4
Tragedies should properly be classed as the same or different mainly in virtue of the plot, that is to say those that have the same entanglement and denouement. Many who entangle well are bad at the denouement. Both should always be mastered.
4
There are four varieties of tragedy—the same as the number given for the elementsApparently the reference here is to the four elements into which in the course of chapters 10-15. Plot has been analysed, Reversal, Discovery, Calamity, and Character. But the symmetry is spoilt by the fact that his first species, the complex play, corresponds to the first two of these four elements, viz. to Reversal and Discovery. Thus his fourth species is left in the air and he hurriedly introduces Spectacle as the fourth corresponding element. Other explanations seem even sillier than this.—
5
first the complex kind, which all turns on reversal and discovery;
6
the calamity play like the stories of Ajax and Ixion;
7
the character play like the Phthian WomenBy Sophocles. and the PeleusBoth Sophocles and Euripides wrote a Peleus..
8
The fourth element is spectacle, like the PhorcidesThe text is obscure, and our ignorance of the play or rhapsody adds to the darkness, but the reference may be to the ruse, common in detective stories, of misleading the audience by false clues in order to make the final revelation more effective. and Prometheus, and all scenes laid in Hades.
