Poetics. Aristotle. ed. Henry James Pye. London. 1792.
The Poetic of Aristotle (Henry James Pye, revised 1792) (OCR draft) (English) (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.)
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
6.
mvp-aristotle-comment-29
αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ ῥυθμῷ κτἑ.
is an unnecessary clause, as
ὀρχηστική is not one of the arts in the list in a13 ; it will be observed too that there is a change in the form of expression,
μιμοῦνται, instead of
χρώμεναι with
ποιοῦνται τὴν μίμησιν understood. The clause would seem to have been originally an afterthought, worked in by Aristotle as soon as he saw that there was an art that used rhythm alone. His giving a reason for this mention of
ὀρχηστική may be supposed to imply a consciousness of its being a new point, and one requiring demonstration.
6.
mvp-aristotle-comment-30
αἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν
The traditional reading
οἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν has been corrected into
ἔνιοι τῶν ὀρχηστῶν by Twining ; into
οἱ (πολλοί) τῶν ὀρχηστῶν by Heinsius; and into
οἱ (χαρίεντες) τῶν ὀρχηστῶν by Zeller. It is assumed that Aristotle may have wished to recognize the fact, of which Plato had spoken in
Laws 795 E
, that dancing is sometimes a mere exercise of the body and without dramatic meaning. A much simpler correction, however, is
αἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν, with
μιμήσεις (rather than
τέχναι) understood from the context. Aristotle is thinking of the professional dancers, who told a story in pantomime, by the mere movements and attitudes of their bodies (comp. Sittl, Die Gebärden der Gr. u. Röm. p. 244).
6.
mvp-aristotle-comment-31
1447a26
σχηματιζομένων ῥυθμῶν
: the rhythms in their movements, in the succession of their
σχήματα, their gestures or attitudes (see on
26, 1462 a 3
). The emphasis is on
ῥυθμῶν; that the attitudes of the dancer might be dramatic, and represent 'what men do or have done to them', was too obvious to require saying. Aristotle is insisting on the 'ethical' significance which rhythm imparts to the dance. On rhythm as expressive of character and temperament see
Pol. 8. 5, 1340 a 18
and the Platonic passages referred to on 22.
6.
mvp-aristotle-comment-32
1447a28
ἤθη
: the character and temperament of the personages represented, as distinct from their
πάθη καὶ πράξεις, 'what they do or have done to them'. The meaning of
πάθη καὶ πράξεις is sufficiently shown by
9, 1451 b 11
τί ᾿Αλκιβιάδης ἔπραξεν ἢ τί ἔπαθεν, and
13, 1453 a 22
παθεῖν δεινὰ ἢ ποιῆσαι (see also on 11, 1452 b).
πάθη is generally assumed (e. g. in Bon. Ind. 557 a 49) to denote in this passage 'feelings' or 'emotions'. The words
πάθη καὶ πράξεις cover the whole ground of the story in the dance; so that Aristotle, if he had cared to anticipate the term used later on in
6, 1450 a 4
, might have said here, without difference of meaning,
ἤθη καὶ μύθους.
1447a28
ἡ δὲ [ἐποποιία] κτέ.
