unded upon some known History, according to that of HORACE,
_Ex noto fictum carm n sequar_: and in that, they have so imitated the
Ancients, that they have surpassed them. For the Ancients, as was
observed before [p. 522], took for the foundation of their Plays some
poetical fiction; such as, under that consideration, could move but
little concernment in the audience, because they already knew the event
of it. But the French[man] goes farther.

"_Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falso remiscet,
Primo ne medium, media ne discrepet imum._

"He so interweaves Truth with probable Fiction, that he puts a pleasing
fallacy upon us; mends the intrigues of Fate; and dispenses with the
severity of History, to reward that virtue, which has been rendered to
us, there, unfortunate. Sometimes the Story has left the success so
doubtful, that the writer is free, by the privilege of a Poet, to take
that which, of two or more relations, will best suit his Design. As, for
example, the death of CYRUS; whom JUSTIN and some others report to have
perished in the Scythian War; but XENOPHON affirms to have died in his
bed of extreme old age.

"Nay more, when the event is past dispute, even then, we are willing to
be deceived: and the Poet, if he contrives it with appearance of truth,
has all the audience of his party [_on his side_], at least, during the
time his Play is acting. So naturally, we are kind to virtue (when our
own interest is not in question) that we take It up, as the general
concernment of mankind.

"On the other side, if you consider the Historical Plays of SHAKESPEARE;
they are rather so many Chronicles of Kings, or the business, many times,
of thirty or forty years crampt into a Representation of two hours and a
half: which is not to imitate or paint Nature, but rather to draw her in
miniature, to take her in little; to look upon her, through the wrong of
a perspective [_telescope_], and receive her Images [pp. 528, 549], not
only much less, but infinitely more imperfect than the Life. This,
instead of making a Play delightful, renders it ridiculous.

"_Quodeunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi._

"For the Spirit of Man cannot be satisfied but with Truth, or, at least,
Verisimilitude: and a Poem is to contain, if not [Greek ta hetuma], yet
[Greek: hetmoisiu homia]; as one of the Greek poets has expressed it
[_See_ p. 589.].

"Another thing, in which the French differ from us and from the
Spaniards, is that