Aristote Poetics 11.7

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Mais celle dont je viens de parler eſt la plus propre à la fable & à l'action, car cette reconnoiſſance accompagnée de la Péripetie, produira immanquablement, ou la compaſſion ou la terreur dont la Tragedie eſt l'imitation, comme nous l'avons établi pour fondement; elle produira encore le bonheur ou le malheur des principaux perſonnages.

Poetics. Aristote. Paris. 1692.

Current edition Experimental

La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (fra) (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.)

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.) — 11 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 11 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11.7 focus
but the Discovery most appropriated to the fable, and the action, is that above defined; because such Discoveries, and Revolutions, must excite either pity or terror; and Tragedy we have defined to be an imitation of pitiable and terrible actions: and because, also, by them the event, happy, or unhappy, is produced.
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.) — 11.7 focus
but that I first mentioned has most connexion with the fable and the action; and such a discovery and peripetía will produce that pity and terror, of which tragedy is defined to be an imitation as from this the happiness or misery of the characters will arise.
The Poetic of Aristotle (Theodore Alois Buckley) (OCR draft) Experimental (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.) — 11.7 focus
For a discovery and revolution of this kind will excite either pity or fear; and tragedy is supposed to be an imitation of such actions [as excite fear and pity]. Again, it will happen that infelicity and felicity will be in such like discoveries. 1 But since discovery is a discovery of certain persons, some [discoveries] are of one person only with reference to another, when it is evident who the other person is,
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.) — 11 focus
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11 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.) — 11 focus

Commentary

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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-402

περιπέτειαι. The plural is used, just as in 6, 1450 a 34 , 18, 1456 a 19 , 24, 1459 b 10 , to denote the concrete instances of περιπέτεια, as actual incidents in plays. The formal incongruity of number in the juxtaposition of ἀναγνώρισις and περιπέτειαι in the present passage is certainly not greater than that in 9, 1451 a 3
μετὰ μέτρου ἢ ἄνευ μέτρων
, or Thuc. 2. 4. 2
λίθοις τε καὶ κεράμῳ βαλλόντων
. See also the instances quoted on 19, 1456 b 1 ( μέγεθος καὶ μικρότητα).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-403

οἵαν. Bon. Ind. 507 b 26 would restore οἵαν for οἷον in Magna mor.2. 8, 1207 b 18 .
οἷον ( i. e. e.g.), it becomes necessary to understand περιπέτειαν after ἔχει.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-404

ἡ ἐν τῷ Οἰδίποδι, scil. ἀναγνώρισις.

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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-271

11.5 La plus belle de toutes les reconnoiffances est celle qui ſe trouve avec la péripetie, comme dans l'Edipe.] 1

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

11.3. mvp-aristotle-comment-32 11.5

THE DISCOVERY IS MOST BEAUTIFUL WHEN ACCOMPANIED BY THE PERIPETÍA.

DACIER has laid it down as a rule, that a discovery cannot be made the principal fubject of a drama; which is strongly combated by Metaftafio. Of this fanciful opinion of Dacier, which he derives from a passage in the preceding chapter, that very passage compared with this, is, in my idea, the clearest confutation; at least, as far as the fentence of Aristotle is decisive. He there says, the tranfition of fortune;' (ἡ μεθάβασις) that is, the change from happiness to misery, or the contrary, which must be the principal object, or the catastrophe of the fable, ⚫ in complicated actions, is effected by the means of peripetía, or disco- [D] See note IV. chap. XIV. very,
، very, or both; and he here says, that is preferable which is effected by the union of both; where the catastrophe arifes from the peripetía, caused by a discovery. In the Merope of Massei and Voltaire, the discovery is not accompanied by the peripetía. On the contrary, the distress is confiderably encreased by it: I doubt much if such was the arrangement of the Crefphontes of Euripides.

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

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-79

Ritter, cap. 11 § 2

εἰς φιλίαν ἢ ἔχθραν: in amicitiam aut odium, h. e. ut aut amicitia aut odium inter personas agentes oriatur. τῶν πρὸς εὐτυχίαν ἢ δυστυχίαν ώρισμένων: agnitio tragica talis est, ut inde aut amicitia aut odium personarum agentium fiat. ὡρισμένων h. e. eorum qui a poeta ad felicitatem aut infelicitatem destinati sunt. quippe poeta tragoediam scribens pro arbitrio quodammodo decernit, qui felices et qui infelices fiant.