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First
Defense Of Poesy
Introductory Note
Sir Philip Sidney, for three centuries the type of the English gentleman,
was the son of Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth,
and Lady Mary Dudley, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland. He was born at
Penshurst, Kent, November 30, 1554, and was named after his godfather, Philip
II of Spain, then consort of Queen Mary. He was sent to Oxford at fourteen,
where he was noted as a good student; and on leaving the university he
obtained the Queen`s leave to travel on the Continent. He went to Paris in the
train of the ambassador to France, saw much of court society there, and was in
the city at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Proceeding to Germany
he met, at Frankfort, the Protestant scholar Hubert Languet, with whom, though
Languet was thrice his age, he formed an intimate and profitable friendship.
He went on to Vienna, Hungary, Italy, and back by the Low Countries, returning
to England at the age of twenty, an accomplished and courtly gentleman, with
some experience of practical diplomacy, and a first-hand knowledge of the
politics of the Continent.
Sidney`s introduction to the court of Elizabeth took place in 1575, and
within two years he was sent back to the Continent on a number of diplomatic
commissions, when he used every opportunity for the furthering of the
interests of Protestantism. He seems everywhere to have made the most
favorable impression by both his character and his abilities. During the years
between 1578 and 1585 he was chiefly at court and in Parliament, and to this
period belong most of his writings. In 1585 he left England to assume the
office of Governor of Flushing, and in the next year he was mortally wounded
at the battle of Zutphen, dying on October 17, 1586. All England went into
mourning, and the impression left by his brilliant and fascinating personality
has never passed away.
Sidney`s literary work was all published after his death, some of it
against his express desire. The "Arcadia," an elaborate pastoral romance
written in a highly ornate prose mingled with verse, was composed for the
entertainment of his sister, the Countess of Pembroke. The collection of
sonnets, "Astrophel and Stella," was called forth by Sidney`s relation to
Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of Essex. While they were both little
more than children, there had been some talk of a marriage between them; but
evidence of any warmth of feeling appears chiefly after Penelope`s unhappy
marriage to Lord Rich. There has been much controversy over the question of
the sincerity of these remarkable poems, and over the precise nature of
Sidney`s sentiments toward the lady who inspired them, some regarding them as
undisguised outpourings of a genuine passion, others as mere conventional
literary exercises. The more recent opinion is that they express a platonic
devotion such as was common in the courtly society of the day, and which was
allowed by contemporary opinion to be compatible with the marriage of both
parties.
In 1579 Stephen Gosson published a violent attack on the arts, called
"The School of Abuse," and dedicated it without permission to Sidney. It was
in answer to this that Sidney composed his "Defense of Poesy," an eloquent
apology for imaginative literature, not unmingled with humor. The esthetic
theories it contains are largely borrowed from Italian sources, but it is
thoroughly infused with Sidney`s own personality; and it may be regarded as
the beginning of literary criticism in England.
Defense Of Poesy
When the right virtuous Edward Wotton and I were at the Emperor`s^1 court
together, we gave ourselves to learn horsemanship of John Pietro Pugliano, one
that with great commendation had the place of an esquire in his stable; and
he, according to the fertileness of the Italian wit, did not only afford us
the demonstration of his practice, but sought to enrich our minds with the
contemplations therein which he thought most precious. But with none I
remember mine ears were at any time more loaden, than when - either angered
with slow payment, or moved with our learner-like admiration - he exercised
his speech in the praise of his faculty. He said soldiers were the noblest
estate of mankind, and horsemen the noblest of soldiers. He said they were the
masters of war and ornaments of peace, speedy goers and strong abiders,
triumphers both in camps and courts. Nay, to so unbelieved a point he
proceeded, as that no earthly thing bred such wonder to a prince as to be a
good horseman; skill of government was but a pedanteria^2 in comparison. Then
would he add certain praises, by telling what a peerless beast the horse was,
the only serviceable courtier without flattery, the beast of most beauty,
faithfulness, courage, and such more, that if I had not been a piece of a
logician before I came to him, I think he would have persuaded me to have
wished myself a horse. But thus much at least with his no few words he drave
into me, that self-love is better than any gilding to make that seem
gorgeous wherein ourselves be parties.
