and makes the discovery before it is done. These are the only possible
ways. For the deed must either be done or not done,--and that wittingly
or unwittingly. But of all these ways, to be about to act knowing the
persons, and then not to act, is the worst. It is shocking without being
tragic, for no disaster follows. It is, therefore, never, or very rarely,
found in poetry. One instance, however, is in the Antigone, where Haemon
threatens to kill Creon. The next and better way is that the deed should
be perpetrated. Still better, that it should be perpetrated in ignorance,
and the discovery made afterwards. There is then nothing to shock us,
while the discovery produces a startling effect. The last case is the
best, as when in the Cresphontes Merope is about to slay her son, but,
recognising who he is, spares his life. So in the Iphigenia, the sister
recognises the brother just in time. Again in the Helle, the son
recognises the mother when on the point of giving her up. This, then, is
why a few families only, as has been already observed, furnish the
subjects of tragedy. It was not art, but happy chance, that led the poets
in search of subjects to impress the tragic quality upon their plots.
They are compelled, therefore, to have recourse to those houses whose
history contains moving incidents like these.

Enough has now been said concerning the structure of the incidents, and
the right kind of plot.



XV

In respect of Character there are four things to be aimed at. First, and
most important, it must be good. Now any speech or action that manifests
moral purpose of any kind will be expressive of character: the character