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DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY
A . Philip McMahon
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A . Philip McMahon
The commentator Eustratius is appealed to by Bywater as showing " that there was even in the latest Aristotelian schools some faint
tradition of another Book," for, in his work on the Ethics, he speaks
of a first book of the Poetics, and this may be taken to mean that there
was also another, a second book.
Finally, the fragments of an early anonymous commentator on the
Rhetoric employ the plural when asserting that Aristotle discussed the
ridiculous in the poetic^.^ The evidence on this score is presented by
Vahlen in a series of quotations that refer to Aristotle's treatment of
the ridiculous. The words of the anonymous writer thus prove, according to Ritter, that Aristotle's work On Poets, which was in three books,
was different from the Poetics in two.'
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is a supposition to which both Bywater1 and Vahlen2 incline by placing it among the fragments on comedy immediately succeeding their
texts of the extant Poetics.
The other reference is a puzzle presented by a statement in the
lexicon of the anonymous compiler, called the Antiatticist, published
by Bekker, which may derive in part from O r ~ swhom
, ~ Ritschl placed
as early as the second century of our era, while Reitzenstein assigns
him to the fifth century. The Antiatticist, in defending the use of the
word K V V T ~ T ~cites
TOV
,
Aristotle
in the Poetics.' The portion of the
Poetics proper to this definition was, according to ~ ~ i a t e rthe
, 5 lost
second book.
A defence of the drama against Plato would have been a feature of
absorbing interest in this lost second book. In Aristotle's Poetics, as
Spingarn observes,' scholars of the Renaissance discovered a satisfactory vindication of the claims of poetry against the Platonic and
mediaeval objections. In Plato the objections were grounded in a
metaphysical theory of imitation, interpreted, some would hold, in a
narrow spirit. Since he conceived imitation as mere copying, and
since he held to the theory of the objectivity of ideas, he allowed little
scope for the representative arts.8 If an object in nature is only a
comparatively unreal copy of an eternal objective reality in God, the
reproduction of that object in art is twice removed from reality, and
if certainly false probably dangerous also.
After all, the matter is not entirely settled by the answer of Aristotle
with respect to tragedy. Plato's objection to the drama as exciting
the passions without providing a means of governing them is not fully
1 Bywater, op. cit., p. 93.
2 Vahlen, op. cit., p. 81.
Sandys, 09. cit., i, p. 325.
Cf. Vahlen, op. cit., p. 81; Antiatticista i n Bekkeri anecdotis, 101, 3 2 rtvvr6rarov: 'Aprarori;X~snepi nocl)rw?s. ''76 6k n h v r ~ vK V Y ~ ~ T ~ T O Y . "
A. Philip McMahotz
I I e p i ~ O L ~ T L K ~ S Zeitschrijt
,''
fur die Alterthumswissenschaft (1842),pp. 280,281.
J . Bernays, Dwei Abhandlungen uber die Aristotelische Theorie des Drama, Berlin,
1880. ( I . Grundziige der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles iiber Wirkung der
Tragodie; 11. Erganzung zu Aristoteles' Poetik.)
Bywater, op. cit., p. xxiii.
6 R . Shute, On the History of the Process by which the Aristotelian Writings Arrived
at their Present Form, Oxford, 1888, pp. 47,48.
0 9 . cit., p. 66.
feld and Dufour go so far as to make the loss relatively recent,' because
" c'est dans le second livre de cet ouvrage que les cornmentateurs
alexandriis ont puisC la substance de leurs gloses sur les po8tes comiques grecs et de leurs trait& ' de la combdie.' "
To begin with, the whole tradition depends too largely on the evidence of the indices, the value of which, under the scrutiny of close
criticism, can be shown to be only limited.
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A. Philip McMahon
That Andronicus did make a list may be accepted without hesitation on the evidence of Porphyry in his life of P l ~ t i n u s . That
~
these
a i v a ~ ~were
s
copied in turn by Favorinus, from whom Diogenes
Laertius obtained his list, is the theory of scholars as different as Rose
and Bernays, whereas Shute holds that these inferences can be disproved.3 There is a great gulf between admitting that Andronicus did
make a list, and that the lists we have reproduce him, especially when
there is grave doubt about their intrinsic value, and whether their
authorship cannot with safety be assigned to another ancient scholar.
It is hard on general principles to believe that the lack of order and
arrangement in Diogenes's list could have been the result of the otherwise admirable scholarship of Androni~us.~The weight of evidence
shows rather that there is probably no relation between the index
compiled by Andronicus and the one furnished by Diogene~.~
I n the first place, although Diogenes cites Aristotle frequently,
he does not follow his own list, but by implication appears to have
used the same canon as his predecessors and c~ntemporaries.~How
could he refer to the third book of the Poetics, when he had already
said in his list that there were two?7 Indeed, Diogenes's list contains
comparatively few works, among his lengthy enumerations of titles,
that we can now accept as genuinely Arist~telian.~On poetry alone
and he seems
Diogenes ascribes five separate treatises to Ari~totle,~
elsewhere to have confused the Poetics and the dialogue On Poets.lo
In him we see clearly the beginnings of the process by which, through
including forgeries, variant editions of the same work, editions of
separate portions of whole treatises bearing another title, pupils' notes,
enlargements of later commentators, and other accretions, David the
Armenian found a thousand different works ascribed to Aristotle in
the libraries of the Ptolemies."
S h u t e , op. cit., p. 89.
A. Kirchhoff, Plotini Opera, Leipzig, 18j6, p. xxxix.
10 Rose, Fragm., p. 76; Diog. Laert., 8, 57. Cf. Diog. Laert., 3, 48 ( p p . 77, 78),
and 2146 (P. 79).
S h u t e , op. cit., p. 93.
II
The compiler of the list given by Diogenes, because of its inclusiveness, was probably an Alexandrine scholar.' In this conclusion most
critics, except Rose; agree, especially since Hermippus may be designated its author.8 A clue is afforded by Diogenes himself who,
immediately before giving a list of the works of Theophrastus, cites
Favorinus and distinctly states that the source of Favorinus was
Hermipp~s.~
Since the origin of his list for Aristotle may have been
similar, it would be easy to explain its character, whatever the additions by Favorinus or Diogenes, as merely a librarian's list of the titles
borne by books in a library.
The works mentioned by ancient authors other than the compilers
of these lists, however, generally correspond to, what we now possess,
and Cicero's statement of the range of Aristotle's works squares with
our canon.5 Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses virtually the same text
that we now have," and while Galen's canon is identical with ours
except for a few lost works, the roll of the missing does not include a
second book of the Poetics? Thus, while from the time of Cicero on,
the successors of the editors Tyrannion and Andronicus refer to a
uniform body of works nearly equivalent to our canon, of the works
which Diogenes mentions, hardly any, except the dialogues, can be
identified in the works we possess?
The index of Hesychius is plainly, as Rose points outlgonly a copy
of Diogenes, with the suppression of certain repeated titles, and the
addition of some more names, as incapable of identification as of belief.
Altogether Hesychius managed to accumulate thirteen different titles
which might have had to do with poetry.1
The index of the unknown philosopher in the time of Ptolemy is a t
once dismissed by Bywater and most other recent critics.ll Its devious
Zeller, op. cit., i, p. 51.
Rose tries to maintain the patently inconsistent position that the Aristotelian
works and canon were always just as we have them, and that we have them all.
a Sandys, op. cit., i, pp. 1 2 2 ff.
Shute, op. cit., p. 92.
Shute, op. cit., p. 51. Cf. Cicero, De Fin., 5, 4,9 ff.
6 Sandys, op. cit., i, pp. 279 ff.; Shute, op. cit., p. 67.
Op. cit., p. 77.
8 Op. cit., p. 86.
Rose, Fragm., p. 11,n. I.
In
O p . cit., pp. 11ff.
Bywater, op. cit., p, xx.
2
'
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A . Philip McMahon
p.
F. Ast, Platonis Phaedrus (contains also the scholia of Hermias), Leipzig, 1810,
111.
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the disappearance of another work:' "Aristotelis viam universae
carnis ingressurus subtilissima scripta sua iussit secum in sepulcro
recondi, ne utilitati posteritatis suae deservirent."
The whole story of the cave at Skepsis is dubious, and the same
considerations that make us doubt it also render unlikely the disappearance of so notable a work as a second book of the Poetics, containing a theory of comedy. It is, however, not so much the story itself
as the value attached to it that is unwarranted. While the ordinary
causes for the loss of classical works are sufticient, when definite traces
of them at some previous time can be discovered, it has been found
necessary, forsooth, to find a specific disaster for a unique manuscript
to explain the loss of a work of which there is no definite witness elsewhere. That there are no surviving traces of a theory of comedy
derived from a second book of the Poetics will appear in the course of
this investigation, and we have reason to believe that, whatever the
merits of the narrative of Skepsis, none of the scientific treatises of
Aristotle were lost to the Peripatetic school.
Critics rely on Strabo and Athenaeus, with some aid from Plutarch,
to compose the explanation that rests upon the tale of the cave.2
Strabo veers slightly in the course of his narrative, for he begins by
speaking of the libraries of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and then later
talks of the sale of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus by the
heirs of Neleus to Apellicon of Teos. These books might, indeed, have
been only the collections of these philosophers, but the remainder of
his tale treats them as the original manuscripts of these authors. I n
the face of evidence elsewhere that Aristotelian works were in existence
and that the Aristotelian school enjoyed a continuous career, Strabo's
remarks that the Peripatetics lacked the genuine works of Aristotle
is manifestly incredible.
In one place Athenaeus speaks of a certain Roman Laurentius who
collected the works of Greek authors including " those of Aristotle
and of Neleus, who preserved Aristotle's books, from whom our king
Ptolemy Philadelphus, having bought them all, put them together
with those which he had bought from Athens and Rhodes and brought
them to fair Alexandria." The interest of this city in Aristotle is
a Op. cit., p. 30.
I
O p. cit., p. 134.
Shute, op. cif., pp. 29 ff.
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A . Philip McMaholz
18
O p . cit., p. 96.
O p . cit., p.
10.
0 p . cit., p.
26.
I9
From what has just preceded we have seen that the personal authority of Aristotle is not to be invoked for any of the references, and
the motive of the editors who inserted most of them was at best to
assure an acceptance of what they believed, rather than to state a
universally acknowledged fact. The mode of composition and publication of Aristotle's works was, however, most favorable for the interpolation of such references. Indeed for their proper understanding his
works required some such aid, so that in spite of natural reverence for
the philosopher's text, scholars early inserted what they saw was
necessary for the intelligent reading of the works, and the practice once
begun was continued without system and with diminishing success.
The statement of the method of composition by Case is one of the
most a d e q ~ a t e . After
~
mentioning several hypotheses which he finds
Op. cit., p. 98.
O p cit., p. 96-116.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Cambridge, 1911,ii, pp. 506 ff.
A . Philip McMahon
20
...
21
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A . Philip McMahon
22
dialogue, and a confusion of names between the tratise and the dialogue. We are reduced thus for any information about the second
book and its contents to a search for any possible traces of it elsewhere.
The investigation, however, can best be made in connection with a
detailed examination of each of the references to the supposed second
book or its contents.
6
Although the cross-references have in general been discredited, it
is well, if we can, to account for them, and to examine each separately,
as far as it concerns the object of our investigation. Among the
possible sources, the distortion of genuine references is an unreliable
hypothesis for any definite results. Nor are we on solid ground in a
hypothetical work nepi XkEews,' portions of which appear to have been
absorbed into the Rhetoric, and from which some of the passages in the
Poetics, such as that on the language of poetry, may have been taken,
with a general confusion of references after this absorption, and after
this work had itself disappeared. Again, some of the genuine references may have originally alluded to the dialogue, and other references
to them may have been inserted afterwards; these last are more
practical possibilities.
The citation from Boethius De Interpretatione 290, is called a false
translation by Gercke in its use of libris, and in the case of Boethius
it is clear that he used the conception of tragedy which, I hope elsewhere to show, was contained in the dialogue On Poets. The reference
of Boethius, however, corresponds to our treatise of the Poetics, and
yet, although he was acquainted with it, his definition of tragedy, I
believe, is not derived thence. " I n libris " may be a general expression meaning " in one of the books which he wrote about poetry,"
and so may refer to the work On Poets. This possibility is interesting
in view of the fact that while Theophrastus is not mentioned in the
Consolatio Philosophiae, the definition of the dramatic species which
we afterwards find ascribed to that philosopher agrees with the idea
of Boethius. I t might follow that the Theophrastian definition which
Boethius would have found " in libris " of Aristotle was derived by
Theophrastus from Aristotle directly.
1
H. Diels, Ueber das d7itte Buch der Aristotelischen Rhetorik, Berlin, 1886.
I.
col. 1053.
23
2.
0 p . cit., p. 6.
S . H. Butcher, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, gd ed., I,ondon, 1902,
P. 3.
A . Philip iMcMahon
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the scribe. Here the writer implies that he closes the subject of the
nature of comedy by connecting his observations with some preceding
remarks on the object of imitation in comedy. In the treatment of
tragedy, which begins in the next section of this same chapter, he does
not refer back to the deterqination of tragedy's object, as he does for
comedy, for the very reason that he has not closed the subject, but
develops it more fully in the famous definition a t the beginning of
chapter 6. I t is therefore only reasonable to suppose that Aristotle
would not have connected his points a t the beginning of chapter 5 with
his philosophy of imitation, and then have stated his conception of the
ridiculous in this place if he had ever intended to treat it later. This
is a consideration which does not depend on the use of mere references
of transition, but indicates a greater degree of coherence than is usual
in most of the Aristotelian works, a merit which it could the more
easily have possessed had it been originally short and self-contained,
without the addition of a second book.
A further evidence of Aristotle's intention to finish up the treatment
of comedy a t this point is his balancing of various aspects of the subject, and thus a brief statement of why there is no history of comedy
is set against an outline of the evolution of tragedy. Since, however,
to his mind enough had been said about the aesthetics of a dramatic
species in which he was not much interested, he parallels the later
elaboration of his definition of tragedy with the cursory remarks on
comedy a t the beginning of chapter 5.
Still further, a t the end of chapter 2 2 before the consideration of
epic, which is promised in the first words of chapter 6, we read, "concerning tragedy and imitation by means of action this may suflice."
Now, this sentence, by whomever inserted, whether by Aristotle or by
the customary editor with his method of joining together separate
portions of the treatise a t this point, establishes several facts. One
is that the writer judged that the discussion of all drama - " imitation
by means of action "-had been iinished when the treatise reached this
point. Next, that more about comedy did not follow this observation.
Then, except for the words " and of comedy," this reference in chapter 6, whatever its origin, was correct, for the discussion of epic is
delayed by it until after tragedy; when tragedy is done, there is
another transition, summing up the drama as a whole, and the epic
responding position. There has been a good deal of doubt, indeed, as to the proper
reading in 23. 1459 A 17. Butcher, on the basis of 1449B 11 and 1459 B 32, writes
ivl fihpy, although the codices have 4v phpy, and he notes the reading bv CEafihpy
of Heinsius. This last Vahlen also notes, but adopts the reading of the codices.
Bywater agrees with Vahlen in his text.
As Aristotle seems to include all non-dramatic poetry under the term, 6r~yt)parcmj
alone is not the equivalent of that division, while, if 6~vt)parc~ijs
were there instead
of ~w&ias, it would then present a logical indication of the whole field of nondramatic poetry and of that part of it which is actually treated in chapters 23 ff.
DHntzer, op, cit., p. 282.
"water,
op. cit., pp. xxi, xxii.
A . Philip McMahon
later grammarians knew of Book 11, or of the theory of Comedy which
must have formed part of it. But there is evidence showing it to have
been unknown to them. The so-called Tractatus Coislinianus preserves
a definition of comedy, which has no doubt a certain Aristotelian look;
any one can see, however, by simple inspection that it is nothing more
than an adaptation, or rather, as Bernays calls it, a travesty, of the
well-known definition of Tragedy in the existing Poetics."
The enumeration of the parts of comedy is the same as that in
Tzetzes, who appears to have got it from Euclides. But then, if, as
some scholars think, Euclides was a grammarian of the classical period,'
it only proves that neither the compiler of the Tractatus, nor the early
grammarian had seen any second book. Nobody expects Tzetzes to
furnish any reliable evidence on such points.
Nevertheless, while Aristotelian scholars have tested the Tractatus
and found it wanting, the specialists in Aristophanes have in recent
times become aware of it, and accorded it a more hospitable reception
than it ever before received. Starkie relies implicitly on the findings
of Bernays, and asserts: " The value of this fragment was not fully
realized till Bernays demonstrated that it represented a summary,
mutilated and misunderstood in parts, of Aristotle's analysis of the
laughter in comedy. . . Rutherford alone has shown a due appreciation of its value." Later he reproduces with approval3 the definition
of comedy found in the Tractatus, and indulges in a laborious classification of " the various methods of exciting laughter employed by the
writers of old comedy, especially Aristophanes," " according to the
division of Aristotle," i. e., the Tra~tatus.~
What Starkie terms a " due appreciation " of the value of the Tractatus by Rutherford is rather immoderate zeal. He says: " I t is not
that the laughter of comedy had not been properly analyzed. Even
the scrimp and grudging abstract, now sole relic of the section in the
Poetics concerned with Comedy, will convince anybody who keeps it
in his head as he listens to Greek comic ~ p b u w a a t, hat a Greek had
0 9 . cit., p. xxii.
W . J . M . Starkie, The Acharnians of Arislophanes, London, 1909, p. xxxviii.
0 p . cit., p. xl.
Op. cit., p. xxxviii.
6 W . G. Rutherford, A Chapter i n the History of Annotation, being Scholia Aristophanica Vol. 111, London, 1905, p. 435,l. 19.
2
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indeed read for Greeks the most secret heart of the ' mother of comedy,'
and probe in hand, had made clear wherefore it beat and what it was
made of. . . . But Aristotle thought too much and was too great an
observer to be loved by commentator and rhetor. Living at ease within
their pale of words, it was not likely they would venture outside to be
exposed to the perils and pains of thinking."
Rutherford dilates on the Tractatws and its application to the
methods and interpretation of Aristophanes.'
Except for Kayser's recent treatment, it is Bernays who has offered
the chief detailed discussion of the Tractatus; a discussion which is the
fountain-head of the whole modem belief in the second book as a fact
established to the satisfaction of scholars. He " demonstrated," as
Starkie puts it, " that it represented a summary " only by employing
in an extremely bold and often unwarranted fashion most of the evidence we have seen reason to reject.
Bernays first premises that, in order to establish the fact that
Aristotle did treat comedy fully in the Poetics, the announcement at
the beginning of the Poetics to treat all poetry should be taken in conjunction with the reference at the beginning of chapter 6 to speak
about comedy later, together with the unsatisfied references in the
Rhet~ric.~Since these premises do not necessarily lead to such a conclusion, his case is thereby almost lost.
Bernays next gives the text of the Tractatus and makes the following observations upon it. First, there is no unity apparent in the
treatment except that of subjecL4 Next, the beginning of the Tractatus
is unpromising because its division of poetry into imitative and nonimitative flies in the face of the plain declaration of the Poetics where
Empedocles is even refused the title of poet because his verse does not
imitate. In addition to this he discovers several other notable errors,
from the Aristotelian point of view, in the Tractatws. First there is
the employment of 6 i OZKTOU ~ a 6Covs
l
for Aristotle's ZXEOS ~ a 46pos.
l
Second, there is a balancing between fear and sympathy, whereas
the Rhetoric expounds a theory according to which sympathy
ought not to be & K K ~ O L J U T L K ~ VTO^) &XS.ov. Third, it is stated that
V
This assertion is based on the Rhettragedy Fxri p q ~ C p aT ~ Xirxqv.
OP.tit., PP. 435-455.
Bernays, Zwei Abhandlungen, p. 135.
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33
The expansion of
Op.cit., p. I57.
Op.cil., p. 158.
35
After thus disposing of the main points on which critics have depended for a theory of the second book, there remain only a few of the
less important references. Among these is the reference of Simplicius
to Aristotle for a treatment of synonyms. Rose, however, shows that
this is derived from Porphyry, and in turn depends upon the reference
in the Rhetoric.'
The allusion of the Antiatticist is very slight evidence in any case,
and it is not a t all certain that this anonymous controversialist referred
to the Poetics in citing Aristotle. Even allowing this unknown writer
the merit of honesty, we are not obliged to conclude that his memory
was sound or his source genuine. The matter to which he alludes may
possibly have been contained in the work m p l Xkt;~ws, afterwards
absorbed into the Rhetoric, or even in chapters of it inserted in the
Poetics that later editors rejected.
Bywater notes various anomalies of thought or language in the
poetic^.^ Among these he mentions: the anticipatory use of technical
terms afterwards defined; variations of terminology; inconsistencies in
the use of terms; inconsistency of thought; and lapses of memory. Yet
he also defends the philosopher on the ground of his natural limitations,
showing how the Greek play limited Aristotle's views by its conventions
with regard to stage presentation, form and structure, motives and subj e c t ~ .H
~ is ideal playwas a compromise between thedramaof the great
period and that of his own generation, seventy years after the death of
Euripides. Among the evidences of this assertion that Bywater brings
forward are: Aristotle's theory of tragic diction, and the silence about
the chorus; his concessions in plot to the more sensitive feelings of his
audience instead of the harsh situations of the older tragedy; and the
fact that his theory of comedy would have been more applicable to the
New Comedy than to Aristophanes. For the state of the text he has
the usual arguments.
Bywater also records his opinion, however, that " the book as it is
with occasional sidelights from other works is intelligible enough."
Now it is much more intelligible if we do not look for something in the
Poetics which there is no reason to suppose ever was there, or to feel
disappointed when we fail to find it.
Rose, Arist. Libr. Ord., p. 133.
Bywater, op. cit., pp. xiv ff.
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37
The dialogues were, as Shute observes, the compositions of Aristotle with which antiquity was best acquainted, and for which, next
to the IIoAi~~iai,
Since there is abunwe have the best authority."
dant evidence from many sources that Aristotle used dialogues in
the first period of his work? Rose attributes this disproportionate
influence of the Politics and the dialogues to the fact that, while the
Politics, by reason of the range of subjects treated, were especially
interesting to grammarians and historians, the dialogues, because they
treated the questions common to philosophy after Plato in an easy,
lucid and popular style, attracted not only the philosophers of the
Roman Empire, but also the later rhetoricians. Among these Rose
mentions Panaetius, Posidonius, Andronicus, Didymus, Varro, Cicero,
Dio Chrysostom, Julian, Themistius, Basil, and Plutarch.4 Indeed,
the researches of Bernays, proving that by the exoteric works reference is had to the dialogues, show that, in view of the unbroken testimony of antiquity, the dialogues were Aristotle's in a sense that can
be applied to none of the other accepted works in the Aristotelian
((
mann, Ars dialogorurn quas vicissitudines apud Graecos et Romanos subierit, Rostock,
1889,pp. 19-25; R. Hirzel, Der Dialog, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1895.
2 Shute, op. cit., p. 7.
a Zeller, op. cit., i, p. 55,n. z.
A . Philip McMahon
Heraclides, among the Peripatetics, writing a dialogue ~ a p Ti O L ~ T L K ~ ~ S
TBV T O L ~ T Ba'.'
V
Indeed, Heraclides appears to have written a
number of works on the subjeck2 He also probably showed the
influence of Plato here; and he is coupled together with Aristotle by
Dio Chrysostom, as being a writer in that form in which Plato was
the firsL3
One of the characteristics of Aristotle's extant dialogues in which
they differed widely from his other works was their style. That Aristotle himself estimated very exactly the literary quality of Plato's
dialogues we see from what appears to be a fragment of his dialogue
On poet^,^ where he says that they are midway between verse and
prose. A distinct and deliberately planned literary excellence was one
of the qualities that antiquity specially noted also in Aristotle's dialogues. We may refer, for instance, to the passage in Ammonius
where the beauty and appropriateness of the language is mentioned:
and to another passage in E l i a ~ . ~
The style, indeed, was, as Themistius observes, the principal attraction of the dialogues for the readers of Aristotle. Cicero, except for
the Rhetoric, does not, on the evidence found in his works, seem to
have read much else of Aristotle but the dialogue^.^ His remarks
concerning their style suggest the same conclusion.8 Cicero's allusions
to Theophrastus establish similar facts for the style of Aristotle's most
famed disciple, and, as Zeller says, " In his case, as in Aristotle's, this
merit belongs chiefly to his popular writings, and especially to the
dialogues, which, like Aristotle's, are described as exoteric." It was
even said, though on insd5cient grounds, by some of the ancients, that
Theophrastus received his name on account of his graceful style.1
~ a i
8 Rose, Fragm., p. 23; Themist., Or., 26 p. 385,l. 28, Dind; Hirzel, op. cit., i, p.
39
4I
of the works was in a t least one book and the other in three, and if
there is no reason to suppose that the treatise, called the Poetics, was
in more than one book, then the dialogue On Poets was in three.
The character of the dialogue is ascertainable with tolerable certainty. Hirzel shows that the dialogue discussed the relation of philosophy to poetry, and contends that, while critics usually consider it
a purely historical work, excluding the theoretical discussion of poetry,
they do not make it clear how the history of poetry could suitably be
made the matter of a dialogue, even of an Aristotelian one.' The
fragments themselves lead to an opposite conclusion. The examples
were probably cited to sustain points of the argument as in the
Socratic dialogues, and the fragment which maintains that when the
philosopher rhymes or the poet philosophizes, either the poetry or the
philo'sophy is inferior, indicates a philosophical discussion of a quite
Platonic ~ h a r a c t e r . ~Indeed, it is a purely philosophical distinction
which opposes historical to poetic truth as the diflerence between particular and general truth, so that a t the end of the Aristotelian dialogue Socrates, who first investigated general conceptions with worthy
results, and Homer? who above all others deserved the name of poet,
could be brought together. This conjunction, as we learn from the
fragments, probably occurred in the third and last book; and the
critical theory involved agrees with that in the Poetics and the Metaphysics.6
I t has been supposed that the dialogue also treated the art of poetry,
a supposition which would explain how the dialogue could sometimes
be entitled the P o e t ~ s . Bywater
~
thinks that, a t any rate, the dialogue did not devote special attention to the question of stage-effects?
The relation of the dialogue On Poets to the treatise the Poetics has
been several times discussed: and it has been thought possible that
many of the references to matters poetic which are not found in the
'
'
8
A . Philip McMahon
Poetics might have been in the work On Poets. This hypothesis is
surely as valid and reasonable on its face as the theory that such
matters were to be found in a second book of the Poetics. Two
of the parallels in Athenaeus to the Poetics noted by Vahlen might
conceivably have been drawn rather from the dialogue, as well as
another parallel, also noted by Vahlen, in the Anonymus de comoedi~.~
Moreover, the passage in Themistius, possibly, but by no means certainly, an expansion of information derived from the Poetics, might,
in view of his acquaintance with the dialogue, have more probably
been derived from the latter. Von Christ judges, finally, that the
dialogue was a preliminary discussion, followed later by a more profound and technical work?
The matter of the dialogue is broadly indicated in the extant fragments. Much of the surviving material is not assigned to any particular book, but there are a number of cases in which the book is indicated. Thus, in the first book there was a discussion of the dialogue
form and a reference to Plate: a fact which is further established by
the evidence of Athenaeus6
The second book, according to Macrobius, introduced the evidence
of Euripides on a question of Aetolian custom^.^
The third book, according to Diogenes Laertius, gave an anecdote
about Socrates? In this book, also, there was the discredited story
about Homer's origin? and ,from these indications the matter of the
other fragments can to some extent be grouped in the different books,
so that we may now agree with Hirzel that the place of the passage
mentioning both Socrates and Homer was a t the conclusion of the
whole work.9
Athenaeus, 8,367 B ; ii, p. 302, ed. Kaibel; cf. Vahlen, op. cit., p. 53,n : and
Athenaeus, g, 433 C ; ii, p. 442,ed. Kaibel; cf. Vahlen, op. cit., p. 51,n.
* Vahlen, op. cit., p. 13,n. on Poetics, 4. 1449B 7.
'
43
IV. TEIEOPHRASTUS
Various sources reveal Theophrastus as the chief disciple of
Aristotle. His interest was mainly scientific, but even in science
he strove to complete and substantiate the principles of his master,
and introduced no radical diflerence~.~
As Boethius bears witness, he
advanced further than Aristotle in fields which the master had but
slightly touched; otherwise he accepted his teachings." In the same
place Boethius tells us that Theophrastus sometimes used the very
words of Aristotle without ~ h a n g e . ~Cicero, indeed, points out that
Theophrastus was more accurate in his observations, and especially
developed research in natural sciences.6 Cicero also thought Theophrastus a closer follower of the master than other Peripatetics, while
Galen seems almost never to h d any difference between them.-'
Zeller points out that Theophrastus investigated the psychological
effect of music and held that certain diseases could be healed by it?
The few fragments we possess of this discussion lead us to believe that
neither did he difler widely from Aristotle in his theory of art.
There is in Athenaeus an extract from Theophrastus " On Comedy." a Zeller, however, holds that his citations from it are " quite
incredible." Whether we have here a mistake of Athenaeus or not,
does not seriously affect the authenticity of the aesthetic theory of
Theophrastus as a practical reproduction of Aristotle's. Athenaeus
may have been familiar with the Poetics, as he evidently was with
On Poets,lo yet both the reference of 13, 608 E and that of 6, 261 D
may have been derived from some intermediary historical discussion.
The canon of the works of Theophrastus is extremely uncertain
since almost all of them, except some in natural science, are lost but
for a few fragments. The list of Diogenes gives him a work on comedy,
Zeller, op. cit., ii, p. 348.
Diels, Ueber das drittc Bwh, p. 26.
0 p . cit., ii, p. 355.
Zeller, op. cit., ii, p. 356.
Cicero, Fin., 5 , 4 , 10.
Shute, op. cit., p. 26.
Zeller, op. cit., ii, pp. 4 15, 416.
G. Kaibel, ed. Athenaei Naucratitae Dipnosophistarum, libri X V , vols. i, ii,
Leipzig, 1887, 6 , 261 D ( p . 8 1 ) , and 8 , 348 A ( i , p. 263).
$ Zeller, op. cit., ii, p. 414, and n. 4 .
'"den,
op. cit., p. 6 , n. on Poetics, I . 1447 B 21.
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44
A . Philip McMahon
and one on the ridiculous, but two separate works on p0etics.I This
last statement may have been a mere repetition on the part of a scribe
or librarian, but it is especially noted in the list that the second is
another work. Andronicus and Hermippus both drew up lists. One,
probably by Hermippus, is preserved by Diogenes, but it follows a
curious order, having first two alphabetical lists, of which the second
probably supplements the first. These perhaps show the contents, at
different times, of some great library such as the Alexandrine. They
are in turn foLlowed by a list without order, and a fourth division in
the main alphabetical. The genuineness of most of the works is beyond
our means of knowledge, but Usener thinks that some were rather the
writings of E u d e m u ~ . ~
Although Cicero says that Theophrastus passes over slightingly what
Aristotle had treated already! yet he did treat the same topics as
Aristotle; and probably reviewed the whole of the Aristotelian philosophy as head of the Peripatetic school. It is, therefore, almost certain that he would exactly reproduce the master's doctrine in a subject
in which he was apparently less original than he was in natural sciences.
Rose shows that the evidence of Cicero and Proclus proves that the
dialogues of Theophrastus were written in the same manner as those
of A r i s t ~ t l e . Plutarch,
~
whose Coasolatio, it will be remembered, contains the passage without hiatus, perhaps taken word for word from a
dialogue of Aristotle, quotes Theophrastus on Fate, and while this
quotation is short, it is in precisely the same style as the Aristotelian
quotation! Thus it is probable that Theophrastus imitated his master
as far as writing a dialogue on poetics or poets, although we are unable
to tell if one of the works mentioned in the list of his writings corresponds to such a work. Fragments of Theophrastus on the question
of comedy and tragedy, therefore, not found in our Poetics, might well
have been in Aristotle's dialogue On Poets.
Diogenes Laertius, De vitis, 5 , 36, p. 294, ed. 1692.
Zeller, op. cit., ii, p. 352, n. 4.
8 Cicero, Fin., I, 2, 6.
Cicero, Diu., 2, I, 3.
"ose, Fragm., p. 23.
6 F. Wimmer, Theophrasti Eresii opera quae supersunt omnia, vol. iii, Leipzig,
1862,p. 181 (fragment 73).
1
2
45
46
A . Philip McMahon
I. What definitions did the Greeks find most satisfactory to express their ideas of tragedy and comedy?
11. What definitions did the Romans find sufficient to express
their ideas of comedy and tragedy?
111. What definitions did the Middle Ages, in general, accept as
expressing proper ideas of tragedy and comedy?
IV. What definitions did Dante, in particular, accept as conveying proper ideas of comedy and tragedy?
V. What definitions did Chaucer, in particular, accept as conveying proper ideas of tragedy and comedy?
VI. What definitions of tragedy and comedy dominated the ideas
of Continental Europe during and after the Renaisance?
VII. What definitions of tragedy and comedy dominated the ideas
of England during and after the Elizabethan Age?
HE very words tragedy and comedy indicate an origin in the classical drama. Examples of drama, as well as other literary forms,
related to that precedent have also been called tragedy or comedy, so
that as dramatic and literary species with innumerable historical instances, the words have a definite meaning. I n addition, ever since
Aristotle, there has been an inquiry into the norm or type abstracted
from such instances, in an effort to achieve through definitions a
standard for creation and criticism; a struggle to reach an articulate
conception, with which dramatic and litzrary productions could be
compared. Finally, there has been an investigation into the problem of
what makes tragedy tragic and comedy comic, a search for the values
or essences which constitute the tragic and the comic whether in
drama, literature, and the other arts, or in the course of experience itself as directly observed. Thus it has been common practice to refer
metaphorically to disastrous events as tragedies and to ridiculous ones
as comedies.
98
A . Philip McMahon
99
based on context and historical position. But enough important citations can be produced to suggest that the ideas and definitions of
tragedy and comedy, ultimately derived from Aristotle's dialogue
On Poets, have ever since dominated European thought and language.
They have indeed become commonplaces. Accordingly, the broad
answer to the seven questions asked a t the beginning of this article is:
Definitiom ultimately derivedfrom Aristotle's dialogue On Poets.' These
questions will be treated separately in the order given and the relation
of the answers to Aristotle indicated.
We might, I believe, go even further and ask two additional questions in the light of the evidence here put forward in satisfying those
seven questions. We might ask, first: Are the prevailing modern definitions of tragedy and comedy Aristotelian? And second: I s the modern
interpretation of Aristotle's definition of tragedy in the Poetics Aristotelian? The weight of the testimony would compel us to reply to
both questions in the negative. But that is a separate matter and must
await a later opportunity for discussion.
In an article published in Volume XXVIII of the present Studies
(1917)'I undertook to examine the conclusion, accepted by scholarly
opinion since the Renaissance, that Aristotle's treatise known as the
Poetics originally consisted of two books, of which one containing a
discussion of comedy is now lost.2 I t seems to me that sufficient proof
The effort to discover traces of the Poetics in subsequent references of classicaI
literature to tragedy and comedy has been seriously pursued in but a few instances.
Numerous modern scholars have shown the general Peripatetic origin of both the
Poetics and the standard classical definitions of the dramatic species, whose historical origin I have attributed in my previous article in the IZarvard Studies (vol.
X X V I I I ) , to the dialogue On Poets. But to show the direct influence of the Poetics
generally throughout antiquity requires a theory constructed in advance to include
the statements whose relation should be the result rather than the postulate of the
discussion. Cf. A. Rostagni, "Aristotele e I'Aristotelismo nella Storia dell' Estetica
Antica," Studi Ilaliani d i FiEoEogia CEassica, N . s., 11 (1922), pp. 1-147, passim, but
particularly pp. 1 0 4 - 1 0 5 The "patrimonio quasi anonimo dell' universale cultura"
which, he claims, derived from the Poetics, cannot be proved on the basis of evidence
independent of such a n a priori postulate, but its paternity, as indicated in my previous article, may be found in Aristotle's dialogue, and its progeny is but briefly
indicated in the present contribution.
The thought that the present text of the Poetics is only the first part of the
original is k s t strongly emphasized through the title of Vettori's edition: Commen-
100
A . Philip McMahon
or reasonable grounds for such a theory can not be found; but for the
details of that investigation I refer the reader to the article itself.
Since that time no writer has demonstrated that there ever was a
second book of the Poetics.
The result of my earlier investigation, which I must re-affirm because
of misrepresentation,' was a negative one with regard to the previous
existence of a second book of the Poetics, containing a theory of comedy, and a positive one with regard to the dialogue Orz Poets as the
most probable eventual source of subsequent definitions of tragedy and
comedy.
The explanations of the grammarians Euanthius, Diomedes, and
Donatus, give clear statements of what tragedy and comedy are.
