For as a house,
consisting of divers materials, becomes one structure and one
dwelling, so an action, composed of divers parts, may become one
fable, epic or dramatic. For example, in a tragedy, look upon
Sophocles, his Ajax: Ajax, deprived of Achilles' armour, which he
hoped from the suffrage of the Greeks, disdains; and, growing
impatient of the injury, rageth, and runs mad. In that humour he
doth many senseless things, and at last falls upon the Grecian flock
and kills a great ram for Ulysses: returning to his senses, he
grows ashamed of the scorn, and kills himself; and is by the chiefs
of the Greeks forbidden burial. These things agree and hang
together, not as they were done, but as seeming to be done, which
made the action whole, entire, and absolute.
The conclusion concerning the whole, and the parts.--Which are
episodes.--Ajax and Hector.--Homer.--For the whole, as it consisteth
of parts, so without all the parts it is not the whole; and to make
it absolute is required not only the parts, but such parts as are
true. For a part of the whole was true; which, if you take away,
you either change the whole or it is not the whole.
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