When the right virtuous Edward Wotton {1}and I were at the Emperor's court together,we gave ourselves to learn horsemanship of Gio.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 contemplation therein,which he thought most precious.But with none,I remember,mine ears were at any time more laden,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 "pedanteria"in comparison.Then would he add certain praises by telling what a peerless beast the 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 be 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 defence 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 more just cause to make a pitiful defence of poor poetry,which,from almost the highest estimation of learning,is fallen to be the laughing-stock of children;so have Ineed to bring some more available proofs,since the former is by no man barred of his deserved credit,whereas 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.{2}
At 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 you play the hedgehog,that being received into the den,drove out his host?
{3}or rather the vipers,that with their birth kill their parents?
{4}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 he brought that can say any writers were there before them,if they were not men of the same skill,as Orpheus,Linus,and some others are named,who having been the first of that country that made pens deliverers of their knowledge to 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 to aspire to be a treasure-house of science,were the poets Dante,Boccace,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 other arts.
This {5}did so notably show itself that the philosophers of Greece durst not a long time appear to the world but under the mask 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 hidden 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.{6}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 stands upon dialogues;wherein he feigns many honest burgesses of Athens speaking 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 tiles,as Gyges's Ring,{7}and others;which,who knows not to be flowers of poetry,did never walk into Apollo's garden.
