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    94 views9 pages

    The Poetics of Aristotle - Castelvetro

    Uploaded by

    Neil Nagwekar

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Lodovico Castelvetro (1505-1571) Castetvetro, kaqwn im his dime for the breadth of his leaming, wrote 2 commentary ‘on Aristotie that remained the best known atid mast infiuentia! until the end of the eigh- teenth century even though many disagieed with his interpretation. He begins me following selection from the commentary With the assertion that he is in complete agreement with Aristotle on all points, However, as we read, we discover that taere are some significant differences, at Icast from the way Aristotle is usvally interpreted today. Indeed, Castelvetro often uses Aristotle a a beginning for the elaboration of his own views, and in the process he frequently distorts or hardens Aristotle, It is clear early it the selection below, for example, thet bis meandering comparison of poetry to history _g0es beyond what Aristotle said or is likely to have thought. 1s clear also that he casts 4 moralistic meaning over Aristotle's psychologist notion of catharsis. But probably most significant is his atitude toward fiction, especially the unities of action and time. ‘Thus tragedy and epic should be based 0 historical events (comedy is excepted), and the time represented in a tragedy should not be of more than a day. ‘Answering Plato and following Horace, Castelvetro requires the poem to delight and teach, as do many of his contemporaries. In his effort to square this requirement ‘with Aristotle's notion of catharsis, he must try to shove that catharsis is itself delightful, ‘an “oblique pleasure” connected with our own self-love. Utility and deligin ase intemre- Jated, and poetry is of particular use because it offers significant events rather than dry abstract persuasion. Peshaps the most telling, and certainly the most chacining, of Castelveto’s ifustra- tions of unity in the detail of plot isthe story of Michelangelo restoring the beard {0 a statue of a retiscovered river god. In telling this story, Castelvetro ewphasizes the i portance of the relationship among the parts of the work of art io each other and to the ‘whole, and here he comes closer ta truly Aristotelian attirade than de his more rigid discussions of verisimilitude and the unities. ‘No full raaslation of Castelvetro’s commentary on Aristotle's Poetics exists. An dition in Kalian was published in 1978, The reader may consult A. H, Gilbert, ed, Lit- erary Criticism: Plato to Dryden (1962) and Andrew Bongioro, ed., Castelverro and the Art of Poetry: An Abridged Translation (1984) for further translated parts. See HB. Charon, Cascelvero’s Theory of Poetry (1913) and R. C. Malzi, Castelvetro’s Annona Hons to the “Tnferno” (1966). Castelvetro is discussed in the major histories of this period of Italian criticism: Joel E. Spingarm, A History of Literary Criticism in the Re- rnaissance (1899); Bemard Weinberg, A History af Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance in two volumes (1961); Baxter Hathaway, The Age of Criticism: The Late Renaissance in lealy (1962). 16 like an jes pre ma the ot x Be the the sh he & ite pe bie fee el SEoD) from. The Poetics of Aristotle Translated and Explained I Aisle wes that the sciences andthe ats ad bisary ‘ue nt subjects of poety. Bat who do notin eat have ‘m opinion diffecet from Aristode's ad think hei eae ‘oasec believe I can explain the reasons which have led me {© bold the same views; which if aot atogeber identical wid Atsoe's are perhaps not very dlfeent... Poetry is a ikeness of or resemblance to history. Aus, histry is Givided into (wo main pans, that is, subject mater £08 ‘words, 80 p0ety is divided into eo main puts which are {ikewnse subject mater and words. But history and poctry der in these two prs in that history does 90% have 3 Sub- _petmater provide by the tent ofthe historian; rate itis [prepared for im by the couse of workly events or bythe ‘anifes or hidden will of God. The words 2re provided by thr historia, bu hey we te sor: used in easoning. The subject matter of poetry is ciscovered and imagined 6y the ‘sent of the poet, nd its words aren the son wed inea- sening, becuse mon ae act accustomed to reason in ers. Bathe words of poy are composed in measred verse by the working ofthe poet's gens ‘Now the sabjeet mater of poe ought tote similar to that of history aad resemble it, but it should not be ident- 2, because if t were it would no longer be similar or re- sembliog ad if it wore not similar or resembling, the poet ‘would not have exerted himself 2t all and would pot have shown the sharpness of his talent in discovering it and Inence would not deserve praise. Aad especially he would ot deserve that praise by which he is though: tobe more divine than Roman; for he ka0WS how to manage tale, Imagined by himself sou dings which have mover hip- pened, $0 as to make it no les delightful and no less ‘etisinilas than what ooeus through the couse of worldly ven of the infie providence of God, either manifest of 1dden. Therefore when the poet tales his subject maner fom history, thet is, froco ovens which have happened, be snk no pains, orfsitelea that hei cither good or «bad Guihecno's Poi Pinot migorcmse et spon we pie a {57D mei in 1 ee pn ey sus recy or is ook by Raber. Money. Chapter sabes we dame Ar ‘The Poetics of Aristorle Translaxed and Explained © TT ‘oct, that is, that ie Goes or dues not know how to discover ‘things like the truth, and be eannot be praised for making resemblances and thus he is etitcized and considered to Ihave ite judgment because be bas not recognized this. Or clse he is thought to possess an evil and deceptive naure if wih the covering and colors of poetic language he has tied to dupe his readers or listeners into believing ahat teresa poetic material beneath his Words and hence to gain false ‘commendation for it Logically, therefore, Lucan, Silins Italics, and Girolamo Fracastoro in his Joseph are to be re moved from the. company of poets and deprived of the glo- ious ttle of poetry because in their writings they live tteated material already dealt with by historian, itis sufi cient that it has already happened and was not thought up by these writers} ‘From this also it can be understood thatthe arts and sciences cannot be the subject maner of poetry and cannot ‘with approval be cluded in poems, because the aris and sciences, having already been conséered and undersicod bY reasons which ate necessary and verisimitar ami bythe long experience of philosoplvers and artists, are in the same pos tion as history and things which have already cocurred. The pct who merely emibelishes with poet language the 3ub- jects already established and writen by others, and about ‘which it can be said that history bas already been composed, ‘has no place here inthe sense that he can boast of being a poet. Therefore it is not astonishing if those versiiers, ‘Empadocles. Lucretius, Nicander, Serenus, Girolarto Fra- castoro in bis Syphilis, Aras, Manilius, Giovanni Pontano in his Urania, snd Virgil in his Gorgies, ace uot accepted into the company of poets, for even if they themselves have been the frst to discoves some science or art, net deriving them from another philosopher or ast, and have revealed their discoveries in verse, tbey should not thereby be called ‘poets: For if they have discovered some science or art by speculation, they have sill discovered something already in existonce and bound to continue to exist in the nature of things, something wish which that science is concerned or according to which that aris constituted. They will have

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