Aristotle Poetics 4.12

Thomas Twining (Translator)

Table of Contents

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Part
← Previous Next →
And as, in the serious kind, HOMER alone may be said to deserve the name of Poet, not only on account of his other excellences, but also of the dramatic spirit of his imitations; so was he likewise the first who suggested the idea of Comedy, by substituting ridicule for invective, and giving that ridicule a dramatic cast: for his MARGITES bears the same analogy to Comedy, as his ILIAD and ODYSSEY to Tragedy.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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 (5)
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) (Aristotle, Poetics. Immanuel Bekker, editor, Aristotelis Opera, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1837.) — 4 focus
Περὶ ποιητικῆς (OCR draft) Perseus (Aristotle, De arte poetica liber. Rudolf Kassel, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965. Reference edition for passage alignment.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (Ingram Bywater, 1909) (OCR draft) Experimental (Ingram Bywater's Greek text of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1909.) — 4 focus
Poetics, Greek text (S. H. Butcher, 1911) (OCR draft) Experimental (S. H. Butcher's Greek text from Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, fourth edition, 1911.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus
Arabic Poetics (Badawī edition, 1953) (OCR draft) (The ancient Arabic translation of Aristotle's Poetics in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī's 1953 edition.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4.12 focus
general ridicule instead of personal invective; for the Margites has the same relation to comedy, that the Iliad and the Odyssey have to tragedy. And succeeding poets, each pursuing that kind of poetry which was most agreeable to his natural genius, became writers of comedy instead of satire and tragedy instead of epic poetry;
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.) — 4.12 focus
For the Margites bears the same analogy to comedy,
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.) — 4 focus
La poëtique d'Aristote (André Dacier, 1692) (OCR draft) Experimental (André Dacier's French translation of Aristotle's Poetics, published in 1692.) — 4.12 focus
Et comme Homere a tenu ſans contredit le premier rang dans le Genre heroïque & tragique, car il eſt le ſeul qui merite le nom de Poëte, non ſeulement parce qu'il a bien écrit, mais encore parce qu'il a fait des imitations dramatiques, il a auſſi été le premier qui ait donné, comme un crayon de la Comedie, en changeant en plaiſanterie les railleries piquantes des premiers Poëtes. En effet ſon Margites a le même rapport avec la Comedie, que ſon Iliade & ſon Odyſſée ont avec la Tragedie.
Poetica d'Aristotile (Bernardo Segni, 1549) (OCR draft) Experimental (Bernardo Segni's 1549 Florentine Italian translation, aligned to the Kassel reference passage sequence.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 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.) — 4 focus

Commentary

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

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-121

τὰ σπουδαῖα : [no further note in snippet].

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-122

ποιητής : comp. Plato Apol. 18 B
τὰ μετέωρα φροντιστής
.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-123

1448b35 οὐχ ὅτι εὖ , scil. ἐποίησεν. Homer 'wrote well', as a master of the art of poetic expression (comp. 24, 1459 b 16 ; 1460 b 1 ) ; his poems are 'imitations', or pictures of human life, which distinguishes them from those of Empedocles and others (comp. 1, 1447 b 15 ) ; and they are moreover 'dramatic imitations', i. e. not unlike those in the Drama (comp. 24, 1460 a 5 ). In this way, then, Aristotle intimates that Homer not only dealt with the same kind of subject as Tragedy ( τὰ σπουδαία), but also anticipated the dramatic manner.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-124

1448b36 σχήματα . . . ὑπέδειξεν , 'marked out for us the great outlines of Comedy'. σχῆμα has the same sense in 5, 1449 b 3 , and in Plato Laws 5, 737 D
σχήματος ἕνεκα καὶ ὑπογραφῆς
. For the use of ὑπέδειξε comp. Rhet. 3. 2, 1404 b 25
ὅπερ Εὐριπίδης ποιεῖ καὶ ὑπέδειξε πρῶτος
. — Ath. Pol. 41
Ἀριστείδης μὲν ὑπέδειξεν, Ἐφιάλτης δὲ ἐπετέλεσεν
. — Isocrates 268 C
ταῦτα πράττοντες καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑποδεικνύοντες
.

