Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/113



Here are four Qualifications in the Epick Action: the first is its Unity; the second its Integrity; the third its Importance; and the fourth its Duration. We will begin with the first.

In this place we shall consider the Unity of the Action, not only in the first Draught and Model of the Fable, but in the extended and Episodiz'd Action. And in truth, if the Episodes are not added to the Action, but on the contrary are the necessary parts thereof; it is plain, that they ought to be comprehended in it, and its Unity still preserv'd: And the Fables which Aristotle calls Episodical are such, wherein some Episodes that are foreign, and not duly connected, add some Actions to the Action of the Poem, and so spoil the Unity of it.

The Unity of the Epick Action, as well as the Unity of the Fable, does not consist either in the Unity of the Hero, or in the Unity of Time: This is what we have already taken notice of. But 'tis easier to tell wherein it does not consist, than 'tis to discover wherein it does.

From the Idea I have conceived thereof by reading our Authors, these three things, I suppose, are necessary thereto. The first is, to make use of no Episode, but what arises from the very Platform and Foundation of the Action, and is as it were a Natural Member of this Body. The second is, exactly to unite these Episodes, and these Members, with one another. And the third is, never to finish any Episode so as it may seem to be an entire Action; but to let each Episode still appear in its own particular Nature, as the Member of a Body, and as a Part of it self not compleat.

We have already established the first of these three Qualifications, in the Doctrine we laid down concerning the Episodes; and perhaps enough has been said about it: but yet we will clear up this Doctrine by some Instances taken from the principal Episodes of the Æneid.

In the Scheme we have drawn of the Fable and Action of this Poem, we have observed, that Æneas ought of necessity to be a King newly elected, and the Founder of an Empire rais'd upon the Ruins of a decay'd State: that this Prince should be oppos'd by wicked Men: and lastly, that he should be established by Piety and the Force of Arms.