1.9. How Poesie should not be imployed upon vayne conceits or vicious or infamous.
Wherefore the Nobilitie and dignitie of the Art considered aswell by
vniuersalitie as antiquitie and the naturall excellence of it selfe, Poesie
ought not to be abashed and imployed vpon any vnworthy matter &
subiect, nor vsed to vaine purposes, which neuerthelesse is dayly seene, and
that is to vtter conceits infamous & vicious or ridiculous and foolish,
or of no good example & doctrine. Albeit in merry matters (not
vnhonest) being vsed for mans solace and recreation it may be well allowed,
for as I said before, Poesie is a pleasant maner of vtterance varying from
the ordinarie of purpose to refresh the mynde by the eares delight. Poesie
also is not onely laudable, because I said it was a metricall speach vsed by
the first men, but because it is a metricall speach corrected and reformed
by discreet iudgements, and with no lesse cunning and curiositie then the
Greeke and Latine Poesie, and by Art bewtified & adorned, &
brought far from the primitiue rudenesse of the first inuentors, otherwise
it might be sayd to me that Adam and Eues apernes were the
gayest garmentes, because they were the first, and the shepheardes tente or
pauillion, the best housing, because it was the most auncient & most
vniuersall: which I would not haue so taken, for it is not my meaning but
that Art & cunning concurring with nature, antiquitie &
vniuersalitie, in things indifferent, and not euill, doe make them more
laudable. And right so our vulgar riming Poesie, being by good wittes
brought to that perfection we see, is worthily to be preferred before any
other maner of vtterance in prose, for such vse and to such purpose as it is
ordained, and shall hereafter be set downe more particularly.