The Epopee and Tragedy as also Comedy and Dithyrambics and the greatest part of those compositions which are set to the flute and the lyre, all agree in the general character of being imitations: but they are distinguished from each other by three circumstances; either by using means of imitation different in their kind or by the difference of the things imitated or by imitating in a different manner. For as there are artists, who, some through skill and some through practice, imitate many things by colours and lines and others by the voice [A]; so all the arts just mentioned effect an imitation by means of rhythm [B], of language and of harmony; and these either separate or mixed. Those things for example, which are set to the flute or the lyre or any other instrument of the same powers as the pipe, imitate by rhythm and harmony alone; while the dance imitates by rhythm only, independant of harmony; for there are some dancers who, regu-I see no reason for substituting δι' ἀμφοῖν, for διὰ τῆς φωνῆς, in this place, as is proposed by Heinfius, Dacier, and Batteux : χρώμασι, σχήμασι, and φωνῆς, are the words opposed to ῥυθμῷ, λόγῳ, and ἁρμονίᾳ, and not διὰ τέχνης, and διὰ συνηθείας, as Batteux has supposed. « Les uns exécutent par certains pratiques de l'art, les autres par l'habitude " seul, quelquefuns par l'un et l'autre ensemble; de même l'imitation se fait ou par un seul " de ces moyens, (i. e. le rhythm, la parole, et le chant,) ou par plusieurs ensemble." I do not fee what oppofition there can be between the manner by which a perfon acquires excellence in one art, and the means he uses to effect an imitation in another. The imitation διὰ τῆς φωνῆς does not mean by words, but by founds, like the imitation of the birds, or that effected by vocal music, when the artist tries to make the found " "the fenfe." But finging of an echo toBy rhythm, is to be understood, cadence, time, or movement. Ρυθμός, τάξις ἔμμελος ἀκολέθε ἁρμονίας. SUIDAS.

the Persians and Cyclops, of Timotheus and Philoxenes. And in this lies the difference between Tragedy and Comedy; the one making its characters better and the other worse, than those of the present time.Philopemon. The Νόμος was a species of poem originally composed in honour of Apollo, and derived its name, not from νόμος, LAW, but from being sung by shepherds ἐν νομοῖς (among the pastures). The Dithyrambics were a fort of loose poem in honor of Bacchus; though the name was sometimes used for lyric poetry in general. Διθυράμβοι λέγονται οἱ λυρικὸι, ὡς ὁ Πινδαρος, καὶ ἀπλῶς οἱ πρὸς Διόνυσον ὕμνοι. Comm. Mss. in Arift. Rhet. iii. apud Cod. Laud. For a very particular account of the Nomi, see the Bishop of Chester's learned and ingenious treatise De Decreto Lacedæmoniorum contra Timotheum Milefium.

claim the honor of Comedy; the natives as being invented there during their democratical government and those who migrated from Sicily, because the Poet Epicharmus florished there long before the time of Chonnides and Magnes: while some of the Dorians of Peloponnefus claim the invention of Tragedy.) Founding their pretensions on the names; for they say villages are by them called COME, which the Athenians term DEMI; and that comedies (c) have not their name from coMAzo, to revel but from their performers being banished with disgrace from cities and obliged to wander from village to village; and that they use the word DRAN [D] to signify ACT or PERFORM but the Athenians use PRATTΕΙΝ. And this is sufficient as to the number and quality, of the differences incident to imitation.Though the Dorians are said to be the inventors of tragedy as well as of comedy, the etymology of comedy only is given. Athenæus says the name of comedy was common to both dramas, as it is now in some degree among the French, and as we use the word comedian.Hence the word drama. CHAP.

II The love of harmony and rhythm being equally natural to us with that of imitation, (for verse is evidently a species of rhythm) those who were by nature most addicted to these propensities, improving by degrees, first produced Poetry on extemporaneous subjects; which poetry was divided according to the peculiar manners of the persons who cultivated it. Those who were of a more serious turn, imitated noble actions and the fortunes of illustrious men; while others of a more humble genius imitated the actions and fortunes of meaner persons, first composing satires as the others had hymns to the gods and the praises of virtuous men. We can ascribe no poem of this inferior sort to any person earlier than Homer, though it is probable there were many. We must begin, therefore, from Homer, in whose Margites [c] and other compositions of the same nature, that kind of verse was introduced which is now called Iambic as being the most adapted to the subject and which name was given it because they used to fatirize (IAMBIZON) each other in that sort of measure. And hence the earlier Poets came to be distinguished according to their use of the heroic and iambic measure. As Homer, therefore, was the greatest poet on serious subjects, standing alone in point of excellence, not only from the general merit of his imitations but from the dramatic form he gave them, so he also first taught the proper system of comedy, forming the comic drama onA fatirical poem written in various measures by Homer. Margites was not a real, but a fictitious name, derived from μάργης or μάργος, signifying FOOLISH, IGNORANT. Lessing's Dramaturgie. See C2

The epopee agrees only with tragedy in using verse and imitating things of importance by means of language; but it differs from it in only using simple verse and being narrative; it also differs in regard to length for tragedy endeavours as much as possible to confine itself to one revolution of the sun or only to exceed it a little; but the epopee is not limited as to its duration : and even tragedy, in its origin, had the same latitude as epic poetry. As to the parts, some are common to both and some peculiar to tragedy. Whoever, therefore, can judge of a good or bad tragedy, may judge also of an epic poem: for whatever is essential to the epopее [в] may be found in tragedy but many things belong to tragedy that are not in the epopee.Ariftotle seems here to open those sentiments of the fuperiority of tragedy, which he confirms in the concluding chapter.

As the imitation is performed by persons acting; in the first place it will be a necessary consequence that the decorations of the theatre must be considered as a principal part of tragedy and then the music and the language for these are the means of imitation. By language, I mean the composition of the verse; the definition and power of music is sufficiently obvious. Secondly as tragedy is the imitation of an action, which action is represented by agents or persons acting, whose qualities must be derived from manners and sentiments (for by these we pronounce on the qualities of actions ;) manners and sentiments must be included as two natural causes of our actions, from which all our successes and disappointments are derived. The fable (I mean by the fable the combination of the incidents,) comprehends the imitation of the action; the manners enable us to decide on the characters of those who act; and the sentiments discover the intention or opinion of those who speak. Every tragedy, therefore, has fix parts, according to which we decide on its merit. The fable, the manners, the language, the sentiments, the apparatus of the theatre and the music. And of these [c], two are the means by which the imitation is performed, one the mode of imitation and the other three the things imitated. And besides these there are no other parts; but these are in general use for apparatus, manners, fable, language, music and sentiment, are [D] equally essential to every tragedy.The language and the music are the means of imitation. The apparatus, (including the actors, δρῶνες,) the mode of imitation. And the fable, manners, and sentiment, the things imitated.Ariftotle seems to contradict this assertion when he says, in the next page, that a tragedy may exist without manners, though it cannot without action. Winstanley proposes to remove D

will escape the spectator; suppose for instance, an animal ten thousand stadia in length. As, therefore, animals and other bodies should have such a size as may easily be comprehended in one view, so the dramatic fable should have such a length that the [A] connexion of the circumstances may easily be remembered. As to the length as far as regards the time of the performance and the spectators, it has no relation to the poetic art. If, indeed, an hundred tragedies were to be acted successively, they must be acted by the hourglass as they say was sometimes formerly done. But as to the natural boundary of the action, the greater it is the better, provided it be perspicuous. In short, to give the definition in simple terms, that is the proper boundary of the length, in which by a necessary or probable succession of incidents, a change of fortune from happiness to misery or from misery to happiness, may be effected.I conceive this addition necessary to explain clearly the meaning of Aristotle. The most complicated and incoherent fable imaginable, if it were much shorter, might be more easily remembered than the story of Edipus as to the mere words, though the connexion of the circumstances would be more difficultly retained.

