Part 9 (1/2)

Late in the seventeenth century, one of the most prolific of English playwrights, John Dryden, contracted to turn out four plays a year. He failed completely to carry out his promise. Some dramatists of a much more recent day should attribute to the speed with which they have turned out plays their repeated failures, or, after early successes, their waning hold on the public. Every dramatist should keep steadily in mind the words of the old French adage: ”Time spares not that on which time hath been spared.” Time, again time, and yet again time is the chief element in successful writing of plays.

A wandering, erratic career is forbidden the dramatist. Back in the eighteenth century Diderot stated admirably the qualities a dramatist must have if he is to plot well. ”He must get at the heart of his material. He must consider order and unity. He must discern clearly the moment at which the action should begin. He must recognize the situations which will help his audience, and know what it is expedient to leave unsaid. He must not be rebuffed by difficult scenes or long labor. Throughout he must have the aid of a rich imagination.”[31]

Selection, Proportion, Emphasis, Movement,--all making for clearness,--these as the words of Diderot suggest, are what the dramatist studies in developing his play from Subject, through Story, to Plot.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Auteurs Dramatiques, Pailleron._ A. Binet and J. Pa.s.sey.

_L'Annee Psychologique_, 1894, pp. 98-99.

[2] _Sardou and the Sardou Plays_, p. 127. Jerome A. Hart. J. B.

Lippincott Co., Philadelphia.

[3] _Auteurs Dramatiques, Dumas fils_, p. 77.

[4] _Five Plays_, p. 86. Lord Dunsany. Mitch.e.l.l Kennerley, New York.

[5] _Auteurs Dramatiques, Sardou, L'Annee Psychologique_, 1894, p.

66.

[6] _Play-Making,_ pp. 18-19, note. William Archer. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.

[7] _Auteurs Dramatiques, Sardou_, p. 66.

[8] _Auteurs Dramatiques, M. de Curel_, p. 121.

[9] From _Ibsen's Workshop. Works_, vol. x, pp. 91-92. Chas.

Scribner's Sons, New York.

[10] Consult the pages of W. C. Hazlitt's _Shakespeare Library_, a source book of his plays for proof of this.

[11] Belles-Lettres Series. F. E. Sch.e.l.ling, ed. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston and New York.

[12] Mermaid Series or Everyman's Library.

[13] Published in translation by Brentano; also in _Chief Contemporary Dramatists_. Thomas H. d.i.c.kinson. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

[14] _Note_, p. 49.

[15] J. W. Luce & Co., Boston; Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., London.

[16] _Dramatic Works_, vol. I. Ed. Ludwig Lewisohn. B. Huebach., New York.

[17] For purposes of useful comparison the lines of Whittier which suggested the subject to Mr. Fitch are appended.

On that pleasant morn of the early fall When Lee marched over the mountain wall;

Over the mountains winding down, Horse and foot, into Frederick town.