Thomas Twining Poetics 197

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Poetics. Thomas Twining. London. 1789.

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Current edition Experimental

Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (English) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Notes on the current edition

Poetics

1. So, I find, Piccolomini translates:—"dell' altre parole."
2. It seems also to result, most naturally, from Aristotle's expression; in which,
κατα την των ΟΝΟΜΑΤΩΝ ΣΥΝΘΕΣΙΝ
, and,
κατα ΜΕΤΑΦΟΡΑΝ
, seem opposed:—"by construction—by metaphor." If he had written
κατα την των ΑΛΛΩΝ (or ΚΥΡΙΩΝ) ὀνομ. συνθ.
he would probably have written also—
κατα δε την των μεταφορΩΝ (sc. συνθεσιν.)

Commentary

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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-808

ἰδέα: equivalent here to οὐσία (see Waitz, Org. 2 p. 406 ).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-809

a 28 τῶν ὀνομάτων. ὄνομα has been used before this as a generic term including the metaphor, etc., as well as what Aristotle calls the κύριον ὄνομα (see 21, 1457b 1 ). When opposed, however, to the metaphor, as in the present passage, it may easily mean the name (as we say) for the thing, i. e. its proper name, its κύριον ὄνομα. It recurs in this more specific sense in 22, 1458 b 2 and b 16 . It is not so absolutely necessary, therefore, to adopt the emendation of Heinsius, τῶν (κυρίων) ὀνομάτων, or the reading which the Arabic Version is believed to imply, τῶν (ἄλλων) ὀνομάτων. For other instances of the same use of general terms in a restricted sense see on 1, 1447a 29 (ἢ τοῖς μέτροις) .
a 29

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-810

κατὰ δὲ τὴν μεταφορῶν, scil. σύνθεσιν. The correction μεταφορῶν seems to be required not only by the form of the antithesis, κατὰ τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων σύνθεσιν, in the preceding line, but also by the meaning. It is the combination of metaphors that produces the sense of impossibility (comp. ἀδύνατα συνάψαι a 27) which is of the essence of an αἴνιγμα.

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-811

ἄνδρ᾽ εἶδον κτέ.: a line traditionally ascribed to Cleobulina, fr. 1 Bergk. The riddle is partially explained in Rhet. 3. 2, 1405b 35
οὐ πόρρωθεν δεῖ ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τῶν συγγενῶν καὶ τῶν ὁμοειδῶν μεταφέρειν τὰ ἀνώνυμα [(ἐπὶ) τὰ ἀνώνυμα?] ὠνομασμένως, ὃ λεχθὲν δῆλόν ἐστιν ὅτι συγγενές, οἷον ἐν τῷ αἰνίγματι τῷ εὐδοκιμοῦντι “ἄνδρ᾽ εἶδον πυρὶ χαλκὸν ἐπ᾿ ἀνέρι κολλήσαντα”.
 ἀνώνυμον γὰρ τὸ πάθος, ἔστι δ᾽ ἄμφω πρόσθεσις τις· κόλλησιν τοίνυν εἶπε τὴν τῆς σικύας προσβολήν.
1458 a 29 χαλκός, as a name for what we conventionally call a 'cupping-glass', is a metaphor derived from the material of which the instrument was often made in antiquity. Celsus 2. 11 has a description of the brazen cupping-glass and its mode of action:
Aenea [scil. cucurbitula] altera parte patet, altera clausa est... in aeneam linamentum ardens conicitur, ac sic os eius corpori aptatur imprimiturque donec inhaereat... ubi inhaesit, si concisa ante scalpello cutis est, sanguinem extrahit; si integra est, spiritum
(comp. Aristot. Probl. 9. 9-12, 890a 7-37 ; Mayor on Juv. 14. 58 ; and the monograph of K. P. I. Lampros, Περὶ σικυῶν καὶ σικυάσεως, Athens 1895).

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-812

κολλήσαντα: a metaphor ἀπ᾿ εἴδους ἐπὶ εἶδος (see 21, 1457b 13 ). For the tense of the participle see Goodwin, Syntax of Greek Moods and Tenses § 148 .