Their source is stated to be Theophrastus, and in all probability they
were ultimately derived by Aristotle's successor from the dialogue On
Poets. They are objective, almost empirical summaries of the charactarii in Printurn Librum Aristotelis de Arte Poetarum. Posiiis ante Singulas Declarationes Graecis Vocibz~sAz~ctoris:Iisdem ad V e r b t ~ mLatine Expressis. Florence, 1560.
(His translation, however, appeared before this, perhaps in 1552.) Vettori himself
supposed that the Poetics had consisted of three books originally, on the basis of
Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Aristotle's promise about ~ a 3 a p n r r . I t is hard to
understand why critics should not claim three books instead of two, if they are bent
on enlarging the sphere of speculation as to the contents of the Poetics. Cf. Petrus
Victoriz~sLcctori (in edition of 1573, signature b, lolio i. recto). "Sed v t a d opus
Aristoteleum, artemque hanc redeam, iacuit diu ipsa; & paene vndique; tenebris
oppressa atque extincta fuit. quippe cum e tribus libris, primus tantum in vita relictus sit: reliqui autem duo qui consequebantur, interierint: nec vestigium eorum
vllum resliterit." [Cites I'lutarch,life of Homer; Laertius, life ol Socrates; Aristotle,
promise about katharsis.] "quarum rerum vix umbra quaedam nunc reperitur in hoe
libro, quem in manibus habemus. praeterquam quod nullo modo verisimile est ipsum, accuraLum in primis doctorem, multss partes huius operis neglecturum luisse.
& eas quidem non paruas: imperlectumque demum id, atque inchoatum reliquisse."
h Rostagni, op. ril., p. I , n. I , says, "AfTatto insignificante i. il recente studio
di A. I'h. Mc?vlahon . . . il quale, sostenendo la tesi di un unico libro, attribuisce
a1 dialog0 n e p i T O L ~ T G Vt utto cib che si cita come appartenente al perduto libro."
Four years later, however, Kostagni published his article, "Dialogo ~\ristotelico
m p i T O L ~ T G U "(Kiivsta d i l~ilologiaClus.sica, LIV, N.s., IV (1926j, pp. 433-470, and
N. s., v (1927), pp. 145 ff.) Since my article did not make the comprehensive claim
which he asserts it did, as he might easily have seen by reading it, and since he himself years later decided to write about the dialogue, i t is difficult to see why that
article was affatlo insignijcante.
IOI
A. Philip McMahon
universally accepted until the last century. They are important a t this
stage because they are the clearest and most extensive expression of
those formulas. Viewed in the perspective provided b y other Greek and
Roman writers, what they report takes a logical place a s testimony to a
continuous tradition extending from Aristotle down t o recent times.
Diomedes states:
Tragocdia cst hcroicae fortunac in adversis conprehensio. a Theophrasto
v
~ 6 x g 7s r ~ p i a ~ a a c.. .s . Comocdia cst
ita dcfinitn cst, ~ p a y q 6 i ai a ~ i 4pwi'~Gs
privatae civilisquc fortunae sine periculo vitae conprehcnsio, apud Graecos
ita definita, Kwpq6ia i a ~ i vi 6 i w ~ i ~ i javp a y p h ~ w vh~iv6vvosacpiox$ . . .
in ea viculorum, id cst humilium domuum, fortunae conprehendantur, non
ut in tragoedia publicarum rcgiarumque. . . . comocdia a tragoedia differt,
quod in tragoedia introducuntur heroes duces regcs, ih comoedia humiles
atque privatae personae; in illa luctus exilia caedes, in hac amores, virginum
raptus: deindc quod in illa frequcnter et paene semper lactis rebus exitus
tristes et liberorum fortunarumque in peius adgnitio. quare varia definitione
,
r i x v s a c p i a ~ a a i sdicta
discretae sunt. altera enim h~iv6vvosa c p ~ o x ialtera
est. (Cl. below, p. 129, note 3, and page 130, note I.)
On the differences between the two dramatic species, Euanthius tells
us, that:
inter tragoediam autem et comoediam cum multa tum imprimis hoc distat,
quod in comoedia mediocres iortunae hominum, parui impetus periculorum
laetique sunt exitus actionum, a t in tragoedia omnia contra, ingentes personae, magni timores, exitus funesti habentur; et illic prima turbulenta, tranquilla ultima, in tragoedia contrario ordine res aguntur; turn quod in tragoedia fugienda uita, in comoedia capessenda exprimitur; postremo quod
omnis comoedin de fictis est argumentis, tragoedia saepe de historia fide
petitur. (Ci. below, p. 129, note 6.)
The definitions of Donatus are strikingly similar and respecting
comedy, he informs us:
Comoedia est fabula diuersa instjtuta continens affectuum ciuilium ac priuatorum, quibus discitur quid sit in uita utile, quid contra euitandum. hanc
Graeci sic definiuerunt: Kwpq6ia i a ~ i v( ~ ~ L W T LaKp a~y~p dVl )~ w v~ c p i o ~ l j
h ~ i v 6 v v o s . comoediam esse Cicero ait imitationem uitae, speculum consuetudinis, imaginem ueritatis. comoediae autem a more antiquo dictae . . .
had ~ i j ~s h p v shoc
, est ab actu uitae hominum quia in uicis habitant ob mediocritatem fortunarum, non in aulis regiis, ut sunt personae tragicae. comoedia autem, quia poema sub imitatione uitae atque morum similitudine
103
A . Philip McMahon
Of these, the first three are the principal ones and the rest are their
necessary consequences. I n addition to the grounds mentioned by
Spingarn, there are two others which are mentioned by the authors to
he quoted later: (5) the emotional effect; and (8) the moral purpose.
Of these two, the former is mentioned only occasionally, but the latter
is frequent from the start. The phrases of Theophrastus cover the first
three or principal distinctions. The tears or laughter as showing the
emotional results are not often stressed, hut the moral aspect is so repeatedly emphasized that this more popular parallel to the technical
phraseology of the Poetics offered in the grammarians' formulas, derived from On Poets, would tend to show that the katharsis clause was
also moral in purpose, and not restricted to emotional experience as the
principal object of drama.
I n the passages from the three grammarians cited above, apart
from the direct quotation of Theophrastus, elements (I), (z), ( 3 ) , (s),
(6), and (S), are to be found. But (I), (2), and (3), the essentials, are
contained in the words of Theophrastus; the additional tlistinctions are
either natural implications of the three fundamental points, or are due
to the contrasts brought out between the two species.
The elements noted by Spingarn and other scholars as making up
definitions or conceptions of tragedy and comedy in antiquity and the
Middle Ages recur so constantly that we can establish a common consent regarding the topic down to the last century. The explanation for
this almost monotonous similarity is a common eventual origin in the
dialogue ON Poets, clearly not in the Poetics. So varied are the contexts
and influences afiecting the writers to be quoted that their agreement
is most significant. To show this substantial agreement from antiquity
down to the nineteenth century is the purpose of examining the words
of so many different authors and reflecting on what they have written.
10j
One of the personalities whose influence was most important in disseminating the formulas of On Poets was Aristophanes of Byzantium,
the successor of Eratosthenes as head of the Library in Alexandria.
According to Sandys? "in scholarship he holds, with Aristarchus, one
of the foremost places in the ancient world." A direct line leads from
Aristotle, through Theophrastus and the Alexandrines, including Eratosthenes and Aristophanes, to the Romans, including Cicero, Varro,
and Suetonius, and thus to the Middle Ages.5 The Arguments preceding the plays of the three tragic poets and of Aristophanes represent
an abridged form of his introductions, which were founded on the reRepublic, X, 605 B-608 A.
A . Philip McMahon
106
'
I t was natural and usual for the rhetoricians to admire hfenander for the value
t o public speakers of a study of his style. Cf. James W. Cohoon, Rlietorical Studies
i n the Arbitration Scene of Menunder's Epitrepontes (Boston, I ~ I S ) ,who cites (p. 1 4 1 )
Quintilian, X, i, 69-71. Cf. also G. Icaibel, Comicorurn Graecorum Fragmenta
(Berlin, 1 8 9 9 ) , [CGF), p. 82: Hermogenes, n t p i ptOb60u b t ~ v b ~ q ~C.o s3, 4 , n t p i r o c
K O ~ L K ~XCyerv.
~ S
1 4 . i d e m ibid. C . 36. G q p w o p i a 6rhXoyos Kopor6ia r p a y w r 6 i a uvp?rbura
ZwKpaTrKb 6rb rrvor 6rrX+js pt066ou ? r j l v r a r X i K f r a 1
. . . ~ o p w r 6 i a s62 rX0Ktj
Kai
~ ~
ytXoia, ~ i j p
v i v x r ~ p i j vu w + p o v r r b v ~ w v ,~ i j 61:
v ytXoiwv ?rapapuOoupivwv KTX.
Ibid. p.
'Apruro+hvous ypappa.rc~oO
r b 66 6 p 6 p a K w p r K o ~ i p a vZxcr T j v ~ a ~ a u r p o + $ v .
7
(Argumentum Orestis)
~b 6k 6 p 6 p a r l j s ' E ~ b l j q s~ a 700
i r a p 6 v ~ ~6phs
~ t X t u r & ri,
r a p b v 61: 6 p 6 p h i u r r v i~ r p a y r ~ o cK O ~ L K ~ V .X$ytr y i p t i s T ~ rSa p ' 'AxbXXovos 6raX-
paror r b
107
TOGTO76 6 ~ B p ai K T P ~ ~ L K OK FW ~ L K ~ Yi K. y d p uup4op&v is t b f l ~ p i a v
'H ~ a 7 h X q t ~r isj s r p a y q 6 i a s $ eis Bpijvov, $ t i s ?rhBos ~ a r a X b e r ,6
...
~arjvrqutv
6 i r i j s ~ w p q 6 i a st i s U T O Y ~ &~S a 6raXXayis.
i
89tv 6pBrar 7b6e 76 6pBpa
K W ~ L K
~a
~ r~ a
Xjttr
~ a 6poiws
i
~ a kvi T u p o i Zo+o~Xious dvayvw-
ci?reiv ?roXXd r o r a 0 r a i v r i j r p a y q 6 i p e i r p i u ~ t r a c .
prupds K a r d 76 rkXos y i v e ~ a r ~, a ci?rXijs
i
...
T 6 6 i 6pBpb
A. Philip McMahon
tion and close analysis of all the passages which exhibit a reliance on
the traditional formulas. Those given should, however, serve to illustrate the persistence of definitions which we find most clearly recorded,
among surviving texts, by the Roman grammarians.
&K
&K
6 Tljs
109
G~pouievurs. e Z p q ~ a r6; n-apd 76 K & ~ ~W ar bi wiBrj, I u ~ 61i ei6os ?ror$paros Iv u&pars uard
p.
rep^-
Cf. Hilgard, Scholia, p. 18, lines 3 and 13; p. 20, line 7. Cf. Kaibel, CGF,
$ 62 IrvpoXuyia rjjs r p a y w ~ G i a sIuriv a t r ~ fj. BTL r p h 7 0 v kXdpPavov En-aBXov o i
11.
60ufiarov r b rGv b'pljvwv ~ 1 6 0 s700 yeXwro?roreiv, i j oiovti rerpaywvwr6ia. oi y d p xopntrai airrijv Iv rerpay&vwr u x r j p a r ~iurhpevoc
r d T ~ TU ~ C L ~ L K~ ~? ~~ CU ~ E ~ R Y U YKTX.
TO,
5 Raibel, CGF, p. 1 2 , note: "a dextra adscripsi dissertatiunculam IIepi rjjs
in editione Aldina."
6 Raibel, CGF, p. 14, line 45: uai rjjs piv r p a r w ~ 6 i a snuon-br r b cis Bpijvov urvijoa~
Oiov, $ 62 uwpwr6ia uuviu77)urv.
Cf. IIilgard, Scholia, p. 306, line 15,for a somewhat different discussion from
s Iv 70:s brjpo~s$6eu@a~.*HpwCuijs
A . Philip McMahon
commentators, had nothing to do with the modern interpretation of
the ~ h o a p u ~mentioned
s
in the Poetics, a work which may have been
known to them, but was by them apparently judged to be unimportant. Codex C of the commentaries of hfelampus or Diomedesll states
the case for tragedy, together with some observations on the measures
taken by the actors to secure the proper effect of grandeur. The justification of tragedy, as will be seen, depends upon the moral edification
to be derived by citizens from seeing the evil which fell to the lot of
even great heroes because of their errors. Tragedy thus furnished a
warning against wrong-doing, to the spectators in the theatre.
Some of the remarks apply rather to the duties of the actors than to
the nature of the dramatic species, but as can be seen from the context
and from other passages already quoted, they did not preclude the
traditional definitions of the dramatic specie^.^ Possible reference to
o;v perd aoXXijs utpvbrgros ~ a iaqppivqs
i
@wvijs ~ L ~ O C ~ C Y O U706s
S
+was, ~ ~ L W T L K6;~ S
i
p t r d ~ ~ X W T ~O aS aoXXijs
i
~ i u r e ~ b r g r o~s a iXapbrqros
6 a o ~ ~ r v o p i v o vr sd ~ L W T C ~K ~a r ih
n a p t r u a y b p ~ v anphuwna. Aei 6i- y r v & u ~ t r v ,61.1 aoXX$ Gra+opd rijs r p a y y 6 i a s tiai rijs
~ w p y 6 i a sBTL
, $ pi-v r p a y y 6 i a nepi tjpwi'~Dvn p a y p b r w v ~ a n pi o u I n w v XCyer, ?j 6i- tiwpy6ia
i $ pi-v r p a y y 6 i a r d r&X1a t p i u @ a y b v tiai +bvwv i x e r , tj 6;
b a t j X X a ~ r a 1r o b r w v ~ a 671
~ w p y 6 i anepi hvayvwpropo6, ~ a 671
i r j pi-v r p a y y 6 i a iuropiav ~ a bi a a y y e X i a v E X E L
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i abXrv $ pi-v
r p a y y 6 i a FlaX6ec r6v plov, $ 61 ~ w p y 6 i auuviurqor.
Hilgard, Scholia, p. 17, lines 16 ff. Kaibel, CGF, p. 11: rpaywr6ia XCyerar r d
~ a AiuxbXou
i
r b v r p a y i ~ 6 vaoltjpara, I s r d 706 ELprni60u ~ a ;SO@OKX~OUS
i
~ a r ib v
yeybvaur
6 i 06701 Cai ~ b xpbvwv
v
rDv 'AOgvaiwv. r p a y r ~ o i6 i ovres ~ a i
TOLO~~W
V.
BiXovrts O@eXeiv K O L V ~ L706s rijs nbXews, napaXapl3buovris r i v a s cipxains iuropias r b v
~ aBptjvous,
i
tjphwv ixobuas n6Bg rrvb, EuO' are ~ aOavbrous
i
kv Othrpwi raiira &7re6ei~vuv~0
TOTS bpbut ~ a ~ Ki O ~ O U U L ~V ,Y ~ ~ L K V ~ aapa@vXhrrtuBar
~ E Y O L
r b dpaprbverv. ci y d p oi rgX1KOFTOL qpwes roiaGra E T ~ U X O Y , 6qXovbri d p a P r g p d r w v a b o i s npovagpypkvwv, nbuwi
pBXXov $peis ~ a oii K ~ B $pBs
'
dpaprtjuavrcs atru6ptOa; 6ei o t v , I s npoeipgrar, J s oTbv
r e Plov hvapdprgrov ~ a @rXovo@Irarov
i
p e r a 6 r I ~ t r v . ( a ' I 4 ~ X e i a ro6u r b v ~ O X L T DIU
j
i ~ 1 6 t ~ ~ v 6 p t 6v i0 T1 ~ $pi)wv
dJuavei 7 d aiirbv n p b u w n a
V
r b v 7paylKDv ~ O ~ ~ eiU7j'yc~o.
U L S
apDrov pi-v kaeXiyovro av6pas 706s pei{ova @wv$v Bxovras, 6ebr~pov6i- Pouhbptvo~~ ( a i
7 6 u h p a r a 6er~vberv $ ~ w i ' ~ Cpl366as
d
k+bpovv ~ a iip a r i a ao6ljpg. r a b r g v ofiv r $ v
r p a y w i 6 i a v 4 g u i 6eiv b rexvr~irs$ p w r ~ D sd v a y r v I u ~ e r v ,rouriurr p t y h X g i rijr @wvijr.
2 Kaibel, CGF, p. 10: kti rijs pipipews y d p Cvbpera 6eiwvvvrar r d h ~ a y r v w u e b p t v a .
6ei y d p r d phv rjpwir:d u u v d v w r rjji +wviji h v a y ~ v ~ u ~~t ravptji k ~ X e h l ~ p i v rq d~ ,6 ; BLWT L K ~T O U T ~ U T Lr d K W ~ L K
Os&&v TDLP ~ w Lrou:Curr
,
p~poupkvous y u v a i ~ a svCas t j y p a i 6 a s
r j 6c60r~brasr j h p y r ~ o p i v o u siivspas rj h a npCntr r o i s ciuayopivors a p o u I n o r s r a p &
M ~ v h v 6 ~ wij r 'Apruro@bvtr t j r o i s hXhois tiwpraois.
I Ir
the Poetics is seen in the Scholia Londinensia, but the use of the word
i i p p ~ ~ p odoes
s
not alter the fact that this discussion as a whole is
unmistakably Peripatetic and exoteric in origin.' A Byzantine commen~ S mean
tary refers to Homer for tragedy, and asserts that P L W T L K may
either censure or approbation, citing the life of St. Peter in contrast
with that of J ~ l i a n . ~
The gloss on ~ ~ a y ~ in
d ithe
a Etymologicum Magnum, as Kaibel
noted, is derived from the school of Dionysius Thrax or some writer
following that group.3
Plutarch discusses tragedy in several places. I n one passage he
cites Gorgias for a paradoxical remark on the element of illusion in
tragedy, which to many minds seems surprisingly m ~ d e r n .He
~ disapproves of the performance of tragedy in a way which seems to have
been standard doctrine among the Stoics16and he alludes to the pathos
of tragedy several times?
Hilgard, Scholia, p. 475, lines I ff.: [Scholia Londinensia in artis Dionysianae.]
r p a y y 6 i a kuri j3iwv r e r a l X l y o v $pwl'~GvZpperpos pipqurs i x o v o a uepvlrqra per6
(Heliodori) -- Z q ~ q ~ h o6kv ei ~ a ri d r p a y r ~ bCUTL B L W T L K ~ .
x h o ~ i j s rrvos.
