Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting. Vol. 1-2

‎‎Preface
‎Introduction
‎Book 1.
‎Preface
‎Part One
‎Chapter 1. Of the Necessity of Being Occupied in order to Avoid Ennui, and of the Attraction That Movements of the Passions Have for People.
‎Chapter 2. Of the Attraction of Spectacles That Are Capable of Exciting Profound Emotions in Us. Of Gladiators.
‎Chapter 3. That the Principal Merit of Poems and Pictures Consists In Imitating the Objects That Would Have Excited Real Passions in Us. The Passions That These Imitations Have Aroused in Us Are Only Superficial.
‎Chapter 4. Of the Power That Imitations Have Over Us, and of the Ease with Which They Move the Heart.
‎Chapter 5. That Plato Banished the Poets from the Republic because of the Great Impression That Their Imitations Are Capable of Making.
‎Chapter 6. Of the Nature of the Subjects That Painters and Poets Treat. That They Should Not Choose Subjects That Are Too Engaging.
‎Chapter 7. That Tragedy Affects Us More Than Comedy because of the Nature of the Subjects That It Treats.
‎Chapter 8. Different Genres of Poetry and Their Characters.
‎Chapter 9. How to Render Didactic Subjects Engaging.
‎Chapter 10. Objection Drawn from Paintings to Show That the Art of Imitation Is More Engaging Than the Subject Imitated.
‎Chapter 11. That the Beauty of Execution Does Not Alone Render a Poem a Good Work, as It Makes a Picture a Precious Work.
‎Chapter 12. That a Work Engages Us in Two Ways: As a Person in General and as a Certain Person in Particular.
‎Chapter 13. That There Are Subjects Especially Suitable for Poetry, and Others Especially Suitable for Painting. The Means of Recognizing Them.
‎Chapter 14. Some Subjects Are Particularly Appropriate to Certain Genres of Poetry and Painting. The Subjects Appropriate for Tragedy.
‎Chapter 15. On Villainous Characters That Can Be Introduced into Tragedies.
‎Chapter 16. Of Some Tragedies Whose Subjects Are Poorly Chosen.
‎Chapter 17. Whether It Is Appropriate to Treat of Love in Tragedies.
Chapter 18. Our Neighbours Say That Our Poets Put Too Much Love in Their Tragedies.
‎Chapter 19. Of the Chivalry That Is in Our Poems.
‎Chapter 20. Of Some Principles That Must Be Observed in Treating Tragic Subjects.
‎Chapter 21. Of the Choice of Subject for Comedies. Where We Should Set the Scene. On Roman Comedies.
‎Chapter 22. Some Remarks on Pastoral Poetry and the Shepherds of Eclogues.
‎Chapter 23. Some Remarks on Epic Poetry. Observations Concerning the Place and Time from Which Its Subjects Must Be Drawn.
‎Chapter 24. Of Allegorical Actions and Characters in Relation to Painting.
Chapter 25. On Allegorical Characters and Actions with regard to Poetry.
‎Chapter 26. That Painters’ Subjects Are Not Exhausted. Examples Drawn from Pictures of the Crucifixion.
‎Chapter 27. That Subjects Are Not Exhausted for Poets. That One Can Still Find New Characters in Comedy.
‎Chapter 28. On Vraisemblance in Poetry.
‎Chapter 29. Whether the Tragic Poets Are Obliged to Conform to Geography, History, and the Chronology That We Know with Certainty. Remarks on This Subject on Some Tragedies by Corneille and Racine.
‎Chapter 30. Of Vraisemblance in Painting and of the Regard That Painters Owe to Received Tradition.
‎Chapter 31. The Disposition of the Plan. That the Arrangement of Pictures Must Be Divided into Poetic and Pictorial Composition.
‎Chapter 32. Of the Significance of the Offences Painters and Poets Can Commit against Their Rules.
‎Chapter 33. Of Poetic Style, in Which Words Are Regarded as Signs of Our Ideas. That Poetic Style Determines the Fate of Poems.
‎Chapter 34. Of the Motive for Reading the Poets; That We Do Seek Instruction as in Other Books.
