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.
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-615
διὸ εὐφυοῦς κτέ.
Aristotle's curt and allusive statement needs some little expansion to bring out his meaning. It may perhaps be rewritten thus: the imaginative power of identifying oneself for the time with one's personages, which poetry demands, is a matter not of art, but of nature and temperament; it requires a natural gift or else a touch of madness in the poet's mental constitution. This natural gift consists in a certain impressionability of soul; and the illusions of madness arise from a distempered form of the same quality.
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-616
εὐφυοῦς.
εὐφυής (more fully
εὐφυὴς πρός τι) is a general term for one with a natural gift and aptitude for something, as distinct from one who acquires a power by training or study; comp.
22, 1459 a 7
, and
Top. 3. 2, 118 a 22
φιλοπονεῖν ἀρνούμεθα, ἵνα εὐφυεῖς εἶναι δόξωμεν. The word is of frequent occurrence in
Plato, as well as in
Aristotle, and it is occasionally found in
Isocrates also. In the present passage the poetic imagination is tacitly assumed to be a matter of nature, and to be the outcome in some instances of a healthy, and in others, of an unhealthy nature.
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-617
εὐφυοῦς ... ἢ μανικοῦ
might be largely illustrated from
Probl. 30. 1
, where the connexion between 'great wit' (as Dryden calls
εὐφυΐα) and madness is considered at length. The writer of the Problem (one of
Aristotle's immediate followers, as it would seem) shows that they have a common physiological basis — that the 'melancholic temperament' underlies all exceptional ability, and that a more or less morbid form of it is to be seen in madness, and in certain states of mind akin to madness, e. g. enthusiasm and 'ecstasy'; comp. esp.
Probl. 30. 1, 954 a 34
πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ .. νοσήμασιν ἁλίσκονται μανικοῖς ἢ ἐνθουσιαστικοῖς, ὅθεν Σίβυλλαι καὶ Βάκιδες καὶ οἱ ἔνθεοι γίνονται πάντες ... Μαρακὸς δὲ ὁ Συρακούσιος καὶ ἀμείνων ἦν ποιητής, ὅτ᾽ ἐκσταίη. A close relation between genius and madness is implied also in
Rhet. 2. 15, 1390 b 26
καὶ ἐνίοτε ἂν ᾖ ἀγαθὸν τὸ γένος, ἐγγίνονται διά τινος χρόνου ἄνδρες περιττοί, κάπειτα πάλιν ἀναδίδωσιν· ἐξίσταται δὲ τὰ μὲν εὐφυᾶ ['clever', 'quick-witted']
γένη εἰς μανικώτερα ἤθη ... τὰ δὲ στάσιμα ['steady', 'painstaking']
εἰς ἀβελτερίαν καὶ νωθρότητα.
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-618
33
μανικοῦ.
The alternative here is a rationalistic recognition of the ancient idea of the poet being 'possessed' and 'inspired' at the moment of poetic creation.
Plato plays on this idea in his 'praise of madness' in
Phaedr. 245 A
ὃς δ᾽ ἂν ἄνευ μανίας Μουσῶν ἐπὶ ποιητικὰς θύρας ἀφίκηται, πεισθεὶς ὡς ἄρα ἐκ τέχνης ἱκανὸς ποιητής ἐσόμενος, ἀτελὴς αὐτός τε καὶ ἡ ποίησις ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν μαινομένων ἡ τοῦ σωφρονοῦντος ἠφανίσθη; and he returns to it in other dialogues (comp.
Apol. 22 C
,
Meno 99 C
,
Ion 533 sqq.
,
Laws 719 C
). For the survival of the notion in later literature see
W. H. Thompson's note on
Phaedr. 245 A
.
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-619
οἱ μὲν ... οἱ δὲ.
The singulars which precede are practically equivalent to plurals,
εὐφυῶν... μανικῶν (comp.
Kühner, Gr. Gr.³ 2. 1 p. 86
).