Suckow's correction,
τυγχάνει οὖσα, is to be found in his Form der Platonischen Schriften p. 53. With it, and the readings implied in the Arabic Version, the whole passage becomes intelligible and in harmony with the context. We were told at the outset in 22 that the three means of imitation,
ῥυθμός,
λόγος, and
ἁρμονία, may be employed either singly or in certain combinations. Having just spoken (1) of imitation
ἐν ἁρμονίᾳ καὶ ῥυθμῷ and (2) of imitation
ἐν ῥυθμῷ alone, Aristotle passes on (3) to imitation
ἐν λόγῳ—whether alone, or in combination with rhythm or metre, and finally (4) to imitation
ἐν ἁρμονίᾳ καὶ ῥυθμῷ καὶ λόγῳ. This exhausts the possibilities, since it is evident that
ἁρμονία alone, and the combination
ἁρμονία +
λόγος, need not be taken into account. The third of his four heads Aristotle divides, and recognizes three possible forms of means, (1)
λόγος alone, (2)
λόγος + some one kind of metre, and (3)
λόγος + a plurality of metres. In other words he distinguishes between (1) imitations in prose, (2) imitations in some one metre (hexameters, trimeters, etc.), and (3) imitations in a plurality of metres. Of this large and well-marked class of imitative literature, which includes the Mime, the 'imaginary conversations' of Socrates, the Epic, and Chaeremon's Centaur, Aristotle observes that it has 'remained to this day without a distinctive name'. The common fact here is
μίμησις ἐν λόγῳ, but there is, he says, no one common name connoting the common fact and equally applicable to all the kinds within the class. Those who retain
ἐποποιία, with the addition of
ἀνώνυμος at the end of the sentence, suppose it to mean 'word-poetry' (Wortdichtung, Bernays, Zwei Abhandl. p. 81). Such a special and unique sense, however, for a term like
ἐποποιία is highly improbable, and also against the analogy of all the similar compounds (e.g.
λογοποιία,
μελοποιία,
μυθοποιία,
ὀνοματοποιία), in which the
ποιία means simply the making of something, just as much as in
ἀρτοποιία,
ὁδοποιία,
παιδοποιία and the like. And even if the word could bear its new meaning, it would be inappropriate here, as the Mime and the 'Socratic Conversation' were prose imitations—not poems. To a Greek of Aristotle's time the idea of a prose poem would have seemed a contradiction in terms.
21.
mvp-aristotle-comment-21
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-4
NOTE 4.
1.6
P. 2. FOR THERE ARE DANCERS WHO BY RHYTHM APPLIED TO GESTURE.
performed,] The Greek is—
ὁι των ὀρχηστων: but there is great reason to suspect the reading. It is generally rendered,
"Some dancers:" but Victorius, who understands it in that sense, says—
durus tamen sermo; and produces no authority for such a phrase. Heinsius proposed—
ΠΟΛΛΟΙ των ὀρχησων. The learned reader may, perhaps, agree with me, that—
ΕΝΙοι των όρχησων, would be preferable, as nearer to the text. It is not probable, that the degree of imitative skill here described was possessed by all dancers, or even by
"the greater part" of them. A passage from Aristocles is preserved by
Athenæus
, in which Telestes, a dancer employed by Æschylus, is mentioned as remarkable for this talent:—
ΟΥΤΩΣ ΗΝ ΤΕΧΝΙΤΗΣ, ωστε, εν τω ορχεισθαι τες Επτα επι Θηβας, φανερα ποιεισθαι τα πραγματα δι ορχησεως.
[Athen. p. 22.]
This dancing appears plainly to have been of that kind, which was afterwards pushed to such an excess of cultivation by the pantomimic dancers in the age of Augustus;
1
and which is well known to have divided all Rome into parties, and even, frequently, to have made the theatre a scene of bloodshed.
2
Of this fact, I cannot help adding, that a proof somewhat curious is furnished by
Valerius Maximus
; who, in the arrangement of his miscellaneous work, places his chapter
De Spectaculis, immediately after that,
De militaribus institutis; and gives this reason:
"Proximus militaribus institutis, ad urbana castra, id est, Theatra, gradus faciendus est: quoniam hæc quoque, sæpenumero, animosas acies instruxerunt; excogitataque cultûs Deorum, et hominum delectationis, causâ, non sine aliquo pacis rubore, voluptatem et religionem CIVILI SANGUINE, Scenicorum portentorum gratiâ, macularunt."
[Lib. ii. 4.]—These
scenica portenta were the Pantomimes.
