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But lay ande the just praise it hath, by being the only fit speech for musick; (mufick, I say, the most divine striker of the fenfes ;) thus much is undoubtedly true, That if reading be foolish without remembring, memory being the only treasure of knowledge, those words which are fittest for memory, are likewise most convenient for knowledge. Now, that verse far exceedeth profe, in the knitting up of the memory, the KNOWLEDG reafon is manifeft; the words, (befides their delight, which hath a great affinity to memory) being fo fet, as one cannot be loft, but the whole work fails: which accufing itself, calleth the remembrance back to itself, and fo most ftrongly confirmeth it. Befides, one word fo, as it were, begetting another, as be in rhyme or measured verse, by the former a man fhall have a near guess to the follower. Lastly, even they that have taught the art of memory, have fhewed nothing fo apt for it, as a certain room divided into many places, well and thoroughly known Now that hath the verfe in effect perfectly, every word having his natural feat, which feat must needs make the word remembred. But what needs more in a thing fo known to all men? Who is it, that ever was a fcholar, that doth not carry away fome verses of Virgil, Horace, or Cato, which in his youth he' learned; and even to his old age ferve him for hourly leffons? as,

Per

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Percontatorem fugito nam garrulus idem eft.
Dum fibi quifque placet credula turba fumus.

But the fitness it hath for memory, is notably
proved by all delivery of arts, wherein, for the
moft part, from Grammar to Logick, Mathema-
ticks, Phyfick, and the reft, the rules chiefly ne-
ceffary to be borne away, are compiled in verfes.
So that verfe being in itself sweet and orderly,
and being beft for memory, the only handle of
knowledge, it must be in jeft that any man can
speak against it.

Now, then, go we to the most important imputations laid to the poor Poets; for aught I can yet learn, they are thefe.

First, That there being many other more fruitful knowledges, a man might better spend his time in them, than in this.

Secondly, That it is the mother of lies.

Thirdly, That it is the nurfe of abuse, infecting us with many peftilent defires, with a SyrenSweetness, drawing the mind to the ferpent's tail of finful fancies and herein, especially, Comedies give the largest field to ear, as Chaucer faith; How both in other nations, and in ours, before Poets did foften us, we were full of courage, given to martial exercises, the pillars of manlike

manlike liberty, and not lulled asleep in fhady idleness with Poets paftimes.

And, laftly, and chiefly, They cry out, with open mouth, as if they had over-fhot Robin Hood, That Plato banished them out of the Common-wealth. Truly, this is much, if there be much truth in it.

First, To the first, That a man might better spend his time, is a reason indeed: but it doth, as they fay, but petere principium. For if it be, as I affirm, that no learning is fo good, as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue, and that none can both teach and move thereto fo much as Poefy, then is the conclufion manifeft; That ink and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose employed. And certainly, though a man fhould grant their first affumption, it fhould follow (methinks) very unwillingly, that good is not good, becaufe better is better. But I ftill and utterly deny, that there is sprung out of the earth a more fruitful knowledge.

To the Second, therefore, That they should be the principal lyars, I answer Paradoxically, but truly, I think truly, That of all writers under the Sun, the Poet is the leaft lyar; and though he would, as a Poet, can scarcely be a lyar. The Aftronomer, with his coufin the Geometrician, can hardly efcape when they take upon them to measure the height of the ftars. How often, think you, do the Physicians lye, E when

when they aver things good for fickneffes, which afterwards fend Charon a great number of fouls drowned in a potion before they come to his ferry? And no lefs of the rest which take upon them to affirm. Now for the Poet, he nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lyeth; for, as I take it, to lye, is to affirm that to be true which is falfe: So as the other Artifts, and efpecially the Hiftorian, affirming many things, can, in the cloudy knowledge of mankind, hardly escape from many lyes: But the Poet, as I faid before, never affirmeth; the Poet never maketh any circles about your imagination, to conjure you to believe for true what he writeth: He citeth not authorities of other hiftories, but even for his entry, calleth the fweet Mufes to infpire into him a good invention: In troth, not labouring to tell you what is, or is not, but what should, or should not be. And, therefore, though he recount things not true, yet because he telleth them not for true, he lyeth not; unlefs we will fay, That Nathan lyed in his fpeech, before alledged, to David; which, as a wicked man durft fcarce fay, fo think I, none fo fimple would fay; That Efop lyed in the tales of his beafts; for who thinketh that Afop wrote it for actually true, were well worthy to have his name chronicled among the beafts he writeth of. What child is there that coming to a Play, and feeing THEBES written in great letters upon an old

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door,

door, doth believe that it is Thebes? If then a man can arrive to the child's age, to know that the Poets perfons and doings, are but pictures what should be, and not stories what have been, they will never give the lye to things not affirmatively, but allegorically and figuratively, written; and therefore, as in Hiftory, looking for truth, they may go away full fraught with falfhood, fo in Poef, looking but for fiction, they fhall ufe the narration but as an imaginative ground-plat of a profitable invention.

But hereto is replied, That the Poets give names to men they write of, which argueth a conceit of an actual truth, and fo not being true, proveth a falfhood. And doth the Lawyer lye then, when, under the names of John of the Stile, and John of the Nokes, he putteth his cafe? But that is eafily anfwered, Their naming of men, is but to make their picture the more lively, and not to build any history. Painting men, they cannot leave men nameless: We fee we cannot play at Chefs, but that we must give names to our chefs-men; and yet, methinks, he were a very partial champion of truth, that would fay we lyed, for giving a piece of wood the reverend title of a Bishop. The Poet nameth Cyrus and Æneas no other way, than to fhew what men of their fames, fortunes, and eftates, fhould do.