Chapter XXXI: Act II: , Herod, in the play of that name by Stephen Phillips, has ordered

Mariamne killed. Completely infatuated by her, he has done this only when her enemies have forced him to believe that she is utterly false. Almost instantly his love overwhelms his mistrust. He tries to revoke his word, crying,

Yet will I not be bound, I will break free,
She shall not die--she shall not die--she shall not--

News of the triumph he has longed for interrupts:

_Enter Attendant._

_Attendant._ O king, the Roman eagles! See!

_A cry._ (_Without._) From Rome!

_Enter Roman Envoy and Suite._

_Envoy._ O king, great Caesar sent us after you,
But, though we posted fast, you still outran us.
Thus then by word of mouth great Caesar greets
Herod his friend. But he would not confine
That friendship to the easy spoken word,
And hear I bear a proof of Caesar's faith.
Herein is added to thy boundaries
Hippo, Samaria and Gadara,
And high-walled Joppa, and Anthedon's shore,
And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers. (_Moves down._)
Here is the scroll, with Caesar's own hand signed.

_Herod._ (_Taking the scroll--at foot of steps._) Mariamne, hear you
this? Mariamne, see you? (_Turns to look at scroll._)

(_Servant enters and moves down to Gadias down L._)
(_He goes up the stairs._)

Hippo, Samaria and Gadara,
And high-walled Joppa, and Anthedon's shore,
And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers.

_Servant._ (_Aside to Gadias._) O sir, the queen is dead!

_Gadias._ (_Aside to Pheroras, Cypros, and Salome._) The queen is dead!

_Herod._ Mariamne, hear you this? Mariamne, see you?
(_Repeating the words, and going up steps._)

Hippo, Samaria and Gadara,
And high-walled Joppa, and Anthedon, (_As he moves up._)
And Gaza unto these, and Straton's towers![54]

The perfect climax lies in the irony of the fact that all Herod most desires as ruler comes to him at just the moment when he has killed the thing that most he loved.

At the end of Act III of _Chains_, by Elizabeth Baker, everybody--the father-in-law and mother-in-law, Percy, the brother-in-law, and Sybil, a pretty but useless bit of femininity--has been making Charlie entirely miserable because no one can understand that his expressed desire to try his fortunes in Australia and then send for his wife, Lily, is not a pretext for abandoning her. Percy, with next to nothing a year, is just engaged to Sybil. Foster wants to marry Margaret, Charlie's sister-in-law, who is dissatisfied with her lot.

_Enter Lily, dressed for going out, also Mrs. Massey. Lily goes round,
kissing and shaking hands, with a watery smile and a forced tearful
cheerfulness._

_Charley._ (_Without going all around and calling from the door._)
Good night, all! (_Exeunt Lily and Charley._)

_Mrs. Massey._ Well, I must say--

_Percy._ O, let's drop it, mother. Play something, Maggie.

_Maggie._ I don't want to.

_Mrs. Massey._ Walter would like to hear something, wouldn't
you, Walter?

_Foster._ If Maggie feels like it.

_Maggie._ She doesn't feel like it.

_Massey._ Be as pleasant as you can, my girl--Charley's enough
for one evening.

(_Maggie goes to the piano and sitting down plays noisily, with both
pedals on, the chorus, "Off to Philadelphia."_)

_Mrs. Massey._ Maggie, it's Sunday!

_Maggie._ I forgot!

_Mrs. Massey._ You shouldn't forget such things--Sybil, my
dear--

_Sybil._ I don't play.

_Massey._ Rubbish! Come on!

(_Sybil goes to the piano and Percy follows her._)

_Percy._ (_Very near to Sybil and helping her to find the music._)
Charley is a rotter! What d'ye think he was telling me the other day?

_Sybil._ I don't know.

_Percy._ Told me to be sure I got the right girl.

_Sybil._ Brute!

_Percy._ What do you think I said? Darling!
(_Kisses her behind music._)

_Massey._ (_Looking around._) Take a bigger sheet.

