Poetics. Aristotle. Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator). London. 1857.
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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.) — 20 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 20 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 20 focus
Τῆς δὲ λέξεως ἁπάσης τάδ᾽ ἐστὶ τὰ μέρη, στοιχεῖον
συλλαβὴ σύνδεσμος ἄρθρον ὄνομα ῥῆμα πτῶσις λόγος.
στοιχεῖον μὲν οὖν ἐστιν φωνὴ ἀδιαίρετος, οὐ πᾶσα δὲ
ἀλλ᾽ ἐξ ἧς πέφυκε συνετὴ γίγνεσθαι φωνή· καὶ γὰρ τῶν
θηρίων εἰσὶν ἀδιαίρετοι φωναί, ὧν οὐδεμίαν λέγω στοιχεῖον.
ταύτης δὲ μέρη τό τε φωνῆεν καὶ τὸ ἡμίφωνον καὶ
ἄφωνον. ἔστιν δὲ φωνῆεν μὲν τὸ ἄνευ προσβολῆς ἔχον
φωνὴν ἀκουστήν, ἡμίφωνον δὲ τὸ μετὰ προσβολῆς ἔχον
φωνὴν ἀκουστήν, οἷον τὸ Σ καὶ τὸ Ρ, ἄφωνον δὲ τὸ μετὰ
προσβολῆς καθ᾽ αὑτὸ μὲν οὐδεμίαν ἔχον φωνήν, μετὰ δὲ
τῶν ἐχόντων τινὰ φωνὴν γινόμενον ἀκουστόν, οἷον τὸ Γ καὶ
τὸ Δ.
τόποις καὶ δασύτητι καὶ ψιλότητι καὶ μήκει καὶ βραχύ-
τητι ἔτι δὲ ὀξύτητι καὶ βαρύτητι καὶ τῷ μέσῳ· περὶ ὧν
καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἐν τοῖς μετρικοῖς προσήκει θεωρεῖν.
δέ ἐστιν φωνὴ ἄσημος συνθετὴ ἐξ ἀφώνου καὶ φωνὴν ἔχοντος·
καὶ γὰρ τὸ ΓΡ ἄνευ τοῦ Α συλλαβὴ καὶ μετὰ τοῦ
Α, οἷον τὸ ΓΡΑ. ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων θεωρῆσαι τὰς διαφορὰς
τῆς μετρικῆς ἐστιν.
κωλύει οὔτε ποιεῖ φωνὴν μίαν σημαντικὴν ἐκ πλειόνων
φωνῶν πεφυκυῖαν συντίθεσθαι, ἣν μὴ ἁρμόττει ἐν ἀρχῇ λόγου
τιθέναι καθ᾽ αὑτόν, οἷον μέν δή τοί δέ· ἢ φωνὴ ἄσημος ἢ ἐκ
πλειόνων μὲν φωνῶν μιᾶς σημαντικῶν δὲ ποιεῖν πέφυκεν μίαν σημαντικὴν
φωνήν,
τέλος ἢ διορισμὸν δηλοῖ οἷον τὸ ἀμφί καὶ τὸ περί καὶ
τὰ ἄλλα. ἢ φωνὴ ἄσημος ἢ οὔτε κωλύει οὔτε ποιεῖ φωνὴν
μίαν σημαντικὴν ἐκ πλειόνων φωνῶν πεφυκυῖα τίθεσθαι καὶ
ἐπὶ τῶν ἄκρων καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ μέσου.
ὄνομα δέ ἐστι φωνὴ
συνθετὴ σημαντικὴ ἄνευ χρόνου ἧς μέρος οὐδέν ἐστι καθ᾽
αὑτὸ σημαντικόν· ἐν γὰρ τοῖς διπλοῖς οὐ χρώμεθα ὡς καὶ
αὐτὸ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ σημαῖνον, οἷον ἐν τῷ Θεοδώρῳ τὸ δῶρον
οὐ σημαίνει.
ῥῆμα δὲ φωνὴ συνθετὴ σημαντικὴ μετὰ χρόνου
ἧς οὐδὲν μέρος σημαίνει καθ᾽ αὑτό, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν
ὀνομάτων· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἄνθρωπος ἢ λευκόν οὐ σημαίνει τὸ
πότε, τὸ δὲ βαδίζει ἢ βεβάδικεν προσσημαίνει τὸ μὲν τὸν
παρόντα χρόνον τὸ δὲ τὸν παρεληλυθότα.