madness at the assembling of the army, between which events there was no necessary or probable connexion; but he confined the Odyssey and the Iliad likewise, to one action. As, therefore, in the other imitative arts, the imitation is single when one object is imitated, so a dramatic fable has unity if it imitates one complete action, the parts of which are so constituted, that any of them being either altered or taken away, would change and confuse the whole. For that can never be esteemed a part of any thing which makes no sensible difference whether it is there or not.

cause we give credit to things which we know to be possible; now, events which have never happened we can hardly believe to be possible but what has actually happened is evidently possible for had it been impossible it could not have happened [B]. Nevertheless, in some tragedies, there are only a few known names and the rest are fictitious and in others there are none as in the Anthos of Agatho, which does not fail to afford pleasure, though the incidents and characters are equally feigned. It need not, therefore, be an invariable rule to adhere to the received fables on which tragedies are generally founded; indeed, it would be ridiculous to endeavour scrupulously to do it, since those fables that are known, are known only to a few and yet give equal delight to all. From these things, it is clear that the character of poet (c) is rather derived from the composition of the fable, than the verse, because imitation constitutes the poet and this (D) is the imitation of an action. Even if the poem is founded on real facts the author may yet be a poet, since there is no reason why many events that have really happened may not be capable of that general probability and possibility, from the proper arrangement of which he may justly be esteemed a poet.This is so obvious a truth that I think the critic might have trusted to the fagacity of his readers for the discovery of it.The English reader must be informed, that POET, in the original, fignifies MAKER; which word is used for poet in a book entitled, The Art of English Poefie, printed in 1589, and quoted by Warton in his Observations on Spenser, vol. i. p. 52.The composition of the fable. Of

being already sufficiently known; and sometimes both must be discovered. As in the tragedy of Iphigenia, where she is known to Orestes by sending a letter but another method is necessary to discover him to Iphigenia. To these two parts of tragedy, peripetía and discovery, must be added a third, pathos [A). The pathos is that part of the action which is either fatal or painful; such as deaths exhibited on the stage or tortures or wounds or other things of that nature.The word πάθος here fignifies real corporal suffering, and not the idea we usually annex to pathos: and in this sense I conceive Aristotle calls the Iliad pathetic, chap. xxiv.

the other by the misfortunes of a person in the same situation with ourselves, pity, on account of the distress being undeserved and terror from the equality; such an event would, therefore, be neither distressful nor alarming. The character that remains, is the medium between these: a man neither eminently conspicuous for virtue and justice, nor reduced to misery by wickedness and villainy; but rather one in high reputation and prosperity, suffering through some human frailty, like Edipus and Thyestes and other illustrious men of such families. A fable properly constructed should rather be simple (c) than double, (though the latter is preferred by some,) and the change should not be from misery to happiness but, on the contrary, from happiness to misery, not on account of wickedness but from some great frailty: and it should happen to some such person as has been mentioned or to a higher character, rather than an inferior. And this is confirmed by experience; for formerly the poets took any casual fables without consideration [D] but now the subjects of the best tragedies are taken from a few families as those of Alcmeon, of Edipus, of Meleager, of Thyestes, of Telephus and of such others as have either acted or suffered any thing terrible.At first sight, Aristotle seems to contradict his preceding assertion; see note [A] on this chapter: but here ἀπλόος is opposed to διπλόος, and there to πεπλεγμένος.Heinfius proposes to change the word ἀπηρίθμεν, which stands in the text, for ἀπεῤῥύθμεν. But the common reading is defended by Winstanley, the word ἀπαριθμέω sometimes conveying the idea of rashness or inconfideration; as in Ifocrates, ὅταν ἀναγι- νώσκη τις τὸν λόγον, ἀπιθάνως καὶ μηδὲν ἦθος σημηνάμενος, αλλ᾿ ὥσπερ ἀπαρίθμων. F

