The Defence of Poesie.
scornfull sort that may be: so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one. Now as in Geometrie, the oblique must be knowne as well as the right, and in Arithmetick, the odde as well as the euen, so in the actions of our life, who seeth not the filthinesse of euill, wanteth a great foile to perceiue the bewtie of vertue. This doth the Comaedie handle so in our priuate and domesticall matters, as with hearing it, wee get as it were an experience what is to be looked for of a niggardly Demea, of a craftie Dauus, of a flattering Gnato, of a vain-glorious Thraso: and not onely to know what effects are to be expected, but to know who be such, by the signifying badge giuen them by the Comaedient. And litle reason hath any man to say, that men learne the euill by seeing it so set out, since as I said before, there is no man liuing, but by the force truth hath in nature, no sooner seeth these men play their parts, but wisheth them in Pistrinum, although perchance the sack of his owne faults lie so behinde his backe, that he seeth not himselfe to dance the same measure: wherto yet nothing can more open his eies, then to see his owne actions contemptibly set forth. So that the right vse of Comaedie, will I thinke, by no bodie be blamed; and much lesse of the high and excellent Tragedie, that openeth the greatest woundes, and sheweth forth the Vlcers that are couered with Tissue, that maketh Kings feare to be Tyrants, and Tyrants manifest their tyrannicall humours, that with sturring the affects of Admiration and Comiseration, teacheth the vncertaintie of this world, and vppon how weak foundations guilden roofes are builded:that
