1. Pointless badinage and padded scenes.
2. Inconsistencies of character and situation.
3. Looseness of dramatic construction.
4. Roman admixture and topical allusions.
5. Jokes on the dramatic machinery.
6. Use of stock plots and characters.

Let us illustrate these points by typical passages and endeavor to insert
such stage-directions as would indicate how the most telling effects could
be produced and hence aid the reader in visualizing the actual
performance.


I. Machinery Characteristic of the Lower Types of Modern Drama

A. _Devices self-evident from the text._

1. Bombast and mock-heroics.

It is a little difficult to sublimate this entirely from burlesque, but
its true nature is instanced by the opening lines of the _Miles_, where
the vainglorious Pyrgopolinices, with many a sweep and strut, addresses
his attendants, who are probably staggering under the weight of an
enormous shield:

"Have a care that the effulgence of my shield be brighter than e'er the
sun's rays in a cloudless sky: when the time for action comes and the
battle's on, I intend it shall dazzle the eyesight o' m' foes. (_Patting
his sword_). Verily I would condole with this m' sword, lest he lament and
be cast down in spirit, forasmuch as now full long hath he hung idle by m'