But to come anonymous upon me, and force me to commend
you against my interest, was not altogether so fair, give me leave
to say, as it was politic; for by concealing your quality you might
clearly understand how your work succeeded, and that the general
approbation was given to your merit, not your titles. Thus, like
Apelles, you stood unseen behind your own Venus, and received the
praises of the passing multitude. The work was commended, not the
author; and, I doubt not, this was one of the most pleasing
adventures of your life.
I have detained your lordship longer than I intended in this dispute
of preference betwixt the epic poem and the drama, and yet have not
formally answered any of the arguments which are brought by
Aristotle on the other side, and set in the fairest light by Dacier.
But I suppose without looking on the book, I may have touched on
some of the objections; for in this address to your lordship I
design not a treatise of heroic poetry, but write in a loose
epistolary way somewhat tending to that subject, after the example
of Horace in his first epistle of the second book to Augustus
Caesar, and of that to the Pisos, which we call his "Art of Poetry,"
in both of which he observes no method that I can trace, whatever
Scaliger the father, or Heinsius may have seen, or rather think they
had seen.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196