Seven Questions on Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and Comedy

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SEVENQUESTIONSONARISTOTELIAN DEFINITIONS

OF TRAGEDY AND COMEDY

I.WhatdefinitionsdidtheGreeksfindmost satisfactoryto ex-

presstheirideasof tragedyandcomedy?

11. What definitionsdid theRomans find sufficient to express

theirideasof comedyandtragedy?

111.

Whatdefinitionsdid theMiddleAges,in general,acceptas

expressingproperideasof tragedyandcomedy?

IV. WhatdefinitionsdidDante,inparticular,accept asconvey-

ingproperideasof comedyandtragedy?

V.

WhatdefinitionsdidChaucer,inparticular,acceptasconvey-

ingproperideasof tragedyandcomedy?

VI.

Whatdefinitionsof tragedyandcomedydominatedtheideas

of ContinentalEuropeduringandaftertheRenaisance?

VII.

Whatdefinitionsof tragedyandcomedydominatedtheideas

of EnglandduringandaftertheElizabethanAge?

HEverywordstr gedy andcomedy indicateanoriginintheclass-

ical drama. Examplesof drama,aswellasotherliterary forms,

related tothat precedenthavealsobeencalledtragedyorcomedy,so

that asdramaticandliterary specieswith innumerablehistoricalin-

stances, thewordshavea definite meaning. In addition, ever since

Aristotle,therehasbeenaninquiryintothenormortypeabstracted

from such instances, in an effort to achieve through definitions a

standardforcreationandcriticism;a struggle toreachan articulate

conception,with which dramatic andlitzrary productions couldbe

compared. Finally,therehasbeenaninvestigationintotheproblemof

whatmakestragedytragicandcomedycomic,asearchforthevalues

or essences which constitute the tragic and the comic whether in

drama,literature,andtheotherarts, orinthecourseof experienceit-

self as directlyobserved. Thusit hasbeen commonpractice torefer

metaphoricallytodisastrouseventsastragediesandtoridiculousones

ascomedies.

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 40 (1929)



98 A

Philip

McMahon

A good deal of confusion and trouble has been due to condemning

the ideas of the Middle Ages with regard to tragedy and comedy, be-

cause the formulas of that period were not derived from a first-hand

study of the classical Greek drama. As a matter of fact, the Middle

Ages relied on broad definitions which were authentically and legiti-

mately Aristotelian, although they knew neither Greek drama nor

Aristotle's Poetics. But, on the other hand, especially since the begin-

ning of the nineteenth century, ideas of what is tragic and comic alien

to Aristotle's own philosophy have been used both to determine the

dramatic species and to interpret the text of the Poetics.

Bearing in mind that the meanings of tragedy or comedy are re-

lated and often interchangeable ideas, we may attempt to trace the

persistence of Aristotelian definitions of tragedy and comedy. To

cover thoroughly the fields suggested here would require volumes;

especially in the treatment of the later questions, what is presented

must be thought of as indicating a continuity rather than a complete

survey. I t need hardly be said that do not insist on the chronological,

linguistic, and national classifications here adopted? If any reader

wishes to employ the material in some difierent scheme, let him suit

his convenience as have mine.2

W h a t dejitzit ions did

the

Creeks find m ost satisfactory to expre ss their

ideas of tragedy and comedy?

An attempt will here be made to indicate generally the most probable

answers to the seven questions regarding Aristotelian definitions of

tragedy and comedy which are asked at the beginning of this article.

I t is obviously impossible to list all the occurrences of the words or pas-

sages in which the idea is referred to, and inquire into their meaning

I n what follows have not attempted to reform the spelling and punctuation

of the sources, but have left th em as found them. This note must be considered

a subst itute for the insertion of the word sic several hundred times in the quota-

tions.

The conclusions of this article are substantially those of my Harvard disserta-

tion in

1916,

but i t incorporates new material and is condensed in form. For sug-

gestions and advice my indebtedness to Professors

E.

K.

Rand and

C.

N

Jackson

continues and increases.



ristotelian Definitions

of

Tragedy and Comedy

based on context and historical position. But enough important cita-

tions 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 ques-

tions in the light of the evidence here put forward in satisfying those

seven questions. We might ask, first: Are the prevailing modern defini-

tions of tragedy and comedy Aristotelian? And second: Is the modern

interpretation of Aristotle's definition of tragedy in the

Poetics

Aris-

totelian? 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 his-

torical origin I have attributed in my previous article in the

IZarvard Stu dies

(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 t han the postulate of t he

discussion. Cf.

A

Rostagni, Aristotele e I'Aristotelismo nella Storia dell' Estetica

Antica,

S tu d i Ila lia ni d i FiEoEogia CEassica,N s. 1922),

pp.

1-147, passim,

but

particularly pp.

1 0 4 - 1 0 5

Th e patrimonio quasi anonimo dell' universale cultura

which, he claims, derived from the

Poetics,

cannot be proved on the basis of evidence

independent of such an

a priori

postulate, but its paternity, as indicated in my pre-

vious 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 hilip McMahon

or reasonable grounds for such a theory can not be found; but for the

details of that investigation 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 com-

edy, 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 charac-

tar i i in Printurn L ibr um Aris tote lis de Ar te Poetarum. Posi i is ante Singulas Declara-

t iones Graec is Voc ibz~s z~c tori s : i sdem ad V er b t ~ m atine Express is.

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 th e contents of the

Poetics.

Cf.

Petrus

Vic tor iz ~s cc tor i

(in edition of 1573 signature b, lolio i. recto). Sed v t ad opus

Aristoteleum, artemque hanc redeam, iacuit diu ipsa; paene vndique; tenebris

oppressa atque extincta fuit. quippe cum e tribus libris, primus tantum in vita re-

lictus si t: reliqui autem duo qu i 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 ip-

sum, accuraLum in primis doctorem, multss par tes huius operis neglecturum luisse.

eas quidem non paruas: imperlectumque demum id, atque inchoatum reliquisse.

Rostagni,

o p r i l . ,

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

nep i T O L ~ T G V

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 Ki ivs ta d i l~ i lo log iaClus.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 him-

self years later decided to write about the dialogue, i t is difficult to see why that

article was

af fat lo ins ign i jcante .



Aristotelian Definitions

o

Tragedy and Comedy

O

teristics of tragedizs and comedies known to the ancients, and they do

not offerevidence of any knowledge of or immediate dependence on the

Poetics. The definitions and distinctions of the latter treatise differ

from those of the grammarians, chiefly in two respects: first, in the

technical points introduced into what is primarily a philosophic and

scientific analysis intended mainly for playwrights; second, in the

famous katharsis clause. On the other hand, the grammarians' distinc-

tions do not differ fundamentally from the basic conceptions of the

Poetics, since they are also products of the Peripatetic position, unless

the katharsis clause is interpreted from a nineteenth-century point of

view.' As the grammarians' presentation is more inclusive historically,

it can thus cover developments of comedy which were not familiar to

Aristotle, and it is suited to the purpose of a public wider than students

of philosophy and p lay~r igh ts .~

Although these passages will be cited again in their chronological

sequence, i t is advisable to quote a t this point the words of Euanthius,

Diomedes, and Donatus. These quotations should be very carefully

considered a t this point, for the content of their statements. The words

ascribed to Theophrastus and the expressions which parallel them in

form are not only authentic, but, as indicated in my previous article,

probably derived by Theophrastus from Aristotle's dialogue

n

Poets.

The grammarians had no intention of aiming at originality, and they

are not the sources of the formulas which they had from Theophrastus

by means of intervening scholars. The grammarians' observations em-

body formulas which, as the following pages will show, were almost

Wilamowitz, while admitting Bernays's interpretation, declared i t useless for

a critical understanding of tragedy. Cf.

Ezlripides Ner al~les

(Berlin,

1889),

p.

109:

dieses Kleinod der aristotelischen lehre kiinnen wir nicht brauchen, mag es auch

das unschatzbarste sein. man kann doch darhber keine worte verlieren, dass eine

kathartische wirkung weder Aischylos erstreht noch die Athener envartet haben.

mag der Philosoph auch noch so scharf und fein die wirkung beobachtet haben,

welche eine tragudie auf das publikum oder auch auf ihn bei einsamem lesen

ausiibte: diese wirkung war den dichtern und ihrem volke unbewusst.

Cf. A. E. Taylor, Aristotle (rev. ed., London and Edinburgh, 1919),

pp.

123

1 2 4 : NO book has had a more curious fate than the little manual for intending

composers of tragedies which is all that remains of Aristotle's lectures on poetry.

But it may be worth while to remark that the worth of Aristotle's account of

tragedy as art-criticism has probably been overrated.



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 by other Greek and

Roman writers, wha t they repor t takes a logical place as testimony to a

continuous tradition extending from Aristotle down to recent times.

Diomedes states:

Tragocdia cst hcroicae fortunac in adversis conprehensio. a Theophrasto

ita dcfinitn cst, ~ p a y q 6 i ai a ~ i v 7 r~ p i a ~ a ac .s Comocdia cstpw i'~ G s 6 x g s

privatae civilisquc fortunae sine periculo vitae conprehcnsio, apud Graecos

ita definita, Kwpq6ia i a ~ i v 6 i w ~ i ~ i j vp a y p h ~ w v ~ i v6 v vo s c pio x

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

discretae sunt. altera enim h ~i v6 vv os c p ~ o x i ,ltera r i x v s a c p i a ~ a a i s icta

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, at in tragoedia omnia contra, ingentes per-

sonae, magni timores, exitus funesti habentur; e t illic prima turbulenta, tran-

quilla ultima, in tragoedia contrario ordine res aguntur; turn quod in tra-

goedia 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 priua-

torum, quibus discitur quid sit in uita utile, quid contra euitandum. hanc

Graeci sic definiuerunt: Kwpq6ia i a ~ i v ~ ~ L W T L K ~ ~ V )p a y p d l ~ w v~ c p i o ~ l j

h ~ i v 6 v v o s .

comoediam esse Cicero ait imitationem uitae, speculum consue-

tudinis, imaginem ueritatis. comoediae autem a more antiquo dictae

had ~ i j s h p v s ,hoc est ab actu uitae hominum quia in uicis habitant ob me-

diocritatem fortunarum, non in aulis regiis, ut sunt personae tragicae. co-

moedia autem, quia poema sub imitatione uitae atque morum similitudine



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and Co medy

103

compositum est, in gestu et pronuntiatione consistit.

aitque esse

comoediam cotidianae uitae speculum, nec inuria; nam ut intenti speculo

ueritatis liniamenta facile pet imaginem colligimus; ita lectione comoediae

imitationem uitae consuetudi~lisque on agerrime animaduertimus. Cf. be-

low, p. 26, note 5.

These are, to be sure, late and derivative statements, but they

testify definitely to the uniform conception from which there are no

marked divergences in antiquity.

Spingarn refers to this conception as belonging to

l

the post-classic

period and also condemns it as un-Aristotelian. But it goes

back to the classical period itself. I t may appear to be un-Aristotelian

to those whose minds are saturated with the transcendental German

interpretation of the Poetics. But antiquity seems to have been largely

indifferent to the Poetics and certainly it did not participate in the

point of view which lies behind the modern interpretation of the K ~ U ~ U L S

clause. The conception reported by the grammarians can be consid-

ered un-Aristotelian if, in contrast to the Poetics, it is not primarily

philosophical and technical, does not reproduce the very language of

the Poetics, and is easily understood. But such grounds are insufficient

to brand their conception as un-Aristotelian.

The clauses of the standard definitions presented in the statements

of Diomedes, Euanthius, and Donatus are paralleled or implied in the

Poetics, which may be thought of as the later and professional analysis

of the drama known to Aristotle, but founded on the same point of view

and accepting the same popular grounds of distinction.

t

was, how-

ever, the clarity and simplicity of the definitions from the dialogue a

Poets rather than the obscure and complex reasoning of the treatise

which we call the Poetics, that enjoyed great diilusion and popularity.

As Spingam observed, tragedy and comedy were distinguished by

the three grammarians quoted above, and by antiquity in general on

one or all of six grounds: (I) characters represented; 2) type of action

imitated;

3)

contrast between the beginning and ending of the plot;

4) style and diction; 5 ) source of themes; 6) favorite topics?

J. E. Spingarn, History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance 3d ed.,

New

York,

I~IZ ,

p.

66.

Ibid.

p.

67.

Spingarn, op. cit., pp.

66-67 .



A .

hilip

McMahon

Of these, the first three are the principal ones and the rest are their

necessary consequences.

In 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 re-

peatedly emphasized that this more popular parallel to the technical

phraseology of the Poetics offered in the grammarians formulas, de-

rived 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.

In 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 con-

sent 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.

In Plato there were numerous references to tragedy and comedy

which illustrate his understanding of their nature. For example, in the

Philebus,l speaking of mental states in which pain and pleasure are

mixed, he contrasts tragedy and comedy as the two chief species of

Philebus 8

A



Aristotelian Definitions of Trag edy and Com edy

j

drama. In the

Republic

he discusses the harm done to the good by

sympathizing with the sorrowful in tragedy and tolerating the ridicu-

lous and unseemly in comedy. Even the best of us delight in those

passages of Homer or in those tragedies that stir our feelings most. In

the

aws

older children are to be advocates of comedy, but educated

people in general will favor tragedy. In another passage of the

Laws

principles for the regulation and censorship of tragedy and comedy are

given. These passages, as far as they indicate Plato's conception of

the characteristics of tragedy and comedy, do not conflict with Aris-

totle and the other writers of Greek antiquity, although they differ

with regard to value and ~hilosophical ustification.

Without discussing Plato's other references to the subject, it may

be said that, as was the case with the use of the term pipqa~s, o the

chief characteristics of tragedy and comedy as formulated by Aristotle

and his successors were based on current, popular phrases, and it was

Aristotle7sconcise summary of those characteristics in his dialogue

On

Poets which, as we shall see, determined Greek theory, rather than his

technical discussion in the

Poetics.

One of the personalities whose influence was most important in dis-

seminating 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 Era-

tosthenes and Aristophanes, to the Romans, including Cicero, Varro,

and Suetonius, and thus to the Middle Ages.5 The Arguments pre-

ceding the plays of the three tragic poets and of Aristophanes represent

an abridged form of his introductions, which were founded on the re-

Republic X

605 B-608

A.

Laws 11 658 B.

Lazvs VI I 816 B-817.

J. E Sandys, Hi sto ry of Classical Sch olarsh ip I (Cambridge, 1906), p. 126.

U

von

Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,

Euripides Herakles

I

(Berlin,

1889),

P.55



106 A

Philip

McMahon

search of Aristotle and other Peripatetics.' These and the scholia

agree

in

accepting the traditional definitions, since many of the critical

judgments expressed clearly rest on them, and it is worth noting again

that in such an obvious opportunity for the citation of the Poetics, no

indisputable use is made of that s ~ u r c e . ~

For the conception of comedy entertained by Aristophanes of By-

zantium, we have the celebrated phrase on Menander ascribed to him

by Syrianus: 0 Menander and Life, which indeed of you is imita-

tion? The poet's re-creation of life is deemed so excellent that i t

receives the highest praise known to ancient critics, the imitation and

the thing imitated can hardly be distinguished.

Various remarks in the Argument to the Orestes of Euripides show

a disapproval of the ending, based on the traditional definition. Such

criticism is found in the original Argument by Aristophanes of By-

zantium himself as well as

in

the versions composed by later fo l l o ~e r s . ~

The observations on Orestes 1691 expand the point, with some interest-

Particularly the didascaliae of Aristotle. Cf. Wilamowitz, op. cit ., pp.

144

ff ;

also A. Nnuck,

Aristophanis Byzantii Granttnatici Fragme?tta

(Halle, 1848 ) .

W

Dindorf,

Scholia Graeca

in

Ezcripidis Tragoedias ex Codicibzis Aucta

et

Eme?tdala ( 4 vols., Oxford, 1 8 6 3 ) ; E. Schwartz, S ch ol ia i n Eu r i p i d em (2 vols.,

Berlin,

1887 ) .

I n the case of Aristophanes of Byzantium, as in th at of others to fol-

low, the statements of the commentators are considered together with the original

work.

Ch. U alz,

Rhetores Graeci

(Stuttgart,

1 g 3 6 ) , IV 1 0 1 :

' 0

RZCvav6pe ~ a iie,

rb-

r rpos 8p' bp&v ? r6~cpov x t p r p$ u a~ o ;

I t was natural and usual for the rhetoricians to admire hfenander for the value

to public speakers of a study of his style. Cf. James W Cohoon, Rlietorical S tud ies

i n he Arbitrat ion Scene of Menunder s Epitrepontes (Boston, I ~ I S ) ,who cites (p. 141 )

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 ~ o s ,4 , n t p i r o c

K O ~ L K ~ ~ SCyerv. 14. i de m ib id . C 36. Gqp wop ia 6 rhXoyos Kopor6 ia rp ayw r6 ia uvp?rbura

ZwKpaTrKb 6rb rrvor 6rrX+js pt066ou ?rj lvr a rX iK fr a1 Kaio p w r 6 ia s62 rX0Ktj

X L K ~ ~

y t X o ia , ~ i j v i v x r ~ p i j v w +p ov rr bv ~w v, i j v1: ytX oi wv ?rapapuOoupivwv K T X .

Dindorf, op. cit ., 11 p. 5: (Argurnentum Orestis. 'Apruro+hvous ypappa.rc~oO

0xbt l turc) .

r b 66 6p6pa KwprKo~ ipavZxcr T j v ~ a ~ a u r p o + $ v .

Ib id . p. 7 (Argumentum Orestis) ~ b 6k 6 p6 pa r l j s ' E ~ b l j q s 700 r a p 6 v ~ ~ sa i 6ph-

p a ro r r b TCXOS b xb ?rivBour h p x o v ~ a r a i$youurv t i r xaph v .

Ib id . p. 9 : (Ar,qmentum Orestis) i K Xir?rqr y i p h px t r a r ~ a ii s Xir?rvv ~ t X t u r & r i

ra pb v 61: 6p6 ph iu rr v i~ r p a y r ~ o c

K O ~ L K ~ V

X$ ytr y i p t i s T ~ S 'AxbXXovos 6raX-a p '



Aristotelian Dejinitions of Tragedy and Comedy

1 7

ing comparisons, thoroughly in the spirit of this schoo1.l The same

point is not overlooked in the Poetics, but it is more concisely and em-

phatically expressed in the dialogue from which the grammarians seem

to have derived the idea, since there are no other indications of parallels

to the technical treatise in the productions of this scho01.~

The Alcestis of Euripides also aroused adverse comment by this

group of grammarians, led by the head of the scho01.~The discussion,

thus begun, has been continued by Tzetzes and others down to the

present day. An observation on Andronzache 32, however, takes pains

to point out the presence of the proper elements for genuine tragedy

in the play.5

This point of view is to be found also in the comments on the Ajax

of

Sophocles (lines 123 and 127) as well as on the same poet's

Electra? But in this case, as in others, space does not permit the cita-

Ibid., p. 347: TOGTO76 6 ~ B p aK

K W ~ L K ~ Y .P ~ ~ L K O F

i K y dp uup4op&v € is tb f l~ p ia v

~ a r j v r q u t v. H ~ a 7 h X q t ~ sij s rp ay q6 ia s eis Bpijvov, ti s ?rhBos ~a ra Xb er ,

6 i r ij s ~ w p q 6 i a si s U T OY ~ &S 6 ra XX ay is . ~ a r a X j t t ra i 89tv 6pBrar 7b6e 76 6pBpa K W ~ L K ~ ~

xpqubpevov. GraXXayai y d p r P bs Mt vi Xao v ~ a i dXX& ~ a iOpi ur qv. i v r i j ' A X K ~ U T L ~ L

u up 40 pi jv eis eb+poubvqv ~ a i ~ a i kv T u p o i Z o+ o~ Xi ou s d vay vw -vapror jv. 6poiws ~ a i

prupds Kard 76 rkXos y iv e~ ar , a ii?rXijs ci?reiv ?roXXd rora 0ra iv r i j rp ay q6 ip eir piu ~tra c.

Cf. A. Trendelenburg,

Grantmaticorurn Graecorzrm de Ar le Trag ica IwEiciorum

Reliquiae. Diss. (Bonn, 1867.)

Dindorf, op. ci t . , IV p. 87: (Argumenturn Alcestidis. ' Ap~uro+bvous rp a w a -

r r ~o i j ?r%ears). 76 61 6pBpa ~ w p r ~ w r i p a v . . .xt t r?jv ~ a ~ a u ~ p o + j v .

T 6 6 i 6 pB pb

l u r r u a r u p r~ i r t p o v,71 cis xapdv ~ a i

?rap& r&v r p a y r ~ i j v

i~0bX-

6ov?jv ~ a r a a ~ p k q k ~ .

Xerar Qs h v o i ~ e r a 4s ~ p a y r ~ i j s a r e ' O p t u ~ q r

j

A X ~ q u r r s ,b s i K uup+opBso l j u t w s ~ a i

p i v hpxbp tva, eis tb6arpoviav 6 i ~ a i i-xbpeva.a pd v X lj ta vr a, Eurr pBXXov ~ w ~ 6 l a s

Cf. H.

W.

Hayley, Th e Alcestis of Ez~ ripi des(Boston,

1898),

pp. xxiii-xxiv

who cites seven different theories, with the relevant literature.

Dindorf,

op. cit. ,

IV

p.

129:

Xiyer yd p Ljs vrv 4ap pir ~or s e~p upp ivo rs.i +abXws

h?ropvqpa7~uaptvo~ T@Ebpr?riGn ~ U K O Y T ~ Sh i p a y r ~ o i s Kwpq6iavy K a X o ~ u r ? T ~ O U ~ T O L S

abrbv GrartBciuBar. yuv ar~ &v e yd p ir?rovoias ~ a r ' XXjXov ~ a ijXovs ~ a iorGopias

Kai EiXXa bu a eis Kwpq6iav uvvreXei, r a07a dsa&inavra ~ 0 0 7 076 6pBpa h?rerXq+kvar,

iyvool vres. 6aa y d p t tis rp ay ys ia v uuvreXei, r a l r a ?reprkxer, 76v 86varov 700 N O~TO

hkpou ~ a ipevov IIqXkws i-v rkXer, ii?rep i u 7i r p a y r ~ b .

P. N. Papageorgius, Scholia n Sophoclis Tragoedias Vetera (Leipzig,

1888),

p.

85: 1123

r d r o ~ a 0 r a o+ iapara o b ~ iat ia r p a y y 6 i a s per& y&p .p+v bvaipeurv

i - ~ t ~ r e i v a r 2Xuut 76 r p a y r ~ b v 6 0 0 s .

1127.

.6 Gpirpa BeXjuas i -11.uwtbuaro ~ a i r d 6&

70~007 0~ w p y 6 i a spi?XXov oh rp ay q6 ia s.

Iln d.,

p. 103: 62.

~ a i pbBy ?ra-i r i j v Oaupaurljv e ba r 66tn ( t i ) i v r p a y y 6 i p ~ a i

ha&+ rer6Xpq~B71 KaK6qfles t i z t i v Kai ? ~ ~ O U K ~ O L I U T L K ~ ~ i au r6 v ~ C X X O Yis robs KaB'

i jp po le ~ w p y s i p .



A

Philip c ahon

tion and close analysis of all the passages which exhibit a reliance on

the traditional formulas. Those given should, however, serve to illus-

trate the persistence of definitions which we find most clearly recorded,

among surviving texts, by the Roman grammarians.

The familiar conceptions of tragedy and comedy are indicated in

Polybius, who contrasts drama and history in favor of his own sub-

ject.' In another place he declares that dwelling upon misfortunes is

more appropriate to tragedy than to h i ~ t o r y . ~

Dionysius Thrax was a pupil of Aristarchus, and wrote the earliest

Greek grammar, a brief work: which continued popular for many

centuries. I t was commented upon by scholars down to the time of

the Italian Renaissance. The expression of Dionysius with regard to

tragedy was: Iva r1jv

pkv

rpayqGiav 1jpwi'~Gsdlvayvij~cv,and for

comedy, T$V i ~wpqBIav~ L W T L K G S . ~he commentators, in keeping

with the tradition of

On

Poets

stressed the words 1jpwi'~Gs nd

PLWTLKGS

as most significant.

T. Buttner- CVobst,Polybii H istoriee 56 (Vol. I , Leipzig, 1905, pp. 192-193):

r l y ~i rv ov ra sob6i ro i -s iv6e~ op6 vovsXbyovs r q rt iv nai s h ?rapc?rirytva ro ir ii?rohtr&ioors

&$aprOpeiu6'a~, at lhntpl rpayy6royph@oc,7Gv e ? r p a x O k v ~ w v / j ~ O i v ~ w va l K ~ T 'kX$Otrav

abrGv ~ V ~ ~ O P P ~ E L Y ~ h v u B v ~ a . r h y d p ~ i X c snsopiasa p ra v , ( ~ ) i i v p i ~ p r aT U ~ X L Y W U L Y

nai ~pa yc$ia r 06 r a b ~ b v , XXd robvavr iov . &KC?2v y d p 6 t2 6rd TGV nr0avwrcirwv

Xirywv i~?rX?Ear~ a i u x a y w ? l j u a ~

K Q T ~

s;t rap hv TOAS khoiro v~as,&vOb6e 6 6rk T G ~

dXqOrvGv Zpyw v ~ a i

6-

wv , KTX .

I olybius, XV 36.

(Buttner- CVobst, p. 315).

Cf. G IIoerschelmann, De Dionysii Tlzracis Inlerpretibus Veleribzrs, Leipzig,

874

A. I-Iilgard, De .lrtic Gram7izeticae ab Dio+zysio T h r a c ~ onzpo~ ilaeZntrrpre-

fationibus Veteribzas p z S i n g z ~ l o ~ o m m e ~ z l a r i o sDirtribucndis. (Progr Leipzig,

1880. A. Hilgard, S ch ol io i n D i o ny s ii T hr nc is Ar t e m Gr am m at ir am (G r a n ~ f ~ ~ o t i c i

Gracci. Pars tertla Leipzig, 1901 T. Davidson, The Grammar of Viony sizts TItrax

Tra?zslated jrom the G rerk. St. Louis, Missouri,

1874.

Immanuel Bekker, A n e ~ d o f aGraeca. I1 (Berlin, 1816),p. 629: 'Avh?vwuis kurr

K ~ T &

pkv yd p r?js bnonpiuews ~ r j v per ilv , 6€ Tljs

rpouy6iav , nard 6rau~ohrjv .

&K K



Aristo telian DeJinitions of Tr ag edy and Com edy

1 9

The commentaries of Diomedes and Melampus on Dionysius Thrax

are inextricably c~r nb in ed ,~nd they can for our purposes be conveni-

ently considered t~ g e t h e r . ~he influence of etymology in accounting

for the origin of the dramatic species and giving a suggestion of their

nature, an element present also in the Poetics receives ingenious de-

velopment in these commentarie~.~

The purposes of tragedy and comedy are stated in a short notice

prefixed to Arist~phanes,~manating from the school of Dionysius

Thrax.G In this and other scholia of the same group are to be found the

eventual sources from which many of the apparently strange mediaeval

glosses were d e r i ~ e d . ~he moral effect of tragedy, according to these

Floruit 7th century. Cf. F. Susemihl, Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur i n

der Alexandrinerseit (Leipzig, 1891), 11 p 173, note.

2

Raibel,

C G F,

p.

10

note:

Scholia haec omnia Melampodis, si codici Elambur-

gensi, Diomedis, si Bz~rbonico redas.

3 Cf. Hoerschelmann, op. cit. , pp. 27 ff. Kaibel, C G F, p.

11.

There is apparent

reference to the censorious character of the Old Comedy in the following, but the

explanation of

P L O T L K D S

s interesting.

uwpwr6ia eur lv

r j

Iv p k u w ~ a00 ~ a r ~ y o p i a7 0 ~ ~

G ~ po ui ev ur s. e Z p q ~ a r ; n-apd 7 6 K & ~ W r b wiBrj, I u ~ ia i 61- e i6 os ? ro r $p a ro s Iv u &p ar s u a r d

ywr6ia iur op iav Bxer ua i dn-a yycXiav ?rphfewv yevopkvwv ,

r j

62 ~ w p w r 6 i a A b u p a r a

rep

C xcr f l r w r ~ u i j v p a y p h r w v .

