19 Barish (1981: 11).
20 See e.g. Nehamas (1982); Belfiore (1984).
21 This is one of many conventional interpretations of Plato, presented in this chapter, which is
challenged in Thakkar (2013). (In fact, at this point in his helpful notes to my manuscript, he
wrote:‘I just think this is totally, heinously false.’)
22 The Republic604c.
23 The Republic598b-c; also 599.
24 Nehamas (1988: 220). Socrates’use of an analogy between a painting and a mirror serves to
emphasise this reading–see Cain (2012). But see Halliwell (2002: Ch. 4) for an alternative
reading of the mirror analogy in the context of Plato’s writings on visual art.
25 Unity of place is often claimed, falsely, to be a feature of Greek tragedy. Even Aeschylus writes a
play in which the setting shifts from Delphi to Athens.
26 Lessing (1962: Section 56, p. 162).
27 However, for an argument that theatre was considered verisimilar see Nehamas (1988: 222–225).
28 Nietzsche’s view of ancient tragedy, as we see in Chapter 3, emphasised the musical and poetic
elements far above the imitative.
29 Quoted and discussed in Lessing (1962: Sections 84–5).
30 Hegel (1993: 48).
31 For those who treat Plato’s dialogues as a kind of‘theatre’or‘drama’–as discussed above–
Plato does take theatre seriously by writing his dialogues in conformity with his own philosophy
and hence creating a kind of theatre or drama that does bring us closer to the forms.
32 It is generally but not universally accepted that Aristotle is responding to Plato in thePoetics;
there is no explicit reference to Plato. Note that to say Aristotle is responding to Plato is not to
say that he is responding to any particular Platotext. And, even if one denies that Aristotle has
Plato in mind at all, one can still develop a response to Plato based on thePoetics. This last point
is acknowledged even by those who seek to deny any other connection. See Woodruff (1992)
and Woodruff (2008: 113). At the other end of the spectrum, some critics have entertained the
idea that Plato’sThe Republicis itself a response to his young pupil, Aristotle. See Janko (1992),
Halliwell (1986: 1) and see also Barish (1981: 7).
33 Poetics49b. References to Aristotle’sPoeticsgive traditional line references rather than page
numbers; quotations are from the translation listed in the bibliography.
34 Poetics51b.
35 As Woodruff (1992) notes, in claiming that tragedies express or present universals, Aristotle is
not saying that theyimitateuniversals. Instead, a tragedy presents universals by imitating (parti-
cular)actions. It is precisely the relationship between the actions and the universals that is so
difficult to determine, as I argue in Chapter 2.
36 Of course, Aristotle’s universals arenotPlato’s forms. Indeed, Aristotle explicitly criticises Plato’s
view. See Fine (1993).
37 Poetics51a.
38 Poetics51a.
39 Poetics60b.
40 SeeThe Republic376e on stories as either‘true or false’; and, e.g.,The Republic 377 – 9on
censuring the poets for getting the facts wrong.
41 Aristotle has more to say about this, which we discuss in the analysis of history plays in
Chapter 3.
42 The Republic395c. Or seeThe Republic398a for the perfect actor, who would be immediately
expelled from the city. We discuss his fears about the immorality of actors in Chapter 5.
43 The example is adapted from Woodruff (2008: 123).
44 The audience may need to have practical knowledge of certain conventions; and certain kinds of
training may help them appreciate a performance on a deeper level.
45 Hume’sTreatise, 266, quoted and discussed in Lamarque and Olsen (1994: 246).
46 HenryV, Prologue, lines 15–31.
47 For similar and related distinctions, see Sartre (2004: 8) on conceiving as opposed to imagining.
See also Lamarque and Olsen (1994) Ch. 9 and Lopes (2003).
Mimesis 45