merope. - Institutional Repositories

XXXVni PREFACE,
gesture in the actor, were ini[)Ossible. Broad and
simple effects were, under these conditions, above all
to be aimed at ; a profound and clear impression
was to be effected. LTnity of plan in the action, and
symmetry in the treatment of it, were indispensable.
The action represented, therefore, was to be a single,
rigorously developed action ; the masses of the composition
were to be balanced, each bringing out the
other into stronger and distincter relief. In the best
tragedies, not only do the divisions of the full choral
songs accurately correspond to one another, but
the divisions of the lyrical dialogue, nay, even the
divisions of the regular dramatic dialogue, form corresponding
members, of which one member is the
answer, the counter-stroke to the other; and an
indescribable sense of distinctness and depth of impression
is thus produced.
From what has been said, the reader will see that
the Greek tragic forms were not chosen as being, in
the nature of things, the best tragic forms ; such
would be a wholly false conception of them. They
are an adaptation to dramatic purposes, under certain
theatrical conditions, of forms previously existing
for other purposes ; that adaptation at which
the Greeks, after several stages of improvement,
finally rested. The laws of Greek tragic art, therefore,
are not exclusive; they are for Greek dramatic
art itself, but they do not pronounce other
modes of dramatic art unlawful; they are, at most,