Aristotle says here,
δια των σχηματιζομενων ῥυθμων. It seems, at first view, that the inverse of this expression would have been more accurate—
δια των ρυθμιζομενων σχηματων—by rhythmic gestures. And, if he had been here considering the imitation of Dance, separately, and in itself, he probably would have expressed himself in that way. But dancing is here transiently mentioned, merely to exemplify what he had been saying, of the combined, or separate, use of rhythm, words, and melody; and to shew, in what manner, not only melody and rhythm might be separated from words, as in music; but rhythm, also, might be separated from melody, and used alone.
3
Any mode of expression, therefore, which would have represented gestures (
σχηματα) as the principal means of the imitation, would not have suited his purpose. It would, also, as Victorius and others have observed, have tended to confound the means of imitation in the poetic and musical arts, which he is here considering, with those means of a different kind, which he had just enumerated, as employed in arts of more obvious and strict imitation, and among which
ΣΧΗΜΑΤΑ were mentioned.
It has been also objected, that Aristotle is, here, professedly instancing
εν ταις ΕΙΡΗΜΕΝΑΙΣ τεχναις—in the arts
"above-mentioned" and yet introduces Dancing, which had not been mentioned: a difficulty easily overcome, if we consider, that Dancing was among the musical arts; closely connected with Poetry, and, above all, with Tragedy.
1.3.
mvp-aristotle-comment-3
1.6
THE EPOPEE USES PLAIN LANGUAGE, OR VERSE.
MY own opinion of the proper construction of this passage, and with what qualification it is to be understood as to the regular epic poem I have already given in a note on this place in my tranflation, and [A] See Beattie on Fiction and Romance, page 567. on
on a passage in the fixth chapter. But it is impossible to observe the great earnestness with which Dacier and Metastasio support their oppofite opinions, the one zealous for the honor of (B) Telemachus, and the other partial to the beautiful poems of Ariosto and Tasso, without being convinced of the neceffity of fober criticism, divesting itself of all national and personal partiality. And yet after all it can be of little consequence what Aristotle says on this subject, since in his time the (c) epopee, or the drama, unadorned by verse, if known at all, so far from having attained that degree of perfection to which they have been carried by the moderns, were confidered as an irregular and spurious kind of composition. [B] A fellow-countryman of Dacier's, Bossu, has settled this difference of opinion by the following accommodating hypothefis. • But if an epopee should be written in prose, would * it be an epic poem ? I think not, because a poem is a compofition in verse, but neverthe- * less that does not hinder it from being an epopee; so a tragedy in profe is not a tragic ' poem, but it is still a tragedy. Those who have been in doubt whether the Roman ' comedy was a poem have never doubted its being comedy.' Boffu, 1. 1. chap. v. See also Beattie on Poetry and Music, page 295, and on Fable and Romance, page 518. [c] The Cyropædia of Xenophon, though I believe generally allowed to be not wholly founded on truth, still takes its most prominent features from history, and perhaps does not deviate much more from fact than the account of Cyrus given by Herodotus, though it has more of a poetical form, as there is a manifest design in the arrangement of the circumstances. It seems to bear fome resemblance to the historical novels of the present day.. Strabo, it is true, mentions other writers of poetical profe. Λύσαντες τὸ μέτρον, τ᾽ ἄλλα δὲ φυλάξαντες, τὰ ποιητικὰ συνέγραψαν ὁι περὶ Κάδμον κὶ Φερεκύδην κὶὴ Ἑκατᾶιον, Ι. Ι. • For Cadmus and Pherecydes and Hecatæus wrote poetry, not confining themselves to verse, < but retaining its other requifites. Perhaps, however, by ποιητικά, in this place, compofition in general is meant, fince Suidas says of Hecatæus, Πρῶτος ἰσορίαν πεζῶς ἐξήνεγκεν. • He first wrote history in profe.' From
