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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.
Forty flags with their silver stars, Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sun Of noon looked down and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town, She took up the flag the men hauled down
In her attic window the staff she set, To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread, Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right He glanced; the old flag met his sight.
"Halt!"--the dust-brown ranks stood fast "Fire!"--out blazed the rifle-blast.
It s.h.i.+vered the window, pane and sash; It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick, as it fell from the broken staff Dame Barbara s.n.a.t.c.hed the silken scarf.
She leaned far out on the window-sill, And shook it forth with a royal will.
"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, Over the face of the leader came;
The n.o.bler nature within him stirred To life at that woman's deed and word:
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
All day long through Frederick street Sounded the tread of marching feet;
All day long that free flag tost Over the heads of the rebel host.
[18] _The Stage in America_, p. 90. Norman Hapgood. The Macmillan Co., New York.
[19] _Barbara Frietchie_, p. 126. Clyde Fitch. Life Publis.h.i.+ng Co., New York.
[20] _Play-Making_, pp. 24-25. William Archer. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.
[21] _Les 36 Situations Dramatiques._ Georges Polti. Edition du _Mercure de France_, 1895, p. 1.
[22] For texts of _The Careless Husband_ and _The Provoked Husband_, both plays by Colley Cibber, see _Works_, vols. II and IV, 1777.
[23] Methuen & Co., Ltd., London.
[24] Not translated. Edition in French, P. V. Stock, Paris.
[25] Foreword to _The House of Usna_. Fiona Macleod. Published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine, 1903.
