Aristote Poetics 22.8

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Pour faire donc que l'expreſſion ne ſoit, ni populaire, ni baſſe, il faut avoir recours aux mots étrangers, aux metaphores, aux ornemens, & à toutes les autres eſpeces que j'ay expliquées; & pour la rendre claire & nette, il faut employer les mots propres. Mais il y a un moyen tres ſeur de la rendre en même temps, & noble & claire, c'eſt de ſe ſervir des mots allongez, racourcis, ou changez; car ce qu'il y a d'extraordinaire dans ces termes, & qui les fait paroître eloignez des mots propres, produit la nobleſſe, & ce qu'ils retiennent encore de l'uſage commun donne la netteté.

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.) — 22.8 focus
But nothing contributes more considerably to produce clearness, without vulgarity, of diction, than extensions, contractions, and alterations, of words: for here, the variation from the proper form, being unusual, will give elevation to the expression; and, at the same time, what is retained of usual speech will give it clearness.
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.) — 22.8 focus
and the other species that have been mentioned, hinder the language from being vulgar and mean, the proper names give it perfpicuity. The lengthening, shortening and changing of names, contribute not a little to make the language elevated and yet perspicuous. The expressions, being different from those in common use, distinguish it from the vulgar idiom ; and yet its near resemblance to what is generally spoken, renders it perspicuous. Those, therefore, do not find fault with justice, who blame this mode of speech and, like the elder Euclides, ridicule the poet for the ease there must be in composing verse, if it were permitted to lengthen the quantity of syllables at pleasure, making iambic [c] verses even in common discourse. The examples he produces are, Ητὶ Χάριν εἶδον Μαραθῶνα βαδίζοντα. 1
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.) — 22.8 focus
For the use of words in a way different from their proper and usual signification, causes the diction to be not vulgar; but the adoption of words in their accustomed meaning, renders it perspicuous. Hence those do not blame rightly, who 1 find fault with this mode of speech, and like the ancient Euclid ridicule the poet, [objecting] that verse might easily be composed, if one permit the quantity of syllables to be lengthened at pleasure, making Iambics even in common discourse ; as
ἤτοι Χάριν εἶδον Μαραθῶννάδε βαδίζοντα.
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

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-805

ἅπαντα τοιαῦτα is an exaggeration, like ἁπάντων in 1, 1447 b 22 . All that Aristotle really means is that too much metaphor, or an undue proportion of strange words makes the sentence an enigma or a 'barbarism'. τοιαῦτα = ξενικά, or ἐκ ξενικῶν. This passage is quoted in a fragment attributed to Longinus ( Rhet. Gr. 1, 325 Spengel ):
ὅτι ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης τοὺς πάντα μεταφέροντας αἰνίγματα γράφειν ἔλεγεν
.

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-806

1458a25 μὲν οὖν ‘saepe usurpatur ubi notio modo pronunciata amplius explicatur’, Bon. Ind. 540 b 42 ; comp. 14, 1453b 32 and Vahlen’s note on the present passage.

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-807

αἴνιγμα. The puzzle in a riddle Aristotle explains, as arising from the presence of metaphors, i. e. of words used in a transferred sense. The element of metaphors in riddles is noted again in Rhet. 3. 2, 1405b 4
καὶ ὅλως ἐκ τῶν εὖ ᾐνιγμένων ἔστι μεταφορὰς λαβεῖν ἐπιεικεῖς (μεταφοραὶ γάρ αἰνίττονται), ὥστε δῆλον [δηλοῦν] ὅτι εὖ μετενήνεκται
.— 3. 11, 1412a 24
καὶ τὰ εὖ ᾐνιγμένα διὰ τὸ αὐτὸ ἡδέα· μάθησις γάρ· καὶ λέγεται μεταφορά [μεταφορᾷ].
 Quintilian also (8. 6, 14) speaks of the riddle-like effect of too much metaphor:
Ut modicus autem atque opportunus eius usus illustrat orationem, ita frequens et obscurat et taedio complet, continuus vero in allegorias et aenigmata exit.
26 τε γάρ is practically no more than γάρ in this and many other Aristotelian passages (comp. Bon. Ind. 750b 5 , and Kühner, Gr. Gr. 2. 2 p. 244 ).

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

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-513

22.4 3. Mais si on n'employoit par tout que de ces fortes de termes, on feroit, ou des énigmes, ou des barbariſmes, les metaphores trop frequentes degenereroient en énigme.] 1

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-514

22.4 4. Et les mots tirez des Langues étrangères produiroient le barbariſme avec l'obscurité.] 2

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

195. mvp-aristotle-comment-195

NOTE 195. P. 110.

22.4 AN ENIGMA, IF COMPOSED OF METAPHORS.
"Ut modicus autem atque opportunus ejus usus illustrat orationem, ita, frequens et obscurat et tædio complet; continuus verò in allegoriam et ænigma exit."
— Quintil. VIII. 6.

