Compare, for instance, the opening of _The
Case of Rebellious Susan_, by Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, with that of a
French play of very similar theme--Dumas's _Francillon_. In the latter,
we see the storm-cloud slowly gathering up on the horizon; in the
former, it is already on the point of breaking, right overhead. Mr.
Jones places us at the beginning, where Dumas leaves us at the end, of
his first act. It is true that at the end of Mr. Jones's act he has not
advanced any further than Dumas. The French author shows his heroine
gradually working up to a nervous crisis, the English author introduces
his heroine already at the height of her paroxysm, and the act consists
of the unavailing efforts of her friends to smooth her down. The upshot
is the same; but in Mr. Jones's act we are, as the French say, "in full
drama" all the time, while in Dumas's we await the coming of the drama,
and only by exerting all his wit, not to say over-exerting it, does he
prevent our feeling impatient.
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