Studia Russica XVI. [antikvár]

Studia Russica, XVI. Budapest, 1997 M. Mezósi (Budapest) Something is rotten in the state History and the Political Ethos Represented on Pushkin's Stage: The Dramatic Poet and the Historian At first sight it may seem at least strange to ascribe the occupation historian to a person whom we generally bear in mind as a poeL Surely, historical scholarship and poetry (or art) are rather different areas of the human intellect. It was probably Aristotle who first made clcar the distinction between history and poetry, saying: o yap iaropixoq icai o noirj-njq [ ] tovtq) fiiacpepci, rqj rov pev roe yevopsva Aeyeiv, rov Se oTa av ycvoixo. Sid icai (piXocrocpdnepov icai (TirovSaiorepov noir^mq ecrxiv, 77 pev yap KoiTjmg paXXov zee icaffoAov, fi 8' iaxopia rd tca8'ekugxov Xeyci. eon Se icaOoXov ficv, rep noicp ra noi' area avpfiaivei Xf.yciv -rj nparzEi v Kara rd eiicdg fj rd dvayicafov-ov aro%a(erai 77 noiqcriq 6vopara EninOcpevq. ra Se icaff' ?xacrrmv, ri AXiciftiaSTjq EKpa^ev rj ri ekuQev. [ ] cni Se rfjq rpaycpSiaq rcov ysvopsvcov ovoparcov avrexovrai. ainov Se, on niOavov ?an rd Svvcnov ra pev odv pi) yevopeva 01 ma) marevopcv eivai Svvara, ra Se yevopeva cpavepov on Svvara, ov yap eyevero, si fjv dSvvara} The historian and the poet differ [ ] in that the former tells what had happened, while the latter what may happen. Poetry is therefore more philosophical and weightier than history because poetry, on the one hand, would rather tell about the universal, while history, on the other, would tell about the particular. Universal is how one speaks or acts in a certain way, according to probability or necessity; this is what poetry aims at, though applying individual names. Particular is, for example, what Alcibiades did or what happened to him. [ ] In tragedies they /sc. the tragic poetsJ clea\>e to historical names. The reason for this is that the possible is credible; what did not actually happen we would not believe to be possible, but it is clear that what had happened is possible because it would certainly not have happened if it had been impossible?¦ Aristotle then goes on: