90

THE

Complete ART

OF

POETRY.

DIALOGUE II.

Of the Ufe and Neceffity of Rules in Poetry.

I

Have fhewn you, Crites, in the former Dialogue, what paft in our agreeable Company, on our firft Meeting; and I am confident, that the Defence of that noble Art, in which you are fo great a Mafter, and by Confequence, of which you are fo great a Lover, can by no means be difagreeable to you; nay, I am well affured, that you will give the highest Approbation of what has been faid on that Score, fince it is founded on Justice and Reason.

I fhall now proceed to let you know what pafs'd in the fecond Day's Converfation, to prove a Point which, I am fatisfy'd, you do allow to be Truth; and that is, The Ufe and Neceffity of the Rules of Arty in Poetry, without which, all muft be governed by unruly Fancy, and Poetry become the Land of Confufion, which is, in Reality, the Kingdom of Reauty, Order, and Harmony.

Laudon being thus enlarg'd from the Tyranny of Bufinefs, I could not deny my felf the Pleasure of repeating my Vifits as often as I could; and the more often I repeated them, the more my Appetite was raifed for their Continuance; for I always came away with fome Improvement of my Understanding, as well as a full Satisfaction for the Hours I spent in his Company.

A little before Dinner, Laudon was call'd down about Bufinefs; and in the mean while, happening to fee a Book lye in the Window, I took it up to pass the Time till his Return; but was not a little furpriz'd to find it to be, Bifhe's Art of English Peetry; a very extraordinary Title, thought I, as if the Art of Poetry were not the fame in all Languages.

I had not caft my Eye, in a curfory Manner, on many Pages, before Landon return'd: Pray, Sir, faid I, how came you by this worthy Author, who writing on the Art of Poetry, would perfwade us, that there is no Art at all in it, and aims chiefly at the Knack of Verfifying; and yet, even in that, is full of grofs abfurdities, and visible Contradictions?!

Why, Sir, reply'd Laudon, you must know, that the fine Mrs. Lamode was to pay my Wife a Vifit yesterday, and brought this Book along with her; and I find, on her Departure, the forgot this noble Piece of Criticism, the infallible Director of her Speculations that Way. I would have fent it Home to her, but that the and her Husband, honest achar, are to dine with me to

Day';

Day; for I would not bear the Scandal of having it thought Part of my own Collection.

It is impoffible, my Friend, faid I, that any one that knows you, fhould fufpect you guilty of that Folly; and to caft an Eye upon a Book of so promifing a Title, is juftify'd by the Title. I have my felf perus' great Part of this ridiculous Author, and he had almost provok'd me into a Writer, to vindicate the Honour of the Art I admire, from the fhameful Ignorance of a little Pretender, had not the Clamours of the Traders in Books deterr'd me, by afferting the Undertaking would be unfair, in not only interfering with the Sale of a Copy already receiv'd, but in all Probability, of transferring it from the Bookfellers Shops, to thofe of the Paftry Cook and Grocer.

That Reason, in my Opinion, (interrupted Laudon) is too fallacious to influence fo good a Judgment, to defift from a laudable Design, fince it is drawn from private and particular Intereft, against the publick and general Good; facrificing the Improvement and Honour of Arts to the miferable Profpect of fervile Gain. For this would be a certain and speedy Way of obftructing all Manner of Learning; fince, had this been a Rule founded on general Confent (as, if it have any Validity, it must be) there never cou'd have been any Progrefs or Improvement in any Art or Science.

i

The Multiplicity of Books in other Arts, is no Ob jection to the Increafing the Number; and notwithstanding the prefent Perfection of the Mathematics, the Excellence of Sir Isaac Newton's Discoveries, has not put an End to their noble Enquiries. And as no Man prefumes to write in that Art, who is ignorant of its Principles, yet we fee daily Improvements made in every Part of it.

I cannot therefore imagine why you, or any other Gentleman of your Knowlǝdge, may not do the fame Juftice to Poetry, and vindicate that divine Art, which

:

has

has been the Glory of great Nations, the Favourite, of great Monarchs,the illuftrious Proof of a true and great Politeness, in fo many of the purer Ages, from the Abufes of a Writer that has difcovered a most profound Ignorance of every Part of it (at least, as far as he has been pleafed hitherto to attempt) and endeavours, by pubJishing his Abfurdities, to promote them. For tho he has ventur'd only on the inconfiderable Knack of Verifying, yet in that he is out in the very Fundamentals, which fufficiently betrays both the Capacity and the Gufto of the Perfon. But this is the hard Fate of Poetry, different from that of all other Arts and Sciences, that the Learned only write of those; but the Rules and Theory of this falls often into as ignorant Hands, as the Practice generally does. For, as moft commonly Men without Genius or Skill in the Art, fet up for Poets, forgetting that of Horace,

Why is he honour'd with a Poet's Name,

Who neither knows, nor wou'd obferve a Rule. Rofc.

and would fain obtrude on the World, the incoherent Libertinisms of their own crude Fancies, for Poetry; fo would this Author impofe his fhallow and indigefted Notions (mostly borrow'd from the Meffrs. of the PortRoyal on the French Verfification) for the true and whole Art of English Poetry. The Plaufibility of his Title has carried off fo many Impreffions,as have made it with the ignorant, the Standard of Writing. So that the Reafon is the ftronger for a just Criticism, to destroy the ill Effects of this falfe one.

You must therefore find out fome better Reafon for your silence, on this Occafion, than what you have given, or plainly confefs, that you facrifice to Idlenefs more than to Justice.

I must own (reply'd I) that there is too much of that Allay in my Temper; and from that, it may be, thefe fpecious Scruples have had Power to deter me

from

from this Talk; yet affure your felf, that I am not wholly without a reasonable Obftacle. I must tell you, that the Undertaking feems to me to be of no manner of Ufe, but lies under the forbidding and odious Imputation of Ill-Nature. The Libertinifm of the Age, which makes Scribbling fo very eafy to every one who has the leaft Addrefs at Crambo, will make the Million averfe to all Regulations, which render Writing fo very difficult; and this the Poetafters (much the Majority even of the Writers in Vogue) at Will's, do lay to the Charge of Ill-Nature.

All, therefore, that I can expect from fuch an At tempt, is to pleafe a very, very few, good fudges, and Men of true Senfe, and difoblige all the Ladies and the Beaux, by impofing Laws too fevere on their Sonnets and Madrigals. And to deter us from all Rules, this very Author under our Confideration, this blind Guide to Parnaffus, plainly tells us in the opening of his Preface, That it is in vain to aim at a great Reputation on Account of his poetical Performances, by barely following the Rules of others, and reducing their Speculations to Practice, infinuating that the Rules of this Art are of little Confequence to a Perfection in it.

He feems (affum'd Laudon) very obfcure, or very falfe in that Polition. For if he mean, that the obferving, that is, the coming up to the Rules of Poetry cannot produce any great Reputation; he is abfolutely in the wrong, because, without this, no Man ever yet obtain'd any confiderable or lafting Name in Poetry. If he mean not this, then he means nothing.

It has, I confefs, been an old Difpute, whether Art or Nature made a Poet, but a Difpute, I think, like many more grounded on the not well understanding the Terms. For Art entirely includes Nature, that being no more, than Nature reduc'd to Form. Howe ver Horace, near the end of his Art of Poetry, feems

long