So, too, in _The Triumph of the Philistines_, Mr. Jones
makes the mistake of expecting us to take a tender interest in a pair of
lovers who have had never a love-scene to set our interest agoing. They
are introduced to each other in the first act, and we shrewdly suspect
(for in the theatre we are all inveterate match-makers) that they are
going to fall in love; but we have not the smallest positive evidence of
the fact before we find, in the second act, that misunderstandings have
arisen, and the lady declines to look at the gentleman. The actress who
played the part at the St. James's Theatre was blamed for failing to
enlist our sympathies in this romance; but what actress can make much of
a love part which, up to the very last moment, is all suspicion and
jealousy? Fancy _Romeo and Juliet_ with the love-scenes omitted, "by
special request!"
* * * * *
In a second class, according to our analysis, we place the obligatory
scene which is imposed by "the manifest exigencies of specifically
dramatic effect.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326