THE PHILOSOPHY OF
FINE ART
BY
G. W. F. HEGEL
TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES, BY
F. P. B. OSMASTON, B.A.
AUTHOR OF "THE ART AND GENIUS OF TINTORET," "AN ESSAY ON THE FUTURE OF POETRY," AND OTHER WORKS
VOL. IV
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1920
CONTENTS OF VOL. IV
SUBSECTION III
THE ROMANTIC ARTS_--continued_
CHAPTER III
POETRY
Introduction
[Summary and contrast between poetry and the other particular arts. Its relation to the other two romantic arts. Absence of all external sensuous presence. Poetry appeals to imaginative vision. Not so direct as sense-perception. Advantage over painting through its ability to display facts in their historical succession or natural process. Far profounder and more extended embrace of world of idea than in music; due to its greater power of definition in speech and its use of tone merely as a subordinate instrument. The content of poetry is the ideal envisagement of imaginative content itself. Everything made intelligible by language may form part of content, subject to the condition that it is poetical. Analysis of what this condition implies. The imagination of artist must be Contributive; distinction from mere prose consciousness and thinking. In its entire independence of the material of sense it may be defined as the universal art. The material is the imagination, and as such conjoint with all the arts. It is, however, not the only art open to philosophical review on this ground. It marks, however, the commencement of the disintegration of Art, its bridge of passage to the notion of religion and philosophical thought]
Subdivision of subject-matter
I. Poetical composition as distinguished from that of Prose
1. The poetical and prosaic composition
(a) The world of natural or prosaic fact relatively excluded. Primarily what it deals with is the infinite domain of Spirit and the energies of its life
(b) Distinction between poetical and prosaic conception 21
[(α) Poetical anterior to the prosaic form of artistic speech. It is the original imaginative grasp of truth. Dates from first effort of man at self-expression. Endeavours to make that expression of a higher virtue than mere prose
(β) The kind of prose life from which poetry is separate postulates a different kind of conception and speech. The finite categories of the understanding applicable to the former. The ideal rationale of fact is aimed at by poetry. Its affinity with and distinction from pure thought
(γ) Difference between the relation of poetic conception to prosaic in early times and more modern, where the prosaic form of life has become stereotyped in a definite system]
(c) The nature of the differentiation of poetical activity in different ages and nations
[(α) It has no particular epoch of unique celebration. It embraces the collective Spirit of man. It is conditioned by the outlook of various nations and epochs
(β) Some of these have closer affinity with its essential spirit, e.g., the Oriental in comparison with the Western nations, if we exclude Greece
(γ) Modern interest in Hellenic and certain portions of Oriental poetry]
2. The Art-product of poetry and prose
(a) The artistic composition of poetry generally
[(α) It must possess intrinsic unity. The action must be conceived as that of particular men or women. There must be vital coalescence of characters, events, and actions. Unity in the nature of a process and a differentiation of parts which coalesce therein
(β) Nature of this organic differentiation and synthesis. Tendency of Art to particularization. Delight in detail. Nature of its treatment of such detail. Result, a secure self-subsistency
(γ) Substantive unity preserved. Display of particular features, despite all opposition, must combine in a union of mysterious accord. The unity is essential and organic. It is the soul of the entirety. Parallel in musical trichord. Varied type of artistic form in the Epic, the Drama, and the Lyric]
(b) History and oratory compared with the poetical product
[(α) The arts of history and oratory come into closest affinity with poetical composition. History implies great ends, cannot rest content with mere chronicles. Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Tacitus. Products of the art of language, but not entirely free art. The nature of the historical content prohibits this. The prosaic element in the historical age and the historical treatment defined
(β) Oratory appears to be closer to the freedom of Art. The orator appeals to the whole man. It is directed to the enunciation of principles. It is none the less almost wholly relative to the rule of practical utility. Religious oratory. It is in the service of a collateral purpose]
(c) The free poetical work of Art
[(α) The attitude of the poet in his work, to contingent and insignificant fact and local conditions, actions, events, etc.
(β) The end of Art not practical as in oratory. Nor is it to edification. Poems d'occasion
(γ) It is an essentially infinite (self-rounded) organism. Permeated with a principle of unity. Independent of any one particular condition of Life or Nature]
3. The creative impulse of the Poet
[(a) Less under restriction in respect to his medium. The problem proposed in one respect more easy, and in another more difficult than that of the other arts. Technical control of the medium which is easier makes the demand for imaginative penetration the greater
(b) Being operative in the realm of imaginative idea itself poetry has to guard against encroaching upon the spheres of religion, philosophy, and the ordinary consciousness as such 53
(c) To a greater extent than in the other arts the poet has transfused the external mode of envisagement, which he creates, with the vitality of soul-life. Mohammedan poetry. The creative energy must be absolutely free from all restrictions imposed by the material handled]
II. The Expression of Poetry
1. The poetical Conception
(a) Poetical conception in its origins [In its origin not consciously distinct from the prosaic or scientific consciousness. In general terms the poetic imagination is plastic. Illustration of difference between the concrete poetical image and the abstract concept]
(b) Distinction between poetic mode of conception and that of prose. Language of poetical metaphor and imagery less accurate than the definition of prosaic fact
(c) Exceptional difficulties which confront the poet of a world where the distinction between ordinary prose life and imagination is emphasised. Artificial appearance of his creations. Difficulty of retaining spontaneous simplicity and freshness
2. Verbal Expression
(a) Poetical speech generally
[Another mode of speech necessitated by the fact that the world of poetry and art in general should not be identical with that of ordinary life, or that of science and religion] 65
(b) The means by which this is realized
[(α) Particular words and expressions only proper to poetry. Entitled to borrow from language forms obsolete in ordinary speech. The invention exercised in creating novel modes of utterance
(β) The relative order of words admits of change; how the licence in this respect may be abused and degenerate into rhetoric and declamation
(γ) The periods of poetical construction composed in accordance with the ideality of the soul-experience embodied]
(c) Distinctions in the use of these means
[(α) Poetry in the age where poetry is the one revealer of spiritual truth. Force of creative power and simplicity of diction most obvious features. Creation of a poetic diction by Dante
(β) Distinction from above in an age where prose diction already elaborated. Expression of poetry becomes more elaborate and eventually more self-conscious and rhetorical. The poetry of Rome. The satire. Spanish poetry
(γ) The nature of genuine poetical expression. Spontaneity above all essential]
3. Versification.
[Only a superficial view would banish it. It is implied in the demand that the medium should be elaborated by Art and that the realm entered should be other than every-day life]
(a) Rhythmical Versification (that is, without rhyme)
[(α) Made by time-duration and the movement. Starting point in the natural length and shortness of syllables. The distinctions of the sound of words in consonants and vowels contribute the basis of this. Description and illustration. Poetry regulates the accidental interchange of various syllables and words. Time-duration. Nature of dactyl, anapaest, etc. It further regulates the particular time-relations in a series of verse-lines. The iambic metre, etc. Problem of time-beats in the metre of the ancients. No necessity as in music for abstract time-beat
(β) The accent and caesura. Every time-relation has its particular accent. Particular feet ought not with abstract precision to be identical with beginning and conclusion of single words. The caesura checks the monotony of measure. Further independent verbal accent. Fundamental influence on the measure of the poetical idea. Also a definite type of content corresponds with the entire character of a particular verse-measure. The use of hexameter, elegiacs, and iambics in this respect