Aristotle Poetics 9.2

Theodore Alois Buckley (Translator)

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for the history of Herodotus might be written in verse, and yet it would be no less a history 1 2 3 with metre, than without metre. But they differ in this, that the one speaks of things which have happened, and the other of such as might have happened. 4 5

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.) — 9 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 9 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9.2 focus
For it is not by writing in verse, or prose, that the Historian and the Poet are distinguished: the work of Herodotus might be versified; but it would still be a species of history, no less with metre, than without. They are distinguished by this, that the one relates what has been, the other what might be.
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.) — 9.2 focus
and the other in prose; for if the work of Herodotus were put into verse, it would be no less a species of history in verse than it is in prose. But the difference consists in this, that one relates what has actually been done, the other what may be done.
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.) — 9 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 9.2 focus
Car l'Hiſtorien & le Poëte ne different pas entr'eux, en ce que l'un écrit en profe, & l'autre en vers. En effet on pourroit fort bien mettre en vers, l'Histoire d'Herodote, & elle ne ſeroit pas moins une Hiſtoire en vers, qu'elle l'eſt en proſe; mais ils different en ce que l'Hiſtorien écrit ce qui eſt arrivé, & le Poëte ce qui a pû ou dû arriver.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9 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.) — 9 focus

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. should represent, but one thing;-a single object, or a single action. etc. So, every poem (the Orlando Furioso as much as the Iliad) is one imitation—one imitative work, and should imitate one action, in Aristotle's sense of unity, like the poems of Homer; not a number of actions unconnected with each other, or connected merely by their common relation to one person, as in the Theseids, etc., or to one time, as in the poem of Ariosto; or, by their resemblance merely, as in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Twining.
2. " The painter will not inquire what things'may be admitted without much censure. He will not think it enough to show that they may be there, he will show that they must be there; that their absence would render his picture maimed and defective.—They should make a part of that whole which would be imperfect without them.”—Sir J. Reynolds, Disc. on Painting, p. 106. Twining.
3. Cf. Sheridan's Critic, vii. 1. " What the plague! a play is not to show occurrences that happen every day, but things just so strange, that though they never did, they might happen."
4. 3. Hence poetry is universal and philosophic.
5. 4. Definition of universal and particular.

Commentary

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-342

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-343

1451a36 φανερὸν δὲ κτέ. In Aristotle's view a history is a chronicle, or register, of events taken just as they came in order of time, however separate and disconnected they may have been in themselves ( 23, 1459 a 21 ). The present distinction between a history, in this sense of the term, and a poetic story is a corollary to what he lays down in chaps. 7-8 on the unity and logical coherence of the parts in a well-constructed story. The action in such a story is a πρᾶξις μία καὶ ὅλη ( 6, 1449 b 32 ), i. e. a whole with a beginning, middle, and end ( 7, 1450 b 26 ) ; each incident resulting from something that goes before it, and the entire series from the state of things presupposed, as the ἀρχή of the whole, at the opening. Given a personage of a certain character and in a certain position as the beginning of the story, all the rest must be the natural or necessary consequence of this initial situation. Hence it follows that the incidents in the poetic story are not only possible but also always possible, because they are such as may or must happen at any time, whenever the man and the circumstances are found together. Aristotle accordingly notes two great points of contrast between history and poetry: (1) whereas the former is a record of actual events ( τὰ γενόμενα), the latter describes rather possible incidents of another kind, τὰ δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἢ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον (a 38); (2) whereas the one tells us what is true only of some particular person (or persons) at a particular time, the other tells us something universally true ( τὰ καθόλου b 7), something that will hold good at all times of all persons of the same type in a similar set of circumstances.

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-344

1451a38 τὰ δυνατά scil. γενέσθαι (comp. b 32). The qualifying κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἢ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον excludes the third kind of δυνατά, viz. τὰ γενόμενα. These also are obviously possible (see b 17 and De interpr. 13, 23 a 7 ), but as mere γενόμενα they belong to history rather than poetry. A little further on, however (b 29), Aristotle explains that under certain conditions even historic incidents may be a legitimate subject for poetry.
1451b1

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-345

οὐ τῷ ἢ ἔμμετρα λέγειν κτέ. see 1, 1447 b 17 , where it is shown that metre is only one of the accidents of poetry.

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-346

1451b4 διαφέρει scil. ὁ ἱστορικὸς τοῦ ποιητοῦ.
1451b5

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-347

σπουδαιότερον is the opposite of φαυλότερον. In Plato also σπουδαῖος (v. Ast, Lex. s.v.) is applied to things in the sense of axius spoudēs, 'of serious value or interest', as the opposite of either 'trivial' ( φαῦλος) or 'ludicrous' ( γελοῖος: see on 4, 1448 b 34 ). Poetry, as Aristotle conceives it, is 'more philosophic', because of the large and generalized view of human nature which it implies; it tells us in effect what all men of a certain character may or must do in a certain set of circumstances, whereas historic truth is limited to particular times and persons. A great master of rhetoric, Diderot, has enlarged on this text in a well-known passage in his Éloge de Richardson ( Œuvres t. 3 p. 18 ed. 1821 ):
'O Richardson! j'oserai dire que l'histoire la plus vraie est pleine de mensonges, et que ton roman est plein de vérités. L'histoire peint quelques individus; tu peins l'espèce humaine: l'histoire attribue à quelques individus ce qu'ils n'ont ni dit, ni fait; tout ce que tu attribues à l'homme, il l'a dit et fait l'histoire n'embrasse qu'une portion de la durée, qu'un point de la surface du globe; tu as embrassé tous les lieux et tous les temps. Le cœur humain, qui a été, est et sera toujours le même, est le modèle d'après lequel tu copies. Si l'on appliquait au meilleur historien une critique sévère, y en a-t-il aucun qui la soutînt comme toi? Sous ce point de vue, j'oserai dire que souvent l'histoire est un mauvais roman; et que le roman, comme tu l'as fait, est une bonne histoire. O peintre de la nature c'est toi qui ne mens jamais.'
.

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-348

μᾶλλον τὰ καθόλου μᾶλλον implies a qualification, which reappears in another form in b 9 οὗ στοχάζεται ἡ ποίησις ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη. Poetry deals with 'characters' rather than actual individuals, and with universal rather than particular truth. Its universality, however, is somewhat disguised by the proper names it attaches to its characters, which acquire in this way a certain resemblance to the real personages of history. A reason for the retention in Tragedy of traditional names is given further on, in b 15.

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-349

1451b7 τὰ καθόλου... τὰ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον The present explanation of the terms may be compared with that in De interpr. 7, 17 a 39
λέγω δὲ καθόλου μὲν ὃ ἐπὶ πλειόνων πέφυκε κατηγορεῖσθαι, καθ᾿ ἕκαστον δὲ μὴ, οἷον ἄνθρωπος μὲν τῶν καθόλου, Καλλίας δὲ τῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστον
; comp. also Rhet. 1. 2, 1356 b 28
οὐδεμία δὲ τέχνη σκοπεῖ τὸ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον, οἷον ἡ ἰατρικὴ (οὐ) τί Σωκράτει τὸ ὑγιεινόν ἐστιν ἢ Καλλίᾳ, ἀλλὰ τί τῷ τοιῷδε ἢ τοῖς τοιοῖσδε
. — 2. 4, 1382 a 4
ἡ μὲν ὁργὴ ἀεὶ περὶ τὰ καθ᾿ ἕκαστα, οἷον Καλλίᾳ ἢ Σωκράτει, τὸ δὲ μίσος καὶ πρὸς τὰ γένη
. For a similar use of καθόλου see 17, 1455 b 1 . The element of 'universality' in Greek Tragedy, as Aristotle understands it, means no more than is indicated in his present distinction between a poem and a history; and it is in no wise peculiar to Tragedy. Aristotle tells us it was to be seen in the Comedy of his time (b 11); and it is found in just the same way in the modern novel—even in the historical and in the so-called realistic novel. In all these forms of imaginative literature the personages are, as we say, 'characters', in other words, ideal personalities, made to act and speak in accordance with the law of character which the author has assumed for each. The novel, however (owing in some degree to its length), admits of characters of a subtlety and complexity which would have been simply impossible in the ancient Drama. The Greek dramatist was practically restricted to the larger and more obvious types of character, which did not require much explanation to make them intelligible to his public in the brief space of time allotted to his work.
1451b10

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-350

ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη = καίπερ ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη; comp. 25, 1461 a 30
οὐ πινόντων οἶνον
. The characters in the Drama are 'universals', i. e. types of character rather than actual individuals; that is what poetry really means them to be, notwithstanding the individualizing proper names it attaches to them. The alternative rendering of ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη, 'in giving names to its personages' (
'dum nomina imponit'
Heinsius ), would imply that the names were definitely chosen as significant of character. This would be true to some extent of those in Comedy (see infra on b 13 τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα), but not of those in Tragedy. As abstracts of character the personages ought to have general names, like those in Theophrastus, instead of the individualizing proper names given them in Drama. For the use of the middle verb in this connexion comp. 21, 1457 b 34 and Homer Od. 8. 552
οὐ μὲν γάρ τις πάμπαν ἀνώνυμός ἐστ᾿ ἀνθρώπων ... ἀλλ᾿ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τίθενται, ἐπεί κε τέκωσι, τοκῆες
.
1451b12

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-351

ἤδη i. e. now that the New Comedy has taken the place of the Old (see on 5, 1449 b 8 ), Comedy instead of satirizing individuals (like Cleon or Socrates) tells imaginary stories of imaginary personages labelled with imaginary names.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-352

1451b13 διὰ τῶν εἰκότων The same use of the preposition is found in 26, 1462 a 16
δι᾿ ἧς αἱ ἡδοναὶ συνίστανται
. It denotes the basis or chief ingredient in a compound, as it often does in later Greek, e. g. in expressions like τὸ δι᾿ ἀλόης, τὸ διὰ κολοκυνθίδος, etc. in the medical writers; comp. also Dionysius Hal. 5 p. 14 R.
διὰ γὰρ τῶν εὐτελεστάτων τε καὶ ταπεινοτάτων ὀνομάτων πέπλεκται πᾶσα ἡ λέξις
.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-353

οὕτω the reading of Ac, is too idiomatic to be lightly surrendered (comp. Bon. Ind. 546 b 13 ). The Arabic version is said to imply not οὕτω but οὐ; the same Arabic word, however, which Dr. Margoliouth renders by nequaquam, would seem to occur also in the Arabic text in 6, 1450 a 30 , where it may be taken to represent οὔπω. One may suspect, therefore, that the Greek reading before the Syriac translator in the present passage was οὔπω, a mere corruption of οὕτω.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-354

τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα Ritter has a note here on the names of the characters in the New Comedy. Aristotle's point is this. In the Old Comedy the names of the chief characters were already fixed and prescribed for the poet, because actually borne by the persons whom he wished to satirize. Socrates, Cleon, Agathon, Euripides are instances of such names in Aristophanes. But in the New Comedy the names were not thus fixed. In calling a soldier Thraso or Pyrgopolinices, for instance, the poet did not mean to satirize some actual person of that name; the name was a matter of choice or accident—invented it may be by the poet himself, or borrowed by him from his predecessors or from life. Such names may no doubt be stock-names, or have a certain conventional or etymological appropriateness as suggestive of certain types of character (comp. Dieterich, Pulcinella p. 45 ); but they obviously stand on quite a different footing from the real names in Aristophanes. Names also like Phormio, Chremes, Menedemus, etc., were in Comedy fictitious names, though outside Comedy they may have been borne by real persons (comp. on 21 ).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-355

1451b14 ὑποτιθέασιν 'lay down as a foundation,' so that the story may look like one founded on fact (comp. 17, 1455 b 12 ).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-356

ἰαμβοποιοί see on 4, 1448 b 27 and 5, 1449 b 8 .
1451b15

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-357

τῶν γενομένων ὀνομάτων ἀντέχονται comp. Evanthius De Comoedia 4, 2 (Kaibel, CGF. 1 p. 66)
omnis comoedia de fictis est argumentis; tragoedia saepe ab historica fide petitur
. The reading γενομένων has been questioned, but (as it seems to me) without sufficient reason. τὰ γενόμενα ὀνόματα are the already existing names, as fixed in history or legend ( γνώριμα b 20), in contradistinction to a newly-invented name (comp. τὰ ὀνόματα πεποίηται b 22 ), or one which, whether new or not, is arbitrarily assigned to a character by the poet ( τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα b 13 ) at the time of writing.

