The Poetics translated by S. H. Butcher/Preface to third
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
In the revision of the Text and the Critical Notes I have had the advantage of consulting two new editions, based on very different principles, those of Professor Bywater and Professor Tucker, from both of which I have derived assistance. In Professor Bywater's edition I have noted the following passages in which manuscript authority (Parisinus 2038) is cited for readings which hitherto have been given as conjectural: i. 4. 1447 a 21; xi. 5. 1452 b 3 and 4; xv. 1. 1454 a 19; xviii. 1. 1455 b 32; xxii. 7. 1458 b 20 and 29; xxiv. 8. 1460 a 13; xxv. 4. 1460 b 19; xxv. 16. 1461 b 3 and 17. 1461 b 13; xxvi. 3. 1462 a 5; xxvi. 6. 1462 b 6. I am also indebted to Professor Bywater's text for several improvements in punctuation. Most of his important emendations had appeared before the publication of my earlier editions, and had already found a place in the text or in the notes.
I now append the chief passages in which the text of this edition differs from that of the last:—
vii. 6. 1451a 9. Here I keep the reading of the MSS., ὥσπερ ποτὲ καὶ ἄλλοτέ φασιν. Schmidt's correction εἰώθασιν for φασίν seemed at first sight to be confirmed by the Arabic, but, as Vahlen argues (Hermeneutische Bemerkungen zu Aristoteles' Poetik, 1897), this is doubtful, and a more fundamental objection the question arises whether the correction can, after all, convey the sense intended. Can the words as emended refer to a known practice in present time, 'as is the custom on certain other occasions also,' i.e. in certain other contests, the ἀγῶνες of the law-courts being thus suggested? As to this I have always had misgivings. Further observation has convinced me that ποτὲ καὶ ἄλλοτε can only mean 'at some other time also,' in an indefinite past or future. With φασίν (sc. ἀγωνίσασθαι) the reference must be to the past. This lands us in a serious difficulty, for the use of the κλεψύδρα in regulating dramatic representations is otherwise unheard of. Still it is conceivable that a report of some such old local custom had reached the ears of Aristotle, and that he introduces it in a parenthesis with the φασίν of mere hearsay.
ix. 7. 1451b 21. I accept Welcker's Ἀνθεῖ for ἄνθει. Professor Bywater is, I think, the first editor who has admitted this conjecture into the text.
xvii. 5. 1455b 22. I restore the MSS. reading ἀναγνωρίσας τινάς, which has been given up by almost all editors, even the most conservative. Hitherto a parallel was wanting for the required
meaning, 'having made certain persons acquainted with him,' 'having caused them to recognise him.' But Vahlen (Herm. Bemerk. 1898) has, if I am not mistaken, established beyond question this rare and idiomatic use of the verb by a reference to Diodorus Siculus iv. 59. 6, and by the corresponding use of γνωρίζω in Plut. Vit. Thes. ch. xii.
xix. 3. 1456b 8. For ἡδέα of the MSS. I now read ἡ διάνοια. (Previously I had accepted Tyrwhitt's correction ἤδη ἃ δεῖ.) This conjecture was first made by Spengel, and strong arguments in its favour have recently been urged by V. Wróbel in a pamphlet in which this passage is discussed (Leopoli, 1900).
xxv. 6. 1458b 12. For μέτρον I now read μέτριον with Spengel. (So also Bywater.) Is it possible that in xxvi. 6. 1462b 7 we should similarly read τῷι τοῦ μετρίου (μέτρου codd.) μήκει, 'a fair standard of length'?
In xiv. 8-9. 1454 a 2-4 a much vexed question is, I am disposed to think, cleared up by a simple alteration proposed by Neidhardt, who in a 2 reads κράτιστον for δεύτερον, and in a 4 δεύτερον for κράτιστον. This change, however, I have not introduced into the text.
The Arabic version once more throws interesting light on a disputed reading. In xvii. 2 ἐκστατικοί instead of ἐξεταστικοί is a conjecture supported by one manuscript. In confirmation of this reading, which has always seemed to me correct, I extract the following note by Professor Margoliouth (Class. Rev. 1901, vol. xv. 54):—'Professor Butcher . . . informed me that a continental scholar had asserted that the Arabic read ἐκστατικοί for ἐξεταστικοί in this passage. I had been unable to satisfy myself about the Arabic word intended by the writer of the Paris MS., and therefore could not confirm this; but I must regret my want of perspicacity, for I have now no doubt that the word intended is ‘ajabiyyīna, which is vulgar Arabic for "buffoons," literally "men of wonder." The Syriac translated by this word will almost certainly have been mathh'rānē, a literal translation of ἐκστατικοί, which the Syriac translator probably thought meant " men who produce ecstasies." The verb ἐξίστασθαι is not unfrequently rendered by the Syriac verb whence this word is derived.'
In a few other passages the Critical Notes or Translation contain new matter; e.g. ix. 8. 1451b 23; xvi. 7. 1455a 14; xxiv. 10. 1460b 1; xxvi. 6. 1462b 7.
I cannot in concluding omit a word of cordial thanks to Messrs. R. & R. Clark's accomplished Reader.