7
When the right virtuous Edward Wotton and I were at the Emperors court together, we gave
ourselves to learn horsemanship of John Pietro Pugliano, one that with great commendation had
the place of an esquire in his stable. And he, according to the fertileness of the Italian wit, did not
only afford us the demonstration of his practice, but sought to enrich our minds with the
contemplations therein which he thought most precious.(1).
This is how Sidney begins his essay, on a rather curious note we would say. Before
launching a defence of poetry, Sidney justified his stand by referring in a half-humorous manner
to a treatise on horseman-ship by Pietro Pugliano. If the art of horsemanship can deserve such an
eloquent eulogy and vindication, surely poetry has better claims for eulogy and vindication.
Sidney finds a just cause to plead a case for poetry since it has fallen from the highest estimation
of learning to be „the laughing stock of children.‟ The equerry was always busy blowing his own
trumpet. From Pugliano Sidney learnt this trick of magnifying his own vocation as well as
horsemanship. At first he is resolved to establish poetry as the mother of all knowledge. He is
concerned with the antiquity and universality of poetry. He goes on to establish the fact that
poetry is respected in all ages and in all countries, even in uncivilized countries.
Among the Romans a poet was called vates, which is as much as a diviner, forseer or
prophet (4)…let us see how the Greeks named it and how they deemed of it. The Greeks called
him a „poet‟ which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages. It cometh of
this word, poiein, which is „ to make‟: wherein I know not whether by luck or wisdom, we
Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him a maker: which name, how high and
incomparable a title it is, I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences than by
my partial allegation ( 5-6).
According to Sidney all other human arts are subordinate to nature; poetry alone
transcends nature, since the poet is a maker. Shelley‟s Defence of Poetry is inspired by Sidney‟s
Apology For Poetry. In order to have a better understanding we can refer to Shelley‟s comment
in this context. He says “None deserves the name of Creator, but God and the poet‟. As God, the
creator, creates his own universe, the poet too has his own world. To attack poetry is to attack the
roots of culture, to attack poetry is to attack the universality of poetry itself.
1.5 SIDNEY’S DEFINITION OF POETRY
Poesy therefore is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in his word mimesis, that is to
say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth-----to speak metaphorically, a speaking
picture----with this end, to teach and delight. (8).