ABSTRACT
Infinite proofes of the strange effects of ... poeticall invention might be alledged; onely two shall serve, which are so often remembred, as I thinke all men knowe them; The one of Menenius Agrippa, who, when the whole people of Rome had resolutely devided themselves from the Senate, with apparent shew of utter ruine, though hee were (for that time) an excellent Ora tour, came not among them upon trust of figurative speeches or cunning insinuations, and much lesse with farre fet Maximes of Phylosophie, which (especially if they were Platonick) they must have learned Geometrie before they could well have conceived; but forsooth he behaves himselfe like a homely and familiar Poet. Hee telleth them a tale, that there was a time2 when all the parts of the body made °a mutinous 3 conspiracie against the belly, which they thought devoured the fi'uits of each others labour: they concluded they would let so unprofitable a spender starve. In the end, to be short, (for the tale is notorious, and as notorious that it was a tale) with punishing the belly they plagued themselves. This applied by him wrought such effect in the people, as I never read that ever words brought forth but then so suddaine and so good an alteration, for upon reasonable conditions a perfect reconcilement ensued.
