of the truth, since the charm of imitation is probability."[35] As a
result of his naturalism, Plutarch admitted as appropriate poetical
material immorality and obscenity as well as virtue, because these things
are in life. If the copy is good, the poem is artistic and praiseworthy,
just as a painting of a venomous spider, if a faithful representation of
its loathsome subject, is praised for its art.

Perhaps it was Plutarch's naturalistic theory of imitation in poetry which
led him to compare poetry with painting. This he does in what he says was
a common phrase that "poetry is vocal painting, and painting, silent
poetry."[36] The false analogy, "_ut pictura poesis_," establishing, as it
does, a sanction in criticism for the static in drama, flourished until
Lessing exposed it in his _Laocoon_. Aristotle at the beginning had made
clear that the essential element in drama is movement, a movement which
could have a beginning, a middle, and an end.



4. Horace


The remains of Roman literary criticism are not so philosophical as are
the Greek. The treatise of Horace is not in Aristotle's sense a _poetic_;
it is an _ars poetica_. _Ars_, to the Roman, meant a body of rules which a
practitioner would find useful as a guide in composing. As a practitioner
himself, Horace is more interested in the craft of poetry than in its
philosophy or theory. He writes as a poet to young men who desire to
become poets. The essence of poetry he ignores or takes for granted. He
says, in effect, "Here are some practical suggestions which I have found
of assistance."