time and events, unity of action, consistency of
characterization, subordination of the episodes to the main
plot, all came in the course of time to acquire the force of
rules, though in fact Aristotle was not writing prescriptively
but offering a philosopher’s reasoned analysis of the
principles underlying the masterpieces of Greek art.
The Poetics is a fragmentary work, mostly about tragedy
but with incidental remarks about epic and other genres.
Aristotle identifies the object and end of tragedy, and breaks
the form into its constituent parts, analysing the means by
which the end is achieved in the best sort of tragedy. He
therefore himself bequeathed a method which by the time of
Pope had long been systematically extended by Italian and
French critics to other classical genres such as comedy or
pastoral and even to non-classical genres such as tragicomedy
or romance. Rules might concern the use of particular metres
for particular genres, the need to keep the genres distinct and
separate, to adopt an appropriate style (grand for epic or
humble for pastoral), to observe proportion in structure (five
acts for drama), to observe the three unities in drama (Aristotle
in fact only talks about unity of action), to keep consistency in
characterization, and to use spectacle and divine intervention
sparingly, rigorously to subordinate the parts to the whole
thereby keeping the end in view all the time, and so on. At the
root of all this of course is the Renaissance admiration for the
classics of Greece and Rome which were thought to have
established standards of excellence in the various genres which
might be emulated in the vernacular. These inspired literary
masterpieces are seen to embody principles of organization and
design which had enabled the poet to render the essential truth
of things in the most appropriate form:
Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;
To copy Nature is to copy them.
(ll. 139–40)The just esteem for ancient rules is balanced in Pope by a
vigorous defence of the poet’s right boldly to deviate from the
common track and essentially to make his own rules, for rules
are but a means to an end, not an end in themselves, and
there is a grace beyond the reach of art (ll. 141–57).