DALLA POETICA DI ARISTOTELE AL PASTOR FIDO DI GUARINI: APPUNTI SU TRAGEDIA, DRAMMA SATIRESCO E ‘TRAGICOMMEDIA’

Abstract

SVMMARIVM - Hac in quaestione agitur de ea specie tragoediarum in Aristotelis libro de
arte poetica descripta, quae exitum bonum melioribus, peioribus malum praebet. Cum studia
de Satyrico dramate quinto decimo saeculo a Politiano peracta, tum commentarii in
Aristotelis artem poeticam sexto decimo saeculo a viris doctis compositi effecerunt, ut genus
tragicomoediae novae aetatis oreretur.

ABSTRACT - This essay aims to trace a path that, starting from Aristotle’s definition contained
in the first book of the Poetics of the double composition tragedy – that is, it provides
a happy outcome for the ‘better’ characters and an unhappy one for the ‘worse’ ones – comes
to define the main characteristics of the genre of ‘tragicomedy’. This path, which begins in
the fourth century BC, enriched by the non-univocal interpretations and translations of the
passage in question in the Humanistic-Renaissance period, as well as by contemporary observations
on the genre of the Satyr play, will end with the definition of the main characteristics
of the tragicomic genre in the 16th century.