Freytag assigns to the second act, as
a rule, the _Steigerung_ or heightening--the working-up, one might call
it--of the interest. But the second act, in modern plays, has often to
do all the work of the three middle acts under the older dispensation;
wherefore the theory of their special functions has more of a historical
than of a practical interest. For our present purposes, we may treat the
interior section of a play as a unit, whether it consist of one, two, or
three acts.
The first act may be regarded as the porch or vestibule through which we
pass into the main fabric--solemn or joyous, fantastic or austere--of
the actual drama. Sometimes, indeed, the vestibule is reduced to a mere
threshold which can be crossed in two strides; but normally the first
act, or at any rate the greater part of it, is of an introductory
character. Let us conceive, then, that we have passed the vestibule, and
are now to study the principles on which the body of the structure
is reared.
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