Like most authoritative
maxims, this one seems to require a good deal of qualification. Let us
look into the matter a little more closely.
So far as I can see, the strongest reason against keeping a secret is
that, try as you may, you cannot do it. This point has already been
discussed in Chapter IX, where we saw that from only one audience can a
secret be really hidden, a considerable percentage of any subsequent
audience being certain to know all about it in advance. The more
striking and successful is the first-night effect of surprise, the more
certainly and rapidly will the report of it circulate through all strata
of the theatrical public. But for this fact, one could quite well
conceive a fascinating melodrama constructed, like a detective story,
with a view to keeping the audience in the dark as long as possible. A
pistol shot might ring out just before the rise of the curtain: a man
(or woman) might be discovered in an otherwise empty room, weltering in
his (or her) gore: and the remainder of the play might consist in the
tracking down of the murderer, who would, of course, prove to be the
very last person to be suspected.
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