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-125

1448b37 οὐ ψόγον ἀλλὰ τὸ γελοῖον δραματοποιήσας The sense is that, when Homer passed from σπουδαία to φαῦλα, his treatment of the latter was more akin to that in the comic poets than to that in the ἰαμβοποιοί; Margites with him was only ridiculous—not vicious or held up to obloquy as vicious, as a writer of ψόγοι would have made him. A ψόγος dwells on some serious vice of character; whereas Comedy, as Aristotle conceives it, deals only with those lesser faults which we are able to laugh at (see on 5, 1449 a 33 ). This view of the Margites is not quite in harmony with that in 4, 1448 b 30 , where it is regarded as a ψόγος, the first known instance of the kind. With οὐ ψόγον Vahlen supplies ποιήσας from the δραματοποιήσας that follows. This is legitimate enough, but hardly necessary, as δραματοποιεῖν, 'to write, or describe, as a dramatist would' (see on 22, 1458 b 9 ) is just as applicable to ψόγον as it is to τὸ γελοῖον (comp. Tyrwhitt's rendering 'non vituperium sed ridiculum dramatice exprimens'). The meaning Aristotle attaches to it may be seen from μιμήσεις δραματικὰς ἐποίησεν in b35 (v. ad loc.).

12. mvp-aristotle-comment-126

1448b38 ὥσπερ Ἰλιὰς καὶ ἡ Ὀδύσσεια Vahlen illustrates this insertion of the article before Ὀδύσσεια by De resp. 17, 478 b 28
ἔστι δὲ θάνατος καὶ ἡ φθορὰ πᾶσιν ὁμοίως τοῖς μὴ ἀτελέσιν
, and Rhet. 3. 13, 1414 b 13
ἔσται οὖν ... διήγησις ἕτερον καὶ ἡ ἐπιδιήγησις καὶ προδιήγησις
, and a number of other passages in Aristotle (comp. also Riddell, Digest of Idioms § 240 G). On the other hand Spengel would restore the article before Ἰλιὰς on account of its appearance in the parallel in 26, 1462 b 8
ὥσπερ ἡ Ἰλιὰς ἔχει πολλὰ τοιαῦτα μέρη καὶ ἡ Ὀδύσσεια
 (comp. also 24, 1459 b 14
ἡ μὲν Ἰλιὰς ... ἡ δὲ Οδύσσεια
). There is as a rule nothing exceptional or anomalous in Aristotle's usage in reference to the article with the titles of books. He is apt to omit it, just as Athenaeus does, when the title is given in the actual form which it would have as the heading of a MS. (comp. Apollonius Synt. 1, 26), after the preposition ἐν. The Poetics supply a number of examples of this usage, e.g. 16, 1455 a 2
ἐν Ἀλκίνου ἀπολόγῳ
. — 24, 1460 a 35
τὰ ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ ἄλογα
. — 14, 1454 a 1
ἐν Ἀντιγόνη
. — 16, 1455 a 4
ἐν Χοηφόροις
. — 24, 1460 a 31
ἐν Ἠλέκτρᾳ
. — 32
ἐν Μυσοῖς
. — 25, 1461 a 21
ἐν Ορέστῃ
. In 24, 1460 a 30 , however, the traditional text omits the article with a title in the nominative; for it is clear that Οἰδίπους in this place means the Oedipus Tyrannus, in the same way as with us 'Hamlet' may mean the play, not the person. In many places in which the article is omitted, the title is used in a general sense as a common noun; thus in Soph. el. 24, 180 a 21
δός μοι Ιλιάδα
 means 'give me an Iliad' (i. e. a copy of the Iliad). Instances of this in the Poetics are 8, 1451 a 20
Ἡρακληίδα Θησηίδα
, 'a Heracleid, a Theseid'. — 24, 1459 b 15
Ὀδύσσειαν
, 'an Odyssey'. — 23, 1459 a 3
Ἰλιάδος καὶ ᾿Ὀδυσσείας
, 'a poem like the Iliad or Odyssey'. — b 4
Κυπρίων
, 'a poem like the Κύπρια'. I am inclined to think, therefore, that Spengel was right in suggesting ὥσπερ (ἡ) Ιλιάς in the present passage; and also that in 24, 1460 a 30 the true reading must be ὥσπερ (ὁ) Οἰδίπους.
1449a3

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

19. mvp-aristotle-comment-89

4.12 C'eſt le ſeul qui merite le nom de Poëte, non ſeulement parce qu'il a bien écrit.] 1

20. mvp-aristotle-comment-90

4.12 Mais encore parce qu'il a fait des imitations dramatiques.] 2

21. mvp-aristotle-comment-91

4.12 Il a été auſſi le premier qui a donné, comme un crayon de la Comedie, en changeant en plaiſanteries les railleries piquantes des premiers Poëtes.] 3

22. mvp-aristotle-comment-92

4.12 En effet ſon Margites a avec la Comedie le même rapport que ſon Iliade & ſon Odyßée ont avec la Tragedie.] 4

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

28. mvp-aristotle-comment-28

NOTE 28.

