but completely in it. This being so, the playwright must evidently, at
some point in the working out of his theme, visualize the stage-picture
in considerable detail; and we find that almost all modern dramatists
do, as a matter of fact, pay great attention to what may be called the
topography of their scenes, and the shifting "positions" of their
characters. The question is: at what stage of the process of composition
ought this visualization to occur? Here, again, it would be absurd to
lay down a general rule; but I am inclined to think, both theoretically
and from what can be gathered of the practice of the best dramatists,
that it is wisest to reserve it for a comparatively late stage. A
playwright of my acquaintance, and a very remarkable playwright too,
used to scribble the first drafts of his play in little notebooks, which
he produced from his pocket whenever he had a moment to spare--often on
the top of an omnibus. Only when the first draft was complete did he
proceed to set the scenes, as it were, and map out the stage-management.
On the other hand, one has heard of playwrights whose first step in
setting to work upon a particular act was to construct a complete model
of the scene, and people it with manikins to represent the characters.
As a general practice, this is scarcely to be commended. It is wiser,
one fancies, to have the matter of the scene pretty fully roughed-out
before details of furniture, properties, and position are arranged.[14]
It may happen, indeed, that some natural phenomenon, some property or
piece of furniture, is the very pivot of the scene; in which case it
must, of course, be posited from the first. From the very moment of his
conceiving the fourth act of _Le Tartufe_, Molière must have had clearly
in view the table under which Orgon hides; and Sheridan cannot have got
very far with the Screen Scene before he had mentally placed the screen.
But even where a great deal turns on some individual object, the
detailed arrangements of the scene may in most cases be taken for
granted until a late stage in its working out.