锡德尼 《诗辩》
菲利普·锡德尼（1554—1586）
菲利普·锡德尼（1554—1586）出身贵族，是英国文艺复兴时期的著名学者、诗人、军人和朝臣。在牛津大学完成学业后曾周游欧洲大陆，回国后在伊丽莎白女王的朝廷为女王效力。他参加了英国和荷兰之间的战争，并担任佛兰德（Flanders）的卫戍司令，直至去世。他是一个英勇善战的军人。据说在一次战役中他负伤，失血过多急需饮水、救护。在此危急关头，他却婉拒了为他提供的饮水和救护，而是把这两种能挽救他生命的急需品让给了比他军职低的战友。这一壮举使他成为英勇侠义之士的楷模。可惜他英年早逝，只活了短短的32年。
锡德尼生活的时代是英国历史上诗人辈出的时代。人们把1580年以后这一时期称为“黄金时代”。由于从文艺复兴发生较早的意大利引进了彼特拉克的十四行诗，英诗有了很大的发展，后来形成英国的十四行诗（或称莎士比亚十四行诗）。锡德尼一生写了一百多首十四行诗和其他诗体的诗篇，以及一部名为《爱星者和星星》（1580—1584）的诗集。他留给后人的是三部不朽之作：诗集《爱星者和星星》，一部长篇传奇故事《阿卡迪亚》（Arcadia，1593，一部传奇式的著作，与作品同名的是古希腊一田园牧歌式的地区。后来文学家用Arcadia泛指任何有田园牧歌式淳朴生活的地方）和一篇文论《诗辩》。流芳百世的不仅是这些不朽之作，还有他崇高的人品。他在荷兰那次战役中英勇献身，留下“仁侠的楷模，风流的镜子”的美誉。
他的《阿卡迪亚》用散文和诗体写成，开创了英国的田园文学。在问世后的二百年中，它一直是英国的畅销书，对英国小说的发展有重大影响。
《诗辩》写成于1583年，1595年出版。它是英语文库中首部重要的文学批评论文。写《诗辩》的目的是要批驳清教徒牧师斯蒂温·戈森（Stephen Gosson）在他所写的《造谣学校》（The School of Abuse）中对诗的抨击。在《诗辩》中锡德尼批判了柏拉图在《理想国》中对诗人和诗品的错误论断。他说，正是这些错误的论断为清教徒提供了进攻诗的武器。
锡德尼从古希腊、罗马的文论家，诸如柏拉图、亚里士多德、贺拉斯、卡斯底维特罗等人那里汲取营养。要为诗辩护，他必须驳倒对诗的错误论断，例如诗浪费时间，诗是“谎言之母”，诗教恶等。他断言，在早期社会，诗是对民众进行教育的主要手段之一，对社会和文化施加积极的道德影响；而当时的诗人也备受尊敬。他引用贺拉斯的话，强调诗人用寓言给读者以教育和娱乐，创造一个高于现实世界的精神世界。
同柏拉图的观点相反，锡德尼认为诗人应该得到比哲学家和历史学家更高的地位。因为诗能以其趣味性促进人的道德，亦即诗有教化作用。他说：“没有任何哲学教条能比阅读维吉尔的史诗更使人正直，”并说诗人“最先带来一切文明。”
内容提要
锡德尼首先提出，他决心为诗辩护，因为诗遭到不公正的待遇，甚至已经成为儿童的笑料。而在罗马社会的早期，诗人被视作与神学家和预言家一样，享有同样受尊敬的地位。古希腊人把写诗的人称作诗人。希腊文Poiein（诗）是创作之意。因此，写诗的诗人就是一个创造者。锡德尼引用希腊的神话故事说安菲翁（Amphion）能用他的动人的诗打动石头，让石头自动地筑起底比斯城。诗人奥菲士（Orpheus）则能让动物聆听他的诗歌。诗人使语言成为科学的宝库。即便是对诗和诗人执有偏见的柏拉图也正是用诗的语言去打动雅典人。历史学家也必须用诗的语言叙述历史，并在历史中让历史人物运用诗的语言。在诗人的笔下，世界变得更美好。也就是说，诗人是一个美好世界的创造者。他说：“大自然的世界是铜的，只有诗人才给予我们一个金的世界。”他认为艺术高于生活。
《诗辩》全文的中心思想就是诗人是创造者。柏拉图说诗人只是模仿者，诗人模仿的东西离真理甚远，必然会贻误青年，因此必须把诗人逐出他的“理想国”。锡德尼批驳了这一错误论断。在对诗进行分类后，他对诗的语言、文体、语法作了评论。
锡德尼指出，历史上曾经有过三种诗。一种诗是模仿上帝的美德，例如大卫创作的《诗篇》，所罗门创作的《雅歌》、《传道书》、《箴言》，摩西和底波拉创作的《颂歌》，以及《约伯记》等。第二种诗是用诗叙述各个学科，如历史、哲学、伦理道德、天文地理等。他说，这些用诗的语言来讨论哲学、历史、道德、天文的人是否可以称作是诗人，则应由语言学家去争论。第三种诗的创作者才是真正的诗人，这一类诗人的确是为了教育和怡情而进行模仿，他们最有见识，善于用最优美的语言让人们了解那个感动他们，并使他们向往的善行。
诗人也可以分为歌颂的、悲剧的、喜剧的、讽刺的、诙谐的、伤感的和田园的。
诗可以净化人的灵魂。锡德尼认为，人间的一切学问的目的就是德行，而诗人最能启发人的德行。诗人可以同时发挥历史学家和哲学家的功能。哲学家是艰深难懂的，诗人则用通俗动人的语言进行教育，因此可以称诗人为普及型的哲学家，《伊索寓言》就是最好的例证。
诗人优于历史学家，因为诗人不仅使人获得知识，并且能提高人的品行。他同时也为柏拉图辩解，说柏拉图当时反对诗和诗人只是因为当时的诗人对神持有错误的观点，因此毒害了青年的心灵。他指出，柏拉图在他的名著《伊安篇》（Ion）中给予了诗很高的评价。
Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
An Apology for Poetry
When the right virtuous Edward Wotton and I were at the Emperor's Court together, we gave ourselves to learn horsemanship of John Pietro Pugliano, one that with great commendation had the place of an esquire in his stable. And he, according to the fertileness of the Italian wit, did not only afford us the demonstration of his practice, but sought to enrich our minds with the contemplations therein which he thought most precious. But with none I remember mine ears were at any time more loaden, than when (either angered with slow payment, or moved with our learner-like admiration) he exercised his speech in the praise of his faculty. He said soldiers were the noblest estate of mankind, and horsemen the noblest of soldiers. He said they were the masters of war and ornaments of peace; speedy goers and strong abiders; triumphers both in camps and courts. Nay, to so unbelieved a point he proceeded, as that no earthly thing bred such wonder to a prince as to be a good horseman. Skill of government was but a pedenteria
in comparison. Then would he add certain praises, by telling what a peerless beast a horse was, the only serviceable courtier without flattery, the beast of most beauty, faithfulness, courage, and such more, that, if I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him, I think he would have persuaded me to have wished myself a horse. But thus much at least with his no few words he drove into me, that self-love is better than any gilding to make that seem gorgeous wherein ourselves are parties. Wherein, if Pugliano's strong affection and weak arguments will not satisfy you, I will give you a nearer example of