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.
7.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1094
1462a8
ἀποδοκιμαστέα.
ἀποδοκιμάζειν, 'to reject as inadmissible', is the opposite of
δοκιμάζειν, 'to approve, or sanction' (
Pol. 8. 7, 1342
a4
;
comp.
Bon. Ind. 80 b 48
).
7.
mvp-aristotle-comment-1095
1462a9
φαύλων,
'
turpium personarum' (
Victorius) — not as
Paccius renders it, '
ineptorum', as we hardly need to be told that bad acting is to be rejected. What
Aristotle means is clear from his instance:
Callipides in his impersonations of the heroines of Greek Tragedy, did not make them move and deport themselves like ladies. The assumption here is that character comes out in movement, and that some sorts of movement are naturally noble and others ignoble;
comp.
Pol. 8. 5, 1340
τὸν αὐτὸν γὰρ τρόπον ἔχει καὶ τὰ περὶ τοὺς ῥυθμούς· οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἦθος ἔχουσι στασιμώτερον οἱ δὲ κινητικόν, καὶ τούτων οἱ μὲν φορτικωτέρας ἔχουσι τὰς κινήσεις οἱ δὲ ἐλευθεριωτέρας.
1462a12
13.
mvp-aristotle-comment-664
26.7
13 D'ailleurs tous les mouvemens ne font pas à blamer, non plus que toutes les danſes, mais ſeulement les mouvemens lafcifs & effeminez.]
1
14.
mvp-aristotle-comment-665
26.7
14. Et qu'on reproche encore aujourd'huy à nos Comediens, qui ſemblent affecter les geſtes des femmes deshonnètes & corrompües.]
2
270.
mvp-aristotle-comment-270
NOTE 270. P. 133.
26.7
WHOSE GESTURES RESEMBLE THOSE OF IMMODEST WOMEN.
The passage of
Aulus Gellius
, to which I referred in my note on the translation, as a story, both curious in itself, and confirming what was there advanced, is this.
"Histrio in terrâ Græciâ fuit famâ celebri: qui, gestûs et vocis claritudine & venustate, cæteris antestabat. Nomen fuisse aiunt POLUM. Tragœdias poetarum nobilium scitè atque asseveratè actitavit. Is Polus unicè amatum filium morte amisit. Eum luctum quum satis visus est eluxisse, rediit ad quæstum artis. In eo tempore Athenis Electram Sophoclis acturus, gestare urnam quasi cum Orestis ossibus debebat. Ita compositum fabulæ argumentum est, ut, veluti fratris reliquias ferens Electra, comploret commisereturque interitum ejus, qui per vim exstinctus existimatur. Igitur Polus, lugubri habitu Electræ indutus, ossa atque urnam à sepulchro tulit filii; &, quasi Orestis amplexus, opplevit omnia, non simulachris neque imitamentis, sed luctu atque lamentis veris & spirantibus. Itaque, quum agi fabula videretur, dolor actitatus est."
A. Gell. VII. 5.
26.2.
mvp-aristotle-comment-127
26.7
TRAGEDY THEN HAS EVERY REQUISITE IN COMMON WITH THE EPOPEE SINCE IT MAY EQUALLY USE VERSE.
