Aristotle Poetics 6.15

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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For most modern tragedies are without manners; and in short, many poets are such as among painters Zeuxis is when compared with Polygnotus. For Polygnotus, indeed, painted the manners of the good ; but the pictures of Zeuxis are without manners. 1

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.) — 6 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 6 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6.15 focus
the Tragedies of most modern Poets have this defect; a defect common, indeed, among Poets in general. As among Painters also, this is the case with ZEUXIS, compared with POLYGNOTUS: the latter excels in the expression of the manners; there is no such expression in the pictures of ZEUXIS.
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.) — 6.15 focus
for most of the tragedies of the later writers are without manners; there being many who hold the same character among the poets that Zeuxis did with regard to Polygnotus among the painters: for Polygnotus was (F) excellent in expressing manners, in which the pictures of Zeuxis were deficient. If a set of moral sentences should be put together with the language and sentiment well executed, it would by no means produce the effect of tragedy, which would be much rather obtained by a tragedy, that, pofthe x from before ὀλίγοι and insert it after ὄψιν reading ὄψιν οὐκ ἔχει πᾶν κ. τ. λ. and making the sense, "Few use all these forms for every drama does not equally excel in appa- " ratus, manners, &c." 1 2
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.) — 6 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 6.15 focus
En effet il n'y a point de mœurs dans les pieces de la pluſpart des Poëtes Modernes. On peut dire même en general, que l'on trouve entre preſque tous nos Poëtes, la même difference qui eſt entre les Peintres Zeuxis & Polygnote. Ce dernier exprimoit parfaitement les mœurs, & on n'en trouve aucun indice dans les ouvrages de l'autre.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 focus

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. 12. Proof.

Commentary

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

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-244

τῶν νέων As it is clear from 14, 1453 b 28 that Euripides is not classed among the old poets ( οἱ παλαιοί), οἱ νέοι, 'the moderns,' must mean the poets from Euripides downwards. It is to be observed also that, when Aristotle a little further on in this chapter distinguishes between οἱ ἀρχαῖοι and οἱ νῦν, the point noted as characteristic of 'the moderns' ( ῥητορικῶς ποιοῦσι λέγοντας) is manifestly true of Euripides, and was recognized as true of him by the ancients themselves (see on ῥητορικῶς, b 8 ).

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-245

ἀήθεις : 24, 1460 a 11
οὐδέν᾿ ἀήθη ἀλλ᾿ ἔχοντα ἤθη
. ἀήθης is, like other compounds of α privativum ( De anima 2. 10, 427 a 26 ; Metaph. Δ 22, 1022 b 32 ), an ambiguous word, as it may mean either 'destitute of character', or merely 'deficient in character'. Aristotle must be using it in this latter sense, since a play with personages wholly destitute of character is hardly conceivable. The language in the illustration which follows from painting,
οὐδὲν ἔχει ἦθος
, is an instance of a common form of exaggeration, just like that in the saying of Pope,
Most women have no characters at all
.

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-246

1450a26 τοιοῦτοι i. e. ἀήθεις.

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-247

οἷον καὶ τῶν γραφέων Ζεῦξις πρὸς Πολύγνωτον πέπονθεν : De gen. an. 5. 3, 783 a 6
ἔστι δ᾿ ἔνια τῶν ζῴων . . . μαλακὴν μὲν ἔχει τὴν τρίχα ἧττον δὲ λεπτήν, οἷον τὸ τῶν δασυπόδων πρὸς τὸ τῶν προβάτων πέπονθεν
. — Rhet. 3. 2, 1404 b 22
οἷον ἡ Θεοδώρου φωνὴ πέπονθε πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἄλλων ὑποκριτῶν
.

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-248

γραφέων For other illustrations from painting see on 2, 1448 a 5 .