Cf. Hilgard, Scholia, p. 18, lines 3 and 13;

p. 20, line 7. Cf. Kaibel, C G F,

p.

11.

62 I rv po Xu yi a r jjs r pa y w ~ G i a s u r iv a t r ~ .

j T L

rp h 7 0v kXdpP avov En-aBXov o i

x e i a & ~ 6 r j.r pa xD r ep o v y d p ~ a i rtai 6 0 u fi a ro v r b r G v b'pljvwv ~ 1 6 0 s 0 0 y eX w ro -e v ~ r f o v

?roreiv,

j

o i ov ti r e r p a yw v w r 6 i a . o i y d p x o p n t r a i a ir ri jv Iv r e rp a y & v w r u x r j p a r ~ urhpevoc

r d

T ~ T ~ C L ~ L K ~ ~ U

K T X .

~ ? ~ C ~ E ~ R Y U Y T O ,

5 Raibel, C G F, p.

1 2 ,

note: "a dextra adscripsi dissertatiunculam

I Iepi r j js

~ w p w r 6 i a s

in libris Aristophaneis servatam Laurentiano Ambrosiano

A

praeterea

in editione Aldina."

Raibel, C G F, p. 14, line

5:

u a i rj j s p i v r p a r w ~ 6 i a s u on -b r r b c is B pijvo v u r v i j o a ~

Oiov, 62 uwpwr6 ia uuviu77)urv.

Cf. IIilgard, Scholia, p. 306, line 5 for a somewhat different discussion from

the

Scholia Marciana:

(Heliodori)

~ ~ p v 6 i a 677po-u ri v Iv p f u y XaoD u a r ~ y o p i a a i

u ieuurs . e ipqra r 61- uw py6 ia d n b

T O G

kv r a i s u h p a ~ s ai Iv 70:s br jp o~ s 6 e u @ a ~ . HpwCuijs

mailto:$6eu@a~

mailto:$6eu@a~



Aristote l ian Dejni t ions

of

Tragedy and Comedy

I

I r

the Poetics is seen in the Scholia Londinensia, but the use of the word

p p ~ ~ p soes not alter the fact that this discussion as a whole is

unmistakably Peripatetic and exoteric in origin. A Byzantine commen-

tary refers to Homer for tragedy, and asserts that P WT ~ Say mean

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 ~ d i an the 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. In 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 . ~e dis-

approves of the performance of tragedy in a way which seems to have

been standard doctrine among the Stoics16 nd he alludes to the pathos

of tragedy several times?

Hilgard,

Scholia,

p. 475, lines ff : [Scholia Londinensia in artis Dionysianae.]

r p a y y 6 i a k u r i j3iwv r e r a l X l y o v p w l ' ~ G vZpperpos p ipqurs i xovoa uepv l rqra per6

x h o ~ i j s r rv os .

. . .

(Heliodori)

--

Z q ~ q ~ h o vk ei ~ a i d r p a y r ~ bCUTL

B L W T L K ~

+alverar y& p ra1 a i r d

TG

B iy y rvw o~ 6p eva . K a i h e ~ ~ i o v71 ?rohh

j

Bra+op& sijs

s p a y y 6 i a s r a i 7 ijs ~ w p q 6 i a s ,71 pkv ~ p a y y E i a ep i pw'iK ijv ? rpaypbrwv ra i ? r po ub m v

Xkyer, 6& Kwpy6ia &?r ?jhha~ sac

O ~ ~ T W V.

. .

K a i 6 7 ~ pkv ~ p a y y 6 i a & CX1 xepl

a 4 a yG v ~ a i 671 ?rbhrv

j

p i v r p a y y 6 i a6vwv

Z X ~ L

6 2 ~ w p y 6 i a e pi bvayvwpropoD. ~ a i

hirer 7 i) v B iov, 82. ~ w p y 6 i a uv iu~ qu tv .

.

.

. Ara+&per 6e rp ay y6 ia rwp qd ias , 6 7 ~

p iv r p a yy 6 ia i u ~ o p i a v a i? r a y y d i a v

Zxtr

?rpbEewv yevophvwv, 6k ~ w p y 6 i a rXbopara

? re p ~ k x e~ ~ p a y p b ~ w v .LWTLKDV

Hilgard,

op. cit.,

p. 569, line

24: ~ w p y 6 i a v ; o i L px ai br 6 yo v r a l ~ e p i u u p p a

Zheyov eivar. Eyb

B i

Xhyw, 6rr ~ a i I x l & ~ a i v o vi byow ~ a i X app bverar . ( (P L O TL K D S) )

yd p e i xev 6 r sxv r r l s ,

T O U T ~ U T V

~ a s d76w ? K ~ U T O U y d p

Pies

& ~ L K O S ,

otov 6 j3ios

LOY

Z U T L

T O O

dyiov n67p0lJ Kahbs,

6

62

70 ;

' I o v ~ L ~ v o ~ ~

~ K ~ S .

Kaibel,

C C F ,

p. 16:

spaywr6ia kur i Piwv ral h ly w v pwrrGv pipqoir .

On Plutarch s merits as a critic, cf. Sandys,

op. cit., I

p. 304.

Quomodo adolescens poebas audire debeat,

15 D., in N. Bernardakis,

Plzckrchi

Chaeronensis Mo ralia ,

I

(Leipzig, 1888), p. 35:

r o p y i a s 62 r v s p a y y 6 i a v ei x e v d ? rC

~ q v , )v6 7 b ~ a r f i u a s6 r r a ~ 6 ~ e p o sO O p d ~ a ~ f i u a v ~ o sa i 6 b?rarq@eisu o + b ~ e p o s 0 0

clti b ? r a q @ i v r o s.

Cf.

F. M .

Padelford,

Essa ys on the S tz ~ d y nd Use of Poetry

by

Plutarch and Basil the Great

(Yale Studies in English,

XV

New York, 1902).

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.)

mailto:b?raq@ivros

mailto:b?raq@ivros



In the ninth chapter of the treatise

On

the Sublime (first century

.I.D.) ascribed to Dionysius Longinus in every edition from 1554 to

1808 occurs a passage which, according to Saintsbury? illustrates

l

the

Classical distrust of, and distaste for, the Romantic, and the com-

paratively low estimate of manners and characters." The significant

sentence is: "For such are the details which Homer gives, with an eye

to characterization, of life in the home of Odysseus; they form, as i t

were, a comedy of manners." But this is merely another instance of

the familiar ancient view expressed by Aristotle and others, that

tragedy finds a parallel in the liad and comedy in the Odyssey?

As Roberts points out,Qhis chapter presetlts another familiar man-

ner of contrasting the two species, that between 380s and ~hOos.7This

distinction, touched upon by Aristotle in the Rhetoric, and continued

by other rhetoricians, is made very clear in the treatise On the

Szcblime

where it is stated that, "passion is as intimately allied with solemnity

as sketches of character with entertainment."

The Stoic attitude toward tragedy necessarily implies the tradi-

A MS

of the treatise in Florence is more properly entitled:

bvwvbpov repi G ovs.

Sandys, op. c i t . I, pp. 288 f f

George Saintsbury, Loci Cridici (Boston,

1qo3),

p.

W.

R. Roberts, Lotzg ifzz~so n ths Sztblinze (Cambridge, 1899), I X 15 (pp. 68-69).

"Longinus," On the Sztblime translated by W. Hamilton Fyfe (Loeb Classical Li-

brary, London and Sew York, 1927),

p.

154:

r o r a 3 r a y b p

rev

r h r e p ; r ij v r o i,

'06vuuhws <f3 i~Djs h @ ~ i o X o y o L p e v a i ~ i a v , io ve i t i w p y 6 i a r i s l u rr u < tl oX o yo up iv q.

poetic^ 1448 b 9. Cf.Kaibcl, C G F p. 37 on Homer, according to Tzetzes:

Roberts, o p .

c i l .

p. zoo note on IX ,

I

j.

Roberts hcre cites Cicero, Orator 37, 128. (Should be

8

128.)

Cf. Chr. Walz, Iiiretores Graeci IX, p. joq: [ih ~ 0 1 ,4017FIKOT IIEPI ETPE-

ZEiiZ] 76 ~ 6 0 0 snoX<,

v

? T O L U E Lp a y i h . 5 .

Roberts,

op. cit .

pp. 116-117 (XXIX,

2 .

Fyfe,

op.

cii.

p

208:

rireos 61- Z+ous

p erh xer r o u o 3 ro v , d ~ b u o v 008 ?j6oves.



Aristotelian Definitions of Trage dy and Comedy

I13

tional formulas. Epictetus exclaims in words echoed by Boethius;

"For what else is tragedy, but the dramatized sufferings of men, be-

wildered by an admiration of externals?" Elsewhere he points out,

in showing the intrinsic worthlessness of title and rank, that tragedies

deal only with kings and rich men, but the poor do not experience such

great disaster^ ^ Again, he refers to the subject of tragedies, resulting

from the pursuit of appearances instead of realities, and he employs

the word ~ h 6 w a ~ vith regard to the tragic theme.3

The attitude of Marcus Aurelius toward the drama is not different

from that of Epictetus. In one place he advises a rational acceptance

of death, as opposed to the tragic obstinacy of the Chri~tians.~n the

same chapter he condemns comedy and refers to tragedy as an inspira-

tion to

stoic^ ^

Again, it will be noted, although there is a reference to

1 H. Schenkl,

Epicteti Dissertationes I,

4 (I,eipzig, 18~8),. 18: T i s Xkyer 7aOra;

6 0 ~ e i r e T L raaerv6 v; oh Xk ye ~; Oi6iaovs oh X2yer;p iv ii6oE6v r l v a kpG ~ a i E p ia po s a h ~ i r

LAX' 6 ~ 6 ~ 0 1iaurXe?s Xkyovu~ . T i y i p e iarv &XXo rpa yybi ac, bvOphawv ahOq ~e 0a u-

p a ~ 6 7 w u i r

C K T ~ S

61b pk7pov 70~0ii6' ka16er~vhpeva;

Epictetus, I 24, 15 (Ed. of Schenkl, p. 76.)

Ibid.

I, 28, 31

(Ed. of Schenkl, p. go.)

H.

Schenkl,

Marci Antonii Imperatoris in Semet Ipsum Libri X II

(Leipzig,

1 ~ 1 3 ) ~

(XI,

3): 76 6 i

~ T O L ~ O U

K ~ ~ U ~ W S

px q~ a l , 7) Ka78

P. 137.

70670, Tva ba i ) i 6 ~ ~ i j s

$~X7)v a a p & ~ a E ~ v ,S 01

X p ~ u r ~ a v o i ,

XeXoy~upkvws ~ a i B u r e ~ a i

X i &

uepvDs ~ a i

i iXXov m i o a r , &rpay&6ws.

Schenkl,

09. cit.

pp. 138-139

X I ,

6): H p G ~ o v i r p a y y 6 i a ~ ap $x Oq ua v 380-

u ~ q v i j siuxaywyeiuOe, T O ~ T O L S~ T Ji ix0toOe kai r i js pei<ovos u~ qv ij s. p&ar yir p, TL OGTWS

6ei r a 6 r a aepaiveuOar, ~ a i o i ~ e ~ p a y 6 7 e s .

Ti~ea~phv. KaL

71 $ ipovu~va t r b ~ a i

X l y e r a ~62 TLva bah 7Gv r i r 6pb pa ra aorobvrwv xpqu ipws . 0I6v k u ~ ~ v phX1u ra .~ e i v o

TOTS

ap ciy pa urv yi rp oh xl BupoDuOar.

Piov Oepirerv B or e ~+? rrpo v urkx vv.



114 A. P hi lip &fciMahon

the moral utility of tragedy, there is no mention of the Z~ULSof the

Poetics

in any sense.

Among the precious relics of erudition preserved in Athenaeus are

passages from ilntiphanes nd Timocles which emphasize the same

distinctions as to proper subject, style, invention, and moral purpose

which were traditional.

oKouoa. rpbs o i 6v r r

L

A ro yk vq s r a u r i a a p e X 6 p B a v t ~ .per& raO r7v 68

3

pkaq swpw6ia

~ a iorahv I j v ka ap b s r i a o r e a a p e i X q a r a r ,

K ~ T '

hXiy ov i?rl rrjv ?Kprpl jacws +~XorexvLav

haeppirq, l r ia r q o o v . d ~ rhv y d p Xkyerar ~ a ix 6 T O G ~ W V r rvd xp l j u rpa , obs byvoe i rar

6XXd BXq iar@oXrj r i j ~ 0 r ab r qs a o ~ l j a t w s a i b p a p a r o u p y l a s ~ p h s i v a r o r h a xo?rhv

iahBXe$ev;

A hleineke, Athcsaei Deiprtosophistae Leipzig,

1 8 5 8 ) ;

C. Kaibel, Athenaei

Nazirratitae Dipnosophislarum Libri

X V

Leipzig,

1887).

hleineke, op.

cil. I,

p.

394: 'E atr G? b a a r r t i s a u v t x i js d ? r a u ~ W v , r a ip e T r p 6 ~ p a -

r e s , r d a a p d s o is 6 e ~ a v o u o q 5 ~ a r a i sey6 pev a, saruir r rva vopirwu $p as e6piuscrv, baopvl j-

a op kv ue r d r a p ' ' B v r r @ h u e ~ tybpeua I Iorrjoer r6v6c rhv rp6 aov

a o i q p a arb a h v r ' . eZ y t r p G r o u o i X byor

b r h r D v O ta rD v eiorv i y v w p ~ u p k v o ~ ,

a p l v ~ a i e ia t ?v , i )s iia op vilu ar pbvovLV

6.2; rh v ?rorqr1jv. O i 6 i ~ o u vy a p BY p6vov

q5D, r&X Xa ai rvr ' i u a o r v 6 aar$p Ahros ,

p lj rqp ' I o s hu rq , Buyarhp t s, ra i s e s r i ve s ,

r i atiuet7' osros , r i aeaoLqrcv. i lv ahX rv

eZ?rn T L S ' A X ~ p k w v a , r d a a r6 iaa i

ab ur ' tbObs t i p q x ' , 871 pavei r bai rrov ev

r $ u p q r k p ', d y a v a ~ r D v ' A 6 p a u r o s eb0kw s

+ r , a6Xrv

T

t i ~ e r u r .

2aer03,Bra v p+hv 6bv wv r' ei?reiv Z T L

( N o t e 3 on page 1x5 .



Aristotelian Dejinitions of Trage dy and Co medy

115

Tzetzes 1110-1180) is called by Sandys

dull as

a

writer and

untrustworthy as an authority.

His first prooemium to Aristo-

phanes is similar to part of the scholia of Diomedes on Dionysius

Xpkpqs T L S j @tiSwv T L S K U U ~ ~ T T E T ~ L ~

IIqXe? 62 nb vr ' EEeurr wai Tebwpw nor v.

Ai@rX os 6' Cv 'EXevq+opoDurv

7 6 ~ 6 ' a o a ~ a 6 o v u a a it w ~ r ~ p k v q

BpavpGvos irpoD Bt+rXku~arov ~ d a o v ,

b s o i rp ayq 6o i + au iv , 0 ; s ZEouuia

Zurrv Xkyt~v aavra xai aoreiv p6vors .

706s y d p ~ pa yy 6o irs p ov , el PobXer, owdaer,

6 s @ cXoGu~ h v r a s . d p;v d v y i p a i v q s

ykpwv Trs br vx t i , wa~kpa 6ev bv Oivka .

B na vr a y d p r d ~ t i r o v '

ai-aov86 T L S

b r u ~ + p a r 'BXXors ytyov6.r' Ivvoo6pevos

r d s abrbs a 6~ oG vp@ opds bgov +;per.

Sandys, op

cit.

T 419.

Cf. Chr. Harder, De Ioan nis Tzetiae Hist oria rz~m ontibus Quaestiones Selectae

(Kiel, 1886). Tzetzes places Aristotle before all others who have dealt with comedy:

cf. Kaibel,

CGF,

pp. 20, 23:

~ U T P O V6 3 r a 6 r a s d x h u a s

U K ~ V L K ~ S

a h ? -

wai

K O L ~ T L K ~ S

U T O L i ~ q y + o a v r o , b s w ai r p b a 6 ~ i j u h v r w v ' A p ~ u ~ o r k X q s .

ut he actually seems

to have read lit tle of the Philosopher and he confuses Aristotle with Aristarchus.

Cf. Harder, p. 69: Aristotelis pauca scripta legerat: De mundo c. 2: ad Lyc. 255.

Exeg. 11 p.

33.-De coelo I , 9: Alleg. 11. 0,180. -Hist. Anim. VII I, 6. cf.

11

17

Inc. anim.

10:

Chil. IX, 113. Exeg. 11. p. 70, 27 confundit Aristotelem cum

Aristarcho, v. Orion, p. 93, 17s. Harder, p. 49, says of him:

Quamquam neque

tales eius sunt errores neque t am gravia quae de suo addidit, ut alterum Ptolemaeum

Chennum nominare liceat, et quamquam excusari poterit respicienti similiter

permultos aequales eius suos composuisse, tamen summae levitatis malaeque fidei

convictus est.



116

A

P h i l i p M c M a h o n

Thrax.l I t is, however, the reference to t6Oaputs which has attracted

the attention of some writers to Tzetzes and the Tractatus C oisliai-

L ~ Z L S , ~ut the inferences drawn thence with regard to an Aristotelian

theory of comedy as originally found in a lost booB of the Poetics are

more than doubtful. Tzetzes repeats the adverzc judgments of the

school of Aristophanes on the Orestes ant1 .4lccstis of Euripitles, on the

Electra of Sophocles, and condemns the Hcruclcs particularly, his basis

being the formula of Aristophanes on the aims of tragedy and

comedy.

In his Prolegomcna to Lycophron: Tzetzes briefly repeats points

already made.' Again,

in

his Verses on the Differences Between

Poets, he reproduces the usual matter, and his view of the moral

purpose of tragedy expressed in lines

57

f f . is strangely overlooked by

Kaibel, C G F , p. 17: Proemia nullo auctoris nomine insignita e codice

Parisino recensuit Studemund. Ioannes Tzetza prooemii auctor videtur.

Kaibel,

C G F ,

p. 17: t u r i 6 l ~ w p o r 6 i a ~ a b ' a p r f p ~ o si p q u ~ s p b t w s zab'qpb-

p w r 6 i a s 6 r 1

6

p kv r p a y W c 6 i a i u r o p i a v ~ X B L

I ~

b z a y y t A . i a v z p h t t w v ye vo p kv w v, K ~ V s

ijs tl y l v o p k v a s a b r b s , 6 k K w pw c6 ia z X h u p a r a z t p c i x e r

P L W ~

KGV p a y p b r ~ v .

r i a i 6 ~ c l j s i v ~ p a y W c 6 i a s r i o z h s 7 6 t i s 8p i jvov ~ ~ v i j u a ~ r l j s 6 i W ~ W ~ ~ ~ So i ' s & ~ p o a ~ a s ,

t i s y k X w r a .

3 Rutherford, Starkie, and Cooper.

Cf.

Cooper,

Aristotelian

Theory

of Comedy

(New Yorlr, 19221, pp.

f f .

224

f f .

4 Kaibel,

CGF,

p.

50

c ipo ipov pcy lb 'ousiw pw c6 ia & u r i p i p q u ~ s r p b t t w s yeX o iou ~ a l

r t X t i o u , xw p is I x h u ro u r G v po piw v &v ~ o i s Z 6 t u ~ , p O vrw v ~ a i0 6 ) 61' b r a y y t X i a s , 61'

r h v y k X ~ ~ a .

Kaibel,

CGF,

p. 21, 1 50: Z s ~o v i ~ w p w c 6 i a s l v 7 h p t p c y p i v o v Z xt cv 7 0:s u ti Op -

p a r t y i A w r a , r p ay w 1 6 i a s 6 l xk v8 q ri ai u v p 4 o p b s .

Cf . also 1. 64: r kX o s 62 r p a y w c 6 i a r p l v A btcv r h v P i o v, ~ ~ p ( c ~ c f i i a si u u v ~ u r B v b r i) v

KTX

6

Lycophron (born c. 3goljzj B.c.) was responsible for the arrangement of the

comic poets in the Alexandrine library. Hi s work on comedy, in eleven books, is

of such inferior quality, to judge by available fragments, th at i t may well have been

the pedantic source of much th at is unprofitable and confusing in Tzetzes and the

Tr zrta1us Coislitiiiinrrs.

Cf. Sandys,

op. cil.,

I

p

122.

Kaibel, C G F , p. 34.

Kaibel,

C G F ,

pp. 34 f f . :

I U A N NO T T O T T Z E T Z O T Z T I X O I

1IEI I

AIA@O

P A Z 1 I O II I T O N.



Aristotelian Dejnitions of Tragedy and Comedy

I

I

those critics who value his use of the word K ~ L ~ U L Sso highly.' He

frequently cites the early grammarian Euclid12particularly in connec-

tion 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

In my previous

article in

9

I 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 ur s6& 70;s uhpaaurv $v ~p uy wr6 ia .

xp6vwr G~qrpiOq i xij jots eis ~ p i a ,

~ w p w ~ d i a v ~ p a y o ~ b i a vp a r e ~ a i

~ a i ~ i j v d e p t u a ~ ~ h ~ q v .

~ T U P L K ~ V T V

duov pkv o;v EoxqKe 75v Opqvw~6 lav

~ p a y or 8 i a v +auav o i ~ p ~ 7 a i6 7 ~ .

duov 6& 70O ykXw70s $v ~ a i~ w p p d r w v ,

~ o p w r 6 i a v%ev~o 73v KX +TL V5ipe~v.

Bp+w 61 ap6s u h u ~ a u r v uav TOO Biou.

d y d p ~ p a y r ~ b s a be q Xkywv,i j v &Xar

'Pl juous, 'Op iura s, @olvr~as, IaXap$bets,

TOGS O v ~ a s )Xa uvev ciyepwxias.

d W ~ L ~ S6 aws y t k i j v

K O ~ W L ~ ~ ~ L S

i l p a a y b n v a ~ a i ~ a ia~oOpyov +86pou

76 Xotadv lj6paiwuev eis eh~oupiav.

0570 Xh t~ l-v ~p ay wr b i a i ov ,

Daepoi 61 ~ a il j y v u u r v ~ w p w ~ 6 i a

~ a i uJv b p a Kwpor6ia1,a r u p ~ ~ l j

dpoO u ~ u ~ p w x o i s171 xap & pe p~ yp iv q.

Raibel CGF p 43: lIEPI TP rIKHZ lIOIIIZEQZ

" A K O U ~ r p a y w ~ 6 i a ; ,o:adv rt i r d ~ i j r

x6vors aep ruuois ap iv &poi uuvqypk va

it

;v 6 E b~X t i6qs ~ ~ a iO L T O ~a 6 u o ~

E"ypa\l.av bv6pes iv X6yors 6ypp6or.

Ibid.

p

8:

i a e i 61 ~ a X& s v ~ aoiaep iypb+q,

a ~ o v tXo~abvT i T ~ X O Spayw~Gias .

p ipqurs I j tlDv , ~p b t ew v, a t l ppb ~wv ,

ljpwr~oO p6aov

~

~ i j s p ay w~ 8i as ,

uepvoxpemjs

~

~ a i~qppkvq.



pedagogic purpose of Lane Cooper's recent Aristotelian Theory of

Comedy results in much valuable material, but in the main its use of the

Tractatz6s simply continues the Byzantine methods of the work on

which it relies.

The traces in classical antiquity of direct influence from the Poetics

are slight and problematical. Bu t there can be little doubt, judging

from the words of the ancient authors themselves, tha t the Greeks

found the definitions of

O n Poe ts

most satisfactory, for they used prac-

tically nothing else.'

W h a t definit ions did the Ro m an sj in d suf ic ient to express their ideas

of tragedy and comedy?

There is an even greater unanimity in Latin literature than in Greek

as to the nature of tragedy and comedy. With the exception of the

late compilations of Tzetzes and of the Tractatus Cois l in ianz~s here are

no treatises

in

Greek devoted to the drama which even appear to have

derived the distinctive

~ Bapars

clause immediately from the

Poetics.

There are none a t all in Latin literature. On the other hand, the sources

which justify us in believing tha t the stock formulas of Greek and Latin

literature were ultimately to be found

n

Aristotle's dialogue O n P oe ts

are preserved for us by Roman scholars. Nor is there any hint t hat

the essence of drama lies in a conflict of wills; such a theory, so popular

in recent times; is almost as remote from ancient thought as the

modern interpretations of the

~ 8 a p a ~ s

lause itself.

The citation of Greek and Roman authors does not, of course, mean tha t the

ancient definitions of tragedy a nd comedy were in every instance immediately de-

rived from a first-hand knowledge of the dialogue,

n

Poets; it means only that

directly or indirectly such authors were influenced by the definitions originally

found there. Th e problem of how long the dialogues survived is still another ques-

tion.

Cf. Brunetihre's theory, similar to Hegel's, in

The

Law

of the Drama

With

an Introduction by Henry Arthur Jones.

(Papers or2

Play-maki fzg 111 Dramatic

Aluseum of Columbia University, h'ew Uork, 1914 ,

pp

79-80: The general law

of the theater is defined by the action of a will conscious of itself; and the dramatic

species are distinguished by the nature of the obstacles encountered by this will.

And the qual ity of will measures and determines, in its turn , the dramatic value

of each work in its species.



Aristotelian Definit ions of Traged y and C omedy

119

The dramatic species as well as the theory pertaining to them

were borrowed from the Greeks

by

the Romans. The Roman gram-

marians were not alone in assimilating the Greek theories; the great

writers of comedy also drew upon Greek theory to justify their own

practices.

Plautus in celebrated passages of the

mphitruo

presents his apology

for his work as a tragi-comedy, because characters proper to a tragedy

were introduced in the play,l and again he defends the appearance of

Jupiter on the stage.2 Such remarks were addressed to a public which

would distinguish between the species on the familiar grounds derived

from Peripatetics and preserved to us by Donatus and Diomedes

among the Roman grammarians.

Terence not only brought over Greek themes and presented them to

Latin audiences; he brought over the idea of comedy as representing

PLWTLK SA phrase ascribed to Cicero by Donatus is similar to the

W M

Lindsay,

T.

Macci Plauti Comoediae

2

vols., Oxford, 1903 , mphitruo

58

ff :

teneo quid animi uostri super hac re siet:

faciam ut commixta sit; (sit) tragico [co] moedia;

nam me perpetuo facere u t s it comoedia,

reges quo ueniant et di, non par arbitror.

quid igitur? quoniam hic seruos quoque partis habet,

faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragico[co]moedia.

Zbid.

11.

88 f f . ;

ipse hanc acturust Iuppiter comoediam.

quid? admiratin estis? quasi uero nouom

nunc proferatur Iouem facere histrioniam;

etiam, histriones anno quom in proscaenio hic

Iouem inuocarunt, uenit, auxilio is fuit.

praeterea certo prodit in tragoedia.

hanc fabulam, inquam, hic Iuppiter hodie ipse aget

et ego una cum illo. nunc (uos) animum aduortite,

durn huius argumentum eloquar comoediae.



A Philip McMnhon

idea given in the Adelphoe,' and it is not unlikely that Menander, re-

ceiving the formula from Theophrastus, passed it on also to Terence.

The moral justification of comedy here briefly indicated became an

essential par t of dramatic theory in the Renaissance, and it was vigor-

ously used to entrench comedy against the

puritan^.^

The great erudition of Varro included a work on Plautus,3 and for

his vast grammatical learning he seems to have depended on Dionysius

Thrax, who was in Rhodes, when Varro's master, Stilo Praeconinus,

was

there.4 Tyrannion, a pupil of Dionysius, who taught a t Rome in

the time of Pompey the Great, and aided in the editing of manuscripts

of Aristotle and Theophra ~tus,~as also followed by Varr0.F There

is no evidence that the

Poetics

was among the manuscripts brought to

Rome to rejuvenate the Peripatetic school, and no trace of its direct

influence can be established in Latin literature. But Varro wrote of

poetry and poets,' and the Peripatetic foundations are apparent in

Sidney

G

Ashmore,

P.

