Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/108

 But suppose any one should say, "That if these particular Incidents were natural and necessary Members, it would thence follow, that they would not be foreign, extraneous, additional, and inserted Pieces." To this I answer, that all this is true; but withall, that the Thing has retain'd its original and native Name, though it has quite lost its Nature. Aristotle, who as well as others has retain'd this dubious Term, prescribes the Rules of Tragedy under the Name of Episode. Therefore in this Treatise, wherein I only follow his Precepts, I am oblig'd to take every thing in his sense, and not spoil the Nature of the Things, which he explains, by a superstitious adhering to a Word that has chang'd its Nature ever since its first Rise.

I will maintain then that the Word Episode in the Epick Poem does not signifie in extraneous foreign Peice, even in Aristotle's opinion: but that it signifies the whole Narration of the Poet, or a necessary and essential part of the Action and the proper Subject, extended and amplified by probable Circumstances.

This Conclusion deserves a more particular Examination.

Episode, according to Aristotle, should not be taken from something else and added to the Action; but should constitute a part of the Action it self. That this is Aristotle's Mind, we shall find, if we would but reflect, that this great Master, when he treated of Episodes, never made use of this Word to Add, although his Interpreters have found it so natural, that they have commonly made use of it in their Translations and Notes.

When he commends Homer for taking only part of the Siege of Troy for the Subject-Matter of his Iliad; he does not say that he has amplified it by Adding a great many Episodes to it; this Expression would distinguish the Episodes from the Matter to which they would have been added: But he says, That he made use of a great many Episodes of this Action: and this denotes that the Episodes of the Iliad were part of the Action which is the Subject-Matter thereof. And a few Lines after he says, That the Poet divided his Poem by Episodes. This is what we observ'd before in Oedipus.