otherwise injures his brother or a son his father or mother or a mother her son; therefore, it not being allowable essentially [A] to alter stories that have been generally received but for example Clytemnestra must be killed by Orestes and Eriphyle by Alcmæon, it is the duty of the poet to find out such traditional stories and employ them skilfully. I will explain more clearly what I mean by skilfully. Actions may either be represented according to the practice of the earlier poets as performed by persons knowingly and intentionally, like Medea destroying her children in the tragedy of Euripides; or some atrocious deed may be done by a person not knowing what he does and the relation of the characters may be discovered afterwards; as in the Edipus of Sophocles. There indeed the deed is performed previously to the opening of the drama; but it may happen in the course of the tragedy itself as in: the Alcmæon of Aftydamus and the character of Telegonus in the Ulysses. Wounded. To these a third method may be added, where a person. on the point of committing some shocking action through ignorance, makes the discovery before he does it. And there is no other method except these for a person must either act or not act and must either know or be ignorant of, the consequences of the action; but of these forms, a person going to act, knowing the consequences and then not acting, is so much the worst, (being disgusting [B] and not tragical as no one suffers,) that a very few instances excepted as for example, the intention of Hæmon to kill Creon, in the tragedy of Antigone, it has never been used (c). Next to this is the perpetration of the deed.λυέιν, diffolve, entirely destroy, by altering the principal incident on which the whole interest depends. See the commentary.Μιαρόν. From the deliberate guilty intention.The first of the three admissible modes according to their enumeration by Ariftotle, though the lowest in point of excellence. See the commentary. !

The fourth is consistency. For, even if an inconsistent person is the object of imitation, the character so imitated should be made consistently inconsistent. We have an example of bad manners, unnecessarily introduced, in the character of Menelaus, in the tragedy of Orestes; of manners improper and uncharacteristic, in the lamentation of Ulysses, in the tragedy of Scylla and in the speech of Menalippe (B); and of inconsistent manners, in the tragedy of Iphigenia in Aulis, where there is no resemblance between her supplication and her subsequent behaviour. Necessity and probability should be as much considered in the manners as in the action. And it is as material to enquire whether it is necessary or probable for such a character to say or do such things as whether it is necessary or probable for such an event to follow another. It [c] is evident, therefore, that the unravelling of the plot should also arise from the fable itself and not from a machine as in the tragedy of Medea and what relates to the return of the Greeks in the Iliad [D]. Machinery is most properly employed in those circumstances that areSee note v, chap. xxv. of the commentary.I do not fee the connexion of this paragraph with the rest of the chapter. It seems rather to belong to chapter xviii.Castelvetro supposes that this alludes to the Iliad, 1. ii. where Minerva, by the advice of Juno, perfuades Ulysses to prevent the return of the Greeks, to which they were induced by the speech of Agamemnon, and with most probability. See Mr. Twining's note. Some commentators have imagined it to relate to the lesser Iliad, or a tragedy formed from it. See the end of chapter xxiii.

