Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/80

36 bable, and may likewise make it look like true History. Besides, Aristotle had said, that the Poet in giving particular Names to Persons, which at first he made general, should take special care to make his Fiction probable.

This Precept is capable of another meaning, which does not at all contradict what has been said, but rather confirms the Doctrine which I proposed: 'Tis this, viz. "That when you have feigned an Action, if it be mild and moderate, you must not represent the chief Personage thereof under the Name of Achilles, Tydeus, Medea, or any other whose passionate Tempers are well known."

In this Doctrine, we shall with Aristotle meet with three sorts of Actions which the Poets make use of. In the first, the Things and the Names of the Persons are singular and true, and not feigned or invented by the Poet. The Satyrists make use of this sort. In the second, both the Things and the Names are feigned and invented by the Poet; and this is the Practice of Comedians. We have laid down an Instance thereof in the Fable we made use of under the Names of Orontes, Pridamant, and Clitander. In the third sort, the Things are invented, but the Names are not. They are noted either by History, or by some Tradition or other. This is manifest in the Fable we proposed under the Names of Robert Earl of Artois, and Ralph Count of Nesle. We might say the same of the Iliad, the Odysseïs, and the Æneid. This sort of Action is proper for Tragedy, and the Epopéa.

Nor need we feign Instances to prove these things, or seek for them in Greece and old Italy; since we have enough of them nearer home, in the Satyrs, the Comedies, and the Tragedies, which are daily to be seen in the World.

This Doctrine of Aristotle is so important, that it deserves to be consulted in the Original. After he had informed us that the Poetical Action is not singular, but general and universal; and after he had explained what he means by these Terms, as we observed at the beginning of this Chapter, he then goes on after this manner:

"This in Comedy is very manifest. For after the Poet has prepared his Fable, upon what is probable, he then gives his