* * * * *
[Footnote 1: If this runs counter to the latest biological orthodoxy, I
am sorry. Habits are at any rate transmissible by imitation, if not
otherwise.]
[Footnote 2: Chapter XIX.]
_CHAPTER XXIII_
DIALOGUE AND DETAILS
The extraordinary progress made by the drama of the English language
during the past quarter of a century is in nothing more apparent than in
the average quality of modern dialogue. Tolerably well-written dialogue
is nowadays the rule rather than the exception. Thirty years ago, the
idea that it was possible to combine naturalness with vivacity and
vigour had scarcely dawned upon the playwright's mind. He passed and
repassed from stilted pathos to strained and verbal wit (often mere
punning); and when a reformer like T.W. Robertson tried to come a little
nearer to the truth of life, he was apt to fall into babyish simplicity
or flat commonness.
Criticism has not given sufficient weight to the fact that English
dramatic writing laboured for centuries--and still labours to some
degree--under a historic misfortune.
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