Therefore, that is not the best poesy, which resembles notions of
things, that are not, to things that are: though the fancy may be
great, and the words flowing, yet the soul is but half satisfied when
there is not truth in the foundation. This is that which makes Virgil
be preferred before the rest of poets. In variety of fancy, and
sweetness of expression, you see Ovid far above him; for Virgil
rejected many of those things which Ovid wrote. "A great wit's great
work is to refuse," as my worthy friend Sir John Berkenhead has
ingeniously expressed it: you rarely meet with any thing in Virgil but
truth, which therefore leaves the strongest impression of pleasure in
the soul. This I thought myself obliged to say in behalf of poesy; and
to declare, though it be against myself, that when poets do not argue
well, the defect is in the workmen, not in the art.
And now I come to the boldest part of his discourse, wherein he
attacks not me, but all the ancients and moderns; and undermines, as
he thinks, the very foundations on which Dramatic Poesy is built. I
could wish he would have declined that envy which must of necessity
follow such an undertaking, and contented himself with triumphing over
me in my opinions of verse, which I will never hereafter dispute with
him; but he must pardon me if I have that veneration for Aristotle,
Horace, Ben Jonson, and Corneille, that I dare not serve him in such
a cause, and against such heroes, but rather fight under their
protection, as Homer reports of little Teucer, who shot the Trojans
from under the large buckler of Ajax Telamon.
Pages:
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293