53
Monsieur Bossu's Treatise
OF THE
EPICK POEM.
BOOK II.
Concerning the subject Matter of the
Epick Poem, or concerning the
Action.
CHAP. I.
What the subject Matter of the Epick Poem is.
The Matter of a Poem is the subject which the Poet undertakes, proposes and works upon. So that the Moral, and the Instructions which are the End of the Epopéa, are not the Matter of it. These things are left by Poets in their Allegorical and Figurative Obscurity. They only give us notice in the Beginning of their Poems, that they sing some Action or another: The Revenge of Achilles, the Return of Ulysses, and the Arrival of Æneas into Italy. Our Masters say just the same thing. [1] Aristotle informs us that the Poet Imitates an Action: And [2]Horace in more express terms tells us, That the Actions are the subject Matter of the Epopéa.
But
