Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/98

 But this Action is the Action of some Person: And our Authors expresly say as much. Aristotle says that the Poets, who imitate, Imitate the Persons that Act. Horace says, that the Imitated Actions are the Actions of Kings, and Generals of an Army. And our Poets do not propose simply, a Revenge, a Return, or an Establishment: But they say further, that 'tis Achilles, who is Reveng'd; Ulysses, who Returns; and Æneas, that goes to be Establish'd. Therefore, both the Actions and the Personages are the subject Matter of the Epopéa.

But suppose we should consider them apart, and ask whether the Action or the Persons, is the Chief and Principal Matter of the Poem: It is plain by what has been said in the former Book, that the Action is not made for the Hero, since that ought to be feign'd and invented independently from him, and before the Poet thought of using his Name; and, that on the other hand, the Hero is only design'd for the Action: And that the Names of Achilles, Ulysses, and Æneas are only borrow'd to represent the Personages which the Poet feign'd in general. The Nature of the Fable will not admit us to doubt hereof; since all the Actions that are there rehears'd under the Names of a Dog, a Wolf, a Lyon, a Man, and the like, are not design'd to inform us of the Nature of these Animals to which they are applied; or to tell us of some Adventure that happen'd to them: For the Author of a Fable does not mind any such thing. These Personages on the contrary are only design'd to sustain the Action he has invented. It is therefore true in this Sense, that the Action alone is the subject Matter of the Epopêa, or at least, that 'tis a great deal more so than the Persons; since that in its own Nature is so, and the Persons are only so by virtue of the Action.

So likewise have those been condemn'd, who have taken the Heroes for the subject Matter of their Poems. Aristotle finds fault with the Poets who under the name of the Theseid, and the Heraclid, have writ the Lives of Theseus and Hercules in Verse. Statius is likewise to blame in his Achilleid, because he does not sing of Achilles who did such or such an Action, as Homer and Virgil have done; but he sings Achilles himself, and this Achilles at his full length.

'Tis true Virgil in his Æneid, and Homer in his Odysseïs call their Poem by their Heroe's Name: But this is no more than what is ordinary in Fables. Thus the Titles run, the Wolf and the Lamb, the Lyon and the Mouse, &c. and yet no one imagines, that these Fables were written to inform us of the Nature of these Ani-