mething in either (1) impossible, (2)
improbable, (3) corrupting, (4) contradictory, or (5) against technical
correctness. The answers to these objections must be sought under one or
other of the above-mentioned heads, which are twelve in number.

26

The question may be raised whether the epic or the tragic is the higher
form of imitation. It may be argued that, if the less vulgar is the
higher, and the less vulgar is always that which addresses the better
public, an art addressing any and every one is of a very vulgar order.
It is a belief that their public cannot see the meaning, unless they
add something themselves, that causes the perpetual movements of
the performers--bad flute-players, for instance, rolling about, if
quoit-throwing is to be represented, and pulling at the conductor, if
Scylla is the subject of the piece. Tragedy, then, is said to be an art
of this order--to be in fact just what the later actors were in the eyes
of their predecessors; for Myrmiscus used to call Callippides 'the ape',
because he thought he so overacted his parts; and a similar view was
taken of Pindarus also. All Tragedy, however, is said to stand to the
Epic as the newer to the older school of actors. The one, accordingly,
is said to address a cultivated 'audience, which does not need the
accompaniment of gesture; the other, an uncultivated one. If, therefore,
Tragedy is a vulgar art, it must clearly be lower than the Epic.

The answer to this is twofold. In the first place, one may urge (1) that
the censure does not touch the art of the dramatic poet, but only that
of his interpreter; for it is quite possible to overdo the gesturing
even in an epic recital, as did Sosistratus, and in a singing contest,
as did Mnasitheus of Opus. (2) That one should not condemn all movement,
unless one means to condemn even the dance, but only that of ignoble
people--which is the point of the criticism passed on Callippides and
in the present day on others, that their women are not like gentlewomen.
(3) That Tragedy may produce its effect even without movement or action
in just the same way as Epic poetry; for from the mere reading of a
play its quality may be seen. So that, if it be superior in all other
respects, this element of inferiority is not a necessary part of it.

In the second place, one must remember (1) that Tragedy has everything
that the Epic has (even the epic metre being admissible), together with
a not inconsiderable a