Aristote Poetics 4.10

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Par exemple, ſon Margites, & beaucoup d'autres de même eſpece, où l'on a auſſi employé le vers ïambe, comme le plus propre pour les railleries & pour les injures; c'eſt pourquoy on appelle preſentement ces Poëmes, des Poëmes iambiques, du nom de ce vers, parce que ce n'eſt que des invectives continuelles.

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 (5)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 4 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (S. H. Butcher, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (S. H. Butcher's Greek text from Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, fourth edition, 1911.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4.10 focus
but, from his time, we have; as, his Margites, and others of the same species, in which the Iambic was introduced as the most proper measure; and hence, indeed, the name of Iambic, because it was the measure in which they used to IAMBIZE, [i. e. to satirize,] each other.
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.) — 4.10 focus
as being the most adapted to the subject
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.) — 4.10 focus
as being suited, the measure is Iambic. Hence, also, the Iambic verse is now called, because in this metre they used to Iambize (i. e. defame) each other. 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.) — 4 focus
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus

Commentary

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

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-114

ἐκείνου ὁ Μαργίτης : Eustratius on Eth. N. 6. 7, 1141 a 14 (p. 320 30 Heylb.)
παράγει . . . καί τινα ποίησιν Μαργίτην ὀνομαζομένην Ὁμήρου. μνημονεύει δ᾿ αὐτῆς οὐ μόνον αὐτὸς Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ Περὶ ποιητικῆς ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀρχίλοχος καὶ Κρατίνος καὶ Καλλίμαχος ἐν τῷ ἐπιγράμματι καὶ μαρτυροῦσιν εἶναι Ὁμήρου τὸ ποίημα
. On the Margites, which Aristotle thus attributes to Homer, see Kinkel, EGF. p. 64. This statement in the Poetics does not throw any light on the question of the original form of the Margites, whether the iambic lines in it were a primitive part of the poem, or subsequently added by Pigres (see Goettling, Op. Acad. p. 167, and Hiller, N. Jahrb. f. Phil. 1887 p. 13 for a discussion of it) ; it stands in a parenthesis, and must not be taken in any direct connexion with the ἐν οἷς... ἰαμβεῖον ἦλθε μέτρον that follows.

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-115

καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα refers to writings more or less like the Margites by post-Homeric poets—not to other minor poems of a light order attributable to Homer himself, as Bergk (Gr. Litt. 1 p. 775) suggests.

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-116

ἐν οἷς = ἐν δὲ τούτοις, scil. τοῖς ψόγοις, the relative beginning a new sentence, as in 24, 1459 b 12
οἷς ἅπασιν
. — Phys. 8. 3, 253 b 12
πρὸς οὓς . . οὐ χαλεπὸν ἀπαντῆσαι
. — Metaph. Θ 3, 1046 b 33
οἷς τὰ συμβαίνοντα ἄτοπα οὐ χαλεπὸν ἰδεῖν
. — Λ 8, 1074 b 8
ὧν εἴ τις χωρίσας αὐτὸ λάβοι μόνον τὸ πρῶτον
.

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-117

1448b31 κατὰ τὸ ἁρμόττον : 17, 1455 b 10
κατὰ τὸ εἰκός
. — Rhet. 1. 1, 1355 a 22 and 9, 1367 b 12
κατὰ τὸ προσῆκον
 (opposed to παρὰ τὸ προσῆκον). — Eth. N. 4. 6, 1123 a 20
παρὰ τὸ δέον
. The reading of the Aldine (and of Parisinus 2038), καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον, has been accepted by Bon. Ind. 357 b 48 .

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-118

1448b32 ἦλθε : the verb has the same sense in Eth. N. 5. 8, 1133 a 20
ἐφ᾿ ὃ τὸ νόμισμα ἐλήλυθε
. — Pol. 1. 9, 1258 a 6
τὸ ἕτερον εἶδος τῆς χρηματιστικῆς διὰ τοῦτ᾿ ἐλήλυθεν
.

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-119

1448b33 ἰαμβεῖον καλεῖται : Strabo 422 Cas.
ὁ μὲν (scil. ὁ δάκτυλος) ὕμνοις ἐστὶν οἰκεῖος ὁ δ᾿ ἴαμβος κακισμοῖς
. — Proclus Chrestom. 7, p. 346 Gaisf.
τὸν ἴαμβον τάττεσθαι μὲν ἐπὶ λοιδορίας τὸ παλαιόν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἰαμβίζειν κατά τινα γλῶσσαν λοιδορεῖν ἔλεγον ... ἔοικε δὲ ὁ ἴαμβος τὸ μὲν παλαιὸν ἐπὶ τῶν εἰς ψόγον καὶ ἔπαινον γραφομένων ὁμοίως λέγεσθαι ἐπεὶ δέ τινες ἐπλεόνασαν ἐν ταῖς κακολογίαις τὸ μέτρον, ἐκεῖθεν τὸ ἰαμβίζειν εἰς τὸ ὑβρίζειν ὑπὸ τῆς συνηθείας ἐκπεσεῖν
. — Schol. Hephaest. 6, p. 182 Gaisf.
ἐκλήθη δὲ ἴαμβος, ἀφ᾿ οὗ τὸ μέτρον παρονομάζεται ἰαμβικόν, ἐπείπερ οἱ ὑβρίζειν καὶ λοιδορεῖν τινὰς βουλόμενοι τούτῳ ἐχρῶντο τῷ μέτρῳ· ἰαμβίζειν γὰρ ἔλεγον οἱ παλαιοὶ τὸ ὑβρίζειν
. — Suetonii Reliq. p. 19 Reiff.
Iambus est carmen maledicum appellatum est autem παρὰ τὸ ἰαμβίζειν, quod est maledicere
.
1448b34

