Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the Epick Poem/Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII.
ALtho' we have been speaking so much against the Multiplication of Fables, yet one cannot absolutely condemn it. Our Poets have got several Fables in each of their Poems, and Horace commends Homer for it. Nay Aristotle himself forbids it in such a slight way, as might be easily evaded.[1] He finds fault with those Poets who were for reducing the Unity of the Fable into the Unity of the Hero; because One Man may have perform'd several Adventures, which 'tis impossible to reduce under any One and simple head. This reducing of all things to Unity and Simplicity is what [2]Horace likewise makes his first Rule.
According to these Rules then, it will be allowable to make use of several Fables; or (to speak more correctly) of several Incidents which may be divided into several Fables; provided they are so order'd, that the Unity of the Fable be not spoil'd thereby. This Liberty is still greater in the Epick Poem, because 'tis of a larger Extent than ordinary Poems, and ought to be Entire and Compleat.
I will explain my self more distinctly by the practice of our Poets.
No doubt but one might make four distinct Fables out of these four following Instructions.
1. Division between those of the same party exposes them to the fury of their Enemies.
2. Conceal your weakness, and you will be dreaded as much, as if you had none of these Imperfections, which they know nothing of.
3. When your strength is only feign'd, and founded only in the Opinion of others; never venture so far, as if your strength was real.
4. The more you agree together, the less hurt will your Enemies do you.
'Tis plain, I say, that each of these particular Maxims, might serve for the Ground-work of a Fiction, and one might make four distinct Fables out of them. May not a Man therefore put all these into one single Epopéa? No: Our Masters forbid that, unless he could make one single Fable out of them all.
But they do not at all forbid it, if the Poet has so much skill as to unite all into one Body, as Members and Parts, each of which taken asunder would be imperfect; and if he joins them so, as that this Conjunction shall be no hinderance at all to the Ʋnity and the Regular simplicity of the Fable. This is what Homer has done with such success in the Composition of the Iliad.
1. The Division between Achilles and his Allies tended to the ruin of their Designs. 2. Patroclus comes to their Relief in the Armour of this Hero, and Hector retreats. 3. But this young man pushing the Advantage, which his Disguise gave him, too far, ventures to engage with Hector himself; but not being Master of Achilles's strength (whom be only represented in outward appearance) he is killed, and by this means leaves the Grecian Affairs in the same disorder, which he in that Disguise came to free them from. 4. Achilles provoked at the Death of his friend, is reconciled, and revenges his loss by the Death of Hector. These various Incidents being thus United together, do not make different Actions and Fables, but are only the uncompleat, and unfinished Parts of one and the same Action and Fable, which alone can only be said to be Compleat and Entire: And all these Maxims of the Moral, are easily reduc'd into these two parts, which in my opinion cannot be separated without enervating the force of both. The two parts are these, [3]That a right understanding is the Preservation, and Discord the Destruction of States.
Tho' then our Poets have made use of two parts in their Poems, each of which might have serv'd for a Fable, as we have observ'd: Yet this Multiplication cannot be call'd a vicious and irregular Polymythia, contrary to the necessary Unity and Simplicity of the Fable; but it gives the Fable another Qualification, altogether as necessary and as regular, namely its Perfection and finishing stroke.
There are Fables which naturally contain in them a great many parts, each of which might make an exact Fable: And there are likewise Actions of the very same nature. The subject Matter of the Odysseïs is of this kind; for Homer being willing to instruct a Prince and his Subjects, could not do it without Multiplying Instructions; and this Prince's Travels into Countries quite different from each other are likewise different Actions. This Multiplication of Instructions and Incidents is extremely approv'd of by Horace. He commends the [4]Adventures of Antiphates, Polypheme, Charybdis, Circe, the Sirens and others, stiling them the Miracles of the Odysseïs.
One might likewise multiply the Fable another way, by mixing with it some other Fable which should not be a part of the Principal one, but only a Species of it. This might be done by applying to some Point that is chiefly specified the Moral Instruction, which the Action contains in general. Homer has left us an Example of this in the Fable of Vulcan, at the End of his first Book of the Iliad.
The General Instruction is, That Discord is a prejudice of the Affairs of them who quarrel: And this story of Vulcan applies it, to the Injury which the falling out of Parents do their Children. "Jupiter and Juno quarrel, their Son Vulcan is for perswading his Mother to submit to her Lord and Husband, because he was most Powerful. You know (says he) what befell me for endeavouring once to protect you from the rage of Jupiter. He took me by the Heels, and threw me headlong from his Battlements, and I carry the marks of it still about me."
This Fable is quite distinct from the Body of the main Action; for the Quarrel between Jupiter and Juno, which cost Vulcan so dear, had nothing to do with the Grecian Affairs: 'Tis likewise compris'd in five Lines.