No part of it is
necessarily involved in any other part. If the play were found too long
or too short, an act might be cut out or written in without
necessitating any considerable readjustments in the other acts. The play
is really a series of episodes,
"Which might, odd bobs, sir! in judicious hands,
Extend from here to Mesopotamy."
The episodes may grow out of each other plausibly enough, but by no
pre-ordained necessity, and with no far-reaching interdependence. We
live, in such plays, from moment to moment, foreseeing nothing, desiring
nothing; and though this frame of mind may be mildly agreeable, it
involves none of that complexity of sensation with which we contemplate
a great piece of architecture, or follow the development of a
finely-constructed drama. To this order belong many cape-and-sword plays
and detective dramas--plays like _The Adventure of Lady Ursula_, _The
Red Robe_, the Musketeer romances that were at one time so popular, and
most plays of the _Sherlock Holmes_ and _Raffles_ type.
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