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-358

1451b16 πιθανόν (comp. πιστεύομεν in the next line) is the Greek equivalent of our modern term 'convincing', and practically synonymous with εἰκός (comp. 24, 1460 a 27 ) and ἔνδοξον ( Bon. Ind. 593 a 35 ). The word was sufficiently established to be applied even by Xenophon to a work of art which has a look of life and reality: Mem. 3. 10, 7
ὁμοιότερά τε τοῖς ἀληθινοῖς καὶ πιθανώτερα ποιεῖς φαίνεσθαι
. In 17, 1455 a 30
πιθανός
 is said of a person, the poet who writes 'convincingly'. The adv. πιθανῶς has the same sense in Aristophanes Thesm. 266
ἁνὴρ μὲν ἡμῖν οὗτοσὶ καὶ δὴ γυνὴ τὸ γ᾿ εἶδος· ἢν λαλῇς δ᾿, ὅπως τῷ φθέγματι γυναικιεῖς εὖ καὶ πιθανῶς
 ('play the woman well and convincingly').
1451b18
ἐνίαις see on 8, 1451 a 18 for this appositional use of the word.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-359

1451b19 Ἀνθεῖ was first suggested, somewhat tentatively, by Welcker in his Gr. Tragödien p. 995 . 'The Flower' would certainly be a very strange title for a Greek tragedy. The play being on a purely fictitious story, the names also of the characters, instead of being taken over from legend or history, were fictions, and due to the choice of the poet himself. But they need not be supposed to have been new or newly-coined names. Ἀνθεύς, for instance, seems to have been known already in mythical history as the name of certain legendary personages; and not so very long after Agathon's time it was actually borne by an Athenian citizen ( Kirchner, Prosopographia Attica 953 ). In this respect, therefore, it was in just the same position as so many of the names in Comedy, Chremes, Menedemus, Phormio, and the like.
1451b23

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-360

εὐφραίνει an incidental recognition of pleasure as the immediate end of Tragedy (see 14, 1453 b 12 , and Döring, Kunstlehre des Aristoteles p. 104 ). εὐφραίνειν serves as a transitive to χαίρειν: Top. 2. 6, 112 b 21
ἔτι καὶ εἰ αὐτὸ αὐτῷ συμβεβηκὸς ἔθηκεν ὡς ἕτερον διὰ τὸ ἕτερον εἶναι ὄνομα, καθάπερ Πρόδικος διῃρεῖτο τὰς ἡδονὰς εἰς χαρὰν καὶ τέρψιν καὶ εὐφροσύνην· ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα τοῦ αὐτοῦ, τῆς ἡδονῆς, ὀνόματά ἐστιν
.
εἰ οὖν τις τὸ χαίρειν τῷ εὐφραίνεσθαι φήσει συμβεβηκέναι, αὐτὸ ἂν αὐτῷ φαίη συμβεβηκέναι
. — Eth. E. 3. 2, 1231 a 6
τῶν ὀσμῶν ταύταις χαίρουσιν ὅσαι κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς εὐφραίνουσιν
. The word may describe the pleasurable effect of anything, e. g. that of a painting ( Poet. 6, 1450 a 2 ), of music ( Pol. 8. 5, 1339 b 24 ), and of odours ( Eth. E. l. c. ; Rhet. 3. 4, 1407 a 10 ).
ὥστ᾿ οὐ πάντως ἂν εἴη ζητητέον Spengel suggested that the εἶναι of the MS. should be bracketed. In these negative statements of result with ὥστε οὐ, which are so common in Aristotle, the verb is usually either in the indicative, (1) expressed or (2) understood, or (3) in the potential optative, as the following passages from the Organon may suffice to show: (1) An. pr. 1. 36, 48 a 36
ὥστε οὐκ ἔσται μέσον τοῦ ΑΒ
. — Top. 8. 11, 151 b 30
ὥστε οὐ τῷ ταῦτ᾿ εἶναι γίνεται ὁ συλλογισμός
 (comp. Poet. 22, 1458 a 5 ). (2) An. pr. 1. 32, 47 a 35
ὥστ᾿ οὐκ εἴ τι συμβαίνει τεθέντων τινῶν, πειρατέον ἀνάγειν εὐθύς
. — Top. 6. 5, 142 a 4
ὥστ᾿ οὐδὲ πρὸς τὸν αὐτὸν ἀεὶ ὁ αὐτὸς ὁρισμὸς ἀποδοτέος
 (comp. Metaph. Z 12, 1038 a 12 ). (3) An. post. 1. 12, 77 b 12
ὥστ᾿ οὐκ ἂν εἴη ἐν ἀγεωμετρήτοις περὶ γεωμετρίας διαλεκτέον
. — An. pr. 1. 16, 36 a 14
ὥστε οὐδενὶ ἢ οὐ παντὶ τῷ Γ τὸ Β ἐνδέχοιτ᾿ ἂν ὑπάρχειν
. — Top. 6. 12, 149 b 2
ὥστ᾿ οὐκ ἂν εἴη χρῶμα πυρὶ μεμιγμένον
. — Soph. el. 6, 168 b 4
ὥστ᾿ εἰ ὁ ἔλεγχος συλλογισμός τις, οὐκ ἂν εἴη ὁ κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς ἔλεγχος
. Two instances of εἶναι for ἂν εἴη are to be found in MSS. of great antiquity and value, one in Par. A of Plato ( Tim. 17 B ), and the other in Kb of the Nicomachean Ethics ( 8. 2, 1155 b 20 ). The error may have arisen either from the omission of an, a word very apt to be lost in MSS., or through ὥστ᾿ οὐ being misread and turned into ὡς τοῦ (as it has been in fact in Ac).

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-361

δῆλον οὖν ἐκ τούτων refers back to the distinction drawn in the earlier part of the chap. 1451 b 1-5 between a poetic story and a history; a history was said to be still a history even if put into a metrical form. From this Aristotle once more ( V. I. 1447 b 11 ) draws the conclusion that the story is a more essential part of a poem than the language or versification.

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-362

ὅσῳ ποιητὴς κτέ. is added as a further reason for regarding the story (rather than the verse) as the great and essential thing in a poem. The argument, which might have been more clearly stated, tacitly assumes what we have been told of the μῦθος and its pre-eminent importance in chap. 6 . The poet's function, says Aristotle, is to imitate ( ποιητὴς κατὰ τὴν μίμησιν), and it is actions that he imitates ( μιμεῖται δὲ τὰς πράξεις): but the μῦθος in a poem is what represents the action ( τῆς μὲν πράξεως ὁ μύθος ἡ μίμησις, 6, 1450 a 4 ); the μύθος therefore is the poet's first business, and he must be accordingly a ποιητὴς τῶν μύθων, μᾶλλον ἢ τῶν μέτρων.

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-363

ποιητὴς κατὰ τὴν μίμησιν: 1, 1447 b 15
οὐχ ὡς κατὰ τὴν μίμησιν ποιητὰς ἀλλὰ κοινῇ κατὰ τὸ μέτρον προσαγορεύοντες
. Vahlen, in the discussion on this chapter in his Beiträge, maintains that μίμησις may involve the idea of a poetic reconstruction of the traditional materials: ' Also die nach dem Gesetz der Wahrscheinlichkeit und Nothwendigkeit vollzogene dichterische Umbildung (μίμησις) des gegebenen, von Sage oder Geschichte überlieferten Stoffes macht den dramatischen Dichter aus' ( Beitr. 1 p. 29). Such a meaning can hardly be ascribed to μίμησις (see on 1, 1447 a 16 ); it is rather part of the general idea of ποίησις (see on 1, 1447 b 23 ), which in the case of a traditional story implies a certain free handling of the materials to adapt them to the purposes of poetry ( comp. 14, 1453 b 25 ).

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-364

κἂν ἄρα συμβῇ γενόμενα ποιεῖν, Up to this point the subject of a poem has been assumed to be always a μύθος, a fictitious story (see on 5, 1449 b 9 ), either invented by the poet himself ( b 12, b 21 ) or adapted from legend. Aristotle, however, now remembers that there may be such a thing as an historical play, one with incidents taken from actual history ( γενόμενα). Such incidents, he explains, are legitimate subjects for poetry, if they admit of being exhibited as probable and natural, as well as actual occurrences. It is only in this aspect, and on this condition, that they are admissible in poetry; as so many mere facts they belong to the domain of history.
κἂν ἄρα = καὶ ἐὰν ἄρα, the ἄpa implying that the supposition is not very probable ( Kühner, Gr. Gr. 2. 2 p. 324).

