Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/100

 had said something to the purpose, if, to amplifie his Fable, he had related that the Woolf was wounded in the Foot, and being not quite cur'd, the Pain or the Weakness of that part hinder'd his Running, and expos'd him a Prey to the Dogs. So Homer has very regularly related, that Ulysses had formerly been wounded in the Leg, as he was hunting on the top of Parnassus: For this Wound serv'd to discover this Hero, and this discovery is part of the Action, and of the Matter of the Poem.

An Historian, that undertakes to write of one single Action, as the War of Catiline, or the Reign of a King, as Salust has done that of Jugurtha; has not for his subject Matter the Wars and Actions which went before, or happen'd after. Yet he may mention some, which may serve as Instances in the Deliberations; or for the maintaining of some Interests; or upon any other Occasion that is necessary to his main Subject. A Poet has the same Privileges, and the same Reasons on his side: Our two have practis'd accordingly, and have the Approbation of Aristotle himself. For he does not blame Homer for making the Recital we mention'd; and yet he says that the Wound of Ulysses is not the Matter of the Poem to which it is apply'd. His words are these. When Homer compos'd his Odysseïs, he did not make all the Adventures of Ulysses the Matter of his Poem; such as the Wound be receiv'd upon Parnassus, and the folly he feign'd before the Grecians: Because, thô one of these two things happen'd, yet it cannot be said that the other ought necessarily, or probably to have happen'd as the Consequence of the former.

This Passage of Aristotle teaches us two things. The first is, that every thing we meet with in an Epick Poem is not the Matter of it; since this Wound of Ulysses, which Aristotle, says is not the Matter of the Odysseïs, is not withstanding very largely described there. The second is, that the foreign Incidents, that are inserted in the Poem, should be so United and Joyn'd to some other Incident, which is really the subject Matter of the Poem, that one might swear if one happen'd, the other must necessarily, or in all Probability have happen'd as a Consequence of the former.

The Poet has observ'd this himself in the Wound of Ulysses. The discovery thereof is a Consequence so probable, that this Hero finding he was forc'd to let his Nurse wash his Feet, chose to let her do it in a dark place, that so at least she might be kept from the sight of it. The Birth and Education of Camilla is an Incident made use of after the very same way in the Æneid: