_CHAP. X._

_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 or 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 use 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 used by the
auncients.