myself, who (I know not by what mischance) in these my not old years and idlest times having slipped into the title of a poet, am provoked to say something unto you in the defense of that my unelected vocation, which if I handle with more good will than good reasons, bear with me, since the scholar is to be pardoned that followeth the steps of his master. And yet I must say that, as I have just cause to make a pitiful defense of poor Poetry, which from almost the highest estimation of learning is fallen to be the laughing-stock of children, so have I need to bring some more available proofs, since the former is by no man barred of his deserved credit, the silly latter hath had even the names of philosophers used to the defacing of it, with great danger of civil war among the Muses.
And first, truly, to all them that professing learning inveigh against poetry may justly be objected, that they go very near to ungratefulness, to seek to deface that which, in the noblest nations and languages that are known, hath been the first light-giver to ignorance, and first nurse, whose milk by little and little enabled them to feed afterwards of tougher knowledges. And will they now play the hedgehog that, being received into the den, drove out his host, or rather the vipers, that with their birth kill their parents? Let learned Greece in any of her manifold sciences be able to show me one book before Musaeus, Homer, and Hesiod, all three nothing else but poets. Nay, let any history be brought that can say any writers were there before them, if they were not men of the same skill, as Orpheus, Linus, and some other are named, who, having been the first of that country that made pens deliverers of their knowledge to their posterity, may justly challenge to be called their fathers in learning, for not only in time they had this priority (although in itself antiquity be venerable) but went before them, as causes to draw with their charming sweetness the wild untamed wits to an admiration of knowledge, so, as Amphion was said to move stones with his poetry to build Thebes, and Orpheus to be listened to by beasts—indeed stony and beastly people. So among the Romans were Livius Andronicus, and Ennius. So in the Italian language the first that made it aspire to be a treasure-house of science were the poets Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. So in our English were Gower and Chaucer.
After whom, encouraged and delighted with their excellent foregoing, others have followed, to beautify our mother tongue, as well in the same kind as in other arts. This did so notably show itself, that the philosophers of Greece durst not a long time appear to the world but under the masks of poets. So Thales, Empedocles, and Parmenides sang their natural philosophy in verses; so did Pythagoras and Phocylides their moral counsels; so did Tyrtaeus in war matters, and Solon in matters of policy: or rather, they, being poets, did exercise their delightful vein in those points of highest knowledge, which before them lay hid to the world. For that wise Solon was directly a poet it is manifest, having written in verse the notable fable of the Atlantic Island, which was continued by Plato.
And truly, even Plato, whosoever well considereth shall find that in the body of his work, though the inside and strength were philosophy, the skin as it were and beauty depended most of poetry: for all standeth upon dialogues, wherein he feigneth many honest burgesses of Athens to speak of such matters, that, if they had been set on the rack, they would never have confessed them, besides his poetical describing the circumstances of their meetings, as the well ordering of a banquet, the delicacy of a walk, with interlacing mere tales, as Gyges' Ring, and others, which who knoweth not to be flowers of poetry did never walk into Apollo's garden.
