It is perfect, perhaps not for
a court or king's palace, which requires a greater ground, but for
the structure he would raise; so the space of the action may not
prove large enough for the epic fable, yet be perfect for the
dramatic, and whole.
What we understand by whole.--Whole we call that, and perfect, which
hath a beginning, a midst, and an end. So the place of any building
may be whole and entire for that work, though too little for a
palace. As to a tragedy or a comedy, the action may be convenient
and perfect that would not fit an epic poem in magnitude. So a lion
is a perfect creature in himself, though it be less than that of a
buffalo or a rhinocerote. They differ but in specie: either in the
kind is absolute; both have their parts, and either the whole.
Therefore, as in every body so in every action, which is the subject
of a just work, there is required a certain proportionable
greatness, neither too vast nor too minute. For that which happens
to the eyes when we behold a body, the same happens to the memory
when we contemplate an action. I look upon a monstrous giant, as
Tityus, whose body covered nine acres of land, and mine eye sticks
upon every part; the whole that consists of those parts will never
be taken in at one entire view.
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