--The epic fable, differing from the dramatic.--To the
resolving of this question we must first agree in the definition of
the fable. The fable is called the imitation of one entire and
perfect action, whose parts are so joined and knit together, as
nothing in the structure can be changed, or taken away, without
impairing or troubling the whole, of which there is a proportionable
magnitude in the members. As for example: if a man would build a
house, he would first appoint a place to build it in, which he would
define within certain bounds; so in the constitution of a poem, the
action is aimed at by the poet, which answers place in a building,
and that action hath his largeness, compass, and proportion. But as
a court or king's palace requires other dimensions than a private
house, so the epic asks a magnitude from other poems, since what is
place in the one is action in the other; the difference is an space.
So that by this definition we conclude the fable to be the imitation
of one perfect and entire action, as one perfect and entire place is
required to a building. By perfect, we understand that to which
nothing is wanting, as place to the building that is raised, and
action to the fable that is formed.
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