2 JULY 1988, Page 30

Seminar

Our subject this week's 'What is tragedy?', Yet seems, well. . . comic. Polonius-like, I'm stuck behind the arras of a desk.

Someone wheels in Aristotle Pat on his cue: the 'tragic flaw', that key, A-level gospel, crutch my students grasp.

'Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life . . I mouth my 'touchstone'. But the words float free And fall flat — balloons pricked by pointed yawns.

What scenes await these faces? Windows mist.

. . . And thou no breath at all', I murmur — then A second wind conveys us past 'catharsis'.

Chairs rasp. In need of air I drift outside.