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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-515

22.5 5. Car l'Enigme conſiſte proprement à dire les choses de manière, que l'expreſſion les faſſe paroitre impoſſibles; & c'est ce qu'on ne peut faire par la fimple compoſition des mots, il n'y a que les metaphores qui ayent la vertu de faire l'Enigme.] 1

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-516

22.5 6. Comme on le voit dans cet Enigme celebre, j'ay vû un homme qui avec du feu colloit de l'airain ſur un homme.] 2

Commentary on the Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (Thomas Twining's notes on Aristotle's Poetics, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

196. mvp-aristotle-comment-196

NOTE 196. P. 110.

22.5 THE ESSENCE OF AN ENIGMA CONSISTS, &c.I can neither assent to the emendation proposed by Mr. Winstanley, nor see the least want of any emendation. The passage appears to me perfectly clear and unexceptionable, as it is.
Τα ὑπαρχοντα
must, by no means, be joined with
ἀδυνατα
. It evidently means here, in a sense very usual, things that actually exist—i. e. are true. As, Rhet. II. 25 ,
λυεται δε και τα σημεια, κ᾿αν ὑπαρχοντα
: where,
ὑπαρχοντα
is synonymous with
ἀληθες
, in lib. i. cap. ii. p. 517 —
λυτον δε, κ᾿αν ΑΛΗΘΕΣ
.
The passage is accurately and closely rendered by Piccolomini.
"La forma e l'effentia dell' enigma confifte in quefto, che nel dir cofe, che VERAMENTE SIANO, fi congiungbino infieme cofe ch appaiano impoffibili à ftar infieme."
—And this is an exact definition of an ænigma—such an ænigma, at least, as Aristotle means. But in the other way of constructing the passage, which is that of Castelvetro, and some other interpreters, it is no definition at all. For if the essence of a riddle consists merely in "putting together things that are incompatible and impossible," —
τα ὑπαρχοντα ἀδυνατα συναψαι
then the Italian Poet made a riddle, when he described a man fighting after he was cut in two:
del colpo non accorto, / Andava combattendo, ed era morto.
1

197. mvp-aristotle-comment-197

NOTE 197. P. 110.

22.5 NOW THIS CANNOT BE EFFECTED BY THE MERE ARRANGEMENT OF THE WORDS, &C.
Κατα μεν ουν την των ὀνοματων συνθεσιν.
— Heinsius
την των ΚΥΡΙΩΝ ὀνοματων
. But the
κυριον όνομα
, as I have already observed, is, throughout, opposed by Aristotle, not to
μεταφορα
only, but to all the other words. He would hardly, therefore, have used it here in a different sense, as opposed to metaphor only. 2 If any emendation were necessary, I should think
ΑΛΛΩΝ ὀνοματων
more probable. But perhaps no word is wanting. Aristotle had used the expression,
ἀδυνατα ΣΥΝΑΨΑΙ
—"to put together things impossible." This might lead to suppose, that an ænigma might be made by the mere
συνθεσις ὀνοματων
—by a certain arrangement or construction of the words only. Therefore he adds—"this cannot be done by the mere arrangement of the words; by the metaphorical use of them it may." 3
As this sense seems sufficiently clear, supposes no defect in the text, and, after all, coincides, in the main, with that of Heinsius, (for we must necessarily understand, an arrangement of words not metaphorical—) I have adopted it in my translation, after Dacier, and Batteux.

198. mvp-aristotle-comment-198

NOTE 198. P. 110.

22.5 A MAN I ONCE BEHELD, &C.See Rhet. III. 2, p. 586 , where this is called an approved, or admired, riddle:—
ἐν τῷ ἀινιγματι τῳ ευδοκιμουντι
—. I wish it may
ευδοκιμειν
with a modern reader. In Athenæus another line appears:
Ανδρ᾿ ἐιδον πυρι χαλκον ἐπ᾿ ἀνερι κολλησαντα, / Ουτω συγκολλως ὡστε συναιμα ποιειν.
Lib. ix. p. 452.
But Casaubon seems right in supposing this pentameter to have been a modern addition; for it is not found, I believe, in any more antient writer. Even in Plutarch, I observe, that the hexameter not only appears by itself, as in Aristotle, but is plainly given as the whole. See his Symposium, p. 267, ed. H. St. It appears from that passage to have been the production of a lady, Eumetis. I doubt whether, in these "degenerate days," it would have gained her a prize in the Lady's Diary. The Greeks were fond of these puzzles. The reader may find some curious specimens of this sort of wit in Athenæus, X. 448, &c.

