Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist A Popular Illustration of the Principles of Scientific Criticism

scene two stories of youthful love and of deadly feud alternate with one

Chapter 117,245 wordsPublic domain

another as they progress to their climaxes, [=iii.= ii. 221.] until from the rapture of Portia united to Bassanio we drop to the full realisation of Antonio in the grasp of Shylock; and again the cruel anxiety of the trial [=iv.= i. 408.] and its breathless shock of deliverance are balanced by the mad fun of the ring trick [=v.= i.] and the joy of the moonlight scene which Jessica feels is too deep for merriment. [_Tone-Relief._] A slight variation of this is _Tone-Relief_: in an action which is cast in a uniform tone the continuity is broken by a brief spell of a contrary passion, the contrast at once relieving and intensifying the prevailing tone. One of the best examples (notwithstanding its coarseness) is the introduction in _Macbeth_ of the jolly Porter, [=ii.= iii. 1.] who keeps the impatient nobles outside in the storm till his jest is comfortably finished, making each furious knock fit in to his elaborate conceit of Hell-gate. This tone of broad farce, with nothing else like it in the whole play, comes as a single ray of common daylight to separate the agony of the dark night's murder from the agony of the struggle for concealment. [_Tone-Clash._] The mixture of tones goes a stage further when opposing tones of passion _clash_ in the same incident and are _fused_ together. These terms are, I think, scarcely metaphorical: as a physiological fact we see our physical susceptibility to pleasurable and painful emotions drawn into conflict with one another in the phenomena of hysteria; and their mental analogues must be capable of much closer union. As examples of these effects resting upon an appeal to opposite sides of our emotional nature at the same time may be instanced the flash of comic irony, [=iv.= i. 288, &c.] already referred to more than once, that starts up in the most pathetic moment of Antonio's trial by his friend's allusion to his newly wedded wife. Of the same double nature are the strokes of pathetic humour in this play; [=iii.= iii. 32.] as where Antonio describes himself so worn with grief that he will hardly spare a pound of flesh to his bloody creditor; or again his pun,

[=iv.= i. 280.]

For if the Jew do cut but deep enough I'll pay it presently with all my heart!

Shakespeare is very true to nature in thus borrowing the language of word-play to express suffering so exquisite as to leave sober language far behind. [_Tone-Storm._] Finally Tone-Clash rises into _Tone-Storm_ in such rare climaxes as the centrepiece of _Lear_, [=iii.= i-vi.] where against a tempest of nature as a fitting background we have the conflict of three madnesses, passion, idiocy, and folly, bidding against one another, and inflaming each other's wildness into an inextricable whirl of frenzy.

[_Movement applied to Passion._]

The idea of movement has next to be applied to Passion. Passion is experience as grasped by our emotional nature: this will be sensitive not only to isolated fragments of experience, but equally to the succession of incidents. The movement of events will produce a corresponding movement in our emotional nature as this is variously affected by them; and as the succession of incidents seems to take direction so the play of our sympathies will seem to take form. Again, events cannot succeed one another without suggesting causes at work and controlling forces: when such causes and forces are of a nature to work upon our sympathy another element of Passion will appear. [_Motive Form and Motive Force._] Under Passion-Movement then are comprehended two things--_Motive Form_ and _Motive Force_. [page 278.] The first of these is a thing in which two of the great elements of Drama, Passion, and Plot, overlap, and it will be best considered in connection with Plot which takes in dramatic form as a whole. Here we have to consider the Motive Forces of dramatic passion. The dramatist is, as it were, a God in his universe, and disposes the ultimate issues of human experience at his pleasure: what then are the principles which are found to have governed his ordering of events? to personages in a drama what are the great determinants of fate?

[_Poetic Justice a form of art-beauty._]

The first of the great determinants of fate in the Drama is _Poetic Justice_. What exactly is the meaning of this term? It is often understood to mean the correction of justice, as if justice in poetry were more just than the justice of real life. But this is not supported by the facts of dramatic story. An English judge and jury would revolt against measuring out to Shylock the justice that is meted to him by the court of Venice, though the same persons beholding the scene in a theatre might feel their sense of Poetic Justice satisfied; unless, indeed, which might easily happen, the confusion of ideas suggested by this term operated to check their acquiescence in the issue of the play. A better notion of Poetic Justice is to understand it as the modification of justice by considerations of art. This holds good even where justice and retribution do determine the fate of individuals in the Drama; in these cases our dramatic satisfaction still rests, not on the high degree of justice exhibited, but on the artistic mode in which it works. A policeman catching a thief with his hand in a neighbour's pocket and bringing him to summary punishment affords an example of complete justice, yet its very success robs it of all poetic qualities; the same thief defeating all the natural machinery of the law, yet overtaken after all by a questionable ruse would be to the poetic sense far more interesting.

[_Nemesis as a dramatic motive._]

Treating Poetic Justice, then, as the application of art to morals, its most important phase will be _Nemesis_, which we have already seen involves an artistic link between sin and retribution. The artistic connection may be of the most varied description. [_Varieties of Nemesis._] There is a Nemesis of perfect equality, Shylock reaping measure for measure as he has sown. [compare =iii.= i. 118 and 165.] When Nemesis overtook the Roman conspirators it was partly its suddenness that made it impressive: within fifty lines of their appeal to all time they have fallen into an attitude of deprecation. For Richard, on the contrary, retribution was delayed to the last moment: to have escaped to the eleventh hour is shown to be no security.

Jove strikes the Titans down Not when they first begin their mountain piling, But when another rock would crown their work.

Nemesis may be emphasised by repetition and multiplication; in the world in which Richard is plunged there appears to be no event which is not a nemesis. Or the point may be the unlooked-for source from which the nemesis comes; as when upon the murder of Cæsar a colossus of energy and resource starts up in the time-serving and frivolous Antony, [=ii.= i. 165.] whom the conspirators had spared for his insignificance. Or again, retribution may be made bitter to the sinner by his tracing in it his own act and deed: from Lear himself, and from no other source, Goneril and Regan have received the power they use to crush his spirit. Nay, the very prize for which the sinner has sinned turns out in some cases the nemesis fate has provided for him; as when Goneril and Regan use their ill-gotten power for the state intrigues which work their death. And most keenly pointed of all comes the nemesis that is combined with mockery: [=iii.= i. 49.] Macbeth, if he had not essayed the murder of Banquo as an _extra_ precaution, might have enjoyed his stolen crown in safety; [=iv.= iii. 219.] his expedition against Macduff's castle slays all _except_ the fate-appointed avenger; [=iv.= ii. 46.] Richard disposes of his enemies with flawless success until _the last_, Dorset, escapes to his rival.

Such is Nemesis, and such are some of the modes in which the connection between sin and retribution may be made artistically impressive. Poetic Justice, however, is a wider term than Nemesis. The latter implies some offence, as an occasion for the operation of judicial machinery. [_Poetic Justice other than Nemesis._] But, apart from sin, fate may be out of accord with character, and the correction of this ill distribution will satisfy the dramatic sense. But here again the practice of dramatic providence appears regulated, not with a view to abstract justice, but to justice modified by dramatic sympathy: Poetic Justice extends to the exhibition of fate moving in the interests of those with whom we sympathise and to the confusion of those with whom we are in antagonism. [=iv.= i. 346-363.] Viewed as a piece of equity the sentence on Shylock--a plaintiff who has lost his suit by an accident of statute-law--seems highly questionable. On the other hand, this sentence brings a fortune to a girl who has won our sympathies in spite of her faults; it makes provision for those for whom there is a dramatic necessity of providing; above all it is in accord with our secret liking that good fortune should go with the bright and happy, and sever itself from the mean and sordid. Whether this last is justice, I will not discuss: it is enough that it is one of the instincts of the imagination, and in creative literature justice must pay tribute to art.

[_Pathos as a dramatic motive._]

But however widely the term be stretched, justice is only one of the determinants of fate in the Drama: confusion on this point has led to many errors of criticism. The case of Cordelia is in point. Because she is involved in the ruin of Lear it is felt by some commentators that a consideration of justice must be sought to explain her death: they find it perhaps in her original resistance to her father; or the ingenious suggestion has been made that Cordelia, in her measures to save her father, invades England, and this breach of patriotism needs atonement. But this is surely twisting the story to an explanation, not extracting an explanation from the details of the story. It would be a violation of all dramatic proportion, needing the strongest evidence from the details of the play, if Cordelia's 'most small fault' betrayed her to dramatic execution. [=iv.= iv. 27.] And as to the sin against patriotism, the whole notion of it is foreign to the play itself, [=ii.= ii. 170-177[4]; =iii.= i, v.] in which the truest patriots, such as Kent and Gloucester, are secretly confederate with Cordelia and look upon her as the hope of their unhappy country; [=iv.= ii. 2-10 (compare 55, 95); =v.= i. 21-27.] while even Albany himself, however necessary he finds it to repel the invader, yet distinctly feels that justice is on the other side. The fact is that in Cordelia's case, as in countless other cases, motives determine fate which have in them no relation to justice; fiction being in this matter in harmony with real life, where in only a minority of instances can we recognise any element of justice or injustice as entering into the fates of individuals. When in real life a little child dies, what consideration of justice is there that bears on such an experience? Nevertheless there is an irresistible sense of beauty in the idea of the fleeting child-life arrested while yet in its completeness, before the rude hand of time has begun to trace lines of passion or hardness; the parent indeed may not feel this in the case of his own child, but in art, where there is no mist of individual feeling to blind, the sense of beauty comes out stronger than the sense of loss. It is the mission of the Drama thus to interpret the beauty of fate: it seeks, as Aristotle puts it, to purify our emotions by healthy exercise. The Drama does with human experience what Painting does with external nature. There are landscapes whose beauty is obvious to all; but it is one of the privileges of the artist to reveal the charm that lies in the most ordinary scenery, until the ideal can be recognised everywhere, and nature itself becomes art. Similarly there are striking points in life, such as the vindication of justice, which all can catch: but it is for the dramatist, as the artist in life, to arrange the experience he depicts so as to bring out the hidden beauties of fate, until the trained eye sees a meaning in all that happens;--until indeed the word 'suffering' itself has only to be translated into its Greek equivalent, and _pathos_ is recognised as a form of beauty. Accumulation of Pathos then must be added to Poetic Justice as a determinant of fate in the Drama. And our sensitiveness to this form of beauty is nowhere more signally satisfied than when we see Cordelia dead in the arms of Lear: fate having mysteriously seconded her self-devotion, and nothing, not even her life, being left out to make her sacrifice complete.

[_The Supernatural as a dramatic motive._]

There remains a third great determinant of fate in the Drama--the Supernatural. I have in a former chapter pointed out how in relation to this topic the modern Drama stands in a different position from that of ancient Tragedy. In the Drama of antiquity the leading motive forces were supernatural, either the secret force of Destiny, or the interposition of supernatural beings who directly interfered with human events. We are separated from this view of life by a revolution of thought which has substituted Providence for Destiny as the controller of the universe, and absorbed the supernatural within the domain of Law. [_The Supernatural rationalised in modern Drama._] Yet elements that had once entered so deeply into the Drama would not be easily lost to the machinery of Passion-Movement; supernatural agency has a degree of recognition in modern thought, and even Destiny may still be utilised if it can be stripped of antagonism to the idea of a benevolent Providence. To begin with the latter: the problem for a modern dramatist is to reconcile Destiny with Law. The characteristics which made the ancient conception of fate dramatically impressive--its irresistibility, its unintelligibility, and its suggestion of personal hostility--he may still insinuate into the working of events: only the destiny must be rationalised, that is, the course of events must at the same time be explicable by natural causes.

