at the present moment, on Aristotle's doctrine of the Major Unity, i. e., action. One remark of Prof. Butcher's, however, it is desirable to bear in mind throughout our discussion: "Unity in Aristotle is the principle of limit, without which an object loses itsels in the arapov, the region of the undefined, the indeterminate, the accidental. By means of unity the plot becomes individual and also intelligible." Because of this service performed by the unity of plot or action, it has been admitted, with very generous latitude and with no common acceptance as to meaning, by many dramatists. The Greek notion of the unity of time, however, and its companion, of place, require some explanation here.

To begin with, these two minor unities are not, strictly speaking, a doctrine with Aristotle; they are "a rough generalization as to the practice of the Greek stage." They are the "scenic" unities, "continuities," as Prof. Moulton calls them, demanded by the exigencies of the Greek theatre. A Greek tragedy began where ours is ready to end,-that is, at the moment of suspense preceding the climax. From this point the catastrophe was rapidly sketched and the action concluded with a swift dénouement. Thus there was little opportunity for elaboration, for counter-action, or for sub-plot, so that the unity of action was a tangible, distinctive feature of the drama, and not, as with our romantic playwrights, a vague, indeterminate generalization. The minor unities were conserved with equal decisiveness by the Chorus of the Greek tragedy. How the Chorus tended to have this effect requires no explanation. It must not be forgotten,

3 Full discussions on this point are found in Butcher's Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art (3rd Ed. 1902, pp. 274 ff.); also in Moulton's The Ancient Classical Drama (1890, pp. 124 ff.).

4 Butcher (op. cit., p. 275).

5 Prof. Lounsbury (Shakespearean Wars, Vol. 1, Chap. I passim) seems to find for the doctrine a greater currency than it had. In its Aristotelian sense it is certainly far from universal in the practice of the English playwrights. Vd. infra, p. 29.

Butcher, as above, p. 277.

7 Butcher (idem) calls this "The simple and highly concentrated movement of the Greek tragedy."

It is to be noted that the stage was never empty. Cf. the French liaison des scènes, the irresistible result of strict adherence to time and place.

however, as many scholars have pointed out, that in the Greek drama "the time that elapses during the songs of the Chorus is entirely idealized"; and also that the unities of time and place (for the latter was equally a stage practice with the Greeks) are by no means universally observed. It is necessary to remember, furthermore, that in the Greek observance of the unities there is little, if any, thought of "verisimilitude," of restricting the time and place for the purpose of producing the semblance of reality. Certainly the Greeks did not found these stage practices, as the Renaissance critics did, on any false and shackling notion of vraisemblance. We must look upon them as determined by the conditions of the Greek theatre ;10 yet, may we add that they are the concomitants of an inner, subtler necessity-of the law for unity of effect in all things, in a Gothic cathedral as well as in a Greek temple? Unity underlies all works of art and is an expression of an instinctive desire in man. If, then, the unities of time and place help, in a modest way, to fulfill this desire, may we not be justified in considering them with greater tolerance as, in a measure, connected with the basic principle of Unity? But more of this later.

Before coming to the Renaissance theory and practice it is necessary to bridge, in a few words, the gap between the Greeks and the Italians. That the Roman dramas are slavish imitations of the Greek is evident enough, but that they knew the Poetics may well be doubted." Horace has an allusion to the unity of

action:

The reason for Aristotle's silence on the unity of place is thus commented upon by D'Aubignac (Pratique 1, 86): "J'estime qu'il l'a negligé (i. e., l'unité de lieu) a cause que cette unité etoit trop connue de son temps; et que les Choeurs qui demeuroient ordinairement sur le Théatre durant tout le cours d'une Pièce, marquoient trop visiblement l'Unité de Lieu.''

10 Raumer (Ueber die Poet. des Arist., 1828, p. 183) holds that the place of a Greek tragedy, as the time, was idealized. "Kann man aber von einer solchen Einheit sprechen wo der Ort so ganz bestimmungslos, so negativ genommen wird, dass er eigentlich gar nicht mitspielt, sondern nur den Raum bezeichnet, hinreichend, dass Leute dasselbst gehn, stehn und reden können?''

11"Ob Seneca oder die Romer die Poetik des Aristotles gekannt haben, ist mehr als zweifelhaft.'' (Ebner, Beitrag z. Gesch. der Einheiten in Italien, p. 20.)

"Denique sit quidvis, simplex dumtaxat et unum." (v. 23.) Seneca adheres closely to the minor unities. On the other hand, the careful division of his dramas into acts made it possible for a new influence to come in later. In the Senecan plays the Chorus leaves the stage at the end of each act; thus a decided break in the continuity of the action is produced, and a change of scene is easily possible.12

The next mention of the Poetics is in Averroes' so-called translation.13 This work, which is really a paraphrase11 appearing first in 1481, drew attention to the original, and in 1498 came the earliest Latin translation, by Georgius Valla. Aristotle was now to take his place as a giver of dramatic laws, as he had already established his reputation as a scientist and a philosopher. Renaissance scholars eagerly turned to his work for the rules that were to determine the form of the dramatic output in Italy for a great number of years, and in France for many more. The Renaissance had its first home in Italy; hence the dramatic unities arose in this land. As Ebner expresses it, "Gerade dieses Land (Italian) also Ausgangspunkt diesen Regeln unsere besondere Aufmerksamkeit in Anspruch nehmen muss." 15

The eager interest during the rebirth of learning in all documents of the past, the veneration for the name of Aristotle,

12 Cf. Cunliffe (The Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy) 1893, p. 37: The absence of the Chorus during the progress of the action lessened Seneca's hold on the so-called unities of time and place.''

