The persons gain our
attention by following their own aims, which resemble ours; the action
advances by means of intrigue and the play of character and incident;
while wit and raillery season the whole.
At the second stage, the drama becomes _sentimental_. Sympathy is
roused with the hero and, indirectly, with ourselves. The action takes
a pathetic turn; but the end is peaceful and satisfactory.
The climax is reached with the third stage, which is the most
difficult. There the drama aims at being _tragic_. We are brought face
to face with great suffering and the storm and stress of existence;
and the outcome of it is to show the vanity of all human effort.
Deeply moved, we are either directly prompted to disengage our will
from the struggle of life, or else a chord is struck in us which
echoes a similar feeling.
The beginning, it is said, is always difficult. In the drama it is
just the contrary; for these the difficulty always lies in the end.
This is proved by countless plays which promise very well for
the first act or two, and then become muddled, stick or
falter--notoriously so in the fourth act--and finally conclude in a
way that is either forced or unsatisfactory or else long foreseen by
every one. Sometimes, too, the end is positively revolting, as in
Lessing's _Emilia Galotti_, which sends the spectators home in a
temper.
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