Early Modern Aristotle by Soldato Eva Del;

Author:Soldato, Eva Del;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2020-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Bringing Down the Curtain

The decline of Aristotelianism in the seventeenth century caused the “if Aristotle were alive” motif to lose its force, and in the eighteenth century it no longer turned up in scientific and religious texts. The reborn Aristotle nevertheless continued to appear in works belonging to a different genre: literary theory—more specifically, theater. The motif arrived relatively late in this context: after all, it was not until the second half of the sixteenth century that Aristotle’s Poetics significantly began to influence the composition and criticism of literary works around Europe, in a climate that favored the search for norms and rules, such as that which followed the Council of Trent. The recovery of the Poetics and its later fortuna was, however, anything but faithful to the original treatise. The emphasis placed on the so-called three unities (of time, space, and action), which many commentators considered essential for the composition of tragedy, is one example.119 This rule was purportedly derived from the Poetics yet appears nowhere in the text, which says little about unity of action, barely hints at unity of time, and never mentions unity of place. By forcibly underscoring the prescriptive character of the treatise by means of rules like this one, the revival of the Poetics caused Aristotle to be perceived as a tyrannical authority by those who preferred a less normative approach to literature. This polemical reaction and subsequent debates were instrumental in triggering a surge in the use of the “if Aristotle were alive” motif in literary contexts. The reborn Philosopher was called on to reject the modern abuse of his Poetics and to denounce its inappropriate transformation into a set of inflexible prescriptions.

A Jesuit dramatist offers an interesting example of how the subject of a play could affect the application of the Aristotelian rules and, consequently, the reaction to them. In 1622 Vincenzo Guiniggi (1588–1653) staged his drama Ignatius in Monte Serrato arma mutans at the Collegio Romano, the Jesuit order’s most prestigious institute of higher learning. Here dramatic productions were common, since the Jesuit curriculum favored the use of theater for didactic purposes.120 When he published the play fifteen years later, Guiniggi added a preface in which he explained why he had decided to deviate partially from the Aristotelian rules for the composition of the Ignatius. The reasons were of a historical nature: Guiniggi stated, first of all, that it was hard to understand what Aristotle really thought, and that at times those eager to defend him end up in conflict with him. But most of all, Guiniggi invited his readers to consider the inadequacy of the Aristotelian prescriptions in the age of Christianity. The Poetics had worked well in the dark days of paganism,

but if since that time God has clothed himself in humanity, and human nature has put on divinity, why should human action, which poetry imitates, not put on something above and beyond the human, and above the laws and opinions of Aristotle? … Had Aristotle known the state

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