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.
26.
mvp-aristotle-comment-278
τέταρτον δὲ τῶν ἐν λόγῳ κτέ.
On the reading which I have ventured to introduce into the text see the
J. of Phil. 5 p. 1191.
It is clear that the four elements in a tragedy, the
μύθος
ἤθη
διάνοια and
λέξις, belong to it as a work of literature, and that the music and 'spectacle' are accessories, which attach to it only when it comes to be acted on the stage. Apart from these accessories, a tragedy is, like an epic (
comp.
23, 1459 b10
), a
μίμησις ἐν λόγῳ (see on
1, 1447 29
), and all the elements which constitute it are
ἐν λόγῳ.
τὰ ἐν λόγῳ, therefore, is a comprehensive designation for the four literary elements, as distinct from the non-literary elements (
τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν b 15), the music and 'spectacle', with which the enumeration concludes. If
τῶν μὲν λόγων be retained, the genitive
1
has to be taken as an objective gen. after
λέξις.
Valla renders the words by
orationum dictio,
Paccius by
sermonum dictio, and
Goulston by
ipsarum orationum elocutio. The main difficulty, however, is in the particle, which has never been satisfactorily explained.
Vahlen formerly (
Symb. Phil. Bonn. p. 181
) connected the clause with that which follows in 615
τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν κτέ., supposing the sense to be 'viertens für die Dialoge (
τῶν λόγων) die sprachliche Form; für das übrige (
τῶν λοιπῶν) die Melopöie'. His later view (1885) is that the
μέν in
τῶν μὲν λόγων may be an instance of
μέν solitarium, and that
Aristotle may have meant at first to append something about the
τῶν δὲ μελῶν... Such a division of the fourth part, it seems to me, is wholly inconsistent with the general scheme of the six parts, which is throughout this chapter so clearly before
Aristotle's mind, as well as with the express mention of the
μελοποιία in its proper place in the next sentence.
26.
mvp-aristotle-comment-279
1450b13_2
ὥσπερ πρότερον εἴρηται.
If the reference is to
6, 1449 b 34
, where the
λέξις is defined as
ἡ τῶν μέτρων σύνθεσις,
Aristotle must have forgotten the exact terms of his previous formula. The point, however, is practically the same in both instances;
λέξις is to be understood in the sense of 'diction' or 'expression in language', and not in any of the other senses which the word might bear (see on
23, 1459 12
).
26.
mvp-aristotle-comment-280
1450b14
διὰ τῆς ὀνομασίας
διὰ τῶν ὀνομάτων, i. e. by means of the words or language of the speaker. As the
ὄνομα, which includes the verb and the adverb as well as the noun, is the directly significant part of all language,
ὀνομασία means practically the same thing as vocabulary or language.
26.
mvp-aristotle-comment-281
1450b14_2
ἑρμηνείαν,
'communication', 'expression'; the Latin equivalent for it is
interpretatio. After
ἑρμηνείαν we may supply τῶν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ, the spoken word being the outward sign or expression of a thought in the mind:
De interpr. 1, 16ª3
ἔστι μὲν οὖν τὰ ἐν τῇ φωνῇ τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ παθημάτων σύμβολα. On the meaning of
ἑρμηνεία in
Aristotle see
Waitz,
Organon 1 p. 323
, and
Steinthal,
Gesch. der Sprachwissenschaft 1 p. 235.
26.
mvp-aristotle-comment-282
1450b15
ἔχει τὴν αὐτὴν δύναμιν
ταὐτὸ δύναται, 'is practically the same thing' (see on
1, 1447ª8
).
18.
mvp-aristotle-comment-52
Ritter, cap. 6 § 18
τέταρτον - δύναμιν: haec omnia inania sunt et inepta et Aristoteliis male convenientia. Aristoteles enim
λέξιν partem tragoediae constituit, et quidem eam partem quae numeris inclusa est sed cantu et saltatione caret, senarios, etiam tetrametros et anapaestos plerosque, hic homo orationum elocutionem intelligit et paulo post non recte Aristotelis definitione percepta addit
λέξιν esse
τὴν διὰ τῆς ὀνομασίας ἑρμηνείαν. scilicet interpolator explicat quam
λέξιν vulgo intelligant homines, Aristoteles eodem nomine nove usus est ad designandam tragoediae partem.
ἐπὶ τῶν λόγων: in orationibus prosa sermone conscriptis.