Terenti Ajr i Comoediae.

T h e Comedies of Terence

New

York,

1908), p. 264. Adelphoe, III

iii,

6 0 414)

denique

inspicere tamquam in speculum in uitas omnium

iubes atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi.

Zbid., 11 74 428)

postremo tamquam in speculum patinas, Demea,

inspicere iubeo et moneo quid facto usus sit.

fishmore,

op. cil.,

p.

6,

in our day iecls c:illed upon to defend Terence and

Plautus against the charge of immorality, as did scholars in the seventeenth century.

He asserts: To be sure, there are plays of Plautus extant which remind us that

the limits of true decency were occl~sionally ransgressed; bu t even these plays,

though often coarse in tone, fall short of any radical departure from the moral

tenets of the agc which gave them birth.

The Pnbzilae t arronii~iz ne, consisting of the plays which he recognized, de-

termined the canon of those which now survive.

Cf.

G. Goetz and 17 Schoell,

M .

Tererzti Varronis dc Li t zgu i~ n t inn

qztn

Sz~perszlnl

(Leipzig, 1910).

Sandys,

op.

cit.,

I

p.

176.

6

Otto Jahn and Keifierscheid have stressed the dependence of Varro on Tlieo-

phra~tus.

Cf. H.

Reich,

Der iMimlts

(Eerlin,

1903),

p.

272,

note.

Sandys,

op. cit.,

p

140.

7 M

Schanz,

Geschichtc dcr romischeri Li lt .,

V I I I .

1

(~gog) ,p. 433.



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy a n d Comedy

12

w hat we possess of his the0ry.l Th is situation becomes im po rtan t when

i t is rememb ered th a t Varro a n d Suetonius were the chief sources of the

later theorists n

poetic^.^

A derivation of tragedy is ascribed to Varro by Diomedes in the

sam e passage in which the well-known definitions Another

passage

i n

Diomedes on th e Ro man v arieties of comedy seems to be

derived from V a r r ~ . ~

CICERO

When discussing th e dialogues of -3ristotle in m y previous article in

th e pre sen t Stztdies, hav e shown how im po rta nt is th e evidence of

Cicero for th e cha rac ter of those compositions15and besides the dia-

logues Cicero does no t seem t o have read much else of Aristotle, except

the Rhetoric.O A t th e beginning of the Topics he complains th a t no

philosopher in Rome had been able to read the treatises of Aristotle,

bu t his dialogues were in every hand.? Cicero defined comedy, accord-

ing to Do natus; s comoediam esse Cicero a it imita tionem uitae, s eculunz

consuetudi~zis,ntagigzem ueritatislgnot unlike T erence, as shown above.

I I.

Funaioli,

Grammaticae Romanae Fragmenta

(Leipzig, 1907)~ p. 209 f f

2

Cf. Kettner, Kritisclze Benzerkungen z u Va rro urzd Lateinischelt Glossaren (Halle,

1868), and

Varronische Stfu lien

(ISalle, 1865). I n the latter i t is shown th at Isidore's

citations of Varro were probably through intermediate sources. Cf. also, E.

Samter,

Quaestiones Varronian ae (Diss., Berlin, 1891); on page 87 there is a stemma to show

the relations of Varro to the great grammarians, bu t in the light of what is shown in

this article, several additional lines should be drawn in it.

Funaioli, op. cit. ,

p.

320. Ibid. , p. 322.

narvard S tudies

n

Classical Philology,

XXVII I ( I OI ~) ,p. 37 f f

J. I,.

Stocks, Aristotelianism (New York, 1927)~p

122,

erroneously asserts:

There is little evidence tha t the Romans seriously studied any works of Aristotle,

apar t from the published dialogues, except the

Rhetoric

and the

Poetics."

Cf. W. W. Jaeger, Stu die n zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Mekz physik des Aristo-

teles (Berlin, rgrz), pp. 147-148

8 Iiaibel,

CGP,

p. 67.

This definition has been identified as a fragment of the De R e Pz~bl i ca .Cf. F .

Osannus, M . Tul ii Cireronis De Republica Librorum Fragmenta (Gottingen, 1847),

and his edition of the De Repzrblica, p. 329. Cf. I<eich, op . cit., p. 265; Cicero, D e

R e Pzrblica, D e Legihus,

with an English translation by

C.

W. Keyes, Loeb Classical

Library (New York, r928), pp. 238-241; ( D e R e p , IX,

X ,

11): Numquam

comoediae, nisi consuetudo vitae patuetur, probare sua theatris flagitia potuis-

sent.

Cf.

Wilamowitz, Euripides Herakles, p. 55, for the Greek equivalent:



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 Cicer~.~

he idea is repeated in Cicero's oration

Pro

Sento

Roscio .The public speaker's interest in the diction of drama finds fre-

quent excression i n C i ~ e r o . ~

Of Horace's Art of Poetry, airltsbury justly spoke as a famous

document the traditional and influential importance of which can-

not possibly be exaggerated, though its intrinsic critical value may be

much more disputable. Horace accounts for the etymology of the

word tragedy and the historical origin of the species? Because of

Horace's pedagogic method and probable intention he was, however,

Cf.

R.

Wurzer, De Cic-erone Tragoediae Iud ice (Vienna, 1385).

U Dombart,

S a ~ l c t iAz~rel i iAugz~st iniL piscopi De Ckiti i te Dci, Libvi X X I I

(2 vols., Leipzig, 1908), 11 9 (pp. 62-63): Quid autem hinc senserint Romani

veteres, Cicero testatur in libris, quos de re publics scripsit, ubi Scipio disputans

ait: 'Numquam comoediae, nisi consuetudo vitae pateretur, probare sua theatris

flagitia potuissent. '

C. F. R. Jliiller, Cicerol~isScripta Onzlziu, I'ars 11,I (Leipzig, 188o), p. 46:

et certe ad rcm nihil intersit, utrum hanc ego comicum adulescentem an aliquem

ex

agro X'eiente nominem. lctenim hanc conficta arbitror esse a poiitis, ut eflictos

nostros more in alienis personis expressamque imaginem (nostram) vitae cotidianae

videremus.

Cf. I< lclotz, A l Tzlllii Cicerollis Sc ri pf a quoe Muliserulit Ontliia, Pars I , Val.

I1 (I,eipzig, 1852). Orator, 1, 28, 128 (p. 27), and 111,8, 30 (p. 151); Brutus, 55, 203

(pp. 243-244), and elsewhere. Also, e A*u tura Deorzrm,

XXIX,

pp. 71-72.

6

Cf

Norden, Die Composition und Litteraturgattung der Horazischen Epis-

tula ad Pisones,

IIernzes,

XL (~gog),pp. 481-5223, where it is shown th at the se-

quence of topics and their treatment are dependent on Greek precedents. Wilhelm

Kroll, Die I-Iistorische Stellung von I-Iorazens Ars Poetica, Sofzrabcs, LXXII;

N.

F Y I (1~18) ,p. 81.

6

Saintsbury, L oc i C i l i c i , p. 54.

A

modern work, similar in scope to Batteux's

Les Quatre Po6tiqucs

( r j j ~ ) ,s Albert S. Cook,

The Art oj

Poetry (Boston, 1892),

containing the treatises of Horace, Vida, and Boileau.

4rs

Poetica,

1.

2 2 0

This passage is cited by Uiomedes in the same passage in

which Varro is mentioned and the fornlula of Theophrastus occurs. Cf. Keil, Gram.

Lat.,

I,

p. 487. Note the translation of this passage in Horace by Goldsmith, in

Cook, op c i t . 238



Aristotelian Definitions of Trag edy and Com edy

I 3

read chiefly as a technical manual for poets,' developing more con-

spicuously the aim of Aristotle's Poetics in this re~pect.~

While Vitruvius did not have an influence on the Middle Ages, is

description of the stage-settings proper to tragedy and comedy re-

sponds to the traditional ideas of those dramatic species, and his few

words had a considerable effect on the ideas of Renaissance scholars

and architects4

Even the astronomical poem of Mani l iu~,~eflects the traditional

conception in his reference to the contrast between the intrigues and

humorous characters of comedy, on the one hand, and the royal sub-

jects and great disasters, on the other.

Ovid in the Tristia refers to the style of tragedy and n the Amores

describes tragedy in a way that may have influenced Milton's I1

en

seroso?

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,

Th e Ar t of Cookery,

i n

Inz ita tio n of IIorace s A rt of Poe try

(London, 17097).

3

Vitruvius, The T e n Books on Architecture, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan

(Cambridge, ~ g r q ) ,p. I 50.

4

M. Vi tru ui i Pollionis De Architectura Libri Decem (Venice, 1567)~V, viii (p.

193): Genera autem sun t scenarum tria, unum, quod dicitur tragicum, alterum

comicum, tertium satyricum. Horum autem ornatus sunt inter se dissimiles dis-

parique 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, ll

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 o

John Mil ton (Oxford, 1906), I p. 276. (I1 Penseroso, 11. 97 ff .



24 A

Philip

McMahon

The influence of Seneca on Humanist and Elizabethan drama is

well recognized.

Several critics have also noted the correspondence

between the contents of his tragedies and the preferred themes men-

tioned by the Roman grammarians.' I t is probable, however, that the

composition of the dramas was influenced by the definitions preserved

by the grammarians rather than vice-versa. There seems to be present

in the minds of numerous writers on Greek drama the seldom formu-

lated and obviously unfounded idea that the Greek tragedi,

s

were com-

posed with the principles of the Poetics in view.

As a matter of fact

late Greek and Roman comedy was itself influenced, as we have seen,

by the definitions of the dialogue O n Poets, but we have no surviving

Greek plays from the later period which show traces of the doctrines or

language peculiar to the Poetics.

Quintilian has a good deal to say of the utility to the orator

of a

study of the dramatic poets. Numerous passages display his accept-

ance of the traditional formulas. He oflers no innovations, and he does

not show any direct influence of the Poetics. He draws the distinction,

popular with theorists of rhetoric, between the

fabula

of tragedy and

the

argun~e~~ttcnz Hc

continues, impressively, the contrastf ~o me dy .~

between 400s and ~6L0os.Ve efers very approvingly to Menander,

and his reference obviously implies the traditional estimate of that

poet and of comedy in generaL6 Quintilian in discussing the laughter of

Cf. F

I,.

Lucas,

Seizeca and Elizabethan Tragedy

(Cambridge, 1922). Rluch of

the materlal used by

St

Jerome against Jovinian is believed to derive from a treatise

De M atr inzonio

by Seneca. The reference by St. Jerome to the contents of tragedy,

a5 well as other passages, is accepted by the editor of the Teubner Seneca. Cf. Fr.

IIaasc,

L. A ~ zn ue i rnelae Opera qzbae Sz ip er ~n at zrpplemoztzinz

(Leipzig, 1902)~

p. 29, fragment

67

2

L. Kadermacher, AT

Fabii Qzl i~t t i l ia ni ns ti tzr t ionis Oratorine L ib. X I I

(Leip-

zig, 1907).

Ib id . I 8

7 and 8, 8.

Ibid. 11 4

2 .

I b i d . V I 2 8 fi

Ibid.

X

i,

69: Hunc et admiratus maxime est, ut saepe testatur, et secutus

quanquam in opere diverso Menander: qui vel unus, meo quidem iudicio, diligenter



AristotelianDefinitionsof TragedyandComedy

comedydoesnctbecomestrangely dogmaticandarbitrarylikesome

modernpsychologistsandcritics,butacknowledgesthepsychological

difficultywithoutdeclaringitsolved.'

PLINY

Plinytheyoungerhasahumorousreferencetothegarbof theactors

inoneof hisletters,wherehecallsoneof hisvillascomedyand the

other t raged~.~

SUETONIUS

Suetonius,theleadingimmediatesourceformostof thelatergram-

marians,isimportantasaninheritorof thelearningof Varro. Parallels

tohisstatementsaretobefoundinDionysiusThraxandhesurvives

in the treatises of thegrammarians.3 He isoneof the sourcesmen-

tioned by I~i do re .~ ecauseDiomedes,Euanthius,andDonatusare

our sourcesforhisdefinitionof comedy15of tragedy: andhisstate-

mentof thedifferencesbetweencomedyand tragedy,' thesetextswill

bediscussedbelow.

SERVIU~

Servius,discussingBook of theAeneid,stressesitscomicchar-

acter,asjudged by thecurrent formulasof whatconstitutedcomedy

lectus,adcuncta,quaepraecipimus,effingendasufficiat i t s omnemvitaeitnaginem

expressit;tanta ineoinveniendicopiaeteloquendifacultas;i t s estomnibusrebus,

personis,affectibusaccomodatus."

VI

3 p.7: "Nequeenim ab ullosatisex~ li ca ri uto,licetmultitemptaverint,

unde risus, qui non solum factoaliquo dictove, sed interdum quodam corporis

tactu, Iacessitur." Cf.

J.

Y.

T.

Greig,

Th e I'sychology o/ Laughter and Co f~ zc dy

(London,1923),Appendix,pp.225ff. "Theoriesof Laughter andComedy,AHis-

toricalSummary."

R C.Kukula, C. Pl in i Caeci li Secundi Ep ishl aru m Libri Nooem (Leipzig,

1912)~p. 240 (Lib.IX , Epist. vii.)

A.Keiflcrscheid,C . Sz ~e tu ni ran qui lli Praeter Caesarzim Libros Reliquiae (Leip-

zig,1860),p. 5.

hf . Manitius, Geschichte der Lateinischen Literatur es Mittelallers (hrunich,

1911)~

I

pp. 55-57. Cf.e.g.Isidore,Orig., \TIIl,

7

5.

"eifierscheid, op. cit., p. 7 .

IZeiKerscheid,op. cit., p.5.

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 partici-

pating 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 ol l in~ .~

The treatment of comedy and tragedy by Donatus was for later

ages most important and influential.

His sources seem to have been

the same as those of Diomedes and Chari~ius.~

Donatus defines c ~ m e d y , ~ntroducing the same Greek equivalents

G. Thilo and

H.

I-Iagen,

Scrvii Gram matiri i n Vergilii Car9nina Cowzmcntarii

(Leipzig, 1881), p. 459, on Aen. IV : Apollonius Argonautica scripsit e t in tertio

inducit amantem hfedeam: inde totus hie liber translatus est. est autem paene

to tus in affectione, licet in fine pathos habeat , ubi abscessus Xeneae gignit dolorem.

sane totus in consiliis e t subtilitatibus est ; nam paene comicus stilus est: nee mirum,

ubi de amore tractatur.

G

Saintsbury, IZistory of Cr itirism and Literary Taste in Europe (3 vols Edin-

burgh and London, ~g ow o q ), , p. 339.

S

T . Collins,

Th e Interpretation of Virg il with Spcrial Riferivzce lo Macrobius

(Oxford, rgog), pp. 8-9.

Keil,

Grammatici Latin i

I V

(Leipzig, 1854), p. x1: cum Iliomede it a per uni-

versum librum consentit Ilonatus, ut multis locis . . . non solum eadem res tra-

dantur, sed etiam verbs verbis respondeant . . ab antiquiore auctore, tamquam

communi fonte, uterque suam doctrinam derivaverit . non solum cum Iliomede,

sed etiam cum Charisio it s consentiunt, ut haec amnia ex eodem fonte ducta esse

plane adpareat. Cf. Keifferscheid, Szcetoniz~spp. 379-380.

Kaibel,

CGF

p.

67:

Comoedia est fabula diuersa ins tituta continens affec-

tuum ciuilium ac privatorum, quibus discitur quid si t in uita utile, quid contra eui-

tandum. hanc Graeci sic defniuerunt: ~ w p q a i a u ~ i viF iw ~r ti u ) p a y p i r r w v c p i o x i

b~ivf ivvor .

comoediam esse Cicero ait imitationem uitae, speculum consuetudinis,

imaginem ueritatis. comoediae autem a more antiquo dictae, quia in uicis huius-

modi carmina initio agebantur apud Graecos (u t in Ita lia compitaliciis ludicris),

admisto pronuntiationis modulo, quo dum actus commutantur populus attinebatur :

67rA T ~ Sihpqs, hoe est ab actu uitae hominum qui in uicis habi tant ob mediocritatem

fortunarum, non in aulis regiis, u t sunt personae tragicae. comoedia autem, quia



Aristotelian Definitions of Trag edy and C omedy

27

which Diomedes ascribes to Theophrastus, as we noted near the begin-

ning of this article. He then quotes Cicero, and develops the latter's

phrases in a way which shows their substantial agreement with Theo-

phrastus,' and his conception of the dramatic species is implied in his

commentary on T e r e n ~ e . ~he vast influence of the ideas of Donatus

can hardly be over-estimated; his presence is to be seen in the Middle

Ages fr eq ~e nt ly ,~nd 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 be-

came synonymous with an elementary grammar.

St. Jerome, the pupil of Donatus and the secretary of Pope Damasus,

had been a diligent student of Terence15 nd, as one might expect, he

poems sub imitatione uitae atque morum similitudine compositum est, in gestu e t

pronuntiatione consistit

aitque esse comoediam cotidianae uitae speculum,

nec inuria; nam u t intent i specula ueritatis liniamenta facile per imaginem colli-

gimus; ita lectione comoediae imitationem uitae consuetudinisque non agerrime

animaduertimus.

If what is valuable in the commentary of Servius is really derived from Dona-

tus, the judgment on

A e n .

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,

Commen li Donatiani ad Terenl i Fabulas

(Lugduni Bata-

vorum, 1912-13); P. Wessner,

Aeli Donali qz~od Ferlz~rCommentzcm Terenli,

I

(Leipzig, 1905)~p. 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. XI I ,

11.137-138, as:

quel Donato

Ch'alla prim' a rte degno par mano.

W. J. Chase, Th e A r s Mi no r of Donatzcs, Madison, Wis., 1926.

pol ogi a adversus Libros Rz~$rzi

(Migne,

Patrol . Let . ,

XXIII, cols. 428-429):

puto quad puer legeris commentarios in Terentii Comoedias praecep-

toris mei Donati, aeque in Vergilium.

Eusebii Chr onico rz~m ib. Interprete

S

Bieronymo .

(Migne,

Patrol. Lat. ,

XXVII, cols. 501-502). A D 359: Victorinus

rhetor et Donatus grammaticus prxceptor meus Romae insignes habentur.



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.~

For Euanthius we have the evidence of St. Jerome. I t is probable

tha t the first part of the treatise by Donatus belongs to E ~ a n t h i u s , ~

passage which appears to have come frcm Suetonius. I t is interesting

to compare what he has to say about the origin of tragedy and comedy

with what is said in the Poet ic s.Vh e accounts are entirely different,

and if evidence were needed, this would again show that the Poetics had

little to do with establishing the tradition. The distinctions he draws

between tragedy and comedy are consistent with those of the scho-

liasts and other inheritors of the Peripatetic tradition.6

S a n c t i I I i er o n ym i E p i s tu la L I V , A d F u r i a m d e V id ui la te Se ru an da . Corpus

Script. Eccles. Lat., LIV (Vienna and Leipzig, I~IO ,p.

476:

cum etiam comicus

cuius h i s est humanos mores nosse atque describere dixerit, sine Cerere et Libero,

friget Venus

( E u n u c h u s ,

111 v. 6 ) . St. Jerome's words were often cited by educa-

tional authorities as a justification for including Latin comedy in the curricula

of boys' schools.

S.

Euse bii II ierony?ni Aduersus Jouini anum ,

Lib.

I

(Migne,

Patrol . Lal . ,

XXIII,

col.

292):

Quidquid tragoediae tument, et domos, urbes, regnaque subvertit,

uxorum pellicumque contentio est. Armantur parentum in liberos manus; nefandae

apponuntur epulae; et propter unius mulierculae raptum, Europa atque Asia

decennali be110 confligunt.

4. Reifferscheid,

Eua nth i e t Donati Commenturn de Comoedia ,

Prog. (In

I n d e x

Scholarurn

in

Linivcrsitate Litterarum Uratislaviense, 1874).

Ed. Scheidmantel,

Qunesliones Euanthianae (Diss., Leipzig,

1883).

P. Wessner, U n l e r s u ~ h z ~ n g e ~ t

u

Lmteinische~zScholien-Litteratur,

(Hremerhaven,

1899).

JVessner,

Ael i D onali qzlod Fertur,

I

~goz),

.

14,

1.

Ij:

quamuis igitur retro

prisca uoluentibus reperiatur Thespis tragoediae primus inuentor et comoediae

ueteris pater Eupolis cum Cratino Aristophanes esse credatur, IIomerus tamen,

qui fere omnis poeticae largissimus fons est, etiam his carminibus exempla praebuit

e t uelut quandam suorum operum legem praescripsit: qui Iliadem ad instar tra-

gocdine, Odyssiam ad imaginem comoediae fecisse monstratur.

i oetics,

1q48a

3

and

1449

a

10.

kyessner, op. cil., p.

21:

inter tragoediam autem et comoediam cum multa

tum imprimis hoc distat, quod in comoedia mediocres fortunae hominum, parui

impetus periculorum laetique sunt exitus actionum, at in tragoedia omnia contra,

ingentes personae, magni timores, esitus funesti habentur; et illic prima turbulenta,



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and C omedy

9

The grammarian Diomedes, also of the fourth century, is one of the

most elaborate writers on the dramatic species; his influence, combined

with that of Donatus, determined what most men held to be the mean-

ing of tragedy and comedy for fourteen centuries. There has been

some controversy over his sources,l and in particular his relation to

Varro through Suetonius has been debated; but the embodiment of

the tradition in an authoritative form is our present concern. His

quotation of the Greek formulas, and his ascription of that for tragedy

to Theophrastus,3 makes it almost certain that the definitions of the

tranquilla ultima, in tragoedia contrario ordine res aguntur; tum quod in tragoedia

fugienda uita, in comoedia capessenda exprimitur; postremo quod omnis comoedia

de fictis est argumentis, tragoedia saepe de historia iide petitur.

Cf. E. Koett,

De Diomedis Artis Poeticae Fontibus

(Diss., Jena, 1904); Buch-

holz, Ueber die Abhandlung De Poematibus des Diomedes,

N.

Jahrbnch, XXIII

(18971, PP 1 2 7

ff

Cf. Keil, Grammatici Latini , I p. liv: In tertio libro Diomedis memorabilis

et plena antiquae eruditionis disputatio est de poematibus 482 3-492,14. eam

totam a Suetonio, quem in fine eius capitis 4 9 1 ~ 0 iomedis appellavit, petitam

esse docuit Iahnius. Mus. Rhenan. noviss. VIII , p. 629. nam quod satirici

poetae tres tantum appellati essent 485, 32, Lucilius Horatius Persius omisso

nomine Iuvenalis, id non posse intellegi, nisi ab antiquiore aliquo auctore, qui

aetate superior fuisset quam Iuvenalis, haec recepta essent. deinde quia Suetonium

in libris suis maxime Varronis auctoritate usum esse constaret, ea quoque quae

Varronis nomine Diomedes adscripsisset 486, 8. 487, 15. 488,

I

489, 18 Suetonio

deberi. ea vero quae de origine bucolici carminis 486,17 sqq. tradita essent, quoniam

cum iis fere consentirent quae de eadem re Probus ante commentarium in Vergili

bucolica scripsisset, ex eo ips0 loco a Suetonio, qui saepius Probi copiis usus esset,

recepta videri. quem autem Suetonii librum Diomedes exscripserit non magis

certo definiri potest, quam quo potissimum ex Varronis libris Suetonius usus sit

ceterum ut ipse Diomedes vix quicquam antiquo commentario addidit, ita

Suetonius in plerisque satis accurate Varronis auctoritatem secutus esse videtur.

But Wessner does not agree with this conclusion Hermes, LII, 1917, p.

2 1 1 ) :

wobei ich nicht unterlassen will darauf hinzuweisen, dass die Ansicht

Reifferscheids die ganze Poetik bei Diomedes gehore dem Sueton, nach den Darle-

gungen von Buchholz und besonders von Kott unhaltbar ist.

Keil, op. cit pp. 487 ff : Tragoedia est heroicae fortunae in adversis conpre-

hensio. a Theophrasto ita definita est,

rpayqa ia kuriv rjpwi rijs ~ 6 x 7 s spiu rau rr.

tragoedia, ut quidam, a

rph yq

et

65

dicta est, quoniam olim actoribus tragicis

rphyos,

id est hircus, praemium cantus proponebatur, qui Liberalibus die festo



A Philip M cMahon

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-Theophras-

tus-Varro-Suetonius an unknown number of grammarians and com-

pilers 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 reli-

ance on the definitions of tragedy and comedy received a t the begin-

ning from 1 2 Poets There is plenty of evidence showing the persist-

ence 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, ut Varro ait, depascunt vitem; et

IIoratius in ar te poetics

carmine qui tragic0 vilem certavit ob hircum,

mox etiam agrestis Satyros nudavit,

et Virgilius in georgicon secundo, cum et sacri genus monst rat 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 a

appellant, tragoediam

nominatam, per mutationem litterarum in

a

versa, quoniam olim nondum per-

sonis 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~io abatur, cuius rei testis est 1,ucilius in duodecimo.

Ibid

p.

488:

Comoedia est privatae civilisque fortunae sine periculo vitae

conprehensio, apud Graecos ita definita,

hwpw8ia iu r iv i8r wrr ~G v rpaypbTwv ~iv611vos

i rsproXi .

comoedia dicta

7r6 TG V K W ~ G V . i j p a ~

enim appellantur pagi, id est con-

venticula 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



Aristotelian Defilzitions

of

Tragedy and Comedy

13I

What definitions did the Middle Ages, in general, accept as expressing

proper ideas of trczgedy and comedy?

I t is not necessary for the present purpose to state a principle for

separating the late classical period from the early mediaeval.

Many

of the characteristic tendencies of the Middle Ages are already well

developed before the political events occur which are usually accepted

as dividing these eras.'

Boethius, however, is in many ways particularly significant for the

Middle Ages, and began one of its principal theoretical activities, the

harmonizing of Aristotle and revealed re l igi~n.~ ugo of Trimberg

called Boethius dignus et laudabilis in omni n~ t ione ,~

nd a more modern

editor has said of him: No philosopher was so bone of the bone and

sunt, sicut Romae conpitalicii, ad canendum prodibant, e t ab urbana

~ p g a i

6ij

comoedia dicta est: vel quod in ea viculorum, id est humilium domuum, fortunae

conprehendantur, non ut in tragoedia publicarum regiarumque: vel H ~

706 ~Llpou,

id

est comessatione, quia olim in eius modi fabulis amantium iuvenum

~ Gp oi

cane-

bantur. comoedia a tragoedia differt, quod in tragoedia introducuntur heroes duces

reges, in comoedia humiles atque privatae

personae;

in illa luctus exilia caedes, in

hac amores, virginum raptus: deinde quod in illa frequenter et paene semper laetis

rebus exitus tristes et liberorum fortunarumque priorum in peius adgnitio. quare

varia dehnitione discretae sunt. altera enim

b~ivEvvosacpioxlj,

altera T ~ I X ~ Smp

urauis

dicta est. tristitia namque tragoediae proprium; ideoque Euripides petente

Archelao rege ut de se tragoediam scriberet abnuit ac precatus est ne accideret

Archelao aliquid tragoediae

proprium,

ostendens nihil aliud esse tragoediam quam

miseriarum conprehensionem.

While Donatus and Diomedes embodied the Peripatetic conception as i t was

handed on to the Middle Ages, it hardly seems accurate, however, to follow the

practice of what is, on the whole, a useful book: Earret t

H.

Clark,

European

Theories of the Drama

(New York, 1918). I n the chapter on LLDramat ic riticism

of the Middle Alges, wo authorities are reproduced: Donatus, On

Comedy d

Tragedy,

and Dante's

Epis tle to C an Graizde

(pp. 41-47).

Cf.

A

Hildebrand,

Boetl~itis ind seine Stellz~ng um Cl ~ris tent ume

Kegensburg,

1885)~

P

5 ff

J.

