Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/363

 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 337 the discovery is made in the Ti-agedy of Tyro. Even these, however, may be employed with more or less skill. The discovery of Ulysses, for example, to his nurse, by means of his scar, is veiy different from his discover)'-, by the same means, to the herdsmen. For all those discove- ries, in which the sign is produced by way of proof, are inartificial. Those which, like that in the Washing of Ulysses, happen by a revolu- tion {Ik TreptTreretas), are better. Secondly, — Discoveries invented, at pleasure, by the poet, and on that account, still inartificial. For example; in the Iphigenia, Orestes, after having discovered his sister, discovers himself to her. She, indeed, is discovered by means of the letter; but Orestes himself speaks such things as the poet chooses, not such as arise from the fictitious circum- stances. This kind of discovery, therefore, bordei-s upon the fault of that fii'st mentioned : for some of the things from which those proofs are dra^NTi are even such as might have been actually produced as visible signs. Another instance, is the discovery by the sound of the shuttle in the Tereus of Sophocles. Thirdly, — The discoveiy occasioned by memory {-q Sia fxinjixr]';) : as, when some recollection is excited by the view of a particular object. Thus, in the Cyprians of Dicceogenes, a discovery is produced by tears shed at the sight of a pictiu'e : and thus, in the Tale of Alcinoics, Ulysses, listening to the bard, recollects, weeps, and is discovered. Fourthly, — The discovery occasioned by reasoning or inference {rj U a-vXXoytcTfxov) : such as that in the Choephoroe : " The person, who is arrived, resembles me — no one resembles me but Orestes — it must be he 1" And that of Polyeidu^ the sophist, in his Iphigenia; for the con- clusion of Orestes was natural — " It had been his sister* s lot to be sacri- ficed, and it was now his oxonT That, also, in the Tydeus of Theodectes — " He came to find his son, and he himself must perish ! " And thus the daughters of Fhineus, in the Tragedy denominated ft'om them, view- ing the place to which they were led, infer their fate — " there they were to die, for there they were exposed ! " There is also a compoimd sort of discovery, arising from false inference in the audience, as in Ulysses the False Messenger : he asserts that he shall know the bow, which he had not seen; the audience falsely infer, that a discovery by that means will follow. But, of all discoveries, the best is that which arises from the action itself and in which a striking efiect is produced by 2^^'obahle incidents. Such is that in the (Edipy^ of Sophocles, and that in the Iphigenia; for nothing is more natural than her desire of conveying the letter. Such discoveries are the best, because they alone are effected without the help D. T. G. 22