But here
again they are all indulgent to themselves; and every one who
believes himself a wit, that is, every man, will pretend at the same
time to a right of judging. But to press it yet further, there are
many witty men, but few poets; neither have all poets a taste of
tragedy. And this is the rock on which they are daily splitting.
Poetry, which is a picture of nature, must generally please; but it
is not to be understood that all parts of it must please every man;
therefore is not tragedy to be judged by a witty man, whose taste is
only confined to comedy. Nor is every man, who loves tragedy, a
sufficient judge of it; he must understand the excellences of it too,
or he will only prove a blind admirer, not a critic. From hence it
comes that so many satires on poets, and censures of their writings,
fly abroad. Men of pleasant conversation (at least esteemed so),
and endued with a trifling kind of fancy, perhaps helped out with
some smattering of Latin, are ambitious to distinguish themselves
from the herd of gentlemen, by their poetry--
Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44