But we find in
some recent writing a qualified recrudescence of the spasmodic manner,
with a touch of euphuism thrown in. This is mainly due, I think, to the
influence of George Meredith, who accepted the convention of wit as the
informing spirit of comedy dialogue, and whose abnormally rapid faculty
of association led him to delight in a sort of intellectual shorthand
which the normal mind finds very difficult to decipher. Meredith was a
man of brilliant genius, which lent a fascination to his very
mannerisms; but when these mannerisms are transferred by lesser men to a
medium much less suited to them--that of the stage--the result is apt to
be disastrous. I need not go into particulars; for no play of which the
dialogue places a constant strain on the intellectual muscles of the
audience ever has held, or ever will hold, a place in living dramatic
literature. I will merely note the curious fact that English--my own
language--is the only language out of the three or four known to me in
which I have ever come across an entirely incomprehensible play.
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