Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/373

 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 347 C. Epic Poetry, With respect to that species of poetry which imitates by narration, Cap. xxm. and in hexameter verse, it is obvious that the story ought to be drama- „£ hav^S tically constructed, like that of Tragedy: and that it should have for its ownf ^*^^'^ subject one entire and perfect action, having a beginning, and middle, and an end; so that, forming, like an animal, a complete whole, it may afford its proper pleasure : widely differing, in its construction, from history, which necessarily treats, not of one action, but of one time, and of all the events that happened to one person, or to many, during that time; events, the relation of which to each other is merely casual. For, as the naval action at Salamis, and the battle with the Carthaginians in Sicily, were events of the same time, unconnected by any relation to a common end or pur-pose; so also, in successive events, we sometimes see one thing follow another, without resulting in a common end. And this is the practice of the generality of poets. Even in this, therefore, as we have before observed. Homer, as compared with all others, would seem to be a divine poet (^co-Treo-tos) ; for he did not attempt to bring the whole war, though an entire action with beginning and end, into his poem. It would have been too vast an object, and not easily compre- hended in one view; or, had he forced it into a moderate compass, it would have been perplexed by its variety. Instead of this, selecting one part only of the war, he has, from the rest, introduced many episodes — such as tlie catalogue of the ships, and others, with which he has inter- spersed his poem. Other poets take for their subject the actions of one person or of one period of time, or an action which, though one, is com- posed of too many parts. Thus the author of the Gypria, and of the Little Iliad. [Hence it is, that the Iliad and the Odyssey each of them furnish matter for one tragedy, or two, at most; but from the Cypria many may be taken, and from the Little Iliad more than eight ; as, The Co7itestfor the Armour, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Vagrant, The Spartan Women, The Fall of Troy, The Return of the Fleet, Sinon, and The Trojan Women.] Again — the epic poem must also agree with the tragic, as to its Cap. xxiv. kinds : it must be simple or complicated, moral or disastrous. Its parts, tragk^poetry also, setting aside music and decoration, are the same; for it requires ^*'"^p*'^® revolutions, discoveries, and disasters; and it must be furnished with proper sentiments and diction : of all which Homer gave both the first, and the most perfect example. Thus, of his two poems, the Iliad is of the simple and disastrous kind ; the Odyssey, complicated (for it abounds