And even historiographers (although their lips sound of things done, and verity be written in their foreheads) have been glad to borrow both fashion and perchance weight of poets. So Herodotus entitled his history by the name of the nine Muses; and both he and all the rest that followed him either stole or usurped of poetry their passionate describing of passions, the many particularities of battles, which no man could affirm, or, if that be denied me, long orations put in the mouths of great kings and captains, which it is certain they never pronounced. So that, truly, neither philosopher nor historiographer could at the first have entered into the gates of popular judgments, if they had not taken a great passport of poetry, which in all nations at this day, where learning flourisheth not, is plain to be seen, in all which they have some feeling of poetry. In Turkey, besides their law-giving divines, they have no other writers but poets. In our neighbor country Ireland, where truly learning goeth very bare, yet are their poets held in a devout reverence. Even among the most barbarous and simple Indians where no writing is, yet have they their poets, who make and sing songs, which they call areytos, both of their ancestors' deeds and praises of their gods—a sufficient probability that, if ever learning come among them, it must be by having their hard dull wits softened and sharpened with the sweet delights of poetry. For until they find a pleasure in the exercises of the mind, great promises of much knowledge will little persuade them that know not the fruits of knowledge. In Wales, the true remnant of the ancient Britons, as there are good authorities to show the long time they had poets, which they called bards, so through all the conquests of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, some of whom did seek to ruin all memory of learning from among them, yet do their poets, even to this day, last; so as it is not more notable in soon beginning than in long continuing. But since the authors of most of our sciences were the Romans, and before them the Greeks, let us a little stand upon their authorities, but even so far as to see what names they have given unto this now scorned skill.
Among the Romans a poet was called vates, which is as much as a diviner, foreseer, or prophet, as by his conjoined words vaticinium and vaticinari is manifest: so heavenly a title did that excellent people bestow upon this heart-ravishing knowledge. And so far were they carried into the admiration thereof, that they thought in the chanceable hitting upon any such verses great foretokens of their following fortunes were placed. Whereupon grew the word of sortes Virgilianae, when, by sudden opening Virgil's book, they lighted upon any verse of his making: whereof the histories of the emperors' lives are full, as of Albinus, the governor of our island, who in his childhood met with this verse, Arma amens capio nec sat rationis in armis; and in his age performed it: which, although it were a very vain and godless superstition, as also it was to think that spirits were commanded by such verses—whereupon this word charms, derived of carmina, cometh—so yet serveth it to show the great reverence those wits were held in. And altogether not without ground, since both the Oracles of Delphos and Sibylla's prophecies were wholly delivered in verses. For that same exquisite observing of number and measure in words, and that high flying liberty of conceit proper to the poet, did seem to have some divine force in it.
And may not I presume a little further, to show the reasonableness of this word vates, and say that the holy David's Psalms are a divine poem? If I do, I shall not do it without the testimony of great learned men, both ancient and modern. But even the name Psalms will speak for me, which, being interpreted, is nothing but "songs"; then that it is fully written in meter, as all learned Hebricians agree, although the rules be not yet fully found; lastly and principally, his handling his prophecy, which is merely poetical. For what else is the awaking his musical instruments, the often and free changing of persons, his notable prosopopeias, when he maketh you, as it were, see God coming in his majesty, his telling of the beasts' joyfulness, and hills' leaping, but a heavenly poesy, wherein almost he showeth himself a passionate lover of that unspeakable and everlasting beauty to be seen by the eyes of the mind, only cleared by faith? But truly now having named him, I fear me I seem to profane that holy name, applying it to poetry, which is among us thrown down to so ridiculous an estimation. But they that with quiet judgments will look a little deeper into it, shall find the end and working of it such, as, being rightly applied, deserveth not to be scourged out of the Church of God.
But now, let us see how the Greeks named it, and how they deemed of it. The Greeks called him "a poet" , which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages. It cometh of this word poiein, which is "to make": wherein, I know not whether by luck or wisdom, we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him a maker: which name, how high and incomparable a title it is, I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences than by my partial allegation.
There is no art delivered to mankind that hath not the works of nature for his principal object, without which they could not consist, and on which they so depend, as they become actors and players, as it were, of what nature will have set forth. So doth the astronomer look upon the stars, and, by that he seeth, setteth down what order nature hath taken therein. So do the geometrician and arithmetician in their diverse sorts of quantities. So doth the musician in times tell you which by nature agree, which not. The natural philosopher thereon hath his name, and the moral philosopher standeth upon the natural virtues, vices, and passions of man; and "follow nature" (saith he) "therein, and thou shalt not err." The lawyer saith what men have determined; the historian what men have done. The grammarian speaketh only of the rules of speech; and the rhetorician and logician, considering what in nature will soonest prove and persuade, thereon give artificial rules, which still are compassed within the circle of a question according to the proposed matter. The physician weigheth the nature of a man's body, and the nature of things helpful or hurtful unto it. And the metaphysic, though it be in the second and abstract notions, and therefore be counted supernatural, yet doth he indeed build upon the depth of nature. Only the poet, disdaining to be tied to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own invention, doth grow in effect another nature, in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or, quite anew, forms such as never were in nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclopes, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging only within the zodiac of his own wit.
Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done—neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden. But let those things alone, and go to man—for whom as the other things are, so it seemeth in him her uttermost cunning is employed—and know whether she have brought forth so true a lover as Theagenes, so constant a friend as Pylades, so valiant a man as Orlando, so right a prince as Xenophon's Cyrus, so excellent a man every way as Virgil's Aeneas. Neither let this be jestingly conceived, because the works of the one be essential, the other in imitation or fiction; for any understanding knoweth the skill of the artificer standeth in that idea or foreconceit of the work, and not in the work itself. And that the poet hath that idea is manifest, by delivering them forth in such excellency as he hath imagined them. Which delivering forth also is not wholly imaginative, as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the air; but so far substantially it worketh, not only to make a Cyrus, which had been but a particular excellency, as nature might have done, but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world, to make many Cyruses, if they will learn aright why and how that maker made him.
