very well that many, who pretend to be wise by the forms of being grave, are apt to despise both poetry and music as toys and trifles too light for the use or entertainment of serious men: but whoever find themselves wholly insensible to these charms, would, I think, do well to keep their own counsel, for fear of reproaching their own temper, and bringing the goodness of their natures, if not of their understandings, into question: it may be thought at least an ill sign, if not an ill constitution, since some of the fathers went so far as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination, as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself. While this world lasts, I doubt not but the pleasures and requests of these two entertainments will do so too; and happy those that content themselves with these, or any other so easy and so innocent, and do not trouble the world or other men, because they cannot be quiet themselves, though nobody hurts them.

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

MILTON'S SHORTER POEMS

THAT in the early parts of his life he wrote with much care appears from his manuscripts, happily preserved at Cambridge, in which many of his smaller works are found as they were first written, with the subsequent corrections. Such relics show how excellence is acquired; what we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.