The Poetics | Page 8

The reason for their
original use of the trochaic tetrameter was that their poetry was satyric
and more connected with dancing than it now is. As soon, however, as
a spoken part came in, nature herself found the appropriate metre. The
iambic, we know, is the most speakable of metres, as is shown by the
fact that we very often fall into it in conversation, whereas we rarely
talk hexameters, and only when we depart from the speaking tone of
voice. (4) Another change was a plurality of episodes or acts. As for the
remaining matters, the superadded embellishments and the account of
their introduction, these must be taken as said, as it would probably be
a long piece of work to go through the details.
5
As for Comedy, it is (as has been observed) an imitation of men worse
than the average; worse, however, not as regards any and every sort of
fault, but only as regards one particular kind, the Ridiculous, which is a
species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or
deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for
instance, that excites laughter, is something ugly and distorted without
causing pain.
Though the successive changes in Tragedy and their authors are not
unknown, we cannot say the same of Comedy; its early stages passed
unnoticed, because it was not as yet taken up in a serious way. It was
only at a late point in its progress that a chorus of comedians was
officially granted by the archon; they used to be mere volunteers. It had
also already certain definite forms at the time when the record of those

termed comic poets begins. Who it was who supplied it with masks, or
prologues, or a plurality of actors and the like, has remained unknown.
The invented Fable, or Plot, however, originated in Sicily, with
Epicharmus and Phormis; of Athenian poets Crates was the first to drop
the Comedy of invective and frame stories of a general and
non-personal nature, in other words, Fables or Plots.
Epic poetry, then, has been seen to agree with Tragedy to thi.e.tent
/,
that of being an imitation of serious subjects in a grand kind of verse. It
differs from it, however, (1) in that it is in one kind of verse and in
narrative form; and (2) in its length--which is due to its action having
no fixed limit of time, whereas Tragedy endeavours to keep as far as
possible within a single circuit of the sun, or something near that. This,
I say, is another point of difference between them, though at first the
practice in this respect was just the same in tragedies as i.e.ic poems.
They differ also (3) in their constituents, some being common to both
and others peculiar to Tragedy--hence a judge of good and bad in
Tragedy is a judge of that i.e.ic poetry also. All the parts of an epic are
included in Tragedy; but those of Tragedy are not all of them to be
found in the Epic.
6
Reserving hexameter poetry and Comedy for consideration hereafter,
let us proceed now to the discussion of Tragedy; before doing so,
however, we must gather up the definition resulting from what has been
said. A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and
also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with
pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of
the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing
pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.
Here by 'language with pleasurable accessories' I mean that with
rhythm and harmony or song superadded; and by 'the kinds separately' I
mean that some portions are worked out with verse only, and others in
turn with song.
I. As they act the stories, it follows that in the first place the Spectacle
(or stage-appearance of the actors) must be some part of the whole; and

in the second Melody and Diction, these two being the means of their
imitation. Here by 'Diction' I mean merely this, the composition of the
verses; and by 'Melody', what is too completely understood to require
explanation. But further: the subject represented also is an action; and
the action involves agents, who must necessarily have their distinctive
qualities both of character and thought, since it is from these that we
ascribe certain qualities to their actions. There are in the natural order
of things, therefore, two causes, Character and Thought, of their actions,
and consequently of their success or failure in their lives. Now the
action (that which was done) is represented in the play by the Fable or
Plot. The Fable, in our present sense of the term, is