+alverar y&p ra1 a i r d TG B i y yrvwo~6peva. K a i h e ~ ~ i o671
v ?rohh$ ?j Bra+op& sijs
s p a y y 6 i a s r a i 7ijs ~ w p q 6 i a s671
, $ pkv ~ p a y y E i axepi $pw'iKijv ?rpaypbrwv r a i ? r p o u b m v
Xkyer, $ 6& Kwpy6ia &?r?jhha~sacT O ~ ~ T W V.
K a i 6 7 ~$ pkv ~ p a y y 6 i aT & rCX1 xepl
a 4 a y G v ~ a +6vwv
i
Z X ~ L $, 6 2 ~ w p y 6 i arepi bvayvwpropoD. ~ a 671
i ?rbhrv ?j piv r p a y y 6 i a
hirer 7i)v Biov, $ 82. ~ w p y 6 i au u v i u ~ q u t v . . . Ara+&per 6e r p a y y 6 i a rwpqdias, 6 7 ~$
piv r p a y y 6 i a i u ~ o p i a v~ a di? r a y y d i a v Zxtr ?rpbEewvyevophvwv, $ 6k ~ w p y 6 i a?rXbopara
? r e p ~ k x ePLWTLKDV
~
~paypb~wv.
Hilgard, op. cit., p. 569, line 24: ~ w p y 6 i a v6; oi Lpxaibr $6yov r a l ~ e p i u u p p a
v
((PLOTLKDS))
Zheyov eivar. Eyb B i Xhyw, 6rr ~ a hi i $byow ~ a I xi l & ~ a i v oXappbverar.
O U ZUTL y d p Pies & ~ L K O S otov
,
6 j3ios
y d p eixev 6 rsxvrrls, T O U T ~ U T L V~ a s d76w ? K ~ U T PLOY.
TOO dyiov n67p0lJ Kahbs, 6 62 70; ' I o v ~ L ~K v~ oK ~~ ~S .
Kaibel, CCF, p. 16: spaywr6ia kuri Piwv ral h l y w v $pwrrGv pipqoir.
...
..
s p$ d ~ a ~ f i u a v r~aoi s6 b?rarq@eisuo+b~epos700
~ q v+)v
, 6 7' b ~ a r f i u a s6 r r a ~ 6 ~ e p oTOO
b?raq@ivros. Cf. F. M . Padelford, Essays on the Stz~dyand Use of Poetry by
clti
Plutarch and Basil the Great (Yale Studies in English, XV, New York, 1902).
6 De Gloria Atheniensium, 348 D. (Bernardakis, op. cit., 11, p. 463.)
Qua quis ratione se ipse sine invidia laudet (Quaestionum convivalizcm, VII,
7" E). (Bernardakis, op. cit., IV, p. 289.)
'
The Stoic attitude toward tragedy necessarily implies the tradiA MS. of the treatise in Florence is more properly entitled: bvwvbpov r e p i G$ovs.
Sandys, op. cit., I, pp. 288 ff.
George Saintsbury, Loci Cridici (Boston, 1qo3), p. 44
W.R. Roberts, Lotzgifzz~so n ths Sztblinze (Cambridge, 1899), I X , 15 (pp. 68-69).
"Longinus," On the Sztblime, translated by W. Hamilton Fyfe (Loeb Classical Library, London and S e w York, 1927), p. 154: rora3ra y b p ?rev r h r e p ; rijv roi,
1
Roberts hcre cites Cicero, Orator, 37, 128. (Should be 28, 128.)
2).
I 13
60~eire
~
T 6Lp i v
T i s Xkyer 7aOra;
LAX' 6 ~ 6 ~ fiaurXe?s
0 1
X k y o v u ~ . T i y i p eiarv &XXo r p a y y b i a c ,
4 bvOphawv
ahOq ~ e 0 a u -
T O ~ T O L S~ T ' J iix0toOe
H p G ~ o va i r p a y y 6 i a ~aap$xOquav 380-
TOTS a p c i y p a u r v y i r p o h x l BupoDuOar.
Piov Oepirerv B o r e ~ + ? r r p o v u r k x v v .
A. Philip &fciMahon
114
K&&Z~ULS
of the
115
A. P h i l i p M c M a h o n
116
pwr6ias 6 r 1
pkv r p a y W c 6 i a i u r o p i a v
ijstl y l v o p k v a s
~ X B LI C ~ b; z a y y t A . i a v
z p h t t w v yevopkvwv,
a b r b s , $ 6 k Kwpwc6ia z X h u p a r a z t p c i x e r
3V s
P L WLKGV
~ zpaypbr~v.
K W ~ W L ~ ~ ~ S
t i s ykXwra.
3 Rutherford, Starkie, and Cooper. Cf. Cooper, Aristotelian Theory of Comedy
(New Yorlr, 19221, pp. 10ff., 224 ff.
l
pcylb'ous
4 Kaibel, CGF, p. 50. tiwpwc6ia & u r i p i p q u ~ si r p b t t w s yeXoiou ~ a cipoipov
p a r t y i A w r a , r p a y w 1 6 i a s 6 l xkv8q riai u v p 4 o p b s .
KTX.
6 Lycophron (born c. 3goljzj B.c.) was responsible for the arrangement of the
comic poets in the Alexandrine library. His work on comedy, in eleven books, is
of such inferior quality, to judge by available fragments, that it may well have been
the pedantic source of much that is unprofitable and confusing in Tzetzes and the
Tr(zrta1us Coislitiiiinrrs. Cf. Sandys, op. cil., I, p. 122.
Kaibel, CGF, p. 34.
8 Kaibel, CGF, pp. 34 ff.: IUANNOT T O T T Z E T Z O T Z T I X O I 1IEI'I AIA@O-
P A Z 1IOIIITON.
I I7
those critics who value his use of the word K & ~ C L ~ U L Sso highly.' He
frequently cites the early grammarian Euclid12particularly in connection with his own verses on tragic poetry, where he gives a definition
of tragedy of some interest."
Together with Tzetzes, the Tractattls Coislinianas is usually cited
by those who wish to discover traces of the survival of an Aristotelian
theory of comedy deriving ultimately from the Poetics. I n my previous
article in 1917I discussed the mechanical character of the Tractatus
and showed how i t fails to supply evidence unavailable to the keen
pedants who composed it from other extant writings of Aristotle. The
Ibidem., pp. 36-37.
~ X i j u r s6& 70;s uhpaaurv $v ~ p u y w r 6 i a .
xp6vwr G~qrpiOq6 i
~ w p w ~ d i ab vp a r e ~ a ~ ip a y o ~ b i a v
V ijvde
T?V p t u a ~ ~ h ~ q v .
~ a U i~ T U P L K ~ ~
73v K X + T L V
q5ipe~v.
a b e q Xkywv,
K W ~ L K ~
66S
aws y t k i j v
K O ~ W L ~ ~ ~ L S
i l p a a y b n v a ~ a ~ ia ~ o O p y o~ v a +86pou
i
76 Xotadv lj6paiwuev eis eh~oupiav.
0570 X h t ~pl-v
6 ~ p a y w r b i aDiov,
Daepoi 61 ~ a xljyvuurv
i
$ ~wpw~6ia
l j
b p a Kwpor6ia1,
~ a u ia r u p ~ ~uJv
dpoO u ~ u ~ p w x o7171
i s
x a p & p e p ~ y p i v q .
it
;v 6 E b ~ X t i 6 q s7~ ~ a X O
i L T O ~a 6 u o ~
Ibid., p. 48:
i a e i 61 ~ a X & sd v ~ uoiaep
a
iypb+q,
a~ovX
t o~abvT i T ~ X O7Sp a y w ~ G i a s .
pipqurs IjtlDv, ~ p b t e w v ,a a t l p p b ~ w v ,
ljpwr~oO7p6aov
uepvoxpemjs
~t
~ i j spayw~8ias,
~t
~ a b~qppkvq.
i
119
Terence not only brought over Greek themes and presented them to
Latin audiences; he brought over the idea of comedy as representing
PLWTLKGS.A phrase ascribed to Cicero by Donatus is similar to the
1
58 ff.:
teneo quid animi uostri super hac re siet:
A . Philip McMnhon
idea given in the Adelphoe,' and it is not unlikely that Menander, receiving the formula from Theophrastus, passed it on also to Terence.
The moral justification of comedy here briefly indicated became an
essential part of dramatic theory in the Renaissance, and it was vigorously used to entrench comedy against the puritan^.^
12 I
His works display Peripatetic ideas but no influence from the Poetics.l
St. Xugustine cites phrases similar to those preserved by Donatus as
found in C i c e r ~ .The
~ idea is repeated in Cicero's oration Pro Sento
Roscio.The public speaker's interest in the diction of drama finds frequent excression i n C i ~ e r o . ~
I 23
read chiefly as a technical manual for poets,' developing more conspicuously the aim of Aristotle's Poetics in this r e ~ p e c t . ~
Ovid in the Tristia refers to the style of tragedy and in the Amores
describes tragedy in a way that may have influenced Milton's I1 Penseroso?
1 Ars Poetica, 11. 89 ff., zzoff., 275 ff., are the passages which record Horace's
acceptance of the traditional characteristics of the dramatic species. There is nothing
of tragic purgation or purification; no apparent relation to the Poetics.
The utilitarian and pedagogic purpose of Ars Poefica is indicated by the fact
that it could inspire such a work as this: William King, The Art of Cookery, in
Inzitation of IIorace's Art of Poetry (London, 17097).
3 Vitruvius, The T e n Books on Architecture, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan
, I 50.
(Cambridge, ~ g r q )p.
4 M. Vitruuii Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem (Venice, 1567)~V, viii (p.
193): "Genera autem sunt scenarum tria, unum, quod dicitur tragicum, alterum
comicum, tertium satyricum. Horum autem ornatus sunt inter se dissimiles disparique ratione; quod tragice deformantur columnis, fastigiis & signis reliquisque
regalibus rebus. Comicae autem aedificiorum privatorum et moenianorum habent
speciem, prospectusque fenestris dispositis imitatione communium aedificiorum
rationibus. Satyricae vero ornantur arboribus, speluncis, monlibus, reliquisque
agrestibus rebus in topiarij operis speciem deformatis."
T. Rreiter, ill.fifanilii Astronolizica, I . Carlnina (Leipzig, 1907), V, 11. 472 ff.
(P. 139)Tristia 11, 1. 381.
Amores, 111, 2, 13. Cf. R. C. Browne and H. Bradley, The English Poems of
John Milton (Oxford, 1906), I, p. 276. (I1 Penseroso, 11. 97 ff.)
'
124
A . Philip McMahon
'
I2 j
comedy does nct become strangely dogmatic and arbitrary like some
modern psychologists and critics, but acknowledges the psychological
difficulty without declaring it solved.'
PLINY
Pliny the younger has a humorous reference to the garb of the actors
in one of his letters, where he calls one of his villas comedy and the
other t r a g e d ~ . ~
SUETONIUS
Suetonius, the leading immediate source for most of the later grammarians, is important as an inheritor of the learning of Varro. Parallels
to his statements are to be found in Dionysius Thrax and he survives
in the treatises of the grammarians.3 He is one of the sources mentioned by I ~ i d o r e . Because
~
Diomedes, Euanthius, and Donatus are
our sources for his definition of comedy15of tragedy: and his statement of the differences between comedy and tragedy,' these texts will
be discussed below.
SERVIU~
Servius, discussing Book N of the Aeneid, stresses its comic character, as judged by the current formulas of what constituted comedy
lectus, ad cuncta, quae praecipimus, effingenda sufficiat . i t s omnem vitae itnaginem
expressit; tanta in eo inveniendi copia et eloquendi facultas; i t s est omnibus rebus,
personis, affectibus accomodatus."
VI, 3, p. 7: "Nequeenim ab ullo satis ex~licariputo, licet multi temptaverint,
unde risus, qui non solum facto aliquo dictove, sed interdum quodam corporis
tactu, Iacessitur." Cf. J. Y. T. Greig, The I'sychology o/ Laughter and Cof~zcdy
(London, 1923), Appendix, pp. 225 ff., "Theories of Laughter and Comedy, A Historical Summary."
R. C. Kukula, C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epishlarum Libri Nooem (Leipzig,
1912)~p. 240 (Lib. I X , Epist. vii.)
A. Keiflcrscheid, C. Sz~etuniTranquilli Praeter Caesarzim Libros Reliquiae (Leipzig, 1860), p. 5.
hf. Manitius, Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur des Mittelallers (hrunich,
1911)~I, pp. 55-57. Cf. e.g. Isidore, Orig., \TIIl, 7, 5.
"eifierscheid, op. cit., p. 7.
Zbid., p. 8.
A . Philip McMahon
and tragedy,' for which he has been duly condemned by modern
scholars just as they have criticized Dante and Chaucer for participating in the same tradition. Saintsbury's comment2 is intended to be
devastating; ((So the Fourth book, with its steady rise toward the
hopeless, the helpless, the inevitable end, is paene rornicus. Certainly
the criticism is, from our point of view." This failure to understand
the difierence between all ancient definitions of comedy and tragedy
and nineteenth-century formulas is repeated even by C o l l i n ~ . ~
I2 7
which Diomedes ascribes to Theophrastus, as we noted near the beginning of this article. He then quotes Cicero, and develops the latter's
phrases in a way which shows their substantial agreement with Theophrastus,' and his conception of the dramatic species is implied in his
commentary on T e r e n ~ e .The
~ vast influence of the ideas of Donatus
can hardly be over-estimated; his presence is to be seen in the Middle
Ages f r e q ~ e n t l yand
, ~ his discussion was reprinted in most editions of
Terence from the Renaissance until a comparatively recent date. His
grammar, as is well known, was so popular for ages that his name became synonymous with an elementary grammar."
St. Jerome, the pupil of Donatus and the secretary of Pope Damasus,
had been a diligent student of Terence15and, as one might expect, he
poems sub imitatione uitae atque morum similitudine compositum est, in gestu et
pronuntiatione consistit . . . aitque esse comoediam cotidianae uitae speculum,
nec inuria; nam u t intenti specula ueritatis liniamenta facile per imaginem colligimus; ita lectione comoediae imitationem uitae consuetudinisque non agerrime
animaduertimus."
If what is valuable in the commentary of Servius is really derived from Donatus, the judgment on Aen. IV, mentioned above is all the more easily understood.
Cf. E. K . Rand, "Is Donatus' Commentary on Virgil Lost?" Classical Qzcarlerly, X
(1916), p. 158.
Cf. H. T. Karsten, Commenli Donatiani ad Terenli Fabulas (Lugduni Batavorum, 1912-13); P. Wessner, Aeli Donali qz~od Ferlz~r Commentzcm Terenli, I1
(Leipzig, 1905)~pp. 90 and 92, on Adelphoe, 111, 3,11. 61 and 75; Paul Rabbow, D e
Donati Commenlo in Terenlizcm (Leipzig, 1897).
Dante's estimate of Donatus is to be seen in the fact that he placed him with
St. Bonaventura among the Doctors of the Church, and refers to him in Par. XII,
11.137-138, as:
"quel Donato
Ch'alla prim' arte degno par mano."
'
A. Philip McMahon
expresses again the traditional definition of comedy.' And he cites
tragedy in his controversy with Jovinian to prove the wickedness of
wornanl~ind.~
I2 9
A. Philip McMahon
other species came ultimately from the same source. The definition of
tragedy stands between two passages which are directly attributed to
Varro, so that the genealogy of this definition is: Aristotle-Theophrastus-Varro-Suetonius - an unknown number of grammarians and compilers - Diomedes.
The definition of comedy is parallel to that of tragedy and involves
pointing out the differences between the two.
Thus in Roman, as in Greek antiquity, there was a consistent reliance on the definitions of tragedy and comedy received a t the beginning from 0 1 2 Poets. There is plenty of evidence showing the persistence of Peripatetic ideas in Roman literary theory, but this evidence
does not include any indubitable influence from the Poetics. The
formulas which were to be passed on to the Middle Ages were those
from the dialogue written by Aristotle.
Libero patri ob hoc ipsum imnlolabatur, quia, u t Varro ait, depascunt vitem; et
IIoratius in arte poetics
carmine qui tragic0 vilem certavit ob hircum,
mox etiam agrestis Satyros nudavit,
et Virgilius in georgicon secundo, cum et sacri genus monstrat et causam talis
hostiae reddit his versibus,
non aliam ob culpam Eaccho caper omnibus aris
caeditur.
alii autem putant a iaece, quam Graecorum quidam ~ p i r r aappellant, tragoediam
nominatam, per mutationem litterarum u in a versa, quoniam olim nondum personis a Thespide repertis, tales fabulas peruncti ora faecibus agitabant, ut rursum
est Horatius testis sic,
ignotum tragicae genus invenisse Camenae
dicitur et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis,
quae canerent agerentque infecti faecibus ora.
alii a vino arbitrantur, propterea quod olim rpb: dictitabatur, a quo ~ p C r v r o s
hodieque vindemia est, quia Liberalibus apud Atticos, die festo Liberi patris, vinum
cantoribus pro corolla~iodabatur, cuius rei testis est 1,ucilius in duodecimo."
1 Ibid , p. 488: "Comoedia est privatae civilisque fortunae sine periculo vitae
conprehensio, apud Graecos ita definita, hwpw8ia i u r i v i 8 r w r r ~ G v7rpaypbTwv &~iv611vos
i r s p r o X i . comoedia dicta &7r6 TGV K W ~ G Vh. i j p a ~enim appellantur pagi, id est conventicula rusticorum itaque iuventus *\ttica, u t ait Varro, circuln vicos ire solita
fuerat et quaestus sui causa hoc genus carminis pronuntiabat. aut ccrte a ludis
vicinalibus. nam postea quam ex agris Xthenas conmigratum est et hi ludi instituti
13I
A. Philip ilIcMahon
I33
One of the most popular and useful books of the Middle Ages was the
compilation of the saintly encyclopedist Isidore of Seville, in whom the
aim of originality was completely a b ~ e n t He
. ~ carried on the traditional
definitions as best he could, although etymology a t times usurped the
r61e of more difficult historical descripti~n.~
Among the most import-
'
Peiper, op. cit., p. 205 (Contra Eytychen et Nestorium, 1. 80): "At si noua ueraque non ex homine sumpta car0 formata est, quo tanta tragoedia generationis?
ubi ambitus passionis?"
Cf. various editions in the Harvard College Library; e.g., Boetii V i r i Celeberrimi De Consolatione Philosophie Liber cum Optimo Comento Beati Thome. [rqgo?.]
3 Cf. P. Mandonnet, Des dcrits Az~thentiques de S . Thomas d'Aquin (zd ed.,
Fribourg, Switzerland, 1910).
