In the theatre of
the eighteenth century and early nineteenth, the proscenium arch--the
frame of the picture--made pictorial realism theoretically possible. But
no one recognized the possibility; and indeed, on a candle-lit stage, it
would have been extremely difficult. As a matter of fact, the
Elizabethan platform survived in the shape of a long "apron," projecting
in front of the proscenium, on which the most important parts of the
action took place. The characters, that is to say, were constantly
stepping out of the frame of the picture; and while this visual
convention maintained itself, there was nothing inconsistent or jarring
in the auditory convention of the soliloquy. Only in the last quarter of
the nineteenth century did new methods of lighting, combined with new
literary and artistic influences, complete the evolutionary process, and
lead to the withdrawal of the whole stage--the whole dramatic
domain--within the frame of the picture. It was thus possible to reduce
visual convention to a minimum so trifling that in a well-set "interior"
it needs a distinct effort of attention to be conscious of it at all.
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