Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/355

 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 329 Of the remaining two parts, the music stands next ; of all the pleasurable accompaniments and embellishments of Tragedy, the most delightful. The decoration has also a great effect, but, of all the parts, is most foreign to the art. For the power of Tragedy is felt without repre- sentation, and actors; and the beauty of the decorations depends more on the art of the mechanic, than on that of the poet. These things being thus adjusted, let us go on to examine in what Cap. vn. manner the Plot should be constructed, since this is the first, and most 'f he act*on of, ,. p m J Tragedy must important part 01 Iragedy. be complete. Now we have defined Tragedy to be an imitation of an action that dramatic . 1111 • • 1 r whole? The is complete, and entire; and that has also a certain magnitude; tor proper mea- a thing may be entire and a whole, and yet not be oi any mag- gedy. nitude. 1. By entire, I mean that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A heginning is that which does not, necessarily, suppose any thing before it, but which requires something to follow it. An end, on the contrary, is that which supposes something to precede it, either necessarily or probably; but which nothing is required to follow. A middle is that which both supposes something to precede, and requires something to follow. The poet, therefore, who would construct his fable properly, is not at liberty to begin, or end, where he pleases, but must conform to these definitions. 2. Again : whatever is beautiful, whether it be an animal, or any other thing composed of different parts, must not only have those parts arranged in a certain manner, but must also be of a certain magnitude; for beauty consists in magnitude and order. Hence it is that no very- minute animal can be beautiful; the eye comprehends the whole too instantaneously to distinguish and compare the parts : — neither, on the contrary, can one of a prodigious size be beautiful; because, as all its parts cannot be seen at once, the whole, the unity of object, is lost to the spectator; as it would be, for example, if he were surveying an animal of very many miles in length. As, therefore, in animals and other objects, a certain magnitude is requisite, but that magnitude must be such as to present a whole easily comprehended hy the eye; so, in the fable, a certain length is requisite, but that length must be such as to pifesent a whole easily comprehended hy tJie memory. With respect to the measure of this length — if referred to actual representation in the dramatic contests, it is a matter foreign to the art itself : for if a hundred Tragedies had to be exhibited in concurrence.