Page:Gondibert, an heroick poem - William Davenant (1651).djvu/64

 the name of Poets, rather than of Historians, or Philosophers. But the subject of a Poem, is the manners of men, not natural causes; manners presented, not dictated; and manners feigned (as the name of Poesie imports) not found in men. They that give enterance to Fictions writ in Prose, erre not so much, but they erre: For Prose requiteth delightfulness, not onely of fiction, but of stile; in which if Prose contend with Verse, it is with disadvantage and (as it were) on foot against the strength and wings of Pegasus.

For Verse amongst the Greeks was appropriated anciently to the service of their Gods, and was the Holy stile; the stile of the Oracles; the stile of the Laws; and the stile of Men that publickly recommended to their Gods, the vows and thanks of the people; which was done in their holy songs called Hymns; and the composers of them were called Prophets and Priests before the name of Poet was known. When afterwards the majestie of that stile was observed, The Poets chose it as best becoming their high invention. And for the Antiquitie of Verse, it is greater than the antiquitie of Letters. For it is certain, Cadmus was the first that (from Phœnicia, a Countrey that neighboureth Judea) brought the use of Letters into Greece. But the service of the Gods, and the Laws (which by measured Sounds were easily committed to the memorie) had been long time in use, before the arrival of Cadmus there.

There is besides the grace of stile, another cause why the ancient Poets chose to write in measured language, which is this. There Poems were made at first with intention to have them sung, as well Epick as Dramatick (which custom hath been long time laid aside, but began to be revived in part, of late years in Italie) and could not be made commensurable to the Voice or Instruments, in Prose; the ways and motions whereof are so uncertain and undistinguished, (like the way and motion of a Ship in the Sea) as not onely to discompose the best Composers, but also to disapoint sometimes the most attentive Reader, and put him to hunt counter for the sense. It was therefore