Aristotle Poetics 6.7

ed. Henry James Pye

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as tragedy is the imitation of an action, which action is represented by agents or persons acting, whose qualities must be derived from manners and sentiments (for by these we pronounce on the qualities of actions ;) manners and sentiments must be included as two natural causes of our actions, from which all our successes and disappointments are derived.

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 (4)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 6 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 6 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6.7 focus
Again—Tragedy being an imitation of an action, and the persons employed in that action being necessarily characterized by their manners and their sentiments, since it is from these that actions themselves derive their character, it follows, that there must also be, MANNERS, and SENTIMENTS, as the two causes of actions, and, consequently, of the happiness, or unhappiness, of all men.
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.) — 6.7 focus
Since, however, [tragedy] is an imitation of action, and action is effected by certain agents, who must needs be persons of a certain description both as to their manners and their sentiments 4, (for from these we say that 1 2 3 4 actions derive their quality,) hence there are naturally two causes of actions, sentiments and moral habit, and through these actions all men obtain or fail of the object of their wishes. 5 But a fable, indeed, is an imitation of action;
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.) — 6 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 6.7 focus
Comme c'eſt une imitation de quelque action, & que ceux qui agiſſent ſont neceſſairement tels, par les mœurs & par les ſentimens, n'y ayant point d'autres caracteres qui puiſſent diſtinguer les actions, c'eſt une conſequence ſeure, que toutes les actions viennent de ces deux ſources, c'est-à-dire, des ſentimens & des mœurs, & que ce ſont les deux cauſes du bonheur & du malheur des hommes.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 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.) — 6 focus

Commentary

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

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-216

ἐπεὶ δὲ πράξεώς ἐστι κτέ. Comp. μίμησις πράξεως in the preceding definition. Having spoken of the externals of a tragedy, its ὄψις, λέξις and μελοποιία, Aristotle passes on to elements of another kind, those which constitute its internal content. The subject in a tragedy is an action with the personages concerned therein as agents. The μῦθος, the fable or plot of the play, represents the action as such; the ἦθος and διάνοια manifested in the language of the dramatis personae represent the personality of the agents. Oedipus, for instance, is in a poem only a name for a certain group of qualities, moral and intellectual, which his actions and the language put into his mouth reveal to us (comp. 9, 1451 b 7 ).

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-217

ποιούς τινας εἶναι κατά τε τὸ ἦθος καὶ τὴν διάνοιαν Intellectual as well as moral states are included under ποιότητες ( Cat. 8, 8 b 29 ). A little further on, however, in 1450 a 5 , Aristotle uses the term ποιούς τινας as though it naturally referred rather to the ἦθος or moral character. For the antithesis between ἦθος and διάνοια comp. Pol. 8. 1, 1337 a 38
οὐδὲ φανερὸν πότερον πρὸς τὴν διάνοιαν πρέπει μᾶλλον ἢ πρὸς τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος
, and the distinction assumed throughout the Nicomachean Ethics and elsewhere between the ἠθικαί and the διανοητικαὶ ἀρεταί.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-218

1450a1 πέφυκεν begins the apodosis. There are thus in the natural order of things, says Aristotle, two distinguishable factors in the action of the individual agent, his ἦθος and his διάνοια; these are the inner causes of men's actions, and of the success or failure of their lives. πέφυκεν is, like the Platonic φύσιν ἔχει ( Rep. 473 C , 489 B ), impersonal. Vahlen illustrates this usage from Pol. 2. 2, 1261 b 7
οὔτε πέφυκε μίαν οὕτως εἶναι τὴν πόλιν
. — 4. 12, 1296 b 26
ἐνταῦθα πέφυκεν εἶναι δημοκρατίαν
, and Demosthenes 14, 30
τὰς κρήνας καὶ τὰ φρέατα ἐπιλείπειν πέφυκεν
.

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-219

1450a2 κατὰ ταύτας =
κατὰ τὰς πράξεις
; comp. a 19
κατὰ δὲ τὰς πράξεις εὐδαίμονες ἢ τοὐναντίον
.
1450a3

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-273

ἦθος A statement is said to have ἦθος in it when it reveals the moral purpose of the speaker, the kind of thing that he purposes to do or not to do. ἦθος is an element in oratory also, as the credibility of the orator often depends on the impression one forms of his character. The language in the text may be compared with that in Rhet. 2. 21, 1395 b 13
ἦθος δ᾿ ἔχουσιν οἱ λόγοι ἐν ὅσοις δήλη ἡ προαίρεσις· αἱ δὲ γνῶμαι πᾶσαι τοῦτο ποιοῦσι διὰ τὸ ἀποφαίνεσθαι τὸν τὴν γνώμην λέγοντα καθόλου περὶ τῶν προαιρετῶν, ὥστ᾿ ἂν χρησταὶ ὦσιν αἱ γνῶμαι, καὶ χρηστοήθη φαίνεσθαι ποιοῦσι τὸν λέγοντα
. — 3. 16, 1417 a 16
ἠθικὴν δὲ χρὴ τὴν διήγησιν εἶναι. ἔσται δὲ τοῦτο ἂν εἰδῶμεν τί ἦθος ποιεῖ. ἓν μὲν δὴ τὸ προαίρεσιν δηλοῦν, ποιὸν δὲ τὸ ἦθος τῷ ποιὰν ταύτην· ἡ δὲ προαίρεσις ποιὰ τῷ τέλει. διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔχουσιν οἱ μαθηματικοὶ λόγοι ἤθη, ὅτι οὐδὲ προαίρεσιν· τὸ γὰρ οὗ ἕνεκα οὐκ ἔχουσιν. ἀλλ᾿ οἱ Σωκρατικοί· περὶ τοιούτων γὰρ λέγουσιν.
.

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

13. mvp-aristotle-comment-153

6.7 13. Comme c'eſt une imitation de quelque action.] 1

14. mvp-aristotle-comment-154

6.7 14. Et que ceux qui agiſſent ſont neceſſairement tels par les mœurs & par les ſentimens.] 2

15. mvp-aristotle-comment-155

6.7 15. N'y ayant point d'autre caractere qui puiſſe diſtinguer les actions.] 3

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-156

6.7 16. Et que ce ſont les deux cauſes du bonheur & du malheur des hommes.] 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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-40

Ritter, cap. 6 § 5

καὶ κατὰ ταύτας καὶ τυγχάνουσι καὶ ἀποτυγχάνουσι πάντες: omnes qui agunt finem propositum pro moribus suis et sentiendi ratione feliciter consequuntur aut inceptis suis excidunt. sapiens enim et temperatus nonnisi ea sectatur quae assequi potest : immoderatus contra et stultus nimis alta et iniqua et incredibilia cupere solet, ut a fine fere aberret.