It has not the artistic significance, either good
or bad, that it would have if the character and destiny of Sterling were
our main concernment.
* * * * *
The happy playwright, one may say, is he whose theme does not force upon
him either a sanguinary or a tame last act, but enables him, without
troubling the coroner, to sustain and increase the tension up to the
very close. Such themes are not too common, but they do occur. Dumas
found one in _Denise_, and another in _Francillon_, where the famous "Il
en a menti!" comes within two minutes of the fall of the curtain. In
_Heimat_ (Magda) and in _Johannisfeuer_, Sudermann keeps the tension at
its height up to the fall of the curtain. Sir Arthur Pinero's _Iris_ is
a case in point; so are Mr. Shaw's _Candida_ and _The Devil's Disciple_;
so is Mr. Galsworthy's _Strife_. Other instances will no doubt occur to
the reader; yet he will probably be surprised to find that it is not
very easy to recall them.
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