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-620
εὔπλαστοι,
'capable of assuming a variety of moods', i. e. as we should say, 'impressionable' or 'emotional'; comp. the Platonic
ἁπαλὴ ψυχή in
Phaedr. 245 A
τρίτη δ᾽ ἀπὸ Μουσῶν κατοκωχή τε καὶ μανία, λαβοῦσα ἁπαλὴν καὶ ἄβατον ψυχήν, and the explanation of
Hermias (p. 98 Couvreur)
ἁπαλὴν δὲ λέγει τὴν εὔπλαστον καὶ εὐπαθῶς ἔχουσαν πρὸς ὑποδοχὴν τοῦ θείου. The word is properly used of material substances which, instead of being hard and rigid, are easily made to take various shapes; comp.
De gen. an. 3. 11, 761 b 32
πολύμορφα τὰ ἐν τῷ ὑγρῷ μᾶλλόν ἐστι τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ τό τε γὰρ ὑγρὸν εὐπλαστοτέραν ἔχει τὴν φύσιν τῆς γῆς (also
Plato
Rep. 588 D). A metaphorical extension of meaning, not unlike that in the text, is found in
Plato
Laws 666 b
ἐπίκουρον τῆς τοῦ γήρως αὐστηρότητος ἐδωρήσατο τὸν οἶνον φάρμακον, ὥστε ἀνηβᾶν ἡμᾶς καὶ δυσθυμίας λήθην γίγνεσθαι, μαλακώτερόν τ᾽ ἐκ σκληροτέρου τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος, καθάπερ εἰς πῦρ σίδηρον ἐντεθέντα, γιγνόμενον, καὶ οὕτως εὐπλαστότερον εἶναι. This impressionability of soul, which marks the poetic genius (
εὐφυής), may be explained on the principles set forth in
Probl. 30. 1, where the melancholic temperament is said to show itself in a certain variability of mood (
ἀνώμαλοί εἰσιν οἱ μελαγχολικοί), and a general capacity for strong feeling (
ἡ φύσις δήλη ῥέπουσα πρὸς τὰ πάθη).
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-621
ἐκστατικοί
describes the extreme form of the emotionalism of the melancholic temperament; some of the 'melancholic' are apt to be so completely carried away by their feelings as to be actually beside themselves for the time. According to
Probl. 30. 1 a tendency to this description of 'melancholy' was observable in most of the poets (
τῶν περὶ τὴν ποίησιν οἱ πλεῖστοι,
953 a 28
); a certain
Maracus of Syracuse—like our own
Christopher Smart and others—was said to have been at his best in moments of derangement,
Μαρακὸς ὁ Συρακούσιος καὶ ἀμείνων ἦν ποιητής, ὅτ᾽ ἐκσταίη (
954 a 38
). Among Aristotelian instances of
ἐξίστασθαι,
ἔκστασις, and
ἐκστατικός, as terms of mental pathology, the following may be noted:
De gen. et corr. 1. 8, 325 a 19
οὐδένα γὰρ τῶν μαινομένων ἐξεστάναι τοσοῦτον ὥστε τὸ πῦρ ἂν εἶναι δοκεῖν καὶ τὸν κρύσταλλον. —
H. A. 6. 22, 577 a 12
ἐξίσταται καὶ μαίνεται. —
Cat. 8, 9 b 36
τε μανικὴ ἔκστασις καὶ ἡ ὀργὴ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα [
scil.
ποιότητες]·
ποιοὶ γὰρ κατὰ ταύτας λέγονται, ὀργίλοι τε καὶ μανικοί. —
Probl. 30. 1, 953 a 17
ἡ περὶ τοὺς παῖδας ἔκστασις [said of Hercules slaying his children in his madness].
a 22
ὁ μὲν [i. e. Ajax]
ἐκστατικὸς ἐγένετο παντελῶς.
a 14
τῶν μελαγχολικῶν ὅσοι ἐκστατικοί.
Theophrastus
H. P. 9. 13, 4 has
ἐκστατικός in the active sense of producing
ἔκστασις :
γίνονται δέ τινες τῶν γλυκειῶν [
scil.
