ddition in the shape of the Music (a very real
factor in the pleasure of the drama) and the Spectacle. (2) That its
reality of presentation is felt in the play as read, as well as in the
play as acted. (3) That the tragic imitation requires less space for
the attainment of its end; which is a great advantage, since the more
concentrated effect is more pleasurable than one with a large admixture
of time to dilute it--consider the _Oedipus_ of Sophocles, for instance,
and the effect of expanding it into the number of lines of the _Iliad_.
(4) That there is less unity in the imitation of the epic poets, as
is proved by the fact that any one work of theirs supplies matter for
several tragedies; the result being that, if they take what is really
a single story, it seems curt when briefly told, and thin and waterish
when on the scale of length usual with their verse. In saying that
there is less unity in an epic, I mean an epic made up of a plurality
of actions, in the same way as the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ have many such
parts, each one of them in itself of some magnitude; yet the structure
of the two Homeric poems is as perfect as can be, and the action in them
is as nearly as possible one action. If, then, Tragedy is superior in
these respects, and also besides these, in its poetic effect (since the
two forms of poetry should give us, not any or every pleasure, but the
very special kind we have mentioned), it is clear that, as attaining the
poetic effect better than the Epic, it will be the higher form of art.

So much for Tragedy and Epic poetry--for these two arts in general and
their species; the number and nature of their constituent parts; the
causes of success and failure in them; the Objections of the critics,
and the Solutions in answer to them.

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