“I will ask you only one thing, reader: to pronounce my verses well and fit your voice to their passion, and not read them in the manner of a letter.”

Original: Je te supliray seulement d'une chose, lecteur, de vouloir bien prononcer mes vers et accomoder ta voix à leur passion, et non comme quelques uns les lisent, plustost à la façon d'une missive. — Verse meant to be spoken with feeling, not scanned like prose · Preface to La Franciade (French)

• Poetry
• Reading
• Voice

“Give the name of poet to him who can make such a work, and not to the versifier, composer of epigrams, sonnets, satires, elegies and other such small scraps, where artifice cannot stretch far.”

Original: Donne-luy nom de poëte, et non au versificateur, composeur d'epigrammes, sonnets, satyres, elegies, et autres tels menus fatras, où l'artifice ne se peut estendre. — A sharp line drawn between the true poet and the mere maker of verses · Preface on the heroic poem, La Franciade (French)

• Craft
• Poetry
• Poets

“I am not so obstinate that I will not, at the first warning of a learned, unpassionate man well versed in poetry, receive every friendly correction.”

Original: Et ne suis point si opiniastre, que je ne vueille au premier admonnestement d'un homme docte, non passionné, et bien versé en la poësie, recevoir toute amiable correction. — Openness to criticism from those who know the craft · Preface to the second edition of La Franciade (French)

• Criticism
• Humility
• Learning

“It is no vice to amend oneself, but it is extreme malice to persist in one's fault.”

Original: Car ce n'est pas vice de s'amender, mais c'est extrême malice de persister en son peché. — Revision treated as a moral duty of the writer · Preface to the second edition of La Franciade (French)

• Correction
• Humility
• Writing

“It is better to serve truth than the opinion of the people, who will know only what they see.”

Original: Il vaut mieux servir à la vérité qu'à l'opinion du peuple, qui ne veut sçavoir sinon ce qu'il void. — Independence of judgement against popular taste · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Courage
• Public Opinion
• Truth

“You will first have conceptions that are high, great and beautiful, and not trailing on the ground.”

Original: Tu auras en premier lieu les conceptions hautes, grandes, belles, et non traînantes à terre. — Elevation of thought as the first duty of the poet · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Excellence
• Imagination
• Poetry

“The principal point is invention, which comes as much from a good nature as from the reading of good and ancient authors.”

Original: Car le principal poinct est l'invention, laquelle vient tant de la bonne nature, que par la leçon des bons et anciens autheurs. — Genius and study must work together · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Creativity
• Learning
• Poetry

“In the first age poetry was only an allegorical theology, to bring into the minds of coarse men, by pleasant and coloured fables, the secrets they could not grasp when truth was shown too openly.”

Original: Car la Poésie n'estoit au premier âge qu'une theologie allegorique, pour faire entrer au cerveau des hommes grossiers, par fables plaisantes et colorées, les secrets qu'ils ne pouvoient comprendre, quand trop ouvertement on leur descouvroit la vérité. — Myth and verse as a veiled way of teaching truth · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Myth
• Poetry
• Truth

“Above all things you will hold the Muses in reverence, even in singular veneration, and never make them serve dishonest things, jests, or injurious libels.”

Original: Sur toutes choses tu auras les Muses en reverence, voire en singuliere veneration, et ne les feras jamais servir à choses des-honnestes, à risées, ny à libelles injurieux. — The poet's calling is sacred and not to be cheapened · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Integrity
• Poetry
• Sacred

“Although the art of poetry cannot be grasped or taught by precepts, being more a matter of the mind than of tradition, human craft, experience and labour can still permit a few rules.”

Original: Combien que l'art de Poësie ne se puisse par preceptes comprendre ny enseigner pour estre plus mental que traditif, toutesfois d'autant que l'artifice humain, experience et labeur le peuvent permettre, j'ay bien voulu t'en donner quelques reigles icy. — Poetry treated as a gift of mind first, then of discipline · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Craft
• Learning
• Poetry