[458] Sidney's acquaintance with Minturno is proved beyond doubt, even were such proof necessary, by the list of poets (Defence, pp. 2, 3) which he has copied from Minturno's De Poeta, pp. 14, 15.
[459] Scaliger's Poetics is specifically mentioned and cited by Sidney four or five times; but these citations are far from exhausting his indebtedness to Scaliger.
[460] Defence, p. 2 sq.; cf. Minturno, De Poeta, pp. 9, 13.
[461] Defence, p. 9.
[462] This ancient phrase had become, as has been seen, a commonplace during the Renaissance. Cf., e.g., Dolce, Osservationi, 1560, p. 189; Vauquelin, Art Poét. i. 226; Camoens, Lusiad. vii. 76.
[463] Sidney's classification of poets, Defence, p. 9, is borrowed from Scaliger, Poet. i. 3.
[464] Defence, p. 11. Cf. Castelvetro, Poetica, pp. 23, 190.
[465] Defence, p. 33. Cf. Ronsard, Œuvres, iii. 19, vii. 310; and Shelley, Defence of Poetry, p. 9: "The distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error."
[466] Defence, pp. 47, 51. Cf. Scaliger, Poet. i. 1, and vii. i. 2: "Poetæ finem esse, docere cum delectatione."
[467] Aristotle, Ethics, i. 1; Cicero, De Offic. i. 7.