English poetry -- History and criticism; Poetry -- Early works to 1800
But at all insolent and vnwoonted partes of a mans behauiour, we find many
times cause to mislike or to be mistrustfull, which proceedeth of some
vndecency that is in it, as when a man that hath alwaies bene strange and
vnacquainted with vs, will suddenly become our familiar and domestick: and
another that hath bene alwaies sterne and churlish, wilbe vpon the
suddaine affable and curteous, it is neyther a comely sight, nor a signe
of any good towards vs. Which the subtill Italian well obserued by the
successes thereof, saying in Prouerbe.
_Chi me fa meglio chenon fuole,
Tradito me ha o tradir me vuolo.
He that speakes me fairer, than his woont was too
Hath done me harme, or meanes for to doo._
Now againe all maner of conceites that stirre vp any vehement passion in a
man, doo it by some turpitude or euill and vndecency that is in them, as
to make a man angry there must be some iniury or contempt offered, to make
him enuy there must proceede some vndeserued prosperitie of his egall or
inferiour, to make him pitie some miserable fortune or spectakle to
behold.
And yet in euery of the these passions being as it were vndecencies, there
is a comelinesse to be discerned, which some men can keepe and some men
can not, as to be angry, or to enuy, or to hate, or to pitie, or to be
ashamed decently, that is none otherwise then reason requireth. This
surmise appeareth to be true, for _Homer_ the father of Poets writing that
famous and most honourable poeme called the _Iliades_ or warres of Troy:
made his commencement the magnanimous wrath and anger of _Achilles_ in his
first verse thus: [Greek: illegible] Sing foorth my muse the wrath of
_Achilles Peleus_ sonne: which the Poet would neuer haue done if the wrath
of a prince had not beene in some sort comely & allowable. But when
_Arrianus_ and _Curtius_ historiographers that wrote the noble gestes of
king _Alexander_ the great, came to prayse him for many things, yet for
his wrath and anger they reproched him, because it proceeded not of any
magnanimitie, but vpon surfet & distemper in his diet, not growing of any
iust causes, was exercised to the destruction of his dearest friends and
familiers, and not of his enemies nor any other waies so honorably as
th'others was, and so could not be reputed a decent and comely anger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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