Thomas Twining Poetics 210

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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.

Commentary

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

4. mvp-aristotle-comment-874

τοῦτο δρῶσι = ὁμοίας ἱστορίας τὰς συνήθεις τιθέασι (v. a 21).

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

210. mvp-aristotle-comment-210

NOTE 210.

23.4 P. 115. EVEN IN THIS, THEREFORE, &C.
Ἤδη καὶ ταύτῃ.
already even in the first operation of his genius—the very choice of his subject, and formation of his plan. Such appears to me to be the force of
ἤδη
in this passage, which, I think, is injured by those commentators who punctuate—
ὥσπερ ἔιπομεν ἤδη
"as we have already said."

211. mvp-aristotle-comment-211

NOTE 211.

23.4 P. 115. HE HAS, FROM THE REST, INTRODUCED MANY EPISODES—
Νῦν δὲ, ἓν μέρος ἀπολαβὼν, ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται ΑΥΤΩΝ πολλοῖς.
—i. e. as the commentators explain it, of the other parts of the war. But, what should we think of this English—
"Selecting one part of the war, he introduces many episodes of them?"
If Aristotle meant the other parts of the war,
ἀυτῶν
must, surely, be wrong: if
ἀυτῶν
be right, I confess I cannot see what he meant. I wish we had manuscript authority for the
ἀυτοῦ
of Heinsius, which is adopted and explained by Le Bossu, II. 5, and 6. —But a learned friend has suggested to me a conjecture still more probable; that Aristotle wrote
ΑΛΛΩΝ. Νῦν δὲ, ἝΝ μέρος ἀπολαβὼν, ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται ΑΛΛΩΝ [sc. μερῶν] πολλοῖς.
"Selecting one part only of the war, he has, from other parts, introduced many Episodes,"
&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

23.4. mvp-aristotle-comment-99 23.4

HE DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE TROJAN WAR.

MR. ADDISON I believe thought he paid the Duke of Marlborough an hyperbolical compliment, when he called the transactions of the summer, in which the battle of Blenheim was fought, • An Iliad rifing out of one campaign." When on examination the action of the Iliad takes up only forty-feven days. Bossu has alfo calculated the duration of the action of the Odyssey and the Æneid. He fixes the former at fifty-eight days, and the latter at half a year. It is impossible to apply these critical compasses to a poem whose action passes • Beyond the flaming bounds of space and time. It is obvious however that the Paradise Lost is confined within such a period, that the connection of the [L] beginning, the middle, and the end is easily comprehended; and that though the action is continued, it enters sufficiently into detail to be perfectly interesting [M]. [L] See Chap. VIII.. [M] See Note 11. Chap. xxiv. 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

3. mvp-aristotle-comment-171

Ritter, cap. 23 § 3

σχεδόν δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῦ - το δρῶσιν : sententiam hanc sane gravem ac fortasse subiniquam mitigavit addito σχεδόν. ceteri Graecorum epici poetae Homero excepto non eam unitatis normam secuti sunt, quam summus artis poeticae magister praescripsit, sed ita tantummodo observaverunt ut accederent aliquatenus ad rationem in rerum scriptoribus probatam. διό, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν ἤδη-καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ : quod auctor occasione oblata iam ante (c. 8, 3) monuerat et Odysseae exemplo illustraverat, idem h. 1. ita persequitur ut Iliadem solam respiciat. Homerus in condenda Iliade duobus modis excellit, primum quod bellum Troianum non totum carmine celebrare adgressus est, deinde quod ne summa quidem fastigia rerum in modicam magnitudinem con-... tracta sed nimía varietate implicata poemati materiam substravit. enuntiati duo membra coordinata sunt, unum τῷ μηδὲ τὸν πόλεμον ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποεῖν ὅλον, alterum ἢ τῷ (intellige μηδ' ἐπιχειρῆσαι ποιεῖν) μεγέθει μετριάζοντα καταπεπλεγμένον τῇ ποικιλίᾳ. Iliada esse ἁπλῆν non multo post (c. 24, 3) iterum monuit. ἐπεισοδίοις κέχρηται [ αὐτῶν] πολλοῖς: pronomen αὐτῶν adhuc explicare nemo ita potuit, ut linguae Graecae legibus satisfaceret. Victorius et Hermannus belli Troiani partes ab Homero omissas designari putant, sed id quomodo fieri possit, neuter explicuit. Hermannus auctoris negligentiam agnoscit; alii coniecturis sanare locum tentaverunt. mihi haec vox plane supervacanea casu illata videtur esse: nimirum adversus ἀπολαβών in margine aliquis posuit αὐτῶν, isque intellexit μερῶν τοῦ πολέμου ex praecedente ἓν μέρος, ut ne lectorem fugeret quo ἀπολαβών referendum esset. hinc nota in verborum contextum, sed alieno loco, recepta est. οἱ δ᾽ ἄλλοι: intelligit poetas cyclicos et Panyasin Halicarnassensem, Choerilum Samium, Antimachum Colophonium. conf. c. 8. · καὶ μίαν πρᾶξιν πολυμερῆ: actio carmini epico subiecta non solum ita una esse debet ut unius hominis et unius temporis sit, sed etiam una parte primaria illam contineri oportet. minus epopoeiae vitii inest quae circa unam actionem eamque πολυμερή versatur quam quae duplex argumentum vel multiplex admisit. vitium illud prius et levius in Cypriis et parva Iliade deprehendit, et rectissime quidem, ut etiamnum ex illis Chrestomathiae Proculianae excerptis videre licet. μία πρᾶξις Cyprio carmini subiecta origo erat belli Troiani, sed eam vel maxime πολυμερῆ fuisse fragmenta quae dixi probant. parvae Iliadis nonnisi priorum quattuor librorum summaria excerpta illa praestant: nam Proclus rerum gestarum seriem contexturus ubi quattuor libros parvae Iliadis excerpsit, hanc mittit et ad Arctini Ἰλίου Πέρσιν pergit, quamquam etiam a parvae Iliadis poeta (Lesches a plerisque fertur carminis auctor, ab aliis in incerto relinquitur in quibus Aristoteles) Ilii excidium enarratum fuisse constat. conf. Hermanni ad h. 1. Commentarii, Wüllneri de Cyclo epico Commentatio p. 85 sqq., Welckeri opus quod patria lingua scripsit de Cyclo epico p. 214 sqq. Nitzschii de Historia Homeri Meletem. fasc. II. p. 38 sqq. de Cypriis praeter alios exposuerunt Wüllnerus et Welckerus in libris modo laudatis, et peculiari scriptione Henrichsen: de Carminibus Cypriis, Hafniae 1828.