4.12 P. 71. HIS MARGITES BEARS THE SAME ANALOGY TO COMEDY, AS HIS ILIAD AND ODYSSEY TO TRAGEDY.
Whenever Aristotle speaks of
COMEDY
, we must remember, that he speaks of the Old, or Middle Comedy, which was no other than what we should call farce, and to which his definition of Comedy was adapted:
μιμησις φαυλοτέρων
; that is, as he explains himself,
"an imitation of RIDICULOUS characters."
1 —This remark is necessary to explain what is here said of the Margites.
A Poem, which, as far we can form any idea of it, celebrated the blunders and absurdities of an idiot, cannot well be conceived to have been analogous to any thing, that would now be denominated a Comedy. It seems to verge to the very bottom of the dramatic scale;
"jusq' au bouffon; celui-ci sera l'extrême de la Comedie, le
plus bas degré de l'echelle, opposé au terrible qui est à l'autre bout."
2 The Bourgeois Gentilhomme of Moliere is certainly farce, however excellent in its way. But Mons. Jourdain is a very Ulysses, compared with Margites.

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

9. mvp-aristotle-comment-25

Ritter, cap. 4 § 9

μόνος γὰρ οὐχ ὅτι εὖ, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι καὶ μιμήσεις δραματικὰς ἐποίησεν : cum in versu praecedente virtutis praestantiaeque Homeri mentio facta esset, ea hisce interiectis breviter vindicatur: quippe ille epicam imitationem non modo bene instituit, sed etiam dramaticam eius formam unus recte adhibuit, quatenus ipse perpauca exsequitur narrando sed alios enarrantes et loquentes inducit. accuratius hoc exposuit c. 24, 7. aptum vero erat eam Homeri virtutem h. 1. memorare, cum paulo post idem poeta tragoediae comoediaeque formam ostendisse dicatur. οὐ ψόγον ἀλλὰ τὸ γελοῖον δραματοποιήσας: duo sunt quae hic edocemur; eorum unum ad argumentum Margitae, alterum ad formam eiusdem pertinet. Margitam qui fecit, is non unum aliquem maledictis lacessivit, sed exemplar stulti hominis et multa inepte molientis proposuit; non τὸ καθ' ἕκαστον pangere voluit, sed missa singulos carpendi consuetudine ( ἀφέμενος τῆς ἰαμβικῆς ἰδέας) secutus est τὸ καθόλου 2). praeter hoc discimus Margitae non defuisse for- 2) Quam vere hoc ab Aristotele traditum sit, cum ex aliis veterum scriptorum locis tum ex Eustathii commentariis ad Odyss. K. p. 1669, 49. cognoscere licet: οὕτως ἔγνωμεν καὶ τὸν ἄφρονα Μαργίτην, τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ μαργαίνειν ὅ ἐστι μωραίνειν· ὃν ὁ ποιήσας τὸν ἐπιγραφόμενον Ὁμήρου Μαργίτην ὑποτίθεται εὐπόρων μὲν εἰς ὑπερβολὴν γονέων φῦναι· γήμαντα δὲ μὴ συμπεσεῖν τῇ νύμφῃ, ἕως ἀναπεισθεῖσα ἐκείνη τετραυματίσθαι τὰ κάτω ἐσκήψατο, φαρμακόν τε μηδὲν ὠφελήσειν ἔφη, πλὴν εἰ τὸ ἀνδρεῖον αἰδοῖον ἐκεῖ ἐφαρμοσθείη. καὶ οὕτως θεραπείαςmam illam dramaticam, qua Homeri Ilias et Odyssea tantopere excellunt. nimirum stultus iste et ineptus cum uxore et matre sua et patre aliisque hominibus colloquendo stultitiae documenta edidit. ceterum Margites pro Homeri carmine habetur a scriptoribus Graecis antiquis, non