The Dynasts | Page 5

historical presentment on an
intermittent plan, in which the dramatis personae number some
hundreds, exclusive of crowds and armies, becomes in his individual
case unsuitable.
In this assumption of a completion of the action by those to whom the
drama is addressed, it is interesting, if unnecessary, to name an
exemplar as old as Aeschylus, whose plays are, as Dr. Verrall reminds
us,(2) scenes from stories taken as known, and would be unintelligible
without supplementary scenes of the imagination.
Readers will readily discern, too, that The Dynasts is intended simply
for mental performance, and not for the stage. Some critics have
averred that to declare a drama(3) as being not for the stage is to make
an announcement whose subject and predicate cancel each other. The
question seems to be an unimportant matter of terminology.
Compositions cast in this shape were, without doubt, originally written
for the stage only, and as a consequence their nomenclature of "Act,"
"Scene," and the like, was drawn directly from the vehicle of
representation. But in the course of time such a shape would reveal
itself to be an eminently readable one; moreover, by dispensing with
the theatre altogether, a freedom of treatment was attainable in this
form that was denied where the material possibilities of stagery had to
be rigorously remembered. With the careless mechanicism of human
speech, the technicalities of practical mumming were retained in these
productions when they had ceased to be concerned with the stage at all.
To say, then, in the present case, that a writing in play-shape is not to
be played, is merely another way of stating that such writing has been
done in a form for which there chances to be no brief definition save
one already in use for works that it superficially but not entirely
resembles.
Whether mental performance alone may not eventually be the fate of all
drama other than that of contemporary or frivolous life, is a kindred
question not without interest. The mind naturally flies to the triumphs
of the Hellenic and Elizabethan theatre in exhibiting scenes laid "far in
the Unapparent," and asks why they should not be repeated. But the

meditative world is older, more invidious, more nervous, more
quizzical, than it once was, and being unhappily perplexed by--
Riddles of Death Thebes never knew,
may be less ready and less able than Hellas and old England were to
look through the insistent, and often grotesque, substance at the thing
signified.
In respect of such plays of poesy and dream a practicable compromise
may conceivably result, taking the shape of a monotonic delivery of
speeches, with dreamy conventional gestures, something in the manner
traditionally maintained by the old Christmas mummers, the curiously
hypnotizing impressiveness of whose automatic style--that of persons
who spoke by no will of their own--may be remembered by all who
ever experienced it. Gauzes or screens to blur outlines might still
further shut off the actual, as has, indeed, already been done in
exceptional cases. But with this branch of the subject we are not
concerned here.
T.H. September 1903.

CONTENTS.

THE DYNASTS: AN EPIC-DRAMA OF THE WAR WITH
NAPOLEON

Preface
PART FIRST
Characters
Fore Scene. The Overworld
Act First:--
Scene I. England. A Ridge in Wessex " II. Paris. Office of the Minister
of Marine " III. London. The Old House of Commons " IV. The
Harbour of Boulogne " V. London. The House of a Lady of Quality "
IV. Milan. The Cathedral
Act Second:--
Scene I. The Dockyard, Gibraltar " II. Off Ferrol " III. The Camp and
Harbour of Boulogne " IV. South Wessex. A Ridge-like Down near the
Coast " V. The Same. Rainbarrows' Beacon, Egdon Heath
Act Third:--

Scene I. The Chateau at Pont-de-Briques " II. The Frontiers of Upper
Austria and Bavaria " III. Boulogne. The St. Omer Road
Act Fourth:--
Scene I. King George's Watering-place, South Wessex " II. Before the
City of Ulm " III. Ulm. Within the City " IV. Before Ulm. The Same
Day " V. The Same. The Michaelsberg " VI. London. Spring Gardens
Act Fifth:--
Scene I. Off Cape Trafalgar " II. The Same. The Quarter-deck of the
"Victory" " III. The Same. On Board the "Bucentaure" " IV. The Same.
The Cockpit of the "Victory" " V. London. The Guildhall " VI. An Inn
at Rennes " VII. King George's Watering-place, South Wessex
Act Sixth:--
Scene I. The Field of Austerlitz. The French Position " II. The Same.
The Russian Position " III. The Same. The French Position " IV. The
Same. The Russian Position " V. The Same. Near the Windmill of
Paleny " VI. Shockerwick House, near Bath " VII. Paris. A Street
leading to the Tuileries " VIII. Putney. Bowling Green House

PART SECOND
Characters
Act First:--
Scene