There is the same Difference between the Fable and the Action, both in Epic and Tragic Poetry, namely, the Action is an Achievement of some eminent Person, which produc'd some great and memorable Event. The Fable is the Complication of all those Incidents, Episodes, and other Circumstances, which promote the Action, and carry it to its proper Period, or else which serve to illustrate, or to embellish and adorn it. Episodes are either absolutely necessary, or very requisite: All Episodes are not Incidents[459], tho' all Incidents are Episodes; because some Incidents are not adventitious to the Action, (which, as the Etymology of the Word implies, is essential to an Episode) but make up the very Form and Series of it: Or (to use a more harsh and inelegant Expression) they are not collateral, but direct Parts of it; these, and many other Particulars of this Sort, for the Reason so often mention'd, will not be enlarg'd upon at present.
The Action, in Epic Poetry, must, of Necessity, be one, as well as in Tragedy; tho' it may, and ought to be more comprehensive. As to the Place of Action, there is no confining it to any certain Bounds; Epic has certainly a much larger Range than Tragedy; but the more it keeps within Compass, the more perfect and entire the Action seems to be. Aristotle expressly says, that as to Time, there is no fixing it to any determin'd Period. Homer's Iliad does not contain above the Space of forty-seven Days[460]; the Odyssee (as Bossu[461], and, after him, Dacier, are of Opinion) takes up eight Years, and six Months; the Æneid almost seven Years. But, in this Point, these great Criticks seem not to have made so just a Determination; for not every Thing that is related by the Poet, or the Persons he has introduc'd, makes, strictly speaking, a Part of the Action, but that, only, which is perform'd by the Hero, and his Associates, from that Place, where you enter upon the Poem, to the Conclusion of it. For Instance; the Action of the Æneid, in a strict and proper Sense, does not begin at the building of the wooden Horse:
—Fracti bello, fatisque repulsi. Æn. II. 13.
But from the Time that Æneas set Sail from one of the Ports of Sicily:
Vix è conspectu Siculæ telluris in altum. I. 38.
And taking the Question in this View, Mons. Segrais, in the Preface to his admirable French Translation of the Æneid, has demonstrated, that the Action of that divine Poem falls within the Compass of one Year. And we may observe almost the same Thing of Homer's Odyssee.
I think Dacier has mistaken the Meaning of Aristotle in another Place, tho' there, also, he follows Bossu; and that is, with Regard to the Actions or Adventures of the Persons. Epic (says that Philosopher) is μιμησιϛ σπουδαιων, which Dacier translates thus; the Imitation of the Actions of illustrious Persons, not of illustrious Actions. And perhaps that is not amiss: But I cannot be of his Opinion, when he declares, that if the Persons are illustrious, it is of no great Moment, whether the Actions are so, or not. He very justly affirms, that the most glorious Actions of private Men are not a proper Subject for an Heroic Poem; but then the other Point must be given against him, that it is necessary, that not the Person only, but the Action, should be illustrious. All the Actions, even of Alexander or Cæsar, Achilles or Æneas, are surely not proper for Epic. I agree, therefore, that Aristotle must be understood to mean the Actions of Heroes; but then he would also imply, the Actions of Heroes, as Heroes. And, no doubt, Horace was of the same Opinion, (tho' Dacier brings him in as an Evidence on his Side) when he says,
[462] Res gestæ regumque, ducumque.
i.e. considering them as Kings and Generals; for the Words immediately following, which Dacier takes no Notice of, are,
——& tristia bella.