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

22.2. mvp-aristotle-comment-89 22.4

THE ELDER EUCLIDES.

MOST likely called so by Aristotle to distinguish him from a perfon of the fame name, who was a follower of Socrates and head of a fect of philosophers [c]. It is surprizing that the English translators should have rendered Ευκλείδης ὁ αρχᾶιος, Euclides ille antiquus, 'Old Euclid.' In the first place 'old,' applied to a man, signifies age, not antiquity; and without the article, as indeed is the fact with most adjectives except in the vocative cafe, conveys the idea of jocular familiarity. Who for the elder Brutus [c] See Fabricius. would
CHAP. XXIT. would fay, Old Brutus? Were we to express the father of the Horatii by the name of Old Horace, we should immediately think of the Roman poet. We know the French, from the partiality they have for their own language, mutilate all the harmonious names of antiquity, a practice which we at first adopted but have now totally laid aside. In consequence however of its having been once adopted by us, the most familiar of the Roman names, and some few of the Greek names, have among us this pronunciation. But these are confined to the perfons themselves, and not given to others of a fimilar name. We call none of the Horatii Horace but the poet, and none of the Tullii Tully except the orator. Aristotle and Euclid are two of the most early familiar Greek names, and in consequence of it retain this disgraceful distinction; and when we meet them thus mutilated we expect to find the fathers of logic and the mathematics. As all affectation is ridiculous, I should think it pedantic to call this work a translation of the Poetic of Ariftoteles; but in a tranflation of Pindar's fifth Pythian Ode, I would not translate the Αρισοζέλης mentioned there, by the Anglo-Greek name of Aristotle. There is something so completely merry-andrewish in the appellation we give to the celebrated triumvir, especially when mixed with Roman names, that were I writing history I should be induced to reftore him to the name of Marcus Antonius. In this work I have been obliged to retain those CHRISTIAN NAMES by which Shakespear and Dryden have mentioned him. 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

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-160

Ritter, cap. 22 § 2

ἂν μὲν οὖν ἐκ μεταφορῶν, αἴνιγμα: dictio ex meris metaphoris conflata nonnisi ab eo potest intelligi, qui et translate dici scit neque ignorat quomodo translatio instituta sit. ἐὰν δὲ ἐκ γλωττῶν, βαρβαρισμός: peregrina dictio fit, si unis glossis composita est. hoc fieri tam manifestum est, ut explicatione non egeat: nam quae paulo post interponuntur, ἐκ τῶν γλωττῶν βαρβαρισμός, ea ab interpolatore quodam ex his ipsis hausta illic inertissime repetuntur, et ab editoribus, ut saltem aliqua iunctura prodiret, in hunc modum interpolata vulgo exhibentur : ἐκ δὲ τῶν γλωττῶν ὁ βαρβαρισμός. sed alterum illud, aenigma fieri si quis nonnisi translationibus utatur, cum minus manifestum videatur, hoc aenigmatis definitione declaratur. κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων σύνθεσιν οὐχ οἷόν τε τοῦτο ποιῆσαι: per ὀνόματa hic quoque nomina et verba significantur. secundum unam verborum copulationem fieri non potest, ut simul quae sunt ( τὰ ὑπάρχον- τα) et simul quae non possunt esse ( τὰ ἀδύνατα) exprimantur, sed id per metaphoram fieri potest, cum verba proprie intellecta significant quae fieri nequeunt, contra improprie accepta id indicant quod fieri potest. οἷον “ ἄνδρ᾽ - κολλήσαντα": igne aera viro adglutinare refertur in ἀδυνάτοις: sed qui resciverit χαλκὸν translate dictum esse ( ἀπὸ γένους ἐπ᾿ εἶδος c. 21, 5) pro cucurbitula (Schröpfkopf), statim intelligit dici quae fieri possunt. Aristoteles Rhetor. III, 2. p. 1405 b 1. posito eodem aenigmate scribit κόλλησιν τοίνυν εἶπε τὴν τῆς σικύας προσβολήν. Athenaeus X. p. 452 C. πολλοὶ δὲ γρίφων καὶ τοιαῦ τοί τινές εἰσιν οἷον ἄνδρ᾽ εἶδον πυρὶ χαλκὸν ἐπ᾿ ἀνέρι κολλήσαντα οὕτω συνκόλλως ὥστε σύναιμα ποιεῖν. veterum cucurbitularum genera et formas descripsit Celsus de Medicina II, 11. cucurbitularum vero duo genera sunt, aeneum et corneum, aenea altera parte patet, altera clausa est: in aeneam linamentum ardens coniicitur, ac sic os eius corpori aptatur imprimiturque donec inhaereat. conf. Pollux X, 149.