Scaliger and Castelvetro - Yavanika

ldius Caesar Scaliger 119
lauguage is used, the purpose, of course, is to acquaint the hcarer u'ith a
fact or u'ith the thotght of the speaker, but because thc prinitivc poetry
\vas sung, its design seemed nerelt' to please; ,vet underll"ing thc nusic rvas
that for the sake of rvhich music u'as provided only as a sauce. In tirne this
rude and pristinc invention u.as enriched bv philosophy, which rrade poetry
thc mediun of its teaching. l,et it be fLrrthcr said that when poetrv de'
scribcs nilitarv counscls, at one tirnc open and frank, at another craftvthe
o,po,is11pn of the Greeks-u,hcn it tclls of tenpcsts, of wars, of routs,
of various artificcs, all is for onc purpose: it iuritates that it mav teach.
So in The Frogs of Aristophancs, to thc one uho asked hin, "\\ttat ncrit
in a poet can arouse the grcatest aclniration for hin?" Euripidcs made a
good ansg,er utcn hc rcpliccl, "'l'hc abilitl to irnprcss adroith,upon citlzens
the need of being bctter rnen." . . .
Non' is there not one cnd, and onc onlr', in philosophical exposition, in
or:ttor\', ancl in the dranta? Assurcdh such is the casc. All have one and
thc same encl-persuasion; for, r'ou scc, just as we ucre saying abovc, uhenever
language is uFdlT cither exprcsses a fact or the opinion of the speaker.
The cnd of learning is knoulcclge, that is, knouledge, of course, interprcted
in no narrorv scnsc. An accurate and sinplc de6nition of knorvlcclge is as
follols: Belief based either upotr conclusive evidcnce, or upon a loose notion.
'l}us "I
u e sar. knol that Dido comnittcd suicide bccausc Aeneas departed."
Nou u'e do not kuorv artt such thing, but this is popularly acccpted
as the truth. Pcrsuasiou, again, neans that the hcarcr accepts thc Iords of
the spcakcr. T'he soLrl of persuasion is truth, truth either fixed and absolute,
or suscqrtible of qucstion. Its cnd is to corvince, or to securc the
doing of something. Truth, in turn, is agreernent betrvccn that u'hich is
sajcl about a thing and thc thinq itself. . . .
. Comedl is a