Poetics. Aristotle. ed. Henry James Pye. London. 1792.
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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.
Editions (4)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 16 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 16 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 16 focus
Ἀναγνώρισις δὲ τί μέν ἐστιν, εἴρηται πρότερον· εἴδη
δὲ ἀναγνωρίσεως, πρώτη μὲν ἡ ἀτεχνοτάτη καὶ πλείστῃ
χρῶνται δι᾽ ἀπορίαν, ἡ διὰ τῶν σημείων.
σύμφυτα, οἷον “λόγχην ἣν φοροῦσι Γηγενεῖς”
οἵους ἐν τῷ Θυέστῃ Καρκίνος, τὰ δὲ ἐπίκτητα, καὶ τούτων
τὰ μὲν ἐν τῷ σώματι, οἷον οὐλαί, τὰ δὲ ἐκτός, τὰ περιδέραια
καὶ οἷον ἐν τῇ Τυροῖ διὰ τῆς σκάφης.
τούτοις χρῆσθαι ἢ βέλτιον ἢ χεῖρον, οἷον ὁ Ὀδυσσεὺς διὰ
τῆς οὐλῆς ἄλλως ἀνεγνωρίσθη ὑπὸ τῆς τροφοῦ καὶ ἄλλως
ὑπὸ τῶν συβοτῶν·
καὶ αἱ τοιαῦται πᾶσαι, αἱ δὲ ἐκ περιπετείας, ὥσπερ
ἡ ἐν τοῖς Νίπτροις, βελτίους.
δεύτεραι δὲ αἱ πεποιημέναι
ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ, διὸ ἄτεχνοι. οἷον ὁ Ὀρέστης ἐν τῇ
Ἰφιγενείᾳ ἀνεγνώρισεν ὅτι Ὀρέστης· ἐκείνη μὲν γὰρ διὰ τῆς
ἐπιστολῆς, ἐκεῖνος δὲ αὐτὸς λέγει ἃ βούλεται ὁ ποιητὴς ἀλλ᾽
οὐχ ὁ μῦθος·
γὰρ ἂν ἔνια καὶ ἐνεγκεῖν. καὶ ἐν τῷ Σοφοκλέους Τηρεῖ ἡ
τῆς κερκίδος φωνή.
τι ἰδόντα, ὥσπερ ἡ ἐν Κυπρίοις τοῖς Δικαιογένους, ἰδὼν γὰρ
τὴν γραφὴν ἔκλαυσεν, καὶ ἡ ἐν Ἀλκίνου ἀπολόγῳ, ἀκούων
γὰρ τοῦ κιθαριστοῦ καὶ μνησθεὶς ἐδάκρυσεν, ὅθεν ἀνεγνωρίσθησαν.
τετάρτη δὲ ἡ ἐκ συλλογισμοῦ, οἷον ἐν Χοηφόροις,
ὅτι ὅμοιός τις ἐλήλυθεν, ὅμοιος δὲ οὐθεὶς ἀλλ᾽ ἢ ὁ Ὀρέστης,
οὗτος ἄρα ἐλήλυθεν. καὶ ἡ Πολυίδου τοῦ σοφιστοῦ περὶ τῆς
Ἰφιγενείας· εἰκὸς γὰρ τὸν Ὀρέστην συλλογίσασθαι ὅτι ἥ τ᾽
ἀδελφὴ ἐτύθη καὶ αὐτῷ συμβαίνει θύεσθαι. καὶ ἐν τῷ
Θεοδέκτου Τυδεῖ, ὅτι ἐλθὼν ὡς εὑρήσων υἱὸν αὐτὸς ἀπόλλυται.
καὶ ἡ ἐν τοῖς Φινείδαις· ἰδοῦσαι γὰρ τὸν τόπον συνελογίσαντο
τὴν εἱμαρμένην ὅτι ἐν τούτῳ εἵμαρτο ἀποθανεῖν
αὐταῖς, καὶ γὰρ ἐξετέθησαν ἐνταῦθα.
ἔστιν δέ τις καὶ συνθετὴ
ἐκ παραλογισμοῦ τοῦ θατέρου, οἷον ἐν τῷ Ὀδυσσεῖ τῷ
ψευδαγγέλῳ· τὸ μὲν γὰρ τὸ τόξον ἔφη γνώσεσθαι ὃ οὐχ
ἑωράκει, τὸ δὲ ὡς δὴ ἐκείνου ἀναγνωριοῦντος διὰ τούτου
ποιῆσαι παραλογισμός.
πασῶν δὲ βελτίστη ἀναγνώρισις ἡ ἐξ
αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων τῆς ἐκπλήξεως γιγνομένης δι᾽ εἰκότων,
οἷον τὸ ἐν τῷ Σοφοκλέους Οἰδίποδι καὶ τῇ Ἰφιγενείᾳ·
εἰκὸς γὰρ βούλεσθαι ἐπιθεῖναι γράμματα. αἱ γὰρ τοιαῦται
μόναι ἄνευ τῶν πεποιημένων σημείων καὶ δεραίων.
δὲ αἱ ἐκ συλλογισμοῦ.
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.) — 16 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.) — 16 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 16 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.) — 16 focus
What Recognition is has been already explained.
We will now enumerate its kinds.
First, the least artistic form, which, from poverty of
wit, is most commonly employed — recognition by signs.
Of these some are
congenital, such as 'the spear which the earth-born race bear on
their bodies,'
or the stars
introduced by Carcinus in his Thyestes.
Others are
acquired after birth; and of these some are bodily marks,
as scars;
some external tokens, as necklaces, or the little
ark in the Tyro by which the discovery is effected.
Even
these admit of more or less skilful treatment.
Thus in
the recognition of Odysseus by his scar, the discovery is
made in one way by the nurse, in another by the swine-
herds.