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. From the examples here produced by Aristotle, I think it obvious he confiders the word epopee, in this place, according to its etymology, as imitating by woRDS alone, independent of musical accompaniment [D], without the distinction of prose and verse, and not at all as confined to narrative imitation. Neither is his use of the word epopee afterwards, in its more appropriated sense, any objection to the more general meaning he gives it here, since similar instances may be found in this short treatise, as in the words ἐπεισόδιον, μέτρον, and ἀπλόος. See note [c] on the tranflation of chapter xiii. I think it may be doubted whether Aristotle would have classed a modern comedy with the drama, as being a species of dramatic compofition, though deficient in the necessary requisites of verse and musical accompaniment; or with the epopee, as he has the mimes of Sophron, and the Socratic dialogues, as wanting every character of poetry except the essential one of imitation. The construction of the whole passage has occafioned much difference of opinion among the various commentators. As it appears to me, Aristotle having asserted that the epopee uses either plain language, or verse of different forts, as well as the particular species of verse which custom, founded on the nature of the compofition, had [D] Though I profefs this to be my opinion, yet as I by no means am an advocate for any particular hypothesis at the expence of truth, I must mention one objection that strikes me. If Aristotle, by λόγοις ψιλοις, means prose, there appears to be wanting something added to μέτροις, in this particular place, to distinguish verse unaccompanied with music, as one of the means of imitation peculiar to the epopee. The friends of an hypothesis to be combated hereafter, would perhaps say, that by μέρδις here, hexameter verse only is meant, did not the τουλοις μιγνῦσα that immediately follows, convey the most compleat refutation of such an appropriated use of μέτρον. See note II. on chapter xxvi. appropriated
СНАР. Г. appropriated to it, aware that he was hazarding a paradox, explains himself by saying, imitation, and not verse, was the criterion of Poetry; and as on one hand there would be no general name under which imitations, whether narrative or in a dramatic form, if written in profe, or an unusual kind of verse, could be classed, unless they were allowed to come under that of the epopee, whose characteristic it was to imitate by words alone, unassisted by mufic or representation; fo on the other it was a mistake to suppose that verse alone, independant of imitation, was the effential part of poetry, or that poets were styled elegiac, or epic, from writing in epic or elegiac measures, and not from the fubjects they chose, and their manner of treating them. Perhaps the following free paraphrafe of the whole passage may more plainly elucidate my idea of the reasoning of the critic. • The epopee imitates by language alone, without the afsistance of • musical accompaniment; and that, either in [E] prose, or in verse, • which verse may be either of various forts mixed together, or of one • fort only, viz. hexameter, as has hitherto been the general, and almost • universal practice.. • I know I am now advancing a paradox. But if we do not admit ⚫ certain compofitions in prose to be classed under the general name of epopee, what shall we call the mimes of Sophron and Xenarchus, [E] Mr. Twining thinks it odd that Aristotle should mention prose first. But it seems to be his usual practice to begin with the worst mode. See his enumeration of the different forms of tragic fable, chapter xiv. and the methods of discovery, chapter xvi. Prose is the greatest deviation from the proper form of the regular epopee, mixed verse the next. and
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. ' and the dialogues of Socrates? Fictitious imitation of action, and • character, is the essential diftinction of poetry, and this they possess; • therefore we must at least allow them to be a species of poetry, as • poffeffing its principal requifite, though divested of verfification, • which we acknowledge to be a great, and indeed a necessary ornament; on the fame principle as the history of Herodotus (fee chap. ix. [F]), • if written in verse, would still be a species of history, as being defti- ، tute of the essential character of poetry, fictitious imitation, though • possessing its chief and peculiar ornament, verfification.' • If, indeed, we are so strict as to admit no fort of compofitions to • be classed with the epopee but such as are regular epic poems, where • shall we place any narrative imitation, that might be made in iambic, ، elegiac, or any other kind of verse, except hexameter, poffeffing the • essential character of poetry, though wanting the requifite of