It was the former class
that Dryden had in mind; and, with reference to this class, the
principle he indicates remains a sound one. A change of resolve should
never be due to a mere lapse of time--to the necessity for bringing the
curtain down and letting the audience go home. It must always be
rendered plausible by some new fact or new motive: some hitherto untried
appeal to reason or emotion. This rule, however, is too obvious to
require enforcement. It was not quite superfluous so long as the old
convention of comedy endured. For a century and a half after Dryden's
time, hard-hearted parents were apt to withdraw their opposition to
their children's "felicity" for no better reason than that the fifth act
was drawing to a close. But this formula is practically obsolete.
Changes of will, on the modern stage, are not always adequately motived;
but that is because of individual inexpertness, not because of any
failure to recognize theoretically the necessity for adequate
motivation.
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