For the episodes and
digressions in a fable are the same that household stuff and other
furniture are in a house. And so far from the measure and extent of
a fable dramatic.
What by one and entire.--Now that it should be one and entire. One
is considerable two ways; either as it is only separate, and by
itself, or as being composed of many parts, it begins to be one as
those parts grow or are wrought together. That it should be one the
first away alone, and by itself, no man that hath tasted letters
ever would say, especially having required before a just magnitude
and equal proportion of the parts in themselves. Neither of which
can possibly be, if the action be single and separate, not composed
of parts, which laid together in themselves, with an equal and
fitting proportion, tend to the same end; which thing out of
antiquity itself hath deceived many, and more this day it doth
deceive.
Hercules.--Theseus.--Achilles.--Ulysses.--Homer and Virgil.--
AEneas.--Venus.--So many there be of old that have thought the
action of one man to be one, as of Hercules, Theseus, Achilles,
Ulysses, and other heroes; which is both foolish and false, since by
one and the same person many things may be severally done which
cannot fitly be referred or joined to the same end: which not only
the excellent tragic poets, but the best masters of the epic, Homer
and Virgil, saw.
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