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-365

τῶν δὲ ἁπλῶν μύθων κτέ. An episodic story, as here defined, offends against the rule of unity and consecutiveness of incident laid down in chap. 8 . Aristotle's theory is that in a well-constructed story every incident is wanted ( 8, 1451 a 32 ); so that a plot with irrelevant incidents violates a fundamental principle of dramatic construction. Plots of this faulty kind, he adds, are sometimes produced even by good poets through the practical exigencies of the theatre; as a play is expected to be of a certain length, if the story proves too short, it may have to be artificially lengthened out by the insertion of superfluous episodes. Tyrwhitt points to the Prometheus as an instance of this: ' Fabulae ἐπεισοδιώδους luculentum satis exemplum habemus Promethea Aeschyli. Episodia enim Oceani, 284-396. et Iûs, 563-885. nec inter se, neque cum fabula principali ullam habent connexionem aut necessariam aut verisimilem Satis manifestum est et Io et Oceanum, et ipsas etiam Oceanidas, quae chorum constituunt, in id tantum sine ulla verisimilitudine induci, ut argumentum tenue in iustam Tragoediae magnitudinem extendant.' The episodic plot is mentioned here because of its resemblance to a history, since its incidents have no more necessary interconnexion than those in a chronicle. The paragraph, therefore, is a very natural sequel to the preceding discussion ( b 1-32 ); and it is in its right place where it stands. Those who wish to find another place for it do so mainly on the ground that the text presupposes the distinction between the ἁπλοῦς and the πεπλεγμένος μῦθος explained in the next chapter. This anticipatory use of a technical term, however, is not so uncommon in Aristotle. Thus—to say nothing of his use of κάθαρσις in 6, 1449 b 28- we find him talking of περιπέτεια and ἀναγνώρισις or ἀναγνωρισμός in 6, 1450 a 34 and 10, 1452 a 16 , and giving an explanation of them afterwards in chap. 11 . Besides this it has to be remembered that the expression ἁπλοῦς μύθος need not be assumed to have been an invention of Aristotle's; for it may very well have been merely adopted by him as one of the already existing terms of dramatic criticism (see infra on ἐπεισοδιώδεις, and on 6, 1449 b 33, 1450 a 34 ). Another difficulty was found in the text by Tyrwhitt, who proposed to remove it by reading τῶν δὲ ἄλλων μύθων, a suggestion which the Arabic Version is believed to confirm. The traditional reading τῶν δὲ ἁπλῶν μύθων is supposed to restrict the fault in question to the ἁπλοῦς μύθος, whereas the same fault was no doubt quite possible in the πεπλεγμένος μύθος also. No such restriction, however, is involved in the text. All that Aristotle implies here is a distinction between the worst form of the ἁπλοῦς μύθος and the worst form of the πεπλεγμένος μύθος. The worst fault in the one is the irrelevant episode. That in the other is no doubt the ἀναγνώρισις διὰ σημείων, which is so emphatically condemned in 16, 1454 b 20 as the least artistic of Discoveries.

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-366

ἐπεισοδιώδεις. An ἐπεισοδιώδης μύθος is a plot in which the continuity of the action is not maintained. That the term was fairly established in this sense is shown by the metaphorical use of it in Metaph.Λ 10, 1076 a 1
ἐπεισοδιώδη τὴν τοῦ παντὸς οὐσίαν ποιοῦσιν οὐθὲν γὰρ ἡ ἑτέρα τῇ ἑτέρᾳ συμβάλλεται οὖσα ἢ μὴ οὖσα
. — Ν 3, 1090 b 19
οὐκ ἔοικε δ᾽ ἡ φύσις ἐπεισοδιώδης οὖσα ... ὥσπερ μοχθηρὰ τραγῳδία
.

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-367

τὰ ἐπεισόδια for the origin of the term see on 12, 1452 b 20 . In this definition of the ἐπεισοδιώδης μύθος, as also in 4, 1449 a 28 and 18, 1456 a 33,
ἐπεισόδιον
 has the technical sense given it in 12, 1452 b 20
ἐπεισόδιον δὲ μέρος ὅλον τραγῳδίας τὸ μεταξὺ ὅλων χορικῶν μελῶν
, 'an episode is all that comes in in the interspace between two entire choral songs'. In other words the ἐπεισόδια together with the πρόλογος and ἔξοδος are the acted parts of the play, the 'acts', as we should say. The term, however, often has the more general meaning of an 'insertion'; a sense which takes us back to the early days of the Drama, when Tragedy was still essentially choral, and the episode, or acted part, was only a sort of interlude in the singing. There are several instances even in the Poetics of this sense of the word. In 17, 1455 b 13 the accessories worked into the story are termed 'episodes'—the process of working them in being ἐπεισοδιοῦν ( v. 17, 1455 b 1; 24, 1459 b 30 ); and in 23, 1459 a 36 the Catalogue of the Ships is said to be one of the 'episodes' in the Iliad. The adj. ἐπεισοδιώδης in the present context involves the same notion; the ἐπεισοδιώδης μύθος is one with acts or incidents inserted into it, i. e. only loosely connected with the main course of the story.

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-368

ὑποκριτάς, κριτάς, the reading of certain of the apographs, has an air of plausibility, but it is difficult to see how the judges, whatever their weaknesses, could be responsible for the particular fault under consideration, the undue lengthening out of the story through the insertion of irrelevant episodes. The statement in the text has to be read in the light of that in 7, 1451 a 6 , where Aristotle draws a distinction between the theoretical and the practical limit of length, and explains that the latter depends on conditions imposed by the public performances ( πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν). As every play, as an acting play ( comp. ἀγωνίσματα in the context), has by custom to be of a certain length, the poet, if his story proves too short, may have to spin it out ( παρὰ τὴν δύναμιν παρατείναντες) by the insertion of additional incidents, which will break the sequence of the story ( διαστρέφειν τὸ ἐφεξῆς, 1452 a 1).

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-369

διὰ τοὺς ὑποκριτάς, 'with a view to the actors,' may be taken as equivalent to διὰ τὴν ὑπόκρισιν, 'because the play has to be acted' ( comp. Ueberweg ad loc.); the more concrete form of expression makes an antithesis to the δι' αὐτούς in 36 . A much less probable interpretation of these words is that the actors are assumed to put pressure on the poet to make him provide them with parts of sufficient importance.

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-370

ἀγωνίσματα: see on 6, 1450 b 18 ; comp. Schol. Eurip. Phoen. 88 ὦ κλεινὸν οἶκοις : ἡ τοῦ δράματος διάθεσις ἐνταῦθα ἀγωνιστικωτέρα γίνεται τὰ γὰρ τῆς Ἰοκάστης παρελκόμενά εἰσι καὶ ἕνεκα τοῦ θεάτρου ἐκτέταται ( v. Trendelenburg, Gramm. gr. de arte tragica iudiciorum rel. p. 91).

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-371

παρατείναντες. The story being too short, they stretch it out, as it were, to make it fill up the time. This can only be done in two ways, either by a diffuse treatment of the incidents ( comp. 26, 1462 b 2-7 ), or by the insertion of additional incidents not wanted for the main purpose of the story. A similar combination of a present and an aorist participle is found in 16, 1455 a 2
ἀκούων ... καὶ μνησθείς
, and in 22, 1458 b 19
ποιήσαντος... μετατιθέντος
.
1452a

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-372

1452a1 διαστρέφειν ... τὸ ἐφεξῆς: comp. Aeschylus Suppl. 1017 ἴχνος τὸ πρόσθεν οὐ διαστρέψω φρενός. The sense is that a side incident is introduced, one not in the natural course of the story—not in line with the rest.

11b. mvp-aristotle-comment-373

ἀναγκάζονται. They do so because they cannot help it, not like the inferior order of poets, through their own fault ( δι' αὐτούς). For another instance of ἀναγκάζεσθαι see 14, 1454 a 12 .

11c. mvp-aristotle-comment-374

καὶ μάλιστα. The καί emphasizes μάλιστα ( comp. De sensu 3, 440 b 12 ; De part. an. 1. 5, 643 a 24 ; also Riddell, Digest of Idioms § 133). At this point Aristotle recognizes a new element of interest in Tragedy, the element of surprise, but only incidentally, in order to bring it under the canon of construction laid down in chap. 7. The φοβερὰ καὶ ἐλεεινά of Tragedy, he says, have the very greatest effect on the mind, when they come in unexpectedly, but at the same time as the natural or necessary consequence of incidents within the play itself ( δι' ἄλληλα).
τὸ ... θαυμαστόν, the element of the marvellous, is recognized as a legitimate source of interest in Tragedy in 24, 1460 a 12 . Teichmüller has a lengthy discussion on it ( Aristotelische Forschungen 2 p. 282 sqq.).

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-375

οὕτως, i. e. if they come about δι' ἄλληλα, through incidents in the preceding part of the play.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-376

ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτομάτου καὶ τῆς τύχης. Aristotle treats the two terms here as synonymous, though a distinction is drawn between them in Phys.2. 4-6 , ( Bon. Ind. 780 b 33; comp. Torstrik, Hermes 9 p. 425).

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-377

ὥσπερ ἐπίτηδες: De caelo 2. 8, 290 a 33
ἡ φύσις... ἔοικεν ὥσπερ ἐπίτηδες ἀφελεῖν πάντα δι᾽ ὧν ἐνεδέχετο προϊέναι καθ αὐτά.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-378

ἀνδριὰς ὁ τοῦ Μίτυος κτέ. Excerpted by the compiler of the De mirab. ausc.156, 846 a 22 . The same story is told, apparently from another source, by Plutarch, De sera num. vind. 553 D καὶ τὸ Μίτυος τοῦ Ἀργείου κατὰ στάσιν ἀναιρεθέντος ἀνδριάντα χαλκοῦν ἐν ἀγορᾷ θέας οὖσης ἐμπεσεῖν τῷ κτείναντι τὸν Μίτυν καὶ ἀνελεῖν. A certain Mitys of Argos is mentioned in [ Demosthenes] 59, 33 in connexion with an occurrence which took place in B.C. 374.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-379

θεωροῦντι is usually understood to mean 'when he was looking at it' (' spectanti incidens,' Tyrwhitt; comp. Bon. Ind. 328 b 5). But as the parallel in Plutarch has θέας οὖσης, Dacier would seem to be right in translating it by ' au milieu d' une grande fête', taking it in the sense of 'being present at a θεωρία, or public spectacle'.

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-380

ὥστε see on 7, 1451 a 3 .

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-232

9.1 Il eſt aisé de voir que ce n'est pas le propre du Poëte, de dire les chofes, comme elles font arrivées, mais comme elles ont på ou du arriver neceffairement ou vray-semblablement. 1

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-233

9.1 Neceffairement ou vray-femblablement. 2

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-234

9.2 Car l'Historien & le Poëte ne different pas entr'eux, en ce que l'un écrit en profe, & l'autre en vers. 3

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-235

9.2 Mais ils different en ce que l'Hiſtorien écrit ce qui eft arrivé, & le Poëte ce qui a pû ou dû arriver. 4

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-236

9.3 C'est pourquoy la Poësie eft plus grave & plus morale que l'Histoire, parce que la Poëfie dit les chofes generales, & l'Hiſtoire raporte les choses particulieres. 5

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-237

9.4 Une choſe generale, c'eſt ce que tout homme d'un tel, ou d'un tel caractère a dû dire, ou faire vrayſembllablement ou neceffairement. 6

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-238

9.4 Ce qui est le but de la Poësie, lors mème quelle impofe les noms à ſes perſonnages. 7

8. mvp-aristotle-comment-239

9.5 C'eſt ce qui est déja rendu ſenſible dans la Comedie, car les Poëtes Comiques, après avoir dreſſé leur ſujet fur la vray-Semblance, imposent aprés cela à leurs personnages tels noms qu'il leur plait. 8

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-240

9.5 Ils n'imitent pas les Poëtes ſatyriques, qui ne s'attachent qu'aux choses particulieres. 9

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-241

9.6 Il est vray que les Poëtes Tragiques ſe ſervent des véritables nams. 10

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-242

9.6 Mais la raison de cela, est que tout ce qui eſt poſſible, eft croyable. 11

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-243

9.7 Il arrive neanmoins fort ſouvent que dans les Tragedies, on se contente d'un ou de deux noms connus, & que tous les autres font inventez. 12

