Aristotle Poetics 16.1

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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[1 WHAT discovery, however, is, has been before stated. But with respect to the species of recognition, the first indeed is the most inartificial, and that which most poets use through being at a loss,

Poetics. Aristotle. Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator). London. 1857.

Current edition Experimental

The Poetic of Aristotle (Theodore Alois Buckley) (OCR draft) (English) (Theodore Alois Buckley's English translation, first published in 1850 and represented from the Henry G. Bohn 1857 printing; corrected against a second OCR and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (4)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 16 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 16 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 16 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Franz Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) Experimental (Franz Ritter's 1839 Greek edition, corrected against OCR of the represented copy and aligned to the conventional Perseus chapter-and-subchapter sequence.) — 16 focus
Translations (13)
Poetics (W. H. Fyfe) (OCR draft) Perseus (William Hamilton Fyfe's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, Loeb Classical Library, 1939 printing.) — 16 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 16 focus
Poetics (S. H. Butcher, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (S. H. Butcher's English translation from Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, fourth edition, 1911.) — 16 focus
Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 16 focus
Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) Experimental (Thomas Twining's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1789 and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 16.1 focus
What is meant by a DISCOVERY, has already been explained. Its kinds are the following 1 .
The Poetic of Aristotle (Henry James Pye, revised 1792) (OCR draft) Experimental (Henry James Pye's revised 1792 English translation, corrected against the 1788 first edition, aligned to the Kassel reference edition, and supplied with a selective apparatus of substantive 1788 readings.) — 16.1 focus
OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF DISCOVERY. THE discovery having been already defined [A], we will now distinguish its different forms. The first, which is the least artful
Poetica Latine conversa (Franciscus Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) Experimental (Franz Ritter's Latin translation, corrected against OCR of the represented copy and aligned to the conventional Perseus chapter-and-subchapter sequence.) — 16 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 16.1 focus
NOus avons déja expliqué plus haut ce que c'eſt que la reconnoiſſance; il y en a pluſieurs eſpeces. La premiere, qui eſt la plus ſimple & ſans aucun Art, & dont la plupart des Poëtes ſe ſervent faute de genie, c'eſt celle qui ſe fait par les marques.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 16 focus
De poetica (Antonio Riccobono, 1587) (OCR draft) Experimental (Antonio Riccobono's Latin translation, first published in 1587; text represented from Immanuel Bekker's 1831 edition.) — 16 focus
De arte poetica liber (William of Moerbeke, ca. 1277) (OCR draft) Experimental (William of Moerbeke's medieval Latin translation, represented by the 1953 Aristoteles Latinus edition.) — 16 focus
Arabic Poetics (Abū Bishr Mattā; Tkatsch edition) (OCR draft) Experimental (The Arabic translation attributed to Abū Bishr Mattā, edited by Jaroslaus Tkatsch in 1928 and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 16 focus
Arabic Poetics (Abū Bishr Mattā; Tkatsch edition, unaligned) (OCR draft) Experimental (Tkatsch's edition of the medieval Arabic translation in its original, unaligned segmentation.) — 16 focus

Commentary

Commentary on the Poetics (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) (Ingram Bywater's English commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-562

1454b19 This and the next two chapters form a sort of Appendix; they discuss a series of special points and rules of construction which had been omitted in the sketch of the general theory of the μῦθος. If these afterthoughts seem out of place here, it is to be remembered that there is an even stronger instance of matter out of place in 15, 1454 a 37 An excursus on the different forms of Discovery is justified not only by the great dramatic interest of the Discovery ( 6, 1450 a 33 ), but also by the important part it plays in 14, 1453 b 30 .

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-563

εἴρηται πρότερον: 11, 1452 b 29 .
1454b20

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-564

πλείστῃ χρῶνται: Pol. 7.11, 1330 611
οἷς γὰρ πλείστοις χρώ- μεθα πρὸς τὸ σῶμα καὶ πλειστάκις, ταῦτα πλεῖστον συμβάλλεται πρὸς τὴν ὑγίειαν.
— Hippocrates 1 p. 40 Κ.
οἷς εἴθισται ὁ ἄνθρωπος πλεί- στοισί τε καὶ αἰεὶ χρῆσθαι.
1454b22

Remarques sur la poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (André Dacier's French commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-389

16.1 NOus avons déja expliqué plus haut ce que c'est que la reconnoiſſance.] 1

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-390

16.1 La premiere qui est la plus ſimple & fans aucun art, & dont la plupart des Poëtes ſe ſervent faute de genie, eft celle qui ſe fait par les marques.] 2

Commentary on the Poetics (Henry James Pye, 1792) (OCR draft) (Henry James Pye's 1792 English commentary, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

16.1. mvp-aristotle-comment-58 16.1

THE DISCOVERY HAVING BEEN ALREADY DEFINED, WE WILL NOW DISTINGUISH ITS DIFFERENT FORMS. THE FIRST, WHICH IS THE LEAST ARTFUL, AND TO WHICH THE GENERALITY OF POETS IN THEIR DEFICIENCY OF GENIUS RESORT, IS THAT BY TOKENS.

