THE THEORY OF EPIC POETRY
EPIC poetry was held in the highest esteem during the Renaissance and
indeed throughout the period of classicism. It was regarded by Vida as
the highest form of poetry,[210] and a century later, despite the
success of tragedy in France, Rapin still held the same opinion.[211]
The reverence for the epic throughout the Renaissance may be ascribed in
part to the mediaeval veneration of Virgil as a poet, and his popular
apotheosis as prophet and magician, and also in part to the decay into
which dramatic literature had fallen during the Middle Ages in the hands
of the wandering players, the _histriones_ and the _vagantes_.
Aristotle[212] indeed had regarded tragedy as the highest form of
poetry; and as a result, the traditional reverence for Virgil and Homer,
and the Renaissance subservience to Aristotle, were distinctly at
variance. Trissino (1561) paraphrases Aristotle's argument in favor of
tragedy, but points out, notwithstanding this, that the whole world is
unanimous in considering Virgil and Homer greater than any tragic poet
before or after them.[213] Placed in this quandary, he concludes by
leaving the reader to judge for himself whether epic or tragedy be the
nobler form.
I. _The Theory of the Epic Poem_
Vida's _Ars Poetica_, written before 1520, although no edition prior to
that of 1527 is extant, is the earliest example in modern times of that
class of critical poems to which belong Horace's _Ars Poetica_,
Boileau's _Art Poetique_, and Pope's _Essay on Criticism_. Vida's poem
is entirely based on that of Horace; but he substitutes epic for
Horace's dramatic studies, and employs the _AEneid_ as the model of an
epic poem. The incompleteness of the treatment accorded to epic poetry
in Aristotle's _Poetics_ led the Renaissance to deduce the laws of
heroic poetry and of poetic artifice in general from the practice of
Virgil; and it is to this point of view that the critical works on the
_AEneid_ by Regolo (1563), Maranta (1564), and Toscanella (1566) owe
their origin. The obvious and even accidental qualities of Virgil's poem
are enunciated by Vida as fundamental laws of epic poetry. The precepts
thus given are purely rhetorical and pedagogic in character, and deal
almost exclusively with questions of poetic invention, disposition,
polish, and style. Beyond this Vida does not attempt to go. There is in
his poem no definition of the epic, no theory of its function, no
analysis of the essentials of narrative structure. In fact, no theory of
poetry in any real sense is to be found in Vida's treatise.
Daniello(1536) deals only very cursorily with epic poetry, but his
definition of it strikes the keynote of the Renaissance conception.
Heroic poetry is for him an imitation of the illustrious deeds of
emperors and other men magnanimous and valorous in arms,[214]--a
conception that goes back to Horace's
"Res gestae regumque ducumque et tristia bella."[215]
Trissino (1563) first introduced the Aristotelian theory of the epic
into modern literary criticism; and the sixth section of his _Poetica_
is given up almost exclusively to the treatment of heroic poetry. The
epic agrees with tragedy in dealing with illustrious men and illustrious
actions. Like tragedy it must have a single action, but it differs from
tragedy in not having the time of the action limited or determined.
While unity of action is essential to the epic, and is indeed what
distinguishes it from narrative poems that are not really epics, the
Renaissance conceived of vastness of design and largeness of detail as
necessary to the grandiose character of the epic poem.[216] Thus Muzio
says:--
"Il poema sovrano e una pittura
De l' universo, e pero in se comprende
Ogni stilo, ogni forma, ogni ritratto."
Trissino regards _versi sciolti_ as the proper metre for an heroic poem,
since the stanzaic form impedes the continuity of the narrative. In this
point he finds fault with Boccaccio, Boiardo, and Ariosto, whose
romantic poems, moreover, he does not regard as epics, because they do
not obey Aristotle's inviolable law of the single action. He also finds
fault with the romantic poets for describing the improbable, since
Aristotle expressly prefers an impossible probability to an improbable
possibility.