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-244

9.7 Il y a mème des pieces, où pas un nom n'est connu. 13

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-245

9.7 Car dans la Tragedie d'Agathon, qu'il a appellée, la fleur. 14

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-246

9.7 Dans cette piece tous les noms font feints, comme les chofes. 15

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-247

9.8 C'est pourquoy il n'est pas neceffaire de s'attacher Scrupuleuſement à ſuivre toujours les fables receuës, d'où l'on tire ordinairement les ſujets des Tragedies. 16

17. mvp-aristotle-comment-248

9.8 Cela feroit ridicule. 17

18. mvp-aristotle-comment-249

9.8 Car ce qui est connù, l'est de peu de personnes, & cependant il divertit tout le monde également. 18

19. mvp-aristotle-comment-250

9.9 Il eſt donc évident par-là, que le Poëte doit être l'Auteur du ſujet, encore plus que des vers, fur tout, puiſqu'il n'est Poete que par l'imitation, & qu'il imite des actions. 19

20. mvp-aristotle-comment-251

9.10 Et quand même il luy arriveroit d'étaler fur la Scene des incidens véritables, il n'en meriteroit pas moins le nom de Poëte. 20

21. mvp-aristotle-comment-252

9.10 Car rien n'empèche que les incidens, qui font arrivez véritablement, n'ayent toute la vray-femblance & toute la poſſibilité que l'art demande. 21

22. mvp-aristotle-comment-253

9.11 De toutes les fables & actions simples, les Epiſodiques font les plus imparfaites; j'appelle Epiſodique, une fable qui a des Epiſodes qui ne ſont pas liez les uns avec les autres, ny neceſſairement ny uray-femblablement. 22

23. mvp-aristotle-comment-254

9.11b Et les bons y tombent par trop de complaisance pour les Acteurs; car, comme il y a toûjours des jalouſſes entre les differentes Troupes des Comediens. 23

24. mvp-aristotle-comment-255

9.11c La Tragedie n'est pas seulement l'imitation d'une action entiere, mais encore d'une action, qui excite la terreur & la compafion. 24

25. mvp-aristotle-comment-256

9.11c Or ces deux paſſions viennent de la ſurpriſe. 25

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-257

9.11c Quand les chofes naiſſfent les unes des autres contre notre attente. 26

27. mvp-aristotle-comment-258

9.12 Car le merveilleux se trouve bien plus dans celles-là, que dans celles qui arrivent fans deſſein & aux l'aventure. 27

28. mvp-aristotle-comment-259

9.12 Car mème de toutes les choses que la fortune conduit, celles qui paroiſſent arriver à deffein, & par une conduite particulière, font toûjours plus ſurprenantes & plus merveilleuses. 28

29. mvp-aristotle-comment-260

9.12 Ce qui arriva à Argos par la Statüe de Mitys, qui tomba ſur ſon meurtrier, & le tua fur la place, au milieu d'une grande Fète. 29

30. mvp-aristotle-comment-261

9.12 Car il ſemble que cela n'arriva point du tout par accident. 30

31. mvp-aristotle-comment-262

9.13 Il s'enfuit donc de-là neceſſairement, que les fables où l'on obſervera cette conduite, feront toûjours les plus belles. 31

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

69. mvp-aristotle-comment-69

NOTE 69. P. 82.

9.1 POSSIBLE, ACCORDING TO PROBABLE, OR NECESSARY, CONSEQUENCE.
Compare cap. xv.
Χρη δε και ἐν τοις ήθεσιν. κ. τ. αλ.
—[Transl. Part II. Sect. 15. p. 93.] The expression,
δυνατα κατα το ἀναγκαιον
, "possible---according to necessity," appears strange at the first glance: but in fiction, events may be supposed to happen, as in real life they do happen, not only probably, but necessarily; that is, not only as they were likely to happen, but as, morally speaking, they could not but happen.
"Puisque la fonction du vraissemblable dans la Tragedie, est d'empêcher l'esprit de s'appercevoir de la feinte, le vraissemblable qui le trompe le mieux est le plus parfait, et c'est celui qui devient necessaire. Un caractere etant supposé, il y a des effets qu'il doit necessairement produire, et d'autres qu'il peut produire, ou ne produire pas."
 Again—
"La perfection est de faire agir les personnages, de maniere qu'ils n'ayent pas pu agir autrement, leur caractere supposé,"
 &c. Thus Fontenelle, in his excellent Reflexions sur la Poetique; in several parts of which, that clear and philosophical writer has, I believe without any such intention, coincided with, and illustrated, the positions of Aristotle. See particularly, Sect. 58, to 65, inclusively.

70. mvp-aristotle-comment-70

NOTE 70. P. 82.

9.2 A SPECIES OF HISTORY-
Ἱσορια ΤΙΣ
—"a sort of history." It is singular, that almost all the translators should have neglected a word so important as the pronoun
τις
in this passage. May we not infer from this expression, that if Aristotle had been asked, whether an Epic imitation in prose would be a Poem, or not, he would have allowed it to be,
ποιημα ΤΙ
, a kind of Poem, as having the essence of Poetry, invention and imitation? See NOTE V. P. 153.

71. mvp-aristotle-comment-71

NOTE 71. P. 82.

9.3 A MORE EXCELLENT THING THAN HISTORY.
Σπουδαιότερον
. It means no more than, in plain English, a better thing. The word occurs frequently in Aristotle's works, in this general sense. So, Rhet. I. vii. p. 528, B.
και ὧν αἱ ἐπισημαι καλλιους σπουδαιότεραι, και τα πραγματα καλλιω και σπουδαιότερα.
—And, ibid. I. ix. p. 531, E.
Και αἱ των φύσει σπουδαιοτέρων (superior by nature) ἀρεται καλλιους, και τα ἐργα· οἱον ἀνδρος [sc. σπουδαιοτεραι αἱ ἀρεται, &c.] γυναικ.
—See, also, Ethic. Nicom. lib. vi. cap. vii. p. 78, C.
ἀτοπον γαρ εἴ τις την ἐπισημην πολιτικην -- ΣΠΟΥΔΑΙΟΤΑΤΗΝ οἴεται εἶναι, εἴ μη το ΑΡΙΣΤΟΝ των ἐν τῷ κοσμῳ ἀνθρωπος ἐστι.
Dacier translates the word, "morale;" Batteux, "instructive;" but this is rather giving the reason why it is
σπουδαιότερον
, or, a superior thing.

72. mvp-aristotle-comment-72

NOTE 72. P. 82.

9.5 IS NOT, LIKE THE IAMBIC POETS, PARTICULAR AND PERSONAL.
Ιαμβοποιοι
. Strictly, the writers of the
ψογοι
or satirical invectives that preceded Comedy. [See cap. iv. Transl. Part I. Sect. 6.] But I believe Aristotle meant here to include, at least, the authors of the first rude Comedy, "of the Iambic form—"
της ιαμβικης ιδεας
. See cap. v. Transl. Part I. Sect. 8.
It appears, that the Poem called
Ιαμβοι
, whatever it was, was represented, or acted, as well as Tragedy and the Epic: for, in his seventh book De Rep. cap. xvii. the philosopher forbids boys to be spectators of Iambi and Comedies:—
τους δε νεωτέρους οὔτ' ΙΑΜΒΩΝ, οὔτε κωμῳδίας ΘΕΑΤΑΣ νομοθετητεον, πριν η κ. τ. ἀλ.
p. 448, E.

73. mvp-aristotle-comment-73

NOTE 73. P. 82.

9.6 WHAT HAS NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED, WE ARE NOT APT TO REGARD AS POSSIBLE.
This must be restricted to those extraordinary actions and events, of public and elevated personages, which usually make the subject of Tragedy. The best comment I have seen, or that, I think, can be given, on this passage, is that of Piccolomini 1 ; but it is so long, that I can only refer to it. We have, however, the substance of it in the following observation of Brumoy.
"La Tragedie ne s'est point sous-divisée" (as Comedy, he observes, had been,) "en Tragedie reelle, et Tragedie de pure imagination. Je crois en trouver la raison dans la nature de l'esprit humain. Il n'y a que la vraissemblance dont il puisse être touché. Or il n'est pas vraissemblable que des faits aussi grands que ceux de la Tragedie, des faits qui n'arrivent que dans les maisons des rois, ou dans le sein des empires, soient absolument inconnus. Si donc le Poete invente tout son sujet, jusq' aux noms, l'esprit du spectateur se revolte; tout lui paroit incroyable, et la piece manque fon effet, faute de vraissemblance. Mais comme la Comedie ne touche que la vie commune et ses ridicules, le spectateur peut supposer et suppose en effet, en se laissant aller à l'enchantement du spectacle, que le sujet qu'on lui présente est un fait réel, quoiqu' il ne le connoisse pas. Il n'en seroit pas de même, si le sujet comique avoit du merveilleux."
Theatre des Grecs, i. p. 207.

74. mvp-aristotle-comment-74

NOTE 74. P. 83.

9.9 A POET SHOULD BE A POET OR MAKER OF FABLES, RATHER THAN OF VERSES.
So Plato, almost in the same words:—
ἐννοησας ότι τον ποιητην δεοι, εἴπερ μέλλοι ποιητης εἶναι, ποιειν ΜΥΘΟΥΣ, ἀλλ' οὐ ΛΟΓΟΥΣ.
— Phædon, p. 61, ed. Serr.

75. mvp-aristotle-comment-75

NOTE 75. P. 83.

9.10 NOR IS HE THE LESS A POET, THOUGH THE INCIDENTS OF HIS FABLE SHOULD CHANCE TO BE SUCH AS HAVE REALLY HAPPENED, &C.
The original, as it stands, (for I doubt of its integrity,) is very ambiguous and obscure. The sense I wished to give it, is this: "Nor will he be the less a Poet, though he should found his Poem upon fact: for nothing hinders, but that some real events may be such, as to admit of Poetic probability; and he who gives them this probability, and makes them such, as Poetry requires, is so far entitled to the name of Poet, or Inventor." And thus, indeed, the passage is explained by Robortelli and some other commentators: and Casaubon seems to have so understood it; for, quoting the words
κἂν άρα συμβῃ γενομενα ποιειν, κ. τ. αλ.
—he says,
"ad ea solùm dramata referendum, quorum hypothesis ab historiâ est; ut Persarum Æschyli: fabulæ verò totius
συνθεσις
ab ingenio Poetæ."
De Satyricâ, &c. p. 345. I do not, however, see how this sense can be fairly extracted from the words, as they now stand. That which I have given in my translation, and which was first suggested to me by the word
συμβῃ
, I was afterwards glad to find supported by the opinion of Victorius. The expression—
ἂν ΣΥΜΒΗι γενομενα ποιειν
,— "if he should happen," &c. is very strong, and hardly applicable to a Poet chusing a true story for the outline of his fable. It indicates accidental coincidence with truth. The word
εἶναι
, also, is on the same side: "may be," does not suit the sense above given, which requires, "may become"—may be made such by the Poet; not, "may be such," in themselves, which is the obvious meaning of
τοιαῦτα ΕΙΝΑΙ
. Farther; Aristotle has just told us, that probability is the Poet's province, and yet, at the same time, that Tragedies were usually founded, and should, in general, be founded, on historical fact. Now it would, surely, be rather strange, after all this, to say, "nothing hinders, but that some real events may be made to have poetic probability:"
οὐδεν ΚΩΛΥΕΙ τοιαῦτα εἶναι οἷα ἂν εἴκοτα γενεσθαι, κ. τ. αλ.
But, to the interpretation which I have preferred, these expressions are all exactly suitable, and the meaning and connection of the whole seems to be this:—Aristotle had been opposing Poetry to fact: he had said expressly, that the
γενομενα
were the peculiar province of the historian; the
οἷα ἂν γενοιτο
, and the
εἰκος
, of the Poet. An objector, misapprehending, or misrepresenting, his meaning, might have urged "the incidents of this or that Poet have actually happened; they are
γενομενα
; and therefore, according to your own doctrine, not proper for Poetry, nor the work of a Poet." —To this Aristotle answers, that, though the object of the Poet be not truth, yet his invented probabilities may coincide with truth: and real events, even of the Tragic and extraordinary kind, may have happened as probably and naturally as he has supposed them to happen. He is still, therefore, no less a Poet; not only as having actually invented the incidents, but as having invented them with true Poetic probability. And thus Victorius:—
"Non omnes eos qui fortuitò incidant in res quæ exitum jam habuerint, in culpâ esse; quia fieri possit, ut res aliquæ factæ, ita factæ sint, ut verisimile fit illas factas esse; et esse denique ejusmodi, ut effici potuerint; quo nomine (inquit,) ille Poeta eorum aliquo modo est: officium enim Poetæ est, verisimile sectari, et ea quæ effici possunt sumere: quod in illis rebus illo modo factis non desideratur. Retinet igitur, hâc de causâ, nomen Poetæ."
 I confess, indeed, that the passage is, in this way, nothing more than an answer to a senseless cavil. But such cavils, we know, the sophists of those times 2 did not disdain to make, nor Aristotle always disdain to answer. See cap. xxv. Transl. Part IV.