Commentary on the Poetics (Henry James Pye, 1792) (OCR draft) (Henry James Pye's 1792 English commentary, aligned to the Kassel reference edition.) focus

22.3. mvp-aristotle-comment-90 22.5

MAKING IAMBIC VERSE EVEN IN COMMON DISCOURSE.

I CANNOT think the word ἰαμβοποιήσας can by any means be twisted into the general sense of, ridiculing, which many of the translators give it. For the reason which induced me to render it as I have, I refer to the note on the tranflation. I however must confess the examples are, by a little vitiation of quantity, much more easily susceptible of the cadence of hexameters than of iambics. Indeed they very much resemble the barbarous attempts at heroic verse, by Commodianus at the decline Of Roman poetry, quoted by Mr. Harris in his Philological Enquiries, Part 11. Chap. 11. Tōt rěŭm criminibus părricīdūm quoque fŭtūrum Ex aŭctorītātē vēstrā contulīstis in illum. The profodical marks shew what Mr. Harris imagined to be the intended quantities. But I rather think the writer's ear was directed by the [D] accentual cadence without any regard to quantity at all. Perhaps Aristotle had no iambic examples to quote, and the others being familiar, the διον may imply, • as in these spurious hexameters.' [D] See Note II. Chap. xx. NOTE

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

2. mvp-aristotle-comment-160

Ritter, cap. 22 § 2

ἂν μὲν οὖν ἐκ μεταφορῶν, αἴνιγμα: dictio ex meris metaphoris conflata nonnisi ab eo potest intelligi, qui et translate dici scit neque ignorat quomodo translatio instituta sit. ἐὰν δὲ ἐκ γλωττῶν, βαρβαρισμός: peregrina dictio fit, si unis glossis composita est. hoc fieri tam manifestum est, ut explicatione non egeat: nam quae paulo post interponuntur, ἐκ τῶν γλωττῶν βαρβαρισμός, ea ab interpolatore quodam ex his ipsis hausta illic inertissime repetuntur, et ab editoribus, ut saltem aliqua iunctura prodiret, in hunc modum interpolata vulgo exhibentur : ἐκ δὲ τῶν γλωττῶν ὁ βαρβαρισμός. sed alterum illud, aenigma fieri si quis nonnisi translationibus utatur, cum minus manifestum videatur, hoc aenigmatis definitione declaratur. κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων σύνθεσιν οὐχ οἷόν τε τοῦτο ποιῆσαι: per ὀνόματa hic quoque nomina et verba significantur. secundum unam verborum copulationem fieri non potest, ut simul quae sunt ( τὰ ὑπάρχον- τα) et simul quae non possunt esse ( τὰ ἀδύνατα) exprimantur, sed id per metaphoram fieri potest, cum verba proprie intellecta significant quae fieri nequeunt, contra improprie accepta id indicant quod fieri potest. οἷον “ ἄνδρ᾽ - κολλήσαντα": igne aera viro adglutinare refertur in ἀδυνάτοις: sed qui resciverit χαλκὸν translate dictum esse ( ἀπὸ γένους ἐπ᾿ εἶδος c. 21, 5) pro cucurbitula (Schröpfkopf), statim intelligit dici quae fieri possunt. Aristoteles Rhetor. III, 2. p. 1405 b 1. posito eodem aenigmate scribit κόλλησιν τοίνυν εἶπε τὴν τῆς σικύας προσβολήν. Athenaeus X. p. 452 C. πολλοὶ δὲ γρίφων καὶ τοιαῦ τοί τινές εἰσιν οἷον ἄνδρ᾽ εἶδον πυρὶ χαλκὸν ἐπ᾿ ἀνέρι κολλήσαντα οὕτω συνκόλλως ὥστε σύναιμα ποιεῖν. veterum cucurbitularum genera et formas descripsit Celsus de Medicina II, 11. cucurbitularum vero duo genera sunt, aeneum et corneum, aenea altera parte patet, altera clausa est: in aeneam linamentum ardens coniicitur, ac sic os eius corpori aptatur imprimiturque donec inhaereat. conf. Pollux X, 149.