πτῶσις δ᾽ ἐστὶν
ὀνόματος ἢ ῥήματος ἡ μὲν κατὰ τὸ τούτου ἢ τούτῳ σημαῖνον
καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸ ἑνὶ ἢ πολλοῖς, οἷον
ἄνθρωποι ἢ ἄνθρωπος, ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὰ ὑποκριτικά, οἷον κατ᾽
ἐρώτησιν ἐπίταξιν· τὸ γὰρ ἐβάδισεν; ἢ βάδιζε πτῶσις ῥήματος
κατὰ ταῦτα τὰ εἴδη ἐστίν.
λόγος δὲ φωνὴ συνθετὴ
σημαντικὴ ἧς ἔνια μέρη καθ᾽ αὑτὰ σημαίνει τι
ἅπας λόγος ἐκ ῥημάτων καὶ ὀνομάτων σύγκειται, οἷον ὁ
τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὁρισμός, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνδέχεται ἄνευ ῥημάτων εἶναι
λόγον, μέρος μέντοι ἀεί τι σημαῖνον ἕξει) οἷον ἐν τῷ βαδίζει
Κλέων ὁ Κλέων.
εἷς δέ ἐστι λόγος διχῶς, ἢ γὰρ ὁ ἓν
σημαίνων, ἢ ὁ ἐκ πλειόνων συνδέσμῳ, οἷον ἡ Ἰλιὰς μὲν
συνδέσμῳ εἰς, ὁ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῷ ἓν σημαίνειν.
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.) — 20 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.) — 20 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 20 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.) — 20 focus
[Language in general includes the following parts :-
Letter, Syllable, Connecting word, Noun, Verb, Inflexion
or Case, Sentence or Phrase.]
A Letter is an indivisible sound, yet not every such
sound, but only one which can form part of a group of
sounds.
For even brutes utter indivisible sounds, none
of which I call a letter.
The sound I mean may be
either a vowel, a semi-vowel, or a mute.
A vowel is
that which without impact of tongue or
lip has an
audible sound.
A semi-vowel, that which
with such
impact has an audible sound, as S and R. A mute,
that which with such impact has by itself no sound,
but joined to a vowel sound becomes audible, as G and
D.
These are distinguished according to the form
assumed by the mouth and the place where they are
produced;
according as they are aspirated or smooth,
long or short;
as they are acute, grave, or of an inter-
mediate tone;
which inquiry belongs in detail to the
writers on metre.
A Syllable is a non-significant sound, composed of a
mute and a vowel:
for GR without A is a syllable, as
also with A, GRA.
A Connecting word is a non-significant sound, which
neither causes nor hinders the union of many sounds
into one significant sound;
it may be placed at either
end or in the middle of a sentence.
Or, a non-significant
sound, which out of several sounds, each of them signi-
ficant, is capable of forming one significant sound, as
ἀμφί, περί, and the like.
Or, a non-significant sound,
which marks the beginning, end, or division of a sentence;
such, however, that it cannot correctly stand by itself at
the beginning of a sentence, -as μέν, ἤτοι, δέ.
A Noun is a composite significant sound, not marking
time, of which no part is in itself significant:
for in
double or compound words we do not employ the
separate parts as if each were in itself significant. Thus
in Theodorus, 'god-given,' the δῶρον or 'gift' is not in
itself significant.
A Verb is a composite significant sound, marking
time, in which, as in the noun, no part is in itself signi-
ficant.
For 'man,' or 'white' does not express the idea
of 'when';
but 'he walks,' or 'he has walked' does
connote time, present or past.
Inflexion belongs both to the noun and verb, and
expresses either the relation 'of,' 'to,' or the like;
or
that of number, whether one or many, as 'man' or
'men';
or the modes or tones in actual delivery, e.g. a
question or a command. 'Did he go?'
and 'go' are
verbal inflexions of this kind.
A Sentence or Phrase is a composite significant
sound, some at least of whose parts are in themselves
significant;
for not every such group of words consists
of verbs and nouns—the definition of man,' for example
—but it may dispense even with the verb.
Still it will
always have some significant part, as 'in walking,' or
'Cleon son of Cleon'.
A sentence or phrase may form
a unity in two ways, either as signifying one thing, or
as consisting of several parts linked together.
Thus the
Iliad is one by the linking together of parts, the definition
of man by the unity of the thing signified.]
Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 20 focus
The Diction viewed as a whole is made up of the following
parts: the Letter (or ultimate element), the Syllable, the
Conjunction, the Article, the Noun, the Verb, the Case, and
the Speech.
The Letter is an indivisible sound of a par-
ticular kind, one that may become a factor in an intelligible
sound. Indivisible sounds are uttered by the brutes also,
but no one of these is a Letter in our sense of the term.
These elementary sounds are either vowels, semivowels, or
mutes. A vowel is a Letter having an audible sound without
the addition of another Letter. A semivowel, one having
an audible sound by the addition of another Letter; e. g.
S and R. A mute, one having no sound at all by itself,
but becoming audible by an addition, that of one of the
Letters which have a sound of some sort of their own;
e.g. D and G.
The Letters differ in various ways: as
produced by different conformations or in different regions
of the mouth; as aspirated, not aspirated, or sometimes one
and sometimes the other; as long, short, or of variable
quantity; and further as having an acute, grave, or inter-
mediate accent. The details of these matters we must leave
to the metricians.
(2) A Syllable is a non-significant composite
sound, made up of a mute and a Letter having a sound
(a vowel or semivowel); for GR, without an A, is just as
much a Syllable as GRA, with an A. The various forms
of the Syllable also belong to the theory of metre.
(3) A Conjunction is (a) a non-significant sound which,
when one significant sound is formable out of several, neither
hinders nor aids the union, and which, if the Speech thus
formed stands by itself (apart from other Speeches) must
not be inserted at the beginning of it; e. g. μέν,
δή, τοί, δέ. Or (b) a non-significant sound capable of
combining two or more significant sounds into one; e. g.
ἀμφί, περί, etc.
(4) An Article is a non-significant sound marking the
beginning, end, or dividing-point of a Speech, its natural
place being either at the extremities or in the middle.
(5) A Noun or name is a composite significant sound not
involving the idea of time, with parts which have no signi-
ficance by themselves in it. It is to be remembered that in
a compound we do not think of the parts as having a signifi-
cance also by themselves; in the name 'Theodorus,' for
instance, the δῶρον means nothing to us.
(6) A Verb is a composite significant sound involving the
idea of time, with parts which (just as in the Noun) have
no significance by themselves in it. Whereas the word
'man' or 'white' does not imply when, 'walks' and 'has
walked' involve in addition to the idea of walking that
of time present or time past.
(7) A Case of a Noun or Verb is when the word means
'of' or 'to' a thing, and so forth, or for one or many
(e.g. 'man' and 'men'); or it may consist merely in the
mode of utterance, e.g. in question, command, etc.
'Walked?' and 'Walk!' are Cases of the verb 'to walk'
of this last kind.
(8) A Speech is a composite significant sound, some of
the parts of which have a certain significance by themselves.
It may be observed that a Speech is not always made up of
Noun and Verb; it may be without a Verb, like the
definition of man; but it will always have some part with
a certain significance by itself. In the Speech 'Cleon
walks,' 'Cleon' is an instance of such a part.
A Speech is
said to be one in two ways, either as signifying one thing,
or as a union of several Speeches made into one by
conjunction. Thus the Iliad is one Speech by conjunction
of several; and the definition of man is one through its
signifying one thing.
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.) — 20.9 focus
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.) — 20.9 focus
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.) — 20 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 20.9 focus
10.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 20 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.) — 20 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.) — 20 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.) — 20 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.) — 20 focus
Notes on the current edition
Poetics
Commentary
Commentary on the Poetics (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) (Ingram Bywater's English commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus
11.
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7.
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7.
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7.
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7.
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8.
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8.
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9.
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Remarques sur la poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (André Dacier's French commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus
12.
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13.
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Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus
171.
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NOTE 171. P. 105.
172.
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NOTE 172. P. 105.
173.
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NOTE 173. P. 106.
174.
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NOTE 174. P. 106.
175.
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NOTE 175. P. 106.
176.
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NOTE 176. P. 106.
177.
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NOTE 177. P. 107.
Commentary on the Poetics (Henry James Pye, 1792) (OCR draft) (Henry James Pye's 1792 English commentary, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus
20.3.
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20.7
20.4.
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20.8
20.5.
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20.9
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
7.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 7
8.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 8
9.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 9
10.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 10
11.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 11
12.
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Ritter, cap. 20 § 12