It was accident rather than
art that led the poets in quest of subjects to embody this kind of
incident in their Plots. They are still obliged, accordingly, to have
recourse to the families in which such horrors have occurred.
On the construction of the Plot, and the kind of Plot required for
Tragedy, enough has now been said.
15
In the Characters there are four points to aim at. First and foremost,
that they shall be good. There will be an element of character in the
play, if (as has been observed) what a personage says or does reveals
a certain moral purpose; and a good element of character, if the
purpose so revealed is good. Such goodness is possible i.e.ery type
of personage, even in a woman or a slave, though the one is perhaps an
inferior, and the other a wholly worthless being. The second point is
to make them appropriate. The Character before us may be, say, manly;
but it is not appropriate in a female Character to be manly, or
clever. The third is to make them like the reality, which is not the
same as their being good and appropriate, in our sense of the term.
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