DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48955#0189
Sh. XXIII. THE THREE UNITIES. i83
of which each scene makes a link. Each scene
5
accordingly, ought to produce some incident rela-
tive to the catassrophe or ultimate event, by ad-
vancing or retarding it. A scene that produceth
no incident, and for that reason may be termed
barren, ought not to be indulged, because it
breaks the unity of aftion : a barren scene can ne-
ver be entitled to a place, because the chain is
complete without it. In the Old bachelor, the
3d scene of aft 2. and all that follow to the end of
that aft, are mere conversation-pieces, produftive
of no consequence. The 10th and nth scenes,
aft 3. Double Dealer , the 10th, nth, 12th, 13th,
and 14th scenes, aft 1. Love for Lore, are os the
same kind. Neither is 77ze way oj the World
entirely guiltless of such scenes. It will be no ju-
shfication., that they help to display charaders : it
were better, like Dryden in his dramatis perjona,
to describe charafters beforehand, which would
not break the chain of aftion. But a writer of
genius has no occasion for such artifice: he can
display the charafters of his personages much more
to the life in sentiment and aftion. How success-
fully is this done by Shakspeare I in whose works
there is not to be found a single barren scene.
Upon the whole , it appears, that all the fafts in
a historical fable, ought to have a mutual con-
nexion , by their common relation to the grand
event or catastrophe. And this relation in which
the unity of aftion consisls, is equally essential to
epic and dramatic compositions. M 4
of which each scene makes a link. Each scene
5
accordingly, ought to produce some incident rela-
tive to the catassrophe or ultimate event, by ad-
vancing or retarding it. A scene that produceth
no incident, and for that reason may be termed
barren, ought not to be indulged, because it
breaks the unity of aftion : a barren scene can ne-
ver be entitled to a place, because the chain is
complete without it. In the Old bachelor, the
3d scene of aft 2. and all that follow to the end of
that aft, are mere conversation-pieces, produftive
of no consequence. The 10th and nth scenes,
aft 3. Double Dealer , the 10th, nth, 12th, 13th,
and 14th scenes, aft 1. Love for Lore, are os the
same kind. Neither is 77ze way oj the World
entirely guiltless of such scenes. It will be no ju-
shfication., that they help to display charaders : it
were better, like Dryden in his dramatis perjona,
to describe charafters beforehand, which would
not break the chain of aftion. But a writer of
genius has no occasion for such artifice: he can
display the charafters of his personages much more
to the life in sentiment and aftion. How success-
fully is this done by Shakspeare I in whose works
there is not to be found a single barren scene.
Upon the whole , it appears, that all the fafts in
a historical fable, ought to have a mutual con-
nexion , by their common relation to the grand
event or catastrophe. And this relation in which
the unity of aftion consisls, is equally essential to
epic and dramatic compositions. M 4