Elements of Criticism: In Two Volumes

Chapter 23. The Three Unities

670 u chapter xxiii u The Three Unities In the first chapter is explained the pleasure we have in a chainof connected facts. In histories of the world, of a country, of a people, this pleasure is faint; because the connections are slight or obscure. We find more entertainment in biography; because the incidents are connected by their relation to a person who makes a figure, and commands our attention. But the greatest entertainment is in the history of a single event, supposing it interesting ; and the reason is, that the facts and circumstances are connected by the strongest of all relations, that of cause and effect: a number of facts that give birth to each other form a delightful train; and we have greatmental enjoyment in our progress from the beginning to the end. But this subject merits a more particular discussion. When we consider the chain of causes and effects in the material world, independent of purpose , design, or thought, we find a number of incidentsinsuccession,without beginning, middle, or end: every thing that happens is both a cause and an effect; being the effect of what goes be-fore, and the cause of what follows: one incident may affect us more, another less; but all of them are links in the universal chain: the mind, inviewingtheseincidents,cannot rest or settle ultimately upon any one; but is carried along in the train without any close. But when the intellectual world is taken under view, in conjunctionwith the material, the scene is varied. Man acts with deliberation, will, and choice: he aims at some end, glory, for example, or riches, or conquest, the procuring happinesstoindividuals,ortohiscountryingeneral:heproposes means, and lays plans to attain the end purposed. Here are a number of facts or incidents leading to the end in view, thewholecomposingonechain the three unities 671 by the relation of cause and effect. In running over a series of such facts or incidents, we cannot rest upon any one; because they are presented to us as means only, leading to some end: but we rest with satisfaction upon the end or ultimate event; because there the purpose or aim of the chief person or persons is accomplished. This indicates the beginning, the middle, and the end, of what Aristotle calls an entire action.* The story naturally begins with describing those circumstances which move the principal person to form a plan, in order to compass some desired event: the prosecution of that plan and the obstructions, carry the reader into the heat of action: the middle is properly where the action is the most involved; and the end is where the event is brought about, and the plan accomplished. A plan thus happily accomplished after many obstructions,affordswonderful delight to the reader; to produce which, a principle mentioned above† mainly contributes, the same that disposes the mind to complete every work commenced, and in general to carry every thingtoaconclusion. I have given the foregoing example of a plan crowned with success, because it affords the clearest conception of a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which consists unity of action; and indeed stricter unity cannot be imagined than in that case. But an action may have unity, or a beginning, middle, and end, without so intimate a relation of parts; as where the catastrophe is different from what is intended or desired, which frequently happens in our best tragedies. In the Aeneid, the hero, after many obstructions , makes his plan effectual. The Iliad is formed upon a differentmodel: it begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon; goes on to describe the several effects produced by that cause; and ends in a reconciliation . Here is unity of ac-tion, no doubt, a beginning, a middle, and an end; but inferior to that of the Aeneid, which will thus appear. The mind hath a propensity togoforward inthechainof history:itkeepsalways in view the expected event; and when the incidents or under-parts are connected by their relation to the event, the mind runs sweetly and easily along them. This pleasure we have in the Aeneid. It is not altogether so pleasant, as in the Iliad, to connect effects by their common cause; for such con- * Poet. cap. 6. See also cap. 7. † Chap. 8. 672 chapter xxiii nection forces the mind to a continual retrospect: looking back is likewalking backward. Homer’s plan is still more defective, upon another account...