The Poetics | Page 9

simply this, the
combination of the incidents, or things done in the story; whereas
Character is what makes us ascribe certain moral qualities to the agents;
and Thought is shown in all they say when proving a particular point or,
it may be, enunciating a general truth. There are six parts consequently
of every tragedy, as a whole, that is, of such or such quality, viz. a
Fable or Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle and Melody; two
of them arising from the means, one from the manner, and three from
the objects of the dramatic imitation; and there is nothing else besides
these six. Of these, its formative elements, then, not a few of the
dramatists have made due use, as every play, one may say, admits of
Spectacle, Character, Fable, Diction, Melody, and Thought.
II. The most important of the six is the combination of the incidents of
the story.
Tragedy i.e.sentially an imitation not of persons but of action and life,
of happiness and misery. All human happiness or misery takes the form
of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity, not a
quality. Characte.g.ves
/ us qualities, but it is in our actions--what we
do--that we are happy or the reverse. In a play accordingly they do not
act in order to portray the Characters; they include the Characters for
the sake of the action. So that it is the action in it, i.e. its Fable or Plot,
that is the end and purpose of the tragedy; and the end i.e.erywhere the
chief thing. Besides this, a tragedy is impossible without action, but
there may be one without Character. The tragedies of most of the
moderns are characterless--a defect common among poets of all kinds,

and with its counterpart in painting in Zeuxis as compared with
Polygnotus; for whereas the latter is strong in character, the work of
Zeuxis is devoid of it. And again: one may string together a series of
characteristic speeches of the utmost finish as regards Diction and
Thought, and yet fail to produce the true tragi.e.fect
/; but one will have
much better success with a tragedy which, however inferior in these
respects, has a Plot, a combination of incidents, in it. And again: the
most powerful elements of attraction in Tragedy, the Peripeties and
Discoveries, are parts of the Plot. A further proof is in the fact that
beginners succeed earlier with the Diction and Characters than with the
construction of a story; and the same may be said of nearly all the early
dramatists. We maintain, therefore, that the first essential, the life and
soul, so to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; and that the Characters come
second--compare the parallel in painting, where the most beautiful
colours laid on without order will not give one the same pleasure as a
simple black-and-white sketch of a portrait. We maintain that Tragedy
is primarily an imitation of action, and that it is mainly for the sake of
the action that it imitates the personal agents. Third comes the element
of Thought, i.e. the power of saying whatever can be said, or what is
appropriate to the occasion. This is what, in the speeches in Tragedy,
falls under the arts of Politics and Rhetoric; for the older poets make
their personages discourse like statesmen, and the moderns like
rhetoricians. One must not confuse it with Character. Character in a
play is that which reveals the moral purpose of the agents, i.e. the sort
of thing they seek or avoid, where that is not obvious--hence there is no
room for Character in a speech on a purely indifferent subject. Thought,
on the other hand, is shown in all they say when proving or disproving
some particular point, or enunciating some universal proposition.
Fourth among the literary elements is the Diction of the personages, i.e.
as before explained, the expression of their thoughts in words, which is
practically the same thing with verse as with prose. As for the two
remaining parts, the Melody is the greatest of the pleasurable
accessories of Tragedy. The Spectacle, though an attraction, is the least
artistic of all the parts, and has least to do with the art of poetry. The
tragi.e.fect
/ is quite possible without a public performance and actors;
and besides, the getting-up of the Spectacle is more a matter for the
costumier than the poet.

7
Having thus distinguished the parts, let us now consider the proper
construction of the Fable or Plot, as that is at once the first and the most
important thing in Tragedy. We have laid it down that a tragedy is an
imitation of an action that is complete in itself, as a whole of some
magnitude; for a whole may be of no magnitude to speak of.