own in all they say when
proving a particular point or, it may be, enunciating a general truth.
There are six parts consequently of every tragedy, as a whole, that
is, of such or such quality, viz. a Fable or Plot, Characters, Diction,
Thought, Spectacle and Melody; two of them arising from the means, one
from the manner, and three from the objects of the dramatic imitation;
and there is nothing else besides these six. Of these, its formative
elements, then, not a few of the dramatists have made due use, as every
play, one may say, admits of Spectacle, Character, Fable, Diction,
Melody, and Thought.

II. The most important of the six is the combination of the incidents of
the story.

Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and
life, of happiness and misery. All human happiness or misery takes the
form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of
activity, not a quality. Character gives us qualities, but it is in
our actions--what we do--that we are happy or the reverse. In a play
accordingly they do not act in order to portray the Characters; they
include the Characters for the sake of the action. So that it is the
action in it, i.e. its Fable or Plot, that is the end and purpose of
the tragedy; and the end is everywhere the chief thing. Besides this,
a tragedy is impossible without action, but there may be one without
Character. The tragedies of most of the moderns are characterless--a
defect common among poets of all kinds, and with its counterpart in
painting in Zeuxis as compared with Polygnotus; for whereas the latter
is strong in character, the work of Zeuxis is devoid of it. And again:
one may string together a series of characteristic speeches of the
utmost finish as regards Diction and Thought, and yet fail to produce
the true tragic effect; but one will have much better success with
a tragedy which, however inferior in these respects, has a Plot, a
combination of incidents, in it. And again: the most powerful elements
of attraction in Tragedy, the Peripeties and Discoveries, are parts of
the Plot. A further proof is in the fact that beginners succeed earlier
with the Diction and Characters than with the construction of a
story; and the same may be said of nearly all the early dramatists. We
maintain, therefore, that the first essential, the life and soul, so
to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; and that the Characters come
second--compare the parallel in painting, where the