ῥιζῶν]
αἱ μὲν ἐκστατικαὶ καθάπερ ἡ ὁμοία τῷ σκολύμῳ περὶ Τεγέαν, ἣν καὶ Πάνδειος ὁ ἀνδριαντοποιὸς φαγὼν ἐργαζόμενος ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἐξέστη αἱ δὲ θανατηφόροι κτὲ. This technical use of these words is perhaps another proof of the influence of the language of
Hippocrates (v.
Foes,
Oeconomia Hippocratis
s.v.
ἔκστασις) on that of
Aristotle and his school.
ἐξεταστικοί, the reading of the MS., is surely impossible in a context like the present.
ἐξετάζειν denotes to 'scrutinize' or 'examine', i. e. to exercise one's critical faculty on something. It is clear, however, as any reader of
Probl. 30. 1 must see, that
Aristotle is not thinking here of the critical but of the imaginative power of the poet, and that he wishes to distinguish two forms of it, one springing from a healthy, and the other from a more or less morbid state of mind. An instance of the corruption of
ἐκστατικός into
ἐξεταστικός is found in the MSS. of
Aspasius' commentary on the
Nic. Ethics, p. 136. 3 ed. Heylbut. Mr.
A. O. Prickard has pointed out to me a similar corruption in
Longinus 38. 5 (
ἐξετάσεως for
ἐκστάσεως).
139.
mvp-aristotle-comment-139
NOTE 139. p. 98.
17.4
GREAT NATURAL QUICKNESS OF PARTS
Εὐφυὲς ἡ ποιητική ἐστιν. Εὐφυΐα—ΟΞΥΤΗΣ.
Hefychius
. See also
Casaub. upon Athenaeus, p. 454
, and
Suidas
, voc.
Εὐφυᾶ, and
Εὐφυΐα, where the passage he quotes from
Alex. Aphrod.
shews what was the common idea of
εὐφυΐα, though its propriety is disputed. The
εὐφυεῖς were generally understood to be
ὁι ῥᾳδίως μανθάνοντες, ὁμοἰως δὲ ἔχοντες πρὸς πάντα τὰ μαθήματα, &c. The passage seems to allude to
Ethic. Nicom. III. 5. p. 113. ed. Wilk.
No epithet can be more exactly adapted to the
εὐφυής, than that of
εὔπλαστος, which follows; a man of quick, mimetic parts, who can turn himself, as we say, to every thing with equal facility, and mould himself, without effort, to every form. But the word had considerable latitude, and would have been applied by the antients, to the genius of a Shakspeare, the talents of a Foote, or the docility of a school-boy
1
.
140.
mvp-aristotle-comment-140
NOTE 140. p. 98.
17.4
OR, AN ENTHUSIASM ALLIED TO MADNESS
μανικοῦ. — My translation here will, I fear, be thought too paraphrastical. But this is one among many passages, that have occurred, where I have found it impossible to give, at the same time, word for word, and idea for idea. This, indeed, is the great misfortune of translation; for what
Mr. Harris
has observed is too true, that
"much of the force of the original will necessarily be lost in the translation, where single words in one language cannot be found corresponding to single words in the other."
The word,
μανικοῦ, wanted no explanation to Greek readers, to whom, from the writings of Plato, in particular, it was familiar to consider enthusiasm of every kind, as a species of madness
2
. They would understand no more, from Aristotle's expression, than that comparative insanity which Cicero has so exactly expressed:—
"Poetam bonum neminem sine inflammatione animorum existere posse, et sine quodam afflatu quasi furoris."
— But what can a mere modern reader think, when he is told, in Dacier's translation, that, to succeed in Poetry,
"il faut avoir un genie excellent, ou etre FURIEUX?"
Nor could I, without danger of confounding the philosopher's distinction, have rendered
εὐφυΐα by the single word
genius; which, as we usually apply it to the fine arts, implies much of that very warmth, and illusive power, of imagination, that
"inflammatio animorum" which Aristotle meant to express by the other word,
μανικοῦ.
