The
process with me is as purely automatic and spontaneous as dreaming; in
fact it is really dreaming while you are awake."]
[Footnote 5: "Here," says a well-known playwright, "is a common
experience. You are struck by an idea with which you fall in love. 'Ha!'
you say. 'What a superb scene where the man shall find the missing will
under the sofa! If that doesn't make them sit up, what will?' You begin
the play. The first act goes all right, and the second act goes all
right. You come to the third act, and somehow it won't go at all. You
battle with it for weeks in vain; and then it suddenly occurs to you,
'Why, I see what's wrong! It's that confounded scene where the man finds
the will under the sofa! Out it must come!' You cut it out, and at once
all goes smooth again. But you have thrown overboard the great effect
that first tempted you."]
[Footnote 6: The manuscripts of Dumas _fils_ are said to contain, as a
rule, about four times as much matter as the printed play! (Parigot:
_Genie et Metier_, p.
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