e. the power of saying whatever can be said,
or what is appropriate to the occasion. This is what, in the speeches
in Tragedy, falls under the arts of Politics and Rhetoric; for the
older poets make their personages discourse like statesmen, and the
moderns like rhetoricians. One must not confuse it with Character.
Character in a play is that which reveals the moral purpose of the
agents, i.e. the sort of thing they seek or avoid, where that is not
obvious--hence there is no room for Character in a speech on a purely
indifferent subject. Thought, on the other hand, is shown in all they
say when proving or disproving some particular point, or enunciating
some universal proposition. Fourth among the literary elements is the
Diction of the personages, i.e. as before explained, the expression of
their thoughts in words, which is practically the same thing with
verse as with prose. As for the two remaining parts, the Melody is the
greatest of the pleasurable accessories of Tragedy. The Spectacle,
though an attraction, is the least artistic of all the parts, and has
least to do with the art of poetry.
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