picture-poster situation of preposterous melodrama? Surely not. Let
those who have the art--the extremely delicate and difficult art--of
making drama without the characteristically dramatic ingredients, do so
by all means; but let them not seek to lay an embargo on the judicious
use of these ingredients as they present themselves in life.

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: _Etudes Critiques_, vol. vii, pp. 153 and 207.]

[Footnote 2: In the most aggravated cases, the misunderstanding is
maintained by a persevering use of pronouns in place of proper names:
"he" and "she" being taken by the hearer to mean A. and B., when the
speaker is in fact referring to X. and Y. This ancient trick becomes the
more irritating the longer the _quiproquo_ is dragged out.]

[Footnote 3: The Lowland Scottish villager. It is noteworthy that Mr.
J.M. Barrie, who himself belongs to this race, has an almost unique gift
of extracting dramatic effect out of taciturnity, and even out
of silence.]

[Footnote 4: There is a somewhat similar incident in Clyde Fitch's play,
_The Moth and the Flame_.]

[Footnote 5: _Les Corbeaux_, by Henri Becque, might perhaps be classed
as a bankruptcy play, though the point of it is that the Vigneron family
is not really bankrupt at all, but is unblushingly fleeced by the
partner and the lawyer of the deceased Vigneron, who play into each
other's hands.]