represented also is an action; and the action involves agents, who
must necessarily have their distinctive qualities both of character
and thought, since it is from these that we ascribe certain qualities
to their actions. There are in the natural order of things, therefore,
two causes, Character and Thought, of their actions, and consequently
of their success or failure in their lives. Now the action (that which
was done) is represented in the play by the Fable or Plot. The Fable,
in our present sense of the term, is simply this, the combination of
the incidents, or things done in the story; whereas Character is what
makes us ascribe certain moral qualities to the agents; and Thought is
shown in all they say when proving a particular point or, it may be,
enunciating a general truth. There are six parts consequently of every
tragedy, as a whole, that is, of such or such quality, viz. a Fable or
Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle and Melody; two of them
arising from the means, one from the manner, and three from the
objects of the dramatic imitation; and there is nothing else besides
these six. Of these, its formative elements, then, not a few of the
dramatists have made due use, as every play, one may say, admits of
Spectacle, Character, Fable, Diction, Melody, and Thought.

II. The most important of the six is the combination of the incidents
of the story.

Tragedy i.e.sentially an imitation not of persons but of action and
life, of happiness and misery. All human happiness or misery takes the
form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of
activity, not a quality. Characte.g.ves us qualities, but it is in
our actions--what we do--that we are happy or the reverse. In a play
accordingly they do not act in order to portray the Characters; they
include the Characters for the sake of the action. So that it is the