long fince to have decided this Queftion with great Clearnefs and Brevity. Some think that Poets may be form'd by Art, Rofc. This is the Opinion of Horace confirm'd by Reason and Experience. For without Art, there can be no Order, and without Order, Harmony is fought in vain, where nothing but fhocking Confufion can be found. Thofe fcatter'd Sparks of a great Genius, which shou'd fhine with united Glory, are in the huddle of Igno, rance or want of Art, fa diffipated, and divided, and fo blended with Contraries, that they are extreamly obfcur'd, if not entirely extinguifh'd. Thus the Pars ticles and Seeds of Light in the Primocal Chaos strugled in vain to exert their true Luftre, till Matter was by Art Divine brought into order, and this noble Poem of the Universe compleated: in Number and Fis gures, by the Almighty Poet or Maker. But it has been the Ignorance of the Rules that has made the Many and their Advocates declaim with fo much Vehemence against them, as Curbs to Wit and Poetry for did they know them, they wou'd plainly fee, that they do, in Reality, add to them the greatest Distinction and Honour they can hope for, by fetting up a true Standard, by which the due Glory of Wit and Poetry may be paid to Merit, with out fo wretched a Fate, as to be oblig'd to fhare with Poetafters, Verfifyers, and worthless Pretenders; which certainly cannot be look'd on, as an ill-natur'd Work; but the Effect of a juft and generous Temper. Thus (to inftance in one fort of Poetry) the Enemies of Art wou'd fain perfuade us, that no Play, in which the Rules of Art are obferv'd, will please;. where whereas, indeed, no Play did ever please for any Time, but by those Parts of it, which were conformed to the Rules, which cannot really be reduc'd to Practice but by a Perfon of the greateft Capacity and Genius. For can there be any Creature, that pretends to the leaft Portion of a rational Soul, who is pleas'd with the Conduct of Shakespear (except in one or two Plays) in which there is nothing curious, nothing great, nothing judicious. No, it is the Excellence of that Poet in the Expreffion of the Manners; in the Distinction of the Characters and fome of his Draughts of the Paffions, added to Prescription, and the Ignorance of the Audience, that makes him please, in those of his Plays, which are fixt in the Esteem of the Town, to which the rest, though equally good, have often in vain endeavour'd to arise. If fome Plays have mifs'd of Succefs, which were call'd regular, by thofe, who knew nothing of the Rules, I dare affert, that they were only call'd, but were not fo in Reality. For it will be obvious to any Man, who is acquainted with them, that he, who comes up to them, muft produce a perfect Poem, that muft force it felf, with a refiftlefs Pleasure on all that hear it. To keep ftill to the Dramma. He must perfectly know, and form his Defign; he must know, diftinguish, and preferve the Manners; he must be throughly acquainted with all the Springs, Motions, Degrees, Mixtures, Acceffes, and Receffes of every Paffion, with their Oppofition, and Confiftence. He must be perfect in the Sentiments, and know their Propriety, and Agreeableness to the Manners, as thofe have to the Action; he must be skill'd, and practis'd in the Diction, which includes both Numbers and Expreffion. Who can do all this but a Man of a great Capacity of Soul (which we call Genius) a large and ftrong Ima gination to receive and form the Images of Things, and a folid Judgment to reduce them to their proper Order and Classes? And this is writing according to the Rules. But But let the Imagination he never fo ftrong, and fertile of Ideas, without the Afliftance of Judgment (which can only be informed and directed by the Stated Rules) there can be nothing produc'd entirely beautiful. 'Tis all the rude Product of uncultivated Wit. There may be a great Deal of rich Oar, but clogg'd with the dull and worthlefs Sparr and indigefted Earth. But Judgment, like the Fire, can only feparate the Parts, and draw thence an uniform and valuable Mafs of Metal. The Rules are a great Help to many a Man of Genius; for it is fo far from probable, that it is scarce poflible, that unaffifted Nature, tho' never fo vigo. rous, can find out and practife all the Parts neceffary to the forming a compleat Poem. For as in Architecture, Painting, and Mufick, no Man did give us any thing great and complete, without knowing, and ng Practice of the Rules of thofe Arts; fo in Pretry, nothing truly excellent was ever yet feen, without a Mastery in the Poetic Principles. But (interrupted I) you forget, that Homer and the first Poets are objected against your