1.3.
mvp-aristotle-comment-3
1.6
THE EPOPEE USES PLAIN LANGUAGE, OR VERSE.
MY own opinion of the proper construction of this passage, and with what qualification it is to be understood as to the regular epic poem I have already given in a note on this place in my tranflation, and [A] See Beattie on Fiction and Romance, page 567. on
on a passage in the fixth chapter. But it is impossible to observe the great earnestness with which Dacier and Metastasio support their oppofite opinions, the one zealous for the honor of (B) Telemachus, and the other partial to the beautiful poems of Ariosto and Tasso, without being convinced of the neceffity of fober criticism, divesting itself of all national and personal partiality. And yet after all it can be of little consequence what Aristotle says on this subject, since in his time the (c) epopee, or the drama, unadorned by verse, if known at all, so far from having attained that degree of perfection to which they have been carried by the moderns, were confidered as an irregular and spurious kind of composition. [B] A fellow-countryman of Dacier's, Bossu, has settled this difference of opinion by the following accommodating hypothefis. • But if an epopee should be written in prose, would * it be an epic poem ? I think not, because a poem is a compofition in verse, but neverthe- * less that does not hinder it from being an epopee; so a tragedy in profe is not a tragic ' poem, but it is still a tragedy. Those who have been in doubt whether the Roman ' comedy was a poem have never doubted its being comedy.' Boffu, 1. 1. chap. v. See also Beattie on Poetry and Music, page 295, and on Fable and Romance, page 518. [c] The Cyropædia of Xenophon, though I believe generally allowed to be not wholly founded on truth, still takes its most prominent features from history, and perhaps does not deviate much more from fact than the account of Cyrus given by Herodotus, though it has more of a poetical form, as there is a manifest design in the arrangement of the circumstances. It seems to bear fome resemblance to the historical novels of the present day.. Strabo, it is true, mentions other writers of poetical profe. Λύσαντες τὸ μέτρον, τ᾽ ἄλλα δὲ φυλάξαντες, τὰ ποιητικὰ συνέγραψαν ὁι περὶ Κάδμον κὶ Φερεκύδην κὶὴ Ἑκατᾶιον, Ι. Ι. • For Cadmus and Pherecydes and Hecatæus wrote poetry, not confining themselves to verse, < but retaining its other requifites. Perhaps, however, by ποιητικά, in this place, compofition in general is meant, fince Suidas says of Hecatæus, Πρῶτος ἰσορίαν πεζῶς ἐξήνεγκεν. • He first wrote history in profe.' From
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. From the examples here produced by Aristotle, I think it obvious he confiders the word epopee, in this place, according to its etymology, as imitating by woRDS alone, independent of musical accompaniment [D], without the distinction of prose and verse, and not at all as confined to narrative imitation. Neither is his use of the word epopee afterwards, in its more appropriated sense, any objection to the more general meaning he gives it here, since similar instances may be found in this short treatise, as in the words ἐπεισόδιον, μέτρον, and ἀπλόος. See note [c] on the tranflation of chapter xiii. I think it may be doubted whether Aristotle would have classed a modern comedy with the drama, as being a species of dramatic compofition, though deficient in the necessary requisites of verse and musical accompaniment; or with the epopee, as he has the mimes of Sophron, and the Socratic dialogues, as wanting every character of poetry except the essential one of imitation. The construction of the whole passage has occafioned much difference of opinion among the various commentators. As it appears to me, Aristotle having asserted that the epopee uses either plain language, or verse of different forts, as well as the particular species of verse which custom, founded on the nature of the compofition, had [D] Though I profefs this to be my opinion, yet as I by no means am an advocate for any particular hypothesis at the expence of truth, I must mention one objection that strikes me. If Aristotle, by λόγοις ψιλοις, means prose, there appears to be wanting something added to μέτροις, in this particular place, to distinguish verse unaccompanied with music, as one of the means of imitation peculiar to the epopee. The friends of an hypothesis to be combated hereafter, would perhaps say, that by μέρδις here, hexameter verse only is meant, did not the τουλοις μιγνῦσα that immediately follows, convey the most compleat refutation of such an appropriated use of μέτρον. See note II. on chapter xxvi. appropriated