(_Sybil sits at piano quickly and plays the chorus to
"Count Your Many Blessings." To which they all sing:_)

Count your many blessings, count them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done.
Count your blessings, count them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.[55]

Is not the irony of this group of unsatisfied or dissatisfied people singing "Count your many blessings," fully climactic?

Not quietness of speech or action, then, but appropriateness makes any of these approved endings climactic and artistic.

There can hardly be any question that the original ending of _Still Waters Run Deep_ is theatrical in the sense that it is climactic only by the dramatic convention of its time. Except when theatricality is intentionally part of the artistic design, it is, of course, undesirable. Rostand, letting the figures in _The Romancers_ comment on their own play as a kind of epilogue, has a really artistic though theatrical climax.

_Sylvette._ (_Summoning the actors about her._) And now we five--if
Master Straforel please--
Let us expound the play in which we've tried to please.

(_She comes down stage and addresses the audience, marking time with
her hand._)

Light, easy rhymes; old dresses, frail and light;
Love in a park, fluting an ancient tune. (_Soft music._)

_Bergamin._ A fairy-tale quintet, mad as Midsummer-night.

_Pasquin._ Some quarrels. Yes!--but all so very slight!

_Straforel._ Madness of sunstroke; madness of the moon!
A worthy villain, in his mantle dight.

_Sylvette._ Light, easy rhymes; old dresses, frail and light;
Love in a park, fluting an ancient tune.

_Percinet._ A Watteau picture--not by Watteau, quite;
Release from many a dreary Northern rune;
Lovers and fathers; old walls, flowery-bright;
A brave old plot--with music--ending soon.

_Sylvette._ Light, easy rhymes; old dresses, frail and light.

(_The stage gradually darkens; the last lines are delivered in
voices that grow fainter as the actors appear to fade away into mist
and darkness._)

_Curtain._[56]

So light the finale, as in London, that the figures fade from sight till only their voices are faintly heard, and theatricality helps to place the play as a mere bit of fantasy. On the other hand, there is something like genuine theatricality at the end of Sudermann's _Fritzschen_. Fritz is going to his death in a prospective duel with a man who is an unerring shot. Though the others present suspect or know the truth, his mother thinks he is going to new and finer fortunes. Isn't the following the real climax?

_Fritz._ (_Stretching out his hand to her cheerfully._) Dear Ag--(_Looks into her face, and understands that she knows. Softly, earnestly._) Farewell, then.

_Agnes._ Farewell, Fritz!

_Fritz._ I love you.

_Agnes._ I shall always love you, Fritz!

_Fritz._ Away, then, Hallerpfort! Au revoir, papa! Au revoir! Revoir!
(_Starts for the door on the right._)

_Frau von Drosse._ Go by the park, boys--there I have you longer in
sight.

_Fritz._ Very well, mamma, we will do it! (_Passes with Hallerpfort
through the door at the centre; on the terrace, he turns with a
cheerful gesture, and calls once more._) Au Revoir! (_His voice is
still audible._) Au revoir!

(_Frau von Drosse throws kisses after him, and waves her
handkerchief, then presses her hand wearily to her heart and sighs
heavily._)[57]

Because the history of the theatre shows that the contained appeal always moves an audience, Sudermann adds one more touch of misery as the mother dwells on her dream of the night before:

(_Agnes hurries to her, and leads her to a chair, then goes over to
the Major, who, with heaving breast, is lost in thought._)

_Frau von Drosse._ Thank you, my darling!--Already, I am quite well
again!... God, the boy! How handsome he looked! And so brown and so
healthy.... You see, I saw him exactly like that last night.... No,
that is no illusion! And I told you how the Emperor led him in among
all the generals! And the Emperor said--(_More softly, looking far
away with a beatific smile_.) And the Emperor said--

_Curtain_.[58]

Though a new twist is given our emotions, is not something lost to the artistry of the play?

