Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem/Chapter 14
CHAP. XIV.
Of the Real Actions, the Recitals whereof are Fables.
THere is a great deal of Difference between Fiction and a down-right Lye; and between a Thing's being Probable, and its being no more than Probable. The Poet is order'd to feign, but no body desires him to tell Lyes. He is told, that he is oblig'd to Probability, and not to Truth; but no one says, that the Probability he is oblig'd to by his Art is incompatible with the Truth. The Truth of an Action does not give him the Name of Poet, nor does it rob him of it: and, as Aristotle says, [1]an Author is as much a Poet, though the Incidents he relates did really happen: Because whatsoever has been done, is capable of all the Probability, and all the Possibility, which the Art requires, and of being such as ought to be feign'd.
This makes so little an Alteration in the Nature of Things, that even the Author of a Fable is not always satisfied with making a bare Narration of the Action he feigns, but sometimes sets it off with all the Truth 'tis capable of. Anciently this was very common; and I might produce the whole History of the Old Testament,[2] all the Historical Truths whereof were so many Fables, or Parables divinely invented, which represent Allegorically to us the Doctrine and the Truths which the Author of them has since discover'd to us.
But without concerning our selves with Sacred Things, we know what a Father did to perswade his Children to Unity. He might have only told them, that a Man very eager of breaking all the Arrows in his Quiver, striv'd to snap them all in pieces at once; but after many fruitless Tryals, he was forc'd to part them, and then breaks them one after another without the least trouble. He might have related a thing that was false, and only probable. But he did something more: he put a bundle of Rods, tied close together, into the hands of each of his Children, and bid them see if they could break them: They used their utmost Endeavour, but to little purpose. Then he gave them the Rods one by one, and the weakest of these young Creatures broke them easily. The Truth of this Matter of Fact does not at all destroy the Nature of the Fable.
Sertorius made use of the same Artifice to his Soldiers. He order'd the Tails of a couple of Horses to be pull'd off before them. At last came a weak old Fellow, and did it with ease, pulling off the Hairs one after another; whilst a lusty Fellow had harass'd himself to no purpose, because he took up too many Hairs at a time. When a Recital is made of this true Action, one tells as exact a Fable, as when one mentions the Fable of the Iliad, that of Æsop's Dogs, or any other of that Author, wherein is neither Truth nor Probability.
'Tis true this Action of Sertorius was feign'd before it was true, and this General did begin to form his Fable by the Moral, which is, (as I said) the common way of forming Fables. But here I add, that the True Action may precede the Fable. The Example of Engravers and Statuaries will make us easily conceive how this revers'd Order, so contrary to the Rules of Art, may notwithstanding be applied thereto without destroying them.
Art teaches the Engraver to form his Design first, to fansie the Postures, and the Proportions he would give his Personages; and afterwards to look out for Materials that are proper to receive that which he has imagin'd. If notwithstanding he lights upon some choice Material, such as Agat, for instance, whose Figure, Colours, and Veins, cannot be suited to all that he has a mind it should; he then regulates his Design and Fancy according to his Matter. But yet he is not of the Opinion, that these lucky Hits and particular Accidents condemn the Justness of his Art, or make this a standing Rule for him to go by, viz. That he must begin to look out for Materials, and then form his Design according to what the Disposition of his Materials may suggest to his Fancy.
In this then, as in a great many other things, [3]Poetry is like Painting. The Poet is frequently oblig'd to suit himself to the Dispositions of his Matter: which is found to be true, especially in the Composition of the Episodes, which are made after the General Personages are singulariz'd by the Imposition of the Names. It may likewise so happen that some Person in History may furnish an Author with fine Fancies, and as exact a Moral as that which Homer teaches. And in this Case, the Poet does not at all transgress his Art, though he should apply all his Moral to the Action. But notwithstanding this rare and lucky Hit, the common Rules lose nothing of their Exactness or Authority.
We still maintain, "That the Epick Poem is a Fable; that is, not the Rehearsal of the Action of some one Hero, in order to form Mens Manners by his Example; but, on the contrary, a Discourse invented to form the Manners by the Recital of a feign'd Action, and describ'd at pleasure under the borrow'd Name of some Illustrious Person or other, that is made choice of, after the Platform of the Action, that is ascrib'd to him, is laid."