[_As an objective force in Irony._]

First: Shakespeare gives us Destiny acting objectively, as an external force, in the form of _Irony_, already discussed in connection with the standard illustration of it in _Macbeth_. In the movement of this play Destiny appears in the most pronounced form of mockery: every difficulty and check being in the issue converted into an instrument for furthering the course of events. Yet this mockery is wholly without any suggestion of malignity in the governing power of the universe; its effect being rather to measure the irresistibility of righteous retribution. This Irony makes just the difference between the ordinary operations of Law or Providence and the suggestion of Destiny: yet each step in the action is sufficiently explained by rational considerations. [=i.= iv. 37.] What more natural than that Duncan should proclaim his son heir-apparent to check any hopes that too successful service might excite? [=i.= iv. 48.] Yet what more natural than that this loss of Macbeth's remote chance of the crown should be the occasion of his resolve no longer to be content with chances? [=ii.= iii. 141.] What more natural than that the sons of the murdered king should take flight upon the revelation of a treason useless to its perpetrator as long as they were living? Yet what again more natural than that the momentary reaction consequent upon this flight should, [=ii.= iv. 21-41.] in the general fog of suspicion and terror, give opportunity to the object of universal dread himself to take the reins of government? The Irony is throughout no more than a garb worn by rational history.

[_As a subjective force in Infatuation._]

Or, again, Destiny may be exhibited as a subjective force in _Infatuation_, or _Judicial Blindness_: 'whom the gods would destroy they first blind.' This was a conception specially impressive to ancient ethics; the lesson it gathered from almost every great fall was that of a spiritual darkening which hid from the sinner his own danger, obvious to every other eye, till he had been tempted beyond the possibility of retreat.

Falling in frenzied guilt, he knows it not; So thick the blinding cloud That o'er him floats; and Rumour widely spread With many a sigh repeats the dreary doom, A mist that o'er the house In gathering darkness broods.

Such Infatuation is very far from being inconsistent with the idea of Law; indeed, it appears repeatedly in the strong figures of Scriptural speech, by which the ripening of sin to its own destruction--a merciful law of a righteously-ordered universe--is suggested as the direct act of Him who is the founder of the universe and its laws. By such figures God is represented as hardening Pharaoh's heart; or, again, an almost technical description of Infatuation is put by the fervour of prophecy into the mouth of God:

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

[=v.= viii. 13.]

In the case of Macbeth the judicial blindness is maintained to the last moment, and he pauses in the final combat to taunt Macduff with certain destruction. Yet, while we thus get the full dramatic effect of Infatuation, it is so far rationalised that we are allowed to see the machinery by which the Infatuation has been brought about: [=iii.= v. 16.] we have heard the Witches arrange to deceive Macbeth with false oracles. A very dramatic, but wholly natural, example of Infatuation appears at the turning-point of Richard's career, where, when he has just discovered that Richmond is the point from which the storm of Nemesis threatens to break upon him, [=iv.= ii. 98, &c.] prophecies throng upon his memory which might have all his life warned him of this issue, had he not been blind to them till this moment. [=i.= iii. 131.] Again, Antonio's challenge to Shylock to do his worst is, as I have already pointed out, an outburst of _hybris_, the insolence of Infatuation: but this is no more than a natural outcome of a conflict between two implacable temperaments. In Infatuation, then, as in all its other forms, Destiny is exhibited by Shakespeare as harmonised with natural law.

[_Supernatural agencies._]

Besides Destiny the Shakespearean Drama admits direct supernatural agencies--witches, ghosts, apparitions, as well as portents and violations of natural law. It appears to me idle to contend that these in Shakespeare are not really supernatural, but must be interpreted as delusions of their victims. There may be single cases, such as the appearance of Banquo to Macbeth, where, as no eye sees it but his own, the apparition may be resolved into an hallucination. But to determine Shakespeare's general practice it is enough to point to the Ghost in _Hamlet_, which, as seen by three persons at once and on separate occasions, is indisputably objective: and a single instance is sufficient to establish the assumption in the Shakespearean Drama of supernatural beings with a real existence. Zeal for Shakespeare's rationality is a main source of the opposite view; but for the assumption of such supernatural existences the responsibility lies not with Shakespeare, but with the opinion of the age he is pourtraying. A more important question is how far Shakespeare uses such supernatural agency as a motive force in his plays; how far does he allow it to enter into the working of events, for the interpretation of which he is responsible? On this point Shakespeare's usage is clear and subtle: he uses the agency of the supernatural to intensify and to illuminate human action, not to determine it.

[_Intensifying human action._]

Supernatural agency intensifying human action is illustrated in _Macbeth_. No one can seriously doubt the objective existence of the Witches in this play, or that they are endowed with superhuman sources of knowledge. But the question is, do they in reality turn Macbeth to crime? In one of the chapters devoted to this play I have dwelt on the importance of the point that Macbeth has been already meditating treason in his heart when he meets the Witches on the heath. His secret thoughts--which he betrays in his guilty start--[=i.= iii. 51.] have been an invitation to the powers of evil, and they have obeyed the summons: Macbeth has already ventured a descent, and they add an impulse downward. To bring this out the more clearly, Shakespeare keeps Banquo side by side with Macbeth through the critical stages of the temptation: Banquo has made no overtures to temptation, and to him the tempters have no mission. It is noticeable that where the two warriors meet the Witches on the heath it is Banquo who begins the conversation.

[=i.= iii. 38-50.]

_Banquo._ How far is 't called to Forres?

No answer. The silence attracts his attention to those he is addressing.

What are these So wither'd and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, And yet are on 't?

Still no answer.

Live you? or are you aught That man may question?

They signify in dumb show that they may not answer.

You seem to understand me, By each at once her chappy finger laying Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret That you are so.

Still he can draw no answer. At last Macbeth chimes in:

Speak, if you can: what are you?

The tamperer with temptation has spoken, and in a moment they break out, 'All hail, Macbeth!' and ply their supernatural task. [57.] Later on in the scene, when directly challenged by Banquo, they do respond and give out an oracle for him. But into his upright mind the poison-germs of insight into the future fall harmlessly; it is because Macbeth is already tainted that these breed in him a fever of crime. [=iii.= v. and =iv.= i.] In the second incident of the Witches, so far from their being the tempters, it is Macbeth who seeks them and forces from them knowledge of the future. Yet, even here, what is the actual effect of their revelation upon Macbeth? It is, like that of his air-drawn dagger, only to marshal him along the way that he is going. [=iv.= i. 74.] They bid him beware Macduff: he answers, 'Thou hast harp'd my fear aright.' They give him preternatural pledges of safety: are these a help to him in enjoying the rewards of sin? [=iv.= iii. 4, &c.] On the contrary, as a matter of fact we find Macbeth, in panic of suspicion, seeking security by means of daily butchery; the oracles have produced in him confidence enough to give agony to the bitterness of his betrayal, but not such confidence as to lead him to dispense with a single one of the natural bulwarks to tyranny. The function of the Witches throughout the action of this play is exactly expressed by a phrase Banquo uses in connection with them: [=i.= iii. 124.] they are only 'instruments of darkness,' assisting to carry forward courses of conduct initiated independently of them. Macbeth has made the destiny which the Witches reveal.

[_Illuminating human action._]

Again, supernatural agency is used to illuminate human action: the course of events in a drama not ceasing to obey natural causes, but becoming, by the addition of the supernatural agency, endowed with a new art-beauty. [_The Oracular Action._] The great example of this is the _Oracular Action_. This important element of dramatic effect--how it consists in the working out of Destiny from mystery to clearness, and the different forms it assumes--has been discussed at length in a former chapter. The question here is, how far do we find such superhuman knowledge used as a force in the movement of events? As Shakespeare handles oracular machinery, the conditions of natural working in the course of events are not in the least degree altered by the revelation of the future. The actor's belief (or disbelief) in the oracle may be one of the circumstances which have influenced his action--as it would have done in the real life of the age--but to the spectator, to whom the Drama is to reveal the real governing forces of the world, the oracular action is presented not as a force but as a light. It gives to a course of events the illumination that can be in actual fact given to it by History, the office of which is to make each detail of a story interesting in the light of the explanation that comes when all the details are complete. Only it uses the supernatural agency to project this illumination into the midst of the events themselves, which History cannot give till they are concluded; and also it carries the art-effect of such illumination a stage further than History could carry it, by making it progressive in intelligibility, and making this progress keep pace with the progress of the events themselves. Fate will allow none but Macduff to be the slayer of Macbeth. True: but Macduff (who moreover knows nothing of his destiny) is the most deeply injured of Macbeth's subjects, and as a fact we find it needs the news of his injury to rouse him to his task; [=iv.= iii.] as he approaches the battle he feels that the ghosts of his wife [=v.= vii. 15.] and children will haunt him if he allows any other to be the tyrant's executioner. Thus far the interpretation of History might go: but the oracular machinery introduced points dimly to Macduff before the first breath of the King's suspicion has assailed him, and the suggestiveness becomes clearer and clearer as the convergence of events carries the action to its climax. The natural working of human events has been undisturbed: only the spectator's mind has been endowed with a special illumination for receiving them.

[_The Supernatural as Dramatic Background._]

In another and very different way we have supernatural agency called in to throw a peculiar illumination over human events. In dealing with the movement of _Julius Cæsar_ I have described at length the _Supernatural Background_ of storm, tempest, and portent, which assist the emotional agitation throughout the second stage of the action. These are clearly supernatural in that they are made to suggest a mystic sympathy with, and indeed prescience of, mutations in human life. Yet their function is simply that of illumination: they cast a glow of emotion over the spectator as he watches the train of events, though all the while the action of these events remains within the sphere of natural causes. In narrative and lyric poetry this endowment of nature with human sympathies becomes the commonest of poetic devices, personification; and here it never suggests anything supernatural because it is so clearly recognised as belonging to expression. But 'expression' in the Drama extends beyond language, and takes in presentation; and it is only a device in presentation that tumult in nature and tumult in history, each perfectly natural by itself, are made to have a suggestion of the supernatural by their coincidence in time. After all there is no real meaning in storm any more than in calm weather, only that contemplative observers have transferred their own emotions to particular phases of nature: it would seem, then, a very slight and natural reversal of the process to call in this humanised nature to assist the emotions which have created it.

In these various forms Shakespeare introduces supernatural agency into his dramas. In my discussion of them it will be understood that I am not in the least endeavouring to explain away the reality of their supernatural character. My purpose is to show for how small a proportion of his total effect Shakespeare draws on the supernatural, allowing it to carry further or to illustrate, but not to mould or determine a course of events. It will readily be granted that he brings effect enough out of a supernatural incident to justify the use of it to our rational sense of economy.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] The text in this passage is regarded as difficult by many editors, and is marked in the Globe Edition as corrupt. I do not see the difficulty of taking it as it stands, if regard be had to the general situation, in which (as Steevens has pointed out) Kent is reading the letter in disjointed snatches by the dim moonlight. Commentators seem to me to have increased the obscurity by taking 'enormous' in its rare sense of 'irregular,' 'out of order,' and making it refer to the state of England. Surely it is used in its ordinary meaning, and applies to France; the clause in which it occurs being part of the _actual words_ of Cordelia's letter, who naturally uses 'this' of the country from which she writes. Inverted commas would make the connection clear.

Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter!--'Nothing almost sees miracles'-- 'But misery'--I know 'tis from Cordelia, Who hath 'most fortunately been inform'd' Of my 'obscured course, and shall find time From this enormous state'--'seeking to give Losses their remedies,' &c.

I.e. Cordelia promises she will find leisure from the oppressive cares of her new kingdom to remedy the evils of England. Kent gives up the attempt to read; but enough has been brought out for the dramatist's purpose at that particular stage, viz. to hint that Kent was in correspondence with Cordelia, and looked to her as the deliverer of England.

XIV.

INTEREST OF PLOT.

[_Idea of Plot as the application of design to human life._]

WE now come to the third great division of Dramatic Criticism--Plot, or the purely intellectual side of action. Action itself has been treated above as the mutual connection and interweaving of all the details in a work of art so as to unite in an impression of unity. But we have found it impossible to discuss Character and Passion entirely apart from such action and interworking: the details of human interest become dramatic by being permeated with action-force. When however this mutual relation of all the parts is looked at by itself, as an abstract interest of design, the human life being no more than the material to which this design is applied, then we get the interest of Plot. So defined, I hope Plot is sufficiently removed from the vulgar conception of it as sensational mystery, which has done so much to lower this element of dramatic effect in the eyes of literary students. If Plot be understood as the extension of design to the sphere of human life, threads of experience being woven into a symmetrical pattern as truly as vari-coloured threads of wool are woven into a piece of wool-work, then the conception of it will come out in its true dignity. What else is such reduction to order than the meeting-point of science and art? Science is engaged in tracing rhythmic movements in the beautiful confusion of the heavenly bodies, or reducing the bewildering variety of external nature to regular species and nice gradations of life. Similarly, art continues the work of creation in calling ideal order out of the chaos of things as they are. And so the tangle of life, with its jumble of conflicting aspirations, its crossing and twisting of contrary motives, its struggle and partnership of the whole human race, in which no two individuals are perfectly alike and no one is wholly independent of the rest--this has gradually in the course of ages been laboriously traced by the scientific historian into some such harmonious plan as evolution. But he finds himself long ago anticipated by the dramatic artist, who has touched crime and seen it link itself with nemesis, who has transformed passion into pathos, who has received the shapeless facts of reality and returned them as an ordered economy of design. This application of form to human life is Plot: and Shakespeare has had no higher task to accomplish than in his revolutionising our ideas of Plot, until the old critical conceptions of it completely broke down when applied to his dramas. The appreciation of Shakespeare will not be complete until he is seen to be as subtle a weaver of plots as he is a deep reader of the human heart.

[_Unity applied to Plot._]

We have to consider Plot in its three aspects of unity, complexity, and development. [_The Single Action._] The simplest element of Plot is the _Single Action_, which may be defined as any train of incidents in a drama which can be conceived as a separate whole. Thus a series of details bringing out the idea of a crime and its nemesis will constitute a Nemesis Action, an oracle and its fulfilment will make up an Oracular Action, a problem and its solution a Problem Action. Throughout the treatment of Plot the root idea of _pattern_ should be steadily kept in mind: in the case of these Single Actions--the units of Plot--we have as it were the lines of a geometrical design, made up of their details as a geometrical line is made up of separate points. [_Forms of Dramatic Action._] The _Form_ of a dramatic action--the shape of the line, so to speak--will be that which gives the train of incidents its distinctiveness: the nemesis, the oracle, the problem. An action may get its distinctiveness from its tone as a Comic Action or a Tragic Action; or it may be a Character Action, when a series of details acquire a unity in bringing out the character of Hastings or Lady Macbeth; an action may be an Intrigue, or the Rise and Fall of a person, or simply a Story like the Caskets Story. Finally, an action may combine several different forms at the same time, just as a geometrical line may be at once, say, an arch and a spiral. The action that traces Macbeth's career has been treated as exhibiting a triple form of Nemesis, Irony, and Oracular Action; further, it is a Tragic Action in tone, it is a Character Action in its contrast with the career of Lady Macbeth, and it stands in the relation of Main Action to others in the play.

[_Complexity applied to Action: a distinction of Modern Drama._]

Now what I have called Single Action constituted the whole conception of Plot in ancient Tragedy; in the Shakespearean Drama it exists only as a unit of Complex Action. The application of complexity to action is rendered particularly easy by the idea of pattern, patterns which appeal to the eye being more often made up of several lines crossing and interweaving than of single lines. Ancient tragedy clung to 'unity of action,' and excluded such matter as threatened to set up a second interest in a play. Modern Plot has a unity of a much more elaborate order, perhaps best expressed by the word _harmony_--a harmony of distinct actions, each of which has its separate unity. The illustration of harmony is suggestive. Just as in musical harmony each part is a melody of itself, though one of them leads and is _the_ melody, so a modern plot draws together into a common system a Main Action and other inferior yet distinct actions. Moreover the step from melody alone to melody harmonised, or that from the single instruments of the ancient world to the combinations of a modern orchestra, marks just the difference between ancient and modern art which we find reflected in the different conception of Plot held by Sophocles and by Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plots are federations of plots: in his ordering of dramatic events we trace a common self-government made out of elements which have an independence of their own, and at the same time merge a part of their independence in common action.

[_Analysis of Action._]

The foundation of critical treatment in the matter of Plot is the _Analysis_ of Complex Action into its constituent Single[5] Actions. This is easy in such a play as _The Merchant of Venice_. Here two of the actions are stories, a form of unity readily grasped, and which in the present case had an independent existence outside the play. These identified and separated, it is easy also to see that Jessica constitutes a fresh centre of interest around which other details gather themselves; that the incidents in which Launcelot and Gobbo are concerned are separable from these; while the matter of the rings constitutes a distinct episode of the Caskets Story: already the junction of so many separate stories in a common working gratifies our sense of design. In other plays where the elements are not stories the individuality of the Single Actions will not always be so positive: all would readily distinguish the Lear Main plot from the Underplot of Gloucester, but in the subdivision of these difference of opinion arises. [_Canons of Analysis._] In an Appendix to this chapter I have suggested schemes of Analysis for each of the five plays treated in this work: [_Analysis tentative not positive._] I may here add four remarks. (1) Any series of details which can be collected from various parts of a drama to make up a common interest may be recognised in Analysis as a separate action. It follows from this that there may be very different modes of dividing and arranging the elements of the same plot: such Analysis is not a matter in which we are to look for right or wrong, but simply for better or worse. No scheme will ever exhaust the wealth of design which reveals itself in a play of Shakespeare; and the value of Analysis as a critical process is not confined to the scheme it produces, but includes also the insight which the mere effort to analyse a drama gives into the harmony and connection of its parts. [_Design as the test of Analysis._] (2) The essence of Plot being design, that will be the best scheme of Analysis which best brings out the idea of symmetry and design. [_Analysis exhaustive._] (3) Analysis must be exhaustive: every detail in the drama must find a place in some one of the actions. [_The elementary actions not mutually exclusive._] (4) The constituent actions will of course not be mutually exclusive, many details being common to several actions: these details are so many meeting-points, in which the lines of action cross one another.--With these sufficiently obvious principles I must leave the schemes of analysis in the Appendix to justify themselves.

[_The Enveloping Action._]

In the process of analysis we are led to notice special forms of action: in particular, the _Enveloping Action_. This interesting element of Plot may be described as the fringe, or border, or frame, of a dramatic pattern. It appears when the personages and incidents which make up the essential interest of a play are more or less loosely involved with some interest more wide-reaching than their own, though more vaguely presented. It is seen in its simplest form where a story occupied with private personages connects itself at points with public history: homely life being thus wrapped round with life of the great world; fiction having reality given to it by its being set in a frame of accepted fact. We are familiar enough with it in prose fiction. Almost all the Waverley Novels have Enveloping Actions, Scott's regular plan being to entangle the fortunes of individuals, which are to be the main interest of the story, with public events which make known history. Thus in _Woodstock_ a Cavalier maiden and her Puritan lover become, as the story proceeds, mixed up in incidents of the Commonwealth and Restoration; or again, the plot of _Redgauntlet_, which consists in the separate adventures of a pair of Scotch friends, is brought to an issue in a Jacobite rising in which both become involved. The Enveloping Action is a favourite element in Shakespeare's plots. In the former part of the book I have pointed out how the War of the Roses forms an Enveloping Action to _Richard III_; how its connection with the other actions is close enough for it to catch the common feature of Nemesis; and how it is marked with special clearness by the introduction of Queen Margaret and the Duchess of York to bring out its opposite sides. In _Macbeth_ there is an Enveloping Action of the supernatural centring round the Witches: the human workings of the play are wrapped in a deeper working out of destiny, with prophetic beings to keep it before us. _Julius Cæsar_, as a story of political conspiracy and political reaction, is furnished with a loose Enveloping Action in the passions of the Roman mob: this is a vague power outside recognised political forces, appearing at the beginning to mark that uncertainty in public life which can drive even good men to conspiracy, while from the turning-point it furnishes the force the explosion of which is made to secure the conspirators' downfall. A typical example is to be found in _Lear_, all the more typical from the fact that it is by no means a prominent interest in the play. The Enveloping Action in this drama is the French War. The seeds of this war are sown in the opening incident, [=i.= i. 265.] in which the French King receives his wife from Lear with scarcely veiled insult: [=i.= ii. 23.] it troubles Gloucester in the next scene that France is 'in choler parted.' Then we get, in the second Act, a distant hint of rupture from the letter of Cordelia read by Kent in the stocks. [=ii.= ii. 172.] In the other scenes of this Act the only political question is of 'likely wars toward' between the English dukes; [=ii.= i. 11.] but at the beginning of the third Act Kent directly connects these quarrels of the dukes with the growing chance of a war with France: [=iii.= i. 19-34.] the French have had intelligence of the 'scattered kingdom,' and have been 'wise in our negligence.' In this Act Gloucester confides to Edmund the feeler he has received from France, [=iii.= iii.] and his trustfulness is the cause of his downfall; [=iii.= iii. 22.] Edmund treacherously reveals the confidence to Cornwall, [=iii.= v. 18.] and makes it the occasion of his rise. Gloucester's measures for the safety of Lear have naturally a connection with the expected invasion, [=iii.= vi. 95-108.] and he sends him to Dover to find welcome and protection. [=iii.= vii. 2, &c.] The final scene of this Act, devoted to the cruel outrage on Gloucester, shows from its very commencement the important connection of the Enveloping Action with the rest of the play: the French army has landed, and it is this which is felt to make Lear's escape so important, and which causes such signal revenge to be taken on Gloucester. Throughout the fourth Act all the threads of interest are becoming connected with the invading army at Dover; if this Act has a separate interest of its own in Edmund's intrigues with both Goneril and Regan at once, [=iv.= ii. 11, 15; =iv.= v. 12, 30 &c.] yet these intrigues are possible only because Edmund is hurrying backwards and forwards between the princesses in the measures of military preparation for the battle. The fifth Act has its scene on the battlefield, and the double issue of the battle stamps itself on the whole issue of the play: the death of Lear and Cordelia is the result of the French defeat, while, on the other hand, [=v.= iii. 238, 256.] all who were to reap the fruits of guilt die in the hour of victory. Thus this French War is a model of Enveloping Action--outside the main issues, yet loosely connecting itself with every phase of the movement; originating in the incident which is the origin of the whole action; the possibility of it developed by the progress of the Main story, alike by the cruelty shown to Lear and by the rivalry between his daughters; the fear of it playing a main part in the tragic side of the Underplot, and the preparation for it serving as occasion for the remaining interest of intrigue; finally, breaking out as a reality in which the whole action of the play merges.