If the means to climax be various, the ways in which it may elude a writer are several. If an audience foresees it, much of the value of climax, perhaps all, disappears. Bulwer-Lytton, in writing _Money_, recognized this:

And principally with regard to Act 5 I don't feel easy. The first idea
suggested by you & worked on by me was of course to carry on Evelyn's
trick to the last--& bring in the creditors &c when it is discovered
that he is as rich as ever. I so made Act 5 at first. But ... the
trick was so palpable to the audience that having been carried thro'
Acts 3 & 4, it became stale in Act 5--& the final discovery was much
less comic than you w^d suppose.[59]

If anticipating a climax will impair it for an audience, repetition may kill it. In the civic masque, _Caliban_,[60] as performed, many of the historical scenes were introduced in the same way: Ariel asked his master, Prospero, what he should show him next, and at his bidding summoned the episode. No variety in phrasing could surmount the monotony of this. There was consequent loss in suspense and climax.

It is easy, also, to miss possible climax by using more at a given point than is absolutely necessary. Sometimes it is wiser to postpone part or all of thoroughly desirable material for later treatment. In the novel, _Les Oberle_,[61] father and daughter sympathize with the Germans, mother and son with the old French tradition. In patriarchal fashion, the half-paralytic grandfather, as head of the house, keeps the keys. When a young German officer, favored by the daughter, asks her hand, feeling becomes intense and strained between the parents and the brother and the sister. Suddenly the old paralytic enters, half-supported by his attendant. Furious to think of his granddaughter as the wife of a German he cries, with a superb gesture of dismissal, "Clear out! This is my house!" (_Va t'en! Ici chez moi!_) The dramatizer saw that with the accompanying action of all concerned, especially the silent going of the German suitor, "Ici chez moi" made a sufficient climax. Therefore, with a touch of real genius, he saved the "Va t'en" for a climax to a totally different scene. Later in the play, Jean, who has determined to escape across the French boundary rather than serve longer in the German army, has been locked in his room by his outraged father. As usual, after the house has been locked up for the night, the keys have been handed to the old, half-paralytic grandfather, who lies sleepless in a room near Jean's. Learning from Uncle Ulrich what has occurred, the grandfather totters into the living room with his keys. Unlocking Jean's door, with a fine gesture of affection, and command toward the outer door, he cries to Jean, "Va." Here the dramatist gets two fine climaxes where the novelist gained but one.

Sometimes a very effective climax at a given point should be postponed because it will be even more effective later, and if given the first position would check preferable movement in the play. At the end of Act IV of _Magda_ (_Heimat_) by Sudermann, we seem all ready for a scene in which Magda confesses the truth about her past life to her father.

_Schwartze._ Magda,--I want Magda.

_Marie._ (_Goes to the door and opens it._) She's coming now,--down
the stairs.

_Schwartze._ So! (_Pulls himself together with an effort._)

_Marie._ (_Clasping her hands._) Don't hurt her!

(_Pauses with the door open. Magda is seen descending the stairs. She
enters in travelling dress, hat in hand, very pale but calm._)

_Magda._ I heard you call, father.

_Schwartze._ I have something to say to you.

_Magda._ And I to you.

_Schwartze._ Go in,--into my room.

_Magda._ Yes, father.

(_She goes to the door left. Schwartze follows her. Marie, who has
drawn back frightened to the dining-room, makes an unseen gesture of
entreaty._)[62]

Now, any interview between Magda and her father will both unduly lengthen an act already long and bring the play well into its final climax. Stopping the act here creates superb suspense. Starting a new act under slightly different conditions keeps all the suspense created by Act IV and intensifies it by new details. The new act gives us the chance easily to introduce von Keller, who is needed if the play is to be more than another treatment of the erring daughter confessing her sin to her father. Just through him comes emphasis which gives special meaning to the play. Therefore, we gain by postponing the full confession from the end of Act IV till well toward the end of Act V.

