Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem/Chapter 19
Monsieur Bossu's Treatise
OF THE
EPICK POEM.
BOOK II.
Concerning the subject Matter of the
Epick Poem, or concerning the
Action.
CHAP. I.
What the subject Matter of the Epick Poem is.
The Matter of a Poem is the subject which the Poet undertakes, proposes and works upon. So that the Moral, and the Instructions which are the End of the Epopéa, are not the Matter of it. These things are left by Poets in their Allegorical and Figurative Obscurity. They only give us notice in the Beginning of their Poems, that they sing some Action or another: The Revenge of Achilles, the Return of Ulysses, and the Arrival of Æneas into Italy. Our Masters say just the same thing. [1] Aristotle informs us that the Poet Imitates an Action: And [2]Horace in more express terms tells us, That the Actions are the subject Matter of the Epopéa.
But this Action is the Action of some Person: And our Authors expresly say as much. [3]Aristotle says that the Poets, who imitate, Imitate the Persons that Act. Horace says, that the Imitated Actions are the Actions of Kings, and Generals of an Army. And our Poets do not propose simply, a Revenge, a Return, or an Establishment: But they say further, that 'tis [4]Achilles, who is Reveng'd; [5]Ulysses, who Returns; and [6]Æneas, that goes to be Establish'd. Therefore, both the Actions and the Personages are the subject Matter of the Epopéa.
But suppose we should consider them apart, and ask whether the Action or the Persons, is the Chief and Principal Matter of the Poem: It is plain by what has been said in the former Book, that the Action is not made for the Hero, since that ought to be feign'd and invented independently from him, and before the Poet thought of using his Name; and, that on the other hand, the Hero is only design'd for the Action: And that the Names of Achilles, Ulysses, and Æneas are only borrow'd to represent the Personages which the Poet feign'd in general. The Nature of the Fable will not admit us to doubt hereof; since all the Actions that are there rehears'd under the Names of a Dog, a Wolf, a Lyon, a Man, and the like, are not design'd to inform us of the Nature of these Animals to which they are applied; or to tell us of some Adventure that happen'd to them: For the Author of a Fable does not mind any such thing. These Personages on the contrary are only design'd to sustain the Action he has invented. It is therefore true in this Sense, that the [7]Action alone is the subject Matter of the Epopêa, or at least, that 'tis a great deal more so than the Persons; since that in its own Nature is so, and the Persons are only so by virtue of the Action.
So likewise have those been condemn'd, who have taken the Heroes for the subject Matter of their Poems. Aristotle finds fault with the Poets who under the name of the Theseid, and the Heraclid, have writ the Lives of Theseus and Hercules in Verse. Statius is likewise to blame in his Achilleid, because he does not sing of Achilles who did such or such an Action, as Homer and Virgil have done; but he sings Achilles himself, and this Achilles at his full length.
'Tis true Virgil in his Æneid, and Homer in his Odysseïs call their Poem by their Heroe's Name: But this is no more than what is ordinary in Fables. Thus the Titles run, the Wolf and the Lamb, the Lyon and the Mouse, &c. and yet no one imagines, that these Fables were written to inform us of the Nature of these Animals, or to tell us what a certain Wolf has done or said. The same Judgment ought to be made of the Epick Fables, and the Application thereof is easie.
This Doctrine may easily render us capable of judging what extent is allowable to the Matter of a Poem; of what Incidents it is compos'd; and whether 'tis lawful to insert such as belong not to the main Matter.
Since then the Action is the Matter of a Fable, it is plain that whatever Incidents are necessary to the Fable, and make up a part of it, are likewise necessary to the Action, and are parts of the Epick Matter, none of which ought to be omitted: Such, for instance, are the Quarrel of the Dogs; and that of Agamemnon and Achilles: The havock which the Wolf made among the Sheep; and the Slaughter which Hector made in the Confederate Army: The re-union of the Dogs with each other; and that of the Grecian Princes: And lastly, the Re-settlement and Victory which was consequent to this Re-union in each of these Fables. Thus all things being adjusted, you see the Fable, and the whole Action, with which the Poem ought to conclude. If less had been said about it, it had not been enough.
But can an Author put nothing into his Poem, but what is purely the Matter of it? Or has he not the Liberty of inserting what he pleases, and of talking to it, as [8]Horace expresses himself, some pieces of rich and gay Stuff, that have nothing to do with the Ground-work? This is another Vicious Extreme, into which we shall never fall, if we follow the Dictates of Right Reason, the Practice of good Poets, and the Rules of the best Masters. They permit us on the one hand to insert some Incident or another, that is necessary to Clear up a part of the Action altho this Incident make up no part of the Fable nor the Action; and tho of it self it be not the subject Matter of the Epopéa: And on the other hand they do not approve of the Recital of an Incident that has not one of these two Conditions, viz. Such a one as is neither the Matter of the Epopéa, nor necessary to illustrate any part of the Action.