[_Economy: supplementary to Analysis._]

From Analysis we pass naturally to _Economy_. Considered in the abstract, as a phase of plot-beauty, Economy may be defined as that perfection of design which lies midway between incompleteness and waste. Its formula is that a play must be seen to contain all the details necessary to the unity, no detail superfluous to the unity, and each detail expanded in exact proportion to its bearing on the unity. In practice, as a branch of treatment in Shakespeare-Criticism, Economy, like Analysis, deals with complexity of plot. The two are supplementary to one another. The one resolves a complexity into its elements, the other traces the unity running through these elements. Analysis distinguishes the separate actions which make up a plot, while Economy notes the various bonds between these actions and the way in which they are brought into a common system: it being clear that the more the separateness of the different interests can be reduced the richer will be the economy of design.

[_Economic Forms._]

It will be enough to note three Economic Forms. [_Connection_] The first is simple _Connection_: the actual contact of action with action, the separate lines of the pattern meeting at various points. In other words, the different actions have details or personages in common. Bassanio is clearly a bond between the two main stories of _The Merchant of Venice_, in both of which he figures so prominently; and it has been pointed out that the scene of Bassanio's successful choice is an incident with which all the stories which enter into the action of the play connect themselves. [_and Linking._] There are _Link Personages,_ who have a special function so to connect stories, and similarly _Link Actions_: Gloucester in the play of _Lear_ and the Jessica Story in _The Merchant of Venice_ are examples. Or Connection may come by the interweaving of stories as they progress: they alternate, or fill, so to speak, each other's interstices. [from =ii.= i. to =iii.= ii. 319.] Where the Story of the Jew halts for a period of three months, the elopement of Jessica comes to occupy the interval; or again, scenes from the tragedy of the Gloucester family separate scenes from the tragedy of Lear, until the two tragedies have become mutually entangled. Envelopment too serves as a kind of Connection: the actions which make up such a play as _Richard III_ gain additional compactness by their being merged in a common Enveloping Action.

[_Dependence._]

Another Form of Economy is _Dependence_. This term expresses the relation between an underplot and main plot, or between subactions and the actions to which they are subordinate. [compare =i.= i. 35, 191.] The fact that Gloucester is a follower of Lear--he would appear to have been his court chamberlain--makes the story of the Gloucester family seem to spring out of the story of the Lear family; that we are not called upon to initiate a fresh train of interest ministers to our sense of Economy.

[_Symmetry._]

But in the Shakespearean Drama the most important Economic Form is _Symmetry_: between different parts of a design symmetry is the closest of bonds. [_Balance._] A simple form of Symmetry is the _Balance_ of actions, by which, as it were, the mass of one story is made to counterpoise that of another. If the Caskets Story, moving so simply to its goal of success, seems over-weighted by the thrilling incidents of the Jew Story, we find that the former has by way of compensation the Episode of the Rings rising out of its close, while the elopement of Jessica and her reception at Belmont transfers a whole batch of interests from the Jew side of the play to the Christian side. Or again, in a play such as _Macbeth_, which traces the Rise and Fall of a personage, the Rise is accompanied by the separate interest of Banquo till he falls a victim to its success; to balance this we have in the Fall Macduff, who becomes important only after Banquo's death, and from that point occupies more and more of the field of view until he brings the action to a close. Similarly in _Julius Cæsar_ the victim himself dominates the first half; Antony, his avenger, succeeds to his position for the second half. [_Parallelism and Contrast._] More important than Balance as forms of Symmetry are _Parallelism_ and _Contrast_ of actions. Both are, to a certain extent, exemplified in the plot of _Macbeth_: the triple form of Nemesis, Irony, and Oracular binding together all the elements of the plot down to the Enveloping Action illustrates Parallelism, and Contrast has been shown to be a bond between the interest of Lady Macbeth and of her husband. But Parallelism and Contrast are united in their most typical forms in _Lear_, which is at once the most intricate and the most symmetrical of Shakespearean dramas. A glance at the scheme of this plot shows its deep-seated parallelism. A Main story in the family of Lear has an Underplot in the family of Gloucester. The Main plot is a problem and its solution, the Underplot is an intrigue and its nemesis. Each is a system of four actions: there is the action initiating the problem with the three tragedies which make up its solution, there is again the action generating the intrigue and the three tragedies which constitute its nemesis. The threefold tragedy in the Main plot has its elements exactly analogous, each to each, to the threefold tragedy of the Underplot: Lear and Gloucester alike reap a double nemesis of evil from the children they have favoured, and good from the children they have wronged; the innocent Cordelia has to suffer like the innocent Edgar; alike in both stories the gains of the wicked are found to be the means of their destruction. Even in the subactions, which have only a temporary distinctness in carrying out such elaborate interworking, the same Parallelism manifests itself. [e.g. =i.= iv. 85-104; =ii.= ii, &c.] They run in pairs: where Kent has an individual mission as an agency for good, Oswald runs a course parallel with him as an agency for evil; [e.g. =iv.= ii. 29; =v.= iii, from 59.] of the two heirs of Lear, Albany, after passively representing the good side of the Main plot, has the function of presiding over the nemesis which comes on the evil agents of the Underplot, while Cornwall, who is active in the evil of the [=iii.= vii.] Main plot, is the agent in bringing suffering on the good victims of the Underplot; [=iv.= ii; =iv.= v; =v.= iii. 238.] once more from opposite sides of the Lear story Goneril and Regan work in parallel intrigues to their destruction. Every line of the pattern runs parallel to some distant line. Further, so fundamental is the symmetry that we have only to shift the point of view and the Parallelism becomes Contrast. If the family histories be arranged around Cordelia and Edmund, as centres of good and evil in their different spheres, we perceive a sharp antithesis between the two stories extending to every detail: though stated already in the chapter on _Lear_, I should like to state it again in parallel columns to do it full justice.

In the MAIN PLOT a Daughter, In the UNDERPLOT a Son,

Who has received nothing Who has received nothing but Harm from her father, but Good from his father,

Who has had her position Who has, contrary to justice, been unjustly torn from her advanced to the position of an and given to her innocent elder Brother he had maligned, undeserving elder Sisters,

Nevertheless sacrifices Nevertheless is seeking the destruction herself to save the Father of the Father who _did_ him the who _did_ the injury from unjust kindness, when he falls by the the Sisters who _profited_ hand of the Brother who _was wronged_ by it. by it.

The play of _Lear_ is itself sufficient to suggest to the critic that in the analysis of Shakespeare's plots he may safely expect to find symmetry in proportion to their intricacy.

[_Movement applied to Plot: Motive Form._]

Movement applied to Plot becomes _Motive Form_: without its being necessary to take the play to pieces Motive Form is the impression of design left by the succession of incidents in the order in which they actually stand. [_Simple Movement: the Line of Motion a straight line._] The succession of incidents may suggest progress to a goal, as in the Caskets Story. This is preeminently Simple[6] Movement: the Line of Motion becomes a straight line. [_Complicated Movement: the Line of Motion a curve._] We get the next step by the variation that is made when a curved line is substituted for a straight line: in other words, when the succession of incidents reaches its goal, but only after a diversion. This is what is known as _Complication and Resolution_. A train of events is obstructed and diverted from what appears its natural course, which gives the interest of Complication: after a time the obstruction is removed and the natural course is restored, which is the Resolution of the action: the Complication, like a musical discord, having existed only for the sake of being resolved. No clearer example could be desired than that of Antonio, whose career when we are introduced to it appears to be that of leading the money-market of Venice and extending patronage and protection all around; by the entanglement of the bond this career is checked and Antonio turned into a prisoner and bankrupt; then Portia cuts the knot and Antonio becomes all he has been before. [=iii.= ii. 173.] Or again, the affianced intercourse of Portia and Bassanio begins with an exchange of rings; [=iv.= ii.] by the cross circumstances connected with Antonio's trial one of them parts with this token, and the result is a comic interruption to the smoothness of lovers' life, [=v.= i. 266.] until by Portia's confession of the ruse the old footing is restored.

[_Action-Movement distinguished from Passion-Movement._]

Such Complicated Movement belongs entirely to the Action side of dramatic effect. It rests upon design and the interworking of details; its interest lies in obstacles interposed to be removed, doing for the sake of undoing, entanglement for its own sake; in its total effect it ministers to a sense of intellectual satisfaction, like that belonging to a musical fugue, in which every opening suggested has been sufficiently followed up. We get a movement of quite a different kind when the sense of design is inseparable from effects of passion, and the movement is, as it were, traced in our emotional nature. In this case a growing strain is put upon our sympathy which is not unlike Complication. But no Resolution follows: the rise is made to end in fall, the progress leads to ruin; in place of the satisfaction that comes from restoring and unloosing is substituted a fresh appeal to our emotional nature, and from agitation we pass only to the calmer emotions of pity and awe. There is thus a _Passion-Movement_ distinct from _Action-Movement_; and, analogous to the Complication and Resolution of the latter, Passion-Movement has its _Strain and Reaction_. [_The Line of Passion a Regular Arch,_] The Line of Passion has its various forms. A chapter has been devoted to illustrating one form of Passion-Movement, which may be called the _Regular Arch_--if we may found a technical term on the happy illustration of Gervinus. The example was taken from the play of _Julius Cæsar_, the emotional effect in which was shown to pass from calm interest to greater and greater degree of agitation, until after culminating in the centre it softens down and yields to the different calmness of pity and acquiescence. [_an Inclined Plane_] The movement of _Richard III_ and many other dramas more resembles the form of an _Inclined Plane_, [=iv.= ii. 46.] the turn in the emotion occurring long past the centre of the play. [_or a Wave Line._] Or again, there is the _Wave Line_ of emotional distribution, made by repeated alternations of strain and relief. This is a form of Passion-Movement that nearly approaches Action-Movement, and readily goes with it in the same play; in _The Merchant of Venice_ the union of the two stories gives such alternate Strain and Relief, and the Episode of the Rings comes as final Relief to the final Strain of the trial.

[_For 'Comedy,' 'Tragedy,' substitute, in the case of Shakespeare,_]

The distinction between Action-Movement and Passion-Movement is of special importance in Shakespeare-Criticism, inasmuch as it is the real basis of distinction between the two main classes of Shakespearean dramas. Every one feels that the terms Comedy and Tragedy are inadequate, and indeed absurd, when applied to Shakespeare. The distinction these terms express is one of Tone, and they were quite in place in the ancient Drama, in which the comic and tragic tones were kept rigidly distinct and were not allowed to mingle in the same play. Applied to a branch of Drama of which the leading characteristic is the complete Mixture of Tones the terms necessarily break down, and the so-called 'Comedies' of _The Merchant of Venice_ and _Measure for Measure_ contain some of the most tragic effects in Shakespeare. The true distinction between the two kinds of plays is one of Movement, not Tone. In _The Merchant of Venice_ the leading interest is in the complication of Antonio's fortunes and its resolution by the device of Portia. In all such cases, however perplexing the entanglement of the complication may have become, the ultimate effect of the whole lies in the resolution of this complication; and this is an intellectual effect of satisfaction. In the plays called Tragedies there is no such return from distraction to recovery: our sympathy having been worked up to the emotion of agitation is relieved only by the emotion of pathos or despair. Thus in these two kinds of dramas the impression which to the spectator overpowers all other impressions, and gives individuality to the particular play, is this sense of intellectual or of emotional unity in the movement:--is, in other words, Action-Movement or Passion-Movement. [_'Action-Drama,' 'Passion-Drama.'_] The two may be united, as remarked above in the case of _The Merchant of Venice_; but one or the other will be predominant and will give to the play its unity of impression. The distinction, then, which the terms Comedy and Tragedy fail to mark would be accurately brought out by substituting for them the terms Action-Drama and Passion-Drama.

