"]
[Footnote 2: It is only fair to say that Sarcey drew a distinction
between antecedent _events_ and what he calls "postulates of character."
He did not maintain that an audience ought to accept a psychological
impossibility, merely because it was placed outside the frame of the
picture. See _Quarante Ans de Theatre_, vii, p. 395.]
[Footnote 3: This phrase, which occurs in Mr. Haddon Chambers's romantic
melodrama, _Captain Swift_, was greeted with a burst of laughter by the
first-night audience; but little did we then think that Mr. Chambers was
enriching the English language. It is not, on examination, a
particularly luminous phrase: "the three or four arms of coincidence"
would really be more to the point. But it is not always the most
accurate expression that is fittest to survive.]
[Footnote 4: The abuse of coincidence is a legacy to modern drama from
the Latin comedy, which, again, was founded on the Greek New Comedy. It
is worth noting that in the days of Menander the world really was much
smaller than it is to-day, when "thalassic" has grown into "oceanic"
civilization.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404