It
was found that the most delicate analyses could be achieved without its
aid; and it became a point of honour with the self-respecting artist to
accept a condition which rendered his material somewhat harder of
manipulation, indeed, but all the more tempting to wrestle with and
overcome. A drama with soliloquies and asides is like a picture with
inscribed labels issuing from the mouths of the figures. In that way,
any bungler can reveal what is passing in the minds of his personages.
But the glorious problem of the modern playwright is to make his
characters reveal the inmost workings of their souls without saying or
doing anything that they would not say or do in the real world.[6]
There are degrees, however, even in the makeshift and the slovenly; and
not all lapses into anachronism are equally to be condemned. One thing
is so patent as to call for no demonstration: to wit, that the aside is
ten times worse than the soliloquy. It is always possible that a man
might speak his thought, but it is glaringly impossible that he should
speak it so as to be heard by the audience and not heard by others on
the stage.
Pages:
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537