Produced by Chris Curnow, Stephanie Eason, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY A. DACIER THE PREFACE TO ARISTOTLE'S ART OF POETRY (1705) Publication Number 76 William Andrews Clark Memorial Library University of California Los Angeles 1959 GENERAL EDITORS Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ Ralph Cohen, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Lawrence Clark Powell, _Clark Memorial Library_ ASSISTANT EDITOR W. Earl Britton, _University of Michigan_ ADVISORY EDITORS Emmett L. Avery, _State College of Washington_ Benjamin Boyce, _Duke University_ Louis Bredvold, _University of Michigan_ John Butt, _King's College, University of Durham_ James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ Ernest C. Mossner, _University of Texas_ James Sutherland, _University College, London_ H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_ CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Edna C. Davis, _Clark Memorial Library_ INTRODUCTION André Dacier's _Poëtique d'Aristote Traduite en François avec des Remarques_ was published in Paris in 1692. His translation of Horace with critical remarks (1681-1689) had helped to establish his reputation in both France and England. Dryden, for example, borrowed from it extensively in his _Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire_ (1693). No doubt this earlier work assured a ready reception and a quick response to the commentary on Aristotle: how ready and how quick is indicated by the fact that within a year of its publication in France Congreve could count on an audience's recognizing a reference to it. In the _Double Dealer_ (II, ii) Brisk says to Lady Froth: "I presume your ladyship has read _Bossu_?" The reply comes with the readiness of a _cliché_: "O yes, and _Rapine_ and _Dacier_ upon _Aristotle_ and _Horace_." A quarter of a century later Dacier's reputation was still great enough to allow Charles Gildon to eke out the second part of his _Complete Art of Poetry_ (1718) by translating long excerpts from the Preface to the "admirable" Dacier's Aristotle.[1] Addison ridiculed the pedantry of Sir Timothy Tittle (a strict Aristotelian critic) who rebuked his mistress for laughing at a play: "But Madam," says he, "you ought not to have laughed; and I defie any one to show me a single rule that you could laugh by.... There are such people in the world as _Rapin_, _Dacier_, and several others, that ought to have spoiled your mirth."[2] But the scorn is directed at the pupil, not the master, whom Addison considered a "true critic."[3] A work so much esteemed was certain to be translated, and so in 1705 an English version by an anonymous translator was published.