He has a perfect right to express
himself in a whole literature of so-called plays, which may possibly be
studied, and even acted, by societies organized to that laudable end.
But the dramatist who declares his end to be mere self-expression
stultifies himself in that very phrase. The painter may paint, the
sculptor model, the lyric poet sing, simply to please himself,[5] but
the drama has no meaning except in relation to an audience. It is a
portrayal of life by means of a mechanism so devised as to bring it home
to a considerable number of people assembled in a given place. "The
public," it has been well said, "constitutes the theatre." The moment a
playwright confines his work within the two or three hours' limit
prescribed by Western custom for a theatrical performance, he is
currying favour with an audience. That limit is imposed simply by the
physical endurance and power of sustained attention that can be demanded
of Western human beings assembled in a theatre. Doubtless an author
could express himself more fully and more subtly if he ignored these
limitations; the moment he submits to them, he renounces the pretence
that mere self-expression is his aim.
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