Critick_, Hooker, I, 31. Racine, in his preface to _Esther_, said
nothing doctrinaire about the use of the chorus. He merely mentioned
that it had occurred to him to introduce the chorus in order to imitate
the ancients and to sing the praises of the true God.

[13] J.E. Spingarn, _Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century_,
Oxford, 1908-09, III, 227 and 240.

[14] _Treatise of the Epick Poem_, London, 1695, _sig._ [A 3] _verso_- A
4, _recto_.

[15] Jeremy Collier, "A Defence of the Short View.... Being a Reply to
Mr. Congreve's Amendments," _A Short View of the Profaneness and
Immorality of the English Stage_, etc., London, 1738, p. 251.

[16] _Traite du Poeme Epique_, I, ch. vi and vii.

ARISTOTLE'S

ART

OF

POETRY.

Translated from the Original _Greek_, according to Mr. _Theodore
Goulston_'s Edition.

TOGETHER,

With Mr. _D'ACIER_'s Notes Translated from the _French_.

----_Vero nomine poena
Non Honor est._----

Ovid Metam. _lib._ 2.

_LONDON_:

Printed for _Dan. Browne_ at the _Blalk Swan_ without _Temple Bar_, and
_Will. Turner_ at the _Angel_ at _Lincolns-Inn_ Back Gate, 1705.

THE PREFACE

If I was to speak here of _Aristotle's_ Merit only, the excellence of
his Poetick Art, and the reasons I had to publish it, I need do no more
than refer the Reader to that Work, to shew the disorders into which the
Theatre is long since fallen, and to let him see that as the Injustice
of Men, gave occasion to the making of Laws; so the decay of Arts and
the Faults committed in them, oblig'd first to the making Rules, and the
renewing them. But in order to prevent the Objections of some, who scorn
to be bound to any Rules, only that of their own fancy, I think it
necessary, to prove, not only that Poetry is an Art, but that 'tis known
and its Rules so certainly those which _Aristotle_ gives us, that 'tis
impossible to succeed any other way. This being prov'd, I shall examine
the two Consequences which naturally flow from thence: First, that the
Rules, and what pleases, are never contrary to one another, and that you
can never obtain the latter without the former. Secondly, That Poesie
being an Art can never be prejudicial to Mankind, and that 'twas
invented and improv'd for their advantage only.

To follow this Method, 'tis necessary to trace Poetry from its
Original, to shew that 'twas the Daughter of Religion, that at length
'twas vitiated, and debauch'