ART OF POETRY

Should a Painter take a Fancy to join a Horse's Neck to a human Head, and lay it over with Feathers of various Fowls, uniting together Limbs of every Animal, so as to make what resembles a comely Woman above, terminate vilely in a hideous Fish; could you, my Friends, forbear laughing, if admitted to see this motely Piece?  ... Painters and Poets, you'll say, have always had equal Liberty of attempting any bold Design - We know it, and this Privilege we ask and give in our Turn:  But not that Things incoherent be united, the Merciless associate with the Mild, Serpents be match'd with Doves, Lambs with Tygers. 

- Q. Horatius Flaccus c. 18BCE