solum ab Aristotele et ignoto illo Alcibiadis secundi auctore sed etiam a Zenone Stoico. vid. Dio Chrysost. Orat. 53. tom. II. p. 275 ed. Reisk. γέγραφε δὲ καὶ Ζήνων ὁ φιλόσοφος εἴς τε τὴν Ἰλιάδα καὶ τὴν Ὀδυσσείαν καὶ περὶ τοῦ Μαργίτου. sed grammatici Alexandrini nonnisi duo magna illa poemata vel unam Iliadem Homero relinquentes cum ceteris Margitam quoque ei abiudicaverunt 3), unde factum ut scriptores posterioris aetatis ab illorum iudicio pendentes de huius poematis auctore dubitanter loquerentur, veluti scholiasta Aristophanis ad Aves v. 914. ἐπεπίστευτο δὲ καὶ ὁ Μαργίτης τοῦ Ὁμήρου εἶναι, Eustathius ad Odyss. K. ρ. 1669, 50. ὁ ποιήσας τὸν ἐπιγραφόμενον Ὁμήρου Μαργίτην, alii. Callimachus tamen Homerum carminis auctorem videtur existimasse, quod coniicere forsitan liceat ex iis quae refert Harpocratio s. V. Μαργίτης: ἐκάλουν δὲ τοὺς ἀνοήτους οὕτω διὰ τὸν εἰς Ὅμηρον ἀναφερόμενον Μαργίτην, ὅπερ ποίημα Καλλίχάριν ἐκεῖνος ἐπλησίασεν. conf. Dio Chrysost. Orat. 67. tom. II. p. 362. ed. Reisk. Suidas s. v. Μαργίτης. Tzetzes Chiliad. IV, 869-871. Histor. VI, 62. 595. ipso Μαργίτου nomine quoddam hominum genus denotari vix est cur moneamus. ex radice MP vel stirpe MAPI (ea motum quendam inaequabilem videtur significare) nomen μάργος et μάργης (insanus vel stultus) nascitur, item verbum μαργᾶν et μαργαίνειν (insanire) atque μαργοῦν (et insanum esse et insanum facere aliquem). a μάργος fit μαργίτης, ut ab ἁγνὸς ἁγνίτης, λευκός λευκίτης, μάκαρ μακαρίτης, πεζὸς πεζίτης, ψαφαρὸς ψαφαρίτης. μάργος insanus est, sed μαργίτης qui insanus vel stultus esse perseverat, h. e. qui omnibus factis dictisque insaniam ostendit. 3) Eustathius ad. II. p. 4, 30. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἕτερα ποιήματά εἰσιν Ὁμήρου, οἷον καὶ ὁ Μαργίτης καὶ ἡ τῶν μυῶν καὶ βατράχων μάχη, ἄλλοι καὶ αὐτὸ ἐξήτασαν πρὸς ἀκρίβειαν. μάχος θαυμάζειν ἔοικεν. ex ceteris illis grammaticis nonnulli Margitae auctorem in incerto reliquerunt, alii coniectura utique incerta eundem assequi voluerunt. horum fidem sequitur Suidas dum scribit Πίγρης: Κάρ, ἀπὸ ῾Αλικαρνασσοῦ, ἀδελφὸς ᾿Αρτεμισίας ... ὃς τῇ Ἰλιάδι παρενέβαλε κατὰ στίχον ἐλεγεῖον οὕτω γράψας μῆνιν ἄειδε θεά Πηληϊάδεω Αχιλῆος, Μοῦσα, σὺ γὰρ πάσης πείρατ' ἔχεις σοφίης. ἔγραψε καὶ τὸν εἰς Ὅμηρον φερόμενον Μαργίτην καὶ Βατραχομυομαχίαν. hanc illi coniecturam ita conceperunt, ut quem in Batrachomyomachia ridiculum tractasse argumentum cognossent, eidem Margitam humane concederent. vere igitur vir ingeniosus Fr. Welckerus huic opinioni nihil tribuendum esse putat in Cyclo epico p. 415., ubi aliam etiam illius coniecturae causam exponit sibi probatam ac Nitzschio in Histor. Hom. I. p. 106. scilicet cum critici illi Pigretem elegos Iliadi inseruisse cognitum haberent, eos propter iambos Margitae intextos huius carminis eundem auctorem esse statuisse. conferenda sunt quae Welckerus in eodem libro p. 184. perdocte, ut solet, de Margita exposuit. coniecturam valde incertam de hoc poemate protulit Wassenberghius ad Vitas Homeri p. 11 sqq..