Aristotle Poetics 6.16

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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Further still, if any one place in a continued series moral speeches, sayings, and sentiments well framed, he will not produce that which is the work of tragedy; but that will be much more a tragedy, which uses these things as subordinate,

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.) — 6.16 focus
Farther—suppose any one to string together a number of speeches in which the manners are strongly marked, the language and the sentiments well turned; this will not be sufficient to produce the proper effect of Tragedy: that end will much rather be answered by a piece, defective in each of those particulars, but furnished with a proper fable and contexture of incidents. Just as in Painting, the most brilliant colours, spread at random and without design, will give far less pleasure than the simplest outline of a figure.
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.) — 6.16 focus
And, besides, those who first attempt to write dramatically, can sooner excel in the language and the manners, than in combining the incidents
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.) — 6.16 focus
D'ailleurs ſi quelqu'un s'aviſoit de faire une piece, où il y eût de ſuite pluſieurs diſcours, dans leſquels les mœurs ſeroient parfaitement exprimées, & où il y auroit encore une belle diction & de fort beaux ſentimens on peut aſſeurer qu'il n'auroit pas encore attrapé ce qui eſt le propre de la Tragedie. Au lieu qu'une piece qui ſeroit entierement inferieure à cette premiere dans toutes ſes parties, & qui auroit un ſujet bien conſtitué & bien conduit, en viendroit bien plûtôt & plus heureuſement à bout.
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

Commentary

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

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-251

ῥήσεις i. e. the speeches put into the mouths of the personages in a play or poem (comp. 15, 1454 a 31 ; 18, 1450 b 31 ). The word had been already used in this technical sense by both Plato and Aristophanes.

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-252

ἠθικάς In the Rhetoric the ἠθικὸς λόγος is one designed to create a favourable idea of the speaker's ἦθος, in contradistinction to the παθητικὸς λόγος, which addresses the feelings, and the ἀποδεικτικὸς λόγος, which addresses the reason of his audience. In matters of imitative art, however, the usual meaning of ἠθικός is μιμητικὸς ἤθους, 'expressive of character' (comp. Bon. Ind. 315 b 21 )—which is the sense the word has in the present and other passages in the Poetics. Thus in 18, 1456 a 1 a certain kind of tragedy is termed the ἠθική τραγῳδία, 'the tragedy of character', because its main interest is as a portraiture of character; in 23, 1459 b 16 the Odyssey is described as ἠθική, because it is more of a portraiture of character than the Iliad; in 24, 1460 b 3 certain passages in a poem are termed ἠθικά μέρη, as serving to bring out the ἦθος of the personages in the story.

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-253

λέξει καὶ διανοίᾳ εὖ πεποιημένας , 'made perfect in the matter of language and thought'. The same use of the dative is found in a 36
τῇ λέξει καὶ τοῖς ἤθεσιν ἀκριβοῦν
. — 24, 1460 b 2
τῇ δὲ λέξει δεῖ διαπονεῖν
; and in Alcidamas De soph. 12
οἱ τοῖς ὀνόμασιν ἀκριβῶς ἐξειργασμένοι [scil. λόγοι].

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-254

1450a30 οὔπω ποιήσει ὃ ἦν τῆς τραγῳδίας ἔργον : Rhet. 3. 2, 1404 b 2
ὁ λόγος, ἐὰν μὴ δηλοῖ, οὐ ποιήσει τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ἔργον
. The Arabic version seems to suggest οὔπω (see on 9, 1451 b 13 ) rather than οὐ. For the fut. with οὔπω comp. Eth. N. 5. 10, 1135 a 22
ὥστε ἔσται τι ἄδικον μὲν ἀδίκημα δὲ οὔπω, ἐὰν μὴ τὸ ἑκούσιον προσῇ
. — 6. 13, 1144 a 35
ὥστε τὴν μὲν ἤδη τὴν δ᾿ οὔπω εἰληφὼς ἔσται
. The imperfect in ἦν τῆς τραγῳδίας ἔργον implies that the point has been already settled in the preceding discussion (comp. Bon. Ind. 754 a 40 ), the reference being presumably to 6, 1449 b 36 , where Tragedy is said to be a μίμησις πράξεως.