Neither let it be deemed too saucy a comparison to balance the highest point of man's wit with the efficacy of nature; but rather give right honor to the heavenly Maker of that maker, who, having made man to His own likeness, set him beyond and over all the works of that second nature: which in nothing he showeth so much as in poetry, when with the force of a divine breath he bringeth things forth far surpassing her doings, with no small argument to the incredulous of that first accursed fall of Adam, since our erected wit maketh us know what perfection is, and yet our infected will keepeth us from reaching unto it. But these arguments will by few be understood, and by fewer granted. Thus much (I hope) will be given me, that the Greeks with some probability of reason gave him the name above all names of learning. Now let us go to a more ordinary opening of him, that the truth may be more palpable: and so I hope, though we get not so unmatched a praise as the etymology of his names will grant, yet his very description, which no man will deny, shall not justly be barred from a principal commendation.
Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in his word mimesis, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth—to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture; with this end, to teach and delight. Of this have been three several kinds. The chief, both in antiquity and excellency, were they that did imitate the inconceivable excellencies of God. Such were David in his Psalms; Solomon in his Song of Songs, in his Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs: Moses and Deborah in their Hymns; and the writer of Job, which, beside other, the learned Emanuel Tremellius and Franciscus Junius do entitle the poetical part of the Scripture. Against these none will speak that hath the Holy Ghost in due holy reverence.
In this kind, though in a full wrong divinity, were Orpheus, Amphion, Homer in his Hymns, and many other, both Greeks and Romans, and this poesy must be used by whosoever will follow St. James's counsel in singing psalms when they are merry, and I know is used with the fruit of comfort by some, when, in sorrowful pangs of their death-bringing sins, they find the consolation of the never-leaving goodness.
The second kind is of them that deal with matters, philosophical: either moral, as Tyrtaeus, Phocylides, and Cato; or natural, as Lucretius and Virgil's Georgics, or astronomical, as Manilius and Pontanus; or historical, as Lucan; which who mislike, the fault is in their judgments quite out of taste, and not in the sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge. But because this second sort is wrapped within the fold of the proposed subject, and takes not the course of his own invention, whether they properly be poets or no let grammarians dispute; and go to the third, indeed right poets, of whom chiefly this question ariseth, betwixt whom and these second is such a kind of difference as betwixt the meaner sort of painters, who counterfeit only such faces as are set before them, and the more excellent, who, having no law but wit, bestow that in colors upon you which is fittest for the eye to see, as the constant though lamenting look of Lucretia, when she punished in herself another's fault.
Wherein he painteth not Lucretia whom he never saw, but painteth the outward beauty of such a virtue. For these third be they which most properly do imitate to teach and delight, and to imitate borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be; but range, only reined with learned discretion, into the divine consideration of what may be, and should be. These be they that, as the first and most noble sort may justly be termed vates, so these are waited on in the excellentest languages and best understandings, with the foredescribed name of poets; for these indeed do merely make to imitate, and imitate both to delight and teach, and delight to move men to take that goodness in hand, which without delight they would fly as from a stranger, and teach, to make them know that goodness whereunto they are moved: which being the noblest scope to which ever any learning was directed, yet want there not idle tongues to bark at them. These be subdivided into sundry more special denominations. The most notable be the heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic, elegiac, pastoral, and certain others, some of these being termed according to the matter they deal with, some by the sorts of verses they liked best to write in; for indeed the greatest part of poets have appareled their poetical inventions in that numbrous kind of writing which is called verse—indeed but appareled, verse being but an ornament and no cause to poetry, since there have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets. For Xenophon, who did imitate so excellently as to give us effigiem iusti imperii, "the portraiture of a just empire," under name of Cyrus (as Cicero saith of him), made therein an absolute heroical poem.
So did Heliodorus in his sugared invention of that picture of love in Theagenes and Chariclea; and yet both these writ in prose: which I speak to show that it is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet—no more than a long gown maketh an advocate, who though he pleaded in armor should be an advocate and no soldier. But it is that feigning notable images of virtues, vices, or what else, with that delightful teaching, which must be the right describing note to know a poet by, although indeed the senate of poets hath chosen verse as their fittest raiment, meaning, as in matter they passed all in all, so in manner to go beyond them—not speaking (table talk fashion or like men in a dream) words as they chanceably fall from the mouth, but peising each syllable of each word by just proportion according to the dignity of the subject.
