The trouble with
the well-made play is that it is almost always, and of necessity,
ill-made. Very rarely does the playwright succeed in weaving a web which
is at once intricate, consistent, and clear. In nineteen cases out of
twenty there are glaring flaws that have to be overlooked; or else the
pattern is so involved that the mind's eye cannot follow it, and becomes
bewildered and fatigued. A classical example of both faults may be found
in Congreve's so-called comedy _The Double-Dealer_. This is, in fact, a
powerful drama, somewhat in the Sardou manner; but Congreve had none of
Sardou's deftness in manipulating an intrigue. Maskwell is not only a
double-dealer, but a triple--or quadruple-dealer; so that the brain soon
grows dizzy in the vortex of his villainies. The play, it may be noted,
was a failure.
There is a quite legitimate pleasure to be found, no doubt, in a complex
intrigue which is also perspicuous. Plays such as Alexandre Dumas's
_Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle_, or the pseudo-historical dramas of
Scribe-_Adrienne Lecouvreur, Bertrand et Raton, Un Verre d'Eau, Les
Trois Maupin,_ etc.
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