H. Dressel, De Z~idoriOriginum F o n t i h s (Turin, 18 74). A. Schenk, De Isid.
Hisp. de hTatura Rer. Libelli Fontibus (Jena, 1909). C. H. Beeson, Zsidor-Studim
(Munich, 1913). W . M. Lindsay, Isidori Eiispalensis Episcopi Etymotogiarum sine
Originum L i l n i X X (2 vols., Oxford, 1911). Lindemann, Corp. Gramm. Vet. Lat., I11
(1833).
His ideas about the etymology of tragedy may have been disturbed by his
literary disapproval of the goat. Cf. Etym. XII, I, 14 (Lindemann, op. cit., p. 74):
"Hircus lascivum animal et petulcum et fervens semper ad coitum: cuius oculi ad
libidinem in transversum aspiciunt, unde et nomen traxit. Nam hirci sunt oculorum
anguli secundum Suetonium: cuius natura adeo calidissima est, ut adamantem
lapidem, quem nec ignis, nec ferri valet domare materia, solus huius cruor dissolvat."
I34
A . Philip McMahon
'
135
136
A . Philip McMohon
small.' Too many of them are the result of courageous ignorance rather
than rare fragments of authentic classical origin.
The Glossarium Ansileubi, edited by Lindsay, illustrates several of
these point^.^ Glosses reproduced by Kaibel go back to I ~ i d o r ewhile
,~
etymology is emphasized in the Commentum Einsidlense in Donati
Artem Minorem4 The glosses developed before the general diffusion of
Isidore are the most apt to err.5 Interesting material of this sort is provided in the C o r p ~ sand
, ~ it is a comparatively easy task to trace the
sources of the mingled fact and fiction in most of the glo~ses.~
On the
whole, however, little positive evidence for the mediaeval theory is to
1 Cf. W. M. Lindsay and H. J. Thomson, Ancient Lore i n Mediaeval Latin Glossaries (St. Andrews University Publications, No. XIII, London, I ~ Z I )p., viii: "We
must banish from our minds the notion that each glossary is an isolated work, the
result of the learned labour of a life-time, the slowly amassed collectanea of some
wide reader like Bede or Lupus. . . . Glossaries are much more hasty makeshifts, the mere result of massing the word-collections that were available a t this
or that monastery and then re-arranging the mass."
2 Glossaria Latina, Iussu Academiae Britannicae Edita; vol. I, Glossarium Ansileubi sive Librum Glossarunt (edited by W. hi. Lindsay and others, Paris, 1926),
p. 129, 398, Comes(s)atio: cotzvivium meretricum; 423, Comicam: tragicam, satiricam, p. 568, 57, tragoedia: luctuosae relatiortes; 60, luctuosum carmen; 66, tragoedia: est quae res publicas amplissimas et regum historias continet; tragoediam autem
a Melpo[ejmene Muss assuerunt poefae inventam. . . .
3 Kaibel, CGF, p. 72: "Comoedia, historia tragoedia.
Comoediae, cantica
agrestia graece. Comoedia est quae res privatorum et humilium personarum comprehendit non tam alto ut tragoedia stilo sed mediocri et dulci. Comoedia est quae
privatorum hominum continet acta. . . . Comoedi sunt qui privatorum hominum
acta dictis aut gestu canebant atque stupra virginum et amores meretricum in suis
fabulis exprimebant."
4 Grammatici Latini ex recensione HenAci Keilii, Supplementum Continens
Anecdota Eleluetica, ex recensione Hermanni Hageni. (Gramm. Let., vol. VII, Leipzig,
1870)~p. 236: "Comoedia autem dicitur a Graeco, quod est 'comos' et 'ode.'
Comos enim Graece uilla, ode cantus dicitur, inde comoedia carmen uillanum de
uilibus ct inanibus rebus compositum. Orestes tragoedia. . . . 'Tragos' Graece
hircus, inde tragoedia dicta est, quia poetis talia carmina componentibus hircus
dabatur pro beneficio."
6 A. S. Napier, Old English Glosses (Anecdota Oxoniensia, vol. XI, Oxford, rgoo),
P. 93.
Cf. especially, G. Goetz, Thesaurus Glossarum
6 Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum.
Emendatarum, vols. VI-VII (Leipzig, 1899-1901).
7 J. F. Mountford, Quotations jrom Classical Authors in Medieval Latin Glossaries (New York, 1925), contains additional material
137
be had from the glosses.' Some of the inadequate ideas are to be traced
to E u ~ e b i u s .The
~ explanation in many early German and AngloSaxon glosses is also to be found in the original use of the word in its
metaphorical sense.
I t is difficult to distinguish between such collections of glosses and
the fuller dictionaries and encyclopedias into which they grew, but the
work of Papias is best treated as a lexicon. His Elementarium Docbut he presents
trinae Erudimentum drew upon the Liber Glossar~m,~
further data secured from Isidore, Diomedes, and Donatus, of whom
the last is expressly mentioned.
JOHN OF
SALISBURY
and UGUCCIONE
DA PISA
138
A. Philip McMahon
is classified into seven kinds, where tragedy and comedy are defined, in
accordance with Isidore. In the Specz~lz~m
Doctrinale, a section, De
poetis,' is carried over from Isidore, and chapter IIO is simply Etymologiarz~wzVIII, 7 reproduced completely.
JOHANNES JANUENSIS
The Catl~olicon,~
another store-house of mediaeval learning, by
Johannes de Balbis or Januensis, depends on Papias, and on Diomedes
or Donatus either immediately, or through such compilations as that of
Uguccione, for its views of tragedy and ~ o m e d y . ~
139
A. Philip M c M a h o n
. .
In these passages he uses the word with reference to his own poem.
Virgil, however, refers to his own work as a tragedy:
e cosi il canta
L'dta mia tragedla in alcun loco.
Inferno, xx, 112-113.
Dante's basis was almost certainly the Magnae Derivationes of Uguccione da Pisa,' gathered in turn from the Elementarium Doctrinae Rudimentum of Papias and the Etymologies of Isidore. Uguccione died in
1210, and although manuscripts of his work are frequent, and Du
Cange drew upon him; it was never printed, probably because it was
superseded by the Catlzolicon.3 Of the derivations and definitions given
by Dante in his letter to Can Grande, Toynbee says, they are ('taken
Uguccione seems
directly from Uguccione . . . under the word oda."
also to be the source of what Greek Dante knew.
1 Toynbee, op. cit., p. 97. (Reprinted with additions, from Romania, XXVI,
P P 537-534.)
Cf. Du Canee.
(Paris, 1846),
- . Glossariunz Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, vol. \'I
p. 633, s.v. Tragoedia, " Irouia, laus facta de ztlibus et fetidis, uttde Tragoedisare,
dictare, in Gloss. Bibl. MSS. anonymi ex Ugutione in Bibl. reg."
3 Toynbee, op. cit., pp. 98-99.
Toynbee, op. cit., pp. 103 ff. Uguccione under the word oda says: "Oda, quod
est cantus vel laus, componitur cum comos, quod est villa, et dicitur hec comedin,
- e, idest villanus cantus, vel villana laus, quia tractat de rebus villanis rusticanis,
141
E t per hoc patet quod Comoedia dicitur praesens opus. Nam si ad materiam
respiciamus, a principio horribilis et foetida est, quia Infernus; in fine prospera,
A. Philip McMahon
References to the style of tragedy and comedy are to be found in the
Convivio and in the De Vulgari Eloquentia? and they are in accordance
with the letter to Can Grande.
Since commenting on Dante was formerly one of the necessary occupations of most Italian scholars, and the reading of Dante is still an
essential part of Italian education, his use of the words was constantly
reconsidered and perpetuated itself despite other influences3 Scaliger
was to disturb many nineteenth-century critics and scholars by his
obstinate refusal to follow the Poetics blindly.
Not all of the commentators discuss the matter fully, but many of
them do, and a few will be cited here as illustrations. Jacopo della
Lana: for examples, states the differences in accordance with the same
authorities from whom Dante derived. Pietro, the son of Dante, explains the title of the work in accordance with the traditional theory,"
and besides citing Isidore and Horace, he quotes Boethius, who may
perhaps have also been remembered by Dante in this c~nnection.~
Francesco da Buti discusses the question with regard to Inferno XX,
113, remarking that Virgil calls his work a tragedy on account of the
style, the persons, and the progress made from happiness to disaster?
Giovanni Boccaccio treats the matter fully, including such questions as
etymology, style of language, and verisimilitude. He finally decides
that the poet spoke figuratively, but compares the progress from turbudesiderabilis et grata, quia Parndisus. Ad modum loquendi, remissus est modus et
humilis, quia locutio vulgaris, in qua et mulierculae communicant. E t sic patet
quare comoedia dicitur."
1 I.:. hfcore, Tzifte le Opere di D. A. (Oxford, rgoq), 11. C o l r i . I , cap. 5, 50
(P. 242).
De Vzclgari Eloq., 11,iv, 4 ff.
3 G. J. Ferrazzi, Elzciclopedia Gafltesrcc (5 vols. Bassano, 1865-1877), 11, pp.
431 fi.
4 L. Scarabelli, Conzedia di D. degli A. col comfncntodi Jaropo dclla Lana (3 vols.,
Bologna, 1866), I, p. 351.
5 V. Nannucci, Pelri Allcglrer.ii strpcr D a ~ t i sipsius Gelzitoris Cowzocdiam Commentarium (Florence, 1845-18~6) pp. 9 if.
6 G. A. L. Baur, Boetitts uttd Dante (Leipzig, 1873); R. R'lurari, Danle e Boaio
(Bologna, 1905).
7 C. Giannini, Commefzto di Francesco da Bzcti sopra la D. C. (Pisa, 1858), I,
pp. 7 and 531 fl.
143
I44
A . Philip McMahon
145
A. Philip McMahon
To this is added: " Glose. Tragedie is to seyn, a ditee of a prosperitee
for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchednesse."
Ten Brink quoted Dante's letter to Can Grande and thought that
Chaucer had thence derived his t h e ~ r y .But
~ since Miss Petersen's investigation,%weh o w that theory is wrong, as well as others which supposed the source of the gloss was the French prose translation ascribed
to Jean de Meung or the Latin commentary on Boethius formerly attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas. illiss Petersen established the fact that
Chaucer's source was the unpublished commentary by Nicolas Trivet,
which included those of Jean de Meung and the pseudo-Aq~inas.~
Trivet's theory of tragedy in his edition, with commentary, of Seneca's tragedies,%arly in the fourteenth century, was based largely on
I s i ~ l o r e .His
~ long note cn the passage in Roethius was kindly sent me
by Miss Petersen from unpublished material?
Chaucer's agreement with that theory is indicated in various passages of his own poems. For example, in the T r o i l z ~ sand Criseyde: s
Go, litel book, go litel myn tragedie,
147
148
A. Philip McMahon
The Monkes Tale, a t the very beginning, recurs to Chaucer's conception of tragedy:
I wol biwayle in maner of Tragedie
149
The same idea is found in his Fall of Prilzces,' and also in Henryson's
Testament of C r e ~ s e i d . ~
Throughout the sixteenth century Lydgate's translation of Boccaccio7sDe Casibus Virorum et Femi~tarumIllustrium was popular, and
thus served to illustrate the persistence of the mediaeval ~ignificance.~
I n 1554 we also find Hawes speaking of Chaucer's Legend o j Good
Women as consisting of tragedies4
Thus, in both Dante and Chaucer the Peripatetic inheritance survived in extended form, although they are the mediaeval authors most
frequently patronized by recent critic^.^ Such critics fail to consider
several obvious points: (I) There is a clear line of descent for this
C. F. E. Spurgeon, Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allz~sion
150
A . Philip McMahon
W h a t dejinitions of tragedy and comedy dominated the ideas oj Corttinental Europe dzcring and after the Renaissance?
I t would have been a unique event in the history of thought if the
general classical and mediaeval theory of tragedy and comedy had been
immediately abandoned on the recovery of Aristotle's Poetics, but such
an unparalleled development has been postulated by many historians
of l i t e r a t ~ r e .I~t is part of the exaggerated contrast between the Mid1 As Schelling, Hegel, Schlegel, and Schopenhauer determined the German interpretation of the Poetics throughout most of the nineteenth century, one finds
Croce dominating the Italians. Cf. liostagni, "Aristotele e I'Aristotelismo nella
Storia dell' Estetica Antica," S t z ~ d iIlaliil?zi d i 1;ilologiu Clussicu, N . s., 11 (rgzz),
pp. 83-84. I t is hardly necessary to point out the injury to historical criticism suffered from this cause.
Giuseppe Tofianin, La Fina dell' Cr~ancsinzo,T urin, 1c)zo, however, points
out that the systematic study of t l ~ ePoetics, codification of the rules of the drama,
and treatment of it as an inrpircd and uniquely authoritative document develop
conspicuously as a result of forccs active until the Council of Trent; forces wliich
after i t were directed to the study of poetry rather than theo1o:y.
151
dle Ages and the Renaissance. J. A. Symonds, to exalt the Renaissance, must correspondingly depress the significance of the Middle
Ages. Of the revival of learning, for example, he says: "For a generation nursed in decadent scholasticism and stereotyped theological
formulas it was the fountain of renascent youth, beauty and freedom,
the shape in which the Helen of art and poetry appeared to the ravished
eyes of mediaeval Faustus." But the break with the Middle Ages was
by no means complete or sudden, and the theory of tragedy and
comedy in the Renaissance and after was far from being an entirely
original or independent study of an inspired document, newly revealed.
The divergence of Renaissance theory and practice from the Poetics,
especially with regard to tragedy, has puzzled many historians, and
many explanations have been offered, including ignorance, perversity
of spirit, sheer eccentricity, and, more credibly, the aim of reconciling
Horace and Aristotle, or the slavish imitation of S e n e ~ a .If~ the mediaeval conception had been correct and authentic but too inclusive,
then the ideas of the Renaissance tended to err in being too restrictive
and legalistic.
Scholars were never entirely without sound theory of the drama,
even when they lacked the Poetics, and their renewed knowledge of
classical drama and classical grammar yielded, to their minds, confirmation of the traditional theory. The scholastic principles of analysis and classification grounded on Aristotelian logic and metaphysics
found a new outlet for scholars in the Poetics, a document obviously
exemplifying the same characteristics. Whereas theology and philosophy, had, for the time being, been thoroughly worked by that method,
the Poetics provided the generations immediately after the Council of
Trent with a new and fresh field, where there was no danger to the
faith and a splendid model was ~ f f e r e d . ~
Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed., I ~ I I ) ,XXIII, p. 86.
C. IF. Conrad Wright, History of French Literature, New York, 1912, p. 2 1 1 .
3 Cf. Toffanin, op. cit., pp. 1-2: "Nell' anno 1548, mentre a Koma si lavorava,
fra illusioni e dubbi, a preparare e a procrastinare quel Concilio da cui doveva
uscire cosi mutato e contrastante I'aspetto spirituale dlEuropa, un giovine udinese,
sceso a Firenze con molta dottrina umanistica, oflriva a Cosimo de nIedeci il
primo comment0 all' 'hrte poetics' di hristotele. L'animo del Robortelli non
sospettava - ne siam certi - che quella sua ambizione erudita, iniziava, per la
letteratura, l'eti del Concilio di Trento: ma il genio della storia aveva stabilito
2
The history of the editions and study of the Poetics has been outlined
by Sandys,' following Spingarn12and there is no need to repeat it here.3
The traditional theory of tragedy and comedy was, however, present in
the minds of most of the Renaissance scholars,4 and Lanson has shown
how reluctantly the traditional formulas were abandoned, if a t all.5
The classical authors read during the Middle Ages were not surrendered in exchange for the newly recovered texts, including the
Poetics. Convincing evidence of the persistence of the traditional formulas is offered by a study of the early printed editions. The pressure
of need for widespread approval is felt by the publisher of a printed
book even more keenly than by the editor and scribes of a manuscript.
When, therefore, the earlier editions of classical texts are accompanied
by the traditional apparatus, it is certain that this was no blind following of precedent but the response to an imperative demand.
cosi perch*, d a quel giorno - proprio da quel giorno - 1' ' Arte poetica' diventa il
canovaccio su cui una gente, preoccupata e offuscata da grandi pensieri e da meschini pregiudizi, tesse le tramc d'una scolastica letteraria e si prepara due secoli di
decadenza che si chiameri prima secentesimo e poi Arcadia c a v r i fine solo col
romanticismo."
1 Sandys, op. cit., 11,pp. 133 fl.
J. E. Spingarn, IIistory of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance (3d ed., New
York, 1~12). The Italian translation contains valuable additional material: J. E.
Spingarn, L a Critica IJelteruria ncl Ri~tuscinle~tto.T raduzione italiana dcl Dr.
Antonio Fusco (Ilari, 1905).
"413 indispensable aid in any study of the I'oetirs is: Lane Cooper and Alfred
the I'ortics of .:iristotle (Cornell Studies in English,
Gudeman, A Bibliogruphy
XI, New Haven, 1928).
4 Cf. Custave Lanson, "L'IdCe de la TragCdie en France avant Jodelle," Ren~e
dlIIistoire Litternire dc la France, X I (rqoq), p. 585, for Scaligcr's acceptance of
the traditional definitions: "On y remarquera surtout quc, chez Scaliger, la dkfinition de la tragCdie, la notion du sujet tragique restent traditionelles. I1 retient
toute l'idce que Cloetta a constatCe dans les glossaires et les sommes du moyen
jge," ctc.
5 Ibid., pp. 541: "Un des plus ficheus cffets de la distribution traditionelle
du travail entre les Crudits appliquCs au moyen 3ge et les critiques qui ne voient
rien au deli de la Renaissance, a CtC de faire croire 2 une coupure rCelle et prCcise
dans le dCveloppemcnt litt6raire de notre pays. Cettc croyance a entrain6 diverses
erreurs dans la representation du mouvement intellectuel du XVIC sii.cle. On a
commenc6 de nos jours i les percevoir. J'cn voudrais signaler et, si je puis, dCtruire
encore une."
153
I 55
Even Horace, who was cited by the grammarians for his derivations,
was not left without scholarly comment, and in the French edition of
1529, four authorities united to explain the classic author, quoting the
pertinent passage in Diomedes on the ode dedicated to Pollio, while the
Ars Poetica was made clear by reference to the same ancient source?
A. Philip McMahon
P O L Y D ~ RVIRGIL
E
4
, systematic treatise on tragedy and comedy was produced by G. B.
