82 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



their command. A drama should be written for the stage, as a 

 song should be written to be sung. The author must sub- 

 consciously if such a word may be used have the stage 

 always in mind : the exits, the entrances, the time required to 

 cross the stage, the positions of the actors, their very attitudes 

 and dress. No author provides more admirably for all these 

 stage exigencies than Shakespeare, as any one may see who will 

 consider his inimitable contrivances for removing dead bodies 

 from the stage. There is no doubt a danger that those who 

 become familiar with stage-machinery may content themselves 

 with remodelling the old puppets, rearranging stock incidents, 

 and repatching old rags to produce good guaranteed old stage 

 effects ; but a man of real talent would not be misled by the 

 Mr. Worldly Wiseman of the stage. 



We may learn much from French practice as to the frame- 

 work of a drama. A great part of the success which is certainly 

 achieved by modern French plays depends on the art shown in 

 their construction. M. F. Legouve, who is a skilful playwright, 

 tells us frankly how a Frenchman proceeds. First, he chooses 

 or conceives the situation which is to be the crisis of the play : 

 from this he works backwards, considering how that situation is 

 to be brought about, and what characters will be necessary for 

 the purpose. His first act is devoted wholly to informing the 

 audience of the relations between the characters at the begin- 

 ning of the piece; his second act develops the plot ; in his third 

 act the plot thickens ; his fourth act contains the crisis for which 

 the play is written, and his fifth act gives the solution of the 

 knot which has been tied in the fourth act. 



These rules seem rather barren, but we shall see their signi- 

 ficance if we consider what other courses may be followed. 



A writer may begin by inventing an ingenious or interest- 

 ing plot, or by choosing some historical period which he will 

 dramatise, or by conceiving some marked characters whose feel- 

 ings and thoughts he will expound. M. Legouve tells us that 

 none of these is the French method; that for the French author 

 the motive of the play is essentially one situation ; that his 

 characters are chosen so as to make this situation tell, and that 

 his plot is a matter for after-consideration, devised so as to 

 reveal the characters of the persons and lead up to the crisis. 



