doth so lively express what was designed in them. Wherefore,
in like manner, seeing poetry many times describes by imitation foul
actions and unseemly passions and manners, the young student must not in
such descriptions (although performed never so cleverly and commendably)
believe all that is said as true or embrace it as good, but give its
due commendation so far only as it suits the subject treated of. For as,
when we hear the grunting of hogs and the shrieking of pulleys and the
rustling of wind and the roaring of seas, we are, it may be, disturbed
and displeased, and yet when we hear any one imitating these or the like
noises handsomely (as Parmenio did that of an hog, and Theodorus that
of a pulley), we are well pleased; and as we avoid (as an unpleasing
spectacle) the sight of sick persons and of a man full of ulcers, and
yet are delighted to be spectators of the Philoctetes of Aristophon and
the Jocasta of Silanion, wherein such wasting and dying persons are well
acted; so must the young scholar, when he reads in a poem of Thersites
the buffoon or Sisyphus the whoremaster or Batrachus the bawd speaking
or doing anything, so praise the artificial managery of the poet,
adapting the expressions to the persons, as withal to look on the
discourses and actions so expressed as odious and abominable. For the
goodness of things themselves differs much from the goodness of the
imitation of them; the goodness of the latter consisting only in
propriety and aptness to represent the former. Whence to foul acts foul
expressions are most suitable and proper. As the shoes of Demonides the
cripple (which, when he had lost them, he wished might suit the feet of
him that stole them) were but poor shoes, but yet fit for him; so we may
say of such expressions as these:--

If t'is necessary an unjust act to do,
It is best to do it for a throne;
(Euripides, "Phoenissae," 524.)

Get the repute of Just,
And in it do all things whence gain may come;

A talent dowry! Could I
Sleep, or live, if thee I should neglect?
And should I not in hell tormented be,
Could I be guilty of such sacrilege?
(From Menander.)

These, it is true, are wicked as well as false speeches, but yet are
decent enough in the mouth of an Eteocles, an Ixion, and a griping
usurer. If therefore we mind our children that the poets write not such
things as praising and approving them, but do really account them base