76. mvp-aristotle-comment-76

NOTE 76. P. 83.

9.11 OF SIMPLE FABLES, THE EPISODIC ARE THE WORST.
Why, of simple fables—
ἁπλων μυθων
? as if the fault here noticed were peculiar to the simple fable; that is, as the term is defined in the following chapter, the fable that is without revolution or discovery. But surely this could not be Aristotle's meaning. Something, I am persuaded, is wrong: but I have no probable conjecture to offer; unless it may be thought probable, that
ΑΠΑΝΤΩΝ
, abbreviated perhaps by the transcriber, might be mistaken for
ΑΠΛΩΝ
. What Dacier says in his note is ingenious and true; but by no means, I think, fully accounts for Aristotle's expression, which implies more, than that these unconnected Episodes,
"se rencontrent plus ordinairement dans les fables simples."
 Victorius states the difficulty fairly, and only asks, with a modesty which inferior critics often want,
"An valet quicquam ad eum (scrupulum) evellendum, quod Tragedia simplex suâ sponte non valdè elegans est; cui si accesserit hoc vitium, meritò deterrima vocari potest?"
— For my own part, I must answer in the negative. This idea has been adopted by Goulston, and Le Bossu. They make Aristotle say—"Simple fables are not so good as complex, and simple fables that are Episodic, are the worst of all."—This is to supply a meaning, not to find one. For the sense of Episodes here, see NOTE 37.

77. mvp-aristotle-comment-77

NOTE 77. P. 83.

9.11b IN ORDER TO ACCOMMODATE THEIR PIECES TO THE PURPOSES OF RIVAL PERFORMERS, &c.
That actors, as well as Poets, contended for the prize in these Tragic games, or
ἀγωνες
, might be sufficiently proved by a single passage in the Ethics of Aristotle, where, explaining the difference between
προαίρεσις
, and
βούλησις
, he says, "we may will, or desire, things not at all in our own power to effect ; as, that such a particular actor may gain the prize :" —
ὑποκριτην τινα νικαν, ἢ ἀθλητην
3 . The reader may also see a passage in the Rhetoric, lib. iii. cap. i. which throws some illustration upon this passage, by shewing the great importance of the players at that time, and the dependance of the Poets upon them: for Aristotle there says of these dramatic contests, that,
ἐχει μεῖζον δύνανται ΝΥΝ των ποιητων αι ὑποκριται
: "the actors, now, have greater power—are more regarded, and of more importance to the success of the dramas—than the Poets." A revolution somewhat similar is recorded by Plutarch to have happened between the later Dithyrambic Poets and their
αυληται
, or flute-players : —
το γαρ παλαιον, ἐως εις Μελανιππίδην τον των διθυραμβων ποιητην, συμβεβηκει, τες ΑΥΛΗΤΑΣ παρα των ποιητων λαμβανειν της μισθες, ΠΡΩΤΑΓΩΝΙΣΤΟΥΣΗΣ δηλονότι ΤΗΣ ΠΟΙΗΣΕΩΣ, των δ' αυλητων ΥΠΗΡΕΤΟΥΝΤΩΝ τοις διδασκαλοις· ὑστερον δε [i. e. when, as he says, the music of the flute became more complicated, refined, and difficult,] και τετο διεφθαρη
De Musica. ed. H. St. p. 2091. . But all this is nothing, to what we have heard of the modern despotism sometimes exercised by great opera singers over the composers.
The effect which this influence of the players might have, in lengthening and disuniting the action, according to Aristotle's complaint here, may be easily imagined. Castelvetro observes, with great probability, of these ill-connected
ἐπεισοδια
,
"Et, peraventura, queste digressioni fatte per compiacere i rappresentatori, riguardavano più à quello che i rappresentatori sapevano bene contrafare, che alla materia naturale della favola ; accioche essi mostraffero quello che valessero, in quello dove erano piu esercitati, et percio piu agevolmente ottenessero la vittoria."
Poet. d' Arist. p. 220. Here, too, the musical reader, will be again reminded of the privilege so intemperately exercised by modern Italian singers—the lineal descendants, according to some, of the
ὑποκριται
of the Greek Opera—that of setting aside, whenever they please, both the Poet, and the composer, by the introduction of such songs, from other operas, as they think most favourable to the display of their peculiar talents. 4
The influence of modern actors upon the productions of the Poet, is, perhaps, not less than that of the antient ; but it seems to be exerted most frequently in a contrary way, though one full as likely to spoil the
ἐφεξης
of the piece—that of lopping. The distress of a Poet on such occasions is represented with true comic force by Mr. Sheridan in his Critic:
Sir, the performer has cut it out, &c.
Sheridan, Critic, Act III. Sc. 1.

78. mvp-aristotle-comment-78

NOTE 78. P. 83.

9.11b BEYOND THEIR POWERS-.
I cannot agree with the commentators, who render
παρα την δυναμιν
,
supra id quod ferat
:—referring
δυναμιν
to the fable itself. I think it means
ultra vires
, beyond the powers of the Poets. And so the Abbé Batteux—
"audelà de fa portée."
The greater the length of the fable, the greater, evidently, is the difficulty of filling it up with consistent probability ; without violating that close connection of incidents, and unity of action, which the rules of Aristotle, and the nature of the drama, require.

79. mvp-aristotle-comment-79

NOTE 79. P. 83.

9.11c THAT PURPOSE IS BEST ANSWERED BY SUCH EVENTS AS ARE NOT ONLY UNEXPECTED, BUT UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES OF EACH OTHER.
Ταυτα δε γινεται μαλιστα τοιαυτα, και μαλλον όταν γενηται παρα την δόξαν δι' ἀλληλα.
—This is certainly corrupt ; nor does it seem easy to form any probable conjecture, how it stood, as Aristotle left it. Whether the words,
και μαλλον
, be right or not, they serve, as the text at present stands, only to embarrass a passage, which, if we omit them, seems clear enough, both in construction and meaning. In this I perfectly agree with the last Oxford editor 5 ; though I think they should not be hastily ejected from the text.
The connection and drift of the whole passage seems to me to be this. Aristotle is here recommending the close connection of incidents, arising probably or necessarily from each other, in a new point of view—as being of great importance, not only to the unity of fable, but to the principal object of Tragedy, the production of terror and pity. For events are best adapted to this purpose, most striking and affecting, when they happen, not only
παρα την δόξαν
, but
παρα την δόξαν ΔΙ' ΑΛΛΗΛΑ
: when the wonder arises, not only from their happening unexpectedly, but from their being the consequences of events from which no one could have expected them to follow. Thus connected, as cause and effect, they will be more surprising, and consequently more affecting, more terrible or piteous 6 , than if they appear to happen by chance—
ἀπο τε αυτοματο και της τύχης — εἰκη — ΜΕΤ᾿ ἀλληλα
only, not
ΔΙ' ἀλληλα
, according to the distinc- tion in the next chapter. To illustrate this, Aristotle observes, that even events merely fortuitous, are more wonderful and striking, when they are such, as in any degree suggest to the spectator an idea of purpose and design ; like the accident he mentions of the statue that fell upon the murderer of the person represented by it. And all this is connected with what follows, as well as with what precedes ; evidently pointing to his doctrine about the
περιπετεια
in the next chapters. 7

80. mvp-aristotle-comment-80

NOTE 80. P. 84.

9.12 THE STATUE OF MITYS, &c.
In Plutarch, thus : —
και το Μιτιος τε Αργειε, κατα στασιν ἀναιρεθεντος, ἀνδριαντα χαλκουν ἐν ἀγορᾳ, θεας οὔσης, ἐμπεσειν τῳ κτειναντι τον Μίτιον, και ἀνελειν.
[Περί των βραδεως, &c. p. 980, ed. H. St.]

Commentary on the Poetics (Henry James Pye, 1792) (OCR draft) (Henry James Pye's 1792 English commentary, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

9.1. mvp-aristotle-comment-22 9.2

IF THE WORK OF HERODOTUS WERE PUT INTO VERSE, IT WOULD BE NO LESS A SPECIES OF HISTORY IN VERSE THAN IT IS IN PROSE.

I ACKNOWLEDGE myself to have been one of the many translators, justly blamed by Mr. Twining, for neglecting the force of the expression Ἱςορία τις, a fort, or species of history, and which, in this edition, I have corrected from his observation, which I shall take the liberty of inserting. May we not infer from this expreffion [A], ' that if Ariftotle had been asked whether an epic compofition in profe, ' would be a poem or not, he would have allowed it to be wποίημα τι, a • kind of poem, as having the essence of poetry, invention and imitation ?' To this, however, he would probably have added, that it would only be an imperfect kind of poem, from wanting the ornament of verfification, as the work of Herodotus in verse would be only a spurious kind of history from possessing it. Metastasio has rendered this passage properly; (B) ' it would still ' continue, though in verse, a species of history, as it was in profe.' Yet in his observations, anxious to support the hypothefis he had [A] See Note III. Chap. 1. [B] ' Rimarreble come era in prosa, sempre una specie d'istoria, ancora in verfi.' advanced,
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. advanced, that poetry was, in any sense, incompatible with prose, and yet finding it impossible to avoid feeing the contrary doctrine was in some measure supported by Aristotle's assertion that it is the conftruction of the fable, and not of the verse, that diftinguishes the poet from the hiftorian, he runs into an unjustifiable refinement on the words and sense of the critic, and says he only means, that a person who writes on unpoetical subjects in verse, is not a good poet: just as we call a man that is awkward, dirty, and cowardly, no foldier, though enlisted, and receiving pay, and really a foldier in the legal and political sense of the word. The fallacy of this argument must strike every one in a variety of instances; and it is, befides, in direct oppofition to the doctrine of Ariftotle, since, on this supposition, verse is the essential requifite of poetry, and imitation only a quality. The sum of Ariftotle's reasoning on the subject, which is directly contrary to the idea of Metaftafio, seems to be this; • Whoever forms a fable, imitative of human ، actions, is a poet, a maker, an inventor. If his fable is ill conducted, ⚫ he is a bad poet. If he writes it in prose, he errs as to the proper material, or means of imitation. But if he forms no imitative fable, ' he is no poet.'