Huemer, Da s Registrum multorum auctorum des IIugo von Trimberg,

Sitzz~fzgsber. . Wiener

Akad

d .

W i ss . Phi1os.-Hist. Cl.,

CXVI (1888), pp. 145-190.



Philip ilIcMahon

flesh of the flesh of Middle-Age writers as Boethius. Take up what

writer you will, and you find not only the sentiments, but the very

words of the distinguished old Roman.

The same formula that Donatus andDiomedes had inherited through

the ages is repeated by Boethius or implied in several places.

I n the

C on so la tio P h i l o ~ o p h i a e , ~e asks: Quid tragoediarum clamor alizid deflet

ni s i indiscreto ictzi for tun am felicia regna uertentem?

This Chaucer

translated as What other thing biwailen the cryinges of tragedies but

only the dedes of Fortune, that with a n unu7ar stroke overtorneth

realmes of grete nobley?

Cloetta observes that;

If

in these words

nothing wrong is contained, yet they helped to establish the Middle

Ages in error, as is proved to be the case with Chaucer.

This re-

mark, and the adoption of his views by most historians of the drama,5

proceeds from two prior misconceptions. One is his idea of the nature of

tragedy and comedy based on German philosophy of the early nine-

teenth century, and the other is his scholarly purpose, which is to de-

termine how much the Middle Ages knew of classical drama and how

successful they were in imitating it, rather than to discover what

license the Middle Ages had for their theory of tragedy and

comedy.

Boethius, as did Cicero and many others, used tragedy in a meta-

Chazccer's Tr an sla tio n of Boethius' D e Consolalione, edited by Richard Morris

(London, 1868), p. ii.

R.

Peiper, Anieii Manlii Severini Boelii Philosophiae Consolationis Libri Quin-

que (Leipzig, 1871)~ p. 28, 1. 36.

3

W

W. Skeat, Th e Studen t's Chaucer (New York, n. d.), p. 143. Cf. Bernard L.

Jefferson, Chaucer and the Con sola tion of Ph iloso phy of B oeth ius (Diss., Princeton,

1917).

I '.

Cloetta, Beitrage zur Litteraturgeschichte des Afittelalters t ~ n d er IZenaissance

(Halle, 1890-92),

I

p.

17

W

Creizenach, Geschichte des Netheren Dramas (Halle, 1893), I , p. 9: Unter

diesen Umstanden konnte

es um so leichter geschehen, dass allmahlich in den

Lehrbiichern des Mittelalters in Bezug auf die Grundbegriffe des Dramas cine un-

glaubliche Verwirrung urn sich griff

.

But cf. Lynn Thorndike, Science and Though t

i n he Fi fteenth C entury (New York, 1929), pp. 9-10: The old slurs and disparaging

generalizations a t the expense of the middle ages are now repeated only by mechani-

cal creatures of habit, by those who stopped thinking and reading twenty or thir ty

years ago, and who refuse to give up any catchword or prejudice that was instilled

into their minds in childhood.



Aristotelian Definitions o Tragedy and Comedy

I33

phorical sense of suffering.' Their example does not prove, as Cloetta

seems to think in this and other instances which he cites, that, although

Boethius was acquainted with classical drama, when acquaintance with

i t had practically disappeared in later times, a proper theory of tragedy

and comedy had also

been

lost.

Among the commentaries on Boethius is one formerly ascribed to

St. Thomas A q~ in a s. ~he gloss on the reference to tragedy might give

some hint of a scholastic theory of tragedy if the commentary were

really his. But it has been established that Aquinas did not compose

this work; and although it was very popular and ran through many

editions after the invention of printing, it merely repeats material de-

rived from Isidore in the first place.

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 . ~e carried on the traditional

definitions as best he could, although etymology a t times usurped the

r61e of more difficult historical descripti~n.~ mong the most import-

Peiper,

op. cit.,

p. 205

(Contra Eytychen et Nestorium,

1. 80): At si noua uera-

que 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 Celeber-

rimi De Consolatione Philosophie Liber cum Optimo Comento Beati Thome.

[rqgo?.]

Cf. P. Mandonnet,

Des dcrits Az~thentiquesde S . Thomas d Aquin

(zd ed.,

Fribourg, Switzerland, 1910).

H.

Dressel,

De Z~idor iOr ig inum Fon t ih s

(Turin, 18 74).

A

Schenk,

De Isid.

H is p. de hTatura Rer. Libelli Fontibus

(Jena, 1909).

C.

H.

Beeson,

Zsidor-Studim

(Munich, 1913).

W

M. Lindsay,

Isidori Eiispalensis Episcopi Etymotogiarum sine

O ri gi nu m L i l n i X X 2 vols., Oxford, 1911). Lindemann, Corp. Gramm. Ve t. Lat. , I

(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 dis

solvat.



I34 A hilip McMahon

tant passages is that

in

his Book VIII of the

Etymologies.

Many of

Isidore s unfavorable remarks about the stage of antiquity; which were

those most ap t to be carried on by the glossators, were apparently de-

rived from Tert~llian.~

Kayser held that the common source of Diomedes and Isidore was

probably S~e tonius .~ e judged that the references to Varro came

from the same s ~ u r c e . ~ At anyut Wessner contested this co n~l usi on .~

rate, Creizenach, like other historians of the drama cites Isidore to

prove that the Middle Ages did not know what tragedy or comedy was,

because the mediaeval understanding of the tragic and comic did not

L t y n ~ .VIII , vii (Lindemann, 111, p. 26j ): Tragoedi dicti, quod initio canenti-

bus praemium erat hircus, quem Graeci p i r y o s vacant. Unde et IIoratius:

Car min e qu i tragic0 v i lem certavit ob hircum .

Olim enim dehinc sequentes tragici multum honorem adepti sunt, excellentes in

argumentis fabularum ad veritatis imaginem fictis. Comoedi appellati sive a loco,

quia circum pagos agebant, quos Graeci

pas

vocant, sive a comessatione. Solebant

enim post cibum homines ad eos audiendos venire. Sed comoedi privatorum homi-

num praedicant acta, tragici vero res publicas ct regum historias. Item tragicorum

argumenta ex rebus sunt luctuosis: comicorum ex rebus laetis.

Cf.

Etynz .

XVITI, xlv: Tragoedi sunt , qui ant iqua gesta atque facinora

sceleratorum regum luctuoso carmine spectante populo concinebant. And Etynz.

XVIII, xlvi: Comoedi sunt , qui privatorum hominum acta dictis, au t gestu cane-

bant, atque stupra virginum et amores meretricum in suis fahulis exprimebant

(Lindemann, op . cil ., pp. 577-578).

Af

Klussman, Excerpla Tertull ianca i n Isidori Hispalensis Etynzologiis (Ham-

burg, 1892)~ p. 30-31.

J

Kayser,

De Ve tcr um Ar te Poctica Quaestiones Selcctae

(Leipzig, 1906), pp. 44-

45.

Zbid.,

p. 51.

P.

WJessner, Isidor und Sueton,

H e n ~ t c s ,

LII (1917)~ . 292: Seine Quellen

ha t Isidor nur verhiiltnismiissig selten genannt; gerade diejenigen, die er an meis-

ten ausgebeutet hat , nennt er in der Kegel nicht. Die Citate aus alteren Autoren

hat er fast durchweg aus zwcitcr und dritter Hand, und zu ihncn gehoren unter

anderen auch die Suetoncitate. Es kann zum allermindesten als sehr wahrscheinlich

angesehen werden, dass er keine Schrift von Sueton in Hiintien gehabt hat ausser

vielleicht die Kaiserbiographien. Mann lrann miiglicherweise mit EIilfe von sicher-

gestelltem Eigentum Suetons bei anderen Schriftstellern hier und dort zu der Fcst-

stellung gelangen, dass die von Isidor benutzten Quellen in einzelnen Fallen

irgendwie mit Sueton zusammenhingen, aher mit Hilfe Isidors suetonisches Gut

andemarts nachweisen zu wollen, ist ein eitles Beginnen und muss scheitern, wie

Schmekels Buch in abschreckender mTeise eigt.



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and Comedy

35

correspond to nineteenth-century philosophical principles, and the

Middle Ages were largely ignorant of the dramatic p ~ e t sf antiquity.'

A good deal of value has often been attached to glosses, as indicating

the nature of the mediaeval conception of tragedy and comedy. The

strange statements presented by such glosses are supposed to indicate

that the Middle Ages were entirely mistaken and in no way possessed

an adequate theory of tragedy and comedy. Several observations are

pertinent on this score. I t is to be noted, first of all, that the gram-

marians Donatus and Diomedes maintained an influence continuously;

that Isidore, in particular, was persistently popular, being the chief

source of both truth and error for most of the glosses; that the misinter-

pretations are usually due to faulty etymology or to hints derived from

Tertullian; and that the mistakes are mistakes in understanding the

traditional formulas derived from

On

Poe t s ultimately and not misinter-

pretations of the Poetics I t is also to be noted that glosses have not

yielded the gains once expected from their collection and study. The

amount of independent evidence to be had from them, covering points

not available in surviving classical literature, is indeed surprisingly

W

Creizenach, Geschichte des AAeueren Dra ma s (Halle, 1893), I , p. 9.

Cf. A . Reifferscheid and

G

Wissowa, Qu inti Septinzi Florentis T ertulliani

Opera. Corp us Script. Eccles. Lat ., vol.

XX,

Prague, Vienna, and Leipzig, 18901,

De Spectaculis, passim. But Tertullian introduces keen appreciation of tragic

values when he anticipates the confusion of his enemies on the Day of Judgment.

Cf. op. cit., pp. 28-29: at enim supersunt alia spectacula, ille ultimus et perpetuus

iudicii dies, ille nationibus insperatus, ille derisus, cum tanta saeculi uetustas e t tot

eius natiuitates uno igni haurientur

.

etiam poetas non ad Rhadamanthi nec

ad Minonis, sed ad inopinati Christi tribunal pdpitantes? tunc magis tragoedi

audiendi, magis scilicet uocales in sua propria calamitate; tunc histriones cogno-

scendi, solutiores multo per ignem; tunc spectandus auriga in flammea rota totus

ruber; tunc xystici contemplandi, non in gymnasiis, sed in igne iaculati. . . . An

even more frequent source of misleading glosses is to be found in Lactantius,

Divin.

Ins t . ,

VI,

Corpus Scrip t. Eccles. Le t. X I X , p. 560

f f . : In

scenis quoque nescio

an sit corruptela uitiosior. nam et comicae fabulae de stupris uirginum loquuntur

aut amoribus meretricum, et quo magis sunt eloquentes qui flagitis illa finxerunt, eo

magis sententiarum elegantia persuadent et facilius inhaerent audientium memoriae

uersus numerosi et ornati. item tragicae historiae subjiciunt oculis parricidia, et in-

cesta regum malorum, et coturnata scelera demonstrant



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 e , ~hile

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 pro-

vided in the C o r p ~ s , ~nd it is a comparatively easy task to trace the

sources of the mingled fact and fiction in most of the glo~ses.~n the

whole, however, little positive evidence for the mediaeval theory is to

Cf W M. Lindsay and

H.

J. Thomson, Ancient Lore i n Mediaeval La tin Glos-

saries (St. Andrews University Publications, No. XI II , London, I ~ Z I ) ,. 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 make-

shifts, the mere result of massing the word-collections that were available a t this

or that monastery and then re-arranging the mass.

Glossaria Latina, Iussu Academiae Britannicae Edita; vol. I Glossarium An-

sileubi sive Librum Glossarunt (edited by W.

hi.

Lindsay and others, Paris, 1926),

p. 129, 398,

Comes s)atio: cotzvivium meretricum;

423,

Comicam: tragicam, sati-

ricam,

p. 568, 57,

tragoedia: luctuosae relatiortes;

60,

luctuo sum carmen;

66,

tragoe-

dia: est quae res publicas am plis sim as et regum historias c ontinet; tragoediam aute m

Melpo[ejmene Muss assuerunt poefae inventa m.

3

Kaibel,

C GF,

p. 72: Comoedia, historia tragoedia. Comoediae, cantica

agrestia graece. Comoedia est quae res privatorum et humilium personarum com-

prehendit 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.

Gramm atici La tin i ex recensione He nA ci Keili i , Suppleme ntum Continens

Anecd ota Eleluetica, ex recensione He rm ann i Hage ni. Gr am m. Le t., vol. VII, Leipzig,

1870)~ . 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.

A

S.

Napier, Old English Glosses Anecd ota Oxon iensia, vol. XI , Oxford, rgoo),

P 93.

Corpus Glossariorum La tinorum .

Cf. especially, G. Goetz, Thesaurus Glossarum

Emendatarum, vols. VI-VII (Leipzig, 1899-1901).

7

J.

F.

Mountford,

Quota tions jrom Classical Authors in Medieval Latin Glos-

saries

(New York, 1925), contains additional material




37

be had from the glosses. Some of the inadequate ideas are to be traced

to Eu~ebius.~

he explanation in many early German and Anglo-

Saxon 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 Doc-

trinae Erudimentum drew upon the Liber Glossar~m,~ut he presents

further data secured from Isidore, Diomedes, and Donatus, of whom

the last is expressly mentioned.

JOHN O

and UGUCCIONEALISBURY DA PISA

I n John of Salisbury are to be found reflections of the traditional

theory of tragedy and ~ornedy.~he Magnae Derivationes of Uguccione

da Pisa will be discussed in relation to Dante, but it was based on

Isidore and Papias and affected, among others, Bartholomaeus Angli-

cus

Vincent of Beauvais, another very popular encyclopedist, of the

thirteenth ce n t ~ r y , ~as frequently printed, down to the seventeenth

c e n t ~ r y . ~

n

that part called Speculum Doctrinale, chapter

1 9

poetry

Cf. Corpus, IV, pp. 185, 220, 221, 425,and 572; V, pp. 181, 250, 396, and 426.

C o r p ~ ,V, pp. 418 and 426. Cf. Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., I 8.

L. Diefenbach, Glossarium Latino-Germanicum Mediae et Injimae Aetatis

(Frankfurt, 1857), p. 155.

Diefenbach,

Novum Glossarium Latino-Germanicum

Mediae et I~zfimaeAetatis (Frankfurt, 1867), p. 102. E. Steinmeyer and E. Sievers,

Die Althochdeutschen Glossen

(Berlin, 1879-98).

T. Wright, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies (2d ed.,

R P.

Wiilcker,

2

vols., London, 1884), s.v. tragoedia ; conzocdia.

Cloetta, op. cit., I pp. 23-24.

Polycraticus, 111

8 and VIII , 9. (Migne, CXCIX, col. 491 A and col. 743

B.)

7 P.

Toynbee, Dante Studies and Researches (London, ~goz) , p. 97

ff

Cloetta, op. cit., I p. 33.

E.

Boutaric, Vin cen t de Beauvais et la Connaissance

de I An tiq uiti Classique a u Treizic me SiLcle (Paris, 1875).

Bibliotheca M un di . Vincerztii Bellovacensis speculu m quadruplex; natura le,

doctrinale, morale, historiale Om ni a nu no accurate recogttita opera et stud io

dheologorum Ben edictinoru m collegi Ve das tin i i n alma academia Duacensi

(Duaci,

1624).



138 A Philip McMahon

is classified into seven kinds, where tragedy and comedy are defined, in

accordance with Isidore. In the Specz~lz~moctrinale, a section,

De

poetis, is carried over from Isidore, and chapter IIO is simply Ety-

mologiarz~wzVIII, 7 reproduced completely.

JOHANNES

JANUENSIS

The Catl~olicon,~nother 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 . ~

In the fifteenth-century Latin-English dictionary, the first of its

kind, the Catholicon of Johannes Januensis is cited for tragedy and

Uguccione for ~o rne dy .~

The metaphorical use of tragedy, which depends on the traditional

understanding rather than upon the special sense of the Poetics, is fre-

quent from the time of Cicero down. I n the Middle Ages it is often

found; among others, in Ekkehard IV,5 Lampert of Her~fe ld ,~nd

Otto of Frei ~i ng .~

One of the works most frequently referred to, by historians of the

drama and others, for data on the mediaeval conception of tragedy and

Ibid., I ,

lxiv, col.

76.

A

copy in the Library of Harvard College: Catholicon. Ed ita a Fratre

e

J a n u a ,

Ord inis Predicatorurn. Cologne, 1497.

Cf. Cloetta, up. ci t ., I , p. 26.

1.

L.

llayhew, Tfze P r o ~ ~ p t o r i u marvzblorum, The First Englisfz-Latin Dic-

t ionary,

1440 A D E.

E.

T. S. , 1890 ,

col.

240

and col.

351.

Cf. note,

p. 629.

G. Rleyer von Kronau, Casus S anc t i Gall i S t . Galliscke Geschichtsqzbellen, St.

Gallen,

1877-791,

PP.

228, 237, 238, 346, 411,

and

445.

0

IIolder-Egger, Lampert i f i fonachi Hersfeldensis Opera Hanover and Leip-

zig,

1894 ,

p.

172.

A.

IIofmeister,

Ottonis Episcopi Frisingelzsis Chronica s h e II istoria de Duabus

Ci-vitatibus Sc rip t. Rer . Germ. sep. ed., Hanover and Leipzig, I ~ I Z ,pp. 2-3, 7, 317 .




39

comedy, as well as of the tragic and comic, is Cloetta s book. He bases

his investigation on the classical conception of classical drama, as deter-

mined by modern criticism. He considers only those literary produc-

tions which have some close relation to the classical drama. Within the

pre-determined limitations he produced a scholarly treatise of per-

manent va lue,but as critics pointed out a t the time of its publication,

the terms tragedy and comedy were not applied solely to survivals and

imitations of the classic drama. Cloetta s work was expanded and in

some points improved by Bahlmann.3

The compositions which Cloetta examined, although they do not

always conform to his pre-determined criteria, always find justification

for their being known as comedies or tragedies in the mediaeval theory

as it has been outlined here. The terms were extended to many kinds

of narrative, as we have already seen, and i Cloetta had attempted to

analyze every one to see how far it conformed to the mediaeval rather

than his particular and narrower basis, the task would have been enor-

mous and of no more than corroborative value. The Middle Ages were

not willfully eccentric but no one will deny that in the course of time a

great deal of classical learning was forgotten just as certainly as much

classical literature was lost. I t is, therefore, suificient for the present

purpose to concede the value of Cloetta s work within its limits, but to

point out that the Middle Ages inherited an authentic and legitimate

conception of classical origin and that, with very elastic inclusiveness,

they applied the theory they had received from classical antiquity.

Cloetta, Beifruge,

I,

pp. 1-2.

Cloetta himself in vol corrects his da ta on the knowledge of Seneca in the

Middle Ages, as Traube pointed out in the Krit Jahresber.

11

d. Fortschr d. Rom.

Phil

1890),

I ,

p. 90. Manitius has written many articles on mediaeval knowledge

of the classics, including the dramatic poets

P. Bahlmann, Die Ernezlerer des A nti ken Cr am as zbnd ihre Ers te t~ Drama-

tischen Versuche, 1314-1478 ZLIunster, 1896); Die Laltinischen Dra? ienvotl

I lrim

phelings St jf p h o bis ZZLT -1Iitte des Sechsehnfen Ja hh z~ nd er ts, 480-1550 Munster,

1893).



A

hilip M c M a h o n

W h a t dejini tions did Da nte accept as conveying proper ideas of tragedy

and comedy?

There are several places

in

the Divine Comedy

in

which Dante's

theory of tragedy and comedy is indicated. For comedy:

e pcr le note

Di questa Cornmedia, lcttor, ti giuro,

S'elle non sien

di

lunga grazia vote.

.

Inferno,

XVI 127 129.

Cosi di ponte in ponte, altro parlando

Che la mia commedia cantar non cura,

Venimmo. .

Ircferno,

XXI,

1 3.

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 Ma gnae Derivationes of Uguc-

cione da Pisa,' gathered in turn from the Elementa rium Doctr inae

Rudi-

m e n t u m

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; i t 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

directly from Uguccione

.

under the word

oda.

Uguccione seems

also to be the source of what Greek Dante knew.

Toynbee,

op. cit ., p.

97. (Reprinted with additions, from

Romania , XXVI,

537-534.)

Cf.

Du Canee.

Glossariunz Me diae et Inf im ae Latin i tat i s,

vol.

\

Paris, 1846),

.

p. 633, s.v. Tragoedia, Ir ou ia, la us facta de ztlibus et fetidis, uttde Tragoedisare,

dictare,

in Gloss. Bibl.

MSS.

anonymi ex Ugutione in Bibl. reg.

Toynbee,

op. ci t . , pp.

98-99.

Toynbee,

op . cit .,

pp. 103

f

Uguccione under the word

oda

says:

O d a ,

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,



Aristotelian DeJinitions of Tr age dy and Comedy

141

The

Epistle to C a n Grande della Scala

is now accepted by nearly all

scholars l and in it Dante accounts for the title of his poem defining

tragedy and comedy while noting the difference between them in the

usual authentic manner.2

et aifinis est cotidiane locutioni, vel quia circa villas fiebat et recitabatur, vel

comedia

a commensatione, solebant enim post cibum homines ad audiendum eam

venire.

.

. Item

oda

in eodem sensu componitur cum

tragos

quod est hircus, et

dicitur

hec tragedia e

idest hircina laus, vel hircinus cantus, idest fetidus; est

enim de crudelissimis rebus, sicut qui patrem vel matrem interficit, et commedit

filium, vel e contrario et hujusmodi. Unde et tragedo dabatur hircus, idest animal

fetidum, non quod non haberet aliud dignum premium, sed ad fetorem materie

designandum. .

.

E t differunt

tragedia

et

comedia

quia

comedia

privatorum

hominum continet acta,

tragedia

regum et magnatum. Item

co?nedia

humili stilo

scribitur,

tragedia

alto. item

comedia

a tristibus incipit, sed in letis definit,

tragedia

e contrario; unde in salutacionibus solemus mittere et optare amicis tragicum

principium et comicum finem, idest principium bonum e t letum, et bonum et letum

finem."

Cf. E. K. Rand,

Th e La ti n Concordance of Dante and the Genuineness of Certain

o f h i s La t in Works

(Boston, 1912)~pp.

7-39:

Paget Toynbee,

Dantis Alagheri i

Epistolae

(Oxford, rgzo), pp. 160 f f

Paget Toynbee, "Dante's Letter to Can Grande (Epist.

X.),

Emended Text,"

Mod ern Langua ge Kevitxw

XIV ~grg ) ,p.

286:

"Libri titulus est: 'Incipit Comoe-

dia Dantis .4lagherii, Florentini natione, non moribus.' Ad cuius notitiam scien-

dum est, quod comoedia dicitur a comos villa, e t oda quod est cantus, unde comoedia

quasi villanus cantus. E t est comoedia genus quoddam poeticae narrationis, ab

omnibus aliis differens. Differt ergo a tragoedia in materia per hoc, quod tragoedia

in principio est admirabilis et quieta, in fine sive exitu est foetida et horribilis;

e t dicitur propter hoc a tragos quod est hircus, et oda quasi cantus hircinus, id

est foetidus ad modum hirci, ut patet per Senecam in suis tragoediis. Comoedia

vero inchoat asperitatem alicuius rei, sed eius materia prospere terminatur, ut

patet per Terentium in suis comoediis. E t

hinc

consueverunt dictatores quidam

in suis salutationibus dicere loco salutis, tragicum principium, et comicum finem.'

Similiter differunt in mod0 loquendi:

elate et sublime tragoedia; comoedia vero

remisse et humiliter; sicut vult Horatius in sua Poetria ubi licentiat aliquando

comicos ut tragoedos loqui, et sic e converso:

Interdum tamen et vocem comoedia tollit,

Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore;

E t tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri

Telephus et Peleus etc.

E t per hoc pate t quod Comoedia dicitur praesens opus. Nam si ad materiam

respiciamus, a principio horribilis e t foetida est, quia Infernus; in fine prospera,



A Phil ip M cMahon

References to the style of tragedy and comedy are to be found in the

Convivio and in the De Vul gar i Eloquentia? and they are in accordance

with the letter to Can Grande.

Since commenting on Dante was formerly one of the necessary occu-

pations 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, ex-

plains 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 turbu-

desiderabilis 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.

I : hfcore, Tz ifte 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

L. Scarabelli, Conzedia di D . degli A col comfncntodi Jaropo dclla Lana (3 vols.,

Bologna, 1866), I p. 351.

V Nannucci, Pelri Allcglrer.ii strpcr D a ~ t i s ps iu s Gelzitoris Cowzocdiam Com-

mentarium (Florence, 1845-18~6) pp. 9 i f

6

G. A. L. Baur, Boetitts uttd Dante (Leipzig, 1873);

R

R'lurari, Danle e Boa io

(Bologna, 1905).

C

Giannini,

Commefzto di Francesco da Bzcti sopra la D . C.

(Pisa, 1858), I

pp. 7 and 531

fl



Aristotelian Dejinitions

of Tragedy and

Comedy

43

lence to tranquillity in the

Commedia

with the comedies of Plautus

an d Terence.l H e refers back to his introduction when he comes to

I? fenzoX V I 28 2

T he work of Ben venuto da Imo la add s something from the stud y of

formal rhetoric an d scholastic philosophy while cit ing I~ i d o r e . ~ e

G.

Milanesi,

I1 Conzento d i Gionanni Bocraccio sopra la C . 2

vols., Florence,

1863)~ , p. 84. Domenico Guerri,

Giovanni Boccaccio, I1 Com efzto ella D. C

(3 vols.,

Bari, 1g18), I p. 116: I1 tu tto della commedia 5 (per quello che per I'lauto e per

Terenzio, che furono poeti comici, si pub comprendere): che la commedia abbia

turbolento principio e pieno di romori e di discordie, e poi l'ultima parte di quella

finisca in pace e in tranquillitb. A1 qua1 tu tto

5

ottimamente conforme il libro

presente: percioche egli incomincia da' dolori e dalle turbazioni infernali, e finisce

nel riposo e nella pace e nella gloria, la quale hanno i beati in vita eterna.

Milanesi, op. cit., 11 p. 453. Guerri, op. cit., 111 p. 229 .

Cf. Luigi Rossi-Cad, Di Maestro Benvenuto da Imola (Pergola, 1889).

J . P. I'acaita, Benve nuti de Ram baldis de Inzola, Comenlztm szcper Da nti s Al-

digherij Comoediam, nun primzrm integre i n lucem editum (Florence, 1887), I,

p. 18: Tragoedia est stylus altus et superbus; tractat enim de memorabilibus

et,horrendis gestis, qualia sunt mutationes regnorum, eversiones urbium, conflictus

bellorum, interitus regum, strages et caedes virorum, et aliae maximae clades; et

talia describentes vocati sunt tragoedi, sive tragici, sicut Homerus, Virgilius, Euri-

pides, Statius, Simonides, Ennius, et alii plures. Comoedia est stylus bassus

et humilis, tractat enim vulgaria et vilia facta ruralium, plebeiorum, et humilium

personarum; e t talia describentes vocantur comoedi, sive comici, sicut Plautus,

Terentius, Ovidius. hlodo est hie attente notandum quod, sicut in isto libro est

omnis pars philosophiae, u t dictum est, ita est omnis pars poetriae. Unde si quis

velit subtiliter investigare, hie est tragoedia, satyra, et comoedia. Tragoedia

quidem, quia describit gesta Pontificum, Principum, Regum, Baronum, et aliorum

magnatum et nobilium, sicut pa te t in toto libro. Satyra, idest reprehensoria;

reprehendit enim mirabiliter et audacter omnia genera viciorum nee parcit digni-

tat i, potestati, vel nobilitati alicujus. Ideo convenientius posset intitulare satyra,

quam tragoedia, vel comoedia. Potest etiam dici quod sit comoedia, nam secun-

dum Isidorurn Comoedia incipit a tristibus et terminatur ad laeta. E t ita liber iste

incipit a tristi materia, scilicet ab Inferno et terminatur ad laetam, scilicet ad

Paradisum, sive ad divinam essentiam.

Sed dices forsan, lector: cur vis mihi

baptizare librum de novo, cum autor nominaverit ipsum Comoediam? Dico quod

autor potius voluit vocare librum Comoediam a stylo infimo et vulgari, quia de rei

veritate est humilis respectu litteralis, quamvis in genere suo sit sublimis et excel-

lens.

