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The complex nature of Epic
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16
|
|
No kind or aspect of life that may not be included
|
16
|
|
This freedom due to the dramatic quality of true (e.g. Homeric) Epic as explained by Aristotle
|
17 17
|
|
Epic does not require a magnificent ideal subject such as those of the artificial epic (Aeneid, Gerusalemme Liberata, Paradise Lost)
|
18 18
|
|
The Iliad unlike these poems in its treatment of "ideal" motives (patriotism, etc.)
|
19
|
|
True Epic begins with a dramatic plot and characters
|
20
|
|
The Epic of the Northern heroic age is sound in its dramatic conception and does not depend on impersonal ideals (with exceptions, in the Chansons de geste)
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20 21
|
|
The German heroes in history and epic (Ermanaric, Attila, Theodoric)
|
21
|
|
Relations of Epic to historical fact
|
22
|
|
The epic poet is free in the conduct of his story but his story and personages must belong to his own people
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23 26
|
|
Nature of Epic brought out by contrast with secondary narrative poems, where the subject is not national
|
27
|
|
This secondary kind of poem may be excellent, but is always different in character from native Epic
|
28
|
|
Disputes of academic critics about the "Epic Poem"
|
30
|
|
Tasso's defence of Romance. Pedantic attempts to restrict the compass of Epic
|
30
|
|
Bossu on Phaeacia
|
31
|
|
Epic, as the most comprehensive kind of poetry, includes Romance as one of its elements but needs a strong dramatic imagination to keep Romance under control
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32 33
|
|
Mythology not required in the greatest scenes in Homer
|
35
|
|
Myths and popular fancies may be a hindrance to the epic poet, but he is compelled to make some use of them
|
36
|
|
He criticises and selects, and allows the characters of the gods to be modified in relation to the human characters
|
37
|
|
Early humanism and reflexion on myth—two processes: (1) rejection of the grosser myths; (2) refinement of myth through poetry
|
40
|
|
Two ways of refining myth in poetry—(1) by turning it into mere fancy, and the more ludicrous things into comedy; (2) by finding an imaginative or an ethical meaning in it
|
40
|
|
Instances in Icelandic literature—Lokasenna
|
41
|
|
Snorri Sturluson, his ironical method in the Edda
|
42
|
|
The old gods rescued from clerical persecution
|
43
|
|
Imaginative treatment of the graver myths—the death of Balder; the Doom of the Gods
|
43
|
|
Difficulties in the attainment of poetical self-command
|
44
|
|
Medieval confusion and distraction
|
45
|
Premature "culture"
|
