This is simply a part of the larger
principle, before insisted on, that when a reasonable expectation is
aroused, it can be baffled only at the author's peril. If the crux of a
scene or of a whole play lie in the solution of some material difficulty
or moral problem, it must on no account be solved by a mere trick or
evasion. The dramatist is very ill-advised who sets forth with pomp and
circumstance to perform some intellectual or technical feat, and then
merely skirts round it or runs away from it. A fair proportion should
always be observed between effort and effect, between promise and
performance.
"But if the audience happens to misread the playwright's design, and
form exaggerated and irrational expectations?" That merely means that
the playwright does not know his business, or, at any rate, does not
know his audience. It is his business to play upon the collective mind
of his audience as upon a keyboard--to arouse just the right order and
measure of anticipation, and fulfil it, or outdo it, in just the right
way at just the right time.
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