Examples and Authority will justifie this Doctrine, and make it more intelligible.
If in the Fable we mention'd, Æsop had related that the Wolf ranging one day in the Forest prick'd his Foot with a Thorn, of which after a great deal of Pain he was at last cur'd; doubtless he would have quite spoil'd his Fable: And Homer too had spoil'd his, if he had made an ample Narration of some Adventure that had happen'd to Hector, which had no manner of dependance on his design. They would have been more considerably to blame, had they inserted any Incident, which had not happen'd to these chief Personages, but which they only saw or heard. On the other side Æsop had said something to the purpose, if, to amplifie his Fable, he had related that the Woolf was wounded in the Foot, and being not quite cur'd, the Pain or the Weakness of that part hinder'd his Running, and expos'd him a Prey to the Dogs. So Homer has very regularly related, that Ulysses had formerly been wounded in the Leg, as he was hunting on the top of Parnassus: For this Wound serv'd to discover this Hero, and this discovery is part of the Action, and of the Matter of the Poem.
An Historian, that undertakes to write of one single Action, as the War of Catiline, or the Reign of a King, as Salust has done that of Jugurtha; has not for his subject Matter the Wars and Actions which went before, or happen'd after. Yet he may mention some, which may serve as Instances in the Deliberations; or for the maintaining of some Interests; or upon any other Occasion that is necessary to his main Subject. A Poet has the same Privileges, and the same Reasons on his side: Our two have practis'd accordingly, and have the Approbation of Aristotle himself. For he does not blame Homer for making the Recital we mention'd; and yet he says that the Wound of Ulysses is not the Matter of the Poem to which it is apply'd. His words are these. [9]When Homer compos'd his Odysseïs, he did not make all the Adventures of Ulysses the Matter of his Poem; such as the Wound be receiv'd upon Parnassus, and the folly he feign'd before the Grecians: Because, thô one of these two things happen'd, yet it cannot be said that the other ought necessarily, or probably to have happen'd as the Consequence of the former.
This Passage of Aristotle teaches us two things. The first is, that every thing we meet with in an Epick Poem is not the Matter of it; since this Wound of Ulysses, which Aristotle, says is not the Matter of the Odysseïs, is not withstanding very largely described there. The second is, that the foreign Incidents, that are inserted in the Poem, should be so United and Joyn'd to some other Incident, which is really the subject Matter of the Poem, that one might swear if one happen'd, the other must necessarily, or in all Probability have happen'd as a Consequence of the former.
The [10]Poet has observ'd this himself in the Wound of Ulysses. The discovery thereof is a Consequence so probable, that this Hero finding he was forc'd to let his Nurse wash his Feet, chose to let her do it in a dark place, that so at least she might be kept from the sight of it. The Birth and Education of Camilla is an Incident made use of after the very same way in the Æneid: It is not the subject Matter of the Poem, but 'tis necessary to clear up so surprizing a Miracle as was the Valour of that excellent Virago.
When an Adventure has not this Consequence, nor this necessary or Probable Connexion with some part or another of the Matter proper to the Poem; 'tis by no means to be inserted: And upon this account Homer has not said one word of the Counterfeit folly of Ulysses. Statius with a great deal more Reason should never have meddled with the story of Hypsipyle.
All the particular Incidents which compose the Action are called Episodes. We ought then to be well acquainted with the Nature, Union, and Qualities of them, if we would know what is the Action and the Subject Matter of the Epick Poem.
- ↑ (Greek characters) Poet. c. 6. and elsewhere.
- ↑ Res gestæ Regumq, Ducumque, & tristia bella, Quo scribi possent numero monstravit Homerus. Hor. Poet.
- ↑ (Greek characters) Ar. Poet. c. 2.
- ↑ (Greek characters). Iliad. i.
- ↑ (Greek characters), &c. Odyss. 1.
- ↑ Armat Virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris Italiam fato profugus Lavinaque venit Littora. Æneid. I.
- ↑ (Greek characters). Arist. Poet. c. 6.
- ↑ Purpureus latè qui Splendeat unus & alter assuitur pannus. Hor. Poet.
- ↑ (Greek characters). Arist. Poet. c. 8.
- ↑ (Greek characters). Odyss. lib. 19.