Thomas Twining Poetics 231

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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

5. mvp-aristotle-comment-972

1460b15 αὐτῆς δὲ τῆς ποιητικῆς διττὴ ἁμαρτία. The argument may be thus restated: There is always a twofold possibility of error in the poet's μίμησις or description of things. (1) Starting with a correct idea of the object to be described, he may fail to express his own meaning; in which case his art as a poet (or μιμητής) is at fault, and his faulty description is a sign of artistic or literary incapacity. (2) On the other hand the error may be simply due to his starting with an erroneous idea of the object; in which case it arises not from lack of descriptive power on his part, but from insufficient knowledge of something outside poetry, and it is thus in the accidents rather than the essentials of the poetic art. Vahlen quotes Soph. el. 33, 1826 33
ἀπορία δ᾽ ἐστὶ διττή, ἡ μὲν ἐν τοῖς συλλογισμοῖς ... ἡ δ᾽ ἐν τοῖς ἐριστικοῖς,
 to show that an article is not wanted before ἁμαρτία.

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

6. mvp-aristotle-comment-601

25.5 6. Quand elle choisit des ſujets au deſſus de fes forces & de ſa portée, voilà celuy qui vient d'elle.] 1

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

231. mvp-aristotle-comment-231

NOTE 231.

25.5 P. 123. THE FAULTS OF POETRY, &C.
The original is—
ΑΥΤΗΣ δὲ τῆς ποιητικῆς διττὴ ἡ ἁμαρτία.
The word
αὐτῆς
appears to me to make strange confusion. For Aristotle is here distinguishing two sorts of faults in Poetry, essential and incidental; and his expression, presently after, for the former, is
ΑΥΤΗΣ ἡ ἁμαρτία
—
"a fault of the Poetry itself."
As the text stands, therefore, it is just as if he had said—
"There are two faults of the Poetry itself: one, of the Poetry itself, and the other, incidental."
— Accordingly Dacier, Batteux, and almost all the translators, neglect the word
αὐτῆς
. Possibly it might, originally, have stood thus : —
οὐδὲ ἄλλης τέχνης, καὶ ποιητικῆς ἀυτῆς. Τῆς ΔΕ ποιητικῆς,
&c.

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-186

Ritter, cap. 25 § 3

πρὸς δὲ τούτοις - καὶ ποιητικῆς : quaesitum est varieque disputatum cur, dum scribit non eandem esse recti normam politicae artis atque poeticae, politicam prae ceteris huc adsciverit, qua de re equidem ita existimo : politica propria est oratorum et ab his prae ceteris perscrutanda. facultatis autem dicendi cum sit τέχνη, cumque item sit τέχνη ποιητική, tamen utriusque diversam esse rationem, ut quod in una reprehendatur non semper in altera reprehensione dignum sit, hoc technicus obscure monuit. idem (non Aristoteles) c. 6, 16. scripsit τρίτον δὲ ἡ διάνοια. τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ λέγειν δύνασθαι τὰ ἐνόντα καὶ τὰ ἁρμότ τοντα, ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῶν λόγων (in orationibus) τῆς πολιτικῆς καὶ ῥητορικῆς ἔργον ἐστίν. post τῆς πο λιτικῆς καὶ τῆς ποιητικῆς tarde succedunt illa οὐδὲ ἄλλης τέχνης καὶ ποιητικῆς, et continuo tertium subsequitur αὐτῆς δὲ τῆς ποιητικῆς, cetera. summa et in his et in ceteris infantia deprehenditur. ἡ μὲν γὰρ καθ' αυτήν, ἡ δὲ κατὰ συμβεβηκός: peccatorum quibus poesis obnoxia est unum genus ad ipsam pertinet, alterum ad accidens. ecce interpolator quaedam inaudivit de notionibus illis Aristoteliis, quae τὸ συμβεβηκὸς et τὸ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὂν appellantur: sed eas dum ad suam disputationem accommodare studet, non proficit hilum, ut mox videbimus.