[_Compound Movement._]

With complexity of action comes complexity of movement. _Compound Movement_ takes in the idea of the relative motion amongst the different actions into which a plot can be analysed. A play of Shakespeare presents a system of wheels within wheels, like a solar system in motion as a whole while the separate members of it have their own orbits to follow. [_Its three Modes of Motion: Similar Motion,_] The nature of Compound Movement can be most simply brought out by describing its three leading Modes of Motion. In _Similar Motion_ the actions of a system are moving in the same form. The plot of _Richard III_, for example, is a general rise and fall of Nemesis made up of elements which are themselves rising and falling Nemeses. Such Similar Motion is only Parallelism looked at from the side of movement. A variation of it occurs when the form of one action is distributed amongst the rest: the main action of _Julius Cæsar_ is a Nemesis Action, the two subactions are the separate interests of Cæsar and Antony, which put together amount to Nemesis.

[_Contrary Motion,_]

In _Contrary Motion_ the separate actions as they move on interfere with one another, that is, each acts as complicating force to the other, turning it out of its course; in reality they are helping one another's advance, seeing that complication is a step in dramatic progress. _The Merchant of Venice_ furnishes an example. The Caskets Story progresses without check to its climax; in starting it complicates the Jew action--for before Bassanio can get to Belmont he borrows of Antonio the loan which is to entangle him in the meshes of the Jew's revenge; then the Caskets Story as a result of its climax resolves this complication in the Story of the Jew--for the union of Portia with Bassanio provides the deliverer for Bassanio's friend. But in thus resolving the Story of the Jew the Caskets Story, in the new phase of it that has commenced with the exchange of betrothal rings, itself suffers complication--the circumstances of the trial offering the suggestion to Portia to make the demand for Bassanio's ring. Thus of the two actions moving on side by side the one interferes with and diverts the other from its course, and again in restoring it gets itself diverted. This mutual interference makes up Contrary Motion.

[_Convergent Motion._]

A third mode of Compound movement is _Convergent Motion_, by which actions, or systems of actions, at first separate, become drawn together as they move on, and assist one another's progress. Once more the play of _Lear_ furnishes a typical example. This play, it will be recollected, includes two distinct systems of actions tracing the story of two separate families. Moreover the main story after its opening incident presents, so far as movement is concerned, three different sides, according as its incidents centre around Lear, Goneril, or Regan. The first link between these diverse actions is Gloucester, the central personage of the whole plot. [=i.= i. 35, 191.] Gloucester has been the King's chamberlain and his close friend, [=ii.= i. 93.] the King having been godfather to his son. Accordingly, in the highly unstable political condition of a kingdom divided equally between two unprincipled sisters, Gloucester represents a third party, the party of Lear: he holds the balance of power, and the effort to secure him draws the separate interests together. [=i.= v. 1.] Thus as soon as Lear and Goneril have quarrelled Lear sends Kent to Gloucester, and our actions begin to approach one another. [=ii.= i. 9.] Before this messenger can arrive we hear of 'hints and ear-kissing arguments' as to rupture between the dukes, and we see Regan and her husband making a hasty journey--'out of season threading dark-eyed night'--[=ii.= i. 121.] in order to be the first at Gloucester's castle; [=ii.= iv. 192.] when Goneril in self-defence follows, all the separate elements of the main plot have found a meeting-point. But this castle of Gloucester in which they meet is the seat of the underplot, and the two systems become united in the closest manner by this central linking. [=ii.= i. 88-131, esp. 112.] Regan arrives in time to use her authority in furthering the intrigue against Edgar as a means of recommending herself to the deceived Gloucester; the other intrigue of the underplot, [=iii.= v, &c.] that against Gloucester himself, is promoted by the same means when Edmund has betrayed to Regan his father's protection of Lear; while the meeting of both sisters with Edmund lays the foundation of the mutual intriguing which forms the further interest of the entanglement between underplot and main story. All the separate lines of action have thus moved to a common centre, and their concentration in a common focus gives opportunity for the climax of passion which forms the centrepiece of the play. Then the Enveloping Action comes in as a further binding force, and it has been pointed out above how throughout the fourth and fifth Acts all the separate actions, whatever their immediate purpose, have an ultimate reference to Dover as the landing-place of the invading army: in military phrase Dover is the common _objective_ on which all the separate trains of interest are concentrating. In this way have the actions of this intricate plot, so numerous and so separate at first, been found to converge to a common centre and then move together to a common _dénouement_.

[_Turning-points._]

The distinction of movement from the other elements of Plot leads also to the question of _Turning-points_, an idea equally connected with movement and with design. In the movement of every play a Turning-point is implied: movement could not have dramatic interest unless there were a change in the direction of events, and such change implies a point at which the change becomes apparent. Changes of a kind may be frequent through the progress of a play, but one notable point will stand out at which the ultimate issues present themselves as decided, the line of motion changing from complication to resolution, the line of passion from strain to reaction. [_The Catastrophe: or Focus of Movement._] Such a point is technically a _Catastrophe_: a word whose etymological meaning suggests a turning round so as to come down. [_The Centre of Plot._] In Shakespeare's dramatic practice we find a not less important Turning-point in relation to the design of the plot. This is always at the exact centre--the middle of the middle Act--and serves as a balancing-point about which the plot may be seen to be symmetrical: it is a _Centre of Plot_ as the Catastrophe is a Focus of Movement. The Catastrophe of _The Merchant of Venice_ is clearly Portia's judgment in the Trial Scene, by which in a moment the whole entanglement is resolved. [=iv.= i. 305.] In an earlier chapter it has been pointed out how the union of Portia and Bassanio--[=iii.= ii.] at the exact centre of the play--is the real determinant of the whole plot, uniting the complicating and resolving forces, and constituting a scene in which all the four stories find a meeting-point. In _Richard III_, [=iv.= ii. 45.] while the Catastrophe comes in the hero's late recognition of his own nemesis, yet there has been, before this and in the exact centre, a turn in the Enveloping Action, [=iii.= iii. 15.] which includes all the rest, shown by the recognition that Margaret's curses have now begun to be fulfilled. The exact centre of _Macbeth_, as pointed out above, [=iii.= iv. 20.] marks the hero's passage from rise to fall, that is from unbroken success to unbroken failure: the corresponding Catastrophe in this play is double, [=iii.= iv. 49; =v.= viii. 13.] a first appearance of Nemesis in Banquo's ghost, its final stroke in the revelation of Macduff's secret of birth. [=iii.= i. 122.] _Julius Cæsar_ presents the interesting feature of the Catastrophe and Central Turning-point exactly coinciding, in the triumphant appeal of the conspirators to future history. _Lear_, according to the scheme of analysis suggested in this work, has its Catastrophe at the close of the initial scene, by which time the problem in experience has been set up in action, and the tragedies arising out of it thenceforward work on without break to its solution. [=iii.= iv. 45.] A Centre of Plot is found for this play where, in the middle Scene of the middle Act, the third of the three forms of madness is brought into contact with the other two and makes the climax of passion complete. This regular union by Shakespeare of a marked catastrophe, appealing to every spectator, with a subtle dividing-point, interesting to the intellectual sense of analysis, illustrates the combination of force with symmetry, which is the genius of the Shakespearean Drama: it throughout presents a body of warm human interest governed by a mind of intricate design.

[_Conclusion._]

The plan laid down for this work has now been followed to its completion. The object I have had in view throughout has been the _recognition_ of inductive treatment in literary study. For this purpose it was first necessary to distinguish the inductive method from other modes of treatment founded on arbitrary canons of taste and comparisons of merit, so natural in view of the popularity of the subject-matter, and to which the history of Literary Criticism has given an unfortunate impetus. This having been done in the Introduction, the body of the work has been occupied in applying the inductive treatment to some of the masterpieces of Shakespeare. The practical effect of such exposition has been, it may be hoped, to intensify the reader's appreciation of the poet, and also to suggest that the detailed and methodical analysis which in literary study is usually reserved for points of language is no less applicable to a writer's subject-matter and art. But to entitle Dramatic Criticism to a place in the circle of the inductive sciences it has further appeared necessary to lay down a scheme for the study as a whole, that should be scientific both in the relation of its parts to one another, and in the attainment of a completeness proportioned to the area to which the enquiry was limited and the degree of development to which literary method has at present attained. The proper method for the nascent science was fixed as the enumeration and arrangement of topics; and by analogy with the other arts a simple scheme for Dramatic Criticism was found, in which all the results of the analysis performed in the first part of the book could be readily distributed under one or other of the main topics--Character, Passion, and Plot. Incidentally the discussion of Shakespeare has again and again reminded us of just that greatness in the modern Drama which judicial criticism with its inflexibility of standard so persistently missed. Everywhere early criticism recognised our poet's grasp of human nature, yet its almost universal verdict of him was that he was both irregular in his art as a whole, and in particular careless in the construction of his plots. We have seen, on the contrary, that Shakespeare has elevated the whole conception of Plot, from that of a mere unity of action obtained by reduction of the amount of matter presented, to that of a harmony of design binding together concurrent actions from which no degree of complexity was excluded. And, finally, instead of his being a despiser of law, we have had suggested to us how Shakespeare and his brother artists of the Renaissance form a point of departure in legitimate Drama, so important as amply to justify the instinct of history which named that age the Second Birth of literature.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] See note on page 74.

[6] See note on page 74.

TABULAR DIGEST OF THE PRINCIPAL TOPICS IN DRAMATIC SCIENCE.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIV.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PLOT OF THE FIVE PLAYS.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

AN ACTION-DRAMA.

_Scheme of Actions_.

External Circumstance[8]: The (rumoured) Shipwrecks.

_Economy_.

Two Main Actions connected by Common Personage [Bassanio] and by Link Action [Jessica].

General Interweaving.

Balance. The First Main Action, which is complicated, balances the Second, which is simple, by the additions to the latter of the Jessica interest transferred to it, and the Episode of the Rings generated out of it. [Pages 82, 88.]

_Movement_.

Action-Movement: with Contrary Motion between the two Main Actions. The First Main complicated and resolved by the Second

Main [hero of Second, Bassanio, is Complicating Force; heroine of Second, Portia, is Resolving Force], the Complication assisted by the External Circumstance of the Shipwrecks--in process of resolving the First generates a Complication to the Second in the form of the Episode of the Rings, which is self-resolved. [Pages 66, 282.]

Passion-Movement in the background: Wave-Line of Strain and Relief by alternation of the two main Stories; the Episode of the Rings is Final Relief to the Final Strain of the Trial.

_Turning-points._

Centre of Plot: Scene of Bassanio's Choice (=iii.= ii.) in which the Complicating and Resolving Forces are united and all the Four Actions meet. [Pages 67-8.]

Catastrophe: Portia's Judgment in the Trial (=iv.= i, from 299).