Deinde tangitur in ti tulo causa efficiens, cum dicitur Dantis Aldigherii; et

materia, cum dicitur, in qua agitur de Inferno, sive causa materialis et subjectum

libri primi.



I44 A hilip McMahon

distinguishes between the species on grounds of style,' repeating the

point on Inferno XX, 113,2 and Iftferno XXI, The writer usually

known as the ho n i m o Fiorentino, deals with Iqferno

XX,

113, in the

customary manner, but also employs material from the letter to Can

Grande.4 Christophoro Landino explains Virgil's references on the

basis of style and the nature of his themes5 Velutello mentions only

the style as a reason for calling the Aeneid a t r a g e d ~ . ~asso later ob-

serves that the

Aeneid

is in his time usually considered an epic, but he

justifies Dante on the basis of the remarks in

De

Vulgar; Eloquentia?

It

was not until the middle of the sixteenth century that any differ-

ence between Dante and the

Poetics

troubled the critics. Gelli, in his

lectu~eson the

Cornmedia

says, in defending llante, that his error was

not of much importance in the poet's time, and he quotes the letter to

Can Grande. He also declares that if Aristotle had read Dante as he

had read Homer, he would have framed his theory to include the Italian

poet. I n similar fashion he compares the work of M.ichelangelo and

that of the ancients, concluding that Michelangelo's achievement is in

no way inferior to that of antiquity. Although Dante did not construct

his poem on the basis of rules, his performance did not fall below that

of the dramatic poets of classical t i r n e ~ . ~nother rabid defender of

Dante

in

the controversy was Giacopo Mazzoni, who, however, in

572

made an at tempt to reconcile Dante and the

Poetics

without introduc-

Ibid. ,

I,

p. I54: Homerus, Virgilius, e t Lucanus scripserint in alto stilo,

scilicet tragedia, tamen Horatius scripsit in mediocri stilo, puta satira, et Ovidius

in basso, scilicet comedia.

Ibid. , 11 p.

88:

e l'alta mi a tragedia,

quia est stylus altus, et de rebus altis

tractans,

canta,

idest poetice describit,

i n alcun loco,

scilicet tertio Eneidos.

Ibid.,

11, p. 9

j

che la mi a comedia,

idest meus liber vulgaris,

cantar non cur a,

idest poetice describere.

. . .

4 P.

Fanfani,

Conzmento dla D. C. d'dnonimo Fiorentino,

I

(Bologna, 1866),

pp. 451 and 461.

Comento di Christophoro Landilto sopra la Com . di D . A . (Opere d d Divino

Poela Danth e, Bibliotheca S Bernardini)

Venice,

I

512, f

131

r.

L a Comedia

i

Dante Aligieri con la Nova Espositione di A velvtello

(Venice,

544), in loc.

7

La D.

C .

di A . Postillata da

T

Tasso,

3

vols., I (Pisa, 1 8 ~ 0 ) ~.

153.

C.

Negroni,

Cioaan Batista Gelli sopra la C . di D.

(Florence, 1887), Lettura

Ottava,

11

p.

296-297.



A r i s t o t e li a n D ef i ni ti o ns o f T r a g e d y a n d C o m e d y

145

ing considerations of historical development.' The critic Daniello da

Lucca, on

Inferno xx,

113, mentions reasons of style and the death of

T u r n u ~ . ~

t

is interesting t o see the comments and solutions of other

writers: but those given will suffice to show the persistence of Dante's

use and its acceptance.

W h a t defin itions did Cha.ucer accept as conveying proper ideas of

tragedy and comedy?

Chaucer's conception of tragedy was the usual one among scholars of

his and preceding times14 nd is clearly stated in his translation of Boe-

thius: 'What other thing biwailen the crqinges of tragedies but only

the dedes of Fortune, that with an unwar stroke overtorneth the

realmes of grete nobley?';

Mario Rossi,

Discorso di Giacopo Ma zzoni in Difesa della Conzmedia del Divino

Poeta Dante (Citti di Castello, 1898), p. 74.

Dante con 1 Espositione d i

M .

Bernardino Daniello da Lucca

(Venice, 1568),

P 134.

3

K

Andreoli, I,a C . d i

D.

A (Naples, 1863), p. 131; L. G Blanc, Gottliche

Komodie

(Halle, 1864), on

In f . ,

XX, 113; G da Siena,

Com. di D .

A (Naples, 1867-

70), on I n f XX, 113;

K

Vossler, Die Gdttliche Komodie, 4 vols. in (Heidelberg,

1908), 111,306 (S ~ I ) ,nd IV, 7 (963). P H. Wicksteed and

E.

G Gardner, Dante

and Giouanni del Vir gilio, (Westminster, 1902), p. 293.

Cf. G L Kittredge, Chaucer and his Poetry (Cambridge, 1915), p. IIO.

Skeat, op. cit., p. 143 (Prose

11

1 75). Cf. B

L.

Jefferson, Chaucer and the

Consolation of Philosophy of Boelhizhs (Princeton, 1917), p. 165: How much the

Consolation determined Chaucer's own attitude toward life, it is difficult to de-

termine with precision At the least, it may be said th at Boethius and Chaucer

were compatible in point of view and that Chaucer found in Boethius, in many

ways, a congenial spirit. At the most, i t may be said tha t Boethius was an influence

so profound that he completely determined Chaucer's view of the meaning of life

and of the way in which life should be conducted. The truth no doubt lies some-

where between the two extremes, and Boethius probably accentuated and extended

views which Chaucer already had temperamentally.

The influence of Chaucer on all students of English made even Archer, Play-

Making (New York, 1928),

p

261, seek to reconcile Chaucer and the Poetics. He

notes tha t Chaucer's lines show that peripeteia or reversal of fortune was the very

essence and meaning of tragedy in the Middle Ages.



A.

Philip c ahon

Tothisisadded:

Glose. Tragedieistoseyn,aditeeof aprosperitee

foratyme,thatendethinwrecchednesse."

TenBrink quotedDante'sletter toCanGrandeand thought tha t

Chaucerhadthencederivedhist h e ~ r y . ~ ut sinceMissPetersen's in-

vestigation,%weh o w ha ttheoryiswrong,as wellasotherswhichsup-

posedthesourceof theglosswastheFrenchprosetranslationascribed

toJeandeMeungortheLatincommentaryonBoethiusformerlyattri-

buted toSt .ThomasAquinas. illissPetersenestablishedthefacttha t

Chaucer's sourcewastheunpublishedcommentarybyNicolasTrivet ,

whichincluded thoseof JeandeMeungandthepseudo-Aq~inas.~

Trivet's theoryof tragedyinhisedition,withcommentary,of Sene-

ca'stragedies,%arly in the fourteenthcentury,wasbased largelyon

Isi~lore.~islongnote cn thepassageinRoethiuswaskindlysentme

byMissPetersenfromunpublished material?

Chaucer's agreementwith that theoryis indicated in various pas-

sagesof hisownpoems. Forexample,intheT r o i l z ~ sandCriseyde s

Go, litel book, go litel myn tragedie,

Thcr god thy maker yet, er that he dye,

So sende might to make in some comedie!

Rut litel book, no making

thou

n'cnvyc,

But subgit be to alle poesye;

And kis the steppes, wher-as thou sccst pace,

Virgile, Ovyde, Omer, L u c q and Stace.

Skeat,

op. cit. Prose11

1.78).

B.

TenBrink,

Clzclucer

(Xliinster, 1870)~

,

p. 78.

0. Petersen, "Chaucer and Trivet,"

Pzibl. Moder?t Lnng. Assoc.,

XV I I I

(1903),PP-173-193-

4

The sources which Miss Petersen used were Addit. RlSS. 1958jand 27875,

BritishRIuseum.

Given in full detail in Peiper,

De Se?zerae Tragoediarzhm Vulgnri Lertiolze

(Breslau,1893).

Creizenach,

o p

i i l

T,

p 487f f

7

"Secundo cumdicitQuid tragediarumprobatmutabilitatemfortunedivulgare

cotidianis clamoribuscluiaclamores poetarum cotidicin theatro recitancium tra-

gediasnichil aliud continebantquammutabilitatemfortune. ICt notaquodtragedi

dicuntur secundumYsidorum,T4:thi. li.18c.deLudoScenico: illiquiantiquegesta

atquefacinorascelerstorum regumluctuosocarminespectantepopuloconcinebant.

Unde tragedia est carmen de magnis iniquitatibusa prosperitate incipicns et in

adversitate terminans. E t dicitur tragedia a tragosquodestycrus.

.

Skeat,

op. i i l . p.

324 (V, 1786-1792).



Aristotelian DeJinitions of Tragedy and Comedy

147

th e en voy corresponds to his ini t ia l purpose:

The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,

T h a t was the king Priamus sone of T roye,

I n lovinge, how his aven tures fellen

Fro wo to wele, and after ou t of joye,

M y purpos is, er th at par te fro ye.

Thesiphone, thou help me for t'endyte

Thise woful vcrs, th at wepen as wryte!

I n t he Mon,k s

Prologue

again , we find:

Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie,

As olde bokes maken us memorie,

Of h im th at stood in greet prosperitee

And is y-fallen ou t of heigh degree

Into miserie, and endeth wrccchedly.

-4nd they ben versifyed com unly

Of six feet, which men clepe exanzelron.

In prose eek been endyted many oon,

And eek in metre, in many a sondry wyse.

Although S kea t supposed th at th e gloss on th e passage in Ch aucer7s

transla tion of Boethius was original with Ch auce r himself: h e note d

correct ly th a t the au thors m ent ioned a t th e end of the f i rs t passage

from

Troilus

quoted above were models which, in accordance with

mediaeval usage, prompted him to term works in heroic hexameters

tragedies. T hi s superficial confusion is really testim ony to t he persis-

tence a n d weight of th e definitions derived from t h e dialogue On

Poets

because of th e sim ilarity of char acters an d themes in epic a n d traged y,

an d th e te rm heroic was used both w i th regard to the me tre of epic and

also in t h e tr ad itio na l f ~ r m u l a . ~

Ibid.,

p. 206 1, L-7).

Ibid

p.

p

T. 3163-3171).

ktT.

W.

Skeat,

Chaqlcet, The Prior~sses

Tale,

Sire Thopas,

et cet. 4th ed.,

X

ford,

1888

p. 173, on line 3163, ar,d p. 193.

Several important topics have necessarily been omitted in this whole discus-

sion, because of lack of space. One of them is the history of the terms used to

designate the metres of tragedy and comedy. Another is the relation of the con-

ceptions of fortune, chance, and luck to tragedy. The latter is treated from the

mediaeval point of view in

3 2

Patch,

The Goddess Fovkna in Mediaeval Literature

Cambridge, 1927), pp.

68

ff.



148

A

Philip c ahon

The Monkes

Tale,

a t the very beginning, recurs to Chaucer's con-

ception of tragedy:

I

wol biwayle in maner of Tragedie

The harm of hem that stode in heigh degree,

And fille11so that ther nas no remetlie

To bringe him out of hir adversitee.

The miseries of Sampson arouse an echo of the definition which

Chaucer ac ~ e p t ed ,~s well as the fa te of Ugolino,3 and in the story of

Croesus,4 the gloss on Boethius is versified:

Tragedie

is

noon other maner thing,

Ne can in singing crye ne biwaille,

But for that fortune alwcy wol assaille

\Vith unwar strook the regnes that ben proude.

The effect of Chaucer's views is t o be seen among his contemporaries

and successors, particularly in Lydgate, who repeats the idea fre-

quently,%nd in one place also pu ts th e gloss into verse.6 The theory is

found frequently in his Troy Book; he explains comedy as well as

tragedy:

A comedie hath in his gynnyng,

A

prime face, a maner compleynyng,

And afterward endeth in gladness.

But tragidie, who

so

list to knowe,

I t begynneth in prosperite,

.4nd endeth euer in aduersite;

And it also doth be conquest trete

Of riche kynges and of lordys grete.

Skeat, Student s Chaurer, p 531 (T. 3181-84).

2 Ibid., p

532

(T.

3267): "Si th thou fro wele ar t falle in wrecchednesse."

3

Ibid p.

537 (T. 3647-3648).

Ibid. ,

p.

541

(T.

3951-3954)-

J. 0 Halliwell, il Sdec tion frollz the M in or

Puems

u Dan Jo hn Lydgnle (Percy

Society, No. z London, 1840), pp.

5

and 128.

H. N. RlacCracken, T h e M i n o r P o a ~ n s f J o h n L yd g at e IC.

E .

T S.),

I,

1911

(for 19lo), P. 73.

H. Bcrgen,

Lydgate s Tr oy Book , A R 1412 30 I?. E. T. S.), I

(London, 1906),

pp.

168-169.



Aris to te l i an Defcnit ions o f Tra ged yandConzedy

149

The same idea is found in his Fallof Prilzces,' and also in Henryson s

Testament of C re ~ se id .~

Throughout the sixteenth century Lydgate s translation of Boc-

caccio7sDeCasibusViro rum etFe mi ~t ar um llustriumwas popular, and

thus served to illustrate the persistence of the mediaeval ~ignificance.~

In

1554

we also find Hawes speaking of Chaucer s

Legend o j Good

Wo m en

as consisting of tragedies4

Thus, in both Dante and Chaucer the Peripatetic inheritance sur-

vived 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, F iv e H u nd re d Y ea rs of C ha uc er C r i t ic i sm a nd A l l z~ s i on

(London, 19141, P.

43.

G. Gregory Smith, The Poems of Rober t Henryson (Edinburgh and London,

1908), 111,p.

3

Cf. the title of a copy in the Library of Harvard College:

A

Treatise Excel-

lent and Compendious, Shewing and Declaring, in Manner of Tragedye, the Falles

of Sondry Most Notable Princes and Princesses with Other Nobles, Through ye

hlutabilit ie and Change of Unsteadfast Fortune Together with Their Most De-

testable and Wicked Vices. First Compyled in Latin by the Excellent Clerke

Bocatius, an Italian Borne. And Sence that Tyme Translated into our English

and Vulgare Tongue, by Dan John Lidgate Monk of Burye, etc.

In Aedibus Richard

Tottelli, London, 1554.

Stephen Hawes,

Pas tim e oJ I 'lensure.

(In C. F.

E.

Spurgeon,

Five Hundred

Year s of Chnz~cer r i t ic i smand Al lus ion, E. E. T. S.,

I

(1914), p.

67.):

And then the tragedies, so piteous

Of the ninetene ladyes, was his translation.

The extremes to which some writers go to reconcile the Middle Ages and the

Poetics are exemplified in the following. K. Vossler, Poet ische Theorien

n

der

i talienischcn Fruhrenaissnnce

(Berlin, lgoo) , p.

26:

Es versteht sich van selbst,

dass der Verfasser der Eccerinis die TragGdie als Dichtungsgattung und nicht

mehr als Stilart auflasste, wie das game hIittelalter und Dante noch gethan hatten.

Ja er muss sogar auf irgend welchen Wege schon die tragischen Theorien des

Aristoteles kennen gelernt haben, wie wir aus den folgenden Versen hervorzugehen

scheint

Vox Tragici mentes ad contingentia fortes

Efic it , ignavus diluiturque metus,

Vincit in adversis semper constantia rebus,

Nan habet hanc illis qui rude pectus habet

Tunc cum victor eris, vinci potuisse putabis

Constringit mavens anxia corda timor.



150 A Philip McMahon

theory back to the earliest Peripatetics. (2 ) I t was a theory which

abundantly satisfied Greek and Roman antiquity. (3) I t was held by

people who were perfectly familiar with classic drama. (4) It was

found more satisfactory by people who knew both the classical drama

and the Poetics of Aristotle. 5) I t survived and references to it con-

tinued both while there was a wide-spread knowledge of classic drama

and afterward. 6) I t has also seemed, until the nineteenth century, to

state more concisely than the definition in the

Poetics

the tragic essence

of tragedy and the comic essence of comedy.

7)

I t more adequately

corresponds to the metaphorical use of the words tragedy and comedy.

(8)

The metaphorical use and the persistence of the formulas preserved

by the Roman grammarians are sufficient reasons for the practice of

Dante and Chaucer. The Italian and the English mediaeval poets can

hardly be held to account because they lacked a knowledge of classical

drama and modern classical philology on the one hand, or, on the

other, a prophetic vision of what would happen when transcendental

philosophy and classical philology devoted themselves to a combined

attack on the ~ ~ U ~ U L Slause of Artistotle's

Poetics.

VI

W h a t dejinitions of tragedy and comedy dominated the ideas

o

Cortti-

nental 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 li te ra t~ re .~t is part of the exaggerated contrast between the Mid-

As Schelling, Hegel, Schlegel, and Schopenhauer determined the German in-

terpretation 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 i laliil?zi d i 1;ilologiu Clussicu, N . s . rgzz ) ,

pp.

83-84.

I t is hardly necessary to point out the injury to historical criticism suf-

fered from this cause.

Giuseppe Tofianin, La ina del l Cr~ancs inzo,Turin, 1c)zo, however, points

out tha t the systematic study of t l ~e oet ics , 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 Tren t; forces wliich

after i t were directed to the s tudy of poetry rather than theo1o:y.



Aristotelian Definitions of T rage dy and Com edy

5

dle Ages and the Renaissance. J. A. Symonds, to exalt the Renais-

sance, must correspondingly depress the significance of the Middle

Ages. Of the revival of learning, for example, he says: For a genera-

tion 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 . ~f the me-

diaeval 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, con-

firmation of the traditional theory. The scholastic principles of analy-

sis 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 philoso-

phy, 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 fe red .~

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 dottr ina umanistica, oflriva a Cosimo de nIedeci il

primo comment0 all' 'hr te poetics' di hristotele. L'animo del Robortelli non

sospettava ne siam certi che quella sua ambizione erudita, iniziava, per la

letteratura, l 'e ti del Concilio di Trento: ma il genio della storia aveva stabilito



The history of the editions and study of the Poetics has been outlined

by Sandys,' following Spingarn12 nd 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 sur-

rendered in exchange for the newly recovered texts, including the

Poetics. Convincing evidence of the persistence of the traditional for-

mulas 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, i t is certain tha t this was no blind follow-

ing of precedent but the response to an imperative demand.

cosi perch*, da quel giorno proprio da quel giorno 1' Arte poetica' diventa il

canovaccio su cui una gente, preoccupata e offuscata da grandi pensieri e da mes-

chini pregiudizi, tesse le tramc d'una scolastica letteraria e si prepara due secoli di

decadenza che si chiameri prima secentesimo e poi Arcadia c avri fine solo col

romanticismo.

1

Sandys, op. cit., pp.

133

fl

J.

E.

Spingarn, II is tory of Literary Criticism

in

the Renaissance (3d ed., New

York, 1~12 . The Italian translation contains valuable additional material: J.

E.

Spingarn, La Critica IJelteruria n l R i ~ t u s c i n l e ~ t t o .Traduzione italiana dcl Dr.

Antonio Fusco (Ilari, 1905 .

413 indispensable aid in any study of the I oetirs is: Lane Cooper and Alfred

Gudeman, Bib lio gru phy the I ortics of .:iristotle (Cornell Studies in English,

XI, New Haven, 1928).

Cf. Custave Lanson, L'IdCe de la TragCdie en France avant Jodelle, Ren~e

dlIIistoire Litternire

d

la France,

X

(rqoq), p. 585, for Scaligcr's acceptance of

the traditional definitions: On y remarquera surtout quc, chez Scaliger, la dkfini-

tion 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 de li de la Renaissance, a CtC de faire croire 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 les percevoir. J'cn voudrais signaler et, si je puis, dCtruire

encore une.



Aristotelian DeJinitions

of

Tragedy and Comedy

153

Boethius was, for example, an author read as widely during the

Renaissance as during the Middle Ages, and constantly reprinted.

The note on the passage referring to tragedy was merely the mediaeval

gloss repeated or expanded. The same explanation is found in editions

such as that printed a t Basel in

1 5 7 0 ~

and the note in the Delphin edi-

tion a t the end of the seventeenth ~ e n t u r y , ~eglects any reference to

the

Poetics

but clings to Horace and the grammarians. This was the

most popular and accepted text until the German editions of the nine-

teenth century, but the Delphin edition was reprinted in London in

823:

and it was reproduced verbatim in Migne s ed i t i ~ n . ~

Terence, in particular, was reprinted with the same apparatus that

had been used in the latter days of the Roman Empire and through the

Middle Ages. Nearly all the printed editions, until recent times, car-

ried the treatise of Donatus as well as his life of Terence.= The great

popularity of these comedies in the Renaissance and satisfaction with

the explanation of the grammarian is one of the best attested facts in

the history of literature. In cases where Renaissance scholars provided

Severini Boethii de Consolatione Philosophiae Ii h r i Quinque. Czcnz Praeclaris

Joannis Murmellii Comnzentwiis, cnmgz~eRodolphi Agricolae Phrisii et Augustini

Enarratione (2d ed , n. p. ISIS) , fol. xxxii, v., quotes Diomedes and repeats the

anecdote about Euripides and Archelaus.

Plzilosophorum et Theologornnz Princ ipis Opera Om nia (J oa nn is Ilfz~ rm ellii

i n V . Lib. De Consol. Phil. Conz , (Basel, 1570).

Boetii De Consolatione,

et cet.

Znterpreta tione et iVot is Zllzcstravit Petrzcs Callyus.

I n U su m Screw. Delphini (Paris, 1695).

Boethii De Consolatione Ph il. Lih. V . E x Ed . V d p ia n a cum Xotis et Znterpueta-

tione i n LTsum Delphini

(London, 1823).

Migne, Patr. Lat.,

LXIII,

col. 667 f f

Cf

the following editions in the Library of Harvard College: Terentii Comoe-

diae czcm Donati Interpretis Commentario (Treviso, 1477; Terentius cnm Donato

(Venice, 1492); Terentiz~sC U ~ ZDuobus Commentis L7idelicet Donato t Guidone

(Venice, 1494).

H. W. Lawton, Terence en France azc X V Z e Sidcle Contribution I Histoire de

I Humanisnze en France),

Paris, 1926, follows out the ideas of Lanson. This study

lists all the editions, so far as the author could discover, printed during the fifteenth



hilip

McMa

hon

new discussions of tragedy or comedy, they relied on the standard

sources on which the Middle Ages had also depended.' The popularity

of such equipment for the intelligent reading of Terence is shown

by

many other editions during the following centuries, of which that puh-

lished at Amsterdam and Leyden will serve as an e~ample.~

Seneca, who, with Terence, provided models most acceptable to early

Humanistic drama, appeared with commentaries relying in greater or

less degree on the traditional theory. An edition of

1498,

for example,

had two scholars to explain it, to whom a third, Badius, mas added in

5 4 ~But as Lanson points out, while Aristotle is mentioned as an

authority for dividing tragedy into six parts, the discussion is actually

based mainly on Donatus and Di~medes .~ he same writer shows

that the tragedies of Seneca conformed to the definitions of Diomedes,

and, interpreted in this light, they provided the most influential model

for the Renaissance.

and sixteenth centuries. He mentions 446, as well as

9

editions of separate plays. I n

those editions which Lawton himself examined a full sta tement of the contents is

given. To judge from the information afforded by Lawton, we find most editions

reprint the traditional treatises of Donatus or material derived from him.

1

Lanson,

op. c i t . ,

pp. 544: Joducus Uadius a donc ou conservi ou retrouv6

la doctrine du moyen bge. Sujets historiques, ca1amitC.s royales e t bouleversements

des Btats, chute du bonheur au malheur et d6nouements funestes, style majestueux

et abondance de rhktorique esclamative ou plaintive; c'est exactement la th6orie

que 1 '. Cloetta a constatie au moyen age.

V ~ u b l i i e r en t ii C ar th ag in ie ns is r i f r i C om oe dia e VZ. IIis Accedunt Integrae

Notae Donati, Eugraphii, Faerni, Boecleri, Farnabii, Mer. Casauboni, Tan. Fabri.

Amstelodalmi, et Lugd. Batav., 1686. Contains: (I) Danielis Ileinsii ad IIoralii

de Plarllo et Teren tio Jndicizmm Dissert atio; 2 ) Euant hins de T rag. et Con?. , 3)Don-

ati Fraglnenlzmz tie Conloedia et Tragocdia;

4)

De Fabzrlanlm, Lzrdorr~m, heatvorunt,

Scentlnint, ac Scenicorz~nlafc liq ua consuelztd ine libellzis, ex opt inzi s azlctoribzis collectzis,

u Com icos facilizis inlelligendos. Praecipzie conscriptzls i n gratiam stztdiosae juven-

tt i t is; 5) T . Eah ri Observatiztncz 1ae Miscellaneae;

(6)

Tanaqztilli Fahri Arolzllae

u Terentiz im,

et cet.

Tragoedia Senecae czt ~f t zlohzls Comm enlariis: ITideliret Uernardin i ~lfa rr?z itae

et Danielis Gaetani (Venice, 1498).

Lanson,

op. c i t . ,

p.

547.

Ibid. ,

p. 546.




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?

The appearance of a Greek text did not, moreover, do away with

all Latin texts or translations, as many enthusiastic students of the

Renaissance imagine.2 The translations of Greek plays into Latin, such

as those of E ra s mq3 fail to show any effect of the Poetics, but rely

wholly on the classical grammarian^.^ I t is probable, indeed, that such

plays as Hecuba enjoyed the greater popularity because of fulfilling the

definition of Diomedes.

Lanson concl~des,~hat when the Humanistic drama appeared, it

was determined in its essentials by Donatus and Diornede~,~upported

by Horace and Vi t r~v iu s .~

Ibid. , pp. 572-573.

Ibid. , p. 545.

Cf. Necuba , Zphigen ia i n Aul ide Eur ip id i s Tragoediae i n La t i n zm Trala tae

Erasmo Roterda~noZnterprete, Venice (Aldus), 1507. Erasmus (f.

3

I., ibid. took

Horace's ironic reference to the metre of the tragedy seriously and apologized for

the lack of such a quality in his own translation: Iam ueroque 1,atinae Tragoediae

grandiloquentiam, ampullas, sesquipedalia (ut Flaccus ait ) uerba hic nusquam

audient, mihi non debent imputare, si interpretis officio fungens, eiusquem uerti,

pressam sanitatem, elegantiamque; referre malui, quam alienum tumorem, qui

me nec alias magnopere delectat.

' Lanson, p. 549. For Erasmus's neglect of Aristotle's Poetics, cf. p. 545

Ibid., pp. 549-5 jo.

Zhid., p 580: Ainsi

i

la veille du jour oh Jodelle Ccrivait, la notion de la

tragCdie Ctait, pour I'essentiel, composCe dans les esprits fran~ais ar les definitions

et les rimarques de Donat et Diom*de, aux-quelles s'ajoutait Horace, et un teste

de Vitruve.

On the significance of Vitruvius for Renaissance theory and criticism, cf. Lan-

son, Revlie de la Re~zaissa~zceMarch-April, ~goq) , p. 72-84.

Th e usual explanation of the situation suffers from a misunderstanding with

regard to the influence of the

Poetics

on the Renaissance drama. Cf. Arthur Tilley,

T h e I.iteraltrre of the French Renaissance,

I

(Cambridge, rgoq), pp. 97-98: Ac-



A Philip c ahon

POLYD~REIRGIL

T h e

work of Polydore Virgil, De I~zventoribusRerum,' was popular

throughout Europe, appearing in numerous editions. Book chapter

1 on tragedy and comedy, derives from Donatus and Di omede~.~

,4

systematic treatise on tragedy and comedy was produced by

G.

B.

C a ~ a l i , ~hose discussion is preserved in the collection of G r o n o v i ~ s . ~

His explanation of

~ t a p a ~ s

s 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 . ~oth 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

f f .

J o a n n i s

Bapt is loe Casal i i Rontani , c Tragoedia el Comoedia Lzsczrbratio.

Ib id . ,

col. 1600: "D i~ i tu r ragoedia ejusmodi personarum illustrium actiones

idcirco imitari, e t spectatoribus proponere; u t contendat animi moerorem, ac

commiserationem concitare ad illas ipsas, quas commovet, perturbationes abster-

quendas."