Now therefore it shall not be amiss first to weigh this latter sort of poetry by his works, and then by his parts, and, if in neither of these anatomies he be condemnable, I hope we shall obtain a more favorable sentence. This purifying of wit, this enriching of memory, enabling of judgment, and enlarging of conceit, which commonly we call learning, under what name soever it come forth, or to what immediate end soever it be directed, the final end is to lead and draw us to as high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made worse by their clayey lodgings, can be capable of. This, according to the inclination of the man, bred many formed impressions. For some that thought this felicity principally to be gotten by knowledge and no knowledge to be so high and heavenly as acquaintance with the stars, gave themselves to astronomy; others, persuading themselves to be demigods if they knew the causes of things, became natural and supernatural philosophers; some an admirable delight drew to music; and some the certainty of demonstration to the mathematics. But all, one and other, having this scope—to know, and by knowledge to lift up the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enjoying his own divine essence. But when by the balance of experience it was found that the astronomer looking to the stars might fall into a ditch, that the inquiring philosopher might be blind in himself, and the mathematician might draw forth a straight line with a crooked heart, then, lo, did proof, the overruler of opinions, make manifest that all these are but serving sciences, which, as they have each a private end in themselves, so yet are they all directed to the highest end of the mistress-knowledge, by the Greeks called architectonike, which stands (as I think) in the knowledge of a man's self, in the ethic and politic consideration, with the end of well doing and not of well knowing only—even as the saddler's next end is to make a good saddle, but his farther end to serve a nobler faculty, which is horsemanship; so the horseman's to soldiery, and the soldier not only to have the skill, but to perform the practice of a soldier. So that, the ending end of all earthly learning being virtuous action, those skills, that most serve to bring forth that, have a most just title to be princes over all the rest. Wherein we can show the poet's nobleness, by setting him before his other competitors, among whom as principal challengers step forth the moral philosophers, whom, me thinketh, I see coming towards me with a sullen gravity, as though they could not abide vice by daylight, rudely clothed for to witness outwardly their contempt of outward things, with books in their hands against glory, whereto they set their names, sophistically speaking against subtlety, and angry with any man in whom they see the foul fault of anger. These men casting largesse as they go of definitions, divisions, and distinctions, with a scornful interrogative do soberly ask whether it be possible to find any path so ready to lead a man to virtue as that which teacheth what virtue is—and teacheth it not only by delivering forth his very being, his causes, and effects, but also by making known his enemy, vice (which must be destroyed), and his cumbersome servant, passion (which must be mastered), by showing the generalities that containeth it, and the specialities that are derived from it; lastly, by plain setting down, how it extendeth itself out of the limits of a man's own little world to the government of families, and maintaining of public societies.
The historian scarcely giveth leisure to the moralist to say so much, but that he, laden with old mouse-eaten records, authorizing himself (for the most part) upon other histories, whose greatest authorities are built upon the notable foundation of hearsay; having much ado to accord differing writers and to pick truth out of partiality; better acquainted with a thousand years ago than with the present age, and yet better knowing how this world goeth than how his own wit runneth; curious for antiquities and inquisitive of novelties; a wonder to young folks and a tyrant in table talk, denieth, in a great chafe, that any man for teaching of virtue, and virtuous actions, is comparable to him. "I am 'lux vitae, temporum magistra, vita memoriae, nuntia vetustatis,'"&c.
The philosopher (saith he)
teacheth a disputative virtue, but I do an active. His virtue is excellent in the dangerless Academy of Plato, but mine showeth forth her honorable face in the battles of Marathon, Pharsalia, Poitiers, and Agincourt. He teacheth virtue by certain abstract considerations, but I only bid you follow the footing of them that have gone before you. Old-aged experience goeth beyond the fine-witted philosopher, but I give the experience of many ages. Lastly, if he make the song book, I put the learner's hand to the lute; and if he be the guide, I am the light.
Then would he allege you innumerable examples, conferring story by story, how much the wisest senators and princes have been directed by the credit of history, as Brutus, Alphonsus of Aragon, and who not, if need be? At length the long line of their disputation maketh a point in this, that the one giveth the precept, and the other the example.
Now, whom shall we find (since the question standeth for the highest form in the school of learning) to be moderator? Truly, as me seemeth, the poet; and if not a moderator, even the man that ought to carry the title from them both, and much more from all other serving sciences. Therefore compare we the poet with the historian, and with the moral philosopher; and, if he go beyond them both, no other human skill can match him. For as for the Divine, with all reverence it is ever to be excepted, not only for having his scope as far beyond any of these as eternity exceedeth a moment, but even for passing each of these in themselves.
And for the lawyer, though Jus be the daughter of justice, and justice the chief of virtues, yet because he seeketh to make men good rather formidine poenae than virtutis amore, or, to say righter, doth not endeavor to make men good, but that their evil hurt not others, having no care, so he be a good citizen, how bad a man he be: therefore, as our wickedness maketh him necessary, and necessity maketh him honorable, so is he not in the deepest truth to stand in rank with these who all endeavor to take naughtiness away, and plant goodness even in the secretest cabinet of our souls. And these four are all that any way deal in that consideration of men's manners, which being the supreme knowledge, they that best breed it deserve the best commendation.
The philosopher therefore and the historian are they which would win the goal, the one by precept, the other by example. But both, not having both, do both halt. For the philosopher, setting down with thorny argument the bare rule, is so hard of utterance, and so misty to be conceived, that one that hath no other guide but him shall wade in him till he be old before he shall find sufficient cause to be honest. For his knowledge standeth so upon the abstract and general, that happy is that man who may understand him, and more happy that can apply what he doth understand.
On the other side, the historian, wanting the precept, is so tied, not to what should be but to what is, to the particular truth of things and not to the general reason of things, that his example draweth no necessary consequence, and therefore a less fruitful doctrine.
Now doth the peerless poet perform both: for whatsoever the philosopher saith should be done, he giveth a perfect picture of it in someone by whom he presupposeth it was done; so as he coupleth the general notion with the particular example. A perfect picture I say, for he yieldeth to the powers of the mind an image of that whereof the philosopher bestoweth but a wordish description: which doth neither strike, pierce, nor possess the sight of the soul so much as that other doth.
