Spectacle: Given Fielding's use of Tragedy and Farce both in the prologue and througout the play, a few quotations from Aristotle's Poetics are perhaps useful for a clearer understanding of the ambivalent disdain with which he treats spectacle. This disdain is ambivalent because Fielding, no matter how much he protests that "To-Night we mean to laugh, and not to chide," he is chiding; Luckless' puppet-show is a clear satire on unthinking town tastes and their herd-like mentality. Significantly, ge chides not through serious entertainment but through spectacular, farcical entertainment: even though he says that the "aim of Farce is but to make you laugh," he himself is using it to do more than merely inspire mirth.

"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet" (from Aristotle's De Poetica, translated by S. H. Butcher, chapter VI).

"Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacular means; but they may also result from the inner structure of the piece, which is the better way, and indicates a superior poet. For the plot ought to be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror and melt to pity at what takes Place.... But to produce this effect by the mere spectacle is a less artistic method, and dependent on extraneous aids. Those who employ spectacular means to create a sense not of the terrible but only of the monstrous, are strangers to the purpose of Tragedy.... " (from Aristotle's De Poetica, translated by S. H. Butcher, chapter XIV, my emphasis).