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, ut docet Arist.

Politic .

lib. VIII . sub finem."

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 Criti ques szlr

la

Po;sic el szsr la Pein tz~ re 3

vols.,

Dresden,

1760 ,

pp.

424 425: . .

je veux dire seulement que les PoEmes drama-

.

tiques 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




57

consists in the kind of people they represent and to whom they

appeal.

Trissino s work on poetry, published in 1529 and 1563,~defines

tragedy in accordance with the Poetics, but for comedy he merely

parallels the pattern of that for tragedy:? He criticizes Dante for call-

ing his poem a comedy, whereas it is more properly an epic4 Trissino

inspirer I'aversion de I'yvrognerie eur jeunesse, faisoit son effet. L'horreur que

la manie et I'abrutissement des esclaves, qu'on exposoit yvres sur un thkktre,

donnoit aux spectateurs, laissoient en eux une ferme resolution de resister aux

at trai ts de ce vice.

Cette resolution empkchoit quelques jeunes gens de prendre du

vin avec excss, quoiqu'elle ne fb t point capable d'en retenir plusiers autres.

.

. .

La Tragedie purge donc les passions

A

peu prss comme les remedes guhrissent, et

comme les armes dCfensives garantissent des coups des armes offensives. La chose

n'arrive pas toujours, mais elle arrive quelquefois.

Gronovius, op. cit. col. 1606: Ex omni mortalium numero Comoedia sibi

proposuit imitandos deteriores.

Quoniam duo hominum genera turbas in civitate

faciunt; unum eorum qui potentia atque opibus pollent: alterum eorum qui rerum

inopia, desperatione laborant. Igi tur ad continendos in oflicio atque instituendos

utrosque hominum ordines, duabus Poeticae

dramaticae formis Tragoediae

Comoediae datus est locus. Tragoedia quippe admonet primaries Principes, ut

intueantur in ewitus infelicissimos virorum potentium, qui limites aequi recti

per vim egredi voluerunt: Comoedia docet inopes destitutos de felici rerum

deploratarum, involutarumque successu bene sperare; etenim videtur magis fuisse

consentaneum rationi successum illum exprimere in ordinibus deterioris fortunae,

qui saepissime solent a rebus adversis gradum ad secundas

prosperas facere,

quam in Principibus, qui plerumque a statu vitae secundo corruunt in adversum.

Four divisions of the subject were published first by Trissino, with a long

intermission before the last two: L a Poc tica d i

M .

Go va n Giorg io Tr i s s ino (Vicenza,

1529); La Qzlinta et la Sesla Divisione Della Poctica (Venice, 1562, 1563). Both

are found in Tzsttc lc Opere (Verona, 17zy), under the title, Lc Se i Divis ioni Del la

Poelica.

G F. Trissino, Tu tt e Ic Opere

I1

(Verona, 1729)~ . 95 and p.

120 .

Cf. Spingarn,

op. cit. p. 76.

I'rissino, 11 p. I 2 0 : Resta adunque a tra tta re la imitazione dele azione, e cos-

tumi de i piu bassi, e peggiori, la quale si fa col deleggiarli, e biasmarli, et'a quel mod0

insegnare a gli uomini la virth, il che comunemente si suol fare con le Cornmedie, ne

le quali il Poeta non parla mai da se, come avemo veduto, che si fa ne le Tragedie,

ma sempre induce persone, che parlino, e facciano; e cosi ancora si fa ne le Egloghe

pastorali.

. La Commedia adunque imita le azione peggiori con sermone, ritmo,



158 A

hilip 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~s oislinianz~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 geolo-

gists, 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 dottr ina con la misericordia, e con la tema, cosi questa la fa col deleg-

giare, e col biasmare le cose brutte, e cattive . e per tal causa alcuni hanno pen-

sato, che Dante nominasse Commedia il suo Pocma, percia che termina in bene, cio*

ne I'essere stato in Cielo fra l'anime beate; et alt ri 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, e t 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'ap-

pcrtiene; ma essendo Dante nato in quella eta roza, et imbarbarita, chc non

conobbe ne vaghezza di stile Latino, ni? ar te retorica, n? poetics, quantunque egli

fosse di profundissima memoria, e di ir~gegno cutissimo, 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 mira-

bilmente instrutto, non potca per6 fare, che per lo difctto di quei sccoli, non incor-

ressc 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.



Aris to te lian Dej i~z i t ions f Trage dy and C omed y

59

Daniello, who was also an interpreter of Dante, published a

Poetica

in 1536.l He sets forth the traditional efinitions and refers apparently

to that of the

Poetics

but not as if they were contradictory or essen-

tially different.2 His discussion with regard to the tragic hero is termed

a curious misconception of Aristotle's meaning by Spingarn? but

it merely reproduces the traditional treatment of the topic and

Spingarn himself discusses thc sources of Daniello's views earlier in

his book.4

I n 1537 there appeared a translation into French of the

Electra

of

Sophocles by Lazare de Baif. The work is prefaced by a definition of

tragedy whose relation to the mediaeval expression is obv i~ us . ~

In

Giraldi Cintio, who wrote in 1543, we have knowledge of both the

Poetics

and the traditional t h e ~ r y . ~pingarn considers his statement

of the unity of time as the very first enunciation of this law of the

drama? The traditional element is conspicuous in his view that the ac-

tions of tragedy are called illustrious because of the rank of the persons

repre~ented.~

Bernardino Daniello,

Della Poetica

(Venice, 1536).

Zbid.

PP. 34, 38, 39.

3 Spingarn,

op. cit.

p.

83.

Ibid.

p. 65.

Lanson, op. cit. p. 574: TragCdie est une moralit6 compos6e des grandes

calamitez, meurtres et adversitez survenus aux nobles et excellents personages

comme Aias qui se occist pour avoir CtC frustrC des arrnes d'Achille, Edipus

qui se creva les yeux apr&squ'il fut dCclarC comme il avait eu des enfants de sa

propre m&re,apri-s avoir tuC son pi-re.

G.

B.

Giraldi,

Discorsi . inlorno

a

Comporrc de Rom anz i delle Comedie

e delle Tragedie

e

d i d t r e M a n i e r e d i P oe si e

(Venice, 1554).

Spingarn, op. cit. p. 91.

Ibid. p 62



There is in the collection of treatises assembled by Gronovius a work

on comedy by another Giraldi%nd in it both Aristotle and the gram-

marians are cited, but his interest is in the latter.

Instead of attempting, as Rostagni has recently done, to prove the

influence of the oetics on Horace, an earlier writer sensibly explains

the differences on a sound historical basis.

From I'ib. VI De Scena et Poetarum Scaenicorum Historia, in Ilistoria

Poelartmt ta m Gr aec ort ~m uu m Latinor.zrm Diulogi Decem Basel, 1545.

Jacobus Gronovius, Thesaurus Graecorum Ant iqui ta tzm (Venice, 1735), VIII,,

col. 1474: 1,ilii Gregorii Gyraldi, Ferrariensis, De Comoedia ejusque Apparatu

Omni et Part ibus Commentarius: Comoedia est privatae civilisque fortunae sine

vitae periculo comprehensio. Graeci itidem sic definiunt:

x o p y i a i u ~ i v r w T r ~ S v

~ a i

O ~ L T L K G V

p a ~ p d l ~ o v T ~ P L O X .

K ~ V ~ U V O S

Donatus vero ita : Comoedia csl fabula

dioersa institzrta contine ns affe ctu um civilium ac privutorum qua discitur quid sit

in

vita utile quid contra mita?zdum.

M . Tullius Comoediam esse ait,

imitat ionem vi tae

speczdum conszietudinis imaginem veritatis: id quod est visus accepisse a Livio An-

dronico, qui Comoediam ante Ciceronem esse dixerat quotidianae vitae speculum:

nec injuria: nam ut intent i speculo veritatis lineamenta facile per imagines col-

ligimus, ita lectione Comoediae imitationem vitae, consuetudinisque non aegerrime

animadvertimus. Unde etiam scriptum est, Comoediam esse poema sub imitatione

vitae atque sim ilit udi ne compositzrm. Aliam tamen definitionem affert Aristoteles,

quae

E

alium habet finem: ita enim ai t: Comoedia est imitalio improbioris quidem

n o n d omnent tamen n~alitiant ed turpitudinis quaedum est ridicztla particula.

Ki di cu lu m en im peccatum qzroddam est burpitudo doloris exper s correptionem

mi ni nt e afferens: veluti ridictila facies quae st ot im est tzrrpe quiddanc perversum

sine dolure. Videtur ex his verbis Philosophus innuere, Comoediam inventam esse

ad oblectandos populos: propterea varia quae tradunt de ejus inventione reci-

tabo. . . [The differences between the species are distinguished thus; cols.

1478 ff

:

Nunc quid inter Tragoediam r Comoediam distet, disquiramus. I n

Comoedia quidem mediocres fortunae hominum, parvi impetus, periculaque,

laetique sunt exitus actionum: a t i n Tragoedia omnia contraria, ingentes per-

sonae, magni timores, esitus funesti habentur, illic turbulenta prima, tran-

quilla ultima: in Tragoedia contrario ordine res aguntur, tum in Tragoedia fugienda

vita, in Comoedia capessenda exprimitur. Postremo omnis Comoedia de fictis

argumentis.

Tragoedia saepe de historica fide petitur. . Sed enim IIomerus,

qui omnis poeticae largissimus fons est, his carminibus exempla praebuit, velut

quadam suorum operum lege praescripsit, qui

I l iaden

instar Tragoediae,

Odysseam

ad imaginem Comoediae fecisse monstratur.

Francisci Phi l ippi Pedm ont i i Ecpkrasis i n I lorat i i Flacci Arlent Poet icam

(Venice, j46), f. 31 v.: Kt ideo non mirum, si cum Aristotele Flaccus quandoque




6

The first critical edition of the Poetics, together with a commentary

on Horace, was that of Robortelli in 1548,' and i t appeared

n

the same

year as the dictionary oi Junius. He translates ~ h a p c r ~ sy p u r g a n ~ ~

and explains it by reference to the politic^.^ The value of tragedy is

in the satisfaction which spectators have

in

seeing that there is no

mortal, however highly placed, who is not subject to the greatest ca-

lamities. But in the commentary on Horace there is clear evidence of

his study of the Roman grarnn~arians.~

Capriano seems to be based on the Poetics, in the light of the gram-

marians, 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 anti-

quam philosophiam balbutientem nuncupauit. quod si ab eorum opinione in rebus

philosophicis quasi semper dissentire sibi licuit, cur auctori nostro in poeticis

cum ipso semel non conuenire crimini dabitur?"

Francisci Robortelli Utin ensi s i n Libr um Aristotelis de Arte Poetica Explica-

t iones qu i ab eodem All thore ex Manuscr ip l i s Libri s M d t i s i n Locis Emendatus Fui t

u t j a m Di f i c i ll imus ac Obscz~ri ssimz~siber a N uR o ante Declaratus Facile ab Omnib us

Posset Intclligi. [Together with the preceding is]: P araphrasi s i n L ibrum Horat ii qu i

Vulg o de Arte Poetica ad Pisones Inscribitur; ejusdem Explicationes d e Saty ra 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 L ibr . Ar is t. p.

52.

Ibid.

pp.

52-53.

Ibid. p. 42.

Giovanni Pietro Capriano, Della Ver a Poetica Venice,

1555.

Cf. Spingarn,

op. cit.

pp.

42-43> 83-84.

Ibid. p. 211.



A . Philip

McMuhon

Jacque Yelletier's

Art

Po tique

1555

shares in a mo derate way the

po int of view of the PlEiade,' a n d althou gh his work app ea red before

th a t of S caliger, Spingarn surmises th a t he rnay have known the gre at

critic or ha ve gone to th e sam e sources. His definitions are t he tra di-

tional ones; so th a t Spinga rn's conclusions do no t imm ediately follow

as far a s Pelletier

is

concerned? for th e words of his formu la for trage dy

might easily have been taken f rom a mediaeval a ~ t h o r . ~

Eleven years a ft e r the publication of Robortelli's edition , there ap -

peared th e work on poetry

by

lintu urn^,^ which he himself afterwards

translated in to Italian ? H e insists on the appropriate endings of trag-

edy a n d comedy, in term s reminiscent of Diomedes, ut he appeals to

the

Poetics

to e stablish his point.? II is para ph rase of the definition of

traged y is quo ted, imm ediately after a transla tion into Lat in of A ris-

totle's tex t, by Vossius, who with Scaliger an d Heinsius was am ong the

most powerful critics of the seve nte en th a n d eighteenth centuries.8

hlinturno's equivalent for

~ h a p u ~ s

ppears to be

expiutio.

I n th e

Ib id . ,

p.

191.

Ibid.,

p. 200.

3 [bid.

p.

2 0 0 : B y

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. 0 8 , n. I La\uieu des personnes comiques qui sont de

hasse conctition en la Tragedie s'introduisent lcois, Princes e t grands Seigneurs.

E t au lieu qu'en la Comedic les chases ont joyeuse issue, en la Tragedie la fin est

tousjours luctueuse e t lamentable, ou horrible 2 voir. .

La comedie parle facile-

ment, c t comme nous avons ciit, populairement. La trag2die est sublimc, capable

de grandes matieres.

6

A~zto~ziiScbastia?zi fifintzcrfzi r .Pocla Libri

Sex (Venice,

15 jq).

Antonio Schastiano fifinturno,

L Ar le Poctira

(Venice, 1564).

De Yoetcz p. 1 2j

8 In

Vossius, Ilzst. P o r t , 11,xi, z

p.

94 of 1696 ed.): Imitatio insignis, seriaque

aliqua, absoluta, L magnitudine quackam comprehensam actionern oratione suavi

exprimens: ita u t ejus partes suo sinpulac quidem loco, atque seormlm, adhibean-

tu r; nec sinlplici narrrrtionc, sed inductionc Illorum, qui i t s agunt ac ciicant, ut

miserationem terroremque concitcnt ad id genus morborum expiationem.



Ar istotelia n DeJi+zitions of Tr ag ed y and Com edy

163

Italian translation by his own hand, he notes explicitly that the ideas

of Cicero and of Aristotle in the Poetics do not conflict.'

Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato, however, relies entirely

upon the witness of Cicero and the mediaeval tradition for his defini-

t i o n ~ . ~

One of the most important of Renaissance scholars and critics, whose

dominance of opinion in his own and the following generation can

hardly be exaggerated, is S~aliger.~f him, Spingarn says: "He was

the first to regard Aristotle as the perpetual lawgiver of poetry. He

was the first to assume that the duty of the poet is to find out what Aris-

totle says, and then to obey these precepts without question. He dis-

tinctly calls Aristotle the perpetual dictator of all the arts: 'Aristoteles

imperator ~zoster,om~ziumboftnrum artium dictator perpetuus.' His

effect on French classical drama was decisive. A good deal of Eliza-

bethan criticism also reflects his

dicta.5

Modern historical criticism, colored by modern philosophy, has been

L Arte Poetica, p.

116.

Bernardo Tasso, Ragionanzento della poesia (Venice, 1562), (in Belle Lettere d i

M . Bernardo Tasso, vols., Padua,

1733,

pp.

511-s38),

pp.

513

and

515.

Julius Caesar Scaliger, Poetices Libri Septenz. Geneva, 1561; Lyons, 1561;

Heidelberg, 1581, 586, 1607, 1617,et cet. Cf. Select Tra nsla tion s from Scaliger s

Poetics, translated by F. hf Padelford (Pa le S tudies i n English , vol. XXVI), New

York,

1905.

E.

Brinschulte,

J.

C . Scaligers Kunsttheoretische Anscha uungen .

(Diss.,

Bonn, 1913);

J

C. Scaligers Ktbnsttheoretische Anschazrzingen zlnd deren Hazrptquellet>

(Bonn,

1914).

Spingarn, up. cit., p. 141. But cf. Thomas Pope Blount, Cen sure Celebriorum

Azf thorum,London, 1690,p. 570: "Dii Boni quam multa ille, quam multa vetera,

non lecta, non visa, non audita aliis depromit Daemonium hominis. Lips. epist.

Quaest.

I. 3.

epist.

20.

.

..

"Literarum omnium Dictator perpetuus, per omnia

Diis magis quam IIominibus comparandus, Josephus Scaligcr, Gasp. Scicpp. prae-

fat. de Art Crit." . "In Criticis omnium recte aestimantium judicio princeps sine

controversia, sine aemulo ac rivali dominatur. Baud. orat. in obit. Scalig."

G. Gregory Smith,

Elizabethan Critical Essays,

I

(Oxford,

~goq),

p.

lxxvi, n.

7.

Cf. noteson I, 68.25 and

80.7.



A

Philip M cMahon

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, legal-

istic 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 read-

ers 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 i t would include other literature in addition to the drama:

but his objection tha t 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 for-

mulas, and he utilizes the material provided by Diomedes, even to the

anecdote about Euripides and King Archelau~.~ nd, in general, the

E.

Lintilhac, De

J C

Scaligeri Poetire (Thsse), Paris, 1887, is a futile and

elaborate

discussion of Scaligcr's verbal and internal divergence from the Poetics

of Aristotle.

Poet., I , v (p.

23, ed. 1617).

I'oet.,I,v (p. 24,ed. 1617).

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, psi quoque heri male mulctantur. Adhacc Praetexta-

tas 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 con-

firmata, tribus ab illa dilfert, I'ersonarum conditione, fortunarum, negotiorumque

qualitate, esitu:

quare stylo quoque diaerat necesse est. In illa e pagis sumpti

Chremetes, Davi, Thaides loco humile: Ini tia turbatiuscula: fines lacti. Sermo



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy

and

Comedy

165

Renaissance theorists were more concerned about tragedy than about

comedy, for, as already noted, Aristotle had not discussed comedy with

the same detail that he had tragedy, and the difficulties of harmonizing

contemporary practice with Aristotle s Poetics were consequently

greater. Besides, contemporary comedy was more independent of the

scholarly critics for its support.

I t

is

noteworthy that Scaliger does not blindly worship the text of

Aristotle; he even rejects the philosopher s definition of tragedy in

favor of his own, ruling out those technical elements in Aristotle s for-

mula which pertained only to stage presentation in the Athens of his

day, and objecting to

~ ifl pn r

as irrelevant. His actual words, in his

own definition of tragedy, which he expressly prefers to that of the

Poetics, are simply a return to the formula of the Roman grammarian^.^

GF VIN

GrCvin in 562 thought that French drama was already able to dis-

play productions perfect according to the rules of Horace and Aristotle,

but his theory of tragedy shows faint traces of Aristotle and none of

S~aliger .~His theory of comedy goes back to tradition, and he repeats

the formula of C i ~ e r o . ~

de medio sumtus. I n Tragoedia Reges, Principes, ex urbibus, arcibus, castris.

Principia sedatoria: exitus horibiles. Oratio gravis, culta, a vulgi dictione aversa,

to ta facies anxia, metus, minae, exilia, mortes. Memoriae proditum est, Euripidem

ab Archelao rege Rfacedoniae, cujus in fide, ac clientela esset, rogatum, ut de se

Tragoediam scriberet. Ne, inquit ille, Jupiter, ne tantum mali.

Ibid. , col. 1499: [After quoting the Poetics,] Quam nolo hic impugnare aliter

quam nostram subnectendo. Imitat io per actiones illustris fortunae, exitu infelici,

oratione gravi metrica. Nam quod harmoniam melos addunt , non sunt ea, ut

Philosophi loquuntur, de essentia Tragoediae. etenim Tragoedia in scena tantum

esset, extra scenam non esset. Quod autem dixit, p i y t e o s i x o b u l l s , positum est, ad

differentiam Epopoejae, quae aliquando prolixa est. Non tamen semper. cujusmodi

vides apud Musaeum. Praeterea ~ r i 6 a p u r s

vox neutiquam cuivis materiae servit:

sicut

p k y t e o s

mediocritatem significat hic. Paucis enim versibus nequit satisfieri

populi expectationi: qui eo convenit, ut multorum dierum fastidia, cum aliquot

horamm hilaritate commutet. Quemadmodum inepta quoque est prolixitas: adeo

ut facete dicas illud Plautinum,

Lu m bi sedendo, o c d i spec tand o dolent.

Spingarn, op. cit . , p.

2 0 1

Jacques Grkvin,

Thddtre Co mplet ,

avec Notice et Notes par Lucien Pinvert

(Paris,

922 ~

p.

7:

Or je reviens

i

la ComCdie, qu i est un discours fabuleux, mais



A hilip McMaholz

Castelvetro

is credited with the first affirmation of the unity of

place and with formulating the three unities in their definitive form, the

form that was accepted y French classicist critics and p lay~ r igh t s .~

His acute remarks on the function of the chorus in ancient drama, pre-

sented in his controversy with Pigna, give added reason for distinguish-

ing between tragedy and comedy on the traditional basis? He treats

approchant dc veriti., contenant en soy diverses manihes de vivrc entre les citadins

de moyen estat, et par lequel on peult apprendre ce qui est utile pour la vie, et au

contraire cognoistre ce que lon doit fuir, enseignez par le bonheur ou malheur

d'autruy. C'est pouquoy Cictron l'appelle imitation de vie, mirouer des coustumes,

et image de viriti..

Lodovico Castelvetro, Portico d ilristolclc, et Spo stu (Vienna,J z ~ l g u r i ~ s u l a

1570); (revised and enlarged, Hasel, 1576, r 582 1678).

Opere Vurie . . ATon

Pi d Stum pale , collu V it a dell Aulorc Scrit ta dal Sig. Lodmlico Anto nio M ural ori

(Milan and Berne, 1727). Cf.

H.

B Charlton, Castelvetro s Theory of Poetry (Man-

chestcr, 1~ 1 3 ) .Antonio Fusco, L o Poe li cu i Lodovico Castelvetro (Naples, 1904).

Spingarn,

op. cit. ,

pp. 67-65, loo.

Opere Varie,

pp. 81

ff :

Primicramente adunque nel prcdetto Libro egli

[G.-B.

d(l.11~ ignu] vuole, che si crcda, che egli sia il trovatorc di quclla opinione,

che la Tragedia non possa aver per soggetto azione procedentc ddl' ingegno del

l'oeta, convenendogli di necessitd, che sia st ata prima riccvuta dal popolo, come

manifesta, o per Istoria, o per fame in generale; poichit delle azioni Reali si tiene

conto dal mondo. e se ne fanno Istorie, e passano a notizia di tutt i, almeno in gen-

erale; siccomc dall' alt ra parte la Commcdia non pu6 aver per soggetto se non

azione tu tta imaginatasi dal l'oeta, non essendo verisimile, chc il grido delle azione

Cittadinesche private si rallarghi fra molte persone, e se ne conservi la memoria o

per Istoria, o per fama lungo tempo, Ia quale azione Cittadinesca privata la

matcria della Commedia siccome l'azione Keale la materia della Tragetiia. Ap-

presso in difendcndo egli Eratosthenc-, il quale avvisava, siccome mc, chc la I'oesia

dovcssc solamentc dilcttare, e non giovare, tlalle riprcnsioni tli Strahonc protlucc

artlitamcnte in mczzo qucsta risposta, come stla, clie posto cl:c la I'oesia possa

alcuna volts giovare, si pub nondimcno sicuramentc dirc, cha punto non giovi, non

giovando ma1 sc non pcr accidente, e procedentlo il giovamento piti tosto tli fuori,

e dall' acutczza tlcl lcggente, chc tlentro tlalla Pocria, e tlall' intenzione dcl Poeta.

Ultimamcntc senza punto arrossare, rcntle la veracc ragionc, come trovata da lui,

pcrch? il Coro, quantunquc sia constituito di pcrsone popolari

r

vili, non convenga

alla Commcdla rappresentanti popolari, i vili, come fa alla Tragctlia rapprc-

s e ~ t a n t iSignori i Nobili, la quale cosi fatta: Non pu6 il giudicio dcl Popolo

tu tto, il quale soggetto del ragionamento tlel Coro, aver luogo se non ncllc azioni



Aristotelian Definitions of Tr age dy and Co medy

167

the definitions of tragedy as primarily a defense against Plato,l and he

says Cicero's remarks on laughter prove tha t he never read the

poetic^.^

He also holds that the text of the Poetics does not give sufficient

grounds for believing in the previous existence of a second book, now

lost.3 He refers to Donatus for data on the costume of the comic

actor^.^

Reali, le quali di parte in parte, mentre che si fanno, non che tutte, poich? sono

fornite, si divulgano tra Sudditi riguardanti, consideranti, e giudicanti i det ti, i

fa tt i de' lor Signori: 12 dove le azioni Cittadinesche private pervengono a gli

orecchi di pochi, n@ ono subito sapute, ni? danno da pensare, e da ragionare a tu tto

il populo o facendosi, o ancora poich? son fatte.

Poelica

1570

f . 64 v. ff (At the end of the book Castelvetro asks the reader

to pardon the many typographical errors in the book due to the fact that the German

printers did not know Italian.)

Ib id . f.

5

r. ff.: Ma con tut to che la materia pertenente a riso fosse, si come

io m'imagino distesa da Aristotele ne libri poetici, non dimeno Cicerone non

la

lesse mai, percioche se l'hauesse letta, non direbbe sotto persona altrui , che i libri

di questo soggetto liquali haueua veduto dessero piutosto materia da ridere che

insegnassero certa dottrina di riso, conciosia cosa che gli nsegnamenti d'Aristotele

per isciocchezza non dieno da ridere, ma per sottilita rendano altrui stupefatto.

Ib id .

f . 6

v.-62

r.: Ha det to Aristotele infino a qual termine l'epopea habbia

fa tta compagnia alla tragedia, quale forma le habbia data , hora restaua a parlare

infino a qual termine l'epopea habbia fatt a compagnia alla comedia, quale forma

le habbia da ta percioche haueua detto che il Margite, il quale poema senza dubbio

era epopeico haueua date le figure alla comedia. hfa egli promette di parlar poi di

questo. La qual par te manca, perauentura in questo volume non se scrisse mai

nulla. It la perche alcuni adducono questo luogo a prouare che Aristotele promette

di parlare della comedia, cio dalla sua natura di tu tto cio che le appertiene come

fara della tragedia, la qual promessa vogliono che habbia a ttenuta nel second0 libro

che s'imaginano essere perduto per ingiuria di tempo, da sapere che Aristotele non

promette qui di parlare della comedia se non in quanto ha riceuuta forma dell' epo-

pea nella guisa che in questa particella ha parlato della tragedia non ragionando

se non di quello che ells ha riceuuto dall' epopea. Hora io non tralasciero di dire

che alcuna volta ho sospettato che questo testo nella voce

~ wg w8 i a s

non sia cambiato

volendo hauere

~parwo ia r

percioche @ assai verisimile che parendo ad Aristotele per

la conclusione generale che haueua posta che le cose che ha l'epopea si truouano

nella tragedia, che tutte le cose che ha la tragedia non si trouano nell' epopea si

douesse a raccontare particolarmente le cose che ha l'epopea di meno che ha la

tragedia, le cose che ha la tragedia di piu che l'epopea dica che non voglia dire

a1 presente, ma che dira poi luogo piu conueneuole perpoco necessario quando si

questioners quale tra l'epopea o la tragedia sia di antiporre.

IIbid. p.

6

v.



A

Philip McMahon

Jean de la Taille in

1572

first distinctly formulated the doctrine of

the unities in France, deriving the principle from Castelvetro. His

Art

de TragPdi~ ppeared as a preface to his

Saul le

Furieux, and he

emphasized form as against the irregularity of the moralit ie~.~ e

esteems tragedy as being different in tone from such plays, in terms

derived from Seneca? but he objects to the grammarians fornrula, in

order to admit Biblical themes into tragedy: and he looks to the

naturalization of classic drama in F r a n ~ e . ~

Iason Denores, who had commented on Horace in 1553 was ap-

parently among the first to repeat the methods adopted some centuries

before him, by the compilers whose work is seen in the Tractatus Cois-

linianus. Lacking a definition of comedy in the Poetics to parallel

that of tragedy, he constructs a mechanical definition in the same pat-

Spingarn, op. cit ,p. 2 0 6

Ibid. ,

p. 202.

