Natur'd and wicked Atreus cook to th' eye
His nephew's entrails; nor must Progne fly
Into a swallow there; nor Cadmus take
Upon the stage the figure of a snake.

What so is shown, I not believe, and hate.

Nor must the fable, that would hope the fate
Once seen, to be again call'd for, and play'd,
Have more or less than just five acts: nor laid,
To have a god come in; except a knot
Worth his untying happen there and not
Any fourth man, to speak at all, aspire.

An actor's parts, and office too, the quire
Must maintain manly: nor be heard to sing
Between the acts, a quite clean other thing
Than to the purpose leads, and fitly 'grees.
It still must favour good men, and to these
Be won a friend; it must both sway and bend
The angry,
and love those that fear t' offend.
Praise the spare diet, wholesome justice, laws,
Peace, and the open ports, that peace doth cause.
Hide faults, pray to the gods, and wish aloud
Fortune would love the poor, and leave the proud.
The hau'boy, not as now with latten bound,

And rival with the trumpet for his sound,
But soft, and simple, at few holds breath'd time
And tune too, fitted to the chorus' rhyme,
As loud enough to fill the seats, not yet
So over-thick, but where the people met,
They might with ease be number'd, being a few
Chaste, thrifty, modest folk, that came to view.
But as they conquer'd and enlarg'd their bound,
That wider walls embrac'd their city round,
And they uncensur'd might at feasts and plays
Steep the glad genius in the wine whole days,
Both in their tunes the license greater grew,
And in their numbers; for alas, what knew
The idiot, keeping holiday, or drudge,

Rusticus urbano confusus, turpis honesto?
Sic prisca motumque, et luxuriam addidit arti
Tibicen, traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem.
Sic etiam fidibus voces crevêre severis,

Et tulit eloquium insolitum facundia præceps.
Utiliumque sagax rerum, et divina futuri
Sortilegis non descrepuit sententia Delphis.

Ignotum Tragica genus invenisse Čamona
Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poëmata Thespis,
Qua canerent agerentque peruncti fæcibus ora.
Post hunc persona pallæque repertor honesta
Eschylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis,
Et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno.
Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum,
Mox etiam agrestes satyros nudavit, et asper
Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit: eò quòd
Illecebris erat, et gratâ novitate morandus
Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex.
Verùm ita risores, ita commendare dicaces
Convenient satyros, ità vertere seria ludo:
Ne, quicunque deus, quicunque adhibebitur heros,
Regali conspectus in auro nuper, et ostro,
Migret in obscuras humili sermone tabernas;
Aut, dum vitat humum, nubes, et inania captet.
Effutire leves indigna tragedia versus:
Ut festis matrona moveri jussa diebus,

Clown, townsman, base and noble mixt, to judge?
Thus to his ancient art the piper lent

Gesture and Riot, whilst he swooping went
In his train'd gown about the stage: so grew
In time to tragedy, a music new.

The rash and headlong eloquence brought forth
Unwonted language: and that sense of worth
That found out profit, and foretold each thing
Now differed not from Delphic riddling.

Thespis is said to be the first found out
The Tragedy, and carried it about,

Till then unknown, in carts, wherein did ride
Those that did sing, and act: their faces dy'd
With lees of wine. Next Eschylus, more late
Brought in the visor, and the robe of state,
Built a small timber'd stage, and taught them talk
Lofty and grave, and in the buskin stalk.
He too, that did in tragic verse contend
For the vile goat, soon after forth did send
The rough rude satyrs naked, and would try,
Though sour, with safety of his gravity,
How he could jest, because he mark'd and saw
The free spectators subject to no law,

Having well eat and drunk, the rites being done,
Were to be staid with softnesses, and won
With something that was acceptably new.
Yet so the scoffing satyrs to men's view,
And so their prating to present was best,
And so to turn all earnest into jest,
As neither any god were brought in there,
Or semi-god, that late was seen to wear
A royal crown and purple, be made hop
With poor base terms through every baser shop :
Or whilst he shuns the earth, to catch at air
And empty clouds. For tragedy is fair,
And far unworthy to blurt out light rhymes;
But as a matron drawn at solemn times

Intererit satyris paulum pudibunda protervis.
Non ego inornata, et dominantia nomina solum,
Verbaque, Pisones, satyrorum scriptor amabo:
Nec sic enitar tragico differre colori

Ut nihil intersit, Davusne loquatur, an audax
Pythias emuncto lucrata Simone talentum;
An custos, famulusque dei Silenus alumni.

Ex noto fictum carmen sequar, ut sibi quivis
Speret idem: sudet multùm frustraque laboret
Ausus idem: tantum series juncturaque pollet:
Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris.
Silvis deducti caveant, me judice, Fauni,
Ne velut innati triviis, ac penè forenses,

Aut nimium teneris juvenentur versibus unquam,
Aut immunda crepent, ignominiosaque dicta.
Offenduntur enim, quibus est equus, et pater, et res :
Nec, si quid fricti ciceris probat, et nucis emptor,
Equis accipiunt animis, donantve corona.

Successit vetus his Comoedia non sine multâ
Laude, sed in vitium libertas excidit, et vim
Dignam lege regi. Lex est accepta, chorusque
Turpiter obticuit, sublato jure nocendi.

Syllaba longa brevi subjecta vocatur Iambus,
Pes citus: unde etiam trimetris accrescere jussit
Nomen Iambeis, cum senos redderet ictus,

Primus ad extremum similis sibi: non ita pridem

To dance, so she should shamefac'd differ far
From what th' obscene and petulant satyrs are.
Nor I, when I write satyrs, will so love
Plain phrase, my Pisos, as alone t' approve
Mere reigning words: nor will I labour so
Quite from all face of tragedy to go,

As not make difference, whether Davus speak,
And the bold Pythias, having cheated weak
Simo, and of a talent wip'd his purse;
Or old Silenus, Bacchus' guard and nurse.
I can out of known geer a fable frame,
And so as every man may hope the same;
Yet he that offers at it may sweat much,
And toil in vain: the excellence is such
Of order and connexion; so much grace
There comes sometimes to things of meanest place.
But let the Fauns, drawn from their groves, beware,
Be I their judge, they do at no time dare,
Like men street-born, and near the hall rehearse
Their youthful tricks in over-wanton verse;
Or crack out bawdy speeches, and unclean.
The Roman gentry, men of birth and mean,
Will take offence at this: nor though it strike
Him that buys chiches blanch'd, or chance to like
The nut-crackers throughout, will they therefore
Receive or give it an applause the more.
To these succeeded the old comedy,
And not without much praise, till liberty
Fell into fault so far, as now they saw
Her license fit to be restrain'd by law :
Which law receiv'd, the chorus held his peace,
His power of foully hurting made to cease.

Two rests, a short and long, th' Iambic frame; A foot, whose swiftness gave the verse the name Of Trimeter, when yet it was six-pac'd,

But mere Iambics all, from first to last.

Nor is't long since they did with patience take