our eyes. If these characteristics be absent, the drama must of
necessity be an artistic failure by reason of its lack of truth. But it
requires also plot, with a logical growth leading to some great climax
and developing a growing suspense in the spectator as to what shall be
the end. It is true that plot without reality may give us a successful
melodrama, that truth of character-drawing with a minimum of plot may
move and interest us. But in neither case shall we have drama in its
truest and noblest form.

Seneca gives us neither the half nor the whole. The stage is ultimately
the touchstone of dramatic excellence. But if it is to be such a
touchstone, it must have an audience with a penetration of intelligence
and a soundness of taste such as had long ceased to characterize Roman
audiences. The Senecan drama has lost touch with the stage and lacks
both unity and life. Such superficial unity as his plots possess is due
to the fact that they are ultimately imitations of Greek[176] drama. A
full discussion of the plots is neither necessary here nor possible. A
few instances of Seneca's treatment of his material must suffice.[177]
He has no sense of logical development; the lack of sequence and of
proportion traceable in the letters is more painfully evident in the
tragedies.

The _Hercules Furens_ supplies an excellent example of the weakness of
the Senecan plot. It is based on the [Greek: H_erakl_es mainomenos] of
Euripides, and such unity as it possesses is in the main due to that
fact. It is in his chief divergences from the Euripidean treatment of
the story that his deficiencies become most apparent. Theseus appears
early in the play merely that he may deliver a long rhodomontade on the
appearance of the underworld, whence Hercules has rescued him; and,
worst of all, the return of Hercules is rendered wholly ineffective.