Minturno's definition of epic poetry is merely a modification or
paraphrase of Aristotle's definition of tragedy. Epic poetry is an
imitation of a grave and noble deed, perfect, complete, and of proper
magnitude, with embellished language, but without music or dancing; at
times simply narrating and at other times introducing persons in words
and actions; in order that, through pity and fear of the things
imitated, such passions may be purged from the mind with both pleasure
and profit.[217] Here Minturno, like Giraldi Cintio, ascribes to epic
poetry the same purgation of pity and fear effected by tragedy. Epic
poetry he rates above tragedy, since the epic poet, more than any other,
arouses that admiration of great heroes which it is the peculiar
function of the poet to excite, and therefore attains the end of poetry
more completely than any other poet. This, however, is true only in the
highest form of narrative poetry; for Minturno distinguishes three
classes of narrative poets, the lowest, or _bucolici_, the mediocre, or
_epici_, who have nothing beyond verse, and the highest, or _heroici_,
who imitate the life of a single hero in noble verse.[218] Minturno
insists fundamentally on the unity of the epic action; and directly
against Aristotle's statement, as we have seen, he restricts the
duration of the action to one year. The license and prolixity of the
_romanzi_ led the defenders of the classical epic to this extreme of
rigid circumspection. According to Scaliger, the epic, which is the norm
by which all other poems may be judged and the chief of all poems,
describes _heroum genus_, _vita_, gesta_.[219] This is the Horatian
conception of the epic, and there is in Scaliger little or no trace of
the Aristotelian doctrine. He also follows Horace closely in forbidding
the narrative poet to begin his poem from the very beginning of his
story (_ab ovo_), and in various other details.
Castelvetro (1570) differs from Aristotle in regard to the unity of the
epic fable, on the ground that poetry is merely imaginative history, and
can therefore do anything that history can do. Poetry follows the
footsteps of history, differing merely in that history narrates what has
happened, while poetry narrates what has never happened but yet may
possibly happen; and therefore, since history recounts the whole life of
a single hero, without regard to its unity, there is no reason why
poetry should not do likewise. The epic may in fact deal with many
actions of one person, one action of a whole race, or many actions of
many people; it need not necessarily deal with one action of one person,
as Aristotle enjoins, but if it does so it is simply to show the
ingenuity and excellence of the poet.[220]
II. _Epic and Romance_
This discussion of epic unity leads to one of the most important
critical questions of the sixteenth century,--the question of the unity
of romance. Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_ and Boiardo's _Orlando
Innamorato_ were written before the Aristotelian canons had become a
part of the critical literature of Italy. When it became clear that
these poems diverged from the fundamental requirements of the epic as
expounded in the _Poetics_, Trissino set out to compose an heroic poem
which would be in perfect accord with the precepts of Aristotle. His
_Italia Liberata_, which was completed by 1548, was the result of twenty
years of study, and it is the first modern epic in the strict
Aristotelian sense. With Aristotle as his guide, and Homer as his model,
he had studiously and mechanically constructed an epic of a single
action; and in the dedication of his poem to the Emperor Charles V. he
charges all poems which violate this primary law of the single action
with being merely bastard forms. The _romanzi_, and among them the
_Orlando Furioso_, in seemingly disregarding this fundamental
requirement, came under Trissino's censure; and this started a
controversy which was not to end until the commencement of the next
century, and in a certain sense may be said to remain undecided even to
this day.
The first to take up the cudgels in defence of the writers of the
_romanzi_ was Giraldi Cintio, who in his youth had known Ariosto
personally, and who wrote his _Discorso intorno al comporre dei
Romanzi_, in April, 1549. The grounds of his defence are twofold. In the
first place, Giraldi maintains that the romance is a poetic form of
which Aristotle did not know, and to which his rules therefore do not
apply; and in the second place, Tuscan literature, differing as it does
from the literature of Greece in language, in spirit, and in religious
feeling, need not and indeed ought not to follow the rules of Greek
literature, but rather the laws of its own development and its own
traditions. With Ariosto and Boiardo as models, Giraldi sets out to
formulate the laws of the _romanzi_. The _romanzi_ aim at imitating
illustrious actions in verse, with the purpose of teaching good morals
and honest living, since this ought to be the aim of every poet, as
Giraldi conceives Aristotle himself to have said.[221] All heroic poetry
is an imitation of illustrious actions, but Giraldi, like Castelvetro
twenty years later, recognizes several distinct forms of heroic poetry,
according as to whether it imitates one action of one man, many actions
of many men, or many actions of one man. The first of these is the epic
poem, the rules of which are given in Aristotle's _Poetics_. The second
is the romantic poem, after the manner of Boiardo and Ariosto. The third
is the biographical poem, after the manner of the _Theseid_ and similar
works dealing with the whole life of a single hero.