Evidently, climax rests on (a) right feeling for order in presenting ideas; (b) a correct sense of what is weaker and what is stronger in phrasing emotions; and (c) just appreciation of the feeling of the audience toward the emotions presented. For both clearness and climax it is usually a wise rule to consider but one idea at a time. In the following illustration, column 1 shows confusion, because three subjects--the fan, the greeting, and the compliment of Lady Windermere--are started at the same time. In column 2, quoted from Miss Anglin's acting version of _Lady Windermere's Fan_, treating each of these subjects in its natural sequence brings both clearness and climax.

_Parker._ Mrs. Erlynne. _Parker._ Mrs. Erlynne.

(_Lord Windermere starts. (_Lord Windermere starts.
Mrs. Erlynne enters, very Mrs. Erlynne enters, very
beautifully dressed and very beautifully dressed and very
dignified. Lady Windermere dignified. Lady Windermere
clutches at her fan, then clutches at her fan, then
lets it drop on the floor. lets it drop on the floor.
She bows coldly to She bows coldly to
Mrs. Erlynne, who bows Mrs. Erlynne, who bows
to her sweetly in turn, and to her sweetly in turn, and
sails into the room._) sails into the room._)

_Lord Darlington._ You have _Mrs. Erlynne._ (_C._) How do
dropped your fan, Lady you do again, Lord Windermere?
Windermere.
(_Picks it up and hands it _Lord Darlington._ You have
to her_.) dropped your fan, Lady
Windermere.

_Mrs. Erlynne._ (_C._) How do (_Picks it up and hands it
you do again, Lord Windermere? to her._)
How charming your sweet wife
looks! Quite a picture!

_Lord Windermere._ (_In a low _Lord Windermere._ (_In a low
voice._) It was terribly voice._) It was terribly
rash of you to come! rash of you to come!

_Mrs. Erlynne._ (_Smiling._) _Mrs. Erlynne._ (_Smiling._)
The wisest thing I ever did in my The wisest thing I ever did in my
life. And, by the way, you must life. How charming your sweet
pay me a good deal of attention wife looks! Quite a picture! And,
this evening. by the way, you must pay me a
good deal of attention this
evening.[63]

In the next extract, note that omission of "I want to live childless still" and shifting the position of the words "For twenty years, as you say, I have lived childless" permit an actress to work up to the strongest climax of the speech, when spoken, "They made me suffer too much." Miss Anglin, trained by years of experience to great sensitiveness to the emotional values of words, has here arranged the sentences better than the author himself.

_Lord Windermere._ What do _Lord Windermere._ What do
you mean by coming here this you mean by coming here this
morning? What is your object? morning? What is your object?

(_Crossing L.C. and sitting._) _(Crossing L.C. and sitting._)

_Mrs. Erlynne._ (_With a note of _Mrs. Erlynne._ (_With a note of
irony in her voice._) To bid good- irony in her voice._) To bid
bye to my dear daughter, of good-bye to my dear daughter, of
course. (_Lord Windermere bites course. (_Lord Windermere bites
his underlip in anger. Mrs. Erlynne his underlip in anger. Mrs. Erlynne
looks at him, and her voice looks at him, and her voice
and manner become serious. In and manner become serious. In
her accents as she talks there her accents as she talks there
is a note of deep tragedy. For a is a note of deep tragedy. For a
moment she reveals herself._) Oh, moment she reveals herself._) Oh,
don't imagine I am going to have don't imagine I am going to
a pathetic scene with her, weep have a pathetic scene with her,
on her neck and tell her who I weep on her neck and tell her
am, and all that kind of thing. who I am, and all that kind of
I have no ambition to play the thing. I have no ambition to
part of mother. Only once in my play the part of mother. For
life have I known a mother's twenty years, as you say, I have
feelings. That was last night. lived childless. Only once in my
They were terrible--they made life have I known a mother's
me suffer--they made me suffer feelings. That was last night.
too much. For twenty years, They were terrible--they made
as you say, I have lived me suffer--they made me suffer
childless--I want to live too much.[64]
childless still.

