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.
3.
mvp-aristotle-comment-967
λέξει ἢ καὶ γλώτταις κτέ.
λέξις is properly a generic term, including the metaphor, the strange word, etc. Here, however.,
Aristotle adds
ἢ καὶ γλώτταις κτέ., in order to remind us of the fact that these various unusual forms of expression are a recognized part of the poetic vocabulary. The practical effect of the addition is to modify the sense of
λέξει, and make it stand for
κυρίᾳ λεξεl, just as in
1, 1447 29
(
v. ad loc.) the addition of
ἢ τοῖς μέτροις has a reflex influence on the preceding word
λόγοις, limiting it for the moment to the sense of 'prose'. The generic word
ὄνομα likewise is occasionally used in a context which gives it the more [ 25. 14608-14 325 1460b II specific sense of
κύριον ὄνομα (see on
22, I458°28
). It is hardly necessary, therefore, to restore
(κυρίᾳ) λέξει with
Heinsius, or
λέξει ⟨ἢ kvpiq⟩ with
Twining, or
λέξει (ἢ κυρίοις ὀνόμασιν) with
Vahlen.
3.
mvp-aristotle-comment-968
1460b12
πάθη τῆς λέξεως:
i. e. the modifications seen in the
ἐπεκτετα- μένον. the
ὑφῃρημένον, and the
ἐξηλλαγμένον ὄνομα (
21, 1458 1
), which, though substantially identical with the ordinary words (
22, 1458b4
), are distinguished from them through some deviation of form. The term
πάθος is used in this same sense by
Theophrastus in a fragment of his
Περὶ λέξεως (
Rabe, De Theophrasti libris
περὶ λέξεως p. 6
):
τίς ἡ κυρία λέξις, τίς δ᾽ ἡ μεταφορική;
καὶ τίνα τὰ πάθη αὐτῆς, οἷον τί ἀποκοπή, τί συγκοπή, τί ἀφαίρεσις;
4.
mvp-aristotle-comment-599
25.3
4. Et pour cela il ſe fert, ou de mots propres, ou de mots étrangers, ou des metaphores, & de tous les autres changemens de la diction, dont les Poëtes ont la liberté de se fervir.]
1
228.
mvp-aristotle-comment-228
NOTE 228.
25.3
P. 123. IN WORDS, EITHER COMMON, OR FOREIGN, &C.
Λέξει ἢ καὶ γλώτταις—.
Heinf. [Heinsius]
ΚΥΡΙΑι λέξει, ἢ καὶ γλώτταις. The insertion seems necessary, but would, perhaps, be better thus:
λέξει, Η ΚΥΡΙΑι, καὶ γλώτταις, &c. Victorius and other commentators suppose
κυρίᾳ to be understood. But this I cannot conceive.
Λέξις appears clearly to be used here, as in
cap. xxii.
for diction in general, including, as in that chapter, every sort of words.
229.
mvp-aristotle-comment-229
NOTE 229.
25.3
P. 123. WHICH ARE THE PRIVILEGE OF POETS.
ΔΙΔΟΜΕΝ γὰρ ταῦτα τοῖς ποιηταῖς. The same expression is made use of by
Isocrates
, in the following passage, to which I referred in
NOTE 5, p. 158,
and in which the privileges and advantages of the Poet are well set forth, and the importance of verse to the effect of even the best poetry, is strongly insisted on.
Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ποιηταῖς πολλοὶ ΔΕΔΟΝΤΑΙ κόσμοι. Καὶ γὰρ πλησιάζοντας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τοὺς θεοὺς οἷόν τ’ αὐτοῖς ἐστι ποιῆσαι, καὶ διαλεγομένους, καὶ συναγωνιζομένους, οἷς ἂν βουληθῶσι· καὶ περὶ τούτων δηλῶσαι, μὴ μόνον τοῖς τεταγμένοις ὀνόμασιν, ἀλλὰ, τὰ μὲν, ξένοις, τὰ δὲ, καινοῖς, τὰ δὲ, μεταφοραῖς· καὶ μηδὲν παραλιπεῖν, ἀλλὰ πᾶσι τοῖς εἴδεσι διαποικῖλαι τὴν ποἰησιν.
