Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/360

 334 Aristotle's treatise on poetry-. that the change from j^rosperity to adversity should not be represented as happening to a virtuous character; for this raises disgust, rather than terror or compassion. Neither should the contrary change from adver- sity to prosperity be exhibited in a vicious character : this, of all plans, is the most opposite to the genius of Tragedy, having no one property that it ought to have; for it is neither gratifying, in a moral view, nor affecting nor terrible. Nor, again, should the fall of a very had man from prosperous to adverse fortune be represented; because, though such a sub- ject may be pleasing from its moral tendency, it will produce neither pity nor terror [for our jy^iy is excited by misfortunes undeservedly suffered, and our terror by some resemblance between the sufferer and ourselves]. Neither of these effects will, therefore, be produced by such an event. There remains, then, for our choice, the character hetioeen these extremes ; that of a person neither eminently virtuous or just, nor yet involved in misfortune by reason of deliberate vice or villany, but from some error of human frailty; and this person should also be some one of high fame and flourishing prosperity; for example, GlJdipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families. Hence it appears, that, to be well constructed, a plot, contrary to the opinion of some, should be single, rather than double; that the change of fortune should not be from adverse to prosperous, but the reverse; and that it should be the consequence not of vice, but of some great frailty, in a character such as has been described, or better rather than ivorse. These principles are confirmed by experience ; for poets formerly admitted almost any story into the number of tragic subjects; but now, the subjects of the best Tragedies are confined to a few families — to Alcmceon, (Edijnis, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, and others, the sufferers, or the authors, of some terrible, calamity. The most perfect Tragedy, then, according to the principles of the art, is of this construction. Whence appears the mistake of those critics who censure Euripides for this practice in his Tragedies, many of which terminate unhappily; for this, as we have shown, is right; and, as the strongest proof of it, we find that, upon the stage, and in the dramatic contests, such Tragedies, if they succeed, have always the most tragic effect : and Euripides, though in other respects faulty in the conduct of his subjects, seems clearly to be the most tragic of all poets. I place in the second rank that kind of fable to which some assign the ffrst ; that which is of a double construction, like the Odyssey, and also ends in two opposite events, to the good, and to the bad characters. That this passes for the best, is owing to the weakness of the spectators, to whose wishes the poets accommodate their productions. This kind of pleasure, however, is not the proper pleasure of Tragedy, but belongs