THE more I have confidered this paffage, the more I am confirmed in my opinion, that τὸ μέτρον means here iambic verse unassisted by mufic and reprefentation [D], and not hexameter verse in opposition to it [E]. I do not think an instance can be found in the treatife, of μέτρον being ufed in this appropriated senfe. In the first chapter Aristotle says, fome are called iambic and some elegiac poets from their metre, τὸ μέτρον ; and again he speaks foon after of a poem composed in all forts of meafure (ἅπανθα τὰ μέτρα). And just before this, in the fame chapter, he says the epopee imitates, either ufing (χρώμενη) plain words or verse of different kinds (τοῖς μέτροις) comprehending every fort of verfe; or one only, ἐνί τινι τῶν μέτρων, by which he signifies hexameters, as diftinguished from dithyrambics, mimes, comedy, and tragedy, who use (χρῶνται) rhythm, melody and measure. Here is exactly the fame oppofition marked between the means, (for μεσική in the passage before us includes both rythm and melody); why then should not τὸ μέτρον equally fignify verse in general in both passages? Aristotle in the first chapter employs χρῶνται to express the use that dithyrambics, mimes, tragedy, and comedy, make [D] See this Chapter, Note [G] on the tranflation. [E] See Note [A) on the tranflation, Chap. xxXIII. of
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. of their whole powers, rhythm, melody and measure. Surely then, when he chose afterwards to thew what one of these species of imitative poetry could effect when shorn of half its rays,' when making itself equal to the epopee by laying afide the music and the scenery and appраratus of the theatre, which, as well here as in the fixth chapter he allows to be the most affecting part of the drama: surely if, in the first place, he employs χρῶνται to express the use these compositions Do make of all their powers: by what words could he so well express the power tragedy MIGHT have of attaining its end contrary to the general practice by ufing one only, aς ἔξεςι χρῆσθαι [F]? It is true Ariftotle does, in the first chapter, hypothetically put the cafe of an epopee in trimeter or elegiac verse, but with apparent disapprobation on the fame principle as he undoubtedly would a tragedy in hexameters had he taken occasion to suppose one, from nature herself having pointed out the metre congenial with each. If therefore the critic means to say, we will give up the advantage the more simple cadence of iambics affords us in affecting the passions, and attack the epopee in the more ornamented and less natural language of hexameters; surely the advocate for the epopee in return might say, we will lay aside what advantage we derive from the richer cadence of hexameter verse, and contend with tragedy in iambics. Let us revert to the context and examine the drift of Aristotle's whole reasoning on the subject taken together. He first says, if acting is a [F] If it had been the usual custom in Greece to recite tragedy as the French drama is now recited by Teffier, then, and then only would the word χρῆται (as suggested by Mr. Winstanley,) have been the proper word to express this sense of the paffage. disadvantage
disadvantage to tragedy it is equally so to the epopee, which may also be accompanied (and he produces instances) by gesture, and even singing. If the action of tragedy may be rendered ridiculous by exaggerated gefture, so he says may the epopee; if the epopee has the advantage of working its effect by reading or recitation only, and is therefore more perfect in itself and less dependent on adventitious ornament, tragedy pofsesses the fame power and can also manifest its own intrinfic merit by perusal alone. Tragedy therefore has not only every advantage in comimon with the epopee, for it may be capable of producing its intended effect by using its own ornamented language only, independent of representation, scenery and mufic; but it has the additional advantage of all these embellishments in contradistinction, I suppose, to the fimple recitative to which the epopee was fet when it happened to be sung. With thefe superior powers, its effect in producing the paffions of pity and terror was rendered stronger, or, to use the words of Mr. Twining, 'The illu- ◄ fion was heightened.' Therefore tragedy was in every respect equal and in many fuperior to epic poetry. This appears to be the general sense and connection of the whole argument. All the examples are drawn from what was, not from what might BE. The decifion here does not rest on the powers that both the drama and the epopee really possess, or on any license they can have of exchanging their natural and essential requifites (one (G) of which their respective verse is said to be) but on the mode of exhibition. Had any fuperiority been suggested which the epopee might be supposed to derive from the gravity and magnificence of its measure, and it had been answered in the words of the passage in question, the sense contended for might [G] See the beginning of Chap. xxiv. have