СНАР. Г. appropriated to it, aware that he was hazarding a paradox, explains himself by saying, imitation, and not verse, was the criterion of Poetry; and as on one hand there would be no general name under which imitations, whether narrative or in a dramatic form, if written in profe, or an unusual kind of verse, could be classed, unless they were allowed to come under that of the epopee, whose characteristic it was to imitate by words alone, unassisted by mufic or representation; fo on the other it was a mistake to suppose that verse alone, independant of imitation, was the effential part of poetry, or that poets were styled elegiac, or epic, from writing in epic or elegiac measures, and not from the fubjects they chose, and their manner of treating them. Perhaps the following free paraphrafe of the whole passage may more plainly elucidate my idea of the reasoning of the critic. • The epopee imitates by language alone, without the afsistance of • musical accompaniment; and that, either in [E] prose, or in verse, • which verse may be either of various forts mixed together, or of one • fort only, viz. hexameter, as has hitherto been the general, and almost • universal practice.. • I know I am now advancing a paradox. But if we do not admit ⚫ certain compofitions in prose to be classed under the general name of epopee, what shall we call the mimes of Sophron and Xenarchus, [E] Mr. Twining thinks it odd that Aristotle should mention prose first. But it seems to be his usual practice to begin with the worst mode. See his enumeration of the different forms of tragic fable, chapter xiv. and the methods of discovery, chapter xvi. Prose is the greatest deviation from the proper form of the regular epopee, mixed verse the next. and
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. ' and the dialogues of Socrates? Fictitious imitation of action, and • character, is the essential diftinction of poetry, and this they possess; • therefore we must at least allow them to be a species of poetry, as • poffeffing its principal requifite, though divested of verfification, • which we acknowledge to be a great, and indeed a necessary ornament; on the fame principle as the history of Herodotus (fee chap. ix. [F]), • if written in verse, would still be a species of history, as being defti- ، tute of the essential character of poetry, fictitious imitation, though • possessing its chief and peculiar ornament, verfification.' • If, indeed, we are so strict as to admit no fort of compofitions to • be classed with the epopee but such as are regular epic poems, where • shall we place any narrative imitation, that might be made in iambic, ، elegiac, or any other kind of verse, except hexameter, poffeffing the • essential character of poetry, though wanting the requifite of heroic ' verse, which we allow to be most congenial with it?' • It may poffibly be said in answer, that these compositions may be ' classed according to the structure of the verse; for custom, it must be ، allowed, has authorized fuch a distinction; and we are used to diftinguish poets rather by the form of the verse than the nature of the imitation, calling those elegiac poets who use elegiac verse, and those epic poets who use heroic verse, without paying any regard to the • subject they write on. Nay, if a didactic essay, either on phyfic or ، mufic, is written in verse, though entirely destitute of fiction or • imitation, it is usual to call the author a poet; yet certainly Homer [G], [F] See also note I on that chapter. [G] (Virgil and Milton.) • whose
' whose works imitate actions and manners, can have nothing in common ، ' with Empedocles [H], except the verse; therefore one indeed may • justly be styled a poet, according to the proper sense of the word, but ⚫ the other is rather a naturalift than a poet.' • The fame objection may be made to my classing compofitions in ' mixed verse with the epopee, and the fame answer may be given. • Chæremon has written a poem, called the Centaur, in various forts ' of verse; the work poffeffes the poetic requifites of fiction and imitation; it is true it is written in a new and an unusual form, and is fo • far faulty, in deviating from the proper composition of the regular epopee [1]; but shall the author on this account be denied the name • of poet, fince his work possesses the essential qualities of poetry?' • I think then there can be no doubt of my being right as to claffing poetry according to the imitation and not the verse.' In this concluding fentence, in the original, the critic speaks a little more ex cathedra, using the imperative, διωρίσθω. Taking the word epopee in this enlarged sense, I shall, in the course of these obfervations, draw a part of my illustrations from fome of those compofitions which we usually call novels, and which Dr. Beattie [K] [H] (Lucretius and Armstrong). It is true there are parts of these writers, especially the former, which may be classed with poetry of the highest order, but these are episodic; the same thing, in some degree, may be faid of the historian and the orator. [1] See note III. chapter xxiv. [*] Effay on Fable and Romance, page 518. On Poetry and Mufic, part i. ch. ii. p. 45. obferves,
POETIC OF ARISTOTLE. observes, may be stiled the comic or profe epopee. I do not mean to controvert the fentence the bishop of Worcester has pronounced againft these writers, in his Effay on the Idea of universal Poetry (page 153), yet if the best of them, who cannot be supposed to have guided their pens by the rules of the Stagirite, have in practice, essentially conformed to those rules, it will go far to shew that, they do not folely originate from the caprice of the critic, or the peculiar customs of the ancients, but are really founded on truth and general nature. CHAP.
