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 hi.e.ecution be faulty i.e.ery 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.
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