These forms are therefore to be regarded as three distinct and
legitimate species of heroic poetry, the first of them being an epic
poem in the strict Aristotelian sense, and the two others coming under
the general head of _romanzi_. Of the two forms of _romanzi_, the
biographical deals preferably with an historical subject, whereas the
noblest writers of the more purely romantic form, dealing with many
actions of many men, have invented their subject-matter. Horace says
that an heroic poem should not commence at the very beginning of the
hero's life; but it is difficult to understand, says Giraldi, why the
whole life of a distinguished man, which gives us so great and refined a
pleasure in the works of Plutarch and other biographers, should not
please us all the more when described in beautiful verse by a good
poet.[222] Accordingly, the poet who is composing an epic in the strict
sense should, in handling the events of his narrative, plunge
immediately _in medias res_. The poet dealing with many actions of many
men should begin with the most important event, and the one upon which
all the others may be said to hinge; whereas the poet describing the
life of a single hero should begin at the very beginning, if the hero
spent a really heroic youth, as Hercules for example did. The poem
dealing with the life of a hero is thus a separate _genre_, and one for
which Aristotle does not attempt to lay down any laws. Giraldi even goes
so far as to say that Aristotle[223] censured those who write the life
of Theseus or Hercules in a single poem, not because they dealt with
many actions of one man, but because they treated such a poem in exactly
the same manner as those who dealt with a single action of a single
hero,--an assertion which is of course utterly absurd. Giraldi then
proceeds to deal in detail with the disposition and composition of the
_romanzi_, which he rates above the classical epics in the efficacy of
ethical teaching. It is the office of the poet to praise virtuous
actions and to condemn vicious actions; and in this the writers of the
_romanzi_ are far superior to the writers of the ancient heroic
poems.[224]
Giraldi's discourse on the _romanzi_ gave rise to a curious dispute with
his own pupil, Giambattista Pigna, who published a similar work,
entitled _I Romanzi_, in the same year (1554). Pigna asserted that he
had suggested to Giraldi the main argument of the discourse, and that
Giraldi had adopted it as his own. Without entering into the details of
this controversy, it would seem that the priority of Giraldi cannot
fairly be contested.[225] At all events, there is a very great
resemblance between the works of Giraldi and Pigna. Pigna's treatise,
however, is more detailed than Giraldi's. In the first book, Pigna deals
with the general subject of the _romanzi_; in the second he gives a life
of Ariosto, and discusses the _Furioso_, point by point; in the third he
demonstrates the good taste and critical acumen of Ariosto by comparing
the first version of the _Furioso_ with the completed and perfected
copy.[226] Both Pigna and Giraldi consider the _romanzi_ to constitute
a new _genre_, unknown to the ancients, and therefore not subject to
Aristotle's rules. Giraldi's sympathies were in favor of the
biographical form of the _romanzi_, and his poem, the _Ercole_ (1557),
recounts the whole life of a single hero. Pigna, who keeps closer to the
tradition of Ariosto, regards the biographical form as not proper to
poetry, because too much like history.