[Footnote 1: Maximilian II. (1527-1576).]
[Footnote 2: Piece of pedantry.]
Wherein if Pugliano`s strong affection and weak arguments will not
satisfy you, I will give you a nearer example of myself, who, I know not by
what mischance, in these my not old years and idlest times, having slipped
into the title of a poet, am provoked to say something unto you in the defense
of that my unelected vocation, which if I handle with more good will than good
reasons, bear with me, since the scholar is to be pardoned that followeth the
steps of his master. And yet I must say that, as I have just cause to make a
pitiful defense of poor poetry, which from almost the highest estimation of
learning is fallen to be the laughing-stock of children, so have I need to
bring some more available proofs, since the former is by no man barred of his
deserved credit, the silly^3 latter hath had even the names of philosophers
used to the defacing of it, with great danger of civil war among the Muses.
[Footnote 3: Weak, poor.]
And first, truly, to all them that, professing learning, inveigh against
poetry, may justly be objected that they go very near to ungratefulness, to
seek to deface that which, in the noblest nations and languages that are
known, hath been the first light-giver to ignorance, and first nurse, whose
milk by little and little enabled them to feed afterwards of tougher
knowledges. And will they now play the hedgehog, that, being received into the
den, drave out his host? Or rather the vipers, that with their birth kill
their parents? Let learned Greece in any of her manifold sciences be able to
show me one book before Musaeus, Homer, and Hesiod, all three nothing else but
poets. Nay, let any history be brought that can say any writers were there
before them, if they were not men of the same skill, as Orpheus, Linus, and
some other are named, who, having been the first of that country that made
pens deliver of their knowledge to their posterity, may justly challenge to be
called their fathers in learning. For not only in time they had this priority
- although in itself antiquity be venerable - but went before them as causes,
to draw with their charming sweetness the wild untamed wits to an admiration
of knowledge. So as Amphion was said to move stones with his poetry to build
Thebes, and Orpheus to be listened to by beasts, - indeed stony and beastly
people. So among the Romans were Livius Andronicus and Ennius; so in the
Italian language the first that made it aspire to be a treasure-house of
science were the poets Dante, Boccace, and Petrarch; so in our English were
Gower and Chaucer, after whom, encouraged and delighted with their excellent
foregoing, others have followed to beautify our mother-tongue, as well in
the same kind as in other arts.
This did so notably show itself, that the philosophers of Greece durst
not a long time appear to the world but under the masks of poets. So Thales,
Empedocles, and Parmenides sang their natural philosophy in verses; so did
Pythagoras and Phocylides their moral counsels; so did Tyrtaeus in war
matters, and Solon in matters of policy; or rather they, being poets, did
exercise their delightful vein in those points of highest knowledge which
before them lay hidden to the world. For that wise Solon was directly a poet
it is manifest, having written in verse the notable fable of the Atlantic
Island which was continued by Plato. And truly even Plato whosoever well
considereth, shall find that in the body of his work though the inside and
strength were philosophy, the skin as it were and beauty depended most of
poetry. For all standeth upon dialogues; wherein he feigneth many honest
burgesses of Athens to speak of such matters that, if they had been set on the
rack, they would never have confessed them; besides his poetical describing
the circumstances of their meetings, as the well-ordering of a banquet, the
delicacy of a walk, with interlacing mere tales, as Gyges` Ring and others,
which who knoweth not to be flowers of poetry did never walk into Apollo`s
garden.
And even historiographers, although their lips sound of things done, and
verity be written in their foreheads, have been glad to borrow both fashion
and perchance weight of the poets. So Herodotus entitled his history by the
name of the nine Muses; and both he and all the rest that followed him either
stole or usurped of poetry their passionate describing of passions, the many
particularities of battles which no man could affirm, or, if that be denied
me, long orations put in the mouths of great kings and captains, which it is
certain they never pronounced.