A Werner, J C UV Le la Tai l le und sein Saul le F?ir ieux (Leipzig, ~g oX), . 1 :

La Tragedie done est vne espece, et vn genre de Poesie non vulgaire, mais autan t

elegant, beau et excellent qu'il es t possible. Son vray subiect ne traicte que de

piteuscs ruines des grands Seigneurs, que des inconstances de Fortune, que bannisse-

ments, guerres, pestes, famines, captiuitez, execrables cruautez des Tyans. et bref,

que larmes et miseres extremes, et non point de chases qui arr iuent 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 es t 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: Et 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 lr ag cdie et Comedie, qui n'y sont point cncor grand' peine

paruenues, et qui toutcfois auroient aussi bonne grace en nostrc languc Franroise

qu'cn la Grccque et Latinc

lason Dcnores,

I12 Epistola~n

Q

Horat i i Flacci de Avte Yoet ica Inler-

prelatio

(Venicc, 1553).



A hilip

M c M a l ~ o n

Vauquelin de la Fresnaye, the theorist of the Plkiade, relies eventu-

ally on the Poetics for his definition of tragedy, but his statement of

comedy is illustrated with original themes, while depending on the

grammarians2

Poetics compiled by certain professors of Giessen, which reached

its third edition in

1617,

relies upon Diomedes and Cicero for its under-

standing of c ~ m e d y , ~or tragedy upon Diomedes and Scaliger? with

interesting local references in the discussion of the persons of ~ o m e d y . ~

One of the most interesting references of the period to a theory of

comedy, to be found in the literature which is not exclusively critical,

is that in Don Quixote where the Curate digresses, while inveighing

against books of chivalry, to attack Spanish comedy on the grounds of

Georges Pellissier, L aziqz~din de l a Fres naye , L Ar t PoCtiqzte (Paris, 1885),

PP 733-134

1,

153 ff. :

AIais le suiet Tragic est vn fait imitC

De chose iuste et grave, en ses vers limit&,

Auqucl on y doit voir de l'affreux, du terrible,

Vn fait non at tendu, qui tienne de l'horrible,

Du pitoyable aussi.

Ibid.,

1. 143:

Ida comedie est donc vne Contrefaisance

D'vn fait qu'on ticnt meschant par la commune vsance,

Alais non pas si meschant qu'a sa meschancetk

I7n rcmcde nc puissc cstre bicn aportC:

Comme quand vn garcon, vne fille a rauie

On peut en l'espousant luy racheter la vie.

Poetica per Acuden~iueGessinue i\ronlzz~llos Projessores (gd ed., Giessae Has-

sorum, 1617), p. 331.

Ibid.,

p. 335.

Ibid., pp. 337-338.



Aristotelian Dejinitions of Tragedy

nd

Comedy

its lack of unity and plausibility. I n contrast, the definition of Cicero

and the correctness of foreign writers are cited.'

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. In his essay he refers to

the Ciceronian definition13 nd advises the reader who wishes to know

the rules to study R~ bortelli .~ is essay concludes with a versified

loose paraphrase of part of the traditional f~ r rnu la .~he grammarians'

definitions could thus include Spanish comedy of the Golden Age.

The brief treatise of Daniel Heinsius, the pupil of Joseph Scaliger,

De Tragoediae Constituti one,

appeared in

1610;~

because of its authority

and conciseness it was termed by Chapelain, the quintessence of rk

totle's Poetics. I t was accepted as an authority by Racine and Cor-

neille; it was really through this work that the influence of the teacher's

father was dominant in France: and even penetrated into England,

affecting Ben Jonson and Dryden. Heinsius seems to have anticipated

Bernays in considering the Pythagoreans and Neo-Platonists in rela-

tion to the controversy over ~ h a p a t s ~nd on the tragic hero he in-

vokes scholastic ethicsg So much of his material is reproduced by

Vossius that it need not be discussed extensively here.

hfiguel Cervantes de Saavedra, El Ingenioso H id dg o Dorz Qztixote de la Man ch u

(Madrid, 1608). Chapter xlviii (Part

I\ ),

f. 255 r.

Translated by William

T.

Brewster in the

Papers on P lay -Mak ing ,

Vol.

I ,

with

an introduction by Iirander hrathews (Dramatic RIuseum of Columbia Univer-

sity, New York, 1914). Reprinted in Clark, European Theories, pp. 89 f f

Sec.

I I

(Clark, op. cit., p. 90).

Sec.

13

(Clark,

op. cit.,

p.

91).

Sec.

28

(Clark,

op. cit.,

p.

93).

Aris tote lisde Poetica Liber (Leyden, 1610 and 1611; Paris, 1625 and 1645). De

Tragoediae Const i t~~t ioneLeyden, 1643). Cf. Kacine's marginal notes on the last-

named work in Racine, CEztnres, ed. Paul RIesnard,

V I

(Paris,

1865),

pp.

288-290

Spingarn, op. cit . , p. 245.

De Tragoediae Const., p. 1 (1643 ed.).

Ibid., p. 76 (1643 ed.).



A hilip McMahon

\'ossius was the most indefatigable in his collection of material bear-

ing on tragedy and comedy.' EIe may properly be considered the best,

as he is the most comprehensive, single authority for study as a repre-

sentative 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 consider-

ing, 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 ad-

mits purgation if desired, bu t does not insist on it.4 After translating

the definition of tragedy from the philosopher, he cites Scaliger, but dis-

agrees with him on the necessity for the unhappy ending, and he offers

an ingenious explanation for the spectators' happiness in witnessing

unhappine~s.~He quotes Theophrastus's and Diomedes's definitions

Cf. Sandys, op. cit., 11, pp.

307-309.

Gerardi Jo an fti s V ossii , De Ar tis Poeticae 11-atzrra ac Co7tstilz~tioneLiber

(Am-

sterdam,

1647 .

Poeticarunt Institutionunt Lib ri Tres (Amsterdam,

1647 ;

Tractatus

Philologici de Rhetorics de Poetica, de Arti um et Sciefztiarum Xatu ra ac Con stitn-

tione

(Amsterdam,

1697 .

Poet. Znst.,

11 xviii. Cf. also:

Compendiunz Artis Poeticae Aristotelis ad

LTsum Cmz ciendorum Poematurn,

Ab Antonio Riccobono Ordinatum, quibusdam

Scholiis Explanaturn (Patavii ,

1591 .

Zbid., 11;xi, : Tragoedia est poems dramaticum, illustrem fortunam, sed

infelicem, gravi et severa oratione imitans. Quibus e t finem hunc, si voles, adde:

ad affectus ciendos, animumque a b iis purgandum.

Zbid.,

11 xi,

:

I'er haec vero tragoedia

aepaiverv TGV T C . r raOqp&~wvo r o i r ~ w v

~ ( r O a p u r v ,purgare, c leoare an im um ab huiusm odi 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

o b u i p

tragoediae. In

multis enim id Graecorum tragoediis non videas; u t postea dicetur. Quare d8er-

entia

ei6o.rrords,

qua difiert a comoedia, in eo consistit, quod graves actiones imita-

tur, eoque graves etiam personas assumit. Sed, utcumque non semper exitus sit



Aristotelian Dejinitions of Trag edy and C omedy

73

of tragedy, as if not contented to rely on the oetics alone.' In another

place, however, he rates the happy ending in tragedy as a concession to

the mob.2 He presents various definitions of comedy, but defends Dio-

medes against Scaliger, whose formula he also reproduce^ ^ Diomedes

and Donatus are both given on the differences between tragedy and

infelix; semper tamen infelix conditio, vel grave periculum, ob oculos ponitur,

Nam affectus ei movere propositum est, in primis misericordiam.

Quaerat aliquis, quomodo delectationem, quae poetae omni est proposita,

adferre tragicus possit, cum tristia et luctuosa repraesentet: nec viri boni sit

gaudere alienis malis, praesertim virorum illustrium. Huic difficultati occurritur,

si cogitemus, spectatorem capere voluptatem, non ex eo, quia aliis fuerit male:

verum ex artificio po&tae: quomodo exhorrescimus conspectum draconum,

monstrorum: a t jucunda est eorum pictura, quia pictoris nos ars delectat. Etiam

alterum hic concurrit. Nam suave est nosse casus tantos, quia haec res prudentiam

auget.

Ibid.

11

xiii, : Trahitur argumentum tragicum ex calamitatibus atrocibus,

quae heroibus, regibus, accidere. Ut duo hic spectare oporteat; personas, res.

Personae sunt illustres; u t heroes, reges.

Unde tragoedia a Theophrasto dicebatur esse f i pw i ~ ii s i r x ~ s c p iu 7 a ut s ut apud

Diomedem legere est lib. III. Cui ea itidem definitur heroicae fortunae in adversis

comprehensio. Ac similiter Etymologici magni auctori describitur,

Biw v r e ~ a i

X6 y wv 7 j p w t ~ S v i p qu r s. Sed Calamitatum hic nulls est mentio: quod fit in illa Dio-

medis.

Quas etiam expressit Elias Cretensis in Nazianzeni orat. XXIII:

Tragoe-

d ias

inquit,

veteres appel labaf zt qzcae ob grav issim as calam itate s canebantur: quem -

ad mo dz ~m ontra comoedias eas quae ridicule argumenta contifzebant. Rarius est,

u t atroces illae calamitates in heroum domos incidant: quae et caussa est, cur

pauca olim tragoediarum fuerint argumenta.

Ibid.

11 xiii, 3 1 : Neque, si exitus sit laetus, eo nomen tragoediae amit-

titur: quia non est de oiruiq ejus, u t exitus sit tristis. Alioqui minor pars tragoe-

diarum Euripidis, quae quidem hodie exstent, tragoediae esse desinerent. Quare,

.

satis est, si facies ejus sit luctuosa anxia, ita u t in atroci, ancipite illustrium

personarum fortuna, natura tragoediae clare eluceat.

Non tamen negaro, tragoedias ejusmodi aliquid ex natura comoediae trahere.

Natura enim tragoediae est luctuosa; quod negari nequit; cum terror, et miseri-

cordia, ei inprimis proponantur. Aliter cum fit, datur aliquid, ut diximus populi

voluptati. Unde Aristoteles si t , a poetis fieri id 6 t h r f i v T S V e ~ 6L r pw vh u f l i v ~ t a v hoc

est, ob in ji rm um et imbecille eoru m jztdicizbm qu i n theatro spectant. Sed populus

varius est, inconstans: nunc hoc probat, nunc illud: eoque satius erit, si naturam

tragoediae retineamus penitus; nec, nisi gravis caussa justerit, ab ea recedamus.

Ibid.

11 xxii: De Comoedia; ac primum de vocabulo, definitione, discrimine

ejus a tragoedia, ac fine.

. .

Comoedia est poema dramaticum, ciuium, ac vulgi actiones stylo populari



A .

Philip IlfcMahon

comedy, but Vossius decides that the only thing that really matters is

the prevailing mood.'

he influence of Heinsius and Renaissance scholarly criticism is to

be seen not only in Kacine, as noted above, but also in C~rneille,~

ho

imitans, non sine salibus, ac jocis. Quod si rationem habeamus Comoedixe, quae

obt inet: dicere possis, imitari actiones non civiles modo, sed etiam privatas.

"Comoedia a Graecis i t s definitur, ut Diomedes, et Donatus, referunt: I i w p y 6 l a

i u r l v i 6 i w ~ i x G i , r p a y p & ? w v i ih i v6 u ~ osX L P L O X ~ ~ .

Quorum mentem ita expressit Dio-

medes:

Comoedia cst privatae, cb ili squ e fortun ac, sine pcriculo vitae, conzprehenrio.

Ea in definitione duo scrupulum injiciunt.

Unum est, quod dicitur comoedia esse

hriv6uvos. Sed eo spectarunt, quod, utcumque periclitentur amantes, e t similes;

tamen illud leve sit. Non enim de vita agitur; sed solum, an amica excidant, vel re

simili. Accedit, quod i n catastrophe omnem illam curam sequitur securitas Prae-

terea culpatur, quod comoedia dicatur esse

r r p a y p & ~ w v8iw71hiju:

hoe est, ut Dio-

medes ait,

privatar rivilisque jortzmae.

Atque ejus sententiam est Donatus, seu

Euanthius; cui

Comoedia es t fabz~la, ivcrsa ins t i tu ta cont inc~zr ,aje c tuumque hi l iurn,

c privatarum rerum; qua dircitur, quid sit

in

oita utile , quid contra evitandum.

Sed

Julio Scaligero, auia omnis comoediae habere rationem voluit, placuit utrumque

omittere. Ut cui definiatur (Lib. I. de poet. cap.

5)

pofnza dra mati cum , negodiosum,

exitu laetu m, stylo populari.

Ibid . , 11,

xxii, : "De discrimine hoc comoediae, et tragoetliae, Diomedes

scribit his verbis:

Tragoedi a itztroduclrntur dzcces, heroes, reges: i n Comoed ia h um il es ,

atqzre privatae personae. I n lla luc lus , e.-csilia, caedes: i n hac amores, virgi nu m rap tus .

I n ll a requente r, el pene senzpcr, lae tis rebtrs cxitzls tristes, et liberorunt , ortunarzcmqtre

priortrm, i n peius agnitio: i n lzac tristibus laetiora succedzmt. Quare oaria definitione

discrclae sunt . Altera e ni m

iixivduvos r t p ~ o x f i : ltera p w i r + j ~ 6 ~ 7 s t p i ~ r i a u ~ sicta.

Donatus, sive Eugraphius, de eodem hoc pacto: Ilz comoedia nzediocres fovlzrnae

honzinzcm, paroi impetzcs, periculaqzcc, laetiqzie snrnt ex it us actionzcm, A t

in

lragoedia

om ni a contraria; ingeiztes personae, ma gn i t im ores, exihus fz~ ne rlih a bc n t~ ~ r . t i l l i ~

tt~rb zilenln rim a, Lranqtrilla zclbima. I n tragoedia contrario ordine rer nglmitrr

T a m

quod itz tragoedia fugi endn vita, i n comoedin cap er se ~d amprimittcr . Postremo,

quad

om nir co moed ia d e fictis esl argzr?izentis: trccgoedia saepe ab histo rica jide petitzcr

'' Irerum ex mu t;plici hoe discrimine illutl inprimis attendere oportet, quotl es-

sential~ st, ac quod idcirco in tragoediae tlefinitione Xristotcles exprimendum

putari t. Quale est , quotl tragoedia continent gravem personae gravis actionem, in

qua terror ac mi5ericortlia; Comoed~n

era personae levioris habeat actionem levem,

ac subinde ridiculam. Caetera tliscrimina perpetua non sunt; quale illud, quod ab

exitu petitur

2

1

Corneille,

UZzrzlicr, XI1

(i'aris,

IPz~

p.

26.

Jules Leniaitre

(C'orf~cillet

la I'oktiqz~ed'Arislote,

I'aris, 888 devotetl a small volume to a superGuou\ task.




7 5

distinguished between the two species in accordance with the theories

of the Roman grammarians.'

Rapin was an influential critic whose work was translated into Eng-

lish in the same year that it appeared in F r a n ~ e . ~e explains purgation

as the regulation

o

pride and hardness by pity and fear; and he also

E.

F.

Jourdain,

fz

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 distinc-

tion between tragedy and comedy Fas perhaps this. I n the thought of the seven-

teenth century tragedy dealt with ideal conditions, which might be foreign or

ancient, and much symbolism was used in its ex~ression n 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 l iberty, 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 pre-

sented 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 Poit ique d i lristote, et sur les O~ v ra ge s es Podtes

Anc ien s et Modernes (Paris, 1674); Thomas Rymer, Rejlections on Arislotle s Tre atise

of Poesie, Containing the Necessary, Rational , and Universal Rulesfor Epick, Dra-

ma tic k, and other Sorts of Poetry.

.

..

by

R . R a p in

(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 pas-

sions, 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, di t

&I.

de Fontenelie

2

ce sujet, la purgation

des passions par le moyen des passions memes.

36id. p. 385

(quoting Saint-

Evremond): 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 purga-

tion qu' Arislole avoit eu la simplicit6 d'admettre comme un remede propre

arr&ter es mauvaises impressions des Poemes 1)ramatiques. Ce RhCteur Philosophe

est cet Cgard en dCfaut; car y a-t-il rien de si ridicule que de se former une science



76 A Philip

McMalzo?z

ascribes a similar moral effect to comedy, citing Cicero. The popu-

larity of Rapin and Rymer continued in England for many years, so

that this work is one of the chief sources for

th

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 permit-

ting the introduction of royalty into comedy and considers tragi-

qui donne sfirement une maladie qui travaille incertainement 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, Th e Itrorks of M on r.

Rapz'fc

(3d. ed , 24 ' h o l e C r i t i ~ i ~ l vols ,

T,ondon,

1731).

[Preface is dated 1705.1 New title,

11

p

1 7: His RcjEectiorzs on

rlris fotl e'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 Part s of I'oesy, is that which :\ristotle has most

discuss'd; and where he appears most exact He alledges th at Tragedy is a publick

Lecture, without comparison more instructive than Philosophy; because it teaches

th e Mind by the Sense, and rectifies the Passions by the Passions themselves, calm-

ing 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 Ea rth 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 be-

cause 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 es-

traordinary happen to the highest Pa rt 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

th at deserve it 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

th at which is most essential to Comedy.

XntlrC I)acier, La

Po iiq~~-le'zlristoie, Contenant les Rdglcs l~csPlzrs Eracles pour

J z q e r dl I'oe~ne II rozpt~e,l de s PiPces de Thkcitre, l a Trczgtfdie el

n

Combdie, Tra-




77

comedy as really comedy.' In his exposition of the definition of tragedy

in

the Poetics he stresses the formal elements and neglects p~rgation.~

He wisely remarks later that the extirpation of pity and terror, desired

by the Academics and Stoics, is beyond the capacity of tragedy, but he

agrees with the Peripatetics that it is not the presence of these emotions

in the soul that is evil, but their excess, so that the drama may seek to

reduce them to proper proportions and moderate them. The moral

benefit is derived from the sympathy of the spectator with the subjects

represented and an increased ability to face calamities with a reason-

able estimate of their importance. To support this view he quotes

Marcus A~ re li us .~

LuziC~

LuzLn, writing in Spain in the eighteenth century, after giving the

definition of tragedy from the Poetics undertakes to give one of his

own, but he holds that its moral effect is restricted, in the main, to

royalty.4 But comedy deals with common life and is of general benefit.5

duite e n Fr a n ~ o is vec des Remarques Critiques

(Paris, 1692,1698; Amsterdam, 1692,

1717, 1733).

Pottique (1692), p 60: Quand Plaute fit son Amphitryon, oh il introduit des

Roys des Dieux, il l'appella en plaisantant TragicocomCdie, mais c'est pourtant

une veritable Comedie, oh il tourne en ridicule un sujet tragique, voila de quelle

manisre seulement la Comedie peut prendre ses sujets dans les actions des Roys

et des Heros. Le ridicule doit toOjours Ctre le caractere de ce Poeme, e t une marque

certaine, que c'est la Nature m&mequi a fait ce partage, c'est que toutes nos pieces

qui sont conformes

i

cette dCfinition, rkiississent tobjours mieux que les autres que

nous ne voyons jamais sur nos thtLtres qu'avec un ennuy mortel.

Ibid.

p. 72.

I b id -

p. 81.

Ignacio de LuzAn,

La Poetica

6

Reglas de la Poesia

(1st ed. Saragossa, 1737)

(2 vols., Madrid, 1789),

11

p. 77: En tanto, en gracia de 10s que no entendieren

bien la definicion de Arist6teles, que es algo obscura, seame permitido proponer

aqui otra mas clara 5 mi entender, y mas inteligible, como asimismo mas adaptada

6 10s dramas modernos. Pareceme pues que se podria decir 'que la Tragedia es

una representacion dramhtica de una grande mudanza de fortuna acaecida Reyes,

Principes y personages de gran calidad y dignidad, cuyas caldas, muertes, des-

gracias y peligros exciten terror y compasion en 10s Animos del auditorio,

y

10s

curen y purgen de estas y otras pasiones, sirviendo de exemplo y escarmiento5, todos,

pero especialmente

fi

10s Reyes,

y

las personas de mayor autoridad y poder. '

Ibid.

p.

5

La Comedia, pues, 5 mi parecer, como quiera que otros la definan,

es una representacion dramfitica de un hecho particular,

y

de un enredo de poca

im-



A Philip McMalzon

Gons&lez de Salas, another Spanish author of the same period, ex-

plicitly declares that he relies mainly on Heinsius.'

In the Jesuit manuals of studies, the traditional definitions are con-

tinued down through the nineteenth century. The definition of tragedy

from the oetics is given ior the sake of its ethical ihterpretati~n,~nd

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 per-

sonas particulares 6 plebeyas con fin alegre y regocijado: y que todo sea dirigido f~

utilidad y entretenimiento del auditorio, inspirando insensiblemente amor la

virtud y aversion a1 vicio, por medio de lo amable y feliz de aquella, y de lo ridfculo

infeliz de esto."

Jusepe Antonio Gong&lezde Salas Xuena Idea de la Trogedia Antigzla o Ilzis-

tracion Ul ti w~ a 1 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 Rke toru m Praeceptc~el Exemp la

complectentem, quae ad oratoria m et poeticam fac~rltatem pf rt in en t,

et cet ed. J.

A

Amar (Paris, 1809) 11 p 3 1 Tragoedza deJinitur ab Aristolcle Poe t c. 6 ) .

.

.

"Denique, per misericordiam ac metum animum purgat ac levat ab ejusmodi per

turbationibus. Designatum hic habcs Tragoediae finem, quae res atroces exhi-

bendas suscipit, ut 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 e t 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 imita tur res illustres ac terribiles, ut Tra-

goedia, neque admirabiles ac prodigiosas; non luctus, non exilia, non caedes, sed

civiles et privatas actiones, ut 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-



Aristotelian Dejiliitions of Tragedy and Covzedy

79

ATTACKSN THE THEATRE

An attack against the theatre as a public institution with a bad

effect on public morals was made by the early Christian fathers in the

third and fourth centuries. Again in the sixteenth and the seventeenth

centuryJ1 hroughout Europe; theatrical productions especially come-

dies were condemned. Together with the opposition to the stage in

the latter period there was wide opposition to the continued use of

certain classical texts in educational circle^ ^ Comedies were easily

disapproved as fit reading for the young but even tragedies were de-

n~unced.~his feeling was not confined to the Puritans in England

tationem, quam ridendo parit. Denique Comoediae finis est humanos mores nosse,

describere, et describendo corrigere, ne, quod in illis vitiosum est, privatorum ho-

nlinum familiis nocere possit. Tragoedia etsi hoc proponit sibi pariter, u t mores

instituat, tamen nec eadem id perficit via, nec mediae tantum conditiones homines

respicit, sed ad ipsos etiam Principes ac Keges assurgit.

Cf. J. D. Wilson, The Puritan Attack Upon the Stage, in

Th e Cambridge

IIistory of Englislz Literature

V I ( I ~ I O ) ,art 11, pp. 421 ff

Cf. in addition to the bibliography in Wilson,

op. ci t .;

Emilio Cotarelo y Mori,

Bibliografia de las Controversias sobre la Licitud del Teatro en Esparia

(Madrid,

1904), (739 pages, 213 authorities cited; pp. 619

ff.

report legislation against

theatre from year 1534 to date of publication).

Cf. Franz Freiherr von Lipperheide, Spruchworterbuch (Berlin, 1go7), P. 461,

s. v. Komodien: Und Christen sollen Comodien nicht ganz und gar fliehen,

darum, dass bisweilen grobe Zoten und Buhlerei darinnen seien, da man doch um

derselben willen auch die Bibel nicht durfte lesen. (Dr. Martin Luther, Tischreden

oder Colloquia (1566). Nr. 68. Tischreden u. Studien. 2. B Comodien.) The ques-

tion is referred to in Thomas Crenius (pseudonym of Thos. Theo. Crusius),

De Phi l -

ologia Stu dii s Iiberal is doctrinae infor matio ne et educatione Litteraria generosorum

adolescentum

et cet.

. .

Tractatus

(Lugduni in Batavis, 1696), pp. 252-253: Jam

etiam post Terentium perlectum, Plautus evolvi potest, ea adhibita cautione, ne

omnia ibi reperta, sibi imitanda, imo multa sibi solicite fugienda ducat adolescens.

Nam ne repetam, quod ante jam monui, cuivis eruditio satis notum est, quod

dissolutos seculi sui, praecipue autem juventutis gentilis mores, Comici isti descri-

bunt, a quibus Christiana pubes quam maxime abhorrere debet: etiam sermo

eorum, inprimis IJlauti, nonnisi judiciosa imitatione efingendus est juventuti.

Cf. Antonii Possevini, Mantvani Societatis Jesu,

Ribliotheca Selecta de

Kat ione S tud iorz~m

(Coloniae Agrippinae, 1607)~11 p. 430: In Tragicis,

Comicis Dionysius ipse Lambinus, quae moribus adversari possent, haud dis-

simulavit. Itaque ille sic:

Ven iamus ad Tragicos qu i om ni z~ m an ibus t erun tur qu i

ass idue leguntur qui ediscuntur. P ri m um i f s a t ragoediarum argumenta part im su nt



Aristotelian DefLnitions of Tra gedy and C ome dy

8

Lexicography is not only an influential but a very conservative

science, and while dictionaries and encyclopedias were slow to admit

any significance from the Poetics for the words tragedy and comedy, to

this day they emphasize the traditional meanings accepted by classical

antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early Renaissance.

The lexicon of Firmin Le Ver, prior of the Carthusians of Saint

Honor&-les-Abbeville,was composed between 1420 and 1440. Its me-

diaeval foundations are obvious in its definition of tragedy.'

The commentaries of Budaeus on the Greek language, published in

Paris in 1529, appear to have been embodied in the dictionaries of

chapter headings indicate the nature of the contents: IT. De idolatria scenae.

VIII. Abominationes. XII. Vi t ia poetarum. XIII. Senten tia theologorum de histri-

onibus.

XIV.

Sententia jurisconsultorum.

XIX.

Sententia philosophorum.

XX.

Voluptates no n semper damnari.

Th at Erasmus approved of the drama is apparently

good reason for condemning it ; it is also claimed tha t comedies lead to atheism, and

the fact that Machiavelli himself composed comedies is a significant bit of evidence.

Nevertheless, the refutation of the claim to moral value in comedy is keen (col.

1675): ''Erasmum defendunt: qui nec est nosier, nec est sanus, est pendulus,

incertans ubique, ridens (ita de eo Lutherusque) religionem, vid. Flac. praef.

N.

T.

Sleid. IX Apage. I n his quae ad jid ei integritatem pertinent ediam deterius est

dub ium qua m pravum: ita contra Erasmum etiam Cardanus, 111 de Sap . Jocos

Erasmi defenditis? E t sancta per jocum doceantur? discantur? dedoceantur? de-

discantur? Nosque ita monent Apostoli, Prophetae? Acerbissima ubique, et fere

omnia sacrorum sunt librorum: Imo apagete vos lusores, risores, doctores religionis

jocosi mali histriones. Ni hil en im est ta m naturale qu am eo genere quidque dis-

solvere quo colligatum est ut 1.35. de reg. ju r. c.

4

27 q. I I E t risus res est plebeja:

ducitque ad vilitatem, Epict. ench. XLIX. Trahit rem risus in suspicionem: ut

artificium sophistae est, facetiis diluere, risu discutere serium, Arist.

111

Rhetor.

Haec via ad atheismum prona, praeceps. Haec via (audenter dico) athea magis,

quam est Macchiavelli. Another comprehensive collection of anti-dramatic au-

thority is to be seen in Gronovius, op

cit . cols. 1713

f f :

Jo b. Ludovici Fabricii.

De Lu di s Scenicis.

