The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

being led away to his death, and Danaus goes
with him, meaning to slay him; but the outcome of the preceding
incidents is that Danaus is killed and Lynceus saved.
    Recognition, as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance
to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined
by the poet for good or bad fortune. The best form of recognition
is coincident with a Reversal of the Situation, as in the Oedipus.
There are indeed other forms. Even inanimate things of the most
trivial kind may in a sense be objects of recognition. Again, we
may recognize or discover whether a person has done a thing or not.
But the recognition which is most intimately connected with the
plot and action is, as we have said, the recognition of persons.
This recognition, combined with Reversal, will produce either pity
or fear; and actions producing these effects are those which, by
our definition, Tragedy represents. Moreover, it is upon such
situations that the issues of good or bad fortune will depend.
Recognition, then, being between persons, it may happen that one
person only is recognized by the other—when the latter is already
known—or it may be necessary that the recognition should be on both
sides. Thus Iphigenia is revealed to Orestes by the sending of the
letter; but another act of recognition is required to make Orestes
known to Iphigenia.
    Two parts, then, of the Plot—Reversal of the Situation and
Recognition—turn upon surprises. A third part is the Scene of
Suffering. The Scene of Suffering is a destructive or painful
action, such as death on the stage, bodily agony, wounds, and the
like.
XII
    The parts of Tragedy which must be treated as elements of the
whole have been already mentioned. We now come to the quantitative
parts—the separate parts into which Tragedy is divided—namely,
Prologue, Episode, Exode, Choric song; this last being divided into
Parode and Stasimon. These are common to all plays: peculiar to
some are the songs of actors from the stage and the Commoi.
    The Prologue is that entire part of a tragedy which precedes the
Parode of the Chorus. The Episode is that entire part of a tragedy
which is between complete choric songs. The Exode is that entire
part of a tragedy which has no choric song after it. Of the Choric
part the Parode is the first undivided utterance of the Chorus: the
Stasimon is a Choric ode without anapaests or trochaic tetrameters:
the Commos is a joint lamentation of Chorus and actors. The parts
of Tragedy which must be treated as elements of the whole have been
already mentioned. The quantitative parts—the separate parts into
which it is divided—are here enumerated.
XIII
    As the sequel to what has already been said, we must proceed to
consider what the poet should aim at, and what he should avoid, in
constructing his plots; and by what means the specific effect of
Tragedy will be produced.
    A perfect tragedy should, as we have seen, be arranged not on
the simple but on the complex plan. It should, moreover, imitate
actions which excite pity and fear, this being the distinctive mark
of tragic imitation. It follows plainly, in the first place, that
the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a
virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity: for this moves
neither pity nor fear; it merely shocks us. Nor, again, that of a
bad man passing from adversity to prosperity: for nothing can be
more alien to the spirit of Tragedy; it possesses no single tragic
quality; it neither satisfies the moral sense nor calls forth pity
or fear. Nor, again, should the downfall of the utter villain be
exhibited. A plot of this kind would, doubtless, satisfy the moral
sense, but it would inspire neither pity nor fear; for pity is
aroused by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man
like ourselves. Such an event, therefore, will be neither pitiful
nor terrible. There remains, then, the character between these two
extremes—that of a man who is not eminently good and just, yet
whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by
some error or frailty. He must be one who is highly renowned and
prosperous—a personage like Oedipus, Thyestes, or other illustrious
men of such families.
    A well-constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its
issue, rather than double as some maintain. The change of fortune
should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.
It should come about as the result not of vice, but of some great
error or