ction, through its passing out of its satyric stage, it assumed,
though only at a late point in its progress, a tone of dignity; and
its metre changed then from trochaic to iambic. The reason for their
original use of the trochaic tetrameter was that their poetry was
satyric and more connected with dancing than it now is. As soon,
however, as a spoken part came in, nature herself found the appropriate
metre. The iambic, we know, is the most speakable of metres, as is shown
by the fact that we very often fall into it in conversation, whereas we
rarely talk hexameters, and only when we depart from the speaking tone
of voice. (4) Another change was a plurality of episodes or acts. As for
the remaining matters, the superadded embellishments and the account of
their introduction, these must be taken as said, as it would probably be
a long piece of work to go through the details.

5

As for Comedy, it is (as has been observed) an imitation of men worse
than the average; worse, however, not as regards any and every sort of
fault, but only as regards one particular kind, the Ridiculous, which
is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake
or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for
instance, that excites laughter, is something ugly and distorted without
causing pain.

Though the successive changes in Tragedy and their authors are not
unknown, we cannot say the same of Comedy; its early stages passed
unnoticed, because it was not as yet taken up in a serious way. It was
only at a late point in its progress that a chorus of comedians was
officially granted by the archon; they used to be mere volunteers. It
had also already certain definite forms at the time when the record of
those termed comic poets begins. Who it was who supplied it with masks,
or prologues, or a plurality of actors and the like, has remained
unknown. The invented Fable, or Plot, however, originated in Sicily,
with Epicharmus and Phormis; of Athenian poets Crates was the first
to drop the Comedy of invective and frame stories of a general and
non-personal nature, in other words, Fables or Plots.

Epic poetry, then, has been seen to agree with Tragedy to this extent,
that of being an imitation of serious subjects in a grand kind of verse.
It differs from it, however, (1) in that it is in one kind of verse and
in narrative form; and (2) in its length--which is due to its action
having no fixed limit of ti