What is of vast importance, on the other
hand, is that the expectation of the audience should not be baffled, and
that the curtain should rise upon the immediate sequel to the reading of
the poems. This is, in the exact sense of the words, _a scene a
faire_--an obligatory scene. The author has aroused in us a reasonable
expectation of it, and should he choose to balk us--to raise his
curtain, say, a week, or a month, later--we should feel that we had been
trifled with. The general theory of the _scene a faire_ will presently
come up for discussion. In the meantime, I merely make the obvious
remark that it is worse than useless to awaken a definite expectation in
the breast of the audience, and then to disappoint it.[2]
The works of Sir Arthur Pinero afford many examples of interest very
skilfully carried forward. In his farces--let no one despise the
technical lessons to be learnt from a good farce--there is always an
_adventure_ afoot, whose development we eagerly anticipate.
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