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Stationary, as having no place in the movement of the plot: its separateness from the rest of the Jessica Action only for purposes of Tone-effect, as Comic Relief.

[8] 'External' as not included in any Action, 'Circumstance' because it presents itself as a single detail instead of the series of details necessary to make up an Action. An External Circumstance is analogous to an Enveloping Action: outside the other Actions, yet in contact with them at certain points.

RICHARD THE THIRD.

A PASSION-DRAMA.

_Scheme of Actions._

Main =Nemesis= Action: Life and Death of Richard.

Link =Nemesis= Action connecting Main with LANCASTER side of Enveloping Action: Marriage of Richard and Anne (p. 113).

Enveloping =Nemesis= Action: The War of the Roses [the Duchess of York introduced to mark the York side, Queen Margaret to mark the Lancastrian side].

_Economy_.

All the Actions bound together by the Enveloping Action of which they make up a phase.

Parallelism: the common form of Nemesis.

Central Personage: Richard.

_Movement_.

Passion-Movement, with Similar Motion [form Nemesis repeated throughout (page 282)].

_Turning-points_.

Centre of Plot: Realisation of Margaret's Curses [turn of Enveloping Action] in =iii.= iii. 15.

Catastrophe: Realisation of Nemesis in the Main Action: =iv.= ii, from 45.

MACBETH.

A PASSION-DRAMA.

_Scheme of Actions._

+--Main =Character= Action: Rise and Fall of Macbeth. +--=Character= Counter-Action: Lady Macbeth.

+--=Character= Sub-Action: covering and involved in the Rise: | Banquo. +--=Character= Sub-Action: covering and involving the Fall: Macduff. [Pages 129, 142.]

Enveloping =Supernatural= Action: The Witches.

_Economy._

Parallelism: Triple form of Nemesis, Irony and Oracular Action extending to the Main Action, to its parts the Rise and Fall separately, and through to the Enveloping Action.

Contrast as a bond between the Main and Counter-Action.

Balance: the Rise by the Fall, the Sub-Action to the Rise by the Sub-Action to the Fall. [Page 276.]

_Movement._

Passion Movement, with Similar Motion between all.

_Turning-points._

Centre of Plot: Change from unbroken success to unbroken failure: =iii.= iii. 18. [Page 127.]

Catastrophe: Divided: First Shock of Nemesis; Appearance of Banquo's Ghost: =iii.= iv.

Final Accumulation of Nemesis: Revelation of Macduff's birth: =v.= viii. 12.

JULIUS CÆSAR.

A PASSION-DRAMA.

_Scheme of Actions._

Main =Nemesis= Action: Rise and Fall of the Republican Conspirators.

+--Sub-Action to the Rise [=Character-decline=]: The Victim Cæsar. +--Sub-Action to the Fall [=Character-rise=]: The Avenger Antony.

Enveloping Action: the Roman Mob.

_Economy._

Balance about the Centre: the Rise by the Fall, the Sub-Action to the Rise by the Sub-Action to the Fall.

_Movement._

Passion-Movement, with Similar Motion between the Main and Sub-Actions. [The form of the Main is distributed between the two Sub-Actions: compare page 282.]

_Turning-points._

The Centre of Plot and Catastrophe coincide: =iii.= i. between 121 and 122.

KING LEAR.

A PASSION-DRAMA.

_Scheme of Actions._

Main Plot: a =Problem= Action: Family of Lear: falling into

Generating Action: Lear's unstable settlement of the kingdom, [the Problem]. power transferred from the good to the bad.

Underplot: an =Intrigue= Action: Family of Gloucester: falling into

Generating Action: Gloucester deceived into reversing the positions [the Intrigue]. of Edgar and Edmund.

Central Link Personage between Main Plot and Underplot: Gloucester (page 283).

+--From the good side of | +--First | the Main: Kent. +--Crossing | Pair: | | & complicating | +--From the evil side of | one another. | | the Main: Oswald. | | | +--From the good side of the Main Sub-Actions, linking | | assisting Nemesis on Evil Agent Main and Underplot, +--Second | of the Underplot: Albany. or different | Pair: | elements of the | +--From the evil side of the Main Main together. | | assisting Nemesis on Good Victim | | of the Underplot: Cornwall. | +--Third Pair: Cross Intrigues between | the Evil sides of Main and Underplot | {Goneril and Edmund} | {Regan and Edmund } culminating in | destruction of all three (=v.= iii. 96, 221-7, | and compare 82 with 160).

_Farcical Relief Action: The Fool: Stationary._

Enveloping Action: The French War: originating ultimately in the Initial Action and becoming the Objective of the _Dénouement_. [Page 273.]

_Economy._

The Underplot dependent to the Main (page 276).

Especially: Parallelism and Contrast (page 277).

Central Linking by Gloucester.

Interweaving: Linking by Sub-Actions, &c., and movement to a common Objective.

Envelopment in Common Enveloping Action.

_Movement._

Passion-Movement, with Convergent Motion between the Main and Underplot, and their parts: the Lear and Gloucester systems by the visit to Gloucester's Castle drawn to a Central Focus and then moving towards a common Objective in the Enveloping Action. [Page 282.]

_Turning-points._

Catastrophe: at the end of the Initial Action, the Problem being set up in practical action. [Page 205.]

Centre of Plot: the summit of emotional agitation when three madnesses are brought into contact (page 223).

INDEXES.

GENERAL INDEX.

_For particular Characters or Scenes see under their respective plays._

Abbott, Dr., quoted 15.

Academy, French 18.

Achilles and the River-god 193.

Action a fundamental element of Drama 234-6 its threefold division 235 Plot as pure Action 236 or the intellectual side of Action 268.

Action, Analysis of: 271-4 canons of Analysis 271-2 Enveloping Action 272-4 =Illustrations= of Enveloping Action: _Richard III_ 273, _Macbeth_ 273, _Julius Cæsar_ 273, _King Lear_ 273-4.

'Action-Drama' as substitute for 'Comedy' 280-1.

Action, Economy of: 274-8. General notion and connection with Analysis 274-5 Economic Forms 275-8 Connection and Linking 275 Dependence 276 Symmetry 276-8 Balance 276 Parallelism and Contrast 276-8 Economy in Technical Analyses of the five plays 291-8.

Actions, focussing of: 209.

Action, Forms of Dramatic: 269-70, 125, 202.

Action, Schemes of in Technical Analyses, 291-8.

Action, Single and Complex 236, 270, &c.

Action, Systems of: 108, 110, 208.

Action, Unity of: 14, 235, 269-71 unity of action in Modern Drama becomes harmony 270.

Actions, Varieties of: Character-Action 270; Comic Action 270, 291; Farcical 291; Generating 297; Initial and Resultant 208; Intrigue 270, 207; Irony 269; Link 81, 208; Main and Subordinate 270; Nemesis 269 &c.; Oracular 269 &c.; Problem 269, 202; Relief 291, 298; Rise and Fall 270, 119, 127; Stationary 291; Story 270; Tragic 270, 297; Triple 270, 125, 142.

Actor, Acting 98, 231. [_See_ Stage-Representation.]

Addison: on scientific progress 5 his Critique of _Paradise Lost_ 16 his list of English poets 16 his _Cato_ 17, 19 on rules of art 20 on Rymer 21.

Analysis as a stage in scientific development 228-9.

Analysis, Dramatic: 227, 271. [_See_ Action, Analysis of.]

Ancient Drama 125, 259-60 Mixture of Tones an impossibility 252 the Supernatural its leading Motive 259 its unity of action different from that of the Modern Drama 270.

Ancient Thought, points of difference from Modern: 44, 125-7, 137.

Antithesis of Outer and Inner (or Practical and Intellectual) Life 144-6 as an element in Character-Interpretation 146 applied to the age of Macbeth 147 key to the portraiture of Macbeth and his wife 147-167 applied to the age of Julius Cæsar in the form of policy _v._ justice 168-71 connected with character of Antony 182, Brutus 171-6, Cæsar 176-81, Cassius 181 applied to the group as a whole 183-4.

Apparitions: _Richard III_ 122, _Macbeth_ 135-6, 140, 167, 262-4. [_See_ Supernatural.]

Apuleianism 15.

Arch as an illustration of dramatic form 127, 280 applied to the Movement in Julius Cæsar 186, 280 to King Lear: Main Plot 209, Underplot 215-17.

Aristotle: his criticism inductive 16 judicial 16 his position in the progress of Induction 230 made Stage-Representation a division of Dramatic Criticism 231 on the purification of our emotions in the Drama 259.

Art applied to the repulsive and trivial 90 common terms in the different arts 168 Dramatic Art 40, 227 &c. topics common to the Drama and other arts 232 Art in general affords a fundamental basis for the Analysis of Drama 234 concrete and abstract elements in all the arts alike 234.

Background of Nature as an element in dramatic effect 192-4 its widespread use in poetry 192 analysed 192 illustrated in _Julius Cæsar_ in connection with the Supernatural 193-6 used in Centrepiece of King Lear 214 considered as an example of the Supernatural illuminating human action 266.

Bacon 28.

Balance 82, 233 as an Economic form 276 in Technical Analyses 291, 295, 296.

Barbarism of enjoying personal defects 218.

Beaumont and Fletcher 13.

_Betrothed, The_: as example of Oracular Action 132.

Biblical citations: _Psalm_ II (Irony) 138 conclusion of _Job_ (Dramatic Background) 192.

Blank Verse 13.

Boileau on Terence 16 on Corneille 18.

Bossu 17, 18.

Brontë, Charlotte: 30.

Buckingham 17.

Byron 14.

Caro, Hannibal: 17.

Catastrophe, or Focus of Movement: 284-5 =Examples=: _Merchant of Venice_ 285; _Richard III_ 285, 120; _Macbeth_ 285; _Julius Cæsar_ 285, 198; _King Lear_ 285, 205 in Technical Analyses 291-8.

Central Personages 119 Gloucester in _King Lear_ 206, 207 Richard 291.

Centre, Dramatic: 67, 186 Shakespeare's fondness for central effects 186, 284.

Centre of Plot 284 =Examples= 285 in Technical Analyses 291-8.

Character: as an element in Judgment 56 as an Elementary Topic of Dramatic Criticism 235 subdivided 235.

Character, Interest of: 237 and Chapter XII. Character in Drama presented concretely 237. Unity in Character-Interest 237-9 Complexity in Character-Interest 239-242 Development in Character-Interest 242-5. Character-Interpretation 237-9. Character-Foils 239 Contrast 240 Duplication 240 Grouping 241 Dramatic Colouring 241. Character-Development 242-5.

Character-Contrast as a general term 239-42 strictly so-called 240, 144 and Chapter VII general and from special standpoints 144 from standpoint of Outer and Inner Life 144-7, 168-71 as an Elementary Topic of Dramatic Criticism 236 =Illustrations=: _Merchant of Venice_ 82-7 _Macbeth_ 144 and Chapter VII _Julius Cæsar_ 178, &c.

Character-Development 242-5 =Illustration=: _Macbeth_ ib.

Character-Duplication 240 =Illustrations=: Murderers in _Richard III_ &c. 240-1.

Character-Foils 239 Illustrations: Jessica to Lorenzo 85 Jessica and Lorenzo to Portia and Bassanio 86 Cassius and Cæsar 179.

Character-Grouping described 168 =Illustration=: _Julius Cæsar_ 169 and Chapter VIII.

