Aristotle Poetics 25.29

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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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.) — 25 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 25 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25.29 focus
To opinion, or what is commonly said to be, may be referred even such things as are improbable and absurd; and it may also be said, that events of that kind are, sometimes, not really improbable; since "it is probable, that many things should happen contrary to probability 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.) — 25.29 focus
I would, therefore, transpose the words thus :
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.) — 25 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 25.29 focus
Tout ce qui paroît abſurde ſe peut juſtifier auſſi par ces trois moyens, ou par cette maxime qu'on a déja raportée, qu'il eſt vray-ſemblable, qu'il arrive beaucoup de choſes contre la vray-ſemblance.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 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.) — 25 focus

Commentary

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

29. mvp-aristotle-comment-1056

πρὸς ἅ φασιν τἄλογα, scil. δεῖ ἀνάγειν. It will be seen that a δέ is wanting, and also that the next clause ( οὕτω τε καὶ ὅτι ποτὲ οὐκ ἄλογόν ἐστιν) comes in without a conjunction. This may perhaps be taken as another sign of the Poetics being in places only the rough draft of a book (see on 22, 1458 b 30 ). It would have been easy on revision to make the text read thus: πρὸς δὲ ἅ φασι τἄλογα ἀνάγοντας οὕτω τε λυτέον καὶ ὅτι ποτὲ οὐκ ἄλογόν ἐστιν. For the ellipse comp. 25, 1460 b 35
ὅτι οὕτω φασίν
, scil. λυτέον.

29. mvp-aristotle-comment-1057

τἄλογα. The first appearance of the word in this chapter, though it has been used more than once in chap. 24. τὸ ἄλογον, said of a fact or statement, means that which we cannot account for, and thus find a difficulty in accepting as either true or possible (see on 15, 1454 b 6 ). There is an obvious distinction between it and τὸ ἀδύνατον, that which is not and cannot be true, the one being only 'improbable', and the other 'impossible'. The charge of improbability according to Aristotle may be met in two ways: one may urge (1) that the statement criticized has the sanction of opinion ( φασιν), or (2) that the incident was not so improbable, if one remembers the time ( ποτέ) when it is supposed to have occurred. These two solutions have already appeared in the main discussion in 1460 b 35 — 1461 a 4 , but in answer to a somewhat different allegation, that of untruth ( ὅτι οὐκ ἀληθῆ 1460 b 33 ). A third answer, the plea of poetical necessity, is indirectly suggested in b 19.

29. mvp-aristotle-comment-1058

ὅτι ποτὲ οὐκ ἄλογον: comp. fr. 164 (Teubn.)
λύων οὖν ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης τὸ τάλαντον οὔτε ἴσον φησὶ τότε καὶ νῦν οὔτε ἀφωρισμένῳ χρῆσθαι σταθμῷ,
 and the passages quoted above on 25, 1461 a 2 . For the emphatic ποτέ comp. Top. 3. 2, 117 a 36
αἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀεὶ ἡ δὲ ποτὲ χρησίμη
 (also Top. 5. 1, 128 b 20 ).

29. mvp-aristotle-comment-1059

εἰκὸς γὰρ κτέ. See on 18, 1456 a 23 ( ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο εἰκὸς).
1461b15 The maxim being Agathon's, it might be quoted for controversial purposes when better arguments were not to be had. The text details context for controversial usage.

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

49. mvp-aristotle-comment-645

25.29 49. Tout ce qui paroit abfurde se peut justifier par ces trois moyens, & par cette maxime qu'on a déja raportée, &c.] 1

Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

255. mvp-aristotle-comment-255

NOTE 255.

25.29 P. 130. TO OPINION, OR WHAT IS SAID TO BE, MAY BE REFERRED, &c.
Πρὸς ἃ φασί, τὰ ἄλογα
: [scil.
δεῖ ἀνάγειν
: for so, I think, with Mr. Winstanley, the passage is to be understood; and so it is explained and translated by Castelvetro. The expression,
ἃ φασί
, or
οἷα φασί
, is used by Aristotle as synonymous with
δόξα
, and
οἷα δοκεῖ
. Thus, —
οἷα ΦΑΣΙ καὶ ΔΟΚΕΙ
, at the beginning of this chapter: and afterwards —
οὕτω φασιν
.
But it will not, I think, be found possible to give this passage a consistent sense, unless we understand him to mean, what, as the text stands, he does not expressly say, i. e.
"By general opinion we may excuse, not only the
πιθανὸν ἀδύνατον
, but even such things as are manifestly improbable, or absurd."
As if he had written,
πρὸς ἃ φασί, ΚΑΙ τὰ ἄλογα.
And thus Goulston has supplied: —
"Ad ea quæ aiunt, [rediguntur hæc quæ dixi; et] illa, quæ sine ratione sunt."

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

17. mvp-aristotle-comment-200

Ritter, cap. 25 § 17

-19. hic idem recurrit quod in capitis 12. segmento 1 et 3. deprehendimus: nam ut illic quae multo sudore excogitavit bis propinavit interpolator ineptissime, sic quae iam subsequuntur (§. 17) eadem sunt atque quae paulo ante (§. 4-8) posita erant, et quae proxime sequuntur (§. 18), ea partim §. 15. partim §. 8. proposita erant: quae autem §. 19. continentur, ea vero Aristoteli (c. 15, 5) furatus est. iste hoc argumentum tam grave esse putavit, ut bis de eo exponendum videretur. - διαμάρτημα τὸ πρόβλημα είκός ἐστιν: problema exercitationis causa ad reprehendendum poetam inventum errore fere nititur. εἰκός adverbii loco positum videtur, ut idem sit quod κατ' εἰκός. ὅλως δὲ τὸ ἀδύνατον - δεῖ ἀνάγειν: si poeta aliquis quod fieri non potest admisit, id ad poesin referre decet, h. e. videndum utrum ipsa peccaverit an alius artis peccatum acceperit. argutam hanc distinctionem accuratius persecutus est §. 4-8. τοιούτους δ' εἶναι οἷους Ζεύξις ἔγραφεν: Zeuxis quos pinxit, ii maxime ad similitudinem veritatis expressi erant et apti ad illusionem faciendam, sed idem eo colorum splendore imagines suas exornavit, ut in rerum natura nihil quod plane simile esset inveniri posset. conf. Od. Mülleri Archaeolog. art. §. 137 ed. 2. νατον ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον: subintellige τὸ ἀδύ δεῖ ἀνάγειν. quae sequuntur τὸ γὰρ παράδειγμα δεῖ ὑπερέχειν πρὸς ἃ φασι τἄλογα, eorum haec est sententia: exemplar enim assurgere debet prae iis quae ratione carere dicunt. oratio negligenter conformata est. conf. §. 6.interdum vero ratione non carent quae videntur carere, οὕτω τε καὶ ὅτι - παρὰ τὸ εἰκὸς γίνεσθαι. haec in brevius contracta transcripta sunt ex c. 18, 6.