The second are those which are invented by the poet and therefore [E] inartificial. Thus in the mutual discovery of Orestes and his sister in the tragedy of Iphigenia; she is discovered by means of a letter but he is known to [F] her, not from any circumstance arising from the fable but from saying what the poet chose to put in his mouth; therefore this borders on the error blamed in the first mentioned species, since some [G] of the things from which the proofs are drawn might have been introduced themselves as visible tokens. The same objection may be made to the discovery by the voice of the shuttle [H], in the TereusThe ax before ἄτεχνοι is omitted in most of the Mss. and oldest editions.I follow Vittorio in omitting διὰ σημείων, ταῦτα ἔν. For the embroidery and the spear introduced by Euripides do not occasion the discovery, but are only mentioned by Oreftes, to gain credit for what he had asserted.I suppose the embroidery and the spear. See the commentary. For this fenfe of the passage, which I believe right, I acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Twining.Κερκίδος φωνή. Scaliger conceived this to mean the imitation of the voice of a swallow, by means of a shuttle. Goulston renders it, " Radii textorii vox in tela depicta." It is impoffible to determine whether the transformation of Progne into a swallow, or Philomela into a nightingale, is here hinted at as expressed by the voice of the shuttle. If we have in one epigrammatist, Κερκίδας ὀρθρολάλοισι χελιδόσιν εἰκειλοφώνους, another mentions Κερκίδα εὐποιητὸν ἀήδονα τὰν ἐν ἐρίθοις. And Virgil's epithet, Æn. vii. v. 275, applies equally to both; • Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas.' Κερκάς, according to Hefychius, is itself the name of a bird, G2

of his fancy having the same effect on the mind of one, that real ecstasy [c] has on that of the other. The poet when he invents his fable, should first form it generally and afterwards insert (D) the episodes. What I mean by forming the fable generally, I will illustrate from the story of Iphigenia. • A virgin on the point of being sacrificed, suddenly disappears, unperceived by • the sacrificers and is transported to another country, in which there ' is a law to offer up all strangers to a certain goddess, to whom she is appointed priestess. Some time afterwards, her brother accidentally ' arrives there:' (the reason of his coming being the command of an oracle, which has nothing to do with the general plan and the cause of which is foreign to the fable.) He comes, is seized and is on • the point of being sacrificed when he is discovered by his sister;' (either in the manner feigned by Euripides [E] or as, with probability,Εκςατικοί. Frantic, or as Mr. Twining excellently though paraphraftically translates it, 'transported out of ourselves.' I have ventured to render the word literally, though the figurative use of it has now almost superseded the proper, which is exactly equivalent with the common phrase out of his senses.' Shakespear uses it so. ' Now fee that noble and most sovereign reason, 'Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh, • That unmatch'd form, and feature of blown youth • Blasted with ecstasy.'Επεισόδιον, οι Επεισόδια παρενείρειν. HAMLET. WINSTANLEY.In the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, Orestes discovers himself expressly to his fifter, and is obliged to use many arguments to convince her he is her brother. This is blamed by Aristotle in the preceding chapter, (fee note (F)) and the arrangement of Polyides approved. I by

Ajax and Ixion. The ethic, (c) like the Phthiotides and the Peleus. And fourthly, the simple, [D] like the Phorcides, the Prometheus and those tragedies which represent what passes in the infernal regions. The poet should endeavour to excel in all these forms or at least in as many as possible and in those that are most esteemed; especially at present when people are so ready to censure poets. For having excellent writers in each particular species, they now expect every poet to excel in them all. The difference or sameness of one tragedy and another, must not be estimated by the fable but by the plot and solution. There are many who form the plot well and the solution ill, though they ought to be equally skilful in both. It [E] is necessary to remember as has often already been observed, not to give a tragedy the form of an epic poem. By an epic form I mean one containing many fables; as if the whole Iliad were to be comprized in one tragedy. For though on account of the length of the poem, every part there has its proper proportion, in the drama the effect would be very different from the expectation of the poet (F). As a proof of this,I am obliged to use this word from the want of a proper English one to express the quality of a composition where manners form the leading character. MORAL has quite a different sense. See note 1, chap. vii. of the Commentary.From the recapitulation of these forms at the beginning of chapter xxiv. Winstanley proposes to supply the word ἀπλοῦν. Batteux inferts ὁμαλὸν from a Ms. and translates it ' fimple et unie.'I entirely agree with Vittorio in the restoration of these words, Χρὴ δὲ, ὥσπερ εἴρηται πολλάκις, μεμῆσθαι κ. τ. λ.See Mr. Twining's note (153). those

teachers of that art. Such as to distinguish between supplication, command, narration, question, answer and any other circumstances of the same kind. For no blame, worthy of notice, can be imputed to the poetry, from knowledge or ignorance of these things. Since who can conceive that to be an error of the poet which Protagoras censures when he asserts, that instead of entreating as he intended, he commands, by saying, IL. I. • Achilles' wrath, O heavenly goddess, sing;' because, to bid a person do or not do, a thing, is to command. This, therefore, I shall omit as belonging to another art and not to poetry.

