338 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. of invented proofs, or necklaces, &c. Next to these are the discove- ries by inference. Cap. XVII. The poet, both when he plans, and when he writes, his Tragedy, Si-^the tragic should put himself, as much as possible, in the place of a spectator; for, ^^^^' by this means seeing everything distinctly, as if present at the action, he will discern what is proper, and no inconsistencies will escape him. The fault objected to Carcinus is a proof of this. Amphiaraus had left the temple : this the spectator, from not seeing the action pass before his eyes, overlooked ; but in the representation the audience were dis- gusted, and the piece condemned. In composing, the poet should even, as much as possible, be an actor: for, by natural sympathy, the^ are most persuasive and affecting who are under the influence of actual passion. We share the agitation of those who appear to be truly agitated — the anger of those who appear to be truly angry. Hence it is that poetry demands either great natural quickness of parts, or an enthusiasm allied to madness. By the first of these, we mould ourselves with facility to the imitation of every form ; by the other, transported out of ourselves, we become what we imagine. When the poet invents a subject, he should first draw a general sketch of it, and afterwards give it the detail of its episodes, and extend it. The general argument, for instance, of the Iphigenia should be considered in this way : — " A virgin, on the point of being sacrificed, is imperceptibly conveyed away from the altar, and transported to another country, where it was the custom to sacrifice all strangers to Diana. Of these rites she is appointed priestess. It happens, some time after, that her brother arrives there." [But wh^ ? — because an oracle had commanded him, for some reason exterior to the general plan. For what purpose? This also is exterior to the plan.] "He arrives, is seized, and, at the instant that he is going to be sacrificed, the discovery is made." And this may be either in the way of Euripides or like that of Polyeidus, by the natural reflection of Orestes, that " it was his fate also, as it had been his sister's, to be sacrificed :" by which exclamation he is saved. After this, the poet, when he has given names to his characters, should proceed to the episodes of his action; and he must take care that these belong properly to the subject ; like that of the madness of Orestes, which occasions his being taken, and his escape by means of the ablution {Iph. T. 260 — 339, 1158 sqq.). In dramatic poetry the episodes are short, but in the epic they are the means of drawing out the poem to its proper length. The general story of the Odyssey,