The use of tokens for the express purpose of proof
— and, indeed, any formal proof with or without tokens
— is a less artistic mode of recognition.
A better kind
is that which comes about by a turn of incident, as in
the Bath Scene in the Odyssey.
Next come the recognitions invented at will by the
poet, and on that account wanting in art.
For example,
Orestes in the Iphigenia reveals the fact that he is
Orestes.
She, indeed, makes herself known by the letter;
but he, by speaking himself, and saying what the poet,
not what the plot requires.
This, therefore, is nearly
allied to the fault above mentioned: — for Orestes might
as well have brought tokens with him. And in the Tereus of
Sophocles the 'voice of the shuttle.'
The third kind depends on memory when the sight of
some object awakens a feeling: as in the Cyprians of
Dicaeogenes, where the hero breaks into tears on seeing
the picture;
or again in the 'Lay of Alcinous,' where
Odysseus, hearing the minstrel play the lyre, recalls the
past and weeps;
and hence the recognition.
The fourth kind is by process of reasoning. Thus in
the Choëphori: — 'Some one resembling me has come:
no one resembles me but Orestes: therefore Orestes has
come.'
Such too is the discovery made by Iphigenia
in the play of Polyidus the Sophist.
It was a natural
reflexion for Orestes to make, 'So I too must die at the
altar like my sister.'
So, again, in the Tydeus of
Theodectes, the father says, 'I came to find my son, and
I lose my own life.'
So too in the Phineidae: the
women, on seeing the place, inferred their fate: — 'Here
we are doomed to die, for here we were cast forth.'
Again, there is a composite kind of recognition involving
false inference on the part of one of the characters, as in
the Odysseus Disguised as a Messenger.
A said that
no one else was able to bend the bow; hence B
(the disguised Odysseus) imagined that A would recognize
the bow which, in fact, he had not seen; and to bring
about a recognition by this means — the expectation that A
would recognize the bow — is false inference.
But, of all recognitions, the best is that which arises
from the incidents themselves, where the startling dis-
covery is made by natural means.
Such is that in the
Oedipus of Sophocles, and in the Iphigenia;
for it was
natural that Iphigenia should wish to dispatch a letter.
These recognitions alone dispense with the artificial aid
of tokens or amulets.
Next
come the recognitions by process of reasoning.
Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 16 focus
Discovery in general has been explained already. As
for the species of Discovery, the first to be noted is (1) the
least artistic form of it, of which the poets make most use
through mere lack of invention, Discovery by signs or marks.
Of these signs some are congenital, like the 'lance-head
which the Earth-born have on them,'
or 'stars,' such as
Carcinus brings in in his Thyestes;
others acquired after birth
—these latter being either marks on the body, e. g. scars, or
external tokens, like necklaces, or to take another sort of
instance, the ark in the Discovery in Tyro.
Even these,
however, admit of two uses, a better and a worse; the
scar of Ulysses is an instance; the Discovery of him through
it is made in one way by the nurse and in another by the
swineherds.
rance is less artistic, as indeed are all such as imply reflexion;
whereas one bringing them in all of a sudden, as in the
Bath-story, is of a better order.
Next after these are (2)
Discoveries made directly by the poet; which are inartistic
for that very reason; e.g.
Orestes' Discovery of himself in
Iphigenia: whereas his sister reveals who she is by the letter,
Orestes is made to say himself what the poet rather than
the story demands.
from the first-mentioned fault, since he might have presented
certain tokens as well. Another instance is the 'shuttle's
voice' in the Tereus of Sophocles.
(3) A third species is
Discovery through memory, from a man's consciousness
being awakened by something seen or heard. Thus in The
Cyprioe of Dicaeogenes, the sight of the picture makes
the man burst into tears; and in the Tale of Alcinous,
hearing the harper Ulysses is reminded of the past and
weeps; the Discovery of them being the result.
(4) A fourth
kind is Discovery through reasoning; e.g. in The Choephoroe:
'One like me is here; there is no one like me but Orestes;
he, therefore, must be here.' Or that which Polyidus the
Sophist suggested for Iphigenia; since it was natural for
Orestes to reflect: 'My sister was sacrificed, and I am to
be sacrificed like her.' Or that in the Tydeus of Theodectes:
'I came to find a son, and am to die myself.' Or that in
The Phinidae: on seeing the place the women inferred their
fate, that they were to die there, since they had also been
exposed there.
(5) There is, too, a composite Discovery
arising from bad reasoning on the side of the other party.
An instance of it is in Ulysses the False Messenger: he
said he should know the bow—which he had not seen;
but to suppose from that that he would know it again (as
though he had once seen it) was bad reasoning.
(6) The
best of all Discoveries, however, is that arising from the
incidents themselves, when the great surprise comes about
through a probable incident, like that in the Oedipus of
Sophocles; and also in Iphigenia; for it was not improbable
that she should wish to have a letter taken home. These
last are the only Discoveries independent of the artifice
of signs and necklaces.
Next after them come Discoveries
through reasoning.
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.) — 16.8 focus
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.) — 16.8 focus
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.) — 16 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 16.8 focus
5.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 16 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.) — 16 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.) — 16 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.) — 16 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.) — 16 focus
Commentary
Commentary on the Poetics (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) (Ingram Bywater's English commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus
8.
mvp-aristotle-comment-583
8.
mvp-aristotle-comment-584
8.
mvp-aristotle-comment-585
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-402
15.
mvp-aristotle-comment-403
Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus
128.
mvp-aristotle-comment-128
NOTE 128. P. 96.
129.
mvp-aristotle-comment-129
NOTE 129. P. 96.
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
5.
mvp-aristotle-comment-114
Ritter, cap. 16 § 5