form of the mouth, the different [c] organs of pronunciation by aspiration or softness, by length or brevity and by acuteness, gravity or the medium between both : all which circumstances are rather the objects of metrical treatises. A syllable is composed of a mute and a letter that has a sound. Gand R, without the addition of A, do [D] not form a syllable but [E] with the addition of A they do as GRA. But the investigation of these distinctions belongs likewise to the art of versification. A [F] connective particle is a sound without meaning, which does not when placed among many sounds, affect the signification of any single one of them; and whose nature it is to be placed either at the extremi-I think Goulston right, who supposes Ariftotle to mean by τόποις the different organs of speech, from which letters receive the several denominations of nafal, dental, labial, &c. Heinfius reads τύποις.The sense calling for a negative, which Robertellus says is authorized by a Ms. I have admitted it, though the exclusion of it seems most agreeable with the context, as Ariftotle defines a syllable to be composed ἐξ ἀφώνε, και φωνὴν ἔχονος, ' of a mute and a letter having a ' found.' Now, he describes a semivowel as having found with articulation, as a vowel has without, τὸ μὲτα προσβολῆς ἔχων φωνὴν ἀκουσὴν. Had Ariftotle meant to define a fyllable according to the notion followed in the alteration, (and which I have been obliged to adopt as the least of two difficulties, as I cannot conceive how Gr can be called a syllable,) he should have described it to be, ἐξ ἀφώνε, ἢ ἡμιφώνε, καὶ φωνήεντος, compounded of a mute or femivowel, and a vowel.Αλλὰ μεζὰ τῷ Α.-MS. quoted by Robertellus.I have endeavoured to give the clearest sense I could of this difficult passage, following the reading proposed by Winstanley in this and the succeeding paragraph.

both proper and foreign though not to the same people; as the word Σίγυνον [c] is proper to the Cyprians and foreign to us. A metaphor [D] is the transposition of a word to an unusual signification, either from the genus to the species or from the species to the genus or from one species to another or according to analogy. I call from genus to species such an instance as this : • There is my vessel station'd.' ODYSSEY, L. I. For to be moored is a species of being stationed. From species to genus, such as .

• Ten thousand glorious acts Ulysses has atchiev'd'- ILIAD, L. II, For ten thousand is a great number and is now in general use to express many. From one species to another as in these instances [E] 'The brazen falchion drew away his life.'A dart made entirely of steel.In the words of Mr. Harris: ' A metaphor is the transferring of a word from its usual • meaning to an analogous one, and then employing it according to that transfer.' PHILO- LOGICAL ENQUIRIES, part ii, chapter x.So in Virgil, Ferit eminus hasta, • Vocem animamque rapit trajecto gutture.'-