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. have been allowed. Though even then τὸ μέτρον would have been a very improper term to signify a particular kind of verse in oppofition to any other, it having been so very often used for verse in general in this treatife. Befides, if it had this meaning, (H) it MIGHT, not, it MAY use, seems to be the proper phrafe. Indeed if Aristotle had once proceeded to give the preference to tragedy from what it might be made, the objector to Ariftotle's decifion in favour of tragedy, might have answered, that there was an equal pofsibility of giving the advantage of music and representation to the epopee. It would certainly have been very possible to act the dialogues of Homer, omitting the other parts, or throwing them into a chorus, in which the Coryphœus might repeat all that the poet says in his own person. In short, if we come to judge of what a thing is, from what it may possibly be made, by changing its essential properties, we may prove any thing. As I differ here with Mr. Winstanley, neither can I agree with what Mr. Twining says on this subject in a note [1] on a passage in chap. iv. (which I quote in the words of his own translation). 'The iambic • is of all metres the most colloquial, as appears evidently from this ، fact, that our common conversation frequently falls into iambic verse, * seldom into hexameter, and only when we depart from the usual melody of speech [k].' [H] Ἐξῆ, not ἔξεσι, χρῆσθαι. Liceat, not licet, uti. [1] Note 36. Of [K] Mr. Twining cites a passage in his note from the Treatise on Rhetoric, L. 111. Chap. VIII. as corroborating this, which I certainly must think it does, if pointed properly; but as it is now generally pointed and translated it directly contradicts it, as well as itself. 3 Z Τῶν
CHAP. XXVr. ، Of this Mr. Twining observes, in his note (36), ' It has been thought strange that Aristotle should introduce here the mention of ⚫ hexameters when he has been speaking only of trochaic and iambic verse, and is accounting for the adoption of the latter in preference, not to the hexameter but to the trochaic tetrameter, and it has there- • fore been doubted whether we should not read [1] τετράμετρα. But ، • the established reading I believe is right. The trochaic tetrameter Ariftotle has both here and in his Rhetoric characterized as σατυρικὸν, ἀρχηςικώτερον, τροχερὸν, and even κορδακικώτερον. He did not, I believe, ⚫ confider it as being in any degree λεκτικόν. It was therefore entirely • out of the question, when a metre proper for the general dialogue of tragedy was to be fought for, but the hexameter was not fo; and it Τῶν δὲ ῥυθμῶν ὁ μὲν ἡρωος σεμνὸς καὶ λεκτικὸς καὶ ἁρμονίας δεόμενος· ὁ δὲ ἴαμβος αυτὰ ἔσιν ἡ λέξις ἡ τῶν πολλῶν, διὸ μάλιςα πάντων τῶν μετρῶν ἰαμβεια φθέίγονται λέγοντες δεῖ δὲ σεμνότητα γενέσθαι καὶ ἐκεῆσαι. In the Poetic we are told hexameter verse seldom is spoken accidentally, unless we depart from the natural harmony of discourse, ἐκβαίνοτες τῆς λεκτικῆς ἀρμονίας, and just before, that the iambic is of all verse the most colloquial, μάλισα γὰρ. λεκτικὸν τῶν μέτρων. This, the passage in the rhetoric, as it is now pointed and read, directly contradicts, but all will be consistent if the stop is placed after σεμνός, and none after δεόμενος, rendering it thus. Of all metres the heroic is the most grave, but the • iambic is both colloquial and deficient in harmony, and is indeed the language of the vulgar, ⚫ on which account, of all measures, it is chiefly spoken in-common conversation, but here, (in * rhetoric,) it ought to be made grave and be elevated.' Meaning, that oratory should have more dignity, and be raifed above the level of common speech; and clearly I think of the two, preferring the hexameter to the iambic cadence for that purpose. Cum fint numeri plures, iambum et trochæum frequentem segregat ab oratore Ariftoteles, qui naturâ tamen incurrunt • ipfi in orationem fermonemque noftrum : fed funt infignes percussiones eorum numerorum, et ⚫ minuti pedes. Quare primum ad heroum nos dactyli et anapæsti & spondæi pedem invitat. CICERO DE ORAT. L. 111. [L] Note on Winstanley's edition, page 277. ⚫ might,
