reader to Dr. Beattie's analysis of the character of this hero, as drawn by Homer; Essay on Poetry, &c. Part I. ch. iv.

P. 147.

NOTE 120.

AND BESIDE THESE, WHATEVER

RELATES TO THOSE SENSES WHICH HAVE A NECESSARY CONNECTION WITH POETRY.

Here are two readings: τας παρα τα ἐξ ἀναγκης ἀκολέθεσας αἰσθησεις τη ποιητικῇ: and, τα παρα τας avayans, &c. but in both, the object, and general sense of the passage, seem to be the same, though in both, the expression, it must be confessed, is sufficiently embarrassed and obscure. I have preferred the latter, (which is that of Victorius,) as being, on the whole, the clearest *.

The senses that belong to, accompany, or are connected with, Poetry, are, plainly, the sight, and the hearing, as relative to the Os, or spectacle, in the whole extent of that term, and to the Meλomona or Music. When these are said to be Μελοποιΐα ἐξ ἀναγκης ακολέθεσαι τη ποιητική, it cannot be meant that the parts relative to them are essential to the Tragic Poem, like the fable, manners, &c. but only, that they are necessary appendages of the drama in its complete state, as designed for representation.

* In the treatise Heg airbnσews, the same expression occurs ή μεν άφη και γευσις ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΕΙ πασιν ΕΞ ΑΝΑΓΚΗΣ. "Tactus et gustus animalia omnia necessariò comitantur." Tom. i. p. 663. ed. Duval.

representation. This is perfectly conformable to what was before said of the Os; that, though confessedly, in one view, ήκιςα οίκειον της ποιητικης*, yet, in another view, ΕΞ ΑΝΑΓΚΗΣ ἂν εἴη τι μόριον της Τραγῳδίας ὁ της Οψεως κοσμο.

The drift of the precept is obvious. The decoration should be such as to agree with the rules just laid down for the manners. The scenery, dresses, action, &c. must be agμoттouTα, oμolaprobability, nature, and the costume, must be observed. Even the μinois BeλTiovwv, the improved imitation, has here, too, its obvious application. The squalid hair, and ragged dress, of Electra, must, as well as the oxangorns of Achilles, be a little flattered in the representation, and not too like, &c.

The rule extends, also, to the Melopaia, or the Music; which, from other passages of Aristotle's works, we may suspect to have been sometimes such, as sacrificed propriety, and just expression -the on, the gETOV, &c. to the depraved taste of what he calls the pogrinos spectators.

πρεπον,

It

Cap. vi.-" is most foreign to the art."-Transl. Part II. Sect. 3.

66

b Ibid. init. "The DECORATION must necessarily be

one

of its parts." Part II. Sect. 2.

• Σκεψαι με ΠΙΝΑΡΑΝ ΚΟΜΑΝ,

Και ΤΡΥΧΗ ΤΑΔ' ἐμων πεπλων.

Eurip. Electra, 184.

See, De Repub. lib. viii. cap. 6, and 7, p. 457, E.

459, A. ed. Duval. The contests (ayaves), indeed, of

which

It is probable that Aristotle alludes, also, to cap. xvii. and to the mistakes, which the Poet is liable to commit, who composes without keeping the stage, and the effects of representation, in his eye.

Though the Poet neither painted the scenes, nor made the dresses, yet all this formed one of the six constituent parts of Tragedy; fell, of course, under the direction and controul of the Poet, and was of the utmost importance to the success of his piece, at a time when representation was almost essential to the idea of dramatic poetry".

NOTE 121.

P. 148. ALL THOSE DISCOVERIES IN WHICH THE SIGN IS PRODUCED BY WAY OF PROOF.

Αι πίςεως ένεκα. Well explained by Dacier after the Italian commentators. Indeed, the very words of Homer, in the passage alluded to, sufficiently illustrate the meaning of the expression.

E

which he speaks in these passages, seem to have been merely musical. But the known influence of the same popular audience in the dramatic contests, and the caution given by Aristotle in the passage we are considering, make it probable, that even in the music of Tragedy, especially in the instrumental part of it, something of "the same accommodation might prevail.

Transl. Part II. Sect. 17.

See vol. i. Diss. I. Part II, at the end.

Ει δ' αγε δη και ΣΗΜΑ αριφραδες άλλο τι δείξω, Οφρα με εὖ γνωτον, ΠΙΣΤΩΘΗΤΟΝ τ ̓ ἐνι θυμῷ,

ΟΥΛΗΝ

&c.

Od. p. 217.

"To give you firmer faith, now trust your eye: “Lo! the broad scar indented on my thigh.” Pope, xxi. 226.

Other instances of signs thus used, not for the purpose of accidental discovery, but as confirmations of a voluntary discovery previously made, may easily be found. Thus, in the Electra of Sophocles, when Electra asks her brother, 'H yag συ κεινο ;—he answers

Τηνδε προσβλεψασ ̓ ἐμε

Σφραγίδα πατρα, εκμαθ ̓ εἰ σαφη λεγω.

Εκ περιπετειας.— Non valet hic περιπετεια, mutationem illam ingentem fortunarum, sed, ἐκ περιπέτειας, significat, casu, fortuito, et quia ita " cecidit."-Victorius.

So in the passage from Polybius.quoted by Suidas, under the words Περιπετεια, and Ευμένης : τυχη το πλείον συνεργῳ χρωμεν, ἐδ ̓ ΕΚ ΠΕΡΙ ΠΕΤΕΙΑΣ, άλλα δια της αγχινοίας. κ.τ.λ.

४०

Aristotle's using the word thus, adverbially, after having hitherto used it only in its technical, or dramatic, sense, of a sudden change of fortune,

produces

produces some ambiguity; and the more so, as the adverbial phrase, ἐκ περιπετειας, seems not to be of very common occurrence. Heinsius, taking TEPITETE in the dramatic sense, translates-"quæ

περιπέτεια

66

e mutationibus in contrarium oriuntur;" which, indeed, is the obvious meaning of the expression, if not understood adverbially. But it cannot be Aristotle's meaning, because the discovery of the scar of Ulysses was not the consequence of any such TEPITETEIα. Indeed, it was neither the consequence, nor the cause, of any of fortune.

reverse

I have sometimes suspected that Aristotle might write it, ix ПPOПETEIAZ, by which all ambiguity would have been avoided. But, perhaps, after all, the phrase had no ambiguity to Greek ears, and the passage may be right as it stands.

NOTE 123.

P. 149. DISCOVERIES INVENTED, AT PLEASURE, BY THE POET, AND, ON THAT ACCOUNT, STILL IN ARTIFICIAL.

Δευτεραι δε, αι πεποιημεναι ὑπο τα ποιητε, διο άτεχνοι, The expression, πεποιημέναι ὑπο τε Tointe, must necessarily, I think, be understood emphatically, and must mean, not merely invented, (for so are the other discoveries also, which follow,) but arbitrarily invented by the Poet, and obviously so, upon the spur of the occasion;" in opposition to such means of discovery and recognition,