A Translation Into English of the De Tragoediae Constitutione of Daniel Heinsius

Abstract

The name of Daniel Heinsius, the author of De Tragoediae Constitutione, is well known to students of the history of English literary criticism. Generally, however, it is by name and reputation only that Heinsius is known, for the De Tragoediae Constitutione, first published at Leyden in 1611, has never been translated from the Latin into English and has had no publication since 1643; it is available only in the rare book rooms of a few libraries. It would appear that a work which is considered to be a workmanlike exposition of neo-classic ideals is deserving of study both upon historical and absolute grounds. Daniel Heinsius was born at Ghent in 1580. The affairs of his father took the family to England and finally to Holland where they took residence at the Hague. Daniel was given a solid classical education at the Hague and at the University of Leyden where he was a student for a time of Joseph Scaliger. At the age of twenty Daniel was made a lecturer on the Latin and Greek authors at the University of Leyden and the authorities of that University later appointed him Professor of Politics and History. In later life Heinaius was involved occasionally and for short periods of time in politics, but in the main he devoted himself during his whole life to his work at the University of Leyden chiefly in poetry, literary criticism, and literary scholarship. He died in 1655. His chief works were commentaries on Si1ius Italicus; on the New Testament; on editions of Horace, Seneca's tragedies, Hesiod, and other classical Writers; some translations from the Greek; a considerable body of Latin poems; a Latin tragedy, Herodes Infanticida; an edition of Aristotle's Poetics with a commentary; and the De Tragoediae Constitutione. Daniel Heinsius must be distinguished from his son Nicholas Heinsius (1620-1681), also a famous scholar who published critical editions of the Roman poets. The De Tragoediae Constitutione has been described as “the succintest and best argued statement of the neo-and to a great extent pseudo-Aristotelian view of drama.” To a certain extent the work might be described as a paraphrase of those portions of Aristotle's Poetics which deal specifically with the drama; but the work is more than a mere paraphrase for Heinsius makes interpretations, amplifies, illustrates from the Greek and Roman drama to the point that the work can be properly considered as Heinsius' own original composition. There is no doubt that Heinsius has steeped himsel£ in his subject, has equipped himself for the task, and can speak with well-founded authority. The work can fairly be taken to represent the best traditions of continental thought on Aristotle's Poetics of Heinsius' age. Shortly after its publication, the De Tragoediae Constitutione became known in England. Ben Jonson approved of it, and it is through him that Heinsius enters into the stream of English literary criticism. Jonson's Discoveries contains large borrowings from the De Tragoediae Constitutione. Later in the century, Dryden indicates his knowledge and approval of Heinsius. The influence of Heinsius on the French neo-classic critics was great and so it may be concluded that, both directly and indirectly, the Heinsius influence on English neo-classic literary theory and literary criticism was considerable. For the purpose of this translation the Elzevir edition of 1643 was used because this edition is the one most easily available. For purposes o£ convenient reference to the Elzevir edition, the pagination of this Elzevir edition is indicated in the following translation by Arabic numerals on the right margin. The pagination of the Index of Chapter (pp. 5-7) accords with that of the Elzevir edition. Also for the convenience of the reader, translations of the passages from Greek and Latin authors have been taken, wherever feasible, from editions in the Loeb Classical Library; where these were not readily available, the translator has ventured his own renderings. For uniformity's sake, all references to the Aristotelian corpus or translations from it were taken from the eleven volume Oxford Translation of Aristotle, edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. Notes have been placed in back of the text.