The Works of John Dryden, Volume 4 | Page 9

spirits are incorporeal substances, (which Mr
Hobbes, with some reason, thinks to imply a contradiction) or that they
are a thinner and more aërial sort of bodies, (as some of the fathers
have conjectured) may better be explicated by poets than by
philosophers or divines. For their speculations on this subject are
wholly poetical; they have only their fancy for their guide; and that,
being sharper in an excellent poet, than it is likely it should in a
phlegmatic, heavy gownman, will see farther in its own empire, and
produce more satisfactory notions on those dark and doubtful problems.

Some men think they have raised a great argument against the use of
spectres and magic in heroic poetry, by saying they are unnatural; but
whether they or I believe there are such things, is not material; it is
enough that, for aught we know, they may be in nature; and whatever is,
or may be, is not properly unnatural. Neither am I much concerned at
Mr Cowley's verses before "Gondibert," though his authority is almost
sacred to me: It is true, he has resembled the old epic poetry to a
fantastic fairy-land; but he has contradicted himself by his own
example: For he has himself made use of angels and visions in his
"Davideis," as well as Tasso in his "Godfrey."
What I have written on this subject will not be thought a digression by
the reader, if he please to remember what I said in the beginning of this
essay, that I have modelled my heroic plays by the rules of an heroic
poem. And if that be the most noble, the most pleasant, and the most
instructive way of writing in verse, and withal the highest pattern of
human life, as all poets have agreed, I shall need no other argument to
justify my choice in this imitation. One advantage the drama has above
the other, namely, that it represents to view what the poem only does
relate; and, _Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures, quam quæ sunt
oculis subjecta fidelibus_, as Horace tells us.
To those who object my frequent use of drums and trumpets, and my
representations of battles, I answer, I introduced them not on the
English stage: Shakespeare used them frequently; and though Jonson
shews no battle in his "Catiline," yet you hear from behind the scenes
the sounding of trumpets, and the shouts of fighting armies. But, I add
farther, that these warlike instruments, and even their presentations of
fighting on the stage, are no more than necessary to produce the effects
of an heroic play; that is, to raise the imagination of the audience and to
persuade them, for the time, that what they behold on the theatre is
really performed. The poet is then to endeavour an absolute dominion
over the minds of the spectators; for, though our fancy will contribute
to its own deceit, yet a writer ought to help its operation: And that the
Red Bull has formerly done the same, is no more an argument against
our practice, than it would be for a physician to forbear an approved
medicine, because a mountebank has used it with success.

Thus I have given a short account of heroic plays. I might now, with
the usual eagerness of an author, make a particular defence of this. But
the common opinion (how unjust soever) has been so much to my
advantage, that I have reason to be satisfied, and to suffer with patience
all that can be urged against it.
For, otherwise, what can be more easy for me, than to defend the
character of Almanzor, which is one great exception that is made
against the play? 'Tis said, that Almanzor is no perfect pattern of heroic
virtue, that he is a contemner of kings, and that he is made to perform
impossibilities.
I must therefore avow, in the first place, from whence I took the
character. The first image I had of him, was from the Achilles of
Homer; the next from Tasso's Rinaldo, (who was a copy of the former)
and the third from the Artaban of Monsieur Calpranede, who has
imitated both. The original of these, Achilles, is taken by Homer for his
hero; and is described by him as one, who in strength and courage
surpassed the rest of the Grecian army; but, withal, of so fiery a temper,
so impatient of an injury, even from his king and general, that when his
mistress was to be forced from him by the command of Agamemnon,
he not only disobeyed it, but returned him an answer full of contumely,
and in the most opprobrious terms he could imagine; they are Homer's
words which follow, and I have cited but some few amongst a
multitude.
[Greek: Oinobares, kynos ommat' echôn, kradiên