Aristotle Poetics 4.13

ed. Henry James Pye

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the forms of these being more excellent and held in higher esteem than the others. To examine whether tragedy has acquired its perfect form, either judged by itself or with regard to the representation, is another matter; but both that and comedy, from being at first extemporaneous productions, were augmented by slow degrees;

Poetics. Aristotle. ed. Henry James Pye. London. 1792.

Current edition Experimental

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 (5)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 4 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (S. H. Butcher, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (S. H. Butcher's Greek text from Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, fourth edition, 1911.) — 4 focus
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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus
Aristotle on the Art of Poetry (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 4 focus
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.) — 4.13 focus
But when Tragedy and Comedy, had once made their appearance, succeeding Poets, according to the turn of their genius, attached themselves to the one, or the other, of these new species: the lighter sort, instead of Iambic, became Comic Poets; the graver, Tragic, instead of Heroic: and that, on account of the superior dignity and higher estimation of these latter forms of Poetry.
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.) — 4.13 focus
as the Iliad and Odyssey to tragedy. 1 But when tragedy and comedy had appeared, those poets who were naturally impelled to each kind of poetry, some, instead of writing Iambics, became comic poets, but others, instead of [writing] epic poems, became the authors of tragedies, because these forms [of poetry] are greater and more esteemed than those. 2 To consider, therefore, whether tragedy is now perfect in its species or not, regarded as well with reference to itself as to the theatres, is the business of another treatise. 3 Both tragedy and comedy, therefore, at first originated from extemporaneous efforts. 4 And tragedy, indeed, originated from those who led the dithyramb,
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.) — 4 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 4.13 focus
Les autres Poëtes qui vinrent aprés luy, & qui étoient naturellement portez à l'un ou à l'autre de ces deux genres de Poëſie, ſelon qu'ils avoient plus ou moins de force, s'attacherent, les uns à faire des Comedies au lieu de faire des ïambes, & les autres quitterent les vers heroïques pour donner des Tragedies, ces deux dernieres fortes d'ouvrages leur ayant paru plus nobles, & plus dignes de les occuper.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus

Commentary

Commentary on the Poetics (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) (Ingram Bywater's English commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-127

ἑκατέραν τὴν ποίησιν recalls the distinction drawn in 4, 1448 b 24 between the two great forms of poetry, the higher and the lower.

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-128

κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν : 4, 1448 b 24
κατὰ τὰ οἰκεῖα ἤθη
.

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-129

1449a4 ἀντὶ τῶν ἰάμβων κωμῳδοποιοὶ ἐγένοντο Vahlen compares De part. an. 2. 13, 657 b 34
ἀντὶ ταύτης τῆς φυλακῆς πάντα σκληρόφθαλμά ἐστιν
, and Herod. 7. 62
ἀντὶ τῶν πίλων μιτρηφόροι ἦσαν
.

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-130

1449a7 ἔχει... τοῖς εἶδεσιν ἱκανῶς Aristotle assumes that Tragedy has by this time attained to its natural form ( 15
ἔσχε τὴν αὐτῆς φύσιν
); but he declines to consider the question whether there is still a possibility of improvement in the treatment of its various formative constituents. The suggestion that the εἴδη here meant are the same as the μέρη distinguished in chap. 6 , from another point of view, is due to Madius. εἶδος in the sense of a formative constituent is perhaps unique in Aristotle, but there are certainly a few instances of it in Plato Rep. iv , where the three faculties in the soul are sometimes described as εἴδη ( 434 D , 439 E , 440 B ) and sometimes as μέρη ( 442 B, C ). The alternative interpretation is to take εἴδη in the logical sense of 'species'. This view, though not improbable in itself (comp. 18, 1455 b 32 ), is hardly reconcileable with the use of εἴδη in 6, 1450 a 13 as a designation for the μέρη with which the chapter is dealing.

