In the
theatre, as a matter of fact, the plum-pudding was served up in three
chunks instead of one; but this was a mere concession to human weakness.
The play had all the globular unity of a pill, though it happened to be
too big a pill to be swallowed at one gulp.
Turning now to the _Oedipus_--I choose that play as a typical example of
Greek tragedy--what sort of unity do we find? It is the unity, not of a
continuous mass or mash, but of carefully calculated proportion, order,
interrelation of parts--the unity of a fine piece of architecture, or
even of a living organism. The inorganic continuity of _Getting Married_
it does not possess. If that be what we understand by unity, then Shaw
has it and Sophocles has not. The _Oedipus_ is as clearly divided into
acts as is _Hamlet_ or _Hedda Gabler_. In modern parlance, we should
probably call it a play in five acts and an epilogue. It so happened
that the Greek theatre did not possess a curtain, and did possess a
Chorus; consequently, the Greek dramatist employed the Chorus, as we
employ the curtain, to emphasize the successive stages of his action, to
mark the rhythm of its progress, and, incidentally, to provide
resting-places for the mind of the audience--intervals during which the
strain upon their attention was relaxed, or at any rate varied.
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