The tragi.e.fect is quite
possible without a public performance and actors; and besides, the
getting-up of the Spectacle is more a matter for the costumier than
the poet.
7
Having thus distinguished the parts, let us now consider the proper
construction of the Fable or Plot, as that is at once the first and
the most important thing in Tragedy. We have laid it down that a
tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete in itself, as a
whole of some magnitude; for a whole may be of no magnitude to speak
of. Now a whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end. A
beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else,
and which has naturally something else after it; an end is that which
is naturally after something itself, either as its necessary or usual
consequent, and with nothing else after it; and a middle, that which
is by nature after one thing and has also another after it. A
well-constructed Plot, therefore, cannot either begin or end at any
point one likes; beginning and end in it must be of the forms just
described. Again: to be beautiful, a living creature, and every whole
made up of parts, must not only present a certain order in its
arrangement of parts, but also be of a certain definite magnitude.
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