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examples rather teach them to disdain the Slaves then to loath Wine, for Men seldom take notice of the vice in abject persons, especially where necessity constrains it. And in observation of the second, I have thought that 5 those horrid spectacles, when the latter race of Gladiators made up the excesses of Roman feasts, did more induce the Guests to detest the cruelty of mankinde then increase their courage by beholding such an impudent scorne of Life.

I have now given you the accompt of such provisions as 10 I made for this new Building; and you may next please, having examin'd the substance, to take a view of the forme, and observe if I have methodically and with discretion dispos'd of the materialls which with some curiosity I had collected. I cannot discerne by any help from reading or 15 learned men, who have been to me the best and briefest Indexes of Books, that any Nation hath in representment of great actions, either by Heroicks or Dramaticks, digested Story into so pleasant and instructive a method as the English by their Drama; and by that regular species, 20 though narratively and not in Dialogue, I have drawn the body of an Heroick Poem; In which I did not only observe the Symmetry,-proportioning five Books to five Acts, & Canto's to Scenes, the Scenes having their number ever govern'd by occasion,-but all the shadowings, happy 25 strokes, secret graces, and even the drapery, which together make the second beauty, I have, I hope, exactly follow'd; and those compositions of second beauty I observe in the Drama to be the under-walks, interweaving, or correspondence of lesser design in Scenes, not the great motion of the 30 main plot and coherence of the Acts.

The first Act is the general preparative, by rendring the chiefest characters of persons, and ending with something that looks like an obscure promise of design. The second begins with an introducement of new persons, so finishes 35 all the characters, and ends with some little performance

of that design which was promis'd at the parting of the first Act. The third makes a visible correspondence in the under-walks, or lesser intrigues, of persons, and ends with an ample turn of the main design and expectation of a new. The fourth, ever having occasion to be the longest, gives a 5 notorious turn to all the under-walks, and a counterturn to that main design which chang'd in the third. The fifth begins with an intire diversion of the main and dependant Plotts, then makes the general correspondence of the persons more discernable, and ends with an easy untying of those 10 particular knots which made a contexture of the whole, leaving such satisfaction of probabilities with the Spectator as may perswade him that neither Fortune in the fate of the Persons, nor the Writer in the Representment, have been unnatural or exorbitant. To these Meanders of the 15 English Stage I have cut out the Walks of my Poem, which in this description may seem intricate and tedious, but will, I hope, when men take pains to visit what they have heard describ'd, appear to them as pleasant as a summer passage on a crooked River, where going about and turning back 20 is as delightful as the delayes of parting Lovers.

In placing the Argument, as a P(r)oem, before every Canto, I have not wholly follow'd the example of the Moderns, but averted it from that purpose to which I found it frequently us'd; for it hath been intended by 25 others as the contents of the Chapter, or as a Bill of Fare at a Venetian Feast, which is not brought before the meat to raise an expectation, but to satisfie the longing curiosity of the Guests. And that which I have call'd my Argument is onely meant as an assistance to the readers memory, by 30 containing brief hints, such as, if all the Arguments were successively read, would make him easily remember the mutual dependancies of the general design; yet each rather mentions every person acting then their actions: But he is very unskilful that by Narratives before an 35

Historical Poem prevents expectation; for so he comes to have as little success over the Reader (whom the Writer should surprize, and, as it were, keep prisoner for a time) as he hath on his Enemies, who commanding a party out 5 to take them (and commonly Readers are justly Enemies to Writers) imparts openly the design ere he begins the action : Or he may be said to be as unluckily officious as he that leads a wooing to a Mistriss one that already hath newly enjoy'd her.