18 Averroes (Ibn-Roschd, 1126-1198). As Renan says (Averroës et l'Averroïsme) "Ibn-Roschd n'a lu Aristote que dans les anciennes versions faites du syriaque par Honein Ibn Ihak."' Cited Ebner, o. c. p. 24. By this work in the Münch. Beiträge, I have benefited largely, in my summary of the unities in Greece and sixteenth-century Italy. Nor must 1 fail to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Spingarn's book and to his personal help, cheerfully given, in the matter of bibliography.

14 Averroes did not expound his version as a code of laws for the writers of his land, but drew from it what they could appreciate. As Ebner puts it, "Wären die italienischen Übersetzer, Kommentatoren und Dichter eben so unbefangen der Poetik des Aristoteles gegenüber getreten, so würden die Regeln von der Einheiten nicht Jahrhunderte lang den freien Geistesschwung des Genies eingedämmt haben." Cf. with this, Saintsbury, Hist. Criticism, V. 2, p. 76.

15 Ebner (o. c. p. 3) Cf. Morandi, Voltaire contro Shakespeare, etc., p. 169, ff.

accounts for the large number of Latin and Italian translations and adaptations of the Poetics that appeared in the 16th century in Italy. But the equally large number of commentaries on the text is accounted for by the very incompleteness of that text. Its précis form, its summary treatment, required expansion, elaboration, and was a veritable boon for gentlemen exegetically inclined. Gaspary expresses this well,-"Die vielfach dunkelen und schwierigen Sätze der Poetik, boten immer die Möglichkeit, dass jeder darin fand was er brauchte, und um ihre Auslegung hat sich Jahrhunderte lang die literarische Kritik mehr gedreht, als um direkte Betrachtung der Kunst und des Kunstwerkes." 16

We shall briefly review the progress of Italian thought on the subject of the unities, with the ultimate aim of noting the trend of the criticism and its influence on English ideas. Ebner has found the earliest "modern" reference to dramatic laws in Historia Betica, a Latin play by Caroli Verardi of Cesena, acted in Rome in 1492. The author in his preface reveals a knowledge of rules for the theatre, but like his fellow-dramatist Ricci, and so many others, he does not choose to follow the laws.17 The position of the first to refer at some length to the unity of time has been claimed for Giraldi Cintio;18 yet if Trissino's work, published posthumously, was written and known in 1529 (as there is good ground for believing), the credit must be given to the latter critic. In substance Trissino1 repeats Aristotle,the action is to be una e compiuta e grande; the time he limits "to one period of the sun or little more." For the vague expres

16 Gaspary, Gesch. der ital. Lit., V. 2, p. 562. Cited also by Ebner. 17 Ebner (p. 162) gives the passage referred to in the text. It does not seem to have exercised any influence on later thought, its great interest lying in its early date, at the very threshold of the modern era. On Ricci Vd. infra.

18 Spingarn (Hist. Lit. Crit. in Ren. 1908, p. 91) and others after him. Giraldi's book dates 1554. The exact date of the completion of his work is April 20, 1543. Trissino (1478-1550) published the first four parts of his Sei Divisione, etc., in 1529. The two parts dealing with Tragedy and Comedy did not appear till 1563. Several circumstances (discussed by Ebner) make it likely that the later parts were ready simultaneously with the earlier.

19 For work, etc., see Bibliography,-as for the other Italians cited.

sion-"one period of the sun"-this commentator offers no explanation, as he might have done if he had known the edition and commentaries of Robortelli (1548).20

Of greater importance is the fact that Trissino is perhaps the first to say specifically that the unity of time is a hard and fast rule of tragedy, and that "only ignorant poets" disregard it. This is a sweeping statement indeed, and by no means true. It marks, however, as Professor Spingarn points out, "the first distinction between the learned and ignorant poet, based on the test of the observance of the unity of time," which is "an artistic principle with Trissino that has helped to save dramatic poetry from the formlessness and chaotic condition of the Mediaeval drama."

99 21

That Trissino's statement regarding "ignorant" poets is illiberal and untrue, is proved by the words of Ricci, a dramatist and contemporary of the critic. In the prologue to his Tre Tiranni (1553) 22 Ricci makes a surprisingly modern attack on the "theatric" laws. He sums up the case against the strict constructionists with spirit and intelligence, and from one point of view leaves little to be added. "It has pleased the author," he says, "to depart somewhat from the customs and rules of the ancients, who represent in their comedies but one action, accomplished in a brief time or in a single day. The author has wished that the present play should, according as the action demands, include many days and nights, even a whole year. And while he can frankly say that such was his pleasure, he has, none the less, several reasons to advance in support of his position as we are now living in the present and not in times long past, and as the demands are different, it seems evident that with these changes should also be altered and renewed according to the time, poetry, and prose, and verse, and style, as well as the art of representation." Here is a sweeping rejection of the dramatic unities. And as Castelvetro first summed up 20 Cf. Ebner, p. 59, who points this out.

21 Spingarn (o. c. p. 93).

22 Cited Ebner, p. 163. I have not read the work, which Ebner calls a comedy.