Lady Fancourt must
realize that Agatha is wrecking her life to keep her mother's secret,
and must either herself reveal it to Colonel Ford, or must encourage and
enjoin Agatha to do so. Now, the authors choose neither of these ways:
the secret slips out, through a chance misunderstanding in a
conversation between Sir Richard Fancourt and the Colonel. This is a
typical instance of an error of construction; and why?--because it
leaves to chance what should be an act of will. Drama means a thing
done, not merely a thing that happens; and the playwright who lets
accident effect what might naturally and probably be a result of
volition, or, in other words, of character, sins against the fundamental
law of his craft. In the case before us, Lady Fancourt and Agatha--the
two characters on whom our interest is centred--are deprived of all
share in one of the crucial moments of the action. Whether the actual
disclosure was made by the mother or by the daughter, there ought to
have been a great scene between the two, in which the mother should have
insisted that, by one or other, the truth must be told.
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