Character-Interpretation 236, 237-9 of the nature of a scientific hypothesis 237 canons of interpretation 238-9 applied to more than one Character becomes Character-Contrast 240 analytical in its nature 186 has swallowed up other elements of dramatic effect in the popular estimation of Shakespeare 233 =Illustration=: _Richard III_ 90 and Chapter IV.

Chess with living pieces, an illustration of Passion 185.

Cibber 17.

Ciceronianism 15.

Circumstance External 291.

Clash of Tones: 253. [_See_ Tone.]

Classical Drama: _see_ Ancient.

Classification a stage in development of Inductive Method 228, 229.

Climax in Passion-Movement 185-7 applied to _Julius Cæsar_ 186-8 and Chapter IX. Illustrated in _King Lear_ 202 and Chapter X. Gradual rise to the climax of the Main Plot 209-15 the climax itself 215 climax of Underplot 215-8 climax of the play double 217 and triple 218, 223.

Coleridge 11.

Collier, Jeremy: 35.

Colouring. Dramatic: 241-2. =Illustration=: _Macbeth_ ib.

'Comedy' unsuitable as a term in Shakespeare-Criticism 280-1.

Comic as a Tone 251-2.

Complex distinguished from Complicated 74 (note) applied to Plot of _Merchant of Venice_ 74 and Chapter III Complexity distinguishes the plot of _King Lear_ as compared with that of _Julius Cæsar_ 186 traced in plot of _King Lear_ 202, 208-9, &c. not inconsistent with simplicity 208, 74 an element of Action 235, 236 applied to Character 239, Passion 250, Plot 270.

Complicated distinguished from Complex 74 (note) Complicated Movement 279.

Complicating Force 67.

Complication and Resolution 66, 279 =Illustration=: _Merchant of Venice_ 67.

Connection as an Economic form 275 by Link Personages and Actions 275 by Interweaving _ib._ by common Envelopment 276.

Construction and Creation as processes in Character-Painting 30.

Contrast as an Economic form 277, 295-8. [_See_ Character-Contrast.]

Corneille: the Corneille Incident 18 his _Clitandre_ ib.

Courage, active and passive 146, 179.

Cowley 16.

Creation and Construction as processes in Character-Painting 30.

Criticism _à priori_ 24, 37. [_See_ Criticism Judicial.]

Criticism, Dramatic: as an Inductive Science 40, 227, &c. surveyed in outline 227 indirectly by Studies _ib._ its definition 228-34 its method 228-30 its field 230-4 distinguished from Literary Criticism in general 231 need not include Stage-Representation 231-2 common ground between Literary and Dramatic Criticism 232 between Dramatic Art and Stage-Representation 232-3 Drama and Representation separable in exposition not in idea 233-4 fundamental divisions of Dramatic Criticism 234-6 its elementary Topics tabulated 236 General Table of its Topics 288.

Criticism: History of 7-21. [_See_ Criticism, Judicial, Shakespeare-Criticism.]

Criticism, Inductive: distinguished from Judicial 2 the two illustrated by the case of Ben Jonson 2-4 confusion of the two 4 gradual development of Inductive method in the history of Criticism 17-21 sphere of Inductive Criticism separate from that of the Criticism of Taste 21 three main points of contrast between Inductive and Judicial Criticism 27-40 (1) as to comparisons of merit 27-32 (2) as to the 'laws' of Art 32-7 (3) as to fixity of standard 37-40. =Difficulties= of Inductive Criticism: want of positiveness in the subject-matter 23-5 absence of 'design' in authors 26 objection as to the ignoring of moral purpose 35 arbitrariness of literary creation 35-7. =Principles= and =Axioms= of Inductive Criticism. Its foundation Axiom: _Interpretation is of the nature of a scientific hypothesis_ 25 its antagonism to comparisons of merit 27-9 concerned with differences of kind rather than degree 29-32 Axiom: _Its function to distinguish literary species_ 32 principle that each writer is a species to himself 30-2 the laws of Art: scientific laws 32-7 Inductive Criticism has no province to deal with faults 34 Axiom: _Art a part of Nature_ 36 Axiom: _Literature a thing of development_ 36 development to be applied equally to past and new literature 38. =Illustrations= of Inductive Criticism. Applied by Addison 16, 20; Aristotle 16; Fontenelle 19; Perrault 19; Gervinus 20; Dr. Johnson 16. Applied to the character of Macbeth 24; Music 29; to Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot 30; Beethoven 34.

Criticism, Judicial: distinguished from Inductive 2 the two illustrated by the case of Ben Jonson 2-4 confusion of the two 4 three main points of contrast between Judicial and Inductive Criticism 27-40 (1) as to comparisons of merit 27-32 (2) as to the 'laws' of Art 32-7 (3) as to fixity of standard 37-40. Illegitimate supremacy of Judicial method in Criticism 4 connected with influence of the Renaissance 4 and Journalism 5 defence: Theory of Taste as condensed experience 6 the theory examined: judicial spirit a limit on appreciation 6. =History= of Judicial Criticism a triumph of authors over critics 7-21. Case of Shakespeare-Criticism 7-11 other authors 11-13 defeat of Judicial Criticism in the great literary questions 13-15 its failure to distinguish the permanent and transitory 15 its tendency to become obsolete 16 its gradual modification in the direction of Inductive method 17-21. Proper sphere of Judicial Criticism 21 outside science _ib._ and belonging to creative literature _ib._ Vices of Judicial Criticism: its arbitrary method of eliminating variability of impression in literary effect 24 its fondness for comparisons of merit 27 its attempt to limit by 'laws' 32-5 its assumption of fixed standards 37-9 its confusion of development with improvement 39. =Illustrations= of Judicial Criticism: applied by the French Academy 18; Aristotle 16; Boileau 16, 18; Byron 14; Dennis 19; Dryden 9, 12, 13, 17; Edwards 9; Hallam 12; Heywood 10; Jeffrey 12; Dr. Johnson 10, 12, 16, 19, 20; Lansdowne 9; Macaulay 13; Otway 9; Pope 10, 19; Rymer 8, 14, 17; Steevens 12, 15; Theobald 10; Voltaire 9, 14, 17. Applied to Addison's _Cato_ 17; Beethoven 34; Brontë 30; Buckingham 17; Eliot (Geo.) 30; Gray 12; Greek Drama 30; Herodotus 39; Jonson (Ben) 2, 17; Keats 12; Milton 11, 12, 14, 17, 39; Montgomery 13; Roscommon 17; Shakespeare's Plays 8-11, &c.; Shakespeare's Sonnets 12; Spenser 12, 17; Taylor (Jeremy) 39; Waller 17; Walsh 17; Waverley Novels 12; Wordsworth 12.

Criticism of Assaying 2, 6. [_See_ Criticism, Judicial.]

Criticism of Taste 2, 6, 21-2. [_See_ Criticism, Judicial.]

Cross Nemeses 291, 293, 47, 51.

Dancing (Greek) 231.

Dennis 19.

Dependence as an Economic form 276.

Design, its significance in Criticism 26.

Destiny interwoven with Nemesis in _Macbeth_ 125 and Chapter VI conception of it in Ancient and Modern Thought 125, 259-60 phases of Destiny in Modern Drama 127 the Oracular Action one phase of Destiny 130 Irony as a phase of Destiny 137-43 Destiny acting objectively 260 rationalised in Modern Drama 260 as a subjective force, Infatuation 261-2 rationalised in Shakespeare _ib._

Development in literature 37-9 as an element of Action 235, 236 applied to Character 242.

Devices for increasing emotional strain 196.

Differentiation of matter accompanying progress of Inductive Science 230 applied to Dramatic Criticism 231-4.

Dover as the objective of the plot in _King Lear_ 274, 284.

Drama: the word 'drama' 234 Drama a compound art 231 the Shakespearean a branch of the Romantic Drama 43 its relations with Stage-Representation 231-2, 233-4, 98 one of its purposes to interpret the beauty of fate 259.

Dramatic Satire 3.

Dryden on Spenser 12, 17 on Blank Verse 13 his _Essay on the Drama_ ib. his _Essay on Satire_ ib. on Milton's Blank Verse 17 on Shakespeare's English 15.

Duplication 240.

Economy of Action 274-8 [_see_ Action] an economy in Richard's Villainy 100.

Edwards 9.

Effect as a general term in Dramatic Criticism 248 strictly so-called _ib._ an element of Passion _ib._ distinguished from Situation and Incident 246 described 248-50 special Effects: Irony 248, Nemesis 249, Dramatic Foreshadowing 249.

Elevated as a Tone 251.

Eliot (Geo.) 30.

Emerson, quoted 7.

Emotion as a barrier to crime 93.

Enveloping Action 273-4, 111 =Illustrations=: _Richard III_ 111-12; _King Lear_ 273-4 Analogous to External Circumstance 291 note in Technical Analyses 291-8.

Envelopment as a kind of Connection 276.

Euphuism utilised in Brutus's oration 175.

Eusden 17.

External Circumstance 291.

Farcical as a Tone 251, 252.

Fascination as an element in human influence 97.

Fate, determinants of in Drama 255 [_see_ Motive Force] fate other than retributive included in Poetic Justice 257 function of Drama to interpret beauty of fate 259.

Fault as a critical term 32, 34.

Focussing of trains of passion in _King Lear_ 209.

Foils 239. [_See_ Character.]

Fontenelle 19.

Foreshadowing, Dramatic: 249, 201.

Free Trade and Free Art 35.

Gervinus 11, 20, 127, 280.

Gloucester: _see King Lear_ and _Richard III_.

Goethe 11.

Goldsmith 33.

Gray 12.

Grouping 241. [_See_ Character.]

Hallam 11, 12.

_Hamlet_, Play of 262.

Hedging, Dramatic: 60, 78, 232-3. =Illustrations=: Shylock 58-61; Richard III, 105; Brutus 176.

Heraclitus 28.

Herodotus 39.

Heroic as a Tone 251.

Heroic couplet 30.

Heywood 10.

Hippolyta 111.

Hippolytus 45, 126.

History, its interpretation of events compared with the effect of the Oracular Action 265.

Hogarth 7.

Homer: Episode of Achilles and the River-god 193 _Iliad_ 23.

Hugo, Victor: 11.

Human Interest one of the two leading divisions of Drama 234 further divided, 235.

Humour in agony 162-3 an example of Tone-Clash 254.

Hybris 49, 262.

Hysterical passion in _King Lear_ 210-15.

Iago compared with Richard III 92 self-deceived 101.

Idealisation as a dramatic effect 51 applied to the Caskets Story 51-4 of Incident 97.

_Iliad_ 23, 193.

Imitation as a force in developing madness 214-15.

Incident as a division of Passion 246 distinguished from Situation and Effect _ib._ =Illustrations=: 246-7.

Inclined Plane as a form of Passion-Movement 280.

Inconsistency in characters a mark of unfinished Interpretation 238.

Indirect elements of Character-Interpretation 238, 86.

Individuality of authorship corresponds to differentiation of species 39 individuality an element in the Inner Life 169.

Induction: its connection with facts 1 application to literature 22-40. [_See_ Criticism Inductive.] Stages in the development of Inductive Science 228-9 its progress accompanied by differentiation of subject-matter 230 application to Science of Dramatic Criticism 227 and Chapters XI to XIV to the definition of Dramatic Criticism 228.

Infatuation: Destiny acting as a subjective force 261 prominence in Ancient Ethics 261 traces in Scripture expression 261 rationalised by Shakespeare 261-2. =Illustrations=: Antonio 262, 49; Cæsar 197; Macbeth 261-2.