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For conclusion, I say the philosopher teacheth, but he teacheth obscurely, so as the learned only can understand him; that is to say, he teacheth them that are already taught. But the poet is the food for the tenderest stomachs, the poet is indeed the right popular philosopher, whereof Aesop's tales give good proof: whose pretty allegories, stealing under the formal tales of beasts, make many, more beastly than beasts, begin to hear the sound of virtue from these dumb speakers.
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I conclude, therefore, that he excelleth history, not only in furnishing the mind with knowledge, but in setting it forward to that which deserveth to be called and accounted good: which setting forward, and moving to well doing, indeed setteth the laurel crown upon the poet as victorious, not only of the historian, but over the philosopher, howsoever in teaching it may be questionable.
For suppose it be granted (that which I suppose with great reason may be denied) that the philosopher, in respect of his methodical proceeding, doth teach more perfectly than the poet, yet do I think that no man is so much philophilosophos as to compare the philosopher, in moving, with the poet.
And that moving is of a higher degree than teaching, it may by this appear, that it is well-nigh the cause and the effect of teaching. For who will be taught, if he be not moved with desire to be taught, and what so much good doth that teaching bring forth (I speak still of moral doctrine) as that it moveth one to do that which it doth teach? For, as Aristotle saith, it is not gnosis but praxis must be the fruit. And how praxis cannot be, without being moved to practice, it is no hard matter to consider.
The philosopher showeth you the way, he informeth you of the particularities, as well of the tediousness of the way, as of the pleasant lodging you shall have when your journey is ended, as of the many by-turnings that may divert you from your way. But this is to no man but to him that will read him, and read him with attentive studious painfulness; which constant desire whosoever hath in him, hath already passed half the hardness of the way, and therefore is beholding to the philosopher but for the other half. Nay truly, learned men have learnedly thought that where once reason hath so much overmastered passion as that the mind hath a free desire to do well, the inward light each mind hath in itself is as good as a philosopher's book; seeing in nature we know it is well to do well, and what is well and what is evil, although not in the words of art which philosophers bestow upon us. For out of natural conceit the philosophers drew it; but to be moved to do that which we know, or to be moved with desire to know, Hoc opus, hic labor est.
Now therein of all sciences (I speak still of human, and according to the humane conceits) is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice any man to enter into it. Nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the first give you a cluster of grapes, that, full of that taste, you may long to pass further. He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margent with interpretations, and load the memory with doubtfulness; but he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting skill of music; and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner. And, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue: even as the child is often brought to take most wholesome things by hiding them in such other as have a pleasant taste: which, if one should begin to tell them the nature of aloes or rhubarb they should receive, would sooner take their physic at their ears than at their mouth. So is it in men (most of which are childish in the best things, till they be cradled in their graves): glad they will be to hear the tales of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and Aeneas; and, hearing them, must needs hear the right description of wisdom, valor, and justice; which, if they had been barely, that is to say philosophically, set out, they would swear they be brought to school again.
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Since then poetry is of all human learning the most ancient and of most fatherly antiquity, as from whence other learnings have taken their beginnings; since it is so universal that no learned nation doth despise it, nor no barbarous nation is without it; since both Roman and Greek gave divine names unto it, the one of prophesying, the other of making, and that indeed that name of making is fit for him, considering that whereas other arts retain themselves within their subject, and receive, as it were, their being from it, the poet only bringeth his own stuff, and doth not learn a conceit out of a matter, but maketh matter for a conceit; since neither his description nor his end containeth any evil, the thing described cannot be evil; since his effects be so good as to teach goodness and to delight the learners; since therein (namely in moral doctrine, the chief of all knowledges) he doth not only far pass the historian, but, for instructing, is well-nigh comparable to the philosopher, and, for moving, leaves him behind him; since the Holy Scripture (wherein there is no uncleanness) hath whole parts in it poetical, and that even our Savior Christ vouchsafed to use the flowers of it; since all his kinds are not only in their united forms but in their severed dissections fully commendable; I think (and think I think rightly) the laurel crown appointed for triumphing captains doth worthily (of all other learnings) honor the poet's triumph. But because we have ears as well as tongues, and that the lightest reasons that may be will seem to weigh greatly, if nothing be put in the counterbalance, let us hear, and, as well as we can, ponder, what objections may be made against this art, which may be worthy either of yielding or answering.