9.2. mvp-aristotle-comment-23 9.3

POETRY IS THEREFORE MORE PHILOSOPHICAL AND INSTRUC- TIVE THAN HISTORY.

LORD BACON, in his Treatise of the Advancement of Learning, has so good a comment on this passage, that I trust the reader will not be displeased with me for saving him the trouble of referring to it. вь The
[c] • The use of this feigned history hath been to give some shadow ' of fatisfaction to the mind of man in those points, wherein the nature ' of things doth deny it; the world being, in proportion, inferior to ' the foul; by reason whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of man, " a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can be found in the nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which • satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater, and ، more heroical: because true history propoundeth the successes and • issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, there- • fore poefy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to • revealed providence: because true history representeth actions and events more ordinary, and less interchanged; therefore poesy endueth • them with more rareness, and more unexpected and alternative varia- ' tions: so as it appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And, therefore, it was ever ، thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise ' and erect the mind, by fubmitting the shews of things to the defires ' of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind unto the nature of things.' [c] It must be owned, that an eminent writer of the present day, professes to be of the contrary opinion. The Cyropædia is vague and languid, the Anabasis circumstantial and animated; such is the eternal difference between fiction and truth.' DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, Chap. xxiv. Note 115. Some persons will, possibly, be inclined to doubt the infallibility as well as the eternity of this doctrine, and even the comparison that occafioned it; and may doubt whether this eternal distinction between truth and fiction would be easily difcoverable in a comparifon between Homer and Thucydides. We may, however, readily excuse Mr. Gibbon, for his partiality to a species of literature, in which he has shewn fo much excellence. NOTE

9.3. mvp-aristotle-comment-24 9.4

IN COMEDY, POETS FIRST FORM THE FABLE, AND THEN ADD ANY CASUAL NAMES.

WE have already been shewn, as the first distinction between history and poetry, that one describes the real actions of a particular person, the other fictitious, though probable events that are supposed to happen to an imaginary one. And fuch qualities are to be given to this imaginary person, as will best suit these events, and the part he takes in them; and these qualities are not only to be marked by the action and sentiments, but even the names given to the characters should be expressive of them. It seems, however, that having faid this, the critic recollected, that in tragedy the practice was different: for though the incidents, the manners, and the sentiments, were to be formed on general nature, the names were to be those of real historical persons. In comedy, however, he says, names expressive of the quality of the character are used. And, indeed, by this contrivance, the inconvenience attending comedy, mentioned in the fragment, quoted in Note 1. Chap. VII. is, in great measure, obviated. For if the quality of the tragic person is known as foon as his name is announced from recollection, the fame thing will happen in comedy, if such characteristic appellations are given as Pamphilus, or Parmeno, Dapperwit, or Wellbred. Steele, however, in the first number of his paper, called The Lover, intended as a kind of sequel to the Spectator, makes the following observation on this practice. • I shall shun also names significant of the person's • character of whom I talk; a trick used by playwrights, which I have Bb 2 long
، long thought no better a device than of underwriting the name of an • animal on a poft, which the painter conceived too delicately drawn to • be known by common eyes, or by his delineation of the limbs.' It is remarkable, than in this identical paper, an old bachelor is called Wildgoose; and, in the next, the supposed author of the work, the Lover, is named Marmaduke Myrtle. Indeed, the mixture of characteristic names with common ones, though very abfurd, is not unusual. In the Jealous Wife we meet with Mr. and Mrs. Oakly, Sir Harry Beagle, and Terence Ocutter: and, in its archetype Tom Jones, Allworthy stands alone among an hoft of common names. Another impropriety often attends characteriftic names in modern comedy, from the husband and wife having the fame name; in confequence of this a very quiet nobleman, in one of Congreve's comedies, is called Lord Touchwood; and this impropriety is still greater when the characters of the husband and wife are particularly contrafted as to their conduct to each other. Where is the propriety of Mrs. Bruin, and Mrs. Sneak, in the Mayor of Garrat? In Mr. Cumberland's Observer, there is a very well conducted and interesting fable, where the principal person, from his indolence of disposition, is called Ned Drowsy. This gentleman, like Cymon, is entirely altered by falling in love, and he becomes a very spirited and active young man. His name, therefore, ceafing to be expressive of his character, the poet is obliged to change it by an application to parliament. The introducing a kind of pun on the characteristic name given by the author, one should conceive the lowest effort of dulness to excite a laugh, and yet it is practised by respectable writers; as for example: in the Provoked Husband, Manly says to Sir Francis, O thou head of the wrong- ' heads.' Of all writers, Mr. Anstey has made the most happy use of characteristic names in the Bath Guide. They really contribute greatly to
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. to the humour of a poem, which draws it, besides, from a thousand different fources. On the Greek theatre, the comic scene, like the tragic, was always laid at home. Indeed, it could be laid no where else. They knew the manners of no other people. Terence adopted Athenian manners from Menander; and Moliere, in many of his pieces, from Terence. The whole interest of L'Etourdi turns on the purchase of a flave. Our older comedies are generally founded on foreign stories. The only comedy of Shakespear, where the scene is laid in England, (except the comic parts of his historical plays), is The Merry Wives of Windfor. The fame remark is, in general, applicable to Beaumont and Fletcher. A [D] Spanish story, with some English characters introduced, was, for a confiderable time, much the fashion here, and is still a favorite fubject for the musical drama. The regular comedy, at present, I believe, confines itself to domeftic fable and character, if not to domeftic scene; for, I believe, the comic muse has ventured to cross both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, to visit our colonies. [D] I would recommend to those critics who think they can explain every passage in the ancient dramatic writers, to turn their thoughts to the following speech, in one of Dryden's comedies, which, to me, has always been perfectly unintelligible. It is in the Mock Astrologer, where a Spanish character, refusing to enter into a scheme as inconfiftent with his honor, an Englishman says to him, Nay, and you talk of honor; by your leave, Sir, I hate your Spanish honor ever since it spoiled our English plays WITH FACES ABOUT, AND < T'OTHER SIDE.' ، NOTE

9.4. mvp-aristotle-comment-25 9.5

IN TRAGEDY, THE NAMES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE REALLY EXISTED ARE RETAINED.

BESIDES the reason given by Aristotle for this, there was another very essential one on the Grecian stage. History, in the time of Sophocles and Euripides, was much confined. The Greeks confidered all nations but themselves as barbarians. A king of Scythia would have been confidered as an improper character for a tragic hero on their theatre; and to kings, and great public characters, the tragic muse of Greece was confined.
Reges atque tetrarchas HOR. • Omnia magna loquens.'- We, befides the private life tragedy, and the obfcure ages of antiquity, with which we may take what liberty we please, have an ample fource of domestic fiction in the Saxon heptarchy, where we may form imaginary Ofwalds and Edgars ufurpers, or kings of Mercia and Northumberland at our pleasure; but the history of the fabulous ages of Greece was the most popular of any. It was, indeed, confecrated as the origin of the national religion; and the introduction of a new hero, or demigod, would have been esteemed a fort of profanation. Admitting the rule, that public events, are the only proper objects of tragic imitation, the reasoning of Le Pere Brumoy is perfectly just. • It is not probable that events of such magnitude as those of tragedy, * events which can only happen in the palaces of kings, or the bosom • of
• of empires, should be absolutely unknown. If then, the poet invents • all his subject, even as far as the names, the mind of the spectators ' will revolt, all will appear incredible, and the piece will fail in its • effect for want of probability.

9.5. mvp-aristotle-comment-26 9.9

EVEN IF THE POEM IS FOUNDED ON REAL FACTS, THE AUTHOR MAY YET BE A POET; SINCE THERE IS NO REASON WHY MANY EVENTS THAT HAVE REALLY HAPPENED, MAY NOT BE CAPABLE OF THAT GENERAL PROBABILITY AND POSSIBILITY, FROM THE PROPER ARRANGEMENT OF WHICH HE MAY JUSTLY BE ESTEEMED A POET.

. TO explain this clearly, it will be necessary to go a little back. We have seen Aristotle has declared general and probable fiction, and not particular fact, to be the proper subject of poetry. But he is asked, is the falfhood of the action absolutely necessary? Can no real event have interest enough to form a tragedy, when most of the subjects of the Greek tragedies are taken from history? To this the critic answers, no doubt there are many real and particular events, that have all the general probability necessary for a poetic fable. Another objection immediately occurs. If the tragic writer only clothes facts, prepared to his hands, in ornamented language, how can he be esteemed a poet, wanting the efssential requisite of the poetical character, invention? To this he replies, there is no real event that has not fome circumftances connected with it, discordant with the [E] general emotions it is on the [E] See Note 1. Chap. VI. See also Note 11. Chap. xiv. and Note 1v. Chap. xvii. whole
whole calculated to excite. And real situations, the most congenial with tragic effect, are often capable of being heightened by additional touches of art; and the different parts may frequently be made more closely and naturally dependent on each other than they in fact are. To fupply these deficiencies, and to arrange all the incidents, so as to produce their fullest effect, is the office of the poet, and which, if well performed, fully entitles the author to that appellation [F]. The tragedy of Oroonoko is faid to be formed on a real fact. Nevertheless, as Southern has encreased the interest strongly, by heightening the circumstances, inventing pathetic situations, elevating the characters, and making Imoinda an European, he certainly is justly entitled to the character of poet. Many dramas are founded on fictitious narration, where one should imagine invention would have still less to add: but who will refuse the name of poet to the author of King Lear? [F] The connexion of events often escapes our observation in nature, for want of ◄ knowing the whole combination of the circumstances; in real facts we only fee an acci- ، ' dental concurrence of things; but the poet wishes to shew, in the texture of his work, an apparent and sensible connexion; so that if though he is really less true, he has more the • appearance of truth than the historian.' DIDEROT. NOTE
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. i

9.6. mvp-aristotle-comment-27 9.10

OF SIMPLE FABLES AND ACTIONS, THE EPISODIC ARE THE WORST.

I OWN I do not fee the impropriety of this obfervation, or of Dacier's explanation of it, in the light Mr. Twining does. It is obvious, that the fault of lengthening the fable, or rather the bulk of the piece, by episodes, was much more likely to be incident to a simple than a complicated action, and from the fimplicity of the action, more blameable as more obvious to the observation, and more likely to throw the principal action into the shade. Every difficulty would be obviated, if this paragraph were removed from the place where it now stands to the end of the next chapter. It would naturally follow the definition of the simple action, and its distinction from that which is complicated; whereas it is, in this place, little connected either with the preceding or the following paragraph: and besides, there seems an impropriety in pointing out a defect of the simple fable, before we are told what a simple fable is. But with the arrangement of the parts of this irregular work, I profess not to meddle. Cc NOTE

9.7. mvp-aristotle-comment-28 9.11

THOSE OBJECTS WILL BE PRINCIPALLY ATTAINED, IF THE EVENTS HAPPEN CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION, AND YET ARE CONSEQUENCES OF EACH OTHER.