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

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-84

4.10 Par exemple, ſon Margites.] 1

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-85

4.10 Où l'on a auſſi employé le vers ïambe, comme le plus propre pour les railleries.] 2

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-86

4.10 C'eſt pourquoy on appelle preſentement ces Poëmes du nom de ce vers.) 3

17. mvp-aristotle-comment-87

4.10 Parce que ce n'eſt que des invectives continuelles.] 4

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

27. mvp-aristotle-comment-27

NOTE 27.

4.10 P. 71. MARGITES.
The scraps that have been preserved of this Poem, the Dunciad of HOMER , are so few, and so short, that it may be worth while, for the convenience of the reader, to collect them.—
Μεσαων θεράπων και ἐκηβολε Απολλωνα,
1 —a line as likely to be found in one kind of Poem as in another... The other fragments are a little more interesting, as they give some idea of the hero of the Poem.
ΤΟΝΔ᾽ ἐτ᾿ ἀν σκαπτηρα θεοι θεσαν, ἐτ᾿ ἀροτηρα, Ουτ᾿ ἄλλως τι σοφον πασης δ ήμαρτανε τέχνης.
Preserved by Aristotle, Eth. lib. vi. cap. 7
Πολλ᾿ ἡπιστατο ἐργα, κακως δ ήπιστατο παντα.
Plato, Alcib. Secund. p. 147. Ed. Serrani.

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

4.3. mvp-aristotle-comment-9 4.10

AS HOMER THEREFORE WAS THE GREATEST POET ON SERIOUS SUBJECTS, STANDING ALONE IN POINT OF EXCELLENCE, NOT ONLY FROM THE GENERAL MERIT OF HIS IMITATIONS, BUT FROM THE DRAMATIC FORM HE GAVE THEM, SO HE ALSO FIRST TAUGHT THE PROPER SYSTEM OF COMEDY.

SO Lord Shaftesbury, 'He (Homer) paints so as to need no infcription over his figures, to tell what they are or what he intends by them; a few words let fall on any flight occafion from any of the parties he introduces, are fufficient to denote their manners and distinct character. From a finger or a toe he can represent to our thoughts, the frame and • fashion of a whole body. He wants no other help of art to personate ⚫ his heroes, and make them living. There was no more left for tragedy to do after him than to erect a stage, and draw his dialogues and characters into scenes, turning in the fame manner upon one principal • action, or event, with that regard to place, and time, which was suit- • able to a real spectacle. Even comedy itself was adjudged to this great ' master,
master, it being derived from those parodies or mock humours of which ' he had given the specimen (c) in a concealed fort of raillery, inter- ' mixed with the fublime.' ADVICE TO AN AUTHOR, Part 1. Sect. 111.

