gs within the play to its
opposite of the kind described, and that too in the way we are saying,
in the probable or necessary sequence of events; as it is for instance
in _Oedipus_: here the opposite state of things is produced by the
Messenger, who, coming to gladden Oedipus and to remove his fears as to
his mother, reveals the secret of his birth. And in _Lynceus_: just as
he is being led off for execution, with Danaus at his side to put him to
death, the incidents preceding this bring it about that he is saved and
Danaus put to death. A Discovery is, as the very word implies, a change
from ignorance to knowledge, and thus to either love or hate, in the
personages marked for good or evil fortune. The finest form of Discovery
is one attended by Peripeties, like that which goes with the Discovery
in _Oedipus_. There are no doubt other forms of it; what we have said
may happen in a way in reference to inanimate things, even things of a
very casual kind; and it is also possible to discover whether some one
has done or not done something. But the form most directly connected
with the Plot and the action of the piece is the first-mentioned. This,
with a Peripety, will arouse either pity or fear--actions of that nature
being what Tragedy is assumed to represent; and it will also serve to
bring about the happy or unhappy ending. The Discovery, then, being of
persons, it may be that of one party only to the other, the latter being
already known; or both the parties may have to discover themselves.
Iphigenia, for instance, was discovered to Orestes by sending the
letter; and another Discovery was required to reveal him to Iphigenia.

Two parts of the Plot, then, Peripety and Discovery, are on matters of
this sort. A third part is Suffering; which we may define as an action
of a destructive or painful nature, such as murders on the stage,
tortures, woundings, and the like. The other two have been already
explained.

12

The parts of Tragedy to be treated as formative elements in the whole
were mentioned in a previous Chapter. From the point of view, however,
of its quantity, i.e. the separate sections into which it is divided, a
tragedy has the following parts: Prologue, Episode, Exode, and a choral
portion, distinguished into Parode and Stasimon; these two are common to
all tragedies, whereas songs from the stage and Commoe are only found
in some. The Prologue is all that precedes the Parode of the chorus; an
Episode