THE critic having in the eleventh chapter, given a general definition of the discovery as an essential incident to the interest of poetic fable, proceeds now to mention and diftinguish the merit of its various forms, beginning according to his usual method with that which he esteems lowest in point of excellence. He divides this mode by tokens, first into natural and adventitious; and these he fubdivides again into such as are produced on purpose and such as happen accidentally. Of all these our theatre affords examples. The tokens that occafion the discovery of Douglas and of Indiana in the Confcious Lovers, are accidental and adventitious. That of Almanzor in the Conquest of Grenada is accidental and natural. That of Arviragus in Cymbeline is natural and shewn on purpose. That of [A] Sir William [A] Perhaps this does not exactly come under the predicament of the spear and embroidery of Oreftes, as he is rather recognized by his person than his star and ribbon. Honeywood
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. Honeywood in the Good-natured Man, is adventitious and shewn on purpose. I confefs I do not fee the difference as to merit, between the accidental and intentional discovery which Aristotle insists on, and upon which his general scale of excellence feems so much to depend. This circumstance feems to me to be entirely regulated by the fituation of the character. If he even knows himself his own situation and wishes to conceal it, as in the case of Ulyffes and Euryclea in the nineteenth book of the Odyffey, it must be accidental, as it certainly must if he is ignorant of his own situation as in Douglas. But if conscious himself who he is, though concealed from others, he chuses to discover himself as in the cafe of Ulysses to Eumæus and Philætius in the twenty-second book of the Odyssey; or if unconscious himself, a person who knows his fituation like the old man in Merope and Belarius in Cymbeline discovers him, I must think the intentional discovery infinitely preferable. The intentional discovery even by merely throwing off a disguise, as in the Countess of Salisbury, and the Duke in Measure for Meafure, has a fine theatrical effect. Perhaps there is no instance more striking than Æneas's discovery of himself in the second Æneid. [B]Coram quem quæritis adfum • Troius Æneas Libicis ereptus ab undis.' [B] The spirit of this is lost in the translations. For me to attempt the restoration of it after such names as Dryden and Warton, would be at once folly and prefumption. Shakespear however has caught it not indeed from Virgil, but from nature. ،
This is I Hamlet the Dane -
NOTE

Commentarius in Aristotelis Poeticam (Franciscus Ritter, 1839) (OCR draft) (Ritter's Latin commentary, extracted from the 1839 volume, divided by Ritter's chapters and sections, and linked to the corresponding Perseus reference subsections.) focus

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-110

Ritter, cap. 16 § 1

Inseritur arguta disputatio de variis agnoscendi generibus miro acumine et futili sedulitate excogitatis. Vide, lector, quam praeclare qui hoc disputationis caput conscripsit illis respondeat quae ab Aristotele in fine c. 14. dicta sunt, περὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων συστάσεως, καὶ ποίους τινὰς εἶναι δεῖ τοὺς μύθους, εἴρηται ἱκανῶς. scilicet post interiectam de moribus explicationem (c. 15) continuo ad fabulam ( τὸν μύθον) revolvitur, varias agnitionis (quae implexae fabulae pars est) species describens, et ita describens, ut magis doctrinae copiam quam aliquam iudicandi facultatem prodat. haec inconstantia et ordinis perturbatio, magis autem mira illa lectionis ostentatio et insignis iudicii perversitas Aristotele prorsus indigna est et ab eius disputandi more planissime abhorret. nec vero in hac quaestione negligendum videtur quod iam undecimo capite non modo quid sit agnitio expositum est, sed etiam agnoscendi species breviter dextreque enumeratae sunt, ut qui illum locum diligenter consideratum huic contulerit, intelligat, totum caput ad quod pervenimus a viro quodam erudito sed subinepto ex illo ductum exemplisque improbe dilatatum esse. haec quae universe diximus in adnotationibus subsequentibus firmare conabimur. εἴδη δὲ ἀναγνωρίσεως - ἡ διὰ τῶν σημείων: mire haec dicta sunt et sinistre coniuncta: nam ante quam prima agnoscendi species ipsa declaratur, eam arti plane repugnare sed tamen a plerisque imperite adhiberi cum fastu quodam et laetitia severus hic arbiter pronuntiat. ἡ διὰ σημείων est agnitio quae fit signis, et signis quidem iis, quae adspiči oculis possunt, sive in agentium corporibus impressa sive eisdem appensa visuntur. conf. nota postrema ad §. 4. t