Poetics. Aristotle. Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator). London. 1857.
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.
22.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1032
δεῖ δὲ κτέ.
This is a general word of caution very like that in
a4. Just as we have to consider all the attendant circumstances before condemning an act as wrong or immoral, so too, when the question turns on a word, we should consider its context and its possible meanings in the context before pronouncing it to be improper; we must be quite sure of our interpretation before passing an adverse judgement on the poet.
1461a33
οἷον
τῷ =
οἷον ἐν τῷ, the preposition being understood from the preceding ἐν τῷ εἰρημένῳ (see on
2, 1448a10
).
22.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1033
τῇ ῥ᾽ ἔσχετο χάλκεον ἔγχος:
Il. 20. 267
οὐδὲ τότ᾿ Αἰνείαο δαίφρονος ὄβριμον ἔγχος ῥῆξε σάκος· χρυσὸς γὰρ ἐρύκακε, δώρα θεοῖο ἀλλὰ δύω μὲν ἔλασσε διὰ πτύχας, αἱ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔτι τρεῖς ἦσαν, ἐπεὶ πέντε πτύχας ἤλασε κυλλοποδίων, τὰς δύο χαλκείας, δύο δ᾽ ἔνδοθι κασσιτέροιο, τὴν δὲ μίαν χρυσέην· τῇ ῥ᾽ ἔσχετο μείλινον ἔγχος. The difficulty found here may be seen from the note of
Porphyry (p. 244 343 Digitized by Google Original from UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Schr.):
τῆς γὰρ χρυσῆς πτυχὸς δοκούσης πρώτης εἶναι, εἴ γε κόσμου ἕνεκα τὴν χρυσῆν εἰς τὸ ἔξω καὶ ὁρώμενον πρώτην ἐνέθηκεν, ὑπ᾿ αὐτὴν δὲ στερεότητος ἕνεκα τὰς δύο χαλκᾶς, μαλάγματος χάριν καὶ τελευταίας τὰς κασσιτερίνας, πῶς δύο τε διέκοψε πτύχας, καὶ ἐν τῇ χρυσῇ πτυχὶ ἔξω οὖσῃ καὶ διατμηθείσῃ ἐνεσχέθη τὸ δόρυ; The answer of
Aristotle was perhaps this, that the plate of gold sufficed to stop the course of the spear, though the spear-point actually pierced it and indented the underlying plates of brass. This is practically the same as the solution quoted from
Autochthon in
Schol. Ven. B
and
Eustathius
ad loc.
Aristarchus also is said to have acknowledged its plausibility:
Schol. Ven. A Il. 20. 269
ἵνα δὲ μὴ δοκῇ λύσεως ἠπορηκέναι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἠθετηκέναι, φησὶν ὅτι τῆς χρυσῆς πτυχῆς πρώτης κατὰ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν κειμένης νοητέον τὸ δόρυ τῆς πλείονος ὁρμῆς ἐγκοπὴν εἰληφέναι [=Aristotle's κωλυθῆναι], διακεκόφθαι μέντοι τὸ σάκος ἕως τῆς τρίτης πτυχῆς, ὃν τρόπον ἐπὶ τῆς πτυχῆς Μενελάου λέγει “ ἡ οἱ πλεῖστον ἔρυτο, διὰ πρὸ δὲ εἶσατο καὶ τῆς ”.
22.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1034
1461a34
κωλυθῆναι:
Metaph. A 23, 1023a17
ἔτι τὸ κωλύον κατὰ τὴν αὑτοῦ ὁρμήν τι κινεῖσθαι ἢ πράττειν ἔχειν λέγεται τοῦτο αὐτό, οἷον καὶ οἱ κίονες τὰ ἐπικείμενα βάρη, καὶ ὡς οἱ ποιηταὶ τὸν ᾿Ἄτλαντα ποιοῦσι τὸν οὐρανὸν ἔχειν ὡς συμπεσόντ᾽ ἂν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν.
22.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1035
ἐνδέχεται,
scil.
σημαίνειν (see on
24, 1460b34
).
ὡδὶ ἢ ὡδί =
πότερον
ὡδὶ ἢ ὡδί (see on
a4). The clause, with the punctuation given in the text, is appositional to
ποσαχῶς ἂν σημαίνοι (see on
25, 1460b25
). For
ὡδὶ ἢ ὡδί
comp.