Pofition; whỏ, as they affirm, not only wrote before any Rules were form'd, but were the very Men from whom most of these were drawn by Ariftotle, and the rest of the Critics. I confefs (reply'd Laudon) that I cannot tell you? what Master's Inftructions, or what Rules were regar-* ded by Homer; or whether the Order and Conduct were the Bufinefs of Lycurgus, or Pififtratus, or any other who collected the fcattered Books of that Poet, corrected, and first made an Edition of them entire; yet, from the Completeness of the Poem, as together, it is evident, that a certain Rule was propos'd by the Compofer to himself (whether found out by Homer or Lycurgus) by which he form'd the most perfect Poem that any Age has yet produc'd. A fhort View of the Plan will put this beyond Queftion. E "The The Love, Avarice, or Pride of Agamemnon made him deny the Reftoration of Chryfeis, which makes theangry God Apollo fend the Plague into the Grecian Army, in the Caufe of his injur'd Prieft. This moves Achilles to oppofe the arbitrary Will of this King of Men, fo far, as to make him reftore the Priet's Daughter, and feize on Brifeis, This pro vokes Achilles to withdraw his Myrmidons from the Camp; which Retreat produc'd the Sufferings of the Greeks, and the Prevalence of the Army of Troy. That mov'd the Compaflion of Petrochus for his Countrymen; and that generous, and publick fpirited Pity gave him his Death, after the Slanghof many of the Trojans. His Death by Hector brings Achilles again into the Field, which was fatal to Hector, reftor'd the Tranquillity of the Greeks, and fo gave them a Poffibility of Taking & ter the Town. This productive Chain of Incidents, in the las could not be formed without admirable Art and Defign and confequently, by fuch Rules as no Man face has been able to alter for the better. But whether thefe were written, or traditionally taught by Profeffors of the Art, or originally in the Sovereign Genius of Homer himself, matters not in the least, fince they are the fame that are now established both in the Heroic Poem and the Drama. It will be plain, that what I attribute to Homer, is not because he was a Greek Poet, or one of such venerable Antiquity (as by fome to be made coeval with David, which I do not think) but because it is from his Poetry ftill extant, undeniably his Due; becaufe I do here allow, that the Drama, on its firft Appearance in Athens it felf, was far from the Perfection it afterwards attain'd, tho the Idea of Tragedy was certainly taken from the Heroic Poem; fince we find it was in the Time of Thefpis, almoft as rude and inconfiftent as our Stage is in our Days; that first Raifer of the Athenian Theatre bringing nothing to Per fection fection; that was only effected by the Magiftrates Infpection of the Management, and the gradual EndeaVonts of fellus, Sophocles, Euripides, and others. But my Friend (interrupted T) you know, that thefe Gentlemen urge, that Shakespear has appear'd in England, with the highest Applause, without the Help of Art. But I must reply (faid Laudon) first, that fo did Thefpis, and fome others, in Athens; but their Abfurdities, and crude Entertainments vanifh'd on the Appearance of more juft and regular Pieces. Next that fas I have already obfervid) Shakespear is great in nơthing, but what is according to the Rules of Art and where his Ignorance of thein is not fupply'd by his Genius, Men of Judgment, and good Senfe, fee fitch monstrous Abfurdities in almost every Part of his Works, that nothing but his uncommon Excellencies in the other, could ever prevail with us to fuffer, and what he won'd never have been guilty of, had his Judgment been but well inform'd by Art. He had a Genius indeed, capable of coming up to the Rules, but not fufficient to find them out himself, tho' it be plain from his own Words, he faw the Absurdities of his own Conduct. And I must confefs, when I find that Sir Philip Sidney before him has difcover'd thefe Faults of the English Stage, and that he himself has written one or two Plays very near a Regularity I am the lefs apt to pardon his Errors, that feem of choice, as agreeable to his Lazyness or eafie Gain, by what he committed to the Theatre. But Rules feem by fo much the more neceffary to Poetry, than to any other Art or Science, by how much the more common the Invafions of this are, than of any other whatsoever. The Love of Verfe feems to fpread through all Mankind, while the Zeal of other Arts is confie'd to a particular Clan of Adınirers. Thus every one is not ambiticus to be thought a good Mathematician, or Philofopher, or Divine, or Phyfician, or Painter, or the like; yet almoft every E 2 Man |