So that truly neither philosopher nor historiographer could at the first
have entered into the gates of popular judgments, if they had not taken a
great passport of poetry, which in all nations at this day, where learning
flourisheth not, is plain to be seen; in all which they have some feeling of
poetry. In Turkey, besides their lawgiving divines they have no other writers
but poets. In our neighbor country Ireland, where truly learning goeth very
bare, yet are their poets held in a devout reverence. Even among the most
barbarous and simple Indians, where no writing is, yet have they their poets,
who make and sing songs (which they call areytos), both of their ancestors`
deeds and praises of their gods, - a sufficient probability that, if ever
learning come among them, it must be by having their hard dull wits softened
and sharpened with the sweet delights of poetry; for until they find a
pleasure in the exercise of the mind, great promises of much knowledge will
little persuade them that know not the fruits of knowledge. In Wales, the true
remnant of the ancient Britons, as there are good authorities to show the long
time they had poets which they called bards, so through all the conquests of
Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, some of whom did seek to ruin all memory
of learning from among them, yet do their poets even to this day last; so as
it is not more notable in soon beginning, than in long continuing.
But since the authors of most of our sciences were the Romans, and before
them the Greeks, let us a little stand upon their authorities, but even^4 so
far as to see what names they have given unto this now scorned skill. Among
the Romans a poet was called vates, which is as much as a diviner, foreseer,
or prophet, as by his conjoined words, vaticinium and vaticinari, is manifest;
so heavenly a title did that excellent people bestow upon this heart -
ravishing knowledge. And so far were they carried into the admiration thereof,
that they thought in the chanceable hitting upon any such verses great fore -
tokens of their following fortunes were placed; whereupon grew the word of
Sortes Virgilianae, when by sudden opening Virgil`s book they lighted upon
some verse of his making. Whereof the Histories of the Emperors` Lives are
full: as of Albinus, the governor of our island, who in his childhood met with
this verse,
[Footnote 4: Only.]
Arma amens capio, nec sat rationis in armis,
and in his age performed it. Although it were a very vain and godless
superstition, as also it was to think that spirits were commanded by such
verses - whereupon this word charms, derived of carmina, cometh - so yet
serveth it to show the great reverence those wits were held in, and altogether
not^5 without ground, since both the oracles of Delphos and Sibylla`s
prophecies were wholly delivered in verses; for that same exquisite observing
of number and measure in words, and that high-flying liberty of conceit,^6
proper to the poet, did seem to have some divine force in it.
[Footnote 5: Not altogether.]
[Footnote 6: Invention.]
And may not I presume a little further to show the reasonableness of this
word vates, and say that the holy David`s Psalms are a divine poem? If I do, I
shall not do it without the testimony of great learned men, both ancient and
modern. But even the name of Psalms will speak for me, which, being
interpreted, is nothing but Songs; then, that it is fully written in metre, as
all learned Hebricians agree, although the rules be not yet fully found;
lastly and principally, his handling his prophecy, which is merely poetical.
For what else is the awaking his musical instruments, the often and free
changing of persons, his notable prosopopoeias, when he maketh you, as it
were, see God coming in His majesty, his telling of the beasts` joyfulness and
hills` leaping, but a heavenly poesy, wherein almost he showeth himself a
passionate lover of that unspeakable and everlasting beauty to be seen by the
eyes of the mind, only cleared by faith? But truly now having named him, I
fear I seem to profane that holy name, applying it to poetry, which is among
us thrown down to so ridiculous an estimation. But they that with quiet
judgments will look a little deeper into it, shall find the end and working of
it such as, being rightly applied, deserveth not to be scourged out of the
church of God.
