siderable is, that this very Design and Action which the Poet has form'd under the name of Achilles at the Siege of Troy, might with the same Probability have went under the Name of Tydeus, Capaneus, or any other at the Siege of Thebes. One might have made Adrastus the General, and given him some occasion of exasperating the cholerick Nature of Capaneus. He, by withdrawing into his Tent only for a few days, might have given the Thebans some Advantages over his Party. Afterwards one might have made this furious Person return to his Duty: and then fighting with the rest, he might have gain'd the Victory to his own side, and reveng'd in one single day, the Affront and Loss they had suffer'd the three or four days before: And this is all we contend for in the Iliad.
The same might be said of Ulysses. All the Adventures we read of him in the Odysseïs, might with altogether as much Probability have been rehears'd under the Name of any other Prince returning from an Expedition. For the better Proof of which, we need only cast an eye upon the Platform which Aristotle himself has left us thereof: and 'tis as follows.
[1]A Man is absent from his own home for several Years. Neptune persecutes him, destroys all his Retinue, and only he himself escapes. In the mean time his Family is in disorder, his Estate is made away with by his Wives Suitors, and his Son is plotted against. But at last, after many Storms at Sea, he returns home, discovers himself to his Friends, conceals himself from others, sets all things to rights again, and puts his Enemies to death. This (concludes Aristotle) is all that is proper, the Episodes make up the rest. This, in my mind, gives us absolutely such an Idea of a Fable as I proposed: And in this Model Ulysses seems to have as little to do as any other.
But after the Model is pitch'd upon, the Action invented, and the Names given, then if those whose Names are borrow's have done any known Actions, the Poet ought to make use of them, and to accommodate these true Circumstances to his own Design. With these he must fill his Episodes, and from these he should draw all the Advantages possible, according to the Rules of Art. Thus Aristotle gives no Orders for making the Episodes till the Names are pitch'd upon.
He therefore transgresses the Precepts of Aristotle, and the Practice of Homer, and spoils the Essence of the Epick Fable in particular, as well as of other Fables in general, who begins by
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