An. pr. 1. 31, 46a28
ἀγνοεῖται τὸ πότερον ὧδε ἢ ὧδε ἔχει. —
Soph. el. 18, 177a5
ἀναιροῦντες ἢ ὧδε ἢ ὧδε. —
Rhet. 3. 1, 1404a10
διαφέρει γάρ τι πρὸς τὸ δηλῶσαι ὡδὶ ἢ ὡδὶ εἰπεῖν.
38.
mvp-aristotle-comment-634
25.22
38. Pour défendre les Poëtes on employe ſouvent auſſi l'autorité de l'usage qui fait, par exemple, qu'on appelle du vin, un vin qui eſt mélé d'eau.]
1
250.
mvp-aristotle-comment-250
NOTE 250.
25.22
P. 129. THE MEANING IS, WAS STOPPED ONLY, OR REPELLED.
Dacier
supposes the critics to have objected to the improba- bility of a long spear's remaining fixed in a shield, like an arrow, or light dart. I cannot so conceive it. The lines themselves are the best comment here.
Οὐδὲ τότ’ Αἰνείαο δαΐφρονος ὄβριμον ἔγχος Ῥῆξε σάκος· χρυσὸς γὰρ ἐρύκακε, δῶρα θεοῖο· Ἀλλὰ δύω μὲν ἔλασσε διὰ πτύχας, αἱ δ’ ἄρ’ ἔτι τρεῖς Ἦσαν· ἐπεὶ πέντε πτύχας ἤλασε Κυλλοποδίων, Τὰς δύο, χαλκείας, δύο δ’ ἔνδοθι, κασσιτέροιο, Τὴν δὲ μίαν, χρυσῆν· τῇ ῥ’ ἔσχετο χάλκεον ἔγχος.
Il. Υ. 267, &c.
The shield was composed of five plates; the two first, of brass; the two innermost, next the body, (for that seems to be the sense of
ἔνδοθι
1
,) of tin,
κασσιτέροιο
2
; and one in the middle, of gold; and there the spear was stopped:
ΤΗΙ ῥ’ ἔσχετο. Now this might mean,
stuck, or, was fastened, in it. But this, it was objected, would have been a manifest contradiction; for Homer had said, not only that the gold stopped it—
χρυσὸς γὰρ ἐρύκακε—but, still more expressly, that the spear penetrated two of the plates, and that the three others remained unpierced. But the spear could not well be fixed, or fastened, in the plate of gold, which was the third, without piercing it. And thus the objection appears to have been rightly understood by Victorius and Goulston.
25.16.
mvp-aristotle-comment-124
25.22
THE REPREHENSIONS OF IMPIETY AND ABSURDITY WILL IN- DEED BE JUST WHEN THEY ARE INTRODUCED WITHOUT NE- CESSITY.
ARISTOTLE gives examples of each. Of unnecessary absurdity from the Egeus of Euripides a few fragments only of which remain; and of impiety from the character of Menelaus in the Orestes of the fame poet, which he has already mentioned in the fifteenth chapter as an example of the fame. Dryden, in his tragedy of Tyrannic Love, has saved us the trouble of seeking for two instances, as the character of Maximin furnishes at the same time an example of both. We should be shocked at the blafphemies he utters, if their complete absurdity did not rather incline us to laugh. I hardly know a more ridiculous circumstance even [H] Intererit multum divusne loquatur an heros: Maturusne senex an adhuc florente juventâ Fervidus; an matrona potens an sedula nutrix, Mercatorne vagus cultorne virentis agelli, Colchus an Affyrius; Thebis nutritus an Argis. in
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. in Tom Thumb, than occurs in one line. He has declared war with the gods, and being from custom betrayed into an oath immediately corrects himself. • Now by the gods!-By Maximin I mean.' The author of the Letters of Literature mentions [1] a new figure of rhetoric which he calls ἄνοια, or UTTER ABSURDITY, a figure which he shews by examples, many writers of high reputation have made a very free use of. (K) To the instances he gives may be added the conduct of Virgil in regard to Ascanius. In the second book of the Æneid he is a little boy accompanying his father. • Haud paffibus æquis.' • And with unequal paces tripp'd along.' DRYDEN. And in the third book Andromache, speaking of her own son, says to him, < O mihi fola mei super Astyanactis imago, Sic oculos, fic ille manus, fic ora ferebat • Et nunc æquali tecum pubefceret ævo.' • In thee my loft Astyanax I trace, • Such were his eyes, his form, his blooming face; } • Such now, had fate decreed, his manhood's ripening grace.' Again, Virgil in one part of his fourth book makes him a child in lap, and in another an active youth following the chace on a fiery courser, and wishing to encounter a wild boar or a lion. [1] Letter XXII. [K] See Curiosities of Literature, Article Virgil, printed for J. Murray, 1791. There
