THE SECOND BOOK. 79 



of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the 

 mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more 

 heroical. Because true history propoundeth the successes and 

 issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and 

 vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and 

 more according to revealed Providence. Because true history 

 representeth actions and events more ordinary and less inter 

 changed, therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness and 

 more unexpected and alternative variations. So as it appeareth 

 that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, 

 and to delectation. And therefore, it was ever thought to have 

 some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect 

 the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of 

 the mind ; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind unto 

 the nature of things. And we see that by these insinuations 

 and congruities with man s nature and pleasure, joined also 

 with the agreement and consort it hath with music, it hath had 

 access and estimation in rude times and barbarous regions, 

 where other learning stood excluded. 



(3) The division of poesy which is aptest in the propriety 

 thereof (besides those divisions which are common unto it with 

 history, as feigned chronicles, feigned lives, and the appendices 

 of history, as feigned epistles, feigned orations, and the rest) is 

 into poesy narrative, representative, and allusive. The narra 

 tive is a mere imitation of history, with the excesses before 

 remembered, choosing for subjects commonly wars and love, 

 rarely state, and sometimes pleasure or mirth. Representative 

 is as a visible history, and is an image of actions as if they were 

 present, as history is of actions in nature as they are (that is) 

 past. Allusive, or parabolical, is a narration applied only to 

 express some special purpose or conceit ; which latter kind of 

 parabolical wisdom was much more in use in the ancient times, 

 as by the fables of JSsop, and the brief sentences of the seven, 

 and the use of hieroglyphics may appear. And the cause was 

 (for that it was then of necessity to express any point of reason 

 which was more sharp or subtle than the vulgar in that manner) 

 because men in those times wanted both variety of examples and 

 subtlety of conceit. And as hieroglyphics were before letters 

 so parables were before arguments ; and nevertheless now an 

 at all times they do retain much life and vigour, because 

 reason cannot be so sensible nor examples so fit. 



(4) But there remaineth yet another use of poesy parabolical, 

 opposite to that which we last mentioned ; for that tendeth to 

 demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught or delivered, and 

 this other to retire and obscure it that is, when the secrets 