C a ~ a l iwhose
, ~
discussion is preserved in the collection of G r o n o v i ~ s . ~
His explanation of ~ t L B a p a ~iss still another variation on the most
discussed passage in the Poetics."e
cites the relevant words in
the Politics, and develops them to make it seem that Aristotle's
thought is a sort of spiritual d e c o r ~ m . Both
~
forms of drama are
essentially moralizing and instructive in nature; the difference
cording to the theory which the Renaissance critics built up partly on the practice of
the ancients, and partly on a misunderstanding or a t least a careless reading of
certain precepts in Aristotle's Poetics, tragedy and comedy were two perfectly
distinct species of drama. Tragedy deals with princes, ends unhappily, and is
written in a lofty style Comedy on the other hand draws its characters from the
middle or lower classes, employs a familiar style, and ends happily."
Paris, 1499
Lanson, op. cit , p. 545.
Floruit I joo--1525.
"ronovius,
Thesazsrz~sGraecarz~ntAn.tiqzril(~fzrnz,VIII, cols. 1598 ff., J o a n n i s
Baptisloe Casalii Rontani, Dc Tragoedia el Comoedia Lzsczrbratio.
Ibid., col. 1600: " D i ~ i t u rTragoedia ejusmodi personarum illustrium actiones
idcirco imitari, et spectatoribus proponere; u t contendat animi moerorem, ac
commiserationem concitare ad illas ipsas, quas commovet, perturbationes absterquendas."
"bid., "Adde quod saepe numero perperam homines dolent, ac pertimescunt
iis de causis, ob quas minus dolere, ac extimescere par esset: & cum in Tragoediis
proponuntur res cornmiseratione, ac terrore dignissimac, apprehendunt homines
quid et quo tempore dolendum, et commiserandum sit, quae utilitas et vitae fructus
est maximus, u t docet Arist. Politic. lib. VIII. sub finem."
7 An effective (?) argument about the didactic and moral value of drama was
made several centuries later by the critic who invented the term "Beaux-~lrts":
L'Abb6 J. B. du Bos, RtJlczions Critiques szlr la Po;sic el szsr la Peintz~re (3 vols.,
Dresden, 1760), I, pp. 424-425: I ' . . . je veux dire seulement que les PoEmes dramatiques corrigent quelquefois les hommes, 8: que souvent ils leur donnent l'envie
d'etre meilleurs. C'est ainsi que le spectacle imaginC par les LacCdi.moniens, pour
I 57
'
158
A . Philip McMahon
was also one of the first to emphasize the unity of time,' and to make
the epic a routine topic of scholarly criticism ."
For some reason, it is to be noted, Aristotle had not treated comedy
in the Poetics with the same elaboration with which he hcd discussed
tragedy, and thus when scholars afterwards treated comedy, they were
obliged to have recourse to a dull mechanical imitation of the definition
of tragedy in the Poetics, such as the Tractatz~sCoislinianz~soffers, or to
the traditional Peripatetic formula. The various difficulties of comedy
have placed later scholars, who accepted the verbal inspiration of the
Poetics, in an embarrassing position. Most of them have placed their
trust in the principle of cataclysm, like an older generation of geologists, and supposed that Aristotle did write on comedy in a second part
of the Poetics which has disappeared. A few recent writers have even
welcomed the Tractatus. But most scholars since the Renaissance have
bridged the gap by a judicious combination ol the Poetics with the
traditional theory of comedy.
et armonia, come la Tragedia; et imita una azione sola, compiuta, e grande, la quale
abbia principio, mezo, e iine; ma in questo e differente de la Tragedia, che come
quella fa la sua dottrina con la misericordia, e con la tema, cosi questa la fa col deleggiare, e col biasmare le cose brutte, e cattive . . . e per tal causa alcuni hanno pensato, che Dante nominasse Commedia il suo Pocma, percia che termina in bene, cio*
ne I'essere stato in Cielo fra l'anime beate; et altri vogliono, che pi;l tosto cosi lo
nominasse, per lo stile mediocre, in cui volea mostrare avcrlo escritto, percia che
ancora nomina Tragedia lo Eroico di Virgilio, per esscre in lo stile alto. E poi nel suo
libro de la Volgare Eloquenza egli nomina lo stile alto Tragico, et il mediocre
Comico, ct il basso Elegiaco, ma sia per qua1 causa si voglia, quel suo poema non
si puo nominar Commetlia, per non aver nulla di quello, che a la Commedia s'appcrtiene; ma essendo Dante nato in quella eta roza, et imbarbarita, chc non
conobbe ne vaghezza di stile Latino, ni? arte retorica, n? poetics, quantunque egli
fosse di profundissima memoria, e di ir~gegnoacutissimo, et elcvato, e di natura
quasi miraculosa, c fosse di quclla Teologia, c Filosofia, ct rZstrologia gi2 imbarbarite
instruttissimo, e ne le lettere sacre molto esercitato, e de le istorie, e favole Greche,
Latine, et Ebraiche dottissimamente informato, e de le cose de i suoi tempi mirabilmente instrutto, non potca per6 fare, che per lo difctto di quei sccoli, non incorressc in alcuni piccioli errori, come fu qucsto di nominarc Commedia la opera sua,
la quale (como ho detto) non ha nulla di qucllo, che a la Commcdia si richiede,
anzi pi& tosto tien de lo Eloico.
1 Spingarn, Literary Criticism, pp. 92-93.
Zbid., p. 109.
159
'
161
Capriano seems to be based on the Poetics, in the light of the grammarians, and much of what he says shows an advance over some of his
predecessor^.^ His observations on the epic have an interesting
parallel in the work of the French critic Pelletier, published in the
same year.'
non consentit. Quippe ille ab antiqua poesi non discedens artis poeticae normas
tradidit; hic autem uates, quod quidem permultam interest, cum maiorum tum
iuniorum poemata perpendens quaedam admittit, quaedam uero non probat. Nam
& ipse peripateticorum princeps ueterum philosophorum dogmata taxans antiquam philosophiam balbutientem nuncupauit. quod si a b eorum opinione in rebus
philosophicis quasi semper dissentire sibi licuit, cur & auctori nostro in poeticis
cum ipso semel non conuenire crimini dabitur?"
1 Francisci Robortelli Utinensis i n Librum Aristotelis de Arte Poetica Explicationes, qui ab eodem Allthore ex Manuscriplis Libris, M d t i s i n Locis Emendatus Fuit,
u t j a m Dificillimus ac Obscz~rissimz~s
Liber a NuRo ante Declaratus Facile ab Omnibus
Posset Intclligi. [Together with the preceding is]: Paraphrasis i n Librum Horatii q u i
Vulgo de Arte Poetica ad Pisones Inscribitur; ejusdem Explicationes de Satyra, de
Epigrammate, de Comoedia, de Salibus, de Elegia. (Florence, 1548.) His readings
were drawn upon in the edition of the Poetics published by E. A. W. Crafenhan
a t Leipzig in 1821. References below are to the edition printed a t Florence, 1658.
I n Libr. Arist., p. 52.
Ibid., pp. 52-53.
Ibid., p. 42.
Giovanni Pietro Capriano, Della Vera Poetica, Venice, 1555.
Cf. Spingarn, op. cit., pp. 42-43> 83-84.
7 Ibid., p. 211.
A . Philip McMuhon
Eleven years after the publication of Robortelli's edition, there appeared the work on poetry by lintu urn^,^ which he himself afterwards
translated into Italian? He insists on the appropriate endings of tragedy and comedy, in terms reminiscent of Diomedes, but he appeals to
the Poetics to establish his point.? IIis paraphrase of the definition of
tragedy is quoted, immediately after a translation into Latin of Aristotle's text, by Vossius, who with Scaliger and Heinsius was among the
most powerful critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.8
s
to be expiutio. I n the
hlinturno's equivalent for ~ h ( 3 a p u ~appears
Ibid., p. 191.
Ibid., p. 200.
3 [bid. p. 2 0 0 : "By this time, then, Aristotle's theory of tragedy as restated
by the Italians, had hecome part of French criticism."
4 Cf. Tilley, op. cit., p. 08, n. I : 'La\u
lieu des personnes comiques qui sont de
hasse conctition en la Tragedie s'introduisent lcois, Princes et grands Seigneurs.
E t au lieu qu'en la Comedic les chases ont joyeuse issue, en la Tragedie la fin est
tousjours luctueuse et lamentable, ou horrible 2 voir. . . . La comedie parle facilement, ct comme nous avons ciit, populairement. La trag2die est sublimc, capable
de grandes matieres."
6 A~zto~zii
.Scbastia?zi fifintzcrfzi Dr:.Pocla Libri Sex (Venice, 15 jq).
Antonio Schastiano fifinturno, L'Arle Poctira (Venice, 1564).
De Yoetcz, p. 1 2 j.
8 In Vossius, Ilzst. Port, 11, xi, z (p. 94 of 1696 ed.): "Imitatio insignis, seriaque
aliqua, & absoluta, 8L magnitudine quackam comprehensam actionern oratione suavi
exprimens: ita u t ejus partes suo sinpulac quidem loco, atque seormlm, adhibeantur; nec sinlplici narrrrtionc, sed inductionc Illorum, qui i t s agunt ac ciicant, u t
miserationem terroremque concitcnt ad id genus morborum expiationem."
1
2
'
163
Italian translation by his own hand, he notes explicitly that the ideas
of Cicero and of Aristotle in the Poetics do not conflict.'
'
A. Philip McMahon
prone to regard him as a false prophet or a t least a perverse pedant.'
Until Lanson pointed out the general sources of this energetic critic,
both his method and his influence were a mystery. The fact is that
Scaliger, in addition to his ideals of scholastic system and formal, legalistic classification, analyzed fully as much the traditional views and
their sources as he did Aristotle's Poetics, and the popularity of his
work on poetry was due to a favorable attitude on the part of his readers and followers toward such a method.
He considers that the Odyssey is more truly a tragedy than the I l i ~ d . ~
He criticizes the definition of comedy by the grammarians on the
ground that it would include other literature in addition to the drama:
but his objection that danger is involved even in comedy obviously has
reference to the grammarians' expression4
When contrasting tragedy and comedy, however, the points to which
he draws attention are precisely those stressed in the traditional formulas, and he utilizes the material provided by Diomedes, even to the
anecdote about Euripides and King Archelau~.~
And, in general, the
* Gronovius, op. cif., col. 1498: "De Comoedia illa quoque falsa Grammatici
docuerc: quia esset poema positum in imitatione, totum in gestu consistere atque
pronunciatione. Profecto nihilominus Comoedia est, etiam quum legitur vel
tacitis oculis. Quin gestus recitantium solus est: non omnes qui legunt, recitant.
Praeterea nimis jam saepe dictum est, imitationem univcrsae poeseos finem esse.
Comoediam igitur sic definiamus nos, poema dramaticum, negotiosum, exitu lactum,
stylo populari. Errarunt enim, qui Latinis sic definivere. privatarum personarum,
civilium negotiorum comprehensio, sine pcriculo. Principio aliis quoque fabulis
convenit, non dramaticis quac simplici narratione recitari possunt. Deinde in
Comoedia semper est periculum, alioquin esitus cssent frigidissimi. Quid enim est
aliud periculum, quam immincntis mali aditio sive tcntatio? Praetcrea non solum
pcricula, sed etiam damna lenonibus, rivalibus, & servis, 8r heris: quemadmodum in
Asinaria, & in Afost~llaria,ipsi quoque heri male mulctantur. Adhacc Praetextatas Comoediae nomine appellare nequeant ex ea definitione: non enim sunt privatae
personae. l'ostremo & Mimis est communis definitio, & Satyrae dramaticae."
"bid., col. 1498: "Tragoedia, sicut & Comoedia in exemplis humanac vitae confirmata, tribus ab illa dilfert, I'ersonarum conditione, fortunarum, negotiorumque
qualitate, esitu: quare stylo quoque diaerat necesse est. I n illa e pagis sumpti
Chremetes, Davi, Thaides loco humile: Initia turbatiuscula: fines lacti. Sermo
165
GF&VIN
GrCvin in 1562 thought that French drama was already able to display productions perfect according to the rules of Horace and Aristotle,
but his theory of tragedy shows faint traces of Aristotle and none of
S ~ a l i g e r .H
~ is theory of comedy goes back to tradition, and he repeats
the formula of C i ~ e r o . ~
-
A . Philip McMaholz
'
167
A. Philip McMahon
Iason Denores, who had commented on Horace in 1553, was apparently among the first to repeat the methods adopted some centuries
before him, by the compilers whose work is seen in the Tractatus Coislinianus. Lacking a definition of comedy in the Poetics to parallel
that of tragedy, he constructs a mechanical definition in the same patSpingarn, op. cit , p. 2 0 6 .
Ibid., p. 202.
A. Werner, JCUVL
de la Taille u n d sein Saul le F?irieux (Leipzig, ~goX),p. 10:
"La Tragedie done est vne espece, et vn genre de Poesie non vulgaire, mais autant
elegant, beau et excellent qu'il est possible. Son vray subiect ne traicte que de
piteuscs ruines des grands Seigneurs, que des inconstances de Fortune, que bannissements, guerres, pestes, famines, captiuitez, execrables cruautez des Tyans. et bref,
que larmes et miseres extremes, et non point de chases qui arriuent tous les iours
naturellement et par raison commune et. cet."
Ibid., p. 11: "Quant 2, ceulx qui discnt qu'il fault qu'vne Tragedie soit tousiours
ioyeuse au commcnccment et triste 5 la fin, et vnc Comedic (qui luy est semblable
quant 5 l'art et disposition, et non du suhiect) soit au rcbours, ic leur aduise que
cela n'aduient pas t,ousiours, pour la diuersitk des subiccts et bastiments de chascun
de ccs dcux poemes."
"bid., p 12: " E t voudrois bicn qu'on eust barmy de France tellcs ameres
espicerics qui gastent le goust de nostre langue, et qu'au lieu on y cust adopt6 et
naturalis6 la vrayc lragcdie et Comedie, qui n'y sont point cncor 2 grand' peine
paruenues, et qui toutcfois auroient aussi bonne grace en nostrc languc Franroise
qu'cn la Grccque et Latinc "
lason Dcnores, I12 Epistola~nQ. Horatii Flacci de Avte Yoetica . . . Inlerprelatio (Venicc, 1553).
169
Ibid., I , p. 5.
A . Philip McMal~on
Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, the theorist of the Plkiade, relies eventually on the Poetics for his definition of tragedy,' but his statement of
comedy is illustrated with original themes, while depending on the
grammarians2
Ibid., 1. 143:
Poetica per Acuden~iueGessinue i\ronlzz~llos Projessores (gd ed., Giessae Hassorum, 1617), p. 331.
Ibid., p. 335.
Ibid., pp. 337-338.
I I
Lope de Vega wrote an apology for the unclassic drama of Spain, and
his Arte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias en Este Tienzpo defends his own
practice and that of other writers of the time. I n his essay he refers to
the Ciceronian definition13and advises the reader who wishes to know
the rules to study R~bortelli.~
His essay concludes with a versified
loose paraphrase of part of the traditional f ~ r r n u l a .The
~ grammarians'
definitions could thus include Spanish comedy of the Golden Age.
A . Philip McMahon
\'ossius was the most indefatigable in his collection of material bearing on tragedy and comedy.' EIe may properly be considered the best,
as he is the most comprehensive, single authority for study as a representative Renaissance theorist and scholar. I-Ie compiles and codilies
all the data he could find in classical literature and the critical work of
the preceding c e n t ~ r y ..At
~ the head of one section he writes dfetl?odus
Scribendae Tragoediae,%hich might well have been used as a general
title for most of the Renaissance poetic treatises we have been considering, if not for the Poetics of Aristotle himself. Before giving Aristotle's
definition of tragedy from the Poetics, he gives his own, in which he admits purgation if desired, but does not insist on it.4 After translating
the definition of tragedy from the philosopher, he cites Scaliger, but disagrees with him on the necessity for the unhappy ending, and he offers
an ingenious explanation for the spectators' happiness in witnessing
unhappine~s.~
H e quotes Theophrastus's and Diomedes's definitions
Cf. Sandys, op. cit., 11, pp. 307-309.
Gerardi Joanftis Vossii, De Artis Poeticae 11-atzrraac Co7tstilz~tioneLiber (Amsterdam, 1647). Poeticarunt Institutionunt Libri Tres (Amsterdam, 1647); Tractatus
Philologici de Rhetorics, de Poetica, de Artium et Sciefztiarum Xatura ac Constitntione (Amsterdam, 1697).
3 Poet. Znst., 11, xviii. Cf. also: Compendiunz Artis Poeticae Aristotelis ad
LTsumCmz$ciendorum Poematurn, Ab Antonio Riccobono Ordinatum, & quibusdam
Scholiis Explanaturn (Patavii, 1591).
* Zbid., 11;xi, 2 : "Tragoedia est poems dramaticum, illustrem fortunam, sed
infelicem, gravi et severa oratione imitans. Quibus et finem hunc, si voles, adde:
a d affectus ciendos, animumque ab iis purgandum."
5 Zbid., 11, xi, 2 : "I'er haec vero tragoedia aepaiverv TGV T C ~ o r o i r ~ w
.rraOqp&~wv
v
~(rOapurv,purgare, ac leoare animum ab huiusmodi perturbationibus. Quale est quod
(ut unam e multiplici purgatione afiectuum memorem) homines videntes adversa,
in quibus jam olim inciderint magnae animae, facilius discunt ferre praesentia. Qua
de re elegantes Timoclis versiculos legere ?st spud Athenaeum initio libri sexti.
"Julio Scaligero lib. I , de re I'oetica cap. vi. definitur, imitatio illustris fortunae,
exitu infelici, oratione gravi metrica. Ubi illud probare non possum, quotl requirat
exitum infelicem. Plurimum quidem id sit; sed non est de obuip tragoediae. In
multis enim id Graecorum tragoediis non videas; u t postea dicetur. Quare d8erentia ei6o.rrords, qua difiert a comoedia, in eo consistit, quod graves actiones imitatur, eoque graves etiam personas assumit. Sed, utcumque non semper exitus sit
I 73
A . Philip IlfcMahon
comedy, but Vossius decides that the only thing that really matters is
the prevailing mood.'
I 75
Rapin was an influential critic whose work was translated into English in the same year that it appeared in F r a n ~ eHe
. ~ explains purgation
as the regulation of pride and hardness by pity and fear; and he also
1 E. F. Jourdain, Afz Introduction to the French Classical Drama (Oxford, I ~ I Z ) ,
notes the discrepancy between Corneille and Aristotle, but ignores the whole
historical development of theory when she says (pp. 12-13): "The broad distinction between tragedy and comedy Fas perhaps this. I n the thought of the seventeenth century tragedy dealt with ideal conditions, which might be foreign or
ancient, and much symbolism was used in its ex~ressionon the stage. Comedy,
on the other hand, was intended to be a picture of real life; and it is interesting
to see the transition of thought from one to the other. For instance, the ideas of
personal and political liberty, of honour and duty, are seen in their ideal aspects in
the tragedies of Corneille. I n the comedies we see the same ideas struggling for
expression in faulty natures and everyday surroundings." The distortion of values
and misinterpretation of classical theory and practice in her work are clearly due
to the influence of Brunetisre, whom she cites (pp. 18-19): "The problems presented in seventeenth century French drama may all be described as problcms of
the will in relation to reason and action. . . . And i t was his observation of
seventeenth-century drama that led Brunetisre to formulate his Law of the Drama,
by which this genre can be distinguished from the epic or novel."