WERE transposition my object, I should certainly detach also the paragraph, of which this is a part, to the end of the next chapter, of the concluding sentence of which it is a compleat illustration; shewing what ought to be attempted in the complicated action, as the fentence, noticed in the last obfervation, shews what ought to be avoided in the fimple action. But wherever it should be placed, the rule itself is strictly founded on truth and nature; and of which, more will be faid when we come to analyze the catastrophe of tragedy [G]. [G] See Note VII Chap. XIII. CHAP.

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

1. mvp-aristotle-comment-63

Ritter, cap. 9 § 1

Quid sit discriminis inter poetam et historiae scriptorem. quomodo materia ex historia petita uti poetam deceat, quid in argumentis mere fabulosis cavendum sit. tragoedia imitari timenda et miseranda ita debet, ut in his causae effectusque successio agnoscatur. Quae de fabula sive argumento tragoediae adhuc exposita sunt (c. 7 et 8), inde nonnulla colliguntur, quibus non solum tragicae poesis indoles sed simul totius poeticae artis ratio et natura illustratur ac definitur. nam ut poetae opus pulchritudine splendeat, unitatem ille consectari debet (c.7). unitas autem turbatur ac tollitur multitudine partium iusto vinculo carentium. sed illud vinculum subest actionis cuiusdam partibus, si unum eius actionis momentum ex altero consequitur. itaque non quae facta sunt poeta imitari debet, sed quae fieri possunt, quamquam nihil obstat quo minus materia ab historia oblata utatur, dummodo hanc apte eligere ac probe disponere et pertractare sciat. rursus non est satis, si tragoediae argumentum ex fabularum cyclo sumptum tractatur: immo eiusmodi argumenta pessima sunt, si ex partibus non cohaerentibus conserta proponuntur. Lessingius partem huius disputationis in patriam linguam convertit et Aristotelis sententiam tum vere tum falso explicuit in Dramaturgia Hamburgensi tom. II. c. 89-91. او : · §. 1. φανερὸν δὲ ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων - ἀλλ' οἷα ἂν γένοιτο : quae dicta sunt de unitate partiumque actionis nexu, inde consequitur a poeta non quae facta sunt, sed quae fieri possunt, imitando exprimi: nam quae in hominum vita accidunt, ea plerumque varia sunt ac nullo vinculo continentur. οἷα ἂν γένοιτο sive τὰ δυνατὰ dum scribit, unum respexit contrarium id quod re vera contigit ( τὰ γενόμενα), ut ex una parte τὰ γενόμενα, ex altera οἷα ἂν γένοιτο sive τὰ δυνατά ponantur. haec δυνατά sive οἷα ἂν γένοιτο in duas species dividuntur, in δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς et δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον. itaque quod fieri potest, id aut ita comparatum est ut nihil nisi hoc ipsum fieri possit ( τὰ δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον), aut ita ut hoc fieri nemo miretur ( τὰ δυνατὰ κατὰ τὸ εἰκός). exemplo rem planam faciam. cum Agamemno Achillem offendit, hunc pro moribus vehementer irasci iramque ostendere facto quodam necesse est, idque est δυνατὸν κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον. sed quod ille ab Achivis plane discedit oculosque clade eorum pavet eoque irae suae gratificatur, id est δυνα- τὸν κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς. conf. c. 15, 6. Madii et Buhlii de hoc loco dubitationes dextre discussit Hermannus.

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-64

Ritter, cap. 9 § 2

μετά μέτρου ἢ ἄνευ μέτρων: cum scribit μετὰ μέτρου, cogitat de uno aliquo metri genere, cui Herodoti historias includere quis posset, cum ἄνευ μέτρων, quodcumque genus metrorum ab illis abesse significat.

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-65

Ritter, cap. 9 § 3

διὸ καὶ φιλοσοφώτερον - ἐστίν: poesis cogitandi facultatem et rationem hominis exercet, eo quod a singulis abstinens universa ( τὰ καθόλου) consectatur. qui circa singula versatur, eius adspiciendi et singulas imagines rerum considerandi facultas praecipue occupatur, id quod omnibus hominibus et quovis tempore facile potest contingere. sed singula mittere et sequi universa philosophi est. praeterea quae fieri verisimile est aut necesse, causas eorum anquirere mens humana compellitur. sed causas rerum invenire et cognoscere, id rursus praecipuum philosophiae negotium est. σπουδαιότερον est σπουδῆς ἀξιώτερον, h. e. dignius sive gravius.

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-66

Ritter, cap. 9 § 4

ἔστι δὲ καθόλου μὲν: subintellige λέγειν, universe dicere est proferre quae genus quoddam hominum dicere aut facere consentaneum est. quae generi contingunt, non singulis generis hominibus, ea sibi constant et aeterna durant, non subiecta mutationis vicibus. vid. Metaph. 4. 9. p. 1017 b 35. τὰ γὰρ καθόλου καθ᾽ αὑτὰ ὑπάρχει, τὰ δὲ συμβε βηκότα οὐ καθ' αὑτὰ ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τῶν καθ᾽ ἕκαστα ἁπλῶς λέγεται. conf. Ζ. 13. p. 1039 a 1. ( τὸ καθόλου οὐ σημαίνει) τόδε τι ἀλλὰ τοιόνδε. τὰ δὲ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον κτλ. singularia sunt quae huic illive acciderunt, v. c. quae Alcibiades egit aut passus est. οὗ στοχάζεται ἡ ποίησις ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη: excellit totius capitis huiusce explicatio praeclara perspicuitate et luculenta rerum expositarum veritate, neque alia huius libri pars tantis et tam iustis laudibus excepta est. sed quid dicemus de his verbis, quae non solum explanationis iustum ordinem subito impediunt, sed etiam obscuram quandam et falsam sententiam pronuntiant? impediri ordinem disputationis unusquisque et viderit et concesserit: definitur enim quid sit dicere τὰ καθόλου et τὰ καθ'᾿ ἕκαστον, quorum prius illud ab altero istis illatis male disiungitur. sed id fortasse quocumque tandem modo excusaveris; id gravius est, falsa esse quae inserta legimus: falso enim affirmatur nominibus imponendis τὰ καθόλου sectari poesin, h. e. omnia poesis genera. sed continuo Aristoteles vere hoc dicit, comoediam qualis iam sit adhibere nomina communia, tragoediam fere singulorum hominum nomina a maioribus tradita tenere. itaque interpolator illud, quod de sui temporis comoedia apte recteque observavit sapientissimus auctorum, sinistre falsoque ad totam poesin putavit pertinere. Lessingius in libro laudato c. 89. multa molitus est ut sanam sententiam his verbis subesse monstraret, sed facile agnoscas ab homine acutissimo desperatam causam defendi.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-67

Ritter, cap. 9 § 5

ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς κωμῳδίας ἤδη τοῦτο δῆλον γέγονεν: comoedia usque ad aetatem Aristotelis duas praecipue formas assumpserat, quarum priorem antiquam ( τὴν παλαιάν), alteram mediam ( τὴν μέσην) grammaticorum veterum exemplo appellamus. tertia, quam novam ( τὴν νέαν) Graeci grammatici vocant, nondum orta erat, cum Aristoteles haec scriberet, sed sub mortem eius in eo erat ut Philemonis et Menandri opera oreretur. nova comoedia tam nominibus quam argumentis τὰ καθόλου semper secuta est, media plerumque idem fecit. antiqua quae fere singulos homines notavit, eatenus τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον probasse dici potest, quamquam argumenta eius et ipsa τὰ καθόλου sectata sunt. ex antiquis comoediae scriptoribus Crates primus ἰαμβικὴν ἰδέαν omisit et fabulas δι' εἰκότων composuit. vid. c. 5, 3. eandem viam ingressus est Pherecrates Aristophanis aequalis et sub finem vitae (01. 97, 4) ipse Aristophanes editis Pluto altero et Aeolosicone et Cocalo. Aristoteles igitur eam comoediam h. 1. intelligere videtur quae inde ab Olympiade 97 usque ad suam aetatem obtinuit. conf. Ethic. Nicom. IV, 14 med. ἴδοι δ᾽ ἄν τις καὶ ἐκ τῶν κωμῳδιῶν τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ τῶν καινῶν (per καινὰς h. 1. mediae comoediae quam grammatici statuunt fabulae significantur)· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἦν γελοῖον ἡ αἰσχρολογία, τοῖς δὲ μᾶλλον ἡ ὑπόνοια. τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα ὑποτιθέασι: τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα ea sunt nomina quae pro arbitrio personis suis poeta subiicit: opponuntur enim nominibus ab historia sive vera sive fabulosa traditis, quae non sunt τυχόντα sed traditione definita ¹). sunt eiusmodi nomina Pamphilus, Charinus, Chremes, Chaerea, Phaedria, - Traso, Artotrogus, Gnatho, - Parmeno, Dromo, - Philumena, Glycerium cet. haec nomina comoediarum scriptores personis suis ita adplicant sive subiciunt, ut nomina moribus respondeant. nomen morale simul est generale: denotat enim non τόδε ἀλλὰ τοιόνδε, eiusmodi nomina in nova comoedia (h. e. in ea quam Aristoteles respicere nondum potuit) erant omnia, in media pleraque, in antiqua non pauca.

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-68

Ritter, cap. 9 § 6

τῶν γενομένων ὀνομάτων ἀντέχονται: ὀνόματα γενόμενα sunt singulorum hominum nomina a maioribus tradita, nomina τῶν γενομένων ἀνθρώπων.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-69

Ritter, cap. 9 § 7

οἷον ἐν τῷ ᾿Αγάθωνος ῎Ανθει: Agathonis aetatem definivit Ritschelius in Commentationis de Agathonis vita, arte et tragoediarum reliquiis particula, edita Halis anno 1829. Aristoteles saepius eius meminit. vid. c. 15, 8. 18, 6-7. Rhetor. II, 19. p. 1392b 7. II, 24. p. 1402 a 9.

