be pleas'd with a dry, Jejune and formal Method [that] excludes Variety as the Religious observation of the Rules of Aristotle does. And all those that exclaim against the Liberty some of our English Poets have taken, must grant that a Variety that contributes to the main Design, cannot divide our Concern: And if so, 'tis certainly an Excellence the Moderns have gain'd above the Ancients. This wou'd appear plainer if I had room and time to instance in Particulars. The Plays Mr. Dryden has bless'd the Age with will prove this; which is compar'd (as I hereafter intend) with those of Sophocles and Euripides, either for the Plot, Thought, or Expression, will gain him the Poets Garland from those two Hero's of Old Greece.

The Plagiarism objected to our Poets is common to the Ancients too; for Virgil took from Homer, Theocritus, and ev'n Ennius; and we are assur'd Homer himself built upon some Predecessors: And tho' their thoughts may be something a-kin, yet they alter their Dress, and in all other things we are satisfied with the variety of the outward visible Form, tho' the intrinsic value be the same, as Mr. Congreve's Song has it, Nothing new besides their Faces, e'ry Woman is the same. In all things as well as Women the meer Variety of Appearance, whets our Desire and Curiosity. I am,

SIR,

Your Humble Servant,

CHARLES GILDON.

III. FROM THE COMPLETE ART OF POETRY.

1718

DIALOGUE II.

OF THE USE AND NECESSITY OF RULES IN POETRY.

I Have shewn you, Crites, in the former Dialogue, what past in our agreeable Company, on our first Meeting; and I am confident, that the Defence of that noble Art, in which you are so great a Master, and by Consequence, of which you are so great a Lover, can by no means be disagreeable to you; nay, I am well assured, that you will give the highest Approbation of what has been said on that Score, since it is founded on Justice and Reason.

I shall now proceed to let you know what pass'd in the second Day's Conversation, to prove a Point which, I am satisfy'd, you do allow to be Truth; and that is, the Use and Necessity of the Rules of Art, in Poetry, without which, all must be governed by unruly Fancy, and Poetry become the Land of Confusion, which is, in Reality, the Kingdom of Beauty, Order, and Harmony.

Laudon being thus enlarg'd from the Tyranny of Business, I could not deny my self the Pleasure of repeating my Visits as often as I could; and the more often I repeated them, the more my Appetite was raised for their Continuance; for I always came away with some 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 Business; and in the mean while, happening to see a

Book lye in the Window, I took it up to pass the Time till his Return; but was not a little surpriz'd to find it to be, Bishe's Art of English Poetry; a very extraordinary Title, thought I, as if the Art of Poetry were not the same in all Languages.

I had not cast my Eye, in a cursory Manner, on many Pages, before Laudon return'd: Pray, Sir, said I, how came you by this worthy Author, who writing on the Art of Poetry, would perswade us, that there is no Art at all in it, and aims chiefly at the Knack of Versifying; and yet, even in that, is full of gross Absurdities, and visible Contradictions?

Why, Sir, reply'd Laudon, you must know, that the fine Mrs. Lamode was to pay my Wife a Visit yesterday, and brought this Book along with her; and I find, on her Departure, she forgot this noble Piece of Criticism, the infallible Director of her Speculations that Way. I would have sent it Home to her, but that she and her Husband, honest Issachar, are to dine with me to Day; for I would not bear the Scandal of having it thought Part of my own Collection.

It is impossible, my Friend, said I, that any one that knows you, should suspect you guilty of that Folly; and to cast an Eye upon a Book of so promising a Title, is justify'd by the Title. I have my self perus'd 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 shameful Ignorance of a little Pretender, had not the Clamours of the Traders in Books deterr'd me, by asserting 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 Booksellers Shops, to those of the Pastry Cook and Grocer.

That Reason, in my Opinion, (interrupted Laudon) is too fallacious to influence so good a Judgment, to desist from a laudable Design, since it is drawn from private and particular Interest, against the publick and general Good; sacrificing the Improvement and Honour of Arts to the miserable Prospect of servile Gain. For this would be a certain and speedy Way of obstructing all Manner of Learning; since, had this been a Rule founded on general Consent (as, if it have any Validity, it must be) there never cou'd have been any Progress or Improvement in any Art or Science.

The Multiplicity of Books in other Arts, is no Objection to the Increasing the Number; and notwithstanding the present 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 presumes to write in that Art, who is ignorant of its Principles, yet we see daily Improvements made in every Part of it.

I cannot therefore imagine why you, or any other Gentleman of your Knowledge, may not do the same Justice to Poetry, and vindicate that divine Art, which has been the Glory of great Nations, the Favourite of great Monarchs, the illustrious Proof of a true and great Politeness, in so many of the purer Ages, from the Abuses of a Writer that has discovered a most profound Ignorance of every Part of it (at least, as far as he has been pleased hitherto to attempt) and endeavours, by publishing his Absurdities, to promote them. For tho' he has ventur'd only on the inconsiderable Knack of Versifying, yet in that he is out in the very Fundamentals, which sufficiently betrays both the Capacity and the Gusto of the Person. 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 most commonly Men without Genius or Skill in the Art, set up for Poets, forgeting that of Horace,

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

Who neither knows, nor wou'd observe a Rule.

Rosc.

and would fain obtrude on the World, the incoherent Libertinisms of their own crude Fancies, for Poetry; so would this Author impose his shallow and indigested Notions (mostly borrow'd from the Messrs. of the PortRoyal on the French Versification) for the true and whole Art of English Poetry. The Plausibility of his Title has carried off so many Impressions, as have made it with the Ignorant, the Standard of Writing. So that the Reason is the stronger for a just Criticism, to destroy the ill Effects of this false one.

You must therefore find out some better Reason for your Silence on this Occasion, than what you have given, or plainly confess, that you sacrifice to Idleness 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, these specious Scruples have had Power to deter me from this Task; yet assure your self, that I am not wholly without a reasonable Obstacle. I must tell you, that the Undertaking seems to me to be of no manner of Use, but lies under the forbidding and odious Imputation of Ill-Nature. The Libertinism of the Age, which makes Scribbling so very easy to every one who has the least Address at Crambo, will make the Million averse to all Regulations, which render Writing so very difficult; and this the Poetasters (much the Majority even of the