When an eighteenth-century manager, in his production of _The School for Scandal_, had colored fire set off in the wings as the falling screen revealed Lady Teazle, he failed of his intended effect because he thought that for his audience the falling of the screen was climactic. Really, of course, the enjoyment of the audience, as it listens to the dialogue, knowing that Lady Teazle overhears, is the chief source of pleasure. It is the dismay of Sir Peter, when he sees who is really behind the screen, which makes the climax. That dismay is not greater against a background of red fire. Crowded with action as the end of _Hamlet_ is, we close it in acting, not on the fatal wounding of Hamlet, but either on his words, "The rest is silence," or as the soldiers of Fortinbras march out with Hamlet's body on their shields. Experience has proved that a stronger climax for an audience lies in those words or in seeing the procession which passes among the kneeling courtiers, stronger than from all the noisy emotions which have just preceded. In brief, except when we feel sure that we have made our feeling as to the emotions of a scene or act the public's, it is they who must determine where the climax lies. Where it rests we must in all cases of doubt decide from our past experience of the public and present observation of it.

From all these illustrations it must be clear that the only rule for finding climax is: Understand clearly the audience for which you intend your play; create in it the sympathetic relation toward your characters you wish; then you may be sure that what seems to you a climax for your scene will be so for your audience.

Movement depends, then, on clearness, unity, emphasis, and a right feeling for suspense and climax. This movement may be steadily upward, as in the last scene of _Hamlet_, or it may have the wave-like advance found in Sigurjonsson's _Eyvind of the Hills_[65] or Sir Arthur Pinero's _The Gay Lord Quex_. The emotional interest in each of these sweeps up to a pure climax, drops back part way for a fresh start, and then advances to a stronger climax.

Granted that a would-be playwright understands the proportioning of his work and the correct development of it for clearness, emphasis and movement, he is ready to repeat the words of Ibsen: "I have just completed a play in five acts, that is to say, the rough draft of it. Now comes the elaboration, the more energetic individualization of the persons, and their modes of expression."[66] He is ready to perfect his characterization and dialogue.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Ancient Classical Drama_, chap. VII, "Elements of Comedy."
Moulton. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

[2] _The "Choephori" of Aeschylus._ Introduction, p. xvi. A. W.
Verral. The Macmillan Co., New York.

[3] _The Rising of the Moon_, Lady Gregory. _Contemporary
Dramatists_. T. H. Dickinson, ed. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

[4] _Mme. Sans Gene_, Prologue, Scene 1. Sardou and Moreau. Samuel
French, New York.

[5] _Lonely Lives_, Act IV. _The Dramatic Works of Gerhart
Hauptmann_, vol. III, p. 265. Ludwig Lewisohn, ed. B. W. Huebsch, New
York.

[6] _Farces_, "The Galloper," Act I. Richard Harding Davis.
Copyright, 1906, by Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

[7] _The Lonely Way_, etc. _Three Plays by Arthur Schnitzler_.
Translated by E. Bjorkman. Mitchell Kennerley.

[8] _Phaedra_, Act I. Racine. Translated by R. B. Boswell. _Chief
European Dramatists._ Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

[9] _Works_, vol. 3. W. Gifford and Dyce. Murray, London.

[10] _The Rehearsal_, Act I. The Duke of Buckingham. Bell's _British
Theatre_, vol. XV. London, 1780.

[11] _The Lady of Andros_, Act I. Terence. Translated by J.
Sargeaunt. The Macmillan Co., New York; W. Heinemann, London.

[12] _The Lady of Andros_, Act III.

[13] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston; W. Heinemann, London.

[14] _Theatre Complet_, vol. II. Calmann Levy, Paris.

[15] _Theatre_, vol. II. Michel Levy freres, Paris.

[16] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston.

[17] _Magda_, translated by A. E. A. Winslow. Lamson, Wolffe & Co.,
Boston.

[18] _From Ibsen's Workshop_, pp. 271-272. Translated by A. G.
Chater. Copyright, 1911, by Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

[19] _Idem_, pp. 288-289.

[20] _Ibsen's Prose Dramas_, vol. V, Walter Scott, London; Chas.
Scribner's Sons, New York.

[21] _Letters of Henrik Ibsen_, p. 291. Fox, Duffield & Co., New
York.

