We shall have to consider later the relation between what may be called
primary and secondary suspense or surprise--that is to say between
suspense or surprise actually experienced by the spectator to whom the
drama is new, and suspense or surprise experienced only sympathetically,
on behalf of the characters, by a spectator who knows perfectly what is
to follow. The two forms of emotion are so far similar that we need not
distinguish between them in considering the general content of the term
"dramatic." It is plain that the latter or secondary form of emotion
must be by far the commoner, and the one to which the dramatist of any
ambition must make his main appeal; for the longer his play endures, the
larger will be the proportion of any given audience which knows it
beforehand, in outline, if not in detail.
As a typical example of a dramatic way of handling an incident, so as to
make a supreme effect of what might else have been an anti-climax, one
may cite the death of Othello.
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