Genius can manifest
itself equally in either form.
But each form has its peculiar advantages. You cannot, in a
retrospective play like _Rosmersholm_, attain anything like the
magnificent onward rush of Othello, which moves--
"Like to the Pontick sea
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontick and the Hellespont."
The movement of _Rosmersholm_ is rather like that of a winding river,
which flows with a full and steady current, but seems sometimes to be
almost retracing its course. If, then, you aim at rapidity of movement,
you will choose a theme which leaves little or nothing to retrospect;
and conversely, if you have a theme the whole of which falls easily and
conveniently within the frame of the picture, you will probably take
advantage of the fact to give your play animated and rapid movement.
There is an undeniable attraction in a play which constitutes, so to
speak, one brisk and continuous adventure, begun, developed, and ended
before our eyes.
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