Inner Life 144-6. [_See_ Antithesis of, &c.]

Interpretation by the actor an element in dramatic analysis 98 _see_ Character-Interpretation.

Interweaving of Stories 43-4, 58, 66-73, 74 and Chapter III, 81-2, 87-8 of light and serious Stories 69-73. [_See_ Story.] Interweaving as a kind of Connection 275 in Technical Analyses 291, 298.

Intrigue Action 207-8 the Underplot of _King Lear_ 207-8 Intrigues of Goneril and Regan, 206, 298.

Irony as a phase of Destiny 137-9 the word 'irony' 137 Irony of Socrates, _ib._ illustrated by Story of Oedipus 138 in language of Scripture 138 modified in modern conception 138-9 connected with Oracular Action 139 combined with Nemesis 256 as an objective presentation of Destiny 260-1. Dramatic Irony as example of mixed Passion 73 as a mode of emphasising Nemesis 115-119, 120 as one of the triple Forms of Action in _Macbeth_ 139-42 as a Dramatic Effect 248-9 this a contribution of the Greek Stage 248. Dramatic Irony extended to the language of a scene 249 Comic Irony 249. =Illustrations=: in _Merchant of Venice_ 73, 249; _Richard III_ 115-19, 120, 121, 249, 256; _Macbeth_ 139-142, 256; Macduff 143; Banquo 142; the Witches Action 143; proclamation of Cumberland 260; _Julius Cæsar_ 249, 197; _King Lear_ 249; Story of Oedipus 248.

Jeffrey 12.

Jester 218. [_See_ King Lear: Fool.]

Jew, Story of: 44, &c. [_See_ Story.] Feud of Jew and Gentile 60 Jews viewed as social outcasts, 83.

Job, Book of: its conclusion as an example of Dramatic Background of Nature 192.

Johnson, Dr.: on Shakespeare 10-11, 20 on Milton's minor poems 11 on Blank Verse 14 on Metaphysical Poetry 16 on Addison's _Cato_ 19 on the Unities 20.

Jonson, Ben: 2-4 his Dramatic Satires 3 his Blank Verse 13 his _Catiline_ 17.

Journalism: its influence on critical method 5 place of Reviewing in literary classification 21-2.

Judicial Blindness 201, 261. [_See_ Infatuation.]

_Julius Cæsar_, Play of: 168-201, Chapters VIII and IX. As an example of Character-Grouping 168 and Chapter VIII, 241 example of Enveloping Action 273 Balance 276 Regular Arch Movement 280 Similar Motion 282 Turning-points 285 Technical Analysis 296.

_Julius Cæsar_, Characters in: Antony balances Cæsar 129 spared by the Conspirators 171 contrasted by Cæsar with Cassius 179-80 his general character 182-3 its culture 179-80 self-seeking 182 affection for Cæsar 183, 199 his position in the group of characters 183, 184 peculiar tone of his oratory 198 dominant spirit of the reaction 198 upspringing of a character in him 198 his ironical conciliation of the conspirators 199 his oration 199-200 Antony's servant 198. Artemidorus 196. Brutus: general character 171-6 its equal balance 171-5 its force 171 softness 173 this concealed under Stoicism 173, 174-5, 239 his culture 173 relations with his Page 173-4 with Portia 173, 174 with Cæsar 175 slays Cæsar for what he might become 175 position in the State 176 relations with Cassius 172, 173, 182 overrules Cassius in council 172 his general position in the Grouping 183. Cæsar: a balance to Antony 129 general discussion of his character 176-81 its difficulty and contradictions 176-8 his vacillation 176-7 explained by the antithesis of Practical and Inner Life 178 Cæsar pre-eminently the Practical man 178-9 strong side of his character 176-7 lacking in the Inner Life 178-9 compared with Macbeth 178 a change in Cæsar and his world 180-1 his superstition 180-1 position in the Grouping 183 different effect of his personality in the earlier and later half of the play 188, 195, 197. Calpurnia 194-5. Casca 172, 194, 195. Cassius: his relations with Brutus 172, 182 brings out the defective side of Cæsar 179 contrasted by Cæsar with Antony 179-80 his character discussed 181-2 Republicanism his grand passion, _ib._ a professional politician 182 his tact 182 his position in the Grouping 183-4 his relish for the supernatural portents 195 his nemesis 249 Cassius and the eagles 250. Decius 181, 195. Ligarius 172. Page of Brutus 173-4, 201. Popilius Lena 172, 197. Portia 173, 174, 196. Roman Mob 188, 200. Soothsayer 196, 250. Trebonius 249.

_Julius Cæsar_, Incidents and Scenes. Capitol Scene 196-200 Conspiracy Scene 171, 172, 176, 181 its connection with storm and portents 193-4 Incidents of the Fever and Flood 178, 179 Funeral and Will of Cæsar 175, 199-200, 239.

_Julius Cæsar_, Movement of: compared with movement of _King Lear_ 186 its simplicity and form of Regular Arch 186, 280 key to the movement the justification of the conspirators' cause 187. Stages of its Movement: Rise 188-96 Crisis 196-8 Catastrophe and Decline 198-201. Starting-point in popular reaction against Cæsar 188 Crescendo in the Rise 189-91 the Conspiracy formed and developing the Strain begins 191-6 suspense an element in Strain 191 Strain increased by background of the Supernatural 192-6, 266 the conspirators and the victim compared in this stage 194-6. Crisis, the Strain rising to a climax 196-200 exact commencement of the Crisis is marked 196 devices for heightening the Strain 196 the conspirators and victim just before the Catastrophe 197 the justification at its height 197 Catastrophe and commencement of the Decline 198 Antony dominating the Reaction 198 the Mob won to the Reaction 200. Final stage of an Inevitable Fate: the Strain ceasing 200-1 the representative of the Reaction supreme 200 the position of Conspirators and Cæsar reversed 201 judicial blindness 201 the justification ceases 201.

Justice Poetic, as a Dramatic Motive 255-7 the term discussed 255 Nemesis as a form of Poetic Justice 255-6 Poetic Justice other than Nemesis 256-7.

Keats 12.

'Kindness': the word discussed 149-50, 222 'milk of human kindness' 149-50.

_King Lear_, Play of: as a study in complex Passion and Movement 202 and Chapter X compared with _Julius Cæsar_ 186 affording examples of Plot-Analysis 271 of Enveloping Action in the French War 273-4 of Parallelism and Contrast 277-8 of Convergent Motion 283-4 Turning-points 285 Technical Analysis 297-8.

_King Lear_, Characters in. Cordelia: her conduct in the Opening Scene 203-4 her Tragedy 206 friendship for the Fool 223 question of her patriotism 257-8 an illustration of Pathos as a Dramatic Motive 257-9 connection with the Enveloping Action 274. Cornwall 212. Edgar: his Tragedy 208 his feigned madness and position in the Centrepiece 215-8, 223 his contact with his father and Lear in the hovel 215-8, 247 his madness an emotional climax to the Underplot 216. Edmund compared with Richard III 92 his charge against Edgar 206 an agent in the Underplot 207-8 his Tragedy 208, 216 example of Irony 249 connected with the Enveloping Action 274. The Fool: Institution of the Fool or Jester 218-20 modern analogue in _Punch_ 219 utilised by Shakespeare 219 function of the Fool in _King Lear_ 220-3 his personal character 223 friendship with Lear and Cordelia 223. Gloucester: the central Personage of the Underplot 206-7 Link Personage between Main and Underplot 275 the Chamberlain and friend of Lear 276 his connection with the Enveloping Action 274, 298 with the Convergent Motion of the Play 283-4, 298. Goneril 203, 206, 210, 213, 240, 256, 274, 283-4. Kent represents Conscience in the Opening of the Problem 204-5 his Tragedy 206. Lear: his conduct in the opening scene an example of imperiousness 203-5, 211 his nemesis double 205-6 gradual on-coming of madness 209-15 Lear in the Centrepiece of the play 214-5 after the centre madness gives place to shattered intellect 215 his connection with the Fool 220-3 with the Enveloping Action 274. Regan 203, 206, 212, 213, 240, 256, 274, 283-4.

_King Lear_, Incidents and Scenes of: Opening Scene 203-5 Stocks Scene 211, 258 Outrage on Gloucester 247 Hovel Scene 215-8, 247.

_King Lear_, Movement of: 202 and Chapter X its simplicity 208-9 Lear's madness a common climax to the trains of passion in the Main Plot 209 Rise of the Movement in the waves of on-coming madness 209-15 form of movement a Regular Arch, _ib._ connection of the Fool with the Rise of the Movement 220-23 passage into the Central Climax marked by the Storm 214-5 Central Climax of the Movement 214-8 effect on Lear of the Storm 214 of contact with Edgar 215 Edgar's madness a common Climax to the trains of passion in the Underplot 215-7 the Central Climax a trio of madness 217-23 an example of Tone-Storm 254.

_King Lear_, Plot of: The Main Plot a Problem Action 202-6 the Problem enunciated in action 203-5 Solution in a triple Tragedy 205-6 Parallelism between Main and Underplot 206-8, 277-8, 297. The Underplot an Intrigue Action 207-8 its Initial Action 207 its resultant a triple Tragedy parallel with that of the Main Plot 207-8 Main and Underplot drawn together by common Central Climax 208 by Dependence 276 by Convergent Motion 282-4, 298.

Kriegspiel 185.

Laius 134.

Lansdowne 9.

Laureate, Poets preceding Southey: 17.

Law as a term in Criticism and Science generally 32-7.

Legal evasions 65.

Lessing 11.

Light as a Tone 251, 252.

Line of Motion 278-9.

Line of Passion 280.

Linking 275.

Lycurgus 45.

Lyrics of Prose 22.

Macaulay 2, 3, 13 on active and passive courage 146.

_Macbeth_, Play of: affords examples of Dramatic Colouring 241-2 Enveloping Action (the Witches) 273 Balance 276 Parallelism and Contrast 277 Technical Analysis 295.

Macbeth, Character of: an illustration of methodical analysis 24 compared with Richard 92 with Julius Cæsar 178 an example of Character-Development 243-5. General Analysis 147-154, 161, 243-5. Macbeth as the Practical Man 147-54 his nobility superficial 148, 161 his character as analysed by his wife 148-50 illustrated by his soliloquy 151-3 compared in action and in mental conflicts 153, 162 flaws in his completeness as type of the practical 154 Macbeth's superstition 154, 159, 162, 165-6, 167, 243-5 his inability to bear suspense 154, 160, 162, 163, 164-5, 243-5. Macbeth under temptation 158 in the deed of murder 161 his break-down and blunder 162 in the Discovery Scene 163 his blunder in stabbing the grooms 163 under the strain of concealment 164 confronted with the Ghost of Banquo 165 nemesis in his old age 167 and his trust in the false oracles 167. Macbeth an example of Infatuation 261-2 relations with the Witches 263-4 not turned from good to evil by their influence 263.

Macbeth (Lady), Character of: 154-6 type of the Inner Life 154-6 her tact 155, 161, 164, 165 her feminine delicacy 156, 161, 162, 166 her wifely devotion 156. Lady Macbeth under temptation 159 in the deed of murder 161 in the discovery 163 her fainting 164 under the strain of concealment 165 her tact in the Ghost Scene 165 her gentleness to Macbeth 166 her break-down in madness 166.

Macbeth, Lord and Lady, as a Study in Character-Contrast 144 and