The exposition, or opening of the fa ble, was assigned by the ancients to the prologue ; with the moderns it is com prehended in the first act. This act should form the basis of the rest, both with regard to the main action, and to the episodes, so that no actor should enter in the subsequent acts, who has not been introduced or mentioned in the first.
By the intrigue is meant that concate nation of facts or incidents, whose per plexity arrests for a time the progress of )he action. Thus, the difficulties at /tending a principal personage in the tra gedy constitute what is properly called the intrigue ; and it is this which keeps the spectator in suspense, and gradually raises his curiosity to the highest pitch, by the variety of emotions, interests, and passions which it involves. For instance, in the tragedy of "Othello," the cir cumstances attending the Moor's jea lousy strengthens his suspicions by de grees, and render him " perplexed in the extreme." Here lies the intrigue of the piece.
The denouement is the unravelling of the intrigue. It ought to arise naturally from what precedes, and should be quite unforeseen, because all interest is sus tained by the uncertainty of the mind, between fear and hope. There are in stances, however, where the denouement, although foreseen, is nevertheless inte-' ' resting. With regard to what is called
poetical justice, we may observe, that although it may be most grateful to be hold virtue triumphant and vice dis graced, yet the drama, to be a picture of human life, must sometimes exhibit the reverse ; in these cases it will not be without its use, if it direct our view to " something after death." The division into acts is purely arbi trary, and seems to have been unknown on the Grecian stage. Aristotle makes no such distinction ; he speaks only of the duration of the piece, which has na turally only three parts, a beginning, a middle, and an end. Horace insists, that there shall be neither more nor less than five acts ; and to this rule most of the mo derns have adhered.
Of the style best adapted to tragedy, it were trite to say, that it should be ap propriate to the characters. It may be lofty, it may be elegant, but it must al ways appeal directly to the heart. The Most pathetic scenes of our tragic poets are written in language very little elevat ed-above the dialogue of real life ; and to this language Shakespeare has, by a combination and a phraseology peculiar to himself, imparted new powers, for he i as expressed in it some of the sublimest conceptions of .human genius.