]
[Footnote 8: If the essence of drama is crisis, it follows that nothing
can be more dramatic than a momentous choice which may make or mar both
the character and the fortune of the chooser and of others. There is an
element of choice in all action which is, or seems to be, the product of
free will; but there is a peculiar crispness of effect when two
alternatives are clearly formulated, and the choice is made after a
mental struggle, accentuated, perhaps, by impassioned advocacy of the
conflicting interests. Such scenes are _Coriolanus_, v. 3, the scene
between Ellida, Wangel, and the Stranger in the last act of _The Lady
from the Sea_, and the concluding scene of _Candida_.]
_CHAPTER IV_
THE ROUTINE OF COMPOSITION
As no two people, probably, ever did, or ever will, pursue the same
routine in play-making, it is manifestly impossible to lay down any
general rules on the subject. There are one or two considerations,
however, which it may not be wholly superfluous to suggest to beginners.
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