g, and he shall tongue it as impetuously and as
loudly, as the arrantest hero in the play. By this means, the
characters are only distinct in name; but, in reality, all the men and
women in the play are the same person. No man should pretend to write,
who cannot temper his fancy with his judgment: nothing is more
dangerous to a raw horseman, than a hot-mouthed jade without a curb.

It is necessary therefore for a poet, who would concern an audience by
describing of a passion, first to prepare it, and not to rush upon it
all at once. Ovid has judiciously shown the difference of these two
ways, in the speeches of Ajax and Ulysses: Ajax, from the very
beginning, breaks out into his exclamations, and is swearing by his
Maker,--_Agimus, proh Jupiter, inquit._ Ulysses, on the contrary,
prepares his audience with all the submissiveness he can practise, and
all the calmness of a reasonable man; he found his judges in a
tranquillity of spirit, and therefore set out leisurely and softly
with them, till he had warmed them by degrees; and then he began to
mend his pace, and to draw them along with his own impetuousness: yet
so managing his breath, that it might not fail him at his need, and
reserving his utmost proofs of ability even to the last. The success,
you see, was answerable; for the crowd only applauded the speech of
Ajax;--

_Vulgique secutum ultima murmur erat:--_

But the judges awarded the prize, for which they contended, to
Ulysses;

_Mota manus procerum est; et quid facundia posset
Tum patuit, fortisque viri tulit arma disertus._

The next necessary rule is, to put nothing into the discourse, which
may hinder your moving of the passions. Too many accidents, as I have
said, incumber the poet, as much as the arms of Saul did David; for
the variety of passions, which they produce, are ever crossing and
justling each other out of the way. He, who treats of joy and grief
together, is in a fair way of causing neither of those effects. There
is yet another obstacle to be removed, which is,--pointed wit, and
sentences affected out of season; these are nothing of kin to the
violence of passion: no man is at leisure to make sentences and
similes, when his soul is in an agony. I the rather name this fault,
that it may serve to mind me of my former errors; neither will I spare
myself, but give an example of this kind from my "Indian Emperor."
Montezuma, pursued by his enemies, and seeking sanctuary, stands
parleying