There is a striking instance of this figure in Tancred and Sigismunda. Sigifmunda is in despair at Tancred's supposed infidelity in forsaking her and offering his hand to Constantia, after having given her the strongest afsurances of unaltered attachment. At this juncture Siffredi comes in and presses his daughter to give her hand to Ofmond: and to overcome her reluctance at taking this step he tries to rouse her pride, and induce her to shew the king that her heart
• Disdains to wear • A chain that his has greatly thrown aside.' A very natural argument, and which prevails afterwards in the mouth of Laura, and from whence the novel in Gil Blas from which the fable and part of the language of the tragedy are taken, receives its name [L]. But how does Siffredi conduct his argument? ، • But above all you must root out for ever From the king's breast the least remain of hope, • And henceforth make his mention'd love dishonor. Was not this effectually done by Tancred's match with Conftantia? In fact this (to use a vulgar proverb) is letting the cat out of the bag; and acquainting his daughter with the reluctance of Tancred to obey the late king's will; and defiring her to act the very part in regard to her lover, for which she herself is so enraged against him as to run into another man's arms, merely from a principle of revenge. [L] La Marriage du Vengeance.' Which Smollet (with an eye I presume to the figure in question) has rendered The Baleful Marriage.' In
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. In these lines of Shenstone, otherwise beautiful, there is a manifest absurdity. Pleasing when youth is long expired to trace • The forms our pencil or our pen design'd; " Such was our youthful air, and shape, and face, Such the foft image of our youthful mind." This is comparing the sister arts in a circumstance where they have not the leaft refemblance: the early productions of a young poet, if written from the heart, may shew the • Soft image of his youthful mind.' But I cannot possibly see how • His youthful air, and shape, and face,' can be traced in the juvenile designs of the painter. I shall conclude these examples with one from Shakespear. In the Merchant of Venice, Portia quotes the Lord's Prayer to perfuade a Jew (calling him fo only three lines before.) • We do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render • The deeds of mercy.'- 3 Y NOTE
15.
mvp-aristotle-comment-198
Ritter, cap. 25 § 15
si vocabulum quoddam loci sententiae repugnare videtur, explorandum est, quot modis dici intelligique possit, ut veram eius potestatem et loco aptam eliciamus.
οἷον “
τῇ ὁ᾽ ἔσχετο χάλκεον ἔγχος”: versus Homerici ex Iliad. Y. 272. hemistichium est, atque pertinet ad illos quattuor versus (269-272) quos insertos esse ab aliquo quaestiones et solutiones agitaturo ad §. 10. Aristonico tradenti credidimus. nam concutias, quaeso, ipsos versus tarde prioribus succedentes et ita factos ut multarum
ἀποριῶν ansam praebeant. vid. Schol. p. 560 a 42-561 b 19. primaria quaestio erat haec,
ἀτρώ των (p. 560 b 3)
ὑπαρχόντων παρ' Ομήρῳ τῶν ᾿Αχιλλέως ὅπλων,
καὶ ἔξωθεν κατ' ἐνίους τεταγμένης διὰ πλείονα κόσμον τῆς χρυσῆς πτυχός,
οὕτως ἀποδοτέον τὸν λόγον (hinc sequitur solutio satis arguta)·
ἀλλὰ μέχρι μὲν δύο πτυχῶν προῆλθεν ἡ τῆς πληγῆς ἐνέργεια,
εἶξεως καὶ οἱονεὶ συνιζήσεως γενομένης,
ἐν δὲ τῇ τρίτῃ ἐπεσχέθη. idem hic noster Pseudo-Aristoteles significari a se voluit: nimirum
ἔσχετο non esse haesit, sed impedita est hasta, ut scuti strata (
πτύχας, Schichten) cessisse, non perrupta esse dicerentur. solutionem ineptam esse verbo moneri sufficiat. ceterum in nostris Homeri exemplaribus est
μείλινον ἔγχος, non
χάλκεον ἔγχος, sed hoc
χάλκεον non tam consulto admissum quam incauto scriptori excidisse videatur. neque vero id silentio praetereundum est, ex hoc loco haud consequi illos quattuor Iliadis versus (vero) Aristotele antiquiores esse, ut visum est K. Lehrsio de Aristarchi studiis Homericis pag. 210. pro
τὸ ταύτῃ vulgo codicibus repugnantibus legunt
τῷ ταύτῃ. ad
τὸ ex praecedentibus
σημαίνει sumendum.