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-255

1450a31 ἀλλὰ πολὺ μᾶλλον scil. ποιήσει, as in Eth. N. 6. 8, 1141 b 18
εἰ γὰρ εἰδείη ὅτι τὰ κοῦφα εὔπεπτα κρέα καὶ ὑγιεινά, ποῖα δὲ κοῦφα ἀγνοοῖ, οὐ ποιήσει ὑγίειαν, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ εἰδὼς ὅτι τὰ ὀρνίθεια [κοῦφα καὶ] ὑγιεινὰ ποιήσει μᾶλλον
. For the form of antithesis comp. De caelo 2. 3, 286 a 5
πόρρω δ᾿ οὐχ οὕτω τῷ τόπῳ, πολὺ δὲ μᾶλλον τῷ ... ὀλίγην ἔχειν αἴσθησιν
 , and the instances collected by Vahlen (ad loc.) and Schwab (Schanz's Beiträge 4. 1, p. 66).

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-256

τούτοις refers back to the ῥήσεις ἠθικαὶ καὶ λέξει καὶ διανοίᾳ εὖ πεποιημέναι of 29. Aristotle's point is, that the dramatic effectiveness of a tragedy depends before all else on its plot, and that no literary or rhetorical brilliancy will make up for a weak plot.
1450a33

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

40. mvp-aristotle-comment-180

6.16 40. D'ailleurs ſi quelqu'un s'aviſoit de faire une piece, où il y eût de ſuite pluſieurs discours, dans leſquels les mœurs ſeroient parfaitement exprimées, & où il y eût encore une belle diction & de beaux ſentimens.] 1

41. mvp-aristotle-comment-181

6.16 41. On peut aſſeurer qu'il n'auroit pas encore attrapé ce qui eſt le propre de la Tragedie.] 2

42. mvp-aristotle-comment-182

6.16 42. Et qui auroit un ſujet bien conſtitué & bien conduit.] 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

53. mvp-aristotle-comment-53

NOTE 53. P. 77.

6.16 JUST AS IN PAINTING, &c.
I hope I shall not much shock even the most conscientious adherents to the established inaccuracy and authentic blunders of ancient manuscripts, by having ventured to adopt here the transposition first proposed, I believe, by Castelvetro. 1 I can only desire those readers, who may be alarmed at my temerity, to read the passage—
παραπλησιον γαρ ἐστι—κ. τ. αλλ.—γραφεας, εικονα
,—first, where it stands in all the editions, and then, where I have placed it, immediately after the words—
ἐχουσα δε μυθον και συστασιν πραγματων
. 2 —If this experiment alone be not sufficient to convince them of the propriety, or, rather, the necessity, of the transposition, I despair of the success of any arguments I am able to produce in the support of it. To me, I confess, it is among those things that are too evident for proof.

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

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-46

Ritter, cap. 6 § 12

ἔτι ἐάν τις ἐφεξῆς – καὶ σύστασιν πραγμάτων: est alterum σημεῖον. particulam negantem ante ποιήσει ex Aldina recepi cum ceteris editoribus. codicibus omittitur, et quidem ab omnibus ut videtur; Buhlius certe ex Winstanleii silentio nimis festinanter collegit οὐ inesse libris Mediceis. etiamsi concedere ultro velis, eum quoque qui deinceqs ponet sermones moratos et locutiones sententiasque bene factas, quodammodo facere quod sit tragici poetae officium, tum saltem scribi oportuit ποιήσει μὲν ὅ ἐστι τῆς τραγῳδίας ἔργον. ut nunc est, particula negante carere non possumus.