lxxxiii
termis, and least of all mignard and effeminate termis." Further: "If ye would write worthily choose subjects worthy of you, that be not full of vanity but of virtue, eschewing obscurity, and delighting ever to be plain and sensible. And if ye writis in Verse, remember that it is not the principal part of a poem to rime right and flow well with many pretty wordis, but the chief commendation of a poem is, that when the verse shall be shaken sundrie in prose, it shall be found so rich in quicke inventions, and poetick flowers, and in faire and pertinent comparisons, as it shall retaine the lustre of a Poem, although in prose." Compare with this the following lines from Beaumont:
'Pure phrase, fit epithet, a sober care
Of metaphors, descriptions cleare, yet rare, Similitudes contracted smooth and round, Not vext by learning, but with nature crown'd."
11. 51-54.
"To easie use of that peculiar gift, Which poets in their raptures hold most deare, When actions by their lively sound appeare."
11. 60-62
"For though in termes of art their skill they close, And joy in darksome words as well as those : They yet have perfect sense more pure and cleare Than envious Muses, which sad garlands weare Of dusky clouds, their strange conceits to hide."
11. 27-31.
After the third chapter, James has four shorter ones on comparisons and ornaments, and ends with an interesting list of "the kyndis of versis." It is notable that while he condemns the pentameter couplet as "ryme quhilk servis onely for lang histories, and yet are nocht verse," Beaumont considers it the best of metres and in his published verse uses it almost exclusively :