Lanson,

op. cit.

p. 5 4 2 : Tragedia. Oda, quod est cantus, seu laus, componi-

tur cum tragos quod est hircus. E t dicitur hec Tragedia carmen luctuosum

quod incipit a leticia et finit in tristicia. Cui contraria est comedia, quia incipit

a tristicia e t finit in leticia. Unde Tragedia dicitur de crudelissimis rebus, sicut qui

patrem seu matrem occidit, seu comedit filium, et e converso s. hujus modi. Unde

et tragedo dabatur hircus animal fetidum. Ad fetorem materie designandurn.

Tragoedicus . luctuosus, funestus.



82

A

Philip McMaholz

1554. On the Greek words significant in the definition of tragedy in

the Poetics meny authors are cited, but there are no direct references to

Aristotle's Poetics. The only mention of tragedy is with reference to

Polybius and not to the drama.2

Another early Greek-Latin dictionary, first publishetl in 1548, makes

no reference to the Poetics, although Plato, Polybius, ant1 Erasmus are

mentioned in connection with the words of special ~ignificance.~

A dictionary compiled by Pierre Gilles, and published a t Basel in

1577, directs the student, under the word ~puyydia , to read Aris-

totle's Poetics, but apart from this there is no reference to that source

under the words significant in the Poetics,l although he had drawn

upcn the work of several eminent scholars.

A

lexicon of great influence was that of Forcellini (1688-1768) in

which, under cowtoediu, Fest. up. Pau l .

Dinc.

and Isid. VII I. Orig

7 6,

are cited, and, while classical texts are referred to, the definitions pro-

posed are founded on the Roman grammarians.

The dictionary of the Spanish Academy retains the icleas of the Ko-

man grammarians, without considering the Poetics of Aristotle. Under

the worc comedia it begins with the traditional use, but asserts that in

Spain it hat1 been extended to all kinds of dramatic productions. The

formula of Theophrastus is quoted and Cicero is cited. For tragedy

there is a short reference to the definition of Dio1nedes.j

The edition of the dictionary of the Accademia della Crusca still in

use, relies mainly on Dante for its definition of c o r n ed ~ . ~nother Ital-

C. Budaeus, Conz?nerztarii Ligzguae Graecae. Venundantur Iodoco Badio As-

censio (Paris, 1529). Cf. Lanson,

op. cit

p. 573. The dictionaries are: "1,exicon

Craeco-Latinurn, seu Thesaurus Graecae Linguae," Jean Crispin, 1554, with a

preface by Claude Baduel;

Uiclionariu ?n Grcecc-Lati+~zl?jt ,

harles Estienne, 1554.

Commentar i i , p. 714.

Ju n i i I Iornafz i I f adr i(~ ?z i , c ~ i c o n ive Diciio+zariz~+n, raeco-Latinz~nz

(Basel,

1557)~s v. ~ B a p o ~ snd ~pa?yF ia .

I'ierre Gilles. AE?II<OW. Graccola l in~~?n ,Ioc cst Dic t io nar i ir?~ ~ Su pr a O?ilncs

Ediliones

in hoc Anno cz: Var i is .

. .

L . T u s c a n z ~ ~ r z ,

.

Bz~dacz l?i~, G. Gcsnerum,

fI Izmzunz, R Cons tan ti zl?n , lo . I lar t ing t lm, Ma r . I Iopp cn~? n ,G i z r l X y l a ~ i d r u n ~

(Basel, 1577).

Diccionario dc la Lerzgua Castclla?za. C on;p l~est o or la Real Acaden:ia E spaliola

(Madrid, 1729) s.

v. comedia

and

tragedia.

6

Lrocabolario degli Accadctizici ddla Crusca.

Quinta impressione (T;lorence,

1875), p. 204,

s .

v. "Co mm cdi a. Sorta d i componinzento dranznzaiico; i n prosa o anche



Aristotelian Dejinitions

of

Tragedy and Comedy

183

ian dictionary still current is also content with mediaeval sources for

tragedy. The Dictiotz~zaire e l Acad6mie Fran~aise, Paris 1878, 7th

ed.) agrees word for word with the Nouveau Dictiolrnoire National de la

Langue Fralz~aise, ar Bescherelle AinC (Paris, 1887), and the defini-

tions common to both are the traditional ones.Vn English, Richard-

son s dictionary refers the reader to Vos~ius .~

Without pursuing this line of research further, it may be said tha t

practically the whole weight of lexicographical authority, from the be-

i n verso, nel quale si rappresentano per lo pizi fa tt i e personaggi della vita privata. H a

esito quasi se ~np reieto, e intend e, mediante i l ridicolo, a correggere vizj e

i

dqe tti degli

uomini .

Segn.

B.

Poet. volg. 288: La commedia una imitazion di cose cat-

tive; ma non gi i che abbino il sommo grado della cattivitii : ma una imitazione di

quella parte ridiculx, che contien la brutezza. I

Consmedia dicevasi, second0 la

opinio ne espressa d a Dan te nel libro

De vulgari eloquio,

Qualunque componimento i n

lingua volgare, i n quanto che questa no n s i credeva at ta a trattare se no n soggetfliumi l i

o

mezzani.

Dizionario della Lingua Italialza.

Nuovamente compilato dai signori Nicoli,

Tommaseo e Bernardo Bellini. (Turin,

1879),

p.

1535.

S.V. Tragedia. Poe marap-

presentative,

che imitaz ione di azione grande, fatta da personaggi illust ri, con parlar

grave, e che ha dolorosa catastrofe. B u t. Pu rg .

2 2 2 Tragedia

i

canto in sublimo

stilo, e tra tt a de' principi, ed ha felice principio, ed infelice fine.

Dante I n f .

20 Euri-

polo ebbe nome, e cosi'l can ta L'al ta mia Tragedia in alcun loco.

But . iui

Dice

Virgilio, chela sua Eneide alt a tragedia. Questo finge Dante per dimostrare che in

alto stilo fat ta, e che si d?e chiamare tragedia, perche tr at ta de' fa tti 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 chia-

maron tragedie, acciocchi? accontate, 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 tra-

gedia verso di grandi iniquitadi, incominciante da prosperitate, ed in adversitate

terminante.

ComCdie. (Euvre dramatique, pi&cede thtitre 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 exciter la terreur ou la pitie, et qui se termine ordinaire-

ment par un CvCnement funeste.

A

New D ictiona ry of the Eng lish Language,

by Charles Richardson, London.

1838

(s.v.

tragedy).



184 A P h i l i p 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 diction-

aries carry on the ideas derived from O n Poets .

VII

W h a t dejitzitions of traged y and conzedy dominated the ideas of E ng lan d

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 for-

mulas 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 suffi-

ciently representative. In the earlier phases, English thought depended

on mediaeval sources, supported by Cicero and justified by its reading

of Seneca and Terence. In later times it carried on the same principles

under the guidance of Sca1iger.l

Douglas had already called Dido's story a tragedy, in 5 3; and me-

diaeval 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 Ther-

ence 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, Critica l Es says of the Seoentecnth Centur y,

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 Lat ine Poets, as it is copiously de-

liuered by the Prince of all learning and Iudge of iudgements, the diuine Iu l . C ues.

Scaliger.

Douglas, Aeneis, IV, Prol. 264

Sir Thomas Elyot,

The Boke Named

th

Gouernour,

ed.

H . H .

S. Croft (2 vols.,

London, 1880

I, p.

124



Aristotel ian D ej ni t io ns of Tr agedy and Comedy

85

The metaphorical use, exemplified throughout the preceding ages

and founded on the traditional formula rather than on the definition in

the

Poetics

had continued in English literature also.'

Mirror for Magistrates

The meaning accepted by Lydgate was carried on in another in-

fluential series of disastrous narratives,

Th e Mirror for Magistrates.

Tragedy is applied to the fate of the two sons of King E d ~ a r d , ~nd in

the Induction it is similarly e mp l~ yed .~he influence of this compila-

tion on the poetry and drama of the Elizabethan Age is well recognized.

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 be-

fore anything more clear than this obscure reference to the purgation

became general in English criticism, and the traditional formula has

NED

S.V. ragedy. 1598-99 E. Forde]

Parismus I

(1661) 68: I fear he is de-

stroyed by the treachery of that wicked homocide who is not contented with his

tragedy, but also seeketh my destruction. 1535, Laytan in

Lett. Suppress. Mona s-

teries

(Camden), 76: To tell yowe all this commodie, bu t 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 ~ U ~ Se la Critique Dramatique en Angleterre

(Thesis)

Paris, 1903,

P.

46. (Giovanni della Casa,

Galateo of M ann ers and Bekauiours

Eng-

lished by Robert Peterson, London, 1576, p. 31.)



156 A Philip c ahon

not yet been supplanted in ordinary usage. For this there seem to be

several reasons, of which the following may be mentioned: I) A re-

liable tradition founded ultimately on Aristotle's dialogue, known

through the Roman grammarians, had already been accepted in Eng-

land, 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 con-

sidered 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 con-

fusion as to its real meaning and function in

a

definition of the species,

that it never prevailed as against the authoritative and accepted

formula.'

I n the Ragionamento i 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 dubbio, che

second0 lui la Tragedia ci empie di passioni, di misericordia, di timore: questo

6 il primo fine, nel qude con Platone conuiene: ma non si ferma, ne troua un'

alt ro pi& innanzi, il quale la purgazione degli affanni mediante que' due, questo

l'ultimo fine. Tut to questo chiaro indubitato della Tragedia, ma non s'intende

di qu di 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, r poi lo voti: hanno loro ragioni.

Altri, che la purgazione sia pur de' medesimi misericordia, timore, ma non in

tu tt o estirpazione, ma moderazione: che la Tragedia modera, diminuisce in noi

questi due affetti, mediante questi gli altri simili h loro. N l'una, n? l'altra inter-

pretazione si pui, accettare per le ragioni, che vdirete: ma prima vi voglio dire

come intende breuemente tu tt a 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 alt ri contrarij, che non pos-

sono con loro stare insieme, i manifesto in Aristotile nella Kettorica: che l'uno

affetto cacci l' dt ro , egli meclesimo lo manifesta nel medesimo libro. h la 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,



Aristotelian Dejnitions of Tragedy and Comedy

187

In

158

Thomas Lodge published his

Defense of

Plays

against the at-

tacks of Gosson. He asks: What made Erasmus labor in Euripides

tragedies? On this the editor of the important Elizabethan critical

essays has a note which suggests Lodge's source in a characteristic edi-

tion 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 prin-

ces 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

C i ~ e r o . ~lein comments: The fact was that Lodge had found the

definition in Donatus. The strangest thing about i t 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:

10

ho sempre inteso

sperimentato, che il fare qualunque cosa pib volte, l'auuezzarsi fare

i

causa,

che poi si ritorna a1 somigliante, che il fare insegna fare, si fa venire dietro sempre

il medesimo. questo Assioma fermissimo, verissimo contradice quella opinione,

che vuole, che auuezzandoci noi nella Tragedia 2 piangere, poi non piangiamo, b

moderatamente piangiamo secondo l'alt ra, 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 tu tto il contrario interuerrk della Tragedia. Per quella opin-

ione rouinerebbe tut ta 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 tu tt e le cose."

G. Gregory Smith,

Elizabethar~Critical Essays z

vols., Oxford, rgoq), I , p. 68.

Ib id

,

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

Trag~d iaee lec tae

issued by Henri Estienne,

printer to Huldrich Fugger (I

j67

&c.), which contains the interpretations of

Hecuba

and

Iplzigenia

by Erasmus (pp. 11 5- II ~) , he tract by Donatus

De Tragoedia t

Comoedia (pp . 118-128), the interpretation of the Me d e a and Alcest is (pp. 129-133)

and of the A ja x, Antigone, and Electra of Sophocles , by Georgius liotallerus."

Ibid., I ,

p. 80.

Ibid., I, p. 81.

In

Playes Confuted

(Nov., 1579). Cf. G. Gregory Smith,

op. cit . , I,

pp. 369-370.

David idlein,

Literary Cri tic ism from the Elizabethan Dra~?zatists

New Uork,



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 for-

mula 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.

Sir Philip Sidney appears to uphold the Ciceronian definition also,

interpreting it in the manner characteristic of criticism until a recent

date.' He also attempts to refute the example from Plutarch, oi the

tyrant Alexander Pheraeus, used by writers who attacked the stage, as

showing that a man could be emotionally affected by tragedy, and yet

remain a bloodthirsty criminaL2

A passage in Kyd's Spa nish Tragedy reaffirms the traditional concep-

t i ~ n . ~ebbe, again, in his

Discourse of English Poetry

1586)

repeats

G. Gregory Smith ,

op . ri l . I

p. 176-177: "Onely thus much now is to be said,

that the Comedy is an imitation of t he common errors of our life, which he represent-

et h i n t he most ridiculous and scornefull sort th at may be; so a s i t is impossible

tha t an y beholder can be content to be such a one."

Ibid. I

pp 177-175:

"l3ut how much it can mooue,

Plzctarch

yeeldeth a

notable testimonie of the abhominable Tyr an t

Alexaflder Phcracus;

from whose

eyes a Tragedy, we1 made an d represented, drewe aboundance of teares, who, with-

ou t all pitty, had murthered infinite nombers, and some of his owne blood. So as

he, that was not ashamed to make matters for Tragedies, yet coulde not resist the

sweet violence of a Tragedie. And if i t wrought no fur the r good in him, i t was that

he, in despight of himselfe, withdrewe himselfe from harkening to tha t which might

mollifie his hardened heart." (Plutarch,

I i j c f Pclopidns

29.)

Klein, o p

r i t .

p. 22:

Hallhazer.

Hieronimo, methinks a comedy were better.

IIier.

comedy! fie! comedies are fit for common wits;

I3ut to present a kingly troop withal,

Give me a stately written tragedy;

Tragoedia cothurnata, fitting kings,

Containing matter, and not common things.




189

th e familiar dis t inctions between tragedy a n d comedy.' The se were not

merely iischolast ic , a s terme d b y Klein ; the y originated in the very

source f rom which scholas tic phi losophy gained i n s p i r a t i ~ n .~ ebbe's

acc ou nt of th e etymology a n d origin of th e dra m ati c species is directly

from D o n a t ~ s . ~

I n Shakespeare, l ikewise, there is no divergence from th e trad it ional

a n d reliable definitions. Bo sanq uet notes his acceptance of t he ideas:

Coming upon the arena thus prepared for him, Shakespeare adop ts a dis-

tinctly traditional dram atic form. He accepts the complicated organic struc-

tu re of La tin com edy, with its five acts and separate scenes. He is more

careful than his crude predecessors to motive or excuse his violation of the

unities. H e observes, except in the histories, with hardly any dev iation, the

sharp distinction between tragedy and comedy which Dante applied so

strangely. T h a t is to say , in the plays of which

the catastrophe is not tragic,

the happy ending or reconciliation is absolutely complete, and no irrevo-

cable misfortune befalls any character in the play.

Bosanquet 's observation is accurate, with th e exception of th e word

s t rangely applied to D ante ' s use . I n th a t par t icular he is obviously

inf luenced by Hegel , Bernays, and other m oderns ra ther tha n by the un-

broken, authori tat ive tradit ion that extends from Aristotle 's dialogue

fz

Poets down t o th e popu lar usage of to-day.

I n Love's Labo ur 's Lost (V, i i, 51 5 ) ' ~ h akespeare refers t o Ch ris tmas

play s as comedies; in the sam e pl ay (V, ii, 950-952) he speak s of t he

G. Gregory Smith,

op. ci t .

p. 249; William Webbe, Of

Engl ish 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 tur-

moyle, and by some lucky chaunce alwayes ended to the ioy and appeasement of

all parties."

Klein,

op. ci t .

p. 20.

G. Gregory Smith,

op. cit . I,

pp. 245-249.

Hosanquet,

History of Aesthetic

(London, I~IO),

.

155.

Furness,

Va rio rum Shakespeare

XIV p. 272.

Ibid.

p. 315.



ArisLoteliun Dejinitions of Tragedy and Conzedy

9

c0rnedy.l The standard moralistic interpretation or defense is to be

seen in the title of a chapter following that in which the distinction is

~ t a t e d . ~

Ben Jonson, who protested against the tendency to make Aristotle

a dictator of literary t h e ~ r y , ~ccepted the traditional definitions and

distinctions. In the Prologue (1598?) to Ecery Man

in

his Humour there

is a repetition of Cicero, with moral application, in striking phrases!

In Every Man out of

his

Humour, 111 i, there is a vivid paraphrase of

the same idea.5 Shortly following this passage is one in which Jonson

G Gregory Smith, op. cit . 11 p. 27: "There were also Poets that wrote onely

for the stage, I meane playes and interludes, to recreate the people with matters

of disporte, and to that intent did set forth in shewes [ I pageants, accompanied

with speach, the common behauiours and maner of life of priuate persons, and

such as were the meaner sort of men, and they were called Comicall Poets: . . .

Besides those Poets Conzick there were other who serued also the stage, but medled

not with so base matters, for they set for th the doleful1 falles of infortunate

r

afflicted Princes, & were called Poets Tmgicnll: .

J. Haslewood, Ancie nt Critical Es says u po n English Poets and Poetics (London,

I ~ I I ) ,I p. 25: "HOWvice was afterward reproued by two other maner of poems,

better reformed then the satyre, whereof the first was comedy, the second tragedie."

Spingarn,

Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century I

(Oxford, 1go8), p.

42.

Cf. G. Gregory Smith, op. cit .

11

p. 389; from Th e tVrorkes of Be nia mi n

Ionson.

Folio 1616. (Bodleian Library. Douce, I p. 302.) The Prologue may be

dated 1598.

"But deedes, and language, such as men doe vse,

And persons, such as

Contoedie

would chuse,

IVhen she would shew an Image of the times,

And sport with humane follies, not with crimes,

Except we make 'hem such, by louing still

Our popular errors, when we know th' are ill.

I meane such errors as you'll all confessee,

By laughing at them, they deseiue no lesse:

IVhich when you heartily doe, there's hope left then,

You, that haue so grac'd monsters, may like men."

T h e TVorlzs of B e n Jow son

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

hilip 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~z gofzistes, where the famous definition of Aristotle's Poetics

is reproduced and translated: per miserico rdiam et me tu m perjiciens

tal ium aj ec tu um 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

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: im ita tio nitae, speczilunt consuctudinis, ima go 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~ tglis h oems of Jo hn Milton (edited by R C. Browne, revised by 11. Brad-

ley; Oxford, ~goz),1 p. 204.

Spingarn, Literary Criticisnz, pp. 80-81.

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 at this

day with other common interludes; happening through the poet's error of inter-

mixing comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and vul-

gar persons, which by all judicious hath been counted absurd; and brought in

without discretion. corruptly to gratify the people.



Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and Conzedy

93

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. In 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 at 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 e concerned with ~ornedy .~

More significant, however, is the reference of Edward Phillips be-

cause the preface of his TlieetrumPoeticrum is so much better than his

Ibid. p 204

Thomas IrIeywood,

n

Apology for i lc tors

in

hree 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 ~il l a l t im a:

in tragedyes,

tranquil la prim a 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, vhat to

bee avoyded. The Greekes define i t thus: K w e i a

iarrv L WTLKDV

~ a iOXLTLLOV

~ p a y p b r w v

XLV OYOS X O P O L X ~ Y . Cicero saith a comedy is the imitation of life, the

glasse of custome, and the image of t ruth.

Thomas Shadwell,

Preface to Th e t lumori s ts Comedy (1617)

(Spingarn,

Cri t ica l Essays 11 p. 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

Phi l ip McMahon

other work that the aid of his uncle, Milton, has been suspected.l The

phrase passionately sedate and moving recalls Milton, but the dis-

cussion as a whole relies largely on the Roman

grammarian^.^

In his

Essay

of Dramatick P o ~ s i e , ~ryden presents a definition of the

drama in general which is placed in the mouth of Lisideius, thought to

be Sir Charles Sedley, ant1 this definition is hn interesting combination

of the elements common to both tragedy and comedy, some of which

come from the grammarian^.^ The same speaker suggests that; Of

that book which Aristotle has left us

irepi ~ T j s~ T O L ~ T L ~ S

orace, his

rt of Poetry is an excellent comment, and,

I

believe, restores to

us that Second Book of his concerning Comedy which

is

wanting

in him.

Among the neo-classic critics Rymer was powerful, a t a later time,

through his translation of Rapin and through his own work

in

the same

temper. Thus, through his translation, the Ciceronian definition of

1 Spingarn, Critic01 Essays, IT, p.

3 50

Ibid. , Edward Phillips, Prejace to Th ee tr um Poetarz m

1675),

11, p. 269: Next

to the IIcroic Poe+17(if not, as some think, equal) is Tragedy, in conduct very dif-

ferent, in heighth of Argument alike, as treating only of the actions and concern-

ments of the most Illustrious Persons, whereas Colnedy sets before us the humours,

converse, and designs of the more ordinary sort of People: the chief parts thereof

are the

BOY

8r aciOor, by which latter is meant that moving and Pathetical man-

ner of expression, xvhich in some respect is to exceed the highest that can be de-

livered in Heroic Poesie, as being occasioned upon representing to the very life

the unbridled passions of Love, Rage and Ambition, the violent ends or downfalls

of great Princes, the subversion of Kingdoms and Estates, or what ever else can

(be) imagined of funest or Tragical, all which will require a style not ramping,

bu t passionately sedate moving. . .

ublished in 1668. Reprinted in Clark, Ez~ropcen heor ies , pp. 174

ff

Clark, op. cit., p. 176 : A just and lively image of human nature, represent-

ing its passions and humors, and the changes of fortune to which i t is subject, for

the delight and instruction of mankind.

5 Clark, op. cit . , p.

177



Aristotelian Defifzitions of Tra ged y and Comed y

95

comedy and the moralistic explanation of tragic purgation were

again impressed on English readers. Elsewhere he expands his moral-

istic interpretation of Horace and Ari~totle.~ e uses the Ciceronian

formula as another basis to condem Othello,4 and he disagrees with

Rapin only when the latter claims that the English should have a spe-

cial capacity for tragedy because of their c r ~ e l t y . ~

n

interesting and amusing publication is the grammar attrib-

uted to Steele. Its prose is relieved

by

versified passages, among

[Rymer] Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Powie Containing the $ecessary,

Rational and Universal Rules for Ep ick , Dra?izatick, a d he other Sorts of Poetry.

B y R . R ap in (London, 1674), p. 124. Monsieur Rapin's Rejections on Arislotle's

Treatise oj Poesie Ma de English by M r. Rymer. [In the Whole Crit ical Wo rks

o j M o nr . R a p i ~ z .Translated by Basil Kennet, and 0thers.j (gd ed., London, 1731),

11 p. 219.

Ibid. , pp. 204-205.

Thomas Rymer. Tragedies of the Las t Age Consider'd and Exam in'd by the

Practice of the Ancients and

by

the Com mon Sense of all Ag w .

(London, 1678), p. 140:

Some would blame me for insisting and examining only what is apt to please,

without 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, tha t harmony and beauty of Providence, th at necessary rela-

tion 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.)

Rymer, Short

i w

of Tragedy (London, 1 6 ~ ~ 1 ,in Spingarn, Critical Essa ys,

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 Spe culu fn Vitae.

Rymer, Mofzs ieur Rapi~z 'sRc$ertions, IT , p.

1 1 2 :

he confesses, that

we have a Genius for Tragedy above all other People; one Reason he gives we

cannot allow of,

uis

T he Dispositiolz of our fiat ion , which,

he saith,

i s delighted zeith

cruel Things.



196 A Phil ip M cMahon

which the traditional def~nitionsof comedy and of tragedy are

introduced.

The influence of the Renaissance philologists and of Rapin continued

down to the end of the century, and in

177

a work in which they are

much quoted was judged a suitable book to give to the Library of Har-

vard College by Sir Thomas H01lis.~ Blount notes the opinion of Vos-

sius with regard to the

Poetics

that its present state represents sub-

stantially the original scope of the work

He

cites Rapin r e~ ea te dl y, ~

quotes Donatus by way of the AbbC tl 'Aubignn~,~nd

in

tliscussing

Terence relies on Heinsius, Erasmus, Scaliger, Vossius, Lipsius, and

Rapin, among others?

[Sir Richard Stcele],

A Grunt?nar o j the En gli sh Tongzrc T h e Wh ol e Atlafz-

in g a Cornpleat Ssslen z oj art En gli sh Edz ~c ati ort . For the Gsc of the Scho ols of Great

Britain and Irelaqzd

(4th ed London, jz r) , p 150.

In Comic Scenes the common Life we draw,

Accordinx to its Tbmours, Ictions, Law,

And Vice and Folly laughing, kecp in awe.

n u t what is yet a nobler, juster End,

To all the Charms of Virtue do's commend."

Ibid.,

p.

154:

"One only Action; that 's entire and grave,

And of just length, the Tragic l lu se must have

Th e Object of its artful Imita tion,

And tha t without the Help of the Narration,

Dy

the ztronq I'ow'r of Terrour and Compassion.

All sorts of I'assion perfectly refines,

And whrtt is in us to Passion else inclines."

Sir Thomas I'cpe I%lount,De

Rc i'i ~el icu , or, Kcnzarlzs erpo?z I'oclry. w i t h

Cha ruc ters u nd Cerrs~ires f the ,%lost Considcrizble l'oc,ts, whetlzcr

Ant-ieizt

or ~ l l o d e r n .

[New pagination [or

Churuclcrs iirid Censzrres,

contrtined in same volume.] London,

1694.

Ibid.,

Chizrizcters,

p.

16: ~ l r i s l ~ l l l c

and given the last strobes toad fnish'd;

this most Excellent Worb; Ant1 this, says

Lhssizls,

may casilp 1)c prov'd

hy

that

czrriozrs Afcthod,

and

ai l~ni iableco?zcalmirliow,

which hc hath observ'd from

first

to last."

Ibid.; cf. pp. 45, 5

Ib id . ,

p. 54.

Ibid.,

p.

227.



Aristotelian Delinit ions of Tra gedy and Com edy

197

The Latin lectures on poetics of Joseph Trapp were apparently popu-

lar, for the third edition had been reached by

736

and an English

translation came out in

1742 .

He combines Cicero and Horace in-

geniously 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 trag-

e d ~ . ~

In

738

was published an interesting work on poetics by Henry Pem-

berton. He sets forth a view of t r a g e d ~ , ~elying on Aristotle, and of

comedy depending on Horace and C i c e r ~ . ~

Joseph Trapp, Lectures on Poelry, translated from the Latin (London, 1742).

Trapp, Praelecl iones Poeticae i n Schola Natur alis 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 im ag ine m exhibens, delectationis atque z~tilitatis : ausa.

Ibid.,

p. nor: Nimirum, quod sit

Poema Dramat icum, vi tae communis et

privatae ima ginc m cxhibens, virtutem comm endans,

t

vi t ia qz~aedam,atqz~e neptias

h om in z ~ m erstringens, jocosa praecipue, sive lepi da scribendi ratione.

Ib id . ,

p.

241:

Ex

duabus igitur Definitionibus simul collatis tertia confi-

cienda, Aristotelica quidem clarior, Voss iana vero perfectior: E st i taqz~e. Tragoedia

Poema Dramat i cz~m, l lw tr cm fort z~n am, cd luctuosanz, gravi , et severa, sed vidctur i n

jzuu nda oratione, imit ans ; ad af fectus, praesertim Misericor diam, Terrorem , ciendos,

ani mz ~m que b i i s purgandum.

Henry I'emberton, Obseruotions o n Poclry, Especially the Epi c, Occasioned by

the Late Poenz on Lconidas (Lontlon, 1738), p. 21: Th e 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 de-

testation 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 par t 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.



9s A

Phi l ip McMahon

In a work dedicated to David Garrick,' William Cooke draws the

usual distinctions between tragedy and comedy in his chapter XXVI,

and he quotes Cicero

by

way of Rapin on c ~ m e d y . ~

The passages cited in the foregoing pages are, of course, but a frag-

ment 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 defin itions of tragedy a nd conzedy, ult ima tel y derived fronz Aristotle s

On Poets

dominated Eu ro pe an tlzeories fro m the time of A ristotle dow n 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 funda-

mentally to depend on the traditional conceptions. I t was not until the

Romantic movement tha t any other understanding of tragedy and

comedy gained ground, and not until some time afterwards that classi-

Seven Questions on Aristotelian Definitions of Tragedy and Comedy

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