appreciable pleasure of anticipation. There is a peculiar and not
irrational charm in looking down a list of quite unknown names, and
thinking: "In the course of three hours, I shall know these people: I
shall have read their hearts: I shall have lived with them through a
great crisis in their lives: some of them may be my friends for ever."
It is one of the glories and privileges of the dramatist's calling that
he can arouse in us this eager and poignant expectation; and I cannot
commend his wisdom in deliberately taking the edge off it, and making us
feel as though we were not sitting down to a play, but to a sort of
conversational novel. A list of characters, it is true, may also affect
one with acute anticipations of boredom; but I have never yet found a
play less tedious by reason of the suppression of the "Dramatis
Personae."

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: Partially, too, they were under the influence of antiquity;
but the ancients were very discreet in their use of significant names.
Only in satyr-plays, in the comic epics, and for a few extravagant
characters in comedy (such as the boastful soldier) were grotesque
appellations employed. For the rest, the Greek habit of nomenclature
made it possible to use significant names which were at the same time
probable enough in daily life. For example, a slave might be called
Onesimus, "useful," or a soldier Polemon, to imply his warlike function;
but both names would be familiar to the audience in actual use.]




_BOOK II_