RenC IZapin, REjlexions sur l a Poitique d'ilristote, et sur les O ~ v r a g e sdes Podtes
Anciens et Modernes (Paris, 1674); Thomas Rymer, Rejlections o n Arislotle's Treatise
of Poesie, Containing the Necessary, Rational, and Universal R u l e s f o r Epick, Dramatick, and other Sorts of Poetry. . .. by R . R a p i n (London, 1674).
The ethical value of drama was, however, seriously questioned, as for instance,
in C. Desprez de Boissy, Leltres szrr les Spectccles; avec une Histaire des Ouorages
pour et conire lcs Tht'atres (2 vols., 6th ed., Paris, 1777), I T , p 1 2 : "Le Th6atre
comique ne devint pas moins nuisible aux moeurs que le tragique. On en fit un
recueil de stratagkmes, pour faire rCussir tous les crimes, favoriser toutcs lcs passions, mknager toutes lcs intrigues, traverser tous les peres, maris, maitres, exciter
l'amour du libertinage, & le faciliter par le jeu infame dcs valets, des soubrcttcs &
des confidens, qui furcnt toujours dans la ComCdie lcs rBles les plus intkressans.
Zbid., I, p. 94: "Je n'ai jamais entcndu, dit &I.de Fontenelie 2 ce sujet, la purgation
des passions par le moyen des passions memes." 36id., p. 11, 385 (quoting SaintEvremond): "C'est inutilement qu'on y opposeroit la Doctrine la plus sainte, les
actions les plus chrktiennes, & les vCritCs les plus utiles pour produire cette purgation qu' Arislole avoit eu la simplicit6 d'admettre comme un remede propre i
arr&terles mauvaises impressions des Poemes 1)ramatiques. Ce RhCteur Philosophe
est i cet Cgard en dCfaut; car y a-t-il rien de si ridicule que de se former une science
176
A . Philip McMalzo?z
ascribes a similar moral effect to comedy, citing Cicero.' The popularity of Rapin and Rymer continued in England for many years, so
that this work is one of the chief sources for the ethical interpretation of
purgation in tragedy and a moralistic analysis of ~ o m e d y . ~
DACIER
Another French critic, -4ndr6 Dacier,* attacks Corneille for permitting the introduction of royalty into comedy and considers tragiqui donne sfirement une maladie qui travaille incertainement 2 la gukrison d'une
autre? y a-t-il rien de si ridicule que de mettre la perturbation dans une ame pour
ticher aprss de la calmer par des r6flexions clu'on lui fait faire sur le honteus 6tat
oil on l'a mise? "
Rapin, G z ~ s r e s11, (Amsterdam, r;og), xxv, p. 173.
"Basil
Kennet, T h e 14'hole C r i t i ~ i ~Itrorks
l
of Monr. Rapz'fc (3d. ed , 2
vols ,
T,ondon, 1731). [Preface is dated 1705.1 New title, 11, p 107: H i s RcjEectiorzs o n
rlrisfotle's I'reatisc of Poesy; z~bith a large Preface by flfr. R y m e r , Chapter xvii
(pp. zo4-20;). "Tiagedy, of a11 Parts of I'oesy, is that which :\ristotle has most
discuss'd; and where he appears most exact He alledges that Tragedy is a publick
Lecture, without comparison more instructive than Philosophy; because it teaches
the Mind by the Sense, and rectifies the Passions by the Passions themselves, calming by their Emotions, the Troubles they excite in the Heart. The Philosopher had
observ'd two important Faults in >Ian to be regulated, Pride and Hardness of
Heart, and he found, for both Vices, a Cure in Tragedy. For i t makes 3Tan modest,
by representing the great Masters of the Earth humbled; and it makes him tender
and merciful, by shewing him on the Theatre the strange Accidents of Life, and the
unforeseen Disgraces to v,hich the most important Person? are subject But because Man is naturally timorous and compassionate, he may fall into another
Estreme, to be either too fearful, or too full of Pity; the too much Fear may shake
the Constancy of hfind, and the too great Compassion may enfeeble the Equity.
'Tis the Business of Tragedy to regulate these two XYeaknesse5; i t prepares and
arms him against Disgraces, by shening them so frequent in the most considerable
Persons; and he shall cease to fear ordinary Accidrnts, when he sees such estraordinary happen to the highest Part of &fankind. Hut as the 7:.nd of Tragedy is
to teach Alcn not to fear too \veakly the common Misfortunes, and manage their
Fear; it makes account also to teach them to spare their Compassion, for Objects
that deserve i t not."
Chapter xsv (I). 219) : "Comedy is an image of common Life; its End is to
shew, on the Stage, the Faults of Particulars, in order to amend the Faults of tlie
I'ublick, and to correct the I'eople thro' a Fear of being render'd ridiculous. So that
which is most proper to excite Laughter, is that which is most essential to Comedy."
XntlrC I)acier, La Po&iiq~~-le
d'zlristoie, Contenant les Rdglcs l~csPlzrs Eracles pour
Jzqer dl6 I'oe~ne II&rozpt~e,el des PiPces de Thkcitre, l a Trczgtfdie el In Combdie, Tra-
177
A . Philip McMalzon
Gons&lez de Salas, another Spanish author of the same period, explicitly declares that he relies mainly on Heinsius.'
I n the Jesuit manuals of studies, the traditional definitions are continued down through the nineteenth century. The definition of tragedy
from the Poetics is given ior the sake of its ethical ihterpretati~n,~
and
the distinctions between the species are established in the manner of the
Roman grarnrnarian~.~
portancia para el pfiblico, el qua1 hecho 6 enredo se finja haber sucedido entre personas particulares 6 plebeyas con fin alegre y regocijado: y que todo sea dirigido f~
utilidad y entretenimiento del auditorio, inspirando insensiblemente amor B la
virtud y aversion a1 vicio, por medio de lo amable y feliz de aquella, y de lo ridfculo
6 infeliz de esto."
1 Jusepe Antonio Gong&lezde Salas (Xuena Idea de la Trogedia Antigzla o Ilzistracion Ultiw~aa1 libro singular De Poetica de Aristoteles Stogiritn, &!adrid, 1633)~
p 9, note 4, cites Aristotle, "Caput 4. Edit. Heinsii, 'quam perpetuo sequimur."'
2 P. G. F. Le Jay, e Societate Jesu., Bibliothecam Rketorum Praeceptc~el Exempla
complectentem, quae ad oratoriam et poeticam fac~rltatem pfrtinent, et cet , ed. J. A.
Amar (Paris, 1809) 11, p 3 1 . Tragoedza deJinitur ab Aristolcle (Poet c. 6 ) . . .
"Denique, per misericordiam ac metum animum purgat ac levat a b ejusmodi per
turbationibus. Designatum hic habcs Tragoediae finem, quae res atroces exhibendas suscipit, u t pravis animorum motibus medeatur. . . ." Ibid., 11, p. 46:
" Haec pcrro durn subjicit oculis gravissimas calamitates, in quas illustres viri,
errore lapsi potius quam culpa sua: incidere, misericordiam et metum naturaliter
in nobis excitat, eosdemque interim reprimit motus et coercet. Docet enim non
mod0 ferre praesentia, quae leviora sunt gravibus malis quorum miserescimus, sed
animum praeparat ad similes casus, si forte contigerint, constanter tolerantlos."
3 Ibid., p. 51: "Uicitur primo Imitatio actionis communis, per quotl Comoetlia
a Tragoedia distinguitur: neque enim imitatur res illustres ac terribiles, ut Tragoedia, neque admirabiles ac prodigiosas; non luctus, non exilia, non caedes, sed
civiles et privatas actiones, u t Juvenum curas, avaritiam Senum, fraudes Servorum;
et similes, quae alios solicitudine, alios laetitia afficiant. Neque etiam Principes,
Keges, Heroas, sed tenuiores atque humiles personas in scenam inducit.
"Dicitur secundo repraesentare vitae privatae imaginem non sine salibus et
jocis, qua in re multum etiam differt a Tragoedia. Haec enim gravissimas animorum
perturbationes, quales sunt misericordia ac metus, movet: illa sectatur unam oblec-
THE
I 79
THEATRE
181
182
A. Philip McMaholz
S u p r a O?ilncs
L . Tuscanz~~rz,
G. Gcsnerum,
Ediliones in hoc A n n o cz: Variis. . . . G. Bz~daczl?i~,
fI. Izmzunz, R Constantizl?n, l o . Ilartingtlm, M a r . IIoppcn~?n,Gizrl X y l a ~ i d r u n ~
(Basel, 1577).
Diccionario dc la Lerzgua Castclla?za. Con;pl~estopor la Real Acaden:ia Espaliola
(Madrid, 1729) s. v. comedia and tragedia.
6 Lrocabolario degli Accadctizici d d l a Crusca.
Quinta impressione (T;lorence,
1875), p. 204, s. v. "Commcdia. Sorta d i componinzento dranznzaiico; i n prosa o anche
183
ian dictionary still current is also content with mediaeval sources for
tragedy.' The Dictiotz~zairede l'Acad6mie Fran~aise,(Paris 1878, 7th
ed.) agrees word for word with the Nouveau Dictiolrnoire National de la
Langue Fralz~aise,par Bescherelle AinC (Paris, 1887), and the definitions common to both are the traditional o n e s . V n English, Richardson's dictionary refers the reader to V o s ~ i u s . ~
Without pursuing this line of research further, it may be said that
practically the whole weight of lexicographical authority, from the be-
i n verso, nel quale s i rappresentano per lo pizi fatti e personaggi della vita privata. H a
esito quasi se~nprelieto, e intende, mediante i l ridicolo, a correggere i vizj e i dqetti degli
uomini. . . . Segn. B. Poet. volg. 288: La commedia . . . 5 una imitazion di cose cattive; ma non gii che abbino il sommo grado della cattivitii: ma & una imitazione di
quella parte ridiculx, che contien la brutezza. . . . I. Consmedia dicevasi, second0 la
opinione espressa da Dante nel libro De vulgari eloquio, Qualunque componimento i n
lingua volgare, i n quanto che questa non si credeva atta a trattare se non soggetfliumili o
mezzani."
3 Dizionario della Lingua Italialza.
Nuovamente compilato dai signori Nicoli,
Tommaseo e Bernardo Bellini. (Turin, 1879), p. 1535. S.V."Tragedia. Poemarappresentative, che 1 imitazione di azione grande, fatta da personaggi illustri, con parlar
grave, e che ha dolorosa catastrofe. . . . But. Purg. 2 2 . 2. Tragedia i: canto in sublimo
stilo, e tratta de' principi, ed ha felice principio, ed infelice fine. Dante I n f . 20. Euripolo ebbe nome, e cosi'l canta L'alta mia Tragedia in alcun loco. .. . But. iui: Dice
Virgilio, chela sua Eneide 5 alta tragedia. Questo finge Dante per dimostrare che in
alto stilo & fatta, e che si d?e chiamare tragedia, perche tratta de' fatti dei principi, e
incomincia dalle cose liete, e finisce nelle triste e avverse. D. Volg. Eloq. 2.4. Per la
tragedia intendo lo stilo superiore; per la commedia l'inferiore. Galat. 25. Per tal
cagione egli affermava essere state da principio trovate le dolorose favole, che si chiamaron tragedie, acciocchi?raccontate, ne' teatri, come in quel tempo si costumava di
fare, tirassero le lagrime agli occhi di coloro che avevano di cii, mestiere. Com. Boea.
2 . Nota che tragedia sono quelli, li quali scivono le geste luttuose delli re; onde tragedia 5 verso di grandi iniquitadi, incominciante da prosperitate, ed in adversitate
terminante."
"ComCdie. (Euvre dramatique, pi&cede t h t i t r e dans laquelle on reprksente
une action de la vie commune, et qui peint d'une mani6re plaisante les moeurs, les
difauts ou les ridicules des hommes.
"TragCdie. P i k e de thCLtre qui offre une action importante, des personnages
illustres; qui est propre 2 exciter la terreur ou la pitie, et qui se termine ordinairement par un CvCnement funeste."
A New Dictionary of the English Language, by Charles Richardson, London.
1838 (s.v. tragedy).
184
A. Philip M c M a h o n
ginning until our own times, has emphasized the traditional definitions
derived from O n Poets.
I t appears, then, that the definitions of the grammarians were not
immediately supplanted when the Poetics was recovered, but that the
traditional formulas continued to occupy men's minds. Until a recent
date, the printed editions of classical authors carried the same material
that had been popular in the Middle Ages, and even to-day dictionaries carry on the ideas derived from O n Poets.
VII
W h a t dejitzitions of tragedy and conzedy dominated the ideas of England
duritzg and after the Elizabethan Age?
In Elizabethan England also there is evidence that when a reliable
definition of tragedy or comedy was required, the same traditional formulas that prevailed elsewhere were relied upon. The evidence, to be
sure, is scanty, but no more so than critical discussion in general during
the period when drama flourished most actively, so that it is sufficiently representative. I n the earlier phases, English thought depended
on mediaeval sources, supported by Cicero and justified by its reading
of Seneca and Terence. I n later times it carried on the same principles
under the guidance of Sca1iger.l
Douglas had already called Dido's story a tragedy, in 1513; and mediaeval plays in the vernacular were often termed comedies. When
references to classical drama began, they were accompanied by the
moralistic defense, as in Sir Thomas Elyot, for in speaking of " Therence and others that were writers of comedies," he said that the mirror
of life which comedy presents does not instruct in wickedness but rather
serves as a warning to spectators."
Cf. Henry Peacham (Spingarn, Critical Essays of the Seoentecnth Century,
Oxford, 1908, I, p 128) who, in 1622 said: "Thus haue I, in briefe, comprised for
your behoofe the large censure of the best of Latine Poets, as it is copiously deliuered by the Prince of all learning and Iudge of iudgements, the diuine Iul. Cues.
Scaliger."
Douglas, Aeneis, IV, Prol. 264.
Sir Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, ed. H . H . S. Croft (2 vols.,
London, 1880), I, p. 124.
185
Galateo
According to Symmes, the first record in English of the idea of tragic
purgation is to be found in the translation of the Galateo. In this work
it is asserted that man has better cause to weep than to laugh, and
therefore tragedies were devised, that "They might draw fourth
teares out of their eyes that had neede to spend them. And so they
were by their weeping healed of their infirmities." * But it was long before anything more clear than this obscure reference to the purgation
became general in English criticism, and the traditional formula has
1 NED S.V.tragedy. 1598-99 [ E. Forde] Parismus I (1661) 68: "I fear he is destroyed by the treachery of that wicked homocide . . . who is not contented with his
tragedy, but also seeketh my destruction." 1535, Laytan in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden), 76: "To tell yowe all this commodie, but for thabbot a tragedie, hit
were to long."
Mirror for Magistrates, edited by Joseph Haslewood (3 vols., London, 1815),
I, p. xi.
Ibid., I, pp. 16-17:
For some, perdy, were Kinges of highe estate,
And some were Dukes, and came of regal1 race:
Some Princes, Lordes, and Tudges greate that sate
I n councell still, decreeing euery case.
Some other Knightes, that vices did imbrace,
Some Gentlemen, som poore exalted hye:
Yet euery one, had playde his tragedye.
EI. S. Symmes, Les D C ~ Ude~ Sla Critique Dramatique en Angleterre (Thesis)
Paris, 1903, P. 46. (Giovanni della Casa, Galateo of Manners and Bekauiours, Englished by Robert Peterson, London, 1576, p. 31.)
156
A . Philip McMahon
not yet been supplanted in ordinary usage. For this there seem to be
several reasons, of which the following may be mentioned: (I) A reliable tradition founded ultimately on Aristotle's dialogue, known
through the Roman grammarians, had already been accepted in England, and the Poetics introduced later did not provide a sufficiently
strong motive for abandoning it. (2) Whatever the Poetics might
suggest regarding a moral justification of poetry, which could be considered an intrinsic element of the definition of tragedy, there was no
clear parallel statement for comedy, so that critics were obliged to rely
on the traditional theory of comedy in any case. (3) Where certain
erudite men of letters and critics did expound tragedy in terms of the
Poetics, there was such difference of opinion on details, and such a confusion as to its real meaning and function in a definition of the species,
that it never prevailed as against the authoritative and accepted
formula.'
1 I n the Ragionamento di M. Agnolo Segni, Gentilhz~omoFiorentino, Sopra le
Cose Pertifzenti a11a Poetica (Florence, 1581), the difficulties of the katharsis clause
as an element in the definition of tragedy had been clearly seen and stated in a way
that is worth remembering now. Cf. pp. 47 ff.: "Nora la purgazione dlAristotile
come si debbe intendere, questo hP dificult2 non piccola. E' non E dubbio, che
second0 lui la Tragedia ci empie di passioni, di misericordia, & di timore: & questo
6 il primo fine, nel q u d e con Platone conuiene: ma non si ferma, & ne troua un'
altro pi& innanzi, il quale ? la purgazione degli affanni mediante que' due, & questo
? l'ultimo fine. Tutto questo ? chiaro & indubitato della Tragedia, ma non s'intende
di q u d i affetti sia quella purgazione, ni: in chc mod0 ells si faccia. Alcuni dicono,
che la purgazione i: de' medesimi affetti misericordia, & timore, si che la Tragedia
de' medesimi empia prima l'animo nostro, Sr poi lo voti: & hanno loro ragioni.
