Aristote Poetics 22.17

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En effet c'eſt la ſeule choſe qu'on ne peut emprunter d'ailleurs, & qui marque un heureux naturel & un beau genie; car de bien faire ce tranſport d'une choſe à l'autre, c'eſt voir d'un coup d'œil ce qu'il y a de ſemblable dans des ſujets tres differens.

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.) — 22 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 22 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22.17 focus
but the greatest of all, is to be happy in the use of metaphor 1 ; for it is this alone which cannot be acquired, and which, consisting in a quick discernment of resemblances, is a certain mark of genius.
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.) — 22.17 focus
But the greatest art is to be happy in forming metaphors; for that alone cannot be acquired from others but is itself a proof of good natural genius; since to form metaphors well, is to observe the similitude of things.
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.) — 22.17 focus
But the greatest thing is to employ metaphors well. For this alone cannot be acquired from another, but it is an indication of an excellent genius; since to employ metaphors well, is to discern similitude 12. 1
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.) — 22 focus
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22 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.) — 22 focus

Commentary

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

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-832

ἀπρεπῶς. In the Rhetoric an unsuitable metaphor is said to be one of the faults which make the style of an orator 'frigid': Rhet. 3. 3, 1406b 5
τὸ ψυχρὸν ἐν ταῖς μεταφοραῖς γίνεται· εἰσὶ γὰρ καὶ μεταφοραὶ ἀπρεπεῖς αἱ μὲν διὰ τὸ γελοῖον (χρῶνται γὰρ καὶ οἱ κωμῳδοποιοὶ μεταφοραῖς) αἱ δὲ διὰ τὸ σεμνὸν ἄγαν καὶ τραγικόν.

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-833

ἐπίτηδες ἐπὶ τὰ γελοῖα. ἐπὶ τὰ γελοῖα, which has been bracketed (by Gomperz), seems to be wanted to keep up the parallelism with what is said in b 5 sqq. on the subject of the epic licences, which Euclid had parodied and turned to ridicule. Aristotle's reply to Euclid is that it is quite possible to misuse metaphors, etc., for the same purpose, ἐπὶ τὰ γελοῖα (comp. Rhet. 3. 3, 1406b 5 , quoted above). The comparative ἐπὶ τὰ γελοιότερα would be more in accordance with usage (comp. Stallb. on Plato Symp. 214 E ).

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

11. mvp-aristotle-comment-521

22.11 11. Car il y a une mesure qui est commune à toutes ces differentes especes, & qu'il ne faut jamais paſſer.] 1

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-522

22.11 12. Cela eft fi vray, que si l'on ſe ſervoit de la mème maniére des metaphores, de mots étrangers, &c.] 2

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

22.5. mvp-aristotle-comment-92 22.11

BY PUTTING THE WORDS INTO VERSE.

I Do not fee any objection to the literal tranflation I have given of this passage, or why τὸ μέτρον may not retain the sense it seems obviously to have [H]. I have observed in the last note, that verfification is no bad touchstone of proper elevation of style. Ariftotle seems to be aware that it may be objected to him, that the language of poetry, verse, is sufficiently removed from common speech, to give it elevation without the afsistance of figures. In consequence of this, anticipating the objection, he answers. Even in heroic verse, whose cadence is much more elevated than iambic verse, you will find an essential difference from the change of figurative, for common language; and then referring the objector to his own experience, he defires him, to put the words into verse, previoufly to the experiment, that the alteration may be shewn to arise from the change of the words, and not from the structure of the verse. He then naturally enough returns to that kind of verse with which he is more immediately concerned, and shews an instance of the dignity of a dramatic line depending entirely on the change of a single word. And Cowley says afterwards in his Ode on Anacreon, ' In death's hand a grape-ftone proves • As strong as thunder does in Jove's.' This passage in Shakespear may perhaps remind the learned reader of the instrument Edipus employed to deprive himself of fight. [H] See Mr. Twining's note. NOTE

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

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-164

Ritter, cap. 22 § 6

τὸ μὲν οὖν φαίνεσθαί πως χρώμενον τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ γελοῖον: ac deprehendi quodammodo utentem hoc genere ridiculum est. φαίνεσθαί πως χρώμενον τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ est ita his uti orationis ornamentis ut deprehendaris, h. e. ut dedita opera te fecisse appareat. conf. Rhetor. III, 2 sub init. ibi oratoribus, quos illis ornamentis etiam parcius quam poetas uti convenit, praecepit διὸ δεῖ λανθάνειν ποιοῦντας, καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν λέγειν πεπλασμένως cet. τὸ δὲ μέτρον κοινὸν ἁπάντων ἐστὶ τῶν με - ρῶν: metrum autem commune est omnium partium. quomodo aliis haec placeant nescio: mihi displicere scio. hoc certum est, τὸ μέτρον intelligi non posse iustum modum: is enim si intelligeretur, μέτρον ΤΙ scribi debuit, non ΤΟ μέτρον, et μέτρον τι γὰρ poni debuit vel ἀλλὰ μέτρον τι, non μέτρον δὲ, porro κοινὸν δεῖ εἶναι, non κοινόν ἐστι, postremo ἁπασῶν ἰδεῶν, non ἁπάντων μερῶν. hisce alienis autem sublatis, optime procedit sententia: ridiculum esse deprehendi τὸ μὲν aliquem consectantem extensiones. tum quasi per parenthesin monetur etiam in ceteris illis formis nimium earum usum ridiculum videri ¹); tandem sequitur id pronuntiatum - τὸ δὲ ἁρμόττον ὅσον διαφέρει -, quod priori illi οὖν φαίνεσθαί πως χρώμενον τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ γελοῖον contrarium positum est. sed unde suppositicia orta sunt ? ex glossa marginali, quemadmodum docebo ad §. 7.