8. mvp-aristotle-comment-70

Ritter, cap. 9 § 8

ὥστ᾽ οὐ πάντως – ἀντέχεσθαι: dicta haec videntur contra eos qui ante Aristotelem editis libris contrariam sententiam pronuntiaverant: hanc enim opinionem diligenter et copiose et paene dixerim acerbe refutavit. conf. Comment. ad c. 13, 4. ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ γνώριμα ὀλίγοις κτλ. quamquam notae illae fabulae et a maioribus traditae paucis spectantium vel legentium notae sunt, tamen omnes pariter iis delectantur. inde patet, illas non eo quod 1) Lessingius 1. c. τὰ τυχόντα ὀνόματα interpretatur die etwaigen Namen, h. e. quibus poeta in hac vel illa comoedia utatur. sed id Graece dicendum erat τὰ ἀεὶ ὀνόματα.notae sunt delectationem afferre, sed eo quod probabilia aut necessaria sectantur. :

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-71

Ritter, cap. 9 § 9

κἂν ἄρα συμβῇ γενόμενα ποιεῖν, οὐθὲν ἧττον ποιητής ἐστιν: quae ab historia praebentur argumenta, haec poeta ita tractare debet et conformare, ut ab co quasi procreata videantur. nomen ποιητής et hoc loco et paulo post premitur et nativa sua significatione (Schöpfer, Hervorbringer) positum est. argumentum historicum Aeschylus pertractavit in Persis etiamnum superstitibus, et ante Aeschylum Phrynichus in Mileti expugnatione, de qua conferenda sunt quae Herodotus narrat VI, 21. Choerilus Samius bellum Persicum Xerxe auctore Graeciae illatum carmine epico felice cum successu canendum suscepit. vid. Choerili Samii quae supersunt. collegit et illustravit A. F. Naekius. Lipsiae 1817. - quae sequuntur τῶν γὰρ γενο μένων ἔνια - ποιητής ἐστιν, definiunt quae argumenta historica ποιητικῶς pertractari possint. nimirum ubi illa ita comparata sunt, ut unum factorum momentum ex altero consequi videatur, ubi hoc per poeticam conformationem veris rebus conciliari potest, ibi nihil obstat quo minus materia ex historia petatur.

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-72

Ritter, cap. 9 § 10

τῶν δὲ ἁπλῶν μυθων καὶ πράξεων αἱ ἐπεισοδιώδεις εἰσὶ χείρισται: si merae fabulae actionesque fabulosae pluribus episodiis non apte connexis constant, causae effectusque successio tollitur et praecipuum poetae officium violatur, quod in fabulis magis etiam reprehensione dignum est quam in argumentis historicis, propterea quod fabulae et sua sponte magis τὰ καθόλου sequuntur et facilius inflecti possunt. οἱ ἁπλοῖ μύθοι h. 1. sunt merae fabulae et opponuntur argumentis ex historia petitis et a poeta recte conformatis. haec enim duobus quasi elementis constant, historico uno, altero poetico. iis igitur ubi opponuntur argumenta ex fabularum cyclo sumpta, ea ipsa appellari possunt simplices fabulae. cf. Comment. ad. c. 6, 6. ἁπλοῖ μῦθοι καὶ πράξεις dictum est pro πράξεις ἁπλῶς μυθικαί. sed haec quomodo cum antecedentibus cohaerent?sic: quemadmodum in argumentis historicis cum laude versari poeta possit modo expositum est: iam igitur explicari quid potissimum cavendum sit in argumentis mere fabulosis, id vel maxime consentaneum videri debet, itaque si illud probe tenuerimus, ἁπλοῦς μύθους non eo dici significatu, quo c. 10. μῦθος ἁπλοῦς τῷ πεπλεγμένῳ opponitur, evanescent dubitationes criticorum ad hunc locum expromptae, quas ex Buhlii 2) verbis in nota inferiore relatis lectoribus recognoscendas relinquo. Hermannus hunc locum sequenti capiti attexuit. λέγω δ᾽ ἐπεισοδιώδη - ἀνάγκη εἶναι: ubi singulae actionis partes nullo causae effectusque nexu continentur, ibi actionis momenta non ex sese prodire sed iuxta se posita videntur. deest τὸ ἓν et τὸ καλόν. unumquodque ἐπεισόδιον per se constat, et inde totus μῦθος est ἐπεισοδιώδης. ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν φαύλων ποιητῶν δι' αὐτούς: δι' αὐτοὺς est sua ipsorum culpa: mali enim poetae propter .... 2) "Valde exercuit etiam hic locus interpretum ingenia. arbitrati sunt omnes, Aristotelem locutum esse de fabulis simplicibus, quatenus implexis opponuntur, et fabularum simplicium ἐπει σοδιώδεις pessimas pronuntiasse. iam exoriebatur difficultas, quomodo 1) fabula simplex esse possit ἐπεισοδιώδης; 2) cur non nisi fabularum simplicium ἐπεισοδιώδεις pessimae sint, cum nihil impediat, quo minus fabulae etiam implexae episodia habeant, immo his episodia cum sint maxime peculiaria? Castelvetro (p. 218) coniicit, verba textus aut suo loco mota esse ., aut legendum ἁπλῶς δὲ τῶν μύθων. temere sic emendari ait Winstanleius (not. p. 287). nihil autem affert ipse quo sensui medeatur. Tyrwhitti coniectura, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων μύθων, nihil efficitur. quinam sunt enim hi alii μῦθοι; omnino non ante fuerat Aristoteli de mythis sermo. magis ad rem emendavit Twiningius (Notes p. 278) τῶν δὲ ἁπάντων μύθων. sed vix Aristoteles scripserit τῶν δὲ ἁπάντων· potius ἁπάντων δὲ τῶν μύθων. quod si ita legeris, recedit coniectura nimis a codd. scriptura, quam ut ei fidem habeas. idem in Castelvetri coniectura reprehendere licet. equidem vocem ἁπλῶν omnino delendam puto."ingenli tarditatem causae effectusque cohaerentiam in actione neque ipsi perspiciunt neque spectatoribus vel lectoribus exhibere recte possunt. ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν διὰ τοὺς ᾿ ὑποκριτάς: in tragoedia secundum artis legem facta fere nonnisi unus actor admodum potest excellere. si igitur tragoediae scriptor pluribus actoribus ostentandae artis occasionem offerre intendit, tum saepe admittit episodia cum fabulae summa male cohaerentia. παρὰ τὴν δύναμιν παρατείναντες μῦθον: verba παρὰ τὴν δύναμιν non ad poetas bonos sed ad subsequentem μύθον referenda sunt, contra quam patitur natura fabulae. - διαστρέφειν ἀναγκάζονται τὸ ἐφεξῆς: τὸ ἐφεξῆς est iusta causae effectusque successio, quae si tollitur, unitas et pulchritudo tragoediae sublata est.

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-73

Ritter, cap. 9 § 11

ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ μόνον-γίνεται δι' ἄλληλα: sed quoniam non solum perfectae actionis est imitatio sed etiam metuendorum et miserandorum, haec autem propter se in vicem accidunt, ***. deest tota apodosis. sed cum rursus assint, quae abesse sane velis, fortasse nunquam inveniri poterit, quod omnibus lectoribus probabile videatur. nihilo minus meam qualemcumque sententiam de hoc loco conceptam non celabo. quae philosophus adhuc docuisse se existimat (c. 6. 7. 9), imitari tragicum poetam perfectam ( τελείαν) actionem, imitari miseranda et timenda, imitationemque ita instituere ut causarum effectorumque nexus agnoscatur, ea omnia hic loci sub unum conspectum collecta ponit, ut novum quoddam de admirabili ( τῷ θαυμαστῷ) in tragoedia repraesentando inde colligere possit. illud fortasse hoc fuit, admirabile quoque non temere oportet evenire, καὶ τὸ θαυμαστὸν οὐκ εἰκῇ δεῖ γίνεσθαι, vel sic, καὶ τὸ θανμαστὸν δεῖ γίνεσθαι ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ μύθου 3). de admirabili in apodosi aliquid collegisse Aristotelem subsequens ostendit disputatio, quae neque cohaeret neque con- 3) Ipsis verbis non multum tribuo, sed elapsam sententiam unice respicio.stat nisi hoc statuerimus. sed restant ista omnium pessima, καὶ μάλιστα καὶ μᾶλλον, ὅταν γένηται παρὰ τὴν δόξαν, quae sic ab omnibus codicibus exhibentur, ab editoribus varie mutata praebentur. scilicet timenda et miseranda et maxime et magis fieri propter semet ipsa, si contra exspectationem fiant, id pronuntiatum est et falso et inepte. falso, quia ad successionem causarum effectorumque nihil valet, utrum secundum an contra exspectationem fiant quae fiunt, inepte, quia καὶ μάλιστα καὶ μᾶλλον pleonasmus est plane intolerabilis. iam quaeritur qua ratione hoc additamentum natum sit. statim scribit Aristoteles τὸ γὰρ θαυμαστὸν οὕτως ἕξει μάλλον. adversus haec nugator aliquis in margine scripsit καὶ μάλιστα καὶ μᾶλλον, ὅταν γένηται παρὰ τὴν δύξαν, ipsum Aristotelem et correcturus et irrisionis causa eius voce ( μᾶλλον) abusurus. hinc ea admonitio in operis contextum invasit eademque, credo, meliorem sententiam, quam elapsam esse vidimus, de sua sede deiecit.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-74

Ritter, cap. 9 § 12

τὸ γὰρ θαυμαστόν οὕτως ἕξει μᾶλλον: οὕτως respicit apodosin deperditam. subiectum quo verbum ἕξει refertur aut ἡ μίμησις est aut idem in apodosi delituit. ἐπεὶ καὶ τῶν κτλ. per hoc σημεῖον probare voluit philosophus, admirabiliora esse ea quorum causa non obscura, quam quae sponte et casu fiant. nimirum quae re vera fortuita sunt, ea tum maxime admirabilia videntur, cum causa quadam intercedente videntur accidisse. οἷον ὡς ὁ ἀνδριὰς ὁ τοῦ Μίτυος κτλ. hinc sumpta sunt quae in Mirabilium auscultationum farragine, quam alius ex Aristotelis operibus confecit, numero 156. afferuntur. sed operae pretium est videre illius hominis stultitiam. scribit enim q ασὶν ὡς ἀνδριὰς ὁ τοῦ Βίτυος . . . ἐν ῎Αργει ἀπεκτεῖνε τὸν. αἴτιον τοῦ θανάτου τῷ Βίτυϊ, θεωροῦντι ἐμπεσών, ἔοικε οὖν οὐκ εἰκῇ τὰ τοιαῦτα γίγνεσθαι. haec postrema illo loco plane inepta sunt, sed qui excerpsit, omittere religioni sibi duxit. homo ille qui Argis a sicario interfectus erat, utrum Mitys an Bitys appellaretur incertum est. Mityn nomen scribunt codices et Poeticae et orationiscontra Neaeram pag. 1356 ed Reisk., Βίτων Mirabil. auscult., Μίτιον Plutarchi exemplaria de sera numinis vindicta c. 8. p. 553 D (vol. III. p. 1. pag. 233 apud Wyttenb.): Μιτίου τοῦ ᾿Αργείου κατὰ στάσιν ἀναιρεθέντος ἀνδριάντα χαλκοῦν ἐν ἀγορᾷ, θεᾶς οὔσης, ἐμπεσεῖν τῷ κτεί ναντι τὸν Μίτιον καὶ ἀνελεῖν. conf. Callimachi epigr. VII. ὥστε ἀνάγκη τοὺς τοιούτους εἶναι καλλίους μύθους: si ex rebus fortuitis eae, quae non sine causa ( οὐκ εἰκῇ) videntur evenisse, magis homines alliciunt quam quae causa destitutae videntur, inde patet gratum esse hominibus causas rerum cognoscere. quae igitur fabulae hoc iuvant, eas pulchriores esse oportet.