Poetics - Aristotle (fun to read TXT) 📗
- Author: Aristotle
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be most unlikely to overlook inconsistencies. The need of such a rule is
shown by the fault found in Carcinus. Amphiaraus was on his way from the
temple. This fact escaped the observation of one who did not see the
situation. On the stage, however, the piece failed, the audience being
offended at the oversight.
Again, the poet should work out his play, to the best of his power, with
appropriate gestures; for those who feel emotion are most convincing
through natural sympathy with the characters they represent; and one who
is agitated storms, one who is angry rages, with the most life-like
reality. Hence poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain
of madness. In the one case a man can take the mould of any character; in
the other, he is lifted out of his proper self.
As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it
for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in
the episodes and amplify in detail. The general plan may be illustrated
by the Iphigenia. A young girl is sacrificed; she disappears mysteriously
from the eyes of those who sacrificed her; She is transported to another
country, where the custom is to offer up all strangers to the goddess. To
this ministry she is appointed. Some time later her own brother chances
to arrive. The fact that the oracle for some reason ordered him to go
there, is outside the general plan of the play. The purpose, again, of
his coming is outside the action proper. However, he comes, he is seized,
and, when on the point of being sacrificed, reveals who he is. The mode
of recognition may be either that of Euripides or of Polyidus, in whose
play he exclaims very naturally:—‘So it was not my sister only, but I
too, who was doomed to be sacrificed’; and by that remark he is saved.
After this, the names being once given, it remains to fill in the
episodes. We must see that they are relevant to the action. In the case
of Orestes, for example, there is the madness which led to his capture,
and his deliverance by means of the purificatory rite. In the drama, the
episodes are short, but it is these that give extension to Epic poetry.
Thus the story of the Odyssey can be stated briefly. A certain man is
absent from home for many years; he is jealously watched by Poseidon, and
left desolate. Meanwhile his home is in a wretched plight–suitors are
wasting his substance and plotting against his son. At length, tempest-tost, he himself arrives; he makes certain persons acquainted with him;
he attacks the suitors with his own hand, and is himself preserved while
he destroys them. This is the essence of the plot; the rest is episode.
XVIIIEvery tragedy falls into two parts,—Complication and Unravelling or
Denouement. Incidents extraneous to the action are frequently combined
with a portion of the action proper, to form the Complication; the rest
is the Unravelling. By the Complication I mean all that extends from the
beginning of the action to the part which marks the turning-point to good
or bad fortune. The Unravelling is that which extends from the beginning
of the change to the end. Thus, in the Lynceus of Theodectes, the
Complication consists of the incidents presupposed in the drama, the
seizure of the child, and then again <The Unravelling> extends from
the accusation of murder to the end.
There are four kinds of Tragedy, the Complex, depending entirely on
Reversal of the Situation and Recognition; the Pathetic (where the motive
is passion),—such as the tragedies on Ajax and Ixion; the Ethical (where
the motives are ethical),—such as the Phthiotides and the Peleus. The
fourth kind is the Simple <We here exclude the purely spectacular
element>, exemplified by the Phorcides, the Prometheus, and scenes laid
in Hades. The poet should endeavour, if possible, to combine all poetic
elements; or failing that, the greatest number and those the most
important; the more so, in face of the cavilling criticism of the day.
For whereas there have hitherto been good poets, each in his own branch,
the critics now expect one man to surpass all others in their several
lines of excellence.
In speaking of a tragedy as the same or different, the best test to take
is the plot. Identity exists where the Complication and Unravelling are
the same. Many poets tie the knot well, but unravel it ill. Both arts,
however, should always be mastered.
Again, the poet should remember what has been often said, and not make an
Epic structure into a Tragedy—by an Epic structure I mean one with a
multiplicity of plots—as if, for instance, you were to make a tragedy
out of the entire story of the Iliad. In the Epic poem, owing to its
length, each part assumes its proper magnitude. In the drama the result
is far from answering to the poet’s expectation. The proof is that the
poets who have dramatised the whole story of the Fall of Troy, instead of
selecting portions, like Euripides; or who have taken the whole tale of
Niobe, and not a part of her story, like Aeschylus, either fail utterly
or meet with poor success on the stage. Even Agathon has been known to
fail from this one defect. In his Reversals of the Situation, however, he
shows a marvellous skill in the effort to hit the popular taste,—to
produce a tragic effect that satisfies the moral sense. This effect is
produced when the clever rogue, like Sisyphus, is outwitted, or the brave
villain defeated. Such an event is probable in Agathon’s sense of the
word: ‘it is probable,’ he says, ‘that many things should happen contrary
to probability.’