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

8. mvp-aristotle-comment-24

Ritter, cap. 4 § 8

οἷον ἐκείνου ὁ Μαργίτης, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐν οἷς καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον ἰαμβεῖον ἦλθε μέ τρον: haec postrema ἐν οἷς – μέτρον non ad Homeri Margitam sed ad similia poemata illud subsequentia et vituperationes fundentia pertinent, quod ut facilius in oculos incurrat, comma post Μαργίτης positum est. nam etiamsi in eo Margita, de cuius versibus grammatici inde a saeculo post Christum altero (primus est Hephaestio) loquuntur, aliquot iambos hexametris immixtos fuisse certum videatur, hos ta men Aristoteles aut nondum vidit aut raro dispersos non curavit hoc loco, cum scripsit ἐν οἷς καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον ἰαμβεῖον ἦλθε μέτρον, h. e. in quibus etiam metrum iambicum apte prodiit: nam haec non de versibus nonnullis interpositis sed de versuum genere in illis carminibus constanter admisso intelligenda sunt. ipsa verba ἐν οἷς καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον ἦλθε östendunt novum illud versuum genus (iambos) post Homerum esse inventum: haec enim scripsit respiciens versus heroos Homeri proprios. dabo aliud quo idem adprobabitur. dicit Aristoteles iambicum metrum inde duxisse nomen, quod eo utentes maledictis sese in vicem proscinderent ( ὅτι ἐν τῷ μέτρῳ τούτῳ ἰάμβίζον ἀλλήλους): sed cum in Margita nulla inessent maledicta ( οὐ ψόγον ἀλλὰ τὸ γελοῖον δραματοποιήσας), ad hoc carmen non possunt pertinere illa ἐν οἷς καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον ἰαμβεῖον ἦλθε μέτρον. itaque post Homerum versus iambicos prodisse Aristoteles existimavit. inde consequitur iambos illos, qui herois versibus immixti erant, ab Aristotele in suo Margitae exemplari aut non inventos aut pro interpolatis habitos esse. de versibus iambicis Margitae admixtis veterum testimonia haec ad nos pervenerunt. Hephaestio de Metris p. 112 ed. Gaisford. μετρικὰ δὲ ἄτακτα ὅσα ἐκ μέτρων μὲν ὁμολογουμένων συνέστηκε τάξιν δὲ καὶ ἀνακύκλησιν οὐκ ἔχει, οὔτε κατὰ στίχον οὔτε κατὰ συστήματα, οἷός ἐστιν ὁ Μαργίτης ὁ εἰς Ὅμηρον ἀναφερόμενος, ἐν ᾧ παρἐσπαρται τοῖς ἔπεσιν (hexametris) ἰαμβικά, καὶ ταῦτα οὐ κατ᾽ ἴσον σύστημα. idem p. 120. τοιοῦτός ἐστι ( ἐκ μέτρων ἀτάκτων) καὶ ὁ Μαργίτης Ὁμήρου· οὐ γὰρ τεταγμένῳ ἀριθ- μῷ ἐπῶν τὸ ἰαμβικὸν ἐπιφέρεται. ad haec scholiasta scripsit μετὰ γὰρ δέκα στίχους ἐπιφέρει ἴαμβον, καὶ πάλιν μετὰ πέντε καὶ ὀκτώ. Marius Victorinus p. 2572. ed. Putsch. hoc (iambico) genere versuum, ut supra (p. 2512) diximus, primus usus est Homerus in Margite suo, nec tamen totum carmen ita digestum perfecit: nam duobus pluribusve hexametris ante positis istum subiiciens copulavit. conf. idem p. 2524. et Atilius Fortunatianus p. 2692. exemplum eiusmodi copulationis ex Margita protulit Lindemannus in Lyra I. p. 82. sumptum ex grammatico quodam Latino bibliothecae Berolinensis ἦλθέ τις εἰς Κολοφῶνα γέρων καὶ θεῖος ἀοιδός, Μουσάων θεράπων καὶ ἑκηβόλου ᾿Απόλλωνος, φίλῃς ἔχων ἐν χερσὶν εὔφθογγον λύρην. cetera quae ex Margita afferuntur fragmenta versibus herois inclusa leguntur. Aristot. Ethic. Nicom. VI, 7. p. 1141 a 14. εἶναι δέ τινας σοφοὺς οἰόμεθα οὐ κατὰ μέρος οὐδ᾽ ἄλλο᾿ τι σοφούς, ὥσπερ Ὅμηρός φησιν ἐν τῷ Μαργίτῃ τὸν δ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἂρ σκαπτῆρα θεοὶ θέσαν οὔτ᾽ ἀροτῆρα οὔτ᾽ ἄλλως τε σοφόν, πάσης δ᾽ ἡμάρτανε τέχνης. secundi versus alterum hemistichium ab Aristotele non transcriptum cum ceteris servavit Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. I. pag. 281 A. ed. Sylb. (I. p. 329. ed. Potter). falsus Plato in Alcibiade altero p. 147 Β. οὐ γὰρ δήπου Ὅμηρον ἀγνοεῖν δοκεῖς ὅτι οὐχ οἷόντε ἦν ἐπίστασθαι κακῶς. ἐκεῖνος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ λέγων τὸν Μαργίτην πολλὰ μὲν ἐπίστασθαι, κακῶς δέ, φησι, πάντα ἠπίστατο. inde Buttmannus hunc versum elicuit πόλλ' ἠπίστατο ἔργα, κακῶς δ' ἠπίστατο πάντα. Iam pauca de recta loci scriptura dicenda restant. κατὰ τὸ ἁρμόττον inest AcBcNa et GLPQ, idemque inesse Mediceis, quamvis tacente Winstanleio et zai pro κατά exhibente, non est quod dubitemus. καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον ab Aldo profectum recte dextreque correctum videtur. nam cum in lectione librorum scriptorum articulus ante ἰαμβεῖον μέτρον desideretur, aut καὶ τὸ ἁρμόττον aut κατὰ τὸ ἁρμόττον τὸpro κατὰ τὸ ἁρμόττον scribi potest. nitate praestat. prior ratio remedii le- ὅτι ἐν τῷ μέτρῳ τούτῳ ἰάμβιζον ἀλλήλους: a verbo ἰάπ - τειν (iac - ere) factum est nomen ἴαμβος, id quod iacitur, h. e. maledictum; inde rursus descendit verbum ἰαμβίζειν, maledictis incessere. cf. Marius Victorinus p. 2525. appellatur autem iambicum ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰαμβίζειν, quod Graece significat maledicere et carpere..