1.10. The subiect or matter of Poesie.
Hauing sufficiently sayd of the dignitie of Poets and Poesie, now it is tyme
to speake of the matter of subiect of Poesie, which to myne intent is, what
soeuer wittie and delicate conceit of man meet or worthy to be put in
written verse, for any necessary vse of the present time, or good
instruction of the posteritie.
But the chief and principall is: the laud honour & glory of the
immortall gods (I speake now in phrase of the Gentiles.) Secondly the
worthy gests of noble Princes: the memoriall and registry of all great
fortunes, the praise of vertue & reproofe of vice, the instruction of
morall doctrines, the reuealing of sciences naturall & other profitable
Arts, the redresse of boistrous & sturdie courages by perswasion, the
consolation and repose of temperate myndes, finally the common solace of
mankind in all his trauails and cares of this transitorie life. And in this
last sort being vsed for recreation onely, may allowably beare matter not
alwayes of the grauest, or of any great commoditie or profit, but rather in
some sort, vaine, dissolute, or wanton, so it be not very scandalous & of
euill example. But as our intent is to make this Art vulgar for all English
mens vse, & therefore are of necessitie to set downe the principal rules
therein to be obserued: so in mine opinion it is no lesse expedient to touch
briefly all the chief points of this auncient Poesie of the Greeks and
Latines, so far forth as it is conformeth with ours. So as it may be knowen
what we hold of them as borrowed, and what as of our owne peculiar.
Wherefore now that we haue said, what is the matter of Poesie, we will
declare the manner and formes of poemes vsed by the auncients.