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INQUIRY

INTO THE

NATURE AND EXTENT

OF

POETICK LICENCE.

By N. A. VIGORS, jun. Esq.

Μηδε ήμεις ουν την ποιητικὴν ἡμερίδα των μέζων εκκοπτωμεν,
μηδ' αφανιζωμεν αλλ' όπε μεν ὑφ ἡδονης ακρατο προς δοξαν αυθα
δως θραςυνομενον εξυβρίζει και ύλομανει το μυθώδες αυτης και
θεατρικόν, επιλαμβανομενοι κολθωμεν και πιέζωμεν όπε δε απ
λεται τινος μέζης τη χαριτι, και το γλυκυ τε λόγε και αγωγον, εκ
ακαρπον εστιν, εδε κενον, ενταυθα φιλοσοφιαν εισαγωμεν και και
ταμιγνυωμεν.
PLUT. de audiend. Poet.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. MACKINLAY, 87, STRAND,

BY T. BENSLEY, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET.

ODLEIAT

20 JAN 1965

LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION.

AMONG the works of invention, which are intended to promote the convenience, or increase the elegancies of society, the compositions of the Fine Arts are distinguished by a marked peculiarity in their end and execution. As they are directed to the object of contributing to the gratification, not of administering to the necessities of mankind, they seem, by their nature, to claim an exemption from that exactness and regularity of representation, which characterize the works of mere utility. Pursuing thus a peculiar end, they have been indulged in peculiar immunities; and to such an extent has the right of their professors to these exclusive privileges been acknowledged, that they have been allowed to heighten their delineations by such adscititious or imaginary embellishment, as, lying beyond the boundaries of nature and reality, appear more calculated to awaken our interest, or add to our delight.

B

But among the arts, thus privileged by universal suffrage, poetry not only stands the first in point of rank, but preserves this elevation in nearly the same degree of superiority, as their productions surpass the inferiour works of invention. The powers by which the less exalted of these sister arts excite the emotions of taste, are nearly limited to the use they are enabled to make of material objects; they may be almost said to find their verge terminate where there is no beauty or sublimity of colour, sound, or form. But not only all the sublimity and beauty of matter, but of mind, come under the poet's controul; he not only raises a new creation more novel, more fanciful, and more perfect than exists any where in reality; he not only animates his scenery with characters, but informs his characters with sentiments, and endows them with language suitable to their ideal existence. Indeed poetry in its imagery, excels the other fine arts, not merely in the same degree that the intellectual world excels the corporeal: the power of a poet over his materials is nothing less than enchantment; he can as easily transfer the property of one object to another, as substitute one object for another; he can animate

matter into mind, and invest mind with the form and properties of matter.

On carrying up our inquiries into the nature of so extraordinary and considerable a portion of the materials of a poet to the source, and investigating the sentiments of the ancients on the subject before us, their opinions are found deserving of notice, more from the partiality which they have manifested towards this licentiousness in composition, than from the success which they have evinced in justifying or explaining it. In undertaking to account for those bolder effusions of the art, which they regarded as soaring too high for the controul of reason, or trammels of precept, they pronounced them to be the effects of a divine phrensy. Under this idea, which was no small favourite with antiquity, the votarist of the muse was feigned to receive by inspiration those sublime conceptions, which he imbibed with so much warmth, and delivered with so much enthusiasm. In vain did he, who was not thus favoured by heaven, endeavour to regulate his essays by art, or by labour; all his attempts must prove cold and lifeless, until animated with that effluence which could descend from the muse alone. While he

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