I suggest that the theorists have hitherto dwelt far too much
on curiosity[8]--which may be defined as the interest of ignorance--and
far too little on the feeling of superiority, of clairvoyance, with
which we contemplate a foreknown action, whether of a comic or of a
tragic cast. Of course the action must be, essentially if not in every
detail, true to nature. We can derive no sense of superiority from our
foreknowledge of an arbitrary or preposterous action; and that, I take
it, is the reason why a good many plays have an initial success of
curiosity, but cease to attract when their plot becomes familiar. Again,
we take no pleasure in foreknowing the fate of wholly uninteresting
people; which is as much as to say that character is indispensable to
enduring interest in drama. With these provisos, I suggest a
reconstruction of our theories of dramatic interest, in which mere
first-night curiosity shall be relegated to the subordinate place which
by right belongs to it.
Nevertheless, we must come back to the point that there is always the
ordeal of the first night to be faced, and that the plays are
comparatively few which have lived-down a bad first-night.
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