heroic ' verse, which we allow to be most congenial with it?' • It may poffibly be said in answer, that these compositions may be ' classed according to the structure of the verse; for custom, it must be ، allowed, has authorized fuch a distinction; and we are used to diftinguish poets rather by the form of the verse than the nature of the imitation, calling those elegiac poets who use elegiac verse, and those epic poets who use heroic verse, without paying any regard to the • subject they write on. Nay, if a didactic essay, either on phyfic or ، mufic, is written in verse, though entirely destitute of fiction or • imitation, it is usual to call the author a poet; yet certainly Homer [G], [F] See also note I on that chapter. [G] (Virgil and Milton.) • whose
' whose works imitate actions and manners, can have nothing in common ، ' with Empedocles [H], except the verse; therefore one indeed may • justly be styled a poet, according to the proper sense of the word, but ⚫ the other is rather a naturalift than a poet.' • The fame objection may be made to my classing compofitions in ' mixed verse with the epopee, and the fame answer may be given. • Chæremon has written a poem, called the Centaur, in various forts ' of verse; the work poffeffes the poetic requifites of fiction and imitation; it is true it is written in a new and an unusual form, and is fo • far faulty, in deviating from the proper composition of the regular epopee [1]; but shall the author on this account be denied the name • of poet, fince his work possesses the essential qualities of poetry?' • I think then there can be no doubt of my being right as to claffing poetry according to the imitation and not the verse.' In this concluding fentence, in the original, the critic speaks a little more ex cathedra, using the imperative, διωρίσθω. Taking the word epopee in this enlarged sense, I shall, in the course of these obfervations, draw a part of my illustrations from fome of those compofitions which we usually call novels, and which Dr. Beattie [K] [H] (Lucretius and Armstrong). It is true there are parts of these writers, especially the former, which may be classed with poetry of the highest order, but these are episodic; the same thing, in some degree, may be faid of the historian and the orator. [1] See note III. chapter xxiv. [*] Effay on Fable and Romance, page 518. On Poetry and Mufic, part i. ch. ii. p. 45. obferves,
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. observes, may be stiled the comic or profe epopee. I do not mean to controvert the fentence the bishop of Worcester has pronounced againft these writers, in his Effay on the Idea of universal Poetry (page 153), yet if the best of them, who cannot be supposed to have guided their pens by the rules of the Stagirite, have in practice, essentially conformed to those rules, it will go far to shew that, they do not folely originate from the caprice of the critic, or the peculiar customs of the ancients, but are really founded on truth and general nature. CHAP.
5.
mvp-aristotle-comment-5
Ritter, cap. 1 § 5
οἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν: numeri sive motus saltatorum. nomen
ῥυθμοί ad verba
οἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν ex praegressis
αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ ῥυθμῷ advocatum intelligo. durum hoc est, fateor, sed quod melius sit vix invenias. nam Dacerius linguae vim facit, cum
οἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν idem vult esse quod
οἱ ὀρχησταί. D. Heinsius
οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν, Twinin- 2)
Τοιαῦται in nullo dum codice repertum aut Aldus addidisse aut accepisse a correctore Italo videtur. pronomen quamvis necessarium ab illo ex libro non interpolato receptum esse vix credo.gius
ἔνιοι τῶν ὀρχ. coniecit, sed utraque medicina et violentior est neque omnes difficultates tollit, cum post
οἱ πολλοί aeque ac post
ἔνιοι vix pergere Aristoteles potuisset
καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι κτλ. unus Parisiensis 2038 exhibet
μιμεῖται - ἡ τῶν ὀρχήστῶν, quod vel facilitate sua indocti correctoris manum prodit. nisi a temeraria medicina animus abhorreret, scribendum suaderem
οἱ τῶν ὀρχηστῶν σχηματοποιοῦνται. saltatores omnes imitari, ea non est Aristotelis sententia: ipse enim veriorem rationem monstravit adiectis illis
διὰ τῶν σχηματιζομένων ῥυθμῶν μιμοῦνται. numeri
σχηματιζόμενοι eiusmodi sunt motus, quibus actio et gestus adiunguntur.