Critical Canons:  Restraint, Balance, harmony, Good Sense

Horace (65-8 b.c.e.) Ars Poetica (17-8)

Dulce et utile

Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711) Art Poetique (1674)

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Essay on Criticism !711)

“First follow Nature and your judgment frame

By her just standard, which is still the same.” (I. 68-69)

“The RULES of old discovered, not devised,

Are Nature still, but Nature methodized.” (I. 88-89)

“Know well each ANCIENT’s proper character.” (I. 119)