Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/353

 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 327 7)msic), and the diction; for these last include the means of tragic imita- tion. By diction I mean the metrical composition. The meaning of melopoeia is obvious to every one. Again : Tragedy being an imitation of an action, and the persons employed in that action being necessarily characterized by their 7)ian~ ners and their sentiments, since it is from these that actions themselves derive their character, it follows, that there must also be manners and sentiments, as the two causes of actions, and, consequently, of the happi- ness or unhappiness of all men. The imitation of the action is the 2)lot : for by plot (fivOov) I now mean the contexture of incidents. By manners (yjOr)), I mean, whatever marks the characters of the persons. By seoitiments (8tai/oia), whatever they sai/, whether proving any thing, or delivering a general opinion, &c. Hence, all Tragedy must necessarily contain six parts, which, together, constitute its peculiar character or quality: plot, manners, diction, sentiments, decoration, and music {fxvOo^, koL rjOrj, koI Xe^ts, kol SidvoLa, Kot oipi'?, KOL fxiXoTToda). Of these parts, two relate to the means, one to the manner, and three to the object of imitation. And these are all. [These specific p)(^'^ts have been employed by most poets, and are to be found in almost every Tragedy.] But of all these parts the most important is the combination of incidents, or the plot : because Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of actions [of life and of happiness : even unhappiness consists in action, and the supreme good itself, the very eiid of life, is action of a certain kind, — not a quality]. Now the manners of men constitute only their quality or characters ; but it is by their actions that they are happy, or the contrary. Tragedy, therefore, does not imitate action, for the sake of imitating manners; but in the imitation of action, that of manners TtaBy], the distinction is not uniformly maintained, and Trd^os and ii6.Qo% are certainly used by ^^schylus (Ac/am. 170) in the same sense as irddrj/xa and /xd^T/z^a by Herodotus (l. 207). And with regard to KaOapais, which must be taken in its medical sense, it seems quite clear that it implies a curative effect. Just as Aristotle speaks of pleasure as a cure (iarpeia) of pain {Eth. Nic. VII. 1154 a. 27), and of recreation as a cure of labour {Polit. VIII. [5], p. 1339 b. 17: rrjs yap 5td rQv irbvuiv vTrr]S iarpeia ris iaTLv), so the amusement or intellectual diversion of a play is a cure of real fear or pity ; and as all cures are naturally produced by the opposite of the ills which they remedy (Aristot. Elh. Nic. 11. p. 1104 b. 17: at iarpdaL Std, rCjv havriwu irecpvKaat yiueaOai), we must understand that the KaOapa-is of Tragedy is produced by the contrast between the real emotion and the contemplation in thought of the sorrows of others ; on the principle of the suave mari magno, &c. (Lucret. II. init.) This may seem, as Milton suggests {Preface to Samson Agonistes), to be a sort of homoeopathic remedy (Bernays, p. 192); but the contrast is maintained in the opposition between the real and the imaginary ; it is a case in which, as Aristotle elsewhere expresses it {Pol. V, [vii.] p. 1341 a. 1. 22), 7] Oeoopia KaOapaiv /xdWou bvvaraL rj (xdOrjaiv, and the spectator is elevated or consoled by the thought that the representation which he sees on the stage of the traditionary or possible misfortunes of his fellow-creatures are different iu kind or degree from the worst of his own sad experiences. — J. W. D.