e.es. In
this way, seeing everything with the vividness of an eye-witness as it
were, he will devise what is appropriate, and be least likely to
overlook incongruities. This is shown by what was censured in
Carcinus, the return of Amphiaraus from the sanctuary; it would have
passed unnoticed, if it had not been actually seen by the audience;
but on the stage his play failed, the incongruity of the incident
offending the spectators. (2) As far as may be, too, the poet should
even act his story with the very gestures of his personages. Given the
same natural qualifications, he who feels the emotions to be described
will be the most convincing; distress and anger, for instance, are
portrayed most truthfully by one who is feeling them at the moment.
Hence it is that poetry demands a man with special gift for it, or
else one with a touch of madness in him; the, former can easily assume
the required mood, and the latter may be actually beside himself with
emotion. (3) His story, again, whether already made or of his own
making, he should first simplify and reduce to a universal form,
before proceeding to lengthen it out by the insertion of episodes.
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