These arguments, presented by Giraldi and Pigna, were answered by
Speroni, Minturno, and others. Speroni pointed out that while it is not
necessary for the romantic poets to follow the rules prescribed by the
ancients, they cannot disobey the fundamental laws of poetry. "The
_romanzi_," says Speroni, "are epics, which are poems, or they are
histories in verse, and not poems."[227] That is, how does a poem differ
from a well-written historical narrative, if the former be without
organic unity?[228] As to the whole discussion, it may be said here,
without attempting to pass judgment on Ariosto, or any other writer of
_romanzi_, that unity of some sort every true poem must necessarily
have; and, flawless as the _Orlando Furioso_ is in its details, the
unity of the poem certainly has not the obviousness of perfect, and
especially classical, art. A work of art without organic unity may be
compared with an unsymmetrical circle; and, while the _Furioso_ is not
to be judged by any arbitrary or mechanical rules of unity, yet if it
has not that internal unity which transcends all mere external form, it
may be considered, as a work of art, hardly less than a failure; and
the farther it is removed from perfect unity, the more imperfect is the
art. "Poetry adapts itself to its times, but cannot depart from its own
fundamental laws."[229]
Minturno's answer to the defenders of the _romanzi_ is more detailed and
explicit than Speroni's, and it is of considerable importance because of
its influence on Torquato Tasso's conception of epic poetry. Minturno
does not deny--and in this his point of view is identical with
Tasso's--that it is possible to employ the matter of the _romanzi_ in
the composition of a perfect poem. The actions they describe are great
and illustrious, their knights and ladies are noble and illustrious,
too, and they contain in a most excellent manner that element of the
marvellous which is so important an element in the epic action. It is
the structure of the _romanzi_ with which Minturno finds fault. They
lack the first essential of every form of poetry,--unity. In fact, they
are little more than versified history or legend; and, while expressing
admiration for the genius of Ariosto, Minturno cannot but regret that he
so far yielded to the popular taste of his time as to employ the method
of the _romanzi_. He approves of the suggestion of Bembo, who had tried
to persuade Ariosto to write an epic instead of a romantic poem,[230]
just as later, and for similar reasons, Gabriel Harvey attempted to
dissuade Spenser from continuing the _Faerie Queene_. Minturno denies
that the Tuscan tongue is not well adapted to the composition of heroic
poetry; on the contrary, there is no form of poetry to which it is not
admirably fitted. He denies that the romantic poem can be distinguished
from the epic on the ground that the actions of knights-errant require a
different and broader form of narrative than do those of the classical
heroes. The celestial and infernal gods and demi-gods of the ancients
correspond with the angels, saints, anchorites, and the one God of
Christianity; the ancient sibyls, oracles, enchantresses, and divine
messengers correspond with the modern necromancers, fates, magicians,
and celestial angels. To the claim of the romantic poets that their
poems approximate closer to that magnitude which Aristotle enjoins as
necessary for all poetry, Minturno answers that magnitude is of no avail
without proportion; there is no beauty in the giant whose limbs and
frame are distorted. Finally, the _romanzi_ are said to be a new form of
poetry unknown to Aristotle and Horace, and hence not amenable to their
laws. But time, says Minturno, cannot change the truth; in every age a
poem must have unity, proportion, magnitude. Everything in nature is
governed by some specific law which directs its operation; and as it is
in nature so it is in art, for art tries to imitate nature, and the
nearer it approaches nature in her essential laws, the better it does
its work. In other words, as has already been pointed out, poetry adapts
itself to its times, but cannot depart from its own laws.
Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato, had originally been one of the
defenders of the classical epic; but he seems to have been converted to
the opposite view by Giraldi Cintio, and in his poem of the _Amadigi_ he
follows romantic models. His son Torquato, in his _Discorsi dell' Arte
Poetica_, originally written one or two years after the appearance of
Minturno's _Arte Poetica_, although not published until 1587, was the
first to attempt a reconciliation of the epic and romantic forms; and he
may be said to have effected a solution of the problem by the
formulation of the theory of a narrative poem which would have the
romantic subject-matter, with its delightful variety, and the epic form,
with its essential unity. The question at issue, as we have seen, is
that of unity; that is, does the heroic poem need unity? Tasso denies
that there is any difference between the epic poem and the romantic poem
as poems. The reason why the latter is more pleasing, is to be found in
the fact of the greater delightfulness of the themes treated.[231]
Variety in itself is not pleasing, for a variety of disagreeable things
would not please at all. Hence the perfect and at the same time most
pleasing form of heroic poem would deal with the chivalrous themes of
the _romanzi_, but would possess that unity of structure which,
according to the precepts of Aristotle and the practice of Homer and
Virgil, is essential to every epic. There are two sorts of unity
possible in art as in nature,--the simple unity of a chemical element,
and the complex unity of an organism like an animal or plant,--and of
these the latter is the sort of unity that the heroic poet should aim
at.[232] Capriano (1555) had referred to this same distinction, when he
pointed out that poetry ought not to be the imitation of a single act,
such as a single act of weeping in the elegy, or a single act of
pastoral life in the eclogue, for such a sporadic imitation is to be
compared to a picture of a single hand without the rest of the body; on
the contrary, poetry ought to be the representation of a number of
attendant or dependent acts, leading from a given beginning to a
suitable end.[233]
Having settled the general fact that the attractive themes of the
_romanzi_ should be employed in a perfect heroic poem, we may inquire
what particular themes are most fitted to the epic, and what must be the
essential qualities of the epic material.[234] In the first place, the
subject of the heroic poem must be historical, for it is not probable
that illustrious actions such as are dealt with in the epic should be
unknown to history. The authority of history gains for the poet that
semblance of truth necessary to deceive the reader and make him believe
that what the poet writes is true. Secondly, the heroic poem, according
to Tasso, must deal with the history, not of a false religion, but of
the true one, Christianity. The religion of the pagans is absolutely
unfit for epic material; for if the pagan deities are not introduced,
the poem will lack the element of the marvellous, and if they are
introduced it will lack the element of probability. Both the marvellous
and the _verisimile_ must exist together in a perfect epic, and
difficult as the task may seem, they must be reconciled. Another reason
why paganism is unfit for the epic is to be found in the fact that the
perfect knight must have piety as well as other virtues. In the third
place, the poem must not deal with themes connected with the articles of
Christian faith, for such themes would be unalterable, and would allow
no scope to the free play of the poet's inventive fancy. Fourthly, the
material must be neither too ancient nor too modern, for the latter is
too well known to admit of fanciful changes with probability, and the
former not only lacks interest but requires the introduction of strange
and alien manners and customs. The times of Charlemagne and Arthur are
accordingly best fitted for heroic treatment. Finally, the events
themselves must possess nobility and grandeur. Hence an epic should be a
story derived from some event in the history of Christian peoples,
intrinsically noble and illustrious, but not of so sacred a character as
to be fixed and immutable, and neither contemporary nor very remote. By
the selection of such material the poem gains the authority of history,
the truth of religion, the license of fiction, the proper atmosphere in
point of time, and the grandeur of the events themselves.[235]
Aristotle says that both epic and tragedy deal with illustrious actions.
Tasso points out that if the actions of tragedy and of epic poetry were
both illustrious in the same way, they would both produce the same
results; but tragic actions move horror and compassion, while epic
actions as a rule do not and need not arouse these emotions. The tragic
action consists in the unexpected change of fortune, and in the grandeur
of the events carrying with them horror and pity; but the epic action is
founded upon undertakings of lofty martial virtue, upon deeds of
courtesy, piety, generosity, none of which is proper to tragedy. Hence
the characters in epic poetry and in tragedy, though both of the same
regal and supreme rank, differ in that the tragic hero is neither
perfectly good nor entirely bad, as Aristotle says, while the epic hero
must have the very height of virtue, such as AEneas, the type of piety,
Amadis, the type of loyalty, Achilles, of martial virtue, and Ulysses,
of prudence.