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I shall say a little why I have chosen my interwoven Stanza of four, though I am not oblig'd to excuse the choice; for numbers in Verse must, like distinct kinds of Musick, be expos'd to the uncertain and different taste of several Eares. Yet I may declare that I beleev'd it would be more pleasant to the Reader, in a Work of length, to give this respite or pause between every Stanza, having endeavour'd that each should contain a period, then to run him out of breath with continu'd Couplets. Nor doth alternate Rime by any lowliness of Cadence make the 20 sound less Heroick, but rather adapt it to a plain and stately composing of Musick; and the brevity of the Stanza renders it less subtle to the Composer and more easie to the Singer, which, in stilo recitativo, when the Story is long, is chiefly requisite. And this was, indeed, if I shall not betray vanity in my Confession, the reason that prevail'd most towards my choice of this Stanza and my division of the main work into Canto's, every Canto including a sufficient accomplishment of some worthy design or action; for I had so much heat (which you, Sir, 30 may call pride, since pride may be allow'd in Pegasus, if it be a praise to other Horses) as to presume they might, like the Works of Homer ere they were joyn'd together and made a Volumn by the Athenian King, be sung at Village-feasts, though not to Monarchs after Victory, nor to Armies before 35 battel. For so, as an inspiration of glory into the one, and

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of valour into the other, did Homer's Spirit, long after his bodies rest, wander in musick about Greece.

Thus you have the Model of what I have already built, or shal hereafter join to the same frame. If I be accus'd of Innovation, or to have transgressed against the method 5 of the Ancients, I shall think my self secure in beleeving that a Poet, who hath wrought with his own instruments at a new design, is no more answerable for disobedience to Predecessors, then Law-makers are liable to those old Laws which themselves have repealed.

Having describ'd the outward frame, the large rooms within, the lesser conveyances, and now the furniture, it were orderly to let you examine the matter of which that furniture is made. But though every Owner who hath the Vanity to shew his ornaments or Hangings must endure 15 the curiosity and censure of him that beholds them, yet I shall not give you the trouble of inquiring what is, but tell you of what I design'd, their substance, which is, Wit: And Wit is the laborious and the lucky resultances of thought, having towards its excellence, as we say of the 20 strokes of Painting, as well a happinesse as care. It is a Webb consisting of the subt'lest threds; and like that of the Spider is considerately woven out of our selves; for a Spider may be said to consider, not only respecting his solemnesse and tacit posture (like a grave Scout in ambush 25 for his Enemy), but because all things done are either from consideration or chance, and the works of Chance are accomplishments of an instant, having commonly a dissimilitude, but hers are the works of time, and have their contextures alike.

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Wit is not only the luck and labour, but also the dexterity of thought, rounding the world, like the Sun, with unimaginable motion, and bringing swiftly home to the memory universall surveys. It is the Souls Powder, which when supprest, as forbidden from flying upward, blows up 35

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the restraint and loseth all force in a farther ascension towards Heaven (the region of God), and yet by nature is much less able to make any inquisition downward towards Hell, the Cell of the Devill; But breaks through all about it as farr as the utmost it can reach, removes, uncovers, makes way for Light where darkness was inclos'd, till great bodies are more examinable by being scatter'd into parcels, and till all that find its strength (but most of mankind are strangers to Wit, as Indians are to Powder) worship it for 10 the effects as deriv'd from the Deity It is in Divines, Humility, Exemplarinesse, and Moderation; in Statesmen, Gravity, Vigilance, Benigne Complacency, Secrecy, Patience, and Dispatch; in Leaders of Armies, Valor, Painfulness, Temperance, Bounty, Dexterity in punishing and 15 rewarding, and a sacred Certitude of promise. It is in Poets a full comprehension of all recited in all these, and an ability to bring those comprehensions into action, when they shall so far forget the true measure of what is of greatest consequence to humanity (which are things righteous, 20 pleasant, and usefull) as to think the delights of greatness equall to that of Poesy, or the Chiefs of any Profession more necessary to the world then excellent Poets. Lastly, though Wit be not the envy of ignorant Men, 'tis often of evill Statesmen, and of all such imperfect great spirits as 25 have in it a lesse degree then Poets; for though no man

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envies the excellence of that which in no proportion he ever tasted, as men cannot be said to envy the condition of Angels, yet we may say the Devill envies the Supremacy of God, because he was in some degree partaker of his Glory.

That which is not, yet is accompted, Wit, I will but sleightly remember, which seems very incident to imperfect youth and sickly age. Yong men, as if they were not quite deliver'd from Childhood, whose first exercise is Language, imagine it consists in the Musick of words, and 35 beleeve they are made wise by refining their Speech above