deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and artistically
constructed incidents. Besides which, the most powerful elements of
emotional interest in Tragedy- Peripeteia or Reversal of the
Situation, and Recognition scenes- are parts of the plot. A further
proof is, that novices in the art attain to finish of diction and
precision of portraiture before they can construct the plot. It is the
same with almost all the early poets.

  The plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of
a tragedy; Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in
painting. The most beautiful colors, laid on confusedly, will not give
as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is
the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to
the action.

  Third in order is Thought- that is, the faculty of saying what is
possible and pertinent in given circumstances. In the case of oratory,
this is the function of the political art and of the art of
rhetoric: and so indeed the older poets make their characters speak
the language of civic life; the poets of our time, the language of the
rhetoricians. Character is that which reveals moral purpose, showing
what kind of things a man chooses or avoids. Speeches, therefore,
which do not make this manifest, or in which the speaker does not
choose or avoid anything whatever, are not expressive of character.
Thought, on the other hand, is found where something is proved to be
or not to be, or a general maxim is enunciated.

  Fourth among the elements enumerated comes Diction; by which I mean,
as has been already said, the expression of the meaning in words;
and its essence is the same both in verse and prose.

  Of the remaining elements Song holds the chief place among the
embellishments

  The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own,
but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least
with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is
felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the
production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage
machinist than on that of the poet.
POETICS|7

  VII

  These principles being established, let us now discuss the proper
structure of the Plot, since this is the first and most important
thing in Tragedy.

  Now, according to our definition Tragedy is an imitation of an
action that is complete, and whole, and of a certain magnitude; for
there may be a whole that is wanting in magnitude. A whole is that
which has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A beginning is that which
does not itself follow anything by causal necessity, but after which
something naturally is or comes to be. An end, on the contrary, is
that which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by
necessity, or as a rule, but has nothing following it. A middle is
that which follows something as some other thing follows it. A well
constructed plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at
haphazard, but conform to these principles.

  Again, a beautiful object, whether it be a living organism or any
whole composed of parts, must not only have an orderly arrangement
of parts, but must also be of a certain magnitude; for beauty
depends on magnitude and order. Hence a very small animal organism
cannot be beautiful; for the view of it is confused, the object
being seen in an almost imperceptible moment of time. Nor, again,
can one of vast size be beautiful; for as the eye cannot take it all
in at once, the unity and sense of the whole is lost for the
spectator; as for instance if there were one a thousand miles long.
As, therefore, in the case of animate bodies and organisms a certain
magnitude is necessary, and a magnitude which may be easily embraced
in one view; so in the plot, a certain length is necessary, and a
length which can be easily embraced by the memory. The limit of length
in relation to dramatic competition and sensuous presentment is no
part of artistic theory. For had it been the rule for a hundred
tragedies to compete together, the performance would have been
regulated by the water-clock- as indeed we are told was formerly done.
But the limit as fixed by the nature of the drama itself is this:
the greater the length, the more beautiful will the piece be by reason
of its size, provided that the whole be perspicuous. And to define the
matter roughly, we may say that the proper magnitude is comprised
within such limits, that the sequence of events, according to the
law of probability or necessity, will admit of a change from bad
fortune to good, or from good fortune to bad.
POETICS|8

  VIII

  Unity of plot does not, as some persons think, consist in the
unity of the hero. For infinitely various are the incidents in one
man's life which cannot be reduced to unity; and so, too, there are
many actions of one man out of which we cannot make one action.
Hence the error, as it appears, of all poets who have composed a
Heracleid, a Theseid, or other poems of the kind. They imagine that as
Heracles was one man, the story of Heracles must also be a unity.
But Homer, as in all else he is of surpassing merit, here too- whether
from art or natural genius- seems to have happily discerned the truth.
In composing the Odyssey he did not include all the adventures of
Odysseus- such as his wound on Parnassus, or his feigned madness at
the mustering of the host- incidents between which there was no