them would represent noble actions, and those of noble personages; and
the meaner sort the actions of the ignoble. The latter class produced
invectives at first, just as others did hymns and panegyrics. We know
of no such poem by any of the pre-Homeric poets, though there were
probably many such writers among them; instances, however, may be
found from Homer downwards, e.g. his _Margites_, and the similar
poems of others. In this poetry of invective its natural fitness
brought an iambic metre into use; hence our present term 'iambic',
because it was the metre of their 'iambs' or invectives against one
another. The result was that the old poets became some of them writers
of heroic and others of iambic verse. Homer's position, however, is
peculiar: just as he was in the serious style the poet of poets,
standing alone not only through the literary excellence, but also
through the dramatic character of his imitations, so too he was the
first to outline for us the general forms of Comedy by producing not a
dramatic invective, but a dramatic picture of the Ridiculous; his
_Margites_ in fact stands in the same relation to our comedies as the
_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ to our tragedies. As soon, however, as Tragedy
and Comedy appeared in the field, those naturally drawn to the one
line of poetry became writers of comedies instead of iambs, and those
naturally drawn to the other, writers of tragedies instead of epics,
because these new modes of art were grander and of more esteem than
the old.

If it be asked whether Tragedy is now all that it need be in its
formative elements, to consider that, and decide it theoretically and
in relation to the theatres, is a matter for another inquiry.

It certainly began in improvisations--as did also Comedy; the one
originating with the authors of the Dithyramb, the other with those of