For much of all this we are indebted to the somewhat overprofound
criticisms of Augustus William Schlegel.
But the dicta of common sense are of universal application, and,
touching this matter of intrigue, if, from its superabundance, we
are compelled, even in the quiet and critical perusal of a play, to
pause frequently and reflect long- to re-read passages over and over
again, for the purpose of gathering their bearing upon the whole- of
maintaining in our mind a general connection- what but fatigue can
result from the exertion? How, then, when we come to the
representation?- when these passages- trifling, perhaps, in
themselves, but important when considered in relation to the plot- are
hurried and blurred over in the stuttering enunciation of some
miserable rantipole, or omitted altogether through the
constitutional lapse of memory so peculiar to those lights of the
age and stage, bedight (from being of no conceivable use)
supernumeraries? For it must be borne in mind that these bits of
intrigue (we use the term in the sense of the German critics)
appertain generally, indeed altogether, to the after thoughts of the
drama- to the underplots- are met with consequently, in the mouth of
the lackeys and chambermaids- and are thus consigned to the tender
mercies of the stellae minores. Of course we get but an imperfect idea
of what is going on before our eyes.
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