But now let us see how the Greeks named it and how they deemed of it. The
Greeks called him nolNrNv, which name hath, as the most excellent, gone
through other languages. It cometh of this word nolelv, which is "to make";
wherein I know not whether by luck or wisdom we Englishmen have met with the
Greeks in calling him a maker. Which name how high and incomparable a title it
is, I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences than by any
partial allegation. There is no art delivered unto mankind that hath not the
works of nature for his principal object, without which they could not
consist, and on which they so depend as they become actors and players, as it
were, of what nature will have set forth. So doth the astronomer look upon the
stars, and, by that he seeth, set down what order nature hath taken therein.
So do the geometrician and arithmetician in their divers sorts of quantities.
So doth the musician in times tell you which by nature agree, which not. The
natural philosopher thereon hath his name, and the moral philosopher standeth
upon the natural virtues, vices, and passions of man; and "follow nature,"
saith he, "therein, and thou shalt not err." The lawyer saith what men have
determined, the historian what men have done. The grammarian speaketh only of
the rules of speech, and the rhetorician and logician, considering what in
nature will soonest prove and persuade, thereon give artificial rules, which
still are compassed within the circle of a question, according to the proposed
matter. The physician weigheth the nature of man`s body, and the nature of
things helpful or hurtful unto it. And the metaphysic, though it be in the
second and abstract notions, and therefore be counted supernatural, yet doth
he, indeed, build upon the depth of nature.
Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up
with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another
nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite
anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the heroes, demi-gods, cyclops,
chimeras, furies, and such like; so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not
enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging within the
zodiac of his own wit. Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as
divers poets have done; neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet -
smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth
more lovely; her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.
But let those things alone, and go to man - for whom as the other things
are, so it seemeth in him her uttermost cunning is employed - and know whether
she have brought forth so true a lover as Theagenes; so constant a friend as
Pylades; so valiant a man as Orlando; so right a prince as Xenophon`s Cyrus;
so excellent a man every way as Virgil`s Aeneas? Neither let this be jestingly
conceived, because the works of the one be essential, the other in imitation
or fiction; for any understanding knoweth the skill of each artificer standeth
in that idea, or fore-conceit of the work, and not in the work itself. And
that the poet hath that idea is manifest, by delivering them forth in such
excellency as he hath imagined them. Which delivering forth, also, is not
wholly imaginative, as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the
air; but so far substantially it worketh, not only to make a Cyrus, which had
been but a particular excellency, as nature might have done, but to bestow a
Cyrus upon the world to make many Cyruses, if they will learn aright why and
how that maker made him. Neither let it be deemed too saucy a comparison to
balance the highest point of man`s wit with the efficacy of nature; but rather
give right honor to the Heavenly Maker of that maker, who, having made man to
His own likeness, set him beyond and over all the works of that second nature.
Which in nothing he showeth so much as in poetry, when with the force of a
divine breath he bringeth things forth far surpassing her doings, with no
small argument to the incredulous of that first accursed fall of Adam, - since
our erected wit maketh us know what perfection is, and yet our infected will
keepeth us from reaching unto it. But these arguments will by few be
understood, and by fewer granted; thus much I hope will be given me, that the
Greeks with some probability of reason gave him the name above all names of
learning.
Now let us go to a more ordinary opening of him, that the truth may be
the more palpable; and so, I hope, though we get not so unmatched a praise as
the etymology of his names will grant, yet his very description, which no man
will deny, shall not justly be barred from a principal commendation.
Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in
his word mimnbls, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring
forth; to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture, with this end, - to teach
and delight.
Of this have been three general kinds. The chief, both in antiquity and
excellency, were they that did imitate the inconceivable excellencies of God.