1
Τοῖς δὲ περὶ τοὺς λόγους οὐδὲν ἔξεστι τῶν τοιούτων· ἀλλ’ ἀποτόμως, καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων τοῖς πολιτικοῖς, καὶ τῶν ἐνθυμημάτων τοῖς περὶ αὐτὰς τὰς πράξεις, ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι χρῆσθαι.
2
Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, οἱ μὲν μετὰ μέτρων καὶ ῥυθμῶν ἅπαντα ποιοῦσιν· οἱ δὲ οὐδενὸς τούτων κοινωνοῦσιν· ἃ τοσαύτην ἔχει χάριν, ὥς, ἂν καὶ τῇ λέξει, καὶ τοῖς ἐνθυμήμασιν, ἔχῃ κακῶς, ὅμως ταῖς γε εὐρυθμίαις καὶ ταῖς συμμετρίαις ψυχαγωγοῦσι τοὺς ἀκούοντας. Καταμάθοι δ’ ἄν τις ἐκεῖθεν τὴν δύναμιν αὐτῶν· ἢν γάρ τις τῶν ποιημάτων τῶν εὐδοκιμούντων τὰ μὲν ὀνόματα καὶ τὰς διανοἰας καταλίπῃ, τὸ δὲ ΜΕΤΡΟΝ διαλύσῃ, φανήσεται πολὺ καταδεεστέρα τῆς δόξης, ἧς νῦν ἔχομεν περὶ αὐτῶν.
3
See
NOTE 5, p. 158,
the passage from
Plato
.
25.1.
mvp-aristotle-comment-109
25.3
NEITHER IS THE PROPRIETY OF POETRY THE SAME WITH THAT OF THE POLITICAL OR ANY OTHER ART.
ARISTOTLE means, that in other arts, such as the theory of government, geography, history, the merit of their professors must solely depend on their accurate acquaintance with every circumftance at all relative to the subject on which they write. Now this is by no means the cafe with poetry, which only requires a probable imitation of human actions
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. actions and manners. Had the Winter's Tale of Shakespear been a history, or a treatise on geography, it would have been essentially defective from his supposing Bohemia to be a maritime country. But this has not the smallest effect on the interest, and confequently on the merit of the play. Had Shakespear chofen a mode of imitation to which his powers were unequal, (we may suppose any thing,) and consequently written a bad play, the fault would have been essential, but having undertaken an imitation to which his powers were perfectly equal, and which therefore he executed well, no fault can fall on the play, the action, manners and sentiments, because the poet did not know that Bohemia was an inland country. For it is not the office of the poet to instruct his hearers in particular subjects of art, but to awaken his paffions by general representations of nature. The author of the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful makes the following remark on this subject in his introduction to that elegant work. Why should a perfon be shocked at a shipwreck on the coast of Bohemia who does not know but that Bohemia may be an island in the Atlantic Ocean? and after all, what reflection is this on the natural good taste of the perfon here supposed." It is true however that at present such an error would condemn the best play that could be possibly written. For there are so many more perfons now, who understand the first elements of geography than are capable of feeling, or judging of a tragedy. Besides, it is impoffible that a poet of the present day could have that general knowledge of human events, and propriety of conduct, fit to enable him to imitate human actions and manners, and be so grofsly ignorant as this must shew him to be. The mistake of Shakespear is a proof of the general igno- 3 S2 rance
rance of his age. Were a poet now to make such an error, it would be corrected in the rehearsal, even by the scene-shifters. A mistake of the same kind, as the illustration from the hind by Aristotle, occurs in the Ode on Spring, by Mr. Warton, one of the most beautiful and original descriptive poems in our language, and which strongly shews the force of poetical imitation in (A) rendering objects that have no beauty in themselves highly beautiful in description. I suppose there are few scenes less pleasing and picturesque in themselves than the view from Catherine Hill near Winchester, over the bare adjacent downs, and on the Itchin at its feet, formed into a navigable canal, and creeping through a wide valley of flat-water meadow, intersected often at right angles by strait narrow water courses. But hear the poet, and observe how the scene appears in the picture he has given of it without changing the features of the original. 'O'er the broad downs, a novel race, • Frisk the lambs with faltering pace, • And with eager bleatings fill • The foss that skirts the beacon'd hill. • His free born vigor yet unbroke • To lordly man's ufurping yoke, • The bounding colt forgets to play, Basking beneath the noontide ray. • And stretch'd upon the daisies pied • Of a green dingle's floping fide; [D] See Note 1. Chap. IV. • While