The Chorus too should be regarded as one of the actors; it should be an
integral part of the whole, and share in the action, in the manner not of
Euripides but of Sophocles. As for the later poets, their choral songs
pertain as little to the subject of the piece as to that of any other
tragedy. They are, therefore, sung as mere interludes, a practice first
begun by Agathon. Yet what difference is there between introducing such
choral interludes, and transferring a speech, or even a whole act, from
one play to another?
XIXIt remains to speak of Diction and Thought, the other parts of Tragedy
having been already discussed. Concerning Thought, we may assume what is
said in the Rhetoric, to which inquiry the subject more strictly belongs.
Under Thought is included every effect which has to be produced by
speech, the subdivisions being,— proof and refutation; the excitation of
the feelings, such as pity, fear, anger, and the like; the suggestion of
importance or its opposite. Now, it is evident that the dramatic
incidents must be treated from the same points of view as the dramatic
speeches, when the object is to evoke the sense of pity, fear,
importance, or probability. The only difference is, that the incidents
should speak for themselves without verbal exposition; while the effects
aimed at in speech should be produced by the speaker, and as a result of
the speech. For what were the business of a speaker, if the Thought were
revealed quite apart from what he says?
Next, as regards Diction. One branch of the inquiry treats of the Modes
of Utterance. But this province of knowledge belongs to the art of
Delivery and to the masters of that science. It includes, for instance,—
what is a command, a prayer, a statement, a threat, a question, an
answer, and so forth. To know or not to know these things involves no
serious censure upon the poet’s art. For who can admit the fault imputed
to Homer by Protagoras,—that in the words, ‘Sing, goddess, of the
wrath,’ he gives a command under the idea that he utters a prayer? For to
tell some one to do a thing or not to do it is, he says, a command. We
may, therefore, pass this over as an inquiry that belongs to another art,
not to poetry.
XX[Language in general includes the following parts:- Letter, Syllable,
Connecting word, Noun, Verb, Inflexion or Case, Sentence or Phrase.
A Letter is an indivisible sound, yet not every such sound, but only one
which can form part of a group of sounds. For even brutes utter
indivisible sounds, none of which I call a letter. The sound I mean may
be either a vowel, a semi-vowel, or a mute. A vowel is that which without
impact of tongue or lip has an audible sound. A semi-vowel, that which
with such impact has an audible sound, as S and R. A mute, that which
with such impact has by itself no sound, but joined to a vowel sound
becomes audible, as G and D. These are distinguished according to the
form assumed by the mouth and the place where they are produced;
according as they are aspirated or smooth, long or short; as they are
acute, grave, or of an intermediate tone; which inquiry belongs in detail
to the writers on metre.
A Syllable is a non-significant sound, composed of a mute and a vowel:
for GR without A is a syllable, as also with A,—GRA. But the
investigation of these differences belongs also to metrical science.
A Connecting word is a non-significant sound, which neither causes nor
hinders the union of many sounds into one significant sound; it may be
placed at either end or in the middle of a sentence. Or, a non-significant sound, which out of several sounds, each of them significant,
is capable of forming one significant sound,—as {alpha mu theta iota},
{pi epsilon rho iota}, and the like. Or, a non-significant sound, which
marks the beginning, end, or division of a sentence; such, however, that
it cannot correctly stand by itself at the beginning of a sentence, as
{mu epsilon nu}, {eta tau omicron iota}, {delta epsilon}.
A Noun is a composite significant sound, not marking time, of which no
part is in itself significant: for in double or compound words we do not
employ the separate parts as if each were in itself significant. Thus in
Theodorus, ‘god-given,’ the {delta omega rho omicron nu} or ‘gift’ is not
in itself significant.
A Verb is a composite significant sound, marking time, in which, as in
the noun, no part is in itself significant. For ‘man,’ or ‘white’ does
not express the idea of ‘when’; but ‘he walks,’ or ‘he has walked’ does
connote time, present or past.
Inflexion belongs both to the noun and verb, and expresses either the
relation ‘of,’ ‘to,’ or the like; or that of number, whether one or many,
as ‘man’ or ‘men ‘; or the modes or tones in actual delivery, e.g. a
question or a command. ‘Did he go?’ and ‘go’ are verbal inflexions of
this kind.
A Sentence or Phrase is a composite significant sound, some at least of
whose parts are in themselves significant; for not every such group of
words consists of verbs and nouns—‘the definition of man,’ for example -
-but it may dispense even with the verb. Still it will always have some
significant part, as ‘in walking,’ or ‘Cleon son of Cleon.’ A sentence or
phrase may form a unity in two ways,—either as signifying one thing, or
as consisting of several parts linked together. Thus the Iliad is one by
the linking together of parts, the definition of man by the unity of the
thing signified.]
XXIWords are of two kinds, simple and double. By simple I mean those
composed of non-significant elements, such as {gamma eta}. By
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