I must not omit, that this whole passage receives considerable illustration from another, in the
Problems
, pointed out by Mr. Winstanley in his edition, p. 292
3
. If Aristotle had given any instance of the
μανικοῦ among the Tragic Poets, it would, in all probability, have been Æschylus. It is pleasant to observe the appearance which the wild invention and ferocious sublimity of his PROMETHEUS, had to the eye of a French critic, of admirable good sense, indeed, but,
καρδίᾳ νήφοντος.
"Je crois," says Fontenelle,
"qu' Æschile etoit UNE MANIERE DE FOU, qui avoit l'imagination trés-vive, et pas trop reglée."
4
He would probably have said much the same of Shakspeare. The charge certainly cannot be retorted upon the French Tragic writers. It is related of the unfortunate Nat Lee, that, when he was in Bedlam, somebody had the inhumanity to tell him, it was a very easy thing to write like a madman. "No," replied the Poet, "it is not an easy thing to write like a madman; but it is a very easy thing to write like a fool." I believe these two things are almost equally difficult to our ingenious neighbours. It would be hard to detect Racine writing like a fool. But I confess I never read him without wishing he had written a little more like a madman.
We must allow him much merit;—but he never "rolled his eye" in the "fine phrensy" of the Poet; he knew little of "the tricks" of "strong imagination." The character given of him by Lord Kaims appears to me perfectly exact and just; that
"he is always sensible, generally correct, never falls low, maintains a moderate degree of dignity without reaching the sublime, paints delicately the tender passions, but is a stranger to the genuine language of enthusiastic or fervid passion."
5
I have often wondered, what it was that could attach Mr. Gray so strongly to a Poet whose genius was so little analogous to his own
6
. I must confess I cannot, even in the dramatic fragment given us by Mr. Mason, discover any other resemblance to Racine, than in the length of the speeches. Its fault, indeed, is Racine's; its beauties are, surely, of a higher order. What pity, that a work of genius, should have been smothered in its birth, by a little cold and trifling criticism!— We have, indeed, been told, that
"it was certainly no loss to the English stage, that Agrippina was never finished:" but we have been told it by the same critic who has pronounced, also, that the BARD of Gray, only "endeavours at sublimity;" who saw in the juvenile Poems of Milton "no promise of Paradise Lost;" and who has admitted, with seeming complacence, into the catalogue of English POETS, such names as Blackmore, Yalden, and Pomfret—
"Alcandrumque Haliumque Noemonaque Prytanimque!"
17.4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-67
17.4
THE POET WHEN HE INVENTS HIS FABLE SHOULD FIRST FORM IT GENERALLY,
THE critic here appears to illustrate what he has faid before of the poet's still retaining that character even when he writes on known stories [1]. The plan of the fable should first be generally drawn; the plot and its solution arranged; and then the episodic and subordinate parts added; and if the fable is purely fiction the names are invented; if founded entirely or in part on truth or tradition, they are inserted from the known story; of which last method he gives an instance both from the epopee and the drama. [1] See Note v. Chap. xx. These
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. These instances seem sufficiently to prove that Aristotle does not confine himself here to fuch fables as are entirely the invention of the poet, as Mr. Twining imagines, (Note 142), for the Odyssey must be at leaft a traditional if not an historical subject. Perhaps the construction of epic and dramatic fable may in this respect be distinguished by three general classes, though each capable of receiving innumerable inferior distinctions and modifications. First, those which are purely historical, such as the Iliad and Odyssey, the Edipus, the hiftorical plays of Shakespear, and the earl of Effex. Here the names are all historical, and the poet must on no pretence deviate from the known story in essential circumstances; all he can do is to find out such a fable, which though founded in fact has like the Odyssey, the proper requifites of general truth, or may be made to have them by some additional touches. [K] As for instance in the tragedy of the earl of Essex, Voltaire is very