Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/354

 328 aeistotle's treatise on poetry. is of course involved. So that the action and the |j?o< are the end of Tragedy ; and in every thing the end is of principal importance. Again — Tragedy cannot subsist without action; without manners it may: the Tragedies of most modern poets have this defect; a defect common, indeed, among poets in general. As among painters, also, this is the case with Zeuxis, compared with Polygnotus : the latter excels in the expression of the mawaers; there is no such expression in the pictures of Zeuxis. Further ; suppose any one to string together a number of speeches, in which the manners are strongly marked, the language and the sentiments well turned ; this will not be sufficient to produce the proper effect of Tragedy : that end will much rather be answered by a piece, defective in each of those particulars, but furnished with a proper plot and combination of incidents. Add to this, that those parts of Tragedy, by means of which it becomes most interesting and affecting, are parts of the plot; I mean revolutions and discoveries. As a further proof, beginners in tragic writing are sooner able to arrive at excellence in the language, and the manners, than in the construction of a plot; as appears from almost all our earlier poets. The plot, then, is the principal part, the soid, as it were, of Tragedy ; and the manners are next in rank'. Just as in painting, the most brilliant colours spread at random, and without design, will give far less pleasure than the simplest outline of a figure. And the imitation is of an action, and on account of that, principally, of the agents. In the third place stand the sentiments. To this part it belongs to say such things as are true and proper; which, in the dialogue, depends on the political and 7'hetorical arts; for the ancients made their charac- ters speak in the style of political and popular eloquence; but now the rhetorical manner prevails. The manners are whatever manifests the disposition of the speaker. There are speeches, therefore, which are without manners, or character; as not containing any thing by which the propensities or aversions of the person who delivers them can be known. The sentiments compre- hend whatever is said; whether proving any thing, affirmatively, or negatively, or expressing some general reflectioii, &c. Fourth, in prder, is the diction — the expression of the sentiments by words; the power and effect of which is the same, whether in verse or prose. 1 It may be doubted whether the rest of this chapter ought not to be considered as an interpolation. — J. W. D.