"This is sure to be a big
thing!" I was greatly pleased. "If this scene, of all others," I
thought, "carries a man like Mr. Smith off his feet, it cannot fail to
hold the British public." But I was somewhat dashed when, a day or two
later, Mr. Smith came up to me again, in much less buoyant spirits. "I
made a mistake about that scene," he said. "They tell me it's the end of
the _last_ act--I thought it was the end of the _first_!"
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: The reader who wishes to pursue the theme may do so to
excellent advantage in Professor Bradley's _Shakespearean Tragedy_.]
[Footnote 2: It is true that in _A Doll's House_, Dr. Rank announces his
approaching demise: but he does not actually die, nor is his fate an
essential part of the action of the play.]
[Footnote 3: The duel, even in countries whose customs permit of it, is
essentially an inartistic end; for it leaves the catastrophe to be
decided either by Chance or Providence--two equally inadmissible
arbiters in modern drama.
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