‎Chapter 35. On Poetic Technique That Only Regards Words as Simple Sounds. Advantages of Poets Who Wrote in Latin over Those Who Wrote in French.
‎Chapter 36. Of Rhyme.
‎Chapter 37. That the Words of Our Native Language Make a Greater Impression on Us Than the Words of a Foreign Language.
‎Chapter 38. That the Painters of Raphael’s Time Had No Advantage over Those of Today. Of the Painters of Antiquity.
‎Chapter 39. The Sense in which Nature Is Enriched Since Raphael.
‎Chapter 40. Whether the Power Painting Has over People Is Greater Than the Power of Poetry.
‎Chapter 41. On Simple Recitation and Oratory.
‎Chapter 42. Of Our Manner of Reciting Tragedy and Comedy.
‎Chapter 43. That the Pleasure That We Take in Theatre Is Not Produced by Illusion.
‎Chapter 44. That Dramatic Poems Purge the Passions.
‎Chapter 45. Of Music Properly Speaking.
‎Chapter 46. Some Reflections on the Music of the Italians. That the Italians Only Cultivated This Art after the French and Flemish.
‎Chapter 47. Which Poetic Verses Are Best for Setting to Music.
‎Chapter 48. Of Prints and Prose Stories.
‎Chapter 49. That It Is Useless to Dispute If the Elements of Design and Expression Are Preferable to That of Colour.
‎Chapter 50. Of Sculpture, of the Talent That It Requires and of the Art of Bas-relief.
‎Book 2.
‎Chapter 1. Of Genius in General.
‎Chapter 2. Of the Genius That Makes Painters and Poets.
‎Chapter 3. That the Impulse of Genius Determines the Being of a Painter or Poet; What They Have Had Since Birth.
‎Chapter 4. An Objection to the Preceding Proposition and a Response to the Objection.
‎Chapter 5. Studies and Progress of Painters and Poets.
‎Chapter 6. Of Artists without Genius.
‎Chapter 7. Geniuses Are Limited.
‎Chapter 8. Of Plagiarists. How They Differ from Those Who Put Their Studies to Good Use.
‎Chapter 9. Obstacles That Slow Progress in Young Artists.
‎Chapter 10. Of the Time It Takes People of Genius to Reach the Eminence of Which They Are Capable.
‎Chapter 11. On Works Suitable to Men of Genius, and of Artists Who Counterfeit Others’ Style.
‎Chapter 12. Of Illustrious Eras and of the Role That Human Causes Play in the Progress of the Arts.
‎Chapter 13. That It Is Probable That Physical Causes Play a Role in the Surprising Progress of the Arts and Letters.
‎Chapter 14. How Physical Causes Can Play a Part in Determining Famous Eras. Of the Influence of Air on the Human Body.
‎Chapter 15. The Influence of Air on the Human Body Proved by National Character.
‎Chapter 16. Objection Drawn from the Characters of the Romans and the Dutch. Response to the Objection.
‎Chapter 17. On the Range of Climates More Appropriate to Arts and Sciences Than Others. On the Changes That Survive in These Climates.
‎Chapter 18. That Differences between the Airs of Different Countries Must Be Attributed to the Nature of Emanations from the Earth Which Are Different in Various Regions.
‎Chapter 19. That We Must Attribute to Variations in the Air in the Same Country the Difference Noted between the Geniuses of Inhabitants of Different Eras.
‎Chapter 20. Of the Differences in the Manners and Inclinations of the Very Same People in Different Eras.
‎Chapter 21. The Manner In Which the Reputation of Poets and Painters Is Established.
‎Chapter 22. That the Public Is, in General, a Good Judge of Poems and Pictures. Of the Sentiment That We Have for Recognizing the Value of These Works.
‎Chapter 23. That Way of Argument Is Not as Good for Knowing the Merit of Poems and Paintings as That of Sentiment.
‎Chapter 24. Objection to the Reliability of the Public’s Judgements and a Response to This Objection.
‎Chapter 25. The Judgement of People in the Trade.
‎Chapter 26. That the Judgements of the Public Prevail in the End over the Judgements of People of the Trade.
‎Chapter 27. That We Should Give Greater Regard to the Judgements of Painters Than to Those of Poets. Of the Art of Recognizing the Hand of Painters.
