The Poetics of Aristotle

THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE

A TRANSLATION BY S. H. BUTCHER

A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication

THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE trans. S. H. Butcher is a publication of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable Document file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own risk. Neither the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, nor anyone associated with the Pennsylvania State University assumes any responsibility for the material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any way.

THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE trans. S. H. Butcher, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18201-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them.

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THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE

THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE

Analysis of Contents

A TRANSLATION BY S. H. BUTCHER

[Transcriber's Annotations and Conventions: the translator left intact some Greek words to illustrate a specific point of the original discourse. In this transcription, in order to retain the accuracy of this text, those words are rendered by spelling out each Greek letter individually, such as {alpha beta gamma delta ...}. The reader can distinguish these words by the enclosing braces {}. Where multiple words occur together, they are separated by the "/" symbol for clarity. Readers who do not speak or read the Greek language will usually neither gain nor lose understanding by skipping over these passages. Those who understand Greek, however, may gain a deeper insight to the original meaning and distinctions expressed by Aristotle.]

I `Imitation' the common principle of the Arts of Poetry. II The Objects of Imitation. III The Manner of Imitation. IV The Origin and Development of Poetry. V Definition of the Ludicrous, and a brief sketch of the rise of Comedy. VI Definition of Tragedy. VII The Plot must be a Whole. VIII The Plot must be a Unity. IX (Plot continued.) Dramatic Unity. X (Plot continued.) Definitions of Simple and Complex Plots. XI (Plot continued.) Reversal of the Situation, Recognition, and Tragic or disastrous Incident defined and explained. XII The `quantitative parts' of Tragedy defined. XIII (Plot continued.) What constitutes Tragic Action. XIV (Plot continued.) The tragic emotions of pity and fear should spring out of the Plot itself. XV The element of Character in Tragedy.

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THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE

XVI (Plot continued.) Recognition: its various kinds, with

ARISTOTLE'S POETICS

examples.

XVII Practical rules for the Tragic Poet.

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XVIII Further rules for the Tragic Poet.

XIX Thought, or the Intellectual element, and Diction in I propose to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds,

Tragedy.

noting the essential quality of each; to inquire into the struc-

XX Diction, or Language in general.

ture of the plot as requisite to a good poem; into the number

XXI Poetic Diction.

and nature of the parts of which a poem is composed; and

XXII (Poetic Diction continued.) How Poetry combines el- similarly into whatever else falls within the same inquiry.

evation of language with perspicuity.

Following, then, the order of nature, let us begin with the

XXIII Epic Poetry.

principles which come first.

XXIV (Epic Poetry continued.) Further points of agreement Epic poetry and Tragedy, Comedy also and Dithyrambic:

with Tragedy.

poetry, and the music of the flute and of the lyre in most of

XXV Critical Objections brought against Poetry, and the their forms, are all in their general conception modes of imi-

principles on which they are to be answered.

tation. They differ, however, from one: another in three re-

XXVI A general estimate of the comparative worth of Epic spects,--the medium, the objects, the manner or mode of

Poetry and Tragedy.

imitation, being in each case distinct.

For as there are persons who, by conscious art or mere habit,

imitate and represent various objects through the medium of

colour and form, or again by the voice; so in the arts above

mentioned, taken as a whole, the imitation is produced by

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THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE

rhythm, language, or `harmony,' either singly or combined. Empedocles have nothing in common but the metre, so that

Thus in the music of the flute and of the lyre, `harmony' it would be right to call the one poet, the other physicist

and rhythm alone are employed; also in other arts, such as rather than poet. On the same principle, even if a writer in his

that of the shepherd's pipe, which are essentially similar to poetic imitation were to combine all metres, as Chaeremon

these. In dancing, rhythm alone is used without `harmony'; did in his Centaur, which is a medley composed of metres of

for even dancing imitates character, emotion, and action, by all kinds, we should bring him too under the general term

rhythmical movement.

poet. So much then for these distinctions.

There is another art which imitates by means of language There are, again, some arts which employ all the means

alone, and that either in prose or verse--which, verse, again, above mentioned, namely, rhythm, tune, and metre. Such are

may either combine different metres or consist of but one Dithyrambic and Nomic poetry, and also Tragedy and Com-

kind--but this has hitherto been without a name. For there edy; but between them the difference is, that in the first two

is no common term we could apply to the mimes of Sophron cases these means are all employed in combination, in the

and Xenarchus and the Socratic dialogues on the one hand; latter, now one means is employed, now another.

and, on the other, to poetic imitations in iambic, elegiac, or Such, then, are the differences of the arts with respect to the

any similar metre. People do, indeed, add the word `maker' medium of imitation.

or `poet' to the name of the metre, and speak of elegiac poets,

or epic (that is, hexameter) poets, as if it were not the imita-

II

tion that makes the poet, but the verse that entitles them all

indiscriminately to the name. Even when a treatise on medi- Since the objects of imitation are men in action, and these

cine or natural science is brought out in verse, the name of men must be either of a higher or a lower type (for moral

poet is by custom given to the author; and yet Homer and character mainly answers to these divisions, goodness and bad-

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