Such were David in his Psalms; Solomon in his Song of Songs, in his
Ecclesiastes and Proverbs; Moses and Deborah in their Hymns; and the writer of
Job; which, beside other, the learned Emanuel Tremellius and Franciscus Junius
do entitle the poetical part of the Scripture. Against these none will speak
that hath the Holy Ghost in due holy reverence. In this kind, though in a full
wrong divinity, were Orpheus, Amphion, Homer in his Hymns, and many other,
both Greeks and Romans. And this poesy must be used by whosoever will follow
St. James` counsel in singing psalms when they are merry; and I know is used
with the fruit of comfort by some, when, in sorrowful pangs of their death -
bringing sins, they find the consolation of the never-leaving goodness.
The second kind is of them that deal with matters philosophical, either
moral, as Tyrtaeus, Phocylides, and Cato; or natural, as Lucretius and
Virgil`s Georgics; or astronomical, as Manilius and Pontanus; or historical,
as Lucan; which who mislike, the fault is in their judgment quite out of
taste, and not in the sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge.
But because this second sort is wrapped within the fold of the proposed
subject, and takes not the free course of his own invention, whether they
properly be poets or no let grammarians dispute, and go to the third, indeed
right poets, of whom chiefly this question ariseth. Betwixt whom and these
second is such a kind of difference as betwixt the meaner sort of painters,
who counterfeit only such faces as are set before them, and the more
excellent, who having no law but wit, bestow that in colors upon you which is
fittest for the eye to see, - as the constant though lamenting look of
Lucretia, when she punished in herself another`s fault; wherein he painteth
not Lucretia, whom he never saw, but painteth the outward beauty of such a
virtue. For these third be they which most properly do imitate to teach and
delight; and to imitate borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be; but
range, only reined with learned discretion, into the divine consideration of
what may be and should be. These be they that, as the first and most noble
sort may justly be termed vates, so these are waited on in the excellentest
languages and best understandings with the fore-described name of poets. For
these, indeed, do merely make to imitate, and imitate both to delight and
teach, and delight to move men to take that goodness in hand, which without
delight they would fly as from a stranger; and teach to make them know that
goodness whereunto they are moved: - which being the noblest scope to which
ever any learning was directed, yet want there not idle tongues to bark at
them.
These be subdivided into sundry more special denominations. The most
notable be the heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic, elegiac,
pastoral, and certain others, some of these being termed according to the
matter they deal with, some by the sort of verse they liked best to write in,
- for indeed the greatest part of poets have apparelled their poetical
inventions in that numberous kind of writing which is called verse. Indeed but
apparelled, verse being but an ornament and no cause to poetry, since there
have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many
versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets. For Xenophon, who did
imitate so excellently as to give us effigiem justi imperii - the portraiture
of a just empire under the name of Cyrus (as Cicero saith of him) - made
therein an absolute heroical poem; so did Heliodorus in his sugared invention
of that picture of love in Theagenes and Chariclea; and yet both these wrote
in prose. Which I speak to show that it is not riming and versing that maketh
a poet - no more than a long gown maketh an advocate, who, though he pleaded
in armor, should be an advocate and no soldier - but it is that feigning
notable images of virtues, vices, or what else, with that delightful teaching,
which must be the right describing note to know a poet by. Although indeed the
senate of poets hath chosen verse as their fittest raiment, meaning, as in
matter they passed all in all, so in manner to go beyond them; not speaking,
table-talk fashion, or like men in a dream, words as they chanceably fall
from the mouth, but peizing^7 each syllable of each word by just proportion,
according to the dignity of the subject.
[Footnote 7: Weighing.]
Now, therefore, it shall not be amiss, first to weigh this latter sort of
poetry by his works, and then by his parts; and if in neither of these
anatomies he be condemnable, I hope we shall obtain a more favorable sentence.
