Rules

Use in the book

In the late art fragment, the rule is connected to necessity and need, then to clarity, charm, distinctness and usefulness. A work should resemble art without copying an existing work. This contrasts with the difficult, useless formulas by which modern dramatists turn their art into a game governed by agreement. The contrast is not rules versus freedom in every case: it is a test of what rules do. In conduct, observing the rule at any cost must sometimes be practiced but never recommended; the difference between practice and advice remains deliberately severe.

Places to read

1. II, p. 898, entry 3, ¶1Artistic rule answers needs rather than requiring imitation of a work.
2. I, p. 129, entry 4, ¶1Agreed dramatic rules can reduce art to a prize-winning game.
3. II, p. 814, entry 4, ¶1Rule-observance at any cost is distinguished as practice and advice.
4. I, p. 148, entry 10, ¶1A truth can become error through misapplication.

Translation in this edition

The English translation keeps both rule/necessity parentheses and distinguishes sometimes practicing from never recommending. Play is a subsidiary critical image, not a claim that all play is empty. Application is another necessary qualification: a true content wrongly placed can yield error, so correct formulation alone does not settle its use.

Play

French: jeu.

The game image criticizes modern dramatists who agree on difficult, useless rules to win a prize and avoid loss. It describes a particular transformation of art into competitive procedure; it does not condemn every form of play, invention or lightness.

Places to read: I, p. 129, entry 4, ¶1.

Application

French: application.

A good mind can err by displacing or misapplying a truth. Application therefore adds a question of fit to the question of truth: the content need not be false for its employment to mislead. The English translation uses misapplication for mauvaise application in this particular warning.

Places to read: I, p. 148, entry 10, ¶1.