(4) There is a further point
to be borne in mind. Every tragedy is in part Complication
and in part Dénouement; the incidents before the opening
scene, and often certain also of those within the play,
forming the Complication; and the rest the Dénouement.
By Complication I mean all from the beginning of the story
to the point just before the change in the hero's fortunes;
by Dénouement, all from the beginning of the change to
the end.
In the Lynceus of Theodectes, for instance, the
Complication includes, together with the presupposed inci-
dents, the seizure of the child and that in turn of the parents;
and the Dénouement all from the indictment for the murder
to the end.
(5) There are
four distinct species of Tragedy-that being the number of
the constituents also that have been mentioned:
first, the
complex Tragedy, which is all Peripety and Discovery;
second, the Tragedy of suffering, e. g. the Ajaxes and Ixions;
third, the Tragedy of character, e.g. The Phthiotides and
Peleus.
The fourth constituent is that of 'Spectacle,' ex-
emplified in The Phorcides, in Prometheus, and in all plays
with the scene laid in the nether world.
The poet's aim,
then, should be to combine every element of interest, if
possible, or else the more important and the major part
of them. This is now especially necessary owing to the
unfair criticism to which the poet is subjected in these days.
Just because there have been poets before him strong in
the several species of tragedy, the critics now expect
the one man to surpass that which was the strong point
of each one of his predecessors.
Now it is right, when one speaks of a tragedy
as the same or not the same as another, to do so on the
ground before all else of their Plot, i. e. as having the same
or not the same Complication and Dénouement.
Yet there
are many dramatists who, after a good Complication, fail in
the Dénouement.
But it is necessary for both points of
construction to be always duly mastered.
(6) One should also re-
member what has been said more than once, and not write
a tragedy on an epic body of incident (i.e. one with a plurality
of stories in it), by attempting to dramatize, for instance,
the entire story of the Iliad.
In the epic owing to its scale
every part is treated at proper length;
with a drama, how-
ever, on the same story the result is very disappointing.
This is shown by the fact that all who have dramatized
the fall of Ilium in its entirety, and not part by part, like
Euripides, or the whole of the Niobe story, instead of a
portion, like Aeschylus, either fail utterly or have but ill
success on the stage;
for that and that alone was enough
to ruin even a play by Agathon.
Yet in their Peripeties, as
also in their simple plots, the poets I mean show wonderful
skill in aiming at the kind of effect they desire-a tragic
situation that arouses the human feeling in one,
clever villain (e. g. Sisyphus) deceived, or the brave wrong-
doer worsted.
This is probable, however, only in Agathon's
sense, when he speaks of the probability of even improbabilities
coming to pass.
(7) The Chorus too should be regarded as
one of the actors; it should be an integral part of the
whole, and take a share in the action-that which it has
in Sophocles rather than in Euripides.
With the later poets,
however, the songs in a play of theirs have no more to do
with the Plot of that than of any other tragedy. Hence
it is that they are now singing intercalary pieces, a practice
first introduced by Agathon. And yet what real difference is
there between singing such intercalary pieces, and attempting
to fit in a speech, or even a whole act, from one play into
another?
Poetics. Aristotle. Ingram Bywater (Translator), ed. Gilbert Murray. Oxford. 1909.