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-249

1450a27 Πολύγνωτον The same view of him, as one who knew how to indicate character in painting, is implied in Pol. 8. 5, 1340 a 37
τὰ Πολυγνώτου κἂν εἴ τις ἄλλος τῶν γραφέων ἢ τῶν ἀγαλματοποιῶν ἐστιν ἠθικός
.

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-250

1450a28 Ζεύξιδος This taken in connexion with what is said of him later on, in 25, 1461 b 12 , would seem to show that, in Aristotle's view, Zeuxis sacrificed expression to beauty.
1450a29

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

36. mvp-aristotle-comment-176

6.15 36. En effet il n'y a point de mœurs dans les pieces de la plupart des Poëtes Modernes.] 1

37. mvp-aristotle-comment-177

6.15 37. On peut dire même en general, que l'on trouve preſque entre tous nos Poëtes, la même difference qui eſt entre les Peintres Zeuxis & Polygnote.] 2

38. mvp-aristotle-comment-178

6.15 38. Ce dernier exprimoit parfaitement les mœurs.] 3

39. mvp-aristotle-comment-179

6.15 39. Et on n'en trouve aucun indice dans les ouvrages de l'autre.] 4

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

51. mvp-aristotle-comment-51

NOTE 51. P. 77.

6.15 THE TRAGEDIES OF MOST MODERN POETS HAVE THIS DEFECT.
This receives illustration from what Aristotle presently after says, of "the rhetorical manner prevailing in the Poets of his time:"
οἱ δε νυν, ῥητορικως.
cap. vi: and from his observation, at the close of cap. xxiv. [Transl. Part III. Sect. 6.] that "the manners and sentiments are only obscured by too splendid a diction."
What he has here said of the recent Tragedies of his time, may perhaps be said, in general, of our modern Tragedies, compared with those of Shakspeare. The truth, I believe, is, that the Tragedy of a refined and polished age will always have less manners than that of ruder times, because it will have more dignity; more of that uniform and level elevation, which excludes strong traits of character, and the simple, unvarnished delineation of the manners. Indeed, what the Greeks denominated
ἦθος
, is the peculiar province of Comedy, and is seldom to be found in Tragedy, except in that stage of its progress, when it is not yet thoroughly and distinctly separated from Comedy; from the imitation of common life, and natural manners. 1 Such are the Tragedies of Shakspeare; and such, as I have before ventured to suggest, are those of Euripides in particular, which, in proportion as they have less dignity, have more
ἦθος
, than the Tragedies of Sophocles. But in neither of them, nor, probably, even in those very Poets here censured by Aristotle, was the "language of Poets," substituted for "the language of men," as it is almost constantly in the French Tragedy, and too often, in our own Tragedies of the French School. 2

52. mvp-aristotle-comment-52

NOTE 52. P. 77.

6.15 POLYGNOTUS EXCELS IN THE EXPRESSION OF THE MANNERS.
I see not the smallest reason for the substitution of
ἀγαθων
, for
ἀγαθα
, which is the reading, we are told, of all the MSS. What Aristotle had said before of Polygnotus, cap. ii. —
ότι κρειττους εικαζε
—seems not to afford the slightest ground for alteration here. [See Mr. Winstanley's ed. p. 281. ] Painters are compared in very different points of view, in these two passages: there, as imitating good or bad, serious or ridiculous, elevated or low, objects: here, only as expressing, or not expressing, manners. It was directly to Aristotle's purpose to say, that Polygnotus was a "good manner-painter;" (
ἀγαθος ήθογραφος
)—not at all to his purpose, (besides the awkwardness of the expression itself,) to say, that he was a "manner-painter of good men:" (
ἀγαθων ήθογραφος
). 3

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

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-45

Ritter, cap. 6 § 11

post absolutam illam ratiocinationem (§. 9-10) hinc iam sequuntur quattuor σημεῖα, quibus quae ante demonstrata sunt firmari auctor voluit. primum est, sine moribus fieri tragoediam posse, sine fabula non posse. a