‎Chapter 28. Of Times When the Values of Poems and Paintings Are Correctly Appreciated.
‎Chapter 29. That There Are Countries Where the Value of Works Is More Quickly Appreciated Than in Others.
‎Chapter 30. Objection Based On Good Works That the Public Appeared to Disapprove, as well as Bad Ones That They Praise; And the Response to This Objection.
‎Chapter 31. That Public Judgement Is Never Retracted, and That It Always Perfects Itself.
‎Chapter 32. That, Despite the Critics, the Reputation of Poets That We Admire Will Always Grow.
‎Chapter 33. That Veneration for Good Authors of Antiquity Will Last Forever. Whether It Is True That We Reason Better Than the Ancients.
‎Chapter 34. That the Reputation of a Philosophical System Can Be Destroyed. That the Reputation of a Poem Cannot Be.
‎Chapter 35. Of the Idea Men Should Have of the Writings of the Ancients When They Do Not Understand the Originals.
‎Chapter 36. Of the Errors Into Which Those Who Judge a Poem on the Basis of a Translation or the Remarks of Critics Fall.
Chapter 37. On the Defects We Believe We See in Ancient Poems.
‎Chapter 38. That the Remarks of Critics Do Not Make Us Leave Off Reading Poems, and We Stop Reading Only in order to Read Better Poems.
‎Chapter 39. That There Are Professions Whose Success Depends More On Genius Than On the Assistance That Art Can Give; and Others, Whose Success Depends More On the Assistance Drawn from Art Than On Genius. We Should Not Infer That One Era Surpasses Another in Professions of the First Type Because It Surpasses It in Professions of the Second Type.
‎Book 3.
‎Preface
‎Chapter 1. The General Concept of Ancient Music, and of the Musical Arts Embraced under This Discipline.
‎Chapter 2. Of Rhythmic Music.
‎Chapter 3. On Organical or Instrumental Music.
‎Chapter 4. Of the Art of Poetical Music. Of Melopoeia. That There Was a Melopoeia That Was Not Musical Song, Though It Was Notated.
‎Chapter 5. Explanation of Several Passages from Aristotle’s Poetics, Chapter 6. On the Chanting of Latin Verses or Carmen.
‎Chapter 6. That in Ancient Writers, the Words ‘to Sing’ Often Mean ‘to Declaim’ and Sometimes Even ‘to Speak.’
‎Chapter 7. New Proofs That Ancient Theatrical Declamation Was Composed and Written in Notes. Proof Taken from the Fact That the Actor Reciting It Was Accompanied by Instruments.
‎Chapter 8. Of the Wind and String Instruments Used in the Accompaniments.
‎Chapter 9. On the Difference between Tragic and Comic Declamation. On Composers of Declamation. Reflections concerning the Art of Notating.
‎Chapter 10. Continuation of the Proofs That Show That the Ancients Notated Declamation. Some Changes to Roman Declamation That Occurred around the Time of Augustus. Comparison of This Change with What Happened To Our Music and Dance under Louis XIV.
‎Chapter 11. The Romans Often Staged Theatrical Declamation between Two Actors, during Which One Spoke and the Other Made Gestures.
‎Chapter 12. Of the Masks of Ancient Actors.
‎Chapter 13. On Acting, or the Art of Gesture, Called ‘Hypocritical Music’ by Many Authors.
‎Chapter 14. Of Dance, or Theatrical Saltation. How the Actor Who Gestured Could Coordinate with the Actor Who Spoke. Of the Dance of Choruses.
‎Chapter 15. Observations concerning the Manner in Which Dramatic Works Were Produced in Ancient Theatres. On the Passion That Greeks and Romans Had for Theatre, and on the Study Actors Made of Their Art, and the Pay That They Were Given.
‎Chapter 16. Of Pantomimes, or Actors Who Performed without Speaking.
‎Chapter 17. When the Sumptuous Performances of the Ancients Ceased. Of the Excellence of Their Chanting.
‎Chapter 18. Reflections on the Advantages and Disadvantages That Result from the Notated Declamation of the Ancients.
‎Bibliography
‎Index of Names