Having formulated these theories of heroic poetry in his youth, Tasso
set out to carry them into practice, and his famous _Gerusalemme
Liberata_ was the result. This poem, almost immediately after its
publication, started a violent controversy, which raged for many years,
and which may be regarded as the legitimate outcome of the earlier
dispute in connection with the _romanzi_.[236] The _Gerusalemme_ was in
fact the centre of critical activity during the latter part of the
century. Shortly after its publication, Camillo Pellegrino published a
dialogue, entitled _Il Caraffa_ (1583), in which the _Gerusalemme_ is
compared with the _Orlando Furioso_, much to the advantage of the
former. Pellegrino finds fault with Ariosto on account of the lack of
unity of his poem, the immoral manners imitated, and various
imperfections of style and language; and in all of these things, unity,
morality, and style, he finds Tasso's poem perfect. This was naturally
the signal for a heated and long-continued controversy. The Accademia
della Crusca had been founded at Florence, in 1582, and it seems that
the members of the new society felt hurt at some sarcastic remarks
regarding Florence in one of Tasso's dialogues. Accordingly, the head of
the academy, Lionardo Salviati, in a dialogue entitled _L' Infarinato_,
wrote an ardent defence of Ariosto; and an acrid and undignified dispute
between Tasso and Salviati was begun.[237] Tasso answered the Accademia
della Crusca in his _Apologia_; and at the beginning of the next
century, Paolo Beni, the commentator on Aristotle's _Poetics_, published
his _Comparazione di Omero, Virgilio, e Torquato_, in which Tasso is
rated above Homer, Virgil, and Ariosto, not only in dignity, in beauty
of style, and in unity of fable, but in every other quality that may be
said to constitute perfection in poetry. Before dismissing this whole
matter, it should be pointed out that the defenders of Aristotle had
absolutely abandoned the position of Giraldi and Pigna, that the
_romanzi_ constitute a _genre_ by themselves, and are therefore not
subject to Aristotle's law of unity. The question as Giraldi had stated
it was this: Does every poem need to have unity? The question as
discussed in the Tasso controversy had changed to this form: What is
unity? It was taken for granted by both sides in the controversy that
every poem must have organic unity; and the authority of Aristotle, in
epic as in dramatic poetry, was henceforth supreme. It was to the
authority of Aristotle that Tasso's opponents appealed; and Salviati,
merely for the purpose of undermining Tasso's pretensions, wrote an
extended commentary on the _Poetics_, which still lies in Ms. at
Florence, and which has been made use of in the present essay.[238]
FOOT-NOTES:
[210] Pope, i. 133.
[211] Rapin, 1674, ii. 2.
[212] _Poet._ xxvi.
[213] Trissino, ii. 118 _sq._
[214] Daniello, p. 34.
[215] _Ars Poet._ 73.
[216] Trissino, ii. 112 _sq._
[217] _Arte Poetica_, p. 9.
[218] _De Poeta_, pp. 105, 106.
[219] _Poet._ iii. 95.
[220] Castelvetro, _Poetica_, p. 178 _sq._
[221] Giraldi Cintio, i. 11, 64.
[222] Giraldi Cintio, i. 24.
[223] _Poet._ viii. 2.
[224] Giraldi, i. 66 _sq._
[225] _Cf._ Tiraboschi, vii. 947 _sq._, and Giraldi, ii. 153 _sq._
Pigna's own words are cited in Giraldi, i. p. xxiii.
[226] Canello, p. 306 _sq._
[227] Speroni, v. 521.
[228] _Cf._ Minturno, _De Poeta_, p. 151.
[229] Minturno, _Arte Poetica_, p. 31. For various opinions on the unity
of the _Orlando Furioso_, _cf._ Canello, p. 106, and Foffano, p. 59
_sq._
[230] _Arte Poetica_, p. 31.
[231] T. Tasso, xii. 219 _sq._
[232] T. Tasso, xii. 234.
[233] _Della Vera Poetica_, cap. iii.
[234] T. Tasso, xii. 199 _sq._
[235] T. Tasso, xii. 208.
[236] Accounts of this famous controversy will be found in Tiraboschi,
Canello, Serassi, etc.; but the latest and most complete is that given
in the twentieth chapter of Solerti's monumental _Vita di Torquato
Tasso_, Torino, 1895.
[237] Nearly all the important documents of the Tasso controversy are
reprinted in Rosini's edition of Tasso, _Opere_, vols. xviii.-xxiii.
[238] The question of unity was also raised in another controversy of
the second half of the sixteenth century. A passage in Varchi's
_Ercolano_ (1570), rating Dante above Homer, started a controversy on
the _Divine Comedy_. The most important outcome of this dispute was
Mazzoni's _Difesa di Dante_ (1573), in which a whole new theory of
poetry is expounded in order to defend the great Tuscan poet.