СНАР. ХХи. " with fire," and others of the same kind. But a barbarism is occasioned by the use of foreign words. Therefore these modes of expression should be tempered with common ones; for then while the foreign words, the metaphors, the ornamented phrases and the other species that have been mentioned, hinder the language from being vulgar and mean, the proper names give it perfpicuity. The lengthening, shortening and changing of names, contribute not a little to make the language elevated and yet perspicuous. The expressions, being different from those in common use, distinguish it from the vulgar idiom ; and yet its near resemblance to what is generally spoken, renders it perspicuous. Those, therefore, do not find fault with justice, who blame this mode of speech and, like the elder Euclides, ridicule the poet for the ease there must be in composing verse, if it were permitted to lengthen the quantity of syllables at pleasure, making iambic [c] verses even in common discourse. The examples he produces are, Ητὶ Χάριν εἶδον Μαραθῶνα βαδίζοντα.This passage has been very perplexing to the critics. The Greek examples not being reducible to any species of verse, some correct them to make them iambics. Others, because no syllable appears altered or lengthened, fupply the alteration themselves, as is done by Heinsius; he also alters the context very much, adding, after the word ἐκτείνειν, the words ἢ ἐξαλλάτειν, and reading, instead of ἰαμβοποιήσας, ἄμφω ποιήσας, making this the sense of Aristotle: Though Euclides said it would be easy to make verses, if any word might * be lengthened or changed at pleasure, yet he himself has done both, even in prose, as in ◄ these examples.' But I confess I see no reason for altering one word of the original, as it now stands, from which I think a clear sense may be deduced, without pretending to deferve the compliment promised by Heinfius, of being 'vates optimus.' Euclides objects, that if a poet may lengthen what syllables he chuses, the compofition of verse would be so eafy, that K jambics ! i

This manner is nevertheless adopted by the generality of poets: therefore even in this respect, Homer as we [E] have before observed when compared with all other writers, may almost seem inspired. He did not even attempt to include the whole Trojan war, though it had a beginning and an end. For it either would have been so large as not to be easily comprehended in one view; or, if it had been reduced to a moderate size, it would have been confused from the number of incidents. Taking, therefore, only one part for his subject, he introduces abundance of episodes from the other parts. Such as the catalogue of the ships and the other episodes, with which he has adorned his poem. While other poets, like the authors of the Cypriacs (F) and the lesser Iliad, are satisfied if they confine themselves to one person, one period of time or one action, though it may have many parts. Not more than one or two tragedies at the most, could be formed either from the Iliad or the Odyssey. But many might from the Cypriacs; and from the lesser Iliad more than eight. As the Judgment of the arms, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, the Ptochia [G], the Lacænæ, the Destruction of Troy, the Return of the Greeks, Sinon and the Troades.See chapter iv.That this poem had been attributed to Homer, so early as the time of Herodotus, is evident from that historian's contradicting the opinion. Κατὰ ταῦτα δὲ τὰ ἔπεα, καὶ τόδε τὸ χωρίον εκ ἥκισα ἀλλὰ μάλισα δηλοῖ ὅτι οὐκ Ὁμήρε τὰ Κύπρια ἔπεα ἐςι ἀλλ᾿ ἄλλα τίνος. • From these words, and the mention of the country, it is very clear that the Cyprian verses ، are not the work of Homer, but of fome other person.'Πτωχεία, poverty. Perhaps Ulysses going as a spy to Troy, disguised in a mean habit. See Odyssey, 1. ii. ver. 245, of the original; ver. 336 of Pope. Mr. Twining observes, that what in Homer signifies VAGRANT or BEGGAR, Pope has rendered flave. But Pope is undoubtedly right, for the word in the original is dixi, explained by the Scholiaft ὀικέτη δέλῳ. Why may not this as probably allude to the disguise of Ulyffes on his return to Ithaca ? CHAP.

