- In which work does Plato make his main attack on poetry?
- Ion
- Phaedrus
- The Republic, Book X
- Symposium
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Answer: (C) The Republic, Book X
The theory of mimesis and the banishment of poets are in Book X of The Republic.
- According to Plato, art is —
- the highest form of truth
- twice removed from reality
- a direct copy of the Idea
- identical with philosophy
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Answer: (B) twice removed from reality
The carpenter copies the Idea; the painter copies the carpenter. So art is twice removed.
- The image of the magnet and the iron rings, describing poetic inspiration, appears in —
- The Republic
- Ion
- Poetics
- Ars Poetica
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Answer: (B) Ion
It is Plato’s image in the dialogue Ion, showing inspiration passing from Muse to poet to reciter to audience.
- Which kind of poetry would Plato allow in his ideal state?
- Tragedy
- Comedy
- Hymns to the gods and praises of famous men
- Epic
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Answer: (C) Hymns to the gods and praises of famous men
He permits only what is useful to the city — hymns and praises.
- Aristotle calls which part the "soul" of tragedy?
- Character
- Plot
- Thought
- Diction
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Answer: (B) Plot
Plot (mythos) is first of the six parts and is called the soul of tragedy.
- Which of the six parts does Aristotle rank last?
- Song
- Diction
- Spectacle
- Thought
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Answer: (C) Spectacle
Spectacle (opsis) is least important and least connected with the poet’s own art.
- "Catharsis" in Aristotle means the purgation of —
- anger and joy
- pity and fear
- love and hate
- pride and envy
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Answer: (B) pity and fear
The definition of tragedy ends with the purgation of pity and fear.
- The hero’s error of judgement is called —
- peripeteia
- anagnorisis
- hamartia
- catastrophe
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Answer: (C) hamartia
Hamartia is the flaw or error through which the tragic hero falls.
- A change from ignorance to knowledge is —
- peripeteia
- anagnorisis
- hubris
- catharsis
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Answer: (B) anagnorisis
Anagnorisis is recognition; peripeteia is reversal.
- Which play does Aristotle hold up as the model tragedy?
- Antigone
- Medea
- Oedipus Rex
- Agamemnon
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Answer: (C) Oedipus Rex
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex combines peripeteia and anagnorisis perfectly.
- Which of the three unities did Aristotle actually insist upon?
- Time
- Place
- Action
- All three
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Answer: (C) Action
Only action. Time is an observation, and place he never mentions.
- The unity of place was added by —
- Horace
- Castelvetro
- Boileau
- Dryden
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Answer: (B) Castelvetro
Castelvetro in 1570 hardened the unities into a rule and added place.
- Aristotle holds that poetry is more philosophical than history because —
- it is older
- it deals with the universal while history deals with the particular
- it is written in verse
- it pleases more people
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Answer: (B) it deals with the universal while history deals with the particular
History tells what happened; poetry tells what may happen — the universal.
- "Dulce et utile" is associated with —
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Horace
- Longinus
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Answer: (C) Horace
It is Horace’s doctrine that poetry should both please and instruct.
- "In medias res" means —
- in the middle of things
- in the manner of the ancients
- in good taste
- in five acts
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Answer: (A) in the middle of things
Horace advises beginning the story in the middle of the action, as Homer does.
- A "purple patch" in Horace is —
- a passage of great beauty
- a showy passage stitched on where it does not belong
- the climax of a play
- a royal subject
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Answer: (B) a showy passage stitched on where it does not belong
It is a fault — ornament out of place.
- The Ars Poetica is also known as —
- Epistle to the Pisos
- On the Sublime
- Peri Poietikes
- The Republic
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Answer: (A) Epistle to the Pisos
Horace addressed it to a father and his two sons, the Pisos.
- The authorship of On the Sublime is —
- certainly Longinus
- certainly Dionysius
- disputed between Longinus and Dionysius
- certainly Boileau
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Answer: (C) disputed between Longinus and Dionysius
The manuscript names both, so the author is often called Pseudo-Longinus.
- For Longinus, the effect of the sublime is —
- persuasion
- transport
- instruction
- imitation
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Answer: (B) transport
The sublime does not persuade; it carries the reader away.
- Which two of the five sources of the sublime are inborn?
- Figures and diction
- Diction and composition
- Grandeur of thought and strong emotion
- Composition and figures
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Answer: (C) Grandeur of thought and strong emotion
The first two are natural; figures, diction and composition are acquired by art.
- "Sublimity is the echo of a great soul" was written by —
- Aristotle
- Horace
- Longinus
- Plato
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Answer: (C) Longinus
It is the best-known sentence of Longinus.
- Longinus was translated into French in 1674 by —
- Castelvetro
- Boileau
- Corneille
- Racine
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Answer: (B) Boileau
Boileau’s translation brought On the Sublime into modern European criticism.
- Arrange in chronological order: (i) Ars Poetica (ii) Poetics (iii) Republic (iv) On the Sublime
- iii, ii, i, iv
- ii, iii, i, iv
- iii, i, ii, iv
- i, ii, iii, iv
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Answer: (A) iii, ii, i, iv
Plato (c. 380 BC) → Aristotle (c. 335 BC) → Horace (c. 19 BC) → Longinus (1st cent. AD).
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