Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Significant Name in Terence
The tradition regarding this technical requirement can be traced back to Aristotle.' In the ninth chapter of the Poetics he discusses the use of personal names in literature. Poetry, he argues, is more philosophic and of a higher seriousness than history; for it tends to express what is univer sal, whereas history expresses what is particular. Now the universal is the sort of thing such and such a kind of person will do or say in all prob ability or by necessity; this is the aim of poetry in giving names to its characters; whereas the particular is what Alcibiades did or what was done to him. In comedy this has already become evident, for, after constructing a plot out of probable incidents, the comic poets then afix to the characters whatever names they wish, but do not do as the satirists, who write about particular individuals. In tragedy, on the other hand, the poets retain the names which were in actual use.
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