In speaking thus we have not said
that plot is more than an adjunct to the drama- more than a
perfectly distinct and separable source of pleasure. It is not an
essential. In its intense artificiality it may even be conceived
injurious in a certain degree (unless constructed with consummate
skill) to that real lifelikeness which is the soul of the drama of
character. Good dramas have been written with very little plot-
capital dramas might be written with none at all. Some plays of high
merit, having plot, abound in irrelevant incident- in incident, we
mean, which could be displaced or removed altogether without effect
upon the plot itself, and yet are by no means objectionable as dramas;
and for this reason- that the incidents are evidently irrelevant-
obviously episodical. Of their disgressive nature the spectator is
so immediately aware that he views them, as they arise, in the
simple light of interlude, and does not fatigue his attention by
attempting to establish for them a connection, or more than an
illustrative connection, with the great interests of the subject. Such
are the plays of Shakespeare. But all this is very different from that
irrelevancy of intrigue which disfigures and very usually damns the
work of the unskilful artist. With him the great error lies in
inconsequence. Underplot is piled upon underplot (the very word is a
paradox), and all to no purpose- to no end.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206