2. "Longinus"


Aristotle's theory of poetry, which influenced so profoundly the criticism
of the renaissance, was not followed by other classical treatises of the
same scope. In fact, very little Greek or Roman literary criticism is
concerned with poetical theory as compared with the keen interest of many
critics in oratory. Perhaps the most significant and valuable critical
treatise after Aristotle is that golden pamphlet _On the Sublime_
erroneously ascribed to Longinus, which, anonymous and mutilated as it is,
still holds our attention by its sincerity, insight, and enthusiastic love
for great poetry.

However important its contribution to classical theory of poetry, the
treatise is not specifically on poetic. In fact, it sets out as if to
treat rhetoric, and actually treats both; for it is mainly a treatise on
style, which as Aristotle says in the _Poetics_[27] is in essence the same
both in prose and verse. Nevertheless it does distinguish between rhetoric
and poetic and does contribute to the theory of poetry.[28]

"_Sublimitas_," misleadingly translated "sublimity," the author defines
as elevation and greatness of style. It springs from the faculty of
grasping great conceptions and from passion, both gifts of nature. It is
assisted by art through the appropriate use of figures, noble diction, and
dignified and spirited composition of the words into sentences. It is the
insistence on passion, emotion, which makes the treatise _On the Sublime_
stand out above other classical treatises on writing. Both poets and
orators attain the sublime, says the author, but passion is more
characteristic of the poets.[29]