Poetics by Aristotle Janko Richard

Author:Aristotle, Janko, Richard [Janko, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60384-955-5
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 1987-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

55a22 “using diction to bring them to completion” The priority of plot extends to the actual order of composition. The comedian Menander (ca 341–291 B.C.) is said to have planned his plots in detail before he wrote the verses, regarding this as the most important part of his task (Plutarch, Moralia 347F).

55a23 “before his eyes” The poet should visualise the events both as they happened and as they will appear, when represented, to the audience. “Before the eyes” is almost a technical term for “vivid” in the Rhetoric, where it is defined as “to indicate things in activity” (energeia, III 11.1411b25). If the poet sees the action vividly, then the audience will too. Compare 62a17.

55a24 “very vividly” So MS B (enargestata). MS A and the Latin have “very actively” (energestata). Although there is a connexion in the Rhetoric between vividness and energeia, the word order supports MS B’s reading.

55a25 “what is suitable” This is usually thought to denote only movements and stage business, but more probably covers the far wider range of character, reasoning and diction (cf. On Poets frag. *5, “the good poet … is able to invent what Andromache would say … in diction, character and reasoning”). In the Rhetoric, the SUITABLE (to prepon) refers above all to suitable expression, and is vital to persuading us (III 12.1414a28, “what is believable arises from what is suitable”): the concept reappears in terms of diction at 58b14 and 59a4, and note the reference to believability below (a30).

55a26 “Carcinus” His play, evidently entitled Amphiaraus, is lost, but must have contained some statement that was ludicrously contradicted by what was actually happening on the stage. On Carcinus see on 54b23.

55a27 “as a spectator” Most editors delete this, believing that it is the poets’ vision that is in question, but this is unnecessary (see Note on the Text). Compare 60a15, where we are told that the absurdity of the pursuit of Hector in the Iliad would be obvious on the stage, but passes unnoticed in the poem.

55a29 Aristotle’s second recommendation is difficult. It is parallel in wording to the first: just as the poet should work out his composition by visualising it, so too he should do so with gestures. The context tells against the view that the actors’ gestures are meant—why should this explain the poets’ natures? The usual interpretation may seem odd but must be right. To represent faithfully his characters’ emotions, the poet should try to feel them himself as he composes, using the gestures and facial expressions that go with such states. This is easier to understand if we remember that it was the invariable practice to read everything aloud; the poet should perform his drafts to see whether they evoke the right emotions. Such a theory is parodied by Aristophanes, who makes Euripides dress in rags and Agathon in women’s clothes when they are writing the parts of impoverished heroes or of women (Acharnians 412, Thesmophoriazusae 148–52). The epic reciter Ion, when asked by Socrates whether he imagines

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