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-131

αὐτό τε καθ᾿ αὑτὸ κρῖναι The conjunction serves to connect κρῖναι with ἐπισκοπεῖν, the second clause being complementary to the first (comp. 6, 1450 b 3 ). Similarly in De anima 3. 3, 427 b 15
φαντασία γὰρ ἕτερον καὶ αἰσθήσεως καὶ διανοίας· αὐτή τε οὐ γίγνεται ἄνευ αἰσθήσεως, καὶ ἄνευ ταύτης οὐκ ἔστιν ὑπόληψις
, the second clause ( αὐτή τε κτέ.) is explanatory of the first. κρῖναι has been taken as an infinitive of limitation by Vahlen, who quotes H. A. 9. 38, 622 a 20
τῶν δ᾿ ἐντόμων ἐργατικώτατον ζῴων ἐστί, σχεδὸν δὲ καὶ πρὸς τἆλλα συγκρίνεσθαι πάντα, τό τε τῶν μυρμήκων γένος καὶ τὸ τῶν μελιττῶν
. As far as I can see, an infinitive of limitation would not be quite in place in a passage like the present. For the antithesis between καθ᾿ αὑτὸ and πρὸς τὰ θέατρα comp. Top. 5. 1, 128 b 16
ἀποδίδοται δὲ τὸ ἴδιον ἢ καθ᾿ αὐτὰ καὶ ἀεὶ ἢ πρὸς ἕτερον καὶ ποτέ
. — Cat. 6, 5 b 16
οὐδὲν γὰρ αὐτὸ καθ᾿ αὑτὸ μέγα λέγεται ἢ μικρόν, ἀλλὰ τῷ πρὸς ἕτερον ἀναφέρεσθαι
. κρίνειν has an indirect question after it in Metaph. A 4, 984 b 31
τούτους μὲν οὖν πῶς χρὴ διανείμαι ἐξέστω κρίνειν ὕστερον
.
1449a9
γενομένης δ᾿ οὖν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς αὐτοσχεδιαστικής =
γενομένη δ᾿ οὖν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς αὐτοσχεδιαστική
. Having begun with γενομένης αὐτοσχεδιαστικῆς, scil. τῆς τραγῳδίας, Aristotle sees that the same is true of Comedy, and adds a parenthesis to show that; after which he says in 13
ηὐξήθη
, just as though γενομένη... αὐτοσχεδιαστική had begun the clause. For another instance of a gen. abs. in lieu of a nominative see 17, 1455 a 3 . A parenthetical addition of very similar form is found in 5, 1449 b 12 , and also in Metaph. Θ 10, 1051 b 11 . ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς is used adverbially in the same sense as ἐξ ἀρχῆς. Several of the recent editors and translators, however, take ἀρχῆς and αὐτοσχεδιαστικῆς together as meaning an 'improvisational beginning'. This certainly simplifies matters, but it may be doubted whether ἀρχὴ αὐτοσχεδιαστική would naturally bear that meaning.

Remarques sur la poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) (André Dacier's French commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.) focus

23. mvp-aristotle-comment-93

4.13 Les autres Poëtes qui vinrent après luy, & qui étoient naturellement portez à l'un ou à l'autre de ces deux genres de Poëſie, ſelon qu'ils avoient plus ou moins de force.] 1

24. mvp-aristotle-comment-94

4.13 Au lieu de faire des ïambes.] 2

25. mvp-aristotle-comment-95

4.13 Quitterent les vers heroïques.] 3

26. mvp-aristotle-comment-96

4.13 Ces deux dernieres ſortes d'ouvrages leur ayant paru plus nobles.] 4

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

10. mvp-aristotle-comment-26

Ritter, cap. 4 § 10

οἱ μὲν ἀντὶ τῶν ἰάμβων κωμῳδοποιοί ἐγένοντο, οἱ δὲ ἀντὶ τῶν ἐπῶν τραγῳδοδιδάσκαλοι : loquendi brevitatem ita excusare licet et explicare, ut Aristoteli, scribenti ἀντὶ τῶν ἰάμβων et ἀντὶ τῶν ἐπῶν, non tam ante animum obversaretur quod re vera posuit, κωμῳδοποιοί et τραγῳδοδιδάσκαλοι, quam ποιηταὶ κωμῳδιῶν et διδάσκαλοι τραγῳδιῶν. vid. ad c. 1, 7. 8, 3.