“Est deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo Sedibus aethereis spiritus ille venit.” {139a}

Lipsius.—­Petron. in.  Fragm.—­And Lipsius to affirm, Scio, poetam neminem praestantem fuisse, sine parte quadam uberiore divinae aurae.  And hence it is that the coming up of good poets (for I mind not mediocres or imos) is so thin and rare among us.  Every beggarly corporation affords the State a mayor or two bailiffs yearly; but Solus rex, aut poeta, non quotannis nascitur.  To this perfection of nature in our poet we require exercise of those parts, and frequent.

2.  Exercitatio.—­Virgil.—­Scaliger.—­Valer.  Maximus.—­Euripides.—­ Alcestis.—­If his wit will not arrive suddenly at the dignity of the ancients, let him not yet fall out with it, quarrel, or be over hastily angry; offer to turn it away from study in a humour, but come to it again upon better cogitation; try another time with labour.  If then it succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; torn it anew.  There is no statute law of the kingdom bids you be a poet against your will or the first quarter; if it comes in a year or two, it is well.  The common rhymers pour forth verses, such as they are, ex tempore; but there never comes from them one sense worth the life of a day.  A rhymer and a poet are two things.  It is said of the incomparable Virgil that he brought forth his verses like a bear, and after formed them with licking.  Scaliger the father writes it of him, that he made a quantity of verses in the morning, which afore night he reduced to a less number.  But that which Valerius Maximus hath left recorded of Euripides, the tragic poet, his answer to Alcestis, another poet, is as memorable as modest; who, when it was told to Alcestis that Euripides had in three days brought forth but three verses, and those with some difficulty and throes, Alcestis, glorying he could with ease have sent forth a hundred in the space, Euripides roundly replied, “Like enough; but here is the difference:  thy verses will not last these three days, mine will to all time.”  Which was as much as to tell him he could not write a verse.  I have met many of these rattles that made a noise and buzzed.  They had their hum, and no more.  Indeed, things wrote with labour deserve to be so read, and will last their age.

3.  Imitatio.—­Horatius.—­Virgil.—­Statius.—­Homer.—­Horat.—­ Archil.—­Alcaeus, &c.—­The third requisite in our poet or maker is imitation, to be able to convert the substance or riches of another poet to his own use.  To make choice of one excellent man above the rest, and so to follow him till he grow very he, or so like him as the copy may be mistaken for the principal.  Not as a creature that swallows what it takes in crude, raw, or undigested, but that feeds with an appetite, and hath a stomach to concoct, divide, and turn all into nourishment.  Not to imitate servilely, as Horace saith, and catch at vices for virtue, but to draw forth out of the best and choicest flowers, with the bee, and turn all into honey, work it into one relish and savour; make our imitation sweet; observe how the best writers have imitated, and follow them.  How Virgil and Statius have imitated Homer; how Horace, Archilochus; how Alcaeus, and the other lyrics; and so of the rest.