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creature in himself, though it be less than that of a buffalo, or a rhinocerote. They differ but in specie: either in the kind is absolute; both have their parts, and either the whole. Therefore, as in every body, so in every action, which is the subject of a just work, there is required a certain proportionable greatness, neither too vast, nor too minute. For that which happens to the eyes when we behold a body, the same happens to the memory, when we contemplate an action. I look upon a monstrous giant, as Tityus, whose body covered nine acres of land, and mine eye sticks upon every part: the whole that consists of those parts will never be taken in at one entire view. So in a fable, if the action be too great, we can never comprehend the whole together in our imagination. Again, if it be too little, there ariseth no pleasure out of the object; it affords the view no stay; it is beheld, and vanisheth at once. As if we should look upon an ant or pismire, the parts fly the sight, and the whole considered is almost nothing. The same happens in action, which is the object of memory, as the body is of sight. Too vast oppresseth the eyes, and exceeds the memory; too little, scarce admits either.

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CLXVII.

What is the utmost bounds of a fable.-Now in every action it behoves the poet to know which is his utmost bound, how far with fitness and a necessary proportion he may produce and determine it; that is, till either good fortune change into the worse, or the worse into the better. For as a body without proportion cannot be goodly, no more can the action, either in comedy or tragedy, without his fit bounds: and every bound, for the nature of the subject, is esteemed the best that is largest, till it can increase no more so it behoves the action in tragedy or

comedy to be let grow, till the necessity ask a conclusion; wherein two things are to be considered; first, that it exceed not the compass of one day; next, that there be place left for digression and art. For the episodes and digressions in a fable are the same that household stuff and other furniture are in a house. And so far from the measure and extent of a fable dramatic.

CLXVIII.

What by one and entire.-Now that it should be one, and entire. One is considerable two ways; either as it is only separate, and by itself, or as being composed of many parts, it begins to be one, as those parts grow, or are wrought together. That it should be one the first way alone, and by itself, no man that hath tasted letters ever would say, especially having required before a just magnitude, and equal proportion of the parts in themselves. Neither of which can possibly be, if the action be single and separate, not composed of parts, which laid together in themselves, with an equal and fitting proportion, tend to the same end; which thing out of antiquity itself hath deceived many, and more this day it doth deceive.

CLXIX.

Hercules.-Theseus.-Achilles.-Ulysses.-Homer and Virgil.-Eneas.-Venus.- So many there be of old, that have thought the action of one man to be one; as of Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, Ulysses, and other heroes; which is both foolish and false, since by one and the same person many things may be severally done, which cannot fitly be referred or joined to the same end: which not only the excellent tragic poets, but the best masters of the epic, Homer and Virgil saw. For though the argument

of an epic poem be far more diffused, and poured out than that of tragedy; yet Virgil writing of Æneas, hath pretermitted many things. He neither tells

how he was born, how brought up, how he fought with Achilles, how he was snatched out of the battle by Venus; but that one thing, how he came into Italy, he prosecutes in twelve books. The rest of his journey, his error by sea, the sack of Troy, are put not as the argument of the work, but episodes of the argument. So Homer laid by many things of Ulysses, and handled no more than he saw tended to one and the same end.

CLXX.

Theseus.-Hercules.-Juvenal.-Codrus.-Sophocles.-Ajax.-Ulysses.- Contrary to which, and foolishly, those poets did, whom the philosopher taxeth, of whom one gathered all the actions of Theseus, another put all the labours of Hercules in one work. So did he whom Juvenal mentions in the beginning, "hoarse Codrus," that recited a volume compiled, which he called his Theseide, not yet finished, to the great trouble both of his hearers and himself; amongst which there were many parts had no coherence nor kindred one with another, so far they were from being one action, one fable. For as a house, consisting of divers materials, becomes one structure, and one dwelling; so an action, composed of divers parts, may become one fable, epic or dramatic. For example, in a tragedy, look upon Sophocles his Ajax Ajax, deprived of Achilles' armour, which he hoped from the suffrage of the Greeks, disdains; and growing impatient of the injury, rageth, and runs mad. In that humour he doth many senseless things, and at last falls upon the Grecian flock, and kills a great ram for Ulysses: returning to his senses, he grows ashamed of the scorn, and kills

himself; and is by the chiefs of the Greeks forbidden burial. These things agree and hang together not as they were done, but as seeming to be done, which made the action whole, entire, and absolute.

CLXXI.

The conclusion concerning the whole, and the parts. -Which are episodes.-Ajax and Hector.-Homer.For the whole, as it consisteth of parts; so without all the parts it is not the whole; and to make it absolute, is required not only the parts, but such parts as are true. For a part of the whole was true; which if you take away, you either change the whole, or it is not the whole. For if it be such a part, as being present or absent, nothing concerns the whole, it cannot be called a part of the whole and such are the episodes, of which hereafter. For the present here is one example; the single combat of Ajax with Hector, as it is at large described in Homer, nothing belongs to this Ajax of Sophocles.

You admire no poems, but such as run like a brewer's cart upon the stones, hobbling:

Et, quæ per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt.
Accius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt,
Attonitusque legis terraai, frugiferaï.P

P Martial, lib. xi. epig. 91.

THE ENGLISH GRAMMAR,

MADE BY BEN JONSON,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF

ALL STRANGERS,

OUT OF HIS OBSERVATION OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE, NOW SPOKEN

AND IN USE.

Consuetudo, certissima loquendi magistra, utendumque planè sermone, ut nummo, cui publica forma est. Quinctil.

Non obstant heæ disciplinæ per illas euntibus sed circa illas hærentibus. Quinctil.

Major adhuc restat labor, sed sanè sit cum veniâ, si gratiâ carebit: boni enim artificis partes sunt, quam paucissima possit omittere. Scalig. lib. i. c. 25.

Neque enim optimi artificis est, omnia persequi. Gallenus.
Expedire grammatico, etiam, si quædam nesciat. Quinctil.

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