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. • While far beneath where nature spreads • Her boundless length of level meads, • In loose luxuriance taught to stray • A thousand tumbling rills inlay • With filver veins the vale, or pass • Redundant through the sparkling grass.' Besides the general beauty of the description it must have a particular one in the eyes of every Wykhamist as recalling the idea of the days of early youth, the joys of which are strongly impressed on the memory, while the hours of school restraint, which sometimes confidered going to hills even as a task, are but faintly traced. But to return to the object of the note. What hypercritic would cenfure these lines: ، Scarce a bee with airy wing • Murmurs the blossom'd boughs around, ، That cloath the garden's SOUTHERN MOUND.' Because the fouth wall of a garden is its northern bound ? An impropriety is often found in the works of the earlier engravers from copying directly from the drawing, which occasions the figures of the impreffion to be reversed, and the sword to be in the warrior's left hand, and the shield on his right. This is never discovered without being purposely looked for. As Aristotle observes however, that such errors, however trifling they may be, are still errors, and as fuch ought to be avoided if possible: we may justly censure the arrogance of these writers, who founding their pretenfions
pretenfions to fame on higher excellencies, wantonly, and sometimes wilfully, affect to be negligent and even ignorant of flighter things. This species of self importance will often obtrude itself into the conversation of those persons who think too highly of their own merit, where to the difcerning it has an effect directly the reverse of that which is proposed [B]. It is nevertheless sometimes a defect attending real merit. I knew a gentleman high, and defervedly so, in literary reputation, who had this foible in a great degree. He thought it shewed superior attention to things of extraordinary consequence to pay none to common occurrences. He lived near London; and a friend happening in the spring to ask him the state of vegetation in the country, he answered him, that he was too much employed in other objects to give any attention to things of that nature. His friend, a little piqued at such an absurd affectation of consequence, replied, ' I am furprized, Sir, at that, fince Solomon, who ⚫ had fome reputation for wisdom in his day, could speak of plants from the cedar of Libanus to the hyffop that grew on the wall.' That agreeable and honeft egotist Montaigne speaks of his own ignorance and want of dexterity in many of the common offices of life; but so far from priding himself on it he prefaces his account with the following remark. • But great minds are univerfal minds; open, and pre- ، pared for every thing, and if not actually informed, immediately • capable of receiving information. MONTAIGNE'S Essays, L. II. Ch. XVII. ON PRESUMPTION. [B] The true, strong, and found mind, is the mind that can equally embrace great things ، and small. Now I am told the king of Pruffia will say to a fervant, " Bring me a bottle " of such a wine, which came in such a year; it lies in such a corner of the cellar." BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON, Vol. 11. p. 254. Exactly
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. Exactly correspondent with this was the judgment passed by a country clergyman on a late nobleman in high estimation both in the literary and the political world. 'My lord - -' he said, ' is not a great man: he • does not know wheat from barley.'
2.
mvp-aristotle-comment-185
Ritter, cap. 25 § 2
ταῦτα δ' ἐξαγγέλλεται λέξει ἢ καὶ γλώτταις καὶ μεταφοραῖς: sic scribit quasi
γλῶτται et
μεταφοραί ad
λέξιν non pertineant: quippe suo more
λέξιν intelligit
κυρίαν λέξιν quae caret insolitis et translatis vocibus. mirum est et puerile quod addit, esse multas orationis affectiones, et magis mirum illud
δίδομεν γὰρ ταῦτα τοῖς ποιηταῖς. cur haec ille poetis concedit? scilicet benignus est et humanus.