and place. In enumerating the differences between tragedy and epic poetry, he says (v. 8) that “the one generally tries to limit its action to a period of twenty-four hours, or not much to exceed that, while the other is unlimited in point of time.” But he does not lay this down as a law for Tragedy. The peculiarity of the Greek drama, in which a chorus remained constantly present and the curtain never fell, almost necessitated “the unities;” but Aristotle only concerns himself with internal unity, which he says (viii. 4) that Tragedy must have, in common with every other work of art, and which consists in making every part bear an organic relation to the whole, so that no part could be altered or omitted without the whole suffering. This principle, far more valuable than that of “the unities,” would seem to need reassertion, for we might almost say that it is habitually violated by writers of fiction in the present day,—at all events by all but the very few who may be placed in the first class.
The ‘Poetic’ gives many notices of the rise and progress of the Greek drama, and the modifications which tragedy and comedy went through, and much information as to the technical divisions of a play, and other such matters; but all these points have become the property of manuals of “Greek Antiquities.” Aristotle notes a decadence of the drama in his own day: he complains of authors spoiling their plays by introducing episodes merely to suit particular actors: he considers that spectacle is carried too far, and that it is a mistake to aim at producing tragical effect by
