mies; and the end is
his salvation and their death. This being all that is proper to the
_Odyssey_, everything else in it is episode.

18

(4) There is a further point to be borne in mind. Every tragedy is
in part Complication and in part Denouement; the incidents before the
opening scene, and often certain also of those within the play, forming
the Complication; and the rest the Denouement. By Complication I mean
all from the beginning of the story to the point just before the change
in the hero's fortunes; by Denouement, all from the beginning of the
change to the end. In the _Lynceus_ of Theodectes, for instance, the
Complication includes, together with the presupposed incidents, the
seizure of the child and that in turn of the parents; and the Denouement
all from the indictment for the murder to the end. Now it is right, when
one speaks of a tragedy as the same or not the same as another, to do so
on the ground before all else of their Plot, i.e. as having the same or
not the same Complication and Denouement. Yet there are many dramatists
who, after a good Complication, fail in the Denouement. But it is
necessary for both points of construction to be always duly mastered.
(5) There are four distinct species of Tragedy--that being the number
of the constituents also that have been mentioned: first, the complex
Tragedy, which is all Peripety and Discovery; second, the Tragedy
of suffering, e.g. the _Ajaxes_ and _Ixions_; third, the Tragedy of
character, e.g. _The Phthiotides_ and _Peleus_. The fourth constituent
is that of 'Spectacle', exemplified in _The Phorcides_, in _Prometheus_,
and in all plays with the scene laid in the nether world. The poet's
aim, then, should be to combine every element of interest, if possible,
or else the more important and the major part of them. This is now
especially necessary owing to the unfair criticism to which the poet is
subjected in these days. Just because there have been poets before him
strong in the several species of tragedy, the critics now expect the
one man to surpass that which was the strong point of each one of his
predecessors. (6) One should also remember what has been said more than
once, and not write a tragedy on an epic body of incident (i.e. one with
a plurality of stories in it), by attempting to dramatize, for instance,
the entire story of the _Iliad_. In the epic owing to its scale every
part is treated at proper length; with a drama, however, on the