Aristotle Poetics 25.31

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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But the solutions may be surveyed from the above-mentioned number;

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.) — 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.) — 25.31 focus
Improbability, and vitious manners, when excused by no necessity, are just objects of critical censure. Such is the improbability in the Aegeus 1 of Euripides, and the vitious character of Menelaus 2 in his Orestes.
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.) — 25.31 focus
which I have ventured to adopt in the translation
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.) — 25.31 focus
Les Critiques juſtes, & auxqueles on ne peut répondre, ſont celles, où l'on fait voir qu'un endroit eſt déraiſonnable & abſurde, & qu'un autre eſt méchant; un Poëte tombe dans le premier vice, lorſque ſans aucune neceſſité, il a recours à une choſe qui eſt ſans raiſon, & telle eſt la faute d'Euripide dans ſon Egée. Et il tombe dans le ſecond, quand il introduit, par exemple, un méchant caractére ſans neceſſité, & tel eſt le caractére de Menelas dans l'Oreſte du même Poëte.
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

31. mvp-aristotle-comment-1063

ἀλογίᾳ καὶ μοχθηρίᾳ. For the datives see Bon. Ind. 166 c 61 , 281 b 24 , and 875 a 53 .

31. mvp-aristotle-comment-1064

μὴ ἀνάγκης οὔσης: 15, 1454 a 28
παράδειγμα πονηρίας μὲν ἤθους μὴ ἀναγκαίου οἷον ὁ Μενέλαος ὁ ἐν τῷ Ὀρέστῃ.
 The plea of poetic necessity was indirectly recognized as a valid answer to certain criticisms in 25, 1460 b 24 , and before that in 15, 1454 a 28 ; comp. also 24, 1460 a 12 .

31. mvp-aristotle-comment-1065

1461b21 Αἰγεῖ: The appearance of Aegeus is in Aristotle's view (1) ἄλογον, because no sufficient reason can be given for it, and (2) unnecessary, because no use is made of it in the after-part of the play. The explanations of certain of the editors of Euripides are hardly an adequate answer to Aristotle's criticism.

31. mvp-aristotle-comment-1066

ἐν Ὀρέστῃ: see on 15, 1454 a 29 ( μὴ ἀναγκαίου).
1461b22

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

51. mvp-aristotle-comment-647

25.31 51. Les Critiques juſtes & auſquelles on ne peut répondre, font celles où l'on fait voir qu'un endroit est déraisonnable & abfurde, & qu'un autre est méchant.] 1

52. mvp-aristotle-comment-648

25.31 52. Un Poëte tombe dans le premier vice, lorſque ſsans aucune neceſſité il a recours à une choſe qui eſt ſans raiſon, & telle est la faute d' Euripide dans le rolle d' Egée.] 2

53. mvp-aristotle-comment-649

25.31 53. Et il tombe dans le ſecond, quand il introduit, par exem-ple, un méchant caractère ſsans neceſſité, & tel est le caractére de Menelas dans l'Oreste d'Euripide.] 3

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

258. mvp-aristotle-comment-258

NOTE 258.

25.31 P. 131. WHEN EXCUSED BY NO NECESSITY, &c.
—
Ὅταν μὴ ἀνάγκης οὔσης, μηθὲν χρήσηται τῷ ἀλόγῳ, ὥσπερ Εὐριπίδης τῷ Αἰγειἤτε πονηρίᾳ, ὥσπερ ἐν Ὀρέστῃ τοῦ Μενελάου.
— Such was the confused state in which Robortelli found the text, which he, very ingeniously and solidly, rectified thus:
—
Ὅταν μὴ ἀνάγκης οὔσης μηθὲν, χρήσηται τῷ ἀλόγῳ, ὥσπερ Εὐριπίδης ΕΝ τῷ ΑΙΓΕΙ, ΤΗι πονηρίᾳ, ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ Ὀρέστῃ τοῦ Μενελάου.
Some MSS. for
Αἰγειἤτε
, give
Αἰγεητη
, which, as Goulston has observed, suggests the true reading—
ἐν τῷ ΑΙΓΕΙ, ΤΗι πονηρίᾳ...
&c.
By the Aegeus, Robortelli understood the character of that name, in the Medea of Euripides . To this Victorius very reasonably objected, that the mode of expression,
ἐν τῷ Αἰγεῖ
, seems plainly to indicate a Tragedy so named; not a character only in a Tragedy of a different name. But this is no objection to Robortelli's reading, though it is to his explanation of it. See the fragments at the end of the Oxford Euripides, where several passages of the Aegeus are quoted from Stobæus , &c.

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

19. mvp-aristotle-comment-202

Ritter, cap. 25 § 19

ὥσπερ Εὐριπίδης τῷ Αἰγεῖ: obscure loquitur ut solet, sed id mihi certum videtur, per illud τῷ Αἰγεῖ haud intelligi Euripidis Aegea fabulam nobis exceptis paucis frustulis perditam, sed Aegea hominem in Euripidis Medeam v. 663-755. sinistre productum. quippe scripsit τῷ Αἰγεῖ (intellige χρῆται vel κέχρηται), non ἐν τῷ Αἰγεῖ vel ἐν Αἰγεῖ. Aegeus illic apparet et discedit ita, ut iusta huius episodii cum ceteris fabulae partibus coniunctio utique desideretur. itaque Aegei personam sine iusta causa ( αλόγως) Euripides in Medea sua adhibuit. ὥσπερ ἐν Ὀρέστῃ τοῦ Μενελάου: intellige πονηρίᾳ χρῆται. fortasse ἐν Ὀρέστῃ ab aliena manu insertum est: mirum certe, ante τῷ Αἰγεῖ fabulae nomen reticeri in qua Aegeus ἀλόγως prodit, continuo autem ad τοῦ Μενελάου positum esse. ceterum haec postrema repetuntur ex c. 15, 5.