severe on Corneille, (and the same reasoning will apply to our tragedies on the same subject) for making Elizabeth young when she was really a very old woman, as she certainly was at the death of Effex. M. Lessing in his Dramaturgie [L], though he carries, I think, his notion of general fable rather too far, adopting in some measure the opinions of Bossu, anfwers Voltaire on these principles, that if the queen, though at the age of fixty-eight, was amorous and jealous, in consequence of which an event very proper for a fable took place, there could be no impropriety in supposing her age to be more congenial with her paffions [M]. Were Elizabeth on the stage to appear an old woman, [K] See Note Iv. Chap. xv. [1] Part 1. page 57. the [M] It is impoffible for a drama to come nearer history than the Antony and Cleopatra of Shakespear, and yet much of the effect would suffer were one to be represented as between 3 B fifty
the whole circumstance of the death of Effex would contain that mixture of the dreadful and the absurd, which though frequently found in the tragedies of real life would be very incongruous in dramatic fable. The next are those which are partly historical, and partly fictitious, of which perhaps the Iphigenia in Tauris may be an instance [N]. All the traditional story may be, that on the point of being facrificed she was saved by the interpofition of Diana, and the rest the invention of the poet. The Æneid, and the tragedy of King Lear, as also the Paradise Loft, come under this form. The chief art of the poet here is to draw the manners of the known characters, as Aristotle requires with the proper likeness. In this the [o] Æneid is as defective, as the Paradise Loft is excellent. When the fable and characters are entirely the invention of the poet, as in the Flower of Agatho, and in the Regent, the tragic and comic writer are in the same situation as to the structure of the fable [r], which they first form, and then add any cafual names. fifty and fixty and the other as forty. When Dryden, without any motive, chuses in his All for Love to make Ventidius reproach Antony with his declining age, and his natural incapacity for love, he gives a striking instance how the poet ought NOT to arrange historical incidents. [N] There never was a more fantastick monster ifsfued from the regions of fable than those absurd mixtures of truth and fiction the old French romance, such as the Grand Cyrus, and its spurious offspring the modern historical novel. [o] I conceive the Iliad as the archetype of the received characters of the Æneid. [P] See Note III. Chap. Ix. In
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. In all tragedies founded on novels the fame distinctions hold as in those founded on real history. This was generally the cafe with our old writers, and especially Shakespear. I recollect no other of his plays, either tragedy or comedy, except the Merry Wives of Windfor, for the outline of which he is not indebted to some old tale. The tragic poets of the present day generally supply both incident and character from their own invention. 3 B 2 CHAP.
2.
mvp-aristotle-comment-119
Ritter, cap. 17 § 2
πιθανώτατοι γάρ - εἰσι : aptissimi enim ad persuadendum sunt (
πιθανώτατοί εἰσι), eiusdem quidem ingenii homines (
ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως), ii qui animo commoti sunt (
οἱ ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν), h. e. qui proclives sunt ad animum commotum, si iidem ceteris ingenii dotibus non sunt inferiores, hi omnium optime imitari et proxime veritatem accedere possunt. quae subsequuntur,
καὶ χειμαίνει - ἀληθινώτατα, ad hoc pronuntiatum probandum accedunt. aliud est quod Horatius in Arte poetica v. 101-113. poetis suadet, scilicet ut ad quemcumque fortunae habitum verba et dictionem accommodare velint.
διὸ εὐφυοῦς ἡ ποιητική κτλ. quapropter solertis est poetica aut eius qui animo commotior. qui animo commotiores (
οἱ μανικοί') facile in quodlibet finguntur (
εὔπλαστοί εἰσιν), h. e. facile quemcumque animi habitum ipsi induere ideoque verbis exprimere possunt ¹). alteri autem qui solertis ingenii sunt (
οἱ εὐφνεῖς), inclinant ad anquirendum (
έξεταστικοί εἰσι), quid in quaque animi condicione et loqui et agere conveniat, ideoque facile quemcumque animi habitum verbis imitari possunt. plures editores
έκστατικοὶ ex uno Victorii codice receperunt, sed hoc ab ipso Victorio satis refutatum est in Comment. ad h. 1. pag. 167.