hearing the minstrel play the lyre, recalls the past and
weeps; and hence the recognition.

The fourth kind is by process of reasoning. Thus in the Choephori: 'Some
one resembling me has come: no one resembles me but Orestes: therefore
Orestes has come.' Such too is the discovery made by Iphigenia in the
play of Polyidus the Sophist. It was a natural reflection for Orestes to
make, 'So I too must die at the altar like my sister.' So, again, in
the Tydeus of Theodectes, the father says, 'I came to find my son, and
I lose my own life.' So too in the Phineidae: the women, on seeing the
place, inferred their fate:--'Here we are doomed to die, for here
we were cast forth.' Again, there is a composite kind of recognition
involving false inference on the part of one of the characters, as in
the Odysseus Disguised as a Messenger. A said <that no one else was able
to bend the bow;... hence B (the disguised Odysseus) imagined that A
would> recognise the bow which, in fact, he had not seen; and to bring
about a recognition by this means that the expectation A would recognise
the bow is false inference.

But, of all recognitions, the best is that which arises from the
incidents themselves, where the startling discovery is made by natural
means. Such is that in the Oedipus of Sophocles, and in the Iphigenia;
for it was natural that Iphigenia should wish to dispatch a letter.
These recognitions alone dispense with the artificial aid of tokens or
amulets. Next come the recognitions by process of reasoning.

XVII

In constructing the plot and working it out with the proper diction,
the poet should place the scene, as far as possible, before his eyes. In
this way, seeing everything with the utmost vividness, as if he were a
spectator of the action, he will discover what is in keeping with it,
and be most unlikely to overlook inconsistencies. The need of such a
rule is shown by the fault found in Carcinus. Amphiaraus was on his way
from the temple. This fact escaped the observation of one who did not
see the situation. On the stage, however, the piece failed, the audience
being offended at the oversight.

Again, the poet should work out his play, to the best of his power, with
appropriate gestures; for those who feel emotion are most convincing
through natural sympathy with the characters they represent; and one
who is agitated storms, one who is angry rages, with the most life-like
reality. Hence poetry implies either a happ