Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/358

 332 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. But since Tragedy is an imitation, not only of a complete action, hut also of an action exciting pity and terror, and since these effects are reciprocal, that which excites our surprise ought to be connected with some appearance of causation^ ; for by this means it will have more of the wonderful than if it appeared to be the effect of chance; since we find that, among events merely casual, those are the most wonderful and striking which seem to imply design ; as when, for instance, the statue of Mitys at Argos killed the very man who had murdered Mitys, by falling down upon him as he was surveying it ; events of this kind not having the appearance of accident. It follows, then, that such plots as are formed on these principles must be the best. Cap. X. Plots are of two sorts, simple and coraplicated (Eto-t 8e twv /at^^wv oi or conipUcat- i"'^^' aTrXot, ot 8€ TTCTrXey/Aevot) : for so also are the actions themselves of which they are imitations. An action (having the continuity and unity prescribed) I call simple, when its catastrojDhe is produced without either revolution or discovery; complicated, when with one or both. And these should arise from the structure of the plot itself, so as to be the natural consequences, necessary or probable, of what has preceded in the action ; for there is a wide difference between incidents that follow from (8ta i. e. hy means of), and incidents that follow only after {fj^^Ta), each other. Cap. xr. ^ revolution (-TreptTrercta) is a change into the reverse of what is expected from the circumstances of the action ; and that produced, as we have said, by probable or necessary consequence. Thus in the Oedipus Tyrannus, the messenger, meaning to make (Edipus happy, and to relieve him from the dread he was under with respect to his mother, by making known to him his real birth, produces an effect directly contrary to his intention. Thus also, in the Tragedy of Lynceus, the hero is led to suffer death, Danaus follows to inflict it; but the event resulting from the coui'se of the incidents is, that Danaus is killed, and Lynceus saved. A discovery (avayvwpio-is), as indeed the word implies, is a change from unknown to known, happening between those charactei's whose happiness or unhappiness forms the catastrophe of the drama, and termi- nating in friendship or enmity. The best sort of discovery is that which is accompanied by a revolu- tion, as in the (Edipus. There are also other discoveries; for inanimate things of any kind ^ The apodosis is here lost, but it must have been to the effect given above. The words, KoL fMaXiffra Kal /xdWoy orav yiurjrai irapa t7]v do^ay, are an interpolation. See Eitter.— J. W. D. On the TreptTreVeia and aVayvw- pia-15.