Three Notes on the Poetic of Aristotle

Extract

I. ON Aristotle's supposed inconsistency in his treatment of Epic as a form of Mimesis. In his note on the Poetic c. i, 1447, a, 15, Mr. Ingram Bywater writes: ‘ In his use of , in the Poetics Aristotle has fallen into a grave inconsistency, as he distinctly makes it in one place (3,1448, a, 21) include narrative, and in another (24, 1460, a, 9) exclude it.’ Yet I venture to think that a careful examination of the two passages will show that Aristotle is perfectly consistent, and that Mr. Bywater like his predecessors has completely misunderstood the second passage.