ribed, or better, not worse, than that.
Fact also confirms our theory. Though the poets began by accepting any
tragic story that came to hand, in these days the finest tragedies are
always on the story of some few houses, on that of Alemeon, Oedipus,
Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, or any others that may have been
involved, as either agents or sufferers, in some deed of horror. The
theoretically best tragedy, then, has a Plot of this description. The
critics, therefore, are wrong who blame Euripides for taking this line
in his tragedies, and giving many of them an unhappy ending. It is, as
we have said, the right line to take. The best proof is this: on the
stage, and in the public performances, such plays, properly worked
out, are seen to be the most truly tragic; and Euripides, even if
his elecution be faulty in every other point, is seen to be nevertheless
the most tragic certainly of the dramatists. After this comes the
construction of Plot which some rank first, one with a double story
(like the _Odyssey_) and an opposite issue for the good and the bad
personages. It is ranked as first only through the weakness of the
audiences; the poets merely follow their public, writing as its wishes
dictate. But the pleasure here is not that of Tragedy. It belongs rather
to Comedy, where the bitterest enemies in the piece (e.g. Orestes and
Aegisthus) walk off good friends at the end, with no slaying of any one
by any one.

14

The tragic fear and pity may be aroused by the Spectacle; but they may
also be aroused by the very structure and incidents of the play--which
is the better way and shows the better poet. The Plot in fact should be
so framed that, even without seeing the things take place, he who simply
hears the account of them shall be filled with horror and pity at the
incidents; which is just the effect that the mere recital of the story
in _Oedipus_ would have on one. To produce this same effect by means
of the Spectacle is less artistic, and requires extraneous aid. Those,
however, who make use of the Spectacle to put before us that which is
merely monstrous and not productive of fear, are wholly out of touch
with Tragedy; not every kind of pleasure should be required of a
tragedy, but only its own proper pleasure.

The tragic pleasure is that of pity and fear, and the poet has to
produce it by a work of imitation; it is clear, therefore, that the
causes should be included in the incidents of his s