* * * * *
[Footnote 1: Writing of _Le Supplice d'une Femme_, Alexandre Dumas
_fils_ said: "This situation I declare to be one of the most dramatic
and interesting in all drama. But a situation is not an idea. An idea,
has a beginning, a middle and an end: an exposition, a development, a
conclusion. Any one can relate a dramatic situation: the art lies in
preparing it, getting it accepted, rendering it possible, especially in
untying the knot."]
[Footnote 2: This is what we regard as peculiarly the method of Ibsen.
There is, however, this essential difference, that, instead of narrating
his preliminaries in cold blood, Ibsen, in his best work, _dramatizes_
the narration.]
[Footnote 3: See Chapter XII.]
[Footnote 4: This must not be taken to imply that, in a good
stage-version of the play, Fortinbras should be altogether omitted. Mr.
Forbes Robertson, in his Lyceum revival of 1897, found several
advantages in his retention. Among the rest, it permitted the retention
of one of Hamlet's most characteristic soliloquies.
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