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. * might, without absurdity, be asked by an objector, as Castlevetro and • Piccoluomini have observed, why that species of verse was not ، adopted, especially as the tragic poets were the successors of the epic or heroic; and Homer, according to Plato, was the first of tragic poets. As its character was grave and stately, it might feem on that account well adapted to tragedy, where indeed we actually find it occafionally introduced. But Aristotle objects to it as less proper, be- • cause though σεμνὸν, it was at the same time, & λεκτικόν. He allows, • however, that it was not so remote from the rhythm of common * speech, but that it MIGHT be casually produced like the iambic, though it rarely happened. He even goes so far as to allow, in his • concluding chapter, that tragedy " might adopt the epic metre." This last sentence is Mr. Twining's tranflation of the passage in question. The whole drift of the part of Aristotle, in the fourth chapter, which I have quoted from Mr. Twining, and on which the above is his note, appears to me exactly this. In the rude state of the drama the trochaic tetrameter was used as the measure. When tragedy was more cultivated, and assumed a more serious and dignified tone, this metre was found improper, and another was to be adopted, when nature herself pointed out the iambic as most proper, from its being most congenial with common difcourse, which the dialogue of tragedy was to resemble as nearly as poffible consistently with its dignity [M], since the mode of its imitation was by persons acting, and the objects of its imitation the actions of persons, of superior situation indeed, but in those particular circumstances which are incident to perfons of all ranks, on which alone [M] See Chapters II. III. and XIIL 3 Z2 the
A COMMENTARY ON THE CHAP. XXVI, the interest of the action can be founded. Whereas hexameter verse, though the proper language of the epopee, which had greater dignity and variety, and was not intended or calculated to awaken so strong an interest, could not be adapted to the drama as being too much at variance with common discourse to fall casually into it, except when the language was elevated above the usual cadence of conversation, which I conceive the dialogue of tragedy, and efpecially the interesting parts of it, should never be. If, as Mr. Twining seems to suppose, Aristotle, when he fays, speech never falls into hexameters but when it exceeds its usual harmony, means, by its usual harmony, (τῆς λεκτικῆς ἁρμονίας) [N] ‘not that • lax and general sense in which we commonly apply it to the rhythm of speech when we talk of the harmony of a verse or period. But that melody and rhythm which speech poffefses, as well as music, and which in ، speech, animated by passion, are so modified as to approach more or less perceptibly to musical melody and rhythm;' and that the Greeks • seldom or never departed so far from the usual rhythm of speech as to ، run into hexameter verse, except when they were led by the fame ' cause,' (the fuperior animation of the language by paffion) to depart ، equally from its usual melody and tones.' If this be Aristotle's meaning; if empassioned language is most liable of all other to fall naturally into hexameter verse, then hexameter verse must be pointed out by nature for the verse best adapted to it by nature, and especially for those parts of it from which its end, the exciting pity and terror are chiefly if not folely derived. I own I am inclined to think that by exceeding the harmony of common speech, Aristotle means quitting the usual level of discourse for [N] Continuation of the above quoted note of Mr. Twining. the
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. the more elevated style of oratory, which might more naturally fall into the cadence of hexameters [o].
3.
mvp-aristotle-comment-206
Ritter, cap. 26 § 3
πρῶτον μὲν οὐ τῆς ποιητικῆς κτλ. tragoedia speciose adhuc accusata iam ita defenditur, ut primum ab illis accusatoribus non poeticam sed histrionum artem peti, deinde non quemcumque imitandi modum repudiandum esse doceatur.
ἐπεὶ ἔστι περιεργάζεσθαι τοῖς σημείοις καὶ ῥαψῳδοῦντα: iniqua ista tragoediae accusatio eodem iure intendi potest in epopoeiam: nam carminis epici recitator (
ὁ ῥαψῳδός) et ipse modum excedere potest nimia manuum corporisque iactatione. rhapsodus
σχήμασι (Tanz - Figuren) quidem non utitur, sed motibus simplicioribus gestibusque (
σημείοις) non minus egredi modum potest.
ὅπερ ἐποίει Σωσίστρατος κτλ. proprium est huius scriptoris laudare auctores admodum obscuros. de Sosistrato nihil aliunde accepimus, neque de Mnasitheo Opuntio: illum poemata epica nimio cum gestu recitasse, hunc lyrica decantasse in certaminibus musicis ob hunclocum suspicari licet. pro priore
ἐποίει codices qui memorantur omnes
έστι praebent, quod ex versu antegresso forte huc delatum verbum genuinum et ab Aldo restitutum de sede sua deiecit. ceterum repetitum continuo
ἐποίει nonnullam auctoris infantiam arguit.
εἶτα οὐδὲ κίνησις - ὄρχησις: non id vitio verti tragoediae potest quod multo motu utitur, sed nonnisi motus et saltatio deteriorum vituperanda est. illa
εἴπερ μηδ' ὄρχησις (si ne saltatio quidem omnis despicienda est) aetatem prodere videntur, cum saltatio obsolescere et contemni inciperet. -
μιμουμένων: exspectamus
μιμουμένοις, sed in conformanda oratione hic homo mira lascivia grassari solet. conf. c. 25, 18.
οὐ πινόντων οἶνον. c. 26, 1.
οὐκ αἰσθανο μένων. –
διὰ γὰρ τοῦ ἀναγινώσκειν φανερὰ ὁποία τις ἐστίν: hausta haec sunt ex loco male intellecto c. 14, 1. conf. Comment. in c. 14, 1. et in c. 6, 19.
καὶ