measures, the most colloquial: we see it in the
fact that conversational speech runs into iambic lines
more frequently than into any other kind of verse;
rarely into hexameters, and only when we drop the
colloquial intonation. The additions to the number
of ‘episodes’ or acts, and the other accessories
of which tradition; tells, must be taken as already
described; for to discuss them in detail would, doubtless,
be a large undertaking.
Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters
of a lower type, not, however, in the full sense of
the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision
of the ugly. It consists in some defect or ugliness
which is not painful or destructive. To take an
obvious example, the comic mask is ugly and distorted,
but does not imply pain.
The successive changes through which Tragedy passed,
and the authors of these changes, are well known,
whereas Comedy has had no history, because it was
not at first treated seriously. It was late before
the Archon granted a comic chorus to a poet; the performers
were till then voluntary. Comedy had already
taken definite shape when comic poets, distinctively
so called, are heard of. Who furnished it with
masks, or prologues, or increased the number of actors,—these
and other similar details remain unknown. As
for the plot, it came originally from Sicily; but
of Athenian writers Crates was the first who, abandoning
the ‘iambic’ or lampooning form, generalised
his themes and plots.
Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is
an imitation in verse of characters of a higher type.
They differ, in that Epic poetry admits but one kind
of metre, and is narrative in form. They differ,
again, in their length: for Tragedy endeavours,
as far as possible, to confine itself to a single
revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this
limit; whereas the Epic action has no limits of time.
This, then, is a second point of difference; though
at first the same freedom was admitted in Tragedy
as in Epic poetry.
Of their constituent parts some are common to both,
some peculiar to Tragedy, whoever, therefore, knows
what is good or bad Tragedy, knows also about Epic
poetry. All the elements of an Epic poem are found
in Tragedy, but the elements of a Tragedy are not
all found in the Epic poem.
Of the poetry which imitates in hexameter verse, and
of Comedy, we will speak hereafter. Let us now
discuss Tragedy, resuming its formal definition, as
resulting from what has been already said.
Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is
serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in
language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament,
the several kinds being found in separate parts of
the play; in the form of action, not of narrative;
through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation
of these emotions. By ’language embellished,’
I mean language into which rhythm, ‘harmony,’
and song enter. By ‘the several kinds in
separate parts,’ I mean, that some parts are
rendered through the medium of verse alone, others
again with the aid of song.
