Denham.

What have I done?

Vane.

Not what you have tried to do—to paint an epic picture.

Denham.

Is that wrong?

Vane.

Worse than wrong; it is a bêtise. (Comes to fire, and stands with his back to it.) You might as well try to write a long poem. Such things are certainly long, and as certainly not poems. That huge thing is not a picture.

Denham.

Ah, you write quatrains. Should no poem exceed four lines?