But that which giveth greatest scope to their scorning humour,is rhyming and versing.{61}It is already said,and,as I think,truly said,it is not rhyming and versing that maketh poesy;one may be a poet without versing,and a versifier without poetry.But yet,presuppose it were inseparable,as indeed,it seemeth Scaliger judgeth truly,it were an inseparable commendation;for if "oratio"next to "ratio,"speech next to reason,be the greatest gift bestowed upon mortality,that cannot be praiseless which doth most polish that blessing of speech;which considereth each word,not only as a man may say by his forcible quality,but by his best measured quantity;carrying even in themselves a harmony;without,perchance,number,measure,order,proportion be in our time grown odious.
But lay aside the just praise it hath,by being the only fit speech for music--music,I say,the most divine striker of the senses;thus much is undoubtedly true,that if reading be foolish without remembering,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 prose in the knitting up of the memory,the reason is manifest:the words,besides their delight,which hath a great affinity to memory,being so set as one cannot be lost,but the whole work fails:which accusing itself,calleth the remembrance back to itself,and so most strongly confirmeth it.Besides,one word so,as it were,begetting another,as,be it in rhyme or measured verse,by the former a man shall have a near guess to the follower.Lastly,even they that have taught the art of memory,have showed nothing so apt for it as a certain room divided into many places,well and thoroughly known;now that hath the verse in effect perfectly,every word having his natural seat,which seat must needs make the word remembered.But what needs more in a thing so known to all men?Who is it that ever was a scholar that doth not carry away some verses of Virgil,Horace,or Cato,which in his youth he learned,and even to his old age serve him for hourly lessons?as,"Percontatorem fugito:nam garrulus idem est.
Dum sibi quisque placet credula turba sumus."{62}
But the fitness it hath for memory is notably proved by all delivery of arts,wherein,for the most part,from grammar to logic,mathematics,physic,and the rest,the rules chiefly necessary to be borne away are compiled in verses.So that verse being in itself sweet and orderly,and being best for memory,the only handle of knowledge,it must be in jest that any man can speak against it.
Now {63}then go we to the most important imputations laid to the poor poets;for aught I can yet learn,they are these.
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 nurse of abuse,infecting us with many pestilent desires,with a syren sweetness,drawing the mind to the serpent's tail of sinful fancies;and herein,especially,comedies give the largest field to ear,as Chaucer saith;how,both in other nations and ours,before poets did soften us,we were full of courage,given to martial exercises,the pillars of manlike liberty,and not lulled asleep in shady idleness with poets'pastimes.
And lastly and chiefly,they cry out with open mouth,as if they had overshot Robin Hood,that Plato banished them out of his commonwealth.Truly this is much,if there be much truth in it.
First,{64}to the first,that a man might better spend his time,is a reason indeed;but it doth,as they say,but "petere principium."{65}For if it be,as I affirm,that no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue,and that none can both teach and move thereto so much as poesy,then is the conclusion manifest,that ink and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose employed.
And certainly,though a man should grant their first assumption,it should follow,methinks,very unwillingly,that good is not good because better is better.But I still and utterly deny that there is sprung out of earth a more fruitful knowledge.
