Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/377

 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 351 through a long extent of time ; as the (Edipus of Sophocles, for exam- ple, would be, if it were drawn out to the length of the Iliad. Further : there is less unity in all epic imitation ; as appears from this — that any epic poem will furnish matter for several Tragedies. For, supposing the poet to choose a fable strictly one, the consequence must be, either, that his poem, if proportionably contracted, will appear curtailed and defective, or, if extended to the usual length, will become weak, and, as it were, diluted. If, on the other hand, we suppose him to employ several fables — ^that is, a fable composed of several actions — his imitation is no longer strictly one. The Iliadf for example, and the Odyssey, contain many such subordinate parts, each of which has a certain mag- nitude and unity of its own ; yet is the construction of those poems as perfect, and as nearly approacliing to the imitation of a single action as possible. If then, Tragedy be superior to the epic in all these respects, and also in the peculiar end at which it aims (for each species ought to afford, not any sort of pleasure indiscriminately, but such only as has been pointed out), it evidently follows, that Tragedy, as it attains more effectually the end of the art itself, must deserve the preference. [And thus much concerning Tragic and epic poetry in general, and their several species — the number and the differences of their parts — the causes of their beauties and their defects — the censu/res of critics, and the principles on which they are to be answered.]