[22] _Some Platitudes concerning Drama. Atlantic Monthly_,
December, 1909.

[23] _Othello_, Act III, Scene 3.

[24] _Lady Windermere's Fan_, Act I. Oscar Wilde. J. W. Luce & Co.,
Boston.

[25] Duffield & Co., New York.

[26] _Plays._ G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

[27] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston; W. Heinemann, London.

[28] _The Trail of the Torch_, Paul Hervieu. Translated by J. H.
Haughton. Drama League Series, vol. XII. Doubleday Page & Co., New
York.

[29] _The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann_, vol. VI,
Introduction, p. xi, Ludwig Lewisohn, ed. B. W. Huebsch, New York.

[30] The Macmillan Co. publish both forms.

[31] _Nathan Hale_, Act IV, Scene 2. Clyde Fitch. Little, Brown &
Co., Boston.

[32] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston; W. Heinemann, London.

[33] _Idem._

[34] Pp. 143-45. R. H. Russell, New York. Also published by Walter H.
Baker & Co., Boston.

[35] Act IV, Scene 2. The Macmillan Co.

[36] _Contemporary Dramatists._ Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

[37] J. W. Luce & Co., Boston.

[38] Translated by May Hendee. Doubleday, McClure & Co., New York.

[39] _Plays of Oscar Wilde_, vol. II. J. W. Luce & Co., Boston.

[40] _The Fantasticks_, pp. 145-146. Translated by George Fleming. R.
H. Russell, New York.

[41] Samuel French, New York.

[42] _The Devonshire Hamlets_, pp. 34-46. Sampson Low, Son & Co.,
London.

[43] _Letters of Bulwer-Lytton to Macready_, LXIII. Brander Matthews,
ed.

[44] _Hamburg Dramaturgy_, p. 377. Lessing. Bohn, ed.

[45] _Play-Making_, pp. 171-172. William Archer. Small, Maynard &
Co., Boston.

[46] _The Troublesome Raigne of King Iohn_, pp. 279-280;
_Shakespeare's Library_, vol. V. Reeves & Turner, London.

[47] _The Good Hope_, Act III. Herman Heijermans. _The Drama_,
November, 1912.

[48] See pp. 29-30.

[49] _Washington Square Plays; The Clod._.\ Lewis Beach. Drama League
Series, No. XX. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

[50] _The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson_, pp. 210-211. Century
Co., New York.

[51] The DeWitt Publishing House, New York.

[52] _Monsieur Poirier's Son-in-Law_, Act I. Emile Augier. Translated
by B. H. Clark. A. Knopf, New York.

[53] _The Amazons_, Act III. Sir Arthur Pinero. Walter H. Baker &
Co., Boston.

[54] _Herod, A Tragedy_, Act. II. Stephen Phillips. John Lane, New
York.

[55] J. W. Luce & Co., Boston; Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., London.

[56] _The Fantasticks_, Act III. Edmond Rostand. Translated by Geo.
Fleming. R. H. Russell & Co., New York.

[57] _Morituri, Fritzshen_, Herman-Sudermann. Translated by Archibald
Alexander. Copyright, 1910, by Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

[58] _Idem._

[59] _Letters of Bulwer-Lytton to Macready_, Brander Matthews, ed.

[60] Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

[61] _Les Oberle._ Rene Bazin. Dramatized by E. Haraucourt.
L'Illustration Theatrale, December 9, 1905, p. 14.

[62] _Magda._ Translated by C. E. A. Winslow. Lamson, Wolffe & Co.,
Boston.

[63] _Lady Windermere's Fan_, Act II. Oscar Wilde. Acting version as
arranged by Miss Margaret Anglin.

[64] _Idem_, Act IV. Acting version as arranged by Miss Margaret
Anglin.

[65] _Eyvind of the Hills_, J. Sigurjonsson. American Scandinavian
Society, New York.

[66] _From Ibsen's Workshop_, p. 8. Copyright, 1911, by Chas.
Scribner's Sons, New York.