These then are rules the poet should observe. Nor should he
neglect those appeals to the senses, which, though not among the
essentials, are the concomitants of poetry; for here too there is much
room for error. But of this enough has been said in our published
treatises.
POETICS|16
XVI
What Recognition is has been already explained. We will now
enumerate its kinds.
First, the least artistic form, which, from poverty of wit, is
most commonly employed- recognition by signs. Of these some are
congenital- such as 'the spear which the earth-born race bear on their
bodies,' or the stars introduced by Carcinus in his Thyestes. Others
are acquired after birth; and of these some are bodily marks, as
scars; some external tokens, as necklaces, or the little ark in the
Tyro by which the discovery is effected. Even these admit of more or
less skilful treatment. Thus in the recognition of Odysseus by his
scar, the discovery is made in one way by the nurse, in another by the
swineherds. The use of tokens for the express purpose of proof- and,
indeed, any formal proof with or without tokens- is a less artistic
mode of recognition. A better kind is that which comes about by a turn
of incident, as in the Bath Scene in the Odyssey.
Next come the recognitions invented at will by the poet, and on that
account wanting in art. For example, Orestes in the Iphigenia
reveals the fact that he is Orestes. She, indeed, makes herself
known by the letter; but he, by speaking himself, and saying what
the poet, not what the plot requires.
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