Aristotle Poetics 14.18

Thomas Twining (Translator)

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To execute, through ignorance, and afterwards to discover, is better: for thus, the shocking atrociousness is avoided, and, at the same time, the discovery is striking.

Poetics. Aristotle. Thomas Twining (Translator). London, UK. 1789.

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Current edition Experimental

Poetics (Thomas Twining, 1789) (OCR draft) (English) (Thomas Twining's English translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1789 and aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.)

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.) — 14 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 14 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 14 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.) — 14 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.) — 14 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 14 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.) — 14 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.) — 14 focus
The Poetic of Aristotle (Henry James Pye, revised 1792) (OCR draft) Experimental (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.) — 14.18 focus
It is still better when the deed is performed ignorantly and the discovery made afterwards; for there will be no wicked intention and the discovery will be very affecting. But the last method has the most powerful effect [D] as in the tragedy of Crefphontes, Merope, being on the point of killing her son, discovers who he is and saves his life;
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.) — 14.18 focus
But it is better to perpetrate the 1 deed ignorantly, and having perpetrated to discover; for then it is not attended with wickedness, and the discovery excites horror. The last mode, however, 2 is the best; I mean, as in the "Cresphontes, in which Merope is about to kill her son, but does not, in consequence of discovering that he was her son.
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.) — 14 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 14.18 focus
La ſeconde maniere eſt encore preferable à celle-là, je veux dire, lorſque celuy qui commet le crime, le commet par ignorance, & le reconnoît aprés l'avoir commis. Car alors l'action n'a rien de ſcelerat, & la reconnoiſſance eſt tres pathetique.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 14 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.) — 14 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.) — 14 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.) — 14 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.) — 14 focus

Commentary

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

16. mvp-aristotle-comment-348

14.14 Enfin on peut faire qu'une personne, qui par ignorance va commettre un tres grand crime, le reconnoît avant que de l'exe-cuter.] 1

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

7. mvp-aristotle-comment-98

Ritter, cap. 14 § 7

καὶ παρὰ ταῦτα οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλως: αρ praeter haec non licet aliter facere illum quem poeta in scenam tragicam produxit. statim quidem quattuor agendi modos enumerat, non tres, sed ex his quartum continuo ex tragoedia prorsus relegavit. διόπερ οὐδεὶς - ὁ Αἵμων: haec ab interpolatorė quodam inserta esse recte pronuntiavit Gruppius ¹) in Ariadna 1) Gruppius etiam voces ἀπαθὲς γάρ pro suppositiciis habet, sedp. 556., nisi quod vera argumenta falsis commiscuit. vere ille monuit hanc sententiam moleste inferri, neque esse quo commendetur, immo Sophoclem sine iusta causa vituperari; idemque recte observavit inepte dici οὐδεὶς ποιεῖ, εἰ μὴ ὀλιγάκις, articulumque ante Αντιγόνη omitti praeter consuetudinem Aristoteliam. fallitur cum in vitiosae dictionis indiciis numerat οἷος pro οἷον : οἷος enim nihil est nisi vitium editionis Bekkerianae maioris ab ipso editore in minore correctum; falsum est quod affirmavit, οὐδεὶς ποιεῖ de poeta dici et mire ad Haemonem continuo referri: immo ποιεῖ dictum est de persona a tragico poeta inducta, apteque statim de Haemone facinus in patrem commissuro dici potest. equidem addendum puto hoc, non modo Sophoclis Antigonam exstitisse, sed etiam Euripideam. verus igitur Aristoteles Sophoclis nomen non omisisset, si ipse, illum Antigonae locum ab interpolatore significatum (v. 1216-1219 ed. Herm.) pro exemplo attulisset, ut non omisit in Rhetoricis I, 13 init.. I, 15 init. III, 16. p. 1417 a 28 et b 19. III, 17. p. 1418 b 31. porro Aristoteles de eiusmodi facinoribus loquitur, unde totius tragoediae habitus et forma pendet: tale autem non est Haemonis. dignus esset Sophocles hac vituperatione, si Creon post multas minas nulla poena Antigonam affecisset. quae ad Sophoclem aut defendendum ab hac reprehensione aut incusandum a viris doctis in utramque partem disputata sunt, ea hoc quidem loco commemorare iam nihil attinet.