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Now, that verse far exceedeth prose in the knitting up of the memory, the reason is manifest—the words (besides their delight, which hath a great affinity to memory) being so set as one word cannot be lost but the whole work fails; which accuseth itself, calleth the remembrance back to itself, and so most strongly confirmeth it. Besides, one word so, as it were, begetting another, as, be it in rhyme or measured verse, by the former a man shall have a near guess to the follower: lastly, even they that have taught the art of memory have showed nothing so apt for it as a certain room divided into many places well and thoroughly known. Now, that hath the verse in effect perfectly, every word having his natural seat, which seat must needs make the words remembered. But what needeth more in a thing so known to all men? Who is it that ever was a scholar that doth not carry away some verses of Virgil, Horace, or Cato, which in his youth he learned, and even to his old age serve him for hourly lessons? But the fitness it hath for memory is notably proved by all delivery of arts: wherein for the most part, from grammar to logic, mathematic, physic, and the rest, the rules chiefly necessary to be borne away are compiled in verses. So that, verse being in itself sweet and orderly, and being best for memory, the only handle of knowledge, it must be in jest that any man can speak against it. Now then go we to the most important imputations laid to the poor poets. For aught I can yet learn, they are these. First, that there being many other more fruitful knowledges, a man might better spend his time in them than in this. Secondly, that it is the mother of lies. Thirdly, that it is the nurse of abuse, infecting us with many pestilent desires, with a siren's sweetness drawing the mind to the serpent's tale of sinful fancy—and herein, especially, comedies give the largest field to ear (as Chaucer saith)—how both in other nations and in ours, before poets did soften us, we were full of courage, given to martial exercises, the pillars of manlike liberty, and not lulled asleep in shady idleness with poets' pastimes. And lastly, and chiefly, they cry out with an open mouth, as if they outshot Robin Hood, that Plato banished them out of his commonwealth. Truly, this is much, if there be much truth in it. First, to the first, that a man might better spend his time is a reason indeed: but it doth (as they say) but petere principium: for if it be, as I affirm, that no learning is so good as that which teacheth and moveth to virtue, and that none can both teach and move thereto so much as poetry, then is the conclusion manifest that ink and paper cannot be to a more profitable purpose employed. And certainly, though a man should grant their first assumption, it should follow (methinks) very unwillingly, that good is not good because better is better. But I still and utterly deny that there is sprung out of earth a more fruitful knowledge. To the second therefore, that they should be the principal liars, I answer paradoxically, but truly, I think truly, that of all writers under the sun the poet is the least liar, and, though he would, as a poet can scarcely be a liar. The astronomer, with his cousin the geometrician, can hardly escape, when they take upon them to measure the height of the stars.
pedenteria：即英语的pedantry。
Orpheus：奥菲士，诗人和歌手。希腊神话说他弹奏竖琴时，能让猛兽俯首，顽石点头。
Linus：古希腊音乐教师。
Livius Andronicus：利维亚斯·安德罗尼库斯（约前280—约前204），古罗马第一个诗人，首次将《奥德赛》译成拉丁文的诗体形式。
Ennius：恩尼乌斯（约前239—约前169），古罗马诗人和戏剧家，作品包括喜剧、悲剧及讲述罗马历史的史诗《编年记》（Annals）。
Dante：但丁，13世纪至14世纪意大利诗人。《神曲》是他的传世之作。
Boccaccio：薄伽丘（Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313—1375），意大利文艺复兴时期著名作家，代表作为《十日谈》。
Petrarch：彼特拉克（Francesco Petrarch, 1304—1374），意大利文艺复兴时期的诗人、学者。他写的十四行诗被称为Petrarchan Sonnet。
Gower：约翰·高尔（John Gower，1330？—1408），14世纪英国诗人。
