CHAP. IX.

Poetry does not differ from history, by the accident of being written in verse or in prose; but its real difference consists in relating what might have happened, not what has actually happened.

Hence poetry more universal and philosophic, as relating to classes of characters, not to individuals.

The traditional fables, therefore, which relate only what has been done, not to be too closely adhered to. The fable most important. It should not be full of episodes.

The terrible an essential element in tragedy: definition of it.

СНАР. Х.

Plots are either simple or compound.

Simple, where the event happens without revolution or discovery.

Complex, where it happens with revolution or discovery, or both.

The event, however, should follow easily and naturally.

CHAP. XI.

The event of a plot is either a revolution (TEρITÉτεια) or recognition (ἀναγνώρισις).

The union of the two methods is best, as in the Edipus Rex.

All the above will excite the tragic feelings of pity and fear.

[A third requisite of a plot is disaster (τáðos).]

CHAP. XII.

A tragedy ought to have (1.) Prologue, (2.) Episode, (3.) Exode, (4.) Chorus.

The choral songs divided into the Parodos, Stasimon, and Commos.

CHAP. XIII.

It is essential to a plot that it should not be simple, but should contain some vicissitudes or revolutions.

The moral effect of such revolutions: the good should not fall into ill fortune, nor the bad rise into prosperity.

The hero should be one of the ordinary stamp of mortals, in order to affect the spectator more nearly. A simple plot preferable to a double one.

Tragedy should have a happy event, though this is less popular than the contrary.

CHAP. XIV.

Fear and pity not excited by the monstrous, but by combination of circumstances natural but not commonplace.

E. g. neither fear nor pity is excited when one enemy kills another, but when a father kills a son, or a son his mother, &c.

Apposite examples.

The poet should adopt received stories, and invent his plot suitably to them.

An act may be done either knowingly or in ignorance; a third, and the best, plot is when the act is intended, but where it is set aside by some discovery in time.

CHAP. XV.

The manners* in a tragedy should be (1.) good, (2.) expressive of intention (poaípeois), (3.) suited to the characters, (4.) similar and uniform.

The action should follow according to necessity or probability.

The solution (vois) of the plot should arise out of the story itself, not ab extrà.

Tragedy compared with painting.

CHAP. XVI.

Recognitions† should be natural, arising out of the circumstances. Others arise from external marks, or artificial tokens, or from remembrance, or by inference, true or mistaken.

The natural are the best.

CHAP. XVII.

The poet's work is to realise ideas to his spec

tators.

In order to do so he must himself feel deeply, and sketch out his plot.

His episodes should be suitable, and not too long.

CHAP. XVIII.

Every tragedy must have a combination (déois) as well as an unravelling (Avots).

Four kinds of tragedy: the complicated, the pathetic, the moral, and the supernatural.

The poet should be ready with each of these kinds. The Iliad contrasted with a drama; other examples.

Business of the chorus to sympathise with the players.

CHAP. XIX.

As to speech and sentiments, enough is said in the "Rhetoric."*

The poet should be acquainted with these subjects.

CHAP. XX.

The parts of speech enumerated and explained. Letters, syllables, cases, and sentences.

What is a complete sentence?

*See Aristotle's Rhetoric, part iii.

CHAP. XXI.

Nouns, simple and compound, proper and foreign, metaphorical and invented, extended, contracted, and altered.

Examples.

Metaphors of four kinds :

1. From genus to species; 2. From species to genus ; 3. From species to species; 4. from analogy.

CHAP. XXII.

Clearness and freedom from meanness the merit of diction.

Metaphors, foreign, and extended words, keep style from meanness.

Expressions of the poets criticised.

The great point is to employ metaphor well.

CHAP. XXIII.

Narrative (i.e. epic) poetry, like dramatic, should have a unity of its own.

Homer judicious in not taking for his subject the history of the whole Trojan war, but in selecting one part and introducing episodes.

CHAP. XXIV.

Epic poetry has the same parts as tragedy, except music and scenery."

*