This purifying of wit, this enriching of memory, enabling of judgment, and
enlarging of conceit, which commonly we call learning, under what name soever
it come forth or to what immediate end soever it be directed, the final end is
to lead and draw us to as high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made
worse by their clay lodgings, can be capable of. This, according to the
inclination of man, bred many-formed impressions. For some that thought this
felicity principally to be gotten by knowledge, and no knowledge to be so high
or heavenly as acquaintance with the stars, gave themselves to astronomy;
others, persuading themselves to be demi-gods if they knew the causes of
things, became natural and supernatural philosophers. Some an admirable
delight drew to music, and some the certainty of demonstration to the
mathematics; but all, one and other, having this scope: - to know, and by
knowledge to lift up the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enjoying his
own divine essence. But when by the balance of experience it was found that
the astronomer, looking to the stars, might fall into a ditch, that the
inquiring philosopher might be blind in himself, and the mathematician might
draw forth a straight line with a crooked heart; then lo! did proof, the
overruler of opinions, make manifest, that all these are but serving sciences,
which, as they have each a private end in themselves, so yet are they all
directed to the highest end of the mistress knowledge, by the Greeks called
aPxlreKrovlKN, which stands, as I think, in the knowledge of a man`s self, in
the ethic and politic consideration, with the end of well-doing, and not of
well-knowing only: - even as the saddler`s next end is to make a good
saddle, but his further end to serve a nobler faculty, which is horsemanship;
so the horseman`s to soldiery; and the soldier not only to have the skill, but
to perform the practice of a soldier. So that the ending end of all earthly
learning being virtuous action, those skills that most serve to bring forth
that have a most just title to be princes over all the rest; wherein, if we
can show, the poet is worthy to have it before any other competitors.
Among whom as principal challengers step forth the moral philosophers;
whom, me thinketh, I see coming toward me with a sullen gravity, as though
they could not abide vice by daylight; rudely clothed, for to witness
outwardly their contempt of outward things; with books in their hands against
glory, whereto they set their names; sophistically speaking against subtility;
and angry with any man in whom they see the foul fault of anger. These men,
casting largess as they go of definitions, divisions, and distinctions, with a
scornful interrogative do soberly ask whether it be possible to find any path
so ready to lead a man to virtue, as that which teacheth what virtue is, and
teacheth it not only by delivering forth his very being, his causes and
effects, but also by making known his enemy, vice, which must be destroyed,
and his cumbersome servant, passion, which must be mastered; by showing the
generalities that contain it, and the specialities that are derived from it;
lastly, by plain setting down how it extendeth itself out of the limits of a
man`s own little world, to the government of families, and maintaining of
public societies?
The historian scarcely giveth leisure to the moralist to say so much, but
that he, loaden with old mouse-eaten records, authorizing himself for the
most part upon other histories, whose greatest authorities are built upon the
notable foundation of hearsay; having much ado to accord differing writers,
and to pick truth out of partiality; better acquainted with a thousand years
ago than with the present age, and yet better knowing how this world goeth
than how his own wit runneth; curious for antiquities and inquisitive of
novelties, a wonder to young folks and a tyrant in table-talk; denieth, in a
great chafe,^8 that any man for teaching of virtue and virtuous actions is
comparable to him. "I am testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae,
magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis.^9 The philosopher," saith he, "teacheth a
disputative virtue, but I do an active. His virtue is excellent in the
dangerless Academy of Plato, but mine showeth forth her honorable face in the
battles of Marathon, Pharsalia, Poitiers, and Agincourt. He teacheth virtue by
certain abstract considerations, but I only bid you follow the footing of them
that have gone before you. Old-aged experience goeth beyond the fine-
witted philosopher; but I give the experience of many ages. Lastly, if he make
the songbook, I put the learner`s hand to the lute; and if he be the guide, I
am the light." Then would he allege you innumerable examples, confirming story
by story, how much the wisest senators and princes have been directed by the
credit of history, as Brutus, Alphonsus of Aragon - and who not, if need be?
At length the long line of their disputation maketh^10 a point in this, - that
the one giveth the precept, and the other the example.
[Footnote 8: Anger, irritation.]
[Footnote 9: "The witness of time, the light of truth, the life of memory, the
directness of life, the herald of antiquity." - Cicero, "De Orat.," 2. 9. 36.]
[Footnote 10: Comes to.]
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