As for the death of Aruns, who was shot by a
goddess, the machine was not altogether so outrageous as the
wounding Mars and Venus by the sword of Diomede. Two divinities,
one would have thought, might have pleaded their prerogative of
impassibility, or at least not have been wounded by any mortal hand.
Beside that, the [Greek text which cannot be reproduced] which they
shed was so very like our common blood that it was not to be
distinguished from it but only by the name and colour. As for what
Horace says in his "Art of Poetry," that no machines are to be used
unless on some extraordinary occasion--
"Nec deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus" -
that rule is to be applied to the theatre, of which he is then
speaking, and means no more than this--that when the knot of the
play is to be untied, and no other way is left for making the
discovery, then, and not otherwise, let a god descend upon a rope,
and clear the business to the audience. But this has no relation to
the machines which are used in an epic poem.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271