Altri, che la purgazione sia pur de' medesimi misericordia, & timore, ma non in
tutto estirpazione, ma moderazione: che la Tragedia modera, & diminuisce in noi
questi due affetti, & mediante questi gli altri simili h loro. N6 l'una, n? l'altra interpretazione si pui, accettare per le ragioni, che vdirete: ma prima vi voglio dire
come intende breuemente tutta questa purgazione. hfediante la misericordia, e'l
timore si fa purgazione in noi, dice Aristotile, d'dtri afietti, di quali? di qucgli,
dico, che sono contrarij 2 que' due: & che 2 loro siano altri contrarij, che non possono con loro stare insieme, i. manifesto in Aristotile nella Kettorica: & che l'uno
affetto cacci l'dtro, egli meclesimo lo manifesta nel medesimo libro. h l a diccndo
lui (di tali affetti) vuol dire d'dtrui simili 2 questi, simili, perche tutti sono affetti,
et passioni dell' appetito: che se hauesse inteso i due nominari, harebbe detto di
questi, & non di tali. I-lora mostreremo, che Aristotile non poteua intendere i due
affetti misericordia, et timore, che la purgazione sia di questi ni. nel primo modo,
187
In 1580 Thomas Lodge published his Defense of Plays against the attacks of Gosson. He asks: "What made Erasmus labor in Euripides
tragedies?" l On this the editor of the important Elizabethan critical
essays has a note which suggests Lodge's source in a characteristic edition of Erasmus's tran~lation.~Lodge cites Donatus and Iodocus
Badius for the etymology and origin of tragedy and comedy, and refers
to the "sower fortune of many exiles, the miserable fall of hapless princes" in traditional v e h 3 A little later he quotes Cicero's definition of
comedy.4
Gosson challenged Lodge to locate this definition in the text of
comments: "The fact was that Lodge had found the
C i ~ e r o .Klein
~
definition in Donatus. The strangest thing about it is that such a
thorough scholar as Jonson should have attributed the phrase to Cicero
twenty years later." I t would have been stranger yet if he had failed
n& nel secondo delle due interpretazioni predette." p. 50: "10ho sempre inteso &
sperimentato, che il fare qualunque cosa pib volte, & l'auuezzarsi 2 fare i: causa,
che poi si ritorna a1 somigliante, che il fare insegna fare, & si fa venire dietro sempre
il medesimo. A questo Assioma fermissimo, & verissimo contradice quella opinione,
che vuole, che auuezzandoci noi nella Tragedia 2 piangere, poi non piangiamo, b
moderatamente piangiamo secondo l'altra, & che'l timore ci faccia sicuri & arditi.
hlale V. A. il pianto asciugherj gli occhi, il terrore assicurerj, & l'intenerire spesso ci
pot& indurare; anzi tutto il contrario interuerrk della Tragedia. Per quella opinione rouinerebbe tutta la dottrina d'Aristot. morale, che sempre dice, che gli
huomini col fare le cose giuste diuentano giusti, & poi di nuouo fanno le medesime
cose giuste meglio che prima, & cosi in tutte le cose."
G. Gregory Smith, Elizabethar~Critical Essays (z vols., Oxford, rgoq), I , p. 68.
Ibid , p. 366; " E r a s m u s 'interpreted' or translated Hecuba and Iphigenia.
Lodge's reference to these, to Buchanan, and to Donatus suggests the idea that he
was familiar with a popular edition of T r a g ~ d i a eselectae issued by Henri Estienne,
printer to Huldrich Fugger (I j67, &c.), which contains the interpretations of Hecuba
and Iplzigenia by Erasmus (pp. 115-II~),the tract by Donatus De Tragoedia et
Comoedia (pp. 118-128), the interpretation of the Medea and Alcestis (pp. 129-133)
and of the A j a x , Antigone, and Electra of Sophocles, by Georgius liotallerus."
Ibid., I , p. 80.
Ibid., I, p. 81.
I n Playes Confuted (Nov., 1579). Cf. G. Gregory Smith, op. cit., I, pp. 369-370.
A . Philip McMahon
to use the phrase and to attribute it to Cicero. We have already seen
that the words are paralleled in Cicero's extant works, if not in this
identical grammatical form. Modern classical scholars accept the formula and assign it a definite position in collected fragments. The
weight of tradition for about 2 0 0 0 years was thus behind Lodge, both
as to the form and content of his quotation from Cicero.
IIier.
A comedy! fie! comedies are fit for common wits;
189
the familiar distinctions between tragedy and comedy.' These were not
merely iischolastic," as termed by Klein; they originated in the very
source from which scholastic philosophy gained i n s p i r a t i ~ n .Webbe's
~
account of the etymology and origin of the dramatic species is directly
from D o n a t ~ s . ~
I n Shakespeare, likewise, there is no divergence from the traditional
and reliable definitions. Bosanquet notes his acceptance of the ideas:
Coming upon the arena thus prepared for him, Shakespeare adopts a distinctly traditional dramatic form. He accepts the complicated organic structure of Latin comedy, with its five acts and separate scenes. He is more
careful than his crude predecessors to motive or excuse his violation of the
unities. He observes, except in the histories, with hardly any deviation, the
sharp distinction between tragedy and comedy which Dante applied so
strangely. That is to say, in the plays of which the catastrophe is not tragic,
the happy ending or reconciliation is absolutely complete, and no irrevocable misfortune befalls any character in the play.
Bosanquet's observation is accurate, with the exception of the word
"strangely" applied to Dante's use. I n that particular he is obviously
influenced by Hegel, Bernays, and other moderns rather than by the unbroken, authoritative tradition that extends from Aristotle's dialogue
Ofz Poets down to the popular usage of to-day.
I n Love's Labour's Lost (V, ii, 515)'~Shakespeare refers to Christmas
plays as comedies; in the same play (V, ii, 950-952) he speaks of the
G. Gregory Smith, op. cit., p. 249; William Webbe, Of English Poetry (1586);
"There grewe a t last to be a greater diuersitye betweene Tragedy wryters and
Comedy wryters, the one expressing onely sorrowful1 and lamentable Hystories,
bringing in the persons of Gods and Goddesses, Kynges and Queenes, and great
states, whose partes were cheefely to expresse most miserable calamities and
dreadful1 chaunces, which increased worse and worse, tyll they came to the most
wofull plight that might be deuised. The Comedies, on the other side, were directed
to a contrary ende, which, beginning doubtfully, drewe to some trouble or turmoyle, and by some lucky chaunce alwayes ended to the ioy and appeasement of
all parties."
Klein, op. cit., p. 20.
G. Gregory Smith, op. cit., I, pp. 245-249.
Ibid., p. 315.
190
A . Philip McMahom
The most important reference is, however, in fjravzlet 111, ii, 19-2,3,
where the phrase of Cicero receives perpetuation in English Literature:
. . . the purpose of playing, ~\rhoscend, both a t the first and now, was and
is, to hold, as 'twerc: thc mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own fcature, scorn hcr own image, and the very age and body of the time his form
and pressure."
The example of Shakespeare has given pause to many critics, whose
minds are naturally filled with the definition of tragedy found in the
Poetics, but interpreted by the mid-nineteenth century. Some of the
most acute have fairly acknowledged the bearing of Shakespeare's historical background on his conceptions, as for example, A. C. Bradley,
who points out that for the poet tragedy is "essentially a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death." EIe shows further that i t
conforms to the traditional view: "The suffering and calamity are,
moreover, exceptional. They befall a conspicuous person. They are
themselves of some striking kind."
Again, he repeats: '(Shakespearean tragedy as so far considered may be called a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man in high estate."
Ibid., p. 8.
Ibid., p. 11.
191
[&I
The TVorlzs of Ben Jowson, edited by W . GiBord (London, 1875), 11, p. 17:
"Well, I will scourge those apes,
And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror,
As large as is the stage whereon we act,
Where they shall see the time's deformity
Anatomized in every nerve and sinew."
A. Philip M c M a h o n
challenges "these autumn-judgments" to define comedy better than
Cicero had d0ne.l The five sections of Jonson's Discoveries dealing
with tragedy, instead of being independent errors, as many critics in the
last century have judged, are a literal translation from the Dutch critic
I-Ieinsius, whom we have discussed a b o ~ e . ~
Milton did not deviate from the orthodox doctrine in his views which
are due partly to classical sources but also to the Italian theorist^.^ The
most important passage treating of tragedy is to be found in his preface
to Samso~zAgofzistes, where the famous definition of Aristotle's Poetics
is reproduced and translated: per misericordiam et metum perjiciens
talium ajectuum lustrationem." Spingarn correctly notes that Milton's
discussion points to a reading of Minturno, but he reads into Aristotle,
Minturno, and Milton something that did not occur to many minds
until several centuries later, when he adds: "both Milton and Minturno
clearly perceived that by katharsis Aristotle had reference not to a
moral, but to an emotional effect." Milton did perceive, in common
with previous criticism, that the phrase in Aristotle is best adapted to
purposes of defense against the enemies of the drama.6 He paraphrases
1 Zbid., 11, pp. 108-109: "Cor. You say well, but I would fain hear one of these
autumn-judgements define once, Quid sit conzoedia? if he cannot, let him content
himself with Cicero's definition, till he have strength to propose to himself a better,
who would have comedy to be: imitatio nitae, speczilunt consuctudinis, imago oeritatis;
a thing throughout pleasant and ridiculous, and accomodated to the correction of
manners."
Cf. Maurice Castelain. Ben Jonson, Iliscoveries, A Critical Edition. (Thesis)
Paris, 1907, p. xx.
Cf. Spingarn, Critical Essays, I, pp. 196 and 206.
E~tglishPoems of John Milton (edited by R. C. Browne, revised by 11. Bradley; Oxford, ~ g o z ) 11,
, p. 204.
6 Spingarn, Literary Criticisnz, pp. 80-81.
6 English Poems, 11, p. 205: "This is mentioned to vindicate tragedy from the
small esteem or rather infamy, which in the account of many i t undergoes a t this
day with other common interludes; happening through the poet's error of intermixing comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and vulgar persons, which by all judicious hath been counted absurd; and brought in
without discretion. corruptly to gratify the people."
193
the idea, saying of the emotions that katharsis is "to temper and reduce
them to just measure."
Another document in the controversy over the theatre was produced
by Thomas Heywood. I n the modern edition of his work the editor left
the Greek quotation in the corrupt state due to Heywood's printer,
without suspecting that Donatus was the authority for the definition
of comedy stated, although he is expressly cited a t the beginning of the
passage ."
,4n interesting suggestion in the discussion of the moral effect of
tragedy and comedy is provided by Thomas Shadwell, incidentally,
of course, implying the traditional formula. Tragedies, according to
Shadwell, are of moral benefit particularly to royalty, whereas comedy
possesses ethical value for ordinary people. But teaching royalty is
such a hazardous business that it is wiser to be concerned with ~ o r n e d y . ~
More significant, however, is the reference of Edward Phillips because the preface of his Tlieetrum Poeticrum is so much better than his
Ibid., p. 204.
Thomas IrIeywood, A n Apology for ilctors in Three Books. From the edition
of 1612, compared with that of W. Cartwright. Reprinted for the Shakespeare
Society (London, 1841), p. 49: "Tragedies and Comedies, saith Donatus, had their
beginning a rebus diuinis, from divine sacrifices. They difier thus: in comedies
tnlrhule~zta priwza, tra~zyz~illau ltima: in tragedyes, tranquilla prima, turhzdenta
zdlima: comedies begin in trouble and end in peace; tragedies begin in calmes,
and end in tempest. . . . The deffinition of the comedy, according to the Latins:
a discourse, consisting of divers institutions, comprehending civil1 and domesticke
things, in which is taught what in our lives and manners is to be followed, v h a t to
bee avoyded. The Greekes define i t thus: K w e G i a iarrv LBWTLKDV ~ a POXLTLLOV
i
~ p a y p b r w v& X L V BOYOS X O P O L X ~ Y . Cicero saith a comedy is the imitation of life, the
glasse of custome, and the image of truth."
Thomas Shadwell, Preface to T h e tlumorists, A Comedy (1617) (Spingarn,
Critical Essays, 11,p. I 54): "And in this latter I think Comedy more useful than
Tragedy; because the Vices and Follies in Courts, as they are too tender to be
touch'd, so they concern but a few, whereas the Cheats, Villanies, and troublesome
Follies in the common conversation of the World are of concernment to all the Body
of hIanlrind."
194
A. Philip McMahon
other work that the aid of his uncle, Milton, has been suspected.l The
phrase "passionately sedate and moving" recalls Milton, but the discussion as a whole relies largely on the Roman grammarian^.^
195
An interesting and amusing publication is the grammar attributed to Steele. Its prose is relieved by versified passages, among
1 [Rymer] Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Powie Containing the $ecessary,
Rational and Universal Rules for Epick, Dra?izatick, a d the other Sorts of Poetry.
B y R . Rapin (London, 1674), p. 124. Monsieur Rapin's Rejections on Arislotle's
Treatise oj Poesie . . . Made English by M r . Rymer. [In the Whole Critical Works
o j Monr. Rapi~z. Translated by Basil Kennet, and 0thers.j (gd ed., London, 1731),
11, p. 219.
Ibid., pp. 204-205.
Thomas Rymer. Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd and Examin'd by the
Practice of the Ancients and by the Common Sense of all Agw. (London, 1678), p. 140:
"Some would blame me for insisting and examining only what is apt to please,
without a word of what might profit.
" I. I believe the end of all Poetry is to please.
" 2 . Some sorts of Poetry please without profiting.
"3. I am confident whoever writes a Tragedy cannot please but must also profit;
'tis the Physick of the mind that he makes palatable.
"And besides the purging of the passions, something must stick by observing
that constant order, that harmony and beauty of Providence, that necessary relation and chain, whereby the causes and the effects, the vertues and rewards, the
vices and their punishments are proportion'd and link'd together; how deep and
dark soever are laid the Springs, and however intricate and involv'd are their
operations." (Spingarn, Critical Essays, 11, pp. 206-207.)
4 Rymer, A Short View of Tragedy (London, 1 6 ~ ~[in
1 ,Spingarn, Critical Essays,
11, p. 2271: "But besides the Alanners to a iMaguijro, humanity cannot bear that
an old Gentleman in his misfortune should be insulted over with such a rabble of
Skoundrel language, when no cause or provocation. Yet thus i t is on our Stage;
this is our School of good manners, and the Speculufn Vitae."
Rymer, Mofzsieur Rapi~z'sRc$ertions, IT, p. 112: " . . . he confesses, that
we have a Genius for Tragedy above all other People; one Reason he gives we
cannot allow of, uis. The Dispositiolz of our fiation, which, he saith, i s delighted zeith
cruel Things."
196
A. Philip McMahon
and of tragedy
are
7 Ibid., p. 227.
197
The Latin lectures on poetics of Joseph Trapp were apparently popular, for the third edition had been reached by 1736 and an English
translation came out in 1742.' He combines Cicero and Horace ingeniously in his definition of the drama? and his definition of comedy is
a logical expansion of the result? with the moral effect emphasized.
He also combines Aristotle and Vossius to secure a definition of trage d ~ . ~
In 1738 was published an interesting work on poetics by Henry Pem,~
on Aristotle, and of
berton. He sets forth a view of t r a g e d ~ relying
comedy depending on Horace and C i c e r ~ . ~
Joseph Trapp, Lectures o n Poelry, translated from the Latin (London, 1742).
Trapp, Praelecliones Poeticae i n Schola Naturalis Philosophiae Oxon. Habitue
(2 vols., London, 1736)~(gtl etl.), 11, pp. 153-154. "Drama hoc motlo definimus:
Nimirum quotl sit, Pocma cerbam quandam actioncm continens, et veram humanae
aitue imaginem exhibens, delectationis atque z~tilitatis:causa.
Ibid., 11, p. nor: "Nimirum, quod sit Poema Dramaticum, vitae communis et
privatae imagincm cxhibens, virtutem commendans, ti vitia qz~aedam,atqz~eineptias
h o m i n z ~ mperstringens, jocosa praecipue, sive lepida scribendi ratione."
Ibid., 11, p. 241: "Ex duabus igitur Definitionibus simul collatis tertia conficienda, Aristotelica quidem clarior, Vossiana vero perfectior: E s t itaqz~e. Tragoedia
Poema Dramaticz~m,illwtrcm fortz~nam,scd luctuosanz, gravi, et severa, sed vidctur i n
jzuunda oratione, imitans; ad affectus, praesertim Misericordiam, & Terrorem, ciendos,
animz~mqueab i i s purgandum."
Henry I'emberton, Obseruotions o n Poclry, Especially the Epic, Occasioned by
the Late Poenz on Lconidas (Lontlon, 1738), p. 21: "The genuine tlcsign of cometly
is to represent the true source of private enjoyment from family ariections, ant1 the
judicious choice of our acquintances and frientls; to shew the inconveniences
arising from imprudent conduct, and the irregular sallies of passion, together with
the ridicule due to capriciousness of temper, and other particularities of humorists:
tragedy on the other hand is adapted to form the mind to compassion, to give just
apprehensions of the uncertain state of human felicity, to set forth the excellence
of fortitude, public benevolence, and the other great virtues, and to inspire a detestation of the contrary vices."
Ibid., p. 23: "Whereas tragic and epic poetry relate chiefly to men in high
station, ant1 comedy or similar narrations reqard the busy part of common life as
i t is found in cities and large societies; so the true office of pastoral is to express
the cares and the amusements of the rustic condition."
19s
A. Philip McMahon
The passages cited in the foregoing pages are, of course, but a fragment of the available material. They are, however, representative and
significant. Further investigation would serve to make the relation of
the standard definitions to each period and author more precise, but
not to destroy the fundamental thesis of this article. That thesis is:
T h e definitions of tragedy and conzedy, ultimately derived fronz Aristotle's
On Poets dominated European tlzeories from the time of Aristotle down to
tlze Ronzantic nzovenzent. Both Greek and Roman literature show that
the Poetics had comparatively slight influence in determining ancient
icleas of the nature of tragedy and comedy, but the presence of the
standard definitions, the essence oi which is contained in the words of
Theophrastus, is everywhere to be found. The Middle Ages accepted
the same statements, and Dante as well as Chaucer did no more than
participate in the universal inheritance. During the Renaissance and
afterwards, both on the Continent and in England, ideas of the tragic
and comic, of tragedy and comedy, were not radically or immediately
altered by the recovery of Aristotle's Poetics, but continued fundamentally to depend on the traditional conceptions. I t was not until the
Romantic movement that any other understanding of tragedy and
comedy gained ground, and not until some time afterwards that classical philology, influenced by the Romantic philosophies, reinterpreted
the Poetics in a manner unknown to all previous ages and to Aristotle
himself. Even to-day popular usage and the dictionaries ignore this
Romantic interpretation of the Poetics and carry on the definitions derived from the dialogue On Poets.
1 William Cookc, The Elcmeuts of Drnn~ntirCritirism (T,ondon, I j 7 5 ) , p. 136.
T o supplement the suggestions made above, interesting material on the
study of the Poetics in the eighteenth century in England, is to be found in
John W. Draper, "Aristotelian 'Rfimesis' in Eighteenth Century England," Publ.
o f t h e Mod. Lung. Assoc., X X X V I (I~zI),p. 372.