Chaucer：乔叟（Geoffrey Chaucer，1340？—1400），14世纪英国诗人，《坎特伯雷故事集》（Canterbury Tales）是他的代表作。
Thales：泰利斯（约前624—前546）古希腊哲学家、数学家、天文学家。
Empedocsles：恩培多克勒（前490—前430），古希腊哲学家、诗人。
Parmenides：巴门尼德，公元前6世纪至5世纪希腊哲学家。他的许多哲学理论被完整地保存了下来。
Pythagoras：毕达哥拉斯，公元前6世纪希腊哲学家、数学家。
Phocylides：甫希里迪斯，与毕达哥拉斯同时代，希腊诗人。
Tyrtaeus：提尔泰奥斯，公元前7世纪希腊诗人。
Solon：梭伦（约前638—约前559）,古雅典政治家、诗人。
Gyges是公元前7世纪Lydia国王，他杀死了国王Candaules后成为国王。公元前5世纪希腊著名历史学家Herodotus有这样的叙述：Gyges是国王Candaules手下一名得宠的战将。他年少时是个穷苦的牧羊人。有一天，他在一峡谷偶然得到一只神魔戒指。他只要戴上这只戒指，就能成为隐身人。Candaules的皇后是绝色佳丽，国王为此深感骄傲。他为了炫耀他的妻子的美妙体态，坚持要Gyges隐身偷看皇后诱人的裸体。Gyges从命，结果被皇后察觉。于是，皇后命令他在两者之间进行选择：要么自杀，要么杀死她的丈夫，夺取王位，娶她为妻。Gyges选择了后者。柏拉图在《理想国》中说，Gyges凭借神魔戒指赢得了王位和皇后，并说人若对自己的行动后果无所顾忌，就不可能有德行。
Normans：诺曼人，即公元10世纪定居诺曼底（Normandy，在法国西北部）的斯堪的纳维亚人。此处指1066年征服英国的诺曼人。
Arma amens capio nec sat rationis in armis：即“Insane, I take arms, nor is there reason for arms.”引自《埃涅阿斯纪》（Aeneid），II。
Delphos：希腊地名。
Sibylla：罗马女预言家。
Hebrician：Hebrides群岛的居民。Hebrides群岛在苏格兰西岸近海。
prosopopeia：即英语的personification。
Chimera：希腊神话中喷火的妖怪，上半身像狮，下半身像蛇，腰身像山羊。
Theagenes：爱情小说Theagenes and Chariclea中的男主人公。Theagenes and Chariclea见注45。
Pylades：皮拉得斯，希腊神话中人物。
Orlando：奥兰多，相传为查理大帝（Charlemagne, 742—814）的外甥。他是许多浪漫故事的主人公。
Cyrus：居鲁士。此处指波斯王子Cyrus the Younger（后继承王位）。他是色诺芬（Xenophon）笔下理想国王的典型。
that second nature：本段提到的“the heavenly Maker”指创造万物的上帝。“that maker”指创造者诗人。上帝创造的人为the first nature（第一自然），上帝创造的其他东西为the second nature（第二自然）。
a divine breath：上帝创造万物时用的神气。
fall of Adam：基督教教义中人类始祖亚当的堕落。亚当违背上帝的命令，偷吃禁果，犯了罪，致使整个人类成为罪人。这就是所谓的“原罪”（Original Sin）。
David：大卫，为《诗篇》（Psalms）的作者。Psalms，《圣经》中的《诗篇》。
Solomon in his Song of Songs ...and Proverbs：Solomon（所罗门）是大卫的儿子和继承者，古代以色列国王，以智慧著称。Song of Songs（《雅歌》），亦作Song of Solomon；Ecclesiastes（《传道书》）；Proverbs（《箴言》）。《圣经》中的《雅歌》、《传道书》和《箴言》相传均为所罗门所作。
Moses and Deborah ... Job：Moses（摩西），《圣经》中古代犹太人的首领。Deborah（底波拉），《圣经》中犹太女先知，昵称为Debby。Job，《约伯记》，《圣经·旧约》中的一卷。约伯是上帝宠爱的人，他安贫乐道，又能忍耐，在任何情况下都对上帝忠心不移。
Emanuel Tremellius and Franciscus Junius ... the Scripture：Emanuel Tremellius为16世纪犹太学者，他把《圣经》译成了拉丁文。Scripture即《圣经》（Holy Scripture）。
Holy Ghost：“圣灵”，亦作“上帝圣灵”，基督教基本信条三位一体中的第三位；其他二位是“圣父”、“圣子”。基督教认为上帝集圣父、圣子、圣灵于一身，即三位一体。
St. James：即圣雅各，耶稣十二门徒之一。《新约》中有《雅各书》。
never-leaving goodness：此处意为上帝的善良关怀与人类永存。
Cato：（小）加图（前95—前46），公元前1世纪罗马著名政治家。他反对凯撒和喀提林，在得知共和军战败后，愤而自杀。
Lucretius：卢克莱修（约前94—前55），古罗马诗人、哲学家，著有教谕诗《物性论》（On the Nature of Things）.
Georgics：《农事诗集》，四卷共2,000行的长诗，是维吉尔（Virgil）模仿希腊早期诗人赫西奥德（Hesiod）所写的《工作与时日》（Works and Days）的诗作。英国17世纪诗人德莱顿（John Dryden）称其是“the best poem of the best poet”。
... as Manilius and Pontanus ... as Lucan：Manilius，公元1世纪罗马诗人，长诗Astronomica的作者。此诗共5卷，讨论天文学。Pontanus，公元15世纪意大利诗人。Lucan卢坎（39—65），生于西班牙的古罗马诗人，因反对罗马皇帝尼禄（Nero），被迫自杀。他是当时名扬全国的诗人、学者。
Lucretia：卢克丽霞，古罗马传说中的贞烈女子，她被强奸后自尽。
Theagenes and Chariclea：亦作Aethiopica（《埃塞俄比亚人》），公元前3世纪希腊作家Heliodorus所写的一部爱情小说。也是古希腊保存下来的五部小说中的一部。故事叙述女祭司Chariclea与Theagenes相恋，两人来到了埃及。正当她要被作为牺牲品献给众神时，她被认出是国王的女儿。有情人终成眷属。
table talk：席间漫谈。
architectonike：即architectonics，哲学中与知识的系统化有关的学科，亦称认识体系论。
此句引自西塞罗（Cicero）所写的《论演说家》（On the Orator）。英译文是：“The light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity.”。
... in the battles of Marathon, Pharsalia, Poitiers, and Agincourt：Battle of Marathon发生在公元前490年。此役雅典人打败了入侵的波斯人，波斯死亡6,400人，雅典仅阵亡192人。Battle of Pharsalia发生在公元前48年，庞培在此役中被凯撒打败。Battle of Poitiers是1337至1453年英法之间的“百年战争”中的一次战役，发生在1356年。在该战役中英军以少胜多打败了法军。Battle of Agincourt, 1415年发生在法国的Agincourt（Pas de Calais），法军被英军打败。
此句英译文为：through "fear of punishment" rather than through "love of virtue”。
philophilosophos：希腊文，意为哲学爱好者。
...not gnosis but praxis：英译文是not "knowledge" but "action”。
Hoc opus, hic labor est.：英译文是“This is the work, this the labor.”引自《埃涅阿斯纪》。
margent：即margin。在锡德尼时代，书页边的空白常用作记读书笔记。
Hercules：赫丘利，罗马神话中的大力神，希腊神话中称赫拉克勒斯（Heracles），以完成12项英雄业绩而闻名。据说，他曾经被要求在快乐与美德之间选择，前者提供声色犬马之娱，后者提供终生劳作与卓著美名。他毅然选择了后者。
Robin Hood：罗宾汉，12世纪英国民间传说中家喻户晓的绿林好汉。他劫富济贫，为民除暴，深受民众的爱戴。
out of his commonwealth：即out of his Republic，引自柏拉图的《理想国》（Republic）。
petere principium：即“beg the question”。