The epopee possesses a property peculiar to itself, which contributes greatly to augment its length. For it is not in the power of tragedy to represent a variety of actions that happen at the same time but only that individual one which then occupies the scene and which the performers are in the act of representing. But the epopee, being a narration, may introduce many cotemporary incidents relative to the principal subject, which will encrease the bulk of the poem, so that it will not only receive the advantage of superior magnificence but the poet will be able to transport the hearer from place to place [E] and give variety to his work by a number of different episodes: whereas the sameness of events, soon producing satiety, has occasioned the failure of many tragedies, The choice of heroic verse has been confirmed by experience; for if a narrative imitation were to be attempted in any other sort of verse or in many sorts mixed, the impropriety would be apparent. The heroic measure excels every other kind in dignity and elevation; on which account it is most capable of receiving foreign and metaphorical expressions. For narrative imitation is, above all others, complete (F) in itself but iambics and tetrameters require the assistance of movement, the one by means of dancers, the other by actors: it would be very absurd therefore to mix them together as was done by Chæremon [G]. ForΜετάβαλλειν τὸν ἀκούοντα. Aristotle uses this verb in the same sense in his History of Animals, L. viii. Μεταβάλλοισι γὰρ ἐκ τῶν Σκυθικῶν ἐις τὰ ἕλη τὰ ἄνω τῆς Αιγύπτε.Περιτζή, full, complete. Because it effects its end purely by itself. This must be the sense in which Ariftotle uses the word, as he afterwards, on the whole, gives the preference to tragedy.See chapter i, note (c) towards the end.

It is from the consideration of these circumstances that the objections of criticism should be answered. - First, then, the poet errs, if what he writes is impossible according to the rules of the art he treats of; but he may be excused, if the true end of poetry is attained by it, if he renders that or any other part of the poem more interesting as in the pursuit of Hector (A). Yet, if this end can be obtained in a greater or even a less degree, without deviating from the rules of the particular art he is treating of [B], the fault would be without excuse; for errors should be entirely avoided, if possible. We ought particularly to examine if the error is essential to the poetic art or only accidental. For it is certainly a less essential fault to be ignorant that a hind has no horns, than to make a bad imitation of one [c]. If a poet is further blamed for not describing things according to truth, he may say he describes them as they ought to be. Like Sophocles, who said he drew the characters of men as they ought to be and Euripides as they really were. Such is the proper answer to this objection.See chapter xxiv.So Batteux, Ordoñez, and Segni, making a stop after τέχνην. Goulston says, 'Diftingue poft ἡμάρηαι, non poft τέχνην;' which gives a different, and, in my opinion, not fo good a meaning.To paint it ill though properly as to its nature. Batteux has translated this, 'que d'avoir • mal peint une biche AVEC des cornes:' which must be a mistake arifing from inadvertency, as this would destroy the oppofition, the last example incurring the blame both of ignorance and bad execution.

to the judgment of its enemies, be applied to tragedy. For Miniscus called Callipides a monkey for carrying his action too far. And the same opinion was entertained of Pindarus. Tragedy, therefore, with all its requisites, they say, has the same relation to the epopee, that the modern actors have to the older ones, and that the epopee is calculated for politer persons who do not require the addition of action and scenery. But tragedy, for meaner persons, being more adapted to the vulgar, and consequently inferior. But, in the first place, this accusation does not affect the poet, but the actor. And, besides, it is possible to use too much action in reciting epic poetry, as was practised by Sosistratus, and even in singing, as was done by Mnastheus of Opus. Neither is all action to be despised, any more than all kinds of dancing, but only that which is bad. So Callipides was blamed, as some now are, for imitating women of bad character. Tragedy, also, as well as the epopee, may attain its end without representation, for we can judge of its merit by reading only: therefore, if it is better in other respects, no objection can be raised from the representation, since that is not absolutely necessary. Tragedy, then, has every requisite in common with the epopee, (since it may equally use verse,) [G] with the additional ornaments of music andI have added this to make the sense clear, as Aristotle obviously states this objection for the purpose of confuting it.Ἔξεσι χρῆσθαι: ‘may use (employ) its own iambic verse, to attain its end without the assistance of music and action.’ Mr. Winstanley is of opinion that if its own iambic verse had been meant, it should have been χρήται. But if hexameter verse is meant here by τῷ μέτρῳ, Aristotle argues very unlike himself, by contending for the superiority of tragedy, not from what it was, but from what it might be made; not only contrary to the universal practice of the Grecian theatre, but to the directions of nature herself, who, he says, in chapter iv. pointed out the iambic as the proper verse for the drama. See the Commentary.